Latest / Going The Distance: The Rocky Series Podcast / Robert Tepper Interview
Transcript
- 0:00*music* 00:07 --> 00:17 *music* 00:17 --> 00:39 *music* 00:39 --> 00:41 Hey, Reuben. Hey, Ryan. 00:41 --> 00:45 We got our earbuds in and we tried calling Robert Tepper on his cell phone. 00:45 --> 00:51 No answer. He wasn't anxiously awaiting our phone calls, we'd hoped. 00:51 --> 00:56 So we're gonna keep trying. We'll try dialing right now, live on the air. 00:56 --> 01:02 Unfortunately, you won't be able to hear his side of the conversation, but you'll hear ours. 01:02 --> 01:03 We'll see if... 01:03 --> 01:05 Oh, don't show the number. 01:05 --> 01:08 We don't want Tepper mania happening there. 01:08 --> 01:13 So let's try again. We'll just... Again, you won't hear his side of the conversation right now. 01:13 --> 01:15 We'll put a speaker. 01:15 --> 01:16 Oh, we're gonna put a speaker? 01:16 --> 01:17 Yeah. 01:17 --> 01:18 Oh, we're gonna put a... 01:18 --> 01:19 I guess, yeah. 01:19 --> 01:21 It's just easier to put back in. 01:21 --> 01:22 *music* 01:22 --> 01:23 It's all the way up? 01:23 --> 01:25 *music* 01:25 --> 01:26 Robert Tepper. 01:26 --> 01:28 Robert Tepper. We're dialing for... 01:28 --> 01:33 If he think he can get on this podcast, let me tell you, there's no easy way out. 01:33 --> 01:36 There's no easy way out of this. We're gonna keep calling and calling until he blocks our number, I guess. 01:36 --> 01:38 *music* 01:38 --> 01:40 You have reached the voicemail box of... 01:40 --> 01:41 You can. 01:41 --> 01:42 *music* 01:42 --> 01:43 You can. 01:43 --> 01:44 *music* 01:44 --> 01:45 Alright. 01:45 --> 01:47 We'll try again and... *music* 01:47 --> 01:49 So, uh... 01:49 --> 01:51 Okay, well he might just be busy. 01:51 --> 01:54 We lost all our viewers because Tepper wouldn't go in the line. 01:54 --> 01:57 We wouldn't lose all. Just half. 01:57 --> 01:59 Anyways, so this would be a little... 01:59 --> 02:01 Trying to reconnect. 02:01 --> 02:03 A little Tepper, um... intro? 02:03 --> 02:11 Yeah, so we're trying to get on the line with Robert Tepper. We've tried twice now. No response on his end. He could be in the middle of a call with some other... 02:11 --> 02:13 Podcast or interview or... 02:13 --> 02:14 Pat Benatar. 02:14 --> 02:15 Pat Benatar. 02:15 --> 02:21 Or, uh, the Scotty Brothers, uh, company, or, uh, for Cobra 2 soundtrack. 02:21 --> 02:24 Iron Butterfly. Hey, they talked about doing a Cobra 2. 02:24 --> 02:25 Yeah. 02:25 --> 02:26 They can talk about anything, really. 02:26 --> 02:28 Cobra 2 was talked about. 02:28 --> 02:29 But, like, recently. 02:29 --> 02:33 Oh, recently. I know it was first... it was gonna happen years ago, Cobra 2. 02:33 --> 02:36 I wonder if it would be an angel of... who knows what. 02:36 --> 02:39 But, anyway, so we're... we'll try one more time. 02:39 --> 02:42 Again, this is us trying to get a hold of Robert Tepper on the line. 02:42 --> 02:46 Well, let's give it a few more moments. This has been... twice in under five minutes. 02:46 --> 02:49 Yeah, I don't mean... I just don't want to bore our listeners watching this. 02:49 --> 02:53 No, let's just talk all things Tepper. Let's talk all things Tepper. 02:53 --> 02:56 He's a Grammy-nominated, uh, artist. 02:56 --> 03:03 Yes. He... he was nominated for a Grammy with fellow singer Benny Mardons. 03:03 --> 03:07 And together they wrote the Mardons hit ballad, "Into the Night". 03:07 --> 03:09 It earned them both a Grammy nomination. 03:09 --> 03:10 "Into the Night". 03:10 --> 03:11 "Into the Night". 03:11 --> 03:13 "Into the Night". He earned them a Grammy nomination. 03:13 --> 03:18 It was from Robert Mardons album called... we're gonna play a little bit of it. 03:18 --> 03:19 I don't know if I find it. 03:19 --> 03:20 Yeah. 03:20 --> 03:23 Hey, Doug. What's going on? It's Doug, the host of the Rocky Minute Podcast. 03:23 --> 03:27 So, Doug, we're just trying to get a hold of Robert Tepper. He's not answering the phone at the time. 03:27 --> 03:32 We're 99% sure it was a 2 o'clock call on our end. So, we'll keep trying. 03:32 --> 03:35 My reading literacy is pretty high. So, I'd say it's 100%. 03:36 --> 03:38 Oh, it's commercial. Commercial. 03:38 --> 03:42 So, this is just us killing some time here. Maybe we'll use this for the podcast. 03:42 --> 03:45 Hopefully, we get Robert on the line. We'll try one more time, but... 04:02 --> 04:05 Barry Madones, the poor man. Steven Perry. 