September 18, 2025 • 52 mins
Lenie Colacino spent the summer with us singing on the Hapoy Together tour with Jay and the Americans. Of course we found out that Lenie is way more than just a background singer and, in fact, has his own absolutely amazing musical history and journey and he shares that with us including his run as Paul McCartney in "Beatlemania" on Broadway. We hope you enjoy this episode we sure did!
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
I saw I'm sitting in the rim.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Hi, we're the Councils.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
I'm Paul, I'm Bob, and I'm Susan Cowsill.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
And welcome, Welcome, one and all to the.
Speaker 3 (00:16):
Calcil Podcast, where we have fun, fun, fun, even when
we're being serious.
Speaker 4 (00:21):
Every single week with our music stories and weekly special
guests from all walks of life.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
All of us can use a break sometimes take a breezer.
Speaker 5 (00:30):
Right right right, Well, if that's proof for you, then
you have a rived at the right place.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
At the right time.
Speaker 3 (00:37):
So we want you to sit back, bring back and
escape with us.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
And to our world of harmony, Lester and Tom Foolery.
So let's get to it. Here's today's episode of the Castle.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
So, yeah, all we are here.
Speaker 3 (00:58):
Our music is just ending. We faded out and here
we are. Everybody off of the road, off of the
summer tour, all with lower some sort form of lower back.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
Pain or some legs that don't work.
Speaker 3 (01:13):
And the thing we took home with us from the
tour that when we're going to spend September dealing with
right everybody, Yeah, it's true. So we were talking about
Paul's medical situation that everyone's involved with because we love
it because it's so positive, just real quick, like Paul
got prostate cancer, you know, but we got to tell you.
(01:35):
And he's our brother. This guy's an iron man. If
he would have never said a word, Susan, isn't it true?
If he would have never said anything to anybody kind
of like I would be, we would have never known.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
We would have never known.
Speaker 3 (01:49):
That he's going through. And it's the one time in
his life that Paul pursues the number zero and it's
not often they could do that.
Speaker 4 (01:56):
That's true.
Speaker 1 (01:57):
Yeah, it's as far as the Casties know. We've all
been out together on the road. Lenny is a family member.
Now we've all we did the summer together. Lenny knows
what's up. That's why we're comfy talking about this before
we get into our incredible interview with Lenny.
Speaker 5 (02:14):
Okay, So, hey, what what I'll do and then we
can get to Lenny is just wrap it up.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
And so I went to the doctor.
Speaker 5 (02:21):
He was very excited about my PSA which was yet
again less than zero point zero and undetectable and uh,
and so I went in there. The doctor was excited.
He's thinking maybe it's dead, but you know, we all
hold back on that. So they put me at six
months now to get a PSA. In six months, I mean,
I'm gonna forget about that. I'll have to be reminded
(02:43):
it'll be there. So everybody, everything's cool and I'm rocking
and rocking and rocking.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
Paulie, this will be your first month like where you
just allow yourself not to think about it. Yeah, gonna
be great.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
Yeah, that's great.
Speaker 5 (02:59):
I told I told doctor Willis Sester. I go, you know,
I think I think I think they got the wrong guy.
He goes, well, look at it. They had the right
guy who had a miracle.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
And just say we'll take it.
Speaker 3 (03:13):
So everyone knows. What Paul went through made me go
through an entire physical in a way that I've never
had before. I mean the heart, the lungs of everything.
And I got to admire Paul because and nothing's wrong
with me, but going through a physical or you got
to wait two weeks for that result, or you got
to wait a week for that result, those.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
Are bad for me, for everybody.
Speaker 4 (03:35):
Man.
Speaker 3 (03:36):
You live under assumed health, that's a good way to live,
of course, but better is confirmed health. That's even bad.
And as you get older, you go, I guess I
better look inside.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
Hey, wait a minute, as we get older, confirmed good health,
is all of it that all that wet moving forward?
Speaker 3 (03:56):
Or zero points zero? Psaw?
Speaker 1 (04:00):
Do you think about all this? Lenny?
Speaker 4 (04:02):
I am just soaking it in. And uh, I'm going
to my doctor in a couple of days and I
hope to get additional confirmed good health.
Speaker 3 (04:13):
Man in case for any check for any wondering, who's
that guy up there. He's off the tour, he's out
of uniform, and we all look like Joe citizens, you know,
in our lives, right. But but sitting there is Lenny Colaccino.
(04:34):
He is somebody that we met this summer as he
sang with Jay and the Americans. He was one of
the quote unquote Americans. But we're gonna find out with
Lenny that he is way, way, way much more than
the latest American as we call these background guys. It's great, well,
the latest Rader, the latest American.
Speaker 4 (04:56):
L I have my passport, I do.
Speaker 5 (05:03):
Nice, nice, But I want to let you know, Lenny,
as for all the people we've seen in the last
eleven years, when you came out there, man, it was
you were just likable immediately and you just had an
air about you like you you belonged here, you know,
and and uh and just I just fell in love
with you.
Speaker 4 (05:23):
Man.
Speaker 5 (05:23):
I don't know why, but you know, it was like, hey, Lenny,
maybe it's the name Lenny.
Speaker 4 (05:29):
May I say, May I say to all of you
that I was. It would not have surprised me if
I had been treated with caution, because no one know
who I was, basically, But what a joy it was
to me, you guys in particular and the entire cast.
I was shocked, almost shocked at how I was welcomed
(05:51):
in and also the great joy of getting to watch
you guys on a nightly basis from you know, from
the way the switch was. It was so great to
see you guys and meet you guys. And I'm forever
grateful that you you embraced me as one of you know,
someone who belonged.
Speaker 1 (06:10):
To Lenny, and we loved you. We're like, we want
him in our cabin man.
Speaker 4 (06:18):
Thank you, thank you.
Speaker 3 (06:19):
But believe me, people have come on that tour that
I mean with you were going. He's surely he's done
this before. We found people depressed in their dressing room.
It is something you do notice, but Lenny gave away
something and everything he just said. There was one word
he said that points to his amazing past because he
(06:43):
called all of us on the Happy Together Tour the cast,
and that the whole cast, you were all wonderful. I'm
going the cast were just called us the cast right there,
because any we're gonna find out. And now what Lanny
(07:03):
doesn't know is like he's got three beetle maniacs over
in the Couse Hills. But but we're gonna find out.
Lannie played Paul McCartney Broadway's beetle Mania or at least
six eight years and then took it on the road
all over the world and did that. We've got to
talk about it. He's the closest now we've come to
(07:24):
meeting the Beatles, and this is very close to me.
It's like this guy.
Speaker 4 (07:31):
That's sad in a way.
Speaker 5 (07:33):
It is.
Speaker 3 (07:34):
You're the only guy I know personally who actually wore
Sergeant Pepper uniforms. You know, and actually you know this
kind of thing. And I want to thank you first
for you got about to answer questions You've been asked
one hundred times. We're all sure, we all do it.
We love to do it. And we hope you do,
and we know we're gonna take you through some things
(07:55):
you've gone down before.
Speaker 4 (07:56):
I'm ready. What you guys are fire away now.
Speaker 1 (07:59):
Paul and Bob, do we want me to do character
about our friend Lene?
Speaker 2 (08:03):
Okay it?
Speaker 1 (08:05):
Lenny wel podcast. I have the joy of opening most
of our programs because I like to try and find
out a little early early history about our company, so
we always know when they come on they're either a
graphic artist, a musical artist, a DJ, a manager, or
(08:27):
whatever whoever we have on here. We know who they
are today, but I like to try and find out
who they started out as. So you're now we little Lenny,
and you've been born, and mom and dad Lenny are there,
and you guys are having your life. You might have
many brother sister Lenny's, which we'll find out, but you're
a guy going along in his life like all of us.
(08:47):
Were you musical to your knowledge from the moment you
got here? Were your parents musical? Or did you, little
Lenny want to be doctor Lenny or fireman Lenny, lawyer
Lennie baseball player take it away?
Speaker 4 (09:01):
Yes, all of those things. Actually, my first musical experience
might have been when I was in the fifth grade
and I was cast in the There's That Word Again?
I was cast as the lead in an HMS Pinafore,
which is an operetta by Gilbert and Sullivan. So I
(09:23):
discovered I could sing at about the fourth and fifth grade.
And since you know, look, you're a family, and my
family wasn't exactly the same. But my parents actually, and
I don't want to put them down, but they kind
of discouraged me from pursuing life in music, as is
(09:45):
much the case. But when I first saw the Beatles
on the Ed Sullivan Show, that was a deal breaker
for me. Okay, I know what I want to do,
I know what I want to be. I guess I
was about ten years old.
Speaker 3 (10:00):
Yeah, yeah, So your parents are trying to dissuade a
six to ten year old kid away from what he's gravitating.
I bet they regret letting you watch Ded Sulomon that
night thing, because something's going to happen apparently.
Speaker 4 (10:15):
Well, as we all know, there weren't a lot of
choices for TV viewing in those days. So the Beatles
are fond of the surviving Beatles even back then. We're
very proud of the fact of the size and percentage
of the American audience they had that night. You know,
crime was down. Everybody was watching them. So and I
(10:38):
was one of those.
Speaker 3 (10:39):
Yeah, yeah, we were too, We were too.
Speaker 4 (10:42):
So.
Speaker 1 (10:42):
May I ask what did mom and dad think you
might be better off doing?
Speaker 4 (10:47):
Well? Dad was He was an engineer and he worked
in a space program. He worked for Grumming at the time.
He wanted his son, and I don't regret and I
have no bad feelings about my parents whatsoever. I love
them dearly. Uh. They he wanted me to not go
(11:07):
through a lot of what he went through as a child.
He wanted a better life for me, and he saw music,
especially the way pop music was exploding in the early
sixties and mid sixties, as something that he did not
want from me because he thought it would be a
difficult life.
Speaker 1 (11:27):
That's real, sweet, No, I mean, that's that's It's not
that he wanted you to do something else. He just
didn't want you to have to struggle through a probable
in inevitability. That's pretty cool, man. Yeah, he had Yeah,
he had his back. Well, man, look at us, what's
that like looking at him?
Speaker 3 (11:45):
So in the fifth grade, Oh my gosh, I'm a singer,
and great news. And are you going to going to
school choirs? What are you going to do with that?
Speaker 4 (11:55):
Yeah, that's what I did. Very perceptive of you, Bob. Yeah,
I I could not wait to sing in an ensemble
setting like the school choir, like we had maybe an
octet of singers that were doing a cappella work. I
always was drawn to harmony and why I love you
(12:16):
guys so much, that unique sound of voices blending together
always was something that I was guess I was born
with because I didn't get it from my parents. They
were completely non musical. And I do mean utterly and
completely non musical.
Speaker 1 (12:31):
Okay, but can I see out you? So wait, dude,
So have you looked into your ancestral past, because somebody
got to have something somewhere, and sometimes it misses people.
We have relatives that should like our cousins can all sing,
but a few cannot. So nobody in your past does
any musical reality, not.
Speaker 4 (12:50):
That I'm aware of, none of my cousins, none of
my aunts, my uncles, my grandparents. I think there was
a thing among Italian America is that your child, if
he's going to play an instrument, it should be an accordion.
