Tony Mantor: Why Not Me ? - Why Not Me the World Introduction

Episode Date: May 19, 2023

Send us a text This podcast introduces Why Not Me the World. A podcast supporting Autism Awareness, Acceptance, and Understanding around the world. In this episode you get to know Tony Mantor and how his music platform supports Autism awareness, acceptance, and understanding around the world. https://tonymantor.com https://Facebook.com/tonymantor https://instagram.com/tonymantor https://twitter.com/tonymantor https://youtube.com/tonymantormusic intro/outro music bed written by T. Wild Why Not Me the World music published by Mantor Music (BMI) The content on Why Not Me: Embracing Autism amd Mental Health Worldwide, including discussions on mental health, autism, and related topics, is provided for informational and entertainment purposes only. The views and opinions expressed by guests are their own and do not reflect those of the podcast, its hosts, or affiliates.Why Not Me is not a medical or mental health professional and does not endorse or verify the accuracy, efficacy, safety of any treatments, programs, or advice discussed.Listeners should consult qualified healthcare professionals, such as licensed therapists, psychologists, or physicians, before making decisions about mental health or autism- related care.Reliance on this podcast's contents is at the listener's own risk. Why Not Me is not liable for any outcomes, financial or otherwise, resulting from actions taken based on the information provided. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Welcome to Why Not Me The World Podcast, hosted by Tony Mantor. Broadcasting from Music City, USA, Nashville, Tennessee. Join us as our guests tell us their stories. Some will make your laugh, some will make you cry. Real life people who will inspire and show that you are not alone in this world. hopefully you gain more awareness, acceptance, and a better understanding for autism around the world. Welcome to my podcast. Why Not Me, The World. I was going to take this time to introduce myself to you, and then I remembered.

I just did an interview with Tony Lloyd. He's based out of the southern part of France, and it covers everything that I wanted to tell you. We talk about my music, what I do here in Nashville, and most important, my plans for my podcast, supporting autism awareness, acceptance, and understanding around the world. Now, once the interview is complete, I'm going to look into my crystal ball, and I'm going to give you all the inside information on future episodes of my podcast. Hello, this is Tony Lloyd. Being a broadcaster for many years, I've witnessed some great stories in the music industry,

and now I want to bring as many music stories to you as I can in this series of podcasts. My goal is that they will inspire others making their way in the music world. Music Stories with Tony Lloyd. Tony Mantar, speaking to me from the fabulous Nashville. Welcome to Music Stories. How are you? I'm doing great, thanks. Thanks for having me. Well, no, it's a pleasure, a pleasure. I've done a little bit of research into you, as I do.

And it says that you are a singer, songwriter, pianist, and producer, and a few other things besides. Is that right? Yeah, yeah, I've had a good run here in Nashville. I started out just doing music production, development, pitching to record labels, you know, that type of thing, but the major publishers. And then it developed into a record label in 2005. And since then, I've had the opportunity to work with. a lot of fairly well-known names. Yes, I understand. Give me the list.

Well, I worked, I produced and managed Mila Mason, who had a lot of big hits back in the late 90s on country Atlantic Records. I've produced Jackie Wilson's son Bobby. I did, I produced and managed him for about eight years. I produced, I produced and manage, I think a singer that was just on your show here recently, Debbie Campbell, Glenn Campbell's daughter. And then I'm currently producing and managing the star of Happy Days TV show, Donnie Most, it used to be Ralph Mouth. Ralph, of course. Yes.

Say a hello to Ralph for me. I will. I will. He's a great singer, and he's got that Frank Sinatra, Bobby Darren swing style, and just really, really takes you back in time to when music was just really, really about music. Fantastic. I'll tell you what, it's still just for a laugh at it.

every now and again, imitate the Fons. And go to a mirror because he went into the mirror in the men's room, didn't he, with a comb and then started to come and then said, no, hey, it's perfect. Yeah, exactly, exactly. I always remember that. That's fantastic. Or maybe we can interview him, Ralph. Yeah, absolutely.

I know he'd love to. Okay, great. Well, we'll sort that out later. That would be really cool. It also says here that you're a multi-award-winning producer. So you've won prizes. Well, you know, awards, I've won awards as manager of the year and record label the year. I've managed to get my name on the ballot for the Grammys four or five times.

I've just been announced as a Grammy mentor for what they call. all Grammy U, which is kind of a mentorship for up-and-coming people that want to get into the music business. So I'm going to be working with a sophomore that's in Belmont College here in Nashville that wants to be either a producer and engineer. So, yeah, I've been very fortunate. A lot of things that come my way. That's very modest of you.

It's all down to your talent. I'm sure, guess how many awards I've won? I wouldn't guess. You know, you've probably done some, I'm guessing. Absolutely none. Well, you know, I've never been really about the awards. You know, I mean, it's nice to be recognized. It's nice to have people put you up for them.

