Danny Bennett

Published Sep 2, 2013, 4:00 AM

Danny Bennett has spent the past thirty years managing the career of his dad, Tony Bennett and has produced a film following his father's life entitled The Zen of Bennett. It was Danny who helped bring his dad’s music to a younger generation, through appearances on SNL, The Simpsons, and Late Night with Conan O’Brian—and the series of Duets albums, which feature Tony Bennett singing with the likes of Lady Gaga, Billy Joel, Barbara Streisand and Amy Winehouse. Duets II debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200 chart, making Tony Bennett—at 85 years old—the oldest living artist to do so. As Danny says, “I don’t just handle a career, I manage a legacy.” Last year Danny produced a film called The Zen of Bennett, which followed his dad throughout the recording of the Duets II album.

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This is Alec Baldwin and you're listening to Here's the thing. She gets too hungry for dinner at She loves the theater, but she never comes late. Never people. That's why this chick is a trump She does it like. That's Tony Bennett and the woman singing with him. Lady Gaga Duets Too, which featured Bennett singing with the likes of Lady Gaga, Carrie Underwood, and Amy Winehouse, debuted at number one on the Billboard two chart. Tony Bennett was eighty five years old, the oldest living artist to debut at number one. Tony Bennett is an exceptional talent with old school charm. But this order resurgence doesn't just happen. It was the result of thirty years of hard work from his son and manager my guest today, Danny Bennett. Danny says, I don't just handle a career, I manage a legacy out of the tree of life. I just picked me a plum. You came along and everything started to hung And it was Danny who helped bring his dad's music to a younger generation. Danny got Tony on Saturday Night Live, The Simpsons at Late Night with Conan O'Brien. And it wasn't just the music. He put his dad on a budget. He stabilized his father's finances. Danny Bennett was a musician himself, but found he had a greater knack for business. Last year he produced a film called The Zen of Bennett, which followed his dad throughout the recording of the Duets album. That cool. You know your father built this building. You know that because every record but to number one and actually made Capitol wick as possible. They do call it the house that that bill. I think it's great. Danny was used to hanging around these performers. He grew up surrounded by musical giants. I was born in the Bronx, raised in Englewood, New Jersey. And you grew up in the Bronx to you were how old? No, just like you know, like two weeks quickly, and then you guys went to Anglewood, Englewood, New Jersey. Englewood was an amazing place. It's it's literally fifteen minutes from midtown, right across the George Washington Bridge. And I was born in nineteen nine now, and it was a very exciting time. You had um a lot of artists from kind of the show biz thing. There was Tony, there was Dick Shawn, Joey Bishop, Um, Buddy Hackett. They were just right there because they would just Tony would come and do his sessions in the city at Columbia Studios, and then the jam session would continue in my house. Uh So they were just like, hey, let's go back to the house. He had like a little studio. And when I say the basement, it was you know, above ground basement kind of thing. You know, as a little kid, I wake up to the streams of like you know, you know, count basing and just amazing stuff. So when you were a kid, I suppose most people would assume all those your childhood memories of being a wash in music of that period. Well, you know, it's I often say now, like I feel like Forrest Gump. I mean, I don't know why I had an appreciation for the moment as a kid. I just did. It wasn't just music. Besides being able to sit on the piano stool with Duke Ellington. I mean, that's crazy. But I remember sitting on my dad's lap at a political rally with JFK running for president, you know, at the Teaneck Armory. He's sitting in back, there's Jack Kennedy giving a speech, and I'm seeing all the placards, you know. So it's like I'm always seeing the backside of things, which is an interesting perspective because it's it's just that image burned in my brain. What was like nine years old, Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, And so it's those kind of things, or Lewis Armstrong and Carol Channing at the White House. You know, it's like, what's that? Or so people who sang standards and sang whether they were Broadway tunes or there were standards by the Harold Arleans of the world and so forth. But music for you, your personal music was dad going to the studio with Count Basie and you had an electric guitar, nam and you were singing Strawberry Fields. Oh yeah. I mean when I was ten years old, the Beatles hit and that was it for me and my brother who plays drums. Immediately, I found an old guitar in my dad's closet, and he's been trying to learn guitar for a long time, so I grabbed He's gonna get event No, he's gonna get it eventually. I'm telling you anyway, it was like a guy nylon string guitar and he had a book of chords, one of those like things, and I just I was so obsessing me. We're introducing the Beatles record, and I