Latest / Booked On Rock with Eric Senich / Jon Bon Jovi Wanted To Be 'Bigger Than Elvis' [Highlight From Episode 339]

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Jon Bon Jovi Wanted To Be 'Bigger Than Elvis' [Highlight From Episode 339] · Booked On Rock with Eric Senich

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Here's a highlight from a recent episode of booke Don
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Rock Giant Steps. My improbable journey from stage lights to
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: executive heights is the book. We're here with the author
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: and the man who lived that journey, Derek Shulman. Third
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  Speaker 1: part of the book gets into your new path as
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  Speaker 1: a record executive. In nineteen eighty two, you moved to
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  Speaker 1: New York to become director of rock radio promotions with
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  Speaker 1: PolyGram Band you worked with early on the jam Tears
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  Speaker 1: for Fears Scorpions Kiss. In nineteen eighty three, you moved
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  Speaker 1: out of radio promo and into an R. What's the
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  Speaker 1: main job of an A and R guy? For those
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  Speaker 1: who are not familiar with you, hear that term A
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  Speaker 1: lot A and R guy.
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  Speaker 2: A and R does it today, It doesn't mean anything
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  Speaker 2: to what it did when I was doing it. Artists
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  Speaker 2: and reptriiz is what actually means. And you are the
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  Speaker 2: person that decides or finds the artist that the record
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  Speaker 2: company will put that marketing and resources, that promotion resources
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  Speaker 2: and sales resources, etc. Behind their recordings. And that's that's
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  Speaker 2: who you were. You were the guy that finds the
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  Speaker 2: talent for the record label. That's what That's what it
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  Speaker 2: was back in the day, and that's what I became.
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  Speaker 2: And I realized that that's that was something that I
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  Speaker 2: was pretty good at. Uh And but you know, good
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  Speaker 2: in the in the fact that I could bring a
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  Speaker 2: lot of my background, all of my background to this
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  Speaker 2: new situation which I had never in a million years
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  Speaker 2: thought I would be in.
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  Speaker 1: But yeah, I don't think any of your peers expected it.
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  Speaker 2: Right, absolutely not. I mean it was you know, it
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  Speaker 2: was almost like Luke Skywalker turning into Darth Vader.
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  Speaker 1: Yes, right, because now you've got to look for bands.
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  Speaker 1: You're looking for hit songs, hit bands, the look, the sound.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, and you know, you know I did know
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  Speaker 2: about having hits because we had a hits and a
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  Speaker 2: couple of hits with my first ban, But you know, yes,
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  Speaker 2: I had to think about commercial success as well as
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  Speaker 2: well as as well as I'll use this word authenticity, right,
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  Speaker 2: and every band that I signed and I was involved with, uh.
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  Speaker 2: You know, I'll say this, you know, say out loud,
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  Speaker 2: because it's important that you know, people think, oh, there
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  Speaker 2: he's in this great you know, prog band and he
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  Speaker 2: you know, he sold out. No, no, you know, I
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  Speaker 2: sold I looked for anyone no matter who it was,
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  Speaker 2: to be authentic and to do something that no one
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  Speaker 2: else is doing, whether it's pop or rock, or or
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  Speaker 2: or progressive music, or country or or hip hop or
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  Speaker 2: whatever they were. You know, authentic is but the most
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  Speaker 2: important thing for me and most just about every band
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  Speaker 2: I worked with were authentic in their own way. Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: One of the early bands, bon Jovie. Two weeks into
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  Speaker 1: your gig, you hear a song on a Long Island
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  Speaker 1: radio station that you couldn't get out of your head.
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  Speaker 1: And it was called Runaway by a kid from Sarahville,
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  Speaker 1: New Jersey. It wasn't a band yet, It's just John
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  Speaker 1: bon Jovi shared with us some of the story of
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  Speaker 1: signing bon Jovi.
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  Speaker 2: Well, I heard the song run Away on the radio
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  Speaker 2: and I thought, damn this said what a great song
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  Speaker 2: it was? And it was. It was a song that
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  Speaker 2: John was able to get on the sampler of music
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  Speaker 2: local music in New York and it was called Johnny Bonjiovi.
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  Speaker 2: But I kept hearing this on this radio station W
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  Speaker 2: A P P. And I said, Wow, this is this?
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  Speaker 2: What is the song? And when it came on, I
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  Speaker 2: just did just inquiries, uh, and I heard from that
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  Speaker 2: he was represented by a lawyer in Philadelphia. I called
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  Speaker 2: Arthur Mann. I got in touch with him and he said,
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  Speaker 2: he has this sis kid. He's he's working at the
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  Speaker 2: power station for a second cousin, Tony brod Jovi. H
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  Speaker 2: And he recorded this song with some session guys. Do
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  Speaker 2: you want to hear more? I've got a demo of
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  Speaker 2: his stuff and I said I'd love to hear it.
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  Speaker 2: And he brought the demo and uh, there were really
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  Speaker 2: good songs. You know, I thought, who the hell is?
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  Speaker 2: So I said I'd love to meet John and uh,
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  Speaker 2: he came over to my office and literally when he
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  Speaker 2: came in, every girl's head turned around.
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  Speaker 1: I'm sure this.
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  Speaker 2: Is like this guy, He's like, he's so good looking
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  Speaker 2: with hair was like, you know, flowing, and boy, the
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  Speaker 2: girls were like wet. I'll just leave it to your man.
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  Speaker 1: Yes, Now, what was on that demo, by the way,
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  Speaker 1: was were songs from that first album like Roulette and.
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  Speaker 2: It was, yeah, songs on that first album.
