(Song: "I'd Really Love To See You Tonight")
BARRY: Hi, good evening!
Well, this is what Clay Aiken is going to look like in 30 years!
Sit down take a load off ... Hi Everybody!
So what's new?
So, uh, have you been having a good time?
Yeah? Really, well what can I say? Thanks, thanks everybody for schlepping down here and coming from all sorts of places to be, to be all together.
First of all, thanks to Kirsten Kief! Kirsten and her great team have been working real hard putting this entire extravaganza together. Thanks to all of you.
I saw a list of the things you've been doing and it seems like you've been having a ball. So what have you been doing?
(Barry selects a woman from the audience.)
WOMAN: Oh, hi! Oh my God!
BARRY: What's your name?
RITA: My name’s Rita.
BARRY: Hi.
RITA: I'm from Indianapolis.
(Scream)
BARRY: Great. So, what have you been doing? For instance, what happened on Thursday?
RITA: On Thursday we got here and we checked in.
BARRY: That's so exciting!
RITA: It was! And they always feed us really good.
BARRY: Really?
RITA: Oh yeah, we had good food. (Pointing) That's my daughter!
BARRY: Hi, oh you are beautiful. Hi.
RITA: So anyway, Thursday night we ate dinner on the Jungle Queen River thingy. We went out to this island and they fed us.
BARRY: What is that? You went on a riverboat?
RITA: It's a riverboat.
BARRY: You went on a riverboat?
RITA: Yeah, and we went through all the rivers and then to the jungle.
BARRY: And then?
RITA: And then we came back and had a party. And then Friday they fed us again. They feed us so good! And then… what did we do last night?
BARRY: Didn't you love Diane Schuur?
RITA: Oh, yeah!
BARRY: And then what did you do yesterday? Didn't you go swimming or something?
RITA: We did a scavenger hunt and a bunch of ladies ended up in the pool! They got really nice prizes, the ones who won.
BARRY: Like what?
RITA: It was a lithograph you signed.
BARRY: Did anyone get a bobblehead? That is my favorite thing I've ever seen! It looks like Wayne Gretsky! I thought we'd hit rock bottom with that stupid plate with me on it! But I think this is the coolest thing! Who on earth thought this up? It really makes me laugh a lot. This is my Christmas present to everyone, I swear! Anyway, thanks Rita for giving me a hand.
RITA: L'chaim! (Cheers!)

BARRY: I'm going to pick questions out of this box at random and we'll see what we get. I should sit on the other side so the box of questions is over here. This isn't like a real show; usually I'm more prepared.
(Moves down stage.)
Oh, this is kind 'a nice. I missed you. I did, I do.
I miss this whole feeling. I don't miss the hotels, I don't miss the traveling, but I do miss you.
That's why I started to create other things. I didn't want to retire. That last tour was one of my favorites, but it wound up being too long, and we all hit the wall at the end. We started off with a 6-week tour, and we ended up going for 9 months! We thought, "Oh, it'll be easy! We'll just do 6 weeks." We started off promoting the "Here At The Mayflower" CD and then the "Ultimate Manilow" CD came out and it went through the roof. So we just kept touring. And then that summer tour happened and it was great, but we were all so tired at the end. Although the shows were great, it was so hot!

