00:00:00
another summer day has come and gone away in Paris or Rome but I want to go
00:00:07
home cuz this place sucks I should I should have that that should have been the
00:00:12
lyric Michael Bo smoothest singer child the king of Christmas Have a Holly Jolly
00:00:20
Christmas everything I did was music I would listen to Frank sinat Bobby Darren Dean Martin I don't know I just do
00:00:30
emulate them and then I would steal it all cuz if you steal from one person you're just a thief but when you steal
00:00:35
from everybody it's research but there's 10 years of clubs 10 years of every agent saying the exact same thing we
00:00:42
will never sign you but the reason I didn't stop in those 10 years was because if the right person sees me I am
00:00:50
one of the greatest entertainers on Earth I can play 50,000 people and if there's one looking at their watch I
00:00:55
will play to that man I'm not leaving here until I break you H I'm a
00:01:02
feeling good but in a moment my son's cancer diagnosis was a
00:01:10
sledgehammer to my reality and I remember saying to myself if we get out of
00:01:15
this um if we get out of this I'm living a different life and I feel like I'm at at
00:01:22
this point where I wanted to do something different Michael you're you're not going to quit music are
00:01:28
you quick one this is really really fascinating to me on the back end of our YouTube channel it says that
00:01:36
69.9% of you that watch this channel frequently over the lifetime of this channel haven't yet hit the Subscribe
00:01:41
button I just wanted to ask you a favor it helps this channel so much if you choose to subscribe helps us scale the
00:01:48
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00:01:54
could you please hit the Subscribe button thank you so much and I will repay that gesture by making sure that
00:02:00
everything we do here gets better and better and better and better that is a promise I'm willing to make you do we have a
00:02:05
[Music]
00:02:11
deal Michael what do I need to know about your earliest context to
00:02:17
understand the way that you are because you are a unique individual personality-wise talent wise your life
00:02:22
is full of uniqueness so where is the what is the oven because I always think about humans like an oven yeah um you
00:02:29
know they get cooked in this oven when they're young what is that oven what is that environment well the environment was probably having the most incredible
00:02:37
family and everybody says that everybody says and of course that's beautiful that people always think their family is the
00:02:43
most special but if you met them you'd like them all more than me and then for
00:02:48
me personally I think being the first child who um got way too much
00:02:55
attention you know probably got told like you're aming amazing and you're good at every and
00:03:02
like uh it's probably the reason I talk so much but everything I
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am everything I have every decision I make is based
00:03:13
on that family even deciding you know I want to be a singer this what I'm going to do at 13 14 you know by the time I
00:03:21
was 16 my grandfather was already taking me to nightclubs and when I started
00:03:26
playing in the nightclubs at 1819 they were full and I was raw but
00:03:32
they were full full and people were like what who is this kid like why did how
00:03:37
did he fill up babaloos or how did he fill up the purple onion or how did he fill up you know this theater well they
00:03:44
didn't know but it was my cousins and aunts and my my grandparents and my Mom
00:03:51
calling all of her friends and saying come to the club so this was a strange family affair because we had no
00:03:58
connections I wish I had nepotism to lean on but
00:04:03
uh I didn't and uh so instead it took all of these incredible people just
00:04:09
loving me and going yeah let's go let's I mean I was shocked I was a fisherman you know my fa my great-grandfather
00:04:15
immigrated from Italy he was a ship Builder um my grandfather was a commercial San salmon fisherman on a
00:04:22
sane boat um that took him away a lot right your father yeah sure for sure
00:04:29
yeah which is something that we understood and uh it's interesting
00:04:34
because um who knew that after leaving that life and having that thing where
00:04:41
your father's gone quite a bit would be the life that I ended up Le leading you know where I had to be gone quite a bit
00:04:48
and um the only difference was I could say Dad why are you leaving
00:04:55
and he would say son this is my this is my job this is how I put put food on the table this is
00:05:01
how um this is how dad pays for for our house and for the for the holidays that
00:05:07
we go on and everything and it changed for me after a certain amount of success because my kids would say poppy why are
00:05:13
you going and I couldn't say you know it's to pay to put food on the table you know
00:05:21
because obviously it was you know we passed that point got very lucky so how
00:05:26
do you answer that question uh I answer it by well I don't just answer
00:05:33
it with with language I I answer it with action so um I have
00:05:40
probably I've probably made my tours uh I would say financially maybe
00:05:46
one of the most irresponsible tours in in all of touring um so I started a rule
00:05:53
where I said I will do three weeks on two weeks off two weeks on two weeks off so that I could come back or I would
00:06:00
literally sit with my wife and she's a tremendous actress you know and she has a great career and I I know how
00:06:05
fulfilled she is by it and so I would say to her let's sit down at the beginning you and your manager pepo and
00:06:11
me and my manager Bruce and uh let's go through the calendar so when are you making those two films okay June July
00:06:17
I'm done I come with you and it can't happen if I tour in a financially
00:06:22
responsible way it's so interesting to me because I'm coming into that phase of life now I'm going to be starting a
00:06:28
family soon and I'm going to be getting married and it's interesting to hear from you about the tradeoffs you have to make and you have more experience in
00:06:35
both sides of the cost and the benefit of those trade-offs did you miss your father growing up oh man of course I
00:06:42
miss my dad I remember used to and I said you know it's interesting cuz I am
00:06:47
so lucky to have been born when I was born because my nights on tour away from them like tonight I mean last night for
00:06:54
example last night was doing a zoom and uh they put their iPad in the
00:07:00
room and I sat with them and I watched a Christmas movie and uh we they ate
00:07:05
popcorn and Poppy was there I was just there I was you know they were walking around and wrestling and um they it's
00:07:14
really strange to say this but uh I did this thing have you ever heard of calm yeah the app the C app yeah I know the
00:07:20
found yeah it's it's the like I so I used to listen to this com app to go to sleep my wife hated it and um same with
00:07:27
me and my I I was on the gram North show and Matthew MCC was a guest and I was so
00:07:32
excited and grahe was like why why are you so excited well everyone loves MC said oh no no no I I love because my
00:07:39
wife would hate it but every night I listen hi it's Matthew hey hey hey I got a sleep story for you and I would like
00:07:46
listen every night and I was like Matthew you sleep with my wife and I I was like and and I was like I listen
00:07:53
to your calm sleep story and it became a you know he he was very good sport and he thought it was funny and then C
00:07:59
called and they were like hey you want to do a sleep story I was like hell yeah I want to do a sleep story but I didn't know so last night that's every night's
00:08:06
the same so we chill and then I put on Poppy's sleep story oh hi this is
00:08:11
Michael and tonight in this sleep story We and the kids just go that's so beautiful so what I was
00:08:18
saying about you were asking about my father dude my dad used to carry a sock
00:08:24
full of quarters and every two weeks he'd come into port and he'd wait in line at a pay for pH and then he'd call
00:08:32
and then he used to oh man it makes me emotional but and I do the same thing now but he
00:08:38
used to uh he would leave notes and he'd hide them everywhere and so he'd be gone
00:08:44
for like a month or something and you'd go into a drawer to go get your you know pencils and and then you'd see the note
00:08:52
and uh I remember being like seven eight years old and I don't know if you ever
00:08:58
did this stuff or maybe I'm just a weird kid but I remember like holding his
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clothes being little and like and just crying you know missing him so much and
00:09:09
this was the closest thing that I would get to him and uh and it's crazy that as
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life went on I became dude I'm him like thank Jesus thank God I'm him but I
00:09:23
turned out to be my dad your granddad played a huge role in your life didn't he Grandpa Mitch Grandpa Mitch yeah huge
00:09:30
huge massive as a ma as a matter of fact yesterday I did one of the probably scarier things that you can do in this
00:09:37
entertainment business I uh I was asked to be a surprise guest to sing a song as a
00:09:45
tribute to Barry Gibb in the bgs in his induction into the Kennedy Center Honors
00:09:50
which I I think is in my opinion maybe if not the Pinnacle one of the Pinnacles
00:09:57
of of uh Americans uh celebrating culture but weirdly enough my grandpa um
00:10:05
he passed away 5 years ago yesterday oh wow and so um more than anything I was
00:10:12
standing backstage and um I could hear my
00:10:19
introduction and I was like my mouth was dry and my heart I could hear my heart
00:10:25
beating in my ear and uh I just took a big breath and I said like wow Grandpa
00:10:31
okay this is us man this is us and um I always think about my kids and say like
00:10:36
okay be strong don't let your kids ever see you weak don't let your kids ever see you scared and weirdly it just
00:10:42
brought this wonderful calm over me and um it was really nice man like I I it
00:10:51
just brought me calm and I went out there and I thought I killed it I thought I was very
00:10:57
Charming he was my hero is my hero um at 13 years old we were always best friends
00:11:04
I don't know why you know you know dude sometimes certain people you connect and
00:11:11
it's like you were made for each other and that was my best buddy we talked about hockey and we talked about music
00:11:19
and even at a young age I was fascinated by by the Great American song book I was
00:11:25
just I didn't know I I didn't understand and I remember being
00:11:30
confused why I was the only one too how could other people not
00:11:37
understand that Nat King Cole is that unbelievable what's wrong how could they
00:11:43
how how does someone age not hear EP fitgerald and just [ __ ] a brick and realize that is stupid that's just too
00:11:51
good or that that gorgeous uh orchestral arrangement of that song and those horns
