Mailbag

From: robert ritchie
Subject: Re: Hanukkah In Vail

Do you believe in God? or just being a jew? My next record will be called "Rock N Roll Moses" let's see how the record labels like that. lol ... Fuck the bullshit, Merry Christmas Bob. U jews often attend Catholic schools, and it's totally cool. Calm the fuck down cousin. Come to the Midwest, South and see what got Trump elected. Shit don't run from the coasts. Never has. Ps, We got the jews backs and they got ours. WW2 is over, so is slavery. move on. We all have horrific storys in our ancestery, is it a battle of who's is the worst? fuck no. move on. from a guy who spews moving forward all the time, u sure bring up the past a whole lot….dont be a bitch. pick a side. Everybody dont hate jews, but yall do make good jokes - and movies... lol, get over it…your not the victim. yall motherfuckers run shit as 2 percent of the country….except war. which no one wants. but all our people have answered the call when needed. together (ours mostly). and we will again if needed.(fuck isis) understand that. we are one, with different opinions. this time mine happens to be the majority(of pectorial votes), deal with it, i dealt with yours for 8 years. and it will probly reverse after this. i did not excel in typing or typing words correctly. but i have made my mark (if u fall asleep on my jet i draw a dick on your face) - if u were me u would do the same thing. its healthy to laugh….oh shit, santa just landed on my doublewide…gotta roll.

Robert Ritchie / Kid Rock

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Subject: Re: Hanukkah In Vail

I grew up in a small town in the midwest. That should say it all right there.
Zero jews. Zero Synagogues. ( I still can't spell it) There "might" be one 30 minutes away. Maybe.

The point is, Judaism was (and is) a complete mystery to me and everyone I know. And that's a shame.

I remember when I was in high school, we went on a band trip to some larger city and I met other band kids from around the country. Some girl showed me her ID and it said, 'Jewish Community Center' at the top. At the time, I thought, 'Jews have their own community center? Do they think they're that much better that they have to have their own center?"

Of course that was ridiculous. And I feel nothing but embarrassment about that now. But what had been seeped in my young mind, was that Jews were different and that it was 'bad-different'.

The first step in establishing any kind of relationship, is 'contact'. Without jews in your neighborhood, how can you get to know them? Same for African Americans and everyone else.

Without diversity, hate continues to breed. Did you hear the story of the African American man who turned KKK members around by befriending them? Same thing! He established contact, got to know them, even befriend them... and steered them right.

Thanks for the holiday memory.

Happy Hanukkah (however it's spelled)
Bill Seipel

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From: n0gar@________
Subject: Re: Hanukkah In Vail

Stick to music and save the phony Jew stories. You are not real Jews, you are not a race and you are not victims. Plus, the holocaust never happened. Not because I say so but because there is no evidence.
?
You people's literally own all of the money and all institutions, so how are you victims? I'd love to be a victim like that! You guys hate blacks more than anyone and you are trained to hate humanity.

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Subject: Re: Hanukkah In Vail

Hi Bob,

Thank you for this lovely story. You know, I'm gay, and you would think with how vilified the Gay community has been for so long, we would all be a tribe and get along, and feel all warm and tingly. Sorry to say it's not so. I think it has to do with internalized Homophobia. Or this thing the young have about if you over 30, you're not part of the tribe. It's a shame, because I write dance music that they dance to, but do they know I'm way over 30, no! You would think AIDS would have brought us closer together, but since AIDS became a political football, it divided us within our own ranks. Those who were infected and those who were not. There is also the fact that there is so much testosterone floating around that sex becomes a divider. Your body is too hairy, your body is too smooth, your face is like Adonis, your face is like uncle Fester, and it goes on and on. Looks become a divider. I was blessed with looks, but I was an outcast because of it. Some were jealous and others thought I wouldn't give them the time of day. I never had anyone want to get close to me. Plus, the drugs. Drugs become a divider. Internalized Homophobia makes many turn to alcohol and drugs. I won't even get into the division between Gay men and Lesbians. Where am I going with all of this? If you are a minority you are vilified in this country, but if you are LGBT, you have a mountain to climb to belong to a tribe. Plus there are so many tribes in the Gay community, it's so hard to choose. LOL

Warm regards,
Scott Finnell

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From: Lukedaddy (Steve Lukather)
Subject: Re: WABC's All American Survey for Week of 21 December 1965

Hey Bob,

This is the soundtrack to my early life!
Every one of these songs is a classic !
The diversity of what was on top 40 radio then was magic and the songs, the performances and the production of all these records was other- worldly to a kid like me.
I used to think ' How did they make all these wonderful sounds?' cause every record sounded so different unlike today where everyone uses the same plug -ins, guitar sounds and drum samples and its over compressed-time corrected, Melodyned, up on a grid, making most of it sound like over cooked conveyor belt cheese burgers made from cow anus.

