WEBVTT - Ron Stone 0:00:08.760 --> 0:00:12.640 Welcome, Welcome, Welcome back to the Bob Left Sets podcast. 0:00:13.560 --> 0:00:16.720 My guest today is Ron Stone. I've been there at 0:00:16.720 --> 0:00:20.520 the birth of rock and roll. Still a manager today, Ron, 0:00:20.640 --> 0:00:23.200 Great to have you hi. How are you okay? How 0:00:23.239 --> 0:00:26.400 did you meet David geffin? How did I meet David Geffen? Okay? 0:00:26.440 --> 0:00:30.360 So well. The precursor to that is that I grew 0:00:30.400 --> 0:00:33.040 up in the Bronx with Elliott Roberts. Wait, wait, you 0:00:33.120 --> 0:00:35.840 knew Elliott Roberts. I've known him since I was eleven 0:00:35.880 --> 0:00:37.720 years old. How did you meet you know, the dearly 0:00:37.760 --> 0:00:42.159 departed Elliott when he was Elliot Rabinowitz, that's right, and 0:00:42.200 --> 0:00:45.400 when I was somebody else also, I don't think so 0:00:45.560 --> 0:00:48.880 oh I was really Won't were you? I thought you 0:00:48.920 --> 0:00:53.040 were lived Stone? Jewish name. No, No, I made up Okay, 0:00:53.080 --> 0:00:55.480 there there's a lot of things here. I made up 0:00:55.520 --> 0:00:57.600 the name Stone because I was when I was in 0:00:57.680 --> 0:01:00.920 law school, I was modeling to pay for to pay 0:01:00.960 --> 0:01:03.760 for law schools. So they changed my name to Stone. 0:01:04.360 --> 0:01:05.840 And you're not going to tell us what your original 0:01:05.920 --> 0:01:09.160 name was. No, the police will get me. Okay, this 0:01:09.240 --> 0:01:12.280 protection program like about that one time? I didn't really 0:01:12.319 --> 0:01:15.000 know that anyway. So Elliot and I, um, we used 0:01:15.040 --> 0:01:17.720 to hang out on Fordham Road in the Bronx in 0:01:17.800 --> 0:01:21.880 a in an ice cream parlor called Jaan's. Okay cream 0:01:21.920 --> 0:01:25.200 any good? I don't know. We never went an uh 0:01:25.640 --> 0:01:28.880 so uh And you know we would stand on the 0:01:28.920 --> 0:01:31.640 corner and sing old rock and roll songs. And let's 0:01:31.640 --> 0:01:34.200 start there. What'd your father do for a living? Your mother? 0:01:34.440 --> 0:01:37.480 My father was a shoe salesman and a Russian immigrant, 0:01:38.160 --> 0:01:41.760 and my mother worked at some place in the garment district. 0:01:41.959 --> 0:01:44.400 And how many kids in the so called Stone family? 0:01:44.640 --> 0:01:46.839 I think I have an older brother. Is he still 0:01:46.880 --> 0:01:50.640 with us? I have no idea. Well, I haven't spoken 0:01:50.680 --> 0:01:53.520 to him for twenty five years. Did you have an argument? 0:01:54.320 --> 0:01:58.840 He kind of dropped you get me into trouble? He 0:01:58.920 --> 0:02:01.800 kind of dropped my there on me. You know, she 0:02:01.920 --> 0:02:04.400 was living in New York and they got into a 0:02:04.400 --> 0:02:07.880 big bruhaha, and he shipped her out to California and 0:02:07.960 --> 0:02:11.160 she was in her eighties and I took care of 0:02:11.240 --> 0:02:13.960 her until she was ninety four when she passed away. Okay, 0:02:14.080 --> 0:02:16.639 So you also haven't spoken to him since then? Okay, 0:02:16.840 --> 0:02:20.000 that's by your choice or his choice mine. Okay, So 0:02:20.120 --> 0:02:23.040 you meet Elliott Rabinowitch. You're hanging out at the ice 0:02:23.040 --> 0:02:26.200 cream parlor. Yes, and then you know I I went 0:02:26.240 --> 0:02:28.359 to law school and Elliot and I went. I thought 0:02:28.360 --> 0:02:30.680 you dropped out of law school. I didn't say I finished. 