00:11:57
doing that thing and that that swinging like I know hip-hop is great but no that
00:12:02
beat that I just heard in that Dre song that isn't close to being as fat as the one I just heard um backing up Bobby
00:12:09
Darren in Mac the knife like that's smoking I knew 13 years old oh dude even
00:12:15
before that for me music was it wasn't even a question it
00:12:20
was it it was a defining part of my the essence of me like I every everything I
00:12:29
did was music was just you know a Fascination and it's funny when many
00:12:35
times parents will go like my daughter is 14 and she's and do you have advice you know she wants to be a singer and I
00:12:41
always I have advice and it's like Listen to As Much music and all of it like go across the board of every genre
00:12:48
and download it and process it and steal all of it steal the best parts of all of
00:12:53
it and you will find yourself but another thing I always say is fantasize like dude that is for
00:13:01
me I would fantasize about being on stage I would fantasize
00:13:07
about singing in front of the crowd every shower was another opportunity to go and [ __ ] kill Madison Square
00:13:13
Garden and you know know that the uh you know that that crowd in the shower was just loving Madison Square Garden orever
00:13:21
you know like you know what I mean like I was 14 absolutely and like thank God there wasn't like the voice or American
00:13:26
Idol cuz if I was 13 I would have been in the shower like hey Simon check this out um did you sound good at that age do
00:13:35
do you have recording you have like you know yeah man I do I do have recordings CU I'm wondering how much I have a recording when I'm 14 and it tripped me
00:13:42
out because I sound ex I don't know if it's good but exactly the same exactly
00:13:48
the same what and I think it was like it had to be you I sound like that I sound
00:13:55
exactly like that the same way and um what's weird is like it wasn't like I put on an effect that's what that's how
00:14:02
the voice sounded and uh my buddies used to make fun of me had one of my best friends Brad would be in the bus and he
00:14:09
go there's bé singing with that fake voice again there's and even today and
00:14:15
he's still my one of my be literally one of my best friends and we're drinking beer and he's he's like shut up man and
00:14:22
he loves to sing too and uh but um I couldn't believe how much your grandfather and your father and your
00:14:28
family supported you oh yeah when I was reading that your grandfather would trade
00:14:33
Plumbing work yeah man for for you to go and do singing lessons or you know auditions
00:14:39
Etc that's that's unusual because most parents would go oh my God my child singing that's not a
00:14:45
career no I know I know it was uncomfortable too because he loved me so much listen dude my grandpa did more
00:14:51
than just trade his Plumbing things he took me to auditions he would I when
00:14:56
they used to hire me um to go go work in the malls and he got me like these gigs
00:15:01
where they would pay me 20 bucks an hour and then I would go to the mall and with a a guitar player and I would like busk
00:15:09
I guess it's busking is what it is right and I would go or outside I'd busk at Grandville island or places and he would
00:15:14
just sit and I loved it man I didn't care who was listening where I was I did
00:15:19
anything what was the first song the first time you performed in front of other people and got a reaction the first song weirdly was uh was I think it
00:15:26
was a Christmas song really well it was cuz it was Christmas Eve we were coming home from uh this is I've told the story
00:15:33
many times but it's we were coming home from uh my grandma and grandpa's on Capitol Hill and uh I think it was like
00:15:41
white Christmas or something and my little sisters I would have been 12 maybe 11 12 my voice was just starting
00:15:49
to change and um and the girls were in the back my two s my sisters are great
00:15:55
beautiful voices and they were I'm dreaming of a why christas you know with
00:16:01
every Christmas card I write and I think from the back I went may your days be
00:16:07
merry and bright and it was like the whole car
00:16:13
went and I think that was the first time they were like what the is that where did that just come from and
00:16:21
uh what's interesting is I think if I really am honest with myself and I look back that Bing Crosby was the first
00:16:29
cuz that was like that was the first record in that style and that played through the house at Christmas that was
00:16:36
my introduction to big band that was my introduction to Jazz that was my introduction to um those that swinging
00:16:42
feeling and then with that relationship with my granddad he used to we used to have a
00:16:49
some a shag he has like a green shag carpet and he had a a record machine that that he attached to a cassette
00:16:56
machine and we would sit down and we would just for I'm not kidding you man hours I loved it I loved it and I used
00:17:04
to go with those cassettes and I had a Walkman and I would just sit in bed and
00:17:10
I would listen over and over and then I would I would listen to each of these
00:17:16
singers and um and I would learn the song for Grandpa and Grandma so I could come over the next day and I could I
00:17:22
could sing for him and I'd sit at the table with him and we you know but I
00:17:27
started to just steel I mean steel fullon
00:17:33
steel and uh and I started to like almost impersonate each of them and I would
00:17:39
listen to Frank Sono with the pi Pipers there was ways that he would sing and I
00:17:44
would try to emulate so I would sit there and then I would it would be like I was a record player you know I'd come home and Grandpa would say okay what's
00:17:51
today Stormy Weather and I'd say don't know
00:17:56
why there's no Sun up in the sky Stormy
00:18:02
Weather I can't do it now but and then the next day would be okay he go Dean Martin Dean Martin and uh I'd say I
00:18:11
don't know why I love you like I do I
00:18:16
don't know why I just do and I would emulate them God damn I like listen to
00:18:22
The Mills Brothers and when I'm saying all of this you probably have no idea sometimes what I'm talking about CU yeah
00:18:28
the way the Mills sing there was this weird I want to buy a paper doll that I
00:18:34
could call my own that other fell or that I just he
00:18:41
would the way he would open up and everything was so the very thought of you and I forget to do and there was all
00:18:51
these things that I would just like oh my God I love that and that and then I would steal it all and I would try to
00:18:56
emulate all of it and then one day you know sitting with Grandpa I started realizing okay I'm starting to wow
00:19:04
Grandpa I'm starting this is the way I do it now taking all those things and that's what creativity is right it is
00:19:10
man and I met I've told this story too too many times but I remember the first time I met Tony Benet I said uh you know
00:19:16
Tony I'm obviously you know I'm a huge fan I've stolen so much from you and
00:19:21
Bing and Frank and all of them and he said uh good he said cuz if you steal
00:19:27
from one person you're just a thief but when you steal from everybody it's research and I thought that was amazing
00:19:34
and I've told that story a million times too but it was everything man like Elvis was a big part of it and you know I just
00:19:40
all of those things that I loved but um why was your grandfather doing that in hindsight why was are you kidding me
00:19:46
dude yeah like are you kidding me so it was better than crack for who for both
00:19:53
of us it's my happiness it's my it's my passion it's my thing and you know and like I I love um he would have died to
00:20:01
know that his grandson was continuing the legacy of Our Heroes you know cuz if
00:20:07
he was being honest when I played Madison Square Garden for the first time and I said did you think I'd get here he said oh no no definitely
00:20:14
not there's a clip of him on a on a documentary he goes no I thought you'd be good you know maybe
00:20:20
Vegas um but I just think it was because how could I we were this my grandpa was
00:20:27
a plumber and we came we're fishermen we didn't know anybody we're never going to get we're never going to get to there we
00:20:33
didn't even know we're from Vancouver we didn't even know anybody how are we going to get to there your story is not a straight line because you went and
00:20:39
worked on those fishing boats as well like so it's not just you start singing at dud my story isn't even a straight line from from fishing boats to
00:20:47
Chuck-E-Cheese to working at restaurants to singing It's there's 10 years of
00:20:52
clubs there's 10 years of me moving to Toronto there's 10 years of me going into every record company not getting in
00:20:58
the door there's 10 years of every agent saying the exact same thing every manager I thought they had a [ __ ]
00:21:04
note that they would send each other the not that said you're really talented you're a great young
00:21:10
kid we just don't know what to do with you over too much dude to a point where
00:21:16
I was like you know what okay I'm 26 it's too late and in this business you
00:21:22
can people can say oh 26 now dude it's late if you have him been signed you
00:21:28
haven't made a bunch of noise at 2627 I don't think it's right I think
00:21:34
there should be late bloomers but it's it isn't the usual you know like the record companies will be
00:21:40
like and uh so I was going to go back to Canada I was going to go back to Vancouver and I was thinking about going to SFU or Douglas and taking up
00:21:47
journalism so even then once I I was in Toronto I got I got you know connected
00:21:54
to uh the prime minister of our country who their daughter was getting getting married and she asked if I would sing at
00:21:59
the wedding and cuz I'd given an independent CD to another guy at some corporate gig I had done um and
00:22:08
um they said I I I was like yeah okay you know I what an honor you know and
00:22:14
she was like you know David Foster will be there and this one this producer who and he's a one of the biggest producers
00:22:21
in the world billions of I mean half a billion or a billion records I think okay this is my chance this is the shot
00:22:27
for somebody to see me but even then after he saw me this story didn't it wasn't
00:22:33
like he didn't David Foster didn't say you I found my guy he said come to LA
00:22:41
and uh you're on my he actually said you're on my radar now is what he said I didn't know that he had another 18 kids
00:22:48
that were on his radar you know I was you know man I got I was good I was going to I was in the atmosphere now you
00:22:55
know I was closer than I'd ever been to a real guy 10 years in 10 years in that could
00:23:00
make it like and I remember I think I have to say Michael I think it's really very important not to brush past this 10
00:23:06
years because that is the No Man's Land that only passion could make someone
00:23:13