So my cousin Donna, she was a pretty good accordionist.
(13:12):
But that's as far as it goes.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
Yeah, not right now, all right, but there you are. Nonetheless,
you're on your way. And as Bob said, so your
inquires and stuff, you're do you do the traditional I'm
a teenage boy, I'm going to get a band to
get the chicks or do you like go? Actually go?
Speaker 4 (13:28):
Okay, tell that's exactly as you may not believe it now,
seeing me now as a chatterbox that I am. But
when I was a kid, I was absolutely misanthropic. I
was terrified of people. I saw music and being in
a rock band or a pop band as a way
to communicate without communicating, if you know what I mean.
(13:51):
I was flabbergasted. I could not talk to anybody. I
was so scared of people, and for whatever reason, music
was the outlet.
Speaker 1 (14:01):
Awesome, And you know what's interesting, Lenny, I knew you
were shy even though you were chattering. I still knew
you were a shy guy. And that's great.
Speaker 3 (14:10):
Ahead performing bands then in high school or you're a singer,
I'm not hearing anything about a guitar yet, but you're
a singer, and how do you take that into your
love of music? How do you do that?
Speaker 4 (14:21):
Well, it was simple. I go back to the Beatles
on Ed Sullivan. I realized that I focused on Paul
mostly because we were both left handed and his guitar
was pointing a different way than the rest of the
guys in the band. I didn't figure that out as
a ten year old, but it dawned on me that
(14:43):
we were both left handed. I wanted to be him
from a very early age. Oh and so I.
Speaker 3 (14:50):
Was, yeah, you're going to fulfill that dream.
Speaker 4 (14:54):
What a cool what a cool thing?
Speaker 1 (14:56):
I mean to feel a connectedness like that, and then
to be able to step into that and then and
for you really authentically because you related. So it's not
like an acting job. It's a little more in my opinion.
Speaker 4 (15:08):
Yeah, absolutely. There are guys who came into this whole
Beatles tribute business who were doing it either for the
money or the notoriety. For me, it was always a deep,
deep love of the music and them. You know, we're
all Beatle freaks here, so I think we all have
a connection as to how they changed our lives, and
(15:29):
me especially.
Speaker 6 (15:34):
Yeah, So in the in the early years, you got
a band, What was your first instrument, because I know
you do bass and keyboards and or piano and then guitar,
and so initially, what did you play, Paul.
Speaker 4 (15:51):
That's a great question, and I have a really weird
answer for you. The first instrument I picked up was
a six string guitar, and it was a right handed
six string. Because I didn't know that, I didn't know
the difference. So I started strumming on that six string
for a long time. And this was maybe a year
(16:13):
pre Beatles. And but when I saw Paul, I want that.
I want to be him, but he's playing something different.
It's a bass.
Speaker 3 (16:22):
So we went through that.
Speaker 4 (16:24):
So get this. I play right handed six string but
left handed bass guitar.
Speaker 3 (16:31):
Oh I know.
Speaker 4 (16:32):
I was like poop, bang zoom right like to this day,
to this day, I cannot play a left handed six
string and I can't play right handed bass either. It's
very odd.
Speaker 1 (16:45):
Id Aby your ambi, your ambi specific to these instruments.
Speaker 5 (16:51):
Real, So you taught yourself, Lenny, you taught yourself these instruments?
Speaker 4 (16:56):
Yeah, Well, of course I took lessons. I was more
a serious student of voice. I had many voice teachers
who had aspirations for me to become an opera singer.
They wanted me to be an operatic tenor.
Speaker 1 (17:08):
I mean that was your first gig. How interesting? Yeah, yeah,
you're tenor are we guys?
Speaker 4 (17:15):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (17:15):
Okay, that's only yeah, yeah, well because we're Irish, you're
Italian italianed for mostly I'm to realize.
Speaker 2 (17:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (17:28):
So, just to finish up on that thought, when you
went to try out for Beatlemania, had you secured all
your knowledge on a keyboard, a bass, and a guitar?
Speaker 2 (17:40):
Were you going in there fully loaded?
Speaker 4 (17:43):
Absolutely? Not the I maybe it was a good thing
that I had no no expectations to get the job.
It was what a typical what the theater would call
a cattle call. That is, there were maybe seventy people
in the room. Some of them didn't realize that they
(18:05):
actually had a sing or play, which was yeah, they
just thought they had a mind to records. So those
people were shown the door immediately. Yeah. I prepared four
songs because not only did I have to play the bass,
(18:25):
I had to play the piano and I had to
play the sixth string for one song, that one song
being yesterday. So I didn't go when Philly loaded, But
you guys who play guitar would know that if you're
familiar with the recording, Yesterday is recorded in the step down,
so you're actually playing a G chord to start off
(18:47):
the song, but you're tuned to step down.
Speaker 1 (18:50):
So sorry, Sue.
Speaker 4 (18:57):
So the auditioning process was such that I was watching
person after person get the door after like four bars,
you know, thank you, bye, thank you bye.
Speaker 3 (19:09):
I'm sorry, So I have to let me interject in
and out with you, Lenny, you walked in this through
the seventy people. Are you seeing a subset of look
alikes that are like Holy mackerel? Yeah, yeah, specifically for Paul.
Are you ready to step into George or John? Or
are they?
Speaker 4 (19:26):
I was lazier focused on Paul. That's all I ever
wanted to be.
Speaker 1 (19:29):
You know, this is a Paul audition, right or yeah, okay,
just fall okay, them are getting the door.
Speaker 4 (19:39):
Immediately, yes, quickly. So I I got through my first song,
which I believe was got to get you into my life,
which is the singers or No, that's not an easy
song to pull out, my god. So but I had
the feeling I was doing well so they kept a
(20:00):
be well, what else do you know? So I did
maybe the Long and Winding Road on the piano Penny Lane.
I forget what else I saying. I got through five
or six songs, and I thought, well, this is going
pretty well. I'll probably get a call back and to
go ahead of probably one of your possible questions. I
got pulled into the ante room of SAR Studios where
(20:24):
the audition was being held in New York by Sandy Yuguda.
Now there's a name we all know. Sandy was the
musical director for Beatlemania. He offered me the job on
the spot, and I was stunned, like, hey, wait a minute,
slow down, yeah, slow down, all right.
Speaker 3 (20:46):
Now I have to ask, though, when you're auditioning, are
you auditioning in front of like three guys at a table.
Are the other sixty nine applicants in front of you?
Are you performing in front of them?
Speaker 4 (20:56):
Yes?
Speaker 3 (20:57):
All of the entire room, Holy Mac. And you each
took a shot. So you must have heard some that
went before you that said no way.
Speaker 4 (21:06):
Yeah, I agreed with them getting the door. Yes, step up?
Speaker 1 (21:14):
Did you see did you hear at all anybody who
you thought? Well, there was anybody any good?
Speaker 4 (21:23):
Frankly no, I think a large, a large percentage of
these people auditioning had no idea they actually had to
sing or play kidding.
Speaker 3 (21:34):
Whatever, leddy? Are you auditioning? Did you sing got to
Get You into My Life to a track? Did you
just stand there and sing it? Well?
Speaker 4 (21:42):
Good question, though, Bob, You're right. It was the band
that was already on Broadway. You see, when I auditioned,
it was like four or five months into the Broadway run.
So they would come down. These were held in the
afternoon on show days and they would play behind the
people auditioning. So I played the I played the bass
(22:04):
along with the three other guys and a keyboard player.
So it was fleshed out.
Speaker 1 (22:10):
In other words, okay, so let me ask you this.
So then if it was already on Broadway for four months,
then we are now effectively replacing Paul correct Well.
Speaker 4 (22:19):
Not really. How it worked. How it worked was that
when the show opened on Broadway, which was in nineteen
seventy seven, it was a big hit. So the original
cast went on tour. They did the national tour, so
there were always two bands in every location where the
show was being performed. So when the show picked up
(22:42):
and went to LA first, they still needed a cast
in New York. So that's when I came in.
Speaker 3 (22:49):
Okay, wow, and that is that where you get Marshall
Krenchhawer over there in LA. Along with there it was
the other Paul you know, that was West Coast guys,
you know, well.
Speaker 4 (23:02):
Not particularly, they were at one time, I think up
to ten Beatle bands under the auspices of Beatlemania, so
there were always two sets of Beatles in every city.
So when the first band, which was Joe Pecorino as John,
Mitch Weisman as Paul, Leslie Fraken as George, and Justin
(23:24):
McNeil as Ringo, they went to LA and they got
a local LA band to be the second part of that.
So New York needed two new bands. So that's when
I was hired.
Speaker 3 (23:38):
Hey, now here's something I've always wondered about. So now, okay,
let's all right, you're Paul on Broadway in Beatlemania. Okay,
if you don't mind take us through, you're gonna step
into a workload that is I think going to be unbelievable,
and you're gonna have to take care of your boys.
You can have to play more than once a day.
(23:59):
What was the schedule that you stepped into. Is this
once a day, twice a day? Mondays off ten songs
and five songs a night.
Speaker 4 (24:07):
It was funny you should ask about that, because I
have the original playbill here, which it's yellow with age.
But to answer your question, at its peak, the show
was doing eleven shows per week, and normally it was
(24:29):
you know, five to one band six another or vice versa.
But you always had to be prepared to step in
in case anybody was under the weather. Now, the whole
idea of the show was a multi media presentation, so
the people who wrote it and came up with a
visual aspect of it were completely and utterly unaware of
(24:50):
what a singer might need as far as rest goes.
So there were many many vocalists who could not carry
the load, and I don't blame them. I'm certainly not
putting them down. But at one point I was doing
one of the guys went on vacation, so I had
(25:12):
to do all eleven shows in one week. And it
would have been okay if I was George, but being Paul,
there were twenty nine songs in the show. Paul sang
lead on nineteen of them, and there were some real
gutbusters in there.
Speaker 1 (25:28):
Believing so forty I'm trying to do the math on him. Wow.
Speaker 4 (25:33):
Yeah, so that's the scale it was. Okay, there was
one show Tuesday to Wednesday, one Thursday, one Friday, three
shows on Saturday and two on Sunday.
Speaker 2 (25:45):
So how long did it run? How long was the
actual playing.
Speaker 4 (25:51):
The broad I mean it was like two and a
half hours with intermission.
Speaker 2 (25:55):
Oh okay.
Speaker 4 (25:56):
Wow. Once we got to the bus and truck version
of the show, we were doing as many as thirteen
shows a week with one band.
Speaker 1 (26:04):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (26:05):
And I won't say that it didn't damage me permanently,
but it was certainly a heavier workload than anybody wanted
to do.
Speaker 1 (26:13):
Of course, how did you handle if?
Speaker 3 (26:16):
I'm sorry, but I'm a singer, see so I got
these things in my head? How do you handle what
hate you part of the show?
Speaker 4 (26:23):
Yes, you can handle.
Speaker 3 (26:24):
You're gonna scream your head off at the tag of
hate you, that's right.
Speaker 4 (26:28):
So how I approached it? And this is this is
crazy that I did all those screaming things at the end,
verbatim the way they were on the record. Yeah, and
even today if I'm still performing that I will do
the same thing. It's a matter of thank goodness. I
(26:48):
had the training to know when I was doing damage
to my voice and when I was not. As a singer,
you guys realize you can put your voice in different
places in your head to not strain your vocal courts
too much.
