"Paul Anka"

Hello, friends. Jason here.

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So, Jason's got to pee.

I got to take a nap.

Will?

Yeah.

But maybe we can get the show done

and then I can just pee in my seat here?

How does that work?

You should do that.

You should get one of those.

I should do it. pee.
I gotta take a nap. Will? But maybe we can get the show done and then I can just pee in my seat here? How does that work?

You should do that. You should get one of those.

I should get one of those microphones that

singers use. I can just take it

to the bathroom, right, on a long cord.

And then do you guys mind if I take a nap?

Well, you do that. Wait, you're awake?

Welcome to SmartList.

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SmartLess Thank you. All right, so hi, Will.
Hi, Sean. Hi, Jason.
Hi, Jason. Hi.
How are you? Will, you look like you're doing a hostage video. Where are you? Yeah.
Maybe somebody picks you up real soon. I'm safe.
I'm fine. I'm holding up today's newspaper.
Uh-huh. And...
Are you in Atlanta? I am. I'm in Atlanta.
Are you in a dressing room? I'm in an office. I'm in a production office.

Oh, really?

So what you have is like a little break?

You have a little lunch hour?

They built it around our record today.

That's what they do down here.

That's nice.

Everybody's real helpful.

Look how handsome you are.

Sean, let's just drink him in for a second.

I've been drinking for years.

Even on a hostage video lighting setup,

he looks just...

What's going on down there?

I have free refills with looking at Will well i just fill up every time right and just pour them over you will uh are you sick no thank you for asking yeah um no no no i think a sharp jawline i know yeah cut yourself i'm just down here and i kind of say again everybody nice. Remember last time I was here, I was dealing with a lot of issues at a certain department store with the glory hole.
Yes. Why don't I remember that? You do remember that, certainly.
I'll never forget it. Why would I not remember a glory hole story? This year we're dealing with the same guy who told us about that, is telling us about this app, which is that he's on to meet people.
Sure. And now it's not even like a Tinder thing where it's just like face comes up or Grindr where it's just other guys.
It's just action shots. So he showed us a photo he got from a guy and it's just his rear hand rear end naked rear end and and his um and his garbage hanging and all from behind and then he's bulldogging him yeah and then he just said howdy this is an app he pays for yes i don't know i couldn't believe believe it.
Which one's for the fellas? Is that the Tinder or the Grindr? Grindr. But this is a much more aggressive.
This is just down to business. This is just like, here's what you're looking at.
Yeah, like Cut to the Chase. So it's a step above Grindr.
It's a different name. Yeah, I don't even know what it is.
And it's just a, oh, I do it i i think that is uh look i get it it's like cut to the chase why the small talk are we going to do it or not yeah it's just like this is what i got going on right now where are you at this is what you're going to be dealing with are you in or you out because i gotta move on and that's the girls like the girls don't get that the girls need to be talked to and like emotional and then that turns them on

but the guy on guy thing is just like look i know what i want i know what i'd like let's just do it or not do it sure right sure boy right and he says howdy right but by the way just that's the super revealing and then howdy howdy now will did he tell you about this or did you ask for visual No, he was excited.

This is my buddy, and he's like, wait till you see what I got going on this year. You're not going to be able to believe it.
I'm like, okay. This year.
And then he shows me that. And I'm like, oh, my God.
It was so, you know. Just there it is.
It's so funny, though. It's so funny.
Sean, is your life as exciting currently? Any toppers? Yes, I do. I think we all have something interesting to talk about, which is our docuseries on Max.
Yes. Right? Coming out.
Smartless on the Road. Smartless on the Road.
It's a six-part documentary series on Macs. What's the date?

The 23rd, yes. May 23rd.

Yes.

And it's called Smartless on the Road.

And it's just basically us three idiots.

Yeah, we're traveling around because we took this show on the road

to a bunch of different theaters around the country.

