Inner-View; Interview with Paul Anka

You. The interview with your host Charles soup and. And the show is about what about a teenager who grew up I guess and maybe that speaks for all of us. Paul Anka Hello. Hello. Larry. Maybe if the show is about anything it's about Door ability in this business and and I don't mean this in a derogatory sense at all but I you have a surprise that you've lasted as long as you have. And knowing that there are the fickle nature of of audiences and the fickle nature of the business. Yes there was a point there where I was somewhat suspect to the business and then I realized that you could be talented you could be very qualified but changing environments and people's needs and as you

say fickle public. Really can stop you. I think once you have a communication with your audience and you have a sense of what the pulse is then you have a little more of a feeling of what the reality is and what you have to do to remain but there's always that one little area for all of us that you say to yourself Well you know maybe that's it. In terms of the the lifestyle I'm accustomed to in the business as opposed to lifestyle in a private way. It is a very very volatile business and so how do you feel how do you find the pulse of an audience and. What you have to you have to have communication I think communication in any aspect when you're running a business or in life I think what it lacks today is the human element. And as busy as I get I find that if I stand vald And keep in touch with people and kind of really take care of my craft and know that I'm I'm doing something that's got some credibility to it.

It will allow me to stay on top of what is happening and that's conversing with people that's you know reading reviews or critical overly critical whether they be pro or con working with new people that have objective viewpoints about what you do and really finding out where you're at and what it takes to to improve what you're doing whether it be musically within the realm of records or in a performance and somewhere in all of that you can come out with a good result so that you can grow I think the main thing is to grow and to feel that response and that reward from the public. It's tough enough to be objective about ourselves in any line of work. It seems to me it would almost be impossible to be objective about your kind of work. How can you look at yourself object we use and it's very difficult I think. Time and maturity seem to. Work for you because it's

it is difficult when you have to as an artist take care of your creative life and then realise that you are running a business at the same time that you have to hire qualified people and in all of that in that decision making. To be objective when you're dealing really subliminally or consciously with Eagle which is a very dangerous element which can go either way especially for artistic people in terms of the power trip that's involved it's very difficult for many artists. I've sensed many feelings in that area and it's it's amazing how you have to catch yourself at times to really get away from the security blankets from the yes people the areas in which you fall back in and comfort position based upon something that's working for you when in fact that's the time you should change. It is not an easy element to deal with and you've got to be very very

astute about assessing that at times and knowing yourself because most of us performers are not what you'd call super intellectual people I mean we are street people self-taught. And one of the. Terrible things that goes on in this business is that the public and media make idols out of a lot of us and we tend to believe it. A lot of artists will and do and we don't really deserve it I mean we're artists and we're children and some of us are a little more mature than others. But by and large we can't deal with that success and that takes a very very careful kind of policing to save yourself at times. You you're not you're New Yorkers and. Do you remember back in the old days of New York and waiting on line for this rascal as a kid. Do you remember.

I certainly built the paramount. You know DNA. That's right. Right. Thank you. What was beautiful about the lyrics a beautiful and that when he sang it sounded like he was singing to you you know were you singing too if I remember correctly it was your sister's babysitter. Yes it was a it was the babysitter for my sister and my older brother and you wrote the song. Yes I was madly in love with her but she wanted nothing to do with me and then I could get her attention was like every other poet Now you were at what age you just I was 14 years old going to Fisher Park High School and weren't you writer. Ottawa Canada. So here you have 14 year old you have a song that you think a lot of you know what. Anyone looking at you would show you who cares. Oh. I don't mean the closet. How do you sell a song like that.

You try very hard to fail a lot and finally you get lucky when you go to New York. The first time I went to New York which was a contest I entered for Campbell Soup collected soup wrappers and the shipping to New York City I said this is it this is what I've got to come and sell my music. And when I arrived in New York the following year I made appointments at new record companies who were looking for new talent. And besides a little tenacity and believing I got very lucky and don't cost a very talented man and someone who was able to take this rough little diamond and work with it he listened to me and said there's something there. And he heard this song and worked with me for a couple of months when the studio. And that was the beginning of my record career. And they're incredible people. Did I ask you something through all you write beautiful music. But tell me your lyrics. Where do they come from. Lord you know who we are thinking about sides babysitters.

