Speaker 1: This is Alec Baldwin and you're listening to Here's the thing.
Speaker 1: She gets too hungry for dinner at She loves the theater,
Speaker 1: but she never comes late. Never people. That's why this
Speaker 1: chick is a trump She does it like. That's Tony
Speaker 1: Bennett and the woman singing with him. Lady Gaga Duets Too,
Speaker 1: which featured Bennett singing with the likes of Lady Gaga,
Speaker 1: Carrie Underwood, and Amy Winehouse, debuted at number one on
Speaker 1: the Billboard two chart. Tony Bennett was eighty five years old,
Speaker 1: the oldest living artist to debut at number one. Tony
Speaker 1: Bennett is an exceptional talent with old school charm. But
Speaker 1: this order resurgence doesn't just happen. It was the result
Speaker 1: of thirty years of hard work from his son and
Speaker 1: manager my guest today, Danny Bennett. Danny says, I don't
Speaker 1: just handle a career, I manage a legacy out of
Speaker 1: the tree of life. I just picked me a plum.
Speaker 1: You came along and everything started to hung And it
Speaker 1: was Danny who helped bring his dad's music to a
Speaker 1: younger generation. Danny got Tony on Saturday Night Live, The
Speaker 1: Simpsons at Late Night with Conan O'Brien. And it wasn't
Speaker 1: just the music. He put his dad on a budget.
Speaker 1: He stabilized his father's finances. Danny Bennett was a musician himself,
Speaker 1: but found he had a greater knack for business. Last
Speaker 1: year he produced a film called The Zen of Bennett,
Speaker 1: which followed his dad throughout the recording of the Duets album.
Speaker 1: That cool. You know your father built this building. You
Speaker 1: know that because every record but to number one and
Speaker 1: actually made Capitol wick as possible. They do call it
Speaker 1: the house that that bill. I think it's great. Danny
Speaker 1: was used to hanging around these performers. He grew up
Speaker 1: surrounded by musical giants. I was born in the Bronx,
Speaker 1: raised in Englewood, New Jersey. And you grew up in
Speaker 1: the Bronx to you were how old? No, just like
Speaker 1: you know, like two weeks quickly, and then you guys
Speaker 1: went to Anglewood, Englewood, New Jersey. Englewood was an amazing place.
Speaker 1: It's it's literally fifteen minutes from midtown, right across the
Speaker 1: George Washington Bridge. And I was born in nineteen nine now,
Speaker 1: and it was a very exciting time. You had um
Speaker 1: a lot of artists from kind of the show biz thing.
Speaker 1: There was Tony, there was Dick Shawn, Joey Bishop, Um,
Speaker 1: Buddy Hackett. They were just right there because they would
Speaker 1: just Tony would come and do his sessions in the
Speaker 1: city at Columbia Studios, and then the jam session would
Speaker 1: continue in my house. Uh So they were just like, hey,
Speaker 1: let's go back to the house. He had like a
Speaker 1: little studio. And when I say the basement, it was
Speaker 1: you know, above ground basement kind of thing. You know,
Speaker 1: as a little kid, I wake up to the streams
Speaker 1: of like you know, you know, count basing and just
Speaker 1: amazing stuff. So when you were a kid, I suppose
Speaker 1: most people would assume all those your childhood memories of
Speaker 1: being a wash in music of that period. Well, you know,
Speaker 1: it's I often say now, like I feel like Forrest Gump.
Speaker 1: I mean, I don't know why I had an appreciation
Speaker 1: for the moment as a kid. I just did. It
Speaker 1: wasn't just music. Besides being able to sit on the
Speaker 1: piano stool with Duke Ellington. I mean, that's crazy. But
Speaker 1: I remember sitting on my dad's lap at a political
Speaker 1: rally with JFK running for president, you know, at the
Speaker 1: Teaneck Armory. He's sitting in back, there's Jack Kennedy giving
Speaker 1: a speech, and I'm seeing all the placards, you know.
Speaker 1: So it's like I'm always seeing the backside of things,
Speaker 1: which is an interesting perspective because it's it's just that
Speaker 1: image burned in my brain. What was like nine years old, Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: And so it's those kind of things, or Lewis Armstrong
Speaker 1: and Carol Channing at the White House. You know, it's like,
Speaker 1: what's that? Or so people who sang standards and sang
Speaker 1: whether they were Broadway tunes or there were standards by
Speaker 1: the Harold Arleans of the world and so forth. But
Speaker 1: music for you, your personal music was dad going to
Speaker 1: the studio with Count Basie and you had an electric guitar,
Speaker 1: nam and you were singing Strawberry Fields. Oh yeah. I
Speaker 1: mean when I was ten years old, the Beatles hit
Speaker 1: and that was it for me and my brother who
Speaker 1: plays drums. Immediately, I found an old guitar in my
Speaker 1: dad's closet, and he's been trying to learn guitar for
Speaker 1: a long time, so I grabbed He's gonna get event No,
Speaker 1: he's gonna get it eventually. I'm telling you anyway, it
Speaker 1: was like a guy nylon string guitar and he had
Speaker 1: a book of chords, one of those like things, and
Speaker 1: I just I was so obsessing me. We're introducing the
Speaker 1: Beatles record, and I put the needle down and then
Speaker 1: like like go through the book and just like match
Speaker 1: the chord with the sound of the record. Oh it's
Speaker 1: a jeep chord, you know, It's like And that's how
Speaker 1: I learned, you know, by year how to play what
Speaker 1: was the name of your band, um Quacky Duck, right,
Speaker 1: And so you and your brother and you have Cracky
Speaker 1: Duck and you're how old, um, well were like sixteen,
Speaker 1: you're teenagers like old garage manage or teenagers. And then
Speaker 1: but at that same time, do you still have like
Speaker 1: this kind of bicameral relationship with music. There's your dad
Speaker 1: and his music, and that's a presence in your life
Speaker 1: and you have and you have a fondest for it
Speaker 1: of course, and an appreciation for it. And then you're
Speaker 1: playing your Yeah, I mean some people don't know if
Speaker 1: it's Gerald that can call um Lewis armstrong. I mean
Speaker 1: these are huge royalty and huge influences on us. And
Speaker 1: then obviously. You know, we all have our icons. You know,
Speaker 1: Tony has got has his icons and and rightfully, so
Speaker 1: we're gonna get to that. Yeah yeah, but but but
Speaker 1: you're there, and what happens as you finished high school?