0:02:31.919 --> 0:02:35.239 Did finished? Where did you go to college? I went 0:02:35.280 --> 0:02:39.239 to in New Jersey, to Fairly Dickinson University, or they 0:02:39.280 --> 0:02:42.160 called it fairly ridiculous. I was not going to say 0:02:42.200 --> 0:02:45.040 that I lived in the Bronx. They made fun of 0:02:45.040 --> 0:02:48.200 me for going to college in the first place. Okay, 0:02:48.240 --> 0:02:50.320 but I don't really know where it is in New Jersey, 0:02:50.600 --> 0:02:54.240 New Jersey, Okay, So you lived at home. I lived 0:02:54.240 --> 0:02:57.360 in the city and I went by motorcycle across the 0:02:57.400 --> 0:03:00.840 Brooklyn Bridge for three years in fucking winter. Like what 0:03:00.880 --> 0:03:04.040 kind of motorcycle Honda for fifty was? And did you 0:03:04.080 --> 0:03:06.720 ever dump it? You ever had an accident twice and 0:03:06.960 --> 0:03:10.880 any injury? No? I broke the motorcycle. Okay, well, at 0:03:10.960 --> 0:03:14.280 least not you. Okay, So you're going to, uh, what's 0:03:14.280 --> 0:03:17.040 your Josie to Fairly Dickinson and then you're gonna go 0:03:17.080 --> 0:03:20.400 to law school. Yes, continue, So I went to Brooklyn 0:03:20.440 --> 0:03:23.120 Law School for about a year and they objected to 0:03:23.160 --> 0:03:26.480 the fact that the one I didn't I didn't wear 0:03:26.520 --> 0:03:29.919 the attire that was required. Well, what year are we in? 0:03:30.480 --> 0:03:35.200 Sixty five? Okay? So way to college? Okay, so the 0:03:35.240 --> 0:03:40.800 revolution has already happened. So yes, And I've discovered psychedelic 0:03:40.880 --> 0:03:45.280 drugs at exactly the wrong time in my life. So 0:03:45.360 --> 0:03:47.520 I was my wife was working and putting me through. 0:03:47.640 --> 0:03:49.720 I was married at that point. For well, I know 0:03:49.720 --> 0:03:52.000 you've been married how many? How long? Fifty four years? 0:03:52.040 --> 0:03:55.080 And how old were you when you got married? Twenty one? 0:03:55.240 --> 0:03:58.320 And how old was she? Nineteen? How long did you 0:03:58.360 --> 0:04:02.160 know each other before you got married? Three years? So 0:04:02.240 --> 0:04:05.280 you met her when she was in high school and 0:04:05.360 --> 0:04:08.320 you just started college? Yes, And and she lived in 0:04:08.320 --> 0:04:10.560 Los Angeles and I lived in New York, and I 0:04:10.560 --> 0:04:12.240 fell in love with her the first time I saw 0:04:12.280 --> 0:04:18.000 her drive up in her nine powder blue Chevy convertible 0:04:18.040 --> 0:04:20.280 with the white top and white leather. Okay, Since she 0:04:20.360 --> 0:04:23.240 lived in l A. And we know each other, how 0:04:23.279 --> 0:04:25.520 did you intersect with her? How did you actually meet her? 0:04:25.560 --> 0:04:28.640 She was the first girl I ever met in California? Okay, 0:04:28.640 --> 0:04:30.919 what were you doing in California? I came out to 0:04:30.960 --> 0:04:34.920 buy drugs to pay for my way in college, okay, 0:04:34.920 --> 0:04:36.919 and you mess in those days. In those days, this 0:04:37.000 --> 0:04:40.320 is the truth. We we'd drive out, we'd fill up 0:04:40.320 --> 0:04:44.560 our trunk for you know, to two point two uh 0:04:45.720 --> 0:04:50.880 uh pounds of pounds of Mexican marijuana. We'd fill up 0:04:50.920 --> 0:04:52.680 the trunk. And by the way, I never got high 0:04:52.839 --> 0:04:55.200 in high school or college because I was an athlete. 0:04:55.200 --> 0:04:57.960 I was a pole vaulter. But my neighborhood, what is 0:04:58.000 --> 0:05:03.880 your highest height? Actually I was four inches below the 0:05:03.880 --> 0:05:07.000 the world record at one point, I was fifteen six. 0:05:07.360 --> 0:05:10.159 Fifteen six, that's pretty good. In high school, that was 0:05:10.240 --> 0:05:14.360 that with fiberglass poles. No see, I had. I had 0:05:14.680 --> 0:05:17.800 such an incredible coach that he thought it was a 0:05:17.839 --> 0:05:22.560 fad that was not gonna last. So when I was 0:05:22.600 --> 0:05:24.719 doing fifteen six, there was a guy and I was 0:05:24.800 --> 0:05:28.360 just in school of my freshman year at Fairley Dickinson. Way. 0:05:28.640 --> 0:05:32.240 That's how I got into Fairley Dickinson because I got 0:05:32.240 --> 0:05:35.560 in on a scholarship because paul vaulters are really rare, 0:05:36.160 --> 0:05:38.240 you know. And did you continue to pull vault at 0:05:38.240 --> 0:05:41.279 Fairley Dickinson. Yeah, until I broke a wrist in an ankle, 0:05:41.600 --> 0:05:43.440 and then they got rid of my scholarship. Then I 0:05:43.480 --> 0:05:45.520 actually had to work. That's how I ended up going 0:05:45.520 --> 0:05:47.920 to California. Okay, let's just stop there for a second. 