"Paul Anka"

24:03And all of a sudden this kid is wandering around doing business singing these cockamamie songs. You know, they're doing Cole Porter and I'm going, I'm so young and you're so old. Right. So then the Rat Pack, they're what? They're in their mid-30s, 40s? Oh, yeah. While you're hitting 20? Yeah, I would say close to 40s, yeah. And were they welcoming to you? How long did it take for them to kind of bring you under their wing and kind of show you the ropes a little bit? Right away. See, they all had a vested interest in whatever sense. and anybody that made money for them, you know, they had the swagger.

24:38Those were the guys. Sinatra made Las Vegas, all those guys. Everybody showed up only because of him and then the gambling. So when I hit the scene and I'm making money for the mob, the word is out, be nice to the kid. That was my nickname, the kid. And we'd all hang out in the steam room, this little steam room, in the back of the hotel. On the back of our robes, we had our nicknames. You know, Sammy was Smokey the Bear. Dean was Dino. My name was... So there's a bear in the steam. And they embraced me right away. Right away. Right away. Very nice. And I just watched and learnt. Watched and learnt.

25:13They were amazing. That education that I got at those early years, you couldn't get today. There was no technology, no tricks. It was all real stuff. And those guys were the real deal. It was fun, fun, fun, and professionalism. I learned so much from those guys. Then how did, not to jump too far ahead, But then how did My Way come around for you to deliver to Sinatra? Well, you know, for years in there, he'd always tease me about writing for him. Now, I'm still young. I'm scared to death. I'm intimidated. And I figure if I'm ever going to write something, it better be good because that'll be my one shot.

25:48But I'm in my early 20s. And I moved to Italy and I'm living over there because the Beatles hit, which I'll tell you that later. I got them over here. And I come back and I'm still working. and in the late 60s were down in Florida at the Fountain Blue Hotel. And that was a hang place for all of us and all the mob guys, the Fountain Blue, which was the model for Vegas, by the way. Caesar's Palace, Steve Wynn, all those guys learned from the aesthetics of the Fountain Blue Hotel in Miami. That's where that preacher guy, his wife, got that pool boy from there. I just watched that documentary about it.

26:22It was the Fountain Blue. Unrelated, unrelated. All right, sorry. So, oh yeah, good friend. so the preacher boy he was also around i'm covering everybody here today so i'm at the wait what was wait go back what was the foundation of vegas what well steve wynn who's responsible for the let's call it the second chapter of las vegas genius of steve wynn yeah he and the guy at circus circus and the mob who lent all the money uh um the teamsters union they were going to build caesar's palace and i had five percent of caesar's because my friend nate jacobson out of baltimore came to me who i'd invested with and he said blah blah blah we're going to build this hotel we want you to be a part of it well my people said you don't want to own anything because the governor will be all over you so they all wanted to build this amazing hotel caesar's palace how are we going to build it what's it going to look like the model the aesthetic model and everything in it was taken from the Fountain Blue Hotel, the inspiration for that aesthetic look of Caesars, which was the cheapest investment in real estate and the biggest bang of real estate in the country.

27:33It only cost them about$18 million, if you can believe it. Caesars? To build it, yeah. So anyway, so there I am in Florida. Sinatra's having dinner. He invites me to dinner. I think he's running with Mia Farrell at the time. and he told me, he said, you know, I'm quitting show business. I'm tired. Rat pack's over. I've had enough of this and I'm going to rest. I'm doing one more album with Don Costa. Don Costa, as I mentioned earlier, was my producer. And I introduced him to Sinatra in the 60s and he did that amazing album, Sinatra and Strings. And he said, I'm quitting, but I'm doing one more album.

28:11You never wrote me a song. So I can't believe it. Sinatra quitting. So I go back to New York where I'm living at the time. I'm sitting up at my piano, 12 midnight, thunderstorm outside. I'm saying Sinatra, retiring. I can't believe it. I sit at my typewriter, paid off from sitting in grade 10 for two years, and I'm typing away metaphorically. And now the end is near. In five hours, I finish the song. That's crazy. So now I call him up at Caesars, and I said, Sir, I said, I've got the song, blah, blah, blah. He said, bring it out. I fly out to Caesars Palace, go to his dressing room. I sing him the song.

