Monday Morning Podcast - Special Edition of the Thursday Afternoon Monday Morning Podcast with Guest Paul Anka

Episode Date: May 18, 2023

Bill sits down with the legendary Paul Anka for a special edition of the Thursday Afternoon Monday Morning Podcast. Paul Anka is one of the greatest American singers and songwriters. 'Put Your Head On My Shoulder', 'Puppy Love,' and 'My Way' to name a few.  WATCH: https://youtu.be/lODeXQmcWzQ Connect with Paul Anka here: https://linktr.ee/paulankadigital  For upcoming tour dates and to listen to Paul’s legendary catalog of hits, visit https://paulanka.com

Hey, what's going on? It's Billy Blue Blazer. I'm wearing this jacket. You know why? It's out of respect. I'm about to interview one of the biggest legends in show business. I got to see this man perform live a couple of months back.

He absolutely blew me away. I'm about to sit down with the one and only Mr. Paul Enka. MUSIC Once people find out you have cigars, you get them by the truckload. You could literally start your own shop. So what I did was I bought a humidor comedy store for the younger comics or whatever.

I just brought them all down there. So my thing is if I'm one of those guys, like if it's in the house, I'm going to consume it, cookies or whatever. So I've got to make sure. So if I have 100 cigars in the house, I'm going to smoke 100 cigars. So what I like, I have to get back to what a cigar is supposed to be, which is it's an event.

You're sitting down with somebody. Usually it's one of my knucklehead friends. It's not usually Paul Enka. What do you do, cojibas? What do I do? I don't have a hookup for real Cubans. Really? It's easy.

Is it? Yeah, Miami. People always tell him, this is a Cuban and I light it. And they're all excited for me. And as I'm tasting, I'm like, this isn't fucking real. Oh, no. This is how I know Cubans. This is the only way I can tell Cubans real.

As I light it, after one or two puffs, I go, oh my God. Right. And the last time I did that, I was in Tel Aviv. Tel Aviv. Tel Aviv. And I was in Jaffa right outside of kidding me. Where did you work in Israel? I worked this great place in some.

Did you use that big historical outdoor place? Because I just got back there. I did two shows there this summer. I had a great time. You know what's funny to go there is not living there. As you just look around, and it's like there's all these beautiful women, Palestinians, and Israelis and all that.

You're sitting there going, what is the problem? Right. The Mediterranean Sea? I know. I know what the problem is, but like. Well, we know that. There's been a mess over there for years. It's people, idiots.

But they're amazing as an audience. They live life to the fullest. And I've been going there for years, even though I've been getting calls from people, why are you going on all that bullshit? And I finally went on television. I said, just mind your own fucking business. That usually stops it when people say.

No, I'll just like a little push for. Why would you do that? It's like, why do you give a shit? Because I want to. I'm not telling you what to do. Yeah, exactly. Fuck off. And then they go, all right.

I feel like this is a really like a big bully time with that type of stuff. And I kind of learned that if you just sort of, look, you've got to be open minded. If you are doing something and it bothers somebody, like, I mean, I don't give a shit. Oh, I didn't realize that. Sorry.

But like, if it's just like politically motivated, which I can't say. I hate that. I hate that. I'm sick of it. I'm backing off. Yeah. Oh, I haven't watched the news in, like,

since before the pandemic. It's one of the greatest things. My buddy the other day, we go, dude, this whole country's going to shit and blah, blah, blah. This happened. This happened. This happened. I finally said, and I was like, buddy,

you know what happened today? A whole bunch of great things happened today, and they're not going to show it on the news. Right. And now you're sitting here, and you're going to flip out. And then also, the way they present it is when something happens, it's always like, this happened. They act like this is the beginning of the story,

especially when they're dealing with race, class, and all of this type of stuff. They don't go all the way back and be like, well, it started with this, and because of that, now we're here. And they just get people like, I feel like CNN and Fox News, their job every day is to divide America. Totally. It's a circus.

They should be shut down. Yeah. They're being told what to do. These guys are making a shitload of money reporting it, told what to do, and it's become like a circus. Do you know anybody who watches CNN or Fox on a regular basis that even remotely sounds sane or happy? No.

I don't. Yeah, they always got their eyebrows up. They're like, they're going to do this. Yeah, but you know what else it is? Most people watching that, I figured out when you talk to them, and you've got to be careful when you talk to them. They don't know how to get to the source of what the issue is. They're taking what's on the surface.

They don't do any homework to get to the source of what's real. Well, then they also politicize. Everything is like, look what the guys with the red ties are doing. Look what the guys with the blue ties are doing. I don't know. So you're telling me this coffee is your secret here?

No, no. I don't know anything about this. I'm saying drinking coffee. I love how you would. Four day, minimal. But I like how you wouldn't cosign on this immediately till you tasted it. Yeah, got to taste it.

So what's your favorite cigar? I like the Cojivas, do some Monte Cristo. I like a Robusto. Yeah, Robusto's good. I like the Partigas. Partigas, I've been smoking for a long time. Series D is great. Yeah, that's a smooth.

