Speaker 1: Welcome, Welcome, Welcome back to the Bob Left Sets podcast.
Speaker 1: My guest today is very Way Casey. Yes, Casey Casey
Speaker 1: and the Sunshine Day. Casey. Great to have you here.
Speaker 1: Thank you. It's been to be here, Bob. So, how
Speaker 1: you've been coping with a coronavirus and stay at home
Speaker 1: et cetera. I don't know, it's been. It's been very interesting. Um.
Speaker 1: I have been through a lot of different types of emotions.
Speaker 1: I've never been this idol in my whole seventy years.
Speaker 1: So have you gone through it alone or do you
Speaker 1: have a significant other? What's it been like now? I, uh,
Speaker 1: my nights are alone, but um, you know I have
Speaker 1: staff here at the house, so, um, I'm around people
Speaker 1: during the day, but you know I have family members
Speaker 1: and friends that stopped in and stuff. But yeah, so
Speaker 1: it's been very interesting. I mean I've been I've been
Speaker 1: going out pretty much. I mean, you know, whatever they
Speaker 1: would allow here in Miami, which has been pretty open. Okay,
Speaker 1: And have you been vaccinated? Um? Okay, I was vaccinated.
Speaker 1: I had COVID that I had the regeneral IVY infusion
Speaker 1: done and then had my second um vaccination. Do you
Speaker 1: have any idea how you got covid Um, I'm not
Speaker 1: really sure because the only thing I could think of
Speaker 1: maybe because I was out with a friend of mine,
Speaker 1: her and I went while we we were together on
Speaker 1: a Thursday night, and on a Friday night we went
Speaker 1: out with two other friends. And then um, seven days later,
Speaker 1: five days later, I detected positive, told her, and then
Speaker 1: she got a test and she detected positive. And but
Speaker 1: our friends didn't. They didn't, they were negative. So the
Speaker 1: only thing I can maybe think of is where I
Speaker 1: might have been a little bit lacks of daisical and
Speaker 1: not you know, paying attention. Is Valet Valet parking And
Speaker 1: on that Friday night, someone Valet parked my car, so
Speaker 1: I don't know if they could have gotten the cars
Speaker 1: coughed in it or whatever. And the Germans, I don't
Speaker 1: know how long the Germans floyd you know, float around,
Speaker 1: if they were on the air conditioning vent, I don't know.
Speaker 1: I'm not sure. Um, that's the only way I could
Speaker 1: have gotten at that at that point. Really, and how
Speaker 1: long did you get it? Um? Actually I got it
Speaker 1: Um two days before my seventieth birthday in January. Okay,
Speaker 1: So psychologically, what was it like hitting seventy. Um, I
Speaker 1: don't like the number, but you know, hitting all these numbers,
Speaker 1: doesn't we feel too much different? Then? Um? You mean
Speaker 1: I don't feel any different inside than the year before whatever,
Speaker 1: or two years before, ten years before. Really? Uh so? Um,
Speaker 1: I mean it's it's not you know, it's a seven.
Speaker 1: It's I'm sure there must be you know, some kind
Speaker 1: of psychological stuff going on in my head, but I haven't.
Speaker 1: You know, I don't know if I've recognized that yet. Well,
Speaker 1: I know that sixty really fucked me up. And uh,
Speaker 1: in terms of numbers, I always felt young until I
Speaker 1: hit sixty seven. I said, I don't care how I feel.
Speaker 1: That number is old and it's scary. It is scary.
Speaker 1: I mean I do think of it now like wow,
Speaker 1: I'm seven, you know zero, It's like it is kind
Speaker 1: of crazy because it is an old number. It's not
Speaker 1: like I'm not like twelve. I'm not twenty one, I'm
Speaker 1: not thirty love forty. You know. Well, light turned sixty
Speaker 1: eight month or so ago. And one thing, especially in
Speaker 1: light of COVID is ship. If there's something I want
Speaker 1: to do, I'd better do it because it's not like
Speaker 1: I have endless runway here right right? So, Uh during
Speaker 1: the break, did you play music at home? Did you
Speaker 1: write music at home or anything? Um? You know, I've
Speaker 1: been working on a project now for the last eight years,
Speaker 1: I think going on nine now, because I started in
Speaker 1: two thousand and twelve, and so actually during that time, Uh,
Speaker 1: I was working on a musical and in the book
Speaker 1: for you know, a possible movie and that. You know,
Speaker 1: So that's kind of what I was working on a
Speaker 1: little bit during that time. Um, we released a single
Speaker 1: put on Love in Your Heart. Uh. So I'm just
Speaker 1: working on different things. You know. We have have a
Speaker 1: new single coming out July called Romantic Cup. It's from
Speaker 1: my album. Um, I'm getting ready to release fifty three
Speaker 1: brand new songs. How do you plan to release them
Speaker 1: one month at a time for seven months? And are
Speaker 1: they already uh? Fifty three? You mean if there's fifty
Speaker 1: three seven months, we won't get through all fifty three
Speaker 1: if it's one month at a time, No, no, no, no.
Speaker 1: We're dividing the seven months into the fifty three songs,
Speaker 1: so it'd be like seven individual EPs coming out. And
Speaker 1: are you putting them out yourself? Ors are a label involved? Um? No,
Speaker 1: there is right now. I mean I have a deal
Speaker 1: with UH, a label that's distributed through Sony, and then
Speaker 1: in Europe we have a German label called z y
Speaker 1: X Records. I'm not sure if they're the ones getting
Speaker 1: it or whatever, but we're still shopping it. And right
Speaker 1: now that's what I have, you know what we have
Speaker 1: now now, But I don't know that they're going to
Speaker 1: really end up getting it or not. So all fifty
Speaker 1: three songs are done, yes, and why fifty three and
Speaker 1: y seven is just numbers or they thematically sit to
Speaker 1: me because I couldn't stop, because I couldn't stop. And Uh,
Speaker 1: this guy that I right with over in the UK
Speaker 1: sometimes was messing around, and you know, he always goes
Speaker 1: online showing how he creates a song or whatever. And
Speaker 1: he came up with this quirky little song two or
Speaker 1: three weeks ago, and I just I love that, said
Speaker 1: send me the track or whatever, and I went in
Speaker 1: and put a vocal on it. It's it's really a
Speaker 1: fun song. So that put it in fifty three. And
Speaker 1: you know, the music business certainly changed since the last century,
Speaker 1: so it's very hard to get attention. So to what degree,
Speaker 1: what plans do you have to gain attention, and in
Speaker 1: terms of expectations, what expectations have you got? I don't know.
Speaker 1: I've been in discussion with my managers and stuff, and
Speaker 1: they're introduced me to me. I guess there's a lot
Speaker 1: of um what they call influencers out there right now,
Speaker 1: and you connect with these influencers and uh, they helped
Speaker 1: kind of spread the word um aside for some of
Speaker 1: the traditional ways or whatever um uh and doing dance
Speaker 1: versions of the songs and maybe having it, you know,
Speaker 1: come from the club, you know, backwards through the clubs
Speaker 1: or whatever. I don't know, you know, it's just it's
Speaker 1: a whole new world. I mean when we when we
Speaker 1: used to really release a record, we would put it
Speaker 1: in few markets. We'd press up a few hundred or whatever,
Speaker 1: and make sure there was some records and record stores
Speaker 1: in those markets. And you know, if it started, if
Speaker 1: you started seeing something happened, then you knew to press
Speaker 1: more records and to put it in more markets. UM.
Speaker 1: I just there's just there's no consistency to anything. I
Speaker 1: don't know how anybody's doing it anymore, um other than
Speaker 1: you know, in radio has gotten so like one company
Speaker 1: owns everybody, so if the one guy doesn't like it,
Speaker 1: nobody plays it, you know, or whatever. You know. I
Speaker 1: guess the amount of money you have to spend to
Speaker 1: get it on radio is you know, just astronomically high, Um,
Speaker 1: you know to hire up a PR person. Uh So,
Speaker 1: it's it's very interesting. I mean, it's just you know,
Speaker 1: a lot different than when I was growing up, that's
Speaker 1: for sure. And I'm sure we you know, we'll figure
Speaker 1: it out. I mean, first of all, you know, I
Speaker 1: hit record always reveals itself, so um, I mean, we're
Speaker 1: just gonna go through the regular channels and marketing and
Speaker 1: promotion and and some newer channels, like I said, you know,
Speaker 1: with influencers and and other things that my managers have
Speaker 1: been talking to me about, and you know, we'll see
Speaker 1: what happens. So, at this date, with the business having
Speaker 1: changed and you having gigantic success in your history, what
Speaker 1: keeps you motivated to create new music and stay in
Speaker 1: the business. It wasn't like, you know what what's really
Speaker 1: interesting is, I wasn't all of a sudden two thousand
Speaker 1: and twelve. It's like I woke up out of some
Speaker 1: kind of creative coma and I kind of felt like
Speaker 1: I was twenty three again with the creative process that
Speaker 1: things were going through my head and that's what led
Speaker 1: to these fifty two songs. I just couldn't stop. And
Speaker 1: I don't even know how to explain it, um, but
Speaker 1: it's almost like some other force or whatever is uh
Speaker 1: is driving it. I know, up until that point, I
Speaker 1: was a little bit sort of afraid of you know,
Speaker 1: maybe being successful, you know that way again, or having
Speaker 1: you know, uh some kind of success with recordings or whatever.
Speaker 1: And I used to fight it all the time. And
Speaker 1: then I woke up one morning and said, I'm not
Speaker 1: gonna fight this. I'm just gonna let, you know, let
Speaker 1: the forest take it, or let whatever it is, you know,
Speaker 1: take it. And in two thousand twelve, that light came
Speaker 1: on and those doors opened, and here I am, two
Speaker 1: thousand one with fifty three songs. Um that I really
Speaker 1: think it's some of the best stuff I've ever done
Speaker 1: in my career. Um. And you know, I'm very happy
Speaker 1: with them all, very proud of it all. And um,
Speaker 1: you know, we'll see where it goes. So let me
Speaker 1: just understand this week. Prior to that, well, you were
Speaker 1: afraid of not reaching the heights artistically and commercially of
Speaker 1: what you've once reached. I was more afraid of success
Speaker 1: than reaching I'm never afraid to reach it. I mean,
Speaker 1: I've been in this business so long, and you know
Speaker 1: you're you're always as hot as your last record or whatever.
