Speaker 1: I'm Alec Baldwin and you're listening to here's the thing.
Speaker 1: That's Billy Joel on piano performing the iconic opening of
Speaker 1: his Angry Young Man three genres in barely as many seconds.
Speaker 1: It could be the Who, then it could be Aaron Copeland,
Speaker 1: but that piano couldn't be anybody but Billy, Billy Joel,
Speaker 1: Pink Floyd, Barbara streisand the Beatles Van Morrison. These are
Speaker 1: just a few of the musical acts, heritage acts as
Speaker 1: they are referred to now, who share a relationship with
Speaker 1: my guest today. They're among the most famous names in music,
Speaker 1: still packing the biggest halls and arenas around the world,
Speaker 1: in no small part due to their frequent concert promoter,
Speaker 1: Ron Delsoner. Delsoner is a working class kid from Queens
Speaker 1: who rode his charm and his hustle all the way
Speaker 1: to the top of the music industry. In fact, he
Speaker 1: may be the biggest concert promoter of all time. Delsoner
Speaker 1: basically created the genre of massive outdoor concerts, starting with
Speaker 1: his series at Wolman Rink in nineteen sixty seven and
Speaker 1: growing into the epic free concerts in the park for
Speaker 1: those he got all the names, Pavaratti, streisand even post
Speaker 1: breakup Simon and Garfunkel, one of the most attended musical
Speaker 1: performances of all time. When Delsoner put it on in
Speaker 1: one you can feel the excitement of a half a
Speaker 1: million people. Promoting is a complicated job. You're booking talent
Speaker 1: and securing venues. You're setting ticket prices and marketing the show.
Speaker 1: Musicians have to trust you, venues have to fear you.
Speaker 1: Plus it's risky. Promoters can lose their shirts. They're the
Speaker 1: ones putting up the money for marketing and whatever they've
Speaker 1: promised the talent they pay. Doesn't matter how many tickets
Speaker 1: get sold. It requires nerves of steel. You booked the
Speaker 1: biggest acts in the business for many, many years, for
Speaker 1: many many years. Most of these people have what we
Speaker 1: call the artist's temperaments. What how do you, wonderful people?
Speaker 1: How do you deal with the artist's temperament? Well, I
Speaker 1: got screwed up a few times on this. Should I
Speaker 1: mention names? You know? You don't have to. You can
Speaker 1: just say, as an example, to describe someone you don't
Speaker 1: have the name, You name the name of people. It
Speaker 1: was a Miami Sound Machine show, glorious Tefan, I didn't
Speaker 1: say that what you did it might have been it
Speaker 1: might have been Shakira or what did you say, Miami Stamus?
Speaker 1: We know what we know what's not shak You very hip.
Speaker 1: I can see that. And so it had rained and
Speaker 1: the rain stopped, and there was rain of shining the
Speaker 1: tickets in this about two thousand people going, Hey, open
Speaker 1: the doors. I said, well, let's go, you're on. Her
Speaker 1: husband comes over, a nice guy, says, she absolutely will
Speaker 1: not go on. There is electricity in there, and she
Speaker 1: might get electrical. I said, let me tell you someut there.
Speaker 1: I will put a hose down my mouth and stick
Speaker 1: a microphone up my anus, put water around me, and
Speaker 1: I will not get electric She never fucking talks to
Speaker 1: me again. She does the show and I walk home,
Speaker 1: I take a taxi. I sent her an umbrella, you know,
Speaker 1: after that, to make peace and lo and behold. About
Speaker 1: three or four years later, I get invited to Whitton
Speaker 1: Houston's house when she was marrying Bobby Brown, nice place
Speaker 1: in Jersey. Sitting right next to me, Gloria yesterfun and
Speaker 1: excuse me, are you know? I'm so sorry? Did you
Speaker 1: get the umbrellas? I never want to work with you again,
Speaker 1: Marlina Dietrich said to me once, to you, what in hell?
Speaker 1: Mr Dolsta, But do you feel that there's I mean,
Speaker 1: I don't want to beat this to death, but it's
Speaker 1: like the horse whisper. Are you the rock star whisper?
Speaker 1: Do you know what to say to get them to
Speaker 1: kind of calm down and get out there? And very
Speaker 1: big part of what your job is every day. Even
Speaker 1: this morning, I got to go off from a guy
Speaker 1: and he's panicking, and I want to mention his name
Speaker 1: is terrific guy. He's on a boat with his family.
Speaker 1: What are we gonna do about poor Anka? I said, well,
Speaker 1: I didn't book the show. A kid in my office did.
Speaker 1: But I'm gonna take care of it. Well, poorl Anka
Speaker 1: wanted to not play because there's only two hundred seats sold.
Speaker 1: What's earlier? You know, I've got a while and the
Speaker 1: guy's getting a lot of money. And the guy says
Speaker 1: to me, well, I can't pay him. He wanted fifty
Speaker 1: thousand bucks not to play. I said, I've been in
Speaker 1: your position before. I'm gonna try to straighten it out.
Speaker 1: After I leave you, I'm gonna have to track down
Speaker 1: the Asian for poor Anco or the manager and explain
Speaker 1: to him we only sell a few amount of seats,
Speaker 1: so how do we work it out. I'll give you
Speaker 1: a date someplace else for that one. Please play the
Speaker 1: show for fifty so we break even with two hundred
Speaker 1: seats and I get pulling the other day. So you
Speaker 1: have to be a diplomat where most people aren't this.
Speaker 1: They don't know how enough. But after you learn this,
Speaker 1: as you do in your cryft, how to make everybody happy,
Speaker 1: sit down at the table. Not it's this way, we're
Speaker 1: gonna bomb you. You're gonna see fire and fear. We're
Speaker 1: gonna burn your house and your kids and the dog.
Speaker 1: I don't do that. You can't do that. You grew
Speaker 1: up in was in the cosmetics business. When did music
Speaker 1: music enter your life? When did you sit Chuck Berry
Speaker 1: rock and roll, stuff like that, Let's pull and Mary
Speaker 1: Ford Capitol Records on a purple label all day long.
