March 3, 2024 • 45 mins
Hello Backstory Fans! In this episode, join us as we commemorate 50th anniversary of the iconic sitcom, "Happy Days." Sharing our personal experiences, we pay tribute to the enduring impact the show has had and reminisce about some moments we remember about the show. Alongside recognizing the milestone of surpassing 50,000 downloads for Backstory Sessions, we have a great chat with Don Most, known for his portrayal of the memorable character Ralph Malph.
Discover the interesting tale behind the legendary "Happy Days" from one of the individuals who brought the show to life. The episode traverses initial meetings, friendships fostered, and what went into creating a show that holds a special place in American television history: From the actors' backgrounds, their iconic roles, the improvisations that became the show's essence, and the love for music that played an integral part in their lives.
This episode offers a rare look into Donny Most's life beyond the small screen, tracing a his journey from growing up in Brooklyn to a distinguished career in arts. Don shares his surprise and delight at reactions from fans discovering his hidden talent in singing. Balancing his love for arts against a potential career in engineering, he candidly discusses his career path. From his increasing acting opportunities to his strides in music and aspirations to explore songwriting, you'll enjoy this fun episode!
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Music.
(00:53):
Episode of Backstory Sessions. I'm joined today by my co-host Matt.
Hey Matt. Hey Kat. Hey everyone. How are you?
Well everybody has to be good because it's Happy Days.
Yes, yes it is.
It'll be an interesting episode. Yeah, so not only Happy Days,
(01:14):
but 50 years since
Happy Days premiered wow 50 years
yeah i would have been nine
years old oh my gosh yeah i
mean i don't remember if i watched like the first few episodes i mean i've probably
seen them but i don't know if i watched them like when it first came out that's
(01:40):
the same with me because you know we had We had an antenna and we got two channels,
so two networks that came from Knoxville, Tennessee.
I think there was like a PBS or, you know, educational programming station.
But, you know, that wasn't really tuned in all that much.
(02:04):
Did they play the Star Spangled Banner at midnight?
Night yes because sometimes i would
you know when i was supposed to be sleeping or
whatever i would hear that or wake up
hearing because i fell asleep you know with the
tv on yeah yeah that used
to be a thing i don't think
(02:27):
it is anymore no everything's 24 hours so
you know uh i remember like
some channels like first they would
play the star spangled banner they'd go off the
air and it would just be static until the next
morning but then they would
i guess fill in with like
(02:47):
infomercials after that
well i mean it is
amazing to think that was just 50
years ago and even less than that really that um
you know when the tv was like
you're you're describing oh so i guess
we've come a long way and but you
(03:10):
know i watch less tv now than i did then yeah me too i i mean i think i've said
this before i moved to pennsylvania what a year ago a year and a month ago or
something yeah and i still haven't hooked the tvs up.
Well, I find myself, like you were saying about, you know, happy days.
(03:33):
And if you watched it at that time, you know, I can't be sure if that was the
time I watched it either.
Most of the things that I've watched in the recent years have been really shows like Sopranos.
You know, I did not watch that while it was like the really hot thing to watch.
(03:54):
Yeah but you know i've just like
caught up on a lot of things in that way so and
still enjoy watching happy days and you know gilligan's island from from that
time all in the family i mean there's just really a lot of good shows that were
(04:15):
made yeah and our youth i guess you could say Yeah.
But 50 years, well, 50 is a big number for us, too. Yeah.
Because we have made it to 50,000 downloads, which is... Yeah, that's pretty amazing.
Yeah. I mean, you know how they say time speeds up, like, the older you get.
(04:39):
And, like, it seems like with the podcast, popularity is speeding up,
so... Yeah, it's definitely going pretty good.
We had a pretty busy month last month.
And yeah, so we're just crossed 50,000.
And, you know, it doesn't look like there's any slowing down.
(05:04):
Well, certainly not with this episode, because everyone is so excited for Ralph Mouth.
I mean, who would think you'd get to talk to Ralph Mouth, you know,
like, if we could go back to 50 years ago, if we did, in fact, watch it at that time,
I'm sure that it never crossed our mind that we would be.
(05:26):
Well, first of all, I never heard of a podcast at that time. Right. Yeah.
You know i would not have been thinking of it but even
of just interviewing it's just really amazing to
get to talk to people that you grew up
watching yeah yeah this is certainly one
of those situations i'm trying to think of
(05:47):
who else it was that we talked to but there there have
been a few that like uh we've you
know we've seen on tv you know
for years like loretta swit she was
and you know
the amazing really well there's so many
amazing things about her but one in particular like you know i said is her voice
(06:11):
is so distinct you know some people have like yeah they have their voice that
you can identify but it's not the same as like when you hear her it's you know
You know, you definitely are thinking,
like, hot lips, hula hand.
But yet she's, you know, talking about her animals and her artwork and,
(06:33):
you know, all of these topics.
But your mind is hearing that voice and associating it.
But you're also knowing that you're having a conversation, you know,
about just random other topics with the actress.
So that's kind of surreal to me. we'll have to try and get her back someday
(06:53):
yes yes we will because she's you know she probably got like another two books
out or something of art she you know she's really yeah and three more dogs.
Yeah so you know i did you like ralph was he like one of your favorites yeah
(07:15):
i mean he was okay They were all good.
I mean, you know, they were all great actors and actresses. Yeah.
In their own right. I mean, it'd be interesting to see if Donnie most is like
the character, you know?
Yeah. Because, you know, he was kind of the like funny, goofy,
(07:38):
telling jokes, you know, like keeping everyone laughing one.
He wanted to be a comedian on the show.
Yeah, so a lot of times, you know, so I don't know, of interviews that we've done in different.
Things I've read that a lot of times comedians are, you know,
(07:59):
very different from that when they're off stage.
So I'd be very curious to see if he is, you know, if he is Ralph Mouth-like,
I guess you could say. Yeah.
Well. He was cute, you know, like obviously with the red hair and all of that.
And just, you know, I think people are naturally attracted to people that are
(08:26):
funny and, you know, entertaining.
So he had that going for him.
Yeah. Yeah. Do you remember any of like your favorite episodes of Happy Days?
Well, yeah, I like, I mean, in the diner, you know, there were always like a
lot of funny ones that took place in the diner. And of course,
(08:48):
you know, with whatever, with Fonzie that was going on.
But I remember one, too, where they went on a field trip and they were supposed
to be in the motel room and they sneaked out and like all of these things happened.
So that one was a pretty funny episode, too.
(09:09):
They were a bit older, you know, like that.
I guess that the series went on for like, what, nine, 10 years.
Nine years yeah it had a
long run so it was it did
not from my memory it doesn't seem like it
was one of the earlier ones but i think
(09:29):
we had if i remember correctly and you can correct me if i'm wrong i think we
had an episode where i mentioned that the older brother on happy days he like
went went upstairs and never came down on one of the episodes and you never heard about them again.
(09:50):
Was his name Chuck or something? Yeah. Something like that. I don't remember
what it was exactly. Yeah.
And I don't know if, I don't think it was ever explained like.