Were you there the night of the flood in New Jersey? I'm sure you all know, but it was like the great flood of all time. It was terrifying and very surprising.
It was the last date of the tour. We were all in the wings ready to go on. They were just about to start that wonderful intro music when I think Sacha or Steve said, "Barry, come back to your dressing room, it's sprinkling out." And then the 100-year flood hit! You've never in your life seen rain like this. I don't know how people survived. Thousands of people knee deep in water! I think I saw Shelly Winters swim by! But many, many people stayed until the police chief and fire department finally canceled the show. It was just too
dangerous with all the electricity and all that water.
I remember I didn't want to stay in New York that weekend because it was a long ride from New York to New Jersey, so I said, "Just put us in any hotel in New Jersey near the venue… any hotel."
So they put us in any hotel! On the last night, I get into bed and I put my head back on the pillow and heard a strange crinkling sound. The top sheet doesn't fit and flips up. Underneath me, under the top sheet was a rubber sheet! I mean who on Earth had been there before me?!
Was this "Hotel Incontinence?”
That was the last straw. That was it. Sleeping on rubber sheets. I was done with the tour.
But the shows were fantastic. All of them were and you were… beyond.
So you know I had to stop and think whether I ever wanted to go through sleeping on rubber sheets again. I'm still thinking about it.
But we taped those shows. We did three shows at the PNC. And we edited them together to two CDs called "2Nights LIVE!" Two separate CDs that start and end with songs that never repeat. It's really great. It's one of my favorite things. It's so exciting.
Half the fun of this CD is you guys. You are out of your minds! Don't drive when you listen to this CD because you will drive into a pole! I nearly did.
Gar, when does it come out?
GARRY: March!
BARRY: It's worth the wait. One CD ends with "We Live On Borrowed Time" and the other one has "Forever And A Day.” It represents 35 years of touring. I hope you love it as much as I do.
The reason I'm talking about this is that there were a lot of questions about touring. Like, "Could you briefly explain to us how a tour is put together?" or "Will you tour again?"
Well, it's quite an effort to create one of these things. Not just for me. So many people are involved.
The tours I like the best are about something. This year it was about the "Here At The Mayflower" songs, which turned into being about the hits because of the Ultimate Manilow CD.
It takes a while for me to create the shows with Ken & Mitzie Welch and Larry Amoros. The Welch's help write the special musical material and Larry and I work on what I'm going to say. Then the band has to learn all the new versions of the songs because I don't want to do all the old versions. I like to surprise all of you and myself.
Then Garry and the whole staff put the whole machine together to tour. It's a really big deal and I'm not even Cher who tours with, like, a million buses!
Let's pick some questions at random.

QUESTION: Who chooses and picks the hotels?
BARRY: After the "Hotel Incontinence,” whoever they are they're fired! Kidding!

QUESTION: When are you touring again and will you return to Phoenix?
BARRY: Loved Phoenix, a little hot.

QUESTION: We miss you in Knoxville, Tennessee. Will you be performing in Vegas anytime soon?
BARRY: I'm going to tour again. (Screaming.) I just needed to stop. We all needed to stop. I mean, I'm old! I look fabulous, but I'm old. Let Clay Aiken do it for a while! I'll go back, but it won't be the same kind of tour.
Have you been getting the BarryGRAMs? Thank you for writing the questions. These questions are very thought provoking. I really get to know a lot of you through these.
One of the questions in one of the BarryGRAM "Ask Barry" columns was "What is your favorite venue to perform in?" Other than Carnegie Hall, which is amazing because of the history (but the acoustics are bad for electronic instruments) I think if I had to pick one, it would be the London Palladium. That was a great memory for me. That was the "Big Fun" tour highlight. That was one of my all time favorites. That was a wow. I loved that tour. Billy Kidd, Vanessa Brown, Dana Robbins, Debra Byrd. Wow. When we ended that tour, there was a lot of crying. It was a 2-year tour.

(Barry sings "The One That Got Away")

That song reminds me of the "Big Fun" tour. That tour started off promoting the "Swing Street" album and it turned into promoting the purple album.

I was looking through these questions and there are a lot of deep questions. I mean it. You'd be very impressed with yourselves!

QUESTION: Would you do anything different career wise?
BARRY: The shoes.
But everybody looked like that; it wasn't just me that looked like an idiot!
I guess if I had it to do again I wouldn't tour as much as I have. We were on the road a lot. I appreciated all your support but I look back and wonder what my bathroom looks like.

QUESTION: What music are you listening to now?
BARRY: Classical music. I'm working on an original album next for Concord.
Oh, yes, I should tell you that I'm doing a two-hour Christmas special on A&E on December 5th. I get to sing songs from those two great Christmas albums.
Anyway, the next album will be based on classical themes. I'm so over everything on the radio. I had to go back to the classics to get my motor going again. So, that's the music I'm listening to.

