Bruce Allen

that air, of course. You know, probably the first artist I ever saw in in in Vancouver nine and um I went. My mother took me, I remember, and uh it was the only choice at that time. Bob. That was when music was really changing, and uh he just captured me. Uh the stuff he was doing, it just changed my whole thing. Because I was listening to my mother's songs on the radio, not knocking them. They were

decent songs. But I mean, all of a sudden, this guy came out and I so, like John Lennon said, I said, for there was Elvis, there was nothing, And I said, so I've all but I stayed and Elvis fan, I've got I knew you might talk about this. I got eighty two books on Elvis in my house. Okay, if you have eighty two, how many books are there? That must be every book? I don't know, but I'll tell you I I there's so much always to find.

And like my partner Tom Feldman was thinking about talking about, I said, but all of a sudden you wanted, I said, Sam, read these two books by Peter garrel Nick. Just read these two that'll do it for you. You'll be that's enough. And I said, and he did, and he and he said, this is unbelievable. And the stuff that people find out about him, he did, They didn't know this. I didn't know that. I did. I think that, Wow, you know,

people are rediscovering Elvius all the time. I guess Bob Well tell us a couple of things most people don't know. Boy well, you know, I thought I did not know until three weeks ago, probably that he turned out. He didn't turn down Dolly Parton turned down him singing the Whitney Houston song. Okay, And I didn't know that ever happened. I just because Dolly Parton said it, and it was I kind of it was kind of nice tie in for me because I was sitting there Michael Booble, he

was in the midst of talking to her. We're doing a duet with her on her new album. It's just out there now. So it was kind of neat that that fell in there. But the other thing that um, I thought was and then and then of course the other thing was interested about that song is I Will Always Love You? Is that when they were getting divorced, uh she he when they were walking out of the church, out of the courtroom. He sang that song to Priscilla as he held her head and walked out the door.

You are you are a fault of all kinds of information that that that's amazing. You have eighty Elvis books if you read them all, yes, sir, okay. And are you a collector of anything else? Yes, sir, I have Uh Bob, I got some great stuff. I got Elvis is barber chair. That's something got for me out of Graceland when he they he aged them over. It was in a storage thing and that girl got it for me who worked there. Um, I've got I've got what

I put the three things side by side. They're all framed one piece and I gotta send you the picture of it. It's a it's Elvis Presley's work schedule on one night ers in in the yes and seventy four, seventy four, and it the schedule is staggering. It's every day, two shows on the weekend. Blah blah blah, all this stuff. And then then beside it was was was Colonel Parker's uh letter to him that saying, I'm working on Bakersfield. It's gonna be sold out. Don't you worry. I'll see

you when you get there. So on and so forth, because the colonel always stayed ahead of him, never watched the show. He was ahead of him setting up the next one and the next one. I bought from Wayne Newton, who got it from a maid in Las Vegas who was cleaning up Elvis's room. And he wrote a letter to God saying that take me away from this, take me away from this. I I don't want to be in this life anymore. I've had you know this thing.

And then he took it, and you wrote you rippled it or put in his fist, close his fist into the garbage. She took it out. He got it this way way Newton find it, got it, he sold it to me, and I put it in the frame. I put here's his work schedule, here's what his manager has to say, and here's what he feels like. Unbelievable. Of course. Uh. The Colonel Tom Parker's story is an amazing story. He

came from Carnivals. Supposedly he was an illegal alien, which is why Elvis could never tour outside of the US, and additionally had a fifty fifty deal. So as a manager, what do you think of Colonel Tom Parker? I think Colonel Tom Parker. Now, I have arguments all the time with this. I had a good argument Jerry Shilling, not probably ten years ago. Now, okay, don't Jerry for a while. And I used to get onto Colonel Parker cause I thought he was probably the worst manager in the history

of the music business. But Jerry Shilling and they stand up for him. And Jerry Silly was Elvis's best friend, one of them, and he said, what you're saying that because of what you know now, we didn't know anything. We were breaking the trail. We had no we had no idea what we were doing. We had no one to look up to. We were the pioneers. It's easy for you to say, why didn't you work four days a week, Why did you do this? Why did you put the stupid routing together? You know? And and uh

and and so he stuck up for him. No other people stand up for because of some of the deals he made. The deals he made in the movie business were great, but he was stuck on that million dollars. We made a million dollars and a million dollars there is another million dollars and a million dollars. He made those ship films after he made about five good ones, just because the Colonel was getting a big cut of it. But it was not at that time. It was fifty percent.

He got that deal later on when Elvis was at a drugged out stupor uh in in Memphis and he and he colonel went in there and got him to sign it. He probably didn't know even though he signed it. But it wasn't fifty for the get go. Okay, so what was it from the get go? I think it's a standard deal. I mean that from what I understand I've been told, and I think that's probably right. I have not seen his contract with him. Okay, let's go back. So you grew up in Vancouver. Yeah, And how many

generations was your family in Canada? Uh? Third? Three? Oh? Really? So who came and what was their idea? My my grandparents came, or my mother's grand my mother's my father's grand my father's parents came, and a typical coming from England. And I just wanted to get out of England and take going to the New Land. And it was fine. I guess they did fine in Vancouver. I can't say I was poor. I can't say they didn't have a job. They did well, and uh not we were rich by

a stretch of the imagination. But I like my grandmother because she she wanted to send the sons to learn something that set this gate. She gave them one away ticket. One kid went to San Diego, became an engineer and under a deep seat tanker engineer. The other one was sent to South Africa the one way ticket, and he'd be worked in the diamond business, naturally, in the mining business, and and and and uh. Then I was born and

raised in Vancouver. After that, my mom came from the pig uh and I I never met her parents because she was more or less spirited out of the house by a woman who took pity on her by the way she was treated and asked if she could come. She would take her to her place in Winnipeg from a place up north in Manitoba, and she raised my mom. Okay, so what did your parents do for a living? My dad was a deep sea engineer and a tanker went around the world delivering oil for him. And how often

was he home? He's one of those jobs four months on, four months off day for day when you're doing deep sea work like that. And how many kids in the family to me and my brother and I and your brother. My brother's retired. I don't know how much money he made, but I but he retired a lot earlier than me. He's a younger brother and he's driving around his motorcycle now and having a good time. I shake my head sometimes. And what kind of relationship do you have with him? Good, good,

solid relationship. You know, he has to be Bruce Allen's brother. And in this town that's not you know, that's a little bit more difficult than me. Okay, Vancouver is a very hip, modern town today. What was it like when you were growing up? Well, it's funny for me. I'm like, kind of like that Bruce Springsteen story he ended up. I didn't. I've never moved more than five miles from my host where I was born. And uh, but where

would you go here? In Vancouver? It's a great city. Uh. And when I grew up in school, I enjoyed high school. I enjoyed going to school. I had no problem with that because I my mom. My father died when I was twelve. I was raised by my mom and in those days, in those days, Bob, you were raised by the neighborhood. If you're in that situation. My mom had to go to work, I had to go to school. So I'd come home from school, I have to check

in with the neighborhood. Give you a sandwich and maybe a glass of milk, and then you know, you played with their sons or whatever. You went out, but you had to check in with the with the neighborhood. So um, I went to school. I went to school into a school where very wealthy kids in that school, the high class area. But I had to walk. Guys not in

that area had to walk to school. So it's about two mile walk, two mile walk to school, and and I watched what was going on when I was growing up, and these kids got driven to school and Mercedes, or when they got to be seventeen or they got their own Mercedes and stuff like that. And I'm sitting there, you know, walking to school, and I think, I think it's been the driver of my entire life, is trying to raise myself up from that. So I started working.

I started working building trucks in Canadian Kenworth when I was eighteen. Well, well, well let's slow down before that. So what kind of kids were you? Were you like the leader the kids? Yeah? I was a leader, There's no doubt about it. Um. I was a half past athlete as a very good runner tract team. I played rugby, but they wouldn't let me play rugby because of my track stuff except on the outside wing. So I was in the violent part of it. And uh you know,

I ran pretty well, Bobby. I got a Canadian record for a while, and a half mile races had or eighty yards in those days. I think it's the eights now. And uh, you know, I enjoyed high school. I really enjoyed high school. And I discovered music really when I was in high school. The real. I broughtened my base from Elvis, and I really got into James Brown, the Icon. Tina Turner review Fats Domino. I really really a big

fan of black music. And I was there when they brought those Dick caravan of stars all the way up there and they came in with you. Everybody got up there and saying three songs they every Brothers Paul like, and they just loaded it up with people. And I used to go to every one of those and I was but I was really fascinated by the black music because of just what they put out. You go to a James Brown show when he was in his heyday, it was terrified. And I continue to turn and review.

The first time I ever saw a strobe light, Um, I Turner was looking, where's the strobe bladey walked off the stage, walked up to the side of the thing where the platform was got on it sure turned on this so this stool blake walked back and it's just it was I love that black music. The s was fantastic, And because we were in Seattle, close to Seattle, they always came up there. Seattle came up to Vancouver, Seattle

came up to Vancouver. That was the next stop and that was probably the only show they even did in Canada at that time. Went back to the seats. Okay, so your mother played music in the house. How did you actually become aware of Elvis um because he came on TV, had Sullivan. That's the first time everybody I heard him before that. I can remember my uh that

was the first time I saw. I saw him was on Ed Sullivan, I think, and I remember my mother sitting there and holding onto herself saying, I can't look at his eyes. I can't look at his eyes. And I'm just sitting there looking at this guy saying, Wow, this is really something really different, and uh it I think it set me on the path. I I play

Elvis every single day, okay, I have. I only have a few stations and serious on the on my radio and Elvis is one of them, the Elvis Channel, And uh I find you know it was I've had these thrills, like Michael Bob was the first guy to go in and do the duet with Elvis on the duets on the duet album they did for the with the London Symphony. It was a big deal. But Michael's a fan, So you're not like me, but I mean, he's a fan. And so for me to go in there to see that,

that was great. Priscilla Presley put Michael Boobley on the Walk of Fame in Hollywood, all this stuff. You know, it's I'm still kind of tied into that organization, and I'm proud to do that because I think that, let's face it, he laid the groundwork absolutely. Now, in a slightly later era with the Beatles, they were on TV and then everybody wanted to become a performer, they got a guitar whatever. Since you saw Elvis, did you ever want to become a performer? No, no, not a not

a chance, because I think I knew my limitations. But I was very upset when the Beatles came because I was the Elvis guy. I was never a big Beatles fan, but I did see the Beatles in Vancouver, the same place as Elvis in Vancouver, and uh and uh it's uh it picked sides in those days. To me, the Beatles were a girls group because I'm listening to she Loves You, yeah, yeah, yeah, you know and and all

this stuff, and I never bought into it. I went to the show, and I saw it and it was very It was very good actually, with a big bill like Jackie Deshat and and Exciters and all these other hecks on it. It was It was a good show and everything else. But I wasn't a Beatles fan, so I really can't speak about the Beatles with that much intelligence. Okay, So in high school when you become a big music fan, is it mostly the radio or do you have records

to how do you feed your addiction? Definitely the radio and all the time. And I bought albums continually, and I still have all those albums downstairs I got. I got them in my in my office downstairs, in the basement of this building. And there's about I would say now because I get in some away, probably not not that men. Seven thousand albums down there, and you know what I'm doing right now to Bob, which is amazing.