Speaker 1: Is there a time that you put down musical Well,
Speaker 1: I mean we were extremely serious about it, you know,
Speaker 1: when it was like when you rehearsed on the week.
Speaker 1: You know, it's like in school. We did it. And
Speaker 1: then it's interesting because we were never kind of into sports,
Speaker 1: and that's what we did at a very early age.
Speaker 1: You know, we were doing like high school dances and
Speaker 1: and and really, I gotta be honest with you, I
Speaker 1: haven't learned much since then. You know, we learned how
Speaker 1: to like, oh, in a minute, you know what we're
Speaker 1: selling tickets? You know. I remember going, you know, the
Speaker 1: student union. You'd get paid two hundred bucks, which was
Speaker 1: great in the sixties and there's a lot of money.
Speaker 1: So we we we kind of made it on our own,
Speaker 1: and the student unions go um two and in Boxton,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, we're selling the tickets like to this show.
Speaker 1: So I would go to the student unions and go, hey, look,
Speaker 1: I'll tell you what you know what, you guys are
Speaker 1: always on the line. You don't know if you're gonna
Speaker 1: make any money. No, no guarantee. We'll take a cut
Speaker 1: of the door. We'll take a do you take twenty?
Speaker 1: And I was like where this is the high school?
Speaker 1: High school? And so they're going like, oh, you know
Speaker 1: that's cool, great, Yeah, we don't have to worry when
Speaker 1: you get her ask kicked at the end of the night,
Speaker 1: I'm makings and they're going like, wain a minute, you know.
Speaker 1: So then I just kind of like went from one
Speaker 1: school to another, UM and finished high school and where'd
Speaker 1: you go? Um? We had to deal with Warner Brothers Records,
Speaker 1: and we used to play Max's Kansas City and you
Speaker 1: know with I mean Graham Parsons. I don't know if
Speaker 1: you know Graham. He was a good friend of ours.
Speaker 1: We toured with him, and you know we were like
Speaker 1: those who are our heroes UM at the time. And
Speaker 1: that's where I met Bonnie and John Prine, and you know,
Speaker 1: I had this kind of really extraordinary wealth because also
Speaker 1: his original tour manager was a guy named d Anthony.
Speaker 1: He ended up being the penultimate like rock manager and
Speaker 1: invented the triumph and of promoter Bill Graham, d Anthony
Speaker 1: and the agent uh Frank Barcelona, and they brought all
Speaker 1: these artists in from England and we spent I was
Speaker 1: raised at Fillmore. We were kind of an art band.
Speaker 1: We played at Max's with the Modern Lovers and the
Speaker 1: New York Dolls and and and we just said, let's
Speaker 1: come up with the most ridiculous name we can possibly
Speaker 1: come up with, because we thought the Beatles was kind
Speaker 1: of a ridiculous name, right, So we were kind of
Speaker 1: making fun of that. So we were serious about that,
Speaker 1: working built studios and did that kind of thing, and
Speaker 1: it just got to a point where you know, you
Speaker 1: know when you got it and you know when you don't.
Speaker 1: I was always so enamored by especially the people I
Speaker 1: worked with in other writers in my band. I'd go
Speaker 1: like I was kind of really good at like saying wow,
Speaker 1: that's a great song. And I found that like that
Speaker 1: was my real talent. You know. Yeah. And then when
Speaker 1: does one day someone say, Danny, it's you. You're going
Speaker 1: to start becoming involved in this big well, you know,
Speaker 1: it's interesting and it's happening in a day, happen well
Speaker 1: kind of and I can pinpoint when Tony kind of
Speaker 1: got on like, wait a minute, he may know what's
Speaker 1: going on. The Beatles for me was you know, I
Speaker 1: was obsessed not only the art of it, but the
Speaker 1: you know, the social aspect of it, the marketing of it.
Speaker 1: Marketing was fun. It wasn't a bad word. The balance
Speaker 1: between art and commerce. It was very much about what
Speaker 1: this an event it is about. It's always been interesting
Speaker 1: to me. The Beatles always thought the two minutes and
Speaker 1: forty seconds that they had that was their canvas and
Speaker 1: how best to make that work. I love that concept.
Speaker 1: I love the constraints. Well, Tony always says there's free form.
