00:00So tell me about the song you put together for this movie.
00:03That's really good. I like it.
00:04But then again, I wrote it. I'm going to like it, right?
00:07Scooters, shot one.
00:09All right.
00:10Oh, shit.
00:11Oh, no, we closed.
00:14My magic hour is the mornings.
00:17Here we go.
00:18This is starting fresh.
00:20I like waking with the sun.
00:22I like to, you know, I'm a morning person.
00:26So this is my building.
00:27It's a building my song spot, which is really cool.
00:32But I've been down the street since prehistoric times, like since 1985.
00:37And I really like it there.
00:42So you're growing up and you are...
00:46A juvenile delinquent.
00:47A juvenile delinquent in Van Nuys?
00:50Yeah, I grew up in Van Nuys.
00:51I hated school.
00:53I got in a lot of trouble.
00:55I got kicked out of a couple of schools.
00:58You know, just normal things like that.
01:00You know, because all I cared about was music.
01:03All I cared about was writing songs.
01:06There was no plan B for me.
01:07This was what I was doing.
01:09It's a weird thing.
01:10Usually someone loves music.
01:11They want to be on a stage.
01:12They want to be in a band.
01:13They want to sing.
01:15Not me.
01:16I want to be the name in the parentheses.
01:23You know, I play guitar and piano.
01:25But you know, I'm certainly not a musician.
01:30I know chords, I can get around to write a good song.
01:33You know, but I don't play very good.
01:37And when I would break into the practice rooms at CSUN, I would just...
01:42I wouldn't go in there to practice.
01:43I'd go in there to write songs.
01:46My first big break was a song called Rhythm of the Night.
01:49To the beat of the rhythm of the night.
01:51It was 1985.
01:53You know, it made people more aware of me.
01:55More likely to take my phone call.
01:57More likely to listen to my songs.
01:59More likely to think a song they didn't like last week was a hit song this week.
02:04You know, how that goes.
02:06When I first met Clive, I had just written Rhythm of the Night.
02:08And I was so excited that he wanted to meet me.
02:10And then he didn't like any of the songs I played him.
02:12And I went out and bought a really expensive sweater that I couldn't afford
02:16because I was so depressed.
02:17But then later I worked with him a lot.
02:19The thing with me is I always come back.
02:21If someone doesn't like something, I'm back the next day or the next week with more.
02:25So that's how I developed my relationship with Clive.
02:32How's it going?
02:33I can't remember something I wrote a week ago, much less something I wrote 30 years ago.
02:36I forget so many of my songs.
02:38I go, I wrote that?
02:40Wow.
02:41You know.
02:43You don't have to be in love to write a love song.
02:45I'm proof of that.
02:46I just have a good imagination.
02:48I love my cat.
02:50I do.
02:52My best friend.
02:54Oh, sorry.
02:55You want to come in, right?
02:56Come here.
02:57I could stay awake just to hear her purring.
02:59It's weird.
03:01All right, well, here we go.
03:03Here we go.
03:04That's my bird, Butt Wings.
03:06He's 26 years old.
03:08He's a little asshole.
03:11I love all animals.
03:12I'm a big animal advocate.
03:14But I think cats are my favorite.
03:16You have to earn their love.
03:18I like that.
03:28You've worked with all the great singers, Cher and Robert Streisand and everybody.
03:32And I love Unbreak My Heart.
03:34It's one of my favorite songs of all time.
03:36She didn't want to do that song.
03:37Don't leave me in love's pain.
03:40Tony didn't like the song and Clive made her do it.
03:43Clive's like, you know, you want your album to come out?
03:45That's going to be your single.
03:48One break my heart.
03:51I think she learned to love it after she won the Grammy.
03:54With something like I Don't Want to Miss a Thing, I never thought Aerosmith would do my song.
03:57I could stay awake just to hear you breathing.
04:04His daughter was in the movie, Liv Tyler.
04:07And Bruce Willis played her dad and he died, I think, when Steven Tyler saw it.
04:10He was really moved.
04:17So this is my writing room.
04:22My old writing room, but I still use it.
04:24There you are.
04:25This is the inside of my brain, which isn't good.
04:27Doesn't say good things about my brain, does it?
04:30Maybe it does.
04:31Maybe it does say good things about my brain.
04:34What's your process for writing for a film?
04:37It's kind of hard to really explain.
04:39Like, I never like to get into the nuts and bolts of what I do because it's magical to me.
04:42Like, I don't try to analyze it, I just do it.
04:45I kind of sit down and come up with ideas and titles and chords.
04:51Just sitting here, pulling my hair out.
04:54I don't know, that's what I do.
04:57My brain's like a computer and I hear about somebody or read about something or read a script.
05:01I have to work.
05:02So are you like a savant?
05:05I don't know, I'm probably the idiot of idiot savant.
05:07I think I'm the first half of that.
05:13I'm going to be here someday.
05:15Who is that?