28:46He says, kid, I love it. I'm going to do it. Two months later, he calls me from a record studio in L.A. Listen to this kid. And he takes the phone, and he puts it up to a speaker, and I hear My Way for the first time. How old were you? 25 years old. I'm not kidding. I'm getting chills. That is unbelievable. That's amazing. So the lyrics were quite literal that you just took. It's like, you know, for me, the end is near, and I did it my way. So that came from his telling you he's done. Exactly. Metaphoric. I wrote it as if he were writing it. In other words, he would never use ate it up and spit it out and stuff like that.

29:23But that's very indigenous to Sinatra style. That's amazing. That blows my mind in a way. And like I said, it quite literally gave me chills. And then the chills were gone when Sid Vicious recorded it years later. I felt more than chills when I first heard it. And Scorsese called, and they said, we're using this Sid Vicious. I'd never heard the record. I said, is this a prank? He says, no, this is a real guy. So I heard it, and I did some investigating. I said, you know, the guy was sincere. He went to Paris. He was ripping up amps and trying to get the sound. I said, who am I to stand in the way of someone's expression of a song?

29:59And I granted the license. That was so crazy. Sean, Jason, you know about that, right? The Sid Vicious from the Sex Pistols recorded my way? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's so crazy. And speaking of Scorsese, I don't know if you guys know this, but I wonder if our listener does. That classic, that opening shot in Goodfellas, that long tracking, not tracking, steadicam shot through the kitchen and all this other stuff. That was a shot Scorsese came up with as a result of watching a documentary about Paul where a handheld camera followed him all the way through a kitchen, right? And then up onto stage.

30:34Yes. Is that right? I produced a film with the National Film Board. You guys know how important their work is. And they came to me in the early 60s. Want to do this documentary, first time ever on a pop artist, blah, blah, blah. I said, let's do it. So we did it, and we won a lot of awards, the Venice Award, New York Critic Awards. And it became this really acclaimed piece of Verite on a pop artist. And Scorsese used it. the Beatles used it in terms of the application and how it was directed, etc. And that shot was taken from the Copacabana. I used to do scene study with this guy, Vito Anaforma, the former boxer, and he's in that shot at the very end when Ray Liotta comes in and Ray Liotta says hey to him and he says hey.

31:18Hey, Vito. Anyway, he used to be my scene study partner years ago. I want to know something. I want to know, like, Jason and Paul, like, at what point, Jason, after you met your gorgeous, amazing, wonderful, incredible wife, Amanda, did you go, oh my God, your dad is Paul Anka and then you're thinking, oh my God, my father-in-law is Paul Anka. And I'll never live up to, oh, sorry. Yeah. And then at what point did it go away where you're just like, okay, I can't stay in this frame of mind anymore and I'm just like, that's my dad. That's my dad-in-law. I knew because I knew her name when I met her, when she introduced herself.

32:01You know, I was like, oh, I don't remember if I even asked if she was related. I think I just assumed. And so I was, I thought, well, if this goes a couple of more dates, I might get to meet this guy and I'll be nervous about that. Yeah. And then I think, Paul, was the first time we met at the Plaza Athene in New York? Yeah, first, and then you hung at the house up in Mulholland. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Jason remembers that, but no vacation with his friend Sean. Go ahead, Jay. No. With his French what? He doesn't remember the glory holes either from us. He put me to ease very, very quickly. He's obviously very used to being famous and having people be intimidated when they meet him, and so he's got that down where he just disarms any kind of arm situation you might create.

32:54You know, he's just, you know, as you can tell. I mean, the way that you talk about these incredible, iconic, not just people, but moments in time and eras that you inhabited. You were just an observer. You were part of. You alluded to the fact that you were in Europe because of the Beatles or they were big at the time. Talk a little bit about that. Well, I'm writing away, but I'm realizing while I'm in the business, all I kept hearing is this may not last. They come and they go. They come and they go. And I'm saying, yeah, they may not last. Okay. I might be back sucking on that moose jerky in Canada in two years.

33:32So now I said, well, I got to start writing songs for other people. Because I was a writer. I wasn't sold as a, you know, they groomed me up to look cute. But I was not a good looking guy. But your voice is undeniable. Well, at least we had the voice going for us. Yeah. So I'm singing away. And I started writing for other people. I wrote Buddy Holly's last hit. that doesn't matter anymore. And, you know, we lost him on one of our tours in the plane crash. And it started there. And then I'm writing for Connie Francis. Then I go to Europe and I'm asked to be in a movie called The Longest Day for Daryl F.

