WEBVTT - Mario Medious 0:00:08.560 --> 0:00:13.320 Welcome, Welcome, Welcome back to the Bob Webstt's podcast. My 0:00:13.560 --> 0:00:22.200 guest today is legendary promotion man record executive Mario Medius. Mario, 0:00:22.360 --> 0:00:24.759 great to have you on the podcast. So how'd you 0:00:24.800 --> 0:00:26.800 get your job with Atlantic Records? 0:00:27.160 --> 0:00:30.840 I got my job through a friend of mine. She 0:00:30.920 --> 0:00:32.720 worked in Atlantic Records at the time, and she was 0:00:32.720 --> 0:00:33.879 a friend of mine. We used to go to all 0:00:33.880 --> 0:00:37.159 the jazz clubs together. And she told me one day, 0:00:37.240 --> 0:00:39.279 you know, like, hey, there's an opening in the bookkeeping 0:00:39.320 --> 0:00:40.199 apartment of Atlantic. 0:00:40.200 --> 0:00:43.320 If you liked her, you know, apply, you know, I'll 0:00:44.040 --> 0:00:45.800 recommend you. So I went up. 0:00:45.680 --> 0:00:48.519 And and took their tests, and you know, and Hill 0:00:48.600 --> 0:00:52.239 and Vogel hired me. That was nineteen sixty five and 0:00:52.520 --> 0:00:54.160 I started out in the bookkeeping apartment. 0:00:54.960 --> 0:00:56.520 So what exactly did you do there? 0:00:57.680 --> 0:01:00.800 I was accounts, payable, payroll and all checks that was 0:01:00.800 --> 0:01:01.680 made under company. 0:01:01.720 --> 0:01:04.399 You know, I paid all the checks whatever it was. 0:01:04.440 --> 0:01:07.160 You know, every bill was paid by then at that 0:01:07.240 --> 0:01:10.520 time by hand, you know, plus the payroll. We did 0:01:10.520 --> 0:01:13.400 all the sessions and everything that payroll for the musicians 0:01:13.400 --> 0:01:16.800 and payroll for the offers. Any bills that had to 0:01:16.800 --> 0:01:18.920 be paid was paid through me. At that time, it 0:01:19.000 --> 0:01:20.760 was only one person. I maade up all the checks. 0:01:21.080 --> 0:01:23.319 Oh so you were the only person. 0:01:23.880 --> 0:01:25.200 The only person made up checks. 0:01:25.200 --> 0:01:27.600 If you wanted a check at that time from Atlantic Records, 0:01:27.640 --> 0:01:28.240 it went through me. 0:01:30.319 --> 0:01:30.920 No computer. 0:01:31.360 --> 0:01:37.280 Now, Linx Records has a checkered history with paying their acts, 0:01:37.640 --> 0:01:41.160 whether they're paying, what to do, whether they're paying at all. 0:01:41.200 --> 0:01:43.440 A lot of that's before your time. But is that 0:01:43.560 --> 0:01:45.880 something you could see from writing checks? 0:01:47.040 --> 0:01:49.800 No, what I did when I was writing checks, I 0:01:49.880 --> 0:01:51.800 wasn't doing the Royal is you know, and I wasn't 0:01:51.840 --> 0:01:55.000 doing contracts, so I never knew all of that. But 0:01:55.120 --> 0:01:57.160 I did make up checks, you know, as far as 0:01:57.520 --> 0:01:59.400 when I got a Royal statement, I pay the Royal 0:01:59.480 --> 0:02:01.800 statement or whatever the mount is on the Royal statements, 0:02:01.800 --> 0:02:02.280 the mountains? 0:02:02.320 --> 0:02:03.800 Do you pay that? Now? 0:02:03.840 --> 0:02:07.200 Whatever deal they had with the with the company, you know, 0:02:07.240 --> 0:02:10.080 if they signed a contract for two percent rather than 0:02:10.080 --> 0:02:11.440 ten percent, that's their business. 0:02:11.440 --> 0:02:11.600 You know. 0:02:11.800 --> 0:02:15.320 Like in those days, people just happy to have a contract, 0:02:15.360 --> 0:02:18.760 you know, can you match it? And they just wanted 0:02:18.800 --> 0:02:20.440 they just wanted to get a record out so they 0:02:20.440 --> 0:02:22.400 could work. Back in those days, they didn't know anything 0:02:22.440 --> 0:02:25.240 about business, so a lot of people got screwed. 0:02:25.280 --> 0:02:27.919 You know, do you remember what some of the biggest 0:02:28.040 --> 0:02:31.000 checks you wrote were for royalties? 0:02:32.440 --> 0:02:35.240 Well, I mean, let me see, oh man, I mean 0:02:35.320 --> 0:02:38.440 wrote it is reading. Well it wasn't made totus ready 0:02:38.560 --> 0:02:41.600 made to the just tax records, but mostly about Otis 0:02:41.600 --> 0:02:44.440 they break it down who sold so much records. But 0:02:44.639 --> 0:02:46.680 the biggest check that I ever made was for for 0:02:47.000 --> 0:02:49.800 Steven Stills across Stills the Nash I think it was about, 0:02:50.600 --> 0:02:53.079 oh for fifty thousand something like that, you know at 0:02:53.080 --> 0:02:53.600 one time. 0:02:54.800 --> 0:02:59.400 Okay, so you were working in payroll. How'd you get 0:02:59.440 --> 0:03:00.000 out of pay. 0:03:01.320 --> 0:03:05.160 Well, first of all, I was in payroll for you know, payroll, 0:03:05.200 --> 0:03:08.239 and I did that for about three years, and and 0:03:08.240 --> 0:03:11.600 I went from payroll and they sold to Kenny. When 0:03:11.600 --> 0:03:15.560 Warner Brothers sold to Kenny, the whole system changed the 0:03:15.639 --> 0:03:19.800 bid because now you got a corporate situation. And the 0:03:19.840 --> 0:03:21.960 person I was working for that was the controller, who 0:03:22.000 --> 0:03:26.560 was Sheldon Bogo. They promoted him to vice president. Uh 0:03:26.680 --> 0:03:29.400 you know, I guess whatever, you know, vice president and 0:03:29.160 --> 0:03:31.320 he and he didn't have a CPA, so they wanted 0:03:31.320 --> 0:03:35.320 someone to CEPA to be the controller. So they hired 0:03:35.600 --> 0:03:37.920 another guy. I think his name was Jack Halpern or 0:03:37.960 --> 0:03:40.720 whatever it was. But they wanted me to train him, 0:03:40.800 --> 0:03:43.720 you know, for I wanted him to help me, to 0:03:43.760 --> 0:03:46.160 help train him, and I refused. I just didn't want 0:03:46.200 --> 0:03:48.800 to train someone to be my boss. And so I 0:03:49.280 --> 0:03:52.160 spoke with you know, the amin and jerring him, and 0:03:52.200 --> 0:03:53.480 I told him I just didn't want to do that. 0:03:53.600 --> 0:03:57.120 So they transferred me to the album sales department to 0:03:57.160 --> 0:04:00.440 be the as system to the vice president, which was 0:04:00.440 --> 0:04:04.280 Liny Sacks at the time. And that was like, you know, 0:04:04.600 --> 0:04:07.000 album sales were the biggest sales in the company. And 0:04:07.600 --> 0:04:10.760 that was very interesting because now I'm working with the distributors. 0:04:11.560 --> 0:04:13.560 They are buying records and you know, you're dealing back 0:04:13.560 --> 0:04:16.080 and forth with them, going to conventions and so on, 0:04:16.120 --> 0:04:19.839 and meeting all the distributors. And also I was adding 0:04:19.880 --> 0:04:22.840 up all the sales that we did at the conventions, 0:04:23.279 --> 0:04:26.080 and I got to know everybody that was a distributor. 0:04:26.400 --> 0:04:29.280 That was before before they got WA you know, before 0:04:29.320 --> 0:04:30.560 they started their own distribution. 0:04:30.920 --> 0:04:32.240 We had independent distributors. 0:04:32.279 --> 0:04:35.360 So I got to know all these distributors and I 0:04:35.360 --> 0:04:38.120 did that for about a year and then I I 0:04:38.160 --> 0:04:39.760 went to Jay and I said like, hey man, you're 0:04:39.839 --> 0:04:43.160 like I'm just doing accounting, so it's it's just better 0:04:43.160 --> 0:04:47.120 I move on. Greenberg suggested that that they could use 0:04:47.160 --> 0:04:49.240 a promotion man for the hippies, you know, for this 0:04:49.600 --> 0:04:52.920 new stations, and and I said, well, you know, I 0:04:52.960 --> 0:04:55.359 wouldn't mind doing promotion if I could do the rock stuff, 0:04:55.400 --> 0:04:57.400 you know, all the rock and roll. So see here, 0:04:57.400 --> 0:05:00.080 it'd be the album promotion. They call it underground station STU. 0:05:00.680 --> 0:05:02.880 They had a list called S t U. S was 0:05:02.960 --> 0:05:05.480 stereo underground stations, right, so. 0:05:05.400 --> 0:05:08.359 That was so that was my list. 0:05:08.680 --> 0:05:10.920 And I had all these stations men used to be 0:05:11.120 --> 0:05:13.680 used to be a classical stations before, but now they 0:05:14.240 --> 0:05:17.960 turned into AO R oriented. Before back then it was 0:05:18.000 --> 0:05:21.520 just pre form radio and all those stations like uh 0:05:21.680 --> 0:05:26.160 KMPX k SEN and an e W and whatever. 0:05:26.160 --> 0:05:29.159 Those few stations that started out are now FM. 0:05:29.200 --> 0:05:33.320 But they can play anything they want, could be jazz, blues, rock, whatever. 0:05:34.279 --> 0:05:36.040 And I and I was the first guy more or 0:05:36.080 --> 0:05:38.880 less did promotion for that. I took the first led 0:05:39.000 --> 0:05:42.839 Zeppelin test pressing to Alison Steele in New York and 0:05:42.880 --> 0:05:44.640 she played the whole record because she said, what is 0:05:44.680 --> 0:05:46.600 this album? I said, this is the news forydd Birch. 0:05:47.040 --> 0:05:48.960 So she played the whole album on the radio boy 0:05:49.040 --> 0:05:51.800 and went crazy. New York went crazy for that two 0:05:51.839 --> 0:05:54.240 weeks before the record was out. They went crazy because 0:05:54.360 --> 0:05:56.400 she played the whole record and Rosto came on after 0:05:56.440 --> 0:05:57.000 they played it. 0:05:57.400 --> 0:05:59.400 Then I took a test president and went to Boston. 0:05:59.440 --> 0:05:59.640 You know. 0:06:00.279 --> 0:06:02.359 So that's the way we That's why we tried to 0:06:02.360 --> 0:06:04.760 break records back then. You know, before they were released, 0:06:04.960 --> 0:06:07.839 you got to play on radio. Radio was manager to 0:06:07.920 --> 0:06:09.640 sell a record back in those days. 0:06:10.080 --> 0:06:13.480 Okay, if you were a jazz er, how'd you feel 0:06:13.480 --> 0:06:14.480 about rock and roll? 0:06:15.760 --> 0:06:17.960 Look? Man, I love music. First of all. 0:06:18.440 --> 0:06:22.440 Music was my thing, you know, Jazz was what I 0:06:22.200 --> 0:06:24.600 I you know, it was my favorite lover is till today. 0:06:24.680 --> 0:06:27.839 I still I'm a jazz fanatic. And when I took 0:06:27.880 --> 0:06:29.880 the job at Atlantic, the main reason to take the 0:06:29.960 --> 0:06:32.680 job because Coltrane was on the label and I get 0:06:32.680 --> 0:06:35.960 the records free, you know, that was the main I 0:06:36.120 --> 0:06:36.599 was never. 0:06:36.480 --> 0:06:38.839 About trying to be a millionaire and none of that stuff. 0:06:38.920 --> 0:06:41.000 You know, just a job was great. 0:06:41.040 --> 0:06:42.680 But now I get pre records, so I'm going to 0:06:42.720 --> 0:06:45.080 get about ten records every week, so that's part of 0:06:45.120 --> 0:06:45.720 my payrolls. 0:06:45.880 --> 0:06:47.400 Was I'm certain, you know, and. 0:06:47.720 --> 0:06:50.120 I really enjoyed that part of it when I first 0:06:50.200 --> 0:06:52.320 got there. That was the reason for taking the job. 0:06:52.920 --> 0:06:57.320 And I always liked I liked the blues, and rock 0:06:57.480 --> 0:07:01.520 was blues oriented, you know, blues, Muddy Waters. I was 0:07:01.600 --> 0:07:04.960 raised up in Chicago, so that Muddy Waters and Howland 0:07:05.000 --> 0:07:07.039 Wilson and all that stuff. I was raised up around 0:07:07.120 --> 0:07:10.880 all of that music, and that was like, my my 0:07:11.000 --> 0:07:14.600 major thing was blues. Jazz was my major to music 0:07:14.680 --> 0:07:17.480 is all. And most rock and roll was blues oriented, 0:07:17.520 --> 0:07:20.080 you know, So I could accept it. If they could 0:07:20.080 --> 0:07:22.120 play any type of blues, I would concept it, you know. 0:07:22.320 --> 0:07:24.480 And most of all of them back then, from the Beatles, 0:07:24.640 --> 0:07:28.680 Rolling Stones, across the Steels and Nash everybody, everybody had 0:07:28.680 --> 0:07:29.960 a blues concept, you know. 0:07:30.920 --> 0:07:32.960 So I got along very well with them because of that. 0:07:33.360 --> 0:07:37.280 Okay, at that point in time, some of the records 0:07:37.280 --> 0:07:39.840 were an ATCO. I think Vanilla Fudge was an ATCO 0:07:39.880 --> 0:07:41.160 and some were in Atlantic. 0:07:41.440 --> 0:07:42.840 Right, did it make any. 0:07:42.720 --> 0:07:45.200 Difference if you were promoting the records, You're promoting all 0:07:45.240 --> 0:07:45.560 of them. 0:07:46.200 --> 0:07:51.320 Didn't make any different. Cotillion Atlantic at COO I had. 0:07:51.440 --> 0:07:54.440 I had a promo record, promo picture made and I said, 0:07:54.920 --> 0:07:58.520 Mario Media's own all Atlantic, Atcho and Cortillion Records. 0:07:59.600 --> 0:08:02.360 So if it was all any of those labels, I 0:08:02.400 --> 0:08:03.080 was promoting them. 0:08:03.080 --> 0:08:05.280 You know, it didn't make any difference with me, you know, 0:08:05.320 --> 0:08:07.080 because it was the same thing. This is his job, 0:08:07.160 --> 0:08:08.680 you know, And but I enjoy. 0:08:08.480 --> 0:08:12.640 Okay, Since you know, the Woodstock album came out in 0:08:12.680 --> 0:08:17.200 the spring of seventy on Katillion, obviously there was a 0:08:17.200 --> 0:08:19.080 lot of demand for that. But what did you do 0:08:19.160 --> 0:08:21.200 for the Woodstock record to make it happen? 0:08:21.960 --> 0:08:22.200 Look? 0:08:22.240 --> 0:08:24.920 Man, they were dying for They wanted Jimmy Henrys, but 0:08:25.000 --> 0:08:26.920 jim Henry they wouldn't let they wouldn't let let us 0:08:26.960 --> 0:08:29.200 have Jimmy because he was on Warner Brothers. But the 0:08:29.280 --> 0:08:32.400 record was a was a smash because people had had 0:08:32.559 --> 0:08:33.880 seen Woodstock movie, you know. 0:08:33.960 --> 0:08:37.040 So now we got the soundtrack, which is the State Boom. 0:08:37.080 --> 0:08:39.079 They took it just like just ouh. Look man, it 0:08:39.320 --> 0:08:41.920 immediately the first week is Golan, you know, the first week. 0:08:42.520 --> 0:08:43.360 But it wasn't No. 0:08:43.760 --> 0:08:45.280 I didn't have to do nothing but just delivered the 0:08:45.360 --> 0:08:49.040 record and I had I had so much fun with 0:08:49.040 --> 0:08:51.319 that record because they said, well, what happened to Jimmy Hennings. 0:08:51.440 --> 0:08:52.560 Uh part of it. 0:08:52.679 --> 0:08:55.120 I said, well, you know, Jimmy's on Warner Brothers because 0:08:55.160 --> 0:08:57.400 he did that Star Spangled banner so on, you know, 0:08:58.200 --> 0:08:59.360 And I knew all those guests. 0:08:59.400 --> 0:09:00.600 I knew Jimmy very well. 0:09:00.640 --> 0:09:03.200 I knew Richie Havens well. I knew all of them, 0:09:03.240 --> 0:09:06.280 you know, everybody man, all those guys on Woostock, I 0:09:06.360 --> 0:09:08.319 knew them. But I didn't go to Worstock because too 0:09:08.360 --> 0:09:08.760 money for. 0:09:08.760 --> 0:09:09.080 Me, you know. 0:09:09.600 --> 0:09:13.720 But but it's Joe and I enjoyed that album. 0:09:13.760 --> 0:09:15.520 You know, it was a lot of fun. 0:09:15.640 --> 0:09:18.600 Okay, So you went to work for Atlantic in sixty five. 0:09:19.240 --> 0:09:24.240 You worked in three and a half years in payroll, right, 0:09:24.559 --> 0:09:26.959 and then how long did you work in sales? 0:09:28.360 --> 0:09:30.000 Sales? About about a year. 0:09:30.280 --> 0:09:31.800 Who was head of sales then. 0:09:32.480 --> 0:09:35.120 Lenis Sachs's name was Linnis Sacks. He was vice president 0:09:35.160 --> 0:09:35.560 of sales. 0:09:35.679 --> 0:09:39.360 Okay, that was as you say, that was independent. You 0:09:39.440 --> 0:09:43.720 went through distributors all over the country. How did you 0:09:43.880 --> 0:09:46.880 convince them? You know, it's one thing to convince them 0:09:46.920 --> 0:09:49.520 to get the young rascals or something. It's another thing 0:09:49.600 --> 0:09:52.679 to convince them to buy something that is unknown. How 0:09:52.720 --> 0:09:53.400 would you do that? 0:09:54.280 --> 0:09:55.640 Right? First of all, you got to realize. 0:09:55.679 --> 0:09:59.880 Now, when I was the Count's bailable guy, they also 0:10:00.000 --> 0:10:02.199 so you know, they had all the checks came from 0:10:02.240 --> 0:10:04.640 the distributors, and I had to make the deposits, you know. 0:10:04.720 --> 0:10:06.880 For so I got to know all the distributors like that, 0:10:06.920 --> 0:10:09.160 and whenever they were laid on a payment shell, the 0:10:09.240 --> 0:10:11.920 Vogue will tell me to call them, because he didn't 0:10:11.920 --> 0:10:14.080 want to be on bad terms with them, but he'd 0:10:14.080 --> 0:10:15.440 called me in and tell him myself, look, if you don't 0:10:15.679 --> 0:10:17.439 if we don't have a check by friant, we're cutting 0:10:17.440 --> 0:10:19.120 you off, you know. So I got to know all 0:10:19.160 --> 0:10:22.040 of those guys being a bookkeeper. And when I started 0:10:22.120 --> 0:10:24.320 promoting records, I would go to the distributor, even with 0:10:24.400 --> 0:10:28.000 a new record, like I remember that Zeppelin's first number 0:10:28.000 --> 0:10:30.080 whatever it was, twenty nine points whatever. That's what they 0:10:30.160 --> 0:10:32.280 knew the record. They didn't know who the who the 0:10:32.320 --> 0:10:35.120 record was. This twenty nine or whatever is selling a bit. 0:10:35.400 --> 0:10:36.960 I said, well, man, that's that's step. You need to 0:10:36.960 --> 0:10:38.959 buy another ten thousand because I think it's going to 0:10:39.040 --> 0:10:41.520 do well. And so I would go to distributors and talk. 0:10:41.360 --> 0:10:43.160 To them in every city that I went in where 0:10:43.160 --> 0:10:45.040 we had a distributor in order. 0:10:44.920 --> 0:10:49.880 To get them to buy advance because I was playing 0:10:49.960 --> 0:10:53.160 like test presents, you know, in all those cities, and 0:10:53.200 --> 0:10:54.400 I was saying, well, this is going to be a 0:10:54.400 --> 0:10:56.560 smash so and they said, well I here's playing on 0:10:56.600 --> 0:10:56.959 the stairs. 0:10:57.000 --> 0:10:58.120 Well, man should get more. 0:10:58.280 --> 0:11:00.600 So I got that type of relationship with all distributors 0:11:00.640 --> 0:11:02.520 and that really helped me as far as Mode records. 0:11:02.559 --> 0:11:07.640 You know, So were the distributors music fans or were they. 0:11:07.840 --> 0:11:09.559 The money fans? 0:11:09.559 --> 0:11:12.720 That's what they were. Just they were about selling records. 0:11:12.720 --> 0:11:14.440 They didn't they didn't care, but they didn't care about 0:11:14.480 --> 0:11:16.840 the music. They didn't even know who they are acts were, 0:11:17.240 --> 0:11:19.080 you know, most of them didn't know who they were, 0:11:19.120 --> 0:11:21.040 you know. But as long as they say, well this 0:11:21.120 --> 0:11:21.480 number is. 0:11:21.480 --> 0:11:22.440 Selling, who you know that? 0:11:22.800 --> 0:11:24.360 I mean, In a God of the Vida was a 0:11:24.360 --> 0:11:27.959 big big seller back it was Iron Butterfly in A 0:11:28.000 --> 0:11:30.320 God of the Vita was like the biggest rock seller 0:11:30.480 --> 0:11:32.880 up at that point before Zeppelin came out and stuff. 0:11:32.960 --> 0:11:36.160 Right, And I went to the station and this guy said, well, man, uh, 0:11:36.720 --> 0:11:38.160 that record in a cot in you either. 0:11:38.360 --> 0:11:42.920 I said, I said, that's not, that's not that's not 0:11:43.120 --> 0:11:43.959 that's not a song. 0:11:45.120 --> 0:11:47.120 I mean, I wouldn't mind. I wouldn't mind from all 0:11:47.160 --> 0:11:49.000 of that. But that's not a song man, you know. 0:11:49.440 --> 0:11:51.439 I said it got to be oh well, whatever it is. 0:11:51.480 --> 0:11:52.520 They said, that's selling. Well. 0:11:53.640 --> 0:11:55.880 But that's the type of that's the type of mentality 0:11:56.000 --> 0:11:59.200 most of those distributors ad. They didn't care about the 0:11:59.320 --> 0:12:01.640 music or what you know. It was about money with them, 0:12:01.679 --> 0:12:01.880 you know. 0:12:02.520 --> 0:12:03.440 But I understood that. 0:12:03.880 --> 0:12:08.080 How much was it about the relationship whining and dining 0:12:08.120 --> 0:12:10.559 them in order to get them to buy stuff as 0:12:10.600 --> 0:12:11.960 opposed to the music itself. 0:12:12.880 --> 0:12:15.120 Well, I didn't do that. That was the salesman did that, 0:12:15.200 --> 0:12:17.400 you know. I guess they the sales you know, from 0:12:17.480 --> 0:12:20.680 Atlantic salesman. They had some guys in the office and 0:12:20.720 --> 0:12:23.560 some distributors that did that. I didn't wind and dine 0:12:23.600 --> 0:12:25.560 the disc jockey as far as you know, as far 0:12:25.600 --> 0:12:27.040 as the FM jocks. 0:12:27.120 --> 0:12:30.840 Okay, but let's go back before that. You work in 0:12:30.840 --> 0:12:34.800 in payroll. They tell you got to train your boss. 0:12:35.559 --> 0:12:41.360 You talk about ahmit Jerry and Jerry Greenberg. Jury you're 0:12:41.400 --> 0:12:44.200 working in payroll. How well did you know those guys? 0:12:44.720 --> 0:12:44.920 Well? 0:12:44.920 --> 0:12:46.559 I made up all the checks, so I knew them 0:12:46.640 --> 0:12:47.839 very well. They had to come to me to get 0:12:47.880 --> 0:12:48.720 the checks every week. 0:12:49.880 --> 0:12:50.960 So Greenberg. 0:12:51.040 --> 0:12:53.040 I got to know Greenburg so as he started working there, 0:12:53.040 --> 0:12:55.680 because they got to give me all the information to 0:12:55.720 --> 0:12:58.160 make up the payroll checks. You know, So I got 0:12:58.240 --> 0:13:01.440 I got a good relationship with everyone. But on Thursday, 0:13:01.520 --> 0:13:03.559 I gave everybody that checks except you know, I'm in 0:13:03.600 --> 0:13:07.319 the nestluth. I just mild to the bank account. But mean, 0:13:07.400 --> 0:13:09.440 like the guys that worked in office, everybody, I knew 0:13:09.440 --> 0:13:12.160 everybody in office, and everybody knew me because I was 0:13:12.160 --> 0:13:14.080 a payroll clerk, you know, And I got to meet 0:13:14.080 --> 0:13:16.920 all the musicians the same way, you know, because the payroll. 0:13:17.360 --> 0:13:20.840 Did they ever have any problem meeting payroll through They 0:13:20.840 --> 0:13:21.720 always have money? 0:13:21.800 --> 0:13:24.800 Never, never, never not. When I was there, we always 0:13:24.840 --> 0:13:27.079 had money for payroll, you know. And you know, I 0:13:27.120 --> 0:13:29.640 remember we should always have about a million dollars in 0:13:29.679 --> 0:13:30.880 the bank account most of the times. 0:13:30.920 --> 0:13:35.560 You know, Okay, you're working in sales. Once again, what 0:13:35.760 --> 0:13:37.559 exactly did you do in sales? 0:13:38.760 --> 0:13:39.280 And sales? 