Speaker 1: They were amazing. I met lest Pall when it was ninety.
Speaker 1: That was the first time he had over dubbing with
Speaker 1: an echo the Count Basie band. I would go see
Speaker 1: him at Birdland two dollars to go downstairs and sit
Speaker 1: behind the piano. You sit there for two bucks. I
Speaker 1: bring my friends. I pretend I was Sonata, I called
Speaker 1: somebody else Dean and the other guy I was saying,
Speaker 1: I mean it was sit there for two, three or
Speaker 1: four sets, and uh I stepped tap Basie on the bags.
Speaker 1: Mr Basie was like, I like to buy a drink. Okay,
Speaker 1: what do you drink? Leaf? Brown oak? That cheap? And
Speaker 1: later on when my I played him at a club
Speaker 1: I had on forty forty four Street, which is the
Speaker 1: Hudson Theater, which is down with famous theater. But that's
Speaker 1: what Steve Allen did his first show. And I first
Speaker 1: band I ever put in there was the ba Yeah
Speaker 1: for a year until I went bankrupt. I put him
Speaker 1: and he came out in a wheel chair and played
Speaker 1: the piano. I had. We called Mother's Day Dance. You
Speaker 1: bring your mother for Mother's Day. Count Basie Band, the
Speaker 1: original original band, the Count himself. I love him. I
Speaker 1: got a big picture of him and my black and
Speaker 1: white right. He was the greatest that bend These kids today.
Speaker 1: If they heard this music, maybe we can turn them around.
Speaker 1: But they don't. They don't play it on the radio.
Speaker 1: You gotta go on w B g oh out of
Speaker 1: New York, New Jersey, and that's only and then they
Speaker 1: don't want to hear it. My grandkids don't want to
Speaker 1: hear this. They want to hear thump. There's no lyrics anymore.
Speaker 1: When you finished high school, you get into the army.
Speaker 1: I'll tell you about that. I was doing shows for
Speaker 1: a City of Hope. My friend's father had died of cancer.
Speaker 1: Robert answer them, and I got the guy would like me,
Speaker 1: and I did benefits at his house. I was nineteens.
Speaker 1: All my friends were like with sUAS, and I had
Speaker 1: a lot of young girls, and my sister was beautiful.
Speaker 1: And I called it the Junior Society in Manhattan. I
Speaker 1: had a little club for you guys who want to
Speaker 1: meet girls. So I'd read the Navarro Hotel is suite
Speaker 1: and I get a Flamenco guitar play and I bring
Speaker 1: in the booze. There twenty bucks for the guys and
Speaker 1: they meet girls and ship like that. But I wasn't
Speaker 1: making any money. I got, Holy Christ, they'd better come
Speaker 1: up with something. And so I became a writer to
Speaker 1: advertising agency. And you know, hey, mom, don't forget to
Speaker 1: put a Macintosh apple into the kid's lunch today. You're
Speaker 1: not kind of crap like that. Desn X bunions are
Speaker 1: killing men X will kill at the guy jumps into pool,
Speaker 1: he's got happy feet. He comes out he had desert
Speaker 1: this definitely that. And I'm going uh talking to William B.
Speaker 1: Williams because I had him MC some shows for cancer.
Speaker 1: I said, Willie, I gotta get out of this thing.
Speaker 1: Mitch Lee. He was doing some commercials for me. Mitch
Speaker 1: Lee wrote, Man of La Mancha. When did the Army commit?
Speaker 1: Army came in nineteen fifty nine. I was going to
Speaker 1: be drafted. I go, wait a minute, I will join
Speaker 1: the Army Reserve and go six years to a camp
Speaker 1: camp drump. What is a mistake? They said, what did
Speaker 1: you do in private life? Sir? I said, well, I
Speaker 1: was working at agency once, I was a copywriter, and
Speaker 1: then the last time I was working for Leader Brothers.
Speaker 1: And they sent me out to do surveys about what
Speaker 1: soap did they like and what's a good name for soap?
Speaker 1: This one schmucky soap, this soap dove and they picked
Speaker 1: out dove. So you like to do surveys. I turned
Speaker 1: out to be a surveyor in a Howitzer unit. I'd
Speaker 1: be running in this sixteen foot high grass in Oklahoma,
Speaker 1: running out there with the scope. All right, so you're
Speaker 1: telling it's three hundred yards away to shot. Drop the
Speaker 1: stake there, you got it with the plumb bob, put
Speaker 1: it down here, I go, Okay, how long we in
Speaker 1: the military? Live military? Six months? My unit was never
Speaker 1: called up for six years, but I went to meetings
Speaker 1: every week at Fort Totten, and then I went every
Speaker 1: year up to Camp Drum and we played soldier. But
Speaker 1: I brought my own folding cot. I ain't really sleeping
Speaker 1: with the ants biting me all night, but the howitzes
Speaker 1: would go. If we're in a howitzer unit, Bang, my
Speaker 1: bed jumped two ft off the ground. I hope we
Speaker 1: never go to world. For six years, yeah, two weeks
Speaker 1: every summer. One summer I got out of Barba Streisam
Speaker 1: playing a show for Lyndon Johnson, Atlantic City. I said,
Speaker 1: I need that I have to do this show to
Speaker 1: get our guy. I loved it again. Under I got
Speaker 1: a letter from a congressman from Illinois. So the sergeant
Speaker 1: and my unit guls this guy is full of ship.
Speaker 1: Because I had a senator write a letter on behalf
Speaker 1: of the Democratic Party. This is important to America. I
Speaker 1: got it out of that one summer, but the rest
Speaker 1: I was there. The good thing about that you go
Speaker 1: to the thousands of islands and they'd be hotels up there,
Speaker 1: and you get a past Saturday night passed. So we
Speaker 1: meet girls. I met a girl from Texas freckles dancing nice.
Speaker 1: Are you as girl obsessed now as you were back then?
Speaker 1: The girl today? When I was driving my tea Bird,
Speaker 1: she waved, Hey, that's great. I should have stopped to say,
Speaker 1: can I have your phone number? They like it when
Speaker 1: you have a nice car. When I first my first
Speaker 1: car was a Rolls because I borrowed my mothers and
Speaker 1: fathers all the time until I was forty years old.
