A Cultural A&R

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
And Welcome to city, Stumboard Toughest Nails on WVZ. And
I'm in a studio tonight with an old good friend
of mine name, what's your name?

Speaker 2 (00:07):
Charlie Walk? Happy to be here, guys.

Speaker 1 (00:09):
Really who says we want you here?

Speaker 2 (00:11):
Very happy to be here here?

Speaker 1 (00:13):
Oh? Who asked you? Blondie? I talk regardless, Okay, Shellye,
we love you.

Speaker 2 (00:18):
Well. It's nice to be talking to you today. After
we were speaking last night.

Speaker 1 (00:22):
You're probably the only we like crazy. I dragged his
ass on Shadow last night. He's like, what are we doing?
I'm going just follow my league on here. I'm going
to show you this.

Speaker 2 (00:30):
I'm basically like in a T shirt and underwear getting
ready to go to bed, and then and turn the door.
His hairs all over the place.

Speaker 1 (00:36):
No, gel, she does that to me too.

Speaker 2 (00:38):
It was just crazy town. But you know, it's so funny.
When I came to Boston to see my parents, and
I like to work out every day. So every time
I go down Route nine here on Boylson Street to
the Equinox, I see your big sign and I just
feel like, and I see I can see the conference
room through the windows. I see you going crazy I

(00:58):
see all the workers in there, the construction guys, the animals,
the criminals, the killers, They're all in there building houses,
and I sometimes feel like just popping and saying, what's up.
Cut me in a deal, Let's go, let's sell some houses.
Let's build and sell. Anyways, but I always think of
you every single time I come to Boston. Isn't that crazy?

Speaker 1 (01:15):
Do you not think of me? Anyways? You only grew
up the street.

Speaker 2 (01:16):
It's true.

Speaker 1 (01:17):
That's true that two years made a big difference in
high school because they.

Speaker 2 (01:20):
Were all Just so you guys are clear, there was
something called the Breezeway. You grew up in South High School.
It's still the Breezeway. And also, to be clear, Joe
Rogan graduated in my year, so we would hang out
with the now famous Joe Rogan and he was a
wise guy.

Speaker 1 (01:35):
Can I didn't give anybody time today?

Speaker 2 (01:37):
No, you would. And you were the hottest girl on
the breezeway walking and all the little, you know, freshman
and sophomores like myself would look, who's that model? You
were like? You were like our you were like our
victorious secret model walking down in your fake fur. Maybe
it was for at the time was okay.

Speaker 1 (01:51):
Back then, Bobby is a father.

Speaker 2 (01:53):
I had real fir Bobby.

Speaker 1 (01:57):
Frosted blond.

Speaker 2 (01:59):
I didn't know you. By the way, there was play
my Playboy magazine and that I chose. All good.

Speaker 1 (02:06):
Remember they're in tenth grade, so when you're a senior
girl like you know.

Speaker 2 (02:09):
It's true actually when you are first like idea of
what a model would be in person in Newton, Massachusetts.
So thanks for that for real.

Speaker 1 (02:18):
And I once turned around him and Nanda was standing
there on the breeze where I'm going. Why don't you
take a picture? Last longer? I was such a punk.
I was such a punk, and not just I just
looked looked at Charlian w Yeah, okay.

Speaker 2 (02:31):
I spoke to Nanda last week by and if.

Speaker 1 (02:32):
You noticed my car was parking the teacher's pocket lot.

Speaker 2 (02:35):
I saw that.

Speaker 1 (02:36):
Did you have a notice that I didn't go parking
the kid's pocking lot? You were right right on the breezeway.

Speaker 2 (02:40):
I saw that. How did you get that slot?

Speaker 1 (02:42):
Z X?

Speaker 2 (02:42):
I remember and silver silver? Probably I remember the blue
and silver with the t tops tops blue and silver
shot his car in the game.

Speaker 1 (02:51):
Okay, walking over to my car, they probably thought it
was a teacher's car. No, I had everybody on the payroll,
even even though the kid that in the except for
the gym teacher. The gym teacher hated me who I
had later on in life.

Speaker 2 (03:05):
You know, it's so funny. Though those are real high
school days, those days don't exist anymore. There are such
thing as like those are real. There could have been
a movie shot about that high school at that particular time,
and the characters that came out of it that was
that's actually a great idea for a movie. Executive producer
of the Stumpo Girls.

Speaker 1 (03:20):
Yeah, but come on, you just think about this for
a second. You move me from the North Shore thirteen fourteen,
You bring me to Newton, where kids talk properly and
you all dress weird, and we can't. I'd come in
with my Nike sneak as, my sisterly jeans, make up
my hair up to here.

Speaker 2 (03:35):
The whole show is amazing.

Speaker 1 (03:37):
And like you guys look like you read around with
and like you guys had no style.

Speaker 2 (03:43):
No, so I moved to New York and I became whatever,
a big shot in New York City. But I remember
the best Broadway show was the Stumpo Show on the Breezeway.
Your show is nothing better than that show that it
was real? Was I still remember those days Broadway. Sorry
forget Broadway. Beat me, beat me. I'm not allowed to
swear in the show. Mush video show.

Speaker 1 (04:00):
I told my mop, picked up my mopen, threw it
on a grill and burnt. Oh yeah, some great moments
in the way.

Speaker 2 (04:04):
They were mopeedsant so they were with Vespas right.

Speaker 1 (04:06):
There you go. Mine was a moped then going smoke
in the in the bathroom of Jock's Corners.

