Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser and Jason
Speaker 1: Kelly on Bloomberg Radio. Pull up a radio. We're gonna
Speaker 1: have a great conversation to round out this week's shows.
Speaker 1: In this Friday show, David Fish office with US music
Speaker 1: producer founder CEO of Rock and Roll Fantasy Camp. He
Speaker 1: jines this on the phone from Los Angeles, David, so
Speaker 1: many things to talk to you about, so gratefully you're
Speaker 1: with us. First of all, how are you? How are
Speaker 1: things in l A. We're really feeling for you guys
Speaker 1: out in southern California. Well, well, thank you Carol and Jason. Um,
Speaker 1: glad to be on the air. And um, you know,
Speaker 1: it's funny. I just heard all the all the bad
Speaker 1: news about the stock market. So we're gonna we're gonna
Speaker 1: try to take the next hour or whatever we're gonna
Speaker 1: be on. We're gonna list everybody because we're doing great
Speaker 1: here in l A. We're finally see blue skies, um,
Speaker 1: and everything's heading to you guys, you know. But yeah
Speaker 1: that somehow the wind directions changed and I looked up
Speaker 1: today it's finally got blued, you know. So um, you know,
Speaker 1: as in New York, or I gotta appreciate California, but
Speaker 1: I missed New York. Yeah. Absolute, you're a Fordham Ram
Speaker 1: I believe. So, yeah, you made your way at Major
Speaker 1: way out West. So camp it's online, talk to me
Speaker 1: about it. So it's online. So you know, for years,
Speaker 1: I've been doing these uh rock and Roll fantasy camps
Speaker 1: um where eighty people come together and they got an
Speaker 1: opportunity to spend four days with these amazing rock stars.
Speaker 1: And every night we do a masterclass series. So you
Speaker 1: get to Yeah, I put you on the band where
Speaker 1: the touring rock star. Then you get to play with
Speaker 1: Joe Perry and Roger Dole Tree and you performing at
Speaker 1: a nightly at the Whiskey of Go Go or or
Speaker 1: bb Kings or you know, the any club. And that's
Speaker 1: really been our for you know what we've been doing.
Speaker 1: And then I just when I when we all went
Speaker 1: to uh covid Um, I was set to do a
Speaker 1: camp with the Scorpions in Vegas, and I was gonna
Speaker 1: bring it to New York. I was doing a cheap
Speaker 1: trick Um camp in New York City where they were
Speaker 1: gonna um. Do you know plays the Stargeant Pepper album
Speaker 1: and everything stopped and I said to myself, this is crazy.
Speaker 1: What are we gonna do? And in June I came
Speaker 1: out and I've been looking just for for many years
Speaker 1: to look into how to get my business online, and
Speaker 1: um so I came up with the idea of doing
Speaker 1: these master classes living to get to people. I went
Speaker 1: to the rock stars and I said, hey, how about
Speaker 1: doing these classes and you know, the rev share with
Speaker 1: you and let's let's see if we can get people
Speaker 1: to come on soon and give him an hour and
Speaker 1: let him ask questions. Well a little did I know
Speaker 1: that the hour would turn out to be two hours
Speaker 1: because everybody has nothing to do with it, you know,
Speaker 1: nothing true. Alice Cooper says, yeah, you know what, let's
Speaker 1: go And I got nowhere to go and and everyone
Speaker 1: just kept doing more and more time and loving the
Speaker 1: adulations that they were getting from their fans that were
Speaker 1: based basically fans musicians, vocalists and everybody music dusists who
Speaker 1: would go to them and say, hey, you know, I
Speaker 1: remember I remember that, you know that that show that
Speaker 1: you did, and can tell me a little about how
Speaker 1: how it was, or I'm finding people bringing everyone's bringing
Speaker 1: their guitars on because the rocker could turn to them
Speaker 1: and say, hey, play me that lick. Let me let
Speaker 1: me how you doing it. No, you're not doing right,
Speaker 1: let me show you how to do it. And every
Speaker 1: night you're getting different advice from these amazing rock stars.
Speaker 1: And I say amazing because every night they get off
Speaker 1: the you know, we did the We've been hosting them
Speaker 1: every night and a different rock star, and and every
Speaker 1: night I get off the you know and get off
Speaker 1: the zoom call and I say, wow, you know, I know,
Speaker 1: the country's isn't bad, and COVID everything's going on. But
Speaker 1: these artists are just giving giving out so much information
Speaker 1: and they all have one underlining um one under lotty point.
Speaker 1: It's passion what got them to where they got to be,
Speaker 1: and they have the passion that's kept them. And every
Speaker 1: giving me one hope it's going to come back, and
Speaker 1: really giving inside information, well you know you say it
Speaker 1: inside information. I'm just looking. You know, you have Chef
Speaker 1: Gordon coming on, you have Jason flam who's somebody who's
Speaker 1: been on our air, you know, and so it's with
Speaker 1: the musicians, but it's also people who understand the industry,
Speaker 1: and you're giving just kind of some snippets of advice,
Speaker 1: which is so cool. Just got about thirty seconds here
Speaker 1: and then we'll come back and talk some more. But
Speaker 1: it's really cool. Chef was amazing. He sold out three
Speaker 1: classes right away, one through three. It was all people
Speaker 1: from the industry saying, Chef, I don't what do I
Speaker 1: do now? I'm a chef, you give me some advice. UM,
Speaker 1: you know, I'm I'm a crew member, I'm an agent.
