Speaker 1: Could I just ask for a few definitions, Martha. We
Speaker 1: know each other for decades. You could ask me any questions.
Speaker 1: I'm going to just wait. Music industry legend Clive Davis
Speaker 1: is responsible for creating the soundtrack of Our Lives, which
Speaker 1: is the name of his phenomenal book, This big, fat,
Speaker 1: dense book. Clive, how long did this take to write
Speaker 1: that book? Two years? Oh? At lifetime? I was gonna say,
Speaker 1: you know, well, it took a lifetime in many ways,
Speaker 1: but the actual writing two years. It is such a
Speaker 1: good book. And your documentary which I rewatched this morning.
Speaker 1: I got up at five am to watch your documentary
Speaker 1: again because, um, I think it's probably if it's not
Speaker 1: the best, it's one of the top four documentaries I
Speaker 1: have ever seen. No, no, no, it is amazing. And
Speaker 1: if you third year on Netflix right now, it's on
Speaker 1: Netflix and they say I've been told it's the fifth
Speaker 1: post selling documentary of all time. Yes, well, after our podcast,
Speaker 1: it's going to be number one. I will look because
Speaker 1: everybody listening is going to watch that documentary after I
Speaker 1: get finished with you today. It's it's an incredible documentary
Speaker 1: because not only does it chronicle the life of a
Speaker 1: music impresario And do you use the word in presario
Speaker 1: when you describe your career? Is that why he'd self
Speaker 1: use it? But it has been used. I still associated
Speaker 1: with a man named Saul Uruk that you might remember,
Speaker 1: but I'm plaided when the word is used in describing me.
Speaker 1: Whenever anybody says, oh, you know, you know five days
Speaker 1: I said, yes, that he is the greatest music in
Speaker 1: Presario I have ever met, and and so I love
Speaker 1: that word. But what does impresario mean to you? What
Speaker 1: does that mean? Well, the word impresario means showman, and
Speaker 1: I think that it attaches because every year, as you know,
Speaker 1: I've been for over forty years throwing a party the
Speaker 1: night before the Grammys, and it's not just a party,
Speaker 1: it's become the party, and as distinguished from a fifty
Speaker 1: Lazar party, for example, the night and it's heyday before
Speaker 1: the Oscars. I don't it's not just meeting people, but
Speaker 1: you always might want to meet I mean, Nancy Pelosi
Speaker 1: is in her twenty second year, and you'll run into
Speaker 1: streisand you'll run into David Hockney, You'll run into sports
Speaker 1: figures as well as every head of every label and
Speaker 1: stars from all the labels. But I put on a show,
Speaker 1: and you see in that show artists that you'll never
Speaker 1: see play together. You'll see because it was the lushy
Speaker 1: Keys is dream to perform on some stage with the
Speaker 1: reath of Franklin. So you'll see a reath of with
Speaker 1: a Lusia. You'll see Um Paramount, a little Jennifer Hudson.
Speaker 1: You'll see in the past, wouldn't usedon with nut Lee Cole.
Speaker 1: I saw that. Yes, you've been there many times. Lou
Speaker 1: read with Rod Stewart and Slash that too. I love that.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, you are known as the man with
Speaker 1: the golden ears. They look pretty normal to me. There
Speaker 1: might be a little bit large, like Buddha, but that's
Speaker 1: good because you know what that means. If you have
Speaker 1: large ears, tell me it means that you have a
Speaker 1: long life. Buddha had the biggest ears. And if you
Speaker 1: look at long ear lobes, so so if you have
Speaker 1: long ear lobes, don't fret women who try to cut
Speaker 1: them off and cover them up. It means a good
Speaker 1: long light. It's that interesting. But yours are golden in addition,
Speaker 1: and uh, and that's because you more than pretty much
Speaker 1: anybody in the in the latter half of the twentieth
Speaker 1: century early part of the twenty one century really heard
Speaker 1: music like nobody else heard it and promoted it and
Speaker 1: and educated us. I learned so much about music just
Speaker 1: from your artists, so much. And that's what that documentary
Speaker 1: does for me too. It re educates me and re
Speaker 1: educates me every time I watch it. Uh. In terms
Speaker 1: of going from Janice Joplin, Now, what would you call
Speaker 1: her music? Jonas Choplin was to me the original white
Speaker 1: soul sister. She was rock and roll um but Harange
Speaker 1: her depth, her soulfulness. She could have been soulful R
Speaker 1: and B. We never went platform because of her traject
Speaker 1: prigmant to her death. But there was no one like
Speaker 1: Janice Trumplin, a true original, that gravelly voice, that energy,
Speaker 1: she had, unbelievable sweat. Yes you even mentioned about her,
Speaker 1: just that her performance was so real every single time,
Speaker 1: never never a performance it was. Was the first artist
Speaker 1: I have a sign I got in this old monthly
Speaker 1: you know, by action. Tell tell us that story. How
Speaker 1: did you get to be the signer of all these artists?
