Speaker 1: Welcome to Strictly Business Varieties weekly podcast featuring conversations with
Speaker 1: industry leaders about the business of media and entertainment. I'm
Speaker 1: Cynthia Littleton, business editor for Variety. When the coronavirus lockdown
Speaker 1: began in March, w M E partner Richard Whites was
Speaker 1: like any father looking for some way to celebrate his daughter,
Speaker 1: Demi's seventeenth birthday amid the pandemic, so he called a
Speaker 1: piano player friend of his to serenade her via Zoom.
Speaker 1: From that humble start, Richard and Demi Whites have built
Speaker 1: the quarant Tunes franchise that has become a buzzy Hollywood invite,
Speaker 1: featuring musical performances from an array of top stars. Along
Speaker 1: the way, they've raised six point seven million dollars in
Speaker 1: counting for coronavirus related relief efforts around the country. Here,
Speaker 1: the veteran agent and Demi discussed the spark for the
Speaker 1: fundraising effort, the hurdles they overcame, and how they recruited
Speaker 1: partners such as Goldman Sachs and Alliance Bernstein to help
Speaker 1: drive big dollar donations. Richard White's partner at w M
Speaker 1: E and Demi Whites Thank you both so much for
Speaker 1: joining us. Thank you. We're so excited. Richard, as I said,
Speaker 1: as a partner at w ME, a very senior agent,
Speaker 1: somebody who's one of these people that knows everybody in
Speaker 1: town and knows how this town works. Demi is Richard's
Speaker 1: seventeen year old daughter. And you too, have really been
Speaker 1: a kind of a godsend to the Hollywood community because
Speaker 1: you have spent your quarantine time assembling these incredible what
Speaker 1: you have come to call quarant tunes webcasts with a
Speaker 1: lineup of musical artists and special guests that would rival
Speaker 1: any summer festival you know, were we able to have
Speaker 1: such things. And you you YouTube the way to put
Speaker 1: to put some of that fun festival spirit and unexpectedness
Speaker 1: into into Zoom webcasts with an I mean, the the
Speaker 1: array of talent, everybody from Randy Newman to Charlie Pooth
Speaker 1: to Alan Mancon, Josh Groban, Michael Bolton, Billy Ray, Cyrus,
Speaker 1: it and on and on. It does not get it
Speaker 1: does not get more fun in the circumstances that we
Speaker 1: are all living through right now than one of these
Speaker 1: really fun foreign tunes. As a viewer, I can tell
Speaker 1: you part of the fun is just going through the
Speaker 1: all the Brady Bunch squares and figuring out who is
Speaker 1: who is watching. And you've done all of this for
Speaker 1: amazing causes and raised At this point, you've been doing
Speaker 1: it for almost two months. You have raised more than
Speaker 1: three million dollars for a range of causes. It's really
Speaker 1: just it's a testament to people putting nose to the
Speaker 1: grindstone and really making it happen. I want to unpack
Speaker 1: that a little bit. So first of all, tell us
Speaker 1: I know that there's a kind of a sweet story
Speaker 1: about what sparked this whole thing. Tell us about the
Speaker 1: initial spark of the idea to do a music themed webcast.
Speaker 1: So I turned seventeen at the very beginning of Quarantine.
Speaker 1: It was the beginning of spring break. Zoom was very new.
Speaker 1: Everyone was very strict about social distancing. My dad wanted
Speaker 1: to do something special for me, and this piano player
Speaker 1: from Chicago reached out to my dad asking him to
Speaker 1: help and find work. So my dad set up a
Speaker 1: surprise party seventeenth birthday for me, which I actually did
Speaker 1: know about, but I gave him some of my friends
Speaker 1: phone numbers and about forty of us went onto Zoom
Speaker 1: that night, and this piano player, Dario, started serenading me
Speaker 1: and my friends with Don't Stop Believing, some Billie Eilish
Speaker 1: songs and some other like new music. And I love Dario,
Speaker 1: he's been amazing. This whole thing started with him, but
Speaker 1: it wasn't really my friend's jam. It was very awkward
Speaker 1: because Zoom was new. Like I said, it was just
Speaker 1: someone singing to us and we didn't really know what
Speaker 1: to do. Everyone was staring at me. It was like, Dad,
Speaker 1: I love you, I love this, but like this is
Speaker 1: so uncomfortable. My friends keep texting me, can we can
Speaker 1: we turn this off? So my dad got together about
Speaker 1: forty of his clients friends, high school friends and family
Speaker 1: and Dario and they did another Zoom later and I
Speaker 1: was still on because what else was I going to
Speaker 1: be doing on my birthday in quarantine? So do you
Speaker 1: want to take it from you? So for my good
Speaker 1: friend Melvin Maher, he had signed up for Zoom, I
Speaker 1: had no idea what it was. You know when I
Speaker 1: did it was it was free for forty minutes and
Speaker 1: the match with a hundred people. So he paid for
Speaker 1: it because he was doing conference calls and so we
Speaker 1: had about I don't know, sixties seventy people, and I
Speaker 1: called my friend Debbie Gibson, who I've been friends with
Speaker 1: from twenty five years, to say, hey, come on, what
Speaker 1: have the piano player? You love this right? You also
Speaker 1: didn't know that you couldn't simultaneously sing with two other people.
