Grammy Award-winning saxophonist!! Kenny G, LIFE IN THE KEY OF G
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[0:43]Kenny G is the author of Life in the Key of G.
[0:46]Kenny G is a Grammy award-winning saxophonist whose indelible unique sound created a new genre of music and has endured him to millions of people around the world.
[0:55]He is the best-selling instrumentalist of all time with global sales of more than 75 million albums.
[1:01]Kenny has twice been given the NAACP Image Award.
[1:04]A Seattle native, Kenny lives in Los Angeles, and is a proud and devoted father.
[1:08]Welcome, Kenny G.
[1:10]Thank you for coming on, Mom.
[1:11]I'm starting to have time to read books to discuss Life in the Key of G.
[1:15]Congrats.
[1:16]Thanks, so I hope some moms make time to read that one.
[1:19]They are definitely going to make time to read this one.
[1:21]Yes.
[1:21]Do you have like an accompanying song that you wrote just for the book or anything like that?
[1:26]Like, is there something audio?
[1:28]The audio book has me doing a lot of sax playing in it because as the story was told, and there were things that were left like,
[1:37]hey, here's what a soprano sax sounds like.
[1:40]I wouldn't say that in the book, but I would say something like, well, I got a soprano sax phone, and then I would add in the audio book, by the way, listeners.
[1:49]This is what it sounds like.
[1:50]So that's not in that book, but that's the audio book I think is pretty cool because
[1:54]I live a lot of chance to throw a lot of sax on there, and I think it's cool.
[1:58]Wow, that's amazing.
[1:59]Great idea.
[2:00]I will definitely listen to that when it comes out as well.
[2:02]But I loved reading the print book, though, because I'm a print book person mostly.
[2:06]And this was so great.
[2:07]I've learned so much about you and your journey.
[2:10]And I actually mentioned you at dinner with my kids the other night because I was like, my son is now taking the trumpet, much to the dismay of our neighbors here in New York City.
[2:18]And I was like, you know, Kenny G still practices the saxophone three hours a day every day.
[2:24]And he's like a master.
[2:26]And they were like, no way.
[2:27]So yeah, that's true.
[2:28]Yeah, that's why we had to do our interview at the sport time because I need my morning.
[2:32]I'm all done and half done with my workouts.
[2:35]So that's kind of my, I have a job every day self-inflicted, which is my sax for three hours.
[2:40]And I do my about an hour of exercising.
[2:42]So I did half of it already, which is the cardio part.
[2:45]Okay.
[2:46]And so for me, since I'm so skinny, I actually break my workout into two parts because I feel like if I'm wake up and practice and then do my exercise.
[2:55]By the time I eat, it's too late.
[2:57]My body needs more.
[2:58]I think I need some some energy.
[3:00]And I'm not even really that hungry, but I make myself eat.
[3:03]So I'm after we're done, I will go to the rest of my workout.
[3:07]And then I have the rest of the day to just today's really a free day for me.
[3:11]I have nothing to do.
[3:13]What do you do? What do you do on a day where you have nothing to do?
[3:15]Well, that's a good question.
[3:16]I'm probably going to just think of things that I could do better and work on that.
[3:21]Like work on my French all the time.
[3:23]I'm working.
[3:24]So I'll probably watch some some videos online about French and how I can learn to speak a better.
[3:31]And maybe I will clean something around the house that I've noticed needs is cleaning or repairing and I'll work on something.
[3:40]I'll come up with something.
[3:41]Interesting.
[3:42]Okay.
[3:43]Well, your book lays out that you are not afraid of hard work.
[3:46]So, you know, the cleaning should come as no surprise.
[3:49]But everything you do, you kind of throw yourself into and work really hard at.
[3:53]And I love how you said at one point in the book that you still feel like there's something you can learn from every rehearsal that you're a student of the saxophone still.
[4:02]And that it never ends.
[4:03]Like how do you have that approach?
[4:06]Like how do you maintain that approach to everything that you do that it's all just you are the student and you will learn.
[4:13]How does that come about and how do you keep it going?
[4:16]Well, I honestly that I think that's what I think that's what life is.
