Rudy Giuliani might be grabbing all of the attention (and for good reason) during Trump’s post-election fiasco, but behind him, there’s a smirking lady lawyer member of Trump’s “Elite Strike Force.” That would be Jenna Ellis, who’s stood near Rudy for the hair goo and every other recent adventure, including his audible gas-passing (complete with Jenna side-eye) during a Michigan hearing. That’s the same hearing where he asked a woman next to him to take off her mask, four days before testing positive for COVID-19, and given that Jenna sits next to Rudy, oh boy.
Axios reported on Tuesday morning that Jenna had “informed associates she tested positive for the coronavirus,” which upset a lot of people since she attended a West Wing Christmas party (where people brought their families?) on Friday. She undoubtedly acquired the virus as part of her work on the Elite Strike Force (and likely caught it from Rudy, and yes, there are more fart jokes), but she believes that she’s doing God’s work. Via Raw Story, here’s what Jenna had to say to Fox Business when asked how she feels about people thinking she’s crazy for pushing the “election fraud” conspiracy into lawsuit after failed lawsuit:
“You know, my life is in service and honor to the Lord Jesus Christ. And so whatever anybody else says really doesn’t bother me… and that’s ultimately at the end of the day, as long as I know that I’m pursuing truth and I’m doing the right thing for God and my country, that’s all that matters. So that’s what gives me my optimism and my hope.”
Her words stand on their own in terms of being truly bonkers, but it’s worth revisiting Jonathan Swan’s Axios report. He wrote that Jenna would neither confirm nor deny “test[ing] positive and that some senior staff weren’t happy,” Jenna responded that Swan was “rude” to text so late in the evening (after midnight). She added, “You must be more informed than me because I haven’t heard that,” and then she stopped responding when Swan asked if she denied having Covid-19. “Rude” might apply to a lot more in this situation than texting after midnight, but alright.
A long time ago, one of the biggest criticisms of hip-hop by music traditionalists was that the new genre didn’t use any “real instruments.” Condescending rock snobs thumbed their noses at early rap producers’ use of drum machines, samples, and turntable mixers, deriding them for using technology in place of honored tools like real drum sets, guitars, keyboards, and whatever other sounds could be used to make popular music.
We’ve come a long way since then; rap has become one of the most popular genres in the world and more often than not, the two styles have informed each other. As one incorporated new technologies, the other began to rely more and more on live instruments and musicians to embellish and build on the once-simple formula established by producers of old. And one group of musicians stands at the forefront of innovation in hip-hop: 1500 Or Nothin.
Established by musician/producer Larrance “Rance” Dopson and singer-songwriter James Fauntleroy in the early 2000s — along with Lamar Edwards and Brody Brown, as well as Kenneth “Bam” Alexander Jr., Alexandria Dopson, Charles “Uncle Chucc” Hamilton, Carlos “Los” McSwain, and Jeret “J. Black” Black — 1500 Or Nothin began as a band and quickly expanded into a do-everything collective of musicians, producers, songwriters, and videographers generating content for the biggest names in music, from Jay-Z to Justin Timberlake.
However, simply being one of the low-key biggest names in music wasn’t enough for James and Rance. Seeing a need not only for skilled musicians and producers in the music world but also for business-savvy ones, they decided to turn their double-decade level of experience into a curriculum preparing working musicians for the real world. They established the 1500 Sound Academy in their stomping grounds of Inglewood, California in 2018, partnering with entrepreneur Twila True and instrument manufacturers like Roland to provide state-of-the-art equipment, practice rooms, and recording studios to students participating in their six-month certificate program.
Students learn the business from working musicians like “Air” Jared Selter, an award-winning sound designer and producer, jazz revivalist Terrace Martin, production duo Mike & Keys, and Fauntleroy, who has written hits for Beyonce, Frank Ocean, Jay-Z, and more. The curriculum includes everything from networking to contracts — the importance of which has been highlighted several times over the past year. The building even has a performance stage, where students can jam out to their hearts’ content after classes.
The Sound Academy doesn’t just teach musicians the business, though. It actually helps them find positions within it and thrive. While many starry-eyed aspiring producers often see themselves accepting Grammys for producing hits for Kendrick Lamar, the Sound Academy shows them hundreds of other opportunities for lucrative behind-the-scenes work that mainstream fans may not even be aware of. The Academy is building, slowly but surely, a community of artists who can rely on each for support, even after they’ve completed their courses.