Speaker 1: You gotta learn form before you can be free and
Speaker 1: there's there's a lot to that. You know, they couldn't
Speaker 1: have done Hey Jude without doing all those great songs
Speaker 1: that boom there they are, don't for us get to
Speaker 1: the chorus, but but still maintain the art. So moving
Speaker 1: into a time when Tony was um again, we grew
Speaker 1: up around the you know, it was just immersed so
Speaker 1: you know, the dinner table, the conversations were about what
Speaker 1: was happening at Columbia Records. Oh my god. Clive Davis,
Speaker 1: he was you know, became President of Colombia, the first attorney.
Speaker 1: It was a freaky thing. It was very tuned into that.
Speaker 1: You know. Um, Sinatra didn't make either any of his
Speaker 1: daughters or his son his right hand man. Well, that
Speaker 1: would have never happened. We don't wanta have to go there.
Speaker 1: But your dad did. Yeah. Well he was at a
Speaker 1: point where the thing at Columbia they tried to you know,
Speaker 1: this happened to everyone, Sirnatra, Barbara stra you know, it
Speaker 1: was like, oh you gotta w beads and singing, Barbara Strice,
Speaker 1: and they tried to get Barbara to sing Bob Dylan tunes.
Speaker 1: I mean in nineteen sixty nine. I mean she's listening
Speaker 1: to Dylan going like, what's this? You know, while in
Speaker 1: the winds. The answer is belowing in the wind you know,
Speaker 1: brilliant idea. That's a great one. Let's go again, Barbara.
Speaker 1: So anyway, so Tony actually, you know, worked with Climbing
Speaker 1: and he did an album that was kind of like
Speaker 1: that thing, and it got physically sick. He said, he
Speaker 1: was like regurgitating between takes. And so well, that's a
Speaker 1: great story that he tells about Clive Davis. Right, um,
Speaker 1: where Duke Yellington went in and said, you know, he
Speaker 1: thought he was going in to get a raise, and
Speaker 1: Clive Davis said, well, I have some bad news for you.
Speaker 1: And he goes, uh, what is it? And Clive said, well,
Speaker 1: we're gonna have to drop you from the label. Ellington goes, well, why,
Speaker 1: says well, you're not selling enough records, and Ellington goes, oh,
Speaker 1: I guess I hadn't. I was mistaken. I thought I
Speaker 1: was supposed to make the records and you were supposed
Speaker 1: to sell them. It's a great that's my edict. Like,
Speaker 1: and I've heard that story, but that's every artist, you know.
Speaker 1: That was my said to me, why do I hate
Speaker 1: making movies? And I said, and I said, do you
Speaker 1: really hate making movies? I said, well, maybe hates a
Speaker 1: strong word, but I said, I'm very uncomfortable. They say why,
Speaker 1: I say, because you just feel the hand of commerce
Speaker 1: at your throat every day. Every day. It's never free.
Speaker 1: It's really fun, it can be challenging, but you just
Speaker 1: feel like every dimes. Yeah, so they wanted your dad
Speaker 1: to do what he couldn't do and he rebels against
Speaker 1: that and he just kind of like they gave him
Speaker 1: a big contract and he was like, no, I don't
Speaker 1: want to do this. I want to start my own label. Now.
Speaker 1: This is at a time when people weren't doing that.
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, I mean, you know, Sinatra did
Speaker 1: it with more Austin, but it was done more on
Speaker 1: a you know, Warner Brothers thing um. And he found
Speaker 1: Jack rawlins Um what the Allen's manager, and you know
Speaker 1: a number of other people, great people to work with
Speaker 1: him on on a label called Improv. This is where
Speaker 1: he made the Bell Evans records, you know, voice and piano.
Speaker 1: Those records weren't being made at the time. And so
Speaker 1: he came to me and talked to me about the
Speaker 1: label and I said, well that's a great idea. I said,
Speaker 1: you know, it's it's risky. And he said, well, what's
Speaker 1: risky about it? And I said, well, it doesn't seem
Speaker 1: like they have major distribution in this day and age.
Speaker 1: Independent distribution is great, you can do it internet. But
Speaker 1: then it was a real challenge. I said, Columbia's offering
Speaker 1: you did do a distribution deal, which is a great
Speaker 1: you know, which is great that it's kind of like,
Speaker 1: you know, they leave you alone. You can do what
Speaker 1: you want to do. He had me go talk to
Speaker 1: the guy who's running the company in Buffalo. He said,
Speaker 1: we'll go talk to him. Now, you know, I got
Speaker 1: the long hair in a fringe jacket and I and
Speaker 1: I go to this you know, this got this hotel
Speaker 1: owner in Buffalo. And I'm sitting there and he's like,
Speaker 1: what is this about? And I started talking about the distribution.
Speaker 1: It's great, da da boom. And there's some other things
Speaker 1: about the contract that I didn't like that I told
Speaker 1: him about, you know, in terms of him kind of
Speaker 1: getting roped into it. And this guy just rejected that
Speaker 1: whole notion. So I went back to Tony and I
Speaker 1: just said, look, I wouldn't do this. I think there's
Speaker 1: you know, no improv records. Well no, he did it.
Speaker 1: And how long did that last? It lasted like three
Speaker 1: years and they failed because of the distribution. So he
Speaker 1: does improv records and then because he can't get the
Speaker 1: records distributed exactly. And so that's what I told him.