But really what it comes down to is the body of work and the quality that you do that really is the most important. And how long have you been playing the piano? Well, I started thanks to my mother at age eight. I was just a normal kid like anybody else just running around having fun and we had an old beat-up piano. I'd go over there and pound on it for a while. And I paid a lot of attention to it. So my mother said, well, if you're going to take and pay attention to it, we'll fix it up, put new ivories on it, get it tuned, get it really in tip-top shape and send you out there so you can have piano lessons. And I did.

And, you know, just as I was classically trained, Beethoven, you know, Brahms, Chopin, all those. And then as I got into my teens, I started finding, you know, the Eagles and, you know, Creedons Clearwater Revival and the pop bands. And so it's my focus shifted on the style of music. But the biggest thing is I just had a love for music and I decided that I wanted to at least try to see what I could do in it. That's amazing. I got to grade three and then gave up because I became a teenager and other things were more interesting in my life. Well, I did that. At one point, I was supposed to practice every day for my weekly visit with my piano teacher.

And it got to the point where I was doing so much other stuff. My mother actually got quite upset with me and said, okay, if you're not going to take and practice every day like you're supposed to, and you're not going to do what you do diligence like you're supposed to, we're not going to pay to have you go down there every week and learn something when you're not learning. And that kind of set me straight, and I changed my way and got back to practice, and I'm glad she was tough on me. And at that age, could you have imagined what you are today? Not at all. I mean, back then I had discovered, you know, the pop's genre of music, Elvis and, you know, all the R&B acts and the Motown and, you know, and all that.

And I always dreamed of being on stage and performing and recording, you know, putting my songs out there. But, but, you know, I was, I was in a little, little town in Maine, you know, Madison, Maine, and about 5,000 people. And it was a mill town, and you just worked, and you had your nine to five, Monday through Friday jobs. And the entertainment business was a pipe dream, you know, so everybody that I told, you know, that I wanted to do this, it's like, what are you thinking?

You know, you can't do that, you know. And they weren't being negative because they didn't think I could do it. they would just be negative because it wasn't anything that was perceived in that area as being something that's viable. And these are a bigger audience. Yeah, yeah. You know, so I took and I took and joined a local band and we became fairly popular. And then I had an opportunity to go to Nashville. And people get a laugh out of this because I had two friends of mine that were country songwriters and they wanted to go to Nashville, but they didn't have any transportation.

So they asked me, they said, would you drive? us down. We don't have any good transportation. And my response is why would, because I was in a pop music. So I was thinking Boston, New York, L.A., not Nashville. And my comment was, why would I want to go to a hick town like Nashville? You know, so everybody get a big laugh out of it. So I wound up taking them down. And then because when I drove up there, I saw the high rises and it was concrete and steel, just like any other city. And I got to walk music row and meet people. And I just really liked their back back, laid-back attitude, and it was much more comforting than going to New York and L.A. And, you know, I wound up going to Nashville and started recording and just kept going back and

forth, and here I am today. Been there ever since. I've always wanted to go to Nashville. Always. It's a great place. I don't know anything about it, apart from the TV series Nashville. Yeah. And that was partially true in some of the things that they had in that.

But Nashville has changed dramatically over the last 30 years. I mean, this year here, I celebrate my 30th anniversary of being in Nashville. You know, so when I first moved to Nashville, there was 26 major labels. There was there was recording studios just abundant with life. I mean, it was just just just hustle and bustling, just really, really good. today, you've got three major labels. I mean, you've got like Universal Sony and Warner Bros. Because you've got Curb and, you know, and a few other major independence.

But all those made 26 major labels have been bought up and they're under one of two umbrellas now. And a lot of the recording studios that were just busy all the time, they've been torn down for condos and high-rise. I mean, Paul McCartney recorded in one of these studios, they tore down and put up a condo, you know. it's just really sad. So it's changed dramatically in the last 30 years. It's still great. I mean, they've got the Country Music Hall of Fame. You've got the Riemann.

You've got, you know, the predators that play there. You've got a lot of, you know, good places to go and still a lot of entertaining things to do here in Nashville. But compared to what it was in the 90s, it has changed dramatically. It's so a common story, isn't it? Especially in the music industry, unfortunately. But that's the set. So it says here that you were a band leader on tours. Does that mean you were deacon?

Well, what I did is when I first came to Nashville with my friends the first time, it was the, we traveled Newark Row, which is one little building after another. And then we came back a second time, and we actually got a publisher that was interested in recording some of their songs and helping them. So they lined up a studio. We went into the studio and the piano player didn't show up for whatever reason. And so they looked at me and they said, well, he can play piano. So the producer looked at me.

