0:00

I Am all In.

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I Am

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all In with Scott Patterson, an

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iHeartRadio podcast.

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Hey everybody, Scott Patterson, I Am all In

0:23

Podcast one. I want to interview one of eleven

0:25

Production's iHeart Radio, iHeart Media,

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iHeart Podcast. We have the extreme

0:30

privilege of talking to

0:33

one of the biggest

0:35

legends in the history of the entertainment business,

0:38

Paul. Mister Paul Anka,

0:42

And let me tell you something a little

0:44

bit about this guy and what he

0:46

has accomplished so far

0:49

in his life. He

0:51

is a legendary singer and songwriter who's

0:54

best known for his signature hit

0:56

songs Diana, Lonely Boy, put

0:58

Your Head on My Shoulder. As songwriter,

1:01

Paul wrote the theme song for The Tonight Show

1:03

with Johnny Carson, Tom Jones has hit

1:06

She's a Lady, Frank Sinatra's signature

1:08

song My Way, and

1:10

If That isn't enough. With over

1:13

nine hundred songs to his credit, Paul's

1:15

songs have also been recorded by Ready

1:17

for This, Elvis, Presley, Barbers, Streis

1:20

and Linda Ronstant The Sex

1:22

Pistols, Nina Simone, Gypsy Kings,

1:24

and Robbie Williams, to name

1:26

a few. I am a big

1:29

fan of all of those people, especially Robbie

1:31

Williams. Now, Paul has ventured

1:33

into podcasting with his best

1:35

friend Skip Bronson in their show Our

1:37

Way with Paul Ankin Skip

1:39

Bronson. The series will give listeners a backstage

1:42

pass to the lives of icons

1:44

across film, music, television, sports, and technology

1:47

in a whole new way. Listeners will hear from

1:50

guests across industry, including Jason Bateman,

1:52

Mark Burnett, Michael Buble,

1:55

Bill Burr, Billy Bush, Gail King, and

1:57

even the President of France Emmanuel

2:01

So, Paul, let's first start off. We're

2:03

going to talk a little bit about Gilmore Girls, and we're going to

2:05

get into your career as a songwriter,

2:07

and then we're going to talk about your podcast. Let's start

2:09

off with the Gilmore stuff. When did you first hear about

2:12

Lorelized dog being named after

2:14

you?

2:15

Well, I think it was right from

2:18

the inception, you know, heartbeat Later,

2:20

I want to get out there, obviously,

2:23

and you know, I became

2:25

a huge fan of the show. Obviously it was a great show,

2:27

well written, et cetera, et cetera. But from

2:29

the exception, you know, probably

2:32

what after the first couple

2:34

of weeks, everybody came around

2:36

and I heard about it,

2:37

and I thought it

2:39

was cool because it's so international. I've

2:42

been an international creature, but I was ultimately

2:45

hearing from everybody all over the world.

2:50

And so you were aware of the show before

2:52

you you found out about it.

2:54

Friends were watching it. I think my kids were watching

2:56

it. Right, the show, I mean,

2:59

we're not talking about to something

3:01

obscure. This show was like everybody

3:03

loved it. So I was very much aware of the show. Yeah.

3:06

Right, And then you made a cameo

3:08

in the cold open of season six,

3:10

episode eighteen. Tell us how that came about?

3:13

That Black and White?

3:14

Well, I have to call and

3:17

I said, yeah, let's do it. I think we did a

3:19

couple. When I first got the call,

3:21

I was very happy to do it, you know, I thought,

3:24

yeah, natural for me. And

3:27

they were great to work with. They were just a fun group

3:29

of people and very bright, knew

3:31

what they were doing, and that was very comforting to

3:33

me.

3:33

Right, do do

3:35

fans approach you about your

3:37

appearances on Calor Girls?

3:41

I'm still do fans.

3:44

I got friends, I got people who did

3:46

at parties. It always comes up, and

3:49

you know, I hate the phrase. It is what it is, but it

3:52

is what it is, and it was great

3:54

to be a part of it. You know. It was something

3:57

that I wore like a badge.

3:59

I loved it. Right, Let's

4:01

talk a little bit about your music career, because

4:03

this is this is a you

4:05

know, reading your bio and reading about

4:08

you and listening to all the old songs,

4:10

it just it's just absolutely fascinating. I'm a

4:12

songwriter myself, so

4:14

I'm really eager to hear

4:18

about your background. I mean, you

4:20

you sold songs, you write,

4:23

you were writing songs. You were musical prodigy

4:25

growing up. Yeah, and

4:28

you sold songs. You went

4:30

to New York and sold a song when

4:32

you were what fifteen, sixteen years old.

4:35

I was born in Ottawa, Canada, and

4:37

my dad wanted me to, you know, be

4:40

a lawyer like my uncle, or a journalist

4:42

because I had won awards for my short stories

4:44

in school, so I had kind

4:46

of a writing way about me. I was typing

4:49

seventy words a minute, as in a class with forty

4:52

girls, me and my friend, and

4:56

I always got drawn to music. You know,

4:58

back then it was pretty much the

5:00

R and B rhythm and blues and some country

5:03

and that pops the vibe. It just kind

5:05

of integrated itself, but it was primarily

5:08

you know, it was the black movement in music, like

5:10

it's been for many decades. Kind

5:13

of was inspiring. And I

5:15

fell out a shorthand class. I hated it, and

5:18

the teacher wasn't too thrilled

5:20

with me. And you know, when you're

5:22

a teenager, you think you know everything.

5:25

But I just said, okay, put me

5:27

a music out. So I started taking drums

5:29

and start taking trumpet, and

5:31

then I wound up with Missus Reese, who was a piano

5:35

teacher, and she

5:38

started in. I mean, my dad got me

5:40

a little old piano

5:42

that they stuck in a basement. You know, I was writing

5:44

in this basement. It was not a

5:46

decked out basement. You know. We was at modest

5:49

background. So I started

5:52

in Ottawa and I just started messing around on

5:54

the piano, you know, and it wasn't until

5:56

I got kind of inspired with this crush

6:00

that I had on this girl that was a three years

6:02

older than me, which you know, back then that was

6:04

a big deal along with everything

6:06

else. I'll tall you were at this, you were

6:08

I'll want you. So I

6:10

just sat down and you know, I wrote, like

6:13

a kid, I'm so young you're so old.

6:15

I don't think I could get away with that today, but

6:18

you know, I wrote it and it started

6:20

with that, and ultimately, like

6:22

any process, I said,

6:25

okay, now what's the next step? And I started

6:27

reading at all these record labels.

6:29

I had that if you'd got to Nashville, LA,

6:32

or New York, maybe Chicago,

6:34

somebody would hear you. So, you

6:36

know, with a couple of you know, songs in

6:38

my pocket some

6:41

money i'd saved up on an Eastern vacation.

6:43

When I got to New York, walked into an office

6:46

some friends of mine set up an

6:48

appointment for me and Don

6:50

Costa. I mean, I attributed, you

6:53

know, a lot of my success to a team

6:55

effort. You know, you never want to be the smartest guy,

6:58

and Don Costa was the guy. He's the

7:00

one that saw this kid banging

7:02

away at the piano. And from

7:05

May when I recorded to August, when

7:07

I wound up with American

7:09

band standing at Sullivan, that's when it all

7:11

took off.

7:13

How old were you on ed Sullivan.

7:15

Fifteen or sixteen?

7:17

Unbelievable and

7:20

you were singing, and you were writing

7:23

the songs you were singing and

7:25

they were big number one hits. Or

7:27

charting and way up in the charts

7:30

and you were a teen idol and super

7:32

famous at fifteen six.