In an interview over the phone, Rance says his goal is to help make musicians “unemployable.” While that sounds counterintuitive, what he really means is he wants to ensure that they have all the tools and know-how to work for themselves so they can create their own opportunities and ensure their longevity. While some elder statesmen would rather withhold that information to curtail future competition, Rance, James, and the rest of the 1500 collective sees themselves as empowering artists in an industry where knowledge is power.
What was the process of beginning the 1500 Sound Academy?
I’ve traveled around the world. I got like three filled passports. So I’ve been able to pay attention to a lot of the problems around the world in the entertainment business. So I always kept notes of that. James, at that time, was writing for all the biggest artists in the world to where we were just gathering information and solving problems and seeing what was going wrong in the music business and how could people like us, as writers and producers, be treated fair. It was just a lot of things we didn’t understand about the business that we didn’t think was right.
We just wanted to create our own curriculum with expert opinions, because in the music business there really isn’t rules for this. Due to the fact that it’s a new day and age of technology, everything is new. So everyone does music differently and we just want to be a blueprint of what the music business is today in the fairest, high-level way.
What would you say is probably the most important thing for a young, up-and-coming artist to know about the music business?
We try to teach you how to be unemployable. I tell people all the time, it’s really about being able to create a thought and for it to really happen. So I tell people all the time, the only thing people can do is license my thoughts and ideas as partners, just because I understand how powerful it is when you understand and know all the rules to break the rules.
Our school is the school for that, to literally teach you everything from the music business to emotional intelligence. We have songwriting classes, financial literacy classes. It’s everything at a high-level, so you can at least know how to do everything on your own and you’re learning from industry professionals that are really in the business today
What’s one thing that you’re surprised that people don’t know about the music business when they come in?
Publishing. Really understanding the music business, the publishing, the royalty system, and how it really works. And just learning how to be a good person. Ninety percent of the business is just being someone cool, to where you can do business with your friends when you get to a certain level. Also, not reacting to emotional and low-level things to where it’ll ruin your opportunity. I see a lot of that in the business. You’ll make an emotional reaction, where if you really thought about it and just took your time and relaxed, that could change your whole life. It’s really simple things.
Speaking of making music with your friends, you have one of the most impressive lists of friends in terms of people you’ve worked with and people who do business with you. Who was the first person that you worked with that you were just utterly starstruck to be sitting in as a musician or engineering or producing for them?
Well, when I first started, I got my first hit when I was 17. I’m 36 now.
But I would have to say, Snoop Dogg. Between Snoop Dogg and Jay-Z. They gave us our first opportunity. We were blessed to have the opportunity to work on “Show Me What You Got” with Just Blaze and Jay-Z and Snoop Dogg. They really opened the door and it gave us an opportunity. They were like our uncles that loved us, so they really protected us and taught us a lot about the music business and I just appreciate them for that.
What is the importance of having live musicians on deck? What do they bring to the production process that you normally wouldn’t get from a sample or a synthesizer?
It’s really like if you want food in a microwave or if you want food from the oven. There’s a big difference. Food from the microwave, you can hear it. Food from the oven, you can feel it. So it’s a difference. People could tell that you care. People don’t even realize when they hear music and when they move, it’s because they’re feeling it and not even realizing it. That’s one of the secrets to us being the producers we are. We know how to mix everything in one to make all genres happy.
What things have changed the most since you started?
Well, thank God, we really understood branding at an early stage, because one of the most powerful things for branding is word-of-mouth. So I was the guy, every day, wearing a 1500 T-shirt. Every award show. Every time you seen us, we really wanted to let everybody know who we was and create a brand for ourselves. And now it’s much easier. I don’t have to wear a T-shirt every day, because you know who we are.
Then, we were learning the rules. Now, we’re breaking the rules and helping other people learn the rules too, so they can break them. And that’s the most important part. That’s why me and James went through it, man. That’s why I wanted to build the Sound Academy — to have a place where we can really train these people because I’m getting calls every day.
