I had the chance to talk to Barry Manilow, and I TOOK IT! He's at the CHI July 30th in Omaha!

Growing up, the music of Barry Manilow made me smile when there was not
always something to smile about.  :)
What a wonderful, warm, delightful man!
Take a listen.... 

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Hey, it's Lucy Chapman, andthanks so much for joining me on Here's
more today. This is going tobe amazing. If you would have told
me as a ten year old girlthat someday I would actually be talking to
Barry Manilow, I would have calledyou a liar and maybe spit in your
face. But here it is,and it's true and it's real. I'm

(00:21):
talking to Barry Manilow. Mister BarryManilow, thank you so much for spending
some time with me today. Ohmy goodness. I knew I was going
to hear your voice, and Ithought, okay, now, don't get
all fangirl and geeky about this.And it happened, and it did,
and I'm getting all fangirl. OhI'm excited, Barry Manilow. It is

(00:44):
such an honor to talk to youtoday. I am so happy that you
had some time just to take afew minutes with us. You're going to
be in concert here in the Omahaarea coming up in July. That's right,
you've been doing this for a while. I have. Marcus gave me
my assistant Monk. Last time Iplayed for Omar was nine years ago,

(01:07):
but the first time we played withyou was nineteen eighty one, forty three
years ago. Was the first timewe played Omaha, Nebraska. How about
that? I think I remember thatbecause there was a young a younger girl
than I. Well, I wasprobably only about thirteen at the time,
so not too much younger. Butthere was a girl that was in the

(01:29):
news. Do you remember this?She wrote your name like a thousand or
ten thousand times or something like that. I do remember her. I forget
her name, but she wrote iton toilet paper. I did not know
that. Yeah. I was neversure whether this was a I should be

(01:49):
happy about that or should I beinsulted about it? But yeah, I
do remember. It was a wholebig roll of tarlet paper. I on
each little square she wrote you aremy singer, You are my song.
You know how long this must havetaken this girl to do that? I
love it. It's a story Inever forgot because I've always been a huge,

(02:10):
huge fan of yours, and Ididn't get to that concert. I
didn't get to see you until now. This is going to surprise you.
As big a fan I am.Not until about fourteen years ago I went
to Vegas and saw ya at Parish, and I splurged. I bought the
VIP pass because I said, yeah, if I'm going to see Barry,
I'm going to see him VIP.Yeah. Great, great. I hope

(02:34):
you had a good time. Oh, it was a great time. It
was a great show too. Soyou're going to be in Omaha in July
celebrating fifty years of recording? Isthat right? You know? But I
still look fabulous, Yes, youdo. I do. So. The
show date is July thirtieth, afterCCHI Health Center. So y'all come come

(03:00):
down and you'll have a good timewith me. I can vouch for that.
If you've never been to a BarryManilow concert, you are going to
just you could come in grumpy andthere's no way you're gonna stay grumpy.
You're gonna leave so happy. OhI'm so happy to hear you say that,
because I'm feeling the same thing formy audiences these days. I guess
it's over the last five or maybeeight years, the audience has changed.

(03:23):
And I walk out on that stageand I can tell that these people,
many of them, have never seenyou work. They don't know what I'm
gonna do. And I think theythink I'm just gonna sit at the piano
and play Mandy and that's not true. You know, well, you know

(03:44):
it's a very energetic show and alot of fun and a lot of very
familiar songs. So you know,it was a big surprise for me,
and I look forward to surprising theseaudiences. You know, when you are
just maybe shopping or just doing something, you're out in the public and one
of your songs comes on over theloud speaker or over somebody's radio, do

(04:10):
you still get that same excitement thatyou got when you first started hearing your
work on the radio. It's notthe same, but you know, it's
always you know, it's always great. It's great that, you know,
the work that has meant so muchto me over these years is still being
played. As sure, I getkind of excited. It's it is it's

(04:30):
exciting for us to hear it.Now. I saw you in Paris,
but you had the residency at theWestgate in Las Vegas, and that's one
of the best places to be inLas Vegas. And now are you is
that residency still going on? Itis? It's a it was a great
idea because it was it's only theweekends, and you know, because you

(04:51):
know, this, this tour thatwe're going on is my goodbye tour to
a lot of the cities that we'vewe haven't played in a long time,
so so you know, but Ididn't want to I didn't want to just
retire. I'm not into retiring.And so the Westgate gave us this offer

(05:13):
that it was just weekends. It'sjust Friday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday,
and that is great. I cankeep the band together, I can
keep my crew together, I canplay around with the audience and try to
try different songs and try different arrangements, and then the rest of the week
I go home and that it's justthe perfect place for me to be.
Well, we're glad that you're ableto get some rest to be ready for

(05:35):
every show every weekend. I'm goingto get out there and see you at
the at the west Gate at somepoint too. But I'm gonna I'm gonna
see you here when you're here inOmaha. Tell me about you've got this
project going on, the teacher Contest. I don't know anything about this,
and I purposely did that because Iwanted to be able to ask you questions
about it. And tell me aboutit. What is this about? Well,