It says, well, you said, you want to take and make yourself a few bucks? I said, sure. So I went in and here I am playing with some of the best musicians in Nashville. I mean, it's like, like he's a country hit guy, right? You know, playing with some of the top session players. and then this guy just happened to come in to meet somebody, and he saw me playing there, and he didn't recognize me, know me, because he knew all the other players. He came up and introduced himself and asked me what I was doing.

I told him how I wound up in that seat. And he goes, you know, he goes, are you doing anything right now? He goes, you're going on tour. What are you doing? I said, no, I'm actually in between bands, and I'm going to, when I go home, I'm going to figure out what I'm going to do. And he goes, well, how would you like to go with Ronnie McDowell? He goes, he's looking for a keyboard player and a backup singer right now.

He goes, you could do both. You know, so I wound up doing a tour with him. I was band leader. I watched over, you know, made sure that the band, you know, knew their chops and, you know, played the songs correctly. And, and wound up doing a short tour with him. And then I went back to, I didn't want to be a side man any longer. So I went back to doing my thing and trying to present myself as a, as a singer.

but I worked with Ronnie's manager, and he would gave me some mentorship and helped me out here and there, and it worked out really good. That's amazing. So it's quite often is the case. It's luck as well, isn't it? Right place, the right time. It is. I mean, you can have all the talent in the world and still not hit that right spot at the right time.

And you never know what that spot is at the time. And that's why I tell everybody that I work with or potentially work with. make sure that you put your very best product out there that you possibly can because you never know who's watching you and you never know who's around that next corner that can help you. I was going to ask you if you got any advice for up-and-coming musicians. Oh, that's what I tell them. Do your best work always, you know, because it doesn't matter if you're doing it

and five people hear it or 500,000 people hear it. If it's not the best, you know, always do your best. Great advice, of course. And your single Why Not Me is available now. Tell me the inspiration behind that. Well, you just brought up luck at the right time. That's what this was. When I moved to Nashville, I took myself off the stage and I went behind the scenes, producing, developing, managing people. and I just didn't think about getting back on that stage and performing or doing anything again. And then in 2020, when the pandemic hit, I mean, everything shut down. And about seven years earlier, I had wanted to do a CD just for myself, just for fun,

just to give to my friends, family, kids, grandkids, you know, just a little legacy, you know, nothing to try and sell a million records or anything. And so a friend of mine called me up. He goes, hey, we've got nothing to do. Let's finish your CD. And I said, well, you know, rather than finish it, let's just start fresh. So I started picking songs. I started recording them.

And then that spring, a friend of mine that had written a song that I produced on a previous artist that I had been working with sent me a song that he had written. And he says, I think this is one of my best songs. I want you to hear it. So I heard it was called, Why Not? me. And I listen to the lyrics, and it's about positivity, never given up your dreams. It doesn't matter when you do it. It only matters that you do. And I said, man, this is what I've been preaching on my social media for the last years. You know, so I told him, I said, you know, let me record

this song. I'm not going to make it a big, big hit. I'm not going to sell a, I might sell a hundred records, not a hundred thousand or a million. I said, but you'll have a great demo to, you know, that's a radio ready to pitch around if you want. And so he goes, go ahead. So I did. So I did. And then my promoters in New York, L.A., Nashville, and either over in the U.K., said, I want to hear what you're doing. So I sent them this song, I just finished. And I had done it in a pop version, but I added a steel in it just to give it a little texture like the Eagles used to do with their steels. And everybody says to me, oh, you recorded a country song. And I'm going, well, I don't know.

It's that twang, the country music twang, the steel. No, no. You know, and I'm going, I don't, I said, okay, whatever you want to classify it, I don't care. You know, so everybody said, oh, you've got to release this. I said, you're out of your mind. I said, I'm not trying to do anything to get myself a star or anything. I'm just doing this for my own enjoyment. And they come back to me, they say, yeah, but there's nothing out here like this that is

as positive. So I said, well, okay, if I'm going to do that, then I've got to at least point fingers to help people out of this. So I picked the first responders because they was going through tough times through the pandemic and getting, you know, things, you know, thrown at them and everything. So I did a video on that and I let people know that I was going to do this. And all of a sudden I started getting pictures and short video clips from all over the country telling me that, hey, can we be part of your video?

So I put it together and over, I don't know, five or six months, it got 125,000 views. And it got, and, you know, it was good. You know, and then I figured, okay, that was it. You know, that was, that's, I've done my thing. and then a few months later, this lady calls me out of St. Louis, and she goes, I really love what you did for the first responders. Can you help us do the same thing? And I said, well, who's us? And it turns out she's a speech therapist for autistic children. So I gave us some thought. We talked back and forth. I talked with her regional manager and everything. And I said, you know, if I'm going to do this, I've got to re-record it as a more adult contemporary pop. So there's no miscommunication on what. it is and no misunderstanding from the other song. And I did. And then I wound up getting some people. I got all, I got everybody that's in my video now, people go see it, are autistic people from Nashville. So, so I did that. And within a few months, I've got over 200,000 views on it.