No, they never mentioned it again. So kind of weird, but.
Yeah. Well, I'm glad it wasn't Ralph, you know? Yeah. Yeah.
(10:13):
Well i mean it's yeah i
would say too one of the things i love the theme
song so music was an important part
of the show too and the.
Jukebox you know that was always like bonzi just
hit it you know play whatever but you.
Know donnie most is musical and he
(10:36):
has an album release that he's going
to be talking to us about so i'll be
very curious to see like did his
love for music come from happy days or
you know did he just always grow up loving
music you know i'd like to find out about that
connection too yeah yeah it'll be
(10:58):
interesting you know i know they had the
band on the show but i didn't realize he was you know
into it outside of the show yeah well
you know they seem like a pretty close-knit group
from watching like a lot of you know
tv sitcoms like the actors yeah they
don't get along and they like the shows end
(11:21):
up breaking up because somebody leaves or you
know whatever but that group you
know i'll be curious to see if it's still true but it definitely
looks like at that time that they did all
get along long really well yeah it'd be
interesting to see if they still get along yeah it's
i don't know i'm just really excited about this episode and
(11:43):
i hope that for the listeners that you know maybe they didn't watch it at the
time it was happening but i'm sure you know that most people have watched happy
days at some point in their life in the reruns or in the original i'm guessing
that's That's probably true.
I mean, it's a pretty iconic show.
(12:05):
He's like, hey, did you have that T-shirt?
You know, that was like a really popular T-shirt with him standing there.
If I did, I don't remember it. Well, you know, he had his thumbs up, of course. Yeah.
Remember when he, you know, jumped over like on the motorcycle?
(12:26):
You remember that? Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. So many, so many, I think Happy Days was a good title for this show. Yeah, sure.
Because it definitely, you know, it dealt with like kind of teenage,
you know, issues and so forth.
But in a happy, you know, happy family way.
(12:51):
And everybody was kind of loving.
And it just, it was one of those, they took the pawns in, you know. Yeah.
Just everything was was happy
happier times 50 years ago so do
you remember if happy days came first or the movie american graffiti came first
(13:11):
you know i so if i had to guess i would i would choose happy days but i don't
know if i now that i think about it it may be just the opposite I think it is.
I think Happy Days came about because of the popularity of the movie.
Interesting. I could be wrong, though.
(13:35):
We need to research that. That'd be a great poll question to put on there. Yeah.
Yeah. Of course, we're down to the wire, but we can always sneak one in there. That's right.
All right. Well, let's go talk to Donnie Most and find out, you know,
find out about what he's been up to.
(13:57):
Yeah, let's go get happy.
Okay. Well, Donnie Most, I want to welcome you to Backstory Sessions.
I'm so excited to have you as a guest today.
Oh, thank you. Nice to be with you.
And I get to know you a little, too.
(14:17):
Yes well you know maybe i should
have said i am so happy to have you as a
guest today because obviously you know the first thing that comes to my mind
is happy days and so i don't know 50 years does it does it seem like 50 years
(14:37):
has passed oh my gosh uh you know in in some ways.
Feels like no it's impossible you know it cannot have
been it cannot be fit for years right it
just it just seems that i i
just can't find them that but then on on other
occasions there are times when i look back and i go wow that was you know like
(15:01):
another lifetime so it's weird you know sometimes it feels like it was much
much sooner and and more recent than other times it it um It feels very far away.
I can't explain that. I don't know why I've experienced that sort of such a
(15:21):
dichotomy in terms of the times frame.
But I stay in touch with the guys.
Anson and I, we're best friends and talk all the time.
And Ron and Henry, we stay in touch. You know, it's not a little bit more like
(15:42):
I email and some phone calls once in a while.
But but just keeping that contact, you know, it's always been there.
And and so so to some degree that holds the memory of it.
And and and it doesn't that's when it doesn't feel like it's that long at all.
(16:03):
Did you guys know each other before the show?
No, not at all. I grew up in New York, in Brooklyn,
and I didn't go out to California until I was a little bit, yeah,
the summer I turned 20, I went out to Los Angeles.
And Happy Days came around and we shot the pilot in November.
(16:28):
Anderson and Ron had been, they both grew up in similar, Burbank,
in Burbank, California.
And they had met about a year and a half earlier.
They did the original pilot of Happy Days. It had a different name.
It was about a year and a half before the one we did.
(16:51):
And it didn't sell. The two of them had worked together on that.
So they knew each other. But I didn't know them. And Henry, coincidentally,
he grew up in New York, too, but in Manhattan, in the Upper West Side.
So I didn't know him, as I mentioned, in Brooklyn. But his parents had a summer
(17:14):
house in a town called Lake Mayapak.
And my grandparents had a summer house in Lake Mohegan, which was like 15 minutes away.
But we never knew each other. And even though we knew each other from that,
that was kind of coincidental.
But, yeah, we all met, you know, for the pilot of the show and then became great friends after that.
(17:38):
So was it an instant friendship like to do something?
From the beginning yeah pretty pretty much
i i say so uh you know
it took a took a little while for it to really mature
and grow um it took a little bit of
time but that's natural but but there was a there was a very good feeling right
(18:02):
from the beginning i remember you know during the pilot we were shooting that
back then and for the first two seasons we shot the The show was a one-camera show,
which shot like a movie.
You do scenes out of order, and you just shoot a scene at a time,
(18:22):
as opposed to the third season, we switched over to a format where we shot in
front of an audience with three cameras.
But when we did the pilot, it was one camera, and I remember I was very excited
to be working working with all this great cast.
And, you know, I had known of Tom Bosley from films and his reputation on Broadway, so I was excited.
(18:51):
And, of course, Ron was a star since, you know, since I was about five or six. Right.
And then when I was doing the pilot, I was just really intrigued with seeing
how things were coming together and I'd be done with my scenes and I could have gone home,
but I didn't wanna go anywhere. I just wanted to watch everybody and.
(19:16):
And I saw Henry do something really great in the pilot in one scene.
And I was watching the other scene with Ron and Anson and then with his family.
And I remember calling my parents back in Brooklyn and saying,
you know, I think this show has, I think there's something really good here.
(19:39):
You know, I think this could be successful. successful and
and i i just had a good feeling about everyone
else people and uh and the talent that they
had what was it like playing ralph
mouth i mean you know would you say
that he is a character like you or
kind of a stretch for you
(20:02):
oh it was definitely a stretch for me
that's what what i love you know and i still do
about acting is i love playing all different
kinds of characters that's that's the joy and
challenge for me that i love and i
i was not like ralph you know when i was in high school i was much closer to
(20:23):
say richie cunningham you know to run his character so i was pretty you know
i was pretty shy and quiet and you know not with my really good i wasn't necessarily But,
you know, I was never the comedian. I was never the joke.
I was, you know, I knew people like that and I would be their audience.
(20:44):
But I was, you know, never like that in terms of that part of Ralph's character,
which was a big part of it. But like I said, I knew people like that,
and I was able to draw upon that.
And our director, Jerry Paris, who was kind of like that.
Jerry was a fantastic director, and he was a funny guy, and he loved to crack everybody up.
