Latest / The Bob Lefsetz Podcast / Bruce Allen

Transcript

Bruce Allen · The Bob Lefsetz Podcast

• 0:08
  Speaker 1: Welcome, Welcome, Welcome back to the Bob Left's Podcast. My
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: guest today is manager extraordinaire Ru Sale. We built the
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: careers of everybody from Backman Turner, Overdrive, to Michael Bubley,
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: to Brian Adams and many more. Bruce glad to have
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: you here. Great to be here, Bob, Great to be here.
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: It took me away from the elections. But that's okay,
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: I want to get away from it. Okay. Why do
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: you love Elvis so much? Well, I grew up in
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: that air, of course. You know, probably the first artist
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: I ever saw in in in Vancouver nine and um
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: I went. My mother took me, I remember, and uh
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: it was the only choice at that time. Bob. That
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: was when music was really changing, and uh he just
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: captured me. Uh the stuff he was doing, it just
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: changed my whole thing. Because I was listening to my
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: mother's songs on the radio, not knocking them. They were
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: decent songs. But I mean, all of a sudden, this
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: guy came out and I so, like John Lennon said,
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: I said, for there was Elvis, there was nothing, And
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: I said, so I've all but I stayed and Elvis fan,
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: I've got I knew you might talk about this. I
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: got eighty two books on Elvis in my house. Okay,
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: if you have eighty two, how many books are there?
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: That must be every book? I don't know, but I'll
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: tell you I I there's so much always to find.
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: And like my partner Tom Feldman was thinking about talking about,
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: I said, but all of a sudden you wanted, I said, Sam,
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: read these two books by Peter garrel Nick. Just read
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: these two that'll do it for you. You'll be that's enough.
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: And I said, and he did, and he and he said,
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: this is unbelievable. And the stuff that people find out
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: about him, he did, They didn't know this. I didn't
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: know that. I did. I think that, Wow, you know,
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: people are rediscovering Elvius all the time. I guess Bob
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: Well tell us a couple of things most people don't know.
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: Boy well, you know, I thought I did not know
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: until three weeks ago, probably that he turned out. He
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: didn't turn down Dolly Parton turned down him singing the
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: Whitney Houston song. Okay, And I didn't know that ever happened.
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: I just because Dolly Parton said it, and it was
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: I kind of it was kind of nice tie in
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: for me because I was sitting there Michael Booble, he
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: was in the midst of talking to her. We're doing
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: a duet with her on her new album. It's just
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: out there now. So it was kind of neat that
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: that fell in there. But the other thing that um,
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: I thought was and then and then of course the
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: other thing was interested about that song is I Will
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: Always Love You? Is that when they were getting divorced,
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: uh she he when they were walking out of the church,
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: out of the courtroom. He sang that song to Priscilla
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: as he held her head and walked out the door.
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: You are you are a fault of all kinds of
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: information that that that's amazing. You have eighty Elvis books
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: if you read them all, yes, sir, okay. And are
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: you a collector of anything else? Yes, sir, I have
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: Uh Bob, I got some great stuff. I got Elvis
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: is barber chair. That's something got for me out of
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: Graceland when he they he aged them over. It was
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: in a storage thing and that girl got it for
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: me who worked there. Um, I've got I've got what
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: I put the three things side by side. They're all
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: framed one piece and I gotta send you the picture
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: of it. It's a it's Elvis Presley's work schedule on
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: one night ers in in the yes and seventy four,
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: seventy four, and it the schedule is staggering. It's every day,
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: two shows on the weekend. Blah blah blah, all this stuff.
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: And then then beside it was was was Colonel Parker's
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: uh letter to him that saying, I'm working on Bakersfield.
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: It's gonna be sold out. Don't you worry. I'll see
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: you when you get there. So on and so forth,
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: because the colonel always stayed ahead of him, never watched
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: the show. He was ahead of him setting up the
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: next one and the next one. I bought from Wayne Newton,
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: who got it from a maid in Las Vegas who
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: was cleaning up Elvis's room. And he wrote a letter
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: to God saying that take me away from this, take
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: me away from this. I I don't want to be
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: in this life anymore. I've had you know this thing.
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: And then he took it, and you wrote you rippled
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: it or put in his fist, close his fist into
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: the garbage. She took it out. He got it this
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: way way Newton find it, got it, he sold it
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: to me, and I put it in the frame. I
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: put here's his work schedule, here's what his manager has
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: to say, and here's what he feels like. Unbelievable. Of course. Uh.
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: The Colonel Tom Parker's story is an amazing story. He
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: came from Carnivals. Supposedly he was an illegal alien, which
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: is why Elvis could never tour outside of the US,
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: and additionally had a fifty fifty deal. So as a manager,
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: what do you think of Colonel Tom Parker? I think
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: Colonel Tom Parker. Now, I have arguments all the time
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: with this. I had a good argument Jerry Shilling, not
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: probably ten years ago. Now, okay, don't Jerry for a while.
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: And I used to get onto Colonel Parker cause I
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: thought he was probably the worst manager in the history
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: of the music business. But Jerry Shilling and they stand
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: up for him. And Jerry Silly was Elvis's best friend,
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: one of them, and he said, what you're saying that
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: because of what you know now, we didn't know anything.
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: We were breaking the trail. We had no we had
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: no idea what we were doing. We had no one
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: to look up to. We were the pioneers. It's easy
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: for you to say, why didn't you work four days
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: a week, Why did you do this? Why did you
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: put the stupid routing together? You know? And and uh
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: and and so he stuck up for him. No other
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: people stand up for because of some of the deals
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: he made. The deals he made in the movie business
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: were great, but he was stuck on that million dollars.
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: We made a million dollars and a million dollars there
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: is another million dollars and a million dollars. He made
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: those ship films after he made about five good ones,
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: just because the Colonel was getting a big cut of it.
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: But it was not at that time. It was fifty percent.
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: He got that deal later on when Elvis was at
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: a drugged out stupor uh in in Memphis and he
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: and he colonel went in there and got him to
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: sign it. He probably didn't know even though he signed it.
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: But it wasn't fifty for the get go. Okay, so
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: what was it from the get go? I think it's
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: a standard deal. I mean that from what I understand
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: I've been told, and I think that's probably right. I
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: have not seen his contract with him. Okay, let's go back.
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: So you grew up in Vancouver. Yeah, And how many
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: generations was your family in Canada? Uh? Third? Three? Oh? Really?
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: So who came and what was their idea? My my
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: grandparents came, or my mother's grand my mother's my father's
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: grand my father's parents came, and a typical coming from England.
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: And I just wanted to get out of England and
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: take going to the New Land. And it was fine.
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: I guess they did fine in Vancouver. I can't say
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: I was poor. I can't say they didn't have a job.
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: They did well, and uh not we were rich by
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: a stretch of the imagination. But I like my grandmother
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: because she she wanted to send the sons to learn
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: something that set this gate. She gave them one away ticket.
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: One kid went to San Diego, became an engineer and
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: under a deep seat tanker engineer. The other one was
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: sent to South Africa the one way ticket, and he'd
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: be worked in the diamond business, naturally, in the mining business,
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: and and and and uh. Then I was born and
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: raised in Vancouver. After that, my mom came from the
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: pig uh and I I never met her parents because
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: she was more or less spirited out of the house
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: by a woman who took pity on her by the
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: way she was treated and asked if she could come.
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: She would take her to her place in Winnipeg from
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: a place up north in Manitoba, and she raised my mom. Okay,
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: so what did your parents do for a living? My
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: dad was a deep sea engineer and a tanker went
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: around the world delivering oil for him. And how often
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: was he home? He's one of those jobs four months on,
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: four months off day for day when you're doing deep
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: sea work like that. And how many kids in the
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: family to me and my brother and I and your brother.
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: My brother's retired. I don't know how much money he made,
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: but I but he retired a lot earlier than me.
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: He's a younger brother and he's driving around his motorcycle
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: now and having a good time. I shake my head sometimes.
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: And what kind of relationship do you have with him? Good, good,
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: solid relationship. You know, he has to be Bruce Allen's brother.
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: And in this town that's not you know, that's a
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: little bit more difficult than me. Okay, Vancouver is a
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: very hip, modern town today. What was it like when
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: you were growing up? Well, it's funny for me. I'm like,
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: kind of like that Bruce Springsteen story he ended up.
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: I didn't. I've never moved more than five miles from
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: my host where I was born. And uh, but where
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: would you go here? In Vancouver? It's a great city. Uh.
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: And when I grew up in school, I enjoyed high school.
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: I enjoyed going to school. I had no problem with
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: that because I my mom. My father died when I
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: was twelve. I was raised by my mom and in
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: those days, in those days, Bob, you were raised by
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: the neighborhood. If you're in that situation. My mom had
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: to go to work, I had to go to school.
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: So I'd come home from school, I have to check
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: in with the neighborhood. Give you a sandwich and maybe
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: a glass of milk, and then you know, you played
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: with their sons or whatever. You went out, but you
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: had to check in with the with the neighborhood. So um,
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: I went to school. I went to school into a
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: school where very wealthy kids in that school, the high
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: class area. But I had to walk. Guys not in
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: that area had to walk to school. So it's about
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: two mile walk, two mile walk to school, and and
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: I watched what was going on when I was growing up,
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: and these kids got driven to school and Mercedes, or
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: when they got to be seventeen or they got their
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: own Mercedes and stuff like that. And I'm sitting there,
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: you know, walking to school, and I think, I think
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: it's been the driver of my entire life, is trying
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: to raise myself up from that. So I started working.
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: I started working building trucks in Canadian Kenworth when I
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: was eighteen. Well, well, well let's slow down before that.
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: So what kind of kids were you? Were you like
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: the leader the kids? Yeah? I was a leader, There's
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: no doubt about it. Um. I was a half past
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: athlete as a very good runner tract team. I played rugby,
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: but they wouldn't let me play rugby because of my
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: track stuff except on the outside wing. So I was
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: in the violent part of it. And uh you know,
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: I ran pretty well, Bobby. I got a Canadian record
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: for a while, and a half mile races had or
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: eighty yards in those days. I think it's the eights now.
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: And uh, you know, I enjoyed high school. I really
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: enjoyed high school. And I discovered music really when I
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: was in high school. The real. I broughtened my base
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: from Elvis, and I really got into James Brown, the Icon.
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: Tina Turner review Fats Domino. I really really a big
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: fan of black music. And I was there when they
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: brought those Dick caravan of stars all the way up
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: there and they came in with you. Everybody got up
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: there and saying three songs they every Brothers Paul like,
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: and they just loaded it up with people. And I
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: used to go to every one of those and I
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: was but I was really fascinated by the black music
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: because of just what they put out. You go to
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: a James Brown show when he was in his heyday,
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: it was terrified. And I continue to turn and review.
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: The first time I ever saw a strobe light, Um,
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: I Turner was looking, where's the strobe bladey walked off
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: the stage, walked up to the side of the thing
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: where the platform was got on it sure turned on
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: this so this stool blake walked back and it's just
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: it was I love that black music. The s was fantastic,
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: And because we were in Seattle, close to Seattle, they
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: always came up there. Seattle came up to Vancouver, Seattle
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: came up to Vancouver. That was the next stop and
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: that was probably the only show they even did in
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: Canada at that time. Went back to the seats. Okay,
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: so your mother played music in the house. How did
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: you actually become aware of Elvis um because he came
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: on TV, had Sullivan. That's the first time everybody I
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: heard him before that. I can remember my uh that
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: was the first time I saw. I saw him was
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: on Ed Sullivan, I think, and I remember my mother
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: sitting there and holding onto herself saying, I can't look
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: at his eyes. I can't look at his eyes. And
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: I'm just sitting there looking at this guy saying, Wow,
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: this is really something really different, and uh it I
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: think it set me on the path. I I play
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: Elvis every single day, okay, I have. I only have
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: a few stations and serious on the on my radio
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: and Elvis is one of them, the Elvis Channel, And
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: uh I find you know it was I've had these thrills,
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: like Michael Bob was the first guy to go in
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: and do the duet with Elvis on the duets on
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: the duet album they did for the with the London Symphony.
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: It was a big deal. But Michael's a fan, So
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: you're not like me, but I mean, he's a fan.
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: And so for me to go in there to see that,
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: that was great. Priscilla Presley put Michael Boobley on the
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: Walk of Fame in Hollywood, all this stuff. You know,
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: it's I'm still kind of tied into that organization, and
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: I'm proud to do that because I think that, let's
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: face it, he laid the groundwork absolutely. Now, in a
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: slightly later era with the Beatles, they were on TV
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: and then everybody wanted to become a performer, they got
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: a guitar whatever. Since you saw Elvis, did you ever
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: want to become a performer? No, no, not a not
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: a chance, because I think I knew my limitations. But
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: I was very upset when the Beatles came because I
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: was the Elvis guy. I was never a big Beatles fan,
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: but I did see the Beatles in Vancouver, the same
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: place as Elvis in Vancouver, and uh and uh it's
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: uh it picked sides in those days. To me, the
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: Beatles were a girls group because I'm listening to she
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: Loves You, yeah, yeah, yeah, you know and and all
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: this stuff, and I never bought into it. I went
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: to the show, and I saw it and it was
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: very It was very good actually, with a big bill
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: like Jackie Deshat and and Exciters and all these other
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: hecks on it. It was It was a good show
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: and everything else. But I wasn't a Beatles fan, so
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: I really can't speak about the Beatles with that much intelligence. Okay,
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: So in high school when you become a big music fan,
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: is it mostly the radio or do you have records
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: to how do you feed your addiction? Definitely the radio
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: and all the time. And I bought albums continually, and
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: I still have all those albums downstairs I got. I
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: got them in my in my office downstairs, in the
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: basement of this building. And there's about I would say
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: now because I get in some away, probably not not
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: that men. Seven thousand albums down there, and you know
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: what I'm doing right now to Bob, which is amazing.
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: I got all these c ds. I got twenties seven CDs,
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: and I'm sitting there and I'm going through them every day.
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: I put them in a in a when I'm up
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: around the house walking around, I put it in a stacker.
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: I got a twenty c D stacker and it kicks
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: these things out and I'm playing them in an order,
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: just as all. It's all alphabetical in my in my
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: the way I stack all my CDs in my host.
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: But it's really funny because my girlfriend sits there and said,
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: what are we on now? He said, this is gonna
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: be a long chapter. This is miscellaneous, this is this
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: is this is all the greatest hit stuff that come
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: in the great of the deep soul stuff from Dave
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: Girl and and those guys you know who did those
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: great soul albums under the UK. I've playing all that
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: stuff now, and I'll play one after the other right now,
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: mane is I've only at the ms that I've been
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: starting since the beginning of the year, and it's, uh,
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: it's it's kind of neat to hear that old stuff,
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: and I'm gonna hang onto it. I certainly have hung
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: on to all my stuff. I have all my vinyl
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: from the beginning, a little scratched up. But does this
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: music you said, you're going literally from me to Z
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: how much of it holds up? And how much of
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: you say? Well, that was a period thing and I
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: liked it then, but it's really not that good now
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: I have I have I have a chopping bag in there, Bob.
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: And when I don't like the CD, and I'm never
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: going to play it again because I know I'm not
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: now into the bag it goes. Okay, I am cutting
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: it back that much. But I looked at it today
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: and uh before I came down here, and I got
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: it probably about fifty in there. And I think we're
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: going to convert him into uh, they'll be hanging up
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: in a tree. I gotta decorate this tree outdoors for charity,
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: and I think there's gonna be all these old CDs
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: spinning around up there. Okay, So let's go back to
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: you were mentioned you graduating from high school. Is there
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: any thought how good a student are you in school?
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: I passed, okay, So there was never a thought of
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: going to college or any education beyond that. No. You see,
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: I went right to work with the Canadian ken Worth
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: too um uh to actually to be honest, to get money.
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: And of course when you start that building trucks, and
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: I was welding trucks and truck cabs and stuff like that.
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: I did it for a couple of years and I
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: really liked the money. I'd handing money before this is fantastic.
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: Got my money, I got I got a car. All
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: the kids who went to school, they got no car.
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: I got a car. I got time to go out
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: there and do go to things I wanted to do.
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: And then all of a sudden, the guys on the
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: line said to me, listen you and do more than this.
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: You don't want to stay here. You're like twenty years old.
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: I've been here for forty years. Believe me. I know
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: you like the money, but get out of here. Get
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: out of here, go to school. You're not stupid. Get
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: to go to school. So I signed up to go
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: to university and I went uh one year, I got
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: the second year, and I started a third year. And
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: that's when I A guy came up to a football
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: player owned a club in Vancouver. He knew my love
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: of music, and he said, listen, I got this new
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: band from Hong Kong, White guys with uh Hong Kong
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: Chinese drummer. And he said, I'll let you take a
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: look at him, because I think that can really happen.
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: But they don't know what to do, they don't know
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: how to act in this and that. And I walked
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: in there, Bob, and it was they were a Beatles band.
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: So here I am the guys playing English music, Scott Walker,
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: the Walker Brothers, Okay, the Hollies, all this stuff, and
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: I said there, wow. I mean I'm not a fan
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: of this stuff. But the guy says, can you help
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: them out because if you go to all the show's
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: boost turn these guys into some kind of an act
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: on stage. And I said yeah, okay, And I mean,
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: you know, they did other songs too, but basically they
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: played a lot of English music. And I brought up
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: in a town where it was the R and B bands,
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: mostly white white bands with black front men, and uh,
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: all of a sudden, there this this club when we
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: started working on like that started to take off because
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: they were playing the music that was really coming up
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: and the other clubs weren't. And I took that band
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: called the Five Man Cargo, and I remember I got
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: a chance to go to Chicago with a band called
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: the Mob, which was that comes some guys from the
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: Bucking Hands, kind of a drag guys, and also Wayne
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: Cocher and the CC Riders who you heard of, and
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: ended up playing these bowling alleies in and they play
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: in bowling alleys in Chicago, and I thought, I don't
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: want to redo this, and we went back to Vancouver
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: and I took that band and I started a booking
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: agency and I booked it myself and managed them. And
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: then all of a sudden, as club owners do, they
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: look around other people in town and say, that gets
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: They're really doing good there. But the music we're playing,
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: the kids really like that other music. I'm gonna go
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: up see if I can get that band. So they
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: came to me and they asked, me, if you know,
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: would you take these guys out of here and put
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: them I'd like to bring them my club. What are
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: you're making and say, okay, well we'll pay you more,
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: you know the drill and uh. I said okay, but
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: I'll tell you what. Because I kind of was an
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: economics major in school, I was going to be one.