Yeah yeah thinking of lovely lyrics. Well maybe we should start from the beginning on that and could you would give us an idea of the creative process. Sure what comes first how you do it. Well the creative process is very interesting. I you know I started in school as a writer I've always wanted to write and how I started writing music I wanted to be a journalist something to do with writing and I want to work for two short stories that I wrote one and happen again and the other on the state of the music industry in Canada. And in wanting to take this course in Ottawa. They put me in a class with forty two girls and a couple of other friends of mine two guys and I took shorthand and typing and I started typing and I typed about 50 60 words a minute now and I realized that while in that class I didn't like shorthand so they put me music took music and I started into music. And it's a very interesting process. Something very very lonely I mean you're there by yourself you're dealing with with with this and

it's what's in here and it's what you observe that's what you're feeling here. And you you have to sit and wait for the rush that you sense is is it what you want to say but in a different way and also has some substance to it. My hours vary. Grown through the years I've grown out of the concept of early morning writing for maybe seven to ten to two in the morning till 5:00. And some early morning writing. It's observation of subjects that are of interest to me and I feel are equatable for the public. I'm a people's writer. I don't write for a group of pseudo intellectuals I don't try to top what I've done the last time and I'll go from my way too. She's a lady because Tom Jones needs a song. I try not to lose touch with the public in songs that they can relate to her. I try

and write about things that are personal to me. I refused to hand out a pamphlet every time I write a song with a record because I think a lot of songs like a lot of things should be left to the imagination I think that's part of the magic to it. I feel that you have to write quality type music today. Though. I am a fan of all kinds of music and I think that the wider range the music is I think the healthier it is as long as it doesn't go backwards. I think a lot of the punk rock today is leaves a lot to be desired. But I like to write quality type songs that people can relate to and that has always been my my desire and subjects that are interesting. Do you keep a pad and pencil next to the bed just in case. Years ago we had only a pad and pencil when we didn't have obviously the sophisticated methods of today in the sense of small tape recorders and I mean soon you can take a pill and think about it.

You know it's getting is unbelievable how you can just retain any kind of creative output pad and pencil tape machine all sizes of tape machines because today to rise of something is vital if it's catchy and. I try and keep a pad and pencil all the time but basically a tape machine which is very very important to us today. Plus I have a studio in my house no record studio so that if I do get an idea I can go right down and record in my house and make a professional record. It's a 24 track we have a drum machine today that can make the sound of drums we have a keyboard instrument this large which we can sit and do trumpets violins create a whole orchestra literally one person and complete a record many records to a year in the radio are made with one person a keyboard object which will computerized every instrument and a drum machine and you've got to record the sounds it was cut with the London Philharmonic. It's amazing. The song for the

Kodak commercial times of your life. How did that come about. Kodak wanted to. Do a commercial which had an astrology feeling to it which pertain to family to yesterday and they had a certain concept in mind and they approached me and I'd never done a commercial I had been approached to do commercials for hamburgers for my way and going our way and I've never really been into commercials I just think an overexposure in that area is really detrimental. Kodak I think is a substantial company. I felt that if I were ever to do one key commercial which I had to do with with everyone in the world it was Kodak they're certainly one of the most important. I liked the concept and I did it. That was my one and only commercial. I just like the premise of it. What I mean when you say overexposure the worries about it I think. Performers have to very careful in that it's not unlike the equation of politics I think. The in a group of people who really know let's say in Washington I mean you

just can't jump from every candidate just so that you can be in with a political group it's the same with with with commercials and you cannot be seen eight times a week selling one soft drink and then to another and then to another because you're really doing it just for the money and I just think that it's it's too overexposed I think the public does react to people that they see too much like they would see a television star who is so hot who may come to Vegas or somewhere else and they just say well I got him for nothing. I just think that the wrong kind of exposure for a career of longevity can be detrimental. And I just don't think it's right to kind of prostitute yourself with a lot of different commercials and that's my own personal viewpoint for myself. And the other songs are come to mind. Oh is it not every day you get interviewed by a Scooter Scooter and all that. Paul we have a question to ask you scoot is very fascinated by one name artist that a recognizable marquee value. Yes like a Sammy here and you know

others some acca that when you have your name on the marquee and it says I go when you want to stage a night do you have that tingling sensation that you can't live up to your name because psychologically you you've done it over the years and exactly how do you feel when you go out to perform. Well I first of all I used my own name. I mean Paul Anka it's never Paul it's never the. The attitude I have for performing. I go out to do the best I can as a creative professional person. It's very hard for me to really articulate what everyone is feeling in the audience and where they have me and what they expect so I approach it as going out to do the best I can and not try to get to POW noite about living up to whatever that is I think I don't. Really use a lot of gimmicks. I mean I haven't been a gimmick performer in terms of.

