Speaker 1: Welcome, Welcome, Welcome to the Bob Left Sets podcast. My
Speaker 1: guest this week is legendary music executive, the youngest president
Speaker 1: in the history of the music business, president at age
Speaker 1: thirty two, of Atlantic Records, Jerry Greenberg. How you doing,
Speaker 1: my friend? Okay, Now, you've worked with literally a who's
Speaker 1: who of legends, Abba, led Zeppelin, Michael Jackson. Okay, So
Speaker 1: who is the best to work with? The most meaningful,
Speaker 1: not necessarily the easiest. Wow, that's a that's a tough
Speaker 1: question to answer. I will say that probably the most
Speaker 1: creative and visionary person that I work with is Michael Jackson. Really,
Speaker 1: oh yeah, I'm forget about it. I mean this guy.
Speaker 1: I remember when he called me to interview me to
Speaker 1: he was starting his own record label, and I came
Speaker 1: home and I said to my wife, I just met
Speaker 1: Walt Disney, and she said, what are you talking about?
Speaker 1: I said, this guy is such a visionary, such a visionary.
Speaker 1: He wants to build theme parks, he wants to do Broadway,
Speaker 1: he wants to be David Geffen. I mean, all rolled
Speaker 1: into one and um, that's my was my first impression
Speaker 1: of him. I mean I never never met him before,
Speaker 1: but we spent two hours together. Uh, he did his
Speaker 1: homework about Jerry Greenberg. And of course I've been listening
Speaker 1: to Michael Jackson since I was a baby, but um,
Speaker 1: it was I would have to put him at pretty
Speaker 1: much at the top of the list. In answer to
Speaker 1: your question, Okay, so you had that meeting. Did he
Speaker 1: live up to that meeting? Yes, there's no question. Okay,
Speaker 1: So what year did you get involved. I got involved
Speaker 1: with Michael in So what's the first project you worked
Speaker 1: on with him? Free Willy Soundtrack? Uh. They wanted they
Speaker 1: wanted a song from Michael Jackson. I called Michael and
Speaker 1: he said to me, I saw the movie, I saw
Speaker 1: the track, everything, but I can't write it. I don't
Speaker 1: have any time. And I went into his uh last
Speaker 1: album and I found a song called will You Be There?
Speaker 1: And I sent it up to the producers and I said,
Speaker 1: does this work? And they said yes. And so that
Speaker 1: was the launch of m j J Records, having the
Speaker 1: first soundtrack being Free Willy, one of michael songs, and
Speaker 1: then we put Michael's nephews in three t Then we
Speaker 1: got UH Girls Group to do a remake. So our
Speaker 1: first record for our record company ended up platinum out
Speaker 1: of the box. And what did you think when he died?
Speaker 1: Did you see that coming? Oh no, not not not
Speaker 1: at all. And I don't want to give it away,
Speaker 1: but there's a whole there's a major story about what
Speaker 1: happened that the day after Michael died. I will just
Speaker 1: say that. Let me say that I was rushed to
Speaker 1: the hospital wait for your own medical and my own,
Speaker 1: my own medical condition, the day after he died, Okay,
Speaker 1: And therefore you attribute that to the news of his death.
Speaker 1: I attributed to, yes, the news of his death, the
Speaker 1: fact that I was up doing interviews for almost fifteen hours,
Speaker 1: the stress of everything, and um, but here I am so, now,
Speaker 1: did you have a cardiac event or anything or was
Speaker 1: just stress and you went to the hospital and you
Speaker 1: chilled out? Well? Uh, I went to the hospital because
Speaker 1: I had back pain and pain in my arms and everything.
Speaker 1: And what happened is, believe it or not, a flat
Speaker 1: line for seventeen seconds, wow, in the hospital or at home,
Speaker 1: you know, in the hospital, thank god. But I had
Speaker 1: the doctors around me and they got me back. And
Speaker 1: the bottom line is I had a torn iord to
Speaker 1: and but I had great doctors and they fixed it
Speaker 1: and uh, and I'm here. Okay, let's go back to
Speaker 1: the beginning. You're from the Haven, Connecticut, right, correct? Okay,
Speaker 1: all of the world's best pizza. That's the big decision.
Speaker 1: We ask everybody. Was it Peppi's or is it Sally's.
Speaker 1: So you went to Peppi's for the clam pizza, but
Speaker 1: you went to Sally's maybe more for the sauce and
Speaker 1: this and that. But both of them were pretty pretty,
Speaker 1: pretty pretty good. Well, the funniest thing is it's one
Speaker 1: of the few things in life that live up to
Speaker 1: the legend. I remember going to Peppi's being all hyped
Speaker 1: and go, damn, this is really this. Every time I
Speaker 1: go back to Connecticut, I have to get the pizza. Correct. Okay,
Speaker 1: So you're there and you're growing up, and what does
Speaker 1: your father do for a living. My father was in
Speaker 1: the jewelry business, thirty nine years in the jewelry business.
Speaker 1: Everybody loved them. I mean, if you're going to go
Speaker 1: buy a watch or a piece of jewelry, oh, go
Speaker 1: down and see Bill Greenberg. It's Specters in New Haven.
Speaker 1: He's the guy. It's just the way. Wait, just for
Speaker 1: one second, Specters was that connected to the same Specters
Speaker 1: and Bridgeport. Do you know I'm not just because my
Speaker 1: closest friend from high school. I'm gonna see it another month.
Speaker 1: His father, his mother was specter and his father ran Specters,
Speaker 1: and I knew they were like three or four stories.
Speaker 1: I'll ask him when he's out here. I bet it was. Okay, So,
Speaker 1: now was your father first generation American? Yeah? Okay, and okay,
Speaker 1: So he's working at Specters. And what's it like growing up?
Speaker 1: What's it like growing up? Mother and father just great parents.
Speaker 1: My mother very hard worker. She held three jobs. She
Speaker 1: was a bookkeeper, she was a cashier. He had the
Speaker 1: one job at Specters. But growing up in Connecticut, I
Speaker 1: grew up on an area called City Point, and it
Speaker 1: was near the water. So I grew up loving boating.
Speaker 1: I was painting boats when I was like nine years
Speaker 1: old and ten years old. You know, you know, I
Speaker 1: mean you can't see his handwave. He doesn't mean paint artistically,
Speaker 1: means literally painting boats. Yeah, literally the bottoms of boats, etcetera, etcetera.
Speaker 1: So I uh, you know, I grew up one around
Speaker 1: the water. I grew up with great parents, and I
Speaker 1: was very lucky, very very lucky. Now you had your brother.
Speaker 1: It was just the two of you. It was just
Speaker 1: me and my brother, and you were who was the
Speaker 1: older brother? Do you? He was the older brother eight
Speaker 1: year eight years older than you. I didn't realize. Okay,
Speaker 1: So when did you become interested in music? Okay? So
Speaker 1: I'm at a bar mitzvah and the band takes a
Speaker 1: break and there's music coming playing like you know, through speakers,
Speaker 1: records or whatever. And I go over to the drums
Speaker 1: and sit behind the drum set and I'm tapping, okay,
Speaker 1: And I see the drummer talk to my mother and
Speaker 1: I say, oh god, I guess he's mad. Next thing
Speaker 1: I know, my mother comes over and she said, the
Speaker 1: drummer told me you have natural rhythm. I have to
Speaker 1: get you drum lessons. Wow. So within thirty seconds, I'm
Speaker 1: now a drummer. I mean, I'm taking drum lessons. So
Speaker 1: parents buy you a kid a whole bit. Oh yeah, listen.
Speaker 1: I I loved it. And what happened is there was
Speaker 1: a guy in New Haven who booked all the bar
Speaker 1: Mitz's and weddings and this and that. He calls my
Speaker 1: mother up. I'm fifteen years old. He calls my mother
Speaker 1: up and oh god, I have to back up in
Speaker 1: somebody in the fifties, you know. So I'm fifteen years old.
Speaker 1: My mother says his name was Arnold Moost. He should
Speaker 1: arnelmos called and he said everybody, every musician he can find,
Speaker 1: works on New Year's Eve. Which can I book a
Speaker 1: job for your son to play? So she said sure.
Speaker 1: But my father had a shlip me down to I
Speaker 1: remember it was called the One Eagle restaurant, like on
Speaker 1: Chapel Street in New Haven. I walk in and the
Speaker 1: there was a base player and a piano player, and
Speaker 1: they took a look at me. I mean, I'm fifteen
Speaker 1: years old, babe, and he said, they go, okay. So
Speaker 1: I play all night with brushes, uh, and get through it.
Speaker 1: Ten to two was was the gig. And I remember
Speaker 1: I came home and I had something like thirty or
Speaker 1: thirty five rich. It was like what my father made
Speaker 1: all week, you know. So first of all, I always
Speaker 1: wanted a rowboat, and I went to my father once
Speaker 1: I asked him some money for a rowbot. He as,
Speaker 1: you work for you can buy anything you want. So
Speaker 1: of course I took the money, went right out and
Speaker 1: I bought me a robot and that was the beginning
Speaker 1: of Jerry getting into the music business. Really okay, well,
Speaker 1: you played with these other pickup musicians, when was your
Speaker 1: next gig? My next gig was realizing that, wait a minute,
Speaker 1: there's money in being a musician. I found the guitar
Speaker 1: player and I said, let's form a band. So we
Speaker 1: formed the band and we started. Uh. There was a
Speaker 1: group from the Haven, Connecticut called the Five Satin's which
Speaker 1: had probably the biggest do wop record in your in history.
Speaker 1: And I became from the name of that record from
Speaker 1: my audience who may not know. Second, what was the
Speaker 1: name of the record for the audience that may not know?