Speaker 1: A lawyer employer for Columbia Records? Okay, I was there
Speaker 1: for five years, after three years of law school, and
Speaker 1: one day my mentor, predecessor, god Leebison was made a
Speaker 1: group president. So the divisions he had but Columbia Records,
Speaker 1: Fender musical Instruments, Creative play things, etcetera. And UM. He
Speaker 1: came to me one day which and he said, you know,
Speaker 1: would you like to become a head Offended Musical Instruments.
Speaker 1: You did all the contracts offended guitars for Leslie, speakers
Speaker 1: for Sundway pianos. You could unify that whole group. I said, begotade.
Speaker 1: You know, I don't think I could do it. I'm
Speaker 1: getting divorced, I have two young children. It would mean
Speaker 1: my moving to the West coast San Diego. Um. And
Speaker 1: musical instruments. Did you know anything about musical instruments at
Speaker 1: that time? Oh? I knew nothing about any music or
Speaker 1: musical instruments. Did you play an instrument ever? Never played
Speaker 1: a musical instrument. So he said, we'll come see me
Speaker 1: tomorrow and we'll talk about it. I came there tomorrow
Speaker 1: the next day and he said, look, there was a
Speaker 1: gentleman named Norman ad Of the executive vice president. He
Speaker 1: wants to live in Lahoya. So we'll make him had
Speaker 1: a phandom musical instruments, and you'll be the head of
Speaker 1: Columbia Records. And that it wasn't that God had thought
Speaker 1: I ideas. It didn't even dream on my part of
Speaker 1: thinking that you would leave. You'd leave that up to
Speaker 1: somebody else and you just run the business of the business,
Speaker 1: never knowing this would become the musical the professional passion
Speaker 1: of my life. And so I became head. I looked around,
Speaker 1: we could do better in the new rock and roll.
Speaker 1: Um we did a Bob Dylan, but he was mainly
Speaker 1: a songwriter. Simon and Goldfuncle were just breaking with their
Speaker 1: first single. We had no idea what they would become.
Speaker 1: But um, the New Rock I was secondary to Mitch Millow,
Speaker 1: who was head of A and R. They had Andy Williams,
Speaker 1: they had a young bober streisand they had Tony Bennett.
Speaker 1: It was a wonderful middle of the road company with
Speaker 1: a number one number of roadway shows. My fail, Lady
Speaker 1: Camelot Columbia. Yes, but you've already touched on so many
Speaker 1: things that probably some of my audience doesn't even know
Speaker 1: what you're talking about. So R and B, what does
Speaker 1: that stand for rhythm and blues? It's uh. It's the
Speaker 1: expression that has been used for the likes of Stevie
Speaker 1: Wonder for a wreath of Franklin for oats reading for
Speaker 1: R and B rhythm and blues. Okay, what is A
Speaker 1: and R stand for? A? And R stands for artists
Speaker 1: and repertoire, So that when you're an A and R
Speaker 1: person man or woman, you're either going to discover an
Speaker 1: artist or if you have the artist and the artist
Speaker 1: does not write, which was the day of Frank Sinatra
Speaker 1: and Bing Crosby and Dinner Shaw, you would find the
Speaker 1: repertoire that they would so so you'd find the writers.