weighed through and that is where 99% of people quit and it's the bit that no one ever gets to see so it's maybe the more
00:23:21
more important part of of of the journey which is why does someone continue doing
00:23:27
something for 10 years of their life when there's there's no Madison Square Gardens there's no million doll checks
00:23:33
and there's no Fame and Fortune like that that's the because it's it's a recurring theme on my show
00:23:40
yeah that these very very successful people they they did something which is objectively dumb which is like they gave
00:23:46
up their amazing chance of being an academic and they went and played Magic on a restaurant card tables comedians
00:23:53
you you could have been a lawyer and now that're you know it's funny I I was going to tell you today I I've watched your I watch your show religiously and I
00:24:00
was like what if you just call yourself failure and why it's so great because it's like so many of the stories that
00:24:07
are told across this table are I failed I failed they said no um over and over
00:24:14
again and over again and I just continued to to go forward these people
00:24:19
seem like they had no choice though and when I say no choice I mean because of passion might listen to me man I'm going
00:24:25
to say it's going to sound like directly um it's sort of I don't want it to be
00:24:32
condescending at all but um half of that 10
00:24:40
years was gave me humility gave me appreciation for when it would happen I
00:24:49
would be appreciative and I would still have humility and I would you know still
00:24:56
be able to be a president wasn't una aware enough of how lucky I was you
00:25:01
know but the reason that I didn't stop in those 10 years was because I knew I
00:25:09
was the best in the world I mean no doubt that if the right
00:25:15
person sees me I am one of the greatest entertainers on Earth and all you need
00:25:21
to do is come into my room and you don't have to pay to see me you can be there just to drink booze and get laid but by
00:25:27
the end of the night you'll you'll know how do you know that's not delusion no no D you know
00:25:34
what it I knew because every room I ever walked into I was such a I was a sensitive um
00:25:41
insecure kid really sensitive and I think that that beautiful kindness and
00:25:47
empathy that my family drove into me and my sisters is what made me that man on
00:25:54
stage you you understand there's I even now man I play 50,000 people and if
00:25:59
there's one looking at their watch and I will play to that man and my mission my
00:26:05
mission I love the rest of 49,999 of you but you I'm not leaving
00:26:12
here until I break you I'm not leaving here until you know you get you might
00:26:18
not I might not be your cup of tea I might not be your favorite but you'll walk away and you'll say okay the kid's
00:26:24
better than you know he's he's I get it you one of you kids comes to you and says Dad I know and and they go Dad Dad
00:26:32
they go no they go Dad listen they sing and it's terrible and then they go Dad I know and this is what I'm getting at as
00:26:37
like how do we know we're not just deluding ourselves yeah because well you know it's interesting you say that
00:26:42
because if that was just me sitting in my bathroom mirror and going I'm amazing
00:26:47
yeah that's I understand that that's but it wasn't it was 10 years of a of I
00:26:54
don't care if it was a shopping mall or a street corner or a nightclub or a bar or a wedding or a
00:27:01
funeral every room was the same every single room was the same so why would why wasn't the industry letting you in
00:27:07
why would they I didn't do anything that was mainstream I mean I used to do it was like I had an indie record I would
00:27:13
do Indie festivals um it's so funny man I talk about it now it's like you know I'm so
00:27:18
like main whatever you want to call it like where I probably you know you know
00:27:24
but I was like an India act it was a full-on India it was like doing weird [ __ ] that no one else was doing and uh
00:27:31
um I think it was just so outside even listen David Foster that David Foster producer guy I'm talking about um it's
00:27:38
funny he doesn't remember this way but I I I I remind him many times that like
00:27:46
Dave I said when are you going to you know when are we going to do this you're going to produce my record and he said in quotations I will never produce your
00:27:53
record and we will never sign you never he had a very sweet assistant named Neil
00:27:58
who's a beauty the sweetest kid and um when I see him once I mean I would see
00:28:04
him and he would laugh and he would go dude I remember that I would like say to you just walk away cuz this isn't going
00:28:12
to happen for you you know he's not you're not you're not the one I remember
00:28:17
he said to me I he got pissed with me because I had again said to him hey man
00:28:22
come on like sign me and he was like I you need to get out you need to go he
00:28:28
said like listen dude I told you you're on my radar you and another 19 kids are
00:28:34
you know it's just not happening and it and it's funny because the reason it happened when it
00:28:41
came down to it was I was like what do I need to do surely this is not impossible and he went okay uh it's this much a
00:28:49
track and six tracks minimum and uh money money and I was like okay and so
00:28:58
this manager and I literally went back to Vancouver and she was an amazing woman and she went door to door bank to
00:29:04
bank and we found this incredible dude who underwrote and and we brought the money we brought the check and I went to
00:29:10
David's in Malibu and said he said uh we got it here's the money um David's a
00:29:18
massive producer I think it was 100,000 a song and uh I think poor David I
00:29:24
remember sitting up he had a this room in Malibu he had like all the Grammys all over his piano and and I remember we
00:29:31
were like we got it and he was like you got it like it was like well okay you
00:29:37
know okay he said but Warner will get the first ride of refusal and even that wasn't the end of the story we started making a demo and that we ended up going
00:29:46
he got Paul Anka do you know Paul Anka no okay well Paul is I'll remind you of who Paul an is if you don't know Paul at
00:29:52
16 or maybe 15 had written um a song uh
00:29:57
called put your head on my shoulder put your head on my shoulder or Diana I'm so
00:30:04
young and you're so old he wrote another song called my way and now the end is
00:30:10
near huge massive star he is Justin Bieber okay of course I he's still a huge star he's still but he got involved
00:30:17
and then he was like you don't need that money my guys will get the money and for whatever reason when we started making
00:30:23
the record that deal somehow fell through and David was like it's over the money deal fell through yeah the money
00:30:28
deal fell through and he was like it didn't work out and somebody else will do this and I was like dude you know and
00:30:35
there was another producer ambera who was another massive producer beautiful
00:30:40
guy and he said he took me into the car I was destroyed because I was this I I was there I was making the record it was
00:30:47
I was four songs into making a record and uh and then it was done and David
00:30:53
was like I'm really sorry Mike you know it's just it's just not going to happen why didn't you quit like Neil told you
00:30:58
to well it a big a big deal was uh Umberto and he said U he was he's a
00:31:04
Chilean guy and he said hey Bo man you need a he said you need to I drive you to your apartment and I was I was dead
00:31:12
like I was I I had it I was there dude it was there in my
00:31:18
hand it was there and then it was gone and he drove me home and I remember he
00:31:23
parked I lived in Westwood I had rented this little place in Westwood and Umberto parked the car outside and
00:31:30
he looked at me and he said okay mikito he
00:31:36
said DAV Foster is a strong guy but he doesn't like confrontation at all he said here's what you're going to say to
00:31:43
him and he literally told me what to say
00:31:48
and about three days later uh David had brought me in hired me to do something I think it was for Kenny G and his wife at
00:31:54
the time had an anniversary party and I said David can I speak to you and he said like okay and uh I took David to
00:32:03
this other little room beside the banquet hall and literally regurgitated word for word you know what Umberto had
00:32:10
told me to tell this guy you know David was my hero right David is a scary guy when you're you know you're look wow
00:32:16
this is and uh basically the gist of the conversation was
00:32:22
um we have done something incredible we have four or five songs here that are
00:32:27
you know they're amazing please give me one opportunity to go to Warner Brother records and to
00:32:34
speak to the president and play my case and if he doesn't want me I will never
00:32:41
ever bother you again you'll never hear from me again you want me to show up and do stuff for you I'll do it but I'll
00:32:47
never ask that question again and uh he was like okay and he I don't think he
00:32:52
did love confrontation and uh I remember he called me about a day two days later
00:32:58
and he said let's see what a 26y old kid knows about the record business and uh I went into Warner
00:33:04
Records in Burbank maybe probably the scariest day of my life of my life and
00:33:12
uh wood building you know look up on the wall and and it's Prince and Tom Petty
00:33:18
and Madonna and Red Hot Chili Peppers and like you know holy [ __ ] you know
00:33:27
and uh I sat in the meeting with Wall-E Tom Wally is the president and he's like real good-look dude like like imagine
00:33:34
like Eric staltz or something but you know as that you know the executive and you know uh I he sat down in the office
00:33:42
and I think he said uh well why should we sign you we have sonaton and repri I think that's one of the first things he
00:33:47
said sonaton repri what does that mean so repri was a subsidiary of of Warner that that Frank had started and and they
00:33:55
had Frank and on the label well you know they had Sinatra on R you know and uh he
00:34:01
said why should we sign you we have Frank must be like getting to the Pearly Gates and having one
00:34:08
opportunity to get in and I said with all due respect Mr Wally Frank's dead you know don't bury
00:34:16
the music I said I will keep it alive I love it I cherish it I will break my ass
00:34:22
for you I will go out there and I will will this to be great and uh he sat he
00:34:29
listened to the four demos and then 2 days later I I had flown my grandfather down to La cuz I I mean I had and it's
00:34:36
funny when I walked out with David that day I say thank you David for putting your balls on the line for me like that
00:34:42
I said so what do you think and he looked at me and he said I think you did a great job uh but
00:34:49
Mike I I have no idea what that man is like he had no idea and he honestly I
00:34:55
don't think he had any concept when we walked out of those doors what Mr Wall-E was going to say
00:35:02
