Catching Up With Paul Anka and Skip Bronson

Published May 22, 2024, 8:00 AM

The 'Our Way' producers turn the tables on Paul and Skip and interview the hosts about their legendary careers. Skip looks back on his early life before becoming a hugely successful real estate developer and business visionary, and reflects on all the pranks he and Paul have pulled on one another. Paul recalls the unrequited high school crush that inspired “Diana,” the 1957 hit that transformed him from a small-town Canadian teen to an international pop star, the time he did battle with the US Customs office, and his relationship with Johnny Carson — including the night that the talk show legend fall afoul of the Mob…with disastrous results! 

Our Way with yours truly Paul Anka and my buddy Skip Bronson, is a production of iHeartRadio. Hi, folks, this is Paul.

Anka and my name is Skip Bronson. We've been friends for decades and we've decided to let you in on our late night phone calls by starting a new podcast.

And welcome to Our Way. We'd like you to meet some real good friends of us.

You're leaders in entertainment and.

Sports, innovators in business and technology, and even a sitting president or two.

Join us as we ask the questions they've not been asked before, tell it like it is, and even sing a song or two.

This is our podcast and we'll be doing it our Way.

Hello everyone. My name's Jordan run Talk and one of the producers of Our Way. Over the last few months, we've had some amazing guests on this show, but some of my favorite moments have been when the tapes weren't running. I'm talking about the after hours phone chat, so the pre show meetings when I hear the most amazing stories from Paul and Skip, and I always thought it was a shame that people don't get to hear them with me. So today we're doing something a little different. We're turning the tables on our hosts, Paul and Skip, and I'm going to interview them. They are going to be guests on their own show. What do you guys think you ready?

Yeah, not a problem. I'd like to get to know Skip a little better. It's possible.

I mean that was kind of my first question. I want to know how you guys first met.

I realized I have no idea.

Well, I don't know precisely, Skip. Maybe you could throw something on it to date, but I know it was many years ago when you were working with brother Steve Winn.

Yeah. Well, actually I've seen Paul. This is forty plus years ago. He was performing at the Golden Nugget. I was there to visit with Steve. I was just Steve and I were his friends. We didn't have a business relationship at that point. And Paul was performing at the Golden Nugget and I went and saw the show and it was just fantastic. I mean, the audience was just he owned the audience. And then later, you know, the next day, Steve said, what you do last night? I said, you know, I want to see Paul ink and blah blah blah, and he said, oh yeah, you said, he's coming up here to the office, and Paul came up. I actually didn't stay for you know, the time that they were together, but you know, that's where I first met him, was at the Golden Nugget. And then through you know, through our mutual friendship with Steve Wynn, you know, we wound up doing things together where the three of us, you know, I mean, we've told stories about this on a prior podcast, but you know, we flew to Monaco together, we went to you know, we went all sorts of places together, to Asia, you know, over to Macau, and we were together, and you know, we started spending time together. And ever since then, Paul is I've never had a brother, but I've got one now and so certainly for the last twenty five years, we've had this relationship where we're always checking in at each other.

You know, it's always cool when you meet somebody who's different than the crowd, and you know, meeting Skip, you very quickly realizes somebody special here. I don't mean in the kind of whimsical way. And he and I clicked. And I'm always very cautious anyway, because I'm not a real trusting person. But after he was employed with Steve and evolved into what he wanted to do. After that, we remain friends. Maybe we became better friends because we had more time and we had a much more away, said, easier relationship. He was unfettered, and we've just been buddies ever since. You know, you meet people like that and you get to you know, what I think I said on previous programs is that there's a lack of real understanding and commitment to friendship. I think it's got to be taught in schools. I think when you look at in this modern society, these kids today have no idea what a friend is. And it bothers me. You know, I try to teach my son. But Skip and I have beaten that in that we understand what friendship is. And you know, Skip's got a lot of acquaintances and a lot of friends, but we was that kind of a love affair. You know, We've just known each other. We've been pretty open and honest all the time, which makes it work. We've never ever had a fight, and I've told Skip the reason is that I know that Skip is very very, very very smart, but I'm always right and he's accepted that that's a concept of our friendship. But we've had so much fun together. You know, we laugh about a lot of things. We're very serious about a lot of things because we we have a respect for what's going on around us, what the world is about people, et cetera. Because we know that, you know, the human factor can be deadly. You know, man's inhumanity to man is very unlike animals in the jungle who are very kind to each other. So we share, we share a lot of that stuff.

Yeah, I'll tell you when you know, you're a made guy with this man. You know how like if you had an encounter with Don Rickles, if he insulted you, that's like a good thing. He loves you to be insulted by Don Rickles. That's a big deal. So Paul is one of the great practical jokers of all time. And because of his you know, his singing ability. He can change his voice, he can do things. I mean, he can get you in ways that you you wouldn't think that he could get you, but he can do it. And when I started to become the victim, if you will, of a couple of his practical jokes, That's when I knew I was a maid guy. Even though I must admit I fucking hate it. I fucking hate it. But here's what I like. I like telling the story because people love the story. Unfortunately. I'll just give you one example. Edie and I, my wife and I. Edie and I were at arrest.

Is it Medealoe?

