35 years ago today, Merle Haggard recorded "Kern River." His label head Rick Blackburn said he hated the song. Merle responded, "You’re the son-of-a-bitch that sat at that desk and fired Johnny Cash. Let it go down in history that you’re the dumbest son-of-a-bitch I’ve ever met!"

I consider myself an ally of music critics, but I do wish we could get criticism of other jobs in the music industry, not just the artists. ‘Label gets a 4.0 for artists new release roll-out’ or maybe ‘Publicist gets two thumbs down for tour press cycle’