you know and then two days later I flew my grandfather down I said grandpa I can't do this I need you man so we flew
00:35:08
down to LA and uh in that little Westwood apartment and I was down in a on the treadmill and uh the door sort of
00:35:17
flung open and he and the manager at the time Bev they opened the door and they were just crying you know they said you
00:35:23
know come yeah come upstairs come upstairs come upstairs you know and so we took
00:35:30
the elevator up and I grabbed the telephone and uh said hello and David said hey Mike man and I said hi David
00:35:37
and he said uh hey Mike man I want to welcome you to Warner Brothers records and I want you to know we have your back
00:35:43
and you're never going to have to worry again and it was like man it was I don't know and again dude it sounds like
00:35:51
that's the end of the story but that wasn't the end because the record came out
00:35:57
and it was awesome but I believe I debuted at 198 on Billboard and uh I had a manager named
00:36:05
Bruce Allen uh he was known as the one of the greatest managers in the business and still is and he said to me kid
00:36:12
you're an American signed act but um it's not it's it's not you're not
00:36:18
killing it there's not there's not a ton of Interest he said um would you
00:36:23
consider going to Southeast Asia in Africa and I was like yeah I'll go anywhere you want and I did dude I just
00:36:30
started going to all the and man that's where it happened I made it and my first big hit was in the Philippines South
00:36:37
Africa I started to do pretty good I'd sold a couple million records and my manager Bruce would call and he would
00:36:43
say uh Hey kid you want to go to Germany i' say like what's in ger well they just they
00:36:49
got about eight journalists there and uh you'd be singing in the Hiatt Lobby
00:36:55
doing a showcase and uh you know and I guess there might have been a thought
00:37:00
even that point maybe that's beneath and I was like no [ __ ] man go yeah and I did it dude I just went literally man I did
00:37:07
that in all over Asia Switzerland ger po like dude you named the country and I shot up
00:37:15
and did a showcase and what age were you and you thought [ __ ] this is you know
00:37:20
this is big now oh probably probably 30
00:37:27
20 29 so like it's happened late for me man like it this whole this whole thing happened late I was really for for what
00:37:34
isn't the norm yeah man I I didn't know what I my first taste of Fame at
00:37:42
maybe 28 that is so and it was in the
00:37:47
Philippines and I went to get sushi at a mall in Manila and there there was a security guy he was like don't go
00:37:54
without me and I was like yeah sure and I went went and bought sushi and then all of a sudden I was like surrounded by
00:38:01
all these beautiful Filipinos speaking to go and asking for pictures and I was like and uh I remember he was really
00:38:08
pissed with me he was really upset that I hadn't taken him to security I was like why I don't need security and then
00:38:15
he took me we went up to my room and I was like dude I'm sorry like that was crazy like I've NE this is crazy I feel
00:38:22
like like a [ __ ] backstreet boy or something you know like they were they and then he I remember that he opened
00:38:28
the curtain and this curtain opened and it was a building facing us and the dude
00:38:36
the full building was just my face you J yeah and I was like oh [ __ ] I understand
00:38:43
now this is but dude it was so new you know when you've had to fight to get
00:38:48
there for say 14 15 16 years whatever it is is there a part of you that is sort
00:38:53
of innately scared of losing it in a way that someone who just got got it like that might not appreciate yeah there was
00:39:00
there for sure there was man and does that result in work Holm there is for all those there is for you I'm sure you sit and go like I'm kicking ass right
00:39:06
now but you know what well but you know why because naturally everything that goes up must
00:39:13
come down no there's no there is no career I don't give it I don't care if you're a school teacher or you're a
00:39:18
doctor I mean nothing just continues to go I mean um you have to understand that
00:39:24
there are Peaks and valleys and that there are times when um you might not be
00:39:29
the hottest but those are the times when you continue to uh stay true to the brand you know you don't panic it's hard
00:39:36
not to panic like I was talking about Paul Anka but you know Paul is very sweet like
00:39:42
he'll call me just out of the blue and he'll go like hey dude you're the man
00:39:47
don't don't trip you know whatever you're feeling if you're feeling it's up or down just keep doing your thing man
00:39:53
be true to yourself don't panic and it's beautiful beautiful it's a beautiful you know and listen for me having four kids
00:40:02
and an incred like a wife that is my favorite human being in the whole planet that made it makes the process of that
00:40:10
worry easier because you know it's funny dude I I was terrified yesterday at that
00:40:16
event terrified man I wanted it to be great and scary to be in front of your peers that's something you know is so
00:40:24
important and uh this morning I woke up and I was brushing my teeth and I was on FaceTime with my wife and the kids you
00:40:29
know and uh and she said okay how are you how do you feel and it was like I said listen Lou I
00:40:36
said Faith number one my family number two and my career a really you know a
00:40:43
distant third and so for me I'm I'm blessed to to really feel that because
00:40:50
of course I get scared man I don't want to lose it and there's a million ways to lose it and but I also haven't put all of my
00:40:58
eggs into that one basket has it always been as clear the priorities no man no
00:41:05
of course not absolutely not and by the way there can be times where my fault
00:41:10
self allows that to change my fault self yeah my fault self my I would say the
00:41:18
ego um I I you know I I you know I should read more acolan power of now and
00:41:25
they tell stories about the hockey team that I'm a part owner of the Vancouver Giants he talks about a the ages how how
00:41:31
substantial that that is but uh he is a big part of my life too you know and by
00:41:36
the way practicing to get to this place where it's really easy to let your fears
00:41:41
and and your uh your faal self give you these negative messages and and um it it
00:41:50
was helpful for me to to understand that I could control that you know not not allowing those negative things to get a
00:41:57
hold of me one of my sort of deep I think existential fears is that I'm not going to have my priorities in the right
00:42:04
order and I'm going to find out too late I've said this a few times on this show yeah I'm scared that as a guy who's like
00:42:11
spent I don't know 12 years building businesses and pursuing success and whatever form that life is going to tell
00:42:17
me Steve at the moment when you needed to have your priorities in order they weren't when maybe want to have a family or a wife or something you know what was
00:42:24
it that changed illuminated the true nature of what your priorities should
00:42:29
be I I listen I like I said to you before this whole thing starts with family and I I I have never been so out
00:42:39
of touch because I have too good of a family my mom and dad are just they just
00:42:45
they're just too beautiful people and my grandparents and um listen I may not do
00:42:50
it but I know what the difference is between right and wrong and and um and
00:42:56
putting ego first um I don't want to get too deep into it because it's it's not it's not that it is uncomfortable for me
00:43:03
but my son has his own life and his own story um my son's cancer
00:43:09
diagnosis rocked my world it pulled a curtain from over my eyes and um I don't
00:43:16
want to get deeper into it but I can tell you that
00:43:22
um I don't think that I had what you're talking I don't think I had
00:43:27
context and that was a sledgehammer to my reality and
00:43:35
um I will I will never be carefree again in my life and that's okay um it is a
00:43:44
privilege for me to to exist and uh and that that pain
00:43:52
the fear the suffering that comes with those sort of things is I guess it's part part of that beautiful this life
00:43:59
you know it's uh but it I if I wasn't clear and I wasn't clear and it's
00:44:05
interesting because when it actually happened I was going through I think a
00:44:11
crisis like really like the crisis that you're talking about you know um I don't
00:44:17
think I had my priorities straight I mean I I I I always my family was always
00:44:22
a love of you know I think I don't think I was a terrible guy but um dude it was
00:44:30
blinders career you know ambition how do I become
00:44:36
the baddest biggest best uh you know more ego more power more money more
00:44:44
and um on Halloween however many years ago that was dude it's like life was
00:44:51
lived with like a curtain in front of me like a filter mhm and the moment that
00:44:57
they said this is what's happening um I that reality hit me
00:45:08
um filter gone filter gone and I mean in a moment in
00:45:15
one moment gone and I went okay this is it this is life this
00:45:23
is this is it this is what's important um and that's when that's when it's not
00:45:30
like I thought about it it didn't there was no time to process it it was um you have your
00:45:36
priorities this this is what your priorities are and they this is what your priorities must be in order to be
00:45:42
happy in your life and um it is I just
00:45:47
can't imagine I just it's fa it's faith family and and a member of my family got
00:45:52
diagnosed with um a very similar illness and I remember
00:45:58
where I was and Where I Stood when I got that called and again I'd been running you know just in my own little world hadn't called them in a while yeah yeah
00:46:05
yeah wasn't really in touch with them and then in that exact moment it made me
00:46:10
realize the true reason why I do what I do like I I you know yeah and that my
00:46:17
life should never have been so focused on self and such a way if that makes sense yeah of course absolutely absolutely dude I remember being at chla
00:46:26
I remember peeing in a stall I know it sounds weird and it's not sexy
00:46:31
but I remember just sitting in the stall standing there you know the children's hpit yes sir and uh and I remember
00:46:40
closing my eyes and saying to myself if I get if we get out of
00:46:47
this um if we get out of this I'm living a
00:46:53
different life a better life and I did I made that
00:46:58
promise to myself in like a moment you know I want to be kinder I want to be
00:47:04
more empathetic I don't ever want to allow that ego and that false self to take over I want to know how lucky I am and
00:47:11
dude I'm a lucky man like I you know I just look at I look at my wife like you know it's like how the how did that
00:47:18
happen how did I get you know this incredible human being who is the best
00:47:24
of all of us you know to to sort of lead me through and and Carry
