WEBVTT - Buzz Knight and Spencer Proffer Discuss Music Evolution and Billy Thorpe's Iconic Reissue on Takin' a Walk 0:00:00.560 --> 0:00:02.960 Taking a Walk, I'm buzznight and this is the Takeing 0:00:03.000 --> 0:00:06.080 a Walk podcast. Now, when you think about the architects 0:00:06.440 --> 0:00:09.280 of rock and roll history, the people behind the glass 0:00:09.280 --> 0:00:13.600 who shape the sound of generations, my next guest belongs 0:00:13.680 --> 0:00:19.160 in that conversation without question. Spencer Prawford was born in Munich, Germany, 0:00:19.280 --> 0:00:22.000 and came to America as a child, growing up in 0:00:22.040 --> 0:00:25.200 Los Angeles. By the time he was nineteen years old, 0:00:25.520 --> 0:00:28.320 he had already co written a song recorded by Gary 0:00:28.400 --> 0:00:31.720 Lewis and the Playboys, and by twenty one he had 0:00:31.800 --> 0:00:36.200 eighteen songs recorded as a songwriter. But he didn't stop there. 0:00:36.560 --> 0:00:40.159 He earned a degree in political signs from UCLA with honors, 0:00:40.440 --> 0:00:43.599 then a law degree with honors, passing the California Bar 0:00:43.840 --> 0:00:46.440 exam as one of the youngest people to do so. 0:00:46.520 --> 0:00:49.640 At the time. Most people would have chosen one path, 0:00:50.200 --> 0:00:54.760 Spencer chose music. His accomplishments go back to when he 0:00:54.840 --> 0:00:58.320 was just twenty six years old, putting Tina Turner into 0:00:58.360 --> 0:01:02.480 the feature adaptation of The Who's Tommy and producing and 0:01:02.520 --> 0:01:07.120 playing guitar on her acclaimed acid Queen's solo album That's 0:01:07.160 --> 0:01:10.959 How You Announced Yourself to the World in nineteen seventy eight, 0:01:11.240 --> 0:01:14.800 he designed and built the Pasha Music House, two state 0:01:14.840 --> 0:01:17.920 of the art recording studios in Hollywood that became a 0:01:18.000 --> 0:01:21.280 home base for his productions for the next twelve years. 0:01:22.080 --> 0:01:26.240 Out of those rooms came an Extraordinary Roster, Cheap Trick, Heart, 0:01:26.520 --> 0:01:30.320 The Little River Band, Eddie Money, The Beach Boys, Vanilla Fudge, 0:01:30.520 --> 0:01:34.319 Ian Hunter, and many more. Then came a moment that 0:01:34.520 --> 0:01:39.360 changed rock history. Spencer produced Metal Health by Quiet Riot, 0:01:39.440 --> 0:01:42.440 the first heavy metal record ever to reach number one 0:01:42.440 --> 0:01:46.240 on the pop charts, selling six million albums. That's not 0:01:46.319 --> 0:01:50.440 just a hit record, that's a cultural milestone. His work 0:01:50.520 --> 0:01:53.720 has never been confined to music alone. He was a 0:01:53.760 --> 0:01:57.279 co executive producer on the Academy Award in Golden Globe 0:01:57.360 --> 0:02:02.080 winning film Gods and Monsters, worked with Stevie Wonder on Pinocchio, 0:02:02.440 --> 0:02:06.200 earned tony nominations for the Broadway production It Ain't Nothing 0:02:06.240 --> 0:02:10.399 but the Blues, and produced Chasing Train, the John Coltrane 0:02:10.440 --> 0:02:15.200 documentary featuring the voice of Denzel Washington. And, of course, 0:02:15.600 --> 0:02:19.040 you've heard Spencer previously on Taking a Walk. He joined 0:02:19.120 --> 0:02:21.400 us to talk about the nineteen sixty eight el of 0:02:21.440 --> 0:02:25.720 his Comeback special project he brought to theaters around the world. 0:02:26.120 --> 0:02:30.320 That conversation was unforgettable. Now he's back because one of 0:02:30.320 --> 0:02:34.440 the most visionary productions is finally getting its moment. His 0:02:34.600 --> 0:02:37.560 Children of the Sun collaboration with Billy Thorpe was the 0:02:37.600 --> 0:02:42.280 first rock record to spawn a computer animated laser choreography 0:02:42.560 --> 0:02:47.760 shown in planetariums across America, and now decades later after 0:02:47.840 --> 0:02:51.200 its release, Children of the Sun is finally getting an 0:02:51.240 --> 0:02:56.560 authorized reissue that American fans have never had. Coming up next, 0:02:57.000 --> 0:03:04.800 Spencer Proffer on Taking a Walk a Walk a returning 0:03:04.880 --> 0:03:08.160 guest Alert, Spencer Prawer is back on the Taking a 0:03:08.200 --> 0:03:11.600 Walk Podcast. Welcome back, Spencer, Well. 0:03:11.440 --> 0:03:13.800 Buzz If it weren't for you giving me the buzz, 0:03:13.840 --> 0:03:15.240 I wouldn't be here. Thank you. 0:03:15.800 --> 0:03:19.160 It's an honor having you on. The first time that 0:03:19.240 --> 0:03:24.040 you came on, we talked about your great documentary Chasing Train, 0:03:24.240 --> 0:03:28.720 the John Coltrane Story, which was just a fantastic documentary, 0:03:28.800 --> 0:03:31.520 one of my favorites of all time. The second time 0:03:31.600 --> 0:03:36.400 you came on, we talked specifically about Reinventing Elvis, the 0:03:36.440 --> 0:03:39.840 great project that you work with Steve Binder on, which 0:03:39.920 --> 0:03:42.600 was wonderful to get behind the scenes with you. And 0:03:42.760 --> 0:03:46.520 talk about that on the Taking a Walk podcast. It's 0:03:46.560 --> 0:03:48.800 amazing every time I talk to you, there's a new 0:03:48.880 --> 0:03:52.160 project or two, or three or four coming down the 0:03:52.200 --> 0:03:55.360 pike for you. We're here to talk specifically about a 0:03:55.400 --> 0:03:59.320 project near and dear to you about Billy Thorpe, the 0:03:59.440 --> 0:04:03.000 Children of the Sun project. But before we get to that, 0:04:03.480 --> 0:04:05.360 what have you been up to? I haven't talked to 0:04:05.400 --> 0:04:07.360 you in a while. Tell me what you have been 0:04:07.440 --> 0:04:07.640 up to. 0:04:07.680 --> 0:04:14.320 Spencer Proffer, loving my family, building my business, looking at 0:04:14.480 --> 0:04:19.520 models that have inspired me for a long time, from 0:04:19.960 --> 0:04:24.039 MGM to Vince Lombardi, to looking at people who've built 0:04:24.080 --> 0:04:28.760 businesses like Richard Branson who built Virgin into a really 0:04:28.839 --> 0:04:34.640 significant company with his big heart of charitable activities. I'm 0:04:34.800 --> 0:04:39.200 very much enamored with the DreamWorks model on how Steven 0:04:39.240 --> 0:04:42.760 Spielberg has now been able to He's always controlled the 0:04:42.839 --> 0:04:45.960 narrative of his projects, but now he can own them 0:04:46.360 --> 0:04:49.040 a little, you know, more than he did thanks to 0:04:49.080 --> 0:04:52.080 the brilliants of David Geffen when they put DreamWorks together. 0:04:52.640 --> 0:04:55.279 And now as I'm a ripe old guy crossing the 0:04:55.320 --> 0:04:58.440 seventy yard line in my life, what I want to 0:04:58.480 --> 0:05:01.240 do is I want to leave legacy for my family. 0:05:01.680 --> 0:05:05.240 I have one grandkid who's three years old now, Caspian, 0:05:05.640 --> 0:05:09.200 who's the product of my oldest son, Sterling Propher, who 0:05:09.240 --> 0:05:13.240 helped Bill Wece Media into a formidable company. And my 0:05:13.400 --> 0:05:18.320 other younger son, Morgan, informed me recently when he was 0:05:19.080 --> 0:05:22.719 graduated up to being a pilot for United Airlines a captain. 0:05:22.960 --> 0:05:25.880 He was a pilot all along, but now he's actually 0:05:26.200 --> 0:05:29.279 master of the destiny of all of his flights. And 0:05:29.320 --> 0:05:31.960 he told me I will be a grandfather of a 0:05:32.000 --> 0:05:36.279 baby girl come this October. So those have been the 0:05:36.320 --> 0:05:39.359 biggest highlights, plus my love for my wife Judy. We 0:05:39.480 --> 0:05:43.000 celebrated our twenty fifty year wedding anniversary, which is cool, 0:05:43.400 --> 0:05:46.000 but business wise, I'm hitting it out of the park 0:05:46.279 --> 0:05:49.640 with the things that we're developing, but they deal with 0:05:49.960 --> 0:05:54.400 courage and social justice and how media and how songs 0:05:54.680 --> 0:05:57.920 play a part making a difference in pop culture. Not 0:05:57.960 --> 0:06:00.000 only did I do it with the Elvis, the America 0:06:00.040 --> 0:06:03.000 and Pie Project, but with a number of things like 0:06:03.040 --> 0:06:06.360 a slide in the Family, Stone feature and some other 0:06:06.440 --> 0:06:10.279 docs that I'm doing with some former partners. I'm actually 0:06:10.320 --> 0:06:12.800 digging in to doing what I could have and he 0:06:12.800 --> 0:06:15.560 should have been doing thirty forty years ago, but I 0:06:15.640 --> 0:06:19.559 was busy just producing records. Now producing media where music 0:06:19.600 --> 0:06:22.360 plays an important component. That's what I've been doing. 