I got all these c ds. I got twenties seven CDs, and I'm sitting there and I'm going through them every day. I put them in a in a when I'm up around the house walking around, I put it in a stacker. I got a twenty c D stacker and it kicks these things out and I'm playing them in an order, just as all. It's all alphabetical in my in my the way I stack all my CDs in my host. But it's really funny because my girlfriend sits there and said, what are we on now? He said, this is gonna

be a long chapter. This is miscellaneous, this is this is this is all the greatest hit stuff that come in the great of the deep soul stuff from Dave Girl and and those guys you know who did those great soul albums under the UK. I've playing all that stuff now, and I'll play one after the other right now, mane is I've only at the ms that I've been starting since the beginning of the year, and it's, uh, it's it's kind of neat to hear that old stuff,

and I'm gonna hang onto it. I certainly have hung on to all my stuff. I have all my vinyl from the beginning, a little scratched up. But does this music you said, you're going literally from me to Z how much of it holds up? And how much of you say? Well, that was a period thing and I liked it then, but it's really not that good now I have I have I have a chopping bag in there, Bob. And when I don't like the CD, and I'm never going to play it again because I know I'm not

now into the bag it goes. Okay, I am cutting it back that much. But I looked at it today and uh before I came down here, and I got it probably about fifty in there. And I think we're going to convert him into uh, they'll be hanging up in a tree. I gotta decorate this tree outdoors for charity, and I think there's gonna be all these old CDs spinning around up there. Okay, So let's go back to

you were mentioned you graduating from high school. Is there any thought how good a student are you in school? I passed, okay, So there was never a thought of going to college or any education beyond that. No. You see, I went right to work with the Canadian ken Worth too um uh to actually to be honest, to get money. And of course when you start that building trucks, and I was welding trucks and truck cabs and stuff like that. I did it for a couple of years and I

really liked the money. I'd handing money before this is fantastic. Got my money, I got I got a car. All the kids who went to school, they got no car. I got a car. I got time to go out there and do go to things I wanted to do. And then all of a sudden, the guys on the line said to me, listen you and do more than this. You don't want to stay here. You're like twenty years old. I've been here for forty years. Believe me. I know you like the money, but get out of here. Get

out of here, go to school. You're not stupid. Get to go to school. So I signed up to go to university and I went uh one year, I got the second year, and I started a third year. And that's when I A guy came up to a football player owned a club in Vancouver. He knew my love of music, and he said, listen, I got this new band from Hong Kong, White guys with uh Hong Kong Chinese drummer. And he said, I'll let you take a look at him, because I think that can really happen.

But they don't know what to do, they don't know how to act in this and that. And I walked in there, Bob, and it was they were a Beatles band. So here I am the guys playing English music, Scott Walker, the Walker Brothers, Okay, the Hollies, all this stuff, and I said there, wow. I mean I'm not a fan of this stuff. But the guy says, can you help them out because if you go to all the show's boost turn these guys into some kind of an act

on stage. And I said yeah, okay, And I mean, you know, they did other songs too, but basically they played a lot of English music. And I brought up in a town where it was the R and B bands, mostly white white bands with black front men, and uh, all of a sudden, there this this club when we started working on like that started to take off because they were playing the music that was really coming up

and the other clubs weren't. And I took that band called the Five Man Cargo, and I remember I got a chance to go to Chicago with a band called the Mob, which was that comes some guys from the Bucking Hands, kind of a drag guys, and also Wayne Cocher and the CC Riders who you heard of, and ended up playing these bowling alleies in and they play in bowling alleys in Chicago, and I thought, I don't want to redo this, and we went back to Vancouver and I took that band and I started a booking

agency and I booked it myself and managed them. And then all of a sudden, as club owners do, they look around other people in town and say, that gets They're really doing good there. But the music we're playing, the kids really like that other music. I'm gonna go up see if I can get that band. So they came to me and they asked, me, if you know, would you take these guys out of here and put them I'd like to bring them my club. What are you're making and say, okay, well we'll pay you more,

you know the drill and uh. I said okay, but I'll tell you what. Because I kind of was an economics major in school, I was going to be one. I thought I would turn into Jimmy Hoffa, but I said listen. I said, I'll come to your club if I can get out of this one. And I said, but here's the deal. I gotta pull this band out of here and I'm gonna put another one in here.

But when I come to your club with this band, I'd like to have the booking rights for that club for the rest of the year, and the guy made the deal. And I did that quite a bit, moving these couple of bands I had by that time around. And by the time that Bato came into town looking for work because Randy got you know, left the guests who and he couldn't they didn't, he couldn't get any work. He came to the West coast because I hadn't locked up at that time, I had seventeen clubs downtown, and

I mean downtown in that time. At that time, in the early seventies, bands are making two thousand dollars a week. Okay. They don't make that anymore, okay, And so I had this booking agency and that's how Randy Backman and I met, and that's when I started to move away from the agency and into the management side. Okay, let's slow down and go back to the beginning. You knew the football player hooked you up with the band, he owned a club.

What was your role in that first club. My only role was looking after that band and getting them to turn them into a real performing act. That was it. Okay, No no relationship to the club at all, just just to help with that music. So when you had seventeen clubs, you were essentially the agent. You weren't an owner in any of those clubs. No, I was not okay. When you had seventeen bands, were they all local bands or

did you represent anybody outside of the Vancouver area. I had it locked up so that people who want to play in Vancouver, because it was a very valuable market, came to me and I booked him. But out of the seventeen bands will be working on a regular basis, at least a dozen of them were Vancouver. Okay, And it first it was obviously just yourself. As you got seventeen, you know, when you're working seventeen clubs, etcetera, did you hire anybody? I just hired an assistant. That's all at

that time. And you can do it that way. You're just booking stuff, You're not you know, that's all you're doing. It's not it's it's phone work, to tell you more than anything else. I had a deal though. My deal with the clubs was I come up there. I can collect my money every Saturday night, but I just take my money, just put my money separate my ten So after chase these bands all over the place to get it. So I made straight about Saturday night. I'd hit all

those places, get my money, and that'd be for the week. Okay. Back in that era, you know, the music business was a cash business all the way, even you know, up through the seventies. So did your you know, nightclubs have a checkered history, did you have any problem collecting your money? Um? I own I got. I only got stiffed probably once, and that's why I pulled my money off early. Okay, so the band never really got paid. I got mine first in the clubs they went along with, because the

clubs don't pay bands until they're finished either. So no that they say I was making. If the guys making can say we only paid me, you're a hundred and fifty dollars short. You know, I gave it to the agent. So I didn't really have those battles. But we had. We had the market really sewn up here well, and it was people behaved. I hate. Vancouver is a good size city, but seventeen clubs, that's a lot for one town to support. Yeah, but I mean a Seattle was

also very good. Uh. I can tell you know, I can go, I can walk down the street in Vancouver two blocks that I had eight seven of those clubs in two blocks, two and a half blocks. And what was driving attendance at those clubs? Music? Everybody was And I mean, you know, David Foster played on my circuit. Uh you know, uh he lubber Boy was pulled off that circuit. Uh back Matron over drive of course before

their back Matron over drive by Belt. Uh. But some most of the big bands in Canada came through there and worked on their way up. And uh it was. It was a really really strong musical town and great great radio too because Red Robinson was here. What he's a rock and Roll Hall of Fame disc jockey and he had done a lot of work he brought to black music up here, and we you know, he knew he didn't follow. In those days, you made your own top forty Okay, now it sounds like you were working

around the clock. Were you making good money? Is making really good money? I kept my tax returns and I looked at him about two years ago. I was doing pretty good, you know, in those days, and and and and and yeah, but you're young. You can work hard. It's not absolutely And get where am I hanging around lots of broads, lots of fun, and I'm in the clubs big It's not that bad. And then single to right, So what happened at school? How do you decide to

part ways with school? Um? I could I look where I was going and what I was thinking of majoring in. I could see the end of the road. I can see you stay here, You'll be making fifty grandy here, that's about far. How far are you're doing? And you'll have a nice wife and two kids. You're living in the suburbs. And and I just said no, I'm not going to do it. And I just quit that quick school and just went to music full time. Okay, so the guests who breaks up? So what exact year does

Randy Backman track you down? And what does that look like? He phones me up and he says, introduced himself and the Brandy back And says, I know Randy, you know who you are. He said, listen, Um, I got a band together and I'm paying everybody. It's my brother and to my brother's a manager, and uh, he says, the

bad guitar players is my brother and Fred Turner. I got this guy called Fred Turner can really singing my drummers, my other brother, and uh, I'm I'm looking after everybody, he says, But I can't work and I need some work. And I know you got that market side up, science sealed up. So what's the chance that can I work

in the area? And I thought, Randy Backman on the guests, who was all the songs that they've done, Surely to god, he's gonna come here and I get him to Yeah, and I'll probably come here and he'll play the guest whose songs? Why wouldn't he And he'll it's got to be good. Randy Backman's a name in our country. And so I said, I'd like to see and he says, well, we got a job at Fort McMurray. That's the oil fields up north of Edmonton. He says, a nice, I'll fly up there to see you. So I went up

there and it was really good. It was really good. I mean, he sang all the right songs. He's you know, they covered Burton's ass with his brothers and they got it done. And I brought him into the clubs, and of course he didn't want to be in the clubs, but he just wanted to get up the boys off the payroll. So he wanted to get some steady money coming in. But he um he was working on another record. Brave Belt was the name of the band at that time.

The band, the record came out, didn't do anything. He started on another record and uh it was. It was the first actually turned into the first Beach Yeo record. And he came to me and he said, what are you think? And I said, this is a good Randy. I says, what are you gonna who are you gonna get to manage you? And he said, well, listen, would you be interested in it? And he said, you know more about managing a band than I do. I mean,

what do I know? I've been sitting in Vancouver but all the time doing this, right, You know how to manage a band, Randy, He says, yeah, but I don't know how to go in there all the time saying I want, I want, I want, I want. He says, So I think you can do it. I said okay.

So I said, okay, let's give it a go. I had to get somebody to come in to work on my agency, and Sam Feldman, who's a friend of mine and worked at the different clubs, and he had a small book and agency of different bands, mora alternative that I wasn't really that interested in the club circuit. And he said, I said, Samwich, like, come in. I might have to leave it like to get you bring into the company. And I said, it's funny thing as I said. He said, well, okay, but what are you gonna pay me?