Merchandising so I don't have those kind of concerns when I go out and work. It's it's it's an occupation that's a lot of fun for me that I'm very professional and caring about and one that I nurture very well and I don't really have to concern myself with with that kind of approach to it. Tell us your name your full name Jose nuñez Jose you know of course but maybe you don't know is Paul Anka is a road manager. Hi and thank you for being here. Now what's it really like the scheduling the pacing the getting ready and then all of a sudden you have to move on to the next place I mean what is the wear and tear on an entertainer. It could be sometimes dramatic but for the most part it's a lot of fun to do it and I may point out now that I have been working for Mr. Anka forward for about eight years and you notice I said Mr. Anka I like to call him Mr.

Not because I have to because I feel like the man the server just he doesn't look stuff like that. And I have done this kind of job for eight years now and honestly I don't think I can do it for anybody else only because of the nature of this person here. What are the demands creatively that he puts on all of you. Perfection I would say the race one word to describe it would be would be perfection. Mr. RANKIN demands a lot of perfection from all of these people. From Myself I am mostly involved in the personal aspect of his life. When it comes to the road and the musicians you have to be one of the best in order to be able to play for Mr. Right. And that comes from his background from the fact that throughout all of these years as I was telling him just the other night in a kind of a very friendly conversation with all of these years you never cease to amaze me just how I can go and

see his show after which I've seen him for many many years and it's just it gives me the same fascination and the same feeling and the same warmth that I did when I saw the one I saw for the first time eight years ago and I'll probably be seeing his show for the rest of my life and I will never be tired of it because every show it's different is creative is perfect. It's just I don't have no words to describe it really has to pay to see the show. Right. I mean that's what one of the duties of a of a road manager. Mostly we travel with about 30 to 40 people on the road and sometimes when we do we forget this that it's a whole organization that OK now absolutely all of these people for instance we have technical crew lights and sound and staging and that's about 12 12 to 14 people and that in that area alone. Then you have the

musicians and the conductor and then we have truck drivers and bus drivers and that's when we do one night stands for the most part we usually travel by plane because it's a fast way to get from point to point. But mostly a road manager's job is to make sure that you get there ahead of time and make sure that you kind of ease the way out for the musicians and the technical crew so they can get into the place and set all time for it to have a rehearsal before the show and then I take care of Mr. rankest personal need. He's a rival he owns his own private plane so I have to keep track on where they're going to land when to have a limousine there or to pick him up. Have the hotel ready this we've never a thing the type of things that keep you going twenty seven hours a day. When we come back we'll try and pick up on this incredibly hectic schedule a call like there will be right back. Thanks. We already have.

One. We're talking about show business we're talking about door ability we're talking about.

Paul Anka I again Jose was just telling us of the road managing the whole process of by the way the private plane how do you fly and everybody else flies commercial and then you grab your son and some people fly with me on my plane and the rest go commercial is so many people obviously. You know you look at the schedule and you see what it n'est what you have to have to make it all work. Private aircraft obviously is a luxury item but a necessity. I mean it's become a tool. I mean part of the kit for the prop performer and the businessman in terms of flexibility and getting to where you want to and fast and then you have to because you have to set up and get ready for an 8 o'clock performance. The the amazing thing in terms of a commentary of this business is that you know years ago when I left Canada in 56 I was went to Japan and to Paris and I was traveling all over the world and with my cousin two of us and my

music in my suitcase and we get to a city and rehearse and I mean that was it. You know I get paid $5000 a week which to me was incredible I mean I was a kid that was a waiter and I worked as a caddy and I had a paper route and it was very small the business was in its infancy stage. Well it's become so sophisticated today that you're now concerning yourself with with budgets and what it takes to go on the road. I envy the comedian today who takes a couple of suitcases and a friend and his cigar and shows up to a date no overhead. For those of us that are on the musical side whether it be myself as a solo performer or a rock star or a group you're traveling with as Jose said 40 50 60 70 people Samwise the public is not aware of what goes on in the preface before the performance and the amount of dollars that are expended and the and the type of talent that it takes to get it on and the amount of

