Speaker 1: Welcome, Welcome, Welcome back to the Bob Webstt's podcast. My
Speaker 1: guest today is legendary promotion man record executive Mario Medius. Mario,
Speaker 1: great to have you on the podcast. So how'd you
Speaker 1: get your job with Atlantic Records?
Speaker 2: I got my job through a friend of mine. She
Speaker 2: worked in Atlantic Records at the time, and she was
Speaker 2: a friend of mine. We used to go to all
Speaker 2: the jazz clubs together. And she told me one day,
Speaker 2: you know, like, hey, there's an opening in the bookkeeping
Speaker 2: apartment of Atlantic.
Speaker 3: If you liked her, you know, apply, you know, I'll
Speaker 3: recommend you. So I went up.
Speaker 2: And and took their tests, and you know, and Hill
Speaker 2: and Vogel hired me. That was nineteen sixty five and
Speaker 2: I started out in the bookkeeping apartment.
Speaker 4: So what exactly did you do there?
Speaker 2: I was accounts, payable, payroll and all checks that was
Speaker 2: made under company.
Speaker 3: You know, I paid all the checks whatever it was.
Speaker 2: You know, every bill was paid by then at that
Speaker 2: time by hand, you know, plus the payroll. We did
Speaker 2: all the sessions and everything that payroll for the musicians
Speaker 2: and payroll for the offers. Any bills that had to
Speaker 2: be paid was paid through me. At that time, it
Speaker 2: was only one person. I maade up all the checks.
Speaker 4: Oh so you were the only person.
Speaker 3: The only person made up checks.
Speaker 2: If you wanted a check at that time from Atlantic Records,
Speaker 2: it went through me.
Speaker 3: No computer.
Speaker 4: Now, Linx Records has a checkered history with paying their acts,
Speaker 4: whether they're paying, what to do, whether they're paying at all.
Speaker 4: A lot of that's before your time. But is that
Speaker 4: something you could see from writing checks?
Speaker 2: No, what I did when I was writing checks, I
Speaker 2: wasn't doing the Royal is you know, and I wasn't
Speaker 2: doing contracts, so I never knew all of that. But
Speaker 2: I did make up checks, you know, as far as
Speaker 2: when I got a Royal statement, I pay the Royal
Speaker 2: statement or whatever the mount is on the Royal statements,
Speaker 2: the mountains?
Speaker 3: Do you pay that? Now?
Speaker 2: Whatever deal they had with the with the company, you know,
Speaker 2: if they signed a contract for two percent rather than
Speaker 2: ten percent, that's their business.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 2: Like in those days, people just happy to have a contract,
Speaker 2: you know, can you match it? And they just wanted
Speaker 2: they just wanted to get a record out so they
Speaker 2: could work. Back in those days, they didn't know anything
Speaker 2: about business, so a lot of people got screwed.
Speaker 4: You know, do you remember what some of the biggest
Speaker 4: checks you wrote were for royalties?
Speaker 2: Well, I mean, let me see, oh man, I mean
Speaker 2: wrote it is reading. Well it wasn't made totus ready
Speaker 2: made to the just tax records, but mostly about Otis
Speaker 2: they break it down who sold so much records. But
Speaker 2: the biggest check that I ever made was for for
Speaker 2: Steven Stills across Stills the Nash I think it was about,
Speaker 2: oh for fifty thousand something like that, you know at
Speaker 2: one time.
Speaker 4: Okay, so you were working in payroll. How'd you get
Speaker 4: out of pay.
Speaker 2: Well, first of all, I was in payroll for you know, payroll,
Speaker 2: and I did that for about three years, and and
Speaker 2: I went from payroll and they sold to Kenny. When
Speaker 2: Warner Brothers sold to Kenny, the whole system changed the
Speaker 2: bid because now you got a corporate situation. And the
Speaker 2: person I was working for that was the controller, who
Speaker 2: was Sheldon Bogo. They promoted him to vice president. Uh
Speaker 2: you know, I guess whatever, you know, vice president and
Speaker 2: he and he didn't have a CPA, so they wanted
Speaker 2: someone to CEPA to be the controller. So they hired
Speaker 2: another guy. I think his name was Jack Halpern or
Speaker 2: whatever it was. But they wanted me to train him,
Speaker 2: you know, for I wanted him to help me, to
Speaker 2: help train him, and I refused. I just didn't want
Speaker 2: to train someone to be my boss. And so I
Speaker 2: spoke with you know, the amin and jerring him, and
Speaker 2: I told him I just didn't want to do that.
Speaker 2: So they transferred me to the album sales department to
Speaker 2: be the as system to the vice president, which was
Speaker 2: Liny Sacks at the time. And that was like, you know,
Speaker 2: album sales were the biggest sales in the company. And
Speaker 2: that was very interesting because now I'm working with the distributors.
Speaker 2: They are buying records and you know, you're dealing back
Speaker 2: and forth with them, going to conventions and so on,
Speaker 2: and meeting all the distributors. And also I was adding
Speaker 2: up all the sales that we did at the conventions,
Speaker 2: and I got to know everybody that was a distributor.
Speaker 2: That was before before they got WA you know, before
Speaker 2: they started their own distribution.
Speaker 3: We had independent distributors.
Speaker 2: So I got to know all these distributors and I
Speaker 2: did that for about a year and then I I
Speaker 2: went to Jay and I said like, hey man, you're
Speaker 2: like I'm just doing accounting, so it's it's just better
Speaker 2: I move on. Greenberg suggested that that they could use
Speaker 2: a promotion man for the hippies, you know, for this
Speaker 2: new stations, and and I said, well, you know, I
Speaker 2: wouldn't mind doing promotion if I could do the rock stuff,
Speaker 2: you know, all the rock and roll. So see here,
Speaker 2: it'd be the album promotion. They call it underground station STU.
Speaker 2: They had a list called S t U. S was
Speaker 2: stereo underground stations, right, so.
Speaker 3: That was so that was my list.
Speaker 2: And I had all these stations men used to be
Speaker 2: used to be a classical stations before, but now they
Speaker 2: turned into AO R oriented. Before back then it was
Speaker 2: just pre form radio and all those stations like uh
Speaker 2: KMPX k SEN and an e W and whatever.
Speaker 3: Those few stations that started out are now FM.
Speaker 2: But they can play anything they want, could be jazz, blues, rock, whatever.
Speaker 2: And I and I was the first guy more or
Speaker 2: less did promotion for that. I took the first led
Speaker 2: Zeppelin test pressing to Alison Steele in New York and
Speaker 2: she played the whole record because she said, what is
Speaker 2: this album? I said, this is the news forydd Birch.
Speaker 2: So she played the whole album on the radio boy
Speaker 2: and went crazy. New York went crazy for that two
Speaker 2: weeks before the record was out. They went crazy because
Speaker 2: she played the whole record and Rosto came on after
Speaker 2: they played it.
Speaker 3: Then I took a test president and went to Boston.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 2: So that's the way we That's why we tried to
Speaker 2: break records back then. You know, before they were released,
Speaker 2: you got to play on radio. Radio was manager to
Speaker 2: sell a record back in those days.
Speaker 4: Okay, if you were a jazz er, how'd you feel
Speaker 4: about rock and roll?
Speaker 3: Look? Man, I love music. First of all.
Speaker 2: Music was my thing, you know, Jazz was what I
Speaker 2: I you know, it was my favorite lover is till today.
Speaker 2: I still I'm a jazz fanatic. And when I took
Speaker 2: the job at Atlantic, the main reason to take the
Speaker 2: job because Coltrane was on the label and I get
Speaker 2: the records free, you know, that was the main I
Speaker 2: was never.
Speaker 3: About trying to be a millionaire and none of that stuff.
Speaker 3: You know, just a job was great.
Speaker 2: But now I get pre records, so I'm going to
Speaker 2: get about ten records every week, so that's part of
Speaker 2: my payrolls.
Speaker 3: Was I'm certain, you know, and.
Speaker 2: I really enjoyed that part of it when I first
Speaker 2: got there. That was the reason for taking the job.
Speaker 2: And I always liked I liked the blues, and rock
Speaker 2: was blues oriented, you know, blues, Muddy Waters. I was
Speaker 2: raised up in Chicago, so that Muddy Waters and Howland
Speaker 2: Wilson and all that stuff. I was raised up around
Speaker 2: all of that music, and that was like, my my
Speaker 2: major thing was blues. Jazz was my major to music
Speaker 2: is all. And most rock and roll was blues oriented,
Speaker 2: you know, So I could accept it. If they could
Speaker 2: play any type of blues, I would concept it, you know.
Speaker 2: And most of all of them back then, from the Beatles,
Speaker 2: Rolling Stones, across the Steels and Nash everybody, everybody had
Speaker 2: a blues concept, you know.
Speaker 3: So I got along very well with them because of that.
Speaker 4: Okay, at that point in time, some of the records
Speaker 4: were an ATCO. I think Vanilla Fudge was an ATCO
Speaker 4: and some were in Atlantic.
Speaker 3: Right, did it make any.
Speaker 4: Difference if you were promoting the records, You're promoting all
Speaker 4: of them.
Speaker 3: Didn't make any different. Cotillion Atlantic at COO I had.
Speaker 2: I had a promo record, promo picture made and I said,
Speaker 2: Mario Media's own all Atlantic, Atcho and Cortillion Records.
Speaker 3: So if it was all any of those labels, I
Speaker 3: was promoting them.
Speaker 2: You know, it didn't make any difference with me, you know,
Speaker 2: because it was the same thing. This is his job,
Speaker 2: you know, And but I enjoy.
Speaker 4: Okay, Since you know, the Woodstock album came out in
Speaker 4: the spring of seventy on Katillion, obviously there was a
Speaker 4: lot of demand for that. But what did you do
Speaker 4: for the Woodstock record to make it happen?
Speaker 3: Look?
Speaker 2: Man, they were dying for They wanted Jimmy Henrys, but
Speaker 2: jim Henry they wouldn't let they wouldn't let let us
Speaker 2: have Jimmy because he was on Warner Brothers. But the
Speaker 2: record was a was a smash because people had had
Speaker 2: seen Woodstock movie, you know.
Speaker 3: So now we got the soundtrack, which is the State Boom.
Speaker 3: They took it just like just ouh. Look man, it
Speaker 3: immediately the first week is Golan, you know, the first week.
Speaker 3: But it wasn't No.
Speaker 2: I didn't have to do nothing but just delivered the
Speaker 2: record and I had I had so much fun with
Speaker 2: that record because they said, well, what happened to Jimmy Hennings.
Speaker 3: Uh part of it.
Speaker 2: I said, well, you know, Jimmy's on Warner Brothers because
Speaker 2: he did that Star Spangled banner so on, you know,
Speaker 2: And I knew all those guests.
Speaker 3: I knew Jimmy very well.
Speaker 2: I knew Richie Havens well. I knew all of them,
Speaker 2: you know, everybody man, all those guys on Woostock, I
Speaker 2: knew them. But I didn't go to Worstock because too
Speaker 2: money for.
Speaker 3: Me, you know.
Speaker 2: But but it's Joe and I enjoyed that album.
Speaker 3: You know, it was a lot of fun.
Speaker 4: Okay, So you went to work for Atlantic in sixty five.
Speaker 4: You worked in three and a half years in payroll, right,
Speaker 4: and then how long did you work in sales?
Speaker 3: Sales? About about a year.
Speaker 4: Who was head of sales then.
Speaker 3: Lenis Sachs's name was Linnis Sacks. He was vice president
Speaker 3: of sales.
Speaker 4: Okay, that was as you say, that was independent. You
Speaker 4: went through distributors all over the country. How did you
Speaker 4: convince them? You know, it's one thing to convince them
Speaker 4: to get the young rascals or something. It's another thing
Speaker 4: to convince them to buy something that is unknown. How
Speaker 4: would you do that?
Speaker 3: Right? First of all, you got to realize.
Speaker 2: Now, when I was the Count's bailable guy, they also
Speaker 2: so you know, they had all the checks came from
Speaker 2: the distributors, and I had to make the deposits, you know.
Speaker 2: For so I got to know all the distributors like that,
Speaker 2: and whenever they were laid on a payment shell, the
Speaker 2: Vogue will tell me to call them, because he didn't
Speaker 2: want to be on bad terms with them, but he'd
Speaker 2: called me in and tell him myself, look, if you don't
Speaker 2: if we don't have a check by friant, we're cutting
Speaker 2: you off, you know. So I got to know all
Speaker 2: of those guys being a bookkeeper. And when I started
Speaker 2: promoting records, I would go to the distributor, even with
Speaker 2: a new record, like I remember that Zeppelin's first number
Speaker 2: whatever it was, twenty nine points whatever. That's what they
Speaker 2: knew the record. They didn't know who the who the
Speaker 2: record was. This twenty nine or whatever is selling a bit.
Speaker 2: I said, well, man, that's that's step. You need to
Speaker 2: buy another ten thousand because I think it's going to
Speaker 2: do well. And so I would go to distributors and talk.
Speaker 3: To them in every city that I went in where
Speaker 3: we had a distributor in order.
Speaker 2: To get them to buy advance because I was playing
Speaker 2: like test presents, you know, in all those cities, and
Speaker 2: I was saying, well, this is going to be a
Speaker 2: smash so and they said, well I here's playing on
Speaker 2: the stairs.
Speaker 3: Well, man should get more.
Speaker 2: So I got that type of relationship with all distributors
Speaker 2: and that really helped me as far as Mode records.
Speaker 4: You know, So were the distributors music fans or were they.
Speaker 3: The money fans?
Speaker 2: That's what they were. Just they were about selling records.
Speaker 2: They didn't they didn't care, but they didn't care about
Speaker 2: the music. They didn't even know who they are acts were,
Speaker 2: you know, most of them didn't know who they were,
Speaker 2: you know. But as long as they say, well this
Speaker 2: number is.
Speaker 3: Selling, who you know that?
Speaker 2: I mean, In a God of the Vida was a
Speaker 2: big big seller back it was Iron Butterfly in A
Speaker 2: God of the Vita was like the biggest rock seller
Speaker 2: up at that point before Zeppelin came out and stuff.
Speaker 3: Right, And I went to the station and this guy said, well, man, uh,
Speaker 3: that record in a cot in you either.
Speaker 5: I said, I said, that's not, that's not that's not
Speaker 5: that's not a song.
Speaker 3: I mean, I wouldn't mind. I wouldn't mind from all
Speaker 3: of that. But that's not a song man, you know.
Speaker 3: I said it got to be oh well, whatever it is.
Speaker 3: They said, that's selling. Well.
Speaker 2: But that's the type of that's the type of mentality
Speaker 2: most of those distributors ad. They didn't care about the
Speaker 2: music or what you know. It was about money with them,
Speaker 2: you know.
Speaker 3: But I understood that.
Speaker 4: How much was it about the relationship whining and dining
Speaker 4: them in order to get them to buy stuff as
Speaker 4: opposed to the music itself.
Speaker 2: Well, I didn't do that. That was the salesman did that,
Speaker 2: you know. I guess they the sales you know, from
Speaker 2: Atlantic salesman. They had some guys in the office and
Speaker 2: some distributors that did that. I didn't wind and dine
Speaker 2: the disc jockey as far as you know, as far
Speaker 2: as the FM jocks.
Speaker 4: Okay, but let's go back before that. You work in
Speaker 4: in payroll. They tell you got to train your boss.
Speaker 4: You talk about ahmit Jerry and Jerry Greenberg. Jury you're
Speaker 4: working in payroll. How well did you know those guys?
Speaker 3: Well?
Speaker 2: I made up all the checks, so I knew them
Speaker 2: very well. They had to come to me to get
Speaker 2: the checks every week.
Speaker 3: So Greenberg.
Speaker 2: I got to know Greenburg so as he started working there,
Speaker 2: because they got to give me all the information to
Speaker 2: make up the payroll checks. You know, So I got
Speaker 2: I got a good relationship with everyone. But on Thursday,
Speaker 2: I gave everybody that checks except you know, I'm in
Speaker 2: the nestluth. I just mild to the bank account. But mean,
Speaker 2: like the guys that worked in office, everybody, I knew
Speaker 2: everybody in office, and everybody knew me because I was
Speaker 2: a payroll clerk, you know, And I got to meet
Speaker 2: all the musicians the same way, you know, because the payroll.
Speaker 4: Did they ever have any problem meeting payroll through They
Speaker 4: always have money?
Speaker 2: Never, never, never not. When I was there, we always
Speaker 2: had money for payroll, you know. And you know, I
Speaker 2: remember we should always have about a million dollars in
Speaker 2: the bank account most of the times.
Speaker 4: You know, Okay, you're working in sales. Once again, what
Speaker 4: exactly did you do in sales?
Speaker 3: And sales?
Speaker 2: You know, at the time, we had album release are
Speaker 2: like twice a year, maybe January and June. And that
Speaker 2: thing is you got to got to build up all
Speaker 2: this stuff with all the album jackets and sleeves and
Speaker 2: so on. You got to get all that stuff together
Speaker 2: in order to get the albums prepared for release. And
Speaker 2: and also you got to pick up out locations for
Speaker 2: all the distributors for a record. If if you have
Speaker 2: a record completed that is so many records, he might
Speaker 2: he might release twenty records at that particular release date.