Yeah. They hand those out at all the casinos for years. When you work Vegas, whether you're winning or losing, they'll walk over and give you a box of those. What was that like back then? When the mob ran and it was the best, right? Bill, look, I came down from Canada. Used to hang around Massachusetts,

low Hampton Beach, Salisbury. I mean, that's your hood, right? I won my first contest in Salisbury Beach. When I was like 15 years old, I went to this little club and I won a contest. Is that right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I used to go down from Canada because it was close.

We'd drive down. My dad would drive us down every summer. So I knew the whole area. And then one of the first places I played was Blinstrubs in Boston. You might be too young to remember it. I don't remember that one. Yeah, your parents would remember it.

But Blinstrubs was the place between the Copa Cabana and Blinstrubs. Once you did those two places, the word got out to the boys, to the mob. Then you got to Vegas. Oh, so if you were killing it? Yeah, I was killing it at the Copa. I was the youngest one there.

I was like 19. In fact, I hired my first comic that I hired was Jackie Mason. Oh my god. He was my opening act, right? I love Jackie. I saw Jackie do a one-man show. Yeah, Broadway. Yeah, it was like two hours of comedy.

And maybe even more than that. He did an hour and 15, took a 15-minute break, and came out and did another hour, and murdered. And this was another one where I went to go. I saw him in like 99. So I don't know how old he was. He was maybe pushing 70. I don't know.

So I went to go see him. And there was always that thing like, I love this guy. I love this guy. Please don't be sad. Don't be a sad. And he came out. Beast. Yeah.

Murdered. He's one of the guys that stayed consistent. In that world, and I've watched it for years, guys make their big hit, guys that we probably love. And then it's a sliding slope from them. I mean, look how you've kept it going, right? But forever you. You know what that is?

That's fear-based. Because I see those guys. Yeah. You know what it is? When you start out, when you're coming up, you see. Like, you remember the first time you opened for some guy you couldn't believe you were like opening for, and they were like sliding down.

And it was a combination of this thrill of working with them, and then the terror of like, oh, that's what that looks like? Like, I thought this guy was just going to stay there. And it's like, no, you don't. Look at the guys. Look at Kinnison, who I used to love. Look what happened to him. He was brilliant.

Yeah, no, he's one of the greatest ever. I mean, you look at the list of guys that hit the slide. But he was coming out of it. That's the worst part. There's so many of those guys that got sober. Kinnison, Stevie Ray Vaughn, all of these guys, like, they get sober. And right as they're either just put out,

like, Stevie put out in step, and then he did that great album, Family Style, with Jimmy Vaughn. It was just all like, what is he going to do in the 90s? This is going to be great. And then it's just, it's over. And like, Kinnison, like, I don't think I ever saw a guy like, fame, just, I mean, the difference between him. He went to shit.

Yeah, his first Letterman set. I love that. His first Letterman set was like, the vibe in that studio was like, they always try to build comics up. Like, this next guy's wild. Like, there was a legit, like, fear. Like, we don't know what this guy's going to do. I don't think he even knew.

And it was like, it was just one of those, there was before he did Letterman and then after. He did the marriage bit. Yeah, and he went into the crowd. Yes, he went right down to the front of the aisle. And he's like, wow! Yeah, people were right. And then, but then the second one he did, you could see,

like, his foot was off the gas. Yeah. And he was, hey, Dave, what's up, Paul? And that was the beginning of him. I mean, it was also that one of the things I felt made him so compelling was he was so vulnerable. And he was so, like, blowing around or whatever. But I think he learned a lot.

And from what I heard, he had got sober and just the irony of getting hit by a drunk driver. But that's also one of those guys. I always think of those guys, when someone will say, man, you're one of the best comics out there today, blah, blah, I always think, well, yeah, because Keninson's not around. Patrice O'Neill's not around. Bitch, Hedberg's not around.

Bernie Mac is gone. Like, so many, we lost so many. Robert Schimmel, so many of these huge, huge, huge, like, just, like, these guys that we're going to have a career like yours where you don't owe New Decade, you're gone. No, I'm going to still go and I can adapt. How were you able to do that, by the way? I feel like music, it's way harder than comedy.

You know, when you're a kid at 15, and you're writing your own stuff, and all of a sudden, you get lucky. And at 15, 16, here I am, living the dream. I'm working the New York Paramount, I'm up at Boston, I'm working with Chuck Berry, Fats Domino, all the guys that were my idols. You make a decision at that point.

You go, man, I can't let this go. Now, you're sitting with Frankie Lyman, who's so talented, but he's shooting up heroin. You know it, he's giving you an offer on it, you're passing on it, you're making choices. But it was tough, because what I found out early in the career was, every one of us that make it, we're not sophisticated.

You don't meet sophisticated people. They're giving this gift, they're giving this talent, but off the stage, they go home, they're with the fucking bathrobe, they're just down home people. Not sophisticated trying to deal with the success. So you're going along this journey, and all of a sudden, you get a little wisdom

how to deal with it. When it clicked in for me, when I started working for the mafia, they controlled the record business. It was a time of, even when you went in to make a record, some kid would walk in with a hit song, and so one of the guys that I know would be nameless would go, well, instead of saying,

don't go over there and tell him you love me, come over here. They'd put their name on the song, it was called, write a word, get a third. So all these kids were getting ripped off. All of us. Oh, the mob would do that? Well, whoever was running the record.