7:34

Well, ye, kind

7:37

of freaky, you know. It wasn't really

7:39

the day and age of young idols or whatever

7:42

the hell I wanted to call it, right, That all

7:44

kind of morphed itself with the

7:46

Philadelphia guys. But it's

7:48

all timing, you know. I

7:50

just had the passion and the drive and

7:53

nothing else, and then

7:56

you hone your talent, whatever that

7:58

is. But there was no tell vision

8:00

in the sense of the programs you see today,

8:03

right, No, you know, none

8:05

of these talent contests. And

8:09

it just happened so quickly because the

8:12

mere content of what we did

8:14

and the structure that was around

8:16

us. You were a hit in one week with radio,

8:20

You did all of an American bandstand.

8:22

You went on radio, and within a week the whole country

8:24

knew who you were. So

8:26

there I was. I was in the middle of that with people that

8:29

were twice my age until

8:31

the others started floating in. And then I started

8:34

working with Beverly Brothers, Frankie

8:37

Lineman and Frankie Avalon, all these young

8:40

artists who had with a young movement. We

8:43

were traveling together on these buses, each

8:45

doing two songs through you

8:47

know, all kinds of weather breakdown with buses

8:49

that weren't luxurious, and we're all

8:52

thrown together like little pioneers.

8:54

And that's where all happened,

8:56

you know, And you looked up to the rack pack of Las

8:59

Vegas. That's all. The was the

9:01

Beatles, which is another story which I think I

9:03

had a hand in getting them, Warrior because

9:05

I met them in Europe. But that was the industry

9:08

until the Beatles, until Hendrix changed

9:10

it in terms of picking up a guitar. And

9:13

I just continued honing my craft,

9:17

knowing I was still a kid, but writing about

9:19

only what I knew popular love was older

9:21

money boy, all that kind of stuff, right

9:25

and loving it, just saying, wow,

9:27

I'm making two hundred bucks a week. You

9:29

know, I had a paper out,

9:32

I was a caddie. I worked at restaurant. I was

9:34

earning three bucks, spooky, And

9:38

you know that's when I learned to be focused, you

9:40

know, because you learned at some point in

9:42

there that you may not last.

9:44

You know a lot of the guys I didn't. So

9:48

until you make each of those evolutions, you keep

9:50

doing what you're doing, getting better, but

9:52

it's tonight sholl theme longest day. You

9:55

know. My big reach out was for

9:57

Buddy Hawley, who was my friend when

10:00

it doesn't matter anymore for him. It was the last

10:02

song unfortunately recorded,

10:05

because he died on that plane crash on the

10:07

tour.

10:09

Tell Us you

10:12

mentioned two things, how it

10:14

happened so quickly for you at fifteen,

10:16

and then your relationship

10:18

with the Beatles and bringing them over to the United

10:21

States. Tell Us

10:24

you get to New York, you have a song, Who

10:27

hears it? What happens

10:29

after they hear it? How did they hear

10:31

it? Who signed you? How

10:34

did you get on Ed Sullivan? Did an

10:36

agent come in? Did a record company sign you right

10:38

away? And then it was just off to the moon for you.

10:41

Well, as I mentioned,

10:44

you know, I had saved up some money.

10:46

It was Easter vacation. I went down

10:48

in New York. I'd

10:50

been there prior because I want to contest collecting

10:53

souper wrappers for Campbell's

10:55

soup. So I got a feel for New York. Don

10:59

Costa, as I mentioned, was

11:01

with this new company, ABC Paramount.

11:04

I had this appointment. I went up jeans

11:08

T shirt, you know, walked

11:10

in scared to death, sat

11:12

down and played I think, Diana,

11:16

don't gamble with love and tell

11:18

me that you love me in.

11:20

His office, right right there, right

11:22

there, in his office in New York.

11:24

Okay, in New York, all

11:28

twenty minutes and you said, okay, wor's

11:31

your parents

11:33

that they're

11:36

not here? I said, no, I just flew down this

11:39

little hotel. Blah blah blah. Well

11:42

I want to sign you, but you're too young. Parents

11:46

here is signed it. I said, well, call them, so

11:48

we get on the phone. They call. My

11:50

parents were stunned, you know.

11:52

They were saying, let them get them out

11:54

of his system. Go down, yeah, blah blah blah,

11:56

right right right, and they fly in. Next

12:00

day there was Sam Clark,

12:03

who was the president of the

12:05

company.

12:06

And which which company are we talking about? We're talking

12:08

about a record company.

12:09

ABC Paramount, which was a

12:11

new division of the ABC television

12:14

network.

12:15

It was starting outble.

12:17

So now ABC starts a label, ABC

12:20

Paramount. My parents are in a room

12:22

less again, six suits all around me,

12:24

you know, and our people, the

12:27

press bubble. They're all excited, and I'm

12:29

sitting there. My dad dot

12:31

my mom's in shock. And we signed

12:33

a contract and they gave me hundred

12:36

dollars a month to write, and

12:39

I was going to remain there until we recorded.

12:41

My parents go home. I stay at

12:43

the President Hotel. I think my uncles

12:46

down there. Somebody's watching over

12:48

me. And I got up

12:50

at two o'clock in the afternoon late.

12:53

I supposed to be there at one Capital Studios

12:55

up front, and I'm freaking

12:58

out, and I will run from forty

13:00

some street about six blocks

13:02

to a Capital studio and

13:05

I walk in. Now you have to understand

13:07

and try to explain it to somebody

13:10

of the newer artists, say initially

13:12

Michael Buble.

13:14

I love Michael.

13:15

Therefore, in the beginning, still I am

13:17

that you're in a room

13:19

and you're with top session

13:22

musicians who

13:25

are looking at these lead sheets and arrangements,

13:27

and you're in this room. You

13:30

need to study the arrangement. You rehearse

13:32

for maybe let's say thirty minutes

13:35

to get the vibe and where you're going. And

13:38

you walk into a small studio a

13:41

booth where they have a one cor

13:44

inch tape, two reels

13:46

on a corrage tape, and now

13:48

you're putting a booth and this tape starts

13:51

to roll. We're not where we

13:53

are today with technology and all

13:55

the stuff that we know is out there. You

13:57

can cut a hit in your bedroom with your

13:59

macans whatever, and you start

14:01

singing, and you're singing

14:04

with sheer energy, passion

14:06

and scared of death, trying to adapt

14:09

to this concept of you'll keep

14:11

recording till you get

14:13

what you want or what they want. And

14:16

I must have done twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen

14:18

takes and that was it.

14:20

Now if there was something you want to fix, and

14:23

I try to tell a lot of people to that, you take a

14:25

razor blade, we would cut the tape,

14:28

take a piece of scotch tape, put

14:30

the scotch tape on the cut and

14:32

that was your fix. Then

14:35

you take it from there that you were

14:37

done. Once you captured it, they put

14:39

it on a piece of plastic vinyl disc. They

14:42

walk it over to Alan Freed, send it to a couple

14:44

of Rarea stations, and you knew in

14:46

forty eight hours if you had it it so

14:49

here I am finally get

14:51

Diana Don't Gamble with Love out Dick

14:54

Clark wanted Don't Gamble with Love. Somebody

14:57

turns it over to Diana and

15:00

within a week you're booked on American

15:03

Bandstand and you're on ed Solomon that

15:06

fall, and there's your life.

15:07

There's your new life.

15:09

All these guys around you. You've got a new record

15:11

company with an ABC

15:14

television company that was not making money.

15:17

They're just starting, but they were shipping

15:20

a courier. Would take whatever money

15:23

they earned off of Diana, which

15:25

back then was a lot of money. They put

15:27

it on an airplane with a courier,

15:29

go out and pay the bills and lot spectus.

15:33

My life changed right there.

15:34

I was wow, Wow,

15:37

Wow.

15:38

The Slim Show. I'm

15:40

in a studio where David

15:42

Letterman right broad with right.

15:45

I used to study acting on the

15:47

top floor there, right above that studio.