Speaker 1: So she's like, yeah, this is great, just sing something.
Speaker 1: So she gets on her piano herself. So she starts
Speaker 1: singing a bunch of the hints all in My Dreams
Speaker 1: and Lost in your Eyes. And then who comes on
Speaker 1: next is my friend and Melvin's best friend, John Mayer.
Speaker 1: And I'm over here and just being like what because
Speaker 1: I'm also very very big John Marathan. So this was
Speaker 1: like the coolest birthday ever. I had to say that.
Speaker 1: Debbie Gibson and John Mayer were just going back and
Speaker 1: forth with this piano player Dario, and we were just
Speaker 1: all hanging out in our own houses, just like connecting,
Speaker 1: and they were talking and playing music, and then they
Speaker 1: sang Happy Birthday to me, and I was like, hey, John,
Speaker 1: can you sing New Light? So my dad's been this nickname,
Speaker 1: the Sniper has been coined for my dad because he
Speaker 1: always asked people to perform, but I'm the original Sniper
Speaker 1: because I asked John to sing New Light. And from
Speaker 1: this experience, it was very, very positive and just a
Speaker 1: way to kind of clear your mind with what was
Speaker 1: going on in the world and just have fun and connect.
Speaker 1: So people in their beds, on their sofas, have some wine.
Speaker 1: I mean, come on the beginning of Quarantine, when you
Speaker 1: there's nothing on TV, you can't do anything, You're like,
Speaker 1: how long is this going to be? It was just
Speaker 1: the social kind of platform. Well instead of FaceTime a
Speaker 1: bunch of your friends, it was like, here you go,
Speaker 1: here's a link, and everyone showed up, even ll cool
Speaker 1: J showed up, my parents, my high school friends, a
Speaker 1: couple of clients, a couple of ex clients. UM. Just
Speaker 1: really about community. And so the next day I was like,
Speaker 1: this was great, Daria, let's do it again. And so
Speaker 1: an hour before I'm like, what what made it so fun?
Speaker 1: And um? And so it was really the Debbie Gibson
Speaker 1: and John Mayern. Here's a couple of celebs. It wasn't
Speaker 1: meant to do anything else. So I called up my
Speaker 1: friend p K. Kemsley, who manages Boy George, and said,
Speaker 1: I don't We're boy George is um, He's like, he's
Speaker 1: in London. It's gonna be four in the morning. Okay,
Speaker 1: Well I was just thinking if he was here, why not?
Speaker 1: And then I called Rick Springfield and his manager Wayne
Speaker 1: Sharp and and Gil holding his agent but we represent
Speaker 1: and I work with Rick, and we finally gone and goes, yeah,
Speaker 1: I'll do it. So we get on on Saturday and like,
Speaker 1: within the first two minutes of people coming, there's georgeo
Speaker 1: down and like, who was that? I couldn't see him.
Speaker 1: It turned out that boy George actually was the first person.
Speaker 1: I was like, are you kidding? And then all of
Speaker 1: a sudden people started sending the links to other people
Speaker 1: and we maxed out at a hundred and so he
Speaker 1: was trying to sing Karma Chamillion with the piano player,
Speaker 1: and that's when I realized, you can't, you know, assimulate them.
Speaker 1: They don't think you jy. I were actually in fairness
Speaker 1: and we were really doing like a Tonight Show thing
Speaker 1: where we were just like co host. But then what
Speaker 1: happened was it started to become more than that. And
Speaker 1: so what what really happened was the next two zooms,
Speaker 1: which were casual, we had Josh Groban he did to
Speaker 1: Um Simon garf Uncle songs Um I had Clive Davis on.
Speaker 1: He started talking about how great that was, which was
Speaker 1: America and Bridge over Trouble Water. Clive I asked, how
Speaker 1: did you signed Somon and garfuncily gave some stories. Tina
Speaker 1: Fey was putting her daughter in bed and was watching
Speaker 1: or listening and then on the chat grobing, you're killing
Speaker 1: me singing America, And so it just started to have
Speaker 1: a casual, very private vibe. It wasn't until I decided
Speaker 1: to invest in Zoom and go to the five person
Speaker 1: level that Friday night people started getting ahold of me,
Speaker 1: saying we'd love to participate. And that was also the
Speaker 1: night the day that that Bill Withers had died, and
Speaker 1: so I was like, well, I know Michael Bolton, Let's
Speaker 1: get him to do lean on Me. And then Billy
Speaker 1: ray Cyrus did five or six songs Alt and we
Speaker 1: did I Am, I said, and and he did Old
Speaker 1: Town Road and we started to go and it got
Speaker 1: deeper in Blink one, eight twos, Mark Hoppiss and the
Speaker 1: War in Treaty and it was like yeah, it was like,
Speaker 1: oh my god, Madison Love. There were like singers and
Speaker 1: songwriters too, that we're on go ahead. And then the
Speaker 1: next day, which was Saturday, So that really was our
Speaker 1: fifth zoom and what I considered to be the first
Speaker 1: of what became quarantined. I just want to say that
Speaker 1: the the r W Quarantunes was not named by myself
Speaker 1: for me. It came by Jeff ross Um, the comedian.