I said, well, listen, I don't know what's going to happen here. You take care of this. I'll look after you. Blah blah. We'll split it up here, you know, we'll just split it, okay, because I thought I could hang on to his bands. I got my bands. I'll take this shot. But because I knew if Backman Overdrive failed, I'd come back and be gone anyway, so you know, because let's face it. So anyway, we went up to Randy. We took out the record and got turned down. But wait, wait, wait, wait,

wait a little bit slower. Yeah, so you made that deal with Sam yea and did you give him fifty of Backman at that point of your interest the mind? No, No, so it was only okay. So they okay, so tell me go back to the record. So so we get the record finished, and we go to shop and off we go. We go to New York, we get turned down. We go to to uh Los Angeles, we got turned down.

Randy will say in his book, I don't think he's that many, but he said, we got down turned down by twenty seven record companies, which is probably pretty close. And uh so, all of a sudden, we got a phone call and we didn't even go to this place, from a guy called Charlie Fash, working Mercury Records in Chicago. Of course we didn't go to Chicago. We didn't think of any labels in Chicago. But he came. He said, listen, I've heard this record. Could I come out and see

you guys? So I said, we said okay. Out came Charlie Fash and he said, you know this record, this record is really close. He said, but if you can just get me, I think maybe you're a song or too short. And Randy went back. He said okay, and we started working on some stuff and sent it back to Charlie and Charlie said, I'm gonna sign you guys. So he signed us. Now, Randy, that's what he wants. He just he wanted to get he didn't want to be a Canadian guy stuck up in Canna, so we

signed to them for whatever the deal was. Alan stein Or, a lawyer in New York who ready had used before, took care of the deal. So we were signed to Mercury Records. And Randy said, listen, if we gotta we're gonna break this record, we gotta go on the road. That's how you do it, and that's how you did it, okay. And I could see it was really funny because I

was Randy. Randy Backman didn't want to travel in buses because he remembers one time he said, I was coming into a down a hill into revel Stoke, which is a scheme country in in Vancouver in the BC, and the brakes failed and he said we had to go down there. The roady guy kept the thing on the course as best as he could, try to slow it down by shift down, shifting everything else. We came to the spot and he said, jump out. I remember hanging out of my guitar and jumping into a snow bank.

He said, So I never wanted to be on a bus again. So we drove. We drove everything. I drove across back and forth across the USA six times, and he it was me and him in the front and three guys in the back of a car and and with our stuff piled up, not our equipment, but our clothes, our suitcases. That and you know, it was the best thing I ever did, because I would never missed one show. You know, in those days, we had two trees on the side, some kind of and all the p a

stacked on the stage. So I get bored, I'd call the lights. I do the lights, you know, become fill up the day, take my money and go to the next city. And we did that for years until we broke. And we when we broke, it really broke because the Mercury Records they focused and focused on that act we were. I was. I was one of the big big acts on a very small label. You can't beat it, sorry, on a major. No, it wasn't not a major, Bob, It's a mid major. And we they did a great

job for us. And you know, it's really funny because I remember the guy, when the guy who came in there, he was a new genius. He was a guy who got great marks in college and had a college radio. He walked into that radio into that company, and that's where I met Cliff burnsday. Of course, of course, let's have a big act by that. Let's go back a little bit. Um, did you have paper with beat eo? No? Do you have paper with your acts today? No? Okay? And if you ever had a situation, I don't know

in the acts ever leave you? Um No, not any big act that I've ever had. Um. I don't even think a small act did. But uh, the only act, the only act that that I I stopped and I she she didn't leave as I did, and I only did it. I had my reasons for doing it, but I love doing it. I missed doing it. I was in Martina McBride in the country music business, and we did a good job with her. She's got you know.

She she was second to Reba McIntyre when I left it on top of thirty radio top thirty records in country business, in the country business, and I just felt that I was managing two people, managing her and has managed her husband and her husband's a lovely guy. But boy, it's difficult. And um, you know, I always used to say to my assistant, used say, she's how is it?

I says, the meeting is great, but as I drove away from the house, I know there's always one more meeting, and you know, and and sometimes I'm not I'm not knocking women marrying guys and bands and they really don't bother me. But I mean, that was a difficult one. That was a woman in the first place, and a husband, and I I could see myself nearly in that same situation, because all of a sudden, she's exploding and you're mare illegal what you want to be involved? You want to

do this? And John was a smart, smart guy. You ran a good sound company. He was a smart guy. But just just too many phone calls, too many phone calls. Well, certainly those of us who have gotten midnight phone calls from John at length, you certainly no, let's go back. Okay, A lot of very big acts at this late date, when they become that big, they asked for reduction in management percentage. Has that been your experience? No, I'll tell you why I take it. I take of these bands.

I take after the agents. Money is gone. I take after the sound of lights. Basic sound of lights is gone. I don't believe in commissioning stuff that they don't even see it's just flow through. Money's gone. Okay, I don't work with business managers. Okay, we look after all their money. We take care of all the money. We don't we take care of the mines to take care of all the money. To the point where here's the money, here's your money, here's my money. And I think it's their

job to get a tax problem. I just have my job to get them a tax problem. They got to solve it. So I've never worked with business managers, which I find I'm not. I just find it they get involved where areas they shouldn't. Okay, So well, just to go this deep, will you give any investment advice to some of these bands? Okay, let's go back to bt O. It goes from Brave Belt goes to bt O. First album comes out. I know where the track is blue Collar. That's the one that the single. Yet that gets some

regional play such it in the Midwest. It's successful, not really successful. We certainly the East goes the second album has taken care of business. Actually I had uh no, that's it's it's not the first big track. The big track that first was uh ain't seen nothing yet? No, no, uh that was right right, let it ride, of course, of course. Okay, So when you had let it ride and you had taken care of business, did you know

you had gold? I knew, I knew we had. It was letter ride and then take care yea, yeah, I knew it was gonna happen, okay, And I made it another what I call smart move. I had everybody wanting to book them and do stuff. And I went to an independent who had only zz top and he came and he wanted to say, listen, I like it. I'd like to get involved with you. And we got involved. I did some dates and early early with at those times,

concerts West and stuff like that. I did some shows at those people, and all of a sudden, I just I was having trouble because there's no consistency. I was moving back and forth between a bunch of promoters. And I remember talking to Don Fox, who ended up with and I was sitting in a we didn't have cell phones. I was sitting in a phone booth talking to people, and I got in this argument and he said, why do you put up with that ship? With what the why? Why? What?

Why are you putting up with that? It was something you know some promoters somewhere, and I said, you know, Donn, You're right, And remember taking the phone book always reminds me of taking the phone book, and I grabbed the thing. We had all the area code ages and I went like, here's your territory, now take care of it. Give him the whole territory in the United States. Okay. So prior to don Fox, you didn't you were the agent for the band. No, I was signed with C I was

signed with. This is great too, because I was signed with the guy I couldn't get. Agencies weren't really that interested as when we started. I sat a guy named Paul Smith, I forget the name of the agency, and he used to work for Colonel Parker. And that's how I got to meet Elvis Presley. So I didn't know you met Elvis? Oh yeah, who was that? Well what happened there with Backman Turner Overdrive? Because but tell me, okay,

keep going. So Paul Smith was this agent for me in a small agency and I can't remember the name, Bob, I'm sorry, but um he told me these stories about working for Colonel Parker. And so when Backmin Turnover Drive came through Vegas, and I said, listen, we're going in Vegas. And Elvis was at the same time, and I've seen him many times in Vegas. He says, I said, do you get me backstage and meat Elvis? So yeah, I said really, He says yeah. He says, when do you

want to go? And I said, okay. I liked some of the guys might come on and come, and so we three of the guys came. It was me, Me and Robbie Backman, the drummer, Blair Thornte, you know, the guitar player. I think that was that three of us went to it. Randy had to fly home, he was piste off and he had to fly home and h so he sat there and went to the show. That was probably nineteen seventy five. I think I'm pretty close to n So I went back there, met Elvis and

everybody something. Sit there, you wait and somebody comes and get you like they do take you back. You sit down in this room and all of a sudden Elvis, Elvis came out of his dressing room and they said the guy brought him over and he said, this is Bruce down, this is Blackman. Guys from Backman turn over drive and he just this guy could have been and I've I've talked to a lot of people who know him,

a lot of people have ever been around him. Could be one of the nicest guys you've ever wanted to meet. And he said, nice to meet you, guys. How are you doing? Blah blah blah. And the boy said, he pushed me for it, and you talked to him, talked to him. So I talked. I talked to him and and we we had given me maybe we know we were going, so we made up this uh this uh a gift of the back into over drive wheel. It was made of silver, and we gave him the wheel

made himself and give it to him. He gave us what he gave us what TCB necklaces, okay, and he he called it taking care of the boss and uh and uh, I remember my head. I talked to him. My hand was shaken, he said, and he was so polite, like taking the slow down, take it easy to relax and uh. And then he said, uh, you know, thank you very much and I hope you can see again. And that was it. It was pretty cool. They're real cool, absolutely absolutely And I met him one more time after that,

he in Memphis, he came to uh show there. I think it was I think with I think was probably still again back when term but I came back stage, I said a load him that just that. Then he just stayed for a little while, went upstairs and watched I guess somewhere out there. And that was it. But you know what, do you always like, yes, sir, No, sir, thank you, yes sir? You know what I mean. That's

the way he was. This guy was a good guy and and that and that's why when you find when you talk to people who've been in there in his company, this is a good guy. And that's why I think that's why it's a tragedy. It's a tragedy rich an American tragedy dying that young. Did you, having met him late in his career, did you see that coming when I saw me look real good the last time I saw me look real good by the time I saw him on stage, and it had been a couple of

years longer. You're in the seventy seven now you felt that's where Colonel Parker was an asshole? Why put him out like that? Why put him out there? Why I put them out there. I wanted the money, that's right, That's what that was about. Colonel. I know guys who worked with Colonel Parker saw Blues a million and a half dollars in forty five minutes on the on the Roulett Wheel. Now that's the stupidest bet in the casino.