Speaker 1: That's composers, that's correct. So it's artists and repertoire. Okay,
Speaker 1: that's interesting. And hip hop hip hop was the revolution
Speaker 1: that really occurred after the rock and roll revolution, and
Speaker 1: it mainly associated with raps. But it's the beach, it's
Speaker 1: the rhythm, it's the track as well. The first artist
Speaker 1: we know well, the first hip hop artist I knew
Speaker 1: and who I signed, and not too much known about him,
Speaker 1: but if you ask the cock descenting, he's one of
Speaker 1: the leading rapper hip hop artists. His name was Gil
Speaker 1: Scott Heron, and I'm sure one day began to do
Speaker 1: a movie about Gill Scott Heron. You're going to do
Speaker 1: why don't you do the movie? Doing the Whitney movie?
Speaker 1: And I can't wait for that. That's consuming me. And
Speaker 1: now so let me see we've gotten through hip hop.
Speaker 1: What about what about rock and roll? Who's who's rock
Speaker 1: and roll? Well? And when? When rock and roll began,
Speaker 1: it was really up tempo rock edge meaning guitars was
Speaker 1: the guitar revolution, and certainly Phil Specter and the early
Speaker 1: Records and the Beatles started early rock and roll. Dylan
Speaker 1: started folk rock. Okay, he was originally folk and then
Speaker 1: one day he added an electric guitar and it became
Speaker 1: folk rock. So that's a few of the definitions that
Speaker 1: we're talking about Springsteen. Springsteen, who is everything? Um is rock?
Speaker 1: I mean he is started out folk and started out
Speaker 1: singing a loan solo with a guitar. And I have
Speaker 1: good stories about Springsteen. I have no idea what your
Speaker 1: time element is, days and days, but that'll be that'll
Speaker 1: be interview number two. John Hammond and A and all
Speaker 1: Man brought Bruce Springsteen to play for me and his imagery,
Speaker 1: his his lyricum was so unique that I and John
Speaker 1: signed him and a wonderful story. I was just with
Speaker 1: Bruce and he submitted his first album to me and
Speaker 1: was called Greetings from Asbury Park. I said, Bruce, the
Speaker 1: imageries theyre, the lyrics are great. We needed some radio
Speaker 1: friendly songs at least two um. Sometimes an artists can
Speaker 1: get very put up that they don't want the creativity
Speaker 1: either commented on or observed. Not Bruce. He said, you know,
Speaker 1: maybe you're right, and in his words, he went to
Speaker 1: the studio, he went to the beach rama and he
Speaker 1: wrote blinded by the Light h and Spirit in the night,
Speaker 1: and you were my recent birthday party, where Bruce explained
Speaker 1: this and sang blinded by the Light right afterwards. Very
Speaker 1: memorable experience. But Bruce brings seen to me is probably
Speaker 1: he and Mick Jagger are the greatest rock performers in
Speaker 1: modern day lifetime. I just to set to stage was
Speaker 1: made ahead of but certainly never thought I'd signed an artist.
Speaker 1: Never thought that music would be my passion and my
Speaker 1: natural gift. And I went thinking I would be seeing
Speaker 1: Simon and golf Uncle and the Mama's and Papas at
Speaker 1: the first Pop Festival in nine sixty seven, and I
Speaker 1: didn't even know they would have unknown artists during the day.
Speaker 1: And I'm there with my where Alifornia. This is in Monterey, California,
Speaker 1: the Monterey Pop Festival, and my wife at the time
Speaker 1: and I sitting in the fairgrounds and new artists we're appearing.
Speaker 1: And the group called the Electric Flag Mike Bloomfield on
Speaker 1: guitar for those of your audiens who are a little
Speaker 1: more musical sophisticated. And then came this group called Big
Speaker 1: Brother and the Holding Company, and this unbelievable, charismatic, electrifying,
Speaker 1: compelling white Gravelly Boys singer Janis Joplin, who had not
Speaker 1: been built, started singing a piece of my heart. You
Speaker 1: know some of the times any song, pop songs, rock songs,
Speaker 1: new songs where some of the songs hers did she
Speaker 1: write around song? No, she didn't write her own material.
