July 24, 2025 • 111 mins
From the Atlantic accounting department to the head of Emerson, Lake & Palmer's Manticore Records, Mario Medious is a legendary record executive.
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Speaker 1 (00:08):
Welcome, Welcome, Welcome back to the Bob Webstt's podcast. My
guest today is legendary promotion man record executive Mario Medius. Mario,
great to have you on the podcast. So how'd you
get your job with Atlantic Records?
Speaker 2 (00:27):
I got my job through a friend of mine. She
worked in Atlantic Records at the time, and she was
a friend of mine. We used to go to all
the jazz clubs together. And she told me one day,
you know, like, hey, there's an opening in the bookkeeping
apartment of Atlantic.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
If you liked her, you know, apply, you know, I'll
recommend you. So I went up.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
And and took their tests, and you know, and Hill
and Vogel hired me. That was nineteen sixty five and
I started out in the bookkeeping apartment.
Speaker 4 (00:54):
So what exactly did you do there?
Speaker 2 (00:57):
I was accounts, payable, payroll and all checks that was
made under company.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
You know, I paid all the checks whatever it was.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
You know, every bill was paid by then at that
time by hand, you know, plus the payroll. We did
all the sessions and everything that payroll for the musicians
and payroll for the offers. Any bills that had to
be paid was paid through me. At that time, it
was only one person. I maade up all the checks.
Speaker 4 (01:21):
Oh so you were the only person.
Speaker 3 (01:23):
The only person made up checks.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
If you wanted a check at that time from Atlantic Records,
it went through me.
Speaker 3 (01:30):
No computer.
Speaker 4 (01:31):
Now, Linx Records has a checkered history with paying their acts,
whether they're paying, what to do, whether they're paying at all.
A lot of that's before your time. But is that
something you could see from writing checks?
Speaker 2 (01:47):
No, what I did when I was writing checks, I
wasn't doing the Royal is you know, and I wasn't
doing contracts, so I never knew all of that. But
I did make up checks, you know, as far as
when I got a Royal statement, I pay the Royal
statement or whatever the mount is on the Royal statements,
the mountains?
Speaker 3 (02:02):
Do you pay that? Now?
Speaker 2 (02:03):
Whatever deal they had with the with the company, you know,
if they signed a contract for two percent rather than
ten percent, that's their business.
Speaker 3 (02:11):
You know.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
Like in those days, people just happy to have a contract,
you know, can you match it? And they just wanted
they just wanted to get a record out so they
could work. Back in those days, they didn't know anything
about business, so a lot of people got screwed.
Speaker 4 (02:25):
You know, do you remember what some of the biggest
checks you wrote were for royalties?
Speaker 2 (02:32):
Well, I mean, let me see, oh man, I mean
wrote it is reading. Well it wasn't made totus ready
made to the just tax records, but mostly about Otis
they break it down who sold so much records. But
the biggest check that I ever made was for for
Steven Stills across Stills the Nash I think it was about,
oh for fifty thousand something like that, you know at
(02:53):
one time.
Speaker 4 (02:54):
Okay, so you were working in payroll. How'd you get
out of pay.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
Well, first of all, I was in payroll for you know, payroll,
and I did that for about three years, and and
I went from payroll and they sold to Kenny. When
Warner Brothers sold to Kenny, the whole system changed the
bid because now you got a corporate situation. And the
person I was working for that was the controller, who
(03:22):
was Sheldon Bogo. They promoted him to vice president. Uh
you know, I guess whatever, you know, vice president and
he and he didn't have a CPA, so they wanted
someone to CEPA to be the controller. So they hired
another guy. I think his name was Jack Halpern or
whatever it was. But they wanted me to train him,
you know, for I wanted him to help me, to
(03:43):
help train him, and I refused. I just didn't want
to train someone to be my boss. And so I
spoke with you know, the amin and jerring him, and
I told him I just didn't want to do that.
So they transferred me to the album sales department to
be the as system to the vice president, which was
Liny Sacks at the time. And that was like, you know,
(04:04):
album sales were the biggest sales in the company. And
that was very interesting because now I'm working with the distributors.
They are buying records and you know, you're dealing back
and forth with them, going to conventions and so on,
and meeting all the distributors. And also I was adding
up all the sales that we did at the conventions,
and I got to know everybody that was a distributor.
(04:26):
That was before before they got WA you know, before
they started their own distribution.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
We had independent distributors.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
So I got to know all these distributors and I
did that for about a year and then I I
went to Jay and I said like, hey man, you're
like I'm just doing accounting, so it's it's just better
I move on. Greenberg suggested that that they could use
a promotion man for the hippies, you know, for this
new stations, and and I said, well, you know, I
(04:52):
wouldn't mind doing promotion if I could do the rock stuff,
you know, all the rock and roll. So see here,
it'd be the album promotion. They call it underground station STU.
They had a list called S t U. S was
stereo underground stations, right, so.
Speaker 3 (05:05):
That was so that was my list.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
And I had all these stations men used to be
used to be a classical stations before, but now they
turned into AO R oriented. Before back then it was
just pre form radio and all those stations like uh
KMPX k SEN and an e W and whatever.
Speaker 3 (05:26):
Those few stations that started out are now FM.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
But they can play anything they want, could be jazz, blues, rock, whatever.
And I and I was the first guy more or
less did promotion for that. I took the first led
Zeppelin test pressing to Alison Steele in New York and
she played the whole record because she said, what is
this album? I said, this is the news forydd Birch.
So she played the whole album on the radio boy
and went crazy. New York went crazy for that two
(05:51):
weeks before the record was out. They went crazy because
she played the whole record and Rosto came on after
they played it.
Speaker 3 (05:57):
Then I took a test president and went to Boston.
You know.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
So that's the way we That's why we tried to
break records back then. You know, before they were released,
you got to play on radio. Radio was manager to
sell a record back in those days.
Speaker 4 (06:10):
Okay, if you were a jazz er, how'd you feel
about rock and roll?
Speaker 3 (06:15):
Look? Man, I love music. First of all.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
Music was my thing, you know, Jazz was what I
I you know, it was my favorite lover is till today.
I still I'm a jazz fanatic. And when I took
the job at Atlantic, the main reason to take the
job because Coltrane was on the label and I get
the records free, you know, that was the main I
was never.
Speaker 3 (06:36):
About trying to be a millionaire and none of that stuff.
You know, just a job was great.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
But now I get pre records, so I'm going to
get about ten records every week, so that's part of
my payrolls.
Speaker 3 (06:45):
Was I'm certain, you know, and.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
I really enjoyed that part of it when I first
got there. That was the reason for taking the job.
And I always liked I liked the blues, and rock
was blues oriented, you know, blues, Muddy Waters. I was
raised up in Chicago, so that Muddy Waters and Howland
Wilson and all that stuff. I was raised up around
all of that music, and that was like, my my
(07:11):
major thing was blues. Jazz was my major to music
is all. And most rock and roll was blues oriented,
you know, So I could accept it. If they could
play any type of blues, I would concept it, you know.
And most of all of them back then, from the Beatles,
Rolling Stones, across the Steels and Nash everybody, everybody had
a blues concept, you know.
Speaker 3 (07:30):
So I got along very well with them because of that.
Speaker 4 (07:33):
Okay, at that point in time, some of the records
were an ATCO. I think Vanilla Fudge was an ATCO
and some were in Atlantic.
Speaker 3 (07:41):
Right, did it make any.
Speaker 4 (07:42):
Difference if you were promoting the records, You're promoting all
of them.
Speaker 3 (07:46):
Didn't make any different. Cotillion Atlantic at COO I had.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
I had a promo record, promo picture made and I said,
Mario Media's own all Atlantic, Atcho and Cortillion Records.
Speaker 3 (07:59):
So if it was all any of those labels, I
was promoting them.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
You know, it didn't make any difference with me, you know,
because it was the same thing. This is his job,
you know, And but I enjoy.
Speaker 4 (08:08):
Okay, Since you know, the Woodstock album came out in
the spring of seventy on Katillion, obviously there was a
lot of demand for that. But what did you do
for the Woodstock record to make it happen?
Speaker 3 (08:21):
Look?
Speaker 2 (08:22):
Man, they were dying for They wanted Jimmy Henrys, but
jim Henry they wouldn't let they wouldn't let let us
have Jimmy because he was on Warner Brothers. But the
record was a was a smash because people had had
seen Woodstock movie, you know.
Speaker 3 (08:33):
So now we got the soundtrack, which is the State Boom.
They took it just like just ouh. Look man, it
immediately the first week is Golan, you know, the first week.
But it wasn't No.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
I didn't have to do nothing but just delivered the
record and I had I had so much fun with
that record because they said, well, what happened to Jimmy Hennings.
Speaker 3 (08:51):
Uh part of it.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
I said, well, you know, Jimmy's on Warner Brothers because
he did that Star Spangled banner so on, you know,
And I knew all those guests.
Speaker 3 (08:59):
I knew Jimmy very well.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
I knew Richie Havens well. I knew all of them,
you know, everybody man, all those guys on Woostock, I
knew them. But I didn't go to Worstock because too
money for.
Speaker 3 (09:08):
Me, you know.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
But but it's Joe and I enjoyed that album.
Speaker 3 (09:13):
You know, it was a lot of fun.
Speaker 4 (09:15):
Okay, So you went to work for Atlantic in sixty five.
You worked in three and a half years in payroll, right,
and then how long did you work in sales?
Speaker 3 (09:28):
Sales? About about a year.
Speaker 4 (09:30):
Who was head of sales then.
Speaker 3 (09:32):
Lenis Sachs's name was Linnis Sacks. He was vice president
of sales.
Speaker 4 (09:35):
Okay, that was as you say, that was independent. You
went through distributors all over the country. How did you
convince them? You know, it's one thing to convince them
to get the young rascals or something. It's another thing
to convince them to buy something that is unknown. How
would you do that?
Speaker 3 (09:54):
Right? First of all, you got to realize.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
Now, when I was the Count's bailable guy, they also
so you know, they had all the checks came from
the distributors, and I had to make the deposits, you know.
For so I got to know all the distributors like that,
and whenever they were laid on a payment shell, the
Vogue will tell me to call them, because he didn't
want to be on bad terms with them, but he'd
called me in and tell him myself, look, if you don't
if we don't have a check by friant, we're cutting
(10:17):
you off, you know. So I got to know all
of those guys being a bookkeeper. And when I started
promoting records, I would go to the distributor, even with
a new record, like I remember that Zeppelin's first number
whatever it was, twenty nine points whatever. That's what they
knew the record. They didn't know who the who the
record was. This twenty nine or whatever is selling a bit.
I said, well, man, that's that's step. You need to
buy another ten thousand because I think it's going to
(10:39):
do well. And so I would go to distributors and talk.
Speaker 3 (10:41):
To them in every city that I went in where
we had a distributor in order.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
To get them to buy advance because I was playing
like test presents, you know, in all those cities, and
I was saying, well, this is going to be a
smash so and they said, well I here's playing on
the stairs.
Speaker 3 (10:57):
Well, man should get more.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
So I got that type of relationship with all distributors
and that really helped me as far as Mode records.
Speaker 4 (11:02):
You know, So were the distributors music fans or were they.
Speaker 3 (11:07):
The money fans?
Speaker 2 (11:09):
That's what they were. Just they were about selling records.
They didn't they didn't care, but they didn't care about
the music. They didn't even know who they are acts were,
you know, most of them didn't know who they were,
you know. But as long as they say, well this
number is.
Speaker 3 (11:21):
Selling, who you know that?
Speaker 2 (11:22):
I mean, In a God of the Vida was a
big big seller back it was Iron Butterfly in A
God of the Vita was like the biggest rock seller
up at that point before Zeppelin came out and stuff.
Speaker 3 (11:32):
Right, And I went to the station and this guy said, well, man, uh,
that record in a cot in you either.
Speaker 5 (11:38):
I said, I said, that's not, that's not that's not
that's not a song.
Speaker 3 (11:45):
I mean, I wouldn't mind. I wouldn't mind from all
of that. But that's not a song man, you know.
I said it got to be oh well, whatever it is.
They said, that's selling. Well.
Speaker 2 (11:53):
But that's the type of that's the type of mentality
most of those distributors ad. They didn't care about the
music or what you know. It was about money with them,
you know.
Speaker 3 (12:02):
But I understood that.
Speaker 4 (12:03):
How much was it about the relationship whining and dining
them in order to get them to buy stuff as
opposed to the music itself.
Speaker 2 (12:12):
Well, I didn't do that. That was the salesman did that,
you know. I guess they the sales you know, from
Atlantic salesman. They had some guys in the office and
some distributors that did that. I didn't wind and dine
the disc jockey as far as you know, as far
as the FM jocks.
Speaker 4 (12:27):
Okay, but let's go back before that. You work in
in payroll. They tell you got to train your boss.
You talk about ahmit Jerry and Jerry Greenberg. Jury you're
working in payroll. How well did you know those guys?
Speaker 3 (12:44):
Well?
Speaker 2 (12:44):
I made up all the checks, so I knew them
very well. They had to come to me to get
the checks every week.
Speaker 3 (12:49):
So Greenberg.
Speaker 2 (12:51):
I got to know Greenburg so as he started working there,
because they got to give me all the information to
make up the payroll checks. You know, So I got
I got a good relationship with everyone. But on Thursday,
I gave everybody that checks except you know, I'm in
the nestluth. I just mild to the bank account. But mean,
like the guys that worked in office, everybody, I knew
everybody in office, and everybody knew me because I was
(13:12):
a payroll clerk, you know, And I got to meet
all the musicians the same way, you know, because the payroll.
Speaker 4 (13:17):
Did they ever have any problem meeting payroll through They
always have money?
Speaker 2 (13:21):
Never, never, never not. When I was there, we always
had money for payroll, you know. And you know, I
remember we should always have about a million dollars in
the bank account most of the times.
Speaker 4 (13:30):
You know, Okay, you're working in sales. Once again, what
exactly did you do in sales?
Speaker 3 (13:38):
And sales?
Speaker 2 (13:39):
You know, at the time, we had album release are
like twice a year, maybe January and June. And that
thing is you got to got to build up all
this stuff with all the album jackets and sleeves and
so on. You got to get all that stuff together
in order to get the albums prepared for release. And
and also you got to pick up out locations for
(14:00):
all the distributors for a record. If if you have
a record completed that is so many records, he might
he might release twenty records at that particular release date.
So you got to break down how many each distributor
is going to get based on you don't even know
if they're going to sell because some of them do
new acts, you know, So you go through an allocation
(14:21):
based on what you might what type of feedback you
might have got it from the local sale peoples. You know,
it was a job that required a lot of research,
you know, back in those days, because you didn't have
no computers and stuff like that.
Speaker 3 (14:35):
You know.
Speaker 4 (14:35):
Okay, so you're working in sales, Tell me exactly how
do you get out of sales.
Speaker 2 (14:43):
I got a sales by after I did, like I
think this second convention we was in in the Bahamas,
and you know, I was the last guy to get
to the dinner because I had to add up all
the sales. You know, they all saidn't all the distributors,
I'm a Jerry Nesta and everybody up on the stage
waiting on the total sales for that convention. And it
(15:05):
took me till about nine o'clock, you know at night,
when everybody's already eating and stuff, by the time I
take to take the finished amount. Let them know how many,
how many, how much the sales were done for that
particular convention. So I go up there, Oh yet thirty
six May thirty eight me you on't evere might say,
and then they'll make up and oh we did, thirty
men and everybody from but they all been waiting on Mario. Now,
(15:26):
all the whole place been waiting on We're waiting on
Mario to bring in. So I was well known by
everybody because I was the last one coming. My wife
hated that because she's sitting there eating by herself, you know,
but that was that was the main thing, you know.
And then I just decided I was an accounting again
all over again. And I figure, I'm still in an accountant,
so I need to get out of here completely. And
(15:46):
I was planning to leave and just go into the
counting field. And Greenberg said, well, man, we really need
someone to do this these FM because they're all freaks,
you know.
Speaker 4 (16:04):
Okay, just to go store. You were ready to leave
to go work as an accountant.
Speaker 3 (16:10):
We're somewhere into accounting firm, right, And you.
Speaker 4 (16:15):
Told Jerry, and then Jerry said this.
Speaker 2 (16:19):
Yeah, Jerry Greenberg, Yeah, Greenberg, Yeah, he came to me first.
You know, because when they tried to hire when I
was in the album when I was in the album
sales department, they tried to hire a guy to do
this FM promotion and he lasted about two weeks or
three weeks, and Greenberg come back said, man, this guy
is horrible. Man, why don't you try Mark? I said, well,
(16:39):
you know, like I'll have to think about it. And
then I went and spoke to my wife and so on,
and the next day I said, well, I'll do it,
but I do only want to do the rock stuff,
you know, I don't want to do that R and
B and Paola and all. He said, man, you don't
have to do that, say these cats are all freaks.
I said, well, who's going to train me to do
this job? He said, man, I don't know that. We
(17:00):
can't train it because we don't know nothing about these guts.
They're all freaks. He said, just talk the same shi
t that you talked to me, and it'll work well.
Because I used to talk a lot of trash to Jerry.
See talk the same trash you talk to me, man,
and that it'll work with them. So I just took
on the personnel and went in the station and started
like that. First station I went to was up in Boston,
(17:22):
you know BCN.
Speaker 4 (17:23):
Okay, you said they gave you a list. How many
stations were on that list?
Speaker 2 (17:28):
Oh, I guess about two hundred, about two hundred or
so already.
Speaker 4 (17:33):
And when exactly is this if you remember.
Speaker 2 (17:36):
Sixty nine, that's just when KMPX was like the big
FM station out of San Francisco where Jefferson Airplane and everything.
Speaker 3 (17:45):
Tom Downer here I think, was the well known guy
up there. And they had k.
Speaker 2 (17:50):
Santa and San Francisco. But they had a lot of
college station that they put on there as well. You
know that was college stations was on that list as well.
Speaker 4 (17:58):
So you know, okay, so you got to figure out
how to do it yourself. They give you the list
of the stations. What records did you go with? Always
went with with whatever records that were. You know, if
I had a new record, new records.
Speaker 2 (18:13):
First of all, you go with a case of twenty
five of the new releases, and you walk into the
station with like twenty records. You know, you can't get
an about to play twenty records. So I sit down
and talk with them about blues and jazz or whatever,
you know, and I'm may never forget. I went to
one station and I'm sitting down and this guy is
a Bruise fanatics supposedly on the station, but I was
born him and Zipp and raised at Chicago, so it
(18:35):
wasn't too much innerbody gonna tell me about the blues.
So I said, like, hey, man, you.
Speaker 3 (18:39):
Know who do you like? He said, Man, Johnny One
is the greatest Bruise player ever.
Speaker 2 (18:42):
I said, well, look, next time you speak to Johnaman
and ask him who he like, and you will find
out what the Bruises are about. And that's the way
I dealt with of you know, whenever I went in
the station and they and then they got to a point,
I had a reputation over here. Mario knows a lot
about the blues, and so I had like a little
following it, and they would tell other disc jockeys about it.
Speaker 3 (19:02):
Then That's how I cut into Peter Wool. Peter Wool.
Speaker 2 (19:04):
When I met Peter Wool, he had you could mention
a song and he would tell you who wrote it,
you know. I mean it was unbelievable that that really
impressed me, you know. But they were all blues oriented.
Most of these jocks loved the blues, and they loved jazz,
and they loved plassical. But they had a ride of
music that they liked. But I always stuck with the
jazz thing and and the blues stuff.
Speaker 3 (19:25):
You know.
Speaker 4 (19:25):
Oh, okay, So the first station you went to was what.
Speaker 3 (19:31):
Well k I went to the case.
Speaker 4 (19:33):
I went to ny W first okaystation, and was Scott
Muni already the program director.
Speaker 2 (19:41):
No, I don't know it was. I think it was
Roscoe Roscoe and Allison Steal. I don't know, Okay, Roscoll
and Alison Okay.
Speaker 4 (19:47):
So they don't know you from Adam. What's your pitch now?
To Alison Steel in Roscoe.
Speaker 3 (19:54):
I went in there with with the new Yardbirds record.
That was my pitch.
Speaker 2 (19:57):
You know, I had a before it was release, I
got a test pressing for the new Yardbirds and everybody
wanted to hear it.
Speaker 3 (20:04):
You know.
Speaker 2 (20:04):
So I go there and I didn't expect them to
play it on the air, but she played the whole
album that night.
Speaker 3 (20:09):
They she's called herself the night Bird. You know.
Speaker 2 (20:11):
Yeah, she played She played the whole album. While she
was playing, the phones of lighting up and people are
calling and and just going crazy. And that was my feedback,
you know. And now I let her play it for
for twice, and then Roto came on. I let him
play it twice. Then I took the test pressing back
because there was only one test pressing.
Speaker 3 (20:32):
I took it back and the next day I went
to Boston and they did the same thing.
Speaker 2 (20:37):
I let the guys play it, and you know, and
the phones are lighting up and and I'm calling distributed
to tell me a better get more records and stuff,
even at Malvern in New York and in Boston our
ring and they were and they heard it as well.
Speaker 3 (20:50):
They heard they got the feedback.
Speaker 2 (20:51):
So they got excited about this release because that wasn't
a prior to release with Atlantic. They had another record
that was the prior to release called Cartoon. That zepine
wasn't the prior to release, even though it was signed
by Jerry Wexler and and they turned out to be
the supergroup out of that whole release.
Speaker 3 (21:08):
Out of all of them. We had another guy called
Lord Search had a record out.
Speaker 2 (21:12):
Yeah, it was all in the same release, and on
Lord Search record, Jim Paige, she had played on one
track on there, and everybody in Atlantic was saying, well,
you know, like Lord's Search, they want to promote it.
Speaker 3 (21:23):
Man, we know they got this one guy, Jimmy Paige.
I think he kept.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
Jimmy Patie has an whole album coming out next week.
So he got a whole album coming out. You worried
about Lord Searches one track, But anyway, I promoted Lord
such as track with Jimmy playing, and Lord Search was
so such a character, man.
Speaker 3 (21:40):
I was on the road with him.
Speaker 2 (21:42):
He had me cracking up, you know, because he was
a promotion man himself, you know, but but he was
the first guy that appreciated promotion.
Speaker 3 (21:50):
And he said, man, you're doing a great job. That
was my first chop. I had never done it before.
He thought I was a vetter promotion. Man. I had
never done any of that before, but I had.
Speaker 2 (22:01):
I went to I think l A and San Francisco
with them, and God he dressed up like a king man,
you know, you walk into the station with his cane
in his hand.
Speaker 3 (22:11):
And I was a classic man I had. I had
so much fun with him.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
And then at the same time I would I would
play led Zeppelin's record to them, you know.
Speaker 3 (22:19):
You know, after I give me him, I let her
play led Zeppel's test present. But it was like cartoons
back in those days. It was every every every no
one knew any of.
Speaker 2 (22:28):
These records are going to be as large as they
turn out to be, you know, it's like they are now.
And most all of the acts that I worked with,
I worked with when they first started out, you know,
before they were legends.
Speaker 3 (22:39):
You know, I mean, I'm from everybody.
Speaker 4 (22:42):
So you go to the stations, You're getting this immediate reaction.
Do you go back and tell Ammad and Jerry?
Speaker 2 (22:49):
Oh, of course, I call and tell him. I call
him on the phone from where I am and tell them.
So I could tell a sales department for them to
to allocate more records than the tributars. I would call
SALEU Tonto and well it was before Dave Glue, but
whoever was in charge. I would call them at the
think Bob Corne but I would call them and tell them, like, man,
this is getting a lot of reactions. So they would
(23:09):
call them distributors to make sure they got more records.
You're allocated for that area. And it was always done
that way, and and and and dominated. Jerry would always
get the feedback from it. I called Jerry Greenberg called sometime,
I got Omas sometime, I got Jerry Wexler.
Speaker 3 (23:24):
But Jerry West wasn't too interested in the rock and
roll stuff. He's mostly interested in R and B stuff,
you know.
Speaker 4 (23:29):
So when was the first time you met LED's up
and face to face?
Speaker 3 (23:35):
At the at UH in New York City. I met
them at UH.
Speaker 2 (23:39):
They played Fillmore Fillmore East, and they I think they
opened for either The Iron Butterfly or either I don't
know one of those acts, but I know they opened
for them, And when they finished their set, the other
act couldn't gone for about two hours.
Speaker 3 (23:58):
The people was so crazy over you know.
Speaker 2 (24:01):
And then I went to Boston after that with him
and and they did Boston tea party and they did
like so many encores. Then we had a press party
in New York after that, which I still have a
picture of me. And I brought the guys from from
from our w CN down to New York for the
press party, JJ Jackson and Charlie Daniels and you know,
(24:22):
and and and that's when I got to meet them
and I end up being friends with them.
Speaker 4 (24:27):
So tell me about Peter Grant, their manager.
Speaker 2 (24:30):
Yeah, Peter Grant was one of a kind man. He
didn't take no, no junk off of no distributor, no,
no promoters. He would curse him all out. I mean,
but I got playing well with it, you know. He
was he was, he was the heavy cat, you know.
Speaker 3 (24:44):
But I did.
Speaker 2 (24:45):
I had no problem with Peter Grant because first of
all I did I was I was a guy that
I wasn't hired by him. I was Atlantic promotion. Man,
I'm traveling with the band representing Atlantic and also helping
them with I get him doing the interviews you know,
out the radio stations that night or whatever, hang out
with him in at the hotel, you know, smoking all
(25:05):
the weed at whatever we're doing, and then I might
call him at midnight said, man, I got a guy
at this jock at the station. They would go with
me to those stations, and I got to be really
popular with them, and they and I learned a lot
about music from that Zeppelin, you know, especially John Paul Jones.
Speaker 3 (25:21):
Would you learn I wish to listen to records together.
You know.
Speaker 2 (25:24):
I had a turntable. I always care a turntable, and
I had records, and they were crazy about uh, James
Brown at the Pollow nineteen six to the Pollow, Right,
So we play that record, man, And I had loved
that record too, But John Paul Jones broke got the
record down to me, man, because we would sit up
late that night, and he said, man, you know that's
(25:45):
very difficult to play. He said, those musicians, I got
a lot of respect for them because they.
Speaker 3 (25:49):
Plan everything over and over. Man, the same. And then
I started listening to it. He wasn't that.
Speaker 2 (25:56):
It popped and it's just all repetitious. He said, Man,
most musicians can't do that. That's what he told me.
And I said, man, I say, yeah, I never noticed that.
He said, that's why I so funk it. He said,
A repetition makes it funk it. But I used to
sit up and listen to records. Man, That's what we
always did. John Paul Jones and Bonzo Bonzo as well. Oh,
sit up and listen to records.
Speaker 3 (26:17):
Man, I mean I enjoyed those days, you know.
Speaker 4 (26:19):
Okay, you know, my interaction with these people is limited.
But it was kind of Jimmy's band. There was tension
with Robert. John Paul Jones was a little bit of
the outside. When the Ultimate re formed in the nineties,
he left him out. What was going on between the
band members.
Speaker 2 (26:39):
Well, remember when I first started with them, they were
all hired Jimmy. It was jim and Peter's band, you know,
and all the other guys were hiring musicians. You know,
even I said Robert Panner, even Bonzo used to say, yeah,
you know, like he said, Man, I just took this job.
I could have went on to become a merchant seaman.
He hated being He hated being on the road, you know,
(26:59):
because he had to leave his kids and family, and
that's what really made him drink a lot, because he
just didn't like being on the road. But after the
first album, I guess they made a different deal with them,
you know, and they gave him different shares and they
work it out. But I mean, John Paul Jones was
the genius in that band. Of all the musicians, he
was the heaviest of all of them as far as musicians,
(27:20):
I'm telling.
Speaker 4 (27:20):
Them, Okay, the first album has a slow rise, and
then in the fall October sixty nine, Led Zeppelin two
comes out. I mean, people have no idea how big
that record was. Instantly, Okay, that's right. Did you hear
that record and go, man, what did you do after
(27:40):
hearing the record?
Speaker 2 (27:42):
Let me just tell you, man, I was on the
road with them when they were writing the record. They
were writing a record as we was doing the tour.
You know, at six now they are touring, and they
were writing that record. They playing this stuff for me,
you know, on as they were working it out. You know,
a lot of this stuff killing and flow and all
that stuff. They had had different names for him before
before the record came out. You know, they had given
(28:03):
their the cattle. He really wrote the songs. They had
given them credit. But they got sued for about that
for later later on they got sued by Chess Records.
But at the same time, it was funk as a
Mama Gem and I loved it. You know, I knew
it was gonna be. First of all, the first records
was very had got very received very well. With the
second it was just unbelievable. I think a whole lot
(28:24):
of Love was on the second album, right right, yeah,
and that that that record, man, was when I heard
that record alone, I had a next door neighbor where
I was living in this at in La Frack City.
You know, I would play that music late at night.
The next door neighbor moved out because I played it
so loud.
Speaker 3 (28:43):
But but it was, it was. It was one of
a kind, man, One of a kind, that record, you see.
Oh man, I love that entire album, but I knew
that album and Greenberg ended up making a single, a
whole lot of Love.
Speaker 2 (28:54):
That's what really really pushed their album even probably we
had already sold about two three million before you the
single came out.
Speaker 3 (29:01):
But I mean that record was unbelievable. Man.
Speaker 2 (29:04):
That's when the ego came from eating from led zeppyra.
They started doing nine to ten deals with promoters. You know,
they were no more promoters getting forty percent and stuff.
They give the promoter ten percent and they said, man,
you have to advertise. You just put our name up
and it's gonna sell out.
