June 19, 2025 • 60 mins
Peter Cincotti started playing piano at the age of three. At seven, he met Frank Sinatra. At 18, Peter was the youngest artist ever to reach # 1 on the Billboard Jazz charts (he retains that distinction to this day). But when he was 17 (a very good year!), he joined Tom in the cast of the Off-Broadway musical hit, Our Sinatra, and a lifelong friendship was born.
Peter’s latest album, “Live At The Cafe Carlyle,” is his first recording on vinyl, and it’s a knockout. It’s so good that George Clooney kinda swiped our copy upon a chance meeting at The Polo Bar (though he was a gentleman about it!).
We talk about weddings, Sinatra’s deep feelings about sharing olives, finding your ancestral roots – whether you want to or not, and coping with loss through music. All these beautiful stories, and more ONLY on The Tom & Mickey Show!
You can find all of Peter’s music on your favorite streaming platforms, and order his latest album on VINYL at Petercincotti.com and follow him @petercincotti
If you find yourself dreaming about gathering around a piano for your next family dinner in a larger living room, we can help you find that - contact us at @tomandmickey or tomandmickey.com
AND if you’ve been enjoying the show, help us grow and spread the word by liking & subscribing on youtube, rating the show and leaving us comments. We’ve been loving hearing from all of you.
The Tom & Mickey show is produced by Rainbow Connector extraordinaire: Stephen Penta
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(01:00:00):
From the greatest city on the planet Earth, it's the Tom and Mickey show.
Everything is showbiz.
Lights, camera, action. Presenting...
Peter Cincotti, Rainbow Connection.
(01:00:21):
Our jobs on a daily basis are helping people to buy and sell real estate. We love our jobs, we love our clients, but an integral part of our souls is about music and show business. We gravitate towards people who understand show business, who understand the Mel Brooks mantra of everything is show business. You want to have fun, you want to gather, you want to make music and have martinis and make memories, and that's what life is about.
(01:00:55):
Peter Cincotti is a fantastically gifted singer, songwriter, pianist. This kid is talented. And the conversation with Peter is kind of like a Sunday afternoon dinner where you're gathering with your family and your friends and you're hanging out and you're telling stories. Peter even brought mootsie dough.
(01:01:25):
This is right out of the box. Fresher than the mozzarella. Did you refrigerate it?
So our beloved friend, Peter Cincotti, this is your seventh album, right? Yes, seventh album. First of all, first one. First one, correct. So I want to start in the present and then we can go back a little bit. The present is that this, this vinyl is our second copy. Here we go.
(01:01:56):
I know where you're going. So two days ago, we had this, but it was stolen from us at the polo bar by this guy named George Clooney. You may have heard of him. He's going to be on Broadway in April. He's coming in to do a show. Good night and good luck. Thank you. That's why I keep him around. He remembers the show. You need that. But it was a fun night. That was a lot of fun. It was a really fun night. So we took Peter and his gorgeous new wife, Zane, up to dinner at the polo bar. So much better than the whole time. I was just going to say he said it. He said it like I had an old one. And by the way, I said that once on stage when I was talking to, I mentioned her at one point, I'm like, you know, my new wife. And then after the show, I got all these comments. Were you married before? Anyway, go ahead. Keep talking. Sorry.
(01:02:48):
She's better than the other wife. Good, good decision. Thank you. We had a little cocktail. We sat in the lounge upstairs and then we're on our way down for dinner.
And we're usually at the polo bar. They see you immediately. It's like precision, precision. Everything is moving beautifully. And somehow we weren't being seated immediately. There's a little pause and we turned and looked. And it was Mr. Clooney on the step. That's right. They're getting ready for his party's arrival. And you he is a fan of yours, from what I understand. He talked about you on air. I think so. You know, I remember hearing I can't speak for him, but I remember hearing when my first record came out that he was a fan of that. And we heard he was talking like in my publicist at the time I was 18 and my publicist called George Clooney's talking about you and People magazine. I said, really? So I that's I don't like know the man well, but I just knew him through a couple of a couple of instances like that and appreciated that he was a fan. And then about 10 years later or a few years later, he was getting honored at the Cinematheque Awards and requested me to perform in L.A. for him. And that was very cool. I did that. But again, it was, you know, few instances like that. But it's been over probably 10 years since I saw what I mean. It was a beautiful moment of Bichère. Yeah. I mean, it was lovely. Yeah. He's like, you look the same. Not quite. You look pretty good.
(01:04:15):
So Peter and George are having a nice moment. And our record was we we offered it away. Well, they knew exactly what to do. She knew exactly. It's so funny. It's like we were trick or treating. It was like, you don't get that Apple. That's George's Apple. And so George has this as well. Yes, he does. And now we have it and it will be part of our collection. I will say, too, he was very kind about the theft. Yes, he was. I want to write the presentation. Yeah, it wasn't a theft. No strong word, Tom. There was no theft. Martini's working. Are you Tom making? I know which guy, by the way. How long do I know you? Twenty four years. No more probably. Yeah. So I know I know who the man is. See, all of the get to the olives. I'm not going to slow down. No, George is very gracious about this. Yes. Very friendly. And we should also note that you don't typically go from restaurant to restaurant carrying a bag of your own albums. No, unlike some of it was for you guys. And now you got the intended copy. Good. Thank you. This is a special pressing.
(01:05:31):
We're going to we're going to talk more about vinyl, but we have to we have to go back and discuss our where we first met Peter. So so.
Two thousand. It was two thousand because you had just turned 17. Right. So in two thousand, you would have been 17. Yes, that's correct. So twenty five years ago now, it was the last thing that I did professionally, a little off Broadway show called Our Sinatra. It was the last thing I did. Yeah, that's what we'll get into that. Maybe we won't. But but it was such it was a great gig for me. I did it for 18 months. You did it for what, six weeks? Something like that. Yeah, you came in as a great gig for me, too. I loved it.
(01:06:11):
You were like the because you were a budding rock star at the moment. Yeah. Right. And Jack Lewin found you and and brought you and tell us tell us how that happened. I told you that the other night, which you made me remember, I was playing at a restaurant, which was a sister restaurant of that. The East Harlem. That's right. A very famous one called the rails.
And I know a lot of those guys growing up and they had a sister restaurant called Baldoria. And I was in ninth grade playing Wednesday night at Baldoria. And I remember I'd bring my little guitar. It was a guitar speaker, but I used it for any amplification at these places. I bring and I bring a stand like this. I would do what you're doing with all the filling with the mics myself. And I'd set it up and I play every Wednesday night. Tony Bennett was there one night and it was very just great to be able to play in front of other people. One of those other people was Jack Lewin, who is a character and he has discriminating taste. The most. Yeah. And knowledgeable.
(01:07:14):
And I remember he was very picky about certain musical things. He still is. And I remember him. He's telling me about the show.
(01:13:04):
First of all, Tom was very excited to do it because he was so desperate to find someplace in the family where he was Jewish. He was trying to find his Jewish roots. I was baking Christmas cookies one year with my mother, who was raised Catholic, went to Catholic school. And at some point she said something about, yeah, I think grandpa's great grandmother was Jewish. I was like,
(01:13:28):
isn't that funny? There was some Jewish line in our family at some point, because I've been trying to find that. Isn't that funny? He found nothing. He found nothing. It was like Raul de Rivera, Applehones vault. Like nothing. I was crushed and horrified. And that was the end of it. That's great. Those are the answers. That's a hell of a door to open. Well, I even know people in other ways that, you know, an adoption plays into this where the grown men or grown women, they find out they're adopted late in life and everyone who they thought was this, was that. And a friend of mine was like, you know, he was raised Italian and an Italian family. And then he later found out he was an Italian. And he goes, you know, I'm actually fully Jewish. And he did a deep dot. And it played. You know, it's incredible. You can find out now.
(01:14:14):
I have a cousin that I never knew that found me somehow only because of my public, the public aspect of my career, which is also interesting, because if I wasn't a performer of any kind, I probably would not even have the story to tell. I get these clippings in the mail from a woman in, I think she was in Seattle at the time, we're on the West Coast, Washington. And it's my father as a kid in the envelope. You know, you get some fan mail here. I open the envelope. It's my aunt and my this and my father in East Harlem. And I'm like, and then there's this and this. I'm like, what the hell? And she wrote me this lovely note because I think we're related. Turns out we are. And she used to her family and her family. And she did a deep dive in all of the ancestry documents. She's she's the one in that leg of the family that knows everything. So since then, we reconnected. And now I know all this other information. She says, I think, you know, if we go back to the whole family tree, I think this is where it started in a town called.
(01:15:19):
It was in a region outside of Naples called Avellino. I think this is where the Sencati is from. So I start the name. So I start listening to her and learning from this woman I never met. It's crazy how it connects because I tour a lot in Italy. So I have a week off. It's just the craziest thing. Turns out she's right. She narrows it down to a town in Avellino called Chervenara, a very small town. So I have a week off once I know this information in between tours and I have my friend Luca meet me who speaks Italian. And then he said, let's go. Maybe we could find some Sencati. You know, I met my cousin told him the story the whole with the thing. We go to Chervenara in between my Italy tours and we go into the town. It's like going back in town in time. It's incredible. There's a guy, a group of guys in the square playing cards, not, you know, not a lot going on quiet and we're walking through. It was like a hill. I'll never forget. And a cop car comes down the hill and stops us because we clearly don't look like we're locals. And he rolls down the window and the cop says, can I help you guys? And my friend, Lucas says in Italian, my friend, he was trying to find his roots, his family roots. Apparently we're from he's from Chervenara. He goes, what's the what's the name? And my friend, Lucas says, Cincotti. And the cops says Cincotti. He says, get in the car. This is exactly how it happened. Back door opens. We get we looked at Lucas. We'll take a shot. Let's get in the car. They didn't read your rights or anything. Get in the car now. Luke and I are right. Yeah.
