Speaker 1: Welcome, Welcome, Welcome. You're listening to the Bob Left Sets podcast.
Speaker 1: My guest this week is songwriter Extraordinary Diane Warren. Diane, Hi,
Speaker 1: good to be here. We're in your building. It's got
Speaker 1: a big R on the side of it, right here
Speaker 1: on Cowenda Boulevard. And I can reveal this information because
Speaker 1: security is very tight. And actually your security guy pulled
Speaker 1: me the park Parking Street, which is unbelievable. But the
Speaker 1: amazing thing is he says, people try to get into
Speaker 1: the building every day, which is really crazy. But it's
Speaker 1: got a big ARE on the side for real songs.
Speaker 1: Why is your publishing company known as Real Songs? Well,
Speaker 1: I like to think that I write real songs, so
Speaker 1: there you go. But I thought it was a cool
Speaker 1: name for a publishing company at first. I want I
Speaker 1: was trying from the name Warren Peace to you a
Speaker 1: R R N right, I E c um And someone
Speaker 1: had that like you know, which is kind of but
Speaker 1: no one you think you try to buy it from him? No, no, no,
Speaker 1: I just when I that's a long story. When I
Speaker 1: started my own publishing company years ago, I had to
Speaker 1: come up with a name, and you know, I didn't
Speaker 1: try to buy that. But I liked real songs and
Speaker 1: thinking that there's no way that someone doesn't have that,
Speaker 1: you know, even even a film company is publishing coming
Speaker 1: with R E. L. But no one had it. I
Speaker 1: mean I grabbed it and it just it's kind of
Speaker 1: kind of fits, kind of fits me. Also, you famously
Speaker 1: had a studio that you didn't clean for seventeen years.
Speaker 1: Oh you tught what you're thinking about. It's like try
Speaker 1: thirty two and it's still there. It's still there. You
Speaker 1: ever go in there anymore? I work in there all
Speaker 1: the time. You do. But now we're in a building
Speaker 1: on Kwanga that you own. How did you decide to
Speaker 1: buy a building? Well, my business manager thought, you know,
Speaker 1: it would be a good investment. He goes, why are
Speaker 1: you spending all that money on rent there? I go,
Speaker 1: I like it. I've been there forever and I've been
Speaker 1: there again. And I said, but there's this building I
Speaker 1: really like that I've recorded out. It's some Atlantic Atlantic
Speaker 1: Records studios are in there now and it's on con
Speaker 1: It used to be Baby Faces place and sold our
Speaker 1: records in the past. Death Row also was here. Um,
Speaker 1: I think the studio on the back is where I
Speaker 1: shood night held a gun. Easy's head, no loom in
Speaker 1: all in that room. Who knows what was done here?
Speaker 1: But anyways, and so I told I told my business
Speaker 1: managers a building I love, and I said, check out
Speaker 1: if it's available, if it's if someone's a celt and
Speaker 1: they did, and I came here and I looked around him, like, yeah,
Speaker 1: this I remember. I love this place. I went to
Speaker 1: the top floor, which reminds me of the place I
Speaker 1: am now, and I, you know, basically put a bit in.
Speaker 1: I think someone was trying to buy it, so I
Speaker 1: put it a little more and I bought it. But
Speaker 1: I've had it for two and a half years. And
Speaker 1: I still really work out of my other place. Man, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I still have my other place. So I'm still paying
Speaker 1: a shipload of rent at at my opposite you know,
Speaker 1: I've been at forever since I'm five. But I have
Speaker 1: a writing room here and I have all the studios.
Speaker 1: And then eventually I'm supposed to move to the top floor.
Speaker 1: My company supposed to move here. But we've already been
Speaker 1: here for two and a half years. Well know, it's
Speaker 1: taken time, Like we've had to get the student like
Speaker 1: Atlantic at the studios until like the beginning of the year. Um,
Speaker 1: so we've had to fix them up and um. And
Speaker 1: then they have to build out the top floor. So
Speaker 1: that's taken time. Okay, so you're supposed to move to
Speaker 1: the top floor. Yeah, eventually, I'm supposed to move to
Speaker 1: the top what's on the top floor now? Like the
Speaker 1: office buildings, you know, rooms, you know, it was there
Speaker 1: was nothing up there, so we just had to kind
Speaker 1: of do it from scratch. So someone had to design it.
Speaker 1: And but like where I am, I've never cleaned my rooms.
Speaker 1: I have two rooms there. I don't know. At first
Speaker 1: I thought it was maybe you know, you know, superstition,
Speaker 1: But I think I'm just lazy and I don't like anybody.
Speaker 1: Probably if we went to your house, is your house?
Speaker 1: My house is a mess too, but not like my
Speaker 1: my room, you know, I mean, like is it a
Speaker 1: mess because you want to know where everything is? Okay,
Speaker 1: the stuff of my house, I kind of know where
Speaker 1: everything is. The stuff stuff in my office, I don't
Speaker 1: really know. You let someone come in and clean your house, yeah,
Speaker 1: but this stuff, I won't let her touch the whole rooms.
Speaker 1: You won't let her. I don't. I don't live in
Speaker 1: a big house. You know. I have a couple of
Speaker 1: few rooms, you know, but you know, no, it's just
Speaker 1: but my office. It's very comfortable for me. Like you
Speaker 1: were talking about, you have a place you don't funny
Speaker 1: big work. I move off. They're just gonna light a
Speaker 1: match with burden me too. They're gonna I want them
Speaker 1: to literally cut that room out and bring it here
Speaker 1: to the top floor. I think it's just really ridiculous.
Speaker 1: I know where everything is, but I must admit there's
Speaker 1: certain stuff that hasn't been moved in years. I could
Speaker 1: find messing. I could pick up a piece of paper
Speaker 1: and if it doesn't disintegrate in my hand, it could
Speaker 1: say from someone so and so called. Right, I feel comfortable.
Speaker 1: I like these people who answer every email every day
Speaker 1: and clean their desk every day. I don't get it neither,
Speaker 1: you know. I like to answer my emails if I can,
Speaker 1: but I don't. I don't like the clean desk clean
Speaker 1: I like it. There's something wrong with you when it
Speaker 1: is too clean. And trust people. The other question, I
Speaker 1: go through various phases on the email. Do I want
Speaker 1: to answer every email? But then I find what I'm
Speaker 1: not in the mood I give the wrong answer. So
Speaker 1: there's certain emails I should say I get. I get
Speaker 1: to all of them, but I don't go to inbox zero.
Speaker 1: What about like someone something? This what happens to me.
Speaker 1: I try to be nice even if I don't like
Speaker 1: and then I'm like, oh shoot, and then get ten
Speaker 1: more emails back from them like uh, well, we were
Speaker 1: talking talk about this a little bit off, Mike. I
Speaker 1: sort of solved that that I don't respond. You don't
Speaker 1: respond because ten percent of the public is insane and
Speaker 1: I don't know which ten percent it is, so people
Speaker 1: seem totally reasonable. I had a bad experience with my
Speaker 1: Space about God that is about ten years ago, and
Speaker 1: should be the guy told me. The guy started bugging me,
Speaker 1: I'm in a radio contest and you have to tell
Speaker 1: all your followers to vote for me, which is something
Speaker 1: I would never do. So what I said, No, he
Speaker 1: had all his followers emailed me my inbox just you
Speaker 1: could watch it, just going berserk. And that's when I realized,
Speaker 1: just can't respond to people well. And then no good deed,
Speaker 1: right yea, yeah, no good deed goes unpunished. You know, listen,
Speaker 1: I sort of understand it. In that success is hard
Speaker 1: to achieve and it is a club. And if you're
Speaker 1: an outsider, I can understand how you have contempt. There
Speaker 1: are a lot of people who are just fans, you
Speaker 1: know what, like like for all the people that have contempt,
Speaker 1: for people that have done well with your lives, that
Speaker 1: will go do well with your own life. Why why
Speaker 1: are you gonna be why why would you have contempt
Speaker 1: for someone that looks really hard? It's too hard to
Speaker 1: be successful, you know, I always I always the analogy
Speaker 1: I always using, but it's too hard for them. I remember,
Speaker 1: you know they have the TV show Friends, So there's
Speaker 1: three guys and three girls. That's really where it's the
Speaker 1: second time today someone's brought up that TV show. What
Speaker 1: was the context of the first time? Someone with without ours?
Speaker 1: That was in earlier and I've never even seen the show?
Speaker 1: Is that weird? Started off good? You know in England
Speaker 1: the show's in here, they run until no one's watching anymore.
Speaker 1: But anybody's sitting at home, gay, straight or otherwise. Six
Speaker 1: people on the show. You could find someone you're interested in.
Speaker 1: And if you're not living in Los Angeles where the
Speaker 1: show is filmed, you can sit there and say Hey,
Speaker 1: you know, if I moved to Los Angeles, I could
Speaker 1: funk one of those people. But the difference is they
Speaker 1: don't move someone like me. I grew up in Connecticut,
Speaker 1: moved to l A. It takes two years just to
Speaker 1: find out who's full of ship. Okay, takes longer than that.
Speaker 1: I'm still trying to figure it out. So it's like,
Speaker 1: most people don't want to do the work, so they
Speaker 1: get angry that you have done the work. The irony,
Speaker 1: of course, you know what, that's their problem. I mean,
Speaker 1: the thing is like, speaking for myself, I work my
Speaker 1: ass off, you know, I always have. I get to
Speaker 1: work early, I work really hard. I you know, someone's
Speaker 1: gonna get angry. Like, if someone's gonna get contemptuous of that,
Speaker 1: that's their problem, you know. Like I've always admired people
Speaker 1: that make something in themselves. I've never had contempt for them. Well,
Speaker 1: there's two things now. Used to be prior to the Internet,
Speaker 1: people couldn't actually reach you. So they were saying these
Speaker 1: things and you never heard them. But now everyone's got
Speaker 1: a voice online and if you see Okay, so let's
Speaker 1: let's go back at the beginning. You were from l A.
Speaker 1: I'm from Van Eyes. Yeah, Vienna, I mean literally Vane.