money that it takes in some cases. We'll go and do a date for prestige and just break even because everything costs so much to get it on. So you have to plan your schedule so that the economics work for you. You have to concern yourself with all of these salaries moving to 50 people. We have secretaries take care of hotels and airlines and it's a huge responsibility doing that and. It's all it's made a businessman out of a lot of this unfortunate and at the same time you're supposed to be thinking of the creative and that's correct and that's where you have to hire the right people to do that job. And to know that at the end of it after you work so hard you know how do you get to keep it. Because I think the fallacy is the amount of money that a lot of us are supposedly

worth or what we have because the the the interesting factor is the earning situation and then what you get to keep and you have to have some people that are very very knowledgeable to help you do that because. You know I toyed with it myself on getting a hotel in Las Vegas and then I realized that. That's such a responsibility for someone that it's something you'd want to do just once and not to have any kind of adverse publicity or detrimental effect to it. And then I say what a responsibility if you don't have the proper people running it for you. And I don't want to be depleted of my my creative output. And that's a big concern and I'm in the middle of a new album now for a major record company CBS the middle of a new TV series and my time has to go into that and I have to have. The right people around to plan these tours and get it done. And yet I have to be there to watch it and supervise it because no one

does a better job for you than yourself. And you you learn that somewhere along the way that you have to be responsible for that. And it's a big responsibility. Are you surprised to hear all of the investment angle of the whole thing. You know I'm not just this morning I heard on the news that you and Joan Rivers then was it Rich Little. I know there was a third person involved had purchased a television station and now McCarthy I would like to know if this is truly being looked upon as an investment which will be productive or rather one that could be a good tax write off. How are you really viewing this growth. We obviously view it as something that we hope will be a very lucrative venture. The problem today is that for people who earn is what do you do with it. And five years. God forbid this goes or whatever. And you know I have you know the ventures with Johnny Carson. Joan Rivers and David Letterman.

And we are involved in a television station down in Albuquerque. It's looked upon as an investment. I think that this form of communication broadcasting the video aspect is very much a part of our lives and can only get bigger. I mean I think it is a very important element and I've looked at it as an area that I want to get into in terms of investment. And it is it is an investment venture. And strictly that the best that we can go out and try and find we so situation with in the first place. Yes. We're trying to do something progressive there because Kirky is not known for being in front of the pack. People who live there will always say we're at least two years behind in what's happening in the rest of the country and drafts in the media and everything. So when you bring some progressive changes to Albuquerque in that station that is our intent.

Yes. Once that deal is finalized and we will sit down and have some meetings on what we are to do with the. Ink isn't dry on that deal and I I tend not to really discuss or get myself all hyped up until this. Hopefully within the next few weeks it will be in our intent obviously is to get the optimum result out of that venture in that area. Well means yes your situation I was going to ask about Johnny Carson has gone back how many years Johnny Carson was my guest on a TV special I did in London England back in 1960 to when he was host on crucial I believe. I've known him since then I don't profess to know him well. You know we just had so many different places but I've known him that long and I wrote the scene for The Tonight Show many years ago and it's been on for as many years as Johnny has been on. And that's a lot of years

you know. And yes. How did you get inspired to write the feed for Johnny Carson Show. Well I wish I could give you some great tale here. It was actually very simple. I was working in the same office Johnny Carson was next door to us. And I ran into him in the hallway and you got to understand the kind of creature I am. I'm not unlike any other song person I mean we are song people. And if you came to me on the street and said Hey Paul I'm recording for Ajax records. I'd say gradually How you doing would you like a song. And I mean I just sit down and write and it's a sickness. And I ran into John in the hall and he said we're going on the air. NBC I'm taking over for who. Who was Jack Paar. And I said that's great I said Who's doing the music. I mean it was just that automatic He said no when I said I got a song for you right. And I went down and I sat at the piano and I said it's got to be simple everybody's you know it's 11:30 at night to not really