Speaker 1: What is like? And they all walked away. And again
Speaker 1: he spent two hours with everyone. He don't get again
Speaker 1: now doing a case on branding. UM, so it's been
Speaker 1: it's been fun. You've worked with Roger Daltrey, uh Ringo
Speaker 1: store Star. I can't even say it's sorry. It's been
Speaker 1: a long week. The Monkeys, I mean, Joe Wash, Peter Frampton,
Speaker 1: I mean, so many legends when it comes to rock
Speaker 1: and roll. UM, tell us a little bit about that.
Speaker 1: So I started the Castle, I'm a New Yorker, UM
Speaker 1: and uh started the Castile's booking comedians. UM, and then
Speaker 1: I just I moved into special sports. I had the
Speaker 1: opportunity to represent UM, Vince Ferragamo and then Phil Simms
Speaker 1: and Luke Canello. Really was my first client. UM it
Speaker 1: was with the Yankees and UH, and then he introduced
Speaker 1: me to so many other athletes, and UM, I started
Speaker 1: doing sports. I got out of music, UM until one
Speaker 1: day I got a phone call UM in eighty three
Speaker 1: asking me if I was interested in representing the association,
Speaker 1: and I said, the association of what I really wasn't
Speaker 1: a fan of theirs and and they did the music
Speaker 1: cherished Wendy never my love and I was able to
Speaker 1: take the band on and really do a great job
Speaker 1: for them. And then I picked up all these other bands,
Speaker 1: the Turtles and the Grassroots and UM. So I took
Speaker 1: the what I learned in the castles and I packaged
Speaker 1: them in the package called it to Happen Together to her.
Speaker 1: I did that for two years, where you've got only
Speaker 1: her hits, hits only from these bands. And then eight
Speaker 1: six UM I came up with the concept through the Monkeys,
Speaker 1: and unbeknownst to me, I was on the seventh floor
Speaker 1: at seventy five Broadway. On the eighth ninth floor was
Speaker 1: his new fledging network called MTV, and they decided they're
Speaker 1: gonna air the Monkeys TV show twenty four hours. So
Speaker 1: when I was normally selling three thousand tickets to night
Speaker 1: for these um, you know, old these tours. Um, I
Speaker 1: go on Selle of the Monkeys and I sold twenty
Speaker 1: five thousand and it was incredible. It was just incredible. Um.
Speaker 1: Every no one knew these young girls would come home
Speaker 1: and the mothers of Jelza, where were you all? My mommy?
Speaker 1: I was waiting on line for the monkeys. They're coming
Speaker 1: to town and the most so, what are you talking about?
Speaker 1: I want to go see the monkeys. They didn't know,
Speaker 1: they didn't know the twenty year old bands. So um, anyways, unbelievable.
Speaker 1: The first the first twenty roads were just little girls screaming,
Speaker 1: and then their mothers in the back roads screaming equally,
Speaker 1: screaming equally. Yeah. So then uh and then following the monkeys,
Speaker 1: I decided to do UM. I saw the movie Dirty
Speaker 1: Dancing and I said wow, I started the cast Gilson,
Speaker 1: I said. I came up with a concept to make
Speaker 1: a live tour of the Dirty Dancers, and Eric Carman
Speaker 1: and Bill Medley and I put it together this package.
Speaker 1: We sold out eight nights at Radio City and I
Speaker 1: toured that all around the world. And my business model
Speaker 1: was many of the cor Corporate America would come to
Speaker 1: me and say, hey, we'd love to get some tickets
Speaker 1: and let's get meat and greets. You know, we want
Speaker 1: to sponsor your your packages and your tours because they
Speaker 1: did very well, you know, using using my my concerts.
Speaker 1: So um, one day, the president PEPSI calls me up
Speaker 1: after Dirty Dancing and he says, I'd love to, um,
Speaker 1: you know, sponsor one of your tours. It's the twentye
Speaker 1: Anniversity of Pepsi generation. You have any ideas for us?
Speaker 1: So I'm sitting at lunch and I ordered a die
Speaker 1: coke and so I came up with the concept of
Speaker 1: how about we do a Ringo in the all Star band.
Speaker 1: Let me go to Ringo star and I'll put together
Speaker 1: an all star band around them. So they love that.
Speaker 1: I went over to a Lynn an opportunity to meet
Speaker 1: ring Go and made on my pitch. He said to me,
Speaker 1: I was thinking the same thing, and and that was it.
