WEBVTT - Dave Koz 0:00:08.600 --> 0:00:12.320 Welcome, Welcome, Welcome back to the Bob Left Sets podcast. 0:00:12.480 --> 0:00:17.600 My guest today the saxophone is extraordinary, Dave, Cause wow, 0:00:17.800 --> 0:00:20.319 that introduction where do we go from? There? Where we 0:00:20.360 --> 0:00:22.759 go is actually back to a memorial day. The last 0:00:22.800 --> 0:00:26.680 time I saw you in person, you were presiding over 0:00:26.760 --> 0:00:31.720 Mindy a Bear's surprise wedding. How did that come together? Well, 0:00:31.760 --> 0:00:34.240 Mindy is a great friend of mine and a colleague, 0:00:34.400 --> 0:00:38.839 fantastic saxophone artists and great singer, and we've done a 0:00:38.880 --> 0:00:43.720 lot of touring together and made records together. And she um. 0:00:43.720 --> 0:00:46.400 It was actually a funny thing because when are We 0:00:46.479 --> 0:00:49.120 made this album called Summer Horns in two thousand and thirteen, 0:00:49.760 --> 0:00:52.000 and at the time I was working with this guy 0:00:52.080 --> 0:00:56.000 named Eric Querra on a wine project sort of like 0:00:56.040 --> 0:00:58.080 a side project for us that we do for charity. 0:00:58.240 --> 0:01:00.440 And over the years we've made a raised a lot 0:01:00.440 --> 0:01:03.320 of money for a charity called the Starlight Children's Foundation 0:01:03.400 --> 0:01:07.399 through the sale of Cause Wine, which is basically wine 0:01:07.400 --> 0:01:09.200 with my name on it. That's you can find it 0:01:09.280 --> 0:01:11.800 whole Foods and it raises money for charity. As I 0:01:11.840 --> 0:01:15.080 like to say, drink for the kids. But these are 0:01:15.160 --> 0:01:17.240 kids that are in the hospital for long periods of time, 0:01:17.280 --> 0:01:19.399 and this is one way just to kind of help them. 0:01:19.400 --> 0:01:22.319 So anyway, Eric guarra Um is a good friend of 0:01:22.360 --> 0:01:24.640 mine in the wine business, and he was helping me 0:01:25.280 --> 0:01:28.560 for a number of years make this wine and we 0:01:28.560 --> 0:01:32.279 were having wonderful success. And we just finished the Summer 0:01:32.280 --> 0:01:37.040 Horns record and I sent him the cover of the 0:01:37.400 --> 0:01:40.800 album as basically just because he's my friend, I said, 0:01:40.840 --> 0:01:42.600 here's our new album, and you know, I wanted to 0:01:42.600 --> 0:01:45.119 share this with you. And he wrote back immediately he said, 0:01:45.440 --> 0:01:51.200 who is that blonde? And is she's single? And I said, hey, 0:01:51.400 --> 0:01:53.920 slow your roll, brother, you know, let's let's go a 0:01:53.960 --> 0:01:55.720 little slower here. I thought I was gonna be your 0:01:55.720 --> 0:01:57.760 favorite saxophone player, and he said, You're always gonna be 0:01:57.800 --> 0:02:00.720 my favorite saxophone player. But who is that blonde? So 0:02:00.880 --> 0:02:04.040 I called Mindy and I said, this guy Eric is 0:02:04.160 --> 0:02:06.000 is kind of interested in meeting you. Are you interested 0:02:06.000 --> 0:02:09.079 in meeting him? And I showed her a picture of Eric. Now, 0:02:09.760 --> 0:02:13.120 since this is a non visual medium, bob um, let 0:02:13.120 --> 0:02:15.880 me just say he's kind of a He's he's a 0:02:15.880 --> 0:02:19.400 hot guy, right, He's got these like the total uh, 0:02:19.520 --> 0:02:22.320 you know, George Clooney with the gray hair and the 0:02:22.639 --> 0:02:25.600 just the tan and just you know, a very suave guy. 0:02:26.000 --> 0:02:27.959 So she's looked at him and she said, yes, I 0:02:27.960 --> 0:02:30.919 do want to meet him immediately. So they had their 0:02:30.960 --> 0:02:34.880 first date and I was not there, but evidently it 0:02:34.919 --> 0:02:38.760 went very very well, and um they started dating and 0:02:38.800 --> 0:02:42.280 then they got really involved and they've been involved ever since. 