Speaker 1: In the Stole of the Night? Oh yeah? And the
Speaker 1: Still in the Night should have been should be do
Speaker 1: the big biggest record during the older days? Okay at
Speaker 1: that point in time, was W A v Z still
Speaker 1: the top four as Okay? I remember trying to pull
Speaker 1: that in from Fairfield and whatever. When I went to
Speaker 1: summer camp, we played W A v Z. So, in
Speaker 1: any event, that's the biggest do wop hit, biggest hit,
Speaker 1: and you have that guitars friend, and now all of
Speaker 1: a sudden we put a band together, and we're backing
Speaker 1: them up. We're going to New York and we're backing
Speaker 1: up the Yeah, we're backing up this five cents. How
Speaker 1: did you get that gig? They we were a good band,
Speaker 1: and you know, and they liked this. But but let
Speaker 1: me just say this. My band turned out to be
Speaker 1: the number one college fraternity band in the area. If
Speaker 1: you watched Animal House and you saw Belushi at that
Speaker 1: fraternity seen my band was that band. Okay. We used
Speaker 1: to play Yale and Wesleyan and Trinity and we even
Speaker 1: got gigs up in Boston. So we were we were,
Speaker 1: we were rocking. I was like, okay, so how old
Speaker 1: were you when this was happening? And how often would
Speaker 1: you work every weekend? Okay? And did you graduate from
Speaker 1: high school? Yes? Okay, you graded from high school. No
Speaker 1: thought of college. You're a musician. I was thinking about
Speaker 1: music school, maybe Julius Heart School of Music. But past. Okay,
Speaker 1: So you're playing every weekend with your band. What kind
Speaker 1: of money you're making? Uh? We were getting paid anywhere
Speaker 1: from to three hundred dollars a night. I was making
Speaker 1: anywhere from fifty dollars. I was booking, so I would
Speaker 1: take ten percent off the top. I was the booker,
Speaker 1: and I got so many calls for our band. Did
Speaker 1: I remember I said once to the fraternity guy, well listen,
Speaker 1: we're a book, but I think I could get you
Speaker 1: a band, and he said, okay, great, I trust you.
Speaker 1: So now all of a sudden, at eighteen years old,
Speaker 1: I'm booking bands. I'm playing all these different colleges. And
Speaker 1: you know, I went from a rowboat to a seventeen
Speaker 1: foot speedboat. Wow. And he's still living at home. Uh,
Speaker 1: still living at home? Correct? Okay, So the name of
Speaker 1: the band is was the Passengers? Okay? And do you
Speaker 1: think are you the kind of person you're gonna find
Speaker 1: a way your survivor you're gonna find a way to
Speaker 1: make money. If it wasn't, the music business would have
Speaker 1: been something else. I don't know. I never thought of
Speaker 1: of ever. Oh God, you gotta gotta make money to live.
Speaker 1: I just well, it's just kind of came natural. Well,
Speaker 1: I guess it's one thing to be a member of
Speaker 1: the band. It's also another thing to book the band.
Speaker 1: But the story always is is the drummer is the
Speaker 1: business guy. So this proves the point. Really, Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: you get into it. I give you example after example
Speaker 1: where the drummer is the business guy. Wow. So okay,
Speaker 1: so you're doing this. How long do you do this for?
Speaker 1: How long I do this for? I do it? Uh
Speaker 1: because well we're starting to cut records, and we the
Speaker 1: guy who's uh actually the producer of these different records.
Speaker 1: He's got a deal with a big publishing company in
Speaker 1: New York. So we would go to New York with
Speaker 1: back up bands, back up the Satin's or a couple
Speaker 1: of other groups make some records. We were on Amy
Speaker 1: Malabel as King Author and the nights were on Atlantic
Speaker 1: Is Jerry and the Passengers. Uh. You know, we just
Speaker 1: cut a lot of a lot of different stuff and
Speaker 1: one record that we can't I couldn't get a deal for.
Speaker 1: So what I did was, uh, I pressed up the
Speaker 1: record on my own. I sent the tape to r
Speaker 1: C A pressed up the record on my own. My
Speaker 1: guitar player was named c strand I'm Greenberg green C Records.
Speaker 1: Press it up, take the record. Because I'm getting very
Speaker 1: friendly with all the radio. This shock eys guys from
Speaker 1: a vz D, E, W D r C and hard
Speaker 1: dr C. Absolutely, I'm gonna mention that. We'll talk about
Speaker 1: that in a minute. So the bottom line is I
Speaker 1: pressed up the record and I put it into Cutler's
Speaker 1: and I'm the famous record shop in New Haven, Connecticut. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's the biggest. And uh so I'm up in Hartford
Speaker 1: collecting my money at a distributor. I over hear the
Speaker 1: guy say, oh, my promotion man's leaving. I'm looking for somebody.
Speaker 1: I say to the guy, wait a minute, how about me,
Speaker 1: I'd love that job. So he gives me the job.
Speaker 1: I am now a record promotion man working for Seaboard
Speaker 1: Distributors out of Hartford. Going is far down to Bridgeport
Speaker 1: to w I c C. That is correct, too far
Speaker 1: uh north as Springfield, w Y something in Springfield. And
Speaker 1: of course the big station in Connecticut was w d
Speaker 1: R C and Harford, and that was run by birtha
Speaker 1: porter who everyone knew at that time. If Bertha picked
Speaker 1: the record, it could break nationally. So, okay, a couple
Speaker 1: of questions. This is a pre Beatles, Yeah, so what
Speaker 1: kind of records were you working? Oh? No, you know,
Speaker 1: it's funny, funny. I had VJ as one of my labels.
Speaker 1: Had I had a Beatles record was introducing the Beatles
Speaker 1: on j one of the capital passed. Okay, so, uh
Speaker 1: this is in uh Nino and you know we had
Speaker 1: Atlantic and Chess and Checker and basically when almost all
Speaker 1: the labels were independent. Okay, Now did you were you
Speaker 1: continuing to play in your band on the weekends? Now?
Speaker 1: Did you you were making good money? We're buying a speedboat.
Speaker 1: Did you have a dream of stardom? No? Okay, so
Speaker 1: you're just doing it? So okay. You you took the
Speaker 1: job as a radio record promotion being thinking I've got
Speaker 1: nothing to do Monday to Friday, or this will be
Speaker 1: a career or I just want to have, you know,
Speaker 1: a job. Well, I didn't know. You know, it was
Speaker 1: a job, and I felt it could be a career
Speaker 1: because I love music. I was when you love music, man,
Speaker 1: you just want to be around music. So I'm a
Speaker 1: guy who loves music and I'm a musician. So what's
Speaker 1: been an than that? Okay? So how long do you
Speaker 1: work for cboard? How? Probably three or four years. But
Speaker 1: I became, you know, very close with everybody at Atlantic Records.
Speaker 1: And why was that? Uh? I think they liked me.
Speaker 1: I was breaking records in Connecticut for Atlantic, and I
Speaker 1: think they realized all of a sudden, Jerry had good
Speaker 1: ears and Jerry Wexler. Henry Allen was ahead of promotion
Speaker 1: at the time. Henry calls me and he goes, listen,
Speaker 1: Jerry Wexler just bought a record. I just bought a record.
Speaker 1: He wants you to hear it and tell him what
Speaker 1: and tell you what he what you think and were
Speaker 1: I'm sending it up a man getting it up to
Speaker 1: you special delivery. The record was Percy Sledge When a
Speaker 1: Man Loves So I hear the record and I'm very
Speaker 1: close with the DJ in New Haven at w d
Speaker 1: E daytime station. I go to w d at two
Speaker 1: o'clock in the afternoon and I said, listen, put this on.
Speaker 1: Plays it at two, plays it again at three thirty,
Speaker 1: plays it again at like five. The phones are going
Speaker 1: crazy crazy. Cutler's record job calls the station, what's this
Speaker 1: man loves the woman record you're playing on? We got
Speaker 1: people coming in want to buy it. So I called
Speaker 1: Jerry Wexlet the next day and I go, Jerry, You're
Speaker 1: gonna have the biggest crossover pop record you've ever seen.
Speaker 1: Watch And it was the truth. I mean, come on,
Speaker 1: we'll take a quick break and come back with more
Speaker 1: of my conversation with legendary record label executive Jerry Greenberg,
Speaker 1: recorded live at the tune In Studios in Venice, California. Hi,
Speaker 1: it's Bob left Sex. Over the last couple of months,
Speaker 1: I've interviewed the lead singer of Garbage, Shirley Manson, and
Speaker 1: legendary drummer Kenny arn Off. But I really love getting
Speaker 1: the stories and the executives in and around the music industry,
Speaker 1: like Jerry. Whether you come for the music, the tech,
Speaker 1: or otherwise, be the first here next week's episode by
Speaker 1: subscribing to the podcast on tune In, Apple Podcasts or
Speaker 1: your podcast player of choice. While you're there, please rate
Speaker 1: and review. Okay, let's get back to my conversation with
Speaker 1: Jerry Greenberg. What was the key to promoting a record tour?
Speaker 1: I mean, that's an obvious one, but when records not
Speaker 1: that obvious? What was the key to getting in on
Speaker 1: the radio? Um? Just too tenacity? Keep keep pounding the
Speaker 1: guy and going, hey, look it just happened in Texas,
Speaker 1: or it's doing this somewhere else, or what do they
Speaker 1: call it? The key to being a good promotion man?
Speaker 1: I think there's one being honest to having a good
Speaker 1: track record, because you remember, you're trying to talk this
Speaker 1: guy into taking air time and play a record. You
Speaker 1: don't want to play a stiff. He wants to play
Speaker 1: a hit. He wants to be the first to play
Speaker 1: a hit. And I had that relationship, I think with
Speaker 1: a lot of guys and um and girls, and but
Speaker 1: I was very close with Bertha and she loved me. So, uh,
Speaker 1: let me just say this. A job opens up at
Speaker 1: the other distributorship. Okay, there's two big distributorships in Harvard.
Speaker 1: Job opens up. My brother is doing radio promotion and
Speaker 1: I'm that radio selling time at a radio station. So
Speaker 1: I say to Bertha, Bertha, do me a favor. I'd
Speaker 1: like my brother to get that job. She said, well,
Speaker 1: I got to meet him. I said fine, So I
Speaker 1: set up a lunch. She falls in love with my brother.
Speaker 1: She calls the distributor. Hey, you know, Jerry's got a brother,
Speaker 1: Bob Greenberger. Boom, Bob gets the job. So now we
Speaker 1: got Bob at one distributor, me at the other. But
Speaker 1: here's the best story yet, you're ready. I have to
Speaker 1: go in the army to do Army Reserve you know,
Speaker 1: none of us want to get drafted at that time. Uh,
Speaker 1: you could be out if you had a baby that
Speaker 1: postpone you're getting drafted. That none of us wanted to
Speaker 1: go to Vietnam. Anyways, I signed up a Army reserve.
