June 27, 2025 • 51 mins
In a "Best of" episode, we visit with author Steve Adelman about his career in the Night Club business that took him from Boston to New York to LA to Singapore to Memphis. The characters he encountered and the kindness (yes, kindness) he experienced along the way.
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(00:00):
And we have a special guest heretoday.
Once again, Scott Berg.
Hello, Scott.
Hello, John.
And.
In a moment, we're gonna beintroducing you to our special
guest of the day.
But it's been a while sincewe've been together.
We had our welcome back, uh,podcast, but, uh, before we get
started, uh, Roe V.
Wade, what do you guys think didit lot of fun, lot of fun right
(00:21):
now.
Let's not go down there.
That road, man.
Go down there.
Come on, man.
Roe V.
Wade, what are your thoughts?
Just keep calling in.
Keep your reminds.
Me of interview.
Dark star did with his goodfriend, Trent Tucker, uh, before
his passing and they were at WCCO radio and they sit down and
there was some issues as therealways has been in Minneapolis
and he sat down and said, we'rehere with Tre Tucker on the, uh,
(00:42):
the friendly neighbor w CCO.
White people, your thoughts?
you talk about an awkwardsilence.
So yeah, no Roe V wait for us.
So tonight we have, uh, a veryspecial guest, a friend of mine,
who, uh, decided to write bookand, I'm about halfway done with
the book.
(01:02):
And as I read it, I can'tbelieve he hasn't been writing
his whole life.
Uh, the name of the book isnocturnal admissions.
I said that nocturnaladmissions, not admissions.
No.
and the author is, uh, a friendof mine named Steve Adelman.
And Steve.
Welcome.
Thank you.
So I, I, um, John, I'm glad you,um, Reiterated that title
(01:27):
because my, my mother keepsputting it on Facebook, but she
doesn't get jug.
So she does it wrong.
So that's not good.
you know, you go down aslippery, slow, she uses a
different line.
Doesn't understand what'shappening.
So no, one's gonna tell her Fulldisclosure, um, I, uh, had the
privilege of officiating, SteveEdelman's wedding to our friend,
(01:52):
Michelle Ry.
Michelle, uh, happened to be themaid of honor in my wedding.
Wow.
And I was a blubbering idiot.
I can't understand why I startedweeping uncontrollably.
It was really quite anembarrassing situation, but
we're so happy to have Steve aspart of the, uh, the mix.
He certainly brings a, uh, alevel of, uh, intrigue one might
(02:12):
say to the, uh, to the friendgroup.
But, uh, Steve, the book thatyou wrote.
Is, uh, go ahead.
Go ahead.
I interrupted.
Well, no, and I gotta make acomment about the wedding.
Uhoh how bad I was sweating.
emotional breakdown was so, youknow, incredible that everyone
said you, that doesn't reallyhappen.
It was so good.
(02:32):
So it really made the wedding.
So just, you know, just want youto know to this.
People said to John, was thatreal?
I said, yeah, it was real.
It was, I couldn't understandit.
I just, you know, I, he was theyou're nervous.
You want it to go well, right.
Everybody's watching you.
She get married to this greatguy.
Ital.
Was it your first timeofficiating, John?
I didn't know you did that.
That's well, I I've done a fewof them.
(02:54):
Wow.
You wrote the first one that Ihad a mental breakdown act, but,
uh, well then, I mean, itobviously meant something.
Yeah, and I, I, I see Scott Bergright now.
Just thinking about mayberedoing and renewing his
nuptials, his vows.
Yeah.
Maybe having you involved and Ican see the wheels turning here.
I'm your guy.
Sure.
I'll, I'll try not to blubber.
Okay.
Back to you, Steve.
Um, the, uh, the, the booknocturnal admissions, it seems
(03:16):
to be a Chronicle of your life,uh, in the nightclub business.
Mm-hmm take us back to, uh, justtell us about this book, Steve.
Well, you know, it, it'sinteresting.
My side nightlife for when I wasserious nightlife of the things
(03:43):
you write, press releases andthings like that over the years,
and those are done, you know,for one reason, to bring people
to your product and to sort oftell a story.
So I sort of kept it, my writinggoing, and then probably in the
early two thousands, when I wasin LA, I started writing scripts
and I had a, I had a, uh, agentand I first showed him and I
(04:05):
couldn't understand why therewasn't books about nightlife,
because what a world to, youknow, get really intriguing
stories.
And my, my take on everything.
You can't take yourself or theworld too seriously.
Right.
And I learned a lot of that fromnightlife in traveling around
the world and seeing how otherpeople live and how lucky we
(04:27):
really are, you know, sort ofdeveloped that perspective.
So when I showed my agent, thebook I remember at the time
said, this reads like curb.
I showed him stories for thebook.
He said, this reads like curbyour enthusiasm on it's the
funniest thing I've ever seen.
so I.
So I said, okay, then I'm gonnawrite the book.
(04:47):
And of course word takes over.
So it wasn't like 15 yearslater.
Now I'm able to get more yearsof stories.
The pandemic, you know, offeredme an opportunity to really sit
down and focus.
And, you know, the first thingwas, was to get publishers and
people like that.
You know, to take me seriouslyas a writer.
(05:10):
So that's how sort of the bookcame about.
And, and the book itself, thebook itself, John is about sort
of the power of observation andbeing able to observe things.
And that's sort of how Isurvived in the nightlife
business for say, 30 years.
I sort of sit back and observe,and I guess the book.
It's about those observationsand, and what's fascinating,
Steve is, you started out in NewYork where you were, uh, Boston,
(05:33):
Steve, then you went to Bostonwhere you were Steve from New
York and then, you know, the,the took you to Los Angeles and
Singapore, and ultimately inMemphis where you're at right
now and what yeah.
What I was so fascinated by is,as I'm reading this story, it
seems like you were surroundedby.
Such a crazy diverse, almostlike circus atmosphere with
(05:57):
these characters that play arole in making these, clubs.
And that really, that reallygoes to the, the really core of
the book.
If you read sort of between thelines is, you know, you guys are
offering sort of, you know, youcall it Minnesota kind.
You know, I would, in my trails,I found it to me, more of a
(06:19):
Midwestern kindness.
So honestly, I was brought upand I, and I, uh, you know, I,
uh, talk about this in the book,by my father and my grandmother
who never saw anybody for,except for what they were.
So as these crazy people werewandering around me, I just
thought it was inter I didn'tsee anything other than, oh,
(06:39):
that person's so interesting.
And oh, that person's so funny.
So the craziness, I never gotcaught.
In in that, because the crazy,you know, everybody's crazy
through certain degrees.
Right?
So to me, I, I sort of fit invery well.
I thought, because I was justlook at people and go, oh my
God, look at that guy.
How many guys, how many guys doyou see coming into a club with
(07:01):
a, you know, a 12 foot featherball, you know, three inch heels
and, you know, uh, uh, uh, aqueen Elizabeth crown.
I mean, gotta love the guy,right.
So you grew up in Michigan,right?
Yeah.
And you know, he's takingMidwest kindness, you know,
let's, he's trying to, co-op ourMinnesota kindness situation.
We can back to the Midwest.
(07:22):
Let's take it here.
We might edit that out.
But anyways, no, we're not.
Um, Steve, I want you, John,you're expanding, you're
expanding your demographic.
You're expanding ourdemographics.
See, I don't understand thatside of the business.
I know I'm giving you, I'mgiving.
I'm giving you nightlife terms,we're going along.
So we're expanding to the wholeMidwest.
I'm I'm killing, right?
I'm killing a bunch of birdswith Windstone.
Go ahead.
Um, go back to, uh, when youwere in New York and, um, I'm
(07:47):
fascinated by the club kids.
Now, I was familiar with thename Michael AIG, because of
that movie party monster.
yeah.
Remember the movie with, uh,Macaulay Calkin and Seth green.
Yeah.
And, uh, Michael was, yeah, Ilived it.
He was like the head of thisgroup called the club kids.
Right.
And they, right.
They were kind of the, the, theunderground leaders of the
(08:08):
nightlife, like a rat pack foryounger people, but almost kind
like, remember Andy Warhol'sgroup, this group kind of
replaced them.
Is that an accurate description?
That's great.
That's a, you know what, John,I've never heard somebody say
that and that's a perfect.
Way you describe it.
John's amazing.
Yeah.
Never.
All right.
Nice.
Give you Steve.
We'll talk to you later.
(08:29):
Gotta leave on a that's.
That's it.
Try to keep up with him.
Steve Mike drop outta here's.
That's a great way to describe.
And the book is my office wasright across from them, so I saw
them during the day.
And so these people sort ofcoming out at.
You know, it looks like kindlike a carnival freak show.
(08:49):
But during the day, these peoplewere really smart.
Like they had a whole plan, theywould do their own, they would
do their own club nights andeverybody had a role.
And a lot of them were sort offrom small towns like me from
Michigan, so could relate tothem.
Michael all, you know, got meone of my big jobs.
(09:09):
He convinced the owner at line,like to hire me.
And we became pretty goodfriends and Michael, very good
friends.
I, I, the, where, where I wasfirst exposed to Michael and I
don't even know I got suckeddown a, uh, a YouTube.
I don't know how I ended uphere, but I was watching, there
was a Geraldo Geraldo, a coupleof Geraldo episodes that had
(09:30):
these, oh, I remember club kids,club kids.
That was a whole.
Yeah.
the trans community, like thevery first one that they did,
Rupa was one of the guests.
And it was before Ru Paul was abig international star, but New
York RuPaul was a star.
She was well known or very wellknown.
He was well known.
So you were at limelight in NewYork city, and then you ended up
(09:51):
in Boston, um, during your time.
Got very interesting Ru Paulgotten first job in New York.
What?
That's how I started.
That's how I came to New York.
No way I, I wait, I was runninga club in Boston.
And somehow, how would I even dothis nowadays?
I booked Rupa at the club.
Now, thinking about that, howwould I even do that?
(10:13):
Did I fax her and say, Hey,what's happening?
He had no cell phone.
Wow know, technically how Ipulled that off.
Then she went back to therocking in New York and told
this guy, Hey.
At the rocks.
He said, Hey, I, I promised guyin Boston, you should talk to
him.
And, and the guy who had theRoxy nightclub was reopening
(10:34):
this enormous ex roller exroller skating with it's about
5,000 square foot.
Jesus.
And he loved me because how manynightclub guys have a have a
masters in economics?
I thought that was.
Yeah, little day, you know, Imight have had a master's in
economics, but I had zeroexperience.
(10:56):
I been working at the other clubfor like two months, so he hired
me.
So that's how I started in NewYork before I got to limelight.
Well, let me, I didn't know athing.
I have, I have a question foryou, Steve.
This is Steve.
Um, okay.
So just for myself, cause Ihaven't read your book yet.
I'm really excited to read it,but I want to help our listeners
get a basis of it too.
What would you consider?
(11:16):
Are you considered a producer, abooking agent?
Are you like some kind of like,is this a club, the same club
every night or did you, did youhelp promote clubs?
Did you go around as a promoterhelping each club?
Like explain that a little bit.
So we get it.
Yeah.
Right.
The structure right when I cameto New York.
I became the it's called adirector and a director in big
new night runs the whole club,but doesn't run the operations.
(11:39):
Right.
Okay.
I don't count the money.
I don't hire the bartenders, butI do everything else.
Book set up nights, brand theclub, you know, everything
except run.
I'm not, I'm not an operationsmanager.
Okay.
So that's the job I held at theRoxy.
And then Michael a got me a job,uh, about a year or two later,
uh, as the director of the lime.
(12:00):
Same job as that group boughtfour of new York's largest
nightclubs.
So at a certain point in time, Iwas the director of, of venues
that did me see the number waslike over 16,000 people, uh, for
on the weekend every Friday andSaturday for 16,000 on Friday,
16,000 on Saturday.