(21:12):
And so I would draw upon Jerry and some of the guys I knew in high school.
As a matter of fact, Jerry, I had a famous catch word on the show,
which was, I still got it. I still got it.
And I kind of stole that from Jerry.
(21:34):
It was not in the script, but Jerry used to, when he'd crack everybody up,
he would say that. He would say that line.
And so one day in one of the episodes, we're shooting a scene in Arnold's and
Ralph comes in and then he tells a joke to Richie and Posse or something.
(21:57):
So I said, this was in front of an audience. So I said, before,
I said, Ron, I'm not going to say the line here that's in the script.
I wanted to warn him so he didn't want to throw him too much.
So I said, just say something different. So just be ready. I didn't tell anybody.
And then I tell the joke and they crack up. And then I say my line.
(22:19):
I say, Jerry's line is still dying.
And they all were cracking up. Jerry loved it.
And the audience really loved it. And they didn't know the story,
but, you know, it was funny.
So from that point forward, the writers started, you know, putting it in more and more.
And they put it in all different situations.
(22:40):
So, yeah, so I answered to your original question.
It was very different than, I mean, there's certain aspects of my personality
that would come through in Rouse.
But the main central part is this character I was not like at all.
Well, it's interesting, that backstory, because obviously you had a knack for
(23:02):
knowing what might be a great line or a funny line to add that in there and
then to have the writers continue it. That must be a great feeling.
Yeah, that was, you know, at the time, you know, I look back at it now and I
go, wow, look at that, because then that line, that phrase became,
(23:22):
you know, part of the lexicon in our culture.
Culture, because I remember it was years later, where, because I had the show
had been on for such a long, you know, long amount of time, and reruns,
and then, you know, I saw somebody, I was watching an interview on TV,
and I can't remember who it was, somebody well-known, and then they said,
(23:45):
after a joke, they said, you know, I forgot, and I was like,
oh my god, and then I started hearing it more and more, you know,
more and more out there in the world, and.
People on tv so that was pretty wild feeling to
to know that sort of created
this you know phrase that i mean jerry created
(24:06):
it but i shepherded it in ushering worlds it's kind of it's kind of surreal
well what an amazing part of the backstory i had no idea of that so i read that
music was was your love, your first love.
My first love, yeah, because I love acting, too. But music came first, yes.
(24:31):
So, you know, when did you start singing? Was that just like music always in your house?
It was in the house. My mom was a teenager and young adult during the swing era,
so she had some of the albums of some of those big bands,
bands and and and some of the singers and and then so i heard that you know
(24:57):
probably not it wasn't like not all the time but i certainly was exposed to it and then,
when i was nine years old i saw a movie the jolson story which was a biopic
about the great al jolson who was considered the world's greatest entertainer
but you know back in those days and and he was the star of the first talking movie, The Jazz Singer.
(25:22):
But the movie about him, where Larry Parks played Al Jolson,
I think it was brilliant.
It just captured me in a way. Like I said, I was nine years old and I was mesmerized by that.
The story, the talent of Jolson because it was his voice.
Was being used and Larry Parks would try to sort of capture the way,
(25:48):
the style of Jolson and the way he would deliver a song.
And I was so taken with it that it was on something called Million Dollar Movie
back then on one of the local channels in New York where they picked a movie
for the entire week and they would show it every night during the week twice
and then four times on Saturday and four times on Sunday.
(26:12):
And I was so caught up with the film that I watched it, I think,
almost every one of those films that week.
So then I started, you know, getting Jolson records and singing and singing along.
And then, but then I started also through that, became very knowledgeable by
(26:34):
listening to a radio show every night that was hosted by William B.
Williams and WNEW in New York.
And he would play all the great, you know, the great American songbook,
the standards and the jazz standards and all the great artists.
So I would listen to that every night before going to bed.
(26:56):
And so I grew to have a real passion for that music to the point where then when I was 13,
I convinced my parents that I had to sort of pursue this.
And they found a school for me in Manhattan that I'd go to on Saturdays for
(27:18):
singing, dancing, and acting.
And then through that, I got picked to be part of a nightclub review.
The summer I turned 15, and we performed in hotels, the nightclubs of the hotels
in the Catskill Mountains, which was a resort area, upstate New York.
So that summer, I was singing in this nightclub back when I was 15.
(27:39):
So like i said that
came first but then then i
put that aside as strangely enough that after that
summer and really got as i got a little bit older i started getting caught up
in a big way with a lot of the great films that were being made in the late
60s and and became a huge film buff and and influenced by a lot of the great actors of that era,
(28:08):
whether it be Dustin Hoffman and Paul Newman.
And a bunch of others, but then it was Jack Nicholson that really got me.
I saw him in five easy pieces and I became a huge Nicholson fan.
Then I really switched my focus towards acting and I went to another school
(28:32):
that was a much more serious study of the craft of acting,
and it wasn't about music and all that.
And so that's how it's kind of shifted.
Interesting. And then I guess Happy Days was kind of like a great mix of both of those.
(28:53):
You know, at least it was acting with some music as well.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, we did have music.
Hanson, who played Posse, who had done musical theater, he had approached Gary
Marshall, our creator and exec producer.
He approached him in the first season and convinced Gary it'd be a good idea if we had a band.
(29:17):
We could play in Arnold's and all that. Gary liked the idea.
Gary was a former drummer and he liked the idea.
Since Anson got to him first and
Anson said, I sing and so Gary thought he established him as the singer.
And he didn't want to mess with that. And then all of a sudden, I have two singers.
(29:40):
And so I would get to do background singing.
I'd get to do, every once in a while, they gave me a song. So that was cool.
Because a lot of people say to me, how come you didn't sing more on Happy Days
when they see me do a show live?
And they go, oh, my God, I didn't know you sing like this.
Or they hear my CDs because they didn't know my background.
(30:03):
So that's the i always get
that why did you sing one happy days and you don't
have to go into this story it's a long story but
uh anyway that that's kind of how that
all came down interesting and matt i'm you know new york that's your home territory
so yeah yeah i grew up in the hudson valley which is not far from the catskills
(30:29):
and you know oh yeah the hudson valley what what town know. Poughkeepsie.
Poughkeepsie, yeah. Well, I would get off, if I took the train during the summers,
I mentioned I spent my summers upstate,
I'd get off at Peekskill on the train,
and then it would continue up to Poughkeepsie. Yep, still goes there.
(30:52):
And now I'm in Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania
and I read that you had gone to Lehigh
for engineering is that true yes yeah
in Bethlehem Pennsylvania yeah what
happened was you know when I was you know getting close to my senior year and
all that my parents they saw how much I loved pursuing the you know performing
(31:17):
and acting and I started during that year I was able through that acting class I was able to
get a manager and they sent me out on auditions and I started getting work and a lot of commercials.
But they really thought it was important that I go to college,
(31:40):
not put all my eggs in this basket.
It was a pretty precarious profession to pursue.
So this was sort of the backup, you know. And I was always really strong in math and science.
My grandfather was an engineer. My two uncles were engineers.