0:13:39.320 --> 0:13:43.560 You know, at the time, we had album release are 0:13:43.600 --> 0:13:47.280 like twice a year, maybe January and June. And that 0:13:47.360 --> 0:13:49.240 thing is you got to got to build up all 0:13:49.240 --> 0:13:51.800 this stuff with all the album jackets and sleeves and 0:13:51.840 --> 0:13:53.520 so on. You got to get all that stuff together 0:13:54.160 --> 0:13:57.559 in order to get the albums prepared for release. And 0:13:57.559 --> 0:14:00.559 and also you got to pick up out locations for 0:14:00.640 --> 0:14:02.800 all the distributors for a record. If if you have 0:14:02.840 --> 0:14:06.320 a record completed that is so many records, he might 0:14:06.720 --> 0:14:10.760 he might release twenty records at that particular release date. 0:14:11.520 --> 0:14:14.880 So you got to break down how many each distributor 0:14:14.960 --> 0:14:16.599 is going to get based on you don't even know 0:14:16.640 --> 0:14:18.240 if they're going to sell because some of them do 0:14:18.440 --> 0:14:21.560 new acts, you know, So you go through an allocation 0:14:21.720 --> 0:14:24.160 based on what you might what type of feedback you 0:14:24.240 --> 0:14:27.360 might have got it from the local sale peoples. You know, 0:14:28.400 --> 0:14:31.000 it was a job that required a lot of research, 0:14:31.040 --> 0:14:33.200 you know, back in those days, because you didn't have 0:14:33.440 --> 0:14:35.200 no computers and stuff like that. 0:14:35.280 --> 0:14:35.520 You know. 0:14:35.800 --> 0:14:40.280 Okay, so you're working in sales, Tell me exactly how 0:14:40.320 --> 0:14:41.760 do you get out of sales. 0:14:43.640 --> 0:14:47.280 I got a sales by after I did, like I 0:14:47.320 --> 0:14:51.520 think this second convention we was in in the Bahamas, 0:14:52.560 --> 0:14:54.600 and you know, I was the last guy to get 0:14:54.640 --> 0:14:56.040 to the dinner because I had to add up all 0:14:56.040 --> 0:14:58.600 the sales. You know, they all saidn't all the distributors, 0:14:58.600 --> 0:15:00.720 I'm a Jerry Nesta and everybody up on the stage 0:15:00.760 --> 0:15:05.520 waiting on the total sales for that convention. And it 0:15:05.600 --> 0:15:08.680 took me till about nine o'clock, you know at night, 0:15:08.760 --> 0:15:11.200 when everybody's already eating and stuff, by the time I 0:15:11.320 --> 0:15:14.480 take to take the finished amount. Let them know how many, 0:15:14.480 --> 0:15:16.080 how many, how much the sales were done for that 0:15:16.120 --> 0:15:19.200 particular convention. So I go up there, Oh yet thirty 0:15:19.200 --> 0:15:20.920 six May thirty eight me you on't evere might say, 0:15:20.960 --> 0:15:22.760 and then they'll make up and oh we did, thirty 0:15:22.880 --> 0:15:26.080 men and everybody from but they all been waiting on Mario. Now, 0:15:26.120 --> 0:15:28.120 all the whole place been waiting on We're waiting on 0:15:28.200 --> 0:15:30.760 Mario to bring in. So I was well known by 0:15:30.800 --> 0:15:33.080 everybody because I was the last one coming. My wife 0:15:33.120 --> 0:15:36.520 hated that because she's sitting there eating by herself, you know, 0:15:36.920 --> 0:15:39.040 but that was that was the main thing, you know. 0:15:39.080 --> 0:15:41.640 And then I just decided I was an accounting again 0:15:41.680 --> 0:15:44.760 all over again. And I figure, I'm still in an accountant, 0:15:44.800 --> 0:15:46.720 so I need to get out of here completely. And 0:15:46.800 --> 0:15:50.000 I was planning to leave and just go into the 0:15:50.160 --> 0:15:53.160 counting field. And Greenberg said, well, man, we really need 0:15:53.200 --> 0:15:56.280 someone to do this these FM because they're all freaks, 0:15:56.280 --> 0:15:56.560 you know. 0:16:04.320 --> 0:16:07.720 Okay, just to go store. You were ready to leave 0:16:08.400 --> 0:16:10.520 to go work as an accountant. 0:16:10.920 --> 0:16:15.920 We're somewhere into accounting firm, right, And you. 0:16:15.920 --> 0:16:17.960 Told Jerry, and then Jerry said this. 0:16:19.040 --> 0:16:22.520 Yeah, Jerry Greenberg, Yeah, Greenberg, Yeah, he came to me first. 0:16:23.320 --> 0:16:25.200 You know, because when they tried to hire when I 0:16:25.240 --> 0:16:26.880 was in the album when I was in the album 0:16:26.960 --> 0:16:31.040 sales department, they tried to hire a guy to do 0:16:31.120 --> 0:16:34.160 this FM promotion and he lasted about two weeks or 0:16:34.160 --> 0:16:36.680 three weeks, and Greenberg come back said, man, this guy 0:16:36.720 --> 0:16:39.400 is horrible. Man, why don't you try Mark? I said, well, 0:16:39.440 --> 0:16:42.480 you know, like I'll have to think about it. And 0:16:42.520 --> 0:16:45.200 then I went and spoke to my wife and so on, 0:16:45.280 --> 0:16:47.280 and the next day I said, well, I'll do it, 0:16:47.320 --> 0:16:49.160 but I do only want to do the rock stuff, 0:16:49.160 --> 0:16:50.600 you know, I don't want to do that R and 0:16:50.680 --> 0:16:53.000 B and Paola and all. He said, man, you don't 0:16:53.040 --> 0:16:55.840 have to do that, say these cats are all freaks. 0:16:55.880 --> 0:16:58.160 I said, well, who's going to train me to do 0:16:58.200 --> 0:17:00.480 this job? He said, man, I don't know that. We 0:17:00.520 --> 0:17:02.480 can't train it because we don't know nothing about these guts. 0:17:02.520 --> 0:17:06.400 They're all freaks. He said, just talk the same shi 0:17:06.440 --> 0:17:09.879 t that you talked to me, and it'll work well. 0:17:10.080 --> 0:17:11.920 Because I used to talk a lot of trash to Jerry. 0:17:12.280 --> 0:17:14.480 See talk the same trash you talk to me, man, 0:17:14.800 --> 0:17:17.040 and that it'll work with them. So I just took 0:17:17.040 --> 0:17:19.320 on the personnel and went in the station and started 0:17:19.400 --> 0:17:22.119 like that. First station I went to was up in Boston, 0:17:22.160 --> 0:17:22.880 you know BCN. 0:17:23.320 --> 0:17:26.160 Okay, you said they gave you a list. How many 0:17:26.200 --> 0:17:27.639 stations were on that list? 0:17:28.800 --> 0:17:32.080 Oh, I guess about two hundred, about two hundred or 0:17:32.080 --> 0:17:32.880 so already. 0:17:33.200 --> 0:17:35.960 And when exactly is this if you remember. 0:17:36.600 --> 0:17:41.119 Sixty nine, that's just when KMPX was like the big 0:17:41.680 --> 0:17:45.280 FM station out of San Francisco where Jefferson Airplane and everything. 0:17:45.800 --> 0:17:48.400 Tom Downer here I think, was the well known guy 0:17:48.480 --> 0:17:49.919 up there. And they had k. 0:17:50.119 --> 0:17:52.399 Santa and San Francisco. But they had a lot of 0:17:52.440 --> 0:17:54.480 college station that they put on there as well. You 0:17:54.480 --> 0:17:57.240 know that was college stations was on that list as well. 0:17:58.080 --> 0:18:00.560 So you know, okay, so you got to figure out 0:18:00.560 --> 0:18:02.879 how to do it yourself. They give you the list 0:18:02.920 --> 0:18:08.280 of the stations. What records did you go with? Always 0:18:08.280 --> 0:18:11.600 went with with whatever records that were. You know, if 0:18:11.720 --> 0:18:13.200 I had a new record, new records. 0:18:13.200 --> 0:18:15.440 First of all, you go with a case of twenty 0:18:15.480 --> 0:18:17.920 five of the new releases, and you walk into the 0:18:17.960 --> 0:18:19.960 station with like twenty records. You know, you can't get 0:18:19.960 --> 0:18:21.920 an about to play twenty records. So I sit down 0:18:21.960 --> 0:18:25.000 and talk with them about blues and jazz or whatever, 0:18:25.040 --> 0:18:26.879 you know, and I'm may never forget. I went to 0:18:26.920 --> 0:18:29.760 one station and I'm sitting down and this guy is 0:18:29.800 --> 0:18:33.000 a Bruise fanatics supposedly on the station, but I was 0:18:33.000 --> 0:18:35.200 born him and Zipp and raised at Chicago, so it 0:18:35.240 --> 0:18:37.480 wasn't too much innerbody gonna tell me about the blues. 0:18:37.600 --> 0:18:39.639 So I said, like, hey, man, you. 0:18:39.640 --> 0:18:41.359 Know who do you like? He said, Man, Johnny One 0:18:41.480 --> 0:18:42.880 is the greatest Bruise player ever. 0:18:42.920 --> 0:18:44.760 I said, well, look, next time you speak to Johnaman 0:18:44.800 --> 0:18:46.680 and ask him who he like, and you will find 0:18:46.680 --> 0:18:49.480 out what the Bruises are about. And that's the way 0:18:49.480 --> 0:18:51.720 I dealt with of you know, whenever I went in 0:18:51.800 --> 0:18:53.879 the station and they and then they got to a point, 0:18:54.200 --> 0:18:56.360 I had a reputation over here. Mario knows a lot 0:18:56.359 --> 0:18:59.440 about the blues, and so I had like a little 0:18:59.440 --> 0:19:02.320 following it, and they would tell other disc jockeys about it. 0:19:02.640 --> 0:19:04.640 Then That's how I cut into Peter Wool. Peter Wool. 0:19:04.880 --> 0:19:07.880 When I met Peter Wool, he had you could mention 0:19:07.960 --> 0:19:09.800 a song and he would tell you who wrote it, 0:19:09.840 --> 0:19:13.200 you know. I mean it was unbelievable that that really 0:19:13.240 --> 0:19:15.600 impressed me, you know. But they were all blues oriented. 0:19:15.680 --> 0:19:18.679 Most of these jocks loved the blues, and they loved jazz, 0:19:18.720 --> 0:19:21.280 and they loved plassical. But they had a ride of 0:19:21.359 --> 0:19:23.399 music that they liked. But I always stuck with the 0:19:23.520 --> 0:19:25.520 jazz thing and and the blues stuff. 0:19:25.560 --> 0:19:25.680 You know. 0:19:25.760 --> 0:19:29.400 Oh, okay, So the first station you went to was what. 0:19:31.000 --> 0:19:33.480 Well k I went to the case. 0:19:33.920 --> 0:19:37.919 I went to ny W first okaystation, and was Scott 0:19:38.000 --> 0:19:39.960 Muni already the program director. 0:19:41.320 --> 0:19:43.000 No, I don't know it was. I think it was 0:19:43.080 --> 0:19:47.240 Roscoe Roscoe and Allison Steal. I don't know, Okay, Roscoll 0:19:47.280 --> 0:19:48.160 and Alison Okay. 0:19:47.960 --> 0:19:50.480 So they don't know you from Adam. What's your pitch now? 0:19:50.840 --> 0:19:52.720 To Alison Steel in Roscoe. 0:19:54.040 --> 0:19:56.480 I went in there with with the new Yardbirds record. 0:19:56.520 --> 0:19:57.200 That was my pitch. 0:19:57.680 --> 0:20:00.159 You know, I had a before it was release, I 0:20:00.160 --> 0:20:03.480 got a test pressing for the new Yardbirds and everybody 0:20:03.520 --> 0:20:04.119 wanted to hear it. 0:20:04.160 --> 0:20:04.359 You know. 0:20:04.960 --> 0:20:06.960 So I go there and I didn't expect them to 0:20:07.000 --> 0:20:09.000 play it on the air, but she played the whole 0:20:09.040 --> 0:20:09.760 album that night. 0:20:09.760 --> 0:20:11.639 They she's called herself the night Bird. You know. 0:20:11.920 --> 0:20:14.480 Yeah, she played She played the whole album. While she 0:20:14.560 --> 0:20:17.400 was playing, the phones of lighting up and people are 0:20:17.440 --> 0:20:21.000 calling and and just going crazy. And that was my feedback, 0:20:21.040 --> 0:20:23.800 you know. And now I let her play it for 0:20:23.800 --> 0:20:27.480 for twice, and then Roto came on. I let him 0:20:27.480 --> 0:20:30.600 play it twice. Then I took the test pressing back 0:20:30.640 --> 0:20:32.240 because there was only one test pressing. 0:20:32.320 --> 0:20:34.320 I took it back and the next day I went 0:20:34.359 --> 0:20:37.040 to Boston and they did the same thing. 0:20:37.119 --> 0:20:39.720 I let the guys play it, and you know, and 0:20:39.760 --> 0:20:42.640 the phones are lighting up and and I'm calling distributed 0:20:42.640 --> 0:20:44.440 to tell me a better get more records and stuff, 0:20:44.480 --> 0:20:47.200 even at Malvern in New York and in Boston our 0:20:47.320 --> 0:20:50.480 ring and they were and they heard it as well. 0:20:50.520 --> 0:20:51.880 They heard they got the feedback. 0:20:51.920 --> 0:20:56.000 So they got excited about this release because that wasn't 0:20:56.000 --> 0:20:58.359 a prior to release with Atlantic. They had another record 0:20:58.359 --> 0:21:01.960 that was the prior to release called Cartoon. That zepine 0:21:02.000 --> 0:21:03.760 wasn't the prior to release, even though it was signed 0:21:03.760 --> 0:21:06.840 by Jerry Wexler and and they turned out to be 0:21:06.880 --> 0:21:08.920 the supergroup out of that whole release. 0:21:08.640 --> 0:21:10.240 Out of all of them. We had another guy called 0:21:10.280 --> 0:21:11.840 Lord Search had a record out. 0:21:12.119 --> 0:21:15.679 Yeah, it was all in the same release, and on 0:21:15.880 --> 0:21:18.560 Lord Search record, Jim Paige, she had played on one 0:21:18.640 --> 0:21:21.520 track on there, and everybody in Atlantic was saying, well, 0:21:21.520 --> 0:21:23.239 you know, like Lord's Search, they want to promote it. 0:21:23.359 --> 0:21:25.640 Man, we know they got this one guy, Jimmy Paige. 0:21:25.760 --> 0:21:26.240 I think he kept. 0:21:26.359 --> 0:21:29.240 Jimmy Patie has an whole album coming out next week. 0:21:29.400 --> 0:21:32.440 So he got a whole album coming out. You worried 0:21:32.440 --> 0:21:35.400 about Lord Searches one track, But anyway, I promoted Lord 0:21:35.480 --> 0:21:38.960 such as track with Jimmy playing, and Lord Search was 0:21:39.040 --> 0:21:40.640 so such a character, man. 0:21:40.680 --> 0:21:42.080 I was on the road with him. 0:21:42.080 --> 0:21:45.320 He had me cracking up, you know, because he was 0:21:45.359 --> 0:21:48.399 a promotion man himself, you know, but but he was 0:21:48.400 --> 0:21:50.800 the first guy that appreciated promotion. 0:21:50.960 --> 0:21:53.119 And he said, man, you're doing a great job. That 0:21:53.240 --> 0:21:55.479 was my first chop. I had never done it before. 0:21:55.520 --> 0:21:58.840 He thought I was a vetter promotion. Man. I had 0:21:58.880 --> 0:22:01.120 never done any of that before, but I had. 0:22:01.200 --> 0:22:04.119 I went to I think l A and San Francisco 0:22:04.200 --> 0:22:08.400 with them, and God he dressed up like a king man, 0:22:08.520 --> 0:22:10.560 you know, you walk into the station with his cane 0:22:10.600 --> 0:22:11.080 in his hand. 0:22:11.119 --> 0:22:13.240 And I was a classic man I had. I had 0:22:13.280 --> 0:22:14.440 so much fun with him. 0:22:14.720 --> 0:22:16.640 And then at the same time I would I would 0:22:16.640 --> 0:22:18.520 play led Zeppelin's record to them, you know. 0:22:19.320 --> 0:22:20.919 You know, after I give me him, I let her 0:22:21.000 --> 0:22:24.080 play led Zeppel's test present. But it was like cartoons 0:22:24.200 --> 0:22:27.320 back in those days. It was every every every no 0:22:27.359 --> 0:22:28.160 one knew any of. 0:22:28.080 --> 0:22:29.679 These records are going to be as large as they 0:22:29.920 --> 0:22:32.040 turn out to be, you know, it's like they are now. 0:22:32.880 --> 0:22:34.879 And most all of the acts that I worked with, 0:22:35.080 --> 0:22:37.159 I worked with when they first started out, you know, 0:22:37.920 --> 0:22:39.400 before they were legends. 0:22:39.400 --> 0:22:42.000 You know, I mean, I'm from everybody. 0:22:42.040 --> 0:22:45.960 So you go to the stations, You're getting this immediate reaction. 0:22:46.480 --> 0:22:48.919 Do you go back and tell Ammad and Jerry? 0:22:49.640 --> 0:22:51.359 Oh, of course, I call and tell him. I call 0:22:51.480 --> 0:22:53.439 him on the phone from where I am and tell them. 0:22:53.880 --> 0:22:56.960 So I could tell a sales department for them to 0:22:56.960 --> 0:22:59.080 to allocate more records than the tributars. I would call 0:22:59.200 --> 0:23:02.359 SALEU Tonto and well it was before Dave Glue, but 0:23:02.440 --> 0:23:04.440 whoever was in charge. I would call them at the 0:23:04.520 --> 0:23:07.520 think Bob Corne but I would call them and tell them, like, man, 0:23:07.720 --> 0:23:09.800 this is getting a lot of reactions. So they would 0:23:09.800 --> 0:23:12.760 call them distributors to make sure they got more records. 0:23:13.000 --> 0:23:16.360 You're allocated for that area. And it was always done 0:23:16.400 --> 0:23:19.320 that way, and and and and dominated. Jerry would always 0:23:19.320 --> 0:23:22.479 get the feedback from it. I called Jerry Greenberg called sometime, 0:23:22.560 --> 0:23:24.480 I got Omas sometime, I got Jerry Wexler. 0:23:24.960 --> 0:23:26.879 But Jerry West wasn't too interested in the rock and 0:23:26.920 --> 0:23:28.879 roll stuff. He's mostly interested in R and B stuff, 0:23:28.920 --> 0:23:29.119 you know. 0:23:29.840 --> 0:23:32.720 So when was the first time you met LED's up 0:23:32.760 --> 0:23:33.680 and face to face? 0:23:35.000 --> 0:23:38.040 At the at UH in New York City. I met 0:23:38.119 --> 0:23:38.960 them at UH. 0:23:39.000 --> 0:23:43.879 They played Fillmore Fillmore East, and they I think they 0:23:44.320 --> 0:23:49.320 opened for either The Iron Butterfly or either I don't 0:23:49.320 --> 0:23:51.520 know one of those acts, but I know they opened 0:23:51.520 --> 0:23:55.360 for them, And when they finished their set, the other 0:23:55.400 --> 0:23:57.679 act couldn't gone for about two hours. 0:23:58.080 --> 0:24:00.560 The people was so crazy over you know. 0:24:01.200 --> 0:24:03.440 And then I went to Boston after that with him 0:24:04.160 --> 0:24:07.360 and and they did Boston tea party and they did 0:24:07.440 --> 0:24:10.200 like so many encores. Then we had a press party 0:24:10.200 --> 0:24:12.040 in New York after that, which I still have a 0:24:12.040 --> 0:24:14.400 picture of me. And I brought the guys from from 0:24:14.920 --> 0:24:17.879 from our w CN down to New York for the 0:24:17.920 --> 0:24:22.760 press party, JJ Jackson and Charlie Daniels and you know, 0:24:22.840 --> 0:24:24.920 and and and that's when I got to meet them 0:24:24.920 --> 0:24:26.920 and I end up being friends with them. 0:24:27.040 --> 0:24:29.680 So tell me about Peter Grant, their manager. 0:24:30.960 --> 0:24:33.480 Yeah, Peter Grant was one of a kind man. He 0:24:33.520 --> 0:24:36.040 didn't take no, no junk off of no distributor, no, 0:24:36.040 --> 0:24:39.320 no promoters. He would curse him all out. I mean, 0:24:39.760 --> 0:24:41.399 but I got playing well with it, you know. He 0:24:42.160 --> 0:24:43.879 was he was, he was the heavy cat, you know. 0:24:44.440 --> 0:24:44.840 But I did. 0:24:45.000 --> 0:24:46.960 I had no problem with Peter Grant because first of 0:24:46.960 --> 0:24:50.080 all I did I was I was a guy that 0:24:50.280 --> 0:24:53.360 I wasn't hired by him. I was Atlantic promotion. Man, 0:24:53.440 --> 0:24:57.600 I'm traveling with the band representing Atlantic and also helping 0:24:57.640 --> 0:24:59.679 them with I get him doing the interviews you know, 0:24:59.720 --> 0:25:03.080 out the radio stations that night or whatever, hang out 0:25:03.080 --> 0:25:05.560 with him in at the hotel, you know, smoking all 0:25:05.560 --> 0:25:09.040 the weed at whatever we're doing, and then I might 0:25:09.080 --> 0:25:10.880 call him at midnight said, man, I got a guy 0:25:10.920 --> 0:25:12.840 at this jock at the station. They would go with 0:25:12.880 --> 0:25:15.560 me to those stations, and I got to be really 0:25:15.600 --> 0:25:17.639 popular with them, and they and I learned a lot 0:25:17.720 --> 0:25:20.840 about music from that Zeppelin, you know, especially John Paul Jones. 0:25:21.280 --> 0:25:24.159 Would you learn I wish to listen to records together. 0:25:24.200 --> 0:25:24.359 You know. 0:25:24.440 --> 0:25:27.040 I had a turntable. I always care a turntable, and 0:25:27.080 --> 0:25:31.840 I had records, and they were crazy about uh, James 0:25:31.840 --> 0:25:34.800 Brown at the Pollow nineteen six to the Pollow, Right, 0:25:35.320 --> 0:25:38.359 So we play that record, man, And I had loved 0:25:38.359 --> 0:25:40.920 that record too, But John Paul Jones broke got the 0:25:40.960 --> 0:25:43.560 record down to me, man, because we would sit up 0:25:43.640 --> 0:25:45.120 late that night, and he said, man, you know that's 0:25:45.200 --> 0:25:47.800 very difficult to play. He said, those musicians, I got 0:25:47.840 --> 0:25:50.080 a lot of respect for them because they. 0:25:49.960 --> 0:25:52.719 Plan everything over and over. Man, the same. And then 0:25:52.760 --> 0:25:54.159 I started listening to it. He wasn't that. 0:25:56.960 --> 0:25:59.880 It popped and it's just all repetitious. He said, Man, 0:26:00.040 --> 0:26:02.159 most musicians can't do that. That's what he told me. 0:26:02.480 --> 0:26:04.679 And I said, man, I say, yeah, I never noticed that. 0:26:04.720 --> 0:26:07.040 He said, that's why I so funk it. He said, 0:26:07.080 --> 0:26:09.440 A repetition makes it funk it. But I used to 0:26:09.440 --> 0:26:11.520 sit up and listen to records. Man, That's what we 0:26:11.560 --> 0:26:16.000 always did. John Paul Jones and Bonzo Bonzo as well. Oh, 0:26:16.080 --> 0:26:17.159 sit up and listen to records. 0:26:17.160 --> 0:26:19.600 Man, I mean I enjoyed those days, you know. 0:26:19.920 --> 0:26:24.639 Okay, you know, my interaction with these people is limited. 0:26:25.320 --> 0:26:28.960 But it was kind of Jimmy's band. There was tension 0:26:29.080 --> 0:26:32.679 with Robert. John Paul Jones was a little bit of 0:26:32.720 --> 0:26:34.840 the outside. When the Ultimate re formed in the nineties, 0:26:34.840 --> 0:26:38.000 he left him out. What was going on between the 0:26:38.080 --> 0:26:38.760 band members. 0:26:39.240 --> 0:26:42.720 Well, remember when I first started with them, they were 0:26:42.760 --> 0:26:45.679 all hired Jimmy. It was jim and Peter's band, you know, 0:26:46.320 --> 0:26:48.639 and all the other guys were hiring musicians. You know, 0:26:48.720 --> 0:26:51.520 even I said Robert Panner, even Bonzo used to say, yeah, 0:26:51.600 --> 0:26:53.760 you know, like he said, Man, I just took this job. 0:26:53.800 --> 0:26:56.359 I could have went on to become a merchant seaman. 0:26:56.760 --> 0:26:59.280 He hated being He hated being on the road, you know, 0:26:59.320 --> 0:27:01.280 because he had to leave his kids and family, and 0:27:01.280 --> 0:27:03.440 that's what really made him drink a lot, because he 0:27:03.600 --> 0:27:05.720 just didn't like being on the road. But after the 0:27:05.760 --> 0:27:08.560 first album, I guess they made a different deal with them, 0:27:08.600 --> 0:27:12.480 you know, and they gave him different shares and they 0:27:12.640 --> 0:27:15.359 work it out. But I mean, John Paul Jones was 0:27:15.359 --> 0:27:17.719 the genius in that band. Of all the musicians, he 0:27:17.760 --> 0:27:20.200 was the heaviest of all of them as far as musicians, 0:27:20.200 --> 0:27:20.840 I'm telling. 0:27:20.640 --> 0:27:24.919 Them, Okay, the first album has a slow rise, and 0:27:24.960 --> 0:27:28.760 then in the fall October sixty nine, Led Zeppelin two 0:27:28.920 --> 0:27:32.680 comes out. I mean, people have no idea how big 0:27:32.720 --> 0:27:36.680 that record was. Instantly, Okay, that's right. Did you hear 0:27:36.760 --> 0:27:40.800 that record and go, man, what did you do after 0:27:40.840 --> 0:27:41.639 hearing the record? 