When I told my wife that I wanted to be a manager, she said, Freddie, I'm going to divorce you if you do something so stupid. Not everybody makes the transition for my want to be an artist or I want to be in the business of art. I loved the art of making music. What did you see that you thought, okay, this is a star. She runs out of the room crying hysterically and locks herself in the bathroom and doesn't come out. You're weird around for some of the wild years. Correct. You know, when you say this to somebody, how do you know what a record's a hit? Sometimes you're right, sometimes you're wrong, but you get a feeling for it. I'm never wrong. Freddie Demand, thank you for being on my show. It's great to be here with you. much to talk about, but we'll try. We'll add live. We'll add live. Thank you. Let's start at the beginning. I think because trying to do my research on you, there's not that much information on your early life. I mean, it kind of tends to pick up where you start as a record guy, but give me kind of a sketch there to start. I just want to insert one little thing. Please. A gentleman, a fellow named David Siegel, did a documentary on my life. And when he started, he says, there's no information under you. You never talked to the press. I said, I never did. I've made that part of my MO because I wanted my artist pushed in the front and I'm not the guy who, you know, Michael Jackson, the guy who succeeded me with a big cigar and he put himself in there and I wasn't me. I just didn't believe in that. So there's very little about it. But I was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, come from a poor family, we struggled, my mother always used to say we can't afford it, whatever I wanted, I had voracious appetite for everything. Everything I saw I wanted needed. And now we can't afford it. We can't afford chill out, you know Although they didn't use the word chill in those days But and as a kid so when I was a real little kid I used to imitate Danny K He was my idol and and at that point he was I guess this could huge. I get you would say like late 40s early,

he's one of the biggest stars in the world.

Yeah, correct. Can I just, because I love Danny K2, you have any sense of why he's been somewhat kind of forgotten, which I think is strange, because he was such a huge star. He was a huge star, but his movies are on, you know, Netflix or Prime whole. Do you agree with me that he's been somewhat forgotten?

Yeah.

Yes and no.

Okay.

Yes and no.

And, uh... on, you know, naturally to a primal. Do you agree with me that he's been somewhat forgotten? Yeah. Yes and no. Okay. Yes and no. And so, by the way, I ran into him at Schwab's drug store in Los Angeles on a sunset boulevard and he was picking out birthday cards or whatever cards as was I. And I liked froze when I saw him. It's, and I want to talk to him, but words wouldn't come out of my mouth. And I blew that situation. And it's one of my great regrets, not talking to Daddy K. And we had a house on Tower Road and Beverly Hills. And he lived right down the street. I kind of knocked at the door. He was a c hand. We had a house on Tower Road and Beverly Hills and he lived right down the street. I could have knocked at the door and he was that kind of guy who would have let me in. Yeah. But anyway. Okay. So he's your idol and your image. My idol. And I would imitate him. I took tap dance lessons. I took drum lessons. And really? Yeah. I wanted to be a star somehow. I wanted to be and then I went to the army after graduating from high school A friend of the government put out this RFA reserve federal act We went in for six months active duty and then you were in the reserves for a few years And if you went in before you're eight and a half birthday, you only spent three years active reserves, which meant every Monday night and two weeks of the summer, you know, to get to stay in shape. Anyway, when I came matter that I wanted to be an actor. Why? Because I worship Marlon Brando and