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: I thought I would turn into Jimmy Hoffa, but I
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: said listen. I said, I'll come to your club if
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: I can get out of this one. And I said,
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: but here's the deal. I gotta pull this band out
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: of here and I'm gonna put another one in here.
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: But when I come to your club with this band,
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: I'd like to have the booking rights for that club
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: for the rest of the year, and the guy made
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: the deal. And I did that quite a bit, moving
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: these couple of bands I had by that time around.
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: And by the time that Bato came into town looking
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: for work because Randy got you know, left the guests
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: who and he couldn't they didn't, he couldn't get any work.
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: He came to the West coast because I hadn't locked
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: up at that time, I had seventeen clubs downtown, and
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: I mean downtown in that time. At that time, in
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: the early seventies, bands are making two thousand dollars a week. Okay.
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: They don't make that anymore, okay, And so I had
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: this booking agency and that's how Randy Backman and I met,
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: and that's when I started to move away from the
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: agency and into the management side. Okay, let's slow down
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: and go back to the beginning. You knew the football
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: player hooked you up with the band, he owned a club.
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: What was your role in that first club. My only
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: role was looking after that band and getting them to
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: turn them into a real performing act. That was it. Okay,
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: No no relationship to the club at all, just just
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: to help with that music. So when you had seventeen clubs,
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: you were essentially the agent. You weren't an owner in
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: any of those clubs. No, I was not okay. When
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: you had seventeen bands, were they all local bands or
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: did you represent anybody outside of the Vancouver area. I
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: had it locked up so that people who want to
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: play in Vancouver, because it was a very valuable market,
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: came to me and I booked him. But out of
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: the seventeen bands will be working on a regular basis,
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: at least a dozen of them were Vancouver. Okay, And
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: it first it was obviously just yourself. As you got seventeen,
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: you know, when you're working seventeen clubs, etcetera, did you
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: hire anybody? I just hired an assistant. That's all at
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: that time. And you can do it that way. You're
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: just booking stuff, You're not you know, that's all you're doing.
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: It's not it's it's phone work, to tell you more
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: than anything else. I had a deal though. My deal
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: with the clubs was I come up there. I can
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: collect my money every Saturday night, but I just take
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: my money, just put my money separate my ten So
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: after chase these bands all over the place to get it.
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: So I made straight about Saturday night. I'd hit all
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: those places, get my money, and that'd be for the week. Okay.
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: Back in that era, you know, the music business was
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: a cash business all the way, even you know, up
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: through the seventies. So did your you know, nightclubs have
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: a checkered history, did you have any problem collecting your money? Um?
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: I own I got. I only got stiffed probably once,
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: and that's why I pulled my money off early. Okay,
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: so the band never really got paid. I got mine
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: first in the clubs they went along with, because the
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: clubs don't pay bands until they're finished either. So no
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: that they say I was making. If the guys making
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: can say we only paid me, you're a hundred and
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: fifty dollars short. You know, I gave it to the agent.
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: So I didn't really have those battles. But we had.
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: We had the market really sewn up here well, and
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: it was people behaved. I hate. Vancouver is a good
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: size city, but seventeen clubs, that's a lot for one
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: town to support. Yeah, but I mean a Seattle was
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: also very good. Uh. I can tell you know, I
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: can go, I can walk down the street in Vancouver
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: two blocks that I had eight seven of those clubs
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: in two blocks, two and a half blocks. And what
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: was driving attendance at those clubs? Music? Everybody was And
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: I mean, you know, David Foster played on my circuit.
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: Uh you know, uh he lubber Boy was pulled off
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: that circuit. Uh back Matron over drive of course before
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: their back Matron over drive by Belt. Uh. But some
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: most of the big bands in Canada came through there
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: and worked on their way up. And uh it was.
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: It was a really really strong musical town and great
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: great radio too because Red Robinson was here. What he's
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: a rock and Roll Hall of Fame disc jockey and
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: he had done a lot of work he brought to
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: black music up here, and we you know, he knew
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: he didn't follow. In those days, you made your own
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: top forty Okay, now it sounds like you were working
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: around the clock. Were you making good money? Is making
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: really good money? I kept my tax returns and I
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: looked at him about two years ago. I was doing
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: pretty good, you know, in those days, and and and
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: and and yeah, but you're young. You can work hard.
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: It's not absolutely And get where am I hanging around
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: lots of broads, lots of fun, and I'm in the
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: clubs big It's not that bad. And then single to right,
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: So what happened at school? How do you decide to
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: part ways with school? Um? I could I look where
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: I was going and what I was thinking of majoring in.
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: I could see the end of the road. I can
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: see you stay here, You'll be making fifty grandy here,
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: that's about far. How far are you're doing? And you'll
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: have a nice wife and two kids. You're living in
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: the suburbs. And and I just said no, I'm not
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: going to do it. And I just quit that quick
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: school and just went to music full time. Okay, so
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: the guests who breaks up? So what exact year does
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: Randy Backman track you down? And what does that look like?
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: He phones me up and he says, introduced himself and
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: the Brandy back And says, I know Randy, you know
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: who you are. He said, listen, Um, I got a
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: band together and I'm paying everybody. It's my brother and
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: to my brother's a manager, and uh, he says, the
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: bad guitar players is my brother and Fred Turner. I
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: got this guy called Fred Turner can really singing my drummers,
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: my other brother, and uh, I'm I'm looking after everybody,
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: he says, But I can't work and I need some work.
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: And I know you got that market side up, science
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: sealed up. So what's the chance that can I work
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: in the area? And I thought, Randy Backman on the guests,
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: who was all the songs that they've done, Surely to god,
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: he's gonna come here and I get him to Yeah,
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: and I'll probably come here and he'll play the guest
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: whose songs? Why wouldn't he And he'll it's got to
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: be good. Randy Backman's a name in our country. And
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: so I said, I'd like to see and he says, well,
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: we got a job at Fort McMurray. That's the oil
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: fields up north of Edmonton. He says, a nice, I'll
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: fly up there to see you. So I went up
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: there and it was really good. It was really good.
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: I mean, he sang all the right songs. He's you know,
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: they covered Burton's ass with his brothers and they got
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: it done. And I brought him into the clubs, and
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: of course he didn't want to be in the clubs,
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: but he just wanted to get up the boys off
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: the payroll. So he wanted to get some steady money
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: coming in. But he um he was working on another record.
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: Brave Belt was the name of the band at that time.
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: The band, the record came out, didn't do anything. He
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: started on another record and uh it was. It was
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: the first actually turned into the first Beach Yeo record.
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: And he came to me and he said, what are
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: you think? And I said, this is a good Randy.
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: I says, what are you gonna who are you gonna
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: get to manage you? And he said, well, listen, would
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: you be interested in it? And he said, you know
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: more about managing a band than I do. I mean,
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: what do I know? I've been sitting in Vancouver but
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: all the time doing this, right, You know how to
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: manage a band, Randy, He says, yeah, but I don't
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: know how to go in there all the time saying
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: I want, I want, I want, I want. He says,
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: So I think you can do it. I said okay.
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: So I said, okay, let's give it a go. I
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: had to get somebody to come in to work on
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: my agency, and Sam Feldman, who's a friend of mine
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: and worked at the different clubs, and he had a
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: small book and agency of different bands, mora alternative that
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: I wasn't really that interested in the club circuit. And
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: he said, I said, Samwich, like, come in. I might
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: have to leave it like to get you bring into
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: the company. And I said, it's funny thing as I said.
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: He said, well, okay, but what are you gonna pay me?
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: I said, well, listen, I don't know what's going to
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: happen here. You take care of this. I'll look after you.
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: Blah blah. We'll split it up here, you know, we'll
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: just split it, okay, because I thought I could hang
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: on to his bands. I got my bands. I'll take
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: this shot. But because I knew if Backman Overdrive failed,
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: I'd come back and be gone anyway, so you know,
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: because let's face it. So anyway, we went up to Randy.
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: We took out the record and got turned down. But wait, wait, wait, wait,
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: wait a little bit slower. Yeah, so you made that
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: deal with Sam yea and did you give him fifty
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: of Backman at that point of your interest the mind? No, No,
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: so it was only okay. So they okay, so tell
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: me go back to the record. So so we get
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: the record finished, and we go to shop and off
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: we go. We go to New York, we get turned down.
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: We go to to uh Los Angeles, we got turned down.
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: Randy will say in his book, I don't think he's
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: that many, but he said, we got down turned down
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: by twenty seven record companies, which is probably pretty close.
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: And uh so, all of a sudden, we got a
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: phone call and we didn't even go to this place,
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: from a guy called Charlie Fash, working Mercury Records in Chicago.
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: Of course we didn't go to Chicago. We didn't think
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: of any labels in Chicago. But he came. He said, listen,
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: I've heard this record. Could I come out and see
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: you guys? So I said, we said okay. Out came
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: Charlie Fash and he said, you know this record, this
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: record is really close. He said, but if you can
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: just get me, I think maybe you're a song or
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: too short. And Randy went back. He said okay, and
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: we started working on some stuff and sent it back
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: to Charlie and Charlie said, I'm gonna sign you guys.
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: So he signed us. Now, Randy, that's what he wants.
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: He just he wanted to get he didn't want to
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: be a Canadian guy stuck up in Canna, so we
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: signed to them for whatever the deal was. Alan stein Or,
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: a lawyer in New York who ready had used before,
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: took care of the deal. So we were signed to
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: Mercury Records. And Randy said, listen, if we gotta we're
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: gonna break this record, we gotta go on the road.
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: That's how you do it, and that's how you did it, okay.
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: And I could see it was really funny because I
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: was Randy. Randy Backman didn't want to travel in buses
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: because he remembers one time he said, I was coming
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: into a down a hill into revel Stoke, which is
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: a scheme country in in Vancouver in the BC, and
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: the brakes failed and he said we had to go
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: down there. The roady guy kept the thing on the
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: course as best as he could, try to slow it
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: down by shift down, shifting everything else. We came to
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: the spot and he said, jump out. I remember hanging
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: out of my guitar and jumping into a snow bank.
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: He said, So I never wanted to be on a
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: bus again. So we drove. We drove everything. I drove
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: across back and forth across the USA six times, and
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: he it was me and him in the front and
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: three guys in the back of a car and and
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: with our stuff piled up, not our equipment, but our clothes,
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: our suitcases. That and you know, it was the best
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: thing I ever did, because I would never missed one show.
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: You know, in those days, we had two trees on
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: the side, some kind of and all the p a
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: stacked on the stage. So I get bored, I'd call
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: the lights. I do the lights, you know, become fill
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: up the day, take my money and go to the
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: next city. And we did that for years until we broke.
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: And we when we broke, it really broke because the
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: Mercury Records they focused and focused on that act we were.
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: I was. I was one of the big big acts
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: on a very small label. You can't beat it, sorry,
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: on a major. No, it wasn't not a major, Bob,
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: It's a mid major. And we they did a great
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: job for us. And you know, it's really funny because
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: I remember the guy, when the guy who came in there,
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: he was a new genius. He was a guy who
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: got great marks in college and had a college radio.
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: He walked into that radio into that company, and that's
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: where I met Cliff burnsday. Of course, of course, let's
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: have a big act by that. Let's go back a
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: little bit. Um, did you have paper with beat eo? No?
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: Do you have paper with your acts today? No? Okay?
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: And if you ever had a situation, I don't know
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: in the acts ever leave you? Um No, not any
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: big act that I've ever had. Um. I don't even
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: think a small act did. But uh, the only act,
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: the only act that that I I stopped and I
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: she she didn't leave as I did, and I only
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: did it. I had my reasons for doing it, but
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: I love doing it. I missed doing it. I was
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: in Martina McBride in the country music business, and we
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: did a good job with her. She's got you know.
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: She she was second to Reba McIntyre when I left
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: it on top of thirty radio top thirty records in
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: country business, in the country business, and I just felt
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: that I was managing two people, managing her and has
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: managed her husband and her husband's a lovely guy. But boy,
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: it's difficult. And um, you know, I always used to
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: say to my assistant, used say, she's how is it?
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: I says, the meeting is great, but as I drove
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: away from the house, I know there's always one more meeting,
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: and you know, and and sometimes I'm not I'm not
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: knocking women marrying guys and bands and they really don't
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: bother me. But I mean, that was a difficult one.
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: That was a woman in the first place, and a husband,
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: and I I could see myself nearly in that same situation,
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: because all of a sudden, she's exploding and you're mare
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: illegal what you want to be involved? You want to
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: do this? And John was a smart, smart guy. You
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: ran a good sound company. He was a smart guy.
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: But just just too many phone calls, too many phone calls. Well,
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: certainly those of us who have gotten midnight phone calls
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: from John at length, you certainly no, let's go back. Okay,
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: A lot of very big acts at this late date,
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: when they become that big, they asked for reduction in
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: management percentage. Has that been your experience? No, I'll tell
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: you why I take it. I take of these bands.
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: I take after the agents. Money is gone. I take
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: after the sound of lights. Basic sound of lights is gone.
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: I don't believe in commissioning stuff that they don't even
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: see it's just flow through. Money's gone. Okay, I don't
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: work with business managers. Okay, we look after all their money.
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: We take care of all the money. We don't we
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: take care of the mines to take care of all
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: the money. To the point where here's the money, here's
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: your money, here's my money. And I think it's their
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: job to get a tax problem. I just have my
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: job to get them a tax problem. They got to
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: solve it. So I've never worked with business managers, which
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: I find I'm not. I just find it they get
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: involved where areas they shouldn't. Okay, So well, just to
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: go this deep, will you give any investment advice to
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: some of these bands? Okay, let's go back to bt O.
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: It goes from Brave Belt goes to bt O. First
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: album comes out. I know where the track is blue Collar.
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: That's the one that the single. Yet that gets some
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: regional play such it in the Midwest. It's successful, not
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: really successful. We certainly the East goes the second album
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: has taken care of business. Actually I had uh no,
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: that's it's it's not the first big track. The big
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: track that first was uh ain't seen nothing yet? No, no,
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: uh that was right right, let it ride, of course,
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: of course. Okay, So when you had let it ride
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: and you had taken care of business, did you know
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: you had gold? I knew, I knew we had. It
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: was letter ride and then take care yea, yeah, I
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: knew it was gonna happen, okay, And I made it
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: another what I call smart move. I had everybody wanting
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: to book them and do stuff. And I went to
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: an independent who had only zz top and he came
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: and he wanted to say, listen, I like it. I'd
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: like to get involved with you. And we got involved.
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: I did some dates and early early with at those times,
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: concerts West and stuff like that. I did some shows
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: at those people, and all of a sudden, I just
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: I was having trouble because there's no consistency. I was
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: moving back and forth between a bunch of promoters. And
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: I remember talking to Don Fox, who ended up with
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: and I was sitting in a we didn't have cell phones.
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: I was sitting in a phone booth talking to people,
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: and I got in this argument and he said, why
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: do you put up with that ship? With what the why? Why? What?
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: Why are you putting up with that? It was something
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: you know some promoters somewhere, and I said, you know, Donn,
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: You're right, And remember taking the phone book always reminds
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: me of taking the phone book, and I grabbed the thing.
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: We had all the area code ages and I went like,
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: here's your territory, now take care of it. Give him
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: the whole territory in the United States. Okay. So prior
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: to don Fox, you didn't you were the agent for
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: the band. No, I was signed with C I was
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: signed with. This is great too, because I was signed
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: with the guy I couldn't get. Agencies weren't really that
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: interested as when we started. I sat a guy named
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: Paul Smith, I forget the name of the agency, and
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: he used to work for Colonel Parker. And that's how
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: I got to meet Elvis Presley. So I didn't know
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: you met Elvis? Oh yeah, who was that? Well what
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: happened there with Backman Turner Overdrive? Because but tell me, okay,
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: keep going. So Paul Smith was this agent for me
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: in a small agency and I can't remember the name, Bob,
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: I'm sorry, but um he told me these stories about
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: working for Colonel Parker. And so when Backmin Turnover Drive
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: came through Vegas, and I said, listen, we're going in Vegas.
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: And Elvis was at the same time, and I've seen
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: him many times in Vegas. He says, I said, do
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: you get me backstage and meat Elvis? So yeah, I
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: said really, He says yeah. He says, when do you
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: want to go? And I said, okay. I liked some
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: of the guys might come on and come, and so
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: we three of the guys came. It was me, Me
• 36:13
  Speaker 1: and Robbie Backman, the drummer, Blair Thornte, you know, the
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: guitar player. I think that was that three of us
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: went to it. Randy had to fly home, he was
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: piste off and he had to fly home and h
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: so he sat there and went to the show. That
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: was probably nineteen seventy five. I think I'm pretty close
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: to n So I went back there, met Elvis and
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: everybody something. Sit there, you wait and somebody comes and
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: get you like they do take you back. You sit
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: down in this room and all of a sudden Elvis,
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: Elvis came out of his dressing room and they said
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: the guy brought him over and he said, this is
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: Bruce down, this is Blackman. Guys from Backman turn over
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: drive and he just this guy could have been and
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: I've I've talked to a lot of people who know him,
• 36:58
  Speaker 1: a lot of people have ever been around him. Could
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: be one of the nicest guys you've ever wanted to meet.
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: And he said, nice to meet you, guys. How are
• 37:05
  Speaker 1: you doing? Blah blah blah. And the boy said, he
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: pushed me for it, and you talked to him, talked
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: to him. So I talked. I talked to him and
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: and we we had given me maybe we know we
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: were going, so we made up this uh this uh
• 37:21
  Speaker 1: a gift of the back into over drive wheel. It
• 37:24
  Speaker 1: was made of silver, and we gave him the wheel
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: made himself and give it to him. He gave us
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: what he gave us what TCB necklaces, okay, and he
• 37:37
  Speaker 1: he called it taking care of the boss and uh
• 37:40
  Speaker 1: and uh, I remember my head. I talked to him.
