Michael Buble

It's a double dose of Canadian crooners this week on 'Our Way,' with Paul and Skip welcoming Michael Buble to the mic! Together they luxuriate in all things Rat Pack, as Michael shows off his best impressions of Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra, Skip discusses what it's like living with Ella Fitzgerald's ghost, and Paul regales the group with tales from his time hanging in Vegas steam rooms with Ol' Blue Eyes and Co. Michael takes it back to his early days, explaining how his grandfather instilled in him a love of music, and how Paul proved a crucial early mentor. He also opens up about how his son's health scare recalibrated his life and made him embrace his reputation as "The King of Christmas." With two high profile Canadians in the room, talk naturally turned to two of Canada's greatest exports — hockey and Drake — as well as Paul's recent run as a viral TikTok star. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Our Way with yours truly Paul Anka and My buddy
Skip Bronson, is a production of iHeartRadio. Hi, folks, this is.

Speaker 2 (00:14):
Paul Anka and my name is Skip Bronson. We've been
friends for decades and we've decided to let you in
on our late night phone calls by starting a new podcast.

Speaker 1 (00:22):
And welcome to Our Way. We'd like you to meet
some real good friends of.

Speaker 2 (00:27):
Books, your leaders in entertainment and.

Speaker 1 (00:29):
Sports, innovators in business and technology, and even a sitting
president or two.

Speaker 2 (00:35):
Join us as we ask the questions they've not been
asked before, Tell it like it is, and even sing
a song or two.

Speaker 1 (00:42):
This is our podcast and we'll be doing it our way.

Speaker 2 (01:26):
Hey, skip it? Hey, what's going on?

Speaker 1 (01:29):
How you do buddy?

Speaker 3 (01:30):
We got Bublet coming up.

Speaker 4 (01:31):
We got to talk about what we're gonna you know,
what we're gonna say to him?

Speaker 3 (01:34):
What?

Speaker 5 (01:34):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (01:37):
Yeah?

Speaker 4 (01:37):
I want to ask him, like, you know, young people
they go into rock and roll, why would he want
to get into like the great American songbooks, I mean,
instead of rock and roll, which would be pretty much
a natural right.

Speaker 5 (01:51):
Did you see him on television the other night when
he did the Barry Gets.

Speaker 4 (01:55):
And did at the Kennedy Center Honors that we had
an assassic. Yeah, he's saying, how can you mend a
broken Yeah?

Speaker 3 (02:00):
Yeah, And they kept panning.

Speaker 4 (02:03):
Over to Barry Gibb, and Barry Gibb literally had tears
in his eyes, and the audience.

Speaker 2 (02:08):
Was I was.

Speaker 3 (02:09):
They looked like they were stunned.

Speaker 2 (02:10):
I mean, he just totally nailed it.

Speaker 5 (02:13):
Yeah, he's good. His grandpa and his father weaned him
on it. Because when I first met him and got
involved with him and was part of the first album,
et cetera, et cetera, I knew right away that this
kid was going to take a piece of that end
of the music business. And he had doors, the rat
pack and all that stuff. We talked for days. When
we hung out, it was at my home, and you

(02:34):
know he lived he he was.

Speaker 1 (02:36):
It was an Elephantzgerald's house.

Speaker 3 (02:39):
Yeah, I live in Elphant. I live in That's that's
your house.

Speaker 2 (02:42):
Right Yeah yeah, yeah.

Speaker 5 (02:43):
Because he loves el Fitzgerald. So you got to hit
him up on that.

Speaker 3 (02:46):
I know.

Speaker 4 (02:47):
It's amazing because you talk to a lot of these
top singers and you asked what made Ellen's so great,
and they say she hit the center of every note.

Speaker 3 (02:56):
And she was really something.

Speaker 1 (02:58):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (02:59):
The board.

Speaker 4 (03:00):
By the way, when you're talking about the rat pack,
I mean the fact that you were in the steam
room with Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and those guys. I
mean you got to talk about that because you.

Speaker 1 (03:10):
Left one let you left one word out.

Speaker 5 (03:12):
Honey, I was in the steam room and they were nude,
talk about having trouble with eye contact, right, and they
were twice my age. And I'm walking into these guys
I idolized and they're sitting there new. I mean, I
could tell you who won the hung department.

Speaker 6 (03:33):
That would be very very cool.

Speaker 4 (03:35):
Yeah, and you told me he's in the bourbon business,
and you know, as you know, I have a bourbon business.

Speaker 3 (03:39):
Yes, guys, so I.

Speaker 1 (03:41):
Want to go about that.

Speaker 4 (03:42):
Yeah, I want to hear how he got into the business,
how they're doing, you know whatever.

Speaker 2 (03:46):
So that'd be that'll be funn.

Speaker 5 (03:47):
Yeah, because I introduced to to Larry Ruvo, who who
put him in that scene, and he's very excited about it.
But yeah, you're so successful with yours, So you guys
have to rap about that. But you you, I'll bring
it up and then you can go it. Okay, Okay, Yeah,
that'd be perfect, perfect because he's cool, he's a real
nice guy, easy to talk to, and he'll love him.
He's been a good family man. He's a good good

(04:09):
family and he's.

Speaker 1 (04:10):
Got a great family.

Speaker 3 (04:12):
And he loves he loves hockey. I mean, there's so
many areas. I mean this guy, he's.

Speaker 2 (04:17):
Not a one trick pony.

Speaker 3 (04:18):
I mean there's so many things you know that he
does that we.

Speaker 5 (04:20):
Can Yeah, and you know, I know him right from
the beginning. I think the second month in when he
was still scuffling and recording, I loaned him five thousand
dollars for rent and he just paid me back the
last installment two weeks ago.

Speaker 2 (04:34):
Wow, that's amazing after ten years.

Speaker 1 (04:38):
All right, man, all right, so looking forward to it.
I think we're on for tomorrow afternoon. I've got the
notes we talked about, great and we'll we'll hit him
up on that.

Speaker 5 (04:47):
See what's going on in his life.

Speaker 2 (04:49):
You've done all right?

Speaker 5 (04:49):
Love you love your sleepwarm, sleepwarm shout che By the way, right,
how are you?

Speaker 3 (04:59):
Jordan? Who's here with us? We got Jordan and Skip.

Speaker 1 (05:02):
Richard, Skip Bronson sale over, my buddy Booblay and my
buddy Skip and you got Jordan, and you know me.
You've had me for how many years?

Speaker 2 (05:11):
Now?

Speaker 1 (05:11):
Can you believe we've known each other since so far?

Speaker 3 (05:14):
Twenty over twenty one years?

Speaker 2 (05:15):
Dude?

Speaker 1 (05:15):
Can you imagine? You know my claim to fame with him?
I loved him so much. He needed rent money? Remember that?
Oh yeah, and I gave him five gunny.

Speaker 3 (05:23):
He just paid me off. I forgot that last week, Jay, God,
so much happened, Paul, you did that time? I got
a scary time, buddy.

Speaker 1 (05:32):
We used to play hockey.

Speaker 3 (05:33):
And I remember five grand because I made a deposit
to stay on West Hollywood, this apartment in West Hollywood.
And you know what's even crazier. I didn't have a bed.
I didn't have a bed bed, No, sir, I did not.
I would.

Speaker 1 (05:48):
I started unting around. I know you were laying on
one of them.

Speaker 3 (05:51):
They all loved you. I thought I went to like
Costco or something, and I bought a I bought this
this blue blow up mattress kind of thing. Yeah, it
was horrible, but you know what, he horrible, But the
pant of time, it was like but even then, it
was like, Wow, I'm in Hollywood. You know I'm doing this?

Speaker 1 (06:14):
He were he was so let me tell you something.
Along with his talent, he was so humble and open
to this world that he had walked into. And I
was so in love with this guy because you know,
it wasn't easy. You know, it wasn't easy for him
or me started that young. But Michael was in there
and we did everything. Hey, Michael was telling the story

(06:36):
about when we were looking for money to do the
album and I got the guy that made boxes, remember
the guy in Australia, And I got five hundred thousand
to make the album because he believed like Foster and
I believed. And then things just went from there into Warners.
I've never spoken to the guy since. I think he
would like to put me in one of his boxes

(06:58):
and buried me.

