The Story Behind the Most Hated Video of Me on the Internet

The clip below is from the filming of my music video for Impossible Love. We shot the video in 2009 and that Summer we won Best Music Video at the Just Plain Folks Awards in Nashville. We shot it on a $250 budget, which included gas for my car (which was also our power generator), and food for my volunteer cast/crew.

I have played the piano since I was a toddler. I’ve been taking lessons since I was 5. I’ve treated the piano like it was an extension of my own body since I was a kid. I studied music on scholarship from Berklee College of Music and to this day, I have never had my own piano. The piano in this video is the first and only piano I have ever owned, and it was immediately donated to this art project. I got it for free from a church. They said it was “un-playable”, although they certainly have no idea what un-playable means.

Regardless, the music video is the artwork of director, Brandon Nicholas and cinematographer, James Mann. Destroying a piano was not my idea, although, in the finished product, it looks amazing. The piano then went on to be in the movie Desert Son, another Nicholas/Mann project which you can watch instantly on netflix!

Anyway, that is the story of this piano. I think it got a lot more love from us than it did sitting and collecting dust in the church basement we rescued it from, but the video still pisses people off. I hope you hate this video of me smashing it as much as everyone else on the internet does! By the way, when we really start beating it up, it’s not for fun. It’s for close-up shots of the pieces flying everywhere. This is extremely dangerous. Do not try this at home.

Below is also the official “Making Of” video as well as the award-winning finished product! Also included is a preview for Desert Son. See if you can spot the piano! Enjoy!