04:07 --> 04:11 Benny. Benny Mardons. Oh, my apologies. I keep saying Barry. Benny Mardons. 04:11 --> 04:12 Yeah, this is Benny. 04:12 --> 04:14 Yeah, Doug. It's an interesting video. That's for sure. 04:14 --> 04:18 Those who want to look up the video on their own time, it's called "Into the Night" by Benny Mardons and... 04:18 --> 04:20 7.4 million views. 04:20 --> 04:25 And I think Robert Tepper's "No Easy Way Out" has more views than Barry Madones' "Into the Night". 04:25 --> 04:30 But not by much. But we will say, and we wanted to talk about this in the interview with Robert Tepper, 04:30 --> 04:36 that his "No Easy Way Out" song is covered like a thousand times on YouTube. 04:36 --> 04:42 It's crazy how many cover versions there are. His... his Vivo channel has 7.8 million views. 04:42 --> 04:47 Right. But someone else made the video of the song. Right. It's been... 04:47 --> 04:52 And it's got 30 million views. People... Yeah. So... that must tease him off a little bit, eh? 04:52 --> 04:58 Yeah. People made like montage videos out of that song and stuff and it gets more views than his official Vivo channel. 04:58 --> 05:03 But... yeah. So let's try it one more time, Rube. It's been a few minutes. Let's try it one more time. 05:03 --> 05:07 Okay. So we're dialing in for Robert Tepper... three times. This is our third time. 05:07 --> 05:12 I am not a baseball guy, so I'm okay. There's no such thing as a three strikes throughout. 05:12 --> 05:14 It's dialing. We're down again. 05:14 --> 05:43 I'm almost nervous of you. 05:43 --> 06:13 I'm almost nervous. 06:13 --> 06:18 is cool cool as can be right now well we're very excited that you agreed to 06:18 --> 06:21 talk to us do I call you mr. temper or do you call you Robert what do you want 06:21 --> 06:25 us to refer you don't call me Robert I know I'm your eldest it how old are you 06:25 --> 06:31 guys I'm 40 and I'm 42 okay all right so you're it's not like you young boys 06:31 --> 06:40 anymore I got gray hair and a bald head well there you go I don't so yeah we 06:40 --> 06:45 were gonna get about your hair later if that's okay because your hair it's pretty 06:45 --> 06:52 great yeah so Robert my brother and I we run a few podcasts and we weren't too 06:52 --> 06:58 sure which podcast we wanted to kind of like have you on so to speak okay but the 06:58 --> 07:04 main one that we run is the rocky series podcast okay and of course as you can 07:04 --> 07:09 imagine your name and your song no easy way out has come on our show quite a bit 07:09 --> 07:16 okay that's great yeah it is yeah it's fantastic great but we want to just talk 07:16 --> 07:20 to you of course about your life and how you became a singer and I guess your 07:20 --> 07:24 journey during basically your journey to that song because obviously you did just 07:24 --> 07:29 come out of a factory no there there was a journey that Robert Tepper took from the 07:29 --> 07:34 time that you're a little boy to that song we're just kind of curious how did you 07:34 --> 07:38 first find out that you could actually sing like how does that happen when you're 07:38 --> 07:42 like, hey, wait a minute, I can sing here. I got in England because I had an older sister. And you 07:42 --> 07:49 know how older sisters torture their brothers, right? Uh-huh. Yes. So my sister used to sing, 07:49 --> 07:52 like, I'd play some guitar and she'd start singing. I'd start singing and then she'd start 07:52 --> 07:59 singing harmony. And I'd say, hey, this sounds pretty good. And I was like, I don't know, 11 and 07:59 --> 08:04 12, something like that. We were a pretty musical family. My sister was like, kind of, 08:04 --> 08:10 she would go to New York to these dance lessons and I'd listen and we'd sing a little bit. And then 08:10 --> 08:17 by the time I was 13, I was already in bands, kind of local bands. You know, I was pretty shy about 08:17 --> 08:22 singing, but I always used to sing a couple of songs. It kind of started in my garage in Bayonne, 08:22 --> 08:27 New Jersey. Garage Band, that's where they get the name Garage Band. Absolutely. I'm familiar with 08:27 --> 08:32 Bayonne. How do you know Bayonne? I lived there for a couple of years. Not Bayonne, but like, 08:32 --> 08:41 I was going to say Brook City, but Newark. Newark? Yeah. How cool. How cool. What'd you think of Newark? 