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: My hand was shaken, he said, and he was so polite,
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: like taking the slow down, take it easy to relax
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: and uh. And then he said, uh, you know, thank
• 37:54
  Speaker 1: you very much and I hope you can see again.
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: And that was it. It was pretty cool. They're real cool,
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: absolutely absolutely And I met him one more time after that,
• 38:04
  Speaker 1: he in Memphis, he came to uh show there. I
• 38:08
  Speaker 1: think it was I think with I think was probably
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: still again back when term but I came back stage,
• 38:15
  Speaker 1: I said a load him that just that. Then he
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: just stayed for a little while, went upstairs and watched
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: I guess somewhere out there. And that was it. But
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: you know what, do you always like, yes, sir, No, sir,
• 38:25
  Speaker 1: thank you, yes sir? You know what I mean. That's
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: the way he was. This guy was a good guy
• 38:30
  Speaker 1: and and that and that's why when you find when
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: you talk to people who've been in there in his company,
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: this is a good guy. And that's why I think
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: that's why it's a tragedy. It's a tragedy rich an
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: American tragedy dying that young. Did you, having met him
• 38:43
  Speaker 1: late in his career, did you see that coming when
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: I saw me look real good the last time I
• 38:48
  Speaker 1: saw me look real good by the time I saw
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: him on stage, and it had been a couple of
• 38:52
  Speaker 1: years longer. You're in the seventy seven now you felt
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: that's where Colonel Parker was an asshole? Why put him
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: out like that? Why put him out there? Why I
• 39:00
  Speaker 1: put them out there. I wanted the money, that's right,
• 39:03
  Speaker 1: That's what that was about. Colonel. I know guys who
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: worked with Colonel Parker saw Blues a million and a
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: half dollars in forty five minutes on the on the
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: Roulett Wheel. Now that's the stupidest bet in the casino.
• 39:13
  Speaker 1: And that was his problem. And that's why I played
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: in Vegas for nothing, okay, in comparison to other stars.
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: When I ended up managing Anne Murray, I asked her,
• 39:22
  Speaker 1: I said, did you let do you work when the
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: Elvis was there? He says, Healy, I worked with Elvis
• 39:25
  Speaker 1: there all the time. And she said and I said,
• 39:28
  Speaker 1: She said, I was the one who got everything changed
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: to one show instead of two. I said, how did
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: you do that? And she said, I had a kid's
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: two kids had one for the other two. And she said,
• 39:39
  Speaker 1: they want me to come back to Bally's. And I said,
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: I ain't coming. I can't do two shows. I can't
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: sit there doing a show at eight seven o'clock, eight
• 39:46
  Speaker 1: o'clock at night and another one at midnight. Okay, I
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: got these kids. So they gave her a break and
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: said do one, just do one, and then everybody followed,
• 39:54
  Speaker 1: I would I would have thought Elvis would have done that.
• 39:56
  Speaker 1: The colonel didn't give a dad. He was doing two shows,
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: seven nights a week, lots of time. Just just that's
• 40:02
  Speaker 1: a great story for Anne Murray. She broke the whole
• 40:04
  Speaker 1: two too, so Vegas and not Dr Barber's Dreis and
• 40:07
  Speaker 1: not Franks, not Elvis, Presley and Murray. So you know
• 40:12
  Speaker 1: you've had these, you know, worldwide successful acts. Is there
• 40:17
  Speaker 1: anybody at this point you haven't met that you want
• 40:19
  Speaker 1: to meet? I'll tell you. And this is gonna So
• 40:23
  Speaker 1: I turned on this thing to watch a talk last
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: two weeks ago, a stream of Elvis Costello talking to
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: Peter grell Nick okay, and I sat there and I
• 40:35
  Speaker 1: wanted to hear what he had to say because Peter
• 40:37
  Speaker 1: Groan thought, that's an Elvis guy. He's written great books
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: on Sam Cook, He's written books on on on what's
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: his Sam Phillips, He's written books on the on the
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: black music business. I mean, he's a fabulous writer. And
• 40:49
  Speaker 1: nearly from a sociological point of view too, you learned
• 40:52
  Speaker 1: about what was going on in the world at that
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: time and where those guys worked. And I'm sitting there
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: with Elvis watching him, and I think Elvis might have
• 41:02
  Speaker 1: talked more than more than Groulning. I mean, yeah, okay, Elvis,
• 41:06
  Speaker 1: you're you know, launch too, But I mean I want
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: to hear what Peter Grounnick says. And that's the one
• 41:12
  Speaker 1: person I'd like to meet. And I will go down
• 41:14
  Speaker 1: to one of the Elvis events to go down there
• 41:16
  Speaker 1: just to meet him because I love to sit down
• 41:17
  Speaker 1: in a room and talk with him. Because okay, he
• 41:20
  Speaker 1: never met Elvis, which is pretty weird. That is weird. Okay,
• 41:25
  Speaker 1: let's go back to uh bt O you make the
• 41:28
  Speaker 1: deal with Don Fox. Is the agent still involved or
• 41:32
  Speaker 1: now is they're no longer an agent? The agent? The
• 41:34
  Speaker 1: agent was still involved there, Okay. Now, just like with Elvis,
• 41:38
  Speaker 1: Presley and Jerry Shilling and talking about the fifties, they
• 41:41
  Speaker 1: were inventing it. In reality, the business music road business
• 41:45
  Speaker 1: was being invented in the late sixties with rock and
• 41:48
  Speaker 1: rollers and seventies. What were the lessons you learned back then?
• 41:52
  Speaker 1: Because you were totally green, you were learning while you
• 41:54
  Speaker 1: were going a learning while I was going yea, and
• 41:56
  Speaker 1: Randy had some experience he did and he was a
• 41:58
  Speaker 1: good he was a good guy. For me, it was
• 42:01
  Speaker 1: the thing is, it's just the biggest thing was to
• 42:04
  Speaker 1: him was he had a rule. Okay, we're all gotta
• 42:08
  Speaker 1: get together. We're a band. We make a time at night,
• 42:12
  Speaker 1: we say, okay, we're going to bed. We're leaving this
• 42:13
  Speaker 1: hotel at at ten o'clock in the morning to drive
• 42:17
  Speaker 1: twitter miles to the next place, right or two whatever
• 42:19
  Speaker 1: it was, we leave at ten. If he wasn't there
• 42:22
  Speaker 1: a ten, you left, and I remember, you know, we
• 42:26
  Speaker 1: only stayed in those two story holiday inns, right right,
• 42:29
  Speaker 1: So I remember, I remember Randy's he's coming, Robbie's coming,
• 42:33
  Speaker 1: he's coming. It's ten o'clock. Let's go and left him. Guys,
• 42:37
  Speaker 1: So we are you know, that's one thing. You guys
• 42:39
  Speaker 1: had to be on time, guys, and we and you know,
• 42:41
  Speaker 1: we looked after ourselves as best we could. Um, we're young,
• 42:44
  Speaker 1: we could take a lot more the way. But remember
• 42:47
  Speaker 1: Randy Backman's a Mormon, okay, And you got kicked out
• 42:51
  Speaker 1: of the guests who because his warman beliefs clashed with
• 42:54
  Speaker 1: their lifestyle. So it was a bit of a it
• 42:57
  Speaker 1: was it. I wasn't out there with a C. D
• 42:59
  Speaker 1: C or van Halen or pretty pretty having a ton
• 43:02
  Speaker 1: of fun. Okay, because Randy was the big brother, Randy
• 43:05
  Speaker 1: was paying the freight mostly, and uh so it was
• 43:08
  Speaker 1: it was. I mean, there were great stories, but I
• 43:10
  Speaker 1: had to keep with those stories away from Randy. So
• 43:12
  Speaker 1: I roomed with Randy continually on the road because I
• 43:17
  Speaker 1: was there to make sure he didn't start walking around
• 43:18
  Speaker 1: and wonder what the band was doing. Okay, you know,
• 43:23
  Speaker 1: I know you that car accident about fifteen years ago
• 43:26
  Speaker 1: in Tennessee. The question becomes, if you're driving a station
• 43:30
  Speaker 1: wagon back and forth six times, you must have some
• 43:33
  Speaker 1: close calls or falling asleep at the wheel or something. No,
• 43:36
  Speaker 1: but no, because you know you're driving short. The one
• 43:39
  Speaker 1: thing about driving tour, driving like we did, you never
• 43:41
  Speaker 1: drove far. Okay, you can only go as far as
• 43:44
  Speaker 1: the equipment could get. We're Randy wanted to play five
• 43:46
  Speaker 1: nights a week, so we're not we're not driving stupid distances. Um.
• 43:51
  Speaker 1: The only time I fell asleep, but the wheel was
• 43:52
  Speaker 1: going to it. Jerry Lee Lewis auction that I thought
• 43:55
  Speaker 1: I could get his piano, one of his pianos that
• 43:57
  Speaker 1: I was driving. I got off the plane in Nashville,
• 44:00
  Speaker 1: had to drive to uh Um and to to Memphis.
• 44:03
  Speaker 1: I was going to drive to Memphis, and I fell
• 44:06
  Speaker 1: asleep at the wheel driving and I went down off
• 44:09
  Speaker 1: the highway into between highway with dropped down to the
• 44:12
  Speaker 1: grass and what we have as a grass going under
• 44:14
  Speaker 1: the car like that, right, And a guy O trucker
• 44:19
  Speaker 1: went by and pass me and blew the horn. WHOA,
• 44:24
  Speaker 1: I woke up, Bob, I'm telling me something. If I
• 44:27
  Speaker 1: just stepped on the brakes out of flip the car, okay,
• 44:29
  Speaker 1: I had to flip the car and I just kept
• 44:31
  Speaker 1: it going. But I never fell asleep on the on
• 44:33
  Speaker 1: the road driving okay, But there were things that kept
• 44:35
  Speaker 1: you go up to if you wanted to keep up,
• 44:37
  Speaker 1: stay away. And I drove every nobody else drove, I drove. Okay.
• 44:42
  Speaker 1: So you're working with Don Fox. You have this incredible success.
• 44:47
  Speaker 1: Of course, it's a different era. As David Krebs always says,
• 44:50
  Speaker 1: tickets were three, four or five dollars then that we're
• 44:53
  Speaker 1: not a hundred dollars a piece. So, uh, how is business?
• 44:58
  Speaker 1: Did you go clean in most market? Did you make
• 45:00
  Speaker 1: a lot of money? Did he get screwed? What happened Randy?
• 45:03
  Speaker 1: Don Fox? Says to me that he never had a
• 45:05
  Speaker 1: fastest sellout in his career until he was doing a
• 45:08
  Speaker 1: young actor in the Latin the last few years. Back
• 45:10
  Speaker 1: to turn Over Drive suttle tickets faster than any act
• 45:12
  Speaker 1: he ever ever did, and they were we argued over
• 45:15
  Speaker 1: eight dollar tickets, and we really argued over ten dollar tickets. Okay,
• 45:19
  Speaker 1: but be your right, five six bucks, seven bucks, that's
• 45:21
  Speaker 1: what it was. Okay. Then they have all this big
• 45:25
  Speaker 1: success there on Mercury, which you were the biggest act,
• 45:28
  Speaker 1: but it was a mid tier label. They put out
• 45:31
  Speaker 1: Four Wheel Drive and it sells out of the Boxer's
• 45:34
  Speaker 1: not really what happens. How does bto fall apart? It
• 45:38
  Speaker 1: becomes it falls apart because Randy, I believe, wanted to
• 45:43
  Speaker 1: produce the record. I wanted to write most of the
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: songs and own the publishing. And the boys it was
• 45:49
  Speaker 1: it was they wanted to get a share of the publishing.
• 45:51
  Speaker 1: They thought they should get a share of it, and
• 45:54
  Speaker 1: he didn't give it up. And that's the trouble with bands, Okay,
• 45:58
  Speaker 1: that's why bands breakup. Part it's always over money. And
• 46:01
  Speaker 1: because that was my first band, I didn't have the
• 46:03
  Speaker 1: skill to stop it. I didn't. I didn't have the
• 46:07
  Speaker 1: wherewith all to stoff, but I couldn't figure out how
• 46:09
  Speaker 1: to stop it. Okay, and Randy, because Randy was Randy
• 46:11
  Speaker 1: was confident he could do it on his own. Again,
• 46:14
  Speaker 1: then he was going to leave, and this and that
• 46:15
  Speaker 1: and the boys just weren't going to give up. So
• 46:18
  Speaker 1: it all kind of blew up, Bob, and that was it?
• 46:20
  Speaker 1: And where did that leave you? Why? I went back
• 46:23
  Speaker 1: to the agency. Okay, So I go walking in the
• 46:26
  Speaker 1: agency trying to take over the agency, and started to
• 46:29
  Speaker 1: go back again that I've been away a long time.
• 46:32
  Speaker 1: The agency wasn't running the same way as I want
• 46:34
  Speaker 1: to understood. The boss again said that, okay, here we go.
• 46:37
  Speaker 1: So that's where Sam and I clashed, and uh you know,
• 46:40
  Speaker 1: he put in a lot of time, and I was difficult,
• 46:42
  Speaker 1: I think coming back from that. And uh so with
• 46:46
  Speaker 1: the agency split, we never split. We haven't split to
• 46:49
  Speaker 1: this day, Okay, but we're in different locales and actually
• 46:52
  Speaker 1: we're probably closer friends now than we ever were when
• 46:55
  Speaker 1: we were together. And so all of a sudden, I
• 46:57
  Speaker 1: was just not watching. I watched the office walkout. People
• 47:00
  Speaker 1: were going to good agency. If they go you haven't
• 47:02
  Speaker 1: got anything going this. I was left with one girl
• 47:05
  Speaker 1: and uh, get a call for from somebody in Calgary
• 47:09
  Speaker 1: said he's got the span called lover boy. Would you
• 47:13
  Speaker 1: be interested in taking a look at it? And that's
• 47:16
  Speaker 1: how that that run started. And we like, before you
• 47:19
  Speaker 1: go to the lover boy, were you depressed that you
• 47:22
  Speaker 1: were now going to be Vancouver be booking bands again. Well,
• 47:26
  Speaker 1: I wasn't gonna be booking bands with against the agency
• 47:28
  Speaker 1: went with them, you see. I was still gonna get paid,
• 47:31
  Speaker 1: but I would we worked together, Okay, So I had
• 47:34
  Speaker 1: nothing to do much. I had to do something. So
• 47:36
  Speaker 1: that's what I just came. I went got try. I
• 47:40
  Speaker 1: probably tried some bands in there that didn't work. Who
• 47:42
  Speaker 1: a lover boy called that kind of worked. I went
• 47:45
  Speaker 1: down to see them and they were good. Tell a
• 47:47
  Speaker 1: story of lover boy. His owned But they were managed
• 47:49
  Speaker 1: by a guy who ran a nightclub in a big
• 47:52
  Speaker 1: nightclub in Calgary, lou Blair. And he's a Vancouver guy
• 47:57
  Speaker 1: and he's doing clubs when I was in Vancouver booking them,
• 48:00
  Speaker 1: and uh, he said, listen, I got this great band.
• 48:03
  Speaker 1: You've got nothing to do. Would you take a look
• 48:06
  Speaker 1: at And I said, okay, So I went up to
• 48:08
  Speaker 1: see them in Calgary and they were really good, but
• 48:10
  Speaker 1: they hadn't made a record yet, and he said, I'm
• 48:12
  Speaker 1: going to get try and make a record. I signed
• 48:14
  Speaker 1: it with Columbia for CBS Canada. He says, okay. So
• 48:19
  Speaker 1: I was done in Los Angeles one day and he
• 48:23
  Speaker 1: he was it was interesting. He knew where he was,
• 48:24
  Speaker 1: so he came to the same hotel and he said, listen,
• 48:27
  Speaker 1: where are you going? He said, I'm going to see
• 48:28
  Speaker 1: a friend of mine in Palm Springs and he said,
• 48:31
  Speaker 1: you know, want you listen to this? And he gave
• 48:33
  Speaker 1: me that first lover Boy album rough right or not
• 48:37
  Speaker 1: final mix? But turn me loose? Holy cow, you know,
• 48:43
  Speaker 1: I mean these are great. They made great he made
• 48:45
  Speaker 1: great records. That's Bruce Fairburn uh and Bob Rock And
• 48:50
  Speaker 1: I um, I well got downe this to paulm Springs
• 48:54
  Speaker 1: and I called him and he said what do you think?
• 48:58
  Speaker 1: And I think? I said this is real good? Is unbelievable,
• 49:00
  Speaker 1: how good this is? And he said, well good. I'm
• 49:02
  Speaker 1: six blocks up the street, so I'll come over and
• 49:04
  Speaker 1: see it. He followed me down. I don't know what
• 49:05
  Speaker 1: kind of a rendit carry was said by MS follow
• 49:07
  Speaker 1: me down there and uh it uh. We put a
• 49:10
  Speaker 1: deal together and off we went with the lover Boy.
• 49:13
  Speaker 1: And our big deal, of course was to move it
• 49:14
  Speaker 1: out of out of Canada to Colombia down the States,
• 49:20
  Speaker 1: and we did that. Although most bands that moved out
• 49:23
  Speaker 1: of Canada and go down the States, the States looks
• 49:25
  Speaker 1: very as scans at you because they know you're getting
• 49:28
  Speaker 1: thirty PC airplay up there and really, what do you
• 49:31
  Speaker 1: really mean? And uh, okay, usually though one of the
• 49:36
  Speaker 1: you know, there's the issue of attention, but there's also
• 49:38
  Speaker 1: once again the issue of money and that you know,
• 49:41
  Speaker 1: getting signed to the US label is supposed to sign
• 49:44
  Speaker 1: to the Canadian deal. The deals are different. Yes, So
• 49:48
  Speaker 1: how did you get lover Boy to the American label? Well,
• 49:52
  Speaker 1: first of all, we had had they had the rights
• 49:54
  Speaker 1: the deal Lou deal Lou made with Colombia, they had
• 49:57
  Speaker 1: the rights. Okay, we didn't good to shop it down there.