00:47:29
Me Through these things you know yeah yeah it's a it's a it's it's
00:47:37
um I was just thinking about um goes back to what I was saying about how I
00:47:42
don't want life life to show show me my priorities um
00:47:49
especially as it relates to my romantic relationships where you know you can end up in divorce court or you lose something and you think [ __ ] what's what
00:47:55
are all these go coins worth yeah no know no but I had dude it's funny you know we've all have those moments too
00:48:01
like listen much younger I had that moment where I was like oh dude do you like you do do you trust you do you
00:48:09
respect you and then I was like if you don't yeah and you're expecting that
00:48:14
person to or any person to maybe you're asking too much I hope we're allowed to look at ourselves in the mirror and man
00:48:20
it's so easy to lie to other people but it's even easier to lie to yourself you
00:48:26
harmful dude it's so easy and it's like um I hope everybody has the chance to
00:48:33
figure your way to do it I don't know what it is or how you get there if you need like medicine or mushrooms or
00:48:39
whatever it is but like to look in the mirror and to go hey these are the things that I think I suck at um and uh
00:48:48
you know and I hope I really do I hope within us there's a opportunity for all of us to to have that self diagnosis and
00:48:55
honesty and they go yeah I can do better than that MH you know I on this podcast
00:49:01
so many times I've spoken to parents about about grief but I've never really
00:49:07
shine Shone a light on just the trauma of going through moments like that and
00:49:13
really the like blast radius of of not going affect that person's life that it can have implications to their mental
00:49:20
health your son Noah is it Noah you got four wonderful kids I here um is great
00:49:25
10 10 years old 10 years old 10 years old yeah but for all the all the priorities and the the curtain that it
00:49:32
pulled back is there still a healing process there that that needs to have it happen
00:49:39
that you typically see similar to grief if you know what I'm saying oh no no no because you already I think any parent I
00:49:44
mean I've now I've become I've had such great relationship with so many parents and people have not just gone through
00:49:49
this I mean listen man going through any kind of thing with like you know you're you're not going to get away without it
00:49:55
man I don't know if you have already but I haven't had kids yet no I'm not talking about kids I'm talking about your siblings or your mom and dad or we
00:50:01
all going to go I mean it's just a part of life it takes a piece of us you know like my grandpa man I miss my grandpa
00:50:07
every day but that's just that's life that's a part of life and um I don't
00:50:13
know that any of us even have the capacity to deal with it I think it's why obviously we we move to Faith you
00:50:19
know something feels good about hoping that there's something more but men and
00:50:24
the mental health we don't talk about these things no dude you must be soft don't be soft and no crying I'm guilty
00:50:30
of this more than anyone especially as like a CEO and I've been a CEO since I was 18 and I had hundreds of employees so I would I can't I felt like I
00:50:36
couldn't Flinch yeah you know but how do you can I ask you how do you because you are a brand now man okay I know you're a
00:50:43
beautiful nice guy human being but dude there's a brand it's a brand and I know
00:50:48
you have people on your team and I know you have a team that like they come to you and say we'd love you to do this and
00:50:54
your team goes you can't do that that do offbrand yeah yeah how do you how do
00:51:00
you are you able to cuz you're in the wave man that tital wave is moving but
00:51:06
you're inside it all you got all your people on top and they can all kind of see how do you deal with it like what do
00:51:12
you do can you do you feel it do you think you're self-aware enough to know
00:51:17
what the brand is or how to protect it or how to move it forward I think it comes back to this point about
00:51:22
authenticity you know you know when something you and when it's in line with you and you know when you're kind of abandoning yourself there's some signal
00:51:29
inside of me goes you know you know this isn't right you know especially if someone offers you a lot of money to do
00:51:34
something oh God I know that's not so forun go ahead I was gonna say this
00:51:40
shows a good example which is a good question is what are the sponsors the sponsors are companies that I uh are in
00:51:46
line with my value so yes you know my woop my my Zoe my you know the products that I and I also I'm a shareholder in
00:51:52
those companies they're sponsor the podcast and I'm in the team yeah that's a good example of it whereas yes some Brands aren't aren't aligned yeah I
00:51:59
think what I meant even more than just Brands is like you know I'm you don't understand I'm I'm I'm two different
00:52:04
people right who's who's the other guy well the other guy is this is me I'm Michael bouay yeah um I'm an idiot who
00:52:11
is I think sweet and um so any guy I met little bit well I me the other guy from
00:52:16
stage yeah but that's that's a completely different dude that guy that's Michael bé this is I'm Mike uh
00:52:24
fantasy football hockey loving idiot who you know um you know is a bigger idiot than you
00:52:34
than I'm you're seeing here even I'm be I'm a little bit more of the suit guy oh [ __ ] yeah man like biger um I would say
00:52:42
closer to Michael Scott from the office uh but dude every night I go and I put
00:52:47
on this like this suit and then when I walk out on stage I become the guy that
00:52:54
I always wanted to be he is so cool and Teflon and he says all the right things
00:53:01
and nothing can nothing can and I'm I can be goofy but you know um but there's
00:53:08
this there's an other I mean can I meet him oh dude you're going to meet him
00:53:13
you're going to meet him I'm going to make sure that that the whole world meets him for 20 years I have done the same thing sick it's been cyclical
00:53:20
Michael writes and U makes a great record and then I go and I promote it I
00:53:26
go to 40 countries and promote it and then I go and tour for for a year and a half and for 20 years it has
00:53:33
been write it promo It Tour it and
00:53:39
um and I feel like I'm at this point of my life in my career where I I want to
00:53:46
do something different listen again music will never it will always be my my
00:53:53
happy place and and my love but um I need time to do some other stuff man I
00:53:58
need time to challenge myself and to to wake up and go yeah this is different and fun and um and and it's really it's
00:54:06
about being that other guy not the suit guy being Mike Being Mike man and and
00:54:14
doing that whether that's in in movies or television or whatever it is it has
00:54:20
to happen now why cuz dude it's my favorite part of me and I never I've never really there was just it was just
00:54:27
too good all the other stuff was so um cuz I love the other stuff I love
00:54:34
touring I love like I love making money doing that that's amazing dude what's
00:54:39
the symptom telling you that you should do more of Mike and less of Michael uh well just that I honestly truly the
00:54:46
excitement of doing something different you know like yeah it's time to um it's
00:54:53
time to take that challenge it's time to to take that trip you know like uh and I know it's there the same way I kind of
00:54:59
told you like that I had so much faith in in um in knowing like hey man I think
00:55:06
I'm I got a pretty good voice and I can be good I'm a good Entertainer like I can if I do this I have the potential to
00:55:12
really have fun doing that at a level I think I can I can do for the challenge
00:55:18
as well for the pursue of of yeah it's fun to wake up and go like you know what instead of that same cycle I'm going to
00:55:24
do the record make the record sell the record the music again will always be there but I need to express myself in a
00:55:30
different way for me man and and it really isn't for for them it isn't for
00:55:37
the audience it's for me it's like but is there a moment where you you something happens because I'm trying to
00:55:42
put this into like my world or whoever's listening world is there a moment where you wake up there you go I'm just a
00:55:47
little bit less excited and it's just Fallen below the level of excitement that I need to do this again no no no
00:55:54
because man honestly genuinely um I love being out with I love making dude I just
00:56:00
the music is just it fills me up with happiness you know so the second I mean I just did uh i l like a corporate gig
00:56:08
the other night with my voice and this that band has been with me for 20 years they're my brothers man
00:56:13
so I get up there and it's like I'm home you know and it's like it's it's fun it's it's fulfilling it's everything but
00:56:21
dude it's I'm as fulfilled in in acting you know when this tour started to wrap
00:56:27
down and I was like you know what I I want to have fun doing something a little different everyone can relate to
00:56:33
that in their own context because when you have a comfort zone per se something you're really good at yeah and then you
00:56:39
have the rewards also will align with the thing that you've developed Mastery in it's very easy to spend a decade
00:56:44
doing or two decades doing that thing and wake up one day and go [ __ ] I'm a lawyer why am I lawyer again because it
00:56:49
paid really well and I good at it yeah but that doesn't necessarily mean it will make you happy right totally and I think The Branding stuff definitely had
00:56:57
an impact where all of a sudden it wasn't we we want you to come and sing something it was like you know we want
00:57:05
you yeah we want bé we want bé to do a a bubbly commercial or we want bé to show
00:57:11
up and do an Asda commercial or we want you know we want you to be the face of our thing we want you and I was like
00:57:17
okay well what do I sing and they were like no no we don't want you to sing we just we want you to be your idiot I mean
00:57:25
that Asda ad that I just did I don't know if you've seen it that was like getting to sit with Tao atiti who's one
00:57:31
of my favorite directors and writers of all time and to have him direct this thing I mean I I was I had so much fun
00:57:38
and it wasn't singing it was just it was literally you know we had this talk about the concept and and we were like
00:57:45
what if I'm this uh I was like What if I he he said to me like dude dude what if
00:57:50
you're um the head of uh you know quality control and I was like yes and I
00:57:57
think I know what exact but I'm an [ __ ] who has no idea what I'm doing but you know egotistically you I am you
00:58:04
know I'm and he and he understood exactly what I was going for and we we laughed we had it was that was three
00:58:11
days of us just you know just laughing laughing at ourselves laughing and it
00:58:17