Speaker 2: So you got to break down how many each distributor
Speaker 2: is going to get based on you don't even know
Speaker 2: if they're going to sell because some of them do
Speaker 2: new acts, you know, So you go through an allocation
Speaker 2: based on what you might what type of feedback you
Speaker 2: might have got it from the local sale peoples. You know,
Speaker 2: it was a job that required a lot of research,
Speaker 2: you know, back in those days, because you didn't have
Speaker 2: no computers and stuff like that.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 4: Okay, so you're working in sales, Tell me exactly how
Speaker 4: do you get out of sales.
Speaker 2: I got a sales by after I did, like I
Speaker 2: think this second convention we was in in the Bahamas,
Speaker 2: and you know, I was the last guy to get
Speaker 2: to the dinner because I had to add up all
Speaker 2: the sales. You know, they all saidn't all the distributors,
Speaker 2: I'm a Jerry Nesta and everybody up on the stage
Speaker 2: waiting on the total sales for that convention. And it
Speaker 2: took me till about nine o'clock, you know at night,
Speaker 2: when everybody's already eating and stuff, by the time I
Speaker 2: take to take the finished amount. Let them know how many,
Speaker 2: how many, how much the sales were done for that
Speaker 2: particular convention. So I go up there, Oh yet thirty
Speaker 2: six May thirty eight me you on't evere might say,
Speaker 2: and then they'll make up and oh we did, thirty
Speaker 2: men and everybody from but they all been waiting on Mario. Now,
Speaker 2: all the whole place been waiting on We're waiting on
Speaker 2: Mario to bring in. So I was well known by
Speaker 2: everybody because I was the last one coming. My wife
Speaker 2: hated that because she's sitting there eating by herself, you know,
Speaker 2: but that was that was the main thing, you know.
Speaker 2: And then I just decided I was an accounting again
Speaker 2: all over again. And I figure, I'm still in an accountant,
Speaker 2: so I need to get out of here completely. And
Speaker 2: I was planning to leave and just go into the
Speaker 2: counting field. And Greenberg said, well, man, we really need
Speaker 2: someone to do this these FM because they're all freaks,
Speaker 2: you know.
Speaker 4: Okay, just to go store. You were ready to leave
Speaker 4: to go work as an accountant.
Speaker 3: We're somewhere into accounting firm, right, And you.
Speaker 4: Told Jerry, and then Jerry said this.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Jerry Greenberg, Yeah, Greenberg, Yeah, he came to me first.
Speaker 2: You know, because when they tried to hire when I
Speaker 2: was in the album when I was in the album
Speaker 2: sales department, they tried to hire a guy to do
Speaker 2: this FM promotion and he lasted about two weeks or
Speaker 2: three weeks, and Greenberg come back said, man, this guy
Speaker 2: is horrible. Man, why don't you try Mark? I said, well,
Speaker 2: you know, like I'll have to think about it. And
Speaker 2: then I went and spoke to my wife and so on,
Speaker 2: and the next day I said, well, I'll do it,
Speaker 2: but I do only want to do the rock stuff,
Speaker 2: you know, I don't want to do that R and
Speaker 2: B and Paola and all. He said, man, you don't
Speaker 2: have to do that, say these cats are all freaks.
Speaker 2: I said, well, who's going to train me to do
Speaker 2: this job? He said, man, I don't know that. We
Speaker 2: can't train it because we don't know nothing about these guts.
Speaker 2: They're all freaks. He said, just talk the same shi
Speaker 2: t that you talked to me, and it'll work well.
Speaker 2: Because I used to talk a lot of trash to Jerry.
Speaker 2: See talk the same trash you talk to me, man,
Speaker 2: and that it'll work with them. So I just took
Speaker 2: on the personnel and went in the station and started
Speaker 2: like that. First station I went to was up in Boston,
Speaker 2: you know BCN.
Speaker 4: Okay, you said they gave you a list. How many
Speaker 4: stations were on that list?
Speaker 2: Oh, I guess about two hundred, about two hundred or
Speaker 2: so already.
Speaker 4: And when exactly is this if you remember.
Speaker 2: Sixty nine, that's just when KMPX was like the big
Speaker 2: FM station out of San Francisco where Jefferson Airplane and everything.
Speaker 3: Tom Downer here I think, was the well known guy
Speaker 3: up there. And they had k.
Speaker 2: Santa and San Francisco. But they had a lot of
Speaker 2: college station that they put on there as well. You
Speaker 2: know that was college stations was on that list as well.
Speaker 4: So you know, okay, so you got to figure out
Speaker 4: how to do it yourself. They give you the list
Speaker 4: of the stations. What records did you go with? Always
Speaker 4: went with with whatever records that were. You know, if
Speaker 4: I had a new record, new records.
Speaker 2: First of all, you go with a case of twenty
Speaker 2: five of the new releases, and you walk into the
Speaker 2: station with like twenty records. You know, you can't get
Speaker 2: an about to play twenty records. So I sit down
Speaker 2: and talk with them about blues and jazz or whatever,
Speaker 2: you know, and I'm may never forget. I went to
Speaker 2: one station and I'm sitting down and this guy is
Speaker 2: a Bruise fanatics supposedly on the station, but I was
Speaker 2: born him and Zipp and raised at Chicago, so it
Speaker 2: wasn't too much innerbody gonna tell me about the blues.
Speaker 2: So I said, like, hey, man, you.
Speaker 3: Know who do you like? He said, Man, Johnny One
Speaker 3: is the greatest Bruise player ever.
Speaker 2: I said, well, look, next time you speak to Johnaman
Speaker 2: and ask him who he like, and you will find
Speaker 2: out what the Bruises are about. And that's the way
Speaker 2: I dealt with of you know, whenever I went in
Speaker 2: the station and they and then they got to a point,
Speaker 2: I had a reputation over here. Mario knows a lot
Speaker 2: about the blues, and so I had like a little
Speaker 2: following it, and they would tell other disc jockeys about it.
Speaker 3: Then That's how I cut into Peter Wool. Peter Wool.
Speaker 2: When I met Peter Wool, he had you could mention
Speaker 2: a song and he would tell you who wrote it,
Speaker 2: you know. I mean it was unbelievable that that really
Speaker 2: impressed me, you know. But they were all blues oriented.
Speaker 2: Most of these jocks loved the blues, and they loved jazz,
Speaker 2: and they loved plassical. But they had a ride of
Speaker 2: music that they liked. But I always stuck with the
Speaker 2: jazz thing and and the blues stuff.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 4: Oh, okay, So the first station you went to was what.
Speaker 3: Well k I went to the case.
Speaker 4: I went to ny W first okaystation, and was Scott
Speaker 4: Muni already the program director.
Speaker 2: No, I don't know it was. I think it was
Speaker 2: Roscoe Roscoe and Allison Steal. I don't know, Okay, Roscoll
Speaker 2: and Alison Okay.
Speaker 4: So they don't know you from Adam. What's your pitch now?
Speaker 4: To Alison Steel in Roscoe.
Speaker 3: I went in there with with the new Yardbirds record.
Speaker 3: That was my pitch.
Speaker 2: You know, I had a before it was release, I
Speaker 2: got a test pressing for the new Yardbirds and everybody
Speaker 2: wanted to hear it.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 2: So I go there and I didn't expect them to
Speaker 2: play it on the air, but she played the whole
Speaker 2: album that night.
Speaker 3: They she's called herself the night Bird. You know.
Speaker 2: Yeah, she played She played the whole album. While she
Speaker 2: was playing, the phones of lighting up and people are
Speaker 2: calling and and just going crazy. And that was my feedback,
Speaker 2: you know. And now I let her play it for
Speaker 2: for twice, and then Roto came on. I let him
Speaker 2: play it twice. Then I took the test pressing back
Speaker 2: because there was only one test pressing.
Speaker 3: I took it back and the next day I went
Speaker 3: to Boston and they did the same thing.
Speaker 2: I let the guys play it, and you know, and
Speaker 2: the phones are lighting up and and I'm calling distributed
Speaker 2: to tell me a better get more records and stuff,
Speaker 2: even at Malvern in New York and in Boston our
Speaker 2: ring and they were and they heard it as well.
Speaker 3: They heard they got the feedback.
Speaker 2: So they got excited about this release because that wasn't
Speaker 2: a prior to release with Atlantic. They had another record
Speaker 2: that was the prior to release called Cartoon. That zepine
Speaker 2: wasn't the prior to release, even though it was signed
Speaker 2: by Jerry Wexler and and they turned out to be
Speaker 2: the supergroup out of that whole release.
Speaker 3: Out of all of them. We had another guy called
Speaker 3: Lord Search had a record out.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was all in the same release, and on
Speaker 2: Lord Search record, Jim Paige, she had played on one
Speaker 2: track on there, and everybody in Atlantic was saying, well,
Speaker 2: you know, like Lord's Search, they want to promote it.
Speaker 3: Man, we know they got this one guy, Jimmy Paige.
Speaker 3: I think he kept.
Speaker 2: Jimmy Patie has an whole album coming out next week.
Speaker 2: So he got a whole album coming out. You worried
Speaker 2: about Lord Searches one track, But anyway, I promoted Lord
Speaker 2: such as track with Jimmy playing, and Lord Search was
Speaker 2: so such a character, man.
Speaker 3: I was on the road with him.
Speaker 2: He had me cracking up, you know, because he was
Speaker 2: a promotion man himself, you know, but but he was
Speaker 2: the first guy that appreciated promotion.
Speaker 3: And he said, man, you're doing a great job. That
Speaker 3: was my first chop. I had never done it before.
Speaker 3: He thought I was a vetter promotion. Man. I had
Speaker 3: never done any of that before, but I had.
Speaker 2: I went to I think l A and San Francisco
Speaker 2: with them, and God he dressed up like a king man,
Speaker 2: you know, you walk into the station with his cane
Speaker 2: in his hand.
Speaker 3: And I was a classic man I had. I had
Speaker 3: so much fun with him.
Speaker 2: And then at the same time I would I would
Speaker 2: play led Zeppelin's record to them, you know.
Speaker 3: You know, after I give me him, I let her
Speaker 3: play led Zeppel's test present. But it was like cartoons
Speaker 3: back in those days. It was every every every no
Speaker 3: one knew any of.
Speaker 2: These records are going to be as large as they
Speaker 2: turn out to be, you know, it's like they are now.
Speaker 2: And most all of the acts that I worked with,
Speaker 2: I worked with when they first started out, you know,
Speaker 2: before they were legends.
Speaker 3: You know, I mean, I'm from everybody.
Speaker 4: So you go to the stations, You're getting this immediate reaction.
Speaker 4: Do you go back and tell Ammad and Jerry?
Speaker 2: Oh, of course, I call and tell him. I call
Speaker 2: him on the phone from where I am and tell them.
Speaker 2: So I could tell a sales department for them to
Speaker 2: to allocate more records than the tributars. I would call
Speaker 2: SALEU Tonto and well it was before Dave Glue, but
Speaker 2: whoever was in charge. I would call them at the
Speaker 2: think Bob Corne but I would call them and tell them, like, man,
Speaker 2: this is getting a lot of reactions. So they would
Speaker 2: call them distributors to make sure they got more records.
Speaker 2: You're allocated for that area. And it was always done
Speaker 2: that way, and and and and dominated. Jerry would always
Speaker 2: get the feedback from it. I called Jerry Greenberg called sometime,
Speaker 2: I got Omas sometime, I got Jerry Wexler.
Speaker 3: But Jerry West wasn't too interested in the rock and
Speaker 3: roll stuff. He's mostly interested in R and B stuff,
Speaker 3: you know.
Speaker 4: So when was the first time you met LED's up
Speaker 4: and face to face?
Speaker 3: At the at UH in New York City. I met
Speaker 3: them at UH.
Speaker 2: They played Fillmore Fillmore East, and they I think they
Speaker 2: opened for either The Iron Butterfly or either I don't
Speaker 2: know one of those acts, but I know they opened
Speaker 2: for them, And when they finished their set, the other
Speaker 2: act couldn't gone for about two hours.
Speaker 3: The people was so crazy over you know.
Speaker 2: And then I went to Boston after that with him
Speaker 2: and and they did Boston tea party and they did
Speaker 2: like so many encores. Then we had a press party
Speaker 2: in New York after that, which I still have a
Speaker 2: picture of me. And I brought the guys from from
Speaker 2: from our w CN down to New York for the
Speaker 2: press party, JJ Jackson and Charlie Daniels and you know,
Speaker 2: and and and that's when I got to meet them
Speaker 2: and I end up being friends with them.
Speaker 4: So tell me about Peter Grant, their manager.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Peter Grant was one of a kind man. He
Speaker 2: didn't take no, no junk off of no distributor, no,
Speaker 2: no promoters. He would curse him all out. I mean,
Speaker 2: but I got playing well with it, you know. He
Speaker 2: was he was, he was the heavy cat, you know.
Speaker 3: But I did.
Speaker 2: I had no problem with Peter Grant because first of
Speaker 2: all I did I was I was a guy that
Speaker 2: I wasn't hired by him. I was Atlantic promotion. Man,
Speaker 2: I'm traveling with the band representing Atlantic and also helping
Speaker 2: them with I get him doing the interviews you know,
Speaker 2: out the radio stations that night or whatever, hang out
Speaker 2: with him in at the hotel, you know, smoking all
Speaker 2: the weed at whatever we're doing, and then I might
Speaker 2: call him at midnight said, man, I got a guy
Speaker 2: at this jock at the station. They would go with
Speaker 2: me to those stations, and I got to be really
Speaker 2: popular with them, and they and I learned a lot
Speaker 2: about music from that Zeppelin, you know, especially John Paul Jones.
Speaker 3: Would you learn I wish to listen to records together.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 2: I had a turntable. I always care a turntable, and
Speaker 2: I had records, and they were crazy about uh, James
Speaker 2: Brown at the Pollow nineteen six to the Pollow, Right,
Speaker 2: So we play that record, man, And I had loved
Speaker 2: that record too, But John Paul Jones broke got the
Speaker 2: record down to me, man, because we would sit up
Speaker 2: late that night, and he said, man, you know that's
Speaker 2: very difficult to play. He said, those musicians, I got
Speaker 2: a lot of respect for them because they.
Speaker 3: Plan everything over and over. Man, the same. And then
Speaker 3: I started listening to it. He wasn't that.
Speaker 2: It popped and it's just all repetitious. He said, Man,
Speaker 2: most musicians can't do that. That's what he told me.
Speaker 2: And I said, man, I say, yeah, I never noticed that.
Speaker 2: He said, that's why I so funk it. He said,
Speaker 2: A repetition makes it funk it. But I used to
Speaker 2: sit up and listen to records. Man, That's what we
Speaker 2: always did. John Paul Jones and Bonzo Bonzo as well. Oh,
Speaker 2: sit up and listen to records.
Speaker 3: Man, I mean I enjoyed those days, you know.
Speaker 4: Okay, you know, my interaction with these people is limited.
Speaker 4: But it was kind of Jimmy's band. There was tension
Speaker 4: with Robert. John Paul Jones was a little bit of
Speaker 4: the outside. When the Ultimate re formed in the nineties,
Speaker 4: he left him out. What was going on between the
Speaker 4: band members.
Speaker 2: Well, remember when I first started with them, they were
Speaker 2: all hired Jimmy. It was jim and Peter's band, you know,
Speaker 2: and all the other guys were hiring musicians. You know,
Speaker 2: even I said Robert Panner, even Bonzo used to say, yeah,
Speaker 2: you know, like he said, Man, I just took this job.
Speaker 2: I could have went on to become a merchant seaman.
Speaker 2: He hated being He hated being on the road, you know,
Speaker 2: because he had to leave his kids and family, and
Speaker 2: that's what really made him drink a lot, because he
Speaker 2: just didn't like being on the road. But after the
Speaker 2: first album, I guess they made a different deal with them,
Speaker 2: you know, and they gave him different shares and they
Speaker 2: work it out. But I mean, John Paul Jones was
Speaker 2: the genius in that band. Of all the musicians, he
Speaker 2: was the heaviest of all of them as far as musicians,
Speaker 2: I'm telling.
Speaker 4: Them, Okay, the first album has a slow rise, and
Speaker 4: then in the fall October sixty nine, Led Zeppelin two
Speaker 4: comes out. I mean, people have no idea how big
Speaker 4: that record was. Instantly, Okay, that's right. Did you hear
Speaker 4: that record and go, man, what did you do after
Speaker 4: hearing the record?
Speaker 2: Let me just tell you, man, I was on the
Speaker 2: road with them when they were writing the record. They
Speaker 2: were writing a record as we was doing the tour.
Speaker 2: You know, at six now they are touring, and they
Speaker 2: were writing that record. They playing this stuff for me,
Speaker 2: you know, on as they were working it out. You know,
Speaker 2: a lot of this stuff killing and flow and all
Speaker 2: that stuff. They had had different names for him before
Speaker 2: before the record came out. You know, they had given
Speaker 2: their the cattle. He really wrote the songs. They had
Speaker 2: given them credit. But they got sued for about that
Speaker 2: for later later on they got sued by Chess Records.