0:06:22.720 --> 0:06:26.200 That sounds amazing. Congratulations on all of it. You know, 0:06:26.240 --> 0:06:29.360 we also did talk on a podcast about your stand 0:06:29.400 --> 0:06:32.040 By Meat project. Can you update us on that one? 0:06:32.160 --> 0:06:33.679 That is a fascinating one. 0:06:34.200 --> 0:06:37.640 Well, we do stand in the words of Slash Stone, 0:06:37.720 --> 0:06:42.159 we stand together. And I had spoken at length to 0:06:42.240 --> 0:06:45.440 Mike and Peter Stoller, Mike Stoller having written a song 0:06:45.920 --> 0:06:50.680 with Jerry Lieber and Benny King about my vision of 0:06:50.720 --> 0:06:53.120 it is more than a love song. It's about standing 0:06:53.160 --> 0:06:56.039 next to your brother, black and white, straight and gay. 0:06:56.600 --> 0:06:59.559 You know in the foxhole you stand next to your brother, 0:07:00.080 --> 0:07:03.000 that the bullets flying have donkeys or elephants on them. 0:07:03.000 --> 0:07:06.599 Me stand together. So where we are is we're still 0:07:06.640 --> 0:07:09.920 building the house. Jimmy jam and Terry Lewis have now 0:07:09.960 --> 0:07:13.520 come on as executive producers next to me on it. 0:07:13.880 --> 0:07:15.960 We will do a new version of stand By Me 0:07:16.120 --> 0:07:19.360 custom for our doc with a major artist that they 0:07:19.680 --> 0:07:24.920 will arrange and produce the song. We have yet to 0:07:24.960 --> 0:07:28.600 start production. We will start production in probably a month 0:07:28.720 --> 0:07:31.800 or so. I plan to screen it at the United 0:07:31.880 --> 0:07:35.640 Nations in New York because it speaks to us standing together, 0:07:36.000 --> 0:07:38.360 and that's what nations are supposed to do. That's what 0:07:38.400 --> 0:07:42.120 people are supposed to do. But that's later. Today we're 0:07:42.160 --> 0:07:46.640 celebrating my fifty year anniversary of the release The Children 0:07:46.680 --> 0:07:50.040 of the Sun, which is a record that I produced 0:07:50.080 --> 0:07:53.840 and arranged and mixed back in nineteen seventy eight. And 0:07:53.880 --> 0:07:57.480 that's actually I met you when we morph that into 0:07:57.520 --> 0:08:01.800 a laser computer animated laser show. And I spoke at 0:08:01.880 --> 0:08:04.240 when I was I think in my twenties at the 0:08:04.280 --> 0:08:08.200 Brookhard Abrams Convention in San Diego at the Ruberty Fleet 0:08:08.360 --> 0:08:11.840 Space Theater where we premiered our laser show, and there 0:08:11.920 --> 0:08:17.520 was buzznight young buzz at the Lee Abrams convention, meeting 0:08:17.560 --> 0:08:20.800 Spencer saying, Hey, maybe we'll see you again someday. So 0:08:20.880 --> 0:08:22.720 we're taking a walk fifty years later. 0:08:23.320 --> 0:08:25.520 I love it how it's come full circle and I 0:08:25.600 --> 0:08:29.920 remember it like it was yesterday. I remember also having 0:08:29.960 --> 0:08:35.000 my senses completely aroused from the experience. It was the 0:08:35.040 --> 0:08:38.360 first time seeing something like that in a theater sync 0:08:38.480 --> 0:08:41.559 to music. This would sort of become a new model 0:08:41.760 --> 0:08:45.440 in recent years of course, with how the sphere has 0:08:45.520 --> 0:08:52.199 become a big popular destination for music and media. How 0:08:52.240 --> 0:08:55.160 does that make you feel when you think about how 0:08:55.440 --> 0:09:00.160 the sphere has become such a piece of entertainment culture 0:09:00.200 --> 0:09:03.320 and how you sort of started that back with the 0:09:03.640 --> 0:09:05.800 project initially back in San Diego. 