[intense dramatic music]
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[Frank] I know exactly the day I opened
my mouth to sing. It was a Sunday.
All the relatives were over at the house.
It's an old Italian song, and I didn't know
what the hell the words were. I was like six,
seven years old. It was... ♪ Eh, Cumpari ♪
And all of a sudden, I just start singing along with it.
It just seemed natural.
For some reason, it was effortless for me.
I never had a pitch problem. I could just sing.
Please welcome, Frank Stallone.
-Frank Stallone. -Frank Stallone.
[Sylvester] In his world, and his talent, he's, you know,
every bit as good as I am at what I try to do.
He's a five tool guy.
He can sing, he can act, he can perform,
he can write, and he could fight like a son of a bitch.
When you watch Frank Stallone perform,
he fulfills everything.
It's just talent, man. It's just pure talent.
He sings his ass off. Always did.
He likes to talk a lot.
-[laughs] -He can talk.
He can tell a story, and he'll just capture you.
He's just wonderful.
[Billy] It's a combination
of electric magnetism
coupled with this incredible humility.
It's just a rare cocktail.
It's what I respect most about him.
Frank has style and Frank has endurance.
He's very driven. He's talented, and he's also a sweetheart
of a guy. He's a winner.
He's an electric sort of guy, and, and, uh, funny.
He's entertaining. He's got a heart of gold.
There's never a dull moment with Frank.
[Frankie] He's got a big heart.
That's what people don't see. It's that big.
[Steven] He's a force. He's the real deal.
There's so much more to him than meets the eye.
I mean, everybody knows, yeah, he did a little
doo-wop thing in the first Rocky film,
and you think, "Oh, that's cute," you know,
"Sylvester and his brother sing a little
thing at the beginning." And then,
you dig deeper, and you found out,
"Wow, this guy's a tremendous musical artist
in his own right."
He was into music 24 hours a day.
I knew that was his calling.
He never quit.
♪ I know what I'm missing ♪
♪ I talk ♪
♪ No one listens ♪
♪ Now I'm talking to myself ♪
♪ Reach out, no reaction ♪
♪ What price? ♪
♪ Satisfaction ♪
♪ If you give up ♪
♪ Or give it all... ♪
[upbeat jazz music]
These were actually, uh,
these were a gift to me.
These were Frank Sinatra's cufflinks.
Maybe that'll bring me a... bit of good luck.
See you in the movies.
[upbeat jazz music continues]
[announcer] Welcome back to the stage Frank Stallone.
[audience applauds]
[Frank] I grew up in a kind of a strange environment.
My father was from Italy, and my mother is a WASP,
and she was born in Washington DC.
So I didn't really grow up in,
what you would call, a musical household.
My father was a hair dresser.
My mother worked in the same business,
and it was a very tumultuous house.
It was not a happy household.
[Jackie] I remember once I went to Bloomingdale's,
he was about five years old, and he's so quite.
Were-- He said to Frankie, "Just sit here, don't move."
He would not move until you gave him a command to move.
When I got home, I realized I didn't have him.
He was still sitting on the bench in Bloomingdale's.
I went back to the store, and there you were. [laughs]
To pick him up, that's how well-mannered he was.
[Annette] He was a good baby.
Frankie actually was putty in your hand.
He was a beautiful little baby, and very good.
Growing up, he was just a, a normal child,
but he developed a passion,
and I mean really a passion, for music.
[Frank] I remember to this day, seeing Elvis Presley.
All of a sudden, this wild man comes on.
At six years old, I'm going, "Oh, yeah,
forget 'Eh, Cumpari.' That, that bullshit,
that's over. This is it right here."
The hair, the look, just everything about him,
and that was it, I was hooked.
When my parents got divorced,
I moved from Maryland to Philadelphia,
which was like night and day.
But then the doo-wop thing was always around,
like The Platters, The Silhouettes,
that was like street corner.
[hums and snaps]
So I got into that.
My mother had left. She disappeared.
And she came around Christmas time,
and I saw these two like ukuleles.
I know my brother has no musical talent,
so I guess they're both for me,
but he ended up breaking it over my head.
That was the beginning and the end
of like the Italian version of The Everly Brothers,
because my brother, as talented as he is,
just has no musical talent.
They tried. They bought him a trumpet.
He hammered the mouth piece in,
but it just wasn't his bag,
and he didn't know what his bag was until 20 years later.
So he was just kind of a delinquent.
[Sylvester] I would torture Frank.
Everything from shooting arrows at him,
and trying to put him in a barrel,
and roll him down a hill while heaving rocks
onto a freeway under construction.
His fingers almost got cut off in a cement mixer.
We got into a fight over a drum stick,
and I threw it at him, and it sort of stuck in his head,
and he's still alive, which goes to show you,
he's not normal.
He has a primitive neanderthal-type-skull.
He's eating a bowl of ice cream.
He goes... [with deep voice] "Don't touch my ice cream,"
and he throws the ice cream in my face.
I turn around, I hit him, and I shatter my hand.
This is the way we've always conducted our business,
me attacking my brother, and then blaming him.
So it's consistent. There something nice
about consistency.
[Frank] So then, off to military school.
I just got wind of The Beatles. I don't want to go to military school,
and get a buzz haircut. I can't do this anymore.
I just don't want to do it,
because now your hormones are kind of changing.
The Beatles, The Stones, all this stuff is happening,
and I'm wearing a buzz cut.
I look like total jerk off.
I don't fit in at all.
So I left. I went to public school.
I wasn't dumb. I was very smart,
but I couldn't apply myself.
Now you would call that ADD,
but then, you just called it stupid.
I think I got one A in 12 years of school.
I flunked music all four years.
Barely got out of high school.
Frankie and I met in September of 1961.
I had a set of drums, but most of us,
we were just doing something that was part of a trend.
For Frankie, it was a drive.
He can't stop himself.
I felt like a separation emotionally,
like he was moving away, you know?
He was very serious about that, and I...
...couldn't possibly get serious at that age.
[Frank] I remember I worked all summer
for 150 bucks, and my stepfather said...
[with deep voice] "Well, if you work, you can buy your own guitar."
I said, "Okay, great." I went to 8th Street Music,
and I bought this bass,
and he goes, "Oh, I didn't tell you you could buy that,"
and he took it away from me.
I didn't even get a chance to play it.
It was so devastating to me,
because I was so proud because I worked for it,
and he just put it away in the closet,
and he goes, "Don't you ever touch that again." I said,
I said, "You said if I worked all summer, I could have it."
I couldn't wait for when he left town. Of course I'd...
[imitates a bass strumming] practice in the front room
with my band, and stuff like that. But I couldn't--
Then I realized I sucked at bass.
[Jackie] Well, he didn't like his stepfather
for the simple reason his stepfather was
pretty organized, and very neat, and clean.
He would insist Frankie get a haircut
as soon as he'd come home. Well, that's the worst thing
you could say to a musician.
So, they didn't get along well at all.
[bright music]
Got along very well with his father.
His father lived in, uh,
Florida or Washington DC at the time...
[stutters] in both places,
and he got along well with his father.
[Frank] We were getting hit in the '60s.
Every day there was a new British invasion group,
The Dave Clark Five, The Kinks, The Who.
It was so exciting. I mean,
it was a blitzkrieg of British groups.
Everyone thought you were English if you had long hair.
You know, those guys had Philly accents.
[imitating accent] "Hello, love, how yous doing there?"
You say, "Oh, God, Almighty," you know?
But girls thought you were British,
We're about as British as, you know, whatever.
So, what's the next thing?
Let's straighten Frank's hair.
To watch a guy iron his own hair is ridiculous.
It doesn't work. I was burning my scalp.
I looked like an O-Cedar mop, just like, like a roof.
It was horrible. So then I figured it out.
If I washed my hair it'd be wet. I'd put like Dippity-Do in it,
and I'd put a hair net on, and sit under a hair dryer,
and it'd come out beautifully straight.
Two seconds on the stage,
sweat, and it all...
[boing]
I turned professional in 1965.
The guy next door said, "Hey, well I'm having a party,"
so we set our stuff up on the lawn, and we played.
I think they gave us five bucks
like for the band, and I said, "Well,
I'm professional. I'm getting paid."
This was my first group, The American Tragedy.
[Mark] Frank is a natural-born entertainer.
His singing ability, and his delivery,
his performance was unbelievable.
