Sucks about the anti-Semitic comment...
I did a show with him a couple years ago here in Boston and he was a BLAST to hang out with! Laughing and joking and telling stories and asking me about Boston, where I lived and seemed genuinely interested. I'm not one of those promoters that insists on getting my picture taken with the artist or gushes about being a fan (and I am a huge Eddie Money Fan), I prefer to stay out of the way, shake a hand or two and help out when needed, but he specifically said, hey I want to take a picture with my guy!
Did his daughter sing and play with him? He gave her a couple of her original songs to play and the crowd still ate it up.
Just all around good fun.
Rock On Bob!
Dan Millen
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So, Eddie Money is a right wing, anti Semite which, despite whatever musical talent he may possess, makes him just another piece of shit in my book.
Skip Schoolnik
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Bob, I always enjoy reading you. FYI, Donnie Iris is no longer a mortgage broker and is bigger and better than ever in the Western Pennsylvania/Northeastern Ohio area. We just celebrated Donnie’s 75th birthday with three sold-out shows at the Greensburg Palace Theater. Just about every show in the area we play is a sell-out. Donnie’s become a legend because he’s a gregarious guy and still screams his ass off and hits all the high notes (even though he is three-quarters of a century old). Moreover, our band is still together (four out of the five us are original members, including Donnie) -- and we sound great. The best part is that we all still love each other. I always wanted to reach the promised land in music; now we have. It wasn’t what I imagined it would be (big money, and all the trappings); its better (lifelong friendship and respect -- and having fun playing our music to our wonderful long-time fans in Pittsburgh, Cleveland, and Youngstown).
I invite you to come to a show if you are ever in the area.
Best,
Mark Avsec
Co-Founder Donnie Iris and the Cruisers (producer, songwriter, keyboardist)
P.S. A few years ago you did a piece riffing on how much you loved "Ah! Leah!" and my inbox blew up.
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PLEASE DON'T USE MY NAME
So, I've booked Eddie a number of times for various corporates and charity events. Always delivers a great live show and he's always on! Great, down to earth, accommodating guy and crew...but is somewhat risqué in his commentary. Some of my memories:
Renting a house for him and his crew around a high-end event and having to fumigate it afterwards to get the smell of the 60's out of it before the owners moved back in;
Playing a well-known home improvement chain's event and proclaiming from the stage, "Yeah, I'm playing this show for a bandsaw";
Saying to me post-show, "______, I need more of these corporate dates. I'm so poor that I have to beat off to feed the cat"
There's only one Money Man.
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Eddie is one of the hardest working guys in show business. He always was there for us at Columbia Records and was a pleasure to work with.
He has never stopped touring and I am happy for his success!
Alan Oreman
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I worked as a stagehand for an Eddie Money show around 2003 at a small club on Hilton Head Island, SC. It’s a beach resort town that loves to party and loves music nostalgia. Eddie showed up just in time to run on stage and proceeded to kill it. The guy put on a fantastic show!
What made me chuckle was that his guitarists had three sets of guitars for the show. His tech (hairy giant of a dude named “Wookie”), explained to me that they start the show with guitars tuned down a full step. A few songs in, they switch to guitars tuned down a half step, and finally to guitars in standard tuning. Why? So Eddie’s voice can get warmed up enough through the show to eventually be able hit the high notes in the original keys. A brilliantly simple trick for an aging voice on the go!
I appreciate it even more now. I’m playing a show with my band tomorrow night and we lowered the key of a song because I can’t quite hit ‘em like I could ten years ago.
A few years ago, I met the husband of one of my wife’s grad school colleagues and learned he had been Eddie’s Manager for a few years. Small world.
T.J. Edmond
Atlanta, GA
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Gotta say... a couple of months ago, when I read the story about how Eddie Money has a running bit of making jokes — onstage — about his drummer’s cancer diagnosis, it made me wanna find him, wrap my hands around his neck, and Baby hold on until he was blue in the face.
www.stereogum.com/1880228/drummer-sues-eddie-money-for-being-worlds-worst-boss/news/ Jeffrey Liles
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One of my favorites, Bob. Not only was he NOT a one and done, the first 3 or 4 albums were really good... but after act 1 there was actually an act 2 when Take Me Home blew up. Only Steve Miller and very few acts were able to do this.
He released a live album many years ago (Shaking With The Money Man, I think it is) with his young son announcing him onto the stage and a killer band behind him. The kid is probably in the band now.
Thanks for bringing him to front of mind. His greatest hits are playing here right now. Have to check out the TV show!