• 49:59
  Speaker 1: Had I would go in Columbia or wherever label they
• 50:02
  Speaker 1: were gonna put it on, and so we were just there.
• 50:06
  Speaker 1: So okay, now we got to make make it happen.
• 50:10
  Speaker 1: And you know what the biggest thing was was that
• 50:13
  Speaker 1: um I knew how to do with back and turn
• 50:17
  Speaker 1: over drive. I knew how to get out and give
• 50:19
  Speaker 1: me a shot on the radio. Give me a shot
• 50:21
  Speaker 1: and I'll make it happen because I knew I could
• 50:24
  Speaker 1: go on the road and do it. I just knew it,
• 50:26
  Speaker 1: and then they could. Then we hit MTV. Turned Me
• 50:31
  Speaker 1: Loose is one of the first songs ever. Believe me,
• 50:33
  Speaker 1: I know, I remember seeing it on the big screen
• 50:35
  Speaker 1: in jim rist Village country clubs, that iconic song. Yep.
• 50:40
  Speaker 1: So that's what happened, is that's how we got it going.
• 50:43
  Speaker 1: MTV came out. We were getting They worked the record
• 50:47
  Speaker 1: really hard. They believed in the act. I gave him
• 50:49
  Speaker 1: dates and that's what I was doing that We were there.
• 50:51
  Speaker 1: We were going to the radio stations. We were doing
• 50:52
  Speaker 1: all the things that was before all these chain book
• 50:55
  Speaker 1: radio stations they have now every place was individual and
• 50:58
  Speaker 1: we did it like it was a real lot of work.
• 51:00
  Speaker 1: And and we and the same thing. These guys worked
• 51:03
  Speaker 1: their assa. We think we were two hundred and fifty
• 51:06
  Speaker 1: fifty shows a year, you know, pretty regularly, and boy boy,
• 51:10
  Speaker 1: it would be made it and don Fox I phone.
• 51:12
  Speaker 1: I've been using the same damn formula for so long,
• 51:16
  Speaker 1: It's ridiculous. Don Solomon said wow, and he phoned up
• 51:19
  Speaker 1: Bill Ham and he said, Bill, I got an opening
• 51:23
  Speaker 1: act for you. He said, who love her Boy? He said,
• 51:26
  Speaker 1: who love her boy? Because Bill just into his body
• 51:29
  Speaker 1: he does down there and the tour, Bill got mixed up,
• 51:34
  Speaker 1: but got messed up with the album was not happening,
• 51:37
  Speaker 1: and Fox convict convinced him said, listen, this band is
• 51:41
  Speaker 1: ready to go. They want to go on the tour.
• 51:43
  Speaker 1: I've sold the tickets. I don't want to rewrote this thing.
• 51:45
  Speaker 1: Let's go out anyway. You don't need the record and
• 51:49
  Speaker 1: and Bills. I'm not going out without the record. Don No, no,
• 51:51
  Speaker 1: you gotta go without the record. This band and Build
• 51:54
  Speaker 1: and ZZ Top will do some out business. And he foushed.
• 51:57
  Speaker 1: Bill Ham rolled over and said okay, okay, okay, okay,
• 52:00
  Speaker 1: and he went. He went. They went out without a tour.
• 52:03
  Speaker 1: It was me opening and it was great and because
• 52:06
  Speaker 1: they could do it. They were pretty hot then that
• 52:08
  Speaker 1: that that was before the bull and everything on stage,
• 52:10
  Speaker 1: but they were still really hot. And uh, we broke
• 52:13
  Speaker 1: lover Boy because getting dragged around by zz talk. Okay,
• 52:18
  Speaker 1: So so how does it segue to Brian Adams real quick,
• 52:23
  Speaker 1: because Brian Adams came pretty fast after lover Boy, and
• 52:26
  Speaker 1: he was just in. He was in the bar bands.
• 52:28
  Speaker 1: And since we both thought since we had still had
• 52:30
  Speaker 1: some of the ownership or the booking rights for them
• 52:32
  Speaker 1: all those clubs, it was you know, I could go
• 52:34
  Speaker 1: see all these bands. And I went to see Adams
• 52:37
  Speaker 1: and he was all right. And he had a little
• 52:39
  Speaker 1: bit of hit called let Me Take You Dancing. It
• 52:41
  Speaker 1: was a it was more of a disco record and
• 52:44
  Speaker 1: what he does now. And he came to my office
• 52:48
  Speaker 1: and wanted to talk to me, and uh, I didn't.
• 52:53
  Speaker 1: I didn't talk to him. I just I remember he
• 52:55
  Speaker 1: just sat out there and went home. And that happened
• 52:58
  Speaker 1: a couple of times, and then finally my assistant just
• 53:01
  Speaker 1: go talk to the guy. Good guys, okay, come on,
• 53:04
  Speaker 1: and Brian sit down. So he had this conversation and
• 53:07
  Speaker 1: he had started he had he had let Me Take
• 53:09
  Speaker 1: You Dance, and he had a thing at A and M.
• 53:11
  Speaker 1: He had signed at A and M as a writer
• 53:14
  Speaker 1: and they were going to let him maybe do a record,
• 53:17
  Speaker 1: and uh, he said, like you to manage me, he said,
• 53:23
  Speaker 1: And I said, yeah, really, what do you do? He said,
• 53:25
  Speaker 1: well I got this record and uh and the record
• 53:28
  Speaker 1: was good, that first album with Brian Adam for it. Okay,
• 53:31
  Speaker 1: so he cut the first album without you boy, I
• 53:34
  Speaker 1: wasn't there. So was there a manager then? No, well
• 53:38
  Speaker 1: maybe that was I don't think so. And uh so
• 53:41
  Speaker 1: he said, um, I can manage me. And I said, well,
• 53:45
  Speaker 1: you know, it's a good record, Brian, real good. He says,
• 53:47
  Speaker 1: I said, here's my deal, blah blah blah. And he'll
• 53:51
  Speaker 1: argue that I wanted part of the publishing. But I
• 53:53
  Speaker 1: never wanted part of the publishing. But something that became
• 53:56
  Speaker 1: a breaking point in the in the discussion, and it
• 53:59
  Speaker 1: pissed me off. And I remember kicking the garbage can
• 54:01
  Speaker 1: at him beside my desk and he caught it and
• 54:03
  Speaker 1: kept talking. I thought that was really impressive, so I said,
• 54:08
  Speaker 1: he said, And I'm gonna tell you something, Bruce. He says,
• 54:10
  Speaker 1: I work. I know how you work. He says, I
• 54:12
  Speaker 1: can work just as hard as anybody. And he says,
• 54:15
  Speaker 1: I'm I will break this record. I can do it.
• 54:17
  Speaker 1: And he says I will be the biggest act you
• 54:20
  Speaker 1: ever had. That was before I booked my first show
• 54:24
  Speaker 1: with And you know, he's lived up to that. Okay,
• 54:29
  Speaker 1: so you make a deal with him. The first album
• 54:32
  Speaker 1: is out, so you get involved Lonely Nights, that's your
• 54:35
  Speaker 1: first album. Yeah, yeah, I came out. I worked that album,
• 54:39
  Speaker 1: of course, the first one, first one. Yeah, So how
• 54:43
  Speaker 1: does Lonely Okay? At this point in time, is he
• 54:46
  Speaker 1: still signed to A and M Canada or signed directly
• 54:48
  Speaker 1: in Hollywood? We never signed. We never signed with an
• 54:52
  Speaker 1: M Canada until probably the third record. Okay, so you
• 54:55
  Speaker 1: worked the first album. Tell me about the second Adams album.
• 54:59
  Speaker 1: I thought you you got it. It was one of
• 55:01
  Speaker 1: the best albums he's ever done. Absolutely, I think it's fantastic.
• 55:06
  Speaker 1: But we were still Canadian signed. Um, but we we
• 55:10
  Speaker 1: we worked our way into uh, into Jerry and Herbs.
• 55:14
  Speaker 1: You know they knew we were around er Jerry and
• 55:18
  Speaker 1: the record I thought didn't do very well. Excuse me
• 55:21
  Speaker 1: for how well how good it was? Okay, Brian was
• 55:24
  Speaker 1: piste off, I was piste off. And then we did
• 55:30
  Speaker 1: cuts like a knife. And when we did cuts like
• 55:35
  Speaker 1: a knife, Jerry Moss said to me. I went to
• 55:39
  Speaker 1: Jake Moss I said, Okay, this is a great record,
• 55:42
  Speaker 1: and if I don't break, if we can't break, this
• 55:45
  Speaker 1: record I want to release from you. And he said
• 55:51
  Speaker 1: to me, he said, okay, I'll make that deal. He thought.
• 55:57
  Speaker 1: He said, it's gotta be this's gotta be a platinum record.
• 56:00
  Speaker 1: And he did it, and they did it, and we
• 56:02
  Speaker 1: did it, and everybody worked together. I'm very pro record
• 56:05
  Speaker 1: company even to this day, Bob, I'm not anti record company.
• 56:07
  Speaker 1: I remember being an anti record company guy. I believe
• 56:11
  Speaker 1: there is a team there. If you can get them
• 56:13
  Speaker 1: to work with you, they are just an asset. Okay.
• 56:16
  Speaker 1: And I and I and and A and M worked
• 56:18
  Speaker 1: their house off for Briant. We did a good job
• 56:20
  Speaker 1: and we had great arguments. I remember we're doing Tina
• 56:22
  Speaker 1: Turner show turned Tina Turner song It's Only Love. Uh,
• 56:26
  Speaker 1: It's only Love and that song It's Only Love member
• 56:28
  Speaker 1: the Tina Turner doing. So we were just big in America.
• 56:31
  Speaker 1: We were running around American men and they were doing
• 56:33
  Speaker 1: pretty good. And you know, we did some journey tours
• 56:36
  Speaker 1: and stuff like that. And uh, and went in there
• 56:39
  Speaker 1: and I said, Tina Turner came up to the Commodore
• 56:44
  Speaker 1: played a Commodore ballroom here about eight hundred seats. We
• 56:48
  Speaker 1: Bryan went down to Meeter. We went down to meet her.
• 56:50
  Speaker 1: I've met her before, but we, uh, should you come
• 56:53
  Speaker 1: over to the studio maybe and sing this song? We
• 56:55
  Speaker 1: left the song for She came over the next day
• 56:56
  Speaker 1: and sang that song, and so anyway was on the album.
• 57:00
  Speaker 1: Everybody loved it. When I was on the album, then
• 57:01
  Speaker 1: I said, Jerry, because Brian Brian was born, he wasn't
• 57:05
  Speaker 1: born in Vancouver. He came to Vancouver, he lived and
• 57:07
  Speaker 1: he lived in Israel, he lived in he lived in
• 57:09
  Speaker 1: this in in in England, he lived in in uh,
• 57:13
  Speaker 1: Spain and Portugal. He lived all over the world. So
• 57:16
  Speaker 1: he wasn't just satisfied just doing North America. Okay. He
• 57:19
  Speaker 1: knew there was another market out there, and I remember
• 57:22
  Speaker 1: I had to go into I. I talked one of
• 57:25
  Speaker 1: my agents, Carl Layton Pope was another small agent who
• 57:28
  Speaker 1: had done a Lover Boy and down doing Adams for me.
• 57:32
  Speaker 1: He thought he could get me on Tina Turner tour,
• 57:37
  Speaker 1: and uh so I Jerry Moss and I said, listen,
• 57:41
  Speaker 1: we're not gonna record. Was doing pretty well. He wanted
• 57:43
  Speaker 1: us to be in the States, but we've been in
• 57:44
  Speaker 1: the States. I don't need to do another runner, I said,
• 57:47
  Speaker 1: we want to go to Europe and what are you
• 57:49
  Speaker 1: gonna do in Europe? We're gonna got a Tina Turner
• 57:52
  Speaker 1: to a Tina Turner. Bruce, He's a lounge ack, which
• 57:56
  Speaker 1: was correct in Vegas, she was a loungeack. But this
• 57:59
  Speaker 1: was her. This is the big record when Roger David
• 58:02
  Speaker 1: got older, and this is probably the first record he
• 58:04
  Speaker 1: made with her and she we went over there and
• 58:08
  Speaker 1: and Tina Turner. We broke Europe and the UK on
• 58:14
  Speaker 1: Tina Turner's back, okay, because every night we went out
• 58:17
  Speaker 1: there did our show. It was okay, they do a
• 58:20
  Speaker 1: couple of three songs. Then she came out. Then we
• 58:23
  Speaker 1: went out there and sang that song with her, and
• 58:25
  Speaker 1: that was she was just Tina Turner in the UK.
• 58:27
  Speaker 1: That was the rubber stamp and Brian and his forehead
• 58:29
  Speaker 1: You're great and away it went from that. It been fabulous. Okay,
• 58:36
  Speaker 1: So you have that great success straight from the heart, etcetera.
• 58:39
  Speaker 1: Then comes the big album Everything I Do, I Do
• 58:45
  Speaker 1: it for you album No No, I mean when you
• 58:47
  Speaker 1: do run away All of a sudden, Brian Adams is
• 58:50
  Speaker 1: everywhere under you run to run to you, Well run
• 58:56
  Speaker 1: do you? Was on the uh that was on that
• 58:59
  Speaker 1: was Was that the name of the album? Pub I
• 59:01
  Speaker 1: still it was four? It was the fourth album. Yeah,
• 59:04
  Speaker 1: I'm looking around here because they're all up here somewhere. Um, okay,
• 59:07
  Speaker 1: the fourth album with a run to You on it.
• 59:09
  Speaker 1: That was the thing where you made the divondboard dove
• 59:11
  Speaker 1: into the empty swimming exactly exactly. And h yeah that
• 59:17
  Speaker 1: that that really exploded that album. That was a great album.
• 59:20
  Speaker 1: And uh we Tina Turner was on that album, as
• 59:22
  Speaker 1: I remember, is that correct? R right? It's only love.
• 59:25
  Speaker 1: I pretty sure it's on that album. But the but
• 59:28
  Speaker 1: he was literally could have been the biggest star on
• 59:32
  Speaker 1: MTV at that point. Yeah, he was everywhere and he worked.
• 59:36
  Speaker 1: Like I said, we worked, We worked everywhere. But we
• 59:38
  Speaker 1: played big cities, played the small cities. I always did that.
• 59:41
  Speaker 1: I always tried to cover off the smaller markets too.
• 59:44
  Speaker 1: And and and Maz there at her side, and and
• 59:47
  Speaker 1: did a hell of a job for us. And they
• 59:48
  Speaker 1: got no complaints over in America. Well, you know, we
• 59:51
  Speaker 1: we've had some publishing arguments, but I don't think anything
• 59:54
  Speaker 1: with the record company in general. Okay, So after Reckless,
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 1: that's the album with Run to You. Uh, then he's
• 1:00:07
  Speaker 1: sort of there's a backlash that he's not political enough.
• 1:00:10
  Speaker 1: He does the album Into the Fire, which is not
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 1: as successful as what came before. That was my fault
• 1:00:16
  Speaker 1: because I took that amnesty to her, and so he
• 1:00:20
  Speaker 1: was out there with all the you know, the intellectuals
• 1:00:24
  Speaker 1: of rock were out there with the police. We're out
• 1:00:28
  Speaker 1: there with you too, of course, and we're doing these
• 1:00:31
  Speaker 1: shows and I think Adam Brian, right, I wanted to say,
• 1:00:36
  Speaker 1: you know, I want to make a change, I want
• 1:00:38
  Speaker 1: to do something differently, got something I want to say.
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 1: What am I going to say? No, he's an artist.
• 1:00:43
  Speaker 1: That's what that's what you do, and you get you
• 1:00:45
  Speaker 1: earned the rate to do it. But it was a
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 1: it did. It was not the record that we thought
• 1:00:51
  Speaker 1: it wouldn't be. Although it's interesting now when he's on tour.
• 1:00:54
  Speaker 1: He played some of those songs and we're doing a
• 1:00:57
  Speaker 1: on each other at the Royal overt Hall. I know
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 1: we're doing a night there, but that's that's what's gonna be.
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 1: The whole night is that album. There are people do
• 1:01:03
  Speaker 1: like that album, but it wasn't the album it was.
• 1:01:05
  Speaker 1: It was a change from what we were doing. But
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 1: he felt he had to make it well. The first
• 1:01:09
  Speaker 1: three tracks on the album he did, The Night Into
• 1:01:11
  Speaker 1: the Fire and Victim of Love. I play those all
• 1:01:13
  Speaker 1: the time. I don't fight as I agree with you.
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 1: The second album is the best. You want it, you
• 1:01:18
  Speaker 1: got it, okay, but that album is not as successful
• 1:01:23
  Speaker 1: as you wanted to be. Tell us the transition to
• 1:01:27
  Speaker 1: Everything I Do and working with Mutt Lang. Um. Mutt
• 1:01:32
  Speaker 1: Lang I had worked with month before booking his band,
• 1:01:39
  Speaker 1: and he had at the time called City Boy, but
• 1:01:42
  Speaker 1: he's more a friend of Clive Calder's and Mutt Lang's
• 1:01:44
  Speaker 1: and and I booked him, uh, you know, across Canada
• 1:01:49
  Speaker 1: and they did what they did. But Uh, Adams, I
• 1:01:53
  Speaker 1: believe Bryan Adams and I had a conversation, came up
• 1:01:59
  Speaker 1: with the with Mutt Lang idea, and we gave Mu
• 1:02:03
  Speaker 1: a call. And that's a songwriter, and I think he
• 1:02:08
  Speaker 1: loved adams songwriting and he loved his voice. He's always
• 1:02:11
  Speaker 1: told me they just loved it. And Clive Calder and
• 1:02:14
  Speaker 1: I you know, he liked me. We got everybody got
• 1:02:16
  Speaker 1: along weird, you knew each other like you know, pretty
• 1:02:20
  Speaker 1: good friends. So that deal started with mud Lang album
• 1:02:22
  Speaker 1: on on that album and uh, and Everything I Do
• 1:02:25
  Speaker 1: was not on that album. It was there in the
• 1:02:28
  Speaker 1: mixing stage of that album and with two songs to go,
• 1:02:32
  Speaker 1: Michael Caman sent me a track, the instrumental track of
• 1:02:37
  Speaker 1: Everything I Do for this movie and I said, Michael,
• 1:02:41
  Speaker 1: you know, what do you want to do? He says,
• 1:02:42
  Speaker 1: I think Brian can re sing this song? Can you
• 1:02:44
  Speaker 1: get it? And I says, okay, but I'm mixing this album.