08:41 --> 08:46 My reference is I live in Victoria, BC and it's beautiful here. Of course. So you realize the 08:46 --> 08:51 armpit I came from. Newark, I just kind of felt like it was like the armpit of America type of. 08:52 --> 08:59 It kind of is. It kind of is. Yeah. You know, and Bayonne's very similar, but smaller. Yeah. I didn't say 08:59 --> 09:06 that to be disrespectful in any way, but. No, no, no. I mean, it's like, if you're used to like big open 09:06 --> 09:12 waters and mountains and beautiful forests, Bayonne is not where you want to grow up. That was my start. 09:12 --> 09:17 You want to start somewhere. Was there an easy way to get out of Bayonne? No, no, there was no easy way 09:17 --> 09:24 out of Bayonne. I used to call it two and a half miles of, no, you don't. No, you can't do this. No, you can't do that. 09:24 --> 09:30 But the only advantage, guys, was there was a small little city right next to Bayonne and 09:30 --> 09:36 it wasn't Jersey City, but it was New York City. Yeah. Yeah. So when you hit 17 years old, 09:36 --> 09:41 you could go there, you could drink, you could do whatever you had to do to go check out the city. 09:41 --> 09:48 Maybe your town closed at 10:30, but the New York City was open all the time. Sure. So we used to go over 09:48 --> 09:54 there and listen to music. We had a lot of great music. Still more East. I grew up, actually, I grew up 09:54 --> 10:00 in a very fortunate time. If you think about it, think of all the music that came through my life 10:00 --> 10:05 at some point. You had the Beatles, you had the Stones, you were in New York, you had one of the 10:05 --> 10:10 first concerts I ever saw. Bill Graham comes out and says, "Oh, the band we were supposed to have to 10:10 --> 10:40 get back and I can't make it. What about this band, Jethro Tull?" Wow. I was really fortunate in the sense that I was able to hear a lot of great music. I was really lucky. You know, you had the Fillmore East, you had all these great clubs, you had CBGB's in New York City, like when the whole punk thing came. Those are pretty big movements. I mean, if you go back and you look at the big movements in music, how many really were they? What was the last one? What would you guys say is the last one? Like Nirvana, maybe? Yeah. You know? Yeah. I mean, that's like a long time ago already. Yeah. 10:40 --> 11:09 So in that sense, it was like a gold name for me. You know, I really got to see, plus the whole folk scene that was going on in New York City, downtown in the village. You're kind of in it. You're feeling inspired. And also, you're a little intimidated because everybody's so like, there's some big stuff happening. That's what I usually talk about in terms of the start, you know? And we'd be in the village and we'd be buying the clothes from England and wearing these long coats, growing our hair down to our ass. You know, it was fun, man. 11:09 --> 11:28 It was fun, man. It was nothing but fun. Fast forward to 87 and all the way till today. You're now an influencer. You've been an influencer and you're now an influencer because there's kids that are like teenagers covering your songs on YouTube. Absolutely. Absolutely. What's that like? 11:28 --> 11:35 I don't know if you're going to believe this. So I kind of got into more of learning engineering and stuff like that. Okay. 11:35 --> 11:56 Because I wanted to be able to record my own stuff and I wanted to be able to record people in a way that was kind of cool and good. I built a studio and I'm still doing it. I'm still messing around with studios and stuff like that. So that was the one thing. I don't know how many years ago I said, you know what? I have all these songs. When I came out with New Life Story, right? 11:56 --> 12:10 So New Life Story is like I always write. You know, I was always a writer. I was a writer first. I got on the map by writing a song with this girl Madeline for Paul Anker. That was the first big thing that ever happened to me in the music business, right? 12:10 --> 12:23 I mean, that's a long time ago. Paul Anker was like before you guys were even born. Then Benny and I had Into the Night, you know, and then Pat Benatar had LaBelle. So I always had my hand in writing. I was continually writing. 12:23 --> 12:41 When I started putting out an album, I started getting on like, well, not Instagram, but Facebook, Twitter. And I started to realize I knew people like No Easy Way Out, but I didn't realize that at some point on Twitter during the day, somebody somewhere is talking about No Easy Way Out. 12:42 --> 12:47 I just did this interview in Germany. I just did this interview on German TV, German radio. 