Speaker 2: But at the same time, it was funk as a
Speaker 2: Mama Gem and I loved it. You know, I knew
Speaker 2: it was gonna be. First of all, the first records
Speaker 2: was very had got very received very well. With the
Speaker 2: second it was just unbelievable. I think a whole lot
Speaker 2: of Love was on the second album, right right, yeah,
Speaker 2: and that that that record, man, was when I heard
Speaker 2: that record alone, I had a next door neighbor where
Speaker 2: I was living in this at in La Frack City.
Speaker 2: You know, I would play that music late at night.
Speaker 2: The next door neighbor moved out because I played it
Speaker 2: so loud.
Speaker 3: But but it was, it was. It was one of
Speaker 3: a kind, man, One of a kind, that record, you see.
Speaker 3: Oh man, I love that entire album, but I knew
Speaker 3: that album and Greenberg ended up making a single, a
Speaker 3: whole lot of Love.
Speaker 2: That's what really really pushed their album even probably we
Speaker 2: had already sold about two three million before you the
Speaker 2: single came out.
Speaker 3: But I mean that record was unbelievable. Man.
Speaker 2: That's when the ego came from eating from led zeppyra.
Speaker 2: They started doing nine to ten deals with promoters. You know,
Speaker 2: they were no more promoters getting forty percent and stuff.
Speaker 2: They give the promoter ten percent and they said, man,
Speaker 2: you have to advertise. You just put our name up
Speaker 2: and it's gonna sell out.
Speaker 3: And that was the truth, you know.
Speaker 4: Okay, So tell me about the Edgewater in.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, well, you know we I was at the
Speaker 3: second on the second edge water.
Speaker 2: I didn't go to the first one when they had
Speaker 2: uh with iron butterfly what not iron but but uh
Speaker 2: but never first that was the first one. I was
Speaker 2: there for the second Edgewater end. This was the funniest
Speaker 2: out of all the places in my life.
Speaker 3: I had more laughs. We were on tour.
Speaker 2: I didn't like thirty four one night of that zepbra
Speaker 2: so this Jimmy Page and Bomso kept saying, Mario, man,
Speaker 2: you wait till we get to just see it to Seattle, man,
Speaker 2: say we hit We got a hotel. Man, you can
Speaker 2: just fish right out the window. What I care about
Speaker 2: fishing is nothing, you know, man, You can fish right
Speaker 2: out the window, man, you know, and you and you
Speaker 2: buy those by that, by that, by that, by those steaks, man,
Speaker 2: And and they just catch fish all day. Man, and
Speaker 2: they gotta praise you by I said, okay, man. So
Speaker 2: soon as we get there, they couldn't holler a wait
Speaker 2: to get in the hotel. They go to the place
Speaker 2: and buy the uh gear, the fishing gear, and then
Speaker 2: they buy these steaks, you know, buy steaks.
Speaker 3: I don't know what they paid for the steaks.
Speaker 2: They buy a whole bunch of steaks, right, and they
Speaker 2: come back to the room. So I'm come on, Mary,
Speaker 2: let me show you. They throw this stuff in them
Speaker 2: and they stopped fishing. Man, so we're fishing. I wasn't fishing,
Speaker 2: but they were fishing, and I'm watching it. And they
Speaker 2: pulling these sharks, you know, sharks coming through the window
Speaker 2: and they take man, they take them. They where we're
Speaker 2: gonnaut them up, put their bathrooms. So I run the water,
Speaker 2: throw them a bathtub. So now the bathtub is full.
Speaker 2: Now they start putt them up under the bed. It
Speaker 2: was so funny, man.
Speaker 3: I tell you that.
Speaker 2: Many and by the time it's time for a sound check,
Speaker 2: you must have about twenty sharks in the room already.
Speaker 2: And it smelled like a fish market. And they say, oh,
Speaker 2: man a, really we gotta go to sound say you
Speaker 2: gotta go to sound check, Well, we gotta go to
Speaker 2: sound check.
Speaker 3: So we said, man, we'll just leave our stuff in.
Speaker 3: When we come back from soundcheck, we'll we'll continue fishing.
Speaker 3: They go and do the soundcheck.
Speaker 2: To come back, they only got like an hour before
Speaker 2: this time to go back to the play.
Speaker 3: They go and fish again.
Speaker 2: Many they pull them up and now they got a
Speaker 2: shock man about about three feet long.
Speaker 3: They put them in the bed and cover them up
Speaker 3: just like your humor. I mean, like, this is the funniest.
Speaker 2: I had never seen anything like before my life, you know,
Speaker 2: and I was swimming the sippy.
Speaker 3: I'd never seen nothing. So anyway, now we go.
Speaker 2: To do the show. You know, we go to the
Speaker 2: coliseum wherever it is to do the show, come back
Speaker 2: to show Man and they got groupers in the hallway. Say, man,
Speaker 2: we ain't mess with no groups, and now we're gonna fish.
Speaker 2: You know. Boom, they go back, fetch out the window
Speaker 2: and we fish till daybreak. And now, man, there's so
Speaker 2: many fish all over the room. They can't He was
Speaker 2: sleeping in the room and they said, well, so they
Speaker 2: end up going up to my room.
Speaker 3: And most of them crashed at my room because they
Speaker 3: did all that.
Speaker 2: Rooms are full of fish, man, I mean, it was unbelievable,
Speaker 2: the funniest time, funniest thing that was seen in my life.
Speaker 4: Okay, when did the hotel catch on.
Speaker 3: The next morning as we as we uh all waking out,
Speaker 3: but they all in the same we all in the
Speaker 3: same room.
Speaker 2: We look out the one of theirs, Richard Cole, throwing
Speaker 2: fish out the windows from the other rooms, throwing the
Speaker 2: fish back in there. And and also he threw like
Speaker 2: a refrigerator that had some champagne, you know, some dumb
Speaker 2: periona in case dump. He threw that in the in
Speaker 2: there as well, you know, because the maize came in complaining.
Speaker 2: So he threw all that stuff back into the.
Speaker 3: Into the bay. And uh and and and then.
Speaker 2: Jimmy said, hey, man, where's the champagne And he said,
Speaker 2: there go floating down. He threw out the window twelve
Speaker 2: with all the fish. And they had to pay like
Speaker 2: a big fee for that, you know, for what they did.
Speaker 2: They paid, They paid the hotel for what they did.
Speaker 2: But I mean it was like a few were young people, man,
Speaker 2: so you know, like I just had never seen anything
Speaker 2: like it before.
Speaker 3: But they didn't mean it at all. They just was
Speaker 3: having fun and that was their their way. Man. They
Speaker 3: had fun everywhere. I had more fun with that band
Speaker 3: than any other band on the planet.
Speaker 4: So Bonzo was legendary for throwing TVs out the window.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, you know, Like I mean, I
Speaker 2: saw him one time. He went in a room of
Speaker 2: TV to work right and just took it and went
Speaker 2: to the winter boom. I said, oh shit, I mean,
Speaker 2: like I never seen nothing like booms. Just dropped out
Speaker 2: and then he got her phone, picked her phone call operator.
Speaker 2: How much one of these televisions are worth them? It
Speaker 2: said four out of that we'll.
Speaker 3: Put it on the home tailo out. We need to know.
Speaker 3: I mean, but that that was That was normal, man,
Speaker 3: That was normal.
Speaker 2: But you know, like as but they were good guys, man,
Speaker 2: they were really just they were just bored, man.
Speaker 3: Because the boredom.
Speaker 2: And at that age, oh, they were younger than me.
Speaker 2: I mean I was only about I was like twenty
Speaker 2: seven twenty eight at the time, and.
Speaker 3: They were younger than me.
Speaker 2: So you know, like hey, and I was like a
Speaker 2: level headed compared to some of the stuff they were doing,
Speaker 2: you know, but we had a lot of fun.
Speaker 4: So other than introducing them to radio stations, bring him
Speaker 4: to radio stations, bringing jocks to meet them, what other
Speaker 4: stuff do Did they look for you to get them
Speaker 4: drugs or anything else?
Speaker 3: No, I didn't look for me to get no drugs.
Speaker 2: I mean because if I got a drug of people myself,
Speaker 2: because but they had their own connections for that. You know,
Speaker 2: because Richard Cole had been on the road for years
Speaker 2: with all other bands, so anything they were in every
Speaker 2: city he had been on the band.
Speaker 3: He knew everything that was happening in every city. You know.
Speaker 2: He was a legendary road manager for number groups, you know,
Speaker 2: including Vanilla Fuds, you know, so he knew a lot
Speaker 2: of people.
Speaker 4: So tell me about Crosby Stools in ah and then eventually.
Speaker 2: Young Yeah, Carols was still the Nash Well they they
Speaker 2: had you know. I had known Stephen Stills from when
Speaker 2: I was a bookkeeper, you know. I mean I got
Speaker 2: to know him when he was with uh with with
Speaker 2: the First but Buffalo Springfield, Buffalo spring Buffalo Springfield. When
Speaker 2: he was with that band, I got to know him,
Speaker 2: and and Neil Young then, you know, and and and
Speaker 2: Dewry Martin and and and Richard Fury.
Speaker 3: I knew all of them back then, you know.
Speaker 2: And and when they played New York, you know, I
Speaker 2: would always go see them, you know, if they played
Speaker 2: it in a gag so on uh And I mean
Speaker 2: I I caught him one time when they was playing
Speaker 2: I think uh Uconald's or something like that. I forget
Speaker 2: the name of the place, but it was some some
Speaker 2: club by the by the fifth Night Street Bridge. I
Speaker 2: went to see them there with Otis Redding. One night,
Speaker 2: Otis Redding and Otis had been playing at the Apollo
Speaker 2: Buffalo Springfield playing at this place. And after I went
Speaker 2: to Apollo to see Otis, Armon was in. He gave
Speaker 2: me a ride to to this place to see uh
Speaker 2: Buffalo Springfield with Otis in the car. And Otis, you know,
Speaker 2: I've been drinking a bit. So he sat and they
Speaker 2: wanted Otis to get up to set in with him,
Speaker 2: but he had been drinking a little too much, and
Speaker 2: he when he first when he first got up, you know,
Speaker 2: he picked up and he just fell flatter and got up.
Speaker 2: Then he got up the same. It was classic, but
Speaker 2: I mean that was that was the type of thing.
Speaker 2: But I knew Stephen still from that time, so my
Speaker 2: my relationship with him was was always good up then
Speaker 2: when he when they decided to do Crouds and Steels
Speaker 2: and Nash, I had just gotten into promotion. I had
Speaker 2: a test present for Crossing Steels in Nash and a
Speaker 2: test president for Jay Gile's band gonna be released on
Speaker 2: the same release.
Speaker 3: So when I went on the road, I.
Speaker 2: Took both of those test presents with me all over.
Speaker 2: I remember I went to Seattle. I went to a
Speaker 2: whole lot of places, but I remember in Seattle I
Speaker 2: went to a disc jocket. I guess about midnight with
Speaker 2: both of those test presents, and everybody wanted Cross Still
Speaker 2: a Nash Test ben because there was so much hype before.
Speaker 3: It even came out. We knew it was a supergroup.
Speaker 2: So I would tell them, you know, like, I'll let
Speaker 2: you play Krugs Still a Nash Test present if you
Speaker 2: play this other test pression that I have first, which
Speaker 2: is Jake golls Man, and.
Speaker 3: It's who was this?
Speaker 2: I said, it's a new record, So I said, you
Speaker 2: played this old record that you played the old So
Speaker 2: that's how I got the record. That's how I got
Speaker 2: Jake Giles played by using Crubs Still the Nash stuff
Speaker 2: played young and I had, you know, I had always
Speaker 2: gone to Stevens House, you know, all the time, back
Speaker 2: when they were they was jamming with Crowds, Stills, the
Speaker 2: Nash and stuff. And whenever you went to Stevens House
Speaker 2: and Laurel Canyon, there was Jona Mitchell everybody there with
Speaker 2: acoustic guitars and they always jam you know.
Speaker 3: Sometime Neil Young would come over, but.
Speaker 2: Uh uh, I'm just a lot of guys, a lot
Speaker 2: of guys. We're there jamming all the time. So that
Speaker 2: met a lot of people at Stevens House, and that's
Speaker 2: what that would be the first place I'd go. Whenever
Speaker 2: I went to LA I would go to Stevens House,
Speaker 2: you know. And Steven was a good friend up until
Speaker 2: the day, even until the.
Speaker 4: Day, so when you went to stations, you know, by
Speaker 4: the time he hit the eighties and nineties, record labels
Speaker 4: have priority tracks and they go from track to track
Speaker 4: to track. When you started, did you just wanted to
Speaker 4: play something, or you'd say, no, this is the one
Speaker 4: you want to play, don't play that one yet, we're
Speaker 4: not ready for that.
Speaker 2: No, no, And back I was an album guy, so
Speaker 2: I would go there with the tracks that I like,
Speaker 2: and I'll tell them those tracks that I like first.
Speaker 2: But if you got a track that you like, you
Speaker 2: were welcome to play that, but to try this one first.
Speaker 2: I would always do that, even with let Zeppe when
Speaker 2: I did that, even with Krugs till the Nash, I
Speaker 2: did it even though they had a single out prior
Speaker 2: and Krugs still Nash. She had a single that had
Speaker 2: been out before the album came out. But most of
Speaker 2: the albums that I had didn't have singles before they
Speaker 2: came out.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 2: We would always use the album to pick the singles,
Speaker 2: you know, from FM guys to play so many, so
Speaker 2: many guys to play a certain track, and I would
Speaker 2: go report it back to Atlanta. K Man, we should
Speaker 2: release this as a single, you know, because it's getting
Speaker 2: a lot of play, like ROBERTA. Flack stuff, you know,
Speaker 2: the same thing. Uh, first time I saw the plays
Speaker 2: because it was a track that got a lot of play,
Speaker 2: you know. And and that's how we picked singles back then.
Speaker 2: It wasn't it wasn't just off the top of your head.
Speaker 2: Most of the f film stations helped pick the singles
Speaker 2: for the AM station.
Speaker 4: Okay, how did you promote the records that weren't so great?
Speaker 3: Usually?
Speaker 2: My my my game was this, I said, look, man,
Speaker 2: I love this record here.
Speaker 3: You know, if a record that I really love, I
Speaker 3: talk a.
Speaker 2: Lot of s h I t I talk a lot
Speaker 2: of trash, you know, boom blah blah bom. Now if
Speaker 2: I don't, I said, man, this is a record you know,
Speaker 2: if you like it, call me if you If you
Speaker 2: like it, tell everybody. If you don't like it, call me.
Speaker 2: That's what I would tell I. Don't try to push stuff.
Speaker 2: You couldn't push nothing on film jocks. You know they're
Speaker 2: gonna do what they wanted to do. So you try
Speaker 2: to figure out what You try to find out what
Speaker 2: type of music they really like.
Speaker 3: Each one.
Speaker 2: Each this jockey was their own program director. Every this
Speaker 2: jockey came and they program, they play what they want
Speaker 2: to play. So you try to figure out what type
Speaker 2: of music they like and try to pick a track
Speaker 2: within their game, you know. And that's what I did
Speaker 2: all over America. Man, it was you had to know
Speaker 2: the dis jockra get to hang out with them.
Speaker 4: To Norman, Okay, So you know disc jockeys have different shifts,
Speaker 4: so right, you know, how would you go to a
Speaker 4: station and make sure that you spoke with all the jocks.
Speaker 2: Look, I'd go to the station and hang with one jockey.
Speaker 2: When when he leave, I'll go back. Every four hours,
Speaker 2: I was back and forth and hanging I'm telling you
Speaker 2: sometime I stayed.
Speaker 3: Sometimes I would stay in the station from it.
Speaker 2: I would go there like at eight o'clock and leave
Speaker 2: at four in the morning because as they change shift,
Speaker 2: I would stay there and they've heard the stuff that
Speaker 2: I'm talking. They want to want me to give him
Speaker 2: the sam in Mason, I've giving a guy before him.
Speaker 3: So I'd stay there, you know. And we smoke a
Speaker 3: lot of weed back.
Speaker 2: In those days, you know, so you could just sing,
Speaker 2: you could hang you know, and and then you know,
Speaker 2: we brought pizza and wine, you know, go out pizza
Speaker 2: and wine, and they didn't care about going to a
Speaker 2: lucky restaurant.
Speaker 3: And I tell you, I really enjoyed those days.
Speaker 2: I must admit I enjoyed those days because it was
Speaker 2: nobody knew FM was gonna be as popular as.
Speaker 3: It is before a or R. It was just just.
Speaker 2: A pre form radio at the time. And uh, and
Speaker 2: it was very interesting.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 2: We bought we bought spots on on those stations for
Speaker 2: for albums that we had problems getting played. I would
Speaker 2: buy spots and I'd have that this chockey that makes
Speaker 2: the spot. So if he makes the spot, that I
Speaker 2: mean he got to listen to the record, you know,
Speaker 2: So you had you had you have to use all
Speaker 2: the type of uh improvisation you had to improvise.
Speaker 3: As far as promoting.
Speaker 2: Back in those days, the most important thing was to
Speaker 2: get the DJs to play your record, and you had
Speaker 2: to figure out a way. And if I have a
Speaker 2: record that I know that this chockt don't like and
Speaker 2: I and I need a spot made, I'll tell him, Hey, man,
Speaker 2: I need a spot, a national spot for this record.