0:27:42.080 --> 0:27:43.439 Let me just tell you, man, I was on the 0:27:43.520 --> 0:27:45.800 road with them when they were writing the record. They 0:27:45.800 --> 0:27:48.280 were writing a record as we was doing the tour. 0:27:48.560 --> 0:27:50.719 You know, at six now they are touring, and they 0:27:50.720 --> 0:27:52.480 were writing that record. They playing this stuff for me, 0:27:52.800 --> 0:27:55.960 you know, on as they were working it out. You know, 0:27:56.119 --> 0:27:58.080 a lot of this stuff killing and flow and all 0:27:58.119 --> 0:28:01.440 that stuff. They had had different names for him before 0:28:01.640 --> 0:28:03.600 before the record came out. You know, they had given 0:28:03.640 --> 0:28:06.959 their the cattle. He really wrote the songs. They had 0:28:07.000 --> 0:28:09.040 given them credit. But they got sued for about that 0:28:09.080 --> 0:28:11.840 for later later on they got sued by Chess Records. 0:28:12.040 --> 0:28:14.280 But at the same time, it was funk as a 0:28:14.359 --> 0:28:16.280 Mama Gem and I loved it. You know, I knew 0:28:16.320 --> 0:28:18.760 it was gonna be. First of all, the first records 0:28:18.960 --> 0:28:21.879 was very had got very received very well. With the 0:28:21.920 --> 0:28:24.800 second it was just unbelievable. I think a whole lot 0:28:24.800 --> 0:28:27.400 of Love was on the second album, right right, yeah, 0:28:27.440 --> 0:28:30.600 and that that that record, man, was when I heard 0:28:30.640 --> 0:28:34.120 that record alone, I had a next door neighbor where 0:28:34.119 --> 0:28:36.200 I was living in this at in La Frack City. 0:28:36.240 --> 0:28:39.040 You know, I would play that music late at night. 0:28:39.400 --> 0:28:41.440 The next door neighbor moved out because I played it 0:28:41.480 --> 0:28:41.880 so loud. 0:28:43.640 --> 0:28:45.880 But but it was, it was. It was one of 0:28:45.920 --> 0:28:48.280 a kind, man, One of a kind, that record, you see. 0:28:48.320 --> 0:28:50.960 Oh man, I love that entire album, but I knew 0:28:51.360 --> 0:28:54.240 that album and Greenberg ended up making a single, a 0:28:54.240 --> 0:28:54.880 whole lot of Love. 0:28:54.920 --> 0:28:58.080 That's what really really pushed their album even probably we 0:28:58.160 --> 0:29:00.440 had already sold about two three million before you the 0:29:00.520 --> 0:29:01.280 single came out. 0:29:01.960 --> 0:29:04.480 But I mean that record was unbelievable. Man. 0:29:04.640 --> 0:29:07.280 That's when the ego came from eating from led zeppyra. 0:29:07.720 --> 0:29:10.160 They started doing nine to ten deals with promoters. You know, 0:29:10.200 --> 0:29:13.760 they were no more promoters getting forty percent and stuff. 0:29:14.040 --> 0:29:16.239 They give the promoter ten percent and they said, man, 0:29:16.280 --> 0:29:18.120 you have to advertise. You just put our name up 0:29:18.160 --> 0:29:19.120 and it's gonna sell out. 0:29:19.600 --> 0:29:20.720 And that was the truth, you know. 0:29:21.760 --> 0:29:23.680 Okay, So tell me about the Edgewater in. 0:29:24.880 --> 0:29:26.920 Oh yeah, well, you know we I was at the 0:29:27.000 --> 0:29:28.200 second on the second edge water. 0:29:28.240 --> 0:29:30.120 I didn't go to the first one when they had 0:29:30.440 --> 0:29:34.640 uh with iron butterfly what not iron but but uh 0:29:34.800 --> 0:29:37.040 but never first that was the first one. I was 0:29:37.080 --> 0:29:40.600 there for the second Edgewater end. This was the funniest 0:29:41.080 --> 0:29:43.560 out of all the places in my life. 0:29:44.800 --> 0:29:47.200 I had more laughs. We were on tour. 0:29:47.280 --> 0:29:49.840 I didn't like thirty four one night of that zepbra 0:29:50.200 --> 0:29:54.720 so this Jimmy Page and Bomso kept saying, Mario, man, 0:29:55.320 --> 0:29:58.240 you wait till we get to just see it to Seattle, man, 0:29:58.680 --> 0:30:00.840 say we hit We got a hotel. Man, you can 0:30:00.920 --> 0:30:03.240 just fish right out the window. What I care about 0:30:03.280 --> 0:30:05.720 fishing is nothing, you know, man, You can fish right 0:30:05.720 --> 0:30:07.880 out the window, man, you know, and you and you 0:30:08.000 --> 0:30:10.960 buy those by that, by that, by that, by those steaks, man, 0:30:11.000 --> 0:30:13.640 And and they just catch fish all day. Man, and 0:30:13.680 --> 0:30:16.080 they gotta praise you by I said, okay, man. So 0:30:16.080 --> 0:30:17.800 soon as we get there, they couldn't holler a wait 0:30:17.840 --> 0:30:20.840 to get in the hotel. They go to the place 0:30:20.880 --> 0:30:24.120 and buy the uh gear, the fishing gear, and then 0:30:24.160 --> 0:30:26.440 they buy these steaks, you know, buy steaks. 0:30:26.440 --> 0:30:27.720 I don't know what they paid for the steaks. 0:30:27.800 --> 0:30:29.920 They buy a whole bunch of steaks, right, and they 0:30:30.000 --> 0:30:32.240 come back to the room. So I'm come on, Mary, 0:30:32.360 --> 0:30:34.520 let me show you. They throw this stuff in them 0:30:34.520 --> 0:30:38.160 and they stopped fishing. Man, so we're fishing. I wasn't fishing, 0:30:38.200 --> 0:30:40.120 but they were fishing, and I'm watching it. And they 0:30:40.200 --> 0:30:43.960 pulling these sharks, you know, sharks coming through the window 0:30:44.400 --> 0:30:45.959 and they take man, they take them. They where we're 0:30:45.960 --> 0:30:47.800 gonnaut them up, put their bathrooms. So I run the water, 0:30:47.840 --> 0:30:50.640 throw them a bathtub. So now the bathtub is full. 0:30:50.720 --> 0:30:52.960 Now they start putt them up under the bed. It 0:30:53.000 --> 0:30:54.000 was so funny, man. 0:30:53.920 --> 0:30:54.480 I tell you that. 0:30:54.760 --> 0:30:58.760 Many and by the time it's time for a sound check, 0:30:59.440 --> 0:31:02.440 you must have about twenty sharks in the room already. 0:31:02.480 --> 0:31:04.920 And it smelled like a fish market. And they say, oh, 0:31:04.960 --> 0:31:06.920 man a, really we gotta go to sound say you 0:31:06.960 --> 0:31:08.840 gotta go to sound check, Well, we gotta go to 0:31:08.920 --> 0:31:09.440 sound check. 0:31:09.960 --> 0:31:11.800 So we said, man, we'll just leave our stuff in. 0:31:11.880 --> 0:31:16.080 When we come back from soundcheck, we'll we'll continue fishing. 0:31:16.480 --> 0:31:17.760 They go and do the soundcheck. 0:31:17.800 --> 0:31:19.840 To come back, they only got like an hour before 0:31:19.840 --> 0:31:21.280 this time to go back to the play. 0:31:21.520 --> 0:31:22.720 They go and fish again. 0:31:22.800 --> 0:31:26.720 Many they pull them up and now they got a 0:31:26.840 --> 0:31:29.040 shock man about about three feet long. 0:31:29.080 --> 0:31:30.600 They put them in the bed and cover them up 0:31:30.640 --> 0:31:34.720 just like your humor. I mean, like, this is the funniest. 0:31:34.800 --> 0:31:37.160 I had never seen anything like before my life, you know, 0:31:37.200 --> 0:31:38.280 and I was swimming the sippy. 0:31:38.280 --> 0:31:40.560 I'd never seen nothing. So anyway, now we go. 0:31:40.560 --> 0:31:43.200 To do the show. You know, we go to the 0:31:43.200 --> 0:31:46.640 coliseum wherever it is to do the show, come back 0:31:46.720 --> 0:31:49.400 to show Man and they got groupers in the hallway. Say, man, 0:31:49.400 --> 0:31:51.240 we ain't mess with no groups, and now we're gonna fish. 0:31:51.280 --> 0:31:53.680 You know. Boom, they go back, fetch out the window 0:31:54.560 --> 0:31:58.720 and we fish till daybreak. And now, man, there's so 0:31:58.800 --> 0:32:01.480 many fish all over the room. They can't He was 0:32:01.560 --> 0:32:03.200 sleeping in the room and they said, well, so they 0:32:03.280 --> 0:32:04.440 end up going up to my room. 0:32:04.320 --> 0:32:06.200 And most of them crashed at my room because they 0:32:06.240 --> 0:32:06.760 did all that. 0:32:06.920 --> 0:32:10.400 Rooms are full of fish, man, I mean, it was unbelievable, 0:32:11.320 --> 0:32:13.640 the funniest time, funniest thing that was seen in my life. 0:32:13.760 --> 0:32:15.800 Okay, when did the hotel catch on. 0:32:16.680 --> 0:32:21.880 The next morning as we as we uh all waking out, 0:32:21.880 --> 0:32:23.240 but they all in the same we all in the 0:32:23.280 --> 0:32:23.800 same room. 0:32:24.360 --> 0:32:27.520 We look out the one of theirs, Richard Cole, throwing 0:32:27.840 --> 0:32:30.440 fish out the windows from the other rooms, throwing the 0:32:30.560 --> 0:32:34.000 fish back in there. And and also he threw like 0:32:34.080 --> 0:32:37.480 a refrigerator that had some champagne, you know, some dumb 0:32:37.520 --> 0:32:40.600 periona in case dump. He threw that in the in 0:32:40.680 --> 0:32:44.320 there as well, you know, because the maize came in complaining. 0:32:44.720 --> 0:32:47.000 So he threw all that stuff back into the. 0:32:46.680 --> 0:32:51.160 Into the bay. And uh and and and then. 0:32:51.080 --> 0:32:53.320 Jimmy said, hey, man, where's the champagne And he said, 0:32:53.320 --> 0:32:56.280 there go floating down. He threw out the window twelve 0:32:57.240 --> 0:32:59.200 with all the fish. And they had to pay like 0:32:59.280 --> 0:33:01.280 a big fee for that, you know, for what they did. 0:33:01.320 --> 0:33:03.480 They paid, They paid the hotel for what they did. 0:33:04.120 --> 0:33:07.480 But I mean it was like a few were young people, man, 0:33:07.520 --> 0:33:10.080 so you know, like I just had never seen anything 0:33:10.160 --> 0:33:10.680 like it before. 0:33:10.720 --> 0:33:12.680 But they didn't mean it at all. They just was 0:33:12.720 --> 0:33:15.720 having fun and that was their their way. Man. They 0:33:15.760 --> 0:33:18.040 had fun everywhere. I had more fun with that band 0:33:18.040 --> 0:33:20.320 than any other band on the planet. 0:33:28.000 --> 0:33:32.320 So Bonzo was legendary for throwing TVs out the window. 0:33:33.200 --> 0:33:35.640 Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, you know, Like I mean, I 0:33:35.680 --> 0:33:37.960 saw him one time. He went in a room of 0:33:38.040 --> 0:33:39.680 TV to work right and just took it and went 0:33:39.720 --> 0:33:41.440 to the winter boom. I said, oh shit, I mean, 0:33:41.480 --> 0:33:43.400 like I never seen nothing like booms. Just dropped out 0:33:43.440 --> 0:33:46.280 and then he got her phone, picked her phone call operator. 0:33:46.520 --> 0:33:48.480 How much one of these televisions are worth them? It 0:33:48.520 --> 0:33:49.640 said four out of that we'll. 0:33:49.520 --> 0:33:54.840 Put it on the home tailo out. We need to know. 0:33:55.360 --> 0:33:57.400 I mean, but that that was That was normal, man, 0:33:57.440 --> 0:33:58.080 That was normal. 0:33:58.480 --> 0:34:00.800 But you know, like as but they were good guys, man, 0:34:00.800 --> 0:34:02.840 they were really just they were just bored, man. 0:34:02.880 --> 0:34:03.760 Because the boredom. 0:34:04.120 --> 0:34:06.240 And at that age, oh, they were younger than me. 0:34:06.400 --> 0:34:10.440 I mean I was only about I was like twenty 0:34:10.480 --> 0:34:13.160 seven twenty eight at the time, and. 0:34:13.120 --> 0:34:14.040 They were younger than me. 0:34:14.160 --> 0:34:17.080 So you know, like hey, and I was like a 0:34:17.200 --> 0:34:19.439 level headed compared to some of the stuff they were doing, 0:34:19.480 --> 0:34:21.359 you know, but we had a lot of fun. 0:34:22.000 --> 0:34:26.200 So other than introducing them to radio stations, bring him 0:34:26.239 --> 0:34:29.600 to radio stations, bringing jocks to meet them, what other 0:34:29.600 --> 0:34:31.520 stuff do Did they look for you to get them 0:34:31.640 --> 0:34:33.160 drugs or anything else? 0:34:33.840 --> 0:34:35.520 No, I didn't look for me to get no drugs. 0:34:35.560 --> 0:34:37.560 I mean because if I got a drug of people myself, 0:34:38.520 --> 0:34:41.400 because but they had their own connections for that. You know, 0:34:41.440 --> 0:34:43.640 because Richard Cole had been on the road for years 0:34:43.719 --> 0:34:45.719 with all other bands, so anything they were in every 0:34:45.719 --> 0:34:46.839 city he had been on the band. 0:34:46.840 --> 0:34:49.840 He knew everything that was happening in every city. You know. 0:34:49.960 --> 0:34:54.680 He was a legendary road manager for number groups, you know, 0:34:55.280 --> 0:34:57.440 including Vanilla Fuds, you know, so he knew a lot 0:34:57.480 --> 0:34:57.840 of people. 0:34:58.160 --> 0:35:02.000 So tell me about Crosby Stools in ah and then eventually. 0:35:01.560 --> 0:35:06.319 Young Yeah, Carols was still the Nash Well they they 0:35:06.400 --> 0:35:09.799 had you know. I had known Stephen Stills from when 0:35:09.840 --> 0:35:12.520 I was a bookkeeper, you know. I mean I got 0:35:12.520 --> 0:35:16.480 to know him when he was with uh with with 0:35:16.520 --> 0:35:20.160 the First but Buffalo Springfield, Buffalo spring Buffalo Springfield. When 0:35:20.160 --> 0:35:21.560 he was with that band, I got to know him, 0:35:21.600 --> 0:35:24.799 and and Neil Young then, you know, and and and 0:35:24.920 --> 0:35:27.960 Dewry Martin and and and Richard Fury. 0:35:28.040 --> 0:35:29.600 I knew all of them back then, you know. 0:35:30.320 --> 0:35:33.120 And and when they played New York, you know, I 0:35:33.160 --> 0:35:35.480 would always go see them, you know, if they played 0:35:35.480 --> 0:35:38.400 it in a gag so on uh And I mean 0:35:38.520 --> 0:35:41.080 I I caught him one time when they was playing 0:35:41.800 --> 0:35:44.320 I think uh Uconald's or something like that. I forget 0:35:44.320 --> 0:35:46.719 the name of the place, but it was some some 0:35:46.920 --> 0:35:49.799 club by the by the fifth Night Street Bridge. I 0:35:49.840 --> 0:35:51.920 went to see them there with Otis Redding. One night, 0:35:51.960 --> 0:35:56.560 Otis Redding and Otis had been playing at the Apollo 0:35:57.280 --> 0:36:00.239 Buffalo Springfield playing at this place. And after I went 0:36:00.320 --> 0:36:03.600 to Apollo to see Otis, Armon was in. He gave 0:36:03.640 --> 0:36:07.000 me a ride to to this place to see uh 0:36:07.160 --> 0:36:10.440 Buffalo Springfield with Otis in the car. And Otis, you know, 0:36:10.520 --> 0:36:13.319 I've been drinking a bit. So he sat and they 0:36:13.320 --> 0:36:15.080 wanted Otis to get up to set in with him, 0:36:15.640 --> 0:36:17.640 but he had been drinking a little too much, and 0:36:17.760 --> 0:36:20.080 he when he first when he first got up, you know, 0:36:20.480 --> 0:36:23.600 he picked up and he just fell flatter and got up. 0:36:23.800 --> 0:36:25.880 Then he got up the same. It was classic, but 0:36:25.960 --> 0:36:28.359 I mean that was that was the type of thing. 0:36:28.440 --> 0:36:31.680 But I knew Stephen still from that time, so my 0:36:31.680 --> 0:36:34.319 my relationship with him was was always good up then 0:36:34.360 --> 0:36:36.800 when he when they decided to do Crouds and Steels 0:36:36.800 --> 0:36:40.799 and Nash, I had just gotten into promotion. I had 0:36:40.800 --> 0:36:42.719 a test present for Crossing Steels in Nash and a 0:36:42.760 --> 0:36:45.680 test president for Jay Gile's band gonna be released on 0:36:45.680 --> 0:36:46.520 the same release. 0:36:47.200 --> 0:36:48.400 So when I went on the road, I. 0:36:48.400 --> 0:36:51.319 Took both of those test presents with me all over. 0:36:51.440 --> 0:36:53.960 I remember I went to Seattle. I went to a 0:36:54.000 --> 0:36:56.440 whole lot of places, but I remember in Seattle I 0:36:56.480 --> 0:36:59.840 went to a disc jocket. I guess about midnight with 0:37:00.040 --> 0:37:03.560 both of those test presents, and everybody wanted Cross Still 0:37:03.560 --> 0:37:06.640 a Nash Test ben because there was so much hype before. 0:37:06.440 --> 0:37:08.320 It even came out. We knew it was a supergroup. 0:37:08.960 --> 0:37:10.640 So I would tell them, you know, like, I'll let 0:37:10.640 --> 0:37:13.160 you play Krugs Still a Nash Test present if you 0:37:13.200 --> 0:37:15.440 play this other test pression that I have first, which 0:37:15.520 --> 0:37:16.759 is Jake golls Man, and. 0:37:16.680 --> 0:37:17.239 It's who was this? 0:37:17.320 --> 0:37:19.520 I said, it's a new record, So I said, you 0:37:19.520 --> 0:37:21.759 played this old record that you played the old So 0:37:21.800 --> 0:37:23.640 that's how I got the record. That's how I got 0:37:23.719 --> 0:37:26.600 Jake Giles played by using Crubs Still the Nash stuff 0:37:26.719 --> 0:37:29.480 played young and I had, you know, I had always 0:37:29.480 --> 0:37:31.560 gone to Stevens House, you know, all the time, back 0:37:32.200 --> 0:37:35.320 when they were they was jamming with Crowds, Stills, the 0:37:35.400 --> 0:37:38.319 Nash and stuff. And whenever you went to Stevens House 0:37:38.360 --> 0:37:43.200 and Laurel Canyon, there was Jona Mitchell everybody there with 0:37:43.239 --> 0:37:45.360 acoustic guitars and they always jam you know. 0:37:45.800 --> 0:37:48.319 Sometime Neil Young would come over, but. 0:37:48.480 --> 0:37:51.440 Uh uh, I'm just a lot of guys, a lot 0:37:51.480 --> 0:37:53.320 of guys. We're there jamming all the time. So that 0:37:53.440 --> 0:37:55.879 met a lot of people at Stevens House, and that's 0:37:55.880 --> 0:37:57.720 what that would be the first place I'd go. Whenever 0:37:57.719 --> 0:37:59.439 I went to LA I would go to Stevens House, 0:37:59.480 --> 0:38:02.439 you know. And Steven was a good friend up until 0:38:02.440 --> 0:38:03.200 the day, even until the. 0:38:03.239 --> 0:38:07.440 Day, so when you went to stations, you know, by 0:38:07.440 --> 0:38:10.840 the time he hit the eighties and nineties, record labels 0:38:10.880 --> 0:38:13.840 have priority tracks and they go from track to track 0:38:13.880 --> 0:38:17.520 to track. When you started, did you just wanted to 0:38:17.560 --> 0:38:20.000 play something, or you'd say, no, this is the one 0:38:20.040 --> 0:38:22.080 you want to play, don't play that one yet, we're 0:38:22.080 --> 0:38:22.799 not ready for that. 0:38:23.719 --> 0:38:26.120 No, no, And back I was an album guy, so 0:38:26.280 --> 0:38:27.920 I would go there with the tracks that I like, 0:38:28.080 --> 0:38:30.320 and I'll tell them those tracks that I like first. 0:38:30.760 --> 0:38:32.319 But if you got a track that you like, you 0:38:32.320 --> 0:38:34.399 were welcome to play that, but to try this one first. 0:38:34.440 --> 0:38:36.400 I would always do that, even with let Zeppe when 0:38:36.440 --> 0:38:38.840 I did that, even with Krugs till the Nash, I 0:38:38.840 --> 0:38:41.080 did it even though they had a single out prior 0:38:41.400 --> 0:38:43.120 and Krugs still Nash. She had a single that had 0:38:43.160 --> 0:38:45.560 been out before the album came out. But most of 0:38:45.600 --> 0:38:48.359 the albums that I had didn't have singles before they 0:38:48.400 --> 0:38:48.839 came out. 0:38:48.880 --> 0:38:49.080 You know. 0:38:49.440 --> 0:38:51.680 We would always use the album to pick the singles, 0:38:51.680 --> 0:38:55.000 you know, from FM guys to play so many, so 0:38:55.000 --> 0:38:56.759 many guys to play a certain track, and I would 0:38:56.760 --> 0:38:58.680 go report it back to Atlanta. K Man, we should 0:38:58.719 --> 0:39:01.160 release this as a single, you know, because it's getting 0:39:01.160 --> 0:39:03.080 a lot of play, like ROBERTA. Flack stuff, you know, 0:39:03.320 --> 0:39:06.720 the same thing. Uh, first time I saw the plays 0:39:06.760 --> 0:39:09.399 because it was a track that got a lot of play, 0:39:09.480 --> 0:39:12.640 you know. And and that's how we picked singles back then. 0:39:12.680 --> 0:39:15.319 It wasn't it wasn't just off the top of your head. 0:39:15.400 --> 0:39:17.440 Most of the f film stations helped pick the singles 0:39:17.480 --> 0:39:18.440 for the AM station. 0:39:19.520 --> 0:39:24.600 Okay, how did you promote the records that weren't so great? 0:39:25.600 --> 0:39:25.880 Usually? 0:39:25.960 --> 0:39:28.600 My my my game was this, I said, look, man, 0:39:29.640 --> 0:39:30.759 I love this record here. 0:39:30.760 --> 0:39:32.279 You know, if a record that I really love, I 0:39:32.400 --> 0:39:32.680 talk a. 0:39:32.719 --> 0:39:34.319 Lot of s h I t I talk a lot 0:39:34.320 --> 0:39:36.880 of trash, you know, boom blah blah bom. Now if 0:39:36.960 --> 0:39:39.040 I don't, I said, man, this is a record you know, 0:39:39.239 --> 0:39:41.480 if you like it, call me if you If you 0:39:41.600 --> 0:39:43.640 like it, tell everybody. If you don't like it, call me. 0:39:44.320 --> 0:39:47.080 That's what I would tell I. Don't try to push stuff. 0:39:47.200 --> 0:39:50.000 You couldn't push nothing on film jocks. You know they're 0:39:50.000 --> 0:39:51.759 gonna do what they wanted to do. So you try 0:39:51.760 --> 0:39:54.040 to figure out what You try to find out what 0:39:54.200 --> 0:39:55.400 type of music they really like. 0:39:55.480 --> 0:39:55.919 Each one. 0:39:56.000 --> 0:39:59.400 Each this jockey was their own program director. Every this 0:39:59.520 --> 0:40:02.080 jockey came and they program, they play what they want 0:40:02.080 --> 0:40:04.160 to play. So you try to figure out what type 0:40:04.200 --> 0:40:06.399 of music they like and try to pick a track 0:40:06.480 --> 0:40:08.799 within their game, you know. And that's what I did 0:40:08.840 --> 0:40:11.040 all over America. Man, it was you had to know 0:40:11.120 --> 0:40:12.640 the dis jockra get to hang out with them. 0:40:12.680 --> 0:40:16.800 To Norman, Okay, So you know disc jockeys have different shifts, 0:40:17.480 --> 0:40:19.600 so right, you know, how would you go to a 0:40:19.680 --> 0:40:22.600 station and make sure that you spoke with all the jocks. 0:40:23.080 --> 0:40:25.560 Look, I'd go to the station and hang with one jockey. 0:40:25.600 --> 0:40:28.240 When when he leave, I'll go back. Every four hours, 0:40:28.280 --> 0:40:30.000 I was back and forth and hanging I'm telling you 0:40:30.400 --> 0:40:31.280 sometime I stayed. 0:40:31.600 --> 0:40:33.640 Sometimes I would stay in the station from it. 0:40:33.800 --> 0:40:35.640 I would go there like at eight o'clock and leave 0:40:35.719 --> 0:40:38.600 at four in the morning because as they change shift, 0:40:38.600 --> 0:40:41.400 I would stay there and they've heard the stuff that 0:40:41.440 --> 0:40:43.719 I'm talking. They want to want me to give him 0:40:43.719 --> 0:40:45.759 the sam in Mason, I've giving a guy before him. 0:40:46.160 --> 0:40:48.120 So I'd stay there, you know. And we smoke a 0:40:48.120 --> 0:40:48.839 lot of weed back. 0:40:48.760 --> 0:40:51.400 In those days, you know, so you could just sing, 0:40:51.640 --> 0:40:53.719 you could hang you know, and and then you know, 0:40:53.800 --> 0:40:56.800 we brought pizza and wine, you know, go out pizza 0:40:56.840 --> 0:40:58.400 and wine, and they didn't care about going to a 0:40:58.480 --> 0:40:59.360 lucky restaurant. 0:40:59.640 --> 0:41:02.360 And I tell you, I really enjoyed those days. 0:41:02.400 --> 0:41:05.400 I must admit I enjoyed those days because it was 0:41:06.160 --> 0:41:08.680 nobody knew FM was gonna be as popular as. 0:41:08.520 --> 0:41:10.920 It is before a or R. It was just just. 0:41:11.160 --> 0:41:14.279 A pre form radio at the time. And uh, and 0:41:14.560 --> 0:41:15.400 it was very interesting. 