Welcome, Welcome, Welcome back to Bob Leftstuffs podcast. My guest today is Jed Weitzman, who's head of music at Logitics. Jed, what is Logitics?
So, Logitics is a company that really optimizes ticket sales for rights holders, you know, by offering a comprehensive set of solutions and products to teams, musicians, artists, you know, all different kinds of rights holders through dynamic pricing, distribution and data. You know. It's it's really about maximizing ticket sales, you know, putting money in the pockets of artists or teams and tickets in the hands of fans.
Okay, very simply does Logitiics sell tickets?
Well, it depends on we are. We're the software that distributes tickets, Bob. So we work with teams, we work with artists primarily to try to figure out how to price that inventory, and then we do distribute. We do distribute tickets absolutely.
Okay, let's let's drill down. Let's say I'm gonna act, I'm an arena tour, I have an overall deal with ticket Master. Ticket Master is selling the tickets for my tour. Does Logitics intersect with that?
No, not necessarily. Where we would come in with a Ticketmaster act for example. Is the way it works for me is I'll get a call from a promoter. We're all get a call from an agent. We're a manager. Here's what we're doing. We're going on the road. This is what we're thinking of putting together. This is the package, here's the routing. What do you guys think we can you know, what do you guys think we can do?
What do you think we can charge? And really, Bob, what I do is what we do is analyze the secondary markets in order to help artists on the primary. So look, I said secondary market. I know a lot of people. Everybody don't turn off right yet. Okay, So the idea is is that you're able to actually see what's happening with inventory, what people are willing to pay, what people are not willing to pay. It's you know,
how do I put this? At the end of the day, we're really a company that you know on the music side, I deal with data all the time, right, So it's about me looking at the opportunity, talking with the agents, looking at the routing, and figuring out the best way to price that tour. So that fans get the tickets and artists make that money. I mean, that's that's the thing we're seeing it. That's the most difficult, Bob, is pricing correctly.
Okay, just trying to get the system down. Let's say I'm a manager or an agent and I call you about pricing before the tickets go into the public market. How do you charge me?
That's so funny. You know, that's an interesting situation.
Uh.
You know, usually what we're doing is we're working you know, the people we're working with, we're working by selling our data or we're licensing our data to help people.
But it just.
Depends, you know, it can be you know, if if if the artist wants to openly distribute that those tickets, if the if the if the team is trying to openly distribute those tickets, you know, we're we're distributing them and taking a fee that way. But it's very different. The music side is very different than the sports size, Bob. I mean, it's uh, you know, it's a very it's
a it's a it's a unique set of challenges. To put it mildly and quite frankly, Uh, you know, the music side where I where I exist is like kind of pushing a rock up a hills sometimes. I mean, it just depends. We charge many different ways, okay, but we got to.
Get some specific so people can understand what you're doing. Let's talk about people who call you for price before the tickets are actually priced by the ticket distributor and sold to the public. How often does someone call you for that?
Every day, Bob, literally every day?
And what kind of people call you.
Well, it depends. Usually it's the agent, could be the manager, could be the promoter. And what we try to do is get ahead of it. I mean I got calls this week from a promoter saying, Hey, my artist just played a show in Florida. We had a fifty five percent drop count on the show. I don't know where my fans are. What are you guys seeing on secondary right,
So that's already too late. What we want to do is be there before the tour goes up, while the tour is in its planning stages, so that we're looking at comparable artist in the marketplace, that we're looking at the reality of what's really happening in the marketplace. I mean, I don't know if you know how you know tours are usually priced, but a lot of times people are looking at historicals on the primary side or looking at comp walls in the primary marketplace, which by the way,
is a great place to look. But we feel that the secondary data is a really important data set in order to complete the full picture.
Okay, As I said, I want to be specific so people will know what you're doing and whether they are positive or negative, or whether they want to hire you. Would it be fair to say what you're selling is an analysis of the secondary market what tickets are worth in that arena. Absolutely, that'll be a fair assessment to say. I mean the idea is, you.
Know that look, at the end of the day, a fan doesn't necessarily understand sometimes if you primary and secondary, they shop where they like to shop. We like to figure, you know, we believe that the data we're looking at is you know, it's just that it's the real you know, it's the it's the real representation of what a fan is willing to pay for the ticket. And you know, quite honestly, every day I'm getting calls with people saying I don't understand why are my tickets high, why are
my tickets low? And what we try to do is when we work with our clients, which are agencies, you know, management companies, promoters, what we do is try to help them see the complete picture as they're starting the process of trying to price those tours. You know. So that's the example, I mean, that's the idea.
Okay, So let's say I've called you, we have a relationship, but I am anxious about charging a certain price. Will you then say, oh, okay, I'll take five percent of your inventory or some percentage in sell on the secondary market.
Listen, It's not that simple, quite frankly, because first of all, most of the ticketing platforms, some of the biggest in the business, don't necessarily allow Because now we're starting to talk about the idea of open distribution, right, so, you know, what we talk about is that in what we believe, even in the free market, you know, ticket business, is that primary and secondary are going to eventually combine into one marketplace. And you know, for the for the sake
of this discussion, we can use the term secondary. But the way I'm looking at it is that is that we believe that the open distribution of tickets and transparency across those things is the way, you know, to solve a lot of the secondary issues that people are having. And so it doesn't really work like that because you know, it's not about you know, yes, if we're if we're given the opportunity to take the inventory. But the thing
is is that everybody gets paid. So that's that's where this differs from any other type.
Okay, I'm not I'm not expressing a judgment here. I understand interest, but there's so much stuff. Do you as logitics and let's just keep it in music because that's your focus. Do you ever sell tickets for talent.
If the talent wants us to do that? Absolutely? Openly correct, so that the ticket is listed on primary and all the different marketplaces at this way. Whoa, whoa, whoa.
Do you ever sell tickets for an entity when you are not the primary ticket company? No?
Absolutely not, not on the music side. No, that's not that's not what we do.
Okay, So let's go back to your original example. You have an agent who calls you needs help. The people who call you do they tend to have an ongoing relationship with you where they call you said, I got a big tour for stadium act. Thanks for this I'll pay you, and I'm done well.
To be honest, I've been doing this for a long time and I've been in the business almost thirty years. Hopefully after this podcast, I'll be able to be in another thirty years, so you know, So yeah, Bob, I mean, most of it is my relationships with people over the years, and they know what I do, and uh, you know, I consistently go into meetings with agents, with artists, with promoters and show them the reality of you know, of what's happening in the marketplaces and they go, oh my god.
They their minds are blown. And I you know, we've been doing this so long and giving examples of what is really happening in the marketplaces out there. You know, if we can just take a step back for a second.
You know, eight years ago when I started to understand what the secondary market was right in terms of how it could be utilized, to understand the primary and find ways to to to to to to show artists sort of in certain instances what they missed in certain cases, right, what what resellers had gone out and done, but but more importantly, how they can best figure out how to understand that data in order to place it in order to make better decisions on the primary So it just depends Bob.
Oh, okay, we'll dig deeper into how you actually do it.
God, I thought you were gonna ask me what my favorite led Zeppelin record is.
Bob.
We're just diving right in, aren't. Well.
Well, I think people, I want to get to your uh, your business. We'll get to your life in a while. You expressed in a previous conversation that ticket Master may not think positively about logitics. Why would they not think positively?
But I really did I say that? I think? Did I really say that? I don't know.
I think.
I mean I get along with those guys really well. I mean, I look, I don't. We don't work with them per se. But you know, if I get a call from them asking me about how an on sale did or you know, nothing makes me happier than sending you know, numbers over there to show them that you know, they were able to get tickets in the hands of fans. There's not a ton of inventory on the secondary market that verified can't work or whatever. Nothing makes me happier
about that. I mean, I love the ticket Master people. I mean, they're.
Always let me. Let me let me phrase the question a little bit differently. In the business, generally speaking, people are negative about the secondary market. Yeah, when you do your job, do people have open arms or are they negative about logitary they're blown away?
First of all, let me take a step back or a step forward. Logitics is a company with almost one hundred employees, a little over one hundred employees. We are you know, the sports business was how this business was founded. I don't know if you're familiar with the way that you know. Ticket companies like ours work in the sports business where we work with teams and we help teams distribute that inventory not only in the primary but also
on the secondary marketplaces. Right, So, I mean that's that's how this company was founded. The music side of things, I can't lie to you, is tough. It has been tough. But I'm one of the only guys that's out there saying, you know what, this ain't going anywhere. This is the reality of the concert business. The secondary market, if you will, is not going anywhere now, certainly not for the time being. People don't want to hear. People want to keep their
heads in the sand. You know, I'm one of the only guys out there, and there is so much information we can glean from consumer behavior, you know, all of that stuff. So I mean that's the reality.
Okay, okay, okay, let's go back twenty five years. There was this company, Big Champagne, who had data on what was traded in Napster. That's all they did.
Yeah.
So when your a particular case, your job with Logitics, are you only selling data.
In certain cases?
Yeah?
Absolutely?
No, no, no, no, no no no. Does Logitics ever sell tickets for musical acts?
Yes. And the way we do it, Bob is there are a lot of primary ticketing companies that work with artists that allow them to distribute their tickets everywhere, including the primary So there are shows for example. I mean, what's interesting about that, Bob is, for the most part,
it's distressed inventory. So we will get a call, for example, when a tour is not doing well, more often when a tour is doing well, so that we're able to identify in the market via the secondary data which we spoke about earlier, and then we will you know, we
will never buy, there's no buying of inventory. We always work together with the client to figure out how to distribute that everywhere, right, And so I know that might be strange to some of your audience, but the idea right of selling tickets or shall I say, distributing tickets on the secondary because we're taking a very small piece, we're bringing all that money back into the growth of the tour is always to benefit the artist and you know, the promoter and the ticket So I mean, at the
end of the day, that's that's the biggest difference between what I think a lot of your audience think about what we do.
Okay, so you don't do that with ticket Master? What companies do you do that with?
Uh? You know what, I'm not gonna I'm not gonna say, but there's just this but let's just say, let's just.
Use a company that does Okay, it's an exclusive ticket.
I can I say one thing, but do you see how that makes it? By the way, I want nothing more than to shout from the rooftops right what we do.
And we're still in a place on Friday, marchase twenty twenty four where you know that side of things is not necessarily you know, people don't want to talk about it, and you know I can tell you numbers and we'll get more into it later about you know, the stats we're seeing in terms of when we open distribute something, you know, bringing seventy to seventy five percent new people back to the back to the primary. No, it's not commercial. I'm just telling you no, no, no, no, no no.
I want to get to the nuts and bolts and then I want to know how you do it. All right, So okay, let's say you have a ticketing company and are we talking and you say, the act has an allocation most ticketing companies, the act has an allocation to their fan club. Are we talking about those tickets? It depends BOP to be honest. Again, especially when we're dealing with distressed inventory. Do you sometimes help acts with the tickets they get for the fan club?