0:09:07.000 --> 0:09:09.800 Well, it actually started in Los Angeles at the Griffith 0:09:09.840 --> 0:09:14.720 Park Planetarium. But immersive entertainment is something that hit my 0:09:14.880 --> 0:09:18.240 DNA way back to when I actually produced the ten 0:09:18.800 --> 0:09:22.120 Asse Queen album a couple of years earlier, putting music 0:09:22.200 --> 0:09:26.280 against visual. Pete Townsend was brilliant when he created Tommy, 0:09:26.679 --> 0:09:28.920 And when I was running the creative division of the 0:09:28.960 --> 0:09:33.240 United Artists and I inherited Icontina, I thought, how cool 0:09:33.240 --> 0:09:35.040 would it be for Tina to be cast in the 0:09:35.080 --> 0:09:38.120 movie and make an accid Queen album, which I did, 0:09:39.040 --> 0:09:43.360 which I produced and arranged in midst played guitar on it. Also, Man, 0:09:43.480 --> 0:09:45.959 I was like twenty six years old. This was two 0:09:46.080 --> 0:09:50.520 years before my Billy Thorpe record. But immersive entertainment to 0:09:50.840 --> 0:09:55.040 hit your point, as now promulgated by the Sphere, I 0:09:55.080 --> 0:09:59.719 think is the future of fankind where you integrate all 0:09:59.760 --> 0:10:02.959 the elements. That's pretty much where the media business has 0:10:03.000 --> 0:10:06.080 come to now where the streaming has you know, it 0:10:06.200 --> 0:10:10.360 involves audio, it involves visual. We're doing a verbal podcast 0:10:10.400 --> 0:10:13.280 in the spirit of Orson Welles in the thirties when 0:10:13.360 --> 0:10:17.160 he did just verbal on all the worlds. But now 0:10:17.280 --> 0:10:20.280 we can actually put images next to the verbal, which 0:10:20.320 --> 0:10:23.400 is pretty cool. Which is a podcast. And I commend 0:10:23.440 --> 0:10:28.120 both Serious XM and iHeart, especially those two companies for 0:10:28.240 --> 0:10:31.240 having the vision with the iHeart. Pittman was the guy 0:10:31.559 --> 0:10:35.920 Pittman who started with John Sykes. They began in MTV, 0:10:36.480 --> 0:10:40.640 and MTV was probably in the early eighties thanks to 0:10:40.679 --> 0:10:45.720 Tom Preston and Bob Pittman, the brainchild of marrying audio 0:10:45.760 --> 0:10:49.520 and visual. So here we are now in twenty twenty six, 0:10:49.640 --> 0:10:53.240 twenty seven, doing it again. So I'm kind of honored 0:10:53.559 --> 0:10:56.120 that you saw that, as I saw that in my 0:10:56.240 --> 0:11:00.680 twenties fifty years ago. So here we are. So take 0:11:00.679 --> 0:11:01.040 me back. 0:11:01.080 --> 0:11:04.319 How did Children of the Sun as the initial project 0:11:04.559 --> 0:11:08.520 come together? And what drew you then to Billy Thorpe 0:11:08.520 --> 0:11:09.640 as an artist? 0:11:10.160 --> 0:11:15.240 Good question, Well, it came about because I was always 0:11:15.480 --> 0:11:21.480 a fan of extra terrestrial exploration. I had read Cosmos 0:11:21.520 --> 0:11:24.480 by Carl Sagan, Little did I know that the biggest 0:11:24.640 --> 0:11:28.480 artist maybe in the history of Australia the Springsteen justin 0:11:28.559 --> 0:11:33.720 Timberlake of Actually he's a hard rocker, the Springsteen of Australia. 0:11:33.800 --> 0:11:37.280 Billy Thorpe. It was cut from similar cloth. He was 0:11:37.320 --> 0:11:41.880 fascinated by outer space. And when I met him at 0:11:41.920 --> 0:11:45.520 a party for that Fleetwood Mack, who had blown up, 0:11:46.000 --> 0:11:48.880 were the special guests by their lawyer of Mickey Shapiro. 