34:06Zanuck, classic war film. I'm in the film and look, I'm not an actor, but I'm in the film and I say to Zanuck, hey, I'm a writer, I'm a writer. I'm telling everybody, I'm a writer. You need a song? I mean, open the fridge, the light went on. I'll write for you. So now with Zanuck, I go home, I'm inspired. I write The Longest Day for the film. Then I meet a guy called Johnny Carson. He's starting this TV show for a year. I said, but I want a new song. I write the Tonight Show theme. You're joking me. You did not know that, Sean? Wait a minute. You're joking me. That is crazy. I wish I wanted to put Amanda through school until Jason took over.

34:42It's the most recognized TV theme song in history. It's been performed a million, four hundred thousand times. You wrote that song. Well, let me tell you, writing is one thing, but getting it out there. I got thrown off from Mitch Skitch Henderson, who was a part of the show. And when Johnny came in, who was new, and I'd given him a job on my TV show, Johnny. Wow. Skitch Henderson said, I don't want some kid taken over here. We're not using the song. And when Johnny called me and said, you know, I'm sorry, I love it, but I can't use it. Big Skitch has been here, blah, blah, blah. Goddamn Skitch.

35:24He said, yeah. Skitch the switch artist. So I said to Johnny, I said, look, I'll give you half the song, half the publishing, half the writing, and if anything happens, you're going to earn half of everything with me. Wow. So a day goes by, and he calls up with his manager and says, you got it. Now, they don't know it's going to be on, what, 30 years? Yeah, right. Either did I. Uh-huh. So he says, the song is back on. and every night we listened to for what 30 years and i gave half the song away but i had nothing anyway so well you had half of half of something instead of 100 went on to be sean's uh hair cutter right what's his name skicho i go to europe and i'm you know i had a whole career in europe i went to japan when i was you know what yeah what's this you lived in italy you just said yeah i lived in Italy.

36:18I didn't know that. Well, when the Beatles hit, let me go to that. I'm working the Olympia Theater and I'm really loving the culture and I'm loving Europe and I'm touring all over the place from Japan to Europe. And I go to see a friend of mine at the Olympia. And on the underbill from my friend, it says, the Beatles. Watch your mic, Paul. You're hitting the mic with your hand. I says, the Beatles. The Beatles. So I'm sitting there watching the show and the guy, ladies and gentlemen, here's the Beatles. And these guys come on and they're doing these cover songs. And I'm looking at these guys, shirts, ties, long hair.

36:54And they're singing away. And as a musician, I'm going, God, there's something here. So I go backstage and I meet them. And they're talking to me. And, oh, we love what you're doing. So they're saying, we want to do what you're doing. We want to publish and write and produce the music, blah, blah. And I strike it up with these Beatles. And then I go to London. And I think they started with a hit. And I'm having drinks with them over there, and we're talking and rapping. And I come home to New York where I'm living, and I go to Normie Weiss and Sid Bernstein, who are my agents. I said, there's these guys in England called the Beatles.

37:29You've got to sign them. Now, you have to remember, we're not in a media-driven society. Pop music is still in its infancy stage. Nobody had any idea what was going on in Europe. And I'm pounding these guys to go get them. Like rock and roll just started, right? Just started, infancy stage. So long and short, they go over and they sign the Beatles and bring them over in what, 64 on Ed Sullivan? And that was the start of it all. Wow. So they bring them over. That's amazing. You know the story there. I leave and I go to RCA Victor Records, who built this huge soundstage in Rome, and they introduced me to one of the most amazing genius musicians I've ever met called Inyo Morricone.

38:11Oh, yeah, of course. You guys must know that name. Yeah, yeah, of course. He knew films better than the directors, and he was unbelievable. He starts my career in Italy, and I'm singing and living in Italy. And I'm outselling the Italians, just in Italian. So I'm living there, and I'm having a career in Italy with Inyo Morricone. Who are you? And they've got this. Have you ever? The answer is probably yes. What am I watching?