Speaker 3 (29:19):
And that was the truth, you know.
Speaker 4 (29:21):
Okay, So tell me about the Edgewater in.
Speaker 3 (29:24):
Oh yeah, well, you know we I was at the
second on the second edge water.
Speaker 2 (29:28):
I didn't go to the first one when they had
uh with iron butterfly what not iron but but uh
but never first that was the first one. I was
there for the second Edgewater end. This was the funniest
out of all the places in my life.
Speaker 3 (29:44):
I had more laughs. We were on tour.
Speaker 2 (29:47):
I didn't like thirty four one night of that zepbra
so this Jimmy Page and Bomso kept saying, Mario, man,
you wait till we get to just see it to Seattle, man,
say we hit We got a hotel. Man, you can
just fish right out the window. What I care about
fishing is nothing, you know, man, You can fish right
out the window, man, you know, and you and you
(30:08):
buy those by that, by that, by that, by those steaks, man,
And and they just catch fish all day. Man, and
they gotta praise you by I said, okay, man. So
soon as we get there, they couldn't holler a wait
to get in the hotel. They go to the place
and buy the uh gear, the fishing gear, and then
they buy these steaks, you know, buy steaks.
Speaker 3 (30:26):
I don't know what they paid for the steaks.
Speaker 2 (30:27):
They buy a whole bunch of steaks, right, and they
come back to the room. So I'm come on, Mary,
let me show you. They throw this stuff in them
and they stopped fishing. Man, so we're fishing. I wasn't fishing,
but they were fishing, and I'm watching it. And they
pulling these sharks, you know, sharks coming through the window
and they take man, they take them. They where we're
gonnaut them up, put their bathrooms. So I run the water,
(30:47):
throw them a bathtub. So now the bathtub is full.
Now they start putt them up under the bed. It
was so funny, man.
Speaker 3 (30:53):
I tell you that.
Speaker 2 (30:54):
Many and by the time it's time for a sound check,
you must have about twenty sharks in the room already.
And it smelled like a fish market. And they say, oh,
man a, really we gotta go to sound say you
gotta go to sound check, Well, we gotta go to
sound check.
Speaker 3 (31:09):
So we said, man, we'll just leave our stuff in.
When we come back from soundcheck, we'll we'll continue fishing.
They go and do the soundcheck.
Speaker 2 (31:17):
To come back, they only got like an hour before
this time to go back to the play.
Speaker 3 (31:21):
They go and fish again.
Speaker 2 (31:22):
Many they pull them up and now they got a
shock man about about three feet long.
Speaker 3 (31:29):
They put them in the bed and cover them up
just like your humor. I mean, like, this is the funniest.
Speaker 2 (31:34):
I had never seen anything like before my life, you know,
and I was swimming the sippy.
Speaker 3 (31:38):
I'd never seen nothing. So anyway, now we go.
Speaker 2 (31:40):
To do the show. You know, we go to the
coliseum wherever it is to do the show, come back
to show Man and they got groupers in the hallway. Say, man,
we ain't mess with no groups, and now we're gonna fish.
You know. Boom, they go back, fetch out the window
and we fish till daybreak. And now, man, there's so
many fish all over the room. They can't He was
(32:01):
sleeping in the room and they said, well, so they
end up going up to my room.
Speaker 3 (32:04):
And most of them crashed at my room because they
did all that.
Speaker 2 (32:06):
Rooms are full of fish, man, I mean, it was unbelievable,
the funniest time, funniest thing that was seen in my life.
Speaker 4 (32:13):
Okay, when did the hotel catch on.
Speaker 3 (32:16):
The next morning as we as we uh all waking out,
but they all in the same we all in the
same room.
Speaker 2 (32:24):
We look out the one of theirs, Richard Cole, throwing
fish out the windows from the other rooms, throwing the
fish back in there. And and also he threw like
a refrigerator that had some champagne, you know, some dumb
periona in case dump. He threw that in the in
there as well, you know, because the maize came in complaining.
(32:44):
So he threw all that stuff back into the.
Speaker 3 (32:46):
Into the bay. And uh and and and then.
Speaker 2 (32:51):
Jimmy said, hey, man, where's the champagne And he said,
there go floating down. He threw out the window twelve
with all the fish. And they had to pay like
a big fee for that, you know, for what they did.
They paid, They paid the hotel for what they did.
But I mean it was like a few were young people, man,
so you know, like I just had never seen anything
like it before.
Speaker 3 (33:10):
But they didn't mean it at all. They just was
having fun and that was their their way. Man. They
had fun everywhere. I had more fun with that band
than any other band on the planet.
Speaker 4 (33:28):
So Bonzo was legendary for throwing TVs out the window.
Speaker 2 (33:33):
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, you know, Like I mean, I
saw him one time. He went in a room of
TV to work right and just took it and went
to the winter boom. I said, oh shit, I mean,
like I never seen nothing like booms. Just dropped out
and then he got her phone, picked her phone call operator.
How much one of these televisions are worth them? It
said four out of that we'll.
Speaker 3 (33:49):
Put it on the home tailo out. We need to know.
I mean, but that that was That was normal, man,
That was normal.
Speaker 2 (33:58):
But you know, like as but they were good guys, man,
they were really just they were just bored, man.
Speaker 3 (34:02):
Because the boredom.
Speaker 2 (34:04):
And at that age, oh, they were younger than me.
I mean I was only about I was like twenty
seven twenty eight at the time, and.
Speaker 3 (34:13):
They were younger than me.
Speaker 2 (34:14):
So you know, like hey, and I was like a
level headed compared to some of the stuff they were doing,
you know, but we had a lot of fun.
Speaker 4 (34:22):
So other than introducing them to radio stations, bring him
to radio stations, bringing jocks to meet them, what other
stuff do Did they look for you to get them
drugs or anything else?
Speaker 3 (34:33):
No, I didn't look for me to get no drugs.
Speaker 2 (34:35):
I mean because if I got a drug of people myself,
because but they had their own connections for that. You know,
because Richard Cole had been on the road for years
with all other bands, so anything they were in every
city he had been on the band.
Speaker 3 (34:46):
He knew everything that was happening in every city. You know.
Speaker 2 (34:49):
He was a legendary road manager for number groups, you know,
including Vanilla Fuds, you know, so he knew a lot
of people.
Speaker 4 (34:58):
So tell me about Crosby Stools in ah and then eventually.
Speaker 2 (35:01):
Young Yeah, Carols was still the Nash Well they they
had you know. I had known Stephen Stills from when
I was a bookkeeper, you know. I mean I got
to know him when he was with uh with with
the First but Buffalo Springfield, Buffalo spring Buffalo Springfield. When
he was with that band, I got to know him,
(35:21):
and and Neil Young then, you know, and and and
Dewry Martin and and and Richard Fury.
Speaker 3 (35:28):
I knew all of them back then, you know.
Speaker 2 (35:30):
And and when they played New York, you know, I
would always go see them, you know, if they played
it in a gag so on uh And I mean
I I caught him one time when they was playing
I think uh Uconald's or something like that. I forget
the name of the place, but it was some some
club by the by the fifth Night Street Bridge. I
went to see them there with Otis Redding. One night,
(35:51):
Otis Redding and Otis had been playing at the Apollo
Buffalo Springfield playing at this place. And after I went
to Apollo to see Otis, Armon was in. He gave
me a ride to to this place to see uh
Buffalo Springfield with Otis in the car. And Otis, you know,
I've been drinking a bit. So he sat and they
(36:13):
wanted Otis to get up to set in with him,
but he had been drinking a little too much, and
he when he first when he first got up, you know,
he picked up and he just fell flatter and got up.
Then he got up the same. It was classic, but
I mean that was that was the type of thing.
But I knew Stephen still from that time, so my
my relationship with him was was always good up then
(36:34):
when he when they decided to do Crouds and Steels
and Nash, I had just gotten into promotion. I had
a test present for Crossing Steels in Nash and a
test president for Jay Gile's band gonna be released on
the same release.
Speaker 3 (36:47):
So when I went on the road, I.
Speaker 2 (36:48):
Took both of those test presents with me all over.
I remember I went to Seattle. I went to a
whole lot of places, but I remember in Seattle I
went to a disc jocket. I guess about midnight with
both of those test presents, and everybody wanted Cross Still
a Nash Test ben because there was so much hype before.
Speaker 3 (37:06):
It even came out. We knew it was a supergroup.
Speaker 2 (37:08):
So I would tell them, you know, like, I'll let
you play Krugs Still a Nash Test present if you
play this other test pression that I have first, which
is Jake golls Man, and.
Speaker 3 (37:16):
It's who was this?
Speaker 2 (37:17):
I said, it's a new record, So I said, you
played this old record that you played the old So
that's how I got the record. That's how I got
Jake Giles played by using Crubs Still the Nash stuff
played young and I had, you know, I had always
gone to Stevens House, you know, all the time, back
when they were they was jamming with Crowds, Stills, the
Nash and stuff. And whenever you went to Stevens House
(37:38):
and Laurel Canyon, there was Jona Mitchell everybody there with
acoustic guitars and they always jam you know.
Speaker 3 (37:45):
Sometime Neil Young would come over, but.
Speaker 2 (37:48):
Uh uh, I'm just a lot of guys, a lot
of guys. We're there jamming all the time. So that
met a lot of people at Stevens House, and that's
what that would be the first place I'd go. Whenever
I went to LA I would go to Stevens House,
you know. And Steven was a good friend up until
the day, even until the.
Speaker 4 (38:03):
Day, so when you went to stations, you know, by
the time he hit the eighties and nineties, record labels
have priority tracks and they go from track to track
to track. When you started, did you just wanted to
play something, or you'd say, no, this is the one
you want to play, don't play that one yet, we're
not ready for that.
Speaker 2 (38:23):
No, no, And back I was an album guy, so
I would go there with the tracks that I like,
and I'll tell them those tracks that I like first.
But if you got a track that you like, you
were welcome to play that, but to try this one first.
I would always do that, even with let Zeppe when
I did that, even with Krugs till the Nash, I
did it even though they had a single out prior
and Krugs still Nash. She had a single that had
been out before the album came out. But most of
(38:45):
the albums that I had didn't have singles before they
came out.
Speaker 3 (38:48):
You know.
Speaker 2 (38:49):
We would always use the album to pick the singles,
you know, from FM guys to play so many, so
many guys to play a certain track, and I would
go report it back to Atlanta. K Man, we should
release this as a single, you know, because it's getting
a lot of play, like ROBERTA. Flack stuff, you know,
the same thing. Uh, first time I saw the plays
because it was a track that got a lot of play,
(39:09):
you know. And and that's how we picked singles back then.
It wasn't it wasn't just off the top of your head.
Most of the f film stations helped pick the singles
for the AM station.
Speaker 4 (39:19):
Okay, how did you promote the records that weren't so great?
Speaker 3 (39:25):
Usually?
Speaker 2 (39:25):
My my my game was this, I said, look, man,
I love this record here.
Speaker 3 (39:30):
You know, if a record that I really love, I
talk a.
Speaker 2 (39:32):
Lot of s h I t I talk a lot
of trash, you know, boom blah blah bom. Now if
I don't, I said, man, this is a record you know,
if you like it, call me if you If you
like it, tell everybody. If you don't like it, call me.
That's what I would tell I. Don't try to push stuff.
You couldn't push nothing on film jocks. You know they're
gonna do what they wanted to do. So you try
to figure out what You try to find out what
(39:54):
type of music they really like.
Speaker 3 (39:55):
Each one.
Speaker 2 (39:56):
Each this jockey was their own program director. Every this
jockey came and they program, they play what they want
to play. So you try to figure out what type
of music they like and try to pick a track
within their game, you know. And that's what I did
all over America. Man, it was you had to know
the dis jockra get to hang out with them.
Speaker 4 (40:12):
To Norman, Okay, So you know disc jockeys have different shifts,
so right, you know, how would you go to a
station and make sure that you spoke with all the jocks.
Speaker 2 (40:23):
Look, I'd go to the station and hang with one jockey.
When when he leave, I'll go back. Every four hours,
I was back and forth and hanging I'm telling you
sometime I stayed.
Speaker 3 (40:31):
Sometimes I would stay in the station from it.
Speaker 2 (40:33):
I would go there like at eight o'clock and leave
at four in the morning because as they change shift,
I would stay there and they've heard the stuff that
I'm talking. They want to want me to give him
the sam in Mason, I've giving a guy before him.
Speaker 3 (40:46):
So I'd stay there, you know. And we smoke a
lot of weed back.
Speaker 2 (40:48):
In those days, you know, so you could just sing,
you could hang you know, and and then you know,
we brought pizza and wine, you know, go out pizza
and wine, and they didn't care about going to a
lucky restaurant.
Speaker 3 (40:59):
And I tell you, I really enjoyed those days.
Speaker 2 (41:02):
I must admit I enjoyed those days because it was
nobody knew FM was gonna be as popular as.
Speaker 3 (41:08):
It is before a or R. It was just just.
Speaker 2 (41:11):
A pre form radio at the time. And uh, and
it was very interesting.
Speaker 3 (41:15):
You know.
Speaker 2 (41:15):
We bought we bought spots on on those stations for
for albums that we had problems getting played. I would
buy spots and I'd have that this chockey that makes
the spot. So if he makes the spot, that I
mean he got to listen to the record, you know,
So you had you had you have to use all
the type of uh improvisation you had to improvise.
Speaker 3 (41:33):
As far as promoting.
Speaker 2 (41:34):
Back in those days, the most important thing was to
get the DJs to play your record, and you had
to figure out a way. And if I have a
record that I know that this chockt don't like and
I and I need a spot made, I'll tell him, Hey, man,
I need a spot, a national spot for this record.
Speaker 3 (41:50):
He said, that's a piece of He said, that's a
piece of ship. Man.
Speaker 2 (41:53):
I said, look, but I need an Can you do
me a spot? I said, I give you, give you
five hundred dollars. Yeah, I'll do the spot. They do
the spot and they'll pick out tracks that you probably
didn't even like it, and they and then made it
a big production and it sounds even the records sound
better because the way they montaged it together.
Speaker 3 (42:13):
And I said, man, you really broke that record. He
really didn't break nothing, but I'm tell him that, you know.
Speaker 2 (42:17):
And then and then you got one guy that beleeves
in the record on that station. Sometimes it, you know,
it spreads through the other guys. But that was the
type of promotion you had to do in those days.
No payolo for film this jockey.
Speaker 3 (42:32):
They didn't go for that. Payol. It was none of that.
Speaker 4 (42:34):
And so to what degree would you leverage one station
against them? Would you go in and say, hey, you
know these other stations are playing it, you better play it.
Speaker 3 (42:43):
Look, man, let me tell you.
Speaker 2 (42:44):
First of all, if it's two stations in the same
city and I got one of them on it, I said, man,
you don't have to play it at all, because boo
boo play.
Speaker 3 (42:51):
I remember even in Boston, even in Boston, I would.
Speaker 2 (42:53):
Get go to the direct to the b to the
b U Boston University station and get them to play
stuff that BCN wouldn't play right. And what I did
I gave I gave John Hackheimer the led Zeppelin album
before I gave it to b CNN because because Al
perrickter but I can't stand all that blue, that that
(43:14):
rock and white boy doing the blue.
Speaker 5 (43:17):
So when he broke he played it over there and
everybody said, oh, man, we heard the new led Zeppelin
played over here. It'd be They called me, man, when
you gonna bring it over to us? I said, I'll
bring it over to Mark. But that's the difference. That's
what you had to do that game back then. I mean,
it's not like that now.
Speaker 2 (43:32):
Of course it was a different ball game, but that
was that was That's why you had to play one
station against the other man.
Speaker 3 (43:37):
I don't care if you know city one guy they played, Okay,
I'll take across the street and get it played. That's
what you had to do.
Speaker 4 (43:43):
And you know, as the business became more professionalized, they
kept the promotion people at arm's length. Was everybody always
glad to see you.
Speaker 2 (43:54):
They were always happen to see me because I was
John Carter, the Potter starter, you Knownick Won.
Speaker 3 (43:58):
They wanted to hang with me because I always had
something going on, you know. And plus I just was
a funny guy.
Speaker 2 (44:03):
I was just a guy that was fun to be around,
and they enjoyed my company. And plus and I and
I could also bring like Mick Jagger, you know, whoever
the catcher they idolized. They would come with me, a
Dwayne Auburn or stuff.
Speaker 3 (44:15):
I would. I would always take him to the station
with me sometime, you know.
Speaker 2 (44:18):
And and I always had that type of direct contact
with the artists. I remember I was in Boston once
and uh I was on the on the on the
tour with Rollerstones and Sticky Fingers, right, And that was
a big tour, you know. But everybody want to talk
to Jager, you know, I mean everybody man Jaggers say, man,
look they said.
Speaker 3 (44:38):
That big Amazon tour with them called.
Speaker 2 (44:40):
So they called me up and I said, man, I
see Jack and like I said, Jack and lessen to
anybody else.
Speaker 3 (44:46):
Well look, man, you I know we want to ask.
What I'll do.
Speaker 2 (44:49):
I'll get you backstage passes, you know, for the concerts,
for the tour, for the concert and afterwards, you know,
you come and dress when we talk. I gave I
think it was a child's black with.
Speaker 3 (45:00):
I think they're one of one of those crazy mamage.
Speaker 2 (45:03):
I gave him the backstage past to come back stage
when I come back there.
Speaker 3 (45:07):
Back that talk with everybody in the bed.
Speaker 2 (45:10):
You know, you know already put the put put the
put out on that I let everybody in.
Speaker 3 (45:15):
I said, but it was cool, you know.
Speaker 2 (45:17):
But but that's how I got along well with those guys,
you know, because the I had like connections to get
them things that they wanted to do.
Speaker 3 (45:24):
They wanted to be around, you know, the entertainers and storm.
Speaker 4 (45:27):
You know, how did you break Yes? They had two
stifth albums before the Yes album and they didn't sound
like anything else.
Speaker 2 (45:36):
The first the first album was the one, uh uh
but what it was what I'm trying to remember the
name of round about it round About?
Speaker 4 (45:42):
I think that was actually the fourth album. First album
had a cover I just called Yes, had a cover
of the Beatles. Every little thing. It was a stiff
second one time, in a word, even more stiff. Then
they put out the Yes album and then they put
out Fragile with Roundabout.
Speaker 3 (46:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (46:01):
Well, well, I well I knew them when they had
before their first manager, I forget the name, but I
knew them before emas Lake and Palmer, even from their
group Yes was probably in England and uh yes was
around About is the track that I remember, you know,
I can't remember too much else I went. I went
on tour with them, you know, I went on tour
(46:21):
with them and everybody was like vegetarian or something like that.
You know, Jan Anderson, I think his name was the
least singer, John Anderson. Yeah, so anyway, he was a
he was a vegetarian. And we was in Detroit, you know,
so I like barbecue stuff. So we hit it off
the bus and he said, man, Marty, can he take
us a place? Against something meant, I don't know they vegetarian,
(46:42):
so I go to barbecue garings, you know.
Speaker 6 (46:44):
So it's like two in the morning. He said, oh man,
we don't eat that joking the head too bad. I
was just snicking my feet, but you know, that was
the thing. But there they were nice guys, you know,
Robert Pripp.
Speaker 2 (46:58):
I think it was the name guitar player from Yeah,
but I did King Crimson and Yes on the same tour.
Speaker 3 (47:05):
I think it was.
Speaker 2 (47:06):
But but I mean, look, I to me, I respected
all musicians because they could read and play, you know,
and I know how difficult that was if you can
read music and play. I know how difficult it was
because I took music in high school. So I respected
them because of that, you know. So, But at the
same time, I didn't have no I didn't idolize, you know.
(47:28):
I wasn't idem my idols like the Narius, Mark Miles Davis,
John Coach and I was just guess that I idolized, you know.
Speaker 3 (47:34):
But the rock caest was just musicians to me, you know.
Speaker 4 (47:38):
Okay, so if you were on the road with the band,
who's covering all the other stations with all the other records.
Speaker 2 (47:47):
Well, you know, we sent the records out to the
stations and we didn't have no album promotion guys. Back then,
everybody was local promotion guys that promoted most of the singles,
and you know you can and I had a few guys,
you know, some of the most guys that was ift albums,
like Bill Rawls and a couple of guys that was
into albums, John Carter and San Francisco. You know, I
(48:09):
could call them and ask him to check this and that.
But at the same time, I got to report every
every every week, every week, I got a report from
each stations, you know, and the girl's in the office
would would send me report on the road. So that's
how I really kept track of it. They let you
know who they what they added, and what albums were
added and so on, you know, because you can't stay
(48:31):
on top of it.
Speaker 3 (48:31):
You on the road a lot. And I was on
the road a lot, you know.
Speaker 4 (48:42):
So how much pressure did you get from the label?
Speaker 3 (48:46):
No, No, they couldn't pressure me. Man. I didn't give them.
I didn't care what they say I did.
Speaker 2 (48:52):
I did what I want to do. And they'll tell
you that even cherry works. All of they know I
was gonna do what I told them, I wasn't coming.
I wasn't coming to no more meetings. I told him,
don't asked me to call in for these meetings because
the meeting is all about singles, you know, And I
would they want to hear here wherever I am. I
supposed to call in and listen in the meeting. Now
I got holding on the phone for an hour and
they talking about nothing but singles. So that fissed me off.
(49:14):
And I told Jerry Wesley and oh Im, look, man,
I'm not gonna do no more me. I just send
my reports in and that's what I started doing. But
but but I had to put my foot down. Man,
I had to put my foot down. Plus I was
getting records place. So I got away with a lot
of stuff.
Speaker 4 (49:28):
So what happened when Lee Abrams came along and he
started to make playlifts, etc.
Speaker 3 (49:34):
Yeah, Lee Abras, I got to know him well, you know,
but he did me a lot of favors. I loved
Lee Abrams. He was a genius. Man. That was a
different ball game. Man. You know.
Speaker 2 (49:44):
Now it's it getting to be a business, you know.
So I did up until nineteen eighty One's last time
I deal with radio stations. Thanked, every one was the
last about radio stations. I stopped provoting records then, But uh,
I did Rick James and Lee Abrams, I did all
those did okay.
Speaker 4 (50:02):
So how did you meet Emerson Lincoln Palmer.
Speaker 2 (50:05):
I met them through their first manager when they was
on the road the first tour.
Speaker 3 (50:11):
They did in America.
Speaker 2 (50:13):
I I went to I went on the road with
them somewhere and then, and I got to know Gregor
well and Gregy. I took him to the Diamond area
in New York and they bought rings and shit, and
I saw, I want the ring the great I said.
Speaker 3 (50:27):
Man, it's a nice ring. He said, you want one.
Speaker 2 (50:29):
So he caught me a ring and I still got
it until the day with my name by initials on it,
you know. But that was on the first tour, and uh,
you know, I knew them all from the first tour,
you know, before they before they started Mantagro.
Speaker 3 (50:41):
But all the records. I promoted every one of the
records from the beginning, you know.
Speaker 4 (50:46):
And if the legend has it that they didn't want
to put out pictures at an exhibition in America, and
you convinced.
Speaker 3 (50:52):
That right, right right.
Speaker 2 (50:53):
They didn't want to put pictures Atlantic, didn't want to
put it on Atlantic, and they wanted first they wanted
give it to a done search for Electra and you know,
and then they said, well, man.
Speaker 3 (51:06):
We we can't put it out, you know, we'll none search.
You know.
Speaker 2 (51:09):
No, man, look, this record is gonna be a hit,
added till Arm. But it's gonna be it you're doing.
They were all contillion anyway back then, you know. So
in any way, they put the record out and and
we sold a median Records in about two months, you know.
And and that really because they said it's too classical.
That's what That's what Amah was saying, this is a
classical record. And they were really upset, Steve, especially Keith Emerson.
(51:31):
Keith were a little hurt because you know, he's a
classical genius. And uh, once that record came out, I
got to be really really tight with the management full
Steward before before Stewart Young, they had another manager, but
I got to be tagged with him because I was
promoting those records, you know, And and they had.
Speaker 3 (51:49):
Like a jazz that they appreciated jazz as well.
Speaker 2 (51:52):
And I got really Keith and and uh Carl. It
was jazz enthusiasts as well as classical, so I so
I got to be really tight with them.
Speaker 4 (52:01):
So how did you end up running their label?
Speaker 2 (52:03):
When they were tired of dealing with Atlantic? They wanted
to They wanted someone to run the label, and they
they gave me all that I couldn't refuse.
Speaker 3 (52:12):
You know, I was.
Speaker 2 (52:14):
I was happy to get out of Atlanta because that's
a big corporate thing. Now all of a sudden, you
gotta you gotta they got you gotta report the stockholes
and stuff, and they cutting down and you can't do this.
Speaker 3 (52:25):
You can't do this.
Speaker 2 (52:26):
You can't fly first class, you can't do ahole lot
of stuff that they tell you can't do. You know,
you got to have a receiver. You're painting that all
the work. When I'm out there at night, going to
bed at uh four in the morning, they tell me
I gotta sign in.
Speaker 3 (52:41):
Can you imagine?
Speaker 2 (52:42):
I said, if I can sign out, I'll sign in.
You understand, you know what I'm saying. If I can
sign out when you're at home with your wife and
I'm on the road with He's band, I'll sign in.
That's what I said, So that was one of the
things I didn't call to care for. But at the
same time, you know, they didn't bother me. They let
me do what I wanted to do, and I continue
to do like I did. I came in when I
got rid of you know, because I'd have been out
(53:03):
halving the night with some band if I just come
in at full in the afternoon.
Speaker 3 (53:07):
You have to you have to put up with that.
That was the deal, you know.
Speaker 4 (53:09):
So how did it work out at Manicore?
Speaker 3 (53:13):
Oh? It was Madico was fantastic.
Speaker 2 (53:15):
Man The only thing we just if I hadn't known
that they were arguing with each other before, I didn't
know they didn't get along with each other that well.
But if they'd have done one tour a year, that
coming could have stayed together. But you know, the whole trip.
If they wanted to sign an accent, they don't know,
and they don't even want to tour. And then when
he decided to tour, they want to have a band,
have a they want to tour with a full orchestra.
(53:37):
You know, you can't make any money doing that, you know.
So that was the main downfall of it. It wasn't
the music as far as ELP was concerned, they were
smash but you know they put out acts by other accidents,
you got to try to break it.
Speaker 3 (53:53):
I end up signing.
Speaker 2 (53:55):
Uh Bruce's Image because I wanted something that I could
believe in Blues Image and uh and uh you know,
I knew Mike Preneur from back then. And I also
sound a little richer to the label because I had
to have something that I could believe in. I didn't
particular it, believe in all the other some of the
other stuff they had. But at the same time, you
(54:16):
try to do the best you can.
Speaker 3 (54:18):
But EOP was the backbone of that.
Speaker 4 (54:20):
You know, Okay, but if you were a promotion person,
how did you know how to run the label.
Speaker 3 (54:26):
I knew how to run the label because I was
a businessman.
Speaker 2 (54:28):
First of all. It wasn't just promotion. You know, you
got to be a businessman to run the labor.
Speaker 3 (54:32):
I knew.
Speaker 2 (54:33):
I knew all about publicity. I knew about everything. Plus
I hired secretaries that did do stuff for.
Speaker 3 (54:37):
Me when I was away. But I promoted. Promotion was
the most important thing.
Speaker 2 (54:41):
As far as getting records on radio, we had a
band called PFM was from an Italian band Premioto Frondia
Marconi was and It and Italy they were like the Beatles,
you know.
Speaker 3 (54:52):
So we came over here.
Speaker 2 (54:53):
And uh we ended up going to Motown with them,
and they put out albums, you know, and we did
a live album and they broke as far as American concern,
but it wasn't a big big seller. But they were
still selling. Lack of manager, I mean, and Italy. You know,
everything you put out over there was gold record for them.
But you know, it was difficult as far as the
(55:14):
acts that that that Keith and Greg them were signing.
They were signing stuff that they like, you know, some
artistics to Pete SimPEL was a great lyricist. But I
knew I wasn't going to be able to sell those records,
you know.
Speaker 4 (55:28):
So what ultimately killed the band.
Speaker 3 (55:32):
They didn't get along with each other. That's what killed
the band. They didn't get along with each other.
Speaker 4 (55:35):
You know.
Speaker 2 (55:36):
They just didn't want to They didn't want to tour. Man,
you got to have three limos, you know, and they
wanted first of all, they wanted to tour with an orchestra,
which you got, like I don't know how many people
in the orchestra, but just every city you got to
have an orchestra, you got to travel with that. That
(55:57):
alone was was difficult for a store and myself to
relate to the band. They did a couple of cities
with the band like that, and we lost money, but
you know, like, hey, you lose money, you're not gonna
be in business.
Speaker 3 (56:09):
Loan. But that was the main downfall that.
Speaker 2 (56:13):
But the band as a whole was still popular as
the Beatles over here at that time. You know, they
could play anything. If they played the California Jam, I
think it and they and they, and the place was
sold out. Man, it's like Woodstock. Yeah, I mean unbelievable.
They killed it.
Speaker 1 (56:31):
Man.
Speaker 2 (56:31):
I don't even know if anybody ever recorded that, but
that was a great show. They had this spinning piano,
you know, the piano that spins. Keith to get on
the piano that spins earth Winding Fire was on that
tour as well. And the next morning after that show,
Maurice White came to my hotel room and asked me, hey, man,
(56:51):
where did you all get that spinis piano? So I
turned him on to keep and they got the spinding
piano for when the fire That's how they got you know, man.
Speaker 3 (57:03):
It was ELP was innovators, man, I mean, and and
uh Keith Emerson.