Speaker 1: What model Roses sixty five plock Ward Milliner. I wish
Speaker 1: it was a corn but it's beautiful. It's got the
Speaker 1: picnic tables on the back, sand over Sable. I'll drive
Speaker 1: it out. You'll like it's beautiful. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I
Speaker 1: took it to Lennox, mass once from my my daughter
Speaker 1: was a camp and it made it up there, thank god. Now,
Speaker 1: at what point does it transition to like the first
Speaker 1: big show you do christ Big one was Ramsey Lewis trio.
Speaker 1: We had the in Crowd down in crowd. It was
Speaker 1: the number one hit. I called up the eight Talent Agency.
Speaker 1: Was this Sky South? Safe? Was the Rims Lewis? He said,
Speaker 1: a kid or I heard about you. You're doing something,
Speaker 1: all right, I'll sell you Lewis. I sold the tickets
Speaker 1: for six fifty, four fifty and two fifty where Carnegie Hall.
Speaker 1: That was the big for me. Oh my god. My
Speaker 1: wife designed the ad and I was so nervous. I said,
Speaker 1: I just got married and I had no real job
Speaker 1: before then except writing copy. And the father looked at
Speaker 1: me and says, um, well, I was hoping for somebody.
Speaker 1: But I said, believe me, I won't let you down.
Speaker 1: You'll be proud of me. Of course, the first time
Speaker 1: I met her, I went to the house. Lady came open,
Speaker 1: the door was a maids cost them on. Took me
Speaker 1: into the dining room. But all these plates on the table,
Speaker 1: and all these lives and spoons which you leave from
Speaker 1: the right. L left and he started talking. He said,
Speaker 1: what what are you planning to do? I said, right now,
Speaker 1: do you know the Pope is coming to America's coming
Speaker 1: to New York and I got a great idea, we
Speaker 1: sell popsicles. Oh no, that was the end of it,
Speaker 1: you know, and my wife in the lip, and I
Speaker 1: don't know it would make a fortune. In fact, I
Speaker 1: did this when thea Toler was kicking. Our asked when
Speaker 1: Jimmy Carter was in office, and I said, Hey, we're
Speaker 1: gonna sell funk Ther Toler buttons at Chase Stadium. And
Speaker 1: that's what we did to show our protests. So I
Speaker 1: did things like this to get started. But right away
Speaker 1: the first year, when I was married to my wife,
Speaker 1: I was success sex. I convinced the parks department to
Speaker 1: do shows in Santra the park ice skating rink for
Speaker 1: dollar a ticket when no one else was there because
Speaker 1: there was no ice skating in the summer Wenes concerts,
Speaker 1: that's right. The first thing was I got rhinegold Beut
Speaker 1: to be my sponsor. How did I get that because
Speaker 1: in my advertising days I was friendly with the account
Speaker 1: executive at Doyle Dana Burnback who had Rhinold as a client.
Speaker 1: And these guys said, go with it, will give you
Speaker 1: thirty five thousand bucks a year and book your acts.
Speaker 1: We were hit from day one. I took an ad
Speaker 1: in the paper. The show sold out for a dollar
Speaker 1: a ticket, and they lined up at the Corvettes. That's
Speaker 1: where they sold as tickets. I made a deal with Corvettes.
Speaker 1: I said, you want to have Affrick in your store,
Speaker 1: put the record the problem on the second floor, so
Speaker 1: they have to go through all the other places to
Speaker 1: see to get up to maybe they'll buy something. It
Speaker 1: got so big that I had to do second shows
Speaker 1: at ten thirty at night. People around a neighborhood hated it.
Speaker 1: But Polving said to me, this is what he said, effort.
Speaker 1: He said, now you're doing the right thing. These kids,
Speaker 1: these people who come here, their vacation is the fire escape.
Speaker 1: They don't go to the ampers. It's just coming here.
Speaker 1: And keep that up. And the lady who owned the
Speaker 1: building with Nicky Mantle once I forget her name again,
Speaker 1: she was wonderful cigarette smoking chick and wanted to throw
Speaker 1: me out of the park. She invited me to a
Speaker 1: prominent come and have a press conference at my penthouse.
Speaker 1: She was God to me. So Paul Simon showed up,
Speaker 1: Patty LaBelle and the Blue Bells, and I brought in
Speaker 1: Uh President Hallow. I forget the guy's tea very voice here.
Speaker 1: This is good for my people. What are you doing here?
Speaker 1: You're scrapping? When did you sit there and go, oh god, man,
Speaker 1: this is it? I made it. I mean I'm in
Speaker 1: my daughter. Yeah, I had it. I had a lot
Speaker 1: on it for about twenty five years because from out
Speaker 1: I did the free shows in Center Park. So James
Speaker 1: Taylor wanted to do a show there. I called the
Speaker 1: park commission. He was all for the city, paid for
Speaker 1: it when it let me have the cops for free
Speaker 1: and the land for free. So how to get the money?
Speaker 1: Make a T shirt, last show in the sheep meadow
Speaker 1: and then more conscience on the sheet metal, which hurted me.
Speaker 1: James Taylor. We sold him for thirty five bucks. That
Speaker 1: was enough money to pay the stage and union. Everybody
Speaker 1: else got no money, you know, our security, a bunch
Speaker 1: of high school kids who paid Taylor. I think Pale
Speaker 1: and Taylor might have done it for free. He wanted
Speaker 1: to do a free show. But after that everybody got
Speaker 1: paid for when Simon and Garfuncle they got paid of course,
Speaker 1: and Lauren taped the show for me and Elton John Uh.
Speaker 1: I think Elton did it for free to Uh, Carol
Speaker 1: Kagan was there. It rained on her. That's another story.
