Speaker 1: Welcome, Welcome, Welcome back to Bob Left podcast. My yesterday
Speaker 1: is promoter entrepreneur David Fishel David, Bob, Thanks, yeah, great
Speaker 1: to be here. Okay, winter shows coming back, I think October.
Speaker 1: I'm hoping that the Scorpions will return to Vegas so
Speaker 1: I can do a camp there. But you know, I'm
Speaker 1: still scared. I think it's gonna have to be two
Speaker 1: thousand twenty two. I think the to feel us, to
Speaker 1: us to feel secure that we're gonna be in a
Speaker 1: in a situation. Um, I think that's gonna have to
Speaker 1: be next year. Okay, you're planning to do this in
Speaker 1: the fall. Have you sold tickets for it? No? I
Speaker 1: didn't want to go on sale because the last thing
Speaker 1: I want to do is hold people's money. So, uh,
Speaker 1: I've just been I was really supposed to be in
Speaker 1: May and um, but no, I had Bright and White
Speaker 1: before ovid I stopped. I didn't go and sale. Okay,
Speaker 1: so how have you ridden out this year long process? So, Bob,
Speaker 1: I started these master classes in June because I wanted
Speaker 1: to recreate at least part of what I did at
Speaker 1: Rock and when I do at Rocketball Fantasy Camp. So
Speaker 1: I asked many of these artists if they would come
Speaker 1: on Zoom and I went to a universe part Ticketmaster
Speaker 1: and was selling tickets or people to come and be
Speaker 1: able to communicate with these artists. And uh I started
Speaker 1: with Mark Farner from Grant Funk, and I had Roger
Speaker 1: Doultrey on and the band Sticks and the Scorpions, and
Speaker 1: you know, these artists decided they were going to do
Speaker 1: this and give the money to their crews and uh
Speaker 1: so it's been fun we did. We've done a hundred
Speaker 1: fifty of them. Okay, if you've done a hundred and fifty,
Speaker 1: how many different acts or that is that? I would
Speaker 1: say we did about a hundred different acts, okay. And
Speaker 1: if you missed the live performance, can you watch the
Speaker 1: can you buy a ticket for the rerun? So I
Speaker 1: haven't done anything there yet. We have this amazing library.
Speaker 1: I'm just deciding what to do with it, and uh um,
Speaker 1: you know, the the artists and my partners on it.
Speaker 1: So I'm gonna confer with many of them, but I
Speaker 1: plan to do something with the with the information because
Speaker 1: these classes Bob unlike, these rock stars coming on usually
Speaker 1: doing interviews for records, and they're selling their their live gigs.
Speaker 1: They're giving away information and they're giving their sharing information
Speaker 1: that you can't get anywhere else. I mean, whether it's
Speaker 1: Alice Cooper talking about stuff or Roger Daltree. And uh,
Speaker 1: you know, I've been blown away by all these classes.
Speaker 1: You know, we've we've advertised the sixty minutes. They've all
Speaker 1: lasted ninety to two hours, um, and they've been really
Speaker 1: great and motivate and great motivation while we're going through COVID. Okay,
Speaker 1: how much is a ticket to one of these master classes?
Speaker 1: So the classes start um, and they've gone up to uh,
Speaker 1: you know, I charged five hundred for Roger adult because
Speaker 1: we're giving all the money to his charity. So twenty
Speaker 1: five people get get to spend five dollars to ask
Speaker 1: Roger a question, but most of them been a hundred
Speaker 1: dollars and um, and you know you get to really
Speaker 1: talk to these people and get some great info. So
Speaker 1: how many people are at each master class? So you know,
Speaker 1: we've altened it up to twenty five people, um, and
Speaker 1: they come in from all around the world. Um. And
Speaker 1: now we were increasing it to a few hundred where
Speaker 1: people can just watch them and uh, so you know,
Speaker 1: you buy a ticket for twenty five dollars, you can
Speaker 1: watch them um, and then someone who's paying, you know,
Speaker 1: twenty hundred dollars they get to really talk to the artist. Okay,
Speaker 1: you buy the ticket on ticket Masters. That correct, Yes,
Speaker 1: that that I have to ask a question, what about
Speaker 1: the fees? So the fees that you know, were they charged?
Speaker 1: The person pays above the fees, you know whatever, the
Speaker 1: fees are above UM. But there there, you know, there there.
Speaker 1: I started inventive and I started on and they're all
Speaker 1: the same. The only reason I asked, if one buys
Speaker 1: a concert ticket, there's a kick back to the building.
Speaker 1: There's a kick back to the promoter in addition to
Speaker 1: the fee to Ticketmaster, which is how it makes its money.
Speaker 1: So I would think inherently the fee. Would you would
Speaker 1: negotiate a lower fee on something like this? I did? Did?
Speaker 1: They did give us a lower fee, and I don't
Speaker 1: want it. Didn't take any money from him, you know,
Speaker 1: I think it's really um an opportunity for I want
Speaker 1: to take at Master because I wanted them to help me.
Speaker 1: My goal is for them to go to the concert
Speaker 1: um goer that they have the records of and to basically, Hey,
Speaker 1: you know you can't go to this depth leopard concept,
Speaker 1: but you can watch Joe elliott. I was hoping that
Speaker 1: was going to happen, but you know, we'll see what happens.
Speaker 1: They've been really slow during COVID. Okay, that begs the question,
Speaker 1: how are people aware of these master classes? What is
Speaker 1: the marketing? The marketing is basically been the artist promoting
Speaker 1: it on his site. And I have a two hundred
Speaker 1: thousand list of people over twenty five years who wanted
Speaker 1: to go to rock and roll Face camp. Where have
Speaker 1: gone to camp? And Uh, people come to camp and
Speaker 1: you know they they're they're coming into it and they're
Speaker 1: seeing it and the word about and how frequently do
Speaker 1: you have a master class. I've been doing him three
Speaker 1: or four nights a week, and uh, and you know
Speaker 1: now we're I took off a little bit during January
Speaker 1: because the Super Bowl a football, but we're going back.
Speaker 1: We're starting again. We're starting up with Roger on February seven,
Speaker 1: and um, we got Eddie Kramer's gonna mix a song.
Speaker 1: You're gonna be able to watch Eddie Kramer mixed a
Speaker 1: song live. You know you'll be able to sive in
Speaker 1: a song. I had Desmond Child last month doing three
Speaker 1: nights part time class or three night class where you
Speaker 1: got to send in your song to Desmond and he
Speaker 1: would basically took six songs and uh he gave everyone
Speaker 1: an hour an hour and a half and you got
Speaker 1: to watch him um comment on the song. And he
Speaker 1: was brilliant. I mean, some lady writes since he has
Speaker 1: I found love from Tennessee to Texas to the Alamo.
Speaker 1: He said, lady, we lost the Alamo. So he was
Speaker 1: he was great. He's I think he spent he spent
Speaker 1: three hours, three nights um doing that. So where side says,
Speaker 1: you know, bigger classes. Okay, the Desmond is quite a
Speaker 1: character and he has his opinions. He's great, but let's
Speaker 1: talk about someone who's not inherently a songwriter like Desmond.
Speaker 1: That's how he made his bones, although he's also a performer.
Speaker 1: What is the format of the class. So I have
Speaker 1: a young ladynamed Britt Lightning who was the lead guitarist
Speaker 1: and ViOn and she's been the host of all these classes.
Speaker 1: So I wanted someone who you know, knows music and
Speaker 1: and she's been you know, starts off the class with
Speaker 1: asking him a few questions and then we we we
Speaker 1: have these people come on zoom, we we un mute them,
Speaker 1: we get them to ask the question. And it's until
Speaker 1: crazy the way these people, you know, they stay up
Speaker 1: all night from London and they stay up from Chicarta.
Speaker 1: I mean they've and people come from all around the
Speaker 1: world to ask their their favorite person a question. I
Speaker 1: mean Eric Johnson, Uh, he was getting a guy from
Speaker 1: India who you know, he's done three classes and and
Speaker 1: it's been great, and you know, there's and he got
Speaker 1: to talk to the artists and the artists and you
Speaker 1: could say a load of them and it's really been great.
Speaker 1: It's been great. And it's not you know, like you said,
Speaker 1: it's not a mat and greed. It's it's not a cameo.
Speaker 1: You're gonna learn music, okay. And to what degree are
Speaker 1: these people musicians are fan boys so to speak, they're musicians.
Speaker 1: They're musicians and their vocalists and the young young ladies
Speaker 1: have come on who and young people who idolize these people,
Speaker 1: you know, Joey Kramer, you know, it's amazing that but
Speaker 1: the house of people that came on for Tom Hamilton,
Speaker 1: Joey Kramer we're teenagers who their parents listen to the bands,
Speaker 1: so you know they wanted to ask questions and do
Speaker 1: you listen and participate whether you talk or not in
Speaker 1: every master class or you know you can't pay attention
Speaker 1: to everything. Sorry, And I love Bridge, he does it all.
Speaker 1: I listen to most of them. I put her on mute.
Speaker 1: I start eating dinner. Um, I gotta tell you they've
Speaker 1: been so I've learned so much because again these artists
Speaker 1: are sharing materials about their careers and really trying to
Speaker 1: help people. So you know your friend Chef Gordon, he's
Speaker 1: done three of them, he sold out the most. Um,
Speaker 1: he's sold out the fastest. People want to ask questions. Hey,
Speaker 1: Chef Covid, you know what do I do with my career?
Speaker 1: I've seen agents come on. It's it's compuite interesting, Okay.
Speaker 1: And you're talking about all of them that you mentioned
Speaker 1: are essentially doing it for charity or any of them
Speaker 1: doing it for their own wallet, irrelevant of their cruise.
Speaker 1: Of course they're doing it for their own wallet, and
Speaker 1: someone are doing for the wallet. Chef gave his money
Speaker 1: to I think I wrote a check out to the
Speaker 1: Maui Food Bank. Um. But yes, the artists. You know what,
Speaker 1: many of the artists are doing it for their own
Speaker 1: for their own you know, because uh, they're not making money. Now, okay,
Speaker 1: So the artists you've had on the master classes, these
Speaker 1: are all artists you have had a previous relationship with. No,
Speaker 1: That's what's been interesting. Many of them are started that way.
Speaker 1: But then I've reached out to the the guitar player
Speaker 1: from Wilco and uh, you know, he was great, He
Speaker 1: did a class and never met him. Um So I've
Speaker 1: been asking people who've never done Rock and Roll Fantasy
Speaker 1: Camp to to come on and just see our brand,
Speaker 1: talk to our people. Um so yeah, it's been all
Speaker 1: different types of people, all different kinds of artists. Do
Speaker 1: you find that you have to sell or does your
Speaker 1: reputation proced you and to some people say no, well
Speaker 1: I found out my whole career. You know. People have
Speaker 1: said no, sure you're gonna you know you're gonna see No,
Speaker 1: because I've been doing a split with the artists. It's
Speaker 1: basically I'm doing a fifty fifty split with them, and uh,
Speaker 1: because you know, I want them to promote it, and
Speaker 1: and and also because who knows how what this what's
Speaker 1: going to happen here? So you know, so people show,
Speaker 1: people turn you down, you know, pick. Some people wanted
Speaker 1: the questions in advance. Some people wanted to you know,
Speaker 1: they were afraid that maybe someone's gonna call, you know,
Speaker 1: a person was gonna get online that they didn't want
Speaker 1: to know. But you know, have we've really honestly had
Speaker 1: no problems them spend a hundred bucks to call somebody
Speaker 1: and ask the stupid questions. It's it's really been great,
Speaker 1: it's really been fun. Okay, you know, each one of
Speaker 1: them is limited to twenty five people to ask and
Speaker 1: then the rest of people can watch. Okay, And those
Speaker 1: are different price points, yes, yes, they've been different price points.
Speaker 1: Those the the asked seventy five to a hundred and
Speaker 1: then the Prince and the listener has been And what
Speaker 1: is the largest audience you've had for listen only? I
Speaker 1: would say Roger to actually Joe Elliott dick Um. They
Speaker 1: were they were grand scorpions, a lot of people from
Speaker 1: around the world. How many people were in the Peanut
Speaker 1: Gallery listening? About two hundreds. I'm just suddenty five to Yeah, okay,
Speaker 1: you're a person whose main rep now is live performance.
Speaker 1: Needless say, there are no live performances. The master classes
Speaker 1: are not a conventional concert But do you believe or
Speaker 1: have any insight to doing virtual concerts? No, you know,
Speaker 1: I'm not un concept business. I'm not competing with Live
Speaker 1: Nation or a g um. I want to give away information.
Speaker 1: I want, I want. I want to teach people. You know,
Speaker 1: let's I've changed my whole lifestyle to share people the
Speaker 1: knowledge of these artists, these musicians. That's why created the camp.
Speaker 1: It's really it's really a place where you can come
Speaker 1: and and and learn and play with people that are
Speaker 1: better than you, and I want to get that experience.
Speaker 1: I'm not so essentially all your time at this point
Speaker 1: is camp and the other things established. And Ringo is
Speaker 1: a one off tour or would you have other touring
Speaker 1: acts or performances. No, I'm not even I'm not doing
Speaker 1: Ringo tours. I'm not doing his tours anymore. I'm not
Speaker 1: doing any live tours. I started my career. I did
Speaker 1: Happy Together, I did Dirty Dancing, I toured out. You know,
Speaker 1: I've been everywhere, and I you know, it's about fifteen
Speaker 1: years ago. I got remarried and I have two teenagers,
Speaker 1: and uh and I don't want to go on the
Speaker 1: road anymore. So rock Campus in my full time business
Speaker 1: the film UM. I worked on the film to a
Speaker 1: certain extent, but basically they told me stay out of
Speaker 1: the kitchen so they can take the cake, and they
Speaker 1: kept me out of it. UM. But no campus in
Speaker 1: the full time business. And now it's been the master
Speaker 1: class of promoting the film. Can you go a little
Speaker 1: deeper in terms of your exit from promotion? You know
Speaker 1: a lot of times people get squeezed out, some people quit.
Speaker 1: How did it end with you with Ringo and these
Speaker 1: other Happy Together et cetera. Okay, so my business model
Speaker 1: I you know, I started eighty four eighty eight four.
Speaker 1: I did my first Happy Together tour eight four five
Speaker 1: eighty six, I brought the Monkeys back, and then I
Speaker 1: did Dirty Dancing his live tour, then Ringo, and then
Speaker 1: I've created packages like Super seventies and American Gladias. Then
Speaker 1: what happened was once SFX and Live Nation came into
Speaker 1: business and I got scared. I got scared because my
Speaker 1: business model was find a UM, find a corporate sponsor,
Speaker 1: go to your agency and like William Morris the CIA
Speaker 1: at the end and let them book your shows with
Speaker 1: all the promoters so they can basically you'll you'll they
Speaker 1: they was they were selling for the promoters, guarantee the
Speaker 1: artists the money and then put them on tour. But
Speaker 1: what happened is once it we came down to one
Speaker 1: or two promoters, um, and I wasn't selling to the
Speaker 1: Ron Delston just in New York and Arnie Grantit in
Speaker 1: Chicago and Jules Belkin. Then you know, I couldn't take
Speaker 1: the chance, and I would produce the tour and then
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, Live Nation SFX. That's that it
Speaker 1: didn't sell, you don't want it. I'd be stuck having
Speaker 1: to pay the artists for all those shows. So I
Speaker 1: had to change my business model. And that's why I decided,
Speaker 1: is gonna do, you know, spend more time doing these
Speaker 1: camps and uh, but I had to get into promoting
Speaker 1: it camps. And let me tell you something. Promoting terrible, Bob.
Speaker 1: It's you know, I used to walk away from every
Speaker 1: gig say, oh, that promoter screwed me. That promoter screw
Speaker 1: there are more people in the house. It's terrible to promote.
Speaker 1: It's hard, it really is. Okay, before we addressed that
Speaker 1: the roll up started in ninety six. When did you
Speaker 1: have sunset in your promotion career? My? My, my best
Speaker 1: year was nineties six, eighties seven. I I brought the
Speaker 1: monkeys back. Um. And so where did you go out?
