Regie Hamm signs with Tate Music Group and Tate Publishing
NASHVILLE, TN / September 25, 2009 -
Hit singer/songwriter/producer and Foundation for Angelman Syndrome Therapeutics board member Regie Hamm scored his biggest hit this year with the solo-written, 16-week No. 1 song "Time of My Life" for American Idol's David Cook, and today he has signed a combined book and record deal with the Oklahoma-based Tate Publishing and Tate Music Group.
Regie Hamm's new book, "Angels And Idols" recounts the compelling story of a would-be pop star who adopts a little girl from China only to find she has one of the worlds rarest and little known genetic disorders. The 24-hour care required for her, as well as the financial burden her condition placed on the family, sent Regie's career into a tailspin and he lost practically everything he owned. After five years of abject despair and at the end of his rope, Regie entered the American Idol songwriting contest and won with the song "Time Of My Life." The song went on to become a smash hit for David Cook and one of the longest running Billboard chart toppers of all time. It also became the theme song for a forgotten community of special needs families who share a common experience with Hamm ...they all have children with the genetic disorder known as "Angelman Syndrome." "Angelman Syndrome" is a partial deletion of the 15th maternal chromosome and is characterized by lack of speech, severe delays in motor skills, severe sleeping disorders, seizures and 24-hour care requirements.
In 2008, Hamm banded together with several of those families to found FAST (the Foundation for Angelman Syndrome Therapeutics) and works closely with it's other members to help fund research for a cure, as well as other interventions that can help the "Angels" (as they're called) and their families. The book recounts the serendipitous events that led to finding other families all over the nation, from all walks of life, who have children with this disorder and the special bonds that have brought them together to form this uniquely powerful foundation that is on the "fast track" to discovering life-changing science that may one day lead to a cure for the "Angels."