Speaker 1: Army reserve, you got to go away for six months
Speaker 1: and then you have to serve for four more years,
Speaker 1: going to meetings, etcetera. And I signed up. So Jerry
Speaker 1: Water calls me up ahead of Atlantic, says Jerry, after
Speaker 1: the thing with the happened with the Percy Sledge record,
Speaker 1: I want to hire you. I want you to come
Speaker 1: to New York and work for me, I said Jerry.
Speaker 1: I can't right now because I have to serve six
Speaker 1: months in the Army. I don't want to come there,
Speaker 1: and then I have to go, I said, But as
Speaker 1: soon as I get out, is the job still open
Speaker 1: the day you're out of the Army, you're coming to
Speaker 1: work for Atlantic Records? I go, okay, great, So now
Speaker 1: I get the call to go and serve. So I
Speaker 1: say to my brother, let me ask you a question.
Speaker 1: What do you think if we put Dad into the
Speaker 1: record business? He says, I said that this is this
Speaker 1: job is perfect for him. Everybody loves him. It's personality.
Speaker 1: I said. He grew up listening to me with the
Speaker 1: band downstairs. He loves music. She he says, let's take
Speaker 1: a shot. So we go to Bertha and we go Bertha,
Speaker 1: I gotta go in the army for six months, but
Speaker 1: I want my dad to fill in for me. Is
Speaker 1: that cool? I gotta meet him. Fine, you'll love him.
Speaker 1: So we bring that up to Harvard as lunch with
Speaker 1: birth reporter. I go to Marvin, my boss, and I say, listen,
Speaker 1: I gotta go now for six months. But I got
Speaker 1: the replacement for me for six months. I said, you
Speaker 1: know who's eye said, my father? Your father? Yeah, trust me.
Speaker 1: Bertha loves him. He calls up Bertha. She said, oh yeah,
Speaker 1: Bill Greenberg, he's great. Blah blah blah. So bingo. My
Speaker 1: father's now took my job. He's in doing record promotion.
Speaker 1: So he gives up his jewelry salesman's job, gives up
Speaker 1: to Julia. Now he died and went to heaven. He
Speaker 1: got a car, he got an expense account. He's taking
Speaker 1: these DJs. I love golf, so I said, then take
Speaker 1: the guy from a VZ out to play golf. He did.
Speaker 1: Now he's getting records on after I'm in the army.
Speaker 1: Two months I get a note from Marvin, don't come back.
Speaker 1: Your father's better than you. So we had the Greenberg dynasty.
Speaker 1: There was an article came out in cash Box, the
Speaker 1: Greenberg dynasty. Father's son brother. But it's a reverse kind
Speaker 1: of trip, if you know, it's usually the kid gets
Speaker 1: into father's business. This was the kid put the father
Speaker 1: in in my business. But just a uh been up
Speaker 1: one little uh hole here, your brother, how do you
Speaker 1: get into selling radio time? Um, that's interesting. I don't know.
Speaker 1: He just he knew somebody at a radio station and
Speaker 1: a job came. He did a It could have might
Speaker 1: have been NAVEZ, New Haven, one of the radio stations
Speaker 1: in New Haven. So that was I utilized that with Bertha, like, Hey,
Speaker 1: this guy, you know, he's not a cook or or
Speaker 1: salesman or something. He's in radio already. Let's get him
Speaker 1: out of selling time and let's get him into promotion.
Speaker 1: So in any event, you're in the army for six months,
Speaker 1: you get out and you go to work for Atlantic
Speaker 1: Correct and you have to move to New York City. No,
Speaker 1: I'm living in New Haven and I'm commuting every day,
Speaker 1: every day from the Raven every day from New Haven.
Speaker 1: That's almost because I grew up, as I say, in
Speaker 1: fear Field. When I grew up in fear Field in
Speaker 1: the sixties, that was just one step too far. People
Speaker 1: commute now, but the Heathen that's like an hour and
Speaker 1: a half each way on the train. Yeah. I took
Speaker 1: the train a couple of times, but it didn't work out.
Speaker 1: So I'm driving and they give your parking because parking
Speaker 1: in New York City could eat up your whole salary. Uh.
Speaker 1: Now they as it happened after about two years. I
Speaker 1: remember I went into armed and I said, listen, you
Speaker 1: know you guys got me out late at night. I'm
Speaker 1: driving home at eleven o'clock. I said, we we gotta
Speaker 1: fix this. So they gave me a car and a driver. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and then they kept on saying, why don't you move
Speaker 1: to the city, And I said, my wife ex wife, Uh,
Speaker 1: it's not like living in the city with the kids.
Speaker 1: I said, but I you know, if you help me out,
Speaker 1: I will move closer. And I did. I moved to Greenwich.
Speaker 1: So I was in Greenwich. Now we're on a forty
Speaker 1: five minute ride and h I'm commuting. Okay, So you
Speaker 1: go to work for Atlantic. Do you remember what year
Speaker 1: that is? Sixty seven? Sixty seven, sixty eight? Okay, so
Speaker 1: they're still doing the rascals over there in Atlantic. Oh yeah, okay,
Speaker 1: what's your gig at Atlantic? I come in and that's
Speaker 1: what I thought. I show up the first day and
Speaker 1: I said, what am I promotion? Man? What I know?
Speaker 1: You're Jerry Wexler assistant. And I'll never forget. We walk
Speaker 1: into a meeting Jerry Wexler and probably fifteen Atlantic people's
Speaker 1: staff people, and he goes, I want to introduce Jerry Greenberg.
Speaker 1: Here's my new assistant. So I expect you to treat
Speaker 1: him with respect. And I will remember I knew a
Speaker 1: lot of those guys because they would be calling me
Speaker 1: to promote different records. They all knew who I was.
Speaker 1: So I came in as as Jerry's assistant, where I
Speaker 1: will tell you that's the man that taught me the
Speaker 1: record business. Okay, so tell us more about Jerry. Well, Jerry.
Speaker 1: Somebody asked me something about Jerry, and I said, working
Speaker 1: for Jerry Watson was like joining the Marines. You either
Speaker 1: came out a drill sergeant, or they found you in
Speaker 1: a swamp. And I mean, Jerry would think nothing on
Speaker 1: the Jewish holiday, young k PORI he called my house.
Speaker 1: He says, I got to speak to Jerry, and my
Speaker 1: wife said, he's in the temple. Give me the temple number.
Speaker 1: I want to talk to him. Jerry would call me
Speaker 1: at three in the morning and say, did you listen
Speaker 1: to the oldest reading test pressing? I'm hearing ticks and pops.
Speaker 1: I mean, he was just a maniac in a good way.
Speaker 1: Uh taught me, always returned phone calls. Taught me people said,
Speaker 1: how did you become president at thirty two years old?
Speaker 1: I said, I called everybody back, and I knew how
Speaker 1: to see yes and no. And that was Jerry Wexler
Speaker 1: teaching me that. Okay, so, but Jerry was also a producer.
Speaker 1: Jerry is the guy that signed the Wretha Franklin. Jerry
Speaker 1: would produce the first job I had an Atlantic. Jerry
Speaker 1: calls me and is, obviously, listen, the first thing we're
Speaker 1: gonna do. I'm producing Dusty Springfield. I love her from England.
Speaker 1: He said, I need songs. So it gives me a
Speaker 1: list of people to call, like Carol King and Jerry
Speaker 1: Goffin and Ellie Greenwich and all these different people. So
Speaker 1: my first job at Atlantic Records was finding songs for
Speaker 1: Jerry Wexler to produce Dusty Springfield. I found a couple myself,
Speaker 1: believe it or not, that made the album, and that
Speaker 1: was the Dusty and Memphis album. Legendary, legendary them. But Jerry,
Speaker 1: Jerry's gig was running Atlantic during the day and making
Speaker 1: records at night with Dr John Or. His biggest artist
Speaker 1: was basically a Wretha Franklin, and he discovered Wretha. I mean,
Speaker 1: he took her from Columbia, made her a big week star,
Speaker 1: and that was his biggest claim to fame. But what
Speaker 1: happened is basically they sold a company right to Kenny
Speaker 1: to Warner Brothers. Yeah, there was called Kenny at the time.
Speaker 1: Then they changed to Warner Brothers. And once the company
Speaker 1: was sold, I think Jerry made the decision probably seventy
Speaker 1: that he wanted to spend more time recording. He also
Speaker 1: loved the water, so he ended up buying a place
Speaker 1: in Florida, had a boat in Florida, UH connected with
Speaker 1: Criteria's studios, and he would record all of his acts
Speaker 1: at Criteria and be on the phone with me. But
Speaker 1: he wasn't running the company anymore. Now we'll cut to
Speaker 1: the beginning of Jerry's rise in Atlantic. Okay, let's just
Speaker 1: go back for one session. At the time, her Babyson
Speaker 1: was out, but his wife was still there being the account. No,
Speaker 1: she wasn't there when I came. What was am It's
Speaker 1: role when you were there? Amage role was a guy
Speaker 1: who he was the president of the company or co
Speaker 1: founder of the company. When I first came. I never
Speaker 1: saw him, really, yeah, never saw him. Uh, he was
Speaker 1: either in England or he was in California. Almas claimed
Speaker 1: to fame. Once I joined the company, was finding a
Speaker 1: lot of the English acts from England, getting a relationship
Speaker 1: with Chris Brockwell. So now all of a sudden we
Speaker 1: got Mark to Hoopo, and we got King Crimson, so
Speaker 1: m and Robert Stigwood, and he heard Clapton in the club.
Speaker 1: So Alman spent most of his time in Europe, in England,
Speaker 1: and in California. Ahmed signed The Iron Butterfly and all
Speaker 1: of those acts. So you had Almed more of an
Speaker 1: A and R source, Jerry more of a guy who
Speaker 1: ran day to day but also record producer. That was
Speaker 1: before they sold the company or just as they sold
Speaker 1: the company. Okay, so really Jerry was Jerry Wexen was
Speaker 1: the day to day guy. Now, oh yeah, no question. Okay.