Speaker 1: I'm from the valley. For people who don't know. There's
Speaker 1: a row of mountains, the Hollywood Hills, and one side
Speaker 1: is the West Side and Hollywood. The other side is
Speaker 1: the Vali's a million miles away from Hollywood. Yeah, but
Speaker 1: now not as much it used to be. But like,
Speaker 1: wouldn't know me growing up and my friends and the
Speaker 1: Vali Ali that you know, Van Nuys and North rich areas,
Speaker 1: Like we my friends with hitchhike to Sunset Boulevard were
Speaker 1: kids and stuff, and you know, it was a million
Speaker 1: miles away. Okay, so you're growing up, how often would
Speaker 1: you come to Hollywood or Westwood or something like that?
Speaker 1: You know, not super often. I didn't, you know. I
Speaker 1: mean we did crazy things, Me and my friends. You know,
Speaker 1: we're glad, we're lucky, we're alive. Like we hitchhike. Can
Speaker 1: you imagine getting in a car? Was I got to
Speaker 1: stop for a second. My parents met hitchhiking, seriously, seriously.
Speaker 1: They both went to Tanglewood and my mother was working
Speaker 1: in a camp. My father my mother was getting camp
Speaker 1: just over the New York line, and my father is
Speaker 1: living in Connecticut and he picked up my mother hitchhiking
Speaker 1: and they got married. When married for forty years till
Speaker 1: my father passed away. So during the heyday of hitchhiking,
Speaker 1: they could never say don't hitchhike right each other exactly.
Speaker 1: But I remember because it worked both ways. You both
Speaker 1: hitchhiking and you felt an obligation to pick somebody up.
Speaker 1: And it was the mid seventies. I think it was
Speaker 1: like seventy four, and I was at the intersection of
Speaker 1: will Shure and Sanvaseny in Brentwood, and I picked a
Speaker 1: couple of people up and they started bossing me around
Speaker 1: one wait wait recently, No, this is in the mid seventies.
Speaker 1: That's the last time. That's the last time I picked somebody.
Speaker 1: You don't know, someone pulls out a gun or something,
Speaker 1: you know, I mean, you don't want that, but I
Speaker 1: was justin. It was also picked up hitchhiking running away
Speaker 1: from home to visit my friend in Cape cod was
Speaker 1: once picked up with a guy to rolls Royce. Well,
Speaker 1: that's different. Although I read about a serial killer one
Speaker 1: time that I think he had a role. Really okay, okay,
Speaker 1: off topic, off topic. This is so you're in vien nice.
Speaker 1: What did your father do for a living? My dad
Speaker 1: was a prudential life insurance salesman. How successful I think
Speaker 1: he did pretty well, you know, I mean not super six,
Speaker 1: like probably middle class, you know. Okay, and you have
Speaker 1: two sisters. Yeah, they're a lot older than me, a
Speaker 1: lot older, eleven years older. Okay, so you're that's a
Speaker 1: cool thing about that is I got taken to a
Speaker 1: Beatle concert when I was little. I don't have experience.
Speaker 1: That's a cooling him twice Dodger Stadium in Hollywood Bowl. Wow,
Speaker 1: that was pretty cool. Okay you were there? Could you
Speaker 1: hear him? There was a lot of screaming. I still remember.
Speaker 1: It was a lot of screaming. So you're in v
Speaker 1: M I and you grow up. When did you get
Speaker 1: into music? You know? I just liked to I It's weird.
Speaker 1: I was so into music. So I grew up listening
Speaker 1: to the radio we had, like the local stations. Was
Speaker 1: h J before your ten okay before the Beatles hit?
Speaker 1: Are you listening to the transistor? I was younger? Actually,
Speaker 1: Um yeah, I did. I listen to had a little
Speaker 1: transistor radio. I grew up and my mom and dad
Speaker 1: had show tunes, So I got to hear like La
Speaker 1: Mancha on the Sound of Music, but I think the
Speaker 1: best songs ever West Side Story Come. So I got
Speaker 1: to hear and I remember, I honestly remember. The first
Speaker 1: song I remember hearing was probably when I was like
Speaker 1: like like a baby, was like like a Buddy Holly
Speaker 1: or something that my sisters were playing. So and I
Speaker 1: got to grow up hearing the music that my sisters
Speaker 1: had and my parents had, and I listened to the
Speaker 1: radio constantly, and the radio when I grew up, you know,
Speaker 1: when we you know, was was everything. Like you could
Speaker 1: hear Motown, you could hear the Beatles, Thank Sinatra or something.
Speaker 1: I always say, I can ever sing every lick of
Speaker 1: Hello Dolly by Louis Armstrong, because I was waiting for
Speaker 1: the Beatles. Well, you know, they're all songs. We would
Speaker 1: not know King of the Road, which is like a
Speaker 1: great song. I wouldn't know, did I knew? How did
Speaker 1: How did we hear that? How did I hear that?
Speaker 1: In Van eye? We must have been one on the
Speaker 1: top forty radio because it was supposedly the best of everything.
Speaker 1: So I missed that. That was cool cause you got
Speaker 1: to hear everything you know, yeah, I list you know
Speaker 1: today it's it's so hard to know what's going I
Speaker 1: mean it's very fragmented, you know. It's like, Okay, it
Speaker 1: sounds like the same track on this song. I mean,
Speaker 1: you know, but I mean it was It's fun, you know.
Speaker 1: That's the cool thing about you know, you can go
Speaker 1: and hear everything anything you want though. Yeah, but I
Speaker 1: guess there's a sense of community. Like when we sit
Speaker 1: here and talk about these old records, we go, yeah,
Speaker 1: like did you see that Wayne Cochrane died? Okay, Wayne Cochrane,
Speaker 1: the guy with a big blonde here. What I've forgotten
Speaker 1: is he wrote the song last Kiss You didn't have
Speaker 1: to hit first? You remember that song? Yeah, I was
Speaker 1: on on a date. We can sit here and do Yeah,
Speaker 1: who did that song? Uh? Somebody J and whatever. I
Speaker 1: can't remember. It's like sixty four and Leaven Pearl. It's
Speaker 1: about like a like an accident and there's a lot
Speaker 1: of like tragic love songs exactly. But we can talk
Speaker 1: about that word the pack then they always end up dying,
Speaker 1: right exactly. Okay, So you were listening to the radio
Speaker 1: before the Beatles hit. Yeah, I was listening to radio like,
Speaker 1: I think I grew up like my ear on a
Speaker 1: radio and you loved music. Are you buying records? The
Speaker 1: first record I ever bought was Meet the Beatles. Okay,
Speaker 1: so I mean I'm trying to think. Yeah, I bought records.
Speaker 1: I my parents bought me records and stuff that I
Speaker 1: Then I got a little guitar. It was about like
Speaker 1: nine or ten that my dad brought me from Mexico.
Speaker 1: I wanted it. You wanted it? Yeah, it was a
Speaker 1: teeny little I wish I had it still, But I
Speaker 1: had my twelve string that I brought my dad to
Speaker 1: get me. That's there if I did that was such
Speaker 1: a bad student. I got kicked out of two junior
Speaker 1: highs regular public school. Yeah, why did you get kicked out? Well,
Speaker 1: let's see the first time forging my parents signature, smoking weed.
Speaker 1: But they didn't really catch me for smoking weed, but
Speaker 1: they saw me smoking something. I was just a bad kids,
Speaker 1: Like I kicked out a mallhole in junior high. Right then,
Speaker 1: which when did you go to? But I got my
Speaker 1: guitar first, I believe. Well. Then I went to north
Speaker 1: Rough Junior High and I got kicked out because I
Speaker 1: had this one of my teachers was such a bit
Speaker 1: and I was flipping her off. I was about to
Speaker 1: say fah, and I had my finger up, but the
Speaker 1: didn't even come out, and my finger was up, and
Speaker 1: she saw me and she sent me the This was
Speaker 1: like a long this is crazy ship. So she sent
Speaker 1: me the principle's office. But instead of going to principle's office,
Speaker 1: I went with a friend of mine and stayed and
Speaker 1: ran away from home and stayed with fugitive bank robbers
Speaker 1: that were junkies for two weeks. I went hung beause
Speaker 1: I missed my cat. For real? What did your parents
Speaker 1: say about all this? They were looking I wish I
Speaker 1: was if I was at my other place, I could
Speaker 1: show you the actual thing that was in the paper
Speaker 1: about Mr and Mrs Warren looking for their daughter Diane.
Speaker 1: Really yeah, okay, so you get a hold and what
Speaker 1: did they say? Well, no, they were happy I was
Speaker 1: back and I was happy to see my cat. They
Speaker 1: didn't they didn't they didn't hit you or anything. No, No,
Speaker 1: they were happy I was alive. You know, the funniest
Speaker 1: thing for my today's standard, I was an abused kid.
Speaker 1: My father used day with a hair bra No, that's terrible.
Speaker 1: That's terrible, but that's what happened. That's what it was.
Speaker 1: The parents yelled at me a lot, you know. Okay,
Speaker 1: so but now you come back, aren't they afraid you're
Speaker 1: gonna run away again? No? I was cool. Then. I'm
Speaker 1: trying to think of, well, maybe I went to Juvele
Speaker 1: after that one time. I can't remember that before. And
Speaker 1: I was like, I was kind of a rebel. I
Speaker 1: was like, okay, you went to juvenile hall a couple
Speaker 1: of times, and how long were you there? For? Two
Speaker 1: weeks each? Okay, you go for two weeks. You're a
Speaker 1: middle class of bourbon night. The people in Julie. My
Speaker 1: parents turned me in. They found pot in my room. Okay,
Speaker 1: but you'd go to juvenile there must be some rough
Speaker 1: women there. It was it silmar. It was like like
Speaker 1: I remember one girl had like what's it called sideburns?
Speaker 1: And remember the guard when I came. When I was
Speaker 1: like going through, they had roach clip earrings on. I'm like, well,
Speaker 1: I appreciate it, irony. Even then, that's a roach clip
Speaker 1: earrings on them, which I wait, was I bought from
Speaker 1: the from the ice cream man. It's all weird, isn't it. Okay,
Speaker 1: but were you scared when you were in drew the Hall. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I was kind of like, kind of freaked out. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I tried to hide and then yeah, I kind of
Speaker 1: remember one time I had to sell and another time
Speaker 1: it was a big room with a bunch of people.
Speaker 1: I was like, see, I'm like, I got my street cred.
Speaker 1: You really could be a rapper, you really do. But
Speaker 1: but you do go you graduate from high school right,
Speaker 1: barely barely? Yeah, and then you went to junior college.