Speaker 1: He remembered that, and then the label folded and then
Speaker 1: he was without a contract for how long? Um, let's see, Alex,
Speaker 1: I would say three years. Was that like four years? Um? Well,
Speaker 1: it's tough because remember at the time. This is like
Speaker 1: around seventy eight. Okay, Sinatra retired number one and streisand's
Speaker 1: doing duets with the bigs. You know what I'm saying. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. So like there's that he
Speaker 1: didn't want to do it, and then he was in
Speaker 1: Vegas and then those days you were doing Vegas, like
Speaker 1: you know, the thirty two week thing and all that
Speaker 1: time stuff. You know. He just called me up one
Speaker 1: day and it was just like, I don't you know,
Speaker 1: I need some help here. I don't know what to do.
Speaker 1: I don't know where to go. He didn't have a manager. Um.
Speaker 1: He wanted to be able to do his art on
Speaker 1: his terms. Um, And it was Vegas Like for him,
Speaker 1: what what? What? What is that like for someone? Because
Speaker 1: I mean, you always figure. I remember reading Nick Tash's
Speaker 1: book Dino about Dean Martin, one of the one of
Speaker 1: the best biographies I've ever and they talked about how Martin,
Speaker 1: at one point in the sixties I believe was the
Speaker 1: highest paid entertainer in the world because he had the
Speaker 1: he touched every base, he touched all four bases, he
Speaker 1: had a television show, he had a recording contract, he
Speaker 1: started in films, and he appeared live in Vegas in
Speaker 1: another concerts, and he was making millions and millions of
Speaker 1: dollars back then. And I was wondering for someone like
Speaker 1: your dad where I'm not going to say that I
Speaker 1: actually I don't know what Vegas exemplified back then, like
Speaker 1: for an actor. Was that like being on a game
Speaker 1: show or no, no, no no, But I mean the
Speaker 1: idea that you know, this is where they cut their teeth,
Speaker 1: the lounges, you know, Louis Prima in the lounge he
Speaker 1: had a Freda stare, and Carrie Grant going to see
Speaker 1: Sinatra and then going to the lounge, you know, and
Speaker 1: this is where the audience was like, you know, and
Speaker 1: Tony makes a good point. These people. We didn't have
Speaker 1: access to these people except the big screen, and all
Speaker 1: of a sudden, there they are sitting there watching Louis Prima,
Speaker 1: rubbing shoulders with with Sinatra and Jerry Grant and whatever.
Speaker 1: This was magic and for for again, for Tony. You
Speaker 1: gotta remember, Tony's ten years younger than all these guys.
Speaker 1: These are his idols, you know, Sinatra calling him the kid,
Speaker 1: you know, um, And there he is with them all
Speaker 1: spread a stair. I mean, like it was a salon
Speaker 1: so so, and nobody messed around for the very you know,
Speaker 1: for the obvious reasons. And then you got into the
Speaker 1: kind of this this evolution where you know, the Suma
Speaker 1: Corporation and Howard Hughes took over, and like I had
Speaker 1: to negotiate with like Howard Hughes and these cowboys. It
Speaker 1: was really interesting. It was amazing, you know. I mean,
Speaker 1: like and this is where like Tony when I first
Speaker 1: started working, and like, you know, Howard uses on the
Speaker 1: top of the desert end. I mean, I know he's
Speaker 1: up there. And so there was like, you know this
Speaker 1: guy named Lenny, you know that he'd go in with
Speaker 1: me to negotiate the contract. And Lenny get on his
Speaker 1: hands and knees, going seriously and I'm going, what are
Speaker 1: you doing, and like get off your knees. I'm not
Speaker 1: gonna get on my knees and big for a contract.
Speaker 1: I'm just not gonna do it, you know. And the
Speaker 1: guy it's just saying down you get down on your knees.
Speaker 1: How it works. Mr Hughes. Yeah, yeah. And he's got
Speaker 1: the big the guys behind the desk with a big
Speaker 1: cowboy hat, and I'm like, oh my goah. So I
Speaker 1: go to Tony and and here's a very interesting thing.
Speaker 1: I'm sitting outside the desert and just like you know,
Speaker 1: I'm in a bench, some dude comes and sits next
Speaker 1: to me, an older guy, and he's grumbling. And I
Speaker 1: turned around and he's like, I'm never coming back to
Speaker 1: Vegas again. Right, he's doing that kind of thing. I'm like,
Speaker 1: what's up. I don't know. You know, they used to
Speaker 1: fly me out here. And he's a bad he's a
Speaker 1: drop fifty grand of pop. But but man, did they
Speaker 1: make me feel good about losing my money? The shows?
Speaker 1: The girls like that he's doing this. He goes, they
Speaker 1: take it all away. Now they don't want to know me.
Speaker 1: He say says, I'm never coming back again. And I
Speaker 1: had an epiphany. I was like, we gotta get out
Speaker 1: of this town. It's going down. So I went to
Speaker 1: Tony and I said to him, here's the gig. You
Speaker 1: gotta get out of this town. I know this is like,
Speaker 1: this is what you go where? And I said, you
Speaker 1: go to the people. We're gonna go to colleges. This
Speaker 1: is the point in which you kind of climb into
Speaker 1: the cockpit with this guy who's this legend, and you're
Speaker 1: twenty five years old. I know what you're teaching me.