Speaker 2 (57:10):
Man, I had so many keyboard players coming to me
about Keith Emerson. Man, you know, they just idolized the
guy from Bernard Warrell from Fukadelic, that was one of
his favorite guys. It was amazing, man, because he did
that move with him and Steven Wonder was the guys
on the move back in those days. And Keith took
the move on stage and played it, you know, like
(57:31):
as part of his instrument and Keith and uh Steven
want to end up using the move as well, the
same guys as Keith was using on his album. But man,
that that was some great days. I look back at
those days, man, those fantastic days.
Speaker 4 (57:45):
What about Phil Walden in the Almond Brothers.
Speaker 3 (57:49):
Oh yeah, I love Feelings and uh Frank Finer. You know, man,
let me tell you Dwayne Alman.
Speaker 2 (57:56):
I knew Dwayne when he was Skydog, you know, when
he was come to New York to play on Reretha Franklin.
Speaker 3 (58:02):
I was payroll clerk, so.
Speaker 2 (58:04):
I got to know got to know Dwayne real well,
you know, because when he first come up.
Speaker 3 (58:09):
You know, you got to give me the W two
and another fan.
Speaker 2 (58:12):
And he wanted to go to Halem, so I would
take him to places and you know, and he sit
in a jam and I turned him onto King Curtis
because King was on the session with but he didn't
know King, but I knew King well. So we hung out, Me,
King and Dwayne all we all hung out together after
those after they did those sessions with the Reaper, and
Dwayne said, well, Mari, you know, man, I'm gonna have
my own band soon.
Speaker 3 (58:33):
You know it's gonna be a mother man. You know
I have been gonna be the band's man. I said, okay, Man,
I didn't know it's gonna be the All Brothers band.
Speaker 2 (58:40):
But when he all of a sudden he covered All
Brothers band. It's on Capricorn, but they were distributed by
Warner Bros. But I was so tight with Dwayne. I
would promote their record, you know, and I and I
knew Phil Walden and Frank Crunter very well.
Speaker 3 (58:55):
So I would always promote to all my brothers.
Speaker 2 (58:57):
And I went on the road with them when they
were driving, had a Winnabago, and I would I wouldn't
ride in Winnebago. But I would to meet him in
towns and they were into Winnebago and they said, man,
well we'd be rally and they thought that was like
high living because you know, the just this is when
they stopped.
Speaker 3 (59:13):
Oh man, we got a own man we ride.
Speaker 2 (59:15):
We'd be looking out the windows going across Golden Gate brick,
you know.
Speaker 3 (59:18):
And that was when they first started out. Man, and
I loved those guys. I used to go to the
picnics that they had every summer. You know.
Speaker 2 (59:25):
It was like, hey, man, I mean it's just so
many stories about all my brothers and Dwayne Almond. You know,
Dwayne was just really really like a brother to me. Man.
Speaker 3 (59:36):
You know, we hung out and played music. The guy
played music.
Speaker 2 (59:39):
I was taken to the blues clubs in the ghetto
and he's sitting with these guys.
Speaker 3 (59:44):
I remember when we was in Atlanta once.
Speaker 2 (59:47):
I took Dwayne to see Barbara du Blaan, right, and
it's in Atlanta and the Dead and the ghetto. Man
in a club, you know, cut throw club. But I
get a limbo and I tell Dwayne bring your guitar.
I said, look, man, bring your guitar. So he brings
the guitar and we go into the club. You know,
I knew the guy at the club. So we go
in the club and Bobby Blue Blander is singer. You know,
(01:00:09):
Bobby is a Mama Jones.
Speaker 3 (01:00:10):
So I'd go to I do Barble's I said, Boba, man, boy,
he played like Elmo James. So Joyne got up there
and played and played that bottle neck and ship and
just wore it out.
Speaker 2 (01:00:22):
Man, whoa whoa wa the club out of all the
holes in the piencils hollering in can on and he
playing one wo wow anything whoy and uh and you know,
baba bana, you know how y'all man look that night
was Mama Jes.
Speaker 7 (01:00:38):
So after after they finished playing, we had the dreads room,
Dwayne walked over with Bobby Pan said, man, you better
get your ship together because my brother coming after your.
Speaker 2 (01:00:51):
Man.
Speaker 3 (01:00:52):
That was that was I thought I that.
Speaker 2 (01:00:55):
He told Bob Blue playing that, and he ended up
meeting Greg and they got to be good buddies.
Speaker 3 (01:00:59):
Man Gregg idolized about group lay. But when Duayne, I said, man,
you can't tell you to hell man, I just had
to tell him. I had to tell it.
Speaker 2 (01:01:06):
But boy, that that's the type of stuff that Dwayne
and you know, like, hey, man, now I love that guy.
Man he you know when they when he when he
uh when when they played the Boston Commons once and
after Boston Commons, I take limo, I'm going to New
York because we're going. I'm going to King Curtis funeral now, right,
(01:01:26):
So Dwayne Wan, I said, well, come on, man, go
with me.
Speaker 3 (01:01:28):
I'm going to the funeral. So Dwayne come.
Speaker 2 (01:01:31):
We we get off of the airport at LaGuardia and
I go to my house to put myself down there,
and I said.
Speaker 3 (01:01:36):
Man, I got it. We're gonna go to the funeral after.
So we we both go to.
Speaker 2 (01:01:40):
The General man at at at Reverend whatever was Riverside Church,
Jesse Jackson gave the obituary and stuff, and Dwayne is
sitting there with me, and Dwayne said, man, that was
a nice service man, you know, like you don't mind
down you have appreciate us a ship.
Speaker 3 (01:01:54):
You know. I don't know, hey about Dan, I don't
care about you know.
Speaker 2 (01:01:58):
But anyway, maybe about two weeks a month later, man,
he died. When that messed me up completely, I was
I couldn't even go to the own brother to his funeral.
Man because of that. It was but you know, like
that was that those two guys, King Curtis and Dwayne Man.
He was like, we're really tight. And they passed and
just a month or so later he's he's out. You know,
(01:02:18):
he died like a month so and an after that,
I go to to UH to Capricorn's picnic. After Dwayne
had passed. I went to the picnic that summer and Bo,
who was the bass player, was was just tore up.
It was just depressed as the devil. Only one in
the band that just could not function because Dwayne had passed,
(01:02:39):
you know. And I said, I said, b O, what's somebody?
He said, Man, I don't know if I can continue
without without Dwayne. And then he ended up dying about
a year later or so. You know, but I'm just saying, man,
that that was.
Speaker 3 (01:02:51):
That was. That was though. That band was just one
of my favorites.
Speaker 2 (01:02:55):
Man, all my brothers, Jay Gulls and Rollerstone, that Zeppelin,
those four I would fight fight averybody else.
Speaker 4 (01:03:01):
Okay, weren't you with the famous gig in Buffalo where
Twigs took out the night told me that story.
Speaker 2 (01:03:11):
Well, look, I didn't see him. I was at the gig, right,
So we come back. They on the bus and I
had always rent a car, right, so I was on
the bus.
Speaker 3 (01:03:20):
You know. We go to the bus with smokes, some
joints now Twigs.
Speaker 2 (01:03:24):
They said, man, they don't want to pay us, you know,
they told Twigg guy, don't want to pay us. They
had get the back end, you know. I there wasn't
no one maybe about five hundred dollars whatever. It was
this my heels a guy, Damn, we ain't paying you
hip nothing And twigxcept let me go back and see
if I can get it. He went back in there,
(01:03:46):
and man, I don't know what happened, but I know
he killed it, you know. And and next thing we know,
we police and everything.
Speaker 3 (01:03:53):
You know, and it was Twigs.
Speaker 2 (01:03:56):
Twigs you know, was a was a was a x
GI X paratrooper from from from Vietnam.
Speaker 3 (01:04:02):
You know. He he didn't take no, he didn't take nothing.
Speaker 2 (01:04:06):
But you know, Bill Waller supported him all while he
was in jail though, and when he got out, he
got their job right back with the band.
Speaker 3 (01:04:14):
You know.
Speaker 4 (01:04:15):
Okay, what was it like being the black guy in
a white rock world?
Speaker 3 (01:04:20):
Man. You know, I must admit they accepted me so well.
Speaker 2 (01:04:24):
And and all those rock bands had more trouble in
the South than I did because they had long hair.
Because they had long hair and there was hippies, they
got more trouble than not it so, you know, I
mean like they hated they hated hippies. And then all
of a sudden, they're not there with a nigga lover,
you know they call him. They would call them all
(01:04:44):
kinds of the day. I mean, I remember we got
off the plane one time and I don't know what
city was, our little rock of Pine Bluff, whatever the
city was. We get off the plane. I'm with all
my brothers and we get off the plane. We're the
first people off the plane. That means we must be
in class. Were getting off and were walking till the
because back then you would get out. He had to
walk the flight line to the So we walking. Here
(01:05:07):
come a guy in a fucklift calling them faggots and
so on, and had listen and and uh, uh, what's.
Speaker 3 (01:05:16):
The guitar players? Uh?
Speaker 4 (01:05:20):
Dicky Bett, Dicky Bett.
Speaker 2 (01:05:21):
Dickie was the counting guy too, you know. And Dickie
getting me, I said, look, dick let me talk to him.
So of course they don't want to talk to no
black guy, you know, So I walk. I said, Man,
I don't know why you're talking about these guys. You
out here driving a fuck lift and they're the first
guys off the plane.
Speaker 3 (01:05:37):
They must they can buy your ass.
Speaker 2 (01:05:39):
I don't know why you and these guys felt so
bad because the black guys is reading the reading about
and that means the black guy was riding the first
plass too.
Speaker 3 (01:05:50):
So they drove on off it.
Speaker 2 (01:05:52):
And uh, Gregg said, man, I'm glad you did that,
because Dickie would have got us all in trouble because
they had got in jail before for fighting, you know,
up with time.
Speaker 3 (01:06:01):
So anyway, it was just a lot of cartoons things
back then.
Speaker 4 (01:06:04):
Because okay, so, but in your life, to what degree
have you encountered racism?
Speaker 3 (01:06:10):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (01:06:10):
Well, I I was born in Mississippi, born in Mississippi
and raised in nineteen forty one. I lived there for
seventeen years. For sixteen, well sixteen years, I went to
high school there. Now every summer I would go to
Chicago because my mother and father was there, so you know,
I was raised around all that racism. And segregation and
(01:06:31):
Jim Crow.
Speaker 3 (01:06:32):
So you know it, you know, you live with it,
but you gotta have you got to have.
Speaker 2 (01:06:38):
My parents was respected by all the people in that
particular town, so I never had no problem.
Speaker 3 (01:06:42):
I even worked in the grocery store. And even though you.
Speaker 2 (01:06:45):
Know, when Emmitt Till got killed, that was the same
age I was, and was about thirty miles away from
where I lived, and he was the same age I was,
you know, and he was from Chicago, come down for
the summer, just like all the cats in the Mississippi.
Speaker 3 (01:06:58):
I have kids come down the summer.
Speaker 2 (01:07:00):
So I mean, you live all around all of that,
you see it, but you have to deal with it, man,
because back then, what the fuck could you do? You know,
But as long as they didn't bother my family, because
my grandfather was highly respected by the sheriff and everybody
in that city, and he worked for like the wealthiest
I guess a man in town, so he had a
(01:07:21):
lot of cloud and my grandmother, you know, worked for
the did all the cleaning of the rest the lawyers offices,
the dentist offices and stuff.
Speaker 3 (01:07:32):
So I got to know all the people in that.
Speaker 2 (01:07:34):
Town as far as the business people because of my
grandmother and my grandfather. So I could walk to I
could be walking across the square like at midnight, and
they have all those kids out there messing with people.
Speaker 3 (01:07:47):
They never bothered me. So, well that's Tom meet his grandson,
you know, and let me go through.
Speaker 2 (01:07:51):
So I had that type of respect, even though it
was still horrible, you know, but I didn't have any
personal problem with it.
Speaker 4 (01:07:59):
Well, you went to a segregated school.
Speaker 2 (01:08:02):
Yeah, I went to Thank Thanks Schools, segregated high school.
And we got the books after the white casts finished
with them, you know. But the teachers we had all
came from up north, you know, because it was like
our a rated school. Mary McCloud Bethune, you know Mary mcleoud,
she was like a consultant to the president's back then,
(01:08:22):
but she spoke at that school. You know, she was
a high They respected our teacher and educator back then.
But she came to that school that I was going
to school at. And and and also they had choir
and musicians. Music was like music and it was it
was a religious school, you know, a sanctified school. Singing
and uh, the band was very important and they went
(01:08:45):
all over America with the bus with singers and sung
all over America to raise money.
Speaker 3 (01:08:50):
For the school. That's what they would go and sing,
you know, at different churches.
Speaker 2 (01:08:54):
And they did it all all the time while I
was at That's how they raised money for the school.
And they had a the this president of the school
with doctor Malock and on. They had a May Day
parade that went all over the town of that city
where all the white people and everybody come out to
see these parade.
Speaker 3 (01:09:10):
They all addressed up with kings and queens and all floats.
Speaker 2 (01:09:13):
And they had that every year, like in the first
first week in make and they got highly respected. But
at the same time, it's still the South, you know,
so you deal with it under the circumstances, just as
long as you get respect, you know. And because that
school was buying so much from the city, you know,
because they bought all the groceries for all those kids.
(01:09:34):
Kids came from all over America as a boarding school.
So it was very very helpful as far as education
and a rated school as far as the black school.
Speaker 3 (01:09:43):
You know.
Speaker 4 (01:09:51):
So what's this South like for black men today?
Speaker 2 (01:09:55):
I haven't the slightest idea. I haven't been there in
fifty years.
Speaker 4 (01:09:58):
So you live in Florida.
Speaker 3 (01:10:00):
Yeah, I live abroad US. That's not like Mississippis. I mean,
I still got I still got relatives and living in Mississippi.
I've been there once in forty years.
Speaker 2 (01:10:09):
You know now that I have nothing against him, you know,
but they all know how I feel about it. You know,
I got my grandmother had like four hundred acres down there.
She died and she left acres to all of the kids.
I told him, what you mind, you can give it
to one of somebody else. I didn't even want to
go get it. So that's how I feel about I
still I still have no respect for Mississippi.
Speaker 3 (01:10:29):
I'm sorry, I have no respect for.
Speaker 4 (01:10:31):
How did you end up being named Mario?
Speaker 3 (01:10:35):
My father? I'm a junior, But.
Speaker 4 (01:10:37):
How was he named Mario?
Speaker 3 (01:10:40):
I guess he was a gangster. Then what was his name?
Was Marion?
Speaker 2 (01:10:43):
Marion, but everybody called him Mario. He was a gambler man,
He was a gangster. He was a numbers man for
the mafear in Chicago before he got busted.
Speaker 3 (01:10:56):
And you know, hey, he was one of a kind.
In his junior was very difficult to following his footsteps.
Man I'm telling you he was a tough guy to
follow it. But and he was. And he was a
smart guy.
Speaker 2 (01:11:08):
Vledictorian of his class when he graduated from high school,
baseball player, gambler, all that stuff.
Speaker 3 (01:11:14):
You know.
Speaker 2 (01:11:14):
Back then they had the Black Baseball League, and he was.
He played for one of those black team, Memphis Rest.
And he was a baseball fanatic. My whole grandfather a
baseball fanatic. But uh, he he was just one of
his one of a kind man, I'm telling you honestly.
And I learned a lot from him as far as
how to deal with people. Most of the trash that
(01:11:35):
he talked, most of the trash that I was talking
when out voting records, I got it from him.
Speaker 3 (01:11:39):
You know.
Speaker 2 (01:11:40):
He used to always say, I wouldn't give a Mama gemma.
You know he was talking about that, and I said, well, man,
who did that? He said, I wouldn't care.
Speaker 3 (01:11:49):
It was Peter. We started up scaling Baylor and all
the same with me.
Speaker 5 (01:11:54):
You know, he had to say he said, I wouldn't
give a mash Mexican fly.
Speaker 3 (01:11:58):
For that jump. But he had like sings man that
really stood out.
Speaker 2 (01:12:03):
And you know, he hung out with all the jazz musicians,
and he used to gamble with him, you know, in
the jazz and blue musicians on forty seventh Street in Chicago.
We lived on fortieth in South Park, and that was
seven blocks from the Regal Theater where we lived when
I was growing up in Chicago. Every summer I go
up there. I was seven blocks from the rigo, you
know bb King and all ve playing the rigo. We
(01:12:24):
would go up there and stay outside and listen to
his kids, you know, when I was ten twelve years old,
listened to and then my first rock concert that I
went to was Chuck Berry and uh, I think I
was about what I was about thirteen or fourteen, and
my stepmother, I and the girl that lived above me.
(01:12:45):
It was like my date name was Gladys. Me Gladys
and my stepmother. We'd go into this. Just see Chuck
Berry at the trianon Ballroom sixty second in Cottage grow
up in Chicago.
Speaker 3 (01:12:56):
Now that's my first date.
Speaker 2 (01:12:57):
In life, you know, and I'm take this girl with
my with my with my step mother.
Speaker 3 (01:13:03):
We go and Chuck barry Man was doing a roll over.
Speaker 2 (01:13:05):
Bit told him, you know, it got the old man
and doing everything down and doing the chicken out of
the duck hop and stuff. And it's all black people
in there, you know. And they dressed to the tea
man and you know, and and people dancing the car
and only and one guy must have stepped on his
pimp's foot. Now this is my first concert. Stepped on
(01:13:26):
his foot and messed up his shoes and he pulled
out his pistol and he and I saw the pistol.
Speaker 3 (01:13:32):
I was a civil pistol. You know, the white had
a white an sivil pistol.
Speaker 2 (01:13:35):
I saw the pistol and the whole dance for a
clear of course. I came there with my my step
mother into my date. I was the first person out
of it. I left them, you know, I left the
date and everybody.
Speaker 3 (01:13:49):
I was standing outside when they came out.
Speaker 2 (01:13:53):
My my stepmother said, uh, they call me junr. You
can't believe in your girlfriend. I said, she better learned
to run because I saw that pistol. I saw that pistol.
But you know, that's what I remember about Chuck Berry.
That was my first concert man in life was Chuck Berry.
And I had to run from that pistol.
Speaker 3 (01:14:11):
Man.
Speaker 2 (01:14:11):
I'll never forget that. And you know, and and I
was always chasing the music all my life. Man Chuck Berry,
I was pressing all those guys. Man, I was crazy
about him growing up. And all those do off ben
you know, you heard them on the radio. You know,
even Johnny Cash even had that boy named Sue and stuff.
Speaker 3 (01:14:30):
But that's what we heard on the radio, you know.
And late that night they at w l a C.
Went down in Mississippily. You hear those heroes record, and
I just was.
Speaker 2 (01:14:40):
I loved the music as a kid in the street
that I was born and raised on the Mississippi was
like Bill Street and Memphis they called it Bill Street
because of all black juke joints. And I and my
my grandmother had a beauty shop where I was born
and raised in that beauty shop, next couple of doors
down the juke joints, pool halls, and music is going
(01:15:00):
all the time. As I was a kid right riding
a little wagging up and down the street, I would
hear that music, you know, Muddy Waters and and and
all the cats, all the Chess records. I remember, I'll
never get a treaty d all that stuff. La Verne
Baker and I was Johanna. You know all that stuff
that was Atlantic and Chess Records that that I was
(01:15:22):
hearing all my life.
Speaker 3 (01:15:23):
Never knew I would ever work for Atlantic Records.
Speaker 2 (01:15:26):
Never knew I'd ever have a relationship with Chess, But
those records was my When I first started collecting records
was from those singles that they took off the juke
box and those juke joints. I would get to know
the guy who brings who put the new records on.
And I was a little kid, and he knew he'd
give me those singles, you know with the big holes
in the middle. And I had those singles, man, And
(01:15:47):
I bought me a little juke box, a little record player,
and I'd get all those singles.
Speaker 3 (01:15:52):
Man.
Speaker 2 (01:15:52):
I got all those Chess records in Atlantic Records back then,
and uh and the stuff from Marshall c On on
all those records. I got those records as a as
a kid man collecting them, you know. And I had
him in those juke boxes. And I never had any
idea about the record business. It just that I love music,
you know. And Sonny Boy Williamson was another another another
(01:16:15):
guy that was blues Cat that my grandfather used to
blow harmonica and he said. He called me, junior, Junior,
you gotta you gotta learn how to blow hop, you know.
So he would get me a harmonica every Christmas and
give me and I blow it. Man to my eyes,
my eyes running water. I could never get it. And
(01:16:36):
he would just grab it and just make it talk, well, mama,
make it, make a cry, make it sound like a train.
And I said, I said, Man, I said, I say.
I said, I'd like Sonny Boy with me. He said,
Sonny boy can't blow. That's what I mean. He's sunny boy.
Speaker 3 (01:16:52):
Can't blow.
Speaker 5 (01:16:53):
Man.
Speaker 3 (01:16:53):
He said, you got a junior. Well, you know, oh
man he was.
Speaker 2 (01:16:58):
He was funny man. He had he was a cartoon.
My grandfather was a classic man.
Speaker 4 (01:17:04):
So what did you do after you graduated from high school?
Speaker 3 (01:17:06):
When I graduate from high school, I took the bus
to New York. But my grandmother and.
Speaker 2 (01:17:12):
We took the bus to New York, and I stayed
in New York for like six months before I went
into the Air Force. But but I went from from
uh from Jackson, Mississippi, all the way to New York
on the bus man greyhound bus and got off man
and I told Steven Wonder.
Speaker 3 (01:17:28):
He got that that New York thing for me when
he got off.
Speaker 2 (01:17:31):
And I said, new York all this that's because I
had mentioned all that stuff to Stevie.
Speaker 3 (01:17:35):
Well really man, you know, yeah, but I've been look,
he's blind. How the hell can he boy from Mississippi?
And then he did. He said, Partstown, missisippt And he
said Mississippi in that record.
Speaker 2 (01:17:46):
You listened to that record, par parstime, Mississippi can get
the New York buildings and stuff. That's what I said
I when I got in there, I looked up all
those buildings and stuff. But he put it in that record.
I always told him, you ripped it off of me,
you know. He said, man, forget you know. But anyway,
that was my life. So soon as I got there,
I uh my my grandmother had her brother and lived there,
(01:18:09):
so I stayed with her brother and his son, you know,
stayed there, and I was there for six months before
I went in the Air Force.
Speaker 3 (01:18:16):
Soon as I.
Speaker 2 (01:18:17):
Got there, the first thing I wanted to go go
and see with bird Land you know, and stuff like that.
Speaker 3 (01:18:21):
But they wasn't in the jazz. But they took me
to Harlem to to.
Speaker 2 (01:18:26):
You know, to Apollo, and I went to the pollow
right so as I got there. But then after that
I went to I saw Red Fox at the baby
grand led her right on one hundred twenty fifth Street.
Red Fox was doing a thing about you know, about
the horses and stuff, you know, back then. But I
saw all that stuff, and I was only seventeenth at
the time, you know, but it was a hell of experience, man,
(01:18:46):
And with the bird land and stuff, you.
Speaker 4 (01:18:47):
Know, how'd you end up going in the Air Force?
Speaker 2 (01:18:51):
I went in the Air Force, souse. First of all, I
wanted to go to college and I couldn't. I couldn't,
you know, nobody had money to send kids to college
back then, and I figured I could. I figured I'd
go in the Air Force because it's better than getting
drafted into the army because back then, you you know,
you you got drafted when you got eighteen. So I
figured out going to Air Force because I had a
cousin that had been an Air Force.
Speaker 3 (01:19:11):
He said, air force more like a job. You know,
you're working at the end of the day and then
like you know, I have to go to be on
my news and stuff.
Speaker 2 (01:19:18):
So I took that job, and I really enjoyed it
because I was a warehouse specialist at the Air Force,
you know, and uh, I want I did uh lackling
an Air Force base for basic training. I went to
Amarilla for warehouse specialist training. From there I went to
Dad to leave, and then I went to Germany for
(01:19:38):
three years, you know. And it was a great experience.
Man in Germany, I I went to all the jazz
clubs and stuff, you know, and made photographs.
Speaker 3 (01:19:48):
Of stuff, you know.
Speaker 2 (01:19:49):
And I I caught Miles Davis and John coletrain, you know,
and when they were on that last throw, right after
Count of Blue came out, and then, let me tell
you that was classic. I wasn't a Cold Trane fan then,
but I was kind of blue. I had bought that
album in Amsterdam. I paid like twenty dollars for it,
(01:20:09):
but that was a lot of money back then. But
I wanted to record so bad. And when when Miles came,
he played concert to Bow in Amsterdam, and I had
a press pass, so I was down in the pit
making photographs of the band playing. And I had never
heard octaves played before, you know, octaves on a saxophone.
(01:20:29):
And and and that's the first time I heard coal
Train blowing octas. So what happened Miles was blowing the solo,
Coltrane had to go to the toilet, So you have
to go all way upstairs to go to the toilet.
And when Miles finished blowing, the opener's eyes the train
is not there. So as as Miles looked around, train
started walking down, still.
Speaker 3 (01:20:49):
Blowing, you know, all the way down.
Speaker 2 (01:20:51):
Wait, was all the way down to the He blew
all way in and blowing octaves, his horn, squeaking and
care that'.
Speaker 3 (01:20:57):
Said all got.
Speaker 2 (01:20:58):
I had never heard nothing like that before, but it
excited me, and those octaves and stuff made me a
jazz fanatic, and I've been chasing that music ever since,
you know. But that was the reason that I and
I was and I made all kinds of photographs and
I'll never forget when when after that, after that show,
in the dressing room, they had this Dutch reporter started
(01:21:24):
talking to culture, and I guess Miles didn't like it
that Coltran had showed him up a bit.
Speaker 3 (01:21:29):
As col Train said, when you when you're doing your solo,
actually you'd be going, and it's going and going. In
that case, you can't end it. You hard to end
and Miles said, try taking the horn out of your mouth.
Speaker 4 (01:21:43):
So what happens when you get out of the army.
Speaker 2 (01:21:46):
When I got out of the army, I came, I
got that. I came back to go to college at
Queen's College. You know, I was doing Queen's College and
I needed a job, so I got lucky.
Speaker 3 (01:21:57):
A guy in the.
Speaker 2 (01:21:58):
Building turned me onto a gig where I would uh
you know, I've worked for a meet a meat uh
distribute with the meat Transports company for the for the
meat district. They would they would uh bring piggyback you know,
uh beef and pork from all over America and sometime
from out of on the trains and the trucks, and
(01:22:21):
they would bring it to Fourteenth Street to the meat district.
But China and Companies was a company that I represented,
and we were the one that did the billing for that.
So I was working writer with the meat packers, you know,
and I worked with them before I went to Atlantic.
And that was a billing job, you know, it was
It wasn't it was a bookkeeping job, but just building
wasn't like uh bookkeeping as a whole.
Speaker 3 (01:22:42):
It was just billing.
Speaker 4 (01:22:42):
You build people, did you finish college.
Speaker 2 (01:22:46):
Well, I finished college afterwards, but I I finished college
right before I started motor records. I went to college
at night. When I was working at Atlantic As in
the bookkeeping department. I was going to college every night.
I was going to light nightgh school, you know. And
I got all wait till till last. I didn't graduate
till nineteen sixty eight before I got it.
Speaker 3 (01:23:07):
And then at that.
Speaker 2 (01:23:07):
Time I ended up end up promoting records, so I
never had I used to become an account to do
accounting because I'm metioned on accounting, you know.
Speaker 4 (01:23:15):
Okay, So what happened for you? After Man of Corps
blew up?
Speaker 2 (01:23:19):
I did independent promotion independent promotion, I did Bunkadelic, all
of that, George Clinton, you know, Flashlight all that flash Light,
Moti Booty and One Nation.
Speaker 3 (01:23:31):
Under Groove and uh and uh.
Speaker 2 (01:23:34):
And then after that I did Rick James, you know,
I did Rick James and all the super Freak and
did his first.
Speaker 4 (01:23:40):
So how did you get involved with Brig James?
Speaker 3 (01:23:42):
Sheff Gordon was his manager and when they got to
do the first tour, when he wanted to do the
first tour, he had already had a hit.
Speaker 2 (01:23:51):
Call you and I was a big record, you know.
And and so now he's going to do a tour
for his first tour. But he didn't tour right away.
So he came out with a second album called Us
and out on l seventh, and Shep needed someone to
make sure he do the gigs.
Speaker 3 (01:24:05):
He had a road manager, but he said, man, Mario,
I like you. If you would be the tour manager.
Speaker 2 (01:24:11):
You know, I pay you so much, and if you
can help to sell out the shows, I'll give you
a percentage of the show.
Speaker 3 (01:24:16):
Just sell out us. So that was the deal that
I got from Shep. And so the first tour, I
was a tour manager and I didn't even and I
asked Shepperd, who's going to introduce me?
Speaker 2 (01:24:26):
He said, well, look, man, I can't stand him, he
can't stand me.
Speaker 3 (01:24:29):
You just go there. You just go there, and you
go there and introduce yourself. And I went there, and
of course Rick gave me hell the first date, but
I told him, hey, man, I don't work for you.
Speaker 2 (01:24:40):
I'm already paid. You can't find me, you know. So
we had that type of understanding. So he was telling
everybody I know that manager, youm I know him because
he knew he used to be in a band with
Neil Young, and he knew I promoted crab Stills in
National you know, he knew all about that, but he
pretended like he didn't know who I was.
Speaker 3 (01:24:56):
So I found out later that he knew all about that.