Speaker 1 (27:02):
So learning that to be honest with you, but keep
going yes everywhere for me, go ahead.
Speaker 4 (27:07):
Yeah, My training with various vocal coaches came in very,
very handy, and a lot of guys didn't have that,
or maybe they didn't have the vocal range to attempt
the role. Can you think of a different male singer
or another male singer who had McCartney's range. Not only
you notewise, but he could sing a ballad as well
(27:29):
as anybody and scream his head off as well as anybody. Yeah,
a real challenge, absolutely, So I had to sing fool
on the Hill right after singing got to get you
into my life for ah.
Speaker 3 (27:44):
Yeah, I love that.
Speaker 1 (27:46):
I mean we like look. I will tell you just
you know, being a woman aging in singer, that combination
singing aging woman, everything's changed for me and we have
no training zero, But I have looked at a few
youtubes out there that have taught me how to do
(28:07):
some exercises and get a falsetto back that and a
good old vocalist that you are getting.
Speaker 4 (28:13):
Look, I watched you. I watched you like a hawk
for three months. So and if I saw you guys
doing anything that would I thought was damaging your voices,
I would have said something, but I did not because
you guys are great natural singers. I wouldn't change a thing.
Speaker 1 (28:31):
Wow, that's really kind of validating, because I promise you
were clueless, guys.
Speaker 4 (28:37):
I'm stunned. Really, I thought you all would have had
some training by now.
Speaker 1 (28:43):
You guys named seth Riggs.
Speaker 4 (28:45):
For two weeks, you guys brought it every night. You
sounded great. Every night. You sounded as youthful as I
remember in my mind those songs when I first heard them.
No kidding, no kidding.
Speaker 1 (28:56):
We appreciate that. We do, I do.
Speaker 2 (28:58):
We haven't changed any of the and that's I know.
Speaker 4 (29:02):
I know that. I know that. And uh, I also
had their enthusiasm was also contagious. You set the tone
for that show.
Speaker 1 (29:14):
You thanks.
Speaker 3 (29:16):
I have an interesting question for you, because I'm curious
about this with with Sandy and whoever the little committee is,
who's auditioning people and this this ambitious to me project
that's going to involve so many singers. Did you ever,
because you can't predict all of this, did you ever
befriend anyone who came into the show and eventually, over
(29:38):
even a few weeks, they realized that they are not
going to be able to physically do this? And what
am I going to do about that? I mean, yeah,
how do you know that about yourself? And unless you
step into the role in pry it with any failures
like that, I'm just curious.
Speaker 4 (29:51):
Yeah, there were. We got a pretty good idea of
our stamina because in rehearsal when we get first got
our our first date, our premier date for Broadway, we
were performing the show twice a day in rehearsal, full
run throughs, making sure we were vocally ready to do it.
(30:14):
Now to your question, Bob, that there were some guys
who failed utterly. I wouldn't point them out as unfair
to do that, but either they did not have the
stamina to begin with, or the wherewithal the you know,
the specter of Broadway, he was too much for them
in their own minds. There was too much pressure for
(30:38):
them to perform. As I stated before, one week, I
did eleven, all eleven shows because the fellow that was
supposed to be subbing as Paul just basically flunked out
on his first show. He couldn't handle it.
Speaker 1 (30:53):
It's overwhelmed. That's a lot, man. I can kind of
dig it, and as Bob pointed out, it's kind of
not something you'd know until you stepped in, you know,
And so that and honestly, I mean I want to know.
So learned over the last couple of years that that
recreational conversation and this kind of gigging they don't go together.
(31:15):
And Paul and Bob and I, Paul and I for
sure Bob can get going pretty good. We never shut up,
and we had to really learn, you know, that that
was a big part of what was taxing us.
Speaker 4 (31:26):
Sue, Sue, you are so right. I tell I have
vocal students and and my coworkers what I do gigs
now with it, however i'm singing, I always make sure
to tell them the same exact thing, talking like what
he's doing right now? Yeah, good, good thing. I'm not
going to sing tonight. But it is actually more wearing
(31:49):
on the on the vocal cords and singing.
Speaker 1 (31:51):
Yes, we learned that, and ironically, I mean, look through
the years, you know, I don't know, call it youth
or whatever. Until it became a problem, it didn't make
any sense to me. But I got a buddy named
Jackson who never would come hang out if we're all
together and he wants to, and I'd say, well, come over,
we're in the same city, come hangy. Go I can't
(32:12):
because we'll talk. And I used to think, what bougie.
Speaker 2 (32:15):
Bull be is this?
Speaker 1 (32:18):
Oh I don't know what you'd have to talk brown
so but God bless him, he was right as rain.
And now I totally understand what that means.
Speaker 5 (32:27):
And when you're out there, when you can feel I
mean I can feel it. As soon as I've talked
too much, I can feel it in my throat, and
I get panicked at that moment, going, oh my god,
I took it too far.
Speaker 2 (32:41):
You can really feel it.
Speaker 1 (32:42):
It's unreal. And guys, even being home, yeah, okay, because
because we really did discover this, and monk like activity
was ensuing out there, you know, some metic silence and
you know, all this stuff I got home after two days,
my wake up hello voice was and that range and
I'm like, oh my god, just from talking regular talk
(33:04):
with all my people. Yeah, okay, so you get.
Speaker 3 (33:08):
Vocal advice on the Costle's podcast.
Speaker 1 (33:11):
No, no, really, this is great. And Lenny, did you
get hip to the vocal myss that we were using
that contraption? Okay, I'm going to send you a link.
I don't know how you missed it. Paul and I
are like ron coo advertisers, and it is a saline
solution missed for your throat Lenny. It is everything and
(33:32):
and and combined with go ahead.
Speaker 4 (33:35):
No, I I am hip to the uh to the
I would take it nasally. Uh just But my my
little routine was always slippery elm if you.
Speaker 1 (33:49):
Know what that is, that's the throat coat we were.
Speaker 4 (33:53):
And I think what I learned on this particular tour
is to not over warm up, which is a bad
thing that I would often. This was my little secret
that when Little Anthony was on, who was on just
before us, I always sang great. I would warm up to.
(34:13):
I would sing along to his third song and then
rest for the fourth song, and I would be ready
to sing so my routine when I was younger was
a forty five minute warm up. Forty five minutes. That
doesn't work at my age anymore.
Speaker 1 (34:32):
Where's your butt out? Workout?
Speaker 4 (34:35):
Love?
Speaker 3 (34:36):
But I have another little Mandia question, because sure, it's
just things I think about. I was just curious when
you got wind of this audition. Okay, something got to
your house or some somehow you saw a fly or me.
Speaker 2 (34:50):
Well, yeah, did it?
Speaker 4 (34:51):
Well?
Speaker 2 (34:51):
I just wanted did you have an agent? Is that
how you came upon it?
Speaker 4 (34:54):
And I did not have an agent. As a matter
of fact, I was living in Pennsylvania in a big
ten piece band at the time, and we were one
of the first communities to get cable TV. And I
saw the ads on local New York television while I
was living in Pennsylvania, and I would see Mitch Weisman,
(35:15):
who was a dead ringer Faull and singing Yesterday. They go, well,
they got the right guys, so they don't need me.
So then I was informed by a friend of a
friend that they were recasting the show. So I said,
what have I got to lose? Let me go in
and well you know the rest of the story.
Speaker 1 (35:34):
Yeah, Bob, what was your question.
Speaker 3 (35:36):
I was curious when you had the audition you and
you got hired, I'm going to do this. Was it
known in the very beginning that you will eventually take
this show on the road, And how's that affecting your family? Like,
by the way, if there was one going on at
the time, because you're being asked now to step into
a role that's going to pretty much take over your life. Okay,
(35:58):
we're going to go on the road with it after
eight years of seven year however long it was.
Speaker 4 (36:02):
And it wasn't that long. My higher date was sometime
in November of nineteen seventy seven. By late winter or
early spring of seventy eight, I was on Broadway. By
the end of that year, I was shipped out to
the National Touring Company. So yeah, I just had been
(36:25):
married a month before.
Speaker 1 (36:27):
My own no no, no, no.
Speaker 4 (36:29):
Yeah, And boy did it change my life in a
lot of ways. So eventually, and you know, this is
way in the past, water under the bridge, it basically
destroyed my marriage, my first marriage, because not only after
I had gotten through the national tours, there were the
international tours. Yes, so there was South America, there was
(36:53):
New Zealand, there was Europe. So I traveled the whole
world doing this show. The bus and truck was very
similar to what we went through in the Happy Together
tour in that it was one night er after one
night er, after one nighter, and get on the bus,
get to the next place, do the gig. You know
(37:13):
that life and it's it's as Robbie Robertson once put it,
it's no way of life, right, I.
Speaker 1 (37:21):
Mean it, it is no way of life. I mean
it is another way of life.
Speaker 3 (37:25):
Yeah, that's another way of life, not no way of life.
Speaker 1 (37:27):
Then you decide if it works for you or not.
Speaker 3 (37:32):
How does it all stop? I mean, did you go
I am so over, Paul? I mean what happens?
Speaker 4 (37:39):
I am not over, Paul, and I don't think I
ever will be eventually petered out, I would say around
nineteen eighty five. So I'm talking about a good seven
to eight years being under the auspices of what was
called Beatlemania. So after that, a lot of guys who
are in the show you mentioned in Marshall Crenshaw and
(38:01):
Glenn Burtneck I think you just recently back there were
a lot of guys who had aspirations beyond that. They
saw it logically as a stepping stone to their own
individual careers. Some did, some did not. Some came and
went in a month because they couldn't handle it or
didn't want to. They just saw it as a job.
Speaker 1 (38:21):
So everybody had a very different reason to be there.
Speaker 4 (38:23):
I guess, yeah they did, and nothing wrong with that.
But I had always had this incredible, deep love of
the Beatles. Maybe it's unhealthy that I still can listen
to that music and it can still affect me the
way it did when I first heard it.
Speaker 3 (38:41):
Absolutely, the Beatles absolutely picked us up right out of
folk music and ladder roads right into pop music when
we were at the right age, teenagers. You know, we're
all young and impressionable in that way.
Speaker 1 (38:55):
Paul Calsel, he doesn't love the Beatles as much as
everybody else, but I believe has gratitude for him because
without them he might not have had his life.
Speaker 4 (39:04):
Yeah, they opened a lot of doors for a lot
of musicians.
Speaker 1 (39:09):
You don't know how many times. I mean, I would
love a poll. I would love to see the research.
Somebody asked the question how many ten to fifteen year
old boys became a musician that on that Monday cheap
their life. You I bet we would be stunned at
(39:30):
the amount versus who might have ended up being a
musician and who might not have.
Speaker 4 (39:35):
Well, I think you had to have some sort of
innate talent, and if you didn't, you probably found out
real quick it wasn't for you for sure.
Speaker 1 (39:42):
Do you know what I mean, Polly, I see it.
Speaker 2 (39:44):
Well, I found out that night that you know, you
always hear it.
Speaker 5 (39:48):
You know, Hey, why did you start playing guitar man
to get the girls that audience?