Speaker 3 (07:00):
Yeah, because that because that was the deal went away.
You know, funny, we've never talked about it. Why are we?
Why have we had it? How it went away.

Speaker 1 (07:08):
Because we went to Warners we had no money.

Speaker 3 (07:13):
But that's not what happened.

Speaker 1 (07:14):
Oh what happened?

Speaker 3 (07:15):
I know because you're because you're busy and you're living
a life where you're you're, you're, you're doing a million
different things. Yeah, so what happened is we I had
the money. What I did was I went bank to
bank with Bath at the time, and Bev got this
this sweet Indian guy came up with the money and
came to Foster, and because Foster didn't want to do it,
he he was. He just kept saying, I'm never going

(07:38):
to produce you. I'm never going to sign you to
the label. He's over and over again he kept saying it. So, uh,
finally I said, okay, well, you know, we kept driving
him nuts. Bav kept saying, well, what does it take,
come on, what does it take?

Speaker 1 (07:50):
Give us?

Speaker 3 (07:50):
So what is the thing?

Speaker 2 (07:51):
You know?

Speaker 3 (07:52):
And he said and finally he got pissed off. He said, oh,
you know what, it takes a grand a song? Okay,
six songs, and he says, and I'll do the demos,
but then Warner would get right of her first ride
refusal or something like that. And what he didn't expect
was that Bev and I would go to Vancouver and
find the money and we got a guy to invest.
So he came and we showed up to Malibu. Remember

(08:14):
David's that place in Malibu. We had the upstairs with
all the this piano with all the anyway, and I says,
here's the money. We got the money. And he said, oh,
now he's in Troup. Now he's got Now he's now
he's got to do it, you know. So he goes, okay,
so we'll do this. And then we went to Vegas
and I was opening for Jay Leno, and I remember

(08:35):
that I got that night. I had had quite a
few drinks and I was quite late, and he said
to me, you're gonna come and I want you to
come to my villa tomorrow morning because I'm I got
Paul Ank, you know, like I like you to meet him.
Holy shit, Paul Ank? Are you kidding me? Are you kidding?
And I was loaded, okay, Pall. I'd spend all night
drinking hard, and I'd hang out to blackjack tables, you know.

(08:59):
And I was so nervous. And so we came into
the the his villa and you were wearing a house coat,
and he walked in, and I remember you were very
sweet with me, you know, very warm, always very warm
with me. And uh David went to the concierge guy
or or whatever it's called, the butler though the villa butler,

(09:20):
and said, bring in a piano and they rolled in
a piano and he sat down at the piano and
he said, what should we do?

Speaker 1 (09:26):
And you said, well, how about my way?

Speaker 3 (09:29):
And so he sat down and as usual, the guy
the greatest goddamn piano player in the world.

Speaker 1 (09:33):
And you didn't know, how do.

Speaker 3 (09:34):
I play this?

Speaker 1 (09:35):
How what is this?

Speaker 3 (09:37):
And uh? And I went and no end isn't here,
and I sang, and you stopped me and you said, okay,
that's enough.

Speaker 1 (09:51):
I'm in.

Speaker 3 (09:51):
He said, I'm in, I'm in. What do you need?
And David said, we need about one some eight hundred
grand were one point two million to make this thing?
And I remember bab Delis at the time just bawling,
uncontrollably crying, you know, and this this kid, you know,
that worked so long and so hard that this was

(10:12):
the moment that it was going to happen. So then
I moved down to La You put me up on
the place in Westwood there.

Speaker 2 (10:19):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (10:19):
We made four or five songs and we're a couple
of weeks in and this drummer, you know, the drummer
I used to answer the phone at the studio and
I go, chart maker, Michael, here, how can I help you?
And he says, hey, hey, Mike, you know I played
drums on the on that demo.

Speaker 1 (10:37):
I said, oh yeah.

Speaker 3 (10:37):
He said, listen, I'm just wondering, where's the where's the money?
You know? He says, I don't want to break balls,
but my check never came. And I said, oh, that's
that's impossible. So I went into the other side. Remember
we had the two studios, the elephant kind of studios.
And I went into the other side and I said, David,

(10:59):
I said, uh, what's happening. He's I just got a
call saying that the money didn't come through for hit
their drummer, you know. And he said to me, and
then he had a used to remember he had that
little machine he used to when he was mixing. He
would touch tap the buttons right right right, yeah, I
can't remember. It was this weird thing he had like
invented where he would get a little box splice the

(11:19):
you know, splice the takes together. And I remember that
he put his pencil in his mouth and he put
his glasses down and he said, hey, the deal felt
And I said what And he said, Mike, man, this
isn't going to happen with me. And he said and
I'm really sorry because I know that you know how

(11:41):
excited you were. He said, listen, it's going to happen
for you, it's just not going to be with me.
And dude, my whole world, Paul. I mean, I was there, Paul,
I had it, I had it all it was, you know,
and my whole world crashed and I I died, and uh,
I remember I didn't BEV was gone, she had the

(12:03):
car and.

Speaker 1 (12:03):
She'd taken off.

Speaker 3 (12:04):
And Alberto Gettica was this producer that we were working with, engineer,
and he said, I'll drive you home to Westwood and
I said okay. So he drove me home and he
parked beside the building. He didn't go in the driveway,
and then he looked at me and he said, listen,

(12:24):
David Foster doesn't like confrontation. He doesn't like it at all.
It makes them uncomfortable. He said, well, what are you
doing here? It's special and unique and great, and he said,
you need to make David Foster feel uncomfortable. You need
to confront him. And here's what you need to say.
And Paul, when I tell you, Alberto Getica word for

(12:49):
word went through exactly what I would say to Foster
h And about three days later, four days later, Kenny
G and his wife were having an anniversary party and
I had been there, you know, Todave David used to
have me sing it all those things, and I said, David,
can I speak with you in the other room? You know?
He said okay, yeah, yeah, And I just regurgitated every

(13:12):
single thing that Domberto said, and I, you know, looking
dead into his eye. And I was very confrontational. And
it worked because about two days later he called me
and he says, let's see where a twenty six year
old kid knows about the record business. And we went
to go to Warner, to that old studio in Burbank,
that studio the remember, the big Warner, the big Win

(13:33):
and H. David was even nervous. And we walked in
the room with Tom Wally, who was the president at
the time. Tom sat down. Tom sits down and he says,
first thing, why should we sign you to reprise? He says,
we have Sinatra? And I said, with all due respect,
mister Wally, Sinatra was gone, he's dead. I said, give

(13:53):
me a chance, give me a chance to keep this
music alive, and I will work harder than any artist
has ever worked for you, and I can do it right,
you know, I genuinely I love it. I live it,
and you give me a chance, I'll show you that.
And we walked out of the office that day and
I said to David, Hey Foster, I said, you know,
thank you, thank you. I said, for you know, putting

(14:16):
your balls on the line there. And I said, what
do you think? And he had no idea. Paul, he
looked at me and he said yeah. He said, Mike,
you did a great job. You know what I had
promised him. Paul to David was I said, if you
let me go into the president, you get me into
that meeting. And he tells me to get lost. I said,
I'll never ever bother you again because I was driving

(14:36):
on nuts. And they signed me. And you know, Paul,
thank god you came, you stayed, you were the executive producer.
You helped me pick up. Here's the thing, so and
it all sort of come together. What's what's interesting for
me to tell people this story, which is so strange,
is that you know, this was Paul anka International superstar

(15:00):
and there he was where he would we put two
rocks against the doors as a goal and Paul would
have a tennis racket, and Paul was the goalie from Ottawa,
you know, and I would have my tennis ball and
my hockey stick and we'd be we'd be doing takes.
I'd be singing, put your head on my shoulder, you know,

(15:23):
and then coming out in the break so that we
and he was and I don't know if you know
this story, Paul, but you were so sort of humble,
so that my parents and grandparents came to visit the
studio one day and Paul, you were in a black
cap with just a T shirt, you know, real casual

(15:46):
track pants or something, and you were, you know, you
were standing outside there was it used to be this
little outside the studio. There was these little kind of
little call them flower pots, little terrace. My mom thought
you were the gardener for the longest time she did.

Speaker 1 (16:01):
That was my prior.

Speaker 3 (16:02):
And then and then the gardener, the gardener came out
and said, Hi, good to meet you. I'm paul An.
It's a real pleasure to me. She said, Holy ship,
the gardener is Paul Anka.