Oh, right, right, right, right, right. So now, when I get the call to go to Vegas, write a word, get a third. I'm sitting there. Sinatra, Rat Pack, Sammy Davis. And these guys are twice my age, maybe more. And you buy into it and you get it. There was nothing on the horizon.

That was it. Vegas and those guys. And I said, I gotta get my shit together and do what they do. Me and Darren, we talked about it, because the teenage thing wasn't gonna last. And once we got into it and started working, it was unlike anything, Bill,

I thought I'd ever experience. You're one of the first guys, you're one of the first teen idols. You and Sinatra were able to survive that. Bobby and I survived it. We went on to do the club thing. Bobby was amazingly talented. So you guys, as teenagers,

were able to step outside that and be like, we need to have a plan for our 20s and our 30s. That's amazing. We needed that foundation if we were gonna continue. The gravitas I had was I was a writer. Nobody was really writing, Presley didn't write, none of those kids wrote. So I started writing for Buddy Holly,

then it had evolved, and then Tonight Show theme for Carson, Longest Day. I kept that gravitas as the writer. That's unbelievable you wrote that song. That's a wild story with Johnny. So I'm over in England. I've got like three records on the top 10 over there. The English, the English bill have not.

Some people just go to England. Yeah, they don't know anything. I go to England, I got three records in the top 10. I would never have gotten through customs. So they invite me over there. There's no English show business. It's all us, Chuck Berry, Fats Nominal. They're trying to emulate what Chuck Berry was doing,

Buddy Holly, Money Waters. So there's no entertainment business per se in England. So Granada TV called me and said, so would you like to do a special? Was I 19 years old, 1920? I said, sure. So we could sit in meetings. I said, you know what?

It's gonna be a little boring with this teenage stuff. Let's get some comic element. You know, I've always loved comedy. So they sent me some kinescopes, and I start looking at them. And there's this one guy. He's drunk all night. I mean, he's blasted it all night

to like six in the morning. Then he's gotta go do a show with kids, screaming kids five, six, seven, eight years old. And Carson would go and do this show for these kids, but he was absolutely hungover. What was the funniest thing I ever saw? I said, that guy's funny. Let's get him over here.

So Johnny comes over, get to know him. I never professed to say I knew him well. Not many people could, but brilliant at what he did. Does the show, fade out, fade in. We go back to New York. I run into him on 57th Street. Hey, John, how you been, blah, blah, blah. What are you doing?

I think I'm gonna do this tonight show for a couple of years, you know? I'm looking for a gig. It's like Forrest Gump stuff. I said, you were there for this. Wow. So I said, I said, great. He said, you know, and I might wanna,

we're changing a few things. I might want a theme song. Well, I'm the wrong guy to say. I never stopped with this about music. It was like the longest day. There was never gonna be any music. I dug Xanag into it. Anyway, so I said, hey, John, let me do something.

So I agreed, I spent about 300 bucks, and I do a demo record for him. And I send it, dah, dah, dah, dah. He calls me up, he said, I love it. And he calls me a couple of days later, he said, we can't use it. Cause you know, I'm new on the show, but this guy, Skitch Henderson, who's the band leader,

doesn't want any kid coming in here. He's gonna do it. He's been with the show for ages and I'm new. I said, geez, John. Plus also the money. If he comes up with the theme song, he gets paid every time. Everything's about money to this day. Everybody said it ain't bullshit.

So I said, Johnny, look it. I'm gonna give you half the writers, and I'm gonna give you half the publishing. You put your name on it, you're gonna have 50% of everything. I got a call the next day, he says, you got it. Who knew it would be on all those years? He collected half the royalties on that song for writers and for publishing.

For as long as he was on the air. Can I ask you, how did you come up with that? Does that stuff just come in? It's simple, it's just simple. You know the creative process. You sit, you're alone. How are you gonna get off? What's gonna turn you on?

When do you arrive at what you want? You kind of typecast and I'd have the song. I didn't know what I was gonna do with it, but it fit what I knew was gonna happen for what, 20 seconds? It was just up, it was peppy and it was catchy. It's like anything, you know, that you sit there with, you know, my way came to me at midnight storming outside. New York City in my apartment,

finished it in five hours, the lyric. Why? Because I was motivated by Sinatra, who had told me he was quitting show business. He was quitting. Rat Pack was over, had dinner with him in Florida. He said, I'm getting out. He says, you never wrote me a song.

I'm in my 20s, I didn't dare take a lonely boy or puppy love. It would have thrown me out the window. I said, we could change the word to puppy level, call love as a bitch. Next. You know, I knocked that off in five hours because I put him in that chair writing and metaphorically, it just wrote itself.

Same with Tom Jones, once I got his swagger, it's typecasting, you know. You know, it's like when you're sitting down doing a routine, okay, I'm sick of politics now, where am I gonna go now with this? Where am I gonna, Clinton, okay, I wanna hit Hillary. Obama's wife, and when you do the bit with Obama and the Hillary bit, I just, I fucking fell down.