Anyway... I would sit by the radio in the kitchen of my parents house listening, waiting for my favorite songs, then Go BUY the records, singles, and play them till they wore out and I drove my parents crazy with repetition.
I was picking most of these songs on my guitar when I was 10 years old. Ear training and practice!
They will never make records like this again sadly..

I think Hal Blaine was the drummer on almost every track on here.
Someone needs to give Hal more love. A genius pre -click track. He was EVERY bands drummer.
Look it up.
You would be very very surprised to know how many studio musicians were on so many of these tracks!

So was Ringo.. the greatest rock n roll drummer of all time for me.
People don't realize how much Ringo brought to the party with the Beatles.
Dig all the diverse and interesting non-traditional parts and legendary drum fills he came up with for all those songs classic records and with NO click tracks!
The man swings hard and plays hard!
I have had the honor of playing and recording with him.
Its real! He is the real thing! A treasure.

All these records were made by REAL musicians in a room... artists singing LIVE and many of these records were THE take -mixed and done and thats what you hear!!
A real captured performance.

Like the women of the day. Beautify and real.
Remember what a Playboy centerfold USED to look like? That was not pornography!
Now they are making life-size human like dolls that look and feel real and can even be penetrated.
Yep every possible way! haha

Oh Lord its time for Jesus or the Aliens to get here cause holy shit its all gone so wrong!

Anyway.. I want to hear every one of these songs right now to be reminded of what once was.
Off to Spotify.
Yes Bob.. I did the homework, they are NOT the devil, but I know who IS but that is another conversation for another time.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from Turks and Caicos

Luke and son

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Subject: Re: WABC's All American Survey for Week of 21 December 1965

Oh man. I remember dancing to some of those gems at the 7th Grade Dance Social at Main School in Franklin Park,IL. Won the Dance Contest with Sheila , the future Mrs Jimmy Caan. Prizes included a Theater size Nestles Crunch bar and the 45 We Can Work It Out. Sheila actually won the single. We swapped prizes on our walk home. Of course I still have the record

Bobby Tarantino

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From: Richard Griffiths
Subject: Rick Parfitt

I'm trying to think who the American equivalent for Rick Parfitt is. Maybe Bob Seger or John Mellencamp?
He was the leader of Status Quo, who passed away today.
The Quo had their first hit Pictures Of Matchstick Men Back in 67/68. They had a couple of other minor hits but essentially disappeared from view fairly quickly.
In 1972 I went to my first club gig at the 1832 club in Windsor, just round the corner from where the Royal Family hang out in their castle. I went to see my favourite prog rock band called Egg. But they cancelled and when I got to the club they announced that they had booked Status Quo to replace them.
Status Quo?! You've got to be kidding!
But I had made the journey and I had a mate to share some beers with so we thought hey, why not.
They blew our fucking minds out!
They had turned into this incredible three chord rock band that blew the place apart. All 30 of us.
In 73 they had their first comeback hit Paper Plane. From then on they just ruled the UK. Hit after hit after hit. And barely changed a chord!
Rather like Queen, by the time Live Aid came around they were passe, again.
Then they came out first to open the show, with Rockin All Over The World, and their career took off again!
They kept it up for years. Sold out tours, hit single and albums.
Unbelievable
That's 50 years!
You've probably never heard of them.
They might now get the acknowledgement they deserve.
Shame Rick had to die for that to happen.

(Note: I own the "Pictures Of Matchstick Men" 45.)

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From: Richard Griffiths
Subject: Re: Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Playlist

Your playlist has got me listening to Pearl Jam again. Haven't listened to Ten for years. What an amazing album! Here's a story for you. After Jeremy was such a huge record/video we wanted to go with Black. The band said no. So Michael Goldstone, Michele Anthony and I went to see them to try and convince them. We gave them all the usual shit about how huge it would be and that we would sell millions more albums etc. The boys said they got that, but they thought although we would sell more albums immediately, it would shorten their career in the long run. The compromise was we went to radio but no video or promo.

The band were right!

I've learnt that the truly great artists have a far better understanding of who they are than we will ever do.

That's why I love what I do!

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From: John French
Subject: Re: George Michael

Bob,

The number one problem with sudden and very successful "pop" artists, whether in music, film or TV is that the intoxicating effect of love and fantasy of super fan worship is so all encompassing that most artists thinks that they have "cracked the code" and can sustain this for ever......,

BULLSHIT!

Fame is RENTED, not OWNED....

The sooner one realizes this, the longer the career will be......Otherwise...
OBLIVION AWAITS and you either have enough money to change gears or.... you can destroy oneself in self inflicted misery.