and my Anyway, when I came out of that, I wanted to be an actor. Why? Because I worship Marlon Brando. And then my crazed mind, I said, well, he looks great to T-shirt. And I look great to T-shirt. That means I'm an actor. Wrong. Way, way, way wrong. You can't get farther wrong than that. Did you, but did you actually try to act or I just want to act in school? Okay. Right after the army. And I realized immediately that I didn't have that you want to be like a method actor. Yeah. But I, I think I know, no, no, I couldn't do it. I always thought there was a mirror and I kept seeing myself and I hated what I saw. Oh. Is that weird? And I said, was it overly critical mine? Yeah, I guess. And I don't like myself in this role. And if you want to act, produce the movie and put yourself in the picture. But don't, you're never going to make it. And I get rid of the book, that's my affinity for artists. I love artists because I desperately wanted to be one and couldn't. Was it the attraction to the glamour? Was it the attraction to the art? What art? It was the art, you know, to this day and every day, if I see a great movie, and you have, first of all, you break it down, and the dialogue is like breathtaking. And speaking of kind of combining the army and acting, I re-saw recently a few good men that Rob Rhino directed. And the dialogue by Aaron Sorkin is drafted. Gorgeous. It's wonderful and so accurate. And as a guy who spent a little time in the military, he got it right. He got everything right. It was so wonderful. And then you see performances, you know, Jack Nicholson and Tom Cruise going at it. And that scene, it's... Well, Frank Capra used to say that the only way to film reality is to film it at a 130% speed. That movie's in particular like it's a compressed form of life. But you're sort of trying to find the right balance of it. It feels real, but you obviously can't have a 30 minute conversation on screen. You know, I'm just still down to a three minute scene. And I love music. I used to go to one of the left Brooklyn and moved him in Manhattan. I used to go every Wednesday night to the palladium, which was on Wednesday night, I had Latin bands. Okay. And I used to smoke a little riefer and a riefer. Dates me, doesn't it? Yes it does. And I would stay by the Timberley player and the Kunga player and I danced a little, but I loved...'s just like a Tito Puente and yeah and those guys Cuban bands orchestra I've ever seen is it machinto or machito like no it's a machinto I do yeah yeah like Charlie Park used to play with machinto did you like were your jazz guy too yeah yeah I mean to New York New York at that time must have just been. It was fabulous to listen to Symphony Sid on the radio. Yeah, and it was the greatest show. Talk a bit about your parents because I think a story like yours is so unique and where your parents interested in show business or was there a business side of your parents? Like, where does, because you didn't become who you became by accident. It had to come from somewhere. Well, my mother really embraced children. My father did, he was a very funny guy and a cool guy, but he was in the insurance business, and it's something that he hated. And I could spend time talking about it, but he suffered from severe hypertension. And I'm not going to say he's had no drugs for it. Because I literally said the other day to my wife, I think I have hypertension. She said, you don't. But do you remember what hypertension is? Do you mean the number? Yeah, 120 over 80 is considered okay. Oh, okay. And anything less than that is better. And anything more than that gets progressively worse. Okay. And it does eat at you as it did him, my father. And I had a driver. He used to go at night to people's homes to try to sell them sure life insurance. And even at that young age, I was like 14, 15. I knew this was, this is a terrible idea, you know? I see. But he started losing sight in his eyes. I used to drive him every night. And he used to, he worked for the insurance company, had to add up all the numbers. And there was no calculators in those days. And he said cannot make a mistake. Yeah, I didn't do it as a threat But just said if you make a mistake got to redo this whole column is this big and My mother Was the showbiz girl and she's the one that sent Annie K. A letter Saying my son is this and this and this and he answered her and he said her two tickets to the Roxy Theater. And she put me on here, go talk to him. He said he would talk to us. And I told him on his jacket, my mother wants you. And he came over and he chatted us and that I think moved her and moved me in a magnificent way. Oh, I see. So growing up in New York at that time, just give me the atmosphere in your mind because you had an attraction to show business and you said you wanted to be in it. But like, you know, there's the story to aspect of Broadway. Obviously, you were

going to see artists play. Just give me a sense of the New York atmosphere because did that ignite something in you that maybe ignited your passion for the business because that's something that's not everybody makes the transition from I want to be an artist so I want to be in the business of art. I, uh, first of all, in my teens my teens had a rough teenage years because one or the other parent was always sick in an out of hospital. I was kind of trying time. Plus I worked part time. The first third term high school we went in the afternoon. So I had a job in the morning and then it became,

it went to school in the morning and I worked afterwards.

So I had no social life.

I was very, believe it or not, try.