that just I was so happy and it's like another reason why I'm like man this is my personality this is me where'd you go
00:58:23
for support Michael when you're when you're struggling or when you're trying to figure out these sort of impasses in
00:58:30
life is there do have you ever been to therapy do you speak to you ever yeah I've been in therapy but I
00:58:36
don't know I don't know what to say man I don't know if it I I don't know if it if
00:58:43
it worked for me MH you know like I felt good to talk about stuff MH but then
00:58:49
after about like four times I was like am I just am I bullshitting right now am
00:58:54
I just telling her something just to fill up the hour because I sort of went through my my big stuff and it didn't
00:59:02
and the therapy doesn't feel like it worked very well hey man for me listen my relationship again with with God and and
00:59:10
that that is a far that brings me far more satisfaction and uh and so that for
00:59:17
me and by the way and like my wife like being able to say to my wife like and I'm so honest with her like I'm like hey
00:59:22
dude I'm not doing good with this thing andh and and um she's like well stop
00:59:28
being an idiot you know like that's very my partner is I I think that's part of the role of being a a wonderful partner
00:59:35
is that they they call you out on oh God I love you that you're opening it are we allowed to drink this we are allowed to
00:59:41
drink it if you want to drink it so my morning my morning just got way better I just found this on the floor no I didn't really um Fraser and Thompson yes sir
00:59:50
this is a whiskey brand that I'm holding in my hands that you have built in a building with an incredible team of
00:59:55
whiskey experts I know nothing they've told me that you're in you're driving this business and Incredibly involved
01:00:01
which is yeah I mean like I'm involved in in this this I'm you know but like
01:00:08
what do I know about whiskey no I mean you know about Fraser and Thompson I mean I know I I know that listen to me I
01:00:14
know that if you don't know what you're doing you you hire and bring in the
01:00:21
greatest people in the universe who literally hold your hand and uh tell you
01:00:27
what to do and you know that when you find a guy like Paul cira who is one of the greatest whiskey you know
01:00:33
connoisseurs in the world and he and then you ask him how big his Brewery is
01:00:39
and he tells you idiot is called a Distillery not a brewery you realize
01:00:44
that you don't know what you're talking about but this yeah is you work with
01:00:51
Paul phenomenal years dude we years three years I tell you what I worked three years
01:00:56
because I wasn't going to be part of something that I didn't love and uh the truth
01:01:03
man we tried to reverse engineer a whiskey for people that may not love
01:01:09
whiskey and um you know I know that there's high
01:01:14
fute and fancy Dancy whiskies that we can talk about the oakiness of the barrel and uh they've been aged 47 years
01:01:22
and uh and this isn't that this is an approachable drink that truthfully I
01:01:30
love and as you're opening it my mouth is going like and uh my wife loves it and my
01:01:38
friends all love it and all the whiskey snobs I know like it and I'm so proud of it and Paul cira you don't know who that
01:01:44
is but he's a star no I read about him dude three years and we went we I I was
01:01:49
a pain in the ass and I drove them all crazy I've researched I was researching photos of you and Paul and seeing you
01:01:55
down at The Distillery and Brewery I know um Fraser and Thompson where do where does the name come from that's
01:02:01
from my grandpa because when I was a kid my grandpa used to take us up to uh
01:02:06
camping and we would go to in British Columbia we have the Fraser River it's like the muddy Fraser and it and uh we
01:02:13
have the mighty Thompson which is glacier water and they come together in this beautiful Confluence and um the
01:02:19
truth is that it was in tribute to my grandfather but better than that is they said to me you know we have the juice
01:02:26
now we need a name and like there was all these stupid idea like Boo and and
01:02:32
then and Serenade in blue and all these musical things and I was like and every
01:02:37
time I come up with a good one like some I thought was like real cool and sophisticated they'd be like that one's
01:02:43
taken and uh finally I was like you know what why don't I just pay tribute to my
01:02:49
grandpa who is my guy and it's funny man if you look on the bottle there's all these little hidden Easter eggs like his birthday's on 1927 yes sir born at the
01:02:56
fork of Two Rivers Fraser and Thompson and doesn't it just sound so good it sounds The Branding youve nailed it
01:03:03
because there's no you have because there's a story there and it's a very authentic story but the smell yeah you
01:03:10
know what I really like I I actually pour out a little bit of the bottle and then I take like this uh I take like
01:03:16
brown sugar I mix it up and I put like brown sugar in there with vanilla and a little bit of Bitters and then I smash
01:03:23
an orange and I just put it in the freezer and it's weird cuz my wife was never a whiskey drinker but again that's
01:03:28
what it was for it was for it was to make an approachable delicious whiskey for everybody and you know what I really
01:03:34
like about it we were talking about money so I was like really happy that we could come up with what it was I think
01:03:41
it like 35 40 bucks and I was like that is I was like that is great value cuz my
01:03:46
dad as a fisherman he talks about value all the time cuz even in my ticket sales he's like if you know son if you just
01:03:53
bring them if you give them value for their money they'll come back you know if they feel that they've been ripped
01:03:58
off you'll never see them again so that was part of the whole thing are you scared no I can I drink it a little bit
01:04:05
cuz you keep touching it I just can we have a little here we go at this guy look at this guy am I scared of getting
01:04:12
wasted with you at the No No it's like a a reinvention isn't it it's a new mountain to climb building a a whiskey
01:04:18
company so dud it is it is uh what's nice to talking about brand it's so me dude it's just like
01:04:25
it's an easy thing it's me and again you know how we were talking about the challenge of it we were talking about the challenge
01:04:33
this isn't just me this is a this is my wife we're Partners this is my best
01:04:39
friend Ron my dad um my manager Bruce uh
01:04:44
we all like this is our thing it was like part of that thing of going um what can we do that's fun and like and new it
01:04:52
would be really nice to make a Gil million dollars too you know I have a feeling it's I have a feeling it's going to do extremely well because it has all
01:04:59
the core components of just a beautiful brand and product it's I mean it's
01:05:04
gorgeous in every respect I'm sorry man I I don't even know what to say this you know what I hate selling [ __ ] can I be
01:05:11
honest with you I really do I feel itchy it but it's I just hope people
01:05:18
will go and however they need to do it get a free what you want them to I them
01:05:24
to just try it I feel like if people just try it they'll go like bé bé you don't suck I actually one of the first
01:05:31
things I did was called Ryan Reynolds oh yeah because this company is the same these my partners are the same as as
01:05:37
Ryan with his Aviation Jin right and so I called Ryan and I was like Ryan do
01:05:44
like what do I do and he was like Mike [ __ ] just have fun dude like have fun I was like Ryan but I don't know what I'm
01:05:50
doing he was like I didn't he goes you don't have to know let the let the let the other people that are helping make
01:05:56
it and that let them know what they're doing he said just have dude just be yourself and have fun it's really it's really incredible so you know one of the
01:06:02
things I always think about people that become really successful I always wonder if it's a curse in a way because you've
01:06:08
been such a successful artist you've been I mean your Christmas record was released in 2011 I'm so sorry about that
01:06:16
and I'm so I'm told it is one of the bestselling albums of the 21st centur
01:06:21
crazy you know what's cute yesterday when I was on the bus I was driving to the White House because of the Canada
01:06:28
Anan honors my first time you know I think I was the only Canadian and uh Sigourney Weaver was behind me and I was
01:06:35
sitting with Sheila East in and uh there was all these fancy people on the bus and I got on the bus and um and we got
01:06:42
to the White House and the first thing that I heard was me going have Holly Jolly Christmas it's the best time and I
01:06:50
was like oh [ __ ] I am so sorry has that ever bothered you that you're so you
01:06:56
were so successful with that Christmas album that you hear yourself every Christmas at first you know what's funny
01:07:03
like about seven years into it I was like I was because you know all I would
01:07:09
get was calls it like especially D come October it was like if you were a famous person with a movie or a or a record I
01:07:17
was you were calling me like I'm not even exaggerating like it was you know and I would get so excited it was like
01:07:24
my God you know this oh my God my heroes call are they going to ask me to be in their film are they going to a duet and
01:07:30
it would be like so we're doing a Christmas and I'd be like oh [ __ ]
01:07:36
um it's actually funny Jack Jack White Hall You Know Jack yeah yeah yeah he called me the other day he's like Mike I
01:07:42
have this idea and I was like you're gonna say Christmas aren't you and he was like yes and I was like Jack I love
01:07:47
dude um it's interesting we were talking about my son and that moment but that
01:07:53
again what was an epiphany moment for me where I was sitting in the hospital room and I was like oh my God I am now
01:08:01
synonymous with this beautiful time of year where people don't treat each other
01:08:08
like [ __ ] and um and there's kindness and goodness and that's this is
01:08:14
I get to be a part of this and then people invite me into their homes at a time that is is everything to them and
01:08:21
their connection with the people they love and their memories and and then I started getting deeper and I was like oh my God oh my God they're not
01:08:27
going to the people aren't going to remember [ __ ] when I die they're not going to remember home or the duet or this is my favorite song Excuse me but
01:08:34
you know what I mean but like it goes you know what I mean but I'm like dude 200 years from now when I am dead than
01:08:40
dead you know people are going to be saying Have a Holly Jolly Christmas I'm
01:08:46
going to be there it's so cool it's so [ __ ] it's so cool yeah I associate you with great memories good times and I
01:08:53
have have to say home is my favorite song oh dude I love you thank you i' I mean we we I was in karaoke before you
01:09:00