Speaker 1: The comedian, he's been on there with us. But it
Speaker 1: was that Saturday where this pivoted from h okay, let's
Speaker 1: have fun, let's sing songs. This isn't that too, Let's
Speaker 1: do good, let's make a change. We're raising money for charity.
Speaker 1: So that morning, my dad does a sound check, or
Speaker 1: my dad and I do our sound check now with
Speaker 1: the artists. And I was sitting in the kitchen with
Speaker 1: my dad and I was like, we have this platform.
Speaker 1: There was some traction on this. We have a group
Speaker 1: of people. It's gone a bigger and bigger and bigger.
Speaker 1: I understand my privilege. I am living in a dream.
Speaker 1: This is not normal. The people I'm speaking to, what
Speaker 1: I am experiencing. I am so privileged and so humbled,
Speaker 1: and I'm so grateful. That's what I meant. I'm so
Speaker 1: grateful and I'm so privileged. And I was like, you
Speaker 1: know what, like, we're gonna raise ten thousand dollars, We're
Speaker 1: gonna do this. So I switched the narrative and I
Speaker 1: was like, I made a go fund me. I sat down,
Speaker 1: I was like, okay, Dad, like what should I write? Like?
Speaker 1: How much information do I write? And we chose us
Speaker 1: the Bond Community Clinic that was um party known as
Speaker 1: the l A free clinic and my wonderful organization that
Speaker 1: helps a lot of a lot of people. Indeed, I've
Speaker 1: had journalist friends that between gigs, you know, but for
Speaker 1: the Sabbat or that, but for the free Clinic, would
Speaker 1: have really had a hard time. It's a wonderful organization. Well,
Speaker 1: I've been the president of it for for six years.
Speaker 1: And in fact, um we're having a r W Quarantine
Speaker 1: Collaboration slash no gala on Sunday that is going to
Speaker 1: be great. And we raised and we're gonna raise more
Speaker 1: money for that. But DEMI wanted to raise ten thousand dollars,
Speaker 1: and I said, DEMI put the goal at thirty thousand dollars. Okay,
Speaker 1: let's just go for it, spoken like an agent. Well, also,
Speaker 1: I just figured ten thousand. Okay, I mean, I don't
Speaker 1: know if we're gonna get that far. And Demi and
Speaker 1: her charm started, you know, showing a sign we didn't
Speaker 1: know how to do. In the chat, she figured it
Speaker 1: out and then tell what happened. I made also an
Speaker 1: Instagram account. I was like, you know what, like, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna put the link there, We're gonna go for it.
Speaker 1: We're gonna raise ten thousand dollars. And by the end
Speaker 1: of the call, so three hours later, they're now like
Speaker 1: four to five hours of the zooms. They're a bit lengthy,
Speaker 1: but um, we raised thirty three thou dollars. And then
Speaker 1: the next day we had raised forty eight thousand dollars
Speaker 1: and someone called my dad and was like, hey, I
Speaker 1: want to be anonymous, but if you reach fifty k,
Speaker 1: I will match it. So within I had to say this,
Speaker 1: but it wasn't the next day. It was five hours
Speaker 1: later that we had gotten That same day he had said,
Speaker 1: if you reach fifty thousand, I'll give you, I'll match it.
Speaker 1: So it was within six hours that we started that
Speaker 1: we ultimately raised a hundred thousand dollars, so that that
Speaker 1: answers one of my questions, which was the you know,
Speaker 1: sort of the spark of the desire to make it charitable.
Speaker 1: You obviously have a have a long connection with the Saban,
Speaker 1: the Saban Clinic, so that it sounds to me like
Speaker 1: DEMI that you know Saban is something that you've been
Speaker 1: aware of and that you probably worked worked out. I
Speaker 1: know they have a lot of they have a lot
Speaker 1: of events. Um so, but but again, you did the
Speaker 1: go fund me. You didn't really talk about it with
Speaker 1: your dad. You just decided we're going to do that.