Speaker 2 (39:53):
When they panned the audience? Man, all these girls going haywire.
Speaker 5 (39:57):
I think that's what all the little boys saw, was
that the Beatles.
Speaker 2 (40:02):
Okay, well, I'll deal with that later. How do I
get this chick thing going on?
Speaker 4 (40:06):
Yeah, PAULI, you're absolutely right. It was a confluence of
puberty and.
Speaker 1 (40:12):
There and crazy and Paulie. Will you please for me, Lenny,
I want Paul to give you his experience of the
night of the Beatles and the day after.
Speaker 5 (40:22):
Go, Paul, Well, so we hear the Beatles are going
to be on, you know, and so okay, and we're
sitting you know, and I'm like in the seventh grade
or the sixth grade, and we had a right up
the hill from our house was our bus stop, and
you know, and we had maybe ten kids at that
bus stop, you know, and all the girls were there
and we were there, and you know, it was this
(40:43):
whole thing going on for like six years with all
these girls that we've known forever. And so the Beatles
are on, you know, and really I watched it and
it was everybody's.
Speaker 2 (40:52):
Screaming, and you know, for me as a little kid,
it was like, what are we watching here? What are
we watching?
Speaker 5 (40:57):
And but it went up to the bus stop that
Monday after that Sunday night, and all the girls were
like all over here and we were chopped liver from
that point on, and I just couldn't figure it out.
Speaker 4 (41:12):
Yeah, Paul, you hit on something, as I remember the Monday,
the same Monday of your experience. But I was in
the fifth grade or sixth grade. All the girls would
raise their hands to go to the bathroom because they
had their transistor radios, uh, listening to Beatles on.
Speaker 1 (41:35):
Look, this is Beatles Black Monday. It's born here today.
And there are stories. We could have a series and
we'll just have an interview interview about people. Monday, the
Monday after the Sunday and what was your life? How
has it changed?
Speaker 2 (41:47):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (41:49):
Yeah, people came up to me with a Peter, Paul
and Mary album later.
Speaker 1 (41:52):
No, No, the Beatles, it's phenomenon, It's fantasy.
Speaker 3 (41:59):
Sure, any clearly there's more to Lenny Cole it, you
know than Beatlemania. Although you know there's more to the
Beatles and the Beatles. So after Beatlemania when it ended,
were you ready for attend or did you have a void?
Did you have a I missed this. I wish I
could have done this the rest of my life.
Speaker 4 (42:18):
Uh not immediately, No, no, bob uh. I never felt
that I should have done more of it because my workload.
Looking back on it now, because I kept diaries in
the day, I said, you know, you should have spontaneously
combusted from all the work that you guys did.
Speaker 3 (42:39):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (42:41):
So there was a period of like, okay, let me
just chill for a while, let me not do this
for a while. But then I found out I missed it,
and you know, we we formed our own little Beetle band. Uh.
And there are so many now I kind of feel
responsible in a way and not in genre. Yeah, for
all the seven million Beatles tribute they're out there.
Speaker 1 (43:06):
You know.
Speaker 3 (43:07):
I've seen many of them, and very very very very
few of them are that good. And I'm only saying
that as a beatlemaniac, because every Beatle band I've ever
seen it was like, Okay, you did that one. Good,
Please don't ever do that one again. They did that one? Okay,
all right.
Speaker 1 (43:27):
It's true. I mean, we have a really ors.
Speaker 3 (43:30):
Haven't said that. I also, in those same bands experienced
the power of the Beatles, and that there wasn't one
audience that didn't think everything they were seeing was unbelievably fantastic.
Speaker 4 (43:40):
Yeah. Yeah, that That's why I have noticed, too, is
that the audience is very willing to suspend their disbelief.
They want to love you, you know, so they are
very forgiving. But it never affected the way I honored
the music because I'm still playing the bass parts and
(44:01):
learning the bass parts and teaching those bass parts to
fledgling Wanta Beatles.
Speaker 3 (44:08):
So today, so today you're moving it forward, you're teaching today.
Speaker 4 (44:13):
Yeah, I teach voice and I also teach bass guitar,
but with a specific niche of McCartney's bass, we didn't have.
We didn't have that advantage that we have now of
people being able to dissect every little thing on a record.
All we had was a record player and you know,
a needle, you know. Okay, did you hear that? You
know vocally too? You know, we didn't have that. Now
(44:37):
there are you know, you go on YouTube, you could
play any Beatles bass part because it's been isolated by somebody.
Speaker 1 (44:44):
You know, I didn't realize that. You know. A friend
of ours was trying to learn Indian Lake okay off
of our record and he was playing bass at George
Porter Jr. And you cannot hear the bass part. Yeah
not And Mary was saying, made him one because she
knows it. But on those old records and stuff, it's
very hard to decipher.
Speaker 4 (45:04):
Yeah, the technology is way beyond me now how they
do it. But back in the day, their early recordings,
the Beatles' recordings were done on a four track machine,
so they had to keep bouncing things down and the
bass was the one thing that got lost in the mix.
Speaker 1 (45:20):
But you literally teach Paul McCartney base that's badass.
Speaker 3 (45:23):
Yeah, they do. They actually, Actually, in the old days,
the Beatles used to bring McCartney back in it because yes,
every time you mix it down, you lose the generation
of bass and he used to actually put it on last.
Speaker 4 (45:36):
Well, funny you mentioned that, Bob. I think the first
time that they Paul started adding the bass track was
sarg and Pepper. They went from four to a track.
There are videos and there were also you know, those bootlegs,
and they were also the deluxe versions where you can hear, like,
let's say, lucying this guy with diamonds. Paul is playing
the keyboard on that track and then he adds the
(45:58):
bass part last. Yes, which blew my mind when I
first found out. But he did that a lot, did.
Speaker 3 (46:06):
That a lot because it would disappear on him. You know. Well,
so your teacher, now, did you ever do anything at
the level of a Beatlemania in terms of touring with
a band or becoming a member of something like that? Ever? Again,
I mean, I know you're with Jane the Americans and
that must have been from knowing Sandy, right, I know,
(46:26):
how did you get in Janie the Americans.
Speaker 1 (46:28):
Yeah, that's what I wanted to ask.
Speaker 4 (46:30):
Well, yeah, it's it's kismet. It's going full circle, I
guess because I had not. I was just content to
be teaching, seeing vocal students doing occasional little gigs here
and there. I was happy doing that. Then the phone
call came not from Sandy, but from Beatlemania's musical director
(46:53):
at the time, a fellow named Andy Dorfman, who Todd
Biederman knew he called. He called Andy who said, do
you know anybody might be interested in playing bass? Not singing,
mind you playing, but playing bass and Jay and the Americans.
And immediately thought, nah, I don't want to do that,
(47:16):
But I said, you know, give me, give me a
few minutes to think it over. I thought, we'll see.
So they put me in touch with Sandy, who had
not spoken to in probably forty years, which blew my
mind all over again.
Speaker 1 (47:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (47:32):
And then initially I was not supposed to be upfront
with the other guys. I was just a bass player
in the back, and I'd been happy doing that. I said, Okay, great.
I did one gig in Sconnected in New York as
the bass player. Within a week they were asking me, hey,
can you can you move up front with the with
(47:53):
the right other guys. Why? Well, Marty, Marty Coopersmith apparently
was too ill to do the Happy Together tour. Excuse
me so they asked me to fill in on the
Happy Together tour with maybe two weeks notice. Boy, so
you can imagine. Now I had to scramble, and of
course I had to talk things over deep conversations with
(48:16):
my wife Barbara. You know, can we do this? Are
you I'm not going to do this if it's going
to disrupt Yeah, my early experience when I was in
my twenties. Okay, different then, but.
Speaker 3 (48:30):
At least do what you were saying yes to you
know people.
Speaker 4 (48:33):
And yeah, I knew it. I knew what it was
like trying to fall asleep on a moving bus.
Speaker 5 (48:39):
Yes, hang on here now, so you tell your wife
you're going to do this, so carry on there.
Speaker 4 (48:45):
Well you tell I didn't tell her, Paul. We know,
we agreed on it. It's not like I'm doing this,
And it was more like, is it okay that I
do this? You know what is entails. I'm not gonna
be able to mow the lawn. We're gonna have to
hire somebody. You know the details. You know you have
to take the garbage out and so on. So it
(49:06):
was usually agreed upon. So it worked out.
Speaker 1 (49:09):
And are you glad you joined us?
Speaker 4 (49:11):
Oh my god? It was a great experience. Like I
said earlier, I would have not been surprised if everybody
shunned me or at least kept me at a distance.
But immediately I was, you know, embraced into the whole
little brotherhood of what was going on out there. I
really really, really touched my heart and still does. You know,
(49:33):
you guys are a big part of that.
Speaker 1 (49:35):
I love that. That matters greatly to us because.
Speaker 3 (49:38):
We want to thank you for your time and your yeah,
and your knowledge and your part in Beatlemania.
Speaker 4 (49:44):
Man.
Speaker 3 (49:45):
We just love that. I mean, that's such a big
role you played in our history too, because we all
knew about beadle Maania.
Speaker 4 (49:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (49:52):
Well when we heard that, we were like wait what
whoa And Lenny even came up to you, you know,
like I did, Oh my god, he was he.
Speaker 3 (50:04):
Was in Star Wars, he was in Jurassic.
Speaker 4 (50:08):
You might you might be surprised that a lot of
musicians have falsified their resumes to include that they were
in Beatlemania. And I, although I'm proud of what I did,
it's not the first thing on my resume. You know,
I've done movie work, voice over work, commercials, you know,
all kinds of stuff, singing on people's albums. So you know,
(50:30):
it's part of what I am a part. I embrace it,
but I I don't over emphasize it. Let me just
put it that.
Speaker 3 (50:37):
Yeah. No, I did see you as a news narrator
in a movie.
Speaker 4 (50:41):
Oh yeah, that was my news reel voice.
Speaker 1 (50:50):
That leads us to tell all of our casties go
out and look up Lenny and see and check out
all of his go down down Lenny dream.
Speaker 4 (50:57):
Yeah, and if you were interested in learning those Beatles arts,
I have a website called Beatles based boot Camp and
look me up there, look me up on Facebook. I'm
very friendly, right guys.
Speaker 5 (51:08):
Yeah, yeah, Lenny's a good guy.
Speaker 1 (51:12):
Thanks for joining us.
Speaker 4 (51:13):
N my pleasure any any time. And I hope I
get to work with you guys again.
Speaker 3 (51:18):
Oh no, we've got to do that. And maybe we'll
just have a jam one night somewhere and listen to
your samet to get you into my life.
Speaker 4 (51:25):
I'll have to tighten my belt for that one. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (51:28):
Oh yeah, we know that.
Speaker 3 (51:30):
We're there with you on that.
Speaker 4 (51:34):
Okay, So.
Speaker 5 (51:39):
Love you too, Okay, everybody, We hope you enjoyed visiting
with us today. We definitely had a blast visiting with you,
don't forget. Each episode of the podcast is available to
download on demand.
Speaker 1 (51:54):
So please subscribe and give us a rating thumbs up.
Speaker 5 (51:58):
You can also foll of the Castles on Facebook and
Atcouncil dot com.
Speaker 2 (52:03):
And of course we will see you in concert.