So there were huge operations,but I didn't stay there at the
(12:22):
end of the night security didn'treport to.
Right.
Like, for example, the doormanwould report to me the actual
doorman or the promoters forthat night would report to me or
the DJs, but not the, um, notthe operation staff.
And it wasn't until 1997, when Iwent to Boston and nightlife got
(12:42):
shut down that I became an ownerof the venue.
Mm.
So as the owner of a venue, Iwould hire a director.
Okay.
Now having been a director thatlong, I.
Became a, as the owner, I sortof functioned as a high level
director and hired sort of minsaround me.
So that's sort of how I made myway through the, the business.
But of course, as an owner, youbecome heavily involved at that
(13:05):
point in operations.
Yeah.
And then you get into, and youget into licensing and liability
into whole bunch of new things,but, you know, I picked.
As a venue owner.
So as a, as a director are, doyou take on a bit of a creative
role in being keyed into whatpeople are into?
So, you know, the cool DJ youhave to kind of that's right.
(13:26):
You create these nights.
Okay, cool.
So it is very creative artistic,huh?
That's great.
Great question.
Great point.
That's what alled me tonightclubs was it was a creative
outlet and it's really great.
Cause you can.
You know, you can see theresults, you have an idea, let's
do this.
And then three weeks later yousee it either works or it
doesn't.
And, and so it's, it was, it's agreat creative outlet.
(13:48):
And really to this day, 30 yearslater sort of kept me going in
the business.
Wow.
That's the main thing is acreative outlet.
Very cool.
Now this is a, kind of a, a bookwho lives longer, who lives
longer than anybody.
A.
Yeah, creative thing.
Now I don't wanna be a hundred.
I don't wanna be a hundred, fiveyear old club owner, but the
point is that the idea is thesame and, and the book takes us
(14:11):
quote, unquote, behind thevelvet ropes.
Now that the book is, is outthere.
Have, has there been anybacklash, Steve with people that
maybe didn't want these storiesout there?
Because I can't wait to read thebook too, and I'm very
intrigued.
Great question.
Great question.
A few different stories, right?
Some of them are really funny.
I'll give you.
I did a call from one of theclub kids, guy, the name of
(14:33):
James.
Oh yeah.
Heavily.
Right.
He calls me and I, he heard thatthere's no of in the, and he's
working with a group calledworld of wonder in LA who was
through Paul's production team.
(14:55):
And he personally reached out tomy publicist to say, So I sent
him a letter and I said, James,if the book chronicled, you
know, uh, who was, who in thosedays and took photographs of
that somehow 30 years later,yes.
That would make.
But really he's pissed or didn'tmake the book right.
(15:15):
His photo.
It'd be very odd.
It'd be very odd for me to writea story about my grandma and
have you make a very oddimpromptu?
Oh, and James St.
James in the corner doesn't workout that way.
Well, and, and how do you, howjust curious as, as I was
reading through this, did youtake.
Like, you know, you, youreferenced the fact that you
started carrying a tape recorderaround you with you sort of like
Larry David did, but no pad, nopad.
(15:38):
Yeah.
So like you, tech took notesalmost like a diary throughout
your career.
Is that where these stories camefrom?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And you go back and you look atyour notes and some of them make
no sense.
They're pretty hilarious.
Like I went back and I waswriting.
I think I put this in the book.
I read back, I looked at mynotes and one said high
maintenance Lama.
And like, what was I?
So I tracked on what highmaintenance Lama meant.
(16:01):
And it meant when I was in LA,went to this like sort of
teachings of Lama.
And I think he was sitting thereand he had a Rolex watch and
played a sushi.
Oh, like a Dolly.
Like a Dolly Lama.
Oh my God.
Zoo.
I thought it was AMA that fromthe zoo.
And I, down to the time I said,wait a minute, that was the high
maintenance lab.
I said, that's one highmaintenance guy.
(16:21):
So I, I just want to go backreal quick to, uh, a better
understanding of your role as adirector.
You know, the famous studio, 54,there were two characters that
ran that, that Ian Schrager.
And, uh, what was it, Steve?
Steve rebel rebel.
Did, did you know those guys?
No.
Now, before me, they owned.
(16:43):
When I, when I opened up Avalonin Boston, they were the
original owners of thatbuilding.
Most people dunno that beforethey came to New York, they
started in Boston.
Okay.
Wow.
Now studio 54 was, you know,known for bringing out, you
know, all of the, the, theglitterati, the famous people,
um, in your encounters in NewYork and Boston, I would imagine
in New York, it was more, uh,rep more prevalent, but you
(17:04):
know, who are some of the peoplethat you encountered, uh, in
your, your days of, uh, Ofnightlife.
Oh, gosh, director.
I think, I think between NewYork, between New York and LA, I
mean, you can just manage justabout everybody went those from,
you know, I have a, you know,some of the stories I didn't
make the book like Forbesshowing up at a, what he thought
(17:27):
was bike up.
He used to ride a Harley,Malcolm Forbes wrote a Harley.
Oh yeah.
Oh yeah.
Yeah.
He pull up to the rock scene andHarley with four.
Not knowing yet it was a leathergay chaps night for a gay crowd.
Oh.
And, and so.
So he came in there and probablyhad the best time of his life.
He, he was fantastic.
He did he leave with a date onlyin York, only in New York.
(17:51):
He was very formal.
You know, he had his leathercoat on his leather, uh, you
know, biking jacket on thoughtit was like a leather.
It was called leather that, ohmy God, he didn't quite get what
that meant.
So he shows up and the club wasvery high at the time.
This was the Rox.
So that was, that's a prettyfunny, that's a, that was a
pretty funny story.
There was also story.
Were, did you share, or did youlive in the same apartment
(18:14):
complex with Chris?
Farley?
Did I read that?
And yeah.
And David Lee Roth and did ChrisFarley and David, what I, what
a, I spoke wide range.
I spoke to Chris Farley everynight because somehow he would
come back from stabbing nightlive.
Right.
And they would've the event onSaturday and then, and not every
night, every weekend.
And this was on Saturday.
(18:35):
He'd be from the cash party andthen he'd come back and I'd be
kinda getting outta work, butsee him, he'd be always talking
down there.
He was all kinda hyped up and hehad this giant bulldog.
Yeah.
He had this giant bulldog thatwould be running around the
lobby and like a giant bowling.
He had to watch MinnesotaLineback, like he's linebacker
(18:55):
trying to knock you down.
What kinda guy was he?
Was he as nice as people?
The nice, oh, the nicest personin the.
Yeah, that's pretty cool.
So, um, before we, uh, westarted taping, we talked a
little bit about the, uh, therole that kindness, uh, played
in your, uh, in your business.
And, you mentioned your, uh,your father and your
(19:17):
grandmother.
There's a great story aboutit's.
I think the chapter's calleddisco, granny, and it, and it
talks about literally yourgrandmother coming to one of
your clubs and dancing the nightaway.
The fact that she was acceptedby, this group of, misfit toys
in many respects and that shereturned the kindness to them.
(19:40):
You know, you, you, you look atthat picture and you think, you
know, these people probably gotkind of a bad rap and really
they were.
On the cutting edge of beingaccepting of, of people of
different, uh, different colors.
Exactly.
Right.
Of different, you know, theLGBTQ community.
And so, so on and so forth, youknow, transgenderism was
something that was very, uh,underground, um, right.
(20:04):
Unless you were at one of yourclubs and then it was on full
display.
Right.
But they were the stars of theshow.
Who would take my grandma andMichael AEC would hit it off as
best friends.
I mean, how do you figure thatout?
like she disco granny comes fromthe name.
Everyone had, you know, therewas sushi and genitalia and
everyone had a name alreadynamed it before she left the
(20:26):
club.
I like, no, no, you're nothiring her.
She's not coming back one time.
Draw the line.
Disagree.
And my, my grandma just didn'tsee anything just, oh my God,
these people are so stylish.
Cause my grandma was four, twoand had put her hat with her hat
on.
She was probably five, she hatall the time.
(20:46):
And when she was just made to bea club kid, what can I say?
And what was really, there's a,there's an anecdote in the book
about.
You being at one of these clubsand all of a sudden there's this
uproar and based on the responseof the people that were there,
you were thinking that discogranny, all of a sudden showed
back up and it was Danny DeVito.
(21:07):
did I read that right?
Yeah, sort of.
I was at, and somebody USA and.
Mistook.
Well, I, I, in mistook, my, oh,what the right Danny DeVito is,
(21:35):
he's literally four foot.
I mean, he's really small,right?
Like four foot, probably foureight, something like that.
But the similarity was the funnything.
The similarity was as both ofthem walk through the club, many
security guards were aroundthem, protecting them, like
something the I've never seen anentrance like that.
Except when your, that thecouldn't really see who was the,
(22:01):
that, that person, you know, hadthey thought it was my grandma.
It was someone special.
That's all they knew.
Someone special.
That's all they knew.
Going back to Kevin's question.
You mentioned that, uh, JamesSt.
James was, uh, was upset thattheir picture wasn't or his
picture wasn't in the book.
Um, what was the other, uh, theother feedback that you got
that, uh, I'm in LA and I know alot of things about a lot of
(22:24):
people and they were all scaredas hell.
And they were talking about bigcelebrities, like who come on,
give us a name.
some dirt.
Come on.
You.
I'll just say that they, theywere they're in the book.
Okay.
Oh, that's how we're gonna, yougotta read that the book, that's
a good salesman right there.
He knows what he's doing.
(22:44):
So the point is the point iswhen they read the book, um, my
ex partner, who was, I waspartnering with for 15 years was
also.
Kind of worried.
And he said, oh my God, I lovethe book.
Cause he saw the spirit of thebook.
It wasn't in a celebrity, youknow, outing.
It was a, uh, you know, humorouslife lessons sort stories,
(23:08):
right.
Life lessons.
Right.
So he loved the book, which I'mshocked.
And he's like, oh my God, thisis the great book my wife and
Kim can read it.
Like he was like in a waysomebody.
Somebody took a giant, you know,barbell, like he was doing,
doing squash or something.
He took it off your shoulder ashe was saying that to me, it's
it?
It is actually, it's brilliantbecause you sense as you're
(23:29):
reading the book, that therecould be some dirt dished in a
big way.
And as you're reading the book,you kind of come to realize that
this really is just sort of a, abook on how to manage yourself
and how to treat others and howto, uh, you know, tell us about
the source of the lams.
That's kind of an interesting.
Uh, part of the book throughoutthe book, you've got these Laxs.
(23:52):
Oh right.
Things that I learned bookwanted a celebrity tell and
started pitching a celebritytell I didn't realize what she
was pitching.
I'm like what?
(24:12):
I'm not writing that.
Then he tried to pitch me on,well, you gotta write a business
book.
Cause I said, I'm not writingthat book here.
The about, I said I'll have somevery interesting things about
business, somewhat, not thesethings called LA, which I think
things that I learned fromnightlife and maybe you can only
learn in nightlife.
(24:32):
Uh, and that's from standingaround, as they say, talking to
drunk narcissistic,narcissistic, uh, high.
In any sort of state you canthink of, of people for 30
years, you pick up some thingsand, and, and, and you, and it
helps guide your life.
There's certain rules.
I think you can't learn in anine to five job.
(24:52):
Yeah.
And, and some of them, some ofthem are, um, you know,
certainly are transferable tolike, and it's horrible to,
like, for, for example, one ofthe things I said is like, find
that hidden.
And this goes towards when Iwent to Hollywood and I opened
up a VIP nightclub, you know, acelebrity club in Hollywood.
Everyone's like, I'm thinking tomyself, why can't this be?
(25:15):
Why wasn't this year before?
Like, this is the most, can youthink of a more obvious place?
And then relaxing?
