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Speaker 1: I'm Carrie Donahue and this is Here's the Thing from

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Speaker 1: My Heart Radio. And I'm Alec Baldwin and this is

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Speaker 1: Here's the thing from my Heart Radio. Oh hey, Alec,

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Speaker 1: you're back, back back, Yes, Carrie, summer's over and I

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Speaker 1: have returned. Did you miss me? Of course, well listen.

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Speaker 1: Thanks to you and the rest of the team for

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Speaker 1: hosting our archival episodes over the summer. And now it's

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Speaker 1: your turn to highlight some favorites. Right. Yes, we're going

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Speaker 1: to revisit two conversations I loved Darryl Hall from holl

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Speaker 1: And Oates and Danny Bennett to Tony Bennett's son and

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Speaker 1: longtime manager. Sounds like a great pairing. Glad you're back, Alec.

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Speaker 1: Oh and Kerry before you go, we should tell listeners

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Speaker 1: for the next couple of months we'll be releasing episodes

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Speaker 1: every other week. Good idea and done, take it away, Alec.

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Speaker 1: Now onto two of my favorite conversations from the archives.

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Speaker 1: Tony Bennett has a timeless style. He celebrated his ninety

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Speaker 1: fifth birthday this summer with two sold out shows at

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Speaker 1: Radio City Music Hall, and as always, he brought the

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Speaker 1: house down. He even has a new album coming out

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Speaker 1: this fall, called Love for Sale. Tony Bennett planned to

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Speaker 1: play more live dates, but the legendary showman recently received

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Speaker 1: a devastating warning from his doctor, no more live shows.

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Speaker 1: That's going to be a shift for Tony's son, Danny

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Speaker 1: Bennett as well. Danny has been his father's manager for decades,

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Speaker 1: a job he describes as managing a legacy as much

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Speaker 1: as a career. But first, we're revisiting my two thousand

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Speaker 1: nineteen conversation with Darryl Hall with partner John Oates, Hall

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Speaker 1: and Oates is the best selling vocal duo in history.

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Speaker 1: They have seven platinum albums and another six gold ones.

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Speaker 1: They made the Billboard Hot one thirty four times with

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Speaker 1: mega hits like Man Eater, Rich Girl, You make my

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Speaker 1: dreams come true and I can't go for that. Darryl

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Speaker 1: Hall has had a sort of second career on television

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Speaker 1: with two shows Live from Darryl's House and Darryl's Restoration

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Speaker 1: Overhaul on the d I Y Network. Darryl Hall started

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Speaker 1: singing on the streets in Philadelphia. So I started at

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Speaker 1: a really young age doing doing you know, like busking,

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Speaker 1: more like the doop, you know, the street corn music.

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Speaker 1: There was no instruments involved, acapella and all that, and uh,

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Speaker 1: it was always very racially integrated, you know, is that

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Speaker 1: whole thing? And uh? And then when I went to Philly,

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Speaker 1: I had already been involved in that stuff. And there

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Speaker 1: was this place called Mitton Hall where all everybody hung out.

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Speaker 1: It was like the place where the whole Temple University went,

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Speaker 1: and people used to stand in the corners and sing.

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Speaker 1: It was it was that's that kind of stuff was

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Speaker 1: still going on. So I just walked up one day

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Speaker 1: and started singing along with these strangers. And that's how

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Speaker 1: I got into Philadelphia. And but at a time when

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Speaker 1: in my mind when I think about Philadelphia, then I

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Speaker 1: think about a lot of racial difficulties and move and

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Speaker 1: you know, historically not not for you. I'm saying, the

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Speaker 1: city has always had a kind of a racial stratification.

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Speaker 1: It seems like, what was it about you that these

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Speaker 1: people welcomed you with open arms. I just thing, I

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Speaker 1: grew up in a very racially integrated environment, you know.

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Speaker 1: And in Pottstown there's a big black community, and my

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Speaker 1: my parents best friends lived right in the middle of

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Speaker 1: the black neighborhood. So I as as a kid. I'm

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Speaker 1: talking like a kid kid. For the summer, I would

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Speaker 1: be over there and and all my waking hours, really

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Speaker 1: I would be hanging out with white and black kids together.

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Speaker 1: So the music that I grew up with was that,

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Speaker 1: you know, R and B and soul music. Uh. It

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Speaker 1: was really my baby food, you know, And it just

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Speaker 1: went that way off from my dad was he musically

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Speaker 1: and he was in a vocal group. Sang he sang

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Speaker 1: like gospel vocal group and uh he Uh. I learned

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Speaker 1: a lot about harm me from him. And uh, my

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Speaker 1: mother was a musician. She uh did other cons of music,

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Speaker 1: you know, she like musicals and she was in a band.

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Speaker 1: So it was very musical environment. Let me just put

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Speaker 1: these cards on the table, which is you are one

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Speaker 1: of the ten greatest male vocalists in all of history

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Speaker 1: of rock and roll. I mean you are. And what

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Speaker 1: kills me is like how you've stayed because a lot

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Speaker 1: of these guys have to drop it a key and

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Speaker 1: we interview a lot of my you know, you name it,

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Speaker 1: and only you and Bono pretty much sound the same.

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Speaker 1: Now almost First of all, I do on stage, I

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Speaker 1: do drop it a half a key now I do

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Speaker 1: so I admit it. But but you know what, that's

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Speaker 1: that's cool too. It gives me more room to play

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Speaker 1: around up top. Um. But you know, my voice has

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Speaker 1: changed a lot over the years. You listen to those

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Speaker 1: records that I made, you know, the Rich Girl and

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Speaker 1: all those kind of songs, I'm like a little boy

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Speaker 1: compared to the way I sing now I have, I

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Speaker 1: sort of have the voice now I always wanted to have.

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Speaker 1: It's that bigger, mascular voice I know. And um yeah,

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Speaker 1: so but so I like how my voice has evolved.

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Speaker 1: And I haven't lost any of the stuff that I had.

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Speaker 1: I just it's just sort of got bigger and white.

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Speaker 1: Where did you start singing? When did singing? My mother was,

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Speaker 1: as I said, she was in a band, but she

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Speaker 1: was also a vocal teacher and things like that, and

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Speaker 1: she encouraged you. Yeah, and she it was sort of

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Speaker 1: always there and she taught me how to sing. Did

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Speaker 1: they both play instruments? Yeah, my mother played piano and uh, um,

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Speaker 1: I started taking piano lessons around five and uh took

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Speaker 1: lessons all the way through and then I unfortunately was

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Speaker 1: got into it was I would say I got into

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Speaker 1: I was forced forced to play the trombone for a while,

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Speaker 1: but uh, that didn't last long. But no, it's it.

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Speaker 1: I've been playing piano since five and then I started

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Speaker 1: playing guitar himself taught you took yourself on the guitar.

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Speaker 1: How old were you when you picked up the guitar

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Speaker 1: for the first maybe late teens, early twenties. And when

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Speaker 1: you go then you go to Temple to study music? Why, well,

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Speaker 1: at first I was going to go. I didn't think

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Speaker 1: there was any money and in music at all. It

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Speaker 1: didn't even occur to me. Uh, and to have a

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Speaker 1: career in music, so I was gonna be I was.

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Speaker 1: I wanted to be a psychiatrist. Why because I was

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Speaker 1: really interested in the life of the mind. And I

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Speaker 1: was up against these I didn't realize and might and

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Speaker 1: I have tell you that you had to be a

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Speaker 1: doctor to do at least in a medical degree. I

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Speaker 1: quit that one too, And then I was up against

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Speaker 1: all these kids that were like premed and I failed miserably.

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Speaker 1: It was just horrible. This is not for me. I

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Speaker 1: had the same problem. I was like, I had to

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Speaker 1: have to study chemistry just I just want to talk

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Speaker 1: to people. Yeah, man, what happened was I did that

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Speaker 1: for a year and then I switched to the Temple

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Speaker 1: Music School and they you know, they let me in

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Speaker 1: and you finished and I finished, well, I I quit.

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Speaker 1: I quit five weeks before I graduation because I was

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Speaker 1: a student teacher and I was up, you know, early

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Speaker 1: in the morning all day doing all that stuff. And

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Speaker 1: then I had a bar gig, playing playing music in

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Speaker 1: a bar band at night until two o'clock in the morning.

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Speaker 1: So I didn't work out so well. And the teacher said,

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Speaker 1: you know, you have to choose one or the other.

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Speaker 1: And I thought to myself, do I want to be

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Speaker 1: a music teacher or do I want to be a

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Speaker 1: musician for real? And there was no choice in my head.

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Speaker 1: So I said, Okay, see you later when you uh

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Speaker 1: leave Temple. When you leave, when you finished school, what

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Speaker 1: happens after that? During my time in Temple, as I said,

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Speaker 1: the whole thing was sort of simultaneous. I was going

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Speaker 1: to music school, but I was also hanging out with

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Speaker 1: Tommy Bell and uh who was that? For people who

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Speaker 1: don't know, Tommy Bell was was the the producer and

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Speaker 1: writer behind oh a great number of the Philadelphia sound,

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Speaker 1: the stylistics and the delphonics, and people like that. Um,

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Speaker 1: he was very, very influential in the sound of Philadelphia,

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Speaker 1: and he sort of took me under his wing. He

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Speaker 1: was not that much older than me, but but I

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Speaker 1: would just sit around and listen to him, right, and

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Speaker 1: he was an amazing writer, and uh so I was

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Speaker 1: friendly with him. And then I also I had a

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Speaker 1: band that sort of came out of that thing I

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Speaker 1: was talking about and in mitton all and we called

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Speaker 1: ourselves the temp Tones because we're a temple university. Everybody

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Speaker 1: thought it was the Temptation, but it's because we were

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Speaker 1: a temple. And uh. We did a talent show at

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Speaker 1: the Uptown Theater, which was not that far from the

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Speaker 1: university from the campus, and it was on what they

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Speaker 1: used to call the Chipland Circuit, and you know, every

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Speaker 1: soul group on earth came to the Uptown. It was

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Speaker 1: like the Apollo, and uh I used to hang out

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Speaker 1: there and uh, just like the Apollo, the had talent

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Speaker 1: shows and we won the talent show and James Brown

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Speaker 1: band was the house band backing us up. That was

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Speaker 1: I was like eighteen years old. I'm singing, Oh Baby

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Speaker 1: Baby with James Brown's band, and we won the talent

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Speaker 1: show and The prize was you got to record a

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Speaker 1: record with Gamble and Huff, the songwriters songwriter producers who

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Speaker 1: Gamble and Huff and Tommy Bell basically created what the

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Speaker 1: world knows as the sound of Philadelphia. I did a

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Speaker 1: record with Gamble and Huff and it came out and

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Speaker 1: went on the charts and w D A S and

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Speaker 1: Philadelphia the R and B station. And I was doing

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Speaker 1: all this while I was going to school, and so

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Speaker 1: I became part of that whole scene. That's the I

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Speaker 1: started hanging out at Sigma Sound and with studio musicians,

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Speaker 1: and I wanted to be a studio musician, you know,

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Speaker 1: I want to learn things from them. So that's what

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Speaker 1: I was doing during my student years. And and in

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Speaker 1: the meantime, I met this guy, John Oates who was

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Speaker 1: in Temple University. Yeah, we we we were from He's

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Speaker 1: from about fifteen miles from me and North Wales, Pennsylvania,

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Speaker 1: just northwest of northwest of Philadelphia. So um uh. We

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Speaker 1: were both promoting our singles because he had he managed

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Speaker 1: to get a single too on Kenny Gamble's label. He

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Speaker 1: had a group called the Masters, and we were both

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Speaker 1: promoting our single at this place called the Adelphi ballroom

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Speaker 1: and uh, before either one of us went on, Uh,

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Speaker 1: it was a gang fight broke out. This whole thing

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Speaker 1: went down typical Philadelphia and it was on a it

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Speaker 1: was on a second floor, and you know, people started

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Speaker 1: whipping chains out, and you know, the whole you know, typical,

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Speaker 1: Like I said, typical, all too typical of Philadelphia at

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Speaker 1: that time. And uh, we said okay, time to leave timely.

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Speaker 1: So I didn't even know the guy, and we both

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Speaker 1: wound up in this little elevator going downstairs. I said, okay,

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Speaker 1: we just dodged that bullet. And I was looking at

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Speaker 1: and said, hey, so who are you? You know? And

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Speaker 1: I found out right then that he was also at Temple.

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Speaker 1: I said, oh, man, okay, you know because I figured

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Speaker 1: kindred spirits here and we sort of got to know

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Speaker 1: each other that way. Uh and um, then I needed

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Speaker 1: I don't this is a little vague in my mind,

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Speaker 1: but I needed a roommate because I was I wanted

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Speaker 1: to have an apartment Philly, and he volunteered. So we

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Speaker 1: we got this hobby just moving together. Yeah, we we

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Speaker 1: moved in and we started sharing apartments and we did

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Speaker 1: that on and off through school without any idea that

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Speaker 1: we were gonna work together. We were. There was no plan,

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Speaker 1: you know, we just he was your roommate, my roommates,

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Speaker 1: you know, they was done partner or anything. And uh so,

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Speaker 1: after after school was over, I became a full time

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Speaker 1: studio musician at Sigma for the whole sound of Philadelphia people.

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Speaker 1: And John went to Europe for a little while, came back,

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Speaker 1: had no place to live, and moved in again with

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Speaker 1: me and my new I guess she was my wife

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Speaker 1: at the time. And uh we we renovated this eighteenth

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Speaker 1: century house right in the center of Philadelphia, lived in

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Speaker 1: it for a while, and that's when we at the

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Speaker 1: beginning of that bug for you as well. Yeah, we're

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Speaker 1: talking about that. Yeah, and uh we decided, okay, we

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Speaker 1: were in close proximity, so we just started playing together

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Speaker 1: and said, well, maybe we should try doing something. Let's

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Speaker 1: share a stage, let's uh you play your songs, I'll

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Speaker 1: play my songs, and we'll do them together. When does

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Speaker 1: songwriting begin with you? When do you decide you want

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Speaker 1: to write songs around? I think I wrote a song

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Speaker 1: when I was about fourteen and I thought, okay, maybe

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Speaker 1: I can write a song. And I do remember The

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Speaker 1: name of it was called I Broke my Own Heart?