There’s opportunities for movies and TV shows and award shows. Every single day that they’re calling me for business. But we have to make sure we train them right to where they can deal with superstars and deal with an emotional person and know how not to react and know how to just be a good person where you can stay memorable — for them to call you again for the next gig and just to keep favor with your name. That’s so important and that’s what changed.
To that end, I would really love to know where some of the 1500 Sound Academy students ended up.
They’re on fire, man. Some of them have been in Kanye West’s choir. They’ve been touring. We got some working for Young Thug. We got a couple of people working with Roc Nation. After you graduate, you’re one of us. So when there’s opportunities and we know that you could fit the job, it makes total sense for us to call them and hook them up. I still have sessions and bring our students to my studio sessions and just show them the real experience. Because to know is to experience and we just want to really teach them hands-on so they can actually see it and be inspired. All it takes is one time or one conversation to change someone’s life forever, so we want to keep building those opportunities.
Speaking about opportunities, what were some of your favorites from over the years and what drew you to those opportunities in the first place?
Roddy Ricch’s Tiny Desk concert. I just executive produced Trippie Redd’s album that came out. We’re working on Justin Timberlake’s new album. I know James is doing Bruno Mars’s album right now. Jeezy album comes out Friday. I worked on that. We’re pretty much working with everybody right now in the business. Today I have to do a show with Roddy Ricch and we’re doing AMAs with Lil Baby and I’m the musical director for that. We just did Megan Thee Stallion. All her shows and her award shows, I’m the musical director for that.
You’ve done a lot of interviews over the years. You’ve talked to a lot of different publications. I’m sure you’ve heard every question in the book. But every artist has that one question that they wish people would ask them that they never heard because it’s something they want to talk about, but nobody ever gives them that opportunity.
Why there are only like two superstars and why are there so many artists that don’t make it. I know the answer. You want the answer?
Go for it.
I learned this from one of my close friends, Big Bob. He’s a guy that taught me and Nipsey Hussle and a lot of other people about branding. You got to know the 22 immutable laws of branding. It’s a book. It’s called [The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding: How to Build a Product Or Service Into a World-Class Brand]. If anybody says they’re a business person, but they don’t know those laws… They have to know these laws.
If you miss number nine and number 16, your whole business can fail. You don’t even know why it’s failing. So it teaches you things like every brand has to own one word in the hearts and the mind of the consumer. So let’s say if I say FedEx. If I say FedEx, the first word in the mind that they own is overnight. So if I say your name, if I say an artist’s name, what is the first word they own? What is your cure for the world? Am I going to listen to your music when I want to work out or when I want to go to sleep or when I want to just chill or when I ride in the car? You have to figure out what is your cure.
It talks about stuff like a new brand never sells advertising. That’s the one mistake every label does when they tell their artists, “Say, ‘Hey, go buy my album, go buy my album.’” And that’s the number one thing you’re not supposed to do. It’s called favorable publicity. Favorable publicity is when you have other people talking about your album. That’s what you want to get people to do.
There’s a guy named Clayton Christensen I think everybody needs to really study. He created the word disruptive innovation. When you really understand that and figure out how to create your own category, your own words, your own market to where there’s no traffic in your own lane, that’s when you can really differentiate yourself and then have people talking about you. Because it’s about being the news seven days of the week and if you can’t be in the news, in the conversation of people, it’s not going to work. It’s about being a sensory brand. You have to cover all the senses. You got to be able to sell every sense. And when artists figure that out, then they’ll have some money and they’ll be successful. The end.
Republicans in Arizona are taking this whole “Stop The Steal” campaign to a new level. The official Twitter account for the Arizona Republican Party has started retweeting Trump supporters who claim they’re willing to die for their belief that the 2020 Presidential election was rigged. Trump of course has been pushing this narrative since Joe Biden won a couple of weeks ago, claiming voter fraud in key swing states like Arizona was to blame for his loss. His legal team has drafted up suits in a handful of states, but they’ve all been tossed out of court due to lack of evidence. Trump’s legal team — headed by a Covid-stricken Rudy Giuliani — has been peddling conspiracy theories and holding unofficial hearings to prove their case, but again, no tangible evidence of voter fraud has come to light.
That doesn’t seem to have done much to sway Arizona Republicans though.
