June 16, 2023 • 45 mins
Nik is an award-winning, major market TV, Voice Over, and Radio Personality who has spent a highly successful career working in New York and Boston on FM stations and on Sirius XM.
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*****Thank you so much for listening to the TAKIN’ A WALK PODCAST SHOW hosted by Buzz Knight!
Listen to more honest conversations with a compelling mix of guests ranging from musicians, authors, and insiders with their own stories. Get inspired, get motivated, and gain insights from honest conversations every week that can help you with your own journey. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, and be part of this blessed family.
Website: https://takinawalk.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/thebuzzknight
LinkedIn: http://linkedin.com/in/buzzknight
Linkfire: https://lnk.to/takinawalk
Please consider subscribing, leaving a review, and sharing it with your friends and family!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Podcast play.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Hi, I'm buzz night, and this is the Take in
a Walk podcast where we take you on an audio
journey with a variety of really cool folks or with
a story to tell, a story about music, a story
about the artist, the backstory.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
On this episode, I go back to the glorious.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Radio days in Boston, which I was part of and
certainly observed.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
We have a talent who dominated the air in Boston,
also in New York and across the country and his
time on Serious XAM.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
We go over to Central Park to take a walk
next with Nick Carter.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
Well, Nick Carter, it is so great to be actually
taking a walk in person with you in Central Park.
Speaker 4 (00:52):
New York City.
Speaker 5 (00:53):
Hey, it's great to be with you man.
Speaker 6 (00:54):
And as I say, I'm hoping I'm the first one
to take the show title literally because I my youthful
ward Peppermint p dot Mint, the mint my dog is.
She's known on the mean streets of the Upper West Side.
She's already blessed the place with the poop.
Speaker 5 (01:11):
So you know, so far, so good. I love it.
Speaker 4 (01:13):
I love it.
Speaker 7 (01:14):
You are the first person that has brought the poocha
along to take a walk, although I did an episode
of taking a walk with my two knucklehead dogs in Carlisle, Massachusetts.
Speaker 5 (01:26):
Wow, that's beautiful. Yeah, I'm a big I'm a big
believer in the site gag. It's cold taking the walk,
so I love it.
Speaker 6 (01:34):
And I'm sitting on the subway. I'm going he's going
to think I'm the biggest dufe Is there a way?
Speaker 5 (01:39):
O way?
Speaker 4 (01:39):
I'm the guy that did it with my two dogs.
I'm the dufist. Well, she's got six people who listen
to it.
Speaker 6 (01:45):
She's got kind of a it's funny because she's got
kind of a tragic story. I mean, I basically my
Instagram is basically pictures of me and past their prime
passer sell by celebrities and Peppermint and Peppermint. You know,
just what of her, you know, running around doing her
thing to videos like my favorite vet says a small dog.
Speaker 5 (02:06):
She's like, you got to be careful with these low riders.
Speaker 6 (02:09):
So she's running around chasing another small dog to a
war lowrider. And you know, literally that video got more pictures,
more likes than a picture of me and Robert Plant
And everybody's like.
Speaker 5 (02:23):
Me should have her own Instagram. I'm like no, so
she has more followers than me.
Speaker 6 (02:27):
Hard pass but she had a really it's interesting, but
what were you doing then?
Speaker 5 (02:33):
She had a really tough life.
Speaker 6 (02:34):
She was abandoned on the streets of the Bronx at
two months old, which blows my mind. I mean, I
just how much you would have taken just to drop
her off at a vet or a shelter. And her mom, well,
my dog, who's a Habanese, passed away two months actually
this this month, two years ago, two months before she
(02:54):
turned sixteen.
Speaker 5 (02:56):
And her human.
Speaker 6 (02:57):
Mom passed away two months after that. Oh man, And
so I kind of inherited. I mean, she was living
with me. She's been living with me for a couple
of years. And Bianca, her mom passed away at only
forty three. And all her friends are like, well, you're
keeping Peppermint, right, I'm like, no, I thought i'd put
her on eBay.
Speaker 4 (03:21):
I mean really yeah.
Speaker 6 (03:23):
But that's the story of Peppermint, or the Mint is
she's known on the mead streets of the Upper West Side.
Speaker 7 (03:28):
I'm so honored to meet the Mint, and I'm glad
to see you.
Speaker 4 (03:32):
I haven't seen you in a while. I think the
last time I saw you was in a big event
that was involved. When you were right doing the National.
Speaker 6 (03:42):
Right the National Show, right tap, right, right, right, right right, yeah,
on tap with Nick Carter, which.
Speaker 5 (03:48):
You know, some of the best three years of my life,
you know.
Speaker 6 (03:50):
I got yelled at by Peter Frampton, I got called
names by George Stargold.
Speaker 5 (03:56):
It was great. I used to have longer hair than
I used to joke.
Speaker 6 (04:00):
VH one Classic has hired a spiky haired black guy
to play classic rock to a bunch of red stage
What could possibly go wrong? I remember, like my commercial,
thank god, VH one Classic had next to no ads,
so it was either my promo me or the slap
Chop guy.
Speaker 5 (04:17):
And Slash came in.
Speaker 6 (04:19):
I mean I talked to him a couple of times
and he's, well, I'm one of those people that people
know my name and know my face, but don't put
them together, I think.
Speaker 5 (04:27):
And so he had come in to do an interview
and he walks in.
Speaker 6 (04:31):
The studio he goes, oh, to you, I see you
every time I'm on the treadmill.
Speaker 5 (04:39):
How rock and roll.
Speaker 6 (04:41):
I'm just trying to imagine Slash on the treadmill with
a dopey top hat. Uh.
Speaker 5 (04:47):
But yeah, that was That was a great experience because I.
Speaker 6 (04:51):
Had sort of fancied myself, you know, like Johnny Alt
rock guy, and you know, I always kind of I
had a tacit respect for classic rock because that's the
sort of building blocks of everything that I listened to.
But my perception at that time, this is twenty eleven,
twenty twelve, My perception was that, you know, even though
(05:16):
I was out of the demographic, as they.
Speaker 5 (05:18):
Like to say, I was like, Oh, that's that's the
old guy. That's the old guy format.
Speaker 6 (05:23):
So it was funny because when artists would come in
me A being a person of color and B being
you know, we're looking with this dopey baby face. I
used to say to my boss, it's hilarious. They come
in and they're polite, but I think at first they're
a little thrown off, like they're not they're figuring this
guy has no idea who I am. You know, he's
just got what did this guy take a break from
(05:45):
his rap show to talk to me? You know? And
and and they were shocked to find that not only
did I know their music inside or out, I knew
their stories and they just it was really weird.
Speaker 5 (05:57):
And my boss actually.
Speaker 6 (05:58):
Said to me, He's like, you know, we well you
kind of use that, and I'm like, you know, I
get where you're coming from.
Speaker 5 (06:05):
I'm not sure that's legal for you to say, but
all right, cool. So where did you first realize that
radio was.
Speaker 4 (06:14):
In your blood? Well?
Speaker 6 (06:17):
I grew up in Massachusetts. I grew up in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
I was I ham myself. I'm sorry, please don't trip
any buddy. I started my career quote unquote, I don't
even know how old I was.
Speaker 5 (06:33):
I did okay, seventh grade. I did a show for NPR.
Speaker 6 (06:38):
Called The Spider's Web where I was like a youth reporter.
Speaker 5 (06:42):
But I was always a music nerd. I can remember the.
Speaker 6 (06:47):
First forty five I bought, the first album I bought,
and I just was fascinated by DJs. And I grew
up listening to everybody from the Great Sunny Joe White
to Jojoe Cooking Kincaid, these Top forty Monsters, to Mark
Parento on WBCN, who I just thought was a god.
Speaker 5 (07:07):
And then as I got older and I got into.
Speaker 6 (07:10):
Business, I kind of get tagged with the Howard Stern
shockjock thing, which bothered me because my goal and That's
what I kind of I feel like that I'll always
be indebted to Sirius XM.
Speaker 5 (07:23):
My goal was to be.
Speaker 6 (07:24):
Like guys like Tom Snyder, Larry King, Tavis Smiley, who
could literally talk to anyone like I mean, I remember
as a little boy watching The Clash right the Clash
on the Tom Snyder showt like one o'clock in the morning,
and the.
Speaker 5 (07:38):
Next day he's talking to like Mosha Diane, you know,
and I was like, how does that happen? Yeah, you know, And.
Speaker 6 (07:47):
But I just the idea of I was a frustrated
musician too, as our many radio personalities, and the idea
that you know, you could hear your voice over the
music and it was sort of musical.
Speaker 5 (07:59):
It just it just I don't know, it.
Speaker 6 (08:01):
Was just something about it that just really really turned
me on. And then you know, the idea that you
could connect and I was gonna say, be funnier, at
least attempt to be funny on the air. It was
just it was just it was just a great thing
for me. And I also, you know, as I say,
I started in public radio and then when I was
(08:24):
in seventh grade, I got my first TV show on
Channel four WBZ in Boston, and it.
Speaker 5 (08:30):
Was just it was everybody's like, oh, I gotta see tapes.
Speaker 6 (08:34):
No, no, no, they're in the vault with this suburger
film and the porno from Hitler's bunker.
Speaker 5 (08:40):
Because I was I was an overweight kid. I had
a huge space in my teeth. I had big, thick
coke ball glasses, a huge afro. You know. It was
like that that. I mean, it was like the Death Star.
Speaker 6 (08:51):
It rivaled everybody from Jeff Wynn and Don Henley to
Angela Davis.
Speaker 5 (08:56):
And I looked back down and I'm like, how did
my parents let me go on TV like that?
Speaker 4 (09:01):
So what was the name of that show?
Speaker 6 (09:04):
It was called Changing Places, where they took a bunch
of kids and dropped them into the news anchor's positions,
and I changed places with Jimmy Myers and did a
sports cast, although I knew very little about sports. And
then they liked me and I got another show was
(09:24):
called The City Show.
Speaker 5 (09:25):
Then they changed the name to Get.
Speaker 6 (09:26):
Off Your Block, where I literally walked around in the
summer and showed kids, you know, hey, go.
Speaker 5 (09:33):
To the Science Museum.
Speaker 6 (09:34):
It's open and it's not that expensive. And got I
actually got an Emmy. I didn't get it, but my
producer did my first voiceover. This woman named Susan Bell
borrowed me and she wanted me to voice a couple
of promos like public service announcement, and the first one
(09:55):
was they're wheeling this picture of this this.
Speaker 5 (09:58):
Really sickly looking little white kid.
Speaker 6 (10:00):
I think he had red hair, and they're wheeling him
down the hall in this gurney and this kid, I mean,
it sounded like so eighties.
Speaker 5 (10:09):
He's like, you know, I was really really sick.
Speaker 6 (10:12):
And then this really cool lady came up to me
and helped me, and I thought she was a nurse.
Speaker 5 (10:17):
Turns out she was the doctor. Turns out you don't
have to be a man.
Speaker 6 (10:21):
To be a good doctor. You just have to be
a good doctor, you know. And the key was like
it's being good at what you do with the accounts.
Speaker 5 (10:27):
It gets like.
Speaker 6 (10:27):
Gender, you know whatever, and it won an Emmy.
Speaker 5 (10:33):
I didn't get it. I mean at her house.
Speaker 6 (10:35):
And the funny thing is the first woman who put
me on TV, this woman, Gail Levine. She came to
New York and she became a giant casting director. She
cast the Cruise movie. I'm Jerry Maguire and I looked
her up and I called her and I was like, Hi,
Snick Carter.