Speaker 1: Pink Floyd hadn't played in years. So I came up
Speaker 1: with a genius idea which backfired. Get the blow up
Speaker 1: pig that they have as to their logo and fly
Speaker 1: it over Center Park and then we'll get on the
Speaker 1: radio and say, hey, we tickets for Pink Floyd, but
Speaker 1: you can't buy them unless you go to Central Park
Speaker 1: and you'll get a coupon to buy them. There's no
Speaker 1: box then you get the coupon. You ru into the
Speaker 1: box office, but you gotta get a coupon. So I
Speaker 1: had about ten of us with bags of coupons. The
Speaker 1: announcements goes on radio, and these people they knocked me
Speaker 1: on my ass. I fell that bang running. I threw
Speaker 1: the tickets up in the air, ran front of life.
Speaker 1: But of course they could sell it anything, and they
Speaker 1: got the coupon of buy tickets. But these kind of
Speaker 1: things they got the bigger and bigger and bigger. And
Speaker 1: I said, one day they're going to rope off Delaware
Speaker 1: and you can't get in this state unless you have
Speaker 1: a ticket to see somebody. And it's gotten that way.
Speaker 1: When you do a show We do a lot of
Speaker 1: shows in City Feel a MetLife Taste Stadium or Yankee Stadium.
Speaker 1: You're there watching the screen unless you're sitting in the
Speaker 1: first rows. We'll have glasses, but no one seems to mind.
Speaker 1: You know what it is. They're there, we were there.
Speaker 1: The experience of being with that crowd is what's it about.
Speaker 1: It's like a scene that want to want to be there. Absolutely,
Speaker 1: I'm assuming there's more than one type of promoter, that
Speaker 1: there's different people who handle the same show differently. What
Speaker 1: type of promoter are you? Are they all the same
Speaker 1: as I do? Is I'm at every show. If I
Speaker 1: have a relationship with an act or if I would
Speaker 1: like to have a relationship and I know them, I
Speaker 1: make it a point to buy them something. I used
Speaker 1: to buy gifts for everybody. Like with Billy Joe, you
Speaker 1: know we were friends. Like one of my hot rod
Speaker 1: ones red with the dice hanging from the thing, like
Speaker 1: you traded in for a motorcycle, traded in your present.
Speaker 1: I think I get, I get an Indian motorcycle. But
Speaker 1: he was like he's the nicest. I mean, look he's
Speaker 1: doing all these shows that they're going and he cuts
Speaker 1: me in who's an act that you kind of were
Speaker 1: fifty you didn't even really have any opinion of any
Speaker 1: sense of who. You watched them live and you really
Speaker 1: decided you liked them a lot of that that now
Speaker 1: that I'm a big corporation, you know, I saw my
Speaker 1: company in the stock Cold Live Nation. There's a lot
Speaker 1: of these acts that I go to see because I
Speaker 1: we know him that well. So I'd go down to
Speaker 1: see him at the barrier or whatever. And I saw
Speaker 1: Hosier from England, h Josie. I uh, this kids, tall,
Speaker 1: good looking guy with the beard and the holy you
Speaker 1: know I'm in So I called the Asian told me
Speaker 1: to go Kirk Summons, who's a wonderful guy. And what
Speaker 1: do you think, Kirk system, I think I want every day.
Speaker 1: So you've got no no, You're gonna get your market
Speaker 1: New York, New York, Dora. So I've been with them
Speaker 1: for years. Another actors James Bay. I know his mother
Speaker 1: and father. Now I had breakfast them in London and
Speaker 1: they gave me their other son is called Alex Francis.
Speaker 1: I got the CD for him. I'm booking him now,
Speaker 1: the kid. And so I make friends with the families
Speaker 1: and everything, But these acts surprised me so sex symbols, English,
Speaker 1: gorgeous and nice. I take everyone out to Old Loomi's
Speaker 1: bar after the show untill four in the morning. They
Speaker 1: got the bus. They go in to Boston at four
Speaker 1: in the morning, and I'm still closing a place with them.
Speaker 1: That's what we do. And you hang with these guys,
Speaker 1: but you hope that they man. But her uncle Ronnie
Speaker 1: they call me, was there with us. And that's why
Speaker 1: I do those little things that people don't go to
Speaker 1: the extra mile. Now I'm forgetting about my family. You know,
Speaker 1: I lost my daughter, but not the loser. But I
Speaker 1: wasn't there for like I should have been like most people,
Speaker 1: and my wife the same way. And you know, I'm
Speaker 1: trying to catch up. It's very very hard. Who's the
Speaker 1: rock star? They really impressed you with his business acumen.
Speaker 1: He understood the business and the ticket sales and the marketing.
Speaker 1: Who was sharp, boy, that's a great question. Well, you
Speaker 1: don't get involved too much with the act. Sometimes I
Speaker 1: do for right now, not too sharp With friends of mine.
Speaker 1: I tell them sometimes, you know, I'm making enough money.
Speaker 1: I tell them about the tickets. They should be hired.
Speaker 1: But I don't want to get the Asian manager in trouble,
Speaker 1: little fire up, so I have to be very careful
Speaker 1: what I say. Jimmy Buff has a great setup. He's
Speaker 1: got a lot of good people around him, and he
Speaker 1: did they know about money, so he's sure. He says
Speaker 1: all those other antillary businesses too. He's selling food and
Speaker 1: all kinds of stuff. He's got seeing your homes, he's
Speaker 1: building villages for all. He's what about Jack or somebody
Speaker 1: told me he's very business. Seven runs the whole show.
Speaker 1: He knows about money. You give him five ten million,
Speaker 1: it's not enough. Whatever I offered him two hundred million
Speaker 1: for a few soars of the garden. When you kidding me,
Speaker 1: you can make that in five shows. It's some ball
Speaker 1: fielding progress. But Roger Water is just smart about the money.
Speaker 1: He knows everything about that. He's very careful about it.
Speaker 1: But he doesn't care what he spends. I'm putting the
Speaker 1: show together. And they were always this way when he
Speaker 1: was with Pink Floyd, that band. We don't okay, we
Speaker 1: want to what did you give the Stones when they
Speaker 1: were here? Uh? You has this little village of New
Speaker 1: York City, and he had egg creams and an organ grinder.