Mitchell Sussman
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Wow, that makes me sad
Was in the business when his 1st album came out. He came through DC and played at the Cellar Door to promote it. Went to dinner with him and the local CBS execs at the Kennedy Center. In the entrance there was a grand piano. After dinner we were walking out and Eddie was at the piano singing and playing. One of those moments you always remember.
Last night I saw a preview for his interview with Dan Rather on AXS. Thought his new show might be fun.
No chance I'm watching it now. Sad
Dana Gore
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He sounds like a dick, not an old guy.
There are plenty of people who grew up with parents who were prejudiced and they could love their parents, but see racism for what it was, knew better and did better.
I know plenty of people who grew up in the 70s who still walk the walk, and few of them are rich from their hit records.
Growing older should make you wiser, and more humane, not married to the racist attitudes of a previous, less enlightened era.
If Eddie Money is a racist then forget the couple of happy pop tunes.
He's not worth the paper he was printed on.
Karen Gordon
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I saw Eddie Money for the first time about 10 years ago at the Long Beach Gay Pride Festival. When I saw the lineup I thought, well that's a strange booking, not your target market to say the least. Although, Pat Benatar played a few years earlier and it was a madhouse. Anyway, I'm an 80s kid and always liked his music, and was up for some nostalgia, so I went over to watch and as expected there was maybe 50 people there, and I'm being kind.
This festival draws tens of thousands and I know that pride festivals in general have deep pockets when it comes to booking artists. Still, I thought a strange booking and who the hell on the entertainment commitee thought this was a good idea? After reading about your experience, seems even weirder he would agree to perform there. Money talks, pun intended. I still enjoyed the show, and whoever booked that show, thanks for the private performance.
Rob Reimer
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As we part The Mists Of Time we return to the mid 70s when I was an engineer at Columbia Records and I cut Eddie's demo! It's a pretty funny story which Eddie tells but I can't as some involved are still alive. It was a pretty interesting session, not as interesting as The Troggs Tape but very close.
Phil Brown
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Eddie is all about the jokes indeed.
I met Eddie in 87 when he was on round two of his success. I was called in to play in his album. I was super young and it was a big gig for me so I was very serious when I walked into the studio.
The first thing he said to me was and I quote....
I Hear Ya Got Bad Gas Pains.
I was like Huh?
He said to me with a wink...You Know...Ya Got Bad Gas Pains, Bill Graham Presents!
Bob we were both managed by Bill Graham.
That’s Eddie...a regular Palooka with a heart of Gold who happened to have a ton of hits.
Stevie Salas
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Love Eddie Money!
Used to live in Leamington Ontario, down near Windsor and Detroit.
WRIF used to play this song he did called ‘Trinidad’. Still one of my all time faves.
Cheers
Andrew Parr
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Back in the 70's at a fancy hotel in Atlanta during a Bill Gavin Convention they had the Pointer Sisters open the show for Eddie Money. Eddie learned real fast you did not want to follow the sisters from Oakland Ca. no matter how hot they told you were !
Barry Pollack
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I saw him a few years ago and it was more of a bad cover of a Rodney Dangerfield stand up show than a concert. And what little music was played was performed by his kids, and once you got into it he'd stop the song and start telling more jokes. 80s is my wheelhouse but I don't ever have to see him live again.
Jason DeBord
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Jerry Pompili was extremely instrumental in Eddie’s - don’t forget him
Mary Beth Medley
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AntiSemite?!.... fuck him!
David Yarnell
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Saw him in 1975 when he was an unsigned wannabe at the Longbranch in Oakland.
Great talent, charisma and looks-every woman there was in love.
Three years later, Bill Graham gets him to open for the Stones at a Day on the Green show at Oakland stadium.
Eddie was still unrecouped on his Epic Records deal, broke, and living in some shithole in Oakland under the freeway.
In any event, he grabs his sax and jumps into his car, but the battery is dead.
But he had to get to the gig and luckily lived near a Bart station.
So, what's a poor boy do but play a rock 'n roll gig?
He hops on the Bart, mobbed with fans going to the show...and soon they are all asking the same question--why is the guy opening for the Stones carrying his sax and riding the train to such a big gig?
Says to me: "Lance, can you think of any artist who ever had to take the train to a stadium gig with the Stones"?
Lance Grode
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Nice one.
Couple of things.
1. I don't think there was a better single ever cut than "two tickets to paradise." Every note was perfect.
2. Mahoney may be a douche bag from the outer boroughs but he had talent. That doesn't make him a role model. It makes him a talented douche bag from Queens.
