The “Restless, Restless” story…
through the eyes of finalist Jeff Stillman
THE MUSICIAN
 I
had been writing music as a hobby for 10 years when my
wife got pregnant. We decided to take a shot at me
staying home with my son and writing full time, giving
up engineering and giving “the dream” of being a
professional songwriter a try. Although I like most
types of music, I focus on writing country, which is a
genre where a lot of music is still written by
songwriters and not the actual performer. I had been at it for little under a
year when my wife heard about the “Restless, Restless”
contest during her commute. She sent me to the website
and I figured I’d give it a shot.
THE SONG
I didn’t want to write a country
version, what with Howard having left a station earlier
in his career because he couldn’t stand the new country
format. Not good odds, I figured. But my first shot at
a pop version ended up sounding like a cheap imitation
of the soundtrack from Fast Times at Ridgemont High.
After I considered that the basic
theme of “my woman done left me” was a staple of country
music, I decided to let the words speak to me in any way
they chose, country or otherwise. The music wrote
itself in 15 minutes. So hey, if I didn’t have a shot
at winning with a country song, at least it didn’t take
long. What was more, going country allowed it to be fun
and bouncy – which might help its chances. Remarkably,
the show picked country songs for two of the three
finalists.
THE SHOW
The show was a surreal experience.
I briefly saw Playmate Jill Ann in the station’s lobby –
an attractive blonde with a huge rack and an entourage,
wondering aloud “is this the radio station?” with a
giant INFINITY BROADCASTING logo in plain view. Yup,
I’m in the right place, I thought. After an hour of hanging out with
Kevin Remuck and his posse, we finally got summoned to
the hallway outside the broadcast room. But not until
Jill Ann ran long by 15 minutes, making me cringe to
think of all the people I’d told to tune in to hear me
at 8:30 and were instead getting an earful of Hugh
Hefner’s sexual fetishes. My dad got it worst; he had
persuaded his dentist to put the show through the
office’s overhead speakers. A few little old ladies had
something to say about that. Getting on was slightly manic –
some slight confusion about whether Mr. Goulet would be
going first or second. Gary sent me in the room with
“You’re on! You’re on! NO! Goulet’s ready! You’re
off! You’re off!” I got a peek at Howard before
getting dragged off again. When I finally got on, I was eerily
calm. I hadn’t even seen the room, much less had a
chance to rehearse in it, but after two questions from
Howard, the music started playing and I was off. I sang
most of the song to Robin, making her out to be the one
who had been “Restless, Restless” with me. She was
delightful, playing along. Kevin followed. Nothing like
having a real band behind you; they certainly deserved
to win for presentation. I was impressed. So were the
judges, and Kevin got the $5000. Afterwards, during the
commercial break, everyone introduced themselves and
posed for pictures, which was a real classy thing to do
on Howard’s part. (Still hoping to get a copy of that
picture!) In fact, throughout the segment Howard and
the gang were really respectful of the performers. I
had a great time.
THE AFTERMATH
John Titta of Warner/Chappell met
with me afterwards and I passed some tunes to him at his
request, but nothing much has come of that. In general,
the best thing to come from the show has been a great
little anecdote that I can tell music publishers when I
shop my stuff down in Nashville. Helps me stand out a
little. My songwriting career is starting
to gain a little momentum, what with one song signed to
a Nashville publishing contract and another getting some
serious attention. Maybe when “Restless, Restless” has
another contest in another 20 years, I’ll be the one in
the judge’s seat!
Jeff
Stillman
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