0:02:42.360 --> 0:02:45.680 You know. That was it. So Mindy and Eric came 0:02:45.720 --> 0:02:48.040 to me many years later and said, we're thinking about 0:02:48.720 --> 0:02:51.920 tying the knot. And it was in conjunction with Mindy's 0:02:52.080 --> 0:02:55.320 fiftieth birthday, which was Memorial Day weekend. And I came 0:02:55.360 --> 0:02:58.440 up with the idea because I presided over one like 0:02:58.480 --> 0:03:01.280 a gay wedding about five or six years ago. That 0:03:01.360 --> 0:03:03.480 was a total surprise as well, and it was so 0:03:03.600 --> 0:03:06.000 much fun because people came to a party not knowing 0:03:06.040 --> 0:03:08.000 that the they were gonna get married or they weren't 0:03:08.080 --> 0:03:11.640 witnessed a wedding, and it was so much fun. And 0:03:11.680 --> 0:03:13.680 so I suggested to them, I said, well, what about 0:03:13.760 --> 0:03:16.760 just having a fiftieth birthday party, but at the party, 0:03:16.919 --> 0:03:19.280 we just have a surprise wedding. And they loved it, 0:03:19.600 --> 0:03:22.040 and so that's that's how it all happened. Okay, how 0:03:22.120 --> 0:03:26.920 long before the party did you have this conversation? Say, 0:03:26.960 --> 0:03:30.280 it's probably three months a long time because she has 0:03:30.320 --> 0:03:33.360 a party every Memorial Day weekend. And I was sitting 0:03:33.400 --> 0:03:35.600 in the kitchen. It's mostly an outdoor party, and my 0:03:35.640 --> 0:03:39.200 friend Elbow b said he Eric came out in the 0:03:39.320 --> 0:03:42.800 suit and then all of said they're gonna get married. 0:03:43.120 --> 0:03:45.440 I guess I'm slow on the uptake. But then it 0:03:45.520 --> 0:03:48.080 could all put together. And that was before they entered 0:03:48.080 --> 0:03:52.400 the Uh. The outside where the suble multitude mostly was well, 0:03:52.400 --> 0:03:56.520 if you've never been to a surprise wedding, there's there's 0:03:56.560 --> 0:04:00.360 that moment exactly what you just described, Bob, where like 0:04:00.440 --> 0:04:04.040 the turn that the situation changes. You're coming to a 0:04:04.080 --> 0:04:06.120 party expecting one thing, and then all of a sudden 0:04:06.120 --> 0:04:09.600 you start noticing cues that oh something is changing, and 0:04:09.640 --> 0:04:13.880 then there's this energy that just erupts and people are 0:04:13.920 --> 0:04:16.520 so excited. You know, So I think it's it's um, 0:04:16.560 --> 0:04:18.880 it's not for everybody's taste, but for if you kind 0:04:18.880 --> 0:04:22.279 of like that adventurous spirit. It worked for Indian era list. 0:04:22.400 --> 0:04:24.920 It was great. It's great vibe and everybody was there. 0:04:25.160 --> 0:04:30.720 But in addition, you performed the ceremony extremely Well, so 0:04:31.200 --> 0:04:34.200 is it your How did you come up with your 0:04:34.440 --> 0:04:37.480 lines and you felt comfortable because you're always on stage 0:04:37.600 --> 0:04:40.240 or what happened there, that's a different thing, that's right, 0:04:40.400 --> 0:04:43.080 That's why I'm asking. But it was very loose. But 0:04:43.160 --> 0:04:46.960 you said you felt so comfortable from the outside observer. Well, 0:04:47.000 --> 0:04:48.680 that's nice to you to say, and I'm glad it 0:04:48.720 --> 0:04:51.360 came off that way. I was rather nervous. I get 0:04:51.400 --> 0:04:53.400 pretty nervous for things like That's one thing to have 0:04:53.400 --> 0:04:55.600 a saxophone in my mouth on stage. It's another thing 0:04:55.640 --> 0:04:58.560 to be marrying, you know, two people you really really love. 0:04:58.880 --> 0:05:01.839 But I think it came from them. They were, uh, 0:05:01.880 --> 0:05:04.880 they said to me like, they didn't put any parameters 0:05:04.920 --> 0:05:08.040 on me. They just said, let's have something that's fun, reverent. 