Speaker 7 (16:13):
That's true.

Speaker 1 (16:14):
We had.

Speaker 3 (16:16):
Remember we had so much fun that he was making
moves and go to those restaurants.

Speaker 1 (16:21):
He knows what he's doing with a stick. Let me
tell you something. He loves his hockey and Skip's got
some hockey stuff, but Michael knows his way around Skip
that hockey. He loves it to this day when we converse.
I mean, he'll tell you he's like, he's like the
voice for the Vancouver team. He's got one guy.

Speaker 3 (16:43):
I love that team, man, and we just we're a
you know what, Paul just doing this. I was just
talking to those hockey guys on there on their show,
and I know you know this, but I kept saying
to them, there's a lot that we share in common
with those athletes. There's a ton there really is high
pressure job. Yeah, it's it's a high pressure job where

(17:04):
performance means everything.

Speaker 1 (17:06):
People watching you, people watching your performance, ego, fear insecurity,
ask around you, people you can't trust, it's all there.
And then it's money.

Speaker 3 (17:17):
Money, It's all there, man.

Speaker 1 (17:19):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (17:20):
And by the way, most people have a pretty short window,
like there's there's very few people that you know, are
Paul Ancas where you were in what how many how
many years?

Speaker 1 (17:30):
Is there baseball my eighth decade.

Speaker 3 (17:32):
That's that's it's not normal. I mean talk about not
normal to be around here.

Speaker 1 (17:36):
Still you you you got a long journey ahead of you,
and you've already come out this farest and so five.
I just want to know what whiskey other than your own?
What are you drinking today?

Speaker 3 (17:47):
I mean that you're talking about other whiskeys?

Speaker 1 (17:49):
Yeah, I mean are you true to your own? Yes?
But I mean back then, you you're hitting about two
or three. I mean you loved your boots.

Speaker 3 (17:58):
Yeah. I mean I'm going to be really honest with you.
I enjoy my own whiskey too much. It's a problem.
I'm gonna say.

Speaker 1 (18:07):
We were selling out there. Man. You can't selling out
in Canada, right.

Speaker 3 (18:12):
I went. I took my family to their Christmas party.
We went to a restaurant called Orange the other night.
Yeah okay, And I was gonna go nice and quick,
We'll have nice dinner, bring the kids. And my sister
Brandy said to me, what she said, you're gonna what
are you gonna do? She says, you never hang with
us have a drink? I says, really, Brandy, I'm good tonight.

(18:33):
You know I don't want to. She said, have one
with us? And I had one. I poured an effort,
actually it's not true. I had an f and t
old fashioned. Okay, I made a nice little old fashion
had just tasted. It just went down too smooth and
too fast, and then the next one too, and the
next one after that ended. At about three point thirty

(18:56):
in the morning, I found myself outside saying to my
brother in law, Yu, maybe I should get a new
burg home. And I felt so ill, Paul that I
watched football all day yesterday. Thank God, my wife loves
me and she has mercy on me, because I felt

(19:16):
I did the thing. You've done the thing a million times,
me and the shower saying what was he doing? Why
did you do that?

Speaker 1 (19:22):
But I remember I was there with you on a
few of those. You know, Skipson is in the booze business.
You know that?

Speaker 3 (19:31):
Oh no way, yeah, tell me about it.

Speaker 2 (19:33):
You've It came about sort of a different kind of way.
A group of us bought a golf course in uh Chattanooga,
Tennessee called Sweeten's Cove. And there was always a tradition
at this golf course, Michael where he took a shot
before you teeed off. So we decided, why don't we
create our own brand. So we created a whist of

(19:54):
bourbon called Sweeten's called Bourbon. My partners are the the
Manning brothers, Peyton Manning, Eli and Cooper Manning, Andy Roddick,
the last American winner of the US Open tennis tournament,
Jim Nance that you watch a lot of football, Jim Nance.
And those are all my partners. And we have a

(20:15):
very very successful Bourbon who was rated the highest ranked
new bourbon when it first came out two years ago.
We had a premium super premium two hundred dollars bottle version,
and then we came out with a more popular price
still high price, fifty dollars a bottle called Tennessee because

(20:35):
of course the barrels come from Kentucky, but we distill
it in Tennessee. What Tennessee Distillery, the same distillery that
does Bob Dylan's Kevin's Door and you know, and also
White labels all the whiskey for Costco. So yeah, it's

(20:55):
been it's been a lot of fun. We've done really
well with it. It's still you know, it's still in
its infancy, but you know, it doesn't sell the way
to kill itselves. But it's done very very well.

Speaker 3 (21:07):
I've learned to be patient. It's a business where you
have That's what it is. It's interesting, you know. I
named my son, my second son, after one of those
Manning brothers. I named him after Eleas Patterson and Eli Manning,
and my wife I really loved I always loved the name.
I really liked Manning a lot. I just thought he
had a great personality. I thought he had a great
playing career. And Eleas Patterson when we drafted him, I

(21:28):
already knew, I mean, at least I thought he was
going to be a great hockey player. And so I
named my son. And it's funny because my wife. I
kept saying to my wife, you know, I really like Elias,
you know, or Elias.

Speaker 1 (21:40):
I do you want to call Elias?

Speaker 3 (21:41):
And she kept saying Elijah. I like Elijah. And it's
one of the few times that I ever really sort
of stuck to my guns and thought, can I please
have this one? Can I have Elias? So it's it's interesting,
you know. The whiskey thing for me was it was
it just came out of nowhere. It was about me
and my wife. We had we had bought, we'd become

(22:03):
a part owner of this little this really wonderful boutique
distillery in Montreal called Circa and and we just did
it because we thought it'll be fun. You know what
a cool thing for a husband and wife to do.

Speaker 1 (22:19):
Is in a partnership.

Speaker 3 (22:20):
And and then I I, you know, as you know,
Paul Larry Ruvel.

Speaker 1 (22:26):
Uh, he's a friend was the reason.

Speaker 3 (22:28):
Yeah, he's what and what a beautiful dude. And he
said to me because we called him and said, you know,
any advice, like, we don't know what we're doing, and
you know, we don't expect you know, we just you know, what,
what do you do with this little boutique, this wonderful thing.
And and he's the one who said, I think you
go and talk to Shelley Stein in New York. And
Shelley was the head of West Brands and UH, and

(22:52):
we became partners and UH and then heaven Hill for
the first time in over one hundred years the family
is the first time they've ever worked ever an outside Brandon.
They started to help help us make a whiskey from
Kentucky and and and partly from this distillery in UH
in Montreal, and so very quickly I started to see

(23:14):
that it was becoming what it was becoming even though
it never you know, it didn't start that way. But
at this point it's been a lot of fun. Skip,
it's been a lot of fun and having so much
fun man. And you know what doing the going out
and meeting you know, I like people, so it's an
easy thing for me to go and meet meet the buyers,

(23:37):
you know what I mean, meet you know, meet der
bar owners, meet restaurant tours. Because I like it. Man,
I doant to have a drink with everybody, and I
you know, it's easy.

Speaker 1 (23:55):
I'm happy I yan killed you to Larry because I
knew he'd be big in your life and Larry would
be there.

Speaker 3 (24:01):
For well Larry. Now Larry owns part of the company.
He's with me there.

Speaker 1 (24:04):
And when I introduced you to him, I said, this
is these are two guys that should know each other.

Speaker 3 (24:09):
He's a great guy, do you know, I think the
great Do you remember Paul the story of us too, when.

Speaker 1 (24:13):
You did the when I you did his charity.

Speaker 3 (24:16):
Yeah, yep, very much. Sure for the charity.

Speaker 1 (24:19):
Well, I'll tell you at the end of the story
because Michael won't. Because I said, Michael, you've got to
really meet this guy. And I think Michael's manager, Bruce
was moving to Vegas. The short of it is, he
hires Michael to do his amazing Alzheimer charity every year.
I mean, he's so dedicated to it. Anyway, Michael shows up,

(24:40):
hits the home run that he always does, and at
the end of it, Michael Boublay gave him back the
check that he had given him. He gave Rubo back
the check for his charity. That's my boy, man, It was,
it was. It was really moving, man.

Speaker 3 (24:55):
And to see how it affected his family and you
know how karma, how crazy is karma?

Speaker 1 (25:00):
Where I don't address believe.