And it's us traveling and living in the same hotel room and and eating

and i mean if you thought you were bored with us before right out yeah this is guaranteed when you see us uh flying some people use white noise to sleep it's not it's not there is there is actual i think we have some shots jay of you of you eating which i think fans will be fascinated are fun yeah well it's it's rare. It's like sighting Yeti, you know.
Yeah, it is. Yep.
And there's a lot of talking about eating. Yeah.
We've got plenty of shots of you guys eating. Yeah.
Good Lord. And then cold.
It was all cold. Jason, you order, you used to like, Jason ended up being the default ordering room service guy.
Yeah. And I noticed one thing, and I didn't want to bring it up, but often I would notice when you were placing the order, you had full bone.
Just ordering food. The forbidden fruit? Yeah.
It's his body responding, getting so excited about getting food inside of it.

Yeah.

So it is,

it is,

we like the show,

but,

you know,

we're,

we're,

we're biased.

But we hope you do too.

Yeah.

Yeah.

May 23rd on Max.

It's,

it's,

it's,

it's,

I don't know.

It's,

it's,

it's us.

It's just this,

right?

You get to see what we talk.

You get to see us instead of just hear us. Yeah.
So we do these interviews on stage, great guests, but then it's also all's just this right you get to see what we talk you get to see us instead of just hear us yeah so we do these interviews on stage great guests but then it's also all the travel in between the spots so check it out that's on Max it's called Smartless on the Road yes and Sean speaking of doing the show and being on the road didn't somebody recently just call you didn't somebody mistake you for Jason oh that's right I just texted you guys an hour ago. Yeah.
I was walking on Broadway and some guy goes, Hey, it's Jason from Smartless. And I just smiled and I said, super guy.
I go, hi. And then you pushed your stomach out.
I unzipped my zipper and I stuck my fat stomach out. I said, Ozark, Ozark.
I just, that's That's all I did. Right I did right down Broadway Ozark but isn't that funny I'm like I don't look anything like you watch Ozark girl hey girl I just did you know what I was doing this morning I was talking to a New York Times journalist about you Sean you've got he's doing this some sort of a profile on you and so listener you know when a journalist on a famous friend, you know, they'll usually call you to get a little background.
Oh, wait, is that why they called you? Yeah, yeah. So he was asking me to kind of fill in some of the blanks.
No, it's cool. I was really well compensated for it.
No. And it was, you know what? You know what I discovered, Sean? I had nothing planned to say.
I found that it was very easy to say nice things about him. Oh, that's really sweet.
You know, usually you have to kind of dig for some flowery verse about a friend. And it just all fell out.
They called and they said, would you be willing to say something for this thing, this piece about Sean? And I said, no, thank you. Yeah.
Yeah. Because what did mom tell you? If you don't have something nice.
Something nice to say. Just say pass.
Wait, do you know that Betty Davis thing from David Letterman? Did I tell you guys that? No. No.
So I'm not going to get this right, but it's something like this. Betty Davis, like a year before she died, was on David Letterman and David goes, so what was it like working with Joan Crawford? And the audience laughed because they knew he was kind of prying her, poking at her and she goes David, my mother always said to say something good about the dead.
Joan Crawford's dead? Good. Wow.
That's very well done. That's pretty great.

I'll borrow that.

I'll take that.

Well, guys, can we segue while we're talking about legends?

Sure. Oh, my God, yeah.

Good segue.

Let's segue now.

You know, we've got a fella today that we could learn a thing or two from.