Speaker 1: But I knew for the first time in my life,
Speaker 1: my spine was tingling. There was no other in our
Speaker 1: person now that you know what he or she is,
Speaker 1: And I dedicated myself to signing her. She was under
Speaker 1: contract with never a record out to a small record
Speaker 1: company called Mainstream Records. I bought that contract for two
Speaker 1: hundred thousand dollars, a lot of money in those days.
Speaker 1: So they knew that she was valuable. They knew that
Speaker 1: she was valuable, and we made Cheap Thrills, her first album,
Speaker 1: a great album together. And I hope all you listeners
Speaker 1: are writing all this down because Cheap Thrills, that's an
Speaker 1: album we should all be listening to right now, right yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm putting that in my car at my way to
Speaker 1: New York to this day. I mean, it will really
Speaker 1: have great, right, And so she was number one. She
Speaker 1: was the first artist I signed and then in very
Speaker 1: short order, and that said, built my confidence. I never
Speaker 1: thought i'd had, he is, I never studied music. I
Speaker 1: signed Blood, Swint, Tears, Chiconko, Santana Um the Santana on
Speaker 1: Your On Your documentary. It was so interesting to see,
Speaker 1: even for me because I didn't see the documentary being made.
Speaker 1: It was done by the Worthy Scott firm, and where
Speaker 1: Carlos explained in the documentary that the rest of his
Speaker 1: band wanted to go with the Atlantic and the Man
Speaker 1: Famous again, but he said, I connected with you, and
Speaker 1: I made up my mind I had to be with you,
Speaker 1: and so I played so lack a daisical from it
Speaker 1: and now you and you see it's impractly a sleep
Speaker 1: playing from it and any auditions for me. And he
Speaker 1: is dazzling virtual, so that he really is. And so
Speaker 1: that's how I got sent WA so interesting. So it's
Speaker 1: artists after artists, year after year now since nine until
Speaker 1: what are we in now, two thousand and twenty two.
Speaker 1: How many have you counted? How many artists you actually signed?
Speaker 1: Not counting the bank major, the main arts. At my birthday,
Speaker 1: I wanted to make it special and they all knew
Speaker 1: I could throw a good party, and I do it
Speaker 1: every year. Six hundred and fifty guests that costa ship
Speaker 1: Riani in New York. I was. I got an invitation.
Speaker 1: I was so happy to be there. We had a
Speaker 1: great table and the performers were amazing, sing everything, beginning
Speaker 1: with Verte Patty Smith. Patty Smith. You know I had
Speaker 1: seen Patty Smith perform and performed. She has never performed
Speaker 1: better than at your ninetieth birthday party. I really, I'm
Speaker 1: now I'm listening to Patti Smith music because I never
Speaker 1: did before. Really, because that night, that poetry, that she
Speaker 1: was speaking some of you. You know, people have the
Speaker 1: power and now and during the Ukrainian War and and
Speaker 1: but the unrest everywhere. Patty many years ago wrote this
Speaker 1: fabulous song. People have the power to follow their dreams,
Speaker 1: to change, but it's not right. So Patty, this is
Speaker 1: what I did. I said, I'm not don't come and
Speaker 1: expecting to see my pre grammy party. I invited friends.
Speaker 1: I went to college with friends that began with me
Speaker 1: at Columbia, friends that worked with me at Arista and Jay,
Speaker 1: as well as Lynn, Manuel and Miranda and Berne that
Speaker 1: Peter's and in the city. At the next table in Manuel,
Speaker 1: Jimmy Iveen, and Chris Blackwell, the founder of Island Brackets,
Speaker 1: was very touching, most touching a matha and what was
Speaker 1: most incredible was here is a man celebrating his career,
Speaker 1: his ninetie birthday, his amazing, amazing roster of friends with
Speaker 1: all of us. And what really struck me, Clive, the
Speaker 1: clarity of your mind. You talk about you know, you
Speaker 1: talk about this the soundtrack of your life, my life,
Speaker 1: your title of your book. It's the clarity of your mind.
Speaker 1: I am blown away by it, and it is so
Speaker 1: great for anybody getting old. We're all getting older, but
Speaker 1: getting older. So listen to Clive Davis to hear him speak.