Speaker 3: He said, that's a piece of He said, that's a
Speaker 3: piece of ship. Man.
Speaker 2: I said, look, but I need an Can you do
Speaker 2: me a spot? I said, I give you, give you
Speaker 2: five hundred dollars. Yeah, I'll do the spot. They do
Speaker 2: the spot and they'll pick out tracks that you probably
Speaker 2: didn't even like it, and they and then made it
Speaker 2: a big production and it sounds even the records sound
Speaker 2: better because the way they montaged it together.
Speaker 3: And I said, man, you really broke that record. He
Speaker 3: really didn't break nothing, but I'm tell him that, you know.
Speaker 2: And then and then you got one guy that beleeves
Speaker 2: in the record on that station. Sometimes it, you know,
Speaker 2: it spreads through the other guys. But that was the
Speaker 2: type of promotion you had to do in those days.
Speaker 2: No payolo for film this jockey.
Speaker 3: They didn't go for that. Payol. It was none of that.
Speaker 4: And so to what degree would you leverage one station
Speaker 4: against them? Would you go in and say, hey, you
Speaker 4: know these other stations are playing it, you better play it.
Speaker 3: Look, man, let me tell you.
Speaker 2: First of all, if it's two stations in the same
Speaker 2: city and I got one of them on it, I said, man,
Speaker 2: you don't have to play it at all, because boo
Speaker 2: boo play.
Speaker 3: I remember even in Boston, even in Boston, I would.
Speaker 2: Get go to the direct to the b to the
Speaker 2: b U Boston University station and get them to play
Speaker 2: stuff that BCN wouldn't play right. And what I did
Speaker 2: I gave I gave John Hackheimer the led Zeppelin album
Speaker 2: before I gave it to b CNN because because Al
Speaker 2: perrickter but I can't stand all that blue, that that
Speaker 2: rock and white boy doing the blue.
Speaker 5: So when he broke he played it over there and
Speaker 5: everybody said, oh, man, we heard the new led Zeppelin
Speaker 5: played over here. It'd be They called me, man, when
Speaker 5: you gonna bring it over to us? I said, I'll
Speaker 5: bring it over to Mark. But that's the difference. That's
Speaker 5: what you had to do that game back then. I mean,
Speaker 5: it's not like that now.
Speaker 2: Of course it was a different ball game, but that
Speaker 2: was that was That's why you had to play one
Speaker 2: station against the other man.
Speaker 3: I don't care if you know city one guy they played, Okay,
Speaker 3: I'll take across the street and get it played. That's
Speaker 3: what you had to do.
Speaker 4: And you know, as the business became more professionalized, they
Speaker 4: kept the promotion people at arm's length. Was everybody always
Speaker 4: glad to see you.
Speaker 2: They were always happen to see me because I was
Speaker 2: John Carter, the Potter starter, you Knownick Won.
Speaker 3: They wanted to hang with me because I always had
Speaker 3: something going on, you know. And plus I just was
Speaker 3: a funny guy.
Speaker 2: I was just a guy that was fun to be around,
Speaker 2: and they enjoyed my company. And plus and I and
Speaker 2: I could also bring like Mick Jagger, you know, whoever
Speaker 2: the catcher they idolized. They would come with me, a
Speaker 2: Dwayne Auburn or stuff.
Speaker 3: I would. I would always take him to the station
Speaker 3: with me sometime, you know.
Speaker 2: And and I always had that type of direct contact
Speaker 2: with the artists. I remember I was in Boston once
Speaker 2: and uh I was on the on the on the
Speaker 2: tour with Rollerstones and Sticky Fingers, right, And that was
Speaker 2: a big tour, you know. But everybody want to talk
Speaker 2: to Jager, you know, I mean everybody man Jaggers say, man,
Speaker 2: look they said.
Speaker 3: That big Amazon tour with them called.
Speaker 2: So they called me up and I said, man, I
Speaker 2: see Jack and like I said, Jack and lessen to
Speaker 2: anybody else.
Speaker 3: Well look, man, you I know we want to ask.
Speaker 3: What I'll do.
Speaker 2: I'll get you backstage passes, you know, for the concerts,
Speaker 2: for the tour, for the concert and afterwards, you know,
Speaker 2: you come and dress when we talk. I gave I
Speaker 2: think it was a child's black with.
Speaker 3: I think they're one of one of those crazy mamage.
Speaker 2: I gave him the backstage past to come back stage
Speaker 2: when I come back there.
Speaker 3: Back that talk with everybody in the bed.
Speaker 2: You know, you know already put the put put the
Speaker 2: put out on that I let everybody in.
Speaker 3: I said, but it was cool, you know.
Speaker 2: But but that's how I got along well with those guys,
Speaker 2: you know, because the I had like connections to get
Speaker 2: them things that they wanted to do.
Speaker 3: They wanted to be around, you know, the entertainers and storm.
Speaker 4: You know, how did you break Yes? They had two
Speaker 4: stifth albums before the Yes album and they didn't sound
Speaker 4: like anything else.
Speaker 2: The first the first album was the one, uh uh
Speaker 2: but what it was what I'm trying to remember the
Speaker 2: name of round about it round About?
Speaker 4: I think that was actually the fourth album. First album
Speaker 4: had a cover I just called Yes, had a cover
Speaker 4: of the Beatles. Every little thing. It was a stiff
Speaker 4: second one time, in a word, even more stiff. Then
Speaker 4: they put out the Yes album and then they put
Speaker 4: out Fragile with Roundabout.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Well, well, I well I knew them when they had
Speaker 2: before their first manager, I forget the name, but I
Speaker 2: knew them before emas Lake and Palmer, even from their
Speaker 2: group Yes was probably in England and uh yes was
Speaker 2: around About is the track that I remember, you know,
Speaker 2: I can't remember too much else I went. I went
Speaker 2: on tour with them, you know, I went on tour
Speaker 2: with them and everybody was like vegetarian or something like that.
Speaker 2: You know, Jan Anderson, I think his name was the
Speaker 2: least singer, John Anderson. Yeah, so anyway, he was a
Speaker 2: he was a vegetarian. And we was in Detroit, you know,
Speaker 2: so I like barbecue stuff. So we hit it off
Speaker 2: the bus and he said, man, Marty, can he take
Speaker 2: us a place? Against something meant, I don't know they vegetarian,
Speaker 2: so I go to barbecue garings, you know.
Speaker 6: So it's like two in the morning. He said, oh man,
Speaker 6: we don't eat that joking the head too bad. I
Speaker 6: was just snicking my feet, but you know, that was
Speaker 6: the thing. But there they were nice guys, you know,
Speaker 6: Robert Pripp.
Speaker 2: I think it was the name guitar player from Yeah,
Speaker 2: but I did King Crimson and Yes on the same tour.
Speaker 3: I think it was.
Speaker 2: But but I mean, look, I to me, I respected
Speaker 2: all musicians because they could read and play, you know,
Speaker 2: and I know how difficult that was if you can
Speaker 2: read music and play. I know how difficult it was
Speaker 2: because I took music in high school. So I respected
Speaker 2: them because of that, you know. So, But at the
Speaker 2: same time, I didn't have no I didn't idolize, you know.
Speaker 2: I wasn't idem my idols like the Narius, Mark Miles Davis,
Speaker 2: John Coach and I was just guess that I idolized, you know.
Speaker 3: But the rock caest was just musicians to me, you know.
Speaker 4: Okay, so if you were on the road with the band,
Speaker 4: who's covering all the other stations with all the other records.
Speaker 2: Well, you know, we sent the records out to the
Speaker 2: stations and we didn't have no album promotion guys. Back then,
Speaker 2: everybody was local promotion guys that promoted most of the singles,
Speaker 2: and you know you can and I had a few guys,
Speaker 2: you know, some of the most guys that was ift albums,
Speaker 2: like Bill Rawls and a couple of guys that was
Speaker 2: into albums, John Carter and San Francisco. You know, I
Speaker 2: could call them and ask him to check this and that.
Speaker 2: But at the same time, I got to report every
Speaker 2: every every week, every week, I got a report from
Speaker 2: each stations, you know, and the girl's in the office
Speaker 2: would would send me report on the road. So that's
Speaker 2: how I really kept track of it. They let you
Speaker 2: know who they what they added, and what albums were
Speaker 2: added and so on, you know, because you can't stay
Speaker 2: on top of it.
Speaker 3: You on the road a lot. And I was on
Speaker 3: the road a lot, you know.
Speaker 4: So how much pressure did you get from the label?
Speaker 3: No, No, they couldn't pressure me. Man. I didn't give them.
Speaker 3: I didn't care what they say I did.
Speaker 2: I did what I want to do. And they'll tell
Speaker 2: you that even cherry works. All of they know I
Speaker 2: was gonna do what I told them, I wasn't coming.
Speaker 2: I wasn't coming to no more meetings. I told him,
Speaker 2: don't asked me to call in for these meetings because
Speaker 2: the meeting is all about singles, you know, And I
Speaker 2: would they want to hear here wherever I am. I
Speaker 2: supposed to call in and listen in the meeting. Now
Speaker 2: I got holding on the phone for an hour and
Speaker 2: they talking about nothing but singles. So that fissed me off.
Speaker 2: And I told Jerry Wesley and oh Im, look, man,
Speaker 2: I'm not gonna do no more me. I just send
Speaker 2: my reports in and that's what I started doing. But
Speaker 2: but but I had to put my foot down. Man,
Speaker 2: I had to put my foot down. Plus I was
Speaker 2: getting records place. So I got away with a lot
Speaker 2: of stuff.
Speaker 4: So what happened when Lee Abrams came along and he
Speaker 4: started to make playlifts, etc.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Lee Abras, I got to know him well, you know,
Speaker 3: but he did me a lot of favors. I loved
Speaker 3: Lee Abrams. He was a genius. Man. That was a
Speaker 3: different ball game. Man. You know.
Speaker 2: Now it's it getting to be a business, you know.
Speaker 2: So I did up until nineteen eighty One's last time
Speaker 2: I deal with radio stations. Thanked, every one was the
Speaker 2: last about radio stations. I stopped provoting records then, But uh,
Speaker 2: I did Rick James and Lee Abrams, I did all
Speaker 2: those did okay.
Speaker 4: So how did you meet Emerson Lincoln Palmer.
Speaker 2: I met them through their first manager when they was
Speaker 2: on the road the first tour.
Speaker 3: They did in America.
Speaker 2: I I went to I went on the road with
Speaker 2: them somewhere and then, and I got to know Gregor
Speaker 2: well and Gregy. I took him to the Diamond area
Speaker 2: in New York and they bought rings and shit, and
Speaker 2: I saw, I want the ring the great I said.
Speaker 3: Man, it's a nice ring. He said, you want one.
Speaker 2: So he caught me a ring and I still got
Speaker 2: it until the day with my name by initials on it,
Speaker 2: you know. But that was on the first tour, and uh,
Speaker 2: you know, I knew them all from the first tour,
Speaker 2: you know, before they before they started Mantagro.
Speaker 3: But all the records. I promoted every one of the
Speaker 3: records from the beginning, you know.
Speaker 4: And if the legend has it that they didn't want
Speaker 4: to put out pictures at an exhibition in America, and
Speaker 4: you convinced.
Speaker 3: That right, right right.
Speaker 2: They didn't want to put pictures Atlantic, didn't want to
Speaker 2: put it on Atlantic, and they wanted first they wanted
Speaker 2: give it to a done search for Electra and you know,
Speaker 2: and then they said, well, man.
Speaker 3: We we can't put it out, you know, we'll none search.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 2: No, man, look, this record is gonna be a hit,
Speaker 2: added till Arm. But it's gonna be it you're doing.
Speaker 2: They were all contillion anyway back then, you know. So
Speaker 2: in any way, they put the record out and and
Speaker 2: we sold a median Records in about two months, you know.
Speaker 2: And and that really because they said it's too classical.
Speaker 2: That's what That's what Amah was saying, this is a
Speaker 2: classical record. And they were really upset, Steve, especially Keith Emerson.
Speaker 2: Keith were a little hurt because you know, he's a
Speaker 2: classical genius. And uh, once that record came out, I
Speaker 2: got to be really really tight with the management full
Speaker 2: Steward before before Stewart Young, they had another manager, but
Speaker 2: I got to be tagged with him because I was
Speaker 2: promoting those records, you know, And and they had.
Speaker 3: Like a jazz that they appreciated jazz as well.
Speaker 2: And I got really Keith and and uh Carl. It
Speaker 2: was jazz enthusiasts as well as classical, so I so
Speaker 2: I got to be really tight with them.
Speaker 4: So how did you end up running their label?
Speaker 2: When they were tired of dealing with Atlantic? They wanted
Speaker 2: to They wanted someone to run the label, and they
Speaker 2: they gave me all that I couldn't refuse.
Speaker 3: You know, I was.
Speaker 2: I was happy to get out of Atlanta because that's
Speaker 2: a big corporate thing. Now all of a sudden, you
Speaker 2: gotta you gotta they got you gotta report the stockholes
Speaker 2: and stuff, and they cutting down and you can't do this.
Speaker 3: You can't do this.
Speaker 2: You can't fly first class, you can't do ahole lot
Speaker 2: of stuff that they tell you can't do. You know,
Speaker 2: you got to have a receiver. You're painting that all
Speaker 2: the work. When I'm out there at night, going to
Speaker 2: bed at uh four in the morning, they tell me
Speaker 2: I gotta sign in.
Speaker 3: Can you imagine?
Speaker 2: I said, if I can sign out, I'll sign in.
Speaker 2: You understand, you know what I'm saying. If I can
Speaker 2: sign out when you're at home with your wife and
Speaker 2: I'm on the road with He's band, I'll sign in.
Speaker 2: That's what I said, So that was one of the
Speaker 2: things I didn't call to care for. But at the
Speaker 2: same time, you know, they didn't bother me. They let
Speaker 2: me do what I wanted to do, and I continue
Speaker 2: to do like I did. I came in when I
Speaker 2: got rid of you know, because I'd have been out
Speaker 2: halving the night with some band if I just come
Speaker 2: in at full in the afternoon.
Speaker 3: You have to you have to put up with that.
Speaker 3: That was the deal, you know.
Speaker 4: So how did it work out at Manicore?
Speaker 3: Oh? It was Madico was fantastic.
Speaker 2: Man The only thing we just if I hadn't known
Speaker 2: that they were arguing with each other before, I didn't
Speaker 2: know they didn't get along with each other that well.
Speaker 2: But if they'd have done one tour a year, that
Speaker 2: coming could have stayed together. But you know, the whole trip.
Speaker 2: If they wanted to sign an accent, they don't know,
Speaker 2: and they don't even want to tour. And then when
Speaker 2: he decided to tour, they want to have a band,
Speaker 2: have a they want to tour with a full orchestra.
Speaker 2: You know, you can't make any money doing that, you know.
Speaker 2: So that was the main downfall of it. It wasn't
Speaker 2: the music as far as ELP was concerned, they were
Speaker 2: smash but you know they put out acts by other accidents,
Speaker 2: you got to try to break it.
Speaker 3: I end up signing.
Speaker 2: Uh Bruce's Image because I wanted something that I could
Speaker 2: believe in Blues Image and uh and uh you know,
Speaker 2: I knew Mike Preneur from back then. And I also
Speaker 2: sound a little richer to the label because I had
Speaker 2: to have something that I could believe in. I didn't
Speaker 2: particular it, believe in all the other some of the
Speaker 2: other stuff they had. But at the same time, you
Speaker 2: try to do the best you can.
Speaker 3: But EOP was the backbone of that.
Speaker 4: You know, Okay, but if you were a promotion person,
Speaker 4: how did you know how to run the label.
Speaker 3: I knew how to run the label because I was
Speaker 3: a businessman.
Speaker 2: First of all. It wasn't just promotion. You know, you
Speaker 2: got to be a businessman to run the labor.
Speaker 3: I knew.
Speaker 2: I knew all about publicity. I knew about everything. Plus
Speaker 2: I hired secretaries that did do stuff for.
Speaker 3: Me when I was away. But I promoted. Promotion was
Speaker 3: the most important thing.
Speaker 2: As far as getting records on radio, we had a
Speaker 2: band called PFM was from an Italian band Premioto Frondia
Speaker 2: Marconi was and It and Italy they were like the Beatles,
Speaker 2: you know.
Speaker 3: So we came over here.
Speaker 2: And uh we ended up going to Motown with them,
Speaker 2: and they put out albums, you know, and we did
Speaker 2: a live album and they broke as far as American concern,
Speaker 2: but it wasn't a big big seller. But they were
Speaker 2: still selling. Lack of manager, I mean, and Italy. You know,
Speaker 2: everything you put out over there was gold record for them.
Speaker 2: But you know, it was difficult as far as the
Speaker 2: acts that that that Keith and Greg them were signing.
Speaker 2: They were signing stuff that they like, you know, some
Speaker 2: artistics to Pete SimPEL was a great lyricist. But I
Speaker 2: knew I wasn't going to be able to sell those records,
Speaker 2: you know.
Speaker 4: So what ultimately killed the band.