0:05:48.080 --> 0:05:51.560 Fifth and confusing, isn't it not at all? Fifteen six? 0:05:51.920 --> 0:05:56.480 That's really fucking high for a metal poll. Yes, and 0:05:56.520 --> 0:05:57.960 it was, you know, in those days, it was like 0:05:57.960 --> 0:06:01.240 a gymnastic event. And it was an upper body event 0:06:01.360 --> 0:06:05.000 more than it was speed and and and agility, because 0:06:05.040 --> 0:06:07.560 when you bend that fiberglass pole, you kind of shoot 0:06:07.600 --> 0:06:12.480 yourself over the pole sixt ft. So you're not getting 0:06:12.520 --> 0:06:14.640 much higher than that no matter what you do, unless 0:06:14.680 --> 0:06:16.960 you put your hands at the very edge and then 0:06:17.000 --> 0:06:21.000 you okay, what were you falling into? The God? This 0:06:21.040 --> 0:06:26.680 is why I hurt myself. Sawdust three ft of sawdust. 0:06:26.760 --> 0:06:28.960 But by the end of the meat, after twenty people 0:06:29.000 --> 0:06:32.440 had done, it was packed like a concrete Okay. It 0:06:32.520 --> 0:06:36.560 was dangerous, Okay, so you would drive out. You didn't 0:06:36.680 --> 0:06:39.839 smoke marijuana, didn't do drugs in high school? Did you 0:06:40.040 --> 0:06:43.680 not drugs in California before you did them? Yes? So 0:06:44.000 --> 0:06:46.640 who is the guy who said, hey, let's go do this? Okay? 0:06:46.680 --> 0:06:49.719 I had a friend in the Bronx is his name was? 0:06:50.760 --> 0:06:55.160 He called him read he was. He and his brother 0:06:55.480 --> 0:06:58.600 were called the Venero Brothers, and we lived in the Bronx, 0:06:58.680 --> 0:07:01.800 which you know was of a middle class. Half the 0:07:01.839 --> 0:07:05.880 people in our name we were Italian, Irish and Jewish, 0:07:06.800 --> 0:07:10.760 and the Italians were all mobbed up like they were 0:07:10.800 --> 0:07:15.440 they were lower echelon. There was a middle like Johnny 0:07:15.480 --> 0:07:18.480 what was that name? God, there was that mafia movie 0:07:18.480 --> 0:07:22.320 about the low level people. Wasn't keep going on anyway, 0:07:22.360 --> 0:07:24.760 So this was this was like the mafia middle class. 0:07:25.320 --> 0:07:29.800 You know they were not anyway. So um Red and 0:07:29.920 --> 0:07:34.080 I went out to California the first time and intentionally 0:07:34.120 --> 0:07:40.240 to buy drugs. Weren't you a little anxious about the law? No? 0:07:41.200 --> 0:07:44.320 I was too stupid. And whose car was it? My 0:07:44.440 --> 0:07:49.800 favorite car I ever owned? Nine Mercury black convertible. And 0:07:49.880 --> 0:07:53.680 now the classic thing with dope runners is the car 0:07:53.720 --> 0:07:56.280 breaks down or there's a tail light out. Did you 0:07:56.400 --> 0:07:58.200 check all that stuff to make sure you wouldn't get 0:07:58.200 --> 0:08:01.280 stopped at the car? For seventy five I didn't want 0:08:01.280 --> 0:08:05.240 to look too closely. Okay, wait wait, wait, so okay, 0:08:05.280 --> 0:08:08.040 but after the first couple of trips, we realized we 0:08:08.040 --> 0:08:11.240 could fly back and forth. Fill up the suitcase put 0:08:11.240 --> 0:08:13.680 it on the plane because there was no security in 0:08:13.680 --> 0:08:17.560 the nineteen sixty to sixty three whatever it was, anyway, 0:08:17.840 --> 0:08:20.560 and the whole theory was if it didn't come down 0:08:20.600 --> 0:08:26.640 with everybody else's luggage home, never happened. How many runs 0:08:26.720 --> 0:08:30.040 did you make? That's six? Okay? And who was the connection? 