Speaker 2 (01:25:00):
That he knew and I had seen him at at
Rick's at Steven Steel's house back when Crubs Still Nashing
Young was shooting the cover of the first of the
Crabs Still Nashing Young album. Greg Reeves, one of that
bass player, Neil Young, wanted Rick James to be the
bass player and Crubs Still Nation Young, but Rick said, no, man,
(01:25:22):
so he recommended that guy, Greg Reeve's young seventeen year
old boy that they ended up taking. But that's where
Rick knew me from then. But I didn't know him because,
you know, like I just didn't know him. I didn't
even know he had been in the band with Neil Young,
because back then he was just a man that brought
all the all the all the fun over.
Speaker 3 (01:25:40):
You know.
Speaker 2 (01:25:41):
So anyway, he knew me from that, and then I
got to be friends with him afterwards after that first tour,
you know, but it was tough for the first couple
of days because everybody in the band was afraid of him,
and I would and he was sleeping nudes, you know,
and and they'd be saying, Man, we can't wake him up.
Speaker 3 (01:25:58):
Mario, I said, let me go. I go in.
Speaker 2 (01:26:00):
Oh up all the windows and it was really like
ten degrees outside. Oh up all the windows and take all.
Speaker 3 (01:26:04):
The cover off her. And he had jumplep me.
Speaker 2 (01:26:06):
And I don't want to tell you all the things
he said he's gonna do to me, But I told him,
he man, you gotta hit. We gotta do the show.
And that's what shep hired me to do to be
able to get him out of the get him to
do the show. So he was cursing me out all
the time. But later on he said, you know, I
don't know that Mario. I don't know he's crazy, but
you know how to get the job done. That's what
he always said, you know. But I mean we had
(01:26:28):
like knockdown, drag out way before Charlotte Murphy. I could
tell you some things, boy, I'm telling you Rick. I mean,
Rick was one of a kind, but a smart guy.
Speaker 3 (01:26:36):
Let me tell you. I learned a lot about club
promotion from Rick.
Speaker 4 (01:26:41):
James, what'd you learn?
Speaker 2 (01:26:43):
Just how he would take his before the records release.
What I used to do with radio stations. He had
did it to clubs. He'd take his single and had
a DJ to play his stuff. And we was in
Buffalo and we walked him and you and I would
give it to me, give it to me from that
Street Song album.
Speaker 3 (01:27:00):
He had a test pressing up.
Speaker 2 (01:27:01):
He had a tape of it, and we walked in
and he had the DJ to play it. That whole
club started jumping. I said, man, this is I knows
the smash and that's how I knew. So when we
went to go to Motown to tell him about the album,
you know, Jay Alaska tell me, well, you know way
we can't.
Speaker 3 (01:27:17):
You can't get rick this. I said, man, this is
going to be a smash. Jay. He said, oh, look,
well we're give him fifty thousand. I said, man, we
need a hundred thousand. I said, well, look, I'll tell
you what. We wait till the album come out, then
we'll come back. So the album.
Speaker 2 (01:27:31):
Released the next week, we go back there. Jay Alaska, look, man,
I got to fifty thousand for I said, now we
want a hundred thousand. So but that was the way
that sho went down. But you know, Rick wanted to
jump on the desk and pee on the desk and stuff.
But you know, like I, I didn't go over that
he wanted to jump on the desk and everything.
Speaker 3 (01:27:48):
Oh crazy.
Speaker 2 (01:27:49):
But but you know, he was a He was a
talented guy, man, believe me. As crazy as people say
he was, he was very talented and and had I
respect from everybody.
Speaker 3 (01:27:59):
Smoke A. Robinson, Steven Wonder. He just called on the phone.
Speaker 2 (01:28:03):
They come right over the studio, man, Temptations whatever, you know,
because he was a producer, they would and if he
needed him on the record, they would come right over
and sing.
Speaker 3 (01:28:11):
Background or whatever. Man, incredible guy one of the time.
Speaker 4 (01:28:16):
So how crazy was he?
Speaker 3 (01:28:19):
I can't even I can't even tell you.
Speaker 2 (01:28:21):
Man, it's not it's X rayish.
Speaker 3 (01:28:26):
Would He's crazy. Man, he's crazy. But you know with me,
I had I had to.
Speaker 2 (01:28:33):
You know, we had a couple of run ends, you know,
but he stopped messing with me, and you know, I
think I hit him in the chant one time and
he said, man, he's trying to kill me. You know
you're crazy, you know, because he knew I knew martial arts.
But he said, man, if you didn't know, kick your ass.
And I said, look, if you even dream about kicking ass,
you better wake come and apologize. And that was the
type of relationship we asked. You know, he had one time.
(01:28:57):
I remember we getting ready to do this tour and
the guy that was the tour manager that did a
tour for Jackson five, you know the last Jackson five
threw when Michael was on that tour.
Speaker 3 (01:29:09):
Well, he was gonna be the gonna do the tour
with Rick James. So he's come.
Speaker 2 (01:29:14):
He came to Buffalo to talk to Rick. I wasn't Buffalo,
I don't know where it was that. It could have
been Boston, wherever he was.
Speaker 3 (01:29:20):
He was on the road.
Speaker 2 (01:29:21):
He came to talk to Rick to get him to
let him be the tour tour manager Drew to do
the tour and tire tour. So he's in the room
talking to Rick and Rick and Rick Uh calls my
room and and and he saw me. A couple of
girls came to my room that I knew from, you know,
from other bands.
Speaker 3 (01:29:40):
He's just friends of mine. He saw that Mario got
these girls room.
Speaker 2 (01:29:44):
He sent the UH bodyguards down to my room, said
go down there and clear that room.
Speaker 3 (01:29:50):
Go down there, clear Mario's room.
Speaker 2 (01:29:52):
The bodyguards came to my door, both of them, two guys,
one of them moles and and and Ol whatever the name.
I knew them, you know, I knew them because I
used to, you know, make sure they got paid.
Speaker 3 (01:30:04):
But now they come to the door some Mario man like, uh,
we don't want to do this. Member.
Speaker 2 (01:30:09):
Rick told we got to clear your room. I said,
you ain't gonna crear nothing here. I said, I pay
for this room. I don't ricked on pay for my room.
I said, now, if you all come across the doorstep here.
If you want to die for six hundred dollars, cause
that's all you're getting paid. If that's what you want
to die for, you come in my room, I'm gonna
kill you. They stood out there as bad and big
as they were. They went back and told Rick said, man,
(01:30:30):
uh Mario, we we can't get it. So now just
this promoter, this promoter is there with Rick having all
kinds of problems, and they come back and tell him
about Mario.
Speaker 3 (01:30:41):
So he said, let's I'll go down to the room.
Speaker 2 (01:30:43):
So he comes down to the room with the promoter,
and I went off on Rick in front of the promoter.
Promoter ended up being my best friend. He said, Man,
he ended up getting the job. He ended up getting
the end up. But he said after what he said, Man,
he gave me a Louis the ton at the shake
case and he said, man, the way you hand Rick Jane, Man,
I never seen nobody do that. I said, no, I'm
(01:31:04):
not handling. I just told him, you know, like I
don't work for him. You know, I don't work for him,
you know, I work with it. And he said, well, man,
I want to try to get the tour. So I
talked to him Rick, and he let him get the tour.
He ended up getting the tour. But that that that
was the type of thing with Rick, you know, he was.
He was a tougher guy.
Speaker 3 (01:31:20):
What about the drugs, Oh yeah he did. He did
all kinds of drugs.
Speaker 2 (01:31:24):
He'll tell you, well, I'm getting ready to pill out,
you know what I mean. He gonna pill out, he's
gonna go to sleep, You're gonna pill out. Let him
pill out, you know. And he snowed up your whole house,
you know, nothing, but he but he had the money
to do it. You know, you can't stop a guy
when they're gonna do stuff. You know, I'll let him
do it.
Speaker 4 (01:31:49):
So you'd work so much in the white rock business,
what was it like? I mean, Rick James was sort
of a rock artist, but it was the black world.
What was the black radio, black promoter world?
Speaker 2 (01:32:00):
Bike night and day man night and day difference different
night and day. First of all, Rick James is the
closest to rock them out of all of them. And uh,
I never forget. When I first started on tour, Rick,
he said, Man, I want, I want you to build
me a black one like you do them rock bands.
I said, well, the first thing we gotta do if
you want to tour like a rock band is get
out of these holiday ends.
Speaker 3 (01:32:21):
He doesn't know he's got to pay for these hotels.
Speaker 2 (01:32:23):
And I'm telling me, so we get all better hotels
atter because I was towt those holiday ends. You know,
so we get But he found out later that he
paying for all this being charge of them.
Speaker 3 (01:32:31):
But you know we did that, and you know, and
and and he did pretty good on that first tour,
but he wasn't he wasn't getting a percentage.
Speaker 2 (01:32:40):
He was at a fix like he sold out the
Baltimore Arena in Baltimore or whatever it's about. I don't know,
maybe old about ten or fifteen thousand people. But he
he accepted ten thousand dollars as as amount that he wanted.
Rether Thant get a percentage of the date so that
would ship him ship they shep didn't know's going to
(01:33:01):
be selling out, But we sold it out.
Speaker 3 (01:33:03):
But they only paid him ten grands. So he was said, well, man,
you know, I'm a gungrat. Look that's that's your old mistake,
you know. But it was. It was a whole lot
of things. But I had a lot of fun with him,
you know.
Speaker 4 (01:33:13):
So how did it end with you? And Rick?
Speaker 3 (01:33:16):
What do you mean it didn't find it?
Speaker 2 (01:33:17):
After the first tour, I did that tour manager thing,
and then I went on back doing my regular promotion
whatever I was doing it, and he put out other records.
And then on nineteen eighty one, on New Year's Day
of nineteen day one, he called me because now he
had got rid of his manager. He didn't have Shepherd anymore.
(01:33:38):
So he called me, he said, man, and he getting
ready to put out street songs, right, So he called
me like new Year's Night of nineteen eighty one at
my home and Yonkers and I said, is it he said, Rick,
He said, man, I say, he said with.
Speaker 3 (01:33:50):
That, Man, I mean I wish I could get you
to help me. Man, I ain't got no manage that
neither help with my new oltum. I said, Man, you
other I was, weren't that good? You know?
Speaker 2 (01:33:58):
He said, well, let me play some of the stuff
where he played give it to me, give it to me,
give it to me, give it to me, yo. And
when he played it, I said, man, this is a
spac He said, man, come on, man, And it helped
me get this album.
Speaker 3 (01:34:09):
I got an album trying to do speet something.
Speaker 2 (01:34:11):
So the next day I ended up taking a flight
to la and I hung out with him ntil he
finished that album and stuff, and you know, and that's
when we were when we had to go to Motown,
you know, and mentioned to the fact that Jay Laska
didn't want to give him that fifty grand and stuff.
Speaker 3 (01:34:26):
You know.
Speaker 2 (01:34:27):
But while he was there, that's when I met Smoke Kid,
Steve and all of them came to the studio. When
he was doing that album, you know, he was adding
stuff to it, and I met Uh.
Speaker 3 (01:34:36):
What was the name a singer of the girl is
a sing with fire and desire? That girl?
Speaker 2 (01:34:44):
What it was the name that that son? But anyway,
when he was producing that record, all of them was
in that studio and I met him all and that's
when I knew he was like a really genius the
way he produced that record, man, and how everybody respected
him so much, you know.
Speaker 4 (01:35:00):
So how did you stop promoting records?
Speaker 2 (01:35:04):
I stopped after after that that uh Rick James album,
after that that uh Fire and Design, and that was
the last one that I did, and I stopped promotion
because then I just started back doing accounting, you know,
because I had accounting clients that I had to do
and it was less aggravation, you know, and I have
to didn't have to travel and you didn't have to
have to thread and threaten to kill people to get
(01:35:25):
paid because I had to.
Speaker 3 (01:35:27):
I had to. I did Funkadelic. I had to.
Speaker 2 (01:35:31):
Threadn them, you know, to get my pound payment label
them like thirty grand, and their attorney had to call
me up, said, bro Drugs would like to pay you
an increments, you know, ten thousands. I said, no, I
want all of it at once, because they had a
show in town, you know that night in Madison, Paier
Guard and I used to train all these uh you know,
(01:35:52):
the policemen's and knarks and stuff in New York.
Speaker 3 (01:35:54):
And I told him if he didn't if he if.
Speaker 2 (01:35:55):
I didn't get my check, I was gonna have the
Narks to come over and and bust the hope buster
the guys. Somebody is gonna be dirty in the hotel.
And and then we're gonna have.
Speaker 3 (01:36:05):
The box office. Gonna take a box office.
Speaker 2 (01:36:07):
You had to do stuff like that, you know, and
I have to We're gonna have to bust somebody of
the Bible.
Speaker 3 (01:36:11):
You know, We're gonna take a box off it.
Speaker 2 (01:36:13):
So George decided he uh, out of my box, send
the check over, and I got to check. When I
first got to check, it wasn't certified. I sent it
back to her and then you know, as she said, oh,
well it's certified. You know, after I got a certified,
I knew.
Speaker 3 (01:36:26):
It was cool.
Speaker 2 (01:36:27):
Well, that night I go to the concert of the
Panta Massabuare Guard. George see me, he's ducking and the
running the cast man.
Speaker 3 (01:36:32):
You ain't got to run. I'm funking. I'm funking. I'm
shaking my head. I'm funking. Now you got got my check.
Speaker 8 (01:36:36):
So you know, that's the type of stuff you had
to deal with when you're dealing with R and B bads,
you know, and you know it and you know and
even when I when I left Rick, you know, he
owe me like ten grands, but he found to pay me.
Speaker 3 (01:36:47):
He came to New York and and send his body
got up to Lindjo.
Speaker 4 (01:36:50):
So your counting clients were musicians or straight people.
Speaker 2 (01:36:54):
Yeah, straight people, straight people. But one guy's oor guy
was a was a had a doc. You know, he
built ship, he built a yachts and stuff.
Speaker 3 (01:37:03):
You know, a big god company.
Speaker 4 (01:37:05):
So how long did you do that for?
Speaker 2 (01:37:07):
I did it for about twenty years, I guess, up
until up until about I guess about two or three
years ago.
Speaker 4 (01:37:15):
And i'd geenned up in Florida.
Speaker 2 (01:37:18):
Well after I got a divorce, I moved down here
in eighty five. After divorce, I moved from New York
to Porda and my brother had like, you know, property
down here, so I moved down here and stayed in
one of his He had like several uh, he had
a whole whole.
Speaker 3 (01:37:35):
Quadrangle of apartments houses little house.
Speaker 2 (01:37:38):
So I stayed with one of his houses and then,
uh then when him and I fell out, I moved
into into North Miami right near Criteria Studio. I moved
there because I knew to cast his Criteria and I
stayed there for like thirty years until I moved to
the place I am Now.
Speaker 3 (01:37:54):
I've been here ten years.
Speaker 4 (01:37:56):
So you said you got divorced.
Speaker 3 (01:37:58):
Yeah, I got divorced and in New York in eighty five.
Speaker 4 (01:38:02):
Did you ever get remarried?
Speaker 3 (01:38:04):
No? No, no, don't want them. Nobody couldn't. Nobody, nobody
want to put up with me, and vice versa.
Speaker 4 (01:38:10):
So was the divorce as a result of being on
the road, et cetera.
Speaker 2 (01:38:14):
Yeah, probably that was mostly being on the road, and
you know, and just she was a good person, man.
She took care of my family. Without her, I wouldn't
have had a dime. You know, I'm telling you because
she was really good, you know. But she just didn't
didn't like me being on the road and being around
all this stuff.
Speaker 3 (01:38:30):
You know.
Speaker 2 (01:38:30):
It wasn't about no women trus I had. I had
enough of but she didn't know about it. Sure, But
I mean I did I did my share of dougness,
but I never took it home, you know. And I
took care of my daughter. I paid for my daughter
went to Yale University. She was a smart girl, graduated
from Yale. And I paid for all of that.
Speaker 3 (01:38:47):
And my second daughter ended up getting a master's degree
and stuff. You know. I paid for all that, being
an accountant, you know. But whatever I mean, he had
to somebody had to take care of.
Speaker 4 (01:38:58):
So how'd you mean Peter Wolf Wolf Ago.
Speaker 2 (01:39:01):
I met him in fifty nine and I was sixty
nine at at Boston tea party. They were playing with
Jay Guillas band had just played, and I was up
there with Doctor John.
Speaker 3 (01:39:14):
And and and when I I went, I was in
the dress room with doctor John. I heard Survey right
the supper boy.
Speaker 2 (01:39:20):
This band was getting down and the voice man is
like John Lee Hook and Mass said, oh god, these
mag I was a cold blood. But when I got
to the stage, they were gone, you know, there was
nobody there.
Speaker 3 (01:39:33):
And so I go into the dress room. I go
there and say, hey, man, where's where's the brothers that
just got doing that blues? And Peter wood Walker that
was us man, freak me right out all white cats.
I said. I said, well, Man, do you have a contract.
He said no.
Speaker 2 (01:39:47):
I said, Man, look I love the blues. I love
where you're all coming from. I said, I'm from Atlantic Records. Man,
I got to see if I can get your recorded.
He said, well, yeah, Atlantic, Yeah, I like Atlantic.
Speaker 3 (01:39:56):
So that's how it started.
Speaker 2 (01:39:58):
Man and Wolf We've been friends ever since. He was
a disc jockey on BCN also and his show was
like one of the top shows as far as blues
and and and do wop. You know, he played all
kinds of music and just a character man called Wolf
of go for Mama Tupula, you know, like he said,
be here, and so you needs feeds your blatter's platter,
(01:40:18):
I'm gonna come back.
Speaker 3 (01:40:19):
You want to know the matter. He had all the raps. Man.
I loved him because he reminded me of all the
this jockeys in New York, you know.
Speaker 2 (01:40:25):
Like Jocko Innerson and so he monocute manipicent money. He
remind me of all those cats. But he had that
and he was doing that in nineteen sixty nine on WBCN.
Speaker 3 (01:40:38):
Man he was doing that type of show and is
a white kid that knew more about black music than
I did.
Speaker 2 (01:40:44):
I'm telling you the truth. He I would call on,
I would tell him the name of a son. He'll
tell me who wrote it and who publishes. You know,
I said, how down he was, man, And we've been
friends ever since. Man, wonderful kind.
Speaker 4 (01:40:56):
Tell me about the Ahmed I'm man my main man.
Speaker 2 (01:41:00):
I joined on and out of all the exanders there,
he was like my favorite because I would be on
the road and uh, he might be in that town
and he'll he'll call whatever hotel man and said, yeah, yay, Man,
Well what are you doing tonight?
Speaker 3 (01:41:13):
I'm going to this club?
Speaker 2 (01:41:15):
He said, well, all right, man, So he have his
limbo and I'll get in a limbo with it, and
we'll go to the South side.
Speaker 3 (01:41:20):
Of Chicago where all the blues catch that, and he'll
be right at home. Man. Then we'll go to the
jazz club and he'd be right at home. And he
paying for everything.
Speaker 2 (01:41:28):
So I didn't didn't didn't bother me, right, I never
get One time I had a disc jockey from this
jazz station in Chicago.
Speaker 3 (01:41:35):
Beautiful girl, man, I get her name now, but she
was beautiful man. And you know, I wasn't hitting on nothing,
but we were riding and he saw he said, well,
tell her to come and go. So we go, we
hit the car. We got it.
Speaker 2 (01:41:47):
Boy, I was dropping bombs on the girl all night
and just I said, this manager, it is cooler than
the average pilp that I know. And he was just
one of a classic band. I loved him, man, I mean,
and everybody had a lot of things they said about it,
but he was cool with me.
Speaker 3 (01:42:03):
Him and Jerry, I mean Jerry as well. Man.
Speaker 2 (01:42:05):
Jerry was a classic too, but was Jerry like Jerry
was more of a business man because Jerry I didn't
go on the road.
Speaker 3 (01:42:11):
I didn't hang out with Jerry on the road.
Speaker 2 (01:42:13):
But one time, who was in a we were at
I think Kyle Rutno, somebody had a had a had
a newsletter that he used to put out and and
they had a thing and and Vegas, and we go
to and they were there right and they had the
supremes of playing there in Vegas at this at this
hotel we was at. So now a'ma and and Jerry
(01:42:34):
come to my room. Because I had, like I was
always knowing to have a little herb around, you know.
So they come to my room and I got all
the Supreme not not down a row but sent to
the birds song at the time, but all of us
in my room, and that just knocked it just they said.
Speaker 3 (01:42:48):
But that boy, that guy gonna be a good promotion man.
That bookkeeper gonna be a good promotion man. He came
up and you know that, and you know that was
that was the first only one time that I hung
out with Jerry and Alma together.
Speaker 2 (01:42:59):
But you know because in there I always had a
turntable to play records, you know, so it was like
a classic man.
Speaker 4 (01:43:06):
And what about Nassville, did you have any come back?
Speaker 3 (01:43:08):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (01:43:09):
Yeah, Nessar was ftriggured. I was a jazz fanic, you know,
so jet Ness was we always. I even went to
nest wedding in London when he got married. You know,
I was always tacked with nestswek because I was. I
promoted jazz records as well, you know. And and you
know he hired Joel Dorn to do most of the
production after he stopped doing but MJQ and.
Speaker 3 (01:43:29):
All those guys.
Speaker 2 (01:43:29):
He did all those records that I used to listen to.
And I remember Mil Jackson, I saw I called him bags, right,
I saw Mil Jackson and Uh at an airport one
time in the south of Spain, and when I walked upto,
I stopped bounding. I said, I'm not worth. I'm not worth,
and I stild them about, you know, like the song
(01:43:50):
in Atlantic Records. We talked about Atlantic Records and he said, yeah, man.
Next I said, well, I'm going to Nest With's uh wedding.
You know, he said, old as he is he getting married.
I say, you get married to a young woman too.
Speaker 3 (01:44:03):
You know. But it was a mad man. Look, that's
what was the classic very man. I would I would do.
Ness was wedding and Steve was Still's wedding in England,
you know, back in those days.
Speaker 4 (01:44:14):
So what did Jerry Greenberg do that Am and Jerry
Wexler didn't do.
Speaker 2 (01:44:18):
He did all the hustle as far as getting records
played in promotion. He was the hustler man. I'm telling Greenberg,
I got a high respect for him.
Speaker 3 (01:44:26):
He did the work. I mean they were sin of act,
but Greenberg make sure the stuff got played.
Speaker 2 (01:44:32):
He called all he was. He was a he was
a top quarter guy. He was heavy top quarter guy.
As far as emotion and a single oriented. Everything was
single he could pick a single in a minute.
Speaker 3 (01:44:43):
He was good at that, you know.
Speaker 2 (01:44:45):
But uh, other than that, and and and because of him,
it made my job much easier because he understood me.
He knew I wasn't gonna take too much bullshit, you know,
he knew, he knew how to deal with He even
told a story when we had this. I had a
birthday party at his club and uh in Vegas. He
had a place to call I think, I forget the
(01:45:07):
name of it.
Speaker 3 (01:45:09):
Rainbow. Yea, he had a rainbow.
Speaker 2 (01:45:10):
So I had a birthday party when I turned sixty five, right,
and he told story man that I had not heard before. Right,
But he told the story about you know, Shelon Vogel
was the controller that I used to work for. He
told the story about. He said, Shellon vogl used to
complain about my expense report. So he came down to
Greenberg one day, said, I want to know tell me
(01:45:32):
one thing. How is it that I'm an Urgon is
a chairman of the company and his expense report is
is uh what eight thousand and nine thousand and some
dollars a week? And Mario is the third two thousand.
Greenberg said, because Mario get records playing I don't do shit,
(01:45:57):
but that that I didn't even know about out that,
but crick Bird told me that. Man, I thought I'd
die laughing, because you know, like I've been traveling with
all these bands. I was switching all the time, switching
back and forth. So I had a lot of plane
tickets in a month where where I might not, I
had that. But anyway, that was so funny. Man, I
thought I'd die. We say, you, Mario, get record played
(01:46:18):
I we don't do anything. Man Greenbergs was my man.
I'm telling you. I.
Speaker 4 (01:46:24):
So did you interact with the Stacks people at all?
Speaker 3 (01:46:28):
Oh? Yeah? Al Bell? Al Bell was he was a
promotion man before.
Speaker 2 (01:46:33):
Right. I knew Al Bell from when he was promotion
man because I used to make up the spills for
the promotion guy and he would come up there, you
know a lot of time to get get his spip check.
It's like a promotion check, you know. So I got
to meet him, and you know, and and then and then,
uh we had a bar downstairs. So one time after
work he was in the bar and he saw me.
So I was a sudden, Hey Mario, come on, have
(01:46:53):
a drinker. And I got to know him. He's telling
me about stuff you know about back then, you know,
because Otis was was being distributed about and so he
was telling, yeah, man, I got this new Uh. I
think either Connley I think was the record.
Speaker 3 (01:47:06):
I think it was. I think it was out of
the college. I'm not sure, but it was some record
they had on stacks that he wanted me to hear.
And he and he had like a cassette player, you know,
like a walk man. We in the bar. He takes
me to the bathroom and play the walk Man.
Speaker 5 (01:47:21):
Wasn't I wasn't even a promotion man at the time,
you know, I was a bookkeeper.
Speaker 3 (01:47:27):
But he played. He said, this is gonna be a
hit man. But that's what I say.
Speaker 2 (01:47:30):
He was a great promotion guy, man because he sold
me on that record. And I still can't steal in
all condar until the day.
Speaker 3 (01:47:38):
But he sold me, man. But he ended up running
uh sacks afterwards. You know whatever. It was good.
Speaker 4 (01:47:44):
So you met all these people, you know, only a
few of these people really live up to the rep.
They're really rock stars. So tell me who lives up
to the.
Speaker 3 (01:47:56):
Rep A rock star? Yeah, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Robert
plant Jimmy Page with all my brothers.
Speaker 2 (01:48:08):
You know, when when Drag was around, he was definitely
a rock star man, you know, even though he used
to get messed up otherwise, but he actually lived they
lived up to being a rock and.
Speaker 3 (01:48:18):
Roller, you know.
Speaker 2 (01:48:19):
All el P wasn't like that they wrote that, and uh,
Eric Clapton, he was a quiet guy, but he still was.
Speaker 3 (01:48:27):
He had that that that vibe you know, people be around.
They treat him like a rock star. But he was quieter.
But the other cats were outgoing, you know. And uh
else I'm trying.
Speaker 2 (01:48:37):
And you know from the Rascals too, you know Rascals,
Eddie Bergot, it was a rock star out was one
of the first guys I hung out with. From the Rascals,
Eddie was and he was one of the singers, but
I knew the feelings was used to most of the
lead but Eddie was one of the singers as well.
But that was a band that I first when I
did my first trip to l A. I hung out
(01:48:59):
with them at the the High House, you know, and
uh that's when I found out I wanted to.
Speaker 3 (01:49:05):
Do this job.
Speaker 4 (01:49:09):
So what keeps you busy? Now?
Speaker 3 (01:49:12):
Uh? If you're almost Live. I meditated.
Speaker 2 (01:49:14):
Man, I'm i'm a I'm a I'm a zen monk
as well as I'm concerned. I did martial art for
like fifty years, you know, and and zen meditation and
I do that now. That's what I mostly do. Spend
most of my time meditating and and and and reading.
Speaker 3 (01:49:28):
That's about it. You know, what do you read? Thank god?
Any books? I don't read so many books, man, everything
and had come out every time I want to come out.
Speaker 2 (01:49:35):
I read Peter's book. I read the book from the
guy from Saturday Night Live, the producer that book. I'm
still I'm still on it. It's so fat, you know.
Speaker 3 (01:49:47):
I did.
Speaker 2 (01:49:47):
I did the Life of King Curtis. King Curtis at
a at a book out. I read that one and
I read, I mean, I got a whole stack of
them over.
Speaker 3 (01:49:55):
I did doctor John's book. Uh, I read her.
Speaker 2 (01:49:59):
I read her most of them. When they got my
name and I want to definitely read it, but they
mentioned me. I'll read the book just to make sure
they got me in there. And uh, and the rock
doc did a book. Uh he was Michael Jackson. Uh
uh doctor before before the one that messed up. He
(01:50:21):
was the original doctor. But he's a print of mine
as well.
Speaker 3 (01:50:23):
He had a book.
Speaker 2 (01:50:24):
I read his book, and that's fantastic, man. And you know,
like Shep Gordon put out a book, I read his.
David Liebert put out a book. I read that book.
Speaker 3 (01:50:32):
Uh, I mean, uh it was Phil Raws had a book.
Speaker 2 (01:50:36):
I read his new All the guys that I know
in this business, you know, I read to seeing, you know,
and I'll see if they told the truth.
Speaker 3 (01:50:45):
But you know, it's it's been a lot of a
lot of guys, you know, and nobody reads now, David,
I still read. You know a lot of people don't
do no reading. Reading is is rewarding to me. I
just I like reading. You know.
Speaker 4 (01:50:58):
I'm with you there, Mario. Mar I want to thank
you so much for spending this time with my audience
and revealing all these stories that otherwise would be lost
to the sands in time.
Speaker 3 (01:51:09):
Yeah. Well, I'm glad I'm around, still around, man, and
I know I might be older than you.
Speaker 4 (01:51:16):
Yeah, but you don't act like it. You're just fast.
You can still talk the trash.
Speaker 2 (01:51:20):
So you know, I'm still middlely ill you know, us
make the thing every time someone saidmorrow, you're crazy, I said,
thank you very much.
Speaker 4 (01:51:28):
Okay, thanks again.
Speaker 3 (01:51:30):
Yeah man, a pleasure you bet. Till next time.
