B009HOTHPE EBOK (50 page)

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At this juncture in my life I look at the industry that I grew up in, still participate in, and love so much, and see all the new dynamics that are coming into play—the good, but mostly the bad. Most of all I am very grateful that my fans still get that collective joy from seeing me perform live, because we live in a time when the public is not going to shows the way they used to. I’m as curious as ever as to what is happening to this industry, the huge, rapid changes that have taken place, thinking about the fate of radio, broadcast TV, newspapers—at this point the future of all media is precarious.

As was ever the case, rust and greed never sleep, and we’re in a time where greed is as rampant and rapacious as it ever was. It’s the music business, but first and foremost it has always got to be about the music, otherwise there will be no longevity to your career. There’s a whole new crowd out there. All they want to do is line their pockets—the feeding frenzy is way beyond old-fashioned greed, and yet they are constantly whining about not having enough money; meanwhile they care less and less about the music, and too much about their bank accounts. Money is the root of all evil. I’m amused by the spectacle of artists who have the ability to sell out at concerts and move impressive amounts of product, but who induce such trepidation in so many people in my business that they are afraid to criticize them. Who would want to stifle criticism? Criticism keeps the music business healthy. If all you want in this industry is to make a fast buck, I don’t want you in my sandbox.

Ah yes, the agents, the promoters, executives, and unfortunately some of the artists. Some of the people who represent these artists know nothing about the business. I’ve observed how frantically they embrace disposable music and make it momentarily popular. But the fact that it’s hyped doesn’t make it good. Just because someone is selling a new flavor of the month doesn’t mean it doesn’t suck. You have all this over-the-top PR coming at you every day about acts where you couldn’t name one of their songs if your life depended on it. Don’t for a minute think that what is so-called successful in the music of today is better than that of yesterday, because it is not.

The way we hear our music and get our information are not going to be around in a few years time. I’ve lived through the era of the 78, the 35, the vinyl LP, all the way to CDs and MP3s. Change is inevitable, whatever business you’re in; we are certain to evolve into something else. Like a freight train it keeps on moving along down the track. Something new is coming at you. Just get out of the way. How many creative people today take the time to educate themselves about what came before them? Have they ever really sat down and studied the craft of writing and all the different elements that go into it?

There’s a reason some of that early music is timeless. Study its ingredients and foundations and maybe you will reach new heights. As we have always said from day one, the power of that music is in the grooves, and no matter how it was recorded or on what device you listen to it on, it’s going to give you goose bumps. It’s that close encounter with an as yet unexpressed emotion that excites us and inspires us. As human beings we have always wanted to reach out and touch each other. People will always love that rush of emotion that comes from the communication of feeling from one person to another through music. A song is an emotion set to music, so any great, memorable song will take your breath away because it’s not only an original expression of that feeling, but what it has to tell you is borne along on the direct current of the music. You can’t substitute technology for feelings, and only the most talented performers and greatest songwriters ever reach that height of emotion that you will never forget. Something I always tell myself when I sit down to write a song is: if you are trying to scale those heights you can never settle. I live by the credo that good is the enemy of great.

So here I am, in the September of my years, where I look at life and count the summers I have left, realizing you can never replace experience. Being fortunate enough, due to discipline, I have been around for a while and am still doing what I love. The survivor from those infamous Rat Pack days. I have lived my whole life with passion, that tenacity of wanting to do it—there is still a part of me that still confounds me. When I look back at my upbringing, my Canadian education, my great parents—really great parents—and the time I was brought up in, I am always amazed. What was that seed in my brain that kept driving me? There has got to be some higher power that is driving us on.

As I got into the industry, at a very young age, everybody began catering to me. People were there pulling on you from all different directions, there for your every whim. Sometimes even pissing you off. I began saying to myself,
How do you keep from being an asshole?
That is what you have to worry about. Holy Jesus! How do you not become an asshole? Because you are always lit up. But the moment that happens, people are kissing your ass, telling you that you are the biggest thing ever—that is when you have to start counting blessings.

And then you reach that juncture in your life where it is not a question of the money. It’s a question of what do you do with yourself if you don’t work? I just would not know what to do with myself. I always believed, if you stand still, they will throw dirt on you. It would really scare me to do nothing. Especially when I find that I am still writing songs, producing, performing—and at this age—still having too much fun to stop. You can’t walk away from it because it is something you are addicted to. It keeps you young, keeps your brain sharp. Life is not only short, it is getting shorter. Time is your greatest asset. Granted, with Ethan in my life, as well as grandchildren and family, my time has to be very well utilized.

Given my intense schedule—I still do almost a hundred performances a year—I need to get away from time to time. Over the years I became close friends with Bob Manoukian and his wife Tamar. I always enjoy their company—he and Tamar are incredible human beings and very gracious hosts. From 2001 to 2003, they invited me to travel with them on their superyacht the
Siran
. We spent great vacations in Sardinia and Capri together, frequently joined by our mutual friends, Dr. Ray Irani, chairman of Occidental Oil and his wife Ghada, who have been dear friends to me for many years. A more quality couple, you couldn’t find.

Occasionally on my trips abroad I (gladly) sang for my supper. I went to Italy with Tom Girardi along with his wife Erika, both close friends of mine, and performed on his boat in October 2005, for a group of judges, friends, and lawyers. Tom is one of the nation’s top defense lawyers with billions in settlements for his clients.

When I went to perform in Tel Aviv in 2009, I traveled through Europe and Israel with Jason Stone, who works for Live Nation and is one of my closest friends and my confidant. I work for him whenever I perform in New York or Westbury, Long Island, but, more important, he and his wife, Lisa, have always been very close to Ethan, Lisa, and me—which was a great comfort during some of the trying times we’ve been through.