Never? Never, there are no. I mean honestly, I don't even know if the fan club tickets exist.
Oh okay, So if the show goes clean, they're not going to call you, right never.
No, that's the best case scenario. Absolutely.
Okay. So generally speaking, they call you when they can't sell tickets.
Yes, in certain cases. Yeah, but by the way.
This is after you know, this is after the on sale. We were talking earlier, before exactly exactly.
By the way, Bob, where I was coming from before is that I wish they would call me earlier, because you know, then we wouldn't have these problems.
I totally understand it. Just trying to get the logistics. No, got so on some level, you're kind of doing what gold Star does. Would that be fair in a way?
Yeah, actually that would be fair. And we just brought over a wonderful woman, Wendy Lebau from gold Star, who I think you know, Bob, who's awesome. So she runs open distribution for us, right, So well, I was saying, yeah, I just thought, okay, you know there's some funkiness with gold Star right in the way that people view putting their inventory on gold Star.
Absolutely, but let's not make it about gold Star. It's different. Okay. Yeah, Oh, let's assume you have it a ticketing company and an act. Does the ticketing company ever call you without the acts participation?
No? Never, It's all about the artist always. And by the way, just so you know, usually the way this works is it's the call is usually from the artist, or the call is from you know, it's usually from the promoter. It just depends. But you know, it's not the ticketing company ever calling The ticketing company, you know, always has to be paid and make their fees, just like you know, the promoter and the artist. Everybody has to you know, make their cut and usually you know.
Okay, okay, let's use a hypothetical, you know, yeah, because margins are thin. Let's say it's an arena date and ten percent of the sellout is the promoter profit and only fifty percent of the tickets are sold. Okay, then the promoter in concert with the act. Let's say we'll call you and say, Jed, we have a problem, and you will say, I will.
Say, let's look at the market. Wow, you guys are way below face on the market. Are you going to be able to come down on the prime area or are we going to have to figure out a way to try to get people in the building. I mean, every situation is different, Bob, in all honesty, you know,
every situation is different. If that's if that situation happens, then yeah, it's about taking inventory, undercutting the markets in order to you know, you know, stoke the market to get fans to buy inventory and buy tickets and then you know, help them, help people get in the buildings. I mean, I cannot tell you how many calls I get. If I see my phone ring at nine point thirty at night, I'm like, okay, this has got to be
an agent or it's my daughter from downstairs wanting water. Right, So I cannot tell you how many calls I get from agents saying to me, I'm in the roxy. There's nobody here. We were sold down out. What's happening, right, And so that's an indication for me to then go and check the markets and see what's going on with the tickets.
Okay, we're going to get to all that. Oh okay, but let's assume I'm that promoter in the act and I've only sold fifty percent. Then your goal, as logitics jed, would be to sell the other fifty percent at a price that the public will buy.
Correct. It's always trying to figure out the markets.
Yeah, and that might that might be below how it was scaled on the primary market.
Absolutely.
So let's just assume the date's going to play soon. You get a call and they say, hey, okay, where do you technically get the tickets from? And then how and where do you put them on sale?
So usually you know, it depends on wherever the tickets are coming from. It could come from the primary, especially if there's ton the blue dots. You know, it's always let me put let me put it this way. The days where tickets fall off trucks, you know, and that doesn't exist, not in my world. And we can talk about when I started eight years ago that I made that really clear, right, So you know, they might come
off primary. I mean, that's where they're coming from. They're not coming from any side pocket or fan club or stash or anything like that. They're always coming from a legitimate place with full knowledge from the artist, the ticket and the promoter. Okay, So then I've got a team of guys that are going in there monitoring the marketplaces.
We're putting it up through our systems, so you know, we're listing it on the primary and then on every secondary site that we're that we're completely interact, you know that we're integrated with the idea of bob is. Most people buy tickets via Google, as you know, so they google the bob lefsets experience five things come up and then it's you know, TM and access and whatever and whatever the primary might be and you know, quite frankly, we want to be where the fans want to buy
their tickets, and so that's the idea. The idea is managing the markets for the artists in order to get people in the venue. In certain cases, I.
Think you've been very clear, but let's just drill down on this one thing. The secondary market is organized such that the same tickets a pair everywhere online. Are you part of that world to make sure this inventory is available everywhere?
Perhaps? Well, that's the you know, that's the idea. The idea is to place the inventory everywhere and manage it individually.
Yes, okay, you know the ticket network. Would you be part of that ticket net?
Now that that's a B to B, that's a broker to broken marketplace?
So no, okay, So just because I'm interested, Let's say you have ten thousand tickets and you want to make them. But let's assume you got them, you talked with the primary you got them. How do you make sure they're available everywhere? Technically? How does that happen?
Well, we have a we have a software, we have a system right that where that Jesus Bobby putting me on the spot, not the tech guy here. You know, we have a wonderful team of people that will you upload that inventory, and they're not going to put it
all out at once. They're going to figure out a strategy to find, you know, which marketplace is listing it for for you know, for for this price or that price, or which you know, the artist or the customer will come to us with what they would like, what are their floors, what are their ceilings, what they need to make back on you know, all of that stuff, and we will adjust accordingly. And then literally it is the tickets going everywhere, and.
But that's all via your logitic software.
Correct does no?
Okay? And let's assume you do that for an act and promoter. How does Logitics get paid. It's a percentage. It could be a you know, a split and split.
Yeah, okay.
Does anyone ever call you saying the tickets have gone on sale, we underpriced them. Help us sell some of these tickets at fear market value.
I haven't had that experience in quite a while, to be honest. You know, there's so much inventory out there right now that we have, you know, it could happen
and hasn't happened in quite some time. Okay, So and by the way, if I can just step back for a second, Bob, I mean all that stuff right, My business, primarily after COVID became a data business, and I know we've spoken about that, and and so when I'm out there talking and when we saw each other in Aspen and I spoke about you know, open distribution and the second primary coming together, et cetera, ceter like. That's where
I hope this is going right. And I mean, I know that's where this is going because I see it. It's just, you know, a lot of the stuff we're seeing on the music side is more difficult to Uh.
I want to get, I want to get, I want to get all that, but I want to build from the base. So you are saying jet and logitics today, if we go to an annual basis, most of the income is selling your expertise data advice.
On the music side.
Yes, yes, this is your expertise. And as you said, you're not the expert on sports. Let's just leave that aside.
Yeah, yeah, that's correct.
Okay, So there are good shows, Jesus, Bob, but they're like God, there are good shows and bad shows.
I'm the worst guest. You might have ever had, Bob.
I just want to say no, no, no, no, no, no, You're good. It's just trying. Listen. I don't know what was making you anxious, because the reality is everyone needs help selling tickets they can't sell.
Well, that's what that's what I find, you know. I mean, look and again, you know, I guess where I come from. You know is that you know, we as a company believe you know, in the open distribution of tickets, right and transparency across all that stuff.
Oh okay, you know, I just most this is not a sophisticated business. It's sophisticated. But we're talking a lot of people are saying I go on tour, I sell tickets whatever. Let's not We'll drill down to philosophy after you are saying post COVID you're mostly selling JED interfacing with people. This is data, This is information.
Let me help you out, Let me show you how to read it, let me help you out. Okay, okay, kind of stuff. Well, let's just go back to the landscape. When someone uses you, whether it be an actor, promoter, does it tend to be a one time event or once they use you, they're always using you. It's it's it's a consistent situation. It's usually it's usually a good EXPERI I mean, come on, Bob, rightt you having a good time with me? I mean, it's usually an amazing a business.
You know, it's not so I.
Know, I know, okay.
So, so, how often in a month do you get a call to potentially do business with someone you haven't done business before.
Well, it's actually pretty interesting. It happens quite often, at least once twice a week. It just depends. But you know, also, you know, I'm a music iy like you, so I'm not a you know, I try to be aggressive, but I try to kind of sit back and observe the markets and so to speak. And so yeah, there are certain agencies that I speak to more than others. There are certain promoters I speak to more than others. It
just depends. There are certain folks in our business that get it more than others and understand the reality of the situation. So there's new business all the time. I mean, I was in New York yesterday for a couple of meetings that will be really interesting, mostly about data, which was actually very interesting. One with a client in the morning and then with a potential client and then with a label believe it or not, in the afternoon. That
was very interesting. You know that there's just so many ways to dissect what we do and the information we have. So you know, yeah, it's it's you know, you can never.
Tell, okay, leaving goldstor out, which is a different model. Is anybody else doing what you're doing?
Oh? There we have competitors in the sports space. I'm not sure about the music space at the moment. There are a couple of bigger companies taken consolidators, but now not. I don't really hear other people in my business at the moment.
So why isn't everybody calling you, calling me, calling you for logitics?
Well, I think the people that want to really dig down deep and understand what's happening with their inventory call me. You know, there are certain people, Bob, that I've been you know, working with for years that I know it's gonna sound shocking. Not everybody gets it, and that's you know, there's a lot of people that are very comfortable with the state of the business and how it works for them, and that's absolutely fine. I have no problem with that.
But that I mean, that's the reality of the situation.
Okay, let's go back to the original example. Act calls you before the tickets are on sale. How much of your business is that?
I would say a good third two thirds of the business is that. I wish it was more. I gotta be honest with you, Bob, because you.
Know, a lot of the time we got the concept. Okay, now let's walk through Jed, you're my good buddy. I'm going on tour. I'm not exactly sure what I should place the tickets at. And Jed then says, I'll get back to you with.
What We have a team that will put together an
analysis of the historicals on that artist. We will put together an analysis of current artists that are comparable pomps to that artist, and we will come down to understanding the markets on what people are, you know, the highs, what people are listening, the medians and the lows, and figure out a way to meet right in the middle, the sweet spot, so to speak, by looking at the actual information right of what people are willing to or not willing to pay, and come to them with a recommendation.
And just understand, I'm going on the road I haven't been on the road in three years, how do you assess the value in the secondary market.
So that that's actually a very interesting question because we just I just did this with a hip hop act that actually hadn't been on the road ever. We looked at what the scaling was on the primary We looked at what they thought they were going to charge. And
this was this past summer. We went out and we did an analysis of four acts or three acts that were of similar, similar streams on Spotify, similar you know, likes and you know, you know, on Instagram and all that stuff, and we were able to come in with the three comparable artists. We came to them with what we thought would be the right thing to do in terms of what they should price at. They didn't listen. They went on sale. You know, they ended up canceling
a bunch of shows. And so I'm not saying we're always right, but uh, you know that that's what our guys do. We have really smart business intelligence.
I just want to go back to that story. So, since they had a canceled date, it would seem that they overpriced the inventor.
That's correct. We came in much lower than what they should have done. Then what we thought they would do.