It's like the guy who, whatinvented post-it or invented
Reese's peanut butter cups sortof invented something for people
that they didn't know that theyneeded, that they needed.
Yes.
Found.
Found out the hit and knee andthe quote I always go back is
(25:36):
when and Henry Ford said, if I'dasked people what they wanted,
they would've said fasterhorses.
Yeah.
It's clever.
it is clever.
So, so it's kind of, uh, yourobservations.
From the glory days, the, an eraof clubs, like it's like, this
is your, this is this generationof the studio, 54 kind of thing.
(25:58):
Would you, would you say thatis, well, it go, no, it goes
longer 30 years, so, oh yeah.
Unfortunately I was in, I was inthe glory days of a New York
club in the nineties and Iactually started the glory case.
Of which I, now, when I was inNew York, I didn't know
anything.
Cause I was a part of thoseglory dates, but I started the,
in Hollywood, I was the firstthere in, so I started that.
(26:22):
And then when I went toSingapore, same thing, there was
the first one there.
So.
I was part of one and sort ofjumpstarted to others.
So, and it goes what thosedifferent cultures and what
nightlife is to those culturesacross different cultures.
Yeah.
That might be quite a challengeto, to tap into a, a different a
Singapore, you know, a culturein, in Malaysia, like to figure
(26:45):
out what they, what they'reinto.
And that's gotta be interesting.
It's really hard.
And the fun, the irony about.
It's I've gone everywhere, youknow, New York, Boston, and then
the one place where I had thebiggest culture shock was of all
places, the town never, ever,you know, thought that's sort
(27:06):
the book, there's a, uh, thebook is the, chapter's actually
called culture shock, When I'mgoing around the country and
talking about the book, you cango online, you know, everybody
is just obsessed with thenineties in new and that's
normal because the people jumpon stuff.
(27:27):
But yeah.
So I've answered a lot ofquestion about that era.
And to be honest, John, I wasn'teven gonna start the book until
the.
I'm like who the hell wants togo back 30 years.
It's purely a lot of people.
Well, and it is fascinating, youknow, I kind of, uh, you know,
think of it as I was reading thebook, it kind of felt like the
nineties were akin to how thingsare right now coming out of
(27:49):
COVID like the eighties, youknow, really good point.
There was such a fear throughoutthe world with this aids
situation that, the partylifestyle that was so prevalent
in the, what was the magic pressconference.
Cause that kind of was thetipping point.
Right?
Well, that was, you know, that'slate eighties.
Yep.
That was late eighties, 89, Ithink.
Okay.
Yeah.
But when, when rock Hudson, whenrock, Hudson announced that he
(28:12):
had aids, it's like everythingshut down.
It was like, party's over.
And then it seems like all of asudden, the nineties, people
wanted to get back out there andbe wild.
And you were there to, uh,capitalize on that, Steve Yeah,
I mean, I mean, you know, I goback to not going back that far
(28:32):
because, you know, but then whenI started writing the book, I
realized this, you know, thiswas a very interesting time.
And John, you read that part ofthe book saying you enjoy it so
that, that, you know, that'sgood.
You know, that's a, that's apositive thing.
but you know, like anything.
Like a great, you know,Minnesota twins team or, you
know, Minnesota wild team it'sthere were a lot of talented
(28:54):
people in that life at thatpoint in time.
Right.
So it was this, oh, the ninetiesor so wild.
OK.
Yeah, there were, you know,people are kinda wild in New
York all the time.
I dunno.
But there were a lot of talentedNyla people in New York.
So, you know, like the great, agreat team.
Oh, the Yankees of 1947 Yankee.
That 1947 was a hell of a year.
(29:15):
No, it was really more aboutthe, the sort of, you know,
group of people that gottogether to create that.
So sure.
That's a big, big, that's areally big part of it.
And, and I don't claim that I'mone of those people, cause I was
learning the business.
So I, I have to ask, throughyour, your time in New York and
Boston and LA and into Memphis,who would you put on your Mount
(29:37):
Rushmore of the kindestcelebrities that you've
encountered?
Great question.
And, and the answer is there'stwo and for different reasons,
and it's pretty shocking.
The, actually the nicest one, Ican believe this is.
Madonna really my favorite.
Yeah.
Super nice.
Super nice.
Coming to the club after thestudio hanging out, you know, I
(29:59):
remember she went to JohnNorris's birthday party.
Very cool.
John Norris, the guy from MTV Mright, right.
He was just really cool, but hewas just really cool.
And, you know, she had a, shehad a pretty bad reputation for
being not nice.
In fact, I'm.
Madonna's from my hometown.
Oh, there you go.
(30:19):
There you go.
Mm-hmm based in Michigan, right?
But we, you, everyone says, oh,Madonna's from around.
You see all these and stuff.
Then she went a Jane pollinterview and called it a smelly
little town and theyexcommunication, oh, oops.
(30:40):
We go, you go to there's allthis stuff over.
Okay.
So we got Madonna on there.
Who else you got?
And, and I think only because henever, he only said one word,
you said, wait, you said, uh,three words to me in the 10
times that I ever met him wasprince.
Well, you got more than the restof us combined.
(31:00):
exactly.
Where did you meet prince in NewYork?
He started coming to limelight.
He had security guards aroundhe'd sit alone and not talk to
anybody.
And I was like, this is kinda,and then, so, you know, this
happened a lot in York.
And when I went to, um, theopening night of someone calls
and is manager at that point intime, we didn't have a name.
(31:23):
I called it the inde glitch.
Remember that phrase?
Yes.
So you're having a conversation.
He is like, he's coming and, andthere's no name I'm is bullshit.
Doesn't didn't associated with.
(31:45):
I said, this is what I call theHollywood hustle.
Right.
where people call and say, I'mcoming in with prince.
Yeah.
And they show up for theopening.
Oh, sorry, prince couldn't makeit.
But I, my eight friends.
So the night goes on the nightgoes on, we're rolling out the
carpet.
My, I lose my shoes because theglue.
The glue, um, you know, they putdown the carpet glue and my, my
(32:07):
Chuck Taylors get stuck on it.
One of them does, right.
So there's no time you roll thecarpet over that.
I have, I'm running around withone shoe, right?
It's like, it's like, rightoutta enthusi off my shoes.
I'm running around at the, ofthe night.
I get a text, it's the guy.
Right.
And I'm like, you know what?
This has been a long night.
(32:27):
I, so I sort of run out.
Shoes on.
I'm like, I'm gonna yell thisguy, like email me.
John's a lot for me to get mad.
I just, I, you know, it was myfirst time dealing with
celebrity the whole night I getout there and I'm running and I
almost, and the guy moves the,and almost pancake him on the
(32:47):
ground.
I was like, oh, Hey, so, so theonly word, the only word he ever
said to me is you OK man?
And I said, Jess, OK.
That's pretty nice.
That's nice.
I, Steve, I thought just walk.
I thought you were gonna, Ithought you were gonna say when
he came in, you didn't know ifit was prince or Danny DeVito or
your grandma it was one of thosethree people say height.
(33:14):
No, it was prince.
No grandma.
And were.
So Eric's walking in, he looksdown and he sees him running
outta the shoe.
you came in, it gives me athumbs up and that was it.
So I got a thumbs up.
And are you came in?
So that was pretty nice.
We're uh, we're gonna allowScott Berg to ask one question.
Yeah, just one.
Uh, so Steve, the first two, uh,are both from the Midwest.
(33:36):
I think that's bit veryinteresting.
Very interesting to see what,like, I'm very curious to see,
to see who the third one'sgoing.
that's a great, he ties it alltogether.
Look at that.
I kinda off Francis, just, Imean, drop the mic.
You're saying a third, a third,a third celebrity.
That was very nice.
Yes.
Gosh, I think I so many thataren't so many that aren't yeah,
(33:59):
we're going nice.
We're not going naughty.
Yeah.
That's a different show.
I'm very nice.
I'll tell you a surprising one.
That was very nice.
Was, um, you know, Iggy pop.
Oh yeah, yeah.
He's from Michigan.
I, is he really from Michigan?
Yeah.
He's from Detroit.
I, I, it's a long story in thebook I pop wast throughout the
(34:27):
he's cool dude.
Yeah.
That was the one where you hadtwo events in one night, right?
That's right.
That we had like a, some, sometheme, some theme.
Um, earlier, which we actually,we had the porn star, James
(34:58):
hosting.
I've never heard of this.
Played sand, just knocked over.
It was his, it was playing onstage playing on.
And, you know, in his, in hisshow at the end of the night
women come on stage, right?
Oh, dance.
Right.
Well, lobsters on stage, theythought it was like a beach
(35:20):
scene.
So they all, you know, To theirclothes up and all dancing on in
underwear.
And he's like, going crazy.
This is the greatest moment.
It life.
This is it's a total disaster.
And the beach, the beach themewas really for the Jenna Jameson
thing afterwards.
Right.
But, but the stuff that we hidand the rafter.
Yes.
And it was so, and the that wepushed out to the side, people
(35:43):
pushed it, you know, they, therewere so many people, he's a punk
rocker.
Yeah.
He wants chaos.
He, he loved that.
He's a giant bag.
Yeah, I, you know, but the storyis, his manager was losing his
mind during the whole thing.
I call him the real Ian faith.
Remember Ian faith and spinal.
Yes.
Yes.
Yeah.
I swear to God, this guy had acricket bat.
(36:03):
oh my God.
So classic character, I wouldjust like to tip my hat to Scott
Berg for putting this alltogether.
The three people that you namedMidwest Madonna from Michigan.
Uh, Iggy pop from Muskegon,Michigan.
Yeah.
And prince from Minneapolis.
Yeah, it, the, maybe this isMidwest.
Nice.
See, we're expanding ourhorizons.
(36:25):
Our Chronicles just got bigger,more than 3000 lists.
Yes.
John, John M Minnesota does nothave a monopoly.
Come on.
We think we do though.
You know, that we like topretend we do.
You can.
You can lead the path and therecan be other leaders, you know,
right by your side.
So it's all good.
Okay.
Before we shut it down, uh, wehave a, a tradition here on the
(36:47):
kindness Chronicles.
My favorite part of the show,our friend, Steve brown here
does what we call the, uh, whatdo we call that?
The, uh, rapid fire cluelessquiz, clueless quiz.
So J uh, uh, Steve was the, uh,the lead singer of a band called
Johnny clueless.
And he, he has some fun stories,you know, uh, touring around
with the likes of the Gogodolls.
Cheap trick.
(37:07):
And so he's kind of a big dealreally?
Oh yeah.
He peaked in the, he peaked inthe nineties.
I can appreciate some is aportion of the craziness that
you've, you've seen Steve love,but he used to wear red pants on
stage.
And like the leather was theleather ones at the lover pants,
not leather.
Come on.
What am I?
I'm not that crazy.
Anyway.
So Steve, we have some rapidfire questions.
(37:29):
This helps us get kind of anunderstanding of what Steve
Adelman is really like.
Yeah.
Are you ready?
Ready?
I, I, I, no, the question is,are you ready?
Oh yeah, well done.
Well, I gotta read the book andthen I'll totally know.
Um, okay, go ahead.
My, just, I'm gonna ask you aquick question.
I'll just fire through these,but one question I thought of
listening to you.
Talk, what is, uh, your favoritenineties quality cocktail that
(37:54):
you would, uh, that you would'veput in your club, but what's the
nineties cocktail?
Like what, what encapsulates Iin cosmopolitan?
Cosmopolitan sense.
That's the nineties drink sense,right?
Sense nineties drink.
Okay.
Um, embarrassing, but yeah, I'lladmit it.
Okay.
Kevin drank ZMA you can't melower than XMA.
Kevin drank ZMA so you're okay.
Right.
You're right.
(38:16):
That is the good.
I feel good with my intern now.
Thank you.
um, okay.