(01:17:00):
Exactly. So we thought we'd take a shot. We're in the back of the car riding God knows where in the middle of outside Napole Hills.
And then he makes the cop makes a phone call and we drive and are driving and nobody knows what the hell is going on. We show up to a house, a beautiful big house with a gate that opens up. Turns out it was the mayor's house of the mayor of Chervenara who happened to be a fan of my music out of nowhere. He had all of his kid children lined up, each holding a piece of watermelon. I'll never forget each of them lined up holding watermelon. They were the loveliest people we met. My friend translated. We talked about my heritage. A year later, they made me an honorary citizen of Chervenara of the town of Chervenara and they had a big concert honoring me. It was the craziest thing. They had a marching band honoring me. Like I said, there's not a lot going on there.
(01:18:03):
It was still it was a huge honor. And I have a special place for Chervenara, but also for my what are the chances that cousin it all came back to the cousin. And if I wasn't a singer, I would have not ever had that experience meeting her. So anyway, that's the my ancestry story. Spitting the tube. Yeah, I know. Let's just do it. Spitting the tube. They've got an after. I don't have to know. I met like 96 grandmothers, apparently. They're all named Sincati over there. That's my two. You played it once a year now? You know, I haven't been back since that big that big night. But I will go back and I'll go back. Get your agent on that. I know. I know. I want to go back. It was very special. And the food was incredible. The ceremonies they created around the concert was incredible. It was like old time stuff you cannot find that easily these days. It's gorgeous. Beautiful. All right. Let's go back to music. Because that's that's your well, it's a it's part of our souls. Right. I mean, we sell real estate now, but just because it pays better. You still sound pretty good. We did a little a little a little tester before this podcast brought me right back. It was it's fun. It's very nice. But after our Sinatra, you kind of catapulted into I mean, you went touring all over the world. You were in Vanity Fair. You've made now seven albums. I know that we are heavily, heavily Sinatra influenced and we must talk about St. Francis as we call him. We talk about Frank. But so we'll shift to Frank, the influence of Frank. And then and then if there are other influences, because we've been listening to a lot of your original music leading up to tonight. Oh, that's nice. Yesterday and today. So you were the guy. But that's right. I even there's like a touch that there's a little bit nod to Billy Joel, maybe. Yeah, I love Billy Joel. Yeah. It gets depends on when you say when people say that to me, I never know which album they're listening to because it's pretty diverse. If you look at if you look at my first two records that happened after Sinatra, it was and there was a big shift after that second record to my third because I started writing all my own stuff again. I grew up with all the Sinatra stuff. I grew up with all the American songbook. I loved it. But in a parallel way, I don't talk about it a lot. But only in retrospect, I put it together. But when I sat down to play the piano at first, like eight when I was like, I've been playing since I was three. But when I was about eight or nine, I started writing songs. And the songs that I would write would be these like ultra pop, almost like Celine Dion type, almost saccharine melodies. And that was my instinct. And I have tapes and tapes and tapes of that nine, 10, 11. And I'm like, I don't know where that's coming from. It's really I didn't necessarily grow up with that, but I put that there. Then I get into all the like the boogie woogie piano playing of Jerry Lee Lewis, who was really my first influence when I was five. Early rock and roll 1950s rock and roll led me to blues led me to jazz players in my teens like Oscar Peterson and all these incredible piano players. And that would be what took me basically to the time I met you I was on this jazz course. Now when I had all these great jazz teachers, jazz blues, whatever it may be in New York, whenever I would share some of the pop stuff that I had all these tapes of that I still did almost in a quiet way. The jazz teachers were not so happy with that. They would steer me back towards. So I kept doing it, but again, didn't do so. Then I make my first record that did really well in the jazz. They put it in the jazz scene touring second record follow up. I'm working with Phil Ramon, a whole great team. Traditional, but also still trying to find new ways to do old classic songs to take new approaches. I didn't want to come out and sing. Speaking of Sinatra, I didn't want to come out and sing come fly with me or fly me to moon. Any of these classes, because he, like he did it. It's been done. What am I going to do? Like I was actively, unless I have some
(01:27:33):
This is another story. Muppets. My last record, Killer on the Keys, that was the title in my intent there was to honor Jerry Lee Lewis as an a song, because he was the real killer. But I combine all these different piano players that really shouldn't be... Speaking of genre and trying to connect, that was kind of the base of my last album. So I have a Billy Joel song. I have a Coldplay song. I have Nat King Cole. I have even someone from Lady Gaga. There's a song from Lady Gaga. There's Oscar Peterson. And there's Errol Garner. It's all these people, John Lennon, people from different genres, but I wanted to make the piano the centerpiece to try to connect them. But so I'm towards the end of that record. And I think of Scott Joplin, who obviously has the famous... Which everybody knows.
(01:28:27):
But I would like to have you a great melody. This is so piano centric, this record. It would be great to find a way to include that. I go on YouTube and I find a clip of Milton Berle on the Muppets speaking with the Muppets. Now the curtain is going up. The entertainer is taking a bow.
(01:28:53):
Does his dance step and sings his song. Even gets the whole crowd to sing along. You got to watch this clip. Where's that lyric? Nobody knows that lyric. And everybody knows that iconic melody. So we contact whoever we got a contact. We find out. It took some digging. Who did that lyric? And it was especially written for the Muppets, but Scott Joplin, the copyright was already public domain with the melody. It was a mess. Anyway, we finally did it. And that's on my last record, but with a lyric that I don't think a lot of people know. That's awesome.
(01:29:28):
He's constantly going down rabbit holes with the Muppets. And during the day, I'll be in the middle of showing an apartment and I get a Muppet clip. No, that's a great resource.
That's very funny. Muppets. Can we get the Muppets on the show too? What do you think? We've known some of them. We have. Well, from Sesame Street. That's true. We have some Sesame Street friends. Not the puppets, the real people. Nia know. It's like, oh God, Tom and thinking, Tom and Mickey think the fence with the puppets. You got to line up on the olives there, Mickey. I know. I'm taking it easy. Do you need another drink? No, no, no, no. This will turn quickly. Yeah, we don't want that. I don't know. It won't be a podcast. No, no, no. The funny thing is, this is this is the first time we've had cocktails on camera since selling New York. We learned a lesson. Oh, what happened? We did a show called selling New York. I know about that. I want to hear about it. I want to hear this story. And it just happens that it was in our apartment. Not this one. Not this one. This apartment is not tainted like that one.
(01:30:36):
We had to sell it immediately after this episode. We'll soon get there with this one.
If you see this apartment come up for sale. You know, it was the olives. Exactly. No. So we were doing an episode. It was in the summer. It was right after work. It was like 5 30 or something. So we invited everybody over to our apartment. We were doing an episode about the neighborhood. Okay. So we had the what's the neighborhood? It was Midtown. 58th and 6th. 58th and 6th. Right. Right. By the Plaza, the Central Park, the Trojan. We'd go to the bakery. And we were talking about how to sell listings in the neighborhood over cocktails. The mistake we made is we poured martinis and it seemed like everybody wanted martinis that night. Oh, no. And we had very large glasses. We still do. It was a hot summer day. It was 5 o'clock. Nobody had eaten. Nobody had food. But we got in. We started filming and as things go, you know, we have to pause. Let's reset. And for continuity, we had to refill the drinks. Yeah, we had to. We had to. And for anybody who doesn't know, continuity means. We had to fill in vodka. Well, couldn't use water. But for anybody who doesn't know, continuity means that if you had a full drink at the beginning of the show, I feel again, you still at the beginning of the shot, it had to be full. So we could fill them with water, of course, we've been smarter. And then we could have said, yeah, we'll all have cocktails at the end. Oh, that's great. But we just kept refilling them. And it just got worse and worse. And the editors of that particular episode said it was the hardest thing they had ever had to edit. Not the F bombs were dropping. And this is HGTV. So it's not like you can drop them here on the wall. That's great. That's great. It was the hard. They did this. The show did eight seasons, 113 episodes or something. They said it was that was the hardest one to edit. Oh, that is. You gave him something to remember. The director was like, if we were shooting it, the director was crouching in a corner going like this. Yeah. Please. You know, there's nothing like especially this kind of drink martini. There's nothing quite like it because as my friend Tony says, who we talked about the other night, one's not enough and two is too many. And it's so true.