So that happens. It's not you know, because people talk about the secondary market and they always say, well, there's a value they're capturing this, it's not going back to the act. But sometimes the tickets are inherently overpriced beyond what people will want to pay.
And that's the concept what you just said about money going back to the act. You know, that's what this is all about.
For us and for me, I understand. So let's just say that I call you, Jed, I want to know the value. That's all I want. You'll send me a bill for that information.
Correct, yeah, absolutely.
And that bill might be based on hourly or a basic fee. How would you come up with a number?
I mean, Bob, I mean you know, we we know what we charge. We have of rates for what we do.
Okay, so you have a rate, you have a rate. Yeah, okay, that's it's fine. That's what I was looking for. Okay, let's go to the secondary market. What do people acts and ticketing companies not understand about the secondary market.
I mean, the secondary market is six to twelve months ahead of the primaries in terms of technology. There are certain things that acts do, uh, I mean, what do they not understand about the secondary market? I mean, I you know, it's it's hard to really you know, I mean I think they understand.
Well, well, well let's let let me I wasn't clear enough. Sorry, let's just assume they have the tickets in terms of the valuation of the tickets, which is what on one level, what you really do it logitics? Yeah, how do they not understand the value of the tickets or do that the artist or the representative?
Yeah, Bob, I couldn't tell you. They are you know that they are told that this is where it should be. You know, you have to understand right that there's like, you know, you have platinum where things are dynamically priced. You know, the primaries have secondaries built in red dots versus blue dots and all that stuff, and so there's a much bigger situation behind the pricing discussion. There's a lot more people involved in the pricing discussion than just
the artist. You know, there's a lot more that goes into that. So you may see high prices on a tour, because I know a tour recently where they priced extremely high because they assumed the brokers were going to get the tickets and the artists wanted to make that money themselves. Didn't work. There was a lot of tickets available when the show got close to the tickets eventually sold, but
the on sale didn't go clean. You have certain instances where you know, if if I mean, I know you know this, but if like if there's a big guarantee from a promoter, they have to price the tickets at a certain level so that they're able to make that
money back. And you know, they do, you know, forty six shows that you know, three rolls of shows that aren't doing well the first show, but they have to roll them too the second show in order to you know, pay the artist, you know, the guarantee in order to make you know, and so you know, it's it's a really interesting, you know process. Everybody's involved, and so you know, when we're speaking to a promoter trying to help them, you know, maximize you know, sales so that they can
you know, make that money back. Obviously, I mean, it's it's a it's a complicated system. That's all I can really tell you, you know. So, and I got to be honest with you, I wish everybody spoke to me about pricing, but they don't. And that's you know, I can't that's thing I could do about that.
Okay, let's flip the script a little bit. We're on the secondary market. What is going on there. They're getting their tickets, however, whether through bots or whether they have access to the building and Senate seats, how do they decide what to price them for?
You know, it's amazing. I uh, it's it's actually interesting. I don't know because obviously I'm not in the world with those folks. Sometimes some people are better, some you know, better than others. The data sets, though, are insane, right, So they are setting the market based on demand. And the one thing you got to know about these folks is that for the most part, when the market starts to drop and that ticket starts to drop, they sell
their out, you know. So so it just they are they are pricing, you know, to whatever they think they can get. To be quite honest with you, you know, there's a lot of folks that look at it that if the market can bear it, they'll you know, they'll price it and then you'll see uh tours, you know, like there was one this summer that went out and you know, a bunch of sneaker kids bought the tour. You probably know about that one, and nobody bought the tickets, right,
So it's just it's it's always different. But these are these are really smart guys, you know, really smart guys.
Okay, crazy, I want I want to clarify somebody you said, you said when the price starts to drop, what happens?
Most of these guys get out of their position, right, So a lot of these guys, it's like, you know, look, it's like day trading, I suppose, or you know, flipping stocks or whatever it is, or I mean that's you know, that's what these guys are really doing. It's a quick hit. And if they can get in, great, and if they can get out by making you know, their investment back and a little bit on top of that, and they just apply that to the next one and they keep going.
The thing you have to realize is that they are getting the inventory by hook or by crook, anyway they can. If it's a if it's a credit card sale, they're you know, registering for cards. If it's a you know, a FAVERI fight fan, which I don't even know if fair fight fan exists. Anymore. I'm not even sure they call it that anymore. You know, they've got you know, sixty people in another country that are sitting there slamming
the servers. Right, Like, you have to realize that what Ticketmaster does is actually incredible, right because it's so giant, and there's so many people trying to buy tickets all the time, and most of the time it works, you know, as a matter of all the time it works. It just sometimes, uh, you know, these guys are a little faster and they get in there and get it, you know, And that's what's I mean. I had a woman call me today, friend of my mother's bob, who didn't get
Billy Joel tickets. She was so upset. She waited in the queue, she was, you know whatever, ten thousand people in front of her into it. By the time she got in the queue, she didn't get the tickets. There were bad tickets left, and there were the resale tickets were too expensive. Jed, what am I going to you know, I'm gonna help her get the tickets, right, But like the point is is that that's the that's the reality of what happens every day.
Oh okay, okay, let's go to your mother's friend. What advice would you give her? Would do? Actually? Is she your mother's friend and we all know people, and you'll get the tickets that way? Or is there a way if you're the average customer to get the tickets that are the best tickets of the best price.
I mean, to be honest, if it's not on the primary, you have to go to a secondary. You have to wait. Now, it's my mother's friend, so of course I'm gonna get her the tickets and she's gonna have a good time at the show. She'll probably sit next to you and Felice. But that's another story. I mean, I you know those are but those are the calls I get every day. I mean, you have to realize most people don't know how to put a code in a box on Ticketmaster, right.
And the other thing, you have to realize that most people don't even know they're not on Ticketmaster right. They're looking at whatever app they have in their phone with their credit card save that they know that they're familiar with. I mean, I still have people come to me after being in this business for thirty years and the artist doesn't make money on step up. It's like Jesus, are
you serious right now? I mean, I'm telling you every day, and I have people in the business that say this to me record business, not to take a business and and look, I don't. I don't mean to be, you know, uptight about it. But I do you carry I have chip on my shoulder, Bob, one hundred percent. You saw it an aspen, right, I I am so passionate.
Okay, but I don't. I don't, I don't. I don't do what you do. I have a friend who's a household musician name musician of a very successful act. And this person is sensitive and has gotten negative feedback for decades as a result, that person is very sensitive. From my dispassionate position, I can't see, you know, forget that
I did with ignorant people with the agendas all day long. Okay, but from what you've laid out now, I don't see from your perspective, anything to hide anything that is untoward.
By the way, I agree with you. No, I agree that.
They're ignorant people. People believe I have stock in Spotify. It's like I know those people I believe service. No, of course I don't have stock.
That's what I mean. Bob. You know.
But I'm trying to say is you people will cannot handle the truth like in the old movie. But I want to go back to this story. What have we learned about the value of tickets? Because, needless to say, in many cases, the secondary market prices are different from the primary.
Well, I think what we've learned about pricing of tickets is that people are going to pay what they will or won't for the tickets, and that the free market of the secondary market is a much better indication of what is of what people really want. And uh, you know, the thing for me is everybody should make money, promoters, ticketers, artists, everybody.
But it shouldn't be you know. But so that's where I come from, and that's the that's what I'm trying to talk about, and that's the belief I have, is that everybody should be working together. Right And so when you made the comment about people not liking me from Ticketmaster, maybe I made that comment someday. I have no idea. I want Ticketmaster to make money. I want them to make money if we were to openly distribute tickets together a hundred percent. They also everybody should make money.
Okay, let's not speak to the uneducated and uninformed. You and be both have a certain level of sophistication, and I'd rather get inside information I'm unaware of. Then we hash the ignorant people and their opinions. Okay, what do you say to the acts who come to you and say, based on my image, I can't charge more. What do you say?
Tell them they're crazy, Tell them the cost of touring it's expensive. Cost of living is expensive. And if people are willing to pay for that ticket and there's a market there, you should charge for it. You know the thing with Bruce last year, right when he was charging the platinum tickets on the floor or whatever, it was, five thousand ticket and you know, people went crazy. First, I don't know if that many people went crazy, but
quite frankly, those tickets sold. People bought those tickets, and you know, that's the reality of the situation. I believe
artists should make money, However they can't. I do believe that there are certain is where everybody he needs to be on the same page, in the sense that the artist needs to be aware of what people you know, of what's happening on the primary so that there's no so that everybody is on the same page, and that you know, nobody's you know, charging more than the artist has agreed and all that kind of stuff on the primary right, But like it has to holistically work together.
You know what's interesting about the music business, Bob, is that I feel like it's the only business where people get you know, people get a lot of heat from their fans for charging you know, fair market prices for people to come and see them. You know, tickets are expensive. I'm sorry, that's just the way it is, right, I mean.
Well, as I say, you know, the number of people who complain is really relatively small. If you talk to those people, they believe they should be able to sit in the front row for fifty bucks. They're just delusional. But let's just say, Bruce, you know, back on the road. Now, let's say John Landau called you for unbooked dates. Obviously you would go through all your data and find out
what you think is the fear market value. Let's just say that he would say, well, I don't want to charge more than a bucket a quarter for a ticket. What would you say?
I would say, that's you know, so that's up to you. That's you know, whatever you want to do. This is what we think you could charge, and if you're not comfortable with that, that's fine. By the way, I would love John Lander to call me because Henry, my dad is the biggest Bruce Spingstein fan. I'm taking them to the show pop. But uh, I mean that's you know, it's up to the artist, right, I mean, the artist has the right to wait.
Wait, wait, the artist has.
The right to charge what they want.
To charge, right, right, But irrelevant of what you're doing. Now we get into the philosophical point of how do we solve this problem? One thing we all know which no one can accept. Not everybody can get a ticket. It's just that way.
That's reality.
Yeah, right, if I snapped my fingers, what is the appropriate way to price tickets across the board or to sell tickets?
I mean, look, those are two separate things. My belief, the best way to price the ticket is by looking at the actual the actual free market. You know what's going on out there, what people are actually paying for the ticket, because you can see that because I can show it to you day after a ticket, you know, an on sale. Every day, my numbers are freshed. I can show you what your position is in the market, right, or what other artists you know or what you know.
So it's like I got to call recently about a young band, Bob Okay, and the agent was concerned about the secondary and that nobody's going to be in their venues and there's tons of inventory in the secondary. And I said, hold on a second. I pulled it up on the computer. There was very little inventory on the secondary, but it was insane. The prices were crazy. And I'm
talking to troubadour shows, you know, tiny little shows. And so that's a really good example to me of, you know, of of the free market of what you could charge for those tickets. They didn't want to do that, but that's just an example of next time they're going out, how they're going to you know, how you can look at that and how you can charge for those tickets.