QUESTION: Hello Barry, My Love.
BARRY: Do I know you?
QUESTION (continued): Of all the songs you've sung in another language, which one is the hardest?
BARRY: Portuguese. I did a Portuguese album years ago. Anyone who speaks Portuguese is going to hate that album! I think I ruined the language. But YOU try singing "There was blood and a single gunshot but just who shot who?" in Portuguese!

QUESTION: I teach first grade in Pennsylvania. Ever since September 11th my children have been singing "Let Freedom Ring" after the Pledge of Allegiance every day. They have been buying your CDs and bringing them to school. How do you feel about having such a huge impact on these young children?
BARRY: Thanks for doing that. What can I say? You're the reason I do what I do. I think about you when I make records and I think, "Are they going to be proud of me when I put this out?"

QUESTION: Being pleasantly exposed to your music especially in my wife's car, prior to seeing you live in Atlanta, my wife now has enough CDs to last a lifetime. What would you like your legacy to be?
BARRY: I would like to be known as the guy that helped you make out in the car! I would like to be remembered as the guy that made you feel good. I believe that when you're gone what you're remembered for is not what you've done it's how you made people feel.

QUESTION: I'm here with my girlfriends. We have always had fun decorating your dressing rooms. Will you ever allow us to do it again?
BARRY: If we go on tour again, I'm going to tell Garry to let you guys decorate the dressing rooms again. I miss it. After 9/11 everyone got so paranoid, but I miss that.

QUESTION: Would you happen to have any "Mayflower" songs left?
BARRY: You know it took 20 years to write the "Here At The Mayflower" CD. Not songs, but ideas, demos and fragments are left. I think you've heard everything that could possibly come from the "Here At The Mayflower" album. I loved that album.

QUESTION: Who is your favorite author and what book are you reading now?
BARRY: Well, I've said it before, "Conversations With God.” I just love it. It speaks to me. I love what it says. It just makes sense to me. For all I know he's channeling Mr. Potato Head, but I like what he says. It makes me feel good.

QUESTION: You've often said there have been times in your life when you've felt like a misfit. Could you describe how it feels to go from feeling like a misfit to knowing how important you and your music are in people’s lives? Also, do you have any advice for those of us that feel like misfits?
BARRY: Well it feels gratifying to go from feeling like a misfit to having success. It's good to know I'm not crazy. I always believed in what I was doing and all the people around me did too. It feels great to have validation. Although, I always knew I was alright. What's my advice? Believe that you're great. You don't need anyone to tell you.

QUESTION: When you look in the mirror what or whom do you see?
BARRY: I see my bags under my eyes, I see my potbelly. I'm human!

QUESTION: Do you run system 10 on your Mac? I am a Mac/Apple person.
BARRY: Anyone who doesn't use a Mac is crazy.
QUESTION (continued): Are you going to buy one of the new Power Mac 5 models? I already have one.
BARRY: Me too. Without the Mac you wouldn't have a mouse, that's how ahead Mac is.
QUESTION (continued): I bet your hard drive is huge!
BARRY: You are right! It's not Micro-SOFT!

QUESTION: Do you still keep a journal?
BARRY: I do, I've kept a journal every day since the first day I went out with Bette. I'm calling it "Conversations With A Sex God!”

BARRY: I got a lot of questions about the Bette Midler album. Don't you love Bette's album? It's great. What an experience that was. Here are some questions about Bette's CD.
QUESTION: When are you going on tour with Bette?
Are you going to perform with Bette?
Are you going to produce anyone else aside from Bette and Deedles?
We have all had falling outs with people in our lives. What motivated you to call Bette? Were you scared?
BARRY: Scared? No, I wasn't scared.
I had this dream. I always have great ideas right before I get up, before my "editor" is awake. But in the morning, my “ editor" is asleep. So I had this dream about Bette doing a Rosemary Clooney tribute album. I ran to my computer and started making notes and demos of "Mambo Italiano,” "Come On-A My House,” and "Hey There.” I just knew musically that it was the right idea for Bette. I played with it for about a week. I sang it in Bette's key (I sounded like Miss Piggy!).
Then I called Bette and I went over and played the "Miss Piggy" demos for her. She loved it. It was a real easy album to make. I know that the audience can feel when there's no struggle. The hit records, books, whatever the hit, if you talk to their creator, I guarantee you there was no struggle. The ones that crash and burn are the ones that you struggle over. The audience can feel the struggle. This was an easy one.
We went into the studio and we worked with the orchestra and laid down the tracks in 2 days. Bette came in and sang for 3 days and that was it. It was done in 5 days. She'd never been through anything like that. And it entered at #14 and it's doing so well.
So you know, for creators like me, you've got to just catch it before your "editor" wakes up.