Sammy Aroutiounian, president of Creative Talent Management arranged my first trip to St. Petersburg, Russia, in 2010, to perform for Vladimir Putin. When I landed in St. Petersburg there was a very bad snowstorm. Sharon Stone, Kurt Russell, Mickey Rourke and I and others were virtually stranded. It was below zero. Snow tractors eventually cleared the landing strip for us to take off. Sammy’s a great guy, he’s taken me to Russia many times since then. He’s my rep when I do anything in Russia, but more importantly a close friend and brother! He deserves all his success.

When you work in the entertainment business, you’ve got to give back, as do many casino owners and other CEOs who frequently contribute to worthy causes, one of which is the Keep Memory Alive Foundation, and the Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health in Las Vegas, which his son Larry created in memory of his father Lou, who had Alzheimer’s.

Larry Ruvo has been my friend for years and is a salt-of-the-earth guy, someone you’d want to be in the trenches with. He lives in Las Vegas and is the head of Southern Wines, a liquor distributorship. In the 1990s, he held a huge charity event for his father. In February 2012, there was a Power of Love gala, an auction, and a performance benefiting the Lou Ruvo Center, featuring the cuisine of chefs Todd English and Wolfgang Puck. One of the auction items was the “My Way” lead sheet that I wrote for Sinatra. Sheldon Adelson, who owns the Venetian paid $30,000 for it. Larry and I were especially touched by that and his generosity to this troubling cause.

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People often ask me if I get bored doing the same show over and over, eighty to ninety times a year. No, because whenever I perform the audience is reacting to what I am giving them and it stimulates me every night—just as if it were the first time. The Chinese say,
If you find something you love to do, you will never work a day in your life.
I am always reminded of this by my loyal and faithful executive assistant, Julie Zhu, who is from Beijing. Julie is like a treasured member of our family and has been for many years. She is Ethan’s godmother. Ethan adores Julie and her husband Tom. Tom and Julie introduced Ethan and me to Nancy Callihan and her twin sons (Danny and Joey). They have become very close to us in our office and socially. When you talk about loyalty and work ethic and pureness of heart, you’re talking about Julie Zhu. When people ask, “When are you going to retire?” I look at them and say, “Never; as long as I am living and doing what I do.” In fact, I remind them if someone says to me that they are thinking of retiring, I reply, you already have.…

In the circles I walk in, there are guys who have made millions, billions; they have quit, and thinking that now they’ll just relax and enjoy themselves. But, within months, their life goes downhill, they are out of time, and they die sooner than they should have. On closer to the home front, when Sinatra retired, I don’t know which time it was, but on one of those occasions, I went to visit him in Palm Springs. He was playing with his electric trains. He loved painting, but you could see he still missed the action. He missed the smell of the grease paint and the roar of the crowd, and yes, all the action. Back he came—on the stage boards again. When you perform your old songs, you instinctively mix the past and the present, which I do purposely—to make that connection and feel the response of the audience, highlighting that fact that these are the songs that we
both
grew up to.

Whenever I meet any of these new kids on the block, they look at me and I know exactly what they are thinking:
Shit, I hope I can last that long.
When I am confronted with one of them, and their ego is in full stride, and they start telling me how great they are and what they are accomplishing, I tell them, “Don’t tell me how hot you are, tell me how long you have been around!” You have to think about your longevity in this business. That has nothing to do with age. It’s a potpourri of dynamics that go into the mix. And I think luck.

I have always existed in this business, believing that there is someone else out there that is better than you, but who has never had the opportunity. We are all living a life lottery. I believe any one of us, who are fortunate, could have been born in Afghanistan. But here we are. Be grateful for what you have in life.

The only time when I have any sense of what age is, is when I get sick. I am in my seventh decade and my childhood in Ottawa feels just like it was just yesterday. I swear I can’t feel the journey being that long. In today’s world, with the life expectancy much higher than it has ever been, where the mean age is around eighty-two, I throw my hands in the air with humility, laughter, and frustration. Why? I feel and act with my life and work onstage like I am a forty-year-old. I don’t know what it feels like to be seventy! Of course, living that preventative lifestyle, and seeing others who are younger than I am who can barely walk, function, etc., you have to count your blessings. Of course, I take in the genetic factor, but I have to believe, and I share with you, that by doing all the right things, in terms of your body and your health, you have the opportunity to feel the way I do.

So my concerns are not of myself, as long as I keep to my program, but to the world at large. It would take another book to convey my feelings and my opinions of the world we live in today, a world that concerns me for the future of my children, and my grandchildren, who have to live in it. There are so many moving parts and dynamics, internationally, that will affect the survival and state of our country, so that everyone will benefit and have the opportunity to enjoy the American dream.

For all those earlier years that I grew up, the American-Canadian dream was to own your own home, your own car, and be able to support your family. Today, with my travels, not only here but abroad, that hope is gone and that dream is somewhat out of sight for millions of people. Love your country, but don’t trust those that run it. What kind of world is my son, Ethan, going to grow up in? The state of our educational system? The fact that China and Germany, who we cannot compete with, make a cheaper and better product?

What will the opportunities be in the technology field and other sectors of the American infrastructure? How will we educate and create the incentive for all of our young boys and girls to become entrepreneurs? Entrepreneurial enterprise—this was the very backbone of what our country was made of. Will it be corporate America and all of those brilliant minds that run those companies? What if they all got together and told Washington to step aside once so that they could move forward and make a difference in getting us back on the right track? A tall order indeed.

I still continue to travel all over the world from Asia to the Middle East and Russia. They are laughing at this democracy of ours that is the most perfected democracy in the world. Because we’re not a homogeneous nation, like many others are, the hurdles are higher for us in this modern world.