Friday 4 October 2013

Thomas Sheridan's Open Letter to Daniel O' Donnell: 'Don't Be a Pimp for Granny.'


Dear Daniel,

As a fellow Irishman and a musician myself, I am sending you this letter in the hope that it will make you pause and think about how you are being so ruthlessly used by the music industry and how it is damaging elderly women who only see you as a substitute for their husband's long lost libido. That the damage you are doing to their fragile psyches is being driven by demands placed upon you by the granny-hating music industry. Where does Daniel O'Donnell the artist begin, and Daniel O'Donnell the pimped out industry slave start?

Honestly now, am I to seriously believe that when you take the stage and catch the sight of a million Scots Clan wrappers before you all over the auditorium floor, that you are not being a negative influence on these women? That you are not presenting their husbands - both the deceased, and living with unattainable expectations of them wearing a green jacket and red trousers while singing Lady of Knock? Do not pretend you are clueless to the damaging effects your image and performance has upon millions of senior citizens.

Your 'Tea with Daniel' events at your home in Meenbanad, County Donegal are nothing less than shameless self-prostitution, putting salacious ideas into these older women's heads as you seductively pour them a cup of Barry's Gold Blend and hand them a Fig Roll. Is this what it has come to Daniel. Years of hard work and touring?

The reason I am asking you to please reconsider these actions is that you one day will be old yourself  and will have to come to terms with how you allowed the music industry to so ruthless exploit you. Do you think your handlers and agents are going to stop with just a cup of tea and a fig roll? What will you do when the day arrives when it 'progresses' to filling their hot water bottles, putting cream on their piles and spending time in concentrated silence sitting next to them as the death notices are read out of the radio? You know Daniel precisely what kind of industry you entered into and you deserve better than to be exploited in this way. For the sake of older women, and their men everywhere, I implore you to turn your back on this sensationalist garbage and express yourself a true artist, driven by the need to create and not be another a shameless whore for music moguls targeting elderly women.  

Yours,

Thomas Sheridan


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