Appearances deceiving – or are they?

As I stood in the queue at the petrol station in Baton Rouge near New Orleans, a guy started one of those conversations I avoid as much as possible, the type where you feel like it is all false, you don't know each other, you're expected to behave like a knowing friend, and after 2 minutes you go your separate ways.

As we stand there, the guy says “Gee, it's busy here, huh? There's a whole lotta love in this place. Get it? This gas station is called Love's, there's a lotta love around here!”. He pronounced the name of the petrol station 'lurve' – I am serious. He went on. “You should get to the casino next door, they'll lurve you right outta money, oh yeah” and burst out laughing at his own joke. As he said loudly “gee that's funny!” and turned to me to say “ain't that the truth? Huh?” expecting a response, I used all powers of polite ignoring that I possess.

He then asks where I'm from – I mention England, and a split second later he is explaining to me that he had just come back from a trip through 12 countries in Europe promoting a music band, and that he was back to do the Jazz festival in New orleans. OK, I thought – if he is involved in music, maybe he is an interesting guy. He goes on to tell me his story while we wait for the busy cashier to catch up.

“I'm an International composer, award nominated. I also promote music artists, doin' a tour with Stevie Wonder and Michael McDonald”. (My ears prick up at this – Michael McDonald is one of my favourite musicians.) I'm goin' over to Europe next year, and we'll be at Wembley Stadium in 3 years. And I am finding real talent over here, not just small stuff, tese guys are gonna be bigger than everybody!” Wow, I thought. I have really underestimated this guy.

The cashier gets to us, and I wish Joseph all the best. As I go out, he is already at his Mercedes – fitting the image he gave me of a famous guy - and he hails me to give me a business card “so that when you hear of me, you have some kind of context of how you know the name”. The card showed his full name – Joseph Samuels Messina. Even the Messina part rang a bell. He also said “check the website, you can win a trip to Italy, I'll be with Andrea Bocelli in Rome. Fantastic. I just met an International Composer at a petrol station! This trip gets more and more interesting.

As I drive off, I start to wonder about this. I wondered, what does the phrase “International Composer” really mean? Not much, really – you may perform internationally, but not compose. His message about Wembley – he wasn't really clear what he meant by “we'll be there”. He made it sound like he was going to be together with Stevie Wonder and Michael McDonald. But his “3 years away” seemed a long time ahead to plan, even for a major venue like Wembley. Then I went back to the part of the phone call I had overheard from him before he talked to me, when it sounded like he was arranging a very local gig in a bar, not some international stars.

Could it be that the guy was simply convinced that he would be successful? That his whole story was some attempt at self-fulfilling prophesy mixed with a chunk of NLP? Could he just be an agent or even a roadie for these big stars? Was his “Wembley in 3 years” statement just a description of his major goal?

So I Googled, first trying Joe Messina – and an old Jazz player came up, born in 1928. That was certainly not him. So I put in his whole name. Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Then I checked his website, and a quite amateurish page came up showing his history and a couple of other bits of info. According to this, he had never played music until 1996 when a personal tragedy hit. It was unspecific about what kind of tragedy. Since then, despite not knowing any musical theory, he has been composing and playing. Despite the amateur appearance of the site, the confidence behind it was almost convincing.

The giveaway was the Andrea Bocelli concert competition. To enter, you need to send 27 dollars, and he states the competition will be null and void if less than 100 people enter. No mention of money back if that happens. It seems an odd thing for an “International Composer” to have on his website. More like the stuff of scam artists..

So now I am not sure what to think. I met him and immediately came to the conclusion from first impressions that he was just an annoyingly cheerful guy. Then in minutes he convinced me he was famous. Now I am not sure what to think.

And probably I will never know. Appearances can indeed be deceiving.