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Speaker 1: Welcome, Welcome, Welcome back to the Bob Left Steps podcast.

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Speaker 1: My guest today is founder and chairman of Bandit Lights,

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Speaker 1: Michael Strickler, but he also is a driving force behind

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Speaker 1: a new organization called the Entertainment Association. Michael, what is that? Bob?

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Speaker 1: Thank you very much for having me and thanks for

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Speaker 1: asking the question. Uh. Many people know me and know

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Speaker 1: who I am now because the last two and a

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Speaker 1: half years I've worked with Congress to affect change and

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Speaker 1: get financing basically for our industry. But what is the

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Speaker 1: Entertainment Association? Probably the most important thing that we will

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Speaker 1: do that we need to do as an industry. And

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Speaker 1: here's why. What I discovered first and foremost in the

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Speaker 1: last two and a half years UH in Congress is

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Speaker 1: that this industry holistically has no voice. Two and a

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Speaker 1: half years ago when I began my journey and last

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Speaker 1: week when I'm still in my journey, what you hear

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Speaker 1: every day is go away. You have no voice, because

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Speaker 1: what did we as an industry do when the pandemic began?

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Speaker 1: The Restaurant Association WIN is one, the Airline Association WIN

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Speaker 1: is one. All of the other industries that you would

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Speaker 1: think of automotive. They went is one one voice you

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Speaker 1: didn't have in the restaurant situation, the waiters fighting, the cooks, fighting,

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Speaker 1: the clean up people fighting the suppliers. What did entertainment do?

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Speaker 1: We went in a thousand canoes. They all went in battleships.

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Speaker 1: We went in a thousand canoes. There were so many

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Speaker 1: voices that the senators and the representatives did not even

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Speaker 1: want to deal with us. So that brought me to

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Speaker 1: the moment that I realized, we've got to have a

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Speaker 1: unified front, just like all these other industries do. And

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Speaker 1: it's it's much bigger than just music. Anyone that needs

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Speaker 1: to gather a crowd to our no living would qualify

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Speaker 1: as being in the entertainment association. And that's basketball, baseball, football, ballet, hopie,

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Speaker 1: Indian dancing, children's UH Dance ensemble, you name it, anyone

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Speaker 1: that needs a crowd. When the country shut down, they

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Speaker 1: had no voice. And as I went through my endeavors,

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Speaker 1: UH it was really the small people that got hurt

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Speaker 1: the most. All of the cultural organizations around the United

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Speaker 1: States that promoted regional or or or in some cases

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Speaker 1: even national UH dance troops and and cultural things, they

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Speaker 1: had absolutely no voice, and we've got to correct that

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Speaker 1: because their bottom line, there's just no voice before Congress

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Speaker 1: other than a thousand voices, and the thousand voices before

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Speaker 1: Congress do not get heard. Okay, let's go back to

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Speaker 1: the beginning. It's March. Obviously your company is affected by

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Speaker 1: the shutdown. How do you get involved in this whole

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Speaker 1: money from the government lobbying voice thing? Another great question, Bob.

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Speaker 1: I've got a degree in business and degree in law.

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Speaker 1: Started in the show business at age twelve, but along

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Speaker 1: the way, I've done a number of things Politically. I

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Speaker 1: ran the Chamber of Commerce here in Knoxville for four years.

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Speaker 1: I'm on the board of directors at the local hospital.

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Speaker 1: UH lobbied for the university at the state and the

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Speaker 1: federal level, and I know a lot of politicians. So

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Speaker 1: I had this weird background that never came into play,

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Speaker 1: and I used to wonder, why do I have this

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Speaker 1: weird background. Well, on March thirteenth, which was a Friday,

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Speaker 1: Friday thirteen, that was the day that Live Nation a

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Speaker 1: g n C double a NFL, all of those people

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Speaker 1: said we're done, you know, two weeks to flatten the curve.

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Speaker 1: When that happened, I picked the phone up and I

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Speaker 1: called Marcia Blackburn, who was one of my two senators

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Speaker 1: who I've known for forty years. And I also called

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Speaker 1: Lamar Alexander, by other senator, and I said, what do

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Speaker 1: we do? Help us? Help us, you know, we we

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Speaker 1: need some help politically. Uh, And so we began the

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Speaker 1: conversation Lamar when I called him, you know, we spoke

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Speaker 1: a bit, and then I called him back on Sunday

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Speaker 1: and he was with Stephen manuch In, the Secretary of

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Speaker 1: Treasury at the time, and Lamar put the cell phone

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Speaker 1: on speaker and I explained to manuch In what was

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Speaker 1: going on. And he said, well, surely you have contracts

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Speaker 1: and I said, well, you know, yes we do, but

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Speaker 1: so what And he goes, well, surely these people are

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Speaker 1: gonna pay you. And I said that's not the way

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Speaker 1: it works now now, Manute and I don't know what

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Speaker 1: you know about him, but he was in the movie

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Speaker 1: business and he made a lot of huge movies you

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Speaker 1: can google. And he made a whole bunch of those

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Speaker 1: action thrillers in the eighties and early nineties, so he

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Speaker 1: understands entertainment. And I said, Stephen, you don't get paid

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Speaker 1: and he goes, we'll sue them, and I said, the

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Speaker 1: first time you sue somebody is the last time you

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Speaker 1: worked with him in in show business. And I think

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Speaker 1: he knew that. And his comment when I got through

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Speaker 1: explaining how our industry works was he paused a moment

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Speaker 1: and said, what a stupid business. You know. That was

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Speaker 1: kind of how it started. So they began introducing me

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Speaker 1: to other people. Now I knew some other people at

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Speaker 1: the time. Okay, let's let's just go back for a second.

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Speaker 1: Your two senators, how do you literally know them? You

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Speaker 1: get a call back, you gotta pick up right away. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I've got their cell phone numbers. I knew Marcia before

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Speaker 1: she was in politics, and her first job was running

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Speaker 1: the State of Tennessee's Tape and Film Commission, which promotes

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Speaker 1: movies and television within the state. And uh, I was

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Speaker 1: on the that board, and I worked with her and

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Speaker 1: set up a Knoxville Tape and Film Commission. So we

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Speaker 1: worked hand in hand in her first what you would

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Speaker 1: call political job, and then from there she became a

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Speaker 1: state representative in the state senator and then the US

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Speaker 1: representative in the U. S Senator. So we go back

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Speaker 1: forty five years. Lamar Alexander is actually from this area.

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Speaker 1: And uh, you know, he's been in federal government forty

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Speaker 1: five years. But along his journey, uh, he was the

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Speaker 1: president of the University of Tennessee. He was the secretary

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Speaker 1: of Education. You know, he did a lot of different things.

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Speaker 1: So I knew him locally as he grew up. And

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Speaker 1: you know, I had both their cell numbers, and they're

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Speaker 1: what you would consider friends. Okay, So Minutan says, it's

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Speaker 1: a stupid business. What happens next? I told him there

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Speaker 1: are stupid things about it, and Marcia and and uh,

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Speaker 1: Lamar immediately began helping me with introductions. And one person

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Speaker 1: led to another. And uh, in my life, I have

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Speaker 1: had the good fortune to meet a lot of people

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Speaker 1: which have led me to other interesting people. Uh. Jimmy Haslam,

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Speaker 1: who owns the Cleveland Browns, is a good friend of mine.

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Speaker 1: His family owns Pilot Flying J the truck stops. That's

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Speaker 1: the sixth largest private company in the United States. So

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Speaker 1: I called up Jimmy, and Jimmy introduced me to Rob Portman,

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Speaker 1: the senator from Ohio, h Barry Switzer, the Oklahoma football coach,

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Speaker 1: and the Dallas Cowboy coach, dear dear friend of mine

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Speaker 1: for years and years and years. So I called up Switzer.

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Speaker 1: He introduces me to the Arkansas UH and the Oklahoma

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Speaker 1: senators UH and and so on and so forth. I

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Speaker 1: would call people. I knew that that new people who

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Speaker 1: would introduced me to people, And suddenly I'm talking to

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Speaker 1: senators and representatives all over the United States and we're

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Speaker 1: gathering steam and UH. Eventually that led me to UH

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Speaker 1: Senator Todd Young from Indiana, and the Senator Young had

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Speaker 1: written a bill along with Senator Gold from Colorado called

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Speaker 1: the Restart Act. And if you trail back in history,

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Speaker 1: and I'm not sure if you're aware, but but the

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Speaker 1: Restart Act, we an entertainment launched a really impressive thing

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Speaker 1: back in two thousands, which we called regular Restart. We

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Speaker 1: lit two thousand, eight hundred buildings in the United States

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Speaker 1: at the same time on the same night, and it

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Speaker 1: ranged from uh Niagara Falls to the Empire State Building

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Speaker 1: to the Seattle Space Needle, to half of the buildings

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Speaker 1: in Las Vegas, UH, to stadiums all over the United States.

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Speaker 1: And then you move into little towns and we had

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Speaker 1: people in the same night all over America donating their time,

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Speaker 1: their equipment, and then we had a live webcast that

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Speaker 1: the cameras you know, we switched from this city to

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Speaker 1: that city, to the next city to bring attention to

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Speaker 1: the fact that this industry needed the Restart Act past.

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Speaker 1: Now you may say, what's restarting? Why did you back

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Speaker 1: at Well, I spent February, March, April, May, June, July

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Speaker 1: all the way through to December being the driving force

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Speaker 1: behind Restart. There were ninety two out of a hundred

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Speaker 1: Senators that signed on to restart. There were three hundred

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Speaker 1: ninety House members that signed on to restart, and restart

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Speaker 1: was not for our industry. Restart simply said any small

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Speaker 1: business which has less than five hundred employees and suffered

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Speaker 1: a twenty five percent reduction and income in any one

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Speaker 1: quarter in would get from the government forty five percent

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Speaker 1: of their two thousand nineteen income. The only exclusions were

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Speaker 1: you couldn't be in the adult entertainment industry and you

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Speaker 1: couldn't be publicly traded. So this was a broad based

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Speaker 1: bill that that would help all of American business. And

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Speaker 1: I'm sure Bob that that you noticed as this went on,

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Speaker 1: you had restaurants in trouble, and I mean a lot

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Speaker 1: of businesses were in trouble. We'll restart was going to

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Speaker 1: be the vehicle. So the day that I go first

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Speaker 1: testify before the Senate December, uh, I'm giving my spiel

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Speaker 1: and and and it was a two and a half

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Speaker 1: hour Senate testimony and Q and A. Everybody said, Yep,

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Speaker 1: we're gonna pass it. We're gonna pass it. And long behold,

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Speaker 1: they didn't pass it. And to this day, no one

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Speaker 1: can give me why other than uh, Todd Young had

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Speaker 1: kind of backed off of it in November. To this day,

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Speaker 1: I don't know why. And his girl. Every senator, senators

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Speaker 1: and representatives are are the entertainers. Uh, their staff are

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Speaker 1: the songwriters. Their staff hands them a sheet before they

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Speaker 1: go into a meeting or before they go into an event,

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Speaker 1: and you know, it's a one pager that gives them

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Speaker 1: the high points. And unless they're invested in it, they

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Speaker 1: kind of get the high points and go in and

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Speaker 1: do the spiel and then they move on. Most people

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Speaker 1: don't understand that the average senator and or representative have

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Speaker 1: between eight hundred and four red bills that they're dealing with,

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Speaker 1: So how much attention can they give anyone. Uh. I

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Speaker 1: believe that Senator Young was all in on this bill,

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Speaker 1: and I think that he was at some point, but

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Speaker 1: he had a girl that that was his chief songwriter,

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Speaker 1: if you will, well, she left at the end of

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Speaker 1: November and went to work for Rob Portman. And what

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Speaker 1: I didn't know at the time was when she left,

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Speaker 1: the bill left. If you know what I mean, this,

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Speaker 1: this was the person. This was the engine that drove

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Speaker 1: it all. So when when she disappeared, her name was

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Speaker 1: Anne Gordon. When when Anne disappeared, the engine disappeared. There

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Speaker 1: were two engines to that bill. One was me and

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Speaker 1: the other was Anne. I didn't even know she'd left.

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Speaker 1: So here I am before send it, testified and pushing

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Speaker 1: this darn thing, and you know, the heart's gone out

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Speaker 1: of it on the on the Senator side, and it

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Speaker 1: just laid there and died. And and at that point

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Speaker 1: in time, I was also in a parallel fashion working

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Speaker 1: to make sure it's what started out to save our stages,

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Speaker 1: uh and ended up being called s v o G

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Speaker 1: Shuttered venues, operators, grants got passed, And in my testimony

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Speaker 1: I pushed for both of those. And the analogy that

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Speaker 1: I used was that s v O G UH was

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Speaker 1: needed and was landing on the beach in Omaha, but

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Speaker 1: we needed to get to Paris. So once we landed

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Speaker 1: with s v O G and taking care of the

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Speaker 1: venues and the venue related people, we then had to

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Speaker 1: go up the cliff into Paris. And how did we

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Speaker 1: do that? We did that with restart and when I

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Speaker 1: left that that that that evening, I knew we had

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Speaker 1: gotten both of them passed, and in fact, they told

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Speaker 1: me we had, and I've got the congressional record. It

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Speaker 1: tells you in there that they're going to be passed.

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Speaker 1: But then it didn't pass. So then I shifted all

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Speaker 1: my attention to save our stages, s v O G.

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Speaker 1: And that's that's how it begun. Okay, save our stages. Uh.

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Speaker 1: I'm not taking any money from that. I don't own

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Speaker 1: a venue. But it seemed like at first the money

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Speaker 1: wasn't available, and then if you weren't early, you didn't

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Speaker 1: get any money. What was going on there? There was

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Speaker 1: a whole lot of steps and missteps from the beginning

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Speaker 1: in execution, which led to UH misunderstanding Again. I became

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Speaker 1: the voice for all of live entertainment, and I ended

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Speaker 1: up with an email chain at one point three million people,

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Speaker 1: and that I still have it. That email chain included

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Speaker 1: not only traditional live show people, music people, if you will.

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Speaker 1: But I ended up advising the Screen Actors Guild, the

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Speaker 1: Director's Guild, the Producers Guild, the Broadway League, the National

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Speaker 1: Association of Broadcasters, International Association of Venue Managers and own

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Speaker 1: and international associations, Affairs and Expositions, the rodeo people. I mean,

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Speaker 1: it just got bigger and bigger, the air show people,

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Speaker 1: and every day I got another group that that that

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Speaker 1: looped in and I put all of the names into

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Speaker 1: my email things. So I became the go to guy.

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Speaker 1: And when that bill started, they excluded UH. The first

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Speaker 1: thing that happened was the SBA came out with UH

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Speaker 1: frequently asked questions. And at this time a lady named

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Speaker 1: Barb Carson was running the s B, A lovely lady,

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Speaker 1: very cooperative, UH, a lot of help. So I guided

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Speaker 1: them through the fact that why are you excluding fairs?

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Speaker 1: Because there was this big push that if you didn't

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Speaker 1: have any venue and if you didn't sell tickets, you

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Speaker 1: couldn't have any money. And and and the frequently asked

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Speaker 1: questions that first came out pointedly said that fairs, rodeos

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Speaker 1: and festivals couldn't participate. I had a whole bunch of

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Speaker 1: festival people that I talked to, include including Danny Wimmer

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Speaker 1: and all of his people at d w P, great people,

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Speaker 1: uh and and and uh, Gene Cassidy up at I

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Speaker 1: f E, a lot of great people. Well, we worked

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Speaker 1: really hard for about three months, and we got him

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Speaker 1: over the hump. And so they slowly said okay, okay, fairs,

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Speaker 1: fares can come in, Okay, rodeos can come in, and

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Speaker 1: then eventually, okay, festivals can come in. So so in

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Speaker 1: the first three, four or five months we got those

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Speaker 1: people in. But the only exclusions, and you have to

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Speaker 1: read the law were adult entertainment and publicly traded companies.

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Speaker 1: And all of a sudden, these frequently asked questions just

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Speaker 1: just started putting boxes that weren't there in the law.

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Speaker 1: They just weren't there. So I began to point out

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Speaker 1: to them, that's not what the law says. Well, Barb

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Speaker 1: Carson left and Isabella Gusman came in. And Isabella Gusman

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Speaker 1: had a very strict and narrow view of this law,

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Speaker 1: based on a lot of conversations that she had had

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Speaker 1: with other people, And there were those who believed that

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Speaker 1: that the money in the program UH wouldn't cover anybody

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Speaker 1: outside of the initial round, and people think it was.

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Speaker 1: There are two thoughts. One, most people, including the senators,

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Speaker 1: thought that this money was for everybody. Why is that

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Speaker 1: because the message was broadcasting Give it to the venues

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Speaker 1: and it will trickle down to everybody. Well, that's simply

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Speaker 1: not true. The venues didn't open forever and ever. But

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Speaker 1: but it wasn't just for venues. If you go read UH,

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Speaker 1: Save our Stages, it's pointedly for for independent venues. In

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Speaker 1: other words, Live Nation and A G had nothing to

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Speaker 1: do with this, absolutely nothing to do with it. So

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Speaker 1: it's for independent venues, managers, agents, and promoters. So those

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Speaker 1: people were included. If you were not in one of

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Speaker 1: those four groups, you were on the outside looking at

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Speaker 1: And that goes to your question. So there was a

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Speaker 1: whole lot of confusion, which which you know, led to

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Speaker 1: me counseling people, sending people copies of the lead of

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Speaker 1: the law, UH, doing notes and whatnot. And we never

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Speaker 1: really changed Isabella good Usman's mind. You know, she she

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Speaker 1: never relented. And and then the darned software crashed, and

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Speaker 1: this happened, and that happened, you know, and it took

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Speaker 1: four or five months to open up. And then when

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Speaker 1: it did open up, the initial ask was for fourteen

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Speaker 1: million dollars. Well, after I testified and I told him

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Speaker 1: in my testimony, take care of all of us, they

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Speaker 1: put sixteen point to five million and by billion in

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Speaker 1: the excuse me, and uh again it's in the congressional record.

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Speaker 1: My name is in there, and it says after my testimony,

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Speaker 1: they put another two point five billion in. Well, fast

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Speaker 1: forward to when it shuttered about a year ago. It

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Speaker 1: shuttered with about four billion dollars in it, and then

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Speaker 1: they gave some second rounds and they did this and

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Speaker 1: they did that, and it ended up with guess what,

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Speaker 1: two billion sitting there. And that two billion is still

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Speaker 1: sitting there. That's the money that was for the other people,

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Speaker 1: which should have included radio and television and and you know,

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Speaker 1: people supporting service, people like myself. Uh. But but it

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Speaker 1: was never open to those people. And and and that

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Speaker 1: is why I wrote another bill called the Music Act,

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Speaker 1: which stands from music under severe income crisis. You have

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Speaker 1: to have a good an acronym. And uh, we dropped

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Speaker 1: that over a year ago with bipartisan support, and it

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Speaker 1: just hasn't gotten passed yet. We couldn't get it into

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Speaker 1: the omnibus bill because Rand Paul wouldn't let it come

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Speaker 1: out of the Small Business Committee because Rand Paul wants

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Speaker 1: all money claud back. And but he's now not on

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Speaker 1: the Small Business Committee, and uh, we're reintroducing it and

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Speaker 1: we hope to get it passed in Q one of

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Speaker 1: this year. And I don't know what you know about legislation,

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Speaker 1: but the big thing that stops any legislation is funding.

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Speaker 1: What they call pay for us. When you have a bill,

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Speaker 1: you're technically supposed to have a pay for This doesn't

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Speaker 1: need to pay for Why there's there's two point two

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Speaker 1: billion dollars sitting in sb o G just sitting there. Now,

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Speaker 1: what are we fighting. We're fighting reallocation, in other words,

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Speaker 1: take that money away from us and give it to

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Speaker 1: save the whales or whatever the cause may be. So

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Speaker 1: for the better part of a year, I've been fighting

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Speaker 1: to make sure that that money a doesn't get reallocated

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Speaker 1: and be that we passed the Music Act and get

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Speaker 1: that money to the people in the entertainment industry that

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Speaker 1: have been left behind. So everybody who qualified and who

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Speaker 1: applied ended up getting money. Over the hoops you had

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Speaker 1: to jump through rough how did it play out? Practically?

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Speaker 1: Great question, and and know everybody that that that should

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Speaker 1: have qualified didn't get money. And here's why the hoops

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Speaker 1: were incredible. Uh, the things that they made everyone do.

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Speaker 1: We're we're studying Lee stupid. Uh. And probably what exacerbated

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Speaker 1: did it was the s b A had never administered

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Speaker 1: a program like that, it's not what they do. So

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Speaker 1: they just basically brought people a step above manpower in

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Speaker 1: to be reviewers. What you you know, because you're in

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Speaker 1: the entertainment industry. Very few people understand how the entertainment

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Speaker 1: industry works. So now you've got these reviewers looking at

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Speaker 1: this data, reading these answers. It might as well have

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Speaker 1: been nuclear physics. And then they had to make value

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Speaker 1: judgments Okay, this person does or this person doesn't. And

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Speaker 1: so so the reviewers had absolutely, absolutely no ability. Even

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Speaker 1: myself to this day, people in this town think that

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Speaker 1: that bandit Lights does all the Rocks shows in Knoxville,

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Speaker 1: and that's how it works. Well, it's not how it works.

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Speaker 1: You sign a contract with an artist and follow them

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Speaker 1: and trying to explain this industry to anyone would take

348
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Speaker 1: a month. So you have all these great people that

349
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Speaker 1: had no knowledge of the industry grading the papers, if

350
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Speaker 1: you will. It would be like me grading a nuclear

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Speaker 1: physics test. I wouldn't have a clue. And there was

352
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Speaker 1: no one answer because the answers were esoteric. And uh

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Speaker 1: So there were promoters that didn't get money. There were

354
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Speaker 1: managers that didn't get money. There were venues that didn't

355
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Speaker 1: get money because they weren't skilled enough to execute this

356
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Speaker 1: monolithic set of paperwork. And they are still out there,

357
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Speaker 1: and these are people I'm still fighting for. Uh. The

358
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Speaker 1: bulk of them did. But the odd thing was the

359
00:21:33,960 --> 00:21:39,400
Speaker 1: only qualification was that your entity lost at least in

360
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Speaker 1: any one quarter. In well, I think everybody lost at

361
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Speaker 1: least in one quarter. But then when you take a

362
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Speaker 1: really small entity, uh that has no ability uh to

363
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Speaker 1: to do this this very sophisticated paperwork, when you get

364
00:21:57,760 --> 00:22:01,120
Speaker 1: to that moment, that poor entity didn't fill it outright

365
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Speaker 1: and didn't get any money. So fast forward to today,

366
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Speaker 1: I'm trying to get it reopen, not only for the

367
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Speaker 1: people that were flatly denied the money, but but for

368
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Speaker 1: the promoters and the managers and the agents and the

369
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Speaker 1: business managers. A lot of business managers didn't get any money.

370
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Speaker 1: How do you think they felt? Uh, most of the

371
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Speaker 1: TV people didn't, most of the movie people didn't. Wedding

372
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Speaker 1: planners didn't. Uh. All of the ethnic organizations across America

373
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Speaker 1: that I spoke about didn't. Uh. Just a lot of

374
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Speaker 1: folks didn't. But but but even if it were open

375
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Speaker 1: to them to answer your question, the paperwork was so

376
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Speaker 1: onerous that that it kicked most people out. Okay, assuming

377
00:22:48,040 --> 00:22:51,000
Speaker 1: you got money, was it a loan or a grant?

378
00:22:52,800 --> 00:22:55,159
Speaker 1: It was a loan that could be turned into a grant.

