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Nile Rodgers on Unreleased Avicii music, Buying The-Dream's Catalog & The Ultimate Skate Party
May 16, 2022
Musical genius Nile Rodgers stops by Sway In The Morning and talks about working with artists like Madonna, Duran Duran, Rihanna, Beyonce, Avicii, David Bowie, Daft Punk, Sister Sledge and so many more.
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Nile Rodgers on Unreleased Avicii music, Buying The-Dream's Catalog & The Ultimate Skate Party
https://youtu.be/RTdahuqq2lQ
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0:00
roll up and get down in central park
0:02
starting june 16th get tickets at
0:04
thediscoast.com
0:06
listen that was the voice of royalty
0:08
right there heather b i know it man
0:10
every time i see this man over the years
0:12
man i know i made it i murdered mama i
0:22
this man has sold over half a billion
0:24
records damn i made it when i look back
0:28
i made it i made it how many hits has he
0:31
made for some of your favorite artists
0:33
madonna owes them a hit oh my god david
0:36
bowie old so man he made it
0:38
little kimbos on my head she made it
0:41
hit
0:42
pharrell
0:57
to keep going on and on ladies and
0:58
gentlemen now rogers is back
1:03
[Music]
1:04
living legend right here man
1:07
the iconic one in
1:10
how you been brother
1:12
i made it
1:17
yes overworked and underpaid oh wow
1:20
still what you mean
1:22
the amount of work that i put in um yeah
1:26
i don't think my remuneration is
1:28
actually adequate
1:30
i mean i make good money obviously yeah
1:33
but um i just love working i mean it's
1:36
my blessing and curse
1:38
is that i have this insane work ethic
1:41
yesterday i got up at 5 00 a.m
1:43
uh today i got up at 5 a.m i've been
1:45
doing all sorts of stuff before i came
1:47
to see you guys wow
1:49
wow it's crazy um but i guess i'm just
1:53
happy to be employed yeah you i mean how
1:55
long you been in the business now
1:58
well okay you don't have to say that but
2:00
you've been in the business for a while
2:01
yeah i got my first job with sesame
2:03
street at uh
2:06
17 and a half 18 because i was i was
2:08
with luther vandross and i was in i was
2:11
in the loop
2:14
luther go ahead i was in luther's backup
2:16
band
2:18
and they uh became uh the young
2:20
americans yeah and um so when they went
2:23
off with david bowie i then moved from
2:26
sesame street to the apollo theater
2:28
house band
2:30
from the apollo theater house band um i
2:33
somehow was able to put together
2:36
this concept that became chic
2:39
wow
2:41
thank you for the owl i appreciate it
2:44
sounds insane right he just named
2:47
david
2:51
which is interesting um to me because uh
2:54
last time you would say i told you how i
2:55
got to know sheik is through my mother
2:57
playing all the music and i was reading
2:59
something about you not too long ago
3:01
because the the whole disco era came up
3:04
and they were talking about disco sucks
3:06
which uh was which was a movement that
3:09
kind of
3:10
ended sheik's career on the charts right
3:13
and now we're here to celebrate the disc
3:16
oasis
3:18
that takes place in central park crazy
3:20
right
3:21
right i can't wait it came all the way
3:24
full circle in 2022 you brought disco
3:27
back come on man
3:39
yeah but so so tell us about what's
3:41
going on in central park so what's
3:43
happening is um
3:45
last last year uh
3:47
in los angeles we opened up the first
3:50
disc oasis and
3:52
it was um
3:53
an immersive
3:55
artistic musical experience but it was a
3:58
roller skating i mean it's a disco
3:59
roller ring but we had um
4:02
we we had routines we had like pro
4:04
skaters um
4:06
and or you know like in the daytime we'd
4:08
have kids come from the community we'd
4:11
help them learn how to skate and it just
4:12
became a love fest and all of a sudden
4:15
we realized that the vibe that skating
4:18
has always had yes never went away yes
4:21
it never went it was like next thing you
4:24
know big movie stars are showing up with
4:26
their kids and learning how to skate and
4:28
you know people are coming from long
4:30
beach coming from the hood and
4:31
everybody's like it was it was just a
4:33
love fest
4:34
and we decided that we were going to
4:38
um
4:39
in the theater world we called it uh you
4:41
know travel like it was going to go on
4:43
the road so to speak