[4:21]I mean, if you didn't think you had anything to learn, then what's where's the fun?
[4:26]Where's the fun of the day?
[4:28]Like, okay.
[4:29]Yeah, I'm hoping I'll learn something today.
[4:31]I'll walk around and I'll see something.
[4:32]And every day I'll go, I'll say something like, oh, I didn't realize that about whatever it is.
[4:38]And then I'll go to him, glad I'm glad I noticed that.
[4:41]Or something like that.
[4:43]And you know, even when I travel, like I'm going to go to the airport on Sunday.
[4:47]And I'm sure that when I'm on my flight, something I'll trigger something and I'll go.
[4:52]And that's what I do every day all day long about anything.
[4:56]And that's what makes life fun for me is to see what there is to learn.
[5:00]Sure, it's nice to think that you know what you're doing.
[5:03]But also, I'm really enjoy, I enjoy learning how to do things that are interesting to me.
[5:11]So yeah, it's just the way I'm, the way I'm wired.
[5:15]I don't know how, I don't know if you can.
[5:17]I don't know.
[5:18]It doesn't seem like it'd be hard to teach.
[5:20]It's just, it's like a curiosity.
[5:22]Like, when did people lose their curiosity?
[5:25]I never lost mine.
[5:26]I totally agree with that.
[5:28]And I love your whole approach that like you're not afraid of hard things.
[5:31]I say that a lot too.
[5:32]I'm like, okay, yeah, this sounds hard.
[5:34]But okay, great.
[5:35]That doesn't mean we shouldn't do it.
[5:36]Like, then you do it.
[5:38]And it's a challenge.
[5:39]And it's fun.
[5:40]But I feel like that's your approach to life, which is great.
[5:43]Yeah.
[5:44]Because I don't give myself too.
[5:45]Well, I used to give myself a little time constraint.
[5:47]And that made it harder.
[5:48]So if you want to do something that's hard and you got to do it by Tuesday at 10 o'clock,
[5:53]that might be hard.
[5:54]It may be unrealistic.
[5:56]And I would give myself those unrealistic goals.
[5:59]And I'd still do them mostly.
[6:01]Like maybe like 90% of the time I would get it done.
[6:04]And the 10% that I couldn't do, I didn't even give myself a break for that.
[6:08]But I've learned to do that in my later years.
[6:11]So now I do like to tackle really hard things.
[6:16]But I give myself realistic time frame to get it done.
[6:20]And then that makes everything fun, because then it's no, there's no pressure.
[6:24]I mean, obviously, yeah, you might have to like if I need to learn a solo and play it on a TV show by a certain day.
[6:32]Well, I'll just work hard enough to get that done.
[6:34]But other than those things, it's mainly, you know, like I want to make Booyah bass.
[6:39]You know, I really wanted to do it the other day.
[6:41]I just got that idea and I go, okay, I'm going to do it.
[6:43]And I got and I said that it was already six o'clock at night.
[6:46]And I was, ah, I really want it.
[6:48]But you know what?
[6:49]It's too late.
[6:50]It's going to take me too long.
[6:51]I'm going to do it tomorrow.
[6:52]So I had the whole day and it was really fun.
[6:54]It was really fun.
[6:55]I took my time, you know.
[6:57]How did it taste?
[6:58]It tasted, it came out great.
[7:00]My son said it was really, really good.
[7:02]But it was like making everything like getting the fish and like cutting up the fish and using the head and the bones and starting a stock and this letting that process.
[7:10]So it was really fun for me because I hadn't done it like that before.
[7:14]And I wanted to learn.
[7:15]Now I know how to do it.
[7:16]So if I ever want to do it again, I realized how much time it takes and maybe I might just order in instead.
[7:23]Just like, I might.
[7:24]Just seconds.
[7:25]But it never tastes as good, right?
[7:27]I mean, it's not made with the love and all of that.
[7:29]Well, I'm sure there's some restaurants that could love me.
[7:31]I'm sure.
[7:32]Okay, fine.
[7:33]I don't have any Michelin stars.
[7:34]But, you know, that's the kind of thing that I would do with my son or son.