Speaker 1: All right, that's what I want. I want a pool table,
Speaker 1: I want a golf driving range. I want thousand dollars
Speaker 1: tens of bloga. So I go to Dave Gilmar said, Dave,
Speaker 1: you guys are pisting away. It's not me, it's Roger.
Speaker 1: It's okay, okay, what do you want? That's what it
Speaker 1: is today. If I Ronny come over in the house,
Speaker 1: will played car? I should we play Generalmy together? He says,
Speaker 1: I got some CAB's the best, cat, best wine, always
Speaker 1: the best with him New York's legendary concert promoter Ron Delsoner.
Speaker 1: I'd always figured that Roger Waters Pink Floyd classic money,
Speaker 1: those cash registers in the background and pans to caviare
Speaker 1: were meant ironically, apparently not that. Ron Delsoner has produced
Speaker 1: many a Billy Joel concert in his day. But if
Speaker 1: you don't want to wait to buy a ticket, listen
Speaker 1: to our here's the thing interview. He may fill Madison
Speaker 1: Square are now. But when Billy made his first album,
Speaker 1: nobody was paying very close attention. The album was mastered
Speaker 1: at the wrong speed. So a song like this She's
Speaker 1: got away about her, I don't know what it is,
Speaker 1: but I know that I can't live with that played
Speaker 1: like this, She's got away. I don't know what it is,
Speaker 1: but I know that I can't live without that. Interview
Speaker 1: and more at Here's the Thing, Dot Org. I'm Alec
Speaker 1: Baldwin and you're listening to Here's the Thing. My guest today.
Speaker 1: Ron Delsoner is one of the most successful concert promoters
Speaker 1: of all time. He's also in the Long Island Music
Speaker 1: Hall of Fame for his renovation of the Jones Beach Amphitheater.
Speaker 1: He turned it into one of the most important venues
Speaker 1: on the East Coast. And he's seen lots of concerts.
Speaker 1: When you'd be there watching these shows, some of the
Speaker 1: greatest acts that ever lived. Would you sit there and
Speaker 1: go now, this guy is the greatest drummer, This girl
Speaker 1: is the greatest singer. Janis Joplin. I've never seen anybody
Speaker 1: worked that stage like her. Carol King when she first
Speaker 1: sat down and had that multi billion dollar album that
Speaker 1: she had with lou Ala, every song on that album
Speaker 1: was akiller. She knocked him dead at the piano. Barbara
Speaker 1: Streissan I played her in Central Park a free show
Speaker 1: in nineteen sixty seven. Oh my god, videos of it
Speaker 1: and at Farms still Senner Stadium too. Neil Diamond had
Speaker 1: magic when he walked out on that stage. You know
Speaker 1: it's that it's kind of special, right he pulled you
Speaker 1: in dramatic lighting. I want to compare and contrast who
Speaker 1: had the biggest entourage and who had the smallest entourage.
Speaker 1: Who's somebody who came and he went, Oh my god,
Speaker 1: it's like an army of people. While Molly, these guys
Speaker 1: were heavy dealers from Jamaica and they'd be an address
Speaker 1: room and they'd be smoking a spliff and I'll be
Speaker 1: talking about Molly said, really, better take care of this
Speaker 1: man here and give us some money. Give me some money.
Speaker 1: I'm taking care Paul, not you. They're a pretty heavy guy.
Speaker 1: So I didn't like that too much. And it doesn't
Speaker 1: still go on smst entourage and was the least fuss.
Speaker 1: Steely Dan's that way they walk in like, Okay, I
Speaker 1: went to your house that time and Fagan was there.
Speaker 1: Steely Dan is that kind of way. Uh. Paul Simon's
Speaker 1: that one maintenance. Paul definitely pulls out These are at
Speaker 1: the top of my head and even Roger Boys, most
Speaker 1: of the acts I play, but Eric Clapton won't see
Speaker 1: even me unless he wants it. I said, I don't
Speaker 1: want to see it, called me if you want to
Speaker 1: see me. Yeah, that he's low key. Ben Morrowson's low key.
Speaker 1: I mean there's a tons of low key because they've
Speaker 1: been they've been, they've been doing it for so long.
Speaker 1: The newer acts, I mean, you probably can't get next
Speaker 1: near Beyonce jay Z. They're great and I don't know
Speaker 1: what they travel or not there they never try to
Speaker 1: get that close and I respect the privacy, but back
Speaker 1: and then most of all the English acts when they
Speaker 1: first came over, we're easy to get to because their
Speaker 1: drivers came to the parties after the show with giving
Speaker 1: them a drugs. What's the driver doing the well he's
Speaker 1: carrying for us? Uh, those days were great there, early
Speaker 1: sixties and seventy one. Other thing I've noticed and I
Speaker 1: have this got this observation because of you. You got
Speaker 1: me tickets to the twelve concert. I said to you,
Speaker 1: I really want to say hi to Townsend and Adultry,
Speaker 1: And so I meet those guys and I see to Adultry,
Speaker 1: I say, do you guys have played Sally Simpson in
Speaker 1: the morning? He was like, what And you can tell
Speaker 1: they all of them have lost their hearing. You know,
Speaker 1: Townsend has tided is really bad now the last fifteen years.
Speaker 1: They all have these monitors they put in the areas
Speaker 1: Rod Stewart and stuff that they don't blow their voice
Speaker 1: out because they put them in so down they hear
Speaker 1: themselves and they can talk and it goes out, lady,
Speaker 1: So they don't most of the tone deaf, bad tendedis
Speaker 1: this guy's out there azzy When people still go out there,
Speaker 1: you see them get old, you see it. But the
Speaker 1: thing is, none of them, this is my opinion. We
Speaker 1: were talking about this before you can none of them
Speaker 1: want to stop. They're not done. They're all said back
Speaker 1: then when we get to be thirty, we're not gonna
Speaker 1: do this anymore. Jagger said that now there was seventy five,
Speaker 1: but what's his name, Charlie wats is seventy five, seventy six.
Speaker 1: He may be close to my age. For Christ's sake,
Speaker 1: you know he's up there, maybe eighty now. But they
Speaker 1: still didn't want to stop. Look what I'm playing any
Speaker 1: other night, I'm playing Jeff back with Paul Rogers. Listen.