Speaker 2 (04:13):
Crazy. Well, thanks for having me. I'm so happy to
be here. Okay, I know we did a lot of
like it wasn't even prep we were checking and then
last night we had hundreds of people on our personal chat.
I don't even know what the hell was going on.
I didn't even have a contail.

Speaker 1 (04:26):
I said, I brought one chat. I'm like, Kellie, get
off the fall with me and just get on this
app with me. I want to show you the video content.

Speaker 2 (04:33):
But I liked it better than that clubhouse crap from
years ago.

Speaker 1 (04:36):
Clubhouse had no video and I didn't.

Speaker 2 (04:38):
Even have a vibe. I think I kind of It
also was about the audience, you know, in front of
the tech, and it felt right, it felt different. It
felt better than like Instagram, which just feels so impersonal
when you do live there.

Speaker 1 (04:51):
And then this way you're all talking to each other.
People can but I wasn't running the room like I
should have, and it brings down below come up because
I didn't let them up.

Speaker 2 (05:00):
The problem with Instagram is like you have to like
your You're kind of half in the conversation because your
eyes are scrolling on people asking you a question. That's
a problem. That's I can't be a free thinker and
speaker trying to multitask. You want me to be free.
You need me to be thinking and free flowing as
it relates to a conversation. Let someone else figure that
your host can figure out the question. So I agree

(05:20):
with you.

Speaker 1 (05:20):
All right, did we even introduce Did we introduce Charlie Walk?

Speaker 2 (05:25):
Maybe a formal No.

Speaker 1 (05:27):
We didn't do it right, But that's exactly how this
is time. So we're very organic here. Okay, So Charlie,
give the listeners right now. Who's Charlie Walk? From Newton, Massachusetts.

Speaker 2 (05:37):
I grew up in Newton, and I will say, driving
here to the studio. I almost started crying because I
passed ninety nine Revere Beach Parkway, the home of Kiss
one eight FM.

Speaker 1 (05:48):
That's where that's right, that's true.

Speaker 2 (05:49):
That was Richie's building, and that was where every superstar
and every celebrity. How many years of our lives went
there to communicate and go on the radio. And the
heyday of Kiss went away when it was America's mega station,
that's what they called it. What happened to Kiss went
away broke nationally. The radio concerts you see, these Kiss concerts,
the Z one hundred, the jingle balls, all this stuff

(06:12):
you see across America started because of Richie Balls. When
Kiss went away, that's where the brand started of oh
airplay break an artists, you owe me a performance, right
that sort of not even tip or tap, but the relationship.
We're gonna take care of you. We're gonna break you. You
got to play my show. And so and I was
driving by that building almost late here and I just got.

Speaker 1 (06:32):
Killion That should be a Netflix movie on balls was
life one thousand percent on Balls.

Speaker 2 (06:38):
And the crazy and the chaos, and you know that
was Elton, John and Billy Everyone played the Kiss concert back.

Speaker 1 (06:44):
I remember being Richie's house when he sold a musician.
I don't care who you are. I'm not playing you.
You either get to that kiss. Yeah, and then remember.

Speaker 2 (06:51):
I'll take it off right now.

Speaker 1 (06:52):
I'll take it off, and he would. And then I
remember Rod Stuart got sick.

Speaker 2 (06:56):
I was at that kiss.

Speaker 1 (06:57):
What's the private wing? Yeah, kiss with Richie. He brought
brought in for private waying concerts. So Richie's friends friends
and raised money, and all that money went to none.
That money went to kiss or Richie donated every I mean,
he was just so ahead of his times.

Speaker 2 (07:14):
No, those were the days and so but I just
drove by there.

Speaker 1 (07:16):
And so we still have an audit him as far
as I agree with you.

Speaker 2 (07:19):
And you know I drove by there a few minutes
ago and got super emotional. So when you asked me,
you know Newton, Massachusetts, when where I came from. My
first opportunity to be in the music business while I
went to Boston University was to intern a kiss went
to wait and I cold called kiss went away over
and over and over and tortured them to the point
where I got an internship working for Mattie in the

(07:40):
morning into the legendary Sonny Joe White, and I got
thrown into the wolves while I was a freshman at
Boston University. You know, my father's a dentist, my mother's
a school teacher, no one. I had no connections, but
I knew the road map to get the hell out
of Boston to Hollywood would be Kiss went Owait, Because
Kiss went Await was my Hollywood? Does that make sense?

(08:01):
So I had to knock on the door and get
the hell in there and learn. Really, that was my education.
Boston University was more of like a connection experience, but
your hands on learnings of radio and records. At the time,
the funnel to fame was what got played in the radio.
There was no UTWO.

Speaker 1 (08:18):
Remember you walking into my condo in Brookline on Beacon
Street and you go, I'm going to buy this, Yeah.

Speaker 2 (08:25):
In the pethouse. Yeah, I had that gorgeous building.

Speaker 1 (08:28):
Was I needed not the year and I'll be able
to afford this. It was the first my rise in
Brookline on Beacon Street. And he came walking. Wasn't it
called the atrium?

Speaker 2 (08:37):
The atrium the building was. I remember that I had
like a bar and you had the sickest and I
Remember we ended up renting and I was I was
feeling the vibes of like getting that one year and
we had like eighteen guys living in there, trying to
pretend we were big boys. But yeah, that is true,
that's very very true.

Speaker 1 (08:51):
Hold that thought for me. We're going out to break.
I'm sitting stumbling. You listen to Toughest Nails on WBZ
and we'll be right back and welcome back to Toughest
Nails on WBZ News Radio. And I'm here with mister
Charlie Walk and Miss Samantha Francesca stump Over.

Speaker 2 (09:06):
I feel like I'm with my sister and niece.