05:15I don't know.
05:18A lot of things have to come into play to make a hit song.
05:21I think I know when I've written one.
05:22But you know what?
05:23Someone has to believe in it.
05:24You have to like get through the politics.
05:26You have to like convince somebody to do the song.
05:29Sometimes they don't want to do it.
05:31Right?
05:32I have to fight for, like I still have to fight for stuff.
05:35You have no idea.
05:36I still have to fight for stuff.
05:37Just getting things to happen.
05:40Sometimes someone doesn't want to put a record out, you know.
05:43I remember even with Till It Happens To You, the label didn't want to put that song out.
05:47I was like, wait, why don't you want to, like, it's great.
05:51It's a great record.
05:52And I knew what it was.
05:54You tell me, hold your hat up.
05:57And so I kind of helped get the video financed.
05:59I asked Katherine Hardwick to do it as a favor.
06:02You know, it was kind of all under the radar.
06:05Till it happens to you, you all know how I feel.
06:13I made that happen.
06:14I go, without a video, nothing's going to ever happen.
06:16We have to do this.
06:17So I put my own money in it.
06:19And then they kind of made us call it a PSA.
06:22It's not like, because they were, they were really, they didn't want it to come out.
06:25It's like, okay, it can come out as a PSA, you know.
06:31You know, just when I believe it, you can't stop me.
06:40I was looking at the comments and there was this one, this girl goes, this is, I love this song
06:45so much.
06:46I'm 12 years old and I was molested.
06:49I know nobody's going to believe me, but this is so important.
06:52It's the most beautiful thing.
06:52And I started crying.
06:53And I'm thinking like, this song or other songs, they're powerful.
06:58They moved people to action.
07:00And they comfort you and they let you know that you're not alone.
07:05That even helped me talk about my own molestation.
07:10I wasn't doing a times talk, it was me and Gaga and the directors.
07:14And I blurted out, I got molested at 12.
07:16I'm like, and I was like, what did I just do?
07:18I can't believe I just said that.
07:20And I never, I told my mom like later, you know, when she was older.
07:24You know, and I think I told one friend.
07:26I just never talked about it, you know.
07:33So should I, should I sing part of this or play?
07:35Are you guys filming?
07:36Should I just do it?
07:36Yeah, go for it.
07:42When each day just takes another piece of you.
07:44Everybody takes all they can get from you until you're left with almost nothing left of you.
07:48I love that.
07:49Because that feels like that sometimes, right?
07:51You know, I'll catch your tears, the tears when your tears fall.
07:53I'll give it all.
07:54I won't give up the fight, you know.
07:56I just love, I love that because that's what we do for our friends.
07:59That's what we want people to do for us.
08:02When you feel you've taken all that you can take.
08:06And you're sure you're never gonna catch a break.
08:22And the tears of rivers running down your face, yeah.
08:27All I ask of our brethren is that they take their feet off our necks.
08:34She's badass.
08:35She's a tough little thing.
08:37She's a quiet fighter.
08:38She quietly kicks the shit out of everybody.
08:41For us.
08:42For you.
08:43For all of us.
08:44That's why that song is so perfect for her.
08:54And I respect her so much, you know.
08:57Young kids idolize her.
08:59She's a rock star when she goes anywhere, you know, to like 15 year old kids.
09:03And she's 84.
09:05There's hope there.
09:06And that's why I think this song really is important right now.
09:10I want this to be an anthem.
09:12Kind of like how Stand Up For Something became an anthem.
09:14To what started out, Thurgood Marshall, and then it's on Stand Up For Cancer.
09:18So, look at how that, that's becoming a song for representing that.
09:22It's kind of crazy with Andrew Day with Stand Up For Something.
09:25I thought it'd be great to have a rapper on it.
09:27And like Common, that's what I was thinking.
09:29And a week later I'm on a plane and he's sitting in back with me.
09:32That's how that happened.
09:34Stand up for you.
09:37Yes I will.
09:38Yes I will.
09:41I think I have a bunch of favorite songs.
09:43But I think like these last three, to me it's like a trilogy.
09:47Until it happens to you, Stand Up For Something.
09:49And now it's all fight, I'll fight that war for you.
09:54I'm really proud of these new songs.
09:58This is a new thing for me in that these songs have gotten these amazing lives.
10:02You know, it's really cool to see your songs be able to empower,
10:06effect change, or inspire.
10:10Moving people and touching people, making them feel something,
10:13making them want to dance, making them want to cry.
10:16Nothing makes me happier, nothing.
10:19Because I'm still like the kid from Van Nuys, you know.
10:23It's kind of stayed innocent like that in a weird way.
10:25Hearing of her, only to the people who are you.
10:28But I heard I was able to ignite my hand.
10:28It's the middle of two times for me.
10:30You know, work my hard work to do with should.
10:31It's клиents school, it's incredibly exciting.
10:35I was able to dedicate my hand.
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