Speaker 1: When did you get out? No? Home on um, I
Speaker 1: would say my last touring was, um, I don't know,
Speaker 1: seventeen years ago. It's the last time I did the
Speaker 1: ring Goes tour. Um or fifteen years. I did Ringo
Speaker 1: fifteen years um and then right right right far I
Speaker 1: got married. Then I got married. No more touring. I
Speaker 1: want to keep this marriage. Okay, the fifteen years. Who
Speaker 1: does the Ringo tour now? Uh? Dave Hart does it
Speaker 1: and uh he puts it together and and I think
Speaker 1: he books it too. Okay, so it's still outside the
Speaker 1: A G Live Nation world. Yeah yeah, I mean I
Speaker 1: don't know how he does his business now, but you know,
Speaker 1: I know Ringos tours. It was exciting for me for
Speaker 1: fifteen years. I put together great band for him, um,
Speaker 1: and that was fun and uh and then but he's
Speaker 1: still touring. Yeah, God bless him. You know he's still
Speaker 1: going at eighties. Okay, did you ever think of partnering
Speaker 1: with a g or Live Nation years ago. I think
Speaker 1: I made I did make a mistake when I went
Speaker 1: to UM. I sold them a tour I saw. I
Speaker 1: think I sold Bruce Uh. Um uh, I think I
Speaker 1: was thinking Bruce's name. Um, but but THATSX. I told
Speaker 1: them about tour of Ringos tour and um. You know
Speaker 1: then I didn't take stock and I you know, back
Speaker 1: those days, I probably will like to, you know, partner
Speaker 1: with them now because I have such huge ideas I
Speaker 1: want to do with the rock camp. Um, this camp
Speaker 1: is going to go global because the film. I'm getting
Speaker 1: so much, so much interest for people to come to camp,
Speaker 1: and I really want to take it, take it around
Speaker 1: the world. I'm ready. Okay, but let's start with the
Speaker 1: building blocks. You're talking about how promoting is so hard. Uh?
Speaker 1: Why is it so hard? Why is it hard? Um? Okay,
Speaker 1: So how about this story. I'm doing my first Happy
Speaker 1: Together tour and the first year and then I did
Speaker 1: the second year. I sell it to Ron Delsner and
Speaker 1: he would buy from New York and Jones Beach. We
Speaker 1: had on Tommy Jay's we were on three Dog Night
Speaker 1: and he would sell eight thousand seats ten thousand seats
Speaker 1: and he would do the pier. So then I said
Speaker 1: to him one yet said, you know, ron Um, I'm gonna.
Speaker 1: I want to promote my own show. I'm gonna I'm
Speaker 1: gonna do two nights at the at the Beacons here.
Speaker 1: I'm going to the two shows because I guarantee the
Speaker 1: artist let me try it. And I go on sale
Speaker 1: and it's not selling. It's not selling, and I don't
Speaker 1: understand why it's not selling. Here. I was selling the
Speaker 1: summer out and then all of a sudden us fall.
Speaker 1: I'm not selling any tickets. And I never forget walking
Speaker 1: to the the theater and people are asking me tickets.
Speaker 1: Who needs tickets? Who needs tickets? I was thinking, wow,
Speaker 1: maybe it did sell out. I walk in there and
Speaker 1: that's a half a house. You know, selling promoting is
Speaker 1: very hard, and you know you've gotta advertise. You don't
Speaker 1: know what's gonna happen. Um, It's it's a very tough business.
Speaker 1: And and uh, you know, you don't know what's gonna happen,
Speaker 1: and you're always risking. I mean, and and I was
Speaker 1: risking when I was producing tours. As you saw in
Speaker 1: the film. You know, they they Joe walshould leave on
Speaker 1: out and play the joke on me. And after the
Speaker 1: first fourth, fourth show at the guard State Arts Center,
Speaker 1: and they basically want to quit, and I mortgage my house.
Speaker 1: I mean I mortgaged my house to put up that
Speaker 1: Ringo tour in beautiful Town Aus in Manhattan, and I
Speaker 1: mortgaged it to put down my deposits. Wow, okay, did
Speaker 1: touring break up your earlier marriage? I would say that,
Speaker 1: you know, being on the road a lot, Yeah, I did,
Speaker 1: because you know, you go on the road, and well
Speaker 1: I never used to go on the road and Happy
Speaker 1: Together tours. I never went on the road. I never
Speaker 1: went on the road really with those early tours, I
Speaker 1: go out to a city and then I come back.
Speaker 1: I go out to a city, come back. But when
Speaker 1: when I put the Ringo's first tour after the fourth show,
Speaker 1: I turned him and I said, uh, you know, I
Speaker 1: want to go home for the Sabbath, and you know
Speaker 1: I observed Shabbat and and uh he turned to me
Speaker 1: and he said, well, you know you can do the
Speaker 1: Sabbath in Buffalo. Why do you have to go, you know,
Speaker 1: go home, And basically said, you know, you said you're
Speaker 1: gonna be out of here with me. And I said, well,
Speaker 1: that's agent talk. You know, I don't really go on
Speaker 1: the road, and um, but then I realized that, you know,
Speaker 1: my business was in Buffalo, my businesses in Chicago. My
Speaker 1: businesses is wherever the artist is. And and I remember
Speaker 1: it was, you know, it was um, Bill Graham who
Speaker 1: threw something in my mind. We're at the Concorde Hotel
Speaker 1: and I was rehearsing the Monkey tour and Bill Graham, Um,
Speaker 1: we used to go up to the castles every summer
Speaker 1: to be a waiter. And he said to me, Um,
Speaker 1: he had a little to drink one night. And I said,
Speaker 1: but what do you do for him? With him? He's
Speaker 1: on the Rolling Stone the tour manager. And what do
Speaker 1: you mean you're the Rolling Stones tour manager. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: have to go on the road. Who else can tell
Speaker 1: Mick Jagger get f on the bus and you know,
Speaker 1: and basically he said, you gotta be out there. So
Speaker 1: with Rinko, I decided, you know what, I have to
Speaker 1: be out there. And you were out on the road
Speaker 1: for four months, and you know, basically you come home
Speaker 1: and you know, you want to tell the wife what
Speaker 1: to do. And she said looks at you and says, wait,
Speaker 1: you haven't been here for four months. What are what
Speaker 1: are you trying to do? So I found being on
Speaker 1: the road very difficult for my marriage. And how did
Speaker 1: you meet your new wife? Your present wife? So my
Speaker 1: present wife walks into my house for a sad. I
Speaker 1: used to host a lot of singles on on for
Speaker 1: shoppist lunch in my house, and in walks a young
Speaker 1: lady who's a Duran Duran groupie, and I couldn't need
Speaker 1: to find a woman whose orthodox and who can rock
Speaker 1: and roll. And she turned out to be a groupie
Speaker 1: and who became Orthodox. And we have two teenagers and uh,
Speaker 1: seven grandkids. I got three older kids, and uh we're
Speaker 1: all living together here in l A. So it's really nice. Okay.
Speaker 1: Were these single nights giving back to the community or
Speaker 1: a way for you to meet your new wife? That's
Speaker 1: the great question, you know. I I holsted the meals
Speaker 1: right eventually to meet my new wife. But uh, you know,
Speaker 1: in the beginning, I didn't want to get married. I
Speaker 1: thought I'm not getting married again. I got grandkids, and uh,
Speaker 1: I remember Roger adult she asked me. He says, what
Speaker 1: about that girl you met you told me about her.
Speaker 1: I said, Rob, if she wants to have kids, I
Speaker 1: have two grandkids, I don't. I don't want any more kids.
Speaker 1: And then he said to me, you have kids at
Speaker 1: sixty five, teenagers running around your house. And I said, okay,
Speaker 1: And you know what, I wake up every morning. I'm
Speaker 1: so thankful to him because, you know, having teenagers around
Speaker 1: the house, that's just at my age, especially now I'm
Speaker 1: sixty four, it's great. They're so motivated and they keep
Speaker 1: me alive and keep me going. And you know, frequently
Speaker 1: the breakups of the marriage affect your relationships with children,
Speaker 1: especially when you're on the road. So what happened with
Speaker 1: the three initial children, who you also say live in
Speaker 1: the local area of Los Angeles? Now, so I were
Speaker 1: Fortunately when when I got divorced um my ex wife,
Speaker 1: she moved to Florida and said, you you know you
Speaker 1: want the kids, you keep the kids, you know. So
Speaker 1: for a while, uh I basically was a main parent,
Speaker 1: and uh I raised the kids and uh I kept
Speaker 1: I moved my office into my town. I was in Manhattan.
Speaker 1: The kids would come home from from the yeshiva. They
Speaker 1: would do their homework in front of me, and so
Speaker 1: I'm very close with my kids. I my daughter Alana,
Speaker 1: she called me today. Um, she works for a company
Speaker 1: called Beach Body and they're going public and she's a
Speaker 1: real superstar, a lot of mostly in and she told
Speaker 1: me a lot. You know. These kids are are and
Speaker 1: my other son and my daughter is married to a
Speaker 1: rabbi here in Hancock Park and they have five kids.
Speaker 1: And my son Josh is here. So yeah, I know
Speaker 1: I was. I was the main parent. Okay, So how's
Speaker 1: their relationship with their mother? Uh? Fortunately passed away, you know.
Speaker 1: And yeah, the mom passed away, Bob and about three
Speaker 1: years ago. And and uh so now it's me. I
Speaker 1: got to do it all and I love it. I
Speaker 1: love it. Okay, how did you decide to move to
Speaker 1: l A? So I was doing the rock and Roll
Speaker 1: Fantasy camps and um Mark Burnett um came to see
Speaker 1: me in New York and he said, I want to
Speaker 1: make a reality series out of your show and out
Speaker 1: of your camps, and um, you know I had done
Speaker 1: one earlier on TLC. They did a special they William
Speaker 1: Maritza had offered John Farred to the late John farredy
Speaker 1: offered me. Uh, said, I got a deal for you.
Speaker 1: They want to do a series on Rock Roll Fantasy
Speaker 1: Camp and they want to, you know, make it like
Speaker 1: The Bachelor meets uh Rock and I remember Forget, I
Speaker 1: remember Colly Roger and I said, Roger got a enough
Speaker 1: for a series here, and he says, don't do it.
Speaker 1: It's gonna kill your brand. And so I decided not
Speaker 1: to do it, but he said, do it two hours special.
Speaker 1: They did a two hour special and it turned out great,
Speaker 1: and he did. It was on TLC and Brett Michaels
Speaker 1: was in a Mills Locker was in it. Basney told
Speaker 1: the story about Camp. Then when when Mark Burnett came
Speaker 1: to see me and he promised me, I'll make a
Speaker 1: reality show. I said, you know, you gotta keep it
Speaker 1: rock and roll. It can't be reality. And he tried
Speaker 1: the best he could. He sold us a v H
Speaker 1: one classic. It was pre the Voice, it was, it
Speaker 1: was you know it was. It was a good show.
Speaker 1: But I wanted to come out to l A. And uh,
Speaker 1: I've always wanted to come out to l A. But
Speaker 1: I didn't want to leave my parents years ago, and
Speaker 1: so I came out first and then the kids followed me.
Speaker 1: It was great, Okay, l A is getting a bad rap.
Speaker 1: Now all of California you still sold? Or would you
Speaker 1: ever move back? No, I'm staying here. You wake up
Speaker 1: every morning and you see the sunshine, and you've got
Speaker 1: your grandkids here, and no, I'm not going back. And
Speaker 1: you know I saw, I'll pay the extra taxes and tears.
Speaker 1: I liked it. And now my next top is Israel.
Speaker 1: That's where I'm going next. Okay, you and Sheldon Adolson
Speaker 1: who was no there with us. But in any event,
Speaker 1: when you talk about the two TLC and v H one,
Speaker 1: if you could rewind the clock, would you have done them?
Speaker 1: I would have. Yeah, the TLC I loved um. When
Speaker 1: I've done the idea, No, I probably wouldn't have done
Speaker 1: the Mark Burnette one because it really doesn't show what
Speaker 1: my camp is about. You know, my campus about people.
Speaker 1: It's not young people aspiring to be rock stars. It's
Speaker 1: people over forty wanting who had a decision in life
Speaker 1: to make. They were they were, they were in high school, college,
Speaker 1: they were in a band, and they have to make
Speaker 1: a decision do I become a rock star or do
Speaker 1: I get a real job. And they really wanted to
Speaker 1: become a rock star. You know, my my third book.
Speaker 1: I'm writing a book. Now, Hey, mom, I could have
Speaker 1: been a rock star, but you maybe go to Harvard.
Speaker 1: And that's my customer. And um, they're passionate about what
Speaker 1: they want to be a musician. And you know, Joe
Speaker 1: Perry was funny. One night he gave a class he
Speaker 1: was talking about at camp. He said to a guy
Speaker 1: were in Fox was doing a rock camp. He turns
Speaker 1: to a guy, he says, hey, what do you do
Speaker 1: for a living? And guy said, I'm a doctor. And
Speaker 1: then the weekends, I have a band. And he says
Speaker 1: to him, and I play guitar. And Joe says, no, no,
Speaker 1: you're a guitarist. First you do the other medical bullshit
Speaker 1: to pay for your guitars. And it's true. A musicians
Speaker 1: a musician. And so that's that's really what I'm about.
Speaker 1: I'm about teaching getting people to play with these superstars.
Speaker 1: It will make them a better player. You saw in
Speaker 1: the films that you become a better player, and it's
Speaker 1: really you're living a dream. And unlike the sports fantasy
Speaker 1: camps where they they end when you you know, thirty
Speaker 1: five campaign athlete, you can still make a living being
Speaker 1: a musician at sixty five seven, that you can play
Speaker 1: a bar mits, so you can write a song, you
Speaker 1: can be in a tribute band. And I've seen these
Speaker 1: people graduates from my camps and just really flourish. Now
Speaker 1: a lot of rock stars are legendary for either being
Speaker 1: non verbal or off putting. How do you what's your
Speaker 1: experience and how do you live in These people up
Speaker 1: who were gunshy, who might have gotten into music because
Speaker 1: their music would speak for them. Well, listen, this camp
Speaker 1: could not never worked if it wasn't for um, you know,
Speaker 1: people wanting to give back, and not every It's not
Speaker 1: for every musician I've turned you know, people turned me down.
Speaker 1: Remember when I first started the Door Raymond Derek and
Speaker 1: the Door said I'm up playing with amateurs, you know,
Speaker 1: and and people turned me down. And the way I
Speaker 1: got it started really was I I went to see
Speaker 1: Roger uh and Roger he had just done a tour
Speaker 1: for me in British roc Symphony. And I did my
Speaker 1: first camp in Florida as you see in the film,
Speaker 1: and Um, I called Mills, Cinna called Clarence Clemence. Mills
Speaker 1: got it. Clarence said I'll come over, and even my
Speaker 1: love of the Beach Boys and Mark Farne. I call
Speaker 1: everybody that I knew and then towards them and said, hey,
Speaker 1: I got got this crazy idea. What you come And
Speaker 1: they came, and um, I had about sixteen people, and
Speaker 1: then I had but I had forty media people came
Speaker 1: and uh, they came to watch and but people had
Speaker 1: a great time. And the meeting guys to me and said,
Speaker 1: you know, we were gonna blow you. We were we
Speaker 1: were gonna, you know, write terrible things about you. But
Speaker 1: this thing is great. We're really learning, have be fun.
Speaker 1: And they wrote great stories. So um, then when I
Speaker 1: want to see you know Roger, and I said to her,
Speaker 1: I explained to him what I'm doing and he didn't
Speaker 1: understand it. He could saying, comp what's the camp? What's
Speaker 1: the camp? What's the camp now? Bob, I grew up
Speaker 1: in the cast Cools. I went to camp. You know
Speaker 1: those guys in England the word camp you know. He
Speaker 1: said you should do with the Thompson Twins of the
Speaker 1: village people. They the work camping in London needs something else.
Speaker 1: So I turned him. I said, Roger, let's let me
Speaker 1: change the subject. If you had a chance to play
Speaker 1: with your hero. Who would you want to play with it?