Speaker 1 (09:08):
There you go.

Speaker 2 (09:09):
It's a vibe. This is family talk. Everybody.

Speaker 1 (09:11):
What that song? Just say to you?

Speaker 2 (09:13):
What song just gave me? And goosebumps? You know, Oh
my god, this is what we call we.

Speaker 1 (09:21):
Gotta fast forward from it. Charlie went from running what
you guys called ar back then.

Speaker 2 (09:27):
No. Well, the jobs along the way were internship to
local to regional at Sony. I mean you climb the
posters up at Tower Records and Strawberry's Record.

Speaker 1 (09:37):
We'll talk about that. I just wanted listeners to know
you made it all the way to the president of
Sony Records.

Speaker 2 (09:41):
Well, so I was a president of Columbia Records, Epic Records,
and Republic Records at a different company years later. So
I held a lot of presidencies. The reason why you
move around is roster retention, chairman changes. And just wanted
to make moves right and not try to stay too
long at one place.

Speaker 1 (09:59):
I used to look, I get thirty five, I think I.

Speaker 2 (10:02):
Have good genes. Thank you, mommy, he does, Thank you, mummy.
But you just heard you know Hipstone Lie And I'll
tell you a story about in this and that was Shakira,
And that was a song that changed pop culture, especially
Latin crossover music forever.

Speaker 1 (10:18):
I'm getting chills that song.

Speaker 2 (10:20):
So Shakira could play like Miami, New York and LA.
We always understood there's there's the latinos in those markets,
but nothing ever played the middle and the middle, the
Middle America. Middle America gets your presidents elected, right, the
middle runs of the world. And so when I became
president of Epic Records, I inherited Shakira, who was on
our roster. She already had her new album out. It

(10:41):
was a disaster. Her first single was called don't bother
that they put out and no one bothered.

Speaker 1 (10:47):
Oh don't bother.

Speaker 2 (10:50):
They come to see me. This is my first day
in the job, and my amazing assistant, Tracy, who I'm
still friends with, said Shakira in her entourage here to
see you, you know, and I'm and I'm you know.
I think I was the youngest record company president ever.
I'm thirty years old and I've got the suit on.
She comes in this to me, She goes, mister president,
she called me el Hefe. I know I was screwed
when she's calling me, you know, el Hefe. She goes,

(11:13):
I hear, you don't know what the next single should be?
And I go, Shakira, the first single you guys chose
was a stiff. I spent the whole vacation before I
started listening to this new album. I don't believe there's
like this up tempo Caribbean song that is on brand
for you. You didn't give us that. You made an
artistic record, which I respect. But if you're asking me
what the next hit is, there is none. And what

(11:35):
she say, who do you think you are? You little stinker?
I spent two years making this album of my life
my heart and souls into this, and you're telling me
there's no hits. I said, you made great art, Kira,
but there's no hits that's going to drive fan base
to have you tour and sell merch and all the

(11:56):
other things that a hit does. Stormed out the head
of so called me. Did you tell Shaker? I go, yeah,
I did, there's no hits. Manager was upset. The building's
upset with me because they wanted me to pick something
right to keep the momentum going of like the ten
million albums they shipped, and so I didn't know what
to do. And many years ago, when I was in

(12:16):
my early twenties, I got to work with the Fujis,
which was Lauren Hill, why Clef and praz Right, very
big group. Yep, I call why Clef just I'm thinking
about Haiti and Caribbean music and just I'm just thinking, like,
what the hell am I gonna do? I go, Cleff,
you want the studio to night and he goes, yes,
I go, I need an up tempo Caribbean song. And
because I don't have anything right now that I'm working on,

(12:38):
he goes, the only thing that I have is something
that's been out for six years that Clive Davis never
put out as a single from Havana Knights to the movie.
I'm like, let me come over and just hear it.
So I go over. I go plain me that song
you were talking about and he plays me a song
called dance like This Why Cleff featuring a girl named
Claudette who is a solo singer out of a group

(12:58):
called City High. So it's Why Left featuring Colid Debt.
So he plays me this song. Do we have this song?
Could we can we cue it up? It was an
iTunes back in the day, there was no Spotify or
Apple you.

Speaker 1 (13:07):
It we this.

Speaker 2 (13:11):
I hear this song up. I go stop, take that
girl off the bosn't take that girl off that track
right now?

Speaker 1 (13:24):
They do this?

Speaker 2 (13:24):
Please okay? I said, take Claude Debt off the track,
leave it open, leave the verses open. He goes, okay.
So now he takes her off the track, and I said,
get in front of the mic and just say Shakira, Shakira.
So he goes, Shakira, Shakira. The song starts, we leave
the verses open. I take it and I said to Shakira,

(13:47):
why Cliff just made this record for you could you
kindly write the verses and write the chorus for us?
She reluctantly we At first she didn't want to do it.
Then I talked to her boyfriend at the time, I'm
Tonio de la Ruine. I said, if you know what's
good for you, you like private jets, she's your girl, right,
you like jets? Have her do the record, and he goes,

(14:08):
see Senor, I understand, Go Brende. And two weeks later
she wrote renamed the song because she didn't even know
the song was called, because it was no vocal get it.
She named it Hipstone Lie. That was her and she
wrote the verses, sent it back to us. We tweaked
it a little bit. It's the same exact recording if

(14:28):
you go, if you ab dance like this and Hipston't Lie.
It's the same exact track, except we changed the lyrics
and put a new vocals on it called Shakira. I
stripped it on the album. But before I did that,
I go and do a corporate meeting. I'm the president
of Epic Records. I've got forty people in the conference
room and I go, guys, I've got the song that's
going to make our year. This is Shakira Hipstone Lie

