that’s when his crew rushed me. By the time he got downstairs from the VIP room, I had my crew with me. We kinda squared off downstairs. In Fat Joe’s defense, I came to find out that he never even knew that the money wasn’t sent back to us. He had no recollection of the situation at all. So in his defense, I think it was his people that kept our money during those hard times. He was real cool and said, “Let’s step to the side and settle this. What’s going on?” We stepped to the side, and his people and my people started a little scuffle. The whole thing was over after that. I never did get my money back, but again, I don’t think Fat Joe knew anything about the dates. Didn’t you have a contract that would prevent you from losing the deposit in a hurricane situation? Pat Nix: Sometimes a contract is just a piece of paper. The time and effort and money it would take me to go to court to get that money back would be senseless. Do you think promoting parties is a game of skill, or a gamble? Pat Nix: In the beginning it was a lot of big gambles, and there still are some gambles. But when you find a niche, people start to trust you to bring quality entertainment and your risk goes down about 80%. Willie Fisher: You have to have skill. Anyone can be a promoter if you’ve got some
money to put an ad on the radio, but it’s all about being a successful promoter. You’ve got to have an eye for marketing. I think we have that eye. Sometimes it doesn’t work out our way, but we learned the hard way. What is your ultimate goal in the entertainment business? Pat Nix: We recently became principle partners in Club Whispers. That’s something we never really thought we’d want to take on as far as liabilities and responsibilities, but the opportunity was too good to pass up. My ultimate goal, of course, is to make money, but at the same time I feel that it’s our responsibility to bring culture into this market. That’s something that’s lacking here in Orlando. A lot of people don’t know about certain artists unless they’re being played on the radio. There’s a lot of good cultural music and good vibes that the radio stations down here just don’t touch, and I think that hurts the market. How can people find out about your events? Pat Nix: People who wanna have a damn good time can log on to FLevents.net. Any last words? Pat Nix: Every man has the right to go out and do business, but it’s up to you to go out and get what’s yours. - Julia Beverly Front-Line’s Pat Nix (right) with Eddie Murphy at Club Whispers
OZONE
31