12:47 --> 13:12 I had just finished this interview, right? And I mastered it and I sent it along. I sent it along. Looking for the Love, which is on the new record, right? Staggered. They played it. They freaking played it. So it's in my studio on Thursday. It's on German radio on Friday. You know what I'm saying? I love that. I think that's incredible. That's incredible. 13:12 --> 13:34 And then I get an email the other day that says, hey, I've been in the hospital and you have a song called Hard Concrete that has been truly inspirational to me. You know what I mean? There's a bit of a disconnect. Like, how does that work? Why does that happen? But it's something that does happen and always feels good when I hear about it. You know what I mean? It just does, you know? 13:34 --> 13:48 I would say whatever influence I do have out there as a singer and a songwriter, I'm very happy about. You know, I appreciate it. I wish it was more. You know, I wish it could have been bigger. But it is what it is, you know? 13:48 --> 13:59 Robert, Brian here. Your song, No Easy Way Out, I think is pretty huge. I know you say it wishes more. We actually have some listeners of our show and they have some questions for you. 14:00 --> 14:11 Absolutely. I love that. But before we get to your questions, I have a couple of my own. One of the things that I, as a Stallone fan, I've done, I've done, you know, of course, research and I looked you up on the internet. 14:11 --> 14:20 I saw you on YouTube. There was some discussion in one of your shows where you said that the studio told you. 14:20 --> 14:27 Okay. Actually, before I get to my question, this is, we want to clear the air on this issue and you're the one, you're the one that's going to clear the air. 14:28 --> 14:36 So, No Easy Way Out, was that, that was written before you ever met Stallone. Is that true or not? 14:36 --> 14:38 Absolutely. Absolutely. 14:38 --> 14:46 First, tell us how you wrote the song, what it's about, and then tell us the true story behind the scenes on how that song became part of the Rocky IV soundtrack. 14:47 --> 14:55 Here's the way it went down. I'm in New York and I'm shopping my first record deal. I'll try to keep it as concise as I can. I won't give you like every little inference. 14:55 --> 15:05 I'm like cutting out box tops from cereals so I can get a flight. I'm so, so the keyboard. And me and my friend Guy Marshall, who's the guitar player on No Easy Way Out. 15:05 --> 15:06 Okay. 15:06 --> 15:09 We go to LA, trying to get my first record deal. 15:09 --> 15:09 Okay. 15:10 --> 15:24 And were a lot of the songs already written for my first record? I'm not going to say all of them, but some of them were. So I'm there writing and I did some demos. I did some demos for Capitol. So No Easy Way Out, not in the picture yet. Okay. 15:24 --> 15:37 I'm going around and my big thing is I just don't give a damn what people think of me. You know what I mean? I'm going to jump on their desk. Do you remember those dolls, those squeegee dolls that the eyes used to pop out when you squeezed them? 15:37 --> 15:37 Yeah. 15:37 --> 16:00 Right. I would use that as a microphone. I'd jump up on their desk and sing my demo to them. And I think the demo was, I think Soul Survivor was on there. I'm looking through you by the Beatles. I did a version of it. And there was one other song. I come back from LA. I'm all happy. My friend and I say, we did it, man. We've got a record deal. Da, da, da, da, da. 16:00 --> 16:00 Okay. 16:01 --> 16:19 Scotty Brothers gets the soundtrack with Survivor. They get the soundtrack to this. I'm working on my first record with Joe Ciccarelli and Guy Marshall and Dan Huff. You know who Dan is? You know Dan is like Dan played guitars. He's like a huge producer down in Nashville now. 16:19 --> 16:19 Okay. 16:19 --> 16:31 We're making this record and Stallone has a meeting with Scotty Brothers. Here's No Easy Way Out and flips the fuck out. Okay. Just goes absolutely nuts. He goes, 16:31 --> 16:48 I need this song in my movie. I want this song in my movie. How many songs do you know from beginning to end that song is in the movie? There's no like we fade up from the minute that door hits and you start hearing that drum beat with the double intro. It's over. 16:48 --> 17:02 He's playing this thing for the whole thing. His love of that song, man. And it shows him how he feels like he pretty much did the video. It was a video. You remember what was