379
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Speaker 1: There was a uh for each of the categories you revenue,

380
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Speaker 1: a promoter, a manager, or an agent. There was a

381
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Speaker 1: list of things that you could and couldn't spend the

382
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Speaker 1: money on. And UH that wasn't really the tough part,

383
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Speaker 1: because it was pretty pretty broad. At the end of

384
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Speaker 1: the day, I think almost everybody, if not everybody, that

385
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Speaker 1: got alone did convert it to a grant because they

386
00:23:23,240 --> 00:23:27,160
Speaker 1: were so very very forgiving. And what you could spend

387
00:23:27,160 --> 00:23:30,359
Speaker 1: it for. You couldn't spend it for political contributions. Uh.

388
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Speaker 1: You couldn't buy real estate with it you couldn't pay

389
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Speaker 1: off a pre existing loan. Uh. And that was really

390
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Speaker 1: about it. Other than that, you could do about anything. Okay.

391
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Speaker 1: The obvious question is it bend at Lates get money? No,

392
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Speaker 1: we we did not. Uh. The when this all began,

393
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Speaker 1: think about think about a war. Now, bear in mind,

394
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Speaker 1: I was never mean, I was never nasty. I was

395
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Speaker 1: I was always polite. But but you know, in a

396
00:23:58,600 --> 00:24:02,520
Speaker 1: wartime situation, who do they shoot at first? The guy

397
00:24:02,600 --> 00:24:06,280
Speaker 1: carrying the flag. You know, that's certainly back in the

398
00:24:07,400 --> 00:24:09,080
Speaker 1: you know, back in the old days, that the guy

399
00:24:09,119 --> 00:24:12,159
Speaker 1: carrying the flag and battle got shot first. How was

400
00:24:12,200 --> 00:24:14,760
Speaker 1: the guy carrying the flag? I was a guy that

401
00:24:14,880 --> 00:24:16,680
Speaker 1: was on the phone daily with the s b A

402
00:24:16,760 --> 00:24:19,040
Speaker 1: and with Isabella Gooseman and with all of her people,

403
00:24:20,200 --> 00:24:24,840
Speaker 1: not being ugly but pointing out daily uh. And in

404
00:24:24,880 --> 00:24:28,200
Speaker 1: the present again never accused it if never ugly, never mean,

405
00:24:28,680 --> 00:24:31,639
Speaker 1: but just when that's not what the law says. You know,

406
00:24:31,720 --> 00:24:35,320
Speaker 1: they are an administrative agency. Their function is to take

407
00:24:35,359 --> 00:24:39,639
Speaker 1: the law and apply it, not to interpret it. And

408
00:24:39,680 --> 00:24:42,879
Speaker 1: they interpreted it. Okay, Bandit Lates is not a public company,

409
00:24:42,960 --> 00:24:44,760
Speaker 1: is it. No, we're not public and we're not in

410
00:24:44,760 --> 00:24:48,400
Speaker 1: the adult entertainment industry. Right, So why didn't you get money?

411
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Speaker 1: Because they said, we are a supporting service company, and

412
00:24:51,640 --> 00:24:54,480
Speaker 1: then they're frequently asked questions. They said, support and service

413
00:24:54,520 --> 00:24:57,720
Speaker 1: companies can't have money. So how did bandit late to

414
00:24:57,760 --> 00:25:03,119
Speaker 1: make it through the shutdown? H. I am very fiscally conservative, UH,

415
00:25:03,160 --> 00:25:07,760
Speaker 1: and UH hoard cash. So we are the only company

416
00:25:07,760 --> 00:25:10,840
Speaker 1: in the industry that I'm aware of globally. We have

417
00:25:10,880 --> 00:25:13,800
Speaker 1: three hundred employees and we laid nobody off. We gave

418
00:25:13,880 --> 00:25:18,359
Speaker 1: no pay cuts, we didn't reduce benefits. I bet on

419
00:25:18,440 --> 00:25:21,119
Speaker 1: my people because I knew whenever this ended, whenever we

420
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Speaker 1: got to the other side, I wanted to have my

421
00:25:23,320 --> 00:25:25,960
Speaker 1: team together because I knew that the strength in any

422
00:25:26,000 --> 00:25:29,080
Speaker 1: company is the people. And I got great people. And

423
00:25:29,119 --> 00:25:31,040
Speaker 1: I knew that if we shut down and laid people

424
00:25:31,080 --> 00:25:33,200
Speaker 1: off and gave pay cuts and did those kinds of things,

425
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Speaker 1: which which everybody else did because they had to. Uh.

426
00:25:37,760 --> 00:25:39,439
Speaker 1: I knew when we got to the other side, I

427
00:25:39,440 --> 00:25:41,879
Speaker 1: would have this great team still with me. And guess

428
00:25:41,920 --> 00:25:44,359
Speaker 1: what we did, so when the world crank back up,

429
00:25:44,600 --> 00:25:47,520
Speaker 1: I wouldn't have having to hire people. I don't mean

430
00:25:47,560 --> 00:25:51,160
Speaker 1: that negative toward any of the people that did. Uh,

431
00:25:51,200 --> 00:25:55,000
Speaker 1: there probably aren't. There's probably no one in live entertainment

432
00:25:55,359 --> 00:26:00,840
Speaker 1: is fiscally conservative and debt diverse and cash have as

433
00:26:00,880 --> 00:26:04,239
Speaker 1: I am or was because we went through you can

434
00:26:04,280 --> 00:26:07,000
Speaker 1: imagine what it costs for sixteen months to pay three

435
00:26:07,040 --> 00:26:12,520
Speaker 1: hundred people, uh info with benefits and all of them. Okay,

436
00:26:12,520 --> 00:26:14,960
Speaker 1: if we shut down today, how much longer can you

437
00:26:15,040 --> 00:26:17,640
Speaker 1: keep open the doors? You know, I asked that question

438
00:26:17,680 --> 00:26:25,000
Speaker 1: December of excuse me February of because you just don't know. Uh,

439
00:26:25,040 --> 00:26:28,239
Speaker 1: you know, the industry was at zero income. A lot

440
00:26:28,359 --> 00:26:31,159
Speaker 1: of people in the industry. You know, you heard the

441
00:26:31,160 --> 00:26:34,439
Speaker 1: word back in the early days, remember pivot, pivot. You know,

442
00:26:34,440 --> 00:26:37,520
Speaker 1: I said you did this, and you did that. We

443
00:26:37,640 --> 00:26:40,159
Speaker 1: did a lot of strange things that brought in a

444
00:26:40,200 --> 00:26:44,119
Speaker 1: little bit of money. We were very fortunate that the

445
00:26:44,200 --> 00:26:48,000
Speaker 1: company has to operating pieces. One is the live show

446
00:26:48,040 --> 00:26:51,680
Speaker 1: piece with the Garth Brooks and Alice Cooper and Widespread

447
00:26:51,720 --> 00:26:54,880
Speaker 1: Panic and Jimmy Buffett and Carrie Underwood and all these

448
00:26:55,320 --> 00:26:58,920
Speaker 1: Barry Mantle, all these wonderful artists. Uh, and I was

449
00:26:59,000 --> 00:27:03,120
Speaker 1: shut down. We have an integration side that does venues worldwide.

450
00:27:03,240 --> 00:27:07,240
Speaker 1: You know, we put lights and illumination things, and all

451
00:27:07,359 --> 00:27:12,280
Speaker 1: kinds of venues and museums and things that didn't stop

452
00:27:12,840 --> 00:27:15,280
Speaker 1: because all those contracts were let. And and and that's

453
00:27:15,280 --> 00:27:18,440
Speaker 1: a funny point because three or four or five months

454
00:27:18,440 --> 00:27:21,639
Speaker 1: into COVID, when New York and l A were totally shut,

455
00:27:22,800 --> 00:27:24,959
Speaker 1: we had three jobs in n y C in New

456
00:27:25,040 --> 00:27:27,679
Speaker 1: York City, two jobs in l A, two jobs in

457
00:27:27,760 --> 00:27:32,119
Speaker 1: Dallas and and they were union control jobs. And it

458
00:27:32,200 --> 00:27:35,200
Speaker 1: was so funny because you never heard this. Those jobs

459
00:27:35,280 --> 00:27:39,440
Speaker 1: never stopped. And and and the legal forces that would

460
00:27:39,480 --> 00:27:42,440
Speaker 1: come in and try to shut a job, they came

461
00:27:42,480 --> 00:27:45,840
Speaker 1: in once and and and the powers that be on

462
00:27:45,920 --> 00:27:49,280
Speaker 1: that job site just kind of looked at him and said, nah,

463
00:27:49,440 --> 00:27:52,399
Speaker 1: we're not shutting down. And that was the end of that.

464
00:27:53,400 --> 00:27:59,600
Speaker 1: So that a continued. Right. Acts got money, okay because

465
00:27:59,600 --> 00:28:02,080
Speaker 1: they have a road crew under what bann or did

466
00:28:02,080 --> 00:28:06,879
Speaker 1: they get the money? Very few artists got money. And again,

467
00:28:07,960 --> 00:28:11,000
Speaker 1: what I'm telling you, Bob, is not opinion. It's it's

468
00:28:12,040 --> 00:28:14,359
Speaker 1: I worked eighteen hours a day and still do for

469
00:28:14,800 --> 00:28:18,439
Speaker 1: two and a half years talking to everybody. Uh, clearly

470
00:28:18,480 --> 00:28:21,399
Speaker 1: you had you know, your A level action. Madonna's your weekend,

471
00:28:21,480 --> 00:28:24,920
Speaker 1: your Garth Brooks, your your you two's you're rolling stones.

472
00:28:25,440 --> 00:28:28,520
Speaker 1: These are people that could actually shut down hibernate and

473
00:28:28,520 --> 00:28:32,520
Speaker 1: b okay, very few people are at that level. Uh.

474
00:28:32,640 --> 00:28:36,240
Speaker 1: Then you got everybody else. Uh, everybody else, to one

475
00:28:36,280 --> 00:28:40,240
Speaker 1: degree or another, struggled mightily. And the perception from the

476
00:28:40,280 --> 00:28:46,560
Speaker 1: public and the perception from Congress was that all stars

477
00:28:46,840 --> 00:28:50,840
Speaker 1: are wealthy, and that all stars should pay all their

478
00:28:50,880 --> 00:28:54,600
Speaker 1: people go away. I mean and I heard that every day.

479
00:28:54,640 --> 00:28:57,600
Speaker 1: Go away. You work for these really famous people. What

480
00:28:57,640 --> 00:29:02,040
Speaker 1: they don't realize is small handful of really wealthy people

481
00:29:02,160 --> 00:29:06,719
Speaker 1: in entertainment. Then there's everybody else and and uh so

482
00:29:06,800 --> 00:29:11,520
Speaker 1: those people struggled. Most None of the big acts got money. Really,

483
00:29:11,560 --> 00:29:15,680
Speaker 1: none of the sort of next level acts got money. Uh.

484
00:29:15,920 --> 00:29:18,560
Speaker 1: The few artists that did get money, many of them

485
00:29:18,560 --> 00:29:20,520
Speaker 1: worked with me. And I'm not going to name names,

486
00:29:20,560 --> 00:29:23,600
Speaker 1: so that wouldn't be fair. But but they worked with me,

487
00:29:23,920 --> 00:29:26,600
Speaker 1: and I would walk them through the paperwork. And most

488
00:29:26,680 --> 00:29:29,240
Speaker 1: of them were what we would call legacy acts. You know,

489
00:29:29,520 --> 00:29:32,360
Speaker 1: big acts in the seventies and eighties that still sell tickets,

490
00:29:32,920 --> 00:29:35,440
Speaker 1: still do quite well. But a lot of the legacy

491
00:29:35,480 --> 00:29:39,440
Speaker 1: acts did get money. And uh, most of them when

492
00:29:39,480 --> 00:29:42,480
Speaker 1: they would get their money, Uh, most of them would

493
00:29:42,480 --> 00:29:45,640
Speaker 1: turn around and pay their crew, which which was really neat.

494
00:29:45,800 --> 00:29:48,400
Speaker 1: You know that they wouldn't just keep it. They wanted

495
00:29:48,440 --> 00:29:52,040
Speaker 1: it to pay their crew. And uh, you know that

496
00:29:52,040 --> 00:29:55,880
Speaker 1: that was very very admirable. Uh. And I'll name one

497
00:29:55,920 --> 00:29:58,680
Speaker 1: act because I think I'm close enough with the act

498
00:29:58,760 --> 00:30:01,680
Speaker 1: to to do this. And and you know, part of uh,

499
00:30:02,320 --> 00:30:07,080
Speaker 1: Toby Mammos Alice Cooper. I mean, Alice jumped in there,

500
00:30:07,120 --> 00:30:09,680
Speaker 1: got p p P. Even before p p P, he

501
00:30:09,760 --> 00:30:12,000
Speaker 1: kept his people paid. I mean, what a guy. You know,

502
00:30:12,320 --> 00:30:15,080
Speaker 1: Alice has perceived as the guy with the makeup and

503
00:30:15,480 --> 00:30:17,400
Speaker 1: all that he is, But Alice is one of the

504
00:30:17,480 --> 00:30:20,000
Speaker 1: nicest guys in the world. He's you know, he's a guy,

505
00:30:20,200 --> 00:30:23,600
Speaker 1: you know. And he was one of the artists that

506
00:30:23,680 --> 00:30:26,000
Speaker 1: just said, Hey, I'm taking care of my folks. That's

507
00:30:26,000 --> 00:30:28,240
Speaker 1: what I'm gonna do. And then they got some p

508
00:30:28,240 --> 00:30:30,120
Speaker 1: p P and then they got the second round of

509
00:30:30,160 --> 00:30:32,200
Speaker 1: p p P and they took care of their people.

510
00:30:32,600 --> 00:30:34,920
Speaker 1: But but there were a lot of legacy acts that

511
00:30:35,040 --> 00:30:39,200
Speaker 1: did that through p p P but but not sp

512
00:30:39,400 --> 00:30:45,240
Speaker 1: O G. But again, there were a small handful of

513
00:30:45,360 --> 00:30:47,720
Speaker 1: artists that did get s v O G money. Because

514
00:30:47,760 --> 00:30:50,560
Speaker 1: I walked him through it, and a primarily legacy. I'm

515
00:30:50,600 --> 00:30:53,720
Speaker 1: unaware of what we would call a big act that

516
00:30:53,800 --> 00:30:57,080
Speaker 1: got in the s v O G. Money. Okay, so

517
00:30:57,280 --> 00:31:01,840
Speaker 1: you're the ring leader. Are there any other Michael Strickland's

518
00:31:01,880 --> 00:31:06,880
Speaker 1: in this world? Or was it everything on your shoulders? Uh?

519
00:31:07,200 --> 00:31:09,680
Speaker 1: From the holistic point of view, it was just me

520
00:31:09,800 --> 00:31:13,080
Speaker 1: when this, when this whole thing began, I didn't realize

521
00:31:13,120 --> 00:31:17,400
Speaker 1: that literally no one else in the show business that

522
00:31:17,520 --> 00:31:21,400
Speaker 1: I knew or met had any experience in politics or

523
00:31:21,440 --> 00:31:24,480
Speaker 1: in lobbying. And I thought along the way, well, people

524
00:31:24,520 --> 00:31:27,520
Speaker 1: will join me, and eventually I would talk to people

525
00:31:27,520 --> 00:31:29,120
Speaker 1: and they go, well, I can't do that, but I've

526
00:31:29,160 --> 00:31:31,040
Speaker 1: never done that. I don't know what to do. And

527
00:31:31,080 --> 00:31:34,240
Speaker 1: at the end of the day, no one directly joined me. Now,

528
00:31:34,320 --> 00:31:38,000
Speaker 1: having said that, hundreds of thousands of people indirectly joined me.

529
00:31:38,040 --> 00:31:40,000
Speaker 1: Each time I would send out a newsletter, which was

530
00:31:40,320 --> 00:31:42,440
Speaker 1: two times a week, three times a week, I would

531
00:31:42,440 --> 00:31:45,000
Speaker 1: send out a link. Right, your Congressman, Wright, your senator,

532
00:31:45,280 --> 00:31:47,560
Speaker 1: write this letter, do this thing, make this phone call.

533
00:31:47,840 --> 00:31:51,800
Speaker 1: Hundreds of thousands of people sprung into action. So you know,

534
00:31:52,160 --> 00:31:55,120
Speaker 1: it wasn't me. I was just sort of the guy

535
00:31:55,200 --> 00:31:58,960
Speaker 1: carrying the flag and the first big initiative we did

536
00:31:59,120 --> 00:32:02,640
Speaker 1: was was read Alar Restart, which was phenomenal. But but

537
00:32:02,720 --> 00:32:06,680
Speaker 1: then we went through NAM National Association of Music Merchandisers

538
00:32:06,720 --> 00:32:09,920
Speaker 1: and Joe Lamond and the great people there, and uh,

539
00:32:10,120 --> 00:32:12,560
Speaker 1: they put up a website and we got hundreds of

540
00:32:12,560 --> 00:32:15,160
Speaker 1: thousands of people to go onto the website and it

541
00:32:15,400 --> 00:32:18,800
Speaker 1: automatically sent letters, you know, to your senators and and

542
00:32:18,800 --> 00:32:21,680
Speaker 1: and representatives and whatnot. And we had a bunch of

543
00:32:22,200 --> 00:32:25,680
Speaker 1: initiatives like that, so it started out really broad based.

544
00:32:25,760 --> 00:32:28,200
Speaker 1: And then then we then we began to focus on

545
00:32:28,240 --> 00:32:32,680
Speaker 1: state by state, region by region. And yes, I had

546
00:32:33,320 --> 00:32:37,680
Speaker 1: millions of people that made this happen. Where it would

547
00:32:37,680 --> 00:32:43,400
Speaker 1: disintegrate or fall apart would be twofold one. When people

548
00:32:43,480 --> 00:32:46,320
Speaker 1: got money, many of them said oh, I'm good and

549
00:32:46,360 --> 00:32:49,320
Speaker 1: walked away from the cause. Uh. And then the other

550
00:32:49,400 --> 00:32:52,880
Speaker 1: thing was people just lost their heart and they walked away.

551
00:32:53,240 --> 00:32:57,520
Speaker 1: So I shifted from from leader to cheerleader and trying

552
00:32:57,520 --> 00:32:59,760
Speaker 1: to keep people's spirits up. And I'm still in that role,

553
00:32:59,800 --> 00:33:01,720
Speaker 1: but was two and a half years later. If you're

554
00:33:01,720 --> 00:33:04,920
Speaker 1: one of those folks that haven't gotten money, it's probably

555
00:33:06,320 --> 00:33:10,200
Speaker 1: very hard to maintain hope. But as human beings. That's

556
00:33:10,240 --> 00:33:13,360
Speaker 1: all we have is hope. And so my role has

557
00:33:13,360 --> 00:33:16,880
Speaker 1: been to keep people pumped up and and uh, you know,

558
00:33:17,000 --> 00:33:19,720
Speaker 1: at first I thought that some of these big entities

559
00:33:19,760 --> 00:33:23,520
Speaker 1: could and would participate. But then the principles that these

560
00:33:23,600 --> 00:33:26,520
Speaker 1: huge entities would explain to me. You know, we're publicly traded,

561
00:33:26,880 --> 00:33:29,000
Speaker 1: you know, we we can't we can't legally be go

562
00:33:29,120 --> 00:33:31,400
Speaker 1: involved in this kind of a thing. And you know,

563
00:33:31,440 --> 00:33:34,800
Speaker 1: I never thought about that, so but but I can

564
00:33:34,920 --> 00:33:39,320
Speaker 1: tell you that. And again I'll use a name. Uh,

565
00:33:39,520 --> 00:33:42,040
Speaker 1: there's a lot of misconceptions, and I'm not getting into

566
00:33:42,080 --> 00:33:45,240
Speaker 1: the politics of whether you like or dislike Live Nation

567
00:33:45,360 --> 00:33:47,360
Speaker 1: or a g or oak View or any of the

568
00:33:47,400 --> 00:33:53,120
Speaker 1: big boy companies. But but Michael Rapino was more engaged

569
00:33:53,920 --> 00:33:58,160
Speaker 1: and more involved and did more things quietly behind the

570
00:33:58,200 --> 00:34:02,760
Speaker 1: scenes for the good of the industry than anyone because

571
00:34:02,880 --> 00:34:07,640
Speaker 1: Michael knew how vertically uh integrated this industry is, and

572
00:34:07,680 --> 00:34:10,239
Speaker 1: he knows that it's in the best interests of Live

573
00:34:10,360 --> 00:34:12,839
Speaker 1: Nation from you know, all of the downstream people if

574
00:34:12,840 --> 00:34:16,279
Speaker 1: you will to survive, because you know, if if if

575
00:34:16,320 --> 00:34:19,960
Speaker 1: like the Chana Tower, if the bottom two thirds collapses,

576
00:34:21,080 --> 00:34:24,560
Speaker 1: the big piece on top is in Trouble and and

577
00:34:25,000 --> 00:34:28,600
Speaker 1: Michael and and and I and uh Ja Marciano and

578
00:34:28,680 --> 00:34:33,439
Speaker 1: Corn Capshaw and Charlie Walker at C three uh and

579
00:34:33,600 --> 00:34:39,359
Speaker 1: uh two or three other people UH conversed regularly. Uh

580
00:34:39,600 --> 00:34:43,759
Speaker 1: Wayne Forte Uh you know the the agent. Uh. These

581
00:34:43,760 --> 00:34:47,919
Speaker 1: people were also heavily involved. Uh. And we have these

582
00:34:48,080 --> 00:34:52,400
Speaker 1: weekly conversations and daily emails. And these people did stuff

583
00:34:52,440 --> 00:34:54,920
Speaker 1: behind the scenes. Yet none of them benefited from it.

584
00:34:55,560 --> 00:34:58,560
Speaker 1: But but they wanted to help the industry. And people

585
00:34:58,600 --> 00:35:01,799
Speaker 1: will never know that. And a number of times I

586
00:35:01,840 --> 00:35:04,400
Speaker 1: have talked to people who had a very negative opinion

587
00:35:04,480 --> 00:35:07,040
Speaker 1: of some of the big folks. I'm like, no, no, no, no,

588
00:35:07,200 --> 00:35:09,399
Speaker 1: you don't realize these these guys and gals were out

589
00:35:09,440 --> 00:35:13,160
Speaker 1: there fighting for you. Uh. And they found that hard

590
00:35:13,200 --> 00:35:16,279
Speaker 1: to believe. Uh, but I'm here to tell you it

591
00:35:16,360 --> 00:35:22,000
Speaker 1: is true. Uh. It's amazing. So what's the status of

592
00:35:22,080 --> 00:35:26,320
Speaker 1: the Entertainment Association right now? And what is the pitch

593
00:35:26,400 --> 00:35:29,959
Speaker 1: to people? What I began doing November one of last

594
00:35:30,040 --> 00:35:32,920
Speaker 1: year and I'm going to do through April the fifteenth

595
00:35:32,960 --> 00:35:36,880
Speaker 1: of this year is Uh. I have already done hundreds

596
00:35:38,000 --> 00:35:41,960
Speaker 1: of zooms and personal meetings and phone calls. I've done

597
00:35:42,000 --> 00:35:46,239
Speaker 1: to date fifteen public speaking events to larger crowds like

598
00:35:46,280 --> 00:35:49,520
Speaker 1: the one I did it Aspen. Uh. I'm going to

599
00:35:49,600 --> 00:35:52,600
Speaker 1: post Star to speak, and next month I'm going to

600
00:35:52,719 --> 00:35:56,280
Speaker 1: NAM to speak. I've got some other sort of large things.

