Michael Bublé: "I Will NEVER Be Carefree Again!", Cancer Diagnosis, Dealing With Rejection & Being Mr Christmas!

Most people think of Michael Bublé as the soundtrack of Christmas, yet often overlooked is his unwavering dedication to his music, the personal challenges he’s faced and the mission he’s on. From summers of catching and sorting salmon on his father’s arctic fishing boat, to earning his 10,000 hours performing songs in the clubs, malls and cruise ships of Canada. Michael has earned his success, including 5 Grammy wins, 15 Juno awards, 6 multi-platinum albums, and well over 14 billions streams worldwide. Bublé is a true family man, yet his journey has been marked by having to overcome severe adversity, including the cancer diagnosis of his eldest son. This year, Michael announced the launch of his whiskey brand, Fraser & Thompson Whiskey, created in partnership with longtime friend, award-winning Master Distiller and Blender, Paul Cirka. This is the real Michael Bublé, you just haven’t met him yet. Follow Michael: Instagram: https://bit.ly/48mwLOv Try Michael’s new Whisky available to buy here: https://bit.ly/48hntmW Follow me: https://beacons.ai/diaryofaceo Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Speaker 00

  Another summer day has come and gone away in Paris or Rome, but I wanna go home 'cause this place sucks. I should have that, that should have been the lyric.

• 0:13Speaker 01

  Michael Bublé, smoothest singer in town. The king of Christmas.

• 0:18Speaker 00

  Have a holly, jolly Christmas. Everything I did was music. I would listen to Frank Sinatra, Bobby Darin, Dean Martin. I don't know why, I just do. Amuse them, and then I would steal it all. Because if you steal from one person, you're just a thief. But when you steal from everybody, it's research. But there's 10 years of clubs, 10 years of every agent saying the exact same thing. "We will never sign you." But the reason I didn't stop in those 10 years was because if the right person sees me, I am one of the greatest entertainers on earth. I play 50,000 people, and if there's one looking at their watch, I will play to that man. I'm not leaving here until I break you. Hell, I'm a feeling good.

• 1:04Speaker 00

  But in a moment,

• 1:07Speaker 00

  my son's cancer diagnosis was a sledgehammer to my reality. And I remember saying to myself, "If we get out of this,

• 1:18Speaker 00

  if we get out of this, I'm living a different life." And I feel like I'm at this point where I wanna do something different.

• 1:25Steven Bartlett?

  Michael, you're not gonna quit music, are you?

• 1:37Steven Bartlett?

  Michael, what do I need to know about your earliest context to understand the way that you are? Because you are a unique individual, personality-wise, talent-wise. Your life is full of uniqueness. So where is the, what is the oven? Because I always think about humans like an oven.

• 1:53Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:54Steven Bartlett?

  You know, they get cooked in this oven when they're young. What is that oven? What is that environment?

• 1:58Speaker 00

  Well, the environment was probably having the most incredible family. And everybody says that, everybody says. And of course, that's beautiful that people always think their family is the most special. But if you met them, you'd like them all more than me. And then for me personally, I think being the first child who got way too much attention.

• 2:21Speaker 00

  You know, probably got told like, you're amazing and you're good at every. And like, it's probably the reason I talk so much. But everything I am, everything I have, every decision I make is based on that family. Even deciding, you know, I want to be a singer. This is what I'm going to do at thirteen, fourteen. You know, by the time I was sixteen, my grandfather was already taking me to nightclubs. And when I started playing in the nightclubs at eighteen, nineteen, they were full. And I was raw, but they were full, full. And people were like, who is this kid? Like, why did, how did he fill up Babaloo's? Or how did he fill up the Purple Onion?

• 3:06Speaker 00

  Or how did he fill up, you know, this theater? Well, they didn't know, but it was my cousins and aunts and my, my grandparents and my mom calling all her friends and saying, come to the club. So this was a strange family affair because we had no connections. I wish I had nepotism to lean on, but I didn't. And so instead it took all of these incredible people just loving me and going, yeah, let's go. Let's, I mean, I was shocked. I was a fisherman, you know, my father, my great grandfather immigrated from Italy. He was a shipbuilder. My grandfather was a commercial sane salmon fisherman on a sane boat.

• 3:49Steven Bartlett?

  That took him away a lot, right? Your father?

• 3:52Speaker 00

  Yeah, for sure, for sure. Yeah. Which is something that we understood. And it's interesting because who knew that after leaving that life and having that thing where your father's gone quite a bit, would be the life that I ended up leading, you know, where I had to be gone quite a bit. And the only difference was I could say, Dad, why are you leaving? And he would say, son, this is my, this is my job. This is how I put food on the table. This is how, this is how Dad pays for, for our house and for the, for the holidays that we go on and everything.

• 4:34Speaker 00

  And it changed for me after a certain amount of success because my kids would say, Poppy, why are you going?

• 4:41Speaker 00

  And I couldn't say, you know, it's to pay to put food on the table. You know, because obviously it was, you know, we'd passed that point, got very lucky, so.

• 4:51Steven Bartlett?

  How do you answer that question?

• 4:53Speaker 00

  Uh, I answer it by, well, I don't just answer it with with language. I I answer it with action. So um, I have probably, I've probably made my tours. Uh, I would say financially, maybe one of the most irresponsible tours in in all of touring. Um, so I started a rule where I said, I will do three weeks on, two weeks off, two weeks on, two weeks off, so that I could come back. Or I would literally sit with my wife and she's a tremendous actress, you know, and she has a great career and I I know how fulfilled she is by it. And so I would say to her, let's sit down at the beginning, you and your manager Pepo

• 5:36Speaker 00

  and me and my manager Bruce, and let's go through the calendar. So when are you making those two films? Okay, June, July, I'm done. I come with you and it can't happen if I tour in a financially responsible way.

• 5:48Steven Bartlett?

  It's so interesting to me because I'm coming into that phase of life now. I'm going to be starting a family soon and I'm going to be getting married. And it's interesting to hear from you about the trade offs you have to make. And you have more experience in both sides of the cost and the benefit of those trade offs. Did you miss your father growing up?

• 6:05Speaker 00

  Oh, man, of course I miss my dad. I remember used to, and you know what's interesting? Because I am so lucky to have been born when I was born because my nights on tour away from them, like tonight, I mean, last night, for example, last night was doing a Zoom. And uh, they put their iPad in the room and I sat with them and I watched a Christmas movie and we, they ate popcorn and Poppy was there. I was just there, I was, you know, they were walking around and. Wrestling and um they it's really strange to say this, but I did this thing. Have you ever heard of Calm? Yeah, yeah. The Calm app? Yeah, I know the founder, Michael. Yeah, it's it's about like I so I used to listen to this Calm app to go to sleep.

• 6:50Speaker 00

  My wife hated it and um. Same with me and my. I was I was on the Graham Norton Show and Matthew McConaughey was a guest. I was so excited and Graham was like, why, why are you so excited? Well, everyone loves McConaughey said, oh, no, no, no. I I love McConaughey because my wife would hate it. But every night I listen, hi, it's Matthew. Hey, hey, hey, I got a sleep story for you. And I would like listen every night and I was like, Matthew, you sleep with my wife and I?

• 7:16Speaker 00

  I was like, I I was like, I listened to your Calm sleep story and it became a, you know, he he was a very good sport and he thought it was funny. And then Calm called and they were like, hey, you want to do a sleep story? I was like, hell, yeah, I want to do a sleep story. But I didn't know so last night, that's every night's the same. So we chill and then I put on Poppy's sleep story. Oh. Hi, this is Michael and tonight in this sleep story. Woof, and the kids just go.

• 7:42Speaker 00

  That's so beautiful. So what I was saying about you asking about my father, dude, my dad used to carry a sock full of quarters and every two weeks he'd come into port and he'd wait in a line at a payphone and then he'd call. And then he used to, oh, man, it makes me emotional, but and I do the same thing now. But he used to uh, he would leave notes and he'd hide them everywhere. And so he'd be gone for like a month or something and you'd go into a drawer to go get your, you know, pencils and and then you'd see the note. And uh, I remember being like seven, eight years old and I don't know if you ever did

• 8:24Speaker 00

  this stuff or maybe I'm just a weird kid, but I remember like holding his clothes.

• 8:30Speaker 00

  Being little and like and just crying, you know, missing him so much. And this was the closest thing that I would get to him. And and it's crazy that as life went on, I became, dude, I'm him. Like, thank Jesus, thank God, I'm him. But I turned out to be my dad.

• 8:50Steven Bartlett?

  Your granddad played a huge role in your life, didn't he?

• 8:52Speaker 00

  Yes.

• 8:52Steven Bartlett?

  Grandpa Mitch.

• 8:53Speaker 00

  Grandpa Mitch, yeah, huge, huge, massive. As a matter of fact, yesterday, I did one of the probably scarier things that you can do in this entertainment business. I I was asked to be a surprise guest to sing a song as a tribute to Barry Gibb and the Bee Gees and his induction into the Kennedy Center Honors, which I think is, in my opinion, maybe, if not the pinnacle, one of the pinnacles of of Americans celebrating culture. But weirdly enough, my grandpa, he passed away five years ago yesterday.

• 9:33Steven Bartlett?

  Oh, wow.

• 9:33Speaker 00

  And so more than anything, I was standing backstage and I could hear my introduction. And I was like, my mouth was dry. And my heart, I could hear my heart beating in my ear. And I just took a big breath and I said, like, wow, grandpa, OK, this is us, man. This is us. And I always think about my kids and say, like, OK, be strong. Don't let your kids ever see you weak. Don't let your kids ever see you scared. And weirdly, it just brought this wonderful calm over me. And it was really nice, man. Like, I I it just brought me calm.

• 10:17Speaker 00

  And I went out there and I thought I killed it. I thought I was very charming.

• 10:24Speaker 00

  He was my hero, is my hero. Um, thirteen years old, we were always best friends. I don't know why, you know, you know, dude, sometimes certain people you connect. And it's like you were made for each other. And that was my best buddy. We talked about hockey and we talked about music. And even at a young age, I was fascinated by, by the great American songbook. I was just, I didn't know, I didn't understand. And I remember being confused why I was the only one too. How could other people not understand that Nat King Cole is that unbelievable? What's wrong?

• 11:07Speaker 00

  How could they, how, how does someone age not hear Ella Fitzgerald and just shit a brick? And realize that is stupid? That's just too good. Or that that gorgeous orchestral arrangement of that song and those horns doing that thing? And that, that swinging, we're like, I know hip hop is great, but no, that beat that I just heard in that Dre song? That isn't close to being as fat as the one I just heard backing up Bobby Darin in Mac the Knife. Like that's smoking, I knew.

• 11:38Steven Bartlett?

  Thirteen years old.