Right. So look, well let's be philosophical. You're in this business. You know that no one complains about four figure prices for sports. They almost brag about it. I went to the Super Bowl. I paid six thousand dollars. I was in the building.
Yeah, that's right.
Can we ever have that mentality in music?
You know, Bob, I hope so. And that's not from a ticket seller's point of view or a data seller's point of view. That's for from the point of view of of what's good for artists. I mean, I mean, you know, I'm sorry to say it, but I really believe that artists should be making more money. I really believe that. That being said, I do think they need
to Philosophically, I hope we get to that place. Philosophically, I hope we get to a place where secondary and primary or want you know, I really believe that's where this is going. I really believe that, you know.
Okay, just to be clear, theoretically, if tickets were placed appropriately, there wouldn't be a need for secondary, right.
Well theoretically, but the marketplaces still exist, and so you know, you're I mean, so the the idea is, it's not necessarily the fact that you know, the second you know, the secondary is you know, increasing or decreasing the price, it becomes a distribution model. So you know, fans again should be able you can buy a ticket where they want to buy that ticket, and the artists should be able to make money that way. You know, that's the idea.
I mean, if you really think about it, if artists were to come out and say we want our tickets sold everywhere, it's like a win win for everybody because everybody's getting paid. It's not just sitting on the primary. I mean, you know, red dot is a ticket that's being sold everywhere, right, So like that's a reseller ticket. The red dot is still you know, sold, that's still
a ticket that's listed on stub ups. He geek givet all those different places, right, so you know, I just it's uh, you know, let's.
Go, let's go one step further, very specific. This is all theoretical. Your model works that way, and the set this. We'll call them scalpers, just because I don't want to, you know, the theoretical bad guys. They say I bought the ticket at one hundred dollars, I'm selling it for
five hundred dollars. That's four hundred dollars minus cost to me. Yeah, then you're going to come along the act and you're gonna say, I could have primary tickets, but if you sell them, I get ninety percent of the money.
I mean that's yeah, that's that's Do you think.
We'll ever get to that point? Because it's breaking their business model.
Listen, I'm not worried about them. I'm worried about the artists. And what I do believe we're going to get to, Bob, is that an artist is going to say, Hey, you can buy my tickets on primary, you can buy my tickets on the secondary. I've had conversations with some of the exchanges about selling official tickets, you know. So I mean we're going to get there. It's just a matter of things open, okay.
But I just want to project, and it's all theory. There are a lot of players in the secondary market. If the secondary market sellers have access to primary tickets, will that eliminate a number of people and leave the professionals or will they kick in screen try to have legislation. What do you think will happen?
I mean, look, they're already trying to have legislation, you know, to deal with the situations that are out there. And quite frankly, you know that's great. I don't I don't think it'll ever go you know. I know you had Dana on who's a very good friend of mine, recently, and I think what NIVA's doing is completely fantastic and we're friends, and I work with a lot of their you know, a lot of their people. But yeah, I don't.
I think the I think the way to solve the issue of the secondary market is to open everything up and literally have tickets available everywhere. That's what I think. You deal with that.
Okay, that is the end. Let's go back to the beginning. I'm an act. I'm calling you about the pricing of the tickets, calling an arena fifteen to twenty thousand. Would you say the flex price certain tickets or would you say, no, price them at this amount?
I would say, price them at this amount. And then you know, again, yes, the answer is, I would say, price them at this amount, and let's figure out how we can move them because quite frankly, a lot of the times with a lot of times when we're doing that and there is no open distribution involved. So it's a one time thing. This is what you're doing, you know,
this is how you do it. Go ahead, and then we're watching it obviously going forward and we're looking at you know, hopefully the map doesn't look like you know, the Pacific Ocean. It's all blue, right, so you know, you're figuring trying to you know, make things. You know, hopefully things goes well and you get to move the invent you need to move the inventory, and it's clean and there's not a lot of red dots.
Forget what was used to be called platinum, which was seats up close occasionally with a perk. Now they call sections of the arena platinum because they're flex pricing. It happened to no promoters who when on sale goes on let's call it Saturday at ten am, they are changing the prices based on demand.
I'm aware of that.
Are you saying, if you listen to me, you wouldn't have to do that?
I no, I'm not. I mean because if it's platinum, you know, the more money they pay for a tour, the more platinum seats there are, right, and all that money goes back into the pod. And you know, I think that maybe the people you're talking about well flex prices based on demand, and I think that's great for them. You know, it's fantastic as long as they're able to sell the inventory and the artist is happy, and you know, artists doesn't feel like they're being you know, you know, it's all good.
Okay, let's talk, as I say, forget the seats that are sold up close for four hundred five dollars. In the case of Bruce, there were seats in the first balcony which they now called platinum, which was euphemism for flex pricing. Needless, there's a lot of things. The prices went beyond what anybody would pay to sit that far.
Do you think if you were advising an act, would you say, oh, that section up there, I can price it appropriately as opposed to you flex pricing it and risking backlash and all this other stuff.
I might give my opinion, but you know, I'm not going to get in the way of what the promoter wants to do, you know, I mean.
Well, let me let me change.
Well, you know, I know we're theory I know we're being theoretical. I know.
No, No, this is you as a person, not you as at logitics. Would it be better if the price was the price as opposed to the flex price the secondary market, et cetera.
You know, Bob, that's a tough call for me. I you know, I understand where the promoters coming from. I understand that, you know, that's their decision. I'm not trying to dodge the question I'm just trying to be honest here, which is they have that right to you know, do what they want for that inventory, for that show that they're paying for all that stuff. I mean, but me as a human being, I mean, yeah, sometimes it can
be a bummer if it's too expensive. You know, if it's an eight hundred dollars ticket supposed to be three hundred and fifty dollars and they're flexing him to eight hundred on the floor of an arena, you know, and it's you know, forty rows back or thirty rows back whatever, but the mark you know, the shows, there's forty thousand people in the queue and things are going crazy, and you know, I mean, believe me, they're all aware. People are all aware of everything that's going on, right so,
especially after Taylor. So yeah, I mean, you know, I think I think finding the best way to get tickets in the hands of fans is the.
Most important Okay, okay.
And I'm sorry to dodge around it, but no, no, no, you're not dodging, and you're answer the question. Yeah, So.
Is there a risk with weight tickets are sold now with flex pricing that ultimately there is a stink upon the artist. The artist concept that I'm afraid the fan won't like me anymore if I charge too much or I do that? Is that a fiction or is that reality?
I mean, listen, I again, remember we talked about it. There's a very small group of people that are very upset about it. I mean, I think that's the reality of the situation. I you know, it's a it's a tough one. It's you know, as as things, you know, as we live in a world where things get more expensive. You know, my argument with people is it really expensive to two these days, it's really expensive to deliver a
show that fans want to see. Fans expect a certain level, you know, so it is expensive to go to a show. By the way, it's expensive to go to My wife and I always look at each other when we go to Disneyland and take the kids. We're like, how are these people affording to come here?
You know? So it is what bothers me most is the Springsteen fans who want to go for one hundred dollars will go for dinner for an hour and a half one hundred dollars per personop listen and not think twice about that.
But my fourteen year old India Okay said to me recently, she's watching the Formula One show. Dad, I love Charles Leclerk. I said, that's great, because can we go. I want to go to the Formula one in Las Vegas. I said, well, that's not happening. No, Dad, you don't understand. I said, honey, that's so expensive. Not happening. You're fourteen, love you all watch it on TV. That's kind of a reality of the world we live in. Like it's okay to not
do something. It's okay to not be able to do something. I mean, Jesus Christ, I would love to be able to, you know, go live in Paris. But I yeah, that's it's expensive. I mean, you know, it's these are difficult things. There are decisions you have to make in life. We live in a society. I mean, now you really want to get theoretical with you know, this phone I'm holding up. Where everything's instant. Everybody thinks they have access to every everything.
Everybody thinks they're entitled have access to everything, and you know, it's just part of life. I guess where it's okay.
You're dealing with the data every day. Needless to say, there was pent up demand subsequent to COVID. When the business went live again, Live Nation had incredible numbers. Recently, what do you see in the marketplace? Is there any softening of demand?
I mean, it's it's gangbusters. I mean, the only thing I'm seeing is there are certain tours out there that may not have performed initially on on sale that I think people thought. But you know, it's a machine. You know, it just keeps going, you know, and you do a theater tour, then you come off, you do an arena tour, and look, I the numbers are astounding. They're amazing at what they do. You know, there's nothing I can say except amazing. Those guys are incredible, you know. And I
don't see any softening. I mean, it's bigger than ever, you know, it really is. It's pretty wild.
Okay, let's go back. How'd you get this job?
So? I had been working at enough So about eight years ago, I was I, you know, was I just moved back to LA from New York and I was kind of had finished. I had a production company with a friend of mine, and I finished doing that and a buddy came to me and said, hey, I'm buying
a ticketing company. And I said, okay, great, he goes, could you help me meet some people at the agencies and so, uh, it was a secondary ticketing platform, right, And so it was you know, a distribution company, right that would make deals, you know, take a consolidator making deals with you know, sports teams in order to manage
that inventory and distribute it everywhere. Because as you know, Bob, you know, there's eighty one games a year, fifty thousand people in the stadium, and you know, you got to you've got to figure out a way to you know, sell all the tickets. And so I met with these people and they show me their information and I said, wait, there's data there. Let me see the dad. I took him around and I started in this business trying to understand the secondary and for the first few years it was, uh,
you know, it was it was very interesting. You know, the markets were crazy, everybody was going nuts. There were big tours, and then COVID happened. After COVID, I turned this job into a data business more so than a distribution business on the music side. And about almost two and a half three years ago, I got a call from a friend of mine at Logitics, who said, we'd love you to come over here, and uh, you know, come work with us.
And so wait, wait, just so wait, just so we understand when you started eight years ago, you were working for a different company.
Not working for no I was not working for Logitics. I was working for a different company. But again it was you know, sort of both feed in in understanding secondary And as you know, I grew up in this business. I grew up around this business. And I've been in the music business. I've been a manager for almost thirty years, which just pretty crazy you think about it. And so I just knew everybody, and I knew a ton of
people in the music business. And that began me going and knocking on doors and saying, look at this data, look at this information, and how can we figure out how to understand this and make you smarter and get you more money in your artist's pockets and you know, put tickets in the hands of your fans. And that was how it went. And yeah, so Logitics has been
a really great experience. It's run by great people, Bob, And I think that's the other thing for me that sometimes people don't understand about what I do is I truly work with wonderful people who actually give a shit about what we do and about the idea of taking care of our clients.
And Okay, so you're the you're the front person.
Yeah, the people.
Were scraping the data and analyzing the data. Is that one team that covers everything, sports, music, et cetera.