I don't wish that on anyone but we certainly have seen it over and over again.

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From: Bennett Freed
Subject: RE: George Michael

Hi Bob,

George Michael was my first management client. Along with his partner, Andrew Ridgeley in their band Wham! I had just started a management company with Freddie DeMann and Ron Weisner, who collectively were managing Michael Jackson and Madonna at the time. I went off to England to find the first client for our company and on my first night there I saw George and Andrew on Top Of The Pops performing their first hit, Young Guns. I loved the song. The next night I was at The Wag club in Soho with friends and who walks in but George and Andrew. We were introduced that night, hit it off and all began working together at the beginnings of our careers. They were great guys, and George was a real talent. Although, having said that, I had no idea just how talented he really was until he played me a rough mix of Careless Whisper in a studio in London one night. Stunned would be an understatement. George was a true talent, a gifted songwriter and a stunning singer.

He was also a lovely guy. I once asked him if he would be interested in doing a duet with Jody Watley, whom I was also managing at the time and who was recording her debut album for Irving and MCA and he was delighted and a fan of Jody's from her days in Shalamar. I told MCA that George was going to guest on Jody's record and everyone was thrilled. Shortly thereafter, Sony refused to let George sing on the album. When the dust settled, George stood up to Sony, refused to not honor his word and ultimately recorded a wonderful duet with Jody on her debut album which won her a Grammy for Best New Artist. Thank you George for that and for sharing your talent with us all.

What a crazy and sad year it's been. The musicians lost this year has simply been staggering. I've never lost a client I've worked with until this year. And not one, but three! Maurice White, Pete Burns from Dead Or Alive and now George.

Blessings to them and all of the other wonderful and talented artists that we've lost this year.

Wishing a healing and inspiring 2017 to us all...

Be well...

Bennett Freed
Transparent Management

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From: Kevin Kiley
Subject: Re: The Kennedy Center Honors


Hi Bob,

You said the show was not great because they did not take enough risks.
The show's past co-producer, Michael Stevens (RIP) took a risk by putting Bettye LaVette (my wife) on the show to sing for The Who. I had her agency pitch her to sing George Jones' Choices since she had recorded it the year before and George himself gave her version high praise. Michael said all of Nashville wanted to sing for George. But Michael, unfamiliar with her, did a youtube search and saw her doing a live version of Little Sparrow and he was sold on her interprative skill.

He then asked if she would sing The Who's Love Reign O'er Me. Bettye was totally unfamiliar with their catalogue. But the MD, Rob Mathes, came up with that blue arrangement of the song. That appearance elevated her from cult status to where she is today. Still not a household name, but there are a lot more people who know who she is now. All because someone took a chance.

Kinda like the A&R guys used to do for record companies. Remember those days when the music mattered, not record sales?

Have a Happy New Year.
KK

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Subject: Re: Mailbag

Bob
Last night both Tim Palmer and I read your mailbag email when it came in and called each other right after.
We both thought...Hmmm
Bob has a gazillion people on his mailing list and what are the odds that Tim and I would have letters printed back to back.
See Tim and I have been doing our thing since the late 80s crossing paths knowing each other but never meeting...We even did the Michael Hutchence solo record together but not together...we worked on it in different cities.
Then we both moved to Austin a a few years back so our kids could go to a cool school here and now we hang out all the time, in fact he just mixed a record I produced by Japanese super star Koshi Inaba ( Koshi is the lead singer of the Japanese band Bz and has sold over 100 million records). Tim and I it seems now always work on bands from all over the world but hardly ever the US.
Well I wanted you to know we were both feeling pretty cool that you had us back to back on your mailbag...Thanks

Cheers a happy holidays.

Stevie Salas

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Subject: Re: Why Is Hip-Hop So Big?

The reason why hip hop is so big today is because the genre is ever changing, stays the most interesting and plays by no rules anymore. But hip hop went through a low period of fearfulness in the mid aughts post-Napster, pre-Spotify.

When I was first managing Wale in 2007 it was during the era of ringtone rap, Lil Wayne, and Kanye vs 50 Cent on the cover of Rolling Stone. It was that or you were into "underground" internet stuff like Joe Budden, Skyzoo and Joell Ortiz. You had to choose which club you belonged to...and we didn't really know where Wale fit in but the one thing that remained constant throughout it all was that it was rap and there was to be no vulnerability, and no singing or melody unless you had a feature from a girl or an R&B singer. This was post-Bone Thugs n Harmony, Nelly and Pharrell V1 (during his down period when he became a rapper and was in NERD). T-Pain changed a lot of that and Kanye was really the only one who bridged the gap between "underground"/"mainstream" and "rapping"/"singing". I remember in 2007 when Kanye, the ultimate tastemaker in hip hop, got T-Pain, who at that point had become somewhat of a caricature, on his song "Good Life" and Scott Vener put a snippet of the song in an episode of Entourage. I listened to a ripped audio mp3 of that for weeks until the actual song came out. That shit blew people's minds. That was a moment.