Hopefully he'll give us some pointers on career longevity, creative relevance, reinvention, and overall swagger. He's in the music side of showbiz and has been one of the more recognized names around the world for as long as our parents have been alive.
He has over 900 songs to his credit, recorded over 130 albums worldwide. His LP and single sales collectively number more than 90 million, and he is the only artist in history to have a song in the Billboard Top 100 during seven consecutive decades.
He's a legend. Wait a minute.
He's a friend. And most importantly, be cool, because he's my father-in-law.
Yes, I know. Oh, my God.
No way. Oh, my God.
Dad. No way.
Hello, Dad. Can I talk and get rid of the cardboard? You can talk and get rid of the cardboard.
Okay. There he is.
Oh, look at Mr. Paul Anka.
Guys. Wow.
Hi, pops. Hello.
I guess this is the end of the Canadian quota, right? Yeah. You know, speaking of which, during my incredible research, do you know, Will, he's got a day named after him in Canada.
There's Paul Anka Day in Canada. I'm not surprised.
What do you have? I'm nothing. Do you have an hour or anything? There are a few tiers.
Paul is like a few tiers above me in the sort of the Canadian hierarchy when it comes to legends. I have a long way to go.
I have nothing named it. I'm not surprised.
Paul, I can't believe, first of all, I can't believe that Jason and I have been friends for so long and this is the first time we've met. Is that true? I know.
I've never met you either. Well, we can say that about a lot of people.
I know. Paul, listen, Paul's a hard guy to nail down.
He's always moving. He's always on the road.
Where are you now? I'll bet you're not in L.A. I'm in Florida.
I'm doing a tour. I just finished the Hard Rock Casino.
See? Finished Palm Beach, and I'm on my way to Naples on the completion of this wonderful event for me. What do you do about 30? You still do about 30 weeks a year? Something like that? I do about 70 days.
70 days. That's all I want to do.
And you've welcomed the 80s now, right? I mean, and you still, Will, you're not going to be moving at that age at all. I know.
It's so impressive. And again, Paul, it should be noted that I like your son-in-law.
I love your daughter, Amanda. Singing to the choir, Will.
Singing to the choir. Yeah, I know.
And I talked to her probably more than i talked to jb thankfully it's not probably that's a definite that's a definite and and she talks so glowingly about how much first of all through her life but all like when she was little but even now how how insanely busy you are and how in i'm going to say industrious but you never stop moving. Yeah.
What is the secret to doing it for so long to being able to have that kind of motor? I guess. Well, if you stop, if you stop moving, will they throw dirt on you? That's number one, right? That's a good one.
That's going to be our new logo. I've learned that from the age 16.
And as long as you've got a passion for what you're doing, and when you started the way that I did out of Canada, hey, as long as the dream's alive, the passion and the energy, you keep doing it. You know, unfortunately, you stop like I've seen many of my buddies do.
And you see a lot of TV, read a lot of books and die. So I love what I'm doing.
I'm constantly changing. I'm in the middle now of doing my documentary.
We've got a Broadway show that we're doing with writers, and it's just something that I love to do, man. You know, when you leave Canada and you make it, you're really grateful because nothing was happening up there other than Moose Jerky when I left.
Moose Jerky. Hey, is that a thing? You guys don't know.
You know, you guys, I respect all of you, obviously, but when I did start, there was no opportunity, you know, and I get lucky as a kid. I leave Ottawa, you know, what, 150,000 people at that time? And I hit, and the luck's been continuing since then, and I said, I'm not going to lose this.
And then you go through the Rat Pack in Vegas and the Mafia and you learn what to do, what not to do. And then you say to yourself, you've been asked to really give this up.
So that's pretty much been the motivation. Yeah.
I mean, first of all, you came, so I want to get into this. You come out of Ottawa, or as I used to refer to it, the town that fun forgot.
Yeah. And it's never seen since.
And to all our fans in Ottawatawa i only say that as a toronto maple leafs fan it's a joke so relax you know hold back your comments but yeah but you come out of ottawa as we know is these guys don't know the nation's capital in canada but a small town and you were but you didn't do this paul when you were 25 no he had, before the age of 18, he had five top 20 hits. Before what? Before 18? Before 18.
Before 18. This is what blows me away, Paul.
Talk to us about how as a young guy, you had all this success. It blows my mind.
When I first read that years ago, I couldn't believe it. Well, you're 14, you're 15, you're in school, you're in grade 10 for two years.
So you get the hint. Wait a second, you repeat in 10th grade? Yeah, twice.
So I'm in a class with a bunch of girls with my friend, Tommy, who is family with the big ski champs. And we wanted the quickest way out.
So we took typing and shorthand. I got thrown out of a shorthand class and took music so now i get interested in music and one day i started writing poetry and i win awards for my my writing i get thrown into a music class i take piano lessons and i start becoming this real big fan of you know all the rhythm and blues stuff.
The black music experience, as it is now, drove everything back then,