Speaker 1 (52:05):
And on the road.
Speaker 2 (52:07):
Until then, let's stay
Speaker 5 (52:09):
In touch by tuning in each week for another episode
of the
I saw I'm sitting in the rim.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Hi, we're the Councils.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
I'm Paul, I'm Bob, and I'm Susan Cowsill.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
And welcome, Welcome, one and all to the.
Speaker 3 (00:16):
Calcil Podcast, where we have fun, fun, fun, even when
we're being serious.
Speaker 4 (00:21):
Every single week with our music stories and weekly special
guests from all walks of life.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
All of us can use a break sometimes take a breezer.
Speaker 5 (00:30):
Right right right, Well, if that's proof for you, then
you have a rived at the right place.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
At the right time.
Speaker 3 (00:37):
So we want you to sit back, bring back and
escape with us.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
And to our world of harmony, Lester and Tom Foolery.
So let's get to it. Here's today's episode of the Castle.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
So, yeah, all we are here.
Speaker 3 (00:58):
Our music is just ending. We faded out and here
we are. Everybody off of the road, off of the
summer tour, all with lower some sort form of lower back.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
Pain or some legs that don't work.
Speaker 3 (01:13):
And the thing we took home with us from the
tour that when we're going to spend September dealing with
right everybody, Yeah, it's true. So we were talking about
Paul's medical situation that everyone's involved with because we love
it because it's so positive, just real quick, like Paul
got prostate cancer, you know, but we got to tell you.
(01:35):
And he's our brother. This guy's an iron man. If
he would have never said a word, Susan, isn't it true?
If he would have never said anything to anybody kind
of like I would be, we would have never known.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
We would have never known.
Speaker 3 (01:49):
That he's going through. And it's the one time in
his life that Paul pursues the number zero and it's
not often they could do that.
Speaker 4 (01:56):
That's true.
Speaker 1 (01:57):
Yeah, it's as far as the Casties know. We've all
been out together on the road. Lenny is a family member.
Now we've all we did the summer together. Lenny knows
what's up. That's why we're comfy talking about this before
we get into our incredible interview with Lenny.
Speaker 5 (02:14):
Okay, So, hey, what what I'll do and then we
can get to Lenny is just wrap it up.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
And so I went to the doctor.
Speaker 5 (02:21):
He was very excited about my PSA which was yet
again less than zero point zero and undetectable and uh,
and so I went in there. The doctor was excited.
He's thinking maybe it's dead, but you know, we all
hold back on that. So they put me at six
months now to get a PSA. In six months, I mean,
I'm gonna forget about that. I'll have to be reminded
(02:43):
it'll be there. So everybody, everything's cool and I'm rocking
and rocking and rocking.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
Paulie, this will be your first month like where you
just allow yourself not to think about it. Yeah, gonna
be great.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
Yeah, that's great.
Speaker 5 (02:59):
I told I told doctor Willis Sester. I go, you know,
I think I think I think they got the wrong guy.
He goes, well, look at it. They had the right
guy who had a miracle.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
And just say we'll take it.
Speaker 3 (03:13):
So everyone knows. What Paul went through made me go
through an entire physical in a way that I've never
had before. I mean the heart, the lungs of everything.
And I got to admire Paul because and nothing's wrong
with me, but going through a physical or you got
to wait two weeks for that result, or you got
to wait a week for that result, those.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
Are bad for me, for everybody.
Speaker 4 (03:35):
Man.
Speaker 3 (03:36):
You live under assumed health, that's a good way to live,
of course, but better is confirmed health. That's even bad.
And as you get older, you go, I guess I
better look inside.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
Hey, wait a minute, as we get older, confirmed good health,
is all of it that all that wet moving forward?
Speaker 3 (03:56):
Or zero points zero? Psaw?
Speaker 1 (04:00):
Do you think about all this? Lenny?
Speaker 4 (04:02):
I am just soaking it in. And uh, I'm going
to my doctor in a couple of days and I
hope to get additional confirmed good health.
Speaker 3 (04:13):
Man in case for any check for any wondering, who's
that guy up there. He's off the tour, he's out
of uniform, and we all look like Joe citizens, you know,
in our lives, right. But but sitting there is Lenny Colaccino.
(04:34):
He is somebody that we met this summer as he
sang with Jay and the Americans. He was one of
the quote unquote Americans. But we're gonna find out with
Lenny that he is way, way, way much more than
the latest American as we call these background guys. It's great, well,
the latest Rader, the latest American.
Speaker 4 (04:56):
L I have my passport, I do.
Speaker 5 (05:03):
Nice, nice, But I want to let you know, Lenny,
as for all the people we've seen in the last
eleven years, when you came out there, man, it was
you were just likable immediately and you just had an
air about you like you you belonged here, you know,
and and uh and just I just fell in love
with you.
Speaker 4 (05:23):
Man.
Speaker 5 (05:23):
I don't know why, but you know, it was like, hey, Lenny,
maybe it's the name Lenny.
Speaker 4 (05:29):
May I say, May I say to all of you
that I was. It would not have surprised me if
I had been treated with caution, because no one know
who I was, basically, But what a joy it was
to me, you guys in particular and the entire cast.
I was shocked, almost shocked at how I was welcomed
(05:51):
in and also the great joy of getting to watch
you guys on a nightly basis from you know, from
the way the switch was. It was so great to
see you guys and meet you guys. And I'm forever
grateful that you you embraced me as one of you know,
someone who belonged.
Speaker 1 (06:10):
To Lenny, and we loved you. We're like, we want
him in our cabin man.
Speaker 4 (06:18):
Thank you, thank you.
Speaker 3 (06:19):
But believe me, people have come on that tour that
I mean with you were going. He's surely he's done
this before. We found people depressed in their dressing room.
It is something you do notice, but Lenny gave away
something and everything he just said. There was one word
he said that points to his amazing past because he
(06:43):
called all of us on the Happy Together Tour the cast,
and that the whole cast, you were all wonderful. I'm
going the cast were just called us the cast right there,
because any we're gonna find out. And now what Lanny
(07:03):
doesn't know is like he's got three beetle maniacs over
in the Couse Hills. But but we're gonna find out.
Lannie played Paul McCartney Broadway's beetle Mania or at least
six eight years and then took it on the road
all over the world and did that. We've got to
talk about it. He's the closest now we've come to
(07:24):
meeting the Beatles, and this is very close to me.
It's like this guy.
Speaker 4 (07:31):
That's sad in a way.
Speaker 5 (07:33):
It is.
Speaker 3 (07:34):
You're the only guy I know personally who actually wore
Sergeant Pepper uniforms. You know, and actually you know this
kind of thing. And I want to thank you first
for you got about to answer questions You've been asked
one hundred times. We're all sure, we all do it.
We love to do it. And we hope you do,
and we know we're gonna take you through some things
(07:55):
you've gone down before.
Speaker 4 (07:56):
I'm ready. What you guys are fire away now.
Speaker 1 (07:59):
Paul and Bob, do we want me to do character
about our friend Lene?
Speaker 2 (08:03):
Okay it?
Speaker 1 (08:05):
Lenny wel podcast. I have the joy of opening most
of our programs because I like to try and find
out a little early early history about our company, so
we always know when they come on they're either a
graphic artist, a musical artist, a DJ, a manager, or
(08:27):
whatever whoever we have on here. We know who they
are today, but I like to try and find out
who they started out as. So you're now we little Lenny,
and you've been born, and mom and dad Lenny are there,
and you guys are having your life. You might have
many brother sister Lenny's, which we'll find out, but you're
a guy going along in his life like all of us.
(08:47):
Were you musical to your knowledge from the moment you
got here? Were your parents musical? Or did you, little
Lenny want to be doctor Lenny or fireman Lenny, lawyer
Lennie baseball player take it away?
Speaker 4 (09:01):
Yes, all of those things. Actually, my first musical experience
might have been when I was in the fifth grade
and I was cast in the There's That Word Again?
I was cast as the lead in an HMS Pinafore,
which is an operetta by Gilbert and Sullivan. So I
(09:23):
discovered I could sing at about the fourth and fifth grade.
And since you know, look, you're a family, and my
family wasn't exactly the same. But my parents actually, and
I don't want to put them down, but they kind
of discouraged me from pursuing life in music, as is
(09:45):
much the case. But when I first saw the Beatles
on the Ed Sullivan Show, that was a deal breaker
for me. Okay, I know what I want to do,
I know what I want to be. I guess I
was about ten years old.
Speaker 3 (10:00):
Yeah, yeah, So your parents are trying to dissuade a
six to ten year old kid away from what he's gravitating.
I bet they regret letting you watch Ded Sulomon that
night thing, because something's going to happen apparently.
Speaker 4 (10:15):
Well, as we all know, there weren't a lot of
choices for TV viewing in those days. So the Beatles
are fond of the surviving Beatles even back then. We're
very proud of the fact of the size and percentage
of the American audience they had that night. You know,
crime was down. Everybody was watching them. So and I
(10:38):
was one of those.
Speaker 3 (10:39):
Yeah, yeah, we were too, We were too.
Speaker 4 (10:42):
So.
Speaker 1 (10:42):
May I ask what did mom and dad think you
might be better off doing?
Speaker 4 (10:47):
Well? Dad was He was an engineer and he worked
in a space program. He worked for Grumming at the time.
He wanted his son, and I don't regret and I
have no bad feelings about my parents whatsoever. I love
them dearly. Uh. They he wanted me to not go
(11:07):
through a lot of what he went through as a child.
He wanted a better life for me, and he saw music,
especially the way pop music was exploding in the early
sixties and mid sixties, as something that he did not
want from me because he thought it would be a
difficult life.
Speaker 1 (11:27):
That's real, sweet, No, I mean, that's that's It's not
that he wanted you to do something else. He just
didn't want you to have to struggle through a probable
in inevitability. That's pretty cool, man. Yeah, he had Yeah,
he had his back. Well, man, look at us, what's
that like looking at him?
Speaker 3 (11:45):
So in the fifth grade, Oh my gosh, I'm a singer,
and great news. And are you going to going to
school choirs? What are you going to do with that?
Speaker 4 (11:55):
Yeah, that's what I did. Very perceptive of you, Bob. Yeah,
I I could not wait to sing in an ensemble
setting like the school choir, like we had maybe an
octet of singers that were doing a cappella work. I
always was drawn to harmony and why I love you
(12:16):
guys so much, that unique sound of voices blending together
always was something that I was guess I was born
with because I didn't get it from my parents. They
were completely non musical. And I do mean utterly and
completely non musical.
Speaker 1 (12:31):
Okay, but can I see out you? So wait, dude,
So have you looked into your ancestral past, because somebody
got to have something somewhere, and sometimes it misses people.
We have relatives that should like our cousins can all sing,
but a few cannot. So nobody in your past does
any musical reality, not.
Speaker 4 (12:50):
That I'm aware of, none of my cousins, none of
my aunts, my uncles, my grandparents. I think there was
a thing among Italian America is that your child, if
he's going to play an instrument, it should be an accordion.
So my cousin Donna, she was a pretty good accordionist.
(13:12):
But that's as far as it goes.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
Yeah, not right now, all right, but there you are. Nonetheless,
you're on your way. And as Bob said, so your
inquires and stuff, you're do you do the traditional I'm
a teenage boy, I'm going to get a band to
get the chicks or do you like go? Actually go?