[7:40]So where, you know, if, if they're home and hey, you guys want to let's do this together and then it would be fun because we're chit chatting.
[7:45]Well, we do the thing and that's fun.
[7:48]But I like doing stuff like that with people I want to be around because then I like the chit chat while you're doing something.
[7:55]If you're like even repairing something, painting something, fixing something, building something.
[8:01]It's like, yeah, okay, well, let's do it.
[8:02]But while we're doing it, you know, tell me more about this or that and we're trying to do a job.
[8:06]It's fun.
[8:07]I love that kind of stuff.
[8:08]I did that with my younger daughter.
[8:10]She wanted to paint a mural and in the house somewhere.
[8:13]And I was like, let's do it.
[8:14]Let's just like paint a bathroom.
[8:15]Whatever.
[8:16]If it's not good, whatever.
[8:17]And we had the best time, you know.
[8:19]How to come out.
[8:21]You can always paint it.
[8:24]I know whatever the color was right before.
[8:26]She painted in black.
[8:28]So then we had to.
[8:29]Oh my God.
[8:30]We had to go back to the paint store.
[8:31]Now one wall is yellow.
[8:32]One wall is blue.
[8:33]It's fine.
[8:34]We're just going to leave it.
[8:35]But a black's kind of tough to do over.
[8:38]Yeah, it was tough.
[8:39]A lot of coats.
[8:40]But the point is we had fun.
[8:42]We made a memory.
[8:43]And I feel like that is in your book too.
[8:45]It's like all this parenting advice that I wasn't expecting on raising your
[8:48]boys and what that was like.
[8:49]Everything from sleep on.
[8:51]You know, obviously being a dad is really important to you.
[8:53]And it was great to even have that that lens to learn about.
[8:57]Well, you know, that was that chapter was up for discussion a lot in the writing process.
[9:02]My partner that wrote it with me.
[9:05]Phil, who you, you know, his name's on there as well.
[9:08]He's a great guy.
[9:10]I didn't want it in the book.
[9:12]But our writing sessions were like zoom sessions because he lives in New York.
[9:17]I think he's probably, I think he's close to you 70th and.
[9:20]No, but you're on park.
[9:21]So you're not, you're not.
[9:22]He's on the west side.
[9:23]Can't park his east side.
[9:25]See, at least I know that.
[9:26]So.
[9:27]I'll go out now and try to find him.
[9:29]Yeah, well, he's a great guy.
[9:31]But yeah, I thought, you know, Phil, like this is, this is come out of nowhere.
[9:35]And people who cares what I think about this stuff.
[9:38]But we would have our talks on zoom.
[9:40]That was my point.
[9:41]And he would get, he would just ask me questions.
[9:43]And we were just chitchats for hours.
[9:45]And then when he started to like suggest that all these ideas that we talked about verbally.
[9:50]And he wrote down, I go, Phil, I don't.
[9:52]This is going to sound like I'm, what's the word like pontificating.
[9:56]And I don't want to be that way.
[9:58]And also, who?
[10:00]cares what I think about parenting that. I'm not, I'm not an expert. He goes, no, no, this is
[10:03]really, really good. You got to put it in there. And I fought him on it and then I lost because
[10:08]he just convinced me and I think we had other people chime in and they said, leave it in there.
[10:13]So there you go. It's in there. Again, I'm not sure when I read it. I go, uh, because skip that chapter
[10:20]because you just skipped on with music, but maybe it's better. Maybe the books better with it.
[10:23]Well, I mean, everybody can relate to all the things you talk about in the parenting section.
[10:27]I think people can feel like, well, what do I, you know, do I have something in common?
[10:31]He's this, you know, famous person, but it's like, no, we're all putting our kids to bed.
[10:35]Do you know, like, how are we doing this? And how is he doing that? And it, you know, I think it's nice.
[10:40]Hey, I like that. I like to see a feel, if Phil would have told me that, I wouldn't have fought him.