as it did back to the 30s.

So I get hooked on music, and I just start writing away.

Now, I'm playing hockey like all of us attempted to do.

I got tired of ducking because I was very short, and I played gold.

So I said, it's not in my future.

And in my day, you know, those guys didn't wear helmets,

they didn't wear masks, and there was no glass around the rink. So you can imagine how dangerous it was.
So I said, it won't be hockey. So I'm going to just write songs.
So I start writing songs. So I'm hooked.
I'm loving the music. I had a paper route.
And then I got a job at IGA food stores because I heard if you won the contest, you'd get to go to New York where all the music was because the music business was in its infancy stage back there. There were not a lot of labels.
What year-ish? What year-ish are we? This is 1955. Okay.
So I win the award for collecting soup wrappers for Campbell's Soup. And me and 40 kids from across Canada are put on a train with soggy sandwiches.
And 15 hours later, I'm at the YMCA in New York.

I said, man, this is it.

I'm coming back.

So I go back home and I said to my dad, look, give me some money.

I had some saved up from my paper route.

I'm going back to New York.

I've got a connection to see a record company.

And I go down.

I walk into ABC Paramount Records, which had ABC TV network just starting out. I sing for Don Costa.
He was the A&R guy. And like all of us guys, you know, success has a lot of fathers.
And he was the guy that made it happen. He said, where are you from? Blah, blah, blah, blah.
I told him, he said, bring your parents down here. We want to sign you.
You're too young. So I found my parents down.
They signed a contract. And May of that year, I'm in a record studio doing Diana, two other songs.
That was a song you wrote for the gal that didn't want to hear it, right? Yeah, that was it. And then two, three months later, American Bandstand started.
I'm on there in the Ed Sullivan show. And that was it.
It took off from there. My life changed.
Wait, wait wait, you did the Ed Sullivan show? I mean, yeah? What was that like? How was that? Scared to death. Scared to death.
Yeah, because that was like the biggest show then. Well, that was it.
You know, television back then was three channels. Color TV, my dad would bring out a piece of plastic with a blue sky, red in the middle, and green on the bottom, and he'd tape it to the TV, and that was color television.
Come on. And in Ottawa,tawa didn't start till five o'clock in the afternoon and there was like news a cooking show and maybe wrestling once a week i mean it was not and millions and millions and millions of people watching because there were no other choices amazing well it was all radio before that i used to sit in ottawa next to a radio and listen to everything until television came god I aging myself? Could you imagine asking our kids to sit in front of a big box that has sound coming out of it and entertain yourself for a few hours just listening to it? No, they wouldn't.
They'd look at us like we're nuts. No, obviously not now.
But, you know, that's all that there was, right? Right, exactly. I mean, it's a time.
So, like, it felt like a—I got to be honest with you. I mean, obviously, I grew up—I was born in 70, so it's not, but I do remember as a kid on my clock radio, I was just talking about with my buddy Eli.
I used to be able to get the W, what was the station out of Buffalo and I could get Sabres games. Oh, yes, the Hound Dog, yes.
I know the station. Yeah, and I could get them on my, so I could, when I was told to go to bed, I could still hear the Buffaloes.
As a Canadian, Paul, you know this.