• 1:02:46
  Speaker 1: I don't know if I might get it to him.
• 1:02:47
  Speaker 1: So I sent it over to Brian right away and
• 1:02:49
  Speaker 1: I think can listen to the song Him and mut
• 1:02:51
  Speaker 1: sitting there. They wrote this song in about thirty minutes
• 1:02:54
  Speaker 1: and the way it went and it's still the long
• 1:02:56
  Speaker 1: number one, longest number one record in England to this day.
• 1:02:59
  Speaker 1: Oh okay, let's go back to that era because it's
• 1:03:04
  Speaker 1: very significant in terms of the marketplace and that Brian
• 1:03:09
  Speaker 1: was known as a rocker and let's just say that
• 1:03:12
  Speaker 1: Everything I Do is a little bit of small cy
• 1:03:14
  Speaker 1: and sappy. People criticized him for making that record, but
• 1:03:19
  Speaker 1: simultaneous within making the record, a O R radio where
• 1:03:23
  Speaker 1: he was living completely died. Correct and that and we
• 1:03:26
  Speaker 1: we survived, We survived as a result of that song.
• 1:03:30
  Speaker 1: And I we had a we had a lot more
• 1:03:31
  Speaker 1: of those ballots to it. It saved us, okay, And
• 1:03:34
  Speaker 1: we still kept up our arena business because of it, okay.
• 1:03:37
  Speaker 1: And people people think that was you know that that
• 1:03:39
  Speaker 1: was because Adams rocky. He sold out. He didn't sell out.
• 1:03:42
  Speaker 1: He wrote the goddamn song. I mean, it's not like
• 1:03:44
  Speaker 1: I'm out there hustling songs to try and make it rock.
• 1:03:46
  Speaker 1: He was. He was writing those songs, he was writing
• 1:03:49
  Speaker 1: the ballants, he was writing all that stuff. Bryan Adams
• 1:03:51
  Speaker 1: wrote every song here he ever ever recorded on around albums.
• 1:03:54
  Speaker 1: I mean, you were involved in the writing with this
• 1:03:56
  Speaker 1: partner Jim Balance or Mutt Lang or whatever. And mud
• 1:04:00
  Speaker 1: Mudd Lange could sell a battle too. He did. He did,
• 1:04:02
  Speaker 1: heaven he did, you know we he was straddling two places.
• 1:04:06
  Speaker 1: While trying to straddle two places. I remember Brian Adams
• 1:04:09
  Speaker 1: had number one and number two on the charts back
• 1:04:11
  Speaker 1: to back. He had the triple song with All for Love,
• 1:04:15
  Speaker 1: and he had he had uh I think the next
• 1:04:17
  Speaker 1: song probably who was all for Love and uh god,
• 1:04:21
  Speaker 1: I have to think of the name. But they're back
• 1:04:23
  Speaker 1: to back singles one and number one and number two.
• 1:04:25
  Speaker 1: It's phenomenal. People liked him, you know, and he could
• 1:04:29
  Speaker 1: still rock. He go out the Rocky shows, a rock
• 1:04:31
  Speaker 1: show with some ballots, but you have to apologize for them.
• 1:04:35
  Speaker 1: It's how the Ronthos battles. People love them. Okay. Uh.
• 1:04:40
  Speaker 1: But if the simultaneous you have another business managing producers,
• 1:04:44
  Speaker 1: you have Bob Rock and Bruce Fairburn, how does that
• 1:04:46
  Speaker 1: come together? Well, Fairburn played for one of my big
• 1:04:48
  Speaker 1: bar bands. Fairburn and I grew up together the same neighborhood.
• 1:04:51
  Speaker 1: He's a couple of years younger and I. He was
• 1:04:55
  Speaker 1: in a bar band called, um, what was it called.
• 1:04:59
  Speaker 1: It's called that did Man because just a bar band.
• 1:05:02
  Speaker 1: And I looked at him and doing these things. And
• 1:05:05
  Speaker 1: he he was a graduate student in town planning, and
• 1:05:10
  Speaker 1: he was he was a smart guy from university. And
• 1:05:12
  Speaker 1: he didn't want to be in the bars plane plane trumpet,
• 1:05:15
  Speaker 1: which he played a tough instrument in the bars. So
• 1:05:18
  Speaker 1: so he wanted to become a producer and actually the
• 1:05:23
  Speaker 1: person records he did first of course, we're the lover
• 1:05:26
  Speaker 1: of some of the lover Boy records and uh, and
• 1:05:29
  Speaker 1: then Bob Rock came in and Bob Rock used to
• 1:05:32
  Speaker 1: deliver the tea bags around it at at the record
• 1:05:35
  Speaker 1: at the in the studio. He used to run around
• 1:05:37
  Speaker 1: and you know, look after things there. And he got
• 1:05:39
  Speaker 1: into a band called the Payolas. I managed. I managed
• 1:05:43
  Speaker 1: the Payolas, and the Payolas couldn't get out of Canada.
• 1:05:47
  Speaker 1: They made a mistake. Is we made a mistake. We
• 1:05:49
  Speaker 1: went down there and Charlie Miner was working the records
• 1:05:52
  Speaker 1: for Am down there, and we gave him a record,
• 1:05:54
  Speaker 1: We gave him the song they could. He could never
• 1:05:56
  Speaker 1: work a band called the Payolas. Okay, Drove he couldn't
• 1:06:00
  Speaker 1: do it. He said, I can't do it. I'm not
• 1:06:01
  Speaker 1: gonna do it, blah blah blahs. And Bob want to
• 1:06:03
  Speaker 1: hang on to it. But anyway, that band could only
• 1:06:05
  Speaker 1: goes so far. Okay, they were not a bad band,
• 1:06:09
  Speaker 1: but they didn't have what I knew would break through.
• 1:06:11
  Speaker 1: But I knew Bob Rock, and when he was coming
• 1:06:14
  Speaker 1: out of his engineering thing that I said, I believe
• 1:06:17
  Speaker 1: Bob Rock could be a producer, and I kind of
• 1:06:19
  Speaker 1: made him quit the band and he went into what
• 1:06:22
  Speaker 1: he did now. But he was brought up as an
• 1:06:24
  Speaker 1: engineer with Bruce Fairburn and okay, but you know the
• 1:06:28
  Speaker 1: Fairburn worked with Adam Then all of a Sudden he
• 1:06:31
  Speaker 1: had mega success. He did Slippery when Wet, he did
• 1:06:34
  Speaker 1: Errol Smith. How did that all come together? Well? That
• 1:06:37
  Speaker 1: was that was John Kalander. John Kloner was a big
• 1:06:40
  Speaker 1: fan of what of what Bruce had done with with
• 1:06:44
  Speaker 1: with with some of the records that we've made with
• 1:06:45
  Speaker 1: Loverboy records, especially, I mean John bon Job used to
• 1:06:49
  Speaker 1: come to every Loverboy show when we were out in
• 1:06:51
  Speaker 1: the East co He loved He thought lover Boy is
• 1:06:53
  Speaker 1: fantastic and John Kladner liked it. And Fairburn made that record,
• 1:06:57
  Speaker 1: the first lover Boy record, the second lover Boy record too.
• 1:07:00
  Speaker 1: But he he uh he he got hired by Klauder
• 1:07:05
  Speaker 1: to do Sweat all the bon Jovi records and and
• 1:07:09
  Speaker 1: they were done all the bank, all those Vancouver had
• 1:07:13
  Speaker 1: a great scene that I mean more I talked about it,
• 1:07:16
  Speaker 1: all those acts that came out of there, the producers
• 1:07:18
  Speaker 1: that came out of there, the studios that were there
• 1:07:20
  Speaker 1: and still there today. The warehouse is one of the
• 1:07:22
  Speaker 1: greatest studios in the world. Okay, it's still here. But Fairburn, Fairburn,
• 1:07:28
  Speaker 1: Fairburn was amazing. He could sit there because I used
• 1:07:30
  Speaker 1: to have figure out the budgets. He said, I'm gonna
• 1:07:32
  Speaker 1: start this record July fifteenth, and gonna mix it on
• 1:07:34
  Speaker 1: September four, and we'll be finished by and uh first
• 1:07:38
  Speaker 1: of the end of September. And he nailed those all
• 1:07:41
  Speaker 1: the day because he's a planner, and he he and
• 1:07:43
  Speaker 1: he tried. He was with family too, and he said,
• 1:07:45
  Speaker 1: I only worked from you know, at ten o'clock till
• 1:07:47
  Speaker 1: six o'clock and I to go home for dinner. And
• 1:07:49
  Speaker 1: then I coached soccer and he and he and Roxell
• 1:07:53
  Speaker 1: Rockbery had to do a lot of it too, right,
• 1:07:54
  Speaker 1: So he learned it with Fairbor learned business of production
• 1:07:59
  Speaker 1: and uh, okay, he's very successful also. So Fairburn tragically
• 1:08:03
  Speaker 1: dies really very sad. How does Bob get the gig
• 1:08:08
  Speaker 1: with Metallica? They the band called him, and the band
• 1:08:13
  Speaker 1: called him because of some record they'd heard. Who was
• 1:08:15
  Speaker 1: that ahead of Bob? Would Bobbly that ahead of I
• 1:08:19
  Speaker 1: should have sat here? That got Bob. I don't sit
• 1:08:20
  Speaker 1: here and go over my past. I should have had no, no, no,
• 1:08:23
  Speaker 1: you're doing what I should have been sitting here with
• 1:08:25
  Speaker 1: my fucking things. I could say, okay, well, but that
• 1:08:28
  Speaker 1: they heard a record that they were really liked, and
• 1:08:29
  Speaker 1: I think it was I think it was the one
• 1:08:31
  Speaker 1: with John Sykes um like White White White Snake. Yeah,
• 1:08:35
  Speaker 1: but was that ahead of him and Metallica? Yeah, Okay,
• 1:08:39
  Speaker 1: that was a record that they really liked. And how
• 1:08:41
  Speaker 1: he got a call for for to do Metallica and
• 1:08:46
  Speaker 1: he made that that great record. The first record that
• 1:08:48
  Speaker 1: he made was great. And then of course he went
• 1:08:50
  Speaker 1: through that little psychological thing for the other You know, Bob, Bob, Bob,
• 1:08:54
  Speaker 1: Bob has done great records. He's a great producer to
• 1:08:57
  Speaker 1: this day. Okay, you're talking about fairburning budgets when you're
• 1:09:00
  Speaker 1: managing Bob at this point in fairburned back in the
• 1:09:02
  Speaker 1: old day. You can't spell budget, fair rock, you can't stop.
• 1:09:07
  Speaker 1: Those are big battles. Fairburn can spell. Fairburn could get records.
• 1:09:10
  Speaker 1: He knocked him right out. He said, it's gonna cost
• 1:09:12
  Speaker 1: this much, It's gonna cost that much. And so but
• 1:09:15
  Speaker 1: as Bob's manager, how deeply you and do you get
• 1:09:18
  Speaker 1: involved beyond just getting him the gig? Um we do
• 1:09:24
  Speaker 1: we do properly everything for Bob. Um we don't. And again,
• 1:09:30
  Speaker 1: you know, we take get out his money, we collect
• 1:09:32
  Speaker 1: his money, we give him his money. I get my
• 1:09:34
  Speaker 1: commissioned the same thing. It always has and uh, we
• 1:09:38
  Speaker 1: do get him to get him the gigs, and but
• 1:09:40
  Speaker 1: he's now I don't have to get him the gigs.
• 1:09:43
  Speaker 1: I have to answer the phone, big Bob Rock. Bob
• 1:09:45
  Speaker 1: Rock gets called a lot, okay, And it's tough business
• 1:09:49
  Speaker 1: for him now because the budgets that we had in
• 1:09:51
  Speaker 1: Metallica era and and after that and Slippy and um
• 1:09:55
  Speaker 1: sorry not Slippy went and the Motley Crewe records. You know,
• 1:09:58
  Speaker 1: those budgets gone. Now, Bob, it's tough to get a
• 1:10:01
  Speaker 1: big budget. You've got to be able to get the
• 1:10:03
  Speaker 1: records done quicker because they just don't throw that kind
• 1:10:07
  Speaker 1: of money actually anymore. I mean, it's gonna be interesting
• 1:10:09
  Speaker 1: when they do the Booblet records because we have their
• 1:10:11
  Speaker 1: expensive records. There's lots of musicians in their live music,
• 1:10:15
  Speaker 1: and it's it's gonna be interesting coming up for this
• 1:10:18
  Speaker 1: next Booblet record. So tell us the story of Boo Blay.
• 1:10:22
  Speaker 1: Bo Blay was played. I I owned some clubs for
• 1:10:25
  Speaker 1: a while and last for a while, I had bought
• 1:10:28
  Speaker 1: some clubs after I got out of the booking businesses
• 1:10:30
  Speaker 1: more rocked in the menagerement. I had two or three
• 1:10:32
  Speaker 1: clubs and he played in a month in a while,
• 1:10:34
  Speaker 1: he played in a bar called the Georgia Street Bar
• 1:10:38
  Speaker 1: and grill and need to play all the records, all
• 1:10:39
  Speaker 1: the songs he plays today. He played there with a
• 1:10:41
  Speaker 1: trio and stuff like that. Um, he goes to uh,
• 1:10:46
  Speaker 1: he gets a lot. He goes to sing for the
• 1:10:48
  Speaker 1: Prime Minister's daughter's wedding because Foster was at it and
• 1:10:52
  Speaker 1: fostered and said, you'd get this guy. He can sing
• 1:10:54
  Speaker 1: this stuff. And so he came out there and sang
• 1:10:56
  Speaker 1: for the Prime Minister to two or three songs. I was.
• 1:10:59
  Speaker 1: I wasn't there at the time and wasn't involved at
• 1:11:01
  Speaker 1: that time, and the Prime Minister said, Foster, you've got
• 1:11:05
  Speaker 1: to make this do a record for this guy. And
• 1:11:07
  Speaker 1: Foster took it as a challenge and said he would.
• 1:11:10
  Speaker 1: And I had managed David, like I told you before,
• 1:11:12
  Speaker 1: when he's eighteen nineteen, and he he came back and
• 1:11:16
  Speaker 1: started working on this record and unbeknownst to me, and
• 1:11:20
  Speaker 1: he's down the stage making it and uh, probably in
• 1:11:24
  Speaker 1: the record. He phoned me he said, uh, listen, um,
• 1:11:28
  Speaker 1: I'm making this record. I wonder if you'd be interested
• 1:11:31
  Speaker 1: in the artist. He says, he says, you ever heard
• 1:11:33
  Speaker 1: of Michael Booby. I says, yeah, I used to work
• 1:11:34
  Speaker 1: in a cocktail lounge type of thing that I had.
• 1:11:36
  Speaker 1: He said yeah, he said, I'm making this record with
• 1:11:38
  Speaker 1: him and so Reverie. What kind of record are you making?
• 1:11:41
  Speaker 1: I'm making a romance record, a romance record. Why would
• 1:11:44
  Speaker 1: you be making a romance record, Bruce, he says, I
• 1:11:47
  Speaker 1: listen to everything is on radio, there's no romance. People
• 1:11:49
  Speaker 1: always want romance. I'm making this romance record. I said,
• 1:11:52
  Speaker 1: that's interesting. He says, okay. He says, you interested all.
• 1:11:56
  Speaker 1: I says, well, you know, David, you're making the record.
• 1:11:58
  Speaker 1: Of course I got to be interested. He said, well,
• 1:11:59
  Speaker 1: how interested? He says I Abo? I said okay. He said,
• 1:12:04
  Speaker 1: what's gonna take? What's gonna make you go to? I said, well,
• 1:12:08
  Speaker 1: you better send it to me so I can hear it.
• 1:12:10
  Speaker 1: He says, okay, I'll send it up to you. So
• 1:12:11
  Speaker 1: about a week later, up came the record songs and
• 1:12:14
  Speaker 1: listen to the record. Foster makes great records, and and
• 1:12:18
  Speaker 1: I didn't know what to do with it. And I
• 1:12:20
  Speaker 1: but as much as I bet on Randy Backman for
• 1:12:24
  Speaker 1: Backman turn Over Drive, I bet on David Foster because
• 1:12:28
  Speaker 1: he was coming off Josh Groban. I bet on David Foster,
• 1:12:31
  Speaker 1: it's Michael Bobble because he was on a roll a
• 1:12:35
  Speaker 1: bit in that genre. But then I got the record
• 1:12:38
  Speaker 1: and I thought, what do I do with it? How
• 1:12:41
  Speaker 1: do how do we what is this a theater actor?
• 1:12:43
  Speaker 1: I didn't, you know, trying to get a grip of this,
• 1:12:46
  Speaker 1: and I sent it to my send it to Don Fox,
• 1:12:49
  Speaker 1: probably I would bring into America because I know he
• 1:12:52
  Speaker 1: killed for it because he's independent. And I gave it
• 1:12:55
  Speaker 1: to my agent in Europe and they both thought he
• 1:12:58
  Speaker 1: was making a joke. And I said, no, this is
• 1:13:01
  Speaker 1: this is gonna be a record. I'm gonna do this
• 1:13:03
  Speaker 1: record and I Don, I said, Don listen, we're gonna
• 1:13:07
  Speaker 1: put this record out and you're gonna help me with it.
• 1:13:08
  Speaker 1: And I'd like you to help me with it. And
• 1:13:12
  Speaker 1: he said, I don't know, But I just don't know
• 1:13:13
  Speaker 1: what he says, but he says, get the kids singing.
• 1:13:16
  Speaker 1: A kid happen to be in the office, and and
• 1:13:19
  Speaker 1: I says, put him on the phone of me, says
• 1:13:22
  Speaker 1: I want this is Don Fox. Michael, Yeah, Don Fox, Yes,
• 1:13:26
  Speaker 1: I heard you, Don Okay singing returned to me for
• 1:13:29
  Speaker 1: me because Don kind of likes that. Returned to me
• 1:13:33
  Speaker 1: Fox that I think this is fantastic. Okay, So he said, okay, okay, okay, okay,
• 1:13:38
  Speaker 1: and he went to his office. He played the record.