listen to Mozart so I doubt that. That that that that. I said that's it no one in recording I give it to. And they said we love it when on the air that was it. It was the same way with the longest day I was in. Europe was the movie the movie longest as working for Mr. Zanuck and took him to dinner one night and I was obviously very happy to be a part of this venture because it was a very important film going down and I said Who's doing the music. He said you know music is a very important film and I don't I think getting in the way blah blah blah I said Mr. Zanuck I said I'm really moved. Working with you in this film I have a melody in my head I said I don't want to commit and I'll go home I'll pay for the demonstration record and let me send it to you and you just do it you want to do it he said. Klein Paul you do that I went to New York bought a van in the studio I wrote theme and I sent it to in France and I got a wire back you said you got it and we

scored it for the film. And if you want a nomination for an Academy Award get a new word and out of the three and a half hours. The theme. Was all that was heard for maybe a total of 12 minutes throughout the entire picture. You know. Mention something about about the theme for The Tonight Show. Yes it was also in the production number at the Copacabana and when it's presented as lyrics to it that's right right. I used to write the music for the. Copacabana and every song that I had recorded or whatever we used with the dancers and that went on for quite a few years. We're going to pick your brain a little bit more because I know you're in the sound business in this as well. You are. My name is Allen to shell. Yeah yeah. The importance of sound and recording. I mean he's making it sound as if we you know we just sit home and just rattle it off but it's it's not that simple really. You know he knows that you know I'm sure he knows all about it. It's very important for an artist to to achieve the sound that he wants

as part of his act and he wants to be able to achieve the sound that projects him in the best light the band music in the best light the arrangements the score and so that the audience enjoys it as well as he as well as he himself enjoying it. That's really important. Very important elements crucial especially in music a lot of yeah especially when you're having when you have hit records on the radio people want to hear the sound they came to hear. Yeah it's really crucial. It's a very important element. No the sound is the the lifeline to that audience and. If that isn't right everything is affected and there's such a fine line as to how you paint that picture for an audience and the comfort of the artist on stage and. And as I said earlier we've become so sophisticated you know years ago and believe it or not we would show up at engagement with one microphone. That was it. Today I mean I must tell you you were dealing with.

Sometimes 100 microphones. 24 track boards echo units I mean equipment that would just rule you if I gave you the terminology of all of this. It's become that important because you are. Creating an image and a picture and you're trying to move people emotionally different demographics of people. You have to assess each audience and you have to know the type of sound that will be palatable to each audience. In Las Vegas we get a cross-section of people. You have to be careful on the loudness the texture the size of the room it's become so acute that we have to go into a bigger arena so we have a arrangements written for a 10000 seat arena but then we'd have to take that same band and arrangement into a small nightclub room and we have to in a sense make that adjustment and we have to adjust to maybe a new audience of pop fans in

Detroit whereas it's more of a homogenous group in a Las Vegas where we have to be a little quieter and lean on the strings and and how loud do you want that to be and and how important is it. It's the most important element for me. I think that is the key. Question on success on your success. Past present and your goal for the future. Do you attribute it to your feeling your gut feeling or are you do you have a mentor someone who give you the inspiration to do so and so are you just nit picking here and there and just trying to touch bases to see what is successful for you. So where should I start. The the attitude I think. Is to really be in touch with yourself. I don't have a mentor. I don't think that. A creative person should really be dominated

by anyone. I think you have to avoid that situation I think you should have people around you that give you good advice but you have to field all of that. And come up with your own decision on that. Years ago when I was younger I had. Creative people I would have business people around me who taught me a great deal. Right now it's a healthier posture that I have because I understand it more. And I'm able to discuss it with them and make my own decision in terms of where your career goes. It's very hard to to discuss for some of us because. You know being an artist is a natural kind of flow for us but to sit and talk about. That process and ourselves when indeed it's a luxury lifestyle that we have as a performer as opposed to medicine or other occupations which I feel are far more important to the betterment of

mankind. It's very difficult to sit and assess on how it's done and what it's done because it borderlines on getting a little ego trip. So when you when you deal with mentors and that kind of situation I think that doesn't work for me. Tell us what it was like when you were at the age of eight when you dead to get up there at a church function up in Canada and play Johnny Ray. Oh it was a lot of fun. I don't know why Johnny right. Because nobody knew Paul Anka. Not several. I was young kid. Dinah sing Diana entertain and. Just want to get from an audience and I was a little club of Quebec. I used to go over there and Johnny was popular Frankie Laine who was popular and imitated but we see an 8 year old doing it he could sound like Kate Smith trying to do Johnny I mean no matter what it was it worked. Just to have a kid up there singing and you get up there and I would sing and throw money and then I get a free sandwich or whatever I want to drink after the show and I was