[Mike Barford] There was a thing, an advertisement for a thing called
the Philadelphia Battle of the Bands,
which was all throughout Philadelphia.
I heard numbers like 300 bands started or something,
and the competition was fierce,
but we came in second of all the bands,
and that was a lot of acknowledgement.
It was a lot of fun.
[Frank] My brother managed me for one day
with The American Tragedy.
We went to see a group called The Soultastics,
and Sly goes, "Yeah, that's what you guys should be doing."
We were kids. We couldn't even drive yet.
So my brother's funny maid just walks up, and goes,
"Hey, who's your manager?"
So my brother contacts this guy.
We auditioned and played. He goes, "Yeah, you guys are pretty good,
but you have to get outfits."
They were these big horse-checked pants
with orange turtlenecks.
But why would you buy a turtleneck sweater
to play live with wool plaid pants?
-[knocking at door] -[door clatters]
-Oh, my God! [laughs] -There it is! Mike!
[Mike] Frankie was looking for something greater than the neighborhood.
It was time for him to move on,
time for him to get out there,
but we were that stepping stone.
We got him started, and I'm very proud of that.
I think our group is proud of that.
We, we all take pride in saying that,
"Hey, we know Frank Stallone."
We knew him back when no one knew
how well he could sing but us,
and he's proved it over and over again.
[Frank] I meet my friend, Allen Rosenblum.
I didn't know he played guitar, and I was hearing,
"Oh, Allen Rosenblum can sure play guitar."
So Allen and I got together, and we put
the first Valentine together.
Why did I change my name to Valentine?
Because I had no money. I'd just brought this western belt,
and it had the name Valentine
carved back in western letters.
I said, "Well, shit, man, I want to wear this belt,
so I'll change my name to Valentine."
That belt was the only belt I owned.
[chuckles] It had Valentine written on the back,
and I didn't want to explain it to people.
Valentine was a very well know Downtown Philly band.
We wrote all our own tunes.
We had a nice repertory of originals.
Frank had some. I had some.
We wrote a couple together.
♪ Fifty pages set the stage to succeed to... ♪
[Frank] The bass player, he said, "Man, I know
this guy, he's a great keyboard player, Daryl Hall."
And it's this really handsome guy.
He walks down the steps while we're rehearsing,
sitting there, and he's listening to us,
and he's got a smile on his face. He goes, "Wow, man."
He's a real nice guy. "God, you guys sound great, man."
And so he was playing in a successful bar band
that worked all the time on the weekends making money.
We made nothing. So he had to kind of bough out,
but he was very nice. And then,
they throw me out of my own group.
For some reason, I was becoming unruly.
[Allen] He would get into moods sometimes,
and when he'd finally show up to rehearsal,
you know, an hour late,
we decided that Frank had to go.
And even though I'd been a schmuck...
[laughs] you know, when, when the band, you know,
when we tossed him out of the band, he wouldn't let go.
Our friendship meant something to him.
If you have to have a friend,
have a friend like Frank Stallone.
[Frank] And then you go through that bad time being a solo artist,
playing for a white fish.
Seriously, that's how I got paid, in like smoked fish
one night because I was starving.
I was suffering from severe panic attacks, and I didn't know
what they were. I thought I was absolutely insane.
I'm having like a nervous breakdown every four minutes.
I'm talking. I'm going like... [mumbles]
It was horrible.
[Annette] I was working at a radio station,
and he had a little demo, evidently, of his voice.
We went into the recording room
where the engineer was there, and he played it.
He said, "Kid, let me tell you something."
He said, "Don't waste your time.
You'll never make it," you know?
And I thought, "Damn, well." [laughs]
[Frank] My manager at that time... [sighs]
..."I got you a job in Portland, Maine."
I go, "What? You got us a gig in Portland, Maine?"
We were playing like country bars in Marysville,
Pennsylvania, you know? And that group was called Bananas.
We're driving a Ford Econoline van.
We had no money.
They spent the money on hashish.
I said, "What-- what the hell are we going to do?
We're driving to Portland, Maine." He goes,
"Hey, you won't even know it."
We see the club. We go,
"All right, man, cool, this is great."
The guy goes, "What are you talking about?"
"We're Bananas."
He goes, "I have no idea what you're talking about."
I said, "Are you serious?" We just drove
from Trenton, New Jersey, to Portland, Maine, and there's no gig?
It's the middle of the winter. Obviously, we were blitzed,
and I think we stopped for like hot dog
and we cut it three ways. But anyway, we made it back.
That group breaks up. Then I put together
Valentine Two. And we said, "Well,
we got this guy, John Oates." I said, "Yeah, cool."
[John] When I came to my first rehearsal with the band,
I immediately knew Frank was the force in the band.
It was his thing, you know? He had a, he had a lot of charisma,
he had a lot of presence, and he had a really great voice,
and he looked good. You know, he was always very concerned with
how he presented himself, you know?
In terms of how he dressed, and how he looked.
I think he had a very kind of professional approach to this
kind of hippie band that we had.
He was always like up to something. I remember, one day,
he came in, and he was wearing like pancake makeup, and I couldn't figure out why,
because we were rehearsing in a church or something.
It was very weird. But, but he had this thing.
He had to give this kind of theatrical thing.
He was always kind of performing.
Frank was always kind of on.
We had on big gig at the Electric Factory,
which was the hot rock club in Philadelphia in the '60s.
That was kind of our swan song. I think that was
the big gig, and after that, it was done.
And that's when Daryl and I put our thing together.
[Frank] I stayed with my brother in New York. We had like a shit hole.
[Sylvester] He crawled through the window.
He goes, "You mind if I live here?"
It was $72 a month,
and the room next to me was kind of abandoned.
And it was right next to my brother's, right, the door--
the wall was here, he was there, I was here. They were crap holes.
I said, "Well, why don't we just take a shovel on the thing?"
And we tore a hole in the wall.
He had a hole, that he would come through
this condemned apartment that he didn't belong in,
and he'd sleep in my thing, and go back and forth.
[Frank] And I just would bullshit my way into stuff,
but I was really innocent.
I mean, I didn't do drugs.
I was like a virgin.
I didn't know anything.
I think I got laid once in like five years, whatever.
I was just focused into what I was doing,
and girls didn't want to go after me. I had no money.
There's a place on 85th Street called Kenny's Castaways.
I walk in, and there's this guy on stage with a hat.
[imitates rock singer]
It's the E Street Band.
It's Bruce Springsteen doing... ♪ Rosalita ♪
...and now I have to go on. It's like, you know,
if you had a puppet act following The Beatles.
And on those white like kind of things with magic marker,
it says, "Tonight Bruce Springstine and Valentine."
God, if I had a picture of that!
So that's when I went to Florida.
I went to a place, it was called the Feed Bag.
That was the time when someone gave me PCP,
and all of a sudden, it just hit me.
I said, "Hey, how you doing, folks?"
[guitar strums offkey]
I'm going like this, but now the neck is growing,
so the neck looks like it's 20 feet long, so I'm going.
[guitar strums loudly offkey]
And what happened, I just untuned the guitar so badly,
but I couldn't reach the neck, and it took so long.
That was the show. I never got a chance to sing.
They said, "Thank you, Valentine, man.
We appreciate it, brother. Right on."
I said... [with deep voice] "But I can't tune it."
They said, "Another day."
The last thing I wanted to do, was do anything
that was mind expanding.
You know, my mind was expanded enough.
So I played in Florida for a while, and then I said,
"Okay, I'm coming back to New York.
I'm coming back strong with a vengeance."
And the most incredible thing I ever did.
I used someone else's voice to get a record deal.
There was a song that my bass player, Jody,
sang on, and I go, "God, this is really good."
I went around to people, I said, "Yeah, man, what do you think?"
And they go, "Wow, that's a great record. We should re-record that."
But it's Jody singing, but I'm telling them it's me.
Of course, that went nowhere. Jody goes, "Yeah,
I'm in New York. Come over, man. We're over at these girls' house."
I said, "Why don't we just put a group together?
Yeah, forget this shit with these girls." So we're like drunk.
The girls go, "Hey, we're going to go out and get some food,
and we'll be back later." We ran out of the place,
jumped into a cab. I said "We're going to Trenton,"
and I called my friend, Bob Tangrea,
because he was a great singer and guitar player.
I said, "I put a group together called Valentine,
and we'll get the three best lead singers I know.
We'll put together this group." So it will be Jody,
Bobby, and myself, overnight.
