Let's get serious.
My former web pardner, Sandy, said...
"Hey all! As much as this is a HUMOR site... I feel it's time to get serious. There are things that DO need to be adressed and I figured if I got the site space from Amanda I was gonna use it.
"Alright... if this pisses ya off chances are it is about you a little bit. Hopefully I can change the way ya look at things... if not thats alright. I'm just merely speaking my mind. What needs to be addressed right now... is the treatment of the girlfriends and wives of the guys. Fans who hate them merely cause they are datin or married to the guys have, in my mind, NO RIGHT WHATSOEVER to call themselves fans. Look at yourselves. Ya hate on the girls that are makin the guys happy. What for? Cause you mentally think that it's YOU that should be with Howie or Nick or AJ? That's not right. Not right at all.
"You buy their CDs, you buy their shirts, their notebooks, their scented candles (and btw, wtf were they thinkin?!?) and you also buy the best... the concert tickets. You buy all that why? Cause it makes ya happy right? Cause watching those 5 guys strut their stuff on stage and sing on your stereo... it just brings a smile to your face. Well you know it makes ya happy... and THEY know it makes ya happy. Which is why they do it. Release the albums... tour non-stop, even when ill... all to get out there and make their fans happy. So why is it wrong for THEM to be happy?
"I don't get it at all... I could NEVER in my life hate the person that's making some of my biggest influences in life happy. In fact... I'd wanna say thank you. Look at Leighanne. Look at Kristen... Look at the countless girlfriends...(Xcept that bitch Manda... You wanna be bad? Well I heard the CD and congrats. Mission acomplished). And look at all the g/fs that have actually been assaulted and hated. Why? Cause they make the guys happy? I'm still lost as to why.
"People hate Sarah, AJ's g/f. If I had the 5 minutes it would take... I'd sit down and thank her. From the bottom of my heart as well as the hearts of any REAL fan. She was there for him when us fans couldnt be. She was there to stick by him and make him smile and see him through some of his most tough times. She was there for him period. Yet people all over slam her. Oh she just wants a record deal... she's just using him. She's a bitch. Ok. Do you personally know her? Did she verbally insult you? Keep in mind here that she gets followed... and not just her... the wives and other g/fs as well. But they all get treated like shit because they date the guys. It's not fair to them. Personally I think it's mere jealousy rearing its UGLY head.
"Just cause you buy the concert tickets and the CDs doesn't mean you buy the guys. You don't control their lives and relationships. If they spend all that time in flashes of light and in the studio singing for you just to bring a smile to your face... why can't you let them be happy? Leave the g/fs and wives alone... and if ya say anything to em at all... say thank you. Thank you for makin the guys happy and thank you for being there to make em smile when we the fans couldn't. Just let the guys live normal lives when they aren't on stage... and if that means datin someone you don't like... so what. It's not you that's dating em. Deal with it and let the Boys be boys.
"To the girlfriends and wives... past, present and future... I thank you for being there. Thank you for makin em smile... thank you for keeping these guys down to earth... and just above all... for loving em as much as I do... and on behalf of the REAL fans...
I'm sorry for the way the others have acted. We aren't all like that."
Amanda says...
"I agree with pretty much everything Sandy says. I do think that the vast majority of fans are decent towards the girlfriends and wives. It's just a few that ruin it for the rest of us. Like my Grandma says "one poisonous apple ruins the whole barrel". And that is true for the way the Boys see us. If they see one fan making disparaging comments about Leighanne then they begin to question us all. They feel sad, betrayed and angry. It puts a pressure on their relationships which is just not fair.
"How would you like it? Let's just imagine here... Ok, close your eyes and imagine you're dating Nick/AJ/Howie/Kevin/Brian (delete as applicable, don't be greedy!). He's the guy you always imagined - warm, witty, smart, down-to-earth and, most of all, he loves you. Now imagine being afraid of going out together in public because you know pictures of the two of you (however blurry) will make it onto the Internet within hours. Then the discussion starts - who are you? What are you doing with THEIR Boy? How DARE you? Don't you look like a whore? He obviously looks unhappy... And so on... And then of course the verbal assaults will start. You go to a show to support your guy and you end up nedding security and a box of tissues. Anybody who's been bullied will know exactly how it feels.
"And it affects the Boy too. He sees the woman he loves being made unhappy by fans, her privacy being destroyed... And he blames himself - it's HIS job not hers, HIS fans not hers so why should she get dragged into it all? It was his choice to forge a career in music. He gets all the highs as well as the lows. But all she gets are the lows. It's hard. Don't make it any harder. Please."
Letter To AJ
Let The Goofing Off Begin!