Speaker 1: I Am all in again. Oh, I guess you.
Speaker 2: I Smell pop Culture with Eastern Allen and iHeartRadio podcast. Hey, everybody,
Speaker 2: do you smell that? Do you smell what I'm smelling?
Speaker 2: My name's Easton Allen. This is I smell pop culture.
Speaker 2: That is what I'm smelling. Spoiler alert, I'm smelling pop
Speaker 2: culture and you're smelling it too. This is the I
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Speaker 2: But here's what we do here. Here's what we do
Speaker 2: on the show. We take the pop culture moments from
Speaker 2: Gilmore Girls, and we go so deep. We dive into
Speaker 2: them with both legs. We step into these pop culture moments.
Speaker 2: We talk to the people that made them real. We
Speaker 2: talk to the people behind these pop culture references and
Speaker 2: Gilmore Girls. And that's what we're doing again this week.
Speaker 2: This is a big one, everybody, This is a really
Speaker 2: big one. We're going to season three, episode nineteen keg Max.
Speaker 2: Remember that episode, Big House Party at Kyle's house. Lane's
Speaker 2: band is performing, So they're at the house, they're getting
Speaker 2: set up, they're setting up the drums, and Zach tells
Speaker 2: Brian move back more because when I do my double
Speaker 2: jump kick off the amp with slashing windmills, I'm going
Speaker 2: to need more room. And Lane says, well, don't do
Speaker 2: that then, and then Dave says, yeah, sounds a little
Speaker 2: too Milli Vanilli Zach, So, if you don't know who
Speaker 2: Milli Vanilli is, first of all, what's going on? What
Speaker 2: is going on? Milli Vanilli. They're a pop duo Fab
Speaker 2: mor Van and Rob pilattis in the late eighties, is
Speaker 2: like nineteen eighty eight, they put.
Speaker 1: Out an album.
Speaker 2: They put out a single called Girl You know it's true,
Speaker 2: huge hit, seven million albums. They sell just this massive,
Speaker 2: massive hit. But there's one issue. Rob and Fab are
Speaker 2: not the singers. You do not hear their voices on
Speaker 2: that album. They were lip syncing, and Milli Vanilli kind
Speaker 2: of became the poster boy for lack of a better term,
Speaker 2: they became the example for lip syncing, for deception in music.
Speaker 2: It was a it's one of the crazy things that's
Speaker 2: ever happened. It's really insane that this how this all
Speaker 2: went down. They used studio performers to record the album,
Speaker 2: and then Rob and Fab became the visual representation of
Speaker 2: Millie Vanilli. So they would record, they would perform, and
Speaker 2: they'd have like a backing track that would play and
Speaker 2: they would lip sync and they'd perform it visually. And they're
Speaker 2: incredible dancers, incredible performers, truly like remarkable, and that's why
Speaker 2: they got so big is because of their presence. But
Speaker 2: then it all kind of came out that they held
Speaker 2: this press conference they announced that you are not listening
Speaker 2: to us when you look at Milli Vanilla, who you
Speaker 2: know is Milli Vanilli. They're not singing on this album,
Speaker 2: and it just became this whole scandal. Everything stopped. Arista
Speaker 2: Records deleted the album. They deleted it from there from
Speaker 2: their catalog. That's the biggest selling album of all time
Speaker 2: to be deleted by a record label. They won the
Speaker 2: Grammy for Best New Artists. They to give that Grammy back.
Speaker 2: I think that's the only time the Grammys have rescinded
Speaker 2: in an award.
Speaker 1: It's really crazy.
Speaker 2: We're going to talk to fab more Van, one of
Speaker 2: the guys from Billy Vanilli, the surviving member uh, and
Speaker 2: we're going to find out how this happened. How does
Speaker 2: it get to this point? How like did they sign
Speaker 2: on to lip sync today? Know what was going on?
Speaker 2: How did it feel when everything came out? There's so
Speaker 2: it's so wild. It's such an interesting story, and we're
Speaker 2: going to get to the bottom of it. Fab is
Speaker 2: in the waiting room right now. We're going to bring
Speaker 2: him in. We're not going to make him wait any longer.
Speaker 2: One of the greatest performers in all of pop culture history.
Speaker 2: What is going on? Fab more Van, thank you so
Speaker 2: much for doing this.
Speaker 3: Pleasure to meet pleasure always a pleasure to to travel
Speaker 3: down memory lane and do it in and now go
Speaker 3: back in time and then bust and bleede, you know,
Speaker 3: looking to what's going on in the future. You know,
Speaker 3: I'm traveling is something very familiar with. So let's go.
Speaker 2: I love it, and you know we'll get into this.
Speaker 2: We have so much to talk about.
Speaker 3: You.
Speaker 2: You have one of the most fascinating stories of anyone
Speaker 2: in music of all time. It's just everything you've done
Speaker 2: and been through is so interesting to me. And do
Speaker 2: you say time traveling? Like it's so interesting how music
Speaker 2: can do that?
Speaker 3: Right? Like it?
Speaker 2: Yeah, it really can. And so many people listen to
Speaker 2: Millie Vanilli and are brought back to such a specific
Speaker 2: moment in time. But I want to go back to
Speaker 2: the very beginning when you first met your collaborator, Rob plattis.
Speaker 1: What was that like? When when did you guys meet?
Speaker 1: Where did you meet? How that happen?
Speaker 3: We met long time ago in Munich, Germany, in Bevaria,
Speaker 3: That's where we met. And when we met, we were
Speaker 3: there were not many black people there, so here you go.
Speaker 3: You know, hip hop, the hip hop culture was rising.