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Speaker 1: That was that a weird title? No? I like it? Actually,

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Speaker 1: haven't we all done that? Yes? At fourteen? What did

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Speaker 1: I know? Yeah, you're a little advanced. That was your

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Speaker 1: first song. That was the first song, I Broke my

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Speaker 1: Own Heart? And when did you write your first song

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Speaker 1: that you recorded? Uh? That was the song girl I

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Speaker 1: Love You with the tempting and that was I don't

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Speaker 1: know how well was I nineteen? I guess the recording

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Speaker 1: country you got from winning the place? So when do

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Speaker 1: you and he start to how do you and he

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Speaker 1: fused to become what you become? We didn't we sorted.

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Speaker 1: It's hard to describe. We were just trying to write.

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Speaker 1: We tried to write songs together, but it was mostly

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Speaker 1: he would write songs that I write songs and we

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Speaker 1: and we do them on stage together. And we played

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Speaker 1: at this place called um World Control Headquarters, which was

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Speaker 1: held about a hundred people, and we became sort of

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Speaker 1: a fixture there. There was another guy. You could do

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Speaker 1: anything you wanted there. I would sit there with my

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Speaker 1: world it's you know, and Mike Mandolin and John would

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Speaker 1: play acoustic guitar and we would just tell stories and

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Speaker 1: play songs. It was. It was sort of in that

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Speaker 1: folky tradition, but it wasn't folk music. It was something else.

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Speaker 1: And uh, we did that, and we got we started

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Speaker 1: getting a following doing it. And I remember one of

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Speaker 1: the first things that happened was it was all kids,

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Speaker 1: right because we were we were kids. But then these

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Speaker 1: older people started coming when I thought were older people

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Speaker 1: like forty fifty, you know, And I'm like, and I remember,

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Speaker 1: and this is the late sixties, and uh, I remember

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Speaker 1: saying to John, you know, this is really strange. Older

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Speaker 1: people like our music too, not just people our own age,

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Speaker 1: that maybe we're doing something different. Because I actually said

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Speaker 1: that to him, I'll never forget it. And now, of

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Speaker 1: course it's the reverse. Younger kids like what I do

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Speaker 1: and the older people have lived with it, right, So

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Speaker 1: it's always been multi generational and multicultural. Something about people. Well,

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Speaker 1: I don't know whatever it is. It's I think some

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Speaker 1: of your songs are pretty good. Well say that people

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Speaker 1: like what's good? The multi generation thing that happens, Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I guess it does for sure. I'm assuming that, um,

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Speaker 1: you meet someone who's a producer, like as your dessert

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Speaker 1: a producer that comes into your life, that takes you

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Speaker 1: to the next level, that helps you make the sound,

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Speaker 1: that becomes your sound. Yeah, who's that? A Reef Martin

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Speaker 1: the producer arranger behind A Wretha Franklin and you name it,

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Speaker 1: Donny Hathaway, Aretha Franklin, uh oh man, on and on

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Speaker 1: and on and on. I can't even tell you his

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Speaker 1: his His label was Atlantic and he found you where.

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Speaker 1: Well that's another long story, but we have time. I'll

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Speaker 1: try and and and truncated. But we were locked in

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Speaker 1: this messed up relationship with a songwriter producer guy in Philadelphia.

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Speaker 1: We were trying to get an album deal and he

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Speaker 1: was failing us miserably. And uh he was involved with

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Speaker 1: Chapel Music in New York through his catalog. And we

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Speaker 1: went up to New York one time and met this

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Speaker 1: young kid who was only twenty named Tommy Mottola, two

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Speaker 1: years younger than us and and and he said, hey,

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Speaker 1: well he's this guy is not doing anything for you.

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Speaker 1: Let me do something for you. He's twenty years old, right,

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Speaker 1: And uh wait, So he had connections because he had

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Speaker 1: an office the size of this table in Chapel Music.

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Speaker 1: But he did have A contacts, so he sent us

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Speaker 1: out to California to have a chapel rep take us

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Speaker 1: around two various people in California and we sort of

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Speaker 1: we're planning for and went shiitting basically, and uh, we

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Speaker 1: found this guy, Earl McGrath who was a really great

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Speaker 1: guy and was into sort of developing new talent and

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Speaker 1: he wanted to sign us immediately, which was great. And

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Speaker 1: then he was connected with Almedar again and all those

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Speaker 1: people in Atlantic, and he sent us back to Atlantic

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Speaker 1: and we auditioned for Ahmed and I sat there at

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Speaker 1: a piano and half the keys were stuck, they wouldn't work,

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Speaker 1: so well, you know, it was this was like my big,

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Speaker 1: my big day. I'm in front of Atlantic Records. I

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Speaker 1: couldn't play. Yeah, I think I had the flute glasses

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Speaker 1: on the piano. So I played badly and we sang

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Speaker 1: a couple of songs, and uh, I said, okay, we

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Speaker 1: blew that completely. Two days later I found out that

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Speaker 1: they had called Errold said Earl, we want these guys.

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Speaker 1: They're not gonna be on your label, They're gonna be

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Speaker 1: on our label, and and and they signed us to

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Speaker 1: Atlantic Records. So then we were off to a start

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Speaker 1: of some sort. We were immediately thrust into I mean

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Speaker 1: I completely was thrust into a different group of musicians,

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Speaker 1: all those Atlantic studio musicians, uh everybody from Dr John

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Speaker 1: to uh pretty you know, Ralph McDonald to you name it.

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Speaker 1: That that that whole New York R and B scene,

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Speaker 1: And they were all unbelievable musicians. And they're the guys

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Speaker 1: that played on our first records, especially on the abandoned

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Speaker 1: Lunch of Net record. I mean, that's the musicianship when

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Speaker 1: that record is unbelievable. So I was in that world

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Speaker 1: in that scene. I mean a Wreatha was wandering in

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Speaker 1: and out and Bob Dylan was wandering in and out.

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Speaker 1: I mean we're just like that's going on. It's a

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Speaker 1: big machinery, you know. I mean it's it's it's Atlantic Records.

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Speaker 1: Back when people were buying records, they choose you, if

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Speaker 1: they believe in you, and they get their marketing behind you.

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Speaker 1: It's kind of hard to fail, correct if you have

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Speaker 1: some talents. Well, it wasn't quite like that, not in

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Speaker 1: those days. It was. It was still a lot freer

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Speaker 1: and looser. And I remember I'm saying to me and John,

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Speaker 1: he said, just just make just make music. We'll figure

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Speaker 1: out how to sell it. That's what he said. And

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Speaker 1: he said, don't worry about hits or don't worry about it,

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Speaker 1: you know that. That's he said. Don't worry it. Literally

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Speaker 1: said that, don't worry about hits, marriage just do you

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Speaker 1: just do what you'll make it a hits, do what

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Speaker 1: you do. But they didn't. That was the thing. We

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Speaker 1: were a little strange for the world at that time.

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Speaker 1: We're I won't say we're ahead of our time. We

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Speaker 1: were out of our time, but so we I don't

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Speaker 1: know what what what was. First of all, we were

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Speaker 1: doing a hybrid of Philadelphia soul and other kinds of

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Speaker 1: R and B and mixed with this other eclectic kind

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Speaker 1: of thing that John brought in, you know, like country

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Speaker 1: music and all kinds of other stuff, singer songwriter kind

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Speaker 1: of things, and dance music, you name it. It was

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Speaker 1: hybrid eized and and and also in those days, they

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Speaker 1: had no idea how to label us because we were

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Speaker 1: popular on black radio, not even known on white radio.

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Speaker 1: And the whole idea of musical integration was not ready

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Speaker 1: for the world. I mean we were we were pioneers

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Speaker 1: in that Darryl Hall. Did you know that there are

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Speaker 1: more than two d and fifty episodes in the Here's

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Speaker 1: the Thing Archive. If you like these kinds of in

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Speaker 1: depth conversations with other actors, policy makers, and performers, go

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Speaker 1: to here is the Thing dot org and have a

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Speaker 1: look around. After the break, we'll hear more of my

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Speaker 1: conversation with Darryl Hall. I'm Alec Baldwin and this is

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Speaker 1: Here's the Thing. It was nineteen seventy six. Hall and

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Speaker 1: Oates were signed to Atlantic Records, but they didn't have

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Speaker 1: any big hits to show for it. They soon left

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Speaker 1: for Our c A, which quickly released Sarah's Smile. It

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Speaker 1: became an R and B hit and then a crossover hit.

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Speaker 1: From there, Hall and Notes took off. I enjoyed touring,

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Speaker 1: especially because we became popular all over the world very early, right,

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Speaker 1: I mean England embraced us like from the beginning from

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Speaker 1: seventy I think seventy four seventy five is when we

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Speaker 1: first started playing in England, and so we started doing

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Speaker 1: a lot of touring in Europe and that it just

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Speaker 1: you know, opens up your brain and we're kids, right,

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Speaker 1: We had a lot of fun that changed you and him,

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Speaker 1: sex symbolism, rock stardom. It was fame. If you're in

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Speaker 1: your mid to late twenties and you're running around the

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Speaker 1: world and people are throwing there whatever at you, uh,

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Speaker 1: you indulge that unless you're crazy. You know. I took

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Speaker 1: advantage of whatever was opportunities where I was having fun. Man,

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Speaker 1: I was you know the one thing though, I was

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Speaker 1: never into cocaine. I just didn't have a very sensitive

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Speaker 1: nervous system. It doesn't work for me, so do I

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Speaker 1: But I let that stop? Well, I I did it,

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Speaker 1: just I didn't like it. So you guys were dancing

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Speaker 1: around coke daddy your brains and I was completely home

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Speaker 1: sleeping thinking it. Now, I wasn't sleeping sex, drugs and

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Speaker 1: rock and roll without the drugs. But when you so

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Speaker 1: you go on tour, do you get sick of it?

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Speaker 1: Do you get sick of the attention? Do you get

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Speaker 1: sick of going on the road? You know? I mean

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Speaker 1: then mean when you're resting and everything and you're becoming

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Speaker 1: this huge musical act. At one point you would look

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Speaker 1: at each other and go, I really want to stop

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Speaker 1: for a while. You know, it's funny. I look back

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Speaker 1: at it, and it it feels like I had more

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Speaker 1: time off than I do now. I don't know why.

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Speaker 1: I must have. I felt like I would go out

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Speaker 1: and I would tour, and I would go balls to

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Speaker 1: the wall for whatever a month and we'd work, you know,

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Speaker 1: every day. It was no days off for and and

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Speaker 1: I would take it all in everything, you know, stay

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Speaker 1: up all, stay up late, do you know, do everything

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Speaker 1: you can imagine and uh, then then we'd stop, and

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Speaker 1: then we wouldn't be doing anything other than go into

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Speaker 1: a studio, go into studio or right and prepare to go.

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Speaker 1: You find that you go on the road more now,

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Speaker 1: like most acts go on the road more now, because

408
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Speaker 1: that's really the only one you can make real money. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I mean, what's buying any record? I tour all the time,

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Speaker 1: and uh, I I had. I'm busy, man, I'm much

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Speaker 1: busier now than I was. In fact, I don't have

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Speaker 1: time to make a record as that. I've been trying

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Speaker 1: to make a record and I have to do it

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Speaker 1: in little dribs and drabs and starts and stops, and uh,

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Speaker 1: it's it to try and get into a flow is

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Speaker 1: really really hard. Was there was there? And I'm not

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Speaker 1: assuming there was? What there a spot your career where

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Speaker 1: you sprehen you go. This is it, man, we we

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Speaker 1: this is the top. That happens very seldom, but it

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Speaker 1: did happen. There was a period of a very small

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Speaker 1: period of time in where we did we are the

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Speaker 1: world I played, I reopened the Apollo Theater with the Temptations,

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Speaker 1: uh live aid and uh just we'll just use those

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Speaker 1: three things all within a month and a half. And

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Speaker 1: I remember thinking to myself, Okay, I I feel like

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Speaker 1: I'm here. I'm doing something right now that I know

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Speaker 1: is a significant thing and I'm experiencing it. I'm I'm

428
00:22:34,920 --> 00:22:37,720
Speaker 1: here now, be here now. Yes, that's that's one of

429
00:22:37,720 --> 00:22:39,720
Speaker 1: the few times that's ever happened. So take me through,

430
00:22:39,840 --> 00:22:43,960
Speaker 1: just just in a shorthand what the tour is like?

431
00:22:44,080 --> 00:22:46,600
Speaker 1: Concluded the evening the show. Is there a prep you do?

432
00:22:46,800 --> 00:22:48,080
Speaker 1: Is there kind of a is there? Is there a

433
00:22:48,160 --> 00:22:51,400
Speaker 1: vocal thing you do? You know, talk all day and something.

434
00:22:51,560 --> 00:22:55,760
Speaker 1: What I do is I lay in bed all day, rest,

435
00:22:55,920 --> 00:22:59,160
Speaker 1: I just read all day, hang out, don't do anything

436
00:22:59,760 --> 00:23:04,720
Speaker 1: uh about Oh late afternoon, I might power it up.

437
00:23:04,840 --> 00:23:06,520
Speaker 1: And then I wake up and drink a whole shipload

438
00:23:06,520 --> 00:23:11,960
Speaker 1: of tea green tea to really wake myself up. It's

439
00:23:11,960 --> 00:23:15,440
Speaker 1: all this preparation towards this crescendo. And then I get

440
00:23:15,480 --> 00:23:17,879
Speaker 1: to a gig, never more than an hour before the show,

441
00:23:18,240 --> 00:23:21,080
Speaker 1: put on my meg up, talk to the band, laugh

442
00:23:21,160 --> 00:23:23,440
Speaker 1: with the band, have a couple of drinks, hit the stage,

443
00:23:24,280 --> 00:23:28,360
Speaker 1: and uh, that's that's the sand all the time, same band.