These girls are probably still sitting there with the groceries.
[Bob] We formed Valentine, and we actually had a manager,
who was Robin Garb and Bill Ring. They were our managers.
They had a company called Ascension Artists,
and, uh, they signed us to a deal,
and we started working at, you know, local clubs.
[Frank] We played Kenny's Castaways, and my brother was there,
which was like 2.50 to get in.
"We'll just carry some equipment."
I said, "Yeah, they're with us, the roadies."
It was 2.50. You know,
it shows how good he was doing.
Now we're in New Jersey. We played at this club a 130 nights,
and every Wednesday, this place was packed into the street.
I went to see those guys a lot. I went to see him in Philadelphia.
I went to see him in a place called Charlie's Uncle
in Brunswick. And... saw him a couple of places
in New York, I believe, too, and, uh...
You know, it was always a lot of fun, always very exciting.
I got called in one night as a sub.
They were nice enough to give this young 18-year-old kid
a chance to come up and play, and they would call me up and play with them
once in a while, and it was a big deal for me.
I did, I got up and played a couple sets,
you know? We had a good time.
[Frank] My manager says, "We finally got you
a record deal on PolyGram,
and we're going to be going out to California to record."
Everyone in town is so excited, Valentine got signed.
I get a phone call, "Ah, deal fell through."
I go, "Excuse me?"
He goes, "There's no deal. We're not going to California."
I go, "Wait a second, last night we had
hundreds of people, a bon voyage party with a keg.
We canceled all our gigs.
And you're telling me, as I'm opening the door
to go to the airport, the gig's off?"
That would have made most people just say,
"You know what? I can't do this anymore."
But we didn't, we just got stronger and stronger.
Then I get a call in 1975 from my brother.
My brother had moved to California.
He is starting a little movie called, Rocky,
and says... [with deep voice] "I need a song."
Why he called me? Because there was no budget.
I remember just sitting there going... ♪ Take you back ♪
[hums] on my guitar, just figuring something out.
And eventually, I wrote the song.
So I tell my group, I said, "Listen, my brother's
doing this movie about boxing."
So they said, "I don't know if we want to play.
We're making 140 bucks that night."
That's between five people.
Five people at a 140 bucks, and the manager takes 20%,
so take $28 off that.
So it's $112 divided by five. So it was a big night.
It was like a bowling alley that had a stage.
There was supposed to be hot chicks there. We get a call,
and Sly goes, "Well, yeah, we can pay you a 140."
I said, "Well, we're getting 140."
I mean... [stutters] he goes, "No, each."
We go, "Excuse me?"
That's like a month's wages for us.
It was very cool. We all went down together
in our van, got a little ripped,
and we stood around those trash cans
singing "Take You Back."
♪ Take you back ♪
♪ Do do do do Take you back ♪
[Frank] They showed me at the hotel, some trailers,
of what they'd shot. Really low budget.
It was a cheap hotel. And I remember
John Avildsen, the director, was there,
and my brother, and a few other people,
And they're looking at daily's. I said,
"Man, this is really cool."
There was feeling I had about it.
Even when they were shooting it on the street,
there was a feeling I had about it.
You know, it's a gut feeling. I can't explain it,
because I hadn't seen the movie.
But just the idea, it was just kind of cool.
The-- Just vibe that was going on was really cool.
[Bill] When Rocky was being shot,
I was, more or less, around the project,
and could see some of the assemblages.
You know, they put stuff together.
And, uh, not the timing, just assembled.
And then I saw "Take You Back," which was like,
"How did this get here? What is this?
Man, that's really good. I like that."
"Oh, yeah, yeah, Sly's brother did that."
I go, "Really? I didn't know that."
And that was my introduction to Frank as a singer.
Frank came along with all the talent that Sly had.
[Sylvester] He knew those streets, and he did sing around barrels,
and he did do acapella,
so he was extremely
original and authentic for that part.
And the attitude that you saw between us, like,
"Hey, the bum from the dock.
Get a job, you bum."
That's the way we are.
We was just, you know, always ripping on one another.
-Hey. -Hey,
the bum from the dock. Get a job, you bum.
[Frank] There was a premiere in New York City
at the theater where Sly was the head usher for years.
And I have a photo.
We're standing there in really cheesy polyester suits.
I mean, we didn't have any money, but that photo
is the last photo of him being unknown.
From that day on ,it was crazy.
[Sylvester] That was the last vestiges of privacy ever, which is fine.
I'm fine with it... [chuckles] but to obscure is one thing,
but it's nice to be remembered for something.
But, my brother, we were, you know, together at that moment.
So that was, that's pretty, uh, pretty seismic.
[Frank] All of a sudden, overnight, everything is Rocky.
This movie is getting heat.
[Peter] When that whole effect happened, and all of a sudden,
we were the band singing that song on the street corner,
our management was able to go into RCA Records and say,
"Don't you want them to have an album deal?
Because they're in what's looking to be like
probably the best movie of the year."
So we got an album deal.
[Bob] The person who produced the album was Tony Camilio.
He came up with an arrangement to do
an orchestrated version of "Take You Back."
That's what we released as a single.
And as soon as we released the album,
the whole regime of RCA was... [clicks tongue] was cut.
So the people who were A&R people,
who would be doing promotion, weren't there anymore.
So we were kind of like thrown under the rug.
After Rocky was out, it kind of gave us
a little impetus to get moving,
since we didn't have RCA behind us.
So our management got us spots on,
The Mike Douglas Show, The Jim Nabors Show,
but we also did Midnight Special,
which was a big rock and roll show back then.
[Bill Ring] Dinah! was the very first one.
Sly introduced us as his favorite band.
I wonder if that's still the case?
Here they are, and making their, I guess,
television debut, my favorite group, Valentine.
-[audience applauds] -[Dinah speaks indistinctly]
♪ Take you back ♪
♪ Do do do do ♪
♪ Take you back, yeah, yeah ♪
[Frank] Right after we'd play,
I'd go over to the couch, and everything went to,
"Hey, Frank, the group sounds great.
So what's it like being Rocky's brother?
So what's it like... [mumbles] being in the shadow?"
So all this started, and I'd never had that before.
They thought I was a nice, cute kid or something,
but really, they couldn't get him,
so they'd get me, ask me about him.
I was always thought of as Frank Stallone, musician.
It was always Frank Stallone, clap, musician.
So now it was Frank Stallone/
Rocky's brother/something else then musician.
He's gone through hell. I mean, they would put signs up,
"Appearing tonight, Rocky's brother."
I recognized immediately, that's real awkward for Frank.
Especially as I've heard him say,
"To be the brother of a fictional character."
"Rocky's brother," oh, man, come on.
It's so degrading.
And not about the movie, I love the movie.
It's just that, it's like I felt like
a complete and absolute failure.
I would be bitter, but he is bitter,
and I like that about him. He's very consistent.
[Frank] I was never mad at my brother.
I always loved what he did.
I was kind of mad that I was being discounted,
and treated in a way that like I just picked up
the guitar when Rocky came out, not knowing
the years of driving through blizzards
to go to gigs for no money, and just learning the trade.
We knew where the cards were starting to go
once we started to show up at gigs.
And to highlight the connection, a club owner would say,
"Frank Stallone with Valentine."
[Bill Ring] The guys in the band weren't happy about it.
It was source of some frustration and friction.
We went with it, and
Frank became more featured, doing more lead vocals.
The rest of the guys didn't get as much
time featured, with-- you know, in the band.
[Robin] It was too tempting, and too much of...
[stutters] of a thing to turn down,
the notoriety, the success,
but it created a problem within the band,
and the band didn't blame Frank for that.
Nobody was resentful at Frank, because they recognized
that Frank was in a bad situation that way.
[Bob] I think it went to Frank's head a little bit. I don't know if he was, uh,
he was a little hard to work with, let's put it that way.
It was a very dismal time.
Very dismal because this was kind of our shot.
We'd lost our record deal.
Nobody really wanted us.
That was a tough pill to swallow.
And then it just kind of...
...it kind of deflated.
[Bob] Frank can be moody.
We would come to a gig, and it was like,
"Hey, Frank, how you doing?" He was like,
he wouldn't even say anything.
Yeah, we had some tense moments.
It got a little out of hand, and I think
maybe the competition with his brother
maybe brought out some bad things.
Uh, and it just-- I just didn't want to take it
anymore, and I was a little fed up.