When you get that radio signal out of the States, it feels like a whole other world. You can't believe it, right? Everything came at you.
There was nothing to watch. I mean, it was just so boring.
There was nothing going on. I was listening to Fats Domino and everybody else.
All right. So Diana gets you signed.
That takes off a bit. And then how – so that was your first number one hit and your 14, 15? First number one hit, yeah.
Okay. And then what were the other four that were the five top 20s before you were 18? So at 15, you got Diana.
Then my dad wanted me home. And then a promoter called up.
And my second was You Are My Destiny. But my dad wanted me to finish school.
And I talked to the promoter and to let me live with him. He had a bunch of drugstores, Izzy and Irving Feld.
So with You Are My Destiny, I move in with them down in Washington. Then I had, there was Lonely Boy, Puppy Love, I Love You Baby.
There's a string of hits. Really quick, really quick, Paul.
The guy, I'm doing a play here in New York, and the guy who wrote it, Doug Wright, and my other actress friend, Deb Monk, wrote a song called Puppy Love, Doggy Style. Yes.
Wow. I love that.
Paul, we'll see them in court. Let's get your attorneys.
I offered it to Frank Sinatra. So I started working for the mob in Vegas.
He wanted me to write for him. And I said, well, I can give you puppy love.
We'll change it to love is a bitch. You know, I was thrown into that world because I worked for the guys.
I mean, a lot of people, you know, they fantasize of what it was about, but it was real. They controlled everything.
Talk a little bit about how that happened. How did you end up, well, first of all, you wrote, you know, you wrote a big, a very popular song, one of the great songs of all time for Frank Sinatra.
My Way, yes. Well, that came later.
You know what happened was. Oh, wait, you wrote My Way? Yeah.
Yeah, yeah. I think so.
That's crazy. Wait, you have me thinking about that.
Yeah. Okay.
No, I didn't know that. So let's go back before we get into My Way.
Then let's go back into how you start working with those guys and working with the mob. Well, I'm making lots of money and I've got lots of hits.
Sure. And everywhere that I had to play, the mob ran everything.
They ran all the clubs, all the distributors, labels, all the restaurants. Were you the youngest to play Copa Cabana? Well, I became, with those hits, I became the youngest to work this mob place called the Copa, which was huge.
Yeah. And I started working it as the youngest kid, and I must have done weeks there, and there was kids around the block, blah, blah.
What are you, 17, 18, 19? I was about 19 years old. Well, I was in Vegas first.
I played Vegas at 18 with Sophie Tucker and then America's Favorite Group. And from there, I went to the Copacabana in New York and I started there very, very young and I had a bunch of hits going into that And then the bosses said, would you like to go work Vegas with the Rat Pack? Now, you know that these guys are in the mob at this point.
You totally know who you're working for. You're told to behave yourself.
Wow. These are the guys, and when you see them, blah, blah.
I mean, there's this real strict education as to behavior, what to wear, how to act. Me, Bobby, Darren, Frankie Avalon.
So we knew who we were working for. When the word came out, go to Vegas, I fly out there, spent a lot of time there, you know, Sinatra, Marilyn Monroe, that whole thing.
And I start working for the boys and with the Rat Pack at the Sands Hotel. What year is this? That's 1961, 62, somewhere in there.
You're too young to gamble. Couldn't go in the building.
I had to look through the windows until I was old enough at 21. Could not go in.
You didn't have a fake ID or something like that to get in there? He's famous. He's Paul Anka at this point.
Those guys knew everything. They knew everything of who was in there, who was allowed in, who wasn't.
I would have died so quickly if I was part of the mob because I always thought it'd be so cool. Like, oh, these guys are like, I don't know, there's something glamorous about that life that I think everybody would have.
You would have been like that annoying dog in the cartoons that just runs circles around, the big dog. Where are we going? And it would have stepped on you.
Sean, what are you guys talking about now? You meeting the mob would immediately be, like the scene would be you meeting them and immediately like all those guys doing one of those funny scenes about how they're going to bury you, where they're going to bury you. You know what I mean? Who's got to get rid of your stupid body? And we knew.
Listen, you know, it was such a small community, you knew when somebody got smoked. Wow.