• 11:39Speaker 00

  Oh dude, even before that. For me, music was, it wasn't even a question. It was, it was a defining part of my, the essence of me. Like I, everything I did was music, was just, you know, a fascination. And it's funny when many times parents will go like, my daughter is fourteen and she's, and do you have advice? You know, she wants to be a singer. And I always, I have advice and it's like, listen to as much music and all of it. Like go across the board of every genre and download it and process it and steal all of it. Steal the best parts of all of it and you will find yourself. But another thing I always say is fantasize.

• 12:23Speaker 00

  Like dude, that is for me, I would fantasize about.

• 12:30Speaker 00

  Being on stage, I would fantasize about singing in front of the crowd. Every shower was another opportunity to go and fucking kill Madison Square Garden. And, you know, know that the, you know, that that crowd in the shower was just loving.

• 12:44Steven Bartlett?

  Madison Square Garden.

• 12:45Speaker 00

  Oh, wherever, you know, like, you know what I mean? I was fourteen, absolutely. And like, thank God there wasn't like the voice of American Idol. Cause if I was thirteen, I would have been in the shower saying like, hey, Simon, check this out.

• 12:57Steven Bartlett?

  Did you sound good at that age? Do you have recordings?

• 13:02Speaker 00

  Yeah, man, I do. I do have recordings.

• 13:03Steven Bartlett?

  Cause I'm wondering how much of your television.

• 13:05Speaker 00

  Recording when I'm fourteen and it tripped me out because I sound, I don't know if it's good, but.

• 13:12Steven Bartlett?

  Exactly the same.

• 13:13Speaker 00

  Exactly the same.

• 13:14Steven Bartlett?

  What?

• 13:14Speaker 00

  And I think it was like, it had to be you. I sound like that. I sound exactly like that, the same way. And what's weird is like, it wasn't like I put on an effect. That's what, that's how the voice sounded. And my buddies used to make fun of me. Having one of my best friends, Brad, would be in the bus. And he'd go, there's Buble singing with that fake voice again. There's that. And even today, and he's still my, one of my best, literally one of my best friends. And we're drinking beer and he's, he's like, shut up, man. And he loves to sing too. And but.

• 13:50Steven Bartlett?

  I couldn't believe how much your grandfather and your father and your family supported you.

• 13:55Speaker 00

  Oh, yeah.

• 13:56Steven Bartlett?

  When I was reading that your grandfather would trade plumbing work.

• 13:59Speaker 00

  Yeah, man.

• 14:00Steven Bartlett?

  For, for you to go and do singing lessons or, you know, auditions, et cetera. That's, that's unusual. Because most parents would go, oh, my God, my child singing, that's not a career.

• 14:11Speaker 00

  No, I know, I know. It was uncomfortable too, because he loved me so much. Listen, dude, my grandpa did more than just trade his plumbing things. He took me to auditions. He would, I mean, they used to hire me to go work in the malls. And he got me like these gigs where they would pay me 20 bucks an hour. And then I would go to the mall and with a guitar player. And I would like busk. I guess it's busking is what it is, right? And I would go or outside, I'd busk at Gravel Island or places and he would just sit. And I loved it, man. I didn't care who was listening, where I was, I did. Anything.

• 14:45Steven Bartlett?

  What was the first song? The first time you performed in front of people and got a reaction?

• 14:49Speaker 00

  The first song weirdly was a, I think it was a Christmas song.

• 14:53Steven Bartlett?

  Really?

• 14:54Speaker 00

  Well, it was because it was Christmas Eve. We were coming home from, I've told this story many times, but it's, we were coming home from my grandma and grandpas on Capitol Hill. And I think it was like White Christmas or something. And my little sisters, I would have been 12, maybe 11, 12. My voice was just starting to change. And, and the girls were in the back, my two, my sisters are great, beautiful voices. And they were, I'm dreaming of a white, red man, you know, with every woman part I write. And I think from the back I went, may your days be merry and bright. And it was like the whole car went, who?

• 15:39Speaker 00

  And I think that was the first time they were like, what the fuck is that? Where did that just come from? And what's interesting is I think if I really am honest with myself and I look back, that Bing Crosby was the first, because that was like, that was the first record in that style and that played through the house at Christmas. That was my introduction to big band. That was my introduction to jazz. That was my introduction to those, that swing and feeling. And then with that relationship with my granddad, he used to, we used to have a shag, he had just like a green shag carpet and he had a record machine that he attached to a cassette machine.

• 16:22Speaker 00

  And we would sit down and we would just, I'm not kidding you, man, hours. I loved it. I loved it. And I used to go with those cassettes and I had a Walkman and I would just sit in bed and I would listen over and over. And then I would, I would listen to each of these singers and I would learn the song for grandpa and grandma so I could come over the next day and I could, I could sing for them. And I'd sit at the table with them and we, you know. But I started to just steal. I mean, steal. Full on steal.

• 17:01Speaker 00

  And I started to like almost impersonate each of them. And I would listen to Frank Sinatra with the Pied Pipers. There was ways that he would sing and I would try to emulate. So I would sit there and then I would, I would be like I was a record player, you know? I'd come home and grandpa would say, okay, what's today? Stormy weather. And I'd say, Don't know why, there's no sun up in the sky. Stormy weather. I can't do it now, but, and then the next day would be,

• 17:30Steven Bartlett?

  Please, can you carry on?

• 17:31Speaker 00

  He'd go, Dean Martin, Dean Martin. And I'd say, I don't know why I love you like I do. I don't know why I just do. And I would emulate them. God damn, I'd like listen to the Mills Brothers. And when I'm saying all of this, you probably have no idea sometimes what I'm talking about.

• 17:52Steven Bartlett?

  Loosely.

• 17:53Speaker 00

  Yeah, the way the Mills Brothers sing, there was this weird, I wanna buy a paper door that I could call my own. A door that other fella. When that, I just, he would, the way he would open up and everything was so, The very thought of you. And I forget to do. And there was all these things that I would just like, oh my God, I love that. And that, and then I would steal it all. And I would try to emulate all of it. And then one day, you know, sitting with grandpa, I started realizing, okay, I'm starting to, wow, grandpa, I'm starting, this is the way I do it now. Taking all those things and.

• 18:33Steven Bartlett?

  And that's what creativity is, right?

• 18:35Speaker 00

  It is, man. And I met, I've told this story too, too many times, but I remember the first time I met Tony Bennett. I said, you know, Tony, I'm obviously, you know, I'm a huge fan. I've stolen so much from you and Bing and Frank and all of them. And he said, good. He said, cause if you steal from one person, you're just a thief. But when you steal from everybody, it's research. And I thought that was amazing. And I've told that story a million times too, but it was everything, man. Like Elvis was a big part of it and, you know, I just, all of those things that I loved, but.

• 19:08Steven Bartlett?

  Why was your grandfather doing that in hindsight? Why was?

• 19:11Speaker 00

  Are you kidding me, dude?

• 19:12Steven Bartlett?

  Yeah.

• 19:13Speaker 00

  Like. Are you kidding me?

• 19:15Steven Bartlett?

  So.

• 19:16Speaker 00

  It was better than crack.

• 19:17Steven Bartlett?

  For who?

• 19:18Speaker 00

  For both of us. It's my happiness. It's my, it's my passion. It's my thing. And you know, and like I, I love, um, he would have died to know that his grandson was continuing the legacy of our heroes. You know, cause he, if he was being honest, when I played Madison Square Garden for the first time and I said, did you think I'd get here? He said, oh no, no, definitely not. There's a clip of him on a, on a documentary. He goes, no, I thought you'd be good, you know, maybe Vegas.

• 19:48Speaker 00

  But I just think it was because how could I? We were this, my grandpa was a plumber and we came, we're fishermen. We didn't know anybody. We're never gonna get, we're never gonna get to there. We didn't even, we're from Vancouver. We didn't even know anybody. How are we gonna get to there?

• 20:03Steven Bartlett?

  Your story's not a straight line because you went and worked on those fishing boats as well. Like, so it's not just you start singing at thirty.

• 20:07Speaker 00

  Dude, my story isn't even a straight line. From, from fishing boats to Chuck E. Cheese to working at restaurants to singing, it's, there's ten years of clubs. There's ten years of me moving to Toronto. There's ten years of me going into every record company, not getting in the door. There's ten years of every agent saying the exact same thing. Every manager, I thought they had a fucking note that they would send each other. The note that said, you're really talented. You're a great young kid. We just don't know what to do with you. Over too much, dude, to a point where I was like, you know what? Okay. I'm twenty-six. It's too late. And in this business, you can, people can say, oh, twenty-six. No, dude, it's late.

• 20:52Speaker 00

  If you haven't been signed or you haven't made a bunch of noise at twenty-six, twenty-seven, I don't think it's right. I think there should be late bloomers. But it's, it isn't the usual, you know, like the record companies will be like, mm. And so I was gonna go back to Canada. I was gonna go back to Vancouver and I was thinking about going to SFU or Douglas and taking up journalism. So even then, once I, I was in Toronto, I got, I got, you know, connected to the Prime Minister of our country, who their daughter was getting married and she asked if I would sing at the wedding and, cause I'd given an independent CD to another guy at some corporate gig I had done. Um, and, um.

• 21:34Speaker 00

  They said, I was like, yeah, okay, you know, what an honor, you know? And she was like, you know, David Foster will be there. And this one, this producer who, and he's a, one of the biggest producers in the world, billions of, I mean, half a billion or a billion records, I think. Okay, this is my chance. This is the shot for somebody to see me. But even then, after he saw me, this story didn't, it wasn't like, he didn't, David Foster didn't say, you, I found my guy. He said, come to LA and you're on my, he actually said, you're on my radar now. Is what he said. Well, I didn't know that he had another 18 kids that were on his radar. You know, I was, you know, man, I got, I was good.

• 22:18Speaker 00

  I was gonna, I was in the atmosphere now. You know, I was closer than I'd ever been to a real guy.

• 22:24Steven Bartlett?

  10 years in.

• 22:25Speaker 00

  10 years in, that could make it, make, and I remember.

• 22:27Steven Bartlett?

  I think, I have to say, Michael, I think it's really very important not to brush past this 10 years. Because that is the no man's land that only passion could make someone wade through. And that is where 99% of people quit. And it's the bit that no one ever gets to see. So it's maybe the more, more important part of, of, of the, the journey, which is, why does someone continue doing something for 10 years of their life? When there's, there's no Madison Square Gardens, there's no million dollar checks, and there's no fame and fortune. Like that, that's the, yes, because it's, it's a recurring theme on my show.

• 23:05Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 23:05Steven Bartlett?

  That these very, very successful people, they, they did something which is objectively dumb. Which is like, they gave up their amazing chance of being an academic, and they went and played Magic on a restaurant card tables.

• 23:17Speaker 00

  I know.

• 23:17Steven Bartlett?

  Comedians, you go, you could have been a lawyer.

• 23:19Speaker 00

  Yep.

• 23:20Steven Bartlett?

  And now they're, you know.