put the needle down and then like like go through the book and just like match the chord with the sound of the record. Oh it's a jeep chord, you know, It's like And that's how I learned, you know, by year how to play what was the name of your band, um Quacky Duck, right, And so you and your brother and you have Cracky Duck and you're how old, um, well were like sixteen, you're teenagers like old garage manage or teenagers. And then but at that same time, do you still have like this kind of bicameral relationship with music. There's your dad and his music, and that's a presence in your life and you have and you have a fondest for it of course, and an appreciation for it. And then you're playing your Yeah, I mean some people don't know if it's Gerald that can call um Lewis armstrong. I mean these are huge royalty and huge influences on us. And then obviously. You know, we all have our icons. You know, Tony has got has his icons and and rightfully, so we're gonna get to that. Yeah yeah, but but but you're there, and what happens as you finished high school? Is there a time that you put down musical Well, I mean we were extremely serious about it, you know, when it was like when you rehearsed on the week. You know, it's like in school. We did it. And then it's interesting because we were never kind of into sports, and that's what we did at a very early age. You know, we were doing like high school dances and and and really, I gotta be honest with you, I haven't learned much since then. You know, we learned how to like, oh, in a minute, you know what we're selling tickets? You know. I remember going, you know, the student union. You'd get paid two hundred bucks, which was great in the sixties and there's a lot of money. So we we we kind of made it on our own, and the student unions go um two and in Boxton, and I'm like, we're selling the tickets like to this show. So I would go to the student unions and go, hey, look, I'll tell you what you know what, you guys are always on the line. You don't know if you're gonna make any money. No, no guarantee. We'll take a cut of the door. We'll take a do you take twenty? And I was like where this is the high school? High school? And so they're going like, oh, you know that's cool, great, Yeah, we don't have to worry when you get her ask kicked at the end of the night, I'm makings and they're going like, wain a minute, you know. So then I just kind of like went from one school to another, UM and finished high school and where'd you go? Um? We had to deal with Warner Brothers Records, and we used to play Max's Kansas City and you know with I mean Graham Parsons. I don't know if you know Graham. He was a good friend of ours. We toured with him, and you know we were like those who are our heroes UM at the time. And that's where I met Bonnie and John Prine, and you know, I had this kind of really extraordinary wealth because also his original tour manager was a guy named d Anthony. He ended up being the penultimate like rock manager and invented the triumph and of promoter Bill Graham, d Anthony and the agent uh Frank Barcelona, and they brought all these artists in from England and we spent I was raised at Fillmore. We were kind of an art band. We played at Max's with the Modern Lovers and the New York Dolls and and and we just said, let's come up with the most ridiculous name we can possibly come up with, because we thought the Beatles was kind of a ridiculous name, right, So we were kind of making fun of that. So we were serious about that, working built studios and did that kind of thing, and it just got to a point where you know, you know when you got it and you know when you don't. I was always so enamored by especially the people I worked with in other writers in my band. I'd go like I was kind of really good at like saying wow, that's a great song. And I found that like that was my real talent. You know. Yeah. And then when does one day someone say, Danny, it's you. You're going to start becoming involved in this big well, you know, it's interesting and it's happening in a day, happen well kind of and I can pinpoint when Tony kind of got on like, wait a minute, he may know what's going on. The Beatles for me was you know, I was obsessed not only the art of it, but the you know, the social aspect of it, the marketing of it. Marketing was fun. It wasn't a bad word. The balance between art and commerce. It was very much about what this an event it is about. It's always been interesting to me. The Beatles always thought the two minutes and forty seconds that they had that was their canvas and how best to make that work. I love that concept. I love the constraints. Well, Tony always says there's free form. You gotta learn form before you can be free and there's there's a lot to that. You know, they couldn't have done Hey Jude without doing all those great songs that boom there they are, don't for us get to the chorus, but but still maintain the art. So moving into a time when Tony was um again, we grew up around the you know, it was just immersed so you know, the dinner table, the conversations were about what was happening at Columbia Records. Oh my god. Clive Davis, he was you know, became President of Colombia, the first attorney. It was a freaky thing. It was very tuned into that. You know. Um, Sinatra