And that was his problem. And that's why I played in Vegas for nothing, okay, in comparison to other stars. When I ended up managing Anne Murray, I asked her, I said, did you let do you work when the Elvis was there? He says, Healy, I worked with Elvis there all the time. And she said and I said, She said, I was the one who got everything changed to one show instead of two. I said, how did you do that? And she said, I had a kid's two kids had one for the other two. And she said,

they want me to come back to Bally's. And I said, I ain't coming. I can't do two shows. I can't sit there doing a show at eight seven o'clock, eight o'clock at night and another one at midnight. Okay, I got these kids. So they gave her a break and said do one, just do one, and then everybody followed, I would I would have thought Elvis would have done that. The colonel didn't give a dad. He was doing two shows, seven nights a week, lots of time. Just just that's

a great story for Anne Murray. She broke the whole two too, so Vegas and not Dr Barber's Dreis and not Franks, not Elvis, Presley and Murray. So you know you've had these, you know, worldwide successful acts. Is there anybody at this point you haven't met that you want

to meet? I'll tell you. And this is gonna So I turned on this thing to watch a talk last two weeks ago, a stream of Elvis Costello talking to Peter grell Nick okay, and I sat there and I wanted to hear what he had to say because Peter Groan thought, that's an Elvis guy. He's written great books on Sam Cook, He's written books on on on what's his Sam Phillips, He's written books on the on the

black music business. I mean, he's a fabulous writer. And nearly from a sociological point of view too, you learned about what was going on in the world at that time and where those guys worked. And I'm sitting there with Elvis watching him, and I think Elvis might have talked more than more than Groulning. I mean, yeah, okay, Elvis, you're you know, launch too, But I mean I want to hear what Peter Grounnick says. And that's the one

person I'd like to meet. And I will go down to one of the Elvis events to go down there just to meet him because I love to sit down in a room and talk with him. Because okay, he never met Elvis, which is pretty weird. That is weird. Okay, let's go back to uh bt O you make the deal with Don Fox. Is the agent still involved or now is they're no longer an agent? The agent? The

agent was still involved there, Okay. Now, just like with Elvis, Presley and Jerry Shilling and talking about the fifties, they were inventing it. In reality, the business music road business was being invented in the late sixties with rock and rollers and seventies. What were the lessons you learned back then? Because you were totally green, you were learning while you were going a learning while I was going yea, and Randy had some experience he did and he was a

good he was a good guy. For me, it was the thing is, it's just the biggest thing was to him was he had a rule. Okay, we're all gotta get together. We're a band. We make a time at night, we say, okay, we're going to bed. We're leaving this hotel at at ten o'clock in the morning to drive twitter miles to the next place, right or two whatever

it was, we leave at ten. If he wasn't there a ten, you left, and I remember, you know, we only stayed in those two story holiday inns, right right, So I remember, I remember Randy's he's coming, Robbie's coming, he's coming. It's ten o'clock. Let's go and left him. Guys, So we are you know, that's one thing. You guys had to be on time, guys, and we and you know, we looked after ourselves as best we could. Um, we're young,

we could take a lot more the way. But remember Randy Backman's a Mormon, okay, And you got kicked out of the guests who because his warman beliefs clashed with their lifestyle. So it was a bit of a it was it. I wasn't out there with a C. D C or van Halen or pretty pretty having a ton of fun. Okay, because Randy was the big brother, Randy was paying the freight mostly, and uh so it was it was. I mean, there were great stories, but I

had to keep with those stories away from Randy. So I roomed with Randy continually on the road because I was there to make sure he didn't start walking around and wonder what the band was doing. Okay, you know, I know you that car accident about fifteen years ago in Tennessee. The question becomes, if you're driving a station wagon back and forth six times, you must have some close calls or falling asleep at the wheel or something. No,

but no, because you know you're driving short. The one thing about driving tour, driving like we did, you never drove far. Okay, you can only go as far as the equipment could get. We're Randy wanted to play five nights a week, so we're not we're not driving stupid distances. Um. The only time I fell asleep, but the wheel was going to it. Jerry Lee Lewis auction that I thought I could get his piano, one of his pianos that

I was driving. I got off the plane in Nashville, had to drive to uh Um and to to Memphis. I was going to drive to Memphis, and I fell asleep at the wheel driving and I went down off the highway into between highway with dropped down to the grass and what we have as a grass going under the car like that, right, And a guy O trucker went by and pass me and blew the horn. WHOA,

I woke up, Bob, I'm telling me something. If I just stepped on the brakes out of flip the car, okay, I had to flip the car and I just kept it going. But I never fell asleep on the on the road driving okay, But there were things that kept you go up to if you wanted to keep up, stay away. And I drove every nobody else drove, I drove. Okay. So you're working with Don Fox. You have this incredible success.

Of course, it's a different era. As David Krebs always says, tickets were three, four or five dollars then that we're not a hundred dollars a piece. So, uh, how is business? Did you go clean in most market? Did you make a lot of money? Did he get screwed? What happened Randy? Don Fox? Says to me that he never had a fastest sellout in his career until he was doing a

young actor in the Latin the last few years. Back to turn Over Drive suttle tickets faster than any act he ever ever did, and they were we argued over eight dollar tickets, and we really argued over ten dollar tickets. Okay, but be your right, five six bucks, seven bucks, that's what it was. Okay. Then they have all this big success there on Mercury, which you were the biggest act, but it was a mid tier label. They put out Four Wheel Drive and it sells out of the Boxer's

not really what happens. How does bto fall apart? It becomes it falls apart because Randy, I believe, wanted to produce the record. I wanted to write most of the songs and own the publishing. And the boys it was it was they wanted to get a share of the publishing. They thought they should get a share of it, and he didn't give it up. And that's the trouble with bands, Okay, that's why bands breakup. Part it's always over money. And because that was my first band, I didn't have the

skill to stop it. I didn't. I didn't have the wherewith all to stoff, but I couldn't figure out how to stop it. Okay, and Randy, because Randy was Randy was confident he could do it on his own. Again, then he was going to leave, and this and that and the boys just weren't going to give up. So it all kind of blew up, Bob, and that was it? And where did that leave you? Why? I went back

to the agency. Okay, So I go walking in the agency trying to take over the agency, and started to go back again that I've been away a long time. The agency wasn't running the same way as I want to understood. The boss again said that, okay, here we go. So that's where Sam and I clashed, and uh you know, he put in a lot of time, and I was difficult, I think coming back from that. And uh so with

the agency split, we never split. We haven't split to this day, Okay, but we're in different locales and actually we're probably closer friends now than we ever were when we were together. And so all of a sudden, I was just not watching. I watched the office walkout. People were going to good agency. If they go you haven't got anything going this. I was left with one girl and uh, get a call for from somebody in Calgary said he's got the span called lover boy. Would you

be interested in taking a look at it? And that's how that that run started. And we like, before you go to the lover boy, were you depressed that you were now going to be Vancouver be booking bands again. Well, I wasn't gonna be booking bands with against the agency went with them, you see. I was still gonna get paid, but I would we worked together, Okay, So I had nothing to do much. I had to do something. So that's what I just came. I went got try. I

probably tried some bands in there that didn't work. Who a lover boy called that kind of worked. I went down to see them and they were good. Tell a story of lover boy. His owned But they were managed by a guy who ran a nightclub in a big nightclub in Calgary, lou Blair. And he's a Vancouver guy and he's doing clubs when I was in Vancouver booking them, and uh, he said, listen, I got this great band.

You've got nothing to do. Would you take a look at And I said, okay, So I went up to see them in Calgary and they were really good, but they hadn't made a record yet, and he said, I'm going to get try and make a record. I signed it with Columbia for CBS Canada. He says, okay. So I was done in Los Angeles one day and he he was it was interesting. He knew where he was, so he came to the same hotel and he said, listen,

where are you going? He said, I'm going to see a friend of mine in Palm Springs and he said, you know, want you listen to this? And he gave me that first lover Boy album rough right or not final mix? But turn me loose? Holy cow, you know, I mean these are great. They made great he made great records. That's Bruce Fairburn uh and Bob Rock And I um, I well got downe this to paulm Springs and I called him and he said what do you think? And I think? I said this is real good? Is unbelievable,

how good this is? And he said, well good. I'm six blocks up the street, so I'll come over and see it. He followed me down. I don't know what kind of a rendit carry was said by MS follow me down there and uh it uh. We put a deal together and off we went with the lover Boy. And our big deal, of course was to move it out of out of Canada to Colombia down the States,

and we did that. Although most bands that moved out of Canada and go down the States, the States looks very as scans at you because they know you're getting thirty PC airplay up there and really, what do you really mean? And uh, okay, usually though one of the you know, there's the issue of attention, but there's also once again the issue of money and that you know, getting signed to the US label is supposed to sign to the Canadian deal. The deals are different. Yes, So

how did you get lover Boy to the American label? Well, first of all, we had had they had the rights the deal Lou deal Lou made with Colombia, they had the rights. Okay, we didn't good to shop it down there. Had I would go in Columbia or wherever label they were gonna put it on, and so we were just there. So okay, now we got to make make it happen. And you know what the biggest thing was was that um I knew how to do with back and turn over drive. I knew how to get out and give

me a shot on the radio. Give me a shot and I'll make it happen because I knew I could go on the road and do it. I just knew it, and then they could. Then we hit MTV. Turned Me Loose is one of the first songs ever. Believe me, I know, I remember seeing it on the big screen in jim rist Village country clubs, that iconic song. Yep. So that's what happened, is that's how we got it going. MTV came out. We were getting They worked the record

really hard. They believed in the act. I gave him dates and that's what I was doing that We were there. We were going to the radio stations. We were doing all the things that was before all these chain book radio stations they have now every place was individual and we did it like it was a real lot of work. And and we and the same thing. These guys worked

their assa. We think we were two hundred and fifty fifty shows a year, you know, pretty regularly, and boy boy, it would be made it and don Fox I phone. I've been using the same damn formula for so long, It's ridiculous. Don Solomon said wow, and he phoned up Bill Ham and he said, Bill, I got an opening act for you. He said, who love her Boy? He said,

who love her boy? Because Bill just into his body he does down there and the tour, Bill got mixed up, but got messed up with the album was not happening, and Fox convict convinced him said, listen, this band is ready to go. They want to go on the tour. I've sold the tickets. I don't want to rewrote this thing. Let's go out anyway. You don't need the record and and Bills. I'm not going out without the record. Don No, no, you gotta go without the record. This band and Build

and ZZ Top will do some out business. And he foushed. Bill Ham rolled over and said okay, okay, okay, okay, and he went. He went. They went out without a tour. It was me opening and it was great and because they could do it. They were pretty hot then that that that was before the bull and everything on stage, but they were still really hot. And uh, we broke

lover Boy because getting dragged around by zz talk. Okay, So so how does it segue to Brian Adams real quick, because Brian Adams came pretty fast after lover Boy, and he was just in. He was in the bar bands. And since we both thought since we had still had some of the ownership or the booking rights for them all those clubs, it was you know, I could go see all these bands. And I went to see Adams and he was all right. And he had a little

bit of hit called let Me Take You Dancing. It was a it was more of a disco record and what he does now. And he came to my office and wanted to talk to me, and uh, I didn't. I didn't talk to him. I just I remember he just sat out there and went home. And that happened a couple of times, and then finally my assistant just go talk to the guy. Good guys, okay, come on,

and Brian sit down. So he had this conversation and he had started he had he had let Me Take You Dance, and he had a thing at A and M. He had signed at A and M as a writer and they were going to let him maybe do a record, and uh, he said, like you to manage me, he said, And I said, yeah, really, what do you do? He said, well I got this record and uh and the record was good, that first album with Brian Adam for it. Okay, so he cut the first album without you boy, I

wasn't there. So was there a manager then? No, well maybe that was I don't think so. And uh so he said, um, I can manage me. And I said, well, you know, it's a good record, Brian, real good. He says, I said, here's my deal, blah blah blah. And he'll argue that I wanted part of the publishing. But I never wanted part of the publishing. But something that became a breaking point in the in the discussion, and it

pissed me off. And I remember kicking the garbage can at him beside my desk and he caught it and kept talking. I thought that was really impressive, so I said, he said, And I'm gonna tell you something, Bruce. He says, I work. I know how you work. He says, I can work just as hard as anybody. And he says, I'm I will break this record. I can do it. And he says I will be the biggest act you ever had. That was before I booked my first show with And you know, he's lived up to that. Okay,

so you make a deal with him. The first album is out, so you get involved Lonely Nights, that's your first album. Yeah, yeah, I came out. I worked that album, of course, the first one, first one. Yeah, So how does Lonely Okay? At this point in time, is he still signed to A and M Canada or signed directly in Hollywood? We never signed. We never signed with an M Canada until probably the third record. Okay, so you worked the first album. Tell me about the second Adams album.