• 23:21Speaker 00

  It's funny, I, I was gonna tell you today, I've watched your, I watched your show religiously, and I was like, what if you just call yourself failure and why it's so great? Because it's like, so many of the stories that are told across this table are, I failed, I failed, they said no, um, over and over again, and over again. And I just continued to, to go forward.

• 23:44Steven Bartlett?

  These people seem like they had no choice, though. And when I say no choice, I mean, because of passion.

• 23:49Speaker 00

  Listen to me, man, I'm gonna say, it's gonna sound like it directly, it's sort of, I don't want it to be condescending at all, but.

• 24:02Speaker 00

  Half of that ten years was, gave me humility. Gave me appreciation for when it would happen, I would be appreciative. And I would still have humility and I would, you know, still be able to be present and aware enough of how lucky I was, you know. But the reason that I didn't stop in those ten years was because I knew I was the best in the world. I mean, no doubt that if the right person sees me, I am one of the greatest entertainers on earth.

• 24:46Speaker 00

  And all you need to do is come into my room and you don't have to pay to see me. You can be there just to drink booze and get laid. But by the end of the night, you'll, you'll know.

• 24:56Steven Bartlett?

  How do you know that's not delusion?

• 24:57Speaker 00

  No, no, dude. You know what? It, I knew because every room I ever walked into, I was such a, I was a sensitive, um, insecure kid, really sensitive. And I think that, that beautiful kindness and empathy that my family drove into me and my sisters is what made me that man on stage. You, you understand this. I, even now, man, I play 50,000 people and if there's one looking at their watch and I will play to that man. And my mission, my mission, I love the rest of 49,999 of you, but you, I'm not leaving here until I break you.

• 25:39Speaker 00

  I'm not leaving here until, you know, you get, you might not, I might not be your cup of tea, I might not be your favorite, but you'll walk away and you'll say, okay, the kid's better than, you know, he's, he's, I get it.

• 25:52Steven Bartlett?

  One of your kids comes to you and says, dad, I know. And, and they go, dad, dad, they go, now they go, dad, listen, they sing and it's terrible. And then they go, dad, I know. And this is what I'm getting at, I was like, how do we know we're not just deluding ourselves?

• 26:05Speaker 00

  Yeah. Well, you know, it's interesting you say that because if that was just me sitting in my bathroom mirror and going, I'm amazing. Yeah, that's, I understand that, that's, but it wasn't, it was 10 years. I don't care if it was a shopping mall, or a street corner, or a nightclub, or a bar, or a wedding, or a funeral. Every room was the same. Every single room was the same.

• 26:30Steven Bartlett?

  So why wasn't the industry letting you in?

• 26:32Speaker 00

  Why would they? I didn't do anything that was mainstream. I mean, I used to do, it was like I had an indie record. I would do indie festivals. It's so funny, man. I talk about it now, it's like, you know, I'm so like mainstream, whatever you want to call it, like where I probably, you know, you know. But I was like an indie act. It was a full-on indie act. It was like doing weird shit that no one else was doing and

• 26:57Speaker 00

  I think it was just so outside. Even, listen, David Foster, that David Foster producer guy I'm talking about.

• 27:03Speaker 00

  It's funny, he doesn't remember this way, but I I remind him many times that, like, Dave, I said, Dave, when are you gonna, you know, when are we gonna do this? You're gonna produce my record? And he said, in quotations, "I will never produce your record and we will never sign you." Never. He had a very sweet assistant named Neil, who's a beauty, the sweetest kid. And when I see him once, I mean, I would see him and he would laugh and he would go, "Dude, I remember that I would like say to you, 'Just walk away, 'cause this isn't gonna happen for you.'" You know, he's not, you're not, you're not the one. I remember he said to me, he got pissed with me, because I had again said to him, "Hey, man,

• 27:47Speaker 00

  come on, like, sign me." And he was like, "You need to get out. You need to go." He said, like, "Listen, dude, I told you, you're on my radar. You and another nineteen kids are, you know, it's just not happening." And it, and it's funny, because the reason it happened, when it came down to it, was I was like, "What do I need to do? Surely, this is not impossible." And he went, "Okay.

• 28:14Speaker 00

  It's this much a track, and six tracks minimum, and..."

• 28:19Steven Bartlett?

  Money.

• 28:20Speaker 00

  Money. And I was like, "Okay." And so this manager and I literally went back to Vancouver, and she was an amazing woman, and she went door-to-door, bank-to-bank, and we found this incredible dude who underwrote, and we bought the money. We brought the check. And I went to David's in Malibu and said, we said, We got it. Here's the money.

• 28:42Speaker 00

  David's a massive producer. I think it was a hundred thousand a song. And I think for David, I remember sitting up, he had a, this room in Malibu and he had like all the Grammys all over his piano and, and I remember we were like, we got it. And he was like, you got it? Like, it was like, well, okay, you know, okay, he said, but Warner will get the first ride of refusal. And even that wasn't the end of the story. We started making a demo and that we ended up going, he got Paul Anka. Do you know Paul Anka?

• 29:13Steven Bartlett?

  No.

• 29:13Speaker 00

  Okay, well, Paul is, I'll remind you of who Paul Anka is if you don't know. Paul, at sixteen or maybe fifteen, had written a song called Put Your Head on My Shoulder. Put your head on my shoulder. Or Diana, I'm so young and you're so old. He wrote another song called Mile Away. And now the end is near. Huge, massive star. He was Justin Bieber, okay?

• 29:38Steven Bartlett?

  Yeah, I could say that was a song.

• 29:39Speaker 00

  And he's still a huge star. He's still, but he got involved and then he was like, you don't need that money. My guys will get the money. And for whatever reason, when we started making the record, that deal somehow fell through and David was like, it's over.

• 29:52Steven Bartlett?

  The money deal fell through.

• 29:53Speaker 00

  Yeah, the money deal fell through. And he was like, it didn't work out and somebody else will do this. And I was like, dude, you know, and there was another producer named Alberto Gattica. He was another massive producer. Beautiful guy. And he said, he took me into the car. I was destroyed because I was this, I was there. I was making the record. It was, I was four songs into making a record and, and then it was done. And David was like, I'm really sorry, Mike, you know, it's just, it's just not gonna happen.

• 30:22Steven Bartlett?

  Why didn't you quit, like Neil told you to?

• 30:24Speaker 00

  Well, it was a big, a big deal was Umberto. And he said, he was a, he's a Chilean guy. And he said, hey, Buble, man, you need a, he said, you need a, I drive you to your apartment. And I was, I was dead. Like I was, I had it. I was there, dude. It was there in my hand. It was there. And then it was gone. And he drove me home. And I remember he parked, I lived in Westwood. I'd rented this little place in Westwood.

• 30:53Speaker 00

  And Umberto parked the car outside and he looked at me and he said,

• 30:59Speaker 00

  Okay, Miquelito. He said, David Foster is a strong guy, but he doesn't like confrontation at all. He said, here's what you're going to say to him. And he literally told me what to say. And about three days later, David had brought me and hired me to do something, I think it was for Kenny G. And his wife at the time had an anniversary party. And I said, David, can I speak to you? And he said like, okay. And I took David to this other little room beside the banquet hall. And literally regurgitated word for word, you know, what Umberto had told me to tell this guy. You know, David was my hero, right? David is a scary guy. You and you're, you know, you're looking, wow, this is.

• 31:42Speaker 00

  And basically, the gist of the conversation was,

• 31:48Speaker 00

  we have done something incredible. We have four or five songs here that are, you know, they're amazing.

• 31:55Speaker 00

  Please give me one opportunity to go to Warner Brothers Records and to speak to the president and play my case. And if he doesn't want me, I will never, ever bother you again. You'll never hear from me again. You want me to show up and do stuff for you? I'll do it, but I'll never ask that question again. And he was like, okay. And he, I don't think he did love confrontation. And I remember he called me about a day, two days later. And he said, let's see what a 26 year old kid knows about the record business. And I went into Warner Records in Burbank. Maybe, probably the scariest day of my life, of my life.

• 32:36Speaker 00

  And wood building, you know, look up on the wall and it's Prince and Tom Petty and Madonna and Red Hot Chili Peppers and like.

• 32:49Speaker 00

  You know, holy shit, you know. And I sat in the meeting with Wally, Tom Wally is the president. And he's like real good looking dude, like imagine like Eric Stoltz or something. But, you know, as that, you know, the executive and, you know. I sat, he sat down in the office and I think he said, well, why should we sign you? We have Sinatra on Reprise. I think that's one of the first things he said.

• 33:12Steven Bartlett?

  Sinatra on Reprise, what does that mean?

• 33:14Speaker 00

  Uh, so Reprise was a subsidiary of Warner that Frank had started. And, and they had Frank in, on the label, you know, they had Sinatra on Reprise, you know. And he said, why should we sign you? We have Frank. Must be like getting out of the pearly gates and having one opportunity to get in. And I said, with all due respect, Mr. Wally, Frank's dead. Don't bury the music. I said, I will keep it alive. I love it. I cherish it. I will break my ass for you. I will go out there and I will will this to be great. And he sat, he listened to the four demos.

• 33:55Speaker 00

  And then two days later, I had flown my grandfather down to LA. Cause I, I mean, I had, and it's funny, when I walked out with David that day. I say, thank you, David, for putting your balls on the line for me like that. I said, so what do you think? And he looked at me and he said, I think you did a great job. But Mike, I, I have no idea what that meant. Like he had no idea. And he honestly, I don't think he had any concept when we walked out of those doors, what Mr. Wally was gonna say, you know? And then two days later, I flew my grandfather down. I said, grandpa, I can't do this. I need you, man. So he flew down to LA and in that little Westwood apartment and I was down in the, on the treadmill.

• 34:40Speaker 00

  And the door sort of flung open and he and the manager at the time, Bev. They opened the door and they were just crying, you know? I said, you know.

• 34:49Steven Bartlett?

  Your grandpa?

• 34:50Speaker 00

  Yeah. Come upstairs, come upstairs, come upstairs, you know? And so we took the elevator up and I grabbed the telephone and said hello. And David said, hey, Mike, man. And I said, hi, David. And he said, hey, Mike, man. I want to welcome you to Warner Brothers Records and I want you to know, we have your back and you're never gonna have to worry again. And it was like, man, it was, I don't know. And again, dude, it sounds like that's the end of the story, but.

• 35:19Speaker 00

  That wasn't the end because the record came out and it was awesome. But I believe I debuted at one hundred and ninety eight on Billboard. And I had a manager named Bruce Allen. He was known as the one of the greatest managers in the business and still is. And he said to me, kid, you're an American signed act, but it's not, it's not, you're not killing it. There's not, there's not a ton of interest. He said, um, would you consider going to Southeast Asia and Africa? And I was like, yeah, I'll go anywhere you want. And I did, dude, I just started going to all the, and man, that's where it happened. I made it and my first big hit was in the Philippines, South Africa. I started to do pretty good.