This fits in your world too.
Live Ben or DJ.
What?
What's your favorite?
What's what are you interested?
I would say my, oh gosh, live.
There we go, DJ.
Um, I, well, I'll go DJ firstthere, there, uh, when music
(38:37):
started, there were guysChicago.
My, um, those are my favorite,uh, DJs, the greatest concert I
ever saw was the stone templepilot at Avalon.
(38:58):
Wow.
Um, I've never seen a band wasthe original with Scott wi and
those.
I, I thought the building wasgonna fall apart.
I've never seen energy like thatin abandon my life.
And, and it was a small venue.
They were doing an MTV recordingthere.
So the venue only hold like2,400.
Yeah.
I thought, I thought, I thoughtthe whole building was gonna
collapse.
It's amazing what pounds andpounds of cocaine will do for
the energy of a, uh, of a band.
(39:19):
I know, whatever I was, youknow, I was like, I was just
mesmerized.
I couldn't believe that a bandcould be that.
Yeah, it's a, it was a greatband.
The two brothers on guitar base.
Yeah.
Didn't you hire like D punkearly in his career and SCR X
and some of those DJs, all ofthem that's.
So they came the first personwho book them in the United
(39:42):
States.
Avalon Boston started that andthen we took it to Avalon H.
So cool.
So yeah, I know them.
I know them all very well.
I can't read the bud.
Can't wait to read this book allright.
Back to the, back to theclueless quiz.
Um, so you already told usgreatest concert of all the
time.
Would you say stone pilots wouldbe one of your favorites if you
ever you've ever witnessed it'skind of what you were saying.
(40:03):
Yeah.
Yeah.
That was great.
And thought you can't mouse sawYouTube at Madison square
garden.
That was really incredible.
I thought they were just, youknow, I mean, how can you, how
can you beat that?
You know, the rolling stone at,um, In LA at, uh, oh my gosh.
What's the famous at theHollywood bowl sitting with the
KCO brothers.
(40:24):
This guy's seen it all really.
I'm spending next with him inMichigan.
I can't wait to, to peel theonion.
We need to have a part too withyou first, first time, first
time I ever went, you know, and,and, and I remember one of the
cl brothers had a, thatgirlfriend, uh, oh gosh, haz,
panic hairs.
And she was like five foot tall,but I mean, those guys are big
(40:48):
oh, the Al brothers, the, the,the, uh, Ukrainian guys.
Yeah.
Isn't one of'em the mayor ofKeve.
I don't know.
Yeah.
He's they're fighting now.
Um, okay.
So.
You've been around the world.
You've been to Singapore, youlive in New York, live in
Boston.
You've been all around, youknow, done this kind of stuff
(41:09):
everywhere.
Um, if you could live anywherenow, where would you wanna live?
Money's no object.
You could just live anywhere.
I, I, I, I like LA you know,just an easy life and I like the
weather and it's not thatdealing with a reality scenario.
It's expensive, but it's not NewYork city expensive.
(41:30):
You.
I love Chicago.
I spent a lot of time there,John, since I've been going to
the houses, talk to Michigan,but it's just too cold.
So I'm getting to be an old man.
LA.
All right, let's get some Kevin,Kevin likes some of these
questions to there's a couple,there's a couple food questions.
A couple.
We go.
Um, are you, uh, are you, uh,okay.
(41:51):
George or Kramer?
I would say CRA.
All right.
Putting her jello, putting herjello banya Panya love it.
Pudding, pudding, taco.
Sure.
Chocolate pudding, taco pudding,taco Tuesday or fish Friday.
Oh, taco Tuesday crush chef.
(42:13):
Nice.
Ooh, there you go.
Um, Mac and cheese or mashedpotatoes.
Oh gosh.
Favorite food in the world.
Mashed potatoes.
There you go.
Um, my wife can't believe I eatmash potatoes anywhere.
Anytime she thinks I'm I likethe oddest thing ever.
She's just like Steve.
How many times?
Freaking mash potatoes in onemonth.
(42:33):
I said, oh, well, all right.
Here's here's one that kind ofcame back in the nineties.
Would you say, what would youchoose a Polaroid or digital
camera?
There's nothing like a Polaroidfor just pure and nostalgia.
I'm more of a polar my brandPolaroid.
Everyone about their brand.
Yeah.
That's brand.
I'm a Polaroid guy.
(42:54):
Yeah.
My brand 4th of July or laborday.
Oh, hanging out with thewas.
There you go.
I was hoping you go big smile onhis face.
It's it's my favorite day of theyear, except for the, and the
mosquitoes.
And I was thinking of bringingmosquito.
(43:14):
I wave it off some, what do youcall that off?
Whatever the cutter stops.
Cutter.
Cutter.
Yeah.
Cutter.
Yeah.
Greatest saving the year.
Steve, your friends would giveyou an award, uh, your book
aside, like just knowing you,this is insight into you, what,
what would they give you anaward for?
I would say hopefully they giveyou an award for being helpful
(43:37):
or trying to be.
I would give you the award forbeing easygoing.
You never seem to get upsetabout kind.
I wish I had that mechanism.
Yeah.
I think he said some practice.
He's seen a.
Everybody tells me that.
Okay.
I'll take that.
Okay.
That's a nice, that's a verynice word at this time.
I'll take any award I can get.
(43:57):
So John, you bring it, the, itI'll start whittling later
today.
I bet you will.
With John, John with the trophy,I still have that's right.
Domination from the weddingtournament.
Right?
Right.
I got, I just got two morequestions on a scale of one to
10, how would you rate yourhandshake?
(44:19):
Oh, gosh, I would have to giveit a four because I'm, I, I go
in confusing.
I go, do I go with the sum up orsum down?
You know, I'm a bad, I don't, Idon't commit you.
Don't A's noncommittal puts mebelow average.
That's that's my analysis of myhandshake.
All right.
All right.
(44:40):
Um, and then last question.
This is, uh, I know, I knowwe're on, uh, we're on a
podcast, so you can't seeanything, but, you know, John.
I don't think you've met Kevinbefore.
Oh yeah.
We've met.
You have met mm-hmm we've met.
Okay.
Got it.
Good it.
Okay.
So now you met these two guys,uh, for our listeners.
Um, this is a interesting onefor who's more handsome.
Nope.
No, we're not going down thatroad.
It's a landslide who you, whowould win in a fair and square
(45:03):
wrestling match between oh Johnor, or kg here?
Is there oil or mud involved?
This is just straight upwrestling.
Well, I fight dirty you know,What's your, what's your
assessment, Steve?
Well, my assessment would bethat awkward.
It would no, no, it's notawkward.
I, I can see it in my mind,right.
(45:27):
Oh, it would start off even itwould start off even.
And then John would say, ohgosh, I pulled a groin.
Yes.
Kinda.
Hold on, hold on, hold on.
And then he would go to thekitchen and come back with a
chair and break it over.
Kevin's.
That is, that's what I, Steve,that is that's right.
A hundred percent accurate fishhook, grind stuff, and very low
threshold for pain.
(45:48):
Right.
That's awesome.
So I see that being, that's aneasy call.
I can picture that in my mind.
Like it was, you know, yeah.
That's the last, that's thelast, what am I gonna eat
tomorrow for breakfast?
That's the last time we're gonnaask that question.
Yeah, that one's okay.
I, one last thing one last thingbefore we let you go.
Um, and before I forgetnocturnal admissions, uh, as I
understand was number one, uh,on Amazon, uh, in whatever
(46:13):
category this book is, is foundin, but it really is a.
Let me, let me put that inperspective, it was number one
in all of its categories.
One of them categories beingEDM, dance music slash adult
coloring books.
So who knew that exist?
That would, you know what?
I've never seen an adulting bookaward is the award good timing,
(46:35):
but I am not a reader.
I am more of a TV guy and I havereally gotten into this book.
It's a very entertaining.
And especially for guys of acertain age, you know, those of
us that are in our fiftiesearly, are we in our fifties,
fifties?
Oh my God.
And by the way, the picturepictures are spectacular.
The pictures in the book arefantastic.
Saw Brittany Spears.
(46:56):
Thank you.
Thank you.
Yeah.
Um, those are hard to get.
Yeah, but no kidding.
The, the book is, is fascinatingas hell.
And, uh, I just encourageeverybody to pick it up.
Because, uh, the more books youbuy, the more likely Steve will
be picking up, uh, dinner on the4th of July.
Steve might be one of our, uh,most impressive guests so far.
We got just a, you know, I agreepretty good.
He's pretty, pretty high on thelist right now.
(47:17):
This is amazing.
But as I was telling his, putthis way, right.
Look it, I would consider myselfif I was promoting myself with
your guest, I would say I wasyour number one guest by, in
season three.
And I'll take that.
I'll take that number one seasonseason.
Number one, before I go, thereis one little story that you
tease, um, early in the book,and it's related to a curb, your
(47:41):
enthusiasm script that youwrote.
I know we have to read the bookto, to, to, to get the ultimate
story, but tell us, just, uh,tell the readers a little bit
about that, because that to meis, uh, is pretty fascinating.
It's my first, when I gotHollywood, not only, I started
watching enthusiasm relate tothat and the show when it
(48:03):
started, wasn't very successful.
so, as I took observationsregarding nightlife, I started
writing these kinda fake script.
You know, I don't know.
I didn't even know how to writea script.
And it just so happens that, uh,my partner's brother was best
friends with Larry David.
So he said, let get the script,Larry, Larry got the script.
(48:24):
We fair and didn't know at theliability and all these things.
I said fast forward in the book,you know, all of a sudden they
get a call saying, oh my God,your script got made.
What?
Talking about.
So the episode got made.
Now, what they did was they tooktwo or three things from that
(48:45):
episode and include them inanother episode.
So everybody was jumping aroundand, and they were telling, oh
my David fast I'm and someonestarts talking about their
friends who wrote that script.
Wait a second.
Hold.
Somehow, somehow they got theirhands on the script and took
(49:05):
credit for it.
Oh.
And so that was my first, um,sort of foray into Hollywood
writing and the, the sort of,um, lesson learned on that was
okay.
You know, just don't give up.
And here you go.
Now I have a book sons ofbitches, John, the book, the
book is getting a lot ofinterest.
It's written like a TV show.
It's got 16 chapter.
(49:26):
And not, not coincidentally aseason right now is eight is
eight episode.
So I have there's yeah.
I've already cast your book.
so of course, you know, MatthewMcConaughy will be playing, uh,
Steve Adelman.
Um, right.
That seems about right.
Doesn't it.
Well, I had, I had, I haddifferent thoughts, but I, I
(49:49):
understand, yeah, that could.
I, I always, you know, I hadGeorge Clooney playing me.
Of course.
That's I can see that fair, youknow, thing here, book a, I, me
thinking I'm being recognizedelse recognizes being somebody
(50:11):
else.
John Malkovich.
Ooh, good one.
John Melich, Steve jobs in Asia,but, but, and, and John, when
you read the book and finish it,the real.
Real book, it's this it's verysimple.
It's that, you know, be carefulwhat you chase because all the
running that'll be worth it.
So all the years you spentchasing parties and this and
that, you know, the happiestparty or moment I ever had in my
(50:34):
life is marrying Michelle.
There's the kind.
Comes live.
Right.
And by the way, by the way,Michelle's standing next to me.
So I had to say that that that'sa guy that man, well, that's a
guy that catch it.
Right?
And then you should look at her.
Say, now get back in thekitchen.
Hey.
Oh no.
I told her, I said, do you hearme?
I said, are my mash potatoesgetting called?
(50:57):
Well, our pizza just came so on.
You're note, Steve.
Oh my gosh.
We, uh, we, we thank you foryour time.
And.
This has has been fascinating.
It's been fun.
And, uh, yeah.
Thank you.
Imagine we'd like to have youback on again.