0:11:49.320 --> 0:11:52.840 Billy Thorpe was there to meet with Alan Parsons about 0:11:52.920 --> 0:11:58.320 making a record coming to America, and Billy I was 0:11:58.360 --> 0:12:01.320 a single guy. Billy was single, real good looking guy 0:12:01.640 --> 0:12:05.920 would come to America, and he actually wasn't single. But 0:12:05.960 --> 0:12:08.720 there weren't enough pretty girls at the party. So Billy 0:12:08.760 --> 0:12:11.000 and I said, let's get out of here and let's 0:12:11.000 --> 0:12:12.960 go see. There was a movie that just came out 0:12:13.040 --> 0:12:15.880 I couldn't wait to see, called Close Encounters of the 0:12:15.920 --> 0:12:19.480 Third Kind by one of my heroes, Steven Spielberg. So 0:12:19.600 --> 0:12:22.720 Billy and I went and we saw the movie instead 0:12:22.760 --> 0:12:25.640 of hanging out at the party, and we looked at 0:12:25.640 --> 0:12:28.000 each other at the end and said, hey, aliens made 0:12:28.080 --> 0:12:31.480 contact with the Earth. What happened afterwards? So I said 0:12:31.520 --> 0:12:33.360 to Billy, because I was a guitar player now as 0:12:33.360 --> 0:12:35.840 good as Billy, who was fantastic. Let's go up to 0:12:35.880 --> 0:12:38.839 my house and been at a canyon and let's jam it. 0:12:38.920 --> 0:12:41.559 Let's talk about it. So we did, and we made 0:12:41.600 --> 0:12:46.640 it too, probably five hours bottle of courvossier and some 0:12:46.640 --> 0:12:50.160 pretty good smoke to come up with a fictional story 0:12:50.200 --> 0:12:53.440 called Children of the Sun, which we wrote together, and 0:12:53.480 --> 0:12:57.280 it dealt with at the time, the Americans and the 0:12:57.360 --> 0:13:01.760 Afghanistanians had teamed up and the Russians were threatening kind 0:13:01.760 --> 0:13:04.200 of to blow up the world. This was down nineteen 0:13:04.400 --> 0:13:08.400 seventy seven, and Billy and I said to each other, well, 0:13:08.440 --> 0:13:13.120 what if, thinking of Carl Sagan and Cosmos and close encounters, 0:13:13.600 --> 0:13:18.480 the Americans would unite with another galaxy from another planet 0:13:18.800 --> 0:13:21.680 and leave planet Earth and go to another galaxy and 0:13:21.720 --> 0:13:25.200 start a new civilization. Billy said, right on, mate, that's 0:13:25.200 --> 0:13:28.120 a real good idea. So we started jamming and stuff, 0:13:28.400 --> 0:13:31.200 and as I said, about many hours later, as the 0:13:31.240 --> 0:13:34.200 sun was coming up, we created a seven minute song 0:13:34.559 --> 0:13:37.520 actually six point fifty three was the record, called Children 0:13:37.559 --> 0:13:41.760 of the Son. And I then three days later Billy 0:13:41.800 --> 0:13:44.320 and I we became friends, and I was very much 0:13:44.320 --> 0:13:49.240 into surreal, out of worldly stuff. Billy called me and said, 0:13:49.559 --> 0:13:53.160 I think I can create a whole record around our concept. 0:13:53.360 --> 0:13:55.840 Why don't we do it? I said, well, maybe we'll 0:13:55.840 --> 0:13:58.120 do it as a half an album and see if 0:13:58.120 --> 0:14:00.680 it works, and if so, we can morph it something else, 0:14:00.880 --> 0:14:04.160 which was the sequel twenty first Century Man. So the 0:14:04.280 --> 0:14:09.600 children of the Son record came together. I engaged two 0:14:10.000 --> 0:14:14.560 players that I thought were fantastic musicians, Billy being a brilliant, 0:14:14.559 --> 0:14:18.280 brilliant shredder and guitar player. Alvin Taylor, who had played 0:14:18.280 --> 0:14:20.960 with George Harrison, who was playing with Eric Burden at 0:14:20.960 --> 0:14:24.360 the Whiskey Saw on Play. He's an African American drummer 0:14:24.400 --> 0:14:26.800 who was about the best drummer I had ever seen. 0:14:27.240 --> 0:14:30.840 And Leelandslawer was somebody bass player I was friendly with. 0:14:31.280 --> 0:14:34.280 And James Taylor. He was James's bass player at Crosby 0:14:34.320 --> 0:14:37.440 Stillson Nash's bass player on the road, and both of 0:14:37.480 --> 0:14:40.880 those acts weren't on the road, so Lee Lived was free. 0:14:41.040 --> 0:14:43.040 So I called him up and I told him about 0:14:43.040 --> 0:14:45.400 the vision of this. He said, where do I sign? 0:14:45.480 --> 0:14:47.960 I'd like to meet this guy Thorpe. So the three 0:14:48.000 --> 0:14:51.040 of us met at the same time and with my 0:14:51.240 --> 0:14:54.440 engineer at my side, Larry Brown, who built my recording studio, 0:14:55.080 --> 0:14:57.840 and we talked about it, and these guys said, let's 0:14:57.840 --> 0:15:00.000 do it. Little did they know what they were signed 