It’s more than troubling to witness a political body encouraging supporters to take up arms and risk human life in order to keep Trump in office, especially for opponents of the current administrations who have been battling against these voting misinformation campaigns since the election. Pennsylvania Lt. Governor John Fetterman is one of those people, and he quickly took to Twitter to condemn his fellow politicians.
The AZ GOP put out a casting call for martyrs over Twitter.
This is truly bonkers and unbelievably dangerous.
I’ve been saying all along about how *punitive* it is to be a Republican who just simply acknowledges electoral *reality*. https://t.co/w2Zrma0VrQ
Some other social media onlookers jumped on the train too, dragging the party’s official account and a few Trump supporters who were trying to drum up support for this whole “take up arms” movement.
I mean, Trump has been asking people to die for his economy since April. Pretty on brand for the modern @GOP
Our only pressing question right now though is this: Did no one teach these guys how to lose with dignity? And also, is Donald Trump really someone worth dying for?
Future’s “Mask Off” is about freedom. Freedom from the figurative masks we wear to conceal what lies beneath. The feeling of freedom that drugs provide. Metro Boomin’s stoned flute lick rides as smooth as the chromed-out luxury whip Future steers through the song’s music video, Amber Rose riding shotgun. But masks can also mean freedom as Future looks over rioting and looting, face coverings used to conceal identities, empowering people to embrace anarchy.
Released in 2017, “Mask Off” was Future’s greatest chart success at the time. Comfortably fitting into his distinctly cosmic brand of hip-hop, it’s not a gimmick track, yet popularity immediately made it extremely meme-friendly. Fans performed the famous flute lick with whatever they could: violins, electric guitars, saxophones, trumpets, trombones, and vocal chords skewered to breaking point. The song even has its own dance. “Mask Off” was definitively a pop culture phenomenon.
Future could never have envisioned that by 2020 the title of the song would double as a chilling command. Masks and face-coverings are one of the most important tools in the fight against Covid-19 because they are one of the simplest. Taking them off in public is a bad idea. Future knew this to be true and so he inverted the message. The “Mask On” initiative saw the Atlanta star partnering with a local sewing organization to provide facemasks to hospital workers and patients. This was March, when masks were in short supply. A March 9 New York Times report, which featured Atlanta’s Grady Memorial Hospital in its reporting, stated: “With global supplies already depleted from the outbreak in China and manufacturers facing an explosion of new orders as the virus spreads, some hospitals in the United States have been unable to get new shipments of N95 masks or even an estimate of when they might become available.”
Future’s initiative was implemented via the FreeWishes Foundation, founded by the rapper (real name: Nayvadius Wilburn), his mother Stephanie Jester, and his sister Tia Wilburn-Anderson. It came about when the foundation started seeing the news reports of doctors forced to reuse masks, with some getting infected with Covid-19 because of the lack of adequate equipment. At first they considered simply ordering the masks the healthcare workers required but quickly found this would be impossible. So instead, FreeWishes partnered with Atlanta Sewing Style, which organized 500 people to make and deliver the masks.
“As most people adapt to the new normal of staying quarantined to protect themselves from the coronavirus, healthcare professionals do not have this privilege,” the foundation said at the time. “In addition, they do not even have enough supplies to protect themselves from contracting the coronavirus.”
A month later, members of the organization set the number of masks made at more than six figures. The organization set out to make a difference and provide those masks, and they believe that they’ve easily reached more than 100,000 people. “Some orders that we have, we provided 5,000 masks and then 3,000 here, another 500 there,” Abesi Manyando, FreeWishes’s Communications and Brand Strategist told Complex in April. “We’ve certainly reached hundreds of thousands of people.”
Future himself has not spoken publicly about the initiative. I suspect the lack of involvement in the communications side of things is to ensure that his philanthropy can’t be framed as being in the interest of his career. Or perhaps as a wealthy person in the bracket of most protected and with the least to lose from the pandemic, he’s self-aware enough to stay in the background on this. Still, it’s powerful that a man with Future’s reach and influence has backed the use of face coverings for all to see. And it’s worth saying that Nayvadius practices what he preaches — albeit with his own ostentatious (perhaps overly so) spin. In June he showed up to the BET Awards with his daughter, the pair wearing flashy face coverings made with brass frames and Swarovski crystals said to have cost between $2,500 and $3,000 each.