Speaker 1: I the spark for that to to now several weeks,
Speaker 1: you know, so many weeks later, to be at three
Speaker 1: million dollars, that must feel, that must feel fantastic. It's
Speaker 1: been surreal and so eye opening. And we every every
Speaker 1: year our family will buy they have this like adoptive
Speaker 1: family thing, and we've been seeing the same family every
Speaker 1: year where we hang out with them, we get them
Speaker 1: basic necessities and fund presents for Christmas. So that's why
Speaker 1: we chose the Subon Community Clinic because it's very near
Speaker 1: and dear to my heart. My dad's are and my
Speaker 1: mom and brother as well. So then the next weekend
Speaker 1: we chose Cedar Sinai because um yeah, which we were
Speaker 1: doing it for l A. We wanted to do it
Speaker 1: for the front line workers and other employees, and we
Speaker 1: kind of got this momentum to turn it into an
Speaker 1: informative piece as well to know where the money is
Speaker 1: going to. The first one was a learning curve and
Speaker 1: the next weekend I interviewed Artocho, who it's a very
Speaker 1: high position at Cedar Sinai, and that was amazing, and
Speaker 1: we had some nurses on with us, and it got
Speaker 1: a little bit bigger and bigger. But never in a
Speaker 1: million years when I made the go fund me that day,
Speaker 1: I just wanted to do something good and try and
Speaker 1: do a little part. I thought I was dreaming when
Speaker 1: I said ten thousand dollars, I didn't think that was possible.
Speaker 1: And now it's be at three million at a blink
Speaker 1: of an eye. It was like each week I was shocked,
Speaker 1: like I couldn't even imagine how much money we were making.
Speaker 1: It was so powerful and it's been so powerful. And
Speaker 1: that second week when we had cedars, I had also
Speaker 1: chaired the gala the last two years from them, so
Speaker 1: again it was it was an organization that I had
Speaker 1: direct relationship with but also being one of the premier
Speaker 1: hospitals in the world, especially in Los Angeles, and what
Speaker 1: they were doing, and when you found out that the
Speaker 1: employees and then nurses are putting themselves in danger. And
Speaker 1: remember this is the beginning of it, where everyone was scared,
Speaker 1: their intense happening, We couldn't go anywhere. Okay, this is
Speaker 1: not where we are today, although it's still brutal, it's
Speaker 1: been we people have figured out ways to to to
Speaker 1: to minimize. Yeah, but this is remember where we were
Speaker 1: at um that that time that Demi interviewed m R
Speaker 1: Chow right before ten minutes before marre Garcetti said I'll
Speaker 1: come on, and he came on, and that really pivoted
Speaker 1: us from a fun kind of family zoom with friends
Speaker 1: to Wow, this is becoming legitimize a show. And so
Speaker 1: we had that and then to be followed by Randy
Speaker 1: Newman singh I Love l A. And then have James
Speaker 1: Bay and then to start having all these unbelievable artists,
Speaker 1: both modern or legacy. We had Liam Payne, We've had
Speaker 1: Charlie Pooth, We've had Um Barry Manelu and Barry Gibb
Speaker 1: and n A day later, to rise up. We've we've
Speaker 1: really programmed it to to be around the theme of
Speaker 1: kind of what we're doing, and um, we're producing basically
Speaker 1: a live aid a concert every week. We would do
Speaker 1: to two concerts or productions every single weekend and a
Speaker 1: kind of turned out to be a lot, and we're
Speaker 1: so happy to be doing it. So now we put
Speaker 1: all of our energy to make one amazing show for
Speaker 1: the weekend. Well well, well one, we're starting it that way.
Speaker 1: But we've had such support. I wanted to say that
Speaker 1: the money that we've raised, and and and Demi her
Speaker 1: enthusiasm and her questions and her passion by interviewing Mary Garcetti,
Speaker 1: we've interviewed or Demi has Mayor Keisha Bottoms, who over
Speaker 1: the last clearly quarantine and what's been happening in our
Speaker 1: life right now, has had such startup. She is such
Speaker 1: a wonderful and giving and smart and articulate Mayor of Atlanta.
Speaker 1: And we've had Mayor Cooper from Nashville. We've started to
Speaker 1: have ye, Governor Newsome was on that's what it's that's
Speaker 1: really what cynthy when it really started to change. And
Speaker 1: what I was going to say is the money that
Speaker 1: people have given have been anywhere from five dollars to
Speaker 1: some substantial money. This is not a gala that we're
Speaker 1: used to where each each studio and network are giving
Speaker 1: fifty dred thousand. In fact, I didn't even ask any
Speaker 1: of them. This is individuals, brick by brick, dollar by
Speaker 1: dollar giving and mostly people doing it every time UM
Speaker 1: to participate. It is not elitist, It is not UM
Speaker 1: supposed to be anything more than if you get on it,
Speaker 1: We've invite you and if you've asked, We've done it.
Speaker 1: Like I've had I've had different agents from agencies, I've
Speaker 1: had managers. It is we have not picked and show show.