it's a very gratifying feeling I mean you're never too young or too old to sense that kind of reward. And once you get that kind of reception it's something that's that's really in your blood and when when you're performing as a teenager and getting a response from people it's unlike anything else that you ever experience. And you really get used to it and it's it's hard to turn that off. And I loved it I mean I did every trick and then you phoned a group or started a group. I start a group called a bobby Sox's I took two friends of mine out of school and we would work after school and then we tour the colleges in Canada and a big break came when the circus came to town that summer. There's a show called Club 18 which was a girlie show and I talked the manager into the show of hiring us because we were a hometown favorite. They want to get a lot of people into this girlie show it was topless but they wouldn't allow me

in the area of the stage only when I was singing because it would have been a problem. But we were a big hit because everybody came to see the girls and everybody came to see this young kid that was supposed to be there and they'd lock me in the dressing room until I had to sing which got very boring so I started blowing holes in the wall so I could look at the girl's side. I did three weeks there was a lot of holes in the wall and a lot of business. When we come back we're going to find out more about this little kid and but also about the songs that you wrote for us. OK we'll be right back. So.

We're talking about creativity Dura billet he were talking about. Paul Anka welcome again.

Thank you. Let's finish up on this wonderful group that you had and they were called the drug stocks is that what happens to a group like that when they disband and when they think back of what it might have been had it gone to be a trio after all these years. Well obviously it's a little painful for a while. Yes the gratification as I emerged out of it. It was meant to be. We had a lot of fun kids and you have dreams and goals and expectations and I guess they don't develop that hurts for a while you know. Unfortunately there was no way that we could go I mean I just had to do my own thing and write. And what have you. But it's filled from years that could have really taken me anyway and I was not unlike any other teenager and having that kind of commitment to something just kept me out of trouble and I was

so dedicated and so are the rest of the guys that. We had a lot of fun with it I just think in the business no one Len and Sue ran a carpenter store and the other guy worked for the government. I saw them recently when I went back to Ottawa and we saw each other and they're married and children and we laugh to talks about all the fun that we used to have in those highways we walk when I was 5 and 10 below in Canada and hitchhiking all across Ontario and it was a lot of pleasant memories. You strike out there would be interested in something about your individual artistic frustration of let's give an example when Charles and I write plays were always constrained by the role of the theatre and some of its conventions very cheap and would break those conventions in your business by writing 13 minute songs and any material or language you might want to use. Other constraints in musical

composition and so forth today that frustrate you particularly if any less. Years ago there were there were subject matters and content. That restricted you made it very frustrating. I think the early sixties allowed us to stretch out a little bit do we wanted to do today. I don't think that you have. Really a lot of restriction. Musically you can pretty well say and do what you want and then you pay the price for it. It was the restrictions I would say Neal today I think the only things that would bother us which are a problem for us which are not in the creative then is the fact that a lot of our work is bootlegged. And. You can make a lot of records and find that they're reproducing them and selling them you know getting paid

for them that's a big problem. But from the creative standpoint no there are no restrictions. But there's a great deal of change from puppy love to having my baby oil painting. And now you're getting into a kind of very sophisticated approach that takes guts to try something like that. You are particularly if you were so successful with a string of the things well you have to you have to you have to change obviously and start writing about things that have a little more depth to them a lot more meaning and touch. A lot of lives you know into modern art. I collect Modern Art and I chose to write about a painter you know but you know and I know entertainers who wouldn't dare change anything they lock into something that worked and the fright of making any kind of a change. That's right. And that's that's part of the problem. For those that don't sustain it's like like now a case in point where you can't get record deals today I've just signed a deal with CBS Records and I'm doing a new album which will be a total departure.

I'm working with Michael McDonnell of the Doobie Brothers very contemporary and and rock going to Dr. David Foster a very successful writer and producer from Earth Wind and Fire to the tubes to different pop groups and what I'm trying to achieve is to write a very contemporary sounding album. It's another direction for me I'm writing for radio. I'm writing for a certain demographics of people. Now this. This is probably the the biggest departure I've had in the past 10 years because I I'm really going after something that. That a lot of people would say is a huge challenge and a long shot. But it's one that I have to take. And it's proving very successful before we even get in the studio. What is the demographic that you're going after. I'm going to wait 25 to 35.