Speaker 3: They didn't get along with each other. That's what killed
Speaker 3: the band. They didn't get along with each other.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 2: They just didn't want to They didn't want to tour. Man,
Speaker 2: you got to have three limos, you know, and they
Speaker 2: wanted first of all, they wanted to tour with an orchestra,
Speaker 2: which you got, like I don't know how many people
Speaker 2: in the orchestra, but just every city you got to
Speaker 2: have an orchestra, you got to travel with that. That
Speaker 2: alone was was difficult for a store and myself to
Speaker 2: relate to the band. They did a couple of cities
Speaker 2: with the band like that, and we lost money, but
Speaker 2: you know, like, hey, you lose money, you're not gonna
Speaker 2: be in business.
Speaker 3: Loan. But that was the main downfall that.
Speaker 2: But the band as a whole was still popular as
Speaker 2: the Beatles over here at that time. You know, they
Speaker 2: could play anything. If they played the California Jam, I
Speaker 2: think it and they and they, and the place was
Speaker 2: sold out. Man, it's like Woodstock. Yeah, I mean unbelievable.
Speaker 2: They killed it.
Speaker 1: Man.
Speaker 2: I don't even know if anybody ever recorded that, but
Speaker 2: that was a great show. They had this spinning piano,
Speaker 2: you know, the piano that spins. Keith to get on
Speaker 2: the piano that spins earth Winding Fire was on that
Speaker 2: tour as well. And the next morning after that show,
Speaker 2: Maurice White came to my hotel room and asked me, hey, man,
Speaker 2: where did you all get that spinis piano? So I
Speaker 2: turned him on to keep and they got the spinding
Speaker 2: piano for when the fire That's how they got you know, man.
Speaker 3: It was ELP was innovators, man, I mean, and and
Speaker 3: uh Keith Emerson.
Speaker 2: Man, I had so many keyboard players coming to me
Speaker 2: about Keith Emerson. Man, you know, they just idolized the
Speaker 2: guy from Bernard Warrell from Fukadelic, that was one of
Speaker 2: his favorite guys. It was amazing, man, because he did
Speaker 2: that move with him and Steven Wonder was the guys
Speaker 2: on the move back in those days. And Keith took
Speaker 2: the move on stage and played it, you know, like
Speaker 2: as part of his instrument and Keith and uh Steven
Speaker 2: want to end up using the move as well, the
Speaker 2: same guys as Keith was using on his album. But man,
Speaker 2: that that was some great days. I look back at
Speaker 2: those days, man, those fantastic days.
Speaker 4: What about Phil Walden in the Almond Brothers.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, I love Feelings and uh Frank Finer. You know, man,
Speaker 3: let me tell you Dwayne Alman.
Speaker 2: I knew Dwayne when he was Skydog, you know, when
Speaker 2: he was come to New York to play on Reretha Franklin.
Speaker 3: I was payroll clerk, so.
Speaker 2: I got to know got to know Dwayne real well,
Speaker 2: you know, because when he first come up.
Speaker 3: You know, you got to give me the W two
Speaker 3: and another fan.
Speaker 2: And he wanted to go to Halem, so I would
Speaker 2: take him to places and you know, and he sit
Speaker 2: in a jam and I turned him onto King Curtis
Speaker 2: because King was on the session with but he didn't
Speaker 2: know King, but I knew King well. So we hung out, Me,
Speaker 2: King and Dwayne all we all hung out together after
Speaker 2: those after they did those sessions with the Reaper, and
Speaker 2: Dwayne said, well, Mari, you know, man, I'm gonna have
Speaker 2: my own band soon.
Speaker 3: You know it's gonna be a mother man. You know
Speaker 3: I have been gonna be the band's man. I said, okay, Man,
Speaker 3: I didn't know it's gonna be the All Brothers band.
Speaker 2: But when he all of a sudden he covered All
Speaker 2: Brothers band. It's on Capricorn, but they were distributed by
Speaker 2: Warner Bros. But I was so tight with Dwayne. I
Speaker 2: would promote their record, you know, and I and I
Speaker 2: knew Phil Walden and Frank Crunter very well.
Speaker 3: So I would always promote to all my brothers.
Speaker 2: And I went on the road with them when they
Speaker 2: were driving, had a Winnabago, and I would I wouldn't
Speaker 2: ride in Winnebago. But I would to meet him in
Speaker 2: towns and they were into Winnebago and they said, man,
Speaker 2: well we'd be rally and they thought that was like
Speaker 2: high living because you know, the just this is when
Speaker 2: they stopped.
Speaker 3: Oh man, we got a own man we ride.
Speaker 2: We'd be looking out the windows going across Golden Gate brick,
Speaker 2: you know.
Speaker 3: And that was when they first started out. Man, and
Speaker 3: I loved those guys. I used to go to the
Speaker 3: picnics that they had every summer. You know.
Speaker 2: It was like, hey, man, I mean it's just so
Speaker 2: many stories about all my brothers and Dwayne Almond. You know,
Speaker 2: Dwayne was just really really like a brother to me. Man.
Speaker 3: You know, we hung out and played music. The guy
Speaker 3: played music.
Speaker 2: I was taken to the blues clubs in the ghetto
Speaker 2: and he's sitting with these guys.
Speaker 3: I remember when we was in Atlanta once.
Speaker 2: I took Dwayne to see Barbara du Blaan, right, and
Speaker 2: it's in Atlanta and the Dead and the ghetto. Man
Speaker 2: in a club, you know, cut throw club. But I
Speaker 2: get a limbo and I tell Dwayne bring your guitar.
Speaker 2: I said, look, man, bring your guitar. So he brings
Speaker 2: the guitar and we go into the club. You know,
Speaker 2: I knew the guy at the club. So we go
Speaker 2: in the club and Bobby Blue Blander is singer. You know,
Speaker 2: Bobby is a Mama Jones.
Speaker 3: So I'd go to I do Barble's I said, Boba, man, boy,
Speaker 3: he played like Elmo James. So Joyne got up there
Speaker 3: and played and played that bottle neck and ship and
Speaker 3: just wore it out.
Speaker 2: Man, whoa whoa wa the club out of all the
Speaker 2: holes in the piencils hollering in can on and he
Speaker 2: playing one wo wow anything whoy and uh and you know,
Speaker 2: baba bana, you know how y'all man look that night
Speaker 2: was Mama Jes.
Speaker 7: So after after they finished playing, we had the dreads room,
Speaker 7: Dwayne walked over with Bobby Pan said, man, you better
Speaker 7: get your ship together because my brother coming after your.
Speaker 2: Man.
Speaker 3: That was that was I thought I that.
Speaker 2: He told Bob Blue playing that, and he ended up
Speaker 2: meeting Greg and they got to be good buddies.
Speaker 3: Man Gregg idolized about group lay. But when Duayne, I said, man,
Speaker 3: you can't tell you to hell man, I just had
Speaker 3: to tell him. I had to tell it.
Speaker 2: But boy, that that's the type of stuff that Dwayne
Speaker 2: and you know, like, hey, man, now I love that guy.
Speaker 2: Man he you know when they when he when he
Speaker 2: uh when when they played the Boston Commons once and
Speaker 2: after Boston Commons, I take limo, I'm going to New
Speaker 2: York because we're going. I'm going to King Curtis funeral now, right,
Speaker 2: So Dwayne Wan, I said, well, come on, man, go
Speaker 2: with me.
Speaker 3: I'm going to the funeral. So Dwayne come.
Speaker 2: We we get off of the airport at LaGuardia and
Speaker 2: I go to my house to put myself down there,
Speaker 2: and I said.
Speaker 3: Man, I got it. We're gonna go to the funeral after.
Speaker 3: So we we both go to.
Speaker 2: The General man at at at Reverend whatever was Riverside Church,
Speaker 2: Jesse Jackson gave the obituary and stuff, and Dwayne is
Speaker 2: sitting there with me, and Dwayne said, man, that was
Speaker 2: a nice service man, you know, like you don't mind
Speaker 2: down you have appreciate us a ship.
Speaker 3: You know. I don't know, hey about Dan, I don't
Speaker 3: care about you know.
Speaker 2: But anyway, maybe about two weeks a month later, man,
Speaker 2: he died. When that messed me up completely, I was
Speaker 2: I couldn't even go to the own brother to his funeral.
Speaker 2: Man because of that. It was but you know, like
Speaker 2: that was that those two guys, King Curtis and Dwayne Man.
Speaker 2: He was like, we're really tight. And they passed and
Speaker 2: just a month or so later he's he's out. You know,
Speaker 2: he died like a month so and an after that,
Speaker 2: I go to to UH to Capricorn's picnic. After Dwayne
Speaker 2: had passed. I went to the picnic that summer and Bo,
Speaker 2: who was the bass player, was was just tore up.
Speaker 2: It was just depressed as the devil. Only one in
Speaker 2: the band that just could not function because Dwayne had passed,
Speaker 2: you know. And I said, I said, b O, what's somebody?
Speaker 2: He said, Man, I don't know if I can continue
Speaker 2: without without Dwayne. And then he ended up dying about
Speaker 2: a year later or so. You know, but I'm just saying, man,
Speaker 2: that that was.
Speaker 3: That was. That was though. That band was just one
Speaker 3: of my favorites.
Speaker 2: Man, all my brothers, Jay Gulls and Rollerstone, that Zeppelin,
Speaker 2: those four I would fight fight averybody else.
Speaker 4: Okay, weren't you with the famous gig in Buffalo where
Speaker 4: Twigs took out the night told me that story.
Speaker 2: Well, look, I didn't see him. I was at the gig, right,
Speaker 2: So we come back. They on the bus and I
Speaker 2: had always rent a car, right, so I was on
Speaker 2: the bus.
Speaker 3: You know. We go to the bus with smokes, some
Speaker 3: joints now Twigs.
Speaker 2: They said, man, they don't want to pay us, you know,
Speaker 2: they told Twigg guy, don't want to pay us. They
Speaker 2: had get the back end, you know. I there wasn't
Speaker 2: no one maybe about five hundred dollars whatever. It was
Speaker 2: this my heels a guy, Damn, we ain't paying you
Speaker 2: hip nothing And twigxcept let me go back and see
Speaker 2: if I can get it. He went back in there,
Speaker 2: and man, I don't know what happened, but I know
Speaker 2: he killed it, you know. And and next thing we know,
Speaker 2: we police and everything.
Speaker 3: You know, and it was Twigs.
Speaker 2: Twigs you know, was a was a was a x
Speaker 2: GI X paratrooper from from from Vietnam.
Speaker 3: You know. He he didn't take no, he didn't take nothing.
Speaker 2: But you know, Bill Waller supported him all while he
Speaker 2: was in jail though, and when he got out, he
Speaker 2: got their job right back with the band.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 4: Okay, what was it like being the black guy in
Speaker 4: a white rock world?
Speaker 3: Man. You know, I must admit they accepted me so well.
Speaker 2: And and all those rock bands had more trouble in
Speaker 2: the South than I did because they had long hair.
Speaker 2: Because they had long hair and there was hippies, they
Speaker 2: got more trouble than not it so, you know, I
Speaker 2: mean like they hated they hated hippies. And then all
Speaker 2: of a sudden, they're not there with a nigga lover,
Speaker 2: you know they call him. They would call them all
Speaker 2: kinds of the day. I mean, I remember we got
Speaker 2: off the plane one time and I don't know what
Speaker 2: city was, our little rock of Pine Bluff, whatever the
Speaker 2: city was. We get off the plane. I'm with all
Speaker 2: my brothers and we get off the plane. We're the
Speaker 2: first people off the plane. That means we must be
Speaker 2: in class. Were getting off and were walking till the
Speaker 2: because back then you would get out. He had to
Speaker 2: walk the flight line to the So we walking. Here
Speaker 2: come a guy in a fucklift calling them faggots and
Speaker 2: so on, and had listen and and uh, uh, what's.
Speaker 3: The guitar players? Uh?
Speaker 4: Dicky Bett, Dicky Bett.
Speaker 2: Dickie was the counting guy too, you know. And Dickie
Speaker 2: getting me, I said, look, dick let me talk to him.
Speaker 2: So of course they don't want to talk to no
Speaker 2: black guy, you know, So I walk. I said, Man,
Speaker 2: I don't know why you're talking about these guys. You
Speaker 2: out here driving a fuck lift and they're the first
Speaker 2: guys off the plane.
Speaker 3: They must they can buy your ass.
Speaker 2: I don't know why you and these guys felt so
Speaker 2: bad because the black guys is reading the reading about
Speaker 2: and that means the black guy was riding the first
Speaker 2: plass too.
Speaker 3: So they drove on off it.
Speaker 2: And uh, Gregg said, man, I'm glad you did that,
Speaker 2: because Dickie would have got us all in trouble because
Speaker 2: they had got in jail before for fighting, you know,
Speaker 2: up with time.
Speaker 3: So anyway, it was just a lot of cartoons things
Speaker 3: back then.
Speaker 4: Because okay, so, but in your life, to what degree
Speaker 4: have you encountered racism?
Speaker 3: Oh?
Speaker 2: Well, I I was born in Mississippi, born in Mississippi
Speaker 2: and raised in nineteen forty one. I lived there for
Speaker 2: seventeen years. For sixteen, well sixteen years, I went to
Speaker 2: high school there. Now every summer I would go to
Speaker 2: Chicago because my mother and father was there, so you know,
Speaker 2: I was raised around all that racism. And segregation and
Speaker 2: Jim Crow.
Speaker 3: So you know it, you know, you live with it,
Speaker 3: but you gotta have you got to have.
Speaker 2: My parents was respected by all the people in that
Speaker 2: particular town, so I never had no problem.
Speaker 3: I even worked in the grocery store. And even though you.
Speaker 2: Know, when Emmitt Till got killed, that was the same
Speaker 2: age I was, and was about thirty miles away from
Speaker 2: where I lived, and he was the same age I was,
Speaker 2: you know, and he was from Chicago, come down for
Speaker 2: the summer, just like all the cats in the Mississippi.
Speaker 3: I have kids come down the summer.
Speaker 2: So I mean, you live all around all of that,
Speaker 2: you see it, but you have to deal with it, man,
Speaker 2: because back then, what the fuck could you do? You know,
Speaker 2: But as long as they didn't bother my family, because
Speaker 2: my grandfather was highly respected by the sheriff and everybody
Speaker 2: in that city, and he worked for like the wealthiest
Speaker 2: I guess a man in town, so he had a
Speaker 2: lot of cloud and my grandmother, you know, worked for
Speaker 2: the did all the cleaning of the rest the lawyers offices,
Speaker 2: the dentist offices and stuff.
Speaker 3: So I got to know all the people in that.
Speaker 2: Town as far as the business people because of my
Speaker 2: grandmother and my grandfather. So I could walk to I
Speaker 2: could be walking across the square like at midnight, and
Speaker 2: they have all those kids out there messing with people.
Speaker 3: They never bothered me. So, well that's Tom meet his grandson,
Speaker 3: you know, and let me go through.
Speaker 2: So I had that type of respect, even though it
Speaker 2: was still horrible, you know, but I didn't have any
Speaker 2: personal problem with it.
Speaker 4: Well, you went to a segregated school.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I went to Thank Thanks Schools, segregated high school.
Speaker 2: And we got the books after the white casts finished
Speaker 2: with them, you know. But the teachers we had all
Speaker 2: came from up north, you know, because it was like
Speaker 2: our a rated school. Mary McCloud Bethune, you know Mary mcleoud,
Speaker 2: she was like a consultant to the president's back then,
Speaker 2: but she spoke at that school. You know, she was
Speaker 2: a high They respected our teacher and educator back then.
Speaker 2: But she came to that school that I was going
Speaker 2: to school at. And and and also they had choir
Speaker 2: and musicians. Music was like music and it was it
Speaker 2: was a religious school, you know, a sanctified school. Singing
Speaker 2: and uh, the band was very important and they went
Speaker 2: all over America with the bus with singers and sung
Speaker 2: all over America to raise money.
Speaker 3: For the school. That's what they would go and sing,
Speaker 3: you know, at different churches.
Speaker 2: And they did it all all the time while I
Speaker 2: was at That's how they raised money for the school.
Speaker 2: And they had a the this president of the school
Speaker 2: with doctor Malock and on. They had a May Day
Speaker 2: parade that went all over the town of that city
Speaker 2: where all the white people and everybody come out to
Speaker 2: see these parade.
Speaker 3: They all addressed up with kings and queens and all floats.
Speaker 2: And they had that every year, like in the first
Speaker 2: first week in make and they got highly respected. But
Speaker 2: at the same time, it's still the South, you know,
Speaker 2: so you deal with it under the circumstances, just as
Speaker 2: long as you get respect, you know. And because that
Speaker 2: school was buying so much from the city, you know,
Speaker 2: because they bought all the groceries for all those kids.
Speaker 2: Kids came from all over America as a boarding school.
Speaker 2: So it was very very helpful as far as education
Speaker 2: and a rated school as far as the black school.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 4: So what's this South like for black men today?
Speaker 2: I haven't the slightest idea. I haven't been there in
Speaker 2: fifty years.
Speaker 4: So you live in Florida.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I live abroad US. That's not like Mississippis. I mean,
Speaker 3: I still got I still got relatives and living in Mississippi.
Speaker 3: I've been there once in forty years.
Speaker 2: You know now that I have nothing against him, you know,
Speaker 2: but they all know how I feel about it. You know,
Speaker 2: I got my grandmother had like four hundred acres down there.