And I was forming.

I was coming out of the room.

I was still coming out of the room, if you will.

And all I did is play ball, you know, had a bunch of guys, we had a baseball team. And I read a lot. I read Chopin Hour and I read Thirling Yeti and I read, you know, everybody. Fairly had his stuff, right? Yeah. And I wanted to improve myself and educate myself and become something else. Then I guess I was subconsciously very unhappy with who I was. Was it an economic thing? Was it seeing what your parents were going through? Both. It was both. It was kind of rough years. And it was the army, believe it or not. I felt I had to prove myself me, that I could do all these things. And my father did not want me to go into the army. I just said I have to do it. I didn't, he probably knew that he was gonna die. And that's why he said, you'll never be drafted. I didn't know where he meant. I said, everybody's getting drafted. I don't want to be drafted. So I'm going to. And anyway, I was physically, it was the great thing because I could do anything they asked to be physically, mentally, not so good. But it made me who I am I am and this was embarrassing, but I'm going to

shut my phone.

It's a famous artist calling you, see? No. Sorry about this. It's okay. Should have done that earlier. I forget to ask. So that, and then the same friend who got me into the army, who talked me into it, got a job at Jubilee Records in New York. And I, what do you do? Well, I get records played. You go to radio, say, that's for me, I gotta do that. And here we go. And that's how it began. And they hired me at $75 a week, which was 25 more than I thought I'd get. And I, man, I would took off. Like, I visited every radio station. I drove around. What was your circuit? Well, he says you can't do New York, cause you're too green, you can't do Philadelphia, but we're gonna give you Pennsylvania and New York. So you'll get, go prove yourself. Yeah, go prove yourself and I did. And but I used to drive around every town and look for antennas because in that below that antenna was a little cubicle where a disc jockey was doing a show live. And I did pretty good. Then I met this disc jockey in Philadelphia, Jared Blavett, the guida with the heater as he was known. And he got all the kids in Philadelphia, all if if you want to. Was he like, there was, well, Dick Clark started in Philly too, right? Yeah, he danced on Dick Clark's show when he was young. Could back then Philly could break records. Philly was like, whoa, it was a great town for people don't understand the music businesses so different now as you know, and I know but back then you could break a record in a regional correct It didn't have to be New York or LA even in Chicago right right So go ahead I just Walk me through walking cold into a radio station. I'm fascinated by the old record business. Yeah, this this is what the early days Here's young. When I walked into the Geeder, because I did research, he's a guy. And I was a little funky place in Canada, New Jersey. And it was a 250 water, but it beamed into Philadelphia, somehow. And they were against Wibbidge, W-I-B-G, which was a 50,000 watt station watt station and you know they had a huge reach. But here's the solicitation and this guy was charismatic and all the kids used to dance to him. He'd have record hops and do all these things. Nobody knows what a record hop is now. But I walked in and I looked there he was behind a glass thing. It was an air condition. It was August. It was hot as big Jesus out there. And I walked out and said, Hey, were you going? I'm going to see the Geater. No, you can't go. Who are you? I'm Freddie DeVan. Jubilee Records. Exactly. No, he can't see it.

Yes, he can. And we got into a shoving mat. And the gate of Cesar, he's way to the end. We were talking like we knew each other all our lives. And he said, what he got there is, well, I got, I remember the record. Stap your fingers by Joe Anderson. So I don't play that. What else he got? So I got this great record. I love you by the volumes. It's said, you know, they've been after me for two weeks to play that and I wouldn't do it. I'm going to play it for you. Wow. And he played it three times at night. And the next morning, you know, there was old buzz and all that. So I like to do my research. Top stars of Jubilee records in the 60s, Bobby Freeman, the Cadillacs. Yeah, this was before me. Okay, this before you. Yeah. Okay, Delarice, Don Rondo. Yeah. And they also had like Jim Backus is the comedian and Rusty Warren.

Rusty Warren was the biggest seller.

So give me some of the artists that you were attracted to.

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