Speaker 1: He knew everybody in that room amazingly. You knew what
Speaker 1: that person meant to you, or what that what you
Speaker 1: meant to that person. That's what's so incredible. And that's
Speaker 1: why I had to talk to you today because climbs
Speaker 1: of neighbor, Let's get it straight. We've known each other
Speaker 1: for quite a few years, but that night really cemented
Speaker 1: my my total admiration for you, because when I'm ninety, boy,
Speaker 1: I better I better remember everybody in my life like that.
Speaker 1: I have a feeling you will. I know you will
Speaker 1: enough to know that you will. But it was it
Speaker 1: was My parents died Motha when I was a teenager.
Speaker 1: My mother was forty seven, my father was fifty six.
Speaker 1: They both died from my blood pressure. There was no
Speaker 1: cure then they were on rice diets. I'd take a pill,
Speaker 1: one pill in the morning, with some lowering of cholesterol
Speaker 1: in the late afternoon. And it's you and your ninety
Speaker 1: years old going on cruises, flying off tonight to Sicily
Speaker 1: so he can get another honor. How fabulous that is
Speaker 1: and what a point I want to end up saying
Speaker 1: is that after Patty and Barry and Earth Wind and
Speaker 1: Fire and Audi Golf Uncle and Alicia Keys performed, and
Speaker 1: after I had Gayle King asked me questions for half
Speaker 1: an hour, no holds barn to give all these people,
Speaker 1: many of whom I have not seen, a taste of
Speaker 1: who I am today, what I am to do? What
Speaker 1: you know? What is this going on? I did have
Speaker 1: to answer your question, I said, you know, I'm going
Speaker 1: to ask Mark Janson to those in this audience. He
Speaker 1: was the co artist of Uptown Funk with Bruno Mars,
Speaker 1: but he produced Aby Windhouse. Mark is a brilliant, brilliant
Speaker 1: young man and I know his parents. I know him
Speaker 1: since he's a kid. I said, Mark, I would like
Speaker 1: to have a nobody has ever seen it, including me,
Speaker 1: an audio visual mix of every hit from the beginning
Speaker 1: of my career. This is answering you month about you know,
Speaker 1: do I remember or do we have ever? And they
Speaker 1: were it turns out a hundred twenty artists. I said, well,
Speaker 1: you can go up to a minute, you can. I
Speaker 1: prefer an hour audio visual because it's going to go
Speaker 1: on fairly late. But he put together, beginning with the Birds, Amos,
Speaker 1: the Tambourine Man, Donovan, Mellow Yellow and Sunshine Superman, and
Speaker 1: going through the years with Whitney and A Wretha and
Speaker 1: Janis and Blizz Sweat and Simon and Golf Uncle. Uh,
Speaker 1: this wonderful audio visual brand new mix. Uh. They kept
Speaker 1: people there. I mean I went on to a quarter
Speaker 1: of two. But at a quarter of two, Ladment, Lynn
Speaker 1: Manuel Miranda was dead dancing and the leadership was dead dancing.
Speaker 1: And we're looking to there's a lot of interest in
Speaker 1: getting that shown all over the world. Well I hope,
Speaker 1: I hope we can all see that, because that is
Speaker 1: just incredible. And and Clive Davis, he did it. You
Speaker 1: did it. You brought those people to us, and that
Speaker 1: is some fantastic accomplishment, just an incredible, incredible thing. But
Speaker 1: we're going to go back a little bit. So many artists,
Speaker 1: you're not only influenced them, you not only nurtured them,
Speaker 1: You not only loved them, You not only were disappointed
Speaker 1: in some of them. What's your greatest disappointment in an artist?
Speaker 1: Did somebody stop doing it or stop playing music prematurely?
Speaker 1: Or what was the and not talking about about dying.
Speaker 1: I'm just talking about a musician stopping being a musician
Speaker 1: that you you thought never should have happened. Well, that's
Speaker 1: because I initially were thinking you were, whether dying or not.
Speaker 1: The biggest disappointment did in ballve Whitney's fatal addiction, and
Speaker 1: that couldn't be stopped, and that just could not be stopped.
Speaker 1: And it's like Elvis couldn't be stopped or Janice Joplin
Speaker 1: couldn't be stopped. Right, Janice I was so young. I
Speaker 1: never dreamt that her life was at stake with Whitney.