Speaker 3 (25:03):
Me, but dude, who knew that years after that, not
long after that, my grandmother would be diagnosed with dementia
and it would literally change the whole I mean, it
would just change our family completely, the whole dynamic of
our family. And you know, I just I watched my mom.

(25:31):
My mom is a great my mom is a great daughter,
and I watched my mother give up ten years of
her life in dedication to her mom, and it just
you know, and it made me even happier that I
had had that relationship with Larry, because he's got an
incredible foundation he's got one of the biggest you know,
he's got.

Speaker 1 (25:52):
That center in Vegas, which is just unbelievable.

Speaker 3 (25:55):
And as a matter of fact, you know, Paul, I
just did a movie.

Speaker 1 (26:00):
I just did the Uh.

Speaker 3 (26:01):
Yeah, I just did a movie about Alzheimer's. I was
I was the.

Speaker 1 (26:07):
Commission I will a documentary or commission.

Speaker 3 (26:09):
Yeah it's yeah, it's a documentary and I'm the I'm
the uh a narrator and uh it's it's about And
it's funny because I called Larry and and uh and
before I did it, before I did the film, I said, says,
I want to know if I'm helping, you know, I
want to know if what we're talking about here is

(26:29):
on the up and up.

Speaker 1 (26:31):
And I know it's controversial.

Speaker 3 (26:33):
And I want to make sure that that it's okay
with you and uh and and other doctors in Bolts
and basically Paul. The film it's called Memories for Life,
And what they're saying is that there are other ways
because pills, I mean, it's a death sentence, right. You
get you get that, you know, diagnosis, it's over for you.
It's just a matter of time. But there's a doctor

(26:57):
who has discovered that through intense dietary change is an exercise.
Not only can you slow down the effects of dementia
and Alzheimer's on the brain, but you can reverse it.
You know, we're not stuck.

Speaker 1 (27:12):
No, you know, there's a lot of events.

Speaker 3 (27:14):
So yeah, there's a lot of the batsment. So I
just I loved it. It's so funny how life happens though,
Like that, isn't it.

Speaker 2 (27:19):
Yeah, where you talk about those connections, Michael, You know,
Larry of course is affiliate. His charity is affiliated with
Cleveland Clinic. And yes, my mother in the late nineteen
sixties was the first woman in America to have heart
bypass surgery. It was done at the Cleveland Clinic. They

(27:40):
had done two men, and then my mother was the
first female to ever have heart bypass surgery. It was
done at the Cleveland Clinic on Euclid Avenue in Cleveland.
When I met Larry and started talking to Larry about
Cleveland Clinic. You know, Paul and I always talk about
the six degrees of separation. It's rather remarkable. But just

(28:01):
on a lighter note, not talking about illness. The house
that I live in, Eli Fitzgerald lived in the house
that I live in. She lived in the house twenty
five years, and I've lived in it twenty three years.
So your friend in Paul's friend, my friend Quincy Jones.
The day we first bought the house twenty three years ago,
he came over to the house and he walked in

(28:22):
the front door, and he paused just inside the door,
and he looked up and he said, Ella, I feel you.
And he said, you know, Skip, she wanted to die
in this house because she had diabetes. She was at
Cedar's son in a hospital and they unfortunately had an amputator leg.
But she came home to the house. So Quincy looked

(28:44):
at me and said, she died in near bed. Man,
she died in near bed. I say, Quincy, she may
have died in my bedroom, but I promised I brought
my own bed when I bought the house. Quincy, he
was such a character. He always whenever he's been to
the house, he always walks in, does the same thing
at the front, stops past cut I can feel your baby.

Speaker 3 (29:06):
When I'm asked as a vocalist, who's you know, who's
the who are the greatest singers of all? I always say,
and it's the true, The greatest in my opinion, the
greatest singer who ever lived, and I mean ever ever lived,
in my opinion, was Alant. There has been no one
with control, tone, action. She is a machine. I couldn't

(29:28):
even understand how she could do what she could do.
And Paul, when you when you get asked, what do
you say?

Speaker 1 (29:33):
Well, el Ella, certainly. And Louis Armstrong I loved you know,
people aren't aware of how good forget the trumpet. I mean,
here's a kid that was get out of jail, lived
with another family, and he worked his way. But as
a vocalist, I loved Louis Armstrong. Dean Martin is underrated.

(29:55):
He's a good thing, without question. And and you and
I know, because you know all those days we spent,
I gave you all those the Sinatra arrangements that you
in fact, you know the one that work clicked in
for me with Michael digressing a little. He came on
stage with me at the Mirage and we sang I've
got you under my skin to the Nelson riddled arrangement.

(30:19):
Now here's a young guy which I could identify because
I was what sixteen, He got up there and kicked
the shit out of that song when we sang it,
and I knew there and then, against all odds of
what was going on in the music business, that this
guy needed his name and persona in the spotlight. And

(30:40):
that was and I gave you but three or four
of those Sinatra arrangements. Remember what you put.

Speaker 3 (30:45):
On the Oh yeah, but for me, those arrangements are
just unreal.

Speaker 1 (30:49):
Yeah, they're the best and Sinatra for you and I,
we've spoken about it stylistically owning the lyric as he did.
I think you and I agreed that he he was
the guy.

Speaker 3 (31:01):
You know, he's a beast ball He's a beast. Yeah, honestly,
he's a beast. It's like talking about a baseball player. Yeah,
you know when the baseball player. You can have talent, okay, talent,
but the physicality, the way that that instrument was built,
he was a beast. Ah.

Speaker 1 (31:19):
Yeah, you know it is. It's like what you've got.
When people say to me that voice, that voice, I say,
it's genetic, genetic. The tone in his voice where people
have tone. He had that genetic magic that anyone that
stood in front of a band came second. He ruined
it for all singers all through the years. You couldn't

(31:41):
get in front of a band because he owned and
with Frank, if you heard the first five seconds of anything,
he owned you and you knew who it was. Yeah,
you do.

Speaker 3 (31:53):
It's interesting because I've spent so many years Paul trying
to deconstruct voices. Yeah, yours included you know, the stylistically,
what what does Alla?

Speaker 2 (32:03):
What?

Speaker 1 (32:03):
How?

Speaker 3 (32:03):
What makes Frank gray? What makes Dean great? The way
Dean drops us up a glottis and everything is, Oh,
he has that thing.

Speaker 1 (32:12):
He does a little love.

Speaker 3 (32:15):
Body lovesal.

Speaker 1 (32:20):
I love you, you will to do it? You hop
me up to do it.

Speaker 3 (32:27):
And the other night I was in the car and
I was listening to the song in one of the
radio stations, one of three point five was on and
they had Sinatra. I said to my wife, I said, listen, Lou,
And I started to notice something that I'd never noticed before.
No vibrato, No vibrato until the last, the end of
maybe the fourth phrase. So many singers that you hear

(32:49):
would say, Oh the weather outside is frightful, but the
fire is so delightful. The vibrato you hear, that's the
shake of the voice. And I noticed that he was going, oh,
the weather outside his fight. Oh but all straight, yeah,

(33:11):
but the fire m they're light full and since we
have no place too smooth, all smooth zero zero, and
it's almost talking.

Speaker 1 (33:22):
It's like he was talking.

Speaker 3 (33:23):
Yeah, and yet somehow tonally.

Speaker 1 (33:27):
Oh, some of Michael, someone have verbrados you could walk through.
I'm not going to name any names because I have
respect for our fellow artists, but you know the ones
that are very apparent. And this guy, when he would
would shud a song, he'd go with Jimmy van Heusen
because I was in that circle, and he and Jimmy
would go down to Palm Springs and they would would

(33:47):
shed every song, every approach and they'd sit in Palm
Springs and he would rehearse. You know, I've got access
to the my Way track. You know he did it
in one take and when you listen to his isolated vocal,
it's amazing. I'll play it for you one day, Michael,
Paul I have.