0:15:00.200 --> 0:15:03.040 up for. Took me eleven months to make the record, 0:15:03.360 --> 0:15:06.520 the three of us and Larry as the engineer, and 0:15:06.640 --> 0:15:10.120 lo and behold, when we finished it, it was out 0:15:10.120 --> 0:15:13.680 of this world great. I couldn't get arrested, buzz I 0:15:13.760 --> 0:15:17.360 went shopping to every record company because I had started 0:15:17.400 --> 0:15:19.960 to build a name as a producer, especially after the 0:15:20.040 --> 0:15:25.440 Tina album, and everyone, even though Clive Davis got Restassoul, 0:15:25.800 --> 0:15:28.360 who was my mentor and my first boss, I was 0:15:28.360 --> 0:15:31.440 a class assistant when I graduated Lawhoole back when I 0:15:31.480 --> 0:15:35.640 was twenty three years old, Clive Aired again, Joe Smith, 0:15:35.960 --> 0:15:40.680 all these brilliant record guys passed on the record so 0:15:40.720 --> 0:15:43.560 I couldn't get arrested. And here I was, having made 0:15:43.600 --> 0:15:46.320 the record at my studio that Larry Brown had designed 0:15:46.320 --> 0:15:49.840 and built. Long story on how it came out, but 0:15:50.000 --> 0:15:53.760 we ultimately got it released through Capricorn Records, which was 0:15:53.800 --> 0:15:58.840 a Southern rock label helmed by Phil Walden and Frank Vanner, 0:15:58.880 --> 0:16:01.280 and they and the Dixie Drag and the Almond Brothers 0:16:01.360 --> 0:16:05.480 and Delbert Mclinton a lotical acts. They wound up at 0:16:05.480 --> 0:16:12.520 my studio and we turned the lights down, I lit 0:16:12.600 --> 0:16:15.160 some incense, I took off my shoes, my hair was 0:16:15.240 --> 0:16:18.400 down at my shoulders, and we played the record, blasted 0:16:18.440 --> 0:16:21.000 it so loud, and these guys got off on it 0:16:21.240 --> 0:16:23.920 big time, and they made a record deal with me 0:16:24.800 --> 0:16:28.040 through distribution through polyt Or Records at the time. Little 0:16:28.080 --> 0:16:30.880 did I know that the Almond Brothers would sue them 0:16:30.960 --> 0:16:33.480 when the record was number one, having sold nearly a 0:16:33.520 --> 0:16:36.120 million copies, and that never got paid on it. But 0:16:37.040 --> 0:16:38.920 I still got to make the record. I still got 0:16:38.960 --> 0:16:42.920 the goosebump, and that's a memory that I wound up, 0:16:42.960 --> 0:16:45.840 you know, morphing it. Electro was my next label when 0:16:45.840 --> 0:16:48.160 we did the follow up record. That's when we did 0:16:48.200 --> 0:16:51.800 the show that premiered at the rub In Fleet Space Theater. 0:16:52.120 --> 0:16:55.760 Didn't premiere we actually developed that hit the Griffect Parkment Planetarium, 0:16:55.920 --> 0:16:59.640 but we premiered the whole thing at the Berkeard Ingrams Convention, which, 0:16:59.680 --> 0:17:01.840 if you remember I had a big mouth and I 0:17:01.880 --> 0:17:04.720 spoke a lot. Then I'm still doing it even though 0:17:04.760 --> 0:17:08.480 I'm older, but I really love that record. I loved 0:17:08.520 --> 0:17:11.920 Billy a lot. We wound up making four albums together, 0:17:12.760 --> 0:17:15.359 and they hear that it was now going to be 0:17:15.400 --> 0:17:20.040 reissued as an anniversary record with massive pre orders. It 0:17:20.200 --> 0:17:22.880 made a lot of sense for me to spend a 0:17:22.880 --> 0:17:25.160 lot of time with the guy who with the liner notes, 0:17:25.440 --> 0:17:28.679 Ralph Chapman, to talk to me about the evolution of it, 0:17:28.920 --> 0:17:32.320 getting pictures of me as a young guy in my twenties, 0:17:32.840 --> 0:17:36.040 and I just I'm thrilled about it. So I'm glad 0:17:36.280 --> 0:17:38.920 that I met you at context and here we are 0:17:39.280 --> 0:17:40.080 talking about it. 0:17:40.640 --> 0:17:42.840 We'll be right back with more of the Taken a 0:17:42.880 --> 0:17:51.119 Walk podcast. Welcome back to the Taking a Walk Podcast. 