0:08:30.800 --> 0:08:35.120 My pal read so he knew somebody here his family, okay. 0:08:35.120 --> 0:08:38.080 And did you have any anxiety or it was always good? 0:08:38.320 --> 0:08:41.000 I was too stupid to have anxiety just to go back. 0:08:41.240 --> 0:08:43.320 How long did it take you to drive back and forth? 0:08:43.400 --> 0:08:48.199 Three days? Three days in each direction? Exactly? Okay, your 0:08:48.280 --> 0:08:51.040 quasi going to law school? You're dressing? No, no, no. 0:08:51.080 --> 0:08:54.199 This is when I was in college, and that's when 0:08:54.240 --> 0:08:56.400 I met my wife, which is what this story is 0:08:56.440 --> 0:08:59.680 supposed to be about. We went it was hot, and 0:08:59.720 --> 0:09:02.520 we went to the four star movie theater on Wilshire Boulevard, 0:09:02.520 --> 0:09:04.800 which at that time was a first run movie theater. 0:09:04.960 --> 0:09:07.360 Remind me that the one that La Siennaca it was 0:09:07.400 --> 0:09:10.360 near La Siennaca's on Wilshire. Yeah, yeah, okay, because there 0:09:10.360 --> 0:09:12.160 were a couple of she was she was the girl 0:09:12.240 --> 0:09:15.000 in the little uniform in the booth. Well really, and 0:09:15.080 --> 0:09:18.600 she was fucking adorable. I thought you said you saw 0:09:18.600 --> 0:09:21.640 her in a Chevy. Well that's when I knew where 0:09:21.640 --> 0:09:23.679 I was in love with her. Okay, I met her 0:09:23.720 --> 0:09:26.680 in the book. So she's taken the tickets. She's from 0:09:26.840 --> 0:09:30.360 l A. Yes, she's actually from Detroit. She's been out 0:09:30.360 --> 0:09:33.040 there since she was a teenager. Okay. So you see 0:09:33.040 --> 0:09:35.120 her and you we have the gifted gap. And I 0:09:35.200 --> 0:09:41.080 asked her out and she says, yes, I was cute, Okay, 0:09:41.320 --> 0:09:44.319 she was adorable. Okay. And so we had a long 0:09:44.360 --> 0:09:46.800 distance romance for about four years, and how I'd go 0:09:46.920 --> 0:09:49.960 back and forth, and then one time she came to 0:09:50.000 --> 0:09:52.160 New York and I just wouldn't let her go home. 0:09:52.200 --> 0:09:55.240 We got married. How hard did you have to convince her? 0:09:55.280 --> 0:09:57.599 She was very too hard. She was wondering when I 0:09:57.600 --> 0:10:00.680 would get around to it. Okay. And then as a 0:10:00.720 --> 0:10:04.360 solid success story. But going back, you're going to law school. 0:10:04.720 --> 0:10:07.360 What did they expect you to dress like? Well, they 0:10:07.640 --> 0:10:10.679 dress code at Brooklyn Law School. There was a dress code. Absolutely, 0:10:10.720 --> 0:10:12.360 you had to dress like a lawyer if you wanted 0:10:12.400 --> 0:10:14.280 to be a lawyer. That you're a dressed like one 0:10:14.360 --> 0:10:18.520 jacket and tie, white shirt and everything I wore a 0:10:18.679 --> 0:10:23.120 fur vest and I drove my motorcycle and I tied 0:10:23.160 --> 0:10:26.040 my motorcycle. I chained my motorcycle up to the to 0:10:26.200 --> 0:10:30.960 the railing, the to the building. So I didn't really 0:10:31.040 --> 0:10:32.840 last that long. I made it through the first year. 0:10:33.400 --> 0:10:35.920 And so how did it literally end? They said please 0:10:35.960 --> 0:10:39.240 go away? And were you cool with that? I didn't 0:10:39.240 --> 0:10:41.240 know what the funk was going on. I was I 0:10:41.280 --> 0:10:43.920 was getting high, and you know, I was really unprepared 0:10:43.960 --> 0:10:47.280 to be a lawyer. Okay at the time, because it's 0:10:47.280 --> 0:10:49.880 starting to burge in. Were you into the music? And 0:10:50.880 --> 0:10:54.440 when I when I was like twelve fourteen, you know, 0:10:54.480 --> 0:10:58.600 we were listening to like the the O J's and 0:10:59.200 --> 0:11:01.680 you know, very R and B and very you know, 0:11:01.800 --> 0:11:04.000 we thought we were really hip when we would go 0:11:04.040 --> 0:11:08.040 down to street to the to the record store they 0:11:08.080 --> 0:11:10.640 sold forty five and we'd buy all these you know, 0:11:11.280 --> 0:11:13.200 R and B bands and R and B singers and 0:11:13.200 --> 0:11:16.560 