(01:32:58):
That's not the expression. What is it? Two? No. Two is not enough. Three is too many. The Dorothy Parker. Well, there are two. There's a gosh, I'm missing the reality. Help me help you. It's the hours. Get you every time. Dorothy Parker. One martini, two at the most three. I'm under the table for under the host. But there was also there's an expression about breasts. One's not enough. Two is perfect. Three is too many. I didn't hear that one related to funny. Yeah. Related to what breasts. I thought that's what you said. One is not enough. Two is perfect. Don't look so disgusted. You have them. I've never seen that expression on your face before. I'm leaning. Did he say breasts? Yes, he did. All right. It's fine. It's fine. Why do you want me to call them? Are those fingers? And he had two sips. I've had three sips and have even had an olive. Jeez Louise. No. Well, you know, one's not enough and two is too many. So, but thank you. And what did the Rat Pack say? Do you remember the famous line about drinking? We feel sorry for people who don't drink. Oh, that's as good as you're going to feel for the rest of the day. When they wake up in the morning. This actually reminds me too, as I was making these, Johnny Carson said, three olives in your martini when you're, happiness is three olives in your martini when you're hungry. I'm like, there's truth to that. Oh, that's great. Right. Did you hear that bit? Who does that? Was it Sinatra or someone where it was a sign of real friendship? Would you share, would you share my olive? Oh, no. You never heard that. There's a story there. I don't want to miss quote it. Like shared one. He would, he, it would mean like, you're really, you're, you're, you're, it's like an honor. Like you're a friend, share my olive. That's we got to look it up. I like that. But apparently my olives are gone. So I can't even offer that to you. I like to share my olives with you because I truly love you. And you're, you're, you're, a la familia. So, but as the rap pack said about drinking, we feel sorry for people who don't drink. Because when they wake up in the morning, that's as because when they wake up in the morning, that's as good as they're going to feel for the rest of the day. It's a great quote. It's a great quote. Probably not good at an AA meeting.
(01:35:26):
No, but I, so our mantra is, you know, we both, Mickey was a Broadway producer. You clearly know that I was a singer. Now we sell real estate for a long time now, but we say that everything, everything is show business at the end of the day, selling a property. You putting on a show. Yeah, of course. And you're, of course, particularly in your kind of business, there's a lot of overlaps. It's all show business. Wow. And that's it. That's what we are at the end of the day. Show trash. Well, we are show trash at the end of the day. Here we are.
(01:35:58):
In the most loving way. Peter, we take this show so seriously as a prop. You kidding? We just found it today, which is just found it today. All right. Close your eyes. Oh, it's great. Oh, this great. Yeah, of course. Wait, but it was just who's wait. It's about the most fun I've ever had at dinner. Yeah, it's great. I mean, between courses, not just at dinner. Well, what do we do now? Well, we're waiting for the entree. Let's go. There's a shooting range downstairs. It's all very legitimate. There's top. There's security. They got a license. They have a license. There's guys there who monitor the whole thing. And I, it's all going fine, except that I am a fucking idiot when it comes to this because I have never touched a gun in my life. I have one sibling, my brother, who has a closet full of about 300 guns. I've never touched a gun. That's amazing. Amazing. So I really, if you remember, the guy thought I was like joking around. He did. I remember that. He was getting really frustrated with you. I remember you laughing your ass off. I'm like sweating. You hold him. You look at him. Do it like this. You just kept the ammo just kept dropping out without shooting. Stop touching that. Just fire the gun. I really thought I had to keep doing this. It was incredible. I wish we had a video. I wish you had a video. That was great. But you're a good shot. You got the wrist. Did Mickey get, is that a fucking great, you got him right in the head. He did very well. He's very good. I maybe I was, somebody got him right in the head. Look at that. Is there a camera? Look, I mean, don't even mess with Mickey. I mean, right between the eye, right in the head. That's amazing. Me, not so much. I have other strengths.
(01:37:52):
I'll say this. The most fun, some of the most fun nights we've ever had are with the Sencati family. Well, thank you. I mean, we have great nights. It's just crazy. Every time we're together, it's like it's so much fun. It feels like family. Like we, you know, we've known each other for generations. Kind of at this point, it's getting there. Yeah. Kind of sorted. Wouldn't be funny if you went on Ancestry or something. You found out. My cousin. Oh my God. I know you are my cousin.
(01:38:20):
Oh my God. I guess I'll have to do it. I'll have to do it. One of these days. Chosen family. Yeah, I know. That is important to you. Your sister's wedding. Best wedding we've ever been to. Unfortunately, we couldn't get to yours. Well, you can't. No, because best compare it. No. Yeah. No, we've seen. No, that was a great wedding. So Peter and Zainab got married in Turkey. You're eight months now, right? A little over eight months. Yeah. Yeah. Last May. So you're coming up on a year. Yeah, that's crazy. The photos we saw were just epic. We lived vicariously through the photos and stories from Jack Lewin. That's very funny. He called and he spoke for two hours. He walked us through. He had a good time. He had a good time. I was so glad he came. That's full circle too, from how I know you and then he came. Yeah. So why there?
(01:39:11):
Well, Zainab is Turkish. I met her in Istanbul. Her whole family's there. I met her there like 16 years ago. Crazy enough. That's a long story. We told you that at night, but in a nutshell, we've stayed in touch through the years and she moved to New York a long time ago. Yeah. We were to go about seven years now. So we did it. Beautiful. Yeah. It was really nice. We drank for you guys and we drank enough for you guys, but you were missing. How many people did you have? We had about, I think it was about 150. That's perfect. It's not a hop and a skip either, but it was a perfect size and we got so lucky with the weather because it was an outdoor thing overlooking the Bosphorus. Have you ever been to Turkey at all? I've been once. You've been? Okay. Back when I used to sing on cruise ships. Oh, really? In Istanbul? Yeah. Yeah. In Istanbul. I remember distinctly we went, I remember we went for, you know, all the touristy things. We went for a Turkish bath. Of course. We went to the mosques and took a thousand pictures. Of course. It's very unique. It's really, the histories, they talk about histories, incredible. And I learned a lot and it was really, really nice. Beautiful. I think we have to talk about Sinatra, don't we? Where do you even start on Frank Sinatra? Where do you start? I don't know. Wait, how do you wait? No, that's a great song. That's not even, that's not even, did he, he didn't record that. He would have done that so well. I love the Shirley. We're supposed to talk about Sinatra, but the Shirley Horn recording. It's incredible with John. I think Johnny Mandel did the, that's one of my favorite all time recordings. You saw Sinatra once. I saw him once. Yeah. You were what year? I was about seven. Oh, wait, I should have brought that photo. We're going to put it in.
(01:40:55):
It's incredible. I'm like, what is seven, eight years old? Did I send it to you already? We have it. We spoke to your advance team. Zenep sent us the whole file.
Just zooming in, same photo, just 10 incarnations. Yeah, I got a photo. And I even showed the when I played at the Carl Island December, like a moron, because I'm so proud of it. I mean, who's that? And I look, I'm all slicked back. You'll see the photo, but I was, I showed it every night and then our last two week Christmas run every night. I showed it to the crowd. By the way, it took about 20 minutes and I took my time because I went around the room. I'm like, we're going slow here. And I want everyone to see it. And you walk through the room. No, I was just on the stage. Nice and slow. Look at this. And by the way, his expression in that photo is just incredible. Well, it's just he's looking right through you. So Peter goes at eight years old to see Frank Sinatra and his entire family gets escorted backstage. Yeah, that's really close to my father. But yeah, and you got to meet the Pope of Greenwich Village before the show. He was making a drink in the corner. I had the orange. I think it was a handkerchief. Very nice friend. We took the picture. And then he said to my sister on the way out, who was, I don't know, 10, I'll be singing to you.
(01:42:20):
Oh, my God. It's just everything was just so much. It was just you and your parents and your sister. Correct. Do you love that as much? Yeah, she loved it more because at that time she was even more of a fan of Sinatra. I was, you know, than I was. And not that I wasn't. I was just a little younger, but no, incredible moment. Did you take the picture to school after in the show? No, not really. I don't think so. But I certainly do now. Take it everywhere I go. The weight of that moment has become weightier. Yes, it's certainly. For the years. Sir, I'm sorry. We don't have your reservation. Have you seen this photo? Exactly. Exactly. Yeah, that's me. Did you meet him? I shook his hand. Well, that's me. As far as I got. The first time I saw Sinatra was June of 84. I was 14. Okay. And my parents got tickets somewhere in the mid to back section of the main floor at Carnegie Hall. Okay. And I'll never forget it. It was an epiphanic moment. Okay. But the next year and Sinatra, I saw Sinatra 17 times over in a 10 year period because he was constantly on the East Coast. 17. 17. I just want to make sure that they all hear that. 17. 17. There's a caveat. It really racked up once when I had the greatest singing gig in my life. I was playing the lounge in Atlantic City, the Copa Lounge. Sinatra was across the hall in the Copa Room. So in between sets. You're kidding. I'd go in and out. Of course. It was the most miraculous moment of my life in terms of that. Oh my God. But the second time I saw Sinatra, my father bought front row tickets from a scalper. We have front row center. We're sitting next to Sylvia Sims. Oh my God.
(01:44:05):
And he got it. That's a hell of a scout. That's a great thing. Wow. So, and my dad got a picture of me shaking Frank's hand at the edge of the stage. Oh, wow. Well, at least you have that. I have that, but I'm not quite hanging with Frank the way you would, Peter. I wasn't hanging. Everyone's lucky for what they got. That's right. It's not, you know, it was just. That's true. They, you know, comes around once type like that's amazing. Do you grow up being a Sinatra fan? Oh, a hundred percent. The first time we met, Tom asked what I knew of the world. We were saying that's a great line. You love that. Yes. Yes. I know you love it. We went to Birdland. We were sitting having a scotch and we looked around. Tony Bennett was in the room. Marilyn May had brought us over there. And he said, what do you know of this world?