It always amazes me that people whose folks were persecuted a generation before have to find someone else to dump on once they get a pass.
3. Boomers seem to revel in this nostalgia shit. I don't get it. I like it now and then, but only every once in a while.
I can't stand big ass venues anymore. I go to smaller clubs and see folks like the Subdudes from New Orleans and Tab Benoit and Paul Thorn and Samantha Fish--not kids but not geriatric--and other performers who sell no records but they have killer chops and write terrific songs and make a living and thank god for that.
It is what it is.
Keep it coming,
Rik Shafer
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Hi Bob, a friend of mine owned an Italian restaurant in San Ramon (Nor Cal, East Bay). My friend was in his late 60s and was a bit of a ladies man and a Sinatra style crooner, but never took it seriously. He would sing in his restaurant. Eddie Money was a regular customer and would join him to sing in the restaurant. My friend said everybody in the restaurant loved Eddie no matter what he sang. He was old school, you are right , and all the customers felt he was one of them....despite, his past celebrity.
best, alan segal san diego
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Hell, Eddie was a NYC cop in the early 70s. He had a good voice but was a known as a ahem difficult guy to play with, and at the end of
The day, he was the cop with rocker wrapping
jht99
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Hard to believe I was still working in radio just 8 years ago. We had just had our daughter, so I had a staff working a meet & greet with Eddie at a large event. The weather was terrible with lots of rain and the event site turned into a field of mud. My part timers started calling me frantically because Eddie was VERY late. People who had won m&g passes started bailing. Finally, after a long delay, Eddie “stumbles” out from the trailer and yells “Who wants to meet the money man???”
And then a tour manager stuffed him back into the trailer. Meet and greet over.
I love Eddie. That story makes me laugh every time.
Mark M.
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Eddie Money had some good songs.
Eddie Money’s an anti-Semitic jerk.
Eddie Money’s not getting any of my money.
H. Love
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Working for Columbia Records in the promo department in the 90’s, I was with Eddie a lot as he played dozens of radio shows, called in for every radio interview, and all without complaining. He got it. While other artists blew off interviews and in-studio visits, they only hurt their careers. Eddie would always ask the radio program directors name across the room, so he could walk over and instantly bond with someone he’s never met. He’s also the ONLY person who’s ever asked me this favor: “Hey...see if we can get a couple “Pilsners”. You mean beer? What the hell is a Pilsner? I was fortune to work with dozens of amazing artists and can say without doubt, Eddie Money is the hardest working man - not only in music, but as a showman. The guy knows how to turn it on.
"Dave Ross" Swerdlick
StoryCub, Inc.
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Fu*k Eddie M(ah)oney! Son of a cop who almost became a cop himself.
I’m the son of a NYC cop whose father wanted better for his children. We didn’t move to Long Island to escape the diversity of NYC like Eddie and his family. I was born and bred in Bklyn.
I remember having to suffer through watching Eddie as an opening act back in the ‘70s in Central Park or at the Palladium.
So, Eddie, you’re a right winger, Hillary hater who ducked serving in Vietnam - born in Bklyn but grew up on Long Island.
I know your type. Why don’t you keep your right wing mouth shut and keep on making that mediocre music that’s sustained you for all these years.
Oh yeah, I have to say I dug that record he cut with Ronnie Spector. Ronnie was/is the real deal, and Eddie’s lucky to have had the privilege to sing with her.
Respectfully
Jeff Douglas
Bklyn, NY
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My mini Eddie Money story...
I had just started in the business, mid 80's, took my hot model girlfriend with me to a big radio convention in one of those huge downtown hotels. I was attending for the major label I was working for.
She and I got into an elevator to head up to some label's hospitality suite. Someone grabbed the doors and jumped in with us. It's Eddie. So it's just the three of us. Slightly awkward, but you know how it is- what are you gonna do?
We all do quick hi's and I played it cool. Like you, I liked his music- I'm sophisticated about music but I'm also a pop guy. I wouldn't call myself a fan of his necessarily.
So Eddie looks intently at my girl, who's holding my arm and standing very close beside me- clearly we are together.
This feels very weird to me. He's honing in... getting a little too close to her.
Eddie (directly to her): "I'm married, but I'm not happy."
Her (instant response): "I'm happy but I'm not married."
We all laughed, including him.
He was doing that rockstar/fame thing- trying to take the woman right off your arm. And like most of you, I've seen this happen before.
But it didn't work this time.