Speaker 1: We've not chosen or not chosen people due to where
Speaker 1: they work. This is a community and this has really
Speaker 1: been meant to help people's state of mind. You have
Speaker 1: to remember so many people have been isolated, so many
Speaker 1: people have not gone out of their house. Okay, they
Speaker 1: do not have a favorite, as you know, and that
Speaker 1: is what if you start to go week by week
Speaker 1: where it's been, it really built up and I think
Speaker 1: it really became appointment television to be honest with you
Speaker 1: for people and still is let me ask you how
Speaker 1: so especially early on before because you you know, as
Speaker 1: this grew and you've got these amazing names, you know,
Speaker 1: not surprisingly you had you had, you know, press coverage
Speaker 1: about it, so that so that the you know, there's
Speaker 1: social media coverage, there was traditional news coverage. But before
Speaker 1: that started, how how was it for you when you
Speaker 1: were calling people, when you were calling Josh Groban and people,
Speaker 1: you know, excuse me, how was it for you before
Speaker 1: you had kind of the the buzz and you were
Speaker 1: just starting and you were calling people like? What was
Speaker 1: that conversation? Josh? Can you come on and sing a
Speaker 1: few songs on this thing called Zoom? Like? Did you
Speaker 1: have to explain what you were trying to do with people?
Speaker 1: Did they get it right away? Again? I want to
Speaker 1: go back to the beginning. First of all, as um
Speaker 1: as far as the press is concerned, the two or
Speaker 1: three people that started it off were invited to the
Speaker 1: birthday post birthday, just hang out right. I happened to
Speaker 1: know them. I didn't. I didn't ask to have pressed.
Speaker 1: I didn't ask for articles the e news thing. The
Speaker 1: two of people are are are good friends of mine
Speaker 1: that have we on it, Their kids loved it, and
Speaker 1: I can we do something about it. So everything has
Speaker 1: been authentic. I didn't go out or DEMI has not
Speaker 1: gone out to do anything more than to raise awareness.
Speaker 1: And because there was nothing else like this going on,
Speaker 1: it just was something to write about to answer the question.
Speaker 1: Josh Groban is a friend and client, and because he
Speaker 1: has a piano, I just said, hey, just do it right, John,
Speaker 1: there's a guitar. I didn't ask people to do it
Speaker 1: to make it be a concert. That wasn't where it started.
Speaker 1: It was just dropped by We're still gonna have Dario
Speaker 1: seeing you know, Billy Joel and Hall of notates and
Speaker 1: don't stop believing and have people kind of have a
Speaker 1: good time. It wasn't until it started to get past
Speaker 1: Josh when people that I knew said, hey, you know
Speaker 1: my friends was so and so and friends with this person.
Speaker 1: And I will give credit to my partner at W
Speaker 1: and ME, Kirk Summer, who really put me in touch
Speaker 1: with some incredible artist like Tim Booth of James and
Speaker 1: and and and Hosier and and James Bay and some
Speaker 1: younger people. But before that, during the time when it
Speaker 1: was hard today to get people, I wasn't doing it
Speaker 1: for anything more than a good time. And then when
Speaker 1: it started as a charity component and DEMI started to
Speaker 1: really show a clock countdown on how much we've done,
Speaker 1: like we started ten thousand, forty yeah, five hundred thousand,
Speaker 1: eight hundred thousand, one million, one million, like each week
Speaker 1: the number one up, and that was really really cool
Speaker 1: to see. Can I ask you are there any UM?
Speaker 1: I'm assuming everybody does it? Does it for charity, for
Speaker 1: charitable all the artists, nobody is being compensated, and then
Speaker 1: have an asked. They just want to be part of it.
Speaker 1: They know. The narrative now is we've changed UM the
Speaker 1: charity every week from the l A Food Bank, United
Speaker 1: Way locally for greater Los Angeles than nationally. The hospitals
Speaker 1: we didn't left the eleven public New York City hospitals
Speaker 1: that have no money, no development costs. These are this
Speaker 1: is the worst of the worst from Bellevue, which is
Speaker 1: the you know, one of the well known names UM
Speaker 1: to those in Queens and the Bronx UM We've had.
Speaker 1: We had these doctors and nurses. Come on, you should
Speaker 1: tell what we did a Mother's Day. We we wound
Speaker 1: up UM giving a rewarding six UM frontline workers because
Speaker 1: they weren't all all all. They were not all females,
Speaker 1: they weren't all nurses. We did too from New York.
Speaker 1: We did one from Sabond, we did three from Cedars
Speaker 1: and and we partnered with the Four Seasons Maui who
Speaker 1: was giving them five days to be able to have
Speaker 1: a vacation when this is over and and put them
Speaker 1: up and fly them. And one of the frontline workers
Speaker 1: started crying, saying, my husbands been passed away twenty years ago.
Speaker 1: I haven't been on a vacation in twenty eight years.