601
00:35:57,320 --> 00:36:00,319
Speaker 1: I'm spreading information, which is why I appreciate what you've

602
00:36:00,360 --> 00:36:02,840
Speaker 1: done here today. Uh. And I'm going to continue to

603
00:36:02,880 --> 00:36:06,600
Speaker 1: do that. And then I email people the PDF file

604
00:36:06,719 --> 00:36:08,719
Speaker 1: and and I'm listening to people, and I'm having a

605
00:36:08,719 --> 00:36:14,200
Speaker 1: lot of conversations. And I already have through conversations with

606
00:36:14,320 --> 00:36:18,840
Speaker 1: entertainment people as well as with political people. I'm shaping

607
00:36:20,360 --> 00:36:22,920
Speaker 1: a vision of what this might look like. And and

608
00:36:22,960 --> 00:36:26,080
Speaker 1: bear in mind, this involves the NFL, the NBA, major

609
00:36:26,160 --> 00:36:29,400
Speaker 1: League base anybody that needs a crowd. And uh, you know,

610
00:36:29,480 --> 00:36:32,719
Speaker 1: going back into the early days, I was going home

611
00:36:32,760 --> 00:36:34,920
Speaker 1: one day and Wayne Fordy called me up and it

612
00:36:35,000 --> 00:36:36,919
Speaker 1: was ten o'clock at night and I was headed home.

613
00:36:37,560 --> 00:36:41,280
Speaker 1: And this is right, remember right when the COVID shots

614
00:36:41,320 --> 00:36:45,080
Speaker 1: first came out, Wayne said, hey, you know what we

615
00:36:45,160 --> 00:36:46,960
Speaker 1: need to do? And I said what Wayne? This was

616
00:36:47,000 --> 00:36:51,399
Speaker 1: his his idea. He says, we need to stand up

617
00:36:51,680 --> 00:36:55,400
Speaker 1: all of the venues and make them places to get shots.

618
00:36:55,440 --> 00:36:57,920
Speaker 1: And I said, well, how would we do that? And

619
00:36:57,960 --> 00:37:01,000
Speaker 1: he goes, Corn Capshaw has already doing it. So what

620
00:37:01,040 --> 00:37:03,200
Speaker 1: do you means? Well, Corn's got an old shopping center

621
00:37:03,200 --> 00:37:07,319
Speaker 1: there in Charlottesville and he's you set up whatever he's

622
00:37:07,320 --> 00:37:09,680
Speaker 1: set up, and and he's helping the community and people

623
00:37:09,680 --> 00:37:12,080
Speaker 1: are getting jabs at the and now your kiding and

624
00:37:12,200 --> 00:37:13,719
Speaker 1: he went and now I said, well we could never

625
00:37:13,760 --> 00:37:16,160
Speaker 1: do this. He goes, yeah, And we had this great conversation.

626
00:37:16,560 --> 00:37:19,319
Speaker 1: So I hung up and called Corn right then and

627
00:37:19,400 --> 00:37:21,920
Speaker 1: Corn said, yeah, that's what we're doing. You know, we're

628
00:37:21,920 --> 00:37:24,440
Speaker 1: doing these shots here in Charlottesville. So I told him

629
00:37:24,480 --> 00:37:26,160
Speaker 1: what Wayne had said. Well, him and Wayne had already

630
00:37:26,160 --> 00:37:30,919
Speaker 1: talked and and uh and and that that whole group

631
00:37:30,960 --> 00:37:34,120
Speaker 1: I mentioned to talk. So literally, in three days time,

632
00:37:34,840 --> 00:37:40,000
Speaker 1: uh Rapino agreed to offer all of the Live Nation venues,

633
00:37:40,680 --> 00:37:44,759
Speaker 1: Marciano all the a G venues. Uh. I called up

634
00:37:45,200 --> 00:37:48,160
Speaker 1: Jimmy Haslam and within a day I'm talking to Roger

635
00:37:48,200 --> 00:37:51,839
Speaker 1: Goodell and I had all the NFL venues and uh

636
00:37:51,920 --> 00:37:56,000
Speaker 1: then uh Ruten Smith, who who owns he passed away

637
00:37:56,040 --> 00:37:59,279
Speaker 1: last year. He owned eleven NASCAR speedways. He hooked me

638
00:37:59,360 --> 00:38:01,840
Speaker 1: up with Frances and we had all all of the

639
00:38:01,920 --> 00:38:05,239
Speaker 1: NASCAR speedways and and and and all these other So

640
00:38:05,520 --> 00:38:08,359
Speaker 1: in four days time, we had all these venues all

641
00:38:08,400 --> 00:38:11,440
Speaker 1: across America. Was it was amazing how people came to

642
00:38:11,520 --> 00:38:14,840
Speaker 1: the table and offered their venues up to give shots.

643
00:38:15,680 --> 00:38:20,239
Speaker 1: And and that was because of this this community that

644
00:38:20,280 --> 00:38:23,080
Speaker 1: we had and these people simply saying yes. And all

645
00:38:23,080 --> 00:38:25,120
Speaker 1: of a sudden, and you saw it on the news,

646
00:38:25,160 --> 00:38:26,840
Speaker 1: we had all these shot clinics. I went up to

647
00:38:26,920 --> 00:38:29,480
Speaker 1: the speedway in Bristol, the Bristol Motor Speedway where they

648
00:38:29,520 --> 00:38:32,560
Speaker 1: have the Bristol five, and NBC interviewed me up there

649
00:38:32,680 --> 00:38:36,600
Speaker 1: because that's when it was just starting. And uh, it

650
00:38:36,680 --> 00:38:39,920
Speaker 1: was just amazing to watch the synergy of how all

651
00:38:39,920 --> 00:38:43,400
Speaker 1: these people could and would work together. So I'm sitting

652
00:38:43,960 --> 00:38:46,040
Speaker 1: at my desk one day and my cell phone rings

653
00:38:46,680 --> 00:38:49,960
Speaker 1: and it's John Tyson, CEO of Tyson Foods. And he

654
00:38:50,000 --> 00:38:54,600
Speaker 1: introduced himself and he said, I've got more refrigerator tractor

655
00:38:54,640 --> 00:38:57,800
Speaker 1: trailers than anybody in the world. I want to offer

656
00:38:57,840 --> 00:39:01,520
Speaker 1: them up to all the uh thevaccine around. So I

657
00:39:01,719 --> 00:39:04,600
Speaker 1: immediately connected him with Jeffrey Zentz, who at the time

658
00:39:04,680 --> 00:39:08,000
Speaker 1: was the COVID czar in White House, and John provided

659
00:39:08,080 --> 00:39:11,840
Speaker 1: the uh, the tractor traders to haul the the vaccines

660
00:39:11,880 --> 00:39:14,040
Speaker 1: around and and John and I became great friends, and

661
00:39:14,080 --> 00:39:17,640
Speaker 1: all of that became tremendous friends. And and Rapino put

662
00:39:17,680 --> 00:39:20,520
Speaker 1: his people to work when this that initiative started, and

663
00:39:20,600 --> 00:39:22,960
Speaker 1: we sent a letter to the president. You may have

664
00:39:23,040 --> 00:39:25,480
Speaker 1: seen it, and it's it's signed by Live Nation and

665
00:39:25,560 --> 00:39:29,120
Speaker 1: a G and all those entities that I mentioned to

666
00:39:29,280 --> 00:39:32,040
Speaker 1: the President saying we're here to help you. And and

667
00:39:32,160 --> 00:39:34,840
Speaker 1: it was the power of Live Nation and a G

668
00:39:35,080 --> 00:39:38,239
Speaker 1: in the NFL and all these big names. Uh, that

669
00:39:38,360 --> 00:39:41,520
Speaker 1: thing that letter broke on the on the Wall Street Journal.

670
00:39:41,719 --> 00:39:44,480
Speaker 1: I mean, and that's pretty big to get something of

671
00:39:44,520 --> 00:39:48,080
Speaker 1: that nature in the front page of the Wall Street Journal.

672
00:39:48,400 --> 00:39:50,320
Speaker 1: But but again, that was the power of these people

673
00:39:50,400 --> 00:39:53,799
Speaker 1: making these things happen. And we moved forward with that

674
00:39:53,880 --> 00:39:59,080
Speaker 1: team ever since then and and got all the vaccines distributed. Okay,

675
00:39:59,760 --> 00:40:03,600
Speaker 1: but today the world has opened up today anyway, what's

676
00:40:03,680 --> 00:40:06,960
Speaker 1: the pitch to meet for someone to become a member

677
00:40:07,040 --> 00:40:10,120
Speaker 1: of the Entertainment Association? And if they do become a member,

678
00:40:10,200 --> 00:40:11,920
Speaker 1: is there going to be money involved? How's it all

679
00:40:11,960 --> 00:40:15,520
Speaker 1: gonna work? That's why I'm having conversations. There is what

680
00:40:15,560 --> 00:40:18,279
Speaker 1: I call my belief. I don't want to own it.

681
00:40:18,400 --> 00:40:19,880
Speaker 1: I don't want to steer it. I don't want to

682
00:40:19,920 --> 00:40:22,600
Speaker 1: control it. I just want to make sure we do it.

683
00:40:23,600 --> 00:40:27,000
Speaker 1: Here is my belief today, and it hasn't moved, this

684
00:40:27,080 --> 00:40:31,279
Speaker 1: core belief. No, I don't think you build it by

685
00:40:31,320 --> 00:40:36,240
Speaker 1: having Uh all these people pay ten dollars pick a number.

686
00:40:36,760 --> 00:40:39,719
Speaker 1: According to the US Bureau of Economic Analysis, we are

687
00:40:39,760 --> 00:40:45,520
Speaker 1: a one trillion dollar industry with ten million people. That's sizeable. Uh,

688
00:40:45,640 --> 00:40:49,600
Speaker 1: restaurants are are Restaurants are a six hundred almost a

689
00:40:49,680 --> 00:40:52,880
Speaker 1: seven hundred billion dollar industry with five million people. So

690
00:40:52,920 --> 00:40:56,040
Speaker 1: we're ish twice the size of the restaurant industry. But

691
00:40:56,120 --> 00:40:59,880
Speaker 1: what do they have that we don't. The National Restaurants Association,

692
00:41:00,600 --> 00:41:03,839
Speaker 1: you know, they have a voice on the hill. Two

693
00:41:03,880 --> 00:41:07,640
Speaker 1: thousand nineteen, all of what we would call entertainment gave

694
00:41:07,800 --> 00:41:13,480
Speaker 1: two million dollars political contributions. That counts Live Nation in

695
00:41:13,480 --> 00:41:16,759
Speaker 1: the NFL and Major League Baseball and everybody else. So

696
00:41:17,320 --> 00:41:21,399
Speaker 1: what's what's the pitch here? The pitches? It will never

697
00:41:21,480 --> 00:41:23,759
Speaker 1: work if we have to have an organization in a

698
00:41:23,840 --> 00:41:26,560
Speaker 1: structure and people giving money and people keeping up with it.

699
00:41:26,960 --> 00:41:30,040
Speaker 1: I believe we're gonna end up with an organization seated

700
00:41:30,120 --> 00:41:34,319
Speaker 1: in d C in a lobbying firm, uh, that represents

701
00:41:34,480 --> 00:41:41,880
Speaker 1: our goodwill and the major players, the big organizations within

702
00:41:41,920 --> 00:41:45,719
Speaker 1: this industry. There is a number and and I think

703
00:41:45,760 --> 00:41:47,879
Speaker 1: that number was asked when you were an Aspen and

704
00:41:48,600 --> 00:41:51,320
Speaker 1: you know, I don't want to answer it here, but

705
00:41:51,320 --> 00:41:54,200
Speaker 1: but there is a number where if you take these top,

706
00:41:54,280 --> 00:41:59,040
Speaker 1: say twenty large entities, and each one put in X dollars,

707
00:42:00,480 --> 00:42:03,600
Speaker 1: it wouldn't be a line item on their budget, yet

708
00:42:03,719 --> 00:42:07,000
Speaker 1: it would be enough money to fund operations. And what

709
00:42:07,040 --> 00:42:10,920
Speaker 1: are operations? Operations very simply are You're gonna have to

710
00:42:10,960 --> 00:42:13,960
Speaker 1: give some level of funding to one hundred senators. That's

711
00:42:14,000 --> 00:42:16,480
Speaker 1: the most elite club in the world, the U. S. Senate.

712
00:42:17,200 --> 00:42:19,440
Speaker 1: So you're gonna have to give some level of money

713
00:42:19,520 --> 00:42:23,160
Speaker 1: every year to one hundred senators and probably twenty five

714
00:42:23,480 --> 00:42:27,759
Speaker 1: House members representatives, the people that are on the right committees.

715
00:42:27,920 --> 00:42:30,799
Speaker 1: So you're gonna be making annual donations to probably a

716
00:42:30,880 --> 00:42:33,200
Speaker 1: hundred and twenty five people. You're gonna have to pay

717
00:42:33,320 --> 00:42:36,480
Speaker 1: some amount of money, obviously to the firm to do

718
00:42:36,520 --> 00:42:39,239
Speaker 1: the lobbying, and all of a sudden when you go

719
00:42:39,280 --> 00:42:41,360
Speaker 1: in and sit down and talk to them, which I

720
00:42:41,400 --> 00:42:43,480
Speaker 1: have done for two and a half years, when their

721
00:42:43,480 --> 00:42:47,000
Speaker 1: guy or gal picks up that piece of paper and goes, huh.

722
00:42:47,320 --> 00:42:51,120
Speaker 1: Entertainment Association. They give us fifteen thousand dollars every year.

723
00:42:51,560 --> 00:42:54,680
Speaker 1: Send them in, whereas what we went through now was

724
00:42:56,080 --> 00:43:00,319
Speaker 1: the Rodeo Association. Send them away. I mean we had

725
00:43:00,400 --> 00:43:04,080
Speaker 1: no voice. No one had a voice because no one

726
00:43:04,600 --> 00:43:07,560
Speaker 1: you know, whatever you think of politics, uh, And you've

727
00:43:07,600 --> 00:43:09,919
Speaker 1: probably heard me say this and ask me that there

728
00:43:10,000 --> 00:43:12,279
Speaker 1: is no red or blue, there is only green, and

729
00:43:12,280 --> 00:43:15,920
Speaker 1: and that's that's not a funny statement, that's the truth.

730
00:43:16,719 --> 00:43:19,879
Speaker 1: It's it's all about the money in d C. And

731
00:43:20,040 --> 00:43:24,680
Speaker 1: if you're not doing something uh for a politician, they've

732
00:43:24,880 --> 00:43:27,399
Speaker 1: little reason to do anything for you. And I don't

733
00:43:27,400 --> 00:43:32,080
Speaker 1: mean that negative or ugly, but we have to create

734
00:43:32,120 --> 00:43:36,279
Speaker 1: this entity and it has to have one purpose. And

735
00:43:36,800 --> 00:43:39,359
Speaker 1: you can't vary off this because there's only one thing

736
00:43:39,880 --> 00:43:42,840
Speaker 1: that brings everybody that needs a crowd to make a

737
00:43:42,880 --> 00:43:47,200
Speaker 1: living together, and that is to either prevent and or

738
00:43:47,360 --> 00:43:51,120
Speaker 1: deal with a future shutdown period into report. We can't

739
00:43:51,160 --> 00:43:54,680
Speaker 1: go beyond that because the minute you wander away from that, well,

740
00:43:54,760 --> 00:43:58,920
Speaker 1: what about ticket pricing or you know, ten thousand issues.

741
00:44:00,000 --> 00:44:03,040
Speaker 1: Some people would before that, some people would be against that,

742
00:44:03,400 --> 00:44:09,239
Speaker 1: but we're all needing to deal with potential shutdowns. And

743
00:44:09,280 --> 00:44:13,319
Speaker 1: again right now, there are several conditions that people in

744
00:44:13,400 --> 00:44:16,200
Speaker 1: Congress want to shut us down right now. There are

745
00:44:16,200 --> 00:44:19,439
Speaker 1: people in Congress that don't believe we should be having

746
00:44:19,480 --> 00:44:22,920
Speaker 1: crowds right now. There are people in Congress that believes

747
00:44:22,920 --> 00:44:25,720
Speaker 1: if any act of war anywhere in the world happens,

748
00:44:26,320 --> 00:44:28,320
Speaker 1: we should shut down. Thank nine eleven, you know, the

749
00:44:28,360 --> 00:44:31,880
Speaker 1: country shut for five days after nine eleven. Uh. There

750
00:44:31,920 --> 00:44:35,240
Speaker 1: are people in Congress right now that think we shouldn't

751
00:44:35,280 --> 00:44:39,200
Speaker 1: be having public gatherings today because of the social unrest

752
00:44:39,239 --> 00:44:41,680
Speaker 1: that's going on. So, you know, there are a lot

753
00:44:41,719 --> 00:44:46,920
Speaker 1: of what we would call fringe thoughts out there in Congress. Uh,

754
00:44:47,080 --> 00:44:51,680
Speaker 1: left and right, red and blue about shutting down and

755
00:44:51,880 --> 00:44:54,319
Speaker 1: what if one of those takes hold. You know, what

756
00:44:54,440 --> 00:44:56,759
Speaker 1: if one of those takes hold. There are two industries

757
00:44:56,800 --> 00:45:01,800
Speaker 1: that were totally shut live live in entertainment and cruise lines.

758
00:45:02,239 --> 00:45:04,759
Speaker 1: And cruise lines. You know, that's that's a handful of

759
00:45:04,760 --> 00:45:07,160
Speaker 1: companies and they all went to the sauties for money.

760
00:45:08,120 --> 00:45:10,959
Speaker 1: So that's their solution, and that's why they're not really

761
00:45:11,000 --> 00:45:15,359
Speaker 1: in this conversation. But for us, we are tens of

762
00:45:15,400 --> 00:45:19,680
Speaker 1: thousands of little and big companies that need a single voice,

763
00:45:20,520 --> 00:45:23,000
Speaker 1: and we need a plan, and we need an agreement

764
00:45:23,040 --> 00:45:25,560
Speaker 1: with Congress, and we need a voice with Congress to

765
00:45:25,719 --> 00:45:29,200
Speaker 1: first prevent and then second and or deal with a

766
00:45:29,239 --> 00:45:32,600
Speaker 1: future shutdown. And that's pretty much it. It's it's a

767
00:45:32,680 --> 00:45:37,920
Speaker 1: real simple it's a real simple process. And and anyone

768
00:45:38,000 --> 00:45:42,120
Speaker 1: that that takes the position it will never happen again.

769
00:45:42,680 --> 00:45:53,239
Speaker 1: Did you ever think it would happen the first time? Okay,

770
00:45:53,560 --> 00:45:57,360
Speaker 1: playing Devil's advocate here, your heart's in the right place.

771
00:45:57,920 --> 00:46:00,600
Speaker 1: You've done a lot of work, but it's seems pretty

772
00:46:00,600 --> 00:46:04,840
Speaker 1: amorphous to me. How do we nail it down and

773
00:46:04,920 --> 00:46:09,520
Speaker 1: make it happen? First and foremost, it's talking to as

774
00:46:09,560 --> 00:46:11,840
Speaker 1: many people as I can. And again that's why I

775
00:46:11,880 --> 00:46:16,880
Speaker 1: appreciate this offer, uh, in this opportunity, Bob, because a

776
00:46:16,920 --> 00:46:19,719
Speaker 1: lot of people are going to hear this, UH, and

777
00:46:19,760 --> 00:46:21,799
Speaker 1: it's you know, it's winning hearts and minds one at

778
00:46:21,800 --> 00:46:27,080
Speaker 1: a time. But but the ultimate, the ultimate god to

779
00:46:27,719 --> 00:46:33,000
Speaker 1: achieving this or the decision makers in the largest firms

780
00:46:33,280 --> 00:46:37,160
Speaker 1: at the highest levels believe it or not. Sports leagues

781
00:46:37,800 --> 00:46:42,359
Speaker 1: are probably the easiest because they have a league. If

782
00:46:42,360 --> 00:46:44,759
Speaker 1: you get to buy in from Roger Goodell, you've got

783
00:46:44,760 --> 00:46:48,839
Speaker 1: the NFL. All of the sports leagues sit in that situation.

784
00:46:49,400 --> 00:46:52,520
Speaker 1: So most of the sports things are are actually easier.

785
00:46:53,120 --> 00:46:56,000
Speaker 1: But when you get into all of the tens of

786
00:46:56,040 --> 00:47:00,480
Speaker 1: thousands of people in entities within the traditional live entertainment

787
00:47:00,560 --> 00:47:03,600
Speaker 1: music and that kind of a thing. Yeah, you've got

788
00:47:03,640 --> 00:47:05,640
Speaker 1: the big boys, the Live Nation, day a G, the

789
00:47:05,760 --> 00:47:07,840
Speaker 1: c a A, the William Morris, the Oak View, you

790
00:47:07,840 --> 00:47:10,600
Speaker 1: know those people. But then there's so many other ones

791
00:47:10,600 --> 00:47:17,080
Speaker 1: aren't there. And if if if the top twenty firms

792
00:47:19,200 --> 00:47:23,040
Speaker 1: can understand this and can agree to this and and

793
00:47:23,160 --> 00:47:27,680
Speaker 1: confunded this, then there's this, then there's this mechanism that

794
00:47:27,719 --> 00:47:31,319
Speaker 1: will take care of everybody. And and no one firm,

795
00:47:31,400 --> 00:47:35,400
Speaker 1: no one person can control it. Can can be the person.

796
00:47:35,480 --> 00:47:36,960
Speaker 1: And that's why I say it's got to have a

797
00:47:37,000 --> 00:47:39,960
Speaker 1: single focus. You. You can't wander off into other causes

798
00:47:40,000 --> 00:47:43,120
Speaker 1: because then other people will say, well, you know, company

799
00:47:43,280 --> 00:47:47,160
Speaker 1: X is controlling this and they're going to pass legislation

800
00:47:47,239 --> 00:47:52,000
Speaker 1: to benefit themselves about whatever. No, the whole thing has

801
00:47:52,040 --> 00:47:55,760
Speaker 1: to be focused on what do we do to prevent

802
00:47:56,080 --> 00:47:58,560
Speaker 1: and then and or deal with the future shutdown? And

803
00:47:58,640 --> 00:48:03,839
Speaker 1: and I've have for a lot of talking. I've got

804
00:48:03,840 --> 00:48:07,759
Speaker 1: some pretty good ideas of a very effective path, and

805
00:48:08,000 --> 00:48:11,040
Speaker 1: I'll share this with you. Uh. This is the first

806
00:48:11,040 --> 00:48:14,759
Speaker 1: time I've said this publicly. Most people don't know, but

807
00:48:14,880 --> 00:48:19,759
Speaker 1: the United States is cut up into UH sectors and

808
00:48:19,960 --> 00:48:26,120
Speaker 1: UH the FEMA has cut America into sectors. And FEMA

809
00:48:26,200 --> 00:48:31,920
Speaker 1: issues five year contracts to each sector, to construction companies

810
00:48:32,360 --> 00:48:37,799
Speaker 1: to do remediation. In other words, Katrina non eleven, those

811
00:48:37,880 --> 00:48:40,319
Speaker 1: kinds of things. When not eleven happened, they didn't go

812
00:48:40,360 --> 00:48:43,480
Speaker 1: out and get bids to clean it up. A good

813
00:48:43,480 --> 00:48:46,000
Speaker 1: friend of mine, oddly enough, had the contract for for

814
00:48:46,080 --> 00:48:50,400
Speaker 1: New York. So when the towers came down, UH Phillips

815
00:48:50,400 --> 00:48:52,680
Speaker 1: and Jordan's the name of the company, they went up

816
00:48:52,680 --> 00:48:55,919
Speaker 1: to New York. And they're still up there doing remediation.

817
00:48:56,160 --> 00:49:00,480
Speaker 1: But that deal was struck before that Katrina deal was

818
00:49:00,520 --> 00:49:03,960
Speaker 1: struck before that. And that's what the government has done,

819
00:49:04,480 --> 00:49:09,120
Speaker 1: UH for for national emergencies, for for for dealing with

820
00:49:09,239 --> 00:49:12,400
Speaker 1: things of that nature. They have five year contracts for

821
00:49:12,560 --> 00:49:15,480
Speaker 1: every area of the country so that they're not chasing

822
00:49:15,560 --> 00:49:20,680
Speaker 1: bids at that moment. I believe our solution lays in

823
00:49:20,840 --> 00:49:24,080
Speaker 1: something like that. I believe that that we get a

824
00:49:24,120 --> 00:49:27,920
Speaker 1: lobbying firm and that we have conversations with the federal

825
00:49:28,000 --> 00:49:32,040
Speaker 1: government that if indeed they ever shut the country down again,

826
00:49:32,920 --> 00:49:35,640
Speaker 1: here's the plan for those of you in the live

827
00:49:35,760 --> 00:49:39,600
Speaker 1: entertainment sector. Whatever that plan is, let's go ahead and

828
00:49:39,640 --> 00:49:42,040
Speaker 1: get it done. Now, let's get it in paper. Now.