My cousin was studying to be an engineer. year and so
(32:03):
it just made sense that that would be you know a
backup um and lehigh being a big engineering
school yeah yeah but and
i made it through the you know i mentioned i went out to california when i was
20 i turned 20 that summer and that was right after my junior year and i was
only going to go out for the summer and then and then you know make some contacts
(32:27):
make some headway so that then a year later after graduation,
I'd go out there and really pursue it.
But as fate would have it, I started getting some auditions and landing some jobs that summer.
And my manager convinced me at the end of the summer, they said,
(32:48):
you've got some real momentum going and it takes six months off.
You could always go back, but keep the momentum going.
So that's what I did. So I didn't go back, but the six months became, you know, a lot longer.
I never finished. Let's shift gears and talk about what you're doing these days.
(33:10):
Yeah, well, as I mentioned before, I love playing all different kinds of characters.
It was a little tricky when I left the show after the seventh season because
I wanted to branch out and do a lot of other things, But it was pretty,
you know, associated with the show.
It was so huge that I, you know, I passed back then much more readily.
(33:33):
There was no internet, there was no tables, only three networks.
So it was tricky, but I kept chipping away and I'd do something different and
something, the next one even more different.
And got to do some really interesting roles in independent films and some other
(33:53):
TV, a lot of guest roles and theater roles.
Now, as I'm getting older, it's interesting. It's opened it up even more for me.
In the last five years, I've probably done more films than I had in the previous 15 or 20.
(34:14):
I did like six, seven films in three or four years, and all of them very different roles.
I mean, literally going from playing a local pastor to the next project, I played a polygamist.
And then actually that's
(34:34):
what and then and then playing a career criminal and
then playing a prison guard and in
a story about based on a true story and
and and then then i did a western which
was a very different thing and it's a film called far
haven which just came out on amazon on crime and apple tv and voodoo and then
(34:57):
and then playing the owner of a minor league hockey team and then playing a
defense attorney defending the wounded vet and and then most recently.
A true story during prohibition in michigan
and i played the head of a where there
was different guys competing vying for
(35:18):
control of the liquor during all the
bootlegging and it was a real gang called the purple
gang it was a jewish mob and i played the
head of the jewish mob so i'm loving the fact of getting to really do you know
what i've always loved to jump from one role to something very different comedy
(35:41):
drama different genres etc are you still singing or.
Yes yes i am oh and
i should mention so besides a far haven that people
could see on amazon prime there's also
a movie called county line no fear where that's also i think on amazon and lost
(36:03):
heart is another one that's i think people might enjoy the singing mean yeah
i'm still seeing you know i just actually did a show up in canada a few weeks ago,
i was i was doing a lot of live performing for
like the last six seven years with
(36:24):
covid it really slowed down of course and then i got very busy with these other
films and i had to put it aside so i'm hoping to pick it up in a bigger way
soon but i've done some recording i did a cd called The Mostly Swinging,
which came out about five years ago.
(36:45):
It with a great great big band great big jazz band
and and wonderful musicians and it swings i love that kind of sound and then
more recently i did a cd called called new york high and that's a thing and
there's a single of that same title from it which which went pretty high on the charts,
(37:07):
in the uk there's a big chart there called the heritage chart and it got up
to like number where We're going to get up to like 14 on the chart. No, eight. Awesome.
Yeah, got up to number eight. So that was still a lot of the jazz spanders,
but a few other like, you know, 60 classic rock type music mixed in there a little bit.
(37:33):
And not a big band, but a more contemporary jazz kind of configuration, you know, five piece.
So I'm real happy with the way it came out. And so, yeah, so that's going on.
And there's some talk about me doing a tour in Italy and maybe Australia.
(37:54):
So we'll see if that comes to fruition.
And I did my first symphony, it was about a year and a half ago now,
in Hershey, Pennsylvania with the Hershey.
Yeah so that was that was a trip i love that i'm hoping to do more of that.
(38:14):
So is the New York High, is that the one that has the song for each of the decades?
The song that I show the decades? Yes.
Did you have, I had a note that you had included like a lot of different decades in the song choices.
Oh, oh, in the song choices. I don't know that there was a conscious effort.
(38:39):
I was mainly picking out songs, mostly, like I said, jazz standards,
and I ran through a lot of different choices with my producer,
Tony Mantor, and I know the library of the Great American Songbook really well.
So most of them we just talked about, and then if we agreed on a song, it made the cut.
(39:06):
In this case, New York High was one original song on the CD.
It was a brand new song, and ironically, written by a Brit, written by Mike
Reed, who was a famous DJ in the UK.
Canyon and he said he has TV shows and radio shows.
(39:30):
He wrote with his partner Max Restaino this song.
A friend of mine sent it to me who was a mutual friend and it really caught
my attention in a big way.
My producer liked it a lot too, so we decided to do it.
Then it wound up becoming the title of the album and a single that we released in the UK.
(39:56):
And so here, I don't know what the plans are.
You know, his strategy of releasing songs, I don't understand how that works these days.
But we'll see how it does. We'll see how it does here.
And I've been getting great response to that song and the whole CD.
(40:16):
Yeah, well, I'm very curious about when you mentioned classic rock. What did you include?
Yeah, and that was a tough choice. Because when I was in the late 60s and early
70s, and I was in college, I loved the music that was going on.
(40:39):
And then it was a renaissance going on in music.
But it wasn't a music that I was thinking of performing, but I loved it.
So picking something out that would go, that would sort of blend with what we
were doing was a little tricky.
But we wound up through a process. I don't know how we did it.
There was a song called That I Always Loved back in the early 70s.
(41:03):
And it almost had a swing feel.
It was a rock band called the Sanford Townsend Band.
It was a rock kind of, but this song had a swing feel. It was called Smoke from a Distant Fire.
So I ran it by my producer, and he really liked it. And he said, how should we do it?
(41:24):
And he had heard it done once, very bluesy, kind of slow and bluesy,
and we started playing around with it. We liked it, so we did that.
And then one day, I can't remember where I was, but Smokey Robinson's song,
Ooh Baby Baby, came on, and I was listening to it going, oh wow,
this might be interesting to do, and Tony agreed,
(41:48):
and so we did that, Ooh Baby Baby, and we recorded Ain't No Sunshine,
but we're holding it back, I'll save it for maybe another,
CD, and maybe I'll do some more on the next CD, do some more stuff from the classic rock era.
Do you have any inspirations to write music?
(42:12):
There's not that burning desire to do that, but I am a little intrigued with
the idea of doing it with somebody else.
I don't think I could write a song by myself.
I just don't have that combination of talent and genes and all that.
(42:35):
I think if I was working with somebody else and they got sort of it started
and then maybe then I'd get to pick up on something or,
you know, stir something in me and then I maybe take it to, you know, the next section.
And, you know, we bounce off of each other.
I'd like to try that at some point. And I don't know, you know,
(42:59):
when, but that's been intriguing me a little bit, that prospect.
Well, you know, time has flown by.
It seems like we just said hello and, you know, now it's like your 30 minutes are gone by.