4:45
and we started to negotiate with
4:47
different uh municipalities and uh it
4:50
was gonna you know think about either
4:52
paris or miami because the great thing
4:55
about los angeles now ecologically
4:58
speaking it was somewhat of a disaster
5:01
because the reason why we were able to
5:02
do this is because a lake bed had dried
5:06
up
5:07
okay and we took
5:08
this dried up lake bed
5:10
and we built the skating rink that was
5:12
the size of a football field with palm
5:15
trees growing out the middle of it in
5:16
the whole building and it was the most
5:18
exotic looking thing and says people
5:21
loved it and it was like damn we i think
5:23
we got something here
5:25
so um
5:27
you know
5:28
we won't have that kind of success in
5:30
new york cause it does rain here even
5:32
when we have uh
5:34
pretty bad uh droughts but um but you
5:38
know the the the oasis is coming back to
5:41
new york to new york june 16th yeah it's
5:44
going to be a vibe
5:46
and it's it's funny too because
5:48
you know i've watched this happen before
5:50
like when we did it in la
5:52
like
5:53
there was like just an open field
5:55
and next thing you know you see the
5:57
trucks rolling in and moving this and
6:00
you see the stage built and next thing
6:02
you know we have a structure that's
6:04
three stories high in palm trees that
6:06
are 80 to 90 feet high was like an eight
6:09
nine ten story building
6:11
um
6:12
and it was like disneyland so i think
6:15
that what's gonna wind up happening in
6:16
new york is when people see the
6:18
structure go up because yesterday we had
6:21
a press conference and it was still just
6:23
woman
6:24
skating ring it was just okay you know
6:26
it was like
6:28
wait do you all see this yeah you wait
6:30
till you see what we do
6:41
so you all are just watching us skate
6:43
around but where do you see this [ __ ]
6:49
[Music]
6:52
like i'm so proud of our you know of of
6:55
just the whole artistic crew the set
6:58
designers
6:59
the
7:00
i mean you have no idea the calories
7:02
that go into buildings and calories i
7:04
like that
7:06
june 16th this is taking place
7:08
um this is the summer of skate in new
7:10
york city so the disc oasis is in
7:13
central park it's immersive as they say
7:15
it's glimmery roller disco paradise as
7:18
now is so eloquently describing right
7:20
now and citizens is the caveat this
7:23
whole team right here have the b h k aka
7:26
h billy uh tracy gt money mike muse mike
7:30
music and myself sway legacy we're going
7:33
to host absolutely so
7:36
absolutely
7:37
absolutely
7:39
come on we got to figure that out okay
7:42
let's do this okay cool man great it'll
7:45
be an honor to host for you
7:47
i i i
7:48
i'm just fascinated by your career you
7:51
know i read about i've read about you
7:53
more than once i even read over about
7:55
you and so when i hear you say things
7:57
like
7:58
i'm working i'm overworked and underpaid
8:01
right it's concerning it's concerning
8:03
because you are at the top of the food
8:05
chain and if you still feel like you
8:06
overpaid i mean
8:09
sorry about my
8:10
overpaid so let me ask you this um i
8:14
know you made a lot of money in your
8:15
time but what percentage of the money
8:17
you made for others do you think you
8:20
received
8:21
like wow you know what i mean like you
8:24
you know this wha what's
8:26
what i'm probably
8:28
very proud of um but as a businessman
8:31
it's not
8:33
proud
8:35
but was the fact that i did what i did
8:37
because i loved doing it and i was
8:39
fortunate
8:40
enough to be
8:43
to have my voice heard and as a black
8:46
man that
8:48
i mean
8:49
how many times do you go into a
8:50
situation
8:52
and
8:53
you really are offering up the right
8:55
thing it's exactly what the situation
8:57
needs but they look at it
9:00
from a different perspective a different
9:02
angle they think that you're not as
9:03
sophisticated as one should be to handle
9:07
this particular problem i was like going
9:09
guys i got this yeah
9:11
and it's almost like i have to keep
9:12
auditioning and auditioning and saying i
9:14
got this now rogers has to keep on this
9:18
that sounds crazy do you think some of
9:20
it has to do with because we have the
9:22
conversation here a lot about
9:24
um
9:26
not knowing the history of hip-hop you
9:28
know um do you think a lot of it has to
9:30
do with not knowing history of someone