38:44Throw it at me. I was going to say, did you ever write a song for the Beatles? No. They did their own thing. I wish I had. Do you know Italian? Yeah, sure. You can speak Italian. What else can you do? What are the languages you speak? I recorded in Spanish, recorded in Japanese. I lived in Germany. And weiss, weir, schnudel, sauerkraut, und drei liter abjörn. Had a career in German in Germany. Jovo gibst in this. I get up in the morning at nine with this strict German woman, Sigrid Folkman. Now, Paul, you will put it in your tongue, in the front. Why is there? No, in the tongue. I hadn't even had breakfast yet, and I'm worried about my tongue.

39:21And I sat with her five days a week learning German. And I loved it over there. It's a great country. Very cool country. It's beautiful. That's how I met Scotty, by the way. Anyway, so... What with your tongue? I want to know about... I thought you were going to go back to embracing the bear in the steam room. I want to stick with the tongue. wait love love never felt so good that song um i don't know michael jackson yeah michael jackson but and then justin timberlake yes we recorded it and yeah talk to talk to us about the about the the the collaborations the the duets with uh with some of these folks is that something that you'd love to do i started somewhere in there i said you know i gotta meet some other people and write with them because i love the experience anyway i start with you know michael mcdonald burt backer a bunch of talented people, good friends.

40:11You know, may Burt rest in peace. And this guy, a publicist, kept bringing Michael Jackson around. I knew the family from Caesars. Joe would bring him in. They watched Sinatra, me, Dean Martin. And I saw this family grow up. So he said, Michael's starting over at Sony, and he wants to write and be on your Sony album. And I'd already had everybody slotted in the album, and I had two slots open. And I'm living in Carmel at the time. And Michael flies up with this guy, and we start writing together. And you knew right away with a guy like Michael how talented he was. Now, unlike everyone else, he didn't play an instrument.

40:49He was all in the head. It was chicka-pucka-pucka-chicka-pucka-chicka-puck-puck-puck-puck-puck-puck-puck-puck-puck-puck-puck-puck-puck-puck-puck-puck-puck-puck-puck-puck-puck-puck-puck-puck-puck-puck. All these noises. It was like working with a bird. And I knew the way that this guy had it down. He knew what he wanted, and he knew what he was about. Paul, you sound just like him. Yeah, thank you very much. You're welcome. I do 20 minutes of that in my act every night. So we start writing. In the middle of the process, which is interesting, his record, Thriller, or whatever the first one was, starts to take off.

41:20Off the wall. And Michael goes into second gear of Michael, you know, really into his career, really into being very professional. But he steals the tapes out of the studio in Los Angeles, and I couldn't complete the songs with him because he had taken the tapes. Something happened to your face, Jason. I think you're growing an appendage. I grew a second face. Oh, my God. She already grew a second elder. There's your daughter, Amanda. Oh, my God, Daddy, you're tanner than Will. Oh, my God. Just a moment. Amanda. Here she comes. Here she comes with health notes. I'm just saying I love you all. You're very tan.

41:55You look very cute. Amanda, wait. Amanda, don't go anywhere yet. I can't believe this is the first time meeting your dad. I love your dad. I now know why you've been keeping me away, keeping us away from him. We love your dad. Sean didn't know about the Tonight Show. I know. He came to a father-daughter dinner up at our Sundays, and it took the house down. Yeah. So we need to invite him back. Yes. He's a big hit everywhere he goes. By the way, I love you all. Willie and Sean, I'm crushed that you're away. I know. I know. We love you. I can't wait. We're going to see you very soon, but I miss you too.

42:29I'm so excited. Daddy, I miss you. I love you. I'll see you at the party, remember, next week. Yes, at your party. You're coming to dinner. That's right. I can't wait. I'm so excited. I love you guys. Bye. I love you, too. Bye, Amanda. Paul, will you be my dad? Okay, so wait. I want to get back to Michael Jackson. The tapes, he took, so Michael Jackson took the tapes or something? What did you say? He stole the tapes from the studio, and they called me. I mean, I hate being negative because he's a talented guy. In the 80s, Sunset Sound, they called me up and said, Mr. Anka, Michael came and took your tapes.

43:00Now, I've got the tapes are gone. I can't finish. But the tapes of what? Of songs that you're working on with him or songs that he recorded? Three songs that we wrote together. Okay, got it. Here's, I'll give you the payoff in a second. So I've got all of these songs, the three songs. My tapes are gone, and now I'm in Lawyerville. And I'm not litigious. I think the worst thing you can do in life, takes the eye off the ball, is get into litigation, if you can avoid it. Anyway. Tapes are gone. I'll leave a hunk out. The lawyers decide to convince him, give him back the tapes. So he gives me back the tapes, but he's gone.