But I really hope that you'll come back and be a guest again and,
(43:20):
you know, update us and share the story that you've told us today.
Day oh thank you so much uh definitely i
i would definitely be up for coming back
you know like you said maybe to update and bring bring you up to speed as to
where what the next projects are all about and how the music is going um as
(43:43):
well so um yes let's let's stay in touch and uh thank you,
Don, thank you so much for coming by. We really appreciate it.
My pleasure. You still got it. I have that left for you.
Even with Kat and Matt, I still got it.
(44:07):
We need to teach her math and say that. That's right, yeah.
All right, well, be good and stay well.
Music.
Music.
(00:53):
Episode of Backstory Sessions. I'm joined today by my co-host Matt.
Hey Matt. Hey Kat. Hey everyone. How are you?
Well everybody has to be good because it's Happy Days.
Yes, yes it is.
It'll be an interesting episode. Yeah, so not only Happy Days,
(01:14):
but 50 years since
Happy Days premiered wow 50 years
yeah i would have been nine
years old oh my gosh yeah i
mean i don't remember if i watched like the first few episodes i mean i've probably
seen them but i don't know if i watched them like when it first came out that's
(01:40):
the same with me because you know we had We had an antenna and we got two channels,
so two networks that came from Knoxville, Tennessee.
I think there was like a PBS or, you know, educational programming station.
But, you know, that wasn't really tuned in all that much.
(02:04):
Did they play the Star Spangled Banner at midnight?
Night yes because sometimes i would
you know when i was supposed to be sleeping or
whatever i would hear that or wake up
hearing because i fell asleep you know with the
tv on yeah yeah that used
to be a thing i don't think
(02:27):
it is anymore no everything's 24 hours so
you know uh i remember like
some channels like first they would
play the star spangled banner they'd go off the
air and it would just be static until the next
morning but then they would
i guess fill in with like
(02:47):
infomercials after that
well i mean it is
amazing to think that was just 50
years ago and even less than that really that um
you know when the tv was like
you're you're describing oh so i guess
we've come a long way and but you
(03:10):
know i watch less tv now than i did then yeah me too i i mean i think i've said
this before i moved to pennsylvania what a year ago a year and a month ago or
something yeah and i still haven't hooked the tvs up.
Well, I find myself, like you were saying about, you know, happy days.
(03:33):
And if you watched it at that time, you know, I can't be sure if that was the
time I watched it either.
Most of the things that I've watched in the recent years have been really shows like Sopranos.
You know, I did not watch that while it was like the really hot thing to watch.
(03:54):
Yeah but you know i've just like
caught up on a lot of things in that way so and
still enjoy watching happy days and you know gilligan's island from from that
time all in the family i mean there's just really a lot of good shows that were
(04:15):
made yeah and our youth i guess you could say Yeah.
But 50 years, well, 50 is a big number for us, too. Yeah.
Because we have made it to 50,000 downloads, which is... Yeah, that's pretty amazing.
Yeah. I mean, you know how they say time speeds up, like, the older you get.
(04:39):
And, like, it seems like with the podcast, popularity is speeding up,
so... Yeah, it's definitely going pretty good.
We had a pretty busy month last month.
And yeah, so we're just crossed 50,000.
And, you know, it doesn't look like there's any slowing down.
(05:04):
Well, certainly not with this episode, because everyone is so excited for Ralph Mouth.
I mean, who would think you'd get to talk to Ralph Mouth, you know,
like, if we could go back to 50 years ago, if we did, in fact, watch it at that time,
I'm sure that it never crossed our mind that we would be.
(05:26):
Well, first of all, I never heard of a podcast at that time. Right. Yeah.
You know i would not have been thinking of it but even
of just interviewing it's just really amazing to
get to talk to people that you grew up
watching yeah yeah this is certainly one
of those situations i'm trying to think of
(05:47):
who else it was that we talked to but there there have
been a few that like uh we've you
know we've seen on tv you know
for years like loretta swit she was
and you know
the amazing really well there's so many
amazing things about her but one in particular like you know i said is her voice
(06:11):
is so distinct you know some people have like yeah they have their voice that
you can identify but it's not the same as like when you hear her it's you know
You know, you definitely are thinking,
like, hot lips, hula hand.
But yet she's, you know, talking about her animals and her artwork and,
(06:33):
you know, all of these topics.
But your mind is hearing that voice and associating it.
But you're also knowing that you're having a conversation, you know,
about just random other topics with the actress.
So that's kind of surreal to me. we'll have to try and get her back someday
(06:53):
yes yes we will because she's you know she probably got like another two books
out or something of art she you know she's really yeah and three more dogs.
Yeah so you know i did you like ralph was he like one of your favorites yeah
(07:15):
i mean he was okay They were all good.
I mean, you know, they were all great actors and actresses. Yeah.
In their own right. I mean, it'd be interesting to see if Donnie most is like
the character, you know?
Yeah. Because, you know, he was kind of the like funny, goofy,
(07:38):
telling jokes, you know, like keeping everyone laughing one.
He wanted to be a comedian on the show.
Yeah, so a lot of times, you know, so I don't know, of interviews that we've done in different.
Things I've read that a lot of times comedians are, you know,
(07:59):
very different from that when they're off stage.
So I'd be very curious to see if he is, you know, if he is Ralph Mouth-like,
I guess you could say. Yeah.
Well. He was cute, you know, like obviously with the red hair and all of that.
And just, you know, I think people are naturally attracted to people that are
(08:26):
funny and, you know, entertaining.
So he had that going for him.
Yeah. Yeah. Do you remember any of like your favorite episodes of Happy Days?
Well, yeah, I like, I mean, in the diner, you know, there were always like a
lot of funny ones that took place in the diner. And of course,
(08:48):
you know, with whatever, with Fonzie that was going on.
But I remember one, too, where they went on a field trip and they were supposed
to be in the motel room and they sneaked out and like all of these things happened.
So that one was a pretty funny episode, too.
(09:09):
They were a bit older, you know, like that.
I guess that the series went on for like, what, nine, 10 years.
Nine years yeah it had a
long run so it was it did
not from my memory it doesn't seem like it
was one of the earlier ones but i think
(09:29):
we had if i remember correctly and you can correct me if i'm wrong i think we
had an episode where i mentioned that the older brother on happy days he like
went went upstairs and never came down on one of the episodes and you never heard about them again.
(09:50):
Was his name Chuck or something? Yeah. Something like that. I don't remember
what it was exactly. Yeah.
And I don't know if, I don't think it was ever explained like.
No, they never mentioned it again. So kind of weird, but.
Yeah. Well, I'm glad it wasn't Ralph, you know? Yeah. Yeah.
(10:13):
Well i mean it's yeah i
would say too one of the things i love the theme
song so music was an important part
of the show too and the.
Jukebox you know that was always like bonzi just
hit it you know play whatever but you.