Speaker 1: And you know, you put stuff out there. If it happens,
Speaker 1: it happens. If it doesn't, you move when you do
Speaker 1: something else. Um, so uh for that. And I still
Speaker 1: have nine number one records that I have or whatever,
Speaker 1: and I toured do shows a year, So you know,
Speaker 1: I'm fine with anything I I I you know, whichever
Speaker 1: way the wind's gonna blow, it's gonna blow. Um. You
Speaker 1: know my destiny has already been set. Well, when you
Speaker 1: say fear of success, can you tell us a little
Speaker 1: bit more of them? Um, especially in this world today
Speaker 1: with the pressed media the way there. I don't know,
Speaker 1: I just you know, for me, you know, I had
Speaker 1: these dreams of what I thought success was, and it
Speaker 1: definitely was nothing what I thought. It was very political, Um,
Speaker 1: it was very lonely, lonely. Um, it was very um demanding,
Speaker 1: sometimes demeaning. Uh, sometimes it was you know, there were
Speaker 1: just a lot of different emotions that came from it.
Speaker 1: All and some of it was enjoyable and some of
Speaker 1: it wasn't. Um, and so I was more afraid of
Speaker 1: what wasn't enjoyable than the other part that was enjoyable,
Speaker 1: and whether I wanted to put myself back into that
Speaker 1: situation again, um and and again. I just one day
Speaker 1: just woke up and said, I'm just gonna let everything
Speaker 1: happen and go and see what happens. Uh. You know so, UM,
Speaker 1: I mean That's where I'm at right now. Tell me
Speaker 1: more about the loneliness of success. I don't know. It
Speaker 1: was just you know, I'm a very I'm a very
Speaker 1: person person. Um, Did I say that right? Message. I'm
Speaker 1: a very people person. So for the most part, I
Speaker 1: do like to like be around a one everyone's having
Speaker 1: a good time and then kind of just go step
Speaker 1: aside for a minute. I like my alone time too,
Speaker 1: But I'm a very people person. I love to be
Speaker 1: around people. And so the height of my career, whatever
Speaker 1: her I was, I couldn't go anywhere, I couldn't do
Speaker 1: anything because I would just be mugged or you know, thousands.
Speaker 1: I mean in my hotels will be five six thousand
Speaker 1: people outside the hotel. You know, I you know, we'd
Speaker 1: have guards on the elevators and on the exits and
Speaker 1: every entrance, and um, you know, it's it was like
Speaker 1: I was always on the outside inside looking out and
Speaker 1: you know, from my hotel room looking down on all
Speaker 1: these people and like, wow, I just really like to
Speaker 1: be in the middle of that or be down there
Speaker 1: with everybody, knowing that that really wasn't a possibility. And
Speaker 1: for many reasons, uh and and and and just the
Speaker 1: whole thing you know, of success, you're very isolated. You
Speaker 1: have all these people around you, but you know you're
Speaker 1: you're doing all these other things that you have you
Speaker 1: kind of have to do, um, not all of them
Speaker 1: that you want to do, but you have to kind
Speaker 1: of do them because it's all part of the process.
Speaker 1: And so everybody else is like having a good time
Speaker 1: and going out and doing all this and you know,
Speaker 1: I'm sitting in the room by myself or I'm sitting
Speaker 1: there having to do fifty interviews or whatever it is,
Speaker 1: you know, um and and and it's it's it's not
Speaker 1: like it's an eight hour job. It's like a twenty
Speaker 1: four hour job. And then you know, on top of it,
Speaker 1: having to you know as uh not only having to
Speaker 1: come up with the next project for Casey the Sunshine Band,
Speaker 1: but other artists that I was producing and writing for
Speaker 1: at the time was a George McCray or Jimmy ball
Speaker 1: Horn or or different you know, other artists and stuff.
Speaker 1: So I had a lot of obligations to do stuff,
Speaker 1: which kept me kind of you know in this space.
Speaker 1: You know, uh uh you know, you know, twenty four
Speaker 1: hour or seven days every day. I mean I didn't
Speaker 1: really go on vacations. I didn't do anything. I just
Speaker 1: um just worked on music. So what did you think
Speaker 1: success would look like? And what did it actually look like? Think?
Speaker 1: What everybody? You know, we always have this running joke
Speaker 1: when does the glamour begin? You know, I think everybody
Speaker 1: thinks it's glamorous. I think, I mean there's a glamorous
Speaker 1: part to it and everything, but uh, you know it's
Speaker 1: it's it's not everything. You know, you only see the
Speaker 1: book cover. The book covers always look great. So you
Speaker 1: read the book or you're inside the pages yourself, you know,
Speaker 1: then it's a whole different story. So, um, yeah, I
Speaker 1: don't I don't know what I expect. I mean, it's
Speaker 1: not like I wasn't I was ignorant to what to
Speaker 1: expect because number one, I was in a record company
Speaker 1: for five years before my success with other artists who
Speaker 1: were successful. I was managing, you know, uh, a couple
Speaker 1: of the artists and doing their bookings, and I was
Speaker 1: doing a lot of different things. I just wanted I
Speaker 1: wanted to know the business. Uh. You know, my family
Speaker 1: has been an entertainment business, more on the gospel end
Speaker 1: of it or whatever and stuff. So I've always kind
Speaker 1: of been around that level of success, whatever it is,
Speaker 1: and you know, knowing the ups and downs of it
Speaker 1: and that sort of thing. So but I don't think
Speaker 1: I ever paid much attention to it because I was
Speaker 1: just I was around it a part of it, and
Speaker 1: I was happy being in the back drop. You know.
Speaker 1: I wasn't the one, you know what I mean. So
Speaker 1: you know, after I was done with them, I could
Speaker 1: go hang out with my friends and do stuff and
Speaker 1: you know, and and and be anywhere I wanted to
Speaker 1: be without you know, someone there goes Casey and then
Speaker 1: you know, a mob scene happened, you know, so you know,
Speaker 1: just those those parts of it. Um uh. I mean,
Speaker 1: I don't know where else to go with this, but okay, well,
Speaker 1: let's talk about some of the perks. A lot of
Speaker 1: people they want to be successful for the sex, the money,
Speaker 1: the access e Did you have that be? Did you
Speaker 1: partake of it? See? Was it fulfilling? Wow? You Bob,
Speaker 1: you really dig deep, don't you? Otherwise we're just gonna
Speaker 1: repeat where you said, like for forty years. But you
Speaker 1: know what, because it's very simplistic, I'm not that. I'm
Speaker 1: not a kind of person. I didn't really do this
Speaker 1: for money. Number one. I didn't because it's something I like.
Speaker 1: It's something I felt like I was born to do
Speaker 1: and always had this inner feeling that this is what
Speaker 1: I was gonna do. You know, I definitely didn't do
Speaker 1: it for sex. Um you know, sex comes no matter
Speaker 1: what profession you're in. Really, I guess maybe more if
Speaker 1: you're an I guess it could be more of you're
Speaker 1: an entertainer or whatever. But um my, my look at
Speaker 1: the whole thing was always on a professional level. Um,
Speaker 1: I did a lot of things because I knew I
Speaker 1: had to do a show the next day. I didn't
Speaker 1: do a lot of things. I mean I didn't do
Speaker 1: a lot of things because I knew I had to
Speaker 1: do a show the next day, and I had an
Speaker 1: obligation to to the people that had worked hard for
Speaker 1: their money or whatever to come and see us. And
Speaker 1: you know, they expected as certain you know person on
Speaker 1: that stage, and I I had, you know a lot
Speaker 1: of things I just had to put aside. You know,
Speaker 1: this was this was not this was an obligation. It
Speaker 1: wasn't like a job. You know, I felt obligated to
Speaker 1: to to be what everyone expected when they came to
Speaker 1: see a show. But talking about the exterior other than
Speaker 1: actually performing, the nature of being famous and famous for
Speaker 1: your own work, a lot of doors are open to
Speaker 1: a lot of situations you get put in where you
Speaker 1: might pinch yourself and say, I can't believe I'm here,
Speaker 1: whether it's meeting famous people or was that part of
Speaker 1: the success? Those were those were great parts, um, you know,
Speaker 1: getting to meet people. I mean, you know, Dina Ross
Speaker 1: was a very big influence. I mean, the whole Motown thing.
Speaker 1: So getting to meet all those Motown people and stuff
Speaker 1: like that, and you know, just everybody from you know,
Speaker 1: entertainers to musicians to actors and actresses that I've grown
Speaker 1: up you know, watching on TV all my life. Begetting
Speaker 1: to actually shake hands with them, talk with them and
Speaker 1: chat with them, and some of them even have relationships
Speaker 1: with some of them. Um, that was all like, that
Speaker 1: was surreal. That was just those those are definitely pensioned
Speaker 1: me moments. Um. I lost the rest, you know the
Speaker 1: other part of the question. Um, I think you answered it.
Speaker 1: That's pretty good. Let's go back to managers. You talk
Speaker 1: about your managers, telling you what has been your experience
Speaker 1: with managers to your career. A lot of the acts
Speaker 1: you know are not positive with their management history. Well,
Speaker 1: I managed myself up until nineteen and then I signed
Speaker 1: with a management company in l A. Cat's Gallinamore, who
Speaker 1: were the number one artists representatives in the country. They
Speaker 1: had the Dolly Pardon, they had shared they had Aba Godboard,
Speaker 1: Jaja Gobard, Kate Smith, mac Davis, um Um America, UM Olivia,
Speaker 1: John Lily Tomlin. I mean they just had They were
Speaker 1: a major, major, major, major uh uh artists representatives and
Speaker 1: so UM, I'm not sure how all that really went
Speaker 1: because it was the first time kind of letting go
Speaker 1: and everything, and um, there were some things I probably
Speaker 1: wasn't happy with, but you know a lot of things
Speaker 1: that I was uh because it released me from from
Speaker 1: having to deal with it, you know, the way I
Speaker 1: had I was up until that point. Uh, it just
Speaker 1: it just left more room for creative processes and and
Speaker 1: just gave me a little bit more of life back,
Speaker 1: you know, other than just being seven booking myself, you know,
Speaker 1: making making, I mean, just doing everything myself pretty much.
Speaker 1: But you had an agent, right, Uh? Yeah, I had
Speaker 1: a great agent, Gary. His name was Gary, Gary Weinberg.
Speaker 1: He was at I see him. He was. He was
Speaker 1: the most amazing agent I've ever had in my career,
Speaker 1: so great. You know, we just had a great relationship.
Speaker 1: And he always made sure that you know, I knew
Speaker 1: about everything going on or whatever. And if I liked
Speaker 1: an idea, whatever, he made sure I was on it
Speaker 1: or was doing it. Um. He was more of my
Speaker 1: manager than than my managers really. Uh uh. You know.