Speaker 4 (13:28):
Okay, tell that's exactly as you may not believe it now,
seeing me now as a chatterbox that I am. But
when I was a kid, I was absolutely misanthropic. I
was terrified of people. I saw music and being in
a rock band or a pop band as a way
to communicate without communicating, if you know what I mean.
(13:51):
I was flabbergasted. I could not talk to anybody. I
was so scared of people, and for whatever reason, music
was the outlet.
Speaker 1 (14:01):
Awesome, And you know what's interesting, Lenny, I knew you
were shy even though you were chattering. I still knew
you were a shy guy. And that's great.
Speaker 3 (14:10):
Ahead performing bands then in high school or you're a singer,
I'm not hearing anything about a guitar yet, but you're
a singer, and how do you take that into your
love of music? How do you do that?
Speaker 4 (14:21):
Well, it was simple. I go back to the Beatles
on Ed Sullivan. I realized that I focused on Paul
mostly because we were both left handed and his guitar
was pointing a different way than the rest of the
guys in the band. I didn't figure that out as
a ten year old, but it dawned on me that
(14:43):
we were both left handed. I wanted to be him
from a very early age. Oh and so I.
Speaker 3 (14:50):
Was, yeah, you're going to fulfill that dream.
Speaker 4 (14:54):
What a cool what a cool thing?
Speaker 1 (14:56):
I mean to feel a connectedness like that, and then
to be able to step into that and then and
for you really authentically because you related. So it's not
like an acting job. It's a little more in my opinion.
Speaker 4 (15:08):
Yeah, absolutely. There are guys who came into this whole
Beatles tribute business who were doing it either for the
money or the notoriety. For me, it was always a deep,
deep love of the music and them. You know, we're
all Beatle freaks here, so I think we all have
a connection as to how they changed our lives, and
(15:29):
me especially.
Speaker 6 (15:34):
Yeah, So in the in the early years, you got
a band, What was your first instrument, because I know
you do bass and keyboards and or piano and then guitar,
and so initially, what did you play, Paul.
Speaker 4 (15:51):
That's a great question, and I have a really weird
answer for you. The first instrument I picked up was
a six string guitar, and it was a right handed
six string. Because I didn't know that, I didn't know
the difference. So I started strumming on that six string
for a long time. And this was maybe a year
(16:13):
pre Beatles. And but when I saw Paul, I want that.
I want to be him, but he's playing something different.
It's a bass.
Speaker 3 (16:22):
So we went through that.
Speaker 4 (16:24):
So get this. I play right handed six string but
left handed bass guitar.
Speaker 3 (16:31):
Oh I know.
Speaker 4 (16:32):
I was like poop, bang zoom right like to this day,
to this day, I cannot play a left handed six
string and I can't play right handed bass either. It's
very odd.
Speaker 1 (16:45):
Id Aby your ambi, your ambi specific to these instruments.
Speaker 5 (16:51):
Real, So you taught yourself, Lenny, you taught yourself these instruments?
Speaker 4 (16:56):
Yeah, Well, of course I took lessons. I was more
a serious student of voice. I had many voice teachers
who had aspirations for me to become an opera singer.
They wanted me to be an operatic tenor.
Speaker 1 (17:08):
I mean that was your first gig. How interesting? Yeah, yeah,
you're tenor are we guys?
Speaker 4 (17:15):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (17:15):
Okay, that's only yeah, yeah, well because we're Irish, you're
Italian italianed for mostly I'm to realize.
Speaker 2 (17:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (17:28):
So, just to finish up on that thought, when you
went to try out for Beatlemania, had you secured all
your knowledge on a keyboard, a bass, and a guitar?
Speaker 2 (17:40):
Were you going in there fully loaded?
Speaker 4 (17:43):
Absolutely? Not the I maybe it was a good thing
that I had no no expectations to get the job.
It was what a typical what the theater would call
a cattle call. That is, there were maybe seventy people
in the room. Some of them didn't realize that they
(18:05):
actually had a sing or play, which was yeah, they
just thought they had a mind to records. So those
people were shown the door immediately. Yeah. I prepared four
songs because not only did I have to play the bass,
(18:25):
I had to play the piano and I had to
play the sixth string for one song, that one song
being yesterday. So I didn't go when Philly loaded, But
you guys who play guitar would know that if you're
familiar with the recording, Yesterday is recorded in the step down,
so you're actually playing a G chord to start off
(18:47):
the song, but you're tuned to step down.
Speaker 1 (18:50):
So sorry, Sue.
Speaker 4 (18:57):
So the auditioning process was such that I was watching
person after person get the door after like four bars,
you know, thank you, bye, thank you bye.
Speaker 3 (19:09):
I'm sorry, So I have to let me interject in
and out with you, Lenny, you walked in this through
the seventy people. Are you seeing a subset of look
alikes that are like Holy mackerel? Yeah, yeah, specifically for Paul.
Are you ready to step into George or John? Or
are they?
Speaker 4 (19:26):
I was lazier focused on Paul. That's all I ever
wanted to be.
Speaker 1 (19:29):
You know, this is a Paul audition, right or yeah, okay,
just fall okay, them are getting the door.
Speaker 4 (19:39):
Immediately, yes, quickly. So I I got through my first song,
which I believe was got to get you into my life,
which is the singers or No, that's not an easy
song to pull out, my god. So but I had
the feeling I was doing well so they kept a
(20:00):
be well, what else do you know? So I did
maybe the Long and Winding Road on the piano Penny Lane.
I forget what else I saying. I got through five
or six songs, and I thought, well, this is going
pretty well. I'll probably get a call back and to
go ahead of probably one of your possible questions. I
got pulled into the ante room of SAR Studios where
(20:24):
the audition was being held in New York by Sandy Yuguda.
Now there's a name we all know. Sandy was the
musical director for Beatlemania. He offered me the job on
the spot, and I was stunned, like, hey, wait a minute,
slow down, yeah, slow down, all right.
Speaker 3 (20:46):
Now I have to ask, though, when you're auditioning, are
you auditioning in front of like three guys at a table.
Are the other sixty nine applicants in front of you?
Are you performing in front of them?
Speaker 4 (20:56):
Yes?
Speaker 3 (20:57):
All of the entire room, Holy Mac. And you each
took a shot. So you must have heard some that
went before you that said no way.
Speaker 4 (21:06):
Yeah, I agreed with them getting the door. Yes, step up?
Speaker 1 (21:14):
Did you see did you hear at all anybody who
you thought? Well, there was anybody any good?
Speaker 4 (21:23):
Frankly no, I think a large, a large percentage of
these people auditioning had no idea they actually had to
sing or play kidding.
Speaker 3 (21:34):
Whatever, leddy? Are you auditioning? Did you sing got to
Get You into My Life to a track? Did you
just stand there and sing it? Well?
Speaker 4 (21:42):
Good question, though, Bob, You're right. It was the band
that was already on Broadway. You see, when I auditioned,
it was like four or five months into the Broadway run.
So they would come down. These were held in the
afternoon on show days and they would play behind the
people auditioning. So I played the I played the bass
(22:04):
along with the three other guys and a keyboard player.
So it was fleshed out.
Speaker 1 (22:10):
In other words, okay, so let me ask you this.
So then if it was already on Broadway for four months,
then we are now effectively replacing Paul correct Well.
Speaker 4 (22:19):
Not really. How it worked. How it worked was that
when the show opened on Broadway, which was in nineteen
seventy seven, it was a big hit. So the original
cast went on tour. They did the national tour, so
there were always two bands in every location where the
show was being performed. So when the show picked up
(22:42):
and went to LA first, they still needed a cast
in New York. So that's when I came in.
Speaker 3 (22:49):
Okay, wow, and that is that where you get Marshall
Krenchhawer over there in LA. Along with there it was
the other Paul you know, that was West Coast guys,
you know, well.
Speaker 4 (23:02):
Not particularly, they were at one time, I think up
to ten Beatle bands under the auspices of Beatlemania, so
there were always two sets of Beatles in every city.
So when the first band, which was Joe Pecorino as John,
Mitch Weisman as Paul, Leslie Fraken as George, and Justin
(23:24):
McNeil as Ringo, they went to LA and they got
a local LA band to be the second part of that.
So New York needed two new bands. So that's when
I was hired.
Speaker 3 (23:38):
Hey, now here's something I've always wondered about. So now, okay,
let's all right, you're Paul on Broadway in Beatlemania. Okay,
if you don't mind take us through, you're gonna step
into a workload that is I think going to be unbelievable,
and you're gonna have to take care of your boys.
You can have to play more than once a day.
(23:59):
What was the schedule that you stepped into. Is this
once a day, twice a day? Mondays off ten songs
and five songs a night.
Speaker 4 (24:07):
It was funny you should ask about that, because I
have the original playbill here, which it's yellow with age.
But to answer your question, at its peak, the show
was doing eleven shows per week, and normally it was
(24:29):
you know, five to one band six another or vice versa.
But you always had to be prepared to step in
in case anybody was under the weather. Now, the whole
idea of the show was a multi media presentation, so
the people who wrote it and came up with a
visual aspect of it were completely and utterly unaware of
(24:50):
what a singer might need as far as rest goes.
So there were many many vocalists who could not carry
the load, and I don't blame them. I'm certainly not
putting them down. But at one point I was doing
one of the guys went on vacation, so I had
(25:12):
to do all eleven shows in one week. And it
would have been okay if I was George, but being Paul,
there were twenty nine songs in the show. Paul sang
lead on nineteen of them, and there were some real
gutbusters in there.
Speaker 1 (25:28):
Believing so forty I'm trying to do the math on him. Wow.
Speaker 4 (25:33):
Yeah, so that's the scale it was. Okay, there was
one show Tuesday to Wednesday, one Thursday, one Friday, three
shows on Saturday and two on Sunday.
Speaker 2 (25:45):
So how long did it run? How long was the
actual playing.
Speaker 4 (25:51):
The broad I mean it was like two and a
half hours with intermission.
Speaker 2 (25:55):
Oh okay.
Speaker 4 (25:56):
Wow. Once we got to the bus and truck version
of the show, we were doing as many as thirteen
shows a week with one band.
Speaker 1 (26:04):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (26:05):
And I won't say that it didn't damage me permanently,
but it was certainly a heavier workload than anybody wanted
to do.
Speaker 1 (26:13):
Of course, how did you handle if?
Speaker 3 (26:16):
I'm sorry, but I'm a singer, see so I got
these things in my head? How do you handle what
hate you part of the show?
Speaker 4 (26:23):
Yes, you can handle.
Speaker 3 (26:24):
You're gonna scream your head off at the tag of
hate you, that's right.
Speaker 4 (26:28):
So how I approached it? And this is this is
crazy that I did all those screaming things at the end,
verbatim the way they were on the record. Yeah, and
even today if I'm still performing that I will do
the same thing. It's a matter of thank goodness. I
(26:48):
had the training to know when I was doing damage
to my voice and when I was not. As a singer,
you guys realize you can put your voice in different
places in your head to not strain your vocal courts
too much.
Speaker 1 (27:02):
So learning that to be honest with you, but keep
going yes everywhere for me, go ahead.