Speaker 5 (10:53):
She's like from child do it. I was like, yeah,
I gotta call you back. Click, and I was the
last time I heard call you back exactly. I was like,
I saw Hollywood on you.
Speaker 4 (11:04):
So this is all before your first radio game. Yes, sorry, essentially.
Speaker 6 (11:09):
Yeah, My first actual gig quote unquote being a DJ
was in school Nyu Wnyu.
Speaker 5 (11:18):
I studied theater there.
Speaker 3 (11:19):
I was.
Speaker 6 (11:20):
I literally almost got thrown out of the theater department
because I would blow off class so much to go
hang out at the radio station.
Speaker 5 (11:27):
And I did a couple of shows.
Speaker 6 (11:31):
Again, it was the eighties, so I did a club
show called Club eighty nine where we broke records, like
underground records that were being played.
Speaker 5 (11:39):
They are now like club classics.
Speaker 6 (11:41):
I did a show I inherited, the disco show Disco
eighty nine, which was literally a classic disco show for
my friend Don Milano, who's now a big sales guy.
Speaker 5 (11:52):
I know him.
Speaker 6 (11:53):
Yeah, well he was like he created it. And the
funny thing is, you know Wnyu. Since know I lived
on campus in the village. The transmitters in the BRONX.
Speaker 5 (12:06):
So people on campus couldn't get the station, you know,
so basically you were broadcasting to people who were just listening,
you know, in New York, New.
Speaker 6 (12:15):
Jersey, Connecticut, you know, Westchester County, and a lot in Brooklyn.
Speaker 5 (12:21):
And this disco show was unbelievably popular.
Speaker 6 (12:25):
The phones would start start ringing at like eight thirty
on Wednesday.
Speaker 5 (12:28):
The show was on from nine to eleven, and they
wouldn't stop bring until like midnight.
Speaker 6 (12:32):
So I played disco, but I channeled by Inner Sunny
Joe White and screamed over you know, Dan Hartman.
Speaker 5 (12:39):
Instant replay or whatever.
Speaker 6 (12:41):
And I eventually got fired from my college radio station,
and I moved back to Boston because I was broke
and NYU, excuse me, New York was so expensive then,
I mean, not like now, but and I started working
part time at WFNX in Boston. I'd been turned down
(13:05):
by I think two different program directors and the consultant,
and then Max Tolkoff, who was the first guy to
put me on the air, he brought me in.
Speaker 5 (13:14):
I remember he said, he said, you know, the rest
of these DJs.
Speaker 6 (13:18):
Need some of what you have, and you need to
have some of what they have because they were got
to throw this poop away.
Speaker 5 (13:24):
They were all really, really mellow and laid back, and
I was.
Speaker 6 (13:28):
All higher, I'm so excited to hear my voice over
the best mood in the middle of the night, and it.
Speaker 5 (13:33):
Was just all my calls were hilarious. I remember my
first night.
Speaker 6 (13:37):
I was like, you don't want to what seven FNX, Boston's alterary.
Speaker 5 (13:42):
I picked up the phone, Hi aped X what do
you want? Kiss boy? Which was the big top forty
or you know. I remember this. One woman was just like, dude,
what do you do it? So I kind of mellowed out.
Speaker 6 (13:57):
And then EBCN had offered me part time a couple
of times where I literally would have made more money
two days a week on from DBCN than I was
making six nights a week on.
Speaker 5 (14:12):
WFNX in the middle of the night. And I said no.
And the legendary Oedipus who was the program director, walked
around for years because it kept getting back to me.
But I kept Nick carterson, no to me, mark part
timers make more in the full times. That was wrong,
(14:33):
Like he sought out anybody he knew who knew me.
It's a good imitation he's like a second father to me.
Speaker 6 (14:42):
So then so then I left finally and I went
to do mornings in Providence, Rhode Island, and I was
there for six months and he called me.
Speaker 5 (14:54):
I think you're running. He's like, god, this ought to
be fascinating. Okay, you're running to be on WBC and
IM Boston. And I was like, all right, but you know,
I told these guys i'd be here a year. He's like,
I think about your future quick.
Speaker 6 (15:13):
And thank god my my program director, Brent Peterson said
to me. He was like, listen, you can go in
there and you can you can change that station.
Speaker 5 (15:21):
You know.
Speaker 6 (15:22):
Because I didn't have a contract, I just gave him
my word i'd be there six months. And he said
to me, I do the me test on this. He's
from Chicago and he said, if Q one O one
or whatever, the big station at the time called me, said,
I'd be so hout of here.
Speaker 5 (15:33):
He's like, you gotta go. And I said, well, I
appreciate that, but you know, I give you my word.
I'm gonna state. And he said, okay, well you can stay,
but if you stay, I'm gonna fire you.
Speaker 4 (15:41):
Oh wow.
Speaker 5 (15:42):
Yeah, it was It was so selfless. So I went
back to Boston in nineteen ninety there.
Speaker 6 (15:48):
Six and uh, therapy and antidepressants were soon to fall.
Speaker 5 (15:58):
Yeah, that was quite a run, right, you know, it
was eight years.
Speaker 6 (16:03):
It felt like twice that because it was it was
just it was insane. It was I mean, I look
back now and we were in the middle of this
unbelievably nasty rock battle and it's hilarious to me because
I mean, not to be political, but I see a
(16:24):
correlation between a lot of the Magot stuff because it
was almost cult like, you know, this this one radio
station we competed with WAAF. I mean, they tapped into
something of vain where literally these kids who they thought
it was a crusade to kind of go out and
(16:45):
represent for this radio station that played eighty percent of
the same stuff we did, you know, I mean, and
another twenty percent was the secret sauce. They were very heavy,
and we were, you know, by comparison, kind of dorky,
you know, in corporate, but they, you know, it was
it was insane. I mean, I remember my dad was
(17:07):
in the hospital, it had cancer. When I was hired
to do night seven pm to eleven pm at WBCN
for three years, and I figured that was it. Not no,
I mean I was so naive. I didn't know that
I was being groomed for acting and drive. Then everybody
else knew it but me, and I was just like, oh,
you know, I could afford to move out of mom's house.
Speaker 5 (17:26):
Now I could also.
Speaker 6 (17:27):
Get a car, you know, because when I was at FNX,
literally I had friends that were working at fast food
who were making more than I was. I was making
six dollars an hour. Whoa, you know, I paid my dues.
But my dad had had colon cancer. He had surgery,
and when I moved to afternoons, I remember he was
(17:48):
in the hospital and he was trying to recover and
stuff between this.
Speaker 5 (17:55):
Other radio station and I had spilled into the.
Speaker 6 (17:58):
Newspapers and you know, they were finding coded language to
make reference to me being black.
Speaker 5 (18:05):
So it was just they got very very nasty. I mean,
I'm not I'm not a spye to I mean, I'm I'm.
Speaker 6 (18:11):
Pretty tough, but you know, my parents were like freaked out,
and I'll never forget going to the hospital to see
my dad, and my dad was like, because you know,
I was going out doing appearances and my dad was like,
it's a little bit of security for you. And I'm
like that these you know, these knuckleheads are just gonna
get my face.
Speaker 5 (18:29):
And say something. Nobody's gonna like put hands on me.
Speaker 6 (18:32):
But you know that that really bothered me because you know,
if you have any dealings with cancer, stresses everything, right,
you know, And so it really got to him and
I was like that, you know, I'm I'm I mean,
I was fifty pounds heavier. Then I was like, I'm
a big guy, you know. I mean, nobody knew that
I was a complete you know marshmallow inside.
Speaker 5 (18:53):
You know, I'm loud and I could talk a good game.
What what step outside?
Speaker 6 (19:00):
Talk about it right in the second they go outside
and I'm inside like.
Speaker 3 (19:04):
Yeah, but you know it was see I had you know,
I was there and I knew the battle, but I.
Speaker 5 (19:13):
Did know that you're telling the story from your.
Speaker 3 (19:15):
View, though I had forgotten how kind of evil and
nasty the whole thing.
Speaker 5 (19:20):
God, I got called the N word so much.
Speaker 6 (19:23):
And I couldn't even get angry at these kids because
I knew they didn't.
Speaker 5 (19:28):
Even really know what they were saying.
Speaker 6 (19:29):
They would just call up, call up the station, you know,
say it and like hang up. And really, you know,
it was Opie and Anthony, who I think are incredibly talented,
but they were their own were sentiment. You know, I've
never seen anybody with a bigger self destruct mechanism than
(19:49):
those guys.
Speaker 5 (19:50):
You know, they really were just.
Speaker 6 (19:55):
It was weird because they believed their own legend. But
at the end of the day, I think they don't
have any.
Speaker 5 (20:01):
Idea how good they actually were.
Speaker 6 (20:03):
And I you know, when we finally sort of squashed
the beef one day, we went out one day and
would drinking all day and we just sort of like
yelled at each other.
Speaker 5 (20:14):
We kind of ended it all and I just said to
them's like, you guys, you don't get it. I mean,
you're being groomed for everything.
Speaker 6 (20:23):
You know, You're being groomed to take over the mantle
from Howard Stern. All you have to do is, you know,
not be overshadowed by a leaf blower, right, you know, they,
I don't know, they just didn't get it. And then
I was at BCND about eight years and during that time.
Speaker 5 (20:46):
I was up.
Speaker 6 (20:47):
The reason I got to New York was I was
up for afternoons a k Rock against I believe it
was Chris Booker, who had been on the station for
quite some time, and he also had a national profile.
Speaker 5 (20:58):
Who've been on MTV and then he left MTV and
he was he was the.
Speaker 6 (21:04):
A A reporter for Entertainment Tonight and he was dating
Linda Lopez, Jlo's sister.
Speaker 5 (21:11):
This is during the whole benefit thing.
Speaker 6 (21:13):
So whenever there was a j Lo or a Ben
Affleck story, and Ben Affleck cli went to.
Speaker 5 (21:17):
High school with he had the exclusive, so he was everywhere.
Speaker 6 (21:21):
And so after news came down to he and I
and I'm told.
Speaker 5 (21:27):
That the program director, I mean, he had also been.
Speaker 6 (21:30):
On Howard's show a lot, and I was told Howard
went to the program director said who who you.
Speaker 5 (21:35):
Got to give Booker the job?
Speaker 6 (21:37):
And he called me and he was like, yeah, I man,
I got to go with Booker. And I was like,
of course, I'd go with Booker over me.
Speaker 5 (21:41):
That's a new brainer. And so I want to say.
Speaker 6 (21:48):
The end of two thousand and four, December, yes, December
thirty first two thousand and four of my contract was up,
and I was on my way to work and we
had a new program director who I had kind of
helped usher in because when Edipus was leaving, I knew
a bunch of the candidates, and the general manager said
to me, what do you think of this guy?
Speaker 5 (22:06):
We can think of this guy? I said, well, Dave Wellington.
You know he's he's killing in Vegas. He's the guy.
You know.
Speaker 6 (22:13):
I didn't realize he's going to come in and be like, okay,
let's see what what can we lose you? And so
my contract was up December thirty first, two thousand and four,
and I was on my way to work and my
agent called me and said, yeah, we got problems.
Speaker 5 (22:29):
I said, uh, okay, said yeah.
Speaker 6 (22:31):
They want to go in another direction. I was like,
all right, well I have a compass. You know, I'd
never heard that term before, right, And so I said, well,
get me a meeting. And I had a meeting with
him that day and the general manager and I basically said, well,
you know, I can go wherever you want to go.
Speaker 5 (22:48):
And they're like, well, we're going to go in another direction.