I said, what is he doing? Well, that, you know, that one came about, that came about living in LA. And everybody's super liberal out here. So it was like, I knew that they, that that would bother them. Oh yeah, you bothered them a lot. I knew that that would bug them.

But it's one of those things where, what's funny, so much of my stuff was just based on going into a room and thinking like, what do these people love? Yeah, or don't love. And then I just kind of go against it. So like, what was fun during the Obama-Trump years, Biden's just sad, and nobody just wants, you know,

but like during those years, what was fun was in LA, it was fun to trash Obama. Like, it's particularly this club, Largo. Well, I don't know what it was, but they were just always extra sensitive. And I would just have some of the worst sets of my life out here in LA, I would have there, but I would be having such a good time.

But then I would go out to like a red state, and then I would make fun of, I would make fun of Trump. So like, it was funny, I would be in a red state, and they'd be like, oh, you liberal snowflake, and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And then I would be out here in LA, and then they would think that I was like a Trumper. And it was like, no, I'm just, I'm an asshole.

I'm just, just right. And there's always like, for the most part, like what people are cool, right? And 99% of them can laugh at what you're doing, if you're ribbing them a little bit, but there's always that one person that takes it seriously. And that's the most fun person in the audience. And you're looking at them, you kind of glance at them,

to see like, you know, the temperature, how mad you're making them as you continue to do this stuff. And then every once in a while, you're glancing over at them, and that becomes the show within the show. Like, I'm getting a laugh. And you're actually, with your negative energy, you're feeding me to go like even further. Like the amount of times, like, I've had the guy laughing,

and the woman is like, look at him and stuff, like, and sometimes I've apologized to the guy. I'll just say, man, this is me. Don't get mad at him. Don't make his life miserable on the way home. This is like me. Yeah, I've had a lot of fun just sort of just doing that. And I feel like with comedy, the big part of it, too,

is you've got to make fun of yourself. And you also have to admit that you don't know what you're talking about. And once you do that, then the crowd can settle in. Because during these times, with social media and stuff like that, everything got politicized, even like comedians. I feel like that style, it's just not a fun style to like, no one wants

to listen to somebody that thinks they know everything, or coming in saying you're wrong or whatever. So there's got to be a way to do it where you can't say what you think a little bit, but you're sort of like, joking around. But I'm also like, I am. One of the things I'm proud of myself is that you can change my mind.

Like, I'm never going to be that guy. Look, this is the way it is, and that's it. I think the way it should be. But if you come to me, this happens a lot with my wife. I'll be like, you did this, and blah, blah, blah, and because I'm emotionally walled off. When she explains the emotion of like, last night, we went to a fashion show at the Hollywood Bowl.

Obviously, I'm not a fashion plate here. So I went there, and she wanted to take a picture. You got your vibe, though. Your vibe, I watch you. I just do what you're wearing all the time. What button down in jeans? I've been wearing the same shirt. If my comedy changed as little as my wardrobe,

you wouldn't be sitting here with me right now. I literally have not bought clothes since before the pandemic. So she wanted to get like a picture as we were going in there. The red carpet. No, this is just walking up the hill. So I'm sick of taking pictures or whatever. So I did the whole thing.

All right, you got it. You got it. Let's go. Let's go. And I saw the sadness on her face, and I was just like, oh, I just did that thing again. I was like, all right, you're right. You're right.

This is something you wanted to go to. You know, if I took you to a sporting event or something and you tried to rush your way through it, that would bother you. So I do have the ability. I'm not an asshole all the time, but when I'm on stage, I am. The life routine. Where?

Yeah, which one? What do you mean the tough job? The toughest job. When you got into that, I'm sitting there going, how's he going to pull this off? What do you mean? Tough work. Leaning over.

I mean, I know all the routines. I said this. I can't believe you know my stuff. What do you mean? Are you kidding? I don't know. I got grown women. I got friends.

I'm in the business. You think I'm oblivious just sitting there waiting for the next my way to come? Well, don't you ever feel like what you're doing is just you in a little room? Like, I'm always surprised if anybody knows who the hell I am. Oh, they know who you are.

When you're playing to thousands of people, you've got your base, and I've got my core base. Yeah, but you know what I find, though? I find like they know who I am, and the second the show's over, all I need to do is get three blocks away from the theater. And nobody knows who you are. Nobody knows who Sam is. Yeah, but I like that.

No, I love it. I like that. I don't want to be that guy that like, I can't go. You know, you see these people. My favorite celebrity thing ever is the bowling alley in your house. It's the funny. You probably have one.

I feel like an asshole. No, I don't. OK, good. But like the bowling alley in the house, it's like, Jesus Christ. You can't go bowling like that. Like, what kind of a? It's like with Elvis, when we used to sit and talk, I could never get him out the dinner.

OK, can I just digest what you just said? It's like with Elvis, when we used to sit and talk. Can you please talk to me about sitting and talk? What year? What year? When I was at Caesar's Palace, when he started working Vegas. The Unicorn and Elmer. 78, no, the Hilton.