(01:44:53):
Heavy, heavy, heavy stuff. I'm a dramatic kind of a guy. I trust you said it exactly like that. Oh, he did. He did. I don't have a hand. What do you know of this world? I'm gonna eat an olive. That's great. That's the end. And he knew a lot of this world. What I knew at the time, and I can't, there are things I've known in my life verbatim, like the Harvey Corman in Blazing Saddles when he rattles off, like all the people they need to round up. Do you remember that? Hustlers. I used to know that every single line of that. But I also knew because my mom, we had the requisite 1980s Sony stereo stack with the tape player. So the main event was on the turntable. The cassette was in the car.
(01:45:45):
And for whatever reason, we didn't change the cassettes a lot. So I knew the main event, Sinatra's Return in 1974, which we've talked about so many times. Yes, we have. But when I was able to stop talking, I know we do. What do I know about Sinatra and emboldened by half a scotch, I repeated the entire Howard Cosell. And you've been together ever since. And that was it. That's, of course. I could be a mass murderer, but no. If you know that, that's incredible.
(01:46:19):
Because it's the most exciting moment. It's so exciting. We're going to say this every time I see you now. We're going to just retell the Howard Cosell. We'll talk about the main event. My band and I, my drummer and I, Joe, it's the most exciting television moment ever. When we listen to the band kicks in. So when we listen to Lady is a Tramp or we just sing it. She gets too hungry for dinner at eight. Then I always have to go, because there's a woman. That's the same. That's not my place. Isn't that on my way? When he gets a couple of bars. Oh, no, I think you're right. And now the end is near. Oh, and somebody does that. Okay. The final curtain.
(01:47:00):
That's very funny. You're right. It's not. It's my way. It's my way. All right. You knew the voiceover. You screwed up on that. You're close enough. All right. I've got one of all that's left of me. I'm sorry. 17th year. You did pretty good, Biggie. We're in our 18th year now. It's okay.
Oh, that's incredible. You know the story of this, right? Tell me the story. The one I hear the story. I don't know the story. But I want you to tell the story. The story is this was my grandfather's ring. So my grandmother on my father's side got it for her husband. My grandmother was Julia. And my grandfather's name was Peter.
(01:47:36):
And inside it says love Julia, but he passed it on to his son who was my father, Fred. And then I'm Peter and he passed it on to me. It's been three generations. Beautiful. Yeah. Yeah, it's fair. And this is actually my father's as well. This is his, I guess his communion. He got this ID bracelet. That one says Fred.
(01:47:58):
So yeah, I'm adorned with, you know, that's beautiful. I was going to say, did your father had enormous wrists as a child?
I know, right? It's pretty big. And I think I got it even. You're right. I got it even. You're it's a great, he was, I think he was 13 when he got it, but who knows? Well, yeah, you're right. Cause I even got it short or, you know, reduced, but my mother was once in the jewelry business and she always said, never get rid of the links and never let them cut the ring. Oh, good. Steel, the gold. Oh, fine. I have the links. I have the links just in case, you know, I fatten up a little. No, it's not going to happen.
(01:48:36):
When we do this 30 years from now in Peter's scenario,
30 years, 50 years. I tell you about the price. Exactly. Get it on. Kids. I had seven kids now. Who knew? Exactly. Exactly. We're going to do a part two in 50 years.
(01:48:57):
No, no, no. Once a year.
All right. What's the button? What's the meaning of life? What's it all about? Alfie? Oh my God. I don't know. I just said one day at a time, right? That's a good one. Friend of mine says that all the time. I just got off the phone with him before, before I came here. But every conversation, I don't know, Pete. One day at a time. And you know what? That's pretty good. It is.
(01:49:21):
We're great believers in having fun. Everything should be fun. The world is filled with a little too much misery. I think if everybody sat down and made music, it would be in a really good place. Yeah, of course. Music is powerful like that. And what you were saying the other night is powerful. Gratitude is easier said than done. So we have to be. But to wake up every morning with all the shit that's going on in the world, take a moment. Find the gratitude. It doesn't make everything else go away. But of course. We have much to be grateful for. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. That's the... That's your button.
(01:49:58):
Why are there so many songs about rainbows?
And what's on the other side?
Rainbows are visions.
But only illusions and rainbows have nothing to hide.
(01:50:29):
So we've been told and some choose to believe it.
I know they're on wait and see. (Music) Someday we'll find it. The rainbow connection.
(01:50:50):
The lovers.
The dreamers in me.
(01:51:25):
(Music)
What's so amazing that keeps us stargazing?
And what do we think we might see?
(01:51:48):
Someday we'll find it. The rainbow connection. The lovers.
The dreamers in me.
(Music) All of us under its spell.
(01:52:08):
(Music) We know that it's probably magic.
Have you been half asleep?
(Music) Have you heard voices?
(Music) I've heard them calling my name.
(01:52:31):
(Music) Is this the sweet sound that calls the young sayers? (Music) The voice might be one and the same.
(Music)
I've heard too many times to ignore it.
(01:52:53):
It's something that I'm supposed to be.
Someday we'll find it.
The rainbow connection.
The lovers.
(01:53:16):
(Music) The dreamers.
And me.
(Music)
(01:53:46):
(Music)
Gorgeous Peter.
Gorgeous. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Of course.
Come, come sit back here for a moment. Really? Where to take the mood down? Jesus. I feel that, you know, I was reluctant to ask you about your dad's passing and then what that was. No, you didn't. Mickey and I were listening today to, to specifically, to a lot of your music, but specifically to Ghost of My Father. And so that was your kind of coming to terms with. Yeah, that's a good way to say it. Yeah. What a tragic thing happened at a young, young age, if you would tell us. Yeah, sure. That's a good way to say it.
(01:54:32):
That song is on my last record. That record was made during the pandemic.
I was in the apartment in New York. We didn't leave them with Zaina, but music was a huge outlet. I'm thankful I had that because I was escaping.
And making a record during a thing like that where you're locked down, changed the creative process and it changed the writing process. At least I found, even though I was doing all those other songs I told you about before, trying to combine my piano influences, I still have a few original songs. And it was almost like this song was demanded to be written, not to sound too artistic, but some songs are like that in the sense that you could slave and kill yourself to write a song. And then other ones just are like, they're just there for you. And this was one of those, not fully, it was torturous to write after the moment of inspiration. But the moment of inspiration came, I was just woke up one morning and the melody was there, just there. I can't explain it. Go to the keyboard and the melody was there. And it was attached to the title, "Ghost of My Father" for some reason. I'm a big believer in the power of the unconscious and how that affects the creative process. Because I've had a lot of experiences that made me a believer with songs in the past. On my fourth, I think it was fourth or fifth album, I have a few songs on that record that are completely from dreams. And they've changed experiences in my life. There's a song called, I'll get to what you asked me, this is a bit of a setup. I got a song called "Pelermo" which was almost entirely in a dream about Palermo. But I don't have any connection to Palermo, but it was in a dream. And now I have a connection to Palermo. I go there a lot, I tour there a lot. And all I did was write down what the hell was in the dream. And the song was in the dream. Anyway, without sounding too crazy, and this was not the martini, this is actually happening.
(01:56:31):
So who knows, "Ghost of My Father" was a little bit of that. And I took about, I was writing it. And then I have a collaborator who has a brilliant lyricist in Nashville, his name is John Bettis. And I thought, you know what, I was writing it, but it was almost too close to the bone to write alone. I was almost a little bit afraid of how to tell that story, but I knew it needed to be told in a certain way. So I brought it to John and we worked on it over the course of, I think it was three weeks actually. But, and he encouraged me to, when we were going over each verse, just say it, just say it. It's the only pretty much linear description of pretty much what happened. But it is told, if you listen to the song, it is told in three stages.
(01:57:20):
And it's about letting go, but also accepting that you can't let go. Certain things, when you lose somebody like that, I lost my dad when he was, when I was 13 and it was at my first professional show on West 46th Street, not far from here. And he was on his way to see me and he had a heart attack in front of the club. So it's not something I speak about, let alone on a podcast, but only since I wrote the song, am I kind of able to kind of talk about it. Not that I shied away, but it wasn't something I spoke about. Then the song was written, I wrote it with John and we told the story and it was just really good to tell, I guess, but it was a hard song to write and it was a hard song to perform. And you realize how much you hold on to, even if you push stuff away.
(01:58:08):
And now where the reception of that song around the world has been fascinating to watch. I play it a lot on tour and we're about to release shortly after, I don't know when you're going to air this thing, but in the next couple of months, we're going to release a French version of the song that a French singer has somehow fallen in love with the song. And she's a beautiful singer and very well known over there. And hearing the melody in French with her adaptation of the lyric has been such an honor. So these are mysterious things. They come in a dream or they don't, and then they take their own life, even with the Palermo. My relationship to that city has grown just because of something I don't really fully understand. And obviously with my father and the song, this was in that category. But anyway, yeah, thanks for listening to it. For being willing and able to share that. Do you, in performance, do you let the song just tell the story or do you set it up with? I sell it up now. I tell them kind of what I just told you. Here's a background and not something I talk about, but here's, this is the setup for the song.