Yeah.
We have to be a part too, butuh, good luck with the book and,
uh, and the potatoes.
And I'll see you in a few daysand off we go.
And we have a special guest heretoday.
Once again, Scott Berg.
Hello, Scott.
Hello, John.
And.
In a moment, we're gonna beintroducing you to our special
guest of the day.
But it's been a while sincewe've been together.
We had our welcome back, uh,podcast, but, uh, before we get
started, uh, Roe V.
Wade, what do you guys think didit lot of fun, lot of fun right
(00:21):
now.
Let's not go down there.
That road, man.
Go down there.
Come on, man.
Roe V.
Wade, what are your thoughts?
Just keep calling in.
Keep your reminds.
Me of interview.
Dark star did with his goodfriend, Trent Tucker, uh, before
his passing and they were at WCCO radio and they sit down and
there was some issues as therealways has been in Minneapolis
and he sat down and said, we'rehere with Tre Tucker on the, uh,
(00:42):
the friendly neighbor w CCO.
White people, your thoughts?
you talk about an awkwardsilence.
So yeah, no Roe V wait for us.
So tonight we have, uh, a veryspecial guest, a friend of mine,
who, uh, decided to write bookand, I'm about halfway done with
the book.
(01:02):
And as I read it, I can'tbelieve he hasn't been writing
his whole life.
Uh, the name of the book isnocturnal admissions.
I said that nocturnaladmissions, not admissions.
No.
and the author is, uh, a friendof mine named Steve Adelman.
And Steve.
Welcome.
Thank you.
So I, I, um, John, I'm glad you,um, Reiterated that title
(01:27):
because my, my mother keepsputting it on Facebook, but she
doesn't get jug.
So she does it wrong.
So that's not good.
you know, you go down aslippery, slow, she uses a
different line.
Doesn't understand what'shappening.
So no, one's gonna tell her Fulldisclosure, um, I, uh, had the
privilege of officiating, SteveEdelman's wedding to our friend,
(01:52):
Michelle Ry.
Michelle, uh, happened to be themaid of honor in my wedding.
Wow.
And I was a blubbering idiot.
I can't understand why I startedweeping uncontrollably.
It was really quite anembarrassing situation, but
we're so happy to have Steve aspart of the, uh, the mix.
He certainly brings a, uh, alevel of, uh, intrigue one might
(02:12):
say to the, uh, to the friendgroup.
But, uh, Steve, the book thatyou wrote.
Is, uh, go ahead.
Go ahead.
I interrupted.
Well, no, and I gotta make acomment about the wedding.
Uhoh how bad I was sweating.
emotional breakdown was so, youknow, incredible that everyone
said you, that doesn't reallyhappen.
It was so good.
(02:32):
So it really made the wedding.
So just, you know, just want youto know to this.
People said to John, was thatreal?
I said, yeah, it was real.
It was, I couldn't understandit.
I just, you know, I, he was theyou're nervous.
You want it to go well, right.
Everybody's watching you.
She get married to this greatguy.
Ital.
Was it your first timeofficiating, John?
I didn't know you did that.
That's well, I I've done a fewof them.
(02:54):
Wow.
You wrote the first one that Ihad a mental breakdown act, but,
uh, well then, I mean, itobviously meant something.
Yeah, and I, I, I see Scott Bergright now.
Just thinking about mayberedoing and renewing his
nuptials, his vows.
Yeah.
Maybe having you involved and Ican see the wheels turning here.
I'm your guy.
Sure.
I'll, I'll try not to blubber.
Okay.
Back to you, Steve.
Um, the, uh, the, the booknocturnal admissions, it seems
(03:16):
to be a Chronicle of your life,uh, in the nightclub business.
Mm-hmm take us back to, uh, justtell us about this book, Steve.
Well, you know, it, it'sinteresting.
My side nightlife for when I wasserious nightlife of the things
(03:43):
you write, press releases andthings like that over the years,
and those are done, you know,for one reason, to bring people
to your product and to sort oftell a story.
So I sort of kept it, my writinggoing, and then probably in the
early two thousands, when I wasin LA, I started writing scripts
and I had a, I had a, uh, agentand I first showed him and I
(04:05):
couldn't understand why therewasn't books about nightlife,
because what a world to, youknow, get really intriguing
stories.
And my, my take on everything.
You can't take yourself or theworld too seriously.
Right.
And I learned a lot of that fromnightlife in traveling around
the world and seeing how otherpeople live and how lucky we
(04:27):
really are, you know, sort ofdeveloped that perspective.
So when I showed my agent, thebook I remember at the time
said, this reads like curb.
I showed him stories for thebook.
He said, this reads like curbyour enthusiasm on it's the
funniest thing I've ever seen.
so I.
So I said, okay, then I'm gonnawrite the book.
(04:47):
And of course word takes over.
So it wasn't like 15 yearslater.
Now I'm able to get more yearsof stories.
The pandemic, you know, offeredme an opportunity to really sit
down and focus.
And, you know, the first thingwas, was to get publishers and
people like that.
You know, to take me seriouslyas a writer.
(05:10):
So that's how sort of the bookcame about.
And, and the book itself, thebook itself, John is about sort
of the power of observation andbeing able to observe things.
And that's sort of how Isurvived in the nightlife
business for say, 30 years.
I sort of sit back and observe,and I guess the book.
It's about those observationsand, and what's fascinating,
Steve is, you started out in NewYork where you were, uh, Boston,
(05:33):
Steve, then you went to Bostonwhere you were Steve from New
York and then, you know, the,the took you to Los Angeles and
Singapore, and ultimately inMemphis where you're at right
now and what yeah.
What I was so fascinated by is,as I'm reading this story, it
seems like you were surroundedby.
Such a crazy diverse, almostlike circus atmosphere with
(05:57):
these characters that play arole in making these, clubs.
And that really, that reallygoes to the, the really core of
the book.
If you read sort of between thelines is, you know, you guys are
offering sort of, you know, youcall it Minnesota kind.
You know, I would, in my trails,I found it to me, more of a
(06:19):
Midwestern kindness.
So honestly, I was brought upand I, and I, uh, you know, I,
uh, talk about this in the book,by my father and my grandmother
who never saw anybody for,except for what they were.
So as these crazy people werewandering around me, I just
thought it was inter I didn'tsee anything other than, oh,
(06:39):
that person's so interesting.
And oh, that person's so funny.
So the craziness, I never gotcaught.
In in that, because the crazy,you know, everybody's crazy
through certain degrees.
Right?
So to me, I, I sort of fit invery well.
I thought, because I was justlook at people and go, oh my
God, look at that guy.
How many guys, how many guys doyou see coming into a club with
(07:01):
a, you know, a 12 foot featherball, you know, three inch heels
and, you know, uh, uh, uh, aqueen Elizabeth crown.
I mean, gotta love the guy,right.
So you grew up in Michigan,right?
Yeah.
And you know, he's takingMidwest kindness, you know,
let's, he's trying to, co-op ourMinnesota kindness situation.
We can back to the Midwest.
(07:22):
Let's take it here.
We might edit that out.
But anyways, no, we're not.
Um, Steve, I want you, John,you're expanding, you're
expanding your demographic.
You're expanding ourdemographics.
See, I don't understand thatside of the business.
I know I'm giving you, I'mgiving.
I'm giving you nightlife terms,we're going along.
So we're expanding to the wholeMidwest.
I'm I'm killing, right?
I'm killing a bunch of birdswith Windstone.
Go ahead.
Um, go back to, uh, when youwere in New York and, um, I'm
(07:47):
fascinated by the club kids.
Now, I was familiar with thename Michael AIG, because of
that movie party monster.
yeah.
Remember the movie with, uh,Macaulay Calkin and Seth green.
Yeah.
And, uh, Michael was, yeah, Ilived it.
He was like the head of thisgroup called the club kids.
Right.
And they, right.
They were kind of the, the, theunderground leaders of the
(08:08):
nightlife, like a rat pack foryounger people, but almost kind
like, remember Andy Warhol'sgroup, this group kind of
replaced them.
Is that an accurate description?
That's great.
That's a, you know what, John,I've never heard somebody say
that and that's a perfect.
Way you describe it.
John's amazing.
Yeah.
Never.
All right.
Nice.
Give you Steve.
We'll talk to you later.
(08:29):
Gotta leave on a that's.
That's it.
Try to keep up with him.
Steve Mike drop outta here's.
That's a great way to describe.
And the book is my office wasright across from them, so I saw
them during the day.
And so these people sort ofcoming out at.
You know, it looks like kindlike a carnival freak show.
(08:49):
But during the day, these peoplewere really smart.
Like they had a whole plan, theywould do their own, they would
do their own club nights andeverybody had a role.
And a lot of them were sort offrom small towns like me from
Michigan, so could relate tothem.
Michael all, you know, got meone of my big jobs.
(09:09):
He convinced the owner at line,like to hire me.
And we became pretty goodfriends and Michael, very good
friends.
I, I, the, where, where I wasfirst exposed to Michael and I
don't even know I got suckeddown a, uh, a YouTube.
I don't know how I ended uphere, but I was watching, there
was a Geraldo Geraldo, a coupleof Geraldo episodes that had
(09:30):
these, oh, I remember club kids,club kids.
That was a whole.
Yeah.
the trans community, like thevery first one that they did,
Rupa was one of the guests.
And it was before Ru Paul was abig international star, but New
York RuPaul was a star.
She was well known or very wellknown.
He was well known.
So you were at limelight in NewYork city, and then you ended up
(09:51):
in Boston, um, during your time.
Got very interesting Ru Paulgotten first job in New York.
What?
That's how I started.
That's how I came to New York.
No way I, I wait, I was runninga club in Boston.
And somehow, how would I even dothis nowadays?
I booked Rupa at the club.
Now, thinking about that, howwould I even do that?
(10:13):
Did I fax her and say, Hey,what's happening?
He had no cell phone.
Wow know, technically how Ipulled that off.
Then she went back to therocking in New York and told
this guy, Hey.
At the rocks.
He said, Hey, I, I promised guyin Boston, you should talk to
him.
And, and the guy who had theRoxy nightclub was reopening
(10:34):
this enormous ex roller exroller skating with it's about
5,000 square foot.
Jesus.
And he loved me because how manynightclub guys have a have a
masters in economics?
I thought that was.
Yeah, little day, you know, Imight have had a master's in
economics, but I had zeroexperience.
(10:56):
I been working at the other clubfor like two months, so he hired
me.
So that's how I started in NewYork before I got to limelight.
Well, let me, I didn't know athing.
I have, I have a question foryou, Steve.
This is Steve.
Um, okay.
So just for myself, cause Ihaven't read your book yet.
I'm really excited to read it,but I want to help our listeners
get a basis of it too.
What would you consider?
(11:16):
Are you considered a producer, abooking agent?
Are you like some kind of like,is this a club, the same club
every night or did you, did youhelp promote clubs?
Did you go around as a promoterhelping each club?
Like explain that a little bit.
So we get it.
Yeah.
Right.
The structure right when I cameto New York.
I became the it's called adirector and a director in big
new night runs the whole club,but doesn't run the operations.
(11:39):
Right.
Okay.
I don't count the money.
I don't hire the bartenders, butI do everything else.
Book set up nights, brand theclub, you know, everything
except run.
I'm not, I'm not an operationsmanager.
Okay.
So that's the job I held at theRoxy.
And then Michael a got me a job,uh, about a year or two later,
uh, as the director of the lime.
(12:00):
Same job as that group boughtfour of new York's largest
nightclubs.
So at a certain point in time, Iwas the director of, of venues
that did me see the number waslike over 16,000 people, uh, for
on the weekend every Friday andSaturday for 16,000 on Friday,
16,000 on Saturday.
So there were huge operations,but I didn't stay there at the
(12:22):
end of the night security didn'treport to.
