PAUL:	This was to be a private matter but 
... well, now everything’s out in 
the public domain.  So, this will 
be an “open” letter to Ashley.

Dear Ash, 

I want you to know that what you’re 
going through, where you’ve been, 
I’ve been there before.

Wait ... I don’t, of course, mean 
in that particular room or whatever 
it is, in the realm of sexual 
conduct, that happened there.

But I, too, Ash have experienced 
celebrity and paid the price.

When you’re in the public eye, you 
open yourself up, you try to be 
honest ... for the fans, and this 
in an industry that is built on 
deceit.  Before you know it, the 
vultures are in there rooting 
around your carcass.

I mean, in the end it’s only about 
sales, about the commodification of 
you as an object (or is that the 
objectification of you as a 
commodity? ).  For them, you’re 
just something to buy.

The music hasn’t changed, Ash, but 
the image is bruised, and I fear, 
friend, that in the marketplace, in 
this day and age, image is 
everything.

After the interview is over and you 
try to get on with your life,  with 
what you and a consenting adult, or 
consenting teenager anyway, would 
describe as a normal life ... the 
news makers and news breakers ream 
you, turn the story into another 
story.

What’s Macleans, Ash?  What do you 
care, really ?

Just remember that they too are 
merely a commodity.  They have to 
come up with stuff EVERY WEEK !  
This time, they came up with you.

Sad, really.  More of a reflection 
on them than on you, don’t you 
think ?

As I said, though, I’ve been there.  
Yes, my friend, I too was once up 
for the Maclean’s honour roll.  And 
I, too, was withdrawn from 
contention because of my “private” 
conduct.

No, I do not get my thrills from 
having other men urinate over me 
(and again let me state that I have 
no objection to any act between 
consenting mammals).

All I did was fess-up to having a 
criminal record in the United 
States.  A little mix-up with 
speed-balls and a 50 caliber, 
single action Freedom Arms 
revolver.  Something that was well 
behind me.  And Macleans’s decides 
I’m not “honourable”.

SHAG MacLEAN’s, ASH!

Long live that scorching Celtic 
axe, baby!

And remember what Mick Jagger said, 
“We piss anywhere, man”.

Page 3 of 3	A LETTER TO ASH - SHOW # 11