Interview about "Sweet Life" (1987)

The book


Well, it's a long story, but it started off just because a couple of friends of mine are agents and editors who were interested in these little anecdotes I was telling. I was just talking to them about my years with Bette and this and that, and they encouraged me to start putting some of the stuff down, and I did, and it wound up to be this fullblown book.

As I began to write this thing and it took me so long and I was very serious about it, I wanted to write as good a book as I could write, I mean, considering I'm not an author, and I don't consider myself a writer. I took the advice from my publishers and my editors saying, "Ok, your anecdotes are amusing and they're interesting, but we don't know who this person is. You gotta tell us who this person is. "So on the second draft I went back and I... I did a little soulsearching and a little writing.


It slowly became a serious writing project. I even bought books on how to write a book. I subscribed to WRITER'S DIGEST. I tried to follow the basic rules. Rule
No. 1) Brevity.

Actually, the best part of writing the book is that I heard it. It became a long song, with big crescendos at the end of chapters.- I didn't really intend to write this book. I didn't intend to write this kind of a book.

When I was done with it I was a little queasy about releasing this thing because I've never done anything like this before. I'm not an author. I laboured long and hard on this thing, and when I finished it I was more surprised than anybody that that actually existed, and then I didn't want to release it at all because I felt... WHO REALLY CAAARRRRES???!!?

I'm not embarrassed (about it), I mean, I read it and it's not bad, but really the title of this book for a long time was WHO REALLY CARES?... because I wanted the focus if... if this book would be interesting at all it might be interesting to people who are interested in the career, the music business, how this whole thing happened and maybe it could happen for them.

So that was the book I really wrote. However, the publishers and the editors and everybody that read it kept saying ,"You gotta fill in the blanks in order for us to know who you are!". And so that was the more difficult part for me, and I did, I filled in some of the blanks and it seems that people are enjoying the book, which I'm happy about....even if they just got one line out of it, if they get a giggle out of it, if they get one line that might mean something that would be fine.


It might help somebody else to see... not to make it in the industry, but if you wind up going into the industry, by reading this book you might realize what you gotta contend with... at least how I contended with the insanity that goes on when you jump in.


It's more personal than I initially wanted it to be. I tried to resist including all the family-Brooklyn-grandma stuff. I didn't want to name names.

The one dramatic part that's included - and I didn't enjoy writing about it - was my mother's attempt at suicide. She gave me full permission to use it. I would never have done it without asking her.

(Edna's response:"... I didn't come off well." So why did she approve? "Because that's not how I am now. Because I am fine now. Because those are the facts. And because I love my son.")


I was a very fortunate guy because I was raised in a very poor area of Brooklyn/
New York. I was raised with a lot of love and a lot of security. And I think that if I
ever had a kid that's what I would give them. I would give them as much security. And the way my family did it was by telling me they loved me unconditionally and that anything I did that made me happy was ok with them.

When you're raised with that kind of foundation then you can take chances, you can take gambles because you know in your heart you're ok. And you know, I attribute my success to my family.


It's not an autobiography. Everybody says it's an autobiography. I call it highlights of my career in music because an autobiography... I'm not ready to do that, I don't know how to do that.


The picture (of the book-cover) is an I-should-only-look-this-good-picture!


It's a very strange phenomenon becoming a public figure practically over night. I mean, it's not that none of us have worked for it, but when it happens it seems that all of a sudden it just explodes, and when that happens you turn into something that you never expected yourself to turn into. And one of the things I turned into was being irresponsible, and I blame it all on myself.

You know, I went broke twice, once when "Mandy" came out... I was at the TROUBADOUR in L.A. and I got a phone call that "Mandy" had gone No. 1... and then I got another phone call telling me I couldn't get the band home because I had spent all the money that they had given us, that the record company had given us.

So somehow I pulled myself through that. With a lot of advice and a lot of good people I was able to get through it. But there was no excuse for the second time which was in 1980 when I discovered I had 11.000 US $... after having sold 40 million records. I had 11 000 US $! - I had put my trust and faith in accountants and business managers and people that we all would do... would hire, you know, once you're getting into the bracket of these six figures,... I'm not really good at that kind of thing. . .Who is? You know, I'm good at G-flats and B-major chords, but when you're talking about that kind of high finance I was never really good.