15:49

There you go. They say,

15:52

the day before, Paul,

15:55

you're going into Madison Square Gardens. We're not

15:57

going to shoot it at the theater, small

16:01

theater environment. I go

16:04

to a rehearsal and I'm in this vast

16:06

space Madison Square

16:09

Garden my first big

16:11

network show. But I used to watch

16:14

as a kid every Sunday.

16:16

That's all you did was watch that

16:18

until Mickey Mouse Club came along and television

16:21

was that solo. Sure,

16:23

I'm on the floor and I'm

16:25

rehearsing and the band was like they could

16:28

have been a city, and I have to deal with

16:30

all these elements. What I tell

16:32

you was I scared. We

16:34

go on the air and I'm singing Diana

16:36

in Madison Square Garden on my first

16:39

of many at Sullivan shows.

16:42

Tell us now about this Beatles

16:44

connection. How did you meet them? How

16:47

did you convince them to come

16:50

conquer America? Which actually

16:52

affected your career? Didn't it?

16:54

Well? After Diana? I

16:56

have a string of hits, I've got

16:58

it kind of someone of the foundation of

17:02

working coming

17:05

along as an entertainer, and I'm living in an international

17:08

life. I mean, Japan five

17:11

HiT's a big

17:13

parade, and I'm sensing this international

17:16

career. At seventeen eighteen

17:19

nineteen, I'm going to Europe. I'm

17:21

constantly going to Europe, etcetera, etcetera. So

17:23

I'm in France, the country that

17:25

I embraced at a young age, loving it, And

17:28

I go to see a friend of mine who's working in the classic

17:31

theater of the Olympia Theater been

17:33

there forever and still there. And

17:35

I go to see my buddy who's headlining.

17:37

And as was it was back

17:39

then, you'd have an opening act or a few

17:42

opening acts and that was pretty much, you

17:44

know, the presentation all over the world.

17:47

So when and I'm waiting for my

17:49

friend to come on and I hear that is a differments

17:52

at No Sicknuvau group

17:56

Lore Engeler and set it does

17:59

see who plays, and you

18:01

know, because because

18:06

people they're watching an these

18:08

guys come out with the hair and

18:10

with the thing and suits and shirtain

18:12

times. But they've got you know, there's that new

18:15

vibe and I'm looking as a musician,

18:17

but wow, and they're doing

18:19

covers. They're a cover band.

18:21

Okay, I'm saying, look

18:24

at those guys, man, that's kind of cool.

18:27

So from that I meet them.

18:30

Then I go to England and I'm

18:33

you know, I took Thank god I took pictures. You know,

18:35

nobody could believe it. And

18:37

we'd become friendly in the sense

18:39

of that when I was in England, i'd see them, we hang

18:42

and you talk and they would tell me,

18:44

oh, we love this and you know you Chuck Berry

18:46

and we copied this. And I'm really

18:49

I'm looking at myself as you know, I'm not toning

18:52

a guitar. I'm not doing what

18:54

they were in terms of emulating Americans

18:56

and and and there was none of those, None of the English

18:58

bands or artists were on the hit for It was all

19:01

American American artists.

19:03

So we get to know each other and

19:06

they say, we want to do what you're doing, you know,

19:08

we want to publish and you want to write. And it

19:10

was a great man because I really like

19:12

you guys, and you had that energy that you anyway,

19:15

I come back home from these trips and I

19:17

talked to my agents in New

19:19

York, Norman Weiss and Sid Bernston

19:22

at general artists. I have to

19:24

remember, we're in a time,

19:26

in a space then where it wasn't a media driven

19:29

society. It was radio anything

19:31

you want to hear from Europe? Yeah, Blenn

19:34

in a month later, you know, you knew nothing.

19:36

It was all tell EXAs and you

19:38

were short on what was happening at

19:40

the time. And I come home and bring

19:43

records home and until Weise

19:45

and Bernstein, these

19:47

guys, the Beatles, a bit of them, we

19:50

talk about Beatles still

19:52

was emerging, that whole English family.

19:56

Finally, whatever button

19:59

I pushed your them. They flew to England

20:02

and met with this guy, Brian Epstein, who was

20:04

their manager, and one

20:06

thing led to another. They bring

20:08

them over and like me, only

20:11

like me in terms of the only thing you could do. I'm

20:13

on Sullivan earlier in my life.

20:15

Their for a show at Sullivan,

20:18

Well the rest is hitty, won't deliver

20:20

it. They take off. But it took me

20:23

a while to convince these guys that this guy,

20:25

these people are real. So then

20:27

the floodgates, and I was happy

20:30

with it because prior

20:32

to that, you know, we were embraced,

20:34

we those of us doing

20:36

the pop music, et cetera, by

20:38

our friends, and nobody else liked this. Parents

20:41

didn't like us, Madison

20:43

Avenue didn't like us, but we had

20:45

our little following. When the Beatles

20:47

hit Madison Avenue opened up, everything

20:50

changed in everybody's mind in terms of pop

20:53

music. So I call it pop music, and

20:55

I think that for that. Well, of course,

20:58

the fritsh Invasion hits, and

21:00

some of us are off the radio. I'm

21:02

off of my label. I buy back all

21:04

my stuff for two hundred and fifty dollars.

21:07

I go to a Victor and I

21:09

get into a new group with this company. Because

21:12

I would travel all over the world and

21:14

my record company had trouble with distributing.

21:16

But when i'd walk down the street in Italy or

21:19

wherever i'd see RCA Victor washing

21:21

machine. It's dost wherever I live make and

21:24

so that's all I want to be with. So minute

21:26

with RCA. And that was the next days of my life.

21:29

Wow,

21:38

let's skip ahead now and get into your relationship

21:41

with the rat Pack and meeting Frank Sinatra

21:43

and being friends and writing my way.

21:45

And so

21:49

there we are, Bobby, Darren,

21:51

Frank, all of us. We're

21:53

growing, we're getting ogre. I'm

21:56

mastering the songwriting thing as best I

21:58

can. But we're

22:00

not oblivious to the fact that we may not be around

22:03

because we had heard and

22:05

we were pretty much taught that this

22:08

can't last forever.

22:09

What year is this now?

22:11

Late fifties, gotcha, because

22:13

we all heard of this place called Las Vegas.

22:18

Elvis went in, didn't like it. I

22:21

said, okay, I want to I want

22:23

to be like those guys. I want to learn to be

22:25

an entertainer. And

22:29

fifty eight fifty nine they said, look, you

22:32

can't headline there, but we want you to work with

22:34

Sophie Tucker. I'd

22:37

seen her, but I Sophie Tucker, but

22:39

you know, I admired the fact that she was in veteran

22:41

and had some good reputation. Long

22:44

the short, I'm performing with Sophie Tucker

22:47

in the late fifties Las Vegas.

22:50

What they'd never seen was

22:53

there. I am this kid with Sophie

22:55

Tucker and every kid

22:58

that was in school in Las Vegas. I guess in

23:00

this you know city

23:02

that wasn't the city. Then shows up

23:05

and they're going nuts in this twelve hundred seat

23:08

clubroom and purso vi, Tucker's getting

23:10

pissed. Put in a very gracious manner,

23:13

where she my boy, I

23:16

want you to close the show. So they made me

23:18

close the show. She'd go on first

23:21

to keep the kids in the room, get me quiet.

23:23

And that was my first taste of Vegas.

23:25

Now I had been there. I

23:28

was like Darren and Avalon.

23:31

We loved these guys, Frank Sinatra,

23:33

we'd loved swing. We couldn't

23:35

do it. So what we did is we'd put acts

23:37

together with big band and

23:40

say that's our goal. We got to work the clubs.