Speaker 1: The Heritage Acts is selling tickets though. People want to
Speaker 1: see the heritage. People's kids now go Daddy that father says,
Speaker 1: you gotta go see this act I did. That were
Speaker 1: my grandkids. You gotta see Billy Joe, you gotta see
Speaker 1: Paul McCarney. There's nobody like these guys. I did the
Speaker 1: Beatles in nineteen six four. Now you travel the world,
Speaker 1: but you were based out of New York. Is New
Speaker 1: York still controlled by the Union or is it a
Speaker 1: lot easier to do business now than it was forty
Speaker 1: years ago? Because I feel like fourty years ago there
Speaker 1: was like a few guys that ran the whole town.
Speaker 1: It's still crazy, uh the Union. Now Local one is
Speaker 1: the Claffy family and friendly with them because their dad
Speaker 1: is still around. James sr. I was around, and James
Speaker 1: Junior is the head of Local one. And Richie Claffy,
Speaker 1: who was eight years old when he was running around
Speaker 1: my stage in Central Parky. He's got a great job
Speaker 1: with Jim Dolan runs the garden and we're all friends.
Speaker 1: I take these guys there two Patsy's at least once
Speaker 1: or twice a year. They're great guys. Will they help up?
Speaker 1: But Uncle Ron and if something happened, yes, but I
Speaker 1: keep that kind of quiet what I do with them
Speaker 1: on the side because they don't do it for anybody else.
Speaker 1: But if I ever needed something, they get there. So
Speaker 1: I'm friendly with them. They almost liked that. My family
Speaker 1: were very close with these guys. But then it was
Speaker 1: tough way back when. I mean they people would pick
Speaker 1: it and they would pick it, and I always let
Speaker 1: him in. They were picking ing at them. They're picking
Speaker 1: in to get union workers work in Hammerstein Ball. So
Speaker 1: I went down there and they put on a hard
Speaker 1: hat and I picketed with them to get union in there.
Speaker 1: Because I had union of my venues, I always hired him.
Speaker 1: I said, look at I can't give you that stupid money,
Speaker 1: and don't pilot on me. Even with the Long Showman union,
Speaker 1: I made a deal with them. I had this show
Speaker 1: Peer Peer eighty four, which was appeared that the Long
Speaker 1: Showman control that. I didn't really know that until I said, hey,
Speaker 1: we've got to help you here. I don't need any help.
Speaker 1: I'll tell you about that later when the guy dies
Speaker 1: he's still alive. I knew they were terrific to me.
Speaker 1: I have no comments. A lot of the guys there
Speaker 1: would connected. Who cares? So? When did the idea for
Speaker 1: Jones Beach hit here? There was an article in the
Speaker 1: Daily News and Frank Barcelona sould rest the PC was
Speaker 1: had a premiere talent. He had only English acts. He
Speaker 1: had who he had clapped, No, he had everybody. He said, Ronnie,
Speaker 1: you better go bit on this. It looks like the
Speaker 1: Shoeberts are gonna go after it. The New Atlanta's you
Speaker 1: should be there. So I bit on it, and I
Speaker 1: want over all those other guys. I took my head,
Speaker 1: salt egg salent sandwich would be and we had time.
Speaker 1: I everybody voted for me, excepted coming to New York.
Speaker 1: He didn't. He wanted he wanted the radio city guys
Speaker 1: in it. And after a while we became friends. He said,
Speaker 1: I should have voted for you. It was ten to one.
Speaker 1: I one ten to one. I said, I'll give you
Speaker 1: ten thousand dollars a show on a hundred thousand dollar
Speaker 1: gavranteed the first year perfect. No one else would guarantee
Speaker 1: that my wife and I go to the Jones Beach concert.
Speaker 1: A while back to cross by Stows, Nation Young, it
Speaker 1: was kind of a warm night, a little balming you know,
Speaker 1: the sun's just going down, it's just getting dark. And
Speaker 1: as soon as the lights went out, I mean I'm
Speaker 1: not exaggera as soon as the lights, like it went
Speaker 1: off like an air bag, with the velocity of an
Speaker 1: air bag. The entire breadth of where we were seating.
Speaker 1: You saw a cloud of dope smoke go all over
Speaker 1: the room. Everybody lit had joined. It was like it
Speaker 1: was like five hundred people that had joined the same instant,
Speaker 1: and the and and the dope smoke went up in
Speaker 1: the air like it was part of the show. I
Speaker 1: looked to my wife and I went, oh my god,
Speaker 1: I can't even breathe. You know, we and we got
Speaker 1: a little high, you know, like like being there. But
Speaker 1: who is somebody? When you look back, you wish man?
Speaker 1: I wish I had promoted that person, done shows well,
Speaker 1: played him many many times. Whatever was scared ship to
Speaker 1: talk to the girls. I played sucted for us still.
Speaker 1: I played him every summer at the Garden State arm Center.
Speaker 1: But I didn't want to have I don't have a
Speaker 1: picture with him. I could have done it easy. He
Speaker 1: was the manager. The manager ran knew and he don't
Speaker 1: want to get out of anyway. I got to talk
Speaker 1: to him like, hey, right, what the hell are you
Speaker 1: doing this for? He has respect for people to talk.
Speaker 1: I always have this funny egotistical thing where I think
Speaker 1: I could have been friends with Sinatra because I would
Speaker 1: have given it back to him. You don't want You're
Speaker 1: the best. I love you, Frankie. You want that ship
Speaker 1: if you're going. Because I talked to everybody, I tell him.