Yeah, I was at Medeo with two other couples. My phone lights up that it's Paul, and of course, you know, I take that call no matter where I am, no matter what I'm doing. So I pick up the phone and I said, hey, I'm out to dinner, you know, which is code for I can't really talk right now. And he said, oh, you're kiddy. Where are you? I said, I'm at Medeo and he goes, what, I'm at Medeo? I said, what are you talking about. I'm at Medeo. He said, where are you? I said, I'm at the far end, beyond the bar. There's a banquette. I'm over there. And he goes, oh, I'm all the way in the other end of the restaurant. He said, I'll come over and say hello to you. He said, but I'm not still not sure exactly where you are, so just wave, just stand up and just wave for a second. Up. So I stand up and I'm waving my arm and at this point two waiters have come over to me to see what it is that I need. And I'm waving and I'm waving and I said, okay, you see me? And he goes no. I said, what do you mean? How do you not see me? He says, I'm short. There's a lot of people here. I can't see over these people. You just do me a favor. Stand up, stand up to the left a little bit. So now I move out of the bankhet I move out. I'm out into the aisle and I'm waving my hand like this, back and forth, back and forth. I said, you see me? He goes no, see. I said, let me ask you a question. How the fuck can you not see me? Where are you? He said, I'm at home? I said, what wait?

What what do you mean?

You're no? No? Where are you here? At Midemo? Where are you sitting? You're not listen to me? I'm home. I'm at home.

Well, I think the uh. That was one of our funny ones, but the best one. Unfortunately, it was Monte Carlo.

Let me set this one up. So Steve Wynn decides that he'd like to have an F one race in Las Vegas. Yeah, and he's building the Bellagio at the time, and he wants the finish line to be under the porkochhere of the Bolagio, which had about six lanes, I mean, it was a big white space. So he's got this whole thing in his head of how he's conceptualized this, how it's going to work, and the whole thing. But he's never been to an F one race, so he wants to go to the F one in Monaco. So Paul, myself, Bobby Baldwin, who at the time was the president of the Mirage and who was a world champion poker player, we get in Steve's plane and we fly to Monaco. I'll segue to Paul. Let Paul tell the story.

So we arrive in Monaco and we know exactly what we have to do, and we wind up down in the pits with Bernie eccleston, who owned it at the time, and we're enjoying and kind of think tanking how it's going to work in Vegas, and we're sitting there blah blah, blah blah blah. And we know that the schedule that evolved out of the afternoon was that we got to meet Prince Rene that night for a big cocktail party, and everybody's all eased up to that because they're looking forward to meeting the Prince. And we go back to the hotel. So I'm sitting there and I've got some time on my hands. You know, business is done back home with the nine hour time drifence, and I'm frisky and I've always lived with the fact that, you know, humor is the final refuge of Sanitay, and I just love having this kind of fun with people I like. So anyway, I call up my baby boy here skip and I said, mister Bronson, Yes, this is Peter Panzantos over the I'm the lead point person, but Rener and we know you are here with mister Steve Steve Wynn, and we would like to have a private audience with mister Vinn and with the Prince, just the two of them, before the cocktail party at night. And we know that you are the point person. Can you arrange the him over here and we will send a car over and get him here by six and he must be in a tuxedo. He says, what he must be in a tuxedo? He said, well, okay, but you understand that he's somewhat impaired with you know, his eyesight. I mean, he can function, But he said, I said, don't worry about that. We have a department for impaired people to come in and out of here all the time, from all over the world. We will take care of him. He will see us vay, he will be led that have him ready. So Skip goes and he gets Steve his suite and he conveys to him that he's got an audience with the Prince and he's got to wear a tuxedo and blah blah blah dah, and he's got to be there at this time, and it's all arranged, and there was some questions Steve had where Skip had to call the palace back to really define what the pickup.

Was and try him a little bit more time.

He can buy a little more time, so you take it from here. Now. Skip calls the palace and here's what happens. When he gets the palace.

I call, I asked for this gentleman that called me, and they said, there's no one here by that name. And I said, no, no, you're not listening. I'm with Steve Win. Prince Regnier wants to have a private one on one audience with him. It's been all arranged, but I need to speak to the chief of staff to get this. I've got a couple of things they have to work out. He said, there is no such person. He doesn't have a chief of staff. I don't know what this is. We get crazy calls like this all the time at the palace. Goodbye, well, hold on, hold on, hold on. You're obviously not in the loop. You're not in the loop. We've always worked this out. This whole thing has been completely arranged. The guy says, this is ridiculous, and the guy hangs up on me. So I don't know what to do. And of course, first calling before I do anything, I call Paul to tell him the whole story. He doesn't know anything about this, right, and I want to let him know that this happened. And I went over to Steve's and Steve is you know.

So wait, no, wait, let me help you, honey. So now I go to Steve's room because I know where he's going to wind up, because He's told the guy, you're not in the loop, and I know eventually he's got to get over to Steve to convey whatever. So I'm sitting there with Steve was on the phone with Huff and Puff. That was his ex wife. He called her Huff and Puff, and he's meanwhile, he's got me looking in the closet for something black that looks like a tuxedo. So I'm sitting there and Skip walks into the room and he conveys to Steve to bring him up to date. Da da da, And in calling back the palace, Steve, I got some yoyo on the phone and got nowhere with him. But don't worry. I told the guy he wasn't in the loop. So everything's going to be set. Da da dada. So I look at Skip, I look at Steve, and I said, Skip, you're not in love. There is no meeting. It's all bullshit. I pulled the Bullini on you. We don't have to get dressed and go to see the Prince. Steve starts laughing. Skip looks at me with that sweet little pussy cat face. It's okay, you'll be over in a couple hours, right, So now, We're laughing all the way to the palace where there's two hundred people have convened who've been invited for this evening's cocktail party. And we're in line. They keep everybody waiting in the courtyard, no matter who you are, and we're still Steve is still laughing about what happened, right, So finally they let us in and I'm elbowing Skip along because he's now coming back to life with it. And this guy walks, very elegant English, snobbed out dude, and he walks by us and he tries to we try to talk to him regarding what happen up in that afternoon. Totally shit all over us as he walked by. And then Steve says, well, I'm going to tell the Prince about this. He'll get a kick out of it. Remember that, Skip, And he goes over and begin and Steve, who's better than Steve, right, he can talk an oak tree into a beautiful pussy willow. So now he starts talking to the Prince regarding the events of that afternoon, and of course we're somewhere on the periphery watching and Steve's the charmer of the world intelligence and he's talking to the Prince, who is somewhat laughing, but he isn't you know one of those Yeah, So I think he got a kick out of it, and we just left that party. We never got over it, but that was one of my big home runs with my dear Skip what.