Additionally, July saw the announcement of FreeWishes’s new scholarship scheme for students affected by the pandemic. High school graduates who were due to be enrolled on a college course in the second half of 2020 were asked to submit a video about how the Covid-19 negatively affected their education. The maximum award was $2,500. And in September, FreeWishes announced a delivery service that gives senior citizens in Atlanta packages containing first aid kits, masks, snacks, books on health and wellness, and various essentials, as well as providing health services.
In a world where some remain skeptical of celebrity’s advocating for political or social causes, it’s impossible not to see the benefit of rappers using their resources and influence to place masks in the hands of people who need them and, in doing so, endorsing a practice that requires mass compliance to be highly effective. Especially as the politicizing of that practice has become a needlessly divisive issue in the United States. When the country and the planet hopefully sees the other side of this thing, Future is one of the millions of citizens who can say he did his part.
It seems like nearly everyone is jumping on the OnlyFans bandwagon this year after celebrities began flocking to the site to post exclusive content. Cardi B launched her page this August and has kept it relatively tame despite the racy content for which the site is best known. 50 Cent, however, may not be as PG.
50 Cent took to social media Monday to tease the possibility of launching an OnlyFans page. The rapper posted a post-workout photo flexing his biceps and gauged interest in starting a potential account. “i’m getting back in shape, in shape,” he wrote. “girl you want to see go to my LOL ONLYFANS PAGE.”
i’m getting back in shape, in shape girl you want to see go to my LOL ONLYFANS PAGE.. Now why would you go looking at, I am a boy Damon WTF I change my mind. LOL pic.twitter.com/HjBKouTvm2
50 Cent has been critical of women joining the site in the past, but it seems like he’s changed his mind — something that he’s not shy about doing. Just ahead of November’s election, 50 announced he was voting for Trump after seeing that Joe Biden’s tax plan. But after a conversation with his ex-girlfriend Chelsea Handler, who offered to pay his taxes if he promised to vote blue, the rapper confirmed that he had changed his mind about voting for Trump.
Check out 50’s OnlyFans teaser above.
Cardi B is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
Run-DMC and 12on12 have released a limited-edition vinyl paying tribute to Jam Master Jay on the 35th anniversary of the group’s third album, Raising Hell. With artwork created by LA artist Reena Tolentino, the release is a compilation curated by Darryl “DMC” McDaniels and Joseph “Run” Simmons, featuring “a premium package” and “double-disc gatefold vinyl with exclusive Run-DMC labels featured on the discs.”
Only 500 copies have been made, so the price tag of $225 just might be worth it for serious collectors. The album itself features hip-hop classics like “Superrappin” by Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five, as well as Run-DMC’s own “Rock Bock” and the original Aerosmith version of “Walk This Way.” There’s also a beanie available for $50 or you can get both bundled for $260. Check it out here.
Track Listing:
Side A
1.) “Superrappin’” by Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five
2.) “Seven Minutes of Funk” by The Whole Darn Family
Side B
1.) “Planet Rock” by Afrika Bambaataa & Soul Sonic Force
On Tuesday, the United Kingdom became the world’s earliest Western nation to give vaccinations for COVID-19, a major step forward in ending the coronavirus pandemic. The first person to receive the shot was 90-year-old Margaret Keenan, followed by 81-year-old William Shakespeare (he didn’t write King Lear in quarantine, but maybe he finally caught up with The Sopranos, an equally impressive accomplishment).
But let’s also give it up for Martin Kenyon, 91, who became an “international superstar” after his CNN interview where he made getting a vaccination sound as easy as getting a cup of coffee. Assuming you can find any parking.
“I rang up Guy’s Hospital, which I know very well because I’ve lived in London most of my grown-up life, and I said what’s the thing, you’re doing the vaccination? They said, ‘Yes.’ And then they spent time asking me questions about this and that, not very interesting. I said, ‘Yes, no, yes, no.’ And they said, ‘Come at 12.’ Of course, I damn well couldn’t find anywhere to park my car, so I was late,” Martin told a reporter. He then complained about having a “rather nasty lunch” before getting the vaccine,” which “didn’t hurt at all. I didn’t know the needle had gone in until it had come out.”