23:43

So I started late sixties

23:45

at the Copacabana in New York

23:48

City. That was your kind of your entree

23:50

to Vegas. Now you're in her environment with a mob

23:53

whatever you want to call them, the boys, they

23:55

ran everything. But it was the

23:57

record business, music cement

23:59

business, the nightclubs, and they were great

24:01

to work for, gentlemen right in

24:04

an industry that

24:06

was in his infancy stage. So

24:09

from Sophie Tucker, from the

24:11

Kopa where everything

24:13

went well for me, I wind

24:15

up with these guys that I

24:17

idolized and antilitated

24:20

to be around. Call the wrap round, and

24:22

I'm working in Sansotel. Now

24:24

here you are. I got this kid still maybe

24:27

early twenties, sitting

24:30

in steam rooms, nude, looking at

24:32

these guys, nude, having trouble with

24:34

eye contact, not

24:37

believing I'm in a room with these guys.

24:40

And it went from there, you

24:42

know, getting to know them, adoring Sammy

24:44

Davis who became my friend, Adoring

24:47

Sinatra, who was very gracious

24:49

with me teaching me. They're

24:52

befuddled in a sense on what's this kid

24:54

doing on our world? You know, kids

24:56

selling lots of records, making money for the

24:58

guys. And they sloped

25:00

me in. And then I'm stepping up.

25:02

You know, I'm a hit. My act

25:05

is good and blah blah blah. I'm learning my

25:07

trade. I'm learning how to be a performance. So

25:09

all the sixties I'm with

25:12

these guys, but I'm younger

25:14

and I don't know how to approach them and go. You

25:17

know, I got a song for you because I'm still

25:20

you know, coming off the longest day. You've

25:22

got tonight chill theme. So the

25:24

credit is getting broader to

25:27

one day at the Fox and Blue Hotel,

25:29

great hotel. You'd work Vegas

25:32

and then you'd wind up at the Fountain Blue. Nothing like

25:34

it, that style, it at the class

25:36

and.

25:36

Then that's my that's Miami. You're talking about.

25:39

Miami, Florida. Yeah,

25:41

so between Vegas and Miami, Florida,

25:43

that was your hang spot with these guys,

25:46

and here I am growing up with the rap

25:48

pack. If you will, do one

25:50

day when Sinatra was doing a film

25:54

in Miami, I'm working

25:56

in the Laurent room at the Fountain Blue.

25:59

Mid sixties. He's doing a film called

26:02

Lady and Ice. I think Lady and Ice,

26:06

which with the guys that we worked for, could have been

26:08

a documentary. You know, we

26:10

were still working for the boys. I'm

26:13

having dinner one night. I think he was

26:15

married to me at Barrel,

26:17

who was twenty one, and he was you know,

26:20

tick a high number. But he's

26:22

going through that dilemma he's

26:24

going through, wanting to retire. The

26:26

rat pack is over, and he's being

26:29

very open with me as to I

26:31

think I've had enough, and

26:34

I'm saying to myself, he's gonna

26:36

quit. He's gonna do one more album

26:38

with Don Costa, my guy who

26:40

I introduced a Sinatra, and

26:43

I never wrote a song for him. One thing leads

26:45

to another within that creative process,

26:48

and this was a spiritual moment for me after

26:51

hearing that at the Fountain, where

26:54

we had such great times together. Once

26:57

I get back to New York, twelve midnight,

26:59

sitting there in front of my typewriter, got still

27:01

type from my days of school, seventy words, but I

27:03

start metaphorically, and now the end is

27:06

near, and so I faced the final curtain, all

27:08

about him, as if you were writing it, finish

27:11

it. At five in the morning, I called

27:13

him in Vegas. I think it was at Caesar's.

27:17

One thing leads to another the next

27:19

night because he said, get out here with it, blah blah

27:21

blah. I'm in his rest room. I play

27:23

in my way. A couple of months later,

27:25

I get a phone call. He's in Los Angeles at

27:27

a record studio. Kid

27:30

that was my nickname. Well, we all had nicknames.

27:33

Sammy was smoking the Bear, Dean

27:36

was Veno. Everyone that hung

27:38

around with them on your bathlob in

27:40

the health clubs. You had your name of that. He

27:42

says, kid, listen to this, and he took the

27:44

phone. He put it next to a speaker, and

27:47

I heard My Way for the first time. Well, the

27:50

guy that was retiring and quitting

27:52

now stayed ten more years, changed

27:55

my life as a writer, my flotos

27:58

and changed it for him. You know the rest of the story.

28:01

He recorded your song without you knowing

28:03

it.

28:03

Well, I knew he was doing it. I was in the

28:06

dressing room, played

28:08

it for him Costa's in bo.

28:11

Two months later, he

28:13

calls me from a studio with Costa. They

28:16

had just recorded it. No one else has heard

28:18

it yet, and they played it to me over

28:20

the phone.

28:21

That famous recording that everybody knows

28:24

that you You heard that over the phone

28:27

over the.

28:27

Phone, LA to New York.

28:29

Wow.

28:29

Yeah, And I cried. I

28:32

had happy tears.

28:33

I'll bet you how

28:37

did my Way change your life?

28:39

Did it change your life immediately?

28:42

What happened?

28:44

Well, it changed my life in the

28:46

moment because I knew I had something. You

28:48

know I had enough under my feet

28:50

as a song guy to know this was something

28:53

pretty special, right. It

28:55

changed his life that he decided say

28:58

the business though, he went into

29:00

retirement and then I wrote let Me Try Again,

29:02

which was his comeback song. But it

29:05

changed his you know, I humbly

29:07

submit it changed

29:10

mind certainly because you

29:12

know, everything prior to that was love

29:14

songs and you know, stuff that was in the

29:16

growth pattern of working at my

29:19

craft. It was that unusual and different

29:21

song that it changed both our

29:23

lives. Absolutely.

29:26

You must have been flooded

29:29

with offers for

29:31

the top artists in the world to co

29:34

write with you or for you to write material

29:36

for them. I'm sure that happened. How

29:39

did you handle that?

29:43

Well, yes, all of a sudden

29:46

it changed, and that everybody wanted to

29:49

write with you, but they wanted to write another My

29:51

Way. Does the work like that?

29:53

You're not going to have fifty My Ways songs?

29:55

But certainly opened up the the

30:00

respect in the gravitas because

30:03

prior to that I was in the niche of writing

30:05

for my age and the song

30:08

was so different in the environment of what was making

30:10

it. Then you know, Hendricks had opened

30:12

it up. There was rock, there

30:14

was the folks stuff that was happening, But

30:17

here was this different type

30:19

of material for the guy.

30:21

That was the guy, and nobody

30:23

else could be Sinatra. He was the guy. So

30:26

yeah, I started writing with people. That

30:30

kind of came a little later, but

30:33

what it did was it

30:35

gets me. The record deal happened with

30:38

Jubilation, Skry centered

30:40

jubilation, Do I Love You with Donna

30:43

Fargo, number one country record, having

30:45

My Baby one Man Woman, I

30:47

don't like to sleep alone, number

30:50

one records again. So it opened the door

30:52

and the attention to wait a

30:54

second, my way,

30:56

and now the seventies

30:58

with this stuff, so with writing

31:01

with others, and with the acceptance, if you will

31:03

in a very fickle business, well

31:06

really you learn at an early age nobody really

31:08

cares each yet and spitch out. That's

31:11

that what changed my life. It gave me a new CREDENTI m

31:14

then I'd let me try again with him, and

31:17

I was writing She's a Lady, and all

31:19

that stuff started to happen.

31:22

We Uh.

31:23

I'm a huge Tom Jones fan, grew

31:25

up watching his weekly show

31:28

and he'd come out and go crazy

31:30

with his dance routines and his great vocals

31:32

and the girls would go crazy.

31:34

Yeah, I was there, and.

31:37

It's not unusual to be loved

31:39

by anyone. And he would start out the show

31:42

with that tell us about working

31:44

with Tom Jones.

31:46

So I was with the same agency as Tom

31:48

Joneson and he and the Humperdinck were

31:51

probably a third of the gross earnings

31:53

of this agency. And

31:55

I'm working in Vegas, and

31:58

of course they were

32:00

familiar in my way. They're familiar with my career.