Speaker 1: You know the way he says, leave on Helm. He says,
Speaker 1: you introduced me to leave on Helm. I'll do your can,
Speaker 1: so now leave on. I hadn't met him through the
Speaker 1: Ringo and he did my first ring Goo tour. I
Speaker 1: turned to Roger, I said, you know Leean's you know,
Speaker 1: he's not doing well financially. Said whatever you're gonna give him,
Speaker 1: we're gonna gives me give it to him. I want
Speaker 1: to meet him. So I called leve On and said,
Speaker 1: leve On, would you come to camp up and meet
Speaker 1: Roger and I can get him to come to my camp. Well,
Speaker 1: I'll be there there, I'll be there for you. And
Speaker 1: he was so nice. He came down from what suck.
Speaker 1: He got to meet Roger. And then Roger comes to
Speaker 1: the camp and he starts jamming with the feeble room
Speaker 1: after room, and then he turns to me says, what
Speaker 1: are they gonna when when these people are performing? I said,
Speaker 1: they're performing at the bottom line, he's not gonna jam
Speaker 1: with each band. And he came and and I gotta
Speaker 1: I gotta give him credit, because you know, he really
Speaker 1: enjoyed it. Had a great experience, and he's done seven
Speaker 1: camps for me, and um, it's been interesting for him too,
Speaker 1: because you know, he's got to meet some great people.
Speaker 1: When one of the campers game two hundred fifties thousand
Speaker 1: dollars to play a Who's Song with him at at
Speaker 1: for his charity, you know, he rodgers all about teat
Speaker 1: cancer and uh and so he's met some great people. Okay,
Speaker 1: let's go back to the beginning. You grow up where
Speaker 1: I grew up in Hackinsack, New Jersey. I'm born in Manhattan.
Speaker 1: My dad said cancer. He's a survivor of the Holocaust.
Speaker 1: He survived out for this, he said, I book them. Well, Um,
Speaker 1: so you know I heard the stories my whole life.
Speaker 1: My father was one of those who talked about it.
Speaker 1: You know, something anson't even talk about. He talks about
Speaker 1: it every day every day. He put it in my
Speaker 1: head about what he went through. And uh, so I
Speaker 1: grew up basically in in Hackensack, New Jersey. Um, the
Speaker 1: only how about your mother? What was she like? What
Speaker 1: was her background? My mom was from Berlin. UM and
Speaker 1: when when Hitler was taking over in Germany, her father
Speaker 1: took his diamonds, he sewed him in his jacket and
Speaker 1: he just said, I'm going on vacation. He took my
Speaker 1: mom and and and my grandmother and they went to
Speaker 1: Israel and then eventually they came to New York City.
Speaker 1: He couldn't make a living in Israel, but he basically
Speaker 1: he was able to sew his diamonds up and and
Speaker 1: uh in his coat and left. My father was in
Speaker 1: you know, he was from Bratislava, and um he lived
Speaker 1: as a non Jew. That was amazing. My dad lives
Speaker 1: as a non Jew. And his brother in law was
Speaker 1: a guy named Castetna. And I don't know if you
Speaker 1: remember they had those videographers she those ca okay, So
Speaker 1: that was his brother in law. So my dad learned
Speaker 1: how to make how to print. So he lived as
Speaker 1: he escaped from a concentration camp called Sarah. It was
Speaker 1: a small camp and he makes his way to Budapest
Speaker 1: and he lives as a non Jew. My dad survived
Speaker 1: because he was blonde hair and he was blue eyed,
Speaker 1: so he didn't look Jewish. And he called his name
Speaker 1: Red Martin was his nickname. And he worked in a
Speaker 1: printing press and he made false passports and I can't
Speaker 1: tell you how many Jews. I met over the years,
Speaker 1: so many people that he saved their lives. Um, he
Speaker 1: made false passports and uh, it was a great Rabbi
Speaker 1: said to me one day, he said, you know, my
Speaker 1: whole life I made people Jews. Your dad may maybe
Speaker 1: a non Jews maybe. Okay, just since with this deep
Speaker 1: into it, how did your father get hurted up and
Speaker 1: go to the concentration camp to begin with? So, Um,
Speaker 1: he got captured. Um In the police arrested him and
Speaker 1: in brought the slava and they rounded up him and
Speaker 1: his father. His father they sent right away to a
Speaker 1: camp right near Auschwitz. So that's why my dad was
Speaker 1: trying to get to Budapest. He was trying to get
Speaker 1: to Budapest because he wanted to get close to his father.
Speaker 1: My dad's part of he was six brothers, six sisters,
Speaker 1: um and uh. Five of the brothers, five of the
Speaker 1: brothers survived and six except one Um. The other sisters
Speaker 1: they died in the camps. And so then he got
Speaker 1: hut up. But oh, so then he escaped the camp. Okay,
Speaker 1: he jumped over a fence. And there's a book called
Speaker 1: the Yellow Star that was just came out. Um. It
Speaker 1: was written in the sixties, but they they just republished
Speaker 1: it um and Um. It's called The Yellow Stars on
Speaker 1: It's on Amazon, and it really tells the story about
Speaker 1: my father and his his five friends how they survived Auschwitz
Speaker 1: and book bold but basically how they kept My father
Speaker 1: would get on the floor and the Nazis wouldraw these
Speaker 1: UH cigarette butts, and he would take the cigarette us
Speaker 1: and the part that wasn't smoked, he he put together
Speaker 1: a cigarette and then he traded flower so he can
Speaker 1: make matzos on Passover with water. He my father kept
Speaker 1: a religion as much as he could in the camps,
Speaker 1: and he gets caught. But he gets caught, Um. He
Speaker 1: got beaten a crazy because someone told on him on
Speaker 1: the streets in Budapest that that that man is making
Speaker 1: false passports, and he got arrested. He goes to Auschwitz
Speaker 1: and then he volunteers to get out of Auschwitz, to
Speaker 1: speak to UH, to go to book and Wall, to
Speaker 1: work in a plane factory, and he gets liberated for
Speaker 1: the American government, Um, the American Army. Second night of Passover,
Speaker 1: he gets liberated from book and Walter. Wow, how many
Speaker 1: kids in the family. It's just me and my brother Joe,
Speaker 1: Joe is six years old than me. He's a rabbi
Speaker 1: in Boca Raton. Um. He's the rock and roll fan.
Speaker 1: He's the one that my brother is. Really. I was
Speaker 1: a sports guy. I was. I was a sports agent.
Speaker 1: I love sports. My brother loved rock and roll. I
Speaker 1: remember when I got to pick up Jer Baker and
Speaker 1: he came to camp. I said to him Ginger. Um.
Speaker 1: I heard two words growing up, God and Ginger Baker.
Speaker 1: My father Wou was talking about God and my brother
Speaker 1: Joey talked about Ginger. Joey is the Yeah, he still is.
Speaker 1: He's a rabbi and in all his congregation brings him
Speaker 1: gold record and brings them records all day. It takes
Speaker 1: the concerts and you know that's he loves that. And
Speaker 1: did you take piano lessons or play an instrument? Growing up?
Speaker 1: I tried at the piano lessons guitar, and you know what,
Speaker 1: I was terrible, and you know, and I wanted to
Speaker 1: be in my brother's band. And you know, because he
Speaker 1: was a drummer, he got all the girls and he
Speaker 1: was six years older and I couldn't do it. And
Speaker 1: you know, I tried to be in the band and Um.
Speaker 1: Then my Dad turned to me and he says, get
Speaker 1: out of the band. You know. He said, you can
Speaker 1: book six bands a night. So it was my dad
Speaker 1: and I booked my brother up in the castles. So
Speaker 1: did you go to Jewish school? Did you go to
Speaker 1: regular public school? Now? I went to the Shiva. I
Speaker 1: want to Aschiva my whole life. And you know, I
Speaker 1: have to both the Hebrews and English people in the
Speaker 1: English studies. And then I went to college for about
Speaker 1: a year. Um, it wasn't I went to Baruke in Manhattan. Um.
Speaker 1: And then I met my first ball player. I was
Speaker 1: twenty years old. I meet Elliot Mattics to center field
Speaker 1: of the Yankees, and um, and I always wanted to
Speaker 1: be a sports agent. So he introduced to Luke and
Speaker 1: Ella and then I met Vince. Oh a little bit slower,
Speaker 1: Let's go back to your Judaism. What is the future
Speaker 1: of Judaism both worldwide and in America with so much
Speaker 1: injured marriage? What's your philosophy or well that you know,
Speaker 1: I'm very opinionate on that. I am so against into marriage, um,
Speaker 1: only because I think that, um, it will it will
Speaker 1: lessen the Jewish race. Um. But on the other hand,
Speaker 1: you know, love is important. So I'm at a stage
Speaker 1: in my life where you know, love comes first, but
Speaker 1: I don't encourage into marriage. Um. But I respect everybody
Speaker 1: to find love in their life. So uh, you know
Speaker 1: it's um, I asked to respect it. But I think Judaism,
Speaker 1: I think we're doing better. I think, uh um, Israel
Speaker 1: is becoming such an incredible place. I mean, the state
Speaker 1: of Israel, all the technology that comes out of there. There,
Speaker 1: people are moving there. Um. You know, it's incredible. I
Speaker 1: mean I I think Truthum is a nice city in Manhattan.
Speaker 1: You know, it's a great place to live. Okay, what
Speaker 1: about the increased anti Semitism in America in the last
Speaker 1: four years. It's bad and it has been bad. You know.
Speaker 1: I live in a neighborhood here in Hancock Park where
Speaker 1: you know they destroyed the you know the rioty. They
Speaker 1: were you know, groth stuff on the walls of the
Speaker 1: the synagogues and my daughter's schools. That was scary. That
Speaker 1: was very scary. You know, I put acre out my
Speaker 1: house because I was afraid what's going on? So you know,
Speaker 1: anti Semitism will always be there, um. But you know, uh, well,
Speaker 1: what am I gonna do we we we were not
Speaker 1: gonna live. We're not gonna live. My dad was a
Speaker 1: very very strong about village and about being proud of
Speaker 1: your Judaism, proud of your religion. Um, you know it's
Speaker 1: I remember walking to synagogue in Galveston, Texas, and and
Speaker 1: and you know, Brocton Mats. We walked to the guy
Speaker 1: and a guy yelled out dirty June. My father. I
Speaker 1: never saw my father run so fast, and and he
Speaker 1: tracked down those kids, and you know, walked into the
Speaker 1: high school, onto Brockton High and and he told the
Speaker 1: principal he's he was a real, real strong believer in Okay,
Speaker 1: you're someone who wears a keep skull cap. It's you're
Speaker 1: quite obviously Jewish. I would assume in this business and
Speaker 1: traveling around the country, you've encouraged and you even countered
Speaker 1: anti semitism on a regular basis. You know, I can't
Speaker 1: I really encounter it. I know I was representing professional athletes. Um.
Speaker 1: You know, some of the general mounagers that say, you know,
Speaker 1: would be would be would say things to me, but
Speaker 1: I don't think they realized what they were saying. UM.
Speaker 1: And I you know, I think I think you'll get
Speaker 1: a kick out of this. I was, I was producing
Speaker 1: Dirty Dancing as a live tour. And if remember I
Speaker 1: did that tour. Uh I did it with Dennis Arfa
Speaker 1: and came up with his constant to put Dirty Dancing
Speaker 1: on the road. And it was huge. It was. It
Speaker 1: was a big, big, big tour for me and UM.
Speaker 1: It played all around the world. And I got a
Speaker 1: phone call from the promoter in Germany. What was his name,
Speaker 1: the Israeli guy um I just talked about the other day.
Speaker 1: He represented UM Michael Jackson there and he called me up.
Speaker 1: He said, David, I want to bring Dirty Dancing to Germany.
Speaker 1: And I said, and he said, I love you half
Speaker 1: a million dollars And I said, I'm not taking Dirty
Speaker 1: Dancing to Germany. I said, I'm not selling a show
Speaker 1: of Germany. I said, Bob, I was raised, you wouldn't
Speaker 1: have lots of I could if I couldn't drive a Mercedes,
Speaker 1: I couldn't drive a b W. I couldn't wear a
Speaker 1: leather coat. If it was made in Germany, it wasn't
Speaker 1: at my house. And so I said, no, I'm thinking
Speaker 1: of his name. I'll think of his name. Then another
Speaker 1: promoter calls me up and he says, David. He says,
Speaker 1: we'll off he as seven and fifty to bring dirty
Speaker 1: dancing to Germany. I said, I can't do it. You know,
Speaker 1: I'm not doing it. I'm gonna get I'm just not
Speaker 1: doing it. And then I got a quote from a
Speaker 1: well known lawyer in this town and he said, David,
Speaker 1: please meet my promoter. Um he's in town. And what
Speaker 1: really wants the big dirty dancing to Germany. Everyone knows
Speaker 1: you're not gonna sell it, and but they take the
Speaker 1: meeting with him. So I'm gonna get paid. You know,
Speaker 1: he's gonna speak. And the guy comes to see me
Speaker 1: and he says it offers me a million dollars. He said,
Speaker 1: I'll give you a million dollars to do these shows
Speaker 1: in Germany. So I said, you know, I'll think about it,
Speaker 1: but I'm not doing it. And I call that night.
Speaker 1: I called my father at home. I said dead. I said,
Speaker 1: you're gonna be proud of me. I turned the million
Speaker 1: dollars and I hear my father the on the phone.
Speaker 1: This up. I think this, Michiga, are you not nothing
Speaker 1: to take the money. You don't spend the money. Take
Speaker 1: the money. And I never forget to call the guy back.
Speaker 1: I said, okay, for a million three, we'll do it.
Speaker 1: And um I saw I did during dancing in Germany.
Speaker 1: So you know, listen, I've been to every synagogue around
Speaker 1: the country. I spent the Sabbath at every rabbi kabbad house. Um.
Speaker 1: You know what, keeping the religions probably kept me enthusiastic
Speaker 1: all these years. It kept me away from the drugs,
Speaker 1: It kept me away from you know, it just kept
Speaker 1: me as much centered as I could be because I
Speaker 1: knew that I need time off. And you know, you know,
Speaker 1: this business is crazy, pub and crazy in the sense
Speaker 1: that it's not reality. It's not reality. And um, you
Speaker 1: know one thing that changed my life to two was
Speaker 1: I did a program about twenty years ago. Um. I
Speaker 1: was a young lady here in l A recommend me
Speaker 1: to the hostin process and I went away to this
Speaker 1: place and uh for seven days and you know, and
Speaker 1: I'll never forget changed my life and really to work
Speaker 1: on myself because I've been doing this since I'm twenty
Speaker 1: years old, around athletes, around stars, and you gotta see reality.
Speaker 1: It's it's hard. Okay, Uh, you go, let's go back
Speaker 1: to the cat's skills. Was there any chance to save
Speaker 1: the cats skills? And is there any way to resuscitate
Speaker 1: the cats skills? The mountains, you know, the mountains we
Speaker 1: were was a great learning place for me because first
Speaker 1: of all it was as an agent, you have to
Speaker 1: go at sell the docks in these hotels, in these bungalows.
Speaker 1: But it also taught me why worked for this agency.
Speaker 1: What they would do is they would go to Heny Youngman,
Speaker 1: say hey, Henny, here's fifty shows guarantee for the summer,
Speaker 1: for the ten weeks, for a Memorial Day to Labor Day.
Speaker 1: They would do that to Freddy Roman, they would give
Speaker 1: it and they would book them in a bungalow colony.
Speaker 1: They would book them to open for humper dak at
Speaker 1: the concorde Um, you know, wherever they sent you. And
Speaker 1: that's how I got into these passage stores. I would
Speaker 1: guarantee the money I took what I learned there. Now,
Speaker 1: the problem with the castles was they were seving three
Speaker 1: meals a day, and but I was the waiter up there,
Speaker 1: and we would stuff our people so much. We'd beat
Speaker 1: them a hundred main dishes because we knew at the
Speaker 1: end of the week we didn't want to get a
Speaker 1: big tip, So you know, I bring them a side
Speaker 1: of chicken inside of turkey. You know, I just keep
Speaker 1: you know, and no one will order a whole portion.