When asked about being one of the first people in the world to have received the vaccine, Martin replied, “I don’t think I feel about it all, except that I hope that I don’t have the bloody bug now… I have granddaughters and I want to live a long time to enjoy their lives.” He added, “Well, there’s no point in dying now when I’ve lived this long, is there? I don’t plan to, anyway.” It’s about bloody time we got some good news.
Kenyon is also being hailed as the “most British man” ever on Twitter.
Martin Kenyon had a nasty lunch and couldn’t find any damn where to park his car but is pretty happy out to have gotten the #COVID19 vaccine.pic.twitter.com/FqzGDkDUKX
This is Peak British right here. Martin Kenyon has just had the vaccination — sorry, inoculation. Could almost be a Monty Python sketch. Lovely man. pic.twitter.com/IZG2v0wJCS
The Golden State Warriors enter this season in a very strange spot. After what they hoped would be a single gap year between contending in which their two stars were hurt, this was supposed to be the bounce back season where they challenged the Lakers for Western Conference supremacy.
However, while Stephen Curry is back at full strength they will once again be without Klay Thompson for the season after he suffered a torn Achilles coming off of a grueling rehab from a torn ACL. It was a devastating injury for the All-Star shooting guard, and the team shuffled their offseason plans to try and still find a way to be in the mix this season, trading for Kelly Oubre Jr. to fill that hole on the wing. How that works out remains to be seen, although there’s hope that Curry, Oubre, and Andrew Wiggins can make for an impactful scoring trio, and the hope remains that Thompson can make a full recovery for next season.
For the 32-year-old Curry, he’s not too worried about where his or the Warriors window is at right now, and the former two-time MVP is working with the team on a hopeful contract extension that can help keep him in the Bay for the entirety of his career, as he told the media in a Zoom call on Monday, via the Associated Press.
“Wearing the same jersey for as long as I can, that’s a huge goal, for sure. It’s an elite club of guys that you look at that have played with the same organization and been successful and achieved greatness in that respect,” said Curry, who turns 33 in March.
“That would be an awesome accomplishment, something I’ve obviously spoken publicly about and very committed to. But that also goes with there’s a lot more to be accomplished on the court and again I can’t fast forward to what the end is going to be. Enjoy the moment, enjoy the challenges that we have in front of us and what I have left to accomplish as a player.”
Curry also noted that his goal is to play at least as long as his father, who had a 16-year career, which would mean at least four more years for Steph, while also noting he hopes to play to “closer to 40,” even if his wife, Ayesha, isn’t always so keen on the idea.
“I have a floating target on that, for sure. Any time I say I want to play up to 40 she’ll definitely give me a little look,” Curry said.
In any case, Curry is ready to lock in with the Warriors for the long haul again, even with some uncertainty about his longtime supporting stars in Thompson and Draymond Green.
Even before “WAP,” Cardi B was one of the most talked-about people in all of music. That extends to TV as well, and she recently got a mention in a new episode of Family Guy. Cardi caught wind of the nod and used it as an opportunity to call out her detractors.
Cardi shared a clip of the scene in question and added the tongue-in-cheek caption, “I’m so irrelevant.” The clip comes from the eighth episode of Season 19, titled “Pawtucket Pat,” which aired on Sunday, December 6. In the episode, Brian Griffin gets a job writing for a local website, and there’s a scene that shows the job interview. In the conversation, Brian is asked to present some samples of his work, and he says of one, “Cardi B tweeted something and I retweeted it with this, this, this, this, this” (which takes on a new meta layer of irony here given the nature of this very post). The interviewer enthusiastically responds, “Wow! That is some top-shelf journalism!”
This isn’t the first time Cardi has used an accomplishment to sarcastically call herself “irrelevant.” She did so earlier this year when the remix of her Instagram video about the coronavirus made its way up the iTunes charts. Somebody on Twitter called her irrelevant in 2016 and she fired back, “So irrelevant that you talking about me [laughing emojis].”