(14:50):
and a press play, sitting back, shutting my eyes, doing
the whole thing, moving my body vibes. Want to get
the whole No, no, no, no, no, no no. No one's moving,
No one's looking at me. The I'm the president, you
look at me. No one's looking at me. The I'm like,
you look at me in the eye. And one of
the guys, Tommy there, Jacqueline's there. I'm not gonna say
last names. They're still in the business. And I'm like,

(15:12):
why don't you guys look at me? Go Tommy, what's
the matter? You don't like it? He goes, It just
feels weird and different. And then Jackie, what do you think?
I don't know if radio is gonna like it. And
I'm like, you know what, I go, screw you guys. I'm
gonna do this myself. I flew to LA that night,
went to Kiss one O two seven, KISSFM the next
day and played it for John Ivy and Julie Pilot

(15:33):
and they said they would put it on the top
nine at nine for me, I'm the president of the company.
Why am I doing this? Because no one believed? And
it goes to like. The whole saying is if someone's
got to believe in, no one believes. Right, they put
it on number one phones, number one request, the thing
explodes like you've never seen. Then Kiss FM tells Kiss
in Boston, h Q one O two Philly, Why one

(15:54):
hundred Miami being on your six Chicago? I mean, I
can go on and on on a Kiss FM, and
Dallas Case Case walked.

Speaker 1 (16:00):
Back into the boardroom and said, do you believe me?

Speaker 2 (16:02):
Now? I didn't have to do that that place. And
this song just blew up to the point where within
weeks it was on rhythm radio, top forty radio, number
one phones, number one requests, and even urban radio played
it Urban radio, right, hip hop radio, and it just
started to move culture. And you see it popping up
in all the mid mark Middle American stations, you know,

(16:25):
fast forward. It was the biggest Latin crossover song of
all time. She got one hundred million dollars advance from
Live Nation, and it changed the course of everything in sound,
not just for what we did, but for what happened
in culture. So I call that like cultural A and R.
It's not just about the song. What we did right,
what we did in believing and challenging the artists who

(16:46):
didn't know. The artist didn't even know, and sometimes the
artist doesn't know. And that's why I think it'd supporting like,
you know, guys like me, girls like me, whatever out
there that can be a rounded artists that can develop
a trust, a relationship. Making these moves affect culture, effect brands,
affect companies. It's it's so much bigger than like, oh,
a hit song, right, that hit song changed people's lives

(17:08):
for other artists to come as well. Right, the ones
that exist today in the Latin cross of a marketplace
are because of that song, right, the domino effect. And
that was just a really exciting sort of moment in
time where I took that and then never really did
committees anymore. I I call committees committee. It's committee committee
as much committee. And Diane Warren taught me that as well.

(17:29):
Who was a big songwriter like you can't sit in.

Speaker 1 (17:32):
The road's still writing music? Is?

Speaker 2 (17:34):
She really is on in LA like a year ago
and she looks great, she's amazing.

Speaker 1 (17:37):
How old is she?

Speaker 2 (17:37):
Know? I don't know. I just don't even want to know,
because when I see Diane Warren, she's timeless to me.

Speaker 1 (17:42):
I mean that I want to know she's timeless.

Speaker 2 (17:45):
She's just timeless.

Speaker 1 (17:46):
It's still writing, still writing, And went to her studio,
same thing.

Speaker 2 (17:50):
Nothing's changed. But you understand the point. And I met, yes.
And when you talk about like your career, in my career,
you got there's certain moments in time. Well you take
what happened, then you use it accordingly for the rest
of your life. And that moment stuck with me forever.
And that's how I rolled today.

Speaker 1 (18:09):
What other big goddess did you break?

Speaker 2 (18:12):
I mean during that era. I mean, we did the Fujis,
we did Ricky Martin, we did Mark Anthony with Jennifer
Jennifer Lopez.

Speaker 1 (18:18):
But he crushed my hat with Ricky Main.

Speaker 2 (18:20):
But that was that was that last night, last night.

Speaker 1 (18:24):
But we can't talk about now. But I was in
love with Ricky Martin. And then Cholie said, you got
no shots in it. I didn't know that.

Speaker 2 (18:32):
You know. John Mayer was like a really big thing
for us. I took him around for like three years.

Speaker 1 (18:36):
And again it didn't look like Ricky Manin.

Speaker 2 (18:37):
Let's know, he didn't. That's true, that's true, that I'm
getting ahead, I would say, John Mayer was a critical
point in my career and for the label's career catalog wise,
and the fact that he could sell so many records.
But we took him around for years and we always
knew he was one of the world's great guitar players,
which you now see today. But you know, I helped

(18:58):
pick a song off live show. Were at the Live
show one night and Maroon five was brand new and
they were opening up for him and they were kicking
his butt.

Speaker 1 (19:07):
Oh, I thought we got to go to break I'm
Sinny Stumble and you listen to Toughest Nails on WBZ.
We'll be right back and welcome back to Toughest Nails
on WBZ. I'm here with Charlie Walk and I'm here
with Seammy.

Speaker 2 (19:18):
Hi, guys, hell, this is a very special time to
be here. We got something we need like hours. You
guys really want to get into it and make this
a great show. We need like a ten hour show.
But Cindy, you're the boss with your Toughest Nails, tell
us what we're doing.

Speaker 1 (19:30):
Am I gonna like put that on my headstone and
I'm dead? You think m Sunday Globe just came out
with Toughest nails. I have to put that on.