• 36:04Speaker 00

  I'd sold a couple of million records and my manager Bruce would call and he would say, hey, kid, you want to go to Germany? I'd say like, what's in Germany? Well, they just, they got about eight journalists there and you'd be singing in the Hyatt lobby, doing a showcase and, uh, you know, and I guess there might've been a thought at even that point, maybe that's beneath. And I was like, no shit, man, go, yeah. And I did it, dude, I just went, literally, man, I did that in all over Asia, Switzerland, Germany, Poland, like dude, you named the country and I shut up and did a showcase and.

• 36:41Steven Bartlett?

  What age were you when you thought, shit, this is, you know, this is big now?

• 36:46Speaker 00

  Oh, probably, probably thirty, twenty, twenty-nine. So like it's happened late for me, man, like it, this whole, this whole thing happened late. I was really, for, for what isn't the norm? Yeah, man, I, I didn't know what, I, I had my first taste of fame at maybe twenty-eight.

• 37:11Steven Bartlett?

  That is so.

• 37:12Speaker 00

  And it was in the Philippines. And I went to get sushi at a mall in Manila. And there was a security guy, he was like, don't go without me. And I was like, yeah, sure. And I went and went and bought sushi. And then all of a sudden, I was like surrounded by all these beautiful Philippines, speaking Tagalog and asking for pictures. And I was like, and I remember he was really pissed with me. He was really upset that I hadn't taken him to security. I was like, why, I don't need security. And then he took me, we went up to my room. And I was like, dude, I'm sorry, like, that was crazy. Like, I've nev-, this is crazy. I feel like a fucking Backstreet Boy or something, you know? Like, they were, they.

• 37:51Speaker 00

  And then he, I remember that he opened the curtain and this curtain opened. And it was a building facing us. And the, dude, the full building was just my face.

• 38:04Steven Bartlett?

  You're true.

• 38:05Speaker 00

  Yeah, and I was like, oh shit, I understand now. This is, but dude, it was so new, you know?

• 38:12Steven Bartlett?

  When you've had to fight to get there for, say, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen years, whatever it is, is there a part of you that is sort of innately scared of losing it in a way that someone who just got it like that might not appreciate?

• 38:24Speaker 00

  Yeah, there was, for sure there was.

• 38:26Steven Bartlett?

  And does that result in workaholics?

• 38:27Speaker 00

  There is for all of us, there is for you. I'm sure you sit and go like, I'm kicking ass right now, but you know what? Well, you know why? Because naturally, everything that goes up must come down. No, there's no, there is no career, I don't give a, I don't care if you're a schoolteacher or you're a doctor, I mean, nothing just continues to go. I mean, you have to understand that there are peaks and valleys. And that there are times when you might not be the hottest, but those are the times when you continue to stay true to the brand, you know? You don't panic, it's hard not to panic. Like, I was talking about Paul Anka, but.

• 39:06Speaker 00

  You know, Paul is very sweet, like he'll call me just out of the blue. And he'll go like, hey dude, you're the man. Don't, don't trip. You know, whatever you're feeling, if you're feeling it's up or down, just keep doing your thing, man. Be true to yourself, don't panic. And it's beautiful. It's a beautiful, you know, and listen, for me, having four kids and an incredible, a wife that is my favorite human being on the whole planet. That made, it makes the process of that worry easier because, you know, it's funny, dude. I, I was terrified yesterday at that event. Terrified, man. I want it to be great and scary to be in front of your peers. That's something you know is so important.

• 39:50Speaker 00

  And this morning I woke up and I was brushing my teeth and I was on FaceTime with my wife and the kids, you know? And, and she said, okay, how are you? How do you feel? And it was like, I said, listen, Lou, I said, faith number one, my family number two, and my career, a really, you know, a distant third. And so for me, I'm, I'm blessed to really feel that. Because of course I get scared, man. I don't want to lose it. And there's a million ways to lose it. And, but I also haven't put all of my eggs into that one basket.

• 40:26Steven Bartlett?

  Has it always been as clear the priorities?

• 40:28Speaker 00

  No, man. No, of course not, absolutely not. And by the way, there can be times where my false self allows that to change.

• 40:39Steven Bartlett?

  My false self?

• 40:40Speaker 00

  Yeah, my false self, my, I would say the ego. I, I, you know, I, I, you know, I should read more Eckhart Tolle and Power of Now. And he tells stories about the hockey team that I'm a part owner of, the Vancouver Giants. Talks about the ages, how, how substantial that, that is. But he is a big part of my life too, you know? And by the way, practicing to get to this place where it's really easy to let your fears and, and your, your false self give you these negative messages. And, and it was, it was helpful for me to understood, to understand that I could control that. You know, not, not allowing those negative things to get a hold of me.

• 41:23Steven Bartlett?

  One of my sort of deep, I think existential fears is that I'm not going to have my. Priorities in the right order, and I'm gonna find out too late. I've said this a few times on this show.

• 41:33Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 41:34Steven Bartlett?

  I'm scared that as a guy who's like spent under twelve years building businesses and pursuing success in whatever form, that life is gonna tell me, Steve, at the moment when you needed to have your priorities in order, they weren't. Well, maybe you wanna have a family or a wife or something, you know? What was it that changed, illuminated the true nature of what your priorities should be?

• 41:55Speaker 00

  I, I, listen, I had, like I said to you before, this whole thing starts with family. And I, I, I have never been so out of touch because I have too good of a family. My mom and dad are just, they just, they're just too beautiful people and my grandparents. And listen, I may not do it, but I know what the difference is between right and wrong and, and putting ego first. I don't wanna get too deep into it because it's, it's not, it's not that it is uncomfortable for me, but my son has his own life and his own story. My son's cancer diagnosis rocked my world. It pulled a curtain from over my eyes.

• 42:41Speaker 00

  And I don't wanna get deeper into it, but I can tell you that

• 42:48Speaker 00

  I don't think that I had what you're talking about. I don't think I had context. And that was a sledgehammer to my reality. And I will, I will never be carefree again in my life. And that's okay.

• 43:08Speaker 00

  It is a privilege for me to, to exist. And, and that, that pain, the fear, the suffering that comes with those sort of things is, I guess it's part of that beautiful, this life, you know? It's a, but it, I, if I wasn't clear, and I wasn't clear. And it's interesting because when it actually happened, I was going through, I think, a crisis, like really, like the crisis that you're talking about, you know?

• 43:42Speaker 00

  I don't think I had my priorities straight. I mean, I, I, I always, my family was always a love of, you know? I think, I don't think I was a terrible guy, but dude, it was blinders, career.

• 43:58Speaker 00

  You know, ambition. How do I become the baddest, biggest, best? Uh, you know? More ego, more power, more money, more. And um, on Halloween, however many years ago that was, dude, it's like life was lived with like a curtain in front of me. Like a filter.

• 44:20Steven Bartlett?

  Mm hmm.

• 44:21Speaker 00

  And the moment that they said, this is what's happening. Um.

• 44:28Speaker 00

  I, that reality hit me. Um.

• 44:34Speaker 00

  Filter gone. Filter gone, and I mean, in a moment, in one moment, gone. And I went, okay, this is it. This is life. This is, this is it. This is what's important. Um, and that's when, that's when, it's not like I thought about it. It didn't. There was no time to process it. It was, um, you have your priorities. Uh, this, this is what your priorities are. And they, this is what your priorities must be in order to be happy in your life. And um, it is.

• 45:12Steven Bartlett?

  I just can't imagine.

• 45:13Speaker 00

  Yeah, it's faith, it's faith, family and, and.

• 45:16Steven Bartlett?

  A member of my family got diagnosed with um,

• 45:21Steven Bartlett?

  a very similar illness.

• 45:22Speaker 00

  Mm hmm.

• 45:22Steven Bartlett?

  And I remember where I was and where I stood when I got that call in. Again, I'd been running, you know, just in my own little world, hadn't called them in a while.

• 45:29Speaker 00

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 45:30Steven Bartlett?

  Wasn't really in touch with them.

• 45:32Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 45:32Steven Bartlett?

  And then in that exact moment, it made me realize the true reason why I do what I do.

• 45:38Speaker 00

  Mm hmm.

• 45:40Steven Bartlett?

  Like I, I, you know?

• 45:41Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 45:41Steven Bartlett?

  And that my life should never have been so focused on self in such a way, if that makes sense?

• 45:46Speaker 00

  Yeah, of course, absolutely, absolutely. Dude, I remember being at CHLA. I remember peeing in a stall. I know it sounds weird and it's not sexy, but

• 45:57Speaker 00

  I remember just sitting in the stall, standing there, you know?

• 46:00Steven Bartlett?

  The children's hospital?

• 46:01Speaker 00

  Yes, sir. And uh, and I remember closing my eyes and saying to myself,

• 46:10Speaker 00

  if I get, if we get out of this, um.

• 46:17Speaker 00

  If we get out of this, I'm living a different life.

• 46:21Speaker 00

  A better life. And I did, I made that promise to myself in like a moment, you know? I wanna be kinder. I wanna be more empathetic. I don't ever wanna allow that ego and that false self to take over. I wanna know how lucky I am. And dude, I'm a lucky man, like I, you know? I just look, I look at my wife, like, you know, it's like, how the, how did that happen? How did I get, you know, this incredible human being? Who's the best of all of us, you know, to, to sort of lead me through and, and carry me through these things, you know?

• 46:58Steven Bartlett?

  Hmm.

• 46:59Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 47:00Steven Bartlett?

  Yeah, it's a, it's a, it's, it's a, I was just thinking about, um, goes back to what I was saying about how I don't want life, life to show, show me my priorities. Um, especially as it relates to my romantic relationships where, you know, you can end up in divorce court or you lose something and then you think, fuck, what's, what are all these gold coins worth?

• 47:22Speaker 00

  No, I know. No, but I had the, dude, it's funny, you know, we've all had those moments too, like, listen, much younger, I had that moment where I was like, oh dude, do you like you?

• 47:33Speaker 00

  Do you trust you? Do you respect you? And then I was like, if you don't,

• 47:37Steven Bartlett?

  Yeah.

• 47:38Speaker 00

  and you're expecting that person to, or any person to, maybe you're asking too much. I hope we're allowed to look at ourselves in the mirror and man, it's so easy to lie to other people, but it's even easier to lie to yourself. You know?

• 47:51Steven Bartlett?

  Harmful.

• 47:51Speaker 00

  Dude, it's so easy and it's like,

• 47:56Speaker 00

  I hope everybody has the chance to figure your way to do it. I don't know what it is or how you get there. If you need like medicine or mushrooms or whatever it is. But like to look in the mirror and to go, and these are the things that I think I suck at.

• 48:12Speaker 00

  And, uh, you know, and I hope, I really do, I hope within us there's a opportunity for all of us to, to have that self-diagnosis and honesty. And to go, yeah, I can do better than that. You know?

• 48:25Steven Bartlett?

  I, on this podcast, so many times I've spoken to parents about, about grief, but I've never really shone, shone a light on

• 48:35Steven Bartlett?