Speaker 3: He was a breakdancer. I used to do pop luck
Speaker 3: but also was a trained answer and there lies I'll
Speaker 3: come and interest. You know, hip hop graffiti, rap, breakdance,
Speaker 3: pop in luck, you know, crush, grooven, hip hop movies
Speaker 3: coming out at the same time, and we associated with
Speaker 3: the culture very much and with each other because we
Speaker 3: you know, we were black kids like in Europe and
Speaker 3: this is how we just came together.
Speaker 2: So like, was that like an instant thing when you
Speaker 2: first met him, like like, oh, this is a guy
Speaker 2: I'm going to work well with, where we're going to
Speaker 2: be collaborators.
Speaker 3: Not really wow, And I was very competitive, you know,
Speaker 3: like I was on his turf and he was like,
Speaker 3: who's bad, dude? Because I was there with two other
Speaker 3: friends from Paris, and it was like, hmm, okay, you know,
Speaker 3: what does he want to do with Are they leaving?
Speaker 3: Are they staying? And you eventually we talked about it,
Speaker 3: and you know, he was really trying to to connect essentially.
Speaker 3: But you know, when you don't know people, you kind
Speaker 3: of become stand offish at first, and sometimes those are
Speaker 3: the best relationships because you're like, it's kind of like feisty,
Speaker 3: it's like competitive. But then once once we started talking
Speaker 3: to each other, we started to realize everything we have
Speaker 3: in common. We loved music, and we had to come
Speaker 3: and dream and together we said, hey, let's put your energy,
Speaker 3: let's put my energy, and let's see what happens. And
Speaker 3: then of course fireworks. You know, we went to a
Speaker 3: place like Wow and beyond, which you know sometime when
Speaker 3: you think about manifestation, you know, we surely manifested that
Speaker 3: thing because I even I even drew the costumes one
Speaker 3: Christmas and said this is what we're going to wear.
Speaker 3: And then we found that envelope years later and it
Speaker 3: was exactly what we were wearing because we were involved
Speaker 3: in many aspects of what we were doing and from
Speaker 3: from you know, the show performance to the clothing design,
Speaker 3: with the costs and designers and all that stuff. So
Speaker 3: I believe in manifestation and the fact that I'm still
Speaker 3: here right now. You know, it's something that I've willed
Speaker 3: and it was unsure, you know, call it blind faith.
Speaker 3: And certain deeds are photogrounds for creativity. But I use
Speaker 3: creativity and music to keep me afloat, you know, really
Speaker 3: mentally physically. And that being said, I'm down traveler. That's
Speaker 3: what I am. With music as my magic carpet.
Speaker 1: I love it.
Speaker 2: Wow that I mean, that manifestation story is incredible. So
Speaker 2: you get approached by Frank Farian. Uh, yeah, the producer,
Speaker 2: and when you sign with him originally, and and what
Speaker 2: you're talking about like making records and recording. Were you
Speaker 2: and Rob under the impression like Bill that you guys
Speaker 2: would record and you recorded girl? You know it's true
Speaker 2: you recorded the music. But so so take me through
Speaker 2: those early moments.
Speaker 3: I mean, you know, it's very simple. You know, you
Speaker 3: have two young guys who have who've been working with
Speaker 3: lower level producers in Munich, and you know, but we
Speaker 3: were playing, we played a couple of games with live
Speaker 3: musicians that we're working with Frank, and then Frank heard
Speaker 3: about us, but we were known for performing and singing
Speaker 3: and dancing at the clubs. So when he came and
Speaker 3: went to his studio and looked at the gold records
Speaker 3: on the wall, we were like, yoh, this is the
Speaker 3: right place man. And since love was not something that
Speaker 3: there was not a lot of love at home, and
Speaker 3: and then you had Frank Farren his assistant Ingrid, we
Speaker 3: were like, wow, this is the surrogate family we've been
Speaker 3: looking for. So when the contract came on the table
Speaker 3: and they gave us the last three page of the contract,
Speaker 3: we didn't know that's not how it works. We felt like, okay,
Speaker 3: you got some money right there, it's on the table.
Speaker 3: We're gonna be able to eat. Okay. Contract. There was
Speaker 3: not a lot of money before us. It was like okay,
Speaker 3: to give us money. That means this is real. You
Speaker 3: know this is there was no management now, atturning no protection.
Speaker 3: Were like the Gold Records, blinded by the light like wow,
Speaker 3: we're gonna make it. Started making movies in our mind
Speaker 3: like yo, it's gonna be all right. So when you
Speaker 3: go back home, you spend that money and you wait,
Speaker 3: You're like, what's up? What are they gonna call? So
Speaker 3: you call them, Oh you need money? Yeah, kind of
Speaker 3: all right, what you need? We we need that. So
Speaker 3: they sent it to you in months after months that
Speaker 3: this ad adds up to a sum that there was
Speaker 3: a lot for us. So now I know you're going
Speaker 3: to the next question, what happened? Well, we walked into that.
Speaker 3: True that was said perfectly. They were recording. I found
Speaker 3: out later that they were recording. There were recording songs
Speaker 3: with the original singers with Brad Awl and John Davis,
Speaker 3: which I've been on stage with. We were working together
Speaker 3: for about sixty seven years here in Europe and doing
Speaker 3: shows together as a project called Faceman's Voice. So while
Speaker 3: they were working on that, Frank was looking for guys
Speaker 3: and that we fell into that. You know, we matched
Speaker 3: perfectly his vision. And then when we were told like, hey,
Speaker 3: you're not going to sing, We're like, well, no, thank you.