0:17:52.240 --> 0:17:54.840 What was so cool about that record back then was 0:17:55.680 --> 0:17:59.719 as programmers of radio stations, this was nothing we had 0:17:59.760 --> 0:18:03.000 really heard before a song like this, you know, Children 0:18:03.000 --> 0:18:05.800 of the Sun. And that's what made it even more special. 0:18:05.840 --> 0:18:08.800 That's what drew I know, people like Lee Abrams and 0:18:09.040 --> 0:18:13.080 the whole consultancy of the Superstars group, you know, towards it, 0:18:13.160 --> 0:18:18.119 because then album oriented rock was beginning to take shape. 0:18:18.800 --> 0:18:22.760 Lee had the Superstars format, which was really built on 0:18:23.200 --> 0:18:27.560 all different types of sounds. The symphonic rock, the headphone 0:18:27.680 --> 0:18:30.560 music like Children of the Sun. So it was so 0:18:31.240 --> 0:18:36.320 unique at that point, which is why programmers gravitated towards it, 0:18:36.359 --> 0:18:39.840 because it was unlike anything really we had heard, and 0:18:39.880 --> 0:18:42.320 that's what made it really very special. And then of 0:18:42.359 --> 0:18:46.320 course Lee would promote it further on, you know, hundreds 0:18:46.359 --> 0:18:50.960 of radio stations and as they say, the rest is history. 0:18:51.320 --> 0:18:55.199 What happened with the rights to that over time to 0:18:55.520 --> 0:18:58.680 the you know, the release? Did that become complicated? 0:18:59.520 --> 0:19:05.240 Yes, very complicated. When Capricorn went bankrupt, their distributor ultimately 0:19:05.280 --> 0:19:08.280 succumbed to getting the rights to put it out. We 0:19:08.400 --> 0:19:11.240 put it out again unpolled or about a year later, 0:19:11.440 --> 0:19:14.399 but we lost the moment. That's when I had the 0:19:14.480 --> 0:19:17.600 rights to my vision as I wrote the song, I 0:19:17.640 --> 0:19:21.080 had the publishing, Billy had his end of the publishing, 0:19:21.400 --> 0:19:25.120 and we just took ourselves over to We got into 0:19:25.160 --> 0:19:26.880 a meeting work because it was such a big deal 0:19:26.920 --> 0:19:31.920 at rock radio. Actually before when Abrams got behind it, 0:19:32.200 --> 0:19:34.440 there were a couple of stations that blew an out 0:19:34.520 --> 0:19:38.320 care o Q and la kt XQ and Dallas KMOD 0:19:38.440 --> 0:19:42.720 and Tulsa and kat let me see it was kiss 0:19:42.760 --> 0:19:44.600 and Santa Ana telling you they had the balls to 0:19:44.600 --> 0:19:47.600 put it on the air, and every station that played 0:19:47.600 --> 0:19:52.520 that seven minute track, which actually was influenced by a 0:19:52.600 --> 0:19:56.400 Don McLean song called American Pie, which was also seven minutes, 0:19:56.680 --> 0:19:59.840 which is something funny enough fifty years comes forward there. 0:20:00.119 --> 0:20:03.199 I made Don stock on American Pie through Paramount Plus. 0:20:03.600 --> 0:20:07.880 But that's another conversation. These stations played it, it went 0:20:07.960 --> 0:20:11.159 to number one, the kids called in and all of 0:20:11.200 --> 0:20:14.040 a sudden it spread like wildfire. Before you knew it, 0:20:14.080 --> 0:20:18.119 the thing was skyrocketing up the charts. What happened with 0:20:18.160 --> 0:20:21.840 the rights, Well, when Capricorn filed a bankruptcy, it all 0:20:21.880 --> 0:20:24.720 went to Polydor, but under the terms of the deal 0:20:24.760 --> 0:20:28.520 that I had made with Capricorn, all rights would revert 0:20:28.560 --> 0:20:31.240 to me after ten years. Well ten years later it 0:20:31.280 --> 0:20:34.600 all came back to my company called Morling man Or Music, 0:20:34.680 --> 0:20:38.240 named after my children, Morgan and Sterling, and we put 0:20:38.280 --> 0:20:42.200 out a reissue of it, which I remixed in nineteen 0:20:42.400 --> 0:20:46.600 eighty eight on my record company labeled Pasha, But it 0:20:46.640 --> 0:20:49.159 didn't get a lot of marketing and promotion. To be 0:20:49.160 --> 0:20:52.800 perfectly Frank Sony at the time was more interested in 0:20:52.840 --> 0:20:55.879 promoting my Quiet Riot records and some other records that 0:20:55.960 --> 0:21:00.200 I had done, so that reverted back to me. I 0:21:00.280 --> 0:21:04.520 