Speaker 1: I went to Pierce Junior College for two years, two years.
Speaker 1: My dad said, as long as I went to college,
Speaker 1: I'll support you. So I went to Pierce and you
Speaker 1: were living at home. Yeah, well I lived at yeah,
Speaker 1: at home most of the time. That for about six months,
Speaker 1: I lived in an apartment, but someone kicked in my
Speaker 1: walls in my I mean broke through my apartment and
Speaker 1: long story, Okay, So then and I went back to
Speaker 1: my mom and dad's house and I went to c
Speaker 1: s un for two years. And I did then, which
Speaker 1: is interesting. I took a lot of film kind of
Speaker 1: classes to watch history and movies just so I didn't
Speaker 1: have to do ship. So but but from that I
Speaker 1: was like watching a lot of movies, and you know,
Speaker 1: I probably learned how to two songs from movies from that.
Speaker 1: And did you graduate? No, of course not. So let's
Speaker 1: still have you wanted to go back? Now? I know
Speaker 1: they did give me a special honor when I got it.
Speaker 1: The c Sun gave me some I don't know what's
Speaker 1: called distinguished alumni kind of thing, and I was like, hey,
Speaker 1: you guys, I used to break into the practice rooms,
Speaker 1: but thank you. But if you wanted to go back
Speaker 1: and stop, you don't. How long would you have to
Speaker 1: go back to college to graduate? Me? Ten years? Okay,
Speaker 1: so your father buys you this guitar. Yeah, that's my
Speaker 1: first guitar. But you want to know the story of
Speaker 1: my second guitar. Let's start with the first guitar. You
Speaker 1: get the first guitar when you're how old, I think,
Speaker 1: like ten? Did you take lessons? Oh? This is a
Speaker 1: good story. So my dad took me to somewhere to
Speaker 1: take lessons, right somewhere in god what street was it.
Speaker 1: It's like Devonshire and Balbo or somewhere around there, you know,
Speaker 1: the area of valley. I had one guitar lesson and
Speaker 1: I came back the next week and the guitar teacher
Speaker 1: told my dad, Mr. Warren, don't bring your daughter back.
Speaker 1: She has no future in music because I didn't want
Speaker 1: to do stupid scales. Gave me these scales and ships.
Speaker 1: I don't know what it was, but I'm like, I
Speaker 1: want to make up my own songs. The guy said
Speaker 1: you had no future of music. Were you discouraged? No?
Speaker 1: But that's that's me. Whenever someone says ship like that,
Speaker 1: it kind of gets me going, Okay, so you have
Speaker 1: that guitar, you you have one lesson? Then do you
Speaker 1: started making up my own songs? I started writing. You know,
Speaker 1: I'm sure they were the really horrible songs. Right. So
Speaker 1: I'm like ten years old and time goes on. Um,
Speaker 1: you know there was a twelve I wanted a twelve
Speaker 1: string Martin guitar. Why, I love? How did you even
Speaker 1: know what a Martin guitar was? I don't know. I
Speaker 1: somehow I knew, and I knew what a twelve string was.
Speaker 1: I don't know. Um, And so my dad said, if
Speaker 1: you get nothing less than a B now, I all
Speaker 1: I had was D S. F. Sence's. I hated school.
Speaker 1: I hated and I don't even know what I don't know.
Speaker 1: I never took math. I don't know how I even
Speaker 1: I don't. I can barely add the subtract and whatever.
Speaker 1: Thank God for calculators. Um, And my dad said, if
Speaker 1: I if you don't get anything less than a B.
Speaker 1: So one semester, no a's but kind of bees And
Speaker 1: I got the twelve string of our next semester back
Speaker 1: to the FS. Okay, how old were you when you
Speaker 1: got the twelve string guitar? Okay? How did you know
Speaker 1: how to tune it? And I still barely know to
Speaker 1: tune it? You know, I figured it out. Okay, So
Speaker 1: when you got the twelve string guitar? Did you get
Speaker 1: more serious about writing songs? When I was about fourteen
Speaker 1: or fifty and I got super serious, like obsessed. But
Speaker 1: I'm still like that now, Like I'm just as obsessed
Speaker 1: today as I was when I was like fifteen years song.
Speaker 1: Let's talk. We'll talk about the genesis. So you're writing
Speaker 1: songs believing? What what did you say? I thought it
Speaker 1: was great? You thought you were great? So you thought
Speaker 1: you were gonna make it? I did. I knew I
Speaker 1: was gonna make it. Okay, but wait some but my dad,
Speaker 1: I would take me to publishers. Not a little slower,
Speaker 1: A little slower. So you get between eight and fourteen,
Speaker 1: you got the Mexican guitar and you're writing songs. You're
Speaker 1: writing songs, but you're not trying to exploit those songs. No,
Speaker 1: not when I was twelve. Okay, once you get the
Speaker 1: Martin guitar, yeah, I started. Yeah, I started getting really serious,
Speaker 1: like really obsessed, and I started writing a lot of songs. Okay,
Speaker 1: let's stop for a second. Did you have any friends,
Speaker 1: have friends? I'm more anti social. My friends that were
Speaker 1: like all going out and boy crazy you and all
Speaker 1: this ship. All I cared about was music. And so
Speaker 1: you're there playing the guitar. What did your friends think
Speaker 1: about you and the guitar and you're writing songs. Some
Speaker 1: some of my friends were really cool about it. Some
Speaker 1: were like, you know, you know fun. You know, I'd
Speaker 1: be sitting in the bathroom because bathrooms have really good acoustics,
Speaker 1: so I'd be sitting there with my guitar, and then, um,
Speaker 1: you know, then my dad took me. Supposedly, Dwayne Allman
Speaker 1: used to pick his guitar to the bathroom. It's great,
Speaker 1: but in any event, so your sounds are great. I
Speaker 1: mean is the acoustics. You would come home from school
Speaker 1: every day and you would practice. I would write songs.
Speaker 1: My dad got me a shed in the backroom the
Speaker 1: house where I could go. So it's like one of
Speaker 1: those sheds you buy somewhere or even like at home depot.
Speaker 1: I had one. It's it's still there at my mom
Speaker 1: and dad's house. Well they're not there, but that the
Speaker 1: shed still is. And my dad would get me a
Speaker 1: heater for the winter, one of those little hit heater, right,
Speaker 1: So I just go there after school and I'd be
Speaker 1: there like day and night. And when did you decide? Okay,
Speaker 1: I'm ready. I always thought I was ready when I
Speaker 1: was about fifteen. Okay, when I was fifteen, do you
Speaker 1: know something called the Songwriters Showcase. I've heard that. It
Speaker 1: was like, I don't think it's around him, but John
Speaker 1: Braheenian Lynch. So they had this thing at the time,
Speaker 1: was like Capitol Records, and it was I don't remember
Speaker 1: where it was art Let Bows or something like that,
Speaker 1: but I but when I came, it was at that
Speaker 1: place that turned into a club on the second floor
Speaker 1: on Robertson whatever. But this was before I was in
Speaker 1: l a so well. I was like the youngest person
Speaker 1: that came in there. They dodge edition you and they'd
Speaker 1: always say, you know you're not ready yet, come back,
Speaker 1: and then I go, yeah, I know, I'm ready. I
Speaker 1: was an arrogant, little asshole. And then my dad would
Speaker 1: go listen to them, you know, and they'd go, Mr Warren,
Speaker 1: wait in the other room. Because you had to audition
Speaker 1: to be on the main shop, just to and it
Speaker 1: wasn't to be a performance to have your songs heard,
Speaker 1: you know, so we wait, wait, wait, someone else would
Speaker 1: perform your song. You know, you'd prefer yourself and I'm
Speaker 1: not not but it's not a bopping, you know. For me,
Speaker 1: it wasn't abouping. A performed was about I never wanted
Speaker 1: to be a performer. So finally they let me on.
Speaker 1: I was I was a little maybe almost sixteen and
Speaker 1: stuff and and so that was like cool, but you know,
Speaker 1: nothing happened, and then you know, something to happen, you know,
Speaker 1: I always expected something happened. But then at the same time,
Speaker 1: my dad was taking me to publishers and things like that. Okay,
Speaker 1: so I like I I'd have meetings with publishers and
Speaker 1: they'd go, you have a lot of talent, and and
Speaker 1: my dad would say, well, if you think she has talent,
Speaker 1: why don't you paying this stuff? And it was kind
Speaker 1: of funny, and I'd be I'd be I was a
Speaker 1: little like, that's really arrogant, and I'd be like, you're
Speaker 1: gonna be sorry someday that you didn't sign me. Well,
Speaker 1: that's probably why you made it. But I'm really good
Speaker 1: with with um, what's the what's the word you know
Speaker 1: when fighting against something? Okay, but um, how did you
Speaker 1: decide you didn't want to be a performer. I never
Speaker 1: wanted to be a performer. I would see a little
Speaker 1: i'd see the name on a record. The first one
Speaker 1: that I noticed I ever saw was up on the roof.
Speaker 1: I saw Gotham King. I go, I want to be that.
Speaker 1: And that's before I even was a songwriter, which is
Speaker 1: really weird. Okay, so your dad is taking you to
Speaker 1: publishers anybody bite No? I mean they all said like,
Speaker 1: you have a lot of talent and blah blah blah
Speaker 1: blah blah blah. You know. Yeah, nothing really happened. And
Speaker 1: then I met a friend. Through a friend, I had
Speaker 1: my first song published, but nothing happened there and then
Speaker 1: you know, later on I met this guy, that producer,
Speaker 1: Laura Brown again and I signed with him, and Laura
Speaker 1: was kind of big and that was kind of the
Speaker 1: first artist. Okay. So how long did you How old
Speaker 1: were you when you made the Laura Brannigan deal funk
Speaker 1: with Jack Um? Eighties like twenty three? Okay, So you
Speaker 1: thought this was gonna be your one big break? Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, I just I've always had I've always believed
Speaker 1: in myself, like I never I mean, I might not
Speaker 1: have foreseen this level of success, but I always knew,
Speaker 1: like there wasn't a plan B. It was this a
Speaker 1: homeless person probably. Okay, So how did you how did
Speaker 1: you convince? Tell us a little bit slower, how it
Speaker 1: came together with that guy and Laura Brannigan. I you know,
Speaker 1: I had a co manager, My friend was co managing,
Speaker 1: you know, working with the manager, and she played my
Speaker 1: song for her and she gave it to the guy
Speaker 1: named Jack White, not the White stripes, Jack right Um,
Speaker 1: German record producer, and he signed me. It was a
Speaker 1: horrible deal, but you know it was a start. Okay.