didn't make either any of his daughters or his son his right hand man. Well, that would have never happened. We don't wanta have to go there. But your dad did. Yeah. Well he was at a point where the thing at Columbia they tried to you know, this happened to everyone, Sirnatra, Barbara stra you know, it was like, oh you gotta w beads and singing, Barbara Strice, and they tried to get Barbara to sing Bob Dylan tunes. I mean in nineteen sixty nine. I mean she's listening to Dylan going like, what's this? You know, while in the winds. The answer is belowing in the wind you know, brilliant idea. That's a great one. Let's go again, Barbara. So anyway, so Tony actually, you know, worked with Climbing and he did an album that was kind of like that thing, and it got physically sick. He said, he was like regurgitating between takes. And so well, that's a great story that he tells about Clive Davis. Right, um, where Duke Yellington went in and said, you know, he thought he was going in to get a raise, and Clive Davis said, well, I have some bad news for you. And he goes, uh, what is it? And Clive said, well, we're gonna have to drop you from the label. Ellington goes, well, why, says well, you're not selling enough records, and Ellington goes, oh, I guess I hadn't. I was mistaken. I thought I was supposed to make the records and you were supposed to sell them. It's a great that's my edict. Like, and I've heard that story, but that's every artist, you know. That was my said to me, why do I hate making movies? And I said, and I said, do you really hate making movies? I said, well, maybe hates a strong word, but I said, I'm very uncomfortable. They say why, I say, because you just feel the hand of commerce at your throat every day. Every day. It's never free. It's really fun, it can be challenging, but you just feel like every dimes. Yeah, so they wanted your dad to do what he couldn't do and he rebels against that and he just kind of like they gave him a big contract and he was like, no, I don't want to do this. I want to start my own label. Now. This is at a time when people weren't doing that. I mean, you know, I mean, you know, Sinatra did it with more Austin, but it was done more on a you know, Warner Brothers thing um. And he found Jack rawlins Um what the Allen's manager, and you know a number of other people, great people to work with him on on a label called Improv. This is where he made the Bell Evans records, you know, voice and piano. Those records weren't being made at the time. And so he came to me and talked to me about the label and I said, well that's a great idea. I said, you know, it's it's risky. And he said, well, what's risky about it? And I said, well, it doesn't seem like they have major distribution in this day and age. Independent distribution is great, you can do it internet. But then it was a real challenge. I said, Columbia's offering you did do a distribution deal, which is a great you know, which is great that it's kind of like, you know, they leave you alone. You can do what you want to do. He had me go talk to the guy who's running the company in Buffalo. He said, we'll go talk to him. Now, you know, I got the long hair in a fringe jacket and I and I go to this you know, this got this hotel owner in Buffalo. And I'm sitting there and he's like, what is this about? And I started talking about the distribution. It's great, da da boom. And there's some other things about the contract that I didn't like that I told him about, you know, in terms of him kind of getting roped into it. And this guy just rejected that whole notion. So I went back to Tony and I just said, look, I wouldn't do this. I think there's you know, no improv records. Well no, he did it. And how long did that last? It lasted like three years and they failed because of the distribution. So he does improv records and then because he can't get the records distributed exactly. And so that's what I told him. He remembered that, and then the label folded and then he was without a contract for how long? Um, let's see, Alex, I would say three years. Was that like four years? Um? Well, it's tough because remember at the time. This is like around seventy eight. Okay, Sinatra retired number one and streisand's doing duets with the bigs. You know what I'm saying. Yeah, you know what I'm saying. So like there's that he didn't want to do it, and then he was in Vegas and then those days you were doing Vegas, like you know, the thirty two week thing and all that time stuff. You know. He just called me up one day and it was just like, I don't you know, I need some help here. I don't know what to do. I don't know where to go. He didn't have a manager. Um. He wanted to be able to do his art on his terms. Um, And it was Vegas Like for him, what what? What? What is that like for someone? Because I mean, you always figure. I remember reading Nick Tash's book Dino about Dean Martin, one of the one of the best biographies I've ever and they talked about how Martin, at one point in the sixties I believe was the highest paid entertainer in the world because he had the he touched every base, he touched all four bases, he had a television show, he had a recording contract, he started in films, and he appeared live in Vegas in another concerts, and he was making millions and millions of