9:32
like you or history of the culture
9:34
itself because honestly if i was in any
9:37
office and you walked in i would just
9:39
open up the checkbook whatever this man
9:41
wants let him go ahead just give it to
9:43
him i don't care if he screws it up he's
9:45
done enough in his culture that's what i
9:47
would do because i respect what you've
9:48
done and i know your history so you feel
9:50
like maybe it could be a lack of
9:53
lack of knowledge um
9:55
yeah i would say
9:56
you know um
10:00
culturally
10:01
i mean we really have to be honest here
10:03
culturally
10:04
we don't spend a huge amount of time
10:08
um
10:09
learning about our history and learning
10:11
about the past
10:13
when i was younger
10:14
i came from a generation that of course
10:17
we concentrated on that more
10:19
um and you know sway knows you know um
10:22
you know i used to be a subsection
10:24
leader in a black panther party here in
10:25
new york city
10:27
so it was all about learning about the
10:29
culture it was all about going out
10:30
working in the community
10:32
and and
10:34
so i just felt like
10:37
you know that was natural to me but
10:39
people have explained to me as time has
10:43
moved forward
10:44
that um one day i'm gonna go off track
10:48
here okay one day i went to lunch with
10:50
uh deepak chopra and he said something
10:52
else he said button he said something to
10:55
me
10:56
hey
10:57
he said something to me that i'll
10:59
probably be lying on my deathbed and
11:01
i'll say
11:02
yes i hear you deepak he said that um
11:05
technology
11:06
can be beautiful and diabolical just
11:09
like people yes and what's happened is
11:12
that this has i mean when i was a kid i
11:15
had everybody's number memorized right i
11:17
told him about the cell phone yeah yeah
11:19
i used to wake up in the morning and i'd
11:21
say okay i got to go to this session
11:23
that session that session opened up my
11:24
little book my little daily programmer
11:27
and knew i had to go to 125th street
11:29
then go right from there to so and so oh
11:31
man and we got to do this quick little
11:33
rehearsal over at ccny and you know and
11:36
things like that
11:37
but now i only have one phone number
11:39
memorized like only one because
11:42
my girlfriend
11:49
all right
11:52
i can actually dial it yeah
11:54
and that's just to say that
11:57
that what's happened is that
11:59
because we're not forced to use our
12:01
brains
12:02
just to maneuver around our regular
12:04
world like we don't wake up in the
12:06
morning go damn i gotta call someone
12:07
you know yeah we just hit autodial and
12:10
whatever
12:12
and and i think that um
12:14
though we have access to more
12:16
information
12:17
it isn't internalized
12:20
so that's that's the thing
12:22
see that's the disconnect is that
12:24
without internalization you don't feel
12:26
it so a person can sit there and give
12:28
you all the stats in the world and say
12:30
yeah he did this he did that he did this
12:32
he did that but you don't necessarily
12:34
feel it yeah because you haven't done
12:35
the research
12:36
exactly yeah like
12:38
but once you do the work you you really
12:41
yeah yeah and you want others to feel it
12:43
exactly yeah i'd be upset when they
12:45
don't know right right you you say to
12:47
yourself then you didn't know that yeah
12:49
so i don't um yeah like i don't have a
12:53
feeling of of like bitterness i don't
12:55
like walking how come people don't know
12:57
me because i you know i'm just not that
12:59
dude yeah but um
13:01
but i do find it interesting that it
13:03
becomes harder
13:05
sometimes to explain to a person like
13:08
sometimes a person will play a cut to me
13:10
and they didn't even know that i wrote
13:11
it there was an artist that i used to
13:13
work with
13:14
to break that down there was an artist i
13:16
used to work with a lot named avicii
13:19
unfortunately rest in peace he's not
13:20
here yeah but avicii had a lot of hit
13:23
records and we when we would sit down
13:24
and write together he would say damn i
13:26
woke up in the morning man i was
13:28
inspired by this uh-huh and i would look
13:30
at him and i would say thank you and
13:31
he'd go what do you mean i said yo v tim
13:34
yeah i wrote that [ __ ] and he didn't
13:36
know wow he had no idea a lot of people
13:39
were like that though they would have no
13:41