stuff and Elliott and I, you know, and Okay, so 0:11:16.600 --> 0:11:18.439 it was you and Eli. Eli was still in New York. 0:11:18.480 --> 0:11:21.280 What was he doing it? Was he a trapped talent agent? Yet? No, 0:11:21.640 --> 0:11:24.760 well he he ended up at William Morrison. That's where Okay, 0:11:24.800 --> 0:11:27.560 the essence of the story. That's where he met David Geffen. Okay, 0:11:27.559 --> 0:11:30.520 but before we get there, you were what was he doing, 0:11:31.240 --> 0:11:33.800 since he can't tell you're the vehicle for a story today, 0:11:33.840 --> 0:11:35.640 what was he doing before he got the job at 0:11:35.800 --> 0:11:41.439 w O M A uh, failing out of three different colleges, okay, 0:11:41.559 --> 0:11:44.400 and then he landed at the mail room at William 0:11:44.400 --> 0:11:48.160 Morrison some active absolute desperation. Okay. Who got him the gig? 0:11:48.160 --> 0:11:50.600 Do you remember? No? I don't actually, but somebody must 0:11:50.600 --> 0:11:52.400 have because he couldn't get that job. But it was 0:11:52.880 --> 0:11:56.080 you know that in those days, William Morris was the 0:11:56.400 --> 0:12:00.640 Tiffany Agency and your entree was the mail room. And 0:12:00.679 --> 0:12:02.960 if you survived that six months in the mail room, 0:12:03.240 --> 0:12:06.120 then they sent you on a journey for the next 0:12:06.120 --> 0:12:08.480 two years, working for all the different people in all 0:12:08.520 --> 0:12:11.920 the different disciplines you know, TV, film music. In the 0:12:12.000 --> 0:12:15.400 same era w William Morris and New York Uh liber 0:12:15.400 --> 0:12:17.200 and Crebs were both of the William wore did you 0:12:17.240 --> 0:12:22.000 know them at that era? But but the third the 0:12:22.080 --> 0:12:25.679 third party to this triumphant was it was Elliott and 0:12:25.800 --> 0:12:31.160 me and jeff Wald, Jeff Wald, the Helen Ready Jeff Wald, 0:12:31.200 --> 0:12:34.199 that's right, and By the way, I always thought Jeff 0:12:34.240 --> 0:12:36.520 was the greatest manager in the history of the music 0:12:36.559 --> 0:12:40.560 business because he made Helen Ready a huge success, and 0:12:40.600 --> 0:12:43.320 if you think about it for a minute, that's the 0:12:43.360 --> 0:12:47.640 fucking hardest job in the world. He was notorious for 0:12:47.760 --> 0:12:52.800 having an explosive personality. Yes, he was out of his 0:12:52.920 --> 0:12:55.320 fucking mind. He still is, by the way, right. But 0:12:55.360 --> 0:12:59.080 he did some stuff after he left Helen Ready and 0:12:59.120 --> 0:13:00.920 they got to war. He was working on a couple 0:13:00.960 --> 0:13:02.080 of things. He had a couple of he was in 0:13:02.120 --> 0:13:03.760 the news. I can't remember. It's like he might he 0:13:03.840 --> 0:13:07.199 managed Mike Tyson for a while. Okay, so it was 0:13:07.240 --> 0:13:09.960 the triumphrate. You're now out of law school. What happens 0:13:10.000 --> 0:13:13.160 to you? So my wife doesn't want to be since 0:13:13.200 --> 0:13:14.800 I flunked out of law school, she didn't want to 0:13:14.800 --> 0:13:17.160 work to keep me in law school. So and she 0:13:17.200 --> 0:13:19.480 wanted to go back to California. She did not like 0:13:19.640 --> 0:13:22.280 living in New York. So we went back to California 0:13:22.400 --> 0:13:26.800 and I rented. I rented a storefront next to the Troubador, 0:13:26.840 --> 0:13:31.000 about four or five doors down from the Troubador um 0:13:31.120 --> 0:13:35.600 on on Santa Monica, Bulevard. Just to be clear, towards 0:13:35.679 --> 0:13:39.640 the Beverly hillside of the Hollywood side. Here's DOHENI, here's 0:13:39.640 --> 0:13:43.079 the Santa Monica, the Troubadors in the middle of the block, 0:13:43.640 --> 0:13:49.559 three four doors down, and I'm opening a clothing store. 