dollars back then. And I was wondering for someone like your dad where I'm not going to say that I actually I don't know what Vegas exemplified back then, like for an actor. Was that like being on a game show or no, no, no no, But I mean the idea that you know, this is where they cut their teeth, the lounges, you know, Louis Prima in the lounge he had a Freda stare, and Carrie Grant going to see Sinatra and then going to the lounge, you know, and this is where the audience was like, you know, and Tony makes a good point. These people. We didn't have access to these people except the big screen, and all of a sudden, there they are sitting there watching Louis Prima, rubbing shoulders with with Sinatra and Jerry Grant and whatever. This was magic and for for again, for Tony. You gotta remember, Tony's ten years younger than all these guys. These are his idols, you know, Sinatra calling him the kid, you know, um, And there he is with them all spread a stair. I mean, like it was a salon so so, and nobody messed around for the very you know, for the obvious reasons. And then you got into the kind of this this evolution where you know, the Suma Corporation and Howard Hughes took over, and like I had to negotiate with like Howard Hughes and these cowboys. It was really interesting. It was amazing, you know. I mean, like and this is where like Tony when I first started working, and like, you know, Howard uses on the top of the desert end. I mean, I know he's up there. And so there was like, you know this guy named Lenny, you know that he'd go in with me to negotiate the contract. And Lenny get on his hands and knees, going seriously and I'm going, what are you doing, and like get off your knees. I'm not gonna get on my knees and big for a contract. I'm just not gonna do it, you know. And the guy it's just saying down you get down on your knees. How it works. Mr Hughes. Yeah, yeah. And he's got the big the guys behind the desk with a big cowboy hat, and I'm like, oh my goah. So I go to Tony and and here's a very interesting thing. I'm sitting outside the desert and just like you know, I'm in a bench, some dude comes and sits next to me, an older guy, and he's grumbling. And I turned around and he's like, I'm never coming back to Vegas again. Right, he's doing that kind of thing. I'm like, what's up. I don't know. You know, they used to fly me out here. And he's a bad he's a drop fifty grand of pop. But but man, did they make me feel good about losing my money? The shows? The girls like that he's doing this. He goes, they take it all away. Now they don't want to know me. He say says, I'm never coming back again. And I had an epiphany. I was like, we gotta get out of this town. It's going down. So I went to Tony and I said to him, here's the gig. You gotta get out of this town. I know this is like, this is what you go where? And I said, you go to the people. We're gonna go to colleges. This is the point in which you kind of climb into the cockpit with this guy who's this legend, and you're twenty five years old. I know what you're teaching me. And the conversation is that from the beginning you were just saturated and inundated and interested naturally, not just in on a creative level, but on a business level as well, and on a technical level. Growing up, as you know, in that environment where kids were befriending me because the parents knew that if they befriended me, maybe they could have dinner with Tony at the thing, I developed an early sense of like cutting through the crap. You know. It's like I knew who my friends were and who they weren't. I could tell right away. So I had this epiphany and I said, you know what, I'm going to run him for president. I'm gonna treat his campaign. And I love history too, so I do love and I'm like, I'm gonna run. I'm gonna do this like I'm running for president. And I went to him and I said, you know, presidents would not go to Iowa if they didn't have to go to Iowa, and and and you know, shake the hands, I go instead of having people come to you in Vegas. I said, your music transcends, right, and you can't do this with everybody. And I and I have an appreciation. You know, I watched Tony when you know how many times have seen this show. He's reinventing himself. He's really kicking ass. I mean in terms of like taking chances. That's really rock and roll. He's taking chances. You know, the Rolling Stones are getting older, not really taking chances anyway. And here's Tony what he calls moving the furniture around, and unlike, you know, people just got to see this. There's a transcendent quality and great art that that, like he says, defies demographics. So I got into that. So it's like Letterman was that doing the late so you know, like we're you know, we're filing these now. And nobody went on that show. But after a few calls on Danny's part, Tony did Tony been at Tony? And there were other shows, many many others. Look, it's Tony, Hey, good to see you. It's good. Charts. When did you first start charting in the fifties, Yes, the fifties, sixties, seventies, eighties. You've been on the charts every decade, right, is there anybody else in history other than like, wait open, is there any hey kermen, have you ever sung firefly before? Well? I can't say that I have, Tony, but you know I've certainly eaten a few. There