Speaker 1: So Jerry Wexler moves to Florida, and when that leaves
Speaker 1: you where that leaves me. Even while Jerry was there,
Speaker 1: I kind of moved was moving up. I was the
Speaker 1: head of promotion. I was the national promotion director. I
Speaker 1: had a great team, Dickey Klein and uh Danny Marcus
Speaker 1: and all the all these all these great great promotion people.
Speaker 1: Then they promoted me. I started signing acts. The first
Speaker 1: act I signed, believe it or not in nineties sixty
Speaker 1: seven or sixty eight was Archie Bell in the Drills
Speaker 1: Tighten Up right, So that that was on Atlantic, right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think you know that's funny that that record didn't
Speaker 1: sound like anything else, and that my sister bought the single,
Speaker 1: huge hit, huge hit. How did you find that? I
Speaker 1: got in the mail from Hue Mo you know who
Speaker 1: you producer in Texas well, M E A U X
Speaker 1: right exactly. So, So then I moved up as head
Speaker 1: of A and R. Because I'm signing all of these acts.
Speaker 1: Then they promoted me to general manager. So now I'm
Speaker 1: the second in command right under under Wax. Now you're
Speaker 1: moving up so quickly? Aren't other people jealous? It was
Speaker 1: a family there, family. The older guys had a lot
Speaker 1: of respect for me, George for Ness, Juggie Gale, you
Speaker 1: know that right right. For those of you who don't know,
Speaker 1: I started getting Bob's sheet in Atlantic records probably the
Speaker 1: early seventies. Is not a blue piece of paper used
Speaker 1: to come into mail. I used to open it up
Speaker 1: and read it. You had the Bob left this tip
Speaker 1: of the week and this isn't that Shaw. I'm probably
Speaker 1: one of his podcasts guys here who go back longer
Speaker 1: with Bob than anybody. Absolutely, and so, uh, continue your
Speaker 1: journey up the Atlantic food chain. Well, so my my journey.
Speaker 1: The biggest thing that happened. So they sell the company
Speaker 1: Jerry's in Florida. Almond comes into my office and he goes,
Speaker 1: I'm signing the Rolling Stones. You're the only person in
Speaker 1: Atlantic I trust talking to make ja. He says, So
Speaker 1: you're gonna come with me. We had a signing party
Speaker 1: in France and I flew to answer with Ahmed and
Speaker 1: we signed the Rolling Stones. That was the beginning of
Speaker 1: my relationship now with Ahmed, and I'll never forget. Mick
Speaker 1: came into New York with the first album, which was
Speaker 1: Sticky Fingers. It was just Sticky Fingers, and um, it
Speaker 1: calls me, he says, mix here with the first record.
Speaker 1: He wants to play it for me, but I want
Speaker 1: you there. And we walked down to the mastering room
Speaker 1: and Me, Mick, Jagger and Ahmed and he looks to
Speaker 1: to Jagger and he said, this guy picks all the
Speaker 1: singles here. He says, let him hear your record brown Sugar.
Speaker 1: Of course that's your single. And from that moment on,
Speaker 1: I became a hero with Mick. Wow. So now when
Speaker 1: do you become the president of the nineteen seventy four four? Correct?
Speaker 1: And is there a president before? That? Was the president? Was? Ahmed?
Speaker 1: In said, I'm moving up to chair man. Uh you know,
Speaker 1: Steve Ross wants me as chairman of Atlantic. You're going
Speaker 1: to be president. Boom boom boom. So there I am man,
Speaker 1: you know, thirty two years old president of Atlantic. But um,
Speaker 1: you know Jerry wasn't there to answer the phones. M
Speaker 1: it's always traveling never came into the office until four
Speaker 1: o'clock in the afternoon, and so I was the guy.
Speaker 1: But I will tell you that I had the greatest
Speaker 1: team at Atlantic Records. You know, I love football. I
Speaker 1: say we were the Green Bay Packers during that time.
Speaker 1: Call me, Vince Lombardi. I don't know if you want
Speaker 1: to call me. But it was that team there, that spirit.
Speaker 1: Nobody wants to go home. Everybody loved the artists, everybody
Speaker 1: loved the music. The music the musicians were It was
Speaker 1: like nothing you've ever seen, and unfortunately nothing that exists now,
Speaker 1: right of course. Okay, so they had a legendary run.
Speaker 1: It's not only the Stones. They have led Zeppelin. So
Speaker 1: tell us about your work with led Zeppelin. Well, let
Speaker 1: me tell you. Led Zeppelin got signed. We're working on
Speaker 1: the Bud, Dusty and Springfield album. And Dusty says to
Speaker 1: Jerry Wexler, you know, John Paul Jones is going to
Speaker 1: form a new group with Jimmy Page. He's leaving the Yardbirds.
Speaker 1: So Jerry goes I wanted and he finds out that
Speaker 1: Steve Wisse, who is a lawyer for the Rascals, manages
Speaker 1: Jimmy Page picked up the phone Jerry Wexler signed led
Speaker 1: Zeppelin just off of we never Helready note the music,
Speaker 1: just off of the legendary Jimmy Page John Paul Jones,
Speaker 1: who was the greatest session musician in London. There was
Speaker 1: no Bonzo, there was no Robert Plant and Jerry Wexler
Speaker 1: signed led Zeppelin. So now we get the first record,
Speaker 1: first record, that's okay. I become very friends, very good
Speaker 1: friends with Peter Grahant, the manager. The manager, very big guy,
Speaker 1: used to be a wrestler. Everybody was afraid of him.
Speaker 1: Everybody said he managed the animals. I think also he
Speaker 1: was partners would make him most. He and I just
Speaker 1: hit it off. I mean, you know, if you go
Speaker 1: back and think about it, if managers don't get along
Speaker 1: with the head of promotion, how they're going to get
Speaker 1: the records? Right? Of course, so he was smart enough
Speaker 1: to know, Hey, god, I think I should treat this
Speaker 1: Jerry Greenberg with respect. But it was better than that,
Speaker 1: because remember, I'm a drummer, I'm a musician. I'm one
Speaker 1: of them. I'm not I didn't come from being an
Speaker 1: accountant or a lawyer. One Hey man, I'm one of
Speaker 1: you guys. So Peter Grant and I were very very close.
Speaker 1: But this is the great led Zeppelin. Jerry Greenberg's worry.
Speaker 1: So the second record comes out. A whole Lot of
Speaker 1: Love is blowing up on the FM stations, blowing up,
Speaker 1: but it's five minutes and some odd seconds. You're not
Speaker 1: going to get that on w a BC. You're not
Speaker 1: gonna get it on a BC. I call up Peter Grin.
Speaker 1: I go, Peter, do me a favorite, talk to Jimmy,
Speaker 1: asked them to go in the studio and making edit
Speaker 1: for me. A whole lot of Love. We're not as
Speaker 1: saying as man, So I said, please, please comes back.
Speaker 1: I spoke to Jimmy's not doing it. Click. So now
Speaker 1: this record is getting bigger and bigger. Call him back.
Speaker 1: You gotta give it to me. I'm telling you I can.
Speaker 1: We can break the group in America. You got it.
Speaker 1: Pulls be back. We're not doing it. So I say,
Speaker 1: what if I did it? Let me let me make
Speaker 1: an edit and I'll send it to you for your approval.
Speaker 1: Go ahead, I take record. I put it down by
Speaker 1: my desk. I watched the clock at two. They're in
Speaker 1: the hook. What's the hook? A hold lot of love?
Speaker 1: I need a whole lot of love. I faded out.
Speaker 1: I faded at three oh five. I sent it to Peter.
Speaker 1: Peter says to me, Jimmy wants to know what are
Speaker 1: you gonna do with this exactly? I said, Oh, I'm
Speaker 1: just gonna cut a couple of doves and send it
Speaker 1: and a couple of doves and send it to a
Speaker 1: couple of radio stations. Jimmy said, okay. I pressed up
Speaker 1: two thousand records, two thousand long version, one side, short
Speaker 1: version the other. We know what happened, right, we know
Speaker 1: what happened. It was first and fore most. I remember
Speaker 1: because I was a fan of the first album, and
Speaker 1: it was an inside thing. That album came out, leads
Speaker 1: up into within a week, everybody in my high school
Speaker 1: had it. A whole lot of love was everywhere. I
Speaker 1: played it every day for a week and then couldn't
Speaker 1: play it for like months, just because every where you
Speaker 1: went you heard that record. Correct, so the band, So
Speaker 1: the record blows up? Right? You love this. I get
Speaker 1: a call from Peter. Jimmy wants to know when the
Speaker 1: records coming on the jar. Peter record can't come on
Speaker 1: the chart. It's not out of as a signal oh,
Speaker 1: calls back. Jimmy said, put it out as so we
Speaker 1: put it on. In America, they wouldn't put it out
Speaker 1: and it wouldn't allow it in England. I believe we
Speaker 1: put it out, and I think the record one top
Speaker 1: ten for sure. That broke the band. But you know
Speaker 1: that was something that Jerry is proud of, and he
Speaker 1: had the tenacity to keep calling the Jutzpah to you know,
Speaker 1: get that record on the radio. Blew right up. I mean,
Speaker 1: w A d C in New York's playing led Zeppelin.
Speaker 1: Come on, that's a legendary top forty station. Correct. For
Speaker 1: those people who don't know, you're listening to Mike conversation
Speaker 1: with legendary record label executive Jerry Greenberg, recorded live to
Speaker 1: the Tune In studios in Venice, California. I hope you're
Speaker 1: enjoying this episode of the Bob Left Sets podcast. If
Speaker 1: you want to see videos, photos, and soundbites from Jerry
Speaker 1: and the rest of my guests as they joined me
Speaker 1: in the studio, visit at tune in on Twitter, Facebook,
Speaker 1: and Instagram. Now more of my conversation with Jerry Greenberg
Speaker 1: on The Bob Left Sets Podcast. Okay, just stay with
Speaker 1: let's up one for a while. The next album leads
Speaker 1: up on the three is a complete left turn, doesn't
Speaker 1: do as well. But then they come out with the
Speaker 1: fourth album with Stairway to Heaven. Correct, Are you aware
Speaker 1: that that's going to become the most famous rock track
Speaker 1: of all time? Then I and then I think it,
Speaker 1: you know, right at the beginning, not really, I knew
Speaker 1: it was something special though it was very very special.