0:41:15.440 --> 0:41:15.640 You know. 0:41:15.680 --> 0:41:19.200 We bought we bought spots on on those stations for 0:41:19.200 --> 0:41:21.960 for albums that we had problems getting played. I would 0:41:22.000 --> 0:41:24.040 buy spots and I'd have that this chockey that makes 0:41:24.040 --> 0:41:25.400 the spot. So if he makes the spot, that I 0:41:25.440 --> 0:41:27.279 mean he got to listen to the record, you know, 0:41:27.600 --> 0:41:29.200 So you had you had you have to use all 0:41:29.200 --> 0:41:32.800 the type of uh improvisation you had to improvise. 0:41:33.160 --> 0:41:34.000 As far as promoting. 0:41:34.000 --> 0:41:36.759 Back in those days, the most important thing was to 0:41:36.800 --> 0:41:40.480 get the DJs to play your record, and you had 0:41:40.520 --> 0:41:42.680 to figure out a way. And if I have a 0:41:42.719 --> 0:41:44.520 record that I know that this chockt don't like and 0:41:44.600 --> 0:41:46.919 I and I need a spot made, I'll tell him, Hey, man, 0:41:47.360 --> 0:41:50.040 I need a spot, a national spot for this record. 0:41:50.760 --> 0:41:52.200 He said, that's a piece of He said, that's a 0:41:52.200 --> 0:41:52.919 piece of ship. Man. 0:41:53.000 --> 0:41:55.640 I said, look, but I need an Can you do 0:41:55.719 --> 0:41:57.400 me a spot? I said, I give you, give you 0:41:57.440 --> 0:42:01.400 five hundred dollars. Yeah, I'll do the spot. They do 0:42:01.480 --> 0:42:04.120 the spot and they'll pick out tracks that you probably 0:42:04.120 --> 0:42:07.040 didn't even like it, and they and then made it 0:42:07.080 --> 0:42:10.200 a big production and it sounds even the records sound 0:42:10.360 --> 0:42:13.160 better because the way they montaged it together. 0:42:13.520 --> 0:42:15.239 And I said, man, you really broke that record. He 0:42:15.280 --> 0:42:17.200 really didn't break nothing, but I'm tell him that, you know. 0:42:17.719 --> 0:42:21.840 And then and then you got one guy that beleeves 0:42:21.840 --> 0:42:25.400 in the record on that station. Sometimes it, you know, 0:42:25.440 --> 0:42:27.680 it spreads through the other guys. But that was the 0:42:27.719 --> 0:42:29.640 type of promotion you had to do in those days. 0:42:30.040 --> 0:42:32.200 No payolo for film this jockey. 0:42:32.239 --> 0:42:33.960 They didn't go for that. Payol. It was none of that. 0:42:34.960 --> 0:42:38.400 And so to what degree would you leverage one station 0:42:38.480 --> 0:42:40.080 against them? Would you go in and say, hey, you 0:42:40.120 --> 0:42:42.880 know these other stations are playing it, you better play it. 0:42:43.600 --> 0:42:44.440 Look, man, let me tell you. 0:42:44.520 --> 0:42:46.600 First of all, if it's two stations in the same 0:42:46.640 --> 0:42:49.319 city and I got one of them on it, I said, man, 0:42:49.320 --> 0:42:50.719 you don't have to play it at all, because boo 0:42:50.800 --> 0:42:51.239 boo play. 0:42:51.440 --> 0:42:54.160 I remember even in Boston, even in Boston, I would. 0:42:53.920 --> 0:42:57.680 Get go to the direct to the b to the 0:42:57.719 --> 0:43:00.719 b U Boston University station and get them to play 0:43:00.760 --> 0:43:04.279 stuff that BCN wouldn't play right. And what I did 0:43:04.520 --> 0:43:07.960 I gave I gave John Hackheimer the led Zeppelin album 0:43:08.000 --> 0:43:12.480 before I gave it to b CNN because because Al 0:43:12.560 --> 0:43:14.799 perrickter but I can't stand all that blue, that that 0:43:14.960 --> 0:43:16.480 rock and white boy doing the blue. 0:43:17.239 --> 0:43:19.680 So when he broke he played it over there and 0:43:19.719 --> 0:43:22.120 everybody said, oh, man, we heard the new led Zeppelin 0:43:22.160 --> 0:43:25.000 played over here. It'd be They called me, man, when 0:43:25.000 --> 0:43:26.440 you gonna bring it over to us? I said, I'll 0:43:26.440 --> 0:43:28.680 bring it over to Mark. But that's the difference. That's 0:43:28.719 --> 0:43:30.920 what you had to do that game back then. I mean, 0:43:31.040 --> 0:43:32.120 it's not like that now. 0:43:32.120 --> 0:43:33.920 Of course it was a different ball game, but that 0:43:34.080 --> 0:43:36.000 was that was That's why you had to play one 0:43:36.000 --> 0:43:37.080 station against the other man. 0:43:37.120 --> 0:43:39.719 I don't care if you know city one guy they played, Okay, 0:43:39.719 --> 0:43:41.359 I'll take across the street and get it played. That's 0:43:41.360 --> 0:43:41.960 what you had to do. 0:43:43.760 --> 0:43:48.120 And you know, as the business became more professionalized, they 0:43:48.239 --> 0:43:52.320 kept the promotion people at arm's length. Was everybody always 0:43:52.320 --> 0:43:53.239 glad to see you. 0:43:54.000 --> 0:43:55.640 They were always happen to see me because I was 0:43:55.719 --> 0:43:58.080 John Carter, the Potter starter, you Knownick Won. 0:43:58.400 --> 0:43:59.960 They wanted to hang with me because I always had 0:44:00.120 --> 0:44:02.680 something going on, you know. And plus I just was 0:44:02.719 --> 0:44:03.359 a funny guy. 0:44:03.400 --> 0:44:05.720 I was just a guy that was fun to be around, 0:44:05.719 --> 0:44:08.400 and they enjoyed my company. And plus and I and 0:44:08.440 --> 0:44:11.400 I could also bring like Mick Jagger, you know, whoever 0:44:11.440 --> 0:44:13.600 the catcher they idolized. They would come with me, a 0:44:13.760 --> 0:44:15.400 Dwayne Auburn or stuff. 0:44:15.400 --> 0:44:17.040 I would. I would always take him to the station 0:44:17.160 --> 0:44:18.759 with me sometime, you know. 0:44:18.840 --> 0:44:22.040 And and I always had that type of direct contact 0:44:22.040 --> 0:44:24.799 with the artists. I remember I was in Boston once 0:44:24.880 --> 0:44:27.080 and uh I was on the on the on the 0:44:27.120 --> 0:44:30.600 tour with Rollerstones and Sticky Fingers, right, And that was 0:44:30.640 --> 0:44:33.359 a big tour, you know. But everybody want to talk 0:44:33.400 --> 0:44:37.080 to Jager, you know, I mean everybody man Jaggers say, man, 0:44:37.120 --> 0:44:38.600 look they said. 0:44:38.360 --> 0:44:40.000 That big Amazon tour with them called. 0:44:40.239 --> 0:44:43.160 So they called me up and I said, man, I 0:44:43.239 --> 0:44:45.880 see Jack and like I said, Jack and lessen to 0:44:45.920 --> 0:44:46.600 anybody else. 0:44:46.680 --> 0:44:48.400 Well look, man, you I know we want to ask. 0:44:48.760 --> 0:44:49.160 What I'll do. 0:44:49.200 --> 0:44:52.400 I'll get you backstage passes, you know, for the concerts, 0:44:52.440 --> 0:44:55.560 for the tour, for the concert and afterwards, you know, 0:44:55.600 --> 0:44:58.080 you come and dress when we talk. I gave I 0:44:58.120 --> 0:44:59.840 think it was a child's black with. 0:45:00.200 --> 0:45:02.560 I think they're one of one of those crazy mamage. 0:45:03.160 --> 0:45:06.160 I gave him the backstage past to come back stage 0:45:06.640 --> 0:45:07.600 when I come back there. 0:45:07.719 --> 0:45:09.560 Back that talk with everybody in the bed. 0:45:10.520 --> 0:45:13.440 You know, you know already put the put put the 0:45:13.520 --> 0:45:15.319 put out on that I let everybody in. 0:45:15.600 --> 0:45:17.319 I said, but it was cool, you know. 0:45:17.400 --> 0:45:20.000 But but that's how I got along well with those guys, 0:45:20.040 --> 0:45:22.680 you know, because the I had like connections to get 0:45:22.719 --> 0:45:24.279 them things that they wanted to do. 0:45:24.360 --> 0:45:27.320 They wanted to be around, you know, the entertainers and storm. 0:45:27.440 --> 0:45:30.799 You know, how did you break Yes? They had two 0:45:30.960 --> 0:45:34.160 stifth albums before the Yes album and they didn't sound 0:45:34.200 --> 0:45:35.040 like anything else. 0:45:36.040 --> 0:45:38.920 The first the first album was the one, uh uh 0:45:38.960 --> 0:45:40.560 but what it was what I'm trying to remember the 0:45:40.640 --> 0:45:42.759 name of round about it round About? 0:45:42.800 --> 0:45:46.640 I think that was actually the fourth album. First album 0:45:47.280 --> 0:45:49.759 had a cover I just called Yes, had a cover 0:45:49.840 --> 0:45:52.200 of the Beatles. Every little thing. It was a stiff 0:45:52.239 --> 0:45:55.000 second one time, in a word, even more stiff. Then 0:45:55.040 --> 0:45:57.919 they put out the Yes album and then they put 0:45:57.920 --> 0:45:59.600 out Fragile with Roundabout. 0:46:00.920 --> 0:46:01.120 Yeah. 0:46:01.120 --> 0:46:03.719 Well, well, I well I knew them when they had 0:46:03.800 --> 0:46:07.880 before their first manager, I forget the name, but I 0:46:07.960 --> 0:46:10.520 knew them before emas Lake and Palmer, even from their 0:46:10.560 --> 0:46:14.440 group Yes was probably in England and uh yes was 0:46:15.000 --> 0:46:16.840 around About is the track that I remember, you know, 0:46:16.880 --> 0:46:20.160 I can't remember too much else I went. I went 0:46:20.200 --> 0:46:21.879 on tour with them, you know, I went on tour 0:46:21.920 --> 0:46:25.520 with them and everybody was like vegetarian or something like that. 0:46:25.600 --> 0:46:28.480 You know, Jan Anderson, I think his name was the 0:46:28.560 --> 0:46:31.560 least singer, John Anderson. Yeah, so anyway, he was a 0:46:31.719 --> 0:46:34.719 he was a vegetarian. And we was in Detroit, you know, 0:46:34.840 --> 0:46:38.560 so I like barbecue stuff. So we hit it off 0:46:38.600 --> 0:46:40.440 the bus and he said, man, Marty, can he take 0:46:40.520 --> 0:46:42.440 us a place? Against something meant, I don't know they vegetarian, 0:46:42.640 --> 0:46:44.200 so I go to barbecue garings, you know. 0:46:44.440 --> 0:46:47.800 So it's like two in the morning. He said, oh man, 0:46:47.920 --> 0:46:50.040 we don't eat that joking the head too bad. I 0:46:50.080 --> 0:46:54.120 was just snicking my feet, but you know, that was 0:46:54.160 --> 0:46:56.239 the thing. But there they were nice guys, you know, 0:46:57.440 --> 0:46:58.000 Robert Pripp. 0:46:58.040 --> 0:47:01.480 I think it was the name guitar player from Yeah, 0:47:02.280 --> 0:47:05.000 but I did King Crimson and Yes on the same tour. 0:47:05.080 --> 0:47:05.719 I think it was. 0:47:06.280 --> 0:47:11.080 But but I mean, look, I to me, I respected 0:47:11.120 --> 0:47:13.440 all musicians because they could read and play, you know, 0:47:14.160 --> 0:47:16.839 and I know how difficult that was if you can 0:47:16.920 --> 0:47:20.000 read music and play. I know how difficult it was 0:47:20.000 --> 0:47:22.719 because I took music in high school. So I respected 0:47:22.760 --> 0:47:24.759 them because of that, you know. So, But at the 0:47:24.840 --> 0:47:28.840 same time, I didn't have no I didn't idolize, you know. 0:47:28.840 --> 0:47:31.880 I wasn't idem my idols like the Narius, Mark Miles Davis, 0:47:32.320 --> 0:47:34.400 John Coach and I was just guess that I idolized, you know. 0:47:34.880 --> 0:47:37.440 But the rock caest was just musicians to me, you know. 0:47:38.200 --> 0:47:42.240 Okay, so if you were on the road with the band, 0:47:42.640 --> 0:47:47.760 who's covering all the other stations with all the other records. 0:47:47.840 --> 0:47:49.840 Well, you know, we sent the records out to the 0:47:49.880 --> 0:47:54.120 stations and we didn't have no album promotion guys. Back then, 0:47:54.200 --> 0:47:57.800 everybody was local promotion guys that promoted most of the singles, 0:47:58.120 --> 0:48:00.160 and you know you can and I had a few guys, 0:48:00.640 --> 0:48:02.959 you know, some of the most guys that was ift albums, 0:48:03.000 --> 0:48:05.920 like Bill Rawls and a couple of guys that was 0:48:05.960 --> 0:48:09.360 into albums, John Carter and San Francisco. You know, I 0:48:09.360 --> 0:48:11.400 could call them and ask him to check this and that. 0:48:11.440 --> 0:48:14.560 But at the same time, I got to report every 0:48:14.719 --> 0:48:17.680 every every week, every week, I got a report from 0:48:17.840 --> 0:48:21.000 each stations, you know, and the girl's in the office 0:48:21.040 --> 0:48:23.560 would would send me report on the road. So that's 0:48:23.600 --> 0:48:25.600 how I really kept track of it. They let you 0:48:25.640 --> 0:48:28.600 know who they what they added, and what albums were 0:48:28.600 --> 0:48:31.320 added and so on, you know, because you can't stay 0:48:31.320 --> 0:48:31.920 on top of it. 0:48:31.960 --> 0:48:33.520 You on the road a lot. And I was on 0:48:33.560 --> 0:48:41.320 the road a lot, you know. 0:48:42.239 --> 0:48:44.400 So how much pressure did you get from the label? 0:48:46.160 --> 0:48:49.359 No, No, they couldn't pressure me. Man. I didn't give them. 0:48:50.160 --> 0:48:51.719 I didn't care what they say I did. 0:48:52.280 --> 0:48:53.839 I did what I want to do. And they'll tell 0:48:53.880 --> 0:48:56.680 you that even cherry works. All of they know I 0:48:56.760 --> 0:48:58.600 was gonna do what I told them, I wasn't coming. 0:48:58.680 --> 0:49:00.520 I wasn't coming to no more meetings. I told him, 0:49:00.719 --> 0:49:03.520 don't asked me to call in for these meetings because 0:49:03.560 --> 0:49:06.440 the meeting is all about singles, you know, And I 0:49:06.520 --> 0:49:08.520 would they want to hear here wherever I am. I 0:49:08.560 --> 0:49:10.640 supposed to call in and listen in the meeting. Now 0:49:10.640 --> 0:49:12.200 I got holding on the phone for an hour and 0:49:12.280 --> 0:49:14.479 they talking about nothing but singles. So that fissed me off. 0:49:14.800 --> 0:49:16.719 And I told Jerry Wesley and oh Im, look, man, 0:49:16.760 --> 0:49:18.759 I'm not gonna do no more me. I just send 0:49:18.800 --> 0:49:21.839 my reports in and that's what I started doing. But 0:49:21.840 --> 0:49:23.719 but but I had to put my foot down. Man, 0:49:23.760 --> 0:49:25.279 I had to put my foot down. Plus I was 0:49:25.320 --> 0:49:27.440 getting records place. So I got away with a lot 0:49:27.440 --> 0:49:27.880 of stuff. 0:49:28.600 --> 0:49:31.560 So what happened when Lee Abrams came along and he 0:49:31.640 --> 0:49:33.279 started to make playlifts, etc. 0:49:34.600 --> 0:49:36.600 Yeah, Lee Abras, I got to know him well, you know, 0:49:36.719 --> 0:49:39.839 but he did me a lot of favors. I loved 0:49:39.920 --> 0:49:43.120 Lee Abrams. He was a genius. Man. That was a 0:49:43.160 --> 0:49:44.400 different ball game. Man. You know. 0:49:44.600 --> 0:49:46.400 Now it's it getting to be a business, you know. 0:49:47.440 --> 0:49:51.120 So I did up until nineteen eighty One's last time 0:49:51.120 --> 0:49:53.239 I deal with radio stations. Thanked, every one was the 0:49:53.320 --> 0:49:57.240 last about radio stations. I stopped provoting records then, But uh, 0:49:57.360 --> 0:50:01.400 I did Rick James and Lee Abrams, I did all 0:50:01.760 --> 0:50:02.399 those did okay. 0:50:02.400 --> 0:50:04.320 So how did you meet Emerson Lincoln Palmer. 0:50:05.560 --> 0:50:09.080 I met them through their first manager when they was 0:50:09.120 --> 0:50:11.640 on the road the first tour. 0:50:11.480 --> 0:50:12.440 They did in America. 0:50:13.400 --> 0:50:17.400 I I went to I went on the road with 0:50:17.440 --> 0:50:19.640 them somewhere and then, and I got to know Gregor 0:50:19.719 --> 0:50:22.720 well and Gregy. I took him to the Diamond area 0:50:22.719 --> 0:50:25.799 in New York and they bought rings and shit, and 0:50:25.840 --> 0:50:27.400 I saw, I want the ring the great I said. 0:50:27.280 --> 0:50:28.960 Man, it's a nice ring. He said, you want one. 0:50:29.000 --> 0:50:30.480 So he caught me a ring and I still got 0:50:30.480 --> 0:50:32.520 it until the day with my name by initials on it, 0:50:32.760 --> 0:50:35.520 you know. But that was on the first tour, and uh, 0:50:35.640 --> 0:50:37.759 you know, I knew them all from the first tour, 0:50:37.800 --> 0:50:41.520 you know, before they before they started Mantagro. 0:50:41.680 --> 0:50:45.080 But all the records. I promoted every one of the 0:50:45.160 --> 0:50:46.239 records from the beginning, you know. 0:50:46.440 --> 0:50:48.759 And if the legend has it that they didn't want 0:50:48.800 --> 0:50:51.520 to put out pictures at an exhibition in America, and 0:50:51.520 --> 0:50:52.439 you convinced. 0:50:52.080 --> 0:50:53.480 That right, right right. 0:50:53.480 --> 0:50:57.440 They didn't want to put pictures Atlantic, didn't want to 0:50:57.440 --> 0:50:59.959 put it on Atlantic, and they wanted first they wanted 0:51:00.480 --> 0:51:04.640 give it to a done search for Electra and you know, 0:51:05.200 --> 0:51:06.600 and then they said, well, man. 0:51:06.480 --> 0:51:09.000 We we can't put it out, you know, we'll none search. 0:51:09.040 --> 0:51:09.239 You know. 0:51:09.360 --> 0:51:12.239 No, man, look, this record is gonna be a hit, 0:51:12.600 --> 0:51:14.399 added till Arm. But it's gonna be it you're doing. 0:51:14.440 --> 0:51:16.920 They were all contillion anyway back then, you know. So 0:51:17.080 --> 0:51:19.560 in any way, they put the record out and and 0:51:19.760 --> 0:51:22.640 we sold a median Records in about two months, you know. 0:51:23.239 --> 0:51:25.400 And and that really because they said it's too classical. 0:51:25.440 --> 0:51:27.040 That's what That's what Amah was saying, this is a 0:51:27.080 --> 0:51:31.440 classical record. And they were really upset, Steve, especially Keith Emerson. 0:51:31.920 --> 0:51:33.560 Keith were a little hurt because you know, he's a 0:51:33.600 --> 0:51:38.759 classical genius. And uh, once that record came out, I 0:51:38.800 --> 0:51:41.000 got to be really really tight with the management full 0:51:41.080 --> 0:51:44.520 Steward before before Stewart Young, they had another manager, but 0:51:44.520 --> 0:51:46.840 I got to be tagged with him because I was 0:51:46.880 --> 0:51:49.800 promoting those records, you know, And and they had. 0:51:49.680 --> 0:51:52.399 Like a jazz that they appreciated jazz as well. 0:51:52.440 --> 0:51:56.880 And I got really Keith and and uh Carl. It 0:51:56.920 --> 0:52:00.279 was jazz enthusiasts as well as classical, so I so 0:52:00.360 --> 0:52:01.719 I got to be really tight with them. 0:52:01.800 --> 0:52:03.640 So how did you end up running their label? 0:52:03.960 --> 0:52:07.840 When they were tired of dealing with Atlantic? They wanted 0:52:07.880 --> 0:52:10.920 to They wanted someone to run the label, and they 0:52:10.680 --> 0:52:12.840 they gave me all that I couldn't refuse. 0:52:12.880 --> 0:52:14.319 You know, I was. 0:52:14.400 --> 0:52:16.640 I was happy to get out of Atlanta because that's 0:52:16.719 --> 0:52:19.719 a big corporate thing. Now all of a sudden, you 0:52:19.800 --> 0:52:22.759 gotta you gotta they got you gotta report the stockholes 0:52:22.840 --> 0:52:25.000 and stuff, and they cutting down and you can't do this. 0:52:25.120 --> 0:52:25.839 You can't do this. 0:52:26.280 --> 0:52:28.680 You can't fly first class, you can't do ahole lot 0:52:28.680 --> 0:52:30.840 of stuff that they tell you can't do. You know, 0:52:30.880 --> 0:52:33.680 you got to have a receiver. You're painting that all 0:52:33.719 --> 0:52:36.799 the work. When I'm out there at night, going to 0:52:36.840 --> 0:52:39.480 bed at uh four in the morning, they tell me 0:52:39.520 --> 0:52:40.560 I gotta sign in. 0:52:41.400 --> 0:52:42.239 Can you imagine? 0:52:42.520 --> 0:52:44.759 I said, if I can sign out, I'll sign in. 0:52:44.840 --> 0:52:47.759 You understand, you know what I'm saying. If I can 0:52:47.800 --> 0:52:49.799 sign out when you're at home with your wife and 0:52:49.840 --> 0:52:51.839 I'm on the road with He's band, I'll sign in. 0:52:51.920 --> 0:52:53.799 That's what I said, So that was one of the 0:52:53.800 --> 0:52:55.880 things I didn't call to care for. But at the 0:52:55.920 --> 0:52:57.719 same time, you know, they didn't bother me. They let 0:52:57.800 --> 0:52:59.560 me do what I wanted to do, and I continue 0:52:59.600 --> 0:53:01.440 to do like I did. I came in when I 0:53:01.440 --> 0:53:03.839 got rid of you know, because I'd have been out 0:53:03.880 --> 0:53:05.640 halving the night with some band if I just come 0:53:05.680 --> 0:53:07.200 in at full in the afternoon. 0:53:07.200 --> 0:53:08.600 You have to you have to put up with that. 0:53:08.600 --> 0:53:09.520 That was the deal, you know. 0:53:09.920 --> 0:53:12.400 So how did it work out at Manicore? 0:53:13.520 --> 0:53:15.160 Oh? It was Madico was fantastic. 0:53:15.160 --> 0:53:18.440 Man The only thing we just if I hadn't known 0:53:18.480 --> 0:53:20.120 that they were arguing with each other before, I didn't 0:53:20.120 --> 0:53:21.720 know they didn't get along with each other that well. 0:53:22.239 --> 0:53:25.799 But if they'd have done one tour a year, that 0:53:25.880 --> 0:53:28.080 coming could have stayed together. But you know, the whole trip. 0:53:28.120 --> 0:53:29.680 If they wanted to sign an accent, they don't know, 0:53:29.719 --> 0:53:31.200 and they don't even want to tour. And then when 0:53:31.239 --> 0:53:34.440 he decided to tour, they want to have a band, 0:53:34.520 --> 0:53:37.080 have a they want to tour with a full orchestra. 0:53:37.160 --> 0:53:39.759 You know, you can't make any money doing that, you know. 0:53:40.440 --> 0:53:43.080 So that was the main downfall of it. It wasn't 0:53:43.760 --> 0:53:47.799 the music as far as ELP was concerned, they were 0:53:47.960 --> 0:53:52.320 smash but you know they put out acts by other accidents, 0:53:52.800 --> 0:53:53.800 you got to try to break it. 0:53:53.840 --> 0:53:54.920 I end up signing. 0:53:55.000 --> 0:53:59.160 Uh Bruce's Image because I wanted something that I could 0:53:59.239 --> 0:54:04.279 believe in Blues Image and uh and uh you know, 0:54:04.360 --> 0:54:07.520 I knew Mike Preneur from back then. And I also 0:54:07.560 --> 0:54:09.920 sound a little richer to the label because I had 0:54:09.960 --> 0:54:11.799 to have something that I could believe in. I didn't 0:54:11.800 --> 0:54:14.239 particular it, believe in all the other some of the 0:54:14.280 --> 0:54:16.040 other stuff they had. But at the same time, you 0:54:16.080 --> 0:54:17.600 try to do the best you can. 0:54:18.160 --> 0:54:20.000 But EOP was the backbone of that. 0:54:20.160 --> 0:54:23.200 You know, Okay, but if you were a promotion person, 0:54:23.239 --> 0:54:24.720 how did you know how to run the label. 0:54:26.239 --> 0:54:27.560 I knew how to run the label because I was 0:54:27.560 --> 0:54:28.200 a businessman. 0:54:28.680 --> 0:54:30.840 First of all. It wasn't just promotion. You know, you 0:54:30.920 --> 0:54:32.399 got to be a businessman to run the labor. 0:54:32.760 --> 0:54:33.120 I knew. 0:54:33.160 --> 0:54:35.399 I knew all about publicity. I knew about everything. Plus 0:54:35.440 --> 0:54:37.799 I hired secretaries that did do stuff for. 0:54:37.719 --> 0:54:40.400 Me when I was away. But I promoted. Promotion was 0:54:40.440 --> 0:54:41.239 the most important thing. 