32:03

Like he wanted to meet Presley because you want

32:05

to meet him. I wanted to meet

32:07

Tom telling me. So we all got to know

32:10

each other, and we got to know each other well the way

32:12

they come to my home. We'd set

32:14

up and watch movies because I'd get

32:16

these uh movie reels

32:18

from the movie companies. Would sit till nine ten

32:20

in the morning, freaking champagne, having a good time.

32:23

So we lock in, we're playing tennis together.

32:25

I'm in England, I'm on Tom's show, and

32:28

it gets to well, what about me write

32:30

me a song? That's

32:33

a lady. I finished the show in England,

32:36

and I spent a lot of time with him. When I think I started

32:38

and on the back of a dinner

32:41

menu on tw away because that was the

32:43

carrier. We'd go back and forth on so

32:45

a yets she's a lady out there. I

32:48

try to capture the vibe of this sex idol.

32:50

And he never had a number

32:53

one record in the United States. Never. She's a Lady

32:55

was his one and only. So we

32:57

write that, and of course we rock, you know, we

33:00

lock in, we hang and

33:02

we're all together. We're friends for many

33:04

many years. They record

33:06

a few of my songs, you know, from popoll

33:08

We made it happen. And I

33:10

had a great relationship with them and their

33:12

manager for quite a few years. And Tom's

33:16

a great sinner.

33:17

Now she's a fantastic voice.

33:19

Yeah, and here

33:22

we are today. He's still doing what he's doing,

33:24

and I'm doing what I'm doing an ingle.

33:28

Wow, I'm

33:31

just overwhelmed. Let

33:33

me ask you this, Do you prefer

33:36

being the songwriter or the performer

33:39

or is it a mix of both for you?

33:42

From a security standpoint,

33:45

I like being the writer because

33:48

it's a fallback position, and I think that the

33:51

kind of gravitas that comes with it, you know,

33:53

back to the Beatles. We want to write, you want to

33:57

that's a stable kind

33:59

of consciousness that you live in. The

34:02

performing thing was

34:04

morphine and morphing. You know, you're

34:07

constantly learning and you're constantly

34:09

getting comfort zones. But you in front

34:12

of people, you're writing, you're

34:14

by yourself from there, on your own time

34:16

schedule, if you will, and you can

34:19

just sit there and take your time and kind

34:21

of wait for it to happen. But the performing is

34:23

fun. Right, twenty

34:26

years, I've enjoyed, you

34:28

know, feeling that I knew what I was doing,

34:30

connecting with an audience, with a body

34:33

of work. So the answer to the question is both.

34:38

I would venture to guess that if I didn't

34:41

have the gift of writing,

34:44

I don't think we'd be talking today. Frankly, I

34:47

don't think anybody would was interested,

34:50

nor were they to

34:52

write for a fifteen year old kid in an industry

34:54

that was growing. No one would have the

34:56

state of mind to say, okay here that you're going to say

34:58

I'm so young and your old, or

35:01

you're gonna go I had they called in popular or

35:03

put your head on I'm just a look. Those

35:06

all came from my feelings

35:08

as a teenager, right, So the writing

35:11

world for me was the most

35:13

important to keep up, right, you

35:15

know, I didn't really start feeling confident until well

35:18

this day tonight's your thing where

35:21

people started looking at me different, you know, kids

35:23

growing, you know. So the performing

35:26

thing was the roll of the dice. It

35:30

was working, but I didn't feel as

35:32

secure doing that as I did as

35:34

a writer.

35:43

Let me ask you this from songwriter

35:46

to songwriter, and

35:48

I've never sold anything to anybody, But

35:51

do you have any control

35:53

after you give the song to

35:56

an artist about

35:58

the final product when you hear it?

36:00

Do you are you surprised? Are

36:03

you positive about what you hear? Or are you like,

36:05

oh, you know, maybe we should

36:08

edit it and this, you know, give them

36:10

some direction, or you just give the song away?

36:12

And good question.

36:14

Actually, you

36:17

don't always have control.

36:20

Once you submitted a demonstration, a

36:22

demo, we call right

36:25

field the song depending

36:27

on the artist Sinatra,

36:31

I gave him a piano demo. She's

36:34

a Lady was had

36:36

some rhythm elements to it. Once

36:39

you give it to certain

36:42

established artists, whether it was Skrysander,

36:45

Jubilation Lady with

36:47

Tom the Sinatra stuff, you're

36:50

really trusting and

36:52

putting it in the hands of professionals, right,

36:55

You're putting it in the hands people

36:58

that know how to do good, putting

37:00

it in the hands of those

37:02

that have realized there's

37:04

something great they've been gifted as

37:06

an artist, and that seems

37:09

to always work for them. So the answer

37:11

is there is a wall that

37:13

once it leads you, you have

37:16

to trust what their perception is and

37:18

their talent group that sits down

37:20

and vibes what fits their

37:23

artists. Now, I've always approached it as

37:26

a casting person in a motion picture.

37:29

You know what you're writing for Tom, you know

37:31

his capability, his name, you

37:33

know the way Sinatra sing. So

37:36

I'm emulating when you're writing. So

37:38

you're type cast.

37:41

You're trusting when you give it away, and you sit

37:43

and wait for the phone call. Now,

37:46

when I heard Sid Vicious singing

37:48

my way, Mari Scossia calls that I'm using

37:50

my film, I was taken aback

37:53

and I didn't know whether I wanted to relinquish

37:56

the rights for the usage till I

37:58

woke up a few days later. I said, what who

38:00

am I to sit here

38:02

and judge what someone

38:04

across the waters was feeling

38:06

on this song that meant something to do him

38:09

and realizing he went to Paris and

38:12

redid an amplifier and had a jazz and

38:14

he did it. The way he felt it.

38:17

I didn't judge it. I said, you know what, I did

38:19

the honesty in that, but I'm

38:21

going to grant that now. There's no

38:23

way I could have perceived what he was going to do with it,

38:26

and ultimately I accepted it. So

38:29

you're really sitting there hoping

38:31

that as part of this team, that

38:33

you're going to hear what comes back to you. In

38:35

most cases, I like what

38:38

came back to me. I never you know,

38:40

when Donnie Osmond was they

38:42

want to do popul Love, they wanted to do Lonely

38:44

Boy, and he

38:48

did a couple of my tunes. I accepted

38:50

it. You know, I heard it the way that they perceived

38:53

it. And I can't really tell

38:56

you that there's ever a large percentage

38:59

of treatments that I didn't

39:01

like. You know, I can't

39:04

really say, and you don't have a say. As

39:06

I said earlier, to go elbowing

39:08

around. Everybody said doing this now. When

39:11

I wound up with Buddy Holly, I

39:13

had no idea what

39:16

Jacob's the arrangers producer.

39:19

The song that started on a kind of guitar.

39:22

You know, he talked the chords and was simply, you know, very

39:25

young and there you

39:27

go and bathing he and

39:31

I'm embulating him, and hear the guitarist.

39:34

Now we get to New York.

39:37

There's this huge string section and a big orchestra.

39:43

We got here, but do

39:46

what I was doing? He wanted a big band, he

39:48

wanted strings, something he'd never

39:50

done. He was on his solo career now left

39:53

a bad situation, and this

39:55

was going to be his new sound. So that threw

39:58

me at first. But I got it, you

40:00

know, I got the genius of Jacobson

40:03

and where they were going with that. But that was a

40:05

differential from the kind of demo that

40:07

I.

40:09

Do you know you're writing a hit? When

40:11

you're writing a hit, do you know it's a hit?

40:14

Does it come to you quickly? Does

40:17

it download from the

40:19

muse instantly

40:21

and it's a rush to get it down? Is

40:24

that how it works for you?

40:26

We'd all be richer in this business if we

40:28

knew that. You don't

40:31

really know other than being a professional.