Speaker 4 (27:07):
Yeah, My training with various vocal coaches came in very,
very handy, and a lot of guys didn't have that,
or maybe they didn't have the vocal range to attempt
the role. Can you think of a different male singer
or another male singer who had McCartney's range. Not only
you notewise, but he could sing a ballad as well
(27:29):
as anybody and scream his head off as well as anybody. Yeah,
a real challenge, absolutely, So I had to sing fool
on the Hill right after singing got to get you
into my life for ah.
Speaker 3 (27:44):
Yeah, I love that.
Speaker 1 (27:46):
I mean we like look. I will tell you just
you know, being a woman aging in singer, that combination
singing aging woman, everything's changed for me and we have
no training zero, But I have looked at a few
youtubes out there that have taught me how to do
(28:07):
some exercises and get a falsetto back that and a
good old vocalist that you are getting.
Speaker 4 (28:13):
Look, I watched you. I watched you like a hawk
for three months. So and if I saw you guys
doing anything that would I thought was damaging your voices,
I would have said something, but I did not because
you guys are great natural singers. I wouldn't change a thing.
Speaker 1 (28:31):
Wow, that's really kind of validating, because I promise you
were clueless, guys.
Speaker 4 (28:37):
I'm stunned. Really, I thought you all would have had
some training by now.
Speaker 1 (28:43):
You guys named seth Riggs.
Speaker 4 (28:45):
For two weeks, you guys brought it every night. You
sounded great. Every night. You sounded as youthful as I
remember in my mind those songs when I first heard them.
No kidding, no kidding.
Speaker 1 (28:56):
We appreciate that. We do, I do.
Speaker 2 (28:58):
We haven't changed any of the and that's I know.
Speaker 4 (29:02):
I know that. I know that. And uh, I also
had their enthusiasm was also contagious. You set the tone
for that show.
Speaker 1 (29:14):
You thanks.
Speaker 3 (29:16):
I have an interesting question for you, because I'm curious
about this with with Sandy and whoever the little committee is,
who's auditioning people and this this ambitious to me project
that's going to involve so many singers. Did you ever,
because you can't predict all of this, did you ever
befriend anyone who came into the show and eventually, over
(29:38):
even a few weeks, they realized that they are not
going to be able to physically do this? And what
am I going to do about that? I mean, yeah,
how do you know that about yourself? And unless you
step into the role in pry it with any failures
like that, I'm just curious.
Speaker 4 (29:51):
Yeah, there were. We got a pretty good idea of
our stamina because in rehearsal when we get first got
our our first date, our premier date for Broadway, we
were performing the show twice a day in rehearsal, full
run throughs, making sure we were vocally ready to do it.
(30:14):
Now to your question, Bob, that there were some guys
who failed utterly. I wouldn't point them out as unfair
to do that, but either they did not have the
stamina to begin with, or the wherewithal the you know,
the specter of Broadway, he was too much for them
in their own minds. There was too much pressure for
(30:38):
them to perform. As I stated before, one week, I
did eleven, all eleven shows because the fellow that was
supposed to be subbing as Paul just basically flunked out
on his first show. He couldn't handle it.
Speaker 1 (30:53):
It's overwhelmed. That's a lot, man. I can kind of
dig it, and as Bob pointed out, it's kind of
not something you'd know until you stepped in, you know,
And so that and honestly, I mean I want to know.
So learned over the last couple of years that that
recreational conversation and this kind of gigging they don't go together.
(31:15):
And Paul and Bob and I, Paul and I for
sure Bob can get going pretty good. We never shut up,
and we had to really learn, you know, that that
was a big part of what was taxing us.
Speaker 4 (31:26):
Sue, Sue, you are so right. I tell I have
vocal students and and my coworkers what I do gigs
now with it, however i'm singing, I always make sure
to tell them the same exact thing, talking like what
he's doing right now? Yeah, good, good thing. I'm not
going to sing tonight. But it is actually more wearing
(31:49):
on the on the vocal cords and singing.
Speaker 1 (31:51):
Yes, we learned that, and ironically, I mean, look through
the years, you know, I don't know, call it youth
or whatever. Until it became a problem, it didn't make
any sense to me. But I got a buddy named
Jackson who never would come hang out if we're all
together and he wants to, and I'd say, well, come over,
we're in the same city, come hangy. Go I can't
(32:12):
because we'll talk. And I used to think, what bougie.
Speaker 2 (32:15):
Bull be is this?
Speaker 1 (32:18):
Oh I don't know what you'd have to talk brown
so but God bless him, he was right as rain.
And now I totally understand what that means.
Speaker 5 (32:27):
And when you're out there, when you can feel I
mean I can feel it. As soon as I've talked
too much, I can feel it in my throat, and
I get panicked at that moment, going, oh my god,
I took it too far.
Speaker 2 (32:41):
You can really feel it.
Speaker 1 (32:42):
It's unreal. And guys, even being home, yeah, okay, because
because we really did discover this, and monk like activity
was ensuing out there, you know, some metic silence and
you know, all this stuff I got home after two days,
my wake up hello voice was and that range and
I'm like, oh my god, just from talking regular talk
(33:04):
with all my people. Yeah, okay, so you get.
Speaker 3 (33:08):
Vocal advice on the Costle's podcast.
Speaker 1 (33:11):
No, no, really, this is great. And Lenny, did you
get hip to the vocal myss that we were using
that contraption? Okay, I'm going to send you a link.
I don't know how you missed it. Paul and I
are like ron coo advertisers, and it is a saline
solution missed for your throat Lenny. It is everything and
(33:32):
and and combined with go ahead.
Speaker 4 (33:35):
No, I I am hip to the uh to the
I would take it nasally. Uh just But my my
little routine was always slippery elm if you.
Speaker 1 (33:49):
Know what that is, that's the throat coat we were.
Speaker 4 (33:53):
And I think what I learned on this particular tour
is to not over warm up, which is a bad
thing that I would often. This was my little secret
that when Little Anthony was on, who was on just
before us, I always sang great. I would warm up to.
(34:13):
I would sing along to his third song and then
rest for the fourth song, and I would be ready
to sing so my routine when I was younger was
a forty five minute warm up. Forty five minutes. That
doesn't work at my age anymore.
Speaker 1 (34:32):
Where's your butt out? Workout?
Speaker 4 (34:35):
Love?
Speaker 3 (34:36):
But I have another little Mandia question, because sure, it's
just things I think about. I was just curious when
you got wind of this audition. Okay, something got to
your house or some somehow you saw a fly or me.
Speaker 2 (34:50):
Well, yeah, did it?
Speaker 4 (34:51):
Well?
Speaker 2 (34:51):
I just wanted did you have an agent? Is that
how you came upon it?
Speaker 4 (34:54):
And I did not have an agent. As a matter
of fact, I was living in Pennsylvania in a big
ten piece band at the time, and we were one
of the first communities to get cable TV. And I
saw the ads on local New York television while I
was living in Pennsylvania, and I would see Mitch Weisman,
(35:15):
who was a dead ringer Faull and singing Yesterday. They go, well,
they got the right guys, so they don't need me.
So then I was informed by a friend of a
friend that they were recasting the show. So I said,
what have I got to lose? Let me go in
and well you know the rest of the story.
Speaker 1 (35:34):
Yeah, Bob, what was your question.
Speaker 3 (35:36):
I was curious when you had the audition you and
you got hired, I'm going to do this. Was it
known in the very beginning that you will eventually take
this show on the road, And how's that affecting your family? Like,
by the way, if there was one going on at
the time, because you're being asked now to step into
a role that's going to pretty much take over your life. Okay,
(35:58):
we're going to go on the road with it after
eight years of seven year however long it was.
Speaker 4 (36:02):
And it wasn't that long. My higher date was sometime
in November of nineteen seventy seven. By late winter or
early spring of seventy eight, I was on Broadway. By
the end of that year, I was shipped out to
the National Touring Company. So yeah, I just had been
(36:25):
married a month before.
Speaker 1 (36:27):
My own no no, no, no.
Speaker 4 (36:29):
Yeah, And boy did it change my life in a
lot of ways. So eventually, and you know, this is
way in the past, water under the bridge, it basically
destroyed my marriage, my first marriage, because not only after
I had gotten through the national tours, there were the
international tours. Yes, so there was South America, there was
(36:53):
New Zealand, there was Europe. So I traveled the whole
world doing this show. The bus and truck was very
similar to what we went through in the Happy Together
tour in that it was one night er after one
night er, after one nighter, and get on the bus,
get to the next place, do the gig. You know
(37:13):
that life and it's it's as Robbie Robertson once put it,
it's no way of life, right, I.
Speaker 1 (37:21):
Mean it, it is no way of life. I mean
it is another way of life.
Speaker 3 (37:25):
Yeah, that's another way of life, not no way of life.
Speaker 1 (37:27):
Then you decide if it works for you or not.
Speaker 3 (37:32):
How does it all stop? I mean, did you go
I am so over, Paul? I mean what happens?
Speaker 4 (37:39):
I am not over, Paul, and I don't think I
ever will be eventually petered out, I would say around
nineteen eighty five. So I'm talking about a good seven
to eight years being under the auspices of what was
called Beatlemania. So after that, a lot of guys who
are in the show you mentioned in Marshall Crenshaw and
(38:01):
Glenn Burtneck I think you just recently back there were
a lot of guys who had aspirations beyond that. They
saw it logically as a stepping stone to their own
individual careers. Some did, some did not. Some came and
went in a month because they couldn't handle it or
didn't want to. They just saw it as a job.
Speaker 1 (38:21):
So everybody had a very different reason to be there.
Speaker 4 (38:23):
I guess, yeah they did, and nothing wrong with that.
But I had always had this incredible, deep love of
the Beatles. Maybe it's unhealthy that I still can listen
to that music and it can still affect me the
way it did when I first heard it.
Speaker 3 (38:41):
Absolutely, the Beatles absolutely picked us up right out of
folk music and ladder roads right into pop music when
we were at the right age, teenagers. You know, we're
all young and impressionable in that way.
Speaker 1 (38:55):
Paul Calsel, he doesn't love the Beatles as much as
everybody else, but I believe has gratitude for him because
without them he might not have had his life.
Speaker 4 (39:04):
Yeah, they opened a lot of doors for a lot
of musicians.
Speaker 1 (39:09):
You don't know how many times. I mean, I would
love a poll. I would love to see the research.
Somebody asked the question how many ten to fifteen year
old boys became a musician that on that Monday cheap
their life. You I bet we would be stunned at
(39:30):
the amount versus who might have ended up being a
musician and who might not have.
Speaker 4 (39:35):
Well, I think you had to have some sort of
innate talent, and if you didn't, you probably found out
real quick it wasn't for you for sure.
Speaker 1 (39:42):
Do you know what I mean, Polly, I see it.
Speaker 2 (39:44):
Well, I found out that night that you know, you
always hear it.
Speaker 5 (39:48):
You know, Hey, why did you start playing guitar man
to get the girls that audience?
Speaker 2 (39:53):
When they panned the audience? Man, all these girls going haywire.
Speaker 5 (39:57):
I think that's what all the little boys saw, was
that the Beatles.