I was like, oh, I get another direction without me. Okay,
I got it.
Speaker 6 (22:54):
And so again, and that was another thing. He ended
up hiring a guy who I'm friends with from his
station in Vegas.
Speaker 5 (23:03):
To do I was only doing afternoon drive. He was
hired to do after and drive.
Speaker 6 (23:09):
And be the imaging director basically, like you know, produce
all the interstitials that talk that sort of made the
image of the radio station for probably.
Speaker 5 (23:16):
Half of what I was making, So I can't argue that.
Speaker 6 (23:19):
And then I don't know if you remember this, but
Howard Stern his cast of oddballs, Stuttering.
Speaker 5 (23:27):
John and Crazy Cabby.
Speaker 6 (23:30):
Crazy Cabby who was a GOP War veteran who was
shell shocked, complete character, but he was on Howard Show
all the time, but he was also doing.
Speaker 5 (23:39):
Overnights at the station. He and Stuttering John despised each other.
Speaker 6 (23:44):
They got into a fight, and Howard, being the master
of marketing, decided to settle.
Speaker 5 (23:52):
This beef in a.
Speaker 6 (23:54):
Boxing match sponsored by I think it was Goldenpalace dot com.
Person was twenty five thousand dollars. Cabby wins the purse,
goes on the air and.
Speaker 5 (24:04):
Says, yeah, I got twenty five thousand dollars. I'm not paid.
I didn't pay any taxes on it. Ye Ris is listening,
Oh jeez, and that's it. So I'm sitting home one
day again, I was like December thirty.
Speaker 6 (24:15):
First I was trying to decide what I was going
to do next, and I want to say early January,
the phone rang.
Speaker 5 (24:24):
It's the program director of XRK, and I sort of
I'll never forget this. He says, hey, dude, Cabby's going
to jail and we could do some help.
Speaker 6 (24:31):
You want to come down and do some shifts Jesus,
And I.
Speaker 5 (24:34):
Was like, uh. And that's how I got into Caro.
I that's how I got into New York.
Speaker 6 (24:40):
And it's funny because i'd also I just bought my
first house, so I thought, you know, well, I really
want to do voiceovers. So I built this elaborate studio,
home studio, and in two thousand and four that wasn't
a thing. So I built this elaborate home studio and
I started to send my demos to agents here and
I got the attention of three and the one I
(25:01):
really wanted to go with her like, okay, well, you know,
like calls when.
Speaker 5 (25:04):
You get to the city, and I was like, well no,
but I built the studio. Yeah, yeah, that's nice calls
when you get to the city. And I was like wow.
So I started working. Ah. I flew down to New
York on a Thursday or I took the train.
Speaker 6 (25:21):
I did an audition ten pm to two am Thursday night,
and I.
Speaker 5 (25:26):
Had before I had my iPhone, I had my BlackBerry.
Speaker 6 (25:30):
And I basically used it as email and text because
it wouldn't take calls or it would drop calls.
Speaker 5 (25:37):
And you know, I didn't even know people called me.
Speaker 6 (25:41):
So I'm walking around and Friday afternoon because I had
a bunch of friends here, and I get a message
from the pdcare I because hey, man, I just listened
to your demo.
Speaker 5 (25:51):
Hey that was great. Great, give me a call.
Speaker 6 (25:53):
We'll talk, I said, and I hadn't heard the message.
Then the next message I get was his assistant. Hey,
this is Miyanka from kayok I have your schedule next
Saturday and Sunday two to six pm.
Speaker 5 (26:06):
And I'm like, wait what. I had no idea.
Speaker 6 (26:08):
So I started working part time at kay Rok in
New York two to six every Saturday and Sunday. And
I would take the Amtrak down on Friday, check into
a hotel, go out Friday night with my friends, get
up Saturday, go to the station, do my thing, go
out Saturday night, check out of my hotel on noon
(26:29):
on Sunday, go up to Ka Rock, which was on
fifty seventh and sixth on the air from two to
six with my bag, jump on the subway, get back
down to Penn Station at seven, and take the Amtrak
back down.
Speaker 5 (26:41):
To the Boston Wow. And I did that from February
to October when I finally says like, I'm just gonna
move there.
Speaker 6 (26:49):
Yeah, and here I am with the Mint and you
ain't never leaving.
Speaker 5 (26:53):
I don't know.
Speaker 6 (26:54):
You know, now that I've left a series XM, the
first two jobs offers I got, we're out of town,
and you know, I mean my goal is kind of
to stick around. I mean, I feel like if I'm
here till two thousand and five, that will be twenty
years here.
Speaker 5 (27:12):
So I don't know if you get a set of
steak knives or you're fired.
Speaker 6 (27:15):
Like you know, I'm like Gary Glenn Russie exactly an
official bed, like an iHeart New York Bend. But you know,
I mean, if somebody says to me, here's you know,
six hundred and fifty thousand dollars, and even if you
set the place of blaze, we can't fire you. You know,
I Mom can't find you Nebraska.
Speaker 5 (27:33):
Here I come you love interview. Sorry, she wants to
say hi to everybody.
Speaker 4 (27:42):
Means the ambassador of Central Port.
Speaker 6 (27:43):
She is she dude, I tell you she it's so funny,
like literally, like in my building, everybody knows her name.
Speaker 5 (27:51):
Nobody knows nor could they care less about my name.
Speaker 6 (27:54):
And she has this thing where she just wants to
jump up on everybody.
Speaker 5 (27:58):
And she always jumps up on people's just to say hello.
And I'm like, no, no, no no, and they're always like
it's okay, it's okay, And I'm just waiting till the day.
Speaker 6 (28:04):
It's like my nine thousand dollars blends zuckabats, I'm gonna
have your boat gowned right.
Speaker 5 (28:11):
Anyway, I'm sorry you were.
Speaker 4 (28:12):
Saying, So you've always enjoyed interviewing people. Who are some
of your favorite interviews you've done in your career?
Speaker 6 (28:18):
Wow, Well that's the thing, A lot of them, you know.
I will always be grateful to Serious XM because although
the concept of my channel that I went in for
it was called Volume.
Speaker 5 (28:33):
It was a top channel about music.
Speaker 6 (28:35):
And I remember my boss, who was my boss at
VH one, had started it and he took me to
lunch one day and he says, I got a meeting
with Sirius.
Speaker 5 (28:44):
It's like, oh really, he says, what would you think
about a channel that talked about music but didn't play it.
I was like, dumbest idea I've ever heard.
Speaker 6 (28:52):
But then I said, no, you know what, actually, if
you made it like sports talk for music dorgs, that
could work. So initially we would just play like thirty
second s difference of songs to make reference. I you know,
I had done a lot of really interesting interviews before
I got too serious, because I was doing rock and
alternative rock and classic rock radio. When I got too serious,
(29:17):
they really did allow me to live my you know,
pseudo Larry King dream where I talked to everybody from
Ron Howard to you know, Ozzy Osbourne to.
Speaker 5 (29:33):
Geez I Neil deGrasse Tyson three or four times. And
my boss was funny.
Speaker 6 (29:40):
He would always say, when I wanted to book somebody, well,
what's what's the musical tie in?
Speaker 5 (29:45):
I said, Oh, don't worry, I'll find one.
Speaker 6 (29:47):
So, you know, I promoted whatever Neil de grasse Tyson
was talking about that I'd ask him about the science
of music and he said, well, reverb, and he would
just sit and go off on this screed about like
what makes reverb?
Speaker 5 (29:57):
It was crazy. One of my favorites was.
Speaker 6 (30:03):
Ron Howard, who I was a huge fan of, of course,
and he came in to talk about his Pavaratti documentary,
and again, you know, my channel was basically it was
a kind of rock based, but you know, they wouldn't
actually say it, but that's really what we kind of
leaned toward. And at the end of the interview, I
swear to god, he says, oh.
Speaker 5 (30:22):
Darn, Nick, I should have talked about Wool Tang. And
I looked at him.
Speaker 6 (30:26):
I was like, Wool Tang, you forgetting his partners Brian Grazier,
and he said yeah.
Speaker 5 (30:32):
And there was two Wu Tang series coming out and I
was like, is that you guys, And he said, yeah,
that's my partner.
Speaker 6 (30:38):
And I forgot Brian Grazier, who put the Riza from
Wu Tang in American gangs for a bunch of other things.
And he was just like yeah. And I'm sitting there going,
I'm talking to Opie Taylor about the Wu Tang clan, right,
that's insane, That's awesome. My favorite part was literally when
I mean, I don't want to sound like it's a jerk.
But when example like Huey Lewis, I'm a huge fan
(31:00):
of it. I mean, I'm basically like, I grew up
like kind of a hip hop, punk rock kid pop music,
but I love melody, so I love Huey Lewis.
Speaker 5 (31:10):
And he was a little leery about talking to us.
Speaker 6 (31:14):
You know, he needed us to us send him our
questions first because it's kind his hearing issue. So I
just made sure I sent him my questions. But then
I asked a paunch and I said that there were
not in the list, and I said, so is it
my understanding? So your your solo on USA for Africa
We Are the World? You got that because Prince didn't
(31:36):
show up and I was supposed to be Prince's line.
And he slams his hand on the table and he goes, Nick,
how do you know that I'm like, I'm a fan?
You know that was my favorite thing if somebody said,
how do you know that, I'm like, I'm a fan?
Speaker 5 (31:49):
Yeah, because I don't think they knew so.
Speaker 6 (31:52):
That and you know pretty much anybody band of the
moment X to wow. My parent My mom died when
I was in two thousand my dad died in two
thousand and two.
Speaker 5 (32:04):
So I interviewed both Pepper Engelbert.
Speaker 6 (32:07):
Humperdink, who was hilarious, and Johnny Mathis, Wow, who you know?
Speaker 5 (32:14):
Chen oh my were the silly grit.
Speaker 6 (32:19):
And it was funny too because I walked in and
he's like, oh, you're cute, and I was like, you know,
I'll take it.
Speaker 5 (32:26):
What I didn't know is he's like in his eighties.
Speaker 6 (32:30):
He had this giant I mean, I've been around a
lot of rock stars and they usually have like.
Speaker 5 (32:34):
Big black bodyguards. He had the biggest, blackest bodyguard I'd
ever seen.
Speaker 6 (32:39):
The guy had to have been like seven feet tall,
built like this, and he was like maybe forty five.
And his publicist pulled me aside, he goes, yeah, that's
his husband.
Speaker 5 (32:51):
I was like, well, don't worry about it. I wasn't
gonna you know, I wasn't gonna act on the guy.
The guy I was cute, right, you know.
Speaker 2 (32:58):
Did you ever go through an interview and then after
you were sort of debriefing on it, go I wish
I didn't ask that question?
Speaker 6 (33:09):
No, I mean, you know, I I could always think
at things that I wish I had asked bad brains. Respect,
I always can think of things I wish I had asked.
Speaker 5 (33:21):
It's been a long time since an interview really went bad.
Speaker 6 (33:24):
And then if if it's gone badly, I've just this
toimes and I've just been like, okay, you know what,
thanks for coming in, you know, and afterwards, I've just said, look,
you know, I'm trying to help you sell your little project,
you know, but generally speaking, no, I mean, I've insulted guests,
you know, sort of lovingly and.
Speaker 5 (33:45):
They got it so like I remember Ann Wilson punched me.
Speaker 6 (33:51):
Like a like a hard punch, well like a sisterly punch,
but it was pretty hard.
Speaker 5 (33:55):
Oh wow, she's like shot Nick, you know. And that's
the kind of thing I love. But I mean, honestly,
I can't think of.