444
00:23:28,600 --> 00:23:31,800
Speaker 1: Much rehearsals involved with you guys, not much. We've been

445
00:23:31,840 --> 00:23:34,479
Speaker 1: together a long time. We know, we really seldom were

446
00:23:34,760 --> 00:23:36,359
Speaker 1: Most of the work you do touring now was with

447
00:23:36,480 --> 00:23:39,680
Speaker 1: John or uh no, most of us with Johnson. John.

448
00:23:39,960 --> 00:23:43,040
Speaker 1: I do do the occasional solo stuff, but no, it's

449
00:23:43,080 --> 00:23:45,960
Speaker 1: mostly with John these days right now anyway, And is

450
00:23:46,560 --> 00:23:48,720
Speaker 1: scheduling between the two of you, is it easy? You

451
00:23:48,800 --> 00:23:49,960
Speaker 1: both through in the same kind of groop, you know,

452
00:23:50,000 --> 00:23:51,679
Speaker 1: when you want to go out, time of year you

453
00:23:51,680 --> 00:23:54,359
Speaker 1: want to go. We worked this out. We both like

454
00:23:54,520 --> 00:23:58,000
Speaker 1: the same kind of touring schedule. We're very still, very

455
00:23:58,080 --> 00:24:00,879
Speaker 1: much the same when it comes to that. Yeah, yeah,

456
00:24:01,280 --> 00:24:03,640
Speaker 1: we we have a good relationship. John and I do

457
00:24:03,760 --> 00:24:06,360
Speaker 1: my TV show. That's that's something else. How the hell

458
00:24:06,400 --> 00:24:07,960
Speaker 1: do you get people to come to a house and

459
00:24:08,040 --> 00:24:11,159
Speaker 1: upstate New York? You tell me, man, it's the people

460
00:24:11,200 --> 00:24:14,800
Speaker 1: you've had. It's one of the most gratifying things every

461
00:24:14,840 --> 00:24:17,720
Speaker 1: in my life that I could get Smokey Robinson to

462
00:24:17,840 --> 00:24:20,600
Speaker 1: come to a MENI in New York up there, which

463
00:24:20,600 --> 00:24:23,879
Speaker 1: is twenty miles north of here, take time off his

464
00:24:23,960 --> 00:24:26,199
Speaker 1: schedule art to come and do it. He was one

465
00:24:26,200 --> 00:24:28,560
Speaker 1: of the first ones whose idea was it to do

466
00:24:28,600 --> 00:24:31,040
Speaker 1: this thing mine? And how did it start? I just thought,

467
00:24:31,440 --> 00:24:34,399
Speaker 1: let's just turn everything upside down, you know, instead of

468
00:24:34,400 --> 00:24:37,520
Speaker 1: me and studio there, yeah, and every everything is opposite.

469
00:24:37,840 --> 00:24:40,679
Speaker 1: Instead of me going around the world, I bring the

470
00:24:40,680 --> 00:24:43,680
Speaker 1: world to me. There is no audience, and all these

471
00:24:43,680 --> 00:24:47,720
Speaker 1: people would just come and I only had this internet show.

472
00:24:48,040 --> 00:24:50,879
Speaker 1: It was. It was very small, nobody knew about it,

473
00:24:50,920 --> 00:24:53,040
Speaker 1: but these people were coming from all over the world

474
00:24:53,160 --> 00:24:55,320
Speaker 1: to do this. Then it caught on and then it

475
00:24:55,359 --> 00:24:57,919
Speaker 1: became a little easier to book. But still, do you

476
00:24:58,359 --> 00:25:00,800
Speaker 1: release the recordings of the can be or it only

477
00:25:00,840 --> 00:25:03,080
Speaker 1: lives because because otherwise you'd do would pay them and

478
00:25:03,080 --> 00:25:06,080
Speaker 1: pay rights to them. Well, one thing people don't realize

479
00:25:06,160 --> 00:25:09,280
Speaker 1: is how expensive the show is because of clearances. We

480
00:25:09,359 --> 00:25:12,359
Speaker 1: had such a hard time with that over the years,

481
00:25:12,560 --> 00:25:14,760
Speaker 1: especially in the beginning. Once we established it. Then it

482
00:25:14,840 --> 00:25:17,720
Speaker 1: was sort of okay, but it was really really difficult

483
00:25:17,840 --> 00:25:20,760
Speaker 1: because I was in there, you know, totally innocent. I said, Okay,

484
00:25:20,800 --> 00:25:23,639
Speaker 1: this is promotion for the record companies, promotion for the artists.

485
00:25:23,640 --> 00:25:26,280
Speaker 1: Why should they not want this? But they were looking

486
00:25:26,320 --> 00:25:28,360
Speaker 1: at it like we were napster, you know, like we

487
00:25:28,359 --> 00:25:30,560
Speaker 1: were taking money out of their pockets. And I was like,

488
00:25:30,760 --> 00:25:32,800
Speaker 1: what money am I taking out of your pocket? I'm

489
00:25:32,800 --> 00:25:35,800
Speaker 1: helping you. I'm giving you free promotion. But forget about it.

490
00:25:35,880 --> 00:25:37,199
Speaker 1: We had to deal with lawyers, we had to deal

491
00:25:37,240 --> 00:25:39,199
Speaker 1: with record people, we had to deal with managers, and

492
00:25:39,280 --> 00:25:43,120
Speaker 1: everybody wanted their thing, and the clearances. It became so

493
00:25:43,760 --> 00:25:46,520
Speaker 1: high cost. It's a very it's a very hard show

494
00:25:46,520 --> 00:25:48,000
Speaker 1: to put. You haven't kind of record of it. You

495
00:25:48,040 --> 00:25:50,760
Speaker 1: haven't kind God, that would be so hard to do.

496
00:25:52,000 --> 00:25:54,200
Speaker 1: It would be almost impossible because so many people would

497
00:25:54,240 --> 00:25:56,439
Speaker 1: have to get things. But everybody's publisher would have to

498
00:25:56,440 --> 00:25:59,280
Speaker 1: get something, every artist, every label, and oh my god,

499
00:25:59,600 --> 00:26:01,320
Speaker 1: but guess my idea that I have for you? I

500
00:26:01,359 --> 00:26:03,120
Speaker 1: have an idea I want I want to produce with you.

501
00:26:03,320 --> 00:26:05,480
Speaker 1: I guess my idea for you wasn't gonna fly? What

502
00:26:05,560 --> 00:26:08,480
Speaker 1: would that be my one having seen the Springsteen thing,

503
00:26:08,520 --> 00:26:11,159
Speaker 1: what a phenomenon that was. And my idea for you

504
00:26:11,280 --> 00:26:14,119
Speaker 1: was to do at Darryll's house on Broadway. You're on

505
00:26:14,119 --> 00:26:18,080
Speaker 1: the Broadway and for one week, each artist comes on

506
00:26:18,200 --> 00:26:19,960
Speaker 1: and plays a whole week of shows with you, and

507
00:26:20,000 --> 00:26:22,439
Speaker 1: every week it changes it's another group, and you do

508
00:26:22,480 --> 00:26:25,680
Speaker 1: one on broad Well. That would be doable. Okay, here

509
00:26:25,680 --> 00:26:28,760
Speaker 1: here's our Broadway story. We we've been spending five years.

510
00:26:28,840 --> 00:26:32,439
Speaker 1: We got to the point where this guy uh was

511
00:26:32,440 --> 00:26:34,960
Speaker 1: was writing a book, the guy that did Rock of Ages,

512
00:26:35,040 --> 00:26:38,520
Speaker 1: Chris Derenzo. Somebody's thrown down a shipload of money. And

513
00:26:38,560 --> 00:26:42,520
Speaker 1: we read Chris's book and everybody thinks it sucks. So

514
00:26:42,600 --> 00:26:44,880
Speaker 1: we're back to square one after five years. So I'm

515
00:26:44,880 --> 00:26:48,479
Speaker 1: ready for I'm ready for new ideas. You're welcome, Thank you.

516
00:26:48,600 --> 00:26:50,760
Speaker 1: That is a good idea. You're you're making a fuck

517
00:26:50,880 --> 00:26:53,359
Speaker 1: with a lot of work for me, though I know

518
00:26:53,400 --> 00:26:56,159
Speaker 1: you don't want to work as you want to flip houses.

519
00:26:56,200 --> 00:26:58,280
Speaker 1: I hate Broadway, man, that you gotta play all those

520
00:26:58,640 --> 00:27:02,920
Speaker 1: days and two days and one is there? Eh. Well,

521
00:27:03,320 --> 00:27:07,720
Speaker 1: let's see. Let's say about the public over on that show.

522
00:27:07,880 --> 00:27:10,480
Speaker 1: There's some people I see who come there and they

523
00:27:10,520 --> 00:27:13,240
Speaker 1: really kind of rise to the occasion. Yes, you almost.

524
00:27:13,560 --> 00:27:15,359
Speaker 1: Somebody who I know a little bit I worked with

525
00:27:15,400 --> 00:27:17,840
Speaker 1: them years ago is Kevin Bacon. And I've always had

526
00:27:17,880 --> 00:27:20,000
Speaker 1: Kevin peg to somebody who's as cool as a cucumber.

527
00:27:20,200 --> 00:27:22,600
Speaker 1: And yet even Kevin, when he's singing with his brother

528
00:27:22,640 --> 00:27:25,320
Speaker 1: When the Morning Comes, you can almost see a piece

529
00:27:25,320 --> 00:27:27,240
Speaker 1: of Kevin, there's a little glint of it. Was like,

530
00:27:27,400 --> 00:27:29,960
Speaker 1: I can't believe I'm singing When the Morning Comes with

531
00:27:30,080 --> 00:27:32,280
Speaker 1: Darryl Hall. That was a fun show. I mean, Kevin

532
00:27:32,320 --> 00:27:35,479
Speaker 1: lives near here, and uh, I've known Kevin outside of

533
00:27:35,600 --> 00:27:38,760
Speaker 1: this stuff. But there's two different kinds of people. There's

534
00:27:38,960 --> 00:27:42,280
Speaker 1: brand new people who are looking at me like they

535
00:27:42,320 --> 00:27:44,320
Speaker 1: have to get over that, you know, and and you

536
00:27:44,359 --> 00:27:46,880
Speaker 1: know what I mean, some of these people just had

537
00:27:46,880 --> 00:27:50,040
Speaker 1: their first record and they can't believe they have to

538
00:27:50,160 --> 00:27:52,800
Speaker 1: like do this stuff on their feet. They're not used

539
00:27:52,840 --> 00:27:55,320
Speaker 1: to it, and to see them rise to the occasion

540
00:27:55,600 --> 00:27:59,800
Speaker 1: blows me away. I just I feel very uh but

541
00:28:00,080 --> 00:28:02,320
Speaker 1: hurdle about him, I guess that's the right word. And

542
00:28:02,320 --> 00:28:05,120
Speaker 1: then there's the veterans who are used to doing things

543
00:28:05,160 --> 00:28:08,160
Speaker 1: their own way and used to do in these arrangements

544
00:28:08,200 --> 00:28:11,320
Speaker 1: they've been doing for thirty years and forty years. Kenyans, well,

545
00:28:11,320 --> 00:28:13,399
Speaker 1: there's there's a perfect one. In fact, I had to

546
00:28:13,400 --> 00:28:15,280
Speaker 1: call him out on the show about him, you can

547
00:28:15,320 --> 00:28:17,960
Speaker 1: see that because he was trying to make it into

548
00:28:17,960 --> 00:28:19,920
Speaker 1: the like his live show, and I said, no, no,

549
00:28:20,040 --> 00:28:23,160
Speaker 1: this is Darryl Sas, this is forget it, Kenny, let's

550
00:28:23,160 --> 00:28:24,760
Speaker 1: do it this, let's not do it. You know what

551
00:28:25,000 --> 00:28:27,160
Speaker 1: you've been doing. Change is a good thing. Change is good.

552
00:28:27,280 --> 00:28:29,719
Speaker 1: Change is good, And it's funny to see the veteran

553
00:28:29,800 --> 00:28:32,159
Speaker 1: artists adapt to this, Like on the spot, there are

554
00:28:32,320 --> 00:28:35,080
Speaker 1: brains are going like this. It's fun Talk to me

555
00:28:35,080 --> 00:28:38,240
Speaker 1: about flipping houses or what's your term for restoration? Uh,

556
00:28:38,360 --> 00:28:42,920
Speaker 1: losing a whole lot of money on houses? Tax WRITEX no,

557
00:28:43,360 --> 00:28:46,960
Speaker 1: I wish no. My other personality is totally immersed in history,

558
00:28:47,200 --> 00:28:49,120
Speaker 1: and I grew up in old houses. I grew up

559
00:28:49,160 --> 00:28:51,560
Speaker 1: with a family of people who worked on old houses

560
00:28:51,600 --> 00:28:54,160
Speaker 1: and lived in old houses. You know, outside of Philadelphia

561
00:28:54,400 --> 00:28:56,760
Speaker 1: it's you know, stark, I lived in a valley forge

562
00:28:56,760 --> 00:28:58,400
Speaker 1: for dad's sake, you know. I grew up in those

563
00:28:58,440 --> 00:29:01,400
Speaker 1: kind of houses, seventeen hundred houses and everything. I used

564
00:29:01,400 --> 00:29:03,600
Speaker 1: to go on job sites with my grandfather, who used

565
00:29:03,720 --> 00:29:06,200
Speaker 1: was a stonemason and a brick person, used to restore

566
00:29:06,240 --> 00:29:07,960
Speaker 1: old chimneys and do all that kind of thing and

567
00:29:08,160 --> 00:29:11,000
Speaker 1: actually build houses too, And so I would watch the

568
00:29:11,040 --> 00:29:14,400
Speaker 1: construction of these things, and I was very I don't know,

569
00:29:14,480 --> 00:29:17,680
Speaker 1: I really really liked that world because it's it's not

570
00:29:17,800 --> 00:29:20,440
Speaker 1: that dissimilar to music in some strange way. It's making

571
00:29:20,480 --> 00:29:23,200
Speaker 1: something out of nothing. It's you know that that whole

572
00:29:24,080 --> 00:29:28,280
Speaker 1: old saw about architectures frozen music. What's the first project

573
00:29:28,280 --> 00:29:30,200
Speaker 1: you did in that regard other than the apartment with

574
00:29:30,280 --> 00:29:32,120
Speaker 1: John Well? Now, yeah, that was a whole house. That

575
00:29:32,200 --> 00:29:35,480
Speaker 1: was the first one. This house was was taken over

576
00:29:35,520 --> 00:29:38,480
Speaker 1: by people who I guess just I don't even know

577
00:29:38,520 --> 00:29:41,200
Speaker 1: what it was. They ruined, they basically gutted the house.