I have. I have a team of guys that handle the music side of things. Gil Michael so much smarter than I am. You know that actually are out there, you know, and we you know. No, And by the way, it's you know, it's a it's a team of people. So I have a team on my music side. As I said, I work with Wendy on the open distribution side. And yeah, I mean it's uh, it's a lot of people in this company. It's gotten really big.
Okay, let's go back to the beginning. Your father, who recently passed, was a legendary attorney, Howard Whitesman. When did you realize he was Howard Whitesman.
Wow, that's a great question. Well, you know, you take me. He used to take me to his client's houses. Okay, my parents got divorced when it was four and my mother tells a story of when I came home at one point from being with him on the weekend, because I always went to him on the weekend. I told her a story about going to dinner at these nice people's house, probably Wittier for something like that. Pop and the mother, the wife was feeding meatballs to the doberman
from the table. You know, it was like it was Louis Dragna. You know, i'd some mob guy. You know, When did I realize he was Howard Whitesman. You know, I guess my whole life, you know, and you have to realize, like you know, when my parents got divorced, you know, my dad was Howard Whitzman. My stepdad was the Fawns. It was nineteen seventy five. I mean, it was like insanity, you know. And so my dad was My dad was one of a kind. I mean, my
dad always took care of business. There were never any issues. He was a larger than life guy. I don't know. I sent you something this morning. I don't know if you had a chance to read it.
I did.
My dad was the kind of guy that would say I love you, but if you cross me, you know, I'll see the shit out of you. You know, I mean that was him, you know, you know, he was the thing about my dad was that he knew everybody, and the most important people to him were the guys that took the car, were the guys that were the bus boys that think, you know, because he came from nothing, you know, and so you know, I realized he was Howard Whitesman, you know, quite early on. My dad was
the coolest bob. I mean, to be honest, you know, growing up, you know, I always he told me that my first concert was Mata hoopelt like seventy five at Santa Monicacidic. I don't know if that's true, but I'd like to think it's true. But because I was with because I was with him on the weekends, you know, and I was with my mom and Henry all week you know. It was my dad and my stepmom. And so if there was a concert, if it was you know, the long run tour at the Santa Monica Civic, my
dad was bringing me. Or if it was you know, if we were going to see you know, Russ never sleeps in the theater and the avco, it was my dad was bringing me. I was always this little kid, always in adult situations, you know, And yeah, it was a really interesting, unique way to grow up. Very special guy.
Okay, he was a very high level guy on big cases. To what degree was he representing musical talent?
So he always represented you know, guys that got in trouble in the olden so and I swear to God if I remember this right, you know, tonight's the night the Neil Young song and he talks about Bruce Barry was.
Of course.
That's right, And I think my dad represented Bruce and so you know, he always would tell me that, you know, I mean in the old days, in the four in the three ADSL or whatever that little car was, there was no seat in the back seat. I was in the back seat. He was in the front seat. You know, there was no seat, there were no seatbelts, and top was down driving wherever we were driving. Neil Young on the on the deck Steely Dan. I mean, that was
my dad. We listened to music all day long, and so you know, one of the things that is so important for me to get across to you is that music's my life. You had my buddy Chris Robinson on and I was listening to it yesterday, like those like That's what I love. You know, music people to me are it actors schmacks. I don't care. Like if you're a rockstarant and you walk in a room, I'm gonna lose my mind, you know. So for me, like those
are the those are the most memorable things. So with my dad, you know, he represented those guys when they got in trouble, and then after DeLorean and then when he you know, uh so you know, amazingly stepped away from the OJ case. You know, he just always you know that he eventually became this guy that was sort of a litigator, and then the Jackson estate happened. And but to this day, I will meet people who will tell me, you know, I knew your dad, you know.
And I'm not talking about like, you know, the people I knew that knew him, that I grew up with, random people, or you know, I'll go into meetings in an agency, you know, with seventeen agents, and we'll finish the meeting and I'll be explaining dad to them, and one of them will come up and you go, you know, I knew your dad, and he took care of me, you know, and so he knew everybody, and so he was really really incredible guy, Bob, And so yeah, I mean that's I mean, that's why I do what I do.
You know, Okay, let's go back.
Your biological mother. How many times was she married or husband?
She has been married to my father and then to Henry.
So okay, your father, how many people has he been married to?
Just to my mother and to my stepmother Margaret White? Okay, still in my life and all best friends.
Okay of your biological mother, your biological father. Are there any other kids of the marriage other than you?
No, they broke them all when I was when they had me, it was over.
And when Henry married your mother, did he come with kids or did they have?
Now we I have a sister Zoe and a brother Max, who are pretty.
Hilarious, and they were born with.
My mom and Henry. Yeah, and for us, Bob, it's you know, there are no steps. You know, when my father passed away, my sister Zoe spoke at the funeral. You know, my stepmother, Margaret comes on vacation with my mom and Henry. You know, it's a whole. It's a whole. You know, it's a whole.
Okay, did your father ever have any more kids.
He I have a brother, Arman, with my mom, with Margaret and my dad.
Yeah, and what is he up to?
He's a writer, actor, he was, you know, does a bunch of his comedian great guy. My brother Max is a director, works with Brian Murphy. My sister Zoe has three boys and has a nonprofit called This Is About Humanity and is married to a great guy Rob. And I'm the only okay you know that's in the music business.
Okay, you're a guy. You mentioned you've been in the business. What year were you born?
Nineteen seventy one. I'm fifty two.
What the fuck is it like having your f the fawns?
Okay? So it was get first hen on my fourth birthday, I mean my fifth birthday cake was spider Man, Batman and the Fawns. Okay. And then and then literally bob. This man walks into my grandparents' house to pick up my mother in Brentwood, and I opened the door and I said, oh, my god, Phonsie, and he said, uh, my name is Henry. How would you like it if I called you Ralph? And I was like, whoa, who the fuck is this guy? Right? And I think you know,
Legends is I kicked him and then walked away. But like, it was unbelievable. It allowed me to live a life beyond my wildest dreams. It was, I'd be honest, it was not easy for me, and to be quite frank, I don't talk about it very often, so I'm happy to talk about it with you now. But he uh, you know it was it was major Fawn's time that I was also very guarded with how people kind of viewed me or how people came into my life, you know, But there was nothing bad about it. I mean, it
was unbelievable. I mean if I went to a concert, you know, we met the band, you know, I mean, it was unbelievable, right, It was like, you know, I wanted us see David Bewie. There were O great here's you know, I have a great I'll send you this picture of me and Bok Fons.
The Fonds is legendary to this time. Yeah, reading a story. I was watching a video on social media today with him and sliced alone. Okay, was this a burden? Could you not leave the house? Could he not show up with your ball game? Could you not go out to dinner because people were bothering him.
He always came to my games, We always went out to dinner. It was a little crazy in the beginning, but we were in La right, so it wasn't so bad because we were here. You know, this man is seventy whatever he is, and he literally can go anywhere in the world and people will know who he is. And that is unreal. And it's funny because of my girls, Lulu and India, who are ten and fourteen. They went they went to Century City recently with Nana Papa to
go shopping on a Saturday. They came home and I said to Lula, how was that?
She goes?
You know, Dad, that was really crazy. I've never really seen anything like that with Papa before, you know, like that's it still gets crazy. We went to a Chiefs game recently, a Chargers Chiefs game. It gets nuts. I mean, people go nuts. Everybody knows who he is. It's pretty pretty remarkable, to be honest.
How does it feel having the public own your dad?
You know? I was recently with him somewhere and we met somebody and he said, this is my son, and I said, nice to meet you. And the guys who well, I must have been really weird and I said, no, it's actually really great. You know, it's a pretty amazing thing. I mean, you know, was it frustrating when I was younger, Yeah, might have been. But I've always been very grateful for
where I come from and and all that stuff. And you know, I think I'm able to do what I do now at the level I'm able to do it because I grew up in this way. You know, I grew up with all these folks, you know.
Okay, So when you grew up in your formative years, what neighborhood were you in.
I was in My dad lived in the Palaishads and Henry and my mom lived in Tuluca Lake, So I went back and forth.
And when you were living with your mother and Henry, where'd you go to school?
I went to school called Oakwood in North Hollywood. Sure, in the in the eighties. Eighties were really good to me, Bob. I thought I was in Rat most of the time in the eighties. That's funny. David Marcus will always make fun of me with the Rat jokes because he knows I love Rat so much. But yeah, I mean I was. I was a metal head. I was a Valley medal kid. But I listened to so much music growing up, and
I was also a liner note weirdo. You know, So as I got more into the management side of things, you know, as I got older, or you know, when I worked with Morrissey for a while, or I'd be in London and I'd run into Nick Hayward and I'd be like that record you made with Jeff Emrick, can you tell me about that? Or when I started a sanctuary working for mrk Right, I worked with Peter Asher, and I mean I was just like, my god, you know, hey, Peter, I'm on site, slim in the blue Horizon on machine
gun Kelly that conversation. Who is he talking to you?
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, right, okay, okay, but let's stay with the appearance. What lessons did you learn from your father?
To be humble? To be extraordinarily humble and thankful from both of them. My father, Howard, he took care of everybody, and that was the greatest thing that I learned from him. You know, I talked to everybody. I always am acknowledging people I am, you know, in private or at home. I made not my wife might tell you I'm not the you know, the easiest guy to live with. But you know, when I get out of a car at a restaurant that I go to all the time, you know,
I'm hugging the valet guy. That's my guy, you know. And uh, I when I go to a restaurant, I'm a weirdo like that, Bob. But go to the same places. I eat it the same places all the time. I like to go where I know people. And that's what my dad was. You know, my dad went to the same restaurant every Friday night. You know. You know, in the last ten years of his life. You said, at
the same table what restaurant was. It was called it was called Vincenti And it's no longer in listening, Bob, I'm serious, Like it was literally like Jesus, okay, fine, you know, let's go. You know, that was his thing. And if somebody was in the table and he came early, they'd move them. I mean, you know, you know when when the thing about my dad is that everybody for me. People are always pretty good to me, and people always
will take my call, they'll always listen. And you know, I was always very aware of other kids that were full of shit and other kids that were not respectful and not aware of their surroundings and aware of what they had and didn't have. I mean, sure I was dumb at one point in my life, but you know, I finally feel at fifty two like I kind of know what I'm doing a little bit and it's a good place to be. But all that, you know, craziness has certainly made me who I am.
You know. Okay, so you graduated from high school, then what.
I went to Georgetown for four years, had a great time. I majored in music history and English, which was amazing, and then I started working at Saturday Night Live in ninety three.
Well, were a little bit slower. Yeah, yeah, so you graduated from Georgetown. Yeah, how did you get the job?