QUESTION: I first saw you at the Troubadour in L.A. a long time ago.
BARRY: You remember that dump? Were you there on the first night when I tried to do "Tryin' To Get The Feeling" and I blew it?
QUESTION (continued): My best friend and I love the song "The Best Of Me.

(Barry sings "The Best Of Me.”)

QUESTION: What are some of your good personality quirks and what are some you wish you could change?
BARRY: I have no personality quirks. And, contrary
to reports, I would NEVER change my nose!
By the way, it was a fractured nose, not a broken
one. We all got it confused.

QUESTION: Do you have any idea how many lives you have affected?
BARRY: I do. And I'm grateful for that.
What I've learned as I grow older, (while I never intended to be this old!) I learned you must, MUST take responsibility for the impact that you have on other people. That's the big lesson in life. Because everyone is having an impact on everyone else every second of the day. If I can have a good one, that's great. Maybe I didn't realize the impact I had when I was young and stupid but I do now and I take it very seriously.

QUESTION: How is "Harmony" coming along?
BARRY: We're in the middle of rehearsals for "Harmony!” That's why we're down here because it was supposed to come down to the Parker Playhouse where we were yesterday. It's a beautiful little theatre. But there's hardly any wing space and no fly space at all. The Broadway production wouldn't have fit at the Parker Playhouse. So that's why they had to move it to Philadelphia. We were so thrilled to get the Forrest Theatre in Philadelphia. That is where all of the big musicals have started from "Gypsy" to "Mame.” So we're starting at the Forrest and with a little luck one of the Shubert theaters will open up in New York and we'll slide right in.

QUESTION: When can we expect a "Harmony" soundtrack?
BARRY: Please let me live through the opening night! But as soon as it opens, Garry is already talking about a soundtrack with various record companies.

QUESTION: What changes have been made to "Harmony" since it first opened at the La Jolla Playhouse?
Is it funny?
How much bigger is the show going to be than you originally thought?
Have you and Bruce written any additional material?
BARRY: Yes to all of the above.
" Harmony" is into its 3rd week of rehearsals and it's fantastic, beyond fantastic, I don't have enough words. You're just going to love it.
I don't know how many of you know what "Harmony" is. "Harmony" is based on the true story of the "Comedian Harmonists.”

QUESTION: How did you first hear of them?
BARRY: Bruce and I were looking for a property to write a musical on because that's how we started off.
When we met in the 70's, Bruce and I started off wanting to write a musical. And then "Mandy" got in the way and took me on a totally different road and I learned how to make pop records and I dragged Bruce and Marty and everyone along with me.
" Come on let's write pop songs!" And we did.
I learned how to perform. Thank God for you guys sitting there while I learned on the job. But you know, all the time I wanted to write for the Broadway stage because I knew how to do it. It's one of my favorite things to do. I'm a child of Broadway soundtracks and classical music and jazz.
Pop music just never did it for me. I never even listened to pop music growing up. It was always the scores from "Kismet" or "The King And I" or "The Most Happy Fella,” any of the Rogers & Hammerstein scores and any of the Rogers & Hart scores and any of Frank Loesser's scores.
I studied them; I knew them inside and out.
I went to the Lehman Engle workshop at BMI and that's how I met Bruce. Lehman Engle was one of the great Broadway conductors and he gave a workshop at BMI. Bruce and I met there and that was what I was going to do with my life and then this pop career came along.
After it calmed down Bruce and I started to write animated film scores. We wrote the song score to "Thumbelina.” That was fun. It just reminded us how much fun it was to write for situation and character instead of just another love song. Which is so hard to do.
I don't know how people do it. I did it but writing pop songs was the hardest thing to do.
" Just take a blank piece of paper and write a song that will be comfortable on the radio."
I still don't know how to do that. But if you tell me you should write a song about that tree in that corner. I can do that. I could write a melody and I could probably even write a lyric. That's easier for me. But that blank pop page… Those people who write those pop songs, I give it up to them. If you can do more than one hit in a lifetime, good for you.
So anyway, we wrote the "Thumbelina" score and then we did "The Pebble and the Penguin" and it was just great. So we consciously started looking for a property that we could actually develop for a live Broadway musical.
We both saw a review in the New York Times for a documentary that had been playing at the Public Theater in downtown Manhattan. It was a documentary on this group called the "Comedian Harmonists.” The headline said "Eberhart Feckner's (that was the name of the producer) Documentary of the Comedian Harmonists opens at the Public."