829
00:49:42,760 --> 00:49:46,440
Speaker 1: It's almost an insurance policy. Uh. And the federal government

830
00:49:46,440 --> 00:49:48,680
Speaker 1: has done that in many other areas. It's it's not

831
00:49:48,760 --> 00:49:51,399
Speaker 1: just in the in the recovery area. And again I've

832
00:49:51,400 --> 00:49:55,080
Speaker 1: had this conversation with legislators, uh, and and they're all

833
00:49:55,160 --> 00:49:57,960
Speaker 1: kind of given me the you know, the the positive

834
00:49:58,239 --> 00:50:04,319
Speaker 1: head Bob. Obviously that has to be funded. But uh,

835
00:50:04,719 --> 00:50:08,000
Speaker 1: going back to the beginning of COVID, and I think

836
00:50:08,040 --> 00:50:10,800
Speaker 1: you know what I'm about to say, Uh, you couldn't

837
00:50:10,800 --> 00:50:13,160
Speaker 1: turn the TV on that you didn't see sympathy for

838
00:50:13,239 --> 00:50:17,279
Speaker 1: restaurants and gems. Restaurants and gems, restaurants and gyms, never

839
00:50:17,320 --> 00:50:21,640
Speaker 1: for entertainment. Why you work for rich pop stars, they

840
00:50:21,640 --> 00:50:25,120
Speaker 1: should take care of you. Everybody eats at restaurants. A

841
00:50:25,160 --> 00:50:27,640
Speaker 1: lot of people go to gyms. A lot of sympathy

842
00:50:27,680 --> 00:50:31,560
Speaker 1: for those two UH fields. There was no sympathy for us,

843
00:50:31,640 --> 00:50:36,640
Speaker 1: none whatsoever. But they do now know. And indeed, going

844
00:50:36,719 --> 00:50:42,680
Speaker 1: into the inauguration, when when uh, when when UH Trump

845
00:50:42,680 --> 00:50:46,400
Speaker 1: went out of office and UH Biden came into office.

846
00:50:46,719 --> 00:50:49,359
Speaker 1: I got together a bunch of industry leaders and I said, guys,

847
00:50:49,400 --> 00:50:52,120
Speaker 1: here's what we need to do. Let's just refuse to

848
00:50:52,120 --> 00:50:56,480
Speaker 1: do any production services for anything to do with the inauguration.

849
00:50:57,480 --> 00:51:04,520
Speaker 1: That'll get their attention. And one company, including mine, did that,

850
00:51:05,280 --> 00:51:07,799
Speaker 1: and we all sat in the meeting and everybody, we

851
00:51:07,800 --> 00:51:10,360
Speaker 1: can't do that. Why we had just come out of

852
00:51:10,400 --> 00:51:12,240
Speaker 1: ten months of no income and all of a sudden,

853
00:51:12,280 --> 00:51:15,120
Speaker 1: you've got this, you know, two million dollar contract to

854
00:51:15,160 --> 00:51:20,759
Speaker 1: do whatever the show is. Nobody would not do that.

855
00:51:20,840 --> 00:51:22,919
Speaker 1: My company did that field of flags. If you saw,

856
00:51:23,000 --> 00:51:25,239
Speaker 1: you know, all those thousands of flags down the mall,

857
00:51:25,360 --> 00:51:28,520
Speaker 1: that that was bandit lights. We lit those flags. We

858
00:51:28,560 --> 00:51:30,080
Speaker 1: got paid very well for it. It was a C

859
00:51:30,239 --> 00:51:34,040
Speaker 1: three production. Uh. It was a big, big, big thing.

860
00:51:35,040 --> 00:51:37,319
Speaker 1: And I have to say I didn't walk away from it.

861
00:51:37,360 --> 00:51:39,840
Speaker 1: But would I have walked away from it if everybody

862
00:51:39,880 --> 00:51:43,359
Speaker 1: else would have? Yes, I would. But but nobody wanted to,

863
00:51:43,480 --> 00:51:46,839
Speaker 1: and I get it it was economic, but those are

864
00:51:46,880 --> 00:51:50,399
Speaker 1: the kind of moves that we're gonna have to make.

865
00:51:50,440 --> 00:51:51,840
Speaker 1: I think it will take the better part of a

866
00:51:51,920 --> 00:51:55,120
Speaker 1: year and a half to two years from today to

867
00:51:55,200 --> 00:51:58,799
Speaker 1: get us all together, to get a lobbyist and to

868
00:51:58,880 --> 00:52:01,960
Speaker 1: work with Congress to them up with a plan. Because

869
00:52:02,000 --> 00:52:04,560
Speaker 1: we were the only people that were shut down. We

870
00:52:04,600 --> 00:52:07,520
Speaker 1: didn't have takeaway, we didn't have delivery, we didn't have

871
00:52:07,560 --> 00:52:10,000
Speaker 1: a muted version of being open where we could keep

872
00:52:10,000 --> 00:52:12,560
Speaker 1: people six ft apart. It just doesn't work for what

873
00:52:12,600 --> 00:52:15,319
Speaker 1: we do. So I think we can come up with

874
00:52:15,360 --> 00:52:18,240
Speaker 1: a solution. Uh, there's there's a lot of bright minds

875
00:52:18,280 --> 00:52:21,440
Speaker 1: out there. It's going to be a private public partnership

876
00:52:21,480 --> 00:52:24,640
Speaker 1: to figure out that solution. I'm willing to spend whatever

877
00:52:24,719 --> 00:52:27,600
Speaker 1: time it takes. Everything I have done in two and

878
00:52:27,600 --> 00:52:31,120
Speaker 1: a half years, I've personally funded every airplane ticket, every hotel,

879
00:52:31,640 --> 00:52:36,560
Speaker 1: every plane flight, every meal, every everything that There's no

880
00:52:36,719 --> 00:52:40,319
Speaker 1: organization behind me, there's no funding behind me. This is

881
00:52:40,360 --> 00:52:43,719
Speaker 1: just the right thing to do. And and and that's

882
00:52:43,800 --> 00:52:48,080
Speaker 1: that's my mission, is to keep having these conversations. Okay,

883
00:52:48,440 --> 00:52:51,399
Speaker 1: the music business, other than the big corporations is a

884
00:52:51,520 --> 00:52:55,360
Speaker 1: very street business, and a lot of entertainment is run

885
00:52:55,560 --> 00:53:00,400
Speaker 1: by an intimidation. To what degree were the sports leagues

886
00:53:00,440 --> 00:53:02,560
Speaker 1: and all these other things to what did we were

887
00:53:02,560 --> 00:53:05,960
Speaker 1: they open to you? What what do you mean open

888
00:53:06,040 --> 00:53:08,560
Speaker 1: to me? They would say, oh, that's that guy you

889
00:53:08,600 --> 00:53:12,840
Speaker 1: know in entertainment concerts. That's a fraction of our income.

890
00:53:12,880 --> 00:53:14,880
Speaker 1: We have our own people. We don't need it, you know.

891
00:53:16,480 --> 00:53:22,160
Speaker 1: The you're kind of leaving out the interesting part. The NFL,

892
00:53:22,239 --> 00:53:28,160
Speaker 1: the NBA, and uh, the MLB had phenomenal and college

893
00:53:28,160 --> 00:53:34,600
Speaker 1: football and college basketball had phenomenal television revenue, so you know,

894
00:53:34,640 --> 00:53:36,919
Speaker 1: they had a model that, Okay, we know we've got

895
00:53:36,920 --> 00:53:40,480
Speaker 1: this phenomenal money just from TV. But having said that,

896
00:53:41,280 --> 00:53:44,360
Speaker 1: an NFL stadium that was empty with the protein plane

897
00:53:44,560 --> 00:53:48,839
Speaker 1: getting phenomenal TV money is one thing. But putting the

898
00:53:48,880 --> 00:53:52,520
Speaker 1: fans in the butts. Uh. The incremental revenue just in

899
00:53:52,520 --> 00:53:56,080
Speaker 1: the ticket sales is in and of itself, is not

900
00:53:56,200 --> 00:53:59,799
Speaker 1: that much. But it wasn't just the fans in the

901
00:54:00,000 --> 00:54:03,400
Speaker 1: seats that was missing. The fans and the seats drove

902
00:54:03,719 --> 00:54:09,880
Speaker 1: merchandise sales, drove beer sales, drove food sales, drove sales

903
00:54:09,920 --> 00:54:13,200
Speaker 1: within the city. You know, people coming and staying in hotels,

904
00:54:13,239 --> 00:54:15,280
Speaker 1: and in many cases the people that own those teams

905
00:54:15,440 --> 00:54:19,240
Speaker 1: have interests in real estate and restaurants and other things.

906
00:54:19,600 --> 00:54:24,399
Speaker 1: So there is a bigger net loss, and it's primarily

907
00:54:25,000 --> 00:54:30,160
Speaker 1: the big proteins. When you get into the semi pro

908
00:54:30,440 --> 00:54:33,040
Speaker 1: and and and and a lot of the other sports.

909
00:54:34,239 --> 00:54:37,160
Speaker 1: You know, there's not television revenue money. So those people

910
00:54:37,160 --> 00:54:39,399
Speaker 1: are on board, and they're listening to me. I mean,

911
00:54:39,680 --> 00:54:42,480
Speaker 1: even the big people are listening on Yeah, I get it. Now,

912
00:54:42,760 --> 00:54:48,399
Speaker 1: how much let's assume we've created this house, how much

913
00:54:48,440 --> 00:54:51,680
Speaker 1: revenue would go to say, and I'm making this up

914
00:54:51,719 --> 00:54:55,560
Speaker 1: in NFL are Alive Nation or inn a G. There

915
00:54:55,560 --> 00:54:58,200
Speaker 1: are all kinds of laws, There are all kinds of rules.

916
00:54:58,239 --> 00:55:01,800
Speaker 1: There are all kinds of regulations that will probably prevent

917
00:55:01,880 --> 00:55:05,480
Speaker 1: those people from directly benefiting from any kind of federal

918
00:55:05,520 --> 00:55:10,359
Speaker 1: funding because they're all out there. Uh. Having said that,

919
00:55:11,960 --> 00:55:15,960
Speaker 1: the buildings around it, the stadiums, the restaurants, the things

920
00:55:16,000 --> 00:55:18,279
Speaker 1: that they may or may not have a vested interest in,

921
00:55:18,680 --> 00:55:22,279
Speaker 1: will all benefit. And and therein, you know, is why

922
00:55:22,360 --> 00:55:27,120
Speaker 1: it would work. Uh. And finding employees, you know, as

923
00:55:27,160 --> 00:55:28,960
Speaker 1: you know, when they opened back up all of these

924
00:55:29,360 --> 00:55:32,840
Speaker 1: sporting arenas and whatnot. They couldn't find people, They couldn't

925
00:55:32,840 --> 00:55:35,520
Speaker 1: find ticket takers, they couldn't find janitors, they couldn't find

926
00:55:35,520 --> 00:55:38,040
Speaker 1: people that work on the field. I mean, it was

927
00:55:38,120 --> 00:55:41,440
Speaker 1: just so upside down and still is still is. You know,

928
00:55:41,480 --> 00:55:45,719
Speaker 1: the people problem hasn't recovered. So there are so many

929
00:55:45,800 --> 00:55:50,719
Speaker 1: economic plays, uh, you know outside of just the pure

930
00:55:50,800 --> 00:55:55,080
Speaker 1: gives some money to a great big to the NFL. Uh,

931
00:55:55,080 --> 00:55:57,920
Speaker 1: there's so many wins around the NFL because the NFL

932
00:55:58,239 --> 00:56:00,879
Speaker 1: and the NBA and Live Nation and Age, all these big,

933
00:56:00,880 --> 00:56:04,680
Speaker 1: big people they know they don't exist without the echoes

934
00:56:04,760 --> 00:56:09,959
Speaker 1: system around them, and supporting that echosystem around them, uh

935
00:56:10,080 --> 00:56:15,800
Speaker 1: is necessary to their survival. Okay, we're back up now

936
00:56:15,840 --> 00:56:21,600
Speaker 1: presently looking in hindsight, how many people left the business?

937
00:56:21,920 --> 00:56:24,600
Speaker 1: Companies went out of business? You know what was the

938
00:56:24,640 --> 00:56:27,719
Speaker 1: attrition factor? Did most of the people muddle through? The

939
00:56:27,880 --> 00:56:29,879
Speaker 1: great question? Bob? And again, what I'm about to tell

940
00:56:29,880 --> 00:56:32,319
Speaker 1: you is not a not a theory. This comes from

941
00:56:32,360 --> 00:56:34,560
Speaker 1: talking to one point three million people for two and

942
00:56:34,560 --> 00:56:43,319
Speaker 1: a half years. About thirty of organized entities within the

943
00:56:43,440 --> 00:56:48,160
Speaker 1: live entertainment industry are gone. Now that they're just gone.

944
00:56:48,360 --> 00:56:50,520
Speaker 1: Most of them were small. You know there was a

945
00:56:50,560 --> 00:56:52,880
Speaker 1: mom and pop shop that did this, that or the

946
00:56:52,920 --> 00:56:55,759
Speaker 1: other thing, and and they just went away. Will they

947
00:56:55,840 --> 00:56:59,080
Speaker 1: be missed? Would anybody know the name of the company

948
00:56:59,080 --> 00:57:01,760
Speaker 1: and say, hey, that comes And probably not, But tens

949
00:57:01,760 --> 00:57:04,920
Speaker 1: of thousands of people, some of which spent their entire lives.

950
00:57:05,160 --> 00:57:08,000
Speaker 1: I had the pleasure of meeting a gentleman from southern California.

951
00:57:08,040 --> 00:57:10,239
Speaker 1: He was eighty years old. He and his wife, and

952
00:57:10,280 --> 00:57:12,920
Speaker 1: his two sons and their two wives did four state

953
00:57:13,000 --> 00:57:16,080
Speaker 1: fairs in southern California. They did cotton candy and corn

954
00:57:16,120 --> 00:57:18,600
Speaker 1: dogs and elephant ears, and they had done it forever

955
00:57:18,680 --> 00:57:20,520
Speaker 1: and ever and ever. And this gentleman ended up on

956
00:57:20,520 --> 00:57:23,200
Speaker 1: the phone with me repeatedly, help me, help me, help me.

957
00:57:23,800 --> 00:57:25,400
Speaker 1: And of course at the end of the day he

958
00:57:25,480 --> 00:57:29,160
Speaker 1: got no uh, he got no uh S V O G.

959
00:57:29,360 --> 00:57:32,520
Speaker 1: He ended up getting some P P P. But but

960
00:57:32,600 --> 00:57:34,440
Speaker 1: this is a guy you wouldn't think about, you know,

961
00:57:34,480 --> 00:57:37,720
Speaker 1: he's a concessionaire for four state fairs. He had a building.

962
00:57:38,040 --> 00:57:39,880
Speaker 1: It was worth two million dollars. So we end up

963
00:57:39,880 --> 00:57:43,280
Speaker 1: on the phone and he went to several lenders to

964
00:57:43,320 --> 00:57:45,800
Speaker 1: get seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars. He pledged the

965
00:57:45,800 --> 00:57:49,400
Speaker 1: building as collateral, and he wanted the seven fifty, you know,

966
00:57:49,440 --> 00:57:53,480
Speaker 1: to carry him and his family through through COVID. He

967
00:57:53,520 --> 00:57:56,360
Speaker 1: couldn't get anybody lending the money because he had no

968
00:57:56,400 --> 00:57:59,120
Speaker 1: balance sheet and he had no income statement that stood

969
00:57:59,200 --> 00:58:01,240
Speaker 1: up because they were zero. So he was kind of

970
00:58:01,280 --> 00:58:04,360
Speaker 1: in catch twenty two. That's just one example, because that's

971
00:58:04,400 --> 00:58:07,600
Speaker 1: a really odd business and you wouldn't think about it.

972
00:58:08,000 --> 00:58:11,080
Speaker 1: And eventually, you know, I helped him, and eventually he

973
00:58:11,080 --> 00:58:13,160
Speaker 1: got to work out. And but there's there's so many

974
00:58:13,200 --> 00:58:16,320
Speaker 1: people like that that There's a dry cleaner in in

975
00:58:16,400 --> 00:58:18,439
Speaker 1: New York City that does the bulk of the dry

976
00:58:18,480 --> 00:58:20,560
Speaker 1: cleaning for Broadway. You know. They have a big plant

977
00:58:20,600 --> 00:58:23,400
Speaker 1: over on Long Island and at night they go to

978
00:58:23,400 --> 00:58:25,960
Speaker 1: Broadway and pick up all the costumes and take them

979
00:58:26,000 --> 00:58:28,360
Speaker 1: and clean them and then bring them back. They can't

980
00:58:28,400 --> 00:58:30,800
Speaker 1: do your dry cleaning and my dry cleaning. You know,

981
00:58:30,840 --> 00:58:33,120
Speaker 1: they're not set up to do it. They were shut down.

982
00:58:33,320 --> 00:58:36,720
Speaker 1: There's a lovely lady that has a company in New

983
00:58:36,800 --> 00:58:39,560
Speaker 1: York and in Los Angeles. All she does is rent

984
00:58:39,640 --> 00:58:44,000
Speaker 1: furniture to Broadway in movies. There's nothing else she could do,

985
00:58:44,560 --> 00:58:46,960
Speaker 1: you know, because she can't just go on the street

986
00:58:47,000 --> 00:58:50,200
Speaker 1: and rent furniture. Uh So, there's so many of those

987
00:58:50,200 --> 00:58:53,880
Speaker 1: stories that you don't know about that are out there,

988
00:58:54,280 --> 00:58:56,640
Speaker 1: and so many of those people that need help. And

989
00:58:56,800 --> 00:58:59,400
Speaker 1: I've gotten to know all of those people, tens of

990
00:58:59,440 --> 00:59:02,520
Speaker 1: thousands of them. Well, many of those people went away.

991
00:59:03,160 --> 00:59:08,520
Speaker 1: About oddly enough, about thirty percent of the people in

992
00:59:08,880 --> 00:59:12,360
Speaker 1: live entertainment. Now I'm leaving sports out of this, but

993
00:59:12,400 --> 00:59:15,600
Speaker 1: about thirty percent of the people in live entertainment left.

994
00:59:16,040 --> 00:59:20,600
Speaker 1: Who who left primarily people under twenty five who had

995
00:59:20,640 --> 00:59:23,080
Speaker 1: just come in and they said to themselves, you know,

996
00:59:23,800 --> 00:59:26,040
Speaker 1: this is nuts. I don't want to go through this again.

997
00:59:26,480 --> 00:59:29,440
Speaker 1: I'm I'm gonna do something else. And and the people

998
00:59:29,480 --> 00:59:32,440
Speaker 1: and currently and gen Z or whatever it is, they're

999
00:59:32,440 --> 00:59:35,320
Speaker 1: gonna have h depending on who you believe, about seventeen

1000
00:59:35,400 --> 00:59:37,520
Speaker 1: jobs in their life. You and I, Bob are old enough.

1001
00:59:37,560 --> 00:59:40,040
Speaker 1: We were gonna have one point four jobs in our life.

1002
00:59:40,360 --> 00:59:42,560
Speaker 1: I haven't hit the point for yet. I've had one.

1003
00:59:43,320 --> 00:59:45,600
Speaker 1: But so a lot of the younger folks left because

1004
00:59:46,000 --> 00:59:48,560
Speaker 1: they were going to have multiple jobs anyway, and they said, okay,

1005
00:59:48,560 --> 00:59:51,960
Speaker 1: I'm bailing. Then you had people fifty five plus that

1006
00:59:52,040 --> 00:59:54,760
Speaker 1: were near the end of their run in rock and

1007
00:59:54,840 --> 00:59:58,280
Speaker 1: roll if you will, and and and daring COVID. They

1008
00:59:58,320 --> 01:00:01,720
Speaker 1: got a job at home Depot or Amazon, and guess what,

1009
01:00:01,840 --> 01:00:04,760
Speaker 1: they had health insurance and they had retirement things they

1010
01:00:04,800 --> 01:00:07,600
Speaker 1: had never had. And they said, you know what, I

1011
01:00:07,680 --> 01:00:09,880
Speaker 1: got five more years, I got ten more years. I'm

1012
01:00:09,880 --> 01:00:13,320
Speaker 1: gonna stay here at Amazon. And they they left. You

1013
01:00:13,400 --> 01:00:16,200
Speaker 1: had a lot of truck drivers for show business that

1014
01:00:16,600 --> 01:00:18,880
Speaker 1: just got a day rate and that's it. They ended

1015
01:00:18,960 --> 01:00:21,320
Speaker 1: up driving for Amazon and all those kinds of people

1016
01:00:21,480 --> 01:00:23,440
Speaker 1: and they went, holy cow, I'm home at night, get

1017
01:00:23,480 --> 01:00:27,360
Speaker 1: to see the family and benefits. So they left. So

1018
01:00:27,400 --> 01:00:30,800
Speaker 1: that kind of left. Uh, that was thirty percent of

1019
01:00:30,800 --> 01:00:33,600
Speaker 1: the industry that left. The seventy in the middle tended

1020
01:00:33,640 --> 01:00:36,680
Speaker 1: to be between thirty and fifty. And those were people

1021
01:00:36,720 --> 01:00:38,200
Speaker 1: that were kind of trapped and it was all they

1022
01:00:38,280 --> 01:00:40,720
Speaker 1: knew to do. And again I'm not making this up.

1023
01:00:40,760 --> 01:00:43,480
Speaker 1: I know it from talking to tens of thousands of people.

1024
01:00:44,280 --> 01:00:45,880
Speaker 1: And that's where we sit right now. A lot of

1025
01:00:45,960 --> 01:00:49,600
Speaker 1: really good people left and because of the labor shortage

1026
01:00:49,880 --> 01:00:52,640
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, and this is not unique to entertainment.

1027
01:00:52,680 --> 01:00:57,520
Speaker 1: It has happening everywhere. Uh. We we have people, unqualified

1028
01:00:57,560 --> 01:01:01,680
Speaker 1: people coming into our industry who don't know what they're doing,

1029
01:01:02,000 --> 01:01:06,720
Speaker 1: demanding tremendous sums of money and in many cases getting

1030
01:01:06,720 --> 01:01:10,320
Speaker 1: it because they're the only body standing. And I think

1031
01:01:10,360 --> 01:01:14,520
Speaker 1: you know that's happening everywhere else. The typical warehouse worker

1032
01:01:14,560 --> 01:01:17,000
Speaker 1: went from twelve dollars an hour to twenty five dollars

1033
01:01:17,040 --> 01:01:20,760
Speaker 1: an hour overnight. Well, it happened in rock and roll too.