Speaker 2 (40:02):
Okay, well, I'll deal with that later. How do I
get this chick thing going on?
Speaker 4 (40:06):
Yeah, PAULI, you're absolutely right. It was a confluence of
puberty and.
Speaker 1 (40:12):
There and crazy and Paulie. Will you please for me, Lenny,
I want Paul to give you his experience of the
night of the Beatles and the day after.
Speaker 5 (40:22):
Go, Paul, Well, so we hear the Beatles are going
to be on, you know, and so okay, and we're
sitting you know, and I'm like in the seventh grade
or the sixth grade, and we had a right up
the hill from our house was our bus stop, and
you know, and we had maybe ten kids at that
bus stop, you know, and all the girls were there
and we were there, and you know, it was this
(40:43):
whole thing going on for like six years with all
these girls that we've known forever. And so the Beatles
are on, you know, and really I watched it and
it was everybody's.
Speaker 2 (40:52):
Screaming, and you know, for me as a little kid,
it was like, what are we watching here? What are
we watching?
Speaker 5 (40:57):
And but it went up to the bus stop that
Monday after that Sunday night, and all the girls were
like all over here and we were chopped liver from
that point on, and I just couldn't figure it out.
Speaker 4 (41:12):
Yeah, Paul, you hit on something, as I remember the Monday,
the same Monday of your experience. But I was in
the fifth grade or sixth grade. All the girls would
raise their hands to go to the bathroom because they
had their transistor radios, uh, listening to Beatles on.
Speaker 1 (41:35):
Look, this is Beatles Black Monday. It's born here today.
And there are stories. We could have a series and
we'll just have an interview interview about people. Monday, the
Monday after the Sunday and what was your life? How
has it changed?
Speaker 2 (41:47):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (41:49):
Yeah, people came up to me with a Peter, Paul
and Mary album later.
Speaker 1 (41:52):
No, No, the Beatles, it's phenomenon, It's fantasy.
Speaker 3 (41:59):
Sure, any clearly there's more to Lenny Cole it, you
know than Beatlemania. Although you know there's more to the
Beatles and the Beatles. So after Beatlemania when it ended,
were you ready for attend or did you have a void?
Did you have a I missed this. I wish I
could have done this the rest of my life.
Speaker 4 (42:18):
Uh not immediately, No, no, bob uh. I never felt
that I should have done more of it because my workload.
Looking back on it now, because I kept diaries in
the day, I said, you know, you should have spontaneously
combusted from all the work that you guys did.
Speaker 3 (42:39):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (42:41):
So there was a period of like, okay, let me
just chill for a while, let me not do this
for a while. But then I found out I missed it,
and you know, we we formed our own little Beetle band. Uh.
And there are so many now I kind of feel
responsible in a way and not in genre. Yeah, for
all the seven million Beatles tribute they're out there.
Speaker 1 (43:06):
You know.
Speaker 3 (43:07):
I've seen many of them, and very very very very
few of them are that good. And I'm only saying
that as a beatlemaniac, because every Beatle band I've ever
seen it was like, Okay, you did that one. Good,
Please don't ever do that one again. They did that one? Okay,
all right.
Speaker 1 (43:27):
It's true. I mean, we have a really ors.
Speaker 3 (43:30):
Haven't said that. I also, in those same bands experienced
the power of the Beatles, and that there wasn't one
audience that didn't think everything they were seeing was unbelievably fantastic.
Speaker 4 (43:40):
Yeah. Yeah, that That's why I have noticed, too, is
that the audience is very willing to suspend their disbelief.
They want to love you, you know, so they are
very forgiving. But it never affected the way I honored
the music because I'm still playing the bass parts and
(44:01):
learning the bass parts and teaching those bass parts to
fledgling Wanta Beatles.
Speaker 3 (44:08):
So today, so today you're moving it forward, you're teaching today.
Speaker 4 (44:13):
Yeah, I teach voice and I also teach bass guitar,
but with a specific niche of McCartney's bass, we didn't have.
We didn't have that advantage that we have now of
people being able to dissect every little thing on a record.
All we had was a record player and you know,
a needle, you know. Okay, did you hear that? You
know vocally too? You know, we didn't have that. Now
(44:37):
there are you know, you go on YouTube, you could
play any Beatles bass part because it's been isolated by somebody.
Speaker 1 (44:44):
You know, I didn't realize that. You know. A friend
of ours was trying to learn Indian Lake okay off
of our record and he was playing bass at George
Porter Jr. And you cannot hear the bass part. Yeah
not And Mary was saying, made him one because she
knows it. But on those old records and stuff, it's
very hard to decipher.
Speaker 4 (45:04):
Yeah, the technology is way beyond me now how they
do it. But back in the day, their early recordings,
the Beatles' recordings were done on a four track machine,
so they had to keep bouncing things down and the
bass was the one thing that got lost in the mix.
Speaker 1 (45:20):
But you literally teach Paul McCartney base that's badass.
Speaker 3 (45:23):
Yeah, they do. They actually, Actually, in the old days,
the Beatles used to bring McCartney back in it because yes,
every time you mix it down, you lose the generation
of bass and he used to actually put it on last.
Speaker 4 (45:36):
Well, funny you mentioned that, Bob. I think the first
time that they Paul started adding the bass track was
sarg and Pepper. They went from four to a track.
There are videos and there were also you know, those bootlegs,
and they were also the deluxe versions where you can hear, like,
let's say, lucying this guy with diamonds. Paul is playing
the keyboard on that track and then he adds the
(45:58):
bass part last. Yes, which blew my mind when I
first found out. But he did that a lot, did.
Speaker 3 (46:06):
That a lot because it would disappear on him. You know. Well,
so your teacher, now, did you ever do anything at
the level of a Beatlemania in terms of touring with
a band or becoming a member of something like that? Ever? Again,
I mean, I know you're with Jane the Americans and
that must have been from knowing Sandy, right, I know,
(46:26):
how did you get in Janie the Americans.
Speaker 1 (46:28):
Yeah, that's what I wanted to ask.
Speaker 4 (46:30):
Well, yeah, it's it's kismet. It's going full circle, I
guess because I had not. I was just content to
be teaching, seeing vocal students doing occasional little gigs here
and there. I was happy doing that. Then the phone
call came not from Sandy, but from Beatlemania's musical director
(46:53):
at the time, a fellow named Andy Dorfman, who Todd
Biederman knew he called. He called Andy who said, do
you know anybody might be interested in playing bass? Not singing,
mind you playing, but playing bass and Jay and the Americans.
And immediately thought, nah, I don't want to do that,
(47:16):
But I said, you know, give me, give me a
few minutes to think it over. I thought, we'll see.
So they put me in touch with Sandy, who had
not spoken to in probably forty years, which blew my
mind all over again.
Speaker 1 (47:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (47:32):
And then initially I was not supposed to be upfront
with the other guys. I was just a bass player
in the back, and I'd been happy doing that. I said, Okay, great.
I did one gig in Sconnected in New York as
the bass player. Within a week they were asking me, hey,
can you can you move up front with the with
(47:53):
the right other guys. Why? Well, Marty, Marty Coopersmith apparently
was too ill to do the Happy Together tour. Excuse
me so they asked me to fill in on the
Happy Together tour with maybe two weeks notice. Boy, so
you can imagine. Now I had to scramble, and of
course I had to talk things over deep conversations with
(48:16):
my wife Barbara. You know, can we do this? Are
you I'm not going to do this if it's going
to disrupt Yeah, my early experience when I was in
my twenties. Okay, different then, but.
Speaker 3 (48:30):
At least do what you were saying yes to you
know people.
Speaker 4 (48:33):
And yeah, I knew it. I knew what it was
like trying to fall asleep on a moving bus.
Speaker 5 (48:39):
Yes, hang on here now, so you tell your wife
you're going to do this, so carry on there.
Speaker 4 (48:45):
Well you tell I didn't tell her, Paul. We know,
we agreed on it. It's not like I'm doing this,
And it was more like, is it okay that I
do this? You know what is entails. I'm not gonna
be able to mow the lawn. We're gonna have to
hire somebody. You know the details. You know you have
to take the garbage out and so on. So it
(49:06):
was usually agreed upon. So it worked out.
Speaker 1 (49:09):
And are you glad you joined us?
Speaker 4 (49:11):
Oh my god? It was a great experience. Like I
said earlier, I would have not been surprised if everybody
shunned me or at least kept me at a distance.
But immediately I was, you know, embraced into the whole
little brotherhood of what was going on out there. I
really really, really touched my heart and still does. You know,
(49:33):
you guys are a big part of that.
Speaker 1 (49:35):
I love that. That matters greatly to us because.
Speaker 3 (49:38):
We want to thank you for your time and your yeah,
and your knowledge and your part in Beatlemania.
Speaker 4 (49:44):
Man.
Speaker 3 (49:45):
We just love that. I mean, that's such a big
role you played in our history too, because we all
knew about beadle Maania.
Speaker 4 (49:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (49:52):
Well when we heard that, we were like wait what
whoa And Lenny even came up to you, you know,
like I did, Oh my god, he was he.
Speaker 3 (50:04):
Was in Star Wars, he was in Jurassic.
Speaker 4 (50:08):
You might you might be surprised that a lot of
musicians have falsified their resumes to include that they were
in Beatlemania. And I, although I'm proud of what I did,
it's not the first thing on my resume. You know,
I've done movie work, voice over work, commercials, you know,
all kinds of stuff, singing on people's albums. So you know,
(50:30):
it's part of what I am a part. I embrace it,
but I I don't over emphasize it. Let me just
put it that.
Speaker 3 (50:37):
Yeah. No, I did see you as a news narrator
in a movie.
Speaker 4 (50:41):
Oh yeah, that was my news reel voice.
Speaker 1 (50:50):
That leads us to tell all of our casties go
out and look up Lenny and see and check out
all of his go down down Lenny dream.
Speaker 4 (50:57):
Yeah, and if you were interested in learning those Beatles arts,
I have a website called Beatles based boot Camp and
look me up there, look me up on Facebook. I'm
very friendly, right guys.
Speaker 5 (51:08):
Yeah, yeah, Lenny's a good guy.
Speaker 1 (51:12):
Thanks for joining us.
Speaker 4 (51:13):
N my pleasure any any time. And I hope I
get to work with you guys again.
Speaker 3 (51:18):
Oh no, we've got to do that. And maybe we'll
just have a jam one night somewhere and listen to
your samet to get you into my life.
Speaker 4 (51:25):
I'll have to tighten my belt for that one. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (51:28):
Oh yeah, we know that.
Speaker 3 (51:30):
We're there with you on that.
Speaker 4 (51:34):
Okay, So.
Speaker 5 (51:39):
Love you too, Okay, everybody, We hope you enjoyed visiting
with us today. We definitely had a blast visiting with you,
don't forget. Each episode of the podcast is available to
download on demand.
Speaker 1 (51:54):
So please subscribe and give us a rating thumbs up.
Speaker 5 (51:58):
You can also foll of the Castles on Facebook and
Atcouncil dot com.
Speaker 2 (52:03):
And of course we will see you in concert.
Speaker 1 (52:05):
And on the road.
Speaker 2 (52:07):
Until then, let's stay
Speaker 5 (52:09):
In touch by tuning in each week for another episode
of the
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