I regret breaking up Valentine,
because I think we could've gotten past it.
We were really a good band.
We were really tight, and we were friends.
I just couldn't take the moodiness anymore.
And they tried to get me back to reform the band,
and I just said no, so.
But I do regret it.
[Bill Ring] It would be a nice thing to be able to put
a Valentine reunion together, if we could make it happen.
Somehow bring Jody back, that would be the best.
[somber music]
Jody, our bass player, um,
unfortunately, just recently passed.
Amazing guy, amazing bass player.
Uh, him and I were very, very tight.
We played a lot of gigs together.
[Robin] He had a service in Pennsylvania.
Frank had another commitment.
And I thought that that would be the moment where we would reconnect.
[Bill Ring] I know that there was an issue
that surfaced with Robin.
Would it be nice for the three of us
to be able to get together again?
Absolutely, and I would hope we could bury
whatever hatchet, uh,
Frank feels needs to be buried.
[Robin] We parted company.
It wasn't on the best of terms.
But, um, I love the guy.
I really miss him,
and I miss his humor.
I miss just being with him as a friend.
[somber music continues]
[Frank] Oh, man.
I haven't seen these guitars... in almost 40 years.
This is just kind of weird.
I don't know how I'm going to feel.
But I know, like when Jody died,
I didn't want to see these guitars that,
from the guy that stood on my left side for almost,
off and on, 20-some years,
go to some like wedding band, you know?
Oh, my God.
-Wow. -[knife clatters]
Look at this.
-Look at this, man. -[guitar case clatters]
Look at this case.
All the names on it.
All our friends.
[Frank exhales loudly]
[guitar case clatters]
Oh, God, look at this.
That's a 1963 Höfner Beatle Bass.
Wow! Look at this.
Man, this is the bass he used
when we did our first album for RCA.
This reminds me of, you know, my youth.
[Frank] Oh, my God.
Hey, Bill. How you doing, man?
Oh, my God, look at this guy.
-Are you crazy? -[Frank] Hey, Robin.
-[Robin laughs] -How are you, man?
How you doing, man?
I know the last time I saw you these weren't in CD,
-so there you go, and this. -[Robin laughs]
-Oh, man. -Oh, my God.
Geez.
This has been a long time, man.
This was the team, this is... [stutters]
...this is the team here, and we're going to have a lot of fun, man, tonight.
This bass guitar belonged to
one of my best friends. He just died.
I wanted to honor with him tonight,
Hussein, playing Jody's bass.
"I'll Take You Back."
[audience applauds]
♪ Take you back ♪
♪ Do do do do ♪
♪ Take you back ♪
-[man] One, two, three. -♪ Take you back ♪
♪ Do do do do ♪
♪ Take you back ♪
♪ Well I've been told by... ♪
[gentle instrumental music]
[Frank] I think after I did Rocky, I might have had
maybe had $1,000 saved,
and I was back to square one with nothing, no money.
So I ended up playing at these little clubs
by myself with an acoustic guitar.
I mean, motor inns.
And the worst thing is the signs.
Like in chalk, "Frank Stallone, Rocky's brother,
Straight from Rocky."
And I made $30 a night.
It wasn't so much being the folk singer,
it was the thing like, "Rocky's brother,
well, what is he doing playing here?
Shouldn't he be in California, and shouldn't he be driving
a new car, or a Vette, or something cool?"
-No. -[car engine revs]
And in between that, I came out,
and I sang in Paradise Alley,
but also, I did Rocky II.
[Talia] Frank was working with his trio,
and it was rather beautiful.
Sort of like a, a chorus of musicians
that sort of sang the love song of Adrian
and Rocky along the way,
and it... [stutters]
...it gave the piece a kind of tone, a fairytale tone.
And I would look over at Frank, and he was...
First of all, he's very handsome, and very gifted.
And I would look over at him, and it was
always a pure moment with Frank,
because Frank clearly was a real musician.
♪ There are two kinds of love ♪
♪ That you oughta know ♪
♪ There are two kinds of love ♪
[Burt] He flipped a quarter.
He made that little song
very warm, very great.
It was wonderful.
He contributes a lot, you know?
He's... he's good to have around.
[gentle instrumental music]
[punching bag thuds]
Frank, unbeknownst to a lot of people,
has a huge boxing background.
[inspiring instrumental music]
[Joe] Frank just took to it, and developed as a fighter.
He had a good corner, had a terrific left hook.
He was very faithful to his training. No smoking or drinking.
And had several great amateur fights
against some very, very tough competition.
[inspiring instrumental music continues]
[crowd cheers]
[Chuck] When he was fighting also, he didn't have to wear headgear.
And you know what? There is no difference between
professional and amateur,
only that professionals get paid.
you still get punched in the face a dozen times.
-[bell rings] -You're still taking the abuse.
-[crowd cheers] -[Joe] He was a contender.
He's got the fighters eye,
and you only get that if you were a fighter,
if you've been in that ring more than once,
and he was in there quite a few times.
[Bruce] Frank is an extremely cerebral and intelligent man.
I don't think there's any question you can throw
at Frank Stallone about boxing that he can't answer.
He's a plethora of knowledge.
And what I love about being around Frank is,
aside from the fact, and I love you Frank,
but he will never stop talking,
but everything he talks about
make sense.
He's full of information.
[laughs] He,
he's got a lot of stories to tell,
and he's fun to listen to.
He has the best memory.
Um, sometimes Sly and Frank get into battles,
but I always believed Frank,
because he always comes up with the story that's correct,
and I'm going with Frank.
[Gene] Frank, as a boxing historian,
this man knows more than anybody,
plus he's got total recall.
I've got dementia, so I can't remember my losses,
only my wins.
Frank had that knowledge that savant every detail.
One argument ended, "Well, this guy did this and this,"
and then Frank goes, "Well, I have all his press clippings.
I have his trunks, his robe, and his gun."
[Joe laughs]
Frank's a very tough individual.
I mean, he's a warrior in his own right.
Even if it gets down to the fight he had
with Geraldo Rivera on Howard Stern
years ago, that my brother,
the legendary Michael Buffer, announced,
they went in there, and they slugged it out
for those three two minute rounds.
Back in 1992, I owned
a boxing gym on 57th Street
right here in Manhattan just behind me.
It was called the Broadcast Boxing Gym.
And so I was talking about it on The Howard Stern Show,
and he said, "I'm going to promote a fight.
You're going to be in this fight."
So it turned out that he had Frank Stallone lined up.
I mean, Frank Stallone, he's a younger,
far better fighter than me, all right?
Frank was semi-pro.
I was just a flailer in my own gym.
In the first round, he hit me with some of those shots.
They felt like he was hitting me with a baseball bat.
I remember a couple of times,
that I really was knocked out
-on my feet. -[Bas] When you see the boxing match,
it's actually a really good boxing match.
These guys were really going at it.
There's no losing. You can't lose,
because, you know, it's the name. It's the Stallone name,
so he better be good in boxing.
But he beat Geraldo, and to do that under pressure
for a charity event
shows you what kind of guy he is.
Frank Stallone, a real man,
a real man, a real fighter, and a, and a great guy.
[dramatic instrumental music]
[somber instrumental music]
[Frank] I was getting really depressed,
and I had to get some psychotherapy,
and my brother paid for it.
He says, you know, he says, "He's my only brother.
He's just going through something." He knew
I suffered from panic attacks,
and he took care of it for me,
and it helped.
And then he said, "Just come to California."
I said, "Really?" He goes, "Yeah, just come to California."
I said, "Just like that?" He goes, "Yeah."
My hero was Harry Nilsson, the singer.
Aerial Ballet, Pandemonium Shadow Show, loved him.
And Sly, when I moved to Bel Air, he goes, "Hey,
you know who lives next door?" I said, "Who's that?"
He goes, "Harry Nilsson." I go, "What?"
He ended up producing me, and he never produced anybody before,
just me. So we're in the studio,
and this is the who's who of recording is in there.
It's Harry Nilsson, producer, and Van Dyke Parks,
Klaus Voormann, he played with The Beatles,
Freddy Tackett, all the best musicians were there,
and all of a sudden, the talkback goes, "John's dead."
I said, "John who?"
[clicks tongue] "Lennon."
[newsreader] Former Beatle, John Lennon,
is dead.
Lennon died in a hospital shortly after being shot
outside his New York apartment tonight.