[10:43]Hey, when I was in the argument, his argument was, oh, this is really good stuff and it's all
[10:48]this stuff. But that's, that's, I get that. That makes sense to me. Sure. And I'm glad. I'm glad. I mean,
[10:53]I'm, I hope people can relate to me. Obviously, not everybody can relate to standing on a stage
[10:59]and playing in front of 10,000 people other than people that do that. I have actually a really good
[11:04]friend, Richard Marks, the singer. Yep. And we are really good friends. And, uh,
[11:10]actually saw him last week. We spent the, we went out to dinner and, and we were saying,
[11:14]telling each other how nice it is to have somebody that you can talk to about the details of your
[11:20]life that knows it because they do it. Like we, he plays a lot of the same venues that I play. I
[11:26]see his pictures up on the backstage walls. And we can talk about this and that. Maybe we can even
[11:32]talk about our financial situation, which I never really talk about. But because we're the same vibe
[11:38]and we play it for about the same number of people. So it's all cool. So to your point of having
[11:45]somebody to relate to, if people can relate to that story and hopefully other parts of the
[11:50]book, then that's good too. But, you know, obviously the, the part that where it comes to
[11:54]to being on the Johnny Carson's, you know, that kind of stuff. You know, that's, of course,
[11:59]you can't relate to it. And I hopefully I'm sharing stories that they're entertained.
[12:02]Yes. Well, you write in a way that makes everyone feel like they're your friend,
[12:07]like that we're all just like sitting there and you're just telling us the stories and
[12:11]it's a very approachable narrative. So that's good. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. Well,
[12:17]I can tell you this, even, you know, when people say to you, oh, who helped you write the book?
[12:23]Well, I tell them. Of course, it's Phil. He's great. But Phil will chime in. I went through every
[12:29]word. It wasn't like he wrote it and I just kind of filled in the blank. So it was like,
[12:33]I'm going to rewrite the first hundred pages Phil that you sent. I'm going to rewrite every page,
[12:38]which I did took me about three weeks. I sent it back to him and he goes, okay,
[12:43]I get your vibe now because I want it because it wasn't the first draft wasn't my vibe.
[12:47]Yeah. Perfectly. Very good though. He's really a good writer. I said, but Phil, there's something,
[12:52]it's not, you're not, it doesn't sound like I'm saying it. So I rewrote everything. Send back to me,
[12:56]goes, I get your vibe, but it looks like a high school student wrote it. I said, no offense taken.
[13:03]I'm not, I said, okay, so Phil, you could take my vibe and make me sound smart and like,
[13:10]like I'm a good writer because I'm going to do that. And he sent back the next draft and it was like,
[13:14]wow, this is me, smarter and better. And Phil, me, it's a job, Phil. And then we were off to the
[13:22]races. So that was, that was the process. Oh, wow. Okay. We'll rewriting 100 pages is no joke. I mean,
[13:27]that takes a lot of time. It's a lot of time. And also, I'm writing it with, and I'm thinking about
[13:32]myself, which is not fun. I analyze and like, how am I talking about myself and how is it coming
[13:39]out? And is this really getting across what I'm trying to get across? And then also, I wanted to
[13:44]sound like intelligent. So as you, as you read it, as you say it, which I found with the audiobook,
[13:51]when I did the audiobook, I had to change some of the sentences because they read really well,
[13:56]but that's not the way I would talk. And I told the guy who I was working with on the audio,
[14:03]can I change this? He goes, yeah, absolutely. Great. Great. I thought I was stuck to every word,
[14:10]because it's like, if this doesn't, I would never talk like this, but it reads right, because, yeah,
[14:14]yeah, I just changed it. So it was great that way. Interesting. Yeah.
[14:18]Interesting process. There was one part of your book. Tell us all about your relationship with your
[14:22]parents and your mother. And you were very sympathetic to why she would yell at you often, and
[14:27]that it came from a good place and all of that. But then you have this moment in the book where
[14:32]you're in your 20s, 30s late 20s. And finally, you decide like, okay, enough. And you stood up to
[14:39]there. And can I read this part? Do you mind? Can I read these stories? Speaking of like,
[14:45]relatable, like everybody has to sort of break away from their parents at some point or
[14:51]individually or whatever. So anyway, I felt like this was anyway, you said one day I was in the
[14:55]kitchen cooking some rice. And she came downstairs and started screaming at me that the rice
[14:59]that the smell of rice was stinking up her house. For some reason, her yelling at me at that moment
[15:04]hit me like a brick. Everything I had held inside me for all those years, all those unconscious
[15:08]feelings trying to please her. And so often feeling like it was never quite enough. It all came
[15:13]pouring out of me like I had left the top on the pressure cooker too long. And the rice finally
[15:18]exploded. Mom, I'm almost 30 years old, I said calmly and firmly. On the inside, I was pretty angry.