43:32I can't finish the project. Now, this is the 80s. The years go by. And what happens when he comes back on the This Is It tour? I get a call from Harvey over TMZ. He said, Paul, there's a Michael Jackson record out called This Is It, and we think you wrote it, and it's his tour. It's the name of the show, blah, blah, blah, blah. Yeah, the documentary that he was shooting when he passed away. I said, well, Harvey, let me do some homework. So I get a hold of the record, and what happened was the original title was called I Never Heard. This was called This Is It. When I hear the record, the first line is, this is it, here I stand.

44:14They took the first lyric, turned it into the tour title, and indeed, it was the song that we wrote together. Well, now the shit hits the fans. This is only like in 2000. This wasn't that long ago. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. So now we get the same lawyers on the phone again. And there's a big conference call. Ba-ba, ba-ba-ba, what are you doing? It's our song. Did you? Oh, you know, lawyers. Oh, we didn't know, bubba. I said, look, let's make it real simple. You're stuck. Your tour is named. You got a record coming out in a week. We'll make this very sweet. I want half of everything or you're not going to put it out.

44:52Well, we got everything. So then after This Is It came out, I got a call from the guy that was running Epic Records, L.A. Reid. He said, did you write a song called Love Never Felt So Good with Michael? I said, yes. He says, well, it's coming out with Timberlake and Michael. I said, what did you do? He says, we found these tapes in his drawer. We thought they were his, and we made a record out of it. I said, well, it's going to be half of it. Let me give you an address. Thanks for doing the heavy lifting. That song is fantastic. It's such a good song. So it comes out, there's that, and then I get a call, Drake, did you write a song?

45:34Yes. So he comes over to the house, nice guy, talented Toronto boy, as you know. Yeah, Toronto guy. And he said, look, what do we do with this? I said, look, I don't know anything about your world. Culturally, I can't write what you do, but if you want to take this and break the code and put your magic on it and let me hear it. You can put it out. He takes it, what I'd written and what was there with Michael, and he turned it into It Don't Matter to Me, and that was the third record. Wow. That's unbelievable. Crazy stories, huh? Yeah. Incredible. We'll be right back. And now, back to the show.

46:16So, you know, put your head on my shoulder. I mean, Poppy Love, Having My Baby, My Way, all this stuff. Every time I think about all the really recognizable songs that you have done, I keep thinking about, I'm going to ask you about this again, and I would like your take on it, guys. I want him to, remember the three tenors? Remember that? Yeah, sure, of course. I want him to do the three crooners, because each, you've got to, let's workshop it and find the other two folks, but you've got enough to fill your section of it in spades. I mean, you're just playing your hits. You could tour. You could do Vegas, as you know.

46:58You could do on Broadway. It would be an absolute smash. Yeah, who are the other two that would do it with you? That's a big question. Who are the other twos that leave their ego at the door? You tell us. You know these guys. You know these players. Well, you know, Paul, you just said something really important before you answered that, which is check your ego. And I love hearing you talk because you have been around and seen it all. And I can tell that you don't have time for the bullshit. You don't have that ego in that way. I love that. There's an authenticity to it that is so refreshing because we don't have enough.

47:30And by the way, I was thinking you were talking about the mob before. I mean, you're in the talent mafia. You have been doing it and you have been working with and collaborating with people for so freaking long. There's no reason you can't do this now. It would be a crime if you didn't do it. Well, if you've got time, I mean, you're doing your Broadway show, you're working on the documentary, probably writing another book and you're touring. Well, I'm touring and I leave for Asia in May. We're booked right up until next January. You know, the problem is this. You have to have a business mind and an artistic mind in this business.

48:02You really do. You've got to watch your stuff. And every time I've addressed it, you've got managers in the way, you've got agents in the way, and you've got some artists who are very talented. But that's it. There's no business acumen and there's threats. They don't want to get on stage with certain performers. They don't want to go through it. They don't get it. And it's a shame. You know who gets it? The country acts get it. The rap artists get it. But there's not many in my milieu that I could really say to you, look, I'd love to bring Julio Iglesias out of retirement or whatever he's doing, okay?