40:34

You don't really know other

40:37

than when you know you've got

40:39

something special. But the journey

40:41

ahead is how do you capture it right?

40:44

Right? I had a feeling on my way,

40:48

I had a feeling uncheasy, lady, But you don't

40:51

really know. You know when you've got

40:53

something you like, you know, something that's has

40:55

the merit, you know, something that

40:58

could be. But till the process

41:00

is finished, you right.

41:03

I've sat with so many writers, and I've been

41:05

blessed with all kinds of great writers,

41:08

and you sit there and you know you've got something you

41:10

know with it britback Rock, Michael McDonald.

41:12

I mean, all the guys I live with, you

41:14

don't know that you get there, you don't

41:16

know it's finished. No.

41:19

Interesting. I'm

41:22

actually going to Nashville the middle

41:24

of next month to co

41:26

write with the Warner Chapel artists.

41:28

They want me to come down and co write with them. I've never

41:31

co written. Can you give me

41:33

any advice on how that process

41:35

is? Because I've never tried to do it, and

41:38

now I'm getting in the arena with people

41:40

that are actually known and gifted

41:43

and all that.

41:44

So, if

41:46

the vibe and everything

41:49

in life is that chemical

41:52

attachment with someone, well,

41:55

you're looking for a relationship, you're looking

41:57

for a business venture. You should

41:59

know within an hour, hour and a half

42:01

maybe soon you're

42:04

feeling for this person. You

42:07

should know whether there's a compatibility.

42:10

You should know what you share in terms

42:12

of music where you're

42:14

all coming from. Then it

42:16

could be a great process because

42:19

now you have this balancing

42:21

off of each other and mutual respect

42:24

for each other that you know, what

42:26

instrument do you play? Your piano player, guitar

42:28

player.

42:29

Hi write on guitar.

42:32

So you're going to the right place

42:34

Nashville, every three

42:36

yards probably with

42:38

guys that have guitars and piano, and

42:41

you're going to know within

42:43

that first couple of hours. Okay,

42:47

you gotta be relaxed and you got to be open

42:49

minded to sit there and go it. What

42:52

do we want to write about? Where's

42:54

the book? What's

42:56

the key line here? Where are we going with? You

42:58

need to now morphed

43:01

with someone that you respect

43:03

and you have a feeling for to

43:05

get that initial idea to where you

43:07

ultimately want to go. Now that may

43:09

take you a day. You may get

43:11

it in six hours. You may get it in

43:13

three days once you've locked into

43:15

it. But it can be an incredible experience

43:19

working with someone that brings

43:21

to the table what you've been to the table,

43:23

taking the heavy load off of you and

43:26

having this broad spectrum

43:29

of creative foundation to work from.

43:31

So it can be very cool, but the first

43:33

couple of hours communicating

43:35

that you know each other is very important. Now

43:38

you could find also that you're going to go nowhere.

43:41

You know. It was a different thing for me writing with Michael

43:43

Jackson because he didn't have an instrument,

43:45

you know, I had to sit and lay cords and do but

43:48

I heard the talent with his

43:50

sounds. But

43:54

I mean it was a sound with it right

43:57

right. But I knew within the first

43:59

couple of hours once we found her kind

44:01

of place with each other, because something was

44:04

going to come out of it. And I had his last three HiT's

44:06

you know this is it? Love never felt so good

44:08

and the Drake record It Don't Matter

44:11

to Me. That was the mostable experience

44:13

I've ever had to write with someone. It was with Michael

44:16

Jackson.

44:16

Unbelievable. My wife

44:19

is going to die when she hears this. She's a

44:21

huge Michael Jackson fan and she loves those

44:23

songs. She knew I was talking to you

44:25

today. She wanted to like sit in and ask you

44:27

questions, but I said, you know.

44:29

It was an interesting artist. You know, I knew him

44:31

as a kid with his family that came to my show

44:33

in Vegas. They grew up

44:36

with that whole era of sinopter

44:38

myself. So when I finally got

44:40

in a room with him together in my home in Carmel,

44:43

it was like a heartwarming

44:45

and it seemed to grow up and see

44:48

where he's coming from, where he was intellectually

44:51

dealing with the business. So that was a

44:53

pretty cool journey for me. What are you than songs?

44:56

I'll bet let's talk a little bit and

44:59

about your post cast. How'd that come about?

45:01

What's it about?

45:03

Well, you know, for the last few years,

45:07

do a podcast. You know, you've got great

45:09

stories, blah blah blah that kind of Yeah.

45:11

I let my son in law carry it, Jason Bateman,

45:14

who's very successful in that world. Oh

45:17

yeah, And I

45:19

just you know, I didn't have time, you know, I was traveling.

45:21

I didn't have interest raply, you know. I

45:24

told my stories and went on Stern and I've

45:26

done all of them, and I'd like to leave it at that. One

45:29

thing leads to another. And someone,

45:31

I think heard me on Bateman and it led

45:34

to iHeart Radio

45:36

and my buddy Skip Ronson was a friend.

45:38

We talked every day. Someone

45:41

came up with the notion after hearing me on a

45:43

few of these that yeah,

45:46

you should do a podcast, and

45:48

you you know, have to see Skip and I hang

45:50

out at lunches and what have you. Why don't

45:53

you guys do it together. When I looked at it,

45:55

you know, look,

45:57

I'm not gonna make a zillion dollars. I'm gonna

45:59

have a lot of fun. And with my buddy,

46:02

I could take an hour or two out of the day. If

46:05

I can inspire someone with

46:07

it, if I can in any way give

46:09

them some kind of a look into life

46:11

of writing or whatever, yeah,

46:13

let's do it. So it was that quick, you

46:15

know, it was just a bunch of people coming together,

46:18

putting it together and letting it Skip saying,

46:21

yeah, I'm going to do it because you know, I don't

46:23

think that sensing he was thinking

46:25

of. It came

46:27

together quickly in an environment

46:30

where everybody got a podcasts.

46:33

We're all in the same boat, right, So

46:35

we knew what we were going to draw from from our friends

46:38

and everything. And I had

46:40

some time to do it. You know, I don't work.

46:42

I don't want to work two hundred days a year like I used

46:45

to. I tour fifty to seventy

46:47

or five days. I've got my other stuff and

46:49

I can fit this thing because I do it from my house where

46:52

I am. And that was it, and

46:55

we have good Now we've got Bill

46:57

Burrow was on the other night. It was a buddy and it

46:59

was just hilarious. Jason

47:01

did it. We've got a whole

47:04

list of great people who

47:06

know how to talk about their life and their experience

47:09

and we're having fun with it.

47:10

You're gonna You're gonna have the President of France on.

47:14

Uh yeah, the guy I'm talking

47:16

to that was a pr guy because I was given an award,

47:18

but it was just quit. So

47:20

now I've got it. Was a new guy. You know, politicians

47:23

never that's a whole other

47:25

world. But I don't want to be a part of which

47:28

we all have to respect and the fact that

47:30

I just deal with their lives or not. But

47:33

yeah, we'll ultimately get him. We've got Carlos Slimp

47:35

going on from Mexico. Wow. We've

47:38

got a lot of insent people that Kimmel

47:41

we got, we get commitments from

47:43

people.

47:43

Yeah, well good. I wish you

47:46

the best of luck with all of that. And

47:50

it is it is the easiest job and

47:52

the best job I've had in my life

47:55

is doing a podcast. It's it's really quite

47:57

fun and I heart's great and the

48:00

great support, so I wish

48:03

I wish you the best with that.

48:07

What made it easy was the unknown that hits

48:09

you and then the reality of what

48:11

you're dealing with and the whole team

48:14

that I've worked with that are just amazing

48:17

to work with and makes

48:19

much. It makes life easier, you

48:21

know, to get on base right away,

48:24

that revolving door to get to where

48:26

you want to.