Speaker 3 (34:05):
I have sat and tried in every recording over twenty
years to emulate the to emulate the feeling I get. Yeah,
when listening to those old records. By the way, Paul,
you it's not the same either. Your some of your records, okay,
your older records. Yeah, I'm saying when you were you know,
a kid, a kid. Yeah, terrible Yeah, well but no

(34:26):
they're not terrible. Squeaky voice. Yeah, but I'm just saying
that the mix, the mix, the arrangements, the sound that
you got in the studio, which I know you're standing
in the middle of that goddamn room. It's not you
didn't do this. And then the drummer did a separated track,
and then they put Paul ank in and Paul sang

(34:48):
forty times and they kicked it to get it together.
I have tried for twenty years, in every which way
with every producer. I still haven't figured it out. Okay,
I do my best. I put all room, I do
room mics. Yeah, I go and I put a mic
in the middle so I can the sound doesn't bleed
too much. But it never sounds like they sounded. It

(35:09):
just doesn't.

Speaker 1 (35:10):
We would stand in the middle of the room, we
rehearse for a couple of hours, and then we just record.
It's all just pure blood, sweat, honesty and what you
got on that little quarter inch tape that was it.
And when you wanted to make an edit. They took
out a razor blade and scotch tape and they'd cut
the tape and they put the scotch tape and that

(35:32):
was your edit.

Speaker 2 (35:44):
What kind of vocal training did you have, if any?

Speaker 3 (35:47):
I went to a woman named Sandy Ellis, Sandy Siemens
Ellis for years, and then I went to It's interesting.
But I went to a guy. And I don't want
to be cruel, but I don't think I had ever
been so bored in my entire life. I went to
a vocal coach named Joseph Shore, and he would sit

(36:08):
with me and tell me.

Speaker 8 (36:14):
About the mechanics of the voice and why opera singers
had stronger instruments, and how it was possible through training
the muscle to have an approach it killed it.

Speaker 3 (36:32):
I used, and I was a kids seventeen years old.
The lesson I would be sitting. But you know what
what I liked about him, and I didn't like when
teachers would when the coaches would say to me, now
I want you to feel the note. I want you
to see, and I would trying to see the fuck,

(36:52):
I don't know what the fuck you're talking about.

Speaker 9 (36:55):
Do you know what I'm talking about acting coaches acting.

Speaker 3 (36:57):
It's like and now you see it and as you
lift the note, and I would be my body doesn't understand.
I don't know what that means. I would try to
fake it, but it would be faking it. And this
guy Joe would bring down a chart, no shit, a
chart of the of anatomy of the of the and
he would say he did is non that's what it's doing.

(37:22):
When you drop the epigloons and you go down to
that place, Wow, that gives you this sound that you
want for these songs. And when you need a range
where we need to hear your head voice, I want you.
And it was all clinical, I mean clinical, boring, clinical,
but he helped me to understand, you know. And then

(37:45):
more than more than anything skip, it was me stealing.
I say it all the time. I say to every
parent who ever asked me about their kid, I stole
and I still steal if I find something that's beautiful.
And what Al's doing in the way that she has
a trill changing going. I don't know what it's called
when they do the what's that scatting that? But that

(38:09):
it's not scatting, it's it's gymnastics. It's the gymnastics.

Speaker 1 (38:13):
Like that gymnastics.

Speaker 3 (38:14):
There's a million things I just steal.

Speaker 2 (38:16):
Do you feel you have to be a good actor
to be a good singer the way you were?

Speaker 1 (38:19):
I think we are actors.

Speaker 3 (38:22):
That's what it is.

Speaker 2 (38:23):
What made you go into classic songs? Most young guys
want rock and roll. That's sort of your writing.

Speaker 3 (38:29):
Why I was so in love with my Grandpa's records
when I tell you, And it started, by the way,
in a very strange way. It started with the infiltration
musically coming with Bing Crosby and me being a little
little boy and you know, and hearing Bing Crosby's Christmas

(38:53):
record playing through my house. And that was my introduction.
And then when I say little as young as I
can or this was how that music got to me.
That's how that those arrangements, the musicianship, the harmonies of
the Andrew sisters and him, that is it was. It

(39:16):
was infiltration, It really was.

Speaker 2 (39:17):
It was.

Speaker 3 (39:18):
You know, there's if anyone wonders why my Christmas stuff
is so big, well it came from there. That's that
was where I found this style of music. God, the
grooves were so chunky, you know, I don't care if
you like Drake or whoever in hip hop, none of
them got beats that are as fat as those beats.
They are fat swinging, you know. And because it was

(39:41):
a Christmas thing, Oh Christmas, those songs were got unbelievably constructed,
Those players were unbelievable, those arrangements were unbelievable. And so
it was an introduction to this world of sound. And
you know, and by the way, I thought it was
incredibly suave and romantic. And then having a grampa who

(40:02):
just happened to me be my best friend Skip, who
would sit with me on the floor. And by the way,
play me Paul Ink, and play me Bennett, and play
me Sinatra, and play me the Mills brothers say and
tell me the stories. You know this is these are
these are the Mills brothers. Okay. And you know who
really loved the Mills brothers, This guy Dean Martin, you
want to listen, He.

Speaker 1 (40:21):
Himself after them exactly.

Speaker 3 (40:23):
And so I I just was infatuated by it. And
my grandpa used to have a record player where you
take the old record and then he would he would
tape them onto a cassette. This was quite new at
the time. You know, really exciting stuff, and I would listen.
I would listen over and over again. I would sit
all night and I would listen to Sinatra and the

(40:45):
Pied Pipers, and I would lay in bed at fourteen
and try my best to figure out how to sound
there's no sun up in the sky, storm me with
and try to get that you know, that vibrato that

(41:06):
you know. But I listened so much Skip. I studied
without knowing it was studying that. It was so organic
that I had. I knew thousands of goddamn songs before
I was Dean.

Speaker 1 (41:20):
That's a song. And they would Dean used to sing
in the steam room.

Speaker 6 (41:25):
Don't know why. I got a lipstick on my fly
sloppy blow job and he was singing. You know, we'd
all hang in the steam room. You got all my idols.
But Michael, you canna appreciate it. And I'm this kid
with these guys and were walking around nude, Dean, Sammy,

(41:45):
Frank nude, and I'm new on the scene.

Speaker 1 (41:48):
I mean talk about having trouble with eye contact, right,
and all they did was sing. Man, I mean, Dean
had every He was the physically the most funniest guy
you'll ever want to be around. Naturally, when they were
massaging them on the table, you know, when they pressed
down hard with the oil, he had a way of
flying off the table onto the floor. And you know,

(42:12):
we all had our robes, you know, I was like
the kid. Dean Martin was Dago, you know, with respect
between Frank and him, they could say that Dago. Sammy
Davis was Smoky the bear. Frank was the Pope.

Speaker 2 (42:28):
You know.

Speaker 1 (42:28):
The education and the experience I got with those guys
I could never ever replace, you know, Mike. I mean
I wished, and you've done your homework. I mean, you know,
but those guys how they you know, I'm a kid.
I'm nowhere in their league. I'm doing my cocka made
teenage songs. But I'm in there with them. And what

(42:48):
I learned and the style and the commitment of those
guys was just an education for me. Let me ask you, Michael,
when you started back in five with us, right, would
you attempt to do that today with the music, seeing
the way it is, What would your feeling be?

Speaker 3 (43:04):
Yes? I would you would? I have to answer that. Honestly.
Here's the thing. The kids today, okay, and this is
this is just completely one percent true. I talked to
the record company. They go, oh, we've just signed this kid.
We're really excited about the kid. I says, great, I've
seen the kid on TikTok. The kid's good. And I says,
how is the kid on stage?

Speaker 2 (43:26):
Oh?

Speaker 3 (43:26):
The kids? The kid's never been on stage. How do
you mean the kids never been on stage?

Speaker 1 (43:30):
Oh?

Speaker 3 (43:30):
No, the kids. It never sung outside the bedroom. You know,
I wouldn't mean they never stand outside the bedroom because
the kid can they entertain? Oh no, we don't know.
We don't know. But we've got a great following. And
so what's happened is they signed the kid because they
had a song that went viral and did two hundred
million downloads. But that's all they want. Give us the song.

(43:55):
You know, we're going to build our publishing. We're going
to make billions of dollars because every time it plays,
a might just be pennies, but we have we have
a lot of pennies stacking up. Yeah, there's no interest
many times in growing that business, in creating, you know,
putting investing in this person and saying hey let's start here.

(44:18):
We're gonna start at clubs. Okay, we might get to theaters.
So once we get to theaters, we could do some
soft seaters and suett Maybe once it gets really big,
we might get into arenas. There's only a few people
out there who I see doing that, And for me,
that's a good business. And by the way, Paul, I
don't give a shit if you're adding one fan a day.