48:40Because the Hispanic base in our country politically and everything is huge. Yeah. If you could get Tom Jones, Tom has been, you know, had some health issues recently. Great voice. There's a few people that I think would work, but you can't get past the agents, the managers. Oh, I'll bet you could. Yeah. Well, somebody would have to do it. I just don't, I just don't have any time to press it. Great. It's a smart list tour. Yeah. And we're going to get it done. Guys, why don't the three of us sing all the songs? I'm open. Oh, sure. As long as I'm not responsible for any of the, Sean, you do the singing and then Jason and I, what do we do?

49:16Well, these two talented guys are doing what us two dummies do. We'll make funny faces on the sides. You put me on your shoulders. Oh, my God. I mean, just... Well, we're going to work on it. We're going to come back to you with a proposal on that. Okay. It's a great idea. Now, talk to us about this, you know, the stamina, the endurance, the longevity, you still touring like crazy. literally how do you do that um how yeah but what what what how how are you able to stay so healthy and have so much that what what's the ritual yeah look i mean tell walk us through your day it's so basic look you know i know what you do you run you watch what you eat you know amanda's always been like that you know i literally from hanging around those guys in vegas with the smoking with the drinking and all the bullshit hey if that's your thing do it i couldn't sing if i drank too much right i couldn't function if i did what too much if i tried a little of this and that you're goddamn right yeah made up my mind and made choices but when i get up in the morning you know i have my lemon juice i eat blueberries i have my olive oil with a squeeze of lemon i don't have a big breakfast i don't eat white bread i can give you a boring list this body is not a fluke, okay?

50:38This is it. Even Paul Eich is quoting Richard Ehrlich. Is that Richard Ehrlich? Was that where I heard it? The great Richard Ehrlich. How's Richard doing? He's married, isn't he? Oh, yeah. Tell Tracy who Richard is. Richard is one of my best friends and a friend of what, all four of us? Yeah, of course. And anyway. Richard is, I love him. By the way, it should be noticed. Yeah, hi, Dickie. It should be mentioned that Richard is one of the first SmartList super fans when we first heard that. He was like the first guy to keep texting us and being encouraging. He's such a sweetheart. You want to buy a house?

51:22Yeah, by the way, you want to buy a house now? I get Richard Ehrlich. Yeah, he's the guy. See these blueberries, guys? These guys, he's eating blueberries right now. That's how he's getting through this interview. This is a superfood, okay? I love it. The olive oil, I'm going to do it now, Paul. I'm doing it every day. You put it in a shot glass and you squeeze a lemon on top of it and drink it. Drink it in the morning. Before you go to bed, you make sure you have ginger. I'd rather drink a soda and die early. Yeah, listen, Sean, you're not going to make it to Paul's age. You keep having the cornflakes on the tuna fish and the, I mean.

51:55Listen, they're coming up with some stuff from Israel. I'm reading, you know, I read a lot. They've got some stuff now. They're going to turn it out a lot back. You're going to live to over 100 years old. You guys, especially kids that were born after 2000. They'll be living till 125. Now, what about playing music day to day? Not physically playing music because you're doing that on the stage. But what are you listening to that's keeping you inspired? Do you keep up on new music? Do you have a staple that you listen to that keeps you going? What gets you going? Yeah, I'm listening to everything eclectically.

52:33You know, there's some stuff I'm not interested in. Leave it at that. But I'm listening to stuff from, you know, Bruno Mars. I mean, I listen to Adele. There's some rap stuff, Jay-Z. I mean, there's some talented people out there. Is there anybody that you've always dreamed of writing for or with that you haven't? Elton John and Sting. Wow. Yeah. I think Elton's very talented. Yeah. I think Sting is very talented. Of course. I think Billy Joel is amazing. Amazing. You know, you're never going to discount. And, you know, when you look at the foundation of those doing the business out there, it's all the guys that are close to 80.

53:06Stones are still doing it. I mean, there's a ton of them. There's some good stuff out there that, you know, I listen to opera music when I want to calm down. I listen to a lot of Sinatra. I listen to everything as long as it's good. If it's good, I'm on. I'm down for it. Paul, for many, many reasons, I want to be you when I grow up. I know. We never grow up, my boy. Yeah. You never really grow up. Trust me. I get that sense. Paul, it's unbelievable. Again, I don't know what Jason, I think he's jealous of you. You've got too much charisma for us. He knows that we're like, Sean and I are going to be like, we've got to get rid of Jason.