Speaker 4 (01:51:33):
This is Bob left sets
Welcome, Welcome, Welcome back to the Bob Webstt's podcast. My
guest today is legendary promotion man record executive Mario Medius. Mario,
great to have you on the podcast. So how'd you
get your job with Atlantic Records?
Speaker 2 (00:27):
I got my job through a friend of mine. She
worked in Atlantic Records at the time, and she was
a friend of mine. We used to go to all
the jazz clubs together. And she told me one day,
you know, like, hey, there's an opening in the bookkeeping
apartment of Atlantic.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
If you liked her, you know, apply, you know, I'll
recommend you. So I went up.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
And and took their tests, and you know, and Hill
and Vogel hired me. That was nineteen sixty five and
I started out in the bookkeeping apartment.
Speaker 4 (00:54):
So what exactly did you do there?
Speaker 2 (00:57):
I was accounts, payable, payroll and all checks that was
made under company.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
You know, I paid all the checks whatever it was.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
You know, every bill was paid by then at that
time by hand, you know, plus the payroll. We did
all the sessions and everything that payroll for the musicians
and payroll for the offers. Any bills that had to
be paid was paid through me. At that time, it
was only one person. I maade up all the checks.
Speaker 4 (01:21):
Oh so you were the only person.
Speaker 3 (01:23):
The only person made up checks.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
If you wanted a check at that time from Atlantic Records,
it went through me.
Speaker 3 (01:30):
No computer.
Speaker 4 (01:31):
Now, Linx Records has a checkered history with paying their acts,
whether they're paying, what to do, whether they're paying at all.
A lot of that's before your time. But is that
something you could see from writing checks?
Speaker 2 (01:47):
No, what I did when I was writing checks, I
wasn't doing the Royal is you know, and I wasn't
doing contracts, so I never knew all of that. But
I did make up checks, you know, as far as
when I got a Royal statement, I pay the Royal
statement or whatever the mount is on the Royal statements,
the mountains?
Speaker 3 (02:02):
Do you pay that? Now?
Speaker 2 (02:03):
Whatever deal they had with the with the company, you know,
if they signed a contract for two percent rather than
ten percent, that's their business.
Speaker 3 (02:11):
You know.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
Like in those days, people just happy to have a contract,
you know, can you match it? And they just wanted
they just wanted to get a record out so they
could work. Back in those days, they didn't know anything
about business, so a lot of people got screwed.
Speaker 4 (02:25):
You know, do you remember what some of the biggest
checks you wrote were for royalties?
Speaker 2 (02:32):
Well, I mean, let me see, oh man, I mean
wrote it is reading. Well it wasn't made totus ready
made to the just tax records, but mostly about Otis
they break it down who sold so much records. But
the biggest check that I ever made was for for
Steven Stills across Stills the Nash I think it was about,
oh for fifty thousand something like that, you know at
(02:53):
one time.
Speaker 4 (02:54):
Okay, so you were working in payroll. How'd you get
out of pay.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
Well, first of all, I was in payroll for you know, payroll,
and I did that for about three years, and and
I went from payroll and they sold to Kenny. When
Warner Brothers sold to Kenny, the whole system changed the
bid because now you got a corporate situation. And the
person I was working for that was the controller, who
(03:22):
was Sheldon Bogo. They promoted him to vice president. Uh
you know, I guess whatever, you know, vice president and
he and he didn't have a CPA, so they wanted
someone to CEPA to be the controller. So they hired
another guy. I think his name was Jack Halpern or
whatever it was. But they wanted me to train him,
you know, for I wanted him to help me, to
(03:43):
help train him, and I refused. I just didn't want
to train someone to be my boss. And so I
spoke with you know, the amin and jerring him, and
I told him I just didn't want to do that.
So they transferred me to the album sales department to
be the as system to the vice president, which was
Liny Sacks at the time. And that was like, you know,
(04:04):
album sales were the biggest sales in the company. And
that was very interesting because now I'm working with the distributors.
They are buying records and you know, you're dealing back
and forth with them, going to conventions and so on,
and meeting all the distributors. And also I was adding
up all the sales that we did at the conventions,
and I got to know everybody that was a distributor.
(04:26):
That was before before they got WA you know, before
they started their own distribution.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
We had independent distributors.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
So I got to know all these distributors and I
did that for about a year and then I I
went to Jay and I said like, hey man, you're
like I'm just doing accounting, so it's it's just better
I move on. Greenberg suggested that that they could use
a promotion man for the hippies, you know, for this
new stations, and and I said, well, you know, I
(04:52):
wouldn't mind doing promotion if I could do the rock stuff,
you know, all the rock and roll. So see here,
it'd be the album promotion. They call it underground station STU.
They had a list called S t U. S was
stereo underground stations, right, so.
Speaker 3 (05:05):
That was so that was my list.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
And I had all these stations men used to be
used to be a classical stations before, but now they
turned into AO R oriented. Before back then it was
just pre form radio and all those stations like uh
KMPX k SEN and an e W and whatever.
Speaker 3 (05:26):
Those few stations that started out are now FM.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
But they can play anything they want, could be jazz, blues, rock, whatever.
And I and I was the first guy more or
less did promotion for that. I took the first led
Zeppelin test pressing to Alison Steele in New York and
she played the whole record because she said, what is
this album? I said, this is the news forydd Birch.
So she played the whole album on the radio boy
and went crazy. New York went crazy for that two
(05:51):
weeks before the record was out. They went crazy because
she played the whole record and Rosto came on after
they played it.
Speaker 3 (05:57):
Then I took a test president and went to Boston.
You know.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
So that's the way we That's why we tried to
break records back then. You know, before they were released,
you got to play on radio. Radio was manager to
sell a record back in those days.
Speaker 4 (06:10):
Okay, if you were a jazz er, how'd you feel
about rock and roll?
Speaker 3 (06:15):
Look? Man, I love music. First of all.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
Music was my thing, you know, Jazz was what I
I you know, it was my favorite lover is till today.
I still I'm a jazz fanatic. And when I took
the job at Atlantic, the main reason to take the
job because Coltrane was on the label and I get
the records free, you know, that was the main I
was never.
Speaker 3 (06:36):
About trying to be a millionaire and none of that stuff.
You know, just a job was great.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
But now I get pre records, so I'm going to
get about ten records every week, so that's part of
my payrolls.
Speaker 3 (06:45):
Was I'm certain, you know, and.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
I really enjoyed that part of it when I first
got there. That was the reason for taking the job.
And I always liked I liked the blues, and rock
was blues oriented, you know, blues, Muddy Waters. I was
raised up in Chicago, so that Muddy Waters and Howland
Wilson and all that stuff. I was raised up around
all of that music, and that was like, my my
(07:11):
major thing was blues. Jazz was my major to music
is all. And most rock and roll was blues oriented,
you know, So I could accept it. If they could
play any type of blues, I would concept it, you know.
And most of all of them back then, from the Beatles,
Rolling Stones, across the Steels and Nash everybody, everybody had
a blues concept, you know.
Speaker 3 (07:30):
So I got along very well with them because of that.
Speaker 4 (07:33):
Okay, at that point in time, some of the records
were an ATCO. I think Vanilla Fudge was an ATCO
and some were in Atlantic.
Speaker 3 (07:41):
Right, did it make any.
Speaker 4 (07:42):
Difference if you were promoting the records, You're promoting all
of them.
Speaker 3 (07:46):
Didn't make any different. Cotillion Atlantic at COO I had.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
I had a promo record, promo picture made and I said,
Mario Media's own all Atlantic, Atcho and Cortillion Records.
Speaker 3 (07:59):
So if it was all any of those labels, I
was promoting them.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
You know, it didn't make any difference with me, you know,
because it was the same thing. This is his job,
you know, And but I enjoy.
Speaker 4 (08:08):
Okay, Since you know, the Woodstock album came out in
the spring of seventy on Katillion, obviously there was a
lot of demand for that. But what did you do
for the Woodstock record to make it happen?
Speaker 3 (08:21):
Look?
Speaker 2 (08:22):
Man, they were dying for They wanted Jimmy Henrys, but
jim Henry they wouldn't let they wouldn't let let us
have Jimmy because he was on Warner Brothers. But the
record was a was a smash because people had had
seen Woodstock movie, you know.
Speaker 3 (08:33):
So now we got the soundtrack, which is the State Boom.
They took it just like just ouh. Look man, it
immediately the first week is Golan, you know, the first week.
But it wasn't No.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
I didn't have to do nothing but just delivered the
record and I had I had so much fun with
that record because they said, well, what happened to Jimmy Hennings.
Speaker 3 (08:51):
Uh part of it.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
I said, well, you know, Jimmy's on Warner Brothers because
he did that Star Spangled banner so on, you know,
And I knew all those guests.
Speaker 3 (08:59):
I knew Jimmy very well.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
I knew Richie Havens well. I knew all of them,
you know, everybody man, all those guys on Woostock, I
knew them. But I didn't go to Worstock because too
money for.
Speaker 3 (09:08):
Me, you know.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
But but it's Joe and I enjoyed that album.
Speaker 3 (09:13):
You know, it was a lot of fun.
Speaker 4 (09:15):
Okay, So you went to work for Atlantic in sixty five.
You worked in three and a half years in payroll, right,
and then how long did you work in sales?
Speaker 3 (09:28):
Sales? About about a year.
Speaker 4 (09:30):
Who was head of sales then.
Speaker 3 (09:32):
Lenis Sachs's name was Linnis Sacks. He was vice president
of sales.
Speaker 4 (09:35):
Okay, that was as you say, that was independent. You
went through distributors all over the country. How did you
convince them? You know, it's one thing to convince them
to get the young rascals or something. It's another thing
to convince them to buy something that is unknown. How
would you do that?
Speaker 3 (09:54):
Right? First of all, you got to realize.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
Now, when I was the Count's bailable guy, they also
so you know, they had all the checks came from
the distributors, and I had to make the deposits, you know.
For so I got to know all the distributors like that,
and whenever they were laid on a payment shell, the
Vogue will tell me to call them, because he didn't
want to be on bad terms with them, but he'd
called me in and tell him myself, look, if you don't
if we don't have a check by friant, we're cutting
(10:17):
you off, you know. So I got to know all
of those guys being a bookkeeper. And when I started
promoting records, I would go to the distributor, even with
a new record, like I remember that Zeppelin's first number
whatever it was, twenty nine points whatever. That's what they
knew the record. They didn't know who the who the
record was. This twenty nine or whatever is selling a bit.
I said, well, man, that's that's step. You need to
buy another ten thousand because I think it's going to
(10:39):
do well. And so I would go to distributors and talk.
Speaker 3 (10:41):
To them in every city that I went in where
we had a distributor in order.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
To get them to buy advance because I was playing
like test presents, you know, in all those cities, and
I was saying, well, this is going to be a
smash so and they said, well I here's playing on
the stairs.
Speaker 3 (10:57):
Well, man should get more.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
So I got that type of relationship with all distributors
and that really helped me as far as Mode records.
Speaker 4 (11:02):
You know, So were the distributors music fans or were they.
Speaker 3 (11:07):
The money fans?
Speaker 2 (11:09):
That's what they were. Just they were about selling records.
They didn't they didn't care, but they didn't care about
the music. They didn't even know who they are acts were,
you know, most of them didn't know who they were,
you know. But as long as they say, well this
number is.
Speaker 3 (11:21):
Selling, who you know that?
Speaker 2 (11:22):
I mean, In a God of the Vida was a
big big seller back it was Iron Butterfly in A
God of the Vita was like the biggest rock seller
up at that point before Zeppelin came out and stuff.
Speaker 3 (11:32):
Right, And I went to the station and this guy said, well, man, uh,
that record in a cot in you either.
Speaker 5 (11:38):
I said, I said, that's not, that's not that's not
that's not a song.
Speaker 3 (11:45):
I mean, I wouldn't mind. I wouldn't mind from all
of that. But that's not a song man, you know.
I said it got to be oh well, whatever it is.
They said, that's selling. Well.
Speaker 2 (11:53):
But that's the type of that's the type of mentality
most of those distributors ad. They didn't care about the
music or what you know. It was about money with them,
you know.
Speaker 3 (12:02):
But I understood that.
Speaker 4 (12:03):
How much was it about the relationship whining and dining
them in order to get them to buy stuff as
opposed to the music itself.
Speaker 2 (12:12):
Well, I didn't do that. That was the salesman did that,
you know. I guess they the sales you know, from
Atlantic salesman. They had some guys in the office and
some distributors that did that. I didn't wind and dine
the disc jockey as far as you know, as far
as the FM jocks.
Speaker 4 (12:27):
Okay, but let's go back before that. You work in
in payroll. They tell you got to train your boss.
You talk about ahmit Jerry and Jerry Greenberg. Jury you're
working in payroll. How well did you know those guys?
Speaker 3 (12:44):
Well?
Speaker 2 (12:44):
I made up all the checks, so I knew them
very well. They had to come to me to get
the checks every week.
Speaker 3 (12:49):
So Greenberg.
Speaker 2 (12:51):
I got to know Greenburg so as he started working there,
because they got to give me all the information to
make up the payroll checks. You know, So I got
I got a good relationship with everyone. But on Thursday,
I gave everybody that checks except you know, I'm in
the nestluth. I just mild to the bank account. But mean,
like the guys that worked in office, everybody, I knew
everybody in office, and everybody knew me because I was
(13:12):
a payroll clerk, you know, And I got to meet
all the musicians the same way, you know, because the payroll.
Speaker 4 (13:17):
Did they ever have any problem meeting payroll through They
always have money?
Speaker 2 (13:21):
Never, never, never not. When I was there, we always
had money for payroll, you know. And you know, I
remember we should always have about a million dollars in
the bank account most of the times.
Speaker 4 (13:30):
You know, Okay, you're working in sales. Once again, what
exactly did you do in sales?
Speaker 3 (13:38):
And sales?
Speaker 2 (13:39):
You know, at the time, we had album release are
like twice a year, maybe January and June. And that
thing is you got to got to build up all
this stuff with all the album jackets and sleeves and
so on. You got to get all that stuff together
in order to get the albums prepared for release. And
and also you got to pick up out locations for
(14:00):
all the distributors for a record. If if you have
a record completed that is so many records, he might
he might release twenty records at that particular release date.
So you got to break down how many each distributor
is going to get based on you don't even know
if they're going to sell because some of them do
new acts, you know, So you go through an allocation
(14:21):
based on what you might what type of feedback you
might have got it from the local sale peoples. You know,
it was a job that required a lot of research,
you know, back in those days, because you didn't have
no computers and stuff like that.
Speaker 3 (14:35):
You know.
Speaker 4 (14:35):
Okay, so you're working in sales, Tell me exactly how
do you get out of sales.
Speaker 2 (14:43):
I got a sales by after I did, like I
think this second convention we was in in the Bahamas,
and you know, I was the last guy to get
to the dinner because I had to add up all
the sales. You know, they all saidn't all the distributors,
I'm a Jerry Nesta and everybody up on the stage
waiting on the total sales for that convention. And it
(15:05):
took me till about nine o'clock, you know at night,
when everybody's already eating and stuff, by the time I
take to take the finished amount. Let them know how many,
how many, how much the sales were done for that
particular convention. So I go up there, Oh yet thirty
six May thirty eight me you on't evere might say,
and then they'll make up and oh we did, thirty
men and everybody from but they all been waiting on Mario. Now,
(15:26):
all the whole place been waiting on We're waiting on
Mario to bring in. So I was well known by
everybody because I was the last one coming. My wife
hated that because she's sitting there eating by herself, you know,
but that was that was the main thing, you know.
And then I just decided I was an accounting again
all over again. And I figure, I'm still in an accountant,
so I need to get out of here completely. And
(15:46):
I was planning to leave and just go into the
counting field. And Greenberg said, well, man, we really need
someone to do this these FM because they're all freaks,
you know.
Speaker 4 (16:04):
Okay, just to go store. You were ready to leave
to go work as an accountant.
Speaker 3 (16:10):
We're somewhere into accounting firm, right, And you.
Speaker 4 (16:15):
Told Jerry, and then Jerry said this.
Speaker 2 (16:19):
Yeah, Jerry Greenberg, Yeah, Greenberg, Yeah, he came to me first.
You know, because when they tried to hire when I
was in the album when I was in the album
sales department, they tried to hire a guy to do
this FM promotion and he lasted about two weeks or
three weeks, and Greenberg come back said, man, this guy
is horrible. Man, why don't you try Mark? I said, well,
(16:39):
you know, like I'll have to think about it. And
then I went and spoke to my wife and so on,
and the next day I said, well, I'll do it,
but I do only want to do the rock stuff,
you know, I don't want to do that R and
B and Paola and all. He said, man, you don't
have to do that, say these cats are all freaks.
I said, well, who's going to train me to do
this job? He said, man, I don't know that. We
(17:00):
can't train it because we don't know nothing about these guts.
They're all freaks. He said, just talk the same shi
t that you talked to me, and it'll work well.
Because I used to talk a lot of trash to Jerry.
See talk the same trash you talk to me, man,
and that it'll work with them. So I just took
on the personnel and went in the station and started
like that. First station I went to was up in Boston,
(17:22):
you know BCN.
Speaker 4 (17:23):
Okay, you said they gave you a list. How many
stations were on that list?
Speaker 2 (17:28):
Oh, I guess about two hundred, about two hundred or
so already.
Speaker 4 (17:33):
And when exactly is this if you remember.
Speaker 2 (17:36):
Sixty nine, that's just when KMPX was like the big
FM station out of San Francisco where Jefferson Airplane and everything.
Speaker 3 (17:45):
Tom Downer here I think, was the well known guy
up there. And they had k.
Speaker 2 (17:50):
Santa and San Francisco. But they had a lot of
college station that they put on there as well. You
know that was college stations was on that list as well.
Speaker 4 (17:58):
So you know, okay, so you got to figure out
how to do it yourself. They give you the list
of the stations. What records did you go with? Always
went with with whatever records that were. You know, if
I had a new record, new records.
Speaker 2 (18:13):
First of all, you go with a case of twenty
five of the new releases, and you walk into the
station with like twenty records. You know, you can't get
an about to play twenty records. So I sit down
and talk with them about blues and jazz or whatever,
you know, and I'm may never forget. I went to
one station and I'm sitting down and this guy is
a Bruise fanatics supposedly on the station, but I was
born him and Zipp and raised at Chicago, so it
(18:35):
wasn't too much innerbody gonna tell me about the blues.
So I said, like, hey, man, you.
Speaker 3 (18:39):
Know who do you like? He said, Man, Johnny One
is the greatest Bruise player ever.
Speaker 2 (18:42):
I said, well, look, next time you speak to Johnaman
and ask him who he like, and you will find
out what the Bruises are about. And that's the way
I dealt with of you know, whenever I went in
the station and they and then they got to a point,
I had a reputation over here. Mario knows a lot
about the blues, and so I had like a little
following it, and they would tell other disc jockeys about it.
Speaker 3 (19:02):
Then That's how I cut into Peter Wool. Peter Wool.
Speaker 2 (19:04):
When I met Peter Wool, he had you could mention
a song and he would tell you who wrote it,
you know. I mean it was unbelievable that that really
impressed me, you know. But they were all blues oriented.
Most of these jocks loved the blues, and they loved jazz,
and they loved plassical. But they had a ride of
music that they liked. But I always stuck with the
jazz thing and and the blues stuff.
Speaker 3 (19:25):
You know.
Speaker 4 (19:25):
Oh, okay, So the first station you went to was what.
Speaker 3 (19:31):
Well k I went to the case.
Speaker 4 (19:33):
I went to ny W first okaystation, and was Scott
Muni already the program director.
Speaker 2 (19:41):
No, I don't know it was. I think it was
Roscoe Roscoe and Allison Steal. I don't know, Okay, Roscoll
and Alison Okay.
Speaker 4 (19:47):
So they don't know you from Adam. What's your pitch now?
To Alison Steel in Roscoe.
Speaker 3 (19:54):
I went in there with with the new Yardbirds record.
That was my pitch.
Speaker 2 (19:57):
You know, I had a before it was release, I
got a test pressing for the new Yardbirds and everybody
wanted to hear it.
Speaker 3 (20:04):
You know.
Speaker 2 (20:04):
So I go there and I didn't expect them to
play it on the air, but she played the whole
album that night.
Speaker 3 (20:09):
They she's called herself the night Bird. You know.
Speaker 2 (20:11):
Yeah, she played She played the whole album. While she
was playing, the phones of lighting up and people are
calling and and just going crazy. And that was my feedback,
you know. And now I let her play it for
for twice, and then Roto came on. I let him
play it twice. Then I took the test pressing back
because there was only one test pressing.
Speaker 3 (20:32):
I took it back and the next day I went
to Boston and they did the same thing.
Speaker 2 (20:37):
I let the guys play it, and you know, and
the phones are lighting up and and I'm calling distributed
to tell me a better get more records and stuff,
even at Malvern in New York and in Boston our
ring and they were and they heard it as well.
Speaker 3 (20:50):
They heard they got the feedback.
Speaker 2 (20:51):
So they got excited about this release because that wasn't
a prior to release with Atlantic. They had another record
that was the prior to release called Cartoon. That zepine
wasn't the prior to release, even though it was signed
by Jerry Wexler and and they turned out to be
the supergroup out of that whole release.
Speaker 3 (21:08):
Out of all of them. We had another guy called
Lord Search had a record out.
Speaker 2 (21:12):
Yeah, it was all in the same release, and on
Lord Search record, Jim Paige, she had played on one
track on there, and everybody in Atlantic was saying, well,
you know, like Lord's Search, they want to promote it.
Speaker 3 (21:23):
Man, we know they got this one guy, Jimmy Paige.
I think he kept.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
Jimmy Patie has an whole album coming out next week.
So he got a whole album coming out. You worried
about Lord Searches one track, But anyway, I promoted Lord
such as track with Jimmy playing, and Lord Search was
so such a character, man.
Speaker 3 (21:40):
I was on the road with him.
Speaker 2 (21:42):
He had me cracking up, you know, because he was
a promotion man himself, you know, but but he was
the first guy that appreciated promotion.
Speaker 3 (21:50):
And he said, man, you're doing a great job. That
was my first chop. I had never done it before.
He thought I was a vetter promotion. Man. I had
never done any of that before, but I had.
Speaker 2 (22:01):
I went to I think l A and San Francisco
with them, and God he dressed up like a king man,
you know, you walk into the station with his cane
in his hand.
Speaker 3 (22:11):
And I was a classic man I had. I had
so much fun with him.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
And then at the same time I would I would
play led Zeppelin's record to them, you know.
Speaker 3 (22:19):
You know, after I give me him, I let her
play led Zeppel's test present. But it was like cartoons
back in those days. It was every every every no
one knew any of.
Speaker 2 (22:28):
These records are going to be as large as they
turn out to be, you know, it's like they are now.
And most all of the acts that I worked with,
I worked with when they first started out, you know,
before they were legends.
Speaker 3 (22:39):
You know, I mean, I'm from everybody.
Speaker 4 (22:42):
So you go to the stations, You're getting this immediate reaction.
Do you go back and tell Ammad and Jerry?
Speaker 2 (22:49):
Oh, of course, I call and tell him. I call
him on the phone from where I am and tell them.
So I could tell a sales department for them to
to allocate more records than the tributars. I would call
SALEU Tonto and well it was before Dave Glue, but
whoever was in charge. I would call them at the
think Bob Corne but I would call them and tell them, like, man,
this is getting a lot of reactions. So they would
(23:09):
call them distributors to make sure they got more records.
You're allocated for that area. And it was always done
that way, and and and and dominated. Jerry would always
get the feedback from it. I called Jerry Greenberg called sometime,
I got Omas sometime, I got Jerry Wexler.
Speaker 3 (23:24):
But Jerry West wasn't too interested in the rock and
roll stuff. He's mostly interested in R and B stuff,
you know.
Speaker 4 (23:29):
So when was the first time you met LED's up
and face to face?
Speaker 3 (23:35):
At the at UH in New York City. I met
them at UH.
Speaker 2 (23:39):
They played Fillmore Fillmore East, and they I think they
opened for either The Iron Butterfly or either I don't
know one of those acts, but I know they opened
for them, And when they finished their set, the other
act couldn't gone for about two hours.
Speaker 3 (23:58):
The people was so crazy over you know.
Speaker 2 (24:01):
And then I went to Boston after that with him
and and they did Boston tea party and they did
like so many encores. Then we had a press party
in New York after that, which I still have a
picture of me. And I brought the guys from from
from our w CN down to New York for the
press party, JJ Jackson and Charlie Daniels and you know,
(24:22):
and and and that's when I got to meet them
and I end up being friends with them.
Speaker 4 (24:27):
So tell me about Peter Grant, their manager.
Speaker 2 (24:30):
Yeah, Peter Grant was one of a kind man. He
didn't take no, no junk off of no distributor, no,
no promoters. He would curse him all out. I mean,
but I got playing well with it, you know. He
was he was, he was the heavy cat, you know.
Speaker 3 (24:44):
But I did.
Speaker 2 (24:45):
I had no problem with Peter Grant because first of
all I did I was I was a guy that
I wasn't hired by him. I was Atlantic promotion. Man,
I'm traveling with the band representing Atlantic and also helping
them with I get him doing the interviews you know,
out the radio stations that night or whatever, hang out
with him in at the hotel, you know, smoking all
(25:05):
the weed at whatever we're doing, and then I might
call him at midnight said, man, I got a guy
at this jock at the station. They would go with
me to those stations, and I got to be really
popular with them, and they and I learned a lot
about music from that Zeppelin, you know, especially John Paul Jones.
Speaker 3 (25:21):
Would you learn I wish to listen to records together.
You know.
Speaker 2 (25:24):
I had a turntable. I always care a turntable, and
I had records, and they were crazy about uh, James
Brown at the Pollow nineteen six to the Pollow, Right,
So we play that record, man, And I had loved
that record too, But John Paul Jones broke got the
record down to me, man, because we would sit up
late that night, and he said, man, you know that's
(25:45):
very difficult to play. He said, those musicians, I got
a lot of respect for them because they.
Speaker 3 (25:49):
Plan everything over and over. Man, the same. And then
I started listening to it. He wasn't that.
Speaker 2 (25:56):
It popped and it's just all repetitious. He said, Man,
most musicians can't do that. That's what he told me.
And I said, man, I say, yeah, I never noticed that.
He said, that's why I so funk it. He said,
A repetition makes it funk it. But I used to
sit up and listen to records. Man, That's what we
always did. John Paul Jones and Bonzo Bonzo as well. Oh,
sit up and listen to records.
Speaker 3 (26:17):
Man, I mean I enjoyed those days, you know.
Speaker 4 (26:19):
Okay, you know, my interaction with these people is limited.
But it was kind of Jimmy's band. There was tension
with Robert. John Paul Jones was a little bit of
the outside. When the Ultimate re formed in the nineties,
he left him out. What was going on between the
band members.
Speaker 2 (26:39):
Well, remember when I first started with them, they were
all hired Jimmy. It was jim and Peter's band, you know,
and all the other guys were hiring musicians. You know,
even I said Robert Panner, even Bonzo used to say, yeah,
you know, like he said, Man, I just took this job.
I could have went on to become a merchant seaman.
He hated being He hated being on the road, you know,
(26:59):
because he had to leave his kids and family, and
that's what really made him drink a lot, because he
just didn't like being on the road. But after the
first album, I guess they made a different deal with them,
you know, and they gave him different shares and they
work it out. But I mean, John Paul Jones was
the genius in that band. Of all the musicians, he
was the heaviest of all of them as far as musicians,
(27:20):
I'm telling.
Speaker 4 (27:20):
Them, Okay, the first album has a slow rise, and
then in the fall October sixty nine, Led Zeppelin two
comes out. I mean, people have no idea how big
that record was. Instantly, Okay, that's right. Did you hear
that record and go, man, what did you do after
(27:40):
hearing the record?
Speaker 2 (27:42):
Let me just tell you, man, I was on the
road with them when they were writing the record. They
were writing a record as we was doing the tour.
You know, at six now they are touring, and they
were writing that record. They playing this stuff for me,
you know, on as they were working it out. You know,
a lot of this stuff killing and flow and all
that stuff. They had had different names for him before
before the record came out. You know, they had given
(28:03):
their the cattle. He really wrote the songs. They had
given them credit. But they got sued for about that
for later later on they got sued by Chess Records.
But at the same time, it was funk as a
Mama Gem and I loved it. You know, I knew
it was gonna be. First of all, the first records
was very had got very received very well. With the
second it was just unbelievable. I think a whole lot
(28:24):
of Love was on the second album, right right, yeah,
and that that that record, man, was when I heard
that record alone, I had a next door neighbor where
I was living in this at in La Frack City.
You know, I would play that music late at night.
The next door neighbor moved out because I played it
so loud.
Speaker 3 (28:43):
But but it was, it was. It was one of
a kind, man, One of a kind, that record, you see.
Oh man, I love that entire album, but I knew
that album and Greenberg ended up making a single, a
whole lot of Love.
Speaker 2 (28:54):
That's what really really pushed their album even probably we
had already sold about two three million before you the
single came out.
Speaker 3 (29:01):
But I mean that record was unbelievable. Man.
Speaker 2 (29:04):
That's when the ego came from eating from led zeppyra.
They started doing nine to ten deals with promoters. You know,
they were no more promoters getting forty percent and stuff.
They give the promoter ten percent and they said, man,
you have to advertise. You just put our name up
and it's gonna sell out.
Speaker 3 (29:19):
And that was the truth, you know.
Speaker 4 (29:21):
Okay, So tell me about the Edgewater in.