48:27

I'm gonna go out on a limb

48:29

here and ask you if I could

48:31

send you a song sure

48:34

that I wrote that I think you would.

48:36

Like well, I'm sure I

48:38

would like it. The challenge

48:41

today for guys like me

48:43

and everyone in the business is what do you

48:45

do with them? You know, everybody's

48:47

writing there on stuff.

48:50

If you like this song, yeah,

48:53

we'll figure out what to do with it. But

48:55

if you like it, if it does something for

48:57

you, just

48:59

the thought of you listening to

49:01

one of my songs.

49:02

Did it? The butler did it? Now

49:05

you're back? If I boom,

49:09

so you go from there. You know what you deal is

49:12

with clarity, transparency,

49:14

honestly and go. I

49:17

can do it. I don't know who can do it. I don't

49:19

know if I'm doing an album, maybe it should go here,

49:22

you know, because the music business changed so drastically.

49:24

I mean, I feel it really has for

49:27

people out there. He's not like years

49:29

ago you could get you know where you're

49:32

going. You get a place. You're probably going

49:34

to the right place in Nashville because they still

49:36

have a channel to artists

49:39

that don't write what most of them do

49:41

well. This possibility of getting

49:43

a artist to do a song today,

49:47

I don't even see a lot of artists wanted to

49:49

do CDs or to contribute

49:51

anymore because it's changed. You

49:54

got these artists that years ago you had a promotion

49:56

team to make a great album, and I'm excited you

49:58

do an album. Today there's no promotion team.

50:01

They're not spending so I could list

50:03

to a bunch of people to put albums up. They

50:05

don't do forty thousand CDs not

50:08

good. No, So with the streaming

50:10

and everything going on, it's where

50:12

do you go with a song? Ooh, you give

50:14

it? You know at the end of the day, who

50:17

I'm going to give the songs?

50:19

Right? I think you give them away.

50:21

I think with the world of social media,

50:23

it's like you can't really sell them, you

50:26

know. The money's in the touring. I mean, if you want

50:28

to earn a living, it's touring and merch and

50:31

that's it.

50:32

Yeah. Well I got a song brewing now with Tiger

50:36

Oh wow. I mean he's got in

50:38

his studio. I think he

50:40

likes it. We'll see. But you keep

50:42

trying, you keep doing. But like you say, all

50:45

artists make their money on the road. Right, the

50:48

music you've got, artificial

50:50

intelligence is going to change our lives

50:53

so drastically. It's not here,

50:56

but wait, the grand process next

50:58

three years change lives

51:01

in all occupational films, and

51:03

it's going to change in the music business, film,

51:06

etc.

51:07

I think AI is going to I think we're we're

51:09

looking at massive copyright and

51:12

infringement issues and

51:14

lawsuits coming down the

51:17

pub.

51:17

Try to prevent that. Right

51:20

theoretically, okay, but it's

51:23

too big and there's

51:25

too many power bases that will sit

51:27

down with the right people and say, okay, guys,

51:29

look you can't do this. These

51:32

are intellectual rights. You can't

51:34

do that. There's a lot of money that have been made,

51:37

Let's do the right thing. They don't

51:39

want two thousand figuratively

51:41

losses coming out them, you

51:43

know, just they won't you

51:46

have to accept change. You

51:48

have to be optimistic. I live through change

51:50

all my life. You hang in,

51:54

you keep on keeping on, you take

51:56

the clothes. I hope it

51:58

changes for the best, and it will. I'm

52:00

worried about the guys that are going to be able to work and

52:02

other occupations. Forget about collarge.

52:05

You have people that will lot of jobs,

52:07

and the governments and the corporations will

52:10

have to restructure. Tell everybody

52:12

to stay home, work two days a week. I'm

52:14

just giving you. We'll give you money.

52:16

They'll go and then's spend it. And you'll see

52:19

this globe now with where

52:21

we have to contend with China

52:23

and Europe and Russia. There'll

52:25

be this huge change wrapped around artificial

52:28

intelligence. Let's hope we use it

52:30

right and let's hope everybody survives

52:32

with it. But it's coming. You will. You're

52:35

seen in medicine. You've got all kinds of

52:37

new applications with AI and technology.

52:40

It's unheard of and it's coming and it

52:43

will happen, and it's a wonderful thing.

52:46

Yeah, which is why live entertainment

52:49

will grow in popularity because

52:51

they won't be able to get it anywhere else. Nothing

52:53

will be real in their lives except live theater

52:55

and live music and live this and

52:57

live that. So I'm

53:00

hopeful for that. Would

53:10

you do us the honor of

53:12

playing rapid fire with us? The thought

53:15

of playing rapid fire with you. It's

53:18

something we do with all of our guests, and it's just

53:21

sort of give basic gilmore questions and I

53:23

ask you what your preferences

53:25

are and you can answer if you want to.

53:28

Would you do that for us?

53:30

I would love to do it. Yeah,

53:32

just the questions, but go

53:34

ahead.

53:35

Yeah, okay,

53:37

here's the first question. How do you like your coffee?

53:40

I like my coffee. I have another sugar

53:42

guy. I use honey,

53:45

a gabi. I use oat milk and

53:49

black of course. I like the French press

53:52

or I put it in. I do the purest

53:54

form of coffee. I do coffee minimum

53:58

of four times a day, maybe or

54:00

because I think when I'm an

54:02

avid reader on all fronts, that

54:05

coffee is healthy player. So

54:07

I drink it right right too. I've

54:10

spoken to doctors about it because

54:12

I'm a health free and that's

54:14

how I like it. I don't generally do shots,

54:18

but I do cups of black coffee. I

54:21

done properly out of the right mechanisms.

54:23

Great. Next question,

54:25

are you team Logan, Team Jess or

54:28

team Dean? Do you have any

54:30

idea what I'm talking about?

54:32

I can intelligently answer that question.

54:36

Good. Would you rather work with

54:38

Michelle or Kirk Michelle?

54:42

Why? I like

54:44

Michelle because he's Canadian, He's from

54:47

Montreal.

54:49

I feel a chemistry with Michelle.

54:54

H What would you order at

54:56

Luke's Diner.

55:00

Or a Hamburger and

55:02

a Milkshire?

55:03

Who would you rather hang out with? Paris

55:06

or Lane?

55:08

Paris boy?

55:10

I like Paris, Harvard

55:15

or Yale.

55:16

With the state of those universities today,

55:21

look, colleges are going through some real

55:25

transitions. The

55:28

whole education system to me is little

55:33

frail. I don't like a few things going

55:35

on. But they're both great.

55:37

They're both great going

55:40

into the legal field obviously,

55:42

Harvard.

55:43

Would you rather attend a dar event

55:46

with Emily or a town meeting with

55:48

Taylor?

55:50

I think a town meetings too.

55:53

Gilmore girls character that you

55:55

would want as a roommate?

55:58

Wow, you

56:04

know, listen, roommate girlfriend,

56:07

wives, one room. That's a serious.

56:09

Question, serious man, who

56:12

do you think?

56:13

Wow? Give me three

56:15

choices?

56:16

Okay, right?

56:20

No, I know I knew that let

56:22

me see, Well, you like Paris, So let's say,

56:25

uh, Paris or Babet

56:28

or Laurel I Paris, Babet

56:30

or Laurel I. Sally Strauthers

56:32

played Babet, Paris,

56:35

Paris again, Paris for the wind.

56:37

The city of Paris has been good to me, and

56:40

I'm going with Paris.

56:41

Okay, Uh, something

56:43

in your life you are all in

56:46

on.