Speaker 2: She died and she left acres to all of the kids.
Speaker 2: I told him, what you mind, you can give it
Speaker 2: to one of somebody else. I didn't even want to
Speaker 2: go get it. So that's how I feel about I
Speaker 2: still I still have no respect for Mississippi.
Speaker 3: I'm sorry, I have no respect for.
Speaker 4: How did you end up being named Mario?
Speaker 3: My father? I'm a junior, But.
Speaker 4: How was he named Mario?
Speaker 3: I guess he was a gangster. Then what was his name?
Speaker 3: Was Marion?
Speaker 2: Marion, but everybody called him Mario. He was a gambler man,
Speaker 2: He was a gangster. He was a numbers man for
Speaker 2: the mafear in Chicago before he got busted.
Speaker 3: And you know, hey, he was one of a kind.
Speaker 3: In his junior was very difficult to following his footsteps.
Speaker 3: Man I'm telling you he was a tough guy to
Speaker 3: follow it. But and he was. And he was a
Speaker 3: smart guy.
Speaker 2: Vledictorian of his class when he graduated from high school,
Speaker 2: baseball player, gambler, all that stuff.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 2: Back then they had the Black Baseball League, and he was.
Speaker 2: He played for one of those black team, Memphis Rest.
Speaker 2: And he was a baseball fanatic. My whole grandfather a
Speaker 2: baseball fanatic. But uh, he he was just one of
Speaker 2: his one of a kind man, I'm telling you honestly.
Speaker 2: And I learned a lot from him as far as
Speaker 2: how to deal with people. Most of the trash that
Speaker 2: he talked, most of the trash that I was talking
Speaker 2: when out voting records, I got it from him.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 2: He used to always say, I wouldn't give a Mama gemma.
Speaker 2: You know he was talking about that, and I said, well, man,
Speaker 2: who did that? He said, I wouldn't care.
Speaker 3: It was Peter. We started up scaling Baylor and all
Speaker 3: the same with me.
Speaker 5: You know, he had to say he said, I wouldn't
Speaker 5: give a mash Mexican fly.
Speaker 3: For that jump. But he had like sings man that
Speaker 3: really stood out.
Speaker 2: And you know, he hung out with all the jazz musicians,
Speaker 2: and he used to gamble with him, you know, in
Speaker 2: the jazz and blue musicians on forty seventh Street in Chicago.
Speaker 2: We lived on fortieth in South Park, and that was
Speaker 2: seven blocks from the Regal Theater where we lived when
Speaker 2: I was growing up in Chicago. Every summer I go
Speaker 2: up there. I was seven blocks from the rigo, you
Speaker 2: know bb King and all ve playing the rigo. We
Speaker 2: would go up there and stay outside and listen to
Speaker 2: his kids, you know, when I was ten twelve years old,
Speaker 2: listened to and then my first rock concert that I
Speaker 2: went to was Chuck Berry and uh, I think I
Speaker 2: was about what I was about thirteen or fourteen, and
Speaker 2: my stepmother, I and the girl that lived above me.
Speaker 2: It was like my date name was Gladys. Me Gladys
Speaker 2: and my stepmother. We'd go into this. Just see Chuck
Speaker 2: Berry at the trianon Ballroom sixty second in Cottage grow
Speaker 2: up in Chicago.
Speaker 3: Now that's my first date.
Speaker 2: In life, you know, and I'm take this girl with
Speaker 2: my with my with my step mother.
Speaker 3: We go and Chuck barry Man was doing a roll over.
Speaker 2: Bit told him, you know, it got the old man
Speaker 2: and doing everything down and doing the chicken out of
Speaker 2: the duck hop and stuff. And it's all black people
Speaker 2: in there, you know. And they dressed to the tea
Speaker 2: man and you know, and and people dancing the car
Speaker 2: and only and one guy must have stepped on his
Speaker 2: pimp's foot. Now this is my first concert. Stepped on
Speaker 2: his foot and messed up his shoes and he pulled
Speaker 2: out his pistol and he and I saw the pistol.
Speaker 3: I was a civil pistol. You know, the white had
Speaker 3: a white an sivil pistol.
Speaker 2: I saw the pistol and the whole dance for a
Speaker 2: clear of course. I came there with my my step
Speaker 2: mother into my date. I was the first person out
Speaker 2: of it. I left them, you know, I left the
Speaker 2: date and everybody.
Speaker 3: I was standing outside when they came out.
Speaker 2: My my stepmother said, uh, they call me junr. You
Speaker 2: can't believe in your girlfriend. I said, she better learned
Speaker 2: to run because I saw that pistol. I saw that pistol.
Speaker 2: But you know, that's what I remember about Chuck Berry.
Speaker 2: That was my first concert man in life was Chuck Berry.
Speaker 2: And I had to run from that pistol.
Speaker 3: Man.
Speaker 2: I'll never forget that. And you know, and and I
Speaker 2: was always chasing the music all my life. Man Chuck Berry,
Speaker 2: I was pressing all those guys. Man, I was crazy
Speaker 2: about him growing up. And all those do off ben
Speaker 2: you know, you heard them on the radio. You know,
Speaker 2: even Johnny Cash even had that boy named Sue and stuff.
Speaker 3: But that's what we heard on the radio, you know.
Speaker 3: And late that night they at w l a C.
Speaker 3: Went down in Mississippily. You hear those heroes record, and
Speaker 3: I just was.
Speaker 2: I loved the music as a kid in the street
Speaker 2: that I was born and raised on the Mississippi was
Speaker 2: like Bill Street and Memphis they called it Bill Street
Speaker 2: because of all black juke joints. And I and my
Speaker 2: my grandmother had a beauty shop where I was born
Speaker 2: and raised in that beauty shop, next couple of doors
Speaker 2: down the juke joints, pool halls, and music is going
Speaker 2: all the time. As I was a kid right riding
Speaker 2: a little wagging up and down the street, I would
Speaker 2: hear that music, you know, Muddy Waters and and and
Speaker 2: all the cats, all the Chess records. I remember, I'll
Speaker 2: never get a treaty d all that stuff. La Verne
Speaker 2: Baker and I was Johanna. You know all that stuff
Speaker 2: that was Atlantic and Chess Records that that I was
Speaker 2: hearing all my life.
Speaker 3: Never knew I would ever work for Atlantic Records.
Speaker 2: Never knew I'd ever have a relationship with Chess, But
Speaker 2: those records was my When I first started collecting records
Speaker 2: was from those singles that they took off the juke
Speaker 2: box and those juke joints. I would get to know
Speaker 2: the guy who brings who put the new records on.
Speaker 2: And I was a little kid, and he knew he'd
Speaker 2: give me those singles, you know with the big holes
Speaker 2: in the middle. And I had those singles, man, And
Speaker 2: I bought me a little juke box, a little record player,
Speaker 2: and I'd get all those singles.
Speaker 3: Man.
Speaker 2: I got all those Chess records in Atlantic Records back then,
Speaker 2: and uh and the stuff from Marshall c On on
Speaker 2: all those records. I got those records as a as
Speaker 2: a kid man collecting them, you know. And I had
Speaker 2: him in those juke boxes. And I never had any
Speaker 2: idea about the record business. It just that I love music,
Speaker 2: you know. And Sonny Boy Williamson was another another another
Speaker 2: guy that was blues Cat that my grandfather used to
Speaker 2: blow harmonica and he said. He called me, junior, Junior,
Speaker 2: you gotta you gotta learn how to blow hop, you know.
Speaker 2: So he would get me a harmonica every Christmas and
Speaker 2: give me and I blow it. Man to my eyes,
Speaker 2: my eyes running water. I could never get it. And
Speaker 2: he would just grab it and just make it talk, well, mama,
Speaker 2: make it, make a cry, make it sound like a train.
Speaker 2: And I said, I said, Man, I said, I say.
Speaker 2: I said, I'd like Sonny Boy with me. He said,
Speaker 2: Sonny boy can't blow. That's what I mean. He's sunny boy.
Speaker 3: Can't blow.
Speaker 5: Man.
Speaker 3: He said, you got a junior. Well, you know, oh
Speaker 3: man he was.
Speaker 2: He was funny man. He had he was a cartoon.
Speaker 2: My grandfather was a classic man.
Speaker 4: So what did you do after you graduated from high school?
Speaker 3: When I graduate from high school, I took the bus
Speaker 3: to New York. But my grandmother and.
Speaker 2: We took the bus to New York, and I stayed
Speaker 2: in New York for like six months before I went
Speaker 2: into the Air Force. But but I went from from
Speaker 2: uh from Jackson, Mississippi, all the way to New York
Speaker 2: on the bus man greyhound bus and got off man
Speaker 2: and I told Steven Wonder.
Speaker 3: He got that that New York thing for me when
Speaker 3: he got off.
Speaker 2: And I said, new York all this that's because I
Speaker 2: had mentioned all that stuff to Stevie.
Speaker 3: Well really man, you know, yeah, but I've been look,
Speaker 3: he's blind. How the hell can he boy from Mississippi?
Speaker 3: And then he did. He said, Partstown, missisippt And he
Speaker 3: said Mississippi in that record.
Speaker 2: You listened to that record, par parstime, Mississippi can get
Speaker 2: the New York buildings and stuff. That's what I said
Speaker 2: I when I got in there, I looked up all
Speaker 2: those buildings and stuff. But he put it in that record.
Speaker 2: I always told him, you ripped it off of me,
Speaker 2: you know. He said, man, forget you know. But anyway,
Speaker 2: that was my life. So soon as I got there,
Speaker 2: I uh my my grandmother had her brother and lived there,
Speaker 2: so I stayed with her brother and his son, you know,
Speaker 2: stayed there, and I was there for six months before
Speaker 2: I went in the Air Force.
Speaker 3: Soon as I.
Speaker 2: Got there, the first thing I wanted to go go
Speaker 2: and see with bird Land you know, and stuff like that.
Speaker 3: But they wasn't in the jazz. But they took me
Speaker 3: to Harlem to to.
Speaker 2: You know, to Apollo, and I went to the pollow
Speaker 2: right so as I got there. But then after that
Speaker 2: I went to I saw Red Fox at the baby
Speaker 2: grand led her right on one hundred twenty fifth Street.
Speaker 2: Red Fox was doing a thing about you know, about
Speaker 2: the horses and stuff, you know, back then. But I
Speaker 2: saw all that stuff, and I was only seventeenth at
Speaker 2: the time, you know, but it was a hell of experience, man,
Speaker 2: And with the bird land and stuff, you.
Speaker 4: Know, how'd you end up going in the Air Force?
Speaker 2: I went in the Air Force, souse. First of all, I
Speaker 2: wanted to go to college and I couldn't. I couldn't,
Speaker 2: you know, nobody had money to send kids to college
Speaker 2: back then, and I figured I could. I figured I'd
Speaker 2: go in the Air Force because it's better than getting
Speaker 2: drafted into the army because back then, you you know,
Speaker 2: you you got drafted when you got eighteen. So I
Speaker 2: figured out going to Air Force because I had a
Speaker 2: cousin that had been an Air Force.
Speaker 3: He said, air force more like a job. You know,
Speaker 3: you're working at the end of the day and then
Speaker 3: like you know, I have to go to be on
Speaker 3: my news and stuff.
Speaker 2: So I took that job, and I really enjoyed it
Speaker 2: because I was a warehouse specialist at the Air Force,
Speaker 2: you know, and uh, I want I did uh lackling
Speaker 2: an Air Force base for basic training. I went to
Speaker 2: Amarilla for warehouse specialist training. From there I went to
Speaker 2: Dad to leave, and then I went to Germany for
Speaker 2: three years, you know. And it was a great experience.
Speaker 2: Man in Germany, I I went to all the jazz
Speaker 2: clubs and stuff, you know, and made photographs.
Speaker 3: Of stuff, you know.
Speaker 2: And I I caught Miles Davis and John coletrain, you know,
Speaker 2: and when they were on that last throw, right after
Speaker 2: Count of Blue came out, and then, let me tell
Speaker 2: you that was classic. I wasn't a Cold Trane fan then,
Speaker 2: but I was kind of blue. I had bought that
Speaker 2: album in Amsterdam. I paid like twenty dollars for it,
Speaker 2: but that was a lot of money back then. But
Speaker 2: I wanted to record so bad. And when when Miles came,
Speaker 2: he played concert to Bow in Amsterdam, and I had
Speaker 2: a press pass, so I was down in the pit
Speaker 2: making photographs of the band playing. And I had never
Speaker 2: heard octaves played before, you know, octaves on a saxophone.
Speaker 2: And and and that's the first time I heard coal
Speaker 2: Train blowing octas. So what happened Miles was blowing the solo,
Speaker 2: Coltrane had to go to the toilet, So you have
Speaker 2: to go all way upstairs to go to the toilet.
Speaker 2: And when Miles finished blowing, the opener's eyes the train
Speaker 2: is not there. So as as Miles looked around, train
Speaker 2: started walking down, still.
Speaker 3: Blowing, you know, all the way down.
Speaker 2: Wait, was all the way down to the He blew
Speaker 2: all way in and blowing octaves, his horn, squeaking and
Speaker 2: care that'.
Speaker 3: Said all got.
Speaker 2: I had never heard nothing like that before, but it
Speaker 2: excited me, and those octaves and stuff made me a
Speaker 2: jazz fanatic, and I've been chasing that music ever since,
Speaker 2: you know. But that was the reason that I and
Speaker 2: I was and I made all kinds of photographs and
Speaker 2: I'll never forget when when after that, after that show,
Speaker 2: in the dressing room, they had this Dutch reporter started
Speaker 2: talking to culture, and I guess Miles didn't like it
Speaker 2: that Coltran had showed him up a bit.
Speaker 3: As col Train said, when you when you're doing your solo,
Speaker 3: actually you'd be going, and it's going and going. In
Speaker 3: that case, you can't end it. You hard to end
Speaker 3: and Miles said, try taking the horn out of your mouth.
Speaker 4: So what happens when you get out of the army.
Speaker 2: When I got out of the army, I came, I
Speaker 2: got that. I came back to go to college at
Speaker 2: Queen's College. You know, I was doing Queen's College and
Speaker 2: I needed a job, so I got lucky.
Speaker 3: A guy in the.
Speaker 2: Building turned me onto a gig where I would uh
Speaker 2: you know, I've worked for a meet a meat uh
Speaker 2: distribute with the meat Transports company for the for the
Speaker 2: meat district. They would they would uh bring piggyback you know,
Speaker 2: uh beef and pork from all over America and sometime
Speaker 2: from out of on the trains and the trucks, and
Speaker 2: they would bring it to Fourteenth Street to the meat district.
Speaker 2: But China and Companies was a company that I represented,
Speaker 2: and we were the one that did the billing for that.
Speaker 2: So I was working writer with the meat packers, you know,
Speaker 2: and I worked with them before I went to Atlantic.
Speaker 2: And that was a billing job, you know, it was
Speaker 2: It wasn't it was a bookkeeping job, but just building
Speaker 2: wasn't like uh bookkeeping as a whole.
Speaker 3: It was just billing.
Speaker 4: You build people, did you finish college.
Speaker 2: Well, I finished college afterwards, but I I finished college
Speaker 2: right before I started motor records. I went to college
Speaker 2: at night. When I was working at Atlantic As in
Speaker 2: the bookkeeping department. I was going to college every night.
Speaker 2: I was going to light nightgh school, you know. And
Speaker 2: I got all wait till till last. I didn't graduate
Speaker 2: till nineteen sixty eight before I got it.
Speaker 3: And then at that.
Speaker 2: Time I ended up end up promoting records, so I
Speaker 2: never had I used to become an account to do
Speaker 2: accounting because I'm metioned on accounting, you know.
Speaker 4: Okay, So what happened for you? After Man of Corps
Speaker 4: blew up?
Speaker 2: I did independent promotion independent promotion, I did Bunkadelic, all
Speaker 2: of that, George Clinton, you know, Flashlight all that flash Light,
Speaker 2: Moti Booty and One Nation.
Speaker 3: Under Groove and uh and uh.
Speaker 2: And then after that I did Rick James, you know,
Speaker 2: I did Rick James and all the super Freak and
Speaker 2: did his first.
Speaker 4: So how did you get involved with Brig James?
Speaker 3: Sheff Gordon was his manager and when they got to
Speaker 3: do the first tour, when he wanted to do the
Speaker 3: first tour, he had already had a hit.
Speaker 2: Call you and I was a big record, you know.
Speaker 2: And and so now he's going to do a tour
Speaker 2: for his first tour. But he didn't tour right away.
Speaker 2: So he came out with a second album called Us
Speaker 2: and out on l seventh, and Shep needed someone to
Speaker 2: make sure he do the gigs.
Speaker 3: He had a road manager, but he said, man, Mario,
Speaker 3: I like you. If you would be the tour manager.
Speaker 2: You know, I pay you so much, and if you
Speaker 2: can help to sell out the shows, I'll give you
Speaker 2: a percentage of the show.
Speaker 3: Just sell out us. So that was the deal that
Speaker 3: I got from Shep. And so the first tour, I
Speaker 3: was a tour manager and I didn't even and I
Speaker 3: asked Shepperd, who's going to introduce me?
Speaker 2: He said, well, look, man, I can't stand him, he
Speaker 2: can't stand me.