I still have PTSD over that one. But there's one other thing that I was just inbellish it. You know, if you've ever been to the White House and yes you're going to meet the president, you wait in a line. I remember when I first met Bill Clinton. As you proceed through this line, there's a photographer there to take the picture at the moment of impact. And the second you shake hands with the president, it's a it's not a shake, it's a pull. It's like, instead of shake, you grab his hand, he pulls to get to the next person. That was what was going on in Monte Carlo. But Steve stopped and pitched a tent right in front of the Prince, and I kept looking over my shoulder at all these people waiting in line, like growling because what are they doing? What's going on up there? What the hell's going on up there?

Well, his daughter came over, don't you. Mar Caroline came to me. She said, you have to tell him to stop talking. I said, you go tell him. He's my friend. I'm not gonna dumb to stop talking. Oh man, oh god, we've had some fun there, skip we have.

We've done it.

We've got miles of we We've done some traveling and doing.

And I don't know you live on a hamster wheel. I never was sounding like you're traveling. This is the guy that goes out on tour, comes back and you think, wow, Now he just wants to chill for a while. He'll call me up and say, in two days, I'm going to Hawaii. What when mean you going Hawaii? Yeah, I'm going to Hawaii, flies to Hawaii, comes back. Now. I know his tour doesn't start again for like another ten days. So I figure, well, this is great. I'll go see him up at the house because they'll just be hanging. It'll call me and says he said to me, oh, by the way, I'm going to Mexico. What when are you going to Mexico? Tomorrow? Just Michelle, me, the kids, We're all going down. We're going to go on Carlos Slim's yacht for a few days, and what I mean, anybody else this guy he doesn't have to recharge his battery, just automatically recharges.

I guess you got to keep moving. Man, they throw dirt on you. You know that. I love it, and hey, I've been blessed with a great life, you know. But living well is the best revenge. And I just keep moving. I love it.

So my routine is barely simple, and that is you know, I get up early, really early, go online, read all the newspapers, look at my messages in the night before this happens, like at five o'clock in the morning, and then work from my office at home. And then later, like at about nine o'clock, I go to my office office in Beverly Hills alongside the Peninsula Hotel. And then if I get a chance to look to run up to my golf club and go on the drive me range and hit some balls and just you know, maybe play nine holes. You know this point, I played eighteen holes only on weekends typically, and then I go home, have dinner. We got more often than I have dinner at home or go out a restaurant with friends. And Paul knows we have a screening room and that's you know, Saturday night, that's where everybody comes to see the movies because somehow I got onto the Bellier circuit where I get all the first run movies. But Paul's routine is so different from mine because first of all, he still has a relatively young son at home living with him. But tell them, give him a little about your routine. Tell them your what is your daily routine.

We understand a routine, which is cool because we know when not to call and when to call. And you know, my thing is, you know, for years working let's say Vegas with those guys the rat Pack, right you you get locked into you know, go to bed two three at night. By the time you did two shows and then you hung out, your body starts getting geared for that kind of life. Mind changed when we started having kids. You know, my wife may she rest I had a pretty good routine raising five girls and ultimately moving up to Carmel, California, putting them with the nuns. Uh, you know, trying to keep track of these kids. But when you're a creative person, and I think both of you can appreciate it because we're all in that kind of mold. When the ideas come, you know, you got to go with it because it's just not something I'm going to sit down and do. So I'm so used to working late at night when there is no distractions and I've got to write. And when you're writing music and words what have you, as you both know, you're sitting in that capsule and you're waiting for it to happen. So with that and raising Ethan, getting this young son of mine, one hundred percent of the time, I changed my whole life around and you know, got rid of my offices and all the space and I literally moved everything into a house where I could raise this boy. Right. And on top of that, my schedule is when I have to write. I can't really put a lot of substance during the day because I got other things bothering me. So I'm you know, I mean, I'll get my sleep when I have to. When I'm on the road, I've got to get eight hours, you know. When I'm home, I'll work till two three in the morning. I've got Todd who works with me, our engineer. We'll record till two three in the morning. And the people that show up to record with us. That's part of it. If you look at a lot of artists, they like to record at night. Your voice is open, no distractions, what have you. So with that it averages out where when Skip is sleeping, I'm up, so I'm not going to call him, and I'm up to as I said, two or three, but I'll sleep till maybe eleven to get my rest from my voice, in my health. And then I've got a routine of what I eat, how I eat. You know, I've got certain little tricks that apply. I drink lemon juice at night. I got a certain drink made in the morning. I don't eat this, I don't eat that, and it's worked. You know. This body's not a fluke. So I'm pretty locked into because I know what the results are. My latest is a seaweed tea. When I was in Japan. Friend of mine who's got the top restaurant over there, there's a farm outside of Tokyo and it's the only farm. And if you know the Japanese culture and realize from their fruit to everything, they're on their game. They know what to do. Man, it's amazing. And he gives everybody these three or four chips of seaweed and your pour hot water when you're eating, and it's great for digestion, great for the heart when you read up and I won't bore you with it, but if you read up the benefits of seaweed, you'll find it really is beneficial, like green tea. So I have these chips in bags shipped to me from this firm that's the only farm that makes it for the restaurant, and that's what I have. I'll drink it all day, I'll drink it after a meal. So it's finding those things that's helping me function to where when I've got to go on stage where I've got to sing, the body's working because I've seen too many people around me from the rat pack to guys with the abuse that you can do to your body that you can't function and go on stage. And you know all of us have seen that. You've seen performers that go on whacked out whatever. So it's all of that kind of stuff and that fits into the working order of skip an eye, and you know, we kind of understand each other that way. You know, it doesn't mean that we're not going to get the full menu of what's happening all the time. If it's catching up or whatever.