Speaker 1: And the conversation is that from the beginning you were
Speaker 1: just saturated and inundated and interested naturally, not just in
Speaker 1: on a creative level, but on a business level as well,
Speaker 1: and on a technical level. Growing up, as you know,
Speaker 1: in that environment where kids were befriending me because the
Speaker 1: parents knew that if they befriended me, maybe they could
Speaker 1: have dinner with Tony at the thing, I developed an
Speaker 1: early sense of like cutting through the crap. You know.
Speaker 1: It's like I knew who my friends were and who
Speaker 1: they weren't. I could tell right away. So I had
Speaker 1: this epiphany and I said, you know what, I'm going
Speaker 1: to run him for president. I'm gonna treat his campaign.
Speaker 1: And I love history too, so I do love and
Speaker 1: I'm like, I'm gonna run. I'm gonna do this like
Speaker 1: I'm running for president. And I went to him and
Speaker 1: I said, you know, presidents would not go to Iowa
Speaker 1: if they didn't have to go to Iowa, and and
Speaker 1: and you know, shake the hands, I go instead of
Speaker 1: having people come to you in Vegas. I said, your
Speaker 1: music transcends, right, and you can't do this with everybody.
Speaker 1: And I and I have an appreciation. You know, I
Speaker 1: watched Tony when you know how many times have seen
Speaker 1: this show. He's reinventing himself. He's really kicking ass. I
Speaker 1: mean in terms of like taking chances. That's really rock
Speaker 1: and roll. He's taking chances. You know, the Rolling Stones
Speaker 1: are getting older, not really taking chances anyway. And here's
Speaker 1: Tony what he calls moving the furniture around, and unlike,
Speaker 1: you know, people just got to see this. There's a
Speaker 1: transcendent quality and great art that that, like he says,
Speaker 1: defies demographics. So I got into that. So it's like
Speaker 1: Letterman was that doing the late so you know, like
Speaker 1: we're you know, we're filing these now. And nobody went
Speaker 1: on that show. But after a few calls on Danny's part,
Speaker 1: Tony did Tony been at Tony? And there were other shows,
Speaker 1: many many others. Look, it's Tony, Hey, good to see you.
Speaker 1: It's good. Charts. When did you first start charting in
Speaker 1: the fifties, Yes, the fifties, sixties, seventies, eighties. You've been
Speaker 1: on the charts every decade, right, is there anybody else
Speaker 1: in history other than like, wait open, is there any
Speaker 1: hey kermen, have you ever sung firefly before? Well? I
Speaker 1: can't say that I have, Tony, but you know I've
Speaker 1: certainly eaten a few. There are a good light snack.
Speaker 1: Oh boy, hey, come on, let's do this. You started off.
Speaker 1: I call her fire fly so much she radiates in
Speaker 1: a minute. Danny Bennett talks about the chat leunge of
Speaker 1: keeping up with his eighty seven year old father. The
Speaker 1: guy doesn't like to take elevators. He takes. He doesn't
Speaker 1: like to take escalators. We go to airports. He's up
Speaker 1: the stairs. I'm Alec Baldwin and you're listening to here's
Speaker 1: the thing. This is Alec Baldwin, my guest. Danny Bennett
Speaker 1: is president of RPM Records and has managed the career
Speaker 1: of RPM's biggest star, his father, Tony Bennett, for over
Speaker 1: thirty years. His dad's career has had its ups and downs.
Speaker 1: The seventies weren't kind to vocalists who weren't interested in
Speaker 1: recording contemporary material. In V nine, Tony Bennett had no contract,
Speaker 1: no manager, a drug problem, and the I R S
Speaker 1: was at the door. Look all artists go through this
Speaker 1: when the Beatles hit Sinatra and I mean everyone's Elvis,
Speaker 1: he retired, he went away. You know they what they
Speaker 1: were depressed. They were like, oh my god, the world's changing.
Speaker 1: You know. Yeah that there was a big part that.
Speaker 1: And you know he moved to the West Coast, he did. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, and Tony it was hard. He's a New
Speaker 1: York boy. You know, it's from a story of Queens.
Speaker 1: He loves going. You know, he defin the Beatles thing
Speaker 1: that that that match when Lennard was down, he moved
Speaker 1: to l A Yeah exactly. It was depressed and what
Speaker 1: happened alright, so it was it didn't do so well. Well,
Speaker 1: the same thing kind of happened. You know. It's just
Speaker 1: like you know, got involved with the whole click thing.
Speaker 1: Tony doesn't have a click. He doesn't he doesn't relate
Speaker 1: to it, doesn't like entourages. He likes to keep it simple.
Speaker 1: You know, his apartment every year, like something else disappears.
Speaker 1: It's becoming more zen, you know. And he loves his
Speaker 1: view over Central Park and he's got his paintings. That's
Speaker 1: what he does. So the only thing the party is
Speaker 1: and that it was hard having to remind ourselves every
Speaker 1: fifteen minutes who we are, and then you know, you
Speaker 1: get into that thing where it's like I'm missing out.
Speaker 1: You know, I should be at that party, and if
Speaker 1: I'm not, I'm gonna loser. You know, it's like, you know,
Speaker 1: the whole thing. So he's not that certain people are
Speaker 1: like four years you know he came back when roughly
Speaker 1: yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, So you say you book him
Speaker 1: and he was like, you know, you know, drug thing,
Speaker 1: financial things, every right, So so there was all that happening.