really important at that time was MTV was pretty new. 17:03 --> 17:03 You know? 17:03 --> 17:03 Yeah. 17:03 --> 17:29 And people were working that into their movies. Like what do movies do? They always take the latest thing and steal it. Stallone pretty much made their video for them. They threw me in some of it. They shot it. So when that came out, but I couldn't release my record, which kind of hurt me a bit, you know, because I had other songs on the record. I wanted to get Soul Survivor. If that's what you call loving, we never even got to. To me, it was a hit at that point. Would have been. 17:29 --> 17:31 Does that clear up anything to you guys? 17:31 --> 17:52 Yeah. There was one conversation I think you had in an earlier interview where you said that Stallone had a, his intention was to have a belled at that montage scene where after Apollo dies and drives his car, because that's where your video or your song is. Was there any discussion about you talking to him about not having a belled in that part of the movie? 17:52 --> 17:57 No, no, no. I got to tell you, he came down to the studio to talk to me, and I sat with him. 17:57 --> 18:01 The night Rocky Fool was released, I was lucky enough to sit at his table. 18:02 --> 18:06 And it was truly an honor. He's always been nothing but very nice to me. 18:06 --> 18:12 Always been a real gentleman to me. Very, very thankful he was saying at that point, 18:12 --> 18:15 you're next, you're going to be huge, da-da-da-da-da-da-da. 18:15 --> 18:20 That was my relationship with him, you know, and I used to see him in the clubs in New York every now and then. 18:20 --> 18:23 We didn't hang out in the same circles. I know Frank a bit. I see Frank. 18:24 --> 18:29 Only discussion was that he was really happy with No Easy, and that's what he wanted it to be. 18:29 --> 18:35 I mean, he might have thought of doing a ballad here, but as far as I was concerned, once that song entered his brain, he was done. 18:35 --> 18:36 That's what he wanted. 18:37 --> 18:40 Robert, where were you when you first saw Rocky? 18:40 --> 18:45 Okay, so here we are. I'm at the Westwood Marquee in L.A., and I'm at the opening. 18:46 --> 18:52 There's red carpet, and we're walking in, and that's the first time I saw it, and I'm like blown away. 18:53 --> 18:57 I am like, I can't believe he's, the whole song's in the movie. I was like blown away. 18:57 --> 19:01 Because you really don't know anything until you see it. You really, you have no idea. 19:02 --> 19:03 Absolutely. That would be mind-blowing. 19:04 --> 19:09 For the original Rocky, the one that was released in 76, did you see that in the theater? 19:10 --> 19:13 The original, the original, I saw that in New York City. 19:13 --> 19:13 Okay. 19:14 --> 19:18 With no idea that I was going to be part of that franchise. No idea. 19:18 --> 19:29 And that's the amazing thing, Robert, is you are a part of this franchise, and I read comments on YouTube underneath the many, many, many, many, many versions of your song has been used out there. 19:29 --> 19:38 And people just can't get enough of your song. And this is 30 odd years later, and it's just as fresh and as inspiring for people. 19:38 --> 19:44 But you, the author and the singer, what's your, what, how do you, how do you feel about all this? 19:44 --> 19:48 It's always fun to perform. It's a great energy song. People absolutely love it. 19:48 --> 20:03 I just did an acoustic version that is going to be on my next record. I'm tempted to almost send it to you. I may send you, but it's not officially released. So I don't know. Let me see how it goes. Okay. If you send me an email, maybe I'll send you an empty free. 20:04 --> 20:09 Oh, we'd be thrilled and we'd be honored to have that exclusive. 20:09 --> 20:12 It has been played in Germany already. Maybe to your Rocky fans. 20:12 --> 20:22 I know that our fans would love to love to hear. In fact, somebody actually asked us if you, they said, try to ask if you'll play the acoustic guitar for you over the phone. That's actually what one of our listeners that. 20:22 --> 20:25 Oh, that's really nice. But I'd rather send you this. 20:25 --> 20:26 Oh, that's fine. 20:26 --> 20:38 You know, I'm sitting here in a dusty room with equipment all around me, ripped apart. We're setting up the new place like right next door. So it's a little crazy here. It's a little crazy here. But don't forget to send me an email address. 