0:05:08.600 --> 0:05:11.200 We don't have to we're nonconformists, so let's just not 0:05:11.320 --> 0:05:14.479 have a We're having a surprise wedding, so it doesn't 0:05:14.520 --> 0:05:17.640 have to conform to anything that you would normally typically 0:05:17.839 --> 0:05:20.200 think a wedding should be. And so I just went 0:05:20.240 --> 0:05:23.000 with it. And I knew I knew that um that 0:05:23.080 --> 0:05:25.560 Mindy had worked a lot with Adam Sandler, and so 0:05:25.640 --> 0:05:28.800 I was doing some uh you know, just research before that, 0:05:28.920 --> 0:05:32.600 and I found a great Adam Sandler quote that really 0:05:32.720 --> 0:05:35.160 from the wedding singer that just was the perfect way 0:05:35.200 --> 0:05:39.120 to start, and it just basically diffused the energy and 0:05:39.320 --> 0:05:41.160 let everybody know that this was not going to be 0:05:41.200 --> 0:05:44.960 a typical wedding, and it just kind of remember remember 0:05:45.040 --> 0:05:48.240 the quote, I can't remember it right, right right? I 0:05:48.320 --> 0:05:50.440 should have knew that You've known you're gonna ask me 0:05:50.480 --> 0:05:53.799 that question. Okay, let's go back to the beginning. When's 0:05:53.839 --> 0:05:57.560 the first time you picked up a saxophone. I was 0:05:57.600 --> 0:06:01.720 thirteen years old, seventh grade, Portola Junior High School here 0:06:01.960 --> 0:06:05.440 in Los Angeles and the Valley Tarzana, California, where I 0:06:05.440 --> 0:06:08.520 grew up, and that was the uh the for I 0:06:08.640 --> 0:06:11.159 played other instruments. Well, that's my question. Coming from a 0:06:11.240 --> 0:06:14.599 Jewish background like myself, we started taking piano lessons at 0:06:14.640 --> 0:06:17.800 age six, So did you have any of that experience 0:06:17.880 --> 0:06:19.960 or something in the school before this accident. We had 0:06:19.960 --> 0:06:24.120 the same piano teacher because did you play Hot Cross Buns? 0:06:24.560 --> 0:06:27.719 Probably so he hated piano. I mean, my mom forced 0:06:27.760 --> 0:06:29.640 my brother and sister and I to take it up 0:06:29.640 --> 0:06:32.200 when we were growing up and I just hated it, 0:06:32.480 --> 0:06:35.400 and so I rebelled when I was around ten and 0:06:35.440 --> 0:06:37.680 I took up the drum set because I thought I 0:06:37.720 --> 0:06:41.880 was gonna really show my parents whose boss. And this 0:06:41.920 --> 0:06:44.320 is a true story. There was a time when my 0:06:44.400 --> 0:06:46.440 dad came to pick me up from my drum lesson 0:06:47.080 --> 0:06:51.560 at Kay's music scene in uh In Mercida, and the 0:06:51.640 --> 0:06:54.320 drum teacher came to say hello to my dad, and 0:06:54.360 --> 0:06:56.080 I was right there so I could hear what he 0:06:56.160 --> 0:06:59.040 said to my dad, and he said, dr Cos you 0:06:59.120 --> 0:07:01.400 might want to think about sports for Dave, because it's 0:07:01.480 --> 0:07:05.320 just not gonna have I was crushed. This is two 0:07:05.360 --> 0:07:08.799 instruments now that I basically crashed and burn was terrible 0:07:08.839 --> 0:07:12.960 piano player, terrible drummer, and so I thought this was it. 0:07:13.040 --> 0:07:15.280 There's there's no music for me. Let's go back to 0:07:15.320 --> 0:07:17.480 your family said your father was a doctor. What kind 0:07:17.480 --> 0:07:21.280 of doctor was dermatologist? Dermatologist? So was that something he 0:07:21.360 --> 0:07:25.480 didn't discuss his work over the dinner table. Yeah, there 0:07:25.560 --> 0:07:29.120 was a healthy diet of zits and karatosis, and uh, 0:07:29.560 --> 0:07:33.280 you know, my dad was a very Both my parents 0:07:33.280 --> 0:07:35.360 are passed, but my mom was a pharmacist too, So 0:07:35.440 --> 0:07:39.000 my my parents in addition to being you know, Jews, 0:07:39.160 --> 0:07:42.040 they were also medical Jews, so they had that kind 0:07:42.040 --> 0:07:45.200 of perspective. And all three kids, my older brother and 0:07:45.360 --> 0:07:48.280 sister and I all went into the music business, if 0:07:48.320 --> 0:07:52.280 you can believe that, and they were very supportive. Surprisingly 0:07:52.320 --> 0:07:55.000 and to their credit, they were incredibly supportive of of 0:07:55.080 --> 0:07:57.600 us following are okay, it's just staying on that topic. 