[Frank] Harry Nilsson was John's best friend,
and they had had a falling out.
Harry was just going to New York in about a week and a half
to kind of reconcile their friendship, so this was really bad.
I'm trying to do a record, you know?
And people were like... [with deep voice] "Cry it out, man,"
like blow coming out of their nose,
and I didn't do that stuff, so I'm sitting
there like-- I'm there, "Oh, my God,
the Scotti Brothers are going to kill me,"
you know, because I'm supposed to finish this record.
The next day, we get called into Scotti Brothers.
We play what we have, and it was dead silence, like this.
Are you kidding me?
It was unlistenable.
And Harry's sitting there sweating with sunglasses on,
like recovering from the night before.
To be with Harry Nilsson
when John Lennon was killed was really heavy.
We were good friends, and, uh, when he passed,
it was very, uh, very sad.
He abused himself, but he was a wonderful guy.
Just a great artist.
-[engines whirring] -[horns honking]
[man] Taxi![whistles]
[Frank] I don't find out from my brother, but I find out
that he's directing the sequel to Saturday Night Fever.
And I went, "Whoa." I mean, you have to understand,
Saturday Night Fever was the biggest musical in history,
as far as album sales, huge.
And a great movie, fantastic.
There's no way I got a shot in this, not even close.
So I drive to Paramount,
and I think they didn't let me on the lot, or something.
My car was shitty. I don't know what it was.
So I said, you know, "I'm Frank Stallone, Sly's brother."
"Yeah, so what?" I think I might've gone
to a phone booth or called, and they let me in.
So anyway, I go in there, and I said, "Sly, man,
do you think there's like a remote chance
I could get like a song in the movie?"
[with deep voice] "Yeah, I don't think so." I said,
"Okay, that's all I want to know."
I said, "But just like an instrumental."
I'm figuring if I just get like
a 15 second thing of, you know...
[hums] like John
going to the bathroom, and taking a whiz or something.
You know, at least I can get some royalties,
and I'll make some money. My brother
plays me the Bee Gees' new songs,
but it's just kind of the acoustic guitar,
real bare-bones, and I'm there, "Oh, man, I'm screwed,"
because they're great. I mean,
the Bee Gees are fantastic.
So he patronizes me, and he says, "Ew,
just write some stuff. Why don't you and the guys
write some stuff?" I said, "All right, we'll write some stuff."
And every few weeks, I would pull up to the studio
with a cassette. All my songs are getting turned down,
but I'm working, man. I have, uh, I have
a train of consciousness, and I'm working my ass off.
I get a call. [with deep voice] "Hey, Brother, it's Sly."
I said, "Okay, I know he wants something."
He goes, "Yeah, remember those songs you wrote?"
I go, "Yeah, of course I do.
You mean the ones you turned down?"
Of course I remember them.
No, I forgot about them.
I just part my heart and soul into like 12, 13 songs.
He goes, "Yeah, we've got a problem.
The Bee Gees walked off the movie."
Something went down, and they kind of walked off.
[newsreader] Only part of the soundtrack for Staying Alive
was created by the Bee Gees,
but originally, the brothers Gibb
didn't even want to be involved in the sequel.
We thought that it's been done, and let's leave,
let's leave our music out of it this time, and you get somebody else to do it.
[newsreader] But after some heavy contract negotiations,
the Bee Gees agreed to create part of the music for the movie.
[Sylvester] At that time, they were musical gods,
but they were coming up with, with okay songs,
but they had done such an amazing job on the first one
that the songs were not even as magnificent,
or as accomplished, as they were in the first album.
[Frank with deep voice] So he goes, "Listen, bring those cassettes,
you know, with the songs." So we go,
and John's renting a house out here,
and, uh, we're having lunch, and they're talking,
and, you know, it's like Sly's talking to John.
They're talking business at the table having lunch.
And I'm kind of...
...laughing to myself, because it's so ridiculous.
It's like Barbarino from Welcome Back, Kotter meets Rocky.
[imitating John] "I swear to God, they're proud. The Bee Gees... [mumbles]"
[imitating Sylvester] "Absolutely, we've got a big problem. The Bee Gees..."
[imitating John] "Yeah, I just really, yeah."
And John's got these big teeth, you know?
And he's like, it's the smile. [imitates John]
Just like Barbarino. He puts the tape on.
So John goes... [mumbling] "Well, who is that?"
And Sly goes, "It's Frank."
And John, John goes like, "Frank?"
He couldn't even imagine that came out of me,
like I was Fredo in Godfather II,
"Hey, Mike, I'm your older brother. I can do things!"
[Sylvester] He ended up writing the majority of the songs,
and, you know, I caught hell for it, but I said,
"Hey, it sounds good to me, guys."
The opening to the movie, they put "Far From Over."
[upbeat rock music]
♪ This is the end ♪
♪ You made your choice and now my chance is over ♪
[Frank] Ever week or something, they start adding another song in.
So by the end, there's like nine songs in the movie,
but there's some jealousy going on, you know, on the set,
because they think I'm getting, you know, favored attention.
How come he's staring at you like that?
[Frank] Maybe, in a way, but I worked my ass off on this.
No one wrote these songs for me. I wrote them.
Nobody sat in the studio with no air conditioning
sweating until the wee hours of the night
to try to get everything right with these great musicians
I was working with, and I was never so busy in my life.
I never felt... so good about it,
because I've spent so many years feeling so bad about myself,
I never felt so good about myself.
It was something I was born to do, you know,
and I was able, for once in my life,
to be able to show people what I could do,
because before, it was always, you know, a struggle,
and then when Rocky came out, it was Rocky's brother.
So no one ever took me like kind of serious. I did.
♪ Waking up, you're still sleeping by my side ♪
That was the greatest time, watching my music,
watching like these choreographers
choreographing dance to my music.
So it was pretty awesome to be writing the songs,
and having like 150 dancing hot chicks at the set.
That was like putting the fox in the henhouse on that one.
They were paying me $3,500, $4,000 for a song.
I'd never seen this kind of money, never.
Little did I know,
they were also keeping my publishing,
which would've made me a multi-millionaire.
But I'm not kicking. It was great.
If it really wasn't for John and Sly,
I wouldn't have gotten the songs in.
♪ This is the end ♪
♪ You made your choice and now my chance is over ♪
♪ I thought I was in ♪
-♪ You put me... ♪ -[Frank] I had a date one night,
and what comes on the radio? "Far From Over."
The first I ever heard it, sitting with this gal,
who was a big shot in the music business, and she says,
"So are you ready?" I go, "What do you mean?"
"That's a hit record.
Are you ready?" I said, "I guess."
And I'll never forget at the premiere,
I was like this big shot, man. I mean, you look at the end,
it's Frank Stallone, Frank Stallone, Frank Stallone, Frank Stallone.
Rocky was great because the whole thing was great,
and I was so happy for my brother, but this was for me.
This is something that I did.
This is the chance of a lifetime.
I was nominated for a Grammy and Golden Globe
for best soundtrack and for best song.
I lost. I said, "Okay, fine,
at least I'm nominated. I feel great."
Are you kidding? Coming from playing
like at the Beef & Ale to being nominated
for a Grammy and Golden Globe. I actually
opened the Golden Globes.
I performed. I was the first act.
And I get a call from my brother.
That was the day they were announcing
the Academy Award nominations,
and now we break out the champagne,
the nominations are coming in,
and then he said, "Frank, it's your brother." I go,
"Oh, Christ, who, who died?"
[with deep voice] "Uh, you didn't get your nomination."
I go, "What?
I didn't get my nomination?
Are you kidding me? This is insane!"
And now I'm pissed, because now I know that's bullshit,
and that's unfair, because it was a number one record.
I'm above Thriller.
I'm above Billy Joel's album. I'm above Synchronicity.
Not for a long time, but at one point, I was there.
Here's my first break, and I got screwed,
and then I realized at that point,
that's insider Hollywood bullshit.
I wasn't expecting to win,
but I would've loved to have had that nomination.
You have to be thick skinned.
You have to have determination.
You have to be able to swallow it.
You know, not that you have to take shit and eat shit,
but you have to, you have to be able to say,
"You know what? Okay, fuck them."
So that Academy Award thing really
ripped the heart out of me, and I suffered
with it for a while, but you gather yourself,
and I gathered myself. I said, "I'll be back. I'm not dead."
I still-- You know, as long as I can still play guitar
and write a song, I'm in, I'm in the game.