(01:59:17):
And again, my collaborator, John, really encouraged me to do that because I'm not that type of performer, really, but he's like, just do it. And now since I've been doing it, I mean, the people after the show and grown men come up to me in tears and everybody has some stories, but of their own, because that's the beauty of some, if you could write it in a way, it's funny as you, as I write more and more songs, certain songs
(01:59:45):
achieve a certain universal thing when you get super specific. So this is very specific and very personal to me. And because, but somehow because of that specificity, it became universal. And now I'm hearing stories after show from people that have their own versions because everybody has shit and everybody struggles and everyone goes through loss. And this song is about the last line is no goodbyes. Yeah, I know. It's just your relationship to the, to the, to the grief changes as you get older. And that's what the song is about.
From the greatest city on the planet Earth, it's the Tom and Mickey show.
Everything is showbiz.
Lights, camera, action. Presenting...
Peter Cincotti, Rainbow Connection.
(01:00:21):
Our jobs on a daily basis are helping people to buy and sell real estate. We love our jobs, we love our clients, but an integral part of our souls is about music and show business. We gravitate towards people who understand show business, who understand the Mel Brooks mantra of everything is show business. You want to have fun, you want to gather, you want to make music and have martinis and make memories, and that's what life is about.
(01:00:55):
Peter Cincotti is a fantastically gifted singer, songwriter, pianist. This kid is talented. And the conversation with Peter is kind of like a Sunday afternoon dinner where you're gathering with your family and your friends and you're hanging out and you're telling stories. Peter even brought mootsie dough.
(01:01:25):
This is right out of the box. Fresher than the mozzarella. Did you refrigerate it?
So our beloved friend, Peter Cincotti, this is your seventh album, right? Yes, seventh album. First of all, first one. First one, correct. So I want to start in the present and then we can go back a little bit. The present is that this, this vinyl is our second copy. Here we go.
(01:01:56):
I know where you're going. So two days ago, we had this, but it was stolen from us at the polo bar by this guy named George Clooney. You may have heard of him. He's going to be on Broadway in April. He's coming in to do a show. Good night and good luck. Thank you. That's why I keep him around. He remembers the show. You need that. But it was a fun night. That was a lot of fun. It was a really fun night. So we took Peter and his gorgeous new wife, Zane, up to dinner at the polo bar. So much better than the whole time. I was just going to say he said it. He said it like I had an old one. And by the way, I said that once on stage when I was talking to, I mentioned her at one point, I'm like, you know, my new wife. And then after the show, I got all these comments. Were you married before? Anyway, go ahead. Keep talking. Sorry.
(01:02:48):
She's better than the other wife. Good, good decision. Thank you. We had a little cocktail. We sat in the lounge upstairs and then we're on our way down for dinner.
And we're usually at the polo bar. They see you immediately. It's like precision, precision. Everything is moving beautifully. And somehow we weren't being seated immediately. There's a little pause and we turned and looked. And it was Mr. Clooney on the step. That's right. They're getting ready for his party's arrival. And you he is a fan of yours, from what I understand. He talked about you on air. I think so. You know, I remember hearing I can't speak for him, but I remember hearing when my first record came out that he was a fan of that. And we heard he was talking like in my publicist at the time I was 18 and my publicist called George Clooney's talking about you and People magazine. I said, really? So I that's I don't like know the man well, but I just knew him through a couple of a couple of instances like that and appreciated that he was a fan. And then about 10 years later or a few years later, he was getting honored at the Cinematheque Awards and requested me to perform in L.A. for him. And that was very cool. I did that. But again, it was, you know, few instances like that. But it's been over probably 10 years since I saw what I mean. It was a beautiful moment of Bichère. Yeah. I mean, it was lovely. Yeah. He's like, you look the same. Not quite. You look pretty good.
(01:04:15):
So Peter and George are having a nice moment. And our record was we we offered it away. Well, they knew exactly what to do. She knew exactly. It's so funny. It's like we were trick or treating. It was like, you don't get that Apple. That's George's Apple. And so George has this as well. Yes, he does. And now we have it and it will be part of our collection. I will say, too, he was very kind about the theft. Yes, he was. I want to write the presentation. Yeah, it wasn't a theft. No strong word, Tom. There was no theft. Martini's working. Are you Tom making? I know which guy, by the way. How long do I know you? Twenty four years. No more probably. Yeah. So I know I know who the man is. See, all of the get to the olives. I'm not going to slow down. No, George is very gracious about this. Yes. Very friendly. And we should also note that you don't typically go from restaurant to restaurant carrying a bag of your own albums. No, unlike some of it was for you guys. And now you got the intended copy. Good. Thank you. This is a special pressing.
(01:05:31):
We're going to we're going to talk more about vinyl, but we have to we have to go back and discuss our where we first met Peter. So so.
Two thousand. It was two thousand because you had just turned 17. Right. So in two thousand, you would have been 17. Yes, that's correct. So twenty five years ago now, it was the last thing that I did professionally, a little off Broadway show called Our Sinatra. It was the last thing I did. Yeah, that's what we'll get into that. Maybe we won't. But but it was such it was a great gig for me. I did it for 18 months. You did it for what, six weeks? Something like that. Yeah, you came in as a great gig for me, too. I loved it.
(01:06:11):
You were like the because you were a budding rock star at the moment. Yeah. Right. And Jack Lewin found you and and brought you and tell us tell us how that happened. I told you that the other night, which you made me remember, I was playing at a restaurant, which was a sister restaurant of that. The East Harlem. That's right. A very famous one called the rails.
And I know a lot of those guys growing up and they had a sister restaurant called Baldoria. And I was in ninth grade playing Wednesday night at Baldoria. And I remember I'd bring my little guitar. It was a guitar speaker, but I used it for any amplification at these places. I bring and I bring a stand like this. I would do what you're doing with all the filling with the mics myself. And I'd set it up and I play every Wednesday night. Tony Bennett was there one night and it was very just great to be able to play in front of other people. One of those other people was Jack Lewin, who is a character and he has discriminating taste. The most. Yeah. And knowledgeable.
(01:07:14):
And I remember he was very picky about certain musical things. He still is. And I remember him. He's telling me about the show.
(01:13:04):
First of all, Tom was very excited to do it because he was so desperate to find someplace in the family where he was Jewish. He was trying to find his Jewish roots. I was baking Christmas cookies one year with my mother, who was raised Catholic, went to Catholic school. And at some point she said something about, yeah, I think grandpa's great grandmother was Jewish. I was like,
(01:13:28):
isn't that funny? There was some Jewish line in our family at some point, because I've been trying to find that. Isn't that funny? He found nothing. He found nothing. It was like Raul de Rivera, Applehones vault. Like nothing. I was crushed and horrified. And that was the end of it. That's great. Those are the answers. That's a hell of a door to open. Well, I even know people in other ways that, you know, an adoption plays into this where the grown men or grown women, they find out they're adopted late in life and everyone who they thought was this, was that. And a friend of mine was like, you know, he was raised Italian and an Italian family. And then he later found out he was an Italian. And he goes, you know, I'm actually fully Jewish. And he did a deep dot. And it played. You know, it's incredible. You can find out now.
(01:14:14):
I have a cousin that I never knew that found me somehow only because of my public, the public aspect of my career, which is also interesting, because if I wasn't a performer of any kind, I probably would not even have the story to tell. I get these clippings in the mail from a woman in, I think she was in Seattle at the time, we're on the West Coast, Washington. And it's my father as a kid in the envelope. You know, you get some fan mail here. I open the envelope. It's my aunt and my this and my father in East Harlem. And I'm like, and then there's this and this. I'm like, what the hell? And she wrote me this lovely note because I think we're related. Turns out we are. And she used to her family and her family. And she did a deep dive in all of the ancestry documents. She's she's the one in that leg of the family that knows everything. So since then, we reconnected. And now I know all this other information. She says, I think, you know, if we go back to the whole family tree, I think this is where it started in a town called.
(01:15:19):
It was in a region outside of Naples called Avellino. I think this is where the Sencati is from. So I start the name. So I start listening to her and learning from this woman I never met. It's crazy how it connects because I tour a lot in Italy. So I have a week off. It's just the craziest thing. Turns out she's right. She narrows it down to a town in Avellino called Chervenara, a very small town. So I have a week off once I know this information in between tours and I have my friend Luca meet me who speaks Italian. And then he said, let's go. Maybe we could find some Sencati. You know, I met my cousin told him the story the whole with the thing. We go to Chervenara in between my Italy tours and we go into the town. It's like going back in town in time. It's incredible. There's a guy, a group of guys in the square playing cards, not, you know, not a lot going on quiet and we're walking through. It was like a hill. I'll never forget. And a cop car comes down the hill and stops us because we clearly don't look like we're locals. And he rolls down the window and the cop says, can I help you guys? And my friend, Lucas says in Italian, my friend, he was trying to find his roots, his family roots. Apparently we're from he's from Chervenara. He goes, what's the what's the name? And my friend, Lucas says, Cincotti. And the cops says Cincotti. He says, get in the car. This is exactly how it happened. Back door opens. We get we looked at Lucas. We'll take a shot. Let's get in the car. They didn't read your rights or anything. Get in the car now. Luke and I are right. Yeah.
(01:17:00):
Exactly. So we thought we'd take a shot. We're in the back of the car riding God knows where in the middle of outside Napole Hills.