Speaker 1: It was painful because she didn't want it to stop.
Speaker 1: In making this film, you know, we wanted to be honest, realistic,
Speaker 1: but also show the side of Whitney that captured not
Speaker 1: just an incredible audience, but every musician, every writer wanted
Speaker 1: their song to be sung by Whitney. Houston. I've had
Speaker 1: the great fortune. One of the because thrills in my
Speaker 1: life is working with Santana twice. I mean, nobody thought
Speaker 1: it was called Davis is Folly, And you know, I
Speaker 1: have been let go as out of Columbia so that
Speaker 1: my documentary is not just and then he signed, and
Speaker 1: then he signed it's the idea. And I would say
Speaker 1: that the key to the documentaries appeal is resilience, that
Speaker 1: the ability to not take defeat, to overcome obstacles, because
Speaker 1: nobody's life goes up, up up, and to have the
Speaker 1: fortitude to have the determination to overcome obstacles that you'll
Speaker 1: never know appear in your life. So that separated from Santana.
Speaker 1: I had not seen him for twenty five years. And
Speaker 1: he calls me up and he says, I'm playing Matters,
Speaker 1: I'm playing where he was City Musical. We haven't seen
Speaker 1: each other. You were there with Though you Come Abo
Speaker 1: and Black Magic Woman and Evil Ways and my kids
Speaker 1: want me to be on the radio. And my spiritualist
Speaker 1: partner said to me, well, who did you have in
Speaker 1: your life when you had all those hits? And he said,
Speaker 1: I had Clive Davis. So I'm calling you Clive. I
Speaker 1: went to see him. He was as dazzling as Eva,
Speaker 1: and we got together. We collaborated. The blueprint was I
Speaker 1: took hap the album. I gave him the have to
Speaker 1: do what saintanis Magic will do. But I came up
Speaker 1: with Smooth and with Maria Maria from White Glove from
Speaker 1: the rob Thomas. That album is down the eleventh best
Speaker 1: selling world Point album of Old Times. So that renewal
Speaker 1: a real nighting is so great, such a wonderful experience.
Speaker 1: Rather than think of artists who lost their appeal, I'm
Speaker 1: an turn it around and say that my if not
Speaker 1: my biggest pleasure. I didn't mean lost the appeal. I
Speaker 1: just meant stopped and didn't go on left the business. Yeah,
Speaker 1: just left. You might have tried to get them back,
Speaker 1: or you might have encouraged them not to do that.
Speaker 1: I just wondered if somebody just stopped. I really can't
Speaker 1: think of anybody that just stopped. Music is so compelling
Speaker 1: that you don't stop, which is you. You're there, if
Speaker 1: you could last. Now, most of you out there probably
Speaker 1: familiar with the phrase one hit wonder where careers you know,
Speaker 1: you have a big, big hit and then you just
Speaker 1: don't have the hit again. So that it really is
Speaker 1: an inspiration to artists. One Santana after fifty is still
Speaker 1: playing Medicine Squidgg the Staples Center or the Stones into
Speaker 1: their seventies, or Billy is hanging away. I did sign Billy,
Speaker 1: so that it's the idea of how many artists you
Speaker 1: don't think of it when you signed the artists. But
Speaker 1: when I'm with Barry Manta, whom I signed in V five,
Speaker 1: that is forty seven years ago and he's still headlining.
Speaker 1: And Patty Smith, as MONTHA was saying, is as charismatic,
Speaker 1: as compelling, as electrifying as ever. I don't know why,
Speaker 1: but more to me, more she is the quintessential rock
Speaker 1: and roller. She's in the rock and roll Hall of Fame.
Speaker 1: She's had the respect. I mean, she's literate, she books
Speaker 1: are best sellers, are arn't frames some of my walls
Speaker 1: in my house. Patty is um wonderful, wonderful, quintessential rock
Speaker 1: and roll artists. So that's how long these careers all lasting,
Speaker 1: and the business that had been framed with one hit wonders.
