unlike the others in this collection, no names or places have been changed because, a year ago today when this trip took place, the woman gave me permission to you about our great ride.
her name is lillie. i shouldn’t have been there. the sun was close to setting and i was near my home but i hadn’t hit my daily goal yet.
i dont like to drive at night for a lot of reasons, but i figured if i could get just two more long rides, one away from home and one back, then i wouldn’t feel like a failure.
i declined one little ride after another, and finally got a trip from silver lake to LAX for $18… way below what i usually get paid for airport rides but uber estimated it would only take 36 minutes because it was Good Friday and the roads were pretty mild. so i went for it.
he was a lung doctor at one of the hospitals. we talked about smoking weed via a vape compared to a bong. it was delightful. no tip. fine.
once at the airport, i waited for a more profitable ride back to hollywood. lyft offered a $28 ride to hollywood blvd, my favorite street in LA. i took it. the passenger was a woman who appeared to be in her late 30s/early 40s named lillie, with just a small duffel bag. her destination was the historic (and slightly haunted) roosevelt hotel.
what brings you to la? i asked.
american idol she said.
YOU MADE IT TO HOLLYWOOD! i cheered, sarcastically, quoting the line the singing contestants hear when they are catapulted from the cattle call audition to the next stage of the still-popular TV show.
lillie laughed, and said it was not her, but her 18 year-old son who actually had made it to hollywood and was continuing on.
his name is iam, which she told me is short for william. they are from hawaii but were forced to move to seattle a few years ago because the island had become too expensive for the family of modest means.
iam is the youngest in the large family and was very close to his father who died a few years ago.
as we drove along the quiet 105 away from the beach she told me, before he died, my husband took his bonus check and bought our son a guitar. it was not expensive. but he loved it and played it instead of his ukulele. after my husband passed, iam said he didn’t like playing it because sometimes when he sang he said he could hear his father’s voice harmonizing with him and it reminded him of when they would sing together when he was young.
but that’s a gift, iam, she told him. that means your father is still with you. maybe everyone can hear that too.
she told me her son is insecure about his talent, his playing, and his looks since he is a little overweight.
every time idol advanced him, he would say, mom these other people are sooo much better than me.
lillie, every creative person doubts their talents, i told her. and if your boy has made it a few episodes into american idol, the girls are not going to care one bit about that. why do you think we love adele and lizzo? they broke the glass ceiling that popular singers have to look a certain way.
who’s lizzo? she asked, as we took the long off ramp from the 105 to the harbor freeway as LA opened up in front of us.
i could hear her fiddling with her phone. she found a clip of him during the “duets” episode. apparently his guitar broke right before he was supposed to perform. as luck would have it, the small company who made it was in LA, and the show sent someone down there and within hours the last gift his dad gave him was restored.
but in between, the show had to go on, so they gave him a replacement guitar and the whole thing made him cry because he loved his dad and the entire thing was overwhelmingly emotional.
lillie put her phone next to my ear. it was blasting. so i took it from her and nestled it on my dash as we drove down the 110 with the sparkling lights of downtown LA welcoming her to this crazy town. i turned up the heat because a previous hawaiian passenger told me everywhere in the mainland is cold to them.
when I finally saw iam i thought, damn that boy big. the guitar was tiny on his body. he wore it like a necklace, almost.
but when he sang, he could hit the high notes perfectly. he was a very good, subtle, soulful performer who looked exactly like someone from your neighborhood who was plucked and set down onto the stage. no fancy clothes, no fancy anything. just a strange gift to be able to casually sing.
he’s like a hawaiian willie nelson i told her.
who’s willie nelson?
i asked her if he had a girlfriend. she said no. there is one girl from school who he has a massive crush on, but he’s said, “we’re just friends, mom.” eventually he admitted to his mom that he liked this girl more than friends, but he was sensitive about his weight.
again, i told her, his life is about to change. i was tempted to namecheck meatloaf and john popper, but i kept it to myself.
then she told me that his audition episode was the highest viewed audition that american idol had seen in years.
lionel richie and luke bryan were crying as he told his story and sang the song. lillie played it for me as we cruised past USC. and i was like, you’re getting me to start watching idol again. i cannot believe how good your son is!
as we neared hollywood, i asked her if he had an agent.
she said no. she asked, what good would that do him?
i said, it’s going to be very hard to trust anyone in LA. you probably shouldn’t even trust me. so heres what you should do. there’s two talent agencies you need to contact as soon as you can: CAA and UTA.
CAA is the largest agency in LA and you need to tell them that your son needs representation from an agency who has not only done good work with idol contestants, but also with male contestants. because it’s way different.
i pulled up a picture of CAAs glass building in century city and said, people call their office The Death Star because of the hole in the middle.
tell them, iam is gonna fill that hole.
also tell them you want them to show you who they have worked with, and what results they have delivered. don’t get dazzled by CAA. go to UTA too. have them bid against each other.
you’re also going to need a lawyer to explain the contracts you’ll be signing. do not let the agencies get you a lawyer. reach out to some past idols who you like and ask them for theirs. even if your boy doesn’t win this whole thing, there are plenty of contestants who “lost” who went on to good careers. jennifer hudson being my favorite.
then we listened to her son a little longer and she said this is why you are my driver. i prayed for strength and direction on the flight here from seattle. and look, here you are.
a few months after this trip, iam won it all, easily.
let’s hope he got a good lawyer.