0:07:57.600 --> 0:08:00.680 Your father is a dermatologist. Most teenagers get it. Did 0:08:00.680 --> 0:08:04.720 you then go to see your father? Of course there 0:08:04.800 --> 0:08:06.760 was no charge. Yeah, I guess that's the only thing. 0:08:06.800 --> 0:08:09.200 It wasn't weird because you didn't know something. Dermot Toms 0:08:09.280 --> 0:08:12.080 is always sort of weird when they're addressing yours. It's so, 0:08:12.160 --> 0:08:13.680 there are three kids in the family. Where are you 0:08:13.760 --> 0:08:17.640 in the hierarchy? I'm the youngest, you're the youngest, so 0:08:18.320 --> 0:08:21.480 you're the oldest. Is my brother Jeff? Okay, and how 0:08:21.520 --> 0:08:23.760 much older is he than you? Almost four years older 0:08:23.760 --> 0:08:27.440 than me? And then your sister is the middle kid, Roberta, 0:08:27.680 --> 0:08:30.200 and she's two years two years old and me? Okay, 0:08:30.200 --> 0:08:33.080 Like in my family, it's all two years. And then 0:08:33.160 --> 0:08:35.320 if you do the math, you realize this is nine 0:08:35.320 --> 0:08:38.920 months after the re anniversary, which is kind of creepy. 0:08:39.040 --> 0:08:41.920 I know, it's it's amazing that our parents kind of 0:08:41.960 --> 0:08:45.079 got to it exactly. I can't imagine it. They just 0:08:45.200 --> 0:08:48.640 like god to it and had and they basically spit 0:08:48.640 --> 0:08:52.920 out three kids within less than four years. And um, 0:08:52.960 --> 0:08:55.560 I marvel at my parents, my you know, somehow they 0:08:55.559 --> 0:08:58.000 were able to make it happen. And I never I 0:08:58.040 --> 0:09:00.480 grew up in a very you know, I grew up 0:09:00.480 --> 0:09:03.160 in Tarzana and and never really thought about anything. I mean, 0:09:03.160 --> 0:09:05.360 I had my own issues to deal with, which we're 0:09:05.640 --> 0:09:07.200 you know, kind of having to deal with them on 0:09:07.240 --> 0:09:10.040 my own. Like what kind of issues? Well, I grew 0:09:10.080 --> 0:09:12.960 up I'm gay? You know, Wait, just since you brought 0:09:12.960 --> 0:09:16.640 it up, at what point do you realize you're gay? 0:09:19.600 --> 0:09:23.920 I would say, like my earliest memories sitting on my 0:09:24.000 --> 0:09:27.320 parents bed, reading the Sunday newspaper and looking at some 0:09:27.360 --> 0:09:31.160 of those circulars were that show, you know, people in 0:09:31.559 --> 0:09:35.640 in bathing suits. And I think I was noticing guys 0:09:35.760 --> 0:09:38.120 way back when, even before there was any sort of 0:09:39.080 --> 0:09:42.600 understanding of what that meant. So were you in single digits, 0:09:42.640 --> 0:09:47.400 were already a teenager probably six seven something like that? Okay, 0:09:47.400 --> 0:09:50.800 need let's just say los Angeles is very liberal on this, 0:09:50.840 --> 0:09:54.600 so just like San Francisco. But to what degree did 0:09:54.600 --> 0:09:56.800 you try to repress those feelings, if at all, I 0:09:56.840 --> 0:10:01.040 completely tried to replace repress the I made have made 0:10:01.040 --> 0:10:03.400 a serious habit of repressing them for a long time, 0:10:03.440 --> 0:10:05.839 because it's just there was nothing. I didn't really know 0:10:05.960 --> 0:10:08.520 what to do with those feelings. And and and this is 0:10:08.520 --> 0:10:12.280 what and I don't mean to be over dramatic, be 0:10:12.320 --> 0:10:16.920 as dramatic, but um, when I discovered the saxophone finally 0:10:17.120 --> 0:10:19.800 at thirteen, this is the connection to your earlier question. 