Speaker 2 (19:36):
You know. My mother had it like all the paper
out and the table next to the croissants with your
big picture. And I'm like, Mom, what's the point. She goes, well,
I want I know your friends with Cindy. I wanted
to see this, so I took a picture of it.
Send it to you. It's probably the twentieth person that
did that, but you look great.

Speaker 1 (19:52):
But hundred person did that. It's nice. Still send people
still read the Sunday.

Speaker 2 (19:56):
Superstar in Boston. They still read it and they have
their done cond donuts, coffee and their donuts. I get it,
look it.

Speaker 1 (20:02):
I mean, there's a lot of us that came out
of our our generation. I got parents generation all did something. Really.
Most of those kids, especially your dad, grew up in Chelsea.
My dad grew up in Chelsea. They weren't rich kids
by no means. Your father's probably more had more, many
of the most kids in that city because his father
owned worked every day and built his own but his

(20:25):
father owned what.

Speaker 2 (20:27):
His father wasn't. His father was. My mother's father had
a big dealership, had a big car dealership. He was
a mechanic that built his way up so I only
be a mechanic anymore. I don't want to own mechanics.
Still medions. Yeah, my grandfather bought taxing. I remember our
dealership in dal Estate.

Speaker 1 (20:43):
They grew up in a part of Chelsea.

Speaker 2 (20:45):
It was called what, I don't know the name of it. Chelsea.

Speaker 1 (20:49):
No, it was like it one little little they thought
it was. They thought they were rich. They were all sorry,
they were all poor.

Speaker 2 (20:54):
That's amazing, my mother. I'm gonna send my mom tonight.
What was the part of Chelsea, the rich part of
the poor part? Yeah, Chelsea was poor, but it was
a rich part of the poor Chelsea.

Speaker 1 (21:03):
That's it. That's what we like in the poor poor, which,
by the way, then we via blocked off later. But
that was all Chelsea. But that generation did really well.
And then our generation, I mean a lot of us
came out of Newton. Yes made out.

Speaker 2 (21:18):
Made Yes And then it's interesting, it really did brew
a group of great executives that ended up in New
York and l A and other towns and cities across
the left. But you're still here.

Speaker 1 (21:31):
I'm still here.

Speaker 2 (21:32):
I raised the queen of this place.

Speaker 1 (21:34):
I raised my kids here in icon here.

Speaker 2 (21:39):
Chatty boy boy, mel Golfer, Sammy look Good, Sammy Crazy virgo.

Speaker 1 (21:44):
Okay, so talk to my lists, tell them, like, all right,
you've made a lot of money for a lot of
musicians out there.

Speaker 2 (21:53):
I made a lot of people famous.

Speaker 1 (21:54):
You made a lot of people famous.

Speaker 2 (21:55):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (21:56):
You made a lot of money for the corporations that
you worked for.

Speaker 2 (21:58):
Yeah, that's true.

Speaker 1 (21:59):
But you're always working for somebody.

Speaker 2 (22:01):
Right, And I got tired after a while, and.

Speaker 1 (22:04):
He said, this is not mine.

Speaker 2 (22:06):
You know when I look back and I can sit
and tell you all the stories of the billions.

Speaker 1 (22:11):
Did he own that label?

Speaker 2 (22:12):
He had a joint venture with J but he never
owned Arris. There was an employee, so the whole employee
that made a lot of money. But also then he
had J Records, which he raised capital on and had
to sale. So he was smart enough back in the
day when he came back into the business.

Speaker 1 (22:27):
I'm going to throw you off. I'm there's one thing
that you have to know, with all these years and
decades being in the record business, and the whole nine
years whatever you want to call it, the Sonys of
the World and whatever, with all the crap that's coming
out now, did you did you realize it, did you
know what's going on? And you just kind of walked

(22:48):
away from it, just didn't know, didn't want to know.
Did you know Clive Davis was doing whatever they say
he was doing. Now, again, these only allegations.

Speaker 2 (22:57):
No one's any idea. If you if you ever read
the Hunter S. Thompson quote, which we should pull up
this talks about you know, there's no barrier to entry
in the music business. It's thieves, pimps, drug or you
know it. You don't have to have a degree to
be in the music business, right, Okay, So that's why
when we sit back and you know I was educated.
You know I have a business degree. I'm a smart

(23:19):
guy in a street guy. I'm like hybrid left brain
right brain. And I think the reason why I was
able to use strategy in thought and marketing, uh prowess
next to like the gut and goosebump sign gut end
data allowed me to win. But like everything's changed so
much today. You know, artists think they can go on
TikTok and pray to god something goes viral, so they

(23:40):
put they do a video. They have to be funky
and weird to maybe catch the algorithm and if it
gets in the for you page and starts going viral,
they get excited. So let's just say that happens and
the Stumpo Girls have a big viral hit. And then
someone signs you, how are you gonna do five shows
a week with your vocals and perform? Do you understand

(24:00):
you can't do because you didn't run the marathon, you
didn't train, you didn't do the work. So there's no
cutting the line. The actual artists that stick and win
over time are the ones that have been doing the
work since they were five or six or seven, eight
years old. Nothing's really changed, right, So.

Speaker 1 (24:13):
These kids started out. We're talk about this last night.
These kids actually start out, Sammy. A lot of them
are like kids like ten twelve.

Speaker 2 (24:21):
The biggest ones were because if you if you interview
all the mothers, and I always used to do this
when I was signing a young talent.

Speaker 1 (24:27):
Like Britney Spears, let's use her for same.

Speaker 2 (24:30):
Justin Timberlake, Mickey Mouse Club. Back now, the rich part
of Chelsea was called Prattville. Prattville, can you text me
that place? Yes, Prattville.