idea
13:42
let me ask you about avicii because i
13:44
heard you wanted to release
13:45
some unreleased music of his well
13:48
his family wants to do it okay um so i'm
13:51
trying to
13:52
think in my heart if i feel comfortable
13:56
with that you know i have a good vibe
13:58
with his father and his family um
14:01
you know but sometimes you you
14:03
understand an artist and you understand
14:05
where they're coming from and what they
14:06
wouldn't have wanted you to do yeah um
14:09
and i always try and look at it from the
14:10
artist side because sometimes the family
14:13
they don't know them as well as a
14:15
producer knows
14:17
my relationship with avicii was very
14:19
close and you have to play psychologists
14:22
a lot of times
14:23
with the artist and the family and but
14:25
the family and the conundrum is
14:28
the family has an idea of how they want
14:30
to keep the legacy alive number one and
14:32
then number two is the economy behind
14:34
releasing that music right
14:37
they could have some income behind that
14:38
so that is that a part of the factoring
14:40
i i don't
14:42
i really don't
14:43
feel that that's uh the motivation
14:45
because okay um
14:47
i think they're quite well off and uh
14:50
and the the country of sweden has shown
14:54
him incredible love the stadium
14:57
is named after vichy now the museum that
14:59
they just opened for them
15:01
no no the stadium the sports i mean the
15:04
sports thing
15:05
that was db over their voice right now
15:09
i read that they had also opened a
15:10
museum that was dedicated to his life
15:12
i'm sure they did because last month was
15:14
the four-year anniversary of his passing
15:15
and so all right i wanted to ask you
15:17
about um because fame was hard for
15:19
avicii to deal with right and when he
15:21
dropped levels it was like he went from
15:22
sort of the guy who was just starting
15:24
his career to worldwide fame right
15:27
that's not easy for a lot of people to
15:28
take in and so i wondered if you could
15:30
speak to
15:32
for someone who's new and then if they
15:33
drop a hit that automatically takes off
15:35
spreads worldwide and they go from
15:37
relatively unknown you know producer
15:38
whatever to worldwide stages festivals
15:41
and all that how to deal with that fame
15:43
when it happens so quickly i i think
15:46
i think uh someone like little nazix is
15:49
a great example
15:50
of how to keep it together
15:53
because you go from
15:55
what like you said like total obscurity
15:58
to like
15:59
being one of the biggest artists in the
16:00
world um
16:02
i i you know i think
16:04
a lot of artists have to understand
16:07
that
16:09
you're an artist because you are making
16:11
art and you get the privilege of making
16:13
that
16:14
for a living and if you cling to that
16:17
ideology first that i'm an artist and
16:20
and that'll get me through the good
16:22
times and the bad times
16:25
and uh and i don't necessarily need the
16:27
praise of others i just i don't
16:29
necessarily have to feel the pain from
16:32
others because
16:33
avicii was getting a lot of pain from
16:35
people because they felt like you know
16:37
this kid just came out of nowhere and
16:39
like you said when he dropped levels it
16:41
was just everywhere in the world and
16:43
they felt like
16:45
he shouldn't
16:46
he wasn't qualified to call himself a dj
16:49
and it was like well maybe he doesn't
16:51
really call himself a dj
16:53
that the business calls himself i call
16:56
uh avicii an artist a composer a
16:59
producer i mean which is what he was and
17:02
he had the luck to be able to perform on
17:06
his own platform his own music on his
17:08
own platform for 70 000 100 000 people
17:11
like damn who wouldn't want to do that
17:13
like hey wait a minute listen to what i
17:14
did this morning check this out
17:17
i mean
17:19
you know i came from a background that
17:22
was similar right so i could go to a
17:23
club
17:24
hook up with my friend who would be a dj
17:26
and slip it to him and say you know when
17:28
you get a minute you know take a listen
17:30
to this when you feel like you can slip
17:31
it in which is what we used to say so
17:33
like randomly while you were talking i
17:35
googled
17:36
now roger's top 10 songs okay 50 of them
17:39
just showed up so i had to find
17:42
another list to just like hey y'all give
17:44
me 10.