The Hilton. But I knew him before, because we were with RCA Victor Records. You know, there was us, there's band of teenagers, and then there was Elvis, this amazing looking guy who had the it with a black voice. And we all looked at this guy, right? And there was nobody like Elvis from our milieu of people. I get to know him, and then I really

get to know him in Vegas when he started working Vegas, when the colonel signed him up at the Hilton. And I would go over and hang with him. And it was a hang. You know, you'd walk in a room. All the windows had aluminum foil on it. Aluminum foil. Why?

Didn't want any daylight. Oh, OK. Didn't know where to put it. I think you just go with drapes. Not good enough. Not eccentric enough. Yeah, aluminum foil. What are you going to get a drape out of a drawer, right?

Get the aluminum foil. So, and they love the guns. You know, the guns shot up the TV set. But the point that I was going to make is, when we He shot a gun in the hotel? No, he didn't like Robert Goulet. And Robert Goulet came on television. He was a guy from Canada.

For some, whatever the hard on he had for him. And he came on television. He shot the TV set. I said, thank God for my way. I'm going to get out of here alive, right? Because he was on my way. What's that Jordan thing? He probably took exception somehow with the Robert Goulet.

Let me ask you, you said something interesting. You said he had like the black voice and everything. Did you ever talk to him about how the perception that people had, like, he was doing black music and he was getting the credit and the black artists weren't and all of that type of stuff, which was a thing because of the level of racism and all of that. But then, like, now, like 70 years later,

it's almost like they look at him like he wasn't even talented, where it's like, you've got to be like, all right, you've got to dial that. This, like, there's a whole bunch of, like, when I look at Elvis, it's like, I understand all of that other stuff, but that he was sort of the blueprint, I feel, like, of the rock star where, like, every cliche thing that a rock star can get involved in.

Like, there was no information for him. Where it was hangers on, people giving you drugs. Like, literally every, you know, music changing. And somebody else coming in, and there was, like, nobody, I feel, like, he could really sit down and talk to, like, when you hit, did you hit, like, he came, he hit, what, 55 or 56? He was at 55, I hit in 56, and he hit about a year

before I did. So when you were watching him, like, and then he goes into the army, and then when he comes back, the Beatles are out. Watching him, navigating that, and getting talked into doing the movies and stuff. And the Sinatra special and all that. Yeah, now, were you and Bobby Darren sitting there

going, like, like, watching that, going, okay, I do this, or I wouldn't do that? Or were you guys too close in age, and stuff was moving too fast for you to contemplate that? We were focusing on the foundation we had and what we had to do. Elvis had his own vibe. We all knew that.

We all knew the Colonel. Couldn't leave the country. Great Carney guy. He mastered. Did you know that back then, that he couldn't leave the country, because he was so... Oh, yeah, the word was out. You know, everybody knew everything.

You never remember, pop music back then was in its infancy stage. There's no Hendricks yet. There's no Beatles yet. Right. You know, I was somewhat responsible for the Beatles coming here. Because I was living over in England.

I was living in France, and I would come home in a society that wasn't media-driven. Right? You know, people don't fathom the fact that it wasn't a media-driven society then. You knew nothing. If CNN were around when Hitler was marching, you'd never left Germany.

You know, today it's like, wow, instant. Nobody knew what was going on. So the point was, I would come home from England. I meet the Beatles in Paris. They were working the Olympia Theater where I started as a kid. Taking pictures, we're drinking, we're meeting. Hey, Paul, we want to publish, and we want to write,

and all of this stuff. And I'm coming home telling Normie Weiss, a general artist, Sid Bernstein, who are my agents. I said, man, there's these kids. They got the hair, and they're doing these covers, and they're looking at me. I mean, what Beatles? What are you, my hair?

And I'm telling you, I love them. You know, I love them as a musician. I said, you've got to get over there and sign them. Nobody knew they were there. Fade out, fade in. Eventually, they go over in 64, and they bring the Beatles over, first shot on Ed Sullivan.

But until then, nobody knew they existed. What were they like when you were hanging out with them? There's no way you had any idea they were going to be that big. They were different for me. I'd never seen anything like it. But when you spoke with them and you hung, they still had that quirky little edge.

You know, they always tried to be like comedians. They'd always have something off point to make a little humor out of it. They were very much that way, but still you could see they were trying to find their niche. Because it didn't happen. You know, in our business, till you put the mileage in,

you know, we know, we all had to sweat it out. You're not there yet. You know, it took Elton 2,000 miles. It took everybody some mileage to get to where they're at. Same with them. They were just a cover band. But when you saw them, you knew there was something going on.

And then the vibe started in Great Britain. The point I was making is, till them, Elvis was criticized. My group criticized. Anything indigenous to pop music, the fans loved us, but the adults didn't like us. Most of us were white-ifying rock and roll.

We were clergyman's answer. Because it was all the black experience that I loved and lived on, I could barely get them on the radio. And you know, I toured down south. I come out of Canada and I'm touring down south and I got all my black brothers who, guys I idolized, Chuck Berry, Lyman, Fats Donald, I'm on a bus all of a sudden,

going through the south. Were they're not allowed in to eat? What was that like? And I said, fuck, I ain't going in without you guys. Now I'm a kid, I'm starting to compute this. I said, I ain't going in. I'll go get the food and bring it. Well, we can't go to the bathroom.