Know donnie most is musical and he
(10:36):
has an album release that he's going
to be talking to us about so i'll be
very curious to see like did his
love for music come from happy days or
you know did he just always grow up loving
music you know i'd like to find out about that
connection too yeah yeah it'll be
(10:58):
interesting you know i know they had the
band on the show but i didn't realize he was you know
into it outside of the show yeah well
you know they seem like a pretty close-knit group
from watching like a lot of you know
tv sitcoms like the actors yeah they
don't get along and they like the shows end
(11:21):
up breaking up because somebody leaves or you
know whatever but that group you
know i'll be curious to see if it's still true but it definitely
looks like at that time that they did all
get along long really well yeah it'd be
interesting to see if they still get along yeah it's
i don't know i'm just really excited about this episode and
(11:43):
i hope that for the listeners that you know maybe they didn't watch it at the
time it was happening but i'm sure you know that most people have watched happy
days at some point in their life in the reruns or in the original i'm guessing
that's That's probably true.
I mean, it's a pretty iconic show.
(12:05):
He's like, hey, did you have that T-shirt?
You know, that was like a really popular T-shirt with him standing there.
If I did, I don't remember it. Well, you know, he had his thumbs up, of course. Yeah.
Remember when he, you know, jumped over like on the motorcycle?
(12:26):
You remember that? Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. So many, so many, I think Happy Days was a good title for this show. Yeah, sure.
Because it definitely, you know, it dealt with like kind of teenage,
you know, issues and so forth.
But in a happy, you know, happy family way.
(12:51):
And everybody was kind of loving.
And it just, it was one of those, they took the pawns in, you know. Yeah.
Just everything was was happy
happier times 50 years ago so do
you remember if happy days came first or the movie american graffiti came first
(13:11):
you know i so if i had to guess i would i would choose happy days but i don't
know if i now that i think about it it may be just the opposite I think it is.
I think Happy Days came about because of the popularity of the movie.
Interesting. I could be wrong, though.
(13:35):
We need to research that. That'd be a great poll question to put on there. Yeah.
Yeah. Of course, we're down to the wire, but we can always sneak one in there. That's right.
All right. Well, let's go talk to Donnie Most and find out, you know,
find out about what he's been up to.
(13:57):
Yeah, let's go get happy.
Okay. Well, Donnie Most, I want to welcome you to Backstory Sessions.
I'm so excited to have you as a guest today.
Oh, thank you. Nice to be with you.
And I get to know you a little, too.
(14:17):
Yes well you know maybe i should
have said i am so happy to have you as a
guest today because obviously you know the first thing that comes to my mind
is happy days and so i don't know 50 years does it does it seem like 50 years
(14:37):
has passed oh my gosh uh you know in in some ways.
Feels like no it's impossible you know it cannot have
been it cannot be fit for years right it
just it just seems that i i
just can't find them that but then on on other
occasions there are times when i look back and i go wow that was you know like
(15:01):
another lifetime so it's weird you know sometimes it feels like it was much
much sooner and and more recent than other times it it um It feels very far away.
I can't explain that. I don't know why I've experienced that sort of such a
(15:21):
dichotomy in terms of the times frame.
But I stay in touch with the guys.
Anson and I, we're best friends and talk all the time.
And Ron and Henry, we stay in touch. You know, it's not a little bit more like
(15:42):
I email and some phone calls once in a while.
But but just keeping that contact, you know, it's always been there.
And and so so to some degree that holds the memory of it.
And and and it doesn't that's when it doesn't feel like it's that long at all.
(16:03):
Did you guys know each other before the show?
No, not at all. I grew up in New York, in Brooklyn,
and I didn't go out to California until I was a little bit, yeah,
the summer I turned 20, I went out to Los Angeles.
And Happy Days came around and we shot the pilot in November.
(16:28):
Anderson and Ron had been, they both grew up in similar, Burbank,
in Burbank, California.
And they had met about a year and a half earlier.
They did the original pilot of Happy Days. It had a different name.
It was about a year and a half before the one we did.
(16:51):
And it didn't sell. The two of them had worked together on that.
So they knew each other. But I didn't know them. And Henry, coincidentally,
he grew up in New York, too, but in Manhattan, in the Upper West Side.
So I didn't know him, as I mentioned, in Brooklyn. But his parents had a summer
(17:14):
house in a town called Lake Mayapak.
And my grandparents had a summer house in Lake Mohegan, which was like 15 minutes away.
But we never knew each other. And even though we knew each other from that,
that was kind of coincidental.
But, yeah, we all met, you know, for the pilot of the show and then became great friends after that.
(17:38):
So was it an instant friendship like to do something?
From the beginning yeah pretty pretty much
i i say so uh you know
it took a took a little while for it to really mature
and grow um it took a little bit of
time but that's natural but but there was a there was a very good feeling right
(18:02):
from the beginning i remember you know during the pilot we were shooting that
back then and for the first two seasons we shot the The show was a one-camera show,
which shot like a movie.
You do scenes out of order, and you just shoot a scene at a time,
(18:22):
as opposed to the third season, we switched over to a format where we shot in
front of an audience with three cameras.
But when we did the pilot, it was one camera, and I remember I was very excited
to be working working with all this great cast.
And, you know, I had known of Tom Bosley from films and his reputation on Broadway, so I was excited.
(18:51):
And, of course, Ron was a star since, you know, since I was about five or six. Right.
And then when I was doing the pilot, I was just really intrigued with seeing
how things were coming together and I'd be done with my scenes and I could have gone home,
but I didn't wanna go anywhere. I just wanted to watch everybody and.
(19:16):
And I saw Henry do something really great in the pilot in one scene.
And I was watching the other scene with Ron and Anson and then with his family.
And I remember calling my parents back in Brooklyn and saying,
you know, I think this show has, I think there's something really good here.
(19:39):
You know, I think this could be successful. successful and
and i i just had a good feeling about everyone
else people and uh and the talent that they
had what was it like playing ralph
mouth i mean you know would you say
that he is a character like you or
kind of a stretch for you
(20:02):
oh it was definitely a stretch for me
that's what what i love you know and i still do
about acting is i love playing all different
kinds of characters that's that's the joy and
challenge for me that i love and i
i was not like ralph you know when i was in high school i was much closer to
(20:23):
say richie cunningham you know to run his character so i was pretty you know
i was pretty shy and quiet and you know not with my really good i wasn't necessarily But,
you know, I was never the comedian. I was never the joke.
I was, you know, I knew people like that and I would be their audience.
(20:44):
But I was, you know, never like that in terms of that part of Ralph's character,
which was a big part of it. But like I said, I knew people like that,
and I was able to draw upon that.
And our director, Jerry Paris, who was kind of like that.
Jerry was a fantastic director, and he was a funny guy, and he loved to crack everybody up.
(21:12):
And so I would draw upon Jerry and some of the guys I knew in high school.
As a matter of fact, Jerry, I had a famous catch word on the show,
which was, I still got it. I still got it.
And I kind of stole that from Jerry.
(21:34):
It was not in the script, but Jerry used to, when he'd crack everybody up,
he would say that. He would say that line.
And so one day in one of the episodes, we're shooting a scene in Arnold's and
Ralph comes in and then he tells a joke to Richie and Posse or something.
(21:57):
So I said, this was in front of an audience. So I said, before,
I said, Ron, I'm not going to say the line here that's in the script.