Speaker 1: I mean English band are special, you know. I mean
Speaker 1: you think about you you listen to Genesis and Emerson
Speaker 1: Lake and Palmer and the musicianship from English bands, it's
Speaker 1: just incredible. And when you think about Stairway to Heaven
Speaker 1: with the guitar solo and and the shift in tempo
Speaker 1: and it was, it was absolutely amazing. So now let's
Speaker 1: cut two number one FM cut in the in the country,
Speaker 1: eight minutes seven. We ain't cutting that, I don't think,
Speaker 1: But I call him up and I say, give me something,
Speaker 1: give me something that we could hang our hats on.
Speaker 1: And they ended up we I forget who did it.
Speaker 1: I know, I didn't go in and just faded out.
Speaker 1: We had to work on the guitar solo and everything,
Speaker 1: but we got it down to five minutes, and so
Speaker 1: we got a lot of top for these stations to
Speaker 1: place their way to heaven. But it's the number one
Speaker 1: FM track in history. Of course it used to be.
Speaker 1: You know, the Memorial five was always number one. So
Speaker 1: let me let me just tell you my great leads
Speaker 1: up one story. So I would go to their concerts
Speaker 1: mostly they pay two or three nights at Madison Square Garden,
Speaker 1: always backstage, always sitting on the speakers. Took the kids
Speaker 1: one night at the garden. Richard Cole, who is their
Speaker 1: road manager. I see they set up a conga's and
Speaker 1: on a Whole Lot of Love the encore Richard go
Speaker 1: out and play congas. So I say to Richard, let
Speaker 1: me do it. He goes, come on, I said, come on,
Speaker 1: you know I'm a drummer. Let me do it. He says,
Speaker 1: give me fifty dollars. I say, you got it. I
Speaker 1: whip into my pocket. I take out fifty dollars. I
Speaker 1: go out. I am playing conga's on the led Zeppelin
Speaker 1: Whole Lot of Love Encore at Madison Square Garden, and
Speaker 1: Jimmy and Robert turn around the see me. They get hysterical.
Speaker 1: The song ends. I go to walk off stage. Bonzo
Speaker 1: grabs me by my shirt drags me to the front
Speaker 1: of the stage. I'm in the middle of led Zeppelin.
Speaker 1: Jerry Greenberg is in the middle of led Zeppelin taking
Speaker 1: about at Madison Square Garden. I can tell you that's
Speaker 1: a memory, buddy, that's for sure. Now let's go through
Speaker 1: some of your other greatest hits in Atlantic. You sign
Speaker 1: Apple correct? How did that happen? It happened because Ness,
Speaker 1: we are it again? Who was Ahmed's brother who was
Speaker 1: one of the founders of Atlantic, who when the company
Speaker 1: got sold, became head of Wea International, called me up
Speaker 1: and he said, listen, the Eurovision Song of the Year
Speaker 1: is a song by a Swedish group called uh Songs
Speaker 1: called Waterloo and the goop's called Harbor, and um, I
Speaker 1: don't think they have a deal in America. I'm getting
Speaker 1: a copy of the record. I'm gonna give it to
Speaker 1: Phil Carson, who's the head of our international company, and
Speaker 1: I'll have sent it to you. And I get the
Speaker 1: record in the mail and I listened to it and
Speaker 1: it kind of had like a Phil Specter beach Boy
Speaker 1: is kind of sound, and I knew it was great.
Speaker 1: So I want called the lawyer in New York. They
Speaker 1: said the records available and I signed. Well, it turned
Speaker 1: out to be the biggest selling group in the world.
Speaker 1: And who else did you work with in your tenure
Speaker 1: there in Atlantic? Who else did I sign or work with?
Speaker 1: I work with everybody. I mean, you know ROBERTA. Flack, Reata, Franklin,
Speaker 1: Benny King. Uh, you know. I was the head of promotion,
Speaker 1: but then I became the head of the record company,
Speaker 1: so I worked with the whole roster. So who else
Speaker 1: did you sign? Yea, Oh, I signed a foreigner. That's
Speaker 1: probably my biggest rock signing. I remember hearing feels like
Speaker 1: the first time on the radio, and literally driving directly
Speaker 1: to the record store. Just had to own it, right,
Speaker 1: The sound of that feels like the first time. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, it's funny because I heard you on when
Speaker 1: you did the Paul Rogers interview. You talked about hearing
Speaker 1: free on the mirrored Parkway. You gotta remember, I'm driving
Speaker 1: home every night to Greenwich. That's in the car, That's
Speaker 1: where I was picking the records. I didn't have time
Speaker 1: in the office to listen to music. I'm I'm getting
Speaker 1: a hundred and fifty phone calls a day. So when
Speaker 1: did Jerry get a chance to listen to music on
Speaker 1: the way home? Had a limo, had a tape deck, speakers, cassettes,
Speaker 1: and they sent me to Bad Company Record and I
Speaker 1: picked UH Can't Dare Enough of You Love. I laugh
Speaker 1: when you're talking about that with Paul Rods is because
Speaker 1: I got on the mirror Parkway and I played that
Speaker 1: record all the way at the Greenwich. That's an instant here,
Speaker 1: that one one listen hit one? How do you sign for?
Speaker 1: How did I sign for it? But Prager called me
Speaker 1: who I knew? Who managed uh an act on Atlantic
Speaker 1: and managed Mountain, obviously managed Leslie West. The producer called me, says,
Speaker 1: I got a great band for you, Bapa, Papa. I
Speaker 1: think they sent over a tape. I feel like the
Speaker 1: first time was on the demo tape. I said, I
Speaker 1: got to see them live. So I go to the
Speaker 1: recording UH studio that the rehearsing app. I had Jim
Speaker 1: Delahan who was the head of A and our guy
Speaker 1: and another guy and we go there and the audition
Speaker 1: for me and Mick says to me Rick Jones, Mick Jones,
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, Mick Jones. Lead in the guitar players. Says
Speaker 1: to me, well, you know, we're talking to A and M,
Speaker 1: which is a California based a record company, big record company.
Speaker 1: We're talking to A stuff which is Clive Davis's new company.
Speaker 1: Three companies with A's and them. And I said, listen,
Speaker 1: First of all, you don't want to sign with A
Speaker 1: and M. They're a great company, but they're based in California.
Speaker 1: Number two, we're based here. We're based here in l A.
Speaker 1: And I always give the bands Jerry's pitch that he's
Speaker 1: a drummer, that he's one of them. So I said
Speaker 1: to him, I said to him, listen, man, you know
Speaker 1: I'm a drummer. In fact, let me sit in with
Speaker 1: you guys now I want to play a song. I
Speaker 1: get up and I jam with the band. So like
Speaker 1: Mick Jones is like kind of shocked, and and they're all,
Speaker 1: you know, I'm pretty good too. And four a drummer,
Speaker 1: So they say to me. I I say to them,
Speaker 1: I say, listen, tell Bud you want to sign with Atlantic,
Speaker 1: but we got a deal. I promise you a gold
Speaker 1: record on the first record. But I gotta play Madison's
Speaker 1: were Garden. When you play the sure enough we didn't
Speaker 1: put it in the contract, but sure enough, their first
Speaker 1: record comes out. There was only one other record that
Speaker 1: came out at the same time that blew up like that, Boston. Right.
Speaker 1: So the Boston was six months before, six months before, right.
Speaker 1: I remember Bug coming to my office every day. I'm
Speaker 1: glad you said that because he used to come to
Speaker 1: my office day. I want Boston. You gotta make this
Speaker 1: like Boston, and and we did. So now they're gonna
Speaker 1: play the Garden. And I know they're gonna play the Garden.
Speaker 1: I said, hey, you know, we gotta bet. They said, don't.
Speaker 1: We're gonna take care of it. So I'm on the
Speaker 1: side of the stage. Sure enough, on the encore, uh
Speaker 1: hot Blood and I think it was a song whatever
Speaker 1: the encore was to take out a drum set. Jerry
Speaker 1: goes out, Jerry plays the encore. They say to me,
Speaker 1: you know, we're gonna take the drum set on the road,
Speaker 1: so wherever you show up, you can you can sit in.
Speaker 1: So they played the Forum. I flew to California, I
Speaker 1: did the Form, I did Miami, I did all the
Speaker 1: warm places Hawaii. But we're to this day. I'm still
Speaker 1: very close with Mick Jones. You know they've changed members.
Speaker 1: I saw him what a year ago when they played
Speaker 1: out here, and you know, you go to a foreign
Speaker 1: Foreigner concerts like a jukebox, absolutely amazing, how many hits
Speaker 1: they have. And then when they worked with but Lange
Speaker 1: and they did that incredible album Foreigner four, it was
Speaker 1: just unreal. So okay, you tell us how you got
Speaker 1: Foreigner away from A and M and Arista. Did you
Speaker 1: ever lose a band? Oh yeah, oh yeah, I missed
Speaker 1: a few. I was the first guy to see Billy Joel.
Speaker 1: I wanted to sign Billy Joel and it's a long story,
Speaker 1: but anyways, he ended up on Columbia. UM and uh,
Speaker 1: this is a great story. You love and this is
Speaker 1: a true story. So I get a call from Steve Lieber,
Speaker 1: who's the manager partner with with David Krebs, big manager
Speaker 1: in New York. He says, I want you to come
Speaker 1: and see a band we're gonna have at Maxis Kansas City.
Speaker 1: I said, okay, I show up with Almed. He said,
Speaker 1: but you gotta bring Almed, so I said, okay, So
Speaker 1: it's Armed. Myself. Phil Carson was in town. My guy
Speaker 1: from Europe, Jim Delahan we go to Maxis Kansas City.
Speaker 1: Who's sitting next to me, Clive Davis, who's on the
Speaker 1: other side of me, the head of our c A.
Speaker 1: All the record companies are there. All of a sudden,
Speaker 1: band comes out. Who is it? Steve Tyler and he's
Speaker 1: got scarves and Ahmed leans over. After the second number,
Speaker 1: he says, we're out of here. I said, Ahmed, I
Speaker 1: can't leave, I said, Steve leaving is a friend of mine.