Well, let's go five miles an hour. You open the door and you're pissing outside of the bus. I've never seen anything like it. Whites over here, blacks over here, cops, dogs. And I'm with my brothers. People that I idolized as a kid, couldn't do this. You couldn't do that. Boy, what an awakening that was for me to see

before the civil rights. If you just stay where you're at, you think you know everything that's going on. And then if you go do the road, you're like, oh, oh, I didn't know all of this stuff. And then you end up getting this great mindset of like, there's way more going on than I could ever know. And I don't really know anything.

And I find the less somebody has that experience, the more convinced they are of like their beliefs and stuff like that. Because I don't know. I've really gotten to the point of, I mean, I don't know anything. I mean, I know how to do what it is that I do. But as far as like, there was a time where I thought,

you look at problems and you think you could actually solve them. And then you get older. You're just like, it's just, I don't know how to. Doesn't work. Yeah. You know, you can vote, but you have no power. You woke up one day and said, yeah, OK, I get it.

I'm going to vote. But then you look at it and go, I don't have any power. You know what I don't like? I don't like how you vote for the people to go in there. But then like so much shit that really affects you, you don't even get to vote on it. They vote on it. They do.

And then they got all these guys putting like money in their, how are these guys getting rich? Did you ever look at the landscape of those guys? Look. Oh, everybody in the Senate, they're multi-millionaires. And they make like freaking $200,000 a year. And they don't have any jobs to fall back on. Not one of them.

When you look, oh, I used to be a better economist. I used to be a lawyer. No jobs. They get rich overnight. And I've looked at this for years, the same game. And I'm convinced that there's this hierarchy club vibe. Ah, you're talking my language. Here we go.

Here we go. I've watched this happen. And you see from $110,000 a year, everybody gets rich overnight. What is that about? Yeah, you're somehow, you make $110,000 a year and you're worth $20 million. What's going on?

I think all of, you know, that host speech tour thing that the president does? Oh, 250 a shot. That's them washing their bribe money because he did what they wanted him to do. It's the payoff. It's so obvious. It's the payoff.

It's so obvious. It's a payoff. It's the payoff. Whether they have a red tie or a blue tie, it's a payoff. That's why I feel in my lifetime, the only human being that was president that really gave a shit about people was Jimmy Carter. And the proofs in the, that guy, he just recently,

because of health, has had to slow down. That guy's been building houses for the homeless right into his 90s. Everybody else, regardless of color or tie, goes and gets the big house, does the speech tour, and sort of disappears into the ether onto like a yacht. And you know, I'm at love like country, but don't trust those that run it.

I never thought I'd ever feel that this was a corrupt country also, because I've been all over the world, man. Iron Curtain countries, I've been to every major country. What was that like? You went behind the Iron Curtain? Oh, you won't believe this story. So I'm in my teenage days, right? To be Elvis in the Beatles.

And I'm like, go play Siberia. I'm in my, I've been to Russia, close to Siberia. I'd say that's the story of Putin. So I'm sitting, I'm over in Europe doing my thing, right? Some of my records, kids. And I got to go to Geneva, frankly, to visit my money. I worked terribly in the game. So I get out of the plane, and I go to Geneva,

and I do my business, and I go back to the airport. You legit had money out there? I'm not 100% gonna get you. I take the fifth. OK, OK. Well, Obama went in and shut it all down, so it's a mute point. So that's one of the most gangster things I've ever heard. So I go to Geneva to visit my money.

It's a long story. So I'm really, I'm into the European thing, man, right? So I'm getting on the plane, and there are these guys with the machine guns and the dogs. And, you know, in those days, 60s. 60s, OK. And I'm getting on a plane, and I know there's a buzz. And they start bringing this group of guys on,

and this one very tall, bald-headed, strong-willed type guy you could tell he was the boss. When I get on the plane, we're all sitting around on the plane. We get ready. The plane goes up, we're sitting in the first-class cabin. And he comes over to me, and he says, I hear your Paul Anker. He says, yeah, you know what, 20s? He says, I'm president of Poland, and we love your music.

Would you ever come to my country? I'm gonna say no. 30,000 feet, the guys got the Poland. I go every weekend. My family. All my friends go for the weekend. Good thanks. So I said, yeah, I'd love to.

Fade out, fade in. I get home. But a month later, my manager calls. He says, did you meet the president of Poland? I said, yeah, I was on the plane. He said, did you tell me you wanted to go to Poland? I said, no, yeah. He says, well, he got in touch with the government,

and there's $15,000 in the Bank of America, and they want you to go. I said, really? He says, they think it's a good idea. It's OK. So I round up the boys, and we fly to Poland. Now, you lose sight of what you've got in your own country. But when you land in a place like Poland,

or Czechoslovakia, depressing, great people, but depressing, you check in your hotel, dark, one bathroom at the end of the hall, no other bathrooms. You go to work, and you see people lined up to these stores to get toothpaste, to get clothing. It was the most depressing trip. But I'm saying to myself, I'm going to play to 15,000 people tonight?