Speaker 1: I just want to side the side of this, the
Speaker 1: side of that, and um, you would stuff them. And
Speaker 1: now you gotta understand those comedians who worked up there,
Speaker 1: the Freddy Roman, the Jack Carters, the Jen Murray's, none
Speaker 1: of those those great built and growths. They have to
Speaker 1: entertain people wait three meals a day at growth, seviers
Speaker 1: in the concorde who stuffed themselves. And now at tenth
Speaker 1: thirty night there was a singer would go on and
Speaker 1: then there was a comedian and trying to make people laugh.
Speaker 1: And you know, unlike where you buy a ticket to
Speaker 1: a show where you know you're sitting there like you're
Speaker 1: gonna clap and everything. It's like doing those corporate dates
Speaker 1: those artists. Hey, you know, I hate those corporate dates.
Speaker 1: So those people get the show for free. So you know,
Speaker 1: I was at a Beyonce show once and I still
Speaker 1: have the people walked out because they didn't pay for it.
Speaker 1: And that's a little as in the castles. They these
Speaker 1: people sit back, Okay, did they sit back. They look
Speaker 1: at the communities that got dat you enter tame me,
Speaker 1: I dare you to make me laugh? And the stick
Speaker 1: that these guys had to do and these ladies, it
Speaker 1: was incredible. I don't think the castle will ever come back.
Speaker 1: People don't want the three meals a day, um, but
Speaker 1: they want the homes up there. You know, it's still
Speaker 1: a great place to go. And I recently sold my
Speaker 1: house up there because I couldn't sell it. I thought
Speaker 1: gambling was going to change. Okay, so your father says
Speaker 1: to stop playing and start booking your How old and
Speaker 1: how extensive is your booking business before you get into sports?
Speaker 1: So I was My booking business was basically I was
Speaker 1: booking Jewish centers and organizations UM around the country. And
Speaker 1: I was booking UM. I was live in Herschel. Bernardi
Speaker 1: was my first client, and and I was booking Herschel
Speaker 1: and UM and then in the castles. I was booking
Speaker 1: those because the Bungalo colleagues in the hotels and uh.
Speaker 1: And then I go into the sports business. And I'm
Speaker 1: before you go into sports and you're going to college
Speaker 1: one year, how how much is this a business? How
Speaker 1: much money are you making or is it a sideline?
Speaker 1: What is it? It's you know, making thirty dollars a year.
Speaker 1: I'm you know, I don't have to be a waiter.
Speaker 1: I'm storry to make some money. Um, booking a corporate
Speaker 1: dates and but you know, really synagogues and and I
Speaker 1: was making my thirty that's pretty good money back then. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it wasn't Yeah, it wasn't bad. I was always making money.
Speaker 1: What did your parents say about you dropping out of school?
Speaker 1: My mother was so upset at me. Um, my father
Speaker 1: didn't have a college education. My mother was so upset
Speaker 1: at me. And I have to share something, you know.
Speaker 1: At the last camp, you know, and we all worked
Speaker 1: on our childhood and our parents. It's all about our
Speaker 1: parents where we come from. I'll stay only at the
Speaker 1: last At the last camp, he did. He gets up
Speaker 1: there and he says, he gets interviews and one of
Speaker 1: the kid, I have a young kid who interviewed him
Speaker 1: and he said to him, so, what did your parents
Speaker 1: think when you became successful? And he says, you know,
Speaker 1: my my mother she was so proud of me. My
Speaker 1: father he was jealous. He still alive, my father, and
Speaker 1: he's jealous of me. And he was jealous of my success.
Speaker 1: And all of a sudden I got hit. I thought
Speaker 1: that my brother was the favorite. That he was six
Speaker 1: years older. My brothers the rabbi. He went to college,
Speaker 1: he went to masters. You know, he got his master's,
Speaker 1: and you know, he was the favorite. I always walked around.
Speaker 1: He was the favorite. And I realized that it wasn't
Speaker 1: that my mother was jealous of me. She was jealous. Um,
Speaker 1: I was living this good life and and you know
Speaker 1: I had a nice home and a nice apartment out
Speaker 1: of place in Israel, and you know that, I think
Speaker 1: so my mother was really always upset. You can't make
Speaker 1: it without going to college, you know, Bob. I looked
Speaker 1: back at it, and I did go back to college.
Speaker 1: After I did that house in process us and I
Speaker 1: try to find myself. I went back. I did some years,
Speaker 1: and I did. I went to Ford and took a
Speaker 1: bunch of classes. And I think she's just right, you know.
Speaker 1: I mean, I tell my kids, now, you've got all
Speaker 1: my kids got masters. They all get to finish college.
Speaker 1: And yu, my my my son the other day said
Speaker 1: you should be a lawyer. Um, I really believe in education.
Speaker 1: But here I was. I had an opportunity too. I
Speaker 1: was representing a baseball player twenty years old. I picked
Speaker 1: up ll Matic and then Luke Panella. So you know,
Speaker 1: you go to college to try to find a job
Speaker 1: at a living and I was able to find a
Speaker 1: living at twenty years old. Okay, how did you make
Speaker 1: the deal to represent Elliot Maddox? So I was writing
Speaker 1: for the the newspaper, the Jewish Press, and I was
Speaker 1: staying in a camp in the summer, and um they
Speaker 1: were having uh I was staying at this this camp
Speaker 1: and Dr J showed up and all these ballplayers, um
Speaker 1: were showing up to these camp and uh, I saw
Speaker 1: how crazy these kids would go. And and here I
Speaker 1: was collecting money, trying to get paid for these bungal
Speaker 1: callbinator owners and the hotel owners, for the comedians and singers.
Speaker 1: I sold them and they would say, they said to me,
Speaker 1: I've been taken up twenty five hours because the singer
Speaker 1: didn't do a song from Findler on the Roof or
Speaker 1: the comedie wasn't funny. I said, this is crazy. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna I'm gonna book ball players. I wanna get ball
Speaker 1: when they show up their heroes. They signed autographs and
Speaker 1: That's when I did. I went to Elliot Mattics. I
Speaker 1: met him at Yankees say him. I was doing an
Speaker 1: interview I Jews in sports, and my first guy was
Speaker 1: Ron Bloomberg. I went interview him and then I asked
Speaker 1: if he did the appearance of the camp. He said,
Speaker 1: he's rehabbing. He says, meet Elliot Mattics, and uh. I
Speaker 1: went up with Elliot and I just started a business.
Speaker 1: They said, let's start representing ballplayers together. So I opened
Speaker 1: the little company called Elliot Mattics Enterprises. And then he
Speaker 1: injud me to lou Pinella and uh, and then lose
Speaker 1: you know, really was the start of my you know,
Speaker 1: my my start of my sports career. He introduced me
Speaker 1: to Vince Ferrik. I'm out here for the dryer out here,
Speaker 1: and you know, the one thing about ball players are
Speaker 1: if you do a good job for them, they share
Speaker 1: locker rooms to get other so they recommend you and uh.
Speaker 1: And then I got still sims of the quarterback as
Speaker 1: the Giants, and then I got the whole offensive line.
Speaker 1: I was representing nine of the New York Giants in
Speaker 1: nineteen eighties six. I couldn't even take on any more clients.
Speaker 1: You know, one team, you and nine players? So how
Speaker 1: did you get lou? How did lose? Say? Yes? Did
Speaker 1: he have an agent previously? No, he never had any.
Speaker 1: Those sports guys didn't have agents. So I called Loud
Speaker 1: to do an appearance at the camp and I picked
Speaker 1: him up and drove him there and afterwards, let's forget.
Speaker 1: He said, whence you come to my house? Blocker? He
Speaker 1: gave me, He gave me twenty hours and he said
Speaker 1: histily against and no, no, please, I don't want it,
Speaker 1: he said. He invited me to his house and I
Speaker 1: had my yamaghan. He said, you want to have lunch here?
Speaker 1: I said, no, I keep kosher. But I started talking
Speaker 1: to him and I said, do you have an agent?
Speaker 1: He says no, and uh. I said, well let me start.
Speaker 1: You know, I'd love to see if I'm go out
Speaker 1: to some commercials and some appearances. And he said, go
Speaker 1: for it, and uh, and I did. And I called
Speaker 1: up every bank and in the town. I called bombs
Speaker 1: close us in New York, I called wherever and the
Speaker 1: anks were hot and you know that year and seventy
Speaker 1: nine and uh, and Bucky Dennet just hit the home
Speaker 1: run and William Morris's represent any Buckey den So I would, uh,
Speaker 1: I call somebody and they bump into somebody, but they said, oh,
Speaker 1: we're thinking of Bucky Dennet, William Mars and sad. How
Speaker 1: much do they charge you? They said, I've got little Panela,
Speaker 1: I'll do it for seventy five. And I pad commercials
Speaker 1: and I hustle for little and then eventually he asked
Speaker 1: me to negotiate his contract with George Steinbrenner. Um, and
Speaker 1: I negotiated with George and um and again you know,
Speaker 1: if you do great for one player, they help you.
Speaker 1: You know, they recommend other players. Okay, you're negotiating with
Speaker 1: George Steinbrenner. He's made all this money and shipyards and
Speaker 1: all this other stuff. He owns the Yankee. You're you're
Speaker 1: a little pischer. I'm a little How do you even
Speaker 1: do that? Are you uptight? Are you confident? There's so
Speaker 1: much you don't know? How do you do it? What
Speaker 1: was the experience like? So that wasn't edible because um,
Speaker 1: you're right, I didn't know. I wasn't. I'm not a
Speaker 1: US sportsman. Um. But what I did was I have
Speaker 1: a philosophy negotiations there's three things to win these information,
Speaker 1: power and time. And the the time is that George
Speaker 1: had to sign love um or else Louis can become
Speaker 1: a free agent, and uh, he would have lost them
Speaker 1: to other teams. So what I did was I called
Speaker 1: around to all the general managers in baseball and I said, hey,
Speaker 1: I represented Luke Panella. Are you interested in it was
Speaker 1: gonna be a free agent. Now at that time, the
Speaker 1: Yankees had until a certain time were to sign him,
Speaker 1: Georgie sign to sign him, and um. So I remember
Speaker 1: calling all these general managers and they all said David
Speaker 1: was not going to leave the Yankees and George is
Speaker 1: never gonna let him go and um. And then one
Speaker 1: general manager split the spilled the bease with me said, uh,
Speaker 1: he says, listen at the owners meeting last week, George
Speaker 1: got up and said, whoever negotiates against my players, you
Speaker 1: offer ten dollars, I'm gonna offer twenties. So don't go
Speaker 1: after Reggie Jackson, don't go after Lucanella, don't go after
Speaker 1: my players. When Luke called me, he saw or our Schluter.
Speaker 1: You know, I'd love to talk, you know, he said, Well,
Speaker 1: I worked out I'm reading with George. And I remember
Speaker 1: I'm in l a and um I was working with
Speaker 1: the association too at the time. I fly down to
Speaker 1: Florida and I'm gonna walk into this meeting with George
Speaker 1: Diebner and I'll never forget his desk was the size
Speaker 1: of I mean, it was a long penis. I had
Speaker 1: to say, I mean, what he's He's at the head
Speaker 1: of that, the head at the table, and I walk in.
Speaker 1: He sits me down and and he basically, uh he said, well,
Speaker 1: what do you want. I said, well, George, I'm here
Speaker 1: to talk about loose contract and to let him be
Speaker 1: a free agent. I said, you know, George, he can
Speaker 1: never be a free agent. You're never gonna let him go.
Speaker 1: You're never gonna let him go. And uh So, basically
Speaker 1: I was able to negotiate. I got Lou a huge contract.
Speaker 1: And because I basically had the information that George really
Speaker 1: wasn't gonna let him go. The information I had was
Speaker 1: time and he was in a rush to make the deal.
Speaker 1: And powers in the mind. I looked in there with power,
Speaker 1: I said, I got you know, I love these players.
Speaker 1: I as a fan, I loved seeing these players and
Speaker 1: and uh so I was really uh an advocate for them.
Speaker 1: You know, early on, I was an advocate for these players.
Speaker 1: And the great thing was that at the same time,
Speaker 1: I had the entertainment business going, so I wasn't desperate.
Speaker 1: I wasn't desperate that I could negotiate a sports contract.
Speaker 1: You know those days. You know, I had Vince Faragamo
Speaker 1: and and he got um I went when he hired
Speaker 1: me to negotiate his contract. The agent he had before
Speaker 1: him was getting paid off by the by the general
Speaker 1: manager of the ramps. And you know, they was getting
Speaker 1: he was getting free tickets and they would getting um.
Speaker 1: He was getting a bone. He got fifteen thousand dollars
Speaker 1: to get Vince to sign. And you know, I hear
Speaker 1: I was as naive kids coming into l A. And
Speaker 1: you know I, you know, Vince hired me, and I
Speaker 1: and I you know, so I was really honest and
Speaker 1: straight with these guys and I and I didn't um.
Speaker 1: You know, I didn't kiss up to them because but
Speaker 1: it's only because I had another business. You know, if
Speaker 1: I wouldn't have had show business, I probably wouldn't have
Speaker 1: been that strong get the attainment this in sports, you know,
Speaker 1: So the two things really helped me bounce my life. Okay,
Speaker 1: two things. You have pressure because these are household named
Speaker 1: athletes too. It's kind of like buying a car. You
Speaker 1: make an offer and they go berserk. You're insulting me whatever.
Speaker 1: You know, how did you handle that? How did you
Speaker 1: keep your gumption in your nerves? Well, you know it was.
Speaker 1: I try not to be a fan. You know, that's
Speaker 1: the one thing about me. I'm not a fan. I'm
Speaker 1: not I mean, I'm a Celtics fan. So I remember
Speaker 1: callably read outback about a player and I said, read, um,
Speaker 1: I gave you the player for free. I always want
Speaker 1: to win, but I you know, I was a Red
Speaker 1: Sox fans. I wasn't really a Yankee fan. But I
Speaker 1: did a lot of research. I would hire college kids
Speaker 1: to get me the best research. When I was negotiating contracts,
Speaker 1: you know, guys to go. I hired a rabbi once
Speaker 1: to negotiate help me with Dave Magnet's negotiations because he
Speaker 1: understood from that, you know, I get to analyze baseball.
Speaker 1: Contracts are really analysis of a guy hits sixty two RBIs,
Speaker 1: another guy has sixty two r bis. My guy Maggant
Speaker 1: and hit sixty to r bis. But you know, sixty
Speaker 1: one of them the score was two to one and
Speaker 1: he tied it up too to two, or he took
Speaker 1: the lead, or you know, so they were meaningful. There
Speaker 1: are a lot of guys out there who have thirty
Speaker 1: home runs and they hit up on the score seven two,
Speaker 1: so they make the score eight to two. So you know,
Speaker 1: you really have to do your research. And that's that's
Speaker 1: what it was negotiating sports contracts. Okay, there was a
Speaker 1: long time where people had the lead contracts in terms
Speaker 1: of compensation. What was your philosophy? So, um, yes, there
Speaker 1: were many contracts that. Uh. I was a believer that
Speaker 1: I put a lot of my players into annuities. Um.
Speaker 1: Back then you were able to to, you know, get
Speaker 1: the team to pay the money into annuity and or else.
Speaker 1: I recommended my players to get anuities. And you know
Speaker 1: about I don't know. Fifteen years ago, I got a
Speaker 1: call from a player here in l A and he said, David,
Speaker 1: I gotta check in the mail for house. And I said,
Speaker 1: you're gonna get that check every month for the next
Speaker 1: thirty years of your life. And I was a big, big,
Speaker 1: big fan of that because I was I knew that
Speaker 1: their careers were gonna end. And I and I, while
Speaker 1: I never did any financial management, I always made sure
Speaker 1: they had their own accountants, they have their own lawyers.