Speaker 1: That was the star of the All Star band. And
Speaker 1: he's still doing it at the thirty one years after
Speaker 1: seeing Yeah, it's unbelievable. And uh, I was working there
Speaker 1: for fifteen years and then I, you know, I you know,
Speaker 1: for for an artist tour every city, it's amazing, but
Speaker 1: for a father, um, to be on the road, it
Speaker 1: was just to retard. And yeah, so I uh had
Speaker 1: such an amazing experience on the Ringo tours. And especially
Speaker 1: if you go to YouTube one day, you'll you'll see
Speaker 1: there the type of my name and Ringo. There's a
Speaker 1: funny bit there that Levin Helmut Joe Walsh played a
Speaker 1: joke on me that and they played a good goof.
Speaker 1: But I got the idea being on the road with
Speaker 1: all these amazing rockers, um, what about if I could
Speaker 1: give this to the fan. What about if I could
Speaker 1: let people have an opportunity to share? And that was
Speaker 1: the start of Rock and Roll Fantasy Camp. So twenty
Speaker 1: five years I've been doing the camp um and it's
Speaker 1: been fun. It's been a little hobby and but I'm
Speaker 1: meant to change your lives. You know, I was listening
Speaker 1: to you know what you were talking about beforehand with
Speaker 1: with you know, changing lives with the young people. Rock
Speaker 1: Camp has basically changed your lives of so many people,
Speaker 1: and on tom of it, change your lives with the
Speaker 1: rock stars. And I have the stock. I have this
Speaker 1: great documentary coming out in February, and you're gonna see
Speaker 1: how not only does it change the lives of these
Speaker 1: people go through the experience, because that's what it is,
Speaker 1: it's a four day experience. Um, but it's also changed
Speaker 1: the lives of rock stars. So I gotta ask you
Speaker 1: but before we let you go, David, you know, one
Speaker 1: of the things that you know just in our research
Speaker 1: that came across about you is you actually don't lead
Speaker 1: mud and haven't and I think it sounds like for
Speaker 1: a while sort of a rock star lifestyle, like you
Speaker 1: have a very balanced life. How did you achieve that?
Speaker 1: How do you achieve that? Well, that's a great question
Speaker 1: because every night on these master classes. The other night,
Speaker 1: see how he was brilliant, Alice Coop brilliant. That's not
Speaker 1: what they said. They said, Oh, you know, just because
Speaker 1: you're a rock star doesn't mean you have to stop
Speaker 1: doing your your your daily responsibility of being a father,
Speaker 1: of being a husband, of being in my case of
Speaker 1: the grandfather too. Um, you know you still have to
Speaker 1: take out the trash. You know, I always, I always
Speaker 1: people always ask me a joke, They said, why does
Speaker 1: the rain go star? I have to go on tour
Speaker 1: and I'd always make a joke though, but it's your
Speaker 1: less that you know, when on the road, you're a beatle.
Speaker 1: When your home, your wife said, pick out the trash.
Speaker 1: So that's that's why people tour. And I think, I
Speaker 1: think every night I'm learning in these masterclasses that you
Speaker 1: have to have a balanced life. And you know, my
Speaker 1: dad was a survivor of autists and and I think
Speaker 1: they still than me. It's wonderful to be in show business,
Speaker 1: but you still have to have a responsibility. So to
Speaker 1: wake up and have both is amazing, and um, I
Speaker 1: enjoy it. I enjoy that part of my life. So
Speaker 1: what So what's next? What's next for you? Just got
Speaker 1: about a minute left? Okay, Yeah, what's next? Well? And
Speaker 1: want you go to my website rock cats dot com
Speaker 1: and see these master classes. And I hope your husband
Speaker 1: comes and joins us, um because there'll be some great
Speaker 1: blues arts coming on the movie. I think. I think
Speaker 1: what I'm excited about is this movie coming out in January,
Speaker 1: February and probably February, and basically to show people that
Speaker 1: you don't have to be scared too, because that's the
Speaker 1: biggest problem with our businesses. People are scared the jam
Speaker 1: with Jeff back, the Scared to Jam with def Leppard.
Speaker 1: You know that some people get scared, but the ones
Speaker 1: who go through that experience, they go they can do anything.
Speaker 1: They can do anything in their lives and not just
Speaker 1: you know, be a musician, but they become better. Listen, David,
Speaker 1: I was singing on air before and it was terrible,
Speaker 1: but I have no fear, so I get what you're saying.
Speaker 1: Just go out there. I went for it. It It was
Speaker 1: it was ugly, but I did it. David, thank you
Speaker 1: so much because listen, good luck come back at another
Speaker 1: time because we would love to continue this conversation, and
Speaker 1: good luck with everything. David fish Off, founder of Rock
Speaker 1: and Roll Fantasy Camp Man, I've been on the website,
Speaker 1: Um just so cool master classes and they started like
Speaker 1: fIF you back, so how cool to just like sit
Speaker 1: and play exactly, And I love I love what he
Speaker 1: said at the beginning about people like yeah, I'm good, No,
Speaker 1: we can keep going. Yeah I know, but don't you
Speaker 1: like we see you do because every everybody's like, I
Speaker 1: don't know, I'm around, Sure, ye call me whenever I'm
Speaker 1: a little lonely. Can we just keep laying? Can you
Speaker 1: play that lick again,