53:48We've got Paul's going to do the podcast with us. We'll keep it in the family. If you guys want to recast, that's fine. You've just got to keep it in the family. Slip it in. Slip it in. I've got to tell you, I'm so proud of that guy. I don't know if I lay it on. All of you, all of you representing what you do, I'm a fan, okay? And this guy in front of me, and he's been a hell of a father with those kids. But beyond that, I'm not even going to get into it because it speaks for itself, and I'm not going to embarrass him. But as proud as he may be of me, that's how proud is Jason? Is that your son-in-law?

54:20Everywhere I go, they don't even know who the fuck I am. We're taking this guess, right? But they – no, I'm – listen, whatever you're throwing at me, I'm throwing it back to all you. I was going to say this, and I was going to bring that up, which was – I wanted to mention this earlier. When Amanda started dating, when he said that he didn't know – that he figured that you were Amanda's dad when he first heard her last name. When Jason and Amanda started dating and then got married, and I don't want to embarrass Jason either because Sean and I both love him. I give him a lot of shit, but I love him.

54:54Hallelujah. He's a brother and more than a friend. And how lucky did you feel that you got to have this guy as your son-in-law and in your life? He's a thoughtful, smart, sweet, great dad. All the shit that you said, times a million, as you know. No doubt. He's a brother from another mother to all of you guys. Because you know the great thing is, as you guys know, it's all real. You're never going to hear anybody say anything, and I never have. And Jason's been through it, man. He's pulled his life together. You'll never hear anybody say anything derogatory about Jason. It's true. You had a nice little window.

55:36We're still looking, though. We're still looking. I'll find it. I'll find it. Paul had a nice window into my old life, though. Right when I got married to his daughter, he took me and two buddies, Ehrlich was one of them, Dickie, to Vegas. And he gave me and Richard and Danny Comden and one. The whole Saul Good crew. Yeah. And we, yeah, we had a, he showed us his version of Vegas and it was just incredible. And so you got to see me lubricated, you know. And Ehrlich was making deals right down the edge. What do you mean$30 for a lap dance? Wait, who's this chick over here? I'm going back to the hotel.

56:20I'm not paying that. No, it was... Jenny's listening to this right now going, Richard said he's never been to a strip bar before. This is crazy. Paul, we've taken a lot of your time, too much of it. You're very, very nice to have come on and done this. Thank you for saying yes. And Paul, next time I'm in Los Angeles, I want to have a dinner and keep talking about everything in your life. Let's do a dinner. Let's do a dinner. Paul, please. What a thrill. I'm down. We're doing that. As soon as you get back, Paul. My mom and dad, my dad who grew up in Winnipeg, Manitoba, has been a fan of yours. You know, he was born in 38, just outside of Winnipeg.

56:58And for him, I'm not kidding, as soon as I'm done, I'm going to get off this thing and I'm going to call my dad and say that we had you on, and he's going to be absolutely blown away. Oh, that's cool, man. You've got a pretty decent hockey team out there, you know. Yeah, we do. Decent hockey team's right. That's what we should do. We should go to a hockey game together. We should introduce him to Shani, too. Yeah. Yep. We should. Do you know which team in the NHL makes more money than any other team? You guys are hockey savvy. Toronto. Let me see. Toronto? Toronto Maple Leafs. Yeah, Toronto Maple Leafs.

57:30Everybody is way behind. Do you know why Wayne Gretzky never had a curved stick? Why? Why is that? Because he always scored on his backhand. He never wanted the stick curved. Yeah. Hardest. I knew Wayne when he was a young little fella. I used to fly him around on the jet. He was scared to death of private planes. So I knew him when. Wow. So, you know, Paul, I don't know if you heard the episode that we did with President Biden, but what he wanted to do and did do, he was so excited because I guess he did some research, found out that you and I were related. He came in playing one of your songs on his phone as one of his go-to songs that he's got on his phone all the time.