So? No, So I grew up with Bernie Brostein and Brad Gray. I knew those guys for you knew them from which father, right, both, This is actually quite funny, and so we used to vacation. So in the old days, Bob, you know, Hawaii was It still is a fun place, but in those days it was like us, the dailies guy named Bob Daley and his kids. So I grew up my whole life the Rickles Warner Brothers. Yeah, the Rickles, the New Hearts, the Joneses, Quincy, and I mean it
was you don't understand, like it's so funny. I never really think about it. And a buddy of mine asked me recently, Jimmy Ton Rickles, and I was like, actually, I spent quite a few of Christmases with him, you know, and then you'd have a dinner at the hotel and he'd be roasting everybody in the room, and yeah, it was. It was beyond right. So, and I knew Brad and Bernie I was very young, and I always wanted to
work for those guys. The other thing was is that when I was fifteen, I started working at Warner Records, interning for Michael Austin, you know, Lenny and Moe and all those guys. And so I was around that my whole life too. Music was always what I loved more than anything. But somehow, as I when I graduated, I thought, you know, I'm just going to be a manager, you know, and I kind of went and did that. It was yeah, sorry, it slower.
When you graduated, did you work for SNL or did you become a manager.
I went to SNL and I worked for Lauren. I made Lauren's popcorn. He always wait, wait before you get there, before you get there. Was it as simple as Bernie calling Lauren. I got a guy and then you show up most likely. But also he was very close with the Austins too, so it was he always had a boy. I understandings. He always had a kid, a guy, a kid every year. That was kind of like the you know, the great right the pop corn maker. And so you know, I went and met them and it was me and
three women, three girls. One of I mean, they just were. One of them was Ruthless. I remember that. And it was you know, I actually had dinner last night at Chunley in New York, and I was remembering in ninety three. You know, there was no door dash. It was Jed in the cab going to pick up dinner for thirty people, you know, on Friday nights in his office, and you know, it was that was an unbelievable experience, Bob, because I knew him, I'd met him Lauren, and he was really
warm and nice to me, you know. And it was Chris Farley, Sandler, Spade, Hartman. You know, I'm still friendly with Sandler and you know, all those guys are still good dudes. Unfortunately, I had a front row seat to the whole Farley thing, and you know, it was uh
but it was May. I was un believe. I was twenty two years old, living in New York City, working for Lauren and you know, being an s L. But every Thursday two o'clock was three o'clock was when the band loaded in, and I would go down there and I would just sit there for loading and dress rehearsal, and I just that was the greatest that Aerosmith Pearl jam Nirvana. That's actually where I met Mark Ketes for
the first time, when Nirvana played SNL in ninety three. Right, I mean, just unbelievable experience because the music is always what killed me, was always a thing that made me the most excited.
Okay, wait, wait, wait, let's stop here. I've only met you face to face within the last ninety days, and you've certainly been warm and friendly and approached me. Is that the secret of you being friends with all these people because you can work at SNL and panted when you have a lot of long hours at bonds people, but you can work somewhere where there's a line between it, or is your personality such wherever you go, you're going to make friends with everybody.
I would say the latter. I mean, I it makes my kids crazy.
You know.
Sometimes when we're out, I talk to everybody. I actually look people in the eye and say, hey, nice to meet you, how are you, thank you, appreciate you, you know, because people, you know, most people don't do that. You know, most people are scared or they're nervous or whatever. But my secret sauce has always been to just be genuine and be myself, you know. And so yeah, that's that's what I do. You know, I talk to people. I talk to people for a living.
Okay, I have my own theories, but I want to ask you, how do you interact with famous people?
You just treat them like they're not famous. I mean, that's the easiest way to do it. You know. I agree that. I mean, I get Bob the only thing. I mean, there's only been a couple times where I truly, only a couple I can count on one hand where I was like, I just I kind of I tried to be cooler, and I'm not tried. But like you know, when I met Chris Robinson twenty years ago. Like that was just like, oh my god. And through a mutual friend of ours, we became close and you know, now
he's you know, one of my best buddies. But like when I met Jimmy Page, I didn't know what to do with myself and it was very like it was like a passing thing on the sidewalk in front of the Marquis and I was with somebody that knew him, and it was I just you know, there were no high phones. I didn't get it. You know, it was like BlackBerry days. But like those were the coolest things. Man. You know, you just treat them like a normal human being. Honestly,
that's the thing you have to do. And for the most part, they are normal human beings. You know, what makes me crazy is when people, you know, if you're if somebody treats you with respect, you're going to treat them with respect back. And that that's just you know, in life, right, I mean, that's how I treat how I teach my kids. Right, Like we went to the sphere. I told you that. On Friday night, we emailed, right, it was amazing. I took India, my fourteen year old
walking in I'm like, listen to me. When you meet Josephine, I want you to make sure you give her a hug. You know, she knows. She's like, I know, it's work dad, right, So like, I get to go to shows with my kids, but it's worked for me. You know. When I go to the form, I know who I'm going to see. And one of the greatest things that happened to me recently was I do a lot of analysis for the eight and G guys, right, and so we go to Coachella every year and they're I love all those guys,
Paul and the Golden Voys team. You know, they're amazing people, and so they know my kids, and to me, that's the coolest thing of the you know, and so they know. Or we were Coachella last year and Lulu was then nine, ran away from me, ran backstage because that's what she knows. And the guy who runs the forum walks by and goes, was that Lulu? And I'm like, yeah, you know, in my head, I'm like, how cool is that he knew? You know? So, yeah, it's all about just treating people
with respect, Bob. The worst is when they're an asshole. That's the worst, you know, and usually means they're not a good people and not a good person. And when we were talking about like Bob Daily, right, he always taught me to live in the lines always because I was a little wild when I was younger. But he always used to sort of hold his hands together narrow and say bring it in jet. You know, all of those guys, the good ones, you know, are good people.
You know, when something happened with my dad last summer in his firm, first person I called reserving said I got you call. He called Lenny and Dennis and he put out a great thing in hits. And you know, the people who are really good at what they do, they return calls, they return them that day. They answer texts, you know, they're mentions. That's the world we live it. You know, there are a lot of people who aren't anymore.
Nothing makes me angrier than if I text somebody and they don't have the respect to text me back, or they don't answer an email, or they don't return a phone call. It's just people who were worth their salt don't treat people like that, I believe.
Okay, so you were SNL for a year.
Yep, I was at SNL for a year and then what then I moved back to LA and ninety four I moved back to LA the weekend of the White Bronco Chase, which was hilarious, and I went to work for Brad Gray as that company was coming together. At Brostein Gray was really hitting its stride in the TV space, you know, which was fantastic. And I did that until two thousand. Okay, slower, slower, Yeah, wait.
Wait, wait slower. What was your job at Birlstein Green?
When I first started, I was Brad's assistant, second assistant. So in those days it involved ordering big berth of golf clubs for Michael Ovitz. It was you know, it was anything like that. It was I'm driving to the studio, take my car, I'm going to drive with this. I mean, it was it was. It was all that shit. You know, those were the days you just did whatever you were told to do. And I did that for about a year. But like that was and I knew those guys, right,
So I would sit outside his office. Bernie was in the office, you know, right in front of me. He'd sit outside his office, you know, on the phone, unbelieving, you know, I mean, that was my education in showbiz was those guys. You know, I knew most of the people they were on the phone with, and at that time, I would get phone calls from agents asking me if O J really did it, So that was always really exciting and fun. I'd be like, wait, what do you what? Like?
That was what I did. I knew all the comedians and I would go to clubs and scout people, and then I eventually, you know, got promoted and became a manager. I had great clients. I was probably not a great manager at that time in my life, but I had really great clients.
So who were the clients.
Let's see Zach Gallifan Actus, Jill Soloway, I guess now, Joey Soloway. I had Stephen Colbert for a minute. I'll never forget. He sat me down at the then Century Plaza, looked at me and said, if my career is not better within you know, a month, you're fired. I was like, great, and so of course that happened. I had Steve Carrell for a while. I had a lot of young comedians. I mean it was it was great, But what I
really wanted to do was be around musicians. So okay, yeah, what is the key to being a good manager for those people? Well, at the time, I don't think I could have told you. But now what I can tell you is you have to really be in tune for what they want. You have to be present, and you have to really be able to navigate this insane world and give great advice and in that. At that time, again,
it was all about relationship. You know, It's always been our relationships with cast and directors and all that stuff. But you know, it's, uh, you know, that world is completely different now, but it was always about listening and being you know, being understanding and getting shit done. I don't think I was very good at it then. I think I got good at it later on in life.
I still have a couple of people I work with, which is actually great because it helps me on the logitic side of things, because it sort of brings it all back full circle. Whenever I'm you know, at a label or I'm dealing with a promoter for somebody else. That always, you know, it's all it's all the same thing, you know.
So what happens in the year two thousand.
In the year two thousand, I left Bilson and Gray, and I went to go work in the music business. I went to go work for Pat Magnarella, which is a great learning experience. It's a wonderful guy, and I mean it was amazing. And then I ended up leaving there and going to work for a guy named Arthur Spiedak, who was another great manager at that I'm sure you know, and he taught me a lot because, by the way, being a music manager is a lot different than being
a comedy manager. At least it was at that time, routing doing all that stuff.
You know, Oh, okay, okay, tell us the difference.
Well, the difference is is that you know, you are routing tours. You are you know, in those days it's Thomas guides and maps and whatnot, and there's no you know, the Internet is very young, and you know, it's a different set of people and you know, labels and all
that stuff. But I had a front seat to all of that insanity of all the emo bands being signed and the Victory reference bands, you know, all that craziness of that time of the you know, so interesting, Bob, when you know just the way people were chasing bands and the way all that stuff was happening was just you know, it was just fascinating, right, and so I would in those days every week I Got the Enemy.
And I was always an angliphile from when I was really young in terms of the music I liked, and in those days, it was Get the Enemy. You open up the last couple of pages, you read the clubs, and you figure out who's playing and what clubs, which clubs are featured more, who's got bigger ads, And then you go to the website. In two thousand and one, two thousand and two, you know, you'd bookmark that stuff and then you would figure out how you know who's
playing what, who's doing this, who's doing that. And that's how I tracked bands back in those days, and that's how I met the people at The Enemy, which was fortuitous when I ended up going to work at Sanctuary and work for Perry, Perry, Farrell and James, which was two thousand and two.
Okay, you were working with Arthur. How did you end up working for Sanctuary?
I got a phone call from a friend of mine who was managing Jane's. I need help. I need somebody to work directly with Perry. You want to come over and do it. There's this guy Merk, I said, great, So I went over started working with my buddy Adam. I walked into the office that first day and Peter Asher's office was right in front of where I sat. There was three thousand gold records on the wall. Was unbelievable. And then I went to work with Perry every day.
And so it was when they were putting Lola back together and Jane's was kind of relaunching again. I think it was the Strays album that they just finished they were putting out. If I could be wrong, but I believe that's what it was. And Uh, Perry was really into the flash mob thing, you know, with the Nokia phones and all that shit. And so I went to
London to help him put a flash mob together. And because I had been so into the NME, I had read about this artist named Banksy, And when I got to London, I met with Banksy, whose name is Robin and Zach.
