Lee Berton, Wall Street Journal
June 1995
The Beatles meditated with an Indian guru. Shirley MacLaine touts reincarnation. Now singer Gino Vannelli says a Hindu monk’s advise is reshaping his life. The monk’s message of enlightenment: Get an accountant.
Mr. Vannelli, 42 years old, had a hit record called “I Just Wanna Stop” that sold a million copies in 1978 and made him a millionaire. But then things went downhill. He began spending $25,000 a month on new cars, supporting friends and relatives and buying new homes, he says. And because he didn’t have another his record, his outstanding bills rose to $250,000 or more, he adds.
Mr. Vannelli says he soon wanted to find “my God-essence and get my life back together.” So he became what he calls a Zen theosophist. He says he talked to Benedictine monks in Big Sur, Calif., Inca priests in Peru and Zen priest in Japan. “I began looking for a new direction,” he says. His manager, John Baruck, says Mr. Vannelli’s tastes in reading and thinking “went off the beaten track, looking for answers.” Mr. Baruck, who reads Robert Ludlum and Tom Clancy, says Mr. Vannelli began reading philosophy, poetry and “the wisdom of the ages.”
Then, Mr. Vannelli met a Hindu monk near Malibu, Calif. “We spoke about my psyche, how there is no body without spirituality and how people build their sand castles in the sky,” he says. “I had always thought that the philosopher’s stone was buried in the muck.”
Mr. Vannelli said that the monk closed his eyes, opened them and gazed far into the sky. “He emerged almost as if from a trance and then he faced me and said, ‘What you really need is a good accountant.'” Mr. Vannelli hired on in Portland, Ore., where he lives. The accountant told him to tone down his lifestyle, he says, noting, “I now drive a Honda Accord, live in a modest home and don’t go on fancy vacations.” He has paid off his and even saved enough to make a new album “Yonder Tree”, which hit the record stores last month.
Does Mr. Vannelli still meditate with monks and priests? He says not, explaining: “I’m too busy preparing for my next performances in Montreal and Japan.”