• 1:13:40
  Speaker 1: The office looked at him like he was from Mars
• 1:13:42
  Speaker 1: and says, we're going to try and break this act.
• 1:13:44
  Speaker 1: So I said, he said, let's say you put a
• 1:13:45
  Speaker 1: bunch of shows together, Phoenix, Seattle, small small cities in
• 1:13:50
  Speaker 1: the record results, small cities in uh California, so on
• 1:13:53
  Speaker 1: and so forth, and uh put on put the tickets
• 1:13:58
  Speaker 1: on sale. Remember he phoned me after the first again,
• 1:14:00
  Speaker 1: okay ticket accounts. Here we go Phoenix, Okay, some surplace
• 1:14:07
  Speaker 1: in California, eight Seattle. What does his family drive down?
• 1:14:12
  Speaker 1: You know, like we sit there and I go, okay. Well,
• 1:14:16
  Speaker 1: you know, and he worked at he believed in it.
• 1:14:18
  Speaker 1: But all of a sudden we hit TV. Michael Bubby
• 1:14:20
  Speaker 1: got put on TV. And have that happened? That just
• 1:14:24
  Speaker 1: that the record company pushing We ended up two people
• 1:14:27
  Speaker 1: people of the record company. We're behind us. One person
• 1:14:30
  Speaker 1: who was behind us at that record company who did
• 1:14:31
  Speaker 1: a hell of a job is Liz Rosenberg. And if
• 1:14:33
  Speaker 1: I say, I bring up Lizzard Road. If I bring
• 1:14:35
  Speaker 1: up Liz Rosenberg in front the name, in front of
• 1:14:37
  Speaker 1: any pr person in the world, they know who the
• 1:14:40
  Speaker 1: hell she is and they whoa whoa right, So she
• 1:14:44
  Speaker 1: had some muscle and she muscled us on too, like
• 1:14:46
  Speaker 1: to the day show. And it worked and people say wow,
• 1:14:50
  Speaker 1: you know, and he started to sell records. Who was
• 1:14:52
  Speaker 1: the other person who was behind you at the label? Oh,
• 1:14:55
  Speaker 1: at that time, there's two guys. It was him and
• 1:15:00
  Speaker 1: the the girl who there was a guy who's gone
• 1:15:03
  Speaker 1: Jeremy something who used to work there too. But the guy,
• 1:15:06
  Speaker 1: the product manager, was behind us. So it was Liz
• 1:15:08
  Speaker 1: and him they were and he was but he was
• 1:15:10
  Speaker 1: one of these product managers like to make toys, you know,
• 1:15:11
  Speaker 1: I'll send your stuff. That's Michael right right, right right,
• 1:15:14
  Speaker 1: you know the guys that used to and and and he.
• 1:15:17
  Speaker 1: But then then and of course then another guy or
• 1:15:20
  Speaker 1: who caught it in South Africa was a friend of
• 1:15:22
  Speaker 1: mine now a friend of mine named Dion Singer, and
• 1:15:25
  Speaker 1: he caught it in Toronto in South Africa and started
• 1:15:28
  Speaker 1: to do some stuff over there. So we had these weird,
• 1:15:29
  Speaker 1: weird markets South Africa. The States are starting to warm
• 1:15:33
  Speaker 1: up Canada, Canada. That's your phone, not mine, Canada, Canada,
• 1:15:37
  Speaker 1: because it was because of course he's in Canada. But
• 1:15:41
  Speaker 1: you know it, it's just he did great press. He
• 1:15:45
  Speaker 1: did every time he was on TV. And that's a
• 1:15:46
  Speaker 1: record that was broken, Bob by us doing TV show
• 1:15:49
  Speaker 1: really because then and then the music caught up to
• 1:15:51
  Speaker 1: us and uh, Bob, it's it's unbelievable. And and he
• 1:15:56
  Speaker 1: had you know, and and Foster, Foster did a great
• 1:15:59
  Speaker 1: job us. All those albums that heat, all the albums
• 1:16:02
  Speaker 1: that that David's done with Michael have been very very good.
• 1:16:04
  Speaker 1: And then of course, of course it is a big
• 1:16:05
  Speaker 1: home run with a Christmas album. And you know, as
• 1:16:08
  Speaker 1: as I go into my ninth year now, that Christmas
• 1:16:11
  Speaker 1: album out and your Bob, that's very neat to do
• 1:16:13
  Speaker 1: in the Christmas albums only you only work on for
• 1:16:15
  Speaker 1: about eight weeks max, you know, And that's the biggest
• 1:16:19
  Speaker 1: selling album known in Christmas record history. Okay, so let's
• 1:16:25
  Speaker 1: talk about today. Certainly the business has changed. For fifteen
• 1:16:28
  Speaker 1: years we were arguing about the disruption of the music business.
• 1:16:31
  Speaker 1: That's basically over what do we know? Streaming has paused
• 1:16:36
  Speaker 1: revenues to go up, but generally speaking, the revenues go
• 1:16:41
  Speaker 1: primarily to those at the very top of the Spotify
• 1:16:44
  Speaker 1: top fifty. So as a manager today, what is your
• 1:16:49
  Speaker 1: you know, what is your plan for an act? Well,
• 1:16:53
  Speaker 1: that's what I'm looking into now. And I think the
• 1:16:55
  Speaker 1: only thing that I'm feeling good about Spotify is that
• 1:16:59
  Speaker 1: I hear and only reading stuff, reading and reading because
• 1:17:02
  Speaker 1: I ever put out a record on Michael for a while.
• 1:17:05
  Speaker 1: Is that the dead generation now fifty plus is going
• 1:17:10
  Speaker 1: over to streaming because they have no option. Now you
• 1:17:13
  Speaker 1: would know that better than me, but that's what I'm told, Okay,
• 1:17:15
  Speaker 1: And I believe that how am you know? In terms
• 1:17:18
  Speaker 1: of breaking the record is one thing, In terms of
• 1:17:19
  Speaker 1: getting paid is another. But keeps Yeah, and so I've
• 1:17:24
  Speaker 1: always I think, you know, it's gonna be interesting how
• 1:17:28
  Speaker 1: how this record is, Well, see the next record, no
• 1:17:30
  Speaker 1: matter what he does. But the one thing I've learned,
• 1:17:31
  Speaker 1: Bob is I can't I don't think I know is
• 1:17:35
  Speaker 1: I can't chase it. I can't sit there and look
• 1:17:37
  Speaker 1: what's getting played on the radio and say, Michael, this
• 1:17:39
  Speaker 1: is we gotta do some of this, we gotta do
• 1:17:40
  Speaker 1: some of that. We have to. I think I believe,
• 1:17:43
  Speaker 1: stay in our lane and do what we do, okay,
• 1:17:45
  Speaker 1: because basically our our life is sensational. Okay, people want
• 1:17:50
  Speaker 1: to see this guy, okay, and we I put on
• 1:17:53
  Speaker 1: ticket sales in in in your in the UK ten
• 1:17:57
  Speaker 1: days ago for this tour we're doing just le around
• 1:18:00
  Speaker 1: with it with called the Stately Home Store. We are
• 1:18:03
  Speaker 1: playing in front of these mansions outside the country in
• 1:18:05
  Speaker 1: England and put our ticket sales on sale in the
• 1:18:07
  Speaker 1: midst of this thing the pandemic and did eighteen thousand
• 1:18:10
  Speaker 1: tickets in two days. Okay. Now he's done. When are they?
• 1:18:14
  Speaker 1: When are these days supposed to play? Post to schedule
• 1:18:16
  Speaker 1: in July August this year? Okay. Now, this is a
• 1:18:18
  Speaker 1: guy who's done in one single run ten nights at
• 1:18:21
  Speaker 1: the O two. Nobody does that then and ended up
• 1:18:23
  Speaker 1: had to split a couple of days. We came back
• 1:18:25
  Speaker 1: and do two more, so twelve nights. Is this guy
• 1:18:28
  Speaker 1: sells tickets around the world, So why should be chasing
• 1:18:32
  Speaker 1: radio because what's my chances there? Michael's forty two years old,
• 1:18:38
  Speaker 1: He's a he's great, great joy, great guy, great singer,
• 1:18:41
  Speaker 1: great performer. Okay, if I can just get good records,
• 1:18:46
  Speaker 1: we'll do fine, our our audience will find us. Okay.
• 1:18:50
  Speaker 1: Will they be buying records, probably not, will be the
• 1:18:52
  Speaker 1: same Alexis play whatever, Probably yes. But I still don't
• 1:18:57
  Speaker 1: want to give up making records because there are there
• 1:19:00
  Speaker 1: is still I think that I believe there's a real
• 1:19:03
  Speaker 1: big market out there for Michael Buble still this day. Okay,
• 1:19:07
  Speaker 1: but let's just say, in general, an act that already
• 1:19:11
  Speaker 1: has a career, how important is the record in terms
• 1:19:15
  Speaker 1: of road business? Where you make the lions share of
• 1:19:18
  Speaker 1: the money, if you're if you if you're if you're
• 1:19:22
  Speaker 1: an act, if you're a heritage act. It's not because
• 1:19:25
  Speaker 1: they're going there to see the songs they want. I
• 1:19:29
  Speaker 1: was out there touring Brian Adams. A bill was Brian
• 1:19:31
  Speaker 1: Adams and and uh and Uh Billy Idol. That audience
• 1:19:35
  Speaker 1: stood up from beginning to end. Fantastic, Okay, they knew
• 1:19:37
  Speaker 1: every song. They don't know what Billy's last albums or
• 1:19:40
  Speaker 1: Brian's okay, but they love to hear those songs. Though
• 1:19:43
  Speaker 1: that generation was brought up with music, music was a
• 1:19:46
  Speaker 1: big part of Bob less tess life. It's a big
• 1:19:48
  Speaker 1: part of mine, Okay. It was a big part of
• 1:19:50
  Speaker 1: Brian's and it was a big part of of of
• 1:19:53
  Speaker 1: of of journeys, or a big part of all all
• 1:19:55
  Speaker 1: the different that all those guys, that was a big
• 1:19:57
  Speaker 1: part of our life. Those acts and those songs, and
• 1:20:00
  Speaker 1: those people still want to hear them. They want to
• 1:20:02
  Speaker 1: hear them. I will guarantee you that they're not gonna
• 1:20:05
  Speaker 1: go and want to go to see Little Punk or
• 1:20:08
  Speaker 1: what these acts are. They're not gonna go see him
• 1:20:10
  Speaker 1: when they're fifty. I don't believe that, Okay. I believe
• 1:20:14
  Speaker 1: our guys will keep coming. And I believe young people
• 1:20:16
  Speaker 1: like our music too. They do. You can see it
• 1:20:17
  Speaker 1: in festivals. You get up there, you put a band
• 1:20:20
  Speaker 1: Brian Adams playing any festival. I can sit him there
• 1:20:23
  Speaker 1: and say, you can bang out ten hits in a row.
• 1:20:24
  Speaker 1: And I don't care who you are, you go whoa boy.
• 1:20:28
  Speaker 1: And that's that's the and that's why did the Eagles
• 1:20:30
  Speaker 1: stay the Eagles. The Eagles can sell tickets anywhere for
• 1:20:33
  Speaker 1: any price. Irving's proved her over and over again. You
• 1:20:36
  Speaker 1: look at hundred bucks, are you insane? I mean I
• 1:20:38
  Speaker 1: went through that ere They're going there and people go
• 1:20:40
  Speaker 1: to see those songs, and those songs my kids have
• 1:20:45
  Speaker 1: sat in my house listening to my music for such
• 1:20:49
  Speaker 1: a long time has become their music, and my daughter
• 1:20:51
  Speaker 1: was down. I had to go to Irving to get
• 1:20:52
  Speaker 1: tickets for that show in Vegas, but you had when
• 1:20:54
  Speaker 1: they had their orchestra there. He loves us and to
• 1:20:57
  Speaker 1: come back homes. He's only but that gimes. She's like
• 1:20:59
  Speaker 1: twenty eight or night. She came back and said, that's
• 1:21:01
  Speaker 1: the best show I've ever seen, you know, and that
• 1:21:03
  Speaker 1: and that's pretty cool. But how do you decide on
• 1:21:06
  Speaker 1: ticket prices for Boo bleyan atoms? Well, Dawn Fox does
• 1:21:13
  Speaker 1: never want anybody to not be able to come, be
• 1:21:16
  Speaker 1: able to buy a ticket. He can't stand some of
• 1:21:18
  Speaker 1: these prices he's seen, and so we have huge arguments
• 1:21:22
  Speaker 1: over that. But we do have to scale the house.
• 1:21:26
  Speaker 1: You know. There's reasons why you can get more money
• 1:21:28
  Speaker 1: at the place. We were out there with nineteen trucks.
• 1:21:31
  Speaker 1: We got out there with thirty six musicians. Okay, this
• 1:21:34
  Speaker 1: isn't cheap. Okay, So I mean we gotta make money,
• 1:21:37
  Speaker 1: we gotta make a living. So the hundred dollar ticket market,
• 1:21:40
  Speaker 1: I thought that Irving was nuts and it's going to
• 1:21:42
  Speaker 1: screw up the business. That's nothing now, so we can
• 1:21:46
  Speaker 1: sell a ticket. Mike can sell a ticket for hundred bucks,
• 1:21:49
  Speaker 1: and he can sell ticket for a hundred fifty bucks
• 1:21:51
  Speaker 1: at a certain place. They can do that and people
• 1:21:53
  Speaker 1: will come because and the one thing you gotta remember,
• 1:21:56
  Speaker 1: you gotta stay in your lane. But guess what, he's
• 1:21:58
  Speaker 1: so lucky. He's the only guy in the lane. Right. Absolutely,
• 1:22:01
  Speaker 1: there's no better business than that, No, I know it.
• 1:22:03
  Speaker 1: So you know if the people he's he's the guy,
• 1:22:05
  Speaker 1: they'll go and see because he can do it. And
• 1:22:08
  Speaker 1: and it's it's it's it's really a battle over over ticket.
• 1:22:12
  Speaker 1: It is with down because he just doesn't believe in
• 1:22:18
  Speaker 1: the high ticket prices. He doesn't like it, okay, but
• 1:22:20
  Speaker 1: he knows he has to be competitive with me. And
• 1:22:22
  Speaker 1: so yeah, could I get more somewhere else? Probably? Is
• 1:22:26
  Speaker 1: that the right thing to do? Maybe, but maybe not
• 1:22:28
  Speaker 1: too because at least bou Blaze Michael spaper stuff stuff
• 1:22:33
  Speaker 1: on it too. Bob. He he didn't want me to
• 1:22:36
  Speaker 1: walk in there and say our top prices two hundred bucks.
• 1:22:38
  Speaker 1: He doesn't want to get the phone calls. He doesn't
• 1:22:39
  Speaker 1: want to get people talking to him about it. You know,
• 1:22:41
  Speaker 1: he's doing fine, okay now big topics. I don't know
• 1:22:45
  Speaker 1: how much they affect your market, but in the business
• 1:22:47
  Speaker 1: in general, big topics are the secondary market and the fees.
• 1:22:51
  Speaker 1: What are your takes on those fees for? How which fees? Uh?
• 1:22:56
  Speaker 1: You know, ticket fees. Oh well, I got a promoter
• 1:23:00
  Speaker 1: who bashes away at that better than anybody. So I
• 1:23:03
  Speaker 1: I think I've never been I've never had a problem
• 1:23:07
  Speaker 1: because Michael Bobble. First of all, there's a big demand
• 1:23:10
  Speaker 1: from the city, from the town, from the places in
• 1:23:13
  Speaker 1: small markets too, to have Michael Bobble there. We gotta
• 1:23:16
  Speaker 1: get Michael Booble into this building. Okay. You don't have
• 1:23:19
  Speaker 1: to get the ever the everyday rock act in the building.
• 1:23:21
  Speaker 1: We've got to get Michael Boobery here. It's important that
• 1:23:23
  Speaker 1: Michael boober week and that's what we get. So don
• 1:23:26
  Speaker 1: fox when he cuts those deals, I think he does
• 1:23:29
  Speaker 1: a hell of a job. So I don't sit here
• 1:23:30
  Speaker 1: complaining too much about the feast because they already haven't
• 1:23:32
  Speaker 1: affected me. Okay, Because if somebody wants you because they
• 1:23:36
  Speaker 1: need you, because they want to go to get to
• 1:23:39
  Speaker 1: this type of they want to get that crowd in there,
• 1:23:42
  Speaker 1: guess what Michael Booble will come in, and he doesn't
• 1:23:44
  Speaker 1: mean you get read don't need we don't need to
• 1:23:46
  Speaker 1: get raped in pillage by the building. Okay. And that's
• 1:23:50
  Speaker 1: so far it hasn't. Or the ticket thing, I mean,
• 1:23:53
  Speaker 1: Don goes through Ticketmaster. You know, we all sell our
• 1:23:56
  Speaker 1: tickets the same way, but we price our stuff the
• 1:23:59
  Speaker 1: way we want to. Bob, I don't, I don't we
• 1:24:00
  Speaker 1: don't you want to get big fees? I mean, yeah, yeah,
• 1:24:04
  Speaker 1: you go in. You're going, sir, here's what don Don
• 1:24:06
  Speaker 1: sees the Madison Square Garden bill and just about commits suicide. Okay,
• 1:24:09
  Speaker 1: you can sell all the tickets. We want to walk
• 1:24:11
  Speaker 1: out of their fifty grand I mean, it's just the
• 1:24:13
  Speaker 1: way it is. Okay. But where we can go down
• 1:24:16
  Speaker 1: the street, the Barklay Center. Now we can go back
• 1:24:17
  Speaker 1: to Nassau Coliseum, it's done. How we can go to
• 1:24:20
  Speaker 1: Prudential across the river. We do all of them, okay.