That's not to say there haven't been other influential artists who have made similar strides for the genre (I would argue Lil Wayne's "Lollipop" was one of the largest seismic shift in the sonics, songwriting and structure of hip hop songs ever) but every hip hop artist today (and I would argue most artists in general) are living in a post-Kanye world, the same way every artist after Warhol is living in a post-Warhol world (do you make prints or license your work? Then you have been influenced by Warhol).

Kanye is the guy who did songs for Jay Z, Dilated Peoples and T.I. in the same year he had Talib Kweli, Ludacris and Paul Wall on his first album in 2004, Lupe, Adam Levine, Jon Brion and Nas on his 2nd album in 2005 and Daft Punk, Chris Martin and T-Pain on his 3rd album in 2007. It's funny because none of these things are even novel in 2016 when you have Paul McCartney doing the mannequin challenge with Black Beatles playing in the background. I know Aerosmith lent their vocals to Run DMC in 1986 for Walk This Way but you can't help but think that if it was 1976 they probably wouldn't have been interested.

Hip hop today is arguably the most varied and diverse it's been in decades or maybe ever and lucky for the artists there really is no such thing as selling out anymore. Selling out was the biggest pitfall, real or imagined, for artists in the past especially in hip hop. I remember I used to always hear people say "I used to like ___ before they got popular." I can't even remember the last time I heard that and if anything, success in hip hop has led to greater creativity, better songs and more interesting collaborations. I look at Jamie xx's 2015 collaboration with Young Thug and Popcaan "I Know There's Gonna Be Good Times" as a prime example. Jamie xx was hot off success with The xx. Young Thug was taking hip hop by storm with many people not fully understanding his genius. And Popcaan has been at the top of the Jamaican dancehall scene for a number of years now. A collaboration like that only a few years earlier (look at Kid Cudi's "Pursuit of Happiness" with Ratatat) was dubbed "weird" or for stoner college kids. But young people today, for better or worse, all listen to the same shit. And that mostly consists of hip hop because it's the most interesting. There's no underground or mainstream anymore. It's either new or old with varying shades of popularity.

I was at this tiny sushi truck called myumi in Miami's Wynwood arts district in November. I was sitting next to these three kids all in 8th grade. One kid was white/Jewish, one kid was Latin and one kid was middle Eastern. They were there by themselves eating omakase for $60 per person. The chef said one of them comes in twice a week and knows more about fish than he does. I asked them what their favorite music was. Without missing a beat they all said Kanye. I asked if there was anyone else. They all said Drake. Anyone else? 21 Savage. That was it. I was hoping they would say a name I hadn't heard of before. When I was in 8th grade you might be a rap kid but it was then broken down to whether or not you listened to west coast (Mack 10) or east coast (Wu Tang); underground (Pharcyde) or mainstream (Biggie). These kids today don't care. They listen to what they like with no subtext or connotation and completely unironically. I would find it weirder if they had told me they listened to country music.

Dan Weisman
Artist Manager
Roc Nation

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Subject: Re: Debbie Reynolds Dies

Bob, super right on with this one. I'm a physician and several of my cardiology friends have mentioned that Debbie Reynolds could have had Tokatsubo Cardiomyopathy- literally "broken heart syndrome" - your left ventricle stops working due to massive stress hormones from grief or other terrible news. Almost exclusively women. Our bodies feel pain in ways we are only beginning to understand.

http://www.health.harvard.edu/heart-health/takotsubo-cardiomyopathy-broken-heart-syndrome?utm_source=phplist5686&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=Mailbag

Jonathan Bock

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From: Richard Wolpert
Subject: Re: Debbie Reynolds Dies

Bob

I read your posts and appreciate them.

As a father who lost a lost a daughter to suicide 7 years ago this past October 14th, she was only 15 at the time and just a few months shy of her 16th birthday, I can tell you the "everything happens for a reason" rationale is total horse shit. I would think any parent who has lost a child, especially when that child was young, would completely agree with me. Since losing her every day is a reminder of the loss and I struggle to be positive and put one foot in front of the other. I work my ass off and try my best to advance my career and be a good husband and father to our surviving daughter, who is now 18 and living with the loss of a sister in a way, lets just say, having seen things a young girl of 11 should never had to have seen and were life altering. I do it every day and I struggle every single day. As another friend said who I met through a suicide survivors group, so bluntly and poignantly to me, "losing a child is a life sentence".

Thanks for your work

Richard

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