(44:42):
If you're adding one fan a day, that's a good business.
You're just to grow it. Even if it's that slow,
that's steady, because that's something that can be built into
having a career. I just don't you know, Like I'll
give you an example. My niece the other day, she
came over and she said to me, you got to
hear this song and this girl this great song. And
I said, okay, and I listened to this good song.

(45:03):
I said who is it? And my niece said, I
don't know. And I said, how can you not know?
And she said, I don't know. It's on a playlist.
She said, I can go and look, because she had
no interest in looking. She had no interest, Paul in
finding out who this girl was, no interest in hearing
another song, no interest in going through a discography, you

(45:24):
know what I mean?

Speaker 1 (45:24):
When I had dinner with you. Your son had written a
song that you used on your album. How about that
you remember your son, you know he was finishing it
or when we were dinner. How about what kind of
kick was that? Michael? Your son?

Speaker 3 (45:39):
I mean, that was the greatest thing ever. Paul. Yesterday,
yesterday he was at the piano. Paul and Paul, he
can play the piano. He was playing the piano. I'm
so jealous because I but I'm so proud. And you
know what, I drove him nuts, going to take You're
going to take your lessons. You're going to say, I
don't want to do my lessons. And then we sat

(46:00):
at the piano yesterday and he started playing and I said,
oh my god, dude, I said, this is this is beautiful.
I said, look at you. You're going to be you
know what I mean? And I'm so I don't mean
to sound cheesy, but the greatest gift a human being
can have is love of music. Your partners in life

(46:23):
will break your heart, your businesses might fail. You know,
we're all going to go through a bunch of ship
and suffering and pain. But the one thing that will
never ever let you down is that romance with music.

Speaker 2 (46:38):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (46:38):
Never. It will take you. It'll take you through your
darkest times and by the way, it'll lift you up
and inspire you to your greatest moments. You know, it's cinematic.
It's it's what life is about.

Speaker 2 (46:49):
You know, a.

Speaker 1 (46:52):
Music.

Speaker 3 (46:53):
They're all music of them.

Speaker 1 (46:55):
Wow, how cool is that? Huh? Do you take them?
Do they all go and tour with you?

Speaker 3 (47:00):
Still?

Speaker 1 (47:00):
Every time?

Speaker 3 (47:00):
Everywhere? Yeah? They come everywhere.

Speaker 1 (47:03):
That's so cool. I take them on too, I always have.

Speaker 3 (47:06):
Yeah, I know, it's unbelievable.

Speaker 2 (47:07):
It's the best.

Speaker 3 (47:08):
You do that, it's the best.

Speaker 5 (47:09):
You know.

Speaker 3 (47:10):
What I want for my kids, I'd love to get them.
What I'd love is, I tell my wife, I'd like
them to come to work for me. I mean as kids,
you know, fourteen fifteen. Sure, I wanted to come out
and be part of the crew. I like them to learn,
just you see what the electricians are doing, to learn
to see what the wellder's I'm serious, No, I get
I do like it because I think you know, you learn,

(47:33):
you learn how adults talk to each other and treat
each other. It's a lot different than how kids in
school talk to each other. You learn, you learn common respect,
you know, you learn what the hard, how to work hard,
you know, to take pride in your work and to
be fulfilled and getting up in the morning and help
load those cases in and be there and see how
hard those guys work. That thing doesn't just come up

(47:54):
on its own. That stadium or that arena that wasn't
there yesterday. These guys got in it got it five
six in the morning, and they sweat and they had
there was camaraderie and teamwork. And then, by the way,
when you do that, then come out to the party afterwards.
And you know, I'm not saying party, but I'm saying,
if you want to come out and hang with your

(48:14):
dad and we can hang till one in the morning,
and you want to say and you want to work
hard and play hard and come out and dance on
the floor and you know, and be with us big
guys and talk with us big guys. To me, that's
it's what my dad did for me on a fishing
boat pole. Yeah, that's why I'm here, That's why I'm
who I am.

Speaker 1 (48:31):
My dad did it because my dad, I worked in
a restaurant. That's why I got into singing.

Speaker 3 (48:35):
I hated it.

Speaker 1 (48:35):
I had to peel potatoes sit in the kitchen, I said,
I'm out of here. You know, Michael and I we
all we all played hockey as kids, right, and I
was a goalie and I realized somewhere and then I
wasn't going to grow anymore because I'm not the tallest
guy in town. But I love sports, and that's when
I got into music. But you know, when I worked
for my dad in the restaurant, in the back, peeling potatoes,

(48:57):
you know, the fear was, I'm going to wind up
with a restaurant, and in Canada, as Michael knows, we're
under snow half the time and it's dark and dreary.
But before you, Michael, I was like locked in my room.
The only way I could see what was outside. Our
windows had little holes in them. That's how we got
the air. And I'd stab my pencil and look out
and say, I got to get the hell out of here.

Speaker 3 (49:28):
So when you were at that restaurant, Paul, when you
were working like that, yeah, there was there good parts
of it. Was it was there. Did you feel camaraderie?
Did you feel Oh, I felt.

Speaker 1 (49:37):
Close to my dad. I felt very much a part
of the family business. I felt very much a part
of work ethic. Work ethic, yes, which led into what
I do now or even as a kid, just work
ethic earning. You know, I was making three dollars a week.
You know, I won my first contest collecting souper wrappers,
and I went to New York because that every record

(49:58):
I looked at was from New York. So I'm sitting
there with forty kids from Canada eating these wet sandwiches.
We stayed in New York, went back home, and then
I had about one hundred bucks left from my paper
route and Caddy I went back down. I got luck
eate fifteen, walked into an office. But the work ethic,
the family ethic which Michael has, and he's got a

(50:19):
hell of a family around him, and I wanted to
ask you about how does that feel now, Michael, with
everything you've got to do, and you've broadened into everything
being the father and then juggling everything else. I mean,
there's a lot of people don't know how to do
that or care to do that. But you know, when
I see you with your kids and that great wife
of yours, I'm so proud of you about that family

(50:40):
side of you because you just don't see it. You
don't see it anymore.

Speaker 3 (50:45):
I didn't. There was no choice for me. I wish
I could sit and tell you that there was some Yeah,
there was no option. That's where I came from. It's
the people I came from. Heah got a beauty you
know me, you know, my mom and dad. Sure, just
they're really beautiful, humble, gorgeous people, beautiful sisters. Hey, I'm
lucky you have a manager. I got a manager that
loves me like I'm his son, you know, And and

(51:08):
they know what comes first. It's always family, my faith,
My faith is first. My family's first. And uh, you know,
like Bruce will even say, my manager, Bruce will say,
you know, hey, you probably could have gotten further, you
know without all of that other stuff. It's true. I
get it. I understand it. It's a it's a you know,
it's a business where you know, you get what you

(51:30):
put you get out what you put in. And sometimes
I wasn't always able to put in the time because
you know, I wasn't going to I wasn't going to
tour like that. I still, I mean, I think I'm
the most financially irresponsible touring act probably on the planet.

Speaker 1 (51:44):
There with you.

Speaker 3 (51:45):
You're with me too.

Speaker 1 (51:46):
I'm kicking it. They're not going to fight over my money.
I'm spending it all. Fuck that I work too, I'm
going to enjoy it. I don't want to be the
richest guy in a graveyard. Never want exactly.

Speaker 8 (51:58):
You know.

Speaker 3 (51:58):
I just had so I just had a meet with
Bruce and this guy Randy that works in the office.
He says, you know, Mike, Randy says, you know, you should.
You know, if you could just go and do the
eight month tours, just to eight months hard and then
you could see the family for a year and a half.
I says, go find you shut up, And he says
you could, that you can go do that. I said,
I'm not. That's not my life. I'm not going to
be happy to do that.

Speaker 1 (52:18):
You know when you said you when he said you'd
go further. The dynamic of family and real successful family
in your life is the foundation of the better human being.
Fuck going on those tours and making that extra buck
and you'd be in trouble today with all these running around.
You're a target. You're a pinota for women. We love

(52:41):
your women, but it's a new world. Disagree with that,
because the meaningful stuff, Michael, no matter what you're going into,
is going to come for your family. And you see it,
and you and I get it, you know.