Speaker 1: You don't know what this means for me. I can
Speaker 1: never really afford it. And so for that to see
Speaker 1: that happen and to have community, and that came from
Speaker 1: inviting people to be on That was from my friend
Speaker 1: Julie Freeman said, we need to do something. I mean, Cynthia,
Speaker 1: you've been on these zooms as a friend, not even
Speaker 1: as a reporter. You see how genuine it is. We
Speaker 1: own you want people to enjoy, to raise some money
Speaker 1: and participate, and to see where Demi started and her
Speaker 1: growth as a teenager to what this has become as
Speaker 1: a father. I couldn't be more proud of that. But
Speaker 1: we are still humbled by it, and we still have
Speaker 1: a ways to go, because this COVID is not is
Speaker 1: not you know, ending anytime soon, know though people it's
Speaker 1: the summer start and people think that it has in
Speaker 1: different things in the news have really kind of put
Speaker 1: it to the back burner. But now you're seeing Dr
Speaker 1: Fauci and your talk about how how in many cities
Speaker 1: it's now spiking. So when you ask if they're different charity,
Speaker 1: they're doing because they want to be part of it,
Speaker 1: and because they're trusting and because the people around them
Speaker 1: know that it's good. And that's been the most rewarding
Speaker 1: for me to get people say, yes, how have you
Speaker 1: because clearly with the as they get longer and you
Speaker 1: have more artists, I mean, Richard Endemi, are you producing it?
Speaker 1: Are you saying okay, you know, Randy Newman is gonna
Speaker 1: come on and then the mayor will speak. I mean
Speaker 1: somebody must because it's it's it's pretty you know, um,
Speaker 1: it's pretty well done. It's not everybody trying to jump
Speaker 1: in and talk at the same time, which we all
Speaker 1: know is that is not a productive process. Well, Cynthia,
Speaker 1: to answer that, first of all, Coco Weaver, my assistant
Speaker 1: and our executive producer, the best person ever. She helps
Speaker 1: running with us, so she's on the side like muting people,
Speaker 1: letting people in the waiting room. So that's been really
Speaker 1: really helpful. But we kind of have a rhythm now.
Speaker 1: The beginning is kind of like an in possession. We
Speaker 1: give a little speech introducing the new people that are on,
Speaker 1: just saying hi and to what and like what we're doing,
Speaker 1: and then after that I will have a conversation with
Speaker 1: someone from the organization that we're doing. So for example,
Speaker 1: when we did the United Way, the national one, I
Speaker 1: interviewed Susan McCormick and Mayor Bottoms, which was in doable.
Speaker 1: So I would say, hey, guys, we raised this amount
Speaker 1: of money. Today we're shifting to the United Way for
Speaker 1: seven different cities. And then I asked them what there.
Speaker 1: It's a conversation, I asked them. It's a different question
Speaker 1: for each organization, but basically along the lines of what
Speaker 1: their work is and what we can do and how
Speaker 1: we can help and how COVID has affected them. And
Speaker 1: then it will just be a conversation. And then we
Speaker 1: get into the music and my dad will call them
Speaker 1: people and be like, hey, Charlie Pooth, are you there?
Speaker 1: And then he'll come in and they'll have a conversation.
Speaker 1: But he might pique someone's interests and some little kid
Speaker 1: might scream, Charlie, I love you so much, or some
Speaker 1: other artists might be like, hey man, nice to see you.
Speaker 1: It's like to answer your asked, but to answer your
Speaker 1: question there was not It was random. I would just
Speaker 1: call on people about how I felt. It is now
Speaker 1: a little more structured. When we did the last show,
Speaker 1: which we'll get to, um, it was very much you
Speaker 1: knew where you are in line. Now I give you
Speaker 1: a window of a half hour because it always winds
Speaker 1: up going longer. Um. I have produced it. Producing it
Speaker 1: is like me and my bad look at my Spotify
Speaker 1: saying okay, what's the feel and when do we need
Speaker 1: this song? And and also because we have artists from
Speaker 1: London and New York and Nashville. I've been making it earlier.
Speaker 1: We do Saturdays at once so that I could get people.
Speaker 1: I've kept people up till two or three in the
Speaker 1: morning from the UK Rick Astley or so we've we've
Speaker 1: kept them up. I'm trying to be a little more
Speaker 1: um um uh controlling and also I think a little
Speaker 1: a little more organized. But no, it even even when
Speaker 1: you get a compliment from Kenna Erlick, who has been
Speaker 1: doing the Grammys for forty years, who says, you know,
Speaker 1: you're doing a great job, I think it's a compliment.
Speaker 1: I've really enjoyed it. But it is free flowing and
Speaker 1: it is not it is not like a TV show.
Speaker 1: So no, and I think I know the answer to this.
Speaker 1: But the business reporter and me is curious, do you
Speaker 1: have any um rights issues? You know, we all know publishing.
Speaker 1: You know that that that you know people people get
Speaker 1: paid for their songs and their I P. Is there
Speaker 1: any people kind of just grant you kind of a
Speaker 1: waiver for that because it's private. That was our issue.
Speaker 1: We really wanted to do something public, but also because
Speaker 1: it's private, people are more open to telling stories and stuff.
