May 3, 2025 - Rubin Report - Dave Rubin
22:17
| 
| Speaker | Time | Text |
|---|---|---|
| Well, Frankie, it's a true honor to sit with you. | ||
| As long as you understand that you're not doing it for you, and you're doing it for an audience who may be out there waiting to hear you have bought a ticket or waited six months until you appeared in your place. | ||
| So that's what keeps it fresh. | ||
| I've been doing this since I was about 16 or 17. Can you imagine what it's like to have an audience your whole life doing what you love and them loving what you're doing? | ||
| Anybody who could stay with you and be a fan for as long as some of these people have been deserves to get as close to you as they could possibly get when they can. | ||
| So I've always loved Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons from the first time I heard them. | ||
| I can't tell you that I remember the exact first time that I heard them, but it must have been somewhere around 10 or 11 years old. | ||
| I can sort of picture the park in the town that I lived in and just going to summer concerts with my parents, and they'd have all these cover bands of the bands that they used to listen to when they were kids, you know, 50s, 60s. | ||
| music. | ||
| And I remember Oh, What a Night and obviously Grease and, you know, all the major hits that everyone knows about. | ||
| There's so many others now that I love that were lesser hits over And then, of course, over the years, not only did I love the music... | ||
| But then Frankie himself sort of became a legend through the Jersey Boys musical, which then became a movie as well. | ||
| And, you know, I'm from New York. | ||
| I'm from Long Island. | ||
| Had a lot of family in Jersey. | ||
| The whole Jersey Boys story is so connected to everybody that lived in that New York tri-state area. | ||
| There's sort of mafia parts of it and foods and accents and all of these things. | ||
| And the story of a guy as they go into in the play and in the movie. | ||
| Of a guy who was doing something for the love of music, not just Frankie, but the Four Seasons as well, all of them, and then had the trials and tribulations, lost a daughter, dealing with one of the other guys, getting them into debt, and just going and going and going. | ||
| I've always just had this affinity towards all of that. | ||
| But of course, at the end of the day, it comes down to the music. | ||
| And over the last couple years, we've just... | ||
| He introduced a million people to some of the stuff that people don't know from the four seasons and what Frankie's been doing, because he had solo albums as well. | ||
| My favorite album is Soul Heaven Above Me, which I think came out in 1980. | ||
| So this is like at the end of disco, and he did this incredible song. | ||
| The album is Soul Heaven Above Me. | ||
| The title song, Soul, is just an absolute banger. | ||
| There's another one on there, Let It Be Whatever It Is, that's amazing too, Passion for Paris. | ||
| These are not the songs that most people think of. | ||
| Most people think of Sherry, and they think of Walk Like a Man, and the stuff from really the 60s and 70s, and of course, Oh, What a Night. | ||
| And I love all those, too. | ||
| And then there's some other stuff that gets in there over the years, and he did more jazz stuff and ballads. | ||
| But again, it was just about the voice and the joy that it has brought to my family and literally millions of people. | ||
| And then it turned out... | ||
| Frankie's drummer was a fan of mine, so I got to meet Frankie a couple years ago when I lived in LA. | ||
| It also turned out we lived only a couple blocks from each other. | ||
| And then finally, just recently, we actually got to sit down, and it is truly one of the great... | ||
| For me, it's one of the greatest moments of my career. | ||
| I've interviewed presidents, I've interviewed prime ministers, I've interviewed comedians who I've loved, and actors, and all sorts of politicians and pundits and all of that stuff. | ||
| But there are a few that really stand out as something that were just more important to me personally than just the public side of all of this. | ||
| And this absolutely was one. | ||
| And the guy at 90 years old, I've been to probably 10 of his concerts, 90 years old, still out there. | ||
| And as we talked about, he does it just because it still makes people happy. | ||
| And what could possibly be better than that? | ||
| So I hope you guys enjoy this interview with Frankie Valli as much as I did sitting there across from truly one of the last living legends. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you. | |