17:46
because i put top ten now roger so 50
17:49
showed up
17:50
so just for y'all to understand what
17:52
we're talking about here sway myself
17:54
tracy mike mules
17:56
at number 10 the wild boys that by duran
17:59
duran at number nine material girl bob
18:03
madonna at number eight upside down by
18:06
diana ross
18:08
number seven the reflex by duran duran
18:11
number six let's
18:13
on sway number five we are a family
18:17
sister
18:18
baby number four like a virgin madonna
18:22
number three good times chic
18:25
number two
18:27
couple of trips away on this one y'all
18:28
damn get lucky
18:30
uh trap daft drop daft punk and pharrell
18:33
number one
18:36
la freak
18:37
[ __ ]
18:38
that's that's just ten they were like
18:40
okay we'll give you ten
18:42
that's just ten off the la freak is
18:45
bigger than all of those songs yeah yes
18:47
well remember that was the day of
18:50
selling
18:51
singles right
18:53
oh okay like it's come back to that now
18:56
and
18:57
the the market was all about
19:01
selling singles and um
19:04
at that time
19:06
we lucked up on an idea so what we were
19:08
trying to do we um yeah i don't want to
19:11
make this story too long yeah but we
19:13
um you want me to tell it
19:15
you know the whole series y'all sold
19:17
about seven million in the united states
19:19
yeah you wanted to stop the sales of the
19:21
singles because you want to release a
19:22
second
19:29
we'll be hosting that disco party for
19:32
sure
19:49
bigger than like a virgin they cut off
19:52
their cells though heather we cut it off
19:54
because
19:55
um
19:56
we you know we wanted people to hear the
19:58
rest of our album we had i want your
19:59
love on there happy man
20:02
and we knew that as black artists we
20:04
were only going to get one maybe two
20:06
singles yeah right
20:08
and uh but what happened is that
20:10
it's kept selling so it wound up being
20:12
the biggest selling single in in atlanta
20:15
records history then and then for a
20:17
short period of time um florida passed
20:20
us but because of streaming
20:23
we went back to some
20:25
in
20:27
like insane number that's right it keeps
20:30
it keeps selling tracy g yes i
20:32
definitely want to jump in mr rogers
20:35
when you had said um
20:39
that music that being an artist is
20:42
what you are first right you didn't
20:44
mention that and i know that the only
20:46
number that you have memorized is your
20:48
girlfriend and it made me think like did
20:50
you ever have to
20:53
find a balance between is artistry first
20:56
now or is being a partner first now is
20:59
artistry first now or is being a son
21:01
first now because sometimes when
21:04
folks are
21:05
just in a flow
21:07
and you're like all i want to do is
21:10
focus on the craft these other roles
21:12
that we play in our lives can maybe
21:15
perhaps appear secondary or folks are
21:17
like listen i know that you're famous
21:18
and you have but you have these other
21:20
responsibilities was it ever difficult
21:22
for you to put other things first
21:25
um
21:26
that's my life i have to do that all the
21:28
time um
21:30
if you were a fly on the wall in my
21:33
apartment yesterday you would have seen
21:35
a perfect example of the
21:38
complete madness that is my life so
21:41
i'm launching a disco oasis
21:45
and
21:46
we're having the time of our lives in
21:49
central park with the mayor and doing
21:50
that meanwhile i have my family to deal
21:53
with meanwhile i have
21:55
a
21:56
very large business to deal with and uh
21:59
and then i'm also working on a couple of
22:01
records
22:02
at the same time so all of this stuff is
22:04
happening everybody wants to be
22:06
prioritized
22:07
and and in my
22:09
brain
22:10
i have to make a decision
22:13
um
22:14
that there has to be a priority list but
22:17
to the person i'm dealing with they have
22:19
to feel like they're the main priority
22:21
yeah you just you can't uh give any one
22:24
of them
22:25
a sort of
22:26
secondary type of feeling they have to
22:28
be like right at this moment
22:31
i'm at your
22:33
you have my full attention full
22:34
intention
22:35
and focus and it's and it's rough
22:38
but um you know as uh
22:42
my you know i i chose this life
22:45
so you know um
22:47
and believe me i'm not complaining i'm
22:49
i'm fortunate i'm i'm one of the lucky
22:51
ones because
22:53
that gives me a sense of balance you
22:55
know it says okay well you're working on
22:56
this record and it's important and you
22:59
know and i hope it's a smash and i hope
23:01
it kills and all that but at the same
23:03
time you know my little brother just got