Speaker 6 (34:00):
Anything I've regretted because again, you know, my thing is,
I've been very fortunate in that I've only had to
talk to a couple of people that I didn't really
want to, you know.
Speaker 5 (34:15):
I mean, and I'm not the type that.
Speaker 6 (34:20):
The only reason why I might not want to talk
to somebody is because I don't really feel like I
can bring anything out of them that hasn't been.
Speaker 5 (34:27):
You know, Oh sorry, it hasn't been you know, recycled
a quajillion times. Well that's a good question.
Speaker 6 (34:39):
I uh, I want to.
Speaker 5 (34:42):
Say no, you know, because again, you know, I'm not
in it to make people feel bad. It's funny. I
think when when I was still.
Speaker 6 (34:50):
In Boston and people are like, oh, yeah, he thinks
it's Howard Stern. I think there were some people that
were a little leery, you know, actors in particular.
Speaker 5 (34:59):
That were literally lear. I remember Anthony Michael Hall, who.
Speaker 6 (35:06):
You know, I grew up in the eighties, so I
was a huge fan, and he was coming in to
talk about.
Speaker 5 (35:12):
This made for TV movie that.
Speaker 6 (35:14):
He played Bill Gates did a great job. And I
remember my producers saying, listen, Nick loves actors, and Nick
is a huge fan, you know, And so I could
tell he came in a little guarded, but by the end,
you know, he's slapp at five and he went on
he went on Howard Stern the next day and he goes, yeah,
I just want to send a shout out to my
boy NICKI the Panton Boston, you know.
Speaker 5 (35:35):
But I mean, I can't say that I've ever been like.
Speaker 6 (35:38):
Oh, why did you ask that you idiot. There's I mean,
there's times when I thought I could have worded that better.
Speaker 3 (35:46):
Yeah, or maybe going at a different angle or something
like that.
Speaker 5 (35:50):
But well, that's my thing.
Speaker 6 (35:50):
I mean, I I one of my best friends, excuse me,
one of my best friends reminds me of when I
was still doing my when I still working at VH one.
The first time I spoke to Judas Priest, I asked
them about I asked Rob Halford about the lawsuit, you
(36:12):
know where the kids got high and played I think
it was staying class backwards and swore they heard you know,
do it, do it?
Speaker 5 (36:20):
And obviously the do it translated to good a gun
and bow your head off.
Speaker 6 (36:25):
And I remember a friend of mine, who had been
working the radio for a long time, said, he said,
you know, I was amazed at how much he talked
about that, because I'm sure that when people ask they
probably say, yeah, I mean de Troyal, that's so Tom.
And I just said to him, I said, you know,
if I recall, I said to him, you know, with
(36:46):
a band like yourselves, who have such a such an
intimate relationship with your fans, especially here in America, what
I said, I remember saying, did it.
Speaker 5 (36:58):
Change your perception of America at all.
Speaker 6 (37:00):
Well, when your music was essentially put on trial for
these kids who did something crazy and weren't taking responsibility
for him, And he opened right up that I was
a little leery about because generally speaking, every once in
a while, you know, publicist.
Speaker 5 (37:16):
Is like, don't talk about this, don't talk about that,
don't talk.
Speaker 6 (37:18):
About this, and you know, half the time, I'm like, well,
I'm I'm not here to like make me feel bad anyway, right,
you know that?
Speaker 5 (37:27):
Do you remember Peter Frampton?
Speaker 6 (37:29):
He was like a bad mood and I asked his manager,
I said, well, so anything he doesn't Because I always
say to an artist.
Speaker 5 (37:37):
I'm like, anything you don't really want to talk about?
Speaker 6 (37:40):
Or if I know I'm getting into something touchy, I'll
I often say, and this is my trick, I say, looking,
stop me if I'm getting too personal, and they never do.
But I remember I said to Peter Frampton's manager, I said, so,
is there anything he doesn't want to talk about? And
he said his latest divorce, losing his hair, and the
Sergeant Pepper movie.
Speaker 5 (38:01):
And I was like, wow, I wasn't gonna talk him
about his divorce. I wasn't gonna be, you know, a
jerk and be like, hey, so what happened to the air?
You know? Yeah? I had my friend had come to
live like yo, I'm like, who's this guy? You know?
Speaker 6 (38:15):
And I did want to talk about the Sergeant Pepper
movie because I was so fascinated. But he's very touchy wow,
and he was in a bad mood. He was because
it was VH one. I'll never forget. It's one of
the first interviews I did. Hey, and my engineer is
behind the camera and I'm talking to him, and you know,
I'm sitting there and I'll never forget Peter Brampton yells
(38:36):
at my engineer and will you stop moving?
Speaker 5 (38:41):
You're moving around.
Speaker 6 (38:42):
I'm trying to ask, I'm trying to pay touching down.
Speaker 5 (38:44):
You asked your.
Speaker 6 (38:45):
Question again, and I was like, uh, I see.
Speaker 5 (38:49):
That was the first year of the show. Had that
happened in the second year, that would have gone completely differently.
I would have been like, bro, can you hear yourself?
Speaker 4 (38:56):
That so great?
Speaker 5 (38:57):
You could you hear yourself?
Speaker 6 (38:58):
You can't make this up now? And it bumped me
up because I love the guy. I love the guy,
and I was just like, oh, come on, man. But
again I also get you know, we all.
Speaker 5 (39:07):
Have bad days.
Speaker 6 (39:07):
And it's funny because one thing that I've noticed that
a lot of personalities or radio or TV people don't
realize is this.
Speaker 5 (39:17):
Does work for them.
Speaker 4 (39:18):
You know.
Speaker 6 (39:19):
I remember when we first started, you know, my talk
channel about music volume.
Speaker 5 (39:22):
My boss said, oh.
Speaker 6 (39:23):
This is gonna be great because you know, artists going
to really want to talk, you know, they don't really
get to.
Speaker 5 (39:27):
Talk on music radio.
Speaker 6 (39:28):
And I'm like, yeah, but you know, when they're doing interviews,
they're promoting something, so it's work. So now you're saying, oh,
they can talk for an hour if they want, I'm like, oh, that's.
Speaker 5 (39:39):
Like saying you know you can.
Speaker 6 (39:41):
You can work overtime for no extra money, right, you know,
And I don't think people think about that, but you know, hopefully,
if you're doing justice by somebody, when you're told right,
you have twenty minutes, you know, they don't are not
looking at their watch.
Speaker 5 (40:02):
I was at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Speaker 6 (40:04):
In November, and again, I grew up a huge fan
of the commodoores line are Richie solom not so much,
but I respect what he's done and when Lionel Richie
got in. It was myself and two other people from
the channel. We were doing mostly tandem interviews. But you know,
my coworkers knew that I was a huge fan, and
(40:26):
I was literally told two minutes and I was like,
uh uh okay, And you know, he was beyond.
Speaker 5 (40:37):
Amenable.
Speaker 6 (40:38):
I asked him one song about one question about going solo.
Then I said to him, tell me what you remember
about the night Bob Marley and the Whalers opened for
the Commodoors and managed the Square Garden.
Speaker 5 (40:50):
And he looked at me, he goes, how do you
know about that? I'm like, I'm a fan. That's great, and.
Speaker 6 (40:55):
He just said he said, man, I don't even remember
very much because Bob invited me down to his dress
room and stupidly I went down there and the smoke.
Speaker 5 (41:02):
I couldn't even tell you about the show after that.
So it's great. So you know, that's it. I mean.
Speaker 6 (41:08):
And I find half the time I just don't mind
if they feel like you're being respectful and know who
they are. It's just their handlers that are like, don't exist,
don't resist, on't this is Avril Levine, don't ask anything
about her line disease. She just released an album written
entirely about her line disease, you know, and she brought
it up and I was just like, all right, we'll
(41:28):
go with it. And I look up and I see
her her publicist in the hall like, you know, doing this,
like it's doing the slash, and I'm like, she's fine,
what are you talking about?
Speaker 5 (41:36):
Yeah, it's weird.
Speaker 4 (41:38):
So let's close with Crystal balling in the park. In
the the future, for you, it's a couple of years
from now. Where do you want to be what do
you want to be doing?
Speaker 5 (41:48):
You know, that's my problem.
Speaker 6 (41:51):
I don't really know because I I feel like I
want to do something that's going to.
Speaker 5 (42:00):
Allow me to flex the few muscles I have. Because
the thing is.
Speaker 6 (42:04):
You know, I'm I'm. I had a long talk with somebody.
I was actually on a panel with somebody about imposter syndrome,
and I suffer from that really, really badly. I think,
I think when I'm at my best, I might not
be the best. But I think this is really not
anybody else around that sounds like me, you know, whether
(42:26):
it be in terms of just turn a phrase when
talking about music or actually talking to somebody or asking
somebody you know an interview question or whatever, or you know,
just as I say, like, I'm my good friend Aaron O'Malley,
who is in Boston stale she's been there like twenty
two years. On Mix one of four to one, she
said to me, she says, you're the best interview I've ever seen.
(42:48):
I was like, no, she said, no, you are, and
I said why. She said, well, because people don't even
realize it's a interview.
Speaker 5 (42:54):
I said, well, that's the thing.
Speaker 6 (42:55):
I just want to have conversations with you, you know,
I just want to talk to people. I mean, I
hate you know, well it so's there in your bio
that you know. I just I as cliches it sounds.
I find people fascinating. I gotta tell you, the more
I hang out with my dog, the less I like people.
Speaker 1 (43:11):
But amen to that.
Speaker 5 (43:13):
I don't know. I mean, you know, I'm getting a
little long in the tooth for TV. But okay, who knows?
Who knows what? You know?
Speaker 6 (43:19):
I really don't know, As I say, I just I
just left my job after seven years.
Speaker 5 (43:24):
I do a lot of voiceover. I'd like to do
more of that. I just feel like there's there's there's ways.
Speaker 6 (43:29):
To connect that I don't I don't even know if
the mainstream has really embraced him yet. I mean, I'm again,
everybody in their grandmother has a podcast now, so I
don't know if I'm looking forward to that.
Speaker 4 (43:42):
But I'm referring to me as your grandmother.
Speaker 5 (43:45):
My grandmother was never so cool. My grandmother never ran
a rock station. My grandma.
Speaker 6 (43:51):
I remember when my grandma when I when I got
my uh my left ear piers, my grandmother's like, what
are you some kind of sissy? And I had like
long hair like I was trying to be print it's
a bad day, and you know it's long and straight,
and I remember I came in off with the out
of the rain and it sort of blew it around
the window.
Speaker 5 (44:08):
That do your hair? Like, yeah, pretty much? It's called punk, grandma, Ah, yeah,
you look like a punk. All right.
Speaker 4 (44:15):
Well, I've enjoyed this so much. I got to meet Mint.
Speaker 3 (44:18):
I got to see you get this on the last
minute notice, which is even more fun.
Speaker 6 (44:23):
And I needed an excuse to drag the mint out
and basically like pontificated by myself a lot.
Speaker 4 (44:30):
I loved it.
Speaker 6 (44:31):
I guess every bit of it because I'm sure she's
sick of hearing. She's like, well, you go back to work.
I'm so sick of hearing about your little stories. I'm
so sick of hearing about you getting drunk and making
out with a band of the moment X or whatever.
Speaker 4 (44:44):
I loved every second of it.
Speaker 5 (44:45):
Time. Oh you as well, man, I love it.
Speaker 4 (44:46):
Thank you, thanks for taking a walk to me.
