BARRY MANILOW IS JOINED BY DREW AT THE BARRYMORE THEATER     
AIR DATE: TUESDAY, JANUARY 23^RD    

MUST INCLUDE TUNE IN  

 
 

 

 

  

VIDEOS: 

Barry on Where He Keeps His Grammys, Emmys & Tonys and Who He’d Want to Play Him in a Biopic  

https://app.cimediacloud.com/r/YIMQUlbIJ9Wy 

Drew: Where do you keep your Grammys, Emmys and Tonys? 

Bruce: The truth.  

Barry: It’s for a laugh it’s not that I’m very proud of it. I use it as a doorstop….because he was on one side of the floor and I was on the other side and he saw a lot of stuff going in and out of my apartment so he gave me his Emmy and he put it in the doorstop so the doors could stay open.  

Drew:…If someone was to play you in a biopic who would you want? 

Barry: Robert Redford of course… 

 

Barry on Understanding Now Why “Mandy” Was Such a Hit Record 

https://app.cimediacloud.com/r/pJhLNAiFKNYS 

Barry: I never thought about my being on the pop station, singing pop songs. Never even listened to them so when I finally got a hit record I listened on the radio and I heard ‘Kung Fu Fighting’ and ‘Boogie Oogie Oogie’ and I thought, ‘These people need me.’ But you know ‘Mandy’ is a good sounding record. I didn’t understand why it was a hit when it became a hit but I do now. The sound of the record is irresistible. This guy just came right through the speakers.  

Drew: Could you hear that when you were first listening to it? 

Barry: Not at all.  

 

Barry on His Friendships with Bette Midler, Suzanne Somers & Barbra Streisand 

https://app.cimediacloud.com/r/xk2R0EvwhMD7  

Drew: You have had such interesting relationships with people that we all love so much like Bette Midler and Suzanne Somers and Barbara Streisand. What comes to mind if I say Bette Midler? 

Barry: Talent. As talented as they come.  

Drew: What is she like personally? 

Barry: Funny she’s a funny girl.  

Drew: What about Suzanne Somers?

Barry: She was great. I didn’t know she was that ill. We were friends for like thirty-five years. Just a good, good person. Good inside. That was a tragedy. That was a really sad moment for me.  

Drew: And what was she like when you were in a room with her.  

Barry: She was a great person. She was always trying to get me to eat. She was constantly cooking for me.  

Drew: And what about Barbra Streisand?  

Barry: The greatest singer that ever lived. I did a duet with her and the day I had to do my part of the vocal here’s what came out…I couldn’t sing at all. So it had to be I couldn’t do it…I saw her at the Bon Soir that was her first nightclub and me and my buddy from school we were like eighteen years old and she was fantastic and I’ll never forget it. I told her that when I met her.  

 

Barry Manilow and Drew on Their Childhoods Shaping Who They Are  

https://app.cimediacloud.com/r/fOlUUEwxshJM 

Drew: When I was born my mom was raising me as a single mother in very economic challenged times and we raised ourselves and each other.  

Barry: Where, L.A.?  

Drew: West Hollywood. And you were in Brooklyn? 

Barry: I sure was.  

Drew: I feel so formed from that. That never leaves me.  

Barry: That never leaves me too. I wish it would because those memories are not my favorite memories. I felt it was a successful afternoon if I got home without getting beaten up. My high school was right across the street from where I lived so I would have to get ready to run across the street to our apartment.  

Drew: Why do you think they wanted to beat you up?  

Barry: Well, they were gangs. It was a rough neighborhood.  

Drew: Does it hit you how far your live has evolved from that feeling.  

Barry: Always, because my life these days is so different. I live in the most beautiful place with the most beautiful view with the most beautiful friends and it’s so different from where I came from. I never in a million years would have predicted that I’d wind up like this. I knew something was going to be in music. Everybody knew it but I never would have predicted it would be this. But when I sat down at the piano it felt like home, it felt like I knew what I was doing.  

 

Barry on Never Even Dreaming Of Being Where He Is Today 

https://app.cimediacloud.com/r/Ip8AeXKFjCG6 

Drew: Did you have musicians in your family? 

Barry: No. I mean everybody kind of sang and tapped their feet at times but no. Where I come from the idea of making a career as a musician or an actor, they were struggling to put food on the table. I come from nowhere, nothing. I would say my dream came true but I never even dreamt that.  

 

Barry on It Being Hard to Accept The Love of Fans & Feel Deserving 

https://app.cimediacloud.com/r/anmfC5Mk5z42 

Drew: Will we always have a little bit of that Brooklyn kid who is scared about what’s going to happen in life?  

Barry: No I never was scared. Isn’t that strange when I look back on it. I was excited the first time I actually walked onto a stage and said, ‘Good Evening Folks,’…I stunk. I didn’t know what I was doing. Really I was terrible. The audience didn’t think so….but when I sat at the piano I was okay. When I sang at the piano, I never thought of myself as a singer either but sure I’ll take the gig. So I played and sang, but actually having a show where I’m the guy up front, that was ridiculous. I never thought about doing that. It’s overwhelming to stand up there and get that kind of approval. It’s overwhelming.  

Drew: When you get that kind of approval what are you thinking in your head? 

Barry: I stand there and I say, ‘I wish they’d stop it.’ I feel like you want to go, ‘It’s okay you don’t have to do that.’ It’s hard to accept it. Receive the love accept the love. I say it to myself over and over. That part is the most difficult for me. It’s easy to sing and run around the stage it’s hard to stand there and let them do their thing. I’ve never figured that one out.  

  

Barry on Being a Page At CBS & Playing His First Grand Piano There 

https://app.cimediacloud.com/r/qKeR2YkVKBpq 

Drew: Is it true that you were a CBS page at the CBS broadcast center? 

Barry: I was. I loved it.  

Drew: Do you know we film our show at the CBS broadcast center.  

Barry: No kidding….that was a lot of fun. I actually played my first grand piano, because they had a grand piano in the rehearsal rooms, and oh my god that moment hitting the keyboard on the starling piano.  

Drew: Did it sound and feel different?  

Barry: Oh yeah. It was heaven. I was known as the piano playing mail boy. Whenever I would finish my mail run I would run into the rehearsal hall and everyone would come in and I’d play and we’d sing.