Speaker 1: It's it's when you have a really great agent that
Speaker 1: that's on top of everything all the time. You know,
Speaker 1: not very much can go wrong. Okay, Now you were
Speaker 1: having success when you were still self managed. I'm sure
Speaker 1: you know managers came to you. In addition, most acts
Speaker 1: didn't have the manager to do consciously say hey, I
Speaker 1: want to maintain control. Um. You know that didn't happen
Speaker 1: too much that I that I recall, because number one,
Speaker 1: I didn't allow myself to be in those situations. And
Speaker 1: I think part of that was because I was in
Speaker 1: Miami and other than going out to do some TV
Speaker 1: shows or whatever and not doing those people could get
Speaker 1: to me or got to me. Um, you know, because
Speaker 1: of my own staff or the way I moved in
Speaker 1: and out of a place, you know, a situation, a
Speaker 1: TV show or whatever I was doing. Um, I don't
Speaker 1: think I was that accessible. Um. And um again, being
Speaker 1: in Miami and not in l A or New York,
Speaker 1: where I could probably be, you know, more in situations,
Speaker 1: going to more parties and stuff where these you know,
Speaker 1: different people could show up and approach me. Um. I
Speaker 1: was never in that type of situation, I think. Um.
Speaker 1: I can't remember how the cat's gallon thing happened. Um uh, yeah,
Speaker 1: it might have been when I changed to from I
Speaker 1: See Him to William Morris maybe and they said, you know,
Speaker 1: we have a management coming would be interested in you.
Speaker 1: I can't remember what happened. Do you remember why you
Speaker 1: switched from my c M to William Morris? Um? I
Speaker 1: See Him was going through some changes at that time.
Speaker 1: I mean Gary passed. Gary, I think it passed away. Um.
Speaker 1: I think one of the agents, um, Jim Ramos, who
Speaker 1: was one of my agents. They're also, uh, you know,
Speaker 1: trying to remember all this stuff because it's been so long. Um,
Speaker 1: but your main guy died, is really the king? Well
Speaker 1: that that there was just a big shake up in
Speaker 1: I C M or whatever, and I, you know, sometimes
Speaker 1: it's time to change and try new things. Let's talk
Speaker 1: about Florida. Florida was kind of sleepy in your heyday. Ultimately,
Speaker 1: there were recordings at Criteria. Miami became a thing somewhat
Speaker 1: in the mid seventies. But even though people from the
Speaker 1: Northeast were moving to Florida and vacation of Florida forever,
Speaker 1: suddenly starting in the eighties and nineties, Miami becomes hip.
Speaker 1: Everybody moves to Florida. Many people say Florida's the new California,
Speaker 1: well at least in terms of crazy stuff going on.
Speaker 1: And now Californias switched from left to right. You have
Speaker 1: this Governor de Santis who's having all these res all
Speaker 1: these laws in the name of freedom. What's your viewpoint
Speaker 1: on what you're going on there in Florida. Since you've
Speaker 1: not getting in anything political, well let me ask you,
Speaker 1: what is your viewpoint of what's going on? I mean,
Speaker 1: just state, since you're on the ground, not nothing, nothing political. Okay,
Speaker 1: We're not going to mention any political and I'm not
Speaker 1: gonna push you whatever. I'm not going to. But just
Speaker 1: just I don't talk about that stuff, Okay, I'm just
Speaker 1: I'm just interested. Why do you not choose not to
Speaker 1: talk about that stuff? I don't think it's the thing
Speaker 1: people should be talking about. I don't know. I mean
Speaker 1: just because I talked to a lot of people. Are
Speaker 1: you fearful that a potential fan might not agree with you? No,
Speaker 1: I'm not. I'm not fearful. I just don't want to
Speaker 1: talk about it, Okay, you know, I just I don't
Speaker 1: talk about it. You talk about it with your friends,
Speaker 1: not really? Do you keep up on the news? Um?
Speaker 1: I do doom? Are you optimistic for do you? Do
Speaker 1: you have any children? No? I don't, but I have
Speaker 1: I have some wonderful nephews and nieces and great nephews
Speaker 1: and nieces. So you optimistic for the future or you know,
Speaker 1: because well you and me only have a limited number
Speaker 1: of time, amount of time left. I don't know. I've
Speaker 1: been here seventy years and I don't think anybody's ever
Speaker 1: done anything, correct, So, uh, you know I'm down in
Speaker 1: the middle. Okay, So let's go back to this creative
Speaker 1: jack you've been on with the fifty three songs. What
Speaker 1: inspires you to write a song? Um? Well, I mean
Speaker 1: I I started writing mostly you know, as a young
Speaker 1: young man, um because back then you really couldn't talk
Speaker 1: to your parents about things the way kids can talk
Speaker 1: to their parents now and stuff. That everything was always
Speaker 1: supposed to be hush hush, And so I would always
Speaker 1: write my feelings, whether it was um, something going on
Speaker 1: in the world, you know, or or um or how
Speaker 1: I was feeling or how I you know, I was
Speaker 1: feeling rejected by a person, or you know that I
Speaker 1: had feelings for or situations that I had been in,
Speaker 1: you know, with another person. So a lot of it,
Speaker 1: a lot of it comes from just personal experience, a
Speaker 1: personal observation, and wishful thinking. Okay, Now, in this jag
Speaker 1: in the last ten years, do you say, Okay, it's noon,
Speaker 1: I have to go to the studio or you're brushing
Speaker 1: your teeth, are showering and you have a great idea
Speaker 1: and you gotta run to the keyboard. No, I have
Speaker 1: an iPhone now, so I just pushed record. Um, I
Speaker 1: write it down in my notes on my iPhone. Uh.
Speaker 1: And then if it's if it's an idea of a
Speaker 1: melody or something, I will uh um, I will uh
Speaker 1: go to my iPhone and uh recorded on the record
Speaker 1: thing on the iPhone. Let me just put it in
Speaker 1: a different way. Some of the greatest records of all time,
Speaker 1: we're at least talk about satisfaction by the Stones. You know,
Speaker 1: Keith Richards had the idea of the middle of the
Speaker 1: night leaned over and estrelco saying the riff you have that,
Speaker 1: whereas today you might have literally twenty writers on a
Speaker 1: song where they build the track from you know, the
Speaker 1: bottom up. So are you more of Let I have
Speaker 1: the inspiration and let me expand that. Or okay, let
Speaker 1: me sharpen my pencils, let's see what I come up with. Okay,
Speaker 1: so my album or the way I mean before, I
Speaker 1: would always go into this hand, my own studio. I
Speaker 1: would go into the studio and pretty much put together
Speaker 1: the song all right then and there. Um. Some of
Speaker 1: the ideas, and some of the things from this new
Speaker 1: album were created. Like I'd be on I'd be at
Speaker 1: a sound check or whatever, waiting for the band to
Speaker 1: get it whether and I'd be messed around the keyboard,
Speaker 1: come up with a little idea or whatever and kind
Speaker 1: of put that down on you know, run my phone
Speaker 1: or whatever, and then go to the studio. When I
Speaker 1: was doing these projects and recorded with the band, other
Speaker 1: situations that presented themselves recently were, uh, people that I'm
Speaker 1: collaborating with send me a fully recorded track, at which
Speaker 1: point I write the melody and lyrics to that track,
Speaker 1: and um, maybe add some production to that track. Um
Speaker 1: so m hm. That's a newer way that I've been
Speaker 1: doing things involving other people. Uh, it's not the way
Speaker 1: I always did it or or the way I you know,
Speaker 1: I I can go into a studio and come up
Speaker 1: with a track like that. I mean, it's just doesn't
Speaker 1: take give me a beat and I can give you
Speaker 1: a song. Is that because just you've done it so
Speaker 1: much you just have that skill. I just I just
Speaker 1: have that natural ability, you know. That's it might be
Speaker 1: part of I mean, it's just it's just something that's
Speaker 1: inside of me. It's it's just this thing that I've
Speaker 1: never been able to really understand or explain to me.
Speaker 1: It's mystical, it's magical. Um, it's you know, it's uh,
Speaker 1: it's there, It's just there. Okay, you grew up in Hialeah.
Speaker 1: I think High Alie is where the dog track was
Speaker 1: or something was where the race track was. Okay, with
Speaker 1: the racetrack, what was what was Highlia? Like, Well, you
Speaker 1: have to realize I grew up in Miami, So Miami
Speaker 1: is very transient in a way. I mean it's a
Speaker 1: tourist you know, our our our what do you call it? Um,
Speaker 1: I can't think of it. What it's it's it's for
Speaker 1: my tongue. Um. You know we depend on tourism. That's
Speaker 1: our main What am I trying to say our main economy? Well, yeah,
Speaker 1: but uh, you know some people are known for steel,
Speaker 1: you know, they manufactured steel. We don't have like you
Speaker 1: kind of manufacturing places that I know of or whatever. Uh.
Speaker 1: Our our our economy, you know, is based on tourism.
Speaker 1: I guess I could say that. So with that said, Um,
Speaker 1: like in the neighborhood I grew up when I don't
Speaker 1: think there's one person from the same state or city. UM,
Speaker 1: And most of the time the northern folks would come
Speaker 1: down and um at the beginning of winter, which would
Speaker 1: be November, and stay until you know, springtime and then
Speaker 1: go back up north. And you you can always can
Speaker 1: still tell the difference when it's summer and and summer
Speaker 1: and summer and fall and winter and spring in Miami,
Speaker 1: in Florida, South Florida because of the traffic, there's always
Speaker 1: less traffic during the winter during the summer. So you
Speaker 1: grew up right in Miami, So I was I. My
Speaker 1: grandfather had some shops and stuff in Miami. My mother
Speaker 1: was born in Miami, Florida. UM. I was born in
Speaker 1: the town called Opalaka because at the time we were
Speaker 1: living in Miami, but at the time I was born,
Speaker 1: um Opalaka was basically a army base or naval base
Speaker 1: or something army base, I think, And I'm not sure
Speaker 1: why I was born in that hospital, but that's where
Speaker 1: I was born. And then when we were seven years old,
Speaker 1: we moved into an area called Palm Springs, which was
Speaker 1: still Dade County, was still Miami, but it was surrounded
Speaker 1: by Hialeah, and they gave us a highly zip code
Speaker 1: even though highly A police couldn't come in there or whatever.
Speaker 1: And I had to go to a High LA school
Speaker 1: because that was the closest school. There weren't any schools
Speaker 1: in this Dade County, this little small little area called
Speaker 1: Palm Springs that there was really Miami Dade County. It
Speaker 1: wasn't Highalia. Uh, you know, we didn't. We didn't. We've
Speaker 1: paid Dade County taxes, not highly AT taxes or whatever whatever.