We're all over it.

So you're back from well, you just got back from the East Coast. Did you golf at all?

It's so funny you brought that up. So I never take typically a two week trip to New York. But I'm on these three public company boards, and as it lined up, and I had something to do with lining it up this way, they met consecutively over a total of two weeks. So I didn't have to fly to Miami. I don't have to fly to Dallas. Everything was done in one place. But it was two weeks is a long time. I had a great time. Saw an amazing show on Broadway, one of the best dramas I've seen, called Patriots, just amazing, the story of the creation of Vladimir Putin, if you will buy the Zla Girk who essentially invented him. But that was great anyway, So I'm busy, but I for whatever reason, I took my golf clubs with me, had them packed up in a big, you know, travel bag, probably weighs fifty pounds all in, and I had it in my hotel room and I was sitting with it in the hotel room for about five days, and I'm thinking, I'm not going to play golf. I'll send my clubs back. So I Federal Expressed my clubs back, and you know usually you don't select next day, but probably second day for something that size. So sent it back second day. I get back to my club here in LA and I said, we sent my clubs up front to the pro shop and they said, we don't have your clubs. I said, no, no, what do you mean you don't have my clubs. You took your clubs. I think you went to New York or something with them, but we don't have your clubs. I said, that's impossible. I sent them back here more than a week ago. So cut to Aaron. Thankfully, you know, she can do anything, find anything. We had the tracking number, so I said, well, here's the tracking number. So she looks and it says the clubs are still in New York. They're not even in transit. I'm like what. So we called the hotel and said, how did you not give the clubs to Federal Express. They said no, no, Federal Express had them, and they send us pictures of surveillance in the hotel where you can see the Federal Express driver you see my golf bag. You see him take the golf bag. So we know the Federal Express has him. So I'm pulling out every stunt. My friend Fred Purpaul is on the board of Federal Express, so I called him. I got him involved. Anyway, All of a sudden, it dawns on me, Wait a second, I've got an air tag on my golf bag, you know, an Apple air tag where you can find things from your phone. So it dawns on me yesterday, click on it, and the golf clubs are somewhere on West thirty fourth Street, and it looks like a residential building. So now I'm thinking somebody stole my golf clubs. They're in somebody's apartment on West thirty fourth Street. So then Erin, being Aaron, you know, she looks and finds out that that address is actually one of the Federal Express offices. So the end of the stories, we call there and they can't find the clubs. Now we said, wait a minute, wait a minute, you can't. I can find them. I'm three thousand miles away. They're in your warehouse, and I know where they are, and you don't know where they are. So this one I'm back and forth for I don't know anyway. I'm not sure if it was you know, Fred Purpaul called. He said to me, the chairman of the boards, I'll looking for your clubs, no joke. So I don't know how this happened, but today my golf clubs came back Hell the next day Federal Express. The end of that long winded story is these Apple air tags. They're worth their weight and goal.

Oh I love them. I keep track all my luggage.

Yeah, especially you you're traveling all over the world.