Right.
Like, for example, the doormanwould report to me the actual
doorman or the promoters forthat night would report to me or
the DJs, but not the, um, notthe operation staff.
And it wasn't until 1997, when Iwent to Boston and nightlife got
(12:42):
shut down that I became an ownerof the venue.
Mm.
So as the owner of a venue, Iwould hire a director.
Okay.
Now having been a director thatlong, I.
Became a, as the owner, I sortof functioned as a high level
director and hired sort of minsaround me.
So that's sort of how I made myway through the, the business.
But of course, as an owner, youbecome heavily involved at that
(13:05):
point in operations.
Yeah.
And then you get into, and youget into licensing and liability
into whole bunch of new things,but, you know, I picked.
As a venue owner.
So as a, as a director are, doyou take on a bit of a creative
role in being keyed into whatpeople are into?
So, you know, the cool DJ youhave to kind of that's right.
(13:26):
You create these nights.
Okay, cool.
So it is very creative artistic,huh?
That's great.
Great question.
Great point.
That's what alled me tonightclubs was it was a creative
outlet and it's really great.
Cause you can.
You know, you can see theresults, you have an idea, let's
do this.
And then three weeks later yousee it either works or it
doesn't.
And, and so it's, it was, it's agreat creative outlet.
(13:48):
And really to this day, 30 yearslater sort of kept me going in
the business.
Wow.
That's the main thing is acreative outlet.
Very cool.
Now this is a, kind of a, a bookwho lives longer, who lives
longer than anybody.
A.
Yeah, creative thing.
Now I don't wanna be a hundred.
I don't wanna be a hundred, fiveyear old club owner, but the
point is that the idea is thesame and, and the book takes us
(14:11):
quote, unquote, behind thevelvet ropes.
Now that the book is, is outthere.
Have, has there been anybacklash, Steve with people that
maybe didn't want these storiesout there?
Because I can't wait to read thebook too, and I'm very
intrigued.
Great question.
Great question.
A few different stories, right?
Some of them are really funny.
I'll give you.
I did a call from one of theclub kids, guy, the name of
(14:33):
James.
Oh yeah.
Heavily.
Right.
He calls me and I, he heard thatthere's no of in the, and he's
working with a group calledworld of wonder in LA who was
through Paul's production team.
(14:55):
And he personally reached out tomy publicist to say, So I sent
him a letter and I said, James,if the book chronicled, you
know, uh, who was, who in thosedays and took photographs of
that somehow 30 years later,yes.
That would make.
But really he's pissed or didn'tmake the book right.
(15:15):
His photo.
It'd be very odd.
It'd be very odd for me to writea story about my grandma and
have you make a very oddimpromptu?
Oh, and James St.
James in the corner doesn't workout that way.
Well, and, and how do you, howjust curious as, as I was
reading through this, did youtake.
Like, you know, you, youreferenced the fact that you
started carrying a tape recorderaround you with you sort of like
Larry David did, but no pad, nopad.
(15:38):
Yeah.
So like you, tech took notesalmost like a diary throughout
your career.
Is that where these stories camefrom?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And you go back and you look atyour notes and some of them make
no sense.
They're pretty hilarious.
Like I went back and I waswriting.
I think I put this in the book.
I read back, I looked at mynotes and one said high
maintenance Lama.
And like, what was I?
So I tracked on what highmaintenance Lama meant.
(16:01):
And it meant when I was in LA,went to this like sort of
teachings of Lama.
And I think he was sitting thereand he had a Rolex watch and
played a sushi.
Oh, like a Dolly.
Like a Dolly Lama.
Oh my God.
Zoo.
I thought it was AMA that fromthe zoo.
And I, down to the time I said,wait a minute, that was the high
maintenance lab.
I said, that's one highmaintenance guy.
(16:21):
So I, I just want to go backreal quick to, uh, a better
understanding of your role as adirector.
You know, the famous studio, 54,there were two characters that
ran that, that Ian Schrager.
And, uh, what was it, Steve?
Steve rebel rebel.
Did, did you know those guys?
No.
Now, before me, they owned.
(16:43):
When I, when I opened up Avalonin Boston, they were the
original owners of thatbuilding.
Most people dunno that beforethey came to New York, they
started in Boston.
Okay.
Wow.
Now studio 54 was, you know,known for bringing out, you
know, all of the, the, theglitterati, the famous people,
um, in your encounters in NewYork and Boston, I would imagine
in New York, it was more, uh,rep more prevalent, but you
(17:04):
know, who are some of the peoplethat you encountered, uh, in
your, your days of, uh, Ofnightlife.
Oh, gosh, director.
I think, I think between NewYork, between New York and LA, I
mean, you can just manage justabout everybody went those from,
you know, I have a, you know,some of the stories I didn't
make the book like Forbesshowing up at a, what he thought
(17:27):
was bike up.
He used to ride a Harley,Malcolm Forbes wrote a Harley.
Oh yeah.
Oh yeah.
Yeah.
He pull up to the rock scene andHarley with four.
Not knowing yet it was a leathergay chaps night for a gay crowd.
Oh.
And, and so.
So he came in there and probablyhad the best time of his life.
He, he was fantastic.
He did he leave with a date onlyin York, only in New York.
(17:51):
He was very formal.
You know, he had his leathercoat on his leather, uh, you
know, biking jacket on thoughtit was like a leather.
It was called leather that, ohmy God, he didn't quite get what
that meant.
So he shows up and the club wasvery high at the time.
This was the Rox.
So that was, that's a prettyfunny, that's a, that was a
pretty funny story.
There was also story.
Were, did you share, or did youlive in the same apartment
(18:14):
complex with Chris?
Farley?
Did I read that?
And yeah.
And David Lee Roth and did ChrisFarley and David, what I, what
a, I spoke wide range.
I spoke to Chris Farley everynight because somehow he would
come back from stabbing nightlive.
Right.
And they would've the event onSaturday and then, and not every
night, every weekend.
And this was on Saturday.
(18:35):
He'd be from the cash party andthen he'd come back and I'd be
kinda getting outta work, butsee him, he'd be always talking
down there.
He was all kinda hyped up and hehad this giant bulldog.
Yeah.
He had this giant bulldog thatwould be running around the
lobby and like a giant bowling.
He had to watch MinnesotaLineback, like he's linebacker
(18:55):
trying to knock you down.
What kinda guy was he?
Was he as nice as people?
The nice, oh, the nicest personin the.
Yeah, that's pretty cool.
So, um, before we, uh, westarted taping, we talked a
little bit about the, uh, therole that kindness, uh, played
in your, uh, in your business.
And, you mentioned your, uh,your father and your
(19:17):
grandmother.
There's a great story aboutit's.
I think the chapter's calleddisco, granny, and it, and it
talks about literally yourgrandmother coming to one of
your clubs and dancing the nightaway.
The fact that she was acceptedby, this group of, misfit toys
in many respects and that shereturned the kindness to them.
(19:40):
You know, you, you, you look atthat picture and you think, you
know, these people probably gotkind of a bad rap and really
they were.
On the cutting edge of beingaccepting of, of people of
different, uh, different colors.
Exactly.
Right.
Of different, you know, theLGBTQ community.
And so, so on and so forth, youknow, transgenderism was
something that was very, uh,underground, um, right.
(20:04):
Unless you were at one of yourclubs and then it was on full
display.
Right.
But they were the stars of theshow.
Who would take my grandma andMichael AEC would hit it off as
best friends.
I mean, how do you figure thatout?
like she disco granny comes fromthe name.
Everyone had, you know, therewas sushi and genitalia and
everyone had a name alreadynamed it before she left the
(20:26):
club.
I like, no, no, you're nothiring her.
She's not coming back one time.
Draw the line.
Disagree.
And my, my grandma just didn'tsee anything just, oh my God,
these people are so stylish.
Cause my grandma was four, twoand had put her hat with her hat
on.
She was probably five, she hatall the time.
(20:46):
And when she was just made to bea club kid, what can I say?
And what was really, there's a,there's an anecdote in the book
about.
You being at one of these clubsand all of a sudden there's this
uproar and based on the responseof the people that were there,
you were thinking that discogranny, all of a sudden showed
back up and it was Danny DeVito.
(21:07):
did I read that right?
Yeah, sort of.
I was at, and somebody USA and.
Mistook.
Well, I, I, in mistook, my, oh,what the right Danny DeVito is,
(21:35):
he's literally four foot.
I mean, he's really small,right?
Like four foot, probably foureight, something like that.
But the similarity was the funnything.
The similarity was as both ofthem walk through the club, many
security guards were aroundthem, protecting them, like
something the I've never seen anentrance like that.
Except when your, that thecouldn't really see who was the,
(22:01):
that, that person, you know, hadthey thought it was my grandma.
It was someone special.
That's all they knew.
Someone special.
That's all they knew.
Going back to Kevin's question.
You mentioned that, uh, JamesSt.
James was, uh, was upset thattheir picture wasn't or his
picture wasn't in the book.
Um, what was the other, uh, theother feedback that you got
that, uh, I'm in LA and I know alot of things about a lot of
(22:24):
people and they were all scaredas hell.
And they were talking about bigcelebrities, like who come on,
give us a name.
some dirt.
Come on.
You.
I'll just say that they, theywere they're in the book.
Okay.
Oh, that's how we're gonna, yougotta read that the book, that's
a good salesman right there.
He knows what he's doing.
(22:44):
So the point is the point iswhen they read the book, um, my
ex partner, who was, I waspartnering with for 15 years was
also.
Kind of worried.
And he said, oh my God, I lovethe book.
Cause he saw the spirit of thebook.
It wasn't in a celebrity, youknow, outing.
It was a, uh, you know, humorouslife lessons sort stories,
(23:08):
right.
Life lessons.
Right.
So he loved the book, which I'mshocked.
And he's like, oh my God, thisis the great book my wife and
Kim can read it.
Like he was like in a waysomebody.
Somebody took a giant, you know,barbell, like he was doing,
doing squash or something.
He took it off your shoulder ashe was saying that to me, it's
it?
It is actually, it's brilliantbecause you sense as you're
(23:29):
reading the book, that therecould be some dirt dished in a
big way.
And as you're reading the book,you kind of come to realize that
this really is just sort of a, abook on how to manage yourself
and how to treat others and howto, uh, you know, tell us about
the source of the lams.
That's kind of an interesting.
Uh, part of the book throughoutthe book, you've got these Laxs.
(23:52):
Oh right.
Things that I learned bookwanted a celebrity tell and
started pitching a celebritytell I didn't realize what she
was pitching.
I'm like what?
(24:12):
I'm not writing that.
Then he tried to pitch me on,well, you gotta write a business
book.
Cause I said, I'm not writingthat book here.
The about, I said I'll have somevery interesting things about
business, somewhat, not thesethings called LA, which I think
things that I learned fromnightlife and maybe you can only
learn in nightlife.
(24:32):
Uh, and that's from standingaround, as they say, talking to
drunk narcissistic,narcissistic, uh, high.
In any sort of state you canthink of, of people for 30
years, you pick up some thingsand, and, and, and you, and it
helps guide your life.
There's certain rules.
I think you can't learn in anine to five job.
(24:52):
Yeah.
And, and some of them, some ofthem are, um, you know,
certainly are transferable tolike, and it's horrible to,
like, for, for example, one ofthe things I said is like, find
that hidden.
And this goes towards when Iwent to Hollywood and I opened
up a VIP nightclub, you know, acelebrity club in Hollywood.
Everyone's like, I'm thinking tomyself, why can't this be?
(25:15):
Why wasn't this year before?
Like, this is the most, can youthink of a more obvious place?
And then relaxing?
It's like the guy who, whatinvented post-it or invented
Reese's peanut butter cups sortof invented something for people
that they didn't know that theyneeded, that they needed.
Yes.