Speaker 5 (44:48):
So I loved it. I loved it.
Speaker 6 (44:49):
I don't get to see this this side of Central
Park usually I'm usually further up. This is the uh,
this is the the nicer, touristy ridge side.
Speaker 5 (44:58):
You want to you want to drink? Sm okay, come
and get a drinking.
Speaker 6 (45:03):
Taking a Walk with Buzznight is available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you get your podcasts.
Podcast play.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Hi, I'm buzz night, and this is the Take in
a Walk podcast where we take you on an audio
journey with a variety of really cool folks or with
a story to tell, a story about music, a story
about the artist, the backstory.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
On this episode, I go back to the glorious.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Radio days in Boston, which I was part of and
certainly observed.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
We have a talent who dominated the air in Boston,
also in New York and across the country and his
time on Serious XAM.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
We go over to Central Park to take a walk
next with Nick Carter.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
Well, Nick Carter, it is so great to be actually
taking a walk in person with you in Central Park.
Speaker 4 (00:52):
New York City.
Speaker 5 (00:53):
Hey, it's great to be with you man.
Speaker 6 (00:54):
And as I say, I'm hoping I'm the first one
to take the show title literally because I my youthful
ward Peppermint p dot Mint, the mint my dog is.
She's known on the mean streets of the Upper West Side.
She's already blessed the place with the poop.
Speaker 5 (01:11):
So you know, so far, so good. I love it.
Speaker 4 (01:13):
I love it.
Speaker 7 (01:14):
You are the first person that has brought the poocha
along to take a walk, although I did an episode
of taking a walk with my two knucklehead dogs in Carlisle, Massachusetts.
Speaker 5 (01:26):
Wow, that's beautiful. Yeah, I'm a big I'm a big
believer in the site gag. It's cold taking the walk,
so I love it.
Speaker 6 (01:34):
And I'm sitting on the subway. I'm going he's going
to think I'm the biggest dufe Is there a way?
Speaker 5 (01:39):
O way?
Speaker 4 (01:39):
I'm the guy that did it with my two dogs.
I'm the dufist. Well, she's got six people who listen
to it.
Speaker 6 (01:45):
She's got kind of a it's funny because she's got
kind of a tragic story. I mean, I basically my
Instagram is basically pictures of me and past their prime
passer sell by celebrities and Peppermint and Peppermint. You know,
just what of her, you know, running around doing her
thing to videos like my favorite vet says a small dog.
Speaker 5 (02:06):
She's like, you got to be careful with these low riders.
Speaker 6 (02:09):
So she's running around chasing another small dog to a
war lowrider. And you know, literally that video got more pictures,
more likes than a picture of me and Robert Plant
And everybody's like.
Speaker 5 (02:23):
Me should have her own Instagram. I'm like no, so
she has more followers than me.
Speaker 6 (02:27):
Hard pass but she had a really it's interesting, but
what were you doing then?
Speaker 5 (02:33):
She had a really tough life.
Speaker 6 (02:34):
She was abandoned on the streets of the Bronx at
two months old, which blows my mind. I mean, I
just how much you would have taken just to drop
her off at a vet or a shelter. And her mom, well,
my dog, who's a Habanese, passed away two months actually
this this month, two years ago, two months before she
(02:54):
turned sixteen.
Speaker 5 (02:56):
And her human.
Speaker 6 (02:57):
Mom passed away two months after that. Oh man, And
so I kind of inherited. I mean, she was living
with me. She's been living with me for a couple
of years. And Bianca, her mom passed away at only
forty three. And all her friends are like, well, you're
keeping Peppermint, right, I'm like, no, I thought i'd put
her on eBay.
Speaker 4 (03:21):
I mean really yeah.
Speaker 6 (03:23):
But that's the story of Peppermint, or the Mint is
she's known on the mead streets of the Upper West Side.
Speaker 7 (03:28):
I'm so honored to meet the Mint, and I'm glad
to see you.
Speaker 4 (03:32):
I haven't seen you in a while. I think the
last time I saw you was in a big event
that was involved. When you were right doing the National.
Speaker 6 (03:42):
Right the National Show, right tap, right, right, right, right right, yeah,
on tap with Nick Carter, which.
Speaker 5 (03:48):
You know, some of the best three years of my life,
you know.
Speaker 6 (03:50):
I got yelled at by Peter Frampton, I got called
names by George Stargold.
Speaker 5 (03:56):
It was great. I used to have longer hair than
I used to joke.
Speaker 6 (04:00):
VH one Classic has hired a spiky haired black guy
to play classic rock to a bunch of red stage
What could possibly go wrong? I remember, like my commercial,
thank god, VH one Classic had next to no ads,
so it was either my promo me or the slap
Chop guy.
Speaker 5 (04:17):
And Slash came in.
Speaker 6 (04:19):
I mean I talked to him a couple of times
and he's, well, I'm one of those people that people
know my name and know my face, but don't put
them together, I think.
Speaker 5 (04:27):
And so he had come in to do an interview
and he walks in.
Speaker 6 (04:31):
The studio he goes, oh, to you, I see you
every time I'm on the treadmill.
Speaker 5 (04:39):
How rock and roll.
Speaker 6 (04:41):
I'm just trying to imagine Slash on the treadmill with
a dopey top hat. Uh.
Speaker 5 (04:47):
But yeah, that was That was a great experience because I.
Speaker 6 (04:51):
Had sort of fancied myself, you know, like Johnny Alt
rock guy, and you know, I always kind of I
had a tacit respect for classic rock because that's the
sort of building blocks of everything that I listened to.
But my perception at that time, this is twenty eleven,
twenty twelve, My perception was that, you know, even though
(05:16):
I was out of the demographic, as they.
Speaker 5 (05:18):
Like to say, I was like, Oh, that's that's the
old guy. That's the old guy format.
Speaker 6 (05:23):
So it was funny because when artists would come in
me A being a person of color and B being
you know, we're looking with this dopey baby face. I
used to say to my boss, it's hilarious. They come
in and they're polite, but I think at first they're
a little thrown off, like they're not they're figuring this
guy has no idea who I am. You know, he's
just got what did this guy take a break from
(05:45):
his rap show to talk to me? You know? And
and and they were shocked to find that not only
did I know their music inside or out, I knew
their stories and they just it was really weird.
Speaker 5 (05:57):
And my boss actually.
Speaker 6 (05:58):
Said to me, He's like, you know, we well you
kind of use that, and I'm like, you know, I
get where you're coming from.
Speaker 5 (06:05):
I'm not sure that's legal for you to say, but
all right, cool. So where did you first realize that
radio was.
Speaker 4 (06:14):
In your blood? Well?
Speaker 6 (06:17):
I grew up in Massachusetts. I grew up in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
I was I ham myself. I'm sorry, please don't trip
any buddy. I started my career quote unquote, I don't
even know how old I was.
Speaker 5 (06:33):
I did okay, seventh grade. I did a show for NPR.
Speaker 6 (06:38):
Called The Spider's Web where I was like a youth reporter.
Speaker 5 (06:42):
But I was always a music nerd. I can remember the.
Speaker 6 (06:47):
First forty five I bought, the first album I bought,
and I just was fascinated by DJs. And I grew
up listening to everybody from the Great Sunny Joe White
to Jojoe Cooking Kincaid, these Top forty Monsters, to Mark
Parento on WBCN, who I just thought was a god.
Speaker 5 (07:07):
And then as I got older and I got into.
Speaker 6 (07:10):
Business, I kind of get tagged with the Howard Stern
shockjock thing, which bothered me because my goal and That's
what I kind of I feel like that I'll always
be indebted to Sirius XM.
Speaker 5 (07:23):
My goal was to be.
Speaker 6 (07:24):
Like guys like Tom Snyder, Larry King, Tavis Smiley, who
could literally talk to anyone like I mean, I remember
as a little boy watching The Clash right the Clash
on the Tom Snyder showt like one o'clock in the morning,
and the.
Speaker 5 (07:38):
Next day he's talking to like Mosha Diane, you know,
and I was like, how does that happen? Yeah, you know, And.
Speaker 6 (07:47):
But I just the idea of I was a frustrated
musician too, as our many radio personalities, and the idea
that you know, you could hear your voice over the
music and it was sort of musical.
Speaker 5 (07:59):
It just it just I don't know, it.
Speaker 6 (08:01):
Was just something about it that just really really turned
me on. And then you know, the idea that you
could connect and I was gonna say, be funnier, at
least attempt to be funny on the air. It was
just it was just it was just a great thing
for me. And I also, you know, as I say,
I started in public radio and then when I was
(08:24):
in seventh grade, I got my first TV show on
Channel four WBZ in Boston, and it.
Speaker 5 (08:30):
Was just it was everybody's like, oh, I gotta see tapes.
Speaker 6 (08:34):
No, no, no, they're in the vault with this suburger
film and the porno from Hitler's bunker.
Speaker 5 (08:40):
Because I was I was an overweight kid. I had
a huge space in my teeth. I had big, thick
coke ball glasses, a huge afro. You know. It was
like that that. I mean, it was like the Death Star.
Speaker 6 (08:51):
It rivaled everybody from Jeff Wynn and Don Henley to
Angela Davis.
Speaker 5 (08:56):
And I looked back down and I'm like, how did
my parents let me go on TV like that?
Speaker 4 (09:01):
So what was the name of that show?
Speaker 6 (09:04):
It was called Changing Places, where they took a bunch
of kids and dropped them into the news anchor's positions,
and I changed places with Jimmy Myers and did a
sports cast, although I knew very little about sports. And
then they liked me and I got another show was
(09:24):
called The City Show.
Speaker 5 (09:25):
Then they changed the name to Get.
Speaker 6 (09:26):
Off Your Block, where I literally walked around in the
summer and showed kids, you know, hey, go.
Speaker 5 (09:33):
To the Science Museum.
Speaker 6 (09:34):
It's open and it's not that expensive. And got I
actually got an Emmy. I didn't get it, but my
producer did my first voiceover. This woman named Susan Bell
borrowed me and she wanted me to voice a couple
of promos like public service announcement, and the first one
(09:55):
was they're wheeling this picture of this this.
Speaker 5 (09:58):
Really sickly looking little white kid.
Speaker 6 (10:00):
I think he had red hair, and they're wheeling him
down the hall in this gurney and this kid, I mean,
it sounded like so eighties.
Speaker 5 (10:09):
He's like, you know, I was really really sick.
Speaker 6 (10:12):
And then this really cool lady came up to me
and helped me, and I thought she was a nurse.
Speaker 5 (10:17):
Turns out she was the doctor. Turns out you don't
have to be a man.
Speaker 6 (10:21):
To be a good doctor. You just have to be
a good doctor, you know. And the key was like
it's being good at what you do with the accounts.
Speaker 5 (10:27):
It gets like.
Speaker 6 (10:27):
Gender, you know whatever, and it won an Emmy.
Speaker 5 (10:33):
I didn't get it. I mean at her house.
Speaker 6 (10:35):
And the funny thing is the first woman who put
me on TV, this woman, Gail Levine. She came to
New York and she became a giant casting director. She
cast the Cruise movie. I'm Jerry Maguire and I looked
her up and I called her and I was like, Hi,
Snick Carter.
Speaker 5 (10:53):
She's like from child do it. I was like, yeah,
I gotta call you back. Click, and I was the
last time I heard call you back exactly. I was like,
I saw Hollywood on you.
Speaker 4 (11:04):
So this is all before your first radio game. Yes, sorry, essentially.
Speaker 6 (11:09):
Yeah, My first actual gig quote unquote being a DJ
was in school Nyu Wnyu.
