In 1999 Onward's "Evermoving" was finished and scheduled for release on Sentinel Steel Records. Denis/Sentinel took out full page ads in Metal Maniacs and was already pushing the album on the "True Metal Triumphant" compilation cd. We were really happy. The fact that Metal Blade Records and Century Media were very interested in Onward was flattering but we didn't care all that much. We were just fine with the arrangement in place. Fuck, I hadn't even met Michael Grant in person yet. I had more important things to attend to anyway.
My sister's kidney was failing and I was a match. I went to the Mayo Clinic in Seattle and they did the transplant. My donated kidney was kicking ass for her.......for a few hours. It had to be removed and she had to do the dialysis treatments instead. What a blow. My asthma had returned in full force and the doctor told my fiance I couldn't be around her cats anymore. While I was physically and psychologically broken from the surgery, she chose her cats over me and the engagement was off. That was okay. She moved out and my Full Moon Productions posters returned to the living room walls which made me happier anyway.
Back home in Wyoming I was down to about 100 pounds and very weak (kidney surgery wreaked more havoc back then). The Century Media and Metal Blade offers were still on the table. Michael and I talked about it a lot and felt that taking one of those deals might be too much for us. We knew the magnitude of them and opportunities they could give us but still dragged our feet. We were nobodies. Maybe we were even scared.
I've always had a problem when local level musicians start getting haughty and arrogant over their self released albums and big hometown rock "concerts". I have to see this shit in local newspapers and people come up to me saying "Did you hear? So and so is a big rockstar now". Oh, you mean the asshole I taught to play and his rock show at The Greasy Spoon bar and grill?
No, not this time. ENOUGH. And those guys running me down on the guitar forums? Fuck them too.
"Hi Denis, this is Toby, we'll take the Century Media deal".