came an hour ago and I was said put the are you joking really no it's on video I was I went go on YouTube I went put on
01:09:06
Michael bé home and I went lyric video we're GNA do karaoke and there was four of us I was the only one singing and I can't sing yeah but I sang I know every
01:09:13
word I know every word of that song thank you what's your favorite song of the Christmas stuff no no no oh of
01:09:20
anything yeah no of the of songs that you sing and that you yes songs that you sing songs that I sing of the standards
01:09:27
either your own or somewhere else oh my God there's so many just one it's
01:09:33
impossible could you impossible man it's impossible for me home yeah oh yeah
01:09:40
another summer day has come and gone away in Paris or Rome but I want to go
01:09:48
home cuz this place sucks I should I should have that that should have been the lyric
01:09:54
I was yeah I that's it's so weird you know like not to get too deep into to like weird but uh I have this friend
01:10:01
Dion and I do his I love doing his accent he's South African and uh before I wrote that song um I remember he used
01:10:08
to say my God bik he's from South Africa he'd say oh my God you know what the
01:10:14
greatest artists in the world just open up their mind to the universe and they let the universe in so when you're
01:10:20
writing just open up your mind to the universe and I was in the shower and I
01:10:26
was like and I was think I was like you know what I'm gonna open my mind to it's so weird but I was like H you know enter
01:10:33
and uh I think weirdly enough for whatever reason I had like Canon and D
01:10:39
in my
01:10:46
head done and I just want another summer day is come and gone
01:10:52
away but I want to go home and the whole literally almost the whole I mean that
01:10:59
and the pre Bo in in two minutes and I remember getting out of the shower with
01:11:04
a towel and and those days we didn't have the iPhone or anything right I had like a one of those little tap records
01:11:10
and I remember sitting in a tape recorder and listening back and going oh no no I've most definitely stole this from somewhere I stole this from
01:11:16
somewhere and uh it was it was cool and at that point too my record company they
01:11:22
were like we don't want original songs you're the Frank guy man you're going to sing going do the standards and I was
01:11:27
like no I think I can I I write it's weird even as I got on to writing other songs I the second record I wrote
01:11:34
everything and hold on or lost to one of the songs and and I remember the president of the label we were the video
01:11:39
shoot for everything and he said um man I wish I would have known that you wanted original music because we would
01:11:44
have hired we would have hired writer writers for you and I was like oh my God this is terrible uh but it's weird man
01:11:52
like you know like it's I'm I live in a weird place artistically too
01:11:58
right it's you know what I mean I don't belong and I never did I never did like
01:12:03
I go to those Grammys and stuff and I would like look around and I was like I was not in the pop thing and I was not
01:12:10
in a classical thing and I wasn't in a jazz thing and so many times I was like
01:12:16
early on I was like [ __ ] what what am I this is weird like I'm doing standards
01:12:22
and yet my you know know I'm on the radio it was weird still weird sometimes I think about this when you say this and
01:12:28
I go but isn't not belonging how you end up doing these kind of numbers because
01:12:33
if you were more of the same artistically vocally you wouldn't have have all these Grammys and all the you
01:12:39
know bestselling six multiplatinum albums five Grammy Awards more billions
01:12:46
of streams than I could possibly count stream myself a lot yeah but I go if you were if you were like everybody else you
01:12:52
wouldn't have those achievements I don't know I wonder it just feels lonely like sometimes I look
01:12:57
at like like I go to those award shows even last night at the candy Center owners I feel like everybody knew each
01:13:03
other like they kept like high-fiving and then there was like this group of Broadway people that all know each other
01:13:08
from the functions they do on Broadway and there was like cool pop people and like and then there was like me and I
01:13:15
was like I saw Herby Hancock I was so excited I love Herby Hancock and but I didn't want to go in it he was talking
01:13:22
to cheetah Rivera and I love her too and I didn't want to be that guy that went but um you know what I mean I don't know
01:13:28
where I I mean maybe I'll never know where I really belong but I'm trying to say that that's why you're so special I
01:13:34
don't know I even with what I do here I absolutely don't feel like I belong anywhere I'm not a journalist and I'm
01:13:41
not qualified to do this I go to they don't invite me to the awards shows for journalists and media I'm not invited to
01:13:46
them yeah how how does that work I no I don't know we I don't know where we sit I don't even know what we are are we a
01:13:51
podcast but it's on TV it's a this it's on planes it's on so you do have that sense of like someone's going to come up
01:13:57
to you and tap you go what are you doing it's interesting because I feel like I If you ask me if someone asked me about
01:14:04
you I would I would I would in a sentence be able to Define what I what I
01:14:12
feel is please give me the sentence oh man I I honestly think watching you and watching this show like I have for years
01:14:20
um is a perfect mix of education and
01:14:25
entertainment I don't know how else to say it it's like really it really is it's both things I'm I'm often highly
01:14:31
entertained by what's happening but at the end I feel like I I was educated I
01:14:38
learned something either something um that is uh you know either ideas or philosophies
01:14:47
or sometimes it's literally literally logistic science where you know what I mean I can't tell you how weird that is
01:14:53
to hear from you someone that I've I've looked up to since I was a kid at home in Plymouth all those years ago watching
01:14:59
my TV yeah as you guys know I'm an investor in a company called Zoe and also they sponsor this podcast and
01:15:05
they're one of my favorite businesses literally of all time we're in December now which is the season of gifting the
01:15:10
season of family gatherings and parties but what I'll be doing this December is making sure I double down on my health
01:15:17
because it's this time of year where I think it's easiest to get distracted and derailed and that is where Zoe comes in
01:15:23
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01:15:29
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01:15:35
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so if there was ever a time to become a Zoe member it is right now in December that rhymes H I should have been a
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01:15:54
ce50 keep this to yourself okay and this might be the last time that that code is available use it while you can four kids
01:16:01
Michael I know God they come to you now line up in front of you here and they go daddy listen um just need some advice on
01:16:09
this thing called life yeah you know you you've lived a great life and it's twisted and turned and all those
01:16:14
wonderful things Daddy what should we know about the nature of living a good life
01:16:20
and I say that I dude I they ask me they don't ask me in that way yeah I was gonna say Jesus Christ they ask me and I
01:16:27
dude I'm telling you right now I have the same I have the same answer every time I say Rich isn't what you think it
01:16:33
is kid that word Rich that your friends use Rich sounds like money and stuff and
01:16:39
things and Lamborghinis and tickets to go see Messi MH that's not rich um rich
01:16:46
is having a strong faith rich is having a great family and loving your family
01:16:52
rich is having great friends friendships because those Rich things they're talking about the money the people that
01:16:57
I know that have the most stuff are the most miserable people that I
01:17:03
know and I don't know how else to to explain it you know those are all it's
01:17:08
lovely listen it's easy to say right it's easy for somebody watching this podcast to go like well that's easy for
01:17:13
you to say bé you know you got a bunch of stuff but it doesn't take long to realize that life has nothing to do with
01:17:22
stuff we're all sitting on that deathbed we're all going to die every single one of us and nobody looks back and says
01:17:28
[ __ ] I wish I collected more stuff what would you regret if that was this If today was that day nothing my
01:17:34
friend not a thing not one thing not one thing I have lived a beautiful life and
01:17:42
uh I have been so blessed and I don't even think it was like I made this thank guy you know I got great family I got
01:17:49
beautiful you know my wife is the best thing ever loves me and I got got kids I look at my four kids I mean I was scared
01:17:55
to have the fourth one I was like oh my God I'm how are and then now I look at this little girl cellow and I think like
01:18:01
wow how could I ever how did I live without her like this like this gorgeous
01:18:06
little fat little beautiful personality like what I you know not a thing I I and
01:18:12
I say it's funny I said it to my wife many times you know God forbid you know
01:18:18
it's my time I've said it many times um
01:18:24
I would just know that I would I am completely satisfied satisfied I have
01:18:30
lived a full and beautiful life and that I have no
01:18:36
regrets except that I didn't drink more of this whiskey faster your story is so incredible the the thing that I mean the
01:18:44
perseverance at the heart of your story and where you come from and the fantasizing um about the life that you
01:18:49
now lead all of those things are so unbelievably inspiring because there's so many people out out there that are you know they're Michael at 14 yeah
01:18:56
maybe they're Michael at you know maybe they are that fantasizing Michael that was 14 but maybe they're 44 and they're
01:19:02
still holding out hope that maybe those dreams that ballet dancing in the hills of Peru or that playing the piano or
01:19:09
starting that business um is it too late for them and no dude this is going to
01:19:14
sound so cheesy but um dude it is I say this to people all the time I just did a
01:19:21
um a Master Class thing for these beautiful kids these underprivileged kids basically it was in Orange County
01:19:27
and um they didn't have music programs in their school and the first thing I said to all of them was uh I talked
01:19:33
about Neil theg grass Tyson and I said you know the greatest scientist on the planet will tell you uh that not nothing
01:19:40
cannot make something something cannot come from nothing I mean I don't care how many times they run the experiment
01:19:47
it something cannot come from nothing it cannot exist yet some somehow you
01:19:54
magical little beasts walk into a room with absolutely nothing and you walk out
01:19:59