And then he makes the cop makes a phone call and we drive and are driving and nobody knows what the hell is going on. We show up to a house, a beautiful big house with a gate that opens up. Turns out it was the mayor's house of the mayor of Chervenara who happened to be a fan of my music out of nowhere. He had all of his kid children lined up, each holding a piece of watermelon. I'll never forget each of them lined up holding watermelon. They were the loveliest people we met. My friend translated. We talked about my heritage. A year later, they made me an honorary citizen of Chervenara of the town of Chervenara and they had a big concert honoring me. It was the craziest thing. They had a marching band honoring me. Like I said, there's not a lot going on there.
(01:18:03):
It was still it was a huge honor. And I have a special place for Chervenara, but also for my what are the chances that cousin it all came back to the cousin. And if I wasn't a singer, I would have not ever had that experience meeting her. So anyway, that's the my ancestry story. Spitting the tube. Yeah, I know. Let's just do it. Spitting the tube. They've got an after. I don't have to know. I met like 96 grandmothers, apparently. They're all named Sincati over there. That's my two. You played it once a year now? You know, I haven't been back since that big that big night. But I will go back and I'll go back. Get your agent on that. I know. I know. I want to go back. It was very special. And the food was incredible. The ceremonies they created around the concert was incredible. It was like old time stuff you cannot find that easily these days. It's gorgeous. Beautiful. All right. Let's go back to music. Because that's that's your well, it's a it's part of our souls. Right. I mean, we sell real estate now, but just because it pays better. You still sound pretty good. We did a little a little a little tester before this podcast brought me right back. It was it's fun. It's very nice. But after our Sinatra, you kind of catapulted into I mean, you went touring all over the world. You were in Vanity Fair. You've made now seven albums. I know that we are heavily, heavily Sinatra influenced and we must talk about St. Francis as we call him. We talk about Frank. But so we'll shift to Frank, the influence of Frank. And then and then if there are other influences, because we've been listening to a lot of your original music leading up to tonight. Oh, that's nice. Yesterday and today. So you were the guy. But that's right. I even there's like a touch that there's a little bit nod to Billy Joel, maybe. Yeah, I love Billy Joel. Yeah. It gets depends on when you say when people say that to me, I never know which album they're listening to because it's pretty diverse. If you look at if you look at my first two records that happened after Sinatra, it was and there was a big shift after that second record to my third because I started writing all my own stuff again. I grew up with all the Sinatra stuff. I grew up with all the American songbook. I loved it. But in a parallel way, I don't talk about it a lot. But only in retrospect, I put it together. But when I sat down to play the piano at first, like eight when I was like, I've been playing since I was three. But when I was about eight or nine, I started writing songs. And the songs that I would write would be these like ultra pop, almost like Celine Dion type, almost saccharine melodies. And that was my instinct. And I have tapes and tapes and tapes of that nine, 10, 11. And I'm like, I don't know where that's coming from. It's really I didn't necessarily grow up with that, but I put that there. Then I get into all the like the boogie woogie piano playing of Jerry Lee Lewis, who was really my first influence when I was five. Early rock and roll 1950s rock and roll led me to blues led me to jazz players in my teens like Oscar Peterson and all these incredible piano players. And that would be what took me basically to the time I met you I was on this jazz course. Now when I had all these great jazz teachers, jazz blues, whatever it may be in New York, whenever I would share some of the pop stuff that I had all these tapes of that I still did almost in a quiet way. The jazz teachers were not so happy with that. They would steer me back towards. So I kept doing it, but again, didn't do so. Then I make my first record that did really well in the jazz. They put it in the jazz scene touring second record follow up. I'm working with Phil Ramon, a whole great team. Traditional, but also still trying to find new ways to do old classic songs to take new approaches. I didn't want to come out and sing. Speaking of Sinatra, I didn't want to come out and sing come fly with me or fly me to moon. Any of these classes, because he, like he did it. It's been done. What am I going to do? Like I was actively, unless I have some
(01:27:33):
This is another story. Muppets. My last record, Killer on the Keys, that was the title in my intent there was to honor Jerry Lee Lewis as an a song, because he was the real killer. But I combine all these different piano players that really shouldn't be... Speaking of genre and trying to connect, that was kind of the base of my last album. So I have a Billy Joel song. I have a Coldplay song. I have Nat King Cole. I have even someone from Lady Gaga. There's a song from Lady Gaga. There's Oscar Peterson. And there's Errol Garner. It's all these people, John Lennon, people from different genres, but I wanted to make the piano the centerpiece to try to connect them. But so I'm towards the end of that record. And I think of Scott Joplin, who obviously has the famous... Which everybody knows.
(01:28:27):
But I would like to have you a great melody. This is so piano centric, this record. It would be great to find a way to include that. I go on YouTube and I find a clip of Milton Berle on the Muppets speaking with the Muppets. Now the curtain is going up. The entertainer is taking a bow.
(01:28:53):
Does his dance step and sings his song. Even gets the whole crowd to sing along. You got to watch this clip. Where's that lyric? Nobody knows that lyric. And everybody knows that iconic melody. So we contact whoever we got a contact. We find out. It took some digging. Who did that lyric? And it was especially written for the Muppets, but Scott Joplin, the copyright was already public domain with the melody. It was a mess. Anyway, we finally did it. And that's on my last record, but with a lyric that I don't think a lot of people know. That's awesome.
(01:29:28):
He's constantly going down rabbit holes with the Muppets. And during the day, I'll be in the middle of showing an apartment and I get a Muppet clip. No, that's a great resource.
That's very funny. Muppets. Can we get the Muppets on the show too? What do you think? We've known some of them. We have. Well, from Sesame Street. That's true. We have some Sesame Street friends. Not the puppets, the real people. Nia know. It's like, oh God, Tom and thinking, Tom and Mickey think the fence with the puppets. You got to line up on the olives there, Mickey. I know. I'm taking it easy. Do you need another drink? No, no, no, no. This will turn quickly. Yeah, we don't want that. I don't know. It won't be a podcast. No, no, no. The funny thing is, this is this is the first time we've had cocktails on camera since selling New York. We learned a lesson. Oh, what happened? We did a show called selling New York. I know about that. I want to hear about it. I want to hear this story. And it just happens that it was in our apartment. Not this one. Not this one. This apartment is not tainted like that one.
(01:30:36):
We had to sell it immediately after this episode. We'll soon get there with this one.
If you see this apartment come up for sale. You know, it was the olives. Exactly. No. So we were doing an episode. It was in the summer. It was right after work. It was like 5 30 or something. So we invited everybody over to our apartment. We were doing an episode about the neighborhood. Okay. So we had the what's the neighborhood? It was Midtown. 58th and 6th. 58th and 6th. Right. Right. By the Plaza, the Central Park, the Trojan. We'd go to the bakery. And we were talking about how to sell listings in the neighborhood over cocktails. The mistake we made is we poured martinis and it seemed like everybody wanted martinis that night. Oh, no. And we had very large glasses. We still do. It was a hot summer day. It was 5 o'clock. Nobody had eaten. Nobody had food. But we got in. We started filming and as things go, you know, we have to pause. Let's reset. And for continuity, we had to refill the drinks. Yeah, we had to. We had to. And for anybody who doesn't know, continuity means. We had to fill in vodka. Well, couldn't use water. But for anybody who doesn't know, continuity means that if you had a full drink at the beginning of the show, I feel again, you still at the beginning of the shot, it had to be full. So we could fill them with water, of course, we've been smarter. And then we could have said, yeah, we'll all have cocktails at the end. Oh, that's great. But we just kept refilling them. And it just got worse and worse. And the editors of that particular episode said it was the hardest thing they had ever had to edit. Not the F bombs were dropping. And this is HGTV. So it's not like you can drop them here on the wall. That's great. That's great. It was the hard. They did this. The show did eight seasons, 113 episodes or something. They said it was that was the hardest one to edit. Oh, that is. You gave him something to remember. The director was like, if we were shooting it, the director was crouching in a corner going like this. Yeah. Please. You know, there's nothing like especially this kind of drink martini. There's nothing quite like it because as my friend Tony says, who we talked about the other night, one's not enough and two is too many. And it's so true.
(01:32:58):
That's not the expression. What is it? Two? No. Two is not enough. Three is too many. The Dorothy Parker. Well, there are two. There's a gosh, I'm missing the reality. Help me help you. It's the hours. Get you every time. Dorothy Parker. One martini, two at the most three. I'm under the table for under the host. But there was also there's an expression about breasts. One's not enough. Two is perfect. Three is too many. I didn't hear that one related to funny. Yeah. Related to what breasts. I thought that's what you said. One is not enough. Two is perfect. Don't look so disgusted. You have them. I've never seen that expression on your face before. I'm leaning. Did he say breasts? Yes, he did. All right. It's fine. It's fine. Why do you want me to call them? Are those fingers? And he had two sips. I've had three sips and have even had an olive. Jeez Louise. No. Well, you know, one's not enough and two is too many. So, but thank you. And what did the Rat Pack say? Do you remember the famous line about drinking? We feel sorry for people who don't drink. Oh, that's as good as you're going to feel for the rest of the day. When they wake up in the morning. This actually reminds me too, as I was making these, Johnny Carson said, three olives in your martini when you're, happiness is three olives in your martini when you're hungry. I'm like, there's truth to that. Oh, that's great. Right. Did you hear that bit? Who does that? Was it Sinatra or someone where it was a sign of real friendship? Would you share, would you share my olive? Oh, no. You never heard that. There's a story there. I don't want to miss quote it. Like shared one. He would, he, it would mean like, you're really, you're, you're, you're, it's like an honor. Like you're a friend, share my olive. That's we got to look it up. I like that. But apparently my olives are gone. So I can't even offer that to you. I like to share my olives with you because I truly love you. And you're, you're, you're, a la familia. So, but as the rap pack said about drinking, we feel sorry for people who don't drink. Because when they wake up in the morning, that's as because when they wake up in the morning, that's as good as they're going to feel for the rest of the day. It's a great quote. It's a great quote. Probably not good at an AA meeting.