  Just the trauma of going through moments like that and really the like blast radius of of knock on effects to that person's life that it can have implications to their mental health. Your son Noah, is it Noah?

• 48:47Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 48:47Steven Bartlett?

  And he's got four wonderful kids, I hear.

• 48:49Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 48:49Steven Bartlett?

  Um, is doing great. Ten years, ten years old?

• 48:52Speaker 00

  Ten years old.

• 48:52Steven Bartlett?

  Ten years old?

• 48:53Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 48:54Steven Bartlett?

  But for all the, all the priorities and the, the curtain that it pulled back, is there still a healing process there that, that needs to have it happen that you typically see similar to grief, if you know what I'm saying?

• 49:06Speaker 00

  Oh, no, no, no, because you already, I think any parent, I mean, I've now I've become, I, I, I've had such great relationships with so many parents and people have not just come through this. I mean, listen, man, going through any kind of thing with like, you know, you're, you're not going to get away without it, man. I don't know if you have already, but.

• 49:21Steven Bartlett?

  I haven't had kids yet.

• 49:22Speaker 00

  No, I'm not talking about kids. I'm talking about your siblings or your mom and dad or we are gonna go, I mean, it's just a part of life. It takes a piece of us, you know, like my grandpa, man, I miss my grandpa every day, but that's just, that's life. That's a part of life and um, I don't know that any of us even have the capacity to deal with it. I think it's why obviously we, we move to faith, you know, something feels good about hoping that there's something more.

• 49:48Steven Bartlett?

  But men and their mental health, we don't talk about these things.

• 49:51Speaker 00

  No, dude, you must be soft. Don't be soft and no crying.

• 49:54Steven Bartlett?

  I'm guilty of this more than anyone, especially like a CEO and I've been a CEO since I was eighteen and I had hundreds of employees. So I would, I can't, I felt like I couldn't flinch.

• 50:02Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 50:03Steven Bartlett?

  You know?

• 50:03Speaker 00

  But how do you, can I ask you, how do you, because you are a brand now, man. Okay, I know you're a beautiful, nice guy, a human being, but dude, there's a brand, it's a brand and I know you have people on your team and I know you have a team that like they come to you and say, we'd love you to do this and your team goes, you can't do that. That is off brand.

• 50:23Steven Bartlett?

  Yeah.

• 50:24Speaker 00

  How do you, how do you?

• 50:27Speaker 00

  Are you able to, cause you're in the wave, man. That tidal wave is moving, but you're inside it. You got all your people on top and they can all kind of see. How do you deal with it? Like, what do you do? Can you, do you feel it? Do you think you're self-aware enough to know what the brand is? Or how to protect it? Or how to move it forward?

• 50:46Steven Bartlett?

  I think it comes back to this point about authenticity. You know, you know, when something is you and when it's in line with you. And you know, when you're kind of abandoning yourself, some signal inside of me goes, you know, you know, this isn't right. You know, especially if someone offers you a lot of money to do something.

• 50:59Speaker 00

  Yeah, sure.

• 51:00Steven Bartlett?

  Oh, God, I know that's not me. So fortunate.

• 51:03Speaker 00

  Go ahead.

• 51:04Steven Bartlett?

  No, I was gonna say, the show's a good example, which is a good question is what are the sponsors? The sponsors are companies that I are in line with my values. So, you know, my Woo, my Zoe, my, you know, the products that I, and I also, I'm a shareholder in those companies. They're sponsoring the podcast and I'm in the team. That's a good example of it, whereas some brands aren't aligned.

• 51:23Speaker 00

  Yeah, I think what I meant even more than just brands is like, you know, I'm, you don't understand, I'm, I'm two different people, right?

• 51:31Steven Bartlett?

  Who's, who's the other guy?

• 51:32Speaker 00

  Well, the other guy is, this is me, I'm Michael Buble.

• 51:34Steven Bartlett?

  Yeah.

• 51:35Speaker 00

  I'm an idiot who is, I think, sweet and.

• 51:39Steven Bartlett?

  So you go and Matt?

• 51:40Speaker 00

  A little bit.

• 51:40Steven Bartlett?

  Well, I knew the other guy from stage.

• 51:42Speaker 00

  Yeah, but that's, that's a completely different dude. That guy, that's Michael Buble. This, I'm Mike, fantasy football hockey-loving idiot who, you know,

• 51:55Speaker 00

  you know, is a bigger idiot than you, than you're seeing here. Even I'm, I'm a little bit more of the suit guy.

• 52:02Steven Bartlett?

  Really?

• 52:03Speaker 00

  Oh, fuck, yeah, man, like.

• 52:04Steven Bartlett?

  Bigger?

• 52:06Speaker 00

  I would say closer to Michael Scott from The Office. But dude, every night I go and I put on this like, this suit. And then when I walk out on stage, I become the guy that I always wanted to be. He is so cool and Teflon. And he says all the right things and nothing can, nothing can, and I'm, I can be goofy, but, you know, but there's this, there's an other, I mean.

• 52:35Steven Bartlett?

  Can I meet him?

• 52:36Speaker 00

  Oh dude, you're gonna meet him. You're gonna meet him. I'm gonna make sure that the whole world meets him. For twenty years, I have done the same thing. It's been cyclical. Michael writes and makes a great record and then I go and I promote it. I go to forty countries and promote it and then I go and tour for a year and a half. And for twenty years, it has been write it, promo it, tour it. And I feel like I'm at this point of my life and my career where I wanna do something different. Listen, again, music will never, it will always be my happy place and my love.

• 53:20Speaker 00

  But I need time to do some other stuff, man. I need time to challenge myself and to wake up and go, yeah, this is different and fun. And it's really, it's about being that other guy, not the suit guy.

• 53:37Steven Bartlett?

  Being Mike.

• 53:38Speaker 00

  Being Mike, man. And doing that, whether that's in movies or television or whatever it is, it has to happen now.

• 53:46Steven Bartlett?

  Why?

• 53:47Speaker 00

  Because dude, this is my favorite part of me. And I've never really, it was just too good. All the other stuff was so...

• 53:58Speaker 00

  Because I love the other stuff. I love touring. I love, like, I love making money doing that. That's amazing, dude.

• 54:04Steven Bartlett?

  What's the symptom telling you that you should do more of Mike and less of Michael?

• 54:09Speaker 00

  Well, just that I, honestly, truly, the excitement of doing something different. You know, like, yeah, it's time to, it's time to take that challenge. It's time to take that trip, you know, like, and I know it's there. The same way I kind of told you, like, that I had so much faith in knowing, like, hey, man, I think I've got a pretty good voice and I can be, I'm a good entertainer. Like, I can, if I do this, I have the potential to really have fun doing that at a level I think I can do.

• 54:42Steven Bartlett?

  For the challenge as well, for the pursuit of...

• 54:45Speaker 00

  Yeah, it's fun to wake up and go like, you know what? Instead of that same cycle, I'm gonna do the record, make the record, sell the record. A musical, again, will always be there, but I need to express myself in a different way. For me, man, and it really isn't for them.

• 55:01Speaker 00

  It isn't for the audience, it's for me. It's like.

• 55:04Steven Bartlett?

  But is there a moment where you, something happens? Cause I'm trying to put this into like my world or whoever's listening as well. Is there a moment where you wake up and you go, I'm just a little bit less excited and it's just fallen below the level of excitement that I need to do this again?

• 55:18Speaker 00

  No, no, no, because man, honestly, genuinely, um, I love being out with, I love making, dude, I just, the music is just, it fills me up with happiness, you know? So the second, I mean, I just did, uh, I did like a corporate gig the other night with my boys and this, that band has been with me for 20 years. They're my brothers, man. So I get up there and it's like, I'm home, you know? And it's like, it's, it's fun. It's, it's fulfilling. It's everything. But dude, it's IMS fulfilled in, in acting, you know? When this tour started to wrap down and I was like, you know what? I, I wanna have fun doing something a little different.

• 55:57Steven Bartlett?

  Everyone can relate to that in their own context because when you have a comfort zone, per se, something you're really good at.

• 56:03Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 56:04Steven Bartlett?

  And then you have the rewards also will align with the thing that you've developed mastery in. It's very easy to spend a decade doing or two decades doing that thing and wake up one day and go, shit, I'm a lawyer. Why am I a lawyer again? Oh, cause it paid really well and I'm good at it?

• 56:16Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 56:17Steven Bartlett?

  But that doesn't necessarily mean it'll make you happy, right?

• 56:19Speaker 00

  Totally. And I think the branding stuff, I definitely had an impact where all of a sudden it wasn't, we, we want you to come and sing something. It was like, you know, we want you.

• 56:31Steven Bartlett?

  Yeah.

• 56:32Speaker 00

  We want Buble, we want Buble to do a, a bubbly commercial or we want Buble to show up and do an Asda commercial or we want, you know, we want you to be the face of our thing. We want you. And I was like, okay, well, what do I sing? And they were like, no, no, we don't want you to sing. We just, we want you to be your idiot stuff. I mean, that Asda ad that I just did, I don't know if you've seen it. That was like getting to sit with Taika Waititi, who's one of my favorite directors and writers of all time. And to have him direct this thing, I mean, I was, I had so much fun and it wasn't singing, it was just, it was literally, you know, we had this talk about the concept and, and we were like, what if I'm this, uh,

• 57:12Speaker 00

  I was like, what if I, he said to me like, dude, dude, what if you're the head of, uh, you know, quality control? And I was like, yes, and I think I know what exactly, but I'm an asshole who has no idea what I'm doing. But, you know, egotistically, you, I am, you know, I'm, and he, and he understood exactly what I was going for. And we, we laughed, we had, it was like, it was three days of us just, you know, just laughing, laughing at ourselves, laughing. And it, that just, I was so happy. And it's like another reason why I'm like, man, this is my personality, this is me.

• 57:47Steven Bartlett?

  Where did you go for support, Michael? When you're, when you're struggling or when you're trying to figure out these sort of impasses in life, is there, have you ever been to therapy? Do you speak to each other?

• 57:59Speaker 00

  Yeah, I've been to therapy, but I don't know, I don't know what to say, man. I don't know if it, I, I don't know if it, if it worked for me. You know, like it felt good to talk about stuff, but then after about like four times, I was like, am I just, am I bullshitting right now? Am I just telling her something just to fill up the hour? Because I sort of went through my, my big stuff and it didn't, and the therapy doesn't feel like it worked very well. You know, hey man, for me, listen, my relationship again with, with God and, and that, that is a far,

• 58:37Speaker 00

  that brings me far more satisfaction. And, uh, and so that for me, and by the way, and like my wife, like being able to say to my wife, like, and I'm so honest with her, I'm like, hey dude, I'm not doing good with this thing. And, and, and she's like, well, still being an idiot, you know?

• 58:56Steven Bartlett?

  My partners, I think that's part of the role of being a, a wonderful partner is that they, they call you out on your.