0:10:20.640 --> 0:10:24.719 Discovering the saxophone at thirteen when my body was exploding, 0:10:24.880 --> 0:10:28.000 you know, like all theteen year olds. Um, it was 0:10:28.120 --> 0:10:31.800 finally finding that best friend that I could talk to. 0:10:32.040 --> 0:10:34.120 And I've thought about this a lot, and I wonder 0:10:34.200 --> 0:10:37.760 why I have a career that I feel very blessed 0:10:37.760 --> 0:10:40.080 and fortunate that I'm still able to do this. I've 0:10:40.080 --> 0:10:43.040 been doing it for almost thirty years, making records and 0:10:43.160 --> 0:10:46.760 traveling around. What is why does somebody want to hear 0:10:46.800 --> 0:10:49.600 me play the saxophone? When I've said this before, there 0:10:49.600 --> 0:10:53.600 are people who can blow circles around me. There's something 0:10:53.720 --> 0:10:58.760 in the sound that I think was made like a 0:10:58.800 --> 0:11:01.679 blueprint of the sound was made when I first picked 0:11:01.679 --> 0:11:05.080 it up, because there was so much of that internal 0:11:05.240 --> 0:11:09.600 like emotion going into this sound, Like the saxophone was 0:11:10.080 --> 0:11:14.600 the one vehicle that I could express myself with, and 0:11:14.640 --> 0:11:17.520 I think because it was, it started out as this 0:11:18.080 --> 0:11:21.160 is that you know, there's a lot of real emotion 0:11:21.200 --> 0:11:24.120 and real pain that's in that sound. Even though ironically 0:11:24.160 --> 0:11:26.720 the music that I make is is very uplifting and 0:11:26.840 --> 0:11:29.320 I consider kind of kind of happy. It's not sad music, 0:11:30.200 --> 0:11:32.880 but they're inside of that sound, there is some sort 0:11:32.920 --> 0:11:35.839 of thing that I think people maybe on some level, 0:11:36.600 --> 0:11:39.720 uh connect to because we all go through that stuff 0:11:39.760 --> 0:11:42.320 no matter what we're dealing with. We can recognize that 0:11:42.400 --> 0:11:46.600 if there's something in a sound that that that connects 0:11:46.600 --> 0:11:50.520 with us on that level. So, uh well, let's stay 0:11:50.600 --> 0:11:52.440 let's go back to a little bit of fill in. 0:11:52.960 --> 0:11:56.560 So did you ever date girls? If I did, you did, 0:11:57.080 --> 0:11:59.640 and that was a good or bad experience. I think 0:11:59.720 --> 0:12:03.440 my my most successful relationship was with a woman to 0:12:03.480 --> 0:12:07.200 this day, to this day, Okay informed me of that. 0:12:09.880 --> 0:12:14.160 Lisa Rosendam. She was my high school girlfriend into college 0:12:14.280 --> 0:12:16.120 and we had a great We had a really great 0:12:16.160 --> 0:12:19.400 relationship I'm hoping that she's not upset for me outing 0:12:19.400 --> 0:12:22.920 her on your podcast. Um. She was so great because 0:12:22.920 --> 0:12:25.360 I was very honest with her. I told her what 0:12:25.400 --> 0:12:27.679 was going on with me, and I was committed to her, 0:12:27.679 --> 0:12:29.960 and I said, I really want to see this through. 0:12:30.000 --> 0:12:32.760 And then one day, about two years in, she came 0:12:32.800 --> 0:12:34.800 to me and she said, I just kind of need 0:12:34.880 --> 0:12:37.160 to know, like, do you think that we have a future? 0:12:37.160 --> 0:12:40.080 Are you gonna want a date? Guys? And I said, um, 0:12:40.360 --> 0:12:41.800 I think it was on a on a Friday, and 0:12:41.800 --> 0:12:47.160 I said, can I take the weekend? So on Monday, 0:12:47.200 --> 0:12:49.960 I said, I thought about this over the weekend and 0:12:50.320 --> 0:12:53.120 I definitely will want to explore this and I think 0:12:53.120 --> 0:12:55.200 it would be a mistake to not And she said 0:12:55.280 --> 0:12:59.000 totally cool, and we broke up and remained great friends. 0:12:59.160 --> 0:13:02.240 Very soon after she met her husband. There's a guy 0:13:02.280 --> 0:13:04.400 named Jeff and to this day it was a long 0:13:04.440 --> 0:13:06.319 time ago now and to this day, every time I 0:13:06.360 --> 0:13:08.880 see him, he thanks me well, as he should you. 0:13:08.920 --> 0:13:11.600 But you know, this is not an uncommon story. I 0:13:11.679 --> 0:13:14.160 have a friend who was married to someone and she said, 0:13:14.240 --> 0:13:17.840 right up front, you know, I'm into women as well 0:13:17.880 --> 0:13:20.800 as you, which maybe this is you know, bisexual as 0:13:20.840 --> 0:13:23.920 opposed to They were married very briefly. She came home 0:13:23.960 --> 0:13:26.440 and said, Hey, I want to date this woman. He 0:13:26.559 --> 0:13:31.640 