Speaker 3 (29:24):
Oh yeah, well, you know we I was at the
second on the second edge water.
Speaker 2 (29:28):
I didn't go to the first one when they had
uh with iron butterfly what not iron but but uh
but never first that was the first one. I was
there for the second Edgewater end. This was the funniest
out of all the places in my life.
Speaker 3 (29:44):
I had more laughs. We were on tour.
Speaker 2 (29:47):
I didn't like thirty four one night of that zepbra
so this Jimmy Page and Bomso kept saying, Mario, man,
you wait till we get to just see it to Seattle, man,
say we hit We got a hotel. Man, you can
just fish right out the window. What I care about
fishing is nothing, you know, man, You can fish right
out the window, man, you know, and you and you
(30:08):
buy those by that, by that, by that, by those steaks, man,
And and they just catch fish all day. Man, and
they gotta praise you by I said, okay, man. So
soon as we get there, they couldn't holler a wait
to get in the hotel. They go to the place
and buy the uh gear, the fishing gear, and then
they buy these steaks, you know, buy steaks.
Speaker 3 (30:26):
I don't know what they paid for the steaks.
Speaker 2 (30:27):
They buy a whole bunch of steaks, right, and they
come back to the room. So I'm come on, Mary,
let me show you. They throw this stuff in them
and they stopped fishing. Man, so we're fishing. I wasn't fishing,
but they were fishing, and I'm watching it. And they
pulling these sharks, you know, sharks coming through the window
and they take man, they take them. They where we're
gonnaut them up, put their bathrooms. So I run the water,
(30:47):
throw them a bathtub. So now the bathtub is full.
Now they start putt them up under the bed. It
was so funny, man.
Speaker 3 (30:53):
I tell you that.
Speaker 2 (30:54):
Many and by the time it's time for a sound check,
you must have about twenty sharks in the room already.
And it smelled like a fish market. And they say, oh,
man a, really we gotta go to sound say you
gotta go to sound check, Well, we gotta go to
sound check.
Speaker 3 (31:09):
So we said, man, we'll just leave our stuff in.
When we come back from soundcheck, we'll we'll continue fishing.
They go and do the soundcheck.
Speaker 2 (31:17):
To come back, they only got like an hour before
this time to go back to the play.
Speaker 3 (31:21):
They go and fish again.
Speaker 2 (31:22):
Many they pull them up and now they got a
shock man about about three feet long.
Speaker 3 (31:29):
They put them in the bed and cover them up
just like your humor. I mean, like, this is the funniest.
Speaker 2 (31:34):
I had never seen anything like before my life, you know,
and I was swimming the sippy.
Speaker 3 (31:38):
I'd never seen nothing. So anyway, now we go.
Speaker 2 (31:40):
To do the show. You know, we go to the
coliseum wherever it is to do the show, come back
to show Man and they got groupers in the hallway. Say, man,
we ain't mess with no groups, and now we're gonna fish.
You know. Boom, they go back, fetch out the window
and we fish till daybreak. And now, man, there's so
many fish all over the room. They can't He was
(32:01):
sleeping in the room and they said, well, so they
end up going up to my room.
Speaker 3 (32:04):
And most of them crashed at my room because they
did all that.
Speaker 2 (32:06):
Rooms are full of fish, man, I mean, it was unbelievable,
the funniest time, funniest thing that was seen in my life.
Speaker 4 (32:13):
Okay, when did the hotel catch on.
Speaker 3 (32:16):
The next morning as we as we uh all waking out,
but they all in the same we all in the
same room.
Speaker 2 (32:24):
We look out the one of theirs, Richard Cole, throwing
fish out the windows from the other rooms, throwing the
fish back in there. And and also he threw like
a refrigerator that had some champagne, you know, some dumb
periona in case dump. He threw that in the in
there as well, you know, because the maize came in complaining.
(32:44):
So he threw all that stuff back into the.
Speaker 3 (32:46):
Into the bay. And uh and and and then.
Speaker 2 (32:51):
Jimmy said, hey, man, where's the champagne And he said,
there go floating down. He threw out the window twelve
with all the fish. And they had to pay like
a big fee for that, you know, for what they did.
They paid, They paid the hotel for what they did.
But I mean it was like a few were young people, man,
so you know, like I just had never seen anything
like it before.
Speaker 3 (33:10):
But they didn't mean it at all. They just was
having fun and that was their their way. Man. They
had fun everywhere. I had more fun with that band
than any other band on the planet.
Speaker 4 (33:28):
So Bonzo was legendary for throwing TVs out the window.
Speaker 2 (33:33):
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, you know, Like I mean, I
saw him one time. He went in a room of
TV to work right and just took it and went
to the winter boom. I said, oh shit, I mean,
like I never seen nothing like booms. Just dropped out
and then he got her phone, picked her phone call operator.
How much one of these televisions are worth them? It
said four out of that we'll.
Speaker 3 (33:49):
Put it on the home tailo out. We need to know.
I mean, but that that was That was normal, man,
That was normal.
Speaker 2 (33:58):
But you know, like as but they were good guys, man,
they were really just they were just bored, man.
Speaker 3 (34:02):
Because the boredom.
Speaker 2 (34:04):
And at that age, oh, they were younger than me.
I mean I was only about I was like twenty
seven twenty eight at the time, and.
Speaker 3 (34:13):
They were younger than me.
Speaker 2 (34:14):
So you know, like hey, and I was like a
level headed compared to some of the stuff they were doing,
you know, but we had a lot of fun.
Speaker 4 (34:22):
So other than introducing them to radio stations, bring him
to radio stations, bringing jocks to meet them, what other
stuff do Did they look for you to get them
drugs or anything else?
Speaker 3 (34:33):
No, I didn't look for me to get no drugs.
Speaker 2 (34:35):
I mean because if I got a drug of people myself,
because but they had their own connections for that. You know,
because Richard Cole had been on the road for years
with all other bands, so anything they were in every
city he had been on the band.
Speaker 3 (34:46):
He knew everything that was happening in every city. You know.
Speaker 2 (34:49):
He was a legendary road manager for number groups, you know,
including Vanilla Fuds, you know, so he knew a lot
of people.
Speaker 4 (34:58):
So tell me about Crosby Stools in ah and then eventually.
Speaker 2 (35:01):
Young Yeah, Carols was still the Nash Well they they
had you know. I had known Stephen Stills from when
I was a bookkeeper, you know. I mean I got
to know him when he was with uh with with
the First but Buffalo Springfield, Buffalo spring Buffalo Springfield. When
he was with that band, I got to know him,
(35:21):
and and Neil Young then, you know, and and and
Dewry Martin and and and Richard Fury.
Speaker 3 (35:28):
I knew all of them back then, you know.
Speaker 2 (35:30):
And and when they played New York, you know, I
would always go see them, you know, if they played
it in a gag so on uh And I mean
I I caught him one time when they was playing
I think uh Uconald's or something like that. I forget
the name of the place, but it was some some
club by the by the fifth Night Street Bridge. I
went to see them there with Otis Redding. One night,
(35:51):
Otis Redding and Otis had been playing at the Apollo
Buffalo Springfield playing at this place. And after I went
to Apollo to see Otis, Armon was in. He gave
me a ride to to this place to see uh
Buffalo Springfield with Otis in the car. And Otis, you know,
I've been drinking a bit. So he sat and they
(36:13):
wanted Otis to get up to set in with him,
but he had been drinking a little too much, and
he when he first when he first got up, you know,
he picked up and he just fell flatter and got up.
Then he got up the same. It was classic, but
I mean that was that was the type of thing.
But I knew Stephen still from that time, so my
my relationship with him was was always good up then
(36:34):
when he when they decided to do Crouds and Steels
and Nash, I had just gotten into promotion. I had
a test present for Crossing Steels in Nash and a
test president for Jay Gile's band gonna be released on
the same release.
Speaker 3 (36:47):
So when I went on the road, I.
Speaker 2 (36:48):
Took both of those test presents with me all over.
I remember I went to Seattle. I went to a
whole lot of places, but I remember in Seattle I
went to a disc jocket. I guess about midnight with
both of those test presents, and everybody wanted Cross Still
a Nash Test ben because there was so much hype before.
Speaker 3 (37:06):
It even came out. We knew it was a supergroup.
Speaker 2 (37:08):
So I would tell them, you know, like, I'll let
you play Krugs Still a Nash Test present if you
play this other test pression that I have first, which
is Jake golls Man, and.
Speaker 3 (37:16):
It's who was this?
Speaker 2 (37:17):
I said, it's a new record, So I said, you
played this old record that you played the old So
that's how I got the record. That's how I got
Jake Giles played by using Crubs Still the Nash stuff
played young and I had, you know, I had always
gone to Stevens House, you know, all the time, back
when they were they was jamming with Crowds, Stills, the
Nash and stuff. And whenever you went to Stevens House
(37:38):
and Laurel Canyon, there was Jona Mitchell everybody there with
acoustic guitars and they always jam you know.
Speaker 3 (37:45):
Sometime Neil Young would come over, but.
Speaker 2 (37:48):
Uh uh, I'm just a lot of guys, a lot
of guys. We're there jamming all the time. So that
met a lot of people at Stevens House, and that's
what that would be the first place I'd go. Whenever
I went to LA I would go to Stevens House,
you know. And Steven was a good friend up until
the day, even until the.
Speaker 4 (38:03):
Day, so when you went to stations, you know, by
the time he hit the eighties and nineties, record labels
have priority tracks and they go from track to track
to track. When you started, did you just wanted to
play something, or you'd say, no, this is the one
you want to play, don't play that one yet, we're
not ready for that.
Speaker 2 (38:23):
No, no, And back I was an album guy, so
I would go there with the tracks that I like,
and I'll tell them those tracks that I like first.
But if you got a track that you like, you
were welcome to play that, but to try this one first.
I would always do that, even with let Zeppe when
I did that, even with Krugs till the Nash, I
did it even though they had a single out prior
and Krugs still Nash. She had a single that had
been out before the album came out. But most of
(38:45):
the albums that I had didn't have singles before they
came out.
Speaker 3 (38:48):
You know.
Speaker 2 (38:49):
We would always use the album to pick the singles,
you know, from FM guys to play so many, so
many guys to play a certain track, and I would
go report it back to Atlanta. K Man, we should
release this as a single, you know, because it's getting
a lot of play, like ROBERTA. Flack stuff, you know,
the same thing. Uh, first time I saw the plays
because it was a track that got a lot of play,
(39:09):
you know. And and that's how we picked singles back then.
It wasn't it wasn't just off the top of your head.
Most of the f film stations helped pick the singles
for the AM station.
Speaker 4 (39:19):
Okay, how did you promote the records that weren't so great?
Speaker 3 (39:25):
Usually?
Speaker 2 (39:25):
My my my game was this, I said, look, man,
I love this record here.
Speaker 3 (39:30):
You know, if a record that I really love, I
talk a.
Speaker 2 (39:32):
Lot of s h I t I talk a lot
of trash, you know, boom blah blah bom. Now if
I don't, I said, man, this is a record you know,
if you like it, call me if you If you
like it, tell everybody. If you don't like it, call me.
That's what I would tell I. Don't try to push stuff.
You couldn't push nothing on film jocks. You know they're
gonna do what they wanted to do. So you try
to figure out what You try to find out what
(39:54):
type of music they really like.
Speaker 3 (39:55):
Each one.
Speaker 2 (39:56):
Each this jockey was their own program director. Every this
jockey came and they program, they play what they want
to play. So you try to figure out what type
of music they like and try to pick a track
within their game, you know. And that's what I did
all over America. Man, it was you had to know
the dis jockra get to hang out with them.
Speaker 4 (40:12):
To Norman, Okay, So you know disc jockeys have different shifts,
so right, you know, how would you go to a
station and make sure that you spoke with all the jocks.
Speaker 2 (40:23):
Look, I'd go to the station and hang with one jockey.
When when he leave, I'll go back. Every four hours,
I was back and forth and hanging I'm telling you
sometime I stayed.
Speaker 3 (40:31):
Sometimes I would stay in the station from it.
Speaker 2 (40:33):
I would go there like at eight o'clock and leave
at four in the morning because as they change shift,
I would stay there and they've heard the stuff that
I'm talking. They want to want me to give him
the sam in Mason, I've giving a guy before him.
Speaker 3 (40:46):
So I'd stay there, you know. And we smoke a
lot of weed back.
Speaker 2 (40:48):
In those days, you know, so you could just sing,
you could hang you know, and and then you know,
we brought pizza and wine, you know, go out pizza
and wine, and they didn't care about going to a
lucky restaurant.
Speaker 3 (40:59):
And I tell you, I really enjoyed those days.
Speaker 2 (41:02):
I must admit I enjoyed those days because it was
nobody knew FM was gonna be as popular as.
Speaker 3 (41:08):
It is before a or R. It was just just.
Speaker 2 (41:11):
A pre form radio at the time. And uh, and
it was very interesting.
Speaker 3 (41:15):
You know.
Speaker 2 (41:15):
We bought we bought spots on on those stations for
for albums that we had problems getting played. I would
buy spots and I'd have that this chockey that makes
the spot. So if he makes the spot, that I
mean he got to listen to the record, you know,
So you had you had you have to use all
the type of uh improvisation you had to improvise.
Speaker 3 (41:33):
As far as promoting.
Speaker 2 (41:34):
Back in those days, the most important thing was to
get the DJs to play your record, and you had
to figure out a way. And if I have a
record that I know that this chockt don't like and
I and I need a spot made, I'll tell him, Hey, man,
I need a spot, a national spot for this record.
Speaker 3 (41:50):
He said, that's a piece of He said, that's a
piece of ship. Man.
Speaker 2 (41:53):
I said, look, but I need an Can you do
me a spot? I said, I give you, give you
five hundred dollars. Yeah, I'll do the spot. They do
the spot and they'll pick out tracks that you probably
didn't even like it, and they and then made it
a big production and it sounds even the records sound
better because the way they montaged it together.
Speaker 3 (42:13):
And I said, man, you really broke that record. He
really didn't break nothing, but I'm tell him that, you know.
Speaker 2 (42:17):
And then and then you got one guy that beleeves
in the record on that station. Sometimes it, you know,
it spreads through the other guys. But that was the
type of promotion you had to do in those days.
No payolo for film this jockey.
Speaker 3 (42:32):
They didn't go for that. Payol. It was none of that.
Speaker 4 (42:34):
And so to what degree would you leverage one station
against them? Would you go in and say, hey, you
know these other stations are playing it, you better play it.
Speaker 3 (42:43):
Look, man, let me tell you.
Speaker 2 (42:44):
First of all, if it's two stations in the same
city and I got one of them on it, I said, man,
you don't have to play it at all, because boo
boo play.
Speaker 3 (42:51):
I remember even in Boston, even in Boston, I would.
Speaker 2 (42:53):
Get go to the direct to the b to the
b U Boston University station and get them to play
stuff that BCN wouldn't play right. And what I did
I gave I gave John Hackheimer the led Zeppelin album
before I gave it to b CNN because because Al
perrickter but I can't stand all that blue, that that
(43:14):
rock and white boy doing the blue.
Speaker 5 (43:17):
So when he broke he played it over there and
everybody said, oh, man, we heard the new led Zeppelin
played over here. It'd be They called me, man, when
you gonna bring it over to us? I said, I'll
bring it over to Mark. But that's the difference. That's
what you had to do that game back then. I mean,
it's not like that now.
Speaker 2 (43:32):
Of course it was a different ball game, but that
was that was That's why you had to play one
station against the other man.
Speaker 3 (43:37):
I don't care if you know city one guy they played, Okay,
I'll take across the street and get it played. That's
what you had to do.
Speaker 4 (43:43):
And you know, as the business became more professionalized, they
kept the promotion people at arm's length. Was everybody always
glad to see you.
Speaker 2 (43:54):
They were always happen to see me because I was
John Carter, the Potter starter, you Knownick Won.
Speaker 3 (43:58):
They wanted to hang with me because I always had
something going on, you know. And plus I just was
a funny guy.
Speaker 2 (44:03):
I was just a guy that was fun to be around,
and they enjoyed my company. And plus and I and
I could also bring like Mick Jagger, you know, whoever
the catcher they idolized. They would come with me, a
Dwayne Auburn or stuff.
Speaker 3 (44:15):
I would. I would always take him to the station
with me sometime, you know.
Speaker 2 (44:18):
And and I always had that type of direct contact
with the artists. I remember I was in Boston once
and uh I was on the on the on the
tour with Rollerstones and Sticky Fingers, right, And that was
a big tour, you know. But everybody want to talk
to Jager, you know, I mean everybody man Jaggers say, man,
look they said.
Speaker 3 (44:38):
That big Amazon tour with them called.
Speaker 2 (44:40):
So they called me up and I said, man, I
see Jack and like I said, Jack and lessen to
anybody else.
Speaker 3 (44:46):
Well look, man, you I know we want to ask.
What I'll do.
Speaker 2 (44:49):
I'll get you backstage passes, you know, for the concerts,
for the tour, for the concert and afterwards, you know,
you come and dress when we talk. I gave I
think it was a child's black with.
Speaker 3 (45:00):
I think they're one of one of those crazy mamage.
Speaker 2 (45:03):
I gave him the backstage past to come back stage
when I come back there.
Speaker 3 (45:07):
Back that talk with everybody in the bed.
Speaker 2 (45:10):
You know, you know already put the put put the
put out on that I let everybody in.
Speaker 3 (45:15):
I said, but it was cool, you know.
Speaker 2 (45:17):
But but that's how I got along well with those guys,
you know, because the I had like connections to get
them things that they wanted to do.
Speaker 3 (45:24):
They wanted to be around, you know, the entertainers and storm.
Speaker 4 (45:27):
You know, how did you break Yes? They had two
stifth albums before the Yes album and they didn't sound
like anything else.
Speaker 2 (45:36):
The first the first album was the one, uh uh
but what it was what I'm trying to remember the
name of round about it round About?
Speaker 4 (45:42):
I think that was actually the fourth album. First album
had a cover I just called Yes, had a cover
of the Beatles. Every little thing. It was a stiff
second one time, in a word, even more stiff. Then
they put out the Yes album and then they put
out Fragile with Roundabout.
Speaker 3 (46:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (46:01):
Well, well, I well I knew them when they had
before their first manager, I forget the name, but I
knew them before emas Lake and Palmer, even from their
group Yes was probably in England and uh yes was
around About is the track that I remember, you know,
I can't remember too much else I went. I went
on tour with them, you know, I went on tour
(46:21):
with them and everybody was like vegetarian or something like that.
You know, Jan Anderson, I think his name was the
least singer, John Anderson. Yeah, so anyway, he was a
he was a vegetarian. And we was in Detroit, you know,
so I like barbecue stuff. So we hit it off
the bus and he said, man, Marty, can he take
us a place? Against something meant, I don't know they vegetarian,
(46:42):
so I go to barbecue garings, you know.
Speaker 6 (46:44):
So it's like two in the morning. He said, oh man,
we don't eat that joking the head too bad. I
was just snicking my feet, but you know, that was
the thing. But there they were nice guys, you know,
Robert Pripp.
Speaker 2 (46:58):
I think it was the name guitar player from Yeah,
but I did King Crimson and Yes on the same tour.
Speaker 3 (47:05):
I think it was.
Speaker 2 (47:06):
But but I mean, look, I to me, I respected
all musicians because they could read and play, you know,
and I know how difficult that was if you can
read music and play. I know how difficult it was
because I took music in high school. So I respected
them because of that, you know. So, But at the
same time, I didn't have no I didn't idolize, you know.
(47:28):
I wasn't idem my idols like the Narius, Mark Miles Davis,
John Coach and I was just guess that I idolized, you know.
Speaker 3 (47:34):
But the rock caest was just musicians to me, you know.
Speaker 4 (47:38):
Okay, so if you were on the road with the band,
who's covering all the other stations with all the other records.
Speaker 2 (47:47):
Well, you know, we sent the records out to the
stations and we didn't have no album promotion guys. Back then,
everybody was local promotion guys that promoted most of the singles,
and you know you can and I had a few guys,
you know, some of the most guys that was ift albums,
like Bill Rawls and a couple of guys that was
into albums, John Carter and San Francisco. You know, I
(48:09):
could call them and ask him to check this and that.
But at the same time, I got to report every
every every week, every week, I got a report from
each stations, you know, and the girl's in the office
would would send me report on the road. So that's
how I really kept track of it. They let you
know who they what they added, and what albums were
added and so on, you know, because you can't stay
(48:31):
on top of it.
Speaker 3 (48:31):
You on the road a lot. And I was on
the road a lot, you know.
Speaker 4 (48:42):
So how much pressure did you get from the label?
Speaker 3 (48:46):
No, No, they couldn't pressure me. Man. I didn't give them.
I didn't care what they say I did.
Speaker 2 (48:52):
I did what I want to do. And they'll tell
you that even cherry works. All of they know I
was gonna do what I told them, I wasn't coming.
I wasn't coming to no more meetings. I told him,
don't asked me to call in for these meetings because
the meeting is all about singles, you know, And I
would they want to hear here wherever I am. I
supposed to call in and listen in the meeting. Now
I got holding on the phone for an hour and
they talking about nothing but singles. So that fissed me off.
(49:14):
And I told Jerry Wesley and oh Im, look, man,
I'm not gonna do no more me. I just send
my reports in and that's what I started doing. But
but but I had to put my foot down. Man,
I had to put my foot down. Plus I was
getting records place. So I got away with a lot
of stuff.
Speaker 4 (49:28):
So what happened when Lee Abrams came along and he
started to make playlifts, etc.
Speaker 3 (49:34):
Yeah, Lee Abras, I got to know him well, you know,
but he did me a lot of favors. I loved
Lee Abrams. He was a genius. Man. That was a
different ball game. Man. You know.
Speaker 2 (49:44):
Now it's it getting to be a business, you know.
So I did up until nineteen eighty One's last time
I deal with radio stations. Thanked, every one was the
last about radio stations. I stopped provoting records then, But uh,
I did Rick James and Lee Abrams, I did all
those did okay.
Speaker 4 (50:02):
So how did you meet Emerson Lincoln Palmer.
Speaker 2 (50:05):
I met them through their first manager when they was
on the road the first tour.
Speaker 3 (50:11):
They did in America.
Speaker 2 (50:13):
I I went to I went on the road with
them somewhere and then, and I got to know Gregor
well and Gregy. I took him to the Diamond area
in New York and they bought rings and shit, and
I saw, I want the ring the great I said.
Speaker 3 (50:27):
Man, it's a nice ring. He said, you want one.
Speaker 2 (50:29):
So he caught me a ring and I still got
it until the day with my name by initials on it,
you know. But that was on the first tour, and uh,
you know, I knew them all from the first tour,
you know, before they before they started Mantagro.
Speaker 3 (50:41):
But all the records. I promoted every one of the
records from the beginning, you know.
Speaker 4 (50:46):
And if the legend has it that they didn't want
to put out pictures at an exhibition in America, and
you convinced.
Speaker 3 (50:52):
That right, right right.
Speaker 2 (50:53):
They didn't want to put pictures Atlantic, didn't want to
put it on Atlantic, and they wanted first they wanted
give it to a done search for Electra and you know,
and then they said, well, man.
Speaker 3 (51:06):
We we can't put it out, you know, we'll none search.
You know.
Speaker 2 (51:09):
No, man, look, this record is gonna be a hit,
added till Arm. But it's gonna be it you're doing.
They were all contillion anyway back then, you know. So
in any way, they put the record out and and
we sold a median Records in about two months, you know.
And and that really because they said it's too classical.
That's what That's what Amah was saying, this is a
classical record. And they were really upset, Steve, especially Keith Emerson.
(51:31):
Keith were a little hurt because you know, he's a
classical genius. And uh, once that record came out, I
got to be really really tight with the management full
Steward before before Stewart Young, they had another manager, but
I got to be tagged with him because I was
promoting those records, you know, And and they had.
Speaker 3 (51:49):
Like a jazz that they appreciated jazz as well.
Speaker 2 (51:52):
And I got really Keith and and uh Carl. It
was jazz enthusiasts as well as classical, so I so
I got to be really tight with them.
Speaker 4 (52:01):
So how did you end up running their label?
Speaker 2 (52:03):
When they were tired of dealing with Atlantic? They wanted
to They wanted someone to run the label, and they
they gave me all that I couldn't refuse.
Speaker 3 (52:12):
You know, I was.
Speaker 2 (52:14):
I was happy to get out of Atlanta because that's
a big corporate thing. Now all of a sudden, you
gotta you gotta they got you gotta report the stockholes
and stuff, and they cutting down and you can't do this.
Speaker 3 (52:25):
You can't do this.
Speaker 2 (52:26):
You can't fly first class, you can't do ahole lot
of stuff that they tell you can't do. You know,
you got to have a receiver. You're painting that all
the work. When I'm out there at night, going to
bed at uh four in the morning, they tell me
I gotta sign in.
Speaker 3 (52:41):
Can you imagine?
Speaker 2 (52:42):
I said, if I can sign out, I'll sign in.
You understand, you know what I'm saying. If I can
sign out when you're at home with your wife and
I'm on the road with He's band, I'll sign in.
That's what I said, So that was one of the
things I didn't call to care for. But at the
same time, you know, they didn't bother me. They let
me do what I wanted to do, and I continue
to do like I did. I came in when I
got rid of you know, because I'd have been out
(53:03):
halving the night with some band if I just come
in at full in the afternoon.
Speaker 3 (53:07):
You have to you have to put up with that.
That was the deal, you know.
Speaker 4 (53:09):
So how did it work out at Manicore?
Speaker 3 (53:13):
Oh? It was Madico was fantastic.
Speaker 2 (53:15):
Man The only thing we just if I hadn't known
that they were arguing with each other before, I didn't
know they didn't get along with each other that well.
But if they'd have done one tour a year, that
coming could have stayed together. But you know, the whole trip.
If they wanted to sign an accent, they don't know,
and they don't even want to tour. And then when
he decided to tour, they want to have a band,
have a they want to tour with a full orchestra.
(53:37):
You know, you can't make any money doing that, you know.
So that was the main downfall of it. It wasn't
the music as far as ELP was concerned, they were
smash but you know they put out acts by other accidents,
you got to try to break it.
Speaker 3 (53:53):
I end up signing.
Speaker 2 (53:55):
Uh Bruce's Image because I wanted something that I could
believe in Blues Image and uh and uh you know,
I knew Mike Preneur from back then. And I also
sound a little richer to the label because I had
to have something that I could believe in. I didn't
particular it, believe in all the other some of the
other stuff they had. But at the same time, you
(54:16):
try to do the best you can.
Speaker 3 (54:18):
But EOP was the backbone of that.
Speaker 4 (54:20):
You know, Okay, but if you were a promotion person,
how did you know how to run the label.
Speaker 3 (54:26):
I knew how to run the label because I was
a businessman.
Speaker 2 (54:28):
First of all. It wasn't just promotion. You know, you
got to be a businessman to run the labor.
Speaker 3 (54:32):
I knew.
Speaker 2 (54:33):
I knew all about publicity. I knew about everything. Plus
I hired secretaries that did do stuff for.
Speaker 3 (54:37):
Me when I was away. But I promoted. Promotion was
the most important thing.
Speaker 2 (54:41):
As far as getting records on radio, we had a
band called PFM was from an Italian band Premioto Frondia
Marconi was and It and Italy they were like the Beatles,
you know.
Speaker 3 (54:52):
So we came over here.
Speaker 2 (54:53):
And uh we ended up going to Motown with them,
and they put out albums, you know, and we did
a live album and they broke as far as American concern,
but it wasn't a big big seller. But they were
still selling. Lack of manager, I mean, and Italy. You know,
everything you put out over there was gold record for them.
But you know, it was difficult as far as the
(55:14):
acts that that that Keith and Greg them were signing.
They were signing stuff that they like, you know, some
artistics to Pete SimPEL was a great lyricist. But I
knew I wasn't going to be able to sell those records,
you know.
Speaker 4 (55:28):
So what ultimately killed the band.
Speaker 3 (55:32):
They didn't get along with each other. That's what killed
the band. They didn't get along with each other.
Speaker 4 (55:35):
You know.
Speaker 2 (55:36):
They just didn't want to They didn't want to tour. Man,
you got to have three limos, you know, and they
wanted first of all, they wanted to tour with an orchestra,
which you got, like I don't know how many people
in the orchestra, but just every city you got to
have an orchestra, you got to travel with that. That
(55:57):
alone was was difficult for a store and myself to
relate to the band. They did a couple of cities
with the band like that, and we lost money, but
you know, like, hey, you lose money, you're not gonna
be in business.
Speaker 3 (56:09):
Loan. But that was the main downfall that.
Speaker 2 (56:13):
But the band as a whole was still popular as
the Beatles over here at that time. You know, they
could play anything. If they played the California Jam, I
think it and they and they, and the place was
sold out. Man, it's like Woodstock. Yeah, I mean unbelievable.
They killed it.
Speaker 1 (56:31):
Man.
Speaker 2 (56:31):
I don't even know if anybody ever recorded that, but
that was a great show. They had this spinning piano,
you know, the piano that spins. Keith to get on
the piano that spins earth Winding Fire was on that
tour as well. And the next morning after that show,
Maurice White came to my hotel room and asked me, hey, man,
(56:51):
where did you all get that spinis piano? So I
turned him on to keep and they got the spinding
piano for when the fire That's how they got you know, man.
Speaker 3 (57:03):
It was ELP was innovators, man, I mean, and and
uh Keith Emerson.