He brushed it off and just acted like everything was normal and nothing had happened. I couldn't help smiling.
I wasn't mad at all. He was charming and funny and like a little kid. He could get away with it, and almost make you feel good about it.
Not long after, she became my wife for 21 years.
You stimulated that small, meaningless memory- just thought I'd share.
Hope you're feeling better,
Sully
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Wow, Bob. I'm having '70s flashbacks.
In '77 I was a writer/producer with Casey Kasem's American Top 40. It was my first job in the industry and it was a good one. I got to meet and talk with most of my Rock & Roll heroes and, almost as great, I got free records! The publicists at Columbia Records befriended me early on, so I was getting serviced with all the Columbia/Epic LP and 45 promos.
That summer, my buddy-- Columbia publicist Mike Jensen, told me to pay extra attention to a single that was about to arrive-- Eddie Money and "Baby Hold On." When it came in, I gave it a spin and it immediately became one of my favorite singles of the year. So Mike didn't even have to talk me into interviewing Eddie, I was sure that this was gonna be a Top Ten hit. I could pick 'em in those days; I was a kid.
So Eddie and I hit it off like gangbusters, and I awaited the record's ascension on the charts so I could write some good "Eddie Mahoney-- former NYC cop" stories for Casey to tell. But in explicably, the record stiffed. I took it personally. The artist was now my friend, and this airplay rejection was an affront to my musical sensibilities. This was also the first time that I became Crusader Rabbit on a matter of artistic merit. I pestered Mike Jensen about this inexplicable failure and, when I visited him and my other friends at Columbia's Century City's office, I talked to the promo guys about the record's failure. I remember them saying that they "almost had some traction" on the record.
Cut to late December '77. I'm back home in Baltimore for the holidays, out drinking with a coupla buddies, and on the local Top 40 powerhouse comes a familiar opening guitar riff and these eponymous initial lyrics, "Baby, hold on to me..." Over the next ten days, the single reaches top rotation. I almost can't wait for vacation to end to get back to L.A. and find out if this is an anomaly.
When I do get back to my office at Ventura and Cahuenga and sort through my accumulated promos, I see that Columbia has re-serviced "Baby Hold On." And in a matter of weeks, it skirts the Top Ten. Neither then nor now do I think my ardent pestering of CBS personnel had anything to do with the record hitting the second time around, but I was at least personally vindicated.
And Eddie, God bless him, called to thank me, and we hung out a couple times. Once at a gig near Disneyworld where I gave him an AT40 T-shirt. He was fervent in his hope that I'd procure one for his guitarist, to whom he was obviously quite loyal. (I did come through, by the way.) Drinks with Eddie and band post-gig in Anaheim required a one-eye-covered drive home to the Valley at 2:00 am. Different era, but just as foolish at the time.
Later in the year, perhaps, I went to one of Eddie's recording sessions in the valley one night and afterwards, I recommended dropping by a nearby studio where multiple Gibb Brothers were purported to be laying down some tracks. An anomaly, as they cut most of their stuff in Miami, but Andy Gibb was a friend and had invited me. But Eddie demurred. He said he'd feel awkward there, which I understood. So instead we did a mid-Valley tour of legendary (or not) dive bars and called it a night.
I did not see Eddie again for at least a couple of years. After a few more hits, it was like he fell off the grid. But when we caught up again, he told me that he had had a close and debilitating call. He'd gone to a party, had too much to drink-- too many other substances, and had passed out cold at the host home for more than 24 hours. During that time, he never once shifted position, just laying on his side. And during that time, his sciatic nerve had simply atrophied, rendering his leg virtually numb and paralyzed. Fortunately, he was told that it would regenerate, and at the time I saw him, he said that his gait was much better, despite an obvious major limp.
That's the last time I saw Eddie. But I was so knocked out a few years later to hear him come back with "Take Me Home Tonight." And with Ronnie Spector?! That was fantasy stuff for me.
Since then, I've grabbed his albums when they've crossed my path, and I always hold a good thought for him. I'm not pleased to hear about his anti-Semitic joke, or anti-anybody joke. And I hate to think that he might be conservative enough to be a Trump supporter, 'cause at his core, Eddie was a good guy. He was a working class schlub with a sense of humor, a decent heart, and a great Rock & Roll voice and sensibility. 40 years on, I'm still rooting for him.
Thanks, Bob.
Regards,
Scott Paton
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From: Cindy Ronzoni (AXS TV PR)
Hi Bob,
Eddie and his band and his wife are getting ready to on stage in Pennsylvania right now so Eddie asked me to send this to you on his behalf.