divorced her. She's still with that woman decades later. So. Uh, 0:13:31.679 --> 0:13:33.880 but going back, you said, your sister and brother with 0:13:33.960 --> 0:13:36.680 the music business, what do they do. My brother is 0:13:36.760 --> 0:13:42.800 a incredibly talented um composer, plays guitar. Uh. There was 0:13:42.840 --> 0:13:45.720 a time in his life, in the early part of 0:13:45.760 --> 0:13:47.920 his life where he wanted to be a recording artist 0:13:47.960 --> 0:13:51.760 and really really went for it. But for whatever reason, 0:13:51.880 --> 0:13:54.720 you know, it just didn't happen in that way for him. 0:13:54.760 --> 0:13:57.760 So he retooled along the way and decided to do 0:13:57.920 --> 0:14:00.120 to get more behind the scenes, and he started a 0:14:00.160 --> 0:14:04.360 company that was doing mostly music for commercials and films 0:14:04.360 --> 0:14:07.720 and stuff like that, and built a career uh for 0:14:07.880 --> 0:14:12.160 approximately thirty years that really was very successful until that 0:14:12.200 --> 0:14:15.720 business kind of started to change. My sister was an 0:14:15.760 --> 0:14:18.959 executive at MTV before it was called MTV, when it 0:14:19.000 --> 0:14:23.080 was owned by Warner American Express, and she was one 0:14:23.120 --> 0:14:25.200 of the on the business side, not in the music 0:14:25.360 --> 0:14:27.840 or programming side, but on the on the cable side. 0:14:27.880 --> 0:14:30.520 She was one of the early executives. She worked her 0:14:30.520 --> 0:14:32.840 way all the way up to running the whole West 0:14:32.840 --> 0:14:35.160 Coast office until she decided that she wanted to be 0:14:35.200 --> 0:14:38.040 more focused on her kids when she had kids, so 0:14:38.080 --> 0:14:43.080 she left that. And then, just as a like a 0:14:43.120 --> 0:14:47.320 little anti or addendum to that whole story, my brother 0:14:47.400 --> 0:14:51.960 and sister and the most unlikely marriage of all decided 0:14:52.720 --> 0:14:58.560 about two years ago to get into the marijuana business. So, well, 0:14:58.600 --> 0:15:01.360 let's I think we missed a chapter here. Your sister 0:15:01.480 --> 0:15:04.920 started making cookies. So how long ago did she start 0:15:04.960 --> 0:15:10.160 making cookies? Well, my mom was a baker, uh, And 0:15:10.360 --> 0:15:12.800 my mom dispensed these. She was a pharmacist, but she's 0:15:12.840 --> 0:15:16.240 dispensed these chocolate chip cookies and they were just amazing. 0:15:16.280 --> 0:15:19.720 She never sold them, but she brought them everywhere. And 0:15:19.760 --> 0:15:23.040 she my mom was a typical Jewish mom. She equated 0:15:23.080 --> 0:15:26.280 food with love, and if she loved you, she was 0:15:26.280 --> 0:15:28.040 going to feed you, whether you liked it or not. 0:15:29.000 --> 0:15:32.240 And so she had these cookies. And in the beginning 0:15:32.240 --> 0:15:34.600 part of my career, Bob it was it was funny 0:15:34.640 --> 0:15:38.280 because Capitol Records, I was signed to Capital for twenty years. 0:15:38.760 --> 0:15:41.440 Capital fell in love with my mom and her cookies 0:15:41.480 --> 0:15:43.400 so much that back in the day and the early 0:15:43.480 --> 0:15:47.160 part of my career. They would send her out, not me, 0:15:47.640 --> 0:15:52.480 her out on a promotional visits to warehouse records and liquor, 0:15:52.520 --> 0:15:56.200 spizza and sam goodies, and and she would get you know, 0:15:56.480 --> 0:15:59.880 she would get placement for me just by these cookies. 