Speaker 2 (57:10):
Man, I had so many keyboard players coming to me
about Keith Emerson. Man, you know, they just idolized the
guy from Bernard Warrell from Fukadelic, that was one of
his favorite guys. It was amazing, man, because he did
that move with him and Steven Wonder was the guys
on the move back in those days. And Keith took
the move on stage and played it, you know, like
(57:31):
as part of his instrument and Keith and uh Steven
want to end up using the move as well, the
same guys as Keith was using on his album. But man,
that that was some great days. I look back at
those days, man, those fantastic days.
Speaker 4 (57:45):
What about Phil Walden in the Almond Brothers.
Speaker 3 (57:49):
Oh yeah, I love Feelings and uh Frank Finer. You know, man,
let me tell you Dwayne Alman.
Speaker 2 (57:56):
I knew Dwayne when he was Skydog, you know, when
he was come to New York to play on Reretha Franklin.
Speaker 3 (58:02):
I was payroll clerk, so.
Speaker 2 (58:04):
I got to know got to know Dwayne real well,
you know, because when he first come up.
Speaker 3 (58:09):
You know, you got to give me the W two
and another fan.
Speaker 2 (58:12):
And he wanted to go to Halem, so I would
take him to places and you know, and he sit
in a jam and I turned him onto King Curtis
because King was on the session with but he didn't
know King, but I knew King well. So we hung out, Me,
King and Dwayne all we all hung out together after
those after they did those sessions with the Reaper, and
Dwayne said, well, Mari, you know, man, I'm gonna have
my own band soon.
Speaker 3 (58:33):
You know it's gonna be a mother man. You know
I have been gonna be the band's man. I said, okay, Man,
I didn't know it's gonna be the All Brothers band.
Speaker 2 (58:40):
But when he all of a sudden he covered All
Brothers band. It's on Capricorn, but they were distributed by
Warner Bros. But I was so tight with Dwayne. I
would promote their record, you know, and I and I
knew Phil Walden and Frank Crunter very well.
Speaker 3 (58:55):
So I would always promote to all my brothers.
Speaker 2 (58:57):
And I went on the road with them when they
were driving, had a Winnabago, and I would I wouldn't
ride in Winnebago. But I would to meet him in
towns and they were into Winnebago and they said, man,
well we'd be rally and they thought that was like
high living because you know, the just this is when
they stopped.
Speaker 3 (59:13):
Oh man, we got a own man we ride.
Speaker 2 (59:15):
We'd be looking out the windows going across Golden Gate brick,
you know.
Speaker 3 (59:18):
And that was when they first started out. Man, and
I loved those guys. I used to go to the
picnics that they had every summer. You know.
Speaker 2 (59:25):
It was like, hey, man, I mean it's just so
many stories about all my brothers and Dwayne Almond. You know,
Dwayne was just really really like a brother to me. Man.
Speaker 3 (59:36):
You know, we hung out and played music. The guy
played music.
Speaker 2 (59:39):
I was taken to the blues clubs in the ghetto
and he's sitting with these guys.
Speaker 3 (59:44):
I remember when we was in Atlanta once.
Speaker 2 (59:47):
I took Dwayne to see Barbara du Blaan, right, and
it's in Atlanta and the Dead and the ghetto. Man
in a club, you know, cut throw club. But I
get a limbo and I tell Dwayne bring your guitar.
I said, look, man, bring your guitar. So he brings
the guitar and we go into the club. You know,
I knew the guy at the club. So we go
in the club and Bobby Blue Blander is singer. You know,
(01:00:09):
Bobby is a Mama Jones.
Speaker 3 (01:00:10):
So I'd go to I do Barble's I said, Boba, man, boy,
he played like Elmo James. So Joyne got up there
and played and played that bottle neck and ship and
just wore it out.
Speaker 2 (01:00:22):
Man, whoa whoa wa the club out of all the
holes in the piencils hollering in can on and he
playing one wo wow anything whoy and uh and you know,
baba bana, you know how y'all man look that night
was Mama Jes.
Speaker 7 (01:00:38):
So after after they finished playing, we had the dreads room,
Dwayne walked over with Bobby Pan said, man, you better
get your ship together because my brother coming after your.
Speaker 2 (01:00:51):
Man.
Speaker 3 (01:00:52):
That was that was I thought I that.
Speaker 2 (01:00:55):
He told Bob Blue playing that, and he ended up
meeting Greg and they got to be good buddies.
Speaker 3 (01:00:59):
Man Gregg idolized about group lay. But when Duayne, I said, man,
you can't tell you to hell man, I just had
to tell him. I had to tell it.
Speaker 2 (01:01:06):
But boy, that that's the type of stuff that Dwayne
and you know, like, hey, man, now I love that guy.
Man he you know when they when he when he
uh when when they played the Boston Commons once and
after Boston Commons, I take limo, I'm going to New
York because we're going. I'm going to King Curtis funeral now, right,
(01:01:26):
So Dwayne Wan, I said, well, come on, man, go
with me.
Speaker 3 (01:01:28):
I'm going to the funeral. So Dwayne come.
Speaker 2 (01:01:31):
We we get off of the airport at LaGuardia and
I go to my house to put myself down there,
and I said.
Speaker 3 (01:01:36):
Man, I got it. We're gonna go to the funeral after.
So we we both go to.
Speaker 2 (01:01:40):
The General man at at at Reverend whatever was Riverside Church,
Jesse Jackson gave the obituary and stuff, and Dwayne is
sitting there with me, and Dwayne said, man, that was
a nice service man, you know, like you don't mind
down you have appreciate us a ship.
Speaker 3 (01:01:54):
You know. I don't know, hey about Dan, I don't
care about you know.
Speaker 2 (01:01:58):
But anyway, maybe about two weeks a month later, man,
he died. When that messed me up completely, I was
I couldn't even go to the own brother to his funeral.
Man because of that. It was but you know, like
that was that those two guys, King Curtis and Dwayne Man.
He was like, we're really tight. And they passed and
just a month or so later he's he's out. You know,
(01:02:18):
he died like a month so and an after that,
I go to to UH to Capricorn's picnic. After Dwayne
had passed. I went to the picnic that summer and Bo,
who was the bass player, was was just tore up.
It was just depressed as the devil. Only one in
the band that just could not function because Dwayne had passed,
(01:02:39):
you know. And I said, I said, b O, what's somebody?
He said, Man, I don't know if I can continue
without without Dwayne. And then he ended up dying about
a year later or so. You know, but I'm just saying, man,
that that was.
Speaker 3 (01:02:51):
That was. That was though. That band was just one
of my favorites.
Speaker 2 (01:02:55):
Man, all my brothers, Jay Gulls and Rollerstone, that Zeppelin,
those four I would fight fight averybody else.
Speaker 4 (01:03:01):
Okay, weren't you with the famous gig in Buffalo where
Twigs took out the night told me that story.
Speaker 2 (01:03:11):
Well, look, I didn't see him. I was at the gig, right,
So we come back. They on the bus and I
had always rent a car, right, so I was on
the bus.
Speaker 3 (01:03:20):
You know. We go to the bus with smokes, some
joints now Twigs.
Speaker 2 (01:03:24):
They said, man, they don't want to pay us, you know,
they told Twigg guy, don't want to pay us. They
had get the back end, you know. I there wasn't
no one maybe about five hundred dollars whatever. It was
this my heels a guy, Damn, we ain't paying you
hip nothing And twigxcept let me go back and see
if I can get it. He went back in there,
(01:03:46):
and man, I don't know what happened, but I know
he killed it, you know. And and next thing we know,
we police and everything.
Speaker 3 (01:03:53):
You know, and it was Twigs.
Speaker 2 (01:03:56):
Twigs you know, was a was a was a x
GI X paratrooper from from from Vietnam.
Speaker 3 (01:04:02):
You know. He he didn't take no, he didn't take nothing.
Speaker 2 (01:04:06):
But you know, Bill Waller supported him all while he
was in jail though, and when he got out, he
got their job right back with the band.
Speaker 3 (01:04:14):
You know.
Speaker 4 (01:04:15):
Okay, what was it like being the black guy in
a white rock world?
Speaker 3 (01:04:20):
Man. You know, I must admit they accepted me so well.
Speaker 2 (01:04:24):
And and all those rock bands had more trouble in
the South than I did because they had long hair.
Because they had long hair and there was hippies, they
got more trouble than not it so, you know, I
mean like they hated they hated hippies. And then all
of a sudden, they're not there with a nigga lover,
you know they call him. They would call them all
(01:04:44):
kinds of the day. I mean, I remember we got
off the plane one time and I don't know what
city was, our little rock of Pine Bluff, whatever the
city was. We get off the plane. I'm with all
my brothers and we get off the plane. We're the
first people off the plane. That means we must be
in class. Were getting off and were walking till the
because back then you would get out. He had to
walk the flight line to the So we walking. Here
(01:05:07):
come a guy in a fucklift calling them faggots and
so on, and had listen and and uh, uh, what's.
Speaker 3 (01:05:16):
The guitar players? Uh?
Speaker 4 (01:05:20):
Dicky Bett, Dicky Bett.
Speaker 2 (01:05:21):
Dickie was the counting guy too, you know. And Dickie
getting me, I said, look, dick let me talk to him.
So of course they don't want to talk to no
black guy, you know, So I walk. I said, Man,
I don't know why you're talking about these guys. You
out here driving a fuck lift and they're the first
guys off the plane.
Speaker 3 (01:05:37):
They must they can buy your ass.
Speaker 2 (01:05:39):
I don't know why you and these guys felt so
bad because the black guys is reading the reading about
and that means the black guy was riding the first
plass too.
Speaker 3 (01:05:50):
So they drove on off it.
Speaker 2 (01:05:52):
And uh, Gregg said, man, I'm glad you did that,
because Dickie would have got us all in trouble because
they had got in jail before for fighting, you know,
up with time.
Speaker 3 (01:06:01):
So anyway, it was just a lot of cartoons things
back then.
Speaker 4 (01:06:04):
Because okay, so, but in your life, to what degree
have you encountered racism?
Speaker 3 (01:06:10):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (01:06:10):
Well, I I was born in Mississippi, born in Mississippi
and raised in nineteen forty one. I lived there for
seventeen years. For sixteen, well sixteen years, I went to
high school there. Now every summer I would go to
Chicago because my mother and father was there, so you know,
I was raised around all that racism. And segregation and
(01:06:31):
Jim Crow.
Speaker 3 (01:06:32):
So you know it, you know, you live with it,
but you gotta have you got to have.
Speaker 2 (01:06:38):
My parents was respected by all the people in that
particular town, so I never had no problem.
Speaker 3 (01:06:42):
I even worked in the grocery store. And even though you.
Speaker 2 (01:06:45):
Know, when Emmitt Till got killed, that was the same
age I was, and was about thirty miles away from
where I lived, and he was the same age I was,
you know, and he was from Chicago, come down for
the summer, just like all the cats in the Mississippi.
Speaker 3 (01:06:58):
I have kids come down the summer.
Speaker 2 (01:07:00):
So I mean, you live all around all of that,
you see it, but you have to deal with it, man,
because back then, what the fuck could you do? You know,
But as long as they didn't bother my family, because
my grandfather was highly respected by the sheriff and everybody
in that city, and he worked for like the wealthiest
I guess a man in town, so he had a
(01:07:21):
lot of cloud and my grandmother, you know, worked for
the did all the cleaning of the rest the lawyers offices,
the dentist offices and stuff.
Speaker 3 (01:07:32):
So I got to know all the people in that.
Speaker 2 (01:07:34):
Town as far as the business people because of my
grandmother and my grandfather. So I could walk to I
could be walking across the square like at midnight, and
they have all those kids out there messing with people.
Speaker 3 (01:07:47):
They never bothered me. So, well that's Tom meet his grandson,
you know, and let me go through.
Speaker 2 (01:07:51):
So I had that type of respect, even though it
was still horrible, you know, but I didn't have any
personal problem with it.
Speaker 4 (01:07:59):
Well, you went to a segregated school.
Speaker 2 (01:08:02):
Yeah, I went to Thank Thanks Schools, segregated high school.
And we got the books after the white casts finished
with them, you know. But the teachers we had all
came from up north, you know, because it was like
our a rated school. Mary McCloud Bethune, you know Mary mcleoud,
she was like a consultant to the president's back then,
(01:08:22):
but she spoke at that school. You know, she was
a high They respected our teacher and educator back then.
But she came to that school that I was going
to school at. And and and also they had choir
and musicians. Music was like music and it was it
was a religious school, you know, a sanctified school. Singing
and uh, the band was very important and they went
(01:08:45):
all over America with the bus with singers and sung
all over America to raise money.
Speaker 3 (01:08:50):
For the school. That's what they would go and sing,
you know, at different churches.
Speaker 2 (01:08:54):
And they did it all all the time while I
was at That's how they raised money for the school.
And they had a the this president of the school
with doctor Malock and on. They had a May Day
parade that went all over the town of that city
where all the white people and everybody come out to
see these parade.
Speaker 3 (01:09:10):
They all addressed up with kings and queens and all floats.
Speaker 2 (01:09:13):
And they had that every year, like in the first
first week in make and they got highly respected. But
at the same time, it's still the South, you know,
so you deal with it under the circumstances, just as
long as you get respect, you know. And because that
school was buying so much from the city, you know,
because they bought all the groceries for all those kids.
(01:09:34):
Kids came from all over America as a boarding school.
So it was very very helpful as far as education
and a rated school as far as the black school.
Speaker 3 (01:09:43):
You know.
Speaker 4 (01:09:51):
So what's this South like for black men today?
Speaker 2 (01:09:55):
I haven't the slightest idea. I haven't been there in
fifty years.
Speaker 4 (01:09:58):
So you live in Florida.
Speaker 3 (01:10:00):
Yeah, I live abroad US. That's not like Mississippis. I mean,
I still got I still got relatives and living in Mississippi.
I've been there once in forty years.
Speaker 2 (01:10:09):
You know now that I have nothing against him, you know,
but they all know how I feel about it. You know,
I got my grandmother had like four hundred acres down there.
She died and she left acres to all of the kids.
I told him, what you mind, you can give it
to one of somebody else. I didn't even want to
go get it. So that's how I feel about I
still I still have no respect for Mississippi.
Speaker 3 (01:10:29):
I'm sorry, I have no respect for.
Speaker 4 (01:10:31):
How did you end up being named Mario?
Speaker 3 (01:10:35):
My father? I'm a junior, But.
Speaker 4 (01:10:37):
How was he named Mario?
Speaker 3 (01:10:40):
I guess he was a gangster. Then what was his name?
Was Marion?
Speaker 2 (01:10:43):
Marion, but everybody called him Mario. He was a gambler man,
He was a gangster. He was a numbers man for
the mafear in Chicago before he got busted.
Speaker 3 (01:10:56):
And you know, hey, he was one of a kind.
In his junior was very difficult to following his footsteps.
Man I'm telling you he was a tough guy to
follow it. But and he was. And he was a
smart guy.
Speaker 2 (01:11:08):
Vledictorian of his class when he graduated from high school,
baseball player, gambler, all that stuff.
Speaker 3 (01:11:14):
You know.
Speaker 2 (01:11:14):
Back then they had the Black Baseball League, and he was.
He played for one of those black team, Memphis Rest.
And he was a baseball fanatic. My whole grandfather a
baseball fanatic. But uh, he he was just one of
his one of a kind man, I'm telling you honestly.
And I learned a lot from him as far as
how to deal with people. Most of the trash that
(01:11:35):
he talked, most of the trash that I was talking
when out voting records, I got it from him.
Speaker 3 (01:11:39):
You know.
Speaker 2 (01:11:40):
He used to always say, I wouldn't give a Mama gemma.
You know he was talking about that, and I said, well, man,
who did that? He said, I wouldn't care.
Speaker 3 (01:11:49):
It was Peter. We started up scaling Baylor and all
the same with me.
Speaker 5 (01:11:54):
You know, he had to say he said, I wouldn't
give a mash Mexican fly.
Speaker 3 (01:11:58):
For that jump. But he had like sings man that
really stood out.
Speaker 2 (01:12:03):
And you know, he hung out with all the jazz musicians,
and he used to gamble with him, you know, in
the jazz and blue musicians on forty seventh Street in Chicago.
We lived on fortieth in South Park, and that was
seven blocks from the Regal Theater where we lived when
I was growing up in Chicago. Every summer I go
up there. I was seven blocks from the rigo, you
know bb King and all ve playing the rigo. We
(01:12:24):
would go up there and stay outside and listen to
his kids, you know, when I was ten twelve years old,
listened to and then my first rock concert that I
went to was Chuck Berry and uh, I think I
was about what I was about thirteen or fourteen, and
my stepmother, I and the girl that lived above me.
(01:12:45):
It was like my date name was Gladys. Me Gladys
and my stepmother. We'd go into this. Just see Chuck
Berry at the trianon Ballroom sixty second in Cottage grow
up in Chicago.
Speaker 3 (01:12:56):
Now that's my first date.
Speaker 2 (01:12:57):
In life, you know, and I'm take this girl with
my with my with my step mother.
Speaker 3 (01:13:03):
We go and Chuck barry Man was doing a roll over.
Speaker 2 (01:13:05):
Bit told him, you know, it got the old man
and doing everything down and doing the chicken out of
the duck hop and stuff. And it's all black people
in there, you know. And they dressed to the tea
man and you know, and and people dancing the car
and only and one guy must have stepped on his
pimp's foot. Now this is my first concert. Stepped on
(01:13:26):
his foot and messed up his shoes and he pulled
out his pistol and he and I saw the pistol.
Speaker 3 (01:13:32):
I was a civil pistol. You know, the white had
a white an sivil pistol.
Speaker 2 (01:13:35):
I saw the pistol and the whole dance for a
clear of course. I came there with my my step
mother into my date. I was the first person out
of it. I left them, you know, I left the
date and everybody.
Speaker 3 (01:13:49):
I was standing outside when they came out.
Speaker 2 (01:13:53):
My my stepmother said, uh, they call me junr. You
can't believe in your girlfriend. I said, she better learned
to run because I saw that pistol. I saw that pistol.
But you know, that's what I remember about Chuck Berry.
That was my first concert man in life was Chuck Berry.
And I had to run from that pistol.
Speaker 3 (01:14:11):
Man.
Speaker 2 (01:14:11):
I'll never forget that. And you know, and and I
was always chasing the music all my life. Man Chuck Berry,
I was pressing all those guys. Man, I was crazy
about him growing up. And all those do off ben
you know, you heard them on the radio. You know,
even Johnny Cash even had that boy named Sue and stuff.
Speaker 3 (01:14:30):
But that's what we heard on the radio, you know.
And late that night they at w l a C.
Went down in Mississippily. You hear those heroes record, and
I just was.
Speaker 2 (01:14:40):
I loved the music as a kid in the street
that I was born and raised on the Mississippi was
like Bill Street and Memphis they called it Bill Street
because of all black juke joints. And I and my
my grandmother had a beauty shop where I was born
and raised in that beauty shop, next couple of doors
down the juke joints, pool halls, and music is going
(01:15:00):
all the time. As I was a kid right riding
a little wagging up and down the street, I would
hear that music, you know, Muddy Waters and and and
all the cats, all the Chess records. I remember, I'll
never get a treaty d all that stuff. La Verne
Baker and I was Johanna. You know all that stuff
that was Atlantic and Chess Records that that I was
(01:15:22):
hearing all my life.
Speaker 3 (01:15:23):
Never knew I would ever work for Atlantic Records.
Speaker 2 (01:15:26):
Never knew I'd ever have a relationship with Chess, But
those records was my When I first started collecting records
was from those singles that they took off the juke
box and those juke joints. I would get to know
the guy who brings who put the new records on.
And I was a little kid, and he knew he'd
give me those singles, you know with the big holes
in the middle. And I had those singles, man, And
(01:15:47):
I bought me a little juke box, a little record player,
and I'd get all those singles.
Speaker 3 (01:15:52):
Man.
Speaker 2 (01:15:52):
I got all those Chess records in Atlantic Records back then,
and uh and the stuff from Marshall c On on
all those records. I got those records as a as
a kid man collecting them, you know. And I had
him in those juke boxes. And I never had any
idea about the record business. It just that I love music,
you know. And Sonny Boy Williamson was another another another
(01:16:15):
guy that was blues Cat that my grandfather used to
blow harmonica and he said. He called me, junior, Junior,
you gotta you gotta learn how to blow hop, you know.
So he would get me a harmonica every Christmas and
give me and I blow it. Man to my eyes,
my eyes running water. I could never get it. And
(01:16:36):
he would just grab it and just make it talk, well, mama,
make it, make a cry, make it sound like a train.
And I said, I said, Man, I said, I say.
I said, I'd like Sonny Boy with me. He said,
Sonny boy can't blow. That's what I mean. He's sunny boy.
Speaker 3 (01:16:52):
Can't blow.
Speaker 5 (01:16:53):
Man.
Speaker 3 (01:16:53):
He said, you got a junior. Well, you know, oh
man he was.
Speaker 2 (01:16:58):
He was funny man. He had he was a cartoon.
My grandfather was a classic man.
Speaker 4 (01:17:04):
So what did you do after you graduated from high school?
Speaker 3 (01:17:06):
When I graduate from high school, I took the bus
to New York. But my grandmother and.
Speaker 2 (01:17:12):
We took the bus to New York, and I stayed
in New York for like six months before I went
into the Air Force. But but I went from from
uh from Jackson, Mississippi, all the way to New York
on the bus man greyhound bus and got off man
and I told Steven Wonder.
Speaker 3 (01:17:28):
He got that that New York thing for me when
he got off.
Speaker 2 (01:17:31):
And I said, new York all this that's because I
had mentioned all that stuff to Stevie.
Speaker 3 (01:17:35):
Well really man, you know, yeah, but I've been look,
he's blind. How the hell can he boy from Mississippi?
And then he did. He said, Partstown, missisippt And he
said Mississippi in that record.
Speaker 2 (01:17:46):
You listened to that record, par parstime, Mississippi can get
the New York buildings and stuff. That's what I said
I when I got in there, I looked up all
those buildings and stuff. But he put it in that record.
I always told him, you ripped it off of me,
you know. He said, man, forget you know. But anyway,
that was my life. So soon as I got there,
I uh my my grandmother had her brother and lived there,
(01:18:09):
so I stayed with her brother and his son, you know,
stayed there, and I was there for six months before
I went in the Air Force.
Speaker 3 (01:18:16):
Soon as I.
Speaker 2 (01:18:17):
Got there, the first thing I wanted to go go
and see with bird Land you know, and stuff like that.
Speaker 3 (01:18:21):
But they wasn't in the jazz. But they took me
to Harlem to to.
Speaker 2 (01:18:26):
You know, to Apollo, and I went to the pollow
right so as I got there. But then after that
I went to I saw Red Fox at the baby
grand led her right on one hundred twenty fifth Street.
Red Fox was doing a thing about you know, about
the horses and stuff, you know, back then. But I
saw all that stuff, and I was only seventeenth at
the time, you know, but it was a hell of experience, man,
(01:18:46):
And with the bird land and stuff, you.
Speaker 4 (01:18:47):
Know, how'd you end up going in the Air Force?
Speaker 2 (01:18:51):
I went in the Air Force, souse. First of all, I
wanted to go to college and I couldn't. I couldn't,
you know, nobody had money to send kids to college
back then, and I figured I could. I figured I'd
go in the Air Force because it's better than getting
drafted into the army because back then, you you know,
you you got drafted when you got eighteen. So I
figured out going to Air Force because I had a
cousin that had been an Air Force.
Speaker 3 (01:19:11):
He said, air force more like a job. You know,
you're working at the end of the day and then
like you know, I have to go to be on
my news and stuff.
Speaker 2 (01:19:18):
So I took that job, and I really enjoyed it
because I was a warehouse specialist at the Air Force,
you know, and uh, I want I did uh lackling
an Air Force base for basic training. I went to
Amarilla for warehouse specialist training. From there I went to
Dad to leave, and then I went to Germany for
(01:19:38):
three years, you know. And it was a great experience.
Man in Germany, I I went to all the jazz
clubs and stuff, you know, and made photographs.
Speaker 3 (01:19:48):
Of stuff, you know.
Speaker 2 (01:19:49):
And I I caught Miles Davis and John coletrain, you know,
and when they were on that last throw, right after
Count of Blue came out, and then, let me tell
you that was classic. I wasn't a Cold Trane fan then,
but I was kind of blue. I had bought that
album in Amsterdam. I paid like twenty dollars for it,
(01:20:09):
but that was a lot of money back then. But
I wanted to record so bad. And when when Miles came,
he played concert to Bow in Amsterdam, and I had
a press pass, so I was down in the pit
making photographs of the band playing. And I had never
heard octaves played before, you know, octaves on a saxophone.
(01:20:29):
And and and that's the first time I heard coal
Train blowing octas. So what happened Miles was blowing the solo,
Coltrane had to go to the toilet, So you have
to go all way upstairs to go to the toilet.
And when Miles finished blowing, the opener's eyes the train
is not there. So as as Miles looked around, train
started walking down, still.
Speaker 3 (01:20:49):
Blowing, you know, all the way down.
Speaker 2 (01:20:51):
Wait, was all the way down to the He blew
all way in and blowing octaves, his horn, squeaking and
care that'.
Speaker 3 (01:20:57):
Said all got.
Speaker 2 (01:20:58):
I had never heard nothing like that before, but it
excited me, and those octaves and stuff made me a
jazz fanatic, and I've been chasing that music ever since,
you know. But that was the reason that I and
I was and I made all kinds of photographs and
I'll never forget when when after that, after that show,
in the dressing room, they had this Dutch reporter started
(01:21:24):
talking to culture, and I guess Miles didn't like it
that Coltran had showed him up a bit.
Speaker 3 (01:21:29):
As col Train said, when you when you're doing your solo,
actually you'd be going, and it's going and going. In
that case, you can't end it. You hard to end
and Miles said, try taking the horn out of your mouth.
Speaker 4 (01:21:43):
So what happens when you get out of the army.
Speaker 2 (01:21:46):
When I got out of the army, I came, I
got that. I came back to go to college at
Queen's College. You know, I was doing Queen's College and
I needed a job, so I got lucky.
Speaker 3 (01:21:57):
A guy in the.
Speaker 2 (01:21:58):
Building turned me onto a gig where I would uh
you know, I've worked for a meet a meat uh
distribute with the meat Transports company for the for the
meat district. They would they would uh bring piggyback you know,
uh beef and pork from all over America and sometime
from out of on the trains and the trucks, and
(01:22:21):
they would bring it to Fourteenth Street to the meat district.
But China and Companies was a company that I represented,
and we were the one that did the billing for that.
So I was working writer with the meat packers, you know,
and I worked with them before I went to Atlantic.
And that was a billing job, you know, it was
It wasn't it was a bookkeeping job, but just building
wasn't like uh bookkeeping as a whole.
Speaker 3 (01:22:42):
It was just billing.
Speaker 4 (01:22:42):
You build people, did you finish college.
Speaker 2 (01:22:46):
Well, I finished college afterwards, but I I finished college
right before I started motor records. I went to college
at night. When I was working at Atlantic As in
the bookkeeping department. I was going to college every night.
I was going to light nightgh school, you know. And
I got all wait till till last. I didn't graduate
till nineteen sixty eight before I got it.
Speaker 3 (01:23:07):
And then at that.
Speaker 2 (01:23:07):
Time I ended up end up promoting records, so I
never had I used to become an account to do
accounting because I'm metioned on accounting, you know.
Speaker 4 (01:23:15):
Okay, So what happened for you? After Man of Corps
blew up?
Speaker 2 (01:23:19):
I did independent promotion independent promotion, I did Bunkadelic, all
of that, George Clinton, you know, Flashlight all that flash Light,
Moti Booty and One Nation.
Speaker 3 (01:23:31):
Under Groove and uh and uh.
Speaker 2 (01:23:34):
And then after that I did Rick James, you know,
I did Rick James and all the super Freak and
did his first.
Speaker 4 (01:23:40):
So how did you get involved with Brig James?
Speaker 3 (01:23:42):
Sheff Gordon was his manager and when they got to
do the first tour, when he wanted to do the
first tour, he had already had a hit.
Speaker 2 (01:23:51):
Call you and I was a big record, you know.
And and so now he's going to do a tour
for his first tour. But he didn't tour right away.
So he came out with a second album called Us
and out on l seventh, and Shep needed someone to
make sure he do the gigs.
Speaker 3 (01:24:05):
He had a road manager, but he said, man, Mario,
I like you. If you would be the tour manager.
Speaker 2 (01:24:11):
You know, I pay you so much, and if you
can help to sell out the shows, I'll give you
a percentage of the show.
Speaker 3 (01:24:16):
Just sell out us. So that was the deal that
I got from Shep. And so the first tour, I
was a tour manager and I didn't even and I
asked Shepperd, who's going to introduce me?
Speaker 2 (01:24:26):
He said, well, look, man, I can't stand him, he
can't stand me.
Speaker 3 (01:24:29):
You just go there. You just go there, and you
go there and introduce yourself. And I went there, and
of course Rick gave me hell the first date, but
I told him, hey, man, I don't work for you.
Speaker 2 (01:24:40):
I'm already paid. You can't find me, you know. So
we had that type of understanding. So he was telling
everybody I know that manager, youm I know him because
he knew he used to be in a band with
Neil Young, and he knew I promoted crab Stills in
National you know, he knew all about that, but he
pretended like he didn't know who I was.
Speaker 3 (01:24:56):
So I found out later that he knew all about that.