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  Speaker 1: She don't know me. I think he is on that
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  Speaker 1: original too, Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: Yep, yeah, exactly, yeah, yeah, okay, and uh so when
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  Speaker 2: I sat down and I said, John, you know it's
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  Speaker 2: I saw this and we've got talking about what it was,
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  Speaker 2: who I was, and why I was doing. We were
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  Speaker 2: sitting together and I said, so, what is it? Who
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  Speaker 2: is it you want to be? Because John, you know,
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  Speaker 2: it could be he's so good looking, he could be
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  Speaker 2: a pop star or a rock star or something. I said,
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  Speaker 2: what is it and who is it you want to be?
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  Speaker 2: And he looked, he looked me in the eye and said,
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  Speaker 2: I want to be bigger than Elvis. And when he
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  Speaker 2: said that, you could take it two ways or three ways.
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  Speaker 2: He's I'm being pumped or or he's just saying that
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  Speaker 2: because that's what he had to say, because he's in
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  Speaker 2: sing with this guy, you know. But no, this came.
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  Speaker 2: I could tell that this was this was something in
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  Speaker 2: his head that no one was going to stop him
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  Speaker 2: if he's given a chance. And I believed him, and
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  Speaker 2: and he was putting this band together. And I saw
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  Speaker 2: a couple of shows. Richie joined the band, and he
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  Speaker 2: had he had a couple of other guys from Jersey, Yeah, Tico, Alec, Alec,
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  Speaker 2: Dave Brian, you know, Dave Raspell at the time, a
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  Speaker 2: couple of showcases. And I said to my boss, I'm
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  Speaker 2: gonna sign him because I knew that the potential was
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  Speaker 2: that they weren't amazing when they started, but and you
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  Speaker 2: know they they they had all the elements that I
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  Speaker 2: knew that it would it would take to make them
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  Speaker 2: make it work. I introduced them to Doc McGee and
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  Speaker 2: we recorded the first album in the power station.
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  Speaker 1: Did you see a chemistry between John and Richie?
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  Speaker 2: That was it? That was when he got Richie. That
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  Speaker 2: was you know, you in every band in the rock genre,
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  Speaker 2: there's always you have to have. You know, there's you know,
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  Speaker 2: there's a Joe Perry and Steven Tyler, there's Mick Jagger
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  Speaker 2: and Keith Richards, John bon Jovi and Richie sam Boro.
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  Speaker 2: That was perfect. His choice of Richie being in the
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  Speaker 2: band and their choice was perfect. And they were so
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  Speaker 2: good together. Well, the whole was so good.
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  Speaker 1: I know everybody loves Slippery when Wet, which I do too,
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  Speaker 1: but I say it all the time. New Jersey is
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  Speaker 1: right at the top my favorite bond jo of the album.
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  Speaker 1: It's the songs that are not just the singles, it's
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  Speaker 1: the album tracks that are so good.
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  Speaker 2: And that was that well, so you know that was
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  Speaker 2: New Jersey was I mean that sort of Slippery was
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  Speaker 2: the third album and we I introduced him to the
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  Speaker 2: Desmond child. Okay, you know, and you know, I said, John,
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  Speaker 2: how about writing with someone else? Had it been? Had
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  Speaker 2: it been me? Uh? Saying that to me in another band?
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  Speaker 2: And I said, I was going to hell. But John
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  Speaker 2: is very pragmatic. He said, look, you know, if it works,
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  Speaker 2: it works, and it obviously worked and we went to
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  Speaker 2: Vancouver with to do the album with Bruce Fairman, Bob
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  Speaker 2: Rock and Mike Fraser and surpre was was the pre
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  Speaker 2: when was recorded. We put the record out and it
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  Speaker 2: was gigantic.
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  Speaker 1: Desmond wrote you give love a bad name, Living our Prayer,
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  Speaker 1: Living on a Prayer, which I remember John bon Jovi
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  Speaker 1: saying living on a Prayer. I don't think that's going
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  Speaker 1: to be a hit.
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  Speaker 2: Oh no, that's not true.
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  Speaker 1: He didn't say that because I thought he was a
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  Speaker 1: quote that he said, and he's like, boy, was I
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  Speaker 1: was I wrong?
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  Speaker 2: That's you know, that's history read in a different fashion. However,
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  Speaker 2: he did tell me that when he wrote I was
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  Speaker 2: listening to the demos, he said, this song I think
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  Speaker 2: will be a classic, not not a Living on a
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  Speaker 2: Prayer is one to dead or alive. Yeah, I've got
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  Speaker 2: this song and I'm sure, it's going to be this,
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  Speaker 2: This will be our classic, you know, and he's all wrong.
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  Speaker 1: Oh no, that's a he's a classic now, he said.
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  Speaker 1: John was never arrogant, but he knew how to play hardball.
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  Speaker 1: You found this out when he asked for a separate deal.
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  Speaker 1: He wanted a separate deal, not a band contract.
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  Speaker 2: You know. That surprised me actually, you know, because it
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  Speaker 2: was a band. I mean, he was putting his band together,
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  Speaker 2: and when I put my our band together, we shared everything.
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  Speaker 2: But he, you know, he was he was smart. I mean,
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  Speaker 2: you know he was he was a leader, and you
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  Speaker 2: know when I thought about it, you know, it was
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  Speaker 2: him putting the band together. He did run away you know,
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  Speaker 2: with other players. And so in certain respect, I was
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  Speaker 2: surprised that that a band's a band for me, but
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  Speaker 2: you know, it was John's band, but it was a
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  Speaker 2: band still, and so the other guy's got different kinds
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  Speaker 2: of deals. But that when he said that, it was like, well,
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  Speaker 2: let's are you sure that's going to work? John? He said, look,
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  Speaker 2: that's what I want. And you know what, I went
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  Speaker 2: along with