• 59:03Speaker 00

  Oh God, I love you that you're opening it. Are we allowed to drink this?

• 59:06Steven Bartlett?

  We are allowed to drink it if you want to drink it.

• 59:07Speaker 00

  God, my morning, my morning just got way better.

• 59:10Steven Bartlett?

  I just found this on the phone, no, I didn't really. Um, Fraser and Thompson.

• 59:13Speaker 00

  Yes, sir.

• 59:15Steven Bartlett?

  This is a whiskey brand that I'm holding in my hands that you have built and are building with an incredible team of whiskey experts.

• 59:21Speaker 00

  I know nothing.

• 59:23Steven Bartlett?

  They've told me that you're in, you're driving this business and incredibly involved, which is.

• 59:27Speaker 00

  Oh, yeah. I mean, like, I'm involved in, in this, this, I'm, you know, but like, what do I know about whiskey?

• 59:35Steven Bartlett?

  No, I mean, what do you know about Fraser and Thompson?

• 59:37Speaker 00

  I know, I, I know that, listen to me, I know that if you don't know what you're doing, you, you hire and bring in the greatest people in the universe who literally hold your hand and tell you what to do. And you know that when you find a guy like Paul Circa, who is one of the greatest whiskey, you know, connoisseurs in the world and he, and then you ask him how big his brewery is, and he tells you idiot is called a distillery, not a brewery, you realize that you don't know what you're talking about.

• 1:00:12Steven Bartlett?

  But this is you. You've worked with Paul for a couple of years.

• 1:00:17Speaker 00

  Three years, dude. We took three years. I tell you why. I worked three years because I wasn't going to be part of something that I didn't love. And the truth, man, we tried to reverse engineer a whiskey for people that may not love whiskey. And, you know, I know that there's highfalutin fancy dancy whiskeys that we can talk about the oakiness of the barrel, and they've been aged forty seven years. And this isn't that. This is an approachable drink that truthfully, I love. And as you're opening it, my mouth

• 1:00:58Speaker 00

  is going like, and my wife loves it, and my friends all love it, and all the whiskey snobs I know like it, and I'm so proud of it. And Paul Circa, you don't know who that is, but he's a star.

• 1:01:11Steven Bartlett?

  Oh, I've read about him.

• 1:01:12Speaker 00

  Dude, three years, and we went, I, I was a pain in the ass, and I drove them all crazy.

• 1:01:17Steven Bartlett?

  I've researched, I was researching photos of you and Paul and seeing you down at the distillery, Emily's Brewery.

• 1:01:22Speaker 00

  I know.

• 1:01:23Steven Bartlett?

  Fraser and Thompson, where, where does the name come from?

• 1:01:26Speaker 00

  That's from my grandpa. Because when, when I was a kid, my grandpa used to take us up to. Camping and we would go to in British Columbia, we have the Fraser River. It's like the muddy Fraser and and we have the mighty Thompson, which is glacier water. And they come together in this beautiful confluence. And the truth is that it was in tribute to my grandfather, but better than that is they said to me, you know, we have the juice, now we need a name. And like, there was all these stupid idea like boule et la and and then and serenade in blue and all these musical things. And I was like, and every time I come up with a good one, like some I thought was like real cool and sophisticated. They'd be like, that one's taken. And finally, I was like, you know what?

• 1:02:11Speaker 00

  Why don't I just pay tribute to my grandpa, who is my guy? And it's funny, man, if you look on the bottle, there's all these little hidden Easter eggs, like his birthday's on.

• 1:02:19Steven Bartlett?

  Nineteen twenty seven.

• 1:02:20Speaker 00

  Yes, sir.

• 1:02:21Steven Bartlett?

  Born at the fork of two rivers, Fraser and Thompson.

• 1:02:24Speaker 00

  Yeah, and doesn't it just sound so good?

• 1:02:26Steven Bartlett?

  It sounds the branding is you've nailed it. No, you have, because there's a story there and it's a very authentic story. But the smell.

• 1:02:34Speaker 00

  Yeah. You know what I really like? I actually pour out a little bit of the bottle. And then I take like this, I take like brown sugar, I mix it up and I put like brown sugar in there with vanilla and a little bit of bitters. And then I smash an orange and I just put it in the freezer. And it's weird because my wife was never a whiskey drinker, but again, that's what it was for. It was for it was to make an approachable, delicious whiskey for everybody. And you know what I really like about it? We were talking about money. So I was like really happy that we could come up with what it was. I think it was like thirty five, forty bucks. And I was like, that is, I was like, that is great value because my dad is a fisherman. He talks about value all the time. Because even in my ticket sales, he's like, if you know, son, if you just bring them,

• 1:03:19Speaker 00

  if you give them value for their money, they'll come back. You know, if they feel that they've been ripped off, you'll never see them again. So that was part of the whole thing.

• 1:03:27Steven Bartlett?

  Are you scared?

• 1:03:28Speaker 00

  No, I can I drink it a little bit?

• 1:03:30Steven Bartlett?

  Yeah.

• 1:03:30Speaker 00

  Because you keep touching it and I just we have a little.

• 1:03:32Steven Bartlett?

  Ah, here we go. Look at this guy. Look at this guy.

• 1:03:35Speaker 00

  Am I scared of getting wasted with you at the table?

• 1:03:38Steven Bartlett?

  It's like a reinvention, isn't it? It's a new mountain to climb, building a whiskey company.

• 1:03:44Speaker 00

  Dude, it is, it is, what's nice to term a brand, it's so me, dude. It's just like.

• 1:03:51Speaker 00

  It's an easy thing. It's me. And again, you know how we were talking about the challenge of it? We were talking about the challenge?

• 1:03:57Steven Bartlett?

  Mm hmm.

• 1:03:58Speaker 00

  This isn't just me.

• 1:04:00Steven Bartlett?

  This is a

• 1:04:01Speaker 00

  This is my wife. We're partners. This is my best friend, Ron, my dad. My manager, Bruce. We're all like, this is our thing. It was like part of that thing of going, what can we do that's fun and like? And new? It would be really nice to make a gillion dollars to. You know?

• 1:04:21Steven Bartlett?

  I have a feeling it's, I have a feeling it's gonna do extremely well because it has all the core components of just a beautiful brand and product. It's, I mean, it's gorgeous in every

• 1:04:30Speaker 00

  I'm sorry, man. I I don't even know what to say. You know what? I hate selling shit. Can I be honest with you? I really do. I feel itchy.

• 1:04:42Steven Bartlett?

  But it's

• 1:04:42Speaker 00

  I just hope people will go and however they need to do it, get it free.

• 1:04:48Steven Bartlett?

  What do you want them to

• 1:04:49Speaker 00

  I want them to just try it. I feel like if people just try it, they'll go like, buble, buble, you don't suck. I actually, one of the first things I did was called Ryan Reynolds.

• 1:04:59Steven Bartlett?

  Oh, yeah.

• 1:04:59Speaker 00

  Because this company is the same, these, my partners are the same as, as Ryan with his aviation gin, right? And so I called Ryan and I was like, Ryan, do, what do I do? And he was like, Mike, just have fun, dude. Like, have fun. I was like, Ryan, but I don't know what I'm doing. He was like, I didn't, he goes, you don't have to know. Let the, let the, let the other people that are helping make it and then let them know what they're doing. He said, just have, dude, just be yourself and have fun.

• 1:05:26Steven Bartlett?

  It's really, it's really incredible. So you know, one of the things I always think about people that become really successful, I always wonder if it's a curse in a way because you've been such a successful artist. You've been, I mean, your Christmas record was released in 2011.

• 1:05:39Speaker 00

  I'm so sorry about that.

• 1:05:41Steven Bartlett?

  And I'm so, I'm told it is one of the best selling albums of the 21st

• 1:05:46Speaker 00

  Isn't that crazy? You know what's cute? Yesterday, when I was on the bus, I was driving to the White House because of the Canada City Honors, my first time, you know, I think I was the only Canadian. And Sigourney Weaver was behind me and I was sitting with Sheila Easton. And there was all these fancy people on the bus and I got on the bus and And we got to the White House and the first thing that I heard was me going, have a holly jolly Christmas, it's the best time. And I was like, oh shit. I am so sorry.

• 1:06:19Steven Bartlett?

  Has that ever bothered you that you're so, you were so successful with that Christmas album?

• 1:06:24Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:06:24Steven Bartlett?

  That you hear yourself every Christmas?

• 1:06:26Speaker 00

  No, at first, you know what's funny, like about seven years into it, I was like, I was, cause you know, all I would get was calls, like especially to come October, it was like, if you were a famous person with a movie or a, or a record, I was, you were calling me. Like, I'm not even exaggerating. Like, it was, you know, and I would get so excited. It was like, oh my God, you know, this, oh my God, my hero's calling. Are they gonna ask me to be in their film? Are they gonna do a duet? And it would be like, so we're doing a Christmas. And I'd be like, oh shit.

• 1:07:02Speaker 00

  It's actually funny, Jack, Jack Whitehall, you know Jack?

• 1:07:04Steven Bartlett?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 1:07:05Speaker 00

  He called me the other day. He's like, Mike, I have this idea. And I was like, you're gonna say Christmas, aren't you? And he was like, yes. And I was like, Jack, I love, dude. It's interesting. We were talking about my son and that moment. But that again, was an epiphany moment for me where I was sitting in the hospital room and I was like, oh my God, I am now synonymous with this beautiful time of year where people don't treat each other like assholes. And, and there's kindness and goodness and that's, this is, I get to be a part of this. And then people invite me into their homes at a time that is, is everything to them and their connection with the people they love and their memories.

• 1:07:48Speaker 00

  And, and then I started getting deeper and I was like, oh my God, oh my God, they're not gonna, the people aren't gonna remember shit when I die. They're not gonna remember home or the duet or this whiskey.

• 1:07:58Steven Bartlett?

  Home is my favorite song, excuse me.

• 1:07:59Speaker 00

  But you know what I mean? But like, it goes, you know what I mean? But I'm like, dude, 200 years from now, I am dead as in dead. You know, people are gonna be saying, have a holly, jolly Christmas. I'm gonna be there. It's so cool.

• 1:08:14Steven Bartlett?

  It's so fucking tight. It's so cool.

• 1:08:15Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:08:15Steven Bartlett?

  I associate you with great memories, good times, and I have to say, Home is my favorite song.

• 1:08:20Speaker 00

  Oh dude, I love you. Thank you.

• 1:08:22Steven Bartlett?

  I've, I mean, we were, we were, I was doing karaoke before you came an hour ago and I was like, put the.

• 1:08:27Speaker 00

  Are you joking? Really?

• 1:08:28Steven Bartlett?

  No, it's on video.

• 1:08:29Speaker 00

  That's amazing.

• 1:08:30Steven Bartlett?

  I went, go on YouTube. I went, put on Michael Buble, Home, and I had lyric video. We're gonna do karaoke. And there was four of us. I was the only one singing and I can't sing.