It’s kind of hard to believe Frank Marshall, who has been involved in so many canon blockbusters over the last 40 years – from the Indiana Jones movies to the Back to the Future movies to the Jurassic Park movies – that he himself hasn’t directed a movie in 14 years, not since 2006’s Eight Below. (He says a big reason for this is his duties with the production company that he runs with his wife, Kathleen Kennedy, have increased since she took over Lucasfilm.) But now Marshall is back with his new documentary that will premiere on HBO this weekend, The Bee Gees: How Can You Mend a Broken Heart.
It’s pretty obvious Marshall has an empathetic soft spot for The Bee Gees, and even though they have been given tremendous accolades, it actually does feel like they still don’t get quite their due. (It’s difficult to think of a musical artist that was as big as The Bee Gees and in the late ’70s, with the then-number one album of all time, then just a couple of years after, as Marshall points out in the film, the racial and anti-gay disco backlash, they couldn’t even get a song on the radio.) Also, it’s a tragic story, as Barry Gibb is the only brother still alive, having lost his two fellow bandmates over the last couple of decades, and his youngest brother, Andy, back in 1988.
Steven Spielberg is no longer directing the often-delayed Indiana Jones 5, but Marshall is still producing the now-James Mangold-directed sequel and Marshall gives us an update on what’s going on and actually, at least when you hear the tone of his voice, sounded pretty optimistic that they are finally in a good place. Marshall also looks back on his first directed film, Arachnophobia (which might have a remake soon but, as with everything these days, who knows if and when) and shares some stories about how spiders just don’t react well to direction.
So, it’s hard to find good light for a video call when two people living in the same apartment have an interview at the same time.
I know the problem. I had to make my bed this morning because I have a bed in my office that I use for naps in between my Zoom calls. But then I looked and went, oh, it’s in the background.
I wouldn’t judge you if your bed was unmade. Ours is currently unmade, too.
[Laughs] Okay.
This is the first time I’m talking to you about a movie where the word “wind” is not in the title.
[Laughs] Yeah. I’m glad that we got The Other Side of the Wind done. But I’m ready to move on.
Before that I spoke to you about The Wind Rises.
Listen. Two movies I’m very proud of. So I’m glad you’re doing the third.
And this is the first movie you’ve directed in 14 years. That’s surprising.
Yeah. It’s the first feature. That’s true. It seems like yesterday I was out there in the cold with the dogs [in Eight Below]. But when Kathy [Kennedy] took over Lucasfilm, it left me alone with The Kennedy/Marshall Company. So I really focused on producing and running the company. We branched out in the documentaries and live theatre. I’ve been enjoying that. This one just came along. All of my choices as a director have been stories that I’ve been passionate about telling. So I was very happy to do this one.
Did you actually miss directing? Or, as you said, with her at Lucasfilm, were you just too busy with the other stuff to have time to miss it?
It’s such a focus thing for me when I’m directing something, in a theatrical feature. Not a documentary. Because the documentary, directing it is different than directing Eight Below. I didn’t really miss it. But it’s more creative when you’re directing. It’s your baby. This was a nice blend between the two.
I think every human being who has ever paid attention to The Bee Gees has one of two shocking Bee Gees moments: When their longtime fans heard their dance music. And then when people who know their dance music first hear their earlier music.
Yeah! I think that’s what I wanted to re-introduce people to. I think people felt that they were lightweight. And they’re really heavyweight. The scope of their music, they wrote over a thousand songs. I forget the numbers on how many were number one. But they’ve had an incredible impact on musical history. It’s really deep. Their gifts and their creativity and everything was amazing. I really wanted to dig into that. When you say to people, oh, yeah, “Islands in the Stream,” that was written by the Bee Gees. They go, “What?”
Speaking of that, I just heard “Heartbreaker” by Dionne Warwick. For the first time I noticed the backing vocals are them. I’d never noticed that before.
They have touched the collective unconscious, I guess you would call it, around the world for five decades.
HBO
How did Barry Gibb seem to you? In the film he comes off a bit forlorn, but also he’s talking about his brothers who he misses.
Yeah, I think that’s normal. He misses his brothers. So there was a little sadness there. But he also wants to celebrate them. He was very generous and supportive and enthusiastic. He welcomed us into his home. Again, it was a little bittersweet to be talking to him. But he was gracious and humble. I loved him reflecting back, because I don’t think he ever did. We all have our standard answers to those questions that we get asked a million times, about our careers and things. The memories came pouring out. It was great. I think that he liked exploring the journey that he had been on and what was important. He’s the older brother, as am I. I come from a musical family. So we had a lot to talk about.