23:05
into an accident and someone said you
23:07
know you got to really be there and yeah
23:10
you got to look them in the eye too yeah
23:12
exactly
23:13
my mom passed away just a little more
23:15
than a year ago and uh
23:17
yeah thank you when i was coming home i
23:19
was coming home from work and they
23:21
called me and they said
23:22
uh we don't believe your mother is going
23:23
to last through the night
23:27
my mom lives in las vegas you're calling
23:29
me now
23:30
telling me that i got to get to las
23:33
vegas now
23:34
and it was like uh yeah and you know and
23:37
this is at a point when covert was
23:39
raging
23:40
and um
23:41
so i had to rent a jet and this was
23:44
um i'm not the private jet kind of guy
23:47
because i have a charity that like i
23:49
could bring you know 30 kids in from
23:51
africa you know so
23:54
um
23:55
i said well okay how much is the jet
23:57
because now i want to be with my mom of
23:59
course um
24:00
oh it's a 200 like
24:02
what i'm saying to go to vegas it's 35
24:05
000 i've done this before and they said
24:08
no uh there's only one jet available and
24:10
it has to be a heavy and blah blah blah
24:12
this and that
24:13
and the crew can't use your head
24:17
so that became my priority and i had to
24:20
do that and um
24:22
you know that that's
24:24
that's just
24:25
you know
24:26
my life is like that all the time wow um
24:30
but you know but i love it we are man we
24:33
get a chance and your locks are long
24:34
yeah we are looking good yeah that looks
24:37
really great
24:39
i have a question for you man i'm
24:40
curious about
24:42
the muse of your creative work uh
24:45
because we always say music the
24:46
soundtrack of life for you the music you
24:48
create is the soundtrack of fun and so
24:50
i'm just curious like what was the muse
24:52
of your work that were you always in the
24:53
nightclubs like are you a party guy like
24:56
was it a lady he created soundtracks of
24:58
fun bro
24:59
so um i used to be a jazz snob um i used
25:04
to study with this
25:06
brilliant musician
25:08
named ted dunbar and he said to me one
25:11
day
25:12
when i came in with a sour puss look on
25:14
my face
25:15
he said you know damn what's wrong young
25:17
blood you're always so happy what's
25:19
wrong today and i said well you know ted
25:22
i got to play this [ __ ] boogaloo and
25:24
you know unfortunately see
25:27
we used the term incorrectly at a
25:29
certain point in time uh jazz musicians
25:33
who used to have to do what we would
25:34
call pickup gigs in new york
25:36
um
25:37
boogaloo was a derogatory term that we
25:39
use for all pop music in fact boogaloo
25:42
was
25:42
like was soul music played by latin
25:45
artists right so it was like you know
25:47
beep beep
25:48
beep beep
25:52
you know and all that those kind of
25:53
tunes and boogaloo was the bomb
25:55
but but we were just you know i got to
25:57
play this book and two jazz musicians
25:59
they knew what you meant
26:00
so he so i showed him the set list and i
26:03
said look what we got to start with
26:05
tonight this song by the archie sugar
26:07
sugar and he looked at me and said well
26:09
what's wrong blood what what's up what's
26:11
the problem
26:12
i said man i don't want to play that
26:14
bull you know like damn sugar sugar
26:17
and he said now do you realize that
26:19
sugar sugar has been number one for
26:21
about six weeks
26:23
and i said yeah
26:25
he said
26:26
so wait a minute let me get this right
26:29
so those millions of people who bought
26:31
sugar sugar
26:32
they're wrong but you mr nyle roger
26:36
you're the one who's right yeah yeah and
26:39
he was really like
26:41
teaching me a lesson and it was the
26:44
greatest lesson ever
26:45
um
26:46
he said and you guys remember this um he
26:50
said this is when the top 40 meant
26:51
something he said to me any song
26:55
in that in any song in the top 40 is a
26:58
great composition i said what how could
27:00
you say something so ridiculous he says
27:03
because
27:04
any song in this in the top 40 is a
27:07
great composition because it speaks to
27:09
the souls of a million strangers oh wow
27:13
i was like that's good yeah
27:15
two weeks later i wrote everybody down
27:23
[Laughter]
27:28
i want to ask you about publishing
27:29
because you know what's his famous story
27:31
about michael jackson
27:33
obtaining the um beatles publishing
27:35
right and um and how valuable that was
27:39
and and how shrewd he was as a
27:41
businessman first what was your
27:43
relationship with michael great that's
27:45
great yeah we first met in 1973.