Speaker 1: How long was the deal supposed to run? Supposed to
Speaker 1: be a five year deal, but it was a hundred
Speaker 1: percent publishing. There were things that weren't right about the deal,
Speaker 1: and I decided to leave, and he decided to sue me.
Speaker 1: And that's why I had to start my own publishing
Speaker 1: company because that's when that's when i'd had Rhythm of
Speaker 1: the Night. I had some stuff like that. But the
Speaker 1: first hit with Laura Brannigan is I didn't write well.
Speaker 1: I wrote lyrics to Solidaire that doesn't even count in
Speaker 1: my mind. But I also wrote a song called Rhythm
Speaker 1: of the Night right, which was a really big hit,
Speaker 1: which recoup me, you know, five hundred times over. But
Speaker 1: that was when you were still with him. I was
Speaker 1: with him. Oh, I didn't realize that yourself a couple,
Speaker 1: that it was around there where where I left him,
Speaker 1: and you know, it was how did you get it?
Speaker 1: How did that all happen? Because Arista Publishing in America
Speaker 1: worked his songs and they put that together. So that
Speaker 1: was great. So you had totally written the song. You
Speaker 1: didn't know who, I didn't know. The bars was for
Speaker 1: a movie and you know, so it was for Last Dragon, Okay,
Speaker 1: very the record hit that was a gigantic record put
Speaker 1: me on the map. That was cool. I brove it
Speaker 1: by myself. That was really cool. How did you um?
Speaker 1: What was it like hearing the song on the radio
Speaker 1: for the first awesome? By the way, it still is,
Speaker 1: you know it still is. I was listening to that.
Speaker 1: I just bought a new car. The first song I
Speaker 1: heard was stand Up for Something. That's a recent song
Speaker 1: the Diane Road for a movie about Third Good Marshall
Speaker 1: that we hope will be nominated and win an oscar.
Speaker 1: But the nominated for a Grammy, Right, the Grammys. That's
Speaker 1: a whole another thing. Let's say on one subject at
Speaker 1: one time. But did the reversion of Rhythm of the
Speaker 1: Night correspond with your demo and your vision of the song?
Speaker 1: The version? Yeah, it was a great record. Yeah, it
Speaker 1: was pretty close to the demo. So if you ever
Speaker 1: had a situation where you have a demo and someone's
Speaker 1: totally changed it in your unhappy Yeah, and then there's
Speaker 1: been a couple of those. But then if it becomes
Speaker 1: a hit, I'm really happy, really really quickly. I really
Speaker 1: changed my mind. Hey that's great. Okay, So how do
Speaker 1: you decide you want to get out of the deal? Well,
Speaker 1: it was a horrible deal. Um, and I guess he
Speaker 1: he hadn't given me you know what, what's that? I'm
Speaker 1: I'm so non artific, don't know. He gave me advance,
Speaker 1: but he wasn't keeping track of wasn't Yeah, it wasn't
Speaker 1: stuff like that. UM. And my lawyer and I just
Speaker 1: didn't like the situation. And I I figured he should
Speaker 1: have probably you know, changed the deal a little bit,
Speaker 1: you know, when I recouped it a thousand million times
Speaker 1: over UM. And so I kind of my my lawyer said, well,
Speaker 1: you know what, he hasn't you know, given you your
Speaker 1: latest statement. You know, you probably couldn't leave if you want.
Speaker 1: So I did, and he sued me. And and that's
Speaker 1: when a lot of people are trying to sign me.
Speaker 1: And I like, I couldn't remember, like telling my lawyer,
Speaker 1: like everybody's trying to sign me. All these companies says,
Speaker 1: you can't signs, it will be collusion or whatever. Um,
Speaker 1: and she goes, you need a meat for your company.
Speaker 1: You know, you have to start your own company. I'm like,
Speaker 1: but I don't want to start a monk. So you
Speaker 1: know what, it kind of worked out right, I started,
Speaker 1: and I don't want to start your own company. I
Speaker 1: wanted at that time, I wanted to sign, you know,
Speaker 1: with Chapel or Warner Brothers or whoever, all these other
Speaker 1: people that were coming, because you thought they would actually
Speaker 1: work your record. Yeah, but now I knew no one
Speaker 1: could work my records like me. I mean, I still
Speaker 1: you know, this is still the same way now. But
Speaker 1: but so I so I I left him. He sued me.
Speaker 1: You know a lot of my all my money got
Speaker 1: tied up for for a bit. How long did it
Speaker 1: take to resolve that? I think about a year. But
Speaker 1: I resolved at myself with them because we had to
Speaker 1: go to a court thing before. There was some kind
Speaker 1: of I don't know what that is. So basically you
Speaker 1: had to pay him. No, No, I saw him at
Speaker 1: the what's what was it? Before you go to trial?
Speaker 1: You have to go to there was some kind of
Speaker 1: thing we had to go to me. It wasn't a mediation,
Speaker 1: but it was like we had a meeting court whatever
Speaker 1: it was. And I said to him, why are we
Speaker 1: letting the lawyers get rich? Why don't you? And I
Speaker 1: just settled ourselves literally next day I settle it with him. Wow,
Speaker 1: And just that, just that fast, you started your own
Speaker 1: I had started my own company. But just that faster
Speaker 1: everything got w don't hey, it's Bob left Sets. I
Speaker 1: thank you for your time. Welcome to my new podcast,
Speaker 1: the Bob left Sets Podcast. Remember to subscribe on tune in,
Speaker 1: iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts. So you said
Speaker 1: you're the best promoter of your own song. I've always been.
Speaker 1: You've always been, So tell her what does you know
Speaker 1: what it is? Because I really believe in them. Like, Okay,
Speaker 1: so when you were writing a song, and you famously
Speaker 1: write six days a week, right, yeah, you what percentage
Speaker 1: of the time are you writing for a specific artist?
Speaker 1: What's the time now? I'm just writing songs. A song
Speaker 1: I want to write, That's why I do it. Let's
Speaker 1: get back to the inspiration a second. But let's say
Speaker 1: the song is now finished. How do you work it?
Speaker 1: S moms, I forget to even demo it. Some some moms,
Speaker 1: I just go on to the next song. But if
Speaker 1: I demo it and I maybe maybe I demo and
Speaker 1: I have somebody in mind. I know I'm going to
Speaker 1: work with somebody. Okay, maybe it's time to denmload that
Speaker 1: song and let's let's work that work on that. You know,
Speaker 1: so it's at let's say you have a demo song,
Speaker 1: call us the nuts and bolts of how you actually
Speaker 1: work it. It could be somebody calling me for something
Speaker 1: that that I know, like you now you're an icon,
Speaker 1: when you we're still hustling. I still you know what
Speaker 1: everybody has to hustle. I hustle, I still hustle. I
Speaker 1: would say, we'll give us an example of that. I mean,
Speaker 1: I'll call people up and I'll and I'll you know,
Speaker 1: with the songs right for them. I don't have you know,
Speaker 1: any ego about it remotely. Okay, let's say I'm an
Speaker 1: act and you have a song you things for pitch me.
Speaker 1: I'll say, let's let's meet up. Let's talk about what
Speaker 1: kind of record you're making, and let me play you
Speaker 1: a song that I think is right for you. And
Speaker 1: what if I say no, I write my own songs,
Speaker 1: I'll see you probably shouldn't be now. But usually but
Speaker 1: like okay, like today, you know unnamed artist, you know
Speaker 1: that that I that I worked with and a great
Speaker 1: artist someone who had who had a monster head a
Speaker 1: couple of years ago. Um, never never done an outside song.
Speaker 1: And you know we were meeting up and I go, look,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna play something. I think it's great for you,
Speaker 1: and there's no pressure. I had two songs in mine
Speaker 1: the one song it didn't fit, but I kind of knew.
Speaker 1: So as I was walking here from the other office,
Speaker 1: I had like this, you know, kind of thing came
Speaker 1: to my mind, and now this is the song. I
Speaker 1: played it for him and I just saw the smile
Speaker 1: on his face and he started singing with me, and
Speaker 1: it was just like the way he was singing this song,
Speaker 1: and he goes, how did you know this is something
Speaker 1: I'm going on in my life right now? It's just weird.
Speaker 1: So it's like, you know, I'm like the song Whisperer, right.
Speaker 1: You know. So now you told me earlier today that
Speaker 1: you met this artist at a party. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: so you met the artist at a party. How did
Speaker 1: you make it so you ultimately got together so you
Speaker 1: could play him the song? You know? We were talking
Speaker 1: and stuff and that I talked to his manager, his manager,
Speaker 1: I think his manager was with him, and I just
Speaker 1: I stayed in touch and I said, you know, let's
Speaker 1: let's maybe we can do something. I'd love to do something,
Speaker 1: so you are not worried about appearing too aggressive or
Speaker 1: working in whatever. You'll call anybody. I don't I don't care,
Speaker 1: you know, really it's all about the song. Okay, So
Speaker 1: to what degree do you believe you're I mean, no
Speaker 1: one ever says, hey, you know you're working it too hard,
Speaker 1: stay away from me. Some people think I'm working too
Speaker 1: hard sometimes, you know, I think I can tend to
Speaker 1: be that way. You know what it's It's like you're
Speaker 1: a pain in the ass until until you're not until
Speaker 1: they and then you're like, I love your passion. Okay,
Speaker 1: you know this is you know, this is the contradiction
Speaker 1: I can't understand, okay, in that you are very aggressive
Speaker 1: with your songs and very successful, but in your personal
Speaker 1: life you're not that way. No, I don't really have
Speaker 1: a personal life. I have my friends and stuff, but
Speaker 1: I have my own personal I mean, I don't know.
Speaker 1: I just but but as I say, you were very
Speaker 1: aggressive in business. Look, look, I called you we we
Speaker 1: you know, because I was excited about this song, right,
Speaker 1: you know, and that could have gone either way. What
Speaker 1: if you didn't like else you could have written something something.