Speaker 1: I'll tell you I was so disappointed when Paul Simon
Speaker 1: broke up with Simmit to Gulf. I mean, I remember
Speaker 1: I was sad. I was sad too, we all were
Speaker 1: because we love their music so much. So and now
Speaker 1: Paul was credit has come up with you know, fabulous albums,
Speaker 1: continued writing incredible songs, um, and he's had for him
Speaker 1: a very gratifying solo career. And of course we got
Speaker 1: this Simmon and Colif Uncle when Buds. When Tears broke up,
Speaker 1: I mean Alkoopa was the original founder about swin Tears.
Speaker 1: We had one album and then he said we're not
Speaker 1: getting along, so they split up. Now they went on
Speaker 1: in their new organization, their new framework to have a
Speaker 1: triple platinum album. You make me so very happy, Spinning
Speaker 1: Wheel and when I die. But you know when that changes,
Speaker 1: you feel disappointed when the original artists might break up,
Speaker 1: and I can't help reflecting I'm losing. And I've got
Speaker 1: to say this of where you have some of the
Speaker 1: greatest artists of all time, and whether it's from drugs
Speaker 1: or natural causes. I loved working with the read friend.
Speaker 1: I loved it. I mean she was that unique Martha.
Speaker 1: You will understand as most of all because I can
Speaker 1: go to a party with any you know, hip making
Speaker 1: and of course they created a stir. But there were
Speaker 1: those artists our mutual friend of and even confirm with
Speaker 1: you about it. So I go to a Valentino Uh
Speaker 1: party on his life and a wreath they heard about it,
Speaker 1: and she says, will you go with me? I s
Speaker 1: of course, I'll go with you, and we go there
Speaker 1: and within five minutes, I get a tug at my
Speaker 1: el boy. I thought it was a little kid, but
Speaker 1: it wasn't. It's a gentleman you and I know fairly
Speaker 1: well who lives up where far from where we are
Speaker 1: currently sitting. And he said, I've never done this. I
Speaker 1: have to meet a wreath Would you please introduce me?
Speaker 1: It was Ralph Lauren and everybody wanted to meet a
Speaker 1: Wreatha Franklin, I mean, because she had an impact on
Speaker 1: everybody's all of us, all of us. I was lucky
Speaker 1: enough to have her come on my show and it
Speaker 1: was so amazing. She was an incredible lady. Incredible. Yeah,
Speaker 1: she and I became great friends. She came to Pound Verge,
Speaker 1: where I love. She came every Memorial Day weekend. I
Speaker 1: would have Joan Rivers and Patty Lepone and uh Lee
Speaker 1: Daniels and Tyler Perry, but her Wreatha came. And I
Speaker 1: don't care who you were that with Joan Rivers dressed
Speaker 1: in the American flag, I might say, coming overthinkings, I've
Speaker 1: got to meet, I've got to meet, and I've got
Speaker 1: to take a picture with a Retha. A Wreatha was
Speaker 1: unique and she was history from the way before I
Speaker 1: met her, and yet I was able after she was
Speaker 1: forty to have number one records with her Grammy Awards
Speaker 1: with her, and we became great friends. I miss Luther Andro's,
Speaker 1: I Ms. Whitney Houston, prodigious talents, special people in many ways,
Speaker 1: and I was so lucky to meet those people at
Speaker 1: your wonderful Grammy parties too. And just just and those
Speaker 1: those parties, by the way, are the most um friendly
Speaker 1: parties I ever go to. I mean just the most friendly.
Speaker 1: Everyone is Nancy Pelosi you talked about so friendly and nice,
Speaker 1: and you want you want to know them when you
Speaker 1: meet them at your party. You want to know everybody.
Speaker 1: Clive is a party man, and boy, are you a
Speaker 1: party man. You love to entertain. I do that. That
Speaker 1: doesn't mean I love to party, so I want to
Speaker 1: correct it. You love to give part out, but I
Speaker 1: I'd like to really mix the most interesting people I
Speaker 1: know with other great interesting people. And you don't cut
Speaker 1: the party short. You let those parties go on and
Speaker 1: on that you let them take their natural, natural path
Speaker 1: because and that's very nice too, because so many of us,
Speaker 1: just you know, can't can't extend a party the way
Speaker 1: you can and it's not it's and it's all natural
Speaker 1: stuff that happens at your parties. Yes, it's incredible, and
Speaker 1: you really you're still dancing too. I heard you were
Speaker 1: dancing the other night. You know, I'm picturing for visually
Speaker 1: what all these things look like. I'm not a I
Speaker 1: will own up to this, not to preach, but I
Speaker 1: believe in living life. And I had a very We
Speaker 1: haven't discussed this, but I had a very. Yes, I
Speaker 1: just celebrated my idea at birth. It never occurred to
Speaker 1: me I would live tonight. So did you ever think
Speaker 1: about it? No, you didn't think about it because you
Speaker 1: were so busy all the time. It goes, and I was,
Speaker 1: you wonder. I don't know how not to be active.