Speaker 1: We're not getting up and leaving, just sit there having
Speaker 1: another drink. So after every song, I get up and
Speaker 1: I'm ap plority yo, Nick Babe. Steve Leever and Clive's
Speaker 1: next table is looking at me. All of a sudden,
Speaker 1: Leeba comes over. After the show, he goes, you love
Speaker 1: them right? I said, we hated him. She's your kidding,
Speaker 1: I said no. I said, Amna wanted to leave, but
Speaker 1: I kept them here. I said, Alma says to me,
Speaker 1: we had just signed the stones. He's imitating Mick Jagger,
Speaker 1: bah bah bah bah bah. So he said, yeah, but
Speaker 1: I was watching you. I said, I did it for you.
Speaker 1: Go over and tell Clive Davis you just got a
Speaker 1: big offer from Atlantic. Double it. He'll double it guaranteed
Speaker 1: true story. That's what happened. So that's how Aerosmith ended
Speaker 1: up at That's how Aerosmith ended up in Columbia. So
Speaker 1: you work is the head of the president of Atlantic
Speaker 1: to what year until nine eighty? I decided after missing
Speaker 1: a couple of great opportunities. Uh about business opportunities, Yes,
Speaker 1: label opportunities. Okay, Uh David Geffen gave to me, So
Speaker 1: you need your own label. You should have your own label.
Speaker 1: You signed Foreigner Genesis Alba you know, blah blah blah.
Speaker 1: Because I watched David, who offered me a piece of
Speaker 1: Asylum Records back in the early days, start a record
Speaker 1: company and make them a lot of money. So I
Speaker 1: necessarily decided, I'm going to start my own record label
Speaker 1: with my brother. And what's your brother doing at this point? Oh? My?
Speaker 1: First of all, my well, my brother ends up back
Speaker 1: from Hartford, ends up going to work for Warner Brothers.
Speaker 1: From Warner Brothers New York, they moved them out to California.
Speaker 1: So while I'm working started working for Atlantic, Bob is
Speaker 1: now working for Warner Brothers in California. Once I took
Speaker 1: over at Atlantic, I needed a new general manager for Atlantic.
Speaker 1: So Bob now becomes the general manager of Atlantic in
Speaker 1: the yearly seventies. So you have the Greenberg team and
Speaker 1: your father is still working for the record distributor. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's still working for the distributor in Harford. You got
Speaker 1: Bob in l A, got Jerry running Atlantic in New York,
Speaker 1: and you know, we were the Greenberg's running Atlantic. But
Speaker 1: so in nine Geffen comes to me. He said, you
Speaker 1: know you need you should start your own record label,
Speaker 1: you know, And I said, fine. You know, he said,
Speaker 1: I go to Alma and my contracts up, and I said,
Speaker 1: I want to start my my own label. They don't
Speaker 1: want you to have it. They want the wall for you.
Speaker 1: Anything to stay at Atlantic, anything you want, I said.
Speaker 1: I was kind of like I just wanted something new.
Speaker 1: You know, you reach a certain point. I mean I
Speaker 1: had it down. Hey, let me start something new fresh.
Speaker 1: Boom boom. Okay, they wouldn't do it. So Geffen calls
Speaker 1: me a we all know that our friend David with
Speaker 1: his phone book and he said, Alan Hirshfield wants to
Speaker 1: meet with you. Alan Hirshfield just took all the twentieth
Speaker 1: century Fox take a meeting with Alan Hirshfield. Alan Hurshield
Speaker 1: said we're gonna offer you half twenty century Fox Records.
Speaker 1: We'll start a new company. We'll call it Green Fox Records.
Speaker 1: And here's the deal. So I go back to Ahmed
Speaker 1: and everybody, I said, listen, I'm leaving. I'm going to
Speaker 1: start a new record company. You got it. That's when
Speaker 1: they gave me Mirage. Bob and I started Mirage in
Speaker 1: We were consultants to Atlantic Records and I stayed there
Speaker 1: for five years. But Prayer called me when he started Mirage.
Speaker 1: What do you think was first record? I signed White Snake.
Speaker 1: That was our first record. And what else was Amurage? Oh? God?
Speaker 1: Southside Johnny Phoebe Snow had a big We were doing
Speaker 1: a lot of dance records. Shannon let the music play.
Speaker 1: Brenda Case start the system. You're in my system. I
Speaker 1: mean we were always on the charge. Five years. We
Speaker 1: were always on a charge. We were a small but
Speaker 1: profitable little label. It was just Bob and I and
Speaker 1: two other people. I took Jim Delahan with me and
Speaker 1: a secretary. We were two people in l A, three
Speaker 1: of us or four of us in uh New York.
Speaker 1: But that's the way those you know, it's what's happening
Speaker 1: now with these little independent labels. Atlantic was doing all
Speaker 1: the marketing, the promotion, everything, and the next step is
Speaker 1: w t G. The next step was was Tommy Montola
Speaker 1: calling me. No. The next step actually after Mirage, was
Speaker 1: Jerry Winthrump. Okay, Jerry Winthrump called me and said, I'm
Speaker 1: starting MGM U A. I want you to be my guy.
Speaker 1: I said, well, it's me and my brother, no problem.
Speaker 1: So I left. We only had like a couple of
Speaker 1: acts at that time. I'mage, so I left the acts
Speaker 1: there and I went to MGMU A. First project, I
Speaker 1: do a m G m G MGM you way as
Speaker 1: Jerry comes to me and he says, I'm doing a
Speaker 1: movie to the Karate Kid. You should do the music
Speaker 1: put together Peter Stara Brooks, author from the song and
Speaker 1: we had Glory of Love. First record comes out with
Speaker 1: gold mgmuays in the record business. Jerry leaves after a
Speaker 1: year and a half. The guy comes in. He says, listen,
Speaker 1: I don't I don't like the record business. I don't
Speaker 1: want to record business. He said, I want you you
Speaker 1: to uh still do soundtracks on land on your contract.
Speaker 1: I said, gee, I don't know if that's for me.
Speaker 1: At the same time, am A walls me this seven ors.
Speaker 1: He goes, I'd love you to come back and and
Speaker 1: be part of Atlantic again. So I said, what are
Speaker 1: we talking about? He said, how about you become president
Speaker 1: of ATCO, which was the other label. I said, I'll
Speaker 1: only do it if I could stay in California. And
Speaker 1: I said, and it makes sense. You got Doug Morris
Speaker 1: running it there in New York. Leave me in California.
Speaker 1: I'll find things in California. He says, Okay, you got it.
Speaker 1: So I'm now back in Atlantic, president of at CO.
Speaker 1: First couple of records I signed, I do the soundtrack
Speaker 1: to Eddie Murphy Coming to America. I do a deal
Speaker 1: with Jerry Heller. First rap record on for Wheel was
Speaker 1: J J. Fatt, Supersonic and mische Le. So then I
Speaker 1: assigned an escape club from England. I signed like six things,
Speaker 1: had five goal records. All that happened like in a
Speaker 1: year and a half. But Atlantic just it wasn't the same.
Speaker 1: And Tommy kept on calling me the total and he calls,
Speaker 1: listen taking over Sony here the first guy I want higher.
Speaker 1: I said, I am not coming back to New York.
Speaker 1: Would you go back to New York? No? Never? Never.
Speaker 1: I mean I keep reading I have nostalgia, and you
Speaker 1: go and you say, hey, I miss it, and then
Speaker 1: after like five or six days. Okay. The way I
Speaker 1: always put it is New York City, greatest city in
Speaker 1: the world. I'd rather live in Los Angeles. Correct. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's just like it's just the other thing is for
Speaker 1: people like us who grew up in the suburbs. Even
Speaker 1: though the traffic is terrible, I like not being totally
Speaker 1: on top of each other in l A. And I
Speaker 1: also like that there's not the bs of who your
Speaker 1: parents were. Everybody is so full of ship in Los Angeles,
Speaker 1: and I could be whoever I want to be. No
Speaker 1: one really cares exactly exactly. My big thing with Los
Speaker 1: Angeles was that I loved boating, and the first thing
Speaker 1: I did when I got out here was by a
Speaker 1: boat and kept in a Marina del Rey. Then I
Speaker 1: moved it up to Newport. I'm voting every weekend. Man,
Speaker 1: I'm I'm like going crazy. So I say to Tommy,
Speaker 1: I'm not coming back. So he says, uh, fine, We'll
Speaker 1: give you your own label. In California. I said that
Speaker 1: makes sense, I said, you know, uh, California's still a
Speaker 1: very active talent situation. So they gave me my own label.
Speaker 1: But the interesting story is just before I went to
Speaker 1: take the job, I'm at the Atlantic fort anniversary show.
Speaker 1: Were led up in led Zeppelin Reunites and bonds. Bonzo's son,
Speaker 1: John Bonham's playing drums. I lean over and I said,
Speaker 1: my wife, I'm gonna sign that. Kid said what kid?
Speaker 1: I said the drummer, John Bonham's son. So I go stage.
Speaker 1: I grabbed Jason. I said, listen, man, I want to
Speaker 1: what are you What are you doing after this? He said, well,
Speaker 1: I'm thinking about putting a band together. No, no, no,
Speaker 1: You're gonna put a band together, and you're gonna be
Speaker 1: my first signing for my new label. So he goes okay.
Speaker 1: So finds the lead singer and gets a guitar player.
Speaker 1: We get Bob Ezeran, the greatest producer in the world.
Speaker 1: My first record on w TG is Disregardful Time Keeping.
Speaker 1: It's a platinum album. I'm in the rock business. So
Speaker 1: I look around at Atlanta, at at at Now I'm
Speaker 1: over at Sony Columbia, and I look around. I said,
Speaker 1: what are they missing that I could bring to the table.
Speaker 1: I said, they don't have any heavy metal. I signed Motorhead. Okay,
Speaker 1: we have the first Grammy nominated record for Motorhead. Look
Speaker 1: around again and I said, they're not putting out any soundtracks.
Speaker 1: I get friendly with Cameron Crow the your t G
Speaker 1: signs say anything. Peter Gabriel put together the soundtrack. I
Speaker 1: had three gold records like Boom Boom Boom before you
Speaker 1: blinked so and then I got a call from Michael Jackson.