Speaker 3: You just go there. You just go there, and you
Speaker 3: go there and introduce yourself. And I went there, and
Speaker 3: of course Rick gave me hell the first date, but
Speaker 3: I told him, hey, man, I don't work for you.
Speaker 2: I'm already paid. You can't find me, you know. So
Speaker 2: we had that type of understanding. So he was telling
Speaker 2: everybody I know that manager, youm I know him because
Speaker 2: he knew he used to be in a band with
Speaker 2: Neil Young, and he knew I promoted crab Stills in
Speaker 2: National you know, he knew all about that, but he
Speaker 2: pretended like he didn't know who I was.
Speaker 3: So I found out later that he knew all about that.
Speaker 2: That he knew and I had seen him at at
Speaker 2: Rick's at Steven Steel's house back when Crubs Still Nashing
Speaker 2: Young was shooting the cover of the first of the
Speaker 2: Crabs Still Nashing Young album. Greg Reeves, one of that
Speaker 2: bass player, Neil Young, wanted Rick James to be the
Speaker 2: bass player and Crubs Still Nation Young, but Rick said, no, man,
Speaker 2: so he recommended that guy, Greg Reeve's young seventeen year
Speaker 2: old boy that they ended up taking. But that's where
Speaker 2: Rick knew me from then. But I didn't know him because,
Speaker 2: you know, like I just didn't know him. I didn't
Speaker 2: even know he had been in the band with Neil Young,
Speaker 2: because back then he was just a man that brought
Speaker 2: all the all the all the fun over.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 2: So anyway, he knew me from that, and then I
Speaker 2: got to be friends with him afterwards after that first tour,
Speaker 2: you know, but it was tough for the first couple
Speaker 2: of days because everybody in the band was afraid of him,
Speaker 2: and I would and he was sleeping nudes, you know,
Speaker 2: and and they'd be saying, Man, we can't wake him up.
Speaker 3: Mario, I said, let me go. I go in.
Speaker 2: Oh up all the windows and it was really like
Speaker 2: ten degrees outside. Oh up all the windows and take all.
Speaker 3: The cover off her. And he had jumplep me.
Speaker 2: And I don't want to tell you all the things
Speaker 2: he said he's gonna do to me, But I told him,
Speaker 2: he man, you gotta hit. We gotta do the show.
Speaker 2: And that's what shep hired me to do to be
Speaker 2: able to get him out of the get him to
Speaker 2: do the show. So he was cursing me out all
Speaker 2: the time. But later on he said, you know, I
Speaker 2: don't know that Mario. I don't know he's crazy, but
Speaker 2: you know how to get the job done. That's what
Speaker 2: he always said, you know. But I mean we had
Speaker 2: like knockdown, drag out way before Charlotte Murphy. I could
Speaker 2: tell you some things, boy, I'm telling you Rick. I mean,
Speaker 2: Rick was one of a kind, but a smart guy.
Speaker 3: Let me tell you. I learned a lot about club
Speaker 3: promotion from Rick.
Speaker 4: James, what'd you learn?
Speaker 2: Just how he would take his before the records release.
Speaker 2: What I used to do with radio stations. He had
Speaker 2: did it to clubs. He'd take his single and had
Speaker 2: a DJ to play his stuff. And we was in
Speaker 2: Buffalo and we walked him and you and I would
Speaker 2: give it to me, give it to me from that
Speaker 2: Street Song album.
Speaker 3: He had a test pressing up.
Speaker 2: He had a tape of it, and we walked in
Speaker 2: and he had the DJ to play it. That whole
Speaker 2: club started jumping. I said, man, this is I knows
Speaker 2: the smash and that's how I knew. So when we
Speaker 2: went to go to Motown to tell him about the album,
Speaker 2: you know, Jay Alaska tell me, well, you know way
Speaker 2: we can't.
Speaker 3: You can't get rick this. I said, man, this is
Speaker 3: going to be a smash. Jay. He said, oh, look,
Speaker 3: well we're give him fifty thousand. I said, man, we
Speaker 3: need a hundred thousand. I said, well, look, I'll tell
Speaker 3: you what. We wait till the album come out, then
Speaker 3: we'll come back. So the album.
Speaker 2: Released the next week, we go back there. Jay Alaska, look, man,
Speaker 2: I got to fifty thousand for I said, now we
Speaker 2: want a hundred thousand. So but that was the way
Speaker 2: that sho went down. But you know, Rick wanted to
Speaker 2: jump on the desk and pee on the desk and stuff.
Speaker 2: But you know, like I, I didn't go over that
Speaker 2: he wanted to jump on the desk and everything.
Speaker 3: Oh crazy.
Speaker 2: But but you know, he was a He was a
Speaker 2: talented guy, man, believe me. As crazy as people say
Speaker 2: he was, he was very talented and and had I
Speaker 2: respect from everybody.
Speaker 3: Smoke A. Robinson, Steven Wonder. He just called on the phone.
Speaker 2: They come right over the studio, man, Temptations whatever, you know,
Speaker 2: because he was a producer, they would and if he
Speaker 2: needed him on the record, they would come right over
Speaker 2: and sing.
Speaker 3: Background or whatever. Man, incredible guy one of the time.
Speaker 4: So how crazy was he?
Speaker 3: I can't even I can't even tell you.
Speaker 2: Man, it's not it's X rayish.
Speaker 3: Would He's crazy. Man, he's crazy. But you know with me,
Speaker 3: I had I had to.
Speaker 2: You know, we had a couple of run ends, you know,
Speaker 2: but he stopped messing with me, and you know, I
Speaker 2: think I hit him in the chant one time and
Speaker 2: he said, man, he's trying to kill me. You know
Speaker 2: you're crazy, you know, because he knew I knew martial arts.
Speaker 2: But he said, man, if you didn't know, kick your ass.
Speaker 2: And I said, look, if you even dream about kicking ass,
Speaker 2: you better wake come and apologize. And that was the
Speaker 2: type of relationship we asked. You know, he had one time.
Speaker 2: I remember we getting ready to do this tour and
Speaker 2: the guy that was the tour manager that did a
Speaker 2: tour for Jackson five, you know the last Jackson five
Speaker 2: threw when Michael was on that tour.
Speaker 3: Well, he was gonna be the gonna do the tour
Speaker 3: with Rick James. So he's come.
Speaker 2: He came to Buffalo to talk to Rick. I wasn't Buffalo,
Speaker 2: I don't know where it was that. It could have
Speaker 2: been Boston, wherever he was.
Speaker 3: He was on the road.
Speaker 2: He came to talk to Rick to get him to
Speaker 2: let him be the tour tour manager Drew to do
Speaker 2: the tour and tire tour. So he's in the room
Speaker 2: talking to Rick and Rick and Rick Uh calls my
Speaker 2: room and and and he saw me. A couple of
Speaker 2: girls came to my room that I knew from, you know,
Speaker 2: from other bands.
Speaker 3: He's just friends of mine. He saw that Mario got
Speaker 3: these girls room.
Speaker 2: He sent the UH bodyguards down to my room, said
Speaker 2: go down there and clear that room.
Speaker 3: Go down there, clear Mario's room.
Speaker 2: The bodyguards came to my door, both of them, two guys,
Speaker 2: one of them moles and and and Ol whatever the name.
Speaker 2: I knew them, you know, I knew them because I
Speaker 2: used to, you know, make sure they got paid.
Speaker 3: But now they come to the door some Mario man like, uh,
Speaker 3: we don't want to do this. Member.
Speaker 2: Rick told we got to clear your room. I said,
Speaker 2: you ain't gonna crear nothing here. I said, I pay
Speaker 2: for this room. I don't ricked on pay for my room.
Speaker 2: I said, now, if you all come across the doorstep here.
Speaker 2: If you want to die for six hundred dollars, cause
Speaker 2: that's all you're getting paid. If that's what you want
Speaker 2: to die for, you come in my room, I'm gonna
Speaker 2: kill you. They stood out there as bad and big
Speaker 2: as they were. They went back and told Rick said, man,
Speaker 2: uh Mario, we we can't get it. So now just
Speaker 2: this promoter, this promoter is there with Rick having all
Speaker 2: kinds of problems, and they come back and tell him
Speaker 2: about Mario.
Speaker 3: So he said, let's I'll go down to the room.
Speaker 2: So he comes down to the room with the promoter,
Speaker 2: and I went off on Rick in front of the promoter.
Speaker 2: Promoter ended up being my best friend. He said, Man,
Speaker 2: he ended up getting the job. He ended up getting
Speaker 2: the end up. But he said after what he said, Man,
Speaker 2: he gave me a Louis the ton at the shake
Speaker 2: case and he said, man, the way you hand Rick Jane, Man,
Speaker 2: I never seen nobody do that. I said, no, I'm
Speaker 2: not handling. I just told him, you know, like I
Speaker 2: don't work for him. You know, I don't work for him,
Speaker 2: you know, I work with it. And he said, well, man,
Speaker 2: I want to try to get the tour. So I
Speaker 2: talked to him Rick, and he let him get the tour.
Speaker 2: He ended up getting the tour. But that that that
Speaker 2: was the type of thing with Rick, you know, he was.
Speaker 2: He was a tougher guy.
Speaker 3: What about the drugs, Oh yeah he did. He did
Speaker 3: all kinds of drugs.
Speaker 2: He'll tell you, well, I'm getting ready to pill out,
Speaker 2: you know what I mean. He gonna pill out, he's
Speaker 2: gonna go to sleep, You're gonna pill out. Let him
Speaker 2: pill out, you know. And he snowed up your whole house,
Speaker 2: you know, nothing, but he but he had the money
Speaker 2: to do it. You know, you can't stop a guy
Speaker 2: when they're gonna do stuff. You know, I'll let him
Speaker 2: do it.
Speaker 4: So you'd work so much in the white rock business,
Speaker 4: what was it like? I mean, Rick James was sort
Speaker 4: of a rock artist, but it was the black world.
Speaker 4: What was the black radio, black promoter world?
Speaker 2: Bike night and day man night and day difference different
Speaker 2: night and day. First of all, Rick James is the
Speaker 2: closest to rock them out of all of them. And uh,
Speaker 2: I never forget. When I first started on tour, Rick,
Speaker 2: he said, Man, I want, I want you to build
Speaker 2: me a black one like you do them rock bands.
Speaker 2: I said, well, the first thing we gotta do if
Speaker 2: you want to tour like a rock band is get
Speaker 2: out of these holiday ends.
Speaker 3: He doesn't know he's got to pay for these hotels.
Speaker 2: And I'm telling me, so we get all better hotels
Speaker 2: atter because I was towt those holiday ends. You know,
Speaker 2: so we get But he found out later that he
Speaker 2: paying for all this being charge of them.
Speaker 3: But you know we did that, and you know, and
Speaker 3: and and he did pretty good on that first tour,
Speaker 3: but he wasn't he wasn't getting a percentage.
Speaker 2: He was at a fix like he sold out the
Speaker 2: Baltimore Arena in Baltimore or whatever it's about. I don't know,
Speaker 2: maybe old about ten or fifteen thousand people. But he
Speaker 2: he accepted ten thousand dollars as as amount that he wanted.
Speaker 2: Rether Thant get a percentage of the date so that
Speaker 2: would ship him ship they shep didn't know's going to
Speaker 2: be selling out, But we sold it out.
Speaker 3: But they only paid him ten grands. So he was said, well, man,
Speaker 3: you know, I'm a gungrat. Look that's that's your old mistake,
Speaker 3: you know. But it was. It was a whole lot
Speaker 3: of things. But I had a lot of fun with him,
Speaker 3: you know.
Speaker 4: So how did it end with you? And Rick?
Speaker 3: What do you mean it didn't find it?
Speaker 2: After the first tour, I did that tour manager thing,
Speaker 2: and then I went on back doing my regular promotion
Speaker 2: whatever I was doing it, and he put out other records.
Speaker 2: And then on nineteen eighty one, on New Year's Day
Speaker 2: of nineteen day one, he called me because now he
Speaker 2: had got rid of his manager. He didn't have Shepherd anymore.
Speaker 2: So he called me, he said, man, and he getting
Speaker 2: ready to put out street songs, right, So he called
Speaker 2: me like new Year's Night of nineteen eighty one at
Speaker 2: my home and Yonkers and I said, is it he said, Rick,
Speaker 2: He said, man, I say, he said with.
Speaker 3: That, Man, I mean I wish I could get you
Speaker 3: to help me. Man, I ain't got no manage that
Speaker 3: neither help with my new oltum. I said, Man, you
Speaker 3: other I was, weren't that good? You know?
Speaker 2: He said, well, let me play some of the stuff
Speaker 2: where he played give it to me, give it to me,
Speaker 2: give it to me, give it to me, yo. And
Speaker 2: when he played it, I said, man, this is a
Speaker 2: spac He said, man, come on, man, And it helped
Speaker 2: me get this album.
Speaker 3: I got an album trying to do speet something.
Speaker 2: So the next day I ended up taking a flight
Speaker 2: to la and I hung out with him ntil he
Speaker 2: finished that album and stuff, and you know, and that's
Speaker 2: when we were when we had to go to Motown,
Speaker 2: you know, and mentioned to the fact that Jay Laska
Speaker 2: didn't want to give him that fifty grand and stuff.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 2: But while he was there, that's when I met Smoke Kid,
Speaker 2: Steve and all of them came to the studio. When
Speaker 2: he was doing that album, you know, he was adding
Speaker 2: stuff to it, and I met Uh.
Speaker 3: What was the name a singer of the girl is
Speaker 3: a sing with fire and desire? That girl?
Speaker 2: What it was the name that that son? But anyway,
Speaker 2: when he was producing that record, all of them was
Speaker 2: in that studio and I met him all and that's
Speaker 2: when I knew he was like a really genius the
Speaker 2: way he produced that record, man, and how everybody respected
Speaker 2: him so much, you know.
Speaker 4: So how did you stop promoting records?
Speaker 2: I stopped after after that that uh Rick James album,
Speaker 2: after that that uh Fire and Design, and that was
Speaker 2: the last one that I did, and I stopped promotion
Speaker 2: because then I just started back doing accounting, you know,
Speaker 2: because I had accounting clients that I had to do
Speaker 2: and it was less aggravation, you know, and I have
Speaker 2: to didn't have to travel and you didn't have to
Speaker 2: have to thread and threaten to kill people to get
Speaker 2: paid because I had to.
Speaker 3: I had to. I did Funkadelic. I had to.
Speaker 2: Threadn them, you know, to get my pound payment label
Speaker 2: them like thirty grand, and their attorney had to call
Speaker 2: me up, said, bro Drugs would like to pay you
Speaker 2: an increments, you know, ten thousands. I said, no, I
Speaker 2: want all of it at once, because they had a
Speaker 2: show in town, you know that night in Madison, Paier
Speaker 2: Guard and I used to train all these uh you know,
Speaker 2: the policemen's and knarks and stuff in New York.
Speaker 3: And I told him if he didn't if he if.
Speaker 2: I didn't get my check, I was gonna have the
Speaker 2: Narks to come over and and bust the hope buster
Speaker 2: the guys. Somebody is gonna be dirty in the hotel.
Speaker 2: And and then we're gonna have.
Speaker 3: The box office. Gonna take a box office.
Speaker 2: You had to do stuff like that, you know, and
Speaker 2: I have to We're gonna have to bust somebody of
Speaker 2: the Bible.
Speaker 3: You know, We're gonna take a box off it.
Speaker 2: So George decided he uh, out of my box, send
Speaker 2: the check over, and I got to check. When I
Speaker 2: first got to check, it wasn't certified. I sent it
Speaker 2: back to her and then you know, as she said, oh,
Speaker 2: well it's certified. You know, after I got a certified,
Speaker 2: I knew.
Speaker 3: It was cool.
Speaker 2: Well, that night I go to the concert of the
Speaker 2: Panta Massabuare Guard. George see me, he's ducking and the
Speaker 2: running the cast man.
Speaker 3: You ain't got to run. I'm funking. I'm funking. I'm
Speaker 3: shaking my head. I'm funking. Now you got got my check.
Speaker 8: So you know, that's the type of stuff you had
Speaker 8: to deal with when you're dealing with R and B bads,
Speaker 8: you know, and you know it and you know and
Speaker 8: even when I when I left Rick, you know, he
Speaker 8: owe me like ten grands, but he found to pay me.
Speaker 3: He came to New York and and send his body
Speaker 3: got up to Lindjo.
Speaker 4: So your counting clients were musicians or straight people.
Speaker 2: Yeah, straight people, straight people. But one guy's oor guy
Speaker 2: was a was a had a doc. You know, he
Speaker 2: built ship, he built a yachts and stuff.
Speaker 3: You know, a big god company.
Speaker 4: So how long did you do that for?
Speaker 2: I did it for about twenty years, I guess, up
Speaker 2: until up until about I guess about two or three
Speaker 2: years ago.
Speaker 4: And i'd geenned up in Florida.
Speaker 2: Well after I got a divorce, I moved down here
Speaker 2: in eighty five. After divorce, I moved from New York
Speaker 2: to Porda and my brother had like, you know, property
Speaker 2: down here, so I moved down here and stayed in
Speaker 2: one of his He had like several uh, he had
Speaker 2: a whole whole.
Speaker 3: Quadrangle of apartments houses little house.