• 1:24:23
  Speaker 1: And it's you don't have to go there, but yes,
• 1:24:25
  Speaker 1: you have to go to the Madison Square Garden because
• 1:24:27
  Speaker 1: that's the thing that that's that's the ones you want
• 1:24:29
  Speaker 1: to play in Madison Square Garden. You want to play
• 1:24:32
  Speaker 1: Wembley and you want to play the Buddha Coot. Okay,
• 1:24:34
  Speaker 1: that's great. Now you're a national, worldwide act. But I said,
• 1:24:37
  Speaker 1: I said, he gets mad at me. But I want
• 1:24:40
  Speaker 1: to go to the I don't care what I have
• 1:24:41
  Speaker 1: to pay pay to play the Garden. I want to
• 1:24:44
  Speaker 1: play there because I think it's a must. I think
• 1:24:45
  Speaker 1: it's a stamp. We made. We made a we made
• 1:24:48
  Speaker 1: that deal. Michael Michael Booble meets Madison Square Garden. That
• 1:24:52
  Speaker 1: was a Grammy winning video DVD. And think for and
• 1:24:57
  Speaker 1: because it was. It's a big deal for a guy
• 1:24:59
  Speaker 1: who was play the what's that thing? The Blue in
• 1:25:01
  Speaker 1: New York, The Blue Bird of the Blue, the Little
• 1:25:05
  Speaker 1: Blue Angel. I'm trying to remember what it is, remember
• 1:25:08
  Speaker 1: a little jazz club and he plays that. That's what
• 1:25:11
  Speaker 1: we were playing. That's where I started with him. He
• 1:25:13
  Speaker 1: went to Madison Square Garden. I don't think he believed it.
• 1:25:17
  Speaker 1: He did that and did and he died three four
• 1:25:19
  Speaker 1: nights there. Great, So I don't have I don't have
• 1:25:21
  Speaker 1: big bitches, Bob with prices and what about what's the
• 1:25:24
  Speaker 1: plan with Adams these days? I gotta hear a new record.
• 1:25:28
  Speaker 1: He's all excited about this record. His birthday to day
• 1:25:30
  Speaker 1: so I wished him happy birthday and I said, I'm
• 1:25:32
  Speaker 1: looking forward to hearing your record. But he's done and
• 1:25:34
  Speaker 1: mustie and he says, yeah, the engineer becoming back. I'll
• 1:25:37
  Speaker 1: after quarantine for fourteen days and I'll you know, he
• 1:25:39
  Speaker 1: he'll kind of I'll wait to get it and I'll
• 1:25:42
  Speaker 1: probably have it in a couple of weeks and it'll
• 1:25:44
  Speaker 1: be interesting and the record will be good. But now
• 1:25:47
  Speaker 1: I gotta sit there and say, okay, now, where what
• 1:25:49
  Speaker 1: do we do with this record? How do we have
• 1:25:51
  Speaker 1: how do we promote this? That's gonna be That's gonna
• 1:25:53
  Speaker 1: be something I gotta sit down with and discuss, okay,
• 1:25:57
  Speaker 1: because that it's not the way it used to be.
• 1:25:59
  Speaker 1: And we and I got brought up in a different era,
• 1:26:02
  Speaker 1: and we just it's hard for these artists to figure
• 1:26:05
  Speaker 1: out what to do with this music. But if he
• 1:26:07
  Speaker 1: tours all the time, which he will, and uh, and
• 1:26:10
  Speaker 1: we don't like I mean, I'm glad Billboard. I'm glad
• 1:26:12
  Speaker 1: Billboard took away the buy a ticket, get them c
• 1:26:15
  Speaker 1: D stuff. You know, I'm just I hated that that's
• 1:26:18
  Speaker 1: a fake chart. If you ever saw listen, the chart
• 1:26:21
  Speaker 1: is still fake. It's you know, it's not meaning exactly
• 1:26:25
  Speaker 1: is a magazine come out. Just's like Sports illustrat It's
• 1:26:27
  Speaker 1: not five times a year. I mean what you know,
• 1:26:30
  Speaker 1: I just I never get the magazine. I get the
• 1:26:32
  Speaker 1: Billboard bulletin. But maybe that's the thing. The problem is,
• 1:26:36
  Speaker 1: you know, I don't pay I get it as part
• 1:26:37
  Speaker 1: of Apple News. Plus it's too consumer facing. At this point,
• 1:26:41
  Speaker 1: there's just not enough insider information and it's bad writers
• 1:26:46
  Speaker 1: writing about pop stuff. There's really no insight in it.
• 1:26:48
  Speaker 1: And as far as the charts, the funny thing, of
• 1:26:50
  Speaker 1: course is Pensky now owns them all variety Hollywood reporters,
• 1:26:54
  Speaker 1: Sound Ski and Rolling Stone, and they have to competing
• 1:26:58
  Speaker 1: you know, uh counts. But it's really the industry doesn't
• 1:27:01
  Speaker 1: want an accurate account. They want to manipulate it so
• 1:27:04
  Speaker 1: they can promote. It's like, you know this, I'm a
• 1:27:07
  Speaker 1: Springsteen fan, but they put out a hype He's got
• 1:27:09
  Speaker 1: a new album. He had a top five album in
• 1:27:12
  Speaker 1: the last six decades. Okay, what does that mean? Almost
• 1:27:16
  Speaker 1: no one bought it, almost no one heard it. They're
• 1:27:18
  Speaker 1: like doing it so they can have the publicity. Yeah,
• 1:27:21
  Speaker 1: I know. Anyway, there's all these gimbicks to you know,
• 1:27:23
  Speaker 1: look at that. I mean, I put out the records.
• 1:27:25
  Speaker 1: I've done it with my own acts. Okay, here we go.
• 1:27:27
  Speaker 1: We gotta debut this at number one. We gotta put
• 1:27:28
  Speaker 1: our tour at the same time. Every time you buy
• 1:27:30
  Speaker 1: a ticket, you gotta buy the album. The album is included,
• 1:27:32
  Speaker 1: or whatever you do. Bang it is number one, first week,
• 1:27:34
  Speaker 1: number two, it's twenty two, okay, I mean second week.
• 1:27:37
  Speaker 1: I mean that. That's not the way it's supposed to be.
• 1:27:38
  Speaker 1: Bob's find a debut number one, but you want to
• 1:27:41
  Speaker 1: hang around in the five, in the top five for
• 1:27:42
  Speaker 1: the least a month. Absolutely, And it's not that way
• 1:27:46
  Speaker 1: with certainly the Heritage X. But with Bryan Adams, is
• 1:27:49
  Speaker 1: there a plan he wants to make a record, he
• 1:27:53
  Speaker 1: makes the record. Is there a way to get his
• 1:27:56
  Speaker 1: new music heard? The best way, the best way to
• 1:27:59
  Speaker 1: get it, It's hardest way is via film. Okay. If
• 1:28:02
  Speaker 1: you can get something in a film, it might work.
• 1:28:04
  Speaker 1: If you get something a big TV show, it might work.
• 1:28:06
  Speaker 1: That's a that's a long, long, long shot, okay. And
• 1:28:09
  Speaker 1: you can't stand around waiting for it. He's gonna come
• 1:28:11
  Speaker 1: with a record. He's gonna want that record out and
• 1:28:13
  Speaker 1: he's want to go out. He wants to go out
• 1:28:14
  Speaker 1: there and play it. Brian Adams. We had a deal
• 1:28:17
  Speaker 1: if we put together a deal in Germany two months
• 1:28:20
  Speaker 1: ago where the Merrick Lie we buried. The promoter there
• 1:28:24
  Speaker 1: had made a deal with a city that we were
• 1:28:28
  Speaker 1: going to do a show stadium show with three three
• 1:28:30
  Speaker 1: Germans and Adams, Adams headlining for twelve thousand people in
• 1:28:33
  Speaker 1: seventy five thousand seat soccer stadium. But he wanted to
• 1:28:36
  Speaker 1: get music going again. Everybody got we all got going.
• 1:28:39
  Speaker 1: And I was against it because I I think there's
• 1:28:42
  Speaker 1: a vibe to music. I think there's old vibe to
• 1:28:44
  Speaker 1: be sitting in a car. I think there's no vibe
• 1:28:45
  Speaker 1: in those pens stock pens they made the people stand
• 1:28:48
  Speaker 1: in London in and I don't think there's any vibe
• 1:28:50
  Speaker 1: in sitting there in twelve thousand, five hundred people in
• 1:28:52
  Speaker 1: the seventy five stee stadium. I think it's a terrible thing.
• 1:28:55
  Speaker 1: But he wants to play. So what am I gonna do.
• 1:28:59
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna put together other tour. I'm doing it now.
• 1:29:01
  Speaker 1: He'll go and play again. He'll play the new album
• 1:29:04
  Speaker 1: and hopefully hopefully some people will like it and be
• 1:29:08
  Speaker 1: driven to it. But can I really promise, can I
• 1:29:10
  Speaker 1: promise a radio hit bop? I wouldn't say that. I can't.
• 1:29:13
  Speaker 1: I can't do that. If I if I went to
• 1:29:15
  Speaker 1: Brian am said I would make this. I'll take this
• 1:29:17
  Speaker 1: top five pop radio. First of all, you think I
• 1:29:20
  Speaker 1: was mad. But he still wants to create. He wants
• 1:29:23
  Speaker 1: to create. This guy is a creator. So I'm there
• 1:29:26
  Speaker 1: to help him do that. He can always tour. He knows,
• 1:29:29
  Speaker 1: he knows that people love those songs, and and and
• 1:29:32
  Speaker 1: and isn't he lucky he's got them? I remember said
• 1:29:34
  Speaker 1: there with Elton John and some private we didn't ball
• 1:29:38
  Speaker 1: rain or someplace like that, and Alton John sat there
• 1:29:40
  Speaker 1: and he said, Brian used to listen as when when
• 1:29:42
  Speaker 1: when When everything I do is hot? He says, Brian,
• 1:29:47
  Speaker 1: you better like that record because you'll be sending it
• 1:29:49
  Speaker 1: for the rest of your life. And you know what,
• 1:29:51
  Speaker 1: He's right, He's right. We have to And I mean,
• 1:29:54
  Speaker 1: and and what's wrong with that, Bob? What's wrong with it? Nothing?
• 1:29:57
  Speaker 1: But it's great that Brian can still put out records
• 1:29:59
  Speaker 1: and people to put them out, and we do. He
• 1:30:01
  Speaker 1: does a good job. On him He's still a great writer.
• 1:30:04
  Speaker 1: And it's just if I said to you and said
• 1:30:08
  Speaker 1: I got a plan, I can know I can put
• 1:30:09
  Speaker 1: this thing top ten, you'd say you're an asset. I mean,
• 1:30:13
  Speaker 1: because we know what we're dealing with. Okay, you're not
• 1:30:18
  Speaker 1: at all. You're a guy's guy. Why is everybody in
• 1:30:22
  Speaker 1: your office, same with Irving? Why is everybody in your
• 1:30:24
  Speaker 1: office a woman? Because they're smarter and they and they
• 1:30:27
  Speaker 1: are better, better, and they work better and then you
• 1:30:29
  Speaker 1: know what they are. They're dedicated to what they do. Okay,
• 1:30:32
  Speaker 1: only they have to do with a woman is hopefully
• 1:30:34
  Speaker 1: I believe this anyways, treat them politely and properly. And
• 1:30:39
  Speaker 1: I go to my girls are tremendously tuned into you
• 1:30:44
  Speaker 1: because the young ages from twenty five some of them.
• 1:30:46
  Speaker 1: So one of my sisters twenty five years old. The
• 1:30:49
  Speaker 1: stuff she knows that I don't know, you know, And
• 1:30:52
  Speaker 1: and and I got my marketing girls probably one of
• 1:30:54
  Speaker 1: the best in the country. I mean, my accountant is
• 1:30:58
  Speaker 1: it's been doing that and looking after these guys money
• 1:31:01
  Speaker 1: or getting our settlements for probably eighteen years. And I
• 1:31:04
  Speaker 1: guess you know what other one other thing, Bob, they
• 1:31:06
  Speaker 1: don't want my job swinging dicks want my job. You
• 1:31:10
  Speaker 1: know that. That's an excellent point. Absolutely, So will you
• 1:31:16
  Speaker 1: ever retire? Do this till you drop? Well, you know,
• 1:31:20
  Speaker 1: I'm seventy five now, and I don't think so. I think, Bob,
• 1:31:26
  Speaker 1: as long as I'm winning, I'll keep doing it. Okay,
• 1:31:30
  Speaker 1: we got some we got some really cool stuff coming. Okay. Um,
• 1:31:36
  Speaker 1: and not necessarily music all the time. But you know,
• 1:31:40
  Speaker 1: Michael has done very very well with Pepsi and the
• 1:31:42
  Speaker 1: Bubbly thing, you know that, and uh, and there's a
• 1:31:46
  Speaker 1: lot of demand for him for that stuff. And and Brian,
• 1:31:48
  Speaker 1: you know, he had that, He had the thing on Broadway,
• 1:31:51
  Speaker 1: Pretty Woman on Broadway and stuff like that. These guys,
• 1:31:54
  Speaker 1: these guys love music. So we I know we can.
• 1:31:58
  Speaker 1: I know we can keep them going. We have a history,
• 1:32:01
  Speaker 1: we have a we have a legacy, okay. And I
• 1:32:04
  Speaker 1: believe as long as you put on good shows and
• 1:32:06
  Speaker 1: give the audience their money's worth, and we could play
• 1:32:09
  Speaker 1: some of the new music to not a problem. That's
• 1:32:11
  Speaker 1: why Michael, Michael is the best deal of all. He
• 1:32:13
  Speaker 1: puts out music anyway exactly, you know. But I mean,
• 1:32:18
  Speaker 1: I just believe you've got a career there, and you
• 1:32:21
  Speaker 1: can keep going. I know Brian does, and you know,
• 1:32:23
  Speaker 1: like Jann Arden, I just took over John Ardens. You know,
• 1:32:26
  Speaker 1: I took over Joann Arden for for for whatever reason,
• 1:32:30
  Speaker 1: basically the girls wandered in the office, you know, because
• 1:32:33
  Speaker 1: she thought he thought would be good. And jan got
• 1:32:35
  Speaker 1: a TV show and just got picked up down in
• 1:32:37
  Speaker 1: US too. She's fifty seven years old, and we're gonna
• 1:32:39
  Speaker 1: break this girl. We're gonna break this girl fifty seven
• 1:32:42
  Speaker 1: years old. Are you kidding? You're gonna break her musically,
• 1:32:45
  Speaker 1: musically and as I know as a celebrity too, as
• 1:32:48
  Speaker 1: a person who's who's a viable artist. Okay, I want
• 1:32:51
  Speaker 1: to break your music. Bruce read the cup. I just
• 1:32:53
  Speaker 1: sent it down. He said he didn't even know this happen.
• 1:32:55
  Speaker 1: And all of a sudden, Hulu picked up this series
• 1:32:57
  Speaker 1: and the same people did Ships Creak and you know
• 1:32:59
  Speaker 1: Ship's Creek. We're okay, and so this is gonna follow
• 1:33:03
  Speaker 1: and she'll have a massive career. Her book came out.
• 1:33:05
  Speaker 1: Today's the third time and she's had a book out
• 1:33:07
  Speaker 1: the number one in the number one in Canada three
• 1:33:10
  Speaker 1: times in a row. Now they're moving it down to
• 1:33:12
  Speaker 1: the States. Do you watch what will happen fifty seven
• 1:33:14
  Speaker 1: years old? Are you fucking kidding me? And it's it's
• 1:33:17
  Speaker 1: a real I'm really proud of it. Okay. And I
• 1:33:19
  Speaker 1: got the call from Bob Rock to help him out
• 1:33:21
  Speaker 1: with the Offspring. We got involved with the Offspring, Okay,
• 1:33:24
  Speaker 1: I did, Bob. Bob's making these records. Nobody's helping the
• 1:33:27
  Speaker 1: records are going to dine in the ditch. Okay. So
• 1:33:29
  Speaker 1: he says, Bruce, come on, he helped me help out
• 1:33:33
  Speaker 1: the boys. I don't. I don't know the Offspring music
• 1:33:36
  Speaker 1: that well, but people in the office knew it, okay.
• 1:33:39
  Speaker 1: And I said, let's given a shot on you know,
• 1:33:41
  Speaker 1: I met Dexter and and uh and I'm preay quite
• 1:33:45
  Speaker 1: excited about it. I never thought i'd work in a
• 1:33:47
  Speaker 1: band again. I did. I didn't want to work in
• 1:33:49
  Speaker 1: a band again. I don't want to argue with a
• 1:33:50
  Speaker 1: bunch of guys. But you know, Randy Bursticks carrying the
• 1:33:53
  Speaker 1: ball on that and other people in my office. I mean,
• 1:33:55
  Speaker 1: I'm doing what I can do, but you know, these
• 1:34:00
  Speaker 1: I'm winning. As long as I keep winning, I think
• 1:34:02
  Speaker 1: I'll stay in it. What is that is? Is that unreasonable?
