You know, this totally went over my head for a minute but I have to say that I wasn’t surprised by this AT ALL. It’s amazing how
people have two personalities or two lives that they live. One life showcases how determined and dedicated they maybe for a movement
and the other may showcase the real THEM: devious,backstabbing, and rude. Well, sad to say, this person is suppose to be the voice of
Soul Music. It was an eye opener for me and I can say, in my opinion, I believe EVERY Drop of this story I’m presenting from this person. It’s an OPEN LETTER to Mr. VOICE OF SOUL himself, TERRY BELLO. Say what you want, but definitely pay attention to the details. This letter didn’t just come from someone “HATING” but someone who admired this person and was there every step of the way through this conference. And while I do not know Terry personally, I can say his track record is not sounding good when it comes to people and their interactions with him. I commend Mr. A.J. for stepping up and putting his feelings out there. It takes a real man and courage to do this in the open. So, as promised, I am dropping this for my followers to see and you can be the judge. You may go to his site as well www.theaspot.com
Oh and here is what a professional had to say about the International Soul Music Summit 
“I personally boycot the Soul Summit because of their shady business dealings.“- Nicolay
with Love (and disgust),
FLASHBACKhoney
“Hey hey! Happy humbday everybody! Sorry I wasn’t able to post last week – I was in the final stages of preparing for the International Soul Music Summit.
And on that note – a word to the founder of the International Soul Music Summit.
Open Letter to TERRY BELLO -
Initially I promised myself not to get into a war of words after you blatantly lied and disrespected the very team who worked non-stop over the past few months to make the event a success. I felt it would be cheap, silly and totally beneath anyone who was actually able to move on.
However, I’m being contacted on several fronts and I understand that you’ve accused me, along with some of your once-loyal team members of stealing from you thereby making you unable to pay some of the bills acquired during the International Soul Music Summit.
That is untrue, and since you took the liberty of picking a fight and threatening to ‘crush me’ and any aspirations I may have – I must defend myself along with the rest of the team. I have no reason to battle with you, but for the sake of truth, I must speak out.
“There is always a way to be honest without being brutal.” – Arthur Dobrin
Now I present you with the other side of the story.
Facebook notified me of a message from you.
Message content:
“AJ, I know you have some things going on at Django & at Barley’s. I’d like to meet with you for an opportunity.”
Cool I thought. I mean you were my instructor at broadcasting school back in 2004 – so with that knowledge and the fact that I do eventually want to be back in radio – I jumped at the opportunity.
Fast forward to Django, July 2nd.
I’m emceeing a show featuring Leaf and Slick and Rose when I notice you walk in and stand in the back.
You proposed I come on board and help deal with entertainment since I have relationships with artists and venue owners. You told me the dates and the amount of work that it would take.
You said – (and I quote) – “We’re gonna make a lot of money, meet a lot of good people, and help soul music.” Without too much consideration, I accepted your offer.
After talking to my wife about it – I felt pretty good. That is, until I started mentioning it to other people.
“Be careful, that guy is shady.” one friend warned.
“I don’t know if you should do this AJ, I hear he’s trouble.” another friend said hesitantly.
“He asked me to help out – but I don’t like the way he deals with people I know… there’s just something about him that I don’t like.” Yet a third warning.
Finally – “AJ he has a reputation for ripping people off.” Yes – a fourth warning.
I still believed I would be able to make the best of whatever I was faced with. I’m wired like that.
Our first meeting went smoothly enough. You told me about summits past, about the sacrifices you made in your life for soul music – your potential career as an attorney that you walked away from, your short professional NBA career with the New Jersey Nets, and how you’d lost someone close to you – and she was your driving force to keep pressing forward on your mission to make soul music mainstream.
You also promised that if I helped with the summit – you’d make sure I was on radio because of the ‘strings’ you could pull inside the radio industry.
I didn’t question any of it. I had no real reason too. People don’t just make these kinds of things up.
Or so I thought.
For the sake of my time – I’ll fast forward through many rant-laden meetings, broken promises and late nights working – to the very last day of the Soul Music Summit.
You told us – your volunteer team – in our closed door meeting that “bills needed to be paid…” and we needed to make sure we invited as many people as possible to our finale events, namely Apache and Django. That if we didn’t make enough money at these final events – someone was going to have to not get paid. You’ve since denied making these statements – but there were 5 other people in the room.
We brainstormed on how to get people to attend in numbers. I suggested we have all volunteers change their facebook pages to “Partying with the Soul Summit at Apache & Django…” and Tweet it to all their friends.
“Good idea AJ.” you told me as I left the meeting to go down into the lobby and begin spreading the word.
Why did we make these suggestions? Because you informed us that you had to pay for talent – Vikter Duplaix, Mark de-Clive Lowe, and DJ Nimbus.