[15:24]The days of you yelling at me are over. You don't tell me what to do in my own house. She said
[15:28]in the most threatening voice, you can muster. I remain calm but firm and somewhere between a
[15:33]growl and a yell came my response. I'm a grown man now and you are not going to yell at me.
[15:38]Do you hear me? And do you understand me? I got right up in her face and said you need to start
[15:42]talking to me with respect. Have I made myself clear? She immediately back down. And then later you
[15:48]said we all have things we carry with us. Everyone has burdens they've had to bear. Some of us
[15:53]learn to let them go and we're young. Sometimes it takes into your 20s or 30s. Some I'm still
[15:57]carrying and just learning to let go of now. But to anyone who feels they've carried their burden
[16:01]long enough. And then it's time to lay that burden down. I don't care if you're 16 or 60. I am here
[16:06]to tell you that I'm living proof of the simple fact. You're right. It's time to let it go
[16:11]and just know that it's okay to let it go. I love that. I do too. I really love that too. Yeah. Great.
[16:20]Thank you for reading that. You're welcome. I'll just read the whole book. We could just do an audio
[16:24]book, you know, redo over here. Honestly, the way you read that is way better than the way I read it.
[16:30]I wish you the audio book. I don't think anyone would want that. Well, the reason that really
[16:36]stuck with me is it's such a turning point for you in your like growing up, which we get to watch
[16:42]you do through the book. And you do it in a respectful way. But you're saying to the rest of us like,
[16:48]okay, like we all have those moments. And like if I can do it, you can do it. And having that courage
[16:55]and like the role model list of that is really important. Oh, thank you. I appreciate that. Well,
[17:01]you know, even even when you've got all that anger, I still didn't want my mom, I didn't want to
[17:06]hurt her feelings. I wasn't trying to be a mean to her. My brother was not like that with her.
[17:14]And I always felt bad for my mom, even though she was wrong. And my brother was right,
[17:19]but he would get mad at her. And I always felt sorry for her that she was, you know, like,
[17:24]she had to endure whatever my brother did to her, you know, however he talked and stuff,
[17:29]nothing to happen all the time. But when it did. And so I just never wanted to be that mean to her.
[17:34]But it was time. It was really time to stop, you know, that just couldn't handle anymore.
[17:40]And if you see, if you, as you're reading the book, so many times in the book, people start
[17:45]realize when I read the book, when I wrote it, go, you know, I was talking to Phil. I said,
[17:50]Phil, do you know how many times in the book we talk about people yelling at me? Why does everybody
[17:54]have to start yelling at me? And they just do people just think that the yelling is going to,
[17:59]it really has no no effect on me. And so I have a lot of experience with it with from my mom.
[18:06]And now that when anyone who yells, I just kind of smile inside and go, gosh, I am so ready to
[18:11]deal with this. It's no problem. Yeah. All that training. All that training hours a day.
[18:18]I know. And too bad, my mom, you know, I remember because she was a smoker and she's just
[18:24]smoked like packs a day. I'm not sure if that I know she had stomach cancer. Yeah. I'm not sure
[18:30]if the smoking was a cause of her death, but certainly didn't help. I bet she could have lived longer.
[18:36]But and she never had a chance to see my kids never. That's sad. Yeah. Unfortunately.
[18:41]But she just got to see me at Carnegie Hall. Well, that's nice. Right. But there's that.
[18:46]I don't know if I talked about that in the book. Did I talk about that part? I don't remember.
