James Zimmermann

what happened in Knoxville last summer.

But that is the crux of the story.

It's a Jussie Smollett style hoax against people I stuck up for who really wanted to make a statement, become famous, and loose their agenda on the entire industry.

And you got to hand it to them.

It totally worked.

I'll tell you what happened here in Knoxville last summer.

Like I said, I've been working in big tech.

I have a friend in the Knoxville Symphony who reached out to me and said, hey, man, I've seen everything that's gone on with you.

I've read your story.

I think it's all ridiculous.

We're having a principal clarinet audition.

I think you should come out if you're trying to get back into the game.

And I thought, hmm, that's an interesting idea.

I don't know if I can win a blind audition.

I'm not exactly a spring chicken anymore, and I'm kind of out of shape.

But I got back into Olympic fighting shape over seven weeks, practiced about 100 hours.

That's two, three hours a day.

My kids falling asleep to the sound of me practicing, waking up to the sound of me practicing, practicing all weekend.

and by september i went into this thing and i won unanimously after two days of auditions i was surprised myself i was very happy about it and they wanted to get me on the payroll in two weeks that's what they told me when i left the audition

And two days later, I got a call from the CEO who said, hey, we looked into your past in Nashville.