Speaker 1: He looked like, what, I don't care? Who did all
Speaker 1: they go? You know who I'm talking to. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: know you're the president. I don't care. But that's what
Speaker 1: you have to do with him. He respects that. If
Speaker 1: I made a movie out of your life and you
Speaker 1: wind us, that'd be a cool movie. You know, the
Speaker 1: movie out of your life and I had somebody play
Speaker 1: you in a movie. I know it will be who
Speaker 1: would play Robert Downey Jr. That's who you want? Yeah,
Speaker 1: maybe what would work. It's a good idea. That's a
Speaker 1: very good idea. I may run into him in the
Speaker 1: next couple but I tell him. I tell him all
Speaker 1: the sick things we used to do, and you, I
Speaker 1: mean put it in there. I love my wife. I
Speaker 1: gotta wait till I do this, and we want to
Speaker 1: say it's about you. It's an amalgam. Know he would
Speaker 1: be he would be great. Put it together, will make
Speaker 1: a ship. But but in my movie, this kid from
Speaker 1: the Storia becomes the big shot concert promoter of his generation.
Speaker 1: And your name is Delsoner is synonymous with big events music,
Speaker 1: live music. It's Bill Graham and you that's it. There's
Speaker 1: other name but not you know, Cedric Kushner, And he's
Speaker 1: right nothing wrestling. The only reason he got a couple
Speaker 1: of shows I flipping back is from South Africa. He
Speaker 1: offered them five. He had an in with the guy. Wait,
Speaker 1: come on, I didn't go to his funeral. He's a loser.
Speaker 1: Come on, he's a wrestling process. So well, well let's
Speaker 1: leave the wrestler out of it. But in my movie,
Speaker 1: the kid from Historia is leaning against the ropes in
Speaker 1: the wings of the theater. I like that really sentimental,
Speaker 1: you know, And he's leaning against the ropes. He's sitting
Speaker 1: there going, man, this is this is the life. And
Speaker 1: someone's on stage performing who you just melt? You? Just like? Who?
Speaker 1: Who's the star? Who are we gonna? Who makes you melt?
Speaker 1: Come on? Music? That just give you one? But I'll
Speaker 1: give you one. David fucking boat Jack. Okay, well it
Speaker 1: was amazing. What did a performer? He was an artist.
Speaker 1: He was a performer. And Jagger comes from the same
Speaker 1: school constulers dresses, the way they did that the whole thing.
Speaker 1: Those guys were great. You can't now you can't go
Speaker 1: to groups. I mean just of course you picked them out.
Speaker 1: It's the who stones those guys like clapped. But there's others.
Speaker 1: Charles as Nevor when he came out with the hand
Speaker 1: movements in the black and white suit, he and b
Speaker 1: f together. They would love us. At ninety three, was
Speaker 1: still friends. I always played him at Carnegie Hall. I
Speaker 1: love these French artists, these old time as Charles trene
Speaker 1: and people like this. Remember that Beyond Somewhere you got
Speaker 1: it Beyond that was written by Charles Treney. Everybody would cords,
Speaker 1: everybody Charles Treney. He was a great performance. And when
Speaker 1: Neil Diamond first came out with the lighting at the
Speaker 1: Winter Garden Theater, wicked with the hair and to I
Speaker 1: just kind of he was magnetic. Uh who today comes
Speaker 1: out like that? Oh God, that's tough to do. When
Speaker 1: a drums start in the quiet sator was incredible. I
Speaker 1: honest last show at the Copra Cabana when he was
Speaker 1: the Man with the Golden Arm at two o'clock in
Speaker 1: the morning. In the audience is Edward g. Robinson a
Speaker 1: few others, and I'm sitting right behind the band and
Speaker 1: the culprit to put a table out of the pact
Speaker 1: comes out of black shirt, black suit, black tie, and
Speaker 1: the theme is that the Dada the Man with the
Speaker 1: Golden I'm saying because the movie was hot that night
Speaker 1: was magnetic. You see what the same repernee and the
Speaker 1: smoke going up here, you see stuff like that. So
Speaker 1: the song We're gonna go out with beyond the scene?
Speaker 1: Who's Who? Whose version you like? Bobby? I played Barby Darren.
Speaker 1: That joke appear. Wait a minute, it's like a tinball
Speaker 1: machine wherever we go take. I booked him. I booked him.
Speaker 1: Wait when his kid was on the stage watching in
Speaker 1: the wings bo Babe Ruth, he was signing autograph al
Speaker 1: Josh Kake to my house. He had, So here's this
Speaker 1: story waiting. But Bobby Darren played the Shape of Music Festival,
Speaker 1: was a rival for a dollar a ticket in Central
Speaker 1: Park and he was great. You see he also did
Speaker 1: that song about the carpenter, a folk song. He did that.
Speaker 1: It was hot at the time. He tried to be hip,
Speaker 1: you know. Besides, it's not the ship he did, you
Speaker 1: got it. He did that. He had a heart problem
Speaker 1: he should have cured by then. Give him a new
Speaker 1: fucking heart because he was Sinatra for young people. He
Speaker 1: was great. Frank probably didn't like him, but he was
Speaker 1: fucking great and he was magnetic, so he was great.
Speaker 1: You ever see Jimmy Roselli thing. I played him so
Speaker 1: many franking times. He wear a girdle here, don't address
Speaker 1: him him. He's putting the girdle on. I'm playing at
Speaker 1: the Palace day. That was pasquality Caputo pat Pat, that's
Speaker 1: Pasqually Caputo pat. He's opening Shimmy fose Elliot at the
Speaker 1: Palace and Jimmy's you got the dead Presidents. He wants
Speaker 1: to see the green, you know, the cash. And he
Speaker 1: was great. And by the way he was out, he
Speaker 1: was never going to be played aga because Sonatra said
Speaker 1: he's adam that uh gus fans At was gonna make
Speaker 1: a movie with Travolta called The Man who Made the
Speaker 1: Mob Cry, And it was all about how Sinatras. People
Speaker 1: killed Rosellie's career because he was as good, if not better,
Speaker 1: But he wouldn't play his mother. Frank's mother, Dolly, wanted
Speaker 1: him to play the birthday party in Frank GOLs James,
Speaker 1: I don't do that. He wanted to get paid. Frank
Speaker 1: didn't want to pay him. He goes, I don't do that.
Speaker 1: That's why he was bats it nowhere anymore. He played
Speaker 1: Jersey Atlantic City for the rest of his life. And
Speaker 1: I saw him later on in life and he still
Speaker 1: had the course at all, you know, like this, but
Speaker 1: he was great. He had the best voice I've ever heard.