Speaker 3: But we as naive young kids and Rob was two
Speaker 3: years young older than me. It was my older brother
Speaker 3: and speaking German, I mean I am in his home country.
Speaker 3: I'm listening to what he tells me. When we signed
Speaker 3: the contract, it was like, I said, it's cool because
Speaker 3: it was in German. I don't I didn't read German,
Speaker 3: so you know, I studied German for one year, but
Speaker 3: that was it. So I turned to him, We're cool.
Speaker 3: He's like, yeah, yeah, we're cool. So he was the lead.
Speaker 3: And then when they came to him and told him
Speaker 3: this was the plan, he got pissed off. Tried to
Speaker 3: explain to me because it was so emotional, and I'm like,
Speaker 3: we're not doing that. And then they came back and say, hey,
Speaker 3: money's not free. You know. In a few words, I'm paraphrasing,
Speaker 3: but that's pretty much what it was. Like, Yo, we
Speaker 3: give you money, so it's up like oh really. So
Speaker 3: the quickest way to repay them was really to like, okay,
Speaker 3: we do one song. But we were signed with three
Speaker 3: albums which we had no idea about options A single, one, two, three,
Speaker 3: we don't know. So we thought we'd do this one
Speaker 3: song and then we out. Yeah, but when we thought
Speaker 3: we were out and never heard from them and get
Speaker 3: that record that just shoots off up the charts and
Speaker 3: then you're like, yo, that's that's us, but that's not us,
Speaker 3: but yeah, but that's us. And then suddenly the phone
Speaker 3: start ringing and like, well, you know, you go into
Speaker 3: it apprehensive, not knowing that they got a plan. You know,
Speaker 3: you stepped into a realm you're not familiar with. Stardom
Speaker 3: is something that you don't know about, but it truly
Speaker 3: is addictive. So once you step into that and certainly
Speaker 3: you're at the focal point. And we never had problems
Speaker 3: with ladies, yeah, never, of course, but when that came, yeah,
Speaker 3: it was like wow. And then suddenly you were on
Speaker 3: stage and you were living your dreams. It was half
Speaker 3: a dream, was dreams slash nightmare. But at first it
Speaker 3: was a dream comes true and we were we didn't
Speaker 3: know what the hell to deal with it. So when
Speaker 3: the second single came, it was like, okay, we want
Speaker 3: to sing, No, you can't. And then that's what we
Speaker 3: realized that, So what do you do? You you don't
Speaker 3: know what to do, so you stay in hoping that
Speaker 3: you might get another opportunity to jump off and do something.
Speaker 3: But from the first album to the fourth single, we
Speaker 3: had no idea where we were going, and there was
Speaker 3: no protection, no support, no one to say, hey, I'll
Speaker 3: protect you. There was nobody, you know, And I think
Speaker 3: that's the movie shows that because we were bigger than life. Yeah,
Speaker 3: and you know, when you're bigger in life, people tend
Speaker 3: to believe that you're not really truly human even you know,
Speaker 3: they think you're touchable. Life is beautiful. When we were
Speaker 3: in a cage, it was a golden cage, but it
Speaker 3: was still a cage. And also, yeah, it was a
Speaker 3: tough one to navigate.
Speaker 2: How did you How many times did you perform the
Speaker 2: song live, like with the backing track, Like was that
Speaker 2: were you performing a lot at that point or was
Speaker 2: is it not that?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 3: Yeah, man, we were we were just like a just
Speaker 3: like a pilot. You know, you've got to make those hours.
Speaker 3: We did those hours. Man, it was you know, we
Speaker 3: did him and did it and did it. And then
Speaker 3: we went from the MTV MTV tour to line and
Speaker 3: you know, being at the head of our tour, you know,
Speaker 3: and doing one hundred and seven cities in eight months,
Speaker 3: thirty thousand people almostly. That was crazy. And I gained
Speaker 3: a lot of experience as a result of doing all that. So,
Speaker 3: you know, I felt like I had a dream. I
Speaker 3: strayed away from the dream. I knew that, but I
Speaker 3: was like, I want to stand there because I don't
Speaker 3: know what else I can do, what else I'm going
Speaker 3: to do?
Speaker 2: I mean, anyone would have you know, when you're faced
Speaker 2: with that, anyone would have done that, you know. And
Speaker 2: the thing that's so interesting to me is that you
Speaker 2: and Rob are skilled, incapable singers, like you got you know,
Speaker 2: you're you are, You're incredible singers. So I must have
Speaker 2: been so frustrating, especially to not be able to like, like,
Speaker 2: this isn't our voice. We have voices and we can
Speaker 2: show it off.
Speaker 3: It was frustrating, and it was so frustrating that, you know,
Speaker 3: Rob became dissillusioned with what was going on. Was how
Speaker 3: it was going down. But also the rumors were coming,
Speaker 3: the jokes would come in, and because of the secret
Speaker 3: as first was very it was very light to carry.
Speaker 3: That's what I talked about. At first, it was like drink,
Speaker 3: I'm through wow doing this. But then you start to realize, like, yo,
Speaker 3: we're not only lying to the fans, which we adored
Speaker 3: and love and did everything to give them like the
Speaker 3: best of time, but we're lying to ourselves. So in
Speaker 3: the end, when the party leaves, you know, you do
Speaker 3: two things the same. You know, you go to bed,
Speaker 3: brush your teeth, wash your face, and you look in
Speaker 3: the mirror, you know, and that's like, m that ain't right.