You know. The craziest thing happened to me is you talk about luggage and loss. I was working in Canada on TV show and at the culmination of the series would end months later. Me, my orchestra, we all had to get on flights. I had a plane at the time, and we all had to get to la Let's say it was a Tuesday, and get on a plane Wednesday Wednesday to go to Hong Kong. Now I got to move a band, me, et cetera. Back then I think it was Western Skip You remember Western Airlines. Yeah, how unreliable they were, et cetera. The short of it is, all my guys get on a plane. All the luggage in the music is coming to Vegas, where I lived at the time. I land early on my plane. I get to my house and I get a phone call from my assistant and she said, Western is late again. The boys and the luggage. I won't get here until the evening. We don't think we can get the luggage tomorrow because customs are now holding all the luggage. I said, but we've got a plane, no more now Hong Kong. We but they won't release it. I get in my station wagon with one of my assistants and we drive out to mccaren field and I go into this customs area and there's a guy. Well, you know their attitude, power driven, I said to the guy, I said, sir Bob, we did the show and paul Anka and I've got my music and my guy and I'm looking behind him and there's a net over all the luggage and all the music, this huge net. I said, By the way, that's that's our stuff, our music. So I'm sorry I can't help you. You have to come back tomorrow, I said, We've got to be on an airplane. We need that. Sorry, come back, don't bother me. I backed the station wagon into this open area to where the net is. I start loading all the luggage and the music into my station wagon as much as I could hold. And this guy's looking at you can't do that, you gots America. I said, I'm doing it. I'm going to Hong Kong, right. So I load up what I know I need and I bring everything to my house. And now I think I'm set to go to Hong Kong, and I start unpacking stuff that I know I need. I unpacked this. I get a phone call from my attorney the next morning. He said, did you break into an area at the customs out at Macaren and loaded? I said, yeah, I did. I said, we're leaving, you know, on the night flight. We got to get to Hong Kong. He said, well, you're in trouble. He said, you'd better send that luggage back. So I said, but he said, you better send it back. You've got a shitload of trouble coming. So I unpacked the stuff that I know we need, and I start putting books in from my library to fill the bags with what I think. Fade out, fade in. Now, I got lawyers, I got the American government all over my ass. You took this luggage, you were smuggling in drugs, you were smuggling in a body. I mean, you wouldn't believe that shit that were town at me. Now I'm in Hong Kong with the stuff my lawyers are calling me. I got the top guy in Vegas, I got a guy in Washington. You smuggled a body, and you took this anyway. It gets to the point where I now have to go in front of the district attorney in Las Vegas and I'm working at the Riviera Hotel and he sits me down. He said, you know, I would be much more severe and what you did. But I know what you're about. He said. I used to be a dishwasher at Caesar's Palace and you always came in every time you do a show, through the kitchen to get to the stage. You never went to the public areas, and you were the only guy that would stop and talk to us. And I was just earning nothing, trying to get my way through through college, and you would bring a CDs and you'd be so kind. He said, I know that you're not the guy that they said you are, and I'm going to fit you with a twenty five thousand bubba and it was all over. And this guy today is one of the top attorneys in Las Vegas. Wow, you talk about luggage, Huh, that's crazy. Is then a wild story? I was smuggling in a body drugs. I mean, they throw everything at you, right. You know your.

Career, you know is an independent contractor, you know, and I know you had We've talked before about odd jobs and whatever, but you ever in your life have a salaried job. Ever?

Well, when I was a kid, I worked as a waiter, go salaried. I worked as a caddie, salaried. But skip, you have to understand, I was writing music at fourteen. I left at fourteen to go to New York because I collected super wrappers, because I wanted to get to New York. That's a whole other story, Campbell's soup. When I get home, I had jobs, you know. I worked in restaurants, I was the caddy, I had a paper route. But after that, from age fifteen on, I was in Hello Dreamland, show business.

That was it. You've always worked for yourself? Yeah?

Always? And then I had you know, managers, but I've never had real partners. Other than Irfeld.

My first job on salary. I was sixteen years old. My mother marched me down to the local supermarket called the Popular Supermarket, told me to give me a job. And you know, probably the lowest scale job in the supermarket is facing the shelves. I don't know if you know what that means. But somebody comes along. Let's say, there's you know, heinz ketchup, So somebody takes a bottle. Another person comes along, they take a bottle. Now it's it's hard to see the ketchup. So the job facing the shelves meant that you would take whatever was on that shelf and bring it forward, So you'd have to walk down the aisle, do every aisle in the supermarket, one after another, and then start over again. The same way they say. You know, when they paint the George Washington Bridge, by the time they finished, it's time, you know, to paint it again. You know, I got to start over. So you're constantly doing that and facing the shelves. It's the worst job. And I have to tell you my friend Larry David's wife Ashley, who I'm totally crazy about, this is one of her favorite stories. So when I was doing this job. It was so mindless and it was so boring. And you know, this is before the days of you know, being able to put buds in your ear and listen to music or look at a smartphone. This was just the most tedious, boring job. And back in the day, food wasn't sealed. Like if you wanted to buy a bottle of ketchup, you just open it right up. You know. Now everything's got one of the you know, incredible seals on it, and then something even below the seal. But then you just open things up. You know, it's just very simple. So one of my things that I would do when I was bored is I would take a toothpick, go over to the peanut butter aisle, take a jar of peanut butter, take the top off, and with the toothpick right fuck you in the peanut butter, and then screw the cap back on, put it back on the shelf. And I can't tell you how many times I'd be working in the store facing the shelves and I'd look toward the manager's desk and this irate and irate woman would be there folding a jar of peanut butter. Pointing with her index finger like like, look at this, look at this, look at this. And I was about fifty yards away watching this. And the manager, his name was Tom Wassel. He would glare at me. He couldn't ever catch me doing it, but he knew that I had to be the guy that put it. He would just look over whoever the person who was talking to, look over their shoulder. If he could spot me and give me a look, that would just kill because he knew you, son of a bitch, I know you that's doing this. But the greatest joy was not writing fuck you in the peanut butter. The greatest joy was the thought of some person that gets home from the grocery store. They unpack all this stuff whatever. One of their kids says, Mommy, can I get a peanut butter jelly sandwich. She'd take the lid off the peanut butter and said that, I can't explain to you that I was making a dollar twenty five an hour. Yeah, I had to join the Amalgamated meat Cutters and butcher Workmen of North Americay. Had he gives them part yea Yeah, you had to give them part of your dollar and a quarter an hour. Yeah, yeah, but the joy that I used to get out of doing this with those jars of peanut butter, it was just, oh my god.