♪ Save me darling ♪
♪ I am down but I am far from over ♪
♪ Give me something ♪
♪ I need it all because I am... ♪
What's happening in your life now?
Well, it's good.
Well, the record is doing well. [sighs]
I have a great band, and we're writing,
and I'll be starting a solo album in about...
[inhales] November or October.
I had a big year, this should be no problem
getting an album due. My manager,
he was saying too, you know, "Yeah, we needed a solo album.
Let's follow up with that." He just comes back
with one deal. I said, "That's it?"
In those days, everything was a three album deal.
[mumbling] I don't know, shit. I said, "Well, whatever."
[Duff] Back then, this is the '80s, a different time.
This is when albums sold.
This better have a couple singles on it
to go to radio, and get in the top 20, or you're done.
That put a lot of pressure, I would think,
on that one album. This thing has got to be a smash.
[Frank] It was because of Russ Regan we got on.
Russ Regan's like a legend in this business.
You know, he's one of the great A&R guys.
I had first met Frank in 1983
when I was working for PolyGram Records.
He had a few demos he had made, and I listened to them,
and I said, "You're pretty good, kid."
He said, "You've made superstars."
He said, "Why don't you make me a star?"
So I signed him to PolyGram Records.
You know, I signed Neil Diamond. He's a great writer.
I signed Elton John. He's a great writer.
Barry White, a great writer.
Alan Parsons is a great writer.
Brian Wilson, great writer.
That's one of the things, by the way,
that I liked about Frank, that he was a writer.
That influenced me a lot
on his signing to the PolyGram Records.
He did a great job.
He was always wonderful to work with.
Had a great personality. A very charismatic
character, and hard not to like.
[Frank] You know, I'm a young guy. You know, I'm on every TV show.
We've got more of music's best coming your way,
including Frank Stallone.
♪ Oh, darling ♪
♪ I wish you were lying ♪
♪ When you said that you're leaving me, darling ♪
[Frank] We did David Letterman,
which I didn't get to sing on, which was weird.
[audience applauds]
-Oh, sorry. Just leave that alone. You all right? -I'm fine.
Good to see you. Thanks for being here. Congratulations on the success
-of the album. And the picture. -On the picture. Yeah.
-That's a good looking picture. -Thanks.
[Frank] I was on a date
with some girl I'd met,
and there's a giant picture
of my album cover,
like ten feet by ten feet
on Tower Records on Sunset.
Okay, the kids in.
[dramatic instrumental music]
The album didn't do well.
Things just didn't work, you know?
I mean, the album died.
You know, I've waited almost 20-something years
to have my first solo album.
It's like, "Wow, I-- please don't make me a one-hit wonder."
Oh, God, you know?
I mean, I know it's easier than having a full career
being a one-hit wonder, but I wanted to have a full career.
It takes a team to make a star.
A star just doesn't happen by accident.
He never had the team he should've had,
even when he signed to me.
I just don't know if my management team
was that involved,
or had the capability to move me.
[Russ] "Far From Over" should've been played up
much bigger than it was. You know,
you get a Grammy nomination, that's, that's incredible.
They just never did the PR on Frank Stallone
that he deserved and should've had.
[camera shutter clicks]
[Frank] I'm thinking, "Okay, I'm going to be making records.
I'm going to be writing with the greatest song writers.
I'm going to be doing what I was born to do." It did not turn out
that way. Everything was going good, and then, all of a sudden,
whoo, I said, "Oh, no, not again.
No, no, not again."
Then like I had come up a little bit,
a little good news, and then kind of even off,
and then, wham! Goes down.
And stays down there for a long time.
[Duff] After having a hit, he'd think, you know,
"I'll have a few more,"
and it just didn't go that way for him.
If you're doing it expecting you're going to have
a worldwide smash hit, or, uh, or you--
or that you're even going to make any money in music,
you're doing it for the wrong reason.
Frank, I'm sure, knew what he was getting himself into.
He just loved to play.
You've have to learn your craft, and the only way you learn
your craft is by making mistakes,
and you correct those mistakes. And I had learned it,
but again, I, I guess I didn't learn it enough.
♪ Oh ♪
♪ Peace in our life ♪
♪ Remember the call, oh ♪
[Frank] '80s and '90s was a tough time for me.
Thank God for my song writing. I was making
residuals, you know?
I wrote the theme to Rambo II.
♪ We'll never fall ♪
I figured I'd get healthy, so I went to a detox place,
not because I drank or did drugs, just to clear myself out.
And at lunch time, I walked past this place,
and I had my lunch with me, and I saw a gun store.
So I went downstairs to take a look,
and the gun store owner looked a little dodgy.
He kept pulling guns out of the case,
showing people without breaking the gun.
He pulls out the gun to show somebody,
pulls the trigger, boom!
Right on my fingers, and the blood came up on my face,
and I looked down. I was almost numb.
This guy had the nerve to look at me and say,
"What happened?" I said, "Well,
I think you shot me."
I'm a musician.
A guitar player needs ten fingers.
My fingers looked like a handful of exploded stogies.
It was horrible. I mean,
I could've been killed. I mean,
if my hand wasn't there, it could've gone
into my abdomen, could've shot me
in the heart. I mean, it was really--
literally two and a half feet away
with a .357 Magnum Colt Python.
I've lost my record deal.
I'm living in like a crappy apartment.
I'm going from this high level, from Staying Alive
to this, and then I get shot.
[gunshot booms]
You have to have thick skin
and be bullet-proof
to be in the body of Frank Stallone. Trust me.
[intense dramatic music]
So then little gigs started dripping and drabbing,
but I had started doing movies.
[indistinct chattering]
-I had jabbed inside the socket. -[man] Good luck.
-[marker clacks] -[Frank] When I came to California,
I started working on Rocky III.
My acting job consisted
of being a stand in for my brother,
and then I did everything.
I sang in the movie.
I'm on screen singing "Pushing,"
and then I'm on the scene
where my brother knocks me out in the ring.
[crowd cheers]
And then I'm in another scene where Mr. T knocks me out.
So like I'm basically a utility heavy bag that sings.
Of course, there's a little bit of an acting thing
in Staying Alive. It was Carl, like,
"What are you Allstate, pal?"
Is everything all right?
Everything is fine.
She's in good hands.
Hey, what are you Allstate, pal?
Yeah, you want disability?
Look, I'll see you Wednesday, okay?
All right, good night. Good night.
After Staying Alive, then my manager, Robin, said,
"Well, you should get into acting," but I was going
to acting class. I wasn't bad.
So the first movie I got
was called The Pink Chiquitas.
[tires screech]
All right, everybody down! [claps]
-Let's go! -[woman moans]
[Frank] So I'm in the movie, and all these
really thespian theater-type actors are there
and I'm just like this hack.
I, Tony Mareda, have to roll.
[Frank] So I did some good movies, but a lot of it was garbage,
and it was all like gratuitous sex,
which I had never really got into the sex thing.
"Yo, would you like to have sex with her?"
I'd rather shoot her.
-[door slams] -[gunshots fire]
I did movies like Terror In Beverly Hills,
and some of these have become like culti-weird movies.
I know nothing about martial arts.
So these guys are flying in the air, kicking,
and then I stand and go... [exhales loudly] like I did it.
-[intense rock music] -[exhales loudly]
You're doing good, Billy. You keep it up,
you're going to be able to whip my butt.
[Frank] I said, "I can't be an action star,
look who my brother is." I mean, I'd be like
a really bad version of an action star.
I was being hired because they couldn't afford my brother.
I was under no allusions my acting career was like...
[with deep voice] "We can't get Rocky, let's get his brother
for 20,000, instead of 20 million."
Like I did a movie with Chris Mitchum.
So Stallone, Mitchum, in almost microscopic, Frank, Chris.
So I was definitely no threat to Sylvester,
as far as my movie career going.
I mean, I don't think I'm a bad actor.
I think I could've developed into a better actor.
-[intense dramatic music] -Aye, aye, Skipper.
[Steven] He's absolutely a natural,
and never self-conscious of any kind of
comparison, considering the giant shadow his brother casts.
And he always delivers. He's always very, very believable.
[Sylvester] You know, we have a deal. I said, "Look, pal,
I won't sing," which...
...has been well documented, "And he shouldn't act,"
but actually, he's a much better actor
than I am a singer. He can act.
When he does it, he's good.