Speaker 1: But due to copyright reasons with the song with songs
Speaker 1: and like that issue, that is why it is not
Speaker 1: a one of the reasons why it is not a
Speaker 1: public one of the reasons why again I go back to,
Speaker 1: it's not that it's elitist. If what it is is
Speaker 1: there's a max it was five now a thousand and
Speaker 1: when we we just had one thousand people on the
Speaker 1: other day or zoom crashed. Yeah. So what happens to
Speaker 1: you is is that the business part of it is,
Speaker 1: I can't because so many people to answer what you asked.
Speaker 1: They haven't written it. Some of are a songwriters, some
Speaker 1: of them were in bands where where there's been some
Speaker 1: bad blood and um, and so I have been asked
Speaker 1: by several people, not many. This is private right, um.
Speaker 1: And by the way, a lot of people do covers
Speaker 1: of songs. We're not. It's privately recorded. We don't put
Speaker 1: it out there unless there's a little snippet for you know,
Speaker 1: five seconds, but that's it. Certainly reasons and we asked
Speaker 1: people not to instagram, um or put on Facebook at
Speaker 1: least with sound the performers m hm hm um. And
Speaker 1: tell us about you know you kind of before you
Speaker 1: took a little bit of a break because of because
Speaker 1: this world just can't does not seem to be able
Speaker 1: to calm down. Before you took a break, you hit
Speaker 1: another new I uh. You gave people a glimpse at
Speaker 1: at a venue that a lot of us wish we
Speaker 1: were sitting in with a nice salad and a nice
Speaker 1: glass of wine. Tell us about how you how you
Speaker 1: arranged for a performance of sorts at the Hollywood Bowl. Yeah,
Speaker 1: well that that really came jokingly with Kirk Summer again,
Speaker 1: as these zooms were becoming more popular and we were
Speaker 1: getting bigger names, like real headliner names. Um, he said,
Speaker 1: what's next for you? The Dodgers Stadium, the Greek Theater,
Speaker 1: the Ohiowa Bowl and uh, that week the announcement to
Speaker 1: come out that that the Bowl was gonna be closed
Speaker 1: for the first time in years, and I go, we
Speaker 1: should do in the Bowl and he ran with it
Speaker 1: and connected me to Joanna Reese, who runs the l
Speaker 1: A Phil and who's incredible. She loved the idea. But
Speaker 1: the Hiddo Bowl is controlled by the County Okay, so um,
Speaker 1: she's in charge of Disney Hall, she's in charge of UM,
Speaker 1: the Ford Theater and the Bull But she loved it,
Speaker 1: and we figured out a way that we could maximize
Speaker 1: um raising funds for YOLO, which is the Youth Orchestra
Speaker 1: of Los Angeles, and for the l A Phil. And
Speaker 1: then that got Gustavo Dude amount to say yes. And
Speaker 1: then we wanted to partner with h a charity that
Speaker 1: would be appropriate for for Yola and that was no
Speaker 1: kid Hungary and once that we asked the mayor to
Speaker 1: come back, but we had some issues. We had some
Speaker 1: union issues. We couldn't plug things in um and I
Speaker 1: was like, well, who's supposed to play here? Who can
Speaker 1: we get? And it was Kenny Loggins. And I've been
Speaker 1: asking Kenny Loggins for weeks via his agent to do it,
Speaker 1: and I didn't realize that Kenny doesn't do it alone.
Speaker 1: He has to do it in a trio. And he's
Speaker 1: been working with uh, these two guitar players and it
Speaker 1: kind of in his band, and so he's like, we've
Speaker 1: we've been doing it. So we wound up having Kay
Speaker 1: Loggins be the only performers next next to I guess Carsetti.
Speaker 1: Gustavo did him ount and then for trumpet players who
Speaker 1: opened up with the Raiders of the Lost theme. That
Speaker 1: was the most incredible experience ever you walked in. No
Speaker 1: problem with parking quarantoons live from the Highway Bowl on
Speaker 1: on the Marquee. We're all there on different sides of
Speaker 1: basically the arena, like Garcetti's on the left hand side
Speaker 1: and Kenny Loggins is up at the top on the
Speaker 1: right and because Fabo dodomels up on the top of
Speaker 1: the left and the trumpet players on the stage, it
Speaker 1: was the most surreal and incredible thing. Every we're just
Speaker 1: thinking to ourselves, how did we get from the kitchen
Speaker 1: to the Hollywood Bowl? What have we done? This started
Speaker 1: with my birthday. I do want to say that we
Speaker 1: you know, we had a really um some really great
Speaker 1: partnerships that came around. One was Goldman Sacks. They came
Speaker 1: around for the second time, as you know you're the
Speaker 1: first time. Let me ask you, though, what what brought
Speaker 1: them in? What was the connection there? It was a
Speaker 1: friend of mine who I know, that was on the
Speaker 1: zoom saying these are so good, UM, I want to
Speaker 1: try to get you to raise some more money. What
Speaker 1: about if we connected UM through our charity UM department
Speaker 1: and they talked to David Salomon. He said, let's give
Speaker 1: m a grand and great and I said, invite more
Speaker 1: people because I wanted to invite different people all the time,
Speaker 1: so it wasn't just the same because there's only so
Speaker 1: much you can raise. And I think by extending that
Speaker 1: the first time, we wound up raising five hundred thousand
Speaker 1: dollars for Team Rubicon, which we didn't discuss. And then
Speaker 1: through Ken Levitan, who is an amazing friend and manager
Speaker 1: out of Nashville here since John Hyatt and Seawan Colvin
Speaker 1: and so many other people in so well respected. He
Speaker 1: then connected to me to the guys from Reliance Bernstein
Speaker 1: who not only dedicate a hundred thousand dollars to the
Speaker 1: United Way for Tennessee, but brought the brought the Vanderbilt
Speaker 1: Hospital Medical Center Okay, and we raised money for them.