56:48

I'm all in empathy

56:53

for others,

56:55

being non judgmental, and

56:59

I'm all in in on trying

57:02

to constantly institute the necessity

57:05

of love for one

57:07

another the people. I think there's a some

57:11

kind of cure based around

57:13

if everybody can feel

57:15

more love than they are and empathy

57:18

and kindness. Now that's

57:20

traveling through the world where I see all of

57:22

the adversity, the

57:24

treatment of people. It's

57:28

never going to always be perfect, but I think

57:30

if people could start learning a little more

57:32

but kind, empathetic,

57:34

and show some love, it's going

57:36

to be a little easier on everybody. Because

57:40

I've never seen the world in this state that

57:42

it's in right now. I think that there's

57:45

some pain ahead of us here until certain things

57:47

are resolved, And the

57:50

only thing ultimately that's

57:53

going to inch you ahead is

57:55

feeling empathy, kindness and love

57:57

for people. Other

58:00

than that, it's going to get worse, you

58:02

know, because it's just too many unresolved

58:05

things that are going on, you know, for my liking,

58:09

that are not making

58:11

it an easy world to live in.

58:13

I have one last question, and

58:15

I thank you so much for your time. I really

58:18

appreciate this. Are

58:21

you aware, based

58:24

on just one song that you wrote,

58:26

My Way, of the impact

58:29

the positive impact that that has

58:31

had on literally billions

58:34

of people since you

58:36

have written that song, and it will continue

58:38

to positively impact people in

58:41

a very positive way so that they can

58:43

show that empathy and love and

58:49

get strength from that song. Are you

58:51

aware of the impact of that song?

58:54

I learned very early in

58:56

my creative life. My

58:59

life is a it's what I do.

59:02

You sit in the room and you create

59:07

even when you perform, but you take my way.

59:09

As you mentioned, there's a large black

59:12

hole between me

59:15

sitting here today with you

59:17

and what people are embracing out there with

59:20

my Way or whatever song.

59:22

But let's use my way. You

59:24

don't fully realize ever,

59:27

with that black hole in front of you, how

59:30

you've affected people. Where

59:32

you get a sense of it when

59:35

you're performing up there and you hit

59:37

that song in your lineup, and

59:40

you see the tears,

59:43

You see the reaction of people, you see

59:45

how they react to you at the end of it. Only

59:48

then do you get a sense. You get a sense

59:50

someone someone comes up to you. You

59:52

get a sense when you get a letter from

59:55

someone that's dealing with

59:57

someone that does not have the health them,

1:00:00

that's their brother is on death row in a prison.

1:00:03

You eclectically get these responses.

1:00:06

But to say that I fully get it, No,

1:00:09

absolutely not. I don't think any of us

1:00:11

do it. You know, I was at a dinner prior

1:00:13

to the other night with a top neurosurgeon

1:00:17

in the country. I

1:00:19

didn't know him, he didn't know me, and it came

1:00:22

out within the dinner. You

1:00:25

know how my Way was his song, he said.

1:00:27

But I'm gonna tell you something. I will tell

1:00:29

a lot of people. When I was

1:00:33

operating in the seventies,

1:00:36

and I would go in and take a tumor

1:00:39

the size of an orange or

1:00:41

whatever out of someone's head.

1:00:44

As I would pull it out, I

1:00:46

would sing, having my Baby. No,

1:00:51

you know, I've never heard much

1:00:54

about my song having my Baby, other than

1:00:56

the obvious meeting. But it's

1:00:59

like pulling a baby,

1:01:01

he said absolutely, and everyone

1:01:03

there was in the court, he said, don't

1:01:05

do it anymore because they're now younger,

1:01:07

they don't know the song. But I would be singing

1:01:10

having my baby. And

1:01:12

you know, it's kind of back to what you said that

1:01:14

was such an impact on me the other day. I'd say,

1:01:17

I can't get my hair around that. You'd

1:01:19

be pulling a cancers as

1:01:22

someone's edit, you're singing and having my baby says,

1:01:26

So you never know, you just

1:01:29

ever know the full impact. Now,

1:01:31

you take a country like the Philippines where

1:01:33

they take their music seriously. I

1:01:36

know for a fact because they're

1:01:38

just an amazing country in terms of how

1:01:40

they embrace music. Singing. I

1:01:44

think three people are dead because in

1:01:46

a karaoke karaoke bar they

1:01:49

sang my Way the wrong way and they shot him.

1:01:52

If you look it up, you actually

1:01:55

read the content in the event

1:01:57

they shoot people for singing my Way the wrong way,

1:02:00

look at the extreme of that, and it's been written

1:02:02

up. It's you. Well, we're done.

1:02:05

You'll google it and you'll see I will who

1:02:07

got shot in the Philippines and a carrier. That's

1:02:12

not the effect that I want my song to have. On anyway.

1:02:16

It has been a pleasure, it

1:02:19

really has. I

1:02:21

feel like I can quit podcasting now

1:02:23

because I've done the interview, and but

1:02:26

I but I won't.

1:02:27

You'll keep doing it because you do it

1:02:29

well, and you're going to go to Nashville and you're gonna

1:02:32

do that well, and you're going to

1:02:34

constantly feel what music and the

1:02:36

magic there has and always

1:02:38

see conversations what it does for you. Because

1:02:40

if you have a passion, it's

1:02:42

something in life. But you're so ahead of the game

1:02:45

because most people, no,

1:02:48

some people don't have a passion and

1:02:51

a commitment to what they're doing. And that's

1:02:53

always sad to me because you have to

1:02:56

have that in your life to have a

1:02:58

fulfilled life. You know, I

1:03:00

need that. So you're fortunate

1:03:03

and I'm fortunate.

1:03:04

Yeah, I agree. Thank you for

1:03:07

sharing your stories. Thank you for your time.

1:03:11

It has been an honor.

1:03:13

And just get get Paris in the room with

1:03:15

me somewhere.

1:03:16

I will, I'll see what I can do. I'll

1:03:20

send you that song. Have a have a great rest

1:03:22

of your day, Good luck with the podcast. Thank

1:03:25

you again.

1:03:26

Well, I'm at a Broadway show

1:03:28

that I'm dealing with here today. We

1:03:32

got the money and now I

1:03:34

have to sit and go through the waiting process.

1:03:37

They want done in six months. So that's that's

1:03:39

a new one, and that's a huge

1:03:42

hurtle. It's a one a one time

1:03:44

shot. Can't make

1:03:46

a mistake there. So that's where I'm

1:03:48

going from.

1:03:49

You Broadway

1:03:51

show, just just scoring a Broadway

1:03:53

show?

1:03:53

Okay, story my life?

1:03:56

Oh is that it's going to be about you.

1:03:58

Yeah, I'm starting at fifteen

1:04:01

and we're down to the list of songs

1:04:03

and I'm dealing with writers.

1:04:04

Now have you seen the Springsteen

1:04:08

Broadway Show.

1:04:09

Yeah, I've saw it on

1:04:11

the Netflix.

1:04:12

I think, Yeah, I'm watching this a

1:04:15

full out.

1:04:15

Show cast, full deal. We've

1:04:18

got to get two actors, maybe

1:04:21

three one. We can add it in at

1:04:23

fifteen, sixteen and right mid

1:04:25

twenties, and then it depends. We'll probably end

1:04:28

it my way.

1:04:29

What a great idea, What a great idea.

1:04:32

We'll see how this idea mars.

1:04:34

But I mean, just to stage all those big songs,

1:04:36

what a great idea. Oh man, I

1:04:39

wish you luck with that one.

1:04:40

I lived unluck. I'll always take luck.

1:04:44

All right, Thank you again, ladies

1:04:47

and gentlemen. Paul Anka, we're

1:04:50

talking about one of

1:04:52

the giants of the

1:04:54

past sixty, sixty

1:04:56

five, even seventy years in

1:04:59

the entertainment field. An honor to

1:05:02

talk to you all right, Thank

1:05:04

you, Take care,

1:05:34

hey everybody, and talk forget. Follow us on Instagram

1:05:37

at I Am all In podcast

1:05:39

and email us at Gilmore

1:05:41

at iHeartRadio dot

1:05:43

com.