Speaker 1: I didn't want to be and I didn't want to
Speaker 1: manage it because I saw too many players soothe their
Speaker 1: agents for handling the money. You know, when Louis the
Speaker 1: general manager of the Yankees, he told me a story
Speaker 1: that Ricky Henderson's agent, uh call you know, Lucas the
Speaker 1: call from the accountant at the Yankees and said, hey,
Speaker 1: lou h, you signed Ricky, but he didn't cash his
Speaker 1: check for billion dollars sigimones and the years gone by,
Speaker 1: and he told him to check. And Louke call them.
Speaker 1: Calls up the agent, he says, and the guy says, well,
Speaker 1: don't um. He says, you got our check. So I
Speaker 1: got the check right here. Ricky is gonna deposited, you know,
Speaker 1: and we know what we're gonna do with it. So
Speaker 1: I knew that wasn't my forte. My forte was go
Speaker 1: out and make them money. I didn't want to manage
Speaker 1: their money, but I always kill them. You've gotta have
Speaker 1: few money in your career, and it's gonna end. Your
Speaker 1: career is gonna end. It's not show business. And even
Speaker 1: in show business, you know you're gonna have to protect yourself.
Speaker 1: And so they all have done well. Okay to touch
Speaker 1: with them all today. Okay. In sports, what was the
Speaker 1: agents deal with the athlete? Financially? It was three and um,
Speaker 1: you know you get three percent of the contract percent
Speaker 1: on the merchandizing. And you know for years, you know,
Speaker 1: I was William Marts and CIA who are now doing
Speaker 1: great with sports, they would never do those deals. Um,
Speaker 1: they would never did sports. They never they never did
Speaker 1: because they didn't they said, how can we charge an
Speaker 1: artist ten percent? And uh, how can we charge of
Speaker 1: ten percent and then charge a ballplayers represent until they
Speaker 1: woke up one day and said, there's a lot of
Speaker 1: money in sports. There's a lot of money in sponsorship
Speaker 1: and uh but yeah they no one was doing it.
Speaker 1: I was the only one doing at payment in sports.
Speaker 1: I didn't care. I liked it. There's also an issue
Speaker 1: with Sunset clauses and getting paid. What was your experience
Speaker 1: with that? You know, you make a five year deal
Speaker 1: and you know, I don't know how your contract for structure,
Speaker 1: but you have our problems getting paid or getting paid
Speaker 1: on sunset clauses or anything like that. So I used
Speaker 1: to treat these ballplayers as artists, you know, I called
Speaker 1: them every day. I feel the relationship of many many
Speaker 1: athletes agents that you know, they would negotiate the contract
Speaker 1: and then they wouldn't you know, talk to player three
Speaker 1: years later, and they were upsetting hundreds of guys. And
Speaker 1: that's the way the business was. I treated my my artists,
Speaker 1: my athletes as artists because that's where I learned to
Speaker 1: do it, you know, whether it's the castles or music act.
Speaker 1: And so I really I never had a problem getting paid. Um.
Speaker 1: But you know you you know when you got paid,
Speaker 1: they paid to December. That's when they would write to
Speaker 1: check out. So I had no cash flow and that
Speaker 1: was rich in December and I got stuck paying the taxes,
Speaker 1: you know. So that's why the entertainment business for me,
Speaker 1: I was doing this tours simultaneously. Now, having the tours,
Speaker 1: having the music and the sports really helped. For For example,
Speaker 1: when when Phil Simms, uh he was doing a speaking engagement,
Speaker 1: well to start with Luponella he was doing, I got
Speaker 1: him an endorsement with members only, UM. The jackets. So
Speaker 1: then I said to the little I said, he speak
Speaker 1: to the president. I'm doing this tour with the turtles
Speaker 1: and the grassroots happening. He goes, I want to get
Speaker 1: his corporate sponsor. So Lose says to the guy, Hey,
Speaker 1: why don't you sponsor Glavias tour? What my tours called
Speaker 1: members only. I was the first one doing this. I
Speaker 1: I went to Phil Sims and he was sitting next
Speaker 1: to the president of of Chunky Monkey for Chunky's uh
Speaker 1: in the bisco whatever. No, that wasn't a bisco was
Speaker 1: not hers. She's let's go. He was doing a personal
Speaker 1: parents And I turned to sell I said, still asked
Speaker 1: the guy got the monkeys going out, maybe he can,
Speaker 1: you know, sponsor the tour, and Phil saying, my my agent, David,
Speaker 1: what he's doing the monkeys? I got? I thought I
Speaker 1: got tours sponsorship. Um, I was a ballplayers that got
Speaker 1: had it. My favorite one is I was doing the
Speaker 1: American Gladias Live Tour and I was desperate to find
Speaker 1: the corporates. My my business was the way I did
Speaker 1: the tours was I find a corporate sponsor, then I
Speaker 1: would create the tour. I would basic create the tour,
Speaker 1: find a corporate sponsor, then go to an agency like
Speaker 1: William Morris and CIA, and and then I would um,
Speaker 1: you know, and then and then I would UM. So
Speaker 1: I had five revenues. I had the corporate of the
Speaker 1: corporate sponsor to William R. City with book the date.
Speaker 1: I made money on the merchandise. I made money on
Speaker 1: you know, you sound the lights, you staid an extra
Speaker 1: because he's a charge on the contracts extra sound lights.
Speaker 1: And then there was already percentages. I would make money
Speaker 1: and that was my business model. And that's how I
Speaker 1: created all these tours before Live Nation, before CIA and UM.
Speaker 1: But it was the sports that brought me these deals.
Speaker 1: And UM, I never forget. I was doing the Sumeric
Speaker 1: Gladia Tour and I was desperate to get a corporate
Speaker 1: sponsor because you know, you need a sponsor to fund them.
Speaker 1: And UM, I got a call from Rock Road. He
Speaker 1: was a sportscaster in New York, and he said, you know,
Speaker 1: we want to interview you for a sports show to
Speaker 1: talk about the UM, to talk about Phil sims Is
Speaker 1: having a UM. I think it was Bruner. He was
Speaker 1: another quarterback. Bill parcels Uh kicked the other quarterback and
Speaker 1: he says, will you go on? And I never went
Speaker 1: on the air talk sports because you know, what do
Speaker 1: I know about sports compared to these players? And I said,
Speaker 1: I'll do it because about one condition that you asked
Speaker 1: me about. You know, you asked me about my Merk
Speaker 1: Gloody and Live tour. So I showed up to the
Speaker 1: studio and I see the last question. It says, if
Speaker 1: there's time on the on the on the monitor asked
Speaker 1: him about us the Berke Glady Live Tour, and so
Speaker 1: he helpened up the show itself. I guess the David
Speaker 1: Fish talking about the quarterback controversy here in New York,
Speaker 1: and uh David to tell us about the controversy. And
Speaker 1: I turned to the guy and I said, Rock, I
Speaker 1: said this, it's no difference in the Merk Bloody and
Speaker 1: Live tour that I'm doing this summer. And I'm telling
Speaker 1: you you got Phil Sims going against up Bruner and
Speaker 1: there and they want to win the and who's gonna
Speaker 1: be the number one quarterback? And by the way, I'm
Speaker 1: looking for a sponsor. The next day, a guy calls
Speaker 1: he from seven eleven. I heard you on the sports
Speaker 1: show last night, and he says, I want to buy
Speaker 1: this and he took me on and he said, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna buy it from a Coca Cola buy for me.
Speaker 1: And that's how I got corporate sponsorship. How did you
Speaker 1: get out of sports? So by the time I was
Speaker 1: I was doing the Monkeys and that was six and
Speaker 1: it was great, and I kept doing it. Um, I
Speaker 1: got out of sports. I guess when when I did?
Speaker 1: Still since this contract as a broadcaster, um, and then
Speaker 1: most of my players started to retire and they quit.
Speaker 1: You know, I um barbaro and I did. I did
Speaker 1: lose a lot of contract when Cincinnati read, but it
Speaker 1: was just too much, you know. And you know I
Speaker 1: cared about I care about the guy. I care about
Speaker 1: all my clients. And you know, the other day I
Speaker 1: was having a year ago, I was having lunch with
Speaker 1: Tom Consolo, the great manager say Hagarn, and we were
Speaker 1: talking about, um, you know, the old days, how it
Speaker 1: was and when we were you know, we were there,
Speaker 1: but we weren't there our family life and and you
Speaker 1: know he said and wronged me. I was never there
Speaker 1: growing up with my kids earlier. I mean, I don't
Speaker 1: feel guilty, but I was always worried about this client.
Speaker 1: And that client, and so you know, it was it
Speaker 1: was skinning a lot. I was a lot of ballplayers,
Speaker 1: so I started so too. Once once my players retired, Um,
Speaker 1: then I was gonna, you know, staying Nio entertainment full time.
Speaker 1: And I was single, and I just just it was
Speaker 1: it was the time for me to leave. And and uh,
Speaker 1: I didn't want to recruit these young kids. I didn't
Speaker 1: relate to the young kids anymore. And so I was
Speaker 1: basically it and I thought, you know, let me just
Speaker 1: do entertainment. Okay, can you delegate or do you have
Speaker 1: to do it. I tried to delegate, and you know,
Speaker 1: it's hard, and they it's hard to delegate. I'm doing
Speaker 1: it now with with Britt and she's great. Um, I
Speaker 1: gotta find some good people. And you know there's no question, Uh,
Speaker 1: this rock camp is is really gonna get big. I
Speaker 1: think the film, I'm seeing what's happening, and I gotta
Speaker 1: find some people. I gotta find an organization to partner with.
Speaker 1: I gotta find somebody that, um that I could trust
Speaker 1: that I can. You know, when I did that Dirty
Speaker 1: Dancy tool it Denni's our front. We were partners. That
Speaker 1: was incredible. Bob. You know, I had a partner that
Speaker 1: that we were twenty four seven done. It's a hard worker.
Speaker 1: We we've made a lot of money and we have
Speaker 1: fun doing it. So I really want to find somebody
Speaker 1: that that can really work with me, and we'll just
Speaker 1: willing to do the touring because I want to put
Speaker 1: rock Camp back on the road. Let's say I say
Speaker 1: tomorrow we're gonna take your phone away. You can stay
Speaker 1: in your house. Your family is going to be out
Speaker 1: on vacation. Is that torture or is that Godhead? It's torture.
Speaker 1: I like to be around the kids, you know. I
Speaker 1: love being around the family, and and you know, well,
Speaker 1: let's make it more about business. Are you the type
Speaker 1: person who makes a hundred phone calls a day? Or
Speaker 1: are you the type person of God? I don't want
Speaker 1: to talk to him. No, I like to work. I
Speaker 1: like to work. You know I wanted, but I'm not
Speaker 1: talking about work. I guess. Are you don't really a
Speaker 1: people person? You only thrive when you're interacting with people?
Speaker 1: Yes or no? Yes? Yes totally. I love people. I
Speaker 1: love talented people. I love people. Um yeah, I need people. Okay, monkeys?
Speaker 1: Why so in n six. I I'm you know, I'm
Speaker 1: staying in a hotel and in Kansas City, and the
Speaker 1: phone and I was in this room at two o'clock
Speaker 1: from when I couldn't sleep and the Monkey TV show
Speaker 1: comes on and I said, wow, that's the show I remember,
Speaker 1: and I remember the monkeys because that was able to
Speaker 1: show my parents let me watch on television. You know,
Speaker 1: my dad was direct and they didn't want me to
Speaker 1: watching the garment. They call it the direct. Do you
Speaker 1: have the word direct? What are your doing? So they wouldn't.
Speaker 1: They only show that, let me watch for the monkeys.
Speaker 1: So now I decided to call up. I checked out
Speaker 1: Peter Torque, he's teaching, he's teaching music lessons and I
Speaker 1: was look at card teacher on the west side. So
Speaker 1: I invited to come to my to Ron Delsis show
Speaker 1: that we were doing at the Pier and he's sitting
Speaker 1: at the side of the stage and I said him,
Speaker 1: I said, um, Peter, this is what I'm doing. I'd
Speaker 1: love to put the monkeys back together. So he tells me, um,
Speaker 1: he comes to show and he's loving and he's tapping
Speaker 1: and seeing. And then the next morning we got together
Speaker 1: and I said, hate me to meet. Can I meet
Speaker 1: the other guys he's out taking anyone. Let's go meet
Speaker 1: Mickey and let's go meet dating. So it's nineteen eighties,
Speaker 1: six eighty five, eighty five, and so I find out
Speaker 1: first of all that they don't own the name the Monkeys.
Speaker 1: I didn't know that. Um. So I had to go
Speaker 1: to Columbia Pictures and I had to get the name
Speaker 1: for the name the Monkeys. So I call up the
Speaker 1: guy the West Coast and he says to me, you
Speaker 1: gotta call this guy in New York Licensing Department day
Speaker 1: on the day they control the monkeys, and said, okay.
Speaker 1: So I called the guy up and he says, to
Speaker 1: the fish, up, take me to a take me to
Speaker 1: a baseball game. He says, uh, I know who you are,
Speaker 1: and I want to I want to go to a Yankee.
Speaker 1: So I take them to a Yankee game. I call
Speaker 1: up lou and I said, Luke, I said, I'm bringing
Speaker 1: you guys. Will call me a pictures. Can you give
Speaker 1: a baseball bat and the ball inside the ball before
Speaker 1: he's a strugging, no problem. I bring the guy to
Speaker 1: the game and I bring him on the field and
Speaker 1: all of a sudden Reggie Jackson and fucking Dent and
Speaker 1: all these players are coming over to me, heaving me
Speaker 1: baseballs and signed baseballs and baseball globs. And I needed
Speaker 1: garbage back to put all this stuff in there for
Speaker 1: the guy. So um, I said to Bobby Mercer was
Speaker 1: my client, and said, Bobby, tell me what what's going
Speaker 1: on here? Why are all these guys coming on with me? Said? Well,
Speaker 1: Lou got up at the in the in the club
Speaker 1: bounces that are my agents, fish offers come with the project,
Speaker 1: probably of pictures, and and I gart so go to
Speaker 1: him and his friend, and all these guys came over.
Speaker 1: They all want to be a show business, you know.
Speaker 1: And uh so this guy was like blown away. We
Speaker 1: said the game and I turned him and I said,
Speaker 1: I want to buy the name the Monkeys. Let's want
Speaker 1: to rent it for a year. And he said, David,
Speaker 1: no one's used the name in twenty years. He says,
Speaker 1: what do you want to give me? I said, you know,
Speaker 1: give me five thous and and you know you can
Speaker 1: have the name. So my bird, and that was just then.
Speaker 1: I've put the other tour the Monkeys that that's gonna
Speaker 1: be my third Halfit together to the monkeys, the hermit Hermits,
Speaker 1: the grassroots and Gary Puckett and the Unique Gap and
Speaker 1: I'll sill be my package and I'm gonna put it
Speaker 1: out that summer. Unbeknownst to me, I'm in seventeen seventy five. Broadly,
Speaker 1: I'm sharing office space with Gary Curfiss, the lake Gary
Speaker 1: curves in front of me. I have um Blondie's walking
Speaker 1: by my office all day, and I'm seeing the Ramones
Speaker 1: the B fifty because the other side of the office
Speaker 1: was was Chef Chef Gordon was up there. We're all
Speaker 1: in this guy Bert Fidel's office and um, you know
Speaker 1: what did they meet? Loost managers were there. Everybody was
Speaker 1: up in that office, and m I'm on the seventies
Speaker 1: seventy five, so I'm going up and down the elevators
Speaker 1: of Bob Pittman and Tom Freston. And now you know
Speaker 1: these days since since wasn't playing as great, you know
Speaker 1: those before a six, you know, so people walk around
Speaker 1: the street. They would see me with my jamaica. They
Speaker 1: even said that sins. You know, we lost the bet.