0:54:41.239 --> 0:54:43.600 As far as getting records on radio, we had a 0:54:43.600 --> 0:54:48.040 band called PFM was from an Italian band Premioto Frondia 0:54:48.120 --> 0:54:51.360 Marconi was and It and Italy they were like the Beatles, 0:54:51.360 --> 0:54:51.560 you know. 0:54:52.280 --> 0:54:53.520 So we came over here. 0:54:53.840 --> 0:54:56.680 And uh we ended up going to Motown with them, 0:54:56.719 --> 0:54:58.799 and they put out albums, you know, and we did 0:54:58.800 --> 0:55:02.360 a live album and they broke as far as American concern, 0:55:02.400 --> 0:55:05.759 but it wasn't a big big seller. But they were 0:55:05.800 --> 0:55:08.040 still selling. Lack of manager, I mean, and Italy. You know, 0:55:08.840 --> 0:55:11.040 everything you put out over there was gold record for them. 0:55:11.560 --> 0:55:14.160 But you know, it was difficult as far as the 0:55:14.280 --> 0:55:18.360 acts that that that Keith and Greg them were signing. 0:55:18.840 --> 0:55:22.560 They were signing stuff that they like, you know, some 0:55:22.920 --> 0:55:25.719 artistics to Pete SimPEL was a great lyricist. But I 0:55:25.840 --> 0:55:27.560 knew I wasn't going to be able to sell those records, 0:55:27.560 --> 0:55:27.799 you know. 0:55:28.960 --> 0:55:31.279 So what ultimately killed the band. 0:55:32.160 --> 0:55:33.759 They didn't get along with each other. That's what killed 0:55:33.800 --> 0:55:35.440 the band. They didn't get along with each other. 0:55:35.480 --> 0:55:35.680 You know. 0:55:36.400 --> 0:55:40.399 They just didn't want to They didn't want to tour. Man, 0:55:40.400 --> 0:55:43.319 you got to have three limos, you know, and they 0:55:43.360 --> 0:55:48.800 wanted first of all, they wanted to tour with an orchestra, 0:55:49.400 --> 0:55:51.279 which you got, like I don't know how many people 0:55:51.320 --> 0:55:55.239 in the orchestra, but just every city you got to 0:55:55.280 --> 0:55:57.680 have an orchestra, you got to travel with that. That 0:55:57.800 --> 0:56:01.040 alone was was difficult for a store and myself to 0:56:01.719 --> 0:56:03.600 relate to the band. They did a couple of cities 0:56:03.600 --> 0:56:05.960 with the band like that, and we lost money, but 0:56:06.040 --> 0:56:09.359 you know, like, hey, you lose money, you're not gonna 0:56:09.360 --> 0:56:09.880 be in business. 0:56:09.960 --> 0:56:12.759 Loan. But that was the main downfall that. 0:56:13.400 --> 0:56:16.359 But the band as a whole was still popular as 0:56:16.360 --> 0:56:18.879 the Beatles over here at that time. You know, they 0:56:18.880 --> 0:56:24.279 could play anything. If they played the California Jam, I 0:56:24.320 --> 0:56:27.200 think it and they and they, and the place was 0:56:27.280 --> 0:56:30.880 sold out. Man, it's like Woodstock. Yeah, I mean unbelievable. 0:56:30.880 --> 0:56:31.640 They killed it. 0:56:31.719 --> 0:56:31.839 Man. 0:56:31.880 --> 0:56:33.799 I don't even know if anybody ever recorded that, but 0:56:33.880 --> 0:56:37.000 that was a great show. They had this spinning piano, 0:56:37.160 --> 0:56:40.840 you know, the piano that spins. Keith to get on 0:56:40.840 --> 0:56:43.560 the piano that spins earth Winding Fire was on that 0:56:43.680 --> 0:56:47.320 tour as well. And the next morning after that show, 0:56:48.320 --> 0:56:51.560 Maurice White came to my hotel room and asked me, hey, man, 0:56:51.960 --> 0:56:56.319 where did you all get that spinis piano? So I 0:56:56.400 --> 0:56:59.440 turned him on to keep and they got the spinding 0:56:59.480 --> 0:57:03.040 piano for when the fire That's how they got you know, man. 0:57:03.120 --> 0:57:07.560 It was ELP was innovators, man, I mean, and and 0:57:07.800 --> 0:57:10.200 uh Keith Emerson. 0:57:10.239 --> 0:57:13.400 Man, I had so many keyboard players coming to me 0:57:13.520 --> 0:57:16.040 about Keith Emerson. Man, you know, they just idolized the 0:57:16.160 --> 0:57:19.240 guy from Bernard Warrell from Fukadelic, that was one of 0:57:19.280 --> 0:57:23.400 his favorite guys. It was amazing, man, because he did 0:57:23.440 --> 0:57:25.480 that move with him and Steven Wonder was the guys 0:57:25.520 --> 0:57:28.840 on the move back in those days. And Keith took 0:57:28.880 --> 0:57:31.280 the move on stage and played it, you know, like 0:57:31.320 --> 0:57:35.400 as part of his instrument and Keith and uh Steven 0:57:35.440 --> 0:57:38.120 want to end up using the move as well, the 0:57:38.160 --> 0:57:41.520 same guys as Keith was using on his album. But man, 0:57:41.560 --> 0:57:43.480 that that was some great days. I look back at 0:57:43.480 --> 0:57:45.640 those days, man, those fantastic days. 0:57:45.880 --> 0:57:49.280 What about Phil Walden in the Almond Brothers. 0:57:49.840 --> 0:57:54.600 Oh yeah, I love Feelings and uh Frank Finer. You know, man, 0:57:54.680 --> 0:57:56.160 let me tell you Dwayne Alman. 0:57:56.800 --> 0:57:59.880 I knew Dwayne when he was Skydog, you know, when 0:57:59.880 --> 0:58:02.280 he was come to New York to play on Reretha Franklin. 0:58:02.400 --> 0:58:04.760 I was payroll clerk, so. 0:58:04.720 --> 0:58:07.640 I got to know got to know Dwayne real well, 0:58:08.120 --> 0:58:09.520 you know, because when he first come up. 0:58:09.560 --> 0:58:10.880 You know, you got to give me the W two 0:58:10.880 --> 0:58:11.480 and another fan. 0:58:12.120 --> 0:58:13.959 And he wanted to go to Halem, so I would 0:58:13.960 --> 0:58:16.320 take him to places and you know, and he sit 0:58:16.440 --> 0:58:18.560 in a jam and I turned him onto King Curtis 0:58:18.600 --> 0:58:20.680 because King was on the session with but he didn't 0:58:20.680 --> 0:58:23.640 know King, but I knew King well. So we hung out, Me, 0:58:23.840 --> 0:58:26.560 King and Dwayne all we all hung out together after 0:58:26.600 --> 0:58:29.200 those after they did those sessions with the Reaper, and 0:58:29.320 --> 0:58:31.800 Dwayne said, well, Mari, you know, man, I'm gonna have 0:58:32.040 --> 0:58:33.200 my own band soon. 0:58:33.240 --> 0:58:35.360 You know it's gonna be a mother man. You know 0:58:35.760 --> 0:58:38.280 I have been gonna be the band's man. I said, okay, Man, 0:58:38.400 --> 0:58:40.200 I didn't know it's gonna be the All Brothers band. 0:58:40.400 --> 0:58:42.320 But when he all of a sudden he covered All 0:58:42.400 --> 0:58:45.720 Brothers band. It's on Capricorn, but they were distributed by 0:58:45.760 --> 0:58:49.160 Warner Bros. But I was so tight with Dwayne. I 0:58:49.160 --> 0:58:52.400 would promote their record, you know, and I and I 0:58:52.440 --> 0:58:55.080 knew Phil Walden and Frank Crunter very well. 0:58:55.400 --> 0:58:57.240 So I would always promote to all my brothers. 0:58:57.400 --> 0:58:59.400 And I went on the road with them when they 0:58:59.400 --> 0:59:03.440 were driving, had a Winnabago, and I would I wouldn't 0:59:03.480 --> 0:59:05.040 ride in Winnebago. But I would to meet him in 0:59:05.520 --> 0:59:08.000 towns and they were into Winnebago and they said, man, 0:59:08.480 --> 0:59:10.960 well we'd be rally and they thought that was like 0:59:11.160 --> 0:59:13.200 high living because you know, the just this is when 0:59:13.240 --> 0:59:13.720 they stopped. 0:59:13.920 --> 0:59:15.600 Oh man, we got a own man we ride. 0:59:15.640 --> 0:59:18.200 We'd be looking out the windows going across Golden Gate brick, 0:59:18.600 --> 0:59:18.800 you know. 0:59:18.920 --> 0:59:21.280 And that was when they first started out. Man, and 0:59:21.320 --> 0:59:23.760 I loved those guys. I used to go to the 0:59:23.800 --> 0:59:25.760 picnics that they had every summer. You know. 0:59:25.960 --> 0:59:29.240 It was like, hey, man, I mean it's just so 0:59:29.320 --> 0:59:31.840 many stories about all my brothers and Dwayne Almond. You know, 0:59:32.960 --> 0:59:36.160 Dwayne was just really really like a brother to me. Man. 0:59:36.200 --> 0:59:38.560 You know, we hung out and played music. The guy 0:59:38.680 --> 0:59:39.160 played music. 0:59:39.240 --> 0:59:42.160 I was taken to the blues clubs in the ghetto 0:59:42.720 --> 0:59:44.320 and he's sitting with these guys. 0:59:44.880 --> 0:59:46.760 I remember when we was in Atlanta once. 0:59:47.360 --> 0:59:51.920 I took Dwayne to see Barbara du Blaan, right, and 0:59:51.920 --> 0:59:54.640 it's in Atlanta and the Dead and the ghetto. Man 0:59:54.440 --> 0:59:57.080 in a club, you know, cut throw club. But I 0:59:57.160 --> 0:59:59.320 get a limbo and I tell Dwayne bring your guitar. 0:59:59.600 --> 1:00:01.880 I said, look, man, bring your guitar. So he brings 1:00:01.920 --> 1:00:03.800 the guitar and we go into the club. You know, 1:00:03.880 --> 1:00:06.240 I knew the guy at the club. So we go 1:00:06.240 --> 1:00:09.200 in the club and Bobby Blue Blander is singer. You know, 1:00:09.280 --> 1:00:10.400 Bobby is a Mama Jones. 1:00:10.680 --> 1:00:13.640 So I'd go to I do Barble's I said, Boba, man, boy, 1:00:13.640 --> 1:00:18.080 he played like Elmo James. So Joyne got up there 1:00:18.080 --> 1:00:20.840 and played and played that bottle neck and ship and 1:00:20.960 --> 1:00:21.960 just wore it out. 1:00:22.000 --> 1:00:25.000 Man, whoa whoa wa the club out of all the 1:00:25.040 --> 1:00:28.800 holes in the piencils hollering in can on and he 1:00:28.920 --> 1:00:32.400 playing one wo wow anything whoy and uh and you know, 1:00:33.160 --> 1:00:37.720 baba bana, you know how y'all man look that night 1:00:37.840 --> 1:00:38.560 was Mama Jes. 1:00:38.640 --> 1:00:41.400 So after after they finished playing, we had the dreads room, 1:00:41.760 --> 1:00:44.479 Dwayne walked over with Bobby Pan said, man, you better 1:00:44.480 --> 1:00:50.960 get your ship together because my brother coming after your. 1:00:51.320 --> 1:00:51.560 Man. 1:00:52.160 --> 1:00:54.800 That was that was I thought I that. 1:00:55.280 --> 1:00:57.800 He told Bob Blue playing that, and he ended up 1:00:57.920 --> 1:00:59.720 meeting Greg and they got to be good buddies. 1:00:59.760 --> 1:01:03.200 Man Gregg idolized about group lay. But when Duayne, I said, man, 1:01:03.200 --> 1:01:04.640 you can't tell you to hell man, I just had 1:01:04.640 --> 1:01:05.600 to tell him. I had to tell it. 1:01:06.000 --> 1:01:08.160 But boy, that that's the type of stuff that Dwayne 1:01:08.280 --> 1:01:11.360 and you know, like, hey, man, now I love that guy. 1:01:11.400 --> 1:01:14.400 Man he you know when they when he when he 1:01:14.680 --> 1:01:19.800 uh when when they played the Boston Commons once and 1:01:20.040 --> 1:01:23.720 after Boston Commons, I take limo, I'm going to New 1:01:23.800 --> 1:01:26.480 York because we're going. I'm going to King Curtis funeral now, right, 1:01:26.480 --> 1:01:28.000 So Dwayne Wan, I said, well, come on, man, go 1:01:28.040 --> 1:01:28.240 with me. 1:01:28.280 --> 1:01:30.919 I'm going to the funeral. So Dwayne come. 1:01:31.160 --> 1:01:33.680 We we get off of the airport at LaGuardia and 1:01:34.080 --> 1:01:36.200 I go to my house to put myself down there, 1:01:36.240 --> 1:01:36.920 and I said. 1:01:36.680 --> 1:01:38.680 Man, I got it. We're gonna go to the funeral after. 1:01:38.760 --> 1:01:40.080 So we we both go to. 1:01:40.040 --> 1:01:44.000 The General man at at at Reverend whatever was Riverside Church, 1:01:44.960 --> 1:01:47.520 Jesse Jackson gave the obituary and stuff, and Dwayne is 1:01:47.520 --> 1:01:49.840 sitting there with me, and Dwayne said, man, that was 1:01:49.880 --> 1:01:52.120 a nice service man, you know, like you don't mind 1:01:52.200 --> 1:01:53.880 down you have appreciate us a ship. 1:01:54.320 --> 1:01:57.240 You know. I don't know, hey about Dan, I don't 1:01:57.240 --> 1:01:58.120 care about you know. 1:01:58.200 --> 1:02:01.200 But anyway, maybe about two weeks a month later, man, 1:02:01.240 --> 1:02:03.240 he died. When that messed me up completely, I was 1:02:03.680 --> 1:02:05.960 I couldn't even go to the own brother to his funeral. 1:02:06.000 --> 1:02:08.200 Man because of that. It was but you know, like 1:02:08.240 --> 1:02:11.520 that was that those two guys, King Curtis and Dwayne Man. 1:02:11.600 --> 1:02:14.880 He was like, we're really tight. And they passed and 1:02:15.080 --> 1:02:18.040 just a month or so later he's he's out. You know, 1:02:18.520 --> 1:02:20.400 he died like a month so and an after that, 1:02:20.480 --> 1:02:25.560 I go to to UH to Capricorn's picnic. After Dwayne 1:02:25.560 --> 1:02:28.560 had passed. I went to the picnic that summer and Bo, 1:02:28.680 --> 1:02:33.200 who was the bass player, was was just tore up. 1:02:33.440 --> 1:02:35.960 It was just depressed as the devil. Only one in 1:02:36.000 --> 1:02:39.320 the band that just could not function because Dwayne had passed, 1:02:39.360 --> 1:02:41.479 you know. And I said, I said, b O, what's somebody? 1:02:41.480 --> 1:02:43.640 He said, Man, I don't know if I can continue 1:02:43.680 --> 1:02:47.760 without without Dwayne. And then he ended up dying about 1:02:47.760 --> 1:02:51.120 a year later or so. You know, but I'm just saying, man, 1:02:51.160 --> 1:02:51.760 that that was. 1:02:51.800 --> 1:02:54.480 That was. That was though. That band was just one 1:02:54.560 --> 1:02:55.240 of my favorites. 1:02:55.280 --> 1:02:58.400 Man, all my brothers, Jay Gulls and Rollerstone, that Zeppelin, 1:02:58.400 --> 1:03:01.520 those four I would fight fight averybody else. 1:03:01.720 --> 1:03:06.960 Okay, weren't you with the famous gig in Buffalo where 1:03:07.240 --> 1:03:11.360 Twigs took out the night told me that story. 1:03:11.760 --> 1:03:15.440 Well, look, I didn't see him. I was at the gig, right, 1:03:15.560 --> 1:03:17.320 So we come back. They on the bus and I 1:03:17.360 --> 1:03:19.680 had always rent a car, right, so I was on 1:03:19.760 --> 1:03:20.200 the bus. 1:03:20.240 --> 1:03:22.280 You know. We go to the bus with smokes, some 1:03:22.360 --> 1:03:23.880 joints now Twigs. 1:03:24.120 --> 1:03:26.000 They said, man, they don't want to pay us, you know, 1:03:26.040 --> 1:03:28.400 they told Twigg guy, don't want to pay us. They 1:03:28.480 --> 1:03:31.520 had get the back end, you know. I there wasn't 1:03:31.560 --> 1:03:34.280 no one maybe about five hundred dollars whatever. It was 1:03:35.080 --> 1:03:36.920 this my heels a guy, Damn, we ain't paying you 1:03:37.640 --> 1:03:42.360 hip nothing And twigxcept let me go back and see 1:03:42.400 --> 1:03:44.800 if I can get it. He went back in there, 1:03:46.360 --> 1:03:48.400 and man, I don't know what happened, but I know 1:03:48.480 --> 1:03:51.680 he killed it, you know. And and next thing we know, 1:03:51.760 --> 1:03:54.000 we police and everything. 1:03:53.640 --> 1:03:56.760 You know, and it was Twigs. 1:03:56.840 --> 1:03:59.080 Twigs you know, was a was a was a x 1:03:59.160 --> 1:04:02.040 GI X paratrooper from from from Vietnam. 1:04:02.800 --> 1:04:06.360 You know. He he didn't take no, he didn't take nothing. 1:04:06.400 --> 1:04:08.680 But you know, Bill Waller supported him all while he 1:04:08.720 --> 1:04:11.240 was in jail though, and when he got out, he 1:04:11.320 --> 1:04:12.959 got their job right back with the band. 1:04:14.280 --> 1:04:14.440 You know. 1:04:15.760 --> 1:04:18.240 Okay, what was it like being the black guy in 1:04:18.280 --> 1:04:19.480 a white rock world? 1:04:20.400 --> 1:04:24.480 Man. You know, I must admit they accepted me so well. 1:04:24.520 --> 1:04:28.000 And and all those rock bands had more trouble in 1:04:28.040 --> 1:04:30.400 the South than I did because they had long hair. 1:04:31.520 --> 1:04:33.800 Because they had long hair and there was hippies, they 1:04:33.880 --> 1:04:38.080 got more trouble than not it so, you know, I 1:04:38.160 --> 1:04:40.800 mean like they hated they hated hippies. And then all 1:04:40.840 --> 1:04:42.480 of a sudden, they're not there with a nigga lover, 1:04:42.600 --> 1:04:44.480 you know they call him. They would call them all 1:04:44.560 --> 1:04:46.880 kinds of the day. I mean, I remember we got 1:04:46.880 --> 1:04:49.720 off the plane one time and I don't know what 1:04:49.960 --> 1:04:53.040 city was, our little rock of Pine Bluff, whatever the 1:04:53.040 --> 1:04:55.680 city was. We get off the plane. I'm with all 1:04:55.720 --> 1:04:57.640 my brothers and we get off the plane. We're the 1:04:57.680 --> 1:04:59.800 first people off the plane. That means we must be 1:04:59.800 --> 1:05:02.760 in class. Were getting off and were walking till the 1:05:02.800 --> 1:05:04.360 because back then you would get out. He had to 1:05:04.400 --> 1:05:07.440 walk the flight line to the So we walking. Here 1:05:07.480 --> 1:05:11.160 come a guy in a fucklift calling them faggots and 1:05:11.200 --> 1:05:16.840 so on, and had listen and and uh, uh, what's. 1:05:16.600 --> 1:05:18.000 The guitar players? Uh? 1:05:20.080 --> 1:05:21.760 Dicky Bett, Dicky Bett. 1:05:21.880 --> 1:05:24.400 Dickie was the counting guy too, you know. And Dickie 1:05:24.400 --> 1:05:26.080 getting me, I said, look, dick let me talk to him. 1:05:27.800 --> 1:05:29.200 So of course they don't want to talk to no 1:05:29.320 --> 1:05:31.280 black guy, you know, So I walk. I said, Man, 1:05:31.320 --> 1:05:33.520 I don't know why you're talking about these guys. You 1:05:33.640 --> 1:05:36.840 out here driving a fuck lift and they're the first 1:05:36.920 --> 1:05:37.720 guys off the plane. 1:05:37.720 --> 1:05:39.400 They must they can buy your ass. 1:05:39.520 --> 1:05:42.600 I don't know why you and these guys felt so 1:05:42.720 --> 1:05:46.600 bad because the black guys is reading the reading about 1:05:47.480 --> 1:05:49.680 and that means the black guy was riding the first 1:05:49.680 --> 1:05:50.240 plass too. 1:05:50.600 --> 1:05:51.720 So they drove on off it. 1:05:52.200 --> 1:05:55.200 And uh, Gregg said, man, I'm glad you did that, 1:05:55.240 --> 1:05:57.200 because Dickie would have got us all in trouble because 1:05:57.200 --> 1:05:59.040 they had got in jail before for fighting, you know, 1:06:00.120 --> 1:06:00.600 up with time. 1:06:01.000 --> 1:06:04.120 So anyway, it was just a lot of cartoons things 1:06:04.160 --> 1:06:04.480 back then. 1:06:04.520 --> 1:06:07.120 Because okay, so, but in your life, to what degree 1:06:07.160 --> 1:06:09.200 have you encountered racism? 1:06:10.080 --> 1:06:10.240 Oh? 1:06:10.240 --> 1:06:13.840 Well, I I was born in Mississippi, born in Mississippi 1:06:14.080 --> 1:06:17.520 and raised in nineteen forty one. I lived there for 1:06:17.840 --> 1:06:22.040 seventeen years. For sixteen, well sixteen years, I went to 1:06:22.120 --> 1:06:23.880 high school there. Now every summer I would go to 1:06:24.000 --> 1:06:26.160 Chicago because my mother and father was there, so you know, 1:06:26.200 --> 1:06:29.960 I was raised around all that racism. And segregation and 1:06:31.520 --> 1:06:32.120 Jim Crow. 1:06:32.720 --> 1:06:35.320 So you know it, you know, you live with it, 1:06:35.400 --> 1:06:37.360 but you gotta have you got to have. 1:06:38.240 --> 1:06:40.440 My parents was respected by all the people in that 1:06:40.480 --> 1:06:42.920 particular town, so I never had no problem. 1:06:42.960 --> 1:06:45.880 I even worked in the grocery store. And even though you. 1:06:45.840 --> 1:06:49.040 Know, when Emmitt Till got killed, that was the same 1:06:49.080 --> 1:06:51.280 age I was, and was about thirty miles away from 1:06:51.280 --> 1:06:54.800 where I lived, and he was the same age I was, 1:06:54.880 --> 1:06:56.480 you know, and he was from Chicago, come down for 1:06:56.520 --> 1:06:58.640 the summer, just like all the cats in the Mississippi. 1:06:58.640 --> 1:07:00.480 I have kids come down the summer. 1:07:00.920 --> 1:07:03.000 So I mean, you live all around all of that, 1:07:03.120 --> 1:07:04.960 you see it, but you have to deal with it, man, 1:07:04.960 --> 1:07:07.560 because back then, what the fuck could you do? You know, 1:07:08.240 --> 1:07:10.640 But as long as they didn't bother my family, because 1:07:10.640 --> 1:07:14.080 my grandfather was highly respected by the sheriff and everybody 1:07:14.080 --> 1:07:17.440 in that city, and he worked for like the wealthiest 1:07:17.840 --> 1:07:21.960 I guess a man in town, so he had a 1:07:21.960 --> 1:07:25.640 lot of cloud and my grandmother, you know, worked for 1:07:25.760 --> 1:07:30.440 the did all the cleaning of the rest the lawyers offices, 1:07:30.840 --> 1:07:32.360 the dentist offices and stuff. 1:07:32.640 --> 1:07:34.320 So I got to know all the people in that. 1:07:34.280 --> 1:07:36.960 Town as far as the business people because of my 1:07:37.000 --> 1:07:40.320 grandmother and my grandfather. So I could walk to I 1:07:40.360 --> 1:07:44.600 could be walking across the square like at midnight, and 1:07:44.960 --> 1:07:47.919 they have all those kids out there messing with people. 1:07:47.960 --> 1:07:50.240 They never bothered me. So, well that's Tom meet his grandson, 1:07:50.280 --> 1:07:51.480 you know, and let me go through. 1:07:51.800 --> 1:07:53.880 So I had that type of respect, even though it 1:07:53.920 --> 1:07:57.280 was still horrible, you know, but I didn't have any 1:07:57.320 --> 1:07:58.320 personal problem with it. 1:07:59.360 --> 1:08:01.480 Well, you went to a segregated school. 1:08:02.240 --> 1:08:05.520 Yeah, I went to Thank Thanks Schools, segregated high school. 1:08:05.880 --> 1:08:08.120 And we got the books after the white casts finished 1:08:08.160 --> 1:08:11.560 with them, you know. But the teachers we had all 1:08:11.640 --> 1:08:13.240 came from up north, you know, because it was like 1:08:13.520 --> 1:08:19.519 our a rated school. Mary McCloud Bethune, you know Mary mcleoud, 1:08:19.880 --> 1:08:22.479 she was like a consultant to the president's back then, 1:08:22.520 --> 1:08:24.200 but she spoke at that school. You know, she was 1:08:24.240 --> 1:08:28.200 a high They respected our teacher and educator back then. 1:08:28.240 --> 1:08:29.880 But she came to that school that I was going 1:08:29.920 --> 1:08:33.880 to school at. And and and also they had choir 1:08:34.040 --> 1:08:38.320 and musicians. Music was like music and it was it 1:08:38.360 --> 1:08:41.719 was a religious school, you know, a sanctified school. Singing 1:08:42.080 --> 1:08:45.559 and uh, the band was very important and they went 1:08:45.600 --> 1:08:48.880 all over America with the bus with singers and sung 1:08:49.000 --> 1:08:50.919 all over America to raise money. 1:08:50.720 --> 1:08:52.360 For the school. That's what they would go and sing, 1:08:52.400 --> 1:08:53.880 you know, at different churches. 1:08:54.000 --> 1:08:56.120 And they did it all all the time while I 1:08:56.160 --> 1:08:58.000 was at That's how they raised money for the school. 1:08:58.320 --> 1:09:01.400 And they had a the this president of the school 1:09:01.400 --> 1:09:04.200 with doctor Malock and on. They had a May Day 1:09:04.280 --> 1:09:06.759 parade that went all over the town of that city 1:09:07.400 --> 1:09:09.479 where all the white people and everybody come out to 1:09:09.479 --> 1:09:10.160 see these parade. 1:09:10.160 --> 1:09:12.759 They all addressed up with kings and queens and all floats. 