| All right, well, Frankie, it's a true honor to sit with you. | ||
| My audience knows how much I love you and how much joy you've brought to my family and literally the entire world. | ||
| So I was thinking, how do I do an interview with Frankie Valli? | ||
| Right after the sound check and before the show and everything else, and I know you don't do too many of these. | ||
| So I guess first, look, Sherry, 1962, it's 2025 now, 63 years later. | ||
| I'm only 48. It's 63 years, man. | ||
| Do you feel as much love for it now as you fell in? | ||
| How has that changed over the years, the love of the music? | ||
| As long as you understand that you're not doing it for you, and you're doing it... | ||
| For an audience who may be out there waiting to hear you have bought a ticket and waited six months until you appeared in your place. | ||
| So that's what keeps us fresh. | ||
| And is it as exciting for you personally every morning? | ||
| Like when you wake up, I mean, you had a gig last night, and then you get on the bus, I saw the tour bus, and then here you are again, and you got another one, I think, tomorrow. | ||
| Right. | ||
| Well, it's always exciting. | ||
| I've been doing this since I wasn't. | ||
| About 16 or 17. And can you imagine what it's like to have an audience your whole life doing what you love and then loving what you're doing? | ||
| It's amazing. | ||
| And I see, I've been to, I told you, I've been to probably a dozen of your shows, and I see grandparents now who saw you back then, now with their grandkids, and they equally love it. | ||
| It's incredible. | ||
| Well, because of Jersey Boys, it's caught on with little kids and younger kids. | ||
| So we get a mixture in the audience. | ||
| What do you think 1962 Frankie Valli, or even before that, the kid that was under the lamppost that you talk about in Jersey Boys, what do you think he would think? | ||
| About Frankie Valli in 2025 still out there. | ||
| You think he would believe it? | ||
| Well, no, he'd probably think he was just dreaming. | ||
| And do you like being on the road? | ||
| Do you like, like, actually going all these cities? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I don't like traveling. | |
| But I do love performing. | ||
| For me, I mean, that's really what it's all about. | ||
| And it's crazy because I've seen you do this where the women are still coming to you and you're still touching all the hands and they love you and you're blowing the kisses and the whole thing. | ||
| Well, they deserve that much. | ||
| Anybody who could stay with you and be a fan for as long as some of these people have been deserves to get as close to you as they could possibly get when they can. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| And they literally do it. | ||
| I mean, you're touching hands and everything. | ||
| What do you think about how the music has changed over the years? | ||
| That obviously it sort of came out of sort of 50s, almost doo-wop, and then you had a disco phase too. | ||
| I was telling you, my kids love Soul. | ||
| And then even the later stuff in the 80s, there's a couple of great songs on there. | ||
| Did you find there were times that you've enjoyed it more, you enjoyed the music more, or was it always kind of gone? | ||
| It was... | ||
| What we did is we did what we liked. | ||
| We weren't following any particular trend of any sort, and probably were innovators. | ||
| I mean, Sherry was so different than anything else that would walk like a man. | ||
| What did it feel like that day? | ||
| So Sherry becomes your first number one hit, and you guys, you had changed the name of the band many times, band members in and out, the whole thing. | ||
| Do you remember thinking, holy cow, We actually did it. | ||
| Well, I thought I was dreaming about this, you know, and then you realize that it's happening and how great it is for you. | ||
| Yeah, it's really kind of beautiful. | ||
| What do you like the most now, like, when you're on stage? | ||
| Is it a particular song that you like doing the most now, or do you kind of feel it out with the crowd? | ||
| I like the build-up. | ||
| And the way we... | ||
| Place the songs in this show and some of the things that sometimes the audience hasn't heard. | ||
|
unidentified
|
How often do you mix it up? | |
| You've got to do it at least a couple of years of doing what you've been doing and then start going back to this drawing board. | ||
| We're just about ready to do that. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah. | |
| Oh, is that right? | ||
| So what does that mean to you, to go back to the drawing board now? | ||