0:16:00.040 --> 0:16:02.840 Were that good. Well that's a great story, irrelevant of 0:16:02.840 --> 0:16:05.040 the cookie. So anyway, she was a great baker. How 0:16:05.080 --> 0:16:07.920 did it transition to your sister, Well, my mom passed 0:16:07.960 --> 0:16:12.120 in twenty oh five, and um, people would she was 0:16:12.240 --> 0:16:14.640 larger than life, you though she was only five ft tall. 0:16:14.800 --> 0:16:17.640 But my um, all of us just to stay here. 0:16:18.080 --> 0:16:21.120 So your mother and father were born in America. They 0:16:21.120 --> 0:16:25.000 were born in Canada, Canada, and then their parents immigrated 0:16:25.040 --> 0:16:27.280 from the Old Country as we say, yes, how did 0:16:27.360 --> 0:16:30.240 they get from Winnipeg to Los Angeles? I think in 0:16:30.280 --> 0:16:33.680 a covered wagon. I didn't know the room went in 0:16:33.720 --> 0:16:36.000 that direction. I thought it was just east to west. No, 0:16:36.200 --> 0:16:41.000 my parents got married and they were my dad hated 0:16:41.000 --> 0:16:44.720 the cold, and they grew up in Winnipeg, of all places, 0:16:44.800 --> 0:16:47.720 you know, fifty below zero. So when they got married, 0:16:47.840 --> 0:16:51.000 my dad was immediately, we're moving to California, and they did, 0:16:51.320 --> 0:16:53.680 and my mom went along with him. I don't think 0:16:53.680 --> 0:16:56.360 that she really wanted to go, but he really wanted 0:16:56.400 --> 0:16:59.360 to go, and so he developed. He was brought into 0:16:59.360 --> 0:17:03.400 a practice dermatology practice in in Encino, and my mom 0:17:03.480 --> 0:17:05.680 came along and that's where my brother and sister and 0:17:05.760 --> 0:17:07.600 I were all raised. That begs a question, do you 0:17:07.600 --> 0:17:10.640 have a lot of relatives in Canada? Yeah, all over Canada, 0:17:10.680 --> 0:17:13.600 but but especially in Winnipeg's and do you ever see them? 0:17:13.960 --> 0:17:17.160 I do, Yeah, I do a lot. Okay, so let's 0:17:17.160 --> 0:17:19.320 go back to the cookies. How does your sister decide 0:17:19.359 --> 0:17:22.920 to make started making cookies? Well, when my mom passed, 0:17:23.400 --> 0:17:26.560 her name was Audrey. And when my mom passed, people 0:17:27.000 --> 0:17:29.680 always said, you know, we miss Audrey so much, but 0:17:29.720 --> 0:17:35.679 white cookies. So Roberta, my sister said enough already, I'm 0:17:35.680 --> 0:17:38.480 gonna try and find the recipe. She, you know, went 0:17:38.480 --> 0:17:40.720 through my mom's things, found the recipe and she started 0:17:40.760 --> 0:17:43.399 making the cookies and everybody was very happy. And then 0:17:43.400 --> 0:17:45.920 she said, I think there's a business here, and she 0:17:46.440 --> 0:17:49.440 started doing it. She developed a company called Audrey's Cookies, 0:17:50.160 --> 0:17:53.560 and for a while she had a pretty good, you know, 0:17:53.640 --> 0:17:57.200 little company never made any money, you know, because because 0:17:57.440 --> 0:18:01.000 her competitors were Nabisco and it was very difficult, but 0:18:01.040 --> 0:18:03.200 she still got on the shelves and whole food. She 0:18:03.280 --> 0:18:05.520 got on the shelves in Costco and a test. She 0:18:05.720 --> 0:18:08.800 was in a bunch of different markets, and she would 0:18:08.800 --> 0:18:11.480 take two steps forward, one step back, three steps forward, 0:18:11.520 --> 0:18:15.399 two steps back. It never really took off. My brother 0:18:15.960 --> 0:18:18.719 when he saw the winds of change happening in the 0:18:18.800 --> 0:18:21.920 cannabis world in in um, you know, like two or 0:18:21.960 --> 0:18:25.000 three years ago here in the state of California, he 0:18:25.119 --> 0:18:29.120 suggested to my sister, we should turn Audrey's Cookies into 0:18:29.680 --> 0:18:35.280 an edibles company and incorporate marijuana, cannabis and um and 0:18:35.320 --> 0:18:40.240 then we can You know, most people uh honor their 0:18:40.280 --> 0:18:44.680 dead parents, especially with their Jewish dead parents with maybe 0:18:44.720 --> 0:18:47.240 a plant, a tree in Israel, maybe you put a 0:18:47.359 --> 0:18:50.840 plaque in the synagogue with their name on it. My family, 0:18:51.400 --> 0:18:54.159 we're just in the pot cookie business. So it's my 0:18:54.280 --> 0:18:58.240 mom's recipe and it's my dad's name. They're called doctor Norms, 0:18:58.760 --> 0:19:01.960 and you can find them pretty much at any dispensary 0:19:02.359 --> 0:19:04.720 up and down the state of