You know when a game was rigged. Were you ever scared about that? No, ever.
I'm scared going there now. I'm scared going to Vegas now with what's there.
I mean, believe me, you can't trust anything that's going on there now from the streets to your room. Really? And we will be right back.
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And now back to the show. What would be the main thing that you would have to watch out to not do when you're conversing with the mob? Like, what would get you in trouble? Well, respect was everything.
Okay. What you said was everything.
Respect was everything. You, you never wanted to get out of line or do anything in destroying a room, trying to do something that was out of line.
You got to remember all these guys were older than I was. The Rat Pack were older.
Carl Cohen was my rabbi and And Carol Cohen was the guy out of Cleveland. He was the sweetest guy ever.
And he watched over me. You know, those were the guys.
And were they like father figures and brothers type? Yeah. Totally.
Totally. I mean, Carl Cohen, he was the guy, I'm going to jump ahead, that knocked the teeth out of Frank Sinatra.
Oh, wow. I was there that night.
This is a rabbi. Rabbi lit up Sinatra.
This was Carl Cohen. And he was the nicest salt of the earth type of guy.
And every time I needed something or had a problem, I would go to Carl Cohen and he would watch over me because I was this kid. But I was making money for them.
It was very freaky for them because they were used to Sinatra, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis. And all of a sudden, this 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? 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. You see, they all had a vested interest in whatever sense.
And anybody that made money for them, you know, they had the swagger. Those 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 the kid. So there's a bear in this team.
And they embraced me right away. Right away.
Right away. Very nice.
And I just watched and learned. Watched and learned.
They 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.
I'm still young. I'm scared to death.
I'm intimidated. And I figure if I'm ever going to to write something it better be good because that'll be my one shot but i'm in my early 20s yeah 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 we're down in florida at the fountain blue hotel and that was a hanging 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. It was the Fountain Blue.
Unrelated. All right, sorry, Paul.
Sorry. Oh, yeah, good friend.
So the preacher boy, he was also around. I'm covering everybody here today.
So I'm at the fountain blue. Wait, go back.
What was the foundation of Vegas? 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, the Teamsters Union, they were going to build Caesars Palace. And I had 5% of Caesars 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 government will be all over you.
So they all wanted to build this amazing hotel, Caesars 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.

It 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.
You 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 typewriterwriter paid off from sitting in grade 10 for two years and i'm typing away metaphorically and now the end is in five hours i finished the song that's crazy so now i call him up at caesar's and i said sir i said i've got the song blah blah blah he said bring it out i fly out to caesar's palace go to his dressing room.
I sing him the song. He says, kid, I love it.
I'm going to do it. Two months later, he calls me from a record studio in LA.
Listen to this kid. And he takes the phone, he puts it up to a speaker, and I hear my way for the first time.
How old were you? 25 years old. 25 years old.
I'm not kidding. I'm getting chills.
That is unbelievable, Paul. I know, 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. But 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. It was 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? And 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. It'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

that, 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. Yes, that is.
Paul, 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. They wanted 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, et cetera.
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. Hey, 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 Paulul anka and i'll never live up to oh sorry yeah yeah

and then and then at what point did it go away where you're just like okay i got i can't stay in this frame of mind anymore and i'm just like that's my dad that's why i knew i knew because i knew her name when i met her when she introduced herself um you 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 thought I thought well if this goes a couple more dates I might get to meet this guy and I'll be nervous about that 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 armed situation you might create. He's just, 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.
OK. I might be back sucking on that moose jerky in Canada in two years.
So 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, It 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.
Zanuck, 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. Yeah.
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. It's the most recognized TV theme song in history.