1:09:13.240 --> 1:09:15.439 And they had that every year, like in the first 1:09:15.520 --> 1:09:18.920 first week in make and they got highly respected. But 1:09:18.960 --> 1:09:21.160 at the same time, it's still the South, you know, 1:09:22.520 --> 1:09:25.640 so you deal with it under the circumstances, just as 1:09:25.680 --> 1:09:28.360 long as you get respect, you know. And because that 1:09:28.479 --> 1:09:31.240 school was buying so much from the city, you know, 1:09:31.439 --> 1:09:33.960 because they bought all the groceries for all those kids. 1:09:34.600 --> 1:09:37.920 Kids came from all over America as a boarding school. 1:09:38.439 --> 1:09:41.839 So it was very very helpful as far as education 1:09:41.920 --> 1:09:43.960 and a rated school as far as the black school. 1:09:43.960 --> 1:09:45.880 You know. 1:09:51.960 --> 1:09:54.639 So what's this South like for black men today? 1:09:55.360 --> 1:09:57.680 I haven't the slightest idea. I haven't been there in 1:09:57.720 --> 1:09:58.559 fifty years. 1:09:58.760 --> 1:10:00.240 So you live in Florida. 1:10:00.560 --> 1:10:04.559 Yeah, I live abroad US. That's not like Mississippis. I mean, 1:10:04.600 --> 1:10:07.200 I still got I still got relatives and living in Mississippi. 1:10:07.439 --> 1:10:09.120 I've been there once in forty years. 1:10:09.120 --> 1:10:12.320 You know now that I have nothing against him, you know, 1:10:12.360 --> 1:10:14.040 but they all know how I feel about it. You know, 1:10:14.120 --> 1:10:18.719 I got my grandmother had like four hundred acres down there. 1:10:19.080 --> 1:10:21.479 She died and she left acres to all of the kids. 1:10:21.479 --> 1:10:23.000 I told him, what you mind, you can give it 1:10:23.000 --> 1:10:24.600 to one of somebody else. I didn't even want to 1:10:24.640 --> 1:10:27.000 go get it. So that's how I feel about I 1:10:27.040 --> 1:10:29.280 still I still have no respect for Mississippi. 1:10:29.320 --> 1:10:31.479 I'm sorry, I have no respect for. 1:10:31.800 --> 1:10:33.759 How did you end up being named Mario? 1:10:35.000 --> 1:10:37.960 My father? I'm a junior, But. 1:10:37.960 --> 1:10:39.200 How was he named Mario? 1:10:40.680 --> 1:10:43.000 I guess he was a gangster. Then what was his name? 1:10:43.080 --> 1:10:43.559 Was Marion? 1:10:43.680 --> 1:10:48.880 Marion, but everybody called him Mario. He was a gambler man, 1:10:48.880 --> 1:10:52.559 He was a gangster. He was a numbers man for 1:10:52.640 --> 1:10:55.200 the mafear in Chicago before he got busted. 1:10:56.520 --> 1:10:59.760 And you know, hey, he was one of a kind. 1:11:00.080 --> 1:11:02.600 In his junior was very difficult to following his footsteps. 1:11:02.600 --> 1:11:04.960 Man I'm telling you he was a tough guy to 1:11:05.000 --> 1:11:07.640 follow it. But and he was. And he was a 1:11:07.680 --> 1:11:08.240 smart guy. 1:11:08.320 --> 1:11:11.479 Vledictorian of his class when he graduated from high school, 1:11:11.760 --> 1:11:14.639 baseball player, gambler, all that stuff. 1:11:14.640 --> 1:11:14.840 You know. 1:11:14.880 --> 1:11:17.400 Back then they had the Black Baseball League, and he was. 1:11:17.560 --> 1:11:19.559 He played for one of those black team, Memphis Rest. 1:11:20.680 --> 1:11:23.519 And he was a baseball fanatic. My whole grandfather a 1:11:23.600 --> 1:11:27.840 baseball fanatic. But uh, he he was just one of 1:11:27.840 --> 1:11:29.839 his one of a kind man, I'm telling you honestly. 1:11:30.040 --> 1:11:32.080 And I learned a lot from him as far as 1:11:32.400 --> 1:11:34.960 how to deal with people. Most of the trash that 1:11:35.040 --> 1:11:36.840 he talked, most of the trash that I was talking 1:11:36.840 --> 1:11:38.920 when out voting records, I got it from him. 1:11:39.479 --> 1:11:39.720 You know. 1:11:40.120 --> 1:11:43.080 He used to always say, I wouldn't give a Mama gemma. 1:11:43.520 --> 1:11:46.880 You know he was talking about that, and I said, well, man, 1:11:47.120 --> 1:11:49.880 who did that? He said, I wouldn't care. 1:11:49.920 --> 1:11:52.360 It was Peter. We started up scaling Baylor and all 1:11:52.360 --> 1:11:53.000 the same with me. 1:11:54.160 --> 1:11:57.000 You know, he had to say he said, I wouldn't 1:11:57.000 --> 1:11:58.320 give a mash Mexican fly. 1:11:58.320 --> 1:12:01.640 For that jump. But he had like sings man that 1:12:01.760 --> 1:12:02.519 really stood out. 1:12:03.080 --> 1:12:05.560 And you know, he hung out with all the jazz musicians, 1:12:05.760 --> 1:12:07.280 and he used to gamble with him, you know, in 1:12:07.280 --> 1:12:10.759 the jazz and blue musicians on forty seventh Street in Chicago. 1:12:11.479 --> 1:12:14.599 We lived on fortieth in South Park, and that was 1:12:14.680 --> 1:12:17.240 seven blocks from the Regal Theater where we lived when 1:12:17.240 --> 1:12:19.519 I was growing up in Chicago. Every summer I go 1:12:19.600 --> 1:12:21.960 up there. I was seven blocks from the rigo, you 1:12:22.000 --> 1:12:23.960 know bb King and all ve playing the rigo. We 1:12:24.000 --> 1:12:26.160 would go up there and stay outside and listen to 1:12:26.240 --> 1:12:29.040 his kids, you know, when I was ten twelve years old, 1:12:29.120 --> 1:12:33.080 listened to and then my first rock concert that I 1:12:33.120 --> 1:12:37.200 went to was Chuck Berry and uh, I think I 1:12:37.240 --> 1:12:41.000 was about what I was about thirteen or fourteen, and 1:12:41.160 --> 1:12:45.360 my stepmother, I and the girl that lived above me. 1:12:45.439 --> 1:12:49.639 It was like my date name was Gladys. Me Gladys 1:12:49.640 --> 1:12:52.400 and my stepmother. We'd go into this. Just see Chuck 1:12:52.439 --> 1:12:55.280 Berry at the trianon Ballroom sixty second in Cottage grow 1:12:55.360 --> 1:12:56.000 up in Chicago. 1:12:56.640 --> 1:12:57.920 Now that's my first date. 1:12:57.760 --> 1:13:00.640 In life, you know, and I'm take this girl with 1:13:00.760 --> 1:13:02.920 my with my with my step mother. 1:13:03.320 --> 1:13:05.599 We go and Chuck barry Man was doing a roll over. 1:13:05.640 --> 1:13:08.280 Bit told him, you know, it got the old man 1:13:08.280 --> 1:13:10.439 and doing everything down and doing the chicken out of 1:13:10.479 --> 1:13:13.719 the duck hop and stuff. And it's all black people 1:13:13.760 --> 1:13:15.639 in there, you know. And they dressed to the tea 1:13:15.760 --> 1:13:18.639 man and you know, and and people dancing the car 1:13:18.640 --> 1:13:21.680 and only and one guy must have stepped on his 1:13:21.760 --> 1:13:26.000 pimp's foot. Now this is my first concert. Stepped on 1:13:26.120 --> 1:13:28.519 his foot and messed up his shoes and he pulled 1:13:28.560 --> 1:13:31.600 out his pistol and he and I saw the pistol. 1:13:32.080 --> 1:13:34.240 I was a civil pistol. You know, the white had 1:13:34.240 --> 1:13:35.360 a white an sivil pistol. 1:13:35.720 --> 1:13:38.080 I saw the pistol and the whole dance for a 1:13:38.200 --> 1:13:42.759 clear of course. I came there with my my step 1:13:42.800 --> 1:13:46.160 mother into my date. I was the first person out 1:13:46.200 --> 1:13:47.519 of it. I left them, you know, I left the 1:13:47.600 --> 1:13:48.520 date and everybody. 1:13:49.840 --> 1:13:53.200 I was standing outside when they came out. 1:13:53.560 --> 1:13:58.040 My my stepmother said, uh, they call me junr. You 1:13:58.080 --> 1:14:00.280 can't believe in your girlfriend. I said, she better learned 1:14:00.280 --> 1:14:04.000 to run because I saw that pistol. I saw that pistol. 1:14:04.400 --> 1:14:06.120 But you know, that's what I remember about Chuck Berry. 1:14:06.160 --> 1:14:09.240 That was my first concert man in life was Chuck Berry. 1:14:09.600 --> 1:14:11.080 And I had to run from that pistol. 1:14:11.120 --> 1:14:11.280 Man. 1:14:11.320 --> 1:14:13.880 I'll never forget that. And you know, and and I 1:14:13.960 --> 1:14:18.200 was always chasing the music all my life. Man Chuck Berry, 1:14:18.880 --> 1:14:21.040 I was pressing all those guys. Man, I was crazy 1:14:21.040 --> 1:14:24.760 about him growing up. And all those do off ben 1:14:24.840 --> 1:14:26.400 you know, you heard them on the radio. You know, 1:14:26.520 --> 1:14:30.759 even Johnny Cash even had that boy named Sue and stuff. 1:14:30.760 --> 1:14:32.439 But that's what we heard on the radio, you know. 1:14:32.479 --> 1:14:35.000 And late that night they at w l a C. 1:14:35.880 --> 1:14:38.840 Went down in Mississippily. You hear those heroes record, and 1:14:38.920 --> 1:14:39.559 I just was. 1:14:40.040 --> 1:14:43.000 I loved the music as a kid in the street 1:14:43.040 --> 1:14:45.160 that I was born and raised on the Mississippi was 1:14:45.240 --> 1:14:48.360 like Bill Street and Memphis they called it Bill Street 1:14:48.400 --> 1:14:51.559 because of all black juke joints. And I and my 1:14:51.560 --> 1:14:53.679 my grandmother had a beauty shop where I was born 1:14:53.680 --> 1:14:57.040 and raised in that beauty shop, next couple of doors 1:14:57.040 --> 1:15:00.200 down the juke joints, pool halls, and music is going 1:15:00.320 --> 1:15:02.759 all the time. As I was a kid right riding 1:15:02.760 --> 1:15:04.840 a little wagging up and down the street, I would 1:15:04.880 --> 1:15:08.280 hear that music, you know, Muddy Waters and and and 1:15:09.200 --> 1:15:12.080 all the cats, all the Chess records. I remember, I'll 1:15:12.120 --> 1:15:15.200 never get a treaty d all that stuff. La Verne 1:15:15.200 --> 1:15:20.120 Baker and I was Johanna. You know all that stuff 1:15:20.160 --> 1:15:22.840 that was Atlantic and Chess Records that that I was 1:15:22.880 --> 1:15:23.880 hearing all my life. 1:15:23.960 --> 1:15:26.080 Never knew I would ever work for Atlantic Records. 1:15:26.120 --> 1:15:28.640 Never knew I'd ever have a relationship with Chess, But 1:15:28.800 --> 1:15:32.719 those records was my When I first started collecting records 1:15:32.880 --> 1:15:35.840 was from those singles that they took off the juke 1:15:35.880 --> 1:15:37.960 box and those juke joints. I would get to know 1:15:38.000 --> 1:15:40.519 the guy who brings who put the new records on. 1:15:41.000 --> 1:15:43.200 And I was a little kid, and he knew he'd 1:15:43.240 --> 1:15:45.200 give me those singles, you know with the big holes 1:15:45.200 --> 1:15:47.680 in the middle. And I had those singles, man, And 1:15:47.760 --> 1:15:50.559 I bought me a little juke box, a little record player, 1:15:51.040 --> 1:15:52.479 and I'd get all those singles. 1:15:52.479 --> 1:15:52.639 Man. 1:15:52.680 --> 1:15:56.800 I got all those Chess records in Atlantic Records back then, 1:15:56.960 --> 1:16:00.120 and uh and the stuff from Marshall c On on 1:16:00.960 --> 1:16:03.680 all those records. I got those records as a as 1:16:03.720 --> 1:16:06.439 a kid man collecting them, you know. And I had 1:16:06.520 --> 1:16:08.519 him in those juke boxes. And I never had any 1:16:08.560 --> 1:16:11.120 idea about the record business. It just that I love music, 1:16:11.160 --> 1:16:15.080 you know. And Sonny Boy Williamson was another another another 1:16:15.960 --> 1:16:20.120 guy that was blues Cat that my grandfather used to 1:16:20.120 --> 1:16:23.880 blow harmonica and he said. He called me, junior, Junior, 1:16:24.520 --> 1:16:26.800 you gotta you gotta learn how to blow hop, you know. 1:16:27.280 --> 1:16:30.280 So he would get me a harmonica every Christmas and 1:16:30.400 --> 1:16:33.280 give me and I blow it. Man to my eyes, 1:16:33.400 --> 1:16:36.599 my eyes running water. I could never get it. And 1:16:36.640 --> 1:16:38.880 he would just grab it and just make it talk, well, mama, 1:16:39.000 --> 1:16:41.040 make it, make a cry, make it sound like a train. 1:16:41.760 --> 1:16:43.880 And I said, I said, Man, I said, I say. 1:16:44.040 --> 1:16:46.040 I said, I'd like Sonny Boy with me. He said, 1:16:46.120 --> 1:16:52.519 Sonny boy can't blow. That's what I mean. He's sunny boy. 1:16:52.600 --> 1:16:53.120 Can't blow. 1:16:53.200 --> 1:16:53.400 Man. 1:16:53.640 --> 1:16:57.240 He said, you got a junior. Well, you know, oh 1:16:57.320 --> 1:16:58.000 man he was. 1:16:58.040 --> 1:17:02.080 He was funny man. He had he was a cartoon. 1:17:02.160 --> 1:17:03.639 My grandfather was a classic man. 1:17:04.000 --> 1:17:06.240 So what did you do after you graduated from high school? 1:17:06.960 --> 1:17:09.200 When I graduate from high school, I took the bus 1:17:09.240 --> 1:17:13.080 to New York. But my grandmother and. 1:17:12.320 --> 1:17:14.719 We took the bus to New York, and I stayed 1:17:14.720 --> 1:17:16.680 in New York for like six months before I went 1:17:16.680 --> 1:17:20.080 into the Air Force. But but I went from from 1:17:20.160 --> 1:17:23.800 uh from Jackson, Mississippi, all the way to New York 1:17:24.080 --> 1:17:27.040 on the bus man greyhound bus and got off man 1:17:27.080 --> 1:17:29.080 and I told Steven Wonder. 1:17:28.880 --> 1:17:30.960 He got that that New York thing for me when 1:17:30.960 --> 1:17:31.479 he got off. 1:17:31.439 --> 1:17:33.240 And I said, new York all this that's because I 1:17:33.280 --> 1:17:35.000 had mentioned all that stuff to Stevie. 1:17:35.320 --> 1:17:38.200 Well really man, you know, yeah, but I've been look, 1:17:38.439 --> 1:17:42.800 he's blind. How the hell can he boy from Mississippi? 1:17:42.800 --> 1:17:44.800 And then he did. He said, Partstown, missisippt And he 1:17:44.800 --> 1:17:46.439 said Mississippi in that record. 1:17:46.600 --> 1:17:49.920 You listened to that record, par parstime, Mississippi can get 1:17:49.920 --> 1:17:52.040 the New York buildings and stuff. That's what I said 1:17:52.080 --> 1:17:54.000 I when I got in there, I looked up all 1:17:54.000 --> 1:17:56.320 those buildings and stuff. But he put it in that record. 1:17:56.320 --> 1:17:57.840 I always told him, you ripped it off of me, 1:17:58.080 --> 1:18:00.519 you know. He said, man, forget you know. But anyway, 1:18:00.880 --> 1:18:03.559 that was my life. So soon as I got there, 1:18:04.160 --> 1:18:09.200 I uh my my grandmother had her brother and lived there, 1:18:09.280 --> 1:18:13.479 so I stayed with her brother and his son, you know, 1:18:13.640 --> 1:18:15.760 stayed there, and I was there for six months before 1:18:15.760 --> 1:18:16.479 I went in the Air Force. 1:18:16.920 --> 1:18:17.439 Soon as I. 1:18:17.400 --> 1:18:19.559 Got there, the first thing I wanted to go go 1:18:19.600 --> 1:18:21.680 and see with bird Land you know, and stuff like that. 1:18:21.720 --> 1:18:24.120 But they wasn't in the jazz. But they took me 1:18:24.160 --> 1:18:25.599 to Harlem to to. 1:18:26.080 --> 1:18:28.320 You know, to Apollo, and I went to the pollow 1:18:28.439 --> 1:18:30.760 right so as I got there. But then after that 1:18:30.760 --> 1:18:33.040 I went to I saw Red Fox at the baby 1:18:33.040 --> 1:18:35.599 grand led her right on one hundred twenty fifth Street. 1:18:36.080 --> 1:18:38.120 Red Fox was doing a thing about you know, about 1:18:38.120 --> 1:18:40.760 the horses and stuff, you know, back then. But I 1:18:40.800 --> 1:18:43.000 saw all that stuff, and I was only seventeenth at 1:18:43.000 --> 1:18:46.120 the time, you know, but it was a hell of experience, man, 1:18:46.160 --> 1:18:47.960 And with the bird land and stuff, you. 1:18:47.880 --> 1:18:50.160 Know, how'd you end up going in the Air Force? 1:18:51.360 --> 1:18:52.760 I went in the Air Force, souse. First of all, I 1:18:52.760 --> 1:18:55.280 wanted to go to college and I couldn't. I couldn't, 1:18:55.320 --> 1:18:57.679 you know, nobody had money to send kids to college 1:18:57.680 --> 1:19:00.240 back then, and I figured I could. I figured I'd 1:19:00.280 --> 1:19:02.200 go in the Air Force because it's better than getting 1:19:02.280 --> 1:19:05.400 drafted into the army because back then, you you know, 1:19:05.439 --> 1:19:07.920 you you got drafted when you got eighteen. So I 1:19:08.000 --> 1:19:10.439 figured out going to Air Force because I had a 1:19:10.439 --> 1:19:11.360 cousin that had been an Air Force. 1:19:11.360 --> 1:19:13.320 He said, air force more like a job. You know, 1:19:13.400 --> 1:19:14.880 you're working at the end of the day and then 1:19:14.960 --> 1:19:17.080 like you know, I have to go to be on 1:19:17.160 --> 1:19:18.080 my news and stuff. 1:19:18.320 --> 1:19:20.840 So I took that job, and I really enjoyed it 1:19:20.880 --> 1:19:24.320 because I was a warehouse specialist at the Air Force, 1:19:24.360 --> 1:19:30.000 you know, and uh, I want I did uh lackling 1:19:30.000 --> 1:19:32.200 an Air Force base for basic training. I went to 1:19:32.439 --> 1:19:36.320 Amarilla for warehouse specialist training. From there I went to 1:19:36.760 --> 1:19:38.360 Dad to leave, and then I went to Germany for 1:19:38.360 --> 1:19:41.200 three years, you know. And it was a great experience. 1:19:41.200 --> 1:19:45.240 Man in Germany, I I went to all the jazz 1:19:45.280 --> 1:19:48.799 clubs and stuff, you know, and made photographs. 1:19:48.280 --> 1:19:49.000 Of stuff, you know. 1:19:49.000 --> 1:19:53.040 And I I caught Miles Davis and John coletrain, you know, 1:19:53.880 --> 1:19:56.240 and when they were on that last throw, right after 1:19:56.360 --> 1:19:59.000 Count of Blue came out, and then, let me tell 1:19:59.040 --> 1:20:02.800 you that was classic. I wasn't a Cold Trane fan then, 1:20:03.439 --> 1:20:05.800 but I was kind of blue. I had bought that 1:20:05.840 --> 1:20:08.320 album in Amsterdam. I paid like twenty dollars for it, 1:20:09.200 --> 1:20:11.120 but that was a lot of money back then. But 1:20:11.160 --> 1:20:14.040 I wanted to record so bad. And when when Miles came, 1:20:14.120 --> 1:20:17.040 he played concert to Bow in Amsterdam, and I had 1:20:17.080 --> 1:20:19.840 a press pass, so I was down in the pit 1:20:20.280 --> 1:20:24.720 making photographs of the band playing. And I had never 1:20:24.800 --> 1:20:29.480 heard octaves played before, you know, octaves on a saxophone. 1:20:29.520 --> 1:20:32.760 And and and that's the first time I heard coal 1:20:32.880 --> 1:20:36.599 Train blowing octas. So what happened Miles was blowing the solo, 1:20:37.840 --> 1:20:39.360 Coltrane had to go to the toilet, So you have 1:20:39.400 --> 1:20:40.920 to go all way upstairs to go to the toilet. 1:20:41.320 --> 1:20:43.559 And when Miles finished blowing, the opener's eyes the train 1:20:43.720 --> 1:20:48.000 is not there. So as as Miles looked around, train 1:20:48.120 --> 1:20:49.800 started walking down, still. 1:20:49.640 --> 1:20:51.920 Blowing, you know, all the way down. 1:20:51.960 --> 1:20:54.400 Wait, was all the way down to the He blew 1:20:54.439 --> 1:20:56.720 all way in and blowing octaves, his horn, squeaking and 1:20:56.800 --> 1:20:57.880 care that'. 1:20:57.760 --> 1:20:58.400 Said all got. 1:20:58.760 --> 1:21:00.800 I had never heard nothing like that before, but it 1:21:01.040 --> 1:21:04.760 excited me, and those octaves and stuff made me a 1:21:04.880 --> 1:21:07.479 jazz fanatic, and I've been chasing that music ever since, 1:21:07.520 --> 1:21:10.439 you know. But that was the reason that I and 1:21:10.520 --> 1:21:13.040 I was and I made all kinds of photographs and 1:21:13.080 --> 1:21:18.040 I'll never forget when when after that, after that show, 1:21:18.560 --> 1:21:24.000 in the dressing room, they had this Dutch reporter started 1:21:24.000 --> 1:21:26.000 talking to culture, and I guess Miles didn't like it 1:21:26.080 --> 1:21:28.519 that Coltran had showed him up a bit. 1:21:29.280 --> 1:21:32.280 As col Train said, when you when you're doing your solo, 1:21:32.479 --> 1:21:34.400 actually you'd be going, and it's going and going. In 1:21:34.600 --> 1:21:36.840 that case, you can't end it. You hard to end 1:21:37.160 --> 1:21:39.360 and Miles said, try taking the horn out of your mouth. 1:21:43.120 --> 1:21:45.160 So what happens when you get out of the army. 1:21:46.240 --> 1:21:48.360 When I got out of the army, I came, I 1:21:48.920 --> 1:21:53.120 got that. I came back to go to college at 1:21:53.200 --> 1:21:55.240 Queen's College. You know, I was doing Queen's College and 1:21:55.520 --> 1:21:57.719 I needed a job, so I got lucky. 1:21:57.720 --> 1:21:58.280 A guy in the. 1:21:58.240 --> 1:22:02.320 Building turned me onto a gig where I would uh 1:22:02.439 --> 1:22:04.680 you know, I've worked for a meet a meat uh 1:22:04.960 --> 1:22:08.479 distribute with the meat Transports company for the for the 1:22:08.520 --> 1:22:12.960 meat district. They would they would uh bring piggyback you know, 1:22:13.520 --> 1:22:17.839 uh beef and pork from all over America and sometime 1:22:17.920 --> 1:22:21.040 from out of on the trains and the trucks, and 1:22:21.080 --> 1:22:23.679 they would bring it to Fourteenth Street to the meat district. 1:22:23.840 --> 1:22:26.880 But China and Companies was a company that I represented, 1:22:26.920 --> 1:22:28.960 and we were the one that did the billing for that. 1:22:29.680 --> 1:22:32.400 So I was working writer with the meat packers, you know, 1:22:32.960 --> 1:22:35.000 and I worked with them before I went to Atlantic. 1:22:35.040 --> 1:22:37.160 And that was a billing job, you know, it was 1:22:37.160 --> 1:22:39.320 It wasn't it was a bookkeeping job, but just building 1:22:39.439 --> 1:22:41.960 wasn't like uh bookkeeping as a whole. 1:22:42.000 --> 1:22:42.799 It was just billing. 1:22:42.920 --> 1:22:45.519 You build people, did you finish college. 1:22:46.360 --> 1:22:48.960 Well, I finished college afterwards, but I I finished college 1:22:49.040 --> 1:22:51.160 right before I started motor records. I went to college 1:22:51.200 --> 1:22:54.120 at night. When I was working at Atlantic As in 1:22:54.160 --> 1:22:56.120 the bookkeeping department. I was going to college every night. 1:22:56.120 --> 1:22:58.680 I was going to light nightgh school, you know. And 1:22:58.800 --> 1:23:02.599 I got all wait till till last. I didn't graduate 1:23:02.720 --> 1:23:06.880 till nineteen sixty eight before I got it. 1:23:07.040 --> 1:23:07.880 And then at that. 1:23:07.880 --> 1:23:09.760 Time I ended up end up promoting records, so I 1:23:09.840 --> 1:23:12.000 never had I used to become an account to do 1:23:12.080 --> 1:23:13.960 accounting because I'm metioned on accounting, you know. 1:23:15.000 --> 1:23:17.800 Okay, So what happened for you? After Man of Corps 1:23:17.840 --> 1:23:18.280 blew up? 1:23:19.479 --> 1:23:24.360 I did independent promotion independent promotion, I did Bunkadelic, all 1:23:24.360 --> 1:23:28.240 of that, George Clinton, you know, Flashlight all that flash Light, 1:23:28.360 --> 1:23:31.080 Moti Booty and One Nation. 1:23:31.040 --> 1:23:33.880 Under Groove and uh and uh. 1:23:34.960 --> 1:23:37.800 And then after that I did Rick James, you know, 1:23:37.840 --> 1:23:39.640 I did Rick James and all the super Freak and 1:23:39.680 --> 1:23:40.360 did his first. 1:23:40.280 --> 1:23:42.519 So how did you get involved with Brig James? 