| Well, it's going to be exciting to put together the show and try to make it a little bit different, but still have the essence of everything that it originally had. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| What about being in the public eye all these years? | ||
| Do you enjoy it? | ||
| Is it something you care for anymore? | ||
| Was it fun back then and different now? | ||
| It is different, I think. | ||
| Sometimes the public takes advantage, but you've got to understand that when they are taking advantage, it's probably something they've never done before, and they don't know exactly how to do it. | ||
| They can't do it your way. | ||
| And they'll come and ask for a picture or an autograph. | ||
| Well, I told you right before, the one time I bumped into you, you were at the supermarket thumping a watermelon, and you thought I was completely insane, and you're wearing a mask. | ||
| It was during COVID, and I tell you this crazy story. | ||
| You said, okay, Kate, okay, as if I was, you know, just anybody, which I guess I am. | ||
| So what are you looking forward to tonight? | ||
| We're looking forward to just having fun with the audience. | ||
| It's always exciting, as I said, to work. | ||
| And we haven't been here in a couple of years, so this should be really nice. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| You like coming to Florida? | ||
| This is the free state of Florida. | ||
| Florida is one of my favorite places. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| I mean, we work probably more in Florida than any other state. | ||
| So the other state that I know you love, obviously, is Jersey. | ||
| Do you get an extra bump when you go home? | ||
| How do you feel when you go home? | ||
| Jersey is in your blood. | ||
| If that's where you're from, wherever you're from is in your blood. | ||
| I'm from Long Island, so it's just a slightly different accent. | ||
| But still, there's something about it that's incredibly special. | ||
| So I'm re-watching Sopranos right now, and I'm in the middle of Season 5. You're about to come in. | ||
| And it's kind of funny, because they reference you a few times in the show, and then you come in, obviously, not as Frankie Valli. | ||
| Did you... | ||
| Were you watching it and like, I've got to get in this thing? | ||
| How did that even happen? | ||
| I did want to. | ||
| I auditioned for it. | ||
| Yeah? | ||
| Did they, I assume you basically got the gig when you walked in the door. | ||
| The part I auditioned for, they said it just didn't feel right for me. | ||
| And that they would write me in. | ||
| And they called me a couple times after that. | ||
| But nothing really came of it, and I said to myself, until they send the paper that I have to write my name on it, the contract, I said I'm not even going to give it a second thought. | ||
| Do you like acting? | ||
| Did you like that? | ||
| I do, I love it. | ||
| Yeah, and it was almost not acting in a way, right? | ||
| It seemed like you guys were all friends. | ||
| It's what you are. | ||
| You need to apply a certain part of you in acting. | ||
| It's not straight ahead. | ||
| Don't look to act. | ||
| React. | ||
| And do it in your way as you are what you are. | ||
| And is jazz your main thing now? | ||
| I know you had a jazz album that came out last year. | ||
| I love jazz. | ||
| It started out. | ||
| But I never wanted to be a pop singer. | ||
| Is that right? | ||
| I was more interested in jazz even as a young kid. | ||
| Did you always have the voice? | ||
| That's got to be the most boring question I could possibly ask you. | ||
| I thought everybody had a voice. | ||
| But who was the first person? | ||
| Do you remember who it was or when the moment when you were like, holy cow, this is special, what I've got? | ||
| Well, it took having a hit. | ||
| Right. | ||
| To realize that somebody recognized something that was going on. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah. | |
| Did you realize it, though? | ||
| Or it was just you needed that outside thing? | ||
| Well, I did realize it at that point. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| Wow. | ||
| Well, Frankie, I know you got a big show tonight, so I don't want to take up too much of your time. | ||
| But I'm telling you, man, you have brought so much joy to my family, my life. | ||
| We play your stuff all the time. | ||
| I've got, look, I'll even show it to you. | ||
| I've got... | ||
| This is the most played playlist on my Spotify. | ||
| It is the best Frankie Valley. | ||
| We created ourselves three hours and eight minutes. | ||
| And we've got some of the live stuff. | ||
| We've got the old stuff. | ||