It's been performed a million, 400,000 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 because Skitch has been here, blah, blah, blah. Goddamn Skitch.
He 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.
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, 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 Trump is not because you're hearing.
What's his name? Skicho. Skavo.
Skicho. Go Skavo.

Sorry.

So then I go to Europe. I go to Europe, and I had a whole career in Europe.
I went to Japan when I was 18. Yeah, what's this? You lived in Italy, you just said.
Yeah, I lived in Italy. I didn't know that.
Everything, well, when the Beatles hit, you know, 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.
Oh, 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.
And 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 and 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 uh 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. You 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. So they bring them over.
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. Oh, 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.
Ogni volta, ogni volta che torno, non va reno, 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 if I want? Throw 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 verschnurl, sauerkraut, und drei liter bier. 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. Weiss there in the tongue.
I hadn't even had breakfast yet and I'm worried about my tongue and I sat with her five days a week learning German and I loved it over there. It's a great country.
Very beautiful country. Yeah, it is.
It's beautiful. That's how I met Scotty, by the way.
Anyway, so if you... 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 Never Felt So Good, that song. I don't know if you 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 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 back a bunch of talented people good friends you 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 uh we start writing together and you knew right away with a guy like mich, how talented he was.
Now, unlike everyone else, he didn't play an instrument. It was all in the head.
It was chicka-pucka-pucka, chicka-pucka, chicka-pucka, chicka-pucka, poof, poof, poof, poof, poof, poof, all these noises, like working with a bird. And I knew that the way that this guy had it down, he knew what he wanted and he knew what he was about.
So we sit in the studio. 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. Off 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. You're 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. I'm just saying, I love you all.
You're very tan. You look very cute.
Amanda, can I, wait, Amanda, don't go anywhere yet. I can't believe this is the first time meeting your dad.
I love your dad. I can't, 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.
He came to a father-daughter dinner up at our Sundays and it took the house down. 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 you.
I can't wait. We're going to see you very soon, but I miss you too.
I'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.
So Michael Jackson took the tapes or something?

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.

Now, 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.
lawyers decide to convince him give him back the tapes so he gives me back the tapes but he's gone i 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 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, yeah.
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. They 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, this is 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, bub. 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. Well, 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.

Thank you.

It's such a good song.

Thank you. 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? Yes.
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.

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And now, back to the show.

So, you know, you 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, of course, of course.
I want him to do the three crooners because each, you gotta, let's workshop it and find the other two folks, but you've got enough, you've got enough to fill your section of it, I mean, in spades. I mean, you're just playing your hits.
You could do, you could tour, you could do Vegas, as you know. You could do on Broadway.
It would be an absolute smash. Yeah, who are the other two that would do it with you? Who would you do it with? 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.
And 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 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 uh 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.
You 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? Because the Hispanic base in our country politically and everything is huge. 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 have any time to press it.
Great. It's a smart list tour, and we're going to get it done.
Guys, why don't the three of us sing all the songs? I'm open. As long as I'm not responsible for any of the others.
Sean, you do the singing, and then Jason and I, what do we do? Well, these two talented guys are doing things us two dumbies 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, 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.
You run. You watch what you eat.
You know, Amanda's always been like that. Yeah.
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.
I 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? This is it.
Even Paul Eich is quoting Richard Ehrlich. Is that Richard Ehrlich? Was that where I heard it? His body is no fluke.
The great Richard Ehrlich. How's Richard doing? Tricky Dick is good.
He's married, isn't he? Oh, yeah. He's sitting on the big hill.
Tell Tracy who Richard is. Richard is one of my best friends and a friend of, what, all four of us? Yeah.
Yeah, of course. Yeah, Richard.
And anyway. Love him.
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? Find him.
Yeah, 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 super food, okay? I love it. The olive oil, I'm going to do it now, Paul.
I'm doing it every day. I'm going to do olive oil.
You put it in a shot glass, and you squeeze a lemon on top of it, and drink it. Drink 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.
Listen, 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. Yeah.
You guys. Especially kids that were born after 2000.
Yeah. They'll be living to 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 what are you listening to that's keeping you inspired do you keep up on on on new music um do you have a a staple that that you listen to that keeps you going what's what what gets you going yeah i'm listening to everything eclectically you know there's some stuff i'm not interested in leave it at that but i'm listening to stuff from you know bruna mars I mean, I listened to Adele and some rap stuff, Jay-Z. I mean, 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. You know, you're never going to discount.
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. Stones 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.
Yeah. 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. We never really grow up.
Trust me. I get that sense.
Paul, it's unbelievable. Again, I don't know what Jason, I think that, I think he's jealous of you.