Speaker 1: I took a chance, you know, but I believed in
Speaker 1: it so much. But I'll make it sort of myself.
Speaker 1: I love like being here now talking to you. Or
Speaker 1: sometimes you go to an event you have a really
Speaker 1: good time. But for me to sit at home and
Speaker 1: say I'm gonna start creating action, it did. I just
Speaker 1: would never do that. Like, if you put me in
Speaker 1: this situation, I'm good, okay, but I won't aggressively try
Speaker 1: to make it happen. I do. I like to make
Speaker 1: things happen, and I like just to But when I
Speaker 1: really believe you can't stop me, I could be annoying.
Speaker 1: I guess, I mean, I guess some people like you
Speaker 1: know well as I say, it's just the it's just
Speaker 1: the you know, the opposite side of your personality. When
Speaker 1: it comes to you pushing the song. In your career,
Speaker 1: you're very straightforward, whereas when you're in your personal life
Speaker 1: you're more doubting, more shy. Yeah, yeah, that is just fascinating.
Speaker 1: It is weird because in real life I'm a shy person, right,
Speaker 1: like totally shy and totally insecure. So okay, after el DeBarge,
Speaker 1: what was the next hit? Uh? Maybe nothing's gonna stop
Speaker 1: us now I get weak. I don't know one of those.
Speaker 1: So how did you end up working. You end up
Speaker 1: working with a who's who of artists. I kind of
Speaker 1: probably almost worked with everybody, and so okay, at the
Speaker 1: beginning of that, as I say before, you're so well known,
Speaker 1: you just approach these people like, how did you end up?
Speaker 1: How do you end up working with Aerosmith? That was
Speaker 1: I've done the song for Armageddon, And that was Kathy Nelson.
Speaker 1: You know, you know Kathy, She's an interesting person. She's
Speaker 1: been behind some of the biggest soundtracks and soundtrack hits
Speaker 1: ever like, and she kind of almost created the whole
Speaker 1: soundtrack thing. You should talk to her. She's fascinating actually, um,
Speaker 1: And it was Kathy. Kathy could couldn't get any she
Speaker 1: could get any artists to do anything. I remember writing
Speaker 1: the song and I thought it was a girls song
Speaker 1: and Kathy's Kathy goes, no, we're getting Erroosmith. They're not
Speaker 1: gonna do my song. You know, Steven Tyler is not
Speaker 1: going to do a song again, you know, a song
Speaker 1: he didn't write. I didn't wouldn't think Erroosmith would, and
Speaker 1: they did. It was the biggest hit hit ever and
Speaker 1: they're okay, So you wrote the song because Kathy wanted
Speaker 1: you to write. You know, I wrote the song for
Speaker 1: the movie. That's what I'm trying to say. You had
Speaker 1: no connection with Aerosmith. She had the connection. She had
Speaker 1: the connection with I mean, I had met Aerosmith before
Speaker 1: I worked with him, But I mean it wasn't me
Speaker 1: that got them the song. How often is it like that?
Speaker 1: And how often is you personally? Most of the time
Speaker 1: I get I get the artist, you know, with a
Speaker 1: Degaga wountil it happens to you. I called her on
Speaker 1: the phone, played it for her Andre Common you know, Okay, okay,
Speaker 1: all that stuff everything. How often do you call somebody
Speaker 1: pitching a song? Um, I do it? I mean every day. Well,
Speaker 1: it depends on the songs. It's always situational, you know.
Speaker 1: But I'm just talking in a week in your word,
Speaker 1: I don't know if I do it in a week,
Speaker 1: you know, calling artists or something. But I'm pitching something,
Speaker 1: you know, or they're pitching me. You know. It's like
Speaker 1: it's something's going on. Well, how much time do you
Speaker 1: have to spend doing that? I don't know. It's fine,
Speaker 1: I'm fine that that's part of the process. Well, I
Speaker 1: guess for me, it's like like it's it's another side
Speaker 1: of it. It's just another side of my brain. But
Speaker 1: in a perfect world, I'll wake up at noon and
Speaker 1: go to bed at four am. And one of the
Speaker 1: things I say, I don't do it. I don't get
Speaker 1: up that late anymore. I get up now about okay,
Speaker 1: I get up at like six. What I hate about
Speaker 1: the business day is people are looking for me all
Speaker 1: day long, so it's very hard to be creative. Okay.
Speaker 1: Whereas after or seven or eight, before you start hearing
Speaker 1: from the UK at one one am or so, can't
Speaker 1: you just turn your phone off? Theoretically I can turn something, yes,
Speaker 1: or they don't want to miss a exactly. And there's
Speaker 1: so many things going on. You're waiting to hear about
Speaker 1: a doctor's appointment, or you leave your phone off and
Speaker 1: you miss something. You know, it's hard to totally disconnect
Speaker 1: and get in there. I can do it, So I
Speaker 1: just say don't. I'm in my room. Don't let me
Speaker 1: know about anything for a few hours. Okay. So if
Speaker 1: you get up at six, I check my phone. Someone
Speaker 1: really wants to find me sometimes. Okay, if you get
Speaker 1: up at six, what do you do? Like six fift
Speaker 1: I like watch the news all the insanity for about
Speaker 1: a half hour. It's about quarter seven. I just get ready.
Speaker 1: I leave the house at seven, leave the house at
Speaker 1: seven thirty, and you come to the office. I go go,
Speaker 1: I go get my coffee, my ice blend and mochus.
Speaker 1: It's Starbucks aware coffee Bean, coffee bean and uh coffee
Speaker 1: being predated Starbucks in Los Angeles. Did I've been going
Speaker 1: I've been going seven at that office. I've been going
Speaker 1: to coffee and they know you there obviously, now they
Speaker 1: know what I know. I kind of walk, you know,
Speaker 1: and get ready. So you get your coffee and then
Speaker 1: what I read the paper, you know, which get the
Speaker 1: l A times can I go online? And then I
Speaker 1: try to be alone, but somehow someone tries to talk
Speaker 1: to me. Okay, what are you looking for when you're
Speaker 1: reading the paper or going on, like looking for inspiration
Speaker 1: or just just reading the insanity of the world. Okay, yeah,
Speaker 1: And then you say people start looking for you, you know,
Speaker 1: just sometimes people know me that are over there, and
Speaker 1: they like come and talk to me. So you're actually
Speaker 1: at the coffee bean cats in my caring piece in
Speaker 1: my car. And then how when do you leave the coffee?
Speaker 1: Being how long do you get the coffee being minutes? Okay?
Speaker 1: And then what happens, Let's go to work? No, No,
Speaker 1: you go to your office. I go to my office.
Speaker 1: I let my cat out of the cock, out of
Speaker 1: the bag because she's been had to get her back
Speaker 1: in the back. She gets out of the bag while
Speaker 1: I'm getting coffee and peas in my car. But that's
Speaker 1: a whole other story. Then I just go and start,
Speaker 1: I mean literally just start writing us I don't know,
Speaker 1: start working on what I'm working on, Okay, So I
Speaker 1: mean I don't write a song a day, and I'm
Speaker 1: just usually working on a song. So are you do
Speaker 1: you work at more than one song at one time?
Speaker 1: I try to work on one, but I kind of
Speaker 1: end up working on more than one. And do you
Speaker 1: ever not finish the song? I try not to know,
Speaker 1: very very rarely try not to do something that I
Speaker 1: don't love, so I have to When I love something,
Speaker 1: I finish it. Well, how about things you don't love,
Speaker 1: I try not to start them because I found you,
Speaker 1: so I mean I always finished because you really sometimes
Speaker 1: you're not the best judge of your own material, and
Speaker 1: sometimes you go back and look at the starts and
Speaker 1: you know I should have finished when the drugs were off, right.
Speaker 1: I finish everything I start, so I try to. Okay,
Speaker 1: So how long does it take you to write a song?
Speaker 1: Um like, I work a week on a song sometimes, Okay,
Speaker 1: lyrics take me a long time. What's the inspiration? I
Speaker 1: don't know. You're asking about my process. I don't know
Speaker 1: what ideas? You know what the inspiration ideas? I come
Speaker 1: up with ideas like okay, but the idea, It's like
Speaker 1: some of my best ideas come in the shower or
Speaker 1: when I'm not paying attention to some of that. Or
Speaker 1: do you sit there in the in the studio say
Speaker 1: I'm going to a noodle on the piano until an
Speaker 1: idea comes to me. I don't know. I don't I
Speaker 1: don't even think about it. It's like so magical to
Speaker 1: me that, you know, I just play. I play piano,
Speaker 1: I play guitar, I might play some chords. I might
Speaker 1: have a lyric idea. You know, I just see what happens.
Speaker 1: It's not it's hard to describe it. I just do it. Okay.
Speaker 1: I show up. People go, what's your process? I show up? Okay?
Speaker 1: So you view it like a job. You show up
Speaker 1: and you're working and seeing what's happening. Okay, and it
Speaker 1: is a job? What's the job? I love? It's my life. What? Um?
Speaker 1: What are your favorite topics to write about? I tend
Speaker 1: to write a lot of love songs, which is ironic. Um,
Speaker 1: But no, I don't know. I just like to write
Speaker 1: because I've never been in love with Psycho. I'm in
Speaker 1: love with my cat. I really am in love. Is
Speaker 1: that weird? I'm like so in love with my How
Speaker 1: old is your Cat's? Her name's mouse? Wow? Why is
Speaker 1: she named mouse? Actually? When I first got her, she's
Speaker 1: this weird looking cat, and I go, what the fund
Speaker 1: is that looks like a mouse? So I became her name?
Speaker 1: How what's the life expectancy of this? Help forever? Because
Speaker 1: off to die when she died? So, um, do you
Speaker 1: think I don't want to be the armchair psychologist? But
Speaker 1: do you think you're writing about a perfect world that
Speaker 1: you would like to inhabit yourself? No? You think I
Speaker 1: want to hear someone breathetical breathing? Yeah? Really? Okay? Okay,
Speaker 1: so but it's bebelievable. No, And I believe it when
Speaker 1: I'm writing it, But I wouldn't want to live it. Okay,
Speaker 1: that doesn't make it like not you know, a beautiful thing. Okay,
Speaker 1: so you so you start. You have to listen to
Speaker 1: my cat prayer said the same thing. I could stay
Speaker 1: away and listen to her prayer. I guess that works.