Speaker 1: It is really two separate places, although we had a
Speaker 1: highly A zip code. So basically I grew up in
Speaker 1: the middle of High Aliyah okay, outskirts of it, the
Speaker 1: middle of its where you grew up. How far were
Speaker 1: you from the beach and was there a beach culture? Well,
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm I'm fifteen twenty minutes from the beach.
Speaker 1: You know, maybe depending on traffic now, but the beaches
Speaker 1: due east of me, um yours, So you're still where
Speaker 1: you grew up. Yes, I haven't left, and you know, uh,
Speaker 1: is there a reason for them? Well other than my
Speaker 1: family being here and everything. I mean, my parents are
Speaker 1: buried within ten minutes from my house, and that's where
Speaker 1: I'll be buried. Um, you know, there's just I just
Speaker 1: had this connection here all my life. Still in the
Speaker 1: same house that I purchased in nineteen seventy. Um, and
Speaker 1: it's not no like big ten thousands Griffin mansion, you know.
Speaker 1: So it's like, um, I'm content in this area. It's
Speaker 1: not on the beach, it's inland. It's away from all
Speaker 1: the craziness and and and everything, and um, I can
Speaker 1: be any where I want within fifteen I'm kind of central.
Speaker 1: I'm I'm dou south of north of Miami International Airport
Speaker 1: and kind of southwest of Fort Lauderdale Airports. I'm kind
Speaker 1: of in the middle of both of them, twenty minutes
Speaker 1: from either one of them. So I'm in a very
Speaker 1: convenient spot for getting around and doing whatever I want
Speaker 1: to do and being away from you know, the whole
Speaker 1: South Beach scene and you know whatever other you know.
Speaker 1: I mean, downtown is growing now there's all these you
Speaker 1: know with windwood and brick hole and you know downtown.
Speaker 1: The rend of the revitalization of downtown Miami. The Miami
Speaker 1: is starting to look like New York. I means, so
Speaker 1: many skyscrapers going up. It's crazy. And to what degree
Speaker 1: to people talking about climate change in the water. I
Speaker 1: just saw the people of other day. They're talking about
Speaker 1: building a sea wall. That's something people talk about there.
Speaker 1: I don't know. You know, it's industy. You brought it
Speaker 1: up because a friend of mine and we're talking about
Speaker 1: it last night for some reason. I don't know why
Speaker 1: he brought it up. It got brought up. And you know,
Speaker 1: I don't know where I believe in all of that stuff.
Speaker 1: I mean, number one, Florida uh has always been underwater.
Speaker 1: Um where I live and most people live here, uh,
Speaker 1: sand and things were brought into building up six ft
Speaker 1: above the sea level. The Everglades is below sea level
Speaker 1: so pretty much. And that's not too far from where
Speaker 1: I live and too far from what all of minew
Speaker 1: was pretty much. You know, the Everglades are underwater at
Speaker 1: one point. So I guess if it goes back to that,
Speaker 1: then it's the circle of life, isn't it. Do you
Speaker 1: used to watch that Everglade show grown up? Um? Maybe
Speaker 1: on occasion. Did you ever go out in here? But
Speaker 1: I used to watch that religiously. Do you ever go
Speaker 1: out in the airboat? I mean that was like a
Speaker 1: big thing on. Yeah, it's not like it's fun, it's exhilarating.
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, it's you know, you're selling through
Speaker 1: these uh figuring out the grasses. Um, you know, it's
Speaker 1: it's it's exhilarating. It's it's a lot of fun. They're
Speaker 1: very fast. Okay, So what kind of kid are you
Speaker 1: growing up? Um, I'm like spanking and our gang and
Speaker 1: stuff from the little Rascals pretty much. I was doing
Speaker 1: all of that stuff, building things. Um, we would have
Speaker 1: shows and parades and um, you know I built my
Speaker 1: had you know, wouldn't you know race cars and uh,
Speaker 1: I build rides in my backyard. I mean I I did,
Speaker 1: you know, I did everything. I loved everything. I mean, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, would put up a garden. I mean I
Speaker 1: just I I really, you know, I and I grew
Speaker 1: up in a great neighborhood with a lot of kids,
Speaker 1: and we had we had baseball in the middle of
Speaker 1: the street and football and box ball and every season
Speaker 1: was you know, that's what we would do. And um,
Speaker 1: you know we were just very close. You know, families
Speaker 1: were close then and kids were in you know, we
Speaker 1: were outside except to eaton and go to bed. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and how many kids in your family? I just had
Speaker 1: one sister, younger sister. Okay, and your parents did what
Speaker 1: for a living? Um? My mother originally didn't work and
Speaker 1: my father. Um, my father owned the furniture store when
Speaker 1: he first in the Miami and then he was ahead
Speaker 1: of of a feed company, security feed company, and then
Speaker 1: he retired from all that and became a postman. Actually
Speaker 1: he um, um, that's what he wanted to do. He
Speaker 1: just he was you know, he wasn't that for long,
Speaker 1: but he just he wanted to be that. He just
Speaker 1: wanted to kind of, he said, as being a being
Speaker 1: a postman, he didn't have nobody standing over him telling
Speaker 1: you know, or anything like that. You know, they wanted
Speaker 1: him to be a supervisor. At one point he refused it,
Speaker 1: I don't know how many times. And we your parents
Speaker 1: supportive of your dreams. What kind of relationship did you
Speaker 1: have with them? My father was a very My father
Speaker 1: raised my sister and I had to be very independent. Um.
Speaker 1: He never um, I don't ever remember him commenting on anything.
Speaker 1: The only thing he ever was concerned about me was
Speaker 1: who I was hanging around with, and and and that
Speaker 1: sort of thing. Um. He never did. Uh. My father
Speaker 1: is just a regular average guy. Um. He didn't want
Speaker 1: for anything he didn't material things were not important to
Speaker 1: him at all. Um. I don't think he ever bought
Speaker 1: The only radio he ever bought his entire life was
Speaker 1: from my mother or maybe one maybe one for me
Speaker 1: for Christmas. But he I don't think he ever owned
Speaker 1: his own radio in his entire life, or a record
Speaker 1: player or anything like that. Um. He definitely wasn't musically inclined,
Speaker 1: although he although many of his fan member family members
Speaker 1: were My mother, on the other hand, um uh, she
Speaker 1: was quite a She loved to dance, she loved you know,
Speaker 1: her and her sisters actually did radio commercials when they
Speaker 1: were younger. Um. And my mother, you know, was kind
Speaker 1: of hanging out with people like Aretha Franklin and the
Speaker 1: Salmon Dave and Ray Charles and whoever would come into Miami.
Speaker 1: She'd be at those clubs, hanging out with them and stuff.
Speaker 1: And my mother at one point, you know, told me,
Speaker 1: why don't I get a job and make something to myself.
Speaker 1: I think, because you know, she hung around that crowd
Speaker 1: or whatever. UM was probably fearful of what I would
Speaker 1: get into and and and you know that sort of thing.
Speaker 1: So um. Although they you know, my my parents were
Speaker 1: divorced so it wasn't like I was living my father,
Speaker 1: So my mother went't around it up to you know,
Speaker 1: to say anything. Um, but I generally think that you know,
Speaker 1: I was allowed to do and be whatever I wanted
Speaker 1: to be in It didn't matter. I was going to
Speaker 1: be what I wanted to be. Anyway, What age were
Speaker 1: you and your parents divorced? Ten and you ended up
Speaker 1: living with your father's Your sister lived with the father too, correct,
Speaker 1: and that's unusual at that time. My mother didn't show
Speaker 1: up the court. I understand. Wow, So you're playing in
Speaker 1: the street, etcetera. Um, were you just remember the group
Speaker 1: or were you a leader where growing up? Um? I
Speaker 1: would say, I'm somewhat of a leader. I mean I'm
Speaker 1: not much of a follower. Um, although I mean, you know, um,
Speaker 1: I will go along with something. You know, I'm I'm
Speaker 1: gonna quarius. I'm kind of a chameleon. I kind of
Speaker 1: fit into any situation that can make myself into any situation.
Speaker 1: I'm not, you know, not one that has to be
Speaker 1: the leader or whatever. I like a little consistency and
Speaker 1: you know, direction, but um uh yeah, I mean I'm
Speaker 1: just to like go with the flow kind of person
Speaker 1: as long as the flow is not dangerous. Okay, So
Speaker 1: when do you start playing music? All my life be much? Um?
Speaker 1: Because interesting enough, in elementary school or whatever I was playing,
Speaker 1: I started playing a clarinet. I mean, I'm not seven
Speaker 1: sure why I picked that instrument. Um. We didn't have
Speaker 1: a piano in the house that I remembered till my
Speaker 1: sister I wanted to take piano lessons. Uh, and all
Speaker 1: of a sudden we had a piano, even though everyone
Speaker 1: knew I wanted to play the piano. I mean I
Speaker 1: go to my aunt's homes and we all had pianos,
Speaker 1: and they wouldn't even let me near the piano because
Speaker 1: I guess they said I was banging on it or whatever.
Speaker 1: And Um, I remember growing up in my grandmother I
Speaker 1: always loved the organ and the keep. But my couch
Speaker 1: I had a cousin that was just one of the
Speaker 1: most amazing piano players you've ever you've ever listened to.
Speaker 1: There was nothing he couldn't play, and all by ere
Speaker 1: he was never trained. So um, I always loved the keep.
Speaker 1: I remember being in my grandmother's backyard and just taking
Speaker 1: a piece of board or whatever and pretending it was
Speaker 1: a key or to go. Do you know making this
Speaker 1: sounds like it was an oregon and moving my fingers
Speaker 1: across the piece of wood. Um, so, I guess I've
Speaker 1: been playing a long time. It was a piece of
Speaker 1: wood without anything on it. They take clarinet in school.
Speaker 1: Do you ever take piano lessons? Um? I did take
Speaker 1: some piano lessons until the teacher said I knew more
Speaker 1: than her. And I'm not sure if that was because
Speaker 1: I just I didn't. I never, you know, I played piano,
Speaker 1: and I have some regrets that I don't. You know,
Speaker 1: I'm not like n I mean it's very interesting because
Speaker 1: I mean I'm a very simplistic player or whatever. But
Speaker 1: the most educated of Berkeley train pianos can't even duplicate
Speaker 1: what I play. So I I am too. At a
Speaker 1: certain part of my life, I certainly wasn't one to
Speaker 1: said gonna go dun dun dune, Dune, Dun Dune Dune.