1034
01:01:21,320 --> 01:01:24,000
Speaker 1: And uh, well I know a very big promoter he

1035
01:01:24,080 --> 01:01:28,040
Speaker 1: had he pieces people everybody, ushers and etcetera thirty bucks

1036
01:01:28,080 --> 01:01:30,800
Speaker 1: an hour because he found less than thirty You don't

1037
01:01:30,800 --> 01:01:33,680
Speaker 1: know if they'll show up. Ye. Yeah, And and it's

1038
01:01:33,720 --> 01:01:37,720
Speaker 1: not it's not sustainable. Okay, let's talk about you. Where

1039
01:01:37,720 --> 01:01:41,000
Speaker 1: did you grow up? I grew up in extreme East Tennessee,

1040
01:01:41,000 --> 01:01:44,640
Speaker 1: in a little bitty town called Kingsport. And and that

1041
01:01:44,640 --> 01:01:48,240
Speaker 1: that's why we're sitting here talking today, because of where

1042
01:01:48,280 --> 01:01:50,560
Speaker 1: I grew up. And what did your parents do for

1043
01:01:50,600 --> 01:01:53,360
Speaker 1: a living? My father was a nuclear physicist and a

1044
01:01:53,440 --> 01:01:57,000
Speaker 1: research chemist, and he worked for Eastman Kodak. What a

1045
01:01:57,000 --> 01:02:00,520
Speaker 1: lot of people don't know is, uh, parts of atomic

1046
01:02:00,560 --> 01:02:04,680
Speaker 1: bomb were built in Oakridge, Tennessee. Uh, the enriched geranium

1047
01:02:04,720 --> 01:02:06,600
Speaker 1: came out of Oakridge. My father was one of the

1048
01:02:06,640 --> 01:02:12,920
Speaker 1: people in Oakridge enriching uranium. Kodak ran the plant under contract.

1049
01:02:13,560 --> 01:02:18,440
Speaker 1: My dad worked with Oppenheimer and uh Einstein directly, and

1050
01:02:18,480 --> 01:02:20,760
Speaker 1: I've got pictures of Dad with with those two people.

1051
01:02:21,040 --> 01:02:23,320
Speaker 1: So when the war was over, he could either go

1052
01:02:23,360 --> 01:02:26,200
Speaker 1: to Rochester, New York, which was Kodak's headquarters, or to

1053
01:02:26,280 --> 01:02:29,640
Speaker 1: their plant in this little backward town called Kingsport, Tennessee,

1054
01:02:29,720 --> 01:02:32,439
Speaker 1: which Eastman. Kodak made all their film there at the time.

1055
01:02:32,920 --> 01:02:35,440
Speaker 1: That's where he went. So that's where I grew up

1056
01:02:35,880 --> 01:02:38,720
Speaker 1: and and to to connect the dots, that's how I

1057
01:02:38,760 --> 01:02:40,880
Speaker 1: got in rock and roll. I fell into love with

1058
01:02:40,960 --> 01:02:44,440
Speaker 1: show business at age five. I had seen concerts and whatnot.

1059
01:02:44,480 --> 01:02:47,360
Speaker 1: In the sixties there were no lights, you know that.

1060
01:02:47,440 --> 01:02:49,600
Speaker 1: The band came in two station wagons, set up their

1061
01:02:49,640 --> 01:02:53,640
Speaker 1: own junk, had two little tucked and rolled custom Pa speakers,

1062
01:02:53,880 --> 01:02:56,560
Speaker 1: set their own stuff up, had one guy that mixed

1063
01:02:56,560 --> 01:02:59,800
Speaker 1: sound and got to check and and then left. Well,

1064
01:03:00,080 --> 01:03:02,080
Speaker 1: I took the lights out of the high school theater

1065
01:03:02,120 --> 01:03:04,600
Speaker 1: and put them on the handrails around the gym. And

1066
01:03:04,600 --> 01:03:06,400
Speaker 1: this was with the Monkeys, the Beach Boys, part of

1067
01:03:06,400 --> 01:03:08,840
Speaker 1: the enerrators. Frankie Valley in the Four Seasons, which is

1068
01:03:08,880 --> 01:03:11,400
Speaker 1: where I met first met Roy and Jane Claire from

1069
01:03:11,400 --> 01:03:15,200
Speaker 1: Claire Brothers, uh and all these acts. In the late sixties,

1070
01:03:15,240 --> 01:03:18,160
Speaker 1: the grassroots weren't it, and from the grassroots to this

1071
01:03:18,240 --> 01:03:21,440
Speaker 1: day is one of my dearest friends. But but so

1072
01:03:21,480 --> 01:03:24,280
Speaker 1: I started taking these lights from the theater down and

1073
01:03:24,600 --> 01:03:26,880
Speaker 1: why did we get these rock shows? Well, in nineteen

1074
01:03:26,960 --> 01:03:29,280
Speaker 1: sixty eight they built a new high school and we

1075
01:03:29,360 --> 01:03:32,480
Speaker 1: had a big Jodesic dome that had two very unique features.

1076
01:03:32,960 --> 01:03:37,160
Speaker 1: Air conditioning which was unheard of in nineteen and no poles,

1077
01:03:37,480 --> 01:03:40,720
Speaker 1: so no obstructions. Knoxville used to get the rock shows.

1078
01:03:40,720 --> 01:03:42,920
Speaker 1: And it's two it's a it's a hundred miles away,

1079
01:03:43,320 --> 01:03:46,400
Speaker 1: but they're big venue, had poles and no air conditioning.

1080
01:03:46,720 --> 01:03:49,800
Speaker 1: So this little backwater town started getting these major rock shows.

1081
01:03:50,160 --> 01:03:54,080
Speaker 1: And here's this kid putting lights on the stage. And

1082
01:03:54,080 --> 01:03:56,040
Speaker 1: they would get a little business card from me that

1083
01:03:56,120 --> 01:03:59,080
Speaker 1: I made in a v class in school, you know,

1084
01:03:59,120 --> 01:04:01,640
Speaker 1: with my phone number, own it and and say they

1085
01:04:01,680 --> 01:04:03,840
Speaker 1: would say, can you come to Chattanooga, can you come

1086
01:04:03,880 --> 01:04:06,800
Speaker 1: to Lexington, can you you know whatever? And so I

1087
01:04:06,800 --> 01:04:09,640
Speaker 1: started going wider and wider and wider as I was

1088
01:04:09,680 --> 01:04:11,840
Speaker 1: doing it, there was a guy in New York doing it.

1089
01:04:11,880 --> 01:04:14,480
Speaker 1: You know, there was people in southern California doing it.

1090
01:04:14,520 --> 01:04:16,200
Speaker 1: But that was the psychedelic here. I remember when you

1091
01:04:16,240 --> 01:04:19,400
Speaker 1: saw the Jefferson airplane with all the psychedelic stuff and

1092
01:04:19,400 --> 01:04:21,400
Speaker 1: and the Grateful Dead and all of that. I was

1093
01:04:21,440 --> 01:04:24,600
Speaker 1: emulating those people. I was getting projectors and putting oil

1094
01:04:24,640 --> 01:04:27,360
Speaker 1: and water in slithes and doing all this goofy stuff,

1095
01:04:27,360 --> 01:04:30,760
Speaker 1: emulating these people in New York and l A and

1096
01:04:30,760 --> 01:04:33,440
Speaker 1: and that was the genesis of it. And and uh,

1097
01:04:34,120 --> 01:04:37,680
Speaker 1: my senior year in high school, we grossed two hundred

1098
01:04:37,680 --> 01:04:40,880
Speaker 1: thousand dollars, which was pretty incredible. No, we spend it all.

1099
01:04:41,240 --> 01:04:43,080
Speaker 1: But then I went came down to ut to get

1100
01:04:43,080 --> 01:04:46,800
Speaker 1: my undergraduate degree, and uh we did two million dollars

1101
01:04:46,800 --> 01:04:49,600
Speaker 1: out of my dorm room my senior year at high school.

1102
01:04:50,200 --> 01:04:53,040
Speaker 1: And uh then when I went to law school. Uh,

1103
01:04:53,120 --> 01:04:55,440
Speaker 1: one of the acts I had signed was Kenny Rogers

1104
01:04:55,440 --> 01:04:59,800
Speaker 1: and he was nobody. Well he Lucile or the Gambler

1105
01:04:59,880 --> 01:05:03,200
Speaker 1: or whatever the hell. His first hit was hit and

1106
01:05:03,200 --> 01:05:05,680
Speaker 1: the next thing, you know, Kenny Rodgers the biggest artist

1107
01:05:05,720 --> 01:05:07,480
Speaker 1: in the world. And I'm in law school and I'm

1108
01:05:07,520 --> 01:05:12,680
Speaker 1: also Kenny Rogers production manager running his show. And uh

1109
01:05:13,080 --> 01:05:15,440
Speaker 1: it just when I got out of law school. My

1110
01:05:15,480 --> 01:05:18,000
Speaker 1: parents thought, Okay, he's going to be a lawyer. And

1111
01:05:18,040 --> 01:05:19,560
Speaker 1: I looked at Mom and Dad and I said, I'm

1112
01:05:19,600 --> 01:05:22,040
Speaker 1: with the biggest artist in the world. Why would I

1113
01:05:22,040 --> 01:05:24,400
Speaker 1: give up this business? And it wasn't just Kenny. I

1114
01:05:24,400 --> 01:05:26,400
Speaker 1: mean we were doing new writers of the Purple Sage

1115
01:05:26,440 --> 01:05:29,800
Speaker 1: and and Frankie Valley in the Four Seasons and the

1116
01:05:29,840 --> 01:05:32,720
Speaker 1: Grassroots and Conway Twitty and Loretta le nd I mean,

1117
01:05:32,920 --> 01:05:36,080
Speaker 1: we had all these clients and and I just kept going.

1118
01:05:37,280 --> 01:05:40,080
Speaker 1: But but those formative years and that formal education, which

1119
01:05:40,120 --> 01:05:43,680
Speaker 1: I'm a fierce believer in education again enabled me to

1120
01:05:43,720 --> 01:05:45,560
Speaker 1: do what I've done for the last two and a

1121
01:05:45,560 --> 01:05:48,920
Speaker 1: half years. But that's sort of the long short version

1122
01:05:48,960 --> 01:05:52,560
Speaker 1: of a new high school and a little rednecked town

1123
01:05:52,720 --> 01:05:56,440
Speaker 1: putting me in our trajectory for the rest of my life. Okay,

1124
01:05:56,440 --> 01:05:58,520
Speaker 1: you finished law school. Did you take the part exam?

1125
01:05:58,760 --> 01:06:08,400
Speaker 1: Never never intended to. Let's go back. Your father is

1126
01:06:08,400 --> 01:06:12,320
Speaker 1: an academic. Essentially, where do you get your entrepreneurial spirit?

1127
01:06:13,560 --> 01:06:15,520
Speaker 1: Really two or three things, And I think a lot

1128
01:06:15,600 --> 01:06:20,040
Speaker 1: of people probably have this same story. Um, do you

1129
01:06:20,040 --> 01:06:23,840
Speaker 1: remember in high school, they had accolades, you know, uh

1130
01:06:24,480 --> 01:06:27,880
Speaker 1: best personality, you know, all those things. They were in

1131
01:06:27,920 --> 01:06:33,600
Speaker 1: the yearbook. Uh. We had off the record in in

1132
01:06:33,600 --> 01:06:39,360
Speaker 1: in the school newspaper sort of anti uh accolades. And

1133
01:06:39,520 --> 01:06:43,120
Speaker 1: my senior year at high school, I was voted least

1134
01:06:43,200 --> 01:06:48,760
Speaker 1: likely to succeed. And as stupid as that sounds, that

1135
01:06:48,800 --> 01:06:51,560
Speaker 1: was that was a real motivator. I mean, I'm like, well,

1136
01:06:51,600 --> 01:06:53,840
Speaker 1: I'll show them. And at the same time, when we

1137
01:06:53,880 --> 01:06:55,600
Speaker 1: wrapped up high school and we're getting ready to go

1138
01:06:55,600 --> 01:06:58,760
Speaker 1: to college, uh, my group of five or six buddies

1139
01:06:58,760 --> 01:07:01,800
Speaker 1: that that were we were doing this together, high school buddies.

1140
01:07:02,120 --> 01:07:03,800
Speaker 1: They all looked at me. You know, we had ten

1141
01:07:03,840 --> 01:07:05,560
Speaker 1: thousand dollars in the bike, and we took it and

1142
01:07:05,560 --> 01:07:07,280
Speaker 1: went to the beach and got a house and drank

1143
01:07:07,320 --> 01:07:10,400
Speaker 1: as much beer as we possibly could. And they said,

1144
01:07:10,720 --> 01:07:12,760
Speaker 1: now there's no point in carrying on. This will never

1145
01:07:12,800 --> 01:07:17,000
Speaker 1: be anything. So between my buddies telling me this will

1146
01:07:17,000 --> 01:07:19,920
Speaker 1: never be anything and that newspaper telling me I was

1147
01:07:19,960 --> 01:07:22,840
Speaker 1: the least likely to succeed, I've always been one of

1148
01:07:22,880 --> 01:07:25,960
Speaker 1: those people that, you know, tell me what I can't do,

1149
01:07:26,040 --> 01:07:28,560
Speaker 1: and I'll go prove you wrong. Even if it's bad

1150
01:07:28,640 --> 01:07:32,200
Speaker 1: for me, and and that really drove me. But again,

1151
01:07:32,360 --> 01:07:35,640
Speaker 1: the classical education is what prepared me for it, you know,

1152
01:07:35,680 --> 01:07:38,240
Speaker 1: the going to school stuff and and learning all of

1153
01:07:38,240 --> 01:07:44,080
Speaker 1: that stuff. Okay, why lights is supposed to sound reinforcement

1154
01:07:44,160 --> 01:07:48,800
Speaker 1: or whatever? Simple answer. You never see anybody leave a

1155
01:07:48,920 --> 01:07:53,160
Speaker 1: rock show going. Boy, that looked terrible, but half the

1156
01:07:53,200 --> 01:07:57,080
Speaker 1: people that leave a rock show go that sounded terrible.

1157
01:07:57,760 --> 01:08:01,160
Speaker 1: True story. I mean, to this day, you can't make

1158
01:08:01,200 --> 01:08:03,440
Speaker 1: everybody happy with the audio. Did you ever go to

1159
01:08:03,480 --> 01:08:06,600
Speaker 1: any concert and everybody going out going, Now that was amazing,

1160
01:08:06,640 --> 01:08:10,440
Speaker 1: that sounded really good. Some of them do, maybe most

1161
01:08:10,520 --> 01:08:13,440
Speaker 1: of them do. But I never heard anybody complain about

1162
01:08:13,440 --> 01:08:16,120
Speaker 1: the lights. So I just figured that's a better path.

1163
01:08:17,800 --> 01:08:19,680
Speaker 1: And how did you get the light side of the

1164
01:08:19,680 --> 01:08:22,559
Speaker 1: theater to install them when you wanted? Well, again, let's

1165
01:08:22,560 --> 01:08:25,839
Speaker 1: go back. This was night in the South. Nothing was locked.

1166
01:08:26,240 --> 01:08:29,960
Speaker 1: Churches didn't lock, schools didn't lock, theaters didn't locked. Nothing locked.

1167
01:08:30,640 --> 01:08:33,240
Speaker 1: So by the time I was a senior, on any

1168
01:08:33,240 --> 01:08:36,280
Speaker 1: given weekend back then, rock shows always played in high

1169
01:08:36,280 --> 01:08:39,719
Speaker 1: school gym's uh and or National Guard armories. They didn't

1170
01:08:39,760 --> 01:08:42,160
Speaker 1: have the you know, the monolithic basketball arena as yet

1171
01:08:42,640 --> 01:08:45,559
Speaker 1: so that's where they played. And uh so the shows

1172
01:08:45,560 --> 01:08:47,880
Speaker 1: were fairly small comparatively, and they always played with the

1173
01:08:47,960 --> 01:08:51,479
Speaker 1: roof light zone. So what I would do, uh would

1174
01:08:51,520 --> 01:08:53,240
Speaker 1: be take all the lights out of the high school.

1175
01:08:53,280 --> 01:08:55,280
Speaker 1: And by the time we were seniors, if we had

1176
01:08:55,360 --> 01:08:58,000
Speaker 1: two or three different gigs going on in a given weekend,

1177
01:08:58,360 --> 01:09:00,760
Speaker 1: we would take the lights from the high school, from

1178
01:09:00,840 --> 01:09:03,160
Speaker 1: both of the junior high schools, and then we would

1179
01:09:03,160 --> 01:09:05,519
Speaker 1: work our way down to the two movie theaters downtown

1180
01:09:05,520 --> 01:09:08,160
Speaker 1: and take gear from the movie theaters. But but on

1181
01:09:08,200 --> 01:09:11,040
Speaker 1: Sunday night we would always have to go back and

1182
01:09:11,040 --> 01:09:13,479
Speaker 1: put all the lights back. And hence the name bandit

1183
01:09:13,800 --> 01:09:17,000
Speaker 1: we we we were taking the equipment, but we always

1184
01:09:17,000 --> 01:09:19,840
Speaker 1: gave it back and and no one knew that. And

1185
01:09:19,920 --> 01:09:22,800
Speaker 1: fast forward to two thousand and eight, the city of

1186
01:09:22,880 --> 01:09:25,000
Speaker 1: Kingsport gave me the keys to the city and it

1187
01:09:25,080 --> 01:09:26,920
Speaker 1: was quite an honor, and we had this whole big thing,

1188
01:09:27,040 --> 01:09:30,120
Speaker 1: and I got to speak and I told this story.

1189
01:09:30,680 --> 01:09:32,400
Speaker 1: And you should have seen these people sitting in the

1190
01:09:32,439 --> 01:09:35,240
Speaker 1: audience and their jaws dropped because no one knew. You know,

1191
01:09:35,320 --> 01:09:36,920
Speaker 1: we didn't tell them. We just took the lights and

1192
01:09:36,920 --> 01:09:38,880
Speaker 1: put them back. And that was the first time I

1193
01:09:38,920 --> 01:09:41,880
Speaker 1: ever talked about it, and I started that conversation with

1194
01:09:42,400 --> 01:09:45,200
Speaker 1: I've checked the law and the statute of limitations his run.

1195
01:09:47,080 --> 01:09:48,559
Speaker 1: But that's how it began. And then we came to

1196
01:09:48,640 --> 01:09:51,439
Speaker 1: u T. I prioritied equipment from the University of Tennessee

1197
01:09:51,479 --> 01:09:54,120
Speaker 1: Theater because nothing was locked. And then I started buying

1198
01:09:54,120 --> 01:09:57,320
Speaker 1: equipment and here we are today. Okay, how old were

1199
01:09:57,400 --> 01:10:01,240
Speaker 1: you when you did your first gig? Twelve? And did

1200
01:10:01,240 --> 01:10:07,160
Speaker 1: you consistently do that thereafter? Ever since? Ever since that day? Wow?

1201
01:10:07,280 --> 01:10:12,120
Speaker 1: And did you learn about lighting on the fly? Yeah?

1202
01:10:12,160 --> 01:10:14,920
Speaker 1: And you gotta remember back then what was lighting. It

1203
01:10:15,000 --> 01:10:17,040
Speaker 1: was a lightbulb that had two wires going to it,

1204
01:10:17,160 --> 01:10:20,400
Speaker 1: not three, you know, hot and neutral. There's no ground

1205
01:10:20,479 --> 01:10:24,360
Speaker 1: yet really, so if the lightbulb didn't work, it was

1206
01:10:24,400 --> 01:10:26,880
Speaker 1: one of two things. One of the two wires was

1207
01:10:26,920 --> 01:10:30,080
Speaker 1: broken or the filament and the lightbulb was gone. And

1208
01:10:30,360 --> 01:10:32,760
Speaker 1: what we started with was the R forty floodlights like

1209
01:10:32,800 --> 01:10:34,720
Speaker 1: you have in the corner of your house. We had

1210
01:10:34,760 --> 01:10:37,720
Speaker 1: red ones, blue ones, and yellow ones and and and

1211
01:10:37,720 --> 01:10:40,479
Speaker 1: we made literally coffee cans like you've heard out of

1212
01:10:40,560 --> 01:10:43,240
Speaker 1: and ran the wires to them. So a typical rock show.

1213
01:10:43,240 --> 01:10:46,760
Speaker 1: When we started building equipment was extension cords and coffee cans,

1214
01:10:46,760 --> 01:10:49,160
Speaker 1: and lightbulbs in the coffee cans, and or the bard

1215
01:10:49,240 --> 01:10:51,760
Speaker 1: lights from the high schools, and the whole pile of

1216
01:10:51,840 --> 01:10:55,400
Speaker 1: extension cords. And we made little wooden boxes that literally

1217
01:10:55,439 --> 01:10:57,920
Speaker 1: had househole light switches in it. So all of these

1218
01:10:57,960 --> 01:11:00,360
Speaker 1: cords just plugged into the back of this wooden box

1219
01:11:00,600 --> 01:11:03,040
Speaker 1: and you sat there and flipped the same switches you

1220
01:11:03,080 --> 01:11:06,200
Speaker 1: have on the wall today in your house. And and

1221
01:11:06,280 --> 01:11:08,200
Speaker 1: the way we turned them all on and off at

1222
01:11:08,200 --> 01:11:10,360
Speaker 1: the same time was we had a stick. You had

1223
01:11:10,400 --> 01:11:13,360
Speaker 1: a four ft stick, and you'd rake it across all

1224
01:11:13,360 --> 01:11:16,920
Speaker 1: the switches, either own or off. So it was really simple.

1225
01:11:17,439 --> 01:11:20,320
Speaker 1: And again through time you you started to begin to

1226
01:11:20,400 --> 01:11:23,360
Speaker 1: learn things about light and texture and color and shape

1227
01:11:23,360 --> 01:11:27,240
Speaker 1: and shade, but none of that existed in sixty nine

1228
01:11:27,240 --> 01:11:29,720
Speaker 1: and seventy. It was all owning off, owning off. And

1229
01:11:29,720 --> 01:11:32,800
Speaker 1: then we had the overhead projectors with the Pyrex dish

1230
01:11:33,160 --> 01:11:35,599
Speaker 1: with oil and water and red and blue and green

1231
01:11:35,640 --> 01:11:38,040
Speaker 1: food coloring. And oddly enough, when you stir it with

1232
01:11:38,080 --> 01:11:40,040
Speaker 1: a pencil with your hand, your hand and the pencil

1233
01:11:40,080 --> 01:11:42,240
Speaker 1: are not in the focal path, and all you get

1234
01:11:42,280 --> 01:11:45,720
Speaker 1: is that psychedelic look and and we were doing all

1235
01:11:45,800 --> 01:11:48,400
Speaker 1: that kind of garbage. But you know, through time it

1236
01:11:48,520 --> 01:11:51,080
Speaker 1: got more sophisticated. And yes, through time you began to

1237
01:11:51,160 --> 01:11:54,240
Speaker 1: learn what lighting was all about. And how did you

1238
01:11:54,840 --> 01:11:58,519
Speaker 1: decide how much to charge? In the beginning, it was

1239
01:11:58,560 --> 01:12:02,479
Speaker 1: twenty five dollars, and it stayed twenty five dollars for

1240
01:12:02,640 --> 01:12:04,679
Speaker 1: a year or two, and then it was fifty. And

1241
01:12:05,200 --> 01:12:07,519
Speaker 1: you know, we didn't really get into a real pricing

1242
01:12:07,600 --> 01:12:12,080
Speaker 1: model until probably my senior year of college, when I

1243
01:12:12,080 --> 01:12:16,439
Speaker 1: started to figure out, we're doing this for fun. We

1244
01:12:16,479 --> 01:12:19,120
Speaker 1: need to do it for money, you know. So about

1245
01:12:19,160 --> 01:12:21,439
Speaker 1: my senior year of college is when we began to

1246
01:12:21,800 --> 01:12:23,719
Speaker 1: figure out that, okay, there has to be a business

1247
01:12:23,720 --> 01:12:26,679
Speaker 1: plan here that actually makes money. Okay, so you had

1248
01:12:26,720 --> 01:12:29,960
Speaker 1: these friends. When did band it actually start on the

1249
01:12:30,000 --> 01:12:32,840
Speaker 1: path today? Will you say, hey, was that why you

1250
01:12:32,880 --> 01:12:36,120
Speaker 1: were still in school or after school? It started in

1251
01:12:37,160 --> 01:12:38,800
Speaker 1: I mean, when I did that first show, I thought,

1252
01:12:38,800 --> 01:12:40,880
Speaker 1: this is the coolest thing in the world. I'm getting

1253
01:12:40,880 --> 01:12:43,120
Speaker 1: to hang out with rock stars and see free shows,

1254
01:12:43,200 --> 01:12:48,080
Speaker 1: and and uh, I knew that's what I wanted to do.