(05:57):
this is I called it the ManimalMusic Project. About fifteen maybe even
more than fifteen years ago, Irealized that because the government stopped funding music
and arts, so these kids areplaying broken down instruments. These music teachers
are on their own and when thesewhen these instruments break down, they run

(06:23):
out and they try to fix iton them with their own money. And
I said, I got to dosomething to help these schools. So we've
been doing it for fifteen or twentyyears, and we've been giving these schools
that are running out of instruments brandnew school brand new instruments that the kids
can play. And you know,I get these thank you notes from these

(06:45):
kids and from the teachers, andanyway, the heroes, in my opinion
are the music teachers. And sonow that we're going back on the roads,
even though we're saying goodbye, wedid a little contest and we asked
the kids to pick their favorite musicteacher. And we've done this once before,

(07:08):
and when they do I made abig deal of them in the show.
We give them a couple of bucks. And that's the thing that we're
doing this year. Do you everget the opportunity to see the kids receiving
these instruments. I do, yeah, And they send me pictures and they

(07:29):
send me videos. One time Igot a picture of a little kid who
had just gotten a brand new tubaand in the picture of the tuba is
taller than he is. I loveit so excited. That's got to be
one of the highlights in your lifethat you're still getting to experience, just

(07:55):
watching that wonderment of a young childlearning how to play and being able to
do what you've done for so manyyears. Absolutely, that's why I keep
going. That's why I keep doingthis. What's next, I mean,
is what's left that you haven't done? Well? You know, with me,
it's always the next one. It'seither an album or you know,

(08:16):
producing somebody else, or you know, or you know, like this year,
I'm going to end this year withanother residency at the Radio City in
New York. Now, you know, I'm a New Yorker. I come
from New York and Radio City wasalways a big deal for my family.
My family took us all to seethe Christmas show at Radio See. So

(08:37):
when they asked me to, youknow, to come back, Like every
few months. Well, that's reallygreat because I remember sitting in the balcony
watching the Rockets and the Christmas Show, and now here I am on the
stage looking at that seat that Iwas at when I was younger. So

(09:00):
it's a real thrill. So that'sthat's the kind of thing that we we'll
keep doing. No more touring,but that kind of thing. Absolutely.
I love doing that. I don'twant to keep you too long, and
but I have to know, whenyou watch the show two and a half,
men, do you think that thatCharlie Sheen's character is based are at

(09:22):
least in part on your young youryounger years as you're coming up in the
business. I don't know what twoand a half meant. Okay, Well,
he writes jingles and he's working totry to to build up his career.
And that's how you started with jinglesand working with Bett Midler. Yeah,
that's true. Both things are true. Yes, I did a couple

(09:46):
of years of writing jingles. IfI were lucky, I would get them
because a lot of people went upfor these commercials and now and again I
would get it. But I learnedso much, you know, I went
to a music college, you know, and but I learned more doing in
those years when I was doing commercialsthan I ever learned at school, because

(10:07):
you know, I in New York, I was working with the top of
the line of musicians who helped me, you know, in orchestration and and
engineers in the control room. Bythe time I was done about two or
three years, I was very comfortablein the recording studio. And it just

(10:28):
so happened that that those were theyears that I started to make records,
and I learned more with doing commercialsthan any any any kind because college could
teach me, you know. Andthat is so true, and I think
it's a message that a lot ofyoung people need today that yes, college
has a place, and it isgreat, and it's going to teach you

(10:50):
a lot of things. But ifyou've got a trade or if you've got
something that you want to do,you want to pursue just this one thing
that you can learn so much fromtrade school are just from other people in
the industry, in the business asyou're trying to get into. Well,
you know, I looked up oneafternoon in school and I said, I've
got to get out and do this, you know, I just got to.

(11:11):
I have to do it. Andthat's when the commercials started to come
in. And I'm telling you,I learned more doing commercials than any college
can teach me. Well, Iam so glad that you heard that voice
and you got up and you justdid it, because I'm so glad you
you know, you know I didthat State Farm Insurance commercial, like a

(11:33):
good neighbor of State Farmer said,you know that one? Oh yes,
yeah, so you know they paidme five hundred dollars for it, and
at that time, you know,I was very happy to get that five
hundred dollars. But who knew thatthis commercial was going to last for over
forty years. It's it's my greatesthit. Well, I beg to differ,

(11:54):
but I understand where you would feelthat way. Yeah, but I
mean, you know, I didn'tcare about the money back then, but
she you know, for over fortyyears. Really the girl that's saying on
it is on her third rolls Roys. But you know that, you know,
that's the deal. When you you'vegot to be on the spot,

(12:16):
you've got to you know, eithertalk on it or play the play on
it, otherwise you don't get anyresiduals. I didn't know it back then,
but I do now well. Ithas been an absolute honor and it
is filled a bucket list item forme to talk to you today. I'm
very excited to see you when you'rehere. July thirty, first at the

(12:37):
chi Well. Thanks Lucia, itwas fun fun talking to you. Bye
bye, Thanks, bye bye,