20:38 --> 20:39 Okay. 20:39 --> 20:50 Somewhere I can send you the MP3. It's not like I focused on it that much. So when I started to realize that it was a big song for people, I'm proud of being part of that franchise. I mean, I'm very lucky. 20:50 --> 21:04 One of our listeners, John, says, question from him actually kind of sums up what a lot of people feel. He goes, what's it like to be part of the greatest montage ever and knowing that the rest of the cinematic universe will never catch up? Is it lonely as a thought? 21:06 --> 21:20 I love it. That's hilarious. That is so funny. That's really funny. Well, what you guys, what I keep reminding you is like, that was popular in that day. So it's so funny. They don't really do it anymore. 21:20 --> 21:30 Not that music is important. I just really happened to hit a time where that montage thing was really huge. And again, I always credit it to MTV. 21:30 --> 21:31 Sure. 21:31 --> 21:47 That it was part of that whole, like, oh, MTV's here. Movies are going to latch onto that. And then you say that most fire. Flashdance. Kevin Bacon movies. Footloose. And there's a ton of them. But it's kind of faded, I think. I don't know. Maybe I'm wrong. 21:47 --> 22:07 The music video today is not the same as it used to be. When you filmed the No Easy Way Out video and you were stuck in the cage. And was that your personal direction to flail around as you did and your hair flat? I love your hair, by the way, in that video. It's incredibly... 22:07 --> 22:09 Well, it's not like that anymore. 22:09 --> 22:17 No, I've seen your recent performance today. And you... Your wife can go in public with you now, I think, is... 22:17 --> 22:20 It's fair to say, right? Fair to say. 22:21 --> 22:25 When did you get the hair cut? Like, when did that happen? Was it gradual or it was all at once? 22:25 --> 22:34 I had long hair in high school. Yeah, people do it now, but it was such a rebel thing. You know, we were like hippies. I would get pulled over because I had long hair. 22:34 --> 22:35 Wow. 22:35 --> 22:37 I mean, that's what it was like. So... 22:37 --> 22:46 That hair was like a symbol of being like a rebel. You know, having the long hair in those days was, like, important to me. There was no way I was not going to have that hair. 22:47 --> 22:47 Of course. 22:47 --> 22:54 Because that's who I was, man. If you were a rocker and you had any attitude at all, you were going to have your hair as long as you possibly could. 22:54 --> 22:56 You were on American Bandstand. What was that like? 22:56 --> 23:03 Yes. American Bandstand was interesting. It was an interesting day. I'm not going to say it was my favorite day. 23:03 --> 23:03 Sure. 23:03 --> 23:31 I got to meet Dick Clark. You're mouthing the words to the song. You know what I mean? You're not really performing the song. I would say it interested me. I was glad I did it. It was good for promotion and stuff like that. It was okay. I thought Solid Gold was better. I got to perform with Dan Huff and Deonna Warwick got to introduce me and stuff like that. I thought that was a little more fun. It just felt a little more corporate. Bandstand was like... I know it has such great history. 23:31 --> 23:42 Right. But you just kind of got in there. You kind of had the fan behind you. You lip-synced the words. They got you off of there. You're out. It's gone. Not much of a vibe for the place. 23:43 --> 23:55 One question that we asked, we kind of forgot to go back to, and somebody in our chat just asked us to ask you, is what is No Easy Way Out? When you wrote that, what was the message to... What was the story? 23:55 --> 24:05 The story was about a relationship, right? About a marriage. And someone breaking up a marriage that had gone on for a while. I was leaving my first wife. Okay. 24:05 --> 24:16 You know, and so it was pretty intense for me. Two kids. And I was pretty broken up about that and how that was going to all work. I had my demons. I had my things that were difficult for me. 24:17 --> 24:21 Your biggest hit, like a lot of artists, is based on tragedy. 24:22 --> 24:33 Yes. In a sense, yes. At that time, that was the question. That was the biggest question on my mind. You know, how was that going to work? How was that going to work for me? How was that going to work for my family? How was all that going to be? 24:33 --> 24:40 You're writing about that stuff. You're writing about your feelings. You're writing about things. I mean, not everybody. I mean, there are great writers that don't do that. 24:40 --> 24:40 Sure. 24:40 --> 24:54 But I don't come from that school. You know, I'm usually writing about... It doesn't have to be about me. It could be something I can relate to. But usually, it has something to do with some kind of emotions going on inside of me. 24:55 --> 24:57 Did you ever hear what your ex-wife thinks? 