Speaker 1: I mean, I just didn't have that in me. I
Speaker 1: just had more energy and wanted I'd rather be outside
Speaker 1: with my friends and and everything then going, you know,
Speaker 1: dune Dune done. Although I did enough to you know,
Speaker 1: to learn to you know, to make my my teacher happy. Um,
Speaker 1: but I was always worried about Um. I like, like
Speaker 1: when I went to college and I took music classes, Um,
Speaker 1: I never would have probably been able to be a
Speaker 1: concert pianist or have a degree in music because I
Speaker 1: didn't want to. Uh. I was worried about if I
Speaker 1: took these classes it would change the natural ability that
Speaker 1: I had. Then it would uh uh just made me
Speaker 1: like the rest of I guess I was a little
Speaker 1: bit of anti establishments. It would make me like like
Speaker 1: the rest of the machine. And I didn't never want
Speaker 1: to be part of the machine. So it makes sense. Yeah,
Speaker 1: absolutely so. And you read music as far I mean,
Speaker 1: like if I sat down, Yeah, I mean I could. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean I can read it. I don't know how.
Speaker 1: I mean, years ago, I probably read and played it
Speaker 1: faster than I probably could now. But I could definitely
Speaker 1: sit down, and I know what G is A. I mean,
Speaker 1: I know what they are, and I could play them
Speaker 1: on the I definitely can play them. Yeah. And uh,
Speaker 1: did you finish college? Uh No, because I I two
Speaker 1: years into my college, I had the number one record
Speaker 1: in the in the world. Oh that's certainly definitive. But
Speaker 1: going back a chapter Um, in the Beatles came. Was
Speaker 1: that a big transitional moment? At what point did you
Speaker 1: decide you wanted to make music your career. Well, evidently
Speaker 1: my decision was made in elementary school. Um, there's not
Speaker 1: a time. I can't remember that. We just have to
Speaker 1: devout these three by five cards every year for some reason,
Speaker 1: you know, you had to fill it out with your name.
Speaker 1: They would have had occupation and then I always put
Speaker 1: an entertainer. Um. I can't remember ever putting anything else
Speaker 1: uh in that in that spot, but entertainer. Um. And
Speaker 1: so I've known all my life this is what I
Speaker 1: was going to do, and this is what I was
Speaker 1: meant to be. Were you affected by the whole music
Speaker 1: explosion in the sixties in terms of the Beatles, British
Speaker 1: invasion and then you know San Francisco and the English
Speaker 1: blues groups? Or was that not your thing? Okay, well
Speaker 1: number one, it wasn't really my thing. I was very
Speaker 1: My mother loved R and B music, So I grew
Speaker 1: up listening to Nancy Wilson, the Flamingos, Ray Charles, you know,
Speaker 1: all this great R and B music. Um. And so
Speaker 1: by the time I was twelve or thirteen, there's songs
Speaker 1: like the Locomotion were a little Eva, and the whole
Speaker 1: motown thing was kind of starting. Um, almost at the
Speaker 1: same time that the Beatles thing was happening in a way. Um,
Speaker 1: I was not a big Beatles fan. I like some
Speaker 1: of this stuff. It was, you know, maybe some of
Speaker 1: the earlier stuff. I kind of liked it. I've always
Speaker 1: liked I've always liked all kinds of music, although I
Speaker 1: gravitated more towards R and B or anything that was rhythmic.
Speaker 1: So even it was a pop record that was rhythmic enough,
Speaker 1: that sounded R and B enough or fit that kind
Speaker 1: of feel, um, I would gravitate towards it. Okay, so
Speaker 1: you're in college. How do you end up getting into
Speaker 1: the music business? Okay? So I started working at a
Speaker 1: record store and on Mondays and Thursdays we would place
Speaker 1: the order. Well, first of all, like I was, I'm
Speaker 1: a I was a avid record collector. I mean and
Speaker 1: and and I spent every time I had, you know,
Speaker 1: buying records. And then I you know, back then, you
Speaker 1: can look on there and you can see who wrote it,
Speaker 1: who produced it. Uh, there was usually an address on
Speaker 1: the bottom, whether it's said Detroit, Michigan for the Motown
Speaker 1: or Atlantic Records New York, New York or whatever. For
Speaker 1: most for the most part, you know, the label would
Speaker 1: have you know where they were from. I don't know
Speaker 1: if all the music was produced there, I mean then
Speaker 1: then you knew that, you know some stories recording the
Speaker 1: muscle shows or Memphis or whatever. But for the most part,
Speaker 1: every label had an address on the bottom of it.
Speaker 1: So working in the record store, so like on Mondays
Speaker 1: and Thursdays, we had to place these orders and we
Speaker 1: have to go to the distributor on Tuesday and Friday
Speaker 1: and pick the order up the local distributor. One of
Speaker 1: the local distributors was a distributor called Tone Distributors and
Speaker 1: maybe the largest independent record distributor in the southeast of
Speaker 1: the United States. They they distributed UM Independent Distributor for
Speaker 1: Warner Brothers, for Atlantic, for MGM, for a Motown, for Stacks,
Speaker 1: um everybody. But at one point they even had Columbia
Speaker 1: Records in Epic. But so they had everybody for Columbian Epic,
Speaker 1: R C A and UH A and m came along
Speaker 1: A and m UH, but they had everybody else. They
Speaker 1: had Dunhill, they had UH all these major labels anyway,
Speaker 1: they distribute all of them. So on. So going back
Speaker 1: to meet, always paying attention to what's on the records. Uh,
Speaker 1: there was a record that came out in nineteen seventy.
Speaker 1: I think I was already there then. Anyway, I noticed
Speaker 1: that there was a label like a lot of different
Speaker 1: records were coming out because we'd always get sent the
Speaker 1: newest R and B records and you know, whatever is
Speaker 1: going on the chart. And I noticed this address four
Speaker 1: Southeast tenth Court, and that's where I used to pick
Speaker 1: up the records at four Southeast tenth Court, which is
Speaker 1: Tone Distributors. And I eventually learned that an artist who
Speaker 1: I kind of grew up listening to it, he was
Speaker 1: also the host of a TV show called Where the
Speaker 1: Action is named Steve Alamo was there, uh, you know
Speaker 1: and everything, and that they had a recording studio on
Speaker 1: the back and that's where these records, it's at Southeast
Speaker 1: tenth Chord were being recorded. So I am um I
Speaker 1: remember once I learned that, Um, I learned some other
Speaker 1: things that there's a writer in Clarence read there or whatever. Uh,
Speaker 1: and I wanted to have a meeting with him and
Speaker 1: eventually quit my job at the record store and asked
Speaker 1: Henry if he Henry was the owner of the Tone distributing.
Speaker 1: I got to know him by because he would always
Speaker 1: be in the warehouse, you know, when I pick up records,
Speaker 1: and asked him if he had a job there. He
Speaker 1: said he didn't. So I got a job at his competitor,
Speaker 1: and every day after work I would go hang out
Speaker 1: at Tone Distributors in the back or whatever, um and
Speaker 1: waiting for this guy Clearence read. I guess the joke
Speaker 1: was always on me, because I guess he'd always told
Speaker 1: a lot of people he'd meet him and never show up. Meanwhile,
Speaker 1: while I'm sitting there, I just started doing odds and
Speaker 1: then things. You know, if the trash and trash would
Speaker 1: be overflowing and nobody would be emptying it, I try
Speaker 1: started emptying it. The phone ringing back then there's no
Speaker 1: one answering the phone. So I'd started answering the phone. Um. Eventually, UM,
Speaker 1: Walner brothers in Atlantic, we're gonna have all their records. Uh,
Speaker 1: They're gonna start their own distribution company and pulling all
Speaker 1: the records out of all the independent modern pop places.
Speaker 1: And so I started boxing up all those records and
Speaker 1: have the number and label every one of them to
Speaker 1: ship back to one to Atlantic Records to Warner Brothers. Uh.
Speaker 1: And so just from all that, just hanging out at
Speaker 1: the studio whatever, and sometimes doing a background session, eventually
Speaker 1: doing some co writing and playing on some stuff, and
Speaker 1: just kind of hanging out there, you know, uh until
Speaker 1: you know, the place we closed and finding Henry gave
Speaker 1: me a key to the door so I could kind
Speaker 1: of come and go, and you know, just just slowly
Speaker 1: learning everything I could their promotion, you know, eventually starting
Speaker 1: my own old section in his warehouse, you know, because
Speaker 1: there's all these boxes and boxes of old records up
Speaker 1: in the attic and stuff, which I was like, can
Speaker 1: have it, because he said I could have anything I wanted.
Speaker 1: It's like, holy God, I just died with the heaven,
Speaker 1: you know. And so you know, just hanging out and
Speaker 1: you know, being in the right place, not stepping on
Speaker 1: anybody's toes or anything, and just finding my own way
Speaker 1: and creating the little management company thing or whatever and
Speaker 1: just helping out, you know, just to be a part
Speaker 1: of it. I wasn't there to take over anybody's position
Speaker 1: in particular, whatever I was just there too to be
Speaker 1: anything and everything anybody needed, you know, uh at any
Speaker 1: one time. So eventually, you know, I worked my way
Speaker 1: into the studio. Okay. A couple of questions. At what
Speaker 1: point did you stop working for the competitor and start
Speaker 1: working for Tone? I don't remember when that was. Um um,
Speaker 1: I really were not really important. Do you still have
Speaker 1: all those records you collected back in the sixties and seventies, Yes,
Speaker 1: every one of them. How many how many records have
Speaker 1: you got? I probably have over a fifteen or twenty
Speaker 1: thousand records albums And do you play them? No, they're
Speaker 1: they're they're all in storage. Okay, my warehouse, I have allline,
Speaker 1: same deal. Okay. So I did have them all here
Speaker 1: and they were just sitting there and I just said,
Speaker 1: you know, let me just box them all up and okay.
Speaker 1: So to what degree do you learn the studio itself,
Speaker 1: becoming an engineer, etcetera. Wow, Well, during the whole process,
Speaker 1: I mean, so there were other artists there and other
Speaker 1: people that nobody was paying attention to. So, you know,
Speaker 1: those nights or whatever, I would go in and you know,
Speaker 1: get some some some of the people that were student
Speaker 1: musicians there to come in, and you know, I'd mess
Speaker 1: around and messing around on the board and do my
Speaker 1: own recordings because you know, it wouldn't look like anybody
Speaker 1: was going to like, hey, here you do it, so again,
Speaker 1: just trying to learn everything. I eventually, you know, got
Speaker 1: up to the to the board, had somebody show me
Speaker 1: enough to you know, where I kind of knew what
Speaker 1: I was doing or what my ears were hearing and
Speaker 1: that sort of thing, and uh you know that's uh
Speaker 1: so just kind of writing these little songs for these
Speaker 1: other artists that everybody was playing no attention to. Okay,
Speaker 1: were you writing him at home or writing him in
Speaker 1: the studio? Well, it happened in different places a lot
Speaker 1: of times. You know, I come up with the idea
Speaker 1: at home or whatever, and then go to the studio.