Speaker 2 (52:53):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (52:53):
But you know, Paul, we were you were alluding to
it before. You're talking about my son Noah. Yeah, and
you know that going through that, that health battle, you know, listen,
if it hadn't been clear to me before, that was
a there was complete clarity. I realized, you know, things,
anything I was confused about had been cleared up in

(53:15):
a moment and I mean a fucking in a moment.
On Halloween Day, my life changed and I knew what mattered.
It's interesting too, It's funny. I remember sitting there that
day and I had at the time, the Christmas Record
was just going. It just kept on going, and people
didn't shut up about the Christmas record. A Christmas guy, Hey,
Christmas guy, the King of Christmas King. And I really

(53:37):
bothered me, you know, God, you know I'm more than that.
I'm come on, I'm a successful time. I'm doing this
and I'm doing I don't like it that they're talking
about christ sated my wife. I don't like it that
they call me that, you know, I got other things,
you know, I'm killing it in fifty countries loop. And
that day, I remember I sat in the bed at
Chla and I don't know why, but I just I

(54:00):
remember I thought, Wow, I'm so worried. My ego, my
fault self is so worried that they're you know, talking
to me about Christmas. What are you thinking about, Mike?
What are you doing? You are connected to the most

(54:21):
beautiful time in the whole of the year, where people
are kinder and more empathetic, and they've got joy in
their hearts, and they're inviting you into their homes to
celebrate this time with their families, these core memories, these
unique times, and you're who they're invited in. And you

(54:43):
got a problem with this asshole and it really I
remember is looking at my wife and saying babe. And
my wife looked at me, because my wife has no gray,
she's so black and white, and she looked at me
and she said, yeah, honey, what are you talking about?

Speaker 1 (54:56):
Of course, of course you know lose a good woman.
You're very fortunate. He's really very scared. That was love
at first sight for you, man.

Speaker 3 (55:10):
Dude at first sight.

Speaker 2 (55:13):
If I can pivot for a second. Back to another
topic where we actually started. At the top of this,
I was involved with the Hartford Whalers hockey team. First
started in the WHA and then we wound up with
an NHL franchise journey the late seventies. Yeah, it's still
one of the highest, still one of the top sellers
in the NHL store, I believe it or not. And

(55:35):
you won't believe this, but in the late nineteen seventies,
Gordi Howe ended his career in Hartford. We had Gordi
how and his two sons, Mark and Marty, both sons
Mark and Marty, and then we picked up the jet
Bobby Hull. So we had in Hartford, Connecticut, right sort

(55:56):
of not a major market. We had the Gordy how
and Bobby Hall and it was an amazing time for me.
So I wanted to just segue for a second because
Paul had told me that you've got sort of a
special situation downstairs at your house. I was hoping you
could describe it to us.

Speaker 3 (56:16):
Well, you know, it's funny. I was living in West
Vancouver and I liked it there because it was real quiet,
you know, you know, no neighbors ever talked to anybody.
It's you know, you just live your life and you
have this very independent life. And once I had my
first son, I started to saying, Jesus, this is a
little bit lonely for this kid. You know this I

(56:37):
wanted to We were having playdates, but then you go
out to the thing and have playates. And I said
to my wife, you know, Lou, I'd love to go
to Burnaby where I grew up. You know, I got
all my friends there and my family's there. I'd like
for the you know, for my house was always empty.
We lived it, you know, it was just a big
house on a hill in West Vancouver. And my best

(57:00):
friend Carston was a realisted agent and he and my
father just lucked out and found this plot of land
that was across from the elementary school that I went
to as a kid. And they said, listen, it's quite
a few acres and it's a really good price. You know,
you could build a dream house there. So I did

(57:21):
and it was actually, weirdly enough, Paul. It was David
Foster and he said, wow, you bought this big thing
a land. He says, what are you going to do?
I said, oh, I'm going to you know, make this.
I'm going to build this place. And he said to me,
you know, Mike, he said, I don't. I'm not. I
don't own the Malibu place anymore. He said, it's just
too much, too big, too expensive, all of that. He said,
But you know, the advice I would give you is

(57:44):
once in your life, do it once, you know, do
the splashy thing once you know you don't have to
do it again. You don't, but you know, you've worked
your ass off, you got really lucky, you know, do
something stupid, you know, And so I did. I called
my dad and I says, Dad, I'd love to I'd

(58:05):
love to have an ice drink. And my dad said, okay,
let's look at it. And we figured it out. And
the first thing that we did when we built this house,
when they when they dug everything out, was in the foundation.
The first thing that came was the foundation of the
ice rink. And then we built the house believe it
or not, around a zamboni. The zamboni, So the zamboni

(58:26):
was in there first, and we started to build the rink.
It's about half size or something like that, a little
more half sized rink. It's a it's a blast.

Speaker 1 (58:36):
I mean, I got Michael, how many Canucks come over?
I got to know what's the content? How many of
the Canucks? Anything is Paul?

Speaker 3 (58:46):
The funny thing is as it's like as many guys,
and there's guys by the way on on other other teams,
or there's sometimes like you know, it's funny even the
boys on the Giants, well now they're not on the
Giants because now those kids play for the kid wont
to Stanley Cup with Colorado. But all those boys come
over and get on the ice with the kids, or

(59:07):
I get. You know, there's there's actors, there's there's singers, there's.

Speaker 1 (59:11):
They do you play full out games with hockey players?
Just sit there?

Speaker 2 (59:14):
You get you don't?

Speaker 3 (59:17):
We do not?

Speaker 1 (59:18):
You don't. And you don't skate.

Speaker 3 (59:19):
You skate, no ice, we skate. But it's more listen.
I'm just being honest. It's more drinking. It's more drinking.

Speaker 1 (59:26):
And he might and I've been there, I've been I've
been there. You know, I go way back with Gretzki. Okay,
gave his first jet flights. And the senator is a
great guy, and the senators what goes on in that
room I'm not gonna spill it. All you talk about
drinking and all, you know, ship and they go play funny.
I'll never figure it out, man, And we drink till

(59:48):
like in the morning, and they're on the ice at four.
I couldn't believe it. Couldn't believe.

Speaker 3 (59:53):
The other thing. The other thing I built is uh,
I built a big green, a big green, you know,
a big golf Yeah. And then I got I got
these holes, you know, sixty ninety yards and to take
a pitching pot, and I got a I got a
tennis court, and I got a I built a soccer field.

Speaker 1 (01:00:08):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:00:09):
And so they come over and I'm not kidding you, man.
We play every game you can. We're throwing footballs, we're
hitting golf. It's just it's kids. We're just being little kids.

Speaker 1 (01:00:19):
Hey, Mike, you want to know something. This is this
has been rolling out. You know, you never can predict
how much time, how it vibes out. You know, we
could sit and talk to you for hours, man, like
you and I have been, and we respect the fact.
Know you know you're going to look at a box
to put your whiskey in because you don't like the

(01:00:39):
shape of the Buck, so we we thank you so
much for hanging with us.

Speaker 3 (01:00:44):
And you know what I'm doing, and it's I'm taking
I'm taking my kid. He's going to get an allergy
tesch Oh you know when you go take him?

Speaker 1 (01:00:50):
They oh yeah, they do it on the back.

Speaker 3 (01:00:52):
I took.

Speaker 1 (01:00:53):
I took ethan. They that back.

Speaker 3 (01:00:54):
Literally that's literally my day as I go to the doctor.
But the doctors are real sweet, real sweet guy. Paul,
you're never coming because I know you're never coming.

Speaker 1 (01:01:04):
Coming where I wish you would.

Speaker 3 (01:01:05):
I wish you would go to Vancouver.

Speaker 1 (01:01:07):
Well I get there if you just you know, I'll
just make a trip. If I have to come up.
Skip's a golfer, And if I have to come up,
you know, for a day or two. I'd love to
see you guys, and I see you.

Speaker 3 (01:01:18):
I'm not done too.

Speaker 1 (01:01:19):
I need to ask you major he's not guy.

Speaker 3 (01:01:21):
Dude. Now, I'm fucking you know. I'm fascinated by you. Now, Skip,
I'm gonna be it's going to be me googling you
all night.

Speaker 2 (01:01:26):
Yeah, how are you?

Speaker 1 (01:01:27):
Why were you?