He makes the career of flying under the radar. How did you connect with banks.
I'm somehow I got in touch with I forget his name, the guy who was wrapped zetting him at the time, and that was the guy I got to him. But this was way but this is like two thousand and one, two thousand and two, This is like way way before.
And we did a flash mob and I knew the guys at the anme just by emailing with them when I was at Arthur with Arthur and James did a flash mob in Coven Garden and Banksy did all the artwork and the way that we got people to the flash mob was different Banksy art through the city we did. There was a girl holding a balloon in the middle of trafout Piccadilly Square. I mean it was. It was insane and I'll never forget it because nmmy covered it and it was the opening when you opened the magazine.
It was the first picture was the Banksy stuff and then the crowd of the flash mob. And I'll never forget it because that came out that night. I went to the show at Hammersmith and I was walking up the stairs backstage and Rod Smallwood, who you may know, Bob who.
That's a whole nother story.
I can't wait to talk about these walking up behind Merk and Rod okay, and Rod turns around. I'll never forget it, turns around, looks at me and goes nice work. Mate, you know, and I was like okay, and then Mark was like yeah, wait to go nice one. And that was it and I went, well, they know who I
am and you know, and so show happens. I fly back to LA sitting in the office, still working with Perry, and I get copied on an email from Merk to Morrissey and it says, jed in my Los Angeles office will come pick you up and take you to the studio today, And I thought, what the hell is called? What is this like? You know, I wasn't even a Morsey fan. And Mark called me and said, I need
you to go and meet this guy today. And then that started, you know, crazy times with that guy for three or four years working with him with Murk, which was pretty wild crazy. You know.
See, he does not have a reputation for being wild and crazy. He has a reputation for being mercurial, doing what he wants. So dig a little bit deeper. What was it like working for him?
I mean, he's actually a very funny guy, but it's also he's very I guess idiosyocratic is the way I would describe him. I mean it's a very uh, you know, I talked you know he was you know, didn't talk to waiters. I would do that. It was if something, you know, if he changed his mind or didn't want to do something, that was it. You'd move on to the next thing. It was I made two records with him. It was an amazing experience. He is a very strange guy,
but also very funny. We got along very well, you know, but it was I was flying by the seat of my pants, you know, it was making records, he was canceling shows. I'd have to figure out how to bob and weave and do kind of crazy stuff. And you know, one great story, I'll just give you one great story was the U Are the Quarry tour. This is two thousand and three, and uh, He's supposed to play a weenie roast or some k rok event on a Saturday. I'm with Merk the Marquis and I call him and
I said, we're coming to pick you up. He says, I don't feel well. I'm not okay, I can't do the show. And I'm like, what I said, No, I'm gonna come get you. He goes, I can't, I'm not doing the show. I said, okay, I said, I'm calling Joe Sugarman. We're on our it's a Saturday. We're coming up. We're coming to the house. Let us in and we're gonna see what's wrong. We got called Joe. He's like, what I said, get in the car. I'll eat you up at the house. Joe comes, we go, he's sick.
We cancel the show. The next day we have to fly to DC to start pearsals for the tour. We land in DC that Sunday and my BlackBerry is blowing up. Ally McGregor, Rick Roskin. This one. That one. I call Ali back, who's a dear friend still to this day, and she says he's got to go on k Rock tomorrow morning and apologize for missing the show or else they're not going to add the record. I see, no problem, I'll take care of it. Get to the hotel. I
walk into his room. Great, comfortable, Great. I said, by the way, I need you to go on the radio tomorrow morning to just, you know, say I'm sorry I missed the show and we're going announce a reschedule work, so I'm not gonna add the record. He goes, I'm not doing that. I said, no, you don't understand they're not going to add the record. It's k Rock. I need you to do this for me. Please, just you know, to be nine o'clock or ten o'clock in the morning and be five minutes. I need you to do it.
He goes, no, I will do no such thing. I said, you're going to go on the radio, and he goes, I dare you. I said, okay. I went back to my room ross the hall. I called the tour manager. I said, find out who does the best Morris imitation on the crew. Have to meet me in my room tomorrow morning, nine forty five. He's like what I'm like, just do it. And Ali, if you're listening, I think I told you the story, but don't kill me. It was, you know, twenty five years ago. Guy goes on the radio.
I'm so sorry. You know this guy, Charlie Brown. I remember he did it. I went into his room. I said, you were great on the radio. We were laughing so hard. Merk called me and goes, a great job made or I mean, it was one of those. It was like, you gotta do it, you gotta get it done. We did it. The record got added, and of first there was some conspiracy theories about it because his fans are so crazy. But there was a lot of shit like that, Bob. I mean, you know, it was just it's just, you know,
it was. It was a good time. We lived in Rome. We made a record together in Rome. One good story from that was we recorded at a studio that Maricone had recorded all those records with or there, and there was a young kid that ran the studio. His dad had run the studio. I'm not gonna remember his name. And during Tony wiscons he was using the record and you know, like two months in three months. It was unbelievable experience living in Rome. I was probably thirty three whatever,
just great. He and I would drive Vespas to the studio. We did that once and I said, you know, we're not going to die. It's wrong. We're getting a car and we would drive back and forth and God, and it was great. And I said to them, I said, you know what you do not get more kone to do strings on a song. And he said, how are you going to do that? I said, I think I know how to do it. I said, I think what I'm going to do is I'm going to ask this gentleman who wants to be a producer and not running
a studio. I sai, let's get him to produce the strings. If he can get more Coney to do it, then this would be perfect. We'll do it.
Great.
So, uh we get more conne and it is I need. I want thirty thousand euros cash the morning of the session or I'm not doing it, no problem. I'm like, what have I done? I call Mark. I'm like, listen to what I did. He's like great. Mirk was, by the way, and is an unbelievable advocate of artists always. Mirke was the guy. Mirk was the guy. Bob if mor Morrise, he's assistant, called me on a Wednesday. He needs to see you. I'm like, okay, you're in Dublin.
I'm in West Hollywood. I was like what. I'm like, okay, a call tomorrow. This is crazy Burk. He wants to see me. He goes, great, go to the airport, get on a plane. I'm like, what e goos, Just go to the airport, get on a plane. See what he wants. So that was that was those days, right. So anyway, uh, week so morning comes or the sessions on a Monday, it's now Thursday, I don't have the cash. I called the label. I'm like, hey, I need thirty grand. They're like, uh, yeah,
it's a bank holiday. You're you know, we're not getting it to you. I said, well, you don't understand. I found to get thirty grand on Monday is not doing the strings, and it's Morcone and it's amazing opportunity and so I'll never forget it. I didn't get the cash that Sunday. That's Saturday. I went down to the concierge to the hotel, took out my AMX and I said, here's my MX. I want you to charge me thirty thousand euros on the MX. I want you to go to your CFO. I want you to go to the bank.
I need to get me thirty thousand euros from Monday morning. And we got it done. I walk in, give him the cash. Great session, amazing four minute intro to the song. Unbelievable, fantastic, great, knocked out of the part. Everybod's freaking out. It's more to Connie, it's unbelievable. And of course Morris he's like,
I thought, I can hate it. Yeah, I've cut to cut the three minute intro down to like thirty seconds or whatever, and and me being the Putts, actually had to go to the man's apartment and play him the final version with the cutdown intro. I mean it was he just looked me out and speak a lot of Italian, but he just looked at me and he said, Marred, I think means shit. So yeah, that's my Mortcone story. It was pretty crazy.
Okay, what's the next step in your career?
You know, I love what I do, Bob, and I love advocating.
No, no, no, no, what's the next No? No? Oh?
Then then oh Jesus Christ, yeah, more seed happens. And then I leave Sanctuary I and I went to New York for business meeting over somebody with a new project I was going to get involved in. I'm at dinner with this guy that wants me to work with him and his wife and another and I just met these dudes and they're lovely and I'm going to work with them.
And one of the ladies tables is twenty sixteenth December where those communos on third and one of the ladies says, yeah, you know you're dating anybody, And I'm like, no, not really, you want to meet this girl. I'm like, listen, I live in LA. I don't need to meet this girl. She pulls out a BlackBerry shows me a picture of this woman. I'm like, you know, yeah, I'd love to meet this I mean, it was like that. And next thing I know, I go to I go back to LA.
I'm texting with this woman. I came to New York in January of two thousand and seven, went on a blind date with my wife, Amanda, and I never left. And so the next step of my career was being in New York for about seven seven and a half years, primarily working in the startup business, and I worked at IAC for Barry Diller for a while. It was the worst, you know, I was the music guy in the startup space, and you know, it just it was. It was a complete and total bummer. And then I so, you know,
there's just not a lot to talk about there. I had two kids in New York City, which was great, and all I wanted to do was move back to LA And that's what I did in twenty fourteen, and I kind of done a lot of different things.
You know, how'd you convince your wife to move to LA.
Well, my wife looked at me. It was after the win. It was the I think it was like a twenty thirteen was a horrible blizzard in New York. I remember that, and it was she looked at me and saying, Okay, we can either moved to New Jersey or to Westchester. And I said, we're going to move to the Pacific House state and she was like, let's go. I mean, it was just that easy. She's from Englewood, New Jersey and her parents are great. But yeah, it was it
was just that easy. It was like winter, No, we're done. And we had two kids and the girls have had a great life here. And then, like I told you before, I fell into this ticketing space.
Okay, and this parapatetic career. How did the money work?
Meaning how did I make money?
Did you make enough money to pay your bills? Or did you have to get money from your parents? Were there not?
Always? No? I always made enough money, you know, it was never you know, yeah, if there was an issue, but it was it was never like that.
It was.
I always, uh, you know, I was able to make enough money. You know, definitely not a parental money situation. You know, if God forbid, you know, would have been a situation, but it was never like, you know, you're a trust fund guy. It was just that was never my life. Ever.
So you've met a lot of famous people. Tell me one person who really lived up to the Rep Frank Sinatra. Tell me more.
I in nineteen. I'm gonna say eighty six, but I might be wrong. It might have been earlier. There was an event for the Statue of Liberty or Ellis Island, one of those things. There was a big thing in New York City. I'm not gonna remember the exact date, Bob, but it was and Henry was on the special or whatever, and so we were in New York and I will not forget this because I remember. I feel like it was Sarah Jessica Parker. I don't know. There was a
lot of funny and interesting people there. And I was probably fifteen, and there he was, and he came over to speak to Henry and it's my son. And he looked at me and he touched my head and said your aunt, and boy, aren't you I was like, really shit. That was Frank Sinatra. Yeah, that was pretty cool. You know, all these guys I met, I met a lot of them. You know pretty cool.
Oh, okay, since you're such a music fan, tell me about one or two rockers you met who lived up to the rep.
