The next afternoon, Lexi pulled up to Ally Cat Studios where she was meeting with Tina Landon (the video’s choreographer) and Wayne Isham (the video’s director). Richard had some things to take care of, so he rented a black Mustang convertible for Lexi so she would be able to get around on her own.
As Lexi was led to a conference room, Wayne greeted her. “You must be Lexi. I’ve heard a lot about you,” he said as he shook her hand.
“It’s nice to meet you, Mr. Isham. I’m a huge fan of your work.” Lexi smiled.
“Well I’m glad to hear that,” he laughed, “But please…call me Wayne.”
“Ok,” she said sitting down.
“Hi, Lexi. It’s nice to meet you,” Tina said shaking her hand.
“Hi, Tina. It’s a pleasure meeting you.”
Wayne explained what his concept was for the “Slight Obsession” video. Lexi was extremely impressed by the concept, and couldn’t believe how in-depth his vision was.
He went on to illustrate that it would open up with the dialogue of Lexi and two of her friends sitting in a coffee shop. “The guy” would walk by, and Lexi and her friends would leave the coffee shop and begin to follow him down the street. This is where the song and the choreography starts.
The next set up would show “the guy” calling his friend on the phone, then his friend calling his friend, then his friend calling his friend…Eventually, one of the girls that was in the coffee shop would call Lexi.
This then leads into a club set up. The radio edit of “Slight Obsession” has a dance break. So, Lexi and her friends walk into the club and they (and about 15 other people) do a dance routine to try to get “the guy’s” attention. Once the song resumes, “the guy” starts to walk towards Lexi. She and her friends get excited, and “the guy” begins to talk to Lexi. They think that everything ends well, but then “the guys” sees a girl walk by and goes to follow her. The video ends with Lexi tripping “the guy” as he walks away.
“I love it!” Lexi said after Wayne was done explaining the concept and showing her the sketches.
“I’m glad,” Wayne responded. “And I’m sure that Tina has some awesome choreography to add to it.”
“I sure do,” Tina said as she turned towards Lexi. Rich told me that you have a lot of dance experience, so I have some pretty cool stuff lined up.”
“Yeah, if you call 10 years of jazz and ballet and just dancing in plays and my room experience,” Lexi chuckled.
“I would definitely what I would call experience.” Tina changed subjects. “Tomorrow my assistant choreographer and I are going to audition the dancers for your video. We’ll be looking for the two girls, obviously, and 18 dancers for the club scene.”
“Sounds good. Then I come back on Sunday morning to learn the choreography, right?”
“Right,” Wayne answered. “Then we start shooting Monday afternoon.”
“How long do you think the shoot should last?” Lexi asked.
“Probably two days…three if we can’t fit everything in.”
Lexi glanced at her watch and saw that it was getting close to 3 o’clock. She needed to see JC on TRL…even though it wouldn’t be live in California. Thankfully, the meeting was wrapped up by 3:10, and Lexi sped off in her Mustang.
When she was half-way to the hotel, her cell phone rang.
“Hello?” Lexi yelled trying to talk over her Madonna CD and the sound of the wind.
“Lexi, turn on 102.7 right now!”
“Richard, what’s wrong?”
“Nothing! Just turn it on now!”
“Ok, hold on.”
Lexi changed the system from CD to FM/AM, and found 102.7. She almost swerved off the road because of what she heard.
“OMIGAWD!!! That’s me on the radio! Omigawd!” As the song ended, the voice of Gary Spears boomed from the car.
“That was ‘Slight Obsession’ from new artist Lexi Morrow. Do we have the next big thing on our hands? I think so! In the next half-hour we have…”
Lexi couldn’t believe that her song had gotten airplay so quickly. And in LA! She thought that they would play it at four in the morning on 106.7 in Orlando, and only because she lived there.
“Lexi? Lexi!”
“Yeah yeah, I’m here…I can’t believe they played my song on the radio!”
“Believe it kiddo. You’re on you’re way! Now hang up the phone before you get in a car accident. Bye!”
Lexi got back to her hotel room and danced around with glee…that is until she remembered that *NSYNC was supposed to be on TRL.
“Oh shit!” she yelled reaching for the remote. She finally found MTV and was just in time.
“…ok so here they are: *NSYNC!” Carson said.
The five guys jogged out with Justin leading, then Chris, Lance, JC, and Joey. They waited until the psychotic screaming died down, and then they proceeded with the interview. After many other videos and commercial breaks, they finally announced the tour dates.
“Yeah, we’ll be touring for four months across the US and Canada. We start off in Canada then go all the way through the end of July to end the tour here in New York,” Justin said.
The audience screamed in happiness, and Carson went on. “Sounds like it’s gonna be an awesome tour, as usual, guys. So since you’ve had all this time off, what have you guys been doing besides rehearsing?”
“Well, I’m working on my clothing line,” Chris said. “I’ve also been working on my pot belly pig farm.”
“Oh,” Carson laughed, “And how’s that going?”
“Good good. Bessy finally got up to 1200 pounds, so we’re happy about that.”
Everyone laughed. “What about you, JC? You doing anymore producing?”
“Yeah, actually I’m a producer on a new solo artist’s CD.”
“Oh, really?” Carson asked. “Tell us a little bit about that.”
“Well, her name is Lexi Morrow, and she’s a really talented singer. Her first single, ‘Slight Obsession’, we recently released on the radio..." The audience began to hollar. "I guess you guys have heard it!" JC laughed. "Anyway, I think you should be seeing her video on TRL very soon, Carson,” JC said as he pulled on his right ear and looked into the camera.
Lexi smiled ear to ear as she sat in her LA hotel room, and said back to the TV, “I miss you too.”
Chapter Six
Don't make me turn this car around...