(01:35:26):
No, but I, so our mantra is, you know, we both, Mickey was a Broadway producer. You clearly know that I was a singer. Now we sell real estate for a long time now, but we say that everything, everything is show business at the end of the day, selling a property. You putting on a show. Yeah, of course. And you're, of course, particularly in your kind of business, there's a lot of overlaps. It's all show business. Wow. And that's it. That's what we are at the end of the day. Show trash. Well, we are show trash at the end of the day. Here we are.
(01:35:58):
In the most loving way. Peter, we take this show so seriously as a prop. You kidding? We just found it today, which is just found it today. All right. Close your eyes. Oh, it's great. Oh, this great. Yeah, of course. Wait, but it was just who's wait. It's about the most fun I've ever had at dinner. Yeah, it's great. I mean, between courses, not just at dinner. Well, what do we do now? Well, we're waiting for the entree. Let's go. There's a shooting range downstairs. It's all very legitimate. There's top. There's security. They got a license. They have a license. There's guys there who monitor the whole thing. And I, it's all going fine, except that I am a fucking idiot when it comes to this because I have never touched a gun in my life. I have one sibling, my brother, who has a closet full of about 300 guns. I've never touched a gun. That's amazing. Amazing. So I really, if you remember, the guy thought I was like joking around. He did. I remember that. He was getting really frustrated with you. I remember you laughing your ass off. I'm like sweating. You hold him. You look at him. Do it like this. You just kept the ammo just kept dropping out without shooting. Stop touching that. Just fire the gun. I really thought I had to keep doing this. It was incredible. I wish we had a video. I wish you had a video. That was great. But you're a good shot. You got the wrist. Did Mickey get, is that a fucking great, you got him right in the head. He did very well. He's very good. I maybe I was, somebody got him right in the head. Look at that. Is there a camera? Look, I mean, don't even mess with Mickey. I mean, right between the eye, right in the head. That's amazing. Me, not so much. I have other strengths.
(01:37:52):
I'll say this. The most fun, some of the most fun nights we've ever had are with the Sencati family. Well, thank you. I mean, we have great nights. It's just crazy. Every time we're together, it's like it's so much fun. It feels like family. Like we, you know, we've known each other for generations. Kind of at this point, it's getting there. Yeah. Kind of sorted. Wouldn't be funny if you went on Ancestry or something. You found out. My cousin. Oh my God. I know you are my cousin.
(01:38:20):
Oh my God. I guess I'll have to do it. I'll have to do it. One of these days. Chosen family. Yeah, I know. That is important to you. Your sister's wedding. Best wedding we've ever been to. Unfortunately, we couldn't get to yours. Well, you can't. No, because best compare it. No. Yeah. No, we've seen. No, that was a great wedding. So Peter and Zainab got married in Turkey. You're eight months now, right? A little over eight months. Yeah. Yeah. Last May. So you're coming up on a year. Yeah, that's crazy. The photos we saw were just epic. We lived vicariously through the photos and stories from Jack Lewin. That's very funny. He called and he spoke for two hours. He walked us through. He had a good time. He had a good time. I was so glad he came. That's full circle too, from how I know you and then he came. Yeah. So why there?
(01:39:11):
Well, Zainab is Turkish. I met her in Istanbul. Her whole family's there. I met her there like 16 years ago. Crazy enough. That's a long story. We told you that at night, but in a nutshell, we've stayed in touch through the years and she moved to New York a long time ago. Yeah. We were to go about seven years now. So we did it. Beautiful. Yeah. It was really nice. We drank for you guys and we drank enough for you guys, but you were missing. How many people did you have? We had about, I think it was about 150. That's perfect. It's not a hop and a skip either, but it was a perfect size and we got so lucky with the weather because it was an outdoor thing overlooking the Bosphorus. Have you ever been to Turkey at all? I've been once. You've been? Okay. Back when I used to sing on cruise ships. Oh, really? In Istanbul? Yeah. Yeah. In Istanbul. I remember distinctly we went, I remember we went for, you know, all the touristy things. We went for a Turkish bath. Of course. We went to the mosques and took a thousand pictures. Of course. It's very unique. It's really, the histories, they talk about histories, incredible. And I learned a lot and it was really, really nice. Beautiful. I think we have to talk about Sinatra, don't we? Where do you even start on Frank Sinatra? Where do you start? I don't know. Wait, how do you wait? No, that's a great song. That's not even, that's not even, did he, he didn't record that. He would have done that so well. I love the Shirley. We're supposed to talk about Sinatra, but the Shirley Horn recording. It's incredible with John. I think Johnny Mandel did the, that's one of my favorite all time recordings. You saw Sinatra once. I saw him once. Yeah. You were what year? I was about seven. Oh, wait, I should have brought that photo. We're going to put it in.
(01:40:55):
It's incredible. I'm like, what is seven, eight years old? Did I send it to you already? We have it. We spoke to your advance team. Zenep sent us the whole file.
Just zooming in, same photo, just 10 incarnations. Yeah, I got a photo. And I even showed the when I played at the Carl Island December, like a moron, because I'm so proud of it. I mean, who's that? And I look, I'm all slicked back. You'll see the photo, but I was, I showed it every night and then our last two week Christmas run every night. I showed it to the crowd. By the way, it took about 20 minutes and I took my time because I went around the room. I'm like, we're going slow here. And I want everyone to see it. And you walk through the room. No, I was just on the stage. Nice and slow. Look at this. And by the way, his expression in that photo is just incredible. Well, it's just he's looking right through you. So Peter goes at eight years old to see Frank Sinatra and his entire family gets escorted backstage. Yeah, that's really close to my father. But yeah, and you got to meet the Pope of Greenwich Village before the show. He was making a drink in the corner. I had the orange. I think it was a handkerchief. Very nice friend. We took the picture. And then he said to my sister on the way out, who was, I don't know, 10, I'll be singing to you.
(01:42:20):
Oh, my God. It's just everything was just so much. It was just you and your parents and your sister. Correct. Do you love that as much? Yeah, she loved it more because at that time she was even more of a fan of Sinatra. I was, you know, than I was. And not that I wasn't. I was just a little younger, but no, incredible moment. Did you take the picture to school after in the show? No, not really. I don't think so. But I certainly do now. Take it everywhere I go. The weight of that moment has become weightier. Yes, it's certainly. For the years. Sir, I'm sorry. We don't have your reservation. Have you seen this photo? Exactly. Exactly. Yeah, that's me. Did you meet him? I shook his hand. Well, that's me. As far as I got. The first time I saw Sinatra was June of 84. I was 14. Okay. And my parents got tickets somewhere in the mid to back section of the main floor at Carnegie Hall. Okay. And I'll never forget it. It was an epiphanic moment. Okay. But the next year and Sinatra, I saw Sinatra 17 times over in a 10 year period because he was constantly on the East Coast. 17. 17. I just want to make sure that they all hear that. 17. 17. There's a caveat. It really racked up once when I had the greatest singing gig in my life. I was playing the lounge in Atlantic City, the Copa Lounge. Sinatra was across the hall in the Copa Room. So in between sets. You're kidding. I'd go in and out. Of course. It was the most miraculous moment of my life in terms of that. Oh my God. But the second time I saw Sinatra, my father bought front row tickets from a scalper. We have front row center. We're sitting next to Sylvia Sims. Oh my God.
(01:44:05):
And he got it. That's a hell of a scout. That's a great thing. Wow. So, and my dad got a picture of me shaking Frank's hand at the edge of the stage. Oh, wow. Well, at least you have that. I have that, but I'm not quite hanging with Frank the way you would, Peter. I wasn't hanging. Everyone's lucky for what they got. That's right. It's not, you know, it was just. That's true. They, you know, comes around once type like that's amazing. Do you grow up being a Sinatra fan? Oh, a hundred percent. The first time we met, Tom asked what I knew of the world. We were saying that's a great line. You love that. Yes. Yes. I know you love it. We went to Birdland. We were sitting having a scotch and we looked around. Tony Bennett was in the room. Marilyn May had brought us over there. And he said, what do you know of this world?
(01:44:53):
Heavy, heavy, heavy stuff. I'm a dramatic kind of a guy. I trust you said it exactly like that. Oh, he did. He did. I don't have a hand. What do you know of this world? I'm gonna eat an olive. That's great. That's the end. And he knew a lot of this world. What I knew at the time, and I can't, there are things I've known in my life verbatim, like the Harvey Corman in Blazing Saddles when he rattles off, like all the people they need to round up. Do you remember that? Hustlers. I used to know that every single line of that. But I also knew because my mom, we had the requisite 1980s Sony stereo stack with the tape player. So the main event was on the turntable. The cassette was in the car.