578
00:29:41,600 --> 00:29:44,240
Speaker 1: But it was a house from about eighteen hundred and uh.

579
00:29:44,320 --> 00:29:46,760
Speaker 1: It was one of those small Philadelphia houses that they

580
00:29:46,760 --> 00:29:49,280
Speaker 1: call them Father's Son Holy Ghost houses because there's three

581
00:29:49,360 --> 00:29:52,280
Speaker 1: rooms on three floors. It's a very typical small house

582
00:29:52,320 --> 00:29:56,280
Speaker 1: in Philly. We were faced with the shell of this house,

583
00:29:56,320 --> 00:29:59,360
Speaker 1: so I basically got in there and started renovating it,

584
00:29:59,400 --> 00:30:01,680
Speaker 1: and we did. We renovated it. I don't know how

585
00:30:01,760 --> 00:30:03,760
Speaker 1: much John had to do with it, although he like

586
00:30:03,840 --> 00:30:06,080
Speaker 1: he likes this kind of thing as well. He actually

587
00:30:06,120 --> 00:30:08,600
Speaker 1: became a general contractor when he built his house. He

588
00:30:08,640 --> 00:30:11,280
Speaker 1: went to school for it. But he doesn't do historic houses.

589
00:30:11,600 --> 00:30:13,760
Speaker 1: My thing is is historic houses and how many have

590
00:30:13,800 --> 00:30:16,080
Speaker 1: you done? I've done that when I've done too in England.

591
00:30:16,600 --> 00:30:18,960
Speaker 1: So if you're restoring houses in England, you're living over there.

592
00:30:18,960 --> 00:30:20,440
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, Why I live in England as much as

593
00:30:20,520 --> 00:30:23,680
Speaker 1: love in America? Do you really outside of London? I

594
00:30:23,760 --> 00:30:28,200
Speaker 1: live in Why? I don't know. I have something. I

595
00:30:28,200 --> 00:30:32,560
Speaker 1: have family there. Well, my family is partly from England,

596
00:30:32,720 --> 00:30:36,720
Speaker 1: but also I had a British wife and British kids. Now,

597
00:30:36,840 --> 00:30:39,280
Speaker 1: how many kids do you have? I have to And

598
00:30:39,280 --> 00:30:42,160
Speaker 1: they were in England once in London, and one was

599
00:30:42,240 --> 00:30:45,360
Speaker 1: just it wasn't in Charleston's, South Carolina with me for

600
00:30:45,400 --> 00:30:47,920
Speaker 1: a while, and she's now moved to l a anybody

601
00:30:47,960 --> 00:30:50,680
Speaker 1: in the music business. The two kids, both of them,

602
00:30:50,720 --> 00:30:53,080
Speaker 1: they're both they the one of them work with you. Yeah,

603
00:30:53,360 --> 00:30:55,920
Speaker 1: March my daughter. She's a really good musician. We wrote

604
00:30:55,920 --> 00:30:58,520
Speaker 1: a song a week ago. You're not married now, but

605
00:30:58,720 --> 00:31:01,440
Speaker 1: wasn't one of your wives your partners in the restoration

606
00:31:01,480 --> 00:31:05,840
Speaker 1: of the houses. Amanda, she's unfortunately gone. She died almost

607
00:31:05,880 --> 00:31:11,160
Speaker 1: a year ago. But I'm sorry to hear that. Yeah, well, yeah,

608
00:31:11,320 --> 00:31:15,160
Speaker 1: she was. I did a lot of interior design things

609
00:31:15,200 --> 00:31:16,680
Speaker 1: like that, so we we worked on. There was a

610
00:31:16,680 --> 00:31:18,960
Speaker 1: good partner for that. She was really good about that. Yeah.

611
00:31:18,960 --> 00:31:22,160
Speaker 1: We there's a house about three miles from here that

612
00:31:22,560 --> 00:31:25,800
Speaker 1: that we worked on. Now I'm finishing it. So do

613
00:31:25,840 --> 00:31:28,120
Speaker 1: you own all your publishing? You have all your publishing? No.

614
00:31:28,640 --> 00:31:32,040
Speaker 1: I I was very stupid, like many people are over

615
00:31:32,080 --> 00:31:34,080
Speaker 1: the years. But I let's just say at the end,

616
00:31:34,120 --> 00:31:39,080
Speaker 1: I own my publishy, right. That's a tough reality for

617
00:31:39,080 --> 00:31:41,400
Speaker 1: some people, wasn't I I was so stupid. I can't

618
00:31:41,400 --> 00:31:43,600
Speaker 1: believe it. I didn't. I didn't know. I didn't know

619
00:31:43,720 --> 00:31:46,920
Speaker 1: what it meant. I didn't know that it meant everything right, right?

620
00:31:47,800 --> 00:31:49,719
Speaker 1: And when you would write songs, you told me that

621
00:31:49,800 --> 00:31:51,960
Speaker 1: you and he it was it was more he'd do

622
00:31:52,080 --> 00:31:54,920
Speaker 1: his thing, you do your thing. I mean, truthfully, I've

623
00:31:54,960 --> 00:31:57,680
Speaker 1: written the bulk of the songs. I mean I noticed

624
00:31:57,720 --> 00:31:59,800
Speaker 1: him when I read this. Yeah, but also a lot

625
00:31:59,840 --> 00:32:03,239
Speaker 1: of the stuff, A lot of the if you look

626
00:32:03,280 --> 00:32:08,600
Speaker 1: at songwriting credits, a lot of the were very haphazardly attributed,

627
00:32:09,320 --> 00:32:12,000
Speaker 1: you know, but we did. I mean, and that's not

628
00:32:12,040 --> 00:32:14,720
Speaker 1: to denigrate what we've done together for sure. Do you

629
00:32:14,720 --> 00:32:17,880
Speaker 1: have any connection now currently to Philadelphia and then in

630
00:32:17,920 --> 00:32:21,880
Speaker 1: that area back there? I have a familial connection my

631
00:32:22,160 --> 00:32:24,920
Speaker 1: most of my family got there in the early sevent

632
00:32:25,200 --> 00:32:27,880
Speaker 1: undreds have never left. There's no Darryl Hall scholarship, but

633
00:32:27,960 --> 00:32:31,640
Speaker 1: there there's I do have. I do have a star

634
00:32:31,880 --> 00:32:36,760
Speaker 1: on Broad Street. I got that and every year John

635
00:32:36,800 --> 00:32:39,440
Speaker 1: and I do a festival. It's the like called Ogi Nation.

636
00:32:40,440 --> 00:32:42,560
Speaker 1: It's literally good when is that? What time of year?

637
00:32:42,880 --> 00:32:46,120
Speaker 1: Memorial Day weekend. It's a region that's defined by it's

638
00:32:46,120 --> 00:32:48,600
Speaker 1: a fast food It's New York without the ego. It's

639
00:32:48,640 --> 00:32:50,600
Speaker 1: so elegant, and there's so much to do and see there.

640
00:32:50,640 --> 00:32:53,520
Speaker 1: I love. Philadelphia is a very special place. Yeah, let

641
00:32:53,520 --> 00:32:56,280
Speaker 1: me just finish with this, which is why do you

642
00:32:56,360 --> 00:32:59,160
Speaker 1: think it is that you can sing the way that

643
00:32:59,200 --> 00:33:02,600
Speaker 1: you can. It has to do with how your brain works.

644
00:33:03,400 --> 00:33:05,560
Speaker 1: You know. I'm a very spontaneous singer. I'm a very

645
00:33:05,600 --> 00:33:08,560
Speaker 1: free singer. And you don't know where you're gonna go. Man.

646
00:33:09,880 --> 00:33:12,800
Speaker 1: Once It's it's not intellectual, it's there is no thought involved.

647
00:33:13,200 --> 00:33:16,640
Speaker 1: It's total spontaneity. I'm just a bird. It's opening my

648
00:33:16,640 --> 00:33:19,240
Speaker 1: mouth and sharpen away. And I've been lucky enough to

649
00:33:19,280 --> 00:33:25,440
Speaker 1: be blessed with the physiology to pull that off. Singer

650
00:33:25,520 --> 00:33:29,040
Speaker 1: and songwriter Darryl Hall. To hear the full episode of

651
00:33:29,040 --> 00:33:35,480
Speaker 1: this conversation, go to Here's the Thing dot org. Danny

652
00:33:35,520 --> 00:33:39,320
Speaker 1: Bennett has spent the past thirty years managing the career

653
00:33:39,400 --> 00:33:43,720
Speaker 1: of his father, Tony Pennett. Danny helped introduce his father

654
00:33:43,840 --> 00:33:47,840
Speaker 1: to a younger generation of fans through appearances on MTV,

655
00:33:48,560 --> 00:33:52,720
Speaker 1: sn Now and The Simpsons. He also hatched the idea

656
00:33:52,800 --> 00:33:56,400
Speaker 1: for a series of best selling duets albums, which feature

657
00:33:56,440 --> 00:33:59,760
Speaker 1: Tony Bennett with the likes of Lady Gaga, Billy Joe,

658
00:34:00,080 --> 00:34:05,000
Speaker 1: arbra streisand at Amy Winehouse. Danny produced a documentary called

659
00:34:05,040 --> 00:34:08,040
Speaker 1: The Zen of Bennett, which follows his dad throughout the

660
00:34:08,080 --> 00:34:12,120
Speaker 1: recording of the Duets to album. I was born in

661
00:34:12,160 --> 00:34:14,480
Speaker 1: the Bronx, raised in Englewood, New Jersey, and you grew

662
00:34:14,520 --> 00:34:16,000
Speaker 1: up in the Bronx to you were how old? No,

663
00:34:16,200 --> 00:34:18,560
Speaker 1: just like you know, like two weeks quickly and then

664
00:34:18,560 --> 00:34:21,800
Speaker 1: you guys went to Englewood Englewood, New Jersey. Englewood was

665
00:34:21,840 --> 00:34:25,680
Speaker 1: an amazing place. It's it's literally fifteen minutes from midtown,

666
00:34:25,760 --> 00:34:28,359
Speaker 1: right across the George Washington Bridge. And I was born

667
00:34:28,400 --> 00:34:32,839
Speaker 1: in Ninette now, and it was a very exciting time.

668
00:34:32,920 --> 00:34:36,319
Speaker 1: You had um a lot of artists from kind of

669
00:34:36,360 --> 00:34:40,120
Speaker 1: the show biz thing. There was Tony, there was Dick Shawn,

670
00:34:40,640 --> 00:34:44,440
Speaker 1: Joey Bishop, Buddy Brackett. They were just right there because

671
00:34:44,480 --> 00:34:47,600
Speaker 1: they would just Tony would come and do his sessions

672
00:34:47,760 --> 00:34:51,759
Speaker 1: in the city at Columbia Studios, and then the jam

673
00:34:51,840 --> 00:34:54,520
Speaker 1: session would continue in my house. Uh So they were

674
00:34:54,560 --> 00:34:56,120
Speaker 1: just like, hey, let's go back to the house. He

675
00:34:56,160 --> 00:34:58,880
Speaker 1: had like a little studio. And when I say the basement,

676
00:34:58,960 --> 00:35:00,960
Speaker 1: it was you know, above round basement kind of thing.

677
00:35:01,360 --> 00:35:02,880
Speaker 1: You know. As a little kid, I'd wake up to

678
00:35:02,920 --> 00:35:06,080
Speaker 1: the streams of like you know, you know, count basing

679
00:35:06,280 --> 00:35:09,520
Speaker 1: and just amazing stuff. So when you were a kid,

680
00:35:09,960 --> 00:35:13,160
Speaker 1: I suppose most people would assume all those your childhood

681
00:35:13,160 --> 00:35:17,279
Speaker 1: memories of being a wash in music of that period, well,

682
00:35:17,320 --> 00:35:19,680
Speaker 1: you know it's I often say now, like I feel

683
00:35:19,719 --> 00:35:22,960
Speaker 1: like Forrest Gump. I mean, I don't know why I

684
00:35:23,000 --> 00:35:26,239
Speaker 1: had an appreciation for the moment as a kid, I

685
00:35:26,320 --> 00:35:29,920
Speaker 1: just did. It wasn't just music. Besides being able to

686
00:35:29,960 --> 00:35:33,560
Speaker 1: sit on the piano stool with Duke Ellington. I mean,

687
00:35:33,600 --> 00:35:36,520
Speaker 1: that's crazy. But I remember sitting on my dad's lap

688
00:35:37,640 --> 00:35:41,080
Speaker 1: at a political rally with JFK running for president, you know,

689
00:35:41,120 --> 00:35:44,719
Speaker 1: at the Teaneck Armory. He's sitting in back, there's Jack

690
00:35:44,800 --> 00:35:47,239
Speaker 1: Kennedy giving a speech, and I'm seeing all the placards,

691
00:35:47,640 --> 00:35:49,960
Speaker 1: you know. So it's like I'm always seeing the backside

692
00:35:49,960 --> 00:35:54,719
Speaker 1: of things, which is an interesting perspective because that it's

693
00:35:54,719 --> 00:35:57,759
Speaker 1: it's just that image burned in my brain. What was

694
00:35:57,840 --> 00:36:01,680
Speaker 1: like eight or nine years old. Yeah, yeah, yeah, And

695
00:36:01,760 --> 00:36:05,200
Speaker 1: so it's those kind of things, or Lewis Armstrong and

696
00:36:05,239 --> 00:36:07,759
Speaker 1: Carol Channing at the White House. You know, it's like,

697
00:36:08,320 --> 00:36:11,880
Speaker 1: what's that? Or so people who sang standards and sang

698
00:36:12,680 --> 00:36:15,720
Speaker 1: whether they were Broadway tunes or there were standards by

699
00:36:15,880 --> 00:36:18,520
Speaker 1: the Harold Arlens of the world and so forth. But

700
00:36:18,680 --> 00:36:21,640
Speaker 1: music for you, your personal music was dad going to

701
00:36:21,640 --> 00:36:24,040
Speaker 1: the studio with Count Basie and you had an electric

702
00:36:24,040 --> 00:36:26,880
Speaker 1: guitar nam and you were singing Strawberry Fields. Oh yeah.