I thought you you got it. It was one of the best albums he's ever done. Absolutely, I think it's fantastic. But we were still Canadian signed. Um, but we we we worked our way into uh, into Jerry and Herbs. You know they knew we were around er Jerry and the record I thought didn't do very well. Excuse me for how well how good it was? Okay, Brian was piste off, I was piste off. And then we did cuts like a knife. And when we did cuts like

a knife, Jerry Moss said to me. I went to Jake Moss I said, Okay, this is a great record, and if I don't break, if we can't break, this record I want to release from you. And he said to me, he said, okay, I'll make that deal. He thought. He said, it's gotta be this's gotta be a platinum record. And he did it, and they did it, and we did it, and everybody worked together. I'm very pro record company even to this day, Bob, I'm not anti record company.

I remember being an anti record company guy. I believe there is a team there. If you can get them to work with you, they are just an asset. Okay. And I and I and and A and M worked their house off for Briant. We did a good job and we had great arguments. I remember we're doing Tina Turner show turned Tina Turner song It's Only Love. Uh, It's only Love and that song It's Only Love member the Tina Turner doing. So we were just big in America. We were running around American men and they were doing

pretty good. And you know, we did some journey tours and stuff like that. And uh, and went in there and I said, Tina Turner came up to the Commodore played a Commodore ballroom here about eight hundred seats. We Bryan went down to Meeter. We went down to meet her. I've met her before, but we, uh, should you come over to the studio maybe and sing this song? We left the song for She came over the next day and sang that song, and so anyway was on the album.

Everybody loved it. When I was on the album, then I said, Jerry, because Brian Brian was born, he wasn't born in Vancouver. He came to Vancouver, he lived and he lived in Israel, he lived in he lived in this in in in England, he lived in in uh, Spain and Portugal. He lived all over the world. So

he wasn't just satisfied just doing North America. Okay. He knew there was another market out there, and I remember I had to go into I. I talked one of my agents, Carl Layton Pope was another small agent who had done a Lover Boy and down doing Adams for me. He thought he could get me on Tina Turner tour, and uh so I Jerry Moss and I said, listen, we're not gonna record. Was doing pretty well. He wanted us to be in the States, but we've been in

the States. I don't need to do another runner, I said, we want to go to Europe and what are you gonna do in Europe? We're gonna got a Tina Turner to a Tina Turner. Bruce, He's a lounge ack, which was correct in Vegas, she was a loungeack. But this was her. This is the big record when Roger David got older, and this is probably the first record he made with her and she we went over there and and Tina Turner. We broke Europe and the UK on Tina Turner's back, okay, because every night we went out

there did our show. It was okay, they do a couple of three songs. Then she came out. Then we went out there and sang that song with her, and that was she was just Tina Turner in the UK. That was the rubber stamp and Brian and his forehead You're great and away it went from that. It been fabulous. Okay, So you have that great success straight from the heart, etcetera.

Then comes the big album Everything I Do, I Do it for you album No No, I mean when you do run away All of a sudden, Brian Adams is everywhere under you run to run to you, Well run do you? Was on the uh that was on that was Was that the name of the album? Pub I still it was four? It was the fourth album. Yeah, I'm looking around here because they're all up here somewhere. Um, okay, the fourth album with a run to You on it. That was the thing where you made the divondboard dove

into the empty swimming exactly exactly. And h yeah that that that really exploded that album. That was a great album. And uh we Tina Turner was on that album, as I remember, is that correct? R right? It's only love. I pretty sure it's on that album. But the but he was literally could have been the biggest star on MTV at that point. Yeah, he was everywhere and he worked. Like I said, we worked, We worked everywhere. But we played big cities, played the small cities. I always did that.

I always tried to cover off the smaller markets too. And and and Maz there at her side, and and did a hell of a job for us. And they got no complaints over in America. Well, you know, we we've had some publishing arguments, but I don't think anything with the record company in general. Okay, So after Reckless, that's the album with Run to You. Uh, then he's sort of there's a backlash that he's not political enough. He does the album Into the Fire, which is not

as successful as what came before. That was my fault because I took that amnesty to her, and so he was out there with all the you know, the intellectuals of rock were out there with the police. We're out there with you too, of course, and we're doing these shows and I think Adam Brian, right, I wanted to say, you know, I want to make a change, I want to do something differently, got something I want to say. What am I going to say? No, he's an artist.

That's what that's what you do, and you get you earned the rate to do it. But it was a it did. It was not the record that we thought it wouldn't be. Although it's interesting now when he's on tour. He played some of those songs and we're doing a on each other at the Royal overt Hall. I know we're doing a night there, but that's that's what's gonna be. The whole night is that album. There are people do like that album, but it wasn't the album it was. It was a change from what we were doing. But

he felt he had to make it well. The first three tracks on the album he did, The Night Into the Fire and Victim of Love. I play those all the time. I don't fight as I agree with you. The second album is the best. You want it, you got it, okay, but that album is not as successful as you wanted to be. Tell us the transition to

Everything I Do and working with Mutt Lang. Um. Mutt Lang I had worked with month before booking his band, and he had at the time called City Boy, but he's more a friend of Clive Calder's and Mutt Lang's and and I booked him, uh, you know, across Canada and they did what they did. But Uh, Adams, I believe Bryan Adams and I had a conversation, came up with the with Mutt Lang idea, and we gave Mu a call. And that's a songwriter, and I think he

loved adams songwriting and he loved his voice. He's always told me they just loved it. And Clive Calder and I you know, he liked me. We got everybody got along weird, you knew each other like you know, pretty good friends. So that deal started with mud Lang album on on that album and uh, and Everything I Do

was not on that album. It was there in the mixing stage of that album and with two songs to go, Michael Caman sent me a track, the instrumental track of Everything I Do for this movie and I said, Michael, you know, what do you want to do? He says, I think Brian can re sing this song? Can you get it? And I says, okay, but I'm mixing this album. I don't know if I might get it to him. So I sent it over to Brian right away and I think can listen to the song Him and mut

sitting there. They wrote this song in about thirty minutes and the way it went and it's still the long number one, longest number one record in England to this day. Oh okay, let's go back to that era because it's very significant in terms of the marketplace and that Brian was known as a rocker and let's just say that Everything I Do is a little bit of small cy and sappy. People criticized him for making that record, but simultaneous within making the record, a O R radio where

he was living completely died. Correct and that and we we survived, We survived as a result of that song. And I we had a we had a lot more of those ballots to it. It saved us, okay, And we still kept up our arena business because of it, okay. And people people think that was you know that that was because Adams rocky. He sold out. He didn't sell out. He wrote the goddamn song. I mean, it's not like I'm out there hustling songs to try and make it rock.

He was. He was writing those songs, he was writing the ballants, he was writing all that stuff. Bryan Adams wrote every song here he ever ever recorded on around albums. I mean, you were involved in the writing with this partner Jim Balance or Mutt Lang or whatever. And mud Mudd Lange could sell a battle too. He did. He did, heaven he did, you know we he was straddling two places. While trying to straddle two places. I remember Brian Adams had number one and number two on the charts back

to back. He had the triple song with All for Love, and he had he had uh I think the next song probably who was all for Love and uh god, I have to think of the name. But they're back to back singles one and number one and number two. It's phenomenal. People liked him, you know, and he could still rock. He go out the Rocky shows, a rock show with some ballots, but you have to apologize for them.

It's how the Ronthos battles. People love them. Okay. Uh. But if the simultaneous you have another business managing producers, you have Bob Rock and Bruce Fairburn, how does that come together? Well, Fairburn played for one of my big bar bands. Fairburn and I grew up together the same neighborhood. He's a couple of years younger and I. He was in a bar band called, um, what was it called. It's called that did Man because just a bar band.

And I looked at him and doing these things. And he he was a graduate student in town planning, and he was he was a smart guy from university. And he didn't want to be in the bars plane plane trumpet, which he played a tough instrument in the bars. So so he wanted to become a producer and actually the person records he did first of course, we're the lover of some of the lover Boy records and uh, and then Bob Rock came in and Bob Rock used to deliver the tea bags around it at at the record

at the in the studio. He used to run around and you know, look after things there. And he got into a band called the Payolas. I managed. I managed the Payolas, and the Payolas couldn't get out of Canada. They made a mistake. Is we made a mistake. We went down there and Charlie Miner was working the records for Am down there, and we gave him a record, We gave him the song they could. He could never work a band called the Payolas. Okay, Drove he couldn't do it. He said, I can't do it. I'm not

gonna do it, blah blah blahs. And Bob want to hang on to it. But anyway, that band could only goes so far. Okay, they were not a bad band, but they didn't have what I knew would break through. But I knew Bob Rock, and when he was coming out of his engineering thing that I said, I believe Bob Rock could be a producer, and I kind of made him quit the band and he went into what

he did now. But he was brought up as an engineer with Bruce Fairburn and okay, but you know the Fairburn worked with Adam Then all of a Sudden he had mega success. He did Slippery when Wet, he did Errol Smith. How did that all come together? Well? That

was that was John Kalander. John Kloner was a big fan of what of what Bruce had done with with with with some of the records that we've made with Loverboy records, especially, I mean John bon Job used to come to every Loverboy show when we were out in the East co He loved He thought lover Boy is fantastic and John Kladner liked it. And Fairburn made that record, the first lover Boy record, the second lover Boy record too.