(01:45:45):
And for whatever reason, we didn't change the cassettes a lot. So I knew the main event, Sinatra's Return in 1974, which we've talked about so many times. Yes, we have. But when I was able to stop talking, I know we do. What do I know about Sinatra and emboldened by half a scotch, I repeated the entire Howard Cosell. And you've been together ever since. And that was it. That's, of course. I could be a mass murderer, but no. If you know that, that's incredible.
(01:46:19):
Because it's the most exciting moment. It's so exciting. We're going to say this every time I see you now. We're going to just retell the Howard Cosell. We'll talk about the main event. My band and I, my drummer and I, Joe, it's the most exciting television moment ever. When we listen to the band kicks in. So when we listen to Lady is a Tramp or we just sing it. She gets too hungry for dinner at eight. Then I always have to go, because there's a woman. That's the same. That's not my place. Isn't that on my way? When he gets a couple of bars. Oh, no, I think you're right. And now the end is near. Oh, and somebody does that. Okay. The final curtain.
(01:47:00):
That's very funny. You're right. It's not. It's my way. It's my way. All right. You knew the voiceover. You screwed up on that. You're close enough. All right. I've got one of all that's left of me. I'm sorry. 17th year. You did pretty good, Biggie. We're in our 18th year now. It's okay.
Oh, that's incredible. You know the story of this, right? Tell me the story. The one I hear the story. I don't know the story. But I want you to tell the story. The story is this was my grandfather's ring. So my grandmother on my father's side got it for her husband. My grandmother was Julia. And my grandfather's name was Peter.
(01:47:36):
And inside it says love Julia, but he passed it on to his son who was my father, Fred. And then I'm Peter and he passed it on to me. It's been three generations. Beautiful. Yeah. Yeah, it's fair. And this is actually my father's as well. This is his, I guess his communion. He got this ID bracelet. That one says Fred.
(01:47:58):
So yeah, I'm adorned with, you know, that's beautiful. I was going to say, did your father had enormous wrists as a child?
I know, right? It's pretty big. And I think I got it even. You're right. I got it even. You're it's a great, he was, I think he was 13 when he got it, but who knows? Well, yeah, you're right. Cause I even got it short or, you know, reduced, but my mother was once in the jewelry business and she always said, never get rid of the links and never let them cut the ring. Oh, good. Steel, the gold. Oh, fine. I have the links. I have the links just in case, you know, I fatten up a little. No, it's not going to happen.
(01:48:36):
When we do this 30 years from now in Peter's scenario,
30 years, 50 years. I tell you about the price. Exactly. Get it on. Kids. I had seven kids now. Who knew? Exactly. Exactly. We're going to do a part two in 50 years.
(01:48:57):
No, no, no. Once a year.
All right. What's the button? What's the meaning of life? What's it all about? Alfie? Oh my God. I don't know. I just said one day at a time, right? That's a good one. Friend of mine says that all the time. I just got off the phone with him before, before I came here. But every conversation, I don't know, Pete. One day at a time. And you know what? That's pretty good. It is.
(01:49:21):
We're great believers in having fun. Everything should be fun. The world is filled with a little too much misery. I think if everybody sat down and made music, it would be in a really good place. Yeah, of course. Music is powerful like that. And what you were saying the other night is powerful. Gratitude is easier said than done. So we have to be. But to wake up every morning with all the shit that's going on in the world, take a moment. Find the gratitude. It doesn't make everything else go away. But of course. We have much to be grateful for. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. That's the... That's your button.
(01:49:58):
Why are there so many songs about rainbows?
And what's on the other side?
Rainbows are visions.
But only illusions and rainbows have nothing to hide.
(01:50:29):
So we've been told and some choose to believe it.
I know they're on wait and see. (Music) Someday we'll find it. The rainbow connection.
(01:50:50):
The lovers.
The dreamers in me.
(01:51:25):
(Music)
What's so amazing that keeps us stargazing?
And what do we think we might see?
(01:51:48):
Someday we'll find it. The rainbow connection. The lovers.
The dreamers in me.
(Music) All of us under its spell.
(01:52:08):
(Music) We know that it's probably magic.
Have you been half asleep?
(Music) Have you heard voices?
(Music) I've heard them calling my name.
(01:52:31):
(Music) Is this the sweet sound that calls the young sayers? (Music) The voice might be one and the same.
(Music)
I've heard too many times to ignore it.
(01:52:53):
It's something that I'm supposed to be.
Someday we'll find it.
The rainbow connection.
The lovers.
(01:53:16):
(Music) The dreamers.
And me.
(Music)
(01:53:46):
(Music)
Gorgeous Peter.
Gorgeous. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Of course.
Come, come sit back here for a moment. Really? Where to take the mood down? Jesus. I feel that, you know, I was reluctant to ask you about your dad's passing and then what that was. No, you didn't. Mickey and I were listening today to, to specifically, to a lot of your music, but specifically to Ghost of My Father. And so that was your kind of coming to terms with. Yeah, that's a good way to say it. Yeah. What a tragic thing happened at a young, young age, if you would tell us. Yeah, sure. That's a good way to say it.
(01:54:32):
That song is on my last record. That record was made during the pandemic.
I was in the apartment in New York. We didn't leave them with Zaina, but music was a huge outlet. I'm thankful I had that because I was escaping.
And making a record during a thing like that where you're locked down, changed the creative process and it changed the writing process. At least I found, even though I was doing all those other songs I told you about before, trying to combine my piano influences, I still have a few original songs. And it was almost like this song was demanded to be written, not to sound too artistic, but some songs are like that in the sense that you could slave and kill yourself to write a song. And then other ones just are like, they're just there for you. And this was one of those, not fully, it was torturous to write after the moment of inspiration. But the moment of inspiration came, I was just woke up one morning and the melody was there, just there. I can't explain it. Go to the keyboard and the melody was there. And it was attached to the title, "Ghost of My Father" for some reason. I'm a big believer in the power of the unconscious and how that affects the creative process. Because I've had a lot of experiences that made me a believer with songs in the past. On my fourth, I think it was fourth or fifth album, I have a few songs on that record that are completely from dreams. And they've changed experiences in my life. There's a song called, I'll get to what you asked me, this is a bit of a setup. I got a song called "Pelermo" which was almost entirely in a dream about Palermo. But I don't have any connection to Palermo, but it was in a dream. And now I have a connection to Palermo. I go there a lot, I tour there a lot. And all I did was write down what the hell was in the dream. And the song was in the dream. Anyway, without sounding too crazy, and this was not the martini, this is actually happening.
(01:56:31):
So who knows, "Ghost of My Father" was a little bit of that. And I took about, I was writing it. And then I have a collaborator who has a brilliant lyricist in Nashville, his name is John Bettis. And I thought, you know what, I was writing it, but it was almost too close to the bone to write alone. I was almost a little bit afraid of how to tell that story, but I knew it needed to be told in a certain way. So I brought it to John and we worked on it over the course of, I think it was three weeks actually. But, and he encouraged me to, when we were going over each verse, just say it, just say it. It's the only pretty much linear description of pretty much what happened. But it is told, if you listen to the song, it is told in three stages.
(01:57:20):
And it's about letting go, but also accepting that you can't let go. Certain things, when you lose somebody like that, I lost my dad when he was, when I was 13 and it was at my first professional show on West 46th Street, not far from here. And he was on his way to see me and he had a heart attack in front of the club. So it's not something I speak about, let alone on a podcast, but only since I wrote the song, am I kind of able to kind of talk about it. Not that I shied away, but it wasn't something I spoke about. Then the song was written, I wrote it with John and we told the story and it was just really good to tell, I guess, but it was a hard song to write and it was a hard song to perform. And you realize how much you hold on to, even if you push stuff away.
(01:58:08):
And now where the reception of that song around the world has been fascinating to watch. I play it a lot on tour and we're about to release shortly after, I don't know when you're going to air this thing, but in the next couple of months, we're going to release a French version of the song that a French singer has somehow fallen in love with the song. And she's a beautiful singer and very well known over there. And hearing the melody in French with her adaptation of the lyric has been such an honor. So these are mysterious things. They come in a dream or they don't, and then they take their own life, even with the Palermo. My relationship to that city has grown just because of something I don't really fully understand. And obviously with my father and the song, this was in that category. But anyway, yeah, thanks for listening to it. For being willing and able to share that. Do you, in performance, do you let the song just tell the story or do you set it up with? I sell it up now. I tell them kind of what I just told you. Here's a background and not something I talk about, but here's, this is the setup for the song.
(01:59:17):
And again, my collaborator, John, really encouraged me to do that because I'm not that type of performer, really, but he's like, just do it. And now since I've been doing it, I mean, the people after the show and grown men come up to me in tears and everybody has some stories, but of their own, because that's the beauty of some, if you could write it in a way, it's funny as you, as I write more and more songs, certain songs
(01:59:45):
achieve a certain universal thing when you get super specific. So this is very specific and very personal to me. And because, but somehow because of that specificity, it became universal. And now I'm hearing stories after show from people that have their own versions because everybody has shit and everybody struggles and everyone goes through loss. And this song is about the last line is no goodbyes. Yeah, I know. It's just your relationship to the, to the, to the grief changes as you get older. And that's what the song is about.
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