Speaker 1: I guess for me, you get the unconditional love with animals,
Speaker 1: but you don't get the feed back. And I must
Speaker 1: admit I'm the type of person who needs feedback. You know,
Speaker 1: I get feedback from people, like with my music or life,
Speaker 1: well just in life. I mean it's great, you know.
Speaker 1: It's like I get feedback from my writing. And believe me,
Speaker 1: I live for that feedback. That. Yeah, you get instant feedback, right,
Speaker 1: and it's asshole reason I do it. But it's you know,
Speaker 1: it's an irony. What do you think when someone do
Speaker 1: do you like live for the when when someone like
Speaker 1: you know, do you like does that get something going?
Speaker 1: When someone's you know, it's an asshole to you and like,
Speaker 1: you know, do you like that or is it kind
Speaker 1: of you know? I I don't feelings, I think Okay,
Speaker 1: everyone has different theories about this. I want to read
Speaker 1: all the press. You're pretty fearless, right, I want to
Speaker 1: read all the press, and I want to read all
Speaker 1: the interviews because I want to be inoculated. I want
Speaker 1: to go. People say they don't read their own reviews,
Speaker 1: you're living in a bubble. I don't believe they don't
Speaker 1: read their own reviews. I don't believe that. I don't
Speaker 1: believe they just don't like to say they read, Like
Speaker 1: who doesn't read their reviews? So, you know, then there's
Speaker 1: a cliche. You know that you're you know, you're as
Speaker 1: good as your good reviews and your bad reviews whatever.
Speaker 1: But when someone you know or someone writes a particular
Speaker 1: email or someone you trust, I have people that believe me.
Speaker 1: When I'm working on songs, I have I have a
Speaker 1: few people I try them out on. You know, they're
Speaker 1: going to be really honest and you've written better you know? Okay,
Speaker 1: wait do you try out everything? Yeah? Really? Yeah? When
Speaker 1: I come up with a start, I love those people
Speaker 1: in my office that I definitely go, so what do
Speaker 1: you think? You know? Wow? Yeah, I want and I
Speaker 1: want constructive Christism. I want people to be honest. I
Speaker 1: have producers. I'll here, I'll play stuff. Could that be better?
Speaker 1: You know? Okay? How often do they say something and
Speaker 1: you say no, but they say something you say, I
Speaker 1: don't want to change it. It happens if I really
Speaker 1: believe in it. But I'm I'm I don't have an
Speaker 1: ego about it. So if someone shows me something that's better,
Speaker 1: thank you. But generally speaking, don't you write all your
Speaker 1: songs by yourself? I do, But someone can say, like
Speaker 1: what about if you put that like, change that chord
Speaker 1: to major a minor? Here voice it this way. That's
Speaker 1: still right. I'm still writing songs, you know, but you
Speaker 1: have written songs with other people. Yeah, it's not not
Speaker 1: not many, and so what's that experience, like, I mean,
Speaker 1: it's it could be fun. I just prefer you know
Speaker 1: my own process. I'm the same way. I mean, like
Speaker 1: you don't want to co write you. The other thing
Speaker 1: about it is, I don't know, you know, I can't
Speaker 1: even be interrupted. Like if I'm working at my girlfriend's house,
Speaker 1: I have to be she has one of these houses
Speaker 1: with their no doors and exactly through the skylight and
Speaker 1: you know it's an electric for uh, you're really sharp.
Speaker 1: I don't know, my guy, I don't know if I
Speaker 1: could go this fast with you, but it's an electric
Speaker 1: fire you can't go through. So there's no chimney. Once
Speaker 1: upon a time it was a real fire, but it
Speaker 1: hasn't been for a long time. But I cannot be
Speaker 1: interrupted when I read about these people who work in Hollywood,
Speaker 1: multiple people in an office, and if I just can't
Speaker 1: imagine that, I just can't be interrupted. I have to
Speaker 1: get my own zone. I hide my room, right and
Speaker 1: I can't be in erupted. But yes, you want to
Speaker 1: know that you're on the right track, and it's a
Speaker 1: great residence. But I will must admit, even the best
Speaker 1: feeling doesn't last. I know, even if I could write
Speaker 1: the best song and then the next day, fuck am
Speaker 1: I doing now? No? Exactly like I hate myself to
Speaker 1: even you have a success and you get all this
Speaker 1: positive feedback, they could be worse. The higher up you are,
Speaker 1: like the varred you fall right sometimes right, Well, then
Speaker 1: you say I could never replicate that, and then you
Speaker 1: know you're yeah, but it's like sisyphus, you know you're
Speaker 1: pushing the stone up the hill. Let you know how
Speaker 1: I look at it. I look at like sometimes like
Speaker 1: the waves crash over like and they throw you. You
Speaker 1: swim out and they come and they throw you against
Speaker 1: the rocks. Then you know what, You wake up the
Speaker 1: next day and all right, I worked out. Now I'm
Speaker 1: gonna swim again and just try to get out farther.
Speaker 1: I have another beach analogy, okay. I you have a
Speaker 1: theory that the waves come in and then the waves
Speaker 1: go out and certain people are left on the beach.
Speaker 1: So in the fifties the wave is beat Nick. We
Speaker 1: even had a beat Nick on tv MA Energy Crabs
Speaker 1: on Dobe Gillis. Okay, So the waves come in and
Speaker 1: then certain people are left there, Alan Ginsberg. All those
Speaker 1: people they live the rest of their lives, but they
Speaker 1: were left in the fifties. You always have to you guys,
Speaker 1: have to change with the times. You have to. I'm
Speaker 1: not sure about that. So in what I do you
Speaker 1: have to? Well, you know, I I feel that I,
Speaker 1: you know, the wave came in and I was left
Speaker 1: on the beach somewhere in the late sixties and early seventies.
Speaker 1: I'll give you a few examples. It's like, you know,
Speaker 1: all this greed and stuff that happened in the eighties,
Speaker 1: it just it was never me. And a lot of
Speaker 1: the accoutre monts, you know, the clothing, etcetera. I understand
Speaker 1: and there's certain values like selling out. You know, I
Speaker 1: just don't understand it. Yeah, I would rather have an
Speaker 1: artist who says no, as opposed to an artist makes
Speaker 1: a big deal because I'm believing. And that's what you
Speaker 1: know about, like really fighting for your art right exactly?
Speaker 1: You know that. And I'm sure even being the songwriter,
Speaker 1: we've gotten these lyrics. I gotten these or from people
Speaker 1: saying I was going to commit suicide, but I listen
Speaker 1: to your record all night and it got me through.
Speaker 1: You know, I've got a bunch of those. You know
Speaker 1: what else I get? I get letters, some really weird
Speaker 1: one from prison. Here's one I just song a long
Speaker 1: time ago, call when I'm back on my feet again,
Speaker 1: and knew whose favorite song it was? What's the guy
Speaker 1: that killed his family? The marine guy? Jeffrey McDonald, Jeffrey Dalmer, No,
Speaker 1: Jeffrey McDonald. You the marine guy that remember that one?
Speaker 1: It was like a famous thing and it was a
Speaker 1: book written about it. And he got he got, he
Speaker 1: got let off, and then they then he got arrested again.
Speaker 1: He was an army, he was a Green Beret doc
Speaker 1: killed his family. I guess his favorite song was one
Speaker 1: of my songs and then I get these letters like
Speaker 1: you know your songs saying you know I'm in prison,
Speaker 1: and I go, I wonder who he's in prison for.
Speaker 1: I come out in two thousand eighties, I get I
Speaker 1: get the ones I haven't been getting him recently but
Speaker 1: I used to get them, but no, but be get
Speaker 1: the ones that like. And you know, the cool thing
Speaker 1: is like I meet people now like a lot, and
Speaker 1: people go, you know that Lady Gaga song, you know
Speaker 1: got me through like that song. I got a lot
Speaker 1: of feedback with guests from the I feel it's a
Speaker 1: disservice to the audience if you're being an artist. I
Speaker 1: don't mean you, I just mean a person being an artist,
Speaker 1: and they resonate for me to then wore myself out
Speaker 1: to the corporate I mean, you're living the life because
Speaker 1: you're writing songs every day. But there are a lot
Speaker 1: of people who are artists today, very different from the
Speaker 1: sixties and seventies, where the music is just a stepping
Speaker 1: stone to some greater fame. It's kind of weird, right,
Speaker 1: Sometimes I see some stuff and like it's like like,
Speaker 1: I guess there's no such thing as selling out. Like
Speaker 1: it's like it's gone so far beyond sellout. Now, it's
Speaker 1: just crazy, you know. And every everybody with any success
Speaker 1: in Los Angeles or anybody, they all have an incubator
Speaker 1: and they're investing in tech stuff. You know, what about
Speaker 1: the music. I'm not investing in tech stuff. What do
Speaker 1: you do other than your real estate to invest in
Speaker 1: anything only animal friendly stuff? What would be an animal
Speaker 1: friendly thing that you invested in. Well, one of the
Speaker 1: animal friendly things invested in was I bought a ranch. Okay, um,
Speaker 1: and I with the idea of saving animals. I just
Speaker 1: saved a cow and its baby from Okay. Well, where's
Speaker 1: the ranch in Malibu? Okay? So when you say a ranch,
Speaker 1: how to places? It's like seven acres and there's like
Speaker 1: the stables, there's areas. It's really gonna be, it's really
Speaker 1: gonna be mainly for rescue. But there's a house. Okay.
Speaker 1: But is anybody there when you're not there? Yeah, there's
Speaker 1: somebody that takes care of the animals. So how many
Speaker 1: animals are there at one time? Well? I saved a
Speaker 1: horse and his baby from When you say rescued, how
Speaker 1: did that give it? Walk me a little? Someone told
Speaker 1: me about it at night? And where was the horse.
Speaker 1: The horse was at a slaughterhouse basically, and a bunch
Speaker 1: of horses got saved, and I paid for a bunch
Speaker 1: of them to find homes. And these two needed a place,
Speaker 1: so I just bought the place. So I brought them out.
Speaker 1: So you have the horses, what else do you have?
Speaker 1: I have three pigmy goats. They're really cute. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: these are all rescues. The ghosts aren't. But the horses
Speaker 1: are in the cows and you go there every Sunday.