Dear Bob,
Thank you for taking the time to come out and see the Grammy museum event and for the great review that you gave my children. I’m glad that you enjoyed the show, but unfortunately, there was a major misconception on your part, considering me to be anti-Semitic. This couldn’t be further from the truth.
Bob , I don’t mind getting slammed when I deserve it...and it’s true that my father was Irish , but my mother ( God rest her soul) was German and Polish and of Jewish decent. It was never my intent to offend anyone with my jokes or comments, and I'm sorry that I've apparently upset you and caused you to think less of me. I have learned from this and will work on keeping my big NY mouth under control, not to offend other New Yorkers who know when to shut up! Again, I just would like to clear up this misunderstanding and once again thank you for attending the show
You’re the "Real Deal" and I love and respect your work.
Eddie Money
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From: Bob Lefsetz
To: Cindy Ronzoni
Just let Eddie know that when he talked about paying for his wife’s clothing, he said he was worried about price, and he said “It’s the Jew in me.” I heard it loud and clear, I think he even said it twice, and I know in his heart he meant no harm, but he should know better, you can’t say this, it reinforces stereotypes that are untrue. As if there’s not enough anti-semitism in the world.
________________________________
From: Eddie Money
Subject: Mahjong
Bob, Funny story for you, ...
Picture me in my 1963 Studebaker Lark V111 going to class at UC Berkeley....November, 1978
I finally got added on Z100 and KRFC in SF ....there was no FM radio in cars back then and it was such a "Big Deal" to finally get on AM Radio
I was so happy, I was crying tears of Joy ........No cell phones back then so I loaded up a pay phone with $7.00 worth of quarters and called my mother to inform her of the great and exciting news ...shouting ..."Mom , I'm on AM radio ...
Her response .."Your Aunt Lois just got here, and I told you not to call me on Mahjong night ... typical ..Dottie Keller
We buried Mom with a Whale Bone set ...Unfortunately, she passed from colon cancer in 2004 and there was nothing worse in my life than losing my "Jewish Mom"
When I find something funny, and occasionally, I do ...I say it’s the "Jew in me" ..My mother used to say .."My son could sell cancer" She had that NYC sense of humor
Her and Bill Graham were the same age age, both born in 1928 and were very close ..Both gone, but never forgotten.
Three of my closest friend are Jewish, along with Lynn Horowitz, who broke my heart when I was a freshman at Nassau Community College in 1967 ...
Waddy Wachtel, probably one of the best guitar players in the world and I are extremely close
He just finished a tour with Stevie Nicks and before that, he played on the last 2 Keith Richards albums with the "Fabulous Winos" and toured with Joe Walsh last summer
He is my best friend and we have been writing together for my latest CD ...Appropriately called "It’s a Brand New Day".
I'll send the new track over to you
I think your gonna love it ...
Oh ...and Laurie wasn’t crazy about us sharing the "I said "Posse joke", although, I loved it. ....Ha ha
Your podcasts are the most popular broadcast in the business and I know I would have an absolute blast if you decided to let me do one ...
There is no reason the two of us couldn’t and should be great friends, Laurie is also very fond of you and I would like to introduce you to my kids
Mark Cuban ...A good Jewish kid from Pittsburg loves our reality show called "Real Money" and we will be airing it on AXS ( Mark’s channel )
At 9:30 on Sunday night, right after "On the Road with Sammy Hagar"
We’ve been buddies since 1974
Bob, if you could be so kind and check out my website as well as the AXS channel , it would be well appreciated
Joke ... "Why did Israel beat the Egyptians in 6 days back in 1964 . ... "All the equipment was rented"
A very old funny joke that my Uncle Jacob told me many years ago
Enclosed is a couple of pictures of the Fratti brothers (who I came out to California with)....and Waddy ,
Think for a minute of how many thousands of GI’s we would have lost invading Japan in 1945 without using "The Bomb"
Einstein split the atom, they had to drop two Atom bombs, not just one
And let us not forget one of the best musical composers in the world
George Gershwin, writing Rapsody In Blue and Porgy and Bess also like us ...a New Yorker
My first producer Bruce Botnick was also Jewish and we sold over 4 million records together when he produced my first two records, also a brilliant and caring man of Jewish decent
When I brag about all these people I just proudly have to say ...
"It’s the Jew in me"
Have a nice week and I’m sure, like me, that your very proud of your accomplishments
I just had to "Clear the Air"
Me ..."Antisematic ... Never !!!
Eddie $
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