are a good light snack. Oh boy, hey, come on, let's do this. You started off. I call her fire fly so much she radiates in a minute. Danny Bennett talks about the chat leunge of keeping up with his eighty seven year old father. The guy doesn't like to take elevators. He takes. He doesn't like to take escalators. We go to airports. He's up the stairs. I'm Alec Baldwin and you're listening to here's the thing. This is Alec Baldwin, my guest. Danny Bennett is president of RPM Records and has managed the career of RPM's biggest star, his father, Tony Bennett, for over thirty years. His dad's career has had its ups and downs. The seventies weren't kind to vocalists who weren't interested in recording contemporary material. In V nine, Tony Bennett had no contract, no manager, a drug problem, and the I R S was at the door. Look all artists go through this when the Beatles hit Sinatra and I mean everyone's Elvis, he retired, he went away. You know they what they were depressed. They were like, oh my god, the world's changing. You know. Yeah that there was a big part that. And you know he moved to the West Coast, he did. Yeah, you know, and Tony it was hard. He's a New York boy. You know, it's from a story of Queens. He loves going. You know, he defin the Beatles thing that that that match when Lennard was down, he moved to l A Yeah exactly. It was depressed and what happened alright, so it was it didn't do so well. Well, the same thing kind of happened. You know. It's just like you know, got involved with the whole click thing. Tony doesn't have a click. He doesn't he doesn't relate to it, doesn't like entourages. He likes to keep it simple. You know, his apartment every year, like something else disappears. It's becoming more zen, you know. And he loves his view over Central Park and he's got his paintings. That's what he does. So the only thing the party is and that it was hard having to remind ourselves every fifteen minutes who we are, and then you know, you get into that thing where it's like I'm missing out. You know, I should be at that party, and if I'm not, I'm gonna loser. You know, it's like, you know, the whole thing. So he's not that certain people are like four years you know he came back when roughly yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, So you say you book him and he was like, you know, you know, drug thing, financial things, every right, So so there was all that happening. So I helped on. You know, it's funny because he wanted me his finances. I'm not an accountant, but I'm a good common sense person. So we go to the accountant firm here and you know, they don't stuff out on the table like in they're life. You know, let the kid figure this out, knock yourself done. They're gonna have a coffee because we're we couldn't do we couldn't do anything. What do you think? You know? It's like that. So I'm like, tell us when you got it all worked out, Danny? So anyway we did, and did I know there I I ars problems I went in negotiated with but you this is what's interesting about your family. A lot of people, some of the last people they trust their own families, some of the last, if I don't blame him, well, And a lot of these guys and women and people who make it big, and no one's made it bigger than your father. And they think everybody wants to just stick their stroll on their drinking, so they want money. They're rolling it for the wrong reason. You and he have. Was it unique all along? Was sitting on your I don't want to get too sappy and sentimental, but sitting on your dad's knee and it's JFK on stage and all that stuff. Were you always close to him or were you a son like any son? And you got closer and closer, and he began to see more and more. You know, No, it's interesting because we never related that way, so he kind of always related to me as an adult, Danny, I want to talk to you, son. I don't want you to be my son anymore. I want you to be my account. He treated you like it was kind of like that you were a business and so he would produce a partner. At the age of twelve. He would come to me and go like I don't know. I got this thing about the dog. What do you think he didn't delineate? And you know what I mean. You know, it's like I guess, you know, at the turn of the century, kids at twelve and thirteen, we're working in the fields, you know what I mean, And like they were doing operating. Yeah, and and I think a lot of that. This was working in the fields for you. This is working in the fields. You know. It wasn't like go throw a baseball in Madrina and you know, celebrity. We couldn't go to the zoo. But it was impossible. I mean, he took me to one movie, Plane of the Apes. I remember one movie, and that's okay. Danny would never go to the movies together again. I'm sorry. I love his son, but I'm gonna build a theater out there in Englewood, exactly. I would have watched the movies with Count Basie every Friday night. And then that's that's that, you know. But I always dug the fact that, like I got to go to the Cope of Cabana. You know. So the eighties go by and you're in this phase where you're gonna build our PM, You're gonna build his your company. You're gonna do what you want to do your way. But when did you know it was gonna work? We I mean, I don't mean to be corny and cinematic about it, but are you