Speaker 3: You wake up in the morning and then you feel
Speaker 3: the same that you felt before you went to bed,
Speaker 3: and that was like the vicious circle. But once someone
Speaker 3: knocked on the door, he showtime, or like yeah, we
Speaker 3: gotta get ready, man, you gotta get on the bus.
Speaker 3: Like you just clicking, and life was going so fast
Speaker 3: that you you never had time to just slow down.
Speaker 3: So you go on this roller coaster hoping that maybe
Speaker 3: someone is going to save you. But then I look
Speaker 3: at my bro and I'm like, I want to save him.
Speaker 3: And I'm doing everything I can't, but it doesn't seem
Speaker 3: like you want to be saved. Until I realized later
Speaker 3: that you can't save nobody. They have to save themselves.
Speaker 3: So when I kind of got that, you know, it's like, okay, well,
Speaker 3: I guess it's time for me to take care of myself,
Speaker 3: you know. Unfortunately, you know, Rob passed away, and that
Speaker 3: was very traumatic because for a long time I felt
Speaker 3: like I didn't do enough. You know, you're kind of
Speaker 3: blaming yourself for for your bal you know, partying. You know,
Speaker 3: it's like you're partying, but you're not even able to say,
Speaker 3: hey man, it was great, you know, to just say
Speaker 3: last words. And that's like the weirdest thing ever.
Speaker 2: That must have been so difficult to process when that
Speaker 2: when when Rob passed, And so in nineteen ninety, the article,
Speaker 2: you know, you do the interview, the article comes out,
Speaker 2: you do the press conference. Everything is kind of now
Speaker 2: it's like out in the open. Everybody knows. I just
Speaker 2: the like Arista deleting the album, giving back the Grammy.
Speaker 2: It's it's so wild, it's so crazy that this happened.
Speaker 3: You know, it's like it's hypocrisy at its finest. Yeah,
Speaker 3: you know, that's it because they made they made a
Speaker 3: lot of money. We're talking past three hundred four hundred
Speaker 3: million dollars right that money was reinvested in other ventures.
Speaker 3: And I'm not going to go too deep in there,
Speaker 3: you know, but it's it's it's in a Wall Street journal.
Speaker 3: All those things are written, you know when someone when
Speaker 3: when a businessman makes money, extra amount of money, then
Speaker 3: he's going to invest it in other ventures. That's what happens,
Speaker 3: you know. But the fact that we were the last,
Speaker 3: the small links, the smallest link in the chamber of
Speaker 3: the most forward, you know, because we were the artist.
Speaker 3: And then in the end it's like Robin fact were blamed.
Speaker 3: We're blamed for everything. My problem, my issue that I
Speaker 3: have still have today, you know, thanks to my emotional intelligence,
Speaker 3: I've grown true generally is you go to school. You know,
Speaker 3: you go to school, you do it, you make and
Speaker 3: you do an Oh, there's an oath, and that oath
Speaker 3: consists of you know, uh, investigating and partially each in
Speaker 3: every character in the story. But that's not what happened. Certainly,
Speaker 3: the label who made the money, everybody disappears and then
Speaker 3: this press conference was it was bad, and sometimes I
Speaker 3: tried to understand why. But I think that the labels
Speaker 3: were so powerful, and the media and labels and everything
Speaker 3: was in codes. So once the story was told and
Speaker 3: entered you know, the four pipelines that were there back then.
Speaker 3: Because now you've got social media, we're talking about a
Speaker 3: whole different ecosystem. Right back then, it was just like,
Speaker 3: once the story was written, it was oh she wrote,
Speaker 3: and then it's like, okay, we can move on now.
Speaker 3: And there was no way you could turn turn a
Speaker 3: new leaf and try to say, hey, but listen, it's
Speaker 3: too late, you know. So it was it was it
Speaker 3: was that in a sense, was one of the most
Speaker 3: difficult because you know, the truth was buried, the narrative
Speaker 3: had been totally uh like, how can I say there
Speaker 3: was nothing true about the narrative? You know, Robin fab
Speaker 3: with the word responsible. They were responsible. They were they
Speaker 3: planned it all. And then let me tell you, you know,
Speaker 3: I still have a slight accent. Anyone can everyone can
Speaker 3: notice I have an accent right back in the days,
Speaker 3: you know, it was a lot thicker. The day we
Speaker 3: came to New York and sat down with whoever in
Speaker 3: that one room, and you know, the promotion department, radio department,
Speaker 3: marketing department, publicity department, like old departments. You know, you
Speaker 3: meet everybody and say hi, nice, nice to meet you,
Speaker 3: and like really, you know, you hear that look numb before.
Speaker 3: I know, early on, like oh yeah, you sound different.
Speaker 3: You know. I remember being in a in a on
Speaker 3: the road during that one hundred and SI City tour,
Speaker 3: stopping at one of those you know, in the middle
Speaker 3: of nowhere, going into like doing some food, and you know,
Speaker 3: they're like, oh, what what kind of First we're talking
Speaker 3: in German? What kind of language is that where you
Speaker 3: guys from. Then me speaking, you're like, oh, you sound weird,
Speaker 3: sounds strange, you know, and obviously we sounded different. You know,
Speaker 3: how can how can anybody say that we had no idea?
Speaker 3: Really you had no idea? All right, Dan, I don't
Speaker 3: know what was I don't know, I don't know, you know.
Speaker 3: So you know, so that's that's how it went. And
Speaker 3: you know, it's hard for me to watch part of
Speaker 3: the documentary when it makes me cringe when I see
Speaker 3: some of those executives, you know, paying a legion to
Speaker 3: the old regime and still saying until the interview person
Speaker 3: kind of like goes in and like, yo, listen, really
Speaker 3: you didn't know, and then coming out. So imagine we're
Speaker 3: talking about thirty years later. Now go back in time
Speaker 3: and see what kind of allegiance they had with each other.