Speaker 1: This is like and they lawyer caused, Michael Jackson wants
Speaker 1: to meet with you. Cut to go. Take the meeting
Speaker 1: with Michael two hours, love you, love you, greatest guy
Speaker 1: in the world. And I take a position in an
Speaker 1: equity position too, by the way, in uh, Michael's m
Speaker 1: g J music and um, the first thing I do there,
Speaker 1: I think I mentioned is the free Willie. And then
Speaker 1: we signed brown Stone. We signed Tatiana League, gave Rodney
Speaker 1: Jerkins's first record. So my first job on Earth, I guess,
Speaker 1: is making dreams come true, finding talent, loving the music,
Speaker 1: still to this day, loving the music. I'm trying to
Speaker 1: help some friends of mine. I got two young artists
Speaker 1: that I'm trying to help develop. One's like a real
Speaker 1: Bruce Springsteen kind of guy named Travis March, and the
Speaker 1: other is a black singer up in from San Francisco,
Speaker 1: real great, great black singer. So I'm still out there
Speaker 1: today now trying to help some people get things organized.
Speaker 1: The big thing that I'm working on also right now
Speaker 1: is a tribute to Michael in conjunction with his birthday.
Speaker 1: Michael's will be sixty in August nine, and I came
Speaker 1: up with an idea to do a tribute. He's the
Speaker 1: king of pop, but he's also the king of dance.
Speaker 1: I came up with an idea to put together all
Speaker 1: the young, the young, new up and coming dance artists.
Speaker 1: And I'm talking obviously Chris Brown, obviously Usher, obviously, you
Speaker 1: know all those groups that are out there that are
Speaker 1: inspired by Michael. So we came up. We're putting a
Speaker 1: song together called Shut Up and Dance, and we're gonna
Speaker 1: get all worldwide. You know, I'm I'm really very interested
Speaker 1: in this whole K pop thing. I think this K
Speaker 1: pop thing is going to explode here. So we're talking
Speaker 1: to be two s about being involved. We're talking to
Speaker 1: an artist from China. So I'm working on this project
Speaker 1: that it's kind of I don't want to say it's
Speaker 1: like a we are the World thing, but it's it's
Speaker 1: a lot of great artists together paying tribute to Michael
Speaker 1: and his dance in the dance world. Okay, so it's
Speaker 1: one track, one track, and it's a cover of a
Speaker 1: previous Michael Jackson song. No, it's a brand new song,
Speaker 1: brand new song. But who wrote it? Uh? Jason Drill.
Speaker 1: Oh right, that's really cool. So Okay, if this late day,
Speaker 1: you're still in the game, but on some level of
Speaker 1: the game is very similar to how it was when
Speaker 1: you started, but another level different because the difference would be, yeah,
Speaker 1: everything's independent. Everybody has individual power. But in the sixties,
Speaker 1: when there were fewer records, if you had to hit record,
Speaker 1: everybody in America knew it right, whereas today it is
Speaker 1: hard to get that mind share. So what do you
Speaker 1: feel about the music and the record business today? First
Speaker 1: of all, I feel that it's an amazing time for
Speaker 1: young artists. I'd like to preach to the young artists
Speaker 1: to say, have the patience to make your dreams come true.
Speaker 1: I tell everybody the big word in our business right
Speaker 1: now is patients. And what I'm seeing is these young
Speaker 1: kids who grew up to our music, grew up to
Speaker 1: Led Zeppelin. I mean I gret A Van, I mean
Speaker 1: I read about it in your column. The first thing
Speaker 1: I did was I went, I looked at the record
Speaker 1: and I said, God, if I had a record label,
Speaker 1: I'd signed him in a minute. And I called Jason.
Speaker 1: When Jason made the deal, Jason Flam who was presently Universal,
Speaker 1: were a lot of three ex Atlantic people were his
Speaker 1: Lava Records, Isa, Hey, they was in Atlantic, right But
Speaker 1: my my point is these kids are growing up to
Speaker 1: our music, and they're growing up to Billy Joel, They're
Speaker 1: growing up the Arrowsmith and they have the tools now
Speaker 1: available in their room to record, to make a video,
Speaker 1: to give it to YouTube. And I just think there's
Speaker 1: so worldwide now, there's so much great talent being nurtured
Speaker 1: that it's amazing. So how does this talent get exposed? Okay,
Speaker 1: a lot of it has to happen by touring, a
Speaker 1: lot of it has to happen by word of mouth.
Speaker 1: A lot of happen has to be lucky in getting
Speaker 1: signed to a record company. But there's an enormous opportunity
Speaker 1: right now for music companies, from publishing companies, for management companies.
Speaker 1: Major opportunity now in the music business. And do you
Speaker 1: think rock is dead or rock could come back? No,
Speaker 1: Rock's gonna come back. Really, why are you so convinced.
Speaker 1: I'm just smell it. Okay, call it a gut all
Speaker 1: of a sudden, you'll you'll, you'll see it. It's gonna be.
Speaker 1: It's gonna be songs. I mean, no disrespect to rapp
Speaker 1: and into everything that is going on, but you know,
Speaker 1: the main thing is as songs. And you know what
Speaker 1: I mean, Billy is still out there making songs. Billy
Speaker 1: Joe a brew It's song song business. Imagine my granddaughters
Speaker 1: fourteen years old, calls me up. I said, who's your
Speaker 1: favorite band? Imagine Dragons. I mean, young kids are getting
Speaker 1: into rock. Let me tell you, uh panic at the disco, etcetera.
Speaker 1: So I'm telling you rocks are gonna come back. Well,
Speaker 1: certainly people, but people don't realize, you know they because
Speaker 1: they give Greta Van Fleet a hard time sounding led Zeppelin. Well,
Speaker 1: this is fifty years after led Zeppelin and led Zeppelin
Speaker 1: was influenced by the American blues guys. And it wasn't
Speaker 1: even fifty years there exactly. No, it's it's it's funny
Speaker 1: because a lot of those English acts clapped in Zeppelin,
Speaker 1: et cetera. They all grew up to the blues exactly,
Speaker 1: all American music, all American music, and that's where they
Speaker 1: got a lot of it from. Who did you work with,
Speaker 1: who you believed in but didn't break through? Oh? Boy, um,
Speaker 1: I don't know, And you know that's a hard question.
Speaker 1: I was. I guess I was lucky. Then most of
Speaker 1: the acts broke through. Here's here's a well, here's an example.
Speaker 1: I've read in the newspaper. John Prine is out touring,
Speaker 1: has a record oil. Well, Jerry Waxer signed John Prin.
Speaker 1: But he didn't break through it Atlantic. I mean he
Speaker 1: didn't really you know what, he's never really broke it through.
Speaker 1: The times have caught up with him. So he's an
Speaker 1: established artist, but he never had a hit, right exactly.
Speaker 1: But you know, when I go back and I think,
Speaker 1: you know of some of the acts that Jerry found signed.
Speaker 1: Learning from Jerry, the diversity of Jerry signed De Laney
Speaker 1: and Bonnie, then he went to Dr John. Then he
Speaker 1: did the Alice Cooper deal. I mean, this is the
Speaker 1: guy that was all over the place with music. And
Speaker 1: that's when I think, uh, you know, I am I
Speaker 1: learned about soundtracks. I mean the deal for the Muppets soundtrack.
Speaker 1: I picked Rainbow I heard Rainbow Connection. This is a
Speaker 1: great story. I come back and then Jerry Almetterre in
Speaker 1: their office. I said, listen, I just made a great deal.
Speaker 1: We got the soundtrack to the Muppets. There's dead silence,
Speaker 1: m it goes, oh the Muppets. I said, well, they
Speaker 1: their puppets. They got a TV shot. TV doesn't sell. No,
Speaker 1: this is big. Trust me, this is gonna be big.
Speaker 1: He said, what's the soundtrack? I said, well, it's basically music.
Speaker 1: But they got a song I think could be a hit.
Speaker 1: They got a song. What's the song? Oh, it's called
Speaker 1: Rainbow Connection. Who's going to do it? Or the Frog?
Speaker 1: Wait a minute, the Frog is going to sing Rainbow Connection.
Speaker 1: I said, yeah, it's a Paul Williams song. I think
Speaker 1: it could be a hit single. They looked at me
Speaker 1: like I was smoking weed. Man, are you guys? Are
Speaker 1: you crazy? And I remember Jerry. The quote from Jerry
Speaker 1: was ahmed the kids right, more than he's wrong. If
Speaker 1: he says is gonna be hit, it's gonna be hit.
Speaker 1: And it was. Well pause here for a brief moment
Speaker 1: and get right back to Jerry Greenberg. Check out my
Speaker 1: writing at left sets dot com. I cover all the
Speaker 1: topics of the podcast and more. Go to left sets
Speaker 1: dot com and sign up for the newsletter to read
Speaker 1: all my rants and observations. Now more with legendary record
Speaker 1: label executive Jerry Greenberg, recorded live at the two In
Speaker 1: Studios in Venice, California. Okay, just covering up some other stuff,
Speaker 1: covering some other stuff. To what degree was Paola factor
Speaker 1: in your history? I don't talk about I'm not asking
Speaker 1: you your personal stories of paying people, but the business
Speaker 1: at large, I think it all got blown out of proportion.
Speaker 1: Hit Man got blown out of proportion. We to me,
Speaker 1: I never hand that the shocky any money. Did I
Speaker 1: do certain promotions? I remember I took about twenty DJs
Speaker 1: to the Super Bowl, uh in Florida and Miami was
Speaker 1: playing or something. I forget who was playing. But those
Speaker 1: things you could kind of get away with those kind
Speaker 1: of promotional things. Um. But um, as far as cash
Speaker 1: being out there and are are are drugs. It wasn't
Speaker 1: as big as everybody's making it sound. Well. There was
Speaker 1: that era though, where there was cash paid to independent promoters. Correct, okay?
Speaker 1: And how much how much drugs did you see and
Speaker 1: do in your heyday? I'm probably the only musician and
Speaker 1: the only one in the record business that could put
Speaker 1: my hand on a bible and say I never put
Speaker 1: anything up my nose. I never put anything in my mouth.