Speaker 1: You have to come out there. It's magical there are
Speaker 1: You're good with the animals, Yeah, I love them because
Speaker 1: I prefer them to people, don't you I'm free to animals.
Speaker 1: Don't be afraid. They're wonderful. I guess you know you
Speaker 1: shouldn't eat them. Okay, but there I've been bitten by
Speaker 1: dogs too many times. I got bit by a dog
Speaker 1: when I was a little kid. Big I got bitten
Speaker 1: twice in one year, once hiking up in the stuff
Speaker 1: about it and you call him no, no, I mean
Speaker 1: you know it was one of my was walking to
Speaker 1: the burrito place. Dog got loose, went straight for me
Speaker 1: and just bit me. Why I didn't want the barrito? No,
Speaker 1: I was walking to the Burrito Blaze. Another one was
Speaker 1: really fucked up. This is a high in the hills
Speaker 1: above Malibu, and so I'm hiking in one direction. Somebody's
Speaker 1: on there were hiking it? Were you hiking by the waterfalls? No? No,
Speaker 1: this is much much higher up. I suddenly can't remember
Speaker 1: the name of it. And I'm walking along and somebody's
Speaker 1: coming on a horse in the other direction, okay, which
Speaker 1: is very strange. Normally there's not somebody there, and they
Speaker 1: have a dog following them, and the dog the horse
Speaker 1: buys me, and the dog comes comes behind me and
Speaker 1: bites me. It's this person's dog. And You're like, I'm
Speaker 1: in the middle of nowhere, so you know all these people?
Speaker 1: I didn't. I talked to my doctor about it, but uh,
Speaker 1: you know, it's like I'm just and I had I
Speaker 1: was at a dude ranch. Do you have any animals?
Speaker 1: I don't have any. First of all, I traveled too
Speaker 1: much to have animals. I mean, if you've traveled, you
Speaker 1: an you got to do something with them. Well, if
Speaker 1: you get two cats, they could keep each other company.
Speaker 1: I guess to rescue them. But it's also a lot
Speaker 1: of responsibility. What if what if the animal dies or
Speaker 1: something happens, It's not gonna die. Just give them food
Speaker 1: in a litter. Cats are cool. Cats are pretty indie.
Speaker 1: So you only have so at home. You have cats,
Speaker 1: but not dogs at home. You don't have any dogs.
Speaker 1: I have one cat mouse. She comes to work with
Speaker 1: me and she goes home with me. Cat issue. She's teeny,
Speaker 1: but she's cute. But I take funny pictures over I
Speaker 1: have to show you. I make her look giant. I
Speaker 1: make her look like she's gonna like. We both yawned
Speaker 1: at the same time, so it looks like we're like.
Speaker 1: It's cute. Okay. So in the time you have left,
Speaker 1: have you achieved your dream or is there anything else
Speaker 1: you would like to do. I just want to do
Speaker 1: what I do. I want to keep doing what I
Speaker 1: do to be honest, you know. I mean, it's not
Speaker 1: one dream. I haven't you know? Okay, you're writing songs?
Speaker 1: Is there something cool? It's like Oscar, that'd be cool. Okay,
Speaker 1: But is there somebody you haven't worked with you'd like
Speaker 1: to work with? No work to so many people, But
Speaker 1: there's probably someone I don't even know I want to
Speaker 1: work with that it's not like I mean, if I
Speaker 1: can only work with some I don't know. Okay, Is
Speaker 1: there a song you haven't written that you want to write? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I just don't know what it is, but of course
Speaker 1: there is. What I'm trying to say, is you do work.
Speaker 1: I mean, yes, you want to get inspired on a
Speaker 1: regular basis, you want to write songs. But in your mind,
Speaker 1: is there like an iconic song that you want to
Speaker 1: write that you haven't written yet? Not that I know of,
Speaker 1: but I'm sure there will be. I'm not not being
Speaker 1: evative saying you know. I mean, yeah, there's gonna be
Speaker 1: a lot of great songs I write. Well. I guess
Speaker 1: what I'm trying to say is, at this stage of
Speaker 1: the game, do you have any goals? At the stage
Speaker 1: of the game, I want to get better and better
Speaker 1: and do more and more. I mean, I feel like,
Speaker 1: even I've been doing this a long time, I feel
Speaker 1: like I'm just beginning in a way, like I don't
Speaker 1: feel like I don't feel like a veteran, even though
Speaker 1: I am a veteran. Okay, many people would say all
Speaker 1: this change in technology, which has disrupted music since the
Speaker 1: beginning of the century, has really heard songwriters. How do
Speaker 1: you feel about that? I mean, I think it has
Speaker 1: because I don't understand if someone comes up now and
Speaker 1: it's just streaming, I don't know how people make a
Speaker 1: living at that. Well, that's where that you're writing songs.
Speaker 1: Streaming is winning, you know, No, I know, I know.
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm I still make a lot of money
Speaker 1: and my songs still do well, and there's a lot
Speaker 1: of licensing. So I'm talking about like someone coming up now,
Speaker 1: right So if someone like the me of now, if
Speaker 1: I just came up, you know, if I just wrote
Speaker 1: songs for people, that's a tough way right now, with
Speaker 1: with with streaming being what it is, to be honest,
Speaker 1: because the writers and the publishers, you know, and we
Speaker 1: live in a hip hop world right now, is that
Speaker 1: music that you appreciate want to be involved? And it
Speaker 1: was all right, I write for a lot of urban artists,
Speaker 1: you know, so I don't. I don't do a lot
Speaker 1: of wrap. So I did work with Snoop a couple
Speaker 1: of years ago, so that awesome really happened. He had
Speaker 1: really good weed and I got really stone and whole
Speaker 1: pizza by myself, you know. But when I met him
Speaker 1: and we talked about doing something again. That's when he
Speaker 1: was Snoop lyon right and I go, I want you
Speaker 1: to sing. I I wrote the song called the Good Ship.
Speaker 1: It's this really cool song like kind of like like
Speaker 1: like comparing a relationship to to weed. Basically, I thought, well,
Speaker 1: if anybody's going to do that song, that's Snoop. And
Speaker 1: so I called him on the phone and I played
Speaker 1: it for him on the phone and he like loved it,
Speaker 1: and he came over the next day and we started
Speaker 1: recording it and he's sang it and he and then
Speaker 1: he goes, he goes, you know what, I can't sing
Speaker 1: the word ship. I have to say the good good
Speaker 1: which I guess means weed as well. I go, like,
Speaker 1: I really I'm being I'm being censored by the fun
Speaker 1: the police guy. I loved it. You know, it's yougonization.
Speaker 1: But I loved working with him. He's great and he's
Speaker 1: saying it was a really cool record. Then it was
Speaker 1: used an overstocked commercial and it was kind of so
Speaker 1: subversive the weed a weed song, like you know, stock
Speaker 1: dot com. So it was kind of funny, but yeah,
Speaker 1: it was. It was great to work with him. Any
Speaker 1: other stories like that, I have to say, think about him.
Speaker 1: I have like so many funny stories, but I have
Speaker 1: to look like I don't know how we got to
Speaker 1: we got to we got to urban music, right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: a lot of urban stuff in the grounds this year,
Speaker 1: a lot of hip hop stuff. I think that's reflective
Speaker 1: of society at large. I mean, this is a much
Speaker 1: bigger topic. You know, people have been bitching that the
Speaker 1: Grammys have been under representing the urban sound for years,
Speaker 1: but the acknowledgement of hip hop and urban now is
Speaker 1: a reflection of what people are actually listening to. It's
Speaker 1: the end of our era. It's like, I don't know.
Speaker 1: I don't look at it like that because I think
Speaker 1: like songs always work. I mean, in my I'm doing
Speaker 1: it from a different thing. You're absolutely right, a great
Speaker 1: song can be covered forty years later. But I guess that,
Speaker 1: you know, I hear as far as rappers, I have
Speaker 1: common on my record, right, you know, right. But I'm saying,
Speaker 1: if I if I work the theory out music drove
Speaker 1: the culture in the sixties and seventies and then in
Speaker 1: the eighties with the MTV, music does not drive the
Speaker 1: culture at this particular point in time. So there's a
Speaker 1: lot of baby boomers who reminisce about when and they
Speaker 1: go to see the old acts and they bitch about
Speaker 1: streaming and the bitch about hip hop. They're now in
Speaker 1: the rear view mirror hip hop one. How about country?
Speaker 1: Everything's by the way, everything cyclical, Well, the funny thing
Speaker 1: is cyclical. No, it is cyclical, but it hasn't been
Speaker 1: prior to the twenty one century. Every three or four
Speaker 1: years would be a whole new sound. It's weird, you know.
Speaker 1: It's like the same thing with fashion and how people
Speaker 1: look when you if you look in a movie from
Speaker 1: twenty years ago, they're wearing This isn't weird. Like remember
Speaker 1: like in the seventies and like everything was different, like
Speaker 1: the air styles and the horrible clothes. But it was horrible,
Speaker 1: but it was different. Right right now, if you see
Speaker 1: a movie twenty years or even twenty five years ago,
Speaker 1: everything looks the same. It's really weird. I don't know
Speaker 1: why that is or whether it's you know, because culture
Speaker 1: has been one one music, Like exactly when somebody comes,
Speaker 1: like when Elvis came into Beatles came or Prince or
Speaker 1: you know, right or even Elton John the same something
Speaker 1: you heard on the radio and go this is it.
Speaker 1: I specifically remember where I heard I Want to Hold
Speaker 1: your Hand the first time, sitting in my mother's falcon
Speaker 1: in the dry I've waited from falcon. My father bought
Speaker 1: the falcon used and he didn't know and was angry
Speaker 1: to find out that it was a Hurts rental car
Speaker 1: and it was the best car we ever owned, never broke.
Speaker 1: But um. But in terms of what how about country
Speaker 1: you ever right with a country artist? I've written a
Speaker 1: lot of country hits actually, okay, like like give me
Speaker 1: a couple how Do I Live? Which was a number
Speaker 1: of Bammy winning country song for Tricio and Leon Rhymes
Speaker 1: had a you know, worldwide hit with it, probably my
Speaker 1: biggest hit. Actually, I've written songs for hits for Faith
Speaker 1: Hill and Tim McGraw just to say that you Love
Speaker 1: Me from um Sarah Evans a bunch of Tim because
Speaker 1: they're still using real songs, yeah, whereas the urban world.