Audience what music can be appreciated by all people. The the basic sound concept of the songs in the records are geared to a more pop rock audience. But what I'm trying to do is merge my ride demographics of audience to this new sound so that it doesn't offend for the same time brings in a new audience and stimulates me because I think that I have to be stimulated in what I do. And this new concept of writing and it's a whole involved thing that I'm doing because with my voice placement is different the keys are different a lot of technical things that probably you wouldn't be aware of I feel are necessary to to allow the growth that have to happen that has to happen for Paul like in the 80s. What was it like to write the song for Buddy Holly.

It was very gratifying and how did it come about. Right new buddy and Buddy Holly and myself and many other young pop stars at the time we all travel together. Very quickly I must give you the scenario that we had no way to work other than together and in huge arenas for The New York paramount. Nobody wanted to hear is we want fashionable the masses and not accept the pop music and Buddy myself the Everly Brothers Frankie Avalon a ton of guys we all work together and know each other well. Buddy wanted to make a change in his life. I wanted to grow out of the crickets start building a career making something out of themself. And wanted that type of song and he said write me something. I was on tour with him living on a bus wrote the song for him. It was one of the last songs he recorded. He was a very very talented man and his untimely and unfortunate death very tragically took a very

talented person whose copy today by everyone. I mean many of the British groups and rock stars have taken a lot from Buddy Holly he was a very very talented and prolific performer. Chills about any other songs would. Ha you are catcher Curt. I'd like to know when you wrote Going My Way My way if you wrote that for Frank Sinatra or did he pick up on it. And like the thong. I had met Frank Sinatra a couple of times very quickly back in the early sixties. Respected him a great deal. He's very unique in our business. Obviously for a songwriter to have Frank Sinatra record your song. It was a milestone. Why technically why. What does he do that others didn't do. Well. What he does what he has done and what he still does today.

Sinatra is on there's nobody better in what he does he has a great sense of lyric. He has a great. Charisma and delivering of a song which reaches a lot of people. He is he stands very much alone in terms of what he represents to the business and what he can do for a good song. He has a great sense of professionalism and caring for a good song and and is still today very very concerned and professional in his approach to his presentation and to have a Sinatra record and I've written a few for him is very very important and. Very prestigious and we're all very honored. And Sinatra was someone as a kid that I admired in that I said favorite song I want to get it with him. Met him in Miami came to see my show and he's a very warm person with me. I've had nothing but a credible relationship with him. And he jokingly said I want to

make a song. I don't have the guts to give him puppy love. So I said I'd better get my act together and I went back to New York had this melody which I'd heard frats and I had to put words to it. And I sat down and it was at that time that Sinatra said I'm going to retire from the business of the 60s you remember you had enough for whatever reason. And that just clicked on the whole thing for me. Three o'clock in the morning was pouring with rain as living up on Seventy second Street New York. I want to forget I was looking at my typewriter like I always do waiting for it to come and it just started and now the end is near. I said that's it it's for Sinatra. And when you have him in mine or anyone else it would be Tom Jones or anyone else that I've written for. When you're writing for someone when you have the premis. It's easy specially waiting for Sinatra I mean just certain things that he says his attitude it's easy. And I wrote it

out. Finished it a week later did a piano demo come out to Las Vegas who's playing at Caesar's Palace sent it to him. He said You got it. He would she added with that song you really learnt the song. He went into that a month and a half later he was so into the recording. A lot of people don't know that when they press the record that 100000 copies or something wrong with the vinyl which had a. Really a bad sound of the year. He said Cancel lows and go in and do it again because you know I want to get it right and the record came out and that was it. I mean it was and I was sitting at home in New York and they called me from the studio it was 5:00 in the afternoon and they played it to me over the phone and I cried. Because I had I had not. Made that transition into that next area of my career and that was the turning point for me. And I just wish that there were happy tears and I was just still excited about that

record and there was Frank Sinatra singing my song and I was in my mid 20s and it was just very very very moving for me. You Every once in a while think that Jean I should have recorded it myself. Sure. You say that yourself but you're totally balanced by the fact that no one could do for that song what Sinatra did I was much too young. Even though I probably could pull it off but it is a lyric for someone that's had a broad and full life not to negate anyone that's that's young that that senses that. But in it's like it's like having a play or a film and you want the proper actor you want the proper director because that is a crucial part even though the play is the thing you need those other elements to make it happen. Sinatra was the proper casting for that song as I look at it as a song man.