Speaker 1: So I'm producing the whiten Need film. I'm working on
Speaker 1: three documentaries and a number of projects. I'm still working
Speaker 1: at Sony. I go in there twice a week because
Speaker 1: that since you still had that big, that big corner office.
Speaker 1: I have a great, nice, lovely office different from we
Speaker 1: don't have that building. So the question is how do
Speaker 1: I live and what do I do? And you say,
Speaker 1: you know your question. But I had occasion to take
Speaker 1: an unexpected trip, just like six weeks ago where it's
Speaker 1: been announced in November, I'm being inducted into the National
Speaker 1: Portrait Gallery in Washington, t C. And they retain an
Speaker 1: order to do a portrait of you being inducted. I
Speaker 1: know Serena Williams that this year and Dr Fauci anyway,
Speaker 1: there are five every other year. I was an am
Speaker 1: tremendously honored, and I decided I would call on a
Speaker 1: friend to do my portrait, which thrilled them and thrilled me.
Speaker 1: That David Hockney is doing has done my point. Wait,
Speaker 1: I'm doing what I'm doing tonight, literally tonight. Is that
Speaker 1: David for me to have my portrait done by him
Speaker 1: was is still living in Normandy, France and not l A,
Speaker 1: where he had lived for decades, And so I had
Speaker 1: to go to Normandy, France, and I stopped off from
Speaker 1: Paris for three or four nights prior. I loved it.
Speaker 1: I just love revisiting this wonderful city's highlights, the great restaurants,
Speaker 1: And I said, you know, as long as I can
Speaker 1: those favorite places that I've so loved in life. I've
Speaker 1: had three great resorts over the years, for many years
Speaker 1: when we all just sat in the sun. I won't
Speaker 1: do it anymore. So I don't go to Saint Parts,
Speaker 1: but Sat Parts. What distinguished it was not the sun,
Speaker 1: but in the middle of the Caribbean. There were restaurants
Speaker 1: for lunch and then that you just couldn't believe the quality.
Speaker 1: I started going there when my daughter was five, so
Speaker 1: that was fifty one years ago, and we would see
Speaker 1: we would be there together, and there were French restaurants
Speaker 1: on the beach with the most selectable food, remarkable San Crope.
Speaker 1: For many years I've enjoyed again for the same reason.
Speaker 1: And the Amalfi Coast Company and Positano and Sorrento and Toronto,
Speaker 1: and so void by my experience in Paris. Before I
Speaker 1: visited David Hockney and Normandy, I said, you know, I
Speaker 1: love chouldering a yacht. I'm gonna do it, and so
Speaker 1: knock some wood you're going today that I'm leaving tonight,
Speaker 1: lucky and I will go on a boat and uh
Speaker 1: go to Capri and um, it's living life it is.
Speaker 1: And don't fall overboard, you know, I don't try not
Speaker 1: to pull over. You're gonna have a fantastic time. We
Speaker 1: can go on for hours and hours, but I just
Speaker 1: want everybody listening to pick up a copy of the
Speaker 1: soundtrack of My Life by Clive Davis with Anthony Curtis,
Speaker 1: very excellent book, and watch the documentary because on Netflix.
Speaker 1: Because it is really a remarkable life well lived, a
Speaker 1: life of inspiration and a life of celebration. And thank you, Clive,
Speaker 1: my pleasure, Thank you for wandering over here from not
Speaker 1: far away, not far and come come back and visit again.
Speaker 1: And uh and really it's a pleasure to talk to you.
Speaker 1: Thanks so much for any of and you bu