JOHNNY DOCK MEETS WALTER YETNIKOFF
A day late and a dollar short. This was definitely one of those scenarios. Johnny Dock was beginning to gain some speed. The momentum was moving the waters of success. I could feel it as I pulled my rattlesnake skin boots on, kissed Lin goodbye, and hopped in my 911 Porsche to drive down to David Presti‘s in Doylestown. After a celebratory martini, we drove to the Trenton train station and took the northbound to Grand Central station in NYC.
We just finished mastering the live recorded concert Johnny Dock – Live on Main at The Lodge mastering studio and we were heading up to meet the infamous Walter Yetnikoff the president of CBS records from 1975 to 1990 at a swag, discreet restaurant in the East Village.
(Watch the music video Back on Track https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qUrWPIfrPM to see some of the clips from our trip)
With a fresh CD in my hand, looking dignified and ready to rock, David and I walked into the small restaurant in the village. We met Richard Dienst with a cordial but sober greeting. Richard was a Bucks County neighbor and friend, a very well-known attorney whose office was on the top floor of the Pomeroy building in Manhattan. He staged the meeting with Walter. They had become good friends over the years of sharing AA meetings together. This was not any small opportunity. This was a shot that anyone who ever attempted to break into the music business had dreamed of. At the time I had no idea how truly lucky I really was.
We were seated at a table set for five people – David, Richard, myself, Walter, and a guest. After a few minutes, Walter entered the restaurant with a very lovely young lady. Again we had cordial greetings and sat down to begin the small talk. Through dinner, we talked about motorcycle rides in Bucks county, and many of the crazy escapades that Walter had engaged in the music business. He bragged about his book that just came out, Howling at the Moon. His tell-all autobiography.
THEN THE PITCH
I went down the road of explaining how the concept of Johnny Dock was a good one. The idea of a guy who had played and written music his whole life yet put his dream of success to the side in order to give his wife and children security and a normal quote-unquote lifestyle. Now, after all these real-life experiences, the kids finally went to college, and out of the house, he could step right back into where he left off before starting a family.
After all, he didn’t spend the last 20 years of his life being a rockstar and having no idea what most people went through the day-to-day. Johnny Dock was the incarnation of the troubadour that truly had songs and life stories to share with the waiting world. Here was his chance to saddle up and ride with the big ones.
I gave it my best shot. After dessert, Walter excused himself, thanked me for the dinner, took my CDs and my phone number, and told me he’d give me a call. When David, Richard, and myself, sat back down at the table to discuss what we just experienced, I still really hadn’t gotten the true meaning of what just happened. Until a waiter came up to me, shook my hand, and said “was that Walter Yetnikoff?”
A week went by and I was back up in the city scouting out Wall Street and other areas of Manhatten. I had two music videos I wanted to make for the songs What I Do To Survive and Common Man. While driving on fifth Avenue my phone rang, – it was Walter. I pulled the car down a side street, over to a chain-link fence at a construction area, and listened to him tell me “Johnny, I really do think you have something here. Nobody has the fucking balls to try to break into this business at your age but I really do think you have something here.” He went on to say that he was no longer directly involved in the business, but that he was going to set up a meeting for me with someone he had been mentoring. My head was spinning. My heart was pounding, everything was whirling around me. It seemed way too good to be true. It wasn’t to good to be true. I was true.
WHAT THE FUCK
Life has a way of calling its own shots. My personal and business life took a hard dive. I was covered up with lawsuits and depositions from the building business I had shut down years before. Our restaurant/music venue was going through a series of floods. The Raubsville Inn on the Delaware was flooded three times in an 18 month period. That hadn’t happened since 1955. I had to shut it down. David my manager and best friend got tongue cancer and nearly died. David was my lifeline. He grounded me! When he got sick, I was alone. I never did make the follow-up call to Walter. I had his voice on the voice-mail on my phone until one day I lost my phone.
I don’t know what happened to me! Why I didn’t just focus on this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity? Through it all Lin and I stayed strong together.
Once again I put the dream aside just to survive. I was 48 years old then. I am older now and not giving up! What’s another 20 years? LOL