703
00:36:26,880 --> 00:36:28,720
Speaker 1: I mean when I was ten years old, the Beatles

704
00:36:28,800 --> 00:36:31,120
Speaker 1: hit and that was it. For me and my brother,

705
00:36:31,160 --> 00:36:34,000
Speaker 1: who plays drums. Immediately, I found an old guitar in

706
00:36:34,080 --> 00:36:36,760
Speaker 1: my dad's closet and he's been trying to learn guitar

707
00:36:36,800 --> 00:36:40,600
Speaker 1: for a long time, so I grabbed He's gonna get

708
00:36:40,680 --> 00:36:44,280
Speaker 1: event No, he's gonna get it eventually, I'm telling you. Anyway,

709
00:36:44,320 --> 00:36:47,319
Speaker 1: it was like a guy nylon string guitar, and he

710
00:36:47,360 --> 00:36:50,879
Speaker 1: had a book of chords, one of those things, and

711
00:36:51,000 --> 00:36:53,759
Speaker 1: I just I was so obsest. I had to meet

712
00:36:53,960 --> 00:36:56,800
Speaker 1: were introducing the Beatles record and I put the needle

713
00:36:56,840 --> 00:36:59,719
Speaker 1: down and then like like go through the book and

714
00:36:59,800 --> 00:37:02,879
Speaker 1: just match the chord with the sound of the record. Oh,

715
00:37:02,920 --> 00:37:04,680
Speaker 1: it's a jeep chord, you know, It's like And that's

716
00:37:04,680 --> 00:37:06,560
Speaker 1: how I learned, you know, by year how to play

717
00:37:06,920 --> 00:37:10,000
Speaker 1: what was the name of your band, um Quacky Duck, right,

718
00:37:10,239 --> 00:37:13,200
Speaker 1: and so Cracky you and your brother and you have

719
00:37:13,280 --> 00:37:16,719
Speaker 1: Cracky Duck and you're how old? Um, well, were like sixteen, okay,

720
00:37:16,719 --> 00:37:20,239
Speaker 1: so you're teenagers like old garage bands or teenagers. And

721
00:37:20,280 --> 00:37:23,279
Speaker 1: then but at that same time, do you still have

722
00:37:23,360 --> 00:37:26,319
Speaker 1: like this kind of bicameral relationship with music. There's your

723
00:37:26,400 --> 00:37:29,160
Speaker 1: dad and his music, and that's the presence in your life.

724
00:37:29,160 --> 00:37:30,520
Speaker 1: And you have and you have a fondnest for it

725
00:37:30,880 --> 00:37:33,000
Speaker 1: of course and an appreciation for it. And then you're

726
00:37:33,000 --> 00:37:35,759
Speaker 1: playing Europe. Yeah, I mean some people don't if it's

727
00:37:35,760 --> 00:37:38,919
Speaker 1: Gerald that can cole Um, Lewis Armstrong. I mean, these

728
00:37:38,920 --> 00:37:42,680
Speaker 1: are royalty and huge influences on us. And then obviously,

729
00:37:43,280 --> 00:37:46,080
Speaker 1: you know, we all have our icons. You know, Tony

730
00:37:46,120 --> 00:37:49,359
Speaker 1: has got has his icons and and rightfully, so we're

731
00:37:49,360 --> 00:37:51,720
Speaker 1: gonna get to that. Yeah. Yeah, but but but you're there,

732
00:37:51,840 --> 00:37:56,040
Speaker 1: and what happens as you finished high school? Is there

733
00:37:56,120 --> 00:37:59,479
Speaker 1: a time that you put down your own musical? When

734
00:37:59,520 --> 00:38:03,080
Speaker 1: was well, I mean we were extremely serious about it,

735
00:38:03,200 --> 00:38:05,200
Speaker 1: you know, when it was like we you rehearsed on

736
00:38:05,239 --> 00:38:07,360
Speaker 1: the week. You know, it's like to school. We did it.

737
00:38:07,440 --> 00:38:09,840
Speaker 1: And then it's interesting because we were never kind of

738
00:38:09,880 --> 00:38:12,040
Speaker 1: into sports, and that's what we did at a very

739
00:38:12,080 --> 00:38:14,880
Speaker 1: early age. You know, we were doing like high school

740
00:38:14,960 --> 00:38:17,920
Speaker 1: dances and and and really, I gotta be honest with you,

741
00:38:18,000 --> 00:38:20,359
Speaker 1: I haven't learned much since then. You know, we learned

742
00:38:20,360 --> 00:38:21,880
Speaker 1: how to like, oh wait a minute, you know what

743
00:38:21,960 --> 00:38:25,080
Speaker 1: we're selling tickets? You know, I remember going you know,

744
00:38:25,160 --> 00:38:27,560
Speaker 1: the student union. You'd get paid two hundred bucks, which

745
00:38:27,600 --> 00:38:30,240
Speaker 1: was great in the sixties and there's a lot of money.

746
00:38:30,360 --> 00:38:32,040
Speaker 1: So we we we kind of made it on our own.

747
00:38:32,120 --> 00:38:35,840
Speaker 1: And the student unions go, um two and in Boxton,

748
00:38:36,040 --> 00:38:39,040
Speaker 1: and I'm like, understand, we're selling the tickets like to

749
00:38:39,160 --> 00:38:42,000
Speaker 1: this show. So I would go to the student unions

750
00:38:42,000 --> 00:38:44,319
Speaker 1: and go, hey, look, I'll tell you what. You know

751
00:38:44,320 --> 00:38:45,879
Speaker 1: what you guys are always on the line. You don't

752
00:38:45,920 --> 00:38:48,480
Speaker 1: know if you're gonna make any money. No, no guarantee,

753
00:38:49,239 --> 00:38:51,960
Speaker 1: we'll take a cut of the door. We'll take a

754
00:38:52,080 --> 00:38:56,160
Speaker 1: to you take twenty. And this is the high school.

755
00:38:56,239 --> 00:38:59,359
Speaker 1: And so they're going like, oh, you know that's cool, great, Yeah,

756
00:38:59,400 --> 00:39:00,959
Speaker 1: we don't have to worry when you get her ask kicked.

757
00:39:01,200 --> 00:39:04,239
Speaker 1: At the end of the night, I'm making bucks and

758
00:39:04,280 --> 00:39:07,600
Speaker 1: they're going win a minute, you know. So then I

759
00:39:07,640 --> 00:39:10,240
Speaker 1: just kind of like went from one school to another.

760
00:39:10,960 --> 00:39:13,560
Speaker 1: UM and he finished high school and where'd you go? Um?

761
00:39:13,640 --> 00:39:16,359
Speaker 1: We had to deal with Warner Brothers Records and used

762
00:39:16,360 --> 00:39:19,040
Speaker 1: to play Max's Kansas City and you know with I

763
00:39:19,080 --> 00:39:21,319
Speaker 1: mean Graham Parsons. I don't know if you know. He

764
00:39:21,400 --> 00:39:23,120
Speaker 1: was a good friend of ours. We toured with him,

765
00:39:23,160 --> 00:39:25,040
Speaker 1: and you know, we were like those who are our

766
00:39:25,080 --> 00:39:27,560
Speaker 1: heroes um at the time, and that's where I met

767
00:39:27,600 --> 00:39:29,920
Speaker 1: Bonnie and John Prine, and you know, I had this

768
00:39:30,000 --> 00:39:34,319
Speaker 1: kind of really extraordinary wealth because also his original tour

769
00:39:34,360 --> 00:39:37,400
Speaker 1: manager was a guy named d Anthony. He ended up

770
00:39:37,440 --> 00:39:42,760
Speaker 1: being the penultimate like rock manager and invented the Triumph

771
00:39:42,840 --> 00:39:47,080
Speaker 1: and of promoter Bill Graham, d Anthony and the agent

772
00:39:47,440 --> 00:39:50,560
Speaker 1: uh Frank Barcelona, and they brought all these artists in

773
00:39:50,640 --> 00:39:54,160
Speaker 1: from England and we spent I was raised at Fillmore.

774
00:39:54,480 --> 00:39:56,520
Speaker 1: We were kind of an art band. We played at

775
00:39:56,520 --> 00:39:59,360
Speaker 1: Max's with the Modern Lovers and the New York Dolls

776
00:39:59,360 --> 00:40:01,960
Speaker 1: and and we just said, let's come up with the

777
00:40:02,000 --> 00:40:04,720
Speaker 1: most ridiculous name we can possibly come up with, because

778
00:40:04,880 --> 00:40:08,279
Speaker 1: we thought the Beatles was kind of a ridiculous name, right,

779
00:40:08,320 --> 00:40:10,319
Speaker 1: so we were kind of making fun of that. So

780
00:40:10,400 --> 00:40:13,399
Speaker 1: we were serious about that, working built studios and did

781
00:40:13,400 --> 00:40:14,640
Speaker 1: that kind of thing, and it just got to a

782
00:40:14,680 --> 00:40:18,120
Speaker 1: point where you know, you know when you got it

783
00:40:18,160 --> 00:40:20,359
Speaker 1: and you know when you don't. I was always so

784
00:40:20,560 --> 00:40:23,479
Speaker 1: enamored by especially the people I worked with in other

785
00:40:23,640 --> 00:40:26,359
Speaker 1: writers in my band. I'd go like I was kind

786
00:40:26,360 --> 00:40:28,760
Speaker 1: of really good at like saying, wow, that's a great song.

787
00:40:29,239 --> 00:40:31,960
Speaker 1: And I found that that that was my real talent.

788
00:40:32,800 --> 00:40:35,239
Speaker 1: You know that's interesting. Yeah, and then when does one

789
00:40:35,320 --> 00:40:39,480
Speaker 1: day someone say, Danny, it's you. You're going to start

790
00:40:39,480 --> 00:40:43,320
Speaker 1: becoming involved in this ton inc Well, you know, it's interesting,

791
00:40:43,320 --> 00:40:47,520
Speaker 1: and it's happened in a day. Happens well kind of

792
00:40:47,640 --> 00:40:50,480
Speaker 1: And I can PenPoint when Tony kind of got on, like,

793
00:40:50,560 --> 00:40:52,560
Speaker 1: I wait a minute, he may know what's going on.

794
00:40:53,080 --> 00:40:55,520
Speaker 1: The Beatles for me was you know, I was obsessed

795
00:40:55,840 --> 00:40:57,440
Speaker 1: not only the art of it, but the you know,

796
00:40:57,480 --> 00:41:00,920
Speaker 1: the social aspect of it, the marking of it. Marketing

797
00:41:01,000 --> 00:41:04,120
Speaker 1: was fun. It wasn't a bad word, the balance between

798
00:41:04,200 --> 00:41:05,800
Speaker 1: art and commerce. It was very much about what this

799
00:41:06,000 --> 00:41:08,680
Speaker 1: n and Bennett is about. It's always been interesting to me.

800
00:41:08,960 --> 00:41:13,080
Speaker 1: The Beatles always thought the two minutes and forty seconds

801
00:41:13,080 --> 00:41:17,120
Speaker 1: that they had that was their canvas and how best

802
00:41:17,160 --> 00:41:20,359
Speaker 1: to make that work. I love that concept. I love

803
00:41:20,440 --> 00:41:23,400
Speaker 1: the constraints. Well, Tony always says there's free form. You

804
00:41:23,440 --> 00:41:25,879
Speaker 1: gotta learn form before you can be free, and there's

805
00:41:25,960 --> 00:41:28,120
Speaker 1: there's a lot to that. You know, they couldn't have

806
00:41:28,160 --> 00:41:31,080
Speaker 1: done Hey Jude without doing all those great songs that

807
00:41:31,400 --> 00:41:33,920
Speaker 1: boom there they are, don't for us get to the chorus.

808
00:41:34,400 --> 00:41:37,920
Speaker 1: But but still maintain the art. So moving into a

809
00:41:38,000 --> 00:41:41,360
Speaker 1: time when Tony was um again, we grew up around

810
00:41:41,400 --> 00:41:44,480
Speaker 1: the you know, it was just immersed. So you know,

811
00:41:44,560 --> 00:41:47,680
Speaker 1: the dinner table, the conversations were about what was happening

812
00:41:47,680 --> 00:41:51,319
Speaker 1: at Columbia Records. Oh my god, Clive Davis, he was,

813
00:41:51,480 --> 00:41:54,560
Speaker 1: you know, became president of Columbia, the first attorney. It

814
00:41:54,640 --> 00:41:57,239
Speaker 1: was a freaky thing. It was very tuned into that.

815
00:41:57,320 --> 00:42:00,480
Speaker 1: You know, Um Sinatra didn't make you there, any of

816
00:42:00,520 --> 00:42:04,399
Speaker 1: his daughters or his son, the his right hand men. Well,

817
00:42:04,400 --> 00:42:08,239
Speaker 1: that would have never happened. We don't wanta have to

818
00:42:08,320 --> 00:42:11,840
Speaker 1: go there, but your dad did. Yeah. Well he was

819
00:42:11,880 --> 00:42:14,719
Speaker 1: at a point where the thing at Columbia they tried

820
00:42:14,760 --> 00:42:17,240
Speaker 1: to you know, this happened to everyone, Sir Natra, Barbara

821
00:42:17,239 --> 00:42:19,040
Speaker 1: st You know, it was like, oh, you're gotta wing

822
00:42:19,080 --> 00:42:21,839
Speaker 1: the beetle speeds and sing Barbara Strice. And they tried

823
00:42:21,920 --> 00:42:24,759
Speaker 1: to get Barbara to sing Bob Dylan tunes. I mean

824
00:42:25,000 --> 00:42:28,239
Speaker 1: in nineteen sixty nine. I mean she's listening to Dylan

825
00:42:28,280 --> 00:42:33,799
Speaker 1: going like, what's this, you know, slowing in the winds.