Cause most of them don't. So I know a lot of them, don't. I mean, I, you know, the guys that I really get off on pop or like a lot of the session guys that I met, or you know, I you know what you know those guys are you know, you know, you know the guys that I love. Is like sitting down with Lenny Warniker and being like, hey, tell me about Rest Titlemen and Lowell George. What was
that like when they made those records? Like, to me, that's that's the coolest thing in the world, you know, to be able to have those discussions where, you know, I listened to so much music all the time, and when I used to know and I listened to it like I'm always thinking about the production and how this is working, and how that's working, and how did this
work and how do they put this together? And and so for me to have those discussions, that's that's the coolest thing in the world, to be quite honest with you.
Okay, you have two parents, two fathers who have quite a distinct legacy. Yeah, how do you feel about your career where you are not as problem as they are?
Well, let's hope I have a career after being so terrible on this podcast, Bob. But uh kidding, this is when you say you weren't terrible, but that's fine. I uh, I said that too much already, Bob. I am. I'll be honest with this. Something I thought about I but I knew very early on I was never going to be able to give them that. I knew very early on that the level of success that I grew up with was probably not something I was going to be
able to offer my kids. But I the thing for me that I'm able to offer them is experiences that we love together. And music is that experience. You know, my kids are lucky. They get to go to every concert they want to go to with me, right which they probably are over at this point going with me. But you know, I enjoyed that, so I uh, it
really never bothered me that much. I mean for me to know these people to know that that I'm I'm kind of at a place in my life where I'm really one call away from anybody I need to get to, and you know, I feel really good about my career and what I do. You know, I don't want to be judged by that. I don't think about that very often. I used to think about that, that I would never be able to provide for them like that, but I don't.
I don't think of that as much anymore, you know, I just I just love that I got to experience that. I love that they get to experience that with Henry especially, you know, out of my day. That's not around anymore, you know, you know my kids, you know, my kids, I think they finally get it. I don't know if I think they've ever watched Happy Days, but they get it. You know. It's pretty funny.
How did hend we meet your mother?
I think the story is that my mother was working at a or was a pr person for clothing stour Fields, same Jerry Magnan that was in Beverly Hills a million years ago. You probably remember that, and I think she was she was there working. He came in to buy clothes and he pasked her out and she said yes, And those were seventies were great, man, that was really fun. I mean that was wild, you know, very fun.
Well, certainly pre internet, pre cell phone camera. Okay, you talk about all these shows you went to, two best shows you ever saw.
Taylor Hawkins tribute at the Forum was unbelievable. I mean, it was everybody that I loved in one place, you know. And by the way, I was hoping, you're gonna ask me who I've not met that I wanted to meet, and that would be Getty Lee and Alex Lifson. But you talk about they're not that hard to me, Well, no one's I've never been able to do it. So Bob helped me out. I mean, those guys like you see for me like I anyway, I that was unbelievable
that that that Taylor Hawkins concert was unbelievable. Was everybody there. And then I've got to say, you know, it's probably you know, I don't know. I go to so many shows. I just I can't really I was thinking, I knew you were gonna ask me this. You know, it's probably probably something from a million years ago. Might have been the first time I saw Kiss, you know, might have been the first time I saw Cheap Trip. I mean, I can tell you there's a lot of concerts that
were really bad. You know. I still go to a lot of I go to a lot of old heavy metal concerts with people that's pretty funny, you know, with some of my best buddies from high school. But I just love the concert experience after I left, you know, being on manager, being on the road, you know, going to a concert is like, you know, I'm looking at the production. You know, I'm not looking at the I'm not watching the show. I'm wondering how they got all
that in there, what's the trust? You know, all that. That's kind of what I look at these days, you know. And but and now I'm looking at how many people are in their seats, and what do I think this person paid next to me versus what I paid? And dynamically pricing and all that stuff, you know.
So okay, so let's just assume your wife is out of the picture. You were having a searching of the soul moment at three in the morning. Let's not make it three in the morning. You're having a searching in the soul moment. Who do you call?
Hm? That's an interesting question. You know, I'm not sure it's my mom, Henry or Margaret anymore. It's uh, it's probably my family. It could be my friend Benjamin. But but most likely it's probably you know, at the end of the days, it's a tough one, Bob, It's a tough one, you know. I don't uh, you know, I don't share a lot of that stuff, you know. And I don't have a lot of soul searching moments anymore like that, or I don't share that very often. But uh, yeah,
it's it's I guess it could be Margaret. I don't know. It might be my step mother.
Oh, so are you still buddies? Is Benjamin from the old days?
Like growing Benjamin's buddy of mine from New York. You know, he's one of my best buddies. I mean, you know, I just you know, I I don't share a lot of that stuff. Let me put you to that way, you know. And I don't have a lot of those soul soul searching moments. It probably should, you know, but I don't.
Do you not share that because you've seen been around public figures so much.
It might be it might be that, you know, Look, this, what we've done today is the most I've ever spoken about this, and asmen, was the first time I ever spoke about any of this with anybody publicly. You know, I always kept it very people knew maybe, but don't really talk to me about it. You know, it just was just was it just was, you know, just was my life.
Okay, when you're vacationing in Hawaii, et cetera, with these household names, was there a clique a group of their children who you all ran together with.
Yeah, I'm still friends with all of them. Some are here. There's some that aren't here anymore, but you know, which is unfortunate, But most of them I'm still very close with.
You absolutely, And what insight can you give us? Not only you given us from yourself and you're here and you say some of these people are not What insight can you give about being the son or daughter of public figures.
Being responsible, not being an idiot? You just got to know that. You just got to know that there there could be a lot of judgment out there. You know, just be humble, do your thing, work your ass off. You know, By the way, now, I never you know, when I said to my parents, like when I was fourteen, I don't want to go to camp anymore. Henry was like, great,
you're gonna get a job. You know, my first job at fourteen was at National Compact disc came next to Fat Jacks the corner of Tahunga and Ventura.
Remember that store. How often did you did Fat Jacks.
All the time? Or I'd go down the street to Henry's Tacos. But Bob, that was one of the first CD only stores in Los Angeles, right, And so I'm fourteen, I'm working with all these rockers, you know, who were playing all these amazing like you know, Genesis records, like I knew three sides like, but all of a sudden, they're playing seconds out and lamps line's down a Broadway and my mind's exploding and somebody's telling me, you gotta listen to this Dark Side of the Moon. I mean,
like that was. That was unbelievable. That was That was incredible, And I got, you know, discounts on CDs.
Let's go back to the medals. So who were your favorite metal locks?
Oh? My god, Ozzy. My dad worked with Ozzie, by the way, and I always loved Ozzy. I mean that nineteen eighty six Ultimate Sintour. I saw Metallica Mustard Master Puppets open for Ozzie two nights in a row, Long Beach arena mind blowing. I was always into rock. Okay, Zeppelin's my favorite. But in the eighties metal it was, you know, it was Rat Motley Crue, it was all that stuff. But I also listened to Stanley Jordan or I listened to Hiram Bullock, right.
You know.
I listened to all kinds of music. I've always been into that, the guitars, you know, all the old AC DC stuff in Lizzie all that stuff, you know. And then uh, and then I heard Pretenders Won, and then I went that way, you know, and then I you know, so it's I just love it. I listened to everything. There's very little that I don't like. But if I don't like it, I don't like it.
You know, I work for Sanctuary Law before it, when public et cetera. It ultimately imploded. Why do you think it imploded?
That's a tough one. I mean, I think there was a there's you know, I think there are a lot of money spent, and I think saying no sometimes is important, you know. So I mean, I don't really know. I don't know the inside the ins and outs of that. It's just I think they I think I think things got a little crazy. That's all I know.
Okay, as we speak, hypnosis was the assets were discounted by twenty five percent. Merk was the face of buying catalogs and paying for them. What insight can you give us into that?
I don't know anything about that. I just know Mark's a music guy, always has been a music guy. He's an artist guy. He's always been an artist guy. He's always been good to me. To this day. We still you know, we both support the same football team, Arsenal, so we text often. I've known as kids forever. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know too much about that. I just know Mark's always been a big artist guy. That's all I can tell you, Bob Okay.
And if you have a music business issue, who do you call for insight and advice?
Eric Greenspand probably one of the first calls I make Michelle Bernstein. Probably the second call I make smartest tour Marketer slash live person who understands the live business better than anybody I've ever met. Helped me understand the necessary opportunity here on understanding the second dairy market and the data it beholds, and how to apply that to the primary she's a genius and a very close friend. There
are a couple other people out there too. Gean Solomon, good guy, good friend of mine.
And do you think a major act can go out without production?
Sure? He got'd be amazing. Nothing would be cooler. I mean, I mean, I just saw you two at the sphere. If they didn't have the graphics, there was no production, I mean you know, I mean I it was Yeah, I think that would be amazing. I think that would be absolutely amazing. Then it's just all about the music. But it depends on the act, right, So my girls they don't want to see that. They want to see
the whole thing. But like me, if it was Crows, right, Chris, they can go out without production and fucking heal it right. So that's a guy by the way. For me, now that we're close friends, like I get excited when we
share music together. I live to send him music that he doesn't know but doesn't happen very often, and I'm like, send me music, send me you know, that's all I want, are his playlists, right, It's like that's the coolest thing in the world to me, you know, it is to be able to share my musical taste with other people that have similar musical taste as me. That can rocket. I don't know if you saw them when they played last night. I saw that. I went to the first
Aerosmith Gross show. They're unbelievable.
This tour is going to be amazing, by the way, So can you name two acts that are new acts that you're busy sharing with other people.
There's a young guy named Billy Tibbles who I'm crazy for, who Chris produced the record and it's on Chris's label. He's got a great record out right now that Apple Music is all over, so that's cool, which I'll send you. And there's a there's a band out there called Eggy egg Y that our jam band. There's the guitar players, a guy named Jacob Brownstein and Jake Brownstein. He's unbelievable. And those guys are are the next They're the next dudes.
They're the next part of that scene you know, to kind of to kind of go there right, like I missed Goose, I don't get it, but like they're huge, Eggy is they're the next ones, you know.
Okay, your name is Jed. What is the name on your birth certificate?
Jed. My great grandfather from Odessa was named Jeddy. I think that was his name, and so my mother named me Jed. It's just Jed. Bruce Weizman and an incredible guy.
And you know, most people hear Jed and they think of the Beverly Hillbillies and the cleupits. Was it tough growing up with that name?
I mean no, I mean it happened, but I didn't give a shit. I just didn't even pay attention, you know. And then after Star Wars I was Jedi, so it all worked out the end, Bob, you know.
And on that note, with your lightsaber, I think we've come to the end of the feeling we've known. I want to thank you so much for sharing your insight and story with my audience.
Thanks, Bob, It's a pleasure.
Pleasure is mine. Until next time. This is Bob left Stacks
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