standing there one night in the wings and he's out there and you go, it's working. No, I'll tell you what it was. Bob Guccioni, Jr. I was the editor of Spin Magazine and I was reading it. They were interviewing him in his own magazine and asked him what he thought was the most influential thing about rock and roll. People in rock and roll. He said two people, James Brown and Tony Bennett. And I was like, that's wow, man, James Brown and Tony Bennett. And this is Spin magazine, you know, it's like the pick season of it. And then I went on to read the guys like, well, why, oh you understand James Brown? Why Tony Bennett? He said, because he's always taking chances. It's like what I said, And this is what I was thinking about Tony. I'm picking up He's picking up this vibe and Tony you know, it's like you know, I I say, Tony never sings the same thing once he's he doesn't he calls it moving to furniture around. He doesn't know. There's no such thing as complacency. And now we're watching are you know the Big Idols kind of good corporate, you know, with the stones and doing that thing, and they're they're like cookies cutter and and uh Bob Guccioni's talking about this, being like, you know, the guy's an innovator. So I called him up. It led to kind of the you know, they would do these these fashion spreads, and I said, why don't we do something with the Chili Peppers and Tony and we could have fun with it. So we did a show at the hard Rock Cafe in l A with the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Tony. The Chili Peppers were punk at that time, right before Rick Ruming go um, and I said that in a compliment observational musicological but they went. They did a good job. Um. From there, it was just kind of like, wait a minute. You know it was a snob because your father is a snob, as you're a father a snob, that was but um, you know, so then I'm like, well, you know what, Um, I was managing some other bands at that time in Boston and then so like a kind of got into this notion like they were the alternative rock stations and they did these college rock radio shows like RFK stadiums with Nine Inch Nails and Da Dada. So I was like, gee, I wonder if, like I pitched them, you know, about Tony being on the bill, if this would be novel enough for them, and I pitched it. Or down at Washington d C RFK Stadium and there's Tony where RFK st kids, it's p J Harvey. He's going on between p J Harvey and Nine Inch Nails Trent Res and what happened? Well, Tony stare looking and he goes, can I see something? And he goes, would Frank do this? And I said nope, and that's why you're doing it. And he goes, okay, I get it, and he goes out kills kills, I mean, and we were all you gotta take chances, you know, like, don't take chances anymore, and he kills They're gonna dig it and they wouldn't let him off the stage. Just this trio. Look, I consider myself a dragon slayer for Tony. He calls me, up once a month. I swear to God says you know what, I just want to thank you once again that I never have to talk to another record executive in my entire life. I helped him unblocked the artistic channel. So I consider myself a you know, a dragon slayer as far as that's concerned. And and I think that that that's my that's what I'm proudest of, as far as that's concerned. You know. So you go through this period the eighties and the nineties, and then we did them, but then like out of because those concerts I said I'm doing, I'm doing L A. K. Rock, I'm doing so I did like five of these things. Then he comes into me and he goes, you know, and I'll do Tony. You know. I was watching um MTV. I think I can do really well on TV. And then just walks out of my office and I'm like, okay, well you know another one TV. You know, but that's Tony Man, And I'm like, why not? I got it? Well Tony spelled backwards is what? Why not? That's what I say? Anyway, So then it was kind of like, well, how am I gonna do this? You know? Jon Stewart had a new show. They didn't really have artists. I said, I put Tony on the John Stewart Show, and I kind of sold that idea and Doug Her talk now as a comedy central um at the time, and it was like, you know, that could be interesting, and this is around eighty eight now they dug it. So they put them on then, and then it was like, then, I'm kind of how did he feel? He's cool? Here, here's your father who, like any artist with a career that last decades, technological advance and change becomes another mountain for him to climb. Now he's on a television music channel. Here's the thing, it's the audience. His audiences were getting older, and when we were in front of that young audience, let's up here. And then he became twenty years old. I watched him. You know, he just rises to the occasion from that audience and we doesn't like to do arenas and things that he feeds off of that. And here's the deal. So it was like they came and it was like, you know, we got unplugged. Um, I'd be interesting to do unhugged. So I was like, yeah, fantastic. So seriously. Man, got all the MTV people, all the record people, and they started going, great, you know, we got this is gonna be fantastic. Tony's gonna sing Within and Without You Abano song and like Runaway Train and and I was like whoa. I said, you know what, guys, I really appreciate this, but this is this is a