Speaker 3: I understand you to be for your tuition for your
Speaker 3: kids university school, you know, like mortgage car, I understand,
Speaker 3: But thirty years later, give it up, Give it up,
Speaker 3: tell the truth you knew and then you know you
Speaker 3: knew to say it, but for some reason.
Speaker 1: It was very.
Speaker 3: Difficult to pull that. It was like pulling teeth side
Speaker 3: of that side of them.
Speaker 2: God, it's so frustrating. Fab more Van is with us
Speaker 2: from Milli Vanilli. This is the I Smell Pop Culture Podcast.
Speaker 2: We'll be right back after a second. Okay, everybody, It's
Speaker 2: the ICE Smell Pop Culture Podcast. My name is Easton
Speaker 2: Allen and we're hanging out with fab more Van from
Speaker 2: Milli Vanilli. One of the greatest performers of all time,
Speaker 2: I think just and I think yes, like just a
Speaker 2: dominant force in in pop culture for decades now.
Speaker 1: Something that really stood out to me.
Speaker 2: I watched a lot of interviews of you and Rob
Speaker 2: from from that time, and uh, there's an Arsenio Hall
Speaker 2: interview you guys did afterwards when you were you were.
Speaker 1: You know, the everything come out.
Speaker 2: You guys have such an incredible attitude about what happened, because,
Speaker 2: like I think a lot of artists if something if
Speaker 2: they'd gone through something similar to what you guys had,
Speaker 2: they would have retreated, never shown their face again. But
Speaker 2: you guys have a you have a great sense of
Speaker 2: humor about it. First of all, you're like making jokes
Speaker 2: about it. You come back with just you're very open
Speaker 2: about everything that happened. That interview specifically, I just really
Speaker 2: got a feel for what you guys are like, and
Speaker 2: I want to say that it's incredible attitude.
Speaker 3: Thank you. You know. You know, the thing is that
Speaker 3: you know, when you you know, you don't learn anything
Speaker 3: when you go up, you know, because they keep you
Speaker 3: on the road, your work, your work, work, work. You're young,
Speaker 3: you don't really develop. But when you fall, you know,
Speaker 3: there's such a thing as looking internally, looking back, you know,
Speaker 3: and learning. You know, you learn and then you realize,
Speaker 3: you know, and one of the things that I realized that,
Speaker 3: you know, being humble is the best thing that can
Speaker 3: happen to you because of course, we were like a
Speaker 3: riding high. You know, everybody is like, you're the best,
Speaker 3: and you know, eventually you're young, dude, you're going to
Speaker 3: start to believe your own press. Very normal, you know,
Speaker 3: but when I fail, it really just it woke me up.
Speaker 3: And I'm glad because without the fall, I don't think
Speaker 3: that I would have turned into what I am today.
Speaker 3: So this, this was the beginning of what was truly becoming,
Speaker 3: you know, and that is really becoming resilient in life
Speaker 3: and understand that there are no problems. There are only solutions,
Speaker 3: but you get to face that and sometimes learning the
Speaker 3: hard way is the best way. So our attitude was like,
Speaker 3: well listen, you know, there's you know, we told everyone
Speaker 3: we take the blame. For sure, we can't take all
Speaker 3: the blame, but we take the blame for what was done.
Speaker 3: We were part of it, that's clear. We were part
Speaker 3: of it, one hundred percent, and we recognize that. That
Speaker 3: being said, we're here now and we want to make
Speaker 3: the best out of what happened to us. It's very normal,
Speaker 3: but for some reason, the media kind of flipped it
Speaker 3: into making us look bad. So that's why our signior performances,
Speaker 3: which one of my favorite you know. He promoted us
Speaker 3: for thirty days and in the end, at the end
Speaker 3: of thirty days, I believe that we killed it. Definitely
Speaker 3: killed it. And if it would have had a real
Speaker 3: label behind us, we're real finance and marketing, dollar and
Speaker 3: radio promotion, we could have done some things. It was
Speaker 3: kind of like nobody was interested anymore. Like it was like, uh,
Speaker 3: it's it's weird, you know how why not we're singing?
Speaker 3: Oh no, not interesting? You know.
Speaker 2: So the Robin Fab album is so good by the way,
Speaker 2: that song do I, Oh my god, I love that song.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3: That's a nice one. That's the one that's not you know.
Speaker 3: We worked with a great team of producers and that
Speaker 3: was one of my favorite time the aftermath I would
Speaker 3: call it and to be sitting down with producers and
Speaker 3: in the lab and a big studio and just you know,
Speaker 3: being part of it. And oh when it changes harmony,
Speaker 3: Oh what about? Like what about changing the drum pattern?
Speaker 3: And that was for me so awesome that you know,
Speaker 3: that was taken away from me from the beginning. So
Speaker 3: finally I was able to truly live my dream, you know.
Speaker 3: And unfortunately, during that period, Rub was addiction. Is that
Speaker 3: taken the toe on him. So it was very difficult
Speaker 3: for him to focus and he would disappear day at
Speaker 3: a time. So we had to you know, the budget
Speaker 3: was running out and we had to get that album done.
Speaker 3: So I did pretty much all the leads majority your background.