Later that evening, in front of people you were obviously trying to impress you announced – “All events tonight are free.” which confused us. When questioned about the contradictory announcement your answer, off the record of course – “I want you guys to charge them – but I can’t be around when you do it, that’ll make me look bad.”
It was a serious palm-to-forehead moment. It was the moment I realized just how devious and crooked you were.
It did not stop there.
Later that night, in the middle of a packed house at Apache Cafe – you grabbed the microphone and told the audience (I’m quoting again) “I never authorized anyone to charge. If my team is charging you – they’re pocketing the money. Terry Bello…” – yes – you spoke of yourself in third person – “…does the Soul Summit for the love of the music. I can’t believe my staff would do this to me. I can’t believe they’d steal from me.”
Are you kidding me?
Fact: There was a negotiation between the Soul Summit and The Apache Café – The Soul Summit takes 70% of the door, and Apache gets the remaining percentage – plus any money generated from food and beverage sales.
Fact: There was a negotiation between the Soul Summit and Django – The Soul Summit takes 100% of the door – Django keeps all money generated from food and beverage sales.
How do I know this? I negotiated it on your behalf. If you continue lying and spreading rumors, I’ll put copies of the receipt (yes I have copies) on Facebook and Twitter. I know you bragged about having over 4000 friends – but I have quite a few myself.
Now I have a question for you – if the Soul Summit events were free – why were these agreements in place? Let me answer that question – because you authorized it, sir.
You obviously didn’t want to tell people you didn’t make as much money from events as you thought you would – so you opted to lie and create some sort of illusion of theft that never happened – to make yourself seem like the victim in all of this.
So we collected money at the events because you said so. I felt a little dirty being a cog in your extremely crooked wheel.
Now you tell your industry friends that you were robbed by your staff and refer to me as a ‘local Atlanta nobody that nobody cares about’, and you’re also sending notes to people on Facebook and Myspace – (yes I have copies of all of them) bragging how you’re internationally known.
Well sir – to that I say this – I’m not internationally known, but I’m known to rock a microphone. So don’t get stupid – or outrageous.
Ignore that last line – don’t know what got into me.
You know what I gotta admit I never saw it coming. And it actually hurt a little. Especially after being down in the trenches with you for so long. Negotiating with clubs owners – even when some of them told me I’d end up burned. Calling on friends to volunteer when ‘your crew’ didn’t show up. Paying DJs and hosts out of my pocket.
We floated with our small crew to the end of the last night of the summit – and instead of sailing off into the sunset – you chose to sink the entire ship and take the only life jacket.
“I was wrong.” “I’m sorry.” If you can say these two things, and mean them, you’ll gain more respect than you can imagine.
Then again with your reputation and history of shadiness.
Not really.
Oh and before I finish – I do not fear any of your false threats, nor do I care about ‘who you are’. I’ve spoken to the owner of Django – and the manager of The Apache Café, both of whom you said were ‘hating on you and the Summit from the beginning’, – and they will both stand beside me, the local Atlanta nobody.
It took a lot for me to see the real Voice of Soul as you’ve deemed yourself, but now that I know who you are – I don’t want any associations with you or The International Soul Music Summit.
Here is a list of things you promised – in case you don’t remember.
All volunteers would gain access to the Atlanta Classic football game.
All volunteers would have free parking.
Team captains would be paid.
Maxwell would be in attendance.
Musiq would be in attendance.
There would be a ‘celebration party’ paid for by you after the International Soul Music Summit ended.
You charged over $100 dollars a person and had a few hundred people in attendance. Even at 150 people, that’s $15,000 bucks. There is no reason you couldn’t have at least taken the volunteers out to dinner.
You didn’t have to worry about AJ – I figured I wouldn’t get paid.
I’ve been kicking myself since Sunday morning for being such a naïve idiot and thinking I could work with you – even after everyone warned me.
Now I’ve decided to no longer kick myself. I was joining your vision out of my love for the music, musicians, and the opportunity to get to know them. I was there to enjoy performances like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92IiVGUyGeU.
Terry – you have a great vision. A great idea. You should try and do right by the people who believe in it. I was initially upset – but I wish you well brother.
You were right in one thing – soul music does need an international stage.
But when the curtains are drawn and the lights go on.
The Voice of Soul, or Don Juan DeMarko, or Terry Bello – or whatever you call yourself that particular day…
Does not need to be in sight.
Unless you straighten up and fly right.
AJ
P.S. Here’s another quote – just because I can. This is my newsletter – my voice.
And I want you to print this.
“Liars begin by imposing upon others, but end deceiving themselves” – unknown
P.S.S. One man is not bigger than a movement. And I Googled all the New Jersey nets past line-ups in the past and you don’t show up anywhere.
I wonder why.” – A. J. from The A Spot
September 7, 2011
flashbackhoney