with something you are Defying Gravity you are your magicians
01:20:06
and listen we will be crushed in relationships our partners will break
01:20:11
our hearts we will have businesses that fail we'll have doors shut on us and
01:20:16
they'll say no to us a million times but if you're lucky enough to have something
01:20:23
like music or a passion that you really fall in love with it will never hurt you it will never leave you you know it'll
01:20:29
stay loyal to you and to me it's a it's a massive gift and it's funny I it's going to sound like a really strange
01:20:36
transition but I love Tik Tok and my wife said to me go on Tik Tok I said
01:20:42
like I'm too famous to go on T I'm Tik Tok and she was like you you are Tik Tok
01:20:48
she was like you will love it and I was like no I'm not going to love it and then I did my stupid Tik Tok and I I you
01:20:54
know I did a dumb whatever it was the first Tik Tok and then like I started to like I was like oh you can go it's not
01:21:00
just about making the Tik Tok which I because I'm an idiot it was fun it was about oh wow you can go
01:21:08
through Tik Tock and then the addiction began and the addiction
01:21:13
wasn't wasn't uh about seeing stupid Tik toks the addiction was finding those
01:21:20
people you're talking about M and that was like oh my God like like if I I
01:21:28
don't know where my phone here's my phone it's in my butt I could go on to Tik Tok and can I just may I do this out
01:21:33
this is going to be weird but um okay here's a good example there's a girl named Julia Michelle voice that's what
01:21:40
she goes under I think she was making Tik toks from like her her maybe her
01:21:46
parents house or something I don't want to but like I heard her voice and I was like oh my God you're she has a
01:21:51
beautiful voice like and I never would have you know in the in the way that our structure of
01:21:57
business used to exist and record labels and stuff dude I never would have heard her and then there's a girl named
01:22:03
useless Farm who works on a farm where she has emus that attack
01:22:08
her and um Adam Rose who is an actor who is
01:22:14
anyway I like I deeply love that I can go on Tik Tok and it's exactly what
01:22:20
you're talking about where I like see these people and I'm like oh my God you are you are tremendous like people need
01:22:27
to know like they and it's funny cuz now with some of them it's happening and
01:22:32
it's exactly what we were talking about where it was just inevitable Mr Anderson
01:22:38
people were going to find out because they're really good you know what I mean
01:22:44
it's just but life just tells you to [ __ ] get your [ __ ] together and go get a real job and I know but I think it
01:22:50
might be in this business it might be changing a little bit with with um platforms like Tik Tok where you know I
01:22:57
know it sounds so goofy but like dude I love that there's a community and you know I love even more that I write them
01:23:05
you write to them yeah man I do I write to them as me I do every day like I love oh my god dude that is hilar are people
01:23:11
making fun of me like can I show you one that I just saw that just say people think it's your like agent or something
01:23:16
that's or your social media manager let's see if this can work I'm not I'm not great with this maybe
01:23:23
we're going to just do an inter Le while I sing surrounded by a million
01:23:28
people feel I
01:23:34
to let me I don't want to S cuz people list let me go
01:23:41
[Music] home cuz I want to dance even though I
01:23:48
feel fat in these pants couldn't remember the rhyme I'm so sorry that this is here it is I found it um you
01:23:54
never have to apologize okay sometimes once in a while like I find stuff like this and I go
01:23:59
like they're Geniuses like truly Geniuses so the tting says when you
01:24:07
change when you change when you change the radio station at the wrong time Santa Claus Is
01:24:20
Coming oh that was a lead up but that's a nice window like dude I see
01:24:27
that and I go like someone like thought of that and then shared it and it was like I think I
01:24:34
don't even know hundreds of millions of times people have watched that that's crazy I think it's crazy I think it's beautiful and I love that I wrote the
01:24:40
guy I said this is the mashup that I I didn't know I needed God imagine getting a message from Michael bobl when when
01:24:47
you've made something so so like ridiculous that's what the coolest part of that Tik Tok is is that it isn't about you no one gives a [ __ ] about me
01:24:53
and by the way I don't even belong on Tik Tok and no celebrity really does I think the only way you belong on Tik Tok
01:24:59
is if you understand what Tik Tok is and Tik Tok is about a community of creators
01:25:05
and like supporting and laughing and and being inspired and D it's the platform
01:25:10
that you spent 14 15 years fighting for which you you know what I mean before we had social media there's people like you
01:25:17
just singing at restaurants and sing Here There and Everywhere just knocking on doors pulling someone into a back room in a banquet and now you don't need
01:25:25
to go and no you know attack David in a back room no I think it's funny cuz it started like I remember Bieber Justin
01:25:31
talking to Justin about how how you know what I mean or even Ed even Ed um it was uh you know it wasn't Tik Tok but it was
01:25:39
YouTube and bio exactly yeah back in the day that's where I first jused it's so different now man and it's like uh but
01:25:46
it's still fundamentally the same business too where if you can it's all about live business if you
01:25:53
can do the job of putting people in seats and to entertain them live cuz what's really weird is like even talking
01:25:59
with my record company it's like oh they just we just signed this act it's great and I go like oh cool like where can I
01:26:05
go see them and they go oh no they don't T they don't tour no they don't they've
01:26:10
never ever played outside of their bedroom they've never been in front of people and you go like
01:26:17
what different but just what it is and this is not just about music look at me
01:26:22
I use the same platforms to build a show and do you know what's crazy no one knows this I went no one knows this story I went to a big radio station in
01:26:30
the UK before I started this podcast and I begged them to give me um an audition
01:26:35
I went down there for two hours they know who they are W Nam them because either sky or it was one or it was BBC
01:26:41
or was I I won't say which one it was say okay and I I went there and I did Capital look I knew dude I knew and I
01:26:49
went in there I sat and there and the guy wasn't paying attention to me pretty much at all I sat in there my audition
01:26:54
started the guy that's meant to be judging my audition takes a phone call walks out doesn't come back I'm in there
01:27:00
for two hours doing these fake phone calls I leave the radio station this was only like three years three four years
01:27:05
ago yeah I leave the radio station I never hear anything no feedback no you did well you did badly you were crap
01:27:12
nothing never hear anything so started a podcast myself which did well yeah uh
01:27:18
and then yeah like a year ago the same radio station sent me an email saying hey love you to come in and do like a little
01:27:24
guest thing to promote your book and I responded I said I'm still waiting to hear my feedback to the guy and they were like and they conducted this in
01:27:31
like internal investigation to find out why nobody ever got back to me so they really did yeah they really did because
01:27:37
they sent me an email asking me to come back and do some like guest appearance I said I was like I I came they were asking me to like a guest show or
01:27:43
whatever and I said um I came in and did an audition and I still haven't heard back and it's been almost two years now
01:27:48
um but we have these platforms where we can do it ourself whether you're podcaster a singer that's what I think I
01:27:54
find so cool about it is that there's no more the gatekeeper is gone is gone that one guy who why the hell did why did why
01:28:01
was he the gatekeeper what did he have the and now it's like no no no now nobody likes you but the people like the
01:28:08
people get to choose right and and there's no honestly sometimes like I'll watch something and there's no even
01:28:14
there's no Rhyme or Reason it just it resonates man and you go like oh okay
01:28:19
well that's the people have spoken that's isn't it yeah yeah Michael thank
01:28:24
you thank you we're done we're done okay fine I just now I'm ready for my second
01:28:31
cup I'm feeling really I'm starting to feel really good and loose I've got one more last question for you oh yeah go yeah we have a closing tradition where
01:28:37
the last guest leaves a question for the next guest not knowing who they're going to be leaving it for interesting the question that's been
01:28:45
left is what was your last big fork in the road decision and how did you make it it's coming right literally it's
01:28:53
coming I would say within weeks and I will make it by speaking to number one
01:28:58
first thing I'll speak to my wife and uh and then I'll speak to all the people that I trust and uh and I'll I will uh
01:29:08
weigh what everyone says and then I'll they'll help me make the decision it's coming Michael you're you're not going
01:29:15
to quit music are you no no I'm not never it's impossible that's like saying
01:29:21
are you going to going to stop breathing dude no no no I like to breathe and music is is is my breath I
01:29:29
can't I can't stop give me a little bit of concern that's all when you said oh no no don't let it be like it's a good thing oh okay it's just a big you know
01:29:36
just a big decision interesting yeah we shall wait and we shall see yeah Michael thank you
01:29:42
so much where do I leave my question for the next guest in the book oh I'm so excited I've got so many do thank you so
01:29:50
much [Music] as you'll know if you've listened to
01:29:56
this podcast before I'm an investor in a company called hu I'm on their board and they sponsor this podcast and I have a
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very exciting announcement to make this product called Daily Greens is one of the most highly requested products at hu
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going to launch in the UK the good news is it launches in January the link is in the description below you can sign up
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now so that you have access when it launches because of the band I'm pretty sure it's going to sell
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out do you need a podcast to listen to next we've discovered that people who liked this episode also tend to
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absolutely love another recent episode we've done so I've linked that episode in the description below I know you'll
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enjoy
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[Music] it