I've got, I've got people calling me up for interviews and, and how can you bring attention to this? And I've become kind of an advocate or an ambassador for autistic community. So I believe in this. I'm trying to help people. And now my next, I haven't told anybody this yet. So you can be the first one that it's announced on. Well, I'm honored. What is it?

What is it? I've just made an arrangement now to where we're going to do the next episode of Why Not Me, and it's going to be Why Not Me, New York. I'm going to be having the autistic community. in New York be part of the video. Okay. Awesome. And don't you feel, I mean, I feel, no, when you help somebody or help lots of people, even if it's just entertaining them and giving them a good time, doesn't it make you feel nice inside?

It does. And not only does it make me feel good, but this community, this autistic community, I mean, people don't realize, I never did until I was told, but there's one in seven people, worldwide that either know someone or has someone that's autistic in their family. So it's a really, you know, tight-knit community. And, you know, because of that, when I, when people find out what I'm doing, they'll, they'll reach out to me and say, you know, we love what you're doing. Thanks for helping. You know, and they'll tell me stories of their kids or their grandkids. I mean, I had one gentleman reached out to me, sent me a message. And he goes, you know, I really

appreciate what you're doing. My son's autistic. And they sent me 30 pictures of his son doing different things. And when you get interaction that way, it kind of gives you a nice feeling that people appreciating what you're doing. Plus, you know, you're given a little comfort to people. And my whole analogy on this thing is if I can help one person, you know, then it's been a success. Amazing. And have you got to rewrite the song for the New York version or what's going to happen there with the production? Actually, the production is going to stay the same. The only thing that's going to change is I'm probably going to, I'm probably going to re-record parts of my parts so it's not exactly the same. And then we'll have the different people in different spots, you know, trying to tell the story of their story. That's amazing. Tony, you've been fantastic to talk to. Thank you so much for talking to me on music stories. All your stuff, of course, is available on your website, which is Tony Mantor, which is spelled M-A-N-T-O-R dot com, including the video of the autistic children, because I watched it earlier, for your single Why Not Me? And thank you once again for talking to me. It's been brilliant. Thank you.

Thanks for having me. I really appreciate it. First, I want to thank Tony Lloyd for having me on his podcast. Great conversation. Great guy. During that interview, I mentioned Why Not Me, New York. Because of the tremendous response we've received for Why Not Me Nashville, it has now evolved to become Why Not Me the world. So, over the next few months, I will be accepting short video clips and pictures of autistic people from around the world to include in my new music video. Also, my Why Not Me podcast? Well, you guessed it. It's going to be Why Not Me the World.

I'll be having autistic people that will tell you and me their life stories. I hope that this can create conversations and give inspiration to those in the autistic world that no matter where you live, you are not alone in this journey called life. I also hope that it can open minds. I want to see those that are not in the autistic world gain more knowledge and a better understanding of autism, so this will give them the ability to have more acceptance when they meet someone that is autistic because of the stories they've heard on this podcast. I'm hoping to build a community that is worldwide. People that can come on this podcast, tell their stories, people that can listen, and hopefully that will create a community where everybody wants to give and help their local

communities worldwide. Some of you may think this is just too big to get in with? Well, let me tell you this. Once you start hearing the stories that I've been told by the people that will be on this podcast, it will make you want to help. Now, before I started my project supporting autism, I had friends that have autistic children. I was aware of it. I accepted it because I was aware, but I absolutely knew nothing about autism. Now I can carry on a conversation, yet I still have so much more that I need to learn. But that's where this podcast can really help us all. We can learn together.

From the stories of the people that will be on this podcast. How do we do this, you ask? One episode at a time. people telling their stories, people listening, people communicating, people sharing this, and ultimately real people telling real stories and sharing to the world how they live their life. So join us. Let's do something exceptional together. If you want to keep up with everything that's going on, go to tony mantra.com. and sign up for our newsletter,

and we'll keep you updated on all the exciting things that will be happening on Why Not Me, the World Podcast. We are now one month away from episode one, and I am so excited to have our first guest on our show. So, until then, if you're shooting for your dreams, remember this. If they can do it, just ask yourself, why not me? Thanks for taking the time out of your busy schedule to listen to our show today.

We hope that you enjoyed it as much as we enjoyed bringing it to you. If you know anyone that would like to tell us their story, send them to tonymentor.com. Contact, then they can give us their information so one day they may be a guest on our show. One more thing we ask, tell everyone everywhere. about why not me, the world, the conversations we're having, and the inspiration our guests give to everyone, everywhere, that you are not alone in this world.