• 1:08:37Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:08:37Steven Bartlett?

  But I sang, I know every word. I know every word of that song.

• 1:08:40Speaker 00

  Thank you.

• 1:08:40Steven Bartlett?

  What's your favorite song?

• 1:08:42Speaker 00

  Of the Christmas stuff?

• 1:08:43Steven Bartlett?

  No, no, no.

• 1:08:44Speaker 00

  Oh, of anything?

• 1:08:45Steven Bartlett?

  Yeah. No, of the, of songs that you sing and that you, yes, songs that you sing.

• 1:08:50Speaker 00

  Songs that I sing? Of the standards?

• 1:08:52Steven Bartlett?

  Either your own or someone else's.

• 1:08:54Speaker 00

  Oh my God, there's so many.

• 1:08:56Steven Bartlett?

  Just one.

• 1:08:57Speaker 00

  It's impossible.

• 1:08:59Steven Bartlett?

  Could you sing some?

• 1:09:00Speaker 00

  It's impossible, man. It's impossible.

• 1:09:02Steven Bartlett?

  For me.

• 1:09:02Speaker 00

  Home?

• 1:09:03Steven Bartlett?

  Yeah.

• 1:09:03Speaker 00

  Oh, yeah. Another summer day has come and gone away in Paris or Rome, but I wanna go home. But, but, cause this place sucks. I should have, that, that should have been the lyric. I was, yeah, I, that's, it's so weird, you know, like not to get too deep and too like weird, but uh, I have this friend Dion and I do his, I love doing his accent. He's South African. And uh, before I wrote that song, um, I remember he used to say, oh my God, Boachik. He's from South Africa. He'd say, oh my God, you know what? The greatest artists and they will just open up their mind to the universe and they let the universe in.

• 1:09:44Speaker 00

  So when you're writing, just open up your mind to the universe. And I was in the shower and I was like, and I was, I was like, you know what? I'm gonna open my mind to, it's so weird. But I was like, hmm, you know, enter. And uh, I think weirdly enough, for whatever reason, I had like Canon and D in my head.

• 1:10:13Speaker 00

  I just went, another summer day has come and gone away in Paris or Rome, but I wanna go home. And the whole, literally, almost the whole, I mean, that and the pre, whoa, in, in two minutes. And I remember. Getting out of the shower with a towel and those days we didn't have the iPhone or anything, right? I had like a one of those little tape recorders and I remember singing in a tape recorder and listening back and going, oh, no, no, I've most definitely stole this from somewhere. I stole this from somewhere. And it was cool. And at that point, too, my record company, they were like, we don't want original songs. You're the Frank guy, man. You're gonna sing, you're gonna do the standards. And I was like, no, I think I can, I write. It's weird.

• 1:10:56Speaker 00

  Even as I got on to writing other songs, I had the second record, I wrote everything and hold on or lost to one of the songs. And I remember the president of the label, we were at the video shoot for everything. And he said, man, I wish I would have known that you wanted original music because we would have hired, we would have hired writers for you. And I was like, oh, my God, this is terrible. But it's weird, man, like, you know, like, it's, I'm, I live in a weird place artistically, too, right? It's, you know what I mean? I don't belong. I never did. I never did. Like, I go to those Grammys and stuff. And I would like, look around and I was like, I was not in the pop thing and I was not in a classical thing and I wasn't in a jazz thing. And so many times I was

• 1:11:41Speaker 00

  like, early on, I was like, what, what, what am I? This is weird. Like, I'm doing standards and yet my, you know, I'm on the radio. It was weird. Still weird sometimes.

• 1:11:51Steven Bartlett?

  I think about this when you say this and I go, but isn't not belonging how you end up doing these kind of numbers? Because if you were more of the same artistically, vocally, you wouldn't have, have all these Grammys and all the, you know, bestselling, six multi-platinum albums, five Grammy Awards, more billions of streams than I could possibly count.

• 1:12:12Speaker 00

  I stream myself a lot, yeah.

• 1:12:14Steven Bartlett?

  But I go, if you were, if you were like everybody else, you wouldn't have those achievements.

• 1:12:19Speaker 00

  Yeah, I don't know.

• 1:12:20Steven Bartlett?

  I wonder.

• 1:12:21Speaker 00

  It just feels lonely. Like, sometimes I look at like, like, I go to those award shows, even last night at the Candy Center Awards, I felt like everybody knew each other. Like, they kept like, high fiving. And then there was like, this group of Broadway people that all know each other from the functions they do on Broadway. And there was like, cool pop people and like, and then there was like me. And I was like, I saw Herbie Hancock, I was so excited. I love Herbie Hancock. And but I didn't want to go in it. He was talking to Chita Rivera and I love her too. And I didn't want to be that guy that went in. But um. You know what I mean? I don't know where I I mean, maybe I'll never know where I freely belong.

• 1:12:57Steven Bartlett?

  But I'm trying to say that that's why you're so special.

• 1:12:59Speaker 00

  I don't know.

• 1:13:00Steven Bartlett?

  I even with what I do here, I absolutely don't feel like I belong anywhere. I'm not a journalist and I'm not qualified to do this.

• 1:13:07Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:13:08Steven Bartlett?

  I go to they don't invite me to the award shows for journalists and media. I'm not invited to them.

• 1:13:12Speaker 00

  Yeah, how how does that work?

• 1:13:13Steven Bartlett?

  I don't know. I don't know. We I don't know where we sit. I don't even know what we are. Are we a podcast? But it's on TV. It's a this is on planes. It's on chat.

• 1:13:20Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:13:20Steven Bartlett?

  So you you do have that sense of like, someone's going to come up to you and tap you. Go, what are you doing?

• 1:13:24Speaker 00

  Yeah, it's interesting because I feel like I if you ask me, if someone asked me about you, I would I would I would in a sentence be able to define what I what I feel is.

• 1:13:38Steven Bartlett?

  Please give me this sentence.

• 1:13:39Speaker 00

  Oh, man, I I honestly think watching you and watching this show like I have for years

• 1:13:46Speaker 00

  is a perfect mix of education and entertainment. I don't know how else to say it. It's like, really, it really is. It's both things. I'm I'm often highly entertained by what's happening, but at the end, I feel like I I was educated. I learned something, either something

• 1:14:06Speaker 00

  that is, you know, either ideas or philosophies, or sometimes it's literally, literally logistics, science. Where you know what I mean?

• 1:14:17Steven Bartlett?

  I can't tell you how weird that is to hear from you, someone that I've I've looked up to since I was a kid at home in Plymouth all those years ago, watching my TV.

• 1:14:25Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:14:26Steven Bartlett?

  Four kids, Michael.

• 1:14:26Speaker 00

  I know.

• 1:14:27Steven Bartlett?

  If they come to you now, line up in front of you here and they go, Daddy, listen,

• 1:14:32Steven Bartlett?

  just need some advice on this thing called life.

• 1:14:35Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:14:36Steven Bartlett?

  You know, you've you've lived a great life and it's twisted and turned and all those wonderful things. Daddy, what should we know about the nature of living a good life and?

• 1:14:46Speaker 00

  I say that I dude, they ask me. They don't ask me in that way.

• 1:14:49Steven Bartlett?

  Yeah, I was gonna say, Jesus Christ.

• 1:14:50Speaker 00

  They ask me and I say that, dude, I I'm telling you right now, I have the same. I have the same answer every time. I say, Rich isn't what you think it is, kid. That word rich that your friends use. Rich sounds like money and stuff and things and Lamborghinis and tickets to go see Messi. That's not rich. Rich is having a strong faith. Rich is having a great family and loving your family. Rich is having great friendships. Because those rich things they're talking about, the money. The people that I know that have the most stuff are the most miserable people that I know. And I don't know how else to to explain it, you know? Those are all be it's lovely. Listen, it's easy to say, right?

• 1:15:35Speaker 00

  It's easy for somebody watching this podcast to go like, well, that's easy for you to say, Buble. You know, you got a bunch of stuff. But it doesn't take long to realize that life has nothing to do with stuff. And we're all sitting on that deathbed. We're all gonna die, every single one of us. And nobody looks back and says, shit, I wish I collected more stuff.

• 1:15:55Steven Bartlett?

  What would you regret if that was this? If today was that day?

• 1:15:57Speaker 00

  Nothing, my friend. Not a thing. Not one thing. Not one thing. I have lived a beautiful life. And I have been so blessed. And I don't even think it was like I made this thank God, you know? I got a great family. I got beautiful, you know, my wife is the best thing I ever loved me. And I got kids. I look at my four kids. I mean, I was scared to have the fourth one. I was like, oh, my God, I'm not how we. And then now I look at this little girl, Cielo, and I think like, wow, how could I ever? How did I live without her? Like this, like this gorgeous little fat, little beautiful personality like a wide, you know, not a thing. I, I, and I say, it's funny. I said it to my wife many times, you know? God forbid.

• 1:16:42Speaker 00

  You know, it's my time. I've said it many times. I would just know that I would. I am completely satisfied. Satisfied, I have lived a full and beautiful life. And that I have no regrets.

• 1:17:01Speaker 00

  Except that I didn't drink more of this whiskey faster.

• 1:17:05Steven Bartlett?

  Your story is so incredible. The thing that, I mean, the perseverance at the heart of your story and where you come from and the fantasizing about the life that you now lead, all of those things are so unbelievably inspiring because there's so many people out there that are, you know, they're Michael at 14.

• 1:17:20Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:17:21Steven Bartlett?

  Maybe they're Michael at 14, you know, maybe they are that fantasizing Michael that was 14, but maybe they're 44 and they're still holding out hope that maybe those dreams, that ballet dancing in the hills of Peru or that playing the piano or starting that business, is it too late for them?

• 1:17:38Speaker 00

  No, dude, this is gonna sound so cheesy, but dude, it is, I say this to people all the time. I just did a masterclass thing for these beautiful kids, these underprivileged kids, basically. It was in Orange County and they didn't have music programs in their school. And the first thing I said to all of them was, I talked about Neil deGrasse Tyson. And I said, you know, the greatest scientist on the planet will tell you that nothing cannot make something. Something cannot come from nothing. I mean, I don't care how many times they run the experiment. Something cannot come from nothing. It cannot exist. Yet somehow,

• 1:18:18Speaker 00

  you magical little beasts walk into a room with absolutely nothing and you walk out with something. You are defying gravity. You are, you're magicians. And listen, we will be crushed in relationships. Our partners will break our hearts. We will have businesses that fail. We'll have doors shut on us. They'll say no to us a million times. But if you're lucky enough to have something like music or a passion that you really fall in love with, it will never hurt you. It will never leave you. You know, it'll stay loyal to you. And to me, it's a, it's a massive gift. And it's funny, it's gonna sound like a really strange

• 1:19:00Speaker 00

  transition, but I love TikTok. And my wife said to me, go on TikTok. I said, like, I'm too famous to go on TikTok. And she was like, you, you are TikTok. She was like, you will love it. And I was like, no, I'm not gonna love it. And then I did my stupid TikTok. And, you know, I did a dumb, whatever it was, the first TikTok. And then like, I started to like, I was like, oh, you can go, it's not just about making the TikTok, which I, because I'm an idiot, it was fun. It was about, oh wow, you can go through TikTok. And then the addiction began and the addiction wasn't

• 1:19:39Speaker 00

  wasn't about seeing stupid TikToks. The addiction was finding those people you're talking about.

