When one hears the words “publicity” or “public relations”, one normally doesn’t think of the people behind the scenes who craft and guide the activities that fall under those two umbrellas.  One such person who is a legendary veteran of the crafts of publicity and PR is Jo-Ann Geffen, President of JAG Entertainment.

Since moving to the Los Angeles area from New York to open an office for the Commodores back in 1978, Jo-Ann’s finesse in the booking and PR field led her to represent such artists of interest to the Baby Boomer generation as:  David Cassidy, Diahann Carroll, the Commodores, Smokey Robinson, The Temptations, Robin Gibb, Barbara Walters and Nancy Cartwright, to name just a few.

However, Ms. Geffen is more than a leader in the entertainment industry.  She has recently become an author of note, writing a fascinating and captivating book in the Chicken Soup for the Soul series subtitled The Story Behind the Song.  It provides the personal stories behind 101 songs such as My Way, She’s Gone, Cruisin’, The Heart of Rock n’ Roll, and many, many more (97 more, to be exact).

I recently spoke with Jo-Ann by phone about her book and her insights into the music industry.  Speaking from her home in lovely Southern California, she graciously shared her time as well as her insights to her book and into the ever changing world of the entertainment business. 

In telling me about the 90+ artists covered in the book, she explains that, “There are only a hand full who have multiple songs in the book.  Lamont Dozier has two; Diane Warren has two; Richie Sambora has two; Melissa Manchester has two because they were so different.  Other than those people, they were individual songwriters but mostly singer/songwriters”.

How did the book come about?

“I was invited to a meeting for publicity in Las Vegas.  I was sitting in a room with a host of people and amongst them was one of the creators of the Chicken Soup for the Soul brand – he wrote the original books – and the gentleman who bought the publishing arm of the company. 

“I was listening to them describe and discuss the Chicken Soup brand and all of the various titles they have.  I was, frankly, shocked.  I had no idea.  I mean, I was familiar, certainly, with the brand.  You would have to be under a rock not to be.  Beyond that, I had no conception that they had touched so many different areas.

“They’ve got books for the golfer, the teenager, dog lover, whatever.  They’ve got everything.  But they had nothing that dealt with entertainment, specifically, celebrities or music.  So, as I was sitting there, I was remembering some of the fabulous stories that I had heard – be it personally or on the radio or whatever – and thinking, ‘Wow!  These are great inspirational stories! Why haven’t they done this?’

“So, when the meeting was over, I got to chat with the publisher, I asked, ‘Do you ever take outside ideas?’ He said, ‘Yeah, all the time!’  I said, ‘What do you think about Chicken Soup for the Soul: The Story Behind the Songs?’  He said, ‘Oh, my god!  Let’s do it!’  It was really that simple!

“He said, ‘Get a list to me of the people you think you can get and I’ll put together a deal memo.’ That’s exactly how it happened.”

As a celebrity interviewer, I know that it can sometime be difficult to persuade people to chat about their work.  They’ve been asked the same question a million times.  I asked Jo-Ann if she encountered any difficulty in getting any of the artists to tell her their stories.

“Actually, it wasn’t.  There were some people that I would’ve like to have had that I don’t but, you know, I’m very satisfied with everyone in it. I really like the fact that it does not align with any specific genre of music.  It’s a fairly eclectic mix so it makes it, I think, more interesting.  It also shows the commonalities between people. 

“Just because one song is set to country music and one is set to rap or one is set to hard rock, it doesn’t mean that the sensibility is any different, that the emotions are any different or that the experiences are any different.  The specific experience may be but, basically, human experience is human experience.  We have love, we lose love.  There are traumatic things that happen to a lot of these people just as they happen to each of us.

“We think that their lives are all rosy but the fact is that a lot of these people have overcome horrific, horrific experiences and very tough lives.  We tend to forget that and expect them to be these iconic human beings who don’t have any baggage or don’t have any bad memories and they should be tolerant and patient and all loving.  It’s a tall order.”