Found.
Found out the hit and knee andthe quote I always go back is
(25:36):
when and Henry Ford said, if I'dasked people what they wanted,
they would've said fasterhorses.
Yeah.
It's clever.
it is clever.
So, so it's kind of, uh, yourobservations.
From the glory days, the, an eraof clubs, like it's like, this
is your, this is this generationof the studio, 54 kind of thing.
(25:58):
Would you, would you say thatis, well, it go, no, it goes
longer 30 years, so, oh yeah.
Unfortunately I was in, I was inthe glory days of a New York
club in the nineties and Iactually started the glory case.
Of which I, now, when I was inNew York, I didn't know
anything.
Cause I was a part of thoseglory dates, but I started the,
in Hollywood, I was the firstthere in, so I started that.
(26:22):
And then when I went toSingapore, same thing, there was
the first one there.
So.
I was part of one and sort ofjumpstarted to others.
So, and it goes what thosedifferent cultures and what
nightlife is to those culturesacross different cultures.
Yeah.
That might be quite a challengeto, to tap into a, a different a
Singapore, you know, a culturein, in Malaysia, like to figure
(26:45):
out what they, what they'reinto.
And that's gotta be interesting.
It's really hard.
And the fun, the irony about.
It's I've gone everywhere, youknow, New York, Boston, and then
the one place where I had thebiggest culture shock was of all
places, the town never, ever,you know, thought that's sort
(27:06):
the book, there's a, uh, thebook is the, chapter's actually
called culture shock, When I'mgoing around the country and
talking about the book, you cango online, you know, everybody
is just obsessed with thenineties in new and that's
normal because the people jumpon stuff.
(27:27):
But yeah.
So I've answered a lot ofquestion about that era.
And to be honest, John, I wasn'teven gonna start the book until
the.
I'm like who the hell wants togo back 30 years.
It's purely a lot of people.
Well, and it is fascinating, youknow, I kind of, uh, you know,
think of it as I was reading thebook, it kind of felt like the
nineties were akin to how thingsare right now coming out of
(27:49):
COVID like the eighties, youknow, really good point.
There was such a fear throughoutthe world with this aids
situation that, the partylifestyle that was so prevalent
in the, what was the magic pressconference.
Cause that kind of was thetipping point.
Right?
Well, that was, you know, that'slate eighties.
Yep.
That was late eighties, 89, Ithink.
Okay.
Yeah.
But when, when rock Hudson, whenrock, Hudson announced that he
(28:12):
had aids, it's like everythingshut down.
It was like, party's over.
And then it seems like all of asudden, the nineties, people
wanted to get back out there andbe wild.
And you were there to, uh,capitalize on that, Steve Yeah,
I mean, I mean, you know, I goback to not going back that far
(28:32):
because, you know, but then whenI started writing the book, I
realized this, you know, thiswas a very interesting time.
And John, you read that part ofthe book saying you enjoy it so
that, that, you know, that'sgood.
You know, that's a, that's apositive thing.
but you know, like anything.
Like a great, you know,Minnesota twins team or, you
know, Minnesota wild team it'sthere were a lot of talented
(28:54):
people in that life at thatpoint in time.
Right.
So it was this, oh, the ninetiesor so wild.
OK.
Yeah, there were, you know,people are kinda wild in New
York all the time.
I dunno.
But there were a lot of talentedNyla people in New York.
So, you know, like the great, agreat team.
Oh, the Yankees of 1947 Yankee.
That 1947 was a hell of a year.
(29:15):
No, it was really more aboutthe, the sort of, you know,
group of people that gottogether to create that.
So sure.
That's a big, big, that's areally big part of it.
And, and I don't claim that I'mone of those people, cause I was
learning the business.
So I, I have to ask, throughyour, your time in New York and
Boston and LA and into Memphis,who would you put on your Mount
(29:37):
Rushmore of the kindestcelebrities that you've
encountered?
Great question.
And, and the answer is there'stwo and for different reasons,
and it's pretty shocking.
The, actually the nicest one, Ican believe this is.
Madonna really my favorite.
Yeah.
Super nice.
Super nice.
Coming to the club after thestudio hanging out, you know, I
(29:59):
remember she went to JohnNorris's birthday party.
Very cool.
John Norris, the guy from MTV Mright, right.
He was just really cool, but hewas just really cool.
And, you know, she had a, shehad a pretty bad reputation for
being not nice.
In fact, I'm.
Madonna's from my hometown.
Oh, there you go.
(30:19):
There you go.
Mm-hmm based in Michigan, right?
But we, you, everyone says, oh,Madonna's from around.
You see all these and stuff.
Then she went a Jane pollinterview and called it a smelly
little town and theyexcommunication, oh, oops.
(30:40):
We go, you go to there's allthis stuff over.
Okay.
So we got Madonna on there.
Who else you got?
And, and I think only because henever, he only said one word,
you said, wait, you said, uh,three words to me in the 10
times that I ever met him wasprince.
Well, you got more than the restof us combined.
(31:00):
exactly.
Where did you meet prince in NewYork?
He started coming to limelight.
He had security guards aroundhe'd sit alone and not talk to
anybody.
And I was like, this is kinda,and then, so, you know, this
happened a lot in York.
And when I went to, um, theopening night of someone calls
and is manager at that point intime, we didn't have a name.
(31:23):
I called it the inde glitch.
Remember that phrase?
Yes.
So you're having a conversation.
He is like, he's coming and, andthere's no name I'm is bullshit.
Doesn't didn't associated with.
(31:45):
I said, this is what I call theHollywood hustle.
Right.
where people call and say, I'mcoming in with prince.
Yeah.
And they show up for theopening.
Oh, sorry, prince couldn't makeit.
But I, my eight friends.
So the night goes on the nightgoes on, we're rolling out the
carpet.
My, I lose my shoes because theglue.
The glue, um, you know, they putdown the carpet glue and my, my
(32:07):
Chuck Taylors get stuck on it.
One of them does, right.
So there's no time you roll thecarpet over that.
I have, I'm running around withone shoe, right?
It's like, it's like, rightoutta enthusi off my shoes.
I'm running around at the, ofthe night.
I get a text, it's the guy.
Right.
And I'm like, you know what?
This has been a long night.
(32:27):
I, so I sort of run out.
Shoes on.
I'm like, I'm gonna yell thisguy, like email me.
John's a lot for me to get mad.
I just, I, you know, it was myfirst time dealing with
celebrity the whole night I getout there and I'm running and I
almost, and the guy moves the,and almost pancake him on the
(32:47):
ground.
I was like, oh, Hey, so, so theonly word, the only word he ever
said to me is you OK man?
And I said, Jess, OK.
That's pretty nice.
That's nice.
I, Steve, I thought just walk.
I thought you were gonna, Ithought you were gonna say when
he came in, you didn't know ifit was prince or Danny DeVito or
your grandma it was one of thosethree people say height.
(33:14):
No, it was prince.
No grandma.
And were.
So Eric's walking in, he looksdown and he sees him running
outta the shoe.
you came in, it gives me athumbs up and that was it.
So I got a thumbs up.
And are you came in?
So that was pretty nice.
We're uh, we're gonna allowScott Berg to ask one question.
Yeah, just one.
Uh, so Steve, the first two, uh,are both from the Midwest.
(33:36):
I think that's bit veryinteresting.
Very interesting to see what,like, I'm very curious to see,
to see who the third one'sgoing.
that's a great, he ties it alltogether.
Look at that.
I kinda off Francis, just, Imean, drop the mic.
You're saying a third, a third,a third celebrity.
That was very nice.
Yes.
Gosh, I think I so many thataren't so many that aren't yeah,
(33:59):
we're going nice.
We're not going naughty.
Yeah.
That's a different show.
I'm very nice.
I'll tell you a surprising one.
That was very nice.
Was, um, you know, Iggy pop.
Oh yeah, yeah.
He's from Michigan.
I, is he really from Michigan?
Yeah.
He's from Detroit.
I, I, it's a long story in thebook I pop wast throughout the
(34:27):
he's cool dude.
Yeah.
That was the one where you hadtwo events in one night, right?
That's right.
That we had like a, some, sometheme, some theme.
Um, earlier, which we actually,we had the porn star, James
(34:58):
hosting.
I've never heard of this.
Played sand, just knocked over.
It was his, it was playing onstage playing on.
And, you know, in his, in hisshow at the end of the night
women come on stage, right?
Oh, dance.
Right.
Well, lobsters on stage, theythought it was like a beach
(35:20):
scene.
So they all, you know, To theirclothes up and all dancing on in
underwear.
And he's like, going crazy.
This is the greatest moment.
It life.
This is it's a total disaster.
And the beach, the beach themewas really for the Jenna Jameson
thing afterwards.
Right.
But, but the stuff that we hidand the rafter.
Yes.
And it was so, and the that wepushed out to the side, people
(35:43):
pushed it, you know, they, therewere so many people, he's a punk
rocker.
Yeah.
He wants chaos.
He, he loved that.
He's a giant bag.
Yeah, I, you know, but the storyis, his manager was losing his
mind during the whole thing.
I call him the real Ian faith.
Remember Ian faith and spinal.
Yes.
Yes.
Yeah.
I swear to God, this guy had acricket bat.
(36:03):
oh my God.
So classic character, I wouldjust like to tip my hat to Scott
Berg for putting this alltogether.
The three people that you namedMidwest Madonna from Michigan.
Uh, Iggy pop from Muskegon,Michigan.
Yeah.
And prince from Minneapolis.
Yeah, it, the, maybe this isMidwest.
Nice.
See, we're expanding ourhorizons.
(36:25):
Our Chronicles just got bigger,more than 3000 lists.
Yes.
John, John M Minnesota does nothave a monopoly.
Come on.
We think we do though.
You know, that we like topretend we do.
You can.
You can lead the path and therecan be other leaders, you know,
right by your side.
So it's all good.
Okay.
Before we shut it down, uh, wehave a, a tradition here on the
(36:47):
kindness Chronicles.
My favorite part of the show,our friend, Steve brown here
does what we call the, uh, whatdo we call that?
The, uh, rapid fire cluelessquiz, clueless quiz.
So J uh, uh, Steve was the, uh,the lead singer of a band called
Johnny clueless.
And he, he has some fun stories,you know, uh, touring around
with the likes of the Gogodolls.
Cheap trick.
(37:07):
And so he's kind of a big dealreally?
Oh yeah.
He peaked in the, he peaked inthe nineties.
I can appreciate some is aportion of the craziness that
you've, you've seen Steve love,but he used to wear red pants on
stage.
And like the leather was theleather ones at the lover pants,
not leather.
Come on.
What am I?
I'm not that crazy.
Anyway.
So Steve, we have some rapidfire questions.
(37:29):
This helps us get kind of anunderstanding of what Steve
Adelman is really like.
Yeah.
Are you ready?
Ready?
I, I, I, no, the question is,are you ready?
Oh yeah, well done.
Well, I gotta read the book andthen I'll totally know.
Um, okay, go ahead.
My, just, I'm gonna ask you aquick question.
I'll just fire through these,but one question I thought of
listening to you.
Talk, what is, uh, your favoritenineties quality cocktail that
(37:54):
you would, uh, that you would'veput in your club, but what's the
nineties cocktail?
Like what, what encapsulates Iin cosmopolitan?
Cosmopolitan sense.
That's the nineties drink sense,right?
Sense nineties drink.
Okay.
Um, embarrassing, but yeah, I'lladmit it.
Okay.
Kevin drank ZMA you can't melower than XMA.
Kevin drank ZMA so you're okay.
Right.
You're right.
(38:16):
That is the good.
I feel good with my intern now.
Thank you.
um, okay.
This fits in your world too.
Live Ben or DJ.
What?
What's your favorite?
What's what are you interested?
I would say my, oh gosh, live.