Speaker 3: So if you listen to the record, you notice that
Speaker 3: on some song you hear rob and some of the
Speaker 3: songs there's no way to be hurt, you know, And
Speaker 3: that's what happened, you know, So ri ip God rest
Speaker 3: you know, I help you rest good, and he's looking
Speaker 3: from above and he's like, go dude, and clear clear
Speaker 3: up my name. You know. My goal is being to
Speaker 3: transform the name living in me into when you fall,
Speaker 3: when you make mistakes or you fall, you can't stand
Speaker 3: back up, reinvent yourself and move forward. You know this.
Speaker 3: You have options, you have choices. It's just up to you.
Speaker 3: You know. The problem is the issue is I'm in
Speaker 3: my mistakes in front of the world, and that being said,
Speaker 3: some people make the mistakes in the privacy of their
Speaker 3: own home. So I guess it turned me into what
Speaker 3: I am today. And hey, I got four kids with
Speaker 3: the same woman, a partner Sasha so Loans in sent
Speaker 3: Paris Twins. You know at the amazing you know, family
Speaker 3: is a blessing, blessing. I love it.
Speaker 2: It's it's I really hope everyone listening to this takes
Speaker 2: that message that that is so incredible and powerful to
Speaker 2: be able to use that example and and and share,
Speaker 2: like when you go through something you make a bad decision.
Speaker 2: In my opinion, you and Robert Victims here. I mean,
Speaker 2: I know, I appreciate you guys taking responsible.
Speaker 3: I'm not going to play I'm not going to play
Speaker 3: the victim. I know responsibility, but it sure looks like
Speaker 3: in quite like a duck.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yes, exactly.
Speaker 2: But the fact that you take responsibility for your role
Speaker 2: in it and the way you rebuilt everything, it's so inspiring.
Speaker 2: It's so incredible Today in twenty twenty five, I mean
Speaker 2: the Milli Vanilli. There's a lot of songs in the Monsters,
Speaker 2: uh Lyle and Eric Menendez showing Netflix. So how does
Speaker 2: it I mean to look at like these songs are
Speaker 2: training on TikTok. Now you have a whole new generation.
Speaker 3: No, I know you know what this this? You know,
Speaker 3: Ryan Murphy, thank you, Monsters, thank you. I forgot the
Speaker 3: name of the actors. But those guys, Wow, what a job.
Speaker 3: And you know what I found because you know, I
Speaker 3: used to live close to where they used to live.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, in bel Air.
Speaker 3: Yeah, they not far away, so you know, we used
Speaker 3: to play football in U c La, so we weren't
Speaker 3: there in their vicinity BECAUSEFM it was everywhere, so it
Speaker 3: was hard to miss. But when they buried their mom,
Speaker 3: that's in a movie. I thought it was in the movie.
Speaker 3: I was like, oh, yeah, that's fiction. No, they use girl,
Speaker 3: I'm going to miss you. At the funeral, I was like, wow,
Speaker 3: that's wild, Like whoa you know. And now we're back
Speaker 3: thirty years later almost like past. And then because of
Speaker 3: a show like this one and my association with Men
Speaker 3: and his brothers, certainly the kids that up because I
Speaker 3: have a god daughter in La and Kailna and she
Speaker 3: tells me in school, they all know, they all know
Speaker 3: the song, they sing the songs. So I'm like, wow,
Speaker 3: that's a trip. Because there was a time where milivinly
Speaker 3: just went into disappeared, It went into a vacuum. And
Speaker 3: then you know with the dark, you know, with the
Speaker 3: movie with monsters, certainly it's back on all the music
Speaker 3: platforms and it's it's raving up and people certainly are realizing, Man,
Speaker 3: that was good stuff. That was a good time. So, hey,
Speaker 3: music is life. Life is music. Music is also the
Speaker 3: soundtrack of our lives. I am connected to everyone who
Speaker 3: listened back in the days, and whoever is discovering it
Speaker 3: and walks into our emotional shoes, they are connected to
Speaker 3: now because the narrative is being rewritten properly, and you
Speaker 3: realize that, hey, listen, they took advantage, they exploited us,
Speaker 3: and we were thrown. Rob paid with his life as
Speaker 3: a result of how it was handled. It could have
Speaker 3: been handled differently. We could have and we were in
Speaker 3: the process of starting another project with another entity, but
Speaker 3: Frank Farren went to New York and told the world.
Speaker 3: So when you did that, it was check mate. We
Speaker 3: weren't pushing him. We were pushing him to end this relationship,
Speaker 3: but we didn't count on the fact that he would
Speaker 3: tell the world instead of saying, Okay, I'm done, we
Speaker 3: can go to group. So we were hoping and work it,
Speaker 3: you know, and maybe you have the Robin Felt album
Speaker 3: they come out instead of nineteen ninety three, had it
Speaker 3: come out like in nineteen ninety. That was the plan.
Speaker 2: You can't dwell on this kind of thing, but I
Speaker 2: can't help but wonder, like what would have happened if
Speaker 2: Frank hadn't like gone public with everything, Like I wonder
Speaker 2: what would the trajectory have been? Oh, well, you know
Speaker 2: if the world hadn't found out Well.
Speaker 3: The thing is, you know, on that tour I told
Speaker 3: you about the one hundred and SEVENTYY tour. In the
Speaker 3: eight month we had it, we put a studio in
Speaker 3: the bus because we had about between forty and fifty
Speaker 3: people working for us, so we had five buses and
Speaker 3: we put a studio equipment in the back of the bus.