• 1:34:07
  Speaker 1: Not whatsoever? I don't plan to retire as all. I've
• 1:34:09
  Speaker 1: got my faculties, but I just know your personality. I
• 1:34:12
  Speaker 1: was setting it up, and I don't see how you
• 1:34:14
  Speaker 1: don't continue to win. As you say, you know, Boo
• 1:34:17
  Speaker 1: Bleat and the Atoms, they can sell tickets till they
• 1:34:19
  Speaker 1: don't want to work anymore. Oh yeah, But I mean,
• 1:34:21
  Speaker 1: but also, you know, it forces guys like me, the
• 1:34:24
  Speaker 1: situation we're in with radio, in the situation we're in
• 1:34:27
  Speaker 1: in our business, it's it's it forces me and my
• 1:34:31
  Speaker 1: people here to look elsewhere to do stuff. And there's
• 1:34:34
  Speaker 1: a lot of stuff out there. There's a lot of
• 1:34:36
  Speaker 1: things that can be done, and and I'm trying to
• 1:34:39
  Speaker 1: do some of them, and I kind of enjoy it,
• 1:34:42
  Speaker 1: you know. But you also you also tell me a
• 1:34:45
  Speaker 1: couple of times we've been together, and you go, I'm thinking, Bob,
• 1:34:48
  Speaker 1: I'm always thinking, and you're coming up with ideas. You're
• 1:34:52
  Speaker 1: not someone I mean, you're essentially in the business all
• 1:34:55
  Speaker 1: the time. You're not taking a vacation and check it out. No, no,
• 1:35:00
  Speaker 1: And you know, I mean, I I love what I do,
• 1:35:04
  Speaker 1: and Bob, but I know, I know, I understand why
• 1:35:08
  Speaker 1: guys leave. Okay, I understand why guys get out of
• 1:35:11
  Speaker 1: the business, and uh, it's management. You care about the
• 1:35:16
  Speaker 1: bubbler like kids. I care about these guys. Okay, I said,
• 1:35:20
  Speaker 1: I got out to see Martina McBride and because Joe
• 1:35:23
  Speaker 1: Galante his wife died, had to go to the and
• 1:35:26
  Speaker 1: been to back to Nashville. Since I left and I
• 1:35:28
  Speaker 1: saw John and Martina. It broke me down like a
• 1:35:31
  Speaker 1: twelve year old. Okay's crying because you know, I can't
• 1:35:37
  Speaker 1: hate the person. It just didn't work. Okay. We told
• 1:35:39
  Speaker 1: a lot of records. We want everything. It was to win.
• 1:35:41
  Speaker 1: But I mean, you're involved with these people. It's it's
• 1:35:44
  Speaker 1: it's it's important. That's why you say you've got a
• 1:35:47
  Speaker 1: contract with Bubble. You know, you got a contract with
• 1:35:49
  Speaker 1: the Offspring. No, you got a contract with Bob. No
• 1:35:51
  Speaker 1: you got a contract? No, no, no, Okay, because but
• 1:35:54
  Speaker 1: I've never got to the point where I said this
• 1:35:56
  Speaker 1: is funny. I gotta get out of here. Okay, are
• 1:35:59
  Speaker 1: they never have? We failed? I failed and had to
• 1:36:01
  Speaker 1: go on. There's no sense. I know when sometimes when
• 1:36:03
  Speaker 1: I can't can't keep doing it. So I'm not going
• 1:36:05
  Speaker 1: to break this act or didn't work, The thing doesn't
• 1:36:07
  Speaker 1: somehow doesn't work. I can leave and walk away and
• 1:36:09
  Speaker 1: said the best I can. But isn't it a lot better,
• 1:36:12
  Speaker 1: Bob than then? Okay, remember I got you guys signed
• 1:36:16
  Speaker 1: for life. Now, every time that song gets played, I
• 1:36:17
  Speaker 1: want to make sure I'm gonna check your Come on, man,
• 1:36:20
  Speaker 1: fuck this, I did you know? I don't do that, Martin.
• 1:36:24
  Speaker 1: I shook. I phoned her up and and when I quit,
• 1:36:27
  Speaker 1: and I never I didn't ask for a sunset clause.
• 1:36:30
  Speaker 1: Sunset fuck you know we did all right altogether, That's
• 1:36:33
  Speaker 1: what I believe. Okay. Now, it used to be a
• 1:36:37
  Speaker 1: very unitary business where there was one chart, everybody knew
• 1:36:41
  Speaker 1: the same songs, and all the business has been completely flattened.
• 1:36:45
  Speaker 1: So do you feel okay, I'm in the atoms business,
• 1:36:49
  Speaker 1: I'm in the art and is I'm the offspring business.
• 1:36:51
  Speaker 1: And what's happening in Billboard, what's happening and who's running
• 1:36:54
  Speaker 1: the labels is an interesting thing, but it's not really
• 1:36:57
  Speaker 1: me anymore. I'd love to go, I go. I love
• 1:37:01
  Speaker 1: to go talk. I love talking to record company people, Bob,
• 1:37:03
  Speaker 1: because in the in the end, a lot of them
• 1:37:05
  Speaker 1: that I talked to, and if I talked to Tom
• 1:37:07
  Speaker 1: corson Okay, and if I talked to UH, if I
• 1:37:11
  Speaker 1: talked to the guys at Universal, or if I talked
• 1:37:15
  Speaker 1: to Reznikov, or I talked to these guys, I have
• 1:37:17
  Speaker 1: to work with their their music guys. Bob, there's music guys.
• 1:37:21
  Speaker 1: I said. There was Paul Kremin over there at UH
• 1:37:24
  Speaker 1: at the label, and he's a music guy. They know music,
• 1:37:27
  Speaker 1: they talked. They still love it. Okay, they're they're forced
• 1:37:30
  Speaker 1: to work where they gotta work, but they still like music.
• 1:37:33
  Speaker 1: And I so I I don't have any problem. You know.
• 1:37:36
  Speaker 1: When I talked to guys in Land, Tony Harlow over
• 1:37:38
  Speaker 1: there who runs runs it over in the UK, and
• 1:37:41
  Speaker 1: and Max Maxwell Soda and stuff like that, they're really
• 1:37:44
  Speaker 1: notedgable music guys that they they don't think anybody likes
• 1:37:48
  Speaker 1: particularly likes where the business is right now, except except
• 1:37:51
  Speaker 1: the money that comes in and the money they make
• 1:37:52
  Speaker 1: and the bonuses and the bullshit they do. They like
• 1:37:55
  Speaker 1: it for that. But sure, every guy, every guy I
• 1:37:57
  Speaker 1: have talked to in the business says the same. You
• 1:38:01
  Speaker 1: know what, Bruce, It's a great business, but just isn't
• 1:38:04
  Speaker 1: fun like it used to be. That's what they say.
• 1:38:07
  Speaker 1: Every guy who's like sixty or fifty five. You know,
• 1:38:10
  Speaker 1: that's what they say, and I think that's right. Now.
• 1:38:12
  Speaker 1: I'm lucky that I got great artists and I get
• 1:38:15
  Speaker 1: writing the creative thing. I said, So, I'm kind of lucky.
• 1:38:18
  Speaker 1: I don't have to work. Should I don't want to work? Okay,
• 1:38:23
  Speaker 1: it's just it's just different. Okay, Just a couple more
• 1:38:26
  Speaker 1: things for those who aren't informed. You know, you're a
• 1:38:28
  Speaker 1: guy living in Vancouver, but your acts are international acts
• 1:38:32
  Speaker 1: from the you know, certainly going to Canada many a time.
• 1:38:35
  Speaker 1: What stuns me in Canada is everybody knows everybody, okay,
• 1:38:39
  Speaker 1: and it's like a high school and if you raise
• 1:38:41
  Speaker 1: your head too high, they want to tear you down, etcetera.
• 1:38:44
  Speaker 1: But where is Canada's place in the world market today?
• 1:38:48
  Speaker 1: And what is the difference between Canada and it certainly
• 1:38:51
  Speaker 1: United States? Well, the different the difference in Canada is
• 1:38:55
  Speaker 1: I think his status probably the top five countries and
• 1:38:57
  Speaker 1: people want to break I think that's one of the
• 1:38:58
  Speaker 1: top five countries. Um as far as as far as musically,
• 1:39:04
  Speaker 1: I think we're trying to find our way again, okay,
• 1:39:07
  Speaker 1: but there has been some stuff out of here. You
• 1:39:08
  Speaker 1: stand there and say, oh, Drake, um Bieber. Oh what's
• 1:39:15
  Speaker 1: the kid's name? Sean Mendez? Oh boy Weekend? Who come on? Man?
• 1:39:20
  Speaker 1: That Toronto seems really booming now. Used to be all
• 1:39:22
  Speaker 1: out of the west. Okay, the Toronto guys stayed in Toronto.
• 1:39:25
  Speaker 1: They can run around the Golden Triangle out there and
• 1:39:26
  Speaker 1: to make money. They didn't have to go with me.
• 1:39:28
  Speaker 1: I had my next stop after Vancouver was Calgary. Seattle
• 1:39:31
  Speaker 1: was closer. So I mean, you know, I I try
• 1:39:33
  Speaker 1: to I work north south. Those guys are used to
• 1:39:35
  Speaker 1: working back there for the longest time, just in that triangle.
• 1:39:38
  Speaker 1: But those guys, those people behind those acts, they've done
• 1:39:41
  Speaker 1: a great job. And I think I think Canada has
• 1:39:44
  Speaker 1: got a place in the map. I remember there's three
• 1:39:46
  Speaker 1: songs on the top five in the were Canadian. Okay,
• 1:39:49
  Speaker 1: you sing Celindy on you're throwing some of these people,
• 1:39:52
  Speaker 1: you know. I mean, it's it's it's a booming music country. Really,
• 1:39:57
  Speaker 1: there's just not enough people here to sustain you know
• 1:40:00
  Speaker 1: that there's not enough. You can't sell enough here. It's
• 1:40:04
  Speaker 1: but it's it's a great I mean, I know you
• 1:40:05
  Speaker 1: enjoy yourself when you come up here. You know, people
• 1:40:08
  Speaker 1: talk about Canada and they talk about the health and
• 1:40:10
  Speaker 1: I moved to Canada in a minute. I mean, it's
• 1:40:12
  Speaker 1: like it's a better life than living in the United States.
• 1:40:15
  Speaker 1: The people just haven't been there. I mean, that's typical Americans.
• 1:40:17
  Speaker 1: They haven't been outside of the United States, never mind
• 1:40:19
  Speaker 1: just into Canada. But speaking of the United States, you know,
• 1:40:23
  Speaker 1: there are a lot of people up north who were snowbirds.
• 1:40:27
  Speaker 1: You you are a little bit different. You have a
• 1:40:29
  Speaker 1: place in the South, but not in Florida and not
• 1:40:32
  Speaker 1: in Arizona. Can you just tell us a little bit.
• 1:40:35
  Speaker 1: I have a place in Las Vegas. And the reason
• 1:40:37
  Speaker 1: I have a place in Las Vegas is I just
• 1:40:40
  Speaker 1: need I thought I should. It's the right thing to do.
• 1:40:42
  Speaker 1: A big fight fan. I go to the fights a
• 1:40:44
  Speaker 1: lot down there. Uh my girlfriend, the photographers, she likes
• 1:40:49
  Speaker 1: to go out there and and take pictures in that
• 1:40:51
  Speaker 1: area and stuff like that. And but basically when I
• 1:40:54
  Speaker 1: went to she sat there, we looked around, did the
• 1:40:58
  Speaker 1: typical Vancouver thing. Let's go to home. Why we'll get
• 1:41:01
  Speaker 1: a place in a way. Everybody's got a place in
• 1:41:02
  Speaker 1: a way. Okay. We went over there ten o'clock at night.
• 1:41:05
  Speaker 1: I didn't know what to do. Okay, Okay, then she said,
• 1:41:08
  Speaker 1: let's go okay, let's try Palm Springs. Palm Space for
• 1:41:12
  Speaker 1: me is for old people, okay, and I'm old. Actually
• 1:41:15
  Speaker 1: I shouldn't even say that. But there's nothing happening there either,
• 1:41:17
  Speaker 1: and I don't go. Okay. So then we tried Phoenix.
• 1:41:20
  Speaker 1: This is what Canadians do. So I went to Phoenix
• 1:41:23
  Speaker 1: and I didn't like it. Then she said, why don't
• 1:41:26
  Speaker 1: we try Las Vegas? And I know she had to
• 1:41:28
  Speaker 1: grit her teeth and say, why don't we try Las Vegas.
• 1:41:31
  Speaker 1: I went up to Las Vegas and Dr Paul Anko
• 1:41:34
  Speaker 1: who guided me through where the livers or stuff like that,
• 1:41:37
  Speaker 1: and uh, ended up in Las Vegas. And I love
• 1:41:40
  Speaker 1: going to Las Vegas. Okay, great, great, great, great restaurants,
• 1:41:43
  Speaker 1: lots to go on, and got a hockey team there. Now,
• 1:41:45
  Speaker 1: I mean they're coming to me now. They got a
• 1:41:46
  Speaker 1: hockey team there. Now, they got pro football there. Now,
• 1:41:49
  Speaker 1: I mean, why would you not live in Las Vegas.
• 1:41:51
  Speaker 1: I I look at people live in California, say, wait
• 1:41:53
  Speaker 1: a minute, you're paying this kind of taxes. Why you
• 1:41:55
  Speaker 1: drive across the border and live in Las Vegas? Everything
• 1:41:57
  Speaker 1: is there. They got just as good restaurants as you've
• 1:41:59
  Speaker 1: got in Los Angeles, California. How often you're there pre COVID.
• 1:42:03
  Speaker 1: I'm not there now. I haven't been there since March.
• 1:42:06
  Speaker 1: But I tried to hit. I tried to hit about
• 1:42:07
  Speaker 1: sixty days a year. And here's the other thing about
• 1:42:09
  Speaker 1: Las Vegas, Palm Sphinx doesn't happen is Phoenix, Las Vegas
• 1:42:13
  Speaker 1: and Southwest Airlines is direct. Las Vegas as a city
• 1:42:16
  Speaker 1: is direct anywhere, NonStop to London, nonstopped to Germany. Right, Okay,
• 1:42:20
  Speaker 1: perfect for me. It's a business decision. So Bruce, we
• 1:42:25
  Speaker 1: certainly know you're a man of opinions and you're not
• 1:42:27
  Speaker 1: afraid to express them, and you certainly have done that
• 1:42:30
  Speaker 1: on the radio in Vancouver for years and years. What
• 1:42:34
  Speaker 1: is your take on the world situation? For those people
• 1:42:37
  Speaker 1: who don't know, Certainly we have we have an election
• 1:42:41
  Speaker 1: going on right now. As we do this, we don't
• 1:42:43
  Speaker 1: know the exact results. Let's not talk about those right now. However,
• 1:42:48
  Speaker 1: the US has moved towards the right, Canada has always
• 1:42:53
  Speaker 1: started much further to the left front than the United States.
• 1:42:57
  Speaker 1: What is your take on politics in the world today? Well,
• 1:43:01
  Speaker 1: I said there's a lot, there's a lot of we
• 1:43:03
  Speaker 1: see it above. A lot of populist politics going on
• 1:43:05
  Speaker 1: in a lot of places, um, you know in America's
• 1:43:07
  Speaker 1: of course one of them, with a lot with Trump
• 1:43:10
  Speaker 1: in there. Um. But there's also I think what I
• 1:43:13
  Speaker 1: find more most interesting is young people getting involved in
• 1:43:17
  Speaker 1: politics now and actually making some changes. Okay, the youth
• 1:43:21
  Speaker 1: are gonna have to be are going to be served again,
• 1:43:23
  Speaker 1: you know. I got I watched the uh Chicago seven
• 1:43:27
  Speaker 1: movie and that I think, Bob, is that right? Okay?
• 1:43:33
  Speaker 1: And I watched that movie and I sat there and
• 1:43:35
  Speaker 1: I said to my girl, said, that's the last time
• 1:43:36
  Speaker 1: that I ever saw protests work in the United States.
• 1:43:40
  Speaker 1: And I said, Plus, I said, the music that came
• 1:43:42
  Speaker 1: out of there was unbelievable. Some girl gets shot in
• 1:43:44
  Speaker 1: Kent State, and and and and this guy's got a
• 1:43:46
  Speaker 1: song on the radio about it five days, you know
• 1:43:48
  Speaker 1: what I mean. I mean, music was really involved in
• 1:43:50
  Speaker 1: that stuff. And Uh, I think that I think the
• 1:43:53
  Speaker 1: future lies with the young people. I really do. I
• 1:43:55
  Speaker 1: think they're going to clean up the environment. You know,
• 1:43:57
  Speaker 1: they're there. They're not gonna have the same arguments that
• 1:44:00
  Speaker 1: we our generation has right now, and it's it's disappointing
• 1:44:05
  Speaker 1: to me, So you're still as excited as you always were.
• 1:44:08
  Speaker 1: Yeah about the business in life. I make business of
• 1:44:11
  Speaker 1: life or the business of the business, business and life. Well,
• 1:44:15
  Speaker 1: I'm I'm stone, col healthy, touch wood, Okay I am,
• 1:44:20
  Speaker 1: and uh I'm going to the gym now more and
• 1:44:22
  Speaker 1: they ever do do because you know what, COVID drove
• 1:44:24
  Speaker 1: me to the gym. Okay, I'm on the road all
• 1:44:26
  Speaker 1: the time. Now I'm going to the gym three times
• 1:44:28
  Speaker 1: a week for the trainer. I can't believe it how
• 1:44:29
  Speaker 1: it's changed me. Okay, I'm eating better. Okay, So I
• 1:44:32
  Speaker 1: this is the kind of COVID worked for me for
• 1:44:34
  Speaker 1: that and uh, I think that UH as excited. I mean,
• 1:44:38
  Speaker 1: I sit there. I know I said it five times
• 1:44:41
  Speaker 1: to you today. The jan Arden project for me has
• 1:44:44
  Speaker 1: been wonderful to watch that happen. Okay, And and I
• 1:44:47
  Speaker 1: hope that there will be other things that that I'll
• 1:44:49
  Speaker 1: be doing happen. I got some pretty cool things coming
• 1:44:51
  Speaker 1: with bou bleg that they're different for me, just different.
• 1:44:54
  Speaker 1: I'm learning and that's great if I can keep learning
• 1:44:57
  Speaker 1: because I've done you know, people say to me, what
• 1:45:00
  Speaker 1: what do you what do you have to prove You've
• 1:45:02
  Speaker 1: done everything I want. Why are you go? Enjoy yourself?
• 1:45:05
  Speaker 1: And I enjoyed myself sitting here. Thank you very much.
• 1:45:09
  Speaker 1: And on that note, Bruce, thanks so much for doing this.
• 1:45:12
  Speaker 1: You know we skimmed the top. We could go on
• 1:45:14
  Speaker 1: for days. You're a fountain of information and knowledge, and
• 1:45:18
  Speaker 1: thanks so much for doing this. Thank you, Bob, enjoy
• 1:45:20
  Speaker 1: to enjoy the hell over it. Next time? Do I
• 1:45:22
  Speaker 1: want to have all my albums in front of me
• 1:45:23
  Speaker 1: so I get the goddamn peats right? Okay, until next time.
• 1:45:28
  Speaker 1: This is Bob left sense