Speaker 1: You know, people were nasty in New York, you know,
Speaker 1: so all of a sudden, a gentleman calls up from
Speaker 1: Billboard back and he says, did you hear the MTV
Speaker 1: is gonna be airy twenty four hours the Monkeys? And
Speaker 1: I said no, And I said, well, I'm gonna go
Speaker 1: up stairs. I run up stairs to Bob Pittman's office
Speaker 1: and I said, Mr Pittman, Hi, I'm David Fishing. We
Speaker 1: always see each other the ell you have the sports
Speaker 1: stag and sit down. How can I help you? I said, well,
Speaker 1: I'm doing the Monkeys as a summer tour. He's not
Speaker 1: telling you the sports. I said, I do sports, but
Speaker 1: I'm I'm doing the Monkey, said I do this package.
Speaker 1: He's I'll make a deal with your kids. He says, uh,
Speaker 1: you you mentioned my new fledging network, MTV in all
Speaker 1: your ads as seen on MTV, and I'm gonna promote
Speaker 1: you on television and you know and and TV. That's
Speaker 1: a great He announces my tours. I go on sale
Speaker 1: and I was selling at the time three thousand seeds
Speaker 1: to Happen together tours. We do the nether Lands, all
Speaker 1: the Empithuds. We're gonna sell in Chicago, Pine Pine, and
Speaker 1: we do pineab in Detroit, Possla Creek. I still have
Speaker 1: h twenty eight thousand tickets in in Chicago. Can you
Speaker 1: imagine I'm going for one year doing three thousands, twenty
Speaker 1: eight thousands Pineab We saw two Pineabs. We sell out
Speaker 1: sixteen thousand night there. We sell out Texas Stadium, We
Speaker 1: sell out everywhere. It's this is crazy. It's all these
Speaker 1: little girls coming home and the and the mothers said,
Speaker 1: where were you all night? Mommy? I was in live
Speaker 1: buying monkey tickets. What do you mean I want to go?
Speaker 1: So these girls didn't know that the Monkeys are an
Speaker 1: all band. So the mothers came and they bought tickets
Speaker 1: for the first fifty rows with the Monkeys. Well, it
Speaker 1: was incredible. It was so over my head. But I,
Speaker 1: you know, I lucked out. I was paying them salaries.
Speaker 1: I put him in busses. Um, and then I eventually, um,
Speaker 1: you know, we became we made a partnership when my
Speaker 1: contract was over. Then I booked them in that the
Speaker 1: following tour. And how about Ringo? How do you uh
Speaker 1: come up with you all star band tours? So um,
Speaker 1: then after I did Dirty Dancing, I did that as
Speaker 1: a live tour, and um, the president of PEPSI came
Speaker 1: to me and he said, you know, we love what
Speaker 1: you do, and um, we want to sponsor the next tour.
Speaker 1: It's the twenty fifth Anniversary's Gunny malapottas she came up
Speaker 1: with the Pepsi generation. So he said to me, uh,
Speaker 1: we want to sponsor your next tour and um, so
Speaker 1: come up with some ideas. And I went back to
Speaker 1: him with the idea of I have an idea to
Speaker 1: ring on the All Star band and uh, he's what
Speaker 1: do you want? And so I want a million dollars
Speaker 1: and he said, um, he said, uh, a million dollars. Okay,
Speaker 1: I'll make a deal with you. I'll give you a
Speaker 1: million dollars to spots to you next tour, but I
Speaker 1: want to make the next million and uh and then
Speaker 1: we'll do fifty fifty yes, okay. I don't offer a
Speaker 1: million dollars in my hands. And that's why I wrote
Speaker 1: the Rainbow Star and I said, I have an offer
Speaker 1: for a million dollars. What you do the tour and
Speaker 1: do a tour? It was All Star band. And I
Speaker 1: went over there and I got to meet him and uh,
Speaker 1: Rose Lawyer a letter and says come on over. I
Speaker 1: go over to England and back in those days didn't
Speaker 1: have cell phones. And I remember taking all my Beatle
Speaker 1: books with me reading it. And he didn't tell me
Speaker 1: when he's gonna when I'm gonna get in there, said,
Speaker 1: you're doing in there once, you know, for one of
Speaker 1: these days, I'll call you in your room and you'll come.
Speaker 1: I never left my room and I'm reading all these
Speaker 1: Beetle books. I've only got a call Friday morning to
Speaker 1: come to his office. And I went to those office
Speaker 1: and I um pitched him on the idea. I walked
Speaker 1: in with a radio commercial, you know, one those spots
Speaker 1: It's coming love. I've been concert, you know. I wanted
Speaker 1: him to see what my vision was. I brought an
Speaker 1: ad and uh he turned to it and I was
Speaker 1: thinking the same thing and he was he was thinking
Speaker 1: the same thing, and so uh, that's how I came
Speaker 1: up with the idea, and we we made a deal.
Speaker 1: And what was more entice? What closed the deal? He
Speaker 1: hadn't been on the road for all. Was it being
Speaker 1: on the road and playing or was it the money? No,
Speaker 1: I don't think it was the money. I think it
Speaker 1: was I think because they have to pay all those
Speaker 1: taxes in England. I think the money made it real
Speaker 1: to him that I'm gonna guarantee the money naturally, you know,
Speaker 1: I don't think it was to him as emplawyer and
Speaker 1: business manager. The money, you know, the money money shows love,
Speaker 1: you know, so it should. You know how many of
Speaker 1: these artists today they really need the money. You're paying
Speaker 1: the money, but many of them, you know, they want
Speaker 1: the money, but I think the money it types them
Speaker 1: that I was real, you know, I bet you. So
Speaker 1: many people contact and said, hey, I want to manage
Speaker 1: you and come on the road, and you'll make this
Speaker 1: and make that. You know, you put a check in
Speaker 1: front of someone's face, it makes a big difference. So um,
Speaker 1: I offered him the million dollars, and the million dollars
Speaker 1: was net to him, notting. I know, I took my million.
Speaker 1: That was my idea, and I said, I'm going to
Speaker 1: give it to him, and then I'll whatever i make
Speaker 1: on the tour. Um you know, I'll get my paid.
Speaker 1: I'll get paid. I'll get paid, you know. That was
Speaker 1: the Positively. The deal with Pepsi was fifty fifty on
Speaker 1: the profit. So the current I took that advance that
Speaker 1: I got from Pepsi, and I gave that toringdo and so,
Speaker 1: and then then came by. I wrote names of bands
Speaker 1: of you know, band members. I did some reason a
Speaker 1: couple of things slowly. Sure he was a million dollars
Speaker 1: as much as Ringo was gonna make or was there
Speaker 1: any upside for window? Well, in the end he wanted
Speaker 1: more money and I gave him. I to give him
Speaker 1: more money, and um, and I guaranteed a certain amount
Speaker 1: of shows. You know, I think I remember how many shows?
Speaker 1: Was twenty five shows? And um, you know it was
Speaker 1: twenty five shows at the time, and um, but I
Speaker 1: think there was I remember what the concept of the
Speaker 1: all star band that was totally yours. It was my idea.
Speaker 1: And Ringo said to me that morning, I was thinking
Speaker 1: the same thing, and how did you come up with
Speaker 1: that idea? Okay, so my brother, My brother was a
Speaker 1: drummer and he idolized range Star and uh, I was Bob.
Speaker 1: I wake up every morning thinking of the new idea.
Speaker 1: I can't you know. I go through these books, these
Speaker 1: Billboard books. I look for talent. I'm always thinking. My
Speaker 1: brain does style. So I love rock Wall Fantasy Camp.
Speaker 1: Every day. It keeps me. Hey, let me call Abby
Speaker 1: Rode Studios. Let's do a camp there. Let's you know,
Speaker 1: I'm always thinking. I'm always thinking. And you know, the
Speaker 1: minute I stopped thinking, stuffy passion, I quick. But you know,
Speaker 1: so I like these package tours and and to and
Speaker 1: to get when you get a company like PEPs, he says,
Speaker 1: we love what you're doing. You use Mountain dew and um,
Speaker 1: you know it gives you validation, validation that you know
Speaker 1: what you're doing. So, um, I was motivated. And uh
Speaker 1: he hadn't been on the road. And and I was
Speaker 1: a big Stan by the way, I loved Yellow Submarine
Speaker 1: and all my friends, they were my favorite. So for
Speaker 1: my bro Joe, he was the drummer. He had alized
Speaker 1: rain Go, So you know, Joey was my incentive. And
Speaker 1: uh so that was it. And how did you decide
Speaker 1: on the other members of the band. So the other
Speaker 1: members of the band. I gave my ideas. But then
Speaker 1: he decided when he saw that this is gonna be real,
Speaker 1: he called up Joe Walsh and he said we could
Speaker 1: join my band. He called lev On Helm, he called
Speaker 1: rit Rick Danko, Um, I think he called I called Mills,
Speaker 1: I called Clarence. You know, I made my list and
Speaker 1: you know, Billy Preston and together we put it together
Speaker 1: and and it was brilliant. It was it was it
Speaker 1: was really it was so much. So was magic. It
Speaker 1: was really magic that that that tour, and that was
Speaker 1: that was the tour. That was that was the magical tour. Okay,
Speaker 1: you know as well as I that as well as
Speaker 1: me that, Uh, people get star struck. So you're in
Speaker 1: the room with Ringo. Are you star struck? Are you nervous?
Speaker 1: Or he's just another guy? You and me both. No,
Speaker 1: you can't be a fan that turns them off. But
Speaker 1: what's going on through your head? I was never a fan,
Speaker 1: you know. I was a fan of the Monkeys, you know,
Speaker 1: but I realized once I met people, I would be disappointed. So, um,
Speaker 1: I was a Neil Diamond fan. You know. I grew
Speaker 1: up and if you see that movie the the Jazz
Speaker 1: Singer and uh, you know I saw thirty times. I
Speaker 1: fly down to Florida first class and fly him coach
Speaker 1: because I come wanting to watch that. Still that's my story.
Speaker 1: You know. I'm a cantus on. I do pray to
Speaker 1: high holidays. My dad got sick and and then I
Speaker 1: cut the meat. Neil Diamond. I walked into the deli.
Speaker 1: He was sitting there with Larry King at uh what
Speaker 1: was that deli? Umh ny? Now I walked to name
Speaker 1: how every morning Larry King had breakfast Larry King and
Speaker 1: then Neil Diamond and I sat down next to him,
Speaker 1: and I like, I was mesmerized. And I realized the minute,
Speaker 1: you know, you know, it just I he was the
Speaker 1: only guy that I was really mesmerized to meet one day.
Speaker 1: And then I got disappointed. So no, I wasn't um
Speaker 1: with me. It's not it's not mesmerized by these people.
Speaker 1: I just respect their counts. And I said, I can't
Speaker 1: get on stage and do that. And no, I'm not
Speaker 1: really MESMERI right, but I am. Listen Bringo star, no
Speaker 1: question about it, you know. I mean it's a beatle
Speaker 1: and I can see the way people reacted, and there
Speaker 1: the questions that people ask the all day. Um. But
Speaker 1: you know, they all put their feet and they put
Speaker 1: their clothes on the same way, and they're more talented
Speaker 1: that way. But I've never start stuff. Okay, all of
Speaker 1: us have met it, you know, in the bus met
Speaker 1: a lot of people. Hey, is there anybody you haven't
Speaker 1: met who you would like to meet be anybody above
Speaker 1: and beyond. I mean it's like Steven Tyler. Okay, he's
Speaker 1: Steven Tyler in real life. He's not only that guy
Speaker 1: on stage. And it's very because mostly people it's two
Speaker 1: different people. He really lives up to the image. So
Speaker 1: is there anybody you haven't met or a couple of
Speaker 1: people go wow? I mean what inexperience? You know. I
Speaker 1: gotta tell you. The interesting thing is the English I can.
Speaker 1: I want to tell you share to the difference between
Speaker 1: the English stars and the and the American rock stars.
Speaker 1: The the English stars, it's a business. Bill Wyman, I'm
Speaker 1: going to work. Roger Dolph, I'm gonna work. Nick Jagger,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna work. This is a job. Their fathers were
Speaker 1: labors and they go to be a rock stars is
Speaker 1: a job. The American guys they want to be, you know,
Speaker 1: they think they have to leave that crazy life. So
Speaker 1: it's really a difference. Am I mesmerized? I'm not mesmerized
Speaker 1: as much as I'm m I'm not star struck, but
Speaker 1: I do respect to be in the presence of Roger Daltrey.
Speaker 1: I mean, I love him. I think that what he
Speaker 1: did get on that stage and do what they do.
Speaker 1: Um or the or the songs that they people have written.
Speaker 1: You know, I just respect them. That's so I love camp.
Speaker 1: I get to meet all these great people. But some
Speaker 1: people I wish I didn't me. Okay, So you keep
Speaker 1: mentioning Roger Daltrey. You know there's business friends and they're
Speaker 1: real friends. Are any of these musicians you real friends?
Speaker 1: He would talk about you know what happened this day?
Speaker 1: You'd call in between camps? Or is it really business
Speaker 1: with all these people? Well, it's always business. It's all business.
Speaker 1: But I have to tell you when a nine eleven happened.
Speaker 1: I'm in New York. My first phone call came from
Speaker 1: Roger Doltree. How's your family? So? He, to me is
Speaker 1: a real friend. And we've had you know, listen, we've
Speaker 1: had huge fights, him and I. You know, we've had disagreements.
Speaker 1: Um and I remember writing him a long letter because
Speaker 1: I was upset at him. Um. No, most you know,
Speaker 1: I would say, it's all business with most people, but um, Rogers,
Speaker 1: he's just different than all of them. You know, he
Speaker 1: calls me after a camp, How was that? How was
Speaker 1: that guy? How did he enjoy it? He? Yeah, he's
Speaker 1: he's got a different heart than all of them. Okay,
Speaker 1: so why did you decide to make the movie The
Speaker 1: Rock Camp Moving? So I decided to do it because, Um,
Speaker 1: Jeff Broke approached me from UM who was you know
Speaker 1: rand Randy h One for a while and and he
Speaker 1: was he He approached me and he said, um, you know,
Speaker 1: he came to see the camps. So we hadn't seen
Speaker 1: each other a long time. He went to work with
Speaker 1: um Bob Pittman a O L. And he went to
Speaker 1: the NBC and and he can't see the camp. He see,
Speaker 1: you know, you should do this as a film, And
Speaker 1: I I said, on one condition, I don't want to
Speaker 1: be in the film. I said, I don't want to
Speaker 1: have anything to do with it. I said, you talked
Speaker 1: about the rock cards of the people. You know. It's
Speaker 1: one thing I did learn from Ringko. Every time I
Speaker 1: go to him with an interview, he said, oh, give
Speaker 1: it to Nils, give it to Billy Preston. He always
Speaker 1: wanted to give it to everybody else. He wanted it
Speaker 1: to be a band decision. And last thing I needed
Speaker 1: was more publicity. Um, you know, I got kids. I
Speaker 1: want to marry a moha, I got grandkids and the
Speaker 1: last thing I needed more publicity and and um But
Speaker 1: what happened was that they all came back and they
Speaker 1: wanted me to be in it and tell the story.
Speaker 1: So I said, okay, I'll do this. And what what
Speaker 1: really motivated me to do it was yeah, many times, Bob,
Speaker 1: do you go to a film and you see the trailer,
Speaker 1: You see the trailer and you love the trailer, and
Speaker 1: then obviously you see the film and you're so disappointed. Um.
Speaker 1: Or you go to a concert and how many trying
Speaker 1: to go to a concert and an artist starts playing
Speaker 1: his new music. I can't stand that. But I felt
Speaker 1: I can never tell the story about this rock camp
Speaker 1: and it's frustrating. It to a thirty minute commercial, one
Speaker 1: minute curse. But the magic is once to go into
Speaker 1: those you go into that into that magical for four
Speaker 1: and eights of rock camp and it's totally different. So
Speaker 1: that's why I wanted to show us for the film.
Speaker 1: I want to show you how credible your friend Jene
Speaker 1: Simmons is that he comes to a camp. You know
Speaker 1: that we could have a long conversation. But but but
Speaker 1: before we yet the gene when was the movie idea hatched?
Speaker 1: How much did it cost and who paid for it?
Speaker 1: Five years ago? It was hatched five six years ago.
Speaker 1: It was funded by Campers. I went and raised money,
Speaker 1: UM and Jonah, Jeff Campers, you know, the best of
Speaker 1: the money in it and cost over a million dollars. UM.