27:49
uh we did a couple of gigs with them
27:51
uh when they were uh
27:54
on the american leg of their first world
27:56
tour
27:57
so i think the official bands uh that
28:00
were the opening acts were the
28:02
commodores and the ojs and we were in a
28:06
group called new york city and we would
28:08
sub for the ojs whenever the ojs had a
28:10
gig paying more money
28:12
so michael and i uh we met on the tour
28:15
bus because
28:17
i guess they didn't want to spend that
28:18
much money so the opening band had to
28:20
ride with the jacksons oh jackson 5. and
28:23
so michael somehow gravitated towards me
28:26
because i was the guy who was like the
28:28
outcast in my group which was a real r b
28:32
soul brothers but i was like a hippie
28:35
black panther purple
28:37
hair kind of dude you know like
28:40
so
28:41
i i you know i i didn't fit in but
28:44
but bernard my bass playing partner uh
28:47
just says this brother plays guitar like
28:49
we'll put up with him bernard edwards
28:51
yeah yes he was my man he looked out for
28:54
me because i you know i was born in
28:57
greenwich village i came from a whole
28:58
different background
29:00
very open-minded you know so anyway
29:03
michael and i were tight and we were
29:04
tight until
29:05
the end um wow
29:07
he's
29:09
we could have a whole
29:10
show
29:14
because i do would love to just know who
29:16
he was to you you know my relationship
29:19
with him was totally different than
29:20
other people you said he gravitated
29:22
towards you did he tap you on the
29:23
shoulder and say hey niall like how did
29:26
y'all start coming up we were sitting in
29:28
this on the two of us next to each other
29:30
i mean it's not a lot of room on the
29:32
tour bus when you got the jackson 5
29:35
and new york city so
29:38
we were just all on the bus and it was
29:40
this was probably a short hop i remember
29:42
we were in gary indiana and i guess
29:45
that's where they were from and damn the
29:47
smog and that bad boy it was like all
29:49
red we're like whoa what's up pete but
29:51
anyway talk talk about redlining they
29:53
they uh
29:56
it was a real philosophy in gary so we
29:59
were going from gary to like chicago or
30:01
detroit or something and on that
30:04
leg he and i we were um we were talking
30:07
and i was sitting next to him reading
30:09
comic books
30:10
now his father joe he ran that group
30:13
like like he was like he was putin right
30:17
so he was like the man
30:19
and um
30:20
i was an anti-authority
30:23
dude you know like you couldn't tell me
30:24
you know
30:25
if you said one thing to me that i
30:27
didn't agree with i was like gone
30:28
because i just want to be playing jazz
30:30
i'll go back to harlem and play up at is
30:33
201 i'm fine um
30:36
so um i had these comic books that on
30:39
the surface looked like if you looked at
30:42
the cover it looked like we were reading
30:44
like you know archie and jughead but
30:46
what happened was inside i put in um
30:50
like the fabulous furry freak brothers
30:51
and they were talking about smoking weed
30:57
rogers was a piece of work
31:00
he corrupted michaels
31:03
so so joe would come on the bus and see
31:05
us yeah even though he hated me he would
31:08
see me reading michael and he would go
31:10
oh man that's so cute thank you thank
31:12
you man
31:13
it's cool brother joe
31:16
and michael and all the other guys would
31:17
be
31:18
you know wanting to laugh so
31:21
um
31:22
but getting back to your point the
31:24
publishing bit yeah now we're going off
31:26
in a different area we love you because
31:28
we a lot of artists understand the value
31:30
of publishing early on and right the
31:32
music that you were writing held
31:34
held value and how to actually obtain it
31:37
and claim it right um what was your
31:39
experience and how much of of your music
31:42
do you own publish enough so that's my
31:45
big business now okay i i have a
31:47
business um called hypnosis and what we
31:51
do uh you probably have noticed um
31:54
in the news
31:56
huge superstars selling their catalogs
31:58
yes that's because we started this trend
32:02
we started buying catalogs at a multiple
32:04
that people thought was absurd and when
32:07
we would go out and do our little dog
32:09
and pony show and say look we can prove
32:12
that
32:13
that the
32:15
that songs especially hit songs
32:18
have a value
32:20
that is
32:22
is a a real value that we can actually
32:27
make this
32:28
uh uh of
32:30
we could we could prove that this was a
32:32
viable
32:34
um entity to invest in and and we could
32:37
just give you
32:38
we just show you the earnings and we
32:41
could say that it's okay to pay
32:44
this much of a multiple for that because
