Errors while pulling DB info from OTHER calls (not wordpress related)

Hey, hows it going everyone? I am having database conflicts I was wanting some help with.

Basically, I have a header that pulls in a random database field. Nothing special. It is in my header in my template and works just fine on non WordPress pages.

$sql = "SELECT * FROM headerslogans ORDER BY RAND() LIMIT 1";
	$result = mysql_query($sql);
	while ($myrow = mysql_fetch_array($result)) {
  	echo $myrow['slogan'];
};

I am using the same database, same user name, same password, etc. However, I get this error where the echo should be….

Warning: mysql_query() [function.mysql-query]: Access denied for user 'nobody'@'localhost' (using password: NO) in <dir name>

So obviously the wordpress connection is “overwriting” the other (wordpress works flawlessly). BUT, I was also confused as to why it doesn’t work, although it is connecting to the same database with same username and password.

Can anybody help me out on this?