Speaker 3: And then we would be working after the show, making
Speaker 3: some music, experimenting the process that started. You know, we
Speaker 3: had the band, We're like, okay, we don't do something,
Speaker 3: you know, and so you know, the musicians would come
Speaker 3: on board, would work, stop, you go back to your bus,
Speaker 3: go to sleep, and I was kind of like a
Speaker 3: routine and I loved it. That was like, Wow, that's
Speaker 3: the life I always wanted. But you know it was
Speaker 3: weird because we were performing in front of thousands but
Speaker 3: not singing, and then you're in the back of the
Speaker 3: bus making music and I'm like, oh, I wish I
Speaker 3: could share tonight. I wish I could share that tonight
Speaker 3: at the gig, but you can't. Yeah, it's true. Was
Speaker 3: it was crazy, but you know, until now, I've only
Speaker 3: you know, I told the story. You know, it's been
Speaker 3: a dog, it's been a movie, it's been interviews. But
Speaker 3: with the book, and it's titled you know it's true.
Speaker 3: So people can go and register a you know, it's
Speaker 3: through dot com and then we'll keep you posted with
Speaker 3: the schedule. It's going to be an audio book as well.
Speaker 3: And you know, finally I can, I can share everything
Speaker 3: and they don't know what to expect. And that's the
Speaker 3: beauty with this book, you know. But it had to
Speaker 3: be done also for me. I had to free myself
Speaker 3: from from many things, you know, because you don't go
Speaker 3: through something like this, and and you don't, you don't
Speaker 3: walk away intact. You know you will be you will
Speaker 3: when you crash, you crash and burn. But I'm lucky
Speaker 3: it didn burn to crisp and I was able to
Speaker 3: rise from my ashes and and move on. I'm not
Speaker 3: I'm not saying I'm the phoenix. I'm just saying I
Speaker 3: was able to rise above and fly away from the
Speaker 3: madness and everything that was holding me down. Because you know,
Speaker 3: people can be mean on the wreay down the jokes,
Speaker 3: the bullying and what it feels like. But after a while,
Speaker 3: when you acquire emotional intelligence and realize that it's not
Speaker 3: about you, people have issues and you know you trigger
Speaker 3: something to them because people don't have to be so mean.
Speaker 3: I didn't kill nobody. We didn't kiel nobody, you know,
Speaker 3: and some people have done way worse. Oh yeah that
Speaker 3: were treated that were treated. Yeah, that is bad, really
Speaker 3: damn Like why us, you know, And I'm still to
Speaker 3: this day wondering like what was the reason behind behind that?
Speaker 3: Like why.
Speaker 2: It's it's I know, it's so frustrating to think about.
Speaker 2: But you know, you talk about the movie girl, you know,
Speaker 2: it's true, it's streaming on Peacock. What was it like,
Speaker 2: how involved were you in the process of that movie
Speaker 2: being made and what was like seeing your life be
Speaker 2: turned to a movie.
Speaker 3: Well, well, I was. I was a consultant, you know,
Speaker 3: and you know I I I felt like, just like
Speaker 3: the documentary, when they came to me, I said, hey,
Speaker 3: they said, we want to tell you a story. But
Speaker 3: I knew that there were many other people that they
Speaker 3: were going to talk to. I sound cool with that.
Speaker 3: You go ahead, because I know it's going to line
Speaker 3: up perfectly. I let him do it. I was a
Speaker 3: consultant in the movie, same thing. They talked to a
Speaker 3: lot of people. The guy who didn't summon fore Hoofa
Speaker 3: was a fan, met me when he was eighteen years
Speaker 3: old in Pim's where we were kind of discovered, and
Speaker 3: he never forgot that image. He soaked it in like
Speaker 3: a sponge. And the job is incredible, you know. But
Speaker 3: I felt like he was passionate, and you know you
Speaker 3: can you can fight passion, you know. And that's why
Speaker 3: I'm saying I'm still here because of my passion for music,
Speaker 3: my hunger for music, and music being a medium through
Speaker 3: which I can express myself. Most so when the movie,
Speaker 3: when when I saw the actors, I was like, oh,
Speaker 3: that looked good. I didn't full I didn't fully see
Speaker 3: them in full gear, but at the end because I
Speaker 3: watched a movie on the computer at first, and I
Speaker 3: watched it at a premiere because I didn't want to
Speaker 3: it's too close to too home, you know. So when
Speaker 3: I watched it at the premiere. Everyone was laughing at
Speaker 3: the same time. Everyone moved in their chair when it
Speaker 3: became uncomfortable you know, in the movie and it's a
Speaker 3: little awkward, like people stopped to move and you know,
Speaker 3: some people cry, and it was on cute. I was like, wow,
Speaker 3: they all react in the same way, whether it was
Speaker 3: in Bavaria with different type of people to browl in
Speaker 3: and I felt like, I think and it made me
Speaker 3: a few times my throat kind of like got tight.
Speaker 3: And I watched I watched Elon and t John and
Speaker 3: they really reincarnated Robin the fab They really embodied us
Speaker 3: and the dynamic between the two characters. It was. It
Speaker 3: was very interesting to watch. And Tessa, my partner, she
Speaker 3: she knocked. He was like, wow, looks like you there.
Speaker 3: I was like, yes, it looked crazy right man, Like wow,
Speaker 3: you know, the makeup, the eyebrows, like the pitness of
Speaker 3: the hair, the jacket, and you know, I'm really happy
Speaker 3: that when I after the movie, people were sharing and
Speaker 3: then you go to the stage, I'm glad that I
Speaker 3: didn't have to go with the cane or you know
Speaker 3: like slow pos you know slow, you know, like you
Speaker 3: know seventy year old. A seventy year old now like
Speaker 3: finally my story was still thank you. I'm still glad
Speaker 3: that I'm still you know, vital, and I'm coming to
Speaker 3: America more and more. You know. I was in Canada,
Speaker 3: did a tour for like, I did a two week tour.