Like in Barfly, he was fantastic.
Hey, you! You with the filthy apron!
[sighs loudly] Be back in seconds.
I hear a voice down there,
but I sure as hell don't see much.
[man laughs]
Seems like that beating I gave you last night
must've rattled your belt, huh?
[Frank] I felt Barfly was going to be
my shot to prove that I could get deep into stuff
because I had a lot of emotions going on and stuff like that.
You'd think that son of a bitch would learn
by now to stop trying me.
-[man laughs] -Whoa,
you are a genuine man. [smooches]
See this balance, the, you know,
the... [sighs] tolerance, the intolerance
of this character, and, and, you know,
the humor was perfectly placed,
pitched in that, in that role.
It was awesome.
Your credit's no good here.
You have to have the green.
[John LaRocca] Mickey's not an easy character.
A brilliant actor. Faye's not an easy
character to work with, but a brilliant actress.
-So Frank had to hold his own... -This can't be true.
...and he had to show his strength at the same time,
and not be pushed around, because either one of those actors
could just move him around whenever they want.
I asked, who's going to pay for the goddamn drink?
[John LaRocca] Acting is all about moments.
And he had those moments,
and I think that's what made a great performance.
Not acting, but knowing when to really put on the moment
in front of a Mickey, or in front of a Faye,
or in front of the director.
[Frank] The movie didn't do well, but it got good reviews,
in Europe especially, so now it's like a cult classic,
and you'd think I'd be working all the time,
because I get all these young directors
coming to me, "Hey, man, loved you in Barfly."
I thought something good was going to come from it, and it did.
There's a safe on the seventh floor, you take their thingy,
-and you put it in this thingy. -Directions even your brother could understand.
-Yeah, directions even I could understand. -Shut up.
[Frank] And then Hudson Hawk, that was going to be
a big movie, man. It was a disaster.
People would ask us, what was-- is it about?
Is it a comedy? I said, "Well, if it is
a comedy... [laughs]
...I don't know that yet, but we'll find out soon."
Someone told me a lot of horseshit. You want to open up
a hardware store, go straight, and sell spatulas.
Have you lovely ladies tried our house wine?
-I think you'll enjoy. -[bottle crashes]
I thought, of course, that it was a kind of comedy
that I had never done before,
but I had the feeling it was going to be
something special and new,
but as you probably know it, it wasn't.
It was a bomb. The critics hated it.
It cost about 60 million dollars.
You don't do that auction house job,
I'm going to put you on trial, and I promise you, my friend,
there'll be no bailiff, you understand?
Why you son of a bitch!
Hey, Bailey, just settle down!
Shut up.
Take your money and get out,
because I'm tired of listening to your mouth.
Why, Ed Bailey.
[Frank] And then Tombstone,
to me, a great Western. One of the great
modern Westerns, I think.
Guns don't scare me,
because without them guns, you ain't nothing
but a skinny lunger.
[Frank] People call and say, "Hey, man, you're Ed Bailey."
No one comes up and says, "Hey, man, loved you
in The Terror of Beverly Hills." I don't get that.
"I loved you in Pink Chiquitas."
-I don't get that. -[screams]
-[splashing] -I was supposed to do a movie with my brother.
This agency, they came after, and he said,
"Frank, I think we can do really big things with you."
I signed with him Friday.
That Monday, what comes across their desk?
It's my brother. He's the star of the movie,
and there's a part in the movie as his brother.
These guys, sitting here, they go, "Come on, it's a slam dunk.
Frank just did Barfly, Tombstone.
It's Sly's brother. it's not a huge role,
but it's an important role, it's great."
They call up the casting agent,
"We just signed Frank Stallone."
All of a sudden, there was like silence on the other end,
and this is what he hears, "Mmm, I don't see it."
[intense dramatic music]
I never heard from the agency again.
So they figured, if we can't deliver
Frank playing Frank to his brother,
it's a lost cause.
[breathes deeply] "I can't see it."
♪ Those fingers in my hair ♪
"I can't seem to get a record deal no matter what,
so I'm going to do my own record.
I'm going to pay for it."
♪ Strips my conscience bare ♪
♪ It's witchcraft ♪
So I do the, you know, big band album
because I figured no one else is doing a big band album.
So who do I find?
One of the greatest conductors ever, Sammy Nestico.
One of the greats, Count Basie. [stutters] He's up there
with Nelson Riddle and Billy May. He's up there.
[Sammy] It's easy working with him, because he's so open.
"What do you think about this idea?"
"Oh, yeah, that sounds good, Sammy.
Let's use that." What a joy.
I didn't get that with every record,
but I got it with Frank. [laughs]
[Frank] Tony Bennett wrote the liner notes for the album.
And Sammy Nestico, who'd been nominated
for a Grammy so many times, said to me,
it was one of the best albums he ever did. So he goes back to playing
with Tommy Dorsey, that's how far back he goes.
So for him to say that, it was pretty good.
[Sammy] Frank doesn't know this,
but when I was working for Michael Bublé,
David Foster has a studio in his first floor of his home,
so my wife and I would go up there
and talk with Michael and David Foster,
and my wife says, "You know what I saw
on David Foster's desk?
I saw this."
[Sammy laughs]
So Frank, believe me, they were listening to it.
[Sammy laughs]
Again, no management, no support team, nothing.
So that's like the story of my life.
So it just goes nowhere.
I never could figure that out, what could've gone wrong.
[dramatic instrumental music]
I don't think the public just took him serious. Why? I don't know.
[Nick] People are going to be thinking of Sylvester Stallone,
I think that's the issue.
You just think of him as soon as you see
Frank, and I think that's what he is up against.
You know, it's not easy having the name Stallone.
Because you live in a shadow,
and every time you get a great job, you know, people say,
"You probably got that because of your brother."
He didn't. He got this because of his talent.
[Joe Mantegna] He would have all that same talent and all that
if his name was Joe Schmo, but it's not, it's Frank Stallone.
So I think from right from the beginning...
[stutters] it's almost like being set up.
It's almost like you... [stutters]
...you put yourself almost in the middle of a target.
Like, "Okay, here I am. Take your shot."
[Talia] He knew that I was sensitive
being the sister of somebody
who is very well known. We talked a lot about that,
about how one designs a professional life
given your sibling.
Frank then had to make some big decisions.
Should he change his name?
At one point, I know he wasn't completely serious,
but I said, "Frank, why don't you change your name?"
He says, "Oh, well, why doesn't my brother change his name?"
People may think, "Oh, yes, Frank Stallone.
Oh--" he's not a joke.
Finally, the votes are in,
and Entertainment Weekly has chosen
its funniest man alive,
and who is the funniest man alive?
You guessed it, Frank Stallone.
[audience laughs]
[Frankie] Maybe it was a little dark,
a little bit harder to be him
at that particular place and time,
and he finally came to terms with it, and he found himself.
And I think when he found himself,
I think it all just came together.
[Jackie] I'd doubt if they could live without each other.
They have each other's back.
If either one were in trouble,
the other one would be there in a minute.
[Sylvester] If there was a plane, and we were going down,
and there was one parachute, guess who's not getting it?
No one owes me a living, nobody.
I chose this, or it chose me when I was a kid,
and I've loved every minute of it. Yeah,
do I get disgusted, do I get pissed off?
Do I-- Yes, I do.
I think I'm better now than I was then
all around with the music. But guess what?
I cannot get a booking agent, and you see our shows.
We sell out. We get standing ovations.
It's just good music and energy from him on stage,
and the way he talks to the audience is also cool.
The crowd just loves him, and his stories on stage,
and his ability to sing all different genres
of different kinds of music.
[Arnold] Frank is a very talented musician.
I go to a lot of his performances.
He works very hard on his singing.
He, uh, he has such a huge variety of voice
and reach. He can do anything.
[Richie] He can play the blues. He can play rock. He can play pop.
He can play R&B. He did the big band thing.
He's running the gammon in his career.
He's having a good time for himself.
[Duff] It's almost a variety show.
He's kind of all over the place, but it seems to fit.
He knows how to make it fit that set.
He's got Frank. He's got Tony Bennett.
He's got, you know, he's got Dean.
He's got it down, and he's really good.
I'm from that era of, uh, phrasing,
you know, the whole discussion about phrasing,
and, uh, he really understands the, the lyric when he sings it.
[Billy] I'm a big fan.
He's got incredible pipes. Sinatra
even sent him a monologue after a gig.