California. Right now. I 0:19:04.760 --> 0:19:06.639 know it's their business, not yours, but I know a 0:19:06.680 --> 0:19:09.960 lot of people entered that business. Very competitive now at 0:19:10.000 --> 0:19:15.520 this point in time legally and commercially. How difficult has 0:19:15.560 --> 0:19:19.000 it been for them. I think it's been difficult because 0:19:19.040 --> 0:19:22.600 they started before it was legal in in the state 0:19:22.640 --> 0:19:25.439 of California, so there were much different rules. It was 0:19:25.480 --> 0:19:27.840 pretty much like the Wild Wild West when they first started, 0:19:27.880 --> 0:19:29.920 which is not even that long ago, it's only maybe 0:19:29.920 --> 0:19:32.280 two and a half years ago. But when it was 0:19:33.240 --> 0:19:36.320 the the the rule was passed in the state of 0:19:36.359 --> 0:19:40.600 California and the rules changed, and then the it's like 0:19:40.640 --> 0:19:43.679 the government wasn't prepared to figure out how to do 0:19:43.760 --> 0:19:45.320 all that at the same time, so it was just 0:19:45.440 --> 0:19:49.080 chaos for at least like six months. So they've been 0:19:49.119 --> 0:19:51.960 dealing with a lot of that stuff. But um, their 0:19:52.000 --> 0:19:55.480 sales are very strong. They were acquired by a big 0:19:55.520 --> 0:19:59.040 company and um so they're off to the races. So 0:19:59.119 --> 0:20:01.439 once they put in the annibis, it turned into a 0:20:01.480 --> 0:20:05.400 profitable business. And they're still very both very heavily involved. 0:20:05.440 --> 0:20:08.399 They're incredibly involved. Yeah, they have so pretty much. If 0:20:08.400 --> 0:20:12.000 I go to a dispensary, I asked for Audrey's cookies 0:20:12.200 --> 0:20:16.160 Dr Norms. Dr Norm's. The brand name changed. Dr Norms. Okay, 0:20:16.240 --> 0:20:18.399 so let's go back to you. How do you end 0:20:18.480 --> 0:20:23.120 up picking up the saxophone at age thirteen? Well that 0:20:23.200 --> 0:20:26.359 was my brother. Um, god, this is turning into a 0:20:26.480 --> 0:20:29.880 really this is your life exactly. I hope it's interesting 0:20:30.000 --> 0:20:35.160 for your listenership. Did people already turn off? Okay? Okay, 0:20:35.800 --> 0:20:38.640 seven people listening now, most of them related to me. 0:20:38.840 --> 0:20:41.160 But that's besides the point. You have a lot of fans. 0:20:41.200 --> 0:20:43.720 I mean, it's your name comes up, it's like, you know, 0:20:43.760 --> 0:20:47.200 spontaneous of my nutritionist. I have high cholesterol. Huge fan 0:20:47.320 --> 0:20:50.840 tells me she's going to your shows. You know, well yes, absolutely, 0:20:50.840 --> 0:20:52.720 Well god, but you know you do these cruises. But 0:20:52.800 --> 0:20:55.840 let's start at the beginning. So your brother, My brother 0:20:56.080 --> 0:20:58.760 had a band when I was growing up with his 0:20:58.840 --> 0:21:01.680 friends that were they were doing weddings and bar mitzvah's 0:21:01.720 --> 0:21:05.760 fraternity parties. It's called Randy and Company. And uh, they 0:21:05.760 --> 0:21:07.919 did not have a saxophone player. I wanted to be 0:21:07.960 --> 0:21:09.879 in that band. When I was a kid, I saw 0:21:10.040 --> 0:21:13.680 him and his buddies. Everybody else had to get jobs, 0:21:13.720 --> 0:21:15.879 you know, working at Burger King or McDonald's or whatever, 0:21:15.920 --> 0:21:19.320 flipping burgers. These guys played music on the weekend. So 0:21:19.320 --> 0:21:21.560 I was thought, this is so cool. I want to 0:21:21.560 --> 0:21:23.879 be in the band. Of course, going back to what 0:21:23.920 --> 0:21:27.639 I was telling you before, I really had no uh like, 0:21:27.680 --> 0:21:31.000 there was no indication that I had any musical talent whatsoever. 0:21:31.600 --> 0:21:35.000 But my brother said in in passing one when one 0:21:35.040 --> 0:21:37.400 time he said, the only way that First of all, 0:21:37.480 --> 0:21:39.320 you're never getting in this band. Right. Of course he's 0:21:39.320 --> 0:21:41.680