Speaker 5 (11:18):
I studied theater there.
Speaker 3 (11:19):
I was.
Speaker 6 (11:20):
I literally almost got thrown out of the theater department
because I would blow off class so much to go
hang out at the radio station.
Speaker 5 (11:27):
And I did a couple of shows.
Speaker 6 (11:31):
Again, it was the eighties, so I did a club
show called Club eighty nine where we broke records, like
underground records that were being played.
Speaker 5 (11:39):
They are now like club classics.
Speaker 6 (11:41):
I did a show I inherited, the disco show Disco
eighty nine, which was literally a classic disco show for
my friend Don Milano, who's now a big sales guy.
Speaker 5 (11:52):
I know him.
Speaker 6 (11:53):
Yeah, well he was like he created it. And the
funny thing is, you know Wnyu. Since know I lived
on campus in the village. The transmitters in the BRONX.
Speaker 5 (12:06):
So people on campus couldn't get the station, you know,
so basically you were broadcasting to people who were just listening,
you know, in New York, New.
Speaker 6 (12:15):
Jersey, Connecticut, you know, Westchester County, and a lot in Brooklyn.
Speaker 5 (12:21):
And this disco show was unbelievably popular.
Speaker 6 (12:25):
The phones would start start ringing at like eight thirty
on Wednesday.
Speaker 5 (12:28):
The show was on from nine to eleven, and they
wouldn't stop bring until like midnight.
Speaker 6 (12:32):
So I played disco, but I channeled by Inner Sunny
Joe White and screamed over you know, Dan Hartman.
Speaker 5 (12:39):
Instant replay or whatever.
Speaker 6 (12:41):
And I eventually got fired from my college radio station,
and I moved back to Boston because I was broke
and NYU, excuse me, New York was so expensive then,
I mean, not like now, but and I started working
part time at WFNX in Boston. I'd been turned down
(13:05):
by I think two different program directors and the consultant,
and then Max Tolkoff, who was the first guy to
put me on the air, he brought me in.
Speaker 5 (13:14):
I remember he said, he said, you know, the rest
of these DJs.
Speaker 6 (13:18):
Need some of what you have, and you need to
have some of what they have because they were got
to throw this poop away.
Speaker 5 (13:24):
They were all really, really mellow and laid back, and
I was.
Speaker 6 (13:28):
All higher, I'm so excited to hear my voice over
the best mood in the middle of the night, and it.
Speaker 5 (13:33):
Was just all my calls were hilarious. I remember my
first night.
Speaker 6 (13:37):
I was like, you don't want to what seven FNX, Boston's alterary.
Speaker 5 (13:42):
I picked up the phone, Hi aped X what do
you want? Kiss boy? Which was the big top forty
or you know. I remember this. One woman was just like, dude,
what do you do it? So I kind of mellowed out.
Speaker 6 (13:57):
And then EBCN had offered me part time a couple
of times where I literally would have made more money
two days a week on from DBCN than I was
making six nights a week on.
Speaker 5 (14:12):
WFNX in the middle of the night. And I said no.
And the legendary Oedipus who was the program director, walked
around for years because it kept getting back to me.
But I kept Nick carterson, no to me, mark part
timers make more in the full times. That was wrong,
(14:33):
Like he sought out anybody he knew who knew me.
It's a good imitation he's like a second father to me.
Speaker 6 (14:42):
So then so then I left finally and I went
to do mornings in Providence, Rhode Island, and I was
there for six months and he called me.
Speaker 5 (14:54):
I think you're running. He's like, god, this ought to
be fascinating. Okay, you're running to be on WBC and
IM Boston. And I was like, all right, but you know,
I told these guys i'd be here a year. He's like,
I think about your future quick.
Speaker 6 (15:13):
And thank god my my program director, Brent Peterson said
to me. He was like, listen, you can go in
there and you can you can change that station.
Speaker 5 (15:21):
You know.
Speaker 6 (15:22):
Because I didn't have a contract, I just gave him
my word i'd be there six months. And he said
to me, I do the me test on this. He's
from Chicago and he said, if Q one O one
or whatever, the big station at the time called me, said,
I'd be so hout of here.
Speaker 5 (15:33):
He's like, you gotta go. And I said, well, I
appreciate that, but you know, I give you my word.
I'm gonna state. And he said, okay, well you can stay,
but if you stay, I'm gonna fire you.
Speaker 4 (15:41):
Oh wow.
Speaker 5 (15:42):
Yeah, it was It was so selfless. So I went
back to Boston in nineteen ninety there.
Speaker 6 (15:48):
Six and uh, therapy and antidepressants were soon to fall.
Speaker 5 (15:58):
Yeah, that was quite a run, right, you know, it
was eight years.
Speaker 6 (16:03):
It felt like twice that because it was it was
just it was insane. It was I mean, I look
back now and we were in the middle of this
unbelievably nasty rock battle and it's hilarious to me because
I mean, not to be political, but I see a
(16:24):
correlation between a lot of the Magot stuff because it
was almost cult like, you know, this this one radio
station we competed with WAAF. I mean, they tapped into
something of vain where literally these kids who they thought
it was a crusade to kind of go out and
(16:45):
represent for this radio station that played eighty percent of
the same stuff we did, you know, I mean, and
another twenty percent was the secret sauce. They were very heavy,
and we were, you know, by comparison, kind of dorky,
you know, in corporate, but they, you know, it was
it was insane. I mean, I remember my dad was
(17:07):
in the hospital, it had cancer. When I was hired
to do night seven pm to eleven pm at WBCN
for three years, and I figured that was it. Not no,
I mean I was so naive. I didn't know that
I was being groomed for acting and drive. Then everybody
else knew it but me, and I was just like, oh,
you know, I could afford to move out of mom's house.
Speaker 5 (17:26):
Now I could also.
Speaker 6 (17:27):
Get a car, you know, because when I was at FNX,
literally I had friends that were working at fast food
who were making more than I was. I was making
six dollars an hour. Whoa, you know, I paid my dues.
But my dad had had colon cancer. He had surgery,
and when I moved to afternoons, I remember he was
(17:48):
in the hospital and he was trying to recover and
stuff between this.
Speaker 5 (17:55):
Other radio station and I had spilled into the.
Speaker 6 (17:58):
Newspapers and you know, they were finding coded language to
make reference to me being black.
Speaker 5 (18:05):
So it was just they got very very nasty. I mean,
I'm not I'm not a spye to I mean, I'm I'm.
Speaker 6 (18:11):
Pretty tough, but you know, my parents were like freaked out,
and I'll never forget going to the hospital to see
my dad, and my dad was like, because you know,
I was going out doing appearances and my dad was like,
it's a little bit of security for you. And I'm
like that these you know, these knuckleheads are just gonna
get my face.
Speaker 5 (18:29):
And say something. Nobody's gonna like put hands on me.
Speaker 6 (18:32):
But you know that that really bothered me because you know,
if you have any dealings with cancer, stresses everything, right,
you know, And so it really got to him and
I was like that, you know, I'm I'm I mean,
I was fifty pounds heavier. Then I was like, I'm
a big guy, you know. I mean, nobody knew that
I was a complete you know marshmallow inside.
Speaker 5 (18:53):
You know, I'm loud and I could talk a good game.
What what step outside?
Speaker 6 (19:00):
Talk about it right in the second they go outside
and I'm inside like.
Speaker 3 (19:04):
Yeah, but you know it was see I had you know,
I was there and I knew the battle, but I.
Speaker 5 (19:13):
Did know that you're telling the story from your.
Speaker 3 (19:15):
View, though I had forgotten how kind of evil and
nasty the whole thing.
Speaker 5 (19:20):
God, I got called the N word so much.
Speaker 6 (19:23):
And I couldn't even get angry at these kids because
I knew they didn't.
Speaker 5 (19:28):
Even really know what they were saying.
Speaker 6 (19:29):
They would just call up, call up the station, you know,
say it and like hang up. And really, you know,
it was Opie and Anthony, who I think are incredibly talented,
but they were their own were sentiment. You know, I've
never seen anybody with a bigger self destruct mechanism than
(19:49):
those guys.
Speaker 5 (19:50):
You know, they really were just.
Speaker 6 (19:55):
It was weird because they believed their own legend. But
at the end of the day, I think they don't
have any.
Speaker 5 (20:01):
Idea how good they actually were.
Speaker 6 (20:03):
And I you know, when we finally sort of squashed
the beef one day, we went out one day and
would drinking all day and we just sort of like
yelled at each other.
Speaker 5 (20:14):
We kind of ended it all and I just said to
them's like, you guys, you don't get it. I mean,
you're being groomed for everything.
Speaker 6 (20:23):
You know, You're being groomed to take over the mantle
from Howard Stern. All you have to do is, you know,
not be overshadowed by a leaf blower, right, you know, they,
I don't know, they just didn't get it. And then
I was at BCND about eight years and during that time.
Speaker 5 (20:46):
I was up.
Speaker 6 (20:47):
The reason I got to New York was I was
up for afternoons a k Rock against I believe it
was Chris Booker, who had been on the station for
quite some time, and he also had a national profile.
Speaker 5 (20:58):
Who've been on MTV and then he left MTV and
he was he was the.
Speaker 6 (21:04):
A A reporter for Entertainment Tonight and he was dating
Linda Lopez, Jlo's sister.
Speaker 5 (21:11):
This is during the whole benefit thing.
Speaker 6 (21:13):
So whenever there was a j Lo or a Ben
Affleck story, and Ben Affleck cli went to.
Speaker 5 (21:17):
High school with he had the exclusive, so he was everywhere.
Speaker 6 (21:21):
And so after news came down to he and I
and I'm told.
Speaker 5 (21:27):
That the program director, I mean, he had also been.
Speaker 6 (21:30):
On Howard's show a lot, and I was told Howard
went to the program director said who who you.
Speaker 5 (21:35):
Got to give Booker the job?
Speaker 6 (21:37):
And he called me and he was like, yeah, I man,
I got to go with Booker. And I was like,
of course, I'd go with Booker over me.
Speaker 5 (21:41):
That's a new brainer. And so I want to say.
Speaker 6 (21:48):
The end of two thousand and four, December, yes, December
thirty first two thousand and four of my contract was up,
and I was on my way to work and we
had a new program director who I had kind of
helped usher in because when Edipus was leaving, I knew
a bunch of the candidates, and the general manager said
to me, what do you think of this guy?
Speaker 5 (22:06):
We can think of this guy? I said, well, Dave Wellington.
You know he's he's killing in Vegas. He's the guy.
You know.
Speaker 6 (22:13):
I didn't realize he's going to come in and be like, okay,
let's see what what can we lose you? And so
my contract was up December thirty first, two thousand and four,
and I was on my way to work and my
agent called me and said, yeah, we got problems.
Speaker 5 (22:29):
I said, uh, okay, said yeah.
Speaker 6 (22:31):
They want to go in another direction. I was like,
all right, well I have a compass. You know, I'd
never heard that term before, right, And so I said, well,
get me a meeting. And I had a meeting with
him that day and the general manager and I basically said, well,
you know, I can go wherever you want to go.
Speaker 5 (22:48):
And they're like, well, we're going to go in another direction.
I was like, oh, I get another direction without me. Okay,
I got it.
Speaker 6 (22:54):
And so again, and that was another thing. He ended
up hiring a guy who I'm friends with from his
station in Vegas.
Speaker 5 (23:03):
To do I was only doing afternoon drive. He was
hired to do after and drive.
Speaker 6 (23:09):
And be the imaging director basically, like you know, produce
all the interstitials that talk that sort of made the
image of the radio station for probably.