Speaker 1 (24:37):
Thank you, Sammy, Sammy, Sammy for the wind my father. Yeah,
the win, and I go and where was the poor part?

Speaker 2 (24:44):
And he goes where we lived?

Speaker 1 (24:45):
What's that called no idea? He says, So I guarantee
your moms you grew up with Prattfelle. You're gonna have to.

Speaker 2 (24:51):
Ask We're going to ask Judy Walk that question. J P. Walk.

Speaker 1 (24:56):
Daddy kind of stepped up and married the rich girl.

Speaker 2 (24:59):
Yeah, yeah, well but there wasn't money. There wasn't money flowing.
He had to go and he went to be a
pharmacist all night long into dental school at forty. He
actually went to tough stental at forty years old. So
he was a late bloomer to have his own money,
real talk. And I respect that so much. But you
know the thing about artists today, and people call me up.

Speaker 1 (25:19):
Thousands of d N ninety five were on it. We're
back on back on an ad moment.

Speaker 2 (25:26):
It's okay. I was just going to say the artist game.
Everyone sits me, have Charlie, what's the key to success?
And help me as an artist? I tell artists they've
got to be clever, they've got to be independent, they
got to be entrepreneurial. And if your dream is to
be signed to a record label, I'm not even going
to talk to you because record labels today don't do
what I used to do. They don't have the time
or the money of the resources to break you. They

(25:47):
would rather look at the same data and then from
there overpaid to distribute your music. But they're not the
executive turntable go so fast today I think about it.
No one has seven years to break the stumpos. There's
no such things that anymore. I had lots of time
to break artists, and so so.

Speaker 1 (26:05):
What did they want to break in faster? You were
eating the clock on them. If they were twenty one,
not break until twenty five, or they were fifteen and
not break until twenty Wasn't.

Speaker 2 (26:14):
That funnel was different? Today? You have all these different platforms.
I believe great finds its way. So if you're really
a great artist, put out great music, do great creative
yourself right, use the screens that you have on your phone,
with Instagram, reels, TikTok, snap, whatever you're using to show
off your stuff, and if you're if you have great,

(26:35):
it usually finds its way to the top every time.
Great is the magic behind any artists. The ones that
are breaking today are really great, right, but the ones
that are viral hits, the viral hits, it's not the
business we want to be in. They're not the way
you make money.

Speaker 1 (26:50):
The music, the tour, right a t there's always been
the one hit one's right in your in your generation,
and it's probably gonna be the one hit one distilling.

Speaker 2 (26:58):
And there always will be. But the money, the money
behind the music is actually an artist that can tour
and write and be real artists.

Speaker 1 (27:06):
And how can they do that? And where they getting
the money to go? Do they need the record label
behind them for the money? How they're going to stop touring?

Speaker 2 (27:15):
No? You have you have? You have? This is? This
is a phone and you can go like this and
sing your song. Yeah, fans and if you have fans,
and if you're talented, you can play in any stage
and blow somebody away. Think about talent. Talent leads everything.
Talent is talent At the end of the day, what
do you need money for for? What?

Speaker 1 (27:33):
So the record labels back then didn't help set your
tour up then?

Speaker 2 (27:37):
Sure, sure back then, but not There was no social
media back then. Think about it. Okay, the only thing
you had back then?

Speaker 1 (27:46):
How these kids, how are they going to do this.
How are they going to get out there and playing
mass and chapel roam.

Speaker 2 (27:52):
Look at the Noah Khan, Look at these kids. The
one the kids are breaking today are doing exactly what
I said. They did it on their own, and then
they got an uplift from the label that signed them
to you know, fire boost them to a you know,
global status. Right, So the labels come in at a
certain time, but they're not going to break you.

Speaker 1 (28:10):
Okay, Charlie walk has had a big career. Let me
ask this question, how proud were your parents of you?

Speaker 2 (28:19):
That's a great question. We never talk about it.

Speaker 1 (28:22):
Why.

Speaker 2 (28:23):
It's just not what happens in the house. It's more,
you know, that's sort of transferred into the kids. So
they have grandkids. Right, conversation is not about me anymore.
It's about the kids.

Speaker 1 (28:31):
But as you were coming up the ladder, you that's
dad was my dad was identistrobably heard Charlie this, Charlie, Charlie, Charlie,
Charlie Charlie Right.

Speaker 2 (28:40):
So that's I mean, Look, I didn't bring them backstage
to meet Taylor Swift a few years ago. And they're
little and she's like six foot four and at the
greatest picture of all time on my phone that I'll
have to show you later.

Speaker 1 (28:49):
But Charlie, that's all Dad. I talked about everybody that
came into his lit.

Speaker 2 (28:53):
How would I know that because I was traveling across
the world for twenty years.

Speaker 1 (28:56):
Well, well we never called. He was just like, I'm
really proud of you.

Speaker 2 (29:00):
No, it doesn't really work that way. And you know
that my.

Speaker 1 (29:03):
Father something all the time. My mom tells me that
all the time.

Speaker 2 (29:05):
It's not I don't remember that because I was never home,
but I know I know.

Speaker 1 (29:09):
That he was, and he really was because and you
can because all he did was talk about Charlie and
the dental office and every body Newbolt Go.

Speaker 2 (29:16):
He did have my gold records up, but that's true.
You don't have the gold records up. So he was
very proud of me.