But he he uh he he got hired by Klauder to do Sweat all the bon Jovi records and and they were done all the bank, all those Vancouver had a great scene that I mean more I talked about it, all those acts that came out of there, the producers that came out of there, the studios that were there and still there today. The warehouse is one of the greatest studios in the world. Okay, it's still here. But Fairburn, Fairburn, Fairburn was amazing. He could sit there because I used

to have figure out the budgets. He said, I'm gonna start this record July fifteenth, and gonna mix it on September four, and we'll be finished by and uh first of the end of September. And he nailed those all the day because he's a planner, and he he and he tried. He was with family too, and he said, I only worked from you know, at ten o'clock till

six o'clock and I to go home for dinner. And then I coached soccer and he and he and Roxell Rockbery had to do a lot of it too, right, So he learned it with Fairbor learned business of production and uh, okay, he's very successful also. So Fairburn tragically dies really very sad. How does Bob get the gig with Metallica? They the band called him, and the band called him because of some record they'd heard. Who was that ahead of Bob? Would Bobbly that ahead of I

should have sat here? That got Bob. I don't sit here and go over my past. I should have had no, no, no, you're doing what I should have been sitting here with my fucking things. I could say, okay, well, but that they heard a record that they were really liked, and I think it was I think it was the one with John Sykes um like White White White Snake. Yeah, but was that ahead of him and Metallica? Yeah, Okay,

that was a record that they really liked. And how he got a call for for to do Metallica and he made that that great record. The first record that he made was great. And then of course he went through that little psychological thing for the other You know, Bob, Bob, Bob, Bob has done great records. He's a great producer to this day. Okay, you're talking about fairburning budgets when you're managing Bob at this point in fairburned back in the

old day. You can't spell budget, fair rock, you can't stop. Those are big battles. Fairburn can spell. Fairburn could get records. He knocked him right out. He said, it's gonna cost this much, It's gonna cost that much. And so but as Bob's manager, how deeply you and do you get involved beyond just getting him the gig? Um we do we do properly everything for Bob. Um we don't. And again, you know, we take get out his money, we collect his money, we give him his money. I get my

commissioned the same thing. It always has and uh, we do get him to get him the gigs, and but he's now I don't have to get him the gigs. I have to answer the phone, big Bob Rock. Bob Rock gets called a lot, okay, And it's tough business for him now because the budgets that we had in Metallica era and and after that and Slippy and um sorry not Slippy went and the Motley Crewe records. You know, those budgets gone. Now, Bob, it's tough to get a

big budget. You've got to be able to get the records done quicker because they just don't throw that kind of money actually anymore. I mean, it's gonna be interesting when they do the Booblet records because we have their expensive records. There's lots of musicians in their live music, and it's it's gonna be interesting coming up for this next Booblet record. So tell us the story of Boo Blay.

Bo Blay was played. I I owned some clubs for a while and last for a while, I had bought some clubs after I got out of the booking businesses more rocked in the menagerement. I had two or three clubs and he played in a month in a while, he played in a bar called the Georgia Street Bar and grill and need to play all the records, all the songs he plays today. He played there with a trio and stuff like that. Um, he goes to uh,

he gets a lot. He goes to sing for the Prime Minister's daughter's wedding because Foster was at it and fostered and said, you'd get this guy. He can sing this stuff. And so he came out there and sang for the Prime Minister to two or three songs. I was. I wasn't there at the time and wasn't involved at that time, and the Prime Minister said, Foster, you've got to make this do a record for this guy. And Foster took it as a challenge and said he would.

And I had managed David, like I told you before, when he's eighteen nineteen, and he he came back and started working on this record and unbeknownst to me, and he's down the stage making it and uh, probably in the record. He phoned me he said, uh, listen, um, I'm making this record. I wonder if you'd be interested in the artist. He says, he says, you ever heard of Michael Booby. I says, yeah, I used to work in a cocktail lounge type of thing that I had.

He said yeah, he said, I'm making this record with him and so Reverie. What kind of record are you making? I'm making a romance record, a romance record. Why would you be making a romance record, Bruce, he says, I listen to everything is on radio, there's no romance. People always want romance. I'm making this romance record. I said, that's interesting. He says, okay. He says, you interested all. I says, well, you know, David, you're making the record.

Of course I got to be interested. He said, well, how interested? He says I Abo? I said okay. He said, what's gonna take? What's gonna make you go to? I said, well, you better send it to me so I can hear it. He says, okay, I'll send it up to you. So about a week later, up came the record songs and listen to the record. Foster makes great records, and and I didn't know what to do with it. And I but as much as I bet on Randy Backman for Backman turn Over Drive, I bet on David Foster because

he was coming off Josh Groban. I bet on David Foster, it's Michael Bobble because he was on a roll a bit in that genre. But then I got the record and I thought, what do I do with it? How do how do we what is this a theater actor? I didn't, you know, trying to get a grip of this, and I sent it to my send it to Don Fox, probably I would bring into America because I know he killed for it because he's independent. And I gave it to my agent in Europe and they both thought he

was making a joke. And I said, no, this is this is gonna be a record. I'm gonna do this record and I Don, I said, Don listen, we're gonna put this record out and you're gonna help me with it. And I'd like you to help me with it. And he said, I don't know, But I just don't know what he says, but he says, get the kids singing. A kid happen to be in the office, and and I says, put him on the phone of me, says

I want this is Don Fox. Michael, Yeah, Don Fox, Yes, I heard you, Don Okay singing returned to me for me because Don kind of likes that. Returned to me Fox that I think this is fantastic. Okay, So he said, okay, okay, okay, okay, and he went to his office. He played the record. The office looked at him like he was from Mars and says, we're going to try and break this act.

So I said, he said, let's say you put a bunch of shows together, Phoenix, Seattle, small small cities in the record results, small cities in uh California, so on and so forth, and uh put on put the tickets on sale. Remember he phoned me after the first again, okay ticket accounts. Here we go Phoenix, Okay, some surplace in California, eight Seattle. What does his family drive down? You know, like we sit there and I go, okay. Well, you know, and he worked at he believed in it.

But all of a sudden we hit TV. Michael Bubby got put on TV. And have that happened? That just that the record company pushing We ended up two people people of the record company. We're behind us. One person who was behind us at that record company who did a hell of a job is Liz Rosenberg. And if

I say, I bring up Lizzard Road. If I bring up Liz Rosenberg in front the name, in front of any pr person in the world, they know who the hell she is and they whoa whoa right, So she had some muscle and she muscled us on too, like to the day show. And it worked and people say wow, you know, and he started to sell records. Who was the other person who was behind you at the label? Oh, at that time, there's two guys. It was him and the the girl who there was a guy who's gone

Jeremy something who used to work there too. But the guy, the product manager, was behind us. So it was Liz and him they were and he was but he was one of these product managers like to make toys, you know, I'll send your stuff. That's Michael right right, right right, you know the guys that used to and and and he.

But then then and of course then another guy or who caught it in South Africa was a friend of mine now a friend of mine named Dion Singer, and he caught it in Toronto in South Africa and started to do some stuff over there. So we had these weird, weird markets South Africa. The States are starting to warm up Canada, Canada. That's your phone, not mine, Canada, Canada, because it was because of course he's in Canada. But you know it, it's just he did great press. He

did every time he was on TV. And that's a record that was broken, Bob by us doing TV show really because then and then the music caught up to us and uh, Bob, it's it's unbelievable. And and he had you know, and and Foster, Foster did a great job us. All those albums that heat, all the albums that that David's done with Michael have been very very good. And then of course, of course it is a big

home run with a Christmas album. And you know, as as I go into my ninth year now, that Christmas album out and your Bob, that's very neat to do in the Christmas albums only you only work on for about eight weeks max, you know, And that's the biggest selling album known in Christmas record history. Okay, so let's talk about today. Certainly the business has changed. For fifteen years we were arguing about the disruption of the music business.

That's basically over what do we know? Streaming has paused revenues to go up, but generally speaking, the revenues go primarily to those at the very top of the Spotify top fifty. So as a manager today, what is your you know, what is your plan for an act? Well, that's what I'm looking into now. And I think the only thing that I'm feeling good about Spotify is that I hear and only reading stuff, reading and reading because I ever put out a record on Michael for a while.

Is that the dead generation now fifty plus is going over to streaming because they have no option. Now you would know that better than me, but that's what I'm told, Okay, And I believe that how am you know? In terms of breaking the record is one thing, In terms of getting paid is another. But keeps Yeah, and so I've always I think, you know, it's gonna be interesting how how this record is, Well, see the next record, no

matter what he does. But the one thing I've learned, Bob is I can't I don't think I know is I can't chase it. I can't sit there and look what's getting played on the radio and say, Michael, this is we gotta do some of this, we gotta do some of that. We have to. I think I believe, stay in our lane and do what we do, okay,

because basically our our life is sensational. Okay, people want to see this guy, okay, and we I put on ticket sales in in in your in the UK ten days ago for this tour we're doing just le around with it with called the Stately Home Store. We are playing in front of these mansions outside the country in England and put our ticket sales on sale in the midst of this thing the pandemic and did eighteen thousand tickets in two days. Okay. Now he's done. When are they?

When are these days supposed to play? Post to schedule in July August this year? Okay. Now, this is a guy who's done in one single run ten nights at the O two. Nobody does that then and ended up had to split a couple of days. We came back and do two more, so twelve nights. Is this guy sells tickets around the world, So why should be chasing radio because what's my chances there? Michael's forty two years old, He's a he's great, great joy, great guy, great singer,

great performer. Okay, if I can just get good records, we'll do fine, our our audience will find us. Okay. Will they be buying records, probably not, will be the same Alexis play whatever, Probably yes. But I still don't want to give up making records because there are there is still I think that I believe there's a real big market out there for Michael Buble still this day. Okay, but let's just say, in general, an act that already has a career, how important is the record in terms

of road business? Where you make the lions share of the money, if you're if you if you're if you're an act, if you're a heritage act. It's not because they're going there to see the songs they want. I was out there touring Brian Adams. A bill was Brian Adams and and uh and Uh Billy Idol. That audience stood up from beginning to end. Fantastic, Okay, they knew every song. They don't know what Billy's last albums or

Brian's okay, but they love to hear those songs. Though that generation was brought up with music, music was a big part of Bob less tess life. It's a big part of mine, Okay. It was a big part of Brian's and it was a big part of of of of of journeys, or a big part of all all the different that all those guys, that was a big part of our life. Those acts and those songs, and those people still want to hear them. They want to

hear them. I will guarantee you that they're not gonna go and want to go to see Little Punk or what these acts are. They're not gonna go see him when they're fifty. I don't believe that, Okay. I believe our guys will keep coming. And I believe young people like our music too. They do. You can see it in festivals. You get up there, you put a band Brian Adams playing any festival. I can sit him there and say, you can bang out ten hits in a row. And I don't care who you are, you go whoa boy.