It was My only experience was the Campbell soup thing, you know, at fourteen or fifteen, when I heard about New York and how to get there. We didn't have any money, you know. And when I read in the paper IgA Campbell soup contest forty kids from Canada, whoever collects the most wrappers gets to go to New York. I'm down. So I go down to this guy Abraham, who owned the place down on Somerset, and I said, can I have a job. I want to pack the bags and I was clocking all the women who come through when I pack it with Campbell soup. And then I'd go over to the island look at the Campbell soup to see what I could rip off in the pack and put the ones in the But I was collecting Campbell soup and I was going to these homes with these women. But anyway, I won, right, I won for my district, and next thing you know, I'm going to New York. They gave us a box lunch which was warp by the time we got to New York, watered down pickles and shit, and we get to New York and I'm staying at the y Sloanhouse. The Sloanhouse, the way I'm saying, that was my first introduction. I'd never seen anything like New York. And on Canada there was no high rises and that was it through Campbell Super Rappers at IgA.

How old were you when you wrote Diana, you were? How old?

Fifteen ish? Fourteen to fifteen? I went down on Easter vacation, recorded it in May. I was fifteen. By the time I turned sixteen, I was on Dick Clark and Ed Sullivan. Yeah.

So is it based on a real experience?

Oh well, I wish there was an experience. She had nothing to do with me.

When you say I'm so young and you're so old? There you go, how old were you? And how old was this victim? Here? You?

No, No, I was a victim. She was loving it. So here I am at fifteen? Yeah, I had a crush on this girl, Diana, who's three years older. Really attractive. But you have to go back to the fifties when sexuality and that whole social thing was you know, if you're too short if you're too old, if you're too.

And at that age, that's a big gap, three years big.

Yeah. So she wanted nothing to do with me. Nothing. So I sit down and I'm playing piano now because I got thrown out a shorthand, and I'm taking piano lessons because I'm really a huge fan of music. And I start, you know, I started because I won three awards in school for my short stories, and everybody say, ah, you're a writer. So my dad gets me a gig at the Ottawa Citizen as a cub reporter. But at home and with my piano lessons, I'm writing songs. So I start, I'm so young, you're so old. This is my darling I've been told because everybody kept telling me she's too old and you're too young, and nothing's going to happen. Not Shakespeare, just kid with a feeling and wrote with what I saw, and you become what you see. And I wrote it. I didn't know, and then you know, when I left home with that and a few songs in my pocket, I get to New York in front of all the suits and it becomes a hit. I go back to Ottawa and there's parades and all that stuff going on. Now She's looking at me like I'm Troy Donahue, right, I'd already traveled and done, and I said, this ain't gonna work anymore, honey words, I'm over it. And nothing ever came of it.

That was it. That was it.

But I thank you for the inspiration.

And I love when you still start your show when you come in from the back of the audience to walk toward the stage and you start seeing Diana and people just go wild. They go wild, And then I could do I could do your act. I've seen it enough times. I like when you say, okay, I had to get that out of the way.

I love you madly, but I'd love to see you try it once.

I know. Adie always says to me when she's nervous, and if we're a private plane or a helicopter and there's turbulence and she gets nervous, really scared. I always look over and say, listen, I guarantee you I can get this plane on the ground. Of course, I don't tell her that I can get it on the ground at one piece. I can just get it on the ground. But the same way I could do your act. You know, I could never do your act.

I was telling Michelle the other day because we flew fifteen hours from Asia back home fifteen hours now, I said, you know what, when I think when I was fifteen years old and I'm on those prop planes going to Asia, I don't know how the hell I did it. Those props took so long and so many stops, and I'm on there with Jerry Lee Lewis, who hated me. I was this kid, very successful and he was crazy, so down there with Buddy Hard but we would sit on these prop planes skip. I don't know how the hell I did it. And then when somebody said maybe close to nineteen sixty where they got these jet engines, I'm I ain't getting on that. What do you mean a jet engine? No? Fuck, what is a jetit? I was scared to death to get on a jet.

We talked about this on the Mark Burnett podcast. But when he and I were on a plane and forty one thousand feet a private jet and lost an engine, it wasn't dicey, but it was you know, you can't help but think, you know. And Mark looked over me. He said, are we going to die? And I said yes, but not today.

You know, years ago with the Beatles thing hit, and I'm traveling all over the world and enjoying all of that stuff. I'd hit every country and the Beatles hit, and you know, I'm evolving as a writer. And I decided to move to Italy part time because I loved Italy and I wanted to record an Italian and I wanted to give back to Germany. Were recorded in German and French, and I go to Italy and I used to fly from New York t w A all the way over for my stay in Italy, and I got to know them so well. They invite me up to the cockpit and I'd sit there wa with these pilots that you know that'd sit in the chair you were allowed. Back then, there was none of this terrorist shit. I'll never fear. One day, we're landing in Rome and that's a t w A good land your room and a latitude sixty five or two three thirty thousand feet and the ground. Go back to the pilots. I'm sitting there here, that's all right over there. And then make a left turn of the longer two to six or two okay, right now with a five or seven or two three, But you gave it the same coordinance to the PanAm plant coming in from the north. What's what's going on? And the ground goes, that's all right, lookout. I'll never forget that. That's all right, lookout, said there's a ship. What do you mean?

Lookout?

You know it was so different back then, you know, you didn't have all this great stuff in the cockpit.