0:13:49.640 --> 0:13:53.120 We're you going to get the inventory. Well part of 0:13:53.120 --> 0:13:56.560 the story, okay. So in the East Village there was 0:13:56.640 --> 0:14:00.680 a clothing store called Limbo, where it was like the 0:14:00.760 --> 0:14:03.559 hit the hip place to be and this they saw, 0:14:04.080 --> 0:14:08.880 you know, re recycled leather jackets and you know, jeans 0:14:08.920 --> 0:14:11.480 and T shirts and you know, the uniform of the day. 0:14:12.200 --> 0:14:16.080 And I befriended them, and I went to California and 0:14:16.120 --> 0:14:18.880 I found the storefront and they filled the store up 0:14:18.920 --> 0:14:22.360 for me. But there was four doors down from the Troubador. 0:14:23.040 --> 0:14:26.240 There's no foot traffic, so the only time we did 0:14:26.320 --> 0:14:30.440 business was when the Troubadoor was open. So we would 0:14:30.440 --> 0:14:32.400 be opened during the day, but you know, we would 0:14:32.440 --> 0:14:38.160 get rich ladies from Beverly Hills slumming, but the Troubador 0:14:38.680 --> 0:14:42.080 crowd was marked crowd. And I met David Crosby there 0:14:42.640 --> 0:14:45.760 and we would sit and play chess and smoke pot 0:14:45.800 --> 0:14:48.080 while the shows were going on, and we became really 0:14:48.080 --> 0:14:52.400 good friends and um, and then Elliott was working for 0:14:52.440 --> 0:14:57.160 a company called chart Off Winkler. They a big movie company. Well, 0:14:57.160 --> 0:14:59.480 they became a big movie company. The first movie they 0:14:59.520 --> 0:15:02.840 did was, Uh, they shoot horses, don't they? But before 0:15:02.880 --> 0:15:05.640 that they managed comedians. Oh really, I didn't know that. 0:15:05.640 --> 0:15:10.440 And Elliott was an apprentice and the sorcerer's apprentice in 0:15:10.800 --> 0:15:14.160 so many ways and anyway, but he came, you know, 0:15:14.200 --> 0:15:20.760 he saw Joanie Mitchell in Toronto, and um, what year 0:15:20.840 --> 0:15:24.200 we do I remember? No? No, No, it's interesting because 0:15:24.880 --> 0:15:28.280 this would have to be sixty six, sixty seven, sixty 0:15:28.360 --> 0:15:31.440 eight around that time. Carecause David Crosby still in the Birds. No, 0:15:31.600 --> 0:15:34.240 he had just been thrown out and he was living 0:15:34.280 --> 0:15:38.160 in a van and in my store, okay, and you 0:15:38.240 --> 0:15:41.440 met him literally how he came in the store. You know, 0:15:41.680 --> 0:15:47.400 the store was designed to attract him, you know. And 0:15:48.760 --> 0:15:52.600 the counterculture that was burgeoning at that Okay, they had 0:15:52.600 --> 0:15:56.280 we had the recent movie, the Cameron Chrome movie directed 0:15:56.280 --> 0:15:58.800 by another guy named eludes me right at this point. 0:15:59.080 --> 0:16:02.840 Have you seen that about Laurel Canyon. No, No, that's 0:16:02.880 --> 0:16:05.880 one movie, the David Crosby movie. No, I haven't yet. 0:16:05.960 --> 0:16:09.840 You should see it. It's really good. But the funny 0:16:10.000 --> 0:16:13.800 thing about it is at the very end, Cameron Crow 0:16:13.960 --> 0:16:16.720 plays an interview from like the sixties says, uh, it's 0:16:16.720 --> 0:16:20.520 not about fame, It's about your friends. And then Cameron says, 0:16:21.120 --> 0:16:24.640 you have any friends now? And he goes no, So 0:16:24.720 --> 0:16:26.920 how difficult was he a guy? Was he back then? 0:16:27.120 --> 0:16:29.320 I loved him. We hit it off right away. He 0:16:29.320 --> 0:16:32.680 had the best part I'd ever smoked in my life. Okay, 0:16:32.800 --> 0:16:35.680 but but but did he have any other friends other 0:16:35.720 --> 0:16:39.560 than you? Yeah? He did, actually, Mama Cass and a 0:16:39.560 --> 0:16:41.800 few other pole you know, yes he did. He was 0:16:41.880 --> 0:16:44.720 not he was not the raving lunatic he turned into 0:16:44.760 --> 0:16:47.920 the Kuran. He was very charming and very sweet and 0:16:47.920 --> 0:16:50.640 and he still is to this day, except he's managed 0:16:50.720 --> 0:16:53.640 to destroy every relationship he's ever had. Was the last 0:16:53.680 --> 0:16:56.360 time you ever