Speaker 1: So I helped on. You know, it's funny because he
Speaker 1: wanted me his finances. I'm not an accountant, but I'm
Speaker 1: a good common sense person. So we go to the
Speaker 1: accountant firm here and you know, they don't stuff out
Speaker 1: on the table like in they're life. You know, let
Speaker 1: the kid figure this out, knock yourself done. They're gonna
Speaker 1: have a coffee because we're we couldn't do we couldn't
Speaker 1: do anything. What do you think? You know? It's like that.
Speaker 1: So I'm like, tell us when you got it all
Speaker 1: worked out, Danny? So anyway we did, and did I
Speaker 1: know there I I ars problems I went in negotiated
Speaker 1: with but you this is what's interesting about your family.
Speaker 1: A lot of people, some of the last people they
Speaker 1: trust their own families, some of the last, if I
Speaker 1: don't blame him, well, And a lot of these guys
Speaker 1: and women and people who make it big, and no
Speaker 1: one's made it bigger than your father. And they think
Speaker 1: everybody wants to just stick their stroll on their drinking,
Speaker 1: so they want money. They're rolling it for the wrong reason.
Speaker 1: You and he have. Was it unique all along? Was
Speaker 1: sitting on your I don't want to get too sappy
Speaker 1: and sentimental, but sitting on your dad's knee and it's
Speaker 1: JFK on stage and all that stuff. Were you always
Speaker 1: close to him or were you a son like any son?
Speaker 1: And you got closer and closer, and he began to
Speaker 1: see more and more. You know, No, it's interesting because
Speaker 1: we never related that way, so he kind of always
Speaker 1: related to me as an adult, Danny, I want to
Speaker 1: talk to you, son. I don't want you to be
Speaker 1: my son anymore. I want you to be my account.
Speaker 1: He treated you like it was kind of like that
Speaker 1: you were a business and so he would produce a partner.
Speaker 1: At the age of twelve. He would come to me
Speaker 1: and go like I don't know. I got this thing
Speaker 1: about the dog. What do you think he didn't delineate?
Speaker 1: And you know what I mean. You know, it's like
Speaker 1: I guess, you know, at the turn of the century,
Speaker 1: kids at twelve and thirteen, we're working in the fields,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, And like they were doing operating. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and and I think a lot of that. This was
Speaker 1: working in the fields for you. This is working in
Speaker 1: the fields. You know. It wasn't like go throw a
Speaker 1: baseball in Madrina and you know, celebrity. We couldn't go
Speaker 1: to the zoo. But it was impossible. I mean, he
Speaker 1: took me to one movie, Plane of the Apes. I
Speaker 1: remember one movie, and that's okay. Danny would never go
Speaker 1: to the movies together again. I'm sorry. I love his son,
Speaker 1: but I'm gonna build a theater out there in Englewood, exactly.
Speaker 1: I would have watched the movies with Count Basie every
Speaker 1: Friday night. And then that's that's that, you know. But
Speaker 1: I always dug the fact that, like I got to
Speaker 1: go to the Cope of Cabana. You know. So the
Speaker 1: eighties go by and you're in this phase where you're
Speaker 1: gonna build our PM, You're gonna build his your company.
Speaker 1: You're gonna do what you want to do your way.
Speaker 1: But when did you know it was gonna work? We
Speaker 1: I mean, I don't mean to be corny and cinematic
Speaker 1: about it, but are you standing there one night in
Speaker 1: the wings and he's out there and you go, it's working. No,
Speaker 1: I'll tell you what it was. Bob Guccioni, Jr. I
Speaker 1: was the editor of Spin Magazine and I was reading it.
Speaker 1: They were interviewing him in his own magazine and asked
Speaker 1: him what he thought was the most influential thing about
Speaker 1: rock and roll. People in rock and roll. He said
Speaker 1: two people, James Brown and Tony Bennett. And I was like,
Speaker 1: that's wow, man, James Brown and Tony Bennett. And this
Speaker 1: is Spin magazine, you know, it's like the pick season
Speaker 1: of it. And then I went on to read the
Speaker 1: guys like, well, why, oh you understand James Brown? Why
Speaker 1: Tony Bennett? He said, because he's always taking chances. It's
Speaker 1: like what I said, And this is what I was
Speaker 1: thinking about Tony. I'm picking up He's picking up this
Speaker 1: vibe and Tony you know, it's like you know, I
Speaker 1: I say, Tony never sings the same thing once he's
Speaker 1: he doesn't he calls it moving to furniture around. He
Speaker 1: doesn't know. There's no such thing as complacency. And now
Speaker 1: we're watching are you know the Big Idols kind of
Speaker 1: good corporate, you know, with the stones and doing that thing,
Speaker 1: and they're they're like cookies cutter and and uh Bob
Speaker 1: Guccioni's talking about this, being like, you know, the guy's
Speaker 1: an innovator. So I called him up. It led to
Speaker 1: kind of the you know, they would do these these
Speaker 1: fashion spreads, and I said, why don't we do something
Speaker 1: with the Chili Peppers and Tony and we could have
Speaker 1: fun with it. So we did a show at the
Speaker 1: hard Rock Cafe in l A with the Red Hot
Speaker 1: Chili Peppers and Tony. The Chili Peppers were punk at
Speaker 1: that time, right before Rick Ruming go um, and I
Speaker 1: said that in a compliment observational musicological but they went.