1255
01:12:48,560 --> 01:12:53,160
Speaker 1: Having said that, the reasons were kind of wrong at first.

1256
01:12:53,160 --> 01:12:55,120
Speaker 1: The reasons were just to see the show and meet

1257
01:12:55,160 --> 01:12:57,439
Speaker 1: the band and meet girls, and you know, all of

1258
01:12:57,439 --> 01:13:01,000
Speaker 1: those things. And then I realized you could actually make

1259
01:13:01,040 --> 01:13:04,599
Speaker 1: money doing this and say that. That began to shift

1260
01:13:04,640 --> 01:13:07,160
Speaker 1: in college and we had to make the full transition,

1261
01:13:07,240 --> 01:13:10,679
Speaker 1: probably my senior year, and that's that's where I started

1262
01:13:10,680 --> 01:13:14,160
Speaker 1: to apply what I had learned. Herbie Herbert was the

1263
01:13:14,200 --> 01:13:19,080
Speaker 1: manager of Journey Journey during their heyday recently passed. He

1264
01:13:19,280 --> 01:13:23,200
Speaker 1: famously bought all the equipment and the lights and stage

1265
01:13:23,479 --> 01:13:26,320
Speaker 1: and he leased it to other people. I've talked to

1266
01:13:26,360 --> 01:13:28,479
Speaker 1: a lot of these major major ACKs. He said, why

1267
01:13:28,439 --> 01:13:31,719
Speaker 1: don't you own this stuff? And they say it changes

1268
01:13:31,800 --> 01:13:36,559
Speaker 1: too much? So does anybody own it? What do you mean,

1269
01:13:37,160 --> 01:13:41,160
Speaker 1: does anybody own their own lights? Oh? Yeah, yeah, yeah yeah.

1270
01:13:41,720 --> 01:13:45,360
Speaker 1: Herbie bought it obviously first to do Journey and and

1271
01:13:45,400 --> 01:13:50,519
Speaker 1: so he owned lights and and and stuff, video and whatnot,

1272
01:13:50,520 --> 01:13:54,400
Speaker 1: and he rented it to his band. Uh. He was

1273
01:13:54,479 --> 01:13:57,520
Speaker 1: he was the first one that I remember that did it. Uh.

1274
01:13:57,560 --> 01:13:59,720
Speaker 1: There's a company still is, but it's its own by

1275
01:13:59,800 --> 01:14:01,719
Speaker 1: Claire Brothers now. But there was a company in Europe

1276
01:14:01,720 --> 01:14:05,040
Speaker 1: back in the heyday of Pink Floyd called Brett Row

1277
01:14:05,160 --> 01:14:07,839
Speaker 1: or Britannia Row Well that was owned by Pink Floyd.

1278
01:14:08,240 --> 01:14:11,479
Speaker 1: Pink Floyd decided, Okay, we're gonna buy our own stuff

1279
01:14:11,560 --> 01:14:14,040
Speaker 1: and we'll call the company Brett Row based on Britannia

1280
01:14:14,120 --> 01:14:17,760
Speaker 1: Row the street. At the about the same time a

1281
01:14:17,760 --> 01:14:20,160
Speaker 1: company in California you may have heard of. They're still around,

1282
01:14:20,160 --> 01:14:23,840
Speaker 1: Delicate Productions. Delicate was started by Supertramp when when they

1283
01:14:23,840 --> 01:14:25,720
Speaker 1: became a big deal, they bought their own p A

1284
01:14:26,280 --> 01:14:29,160
Speaker 1: so they owned their own stuff. Uh. So there there

1285
01:14:29,240 --> 01:14:33,320
Speaker 1: there were several stabs at artists doing that, a few

1286
01:14:33,360 --> 01:14:36,080
Speaker 1: where managers did it. Most of them didn't work out.

1287
01:14:36,880 --> 01:14:42,000
Speaker 1: Uh and but but there were stabs that that stabs

1288
01:14:42,040 --> 01:14:45,920
Speaker 1: it doing that. Eventually, the whole nock Turn model, which

1289
01:14:45,960 --> 01:14:52,680
Speaker 1: is what Herbie called that organization, uh, ended up uh dissipating,

1290
01:14:52,760 --> 01:14:54,839
Speaker 1: I guess is the right word. And eventually the assets

1291
01:14:54,880 --> 01:14:58,000
Speaker 1: were sold off. But it was a way to do it,

1292
01:14:58,439 --> 01:15:01,040
Speaker 1: and I think it probably worked well for for Herbie.

1293
01:15:01,080 --> 01:15:02,840
Speaker 1: I don't know who the other partners were. I don't

1294
01:15:02,840 --> 01:15:04,479
Speaker 1: know if he had the band in on it or not,

1295
01:15:05,040 --> 01:15:07,240
Speaker 1: whether any of the band members ran on it. Uh.

1296
01:15:07,400 --> 01:15:10,360
Speaker 1: You've heard a very light there. The original moving light

1297
01:15:10,439 --> 01:15:14,400
Speaker 1: was very light well, Rusty Bruschi and Jack Maxim were

1298
01:15:14,439 --> 01:15:18,160
Speaker 1: the face of it, but Tony Smith, the manager of Genesis,

1299
01:15:18,200 --> 01:15:21,559
Speaker 1: and indeed the band Genesis were the original financers of it.

1300
01:15:22,160 --> 01:15:25,400
Speaker 1: So Genesis benefited greatly from the world's first moving light

1301
01:15:26,160 --> 01:15:29,720
Speaker 1: U and eventually that dissipated. But but I think they

1302
01:15:29,760 --> 01:15:33,160
Speaker 1: probably did very well. That's purely a guess. But things

1303
01:15:33,200 --> 01:15:36,760
Speaker 1: like that we're not really talked about openly. Uh. I

1304
01:15:36,760 --> 01:15:39,519
Speaker 1: think the world did know that Herbie was doing what

1305
01:15:39,600 --> 01:15:41,559
Speaker 1: he was doing because it was Herbie, wasn't it, and

1306
01:15:41,600 --> 01:15:45,519
Speaker 1: he wanted to tell you about it. But yeah, there

1307
01:15:45,560 --> 01:15:50,719
Speaker 1: there have been stabs at that, but none really really successful. Okay,

1308
01:15:50,800 --> 01:15:54,360
Speaker 1: So of the business are you worldwide or just in America?

1309
01:15:54,400 --> 01:15:57,240
Speaker 1: How does it split? You know, we've built offices in

1310
01:15:57,240 --> 01:16:00,519
Speaker 1: in uh, we had offices in Europe, in America, and

1311
01:16:00,520 --> 01:16:02,360
Speaker 1: we did have him in Asia, but we've withdrawn from

1312
01:16:02,400 --> 01:16:06,120
Speaker 1: Asia because of everything we did that three or four

1313
01:16:06,160 --> 01:16:08,200
Speaker 1: or five years ago, when you know, we had we

1314
01:16:08,240 --> 01:16:10,519
Speaker 1: had an office in Hong Kong and an office in Taiwan.

1315
01:16:11,080 --> 01:16:13,760
Speaker 1: And then when when the Chinese took Hong Kong over,

1316
01:16:14,280 --> 01:16:16,200
Speaker 1: you know, I saw the handwriting on the wall that

1317
01:16:16,240 --> 01:16:17,880
Speaker 1: they weren't going to live up to the twenty five

1318
01:16:17,960 --> 01:16:21,080
Speaker 1: year commitment. And I'm not being political. I'm a business guy,

1319
01:16:21,320 --> 01:16:24,320
Speaker 1: and so we withdrew from from Asia at that point.

1320
01:16:24,520 --> 01:16:27,240
Speaker 1: And I don't think anybody's doing business in Asia anymore.

1321
01:16:27,240 --> 01:16:33,880
Speaker 1: That's that's not Chinese are from that part of the world. Okay,

1322
01:16:34,160 --> 01:16:37,880
Speaker 1: what percentage of the overall market does BANDED have, that's

1323
01:16:37,920 --> 01:16:44,760
Speaker 1: a great question. The industry doesn't report to anyone. No

1324
01:16:44,800 --> 01:16:47,599
Speaker 1: one knows how big this industry is. There's a lot

1325
01:16:47,680 --> 01:16:51,559
Speaker 1: of guesses, and the guesses ranged from a low of

1326
01:16:51,680 --> 01:16:55,559
Speaker 1: probably four billion dollars a year, uh two a hive

1327
01:16:55,800 --> 01:16:58,439
Speaker 1: probably ten billion dollars a year. I don't know that

1328
01:16:58,520 --> 01:17:02,280
Speaker 1: any of those numbers are correct. Honestly don't know. And

1329
01:17:02,320 --> 01:17:06,200
Speaker 1: I'm not trying to not answer your question. Uh just

1330
01:17:08,200 --> 01:17:11,240
Speaker 1: no one really knows how big the industry as a

1331
01:17:11,240 --> 01:17:15,439
Speaker 1: whole is because there is no method of reporting. Okay,

1332
01:17:16,000 --> 01:17:19,920
Speaker 1: so an act wants to get lating for their tour,

1333
01:17:20,040 --> 01:17:24,040
Speaker 1: let's go tour. What are their options? Who can they

1334
01:17:24,080 --> 01:17:29,320
Speaker 1: go to? Well, there are probably six companies in the

1335
01:17:29,400 --> 01:17:34,000
Speaker 1: United States of any size that that could do what

1336
01:17:34,040 --> 01:17:37,280
Speaker 1: we would all call an a level tour. And there

1337
01:17:37,320 --> 01:17:40,400
Speaker 1: are probably eight to twelve what you would call mid

1338
01:17:40,560 --> 01:17:45,200
Speaker 1: level firms, and then lord god, there's probably a hundred

1339
01:17:45,280 --> 01:17:48,880
Speaker 1: small firms. But you can't discount the small firms. Uh.

1340
01:17:48,920 --> 01:17:53,800
Speaker 1: There is a company in uh Omaha, Nebraska called t

1341
01:17:54,080 --> 01:17:58,200
Speaker 1: MS Great Company. They do a little act called uh

1342
01:17:58,320 --> 01:18:02,120
Speaker 1: Dave Matthews. They do a few other things, but but

1343
01:18:02,120 --> 01:18:05,599
Speaker 1: but the folks that run the company have an old

1344
01:18:05,640 --> 01:18:09,360
Speaker 1: and a strong relationship with Dave Matthews. There's a gentleman

1345
01:18:09,400 --> 01:18:13,760
Speaker 1: down in Alabama that does Brad Paisley. He does a

1346
01:18:13,800 --> 01:18:15,719
Speaker 1: couple of other things, but he grew up with Brad

1347
01:18:15,800 --> 01:18:19,120
Speaker 1: or something, and he'll always do Brad Paisley. Uh. There's

1348
01:18:19,160 --> 01:18:23,160
Speaker 1: a company in California called Morpheus that used to be

1349
01:18:23,240 --> 01:18:26,639
Speaker 1: a major player, not so much anymore, but they've always

1350
01:18:26,680 --> 01:18:29,800
Speaker 1: done Bruce Springsteen. Not a bad account to half. So

1351
01:18:30,400 --> 01:18:32,800
Speaker 1: there are a lot of companies like that that that

1352
01:18:32,960 --> 01:18:37,360
Speaker 1: have a major client or two major clients, and and

1353
01:18:37,800 --> 01:18:41,559
Speaker 1: you know, the odds of taking those clients away from

1354
01:18:41,600 --> 01:18:44,720
Speaker 1: those people are pretty slim, because in most cases it's

1355
01:18:44,720 --> 01:18:50,040
Speaker 1: a personal relationship. Just like, Uh, I have a great

1356
01:18:50,160 --> 01:18:53,120
Speaker 1: personal relationship with a little bit of artist called Garth Brooks.

1357
01:18:54,040 --> 01:18:56,240
Speaker 1: And you know, rumors have always been out there. Well

1358
01:18:56,280 --> 01:18:58,400
Speaker 1: Garth owns bandit? Well, no, he doesn known band. They

1359
01:18:58,400 --> 01:19:00,920
Speaker 1: were just great friends. I start with Garth when he

1360
01:19:00,960 --> 01:19:04,599
Speaker 1: was in a bar, and we like each other. Uh

1361
01:19:04,640 --> 01:19:07,679
Speaker 1: So I'm not sure how you would pride Garth Brooks away.

1362
01:19:07,720 --> 01:19:11,080
Speaker 1: I've been with Jimmy Buffett thirty eight years. I've been

1363
01:19:11,120 --> 01:19:13,559
Speaker 1: with you know, Brooks and Dunn start to finish, Carrie

1364
01:19:13,640 --> 01:19:18,320
Speaker 1: Underwood start to finish, uh and Hollas Cooper twenty five years.

1365
01:19:18,320 --> 01:19:20,559
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, so many of these stories shine

1366
01:19:20,600 --> 01:19:23,640
Speaker 1: down the rock bands from the very beginning. Uh, you

1367
01:19:23,680 --> 01:19:25,640
Speaker 1: know a lot of these. For us, we look for

1368
01:19:25,760 --> 01:19:29,920
Speaker 1: long term relationships as opposed to just bidding known tours.

1369
01:19:29,960 --> 01:19:31,920
Speaker 1: We like to be a part of the family. And

1370
01:19:31,920 --> 01:19:34,960
Speaker 1: that's how this company's built. And how do you convince

1371
01:19:35,040 --> 01:19:38,120
Speaker 1: someone someone who's in play as opposed to loyal? I mean,

1372
01:19:38,160 --> 01:19:41,000
Speaker 1: I was talking to Garth's manager. He says, Garth is

1373
01:19:41,040 --> 01:19:45,120
Speaker 1: super loyal. He's not leaving you unless something serious goes down.

1374
01:19:45,800 --> 01:19:50,560
Speaker 1: But and that comes to you. What happens, You ultimately

1375
01:19:50,600 --> 01:19:53,479
Speaker 1: make a sketch. How is the pitch and how do

1376
01:19:53,520 --> 01:19:59,400
Speaker 1: you differentiate your spend it from competitors? Two ways to pass. Uh.

1377
01:19:59,479 --> 01:20:02,479
Speaker 1: Some are to to have their own creative person and

1378
01:20:02,640 --> 01:20:05,720
Speaker 1: or team. And in that case, that creative person and

1379
01:20:05,960 --> 01:20:08,320
Speaker 1: or team comes to us with the blueprints, if you will.

1380
01:20:08,360 --> 01:20:11,000
Speaker 1: They're the architect and we're just the house builder, and

1381
01:20:11,040 --> 01:20:13,080
Speaker 1: they come and they go, here, here it is, Here's

1382
01:20:13,120 --> 01:20:15,639
Speaker 1: what I want. How much is it? Uh? The other

1383
01:20:15,680 --> 01:20:18,599
Speaker 1: model is what you just said. They come to us

1384
01:20:18,640 --> 01:20:22,400
Speaker 1: for what we call a turnkey solution. They go tell

1385
01:20:22,439 --> 01:20:24,400
Speaker 1: me what I need, you know, give me the blueprint,

1386
01:20:24,439 --> 01:20:26,280
Speaker 1: give me the plan, and designed the house and sell

1387
01:20:26,320 --> 01:20:30,040
Speaker 1: it to me. So you know, we do both of those, uh,

1388
01:20:30,520 --> 01:20:34,960
Speaker 1: and we like them both. But ultimately, uh, there are

1389
01:20:34,960 --> 01:20:39,599
Speaker 1: a number of bands who just want the absolute cheapest

1390
01:20:39,640 --> 01:20:43,719
Speaker 1: price possible. Uh, and we'll do You'll do a tour

1391
01:20:43,800 --> 01:20:46,880
Speaker 1: with them and the next year everything goes out to bed. Again.

1392
01:20:47,680 --> 01:20:51,000
Speaker 1: I'm not saying that's good or bad. It's not where

1393
01:20:51,040 --> 01:20:54,320
Speaker 1: we prefer to go. We want to build a relationship

1394
01:20:54,560 --> 01:20:57,479
Speaker 1: and and greater than of the people that we work

1395
01:20:57,560 --> 01:21:03,120
Speaker 1: with throughout time. That's what we do. We developed career relationships.

1396
01:21:03,360 --> 01:21:05,760
Speaker 1: Now that's becoming harder and I think I think Bob,

1397
01:21:05,840 --> 01:21:10,320
Speaker 1: that you'll know this because going back to the Rolling Stones,

1398
01:21:10,760 --> 01:21:14,040
Speaker 1: and the Eagles and and all of those what we

1399
01:21:14,040 --> 01:21:17,800
Speaker 1: would call super legacy bands. What did they wanted? What

1400
01:21:17,840 --> 01:21:19,439
Speaker 1: did the Stones want to do? They wanted to be

1401
01:21:19,479 --> 01:21:21,840
Speaker 1: a rock band forever and ever and ever you come

1402
01:21:21,920 --> 01:21:26,439
Speaker 1: up to today these people, a lot of these young artists,

1403
01:21:26,520 --> 01:21:28,720
Speaker 1: that's not their vision. They don't want to have a

1404
01:21:28,760 --> 01:21:31,240
Speaker 1: forty year career like the Stones, are the Eagles or

1405
01:21:31,320 --> 01:21:33,639
Speaker 1: Kiss or those. They want to do it for three years,

1406
01:21:33,680 --> 01:21:35,519
Speaker 1: five years, seven years. They want to make a lot

1407
01:21:35,640 --> 01:21:38,599
Speaker 1: of money and they can now and then get out

1408
01:21:38,640 --> 01:21:41,760
Speaker 1: and go do something else. Uh. And again, as you know, Bob,

1409
01:21:41,760 --> 01:21:44,240
Speaker 1: because I know you were there, bands didn't make any

1410
01:21:44,240 --> 01:21:47,879
Speaker 1: money in the sixties and seventies, really into the mid eighties,

1411
01:21:49,040 --> 01:21:52,559
Speaker 1: and uh, you know we do Crosby Steals, Nash and

1412
01:21:52,720 --> 01:21:56,760
Speaker 1: Young and any combination thereof those guys, they're like me,

1413
01:21:57,000 --> 01:21:58,760
Speaker 1: we all do it for what the love of the game.

1414
01:21:59,680 --> 01:22:03,240
Speaker 1: And and some of the newer artists don't have that.

1415
01:22:03,360 --> 01:22:07,519
Speaker 1: So today is we're building relationships. We wonder will we

1416
01:22:07,600 --> 01:22:09,880
Speaker 1: get three years out of this artist, will we get

1417
01:22:09,960 --> 01:22:12,240
Speaker 1: five years out of this artist? And sometimes it's not

1418
01:22:12,320 --> 01:22:16,200
Speaker 1: even their fault, as you know. Sometimes the artists put

1419
01:22:16,240 --> 01:22:19,680
Speaker 1: out the music, but then, but then music moves on,

1420
01:22:19,880 --> 01:22:22,320
Speaker 1: doesn't it. You know, grunge died, didn't it. You could

1421
01:22:22,320 --> 01:22:24,519
Speaker 1: still be great at grunge, but it died. Or the

1422
01:22:24,560 --> 01:22:28,200
Speaker 1: boy bands or the girl bands or whatever the you know,

1423
01:22:28,240 --> 01:22:30,240
Speaker 1: whatever it was. We did a band that you've probably

1424
01:22:30,240 --> 01:22:32,679
Speaker 1: never heard of, Westlife. Have you ever heard of Westlife?

1425
01:22:32,680 --> 01:22:35,679
Speaker 1: Of course English Act. Yeah, the world's biggest boy band

1426
01:22:35,880 --> 01:22:39,320
Speaker 1: twice in business, twice the business of the Backstreet Boys

1427
01:22:39,320 --> 01:22:42,080
Speaker 1: are in Sync, or any boy bands, but Americans have

1428
01:22:42,160 --> 01:22:44,920
Speaker 1: never heard of them because they never cracked America. But

1429
01:22:45,040 --> 01:22:47,320
Speaker 1: we did them start to finish. Now they're back together now,

1430
01:22:47,960 --> 01:22:52,120
Speaker 1: but but they never cracked America, and and and and

1431
01:22:51,960 --> 01:22:55,599
Speaker 1: they they literally have done twice the business of any

1432
01:22:55,640 --> 01:22:58,320
Speaker 1: of the other boy bands that all Americans know. So

1433
01:22:59,080 --> 01:23:03,040
Speaker 1: what percentage of your revenue as concerts right now? We do?

1434
01:23:03,479 --> 01:23:07,679
Speaker 1: It depends on the year, but but somewhere between fifty

1435
01:23:07,720 --> 01:23:11,240
Speaker 1: and sixty as concerts, and it depends on the year.

1436
01:23:11,280 --> 01:23:15,639
Speaker 1: And then of course, and the rest the rest is integration, Okay,

1437
01:23:15,640 --> 01:23:20,360
Speaker 1: so basically installed permanent installation different locations like Fillmore's and

1438
01:23:20,439 --> 01:23:23,320
Speaker 1: House of Blues and and the World War Two Museum

1439
01:23:23,360 --> 01:23:26,480
Speaker 1: down in New Orleans, and and Shop at Home Television

1440
01:23:26,520 --> 01:23:30,519
Speaker 1: Network and and and all kinds of theme parks and rods.

1441
01:23:30,560 --> 01:23:33,439
Speaker 1: And we do cruise ships, you know, we outfit cruise ships.

1442
01:23:33,520 --> 01:23:38,120
Speaker 1: Just these extraordinarily boring things that you know, you you

1443
01:23:38,200 --> 01:23:40,439
Speaker 1: go tell people, hey, we put the lights in the

1444
01:23:40,439 --> 01:23:45,000
Speaker 1: they but then you go talk about a rock show

1445
01:23:45,000 --> 01:23:47,920
Speaker 1: and they get excited. I mean, we just did Tom Jones.

1446
01:23:48,200 --> 01:23:52,120
Speaker 1: I mean, how cool is that I did. I did

1447
01:23:52,160 --> 01:23:54,720
Speaker 1: the last four years of the rat Pack, you know,

1448
01:23:54,760 --> 01:23:57,439
Speaker 1: with the last four four years, they did two tours

1449
01:23:57,439 --> 01:24:01,000
Speaker 1: across four years before they never did anything again. That

1450
01:24:01,160 --> 01:24:03,519
Speaker 1: was really cool. Getting to meet Frank Sinatra and Peter

1451
01:24:03,560 --> 01:24:06,760
Speaker 1: Lawford and Sammy Davis Jr. And those people. You know,

1452
01:24:06,760 --> 01:24:10,200
Speaker 1: it was really cool. Uh But but that's sort of

1453
01:24:10,240 --> 01:24:13,000
Speaker 1: the sexy side of what we do. And then there

1454
01:24:13,000 --> 01:24:14,880
Speaker 1: are things that we do that we don't talk about

1455
01:24:14,960 --> 01:24:17,400
Speaker 1: and that we can't talk about. Anything you do for Disney,

1456
01:24:17,439 --> 01:24:19,280
Speaker 1: you sign an n d A and you can't talk

1457
01:24:19,320 --> 01:24:21,960
Speaker 1: about it. Most of the stuff you do for any

1458
01:24:21,960 --> 01:24:25,000
Speaker 1: White House you can't talk about. I can't tell you

1459
01:24:25,040 --> 01:24:30,040
Speaker 1: that I did uh Obama's parties for his children in

1460
01:24:30,080 --> 01:24:33,120
Speaker 1: the White House. I can't tell you that maybe I

1461
01:24:33,160 --> 01:24:37,360
Speaker 1: did do it but I can't tell you that. Okay,

1462
01:24:37,680 --> 01:24:41,360
Speaker 1: so you're enlightening. Did you ever think of broadening to

1463
01:24:41,479 --> 01:24:45,040
Speaker 1: something else production staging? No. I'm one of those guys

1464
01:24:45,120 --> 01:24:47,320
Speaker 1: that believes, you know, do what you're good at. I'm

1465
01:24:47,320 --> 01:24:52,160
Speaker 1: not saying the other people are wrong, but uh, most

1466
01:24:52,200 --> 01:24:54,120
Speaker 1: of the people that I know that start out in

1467
01:24:54,200 --> 01:24:57,479
Speaker 1: one discipline are really good at it and really average

1468
01:24:57,479 --> 01:25:00,760
Speaker 1: at the other things they sneak into. Uh, And I'm

1469
01:25:00,800 --> 01:25:04,280
Speaker 1: not really aware of anybody that that. I think you

1470
01:25:04,360 --> 01:25:08,240
Speaker 1: dilute your core business. And that's just the thought process.