| We've got when you guys got back together. | ||
| I think that's around... | ||
| When did you get back together? | ||
| Around early 80s maybe for a little bit? | ||
| Yeah, I think it was. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
|
unidentified
|
79 or 80. 79 or 80. Well, this is a true honor. | |
| I've interviewed a lot of people that have meant a lot to me, but I really mean that. | ||
| Well, I've had a good time. | ||
| Thanks, Frankie. | ||
| Are you staying for the show? | ||
| Oh, yeah, I'm staying for the show. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| Yeah, I'm staying for the show. | ||
| I'm not going to sing during the show, but... | ||
| Thank you, my friend. | ||
| I appreciate it. | ||
| Okay. | ||
|
unidentified
|
What was the most memorable part of the interview? | |
| You know, it was really after the interview. | ||
| When the cameras go off, that's usually when things kind of liven up, and immediately the cameras went off, and I showed him my phone, and I have tons of these videos, because we do basically... | ||
| A soul heaven above me dance party here at about 7 o 'clock every night. | ||
| The kids request it, usually Luke. | ||
| And we run around and we're dancing and doing our thing and they absolutely love it. | ||
| And I showed him the video of the kids doing that. | ||
| And then he really lit up and he started asking me if they're into music and what instruments they play. | ||
| And Justin plays the harmonica and Luke's got his little electric piano. | ||
| And that's really when he lit up and he told me a little bit about his kids and what it's like watching kids grow up and all of those things. | ||
| So it's like, you know, I didn't... | ||
| I didn't think we were going to sit there and it was going to be the most mind-blowing interview of all time. | ||
| But just when you're privileged enough, actually, to get a few minutes with someone that has literally just brought joy to your life. | ||
| That is freaking awesome. | ||
| And I can't tell you how many times we have had parties in this backyard right here. | ||
| A lot of tequila at that bar right there. | ||
| That, you know, the Four Seasons and Frankie are there playing in my massive party playlist. | ||
| And people come up to me and they're like, what song is that? | ||
| What song is that again? | ||
| I'm like, that's Frankie. | ||
| And they're like, that's Frankie Valli? | ||
| I can't believe that. | ||
| And it could be begging. | ||
| There's just a million of these bangers. | ||
| And that is the cool part. | ||
| That's the beauty of music, right? | ||
| That's the beauty of art. | ||
| It inspires you. | ||
| And it brings out something in you. | ||
| And then you can share that with other people. | ||
| And then they feel that thing. | ||
| And they find something they love. | ||
| That's a really beautiful thing. | ||
| But the moment with the kids was definitely the best part. | ||
| My kids, absolutely. | ||
| I have two twin two-year-olds. | ||
| And they love, love soul. | ||
| Remember soul? | ||
| Yeah, of course. | ||
| So, I'll show you real quick. | ||
| Every day we have a soul dance party. | ||
| My two-year-old kids. | ||
|
unidentified
|
my two kids just running around it. | |
| They just love it. | ||
| I already enjoy them because they don't stay small. | ||
| They don't stay small forever? | ||
| No. | ||
| I mean, you're going to miss so much when they start getting older. | ||
| I know. | ||
| And they don't do the things that... | ||
| You mean they're not always going to listen to me? | ||
| Not only not going to listen to you, they won't have time to give you a hug or kiss on the way out. | ||
| Yeah, no, I'm enjoying it. | ||
| I'm enjoying it now. | ||
| And they love, love music. | ||
| They play the piano, and we got a harmonica they love, and a flute, so we'll see. | ||
| Oh, they're starting to play anything? | ||
| They're playing, you know, not... | ||
| They just like it. | ||
| They just like the stuff that's around. | ||
| So one of my sons, the bigger one, he's got a harmonica that the first thing he wakes up in the morning and he's doing his thing on the harmonica. | ||
| We got them a little electric piano, so they're doing that. | ||
| Well, that's good. | ||
| I think it's a good idea for every parent who has little kids to start them in and see if they have any musical ability. | ||
| They got it. | ||
| These kids got it. | ||
| So when I lived in LA a couple years ago, it turns out that the real estate agent that sold me my house, by total coincidence, sold Frankie his house a few years before, and he lived like three blocks away from me. | ||
| Anyway, I told that whole story to Bill Maher. | ||