I wanted to warn him so he didn't want to throw him too much.
So I said, just say something different. So just be ready. I didn't tell anybody.
And then I tell the joke and they crack up. And then I say my line.
(22:19):
I say, Jerry's line is still dying.
And they all were cracking up. Jerry loved it.
And the audience really loved it. And they didn't know the story,
but, you know, it was funny.
So from that point forward, the writers started, you know, putting it in more and more.
And they put it in all different situations.
(22:40):
So, yeah, so I answered to your original question.
It was very different than, I mean, there's certain aspects of my personality
that would come through in Rouse.
But the main central part is this character I was not like at all.
Well, it's interesting, that backstory, because obviously you had a knack for
(23:02):
knowing what might be a great line or a funny line to add that in there and
then to have the writers continue it. That must be a great feeling.
Yeah, that was, you know, at the time, you know, I look back at it now and I
go, wow, look at that, because then that line, that phrase became,
(23:22):
you know, part of the lexicon in our culture.
Culture, because I remember it was years later, where, because I had the show
had been on for such a long, you know, long amount of time, and reruns,
and then, you know, I saw somebody, I was watching an interview on TV,
and I can't remember who it was, somebody well-known, and then they said,
(23:45):
after a joke, they said, you know, I forgot, and I was like,
oh my god, and then I started hearing it more and more, you know,
more and more out there in the world, and.
People on tv so that was pretty wild feeling to
to know that sort of created
this you know phrase that i mean jerry created
(24:06):
it but i shepherded it in ushering worlds it's kind of it's kind of surreal
well what an amazing part of the backstory i had no idea of that so i read that
music was was your love, your first love.
My first love, yeah, because I love acting, too. But music came first, yes.
(24:31):
So, you know, when did you start singing? Was that just like music always in your house?
It was in the house. My mom was a teenager and young adult during the swing era,
so she had some of the albums of some of those big bands,
bands and and and some of the singers and and then so i heard that you know
(24:57):
probably not it wasn't like not all the time but i certainly was exposed to it and then,
when i was nine years old i saw a movie the jolson story which was a biopic
about the great al jolson who was considered the world's greatest entertainer
but you know back in those days and and he was the star of the first talking movie, The Jazz Singer.
(25:22):
But the movie about him, where Larry Parks played Al Jolson,
I think it was brilliant.
It just captured me in a way. Like I said, I was nine years old and I was mesmerized by that.
The story, the talent of Jolson because it was his voice.
Was being used and Larry Parks would try to sort of capture the way,
(25:48):
the style of Jolson and the way he would deliver a song.
And I was so taken with it that it was on something called Million Dollar Movie
back then on one of the local channels in New York where they picked a movie
for the entire week and they would show it every night during the week twice
and then four times on Saturday and four times on Sunday.
(26:12):
And I was so caught up with the film that I watched it, I think,
almost every one of those films that week.
So then I started, you know, getting Jolson records and singing and singing along.
And then, but then I started also through that, became very knowledgeable by
(26:34):
listening to a radio show every night that was hosted by William B.
Williams and WNEW in New York.
And he would play all the great, you know, the great American songbook,
the standards and the jazz standards and all the great artists.
So I would listen to that every night before going to bed.
(26:56):
And so I grew to have a real passion for that music to the point where then when I was 13,
I convinced my parents that I had to sort of pursue this.
And they found a school for me in Manhattan that I'd go to on Saturdays for
(27:18):
singing, dancing, and acting.
And then through that, I got picked to be part of a nightclub review.
The summer I turned 15, and we performed in hotels, the nightclubs of the hotels
in the Catskill Mountains, which was a resort area, upstate New York.
So that summer, I was singing in this nightclub back when I was 15.
(27:39):
So like i said that
came first but then then i
put that aside as strangely enough that after that
summer and really got as i got a little bit older i started getting caught up
in a big way with a lot of the great films that were being made in the late
60s and and became a huge film buff and and influenced by a lot of the great actors of that era,
(28:08):
whether it be Dustin Hoffman and Paul Newman.
And a bunch of others, but then it was Jack Nicholson that really got me.
I saw him in five easy pieces and I became a huge Nicholson fan.
Then I really switched my focus towards acting and I went to another school
(28:32):
that was a much more serious study of the craft of acting,
and it wasn't about music and all that.
And so that's how it's kind of shifted.
Interesting. And then I guess Happy Days was kind of like a great mix of both of those.
(28:53):
You know, at least it was acting with some music as well.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, we did have music.
Hanson, who played Posse, who had done musical theater, he had approached Gary
Marshall, our creator and exec producer.
He approached him in the first season and convinced Gary it'd be a good idea if we had a band.
(29:17):
We could play in Arnold's and all that. Gary liked the idea.
Gary was a former drummer and he liked the idea.
Since Anson got to him first and
Anson said, I sing and so Gary thought he established him as the singer.
And he didn't want to mess with that. And then all of a sudden, I have two singers.
(29:40):
And so I would get to do background singing.
I'd get to do, every once in a while, they gave me a song. So that was cool.
Because a lot of people say to me, how come you didn't sing more on Happy Days
when they see me do a show live?
And they go, oh, my God, I didn't know you sing like this.
Or they hear my CDs because they didn't know my background.
(30:03):
So that's the i always get
that why did you sing one happy days and you don't
have to go into this story it's a long story but
uh anyway that that's kind of how that
all came down interesting and matt i'm you know new york that's your home territory
so yeah yeah i grew up in the hudson valley which is not far from the catskills
(30:29):
and you know oh yeah the hudson valley what what town know. Poughkeepsie.
Poughkeepsie, yeah. Well, I would get off, if I took the train during the summers,
I mentioned I spent my summers upstate,
I'd get off at Peekskill on the train,
and then it would continue up to Poughkeepsie. Yep, still goes there.
(30:52):
And now I'm in Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania
and I read that you had gone to Lehigh
for engineering is that true yes yeah
in Bethlehem Pennsylvania yeah what
happened was you know when I was you know getting close to my senior year and
all that my parents they saw how much I loved pursuing the you know performing
(31:17):
and acting and I started during that year I was able through that acting class I was able to
get a manager and they sent me out on auditions and I started getting work and a lot of commercials.
But they really thought it was important that I go to college,
(31:40):
not put all my eggs in this basket.
It was a pretty precarious profession to pursue.
So this was sort of the backup, you know. And I was always really strong in math and science.
My grandfather was an engineer. My two uncles were engineers.
My cousin was studying to be an engineer. year and so
(32:03):
it just made sense that that would be you know a
backup um and lehigh being a big engineering
school yeah yeah but and
i made it through the you know i mentioned i went out to california when i was
20 i turned 20 that summer and that was right after my junior year and i was
only going to go out for the summer and then and then you know make some contacts
(32:27):
make some headway so that then a year later after graduation,
I'd go out there and really pursue it.
But as fate would have it, I started getting some auditions and landing some jobs that summer.
And my manager convinced me at the end of the summer, they said,
(32:48):
you've got some real momentum going and it takes six months off.