Speaker 1: And all the women, no no, no, Dudue Feminale, you
Speaker 1: paid the rails all the time they played Jimmy Rosellie. Now,
Speaker 1: all the women in your life, women you dated, your wife,
Speaker 1: anybody you know, people women who worked for you. Rock
Speaker 1: and roll is obviously a business with like a hyper
Speaker 1: sexuality to it. Who was the sexiest rock star? Who
Speaker 1: was some what do you mean? The guy would show
Speaker 1: up and people were just throwing them something guys. David
Speaker 1: Cassidy put a bit of trunk of my car to
Speaker 1: get about a national car seem in the trunk of
Speaker 1: my car dropping it to my house and wants Stampton
Speaker 1: to get out. It's okay. They were following him all
Speaker 1: around a place. He was incredible stuff. He just died
Speaker 1: like he once played Jones Beach a few years ago.
Speaker 1: He had no money to take a taxi back to Manhattan.
Speaker 1: I said, I'll get you a limo. This is how
Speaker 1: bad it was for these guys about who's the sexiest woman.
Speaker 1: I gotta think who was sexy? Peggy Lee was the nicest, too,
Speaker 1: sexy and classy. Was doing a show with her at
Speaker 1: the Woman I Skating Rank. He says, where's the food?
Speaker 1: I said, my sponsors chafe of beer. You got a
Speaker 1: case of beer in the dress room. No, no, I
Speaker 1: got an orchestra here. Send somebody out of his two
Speaker 1: hundred bucks to this place. Was famous on a good
Speaker 1: in Times Square to get hot dogs for everybody in
Speaker 1: the band. She was great. And I want to go
Speaker 1: to in too much details about drugs in your business.
Speaker 1: But my friend takes me to a concert as the
Speaker 1: famous metal band, a big hair band, and we're standing
Speaker 1: there talking and then shows about the start and you
Speaker 1: here in the stars dressing me here then here, yeah,
Speaker 1: definitely yeah, here Wow, the voice just clicks in. Man,
Speaker 1: it's all there. He does two big rails and he's ready.
Speaker 1: The door opens, he throws the scar friends like he's like, no,
Speaker 1: let's go, and he's ready to go. Is that your business?
Speaker 1: Is that a part of your business? They got to
Speaker 1: get their motivation right. There should go a couple of people.
Speaker 1: Once in a while. I would say, hey, I gotta
Speaker 1: be dust me up, dust me up, man, and I go,
Speaker 1: what do you want? I mean Jimmy Smith the organ
Speaker 1: play I was playing to show with him, and I
Speaker 1: go in later on in life, Hey man, you got
Speaker 1: any coke? Jimmy? That was twenty years ago. He was bad,
Speaker 1: But I don't see that anymore. Sexy women, I gotta
Speaker 1: think a sexy woman. I mean, I love my wife,
Speaker 1: but who's sexy? Was a chick? I gotta think about
Speaker 1: that Stay Nicks, Carly Simon, Yeah, she was hot, long
Speaker 1: legs and all that kind of grace. Like, I gotta
Speaker 1: I gotta think of off camera here, we'll talk about
Speaker 1: who it is. I gotta figure it out. Was this
Speaker 1: is some new chicks today? Jeanelle Money is supposed to
Speaker 1: be pretty safe. I guess the sixtiest woman today's Beyonce. Well,
Speaker 1: I'll tell you what. Christy Turlington a people that came
Speaker 1: and sat in the front row. Maybe she can't say
Speaker 1: back when and then when you were twelve years old,
Speaker 1: it was like I was the Kitzble brother. Billy's mother
Speaker 1: in law, Michelle Phillips, there's one of those gorgeous gorgeous
Speaker 1: what was the name of the bandmas loud reside on
Speaker 1: that money. My brother is married to her daughter, China,
Speaker 1: and China's daughter, Brooke is a carbon copy of Michelle.
Speaker 1: Scary looks exactly Michelle. Alright, let's let's see. So when
Speaker 1: we go out, we'll go out with beyond the seat.
Speaker 1: But I want to say thank you for doing this.
Speaker 1: Thank you you are you are the man, and you're
Speaker 1: still doing so were you you still doing the ship.
Speaker 1: We're gonna do this. That's what we do. We get
Speaker 1: up in the morning and that's what we do. I
Speaker 1: tell my wife that it's a fortunate that my wife
Speaker 1: now it doesn't have we don't have the relationship. I
Speaker 1: feel it. It's really terrible for me to feel that way,
Speaker 1: but I love it like crazy. She loves me. It
Speaker 1: ruins lives. But you know, when the business came first,
Speaker 1: exactly like Kauzan said in that movie Got, that was
Speaker 1: our job. We were told to do that. We didn't
Speaker 1: ask questions. Ron Delsoner, as he and I discussed, we're
Speaker 1: going to take the show out on Bobby Darren's Beyond
Speaker 1: the Scene. But Ron wanted to pay tribute to the
Speaker 1: song's writer too, so we'll start with the version by
Speaker 1: Charles Trene. The song and the chords are the same,
Speaker 1: but listen to the melancholy tinge strings and harp instead
Speaker 1: of brass percussion. Oh, when Auntie alone, They're gonna be
Speaker 1: playt Plame London, the A, finish your home Love. I
Speaker 1: know beyond a doubt, my heart will lead me there
Speaker 1: to We'll meet that no will meet now I'm the shot.
Speaker 1: We'll kiss just as before, Happy will be beyond the
Speaker 1: sea never again. That one verse is the only thing
Speaker 1: that makes it a love song. Will kiss just as before,
Speaker 1: and never again, I'll go sailing. That's missing in Trene's original.
Speaker 1: It's just the singer and the song. I wonder which
Speaker 1: one Ron prefers. Ron Delsoner, the man who promoted the
Speaker 1: rock acts that you love, and your children love, and
Speaker 1: your grandchildren love This is Alec Baldwin and you're listening
Speaker 1: to Here's the Thing, Hell the play play