connected with him? When they were doing 0:16:56.440 --> 0:17:02.280 this film? Actually he played in Steamboats Steamboat Springs. You 0:17:02.320 --> 0:17:04.840 now live in Colorado? Yeah, And I drove over and 0:17:04.880 --> 0:17:07.440 we hung out for the day, and I saw a 0:17:07.560 --> 0:17:09.480 show and I listened to the new music, and I thought, 0:17:09.520 --> 0:17:11.879 you know, he's making great music. You know, well, as 0:17:11.880 --> 0:17:13.840 I say, he's continuing to make it when everybody else 0:17:13.880 --> 0:17:16.639 gave up, but you have the store. Become friendly with 0:17:16.720 --> 0:17:19.720 Crosby right playing chess? Is he a good jazz player? 0:17:19.840 --> 0:17:25.320 Not particularly? Would you beat him? I didn't try really hard. 0:17:25.720 --> 0:17:27.320 He won a couple of times. I had to keep 0:17:27.400 --> 0:17:30.440 him engaged because if I kicked his ass every time, 0:17:31.280 --> 0:17:33.080 we wouldn't have ended up friends. And I knew who 0:17:33.080 --> 0:17:35.800 he was, and I was very impressed by the fact 0:17:35.760 --> 0:17:37.399 that I was a big Birds fan, and you know, 0:17:38.000 --> 0:17:42.320 so I was just in heaven and Jimmy Fadden, Jimmy Fadden, 0:17:42.720 --> 0:17:47.000 Jimmy from the Nitty Gritty mc fadden was it Fatten? 0:17:47.280 --> 0:17:50.840 I think it's Fadden anyway, So he was. He was 0:17:50.880 --> 0:17:53.399 actually the first connection that I made to the music 0:17:53.440 --> 0:17:57.359 business because, um, the store was called the Great Linoleum 0:17:57.400 --> 0:18:01.640 Clothing Experiment. I think it was a hippie extravaganza anyway. 0:18:01.680 --> 0:18:05.560 So he helped me tear up the linoleum that was 0:18:05.600 --> 0:18:08.720 on the floor because I wanted to lay a wood floor. Yeah, 0:18:08.720 --> 0:18:11.600 of course, because it's called sixty So so we called 0:18:11.600 --> 0:18:14.479 it the Great Linoleum Clothing Experiment, which was kind of 0:18:14.480 --> 0:18:17.560 what was going on. So, by the way, if he 0:18:17.560 --> 0:18:20.639 helped you, how did you meet him? He wandered, he 0:18:21.480 --> 0:18:24.280 I had a storefront. I think I had my motorcycle 0:18:24.320 --> 0:18:26.720 in the window, you know, and I would have clothes 0:18:26.760 --> 0:18:28.440 thrown over it. Every once in a while people will 0:18:28.480 --> 0:18:31.080 come and ask me to buy the motorcycle. No, the 0:18:31.080 --> 0:18:33.120 clothes that were hanging on the motorcycle and they were 0:18:33.240 --> 0:18:36.440 just dirty laundry, you know. So I thought, I'm onto something. 0:18:36.600 --> 0:18:39.879 Where are you living at the time? Um on Lookout Mountain? 0:18:40.680 --> 0:18:42.840 How did you get that place? It was a rental 0:18:42.880 --> 0:18:48.040 for thirty three Lookout? Would you pay to remember? Two 0:18:48.119 --> 0:18:52.280 hundred sixty? So he got the store. You know, Jimmy 0:18:52.480 --> 0:18:55.760 helped Jimmy. If it's in fattened, yeah, I know. But 0:18:55.760 --> 0:18:57.439 there are different people who grow up trying to which 0:18:57.440 --> 0:19:00.639 one it is. Okay, Well continue, so let's go what goes? Okay? 0:19:00.640 --> 0:19:05.719 So Elliott kind of gets into the music business. The 0:19:05.800 --> 0:19:08.800 Elliott is now in Los Angeles. Oh no, No, he's 0:19:08.800 --> 0:19:12.159 in New York and he's and he's discovered Joanie and 0:19:12.240 --> 0:19:15.639 now he's coming out to California a lot, okay, And 0:19:15.680 --> 0:19:18.600 he's staying in my house and eating my food and 0:19:18.720 --> 0:19:26.080 rowing my car and you know, and um he he 0:19:26.160 --> 0:19:29.120 signs Neil Young and Joni Mitchell. Those are his two clients. 