There we go, DJ.
Um, I, well, I'll go DJ firstthere, there, uh, when music
(38:37):
started, there were guysChicago.
My, um, those are my favorite,uh, DJs, the greatest concert I
ever saw was the stone templepilot at Avalon.
(38:58):
Wow.
Um, I've never seen a band wasthe original with Scott wi and
those.
I, I thought the building wasgonna fall apart.
I've never seen energy like thatin abandon my life.
And, and it was a small venue.
They were doing an MTV recordingthere.
So the venue only hold like2,400.
Yeah.
I thought, I thought, I thoughtthe whole building was gonna
collapse.
It's amazing what pounds andpounds of cocaine will do for
the energy of a, uh, of a band.
(39:19):
I know, whatever I was, youknow, I was like, I was just
mesmerized.
I couldn't believe that a bandcould be that.
Yeah, it's a, it was a greatband.
The two brothers on guitar base.
Yeah.
Didn't you hire like D punkearly in his career and SCR X
and some of those DJs, all ofthem that's.
So they came the first personwho book them in the United
(39:42):
States.
Avalon Boston started that andthen we took it to Avalon H.
So cool.
So yeah, I know them.
I know them all very well.
I can't read the bud.
Can't wait to read this book allright.
Back to the, back to theclueless quiz.
Um, so you already told usgreatest concert of all the
time.
Would you say stone pilots wouldbe one of your favorites if you
ever you've ever witnessed it'skind of what you were saying.
(40:03):
Yeah.
Yeah.
That was great.
And thought you can't mouse sawYouTube at Madison square
garden.
That was really incredible.
I thought they were just, youknow, I mean, how can you, how
can you beat that?
You know, the rolling stone at,um, In LA at, uh, oh my gosh.
What's the famous at theHollywood bowl sitting with the
KCO brothers.
(40:24):
This guy's seen it all really.
I'm spending next with him inMichigan.
I can't wait to, to peel theonion.
We need to have a part too withyou first, first time, first
time I ever went, you know, and,and, and I remember one of the
cl brothers had a, thatgirlfriend, uh, oh gosh, haz,
panic hairs.
And she was like five foot tall,but I mean, those guys are big
(40:48):
oh, the Al brothers, the, the,the, uh, Ukrainian guys.
Yeah.
Isn't one of'em the mayor ofKeve.
I don't know.
Yeah.
He's they're fighting now.
Um, okay.
So.
You've been around the world.
You've been to Singapore, youlive in New York, live in
Boston.
You've been all around, youknow, done this kind of stuff
(41:09):
everywhere.
Um, if you could live anywherenow, where would you wanna live?
Money's no object.
You could just live anywhere.
I, I, I, I like LA you know,just an easy life and I like the
weather and it's not thatdealing with a reality scenario.
It's expensive, but it's not NewYork city expensive.
(41:30):
You.
I love Chicago.
I spent a lot of time there,John, since I've been going to
the houses, talk to Michigan,but it's just too cold.
So I'm getting to be an old man.
LA.
All right, let's get some Kevin,Kevin likes some of these
questions to there's a couple,there's a couple food questions.
A couple.
We go.
Um, are you, uh, are you, uh,okay.
(41:51):
George or Kramer?
I would say CRA.
All right.
Putting her jello, putting herjello banya Panya love it.
Pudding, pudding, taco.
Sure.
Chocolate pudding, taco pudding,taco Tuesday or fish Friday.
Oh, taco Tuesday crush chef.
(42:13):
Nice.
Ooh, there you go.
Um, Mac and cheese or mashedpotatoes.
Oh gosh.
Favorite food in the world.
Mashed potatoes.
There you go.
Um, my wife can't believe I eatmash potatoes anywhere.
Anytime she thinks I'm I likethe oddest thing ever.
She's just like Steve.
How many times?
Freaking mash potatoes in onemonth.
(42:33):
I said, oh, well, all right.
Here's here's one that kind ofcame back in the nineties.
Would you say, what would youchoose a Polaroid or digital
camera?
There's nothing like a Polaroidfor just pure and nostalgia.
I'm more of a polar my brandPolaroid.
Everyone about their brand.
Yeah.
That's brand.
I'm a Polaroid guy.
(42:54):
Yeah.
My brand 4th of July or laborday.
Oh, hanging out with thewas.
There you go.
I was hoping you go big smile onhis face.
It's it's my favorite day of theyear, except for the, and the
mosquitoes.
And I was thinking of bringingmosquito.
(43:14):
I wave it off some, what do youcall that off?
Whatever the cutter stops.
Cutter.
Cutter.
Yeah.
Cutter.
Yeah.
Greatest saving the year.
Steve, your friends would giveyou an award, uh, your book
aside, like just knowing you,this is insight into you, what,
what would they give you anaward for?
I would say hopefully they giveyou an award for being helpful
(43:37):
or trying to be.
I would give you the award forbeing easygoing.
You never seem to get upsetabout kind.
I wish I had that mechanism.
Yeah.
I think he said some practice.
He's seen a.
Everybody tells me that.
Okay.
I'll take that.
Okay.
That's a nice, that's a verynice word at this time.
I'll take any award I can get.
(43:57):
So John, you bring it, the, itI'll start whittling later
today.
I bet you will.
With John, John with the trophy,I still have that's right.
Domination from the weddingtournament.
Right?
Right.
I got, I just got two morequestions on a scale of one to
10, how would you rate yourhandshake?
(44:19):
Oh, gosh, I would have to giveit a four because I'm, I, I go
in confusing.
I go, do I go with the sum up orsum down?
You know, I'm a bad, I don't, Idon't commit you.
Don't A's noncommittal puts mebelow average.
That's that's my analysis of myhandshake.
All right.
All right.
(44:40):
Um, and then last question.
This is, uh, I know, I knowwe're on, uh, we're on a
podcast, so you can't seeanything, but, you know, John.
I don't think you've met Kevinbefore.
Oh yeah.
We've met.
You have met mm-hmm we've met.
Okay.
Got it.
Good it.
Okay.
So now you met these two guys,uh, for our listeners.
Um, this is a interesting onefor who's more handsome.
Nope.
No, we're not going down thatroad.
It's a landslide who you, whowould win in a fair and square
(45:03):
wrestling match between oh Johnor, or kg here?
Is there oil or mud involved?
This is just straight upwrestling.
Well, I fight dirty you know,What's your, what's your
assessment, Steve?
Well, my assessment would bethat awkward.
It would no, no, it's notawkward.
I, I can see it in my mind,right.
(45:27):
Oh, it would start off even itwould start off even.
And then John would say, ohgosh, I pulled a groin.
Yes.
Kinda.
Hold on, hold on, hold on.
And then he would go to thekitchen and come back with a
chair and break it over.
Kevin's.
That is, that's what I, Steve,that is that's right.
A hundred percent accurate fishhook, grind stuff, and very low
threshold for pain.
(45:48):
Right.
That's awesome.
So I see that being, that's aneasy call.
I can picture that in my mind.
Like it was, you know, yeah.
That's the last, that's thelast, what am I gonna eat
tomorrow for breakfast?
That's the last time we're gonnaask that question.
Yeah, that one's okay.
I, one last thing one last thingbefore we let you go.
Um, and before I forgetnocturnal admissions, uh, as I
understand was number one, uh,on Amazon, uh, in whatever
(46:13):
category this book is, is foundin, but it really is a.
Let me, let me put that inperspective, it was number one
in all of its categories.
One of them categories beingEDM, dance music slash adult
coloring books.
So who knew that exist?
That would, you know what?
I've never seen an adulting bookaward is the award good timing,
(46:35):
but I am not a reader.
I am more of a TV guy and I havereally gotten into this book.
It's a very entertaining.
And especially for guys of acertain age, you know, those of
us that are in our fiftiesearly, are we in our fifties,
fifties?
Oh my God.
And by the way, the picturepictures are spectacular.
The pictures in the book arefantastic.
Saw Brittany Spears.
(46:56):
Thank you.
Thank you.
Yeah.
Um, those are hard to get.
Yeah, but no kidding.
The, the book is, is fascinatingas hell.
And, uh, I just encourageeverybody to pick it up.
Because, uh, the more books youbuy, the more likely Steve will
be picking up, uh, dinner on the4th of July.
Steve might be one of our, uh,most impressive guests so far.
We got just a, you know, I agreepretty good.
He's pretty, pretty high on thelist right now.
(47:17):
This is amazing.
But as I was telling his, putthis way, right.
Look it, I would consider myselfif I was promoting myself with
your guest, I would say I wasyour number one guest by, in
season three.
And I'll take that.
I'll take that number one seasonseason.
Number one, before I go, thereis one little story that you
tease, um, early in the book,and it's related to a curb, your
(47:41):
enthusiasm script that youwrote.
I know we have to read the bookto, to, to, to get the ultimate
story, but tell us, just, uh,tell the readers a little bit
about that, because that to meis, uh, is pretty fascinating.
It's my first, when I gotHollywood, not only, I started
watching enthusiasm relate tothat and the show when it
(48:03):
started, wasn't very successful.
so, as I took observationsregarding nightlife, I started
writing these kinda fake script.
You know, I don't know.
I didn't even know how to writea script.
And it just so happens that, uh,my partner's brother was best
friends with Larry David.
So he said, let get the script,Larry, Larry got the script.
(48:24):
We fair and didn't know at theliability and all these things.
I said fast forward in the book,you know, all of a sudden they
get a call saying, oh my God,your script got made.
What?
Talking about.
So the episode got made.
Now, what they did was they tooktwo or three things from that
(48:45):
episode and include them inanother episode.
So everybody was jumping aroundand, and they were telling, oh
my David fast I'm and someonestarts talking about their
friends who wrote that script.
Wait a second.
Hold.
Somehow, somehow they got theirhands on the script and took
(49:05):
credit for it.
Oh.
And so that was my first, um,sort of foray into Hollywood
writing and the, the sort of,um, lesson learned on that was
okay.
You know, just don't give up.
And here you go.
Now I have a book sons ofbitches, John, the book, the
book is getting a lot ofinterest.
It's written like a TV show.
It's got 16 chapter.
(49:26):
And not, not coincidentally aseason right now is eight is
eight episode.
So I have there's yeah.
I've already cast your book.
so of course, you know, MatthewMcConaughy will be playing, uh,
Steve Adelman.
Um, right.
That seems about right.
Doesn't it.
Well, I had, I had, I haddifferent thoughts, but I, I
(49:49):
understand, yeah, that could.
I, I always, you know, I hadGeorge Clooney playing me.
Of course.
That's I can see that fair, youknow, thing here, book a, I, me
thinking I'm being recognizedelse recognizes being somebody
(50:11):
else.
John Malkovich.
Ooh, good one.
John Melich, Steve jobs in Asia,but, but, and, and John, when
you read the book and finish it,the real.
Real book, it's this it's verysimple.
It's that, you know, be carefulwhat you chase because all the
running that'll be worth it.
So all the years you spentchasing parties and this and
that, you know, the happiestparty or moment I ever had in my
(50:34):
life is marrying Michelle.
There's the kind.
Comes live.
Right.
And by the way, by the way,Michelle's standing next to me.
So I had to say that that that'sa guy that man, well, that's a
guy that catch it.
Right?
And then you should look at her.
Say, now get back in thekitchen.
Hey.
Oh no.
I told her, I said, do you hearme?
I said, are my mash potatoesgetting called?
(50:57):
Well, our pizza just came so on.
You're note, Steve.
Oh my gosh.
We, uh, we, we thank you foryour time.
And.
This has has been fascinating.
It's been fun.
And, uh, yeah.
Thank you.
Imagine we'd like to have youback on again.
Yeah.
We have to be a part too, butuh, good luck with the book and,
uh, and the potatoes.
And I'll see you in a few daysand off we go.
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Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
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