When you mentioned questions you’re asked a million times, I’m guessing the movie you’re referencing is The Money Pit.
[Laughs] No.
A movie I do love by the way. I’m not making fun of The Money Pit.
Yes. Thank you. The one they do all ask me about is The Goonies. I go, “What?”
Andy Gibb is a tragic figure and could have his own documentary. How did you factor how much time to give him here, who wasn’t technically a Bee Gee.
It was a challenge. The biggest challenge, obviously, is that Barry is the last man standing. I wanted to give each of the brothers their own voice. How we weave that into the story, it took a long time, but I have a great team. We spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to get Andy in there and give him his moments. Again, a very sad story. But he was about to become a member of the band, which I found fascinating. We just had to find the moment to make it feel organic. That took a lot of work.
I had a hard time coming up with a modern comparison to what happened to The Bee Gees between the late ’70s and early ’80s. I can’t think of anyone who was that popular, and then just a couple of years later couldn’t even get on the radio.
I think that Chris Martin, he explained it. He said they were on the front wave of that global super pop stardom, he calls it, I think. Or the first wave of it. Nobody understood the backlash then. “We just sold a billion albums, why doesn’t anybody like us anymore?”
I watched Staying Alive recently. It’s very weird what Stallone did with The Bee Gees music in that movie…
I can’t say I know that movie.
It’s the sequel to Saturday Night Fever. That’s Sylvester Stallone directed. He relegated their music to the background and gave Frank Stallone all the good parts.
There you go. They weren’t taken seriously. The other thing that was amazing to me, though, was how they were always adapting. They adapted. It’s partly, I think, because they were brothers. And even if they were split up, they had to see each other at Christmas and talk about it. But they weren’t disco. They didn’t discover or invent disco. They came into it. The backlash of having to have FBI escorts and bomb threats and all that, that was crazy. But that was really, I think, part of the social change that was going on. That’s why I was really happy to get the interview with the usher at Comiskey Park [for the infamous Disco Demolition Night].
He was really great. And how he said a lot of the records people brought weren’t even disco, they were just records from Black artists.
Yeah. To really put a personal perspective on what was happening back then and how he saw it. It wasn’t The Bee Gees’ fault. They just got caught up in it all. They found another way. That’s when they went to the songwriting and then, 10 years later, it was okay to come back together again. I don’t know if you’ve ever watched the One Night Only concert. It’s incredible. It was in Vegas. They’re at the height of their powers. They stand up there for two and a half hours and do every song you love. It’s amazing.
I’m curious why you didn’t include the Sgt. Pepper movie. Because I am fascinated by that film.
Just no time. I think there’s a whole movie just in that.
A bit before the pandemic, it was announced that a remake Arachnophobia is happening with James Wan. I’m curious what you think of that. I’m actually surprised that it hasn’t happened earlier.
I’m flattered. They came and asked me and I said, yeah, sure. For me, it was the start of my directing career, so it has a special place. I’m very proud of that movie. It seems to hold up even 30 years later! I think what’s going to be interesting is that we were forced into using real spiders.
They probably won’t do that this time.
I think that could be risky. Because a lot of the movie was created by those moments you couldn’t predict. I would let the spiders do what they wanted.
Did you have much to say in what they wanted to do? I feel like they just do what they want to do.
Yeah, I said they need to come out of the popcorn bowl, but we didn’t know where they would come out. They didn’t take direction well, let’s put it that way.
With James Mangold taking over directing Indiana Jones 5, you’re still involved, right? I think you are?
Yeah.
Is that movie cursed? Because every time it seems like it’s about ready to get going, something happens. And now we have this happen where the world changed.
I think we’re on the right track now, Mike.
Okay. Why is that?
I think everybody’s together. Jim is off working on the script and we have a release date. Hopefully, everything will be safe to start next summer. It looks good!
Honestly, I could talk about The Bee Gees for another hour. I love their music. I’m glad this film exists.
I’m really proud of this one and happy with it. It was a passion project. I’m happy it came out so well and people are really embracing it. So thank you.
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