So Bruce went downtown to the Public Theater to see it and he called me from a phone booth on a rainy Sunday night and he said, "I think I've got it. I think I've found it."
He had sat through 2 hours of German documentary making, with subtitles, yet! I got a copy of it and I looked at it and it was the most compelling story I'd ever seen.
They were the Beatles of Germany in the 1930's, they were N'Sync, they were the Backstreet Boys, they were the first boy band ever and they were very, very talented. They sounded like the "Hi-Lo's" or "Take 6" or "The Manhattan Transfer.” They sounded like those real tight singing groups, but they were comedians as well...like the Marx Brothers. They were slapstick, they were crazy. They became the hugest group in Germany, the most successful, funniest, most musical group in Germany. And then they became as popular as you can be in all of Europe; they were the toast of Europe. They even played in America. They sold millions of albums, they made 13 movies, they did commercials -- they were a household name.
And then the Nazis took over.
And that's our second act.
What happened to them is our second act. And it is the most compelling and most moving thing I have ever been involved with. I know you're going to love it.
We are in the third week of rehearsals and there are 6 guys there now that are playing the roles of the "Comedian Harmonists" and they are brilliant.
It's all an original musical. We didn't use any of their original music, we wrote our own.
It's the most thrilling thing I've ever been through in my life. I will be the one blubbering in the back of the theater when it opens. I will be the one with the Kleenex in the back of the house. It opens at the Forrest November 25th so far, knock on wood. Then with a little luck it moves into New York.
So that's what I've been busy with and that's why you haven't seen too much of me. But in the meantime it was Diane Schuur's album, Bette's album, and now "Harmony.”
I know you wish us luck and cross your fingers. Please come if you can because I know you'll love it, I know you'll love it.

QUESTION: A group of us saw David Friedman's review in New York City last week.
BARRY: His talent comes from some other place. There are some people who just have it and, he's one of them. David wrote, "You're There" and "We Live On Borrowed Time" and "I'll Be Here With You" and so many others. I don't usually like singing other people's material, but David Friedman, well, forget it, man.

QUESTION: Hi Barry.
Watching the AIDS ASSISTANCE PROGRAM benefit, what do I have to do to be gazed at like you did Suzanne Somers?
BARRY: Hooters!
Suzanne… One of the greats. One of the great human beings in the world. Suzanne Somers.

QUESTION: If you had just minutes to leave your home due to fire or some other situation, other than pet life, what would you want to grab and take with you and why?
BARRY: The "Girls Gone Wild" Video!
Um, I guess I would grab my journals.

QUESTION: I'm fascinated when I listen to the background music in your songs. I realize as an arranger you decide which instruments are put in a certain part of the song. Is it you who makes up a short melody of these instruments. For example, the song "I Made It Through The Rain,” the strings that are played after you sing "…and start your own parade.” Also in the song "Where Or When" at the end.
BARRY: Well it's a combination of three people for every album. I'm good at the big idea. And then one of my “quirks” or imperfections is I get bored real easy. I guess it's because I'm a Gemini. We get bored real easy. I'm really not good at the details. I get these big ideas and then I have to hire people or work with people that can fill in all of the details. They're very talented and they love doing it and they're called either arrangers or my co-producers or my musicians and I let them do it.
On "I Made It Through The Rain" that was Victor Vanacore who arranged that song and came up with that line. On "Where Or When" that was my wonderful friend, the talented Eddie Arkin. Then there was Artie Butler that does those great arrangements that we all know and love like "Copacabana.”