1471
01:25:08,280 --> 01:25:09,840
Speaker 1: I mean, right now, there are a lot of artists

1472
01:25:09,880 --> 01:25:12,920
Speaker 1: that want a turnkey solution, they want a one stop shop.

1473
01:25:13,479 --> 01:25:15,160
Speaker 1: And you know, my point of view is, Okay, you're

1474
01:25:15,160 --> 01:25:19,000
Speaker 1: gonna get average sound, average lighting, average video, or you

1475
01:25:19,040 --> 01:25:20,920
Speaker 1: can go up to a really good lighting company and

1476
01:25:21,000 --> 01:25:24,240
Speaker 1: a really good sound company and a really good video company.

1477
01:25:24,320 --> 01:25:26,519
Speaker 1: But you know, that's just two different modes of doing business,

1478
01:25:26,520 --> 01:25:30,760
Speaker 1: and I respect the other methods. Okay, how hands on

1479
01:25:30,920 --> 01:25:34,720
Speaker 1: are you? Well, it's ten o'clock at night and I'm

1480
01:25:34,720 --> 01:25:37,960
Speaker 1: sitting in my office. I mean, you're talking about flying

1481
01:25:37,960 --> 01:25:42,439
Speaker 1: all over the country and you're a million member mailing lists.

1482
01:25:43,400 --> 01:25:47,360
Speaker 1: How much are you working on bandit. Oh, I work

1483
01:25:47,479 --> 01:25:51,960
Speaker 1: fourteen to eighteen hours a day. Uh. Again, that balance shifts.

1484
01:25:51,960 --> 01:25:55,200
Speaker 1: It's some days it's fifty fifty. Some days it's one

1485
01:25:55,240 --> 01:25:58,120
Speaker 1: way and or the other. But no, I'm extraordinarily hands

1486
01:25:58,120 --> 01:26:00,920
Speaker 1: owed and and all of my peers are retired, all

1487
01:26:01,000 --> 01:26:04,439
Speaker 1: of them are dead. Um in fact, fact, in fact,

1488
01:26:04,520 --> 01:26:09,040
Speaker 1: we had an original Bandit passed away yesterday. And Uh.

1489
01:26:09,520 --> 01:26:12,000
Speaker 1: But but I'm one of those guys. A. I'm a workaholic,

1490
01:26:12,520 --> 01:26:15,240
Speaker 1: and B I really enjoy what I do. I really

1491
01:26:15,360 --> 01:26:17,519
Speaker 1: enjoy it. I didn't just do it for money. I

1492
01:26:17,560 --> 01:26:19,040
Speaker 1: did it for the love of the game. I'm also

1493
01:26:19,080 --> 01:26:21,640
Speaker 1: big into football and college football, and I know a

1494
01:26:21,640 --> 01:26:24,519
Speaker 1: lot of football players, and I played football, and and

1495
01:26:25,080 --> 01:26:26,880
Speaker 1: the emotions the same. You do it for the love

1496
01:26:26,880 --> 01:26:29,360
Speaker 1: of the game. The difference between me and Peyton Manning,

1497
01:26:29,400 --> 01:26:33,080
Speaker 1: who's a friend of mine. Peyton can't play football anymore, right,

1498
01:26:33,439 --> 01:26:45,000
Speaker 1: he's too old. I can still do rock and roll. Okay,

1499
01:26:45,240 --> 01:26:47,640
Speaker 1: if you go on your LinkedIn peage, you have like

1500
01:26:47,720 --> 01:26:55,400
Speaker 1: a million companies. What are all those companies? Through time? Um,

1501
01:26:55,479 --> 01:27:02,080
Speaker 1: the the in America up until nineteen one, everybody made

1502
01:27:02,080 --> 01:27:05,280
Speaker 1: their own everything in the world of lighting. Made your

1503
01:27:05,280 --> 01:27:07,280
Speaker 1: own lights. You made your own trust, you made your

1504
01:27:07,280 --> 01:27:10,559
Speaker 1: own cable, and there was no continuity to it. In

1505
01:27:10,600 --> 01:27:13,560
Speaker 1: England and Europe because of legislation. Over there, it was

1506
01:27:13,600 --> 01:27:15,760
Speaker 1: illegal to make your own trust. It was illegal to

1507
01:27:15,800 --> 01:27:17,400
Speaker 1: make your own lights. You had to buy them from

1508
01:27:17,400 --> 01:27:22,400
Speaker 1: a certified manufacturer that met certain standards. So, uh, there

1509
01:27:22,400 --> 01:27:25,040
Speaker 1: were standards that existed over there, and there were companies.

1510
01:27:25,240 --> 01:27:27,519
Speaker 1: There was a guy named Eric Pierce owned a company

1511
01:27:27,560 --> 01:27:30,800
Speaker 1: called show Group Production Services. Eric sadly passed away last fall.

1512
01:27:31,840 --> 01:27:35,240
Speaker 1: Eric actually invented a number of the devices that to

1513
01:27:35,360 --> 01:27:39,120
Speaker 1: this day you're used. As the standardization began to happen,

1514
01:27:39,760 --> 01:27:44,360
Speaker 1: so in Europe everything was standardized. Well. I went over

1515
01:27:44,400 --> 01:27:47,000
Speaker 1: to Europe in nineteen eighty and met Graham Thomas and

1516
01:27:47,080 --> 01:27:49,560
Speaker 1: John Walters who made all the aluminum trust structure a

1517
01:27:49,600 --> 01:27:52,400
Speaker 1: company called Thomas Engineering, and I said, I'm going to

1518
01:27:52,479 --> 01:27:54,640
Speaker 1: buy the American rights and set that up. And I

1519
01:27:54,680 --> 01:27:56,880
Speaker 1: did so. I bought the American rights and set up

1520
01:27:56,880 --> 01:27:59,920
Speaker 1: Thomas Engineering. Within three years, everybody in America equipped making

1521
01:28:00,000 --> 01:28:02,960
Speaker 1: our own trust and started buying from from Thomas. They

1522
01:28:02,960 --> 01:28:07,760
Speaker 1: didn't know that I owned. I kept my ownership secret. Uh.

1523
01:28:08,080 --> 01:28:10,960
Speaker 1: Later on there was helped set up another company called

1524
01:28:11,000 --> 01:28:14,800
Speaker 1: tom Kat, which was another trusting company. So I had

1525
01:28:14,800 --> 01:28:18,760
Speaker 1: the two largest trusting companies in America. Then there was

1526
01:28:18,920 --> 01:28:22,240
Speaker 1: a control company that made the lightboards in England called

1527
01:28:22,520 --> 01:28:25,680
Speaker 1: ah Lights. Well I bought the American rights to that.

1528
01:28:25,760 --> 01:28:29,000
Speaker 1: So now I owned the two largest trusting manufacturers as

1529
01:28:29,040 --> 01:28:33,200
Speaker 1: well as the console company. And uh so all of

1530
01:28:33,240 --> 01:28:36,920
Speaker 1: my competitors used stuff that I sold. Now again I

1531
01:28:37,000 --> 01:28:42,040
Speaker 1: kept my ownership secret. That's that's three of the companies

1532
01:28:42,040 --> 01:28:44,800
Speaker 1: that were on their Uh. Some of the other ones

1533
01:28:44,800 --> 01:28:47,000
Speaker 1: that are owned their, Lord god, I'm trying to remember.

1534
01:28:47,640 --> 01:28:50,400
Speaker 1: Uh own a company called b pH was a property

1535
01:28:50,439 --> 01:28:53,360
Speaker 1: holding company. I own a company called for All Air

1536
01:28:53,400 --> 01:28:56,960
Speaker 1: owned some airplanes, and the airplanes are in that Uh

1537
01:28:57,320 --> 01:29:00,960
Speaker 1: what else do I own? Uh? Oh, Lord God, I'd

1538
01:29:00,960 --> 01:29:03,439
Speaker 1: have to look at the website. I've got several other

1539
01:29:03,600 --> 01:29:06,120
Speaker 1: entities of that nature, but but a lot of them

1540
01:29:06,160 --> 01:29:08,800
Speaker 1: are tied to that. I was for five years. I

1541
01:29:08,840 --> 01:29:10,800
Speaker 1: was part owner of skycam. I know you know what

1542
01:29:10,880 --> 01:29:14,160
Speaker 1: sky cam is, the flying camera. I was part owner

1543
01:29:14,200 --> 01:29:18,400
Speaker 1: of that for a number of years. Uh, I'm sure

1544
01:29:18,439 --> 01:29:21,439
Speaker 1: I'm leaving some stuff off. Do you do you still

1545
01:29:21,439 --> 01:29:25,320
Speaker 1: own the board making in the trust? No? No, I've

1546
01:29:25,320 --> 01:29:27,439
Speaker 1: sold all that. I've sold all that. No, And I

1547
01:29:27,479 --> 01:29:32,080
Speaker 1: had a company for ten or twelve years called Authentic Stars.

1548
01:29:32,600 --> 01:29:34,599
Speaker 1: And what we did at Authentic Stars was we sold

1549
01:29:34,720 --> 01:29:38,880
Speaker 1: rock and roll merchandise uh into into mass mark merchandizing.

1550
01:29:38,880 --> 01:29:41,080
Speaker 1: And we started with Walmart. So when you go in

1551
01:29:41,160 --> 01:29:43,000
Speaker 1: Walmart and see a big rack full of Kiss T

1552
01:29:43,120 --> 01:29:45,880
Speaker 1: shirts and Alice Cooper t shirts and you know what

1553
01:29:45,880 --> 01:29:48,920
Speaker 1: whatever in merchandise and all that, that was me, Me

1554
01:29:49,040 --> 01:29:52,200
Speaker 1: and and a guy named Charlie Anderson who put all

1555
01:29:52,200 --> 01:29:54,200
Speaker 1: the records and all the tapes and all the books

1556
01:29:54,240 --> 01:29:56,280
Speaker 1: and all the Walmarts and then all the best buys.

1557
01:29:56,600 --> 01:29:59,040
Speaker 1: So I just cotailed with with Charlie, and it was

1558
01:29:59,120 --> 01:30:02,880
Speaker 1: it was myself, Charlie Anderson, and Bill Battle. Bill Battle

1559
01:30:03,160 --> 01:30:06,519
Speaker 1: was once the football coach at ut and and eventually

1560
01:30:06,600 --> 01:30:09,240
Speaker 1: the athletic director at Alabama. Well, we had this company

1561
01:30:09,240 --> 01:30:12,559
Speaker 1: together where we put all this show business merchandise into

1562
01:30:12,600 --> 01:30:15,720
Speaker 1: the music sections at all the Walmarts and then all

1563
01:30:15,760 --> 01:30:19,160
Speaker 1: of the best buys, which had everything to do with

1564
01:30:19,280 --> 01:30:21,880
Speaker 1: rock and roll and nothing to do with bandit lige,

1565
01:30:21,920 --> 01:30:23,479
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. I just I just knew

1566
01:30:23,479 --> 01:30:25,880
Speaker 1: the right people, and so for years and years and

1567
01:30:25,920 --> 01:30:28,840
Speaker 1: years we put merchandise across all those stores, and then

1568
01:30:28,880 --> 01:30:31,360
Speaker 1: we eventually sold that company. That's one of them that's

1569
01:30:31,360 --> 01:30:38,240
Speaker 1: owned there. Okay, how often are equipment failures and uh,

1570
01:30:38,520 --> 01:30:41,240
Speaker 1: crew injuries? I mean you don't hear about them all

1571
01:30:41,280 --> 01:30:43,400
Speaker 1: the time, but you hear about a trust falling or

1572
01:30:43,439 --> 01:30:46,599
Speaker 1: a light falling. What what's going on in that world

1573
01:30:47,240 --> 01:30:50,840
Speaker 1: in the last twenty years. Not so much. I mean

1574
01:30:50,880 --> 01:30:55,280
Speaker 1: it's it's very rare because of the safety. Again, standardization

1575
01:30:55,320 --> 01:30:57,400
Speaker 1: of all of this stuff came into play years ago,

1576
01:30:58,000 --> 01:31:00,519
Speaker 1: and it is really safe, and the p are getting

1577
01:31:00,520 --> 01:31:04,160
Speaker 1: trained better and and uh. And in the funny story,

1578
01:31:04,200 --> 01:31:07,599
Speaker 1: in nine two or three, R E. M was going

1579
01:31:07,640 --> 01:31:09,960
Speaker 1: out on a tour and they hired a new production manager,

1580
01:31:09,960 --> 01:31:13,160
Speaker 1: a gentleman named mikey Weiss who also did Neil Diamond

1581
01:31:13,200 --> 01:31:16,200
Speaker 1: for years and years. Mike, he's a great guy. Find

1582
01:31:16,240 --> 01:31:18,600
Speaker 1: myself on the phone before the tour goes out, and

1583
01:31:18,760 --> 01:31:20,599
Speaker 1: this is when R. E. M is just as big

1584
01:31:20,600 --> 01:31:23,160
Speaker 1: as as big as they can be. And Mike, he's

1585
01:31:23,200 --> 01:31:25,920
Speaker 1: telling me, and you're gonna put fall protection on all

1586
01:31:25,960 --> 01:31:29,320
Speaker 1: of your lighting trusses so no one falls for twenty minutes.

1587
01:31:29,360 --> 01:31:31,519
Speaker 1: I'm arguing with the guy because I'm gonna have to

1588
01:31:31,560 --> 01:31:33,840
Speaker 1: spend ten thousand dollars to buy that, and I'm going

1589
01:31:34,160 --> 01:31:35,960
Speaker 1: if I have to. You know, I've got thirty tours

1590
01:31:35,960 --> 01:31:39,280
Speaker 1: out times ten thousand dollars, that's three hundred thousand dollars.

1591
01:31:39,360 --> 01:31:42,000
Speaker 1: I'm not doing this. And about ten minutes and it

1592
01:31:42,120 --> 01:31:45,800
Speaker 1: hit me, what are you doing? One fall will cost

1593
01:31:45,840 --> 01:31:49,600
Speaker 1: you way more than three. So I thanked Mikey, We

1594
01:31:49,680 --> 01:31:51,680
Speaker 1: bought the equipment, we put it out, and from that

1595
01:31:51,760 --> 01:31:55,320
Speaker 1: date forward, Bandit lights wouldn't let anybody go up on

1596
01:31:55,360 --> 01:31:58,880
Speaker 1: the Trust without fall protection. And for five years we

1597
01:31:59,000 --> 01:32:03,679
Speaker 1: lost market share because everyone hated it. The unions hated

1598
01:32:03,720 --> 01:32:05,639
Speaker 1: Oh boy, you get to New York to Local one

1599
01:32:05,680 --> 01:32:08,240
Speaker 1: and try to tell a local one stage hand that

1600
01:32:08,320 --> 01:32:10,719
Speaker 1: they've got to put on fall protection to go up there,

1601
01:32:10,920 --> 01:32:13,120
Speaker 1: and all you get is, I'm not petting that ship on.

1602
01:32:13,400 --> 01:32:15,679
Speaker 1: I've been doing this my whole life. Who the hell

1603
01:32:15,720 --> 01:32:17,800
Speaker 1: do you think you know? And and I would get

1604
01:32:17,840 --> 01:32:21,400
Speaker 1: phone calls and we lost business because tours said, you

1605
01:32:21,439 --> 01:32:24,960
Speaker 1: don't use bandit, they insist on fall protection. Were fast

1606
01:32:25,000 --> 01:32:28,800
Speaker 1: forward five six years, the whole industry did it, and

1607
01:32:28,840 --> 01:32:31,439
Speaker 1: of course now everybody does it. Now no one goes up.

1608
01:32:31,880 --> 01:32:33,800
Speaker 1: But we were the industry leader in that. And again

1609
01:32:33,840 --> 01:32:37,000
Speaker 1: it's all because of Mikey weiss Us. For those for

1610
01:32:37,080 --> 01:32:40,720
Speaker 1: those unaware, what exactly is fall protection? You know that

1611
01:32:40,840 --> 01:32:43,760
Speaker 1: wearing a harness and being attached to a rope so

1612
01:32:43,800 --> 01:32:45,760
Speaker 1: that you know when you're up in the air thirty

1613
01:32:45,800 --> 01:32:48,840
Speaker 1: fifty sixty feet, if you do fall, you you fall

1614
01:32:49,160 --> 01:32:52,120
Speaker 1: four or five feet and then you just dangle and

1615
01:32:52,160 --> 01:32:54,479
Speaker 1: you know you don't fall to your death. And and

1616
01:32:54,520 --> 01:32:57,920
Speaker 1: really we you know, I'm aware of you know, two

1617
01:32:58,000 --> 01:33:01,200
Speaker 1: or three deaths a year globally. They're never really from

1618
01:33:01,240 --> 01:33:05,120
Speaker 1: people falling it. It's from when a structure collapses, a

1619
01:33:05,680 --> 01:33:09,360
Speaker 1: stage roof falls or or tragically the uh the sugar

1620
01:33:09,439 --> 01:33:13,040
Speaker 1: Land thing where the top blew over. I actually designed

1621
01:33:13,680 --> 01:33:16,880
Speaker 1: the thing that blew over was a Thomas top and

1622
01:33:16,960 --> 01:33:19,040
Speaker 1: I was one of four designers of it. Now by

1623
01:33:19,120 --> 01:33:21,599
Speaker 1: then I had sold the company, but I was called

1624
01:33:21,640 --> 01:33:24,040
Speaker 1: as an expert witness because I had to go sit

1625
01:33:24,120 --> 01:33:26,400
Speaker 1: and testify as to why it failed. And it failed

1626
01:33:26,400 --> 01:33:29,360
Speaker 1: because the people that owned it didn't follow the instructions.

1627
01:33:29,360 --> 01:33:32,040
Speaker 1: The instructions are very specific that when you put the

1628
01:33:32,080 --> 01:33:33,840
Speaker 1: top up, you've gotta have a certain amount of weight

1629
01:33:33,840 --> 01:33:36,320
Speaker 1: on the bottom and and and you got to do

1630
01:33:36,400 --> 01:33:38,840
Speaker 1: a B, C and D and they didn't and it

1631
01:33:38,920 --> 01:33:42,800
Speaker 1: blew over. So I remember the stones went on toward

1632
01:33:42,920 --> 01:33:44,600
Speaker 1: seventy two and they said we have to have the

1633
01:33:44,640 --> 01:33:49,759
Speaker 1: super Trooper lights. I remember seeing yes early eighties, uh

1634
01:33:49,920 --> 01:33:52,800
Speaker 1: when uh nine, O two, one five or whatever it was,

1635
01:33:53,280 --> 01:33:57,680
Speaker 1: and they had the lighting trusses that went down and up.

1636
01:33:57,720 --> 01:34:01,439
Speaker 1: Supposedly Genesis did that first. What is what are the

1637
01:34:01,640 --> 01:34:05,919
Speaker 1: things on the cutting edge and lighting right now? Everything

1638
01:34:06,000 --> 01:34:08,880
Speaker 1: you just mentioned, all of the moving trust is. I mean,

1639
01:34:09,280 --> 01:34:12,360
Speaker 1: there's not a lot right now that hasn't been done

1640
01:34:12,960 --> 01:34:16,880
Speaker 1: because we're so technologically advanced. Right now, we're sort of

1641
01:34:17,320 --> 01:34:24,600
Speaker 1: in year five of of variations on a theme. Uh.

1642
01:34:24,840 --> 01:34:29,240
Speaker 1: You know, think about smartphones. You know, you've got iPhones

1643
01:34:29,320 --> 01:34:31,880
Speaker 1: and this phone and that phone and the Google phone.

1644
01:34:31,880 --> 01:34:34,240
Speaker 1: They're all kind of the same, but by degrees they're

1645
01:34:34,240 --> 01:34:36,080
Speaker 1: a little bit different. You know that. I think it's

1646
01:34:36,120 --> 01:34:38,280
Speaker 1: the Google phone that will take any picture and smooth

1647
01:34:38,280 --> 01:34:40,920
Speaker 1: it out and make you look better. Uh, that's their

1648
01:34:41,000 --> 01:34:45,360
Speaker 1: unique thing. There are by degrees things of that nature,

1649
01:34:45,840 --> 01:34:48,160
Speaker 1: but for the most part, light's just moving, wiggle and

1650
01:34:48,240 --> 01:34:52,160
Speaker 1: change colors and make patterns. And and you know that

1651
01:34:52,200 --> 01:34:54,360
Speaker 1: there was a race to make them smaller and lighter

1652
01:34:54,400 --> 01:34:58,400
Speaker 1: and faster, and you know that continues to go on.

1653
01:34:59,120 --> 01:35:02,240
Speaker 1: But again, think iPhone. Uh has there been a quantum

1654
01:35:02,280 --> 01:35:05,000
Speaker 1: shift in iPhones? Not really, it's by degrees from phone

1655
01:35:05,000 --> 01:35:08,439
Speaker 1: to phone. And that's really where entertainment lighting is. Right now,

1656
01:35:08,479 --> 01:35:12,160
Speaker 1: people are dabbling with lasers as a light source. And

1657
01:35:12,200 --> 01:35:16,160
Speaker 1: there is a small handful of lights that are lasers.

1658
01:35:16,840 --> 01:35:18,840
Speaker 1: We own several hundred of them. We've got a bunch

1659
01:35:18,880 --> 01:35:23,559
Speaker 1: of the new carry Underwood tour. But in America, anything

1660
01:35:23,600 --> 01:35:26,960
Speaker 1: that's called a laser falls under the control of the

1661
01:35:27,040 --> 01:35:28,880
Speaker 1: f d A and you have to get it, just

1662
01:35:28,920 --> 01:35:31,200
Speaker 1: like Pyro. You have to get a permit in every city,

1663
01:35:31,240 --> 01:35:33,000
Speaker 1: and you have to have a laser guy come over,

1664
01:35:33,040 --> 01:35:35,280
Speaker 1: and they can't shine on the crowd and so on

1665
01:35:35,400 --> 01:35:40,400
Speaker 1: and so forth. So, uh, will laser lights ever become

1666
01:35:40,479 --> 01:35:45,000
Speaker 1: mainstream in America? Not until the legislation changes. Well, how

1667
01:35:45,120 --> 01:35:48,240
Speaker 1: dangerous are these laser lights? If you ask the f

1668
01:35:48,400 --> 01:35:51,080
Speaker 1: d A, they're extraordinarily dangerous. If you ask the people

1669
01:35:51,160 --> 01:35:55,760
Speaker 1: that make them, not at all. I mean, you know what,

1670
01:35:56,000 --> 01:35:59,439
Speaker 1: what's the real answer? Who knows? Okay, you grew up

1671
01:36:00,120 --> 01:36:04,679
Speaker 1: when the South was still considered redneck correct certainly been

1672
01:36:04,720 --> 01:36:09,080
Speaker 1: to Nashville, which is pretty cosmopolitans some country element Memphis,

1673
01:36:09,120 --> 01:36:18,720
Speaker 1: which is really more Mississippi than Nashville. What's Knoxville like Knoxville, Uh,

1674
01:36:19,040 --> 01:36:23,680
Speaker 1: is you've got the Delta down in Mississippi and all

1675
01:36:23,720 --> 01:36:26,360
Speaker 1: of those sort of Delta influences and and and and

1676
01:36:26,520 --> 01:36:28,920
Speaker 1: jazz and blues and soul and all of that stuff.