| You might remember this. | ||
| Can I tell you a great Frankie Valli story? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah. | |
| So I moved from LA this past year, but we had my big party for me, 45th birthday last year in LA. | ||
| Turns out that Frankie Valli lived like two blocks away from me in Encino. | ||
| And I found that out because we had the same real estate agent or something, whatever. | ||
| So I contact, my guys contact his agent and said, I want him to come sing at my birthday party. | ||
| And I was like, I'll give him, I don't know, 10,000 bucks. | ||
| You can literally lip-sync Greece. | ||
| Just come, you can stand in my bedroom on the balcony. | ||
| You don't have to see anybody. | ||
| You don't even have to say hi to me. | ||
| Just come, do a water night. | ||
| Just get, you know, literally 10,000 bucks. | ||
| You're in and out in 10 minutes, literally. | ||
| And, of course, they wanted $100,000. | ||
| And I know it was nuts, but I don't have that kind of money, so whatever. | ||
| But they say, no, it's fine. | ||
| So anyway, that day, it's my birthday. | ||
| It's on a Saturday. | ||
| And I have to go get orange juice. | ||
| I go to the store to get orange juice, and I'm standing in the fruit section, and who's there thumping a watermelon? | ||
| Frankie Valli? | ||
| Frankie Valli. | ||
| And the universe spoke to me because I didn't need him to show up anymore. | ||
| And I walked over to him. | ||
| It was right when COVID was still happening. | ||
| He had the mask and everything. | ||
| And I just said, Mr. Valli, I know this is nuts. | ||
| It's like when people come up to you and they get all... | ||
| Like, whatever. | ||
| I've met every one of my heroes, every athlete that I've cared about. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Really? | |
| I've never gotten nervous in any way. | ||
| Like, I love you. | ||
| But you did for Frankie Bell? | ||
| But I'm not nervous now. | ||
|
unidentified
|
But you did for Frankie Bell? | |
| I was having trouble talking. | ||
| So he looked at me, and I was literally, like, sweating. | ||
| So you made this offer in the market? | ||
|
unidentified
|
No, no, no. | |
| I didn't make the offer. | ||
| I knew it was done already. | ||
| But the point of the story was that it gave me what I needed. | ||
| Whatever I, like, it was like the universe was just like, oh, you wanted this guy to show up. | ||
| It was insane. | ||
| But there he is thumping a melon, and it was enough. | ||
| So I babbled something. | ||
| I don't even know what he said. | ||
| He looked at me. | ||
| He probably couldn't even hear me because of the freaking masks and everything. | ||
| And he goes, great kid, that's great. | ||
| And then turned around. | ||
| And I was like, you know what? | ||
| Whatever it was that I wanted, whatever it was that I needed there, it was enough. | ||
|
unidentified
|
What's a core memory you have with one of Frankie's songs? | |
| Oh my God. | ||
| I mean, there's so many outside of the dance parties. | ||
| But I would say one main one that actually I think has probably been seen millions of times on Twitter is that when our dog Emma, about five years ago, when she was rolling into her last couple of days, we were obviously taking a lot of videos and pictures of her. | ||
| And she was pretty sick, 16 years old. | ||
| She lived an incredible life. | ||
| And the day we knew that we were going to put her down that afternoon at 4 p.m., we gave her her last, what turned out to be her last tomahawk steak bone. | ||
| And we put her in bed and she was chewing on it. | ||
| and we played Who Loves Ya? | ||
| And, well, take a look. | ||
| Oh, oh, oh, oh. | ||
| you You know, they say you're not supposed to meet your heroes in life. | ||
| Like, that's just one of those things. | ||
| They're always going to disappoint you one way or another. | ||
| But I have to tell you, having spent time with Frankie in the afternoon... | ||
| Watching him do the rehearsal before the show where, again, 90 years old, he's still fully checked in, asking about volume levels, making sure the band's doing what they're supposed to do, all of that. | ||
| Then going to the show that night, sold out. | ||
| Again, I've been to a dozen of these things, but they're just great every time. | ||
| Like, within five minutes, everyone in that room is just in love with all of those songs from their childhood or from their earlier years or whether they're just finding it out now. | ||
| And that's a beautiful thing because you see people that are Frankie. | ||
| I actually got the shout-out during the show. |
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