• 1:19:47Speaker 00

  And that was like, oh my God, like, like if I, I don't know where my phone, here's my phone. It's in my butt. I could go on to TikTok and can I just, may I do this?

• 1:19:57Steven Bartlett?

  Work it out.

• 1:19:57Speaker 00

  This is gonna be weird, but um, okay, here's a good example. There's a girl named Julia Michelle Voice. That's what she goes under. I think she was making TikToks from like her, her, maybe her parents' house or something. I don't want it. But like I heard her voice and I was like, oh my God, you have a beautiful voice like. And I never would have, you know, in the, in the way that our structure of business used to exist.

• 1:20:23Steven Bartlett?

  And record labels and stuff.

• 1:20:24Speaker 00

  Dude, I never would have heard her. And then there's a girl named Useless Farm who works on a farm where she has emus that attack her. And um, Adam Rose, who is an actor who is, anyway, I like, I deeply love that I can go on TikTok and it's exactly what you're talking about. Where I like see these people and I'm like, oh my God, you are, you are tremendous. Like, people need to know, like they, and it's funny because now with some of them, it's happening. And it's exactly what we were talking about where it was just inevitable, Mr. Anderson. People were going to find out because they're really good. You know what I mean? It's just.

• 1:21:09Steven Bartlett?

  But life just tells you to fucking get your shit together and go get a real job.

• 1:21:13Speaker 00

  I know, but I think it might be in this business, it might be changing a little bit with, with um, platforms like TikTok where, you know, I know it sounds so goofy, but like, dude, I love that there's a community and you know, I love even more that I write them.

• 1:21:29Steven Bartlett?

  You write to them?

• 1:21:30Speaker 00

  Yeah, man, I do. I write to them as me. I do every day. I like, I love, oh my God, dude, that is hilarious. People making fun of me. Like, can I show you one that I just saw that just?

• 1:21:38Steven Bartlett?

  People think it's your like agent or something that's, or your social media manager.

• 1:21:42Speaker 00

  Let's see if this can work. I'm not, I'm not great with this.

• 1:21:46Steven Bartlett?

  Maybe surround it. We're gonna just do an interlude while I sing.

• 1:21:52Steven Bartlett?

  Million people.

• 1:21:53Speaker 00

  Mmm, just feel alone. I wanna go home. Mmm, let me go home.

• 1:22:02Steven Bartlett?

  I don't wanna sing because people are listening.

• 1:22:03Speaker 00

  Let me go home. Boom, cuz I wanna dance even though he's fat in his pants. I couldn't remember the rhyme. I'm so sorry that this is. Here it is. I found it.

• 1:22:19Steven Bartlett?

  You never have to apologize.

• 1:22:20Speaker 00

  Okay, sometimes, once in a while, like, I find stuff like this and I go like,

• 1:22:25Speaker 00

  they're geniuses, like truly geniuses. So the tedding says, when you changed,

• 1:22:33Speaker 00

  when you changed, when you changed the radio station at the wrong time. Santa Claus is coming.

• 1:22:39Speaker 03

  All over your face.

• 1:22:46Speaker 00

  That was a long lead up, but.

• 1:22:49Steven Bartlett?

  That's a nice window.

• 1:22:50Speaker 00

  But like, dude, I see that and I go like, someone like thought of that and then shared it. And it was like, I think, I don't even know, hundreds of millions of times people have watched that.

• 1:23:01Steven Bartlett?

  That's crazy.

• 1:23:02Speaker 00

  I think it's crazy. I think it's beautiful. And I love that I wrote the guy. I said, this is the mashup that I didn't know I needed.

• 1:23:09Steven Bartlett?

  God, imagine getting a message from Michael Buble when, when you've made something so, so like ridiculous.

• 1:23:13Speaker 00

  That's what the coolest part of that TikTok is, is that it isn't about you. No one gives a shit about me. And by the way, I don't even belong on TikTok and no celebrity really does. I think the only way you belong on TikTok is if you understand what TikTok is. And TikTok is about a community of creators and like supporting and laughing and, and being inspired and dude.

• 1:23:34Steven Bartlett?

  It's the platform that you spent fourteen, fifteen years fighting for, which you, you know what I mean? Before we had social media, there was people like you just singing at restaurants and singing here, there and everywhere, just knocking on doors, pulling someone into a back room in a banquet. And now you don't need to go and.

• 1:23:50Speaker 00

  No.

• 1:23:51Steven Bartlett?

  You know, attack David in a back room.

• 1:23:52Speaker 00

  No. I think it's funny because it started like, I remember Bieber, Justin, talking to Justin about how, how, you know what I mean? Or even Ed, even Ed, um, it was, uh, you know, it wasn't TikTok, but it was.

• 1:24:04Steven Bartlett?

  YouTube and Bebo.

• 1:24:05Speaker 00

  Exactly.

• 1:24:06Steven Bartlett?

  Yeah, back in the day. That's where I first saw Justin.

• 1:24:07Speaker 00

  It's so different now, man. And it's like, uh, but it's still fundamentally the same business too, where if you can.

• 1:24:16Speaker 00

  It's all about live business. If you can do the job of putting people in seats and entertain them live, because what's really weird is like even talking with my record company, it's like, oh, they just, we just signed this act. It's great. And I go like, oh, cool. Like, where can I go see them? And they go, oh, no, they don't, they don't tour. No, they don't, they've never ever played outside of their bedroom. They've never been in front of people. And you go like, what? Different, but just what it is.

• 1:24:44Steven Bartlett?

  And this is not just about music. Look at me. I use the same platforms to build a show. Do you know what's crazy? No one knows this. I went, no one knows this story. I went to a big radio station in the UK before I started this podcast, and I begged them to give me an audition. I went down there for two hours. They know who they are. I wouldn't name them because

• 1:25:03Speaker 00

  it was either Sky or it was one or it was BBC or it was.

• 1:25:06Steven Bartlett?

  I won't say which one it was.

• 1:25:07Speaker 00

  You want to say, okay.

• 1:25:08Steven Bartlett?

  And I, I went in there and I did.

• 1:25:09Speaker 00

  Capital, somebody. I knew, dude, I knew.

• 1:25:14Steven Bartlett?

  And I went in there, I sat in there and the guy wasn't paying attention to me pretty much at all. I sat in there, my audition started, the guy that's meant to be judging my audition takes a phone call, walks out, doesn't come back. But I'm in there for two hours doing these fake phone calls. I leave the radio station. This was only like three years, three, four years ago. I leave the radio station. I never hear anything. No feedback. No, you did well, you did badly, you were crap, nothing, never hear anything. So started a podcast myself, which did well.

• 1:25:42Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:25:42Steven Bartlett?

  And then, yeah, like a year ago, the same radio station sent me an email saying, hey, we'd love you to come in and do like a little guest thing to promote your book. And I responded, I said, I'm still waiting to hear my feedback to the guy. And they were like, and they conducted this like internal investigation to find out why nobody ever got back to me.

• 1:25:59Speaker 00

  They really did?

• 1:26:00Steven Bartlett?

  Yeah, they really did. Because they sent me an email asking me to come back and do some like guest appearance. I said, I was like, I came, they were asking me to like a guest show, whatever. And I said, I'm, I came in and did an audition and I still haven't heard back. And it's been almost two years now. But we have these platforms where we can do it ourselves. Whether you're a podcaster, a singer.

• 1:26:17Speaker 00

  That's what I think I find so cool about it is that there's no more, the gatekeeper.

• 1:26:22Steven Bartlett?

  Is gone.

• 1:26:22Speaker 00

  Is gone. That one guy who, why the hell, why was he the gatekeeper? What did he have? And now it's like, no, no, no, now nobody likes you but the people. Like the people get to choose, right? And there's no, honestly, sometimes like I'll watch something and there's no, even there's no rhyme or reason. It just, it resonates, man. And you go like, oh, okay. Well, that's the people have spoken.

• 1:26:46Steven Bartlett?

  That's a vote, isn't it?

• 1:26:47Speaker 00

  Yeah, yeah.

• 1:26:48Steven Bartlett?

  Michael, thank you. Thank you.

• 1:26:50Speaker 00

  We're done?

• 1:26:50Steven Bartlett?

  We're done.

• 1:26:51Speaker 00

  Okay, fine. Now I'm ready for my second cup. I'm feeling really, I'm starting to feel really good and loose.

• 1:26:58Steven Bartlett?

  I've got one more, last question for you.

• 1:26:59Speaker 00

  Oh, yeah, go, yeah.

• 1:27:01Steven Bartlett?

  We have a closing tradition where the last guest leaves a question for the next guest, not knowing who they're going to be leaving it for.

• 1:27:07Steven Bartlett?

  Interesting. The question that's been left is, what was your last big four in the road decision? And how did you make it?

• 1:27:15Speaker 00

  It's coming. Right? Literally, it's coming. I would say within weeks. And I will make it by speaking to, number one, first thing, I'll speak to my wife. And, uh, and then I'll speak to all the people that I trust. And, uh, and I'll, I will weigh what everyone says and then I'll, they'll help me make the decision. It's coming.

• 1:27:38Steven Bartlett?

  Michael, you're, you're not going to quit music, are you?

• 1:27:41Speaker 00

  No, no, I'm not. Never. It's impossible. That's like saying, are you gonna, are you gonna stop breathing, dude? No, no, no. I like to breathe. And music is, is my breath. I can't, I can't stop.

• 1:27:55Steven Bartlett?

  Give me a little bit of concern, that's all, when you said.

• 1:27:56Speaker 00

  Oh, no, no, don't let it be like, it's a good thing.

• 1:27:58Steven Bartlett?

  Oh, okay.

• 1:27:59Speaker 00

  It's just a big, you know, just a big decision.

• 1:28:04Steven Bartlett?

  Interesting.

• 1:28:04Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:28:05Steven Bartlett?

  We shall wait and we shall see.

• 1:28:06Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:28:07Steven Bartlett?

  Michael, thank you so much.

• 1:28:07Speaker 00

  Where do I leave my question for the next guest?

• 1:28:10Steven Bartlett?

  In the book.

• 1:28:10Speaker 00

  Oh, I'm so excited. I've got so many.

• 1:28:12Steven Bartlett?

  Thank you so much.

• 1:28:20Steven Bartlett?

  Do you need a podcast to listen to next? We've discovered that people who liked this episode also tend to absolutely love another recent episode we've done. So I've linked that episode in the description below. I know you'll enjoy it.