You've got too much charisma for us.

And he knows that we're like,

Sean and I are going to be like,

we got to get rid of Jason.

We got Paul to do the podcast with us.

We'll keep it in the family.

If you guys want to recast, that's fine.

You just got to keep it in the family.

Slip it in.

Slip it in.

I got to tell you, I'm so proud of that guy.

I don't know if I lay it on. All of you.
We all are. 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?

Everywhere I go,

they don't even know who the fuck I am.

We're taking this guess, right?

No, listen, whatever you're throwing at me,

I'm throwing it back to all of 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. And he's just, 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 into it. We'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 to the end. What do you mean $30 for a lap dance? Who's this chick over here? I'm going back to the hotel.
I'm not paying that. Jimmy'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. He was born in 38, just outside of Winnipeg.
And 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.
He's going to be blown away. You've got a pretty decent hockey team out there, you know.
Yeah, we do. Not bad.
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.
Everybody is way behind. Do you know why Wayne Gretzky never had a curved stick? Why? Why is that? Because his backhand he never wanted the stick curved yeah hard 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 i don't know if you heard the uh the episode that we did with uh with uh 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. That was his entrance on his own personal cell phone.
That was funny. I thought you were putting me on.
Nobody handed it to him. He got it on his own phone.
He walks in playing that. Jason blushed.
Yeah. And then I feel like, didn't 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. Yeah.
Right. And then he carried on as you heard him.
He was very complimentary and very nice. And 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's 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? My 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. get it done.
All right? All right. Bye, Paul.
See you, Pauly. Bye, guys.
Bye, buddy. 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.
Yeah, he's great. You'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 like 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? Well, I don't think it's just so self-serving. You know, I mean, he's my, he's my father-in-law and like, 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.
Yeah, 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.
Well, look, let's start having dinners with him.

I just want to know if he's, I want to, I was going to ask him, I want to know if he's

ever whacked anybody.

Oh, that's a great question.

I know, I know that Sean has.

I know that Sean has, but that's different.

But that's different.

But that's different.

That was mutual.

That was mutual.

Oh my God.

Well, that was a.

Sean, Sean got let into the mob because they asked him, he, the first thing he said, he

says, I love whacking people. Well, 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 going to say? No, I was just going to say, I'm really blown away, Jay. I really am.
I just love him. And loving Amanda as much as we do as well, certainly as much as I do, just seeing her dad and starting to understand, putting the pieces together.
Yes, yes, that's what I was doing too. 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 which was such a treat.

Yeah.

And

and then just meeting

her dad now

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 was the first time

on the show.

She's never done that.

It was so cute.

We should have her on.

Yeah.

We should have her on.

You know,

I mean,

but now that gets

really self-indulgent.

No,

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 are. Truly.
And this is the episode to say that and this is the time to say that. So I just think you're amazing and hearing him love on you was just, you know, really cool.
It 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 by 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.
No, he's going to talk about sleeping with a man and a woman. And watch, he's going to do all these lyrics, right? Go ahead, John.
I was going to do just the one lyric about, I planned each charted course, each careful

step along the

by

way.

There you go.

That was pretty great.

Smart.

Yes.

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