Speaker 1 (29:21):
Absolutely was. Hold on, we're going to break. I'm Sidy
stump On. You listen Toughest Nails and we'll be right
back on WB's and welcome back to Toughest Nails. And
I'm City Stumpo, and I'm here with Charlie Walk and
I'm here with Samantha which less name is Stumpo. I
just want to mind. I just want to make sure.
I just want to see if you have a personality
over there. You're like hidding in the corner over there
in the studio, we hide her in the corner. Okay, Charlie,

(29:44):
we're talking about how you brought the biggest accent. You've
been around a lot of acts. You've been sony, you've
been this ide on, present, this that and everything above,
and you've worked your way up. What is Charlie Walk
doing now?

Speaker 2 (29:59):
So I've grown up a lot and realized I'll tell
you a pinnacle moment in my life.

Speaker 1 (30:04):
Well, you know, most mendom grow up till the sixties,
so you're ahead of time.

Speaker 2 (30:07):
That's good, right, yeah, yeah, yeah. There's a legendary music
executive marketing executive named Jimmy Ivien and he sat me
down and he was He said, Charlie, at fifty nine
years old, I got sick of just dealing with the artists,
and I went to doctor Dre and I said, let's
make headphones. We'll call them beats by Dre. We'll ship

(30:28):
them one way and they don't talk back at you.
And I was like, say that again. He goes, So
we made beats by Dre. We shipped them one way
and we made three billion dollars. And his point was,
I think as you get older, for me, you can't
own a piece of a human being, right. So if
you an employee of a record ex of a record

(30:49):
label like guy was, you get paid a lot of money,
You get a bonus based on market share, frontline breaking
new artists, and that's great and you have a nice life.
And I did that for many years, along politics and
guns slinging, people trying to kill me in the media.
I mean, when you're at the top, people just it's very,
very lonely because everybody wants to kill you, especially when
you're winning. And so it's like and that gets tiring
after a while.

Speaker 1 (31:10):
I asked to try that question last night. Yeah, because
that's the biggest thing. Like, as you climb the lab
of success, people always say, oh, how many friends you made? No, No,
you make a lot of acquaintances, but you lose a
lot of friends. And that's just how it is, and
you are alone in your own head.

Speaker 2 (31:22):
I used to go home and say, how's your day,
my wife, how's your day? Charles? I was saying, I
just feel so alone. What do you mean it's I go.
It's lonely up there. Everyone's lying to you, everyone's scared
of you, everyone's scared for their jobs. No one's telling
you the truth. It goes back to the John Mayer
daughter story when I picked that song with John or
or Shakira. I can give you so many examples of

(31:44):
number one songs or taking chances on like reinventing, like
Joe Jonas and his solo career. So everything that I've
done was always like I learned that I'm gonna go
with my gun, in my feel and not listen to
anyone else. But also it's very hard to monetize that
God given gift. So I've sort of transformed myself into

(32:07):
like what I call cultural A and R by investing
in and getting behind things that I believe in, but
owning a piece of famous versus promoting famous. When I
say owning a piece of famous, like for example, we
just I invested four years ago in this poppy all
natural soda, and we all helped make it famous that

(32:28):
the team did, but we all got behind it wherever
I could post it and push it and add value
as an investor, and it just sold to Pepsi for
two billion dollars four years later. I'd rather respectfully own
a piece of that than an artist that's going to
turn on you, because they turn Every artist turns on you.
It doesn't matter who you are. They all forget. For

(32:51):
the most part, they ca it's not me. They just
fame is a funny thing. It's heroin And every single
time I can tell you, they just they just seem
to forget the people that launched them and the loyalty
behind that, even the financial loyalty. If you look at
some of the biggest managers, someone that I mentioned over
the years was Brandon Creed who manageress Ariana Grande now

(33:12):
and a bunch of big artists, you know. And his
first claim to faint after working with me as an
A and R guy, was managing Bruno Mars and he
did it for seven years and he was probably commissioning
I don't know, fifteen to twenty million dollars a year
off of Bruno. And he did a great job for Bruno.
And then you know, one day Bruno's in the in
the business manager's office and for whatever reason, they're looking

(33:35):
at the top payouts and they see that this that
his managers, you know, getting twenty percent or fifteen percent
of making this up one hundred million dollars. Right, gun
comes out and they forget that that why is he
getting paid that much? He didn't tour every night, he
wasn't on stage, he's not singing seven days a week.

(33:55):
He's not doing the interviews that happens every single time.
Have my Lady Gaga's man of reginal manager. It happened
with Radonna.

Speaker 1 (34:02):
If you remember the girl that found for Wendy Stalin.
Do you know Wendy So, Wendy and I've become close
actually through Instagram. Wendy came in the studio and she
got nothing in that lawsuit as far as I'm concerned.
And Lady Gaga said, she's the one that found me.
There's a lot of bad.

Speaker 2 (34:22):
It's just very hard to break down the you can't
have ownership of a human being in success as many
fathers right so so, and there's only a few managers
that actually make the money. And just for me, I'd
rather told you it's it's Jimmy Ivian's philosophy. He created
Beasts by Dre and sold it. I like the fact

(34:43):
that we you know, were involved in Poppy and a
lot of other investments over the years. Poppy was a
big one for all of us that got in very
very early. We believe, just like you believe in a
hit song or hit artists, we believe in We believe
that this soda could help change the game for people
that liked the feel and taste of soda five grams
of sugar versus you know, forty grams. Right, Just think
about that and all natural and better for your gut

(35:04):
as well. And then from there, I'm like, well, how
do we help solve this artist problem? There's not enough
artist breaking. How do we think about creating It's not
American Idol, It's not the Voice. No one from the
Voice has ever become a big star. By the way,
let me say it again, No one the Voice. The
stars of the Voice of the Girls and boys in
the chairs, the celebrities are the stars of that show.