Speaker 1: It wasn't supposed to cost that. I'll never make a
Speaker 1: film again, UM, but it was. You know, basically, it
Speaker 1: was very expensive, UM because it needed creatitors. Jeff didn't
Speaker 1: take a penny until its UM. The artist all did
Speaker 1: it for me. UM, and they were great in the
Speaker 1: film and m but I'm hoping that we're gonna you look,
Speaker 1: here's the biggest problem with rock Camp. Do you know
Speaker 1: people scared to come? So you know, yeah, you have
Speaker 1: you advertised Jeff Beck and I lost forty grands. How
Speaker 1: can you lose money? I have the greatest guitar player
Speaker 1: in the world there because everyone, you know, they're they're
Speaker 1: afraid to come. I'm not Jemmy with Jeff Beck and
Speaker 1: they're they're scared. So that's the je is the best ever.
Speaker 1: But I want to acknowledge that. But let's go back.
Speaker 1: What was your goal in making the film? Was it
Speaker 1: more of an advertisement to spread the word or did
Speaker 1: you want to make money? I want to make money.
Speaker 1: I I wanted to show what it went done. I
Speaker 1: want to show how people say. Well, I really want
Speaker 1: to show that at any age, you could take any idea.
Speaker 1: You want to be a musician, you want to write
Speaker 1: a book, you want to create an app. I wanted
Speaker 1: it to be to any age people could see a
Speaker 1: thirty years old that it's not too late to do
Speaker 1: relive your dream. And um, that's really why why I
Speaker 1: wanted the film made. So Okay, the film comes out
Speaker 1: on v O Day, it's plays theaters, but we're in COVID.
Speaker 1: Hey why did you release it at this particular time?
Speaker 1: B Did you think about making a deal with Amazon
Speaker 1: or Netflix so that people didn't have to pay for
Speaker 1: or maybe that's coming. I don't know. Okay, so we
Speaker 1: released Typicals. We finally finished it, and uh and we
Speaker 1: had to. We wanted to get it out and uh
Speaker 1: and I think it's a great time to get the
Speaker 1: film out because you know, the country needs It's unlike
Speaker 1: any other you know, it's not a film like like
Speaker 1: behind the music. You know, band makes it big and
Speaker 1: then they build all their money and then they go
Speaker 1: back again. So it's not one of those didn't want
Speaker 1: to make that kind of film. Um. I didn't getting
Speaker 1: interest in the beginning for Netflix or Amazon that would
Speaker 1: have paid from enough for the film. And um, you know,
Speaker 1: I we went to Netflix, but they weren't buying at
Speaker 1: the time. And and I tell you and I also
Speaker 1: thought about Amazon about Netflix is here. I saw the
Speaker 1: Bruce Spring scene UM film on Broadway. It was great,
Speaker 1: but you saw that they promoted for two days, three
Speaker 1: days and minutes over here I can I got to
Speaker 1: go with the movie theaters. I got critics to see it. Um,
Speaker 1: I'm ninety two on Rotten Tomatoes. Um, and now gonna
Speaker 1: go v O D is gonna go to Apple and
Speaker 1: the February sixties and Amazon and then and I didn't
Speaker 1: release it around the world yet, just here in America,
Speaker 1: and then slowly I want to roll it out because
Speaker 1: I want to do camps in England and South America
Speaker 1: and in Japan and Australia. I want to take this
Speaker 1: thing globally. So I wanted to go slowly with it
Speaker 1: and see the reaction. And so it's been. It's it's
Speaker 1: quite interesting, a new world for me, it's a new world.
Speaker 1: On a business perspective, I thought it was a great
Speaker 1: streaming flick for one of the platforms, primarily Netflix. I
Speaker 1: look at the Motley Crew film, which was sort of
Speaker 1: a cartoon. I'm not the biggest Crew fan, but I
Speaker 1: enjoyed the film and word spreads. Of course. The best
Speaker 1: example of this was in the eighties with Eddie and
Speaker 1: the Cruisers. Was middling film in the theaters and it
Speaker 1: played on HBO. Blew up, Well that's hoping is gonna happen? Yeah, okay,
Speaker 1: let's go back. You said you had sixteen paying customers
Speaker 1: at the first Rock camp. Needless to say, you lost money.
Speaker 1: You're regrouped, and you said what So I okay, So
Speaker 1: I did that camp and get all this press media
Speaker 1: comes out and I found an investor for the first
Speaker 1: time right away. He didn't want to do it. And
Speaker 1: I'm at the Pulse Star convention in the year two
Speaker 1: thousand and they're playing a game who Wants to Be
Speaker 1: a Millionaire? With Tommy Lee, Tommy Shaw, and Sammy Hagar.
Speaker 1: I think that was the three are up there and
Speaker 1: it here at the right across street on Hollywood Highland
Speaker 1: at Hotel and they're asking. One of the questions was
Speaker 1: who created rock and roll Fence Camp. David Bowie, David Byrne,
Speaker 1: David Fishop, and I think it was Tommy Show, Sam
Speaker 1: Diego yells up David Fishop. I said, these guys remember
Speaker 1: that camp I did, and I've done it four years ago.
Speaker 1: And all of a sudden, then I got a call
Speaker 1: from Eric Sherman, who was running bach on Classic, and
Speaker 1: he said, you know, we'd love to do that camp.
Speaker 1: We we got, we really want to, you know, get
Speaker 1: behind you on it and we'll run commercials. So that's
Speaker 1: when I decide do it again. I I called up
Speaker 1: Brett Michaels. I think I know where I met Brett,
Speaker 1: but I meant. And then George Starroger came to a
Speaker 1: Ringo show. I called these people that I met at
Speaker 1: Root Ringdow shows, um and uh called these artists uff
Speaker 1: to come in and I said, hey, would you do
Speaker 1: my rock roll Fence Camp. I'm gonna do it. Do
Speaker 1: it here in l A. And I did a S
Speaker 1: I R and and they came, and you know, Brett
Speaker 1: was great, and people came. I advertised it. I did, Okay,
Speaker 1: that's vatro Coxey. They gave me ads. It was great.
Speaker 1: I did well. Okay. How much did you lose on
Speaker 1: the first one? How about a hundred fifty thousands? Okay?
Speaker 1: Was the second one profitable to you? It made about
Speaker 1: fifty thousand, and I worked a whole year on it. Yeah, okay,
Speaker 1: So the second one was the earlier part of this
Speaker 1: century subsequent to then. How many of you done and
Speaker 1: how frequently? And they all been profitable. I've done oh
Speaker 1: sixty nine camps. Um, No, it's been a hard business.
Speaker 1: We're honest with you. It was really hard, and uh um.
Speaker 1: I tried to expand to go to Vegas. I was
Speaker 1: running two if While I was running two camps, I'm
Speaker 1: running the camps where these people are having the greatest experience,
Speaker 1: and you know they get the jam with with def
Speaker 1: Leppard and Joe Elliott. Joe Eli is getting the jam
Speaker 1: but about the hopeful song and he's having a great time,
Speaker 1: and all these people are meeting, and then I'm can't
Speaker 1: wake up and I can't I can't wake up. I'm
Speaker 1: losing my mind. I'm losing. I'm losing. I remember calling
Speaker 1: here and he says, well, close it. He says closing,
Speaker 1: and people and I went to see the count and
Speaker 1: I moved to l A and then account and said
Speaker 1: to me, why are you spending your kids money? You know,
Speaker 1: it's like why do this? But every day I'm getting
Speaker 1: an email thank you. It's a great experience of my life.
Speaker 1: This artist is great. One morning I get an email
Speaker 1: from a guy and signed McKenzie and company and it
Speaker 1: was guy Scott Keller and he's still gotta thank you.
Speaker 1: I got the gym with Judas Priest and my son
Speaker 1: and I had the most incredible time. Right away, I
Speaker 1: called him. I said, can I call you? Can I
Speaker 1: take it a launch and get some advice? And he
Speaker 1: turns to me and he's what's the problem. I said, now,
Speaker 1: and said, this is a hard business. You know, it's
Speaker 1: not like Coachella where you can expand the fences. It's
Speaker 1: not an artist starting counsel blues and then going to
Speaker 1: play a theater and then playing an arena. This is
Speaker 1: four teen bands, one drummer to the band, one bass player.
Speaker 1: You know you're limited, and you deal with people who
Speaker 1: wants scared to come. So I said, this is a
Speaker 1: hard business. And um, he says, I'm gonna take you
Speaker 1: to dinner and he takes me to dinner with six
Speaker 1: of his smartest people. He brings Amy how who ran Ticketmaster.
Speaker 1: She came, she was a Mackenzie Scott comes, he brings
Speaker 1: there's a band called they are Giants. He brings the father,
Speaker 1: the guitar player. The guitar player comes and we have
Speaker 1: this dinner and they basically said, David explained us the
Speaker 1: issues of the camp, and I explained them the problems
Speaker 1: and what I was having. And they said, you got
Speaker 1: ten minutes to talk, and then we're gonna then we're
Speaker 1: gonna ask you questions ten minutes and then anybody's gonna
Speaker 1: shut the f up and let us give you some advice.
Speaker 1: They went through my books. They they really analyzed the
Speaker 1: business for me, and they basically said, his day, it's
Speaker 1: very simple. You make ten dollars, stop spending twelve, spend nine,
Speaker 1: spent eight. And they really turned my business around. And uh,
Speaker 1: I need these bladings to tell me that, because you know,
Speaker 1: I would keep adding more talent and whatever they taught me,
Speaker 1: and I turned them to a profitable business. Where did
Speaker 1: you cut what I taught? Well, I cut Vegas out.
Speaker 1: I had a place in Vegas. I couldn't operate Vegas.
Speaker 1: I'm not moving my family to Vegas. UM. So I
Speaker 1: had a location there in Vegas, UM and you know,
Speaker 1: I was getting ripped off with the gear, was getting
Speaker 1: stolen out of the place, and um, I was trying
Speaker 1: to open it as a rehearsal studio. I cut there.
Speaker 1: I cut employees that I figured that I have to
Speaker 1: do it myself, like you said, and and uh and
Speaker 1: I brought it stef and and then I just learned
Speaker 1: to I cut a lot of things and turn the
Speaker 1: business around. So what so it turns around. How much
Speaker 1: does it cost to go to Rock and Roll Fantasy Camp?
Speaker 1: So rock Camp? So we charged about five thousand dollars
Speaker 1: to go to camp. But it's we have to Each
Speaker 1: camp is like setting up a tour, and then you know,
Speaker 1: a band can augment that tour and you know, I
Speaker 1: don't augment. They can advertize the tour over a hundred shows.
Speaker 1: I don't advertize. And I closed my shop after that camp.
Speaker 1: So these camps get expended. It all depends on the
Speaker 1: on the talent cost. But I keep it relatively to
Speaker 1: a point where where we can make some profits. And
Speaker 1: it's not a lot, you know, but but enough that uh,
Speaker 1: you can pay you know, you can you can make
Speaker 1: a salary and you can pay people, and you know
Speaker 1: you have people to operate it and the artists and
Speaker 1: I think everyone has come to you know, they come
Speaker 1: to understand that that you know, to their works and um.
Speaker 1: But but the goals I want to make money is
Speaker 1: I want to go back on the road with this.
Speaker 1: And I'm not going on the road pot, but if
Speaker 1: I could find someone to help me put it back
Speaker 1: on the road. I did a couple of experiments. Number one,
Speaker 1: I went to Irving as Off years ago and I said,
Speaker 1: can I have the opening spot of your Deaf Leopard? Um?
Speaker 1: Your Deaf Leopard? He he was touring Journey and Death Leppard.
Speaker 1: I said, the stage is open from five thirty to seven.
Speaker 1: Can I have that stage. I'll sell one day camp.
Speaker 1: I'll sell one day camp and convertized experiment. And he said,
Speaker 1: go do it. He said he was Irving was really
Speaker 1: he was very supportive. And um so I when I
Speaker 1: sold eighties spots for two thousand calls each, and um,
Speaker 1: I had these people come into Columbus, Ohio. They came
Speaker 1: in with six private planes. They came in from thirty
Speaker 1: states and they got the opportunity to open the Deaf
Speaker 1: leppert and Journey. I put them in a band um
Speaker 1: with a rock star mentor was I think Simon Kirk
Speaker 1: and Kick Winger and Rudy Sarzo and Vinnie Appassy, and
Speaker 1: they would mentor the band all day. Um. Then five
Speaker 1: o'clock they got to meet deaf Leppers and they got
Speaker 1: the Journey and then each band went on stage and
Speaker 1: did one song and it was great because the people
Speaker 1: got to taste the brand. They went to the office
Speaker 1: the next day and they said, uh, what do you do? Oh,
Speaker 1: I put the Flipper in Journey last night. But but
Speaker 1: what happened was these people bought forty tickets, fifty tickets
Speaker 1: from all for other friends. So if you take eighty
Speaker 1: people or a hundred people gonna buy tickets, I got
Speaker 1: four thousand people coming to and see these people performed.
Speaker 1: But I had a problem because the stage and and
Speaker 1: everything like that. So the idea is a year later
Speaker 1: and I went to House the Blues and I did
Speaker 1: a tour where I did fifteen cities and again you
Speaker 1: got to open for UM and that tour it was extreme.
Speaker 1: With King Jackson was supposed to be bigger names, but
Speaker 1: they got little snookered on the deal. But whatever it is, Um,
Speaker 1: I did fifteen cities and I did really well and
Speaker 1: gave people one day opportunities to doing the camp. Um.
Speaker 1: So that's really what I want to do, and I'll
Speaker 1: put it back on the road because everybody wants to
Speaker 1: perform from their parents. They want to perform front of
Speaker 1: their family. Like I said, the final night of Camp,
Speaker 1: you see these executives how their families in the audience,
Speaker 1: and and you know they're not holding up their middle finger,
Speaker 1: but they're basically saying, hey, mom, I could have been
Speaker 1: a rock star. You do have a little bit of
Speaker 1: perception problem. Today's incommittee quality era where it is five k,
Speaker 1: which is not mentioned in the movie. Is that just
Speaker 1: is what it is? Or is there a way to
Speaker 1: change the perception of the camp that it's for the elite? Okay,
Speaker 1: so that's what it was. And I used to get
Speaker 1: eighty five. I used to do. I did Abbey Road
Speaker 1: Studios where you got to you know, record there, and
Speaker 1: it was sixteen thousand. I've lowered the price way down.
Speaker 1: People get to pay it off. Um. Yeah, no, I
Speaker 1: know everybody thinks it's it's expensive. It's a cost of
Speaker 1: safe thing to go on a cruise and you can
Speaker 1: hang out. I'm not asking you to justify the price.
Speaker 1: The price is great. But people who don't go, who
Speaker 1: see the movie and hear the price, they say, oh,
Speaker 1: that's for rich people. So it is perceived as an elite,
Speaker 1: rich person's camp. I'm not talking about whether people call
Speaker 1: up the money, right. It's perceived that way as people
Speaker 1: because I've been doing this for years, So that's an excuse.
Speaker 1: It sees. Listen, they'll see the film and uh and
Speaker 1: and they and they go to camp. Um, I will
Speaker 1: tell you that fifty cent on my campus return because
Speaker 1: you know, once you take them to that excitement level
Speaker 1: of four days, they go home, they get depressed. I
Speaker 1: had a guy had a guy come back to camp
Speaker 1: after two years, and I said, what, what what brought
Speaker 1: you back? He said, I went to my therapist every
Speaker 1: day and it said, you know I do by your
Speaker 1: rock camp. And he says, why don't you go back
Speaker 1: to camp? Well, the therapist took his money for two
Speaker 1: years and then he says, I just can't make you
Speaker 1: happen to go back. Okay, let's assume I lay my
Speaker 1: five k down. What are you guaranteeing me? I'm not
Speaker 1: guarantee any UM. I want to guarantee it was an experience. UM.
Speaker 1: I never promised anyone your career. I'm so against that. UM.