Speaker 1: They did a good job. Um. From there, it was
Speaker 1: just kind of like, wait a minute. You know it
Speaker 1: was a snob because your father is a snob, as
Speaker 1: you're a father a snob, that was but um, you know,
Speaker 1: so then I'm like, well, you know what, Um, I
Speaker 1: was managing some other bands at that time in Boston
Speaker 1: and then so like a kind of got into this
Speaker 1: notion like they were the alternative rock stations and they
Speaker 1: did these college rock radio shows like RFK stadiums with
Speaker 1: Nine Inch Nails and Da Dada. So I was like, gee,
Speaker 1: I wonder if, like I pitched them, you know, about
Speaker 1: Tony being on the bill, if this would be novel
Speaker 1: enough for them, and I pitched it. Or down at
Speaker 1: Washington d C RFK Stadium and there's Tony where RFK
Speaker 1: st kids, it's p J Harvey. He's going on between
Speaker 1: p J Harvey and Nine Inch Nails Trent Res and
Speaker 1: what happened? Well, Tony stare looking and he goes, can
Speaker 1: I see something? And he goes, would Frank do this?
Speaker 1: And I said nope, and that's why you're doing it.
Speaker 1: And he goes, okay, I get it, and he goes
Speaker 1: out kills kills, I mean, and we were all you
Speaker 1: gotta take chances, you know, like, don't take chances anymore,
Speaker 1: and he kills They're gonna dig it and they wouldn't
Speaker 1: let him off the stage. Just this trio. Look, I
Speaker 1: consider myself a dragon slayer for Tony. He calls me,
Speaker 1: up once a month. I swear to God says you
Speaker 1: know what, I just want to thank you once again
Speaker 1: that I never have to talk to another record executive
Speaker 1: in my entire life. I helped him unblocked the artistic channel.
Speaker 1: So I consider myself a you know, a dragon slayer
Speaker 1: as far as that's concerned. And and I think that
Speaker 1: that that's my that's what I'm proudest of, as far
Speaker 1: as that's concerned. You know. So you go through this
Speaker 1: period the eighties and the nineties, and then we did them,
Speaker 1: but then like out of because those concerts I said
Speaker 1: I'm doing, I'm doing L A. K. Rock, I'm doing
Speaker 1: so I did like five of these things. Then he
Speaker 1: comes into me and he goes, you know, and I'll
Speaker 1: do Tony. You know. I was watching um MTV. I
Speaker 1: think I can do really well on TV. And then
Speaker 1: just walks out of my office and I'm like, okay,
Speaker 1: well you know another one TV. You know, but that's
Speaker 1: Tony Man, And I'm like, why not? I got it?
Speaker 1: Well Tony spelled backwards is what? Why not? That's what
Speaker 1: I say? Anyway, So then it was kind of like, well,
Speaker 1: how am I gonna do this? You know? Jon Stewart
Speaker 1: had a new show. They didn't really have artists. I said,
Speaker 1: I put Tony on the John Stewart Show, and I
Speaker 1: kind of sold that idea and Doug Her talk now
Speaker 1: as a comedy central um at the time, and it
Speaker 1: was like, you know, that could be interesting, and this
Speaker 1: is around eighty eight now they dug it. So they
Speaker 1: put them on then, and then it was like, then,
Speaker 1: I'm kind of how did he feel? He's cool? Here,
Speaker 1: here's your father who, like any artist with a career
Speaker 1: that last decades, technological advance and change becomes another mountain
Speaker 1: for him to climb. Now he's on a television music channel.
Speaker 1: Here's the thing, it's the audience. His audiences were getting older,
Speaker 1: and when we were in front of that young audience,
Speaker 1: let's up here. And then he became twenty years old.
Speaker 1: I watched him. You know, he just rises to the
Speaker 1: occasion from that audience and we doesn't like to do
Speaker 1: arenas and things that he feeds off of that. And
Speaker 1: here's the deal. So it was like they came and
Speaker 1: it was like, you know, we got unplugged. Um, I'd
Speaker 1: be interesting to do unhugged. So I was like, yeah, fantastic.
Speaker 1: So seriously. Man, got all the MTV people, all the
Speaker 1: record people, and they started going, great, you know, we
Speaker 1: got this is gonna be fantastic. Tony's gonna sing Within
Speaker 1: and Without You Abano song and like Runaway Train and
Speaker 1: and I was like whoa. I said, you know what, guys,
Speaker 1: I really appreciate this, but this is this is a
Speaker 1: train wreck. Never gonna happen. And I walked out and
Speaker 1: then they said, well, come back, and what are you
Speaker 1: talking about. I said, listen, you guys are on TV.
Speaker 1: This was in the day of MTV. I said, you
Speaker 1: guys got balls. That's that. There's no balls. What's gonna
Speaker 1: take balls is to do Tony's music and have them
Speaker 1: sing Tony's music. And I said, that's balls, that's MTV.
Speaker 1: And they were like, yeah, we got We're gonna do that.
Speaker 1: Don't we marry balls? Don't you marry? Yes, I do,
Speaker 1: I've got huge. Yeah. Whose idea was the Duets album?