1677
01:36:28,920 --> 01:36:31,840
Speaker 1: And it's always been there, you know. But because of

1678
01:36:31,840 --> 01:36:34,360
Speaker 1: of the cotton trade and all that went with that

1679
01:36:34,439 --> 01:36:40,320
Speaker 1: for generations. Uh, Nashville uh and Knoxville we're both port

1680
01:36:40,400 --> 01:36:43,320
Speaker 1: towns because of a river. And if you go back

1681
01:36:43,320 --> 01:36:45,320
Speaker 1: a hundred and fifty years, and again because of my

1682
01:36:45,439 --> 01:36:47,759
Speaker 1: role here running the Chamber of Commerce and being involved

1683
01:36:47,760 --> 01:36:49,160
Speaker 1: in all of that, if you go back on a

1684
01:36:49,240 --> 01:36:52,719
Speaker 1: hundred and fifty years, the Knoxville and Nashville were just alike,

1685
01:36:52,760 --> 01:36:56,519
Speaker 1: with one difference. Nashville had Norfolk and Southern Railroad and

1686
01:36:56,560 --> 01:36:59,680
Speaker 1: Ellen n Railroad, and so it grew faster and it

1687
01:36:59,720 --> 01:37:03,480
Speaker 1: became bigger because it had both rail and water. Knoxville

1688
01:37:03,520 --> 01:37:07,200
Speaker 1: only had uh water. Uh. Knoxville got a little bit

1689
01:37:07,240 --> 01:37:12,519
Speaker 1: of rail. Uh. So Knoxville remained much more rural, much longer,

1690
01:37:13,080 --> 01:37:17,000
Speaker 1: and even today Knoxville is more agrarian. It's more of

1691
01:37:17,040 --> 01:37:23,800
Speaker 1: an agricultural society. And there is no agrarian component too. Nashville,

1692
01:37:24,040 --> 01:37:28,520
Speaker 1: there isn't. I mean it's you've been there recently probably. Uh.

1693
01:37:28,680 --> 01:37:32,280
Speaker 1: So we're still very agrarian, and you know, very agriculturally

1694
01:37:32,400 --> 01:37:38,120
Speaker 1: oriented and and very uh uh slow and uh. Quality

1695
01:37:38,120 --> 01:37:41,719
Speaker 1: of life's higher, costs, the livings lower. Uh, great place

1696
01:37:41,760 --> 01:37:43,679
Speaker 1: to live. I live on the lake, I can see

1697
01:37:43,680 --> 01:37:49,000
Speaker 1: the mountains. Uh. Most people that come here uh to

1698
01:37:49,120 --> 01:37:52,760
Speaker 1: work with bandit that lives somewhere else move here for

1699
01:37:52,800 --> 01:37:55,200
Speaker 1: all the reasons that I said. People are nice, cost

1700
01:37:55,240 --> 01:37:59,320
Speaker 1: the livings low, quality of life is high, airs clean, Uh.

1701
01:37:59,360 --> 01:38:02,519
Speaker 1: And you don't have the uh, you don't have the

1702
01:38:02,520 --> 01:38:04,400
Speaker 1: traffic and all the issues that you do in a

1703
01:38:04,560 --> 01:38:07,120
Speaker 1: Nashville or a Memphis, which both of those are approaching

1704
01:38:07,160 --> 01:38:12,840
Speaker 1: the Los Angeles type situation. So what to coastal people

1705
01:38:12,920 --> 01:38:17,840
Speaker 1: or northern people not understand about the South. I think

1706
01:38:17,880 --> 01:38:20,960
Speaker 1: they understand the South much better now, because again you

1707
01:38:20,960 --> 01:38:25,280
Speaker 1: you brought up something that you may have read through.

1708
01:38:27,520 --> 01:38:31,559
Speaker 1: My competitors were all in New York, Los Angeles, in

1709
01:38:31,680 --> 01:38:34,519
Speaker 1: London and the first thing they would say to potential

1710
01:38:34,560 --> 01:38:36,680
Speaker 1: clients was, you can't use Bandit Lights because it's a

1711
01:38:36,680 --> 01:38:39,679
Speaker 1: bunch of rednecks. They don't wear shoes, they don't have teeth,

1712
01:38:39,720 --> 01:38:42,839
Speaker 1: they don't know what they're doing. And and that's sold.

1713
01:38:43,080 --> 01:38:46,880
Speaker 1: I mean that that did sell um. But in ninety

1714
01:38:46,960 --> 01:38:49,360
Speaker 1: three they turned around and looked and and Bandit Lights

1715
01:38:49,439 --> 01:38:52,920
Speaker 1: was doing Queen and Arrowsmith and Van Halen and r

1716
01:38:52,960 --> 01:38:55,439
Speaker 1: E M and Faith No More In Raging against the

1717
01:38:55,439 --> 01:38:59,479
Speaker 1: Machine and and and and Garth Brooks and so on

1718
01:38:59,640 --> 01:39:01,960
Speaker 1: and so on, and all of a sudden, and we

1719
01:39:02,000 --> 01:39:04,040
Speaker 1: had in the hair band days we were doing Quiet

1720
01:39:04,080 --> 01:39:07,439
Speaker 1: Riot and Crocus and Twisted Sister and Rat and all

1721
01:39:07,479 --> 01:39:10,599
Speaker 1: of those bands. And all of a sudden, Holy cow,

1722
01:39:11,080 --> 01:39:15,280
Speaker 1: these rednecks are bigger than we are. And they got

1723
01:39:15,320 --> 01:39:18,599
Speaker 1: more lights, and they're doing more stuff, and and they

1724
01:39:18,640 --> 01:39:22,200
Speaker 1: started taking us seriously. And I don't know if you

1725
01:39:22,240 --> 01:39:25,519
Speaker 1: remember years ago there was a magazine called Performance. Do

1726
01:39:25,560 --> 01:39:30,240
Speaker 1: you remember, Yeah, well, Performance in ninety three did a

1727
01:39:30,240 --> 01:39:33,640
Speaker 1: bunch of accolades and uh, I forget exactly what the

1728
01:39:33,680 --> 01:39:37,760
Speaker 1: words were. I think it was Bill Littleton that wrote it. Said, Uh,

1729
01:39:38,280 --> 01:39:42,519
Speaker 1: the company this year with the biggest bump in the

1730
01:39:42,720 --> 01:39:45,200
Speaker 1: biggest bump or whatever, and it was banded out of

1731
01:39:45,240 --> 01:39:47,559
Speaker 1: all the companies, not just lighting but everything and did

1732
01:39:47,600 --> 01:39:50,880
Speaker 1: a whole hearticle Ognis and so many. Way fast forward

1733
01:39:50,960 --> 01:39:57,400
Speaker 1: to two thousand and uh three, every major production company

1734
01:39:57,760 --> 01:40:02,760
Speaker 1: in America as an office in Nashville, Tennessee. You know

1735
01:40:02,800 --> 01:40:06,200
Speaker 1: the Rednecks. That they've all come to the Rednecks. And

1736
01:40:06,280 --> 01:40:09,639
Speaker 1: for the most part, UH, production companies have deserted New

1737
01:40:09,680 --> 01:40:12,200
Speaker 1: York in l A for a number of reasons. First

1738
01:40:12,240 --> 01:40:16,400
Speaker 1: and foremost the cost. Uh. Secondly, they finally figured out

1739
01:40:16,439 --> 01:40:20,000
Speaker 1: that with my lights sitting in Nashville, I could beat

1740
01:40:20,160 --> 01:40:22,639
Speaker 1: to two thirds of the venues in twenty four hours.

1741
01:40:23,000 --> 01:40:25,040
Speaker 1: When you're when your lights are sitting in l A,

1742
01:40:25,640 --> 01:40:28,880
Speaker 1: you can be to ten of the venues in twenty

1743
01:40:28,880 --> 01:40:31,240
Speaker 1: four hours. It's why I fed x IS in Memphis.

1744
01:40:31,880 --> 01:40:34,200
Speaker 1: It's centrally located. Put a pin in the map everywhere

1745
01:40:34,240 --> 01:40:37,120
Speaker 1: there's a venue, and you got this tremendous cluster east

1746
01:40:37,120 --> 01:40:40,680
Speaker 1: of the Mississippi, a small handful across the desert, and

1747
01:40:40,720 --> 01:40:42,479
Speaker 1: then a bunch up and down the west coast. And

1748
01:40:42,479 --> 01:40:44,160
Speaker 1: that's what I did at an early age. I put

1749
01:40:44,200 --> 01:40:48,280
Speaker 1: pins in maps and so today, everybody has an office

1750
01:40:48,280 --> 01:40:51,599
Speaker 1: in Nashville. Think of how many pop stars actually live

1751
01:40:51,640 --> 01:40:55,839
Speaker 1: in Nashville. It's it's countless. Cost the living's lower, quality,

1752
01:40:55,880 --> 01:40:59,680
Speaker 1: LIFs higher. Uh. I've got a lot of friends that

1753
01:40:59,720 --> 01:41:02,479
Speaker 1: have sold their house in l ah you know, and

1754
01:41:02,560 --> 01:41:05,439
Speaker 1: gotten you know, one point five million dollars for their house.

1755
01:41:05,520 --> 01:41:08,439
Speaker 1: This is pre COVID, and then moved to Nashville and

1756
01:41:08,439 --> 01:41:11,120
Speaker 1: bought a house twice that size for seven hundred thousand

1757
01:41:11,800 --> 01:41:13,840
Speaker 1: and and got acreage with it and put the rest

1758
01:41:13,840 --> 01:41:16,720
Speaker 1: of the money in the bank. So, you know, the

1759
01:41:16,920 --> 01:41:19,240
Speaker 1: rest of the world kind of discovered what we always

1760
01:41:19,280 --> 01:41:22,559
Speaker 1: knew about cost of living and how friendly the people were,

1761
01:41:23,120 --> 01:41:26,639
Speaker 1: and how centrally located it is. And of course everything

1762
01:41:26,720 --> 01:41:30,479
Speaker 1: is cheaper. The warehouses are cheaper, the labors cheaper. Uh

1763
01:41:30,520 --> 01:41:32,240
Speaker 1: and and the rest of the world is finally caught

1764
01:41:32,280 --> 01:41:36,840
Speaker 1: on to that. Okay, leaving aside bandit lights in the

1765
01:41:37,000 --> 01:41:42,400
Speaker 1: entertainment business to what degree? Just using you know, the

1766
01:41:42,439 --> 01:41:47,920
Speaker 1: pejorative descriptions, don't shoot the messenger. Is the South still racist?

1767
01:41:48,320 --> 01:41:55,320
Speaker 1: Red neck deep behind? Or is that passe to me?

1768
01:41:55,360 --> 01:41:57,080
Speaker 1: It's pass a of course I would say that I'll

1769
01:41:57,080 --> 01:41:59,439
Speaker 1: live here, but let me let me tell you how

1770
01:41:59,479 --> 01:42:03,240
Speaker 1: I grew uh in the in the late fifties early sixties,

1771
01:42:03,600 --> 01:42:06,200
Speaker 1: at war Worse and mccruary's and Crests, which were the

1772
01:42:06,200 --> 01:42:10,160
Speaker 1: big department stores. We had men's and women's restrooms. We

1773
01:42:10,280 --> 01:42:14,960
Speaker 1: also had white and colored restrooms. We had white and

1774
01:42:15,040 --> 01:42:19,000
Speaker 1: colored water fountains, We had white and colored lunch counters.

1775
01:42:19,760 --> 01:42:26,240
Speaker 1: As a kid, I didn't see that distinction as anything

1776
01:42:26,280 --> 01:42:28,559
Speaker 1: other than men and women. In other words, I didn't

1777
01:42:28,560 --> 01:42:30,880
Speaker 1: look at men and women's restrooms and think that women

1778
01:42:30,880 --> 01:42:34,080
Speaker 1: were less than men. You follow me, and the same

1779
01:42:34,120 --> 01:42:36,599
Speaker 1: thing between black and white. To me, it was different,

1780
01:42:36,680 --> 01:42:40,280
Speaker 1: that was all and and I, I and most people

1781
01:42:40,320 --> 01:42:42,639
Speaker 1: I knew, never had what you would call a racist

1782
01:42:42,640 --> 01:42:45,400
Speaker 1: point of view. Did those people exist, absolutely, you know.

1783
01:42:45,400 --> 01:42:48,840
Speaker 1: Did they use the inappropriate language? Sure they did. But

1784
01:42:48,840 --> 01:42:51,120
Speaker 1: but I didn't grow up in that, you know. I

1785
01:42:51,479 --> 01:42:55,640
Speaker 1: grew up around it, But but I never saw it

1786
01:42:55,640 --> 01:42:59,800
Speaker 1: and was never aware of it really until uh jeez,

1787
01:42:59,840 --> 01:43:03,160
Speaker 1: I to college, probably because it was just how it

1788
01:43:03,320 --> 01:43:05,080
Speaker 1: was now by the time. By the time I was

1789
01:43:05,120 --> 01:43:08,400
Speaker 1: a senior in high school, the segregation was over the

1790
01:43:08,439 --> 01:43:10,639
Speaker 1: black and white water fountains and all of that stuff.

1791
01:43:10,680 --> 01:43:14,679
Speaker 1: But but but I never experienced people mistreating one another, never

1792
01:43:14,720 --> 01:43:18,760
Speaker 1: ever experienced it, and uh, you know, no, I don't

1793
01:43:18,760 --> 01:43:21,120
Speaker 1: think it exists. Now. I have a really unique view

1794
01:43:21,200 --> 01:43:26,320
Speaker 1: about equality and racism and all of those things. And

1795
01:43:26,360 --> 01:43:29,000
Speaker 1: I'm not saying I'm right, but my opinion is just

1796
01:43:29,080 --> 01:43:34,720
Speaker 1: really simple. The best way to treat everybody fairly is

1797
01:43:34,760 --> 01:43:37,640
Speaker 1: just to quit talking about differences. You know that just

1798
01:43:38,600 --> 01:43:41,439
Speaker 1: we're all human beings, you know, we're we're all one,

1799
01:43:41,840 --> 01:43:44,280
Speaker 1: and and that's that's how I feel. I don't look

1800
01:43:44,280 --> 01:43:46,519
Speaker 1: at someone as black or white, or male or female,

1801
01:43:46,640 --> 01:43:49,840
Speaker 1: or transgender or gay, or they're just people. You know,

1802
01:43:49,880 --> 01:43:54,160
Speaker 1: they're just people. And I think the sooner we stop

1803
01:43:54,280 --> 01:43:59,200
Speaker 1: pointing out distinctions, uh, the quicker will get to a

1804
01:43:59,240 --> 01:44:02,719
Speaker 1: better place. Now. Having said that, I understand the argument

1805
01:44:02,720 --> 01:44:04,960
Speaker 1: against it that if if we're not proactive, it will

1806
01:44:05,000 --> 01:44:09,480
Speaker 1: never end. And I do think most of the preconceived

1807
01:44:09,479 --> 01:44:12,920
Speaker 1: notion about racism and and rednecks and all of that

1808
01:44:12,960 --> 01:44:18,000
Speaker 1: in the South most so that is not true. Having

1809
01:44:18,040 --> 01:44:21,839
Speaker 1: said that, my son played football all through high school,

1810
01:44:22,400 --> 01:44:25,320
Speaker 1: On any given Friday and Saturday night, my house would

1811
01:44:25,360 --> 01:44:27,240
Speaker 1: have eight or ten guys there after the game, and

1812
01:44:27,240 --> 01:44:30,080
Speaker 1: they'd spend a weekend and there'd be three white kids

1813
01:44:30,080 --> 01:44:33,439
Speaker 1: and seven black kids, and and nobody saw color. Nobody

1814
01:44:33,479 --> 01:44:36,400
Speaker 1: saw color, and and and the parents would come over

1815
01:44:36,439 --> 01:44:40,679
Speaker 1: and we were friends. And but there was this one kid.

1816
01:44:41,920 --> 01:44:43,960
Speaker 1: And he was that kid that that gives us all

1817
01:44:44,280 --> 01:44:47,240
Speaker 1: the black eye. You know, his dad was a hardcore racist.

1818
01:44:47,960 --> 01:44:52,400
Speaker 1: And then whenever this kid was was not around any

1819
01:44:52,479 --> 01:44:54,760
Speaker 1: of the black kids, he would he would go there,

1820
01:44:54,840 --> 01:44:58,160
Speaker 1: you know, he would use all the inappropriate behavior. And

1821
01:44:58,240 --> 01:45:01,120
Speaker 1: I'd look at him and go, you know, you know, Bob,

1822
01:45:01,200 --> 01:45:03,759
Speaker 1: stop it, you know. But that's just how he was wired.

1823
01:45:03,800 --> 01:45:06,640
Speaker 1: You know. Are they out there? Sure they are? You know,

1824
01:45:06,680 --> 01:45:09,120
Speaker 1: there's anti Semits that don't like Jewish, you know. I mean,

1825
01:45:09,880 --> 01:45:13,479
Speaker 1: there's there's people everywhere that that you know, that don't

1826
01:45:13,560 --> 01:45:17,559
Speaker 1: like somebody. Uh. And I'm not sure how you overcome that.

1827
01:45:17,680 --> 01:45:19,640
Speaker 1: But but no, buy and large, I don't think the

1828
01:45:19,720 --> 01:45:25,439
Speaker 1: South is anymore or less uh backwards than anywhere else

1829
01:45:25,479 --> 01:45:29,120
Speaker 1: at this point. Okay, of the three hundred people who

1830
01:45:29,160 --> 01:45:31,559
Speaker 1: work at Banded, how many are women are people of color?

1831
01:45:32,160 --> 01:45:35,719
Speaker 1: That's a great question of the people that Banded or female,

1832
01:45:35,760 --> 01:45:39,360
Speaker 1: and that includes road staff. We've probably got more uh

1833
01:45:39,560 --> 01:45:43,719
Speaker 1: female road staff than anybody else. Uh And uh nineteen

1834
01:45:43,800 --> 01:45:47,479
Speaker 1: percent of the people that banded are people of color. Uh,

1835
01:45:47,520 --> 01:45:53,000
Speaker 1: And we don't hire people based on anything other than

1836
01:45:53,080 --> 01:45:56,479
Speaker 1: ability and a funny story. We've got eighteen people now

1837
01:45:56,520 --> 01:45:59,840
Speaker 1: in accounting. They're all women. And it's not about his

1838
01:46:00,320 --> 01:46:03,080
Speaker 1: it's not you know, we interview each time we make

1839
01:46:03,080 --> 01:46:09,800
Speaker 1: a hire. Guess what, it's usually females. We We've had

1840
01:46:09,800 --> 01:46:12,880
Speaker 1: males in accounting, but right now they're all females because

1841
01:46:13,640 --> 01:46:16,160
Speaker 1: the most qualified person through that door was a woman,

1842
01:46:16,800 --> 01:46:19,760
Speaker 1: so we hired her. Okay, So you say, you work

1843
01:46:19,840 --> 01:46:22,760
Speaker 1: sixteen eighteen hours a day and you're flying all over

1844
01:46:22,800 --> 01:46:28,320
Speaker 1: the country, how do you maintain a relationship. I'm single? Yea.

1845
01:46:30,240 --> 01:46:33,559
Speaker 1: How many times you've been married? I've had five very

1846
01:46:33,640 --> 01:46:38,360
Speaker 1: serious failed relationships too, of which were marriages, and and

1847
01:46:38,360 --> 01:46:40,559
Speaker 1: and after the fifth one, I figured out it was me.

1848
01:46:42,160 --> 01:46:45,479
Speaker 1: And is that because you're so dedicated to the work. Yeah,

1849
01:46:45,520 --> 01:46:51,639
Speaker 1: I mean each you know, people would say you're married

1850
01:46:51,680 --> 01:46:53,720
Speaker 1: to Bandit lies. No, I'm not, you know. And and

1851
01:46:53,720 --> 01:46:58,040
Speaker 1: then finally, after this last one, which which ended right

1852
01:46:58,240 --> 01:47:00,559
Speaker 1: right as COVID hit, I realized it is me, and

1853
01:47:00,600 --> 01:47:03,599
Speaker 1: they are right and and and my story now, which

1854
01:47:03,640 --> 01:47:07,400
Speaker 1: I believe had I had a girlfriend when COVID started,

1855
01:47:07,840 --> 01:47:10,120
Speaker 1: I wouldn't have one now because I was in d C,

1856
01:47:10,360 --> 01:47:11,600
Speaker 1: in l A and New York. You know, I was

1857
01:47:11,640 --> 01:47:14,960
Speaker 1: doing what I'm doing. And you know I've got a

1858
01:47:14,960 --> 01:47:17,760
Speaker 1: meeting tomorrow morning at six thirty that will probably run

1859
01:47:17,840 --> 01:47:21,080
Speaker 1: two hours to do with all of this, and uh,

1860
01:47:21,200 --> 01:47:24,840
Speaker 1: who would put up with that? I wouldn't. But it's okay.

1861
01:47:24,880 --> 01:47:29,440
Speaker 1: I love it. Okay, Michael, this has been very edifying.

1862
01:47:29,840 --> 01:47:31,800
Speaker 1: I want to thank you for taking the time to

1863
01:47:31,840 --> 01:47:35,040
Speaker 1: speak to my audience. Bob, thank you very much, and again,

1864
01:47:35,080 --> 01:47:39,120
Speaker 1: please let me wrap up by urging anyone that hears this. Uh,

1865
01:47:39,320 --> 01:47:43,000
Speaker 1: we've got to get this entertainment association going. And once

1866
01:47:43,040 --> 01:47:45,240
Speaker 1: we get it going and living and breathing and in

1867
01:47:45,240 --> 01:47:47,720
Speaker 1: the shape of fashion and a format that everyone is

1868
01:47:47,760 --> 01:47:51,320
Speaker 1: comfortable with, we will have a defense mechanism against the

1869
01:47:51,360 --> 01:47:55,960
Speaker 1: future shutdown. And if someone wants more information or wants

1870
01:47:56,000 --> 01:47:58,639
Speaker 1: to make contact with you or be active, how might

1871
01:47:58,680 --> 01:48:02,760
Speaker 1: they do that? Since one point three million people have

1872
01:48:02,920 --> 01:48:05,800
Speaker 1: all of my personal information, I have no problem in

1873
01:48:05,880 --> 01:48:09,960
Speaker 1: sharing it. Its first initial last name, M. Strickland S

1874
01:48:10,000 --> 01:48:13,160
Speaker 1: T R I C K L A N D at

1875
01:48:13,720 --> 01:48:17,320
Speaker 1: bandit B A N D I T lights, l I T.

1876
01:48:17,560 --> 01:48:21,280
Speaker 1: E S dot com. Shoot me an email and you

1877
01:48:21,320 --> 01:48:23,599
Speaker 1: can talk to anybody that's in my circle. I answer

1878
01:48:23,680 --> 01:48:25,759
Speaker 1: them all and Buddy back in the middle of COVID.

1879
01:48:26,320 --> 01:48:29,120
Speaker 1: That was quite a task. It's not as daunting as now,

1880
01:48:29,200 --> 01:48:31,720
Speaker 1: but I answer everyone. There's no cookie cutter thing. It's

1881
01:48:31,800 --> 01:48:34,880
Speaker 1: it's an answer. But I find I get I get

1882
01:48:34,880 --> 01:48:38,840
Speaker 1: more traction that way. Well, you're doing yeoman's work. It's

1883
01:48:38,840 --> 01:48:42,600
Speaker 1: really admirable. Hopefully Law come to Fruition. Thanks again for

1884
01:48:42,640 --> 01:48:45,519
Speaker 1: doing this. Thank you, Bob, appreciate it. Have a great

1885
01:48:45,520 --> 01:48:48,679
Speaker 1: evening until next time. This is Bob left Sex