Speaker 1: I mean, it wasn't like I had to record it
Speaker 1: or anything, because once I did something in my head,
Speaker 1: it stays in there quite a while, and I always
Speaker 1: felt like if it doesn't, then it wasn't meant to be. So,
Speaker 1: you know, whatever stayed in my head, that's what I
Speaker 1: would work going and work on the next you know that,
Speaker 1: you know, whatever, you know, prepare myself again sometimes you know,
Speaker 1: I would do it right there in the studio. But okay,
Speaker 1: what point does your independent workings at night cross over
Speaker 1: into the mean stream of the studio. Were you not
Speaker 1: working to make records they're interested in? Well, I mean
Speaker 1: I was. I was always trying to make a record
Speaker 1: that they would be interesting, interested in. UM. So you know,
Speaker 1: I had three or four So it was I was
Speaker 1: managing Timmy Thomas at the time, who had a big
Speaker 1: hit called why Can't We Live Together? I booked him
Speaker 1: at a show in Washington, d C. At the Capitol
Speaker 1: Center with Rare Earth. UM. Prior to that show, I
Speaker 1: had gone to a wedding I believe was Betty Right's
Speaker 1: house or something, and she had hired a what's called
Speaker 1: a junk, a new band to play at the wedding.
Speaker 1: And uh junk a new music from the Caribbean, and
Speaker 1: I've mostly associated with the Bahamas. It's drums, horns and whistles.
Speaker 1: It's very infectious. You can't help but move when when,
Speaker 1: when you're you're even you're anywhere near it. So anyway,
Speaker 1: I booked me on this show and Washington, d C.
Speaker 1: And the entire audience was blowing whistles, and I thought wow,
Speaker 1: and I thought, like, you would be great to take
Speaker 1: this music that I just was at this party and
Speaker 1: and and you know, bring it to the masses and
Speaker 1: do these whistles. So I wrote this song called blow
Speaker 1: Your Whistle. I went the studio and got some of
Speaker 1: the the local guys there, uh, and I recorded this
Speaker 1: where I go. I brought in the drunk Adu band
Speaker 1: and had them play on the record. And I wrote
Speaker 1: this song called blow Your Whistle. And now I needed
Speaker 1: to come up with a name, uh, you know, for
Speaker 1: who I was going to be. And I didn't want
Speaker 1: to use my real name or any part of my
Speaker 1: real name. So I came up and I called it
Speaker 1: Casey and the Sunshine junk Anuman, Okay, and then UH
Speaker 1: continue the narrative, what happens with your career? Well, so
Speaker 1: uh we Henry puts the record out of the normal fashion.
Speaker 1: He presses up a few hundred whatever gets puts it
Speaker 1: on some local radio stations and covering other stations, and
Speaker 1: it starts making a lot of noise, uh, and then
Speaker 1: spreads a little bit into Europe. Um. It goes to
Speaker 1: number eighteen on the R and B Billboard. R and
Speaker 1: B chart, and enough to where making enough noise to her.
Speaker 1: Now Henry wants another record, and so now I think
Speaker 1: we're all. I loved horns and everything. So now I
Speaker 1: write this song called sound Your Funky Horn, and it's
Speaker 1: just basically a song about uh, you know, you know,
Speaker 1: everybody sound base member in the bottom, which is the base, um,
Speaker 1: base member in the bottom, drummer, drum the beat, which
Speaker 1: is the drummer, h tenor man, which is this like saxophone.
Speaker 1: Come blow your horn. Um, everybody, get on your feet.
Speaker 1: Everybody's sound your funky horn. So now sound your fuck
Speaker 1: horn starts doing the same amount of noise, even a
Speaker 1: little bit more than blow your whistle, but still goes
Speaker 1: to the number eighteen. I think on the R and
Speaker 1: B chart might have got a look a few points higher,
Speaker 1: and I can't remember. I'd have to look. Uh. And
Speaker 1: so now, um, I'm in the studio and we we
Speaker 1: dropped the junken New band, I dropped the junken new
Speaker 1: band name, and just it just becomes Casey in the
Speaker 1: Sunshine Band on the second record. So now um, I'm
Speaker 1: Timmy Thomas's organs upstairs in the studio, and that he
Speaker 1: wrote why can't we lived together on it? And it
Speaker 1: was a lorry organ and it had like you know
Speaker 1: that time they started adding the beat boxes. So I
Speaker 1: sat down at the organ. I'm still writing songs for
Speaker 1: you know, my new album and everything, because now Hitry
Speaker 1: wants an album and I've already written subtracks and I'd
Speaker 1: come up with this. I started, I pushed the somber
Speaker 1: or whatever it was on the thing, and I started
Speaker 1: playing these chords or whatever, and you know, uh and
Speaker 1: rock your baby was born, and so um, I was
Speaker 1: looking for somebody to I didn't think it was like
Speaker 1: something that it was a little different than I was writing,
Speaker 1: you know, for that I'd done for boy Whistle and
Speaker 1: sign you if You On? And what the direction. I
Speaker 1: was already writing for others stuff on my on the
Speaker 1: case of the Sun Traine record that I was working on,
Speaker 1: and so um uh. At the time, I think I
Speaker 1: thought about Jimmy bull Horn singing the record, and I
Speaker 1: was waiting for him to come in. And George mccraize
Speaker 1: showed up that day and I said, George, come over here,
Speaker 1: and you know, hum this melody, and I hummed the
Speaker 1: melody to him. In the minute I heard his voice.
Speaker 1: I knew that, um, he was the one that should
Speaker 1: sing this song, and I took him and went up
Speaker 1: in the studio and we recorded the song, and four
Speaker 1: or five weeks later was number one in fifty one
Speaker 1: countries around the world. Okay, a couple of things. It's
Speaker 1: considered to be the It's V four, the first UH
Speaker 1: disco record dance record is considered to be the used
Speaker 1: corporation rocked the Boat, and then George mccraey's song, which
Speaker 1: came first the sound or the nightclub. Were you making
Speaker 1: this totally independently or were you aware of a nightlife
Speaker 1: scene that you were trying to make music for that
Speaker 1: you were participating in. Okay, well, I was aware of
Speaker 1: a nightlife see, definitely, but it wasn't any different than
Speaker 1: the sock Cops, and all they were doing is playing records,
Speaker 1: you know. Um. But the the the part behind Casey
Speaker 1: and Sunshine Man sound in that whole creation was I
Speaker 1: loved dance music. My mother loved dance and I've always
Speaker 1: loved anything up tempo, and I would get kind of,
Speaker 1: you know, disappointed when it because great dance record come
Speaker 1: out and then you buy the album and it was
Speaker 1: all these slow songs and all this other crap on there.
Speaker 1: So I wanted to change that. I wanted to make
Speaker 1: every song up tempo, um and on side A to
Speaker 1: side B. So that's what I was doing with Casey
Speaker 1: in the Sunshine Band. Besides that, UM, I believe we
Speaker 1: might have been the first ones to ever do a
Speaker 1: twelve inch or a longer version of a song, you know,
Speaker 1: strictly for the clubs. With Rock Your Baby, we took
Speaker 1: we took the instrumental the record, took the vocal off,
Speaker 1: spliced in about three minutes of instrumental, and then added
Speaker 1: the vocal back at the end, making the song six
Speaker 1: minutes and ten seconds long or something like that. So
Speaker 1: Rock your Baby goes to number one? What's next for you? Um? Okay?
Speaker 1: So me and it was are now they they make
Speaker 1: a deal with the label in the UK, and the
Speaker 1: owner of that label, uh, South Kasner, I think not.
Speaker 1: She was a South Kasner. David Kasner comes over and
Speaker 1: wants to hear the new case in the Sunshine Man album.
Speaker 1: So one of the songs I, you know, so I'm
Speaker 1: playing in the album, and here's this song on the
Speaker 1: album called the Queen of Clubs and he says, that's
Speaker 1: a number one record in my country. I'm thinking, okay,
Speaker 1: that's nice. I'll take that. He takes it back to
Speaker 1: the UK and the record shoots to the number four,
Speaker 1: and not only in the UK, but kind of all
Speaker 1: over Europe some places number one. So it's like, holy cow,
Speaker 1: you know, I got to go on tour. I've never
Speaker 1: really played. I've never really played live before like that,
Speaker 1: you know, singing and playing at the same time. So
Speaker 1: they booked us a tour over there for forty eight
Speaker 1: shows in twenty four cities and two nights before. I
Speaker 1: haven't an emergency appendecti appendectomy operation. I've penicide it, you know, appendectomy.
Speaker 1: So um, that gets canceled. And thirty days later we
Speaker 1: go over and I do these forty eight cities in
Speaker 1: twenty four days, wearing a thing around me to you know,
Speaker 1: like the last Eigg band or whatever, uh, to make
Speaker 1: sure I didn't hurt myself or anything. And now they,
Speaker 1: you know, they want the next record or whatever. And
Speaker 1: that's the way I canna get down tonight where we're
Speaker 1: created out of that, and I actually changed, you know,
Speaker 1: the sound of you know, the way I sang the
Speaker 1: songs a little bit and actually remember recording them with
Speaker 1: a little bit of a British accent. So how do
Speaker 1: we get to get down tonight? We get to get
Speaker 1: down tonight because uh, I'm in the studio. Really, when
Speaker 1: I a lot of times when I would work on
Speaker 1: a song, sometimes I have a title, sometimes I don't.