Speaker 5 (23:16):
Half of what I was making, So I can't argue that.
Speaker 6 (23:19):
And then I don't know if you remember this, but
Howard Stern his cast of oddballs, Stuttering.
Speaker 5 (23:27):
John and Crazy Cabby.
Speaker 6 (23:30):
Crazy Cabby who was a GOP War veteran who was
shell shocked, complete character, but he was on Howard Show
all the time, but he was also doing.
Speaker 5 (23:39):
Overnights at the station. He and Stuttering John despised each other.
Speaker 6 (23:44):
They got into a fight, and Howard, being the master
of marketing, decided to settle.
Speaker 5 (23:52):
This beef in a.
Speaker 6 (23:54):
Boxing match sponsored by I think it was Goldenpalace dot com.
Person was twenty five thousand dollars. Cabby wins the purse,
goes on the air and.
Speaker 5 (24:04):
Says, yeah, I got twenty five thousand dollars. I'm not paid.
I didn't pay any taxes on it. Ye Ris is listening,
Oh jeez, and that's it. So I'm sitting home one
day again, I was like December thirty.
Speaker 6 (24:15):
First I was trying to decide what I was going
to do next, and I want to say early January,
the phone rang.
Speaker 5 (24:24):
It's the program director of XRK, and I sort of
I'll never forget this. He says, hey, dude, Cabby's going
to jail and we could do some help.
Speaker 6 (24:31):
You want to come down and do some shifts Jesus,
And I.
Speaker 5 (24:34):
Was like, uh. And that's how I got into Caro.
I that's how I got into New York.
Speaker 6 (24:40):
And it's funny because i'd also I just bought my
first house, so I thought, you know, well, I really
want to do voiceovers. So I built this elaborate studio,
home studio, and in two thousand and four that wasn't
a thing. So I built this elaborate home studio and
I started to send my demos to agents here and
I got the attention of three and the one I
(25:01):
really wanted to go with her like, okay, well, you know,
like calls when.
Speaker 5 (25:04):
You get to the city, and I was like, well no,
but I built the studio. Yeah, yeah, that's nice calls
when you get to the city. And I was like wow.
So I started working. Ah. I flew down to New
York on a Thursday or I took the train.
Speaker 6 (25:21):
I did an audition ten pm to two am Thursday night,
and I.
Speaker 5 (25:26):
Had before I had my iPhone, I had my BlackBerry.
Speaker 6 (25:30):
And I basically used it as email and text because
it wouldn't take calls or it would drop calls.
Speaker 5 (25:37):
And you know, I didn't even know people called me.
Speaker 6 (25:41):
So I'm walking around and Friday afternoon because I had
a bunch of friends here, and I get a message
from the pdcare I because hey, man, I just listened
to your demo.
Speaker 5 (25:51):
Hey that was great. Great, give me a call.
Speaker 6 (25:53):
We'll talk, I said, and I hadn't heard the message.
Then the next message I get was his assistant. Hey,
this is Miyanka from kayok I have your schedule next
Saturday and Sunday two to six pm.
Speaker 5 (26:06):
And I'm like, wait what. I had no idea.
Speaker 6 (26:08):
So I started working part time at kay Rok in
New York two to six every Saturday and Sunday. And
I would take the Amtrak down on Friday, check into
a hotel, go out Friday night with my friends, get
up Saturday, go to the station, do my thing, go
out Saturday night, check out of my hotel on noon
(26:29):
on Sunday, go up to Ka Rock, which was on
fifty seventh and sixth on the air from two to
six with my bag, jump on the subway, get back
down to Penn Station at seven, and take the Amtrak
back down.
Speaker 5 (26:41):
To the Boston Wow. And I did that from February
to October when I finally says like, I'm just gonna
move there.
Speaker 6 (26:49):
Yeah, and here I am with the Mint and you
ain't never leaving.
Speaker 5 (26:53):
I don't know.
Speaker 6 (26:54):
You know, now that I've left a series XM, the
first two jobs offers I got, we're out of town,
and you know, I mean my goal is kind of
to stick around. I mean, I feel like if I'm
here till two thousand and five, that will be twenty
years here.
Speaker 5 (27:12):
So I don't know if you get a set of
steak knives or you're fired.
Speaker 6 (27:15):
Like you know, I'm like Gary Glenn Russie exactly an
official bed, like an iHeart New York Bend. But you know,
I mean, if somebody says to me, here's you know,
six hundred and fifty thousand dollars, and even if you
set the place of blaze, we can't fire you. You know,
I Mom can't find you Nebraska.
Speaker 5 (27:33):
Here I come you love interview. Sorry, she wants to
say hi to everybody.
Speaker 4 (27:42):
Means the ambassador of Central Port.
Speaker 6 (27:43):
She is she dude, I tell you she it's so funny,
like literally, like in my building, everybody knows her name.
Speaker 5 (27:51):
Nobody knows nor could they care less about my name.
Speaker 6 (27:54):
And she has this thing where she just wants to
jump up on everybody.
Speaker 5 (27:58):
And she always jumps up on people's just to say hello.
And I'm like, no, no, no no, and they're always like
it's okay, it's okay, And I'm just waiting till the day.
Speaker 6 (28:04):
It's like my nine thousand dollars blends zuckabats, I'm gonna
have your boat gowned right.
Speaker 5 (28:11):
Anyway, I'm sorry you were.
Speaker 4 (28:12):
Saying, So you've always enjoyed interviewing people. Who are some
of your favorite interviews you've done in your career?
Speaker 6 (28:18):
Wow, Well that's the thing, A lot of them, you know.
I will always be grateful to Serious XM because although
the concept of my channel that I went in for
it was called Volume.
Speaker 5 (28:33):
It was a top channel about music.
Speaker 6 (28:35):
And I remember my boss, who was my boss at
VH one, had started it and he took me to
lunch one day and he says, I got a meeting
with Sirius.
Speaker 5 (28:44):
It's like, oh really, he says, what would you think
about a channel that talked about music but didn't play it.
I was like, dumbest idea I've ever heard.
Speaker 6 (28:52):
But then I said, no, you know what, actually, if
you made it like sports talk for music dorgs, that
could work. So initially we would just play like thirty
second s difference of songs to make reference. I you know,
I had done a lot of really interesting interviews before
I got too serious, because I was doing rock and
alternative rock and classic rock radio. When I got too serious,
(29:17):
they really did allow me to live my you know,
pseudo Larry King dream where I talked to everybody from
Ron Howard to you know, Ozzy Osbourne to.
Speaker 5 (29:33):
Geez I Neil deGrasse Tyson three or four times. And
my boss was funny.
Speaker 6 (29:40):
He would always say, when I wanted to book somebody, well,
what's what's the musical tie in?
Speaker 5 (29:45):
I said, Oh, don't worry, I'll find one.
Speaker 6 (29:47):
So, you know, I promoted whatever Neil de grasse Tyson
was talking about that I'd ask him about the science
of music and he said, well, reverb, and he would
just sit and go off on this screed about like
what makes reverb?
Speaker 5 (29:57):
It was crazy. One of my favorites was.
Speaker 6 (30:03):
Ron Howard, who I was a huge fan of, of course,
and he came in to talk about his Pavaratti documentary,
and again, you know, my channel was basically it was
a kind of rock based, but you know, they wouldn't
actually say it, but that's really what we kind of
leaned toward. And at the end of the interview, I
swear to god, he says, oh.
Speaker 5 (30:22):
Darn, Nick, I should have talked about Wool Tang. And
I looked at him.
Speaker 6 (30:26):
I was like, Wool Tang, you forgetting his partners Brian Grazier,
and he said yeah.
Speaker 5 (30:32):
And there was two Wu Tang series coming out and I
was like, is that you guys, And he said, yeah,
that's my partner.
Speaker 6 (30:38):
And I forgot Brian Grazier, who put the Riza from
Wu Tang in American gangs for a bunch of other things.
And he was just like yeah. And I'm sitting there going,
I'm talking to Opie Taylor about the Wu Tang clan, right,
that's insane, That's awesome. My favorite part was literally when
I mean, I don't want to sound like it's a jerk.
But when example like Huey Lewis, I'm a huge fan
(31:00):
of it. I mean, I'm basically like, I grew up
like kind of a hip hop, punk rock kid pop music,
but I love melody, so I love Huey Lewis.
Speaker 5 (31:10):
And he was a little leery about talking to us.
Speaker 6 (31:14):
You know, he needed us to us send him our
questions first because it's kind his hearing issue. So I
just made sure I sent him my questions. But then
I asked a paunch and I said that there were
not in the list, and I said, so is it
my understanding? So your your solo on USA for Africa
We Are the World? You got that because Prince didn't
(31:36):
show up and I was supposed to be Prince's line.
And he slams his hand on the table and he goes, Nick,
how do you know that I'm like, I'm a fan?
You know that was my favorite thing if somebody said,
how do you know that, I'm like, I'm a fan?
Speaker 5 (31:49):
Yeah, because I don't think they knew so.
Speaker 6 (31:52):
That and you know pretty much anybody band of the
moment X to wow. My parent My mom died when
I was in two thousand my dad died in two
thousand and two.
Speaker 5 (32:04):
So I interviewed both Pepper Engelbert.
Speaker 6 (32:07):
Humperdink, who was hilarious, and Johnny Mathis, Wow, who you know?
Speaker 5 (32:14):
Chen oh my were the silly grit.
Speaker 6 (32:19):
And it was funny too because I walked in and
he's like, oh, you're cute, and I was like, you know,
I'll take it.
Speaker 5 (32:26):
What I didn't know is he's like in his eighties.
Speaker 6 (32:30):
He had this giant I mean, I've been around a
lot of rock stars and they usually have like.
Speaker 5 (32:34):
Big black bodyguards. He had the biggest, blackest bodyguard I'd
ever seen.
Speaker 6 (32:39):
The guy had to have been like seven feet tall,
built like this, and he was like maybe forty five.
And his publicist pulled me aside, he goes, yeah, that's
his husband.
Speaker 5 (32:51):
I was like, well, don't worry about it. I wasn't
gonna you know, I wasn't gonna act on the guy.
The guy I was cute, right, you know.
Speaker 2 (32:58):
Did you ever go through an interview and then after
you were sort of debriefing on it, go I wish
I didn't ask that question?
Speaker 6 (33:09):
No, I mean, you know, I I could always think
at things that I wish I had asked bad brains. Respect,
I always can think of things I wish I had asked.
Speaker 5 (33:21):
It's been a long time since an interview really went bad.
Speaker 6 (33:24):
And then if if it's gone badly, I've just this
toimes and I've just been like, okay, you know what,
thanks for coming in, you know, and afterwards, I've just said, look,
you know, I'm trying to help you sell your little project,
you know, but generally speaking, no, I mean, I've insulted guests,
you know, sort of lovingly and.
Speaker 5 (33:45):
They got it so like I remember Ann Wilson punched me.
Speaker 6 (33:51):
Like a like a hard punch, well like a sisterly punch,
but it was pretty hard.
Speaker 5 (33:55):
Oh wow, she's like shot Nick, you know. And that's
the kind of thing I love. But I mean, honestly,
I can't think of.
Speaker 6 (34:00):
Anything I've regretted because again, you know, my thing is,
I've been very fortunate in that I've only had to
talk to a couple of people that I didn't really
want to, you know.
Speaker 5 (34:15):
I mean, and I'm not the type that.
Speaker 6 (34:20):
The only reason why I might not want to talk
to somebody is because I don't really feel like I
can bring anything out of them that hasn't been.