Speaker 3: We did about eight shows. It went very well. I'm
Speaker 3: going to Columbia. I'm going to Miami at the hard
Speaker 3: Rock in Hollywood, Miami, you know, the seventeenth. I believe so.
Speaker 3: And I've been touring in Europe for some time, but
Speaker 3: it was slow. It was, you know, not sortay with
Speaker 3: little shows, more shows, more shows, more shows are down.
Speaker 3: Everything that's happening, it's taking place now. The phone is ringing.
Speaker 3: Now people are like, oh, we would like to are
Speaker 3: you going to do the hits? Of course, you know,
Speaker 3: so I perform. I have a band as well. But
Speaker 3: COVID kind of like halted everything that was happening. But
Speaker 3: it's okay. My twins came and went back to the
Speaker 3: drawing board and uh, step bast step again. We had
Speaker 3: to rebuild, you know. So I'm glad I'm still here.
Speaker 3: The best is yet to come. I've also I don't
Speaker 3: know if you know that because I wanted to. I
Speaker 3: wanted to send you that, but I think I forgot
Speaker 3: it was so busy. I wanted to send you, Girn
Speaker 3: who is true the remix that I did for Sony
Speaker 3: Music and blame it on the Rain Acoustic. I think
Speaker 3: you should play that for your audience.
Speaker 1: Yes, definitely.
Speaker 3: I think you get to take a look at that.
Speaker 3: You know, if you if you need to get your
Speaker 3: hands on it, just ask my team and my team
Speaker 3: will send it to you. But you can't go straight
Speaker 3: to any music platform fab More van Boom on old
Speaker 3: platform fab More Evan go check it out and then
Speaker 3: you'd be the judge. I flipped it too. That's a surprise.
Speaker 1: Oh my god.
Speaker 2: So it's blame it all the Rain Acoustic. You got
Speaker 2: to hear a girl you know it's true FABS remix.
Speaker 2: It's uh, you got everyone listening listen to it right now.
Speaker 2: But before I let you go, this is so this
Speaker 2: is a Gilmore Girls podcast. And the reference that Milli
Speaker 2: Vanilli has in the show, I think it's really is
Speaker 2: really cool because it's you know, if you hear about
Speaker 2: a show like talking about Millie Vanilli or something like that,
Speaker 2: you're gonna assume it's like a lip syncing thing. But
Speaker 2: in Gilmore Girls, there's a band performing and a guy
Speaker 2: is talking about like, Oh, you're gonna need to make
Speaker 2: room because I'm gonna do a jump off the amp
Speaker 2: and do a kick here, and then another band member
Speaker 2: says that sends a little too Milli Vanilly for me.
Speaker 2: So it's like million Vanilli are great performers. They put
Speaker 2: on a great show, and that's that's like the reference there.
Speaker 2: And I think that's incredible thing because that's that's what
Speaker 2: we love, boy Millie Vanille.
Speaker 3: But let me tell you, you know, you as an artist,
Speaker 3: you have to study the game. You have study the
Speaker 3: ones who came before you. So I have a story
Speaker 3: for you. You know the kick, The kick you know
Speaker 3: came from I saw David ly Rough and I was
Speaker 3: a big fan of any Allen and I was like, wow,
Speaker 3: that looks cool. It was a dancer. So it's like
Speaker 3: no issues for me, boom, So I kept put it
Speaker 3: on my show until I met David in La at
Speaker 3: the Rocks Bay. It was like, I love you guys.
Speaker 3: I love the way you move. I was like, yeah, well,
Speaker 3: I think you had something to do with that, you know,
Speaker 3: so that that was that was for me. I was
Speaker 3: super cool to to run into him, you know. So
Speaker 3: I ran into a lot of people in Hollywood, but
Speaker 3: David was was a guy that had so much power
Speaker 3: on stage and the music was amazing. So yeah, those
Speaker 3: are the things, you know, you study the greats, and
Speaker 3: that's what I'll keep on doing. And eventually I hope
Speaker 3: that my music can have the same the same type
Speaker 3: of effect on people that are taking and listen to
Speaker 3: what I do. So to be continued, dot dot It's
Speaker 3: just the beginning, though, watch.
Speaker 2: So much more to come from fab More Event. Thank
Speaker 2: you so much for doing this. You're the coolest guy
Speaker 2: in the world. We appreciate this so much and thank
Speaker 2: you again. Everybody be on the lookout for you know,
Speaker 2: it's true. The fab More Event story, the autobiography coming soon.
Speaker 3: Thank you that coming. You know it's true. Dot Com.
Speaker 1: You know it's true, dot Com, write it down. Thanks again, man,
Speaker 1: Thank you the beginning of time.
Speaker 3: It was great to talk to you and to you know,
Speaker 3: I know that people are listening right now, and my
Speaker 3: last thing I'd like to add is listen to yourself
Speaker 3: and it's never too late. As long as you keep
Speaker 3: on focusing making sure that your health mental, physical is
Speaker 3: in balance, you can achieve anything. Just believe in yourself
Speaker 3: and listen to the noise. Put the noise to zero
Speaker 3: and then listen to yourself. Manifest, meditate and do what
Speaker 3: you've got to do for yourself.
Speaker 1: I love it.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much, FIB, You're the absolute best. I
Speaker 2: hope it's a great rest of your night.
Speaker 3: With pleasure loving team.
Speaker 1: Hey, everybody, don't forget.
Speaker 2: Follow us on Instagram at I Am all In podcast
Speaker 2: and email us at Gilmore at iHeart radio dot com.