And that's that's the and that's why did the Eagles stay the Eagles. The Eagles can sell tickets anywhere for any price. Irving's proved her over and over again. You look at hundred bucks, are you insane? I mean I went through that ere They're going there and people go to see those songs, and those songs my kids have sat in my house listening to my music for such a long time has become their music, and my daughter

was down. I had to go to Irving to get tickets for that show in Vegas, but you had when they had their orchestra there. He loves us and to come back homes. He's only but that gimes. She's like twenty eight or night. She came back and said, that's the best show I've ever seen, you know, and that and that's pretty cool. But how do you decide on ticket prices for Boo bleyan atoms? Well, Dawn Fox does never want anybody to not be able to come, be

able to buy a ticket. He can't stand some of these prices he's seen, and so we have huge arguments over that. But we do have to scale the house. You know. There's reasons why you can get more money at the place. We were out there with nineteen trucks. We got out there with thirty six musicians. Okay, this isn't cheap. Okay, So I mean we gotta make money, we gotta make a living. So the hundred dollar ticket market, I thought that Irving was nuts and it's going to

screw up the business. That's nothing now, so we can sell a ticket. Mike can sell a ticket for hundred bucks, and he can sell ticket for a hundred fifty bucks at a certain place. They can do that and people will come because and the one thing you gotta remember, you gotta stay in your lane. But guess what, he's so lucky. He's the only guy in the lane. Right. Absolutely, there's no better business than that, No, I know it. So you know if the people he's he's the guy,

they'll go and see because he can do it. And and it's it's it's it's really a battle over over ticket. It is with down because he just doesn't believe in the high ticket prices. He doesn't like it, okay, but he knows he has to be competitive with me. And so yeah, could I get more somewhere else? Probably? Is that the right thing to do? Maybe, but maybe not too because at least bou Blaze Michael spaper stuff stuff

on it too. Bob. He he didn't want me to walk in there and say our top prices two hundred bucks. He doesn't want to get the phone calls. He doesn't want to get people talking to him about it. You know, he's doing fine, okay now big topics. I don't know how much they affect your market, but in the business in general, big topics are the secondary market and the fees. What are your takes on those fees for? How which fees? Uh? You know, ticket fees. Oh well, I got a promoter

who bashes away at that better than anybody. So I I think I've never been I've never had a problem because Michael Bobble. First of all, there's a big demand from the city, from the town, from the places in small markets too, to have Michael Bobble there. We gotta get Michael Booble into this building. Okay. You don't have to get the ever the everyday rock act in the building. We've got to get Michael Boobery here. It's important that

Michael boober week and that's what we get. So don fox when he cuts those deals, I think he does a hell of a job. So I don't sit here complaining too much about the feast because they already haven't affected me. Okay, Because if somebody wants you because they need you, because they want to go to get to this type of they want to get that crowd in there, guess what Michael Booble will come in, and he doesn't mean you get read don't need we don't need to

get raped in pillage by the building. Okay. And that's so far it hasn't. Or the ticket thing, I mean, Don goes through Ticketmaster. You know, we all sell our tickets the same way, but we price our stuff the way we want to. Bob, I don't, I don't we don't you want to get big fees? I mean, yeah, yeah, you go in. You're going, sir, here's what don Don sees the Madison Square Garden bill and just about commits suicide. Okay,

you can sell all the tickets. We want to walk out of their fifty grand I mean, it's just the way it is. Okay. But where we can go down the street, the Barklay Center. Now we can go back to Nassau Coliseum, it's done. How we can go to Prudential across the river. We do all of them, okay. And it's you don't have to go there, but yes, you have to go to the Madison Square Garden because that's the thing that that's that's the ones you want to play in Madison Square Garden. You want to play

Wembley and you want to play the Buddha Coot. Okay, that's great. Now you're a national, worldwide act. But I said, I said, he gets mad at me. But I want to go to the I don't care what I have to pay pay to play the Garden. I want to play there because I think it's a must. I think it's a stamp. We made. We made a we made that deal. Michael Michael Booble meets Madison Square Garden. That was a Grammy winning video DVD. And think for and because it was. It's a big deal for a guy

who was play the what's that thing? The Blue in New York, The Blue Bird of the Blue, the Little Blue Angel. I'm trying to remember what it is, remember a little jazz club and he plays that. That's what we were playing. That's where I started with him. He went to Madison Square Garden. I don't think he believed it. He did that and did and he died three four nights there. Great, So I don't have I don't have big bitches, Bob with prices and what about what's the

plan with Adams these days? I gotta hear a new record. He's all excited about this record. His birthday to day so I wished him happy birthday and I said, I'm looking forward to hearing your record. But he's done and mustie and he says, yeah, the engineer becoming back. I'll after quarantine for fourteen days and I'll you know, he he'll kind of I'll wait to get it and I'll probably have it in a couple of weeks and it'll

be interesting and the record will be good. But now I gotta sit there and say, okay, now, where what do we do with this record? How do we have how do we promote this? That's gonna be That's gonna be something I gotta sit down with and discuss, okay, because that it's not the way it used to be. And we and I got brought up in a different era, and we just it's hard for these artists to figure out what to do with this music. But if he tours all the time, which he will, and uh, and

we don't like I mean, I'm glad Billboard. I'm glad Billboard took away the buy a ticket, get them c D stuff. You know, I'm just I hated that that's a fake chart. If you ever saw listen, the chart is still fake. It's you know, it's not meaning exactly is a magazine come out. Just's like Sports illustrat It's not five times a year. I mean what you know, I just I never get the magazine. I get the Billboard bulletin. But maybe that's the thing. The problem is, you know, I don't pay I get it as part

of Apple News. Plus it's too consumer facing. At this point, there's just not enough insider information and it's bad writers writing about pop stuff. There's really no insight in it. And as far as the charts, the funny thing, of course is Pensky now owns them all variety Hollywood reporters, Sound Ski and Rolling Stone, and they have to competing you know, uh counts. But it's really the industry doesn't want an accurate account. They want to manipulate it so

they can promote. It's like, you know this, I'm a Springsteen fan, but they put out a hype He's got a new album. He had a top five album in the last six decades. Okay, what does that mean? Almost no one bought it, almost no one heard it. They're like doing it so they can have the publicity. Yeah, I know. Anyway, there's all these gimbicks to you know, look at that. I mean, I put out the records. I've done it with my own acts. Okay, here we go. We gotta debut this at number one. We gotta put

our tour at the same time. Every time you buy a ticket, you gotta buy the album. The album is included, or whatever you do. Bang it is number one, first week, number two, it's twenty two, okay, I mean second week. I mean that. That's not the way it's supposed to be. Bob's find a debut number one, but you want to hang around in the five, in the top five for

the least a month. Absolutely, And it's not that way with certainly the Heritage X. But with Bryan Adams, is there a plan he wants to make a record, he makes the record. Is there a way to get his new music heard? The best way, the best way to get it, It's hardest way is via film. Okay. If you can get something in a film, it might work. If you get something a big TV show, it might work. That's a that's a long, long, long shot, okay. And you can't stand around waiting for it. He's gonna come

with a record. He's gonna want that record out and he's want to go out. He wants to go out there and play it. Brian Adams. We had a deal if we put together a deal in Germany two months ago where the Merrick Lie we buried. The promoter there had made a deal with a city that we were going to do a show stadium show with three three Germans and Adams, Adams headlining for twelve thousand people in seventy five thousand seat soccer stadium. But he wanted to

get music going again. Everybody got we all got going. And I was against it because I I think there's a vibe to music. I think there's old vibe to be sitting in a car. I think there's no vibe in those pens stock pens they made the people stand in London in and I don't think there's any vibe in sitting there in twelve thousand, five hundred people in the seventy five stee stadium. I think it's a terrible thing. But he wants to play. So what am I gonna do.

I'm gonna put together other tour. I'm doing it now. He'll go and play again. He'll play the new album and hopefully hopefully some people will like it and be driven to it. But can I really promise, can I promise a radio hit bop? I wouldn't say that. I can't. I can't do that. If I if I went to Brian am said I would make this. I'll take this top five pop radio. First of all, you think I was mad. But he still wants to create. He wants to create. This guy is a creator. So I'm there

to help him do that. He can always tour. He knows, he knows that people love those songs, and and and and isn't he lucky he's got them? I remember said there with Elton John and some private we didn't ball rain or someplace like that, and Alton John sat there and he said, Brian used to listen as when when when When everything I do is hot? He says, Brian, you better like that record because you'll be sending it for the rest of your life. And you know what,

He's right, He's right. We have to And I mean, and and what's wrong with that, Bob? What's wrong with it? Nothing? But it's great that Brian can still put out records and people to put them out, and we do. He does a good job. On him He's still a great writer. And it's just if I said to you and said I got a plan, I can know I can put this thing top ten, you'd say you're an asset. I mean, because we know what we're dealing with. Okay, you're not at all. You're a guy's guy. Why is everybody in

your office, same with Irving? Why is everybody in your office a woman? Because they're smarter and they and they are better, better, and they work better and then you know what they are. They're dedicated to what they do. Okay, only they have to do with a woman is hopefully I believe this anyways, treat them politely and properly. And I go to my girls are tremendously tuned into you because the young ages from twenty five some of them.

So one of my sisters twenty five years old. The stuff she knows that I don't know, you know, And and and I got my marketing girls probably one of the best in the country. I mean, my accountant is it's been doing that and looking after these guys money or getting our settlements for probably eighteen years. And I guess you know what other one other thing, Bob, they don't want my job swinging dicks want my job. You know that. That's an excellent point. Absolutely, So will you

ever retire? Do this till you drop? Well, you know, I'm seventy five now, and I don't think so. I think, Bob, as long as I'm winning, I'll keep doing it. Okay, we got some we got some really cool stuff coming. Okay. Um, and not necessarily music all the time. But you know, Michael has done very very well with Pepsi and the Bubbly thing, you know that, and uh, and there's a lot of demand for him for that stuff. And and Brian, you know, he had that, He had the thing on Broadway,

Pretty Woman on Broadway and stuff like that. These guys, these guys love music. So we I know we can. I know we can keep them going. We have a history, we have a we have a legacy, okay. And I believe as long as you put on good shows and give the audience their money's worth, and we could play some of the new music to not a problem. That's why Michael, Michael is the best deal of all. He puts out music anyway exactly, you know. But I mean, I just believe you've got a career there, and you

can keep going. I know Brian does, and you know, like Jann Arden, I just took over John Ardens. You know, I took over Joann Arden for for for whatever reason, basically the girls wandered in the office, you know, because she thought he thought would be good. And jan got a TV show and just got picked up down in US too. She's fifty seven years old, and we're gonna break this girl. We're gonna break this girl fifty seven

years old. Are you kidding? You're gonna break her musically, musically and as I know as a celebrity too, as a person who's who's a viable artist. Okay, I want to break your music. Bruce read the cup. I just sent it down. He said he didn't even know this happen. And all of a sudden, Hulu picked up this series and the same people did Ships Creak and you know Ship's Creek. We're okay, and so this is gonna follow and she'll have a massive career. Her book came out.