826
00:42:34,120 --> 00:42:39,439
Speaker 1: The answer is belowing in the wind you know, brilliant idea.

827
00:42:39,680 --> 00:42:42,720
Speaker 1: That's a great one. Let's go again, Barbara. So anyway,

828
00:42:42,800 --> 00:42:45,480
Speaker 1: so Tony actually, you know, worked with Climb and he

829
00:42:45,600 --> 00:42:48,000
Speaker 1: did an album that was kind of like that thing

830
00:42:48,360 --> 00:42:50,520
Speaker 1: and it got physically sick. He said, he was like

831
00:42:50,640 --> 00:42:54,480
Speaker 1: regurgitating between takes. And so, well, that's a great story

832
00:42:54,520 --> 00:42:57,960
Speaker 1: that he tells about Clive Davis right um, where Duke

833
00:42:58,040 --> 00:43:00,880
Speaker 1: Yellington went in and said, you know, he thought he

834
00:43:00,880 --> 00:43:04,080
Speaker 1: was going in to get a raise and Clive Davis said, well,

835
00:43:04,120 --> 00:43:07,880
Speaker 1: I have some bad news for you. And he goes, uh,

836
00:43:08,160 --> 00:43:10,160
Speaker 1: what is it? And Clive said, well, we're gonna have

837
00:43:10,200 --> 00:43:13,399
Speaker 1: to drop you from the label. Ellington goes, well, why,

838
00:43:13,520 --> 00:43:17,600
Speaker 1: says well, you're not selling enough records, and Ellington goes, oh,

839
00:43:17,760 --> 00:43:20,000
Speaker 1: I guess I hadn't. I was mistaken. I thought I

840
00:43:20,000 --> 00:43:21,800
Speaker 1: was supposed to make the records and you were supposed

841
00:43:21,800 --> 00:43:24,880
Speaker 1: to sell them. It's great, that's my edict. Like, and

842
00:43:25,040 --> 00:43:30,000
Speaker 1: I've heard that story. That's every artist anxiety. That was

843
00:43:30,520 --> 00:43:32,840
Speaker 1: said to me, why do I hate making movies? And

844
00:43:32,880 --> 00:43:35,000
Speaker 1: I said, and I said, do you really hate making movies?

845
00:43:35,160 --> 00:43:37,000
Speaker 1: I said, well, maybe hates a strong word, but I said,

846
00:43:37,000 --> 00:43:39,319
Speaker 1: I'm very uncomfortable. They say why, I say, because you

847
00:43:39,400 --> 00:43:42,680
Speaker 1: just feel the hand of commerce at your throat every day,

848
00:43:43,080 --> 00:43:45,920
Speaker 1: every day. It's never free. It's really fun. It could

849
00:43:45,920 --> 00:43:49,879
Speaker 1: be challenging, but you just feel like every dime is bascunt.

850
00:43:51,040 --> 00:43:55,000
Speaker 1: So they wanted your dad to do what he couldn't do,

851
00:43:55,800 --> 00:43:57,920
Speaker 1: and he rebels against that, and he just kind of

852
00:43:57,920 --> 00:43:59,719
Speaker 1: like they gave him a big contract and he was like, no,

853
00:43:59,760 --> 00:44:02,200
Speaker 1: I don't do this. I want to start my own label. Now.

854
00:44:02,560 --> 00:44:04,560
Speaker 1: This is at a time when people weren't doing that.

855
00:44:04,840 --> 00:44:06,560
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, I mean, you know, Sinatra did

856
00:44:06,560 --> 00:44:08,080
Speaker 1: it with more Austin, but it was done more on

857
00:44:08,160 --> 00:44:12,920
Speaker 1: a you know, Warner Brothers thing um. And he found

858
00:44:13,320 --> 00:44:16,480
Speaker 1: Jack rawlins Um what the Allen's manager, and you know

859
00:44:16,640 --> 00:44:19,920
Speaker 1: a number of other people, great people to work with

860
00:44:20,000 --> 00:44:22,600
Speaker 1: him on on a label called Improv. This is where

861
00:44:22,600 --> 00:44:25,400
Speaker 1: he made the bell Evans records, you know, voice and piano.

862
00:44:25,960 --> 00:44:28,680
Speaker 1: Those records weren't being made at the time. And so

863
00:44:28,719 --> 00:44:30,600
Speaker 1: he came to me and talked to me about the

864
00:44:30,680 --> 00:44:33,600
Speaker 1: label and I said, oh, that's a great idea. I said,

865
00:44:33,600 --> 00:44:35,600
Speaker 1: you know, it's it's risky. And he said, well, what's

866
00:44:35,680 --> 00:44:38,000
Speaker 1: risky about it? And I said, well, it doesn't seem

867
00:44:38,040 --> 00:44:42,359
Speaker 1: like they have major distribution in this day and age,

868
00:44:42,600 --> 00:44:45,680
Speaker 1: independent distribution is great. You can do it internet. But

869
00:44:46,160 --> 00:44:49,000
Speaker 1: then it was a real challenge. I said, Columbia is

870
00:44:49,040 --> 00:44:51,960
Speaker 1: offering you to do a distribution deal, which is a

871
00:44:51,960 --> 00:44:53,880
Speaker 1: great you know, which is great that it's kind of like,

872
00:44:53,920 --> 00:44:55,400
Speaker 1: you know, they leave you alone. You can do what

873
00:44:55,440 --> 00:44:58,480
Speaker 1: you want to do. He had me go talk to

874
00:44:58,520 --> 00:45:00,960
Speaker 1: the guy who's running a company Buffalo. He said, we'll

875
00:45:01,000 --> 00:45:02,279
Speaker 1: go talk to him. Now, you know, I get the

876
00:45:02,320 --> 00:45:04,640
Speaker 1: long hair in a fringe jacket and I and I

877
00:45:04,680 --> 00:45:07,200
Speaker 1: go to this you know this got this hotel owner

878
00:45:07,239 --> 00:45:09,160
Speaker 1: in Buffalo. And I'm sitting there and he's like, what

879
00:45:09,480 --> 00:45:12,480
Speaker 1: is this about? And I started talking about the distributions.

880
00:45:12,800 --> 00:45:15,879
Speaker 1: It's great, da boom, And there's some other things about

881
00:45:15,880 --> 00:45:17,959
Speaker 1: the contract that I didn't like that I told him about,

882
00:45:18,040 --> 00:45:19,919
Speaker 1: you know, in terms of him kind of getting roped

883
00:45:19,960 --> 00:45:23,359
Speaker 1: into it. And this guy just rejected that whole notion.

884
00:45:23,400 --> 00:45:25,040
Speaker 1: So I went back to Tony and I just said, look,

885
00:45:25,320 --> 00:45:28,920
Speaker 1: I wouldn't do this. I think there's you know, no

886
00:45:29,080 --> 00:45:33,200
Speaker 1: improv records. Well no, he did it. And how long

887
00:45:33,239 --> 00:45:35,960
Speaker 1: did that last? It lasted like three years and they

888
00:45:36,040 --> 00:45:39,800
Speaker 1: failed because of the distribution. So he does improv records

889
00:45:39,800 --> 00:45:43,280
Speaker 1: and then because he can't get the records distributed exactly,

890
00:45:43,480 --> 00:45:46,680
Speaker 1: and so that's what I told him. He remembered that,

891
00:45:47,400 --> 00:45:49,920
Speaker 1: and then the label folded and then he was without

892
00:45:49,920 --> 00:45:55,880
Speaker 1: a contract. M Let's see, Alex, I would say three years.

893
00:45:56,480 --> 00:45:59,960
Speaker 1: Was that like four years? Um? Well, it's tough because

894
00:46:00,239 --> 00:46:03,960
Speaker 1: remember at the time, this is like around seventy eight. Okay,

895
00:46:04,520 --> 00:46:09,880
Speaker 1: Sinatra retired, BGS are number one, and streisand's doing duets

896
00:46:09,920 --> 00:46:12,279
Speaker 1: with the BGS. You know what I'm saying. Yeah, you

897
00:46:12,320 --> 00:46:14,319
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying. So like there's that he didn't

898
00:46:14,320 --> 00:46:16,640
Speaker 1: want to do it, and then he was in Vegas

899
00:46:16,760 --> 00:46:18,719
Speaker 1: and in those days, you were doing Vegas like you know,

900
00:46:18,840 --> 00:46:21,520
Speaker 1: the thirty two week thing and all that time stuff.

901
00:46:21,719 --> 00:46:23,319
Speaker 1: You know. He just called me up one day and

902
00:46:23,400 --> 00:46:25,719
Speaker 1: it was just like, I don't you know, I need

903
00:46:25,800 --> 00:46:27,600
Speaker 1: some help here. I don't know what to do. I

904
00:46:27,600 --> 00:46:30,880
Speaker 1: don't know where to go getting that a manager. Um.

905
00:46:30,960 --> 00:46:34,279
Speaker 1: He wanted to be able to do his art on

906
00:46:34,440 --> 00:46:38,560
Speaker 1: his terms. Um, And what was Vegas like for him? What? What? What?

907
00:46:38,960 --> 00:46:40,719
Speaker 1: What is that like for someone? Because I mean, you

908
00:46:40,719 --> 00:46:45,520
Speaker 1: always figure I remember reading Nick Tosh's book Dino about

909
00:46:45,600 --> 00:46:47,400
Speaker 1: Dean Martin. One of the one of the best biographies

910
00:46:47,400 --> 00:46:51,920
Speaker 1: I've ever and they talked about how Martin at one

911
00:46:51,960 --> 00:46:54,680
Speaker 1: point in the sixties I believe was the highest paid

912
00:46:54,800 --> 00:46:58,440
Speaker 1: entertainer in the world because he had the he touched

913
00:46:58,440 --> 00:47:00,319
Speaker 1: every base, he touched all four bay Is, he had

914
00:47:00,360 --> 00:47:03,240
Speaker 1: a television show, he had a recording contract, he started

915
00:47:03,280 --> 00:47:06,920
Speaker 1: in films, and he appeared live in Vegas in another concerts,

916
00:47:06,960 --> 00:47:09,359
Speaker 1: and he was making millions and millions of dollars back then.

917
00:47:09,960 --> 00:47:12,680
Speaker 1: And I was wondering for someone like your dad where

918
00:47:12,719 --> 00:47:15,080
Speaker 1: I'm not going to say that I actually I don't

919
00:47:15,120 --> 00:47:18,640
Speaker 1: know what Vegas exemplified back then, like for an actor.

920
00:47:19,160 --> 00:47:21,680
Speaker 1: Was that like being on a game show or no, no,

921
00:47:21,680 --> 00:47:25,680
Speaker 1: no no, But I mean the idea that you know,

922
00:47:25,880 --> 00:47:30,560
Speaker 1: this is where they cut their teeth, the lounges, you know,

923
00:47:30,640 --> 00:47:34,080
Speaker 1: Louis Prima in the lounge, you had Fredis Stare and

924
00:47:34,160 --> 00:47:36,600
Speaker 1: Carry Grant going to see Sinatra and then going to

925
00:47:36,680 --> 00:47:39,120
Speaker 1: the lounge, you know, and this is where the audience

926
00:47:39,160 --> 00:47:41,400
Speaker 1: was like, you know, and Tony makes a good point.

927
00:47:42,280 --> 00:47:45,360
Speaker 1: These people, we didn't have access to these people except

928
00:47:45,440 --> 00:47:47,640
Speaker 1: the big screen, and all of a sudden, there they

929
00:47:47,640 --> 00:47:52,560
Speaker 1: are sitting there watching Louis Prima rubbing shoulders with with

930
00:47:52,880 --> 00:47:57,160
Speaker 1: Sinatra and Jerry Grant and whatever. This was magic and

931
00:47:57,239 --> 00:48:00,359
Speaker 1: for for again, for Tony. You gotta remember, Tony ten

932
00:48:00,440 --> 00:48:03,520
Speaker 1: years younger than all these guys. These are his idols,

933
00:48:04,160 --> 00:48:07,399
Speaker 1: you know, Sonatra calling him the kid, you know um,

934
00:48:07,480 --> 00:48:09,600
Speaker 1: And there he is with them all spread a stair.

935
00:48:10,040 --> 00:48:13,600
Speaker 1: I mean, like I was, it was a salon so so,

936
00:48:14,120 --> 00:48:17,400
Speaker 1: and nobody messed around for the very you know, for

937
00:48:17,480 --> 00:48:20,120
Speaker 1: the obvious reasons. And then you got into kind of

938
00:48:20,160 --> 00:48:23,520
Speaker 1: this this evolution where you know, the Suma Corporation and

939
00:48:23,600 --> 00:48:26,080
Speaker 1: Howard Hughes took over, and like I had to negotiate

940
00:48:26,160 --> 00:48:29,760
Speaker 1: with like Howard Hughes and these cowboys. It was really interesting.

941
00:48:30,600 --> 00:48:33,279
Speaker 1: It was amazing, you know. I mean, like and this

942
00:48:33,320 --> 00:48:35,680
Speaker 1: is where I like telling when I first started working,

943
00:48:36,040 --> 00:48:37,960
Speaker 1: and like you know Howard uses on the top of

944
00:48:38,000 --> 00:48:40,000
Speaker 1: the desert end. I mean, I know he's up there.

945
00:48:40,239 --> 00:48:42,840
Speaker 1: And so there was like, you know this guy named Lenny,

946
00:48:42,920 --> 00:48:45,560
Speaker 1: you know that he'd go in with me to negotiate

947
00:48:45,600 --> 00:48:48,320
Speaker 1: the contract. And Lenny get on his hands and knees.

948
00:48:50,320 --> 00:48:52,960
Speaker 1: I'm going seriously, and I'm going, what are you doing?