24:57 --> 25:19 Interesting. We've never sat down and talked about that. I've got to be honest with you. Do I see you every now and then? I still have two wonderful boys. You know, my boy was here last week, who was around at that time with that song, you know, when he was a young kid. But nah, nah, we've never sat down and talked about that. That would probably be painful to her. 25:19 --> 25:20 Sure. 25:20 --> 25:21 Or just not nice. 25:22 --> 25:23 Right. 25:23 --> 25:25 We don't want to bring all that up again. 25:26 --> 25:27 No, no, no. But I'm sure... 25:27 --> 25:28 That's when all that stayed buried. 25:28 --> 25:38 Yes, it's interesting how, like, in Simone's life, he was, you know, at a time of his life where he was... what he felt was the worst part of his life, and he created the Rocky films, and... 25:39 --> 25:39 Mm-hmm. 25:39 --> 25:49 You were in a dark time in your life, and you created one of the most iconic songs in movie history. It's just that's kind of where that creative spark can come from sometimes, is when we're in our... 25:49 --> 25:49 Absolutely. 25:50 --> 25:50 Yeah. 25:50 --> 26:04 Absolutely. Everybody could be in the pits, but what comes out on the other side is something that's really magical and inspiring in a strange kind of way. It's kind of cool that way. We need those outlets. Maybe that's what keeps us sane, keeps us going. 26:04 --> 26:07 Have you and Survivor ever got together? 26:07 --> 26:14 Back in the day, the last time I saw them, I want to say the lead singer, really nice guy... 26:14 --> 26:16 Passed away, didn't he, the singer? 26:16 --> 26:39 He did. He did. He did. And we kind of connected. We were at a promotional concert for CBS in San Francisco with Boss Gang's James Brown. Him and I kind of started talking and stuff like that. And he... I had nothing but respect for him. He was a really sweet guy. And a great voice. I mean, just a really great voice. 26:39 --> 26:47 Yeah, they had Dave Bickler was lead vocals at the start of the band until the time of the Eye of the Tiger song came out. So I don't know. He may... I think he... 26:47 --> 26:51 Yeah, who's the lead singer on Eye of the Tiger? It's him. His voice is amazing. 26:51 --> 27:04 His name is Dave Bickler. That's his name. But I know they had a new singer after him. It's either Jim Petternich or Dave Bickler, according to Wikipedia's first album. But that's okay. 27:04 --> 27:04 Whew. 27:04 --> 27:10 Yeah. Okay. Why am I spacing on it? Survivor, right? We're talking about Survivor? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. 27:11 --> 27:32 One of the hardest things for me was that Scotty Brothers never sent me out on tour. Would not put up the money for it. Would not. Refused. I had a lot of energy live. But it never happened until much later. You know, I've done more gigs now at this age than I did back then. Very sad for me. Not cool. 27:33 --> 27:43 I wanted to say, Robert, I saw some YouTube clips of you performing in recent years, like the last year or two. And unlike a lot of people, no offense, at your age, you can sing. 27:43 --> 28:01 Yeah. You can still... You got the pipes. I still can. Yeah? You got the pipes. I can still do it. I got a couple of pipes. I do. I do. I can still do it. I can still do it. I can still do it. And enjoy it. I have a lot of fun doing it. It's just a lot. It's just... When it's going well, there's nothing like it. Still a lot of fun. 28:01 --> 28:04 Speaking of a lot of fun, this episode has been a lot of fun to do. 28:05 --> 28:11 I thought we covered some good ground. Do you have any other questions, like from any listeners or anything like that? 28:11 --> 28:17 Yeah. We have one. One person wanted to know how the song for Cobra came up. Because that was from... Oh, yeah, yeah. Cobra. 