You could always go back, but keep the momentum going.
So that's what I did. So I didn't go back, but the six months became, you know, a lot longer.
I never finished. Let's shift gears and talk about what you're doing these days.
(33:10):
Yeah, well, as I mentioned before, I love playing all different kinds of characters.
It was a little tricky when I left the show after the seventh season because
I wanted to branch out and do a lot of other things, But it was pretty,
you know, associated with the show.
It was so huge that I, you know, I passed back then much more readily.
(33:33):
There was no internet, there was no tables, only three networks.
So it was tricky, but I kept chipping away and I'd do something different and
something, the next one even more different.
And got to do some really interesting roles in independent films and some other
(33:53):
TV, a lot of guest roles and theater roles.
Now, as I'm getting older, it's interesting. It's opened it up even more for me.
In the last five years, I've probably done more films than I had in the previous 15 or 20.
(34:14):
I did like six, seven films in three or four years, and all of them very different roles.
I mean, literally going from playing a local pastor to the next project, I played a polygamist.
And then actually that's
(34:34):
what and then and then playing a career criminal and
then playing a prison guard and in
a story about based on a true story and
and and then then i did a western which
was a very different thing and it's a film called far
haven which just came out on amazon on crime and apple tv and voodoo and then
(34:57):
and then playing the owner of a minor league hockey team and then playing a
defense attorney defending the wounded vet and and then most recently.
A true story during prohibition in michigan
and i played the head of a where there
was different guys competing vying for
(35:18):
control of the liquor during all the
bootlegging and it was a real gang called the purple
gang it was a jewish mob and i played the
head of the jewish mob so i'm loving the fact of getting to really do you know
what i've always loved to jump from one role to something very different comedy
(35:41):
drama different genres etc are you still singing or.
Yes yes i am oh and
i should mention so besides a far haven that people
could see on amazon prime there's also
a movie called county line no fear where that's also i think on amazon and lost
(36:03):
heart is another one that's i think people might enjoy the singing mean yeah
i'm still seeing you know i just actually did a show up in canada a few weeks ago,
i was i was doing a lot of live performing for
like the last six seven years with
(36:24):
covid it really slowed down of course and then i got very busy with these other
films and i had to put it aside so i'm hoping to pick it up in a bigger way
soon but i've done some recording i did a cd called The Mostly Swinging,
which came out about five years ago.
(36:45):
It with a great great big band great big jazz band
and and wonderful musicians and it swings i love that kind of sound and then
more recently i did a cd called called new york high and that's a thing and
there's a single of that same title from it which which went pretty high on the charts,
(37:07):
in the uk there's a big chart there called the heritage chart and it got up
to like number where We're going to get up to like 14 on the chart. No, eight. Awesome.
Yeah, got up to number eight. So that was still a lot of the jazz spanders,
but a few other like, you know, 60 classic rock type music mixed in there a little bit.
(37:33):
And not a big band, but a more contemporary jazz kind of configuration, you know, five piece.
So I'm real happy with the way it came out. And so, yeah, so that's going on.
And there's some talk about me doing a tour in Italy and maybe Australia.
(37:54):
So we'll see if that comes to fruition.
And I did my first symphony, it was about a year and a half ago now,
in Hershey, Pennsylvania with the Hershey.
Yeah so that was that was a trip i love that i'm hoping to do more of that.
(38:14):
So is the New York High, is that the one that has the song for each of the decades?
The song that I show the decades? Yes.
Did you have, I had a note that you had included like a lot of different decades in the song choices.
Oh, oh, in the song choices. I don't know that there was a conscious effort.
(38:39):
I was mainly picking out songs, mostly, like I said, jazz standards,
and I ran through a lot of different choices with my producer,
Tony Mantor, and I know the library of the Great American Songbook really well.
So most of them we just talked about, and then if we agreed on a song, it made the cut.
(39:06):
In this case, New York High was one original song on the CD.
It was a brand new song, and ironically, written by a Brit, written by Mike
Reed, who was a famous DJ in the UK.
Canyon and he said he has TV shows and radio shows.
(39:30):
He wrote with his partner Max Restaino this song.
A friend of mine sent it to me who was a mutual friend and it really caught
my attention in a big way.
My producer liked it a lot too, so we decided to do it.
Then it wound up becoming the title of the album and a single that we released in the UK.
(39:56):
And so here, I don't know what the plans are.
You know, his strategy of releasing songs, I don't understand how that works these days.
But we'll see how it does. We'll see how it does here.
And I've been getting great response to that song and the whole CD.
(40:16):
Yeah, well, I'm very curious about when you mentioned classic rock. What did you include?
Yeah, and that was a tough choice. Because when I was in the late 60s and early
70s, and I was in college, I loved the music that was going on.
(40:39):
And then it was a renaissance going on in music.
But it wasn't a music that I was thinking of performing, but I loved it.
So picking something out that would go, that would sort of blend with what we
were doing was a little tricky.
But we wound up through a process. I don't know how we did it.
There was a song called That I Always Loved back in the early 70s.
(41:03):
And it almost had a swing feel.
It was a rock band called the Sanford Townsend Band.
It was a rock kind of, but this song had a swing feel. It was called Smoke from a Distant Fire.
So I ran it by my producer, and he really liked it. And he said, how should we do it?
(41:24):
And he had heard it done once, very bluesy, kind of slow and bluesy,
and we started playing around with it. We liked it, so we did that.
And then one day, I can't remember where I was, but Smokey Robinson's song,
Ooh Baby Baby, came on, and I was listening to it going, oh wow,
this might be interesting to do, and Tony agreed,
(41:48):
and so we did that, Ooh Baby Baby, and we recorded Ain't No Sunshine,
but we're holding it back, I'll save it for maybe another,
CD, and maybe I'll do some more on the next CD, do some more stuff from the classic rock era.
Do you have any inspirations to write music?
(42:12):
There's not that burning desire to do that, but I am a little intrigued with
the idea of doing it with somebody else.
I don't think I could write a song by myself.
I just don't have that combination of talent and genes and all that.
(42:35):
I think if I was working with somebody else and they got sort of it started
and then maybe then I'd get to pick up on something or,
you know, stir something in me and then I maybe take it to, you know, the next section.
And, you know, we bounce off of each other.
I'd like to try that at some point. And I don't know, you know,
(42:59):
when, but that's been intriguing me a little bit, that prospect.
Well, you know, time has flown by.
It seems like we just said hello and, you know, now it's like your 30 minutes are gone by.
But I really hope that you'll come back and be a guest again and,
(43:20):
you know, update us and share the story that you've told us today.
Day oh thank you so much uh definitely i
i would definitely be up for coming back
you know like you said maybe to update and bring bring you up to speed as to
where what the next projects are all about and how the music is going um as
(43:43):
well so um yes let's let's stay in touch and uh thank you,
Don, thank you so much for coming by. We really appreciate it.
My pleasure. You still got it. I have that left for you.
Even with Kat and Matt, I still got it.
(44:07):
We need to teach her math and say that. That's right, yeah.
All right, well, be good and stay well.
Music.
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