Shari Scorca: Lightning In A Bottle

In 1998, Shari Scorca was in the final days of her MTV News internship and her senior year at NYU, when she nabbed a pair of tickets to the Tibetan Freedom Concert in Washington, DC.

A freak lightning strike critically injured fans, stopped the performances cold, and pressed Shari into action.

“I ended up in the middle of a jam session with David Crosby and Thom Yorke,” she remembers. “And the girl didn’t die, so it was all okay.”

Shari continued writing and producing, eventually as Supervising Producer and West Coast Bureau Lead, until 2006.

This week, Shari remembers going on tour with 50 Cent; speeding through Yonkers with Jadakiss; covering the Michael Jackson trial with John Norris (“I don’t know what encyclopedia is inside of this man’s head”), floor producing the VMAs with Kurt Loder (“You graduated to Kurt”), plus backstage moments with Madonna (“Amazing”), Bono (“Beautiful”), Dave Grohl and much, much more.

“There’s something about finding your tribe,” she says. “I always tell young people, ‘Find your people.’ Because the people that I met at MTV News are my best friends to this day.”

Listen to “You Hear It First” on Apple (bit.ly/3uSvG2j) or Spotify (bit.ly/46OOwEW) now.