Today's the third time and she's had a book out the number one in the number one in Canada three times in a row. Now they're moving it down to the States. Do you watch what will happen fifty seven years old? Are you fucking kidding me? And it's it's a real I'm really proud of it. Okay. And I got the call from Bob Rock to help him out with the Offspring. We got involved with the Offspring, Okay, I did, Bob. Bob's making these records. Nobody's helping the

records are going to dine in the ditch. Okay. So he says, Bruce, come on, he helped me help out the boys. I don't. I don't know the Offspring music that well, but people in the office knew it, okay. And I said, let's given a shot on you know, I met Dexter and and uh and I'm preay quite excited about it. I never thought i'd work in a band again. I did. I didn't want to work in a band again. I don't want to argue with a bunch of guys. But you know, Randy Bursticks carrying the

ball on that and other people in my office. I mean, I'm doing what I can do, but you know, these I'm winning. As long as I keep winning, I think I'll stay in it. What is that is? Is that unreasonable? Not whatsoever? I don't plan to retire as all. I've got my faculties, but I just know your personality. I was setting it up, and I don't see how you don't continue to win. As you say, you know, Boo Bleat and the Atoms, they can sell tickets till they

don't want to work anymore. Oh yeah, But I mean, but also, you know, it forces guys like me, the situation we're in with radio, in the situation we're in in our business, it's it's it forces me and my people here to look elsewhere to do stuff. And there's a lot of stuff out there. There's a lot of things that can be done, and and I'm trying to do some of them, and I kind of enjoy it, you know. But you also you also tell me a couple of times we've been together, and you go, I'm thinking, Bob,

I'm always thinking, and you're coming up with ideas. You're not someone I mean, you're essentially in the business all the time. You're not taking a vacation and check it out. No, no, And you know, I mean, I I love what I do, and Bob, but I know, I know, I understand why guys leave. Okay, I understand why guys get out of the business, and uh, it's management. You care about the

bubbler like kids. I care about these guys. Okay, I said, I got out to see Martina McBride and because Joe Galante his wife died, had to go to the and been to back to Nashville. Since I left and I saw John and Martina. It broke me down like a twelve year old. Okay's crying because you know, I can't hate the person. It just didn't work. Okay. We told a lot of records. We want everything. It was to win. But I mean, you're involved with these people. It's it's

it's it's important. That's why you say you've got a contract with Bubble. You know, you got a contract with the Offspring. No, you got a contract with Bob. No you got a contract? No, no, no, Okay, because but I've never got to the point where I said this is funny. I gotta get out of here. Okay, are they never have? We failed? I failed and had to go on. There's no sense. I know when sometimes when I can't can't keep doing it. So I'm not going to break this act or didn't work, The thing doesn't

somehow doesn't work. I can leave and walk away and said the best I can. But isn't it a lot better, Bob than then? Okay, remember I got you guys signed for life. Now, every time that song gets played, I want to make sure I'm gonna check your Come on, man, fuck this, I did you know? I don't do that, Martin. I shook. I phoned her up and and when I quit, and I never I didn't ask for a sunset clause. Sunset fuck you know we did all right altogether, That's

what I believe. Okay. Now, it used to be a very unitary business where there was one chart, everybody knew the same songs, and all the business has been completely flattened. So do you feel okay, I'm in the atoms business, I'm in the art and is I'm the offspring business. And what's happening in Billboard, what's happening and who's running the labels is an interesting thing, but it's not really me anymore. I'd love to go, I go. I love

to go talk. I love talking to record company people, Bob, because in the in the end, a lot of them that I talked to, and if I talked to Tom corson Okay, and if I talked to UH, if I talked to the guys at Universal, or if I talked to Reznikov, or I talked to these guys, I have to work with their their music guys. Bob, there's music guys. I said. There was Paul Kremin over there at UH at the label, and he's a music guy. They know music,

they talked. They still love it. Okay, they're they're forced to work where they gotta work, but they still like music. And I so I I don't have any problem. You know. When I talked to guys in Land, Tony Harlow over there who runs runs it over in the UK, and and Max Maxwell Soda and stuff like that, they're really notedgable music guys that they they don't think anybody likes particularly likes where the business is right now, except except the money that comes in and the money they make

and the bonuses and the bullshit they do. They like it for that. But sure, every guy, every guy I have talked to in the business says the same. You know what, Bruce, It's a great business, but just isn't fun like it used to be. That's what they say. Every guy who's like sixty or fifty five. You know, that's what they say, and I think that's right. Now. I'm lucky that I got great artists and I get writing the creative thing. I said, So, I'm kind of lucky.

I don't have to work. Should I don't want to work? Okay, it's just it's just different. Okay, Just a couple more things for those who aren't informed. You know, you're a guy living in Vancouver, but your acts are international acts from the you know, certainly going to Canada many a time. What stuns me in Canada is everybody knows everybody, okay, and it's like a high school and if you raise your head too high, they want to tear you down, etcetera.

But where is Canada's place in the world market today? And what is the difference between Canada and it certainly United States? Well, the different the difference in Canada is I think his status probably the top five countries and people want to break I think that's one of the top five countries. Um as far as as far as musically, I think we're trying to find our way again, okay, but there has been some stuff out of here. You stand there and say, oh, Drake, um Bieber. Oh what's

the kid's name? Sean Mendez? Oh boy Weekend? Who come on? Man? That Toronto seems really booming now. Used to be all out of the west. Okay, the Toronto guys stayed in Toronto. They can run around the Golden Triangle out there and to make money. They didn't have to go with me. I had my next stop after Vancouver was Calgary. Seattle was closer. So I mean, you know, I I try to I work north south. Those guys are used to working back there for the longest time, just in that triangle.

But those guys, those people behind those acts, they've done a great job. And I think I think Canada has got a place in the map. I remember there's three songs on the top five in the were Canadian. Okay, you sing Celindy on you're throwing some of these people, you know. I mean, it's it's it's a booming music country. Really, there's just not enough people here to sustain you know that there's not enough. You can't sell enough here. It's but it's it's a great I mean, I know you

enjoy yourself when you come up here. You know, people talk about Canada and they talk about the health and I moved to Canada in a minute. I mean, it's like it's a better life than living in the United States. The people just haven't been there. I mean, that's typical Americans. They haven't been outside of the United States, never mind just into Canada. But speaking of the United States, you know, there are a lot of people up north who were snowbirds.

You you are a little bit different. You have a place in the South, but not in Florida and not in Arizona. Can you just tell us a little bit. I have a place in Las Vegas. And the reason I have a place in Las Vegas is I just need I thought I should. It's the right thing to do. A big fight fan. I go to the fights a lot down there. Uh my girlfriend, the photographers, she likes to go out there and and take pictures in that

area and stuff like that. And but basically when I went to she sat there, we looked around, did the typical Vancouver thing. Let's go to home. Why we'll get a place in a way. Everybody's got a place in a way. Okay. We went over there ten o'clock at night. I didn't know what to do. Okay, Okay, then she said, let's go okay, let's try Palm Springs. Palm Space for me is for old people, okay, and I'm old. Actually I shouldn't even say that. But there's nothing happening there either,

and I don't go. Okay. So then we tried Phoenix. This is what Canadians do. So I went to Phoenix and I didn't like it. Then she said, why don't we try Las Vegas? And I know she had to grit her teeth and say, why don't we try Las Vegas. I went up to Las Vegas and Dr Paul Anko who guided me through where the livers or stuff like that, and uh, ended up in Las Vegas. And I love going to Las Vegas. Okay, great, great, great, great restaurants, lots to go on, and got a hockey team there. Now,

I mean they're coming to me now. They got a hockey team there. Now, they got pro football there. Now, I mean, why would you not live in Las Vegas. I I look at people live in California, say, wait a minute, you're paying this kind of taxes. Why you drive across the border and live in Las Vegas? Everything is there. They got just as good restaurants as you've got in Los Angeles, California. How often you're there pre COVID. I'm not there now. I haven't been there since March.

But I tried to hit. I tried to hit about sixty days a year. And here's the other thing about Las Vegas, Palm Sphinx doesn't happen is Phoenix, Las Vegas and Southwest Airlines is direct. Las Vegas as a city is direct anywhere, NonStop to London, nonstopped to Germany. Right, Okay, perfect for me. It's a business decision. So Bruce, we certainly know you're a man of opinions and you're not afraid to express them, and you certainly have done that on the radio in Vancouver for years and years. What

is your take on the world situation? For those people who don't know, Certainly we have we have an election going on right now. As we do this, we don't know the exact results. Let's not talk about those right now. However, the US has moved towards the right, Canada has always started much further to the left front than the United States. What is your take on politics in the world today? Well, I said there's a lot, there's a lot of we

see it above. A lot of populist politics going on in a lot of places, um, you know in America's of course one of them, with a lot with Trump in there. Um. But there's also I think what I find more most interesting is young people getting involved in politics now and actually making some changes. Okay, the youth are gonna have to be are going to be served again, you know. I got I watched the uh Chicago seven movie and that I think, Bob, is that right? Okay?

And I watched that movie and I sat there and I said to my girl, said, that's the last time that I ever saw protests work in the United States. And I said, Plus, I said, the music that came out of there was unbelievable. Some girl gets shot in Kent State, and and and and this guy's got a song on the radio about it five days, you know what I mean. I mean, music was really involved in that stuff. And Uh, I think that I think the future lies with the young people. I really do. I

think they're going to clean up the environment. You know, they're there. They're not gonna have the same arguments that we our generation has right now, and it's it's disappointing to me, So you're still as excited as you always were. Yeah about the business in life. I make business of life or the business of the business, business and life. Well, I'm I'm stone, col healthy, touch wood, Okay I am, and uh I'm going to the gym now more and they ever do do because you know what, COVID drove

me to the gym. Okay, I'm on the road all the time. Now I'm going to the gym three times a week for the trainer. I can't believe it how it's changed me. Okay, I'm eating better. Okay, So I this is the kind of COVID worked for me for that and uh, I think that UH as excited. I mean, I sit there. I know I said it five times to you today. The jan Arden project for me has been wonderful to watch that happen. Okay, And and I hope that there will be other things that that I'll

be doing happen. I got some pretty cool things coming with bou bleg that they're different for me, just different. I'm learning and that's great if I can keep learning because I've done you know, people say to me, what what do you what do you have to prove You've done everything I want. Why are you go? Enjoy yourself? And I enjoyed myself sitting here. Thank you very much. And on that note, Bruce, thanks so much for doing this. You know we skimmed the top. We could go on

for days. You're a fountain of information and knowledge, and thanks so much for doing this. Thank you, Bob, enjoy to enjoy the hell over it. Next time? Do I want to have all my albums in front of me so I get the goddamn peats right? Okay, until next time. This is Bob left sense