28:17 --> 28:35 Cobra was Angel of the City. Right. That's right. And he was going to try to do the whole thing again with the video and the whole thing and kind of... Then Bridget Nielsen was in it. But the movie didn't do that well. It came out and kind of flopped. Now it's still kind of a little bit culty. You know what I mean? Yeah. 28:35 --> 28:42 People watch it and kind of like get into it and stuff. It's a very strong following. And your song is again brought up as a highlight of that film. 28:43 --> 28:58 Yeah, well, it fits well in there. And it was kind of cool. And it was kind of a very visual song. Yeah, I was doing a show somewhere. I forget. And we were running short on time. And I left out Angel of the City. And people were like, what? What? What are you doing? 29:01 --> 29:13 All right. Take it easy. Take it easy. We'll get it in there. Well, thanks. Thank you, Robert. Thanks, guys. You guys are really starting a really good... How often do you do the podcast? You're going to send me a copy? 29:14 --> 29:23 Yeah. Yeah, we'll send you the link when this episode comes out. And I want to say for open disclosure, we've had a running joke. We pretend to be mad at you for... 29:23 --> 29:35 I'm glad you like it. So it's been an ongoing joke through our Rocky IV coverage where you interrupt our show with your music. 29:36 --> 29:36 Oh, yeah. 29:36 --> 29:51 Where we say that you made Rocky IV and not Stallone and things like that. We just want to let you know that it's all good fun. And so a lot of our listeners have been looking forward to this episode of you coming on. You've been nothing but gracious and kind and open with your stories. And we appreciate that. 29:52 --> 29:59 Well, thank you so much. And if you ever need me to do any ideas or do some verbal interruptions, I will. If I'm taking something funny. 30:00 --> 30:03 That'd be awesome. I would love that. Thank you so much, Robert. 30:03 --> 30:06 That's great. Okay, guys. Thank you so much, man. 30:06 --> 30:08 Thank you, Robert. Cheers. Thank you. 30:09 --> 30:09 Bye-bye. 30:09 --> 30:10 Bye. 30:10 --> 30:22 Well, there you go, guys. That was Robert Tepper from the Rocky IV soundtrack, No Easy Way Out, and the Cobra soundtrack, Angel of the City. He was very kind. Sorry for the audio quality on the cell phones. 30:23 --> 30:27 Again, Mr. Tepper, thank you so much for your time. You were gracious. And it looks like we buried the hatchet, Ruben. 30:28 --> 30:29 Have we, though? 30:29 --> 30:29 Yeah. 30:31 --> 31:00 Looks like Robert has been kind and gracious to us. We're at the barrier of Robert Tepper hatchet. He didn't lose his Tepper on us. He didn't. So, Robert, good luck with all the future stuff. And again, I just want to reiterate how influential that song has been in people's lives. You can't watch Rocky IV without getting excited for that Lamborghini Countach scene when he revs up the engine, the drumbeat kicks in, and Robert Tepper's voice screams. It's just, I don't know. Riven, any closing thoughts before we close? 31:00 --> 31:01 Ding, ding. 31:29 --> 31:33 Some feelings never die. 31:34 --> 31:38 I'm not asking for another chance. 31:38 --> 31:42 I just want to know why. 31:43 --> 31:47 There's no easy way out. 31:48 --> 31:52 There's no shortcut home. 31:52 --> 31:56 There's no easy way out. 31:58 --> 32:01 Giving in can't be wrong. 32:02 --> 32:04 I don't want to pacify you. 32:05 --> 32:07 No, I don't want to drag. 32:07 --> 32:10 I don't want to drag you down. 32:10 --> 32:13 But I'm feeling like a prisoner. 32:14 --> 32:19 Like a stranger in a no-name town. 32:20 --> 32:23 I see all the angry faces. 32:24 --> 32:27 Afraid that could be you and me. 32:27 --> 32:32 Talking about what might happen. 32:33 --> 32:37 Thinking about what used to be. 32:37 --> 32:42 Oh, there's no easy way out. 32:42 --> 32:46 There's no shortcut home. 32:47 --> 32:50 There's no easy way out. 32:50 --> 32:59 Giving in can't be wrong. 32:59 --> 33:09 Baby, baby, baby. 33:09 --> 33:10 Instead of going down the road. 33:10 --> 33:14 Instead of going down and down this road. 33:14 --> 33:17 Not knowing if we're dead or not knowing if we're dead or alive. 33:17 --> 33:22 Some things are worth fighting for. 33:22 --> 33:27 Some feelings never die. 33:27 --> 33:32 I'm not asking for another chance. 33:32 --> 33:32 I'm not asking for another chance. 33:32 --> 33:34 I just want to know. 33:34 --> 33:40 Oh, there's no easy way out. 33:40 --> 33:49 Giving in can't be wrong. 33:49 --> 33:54 Giving in can't be wrong. 33:54 --> 33:59 Giving in can't be wrong. 33:59 --> 34:04 Giving in can't be wrong. 34:04 --> 34:09 Oh, there's no easy way out. 34:09 --> 34:15 Giving in can't be wrong. 34:15 --> 34:16 Oh, there's no easy way out. 34:16 --> 34:16 Giving in can't be wrong. 34:16 --> 34:17 Oh, there's no easy way out.