Speaker 1: It's two different things. More poetry than regular songs, not
Speaker 1: much melody, not a lot, you know. But then I
Speaker 1: could do, you know, do a hook for somebody you
Speaker 1: know too? You know, they could wrap in the verses
Speaker 1: you still want you still want a good solid chorus hopefully,
Speaker 1: So you have this song that you know, we can
Speaker 1: only you know, hope and pray that will probably be
Speaker 1: nominated for an Oscar and hopefully we'll win. I want
Speaker 1: you tell us the back story of that. Um. It's
Speaker 1: a song called stand Up for Something. Um. I wrote
Speaker 1: it from a movie called Marshall, which is coming out
Speaker 1: this weekend. Again. They're putting it out, yeah, because because
Speaker 1: the song got nominated and they got eight A a
Speaker 1: CP awards and nomination, so there's some heat, you know. Um.
Speaker 1: And I met Reggie Hussling, the director, during when I
Speaker 1: wrote The Lady Caugus Until It Happens to You. I
Speaker 1: met he was producing the Oscars and I met him.
Speaker 1: I happened to be out with a friend of mine
Speaker 1: at lunch and she or dinner and he was and
Speaker 1: she said, oh my cousin wrote this movie on through
Speaker 1: good Marshall that Reggie Hudlin's directing. Oh my god, I
Speaker 1: want to write a song for that. You know. That's
Speaker 1: the whole Oscar is so white time and stuffing good. Um.
Speaker 1: And so I I knew Reggie, so I called him.
Speaker 1: I said, you know again, see it's me making the
Speaker 1: move so I called him. I said, look, I you know,
Speaker 1: i'd love to read the script, and you know, he goes, yeah,
Speaker 1: we're shooting it now, and he was, I'd love you
Speaker 1: to do the song if you'd got inspired. So he
Speaker 1: sent me the script and I wrote down on the
Speaker 1: on the script, I was done. It all means nothing
Speaker 1: if you don't stand up for something. And to me
Speaker 1: it was so simple but profound, you know, because it
Speaker 1: really is the truth, you know. And I came to
Speaker 1: the office, I say, I listened to Change is Going
Speaker 1: to Come? You know, how often do you do that?
Speaker 1: Not that I mean, not that often. But I wanted
Speaker 1: to capture something. I wanted that song to capture, like
Speaker 1: what we're talking about, when music could drive the conversation,
Speaker 1: when you'd hear change is gonna come, or people get
Speaker 1: ready or what's going on? You know where these were
Speaker 1: all like great urban records, and but they were like
Speaker 1: and they weren't. They were inspiring because you'd hear a
Speaker 1: change is gonna come. You want to make that change right?
Speaker 1: You like hear that ship and it's like, man, it's
Speaker 1: like I feel like I could change the world. So
Speaker 1: I want to capture that. I want to write and
Speaker 1: I already had the title, I had the idea, and
Speaker 1: I just that chorus wrote itself just like that. It
Speaker 1: was like in one take. I was like, oh shit,
Speaker 1: is this as good as I think it is? And I,
Speaker 1: you know Julie in my office, I played it for her.
Speaker 1: I said, come and tell me if this is great,
Speaker 1: and she goes, oh my god, I have chills. I go, oh,
Speaker 1: it's it is. And I thought maybe I'm stealing this
Speaker 1: because it was it sounded like it was always there.
Speaker 1: But but but I didn't, and I came up with
Speaker 1: the verse, and I came up with a great verse
Speaker 1: really quickly, and then the second verse was like really tough,
Speaker 1: and I had the idea of why I wanted what
Speaker 1: I wanted to say, and it just took me all
Speaker 1: day to come up with one with you know, um,
Speaker 1: you do the best, to do the best that you
Speaker 1: can do. Then you can look in the mirror proud
Speaker 1: of who's looking back at you. To me, that's the
Speaker 1: best line in the song. That took like a day
Speaker 1: just to come up with that, you know. And then
Speaker 1: so I finished the song. I called Reggie played it
Speaker 1: from I go with you know Me on the piano
Speaker 1: sounding like ship, and he goes, I are you kidding me?
Speaker 1: I have chills all over my body, goes, this is
Speaker 1: like I this is one of the best names I've
Speaker 1: ever heard. So I demoed the song and um he
Speaker 1: came over the studio here he loved it. And then
Speaker 1: I thought, you know, I go, you know, let's get
Speaker 1: Andrew day that. I thought she'd be the right thing.
Speaker 1: I wasn't even thinking she she had rise up, I
Speaker 1: would stand up. But it wasn't even that. I just thought,
Speaker 1: because I just think she's one of the best singers
Speaker 1: like on the planet right now. And I thought, you
Speaker 1: know what, this song with would be so great for her.
Speaker 1: And her manager and I were talking and we were
Speaker 1: I think he brought up let's get a wrapper on there.
Speaker 1: I go, I don't know. One of us said common.
Speaker 1: I'm like, all right, let's let's try for Common. A
Speaker 1: week later, I'm going to um Sundance and writing back
Speaker 1: in the Commons, sitting on the plane, so I started singing.
Speaker 1: I started singing it to him. I told him about
Speaker 1: the song. I sang him the chorus again again, you know, horribly,
Speaker 1: singing horribly, and he goes, oh my God, you guys
Speaker 1: send me the song. So I sent it Santo him
Speaker 1: the next day he was like, I had like ten
Speaker 1: missed calls from him, and he goes, I have to
Speaker 1: be on this song. Please find find an area where
Speaker 1: I could just you know write a rap on there.
Speaker 1: So we we put that in. And then so I saw,
Speaker 1: this is a really weird thing. So when I saw
Speaker 1: the movie with the demo in it, I didn't know
Speaker 1: and Andrew was actually in the movie. She plays like
Speaker 1: a Billy Holiday character. Isn't that weird? So the whole
Speaker 1: thing was meant to be that Andrew and then Common
Speaker 1: sitting next to me, you know, and behind right behind
Speaker 1: me on the flight. So it just kind of happened,
Speaker 1: and you know, and then you know, the record came
Speaker 1: out and and it's it's getting a life of its own,
Speaker 1: you know, right now CNN is using it, All these
Speaker 1: different people are using it, you know. Besides, you know,
Speaker 1: it's it just got nomine for an Oscar Grammy, got
Speaker 1: nominatee for a Grammy. Um, you know, and that was cool.
Speaker 1: That was unexpected. So I wasn't even saying anything, like
Speaker 1: I kind of knew the Grammy nominations were coming. In like,
Speaker 1: I guess if my phone rings early, that's a good sign.
Speaker 1: It did, but I was awake. It was like my publicist, Um,
Speaker 1: but you girls, yeah, I've got good news, like wow,
Speaker 1: you know, because you know, you never know with any
Speaker 1: of that stuff. And there were only two songs from
Speaker 1: this year nominated in that category. It was the Taylor
Speaker 1: Swift song and stuff from last year like La La
Speaker 1: Land stuff like that. I forgot what else? So then
Speaker 1: it's cool. How many times you've been nominated for an oscar?
Speaker 1: Eight times? How many times have you want an Oscar?
Speaker 1: No times? Did you prepare a speech those eight times?
Speaker 1: I prepared a speech last time, and you know what,
Speaker 1: it was really bad? Okay, so because everybody really thought,
Speaker 1: until it happens to you was gonna win, including me,
Speaker 1: and it's the only time. Well no, because you loved
Speaker 1: me a long time about I kind of thought so,
Speaker 1: but not like this time because when everybody's telling you
Speaker 1: and my friend Frances Fisher, she's an actress, so she
Speaker 1: came to my hat. I'm gonna go over your speech
Speaker 1: to you. I'm gonna put it all over your house,
Speaker 1: like on the mirrors and stuff. You have to like
Speaker 1: learn it because I I kind of wrote, I wrote
Speaker 1: my own speech, was a little speech. It was a
Speaker 1: really nice speech, and um, so she got she put
Speaker 1: it in every mirror and everything. So the Oscars the
Speaker 1: next you know, this is on a Saturday, is Sunday
Speaker 1: when she put them all over the house, I was
Speaker 1: like on the Sunday morning, like looking, you know, Sunday night.
Speaker 1: And then and and then you see that amazing. I mean,
Speaker 1: Gaga's performance was one for the ages that was was
Speaker 1: fantastic with those kids with the writing on their arms,
Speaker 1: I mean, and and her performance was it was insane,
Speaker 1: and Joe Biden introducing it and then everything was great
Speaker 1: until and the winner is that part wasn't great? And
Speaker 1: then I have to go home to see all those
Speaker 1: things all over the mirrors and everything. Fuck that right,
Speaker 1: So what's it like hearing somebody else's name in that circumstances.
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm not gonna be like, oh, it's okay,
Speaker 1: it's fine. Now, don't know, I'm sure it sucks, but
Speaker 1: usually but usually look, usually I don't expect it. So
Speaker 1: you know, at that time, I kind of did you know,
Speaker 1: and a lot of other people, everybody. My phone was
Speaker 1: blowing up people were like when I was walking, you know,
Speaker 1: I was sitting back, like Steven Spielberg was writing back
Speaker 1: at me like that, and he goes like like, what
Speaker 1: how did that not win? You know what I mean?
Speaker 1: So people like everybody thought that was gonna win. And
Speaker 1: if you do win an oscar, what will that mean
Speaker 1: to you? It will be really great? And and yeah,
Speaker 1: it'll be amazing, It will be amazing. It'd be really
Speaker 1: cool if it was this song. I think this is
Speaker 1: the best thing I've ever done. Hi, this is Bob
Speaker 1: left Sets. I don't want to thank you for being
Speaker 1: a fan of my podcast. You can email me at
Speaker 1: Bob at left sets dot com and let us know
Speaker 1: what you think and suggestions were open to all ideas.
Speaker 1: Be sure to subscribe it tune in iTunes or your
Speaker 1: podcast player of choice. Next, we have Eric Brazilian, the
Speaker 1: genius behind so many Hooter songs and he also wrote
Speaker 1: one of us by Joan Osborne. You know that you
Speaker 1: really love it. Tune in to hear those stories and
Speaker 1: the story of the making of the first Cyndi Law
Speaker 1: pre album. I guarantee you you'll be intrigued. Must be
Speaker 1: out out