Speaker 1: I mean, you know it's not It wasn't an original
Speaker 1: idea what I'm saying, but I thought that those are
Speaker 1: very complicated things to do. The point that pain in
Speaker 1: the as Yeah, you know, you you had Sinatra and
Speaker 1: then you had um, Ray Charles. I mean, he's so
Speaker 1: fifteen million records, Um, pretty good idea, you know. So
Speaker 1: I'm like, you know, how do I go and reinvent Tony?
Speaker 1: You know? And then we went on with MTV to
Speaker 1: win Album of the Year with the Grammy's got a
Speaker 1: lot of people upset, and I was like, what's going
Speaker 1: on with that? But when you look at it, you know, Alec,
Speaker 1: it's like he heralded in the iPod generation. You can
Speaker 1: listen to Tony and Billie Holliday and also listen to
Speaker 1: Pearl Jam and you know, it didn't matter. So kids
Speaker 1: started opening up to that. He's you know, I give
Speaker 1: him a lot of credit for that. Now, your father
Speaker 1: has you in his corner obviously for many many years now.
Speaker 1: His own son is flesh and blood. He has a wife,
Speaker 1: your stepmother, who's obviously is omnipresent and around all the
Speaker 1: time with him. He's got two people who are taking
Speaker 1: good care of him, and he's getting on in years.
Speaker 1: And then my and my brother has been producing his records,
Speaker 1: and I'm assuming that a lot of it is you've
Speaker 1: got to take as much stress of him as possible
Speaker 1: because because because he's working a full schedule. Yeah. Well,
Speaker 1: and he's eighty what years old, he's gonna be eighty seven,
Speaker 1: he's still going well. I mean a lot of people
Speaker 1: don't look at me and go like, what are you doing?
Speaker 1: You leave him? Leave him be? And then they do
Speaker 1: oh yeah, and I'm like, it's not me. I mean seriously,
Speaker 1: I'm very you know, conscientious of his a. The guy
Speaker 1: doesn't like to take elevators. He takes he doesn't like
Speaker 1: to take escalators. We go to airports, he's up the stairs,
Speaker 1: he's the first one. Keeping up with him is a challenge.
Speaker 1: There's something about people who they make the most of
Speaker 1: what they have. I mean, there are people who they
Speaker 1: have something. Paccino once had a great line to me.
Speaker 1: I said to Paccino, you ever get uptight when you
Speaker 1: make films with people who you worry about they might
Speaker 1: not be able to cut it, like you don't want
Speaker 1: to exert too many controls and authorities and approvals, and
Speaker 1: that this guy and the cast drops out, and this
Speaker 1: girl shows that, this guy shows up. You're doing scenes
Speaker 1: with people and you're al Pacino and these other people
Speaker 1: maybe aren't as good as you. What do you do?
Speaker 1: And I'll never forget Paccino says, uh, I like, I
Speaker 1: says that what I realized is everybody's talented in this business.
Speaker 1: Everybody who makes it to the level where at making
Speaker 1: films and everything. He said, they're all talented. He said,
Speaker 1: some are just more talented than others. But everybody I've
Speaker 1: seen myself. Everybody's talented. And I go, he said like that,
Speaker 1: someone would say he had a talent for telling jokes,
Speaker 1: or he had a talent for dealing cards. Everyone's talented.
Speaker 1: It's something. So the thing to me is that there's
Speaker 1: people in this business who they go far and they
Speaker 1: make the most of what they have, and what they
Speaker 1: have is like blah blah blah. But your father was
Speaker 1: somebody who had the most. Yeah, he had the most talent.
Speaker 1: Your father, I'll sit down, the most talent. I think
Speaker 1: it's he's tuned into his talent the most. Well, well
Speaker 1: that that's your opinion. You know, he owes you a lot,
Speaker 1: he owes you a lot. No, no, no, But what
Speaker 1: I'm saying, you've helped him to keep that fire burning
Speaker 1: because there's a lot of people who what happens is
Speaker 1: they have the talent, what they lose as the will
Speaker 1: they're like, I just don't want to do this. They
Speaker 1: lower the bar because they don't want to be disappointed.
Speaker 1: I mean that's the key. Tony never lowers that bar.
Speaker 1: It's always up, and that is what is it in him? Look,
Speaker 1: I was watching once again, I hadn't seen a long
Speaker 1: time the Missles Brothers um film on Horowitz, you know
Speaker 1: that one. No, I never said, oh my god, going well,
Speaker 1: they're just filming him playing piano and just living room
Speaker 1: and you watch this guy playing, You're going like, where's
Speaker 1: that coming from? Right, He's he's somewhere else. An Tony
Speaker 1: is like the same way. That's why I had Lost
Speaker 1: in the Stars at the end of the movies. That
Speaker 1: is that a Bennett Um Lost in the starts. You know,
Speaker 1: he's out, It's out there in the cosmos, and I
Speaker 1: don't want to you know, it's it's the essence of zen.
Speaker 1: It's about being in the moment. It's about for me,
Speaker 1: it's about the you know, art is like you know
Speaker 1: James Joyce says about it's an arresting moment and the
Speaker 1: world disappears and you're in the moment. But when you
Speaker 1: do that, it puts us in the moment and where
Speaker 1: out he and the find out more about Danny Bennett's
Speaker 1: film The Zen of Bennett on our website Here's the
Speaker 1: Thing dot org. This is Alec Baldwin and you're listening
Speaker 1: to Here's the Thing