0:19:29.440 --> 0:19:32.880 And how did he get uh Neil Young. I think 0:19:33.920 --> 0:19:36.919 because of Joanie or vice versa. Not exactly sure. I 0:19:36.960 --> 0:19:40.280 wasn't privy to the intimacies there, but he ends up 0:19:40.320 --> 0:19:42.439 with both of them. And keep in mind that the 0:19:42.480 --> 0:19:45.840 Buffalo Springfield had just broken up, and the prospect of 0:19:45.920 --> 0:19:49.320 Neil as a solo artist doesn't mean much, didn't didn't 0:19:49.320 --> 0:19:54.840 impress anybody. And Joanie was, however, brilliant um nowhere. Yeah, 0:19:54.920 --> 0:19:57.919 but my contribution to this thing was I got to 0:19:58.040 --> 0:20:02.040 Elliott to hire David Crosby to produce Joanie's first half. Really, 0:20:02.160 --> 0:20:05.480 that's how it happened. Well that and and then they 0:20:05.520 --> 0:20:09.520 became boy boyfriends. Okay, well a little bit slower. Elliott comes, 0:20:09.520 --> 0:20:12.359 he's living at your house. He signs these people. I 0:20:12.359 --> 0:20:15.560 think he already had had them both, but he was 0:20:15.600 --> 0:20:18.159 coming out and staying in my house, okay. And and 0:20:18.200 --> 0:20:20.399 there's no money involved. Keep in mind, neither one of 0:20:20.440 --> 0:20:22.680 them and we're making any money. And he was still 0:20:22.680 --> 0:20:25.840 working for Chartiff Winkler until they realized he wasn't doing 0:20:25.880 --> 0:20:29.359 anything except these two clients. And they said, you know, okay, 0:20:29.760 --> 0:20:34.040 see you later. Punk anyway, so um we started. He 0:20:34.080 --> 0:20:36.600 asked me to get involved because I was friends with 0:20:36.680 --> 0:20:40.080 David and and Joanie, and these were our friends more 0:20:40.160 --> 0:20:44.200 than how are you friends with Joanie because of Elliott? Okay? 0:20:44.280 --> 0:20:47.240 So she would come to town too, yeah, okay, yeah, 0:20:47.280 --> 0:20:49.960 and and she was making a record with David and 0:20:50.440 --> 0:20:53.240 so he asked you to get involved, like in the 0:20:53.280 --> 0:20:56.240 management business. Okay, like give up your story, get involved 0:20:56.359 --> 0:20:58.600 or do a couple of things. Well, there was an overlap, 0:20:59.280 --> 0:21:01.479 and I didn't leave the store. I had four at 0:21:01.520 --> 0:21:04.600 that time. I had one in Berkeley, one in Galita, 0:21:04.760 --> 0:21:08.840 in Santa Barbara, one in uh San Diego, and one 0:21:08.880 --> 0:21:12.919 in l A. I was a hippie entrepreneur. So you 0:21:12.960 --> 0:21:16.480 were making money. Obviously, I was paying my bills. Keep 0:21:16.480 --> 0:21:21.960 in mind, you know a brand new BMW entry level 0:21:22.040 --> 0:21:26.600 six hundred, which I bought thirty ducks brand new. You 0:21:26.640 --> 0:21:30.920 know what's happened is we've lost the decimal point over 0:21:30.960 --> 0:21:33.720 the years. That's absolutely true. More than a decimal void. Well, no, 0:21:33.840 --> 0:21:36.000 that's about it. The entry level being now it is 0:21:36.000 --> 0:21:40.160 about thirty three, right, So yeah, decimal point. But by 0:21:40.200 --> 0:21:42.520 the way, in all things, we lost the decimal point. 0:21:42.720 --> 0:21:44.840 I had a two thousand two. I'd still be driving 0:21:44.920 --> 0:21:47.480 that car if I had it today. My favorite car ever, 0:21:47.600 --> 0:21:49.919 I would say to you my sixteen hundred. Even though 0:21:49.960 --> 0:21:53.239 it was underpowered and it was a box, right, I 0:21:53.280 --> 0:21:55.560 loved it. You could see out of every side that 0:21:56.920 --> 0:22:00.600 it was like the broad coffee Maker of cars exactly 0:22:00.760 --> 0:22:04.480 never nothing ever went wrong. So actually had a lot 0:22:04.520 --> 0:22:05.840 of trouble with mine, but I drove it for two 0:22:05.880 --> 0:22:09.720 almost two hundred thousand miles. Okay, So Elliott convinces you 0:22:10.040 --> 0:22:13.399 to come and help him because it's starting to be 0:22:13.440 --> 0:22:17.480 a business. He signs Joani to Warner Brothers, and he 0:22:17.520 --> 0:22:21.000 signs Neil to Warner Brothers, and they're making their first albums. 0:22:21.280 --> 0:22:23.879 Just let me ask you based on my interactions with 0:22:23.960 --> 0:22:27.000