Speaker 1: We raised money for the CDC, which they gave another
Speaker 1: hundred thousand. And then they brought in UM crow uh
Speaker 1: to other yeah, two other UM organizations to give money
Speaker 1: for the American Campa Society Hope Lodge in Nashville. So
Speaker 1: when they started to connect to other people, that's how
Speaker 1: we got a big jump UM from a bunch of
Speaker 1: these organization sations. And it really has that that that
Speaker 1: really propelled us. What has kept you guys going? Well,
Speaker 1: I have more artists that I love that I need
Speaker 1: to talk to and meet and have them on UM.
Speaker 1: I think that UM, we love it, Yeah, we love
Speaker 1: doing it and we love raising money. And I also
Speaker 1: I also feel that we have to balance where we
Speaker 1: are in the world and not be tone deaf to
Speaker 1: what's happening. And I think as as there are people
Speaker 1: that have lost their jobs that have been furloughed, now
Speaker 1: production and is starting to come back, we'll see what's happening.
Speaker 1: We are very sensitive to that. But I know that
Speaker 1: there are a couple more in me that I want
Speaker 1: to do, and there's there's a couple more organizations that
Speaker 1: really still need it, and we want to make sure
Speaker 1: we've spread it out. What's important to note, although I
Speaker 1: said it was that we started l A based, but
Speaker 1: we have done really throughout the United States. I would
Speaker 1: like to give back so to our friends at the
Speaker 1: NHS in London. We would like to do music cares,
Speaker 1: We would like to do UM something with pride. We
Speaker 1: like to make sure that we've covered all bases for people.
Speaker 1: Of course, black lives matters and what's happening with the
Speaker 1: justice system now we have to figure out a way
Speaker 1: to incorporate that. But we are a COVID related UM
Speaker 1: quarantines and I think that's what's most important. So how
Speaker 1: it can help is what we need to is what
Speaker 1: we need to make sure that we continue doing. I
Speaker 1: don't think we're done yet, but also who knows what's
Speaker 1: going to happen. If there's a second outbreak, we'll do
Speaker 1: a holiday edition in December. I don't think we're going
Speaker 1: to stop doing it. I think that we're going to
Speaker 1: continue in some sort of way. Demi and I have
Speaker 1: some plans if the world comes back to to take
Speaker 1: this to another level where it becomes an organization that
Speaker 1: she can run. That might be live concerts, that might
Speaker 1: be zooms. I think people are getting used to this,
Speaker 1: and I think that in a year from now, if
Speaker 1: we said, hey, it's our year anniversary, we're gonna do
Speaker 1: it for people would love to come back and do it.
Speaker 1: I think. I think what's so inspiring is that at
Speaker 1: a time when people felt like they couldn't do anything,
Speaker 1: we couldn't leave our houses even YouTube, by your passion
Speaker 1: and your your passion for music and your desired to,
Speaker 1: you know, to do good for the world, really have
Speaker 1: made a you know, three million dollars in counting impact.
Speaker 1: It's really impressive. If I know, Richard Whites, You're gonna
Speaker 1: find a way to scale this and make this, as
Speaker 1: you say, you know, and even more permanent legacy. And
Speaker 1: it's just it's just damn impressive. Thank you for talking
Speaker 1: us through it, because again it's you know, ideas are great,
Speaker 1: Execution is what it's all about, and it's really great
Speaker 1: to talk with you both. Clearly, Miss Demi Whites is
Speaker 1: one to watch. We will, we will stay tuned for
Speaker 1: This industry is seventeen year old. Thank you so much
Speaker 1: and thanks for all the good that you do in
Speaker 1: the world. Well, thank you for having us. We are
Speaker 1: honored to have done it and this has been incredible.
Speaker 1: Thank you m hmm. Thanks for listening. Be sure to
Speaker 1: tune in next week for another episode of Strictly Business.
Speaker 1: H