32:46
those earnings will go on forever as a
32:48
matter of fact with streaming those
32:50
earnings are getting higher and higher
32:53
yeah and we we could prove that for the
32:55
first time
32:56
and i could i could even just use my own
32:58
catalog and say look i never ever had a
33:01
royalty from
33:03
thailand before but look here's a whole
33:05
readout of
33:08
you know royalties from thailand because
33:10
i have so many songs that get played
33:13
all over the world
33:14
um
33:16
anyway people started to listen they
33:18
started to hear us and we started
33:20
purchasing big catalogs dream and others
33:23
you know so the dream sold his catalog
33:25
to you
33:26
wow so i know wayne sold some catalog
33:29
lil wayne saw some catalog as well
33:31
others have done it so that's who we had
33:33
the dream come up talking about that did
33:36
he mention in the conversation he better
33:38
not
33:40
no no no he he no he's my boy
33:43
i had no idea
33:45
i knew he sold him i didn't know he sold
33:46
it to you yeah
33:48
that's amazing yeah but at least he
33:50
keeping it in the family that's what i
33:51
was getting to right because what's
33:53
happening is getting to a lot of private
33:54
equity firms on wall street so it's a
33:56
big pickup for wall street yeah taylor
33:58
swift a lot of other individuals
34:00
copying our model i had no idea sir
34:02
that's amazing congratulations to you
34:04
guys dream
34:12
i had no idea wow yeah they still take
34:15
him yeah yeah yeah
34:17
so um so we have wow um
34:21
an extraordinary amount of
34:23
number one records um i mean you just
34:26
think about dream you know
34:28
i mean with beyonce and rihanna and mia
34:32
exactly
34:33
and um you know and we have um
34:36
i mean
34:38
a lot we got a lot of times i don't i
34:39
don't want to brag just a lot and uh and
34:42
we're still uh continuing on the path so
34:45
we're uh i just looked at the the market
34:48
this morning and so today there was a
34:51
nice little bit of a bump in the you
34:52
know a nice little bit of a bump
34:55
wow
34:56
for the last three weeks has been like
34:58
ah bloodletting but um
35:01
uh today looked a little promising but
35:04
but if you look at r
35:05
where we're closing uh
35:09
we rarely have gone down
35:11
um below a certain point and when we get
35:14
there we don't stay there and not
35:16
because you know the thing is is that
35:18
music about it
35:20
no music is uncorrelated to the other
35:23
things in the market like when when
35:24
times are bad people are listening to
35:27
music when times are good people listen
35:30
and now because we have a mechanism in
35:32
place that that music is always being
35:34
tracked digitally
35:36
we you know we were able to prove uh you
35:39
owe me a vibration
35:41
i'm sorry that's my final answer listen
35:43
now rogers thank you i know you have to
35:45
go but man man listen come back yeah
35:47
right listen are you based out what are
35:49
you based out of um miami miami we got
35:52
our offense in miami yeah we'll come
35:54
down in broadcast yeah okay we could do
35:56
this because i want to do more of this
35:58
with you i want to continue to have
35:59
these conversations because every time
36:02
we speak we find out more information
36:03
yeah that's true right and um i think
36:05
that's important i think your words are
36:07
powerful they're knowledgeable they're
36:08
insightful so folk inspirational so
36:11
folks hear it and in in this man keep in
36:13
mind be cancer you know what i mean like
36:16
twice come on twice come on get that man
36:18
a round of applause this man look at his
36:20
locks i made it we got we got to talk
36:22
about your journey with your locks
36:24
it's a lot we haven't touched on but now
36:26
rogers listen citizens come join us june
36:29
16th all right we'll be in central park
36:32
escape in new york city
36:34
disc oasis in central park if you want
36:38
to find out how to be a part of it and
36:39
purchase tickets
36:42
go to
36:43
thediscoasis.com
36:44
[Applause]
36:45
there you go
36:48
thediscoast.com spell it out sway
36:50
t-h-e-d-i-s-c-o
36:54
[Applause]
36:56
this oasis dot com come celebrate with
36:59
us we'll be there you roller skating
37:01
sway come on from oakland
37:04
well you know he gets down
37:06
my shake rock roll bounce skate is
37:09
ridiculous come on don't do that to me
37:11
i ain't seeing you on skates before now
37:13
now you're pushing it i've never seen
37:15
you on skates
37:18
i ain't gonna say no in front of niall
37:22
all right man well thank you for coming
37:24
through brother thank you very much
37:25
man love you appreciate you good to see
37:28
you all again thank you
37:32
[Music]
37:44
you
#Arts & Entertainment