Speaker 3 (01:01:28):
And why are the Hartford Whalers? How did you get
involved in that?

Speaker 2 (01:01:31):
It's funny. I was a real estate developer in Hartford,
and the city went out and did everything asked backwards.
So one of the things they did backwards they built
an arena, but they didn't have a tenant for the arena.
So there was a group of us that went to
Boston and met with a friend, now a friend named

(01:01:51):
Howard Baldwin actually one of the owners of the Pittsburgh
Penguins later on, and he had a w h a
team called the Boston Whalers. We said, look, you're always
going to be the second class citizen. I mean the
Boston Bruins. People think of hockey and Boston it's the Bruins.
But if you come to Hartford, you'll be the biggest
thing in the town. And we built this eighteen thousand

(01:02:14):
seed arena. So I was the president of the Hartford
Club at the time, involved in the business council, and
we induced him to come to Hartford and we sold out.
It was great, but there's sort of an ugly story
to it at the end. When the team was ultimately
sold was sold to a gentleman I won't say his name,
but his initials are Peter Carmenos, and he bought the

(01:02:38):
team and he said listen. I will tell you right now.
I love it here. I'm buying it a home in Hertford,
and this team will always be here. And two years
later they were the Carolina Hurricanes. Carolina, so we lost
the team, but it was amazing when it was there.

Speaker 3 (01:02:56):
And Howell.

Speaker 2 (01:03:00):
Gary Howard, of course he.

Speaker 3 (01:03:02):
Was my I was a friend of my dad's and
my dad to this day he's always a Canuck fan,
but he always had to play. He always tells me
that he had a special place in his heart always
for the heart for whalers.

Speaker 2 (01:03:12):
Isn't that great? But you know, can I just can
I just add one thing? You know, I don't have
a better friend than Paul. We talk about this all
the time. We talk all night and it seems and
we said, look, we should do a podcast. It'll be
fun to do it and get some get some of
our friends to be on with us. But the thing
that I take away from from this with you is
the same thing with him, and that's balance. You have

(01:03:34):
balance in your life. You know, your family's important, your
friends are important. You know you like hockey, you like football,
you like doing all these things. You like working. Of course,
now you're in a new business. You're in a whiskey business,
but you're not just sole purpose like one line straight down.
You just you know, try to do everything. And I
think that's that's fabulous, that's beautiful. That's probably why we stay.

Speaker 3 (01:03:57):
We have friends like Paul too, Like Paul, you know,
the other day I told Paul this. The other day,
I've been I actually been talking about Paul in interviews
and nothing I was. I was feeling a little bit lost,
you know, I was just feeling I don't know, you know,
getting that. You know, it's everything what's going on in
my career, and I don't know why out of all

(01:04:17):
the times, like because Paul and I talked a lot,
you know, and then just out of nothing, I never
told Paul any of that, and out of nothing, Paul
got on the phone with me and he said, just
out of nothing, he said, hey, Mike, don't panic, never panic.
You know, you're great, Your life is great, your family's great,
you're a good You're a great. Just be you and

(01:04:38):
don't let anyone scare you. Don't change, just keep going forward,
doing the way you're doing. And he said, you'll be there,
You'll be that Tony Bennett guy. You'll be that, you know.
And it's funny because Paul, you know, you didn't know
at the time, but I told you the other day.
It's just settled me.

Speaker 2 (01:04:55):
You know.

Speaker 3 (01:04:56):
I called my manager Bruce. Actually, just let me tell you, Bruce.
I needed needed that, you know, because I was you know,
you do you get sometimes it gets you know, you
get rocked a little bit, and this business is changing
so much, skip so much that you don't know where
you stand, you know what I mean.

Speaker 2 (01:05:15):
It's it's just it's just what you standing.

Speaker 1 (01:05:19):
Guys like you are far and few between you are.
You got up and you stood. I've seen it all, okay,
and just know you're the one of the kind. You've
got a career, you've got the foundation. You can't be
that dog with his tongue hanging out. You're not going anywhere.

Speaker 5 (01:05:38):
Man.

Speaker 1 (01:05:38):
You just have to keep on keeping on because you
got what nobody else has. You got your vibe, your Michael.
And you know we've all been conditioned mentally in life
to say, oh, you know, we've got to be happy
and you've got to find that straight line. Well that's horseshit.
Life is not a straight line. However, they've manipulated us

(01:06:00):
through cultures. It's up and down and up and down.
And you know, listen, we're so happy that you were
with us today.

Speaker 2 (01:06:08):
Mike.

Speaker 1 (01:06:08):
You know I love you. You've got you know. I
traveled all over the world and I'm always dropping your
name on stage and when I tell you, they feel
fucking crazy. They cheer like you're coming out on stage.
You've got to stay focused on who you are and
don't let that other shit bother you, because at the
end of the day, with success, nobody cares about you.

(01:06:28):
It's a hard lesson to learn. They don't care. Once
you've got the shit together and you've got your mark
and you're there like you are baby, and you're so young.
It's yours, man, it's yours the fuck up. And you
know what, We're blessed to have you here today.

Speaker 3 (01:06:44):
Man. I just I like, yeah, yeah, how many decades
you say you've been in this, how.

Speaker 1 (01:06:50):
Many thanks my eighth I'm going on my xth.

Speaker 3 (01:06:54):
Morning on TikTok. This morning on TikTok, no shit, I
felt like every second goddamn video that I skip too was.

Speaker 10 (01:07:01):
Put yours, put your head on, butt your head on
my sh everybody here, their.

Speaker 1 (01:07:11):
Uncles saying that, you know, I had no idea that
was gonna happen, Michael, It came out of nowhere. I
don't know what the fuck do you know?

Speaker 3 (01:07:18):
It's funny. Let me see, let me see if this
comes up. Let me see if I can if this
comes up. Oh god, because I just thought I was
just sitting there and it came up. Come on, come on,
let don't turn. Don't let me down here, don't let
me down.

Speaker 1 (01:07:32):
Here, don't let me in there somewhere.

Speaker 3 (01:07:36):
Oh god, I'm telling you right now.

Speaker 7 (01:07:42):
Oh that's so funny.

Speaker 3 (01:07:52):
And you hear what it says? How the hell them
style go from this with this kid looking all dapper
and the song's gorge just yeah, see you see that?
That's yeah to this?

Speaker 9 (01:08:09):
Tell me the fucking tell me the second put your
head on my shoulders. Really, you know what my original
lyric was, Michael, put your legs on my shoulders.

Speaker 3 (01:08:21):
Hey, Paul, you want to do something crazy, so listen please,
So this this TikTok alone yeah, that song with your
song playing okay over and over again. Kachin Kachin, Kachin
Yeah has been looked at eleven million times and has
seven hundred and thirty thousand likes. Do you understand that

(01:08:43):
is you can't reach there's no TV show you you
couldn't reach that many people doing the super Bowl halftime show.
That's it's fucking absolutely, it's unreal.

Speaker 1 (01:08:56):
Oh that's good to know. I'm gonna turn it. I'm
not going to sing a halftime turning him down. I'm
giving him back the money. I'm out. He just talk
me something. I'm not doing a halftime shot.

Speaker 3 (01:09:05):
I was going to say eighteen million downloads and we
just made twelve dollars that much.

Speaker 2 (01:09:11):
Mike, you're the real Dale pal.

Speaker 3 (01:09:12):
Welly Skipped you know that we're going to be hanging
that way.

Speaker 1 (01:09:15):
Oh, Skim, you're gonna be hanged. Believe me, You're gonna
hang with Skip when you're down here. We're hanging for sure.

Speaker 2 (01:09:23):
Looking forward to it.

Speaker 1 (01:09:23):
I love you guys, Love you, buddy, Thanks, love you,
Thanks so much. Thanks Michael. Our Away with Paul Anka
and Skip Ronson is a production of iHeartRadio.

Speaker 2 (01:09:37):
The show's executive producer is Jordan Runtogg, with supervising producer
and editor Marcy Depina.

Speaker 1 (01:09:44):
It was engineered by Todd Carlin and Graham Gibson and
nixed and mastered by Doug Boum.

Speaker 2 (01:09:50):
If you like what you heard, please subscribe and leave
us a review.

Speaker 1 (01:09:54):
For more podcasts on iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite ships.

Speaker 2 (01:10:44):
Sh