[18:50]I don't think I see. Yeah. There's a picture of her with my Carnegie Hall poster, but I remember
[18:55]that night. This isn't in the book. So now you get a little extra. Oh, yeah. The night
[18:59]Clyde Davis was there with me and it was sold out. I've never played there since was 1987.
[19:04]Never been back to Carnegie Hall since thinking, oh, I sold out. I'll go and come back here all the
[19:08]time. And I don't know why I'm not back there. But anyway, sold out. I remember Clyde going up to
[19:13]my mom and saying, Mrs. Gorland, you're proud of your son. And her answer was, I have two sons.
[19:22]Like don't don't, you know, like don't give me any of the don't give me. I'm thinking,
[19:28]wow. Yeah. I know. I love my brother too. And I know he's doing great. But, you know, tonight's
[19:33]my night mom. Yeah. And she just couldn't do it. She just couldn't do it. It was so, and it made me,
[19:39]it made me a little sad. It didn't, it didn't hurt me too badly because I kind of used to
[19:45]being under the radar, which was a good thing. But I didn't like that at all. And I didn't write
[19:49]book because I don't think I wanted to write it because I think it might come out like me
[19:53]saying something bad about it. But I'm just sharing with you that that was part of
[19:56]just my role in our family.
[20:00]dynamic was. I was this middle kid, which was great. Under the radar, great. Nobody paid too much
[20:05]attention to me. Great means I could play my sats, do my thing and nobody was worried too much
[20:09]about what school I was going to go to, what I was going to do with my free time. Like she was
[20:15]focused on my brother and my younger sister, which was great for me. So there you go. That's
[20:20]that's that was a downside of that. The upside was I was giving a lot of freedom to do what I wanted.
[20:26]That's hurtful though. I mean, if you were, if you were saying that to one of your sons,
[20:31]right? But she, you know, but now I see that just her flying to New York from Seattle to watch me.
[20:38]That's her. Show me that she loves me and she's going to support me. But when Clive wanted to
[20:43]tell her to her to say out loud in the words, how about your son? Well, I've got two sons.
[20:49]You know, my other, my brother, his brother is blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
[20:54]And thinking great. That is great. And he's great. And he's great. And I've no, I never,
[21:00]my brother and I, as you see in the book, we've never had a fight and we've always had a great
[21:04]relationship. So it's all great. I wasn't upset that she talks about my brother.
[21:08]No, I know. I know, I know. But come on. I mean, kind of the hall. I mean, the every mother's dream
[21:13]and I can get you all practice practice practice. That's how you get there.
[21:17]Yeah. Oh, my gosh. Well, thank you for telling me that story. I'm sorry it happened,
[21:22]but I understand that everybody shows their love in different ways. Or you have very good
[21:27]therapist or something. I don't know. Or both. How about both? Yes.
[21:34]You were funny towards the end of the book. You were talking about how, you know,
[21:38]this Jewish kid who blows the show far in temple is now suddenly doing a Christmas album,
[21:42]you know, to tell me a little bit about about that. And and even your Jewish identity,
[21:46]I'm publishing this anthology that I edited called on being Jewish now with 75 essays by contributors
[21:52]after, you know, with essays about post October 7th and all that. But anyway, I was wondering about
[21:57]your, your whole experience with, with that. And I know you're Irving Berlin, you know,
[22:03]charge the way there, but still. Yeah. Well, that's, yeah, that's funny how that all came out. And
[22:08]it really, as I say in the book, but it started with me playing white Christmas at my concerts.
[22:14]And the reason they played it was because it was like one of those things that just was,
[22:19]like I like to do when I do my concerts, like to do songs, sometimes the people would not expect
[22:24]or even they, they don't even want it. Like why would you want to hear white Christmas in June?
[22:28]Right. You would play it. Like I would, I know, I know it's something like,
[22:32]and my show, I would say something like, hey, I'm going to, I'm going to go over to my keyboard
[22:35]player who's my high school friend every show. And this is me talking to the audience every night,
[22:40]we just play a duet the two of us. Let me go over there and let's see what we're going to come
[22:44]up with. So I go over to Robert and I go, Hey, what do you want to play? He goes, bro, it's up to you.