Speaker 1 (35:23):
Correct.

Speaker 2 (35:23):
No star has come out and played arenas off that
show and the.

Speaker 1 (35:28):
History of it.

Speaker 2 (35:28):
No, not one, not one. And American Idol has hasn't
produced stars since what Kelly Clarkson, I mean, I really
think about it, right, So so I said, well, how
do we It's TV show, and they're still selling the
dream and it's it's fine. It's just it's not. It doesn't.
It doesn't. It doesn't make someone famous anymore. People watch

(35:49):
the show for the thrill of victory and the agony
of defeat. But today we created a platform we found
an amazing co founder called The Beam, which I invested
a lot of money into, and it's an emerging artist
competition platform where an artist has to apply. They have
to have X amount of followers and Spotify monthly listeners.

(36:10):
Not anyone can get in it. And once they're in it,
they get to compete over four seasons a year. So
there's four competitions a year across six genres. We just
launched this. People are going crazy for it. I think
it's pretty much what a modern, transparent, non casting direction
platform would be for the breaking of emerging artists. And

(36:32):
so that's what I'm going to do in music. Right.
So I could say to you, and this is something
Simon Cobble taught me years ago. He said, Charlie, I
have no idea who's going to be number one this Christmas,
but I know I'll have them right. What he was
saying was he owned the platform I'd rather own the
platform that could help the best talent in the world

(36:53):
rise to the top. Yeah, and I know I'll have
them and I'll help celebrate them. We'll put them up
on billboards and Times Square, and they can go sign
the majors too. We don't take their rights, we don't
take their name and likeness. We don't care if they're
signed or not to a major label, so there's no friction.
We just care that they're in our platform. We get
a membership fee, we have brands involved, and that's how

(37:14):
we make our money. We create value that way. That's
how I'd rather be in the music business and have
that become a billion dollar platform that will sell in
three years. Does that make sense? That's my opinion, And
that's being older. That's like me being an older.

Speaker 1 (37:28):
But do you have you have young kids doing this
platform for you building up the whole.

Speaker 2 (37:32):
We have we have like a very seasoned data driven
executive who came from Illuminate, which powers the music industry's
data for the Billboard charts. So we have the best
people running. I'm not running it. Uh. You know. We
had the idea, we put it together, we invest, and
we root for them and surround them with great people.
And so that's how I that's how I think about.

Speaker 1 (37:52):
How these kids just building these platforms out and I
don't know, you subscribe to watch a Bird and literally
the guys making two hundred thousand dollars a year showing birds,
right like that's it. No, No, these are people that
have podcast things right like literally there's well.

Speaker 2 (38:09):
You know what we used to say, Great can happen
at any time. So if you have a platform, you're
gonna see things rise on chatter. You're gonna say. I
just say.

Speaker 1 (38:16):
If you're gonna have a platform, or you're gonna be
a host or a podcast, you need to be a
character period. If you don't have, if you're not a character,
then just stop out.

Speaker 2 (38:26):
Well, artists one listen to artists one places ago at
the Beam. If you go to the Beam dot com,
Beam dot com, you're gonna see gorgeous interface, You're gonna
see charts. You're gonna see powered by Poppy and it's sexy.
And guess what, if you're really good, you're gonna be
in a chart that you can share and show your
friends and show off. I'm on this chart. I'm number one,
going to eight. Well, you can't really do that at

(38:47):
Billboard because it's really controlled by all the major labels,
and so that's important to us, Like how do you
identify new talent, have them compete with their super fans voting,
and have them rise to the top. And when we
have someone that breaks globally, it really does validate validate
the platform.

Speaker 1 (39:03):
Right. Are you're excited about this?

Speaker 2 (39:05):
Yeah, I'm excited about a lot of things, but I'm
super excited about that. If we're talking about how I
want to be in the business of music for emerging artists.

Speaker 1 (39:14):
So no retirement in your future anytime soon.

Speaker 2 (39:17):
No, No, I've got so I have more energy than
I've ever had before in my life. It's crazy town.

Speaker 1 (39:22):
He's a true virgo. Oh god, that's right. Child's a
virgo too.

Speaker 2 (39:26):
Oh yeah, I'm all right.

Speaker 1 (39:28):
Every hold that thought. We're going to break. Okay, you're
listening to Toughest Nails on WBZ. We'll be right back
and welcome back to Ton't Nails on WBZ News Radio ten thirty.
I'm here with Sammy and Childie. Kelly walk is banging
out in the studio right.

Speaker 2 (39:41):
Now, so I can spend hours here.

Speaker 1 (39:43):
Guys, Kim, you got to go to Miami. You're flying
out to Miami. You're back here, you have a home anymore?

Speaker 2 (39:48):
Like Eva, I'm in New York because I have a
daughter at senior in high school.

Speaker 1 (39:51):
Oh that's right, Okay, but you're back in two weeks,
so it's like you're mini me. She is, Okay, So
I need to come in here and bring us up
to speed on everything. Okay. So I will see you
back in my studio in a couple of weeks.

Speaker 2 (40:03):
I look forward to it, and I want to go
deeper into the conversation so your audience can really think
about how to live a better life. And that's what
I've learned. And we call it culturally in art's not
just music, it's sort of things that you love. Why
do you buy things? Why do you what's your work?
All that stuff we're going to get into and maybe
you get to look like me. I'm kidding, it's going
to be a lot of fun.

Speaker 1 (40:23):
I want to look like me. Everybody, have a great,
safe weekend. This is Cindy Stump and we'll see you
next weekend on WBZ.