Speaker 1: More specific, I put him in five thousand dollars. Am
Speaker 1: I gonna How much time am I gonna get with
Speaker 1: the acts? How much free time or how much you know,
Speaker 1: hanging like we both went to camp where it's all together.
Speaker 1: It might be sitting in my room alone. When you
Speaker 1: go to camp, where did you go to Cannath? I
Speaker 1: went to Jewish camp in Connecticut. First of all, I
Speaker 1: went to day camp for three years. Then the Jewish
Speaker 1: Community Center of New Haven had an overnight camp in
Speaker 1: East Madison called Camp Laurel Wood, which they still have
Speaker 1: the best days of my life. I literally came home
Speaker 1: and cried, I know exactly what you're talking about. So
Speaker 1: you come to camp, by the way, so once you
Speaker 1: signed up for camp up and you put your deposit
Speaker 1: your money down, you get a letter from us telling
Speaker 1: us what songs that you should prepare and and that
Speaker 1: these are these artists are gonna be there, and you
Speaker 1: want to prepare these songs, So people start studying their songs. Um.
Speaker 1: Then so then a week before your your rock star
Speaker 1: counselor calls you and you guys have a group meeting
Speaker 1: and the guys and gals they pick songs that they're
Speaker 1: gonna do and uh so, uh, what's the Rudy Sarzo
Speaker 1: or Tony Franklin. They call you, and they and they
Speaker 1: and we just sudden they come up with a song
Speaker 1: list of what they want to do when they come
Speaker 1: to camp. They walk in on Thursday, they go right away,
Speaker 1: they go into pick a room to go into, whether
Speaker 1: it's a jam room, it's a you know, a different
Speaker 1: jam room. Then I come out and I basically announced
Speaker 1: the rules of camp, which are no rules, um, but
Speaker 1: basically I want them to prepare to to to record.
Speaker 1: Let's say the camp I did with Joe Perry. Learn
Speaker 1: narrow Snip song, Learn learn a Farno song because you're
Speaker 1: gonna jam with mc graham. Um, you go to Vince
Speaker 1: Neil is gonna come by to learn a Motley Crue songs.
Speaker 1: So they basically prepare those songs and m and then
Speaker 1: they have they go into the rooms with their bands
Speaker 1: and they have rehearsals and uh, and then following rehearsals,
Speaker 1: I have a lot of master classes. So if you
Speaker 1: want to write songs, if you bring your songs, let's
Speaker 1: see you brought us. You wrote a song, you want
Speaker 1: to come to camp. You could sit around a panel,
Speaker 1: you can hear, you get get people's opinion about the songs.
Speaker 1: Then I do an opening night party because I want
Speaker 1: the rock starts to jam. I want you to see
Speaker 1: how how good these guys are. And these musicians are great.
Speaker 1: You know they're great. Why are they're great because they
Speaker 1: practice every day. Unlike this guy who's the weekend musician.
Speaker 1: You know, he shows up on one hour, so you
Speaker 1: really see how incredible talents that they are. The next
Speaker 1: day they rehearsal and then Luke Graham comes in and
Speaker 1: uh and he walks into a room and and they
Speaker 1: get to you know, depending on the artist, you know,
Speaker 1: like I telt flash dates for twelve hours. He janned
Speaker 1: an hour with each man and and and you know
Speaker 1: what's the names? Uh, Nick Mason. He stayed for four
Speaker 1: days and he wrote a story about g Q. It
Speaker 1: once they're they're I don't put a timeless They do
Speaker 1: what they want to do and and uh so, you
Speaker 1: know most people say and they jam a song and
Speaker 1: then they do a Q and A and they answer
Speaker 1: questions and then they take their photo and they signed
Speaker 1: all the autographs and all that stuff. But then then
Speaker 1: we do Q and A with them. And you know,
Speaker 1: Joe Walsh was amazing. He stayed, you know, he stayed
Speaker 1: for five hours, and he jammed with everybody. And then
Speaker 1: he what I loved what he did was he turned
Speaker 1: to every guitar place is now it's your turn. Now
Speaker 1: it's your turn to laya lea a solo. And these
Speaker 1: people froze. But he said, listen, you gotta fake it,
Speaker 1: you know. And the the the information that meat loads,
Speaker 1: the information that these artists have given to these people
Speaker 1: is incredible, it really is. And and and they they
Speaker 1: take a list. Okay, how many people go to a
Speaker 1: camp eighty people? Eighty people. The relationships mainteens obsequent to
Speaker 1: the camp, well, that's incredible, because every rocket, they all
Speaker 1: make it meet their best friends. I can't every rock
Speaker 1: star tells me they've met their best friend. Steven Tyler.
Speaker 1: You know, he's flying away with the guy. You know,
Speaker 1: there's there's always there's always some guys who planes, so
Speaker 1: you know, naturally they make friends. You know, remember Joe
Speaker 1: Perry was was in Vegas to the camp and John
Speaker 1: b and Eliot's tour magic ain to me. He said,
Speaker 1: you know, the airport's closed, the Boston snowed in. Is
Speaker 1: there anyone here with the private plane? I said, that
Speaker 1: guy over there, he's got a private plane. Asked him
Speaker 1: and the guys to sure, I'll drive to get back.
Speaker 1: He flew him back and and I went to his band.
Speaker 1: I said, you know the guy who wants to leave.
Speaker 1: And you know, what do you guys do about a drummer?
Speaker 1: He says, thank god, David, we'll pay a drummer, get
Speaker 1: a drummer in town. Well five found the drummer for him. Um.
Speaker 1: But yeah, the friendships they make, and then and then
Speaker 1: so the and there's not and again there's not only
Speaker 1: rich guys there. These people make lots of friends when
Speaker 1: they go on tour. Every artist has told me my
Speaker 1: best friends I met at Rock and Roll Fans Camp.
Speaker 1: You know when when when we were touring and I
Speaker 1: was turning Rnko and even the monkeys, we always ran
Speaker 1: out of the venue. We always ran out of venue.
Speaker 1: No one ever wanted to meet a rock star. I'mlike
Speaker 1: the country people. You know. I went to see took
Speaker 1: my daughter and see Oprah, and she wanted to always
Speaker 1: meet Oprah and and and on that show was Kenny
Speaker 1: Chesney and Hoodie and it was a country show. And
Speaker 1: she says to Kenny Chesney, she says, well, um, Kenny,
Speaker 1: you know you meet your fans that uh you know,
Speaker 1: you're so good to your fans. I go out there
Speaker 1: and meet my fans five o'clock. I hug him. I
Speaker 1: love them. They come out to my bus and she said,
Speaker 1: who was the first? Continue on too? So I went
Speaker 1: to anarrismonth show. So I haven't done anything to meet
Speaker 1: Steven Tyler. So you know, rock stars always ran away
Speaker 1: and um, unlike the country stars. How do you build
Speaker 1: a show, build a camp? What's the key? I got
Speaker 1: a lot of it's. I have a checklists. It started
Speaker 1: first with the talent. UM. I try to UM, I
Speaker 1: try to get a talent to come. I see the
Speaker 1: Scorpions will come in to Vegas. I reached out to
Speaker 1: them and UM prior to covid um and they said
Speaker 1: they would do it. Uh. So now I got a
Speaker 1: location and now I got a uh weekend in May,
Speaker 1: I was gonna do the scorpions. Um. And then I
Speaker 1: go find a location and I try to find in
Speaker 1: a place where I got four key rehearsal rooms. That's
Speaker 1: the hardest thing is to find the rehearsal rooms because
Speaker 1: it's not everywhere that you have rehearsal space. UM. Once
Speaker 1: I have that, UM, you know, I go out and
Speaker 1: I signed my counselors and I have a great array
Speaker 1: of counselors who who do camp and um who you
Speaker 1: know Teddy Andreatas from Guns and Roses and he was
Speaker 1: a keyboard. He played keyboard to them and you know
Speaker 1: you get now listen, you gotta find good people that
Speaker 1: that are gonna do it. The one thing I learned
Speaker 1: with Ringo and Alice Cooper, the one thing they they
Speaker 1: I learned from Ringo was, you know, we fought about
Speaker 1: Dan Members. You know we thought about Jack Rose. It's
Speaker 1: it's in there's a public book. It's a book about
Speaker 1: it that that I fought with Ringo because I wanted
Speaker 1: Jack Bruce because my brother was a cream fan and
Speaker 1: I love Jack Bruce, so um, he didn't want him.
Speaker 1: He bumped into him in the airport and I guess
Speaker 1: Jack wasn't in his best shape back then. And um,
Speaker 1: and you know, you want to tour with people that
Speaker 1: you love, that you can work with, that you could
Speaker 1: deal with. Alice Cooper said to me, it's it's I
Speaker 1: gotta have a great band of people because I gotta
Speaker 1: live with them. So it's not just musicianship, and some
Speaker 1: people want to live with So it's the same thing
Speaker 1: with counselors. You know, I meant Peter Tork in the Monkeys,
Speaker 1: he called me, so I want to be a counselor.
Speaker 1: And I said, okay, Peter, come and you know he
Speaker 1: was my worth counselor. And I remember telling a journalist
Speaker 1: that and he called me up. He says, you told
Speaker 1: them I was the worth counselor, said Peter, people, you don't.
Speaker 1: You have to have patience with people. You're gonna have to,
Speaker 1: you know, leave your ego at the door. And you
Speaker 1: know people will come over with him and they wanted
Speaker 1: to ask him something, they want to get a picture.
Speaker 1: So you need to have you need to be a
Speaker 1: people person. Let me really, let me restate this, because
Speaker 1: you were talking about Mackenzie and consulting on your act,
Speaker 1: on your show. What is the look? How many stars
Speaker 1: do you need? You know, you build a show, I
Speaker 1: need X number of a players. Be what do you
Speaker 1: need to get people to come? You need a star,
Speaker 1: you need you needed one star, you need two stars.
Speaker 1: I try to find the star that's going to jamp
Speaker 1: with them the last night we will agree to do
Speaker 1: the final night concert. Um. So that's where I start. UM.
Speaker 1: I try to now keeping in genres. I try to
Speaker 1: keep the metal guys with the metal guys. I'll try
Speaker 1: to keep the rock guys with the rock guys that
Speaker 1: keep it. And I did Alice and change and don't
Speaker 1: couple of pilots, you know, you try to keep that together. Um.
Speaker 1: You know when I get two or three good names,
Speaker 1: and then then I'm ready to build. And then I
Speaker 1: built my fourteen counselors out. Um. And then you know,
Speaker 1: the location is important. It's a combination everything. Listen, It's
Speaker 1: like what I did the ring go to I got
Speaker 1: a lot of balls in the air. You gotta keep
Speaker 1: a lot of balls in the air, and then you
Speaker 1: hope they're gonna come together and and and that's really
Speaker 1: what I snapped my fingers. We go to the ultimate
Speaker 1: destination with rock Camp. What does it look like? It
Speaker 1: was Abbey Road Studios. You got to record every old
Speaker 1: studios and then you got no, that's that's what in
Speaker 1: the past. If we go down the hypothetical future and
Speaker 1: it were to max out your wildest dream, what would
Speaker 1: it look like. I want to tourk I want to
Speaker 1: be on I want to be on the road four
Speaker 1: times a week, um, opening for a major act or
Speaker 1: any act um that I can. I know I can
Speaker 1: bring them a lot of people. Um. And I want
Speaker 1: to sell packages where you can go on the road,
Speaker 1: get on a tour bus and go on the road
Speaker 1: for two weeks. I want I want to I want
Speaker 1: to buy my way on an opening act and tour.
Speaker 1: That to me is really where I want to go
Speaker 1: and um and get Okay, this is rock Camp. Are
Speaker 1: there any other promotion dreams that are yet unfulfilled that
Speaker 1: you would like to complete and do well? I think
Speaker 1: the film, you know, the film was the last thing
Speaker 1: that I really uh you know, I've represented players who
Speaker 1: won the World Series. Uh, Phil Simms, that's that's a
Speaker 1: giant San Francisco for nights. I hit my mark on
Speaker 1: on Gutta. Players have a had a Beatle, I worked
Speaker 1: with a Beatle. Um work with you know, I think
Speaker 1: we worked with the with a member of the Who.
Speaker 1: And and Bill Wyman are only songs I think I've
Speaker 1: I've lived that. Um, you know, I just like changing lives. Really, Bob,
Speaker 1: you cannot imagine how fulfilling it is to open your
Speaker 1: emails every day and someone saying you change my life. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, I breast cancer and I came to a
Speaker 1: camp and and now I'm I'm writing books. And I
Speaker 1: decided that I didn't want I quit being a lawyer
Speaker 1: because uh, I didn't want to live that life of being,
Speaker 1: you know, doing stuff that's boring. I wanted to live
Speaker 1: my passion. So the ladies today became a writer. She's
Speaker 1: a fourteen books that are that are a number one
Speaker 1: on Amazon. She writes, Um, you know, she writes fiction books.
Speaker 1: I love that part. A guy says to me, he
Speaker 1: came to my camp, and he says, I called him up.
Speaker 1: I said, you're gonna come to the next camp. He said, say,
Speaker 1: but I got good news, beads. I quit my job
Speaker 1: on Wall Street. I am going to London school drumming.
Speaker 1: The bad news is I can't report to come to
Speaker 1: campers anywhere I said good good, or where a guy
Speaker 1: stopped on the street. He says, how this is the
Speaker 1: best look. Guy stopped you on the street in the
Speaker 1: in New York about three years ago, he says, David,
Speaker 1: he says that, Espishop Mark, I gotta thank you. I
Speaker 1: just got back from Moscow. I said, we my band
Speaker 1: opened for Harrelsmith. So what do you mean your band
Speaker 1: opened harresmanth He says, yeah. He says, I met Joe
Speaker 1: Perry and his manager at your camp and I my my,
Speaker 1: my lead singer is in lives in Moscow, and I
Speaker 1: kept calling her and I asked, can we open for
Speaker 1: your band for Farrelsmith in Moscow? And until the manager said,
Speaker 1: sent me the CD She's gave it over to Joe,
Speaker 1: and Joe looked at and said, when I meet this
Speaker 1: guy he met about rockets, let him open. I mean,
Speaker 1: here's this is. I don't promise this, this shit happens,
Speaker 1: and and I don't know. Okay, divorcing the external and
Speaker 1: just starting with your internal. What is your greatest asset?
Speaker 1: Why have you been successful? I think my my successes
Speaker 1: is caring for people and passionate. You know, my dad
Speaker 1: was a rabbi. My brother's a rabbi, my son in
Speaker 1: laws a rabbi. I don't want to be a rabbi,
Speaker 1: but all the day I saw I see these people
Speaker 1: taking care of people and answering them and and you know,
Speaker 1: and doing good. And so I had no ability to
Speaker 1: be a rabbi. But I really enjoy um people. And uh,
Speaker 1: you know, for a long time, I didn't want to
Speaker 1: camp the counselors, the campers. I didn't want to meet him.
Speaker 1: I had told somebody, you know, you you know, I can't,
Speaker 1: I can't do it all. I gotta deal with these
Speaker 1: rock stars. And then I realized how amazing these campers
Speaker 1: are and who they are, and uh, and you know,
Speaker 1: I got up there as a joke one day. I said,
Speaker 1: you know, my entire life, I represented a beatle, a turtle,
Speaker 1: a monkey, you name it. And all I did was
Speaker 1: keep my stars away from you people. And now I
Speaker 1: love you people because these are the people that keeping
Speaker 1: me in business. So these these are good people. They're
Speaker 1: they're great people. They're musicians who just decided to make
Speaker 1: a get a real job, and they really want to
Speaker 1: be a rector. Okay, David, this has been wonderful hearing
Speaker 1: all your brushes with fame, how you made your ome life,
Speaker 1: switched your own career. You obviously our ball of energy
Speaker 1: and you can close anybody. Thanks so much for doing this,
Speaker 1: really and honor. Thank you so much. And I gotta
Speaker 1: thank you the reaction that I got on your review
Speaker 1: in the film, it's probably the biggest reaction I got,
Speaker 1: So thank you so much. Okay, until next time. This
Speaker 1: is Bob Leftstons