949
00:48:53,080 --> 00:48:55,680
Speaker 1: And like get off your knees, I'm not gonna get

950
00:48:55,719 --> 00:48:57,480
Speaker 1: on my knees and big for a contract. I'm just

951
00:48:57,520 --> 00:48:59,399
Speaker 1: not going to do it, you know. And the guy,

952
00:49:00,520 --> 00:49:02,320
Speaker 1: it's just sad. Down. You get down on your knee.

953
00:49:02,640 --> 00:49:04,799
Speaker 1: This is how it works here in Vegas. We get

954
00:49:04,840 --> 00:49:06,960
Speaker 1: on a niece for Mr Hughes. Yeah, and he's got

955
00:49:06,960 --> 00:49:08,839
Speaker 1: the big the guys behind the desk with a big

956
00:49:08,880 --> 00:49:11,640
Speaker 1: cowboy hat. And I'm like, oh my god. So I

957
00:49:11,640 --> 00:49:13,799
Speaker 1: go to Tony and and here's a very interesting thing.

958
00:49:15,040 --> 00:49:17,880
Speaker 1: I'm sitting outside the desert and just like you know,

959
00:49:18,560 --> 00:49:21,560
Speaker 1: I'm in a bench. Some dude comes and sits next

960
00:49:21,560 --> 00:49:25,080
Speaker 1: to me, an older guy, and he's grumbling. And I

961
00:49:25,160 --> 00:49:28,040
Speaker 1: turned around and he's like, I'm never coming back to

962
00:49:28,120 --> 00:49:30,279
Speaker 1: Vegas again. Right, he's doing that kind of thing. I'm like,

963
00:49:30,320 --> 00:49:32,719
Speaker 1: what's up. I don't know. You know. They used to

964
00:49:32,719 --> 00:49:34,800
Speaker 1: fly me out here. And he's a bad he's a

965
00:49:34,920 --> 00:49:37,600
Speaker 1: drop fifty grand of pop. But but man, did they

966
00:49:37,600 --> 00:49:40,240
Speaker 1: make me feel good about losing my money? The shows.

967
00:49:40,320 --> 00:49:42,640
Speaker 1: The girls like that he's doing this. He goes, they

968
00:49:42,680 --> 00:49:44,560
Speaker 1: take it all away. Now, they don't want to know me.

969
00:49:44,760 --> 00:49:47,080
Speaker 1: He say, says, I'm never coming back again. And I

970
00:49:47,120 --> 00:49:50,080
Speaker 1: had an epiphany. I was like, we gotta get out

971
00:49:50,080 --> 00:49:52,360
Speaker 1: of this town. It's going down. So I went to

972
00:49:52,400 --> 00:49:55,880
Speaker 1: Tony and I said to him, here's the gig. You

973
00:49:55,960 --> 00:49:58,120
Speaker 1: gotta get out of this town. I know this is

974
00:49:58,160 --> 00:50:00,520
Speaker 1: like this is what you go where? And I said,

975
00:50:00,600 --> 00:50:03,440
Speaker 1: you go to the people. We're gonna go to colleges.

976
00:50:03,640 --> 00:50:08,120
Speaker 1: What year. This is the point in which you kind

977
00:50:08,120 --> 00:50:11,400
Speaker 1: of climb into the cockpit with this guy who's this legend,

978
00:50:11,680 --> 00:50:15,799
Speaker 1: and you're twenty five years old. I wonder what you're

979
00:50:15,840 --> 00:50:18,320
Speaker 1: teaching me. And the conversation is that from the beginning

980
00:50:18,440 --> 00:50:22,440
Speaker 1: you were just saturated and inundated and interested naturally, not

981
00:50:22,480 --> 00:50:24,480
Speaker 1: just in on a creative level, but on a business

982
00:50:24,560 --> 00:50:26,920
Speaker 1: level as well, and on a technical level. Growing up,

983
00:50:26,960 --> 00:50:30,840
Speaker 1: as you know, in that environment where kids were befriending

984
00:50:30,880 --> 00:50:34,120
Speaker 1: me because the parents knew that if they befriended me,

985
00:50:34,320 --> 00:50:36,520
Speaker 1: maybe they could have dinner with Tony at the thing,

986
00:50:36,960 --> 00:50:39,760
Speaker 1: I developed an early sense of like cutting through the crap.

987
00:50:40,200 --> 00:50:41,799
Speaker 1: You know. It's like I knew who my friends were

988
00:50:41,800 --> 00:50:44,640
Speaker 1: and who they weren't. I could tell right away. So

989
00:50:45,480 --> 00:50:48,560
Speaker 1: I had this epiphany and I said, you know what,

990
00:50:48,880 --> 00:50:51,480
Speaker 1: I'm going to run him for president. I'm gonna treat

991
00:50:51,560 --> 00:50:53,640
Speaker 1: his campaign, and I love history too, so I do

992
00:50:53,800 --> 00:50:56,359
Speaker 1: love and I'm like, I'm gonna run. I'm gonna do

993
00:50:56,400 --> 00:50:58,719
Speaker 1: this like I'm running for president. And I went to

994
00:50:58,760 --> 00:51:00,920
Speaker 1: him and I said, you know, residence would not go

995
00:51:01,000 --> 00:51:03,240
Speaker 1: to Iowa if they didn't have to go to Iowa.

996
00:51:03,280 --> 00:51:06,160
Speaker 1: And and and you know, shake the hands, I go

997
00:51:06,640 --> 00:51:09,240
Speaker 1: instead of having people come to you in Vegas. I said,

998
00:51:09,840 --> 00:51:15,279
Speaker 1: your music transcends, right, and you can't do this with everybody.

999
00:51:15,560 --> 00:51:18,400
Speaker 1: And and I have an appreciation. You know, I watched

1000
00:51:18,400 --> 00:51:21,360
Speaker 1: Tony when you know how many times have seen this show.

1001
00:51:21,640 --> 00:51:24,799
Speaker 1: He's reinventing himself. He's really kicking ass. I mean in

1002
00:51:24,920 --> 00:51:28,080
Speaker 1: terms of like taking chances. That's really rock and roll.

1003
00:51:28,280 --> 00:51:30,800
Speaker 1: He's taking chances. You know, the Rolling Stones are getting older,

1004
00:51:31,360 --> 00:51:34,040
Speaker 1: not really taking chance anyway. And there's Tony what he

1005
00:51:34,120 --> 00:51:38,040
Speaker 1: calls moving the furniture around, and unlike people just got

1006
00:51:38,040 --> 00:51:40,920
Speaker 1: to see this. There's a transcendent quality in great art that,

1007
00:51:41,160 --> 00:51:48,400
Speaker 1: like he says, defies demographics. Danny Bennett on his father

1008
00:51:48,719 --> 00:51:52,520
Speaker 1: Tony Bennett. If you're enjoying this conversation, be sure to

1009
00:51:52,600 --> 00:51:55,520
Speaker 1: follow Here's the thing on the I Heart radio app,

1010
00:51:55,680 --> 00:52:00,600
Speaker 1: Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts when he come back.

1011
00:52:01,000 --> 00:52:21,120
Speaker 1: Danny Bennett talks about Tony bennett MTV Unplugged album. I'm

1012
00:52:21,160 --> 00:52:24,319
Speaker 1: Alec Baldwin and this is Here's the thing. When you

1013
00:52:24,400 --> 00:52:28,040
Speaker 1: have a career as long lasting and successful as Tony Bennett's,

1014
00:52:28,400 --> 00:52:31,480
Speaker 1: it's helpful to have people around who you can trust.

1015
00:52:32,000 --> 00:52:35,040
Speaker 1: And Danny Bennett says his father respected his opinion from

1016
00:52:35,320 --> 00:52:40,120
Speaker 1: a very young age. It's interesting because we never related

1017
00:52:40,160 --> 00:52:43,560
Speaker 1: that way, so he kind of always related to me

1018
00:52:43,600 --> 00:52:47,600
Speaker 1: as an adult, Danny, I want to talk to you, son.

1019
00:52:48,320 --> 00:52:50,440
Speaker 1: I don't want you to be my son anymore. I

1020
00:52:50,480 --> 00:52:54,239
Speaker 1: want you to be my account. He treated you like

1021
00:52:54,320 --> 00:52:56,440
Speaker 1: you were It was kind of like you were a business.

1022
00:52:56,360 --> 00:52:59,200
Speaker 1: And so he would produce a partner. At the age

1023
00:52:59,200 --> 00:53:00,759
Speaker 1: of twelve. He would come to me and go like,

1024
00:53:00,800 --> 00:53:02,640
Speaker 1: I don't know, I got this thing about the dog.

1025
00:53:02,840 --> 00:53:06,279
Speaker 1: What do you think he didn't delineate and you know

1026
00:53:06,320 --> 00:53:08,920
Speaker 1: what I mean. You know, it's like I guess, you know,

1027
00:53:08,960 --> 00:53:11,480
Speaker 1: at the turn of the century, kids at twelve and thirteen,

1028
00:53:11,520 --> 00:53:13,520
Speaker 1: we're working the fields, you know what I mean, And

1029
00:53:13,560 --> 00:53:16,839
Speaker 1: like they were doing off rebility. Yeah, and and I

1030
00:53:16,880 --> 00:53:18,880
Speaker 1: think a lot of that this was working in the

1031
00:53:18,920 --> 00:53:20,719
Speaker 1: fields for here. This is working in the fields. You know.

1032
00:53:20,800 --> 00:53:22,960
Speaker 1: It wasn't like go throw a baseball in the track

1033
00:53:23,040 --> 00:53:25,520
Speaker 1: and you know, celebrity. We couldn't go to the zoo.

1034
00:53:26,440 --> 00:53:28,880
Speaker 1: It was impossible. I mean, he took me to one movie,

1035
00:53:29,400 --> 00:53:32,400
Speaker 1: Planet of the Apes. I remember one movie, and that's okay.

1036
00:53:32,520 --> 00:53:35,160
Speaker 1: Danny would never go to the movies together again. I'm sorry.

1037
00:53:35,520 --> 00:53:37,719
Speaker 1: I love his son, but I'm gonna build a theater

1038
00:53:37,760 --> 00:53:39,920
Speaker 1: out there in Englewood exactly, and I wanna watch the

1039
00:53:39,920 --> 00:53:42,439
Speaker 1: movies with Count Basie every Friday night. And then that's

1040
00:53:42,680 --> 00:53:45,759
Speaker 1: that's that, you know. But I always dug the fact that,

1041
00:53:45,840 --> 00:53:48,759
Speaker 1: like I got to go to the Copa comanda. You know.

1042
00:53:49,080 --> 00:53:51,640
Speaker 1: So the eighties go by and you're in this phase

1043
00:53:51,640 --> 00:53:54,719
Speaker 1: where you're gonna build our PM, you're gonna build his

1044
00:53:54,880 --> 00:53:57,600
Speaker 1: your company, You're gonna do what you want to do

1045
00:53:57,680 --> 00:54:00,520
Speaker 1: your way. But when did you know it was gonna work?

1046
00:54:01,360 --> 00:54:02,920
Speaker 1: We I mean, I don't mean to be corny and

1047
00:54:02,920 --> 00:54:05,640
Speaker 1: cinematic about it, but are you standing there one night

1048
00:54:05,680 --> 00:54:07,239
Speaker 1: in the wings and he's out there and you go,

1049
00:54:07,719 --> 00:54:11,040
Speaker 1: it's working. No, I'll tell you what it was. Bob

1050
00:54:11,080 --> 00:54:14,680
Speaker 1: Guccioni Jr. I was the editor of Spin magazine and

1051
00:54:14,719 --> 00:54:17,560
Speaker 1: I was reading it. They were interviewing him in his

1052
00:54:17,600 --> 00:54:19,560
Speaker 1: own magazine and asked him what he thought was the

1053
00:54:19,600 --> 00:54:22,759
Speaker 1: most influential thing about rock and roll. People in rock

1054
00:54:22,760 --> 00:54:26,280
Speaker 1: and roll. He said two people, James Brown and Tony Bennett.

1055
00:54:28,200 --> 00:54:30,520
Speaker 1: And I was like, that's wow, man, James Brown and

1056
00:54:30,520 --> 00:54:32,799
Speaker 1: Tony Bennett. And this is Spin magazine, you know, it's

1057
00:54:32,800 --> 00:54:35,000
Speaker 1: like the pick season of it. And then I went

1058
00:54:35,040 --> 00:54:36,640
Speaker 1: on to read the guys like, well, why oh you

1059
00:54:36,680 --> 00:54:39,279
Speaker 1: understand James Brown? Why Tony Bennett? He said, because he's

1060
00:54:39,280 --> 00:54:41,480
Speaker 1: always taking chances. It's like what I said, and this

1061
00:54:41,560 --> 00:54:43,920
Speaker 1: is what I was thinking about Tony. I'm picking up

1062
00:54:43,960 --> 00:54:46,560
Speaker 1: he's picking up this vibe and Tony, you know, it's

1063
00:54:46,600 --> 00:54:48,840
Speaker 1: like you know, I I say, Tony never sings the

1064
00:54:48,880 --> 00:54:51,719
Speaker 1: same thing once he's he doesn't. He calls it moving

1065
00:54:51,760 --> 00:54:54,239
Speaker 1: to furniture around. He doesn't know. There's no such thing

1066
00:54:54,280 --> 00:54:57,520
Speaker 1: as complacency. And now we're watching are you know the

1067
00:54:57,520 --> 00:55:00,480
Speaker 1: big Idols kind of good corporate, you know, with stones

1068
00:55:00,560 --> 00:55:03,440
Speaker 1: and doing that thing, and they're they're like cookies cutter

1069
00:55:03,960 --> 00:55:07,120
Speaker 1: and and uh, Bob Gucciani is talking about this being like,

1070
00:55:07,160 --> 00:55:11,080
Speaker 1: you know, the guy's an innovator. So I called him up.