knew a showrunner who had written and directed a show 0:21:04.600 --> 0:21:07.760 called Fargo, and it was a big hit. It had 0:21:07.800 --> 0:21:11.639 gotten I think eighteen or nineteen Emmy Awards. I don't 0:21:11.680 --> 0:21:15.440 remember exactly what the year was. But I got contacted 0:21:15.840 --> 0:21:20.320 by the distributor was MGM, who was putting up the 0:21:20.359 --> 0:21:23.879 money to make the Fargo episodes, and Noah actually wanted 0:21:23.880 --> 0:21:26.640 to do a call with me, which we did, and 0:21:26.680 --> 0:21:30.240 we talked about me licensing a song because I have 0:21:30.359 --> 0:21:34.159 a little bit of a business orientation, being able to 0:21:34.480 --> 0:21:37.840 turn down all licenses to use that song again. Because 0:21:37.880 --> 0:21:40.000 it was so precious it had to be used in 0:21:40.080 --> 0:21:43.800 its original contest couldn't be covered. I wouldn't license it 0:21:43.840 --> 0:21:47.200 out to anyone, so I didn't. But when Noah said 0:21:47.320 --> 0:21:51.159 he would premiere season two using four minutes of my 0:21:51.280 --> 0:21:56.720 original record without any dialogue from the actors on Fargo, 0:21:57.280 --> 0:22:01.280 I said, BINGO, I gotta do it. So of Lynthorpe 0:22:01.720 --> 0:22:05.840 in Australia. This was after a billion had passed because 0:22:06.200 --> 0:22:09.879 I had to honor his marriage to Lynn. They became 0:22:09.920 --> 0:22:13.800 my friends. Bill, these kids and Lynn all and I said, 0:22:13.920 --> 0:22:16.000 I want to do this, and I will give you 0:22:16.119 --> 0:22:18.600 fifty percent of every time. I yet, do I have 0:22:18.720 --> 0:22:21.959 your blessing to do it? She said, you do, so 0:22:22.040 --> 0:22:24.840 I did. So. We made a bunch of money on 0:22:24.880 --> 0:22:28.080 the license because it wasn't just Fargo who gave me 0:22:28.119 --> 0:22:30.960 the money to borrow the song. It was MGM, and 0:22:30.960 --> 0:22:33.119 they add a few dollars. So I did that. I 0:22:33.160 --> 0:22:36.480 got the dollar. I gave Lynn fifty cents and season two, 0:22:37.160 --> 0:22:41.639 episode one, it opens the four minutes of music with 0:22:41.800 --> 0:22:45.760 no dialogue, first time ever on Fargo. And that was 0:22:45.800 --> 0:22:48.840 the last time that song went out to the world. 0:22:48.880 --> 0:22:52.439 Sirius XM continues to play it through deep tracks and 0:22:52.480 --> 0:22:55.080 it's one of the most requested all these songs of 0:22:55.080 --> 0:22:58.000 all time. And I found out last year it was 0:22:58.160 --> 0:23:01.520 now coming back out to the world in its anniversary, 0:23:01.760 --> 0:23:05.680 and here we are doing this podcast. That's a long 0:23:05.720 --> 0:23:08.879 winded answer to a short question. Yeah, Billy did pass away. 0:23:08.920 --> 0:23:11.520 God rest his soul. He was a great guy. He 0:23:11.600 --> 0:23:13.880 became very dear to me as a friend and as 0:23:13.920 --> 0:23:14.680 a collaborator. 0:23:15.320 --> 0:23:17.720 He passed away in two thousand and seven. What do 0:23:17.760 --> 0:23:21.080 you think Billy would make of this moment today? With 0:23:21.200 --> 0:23:23.479 this being reissued. 0:23:24.520 --> 0:23:27.439 I think he'd be proud. I think he'd be proud 0:23:27.800 --> 0:23:30.800 that it finally caught up to the vision he had 0:23:30.840 --> 0:23:34.680 and I had back in nineteen seventy seven, seventy eight. 0:23:35.200 --> 0:23:38.879 The fact that we just had a great space mission, 0:23:39.359 --> 0:23:42.959 the fact that we're integrating the mediums, the fact that 0:23:43.040 --> 0:23:46.359 this was something that was audio and visual way back 0:23:46.400 --> 0:23:48.720 before it was cool to do that. I think Billy 0:23:48.760 --> 0:23:52.680 would be infinitely proud, and he would be happy, and 0:23:52.920 --> 0:23:56.560 I would be proud to be his partner and his collaborator, 0:23:56.960 --> 0:23:59.680 and as I am still today, And that's why I'm 0:23:59.680 --> 0:24:01.240 doing this podcast review. Bus. 0:24:02.680 --> 0:24:06.919