Headline July14,2012/ Hang in there, dont ever change!

HANG IN THERE, DON'T EVER CHANGE!

The first time she saw his face, the moment was positively...........Spelling-esque. Mark the episode "July, 1989." Jump-cut close-ups of the famous TV actress....-Linda Evans, late of Dynasty.....with ones of Yanni, the handsome raven-maned Greek composer-keyboardist, approaching opposite sides of her Beverly Hills doorway.......


Anxiety on her face. She called him as a fan to say she loved his instrumental albums.Hang in there, dont ever change! They chatted through on this for many many years. His accent was slight, His thoughts as deep as the two canyons between their homes.Her hands hesitated on the doorknob. Behind the Krystle-blue eyes prick the ultimate doubt: "What if he's a jerk!"

His brow is smooth, his dark eyes are serene; his pockets jingled with keys to the ageing BMW he had driven Minneapolis when he ventured West to seek his destiny pounding out instrumentals in a jerry built home studio on Mulholland drive. The knob did turn and Evan's voice- overs: "I opened the door, and there stood Yanni. I almost fainted. It was as if I'd waited all my life for him to show up. My heart stopped. My head pounded, I couldn't breathe, I couldn' think. I just stared at him.I didn't know what to do."  Says Yanni: "I know when an album of mine is going to be useful in people's lives because I know what the emotional content is." Says Evans: "It's the music I'd been searching for all my life."

In 1974, as a foreign psychology student at the University of Minnesota, he pounded out his emotions on the dorm piano.After graduation, as a keyboardist in the progressive rock band Chameleon, he wrote his music on the side and dreamed of a solo career. Scuffling in Minneapolis, watching local boy Prince finally hit. Yanni came dangerously close to compromising his Muse.

He admits he was scared. He got his brother, a research chemist, to cosign a loan for a new equipment to make his music on --what the hell was he doing?  "There were times when I felt that I'm a fool, that maybe I don't have talent," he admits. "But those were moments. Very short lived moments."

And, once, during those lean days, he got a j-o-b as, of all things as an employment counselor. With his psychology degree, he passed the Minnesota state exam, bought a suit and a tie, reported for work the first day, and walked over for lunch and just kept walking. Like wise he will suffer no boss. When he got his first  record contract, with a small outfit called Private Music, he warned its owner, "Don't ever come into the studio and tell me to change this or that!" And he never succumbed to the politics of hit making. He was making only $150 a week!!