Speaker 1: The only thing I did, and I will tell you
Speaker 1: that I did it quite often with smoke. Weed. But
Speaker 1: think about the seventies and weed. You know, I said
Speaker 1: something to somebody. They laughed. I said, you know, you
Speaker 1: could put a blindfold on me, walked me into the
Speaker 1: Madison Square garden and I could tell what band is
Speaker 1: playing by how much weed I smell. Is that is
Speaker 1: that good? That's very good? So you you want to
Speaker 1: know who like the bands where they can? Yes? Really?
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yes, Genesis, Emerson, Lake and Palmer very big
Speaker 1: weed smokers. Uh and Zeppelin Stones not so much. I mean, yeah,
Speaker 1: but not not as much as those English psychedelic bands
Speaker 1: or whatever. But um, I never smoked any weed in
Speaker 1: you in the office. Uh, never you know you're you're
Speaker 1: with the bands afterwards, and everybody's passing a joint. You
Speaker 1: know you'd smoke. Okay, Well, there were some heavy cocaine
Speaker 1: you're especially the late seventies early eighties. Uh, how did
Speaker 1: you decide not to take it? That's a very good question,
Speaker 1: and I can give you the answer. I was very
Speaker 1: good friends with the drummer and average White band, very
Speaker 1: good friends. And I got a call in my office, Um,
Speaker 1: forgive me, I forgot his name. Guess what so and
Speaker 1: so had just died. I said, what, Yeah, he was
Speaker 1: at a party. He thought it was cocaine, It was heroin.
Speaker 1: He died right at that moment. I think the light
Speaker 1: bulb went off of my brain. Jerry, you'll never gonna
Speaker 1: put any white stuff up your nose, are in your mouth,
Speaker 1: never ever. And I would be backstage with a lot
Speaker 1: of groups and they'd be passing that shoot around. But
Speaker 1: Jerry passed. Okay. And then how did you make Roundabout
Speaker 1: a hit? Because they had, yes, had three previous albums.
Speaker 1: The third one had some success. The Roundabout was a
Speaker 1: lengthy track that it sounded like nothing on the radio.
Speaker 1: So you know that I did the edit on Roundabout.
Speaker 1: If you might have told me in the past, but
Speaker 1: I forgot Yeah, no, same story. I went in the studio,
Speaker 1: worked with some engineers, got it down, got it played.
Speaker 1: And that's another example of like, Jerry, what can we
Speaker 1: do for you? And so at Christmas, we're giving yes
Speaker 1: Gold Records, and they said, we got a present for you,
Speaker 1: and they show up. They gave me a brand new
Speaker 1: drum set. Again they knew I was drummers. Good friends
Speaker 1: with Alan White and well the boys. I say, take
Speaker 1: the drum set out to Nashville and Colosseum I want
Speaker 1: to sit in. I say it as a joke. We
Speaker 1: go out to National Colosseum. All of a sudden, bingo,
Speaker 1: they set up the drum set. Jerry is now laying
Speaker 1: Nassau Coliseum. You've played all the venues. I played all
Speaker 1: the venues. So another story, famous lads upwards. Story three
Speaker 1: I believe it is. And the Houses of the Houses
Speaker 1: of the Holy Tour I think it was. They played
Speaker 1: Madison Square Garden for three nights. They're staying at the
Speaker 1: Drake Hotel. There's two hundred odd thousand in the safe.
Speaker 1: It gets stolen and they fly back to England, not
Speaker 1: worrying about the money. Hey do you think many people
Speaker 1: think they stole the money themselves. What do you think happened? No,
Speaker 1: I don't think so. They don't need to steal the money,
Speaker 1: you know. Um, I think it was really stolen. I
Speaker 1: think they realized there wasn't no way they were going
Speaker 1: to get it back. And listen, Um, things happen on
Speaker 1: the road, as we all know. Okay, well, it sounds
Speaker 1: like there's a lot of stories there. And then to
Speaker 1: what degree? And you had all these acts, I mean
Speaker 1: people acts like Abba. They literally just made hits. They
Speaker 1: were hitting factory. But let's go back to Genesis. They
Speaker 1: didn't have hits. You know. Peter Gabriel had a hit
Speaker 1: in seventies six or seventy seven, seventy seven with Soulsbury
Speaker 1: Hill at least an FM hit, but Genesis really didn't
Speaker 1: have a hit until the late seventies. Would you tell
Speaker 1: these bands give me a hit? Oh yeah, yeah, I mean,
Speaker 1: if you could get something that gets the attention, the
Speaker 1: attention not not only radio, but you know, give me
Speaker 1: a hit video, give me a song that maybe could
Speaker 1: be a commercial, or give me a song that could
Speaker 1: be at the end track of a of a of
Speaker 1: a movie or something in in UH in TV UH.
Speaker 1: But don't give up your creativity on doing it. I mean,
Speaker 1: don't say to yourself, oh, I'm going to copy, because
Speaker 1: what you want to do is really be honest to
Speaker 1: yourself and to the songs you're writing and to the
Speaker 1: band you're putting together. Um. I think it's very important.
Speaker 1: You know. I was in the studio the other day
Speaker 1: when I was talking to uh drummer that was Cheryl
Speaker 1: Crowe's drummer, and we were talking and I said about
Speaker 1: Damn m Carroll. Yeah, and I said that another drummer
Speaker 1: is a business guy. And I said, you know, let
Speaker 1: me tell you something. We and the bass player of
Speaker 1: the foundation of a band. I mean, I can tell
Speaker 1: you that talking to the young guys out there that
Speaker 1: are guitar players or piano players or you know, if
Speaker 1: you're gonna especially if you're going into rock world, you
Speaker 1: better find yourself a great drummer and a great bass
Speaker 1: player because that's the foundation. Okay, since you're in it.
Speaker 1: Who were the great drummers? To me, the two greatest
Speaker 1: rock drummers is uh, John Bonham and Keith Moon. Those
Speaker 1: are two great rock druve thing Chad from Chili Peppers
Speaker 1: is great, Matt Swarm is great. Um. But you know
Speaker 1: there's different kind of drummers. You know, Charlie Watts is
Speaker 1: just the goddamn jazz drummers playing two and four behind.
Speaker 1: He's a bar room drummer, you know. So there's a
Speaker 1: lot of drummers that just keep Dennis Elliott and Foreigner
Speaker 1: was it great, great drummer, um, But there's different styles.
Speaker 1: I mean, for me, if you're talking about a rock
Speaker 1: drummer with a sound man, nobody's just better than Bonzo Well.
Speaker 1: You know, I've seen I certainly saw him in his
Speaker 1: hey day. But I will say seeing Keith Moon play
Speaker 1: Tommy with Who with Fillmore East, it was like there
Speaker 1: were two drummers that you just didn't even figure out
Speaker 1: how he could do it. It was amazing. You know,
Speaker 1: he looks great. You know, it's funny when you're a drummer.
Speaker 1: That's why I asked drummers. I'm not going to weigh in.
Speaker 1: I'm certainly aware of the great drummers. Guitarists, I'll weigh
Speaker 1: in because I believe the best guitarist of the rock
Speaker 1: era is Jeff Beck. Okay, Hendricks did a lot of
Speaker 1: innovative things. But Beck is you know, and I remember
Speaker 1: when they hit the Arms tour and it was Paige
Speaker 1: Clapton and Beck on the same stage. Beck blew him off.
Speaker 1: So I'm not trum going to weigh in on who
Speaker 1: the best drummers. Those are all certainly great drummers. Absolutely. Okay, Jerry,
Speaker 1: this has been wonderful. We've only hit the tip of
Speaker 1: the iceberg. But can we part two? We can certainly
Speaker 1: do it. Part two. We want to drill down into
Speaker 1: the AX and specific stories of the AX. This time
Speaker 1: we got your general history and which is get your
Speaker 1: father a job in the business, and uh, certainly the
Speaker 1: top line, but you get down the nitty guitty, you know,
Speaker 1: because we're here talking about the successes and it's a
Speaker 1: lot of work. You talk about patients. You know. You
Speaker 1: can have led Zeppelin, which explodes on the second records,
Speaker 1: but a lot of things are really long work projects
Speaker 1: and they'll be more talk. So it's been wonderful. Thanks
Speaker 1: so much for being here. Okay, and I will like
Speaker 1: to come back because I'd like everybody to know that
Speaker 1: I'm currently doing a book on Atlantic in the seventies
Speaker 1: through the eyes of Jerry Greenberg, So it could kind
Speaker 1: of cover everything just about Atlantic and I think, you know,
Speaker 1: we've been filming a documentary on my life, which is
Speaker 1: well that documentary but going on for like five plus years.
Speaker 1: What is that documentary ever gonna hit the Uh, it's
Speaker 1: it's getting close. But you know, I think I'm the
Speaker 1: only guy that has Richard Branson. I got the last
Speaker 1: interview from Jerry Heller and the last one from Jerry Winthrop.
Speaker 1: It's going to be a very very interesting movie or
Speaker 1: documentary or TV series. Well time and know how to
Speaker 1: get my plug in. Man, this is a roots are
Speaker 1: coming out, and certainly we've been talking about the documentary
Speaker 1: forever and this is the heyday. People want to know
Speaker 1: about what was going on in the seventies. Oh yeah.
Speaker 1: But but the great thing is you're gonna hear Richard
Speaker 1: called the Roady talk about Jerry taking the sticks and go,
Speaker 1: and it's not going to come from me. So that's
Speaker 1: what I'm very excited about it. Okay, Well, we'll look
Speaker 1: forward to that and when it's launching, we'll have you back. Okay, buddy,
Speaker 1: God bless thank you, thank you so much, Jerry. Till
Speaker 1: next time, it's Bob left Sets on the Bob Left
Speaker 1: Sets podcast. That wraps up this week's episode of the
Speaker 1: Bob Left Sets Podcast, recorded live at the tune In
Speaker 1: Studios in Venice, California. I hope you enjoyed this conversation
Speaker 1: with legendary record label executive Jerry Greenberg. He had some
Speaker 1: great stories. Send me your feedback at Bob at left
Speaker 1: sets dot com. Until next time, I'm Bob left Sex.
Speaker 1: Can think of in me reason and I don't know
Speaker 1: me exactly. One must be so