I mean, that ain't nothing... [laughs] you know? Or--
Or the Chairman of the Board gives you, uh, gives you a nod.
Anybody who ever sees his name on a marquis,
whether it be a theater, or whether it be--
whatever kind of venue, and you see Frank Stallone,
go and see Frank.
You'll become such a fan. He's wonderful.
He can play. He can play electric too... [imitates guitar strumming]
[electric guitar playing]
He spent some time actually
developing himself as a guitar player.
[Duff] A really good rhythm player. And he'll
whip out a lead here and there.
[rock music playing]
Frank is actually a very good
and interesting guitar player. I mean,
his chord playing and his rhythm is terrific.
Um, he plays a lot of different styles,
too many styles, in my opinion,
only because it's hard to pigeonhole him into one thing.
He can do a variety of things,
which is good as an entertainer, but not good
as a recording star.
I wanted to clarify that.
If you're going to become a recording star,
stick to one genre of music.
♪ And I'm never going to give you up ♪
♪ For someone else's love ♪
[Russ] You try to be all things to all people,
and you become nothing to nobody.
[David] We had gone through the country
playing outdoor festivals and clubs.
The fans started to pile up,
and the gigs started to happen,
but they were kind of like, "What is this?" You know?
And, you know, it took a little time.
It was not easy.
And then we had the opportunity to open for Don.
We opened for Don Rickles maybe 20 times.
Did you pass away?
[audience laughs]
What, am I talking to a wall here?
These are nice people.
Look at the front. I'm working
a state home for Christ's sake.
-Look at it. -[audience laughs]
[Paul] Don was a real gentleman.
A lot of fun.
[David] Frank is very gracious,
and he went backstage with me
to thank Mr. Rickles for the gig, and he said,
"Don, I just want to thank you."
In Rickles fashion, he says, "Shut up, Frank,
you have the job." [laughs]
♪ Before you carry on ♪
♪ Doo do doo do doo do dow ♪
[audience cheers and applauds]
[Jonathan] He constantly amazes me,
because I don't think he'll mind me saying,
he doesn't really read a lick of music.
That's one big part of what I do. It's almost--
There's a bit of interpretation for him, if you like.
He-- but he's so-- He's very innately musical.
He's not going to weigh down with the music theory
side of things. So he does what he wants.
Any kind of rehearsal or sound check,
you don't want to run into him. He is grumpy.
Way back when, he'd just kind of breeze in,
and everything would be taken care of,
and now he's a schlep, and he's got the guitar on the back.
So, yeah, he could be a little less grumpy before the show.
But as soon as the lights come on, the people are in,
it's business as usual.
-[Frank] Here we go. -[drums play]
-All right. -[announcer] Now
the fella you've been waiting for,
the star of our show, Frank Stallone.
-[Frank] Hey! -[upbeat jazz music]
[Jonathan] He just knows how to communicate with people.
He's not always PC. And, uh,
you know, that's part of his charm, I suppose.
He'll speak his opinion,
whether he's in a room of people
who completely think the opposite way.
He doesn't have any fear when it comes to that.
He don't take no bullshit from nobody,
and he'll tell you exactly what's on his mind,
and that's what I love about him.
[Paul] On the positive side,
you have to admire someone
that stands by what they think.
[Greg] Frank is a guy who's remained true to his roots,
and you couldn't corrupt that
with all the money or fame, fortune,
because that's part of his metal.
It might bend here and there, but it never changes.
He's a straight shooter.
Several years ago, I did
a charity event called Songs of Love.
It was a charity for terminally ill children,
and I booked a bunch of acts,
and Frank was the first person I asked,
and he said yes immediately.
And I got choked up introducing him,
because I said, "This guy is such a great guy, a nice guy,
and the first guy I asked to come onboard,
come here for free, do this for the kids,
and Frank was there... [snaps fingers] like that."
So that just shows the type of person he is,
and I love him to death.
[John Herzfeld] He may not admit this to you,
but he has a very gentle,
in a way, very precious side to him,
and he's warm and sometimes not warm.
He's dramatic, and sometimes he's intentionally vulnerable,
and sometimes he's cynical.
He's a man of emotions.
That's what makes him so great on stage.
But he's also extremely eccentric.
I mean, this guy's never been married.
He's consumed with his art,
and he's consumed with information,
and he's consumed with, uh, a curiosity.
[Paul Monte] The question that a lot of people ask is,
"Why hasn't Frank ever been married?"
An artist has to be in the state of inspiration.
Frank stayed in a certain state.
I don't ever see him really connecting in a part where
he'd be away from his music.
He can be away from acting, perhaps.
He could be away from writing. But his music,
that's the foundation of everything.
[Melissa] He is forever a bachelor.
He does his thing, if he's interested.
When he's not interested, he does their inventory
like nothing I've ever heard in my life,
and he gets all the nice girls,
all the beautiful, beautiful girls.
And, you know, when he falls in love, it's under the radar,
like you find out in his really peculiar ways
that he's got like a girl, and then it's over.
[Christopher] What will Frank Stallone's legacy be?
It's have to be his music.
At what level he wants to do it, because he's got another 15 years in him.
I swear the guy's got... He's just on a tear now.
[Bill] Whether you have success or you don't have success
is kind of irrelevant. If you're getting to do
what you claim to love to do,
and you're doing it at a high level,
I think you're a lucky guy.
Down the road, there's still something there for him
that's going to lift him out of the shadow a little bit.
Maybe a song. Maybe another album.
Maybe a part in a movie.
He might have a future, because he's got
a lot of life left in him.
Frank's a great song writer.
He's a great singer, but it's about material.
It's about writing. It's about pouring it out.
What Frank would be great at,
is if he'd write something that embarrasses himself.
I mean, something that reveals him.
He's have to rip himself open,
and, "Oh, geez, I didn't know that was there,"
and if he does that, he'll be great.
[Frankie] He paid all those dues that we all pay to this day,
and he never really got credit for it.
There's a magnetism to him
that I don't know that's been realized yet,
but it will be. It will be.
[Frank] I'd probably say, 95% of the people
that I grew up with that played music,
"Oh, yeah, we're going to do this," they all quit.
They all quit. They all got jobs. They got married.
"Ah, well, you know, I need something more secure."
And I just flew by the seat of my pants.
You had to have a certain faith in yourself,
because I didn't know, I really wasn't
interested in doing anything else.
I took the worst job you could,
show business. That's the most insecure job you could ever do.
-[audience cheers] -God bless you.
Goodnight. Thank you very much.
[audience cheers and applauds]
[mellow instrumental music]
[Frank] I always wonder, what has kept me in this game?
But, you know, I just keep coming back to it. I love it.
[mellow instrumental music]
[upbeat rock music]
Pump up the triceps, Frankie.
-You can do it. -[sighs]
Perfect.
-Very nice. -[weights clank]
Look at this body.
[Frank laughs]
Unbelievable.
Now if you teach me how to sing,
like I teach you about bodybuilding,
I would be performing in Vegas.
-[Frank] That's right. -This is like a one-way street here.
♪ Save me darling ♪
♪ I am down but I am far from over ♪
♪ Give me something ♪
♪ I need it all because I am running over ♪
-Is he around? -[man] He's around.
Well, get him in here. I want to just talk
to him to see if he's as goofy as I remember.
-Yo, Frank. -Hey, what's up?
All right, I was, uh, inviting you in here, because--
[chair scrapes]
No one asked you to sit down. But don't try to assume,
-like my pose. We're like-- -We're trying to do,
-you know-- -We're doing Joe Weeder, like.
Considering from where we came from...
-Oh, man. -...and the family, and the disfunction,
that we're even here and functioning...
-Yeah. -...and that he has like
really well adjusted children...
-Right. -...is amazing.
I'm not that well-adjusted.
-Mm-mm. -But again-- But the thing is,
it's really amazing when you think,
-because those boxing gloves... -You know--
...have, have made this dynasty.
We actually should be like making
lunch meat for a living somewhere.
-Just like nothing-- -Well, you did do that for a while.
-I did actually do-- -He did work at a deli, actually.
-That's the-- -And I got thrown out of that too.
-Got thrown out of that. -That's right.
Keeping my thumb on the scale
-a little too much. -[Frank coughs]
But anyway, nice knowing you.
-Nice knowing you. -Yeah, take care.
And thanks for the good times.
[upbeat rock music continues]