58:12That was his entrance on his own personal cell phone. That was funny. I thought you were putting me on. Yeah. Nobody handed it to him. He got out on his own phone. He walks in playing that. Jason blushed. Yeah, and then I feel like, did we call you? Yeah, we called you. He called me and he got on the phone and said, I'm only doing this with your son-in-law because I said I wanted to talk to you. Well, you know, I was getting ready from the world I come from to say, fuck you, Jason, don't put me on. And then I heard the sound of his voice and saying, this is real, right? Right? And then he carried on as you heard him.

58:48He was very complimentary and very nice. I was very touched and it was very cool. It's cool for us to experience all of that happening in front of our face. It was really cool. Very, very cool. Well, Paul, you've been killing it for a long, long time. Many, many years to come. We can only hope to have the kind of longevity and relevance that you've had in this business and your success in your personal life too. I mean, I'm a huge benefit of your offspring as well. and we got a couple of great grandkids of yours to prove it. So I just love you and thanks for chatting with us. Hey, guys. It's been my pleasure, you know.

59:27My pleasure. Thank you. Thank you, Paul. Good to be here. Paul, thank you, the great Paul Anka. I look forward to the dinner, guys. Can't wait. That's a done deal. That's a done deal. Just let me know when you're back and get it done. All right? All right. Bye, Paul. See you, Polly. Bye, guys. Bye, buddy. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye-bye. What a legend. What a legend. Yeah, that's cool. By the way, I mean... I can't believe you guys haven't met him before. I've never met him. I'm not kidding. I'm not kidding either. I can't believe that we haven't met him yet. Well, I'm so excited. You've all been like, yeah, he's great.

59:58You're like, oh, yeah, he's great. I love him. He's great. He's great. And I'm like, I would be... I can't believe that you haven't paraded him and being like, Sean and Will, you guys are going to love this guy. I wasn't even sure that you guys were going to be cool with me bringing him on. Yes, why are you talking about it? Well, I mean, because it's just so self-serving. I mean, he's my father-in-law, and I want to bring him on and chat with him. He's got nothing to do with you, you dick. Do you ever call him Panka? Do you ever think about us? Panka? No, but that can be your little pet name for him.

1:00:27Yeah, Panka. No, you guys were very, very sweet to him. Thank you. I'm dead serious. I want to sit down with him. I'm not even kidding. Oh, he'll talk to you every day. I want to just know. Like, look, let's start having dinners with him. I was going to ask him, I want to know if he's ever whacked anybody. Oh, that's a great question. I know that Sean has. I know that Sean has, but that's different. But that's different. That's different. That was mutual. That was mutual. Oh, my God. Well, that was a... Sean got let into the mob because they asked him. The first thing he said, he says, I love whacking people.

1:01:00Well, you're in. Just sign here. Okay. That same app that your friend uses. The same app. Howdy. can you that's amazing by the way oh go ahead what were you gonna say no i was just gonna say i i'm really blown away jay i really am i just love him and i and i and god and loving amanda as much as we do as well as certainly as much as i do just seeing her dad and starting to understand putting the pieces together yes that's what i was doing like i met one of amanda's sisters i remember i played golf with amanda's mom you and i played golf with her mom years ago before she passed and which was such a treat yeah um and and then just meeting her dad now it just brought it all full circle and it just makes me love amanda even more yeah likewise with that name that she came on and said hi that's the first time on the show she's never done that it was so cute we should have her on yeah we should have you know i mean but that now that gets really self-indulgent now we know because we want to hear the real stuff yeah i don't think i can be on that episode no because she'll get too real she'll be like i told jason i told him yeah jay i want to fighting it'll be a one-hour fight i want to echo i didn't want to stay silent during that i want to echo what paul and will were saying too but what an incredible father you are what an incredible person you are i truly and uh and this is the episode to say that and this is the time to say that so i just think you're amazing and uh and hearing him love on you was just you know really cool.

1:02:29It was really cool. Very nice. I feel like you're working into a bye here. I am. I wanted to quote some of the lyrics from the song My Way that I didn't know he wrote until today. You can't say I did it bye way. Why not? Why not? Because that's not a fucking thing. Yes, it is. You fucking blew it. You fucking blew it. I didn't blow it. Anybody who heard you say that knew exactly what you were. He's going to talk about sleeping with a man and a woman and watch. He's going to do all these lyrics. Go ahead, Sean. He's going to do just the one lyric about I planned each charted course, each careful step along the byway.

1:03:09There he goes. Come on, that's pretty great. Smart. Smart.

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