Dave Carroll shares United tales on The View

Musician wraps up third and final video in airlines series

Dave Carroll is scheduled to be a guest on The View Thursday morning [Jan. 14th] to discuss his experiences with United Airlines.

By Chelsey Romain, The Daily Press

First Wolf, now Barbara.

Timmins native Dave Carroll has found himself in great company since the incident when United Airlines broke his guitar last summer.

First it was an appearance on CNN’s Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer. Now it’s a spot on the couch with the ladies of The View.

Carroll received a call from the show’s producers last week, and come Thursday morning he will be seated alongside Whoopi Goldberg, Joy Beher, Elisabeth Hasselbeck, Sherri Shepherd, and possibly the show’s creator Barbara Walters.

“I was kind of blown away,” Carroll said in a phone interview with The Daily Press.

He said at the time he was at home in Halifax changing a light fixture with his dad, Max, when a call came in from New York, but he didn’t know who it was. About 20 minutes later he checked his e-mail to discover it was an invitation to appear on Thursday’s show.

“I called my mom before I called them back, because it’s her favourite show,” he said. “I can’t tell you what she said, but there was silence followed by an expletive.”

Carroll is flying out to New York today to tape the show, and said while it’s strictly an interview, they will be playing excerpts from the first and second United Breaks Guitars videos.

“It just seems to be carrying on,” Carroll said of the attention that comes from his YouTube videos. “They haven’t heard of this before, so it’s all new to them.

“It just reminds you of how big and how small the world is.”

The opportunity is perfect timing for Carroll, as he just wrapped shooting on the third and final video regarding the incident.

Carroll said the final video, which is taped to a bluegrass tune, wraps up the story. The first told the tale of what happened after that flight to Nebraska, while the second explained the people and policies of United Airlines in more depth.

“They said they would make some changes and I said I would write about it if they had anything meaningful to say,” Carroll said. “I haven’t really heard anything substantial, so I just leave it open and say I hope they do make some changes.”

He said the third track is probably his favourite, and is the catchiest of the three. The video feature’s Allison Krauss’ band member Jerry Douglas, who Carroll called the “undisputed dobro master,” who filmed his part from Nashville.

The final song also mentions Timmins by name.

“I acknowledge that this has been good for my career,” he said of the song. “But that even after all this stuff, there’s still a long line of people who have problems with airlines.”

Saying it has been good for his career is an understatement. Since the video was launched on the YouTube website last July, Carroll said he has had more exposure, which has opened up a lot more opportunities for him.

“This whole thing of Thursday, will be a whole new demographic because most of the audience is women,” he said. “It’s a refreshing opportunity to again open my back catalogue music to a whole new set of ears.”

In addition to music though, Carroll has also become a spokesperson of sort, telling his story, and discussing customer service, speaking at corporate events and to different companies.

I like it because it’s new to me,” he said. “I’m learning the craft of telling a story without a guitar.”