1071
00:55:11,520 --> 00:55:13,640
Speaker 1: It led to kind of the you know, they would

1072
00:55:13,640 --> 00:55:16,520
Speaker 1: do these these fashion spreads, and I said, why don't

1073
00:55:16,520 --> 00:55:18,480
Speaker 1: we do something with the Chili Peppers and Tony and

1074
00:55:18,520 --> 00:55:20,840
Speaker 1: we could have fun with it. So we did a

1075
00:55:20,880 --> 00:55:23,880
Speaker 1: show at the hard Rock Cafe in l A with

1076
00:55:23,920 --> 00:55:26,680
Speaker 1: the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Tony. The Chili Peppers

1077
00:55:26,680 --> 00:55:31,120
Speaker 1: were punk at that time, right before Rick ruming Um.

1078
00:55:31,239 --> 00:55:35,640
Speaker 1: And I said that in a compliment, an observational, in

1079
00:55:35,640 --> 00:55:38,279
Speaker 1: a musicological but they went. They did a good job.

1080
00:55:38,840 --> 00:55:41,520
Speaker 1: From there, it was just kind of like, wait a minute.

1081
00:55:41,680 --> 00:55:43,279
Speaker 1: You know it was a snob because your father is

1082
00:55:43,320 --> 00:55:46,360
Speaker 1: a snob, but you're a father a snob a snob

1083
00:55:47,480 --> 00:55:56,440
Speaker 1: that was um. So then I'm like, well, you know what, um.

1084
00:55:56,680 --> 00:56:00,160
Speaker 1: I was managing some other bands at that time in Boston. Uh.

1085
00:56:00,440 --> 00:56:02,040
Speaker 1: And then so like I kind of got into this

1086
00:56:02,080 --> 00:56:05,279
Speaker 1: notion like they were the alternative rock stations and they

1087
00:56:05,320 --> 00:56:10,400
Speaker 1: did these college rock radio shows like RFK stadiums with

1088
00:56:10,520 --> 00:56:13,360
Speaker 1: nine inch Nails and Da Dada. So I was like, gee,

1089
00:56:13,360 --> 00:56:16,240
Speaker 1: I wonder if, like I pitched them, you know about

1090
00:56:16,280 --> 00:56:19,360
Speaker 1: Tony being on the bill, if this would be novel

1091
00:56:19,520 --> 00:56:22,239
Speaker 1: enough for them, And I pitched it or down at

1092
00:56:22,520 --> 00:56:26,680
Speaker 1: Washington d C RFK Stadium and there's Tony where RFK

1093
00:56:26,840 --> 00:56:31,760
Speaker 1: six kids, it's p J Harvey. He's going on between

1094
00:56:31,800 --> 00:56:36,799
Speaker 1: p J Harvey and nine inch Snails Trent Res and

1095
00:56:36,880 --> 00:56:39,920
Speaker 1: what happened? Well, Tony st you're looking at He goes,

1096
00:56:40,360 --> 00:56:45,480
Speaker 1: can I see something? And he goes, would Frank do this?

1097
00:56:46,200 --> 00:56:48,839
Speaker 1: And I said nope, and that's why you're doing it?

1098
00:56:49,560 --> 00:56:53,120
Speaker 1: And he goes, Okay, I get it, and he goes

1099
00:56:53,160 --> 00:56:59,200
Speaker 1: out kills kills. I mean, and we were all you

1100
00:56:59,320 --> 00:57:02,160
Speaker 1: gotta take answers, you know, like we don't take chances anymore.

1101
00:57:02,400 --> 00:57:07,000
Speaker 1: And he kills. They're gonna dig it and they wouldn't

1102
00:57:07,080 --> 00:57:10,239
Speaker 1: let him off the stage, just this trio. Look, I

1103
00:57:10,320 --> 00:57:13,120
Speaker 1: consider myself a dragon slayer for Tony. He calls me

1104
00:57:13,200 --> 00:57:15,440
Speaker 1: up once a month. I swear to God, says, you

1105
00:57:15,440 --> 00:57:16,959
Speaker 1: know what, I just want to thank you once again

1106
00:57:16,960 --> 00:57:19,440
Speaker 1: that I never have to talk to another record executive

1107
00:57:19,440 --> 00:57:24,000
Speaker 1: in my entire life. I helped him unblocked the artistic channel.

1108
00:57:24,360 --> 00:57:26,840
Speaker 1: So I consider myself a you know, a dragon slayer

1109
00:57:26,840 --> 00:57:29,479
Speaker 1: as far as that's concerned. And and I think that

1110
00:57:29,480 --> 00:57:33,040
Speaker 1: that that's my That's what I'm proudest of as far

1111
00:57:33,080 --> 00:57:35,560
Speaker 1: as that's concerned, you know. So you go through this

1112
00:57:35,600 --> 00:57:37,960
Speaker 1: period the eighties and the nineties, and then we did them,

1113
00:57:38,240 --> 00:57:42,439
Speaker 1: but then like out of because those concerts I said,

1114
00:57:43,480 --> 00:57:45,919
Speaker 1: I'm doing, I'm doing L A. K. Rock, I'm doing

1115
00:57:46,080 --> 00:57:48,560
Speaker 1: So I did like five of these things. Then he

1116
00:57:48,600 --> 00:57:52,080
Speaker 1: comes into me and he goes, you know, and now

1117
00:57:52,120 --> 00:57:55,120
Speaker 1: I'll do Tony. You know, I was watching um MTV.

1118
00:57:55,560 --> 00:57:57,880
Speaker 1: I think I can do really well on TV, and

1119
00:57:57,880 --> 00:58:01,520
Speaker 1: then just walks out of my office and I'm like, okay,

1120
00:58:01,680 --> 00:58:06,360
Speaker 1: I'll get well, you know another you know, but that's

1121
00:58:06,400 --> 00:58:10,120
Speaker 1: Tony Man. Why not? I got it? Well Tony spelled backwards,

1122
00:58:10,200 --> 00:58:13,760
Speaker 1: is what? Why not? That's what I say. Anyway, So

1123
00:58:13,800 --> 00:58:15,720
Speaker 1: then it was kind of like, well, how am I

1124
00:58:15,720 --> 00:58:19,880
Speaker 1: gonna do this? You know, Jon Stewart had a new show.

1125
00:58:20,320 --> 00:58:22,600
Speaker 1: They didn't really have artists. I said, put Tony on

1126
00:58:22,600 --> 00:58:24,880
Speaker 1: this on Stewart Show, and I kind of sold that

1127
00:58:25,000 --> 00:58:28,160
Speaker 1: idea and Doug Her talk now as a comedy Central

1128
00:58:28,800 --> 00:58:31,440
Speaker 1: um at the time, and it was like, you know,

1129
00:58:32,000 --> 00:58:34,520
Speaker 1: that could be interesting, and this is around eighty eight now.

1130
00:58:35,880 --> 00:58:38,800
Speaker 1: They dug it, so they put him on then and

1131
00:58:38,840 --> 00:58:40,200
Speaker 1: then it was like then I'm kind of how did

1132
00:58:40,240 --> 00:58:44,240
Speaker 1: he feel he's cool. Here, here's your father, who, like

1133
00:58:44,360 --> 00:58:48,200
Speaker 1: any artist with a career that last decades, technological advance

1134
00:58:48,360 --> 00:58:51,000
Speaker 1: and change becomes another mountain for him to climb. And

1135
00:58:51,080 --> 00:58:55,120
Speaker 1: now he's on a television music channel. Here's the thing,

1136
00:58:55,480 --> 00:59:00,400
Speaker 1: it's the audience. His audiences were getting older, and when

1137
00:59:00,400 --> 00:59:05,000
Speaker 1: we were in front of that young audience, it's up here.

1138
00:59:05,520 --> 00:59:08,920
Speaker 1: And then he became twenty years sols a gun. I

1139
00:59:08,960 --> 00:59:12,400
Speaker 1: watched him. You know, he just rises to the occasion

1140
00:59:12,560 --> 00:59:15,400
Speaker 1: from that audience. Since we doesn't like to do arenas

1141
00:59:15,440 --> 00:59:19,200
Speaker 1: and things that he feeds off of that. And here's

1142
00:59:19,200 --> 00:59:20,640
Speaker 1: the deal. So it was like they came and it

1143
00:59:20,720 --> 00:59:23,640
Speaker 1: was like, you know, we got unplugged. Um, i'd be

1144
00:59:23,640 --> 00:59:27,280
Speaker 1: interesting to do unhugged. So I was like, yeah, fantastic.

1145
00:59:27,360 --> 00:59:30,360
Speaker 1: So seriously, man, got all the MTV people, all the

1146
00:59:30,400 --> 00:59:33,040
Speaker 1: record people, and they started going great, you know, we

1147
00:59:33,120 --> 00:59:36,840
Speaker 1: got this is gonna be fantastic. Tony's gonna sing Within

1148
00:59:36,920 --> 00:59:40,840
Speaker 1: and Without You Abano song and like Runaway Train and

1149
00:59:40,840 --> 00:59:43,680
Speaker 1: and I was like whoa. I said, you know what, guys,

1150
00:59:43,720 --> 00:59:46,440
Speaker 1: I really appreciate this, but this is this is a

1151
00:59:46,480 --> 00:59:49,840
Speaker 1: train wreck, never gonna happen. And I walked up and

1152
00:59:49,880 --> 00:59:51,280
Speaker 1: then they said, well, come back, and what are you

1153
00:59:51,320 --> 00:59:54,840
Speaker 1: talking about. I said, listen, you guys are MTV. This

1154
00:59:54,880 --> 00:59:57,040
Speaker 1: was in the day of MTV. I said, you guys

1155
00:59:57,080 --> 01:00:00,760
Speaker 1: got balls. That's that. You know, there's no what's gonna

1156
01:00:00,800 --> 01:00:02,960
Speaker 1: take balls is to do Tony's music and have them

1157
01:00:02,960 --> 01:00:06,440
Speaker 1: sing Tony's music. And I said, that's balls. That's MTV.

1158
01:00:07,120 --> 01:00:10,320
Speaker 1: Whose idea was the duets album? I mean, you know

1159
01:00:10,480 --> 01:00:12,960
Speaker 1: it's not It wasn't an original idea what I'm saying,

1160
01:00:12,960 --> 01:00:16,160
Speaker 1: but I thought that those are very complicated things to do.

1161
01:00:16,280 --> 01:00:19,640
Speaker 1: The point pain in the as. Yeah, you know, you

1162
01:00:20,160 --> 01:00:23,840
Speaker 1: had Sinatra and then you had um Ray Charles. I mean,

1163
01:00:23,920 --> 01:00:28,160
Speaker 1: he's so fifteen million records. Um pretty good idea, you know.

1164
01:00:28,240 --> 01:00:30,400
Speaker 1: So I'm like, you know, how do I go and

1165
01:00:30,440 --> 01:00:33,000
Speaker 1: reinvent Tony? You know? And then we went on with

1166
01:00:33,120 --> 01:00:35,080
Speaker 1: MTV to win Album of the Year with the Grammy's

1167
01:00:35,080 --> 01:00:37,080
Speaker 1: got a lot of people upset, and I was like,

1168
01:00:37,080 --> 01:00:39,560
Speaker 1: what's going on with that? But when you look at it,

1169
01:00:39,840 --> 01:00:41,880
Speaker 1: you know, Alec, it's like he herald it. In the

1170
01:00:41,920 --> 01:00:45,480
Speaker 1: iPod generation, you can listen to Tony and Billie Holliday

1171
01:00:45,680 --> 01:00:48,600
Speaker 1: and also listen to Pearl jam and you know it

1172
01:00:48,640 --> 01:00:52,000
Speaker 1: didn't matter, so kids started opening up to that. He's

1173
01:00:52,360 --> 01:00:54,880
Speaker 1: you know, I give him a lot of credit for that.

1174
01:00:55,440 --> 01:00:59,240
Speaker 1: Your father has you in his corner obviously for many

1175
01:00:59,240 --> 01:01:01,480
Speaker 1: many years now. His own son is flesh and blood.

1176
01:01:01,840 --> 01:01:05,080
Speaker 1: He has a wife, your stepmother, who is obviously is

1177
01:01:05,640 --> 01:01:08,440
Speaker 1: omnipresent and around all the time with him. He's got

1178
01:01:08,480 --> 01:01:10,560
Speaker 1: two people who are taking good care of him, and

1179
01:01:10,560 --> 01:01:12,560
Speaker 1: he's getting on in years. And then my and my

1180
01:01:12,640 --> 01:01:14,920
Speaker 1: brother has been producing his records, and your brothers and

1181
01:01:15,440 --> 01:01:17,520
Speaker 1: I'm assuming that a lot of it is you've got

1182
01:01:17,520 --> 01:01:19,520
Speaker 1: to take as much stress of him as possible because

1183
01:01:19,560 --> 01:01:22,080
Speaker 1: because because he's working a full schedule. Yeah, well and

1184
01:01:22,080 --> 01:01:24,640
Speaker 1: he's eighty what years old, he's gonna be eighty seven,

1185
01:01:24,800 --> 01:01:26,400
Speaker 1: he's still going well. I mean a lot of people

1186
01:01:26,440 --> 01:01:28,120
Speaker 1: don't look at me and go like, what are you doing?

1187
01:01:28,240 --> 01:01:31,120
Speaker 1: You leave him? Leave him be? And then they do,

1188
01:01:31,320 --> 01:01:34,440
Speaker 1: oh yeah, and I'm like, it's not me. I mean, seriously,

1189
01:01:34,560 --> 01:01:38,840
Speaker 1: I'm very you know, conscientious of his a. The guy

1190
01:01:38,880 --> 01:01:41,120
Speaker 1: doesn't like to take elevators. He takes he doesn't like

1191
01:01:41,160 --> 01:01:43,880
Speaker 1: to take escalators. We go to airports, he's up the stairs.

1192
01:01:44,200 --> 01:01:47,000
Speaker 1: He's the first one keeping up with him is a

1193
01:01:47,120 --> 01:02:12,880
Speaker 1: challenge and out in the time. My thanks to Darryl

1194
01:02:12,920 --> 01:02:16,560
Speaker 1: Hall and Danny Bennett. I'm Alec Baldwin. Here's the Thing

1195
01:02:17,120 --> 01:02:26,600
Speaker 1: is brought to you by iHeart radioh