How? And we drive out to the stadium. And from my window, I could see these street cars coming all the way down the street with thousands of people, and I'm into the side of the stadium, empty them out, and leave again. I said, this is ridiculous. So anyway, I do the show.

We finish the show, and I leave. How was the crowd? Amazing. They know all the music, and here's how. I'm leaving, and they all come up to me with these little postcards, like a postcard, made of wax. They got grooves in them, and music with a hole in it. I said, what is that?

They said, Cuba bootlegs all American music and sends them over here, and that's how we hear you, because you couldn't sell records over in those countries. So they knew me through these postcards, right? I had the greatest time with those people, but here's the kicker. My last night in Warsaw in a beautiful concert hall, I mean, aesthetically well-appointed,

everything acoustically. The Russians had built it and given it to the Poles. I'm sitting in my dressing room with the head of UPI, United Press, and we're talking just before the show. In the corner of the room, there's this radio, old radio, and Radio Free Europe would be always broadcasting with the limited vocabulary to all the communist countries, however they could infiltrate.

And I'm looking at the guy, and I hear from the radio, and the president arrived in Dallas at one, the motorcade went, you know when you're sitting somewhere and you're hearing but you don't believe that you're fucking hearing? And I stopped, I said, hey, Tom, wait. He was shot at, and I'm hearing the whole Kennedy story around.

I'm in Poland, remote, another country, and you feel it. I started crying. I go on stage, I said, ladies and gentlemen, my president has just been shot. There was like bedlam in there. All the front rows were government people. They're getting up, they're running out. I said, I can't finish the show.

Can't finish the tour. I'm going home, but I'll come back one day. Packed up, went to the airport the next morning. People were coming up with match book covers. We loved him. We loved the US. It's the Russians. Shut down the tour.

A couple of years ago, I went back 50 years later, and I finished that concert. Oh, my god. In a new country, you should see what it looks like now. I've been there. You've been. I've been there because it didn't, like, the Poland you saw was not the Poland I saw.

Poland I saw, they were fun. Oh, amazing, modernized. Yeah, I think I went to Warsaw. They had like a great, someone was telling me along their coast, they have these great beach towns to go. Unbelievable, yeah, stayed there. Oh, you did stay up there. I was someplace, I'll give you the name of the place

in a second because I didn't show there. I rented this crazy chick one time in Iceland. Before you were married. No, I was married. You went to Iceland? I went to Iceland, and I was sitting on this. Swear to god. I was sitting on a grassy knoll to bring it back to Kennedy,

right? I'm up on this, and I'm smoking this cigar by myself. This blonde chick walks up to me, and she has like this accent. She goes, hey, how are you doing? Whatever, I'm like, hey, what's going on? She definitely had weird vibes. I'm kind of sitting there going, like, and I was literally

like looking down, like all these people walking over there, and I'm clearly up here kind of stating that I kind of wanted some alone time. So of course she comes up to me. She goes, this is a weird question to ask, but can you roll me down the hill? This grassy hill, and I'm going, what? Give me some roll.

I totally forgot this story. Yeah, I've told this on the podcast, but I was like, what? She goes, I've never met an ice on this beautiful grassy thing. It was like a little kid thing she wanted to do. That is funny. And I'm sitting there going, like, I don't know if it's this. How many times did you roll her?

Just, I know, right? I just, I gave her a little, and she did. She went, like, whee. I think she said, whee, which made me even scarier. Made her even scarier. And then we had like an awkward afterwards. I was laughing, but also like freaked out. Like, I thought she was a witch for half a second, and then.

But she gave great room. No, but yeah, she said, she ended up going, oh, I'm from Poland. I said, oh, you know, I did a show over there, and then that's what she told me about the coast. And I was just kind of like, all right, see you later. I totally forgot about that. Iceland's a cool place. Yeah, I went up there.

I didn't get to see the Northern Lights, but I went up there, and me and my wife and my daughter, I got a son now, too, but my daughter, we went and did, like, a whale watch, and like, you just see them. They just go out there, and they were jumping all over the place. I've had a great time going over there. But I got to tell you, because I want to go smoke a cigar with you now, if we can't.

Whatever you love, yeah. I got to tell you, like, that show I saw you do, I'm never going to forget that show. What were you doing there? Why? I was there because we put the song in the movie. Did I tell you that? You told me, but I don't know that.

You do like The Tiger. I shot this movie called Old Dads. It's about guys my age that have kids late in life, and then Hello? I got a 17-year-old. Exactly. So I go to, like, my daughter's in kindergarten. I was in kindergarten 50 years ago, so everything has changed.

And I'm over there. Every five seconds, put my foot in my mouth, I feel like saying something stupid. So that's basically a comedy. So at one point, they're all going to go to Vegas. And we needed some Vegas-y-type music. But that's not the thing. I've been done to death.

And then my editor said to me, he goes, hey, man, you know, Paul Enko did this rock swings or whatever. And it was perfect, because it was my generation's music with the Rat Pack sound. It worked so perfectly, and we ended up choosing Eye of the Tiger. So then I was just, and I started going golfing with my friends, and I would put that album on.

