Sam Moore

Multi-Grammy Award-winner Sam Moore, one-half of the soul vocal duo Sam & Dave, is a member of the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame. Sam & Dave were the most successful and critically acclaimed duo in soul-music history, and Moore has achieved a distinguished 25-year career as a solo performing and recording artist. In 2008, based on a poll of other musicians, Rolling Stone magazine named Sam Moore one of the 100 greatest singers of the rock era. For more information on Sam Moore, go to www.SamMoore.net. 

ROBIN BRONK: If you had five minutes in the Oval Office with President Obama, what would you discuss with him? What issue would you like him to know about?

SAM MOORE: I would thank him and his administration for supporting the Performance Rights Act that would finally provide that recording artists get paid when their songs are performed on terrestrial AM and FM radio and also enable them to collect the more than $100 million a year we keep losing from around the world because the U.S. has no reciprocal trade on that issue. I also would ask that he help try and get it passed before the end of this year. 

I would like President Obama to know that the bankruptcy laws urgently need hearings to review and repair them, as they are still terribly flawed even after the October 2005 changes. My wife, Joyce, has had to retain constitutional lawyer and scholar Bruce Fein, former deputy attorney general under President Reagan, to try and correct abuses in a bankruptcy case allegedly filed by the late Billy Preston one month before Billy suffered respiratory arrest and went into his fatal coma; that, she’s discovered, was forged and therefore fraudulent,  and was filed by an unauthorized former associate believed to be a licensed attorney …

RB: If you could give President Obama one piece of advice, what would that be? 

SM: Stay off the plane and try not to “dap” walk — and quit the smokes, they’re really bad for your health ... you’ve got cancer history in your family. 

RB: If you could ask President Obama one question, what would that be? 

SM: I live in Scottsdale, Ariz. Does securing our border have to be a political game? Can’t you please send as much help as possible to close the border? Please don’t hold our safety hostage to get a general illegal-alien solution. We’ve been here more than 20 years, and it’s really gotten scary on so many levels. 

RB: Would you ever consider a political career? 

SM: My mouth and standing up for what I believe is right has gotten me in so much trouble over the years, I probably should have gone there and then again maybe in a way I did ... like when I marched in the ’60s with Martin or testified before Congress on artist-rights issues.

Bronk is a seasoned Capitol Hill strategist and advocate. She started her career at The Creative Coalition, a nonprofit, nonpartisan advocacy group for the arts and entertainment industry, in July 1998. During her tenure as CEO, Bronk has taken The Creative Coalition from a New York-based entity to a national organization. www.thecreativecoalition.org