1:23:42.840 --> 1:23:46.880 Sheff Gordon was his manager and when they got to 1:23:46.960 --> 1:23:48.680 do the first tour, when he wanted to do the 1:23:48.720 --> 1:23:51.599 first tour, he had already had a hit. 1:23:51.680 --> 1:23:53.640 Call you and I was a big record, you know. 1:23:53.720 --> 1:23:56.160 And and so now he's going to do a tour 1:23:56.240 --> 1:23:58.200 for his first tour. But he didn't tour right away. 1:23:58.240 --> 1:24:00.200 So he came out with a second album called Us 1:24:00.240 --> 1:24:03.759 and out on l seventh, and Shep needed someone to 1:24:03.800 --> 1:24:05.040 make sure he do the gigs. 1:24:05.520 --> 1:24:08.120 He had a road manager, but he said, man, Mario, 1:24:09.040 --> 1:24:11.240 I like you. If you would be the tour manager. 1:24:11.400 --> 1:24:14.000 You know, I pay you so much, and if you 1:24:14.040 --> 1:24:15.880 can help to sell out the shows, I'll give you 1:24:15.880 --> 1:24:16.760 a percentage of the show. 1:24:16.880 --> 1:24:18.640 Just sell out us. So that was the deal that 1:24:18.720 --> 1:24:22.200 I got from Shep. And so the first tour, I 1:24:22.240 --> 1:24:24.840 was a tour manager and I didn't even and I 1:24:24.840 --> 1:24:26.439 asked Shepperd, who's going to introduce me? 1:24:26.439 --> 1:24:28.360 He said, well, look, man, I can't stand him, he 1:24:28.400 --> 1:24:29.000 can't stand me. 1:24:29.640 --> 1:24:32.200 You just go there. You just go there, and you 1:24:32.479 --> 1:24:36.080 go there and introduce yourself. And I went there, and 1:24:36.160 --> 1:24:38.920 of course Rick gave me hell the first date, but 1:24:39.000 --> 1:24:40.320 I told him, hey, man, I don't work for you. 1:24:40.320 --> 1:24:42.640 I'm already paid. You can't find me, you know. So 1:24:42.720 --> 1:24:45.200 we had that type of understanding. So he was telling 1:24:45.200 --> 1:24:47.519 everybody I know that manager, youm I know him because 1:24:47.560 --> 1:24:49.439 he knew he used to be in a band with 1:24:49.520 --> 1:24:53.000 Neil Young, and he knew I promoted crab Stills in 1:24:53.040 --> 1:24:54.920 National you know, he knew all about that, but he 1:24:55.000 --> 1:24:56.320 pretended like he didn't know who I was. 1:24:56.720 --> 1:25:00.120 So I found out later that he knew all about that. 1:25:00.120 --> 1:25:02.720 That he knew and I had seen him at at 1:25:03.600 --> 1:25:06.519 Rick's at Steven Steel's house back when Crubs Still Nashing 1:25:06.600 --> 1:25:10.559 Young was shooting the cover of the first of the 1:25:10.680 --> 1:25:13.680 Crabs Still Nashing Young album. Greg Reeves, one of that 1:25:13.720 --> 1:25:18.200 bass player, Neil Young, wanted Rick James to be the 1:25:18.200 --> 1:25:21.599 bass player and Crubs Still Nation Young, but Rick said, no, man, 1:25:22.360 --> 1:25:25.640 so he recommended that guy, Greg Reeve's young seventeen year 1:25:25.680 --> 1:25:28.320 old boy that they ended up taking. But that's where 1:25:28.400 --> 1:25:31.200 Rick knew me from then. But I didn't know him because, 1:25:31.240 --> 1:25:33.040 you know, like I just didn't know him. I didn't 1:25:33.040 --> 1:25:35.200 even know he had been in the band with Neil Young, 1:25:35.800 --> 1:25:37.800 because back then he was just a man that brought 1:25:37.840 --> 1:25:39.679 all the all the all the fun over. 1:25:40.479 --> 1:25:40.760 You know. 1:25:41.160 --> 1:25:43.599 So anyway, he knew me from that, and then I 1:25:43.640 --> 1:25:46.120 got to be friends with him afterwards after that first tour, 1:25:46.160 --> 1:25:48.320 you know, but it was tough for the first couple 1:25:48.360 --> 1:25:52.080 of days because everybody in the band was afraid of him, 1:25:52.920 --> 1:25:54.880 and I would and he was sleeping nudes, you know, 1:25:55.840 --> 1:25:57.960 and and they'd be saying, Man, we can't wake him up. 1:25:58.000 --> 1:25:59.880 Mario, I said, let me go. I go in. 1:26:00.080 --> 1:26:01.559 Oh up all the windows and it was really like 1:26:01.600 --> 1:26:04.519 ten degrees outside. Oh up all the windows and take all. 1:26:04.439 --> 1:26:06.519 The cover off her. And he had jumplep me. 1:26:06.600 --> 1:26:08.040 And I don't want to tell you all the things 1:26:08.040 --> 1:26:10.920 he said he's gonna do to me, But I told him, 1:26:10.920 --> 1:26:13.000 he man, you gotta hit. We gotta do the show. 1:26:13.200 --> 1:26:15.000 And that's what shep hired me to do to be 1:26:15.040 --> 1:26:16.800 able to get him out of the get him to 1:26:16.800 --> 1:26:19.559 do the show. So he was cursing me out all 1:26:19.560 --> 1:26:21.519 the time. But later on he said, you know, I 1:26:21.520 --> 1:26:24.200 don't know that Mario. I don't know he's crazy, but 1:26:24.479 --> 1:26:26.200 you know how to get the job done. That's what 1:26:26.280 --> 1:26:28.599 he always said, you know. But I mean we had 1:26:28.680 --> 1:26:31.320 like knockdown, drag out way before Charlotte Murphy. I could 1:26:31.400 --> 1:26:34.439 tell you some things, boy, I'm telling you Rick. I mean, 1:26:34.920 --> 1:26:36.679 Rick was one of a kind, but a smart guy. 1:26:36.760 --> 1:26:40.120 Let me tell you. I learned a lot about club 1:26:40.160 --> 1:26:40.960 promotion from Rick. 1:26:41.040 --> 1:26:42.479 James, what'd you learn? 1:26:43.680 --> 1:26:46.559 Just how he would take his before the records release. 1:26:46.880 --> 1:26:48.599 What I used to do with radio stations. He had 1:26:48.600 --> 1:26:51.960 did it to clubs. He'd take his single and had 1:26:51.960 --> 1:26:54.800 a DJ to play his stuff. And we was in 1:26:54.840 --> 1:26:56.639 Buffalo and we walked him and you and I would 1:26:57.200 --> 1:26:58.760 give it to me, give it to me from that 1:26:58.880 --> 1:26:59.799 Street Song album. 1:27:00.479 --> 1:27:01.559 He had a test pressing up. 1:27:01.760 --> 1:27:03.640 He had a tape of it, and we walked in 1:27:03.600 --> 1:27:06.080 and he had the DJ to play it. That whole 1:27:06.160 --> 1:27:08.200 club started jumping. I said, man, this is I knows 1:27:08.280 --> 1:27:11.240 the smash and that's how I knew. So when we 1:27:11.280 --> 1:27:14.479 went to go to Motown to tell him about the album, 1:27:14.520 --> 1:27:17.120 you know, Jay Alaska tell me, well, you know way 1:27:17.280 --> 1:27:17.679 we can't. 1:27:17.760 --> 1:27:19.920 You can't get rick this. I said, man, this is 1:27:19.920 --> 1:27:22.160 going to be a smash. Jay. He said, oh, look, 1:27:22.160 --> 1:27:24.200 well we're give him fifty thousand. I said, man, we 1:27:24.200 --> 1:27:26.280 need a hundred thousand. I said, well, look, I'll tell 1:27:26.320 --> 1:27:29.040 you what. We wait till the album come out, then 1:27:29.040 --> 1:27:32.040 we'll come back. So the album. 1:27:31.760 --> 1:27:35.760 Released the next week, we go back there. Jay Alaska, look, man, 1:27:35.800 --> 1:27:37.080 I got to fifty thousand for I said, now we 1:27:37.080 --> 1:27:40.360 want a hundred thousand. So but that was the way 1:27:40.400 --> 1:27:42.680 that sho went down. But you know, Rick wanted to 1:27:42.720 --> 1:27:44.639 jump on the desk and pee on the desk and stuff. 1:27:44.640 --> 1:27:46.360 But you know, like I, I didn't go over that 1:27:46.840 --> 1:27:48.839 he wanted to jump on the desk and everything. 1:27:48.920 --> 1:27:49.680 Oh crazy. 1:27:49.800 --> 1:27:52.200 But but you know, he was a He was a 1:27:52.200 --> 1:27:54.760 talented guy, man, believe me. As crazy as people say 1:27:54.760 --> 1:27:57.519 he was, he was very talented and and had I 1:27:57.560 --> 1:27:58.639 respect from everybody. 1:27:59.360 --> 1:28:03.960 Smoke A. Robinson, Steven Wonder. He just called on the phone. 1:28:03.960 --> 1:28:07.080 They come right over the studio, man, Temptations whatever, you know, 1:28:07.120 --> 1:28:09.519 because he was a producer, they would and if he 1:28:09.560 --> 1:28:11.240 needed him on the record, they would come right over 1:28:11.280 --> 1:28:11.920 and sing. 1:28:11.720 --> 1:28:15.800 Background or whatever. Man, incredible guy one of the time. 1:28:16.320 --> 1:28:17.680 So how crazy was he? 1:28:19.120 --> 1:28:21.400 I can't even I can't even tell you. 1:28:21.479 --> 1:28:28.559 Man, it's not it's X rayish. 1:28:26.760 --> 1:28:31.160 Would He's crazy. Man, he's crazy. But you know with me, 1:28:32.160 --> 1:28:33.320 I had I had to. 1:28:33.680 --> 1:28:35.439 You know, we had a couple of run ends, you know, 1:28:35.520 --> 1:28:38.800 but he stopped messing with me, and you know, I 1:28:39.120 --> 1:28:40.519 think I hit him in the chant one time and 1:28:40.560 --> 1:28:41.880 he said, man, he's trying to kill me. You know 1:28:42.120 --> 1:28:44.719 you're crazy, you know, because he knew I knew martial arts. 1:28:45.200 --> 1:28:48.559 But he said, man, if you didn't know, kick your ass. 1:28:48.560 --> 1:28:50.599 And I said, look, if you even dream about kicking ass, 1:28:50.600 --> 1:28:52.560 you better wake come and apologize. And that was the 1:28:52.600 --> 1:28:56.200 type of relationship we asked. You know, he had one time. 1:28:57.280 --> 1:29:00.160 I remember we getting ready to do this tour and 1:29:00.200 --> 1:29:03.200 the guy that was the tour manager that did a 1:29:03.240 --> 1:29:06.479 tour for Jackson five, you know the last Jackson five 1:29:06.600 --> 1:29:08.559 threw when Michael was on that tour. 1:29:09.160 --> 1:29:12.360 Well, he was gonna be the gonna do the tour 1:29:12.400 --> 1:29:14.120 with Rick James. So he's come. 1:29:14.240 --> 1:29:17.599 He came to Buffalo to talk to Rick. I wasn't Buffalo, 1:29:17.640 --> 1:29:18.840 I don't know where it was that. It could have 1:29:18.880 --> 1:29:20.320 been Boston, wherever he was. 1:29:20.360 --> 1:29:21.120 He was on the road. 1:29:21.400 --> 1:29:23.519 He came to talk to Rick to get him to 1:29:23.680 --> 1:29:28.040 let him be the tour tour manager Drew to do 1:29:28.120 --> 1:29:30.760 the tour and tire tour. So he's in the room 1:29:30.800 --> 1:29:34.960 talking to Rick and Rick and Rick Uh calls my 1:29:35.080 --> 1:29:37.640 room and and and he saw me. A couple of 1:29:37.640 --> 1:29:39.720 girls came to my room that I knew from, you know, 1:29:39.960 --> 1:29:40.799 from other bands. 1:29:40.800 --> 1:29:43.639 He's just friends of mine. He saw that Mario got 1:29:43.640 --> 1:29:44.320 these girls room. 1:29:44.360 --> 1:29:48.320 He sent the UH bodyguards down to my room, said 1:29:48.960 --> 1:29:50.280 go down there and clear that room. 1:29:50.360 --> 1:29:51.840 Go down there, clear Mario's room. 1:29:52.479 --> 1:29:56.280 The bodyguards came to my door, both of them, two guys, 1:29:56.400 --> 1:30:00.920 one of them moles and and and Ol whatever the name. 1:30:01.000 --> 1:30:02.479 I knew them, you know, I knew them because I 1:30:02.560 --> 1:30:04.200 used to, you know, make sure they got paid. 1:30:04.760 --> 1:30:07.320 But now they come to the door some Mario man like, uh, 1:30:08.400 --> 1:30:09.400 we don't want to do this. Member. 1:30:09.520 --> 1:30:11.080 Rick told we got to clear your room. I said, 1:30:11.120 --> 1:30:12.639 you ain't gonna crear nothing here. I said, I pay 1:30:12.680 --> 1:30:14.559 for this room. I don't ricked on pay for my room. 1:30:14.840 --> 1:30:16.920 I said, now, if you all come across the doorstep here. 1:30:17.000 --> 1:30:18.760 If you want to die for six hundred dollars, cause 1:30:18.800 --> 1:30:20.280 that's all you're getting paid. If that's what you want 1:30:20.280 --> 1:30:22.120 to die for, you come in my room, I'm gonna 1:30:22.200 --> 1:30:25.479 kill you. They stood out there as bad and big 1:30:25.520 --> 1:30:29.400 as they were. They went back and told Rick said, man, 1:30:30.680 --> 1:30:33.880 uh Mario, we we can't get it. So now just 1:30:34.120 --> 1:30:37.439 this promoter, this promoter is there with Rick having all 1:30:37.520 --> 1:30:40.080 kinds of problems, and they come back and tell him 1:30:40.080 --> 1:30:40.679 about Mario. 1:30:41.040 --> 1:30:42.800 So he said, let's I'll go down to the room. 1:30:43.040 --> 1:30:44.839 So he comes down to the room with the promoter, 1:30:45.800 --> 1:30:47.799 and I went off on Rick in front of the promoter. 1:30:48.680 --> 1:30:51.080 Promoter ended up being my best friend. He said, Man, 1:30:51.560 --> 1:30:53.320 he ended up getting the job. He ended up getting 1:30:53.320 --> 1:30:56.320 the end up. But he said after what he said, Man, 1:30:56.360 --> 1:30:58.599 he gave me a Louis the ton at the shake 1:30:58.640 --> 1:31:02.080 case and he said, man, the way you hand Rick Jane, Man, 1:31:02.200 --> 1:31:04.080 I never seen nobody do that. I said, no, I'm 1:31:04.120 --> 1:31:06.960 not handling. I just told him, you know, like I 1:31:07.000 --> 1:31:08.880 don't work for him. You know, I don't work for him, 1:31:08.920 --> 1:31:11.040 you know, I work with it. And he said, well, man, 1:31:11.080 --> 1:31:12.439 I want to try to get the tour. So I 1:31:12.479 --> 1:31:14.639 talked to him Rick, and he let him get the tour. 1:31:14.640 --> 1:31:16.880 He ended up getting the tour. But that that that 1:31:17.000 --> 1:31:18.840 was the type of thing with Rick, you know, he was. 1:31:18.960 --> 1:31:19.840 He was a tougher guy. 1:31:20.439 --> 1:31:23.599 What about the drugs, Oh yeah he did. He did 1:31:23.640 --> 1:31:24.320 all kinds of drugs. 1:31:24.640 --> 1:31:26.639 He'll tell you, well, I'm getting ready to pill out, 1:31:26.680 --> 1:31:28.120 you know what I mean. He gonna pill out, he's 1:31:28.120 --> 1:31:32.559 gonna go to sleep, You're gonna pill out. Let him 1:31:32.600 --> 1:31:36.679 pill out, you know. And he snowed up your whole house, 1:31:36.720 --> 1:31:38.599 you know, nothing, but he but he had the money 1:31:38.640 --> 1:31:40.200 to do it. You know, you can't stop a guy 1:31:40.240 --> 1:31:41.840 when they're gonna do stuff. You know, I'll let him 1:31:41.840 --> 1:31:42.080 do it. 1:31:49.640 --> 1:31:52.360 So you'd work so much in the white rock business, 1:31:52.840 --> 1:31:55.439 what was it like? I mean, Rick James was sort 1:31:55.439 --> 1:31:57.559 of a rock artist, but it was the black world. 1:31:57.920 --> 1:32:00.639 What was the black radio, black promoter world? 1:32:00.640 --> 1:32:03.719 Bike night and day man night and day difference different 1:32:03.840 --> 1:32:05.560 night and day. First of all, Rick James is the 1:32:05.600 --> 1:32:08.200 closest to rock them out of all of them. And uh, 1:32:08.720 --> 1:32:10.920 I never forget. When I first started on tour, Rick, 1:32:11.000 --> 1:32:13.479 he said, Man, I want, I want you to build 1:32:13.520 --> 1:32:15.200 me a black one like you do them rock bands. 1:32:15.200 --> 1:32:16.800 I said, well, the first thing we gotta do if 1:32:16.840 --> 1:32:19.320 you want to tour like a rock band is get 1:32:19.320 --> 1:32:20.479 out of these holiday ends. 1:32:21.040 --> 1:32:23.280 He doesn't know he's got to pay for these hotels. 1:32:23.280 --> 1:32:25.559 And I'm telling me, so we get all better hotels 1:32:25.560 --> 1:32:27.400 atter because I was towt those holiday ends. You know, 1:32:27.840 --> 1:32:29.760 so we get But he found out later that he 1:32:29.880 --> 1:32:31.360 paying for all this being charge of them. 1:32:31.520 --> 1:32:33.240 But you know we did that, and you know, and 1:32:33.920 --> 1:32:36.639 and and he did pretty good on that first tour, 1:32:36.680 --> 1:32:39.960 but he wasn't he wasn't getting a percentage. 1:32:40.120 --> 1:32:43.320 He was at a fix like he sold out the 1:32:45.040 --> 1:32:49.800 Baltimore Arena in Baltimore or whatever it's about. I don't know, 1:32:49.800 --> 1:32:52.639 maybe old about ten or fifteen thousand people. But he 1:32:52.640 --> 1:32:56.479 he accepted ten thousand dollars as as amount that he wanted. 1:32:56.520 --> 1:32:58.680 Rether Thant get a percentage of the date so that 1:32:58.760 --> 1:33:01.080 would ship him ship they shep didn't know's going to 1:33:01.120 --> 1:33:03.200 be selling out, But we sold it out. 1:33:03.439 --> 1:33:06.240 But they only paid him ten grands. So he was said, well, man, 1:33:06.280 --> 1:33:09.120 you know, I'm a gungrat. Look that's that's your old mistake, 1:33:09.200 --> 1:33:11.400 you know. But it was. It was a whole lot 1:33:11.439 --> 1:33:13.000 of things. But I had a lot of fun with him, 1:33:13.040 --> 1:33:13.240 you know. 1:33:13.400 --> 1:33:14.960 So how did it end with you? And Rick? 1:33:16.080 --> 1:33:17.120 What do you mean it didn't find it? 1:33:17.840 --> 1:33:21.680 After the first tour, I did that tour manager thing, 1:33:22.240 --> 1:33:25.200 and then I went on back doing my regular promotion 1:33:25.360 --> 1:33:28.160 whatever I was doing it, and he put out other records. 1:33:28.479 --> 1:33:32.000 And then on nineteen eighty one, on New Year's Day 1:33:32.000 --> 1:33:34.920 of nineteen day one, he called me because now he 1:33:35.000 --> 1:33:37.679 had got rid of his manager. He didn't have Shepherd anymore. 1:33:38.040 --> 1:33:39.439 So he called me, he said, man, and he getting 1:33:39.439 --> 1:33:42.360 ready to put out street songs, right, So he called 1:33:42.360 --> 1:33:45.599 me like new Year's Night of nineteen eighty one at 1:33:45.640 --> 1:33:49.040 my home and Yonkers and I said, is it he said, Rick, 1:33:49.160 --> 1:33:50.160 He said, man, I say, he said with. 1:33:50.200 --> 1:33:52.720 That, Man, I mean I wish I could get you 1:33:52.760 --> 1:33:54.120 to help me. Man, I ain't got no manage that 1:33:54.200 --> 1:33:56.120 neither help with my new oltum. I said, Man, you 1:33:56.160 --> 1:33:57.559 other I was, weren't that good? You know? 1:33:58.080 --> 1:33:59.439 He said, well, let me play some of the stuff 1:33:59.479 --> 1:34:02.360 where he played give it to me, give it to me, 1:34:02.560 --> 1:34:04.720 give it to me, give it to me, yo. And 1:34:04.760 --> 1:34:06.080 when he played it, I said, man, this is a 1:34:06.120 --> 1:34:08.479 spac He said, man, come on, man, And it helped 1:34:08.520 --> 1:34:09.280 me get this album. 1:34:09.320 --> 1:34:11.080 I got an album trying to do speet something. 1:34:11.479 --> 1:34:13.400 So the next day I ended up taking a flight 1:34:13.479 --> 1:34:15.720 to la and I hung out with him ntil he 1:34:15.760 --> 1:34:18.599 finished that album and stuff, and you know, and that's 1:34:18.640 --> 1:34:21.320 when we were when we had to go to Motown, 1:34:21.400 --> 1:34:24.479 you know, and mentioned to the fact that Jay Laska 1:34:24.800 --> 1:34:26.840 didn't want to give him that fifty grand and stuff. 1:34:26.840 --> 1:34:27.120 You know. 1:34:27.400 --> 1:34:30.040 But while he was there, that's when I met Smoke Kid, 1:34:30.120 --> 1:34:32.439 Steve and all of them came to the studio. When 1:34:32.479 --> 1:34:34.280 he was doing that album, you know, he was adding 1:34:34.320 --> 1:34:36.920 stuff to it, and I met Uh. 1:34:36.600 --> 1:34:38.720 What was the name a singer of the girl is 1:34:38.880 --> 1:34:42.840 a sing with fire and desire? That girl? 1:34:44.600 --> 1:34:47.559 What it was the name that that son? But anyway, 1:34:48.479 --> 1:34:50.280 when he was producing that record, all of them was 1:34:50.320 --> 1:34:52.920 in that studio and I met him all and that's 1:34:52.960 --> 1:34:54.760 when I knew he was like a really genius the 1:34:54.760 --> 1:34:57.959 way he produced that record, man, and how everybody respected 1:34:58.000 --> 1:34:58.880 him so much, you know. 1:35:00.280 --> 1:35:03.799 So how did you stop promoting records? 1:35:04.160 --> 1:35:08.360 I stopped after after that that uh Rick James album, 1:35:09.040 --> 1:35:11.360 after that that uh Fire and Design, and that was 1:35:11.400 --> 1:35:13.240 the last one that I did, and I stopped promotion 1:35:14.240 --> 1:35:16.760 because then I just started back doing accounting, you know, 1:35:17.320 --> 1:35:19.360 because I had accounting clients that I had to do 1:35:19.439 --> 1:35:21.360 and it was less aggravation, you know, and I have 1:35:21.479 --> 1:35:23.519 to didn't have to travel and you didn't have to 1:35:23.520 --> 1:35:25.680 have to thread and threaten to kill people to get 1:35:25.720 --> 1:35:27.240 paid because I had to. 1:35:27.560 --> 1:35:30.280 I had to. I did Funkadelic. I had to. 1:35:31.920 --> 1:35:34.200 Threadn them, you know, to get my pound payment label 1:35:34.200 --> 1:35:37.559 them like thirty grand, and their attorney had to call 1:35:37.680 --> 1:35:40.280 me up, said, bro Drugs would like to pay you 1:35:40.280 --> 1:35:43.000 an increments, you know, ten thousands. I said, no, I 1:35:43.040 --> 1:35:46.040 want all of it at once, because they had a 1:35:46.080 --> 1:35:49.000 show in town, you know that night in Madison, Paier 1:35:49.000 --> 1:35:52.600 Guard and I used to train all these uh you know, 1:35:52.640 --> 1:35:54.439 the policemen's and knarks and stuff in New York. 1:35:54.439 --> 1:35:56.000 And I told him if he didn't if he if. 1:35:55.880 --> 1:35:58.519 I didn't get my check, I was gonna have the 1:35:58.640 --> 1:36:01.719 Narks to come over and and bust the hope buster 1:36:01.720 --> 1:36:04.080 the guys. Somebody is gonna be dirty in the hotel. 1:36:04.160 --> 1:36:05.840 And and then we're gonna have. 1:36:05.800 --> 1:36:07.439 The box office. Gonna take a box office. 1:36:07.479 --> 1:36:09.400 You had to do stuff like that, you know, and 1:36:09.479 --> 1:36:11.479 I have to We're gonna have to bust somebody of 1:36:11.520 --> 1:36:11.760 the Bible. 1:36:11.800 --> 1:36:13.080 You know, We're gonna take a box off it. 1:36:13.560 --> 1:36:17.599 So George decided he uh, out of my box, send 1:36:17.600 --> 1:36:19.519 the check over, and I got to check. When I 1:36:19.520 --> 1:36:21.360 first got to check, it wasn't certified. I sent it 1:36:21.400 --> 1:36:23.599 back to her and then you know, as she said, oh, 1:36:23.640 --> 1:36:25.720 well it's certified. You know, after I got a certified, 1:36:25.840 --> 1:36:26.360 I knew. 1:36:26.160 --> 1:36:26.839 It was cool. 1:36:27.120 --> 1:36:28.600 Well, that night I go to the concert of the 1:36:28.680 --> 1:36:31.320 Panta Massabuare Guard. George see me, he's ducking and the 1:36:31.400 --> 1:36:32.160 running the cast man. 1:36:32.200 --> 1:36:33.840 You ain't got to run. I'm funking. I'm funking. I'm 1:36:33.880 --> 1:36:36.120 shaking my head. I'm funking. Now you got got my check. 1:36:36.960 --> 1:36:38.600 So you know, that's the type of stuff you had 1:36:38.640 --> 1:36:40.320 to deal with when you're dealing with R and B bads, 1:36:40.360 --> 1:36:42.680 you know, and you know it and you know and 1:36:43.080 --> 1:36:44.760 even when I when I left Rick, you know, he 1:36:44.800 --> 1:36:47.200 owe me like ten grands, but he found to pay me. 1:36:47.240 --> 1:36:49.280 He came to New York and and send his body 1:36:49.320 --> 1:36:50.200 got up to Lindjo. 1:36:50.360 --> 1:36:54.320 So your counting clients were musicians or straight people. 1:36:54.920 --> 1:36:57.960 Yeah, straight people, straight people. But one guy's oor guy 1:36:58.120 --> 1:37:01.439 was a was a had a doc. You know, he 1:37:01.560 --> 1:37:04.160 built ship, he built a yachts and stuff. 1:37:03.840 --> 1:37:05.160 You know, a big god company. 1:37:05.360 --> 1:37:06.760 So how long did you do that for? 1:37:07.760 --> 1:37:10.760 I did it for about twenty years, I guess, up 1:37:10.840 --> 1:37:14.400 until up until about I guess about two or three 1:37:14.479 --> 1:37:14.840 years ago. 1:37:15.600 --> 1:37:16.919 And i'd geenned up in Florida. 