[22:48]I said, um, let's do white Christmas the way we played it rehearsally. He goes, you want to get
[22:53]tonight? It'll be fun. So we played and people love it. And then I got compliments on that white Christmas.
[23:01]So when Clive said, Hey, you should do a Christmas record after breathless was so popular.
[23:07]And it's so like 12 million records. And Christmas records in the 1990s were considered
[23:13]like corny to do artists. It's like playing in Vegas. If you had a gig in Vegas Vegas,
[23:20]that was super corny and you didn't want to, you didn't want to do that. It was that was for Wayne
[23:25]Newton. That wasn't for an artist that's that's got popularity and that's that's doing,
[23:30]you know, big gigs at, uh, at big venues like Jones Beach or Carnegie Hall or Radio City
[23:36]Music Hall. You don't play Vegas and you don't do Christmas records. Christmas records are for
[23:41]Nat King Cole and and Johnny Mathis. So Clive said that I said, Clive really? He goes, yeah,
[23:46]you know, I think it'd be a good. I think it will will work. I go, okay, well, first of all, I'm
[23:51]Jewish. So why would I do it? He goes, well, I'm Jewish and everything Berlin is Jewish.
[23:56]And he wrote white Christmas. The song you play, I said, okay, I'll tell you what, Clive. Let me
[24:00]actually record the white Christmas. I know it sounds good live who recorded it. And let me
[24:05]see what it sounds like. So we recorded orchestra, and I listened. I went, okay, this is beautiful.
[24:10]This is beautiful. And I don't even feel like it's a Christmas song. I just feel like it's a
[24:14]melody with with me playing the way that I do. And it's got this beautiful string arrangements
[24:20]and then it got beautiful piano part. Well, let's just do the right. Let's do some more songs like
[24:25]that. Let's try like a silent night. It's going to be beautiful. So we just did that and it came
[24:30]out beautifully. And at the end of it all, Clive says, it's great Kenny, but it needs vocal.
[24:37]Clive, that's the whole point. He goes, no, no, no, no, no. No, no, you have to have a vocal.
[24:43]I said, oh, I said, no, and he goes, yes, I said, okay, well, then let's get Whitney,
[24:48]because Whitney has just, I mean, she's the number one artist in the world at that point. He goes,
[24:53]I don't think I can deliver Whitney. I said, well, then get Barbara Streisand.
[24:58]No, I don't think I can do that. You had that moment though with Whitney. Didn't you,
[25:03]you said you had that like moment looking deep into her eyes and everything?
[25:07]Exactly. Come on. Yeah. What the heck? I know what the heck. You should have, we should have done
[25:11]that. And then I said, okay, the only one I could say is Pavarotti, then get Pavarotti. I can't do that.
[25:17]I can deliver you the third of the, of the tenors. You know, the, what was it? The three tenors?
[25:22]You know, it was Pavarotti. It was Plaza de Domingo. And it was the,
[25:26]the see the third one. You can't remember his name, but it's like a, that guy. It's the guy that
[25:31]it's like the guy that's like Jose Conseco, but it's not Jose Conseco. It's something like that.
[25:35]Okay. I'm going to get, anyway, I said, I forget it then. I don't want to do it.
[25:41]And then so we just sat there. We fought about it until like October 15th. And then my manager
[25:47]just said, guys, this record needs to be released. What's going to happen? I said, Clyde, he goes,
[25:52]oh, well, then it's too long with too many instrumentals. Take some 10. So I had to make a shorter.
[25:58]I had to take two of the instrumentals off and we released it and then it becomes the biggest
[26:01]Christmas record of all time. So, so I, I think I'm right. And then Clyde, I said, Clyde, we know
[26:07]how about that? He goes, yeah, well, if you were to listen to me, would it on way better?
[26:11]No. But, but we all said with smiles, even the fighting the smiles is here. So anyway,
[26:20]that, that Christmas record came about.
[26:23]Well, thank you so much for your time. I'm excited to have you at the store some time.
[26:27]And thank you for the book. I really, really enjoyed it.
[26:30]I appreciate that. Thanks. Thanks for the promotion.
[26:32]Thank you, sir. Bye, Sydney. Bye.