And then when I think of myself or anyone else no one could have pulled off the success of that song like Frank Sinatra. You know businesses and so strongly and keenly egocentric. That takes a great deal of restraint a great deal of control to give a song to somebody else. And under those circumstances you know I went through my ego trips as a young person I mean the detrimental ego trips I think unfortunately and fortunately were all ego ridden whether it be subliminal or whatever you just have to control it. But when you look at it as a business or as a song man you realize at one point you know what would be the best thing for the song. I mean you just you know having my baby I felt and I have to say she's a lady. The whole feeling of that song was Tom Jones and that was his kind of energy. You have to know that at one point as a writer you cannot keep them all yourself because the world doesn't want to listen to Paul like it every day of the week. Every year they don't want to listen

anybody. You have to pick your spots and know that it's a cycle. And know when to place it in. So I really want the song to live first I'm a song man and I'm not an artist who just sings other songs I think where people identify with myself or others that write is that they feel they're getting a piece of the person they're getting a part of that man I mean what what was he thinking is that his wife was that a friend or who was it. And you have to think of the song that way so that people can get the most out of the song not not the eagle. By the way when you do sing my way now it gets a standing ovation which says something about something like Don't lose track of what song do you feel you have that special affinity for whether it's your song or someone else. I think there are a few songs that I get a feel for I think. Put your head to my shoulders. It's kind of even with its adolescence it's very important because it was an important part of my life that I was going through the

teenage years I remember why and who. My way obviously because it really conveys a lot of my feeling and my. My belief in myself and a lot of things. Do I love you. Because it was. Written you know from my wife. Having My Baby There's certain songs for certain reasons and it's not unlike your children in a curious way they they're obviously not as important as your children but you do the same kind of gratification because songs and copyrights they never talk back to you. They have a very very special life to them and it's an incredible feeling when you. Can be home in bed and sleeping and you're being paid for and when it's played on the radio and people are listening to it and in Russia and Poland in Japan and South America and we're ever all around the world living there listening to your song and and it's doing

something good for them and. For different reasons of songs really affect you that way. Being such a public person for so long how do you how do you capture those private moments with your family and and make them work. It's not easy. You approach it like anything else that you feel has to be. Carefully assessed. You try and go for some quality time not quantity. You. I think you see my feeling is that I I believe that you create all of that around you if you have 40 people with you and guards and you create all of that I mean anything that's in it's in abundance. People react to that. I don't like to be away from my audience and I feel safe walking down the street and I don't mind giving an autograph or being nice because that's it's easier and that goes with the terrain when you start getting paranoid and

hiding yourself that's a whole new set of problems. That's the easy part of my life. The other part is what I do with my children and how I give them the kind of time that they're going to react to that they will grow up with a good feeling for and you try and really sit down and do things together that are memorable for them and that they give them a part of you so that it isn't a lot. It has a lot of substance to it and you create things to do together that that are that are very monumental in terms of the relationship with my daddy. What do they get oh yeah that's my dad he's famous and well you know I live in Northern California out of a theatrical community for a reason because it allows my kids you know a better environment. Not that it's better in the sense that it's very difficult being a public person and letting your children be their own people. You know daddy is daddy to them and they're in the my music in a very humorous way they're not theatrical they're not patronizing the ME and I and I like it like that they have their own rights.

If you call and say we want the kids on the show like 20 20 did a segment on us they said we want the kids as all you'll have to ask the kids because I don't tell my kids what to do in terms of my life. And they went to the kids and said yeah you guys are hailing a reality show and they said you know we don't want to be on we don't want our friends so they don't want to go on the show and they weren't on the show. They have their own rights. They have a very healthy outlook to what I do and I like it that way. If they emerge in a theatrical sense later that's great if they're good and professional that's fine but I don't want to have that kind of thing for me because they're my children. I want to have a good father relationship and they're women all of them so I don't lose any weight. It's a lot of fun you know if I WILL It is just very very special environment to little you had a good relationship with them and a good relationship with millions of people over the years and with us this afternoon. Thank you so much. Thank you very much.

Why. The show is about Polack and that means the show is about music about different styles of

music. The show is about Frank Sinatra for whom he wrote it's a night show from the road to Buddy Holly. It's about you and me in terms of cultural change and I hope you'll join us.