QUESTION: What do you do when you hear one of your songs come on the radio? Do you change the station, do you analyze it, or do you just sit back and enjoy the rest of it?
BARRY: I like it. I do. I'm proud of the work I've done over the years. I'm grateful that they're even playing my songs. It's thrilling if I hear "Mandy" now and again. That one still sounds pretty good. I'm not sure about "Ships,” that one's too high a key.

QUESTION: Great to see you again. You're looking good and relaxed.
BARRY: How do you know? You wrote this before you saw me! She's psychic.
QUESTION: What do you think of Westlife's cover of "Mandy?”
BARRY: I haven't heard it yet. A group like that would sound great on my catalog of songs. Didn't Take That do "Could It Be Magic?”

QUESTION: Your work touches upon so many emotions inside of me. Sometimes your work can bring a memory back to me that I have not thought of in years. I am curious to know what percentage of your work is inspired by your own life experiences and what percentage is pure artistic interpretation?
BARRY: I think that everything I create probably comes from some emotion I've felt. Unless it's the State Farm Insurance commercial! Which they are still playing, thank you very much! I got paid 500 dollars for that 35 years ago!
Everything I create comes from some feeling I've felt over the years. As far as the outside material that I've sung, I try to find the truth in it. That's the whole trick to performing - truth. If you find the truth in everything you do and if you've got a little bit of talent, you've got a career. That's it. It's all about the truth. Those people that we don't connect with, they haven't found the truth.
I mean, what is this with these people singing with their eyes closed? What is that? Don't you want to say, "Open your eyes!"? I do. If I go to a concert and if they're singing with their eyes closed, I last three songs and I leave because I figure well, they must be singing to themselves. They sure aren't singing to me!

QUESTION: Are you the type of person who likes their life planned days in advance or do you like spur of the moment life?
BARRY: Uh, no. I don't like spur of the moment anything.
I put the "P" in Prepared. What can I tell you? I like parameters I feel safe with them. Anyone who comes from an alcoholic family likes to feel safe. In order to feel safe I like to create parameters. I know where I'm going, I know where the end is, I know where the beginning is, and then I can have fun in the middle. I just don't like just throwing it up in the air. It's not my thing. I usually make an idiot of myself when I do.

QUESTION: How are you?
BARRY: Fine.
QUESTION (continued): No really?
BARRY: No, really… fine!
QUESTION: Would you please explain the background about the picture of you in the suit standing in the swimming pool?
BARRY: I like that picture. It was the end of the shoot and this wonderful photographer, Jeff Katz he said, "Okay, just step into the swimming pool." And I said, "Are you kidding?" But I did. It's a great shot. That's it. There's no deep meaning to it.

QUESTION: I'm turning 40 next year, what do you do for your birthdays?
BARRY: When I turn 40 I'll tell you what it's like. I've kind of been enjoying my birthdays.

QUESTION: What is the best thing about being "Barry" and what is the worst thing about being "Barry"?
BARRY: The best thing about having success was last week I was able to renew my driver's license and I didn't have to take a test or wait in line! I just had to sign a couple of autographs and off I went. Those are the perks I get. It was great.
Worst thing is missing out on friendships. I just know that I have missed out on some great friendships because this image of "BARRY MANILOW" walks into the room before I do. I just know there have been some people in some elevators I've met that I could have been great friends with or at least had some good conversations with, but they just couldn't get past that image or I had to be whisked off by security or something. That's the only thing I regret.

(Barry sings "Where Does The Time Go")

Hi-
Me, Barry, again.
Reading the transcription really doesn't give you any of the excitement and beauty that was in that room. Once, again, thanks to everyone who helped put the entire
weekend together. Most of all thanks to the folks who
actually schlepped down to Florida to be a part of it.
I hope you had fun. Let's do it again, soon!
Barry

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Please send your questions via fax to 310-957-5789 or via email to askbarry@manilow.com

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