Speaker 2: So I stayed with one of his houses and then,
Speaker 2: uh then when him and I fell out, I moved
Speaker 2: into into North Miami right near Criteria Studio. I moved
Speaker 2: there because I knew to cast his Criteria and I
Speaker 2: stayed there for like thirty years until I moved to
Speaker 2: the place I am Now.
Speaker 3: I've been here ten years.
Speaker 4: So you said you got divorced.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I got divorced and in New York in eighty five.
Speaker 4: Did you ever get remarried?
Speaker 3: No? No, no, don't want them. Nobody couldn't. Nobody, nobody
Speaker 3: want to put up with me, and vice versa.
Speaker 4: So was the divorce as a result of being on
Speaker 4: the road, et cetera.
Speaker 2: Yeah, probably that was mostly being on the road, and
Speaker 2: you know, and just she was a good person, man.
Speaker 2: She took care of my family. Without her, I wouldn't
Speaker 2: have had a dime. You know, I'm telling you because
Speaker 2: she was really good, you know. But she just didn't
Speaker 2: didn't like me being on the road and being around
Speaker 2: all this stuff.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 2: It wasn't about no women trus I had. I had
Speaker 2: enough of but she didn't know about it. Sure, But
Speaker 2: I mean I did I did my share of dougness,
Speaker 2: but I never took it home, you know. And I
Speaker 2: took care of my daughter. I paid for my daughter
Speaker 2: went to Yale University. She was a smart girl, graduated
Speaker 2: from Yale. And I paid for all of that.
Speaker 3: And my second daughter ended up getting a master's degree
Speaker 3: and stuff. You know. I paid for all that, being
Speaker 3: an accountant, you know. But whatever I mean, he had
Speaker 3: to somebody had to take care of.
Speaker 4: So how'd you mean Peter Wolf Wolf Ago.
Speaker 2: I met him in fifty nine and I was sixty
Speaker 2: nine at at Boston tea party. They were playing with
Speaker 2: Jay Guillas band had just played, and I was up
Speaker 2: there with Doctor John.
Speaker 3: And and and when I I went, I was in
Speaker 3: the dress room with doctor John. I heard Survey right
Speaker 3: the supper boy.
Speaker 2: This band was getting down and the voice man is
Speaker 2: like John Lee Hook and Mass said, oh god, these
Speaker 2: mag I was a cold blood. But when I got
Speaker 2: to the stage, they were gone, you know, there was
Speaker 2: nobody there.
Speaker 3: And so I go into the dress room. I go
Speaker 3: there and say, hey, man, where's where's the brothers that
Speaker 3: just got doing that blues? And Peter wood Walker that
Speaker 3: was us man, freak me right out all white cats.
Speaker 3: I said. I said, well, Man, do you have a contract.
Speaker 3: He said no.
Speaker 2: I said, Man, look I love the blues. I love
Speaker 2: where you're all coming from. I said, I'm from Atlantic Records. Man,
Speaker 2: I got to see if I can get your recorded.
Speaker 2: He said, well, yeah, Atlantic, Yeah, I like Atlantic.
Speaker 3: So that's how it started.
Speaker 2: Man and Wolf We've been friends ever since. He was
Speaker 2: a disc jockey on BCN also and his show was
Speaker 2: like one of the top shows as far as blues
Speaker 2: and and and do wop. You know, he played all
Speaker 2: kinds of music and just a character man called Wolf
Speaker 2: of go for Mama Tupula, you know, like he said,
Speaker 2: be here, and so you needs feeds your blatter's platter,
Speaker 2: I'm gonna come back.
Speaker 3: You want to know the matter. He had all the raps. Man.
Speaker 3: I loved him because he reminded me of all the
Speaker 3: this jockeys in New York, you know.
Speaker 2: Like Jocko Innerson and so he monocute manipicent money. He
Speaker 2: remind me of all those cats. But he had that
Speaker 2: and he was doing that in nineteen sixty nine on WBCN.
Speaker 3: Man he was doing that type of show and is
Speaker 3: a white kid that knew more about black music than
Speaker 3: I did.
Speaker 2: I'm telling you the truth. He I would call on,
Speaker 2: I would tell him the name of a son. He'll
Speaker 2: tell me who wrote it and who publishes. You know,
Speaker 2: I said, how down he was, man, And we've been
Speaker 2: friends ever since. Man, wonderful kind.
Speaker 4: Tell me about the Ahmed I'm man my main man.
Speaker 2: I joined on and out of all the exanders there,
Speaker 2: he was like my favorite because I would be on
Speaker 2: the road and uh, he might be in that town
Speaker 2: and he'll he'll call whatever hotel man and said, yeah, yay, Man,
Speaker 2: Well what are you doing tonight?
Speaker 3: I'm going to this club?
Speaker 2: He said, well, all right, man, So he have his
Speaker 2: limbo and I'll get in a limbo with it, and
Speaker 2: we'll go to the South side.
Speaker 3: Of Chicago where all the blues catch that, and he'll
Speaker 3: be right at home. Man. Then we'll go to the
Speaker 3: jazz club and he'd be right at home. And he
Speaker 3: paying for everything.
Speaker 2: So I didn't didn't didn't bother me, right, I never
Speaker 2: get One time I had a disc jockey from this
Speaker 2: jazz station in Chicago.
Speaker 3: Beautiful girl, man, I get her name now, but she
Speaker 3: was beautiful man. And you know, I wasn't hitting on nothing,
Speaker 3: but we were riding and he saw he said, well,
Speaker 3: tell her to come and go. So we go, we
Speaker 3: hit the car. We got it.
Speaker 2: Boy, I was dropping bombs on the girl all night
Speaker 2: and just I said, this manager, it is cooler than
Speaker 2: the average pilp that I know. And he was just
Speaker 2: one of a classic band. I loved him, man, I mean,
Speaker 2: and everybody had a lot of things they said about it,
Speaker 2: but he was cool with me.
Speaker 3: Him and Jerry, I mean Jerry as well. Man.
Speaker 2: Jerry was a classic too, but was Jerry like Jerry
Speaker 2: was more of a business man because Jerry I didn't
Speaker 2: go on the road.
Speaker 3: I didn't hang out with Jerry on the road.
Speaker 2: But one time, who was in a we were at
Speaker 2: I think Kyle Rutno, somebody had a had a had
Speaker 2: a newsletter that he used to put out and and
Speaker 2: they had a thing and and Vegas, and we go
Speaker 2: to and they were there right and they had the
Speaker 2: supremes of playing there in Vegas at this at this
Speaker 2: hotel we was at. So now a'ma and and Jerry
Speaker 2: come to my room. Because I had, like I was
Speaker 2: always knowing to have a little herb around, you know.
Speaker 2: So they come to my room and I got all
Speaker 2: the Supreme not not down a row but sent to
Speaker 2: the birds song at the time, but all of us
Speaker 2: in my room, and that just knocked it just they said.
Speaker 3: But that boy, that guy gonna be a good promotion man.
Speaker 3: That bookkeeper gonna be a good promotion man. He came
Speaker 3: up and you know that, and you know that was
Speaker 3: that was the first only one time that I hung
Speaker 3: out with Jerry and Alma together.
Speaker 2: But you know because in there I always had a
Speaker 2: turntable to play records, you know, so it was like
Speaker 2: a classic man.
Speaker 4: And what about Nassville, did you have any come back?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 2: Yeah, Nessar was ftriggured. I was a jazz fanic, you know,
Speaker 2: so jet Ness was we always. I even went to
Speaker 2: nest wedding in London when he got married. You know,
Speaker 2: I was always tacked with nestswek because I was. I
Speaker 2: promoted jazz records as well, you know. And and you
Speaker 2: know he hired Joel Dorn to do most of the
Speaker 2: production after he stopped doing but MJQ and.
Speaker 3: All those guys.
Speaker 2: He did all those records that I used to listen to.
Speaker 2: And I remember Mil Jackson, I saw I called him bags, right,
Speaker 2: I saw Mil Jackson and Uh at an airport one
Speaker 2: time in the south of Spain, and when I walked upto,
Speaker 2: I stopped bounding. I said, I'm not worth. I'm not worth,
Speaker 2: and I stild them about, you know, like the song
Speaker 2: in Atlantic Records. We talked about Atlantic Records and he said, yeah, man.
Speaker 2: Next I said, well, I'm going to Nest With's uh wedding.
Speaker 2: You know, he said, old as he is he getting married.
Speaker 2: I say, you get married to a young woman too.
Speaker 3: You know. But it was a mad man. Look, that's
Speaker 3: what was the classic very man. I would I would do.
Speaker 3: Ness was wedding and Steve was Still's wedding in England,
Speaker 3: you know, back in those days.
Speaker 4: So what did Jerry Greenberg do that Am and Jerry
Speaker 4: Wexler didn't do.
Speaker 2: He did all the hustle as far as getting records
Speaker 2: played in promotion. He was the hustler man. I'm telling Greenberg,
Speaker 2: I got a high respect for him.
Speaker 3: He did the work. I mean they were sin of act,
Speaker 3: but Greenberg make sure the stuff got played.
Speaker 2: He called all he was. He was a he was
Speaker 2: a top quarter guy. He was heavy top quarter guy.
Speaker 2: As far as emotion and a single oriented. Everything was
Speaker 2: single he could pick a single in a minute.
Speaker 3: He was good at that, you know.
Speaker 2: But uh, other than that, and and and because of him,
Speaker 2: it made my job much easier because he understood me.
Speaker 2: He knew I wasn't gonna take too much bullshit, you know,
Speaker 2: he knew, he knew how to deal with He even
Speaker 2: told a story when we had this. I had a
Speaker 2: birthday party at his club and uh in Vegas. He
Speaker 2: had a place to call I think, I forget the
Speaker 2: name of it.
Speaker 3: Rainbow. Yea, he had a rainbow.
Speaker 2: So I had a birthday party when I turned sixty five, right,
Speaker 2: and he told story man that I had not heard before. Right,
Speaker 2: But he told the story about you know, Shelon Vogel
Speaker 2: was the controller that I used to work for. He
Speaker 2: told the story about. He said, Shellon vogl used to
Speaker 2: complain about my expense report. So he came down to
Speaker 2: Greenberg one day, said, I want to know tell me
Speaker 2: one thing. How is it that I'm an Urgon is
Speaker 2: a chairman of the company and his expense report is
Speaker 2: is uh what eight thousand and nine thousand and some
Speaker 2: dollars a week? And Mario is the third two thousand.
Speaker 2: Greenberg said, because Mario get records playing I don't do shit,
Speaker 2: but that that I didn't even know about out that,
Speaker 2: but crick Bird told me that. Man, I thought I'd
Speaker 2: die laughing, because you know, like I've been traveling with
Speaker 2: all these bands. I was switching all the time, switching
Speaker 2: back and forth. So I had a lot of plane
Speaker 2: tickets in a month where where I might not, I
Speaker 2: had that. But anyway, that was so funny. Man, I
Speaker 2: thought I'd die. We say, you, Mario, get record played
Speaker 2: I we don't do anything. Man Greenbergs was my man.
Speaker 2: I'm telling you. I.
Speaker 4: So did you interact with the Stacks people at all?
Speaker 3: Oh? Yeah? Al Bell? Al Bell was he was a
Speaker 3: promotion man before.
Speaker 2: Right. I knew Al Bell from when he was promotion
Speaker 2: man because I used to make up the spills for
Speaker 2: the promotion guy and he would come up there, you
Speaker 2: know a lot of time to get get his spip check.
Speaker 2: It's like a promotion check, you know. So I got
Speaker 2: to meet him, and you know, and and then and then,
Speaker 2: uh we had a bar downstairs. So one time after
Speaker 2: work he was in the bar and he saw me.
Speaker 2: So I was a sudden, Hey Mario, come on, have
Speaker 2: a drinker. And I got to know him. He's telling
Speaker 2: me about stuff you know about back then, you know,
Speaker 2: because Otis was was being distributed about and so he
Speaker 2: was telling, yeah, man, I got this new Uh. I
Speaker 2: think either Connley I think was the record.
Speaker 3: I think it was. I think it was out of
Speaker 3: the college. I'm not sure, but it was some record
Speaker 3: they had on stacks that he wanted me to hear.
Speaker 3: And he and he had like a cassette player, you know,
Speaker 3: like a walk man. We in the bar. He takes
Speaker 3: me to the bathroom and play the walk Man.
Speaker 5: Wasn't I wasn't even a promotion man at the time,
Speaker 5: you know, I was a bookkeeper.
Speaker 3: But he played. He said, this is gonna be a
Speaker 3: hit man. But that's what I say.
Speaker 2: He was a great promotion guy, man because he sold
Speaker 2: me on that record. And I still can't steal in
Speaker 2: all condar until the day.
Speaker 3: But he sold me, man. But he ended up running
Speaker 3: uh sacks afterwards. You know whatever. It was good.
Speaker 4: So you met all these people, you know, only a
Speaker 4: few of these people really live up to the rep.
Speaker 4: They're really rock stars. So tell me who lives up
Speaker 4: to the.
Speaker 3: Rep A rock star? Yeah, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Robert
Speaker 3: plant Jimmy Page with all my brothers.
Speaker 2: You know, when when Drag was around, he was definitely
Speaker 2: a rock star man, you know, even though he used
Speaker 2: to get messed up otherwise, but he actually lived they
Speaker 2: lived up to being a rock and.
Speaker 3: Roller, you know.
Speaker 2: All el P wasn't like that they wrote that, and uh,
Speaker 2: Eric Clapton, he was a quiet guy, but he still was.
Speaker 3: He had that that that vibe you know, people be around.
Speaker 3: They treat him like a rock star. But he was quieter.
Speaker 3: But the other cats were outgoing, you know. And uh
Speaker 3: else I'm trying.
Speaker 2: And you know from the Rascals too, you know Rascals,
Speaker 2: Eddie Bergot, it was a rock star out was one
Speaker 2: of the first guys I hung out with. From the Rascals,
Speaker 2: Eddie was and he was one of the singers, but
Speaker 2: I knew the feelings was used to most of the
Speaker 2: lead but Eddie was one of the singers as well.
Speaker 2: But that was a band that I first when I
Speaker 2: did my first trip to l A. I hung out
Speaker 2: with them at the the High House, you know, and
Speaker 2: uh that's when I found out I wanted to.
Speaker 3: Do this job.
Speaker 4: So what keeps you busy? Now?
Speaker 3: Uh? If you're almost Live. I meditated.
Speaker 2: Man, I'm i'm a I'm a I'm a zen monk
Speaker 2: as well as I'm concerned. I did martial art for
Speaker 2: like fifty years, you know, and and zen meditation and
Speaker 2: I do that now. That's what I mostly do. Spend
Speaker 2: most of my time meditating and and and and reading.
Speaker 3: That's about it. You know, what do you read? Thank god?
Speaker 3: Any books? I don't read so many books, man, everything
Speaker 3: and had come out every time I want to come out.
Speaker 2: I read Peter's book. I read the book from the
Speaker 2: guy from Saturday Night Live, the producer that book. I'm
Speaker 2: still I'm still on it. It's so fat, you know.
Speaker 3: I did.
Speaker 2: I did the Life of King Curtis. King Curtis at
Speaker 2: a at a book out. I read that one and
Speaker 2: I read, I mean, I got a whole stack of
Speaker 2: them over.
Speaker 3: I did doctor John's book. Uh, I read her.
Speaker 2: I read her most of them. When they got my
Speaker 2: name and I want to definitely read it, but they
Speaker 2: mentioned me. I'll read the book just to make sure
Speaker 2: they got me in there. And uh, and the rock
Speaker 2: doc did a book. Uh he was Michael Jackson. Uh
Speaker 2: uh doctor before before the one that messed up. He
Speaker 2: was the original doctor. But he's a print of mine
Speaker 2: as well.
Speaker 3: He had a book.
Speaker 2: I read his book, and that's fantastic, man. And you know,
Speaker 2: like Shep Gordon put out a book, I read his.
Speaker 2: David Liebert put out a book. I read that book.
Speaker 3: Uh, I mean, uh it was Phil Raws had a book.
Speaker 2: I read his new All the guys that I know
Speaker 2: in this business, you know, I read to seeing, you know,
Speaker 2: and I'll see if they told the truth.
Speaker 3: But you know, it's it's been a lot of a
Speaker 3: lot of guys, you know, and nobody reads now, David,
Speaker 3: I still read. You know a lot of people don't
Speaker 3: do no reading. Reading is is rewarding to me. I
Speaker 3: just I like reading. You know.
Speaker 4: I'm with you there, Mario. Mar I want to thank
Speaker 4: you so much for spending this time with my audience
Speaker 4: and revealing all these stories that otherwise would be lost
Speaker 4: to the sands in time.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Well, I'm glad I'm around, still around, man, and
Speaker 3: I know I might be older than you.
Speaker 4: Yeah, but you don't act like it. You're just fast.
Speaker 4: You can still talk the trash.
Speaker 2: So you know, I'm still middlely ill you know, us
Speaker 2: make the thing every time someone saidmorrow, you're crazy, I said,
Speaker 2: thank you very much.
Speaker 4: Okay, thanks again.
Speaker 3: Yeah man, a pleasure you bet. Till next time.
Speaker 4: This is Bob left sets