Speaker 5 (34:27):
You know, Oh sorry, it hasn't been you know, recycled
a quajillion times. Well that's a good question.
Speaker 6 (34:39):
I uh, I want to.
Speaker 5 (34:42):
Say no, you know, because again, you know, I'm not
in it to make people feel bad. It's funny. I
think when when I was still.
Speaker 6 (34:50):
In Boston and people are like, oh, yeah, he thinks
it's Howard Stern. I think there were some people that
were a little leery, you know, actors in particular.
Speaker 5 (34:59):
That were literally lear. I remember Anthony Michael Hall, who.
Speaker 6 (35:06):
You know, I grew up in the eighties, so I
was a huge fan, and he was coming in to
talk about.
Speaker 5 (35:12):
This made for TV movie that.
Speaker 6 (35:14):
He played Bill Gates did a great job. And I
remember my producers saying, listen, Nick loves actors, and Nick
is a huge fan, you know, And so I could
tell he came in a little guarded, but by the end,
you know, he's slapp at five and he went on
he went on Howard Stern the next day and he goes, yeah,
I just want to send a shout out to my
boy NICKI the Panton Boston, you know.
Speaker 5 (35:35):
But I mean, I can't say that I've ever been like.
Speaker 6 (35:38):
Oh, why did you ask that you idiot. There's I mean,
there's times when I thought I could have worded that better.
Speaker 3 (35:46):
Yeah, or maybe going at a different angle or something
like that.
Speaker 5 (35:50):
But well, that's my thing.
Speaker 6 (35:50):
I mean, I I one of my best friends, excuse me,
one of my best friends reminds me of when I
was still doing my when I still working at VH one.
The first time I spoke to Judas Priest, I asked
them about I asked Rob Halford about the lawsuit, you
(36:12):
know where the kids got high and played I think
it was staying class backwards and swore they heard you know,
do it, do it?
Speaker 5 (36:20):
And obviously the do it translated to good a gun
and bow your head off.
Speaker 6 (36:25):
And I remember a friend of mine, who had been
working the radio for a long time, said, he said,
you know, I was amazed at how much he talked
about that, because I'm sure that when people ask they
probably say, yeah, I mean de Troyal, that's so Tom.
And I just said to him, I said, you know,
if I recall, I said to him, you know, with
(36:46):
a band like yourselves, who have such a such an
intimate relationship with your fans, especially here in America, what
I said, I remember saying, did it.
Speaker 5 (36:58):
Change your perception of America at all.
Speaker 6 (37:00):
Well, when your music was essentially put on trial for
these kids who did something crazy and weren't taking responsibility
for him, And he opened right up that I was
a little leery about because generally speaking, every once in
a while, you know, publicist.
Speaker 5 (37:16):
Is like, don't talk about this, don't talk about that,
don't talk.
Speaker 6 (37:18):
About this, and you know, half the time, I'm like, well,
I'm I'm not here to like make me feel bad anyway, right,
you know that?
Speaker 5 (37:27):
Do you remember Peter Frampton?
Speaker 6 (37:29):
He was like a bad mood and I asked his manager,
I said, well, so anything he doesn't Because I always
say to an artist.
Speaker 5 (37:37):
I'm like, anything you don't really want to talk about?
Speaker 6 (37:40):
Or if I know I'm getting into something touchy, I'll
I often say, and this is my trick, I say, looking,
stop me if I'm getting too personal, and they never do.
But I remember I said to Peter Frampton's manager, I said, so,
is there anything he doesn't want to talk about? And
he said his latest divorce, losing his hair, and the
Sergeant Pepper movie.
Speaker 5 (38:01):
And I was like, wow, I wasn't gonna talk him
about his divorce. I wasn't gonna be, you know, a
jerk and be like, hey, so what happened to the air?
You know? Yeah? I had my friend had come to
live like yo, I'm like, who's this guy? You know?
Speaker 6 (38:15):
And I did want to talk about the Sergeant Pepper
movie because I was so fascinated. But he's very touchy wow,
and he was in a bad mood. He was because
it was VH one. I'll never forget. It's one of
the first interviews I did. Hey, and my engineer is
behind the camera and I'm talking to him, and you know,
I'm sitting there and I'll never forget Peter Brampton yells
(38:36):
at my engineer and will you stop moving?
Speaker 5 (38:41):
You're moving around.
Speaker 6 (38:42):
I'm trying to ask, I'm trying to pay touching down.
Speaker 5 (38:44):
You asked your.
Speaker 6 (38:45):
Question again, and I was like, uh, I see.
Speaker 5 (38:49):
That was the first year of the show. Had that
happened in the second year, that would have gone completely differently.
I would have been like, bro, can you hear yourself?
Speaker 4 (38:56):
That so great?
Speaker 5 (38:57):
You could you hear yourself?
Speaker 6 (38:58):
You can't make this up now? And it bumped me
up because I love the guy. I love the guy,
and I was just like, oh, come on, man. But
again I also get you know, we all.
Speaker 5 (39:07):
Have bad days.
Speaker 6 (39:07):
And it's funny because one thing that I've noticed that
a lot of personalities or radio or TV people don't
realize is this.
Speaker 5 (39:17):
Does work for them.
Speaker 4 (39:18):
You know.
Speaker 6 (39:19):
I remember when we first started, you know, my talk
channel about music volume.
Speaker 5 (39:22):
My boss said, oh.
Speaker 6 (39:23):
This is gonna be great because you know, artists going
to really want to talk, you know, they don't really
get to.
Speaker 5 (39:27):
Talk on music radio.
Speaker 6 (39:28):
And I'm like, yeah, but you know, when they're doing interviews,
they're promoting something, so it's work. So now you're saying, oh,
they can talk for an hour if they want, I'm like, oh, that's.
Speaker 5 (39:39):
Like saying you know you can.
Speaker 6 (39:41):
You can work overtime for no extra money, right, you know,
And I don't think people think about that, but you know, hopefully,
if you're doing justice by somebody, when you're told right,
you have twenty minutes, you know, they don't are not
looking at their watch.
Speaker 5 (40:02):
I was at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Speaker 6 (40:04):
In November, and again, I grew up a huge fan
of the commodoores line are Richie solom not so much,
but I respect what he's done and when Lionel Richie
got in. It was myself and two other people from
the channel. We were doing mostly tandem interviews. But you know,
my coworkers knew that I was a huge fan, and
(40:26):
I was literally told two minutes and I was like,
uh uh okay, And you know, he was beyond.
Speaker 5 (40:37):
Amenable.
Speaker 6 (40:38):
I asked him one song about one question about going solo.
Then I said to him, tell me what you remember
about the night Bob Marley and the Whalers opened for
the Commodoors and managed the Square Garden.
Speaker 5 (40:50):
And he looked at me, he goes, how do you
know about that? I'm like, I'm a fan. That's great, and.
Speaker 6 (40:55):
He just said he said, man, I don't even remember
very much because Bob invited me down to his dress
room and stupidly I went down there and the smoke.
Speaker 5 (41:02):
I couldn't even tell you about the show after that.
So it's great. So you know, that's it. I mean.
Speaker 6 (41:08):
And I find half the time I just don't mind
if they feel like you're being respectful and know who
they are. It's just their handlers that are like, don't exist,
don't resist, on't this is Avril Levine, don't ask anything
about her line disease. She just released an album written
entirely about her line disease, you know, and she brought
it up and I was just like, all right, we'll
(41:28):
go with it. And I look up and I see
her her publicist in the hall like, you know, doing this,
like it's doing the slash, and I'm like, she's fine,
what are you talking about?
Speaker 5 (41:36):
Yeah, it's weird.
Speaker 4 (41:38):
So let's close with Crystal balling in the park. In
the the future, for you, it's a couple of years
from now. Where do you want to be what do
you want to be doing?
Speaker 5 (41:48):
You know, that's my problem.
Speaker 6 (41:51):
I don't really know because I I feel like I
want to do something that's going to.
Speaker 5 (42:00):
Allow me to flex the few muscles I have. Because
the thing is.
Speaker 6 (42:04):
You know, I'm I'm. I had a long talk with somebody.
I was actually on a panel with somebody about imposter syndrome,
and I suffer from that really, really badly. I think,
I think when I'm at my best, I might not
be the best. But I think this is really not
anybody else around that sounds like me, you know, whether
(42:26):
it be in terms of just turn a phrase when
talking about music or actually talking to somebody or asking
somebody you know an interview question or whatever, or you know,
just as I say, like, I'm my good friend Aaron O'Malley,
who is in Boston stale she's been there like twenty
two years. On Mix one of four to one, she
said to me, she says, you're the best interview I've ever seen.
(42:48):
I was like, no, she said, no, you are, and
I said why. She said, well, because people don't even
realize it's a interview.
Speaker 5 (42:54):
I said, well, that's the thing.
Speaker 6 (42:55):
I just want to have conversations with you, you know,
I just want to talk to people. I mean, I
hate you know, well it so's there in your bio
that you know. I just I as cliches it sounds.
I find people fascinating. I gotta tell you, the more
I hang out with my dog, the less I like people.
Speaker 1 (43:11):
But amen to that.
Speaker 5 (43:13):
I don't know. I mean, you know, I'm getting a
little long in the tooth for TV. But okay, who knows?
Who knows what? You know?
Speaker 6 (43:19):
I really don't know, As I say, I just I
just left my job after seven years.
Speaker 5 (43:24):
I do a lot of voiceover. I'd like to do
more of that. I just feel like there's there's there's ways.
Speaker 6 (43:29):
To connect that I don't I don't even know if
the mainstream has really embraced him yet. I mean, I'm again,
everybody in their grandmother has a podcast now, so I
don't know if I'm looking forward to that.
Speaker 4 (43:42):
But I'm referring to me as your grandmother.
Speaker 5 (43:45):
My grandmother was never so cool. My grandmother never ran
a rock station. My grandma.
Speaker 6 (43:51):
I remember when my grandma when I when I got
my uh my left ear piers, my grandmother's like, what
are you some kind of sissy? And I had like
long hair like I was trying to be print it's
a bad day, and you know it's long and straight,
and I remember I came in off with the out
of the rain and it sort of blew it around
the window.
Speaker 5 (44:08):
That do your hair? Like, yeah, pretty much? It's called punk, grandma, Ah, yeah,
you look like a punk. All right.
Speaker 4 (44:15):
Well, I've enjoyed this so much. I got to meet Mint.
Speaker 3 (44:18):
I got to see you get this on the last
minute notice, which is even more fun.
Speaker 6 (44:23):
And I needed an excuse to drag the mint out
and basically like pontificated by myself a lot.
Speaker 4 (44:30):
I loved it.
Speaker 6 (44:31):
I guess every bit of it because I'm sure she's
sick of hearing. She's like, well, you go back to work.
I'm so sick of hearing about your little stories. I'm
so sick of hearing about you getting drunk and making
out with a band of the moment X or whatever.
Speaker 4 (44:44):
I loved every second of it.
Speaker 5 (44:45):
Time. Oh you as well, man, I love it.
Speaker 4 (44:46):
Thank you, thanks for taking a walk to me.
Speaker 5 (44:48):
So I loved it. I loved it.
Speaker 6 (44:49):
I don't get to see this this side of Central
Park usually I'm usually further up. This is the uh,
this is the the nicer, touristy ridge side.
Speaker 5 (44:58):
You want to you want to drink? Sm okay, come
and get a drinking.
Speaker 6 (45:03):
Taking a Walk with Buzznight is available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you get your podcasts.
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