Speaker 2 (01:25:00):
That he knew and I had seen him at at
Rick's at Steven Steel's house back when Crubs Still Nashing
Young was shooting the cover of the first of the
Crabs Still Nashing Young album. Greg Reeves, one of that
bass player, Neil Young, wanted Rick James to be the
bass player and Crubs Still Nation Young, but Rick said, no, man,
(01:25:22):
so he recommended that guy, Greg Reeve's young seventeen year
old boy that they ended up taking. But that's where
Rick knew me from then. But I didn't know him because,
you know, like I just didn't know him. I didn't
even know he had been in the band with Neil Young,
because back then he was just a man that brought
all the all the all the fun over.
Speaker 3 (01:25:40):
You know.
Speaker 2 (01:25:41):
So anyway, he knew me from that, and then I
got to be friends with him afterwards after that first tour,
you know, but it was tough for the first couple
of days because everybody in the band was afraid of him,
and I would and he was sleeping nudes, you know,
and and they'd be saying, Man, we can't wake him up.
Speaker 3 (01:25:58):
Mario, I said, let me go. I go in.
Speaker 2 (01:26:00):
Oh up all the windows and it was really like
ten degrees outside. Oh up all the windows and take all.
Speaker 3 (01:26:04):
The cover off her. And he had jumplep me.
Speaker 2 (01:26:06):
And I don't want to tell you all the things
he said he's gonna do to me, But I told him,
he man, you gotta hit. We gotta do the show.
And that's what shep hired me to do to be
able to get him out of the get him to
do the show. So he was cursing me out all
the time. But later on he said, you know, I
don't know that Mario. I don't know he's crazy, but
you know how to get the job done. That's what
he always said, you know. But I mean we had
(01:26:28):
like knockdown, drag out way before Charlotte Murphy. I could
tell you some things, boy, I'm telling you Rick. I mean,
Rick was one of a kind, but a smart guy.
Speaker 3 (01:26:36):
Let me tell you. I learned a lot about club
promotion from Rick.
Speaker 4 (01:26:41):
James, what'd you learn?
Speaker 2 (01:26:43):
Just how he would take his before the records release.
What I used to do with radio stations. He had
did it to clubs. He'd take his single and had
a DJ to play his stuff. And we was in
Buffalo and we walked him and you and I would
give it to me, give it to me from that
Street Song album.
Speaker 3 (01:27:00):
He had a test pressing up.
Speaker 2 (01:27:01):
He had a tape of it, and we walked in
and he had the DJ to play it. That whole
club started jumping. I said, man, this is I knows
the smash and that's how I knew. So when we
went to go to Motown to tell him about the album,
you know, Jay Alaska tell me, well, you know way
we can't.
Speaker 3 (01:27:17):
You can't get rick this. I said, man, this is
going to be a smash. Jay. He said, oh, look,
well we're give him fifty thousand. I said, man, we
need a hundred thousand. I said, well, look, I'll tell
you what. We wait till the album come out, then
we'll come back. So the album.
Speaker 2 (01:27:31):
Released the next week, we go back there. Jay Alaska, look, man,
I got to fifty thousand for I said, now we
want a hundred thousand. So but that was the way
that sho went down. But you know, Rick wanted to
jump on the desk and pee on the desk and stuff.
But you know, like I, I didn't go over that
he wanted to jump on the desk and everything.
Speaker 3 (01:27:48):
Oh crazy.
Speaker 2 (01:27:49):
But but you know, he was a He was a
talented guy, man, believe me. As crazy as people say
he was, he was very talented and and had I
respect from everybody.
Speaker 3 (01:27:59):
Smoke A. Robinson, Steven Wonder. He just called on the phone.
Speaker 2 (01:28:03):
They come right over the studio, man, Temptations whatever, you know,
because he was a producer, they would and if he
needed him on the record, they would come right over
and sing.
Speaker 3 (01:28:11):
Background or whatever. Man, incredible guy one of the time.
Speaker 4 (01:28:16):
So how crazy was he?
Speaker 3 (01:28:19):
I can't even I can't even tell you.
Speaker 2 (01:28:21):
Man, it's not it's X rayish.
Speaker 3 (01:28:26):
Would He's crazy. Man, he's crazy. But you know with me,
I had I had to.
Speaker 2 (01:28:33):
You know, we had a couple of run ends, you know,
but he stopped messing with me, and you know, I
think I hit him in the chant one time and
he said, man, he's trying to kill me. You know
you're crazy, you know, because he knew I knew martial arts.
But he said, man, if you didn't know, kick your ass.
And I said, look, if you even dream about kicking ass,
you better wake come and apologize. And that was the
type of relationship we asked. You know, he had one time.
(01:28:57):
I remember we getting ready to do this tour and
the guy that was the tour manager that did a
tour for Jackson five, you know the last Jackson five
threw when Michael was on that tour.
Speaker 3 (01:29:09):
Well, he was gonna be the gonna do the tour
with Rick James. So he's come.
Speaker 2 (01:29:14):
He came to Buffalo to talk to Rick. I wasn't Buffalo,
I don't know where it was that. It could have
been Boston, wherever he was.
Speaker 3 (01:29:20):
He was on the road.
Speaker 2 (01:29:21):
He came to talk to Rick to get him to
let him be the tour tour manager Drew to do
the tour and tire tour. So he's in the room
talking to Rick and Rick and Rick Uh calls my
room and and and he saw me. A couple of
girls came to my room that I knew from, you know,
from other bands.
Speaker 3 (01:29:40):
He's just friends of mine. He saw that Mario got
these girls room.
Speaker 2 (01:29:44):
He sent the UH bodyguards down to my room, said
go down there and clear that room.
Speaker 3 (01:29:50):
Go down there, clear Mario's room.
Speaker 2 (01:29:52):
The bodyguards came to my door, both of them, two guys,
one of them moles and and and Ol whatever the name.
I knew them, you know, I knew them because I
used to, you know, make sure they got paid.
Speaker 3 (01:30:04):
But now they come to the door some Mario man like, uh,
we don't want to do this. Member.
Speaker 2 (01:30:09):
Rick told we got to clear your room. I said,
you ain't gonna crear nothing here. I said, I pay
for this room. I don't ricked on pay for my room.
I said, now, if you all come across the doorstep here.
If you want to die for six hundred dollars, cause
that's all you're getting paid. If that's what you want
to die for, you come in my room, I'm gonna
kill you. They stood out there as bad and big
as they were. They went back and told Rick said, man,
(01:30:30):
uh Mario, we we can't get it. So now just
this promoter, this promoter is there with Rick having all
kinds of problems, and they come back and tell him
about Mario.
Speaker 3 (01:30:41):
So he said, let's I'll go down to the room.
Speaker 2 (01:30:43):
So he comes down to the room with the promoter,
and I went off on Rick in front of the promoter.
Promoter ended up being my best friend. He said, Man,
he ended up getting the job. He ended up getting
the end up. But he said after what he said, Man,
he gave me a Louis the ton at the shake
case and he said, man, the way you hand Rick Jane, Man,
I never seen nobody do that. I said, no, I'm
(01:31:04):
not handling. I just told him, you know, like I
don't work for him. You know, I don't work for him,
you know, I work with it. And he said, well, man,
I want to try to get the tour. So I
talked to him Rick, and he let him get the tour.
He ended up getting the tour. But that that that
was the type of thing with Rick, you know, he was.
He was a tougher guy.
Speaker 3 (01:31:20):
What about the drugs, Oh yeah he did. He did
all kinds of drugs.
Speaker 2 (01:31:24):
He'll tell you, well, I'm getting ready to pill out,
you know what I mean. He gonna pill out, he's
gonna go to sleep, You're gonna pill out. Let him
pill out, you know. And he snowed up your whole house,
you know, nothing, but he but he had the money
to do it. You know, you can't stop a guy
when they're gonna do stuff. You know, I'll let him
do it.
Speaker 4 (01:31:49):
So you'd work so much in the white rock business,
what was it like? I mean, Rick James was sort
of a rock artist, but it was the black world.
What was the black radio, black promoter world?
Speaker 2 (01:32:00):
Bike night and day man night and day difference different
night and day. First of all, Rick James is the
closest to rock them out of all of them. And uh,
I never forget. When I first started on tour, Rick,
he said, Man, I want, I want you to build
me a black one like you do them rock bands.
I said, well, the first thing we gotta do if
you want to tour like a rock band is get
out of these holiday ends.
Speaker 3 (01:32:21):
He doesn't know he's got to pay for these hotels.
Speaker 2 (01:32:23):
And I'm telling me, so we get all better hotels
atter because I was towt those holiday ends. You know,
so we get But he found out later that he
paying for all this being charge of them.
Speaker 3 (01:32:31):
But you know we did that, and you know, and
and and he did pretty good on that first tour,
but he wasn't he wasn't getting a percentage.
Speaker 2 (01:32:40):
He was at a fix like he sold out the
Baltimore Arena in Baltimore or whatever it's about. I don't know,
maybe old about ten or fifteen thousand people. But he
he accepted ten thousand dollars as as amount that he wanted.
Rether Thant get a percentage of the date so that
would ship him ship they shep didn't know's going to
(01:33:01):
be selling out, But we sold it out.
Speaker 3 (01:33:03):
But they only paid him ten grands. So he was said, well, man,
you know, I'm a gungrat. Look that's that's your old mistake,
you know. But it was. It was a whole lot
of things. But I had a lot of fun with him,
you know.
Speaker 4 (01:33:13):
So how did it end with you? And Rick?
Speaker 3 (01:33:16):
What do you mean it didn't find it?
Speaker 2 (01:33:17):
After the first tour, I did that tour manager thing,
and then I went on back doing my regular promotion
whatever I was doing it, and he put out other records.
And then on nineteen eighty one, on New Year's Day
of nineteen day one, he called me because now he
had got rid of his manager. He didn't have Shepherd anymore.
(01:33:38):
So he called me, he said, man, and he getting
ready to put out street songs, right, So he called
me like new Year's Night of nineteen eighty one at
my home and Yonkers and I said, is it he said, Rick,
He said, man, I say, he said with.
Speaker 3 (01:33:50):
That, Man, I mean I wish I could get you
to help me. Man, I ain't got no manage that
neither help with my new oltum. I said, Man, you
other I was, weren't that good? You know?
Speaker 2 (01:33:58):
He said, well, let me play some of the stuff
where he played give it to me, give it to me,
give it to me, give it to me, yo. And
when he played it, I said, man, this is a
spac He said, man, come on, man, And it helped
me get this album.
Speaker 3 (01:34:09):
I got an album trying to do speet something.
Speaker 2 (01:34:11):
So the next day I ended up taking a flight
to la and I hung out with him ntil he
finished that album and stuff, and you know, and that's
when we were when we had to go to Motown,
you know, and mentioned to the fact that Jay Laska
didn't want to give him that fifty grand and stuff.
Speaker 3 (01:34:26):
You know.
Speaker 2 (01:34:27):
But while he was there, that's when I met Smoke Kid,
Steve and all of them came to the studio. When
he was doing that album, you know, he was adding
stuff to it, and I met Uh.
Speaker 3 (01:34:36):
What was the name a singer of the girl is
a sing with fire and desire? That girl?
Speaker 2 (01:34:44):
What it was the name that that son? But anyway,
when he was producing that record, all of them was
in that studio and I met him all and that's
when I knew he was like a really genius the
way he produced that record, man, and how everybody respected
him so much, you know.
Speaker 4 (01:35:00):
So how did you stop promoting records?
Speaker 2 (01:35:04):
I stopped after after that that uh Rick James album,
after that that uh Fire and Design, and that was
the last one that I did, and I stopped promotion
because then I just started back doing accounting, you know,
because I had accounting clients that I had to do
and it was less aggravation, you know, and I have
to didn't have to travel and you didn't have to
have to thread and threaten to kill people to get
(01:35:25):
paid because I had to.
Speaker 3 (01:35:27):
I had to. I did Funkadelic. I had to.
Speaker 2 (01:35:31):
Threadn them, you know, to get my pound payment label
them like thirty grand, and their attorney had to call
me up, said, bro Drugs would like to pay you
an increments, you know, ten thousands. I said, no, I
want all of it at once, because they had a
show in town, you know that night in Madison, Paier
Guard and I used to train all these uh you know,
(01:35:52):
the policemen's and knarks and stuff in New York.
Speaker 3 (01:35:54):
And I told him if he didn't if he if.
Speaker 2 (01:35:55):
I didn't get my check, I was gonna have the
Narks to come over and and bust the hope buster
the guys. Somebody is gonna be dirty in the hotel.
And and then we're gonna have.
Speaker 3 (01:36:05):
The box office. Gonna take a box office.
Speaker 2 (01:36:07):
You had to do stuff like that, you know, and
I have to We're gonna have to bust somebody of
the Bible.
Speaker 3 (01:36:11):
You know, We're gonna take a box off it.
Speaker 2 (01:36:13):
So George decided he uh, out of my box, send
the check over, and I got to check. When I
first got to check, it wasn't certified. I sent it
back to her and then you know, as she said, oh,
well it's certified. You know, after I got a certified,
I knew.
Speaker 3 (01:36:26):
It was cool.
Speaker 2 (01:36:27):
Well, that night I go to the concert of the
Panta Massabuare Guard. George see me, he's ducking and the
running the cast man.
Speaker 3 (01:36:32):
You ain't got to run. I'm funking. I'm funking. I'm
shaking my head. I'm funking. Now you got got my check.
Speaker 8 (01:36:36):
So you know, that's the type of stuff you had
to deal with when you're dealing with R and B bads,
you know, and you know it and you know and
even when I when I left Rick, you know, he
owe me like ten grands, but he found to pay me.
Speaker 3 (01:36:47):
He came to New York and and send his body
got up to Lindjo.
Speaker 4 (01:36:50):
So your counting clients were musicians or straight people.
Speaker 2 (01:36:54):
Yeah, straight people, straight people. But one guy's oor guy
was a was a had a doc. You know, he
built ship, he built a yachts and stuff.
Speaker 3 (01:37:03):
You know, a big god company.
Speaker 4 (01:37:05):
So how long did you do that for?
Speaker 2 (01:37:07):
I did it for about twenty years, I guess, up
until up until about I guess about two or three
years ago.
Speaker 4 (01:37:15):
And i'd geenned up in Florida.
Speaker 2 (01:37:18):
Well after I got a divorce, I moved down here
in eighty five. After divorce, I moved from New York
to Porda and my brother had like, you know, property
down here, so I moved down here and stayed in
one of his He had like several uh, he had
a whole whole.
Speaker 3 (01:37:35):
Quadrangle of apartments houses little house.
Speaker 2 (01:37:38):
So I stayed with one of his houses and then,
uh then when him and I fell out, I moved
into into North Miami right near Criteria Studio. I moved
there because I knew to cast his Criteria and I
stayed there for like thirty years until I moved to
the place I am Now.
Speaker 3 (01:37:54):
I've been here ten years.
Speaker 4 (01:37:56):
So you said you got divorced.
Speaker 3 (01:37:58):
Yeah, I got divorced and in New York in eighty five.
Speaker 4 (01:38:02):
Did you ever get remarried?
Speaker 3 (01:38:04):
No? No, no, don't want them. Nobody couldn't. Nobody, nobody
want to put up with me, and vice versa.
Speaker 4 (01:38:10):
So was the divorce as a result of being on
the road, et cetera.
Speaker 2 (01:38:14):
Yeah, probably that was mostly being on the road, and
you know, and just she was a good person, man.
She took care of my family. Without her, I wouldn't
have had a dime. You know, I'm telling you because
she was really good, you know. But she just didn't
didn't like me being on the road and being around
all this stuff.
Speaker 3 (01:38:30):
You know.
Speaker 2 (01:38:30):
It wasn't about no women trus I had. I had
enough of but she didn't know about it. Sure, But
I mean I did I did my share of dougness,
but I never took it home, you know. And I
took care of my daughter. I paid for my daughter
went to Yale University. She was a smart girl, graduated
from Yale. And I paid for all of that.
Speaker 3 (01:38:47):
And my second daughter ended up getting a master's degree
and stuff. You know. I paid for all that, being
an accountant, you know. But whatever I mean, he had
to somebody had to take care of.
Speaker 4 (01:38:58):
So how'd you mean Peter Wolf Wolf Ago.
Speaker 2 (01:39:01):
I met him in fifty nine and I was sixty
nine at at Boston tea party. They were playing with
Jay Guillas band had just played, and I was up
there with Doctor John.
Speaker 3 (01:39:14):
And and and when I I went, I was in
the dress room with doctor John. I heard Survey right
the supper boy.
Speaker 2 (01:39:20):
This band was getting down and the voice man is
like John Lee Hook and Mass said, oh god, these
mag I was a cold blood. But when I got
to the stage, they were gone, you know, there was
nobody there.
Speaker 3 (01:39:33):
And so I go into the dress room. I go
there and say, hey, man, where's where's the brothers that
just got doing that blues? And Peter wood Walker that
was us man, freak me right out all white cats.
I said. I said, well, Man, do you have a contract.
He said no.
Speaker 2 (01:39:47):
I said, Man, look I love the blues. I love
where you're all coming from. I said, I'm from Atlantic Records. Man,
I got to see if I can get your recorded.
He said, well, yeah, Atlantic, Yeah, I like Atlantic.
Speaker 3 (01:39:56):
So that's how it started.
Speaker 2 (01:39:58):
Man and Wolf We've been friends ever since. He was
a disc jockey on BCN also and his show was
like one of the top shows as far as blues
and and and do wop. You know, he played all
kinds of music and just a character man called Wolf
of go for Mama Tupula, you know, like he said,
be here, and so you needs feeds your blatter's platter,
(01:40:18):
I'm gonna come back.
Speaker 3 (01:40:19):
You want to know the matter. He had all the raps. Man.
I loved him because he reminded me of all the
this jockeys in New York, you know.
Speaker 2 (01:40:25):
Like Jocko Innerson and so he monocute manipicent money. He
remind me of all those cats. But he had that
and he was doing that in nineteen sixty nine on WBCN.
Speaker 3 (01:40:38):
Man he was doing that type of show and is
a white kid that knew more about black music than
I did.
Speaker 2 (01:40:44):
I'm telling you the truth. He I would call on,
I would tell him the name of a son. He'll
tell me who wrote it and who publishes. You know,
I said, how down he was, man, And we've been
friends ever since. Man, wonderful kind.
Speaker 4 (01:40:56):
Tell me about the Ahmed I'm man my main man.
Speaker 2 (01:41:00):
I joined on and out of all the exanders there,
he was like my favorite because I would be on
the road and uh, he might be in that town
and he'll he'll call whatever hotel man and said, yeah, yay, Man,
Well what are you doing tonight?
Speaker 3 (01:41:13):
I'm going to this club?
Speaker 2 (01:41:15):
He said, well, all right, man, So he have his
limbo and I'll get in a limbo with it, and
we'll go to the South side.
Speaker 3 (01:41:20):
Of Chicago where all the blues catch that, and he'll
be right at home. Man. Then we'll go to the
jazz club and he'd be right at home. And he
paying for everything.
Speaker 2 (01:41:28):
So I didn't didn't didn't bother me, right, I never
get One time I had a disc jockey from this
jazz station in Chicago.
Speaker 3 (01:41:35):
Beautiful girl, man, I get her name now, but she
was beautiful man. And you know, I wasn't hitting on nothing,
but we were riding and he saw he said, well,
tell her to come and go. So we go, we
hit the car. We got it.
Speaker 2 (01:41:47):
Boy, I was dropping bombs on the girl all night
and just I said, this manager, it is cooler than
the average pilp that I know. And he was just
one of a classic band. I loved him, man, I mean,
and everybody had a lot of things they said about it,
but he was cool with me.
Speaker 3 (01:42:03):
Him and Jerry, I mean Jerry as well. Man.
Speaker 2 (01:42:05):
Jerry was a classic too, but was Jerry like Jerry
was more of a business man because Jerry I didn't
go on the road.
Speaker 3 (01:42:11):
I didn't hang out with Jerry on the road.
Speaker 2 (01:42:13):
But one time, who was in a we were at
I think Kyle Rutno, somebody had a had a had
a newsletter that he used to put out and and
they had a thing and and Vegas, and we go
to and they were there right and they had the
supremes of playing there in Vegas at this at this
hotel we was at. So now a'ma and and Jerry
(01:42:34):
come to my room. Because I had, like I was
always knowing to have a little herb around, you know.
So they come to my room and I got all
the Supreme not not down a row but sent to
the birds song at the time, but all of us
in my room, and that just knocked it just they said.
Speaker 3 (01:42:48):
But that boy, that guy gonna be a good promotion man.
That bookkeeper gonna be a good promotion man. He came
up and you know that, and you know that was
that was the first only one time that I hung
out with Jerry and Alma together.
Speaker 2 (01:42:59):
But you know because in there I always had a
turntable to play records, you know, so it was like
a classic man.
Speaker 4 (01:43:06):
And what about Nassville, did you have any come back?
Speaker 3 (01:43:08):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (01:43:09):
Yeah, Nessar was ftriggured. I was a jazz fanic, you know,
so jet Ness was we always. I even went to
nest wedding in London when he got married. You know,
I was always tacked with nestswek because I was. I
promoted jazz records as well, you know. And and you
know he hired Joel Dorn to do most of the
production after he stopped doing but MJQ and.
Speaker 3 (01:43:29):
All those guys.
Speaker 2 (01:43:29):
He did all those records that I used to listen to.
And I remember Mil Jackson, I saw I called him bags, right,
I saw Mil Jackson and Uh at an airport one
time in the south of Spain, and when I walked upto,
I stopped bounding. I said, I'm not worth. I'm not worth,
and I stild them about, you know, like the song
(01:43:50):
in Atlantic Records. We talked about Atlantic Records and he said, yeah, man.
Next I said, well, I'm going to Nest With's uh wedding.
You know, he said, old as he is he getting married.
I say, you get married to a young woman too.
Speaker 3 (01:44:03):
You know. But it was a mad man. Look, that's
what was the classic very man. I would I would do.
Ness was wedding and Steve was Still's wedding in England,
you know, back in those days.
Speaker 4 (01:44:14):
So what did Jerry Greenberg do that Am and Jerry
Wexler didn't do.
Speaker 2 (01:44:18):
He did all the hustle as far as getting records
played in promotion. He was the hustler man. I'm telling Greenberg,
I got a high respect for him.
Speaker 3 (01:44:26):
He did the work. I mean they were sin of act,
but Greenberg make sure the stuff got played.
Speaker 2 (01:44:32):
He called all he was. He was a he was
a top quarter guy. He was heavy top quarter guy.
As far as emotion and a single oriented. Everything was
single he could pick a single in a minute.
Speaker 3 (01:44:43):
He was good at that, you know.
Speaker 2 (01:44:45):
But uh, other than that, and and and because of him,
it made my job much easier because he understood me.
He knew I wasn't gonna take too much bullshit, you know,
he knew, he knew how to deal with He even
told a story when we had this. I had a
birthday party at his club and uh in Vegas. He
had a place to call I think, I forget the
(01:45:07):
name of it.
Speaker 3 (01:45:09):
Rainbow. Yea, he had a rainbow.
Speaker 2 (01:45:10):
So I had a birthday party when I turned sixty five, right,
and he told story man that I had not heard before. Right,
But he told the story about you know, Shelon Vogel
was the controller that I used to work for. He
told the story about. He said, Shellon vogl used to
complain about my expense report. So he came down to
Greenberg one day, said, I want to know tell me
(01:45:32):
one thing. How is it that I'm an Urgon is
a chairman of the company and his expense report is
is uh what eight thousand and nine thousand and some
dollars a week? And Mario is the third two thousand.
Greenberg said, because Mario get records playing I don't do shit,
(01:45:57):
but that that I didn't even know about out that,
but crick Bird told me that. Man, I thought I'd
die laughing, because you know, like I've been traveling with
all these bands. I was switching all the time, switching
back and forth. So I had a lot of plane
tickets in a month where where I might not, I
had that. But anyway, that was so funny. Man, I
thought I'd die. We say, you, Mario, get record played
(01:46:18):
I we don't do anything. Man Greenbergs was my man.
I'm telling you. I.
Speaker 4 (01:46:24):
So did you interact with the Stacks people at all?
Speaker 3 (01:46:28):
Oh? Yeah? Al Bell? Al Bell was he was a
promotion man before.
Speaker 2 (01:46:33):
Right. I knew Al Bell from when he was promotion
man because I used to make up the spills for
the promotion guy and he would come up there, you
know a lot of time to get get his spip check.
It's like a promotion check, you know. So I got
to meet him, and you know, and and then and then,
uh we had a bar downstairs. So one time after
work he was in the bar and he saw me.
So I was a sudden, Hey Mario, come on, have
(01:46:53):
a drinker. And I got to know him. He's telling
me about stuff you know about back then, you know,
because Otis was was being distributed about and so he
was telling, yeah, man, I got this new Uh. I
think either Connley I think was the record.
Speaker 3 (01:47:06):
I think it was. I think it was out of
the college. I'm not sure, but it was some record
they had on stacks that he wanted me to hear.
And he and he had like a cassette player, you know,
like a walk man. We in the bar. He takes
me to the bathroom and play the walk Man.
Speaker 5 (01:47:21):
Wasn't I wasn't even a promotion man at the time,
you know, I was a bookkeeper.
Speaker 3 (01:47:27):
But he played. He said, this is gonna be a
hit man. But that's what I say.
Speaker 2 (01:47:30):
He was a great promotion guy, man because he sold
me on that record. And I still can't steal in
all condar until the day.
Speaker 3 (01:47:38):
But he sold me, man. But he ended up running
uh sacks afterwards. You know whatever. It was good.
Speaker 4 (01:47:44):
So you met all these people, you know, only a
few of these people really live up to the rep.
They're really rock stars. So tell me who lives up
to the.
Speaker 3 (01:47:56):
Rep A rock star? Yeah, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Robert
plant Jimmy Page with all my brothers.
Speaker 2 (01:48:08):
You know, when when Drag was around, he was definitely
a rock star man, you know, even though he used
to get messed up otherwise, but he actually lived they
lived up to being a rock and.
Speaker 3 (01:48:18):
Roller, you know.
Speaker 2 (01:48:19):
All el P wasn't like that they wrote that, and uh,
Eric Clapton, he was a quiet guy, but he still was.
Speaker 3 (01:48:27):
He had that that that vibe you know, people be around.
They treat him like a rock star. But he was quieter.
But the other cats were outgoing, you know. And uh
else I'm trying.
Speaker 2 (01:48:37):
And you know from the Rascals too, you know Rascals,
Eddie Bergot, it was a rock star out was one
of the first guys I hung out with. From the Rascals,
Eddie was and he was one of the singers, but
I knew the feelings was used to most of the
lead but Eddie was one of the singers as well.
But that was a band that I first when I
did my first trip to l A. I hung out
(01:48:59):
with them at the the High House, you know, and
uh that's when I found out I wanted to.
Speaker 3 (01:49:05):
Do this job.
Speaker 4 (01:49:09):
So what keeps you busy? Now?
Speaker 3 (01:49:12):
Uh? If you're almost Live. I meditated.
Speaker 2 (01:49:14):
Man, I'm i'm a I'm a I'm a zen monk
as well as I'm concerned. I did martial art for
like fifty years, you know, and and zen meditation and
I do that now. That's what I mostly do. Spend
most of my time meditating and and and and reading.
Speaker 3 (01:49:28):
That's about it. You know, what do you read? Thank god?
Any books? I don't read so many books, man, everything
and had come out every time I want to come out.
Speaker 2 (01:49:35):
I read Peter's book. I read the book from the
guy from Saturday Night Live, the producer that book. I'm
still I'm still on it. It's so fat, you know.
Speaker 3 (01:49:47):
I did.
Speaker 2 (01:49:47):
I did the Life of King Curtis. King Curtis at
a at a book out. I read that one and
I read, I mean, I got a whole stack of
them over.
Speaker 3 (01:49:55):
I did doctor John's book. Uh, I read her.
Speaker 2 (01:49:59):
I read her most of them. When they got my
name and I want to definitely read it, but they
mentioned me. I'll read the book just to make sure
they got me in there. And uh, and the rock
doc did a book. Uh he was Michael Jackson. Uh
uh doctor before before the one that messed up. He
(01:50:21):
was the original doctor. But he's a print of mine
as well.
Speaker 3 (01:50:23):
He had a book.
Speaker 2 (01:50:24):
I read his book, and that's fantastic, man. And you know,
like Shep Gordon put out a book, I read his.
David Liebert put out a book. I read that book.
Speaker 3 (01:50:32):
Uh, I mean, uh it was Phil Raws had a book.
Speaker 2 (01:50:36):
I read his new All the guys that I know
in this business, you know, I read to seeing, you know,
and I'll see if they told the truth.
Speaker 3 (01:50:45):
But you know, it's it's been a lot of a
lot of guys, you know, and nobody reads now, David,
I still read. You know a lot of people don't
do no reading. Reading is is rewarding to me. I
just I like reading. You know.
Speaker 4 (01:50:58):
I'm with you there, Mario. Mar I want to thank
you so much for spending this time with my audience
and revealing all these stories that otherwise would be lost
to the sands in time.
Speaker 3 (01:51:09):
Yeah. Well, I'm glad I'm around, still around, man, and
I know I might be older than you.
Speaker 4 (01:51:16):
Yeah, but you don't act like it. You're just fast.
You can still talk the trash.
Speaker 2 (01:51:20):
So you know, I'm still middlely ill you know, us
make the thing every time someone saidmorrow, you're crazy, I said,
thank you very much.
Speaker 4 (01:51:28):
Okay, thanks again.
Speaker 3 (01:51:30):
Yeah man, a pleasure you bet. Till next time.
Speaker 4 (01:51:33):
This is Bob left sets
Host
Bob Lefsetz
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