train wreck. Never gonna happen. And I walked out and then they said, well, come back, and what are you talking about. I said, listen, you guys are on TV. This was in the day of MTV. I said, you guys got balls. That's that. There's no balls. What's gonna take balls is to do Tony's music and have them sing Tony's music. And I said, that's balls, that's MTV. And they were like, yeah, we got We're gonna do that. Don't we marry balls? Don't you marry? Yes, I do, I've got huge. Yeah. Whose idea was the Duets album? I mean, you know it's not It wasn't an original idea what I'm saying, but I thought that those are very complicated things to do. The point that pain in the as Yeah, you know, you you had Sinatra and then you had um, Ray Charles. I mean, he's so fifteen million records, Um, pretty good idea, you know. So I'm like, you know, how do I go and reinvent Tony? You know? And then we went on with MTV to win Album of the Year with the Grammy's got a lot of people upset, and I was like, what's going on with that? But when you look at it, you know, Alec, it's like he heralded in the iPod generation. You can listen to Tony and Billie Holliday and also listen to Pearl Jam and you know, it didn't matter. So kids started opening up to that. He's you know, I give him a lot of credit for that. Now, your father has you in his corner obviously for many many years now. His own son is flesh and blood. He has a wife, your stepmother, who's obviously is omnipresent and around all the time with him. He's got two people who are taking good care of him, and he's getting on in years. And then my and my brother has been producing his records, and I'm assuming that a lot of it is you've got to take as much stress of him as possible because because because he's working a full schedule. Yeah. Well, and he's eighty what years old, he's gonna be eighty seven, he's still going well. I mean a lot of people don't look at me and go like, what are you doing? You leave him? Leave him be? And then they do oh yeah, and I'm like, it's not me. I mean seriously, I'm very you know, conscientious of his a. The guy doesn't like to take elevators. He takes he doesn't like to take escalators. We go to airports, he's up the stairs, he's the first one. Keeping up with him is a challenge. There's something about people who they make the most of what they have. I mean, there are people who they have something. Paccino once had a great line to me. I said to Paccino, you ever get uptight when you make films with people who you worry about they might not be able to cut it, like you don't want to exert too many controls and authorities and approvals, and that this guy and the cast drops out, and this girl shows that, this guy shows up. You're doing scenes with people and you're al Pacino and these other people maybe aren't as good as you. What do you do? And I'll never forget Paccino says, uh, I like, I says that what I realized is everybody's talented in this business. Everybody who makes it to the level where at making films and everything. He said, they're all talented. He said, some are just more talented than others. But everybody I've seen myself. Everybody's talented. And I go, he said like that, someone would say he had a talent for telling jokes, or he had a talent for dealing cards. Everyone's talented. It's something. So the thing to me is that there's people in this business who they go far and they make the most of what they have, and what they have is like blah blah blah. But your father was somebody who had the most. Yeah, he had the most talent. Your father, I'll sit down, the most talent. I think it's he's tuned into his talent the most. Well, well that that's your opinion. You know, he owes you a lot, he owes you a lot. No, no, no, But what I'm saying, you've helped him to keep that fire burning because there's a lot of people who what happens is they have the talent, what they lose as the will they're like, I just don't want to do this. They lower the bar because they don't want to be disappointed. I mean that's the key. Tony never lowers that bar. It's always up, and that is what is it in him? Look, I was watching once again, I hadn't seen a long time the Missles Brothers um film on Horowitz, you know that one. No, I never said, oh my god, going well, they're just filming him playing piano and just living room and you watch this guy playing, You're going like, where's that coming from? Right, He's he's somewhere else. An Tony is like the same way. That's why I had Lost in the Stars at the end of the movies. That is that a Bennett Um Lost in the starts. You know, he's out, It's out there in the cosmos, and I don't want to you know, it's it's the essence of zen. It's about being in the moment. It's about for me, it's about the you know, art is like you know James Joyce says about it's an arresting moment and the world disappears and you're in the moment. But when you do that, it puts us in the moment and where out he and the find out more about Danny Bennett's film The Zen of Bennett on our website Here's the Thing dot org. This is Alec Baldwin and you're listening to Here's the Thing

Here's The Thing with Alec Baldwin

Award-winning actor Alec Baldwin takes listeners into the lives of artists, policy makers and perfor 
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