Speaker 1: I had a title for that, which at that time
Speaker 1: when I when I first wrote it in the studio
Speaker 1: came up, you know, did the chords and the melod everything,
Speaker 1: eng was called what you want is what You'll get,
Speaker 1: and you know, it was kind of a working title
Speaker 1: or whatever. And the more I thought about it, you know,
Speaker 1: it just wasn't ringing the bells for me, and get
Speaker 1: down was kind of a uh A saying at the
Speaker 1: time or whatever, and you know, I started thinking, get down,
Speaker 1: get down, get down tonight, um, you know, and then
Speaker 1: wrote about you know, what do you What are the
Speaker 1: things I like to do? What are the things you
Speaker 1: like to do? You know, do a little dance, making
Speaker 1: a little love, get down tonight, and then creating the
Speaker 1: story kind of around that, you know, with being with
Speaker 1: somebody else, baby baby, let's get together, honey, honey, me
Speaker 1: and you do the things do the things we like
Speaker 1: to do. Do a little dance, make a little love,
Speaker 1: get down tonight. Yeah it was that simple. Okay, wait
Speaker 1: a second. I was more of an FM guy. But
Speaker 1: it is living out West at the time and you're
Speaker 1: driving these long stretches. Prior to satellite radio, you'd be
Speaker 1: flipping the dial here stuff on AM radio which had
Speaker 1: a long, uh, a large area of coverage. You heard
Speaker 1: that track What's and no matter what kind of music
Speaker 1: you liked, you immediately got it. He said, holy shit. Okay,
Speaker 1: I remember the first time that. It's very interesting because
Speaker 1: we had always recorded everything ever a TK, but because
Speaker 1: we needed to add Nework things to we went to
Speaker 1: Criteria to do the vocal and the horns in the
Speaker 1: backgrounds tonight. I finished that vocal or whatever, and I
Speaker 1: must have played that song one times because it was
Speaker 1: just so infectious. I it was just I knew there
Speaker 1: was something special about it. As a matter of fact,
Speaker 1: when Henry finally put it out, it went on the
Speaker 1: Billboard chart at and the next week it fell off
Speaker 1: the chart. I went to Henry. I said, Henry, this
Speaker 1: is a hit song. What's going on? He says, don't
Speaker 1: worry about it. That was it. Well, that's what people
Speaker 1: who don't play at the elite level don't understand. When
Speaker 1: you do something that good, you know it okay, and
Speaker 1: you rarely can get he can't hit that every day
Speaker 1: every month, but when you get there, you certainly know it. Right.
Speaker 1: So okay, now you're off and running. Okay with the
Speaker 1: next track? Is that's the way I like it? Yeah?
Speaker 1: So you know, now you have a success. Now you
Speaker 1: gotta worry about following it up. Well, the two songs
Speaker 1: were almost recorded within the same period of time. You
Speaker 1: have to understand. Now I'm I've moved from the first
Speaker 1: album and now working on the second album. So tracks
Speaker 1: were in the progress in progress, whether it was you
Speaker 1: know and and and all the songs were almost recorded
Speaker 1: a year before. So get down to Night Investady like
Speaker 1: it would have been recorded in nineteen seventy four, like
Speaker 1: seventy four or whatever, after I got back from tour
Speaker 1: in England. Uh so, Um, it was already in the
Speaker 1: can before the was already Yeah, I was already in
Speaker 1: the can. And then what about shake your Booty? What
Speaker 1: about it? Um? How did you come with booty? Well,
Speaker 1: it's an interesting story behind that, other than booty being
Speaker 1: a famous another word that was popular at the time.
Speaker 1: But you know, from doing these concerts, a lot of
Speaker 1: times I'd be in situations and you know that there
Speaker 1: would be I just felt like still people were a
Speaker 1: little afraid to let themselves go, let themselves be what
Speaker 1: they whatever they want to be, and still had this
Speaker 1: fear of like I said, all right, to get up.
Speaker 1: And so I'd be doing these concerts and you know,
Speaker 1: thousands of people be standing up and I'd be drawn
Speaker 1: to the one person sitting there with their arms crossed
Speaker 1: or whatever. Which sometimes that's kind of me um. But
Speaker 1: it's not that I'm not having a good time. It's
Speaker 1: just I'm just I'm comfortable to relax. But anyway, I
Speaker 1: I just so it was kind of a song about
Speaker 1: and and and also I felt like a lot of
Speaker 1: people didn't have enough faith in themselves and believe in
Speaker 1: themselves enough. And it was kind of a song meant
Speaker 1: to be let you know that you're as good as
Speaker 1: the next person. There's anybody else. Get up and shake
Speaker 1: your ass, get up and shake your booty. You know
Speaker 1: what I mean. You're the best to see, um, you
Speaker 1: can you can't do it very well? Are the best
Speaker 1: in the world, I can tell you know, I mean shake, shake, shake,
Speaker 1: shake your booty. So is that kind of thing, like
Speaker 1: a little bit of a motivational thing in a way
Speaker 1: for people to to have a belief in themselves and uh,
Speaker 1: to enjoy life, to to shake your booty. And now
Speaker 1: you're on a run, do you feel the pressure to
Speaker 1: have more hits? Hits? No? I mean, first of all,
Speaker 1: you have to say, and I came from a label
Speaker 1: that had nothing but one hit, Wonders. Um. I you know,
Speaker 1: out of all the songs, I wasn't sure about shake
Speaker 1: your Booty until um because it just seemed too easy
Speaker 1: to do. The vocal everything was just so easy with
Speaker 1: that song. Um. And I remember it wasn't until we
Speaker 1: i um, we performed at the first time, I think
Speaker 1: right before the record came out in Dallas, Texas at
Speaker 1: six Flags over Texas Arlington Texts or wherever six Flags
Speaker 1: is there, and you know, the fans went nuts. I
Speaker 1: mean they went nuts, and it just felt right even
Speaker 1: performing it. It just felt like, Wow, I was you
Speaker 1: know this one, this is this is gonna be huge
Speaker 1: and you know that it was okay number three, You're
Speaker 1: working at an independent label, which is still independent after
Speaker 1: the wild West of what comes before the sixties and fifties. Okay,
Speaker 1: So ultimately with the label went bankrupt, it was Saltimore's
Speaker 1: Levi's Roulette, which needles to say, has a reputation of
Speaker 1: working in the mafia world. You're working at t K.
Speaker 1: To what degree are you getting an honest accounting? To
Speaker 1: what degree is the business legitimate? To what degree are
Speaker 1: you getting paid one to me, two or three out
Speaker 1: the door? And you were aware of that pretty much
Speaker 1: then you thought, what, I don't think too much of it.
Speaker 1: I mean I was, Um, it was until I am
Speaker 1: audited that I thought about it too much at all.
Speaker 1: That was near the end. And how about ownership? Was
Speaker 1: there ever an issue of them wanting part of the pot? Okay?
Speaker 1: So after that, after that's what we like, and I
Speaker 1: went renegotiated. Um, you know, my deal with him for
Speaker 1: half the publishing and better points and better everything. So
Speaker 1: at this late date, what do you own? And Henry
Speaker 1: game in my own label? You know, I mean he
Speaker 1: was pretty much you know, supporting my label and everything else. Okay,
Speaker 1: but right now, what do you own half of you
Speaker 1: have half the publishing, and then and how much of
Speaker 1: the writers share my percentage. Okay. So a lot of
Speaker 1: these songs were co written with someone else. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: what did you do and what did that other person do?
Speaker 1: And why did that end? I did it all? So
Speaker 1: why did he get credit? We just had it. It
Speaker 1: was just a business thing that I gave him credit. Okay,
Speaker 1: So he really did he do anything for his credit
Speaker 1: business wise or anything? No? He played bass, and he
Speaker 1: was a great engineer, and he was good at some
Speaker 1: of the production. Okay, production. Going back to the songs, okay,
Speaker 1: so you have maintained your ownership. You're getting royalties now? Yeah,
Speaker 1: and who administers those songs? Sony, Sony. It's been through,
Speaker 1: it's been through so many different people. But you have
Speaker 1: continued to get paid or do you have to audit
Speaker 1: for your money? And who knows whether you're getting paid?
Speaker 1: How many cents on the dollar? No, you know, I
Speaker 1: mean it's I mean you always do audits. Well, let's
Speaker 1: but if you never worked again, you got plenty of
Speaker 1: money coming in with the royalties. I'm okay, you're okay.
Speaker 1: You go on the road. What's the incentive to go
Speaker 1: on the road because I have fun and I like it? Okay,
Speaker 1: But it's not primarily money, or is it. No? No,
Speaker 1: so you go on the road. Uh, in the last
Speaker 1: fifty years, have there been times you've stayed off the
Speaker 1: road going back on or if you consistently work that
Speaker 1: whole time? Um? I for ten years between eighty four
Speaker 1: and ninety five around there somewhere, I didn't I didn't
Speaker 1: tour at all. I didn't want to have anything to
Speaker 1: do with this business. I hated it. I was done.
Speaker 1: I didn't want anything to do with it. It wasn't
Speaker 1: until our Cindy oh Hall I wanted to see a
Speaker 1: reunion on his TV show that I realized I had
Speaker 1: stopped doing something I love to do. And I started
Speaker 1: putting my feetback in, you know, out there in the
Speaker 1: water and testing the waters and put a band back together.
Speaker 1: What did you do for this? I've been I've been
Speaker 1: doing it ever since. Then? Would you do for those
Speaker 1: ten years? Took off a lot of drugs and a
Speaker 1: lot of partying. There's a lot of nothing, so you
Speaker 1: were kind of just kind of just living life. No,
Speaker 1: I was done. I was not gonna know nothing. Were
Speaker 1: you done? Just because the whole effect or you felt
Speaker 1: ripped off for too much pressure? I was just tired
Speaker 1: of I was kind of just tired of being told
Speaker 1: what to do, when to do it, how to feel,
Speaker 1: when to be this place, and that I just wanted
Speaker 1: to like, I wanted life back. I wanted like a
Speaker 1: normal life back. That's just what I wanted. I just wanted.
Speaker 1: You wanted to feelm normal again. I think just if
Speaker 1: that was even possible, which it's not because of who
Speaker 1: I am or what I've done, but as normal as
Speaker 1: normal can be for me. After you're done with t K,
Speaker 1: you move on to what is then CBS Records now
Speaker 1: sonydor good or bad experience? How different? I left t
Speaker 1: K because I had an auditor and they owned me
Speaker 1: nine million dollars. Did you get it? Nope? Say taken
Speaker 1: because I figured I would have been gone to court
Speaker 1: and when I would would have been in court for
Speaker 1: years and years. And I said take it and shot
Speaker 1: it and I signed with CBS. What epic And so
Speaker 1: you signed? How was your experience an epic? Not a
Speaker 1: great one, not a great one at all. Um. I
Speaker 1: think at the time, EPIC was just so so into
Speaker 1: the Michael Jackson thing or whatever that maybe they're just
Speaker 1: buying up competition. I don't know what they were doing,
Speaker 1: but they didn't have any If you look at that period,
Speaker 1: they didn't have any time for anybody but Michael because
Speaker 1: Frank de Leo, who was running Epic. You know, I
Speaker 1: wanted to be Michael's manager. And I remember the first
Speaker 1: album I did for them, Um, you know that they
Speaker 1: were happy with it and all that sort of stuff,
Speaker 1: and then nothing, you haven't to it. I remember going
Speaker 1: in and say, look, I don't need your charity. If
Speaker 1: you don't like something, you better tell me. You know,
Speaker 1: if you're not gonna back this and you're not gonna
Speaker 1: believe in what I'm doing, then I don't want to
Speaker 1: do it. And you know what I mean, I'm not
Speaker 1: a charity here, So you know, I went and did
Speaker 1: the second album and they got more involved in it
Speaker 1: and everything, and um, except when it came time to
Speaker 1: put out and give it up in America after it
Speaker 1: was number one for six weeks in Europe, they didn't
Speaker 1: want to do it. So I said, let me have
Speaker 1: the record. I went off the contract and they paid
Speaker 1: me a hundred thousand dollars, gave me the record, and
Speaker 1: I put it out myself said, and it was the
Speaker 1: number one record, even though Billboard didn't reflect it correctly.
