![]() ![]() So when the song thing took off, I never saw it coming. ![]() It was common to turn on the radio and hear my voice, and I always figured that that would be the most notoriety, the most famous I would ever be. Prior to being at GSD&M I was freelancing-this was in the 80s-and I did a lot of radio and voicework. Now I'm freelancing, taking projects that come up, and I do speaking engagements and seminars about creativity. I've got a book on Amazon called Creative Bones, about how creativity works. About a year and a half ago, I left the agency I was with and decided to write a book. I ended up moving out to San Francisco in 2008, where I worked for several agencies. Then, in 2003 or so, I moved to Chicago, where I worked for FCB. I taught advertising and creative campaigns at the University of Texas for a couple of years. What has your career been like since leaving that agency? I'm fortunate because I've had a lot of successes, and some of it's been campaigns. We went to animation houses all over the country and even in London, and shot different spots where we would animate the pepper using techniques that would bring the food item to life. I introduced the pepper with the "s" behind it, and we did a whole bunch of animated peppers. I ended up going back there and I did an animation campaign for Chili's. I left the agency about two or three years later, and I think that they still continued to handle the account for a while. If I wanted to, I could bring in the people who were there when I originally sang it, but it just doesn't matter to me.Īfter the campaign with the song became so successful, you left GSD&M? Right. A few years ago, I said, "It would really be nice if you corrected the record." But his life had been pretty tough lately, and he kind of freaked out. That was the first time I'd heard of it, and he said, "I'll tell you what, I'll split the $4,000 with you." But then the song kept appearing again and again, and every time the agency would have to negotiate with Tom, so Tom decided to cover his ass and registered the song with BMI in his name and left me out completely. He said that he wrote the song and I wrote the lyrics. So Tom put in his negotiations that they would pay him $4,000, and that both he and I would get a credit at the end of the movie. When I found out that the song ended up in Austin Powers, Tom was the first person I called up, and I said, "Did you hear?" He went on and on about how GSD&M had contacted him and asked if he had the original paperwork. Tom's a really nice guy, this guy that would fret over everything. It wasn't something I was so proud of that I wanted it to be in my obituary. What happened there? You know, I just let him have it because it doesn't matter to me. Tom Faulkner is often credited with the song, and there's some conflicting information around the internet about who wrote it. Our department didn't even do them, so I just did it myself so that no one would have to mess with it. This was a time when really good agencies would send out Christmas cards that would have a blank before the word "bells," like "_ bells, _ bells," and when you'd open it up it would say "We don't do jingles." That was the feeling at the time, that jingles were the lowest form of advertising and the lowest common denominator. I was too embarrassed to go back to my department and give them the assignment, because it was really an awful assignment. They said, "We need a spot for baby back ribs in about six weeks, and we want it to be music in the restaurant." We went up to Dallas and we begged them for a second chance. I only did it when we got into a situation where we had done a campaign that did so poorly they were going to fire us. Guy Bommarito: I'm not sick of it-it's more just that I haven't written that much music in my career, probably less than five pieces. MUNCHIES: Hi, Guy! Does it bother you that I'm asking about a project you worked on two decades ago? Are you sick of hearing about the Chili's song? But he truly offered some insight into why we all, forever, want our baby back. When I called Bommarito up to hear about the conception of and story behind the jingle, there were quite a few surprises-not the least of which is that he has never even had the ribs at Chili's. ![]()
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