1:37:18.040 --> 1:37:20.360 Well after I got a divorce, I moved down here 1:37:20.600 --> 1:37:24.200 in eighty five. After divorce, I moved from New York 1:37:24.240 --> 1:37:28.839 to Porda and my brother had like, you know, property 1:37:28.920 --> 1:37:31.439 down here, so I moved down here and stayed in 1:37:31.520 --> 1:37:35.000 one of his He had like several uh, he had 1:37:35.040 --> 1:37:35.759 a whole whole. 1:37:35.640 --> 1:37:38.719 Quadrangle of apartments houses little house. 1:37:38.760 --> 1:37:40.920 So I stayed with one of his houses and then, 1:37:41.040 --> 1:37:43.599 uh then when him and I fell out, I moved 1:37:43.640 --> 1:37:48.439 into into North Miami right near Criteria Studio. I moved 1:37:48.479 --> 1:37:50.840 there because I knew to cast his Criteria and I 1:37:50.920 --> 1:37:54.080 stayed there for like thirty years until I moved to 1:37:54.160 --> 1:37:54.920 the place I am Now. 1:37:54.920 --> 1:37:55.800 I've been here ten years. 1:37:56.640 --> 1:37:58.000 So you said you got divorced. 1:37:58.840 --> 1:38:01.479 Yeah, I got divorced and in New York in eighty five. 1:38:02.000 --> 1:38:03.160 Did you ever get remarried? 1:38:04.040 --> 1:38:07.800 No? No, no, don't want them. Nobody couldn't. Nobody, nobody 1:38:07.880 --> 1:38:09.400 want to put up with me, and vice versa. 1:38:10.040 --> 1:38:12.800 So was the divorce as a result of being on 1:38:12.920 --> 1:38:13.920 the road, et cetera. 1:38:14.600 --> 1:38:17.519 Yeah, probably that was mostly being on the road, and 1:38:18.240 --> 1:38:20.400 you know, and just she was a good person, man. 1:38:20.479 --> 1:38:22.960 She took care of my family. Without her, I wouldn't 1:38:22.960 --> 1:38:24.559 have had a dime. You know, I'm telling you because 1:38:24.560 --> 1:38:26.880 she was really good, you know. But she just didn't 1:38:26.920 --> 1:38:29.439 didn't like me being on the road and being around 1:38:29.479 --> 1:38:30.080 all this stuff. 1:38:30.080 --> 1:38:30.200 You know. 1:38:30.240 --> 1:38:32.240 It wasn't about no women trus I had. I had 1:38:32.360 --> 1:38:34.760 enough of but she didn't know about it. Sure, But 1:38:34.920 --> 1:38:37.559 I mean I did I did my share of dougness, 1:38:37.600 --> 1:38:39.720 but I never took it home, you know. And I 1:38:39.840 --> 1:38:42.200 took care of my daughter. I paid for my daughter 1:38:42.240 --> 1:38:46.040 went to Yale University. She was a smart girl, graduated 1:38:46.080 --> 1:38:47.360 from Yale. And I paid for all of that. 1:38:47.960 --> 1:38:50.800 And my second daughter ended up getting a master's degree 1:38:50.840 --> 1:38:53.519 and stuff. You know. I paid for all that, being 1:38:53.560 --> 1:38:56.519 an accountant, you know. But whatever I mean, he had 1:38:56.560 --> 1:38:58.080 to somebody had to take care of. 1:38:58.680 --> 1:39:01.240 So how'd you mean Peter Wolf Wolf Ago. 1:39:01.439 --> 1:39:03.439 I met him in fifty nine and I was sixty 1:39:03.520 --> 1:39:09.560 nine at at Boston tea party. They were playing with 1:39:09.720 --> 1:39:12.320 Jay Guillas band had just played, and I was up 1:39:12.320 --> 1:39:13.519 there with Doctor John. 1:39:14.880 --> 1:39:17.760 And and and when I I went, I was in 1:39:17.800 --> 1:39:19.840 the dress room with doctor John. I heard Survey right 1:39:19.880 --> 1:39:20.519 the supper boy. 1:39:20.560 --> 1:39:23.519 This band was getting down and the voice man is 1:39:23.680 --> 1:39:25.640 like John Lee Hook and Mass said, oh god, these 1:39:25.720 --> 1:39:28.800 mag I was a cold blood. But when I got 1:39:28.880 --> 1:39:31.439 to the stage, they were gone, you know, there was 1:39:31.520 --> 1:39:32.280 nobody there. 1:39:33.080 --> 1:39:34.600 And so I go into the dress room. I go 1:39:34.720 --> 1:39:36.640 there and say, hey, man, where's where's the brothers that 1:39:36.760 --> 1:39:40.640 just got doing that blues? And Peter wood Walker that 1:39:40.800 --> 1:39:43.240 was us man, freak me right out all white cats. 1:39:43.320 --> 1:39:46.519 I said. I said, well, Man, do you have a contract. 1:39:46.560 --> 1:39:46.920 He said no. 1:39:47.040 --> 1:39:48.960 I said, Man, look I love the blues. I love 1:39:49.000 --> 1:39:52.320 where you're all coming from. I said, I'm from Atlantic Records. Man, 1:39:52.360 --> 1:39:53.960 I got to see if I can get your recorded. 1:39:54.200 --> 1:39:56.280 He said, well, yeah, Atlantic, Yeah, I like Atlantic. 1:39:56.720 --> 1:39:57.920 So that's how it started. 1:39:58.000 --> 1:40:01.080 Man and Wolf We've been friends ever since. He was 1:40:01.120 --> 1:40:04.240 a disc jockey on BCN also and his show was 1:40:04.360 --> 1:40:06.360 like one of the top shows as far as blues 1:40:06.439 --> 1:40:09.120 and and and do wop. You know, he played all 1:40:09.200 --> 1:40:12.880 kinds of music and just a character man called Wolf 1:40:12.920 --> 1:40:14.639 of go for Mama Tupula, you know, like he said, 1:40:15.439 --> 1:40:17.400 be here, and so you needs feeds your blatter's platter, 1:40:18.560 --> 1:40:19.400 I'm gonna come back. 1:40:19.439 --> 1:40:22.000 You want to know the matter. He had all the raps. Man. 1:40:22.320 --> 1:40:24.160 I loved him because he reminded me of all the 1:40:24.240 --> 1:40:25.600 this jockeys in New York, you know. 1:40:25.680 --> 1:40:32.439 Like Jocko Innerson and so he monocute manipicent money. He 1:40:32.560 --> 1:40:34.680 remind me of all those cats. But he had that 1:40:34.720 --> 1:40:37.960 and he was doing that in nineteen sixty nine on WBCN. 1:40:38.120 --> 1:40:41.240 Man he was doing that type of show and is 1:40:41.280 --> 1:40:44.040 a white kid that knew more about black music than 1:40:44.160 --> 1:40:44.479 I did. 1:40:44.560 --> 1:40:47.080 I'm telling you the truth. He I would call on, 1:40:47.320 --> 1:40:49.559 I would tell him the name of a son. He'll 1:40:49.600 --> 1:40:51.360 tell me who wrote it and who publishes. You know, 1:40:51.479 --> 1:40:54.280 I said, how down he was, man, And we've been 1:40:54.360 --> 1:40:56.040 friends ever since. Man, wonderful kind. 1:40:56.400 --> 1:40:59.960 Tell me about the Ahmed I'm man my main man. 1:41:00.080 --> 1:41:02.479 I joined on and out of all the exanders there, 1:41:02.960 --> 1:41:05.000 he was like my favorite because I would be on 1:41:05.120 --> 1:41:08.360 the road and uh, he might be in that town 1:41:08.439 --> 1:41:12.080 and he'll he'll call whatever hotel man and said, yeah, yay, Man, 1:41:12.160 --> 1:41:13.120 Well what are you doing tonight? 1:41:13.840 --> 1:41:14.880 I'm going to this club? 1:41:15.040 --> 1:41:16.600 He said, well, all right, man, So he have his 1:41:16.760 --> 1:41:18.600 limbo and I'll get in a limbo with it, and 1:41:18.680 --> 1:41:20.719 we'll go to the South side. 1:41:20.560 --> 1:41:23.400 Of Chicago where all the blues catch that, and he'll 1:41:23.439 --> 1:41:25.560 be right at home. Man. Then we'll go to the 1:41:25.640 --> 1:41:27.479 jazz club and he'd be right at home. And he 1:41:27.600 --> 1:41:28.320 paying for everything. 1:41:28.360 --> 1:41:30.800 So I didn't didn't didn't bother me, right, I never 1:41:30.920 --> 1:41:33.000 get One time I had a disc jockey from this 1:41:33.160 --> 1:41:34.839 jazz station in Chicago. 1:41:35.280 --> 1:41:37.800 Beautiful girl, man, I get her name now, but she 1:41:37.960 --> 1:41:40.519 was beautiful man. And you know, I wasn't hitting on nothing, 1:41:41.000 --> 1:41:43.280 but we were riding and he saw he said, well, 1:41:43.320 --> 1:41:45.200 tell her to come and go. So we go, we 1:41:45.400 --> 1:41:46.800 hit the car. We got it. 1:41:47.200 --> 1:41:49.840 Boy, I was dropping bombs on the girl all night 1:41:50.080 --> 1:41:53.960 and just I said, this manager, it is cooler than 1:41:54.000 --> 1:41:57.360 the average pilp that I know. And he was just 1:41:57.439 --> 1:41:59.960 one of a classic band. I loved him, man, I mean, 1:42:00.000 --> 1:42:02.000 and everybody had a lot of things they said about it, 1:42:02.439 --> 1:42:03.320 but he was cool with me. 1:42:03.840 --> 1:42:05.720 Him and Jerry, I mean Jerry as well. Man. 1:42:05.800 --> 1:42:09.200 Jerry was a classic too, but was Jerry like Jerry 1:42:09.320 --> 1:42:11.400 was more of a business man because Jerry I didn't 1:42:11.400 --> 1:42:11.800 go on the road. 1:42:11.840 --> 1:42:13.360 I didn't hang out with Jerry on the road. 1:42:13.439 --> 1:42:16.479 But one time, who was in a we were at 1:42:16.560 --> 1:42:19.320 I think Kyle Rutno, somebody had a had a had 1:42:19.360 --> 1:42:21.600 a newsletter that he used to put out and and 1:42:21.720 --> 1:42:24.160 they had a thing and and Vegas, and we go 1:42:24.320 --> 1:42:26.479 to and they were there right and they had the 1:42:26.520 --> 1:42:30.040 supremes of playing there in Vegas at this at this 1:42:30.160 --> 1:42:33.759 hotel we was at. So now a'ma and and Jerry 1:42:34.439 --> 1:42:36.479 come to my room. Because I had, like I was 1:42:36.560 --> 1:42:38.400 always knowing to have a little herb around, you know. 1:42:38.760 --> 1:42:41.599 So they come to my room and I got all 1:42:41.640 --> 1:42:44.720 the Supreme not not down a row but sent to 1:42:44.800 --> 1:42:46.479 the birds song at the time, but all of us 1:42:46.520 --> 1:42:48.920 in my room, and that just knocked it just they said. 1:42:48.760 --> 1:42:50.840 But that boy, that guy gonna be a good promotion man. 1:42:51.479 --> 1:42:53.920 That bookkeeper gonna be a good promotion man. He came 1:42:54.000 --> 1:42:56.120 up and you know that, and you know that was 1:42:56.280 --> 1:42:58.040 that was the first only one time that I hung 1:42:58.080 --> 1:42:59.240 out with Jerry and Alma together. 1:42:59.680 --> 1:43:01.840 But you know because in there I always had a 1:43:01.960 --> 1:43:04.960 turntable to play records, you know, so it was like 1:43:05.080 --> 1:43:05.880 a classic man. 1:43:06.000 --> 1:43:08.360 And what about Nassville, did you have any come back? 1:43:08.520 --> 1:43:08.680 Yeah? 1:43:09.320 --> 1:43:12.240 Yeah, Nessar was ftriggured. I was a jazz fanic, you know, 1:43:12.360 --> 1:43:15.240 so jet Ness was we always. I even went to 1:43:15.360 --> 1:43:18.040 nest wedding in London when he got married. You know, 1:43:18.160 --> 1:43:20.880 I was always tacked with nestswek because I was. I 1:43:21.000 --> 1:43:23.519 promoted jazz records as well, you know. And and you 1:43:23.600 --> 1:43:26.360 know he hired Joel Dorn to do most of the 1:43:26.400 --> 1:43:29.280 production after he stopped doing but MJQ and. 1:43:29.280 --> 1:43:29.880 All those guys. 1:43:29.960 --> 1:43:31.560 He did all those records that I used to listen to. 1:43:32.240 --> 1:43:37.680 And I remember Mil Jackson, I saw I called him bags, right, 1:43:38.320 --> 1:43:41.760 I saw Mil Jackson and Uh at an airport one 1:43:41.800 --> 1:43:45.400 time in the south of Spain, and when I walked upto, 1:43:45.479 --> 1:43:48.000 I stopped bounding. I said, I'm not worth. I'm not worth, 1:43:48.360 --> 1:43:50.599 and I stild them about, you know, like the song 1:43:50.680 --> 1:43:53.680 in Atlantic Records. We talked about Atlantic Records and he said, yeah, man. 1:43:53.720 --> 1:43:56.759 Next I said, well, I'm going to Nest With's uh wedding. 1:43:56.960 --> 1:43:59.160 You know, he said, old as he is he getting married. 1:44:00.680 --> 1:44:02.719 I say, you get married to a young woman too. 1:44:03.000 --> 1:44:05.360 You know. But it was a mad man. Look, that's 1:44:05.400 --> 1:44:07.800 what was the classic very man. I would I would do. 1:44:08.160 --> 1:44:11.759 Ness was wedding and Steve was Still's wedding in England, 1:44:12.439 --> 1:44:13.719 you know, back in those days. 1:44:14.120 --> 1:44:17.120 So what did Jerry Greenberg do that Am and Jerry 1:44:17.160 --> 1:44:17.960 Wexler didn't do. 1:44:18.960 --> 1:44:21.280 He did all the hustle as far as getting records 1:44:21.320 --> 1:44:25.040 played in promotion. He was the hustler man. I'm telling Greenberg, 1:44:25.080 --> 1:44:26.240 I got a high respect for him. 1:44:26.880 --> 1:44:29.200 He did the work. I mean they were sin of act, 1:44:29.280 --> 1:44:32.000 but Greenberg make sure the stuff got played. 1:44:32.160 --> 1:44:34.160 He called all he was. He was a he was 1:44:34.200 --> 1:44:38.320 a top quarter guy. He was heavy top quarter guy. 1:44:38.360 --> 1:44:41.360 As far as emotion and a single oriented. Everything was 1:44:41.400 --> 1:44:43.000 single he could pick a single in a minute. 1:44:43.439 --> 1:44:44.560 He was good at that, you know. 1:44:45.479 --> 1:44:48.720 But uh, other than that, and and and because of him, 1:44:48.800 --> 1:44:51.160 it made my job much easier because he understood me. 1:44:51.640 --> 1:44:54.400 He knew I wasn't gonna take too much bullshit, you know, 1:44:55.040 --> 1:44:57.679 he knew, he knew how to deal with He even 1:44:57.760 --> 1:45:00.920 told a story when we had this. I had a 1:45:01.000 --> 1:45:05.200 birthday party at his club and uh in Vegas. He 1:45:05.280 --> 1:45:07.439 had a place to call I think, I forget the 1:45:07.520 --> 1:45:07.800 name of it. 1:45:09.160 --> 1:45:10.360 Rainbow. Yea, he had a rainbow. 1:45:10.800 --> 1:45:13.479 So I had a birthday party when I turned sixty five, right, 1:45:14.280 --> 1:45:17.320 and he told story man that I had not heard before. Right, 1:45:17.360 --> 1:45:20.120 But he told the story about you know, Shelon Vogel 1:45:20.200 --> 1:45:23.240 was the controller that I used to work for. He 1:45:23.400 --> 1:45:26.439 told the story about. He said, Shellon vogl used to 1:45:26.479 --> 1:45:29.200 complain about my expense report. So he came down to 1:45:29.520 --> 1:45:32.200 Greenberg one day, said, I want to know tell me 1:45:32.280 --> 1:45:35.200 one thing. How is it that I'm an Urgon is 1:45:35.240 --> 1:45:39.120 a chairman of the company and his expense report is 1:45:39.400 --> 1:45:43.960 is uh what eight thousand and nine thousand and some 1:45:44.200 --> 1:45:47.799 dollars a week? And Mario is the third two thousand. 1:45:50.400 --> 1:45:53.599 Greenberg said, because Mario get records playing I don't do shit, 1:45:57.960 --> 1:46:00.240 but that that I didn't even know about out that, 1:46:00.360 --> 1:46:03.120 but crick Bird told me that. Man, I thought I'd 1:46:03.240 --> 1:46:06.439 die laughing, because you know, like I've been traveling with 1:46:06.520 --> 1:46:08.639 all these bands. I was switching all the time, switching 1:46:08.720 --> 1:46:10.679 back and forth. So I had a lot of plane 1:46:10.720 --> 1:46:13.960 tickets in a month where where I might not, I 1:46:14.040 --> 1:46:16.200 had that. But anyway, that was so funny. Man, I 1:46:16.280 --> 1:46:18.720 thought I'd die. We say, you, Mario, get record played 1:46:18.760 --> 1:46:22.439 I we don't do anything. Man Greenbergs was my man. 1:46:22.439 --> 1:46:23.040 I'm telling you. I. 1:46:24.439 --> 1:46:27.800 So did you interact with the Stacks people at all? 1:46:28.680 --> 1:46:32.040 Oh? Yeah? Al Bell? Al Bell was he was a 1:46:32.040 --> 1:46:33.040 promotion man before. 1:46:33.200 --> 1:46:35.400 Right. I knew Al Bell from when he was promotion 1:46:35.560 --> 1:46:37.680 man because I used to make up the spills for 1:46:37.800 --> 1:46:40.160 the promotion guy and he would come up there, you 1:46:40.200 --> 1:46:42.080 know a lot of time to get get his spip check. 1:46:42.120 --> 1:46:44.880 It's like a promotion check, you know. So I got 1:46:44.960 --> 1:46:46.559 to meet him, and you know, and and then and then, 1:46:46.640 --> 1:46:49.840 uh we had a bar downstairs. So one time after 1:46:49.960 --> 1:46:51.640 work he was in the bar and he saw me. 1:46:51.760 --> 1:46:53.280 So I was a sudden, Hey Mario, come on, have 1:46:53.320 --> 1:46:55.280 a drinker. And I got to know him. He's telling 1:46:55.320 --> 1:46:57.560 me about stuff you know about back then, you know, 1:46:57.600 --> 1:47:01.240 because Otis was was being distributed about and so he 1:47:01.320 --> 1:47:04.680 was telling, yeah, man, I got this new Uh. I 1:47:04.760 --> 1:47:06.759 think either Connley I think was the record. 1:47:06.800 --> 1:47:08.400 I think it was. I think it was out of 1:47:08.400 --> 1:47:10.840 the college. I'm not sure, but it was some record 1:47:10.880 --> 1:47:13.120 they had on stacks that he wanted me to hear. 1:47:13.640 --> 1:47:15.840 And he and he had like a cassette player, you know, 1:47:15.960 --> 1:47:18.960 like a walk man. We in the bar. He takes 1:47:18.960 --> 1:47:20.639 me to the bathroom and play the walk Man. 1:47:21.920 --> 1:47:25.320 Wasn't I wasn't even a promotion man at the time, 1:47:25.439 --> 1:47:27.560 you know, I was a bookkeeper. 1:47:27.800 --> 1:47:29.280 But he played. He said, this is gonna be a 1:47:29.360 --> 1:47:30.720 hit man. But that's what I say. 1:47:30.760 --> 1:47:34.040 He was a great promotion guy, man because he sold 1:47:34.080 --> 1:47:35.960 me on that record. And I still can't steal in 1:47:35.960 --> 1:47:37.080 all condar until the day. 1:47:38.000 --> 1:47:40.759 But he sold me, man. But he ended up running 1:47:41.120 --> 1:47:44.360 uh sacks afterwards. You know whatever. It was good. 1:47:44.920 --> 1:47:49.400 So you met all these people, you know, only a 1:47:49.479 --> 1:47:52.040 few of these people really live up to the rep. 1:47:52.360 --> 1:47:56.280 They're really rock stars. So tell me who lives up 1:47:56.320 --> 1:47:56.519 to the. 1:47:56.560 --> 1:48:03.679 Rep A rock star? Yeah, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Robert 1:48:03.720 --> 1:48:08.559 plant Jimmy Page with all my brothers. 1:48:08.600 --> 1:48:10.559 You know, when when Drag was around, he was definitely 1:48:10.600 --> 1:48:13.400 a rock star man, you know, even though he used 1:48:13.400 --> 1:48:16.479 to get messed up otherwise, but he actually lived they 1:48:16.600 --> 1:48:18.360 lived up to being a rock and. 1:48:18.439 --> 1:48:18.880 Roller, you know. 1:48:19.520 --> 1:48:23.120 All el P wasn't like that they wrote that, and uh, 1:48:24.000 --> 1:48:26.320 Eric Clapton, he was a quiet guy, but he still was. 1:48:27.000 --> 1:48:30.240 He had that that that vibe you know, people be around. 1:48:30.680 --> 1:48:32.759 They treat him like a rock star. But he was quieter. 1:48:33.200 --> 1:48:36.559 But the other cats were outgoing, you know. And uh 1:48:36.920 --> 1:48:37.479 else I'm trying. 1:48:37.840 --> 1:48:40.040 And you know from the Rascals too, you know Rascals, 1:48:40.160 --> 1:48:44.000 Eddie Bergot, it was a rock star out was one 1:48:44.040 --> 1:48:46.200 of the first guys I hung out with. From the Rascals, 1:48:46.920 --> 1:48:49.760 Eddie was and he was one of the singers, but 1:48:49.960 --> 1:48:51.680 I knew the feelings was used to most of the 1:48:51.760 --> 1:48:53.639 lead but Eddie was one of the singers as well. 1:48:54.439 --> 1:48:56.560 But that was a band that I first when I 1:48:56.600 --> 1:48:59.360 did my first trip to l A. I hung out 1:48:59.400 --> 1:49:01.880 with them at the the High House, you know, and 1:49:02.200 --> 1:49:05.080 uh that's when I found out I wanted to. 1:49:05.120 --> 1:49:05.720 Do this job. 1:49:09.200 --> 1:49:10.760 So what keeps you busy? Now? 1:49:12.520 --> 1:49:14.320 Uh? If you're almost Live. I meditated. 1:49:14.360 --> 1:49:16.320 Man, I'm i'm a I'm a I'm a zen monk 1:49:16.360 --> 1:49:19.439 as well as I'm concerned. I did martial art for 1:49:19.560 --> 1:49:22.800 like fifty years, you know, and and zen meditation and 1:49:22.920 --> 1:49:25.200 I do that now. That's what I mostly do. Spend 1:49:25.240 --> 1:49:28.400 most of my time meditating and and and and reading. 1:49:28.520 --> 1:49:31.120 That's about it. You know, what do you read? Thank god? 1:49:32.479 --> 1:49:34.519 Any books? I don't read so many books, man, everything 1:49:34.560 --> 1:49:35.800 and had come out every time I want to come out. 1:49:35.800 --> 1:49:39.519 I read Peter's book. I read the book from the 1:49:39.600 --> 1:49:44.280 guy from Saturday Night Live, the producer that book. I'm 1:49:44.280 --> 1:49:46.120 still I'm still on it. It's so fat, you know. 1:49:47.320 --> 1:49:47.559 I did. 1:49:47.720 --> 1:49:50.959 I did the Life of King Curtis. King Curtis at 1:49:51.000 --> 1:49:53.320 a at a book out. I read that one and 1:49:53.439 --> 1:49:55.280 I read, I mean, I got a whole stack of 1:49:55.320 --> 1:49:55.559 them over. 1:49:55.680 --> 1:49:59.000 I did doctor John's book. Uh, I read her. 1:49:59.240 --> 1:50:00.840 I read her most of them. When they got my 1:50:00.920 --> 1:50:06.680 name and I want to definitely read it, but they 1:50:06.840 --> 1:50:09.040 mentioned me. I'll read the book just to make sure 1:50:09.040 --> 1:50:12.720 they got me in there. And uh, and the rock 1:50:12.800 --> 1:50:16.559 doc did a book. Uh he was Michael Jackson. Uh 1:50:17.200 --> 1:50:20.880 uh doctor before before the one that messed up. He 1:50:21.080 --> 1:50:23.519 was the original doctor. But he's a print of mine 1:50:23.520 --> 1:50:23.800 as well. 1:50:23.880 --> 1:50:24.400 He had a book. 1:50:24.400 --> 1:50:26.519 I read his book, and that's fantastic, man. And you know, 1:50:26.720 --> 1:50:29.360 like Shep Gordon put out a book, I read his. 1:50:29.600 --> 1:50:31.479 David Liebert put out a book. I read that book. 1:50:32.200 --> 1:50:36.200 Uh, I mean, uh it was Phil Raws had a book. 1:50:36.240 --> 1:50:38.560 I read his new All the guys that I know 1:50:38.720 --> 1:50:41.320 in this business, you know, I read to seeing, you know, 1:50:42.040 --> 1:50:43.679 and I'll see if they told the truth. 1:50:45.520 --> 1:50:47.479 But you know, it's it's been a lot of a 1:50:47.560 --> 1:50:50.320 lot of guys, you know, and nobody reads now, David, 1:50:50.400 --> 1:50:52.679 I still read. You know a lot of people don't 1:50:52.680 --> 1:50:56.040 do no reading. Reading is is rewarding to me. I 1:50:56.160 --> 1:50:57.680 just I like reading. You know. 1:50:58.360 --> 1:51:00.840 I'm with you there, Mario. Mar I want to thank 1:51:00.920 --> 1:51:04.400 you so much for spending this time with my audience 1:51:04.479 --> 1:51:07.240 and revealing all these stories that otherwise would be lost 1:51:07.280 --> 1:51:08.360 to the sands in time. 1:51:09.600 --> 1:51:12.720 Yeah. Well, I'm glad I'm around, still around, man, and 1:51:13.720 --> 1:51:14.960 I know I might be older than you. 1:51:16.320 --> 1:51:19.160 Yeah, but you don't act like it. You're just fast. 1:51:19.200 --> 1:51:20.719 You can still talk the trash. 1:51:20.880 --> 1:51:22.760 So you know, I'm still middlely ill you know, us 1:51:22.880 --> 1:51:25.400 make the thing every time someone saidmorrow, you're crazy, I said, 1:51:25.400 --> 1:51:26.320 thank you very much. 1:51:28.479 --> 1:51:29.599 Okay, thanks again. 1:51:30.080 --> 1:51:33.080 Yeah man, a pleasure you bet. Till next time. 1:51:33.600 --> 1:51:35.040 This is Bob left sets