Now, speaking of technology, I love a great app. If somebody tells you about new apps. But there are two apps I was going to mention you and the Jordan. Jordan's get a kick out of it too. Don't know if you're familiar with this search engine called Perplexity. It's an app that you must download on your phone. If you're searching for something in Google, you know, you just type it in the box and Google spits out an answer. Perplexity gives you so much detail. If I typed in who is Paul Anka? Not only will it tell me you know anything that's on Wikipedia, it'll show pictures of you, it'll talk, it'll show your tour schedule, it'll show Oh, the depth that it goes to is extraordinary. So that's Perplexity. The other one people who are using AI apps and chat GPT is you know, always been one of them, but now there's an app called chat GPT four. I was at a board meeting in New York this past week, and I chair the Nominating Governance Committee. So I was thinking at this meeting, the meeting prior, the people that gave reports, like on the Compensation Committee, Nominating Governance Committee, the committee, it was taking them too long. Their reports were too long. So I typed into chat gpt, what's a good way to get people on boards to give reports that are not very lengthy? Fifteen seconds it's spit out literally five or seven pages with ideas of how to motivate people to summarize and talk about strategy and list and then a letter. It wrote a letter that you could write to each person that's on the committee. The letter was in there on chat GPT four. This is I mean, no one is going to replace songwriters like you. I mean, everybody knows you as a performer, but you know, I think of you is obviously much more than that, and being such a prolific songwriter, but you're going to be able to write songs using AI. That is just going to be I mean now they can the way I talked to at the very beginning of this podcast about you in the way you can disguise your voice. It can replicate your voice. You can have something you just just give it a little snippet of your voice, and it can take your voice and sing my way in your voice, not in Paul's voice, in my voice, and it actually sounds like I'm singing the song. So I mean, I think you know we're getting into a place because Paul keeps talking about the changes in the way things were, in the way things are, and you know how extraordinary it's been. This stuff is next level.

Man, that's right. AI is the future.

And obviously we know about the applications Jordan in health and healthcare and you know all you know how pharmaceuticals will be created. I know all that, But just in the arts, in entertainment, the things that they're already doing.

That's right, just over a lot of people out of work. You know, it's between the AI and the aliens. You know my rap on that, but indigenous to what you were talking about. You know, one of my special moments is when I hear from my friend Warren Buffett and I don't like to drop names. But he called me a while back. He said, Bill Gates is here with me and he's showing me this. Gee. What was that first machine? That's something? Gee? He said. I asked the machine to give me four different versions of my way, and it spit it out in one minute. I said, really, Warren, He said yeah, And I knew then that day when he told me what was coming down the road. It was amazing, amazing.

And how long ago was that?

Two years ago?

Really?

I guess Gates was hip to it and took it to Warren and he was showing Warren what it could do.

You know, you use it, Jordan, you use any ai or too much.

The thing that I'm most fascinated by with it is the voice cloning. There's versions of you know, okay, you can hear Paul McCartney sing an Amy Winehouse song or a Stevie Wonder song. And there's this whole little cottage industry of people on YouTube that are using the voice cloning software to have Frank Sinatra singer, Michael Jackson song or something like that. And it's it's interesting to me. I mean, I the ethics of it are a whole other question but just purely from curiosity. I think it's interesting in the way that early hip hop samplers were interesting too. I think that, you know, there's a way to make it artful, but I know that the ethics around it are pretty dubious at times.

Yeah, it's going to be an experience for a lot of people that are not expecting. Yeah, deadly.

The rights issues. You know, I've learned a lot on this podcast about rights issues because we've had people like Michael bubleon and he wants to sing you know, White Christmas, and he didn't write it, he doesn't own it. And it turns out that iHeart has to pay a fee.

That's what our world's about. Skip, I've got b M I or as gap. I mean, basically, what is every time a song is used in any fashion, whether it's on radio or CDs, when they were sold, et cetera, et cetera, you've got to pay the publisher and the writers. The curious thing is, and for years we've been fighting it, the artist never gets paid. Every time you'd hear let's say, White Christmas Bing Crosby the publisher Berlin, but not Bing Crosby would get paid. Singers don't get paid every time it's played.

But how do you know here's my question. When we did this with Buble, he's saying, like less than one verse of something that's right? So how many words do you have to use? Six to be then said to say you have to pay for that right.

It's like if you're stealing a song, they're going to watch you to six notes. But if you've got more than two or three bars, four bars which goes by quickly, you've got to pay a license.

I've got you under my skin making me sweat, Paul, we pay put a big sens or bleep over all that.

How did they But how do they determine the amount that is paid?

Well, the societies, if you will, have these rate sheets, whether it's Aska or BMI, and they monitor everybody, you know, certain lounges or public places, radio ets. They've got to write out what they're using and they sit there and there's a formula as to how much you get predicated on words place. You know, when I had the Tonight Show theme, for instance, nobody expected you know, when I gave Johnny Carson half of it, you remember, got thrown off. They didn't want me blah blah blah. And they put the Tonight Show theme on our theme right, and they only played it for fifteen seconds. There was a formula for every television show as to how much you would get paid for the theme, and we started getting X amount. But nobody knew at that time, because even Johnny said to me, Oh, I'm gonna do this for a couple of years, and you know, till I find something else. What thirty years later, what was the number this song starts earning. It's like a slot machine into year four or five, six, seven, eight. Well, the society bm I, what have you? They're going, what the fuck? That's too much money. They go in, they reassess it, and they changed the formula so we'd make less money. I mean that's okay, okay, I put kids through college. Johnny did very well. But the game was it's beyond what we think it should be worth because they're monitoring every television show, they're monitoring every radio station as to what's played and how you get paid.