And everybody loved it. And I was just like, you know what, man? I'm going to see this guy. I got to see this guy. And I started reading all of this stuff. That's guy, what, it's a Tonight Show theme? I didn't know that. Put your head on my shoulder.

Oh my god, right? So I'm like, I got to go see that guy. So buddy, I work with Mike Bertolino. He's into all of that stuff. So I go, we know what's seeing him. I go, we're going to put suits on. This guy's a class guy. And the guys wear shirts and all of that.

And you were 100% right. And you were 100% right. Howard Stern loves it. Once he endorsed it, I said, OK, I'm in. You were 100% right. You go out there and dress like a bunch of bums. You're representing me with a fucking shirt on. That's right.

So yeah, the first time I went into that rant one time, I was like, yeah, what's the problem? This guy is 100% right. So yeah, we were like, we're going to go down and see him. Howard put me right on that. I did it a couple of times. And he just loved it. I mean, he was like, you are absolutely

referencing, oh, thank god, I got somebody that's. Guys get shirt. I mean, what I was was the way you were saying it. I could tell you had said it a thousand times before. You were beside yourself. The fucking guys get shirts. So a little more than that. They're fucking up musically too.

Yeah. No, all of those. That's like the classic buddy rich one. I get you out there when I get fucking clams. It's like, people just think it's funny because they hear in somebody famous flipping out. But it's like, what I hear is a guy that cares about his audience.

And it's like, guys, this thing that we have is precious. And it can all go away if we start going out there dressing like bums and not giving a shit about what we're playing. That's right. And I've worked too goddamn hard to have some fucking punk half my goddamn age come walking out there dressed like some fucking hippie playing fucking clams.

Yeah, that's it. Strong as your weakest link, right? Exactly. Oh, this is for you. Oh, we got it, we got it. This is a gift to you. Read that when you get home. OK.

Good, because I'll probably get emotional. You take this. It's yours. What? Yes. Oh my god. I want you to have that. I feel like I'm on a prank show where you're going to be

like, I'm just kidding. I have no idea who the fuck you are. And this doesn't even work. So I was surprised. Obviously, post, I heard you were there. And I'm going, Bill was in my audience. Nobody fucking told me. I don't know.

You must have just got tickets from the rabbi. You know, the rabbi runs the place. I said, I can't see him going to the rabbi for tickets. No, I went on StubHub. I went on StubHub. We played right through the nose. We sat and we were sitting lower level center house. So you came down the right aisle.

That's right. And you came right by us, dude. And you were just beaming, the joy on your face. And then it was just contagious. It was over. And I feel like that thing that you do, two, three times, you came into the crowd. In the audience.

I love doing that, right? Yes. But opposite energy. You're right. We're leaving for Asia in a couple of weeks. Doing an old Asian tour. Want to come and open Singapore? I've done Singapore.

Where'd you work down there? The theater? The big theater? Where did I work? I figure we're at. Sans Hotel? No, I did play a theater. I did this great thing.

I did Australia all the way out to Perth. I did the whole place. I loved Australia. And then I did New Zealand. Yeah. And then I'm like, oh, Singapore's right there. Not realizing it was still like a 10 hour flight. Right north.

Went all the way up there. Only stayed there for like a day and a half. Then I did Hong Kong. Then I did Mumbai, India. I'm doing Hong Kong. I'm doing Bangkok. I'm doing Tokyo. Oh my god.

You know what I love about going over the one time that I actually went to Asia? Was the experience that that is all happening on the same planet that I live on? Because it felt like an alternate. It literally felt like I went to another planet because you go over there. That's right.

And they have everything that we have here, but different. It's like they have their United American Airlines, but it's not called that. They have their pop stars. They have their TV shows. And I love putting on the TV show and seeing a show kind of like ours. And it's like, did they take this from us? So we'd steal it from them.

That's about Korea. Yeah, because I know a couple of guys have taken blueprints from the TV show. Yes, yes. But I went over there and the food, the people, and all that. And they're homogenous society. We're not. And I've been going there since I was 17 years old.

And when you go see that productivity and the way they're culturally driven, you take a country like Japan. Everyone doesn't realize what an amazing country they are in terms of how they look after their elderly, their workforce, their demographic, how they know exactly where they fit in that region. Yeah, I wish this country, like old people and veterans,

I wish that we did that after them. They're not looking after them. Japan looks after their people. You know, when they made that accord up in New Hampshire, when the American government sat down with all those countries and said, OK, we're going to get rid of all this war bullshit. We're going to change everything. Control all the shipping lanes.

Take your money now. You don't need it for armament. Start putting it back into your people. We're going to protect you. That was the emergence of globalization and all those countries that started to rise and be very affluent, et cetera, when it started in that meeting that they had up in New Hampshire.

And you see all those countries now who's affluent, who isn't. Were you at that meeting? I missed it. I was busy, missed by day. I'm surprised that you were at that one, too. You want to go smoke a cigar? Oh my god. I'm going to go smoke a cigar.

I'm going to smoke a cigar.