Speaker 1: Explain that a little bit more. Okay, So the Billboard
Speaker 1: charts mainly or they eased on points. They give radio
Speaker 1: stations and how far you got the charter when you're
Speaker 1: on a radio station, so um, depending on mean radio
Speaker 1: stations you're on at the time you get points, it
Speaker 1: goes up when when stations are off of it, you
Speaker 1: lose the points. So there are a lot of stations
Speaker 1: like in Miami and other stations. It went on very
Speaker 1: very very early and off the success of the UK
Speaker 1: and um Epic didn't want to release it as single,
Speaker 1: and so I lost the momentum and the points. Even
Speaker 1: though that record was number one on every radio station
Speaker 1: in the United States of America for at least five
Speaker 1: to six weeks, there was not one station in America
Speaker 1: that record wasn't number one on. But because of the
Speaker 1: way the point system is and the timing of the
Speaker 1: ones that went on at early and the ones that
Speaker 1: went out late is it was coming up. Other stations
Speaker 1: were had already had there's six weeks, you know, their
Speaker 1: their patients are starting to go down. So I was
Speaker 1: losing points here by gaining all these points you know here, Okay,
Speaker 1: one other truck I want to talk about is my
Speaker 1: favorite other than Get Down Tonight. And it's very different
Speaker 1: from the upbeat tracks. That's please Don't Go. How did
Speaker 1: that come about? Um? I was sitting at the piano
Speaker 1: waiting for the next session to start or whatever, as
Speaker 1: I always did, while they were trying to get the
Speaker 1: sound of you know, the instruments and everything else. Was
Speaker 1: always a long process. And I was sitting down at
Speaker 1: the the grand piano and just these cords just came
Speaker 1: to my head, and um uh it was just different.
Speaker 1: I just you know, it was just I don't know
Speaker 1: if I was thinking, like you know, you know, the
Speaker 1: disco thing was happening or or you know, and I
Speaker 1: just felt like I wanted to change. I wanted to
Speaker 1: do something a little bit different that I always swore
Speaker 1: I would never really do it, which was like a
Speaker 1: ballot or something slow. And you know, it just all
Speaker 1: just again these things. I can't explain these things to you.
Speaker 1: I can try to explain it and make an excuse
Speaker 1: or a reason. There's no reason. There's no I didn't
Speaker 1: know how to explain how God or whatever this that
Speaker 1: is comes into my hands sits them down on this keyboard,
Speaker 1: and and all of a sudden, these things start happening
Speaker 1: kind of beyond my control, as if it's automatic. It's
Speaker 1: just like I put my hands down and all of
Speaker 1: a sudden this starts happening and develops into this other
Speaker 1: thing that just becomes massive. I can't explain that. I'll
Speaker 1: never will be able to. Did you expect it to
Speaker 1: be commercially successful? Once I heard it? Once it was done, absolutely, Oh,
Speaker 1: I knew it right away. Any of your tracks that
Speaker 1: you thought were hit that didn't go, um, I I've
Speaker 1: had a few, maybe in the in later years. But
Speaker 1: then if I look back at I mean, um, if
Speaker 1: I look back at some of them and dissect them,
Speaker 1: I can probably understand why maybe they didn't. But again, again,
Speaker 1: it's all in sometimes promotion and marketing too. It's like,
Speaker 1: you know, one another. One reason I was leading t
Speaker 1: K because I felt like they were getting all these
Speaker 1: new people coming in there, and they all wanted to
Speaker 1: make their marks. So they weren't interested in somebody who
Speaker 1: was already making had already made a mark. Um, there
Speaker 1: was nothing for them to do, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: They wanted to make the next one. That's you know,
Speaker 1: I felt like, so I here, I made this company,
Speaker 1: and this company was now starting to ignore me. I
Speaker 1: hear you. So, uh do you think you were victimized
Speaker 1: by the disco backlash? Not at all? Well, I mean,
Speaker 1: I don't know, because it's very confusing because even though
Speaker 1: I'm considered and and probably one of the beginning of
Speaker 1: that whole thing, it was really R and B music
Speaker 1: that was being played at the time up until night
Speaker 1: until the Saturday Night Fever album or nine. When when
Speaker 1: when a lot of the things changed. And so for me,
Speaker 1: I feel like I had already moved on with please
Speaker 1: Don't Go. Then I had Yes, I'm ready with Terry
Speaker 1: to Sarrio. You know. Uh, so I feel like I
Speaker 1: had already moved beyond that sort of scenario, if that
Speaker 1: makes sense. I didn't like the word disco to begin with.
Speaker 1: Were you a guy who went to the clubs? Yeah?
Speaker 1: I went to club and I went to clubs because
Speaker 1: I love to dance. I you know, um, I you
Speaker 1: know everybody was going so I mean, but you know,
Speaker 1: I just I love music. So anywhere there was music,
Speaker 1: I was going to be And so other than when
Speaker 1: you're creating to what degree are you listening to music today? Um?
Speaker 1: I go on I iTunes every day and check out
Speaker 1: whatever the latest thing is or the whatever records on.
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm really in love with this song called
Speaker 1: Imagine by Ben Platt right now. I think it's just
Speaker 1: a great song. But I don't see it making very
Speaker 1: much noise, which I don't understand why unless it's just
Speaker 1: I just they just haven't got behind it yet. I hopefully, hopefully,
Speaker 1: because I think it's a great, great song and he
Speaker 1: sounds amazing on it. Um. But I I mean, I
Speaker 1: I listen everything. I have country on my phone, I
Speaker 1: have pop, I have I have everything. You know, music
Speaker 1: has changed a lot. I mean R and B s
Speaker 1: now what R and B used to be. I wished
Speaker 1: it was. It would be great to hear some great
Speaker 1: R and B music, But I don't know when that's
Speaker 1: going to happen. I I see, I see I see
Speaker 1: it slowly how happening. There's a lot of up and
Speaker 1: coming UM R and B artists who seem to be
Speaker 1: embracing that historical sound, and I hear it coming out
Speaker 1: of their productions and their music, and it's kind of
Speaker 1: exciting in a way. Okay. I saw you in the
Speaker 1: band perform on a cold winter night in Veil, Colorado,
Speaker 1: and it was spectActor. That's what really resonate with it.
Speaker 1: Please don't go for me, But on stage you make
Speaker 1: fun of yourself. Where did that come from? Where did
Speaker 1: that come from? That came from wanting to make myself
Speaker 1: relax and and feel comfortable on the stage or whatever. Um,
Speaker 1: I'm not don't. I don't know, I don't. It's just
Speaker 1: especially at times when I put on a few pounds
Speaker 1: or whatever. I'm all. You know. Some of it started
Speaker 1: with seeing young kids in the audience and thinking, you know,
Speaker 1: you have no clue who I am or or what
Speaker 1: you know, and I was trying to kind of relate
Speaker 1: to them a little bit. So you know, one of
Speaker 1: the running jokes came, I'm your mother's justin Timberlake, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean. So, you know, part part of
Speaker 1: it came from that, But part of it's just facing
Speaker 1: the realities, like if I put a little weight and
Speaker 1: then you know, like he's like God, he's getting the waiter,
Speaker 1: He's done this, and you know, let's let's just joke
Speaker 1: about it so I don't have to sit there and
Speaker 1: think about what they're saying, you know what I mean. Um,
Speaker 1: and it just kind of relaxes me. I I kind
Speaker 1: of have fun doing it. Um you know, Um does
Speaker 1: that answer the question? Yeah? Absolutely. You tell a joke
Speaker 1: about KFY and KFC that's pretty funny. Oh yeah, well's see,
Speaker 1: I've I've brought in some writers and stuff to give
Speaker 1: me some lines. And that was you know, that was
Speaker 1: one of the even though I don't really eat Kentucky
Speaker 1: Fried Chicken, I don't eat a lot of fried foods
Speaker 1: at all, but um, yeah, it was this this writer,
Speaker 1: that comedic writer that writes for a lot of people,
Speaker 1: I wrote wrote that one, and it was it's a
Speaker 1: fun joke. So when are we going to see you
Speaker 1: back on the road? Um? Right now, I'm planning on going,
Speaker 1: you know, back in after this mess settles down a
Speaker 1: little bit. Um. You know, they wanted me to kind
Speaker 1: of go. I mean, I just lost my guitar player
Speaker 1: from twenty something years, so I got to find a
Speaker 1: new guitar player number one and there's gonna be some
Speaker 1: big shoes to fill, um number two. I just I
Speaker 1: you know, until this pandemics kind of done and you know,
Speaker 1: really kind of over I don't want to be flying
Speaker 1: around a lot, you know, with mass Shawn and playing,
Speaker 1: you know. I mean, I've been going, you know on
Speaker 1: a few little many vacations and stuff, but it's not
Speaker 1: like having to fly every day three days in a row,
Speaker 1: and you know, dealing with all this craziness out there
Speaker 1: right now. So I decided and then, you know, just
Speaker 1: at the time, I wasn't sure, you know, I just
Speaker 1: we didn't want to put anybody in situations. I didn't
Speaker 1: know how you know, a lot of places haven't really
Speaker 1: fully opened. Uh, you know, I just didn't want to
Speaker 1: deal with a whole mass. It's just it's all insanity,
Speaker 1: and I just just when it's over, let's let's get
Speaker 1: back to business or whatever. And then at one point
Speaker 1: I thought, you know, maybe I don't want to do
Speaker 1: this anymore. I don't know, but um, you know, I
Speaker 1: think I want to go back. I think I miss it.
Speaker 1: I miss you know, Um, I've never you know, you know,
Speaker 1: since I went back out, I haven't stopped. And so
Speaker 1: this whole pandemic and me being so idle after all
Speaker 1: this time, and you know, just I don't know if
Speaker 1: I needed it, maybe we all needed it. I don't
Speaker 1: know to just to rethink and to read to re
Speaker 1: um uh, can't think of the word um re calibrate, yeah, recalibrate. Okay, Harry,
Speaker 1: this has been wonderful. One thing about you have to
Speaker 1: know your tracks are forever. It's funny. Very few people
Speaker 1: can say that most things are of a time and
Speaker 1: they die. But you consistently, you know you're sustained. Really incredible. Okay,
Speaker 1: thanks for taking the time once again. Thank you. You bet.
Speaker 1: This is Bob left sense.