What are your memories of Johnny?

How did you first get tight with him?

Where shall I start? First of all, Johnny Carson was probably the best to this day. He was the guy, There's no question about it. I met him early in the sixties when he was just finding his way, you know, he had somewhat of a career. And I was doing a television show in London and I wanted a comedy relief. I said, send me some kinescopes back then, send me kinescope a bunch of comics. And I sat there in London with Granada, who were producing at Granada TV, and I start looking at a bunch of comics. Well, this one comes on where this guy is glush, drinks all night, but he's got to get up at six in the morning. He's got a kiddie show. He's got to be there at seven. These kids are all like what seven six, screaming kids. But he come in hungover every night. And it was Johnny doing this bit that after drinking and barely getting out of bed he had to go hear these kids and he's doing old Well. I thought it was very funny. You'd have to see it, I said, that guy. So Johnny comes over does the show. I you know, I meet him, nice guy, but quiet. And I go back to New York when I was finished, and I run into him on fifty seventh Street in a building. Hey, John, I have been a fine what are you up to? I'm going to do this show, you know, take it for a year or two, blah blah blah, which I explained to you. And one thing leads to another to where he wants a new theme on the show, and you know that story. But through the following years, not the easiest guy to get to know. I think Seinfeld just did a whole rap on him with somebody tearing them apart, which I'm not going to endorse it this part, but tough to get to know. You started hearing stories of you know, drinking too much, and you know, some guys can drink and hold it and some guys become warriors, you know. And now I'm hearing you know, Sunny Warburn he owned the Jets, for instance, and we all knew each other back then, Joe name of it. Johnny shows up for whatever reason, maybe he needed Sonny for some business though, and Johnny had been drinking and starts fighting with the Jets football team, who tower over everybody. Right, So it gets to the point where they locked Johnny outside of the terrace for about an hour until he can cool off. So it all started back then, not the easiest to get to know, and the stuff out there publicly that, you know, counterbalance who he was and how great he was at his work. You know. The one that I did hear that I was just amazed at was you know, Frank created Jillie's. Frank Sinatra created Jillie's restaurant and bar for Jillie, who was his right hand, right hand, and left hand and foot whatever he had to deal with people with. But he was Frank's guy, and he had this bar. It was the popular place. Well, Johnny wanted to get tight with Frank and Frank didn't care. But after work he and McMahon would go over to Julie's bar and on one night, and Johnny was a drummer and wherever he could he played, had Buddy rich on all the time, but he played at home. He was a drummer, so he'd go over there and try and sit in with the trio that was there. But on one night he gets there and he was lit, and he started like grabbing the asses of these chicks at the bar and flirting with him. What have you, blah blah blah. So what he didn't know then was on Friday nights the boys would have their side dishes there their girlfriends, mistresses on Saturday, the wives. So now it's a Friday night and he's carrying on with them and they're over there drinking in the guy's notes. Anyway, they go over and they take them, they throw them down a flight of stairs, must have been three or four stairs down to the bathrooms, and they go down. They start beating the shit out of them. Johnny Carson, somebody's doing They're killing Johnny Carson. Jillie had to go down stop them, you know, straighten them out whatever. But you hear those stories, and you know that was way back when we didn't want to believe it. And you know, the whole drinking issue was an issue with Johnny. But as I say, the best at what he did and smart and a loner in a sense, you know, So you know, I didn't really get to know him. I was younger and I didn't walk in those circles, you know. But hey, he did what he did and he was the best at I'd like to leave it at that.

And we wound up with the themes on which is great.

Yeah, Dad, At the silly, quick little fifteen seconds, and here it is on our show.

Jordan. You've heard everything from me writing in the peanut butter jars to Paul how we first met Johnny Cars and everything in between. But if we pretty much covered the landscape, I.

Think we might have to do a part two of these one of these days.

But I had a blast. Thank you so much, guys. It's always fun to be with you.

Paul.

We're blessed to have the best producer in the podcast world.

Jordan. There ain't no us I tell you that. How we locked into a first time, it's like he's a blessing, our maiden voyage and finding Jordan. We are so blessed. Talk to you anytime you want, Jordan, anytime you want. And we got more to our story, you know that.

And by the way, and the story is still evolving. Yeah, it's not just the old story. You know. There's going to be another news story next week. I can guarantee you that we got new stories, all right.

Every time we call somebody that we want on, they give us a left turn look out. We're learning a lot from this, yeah, but we're getting great responses, Jordan, you know, thanks to you and the team effort. We're getting great feedback. I'm loving it.

You guys are teaching us all about friendship and what it means to be a good friend. And I think that's the thing I'm the most excited to share with people too, is that you know, between the two of you and the friends that you have on it's really cool to see.

So I thank you for that.

Well, you know my feeling about friendship that's paramount, you know, and loyalty.

This is a masterclass.

So we've got a couple of great guests coming up, so we're looking forward to doing it.

Yeah, we're not going to say anything. We got them.

Look Out.

Our Way with Paul Anka and Skip Ronson is a production of iHeartRadio.

The show's executive producer is Jordan Runtogg, with supervising producer and editor Marcy Depina.

It was engineered by Todd Carlum and Graham Gibson, mixed and mastered by the wonderful Mary Dude.

If you like what you heard, please subscribe and leave us a review.

For more podcasts on iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

Our Way with Paul Anka and Skip Bronson

Music icon Paul Anka and business visionary Skip Bronson are dear friends, and together they boast t 
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