So I put my trust and faith in these people, and they weren't thieves, they just made bad choices. And suddenly I wound up in 1980 and I found that I was back where I started.


Roberta played a very special part in your life?!

Well, in that she opened the door to all the fans, I mean, because for a long time, when this hurricane of success hit, the first instinct was to retreat behind closed doors and just surround yourself with the people that you hire. And that's how you become very out of touch and probably dependant on everything from people to drugs. And my instinct was, of course, because I was unfamiliar with this territory as is every new public personality, is to retreat behind closed doors and say... trust the people around you.

What was happening while I was behind these closed doors was that the public was becoming more and more on my side. They loved the music I was making, they became bigger and bigger and bigger. I didn't know that, even though the record sales were zooming. I didn't put faces on the people, and so I would go out and sing to the EXIT signs, you know, because the spotlights are too bright and then I'd run from dressing room to limousine and so after you do that year after year you just lose... you lose touch.

What Roberta did when she came into my life was she said, "Take a look at what's going on out there. Won't you go out and meet these people?" And little by little she'd bring them backstage, you know, and just the walls broke down. It was great.


THE NEW ALBUM "SWING STREET"

One side is called "8:00 P.M.", which is up tempo. The flip side is called "Midnight", which contains classic jazz ballads like "Summertime" and "Stardust". But I'm
starting on another album for a summer '88 release that will have that romantic ballad feel.


I decided I'd do a little swing... a swing album, but I didn't wanna do an oldfashioned swing album which was the problem because every time I put down something on tape it sounded a little too oldfashioned for me, and so over the last couple of years I've been learning a lot about synthesizers and all of the magic you can make. So some-how I have pulled together a swing album that is done all on synthesizers.


I did a duet on this song "Hey Mambo" with this maniac Kid Creole and the Coconuts ... and his group. And he's a wonderfully professional guy and he has this style. He lives and breathes the 40s, but he's very contemporate.

Anyway, I'm crazy about him, and so we did a duet that I wrote, the song called "Hey Mambo". - Actually, you know, it was written by the same team of people (that wrote Copa). I wrote the song with the same guys that wrote "Copa."


"Stompin' at the Savoy" was a lot of fun because I've done this now and again. I do all the background vocals being an ex-jingle-singer. I finish the lead and then instead of hiring a background group I go in and just overdub my voice a million times. I just love it. I could do that all day long.
We're gonna play "Stompin' at the Savoy" which was a Benny Goodman hit in 1940 and God knows what - this is done all with synthesizers again.


(Brooklyn Blues)

It could be the soundtrack of this book, It's a condensed version of thinking about leaving when you're there - back home and wanting to go back when you're gone...


I'm trying to convince all these people to let me play smaller houses instead of doing the huge arenas, the huge places that I've been playing because I got this Broadway style show that I'm putting together with actors and scenery and stuff that I really wanna do in little Broadway style houses.

In order to do that, I agreed to stay in each town for several nights so the tour could sell the same number of tickets. It's fair. The producers make their money, and I don't have to appear as a little dot surrounded by smoke machines and lasers.


Then as soon as I get back, there's a CBS Christmas movie I'll act in. ...I'm doing a Christmas movie for CBS, not this Christmas but Christmas '88. And we'll film it like... eh... February/March and it will coincide with the Christmas album. - I'll play a songwriter and it's a musical. It should be real nice.


I've been away on purpose because I thought it was time to just fill up the well. It's sort of scary to go away for a while but I think everybody needs to do it. I was on a real high energy trip. It was very exciting, I loved every moment of it but I just needed to just stop for a while and just see what I wanted to do. You know,... I was turning 40 (haha)!!! I'm telling you, it's a trip! It's a...

Interviewer: You look GREAT!

Barry: ...trip! Thanks. But it's a trip going through it.

Interviewer: Are you honest about it? I've lied how old I am...

Barry: I'm lying, too!!! (hehe) But when I turned 40 a couple of years ago it was a trip!


My life is dedicated to the music and to the fans and that's that. My interviews are boring. Every time I look at my interviews I always say, "God, this guy is soooo boring."