♪♪♪
[Light footsteps thud]
David: You think that you're just gonna put this
film together,
and it's gonna be exactly the way you want it.
But it's not,
because I'm gonna be over your shoulder the whole fucking way.
And, you're gonna have to deal with me, unfortunately.
[Light footsteps thud]
[Sighs]
Can't wait for this.
[Man chuckles] - Light it up! Let's go!
- Okay.
[Michael Bublé "Feeling Good" plays]
♪♪♪
Michael: There is no subject that makes me happier
to be able to talk about, than David Foster.
There are so many parts of him
that I wish the whole world knew,
because if they knew what I know,
they would have even greater reverie for him.
♪♪♪
- Go!
Céline: David is one of the greatest
producer/songwriter of all time.
You've probably heard of Barbra Streisand,
um, Michael Jackson, maybe.
Josh: David Foster was my first believer in me.
My confidence when I didn't have it,
but the truth is,
you get vocals that you never dreamed of.
[Cell phone rings]
- Guess I'll answer that.
Hey, what's up, Steve? What you doin', man?
Lionel: He's a comedian, he's an entertainer.
A very talented musician, songwriter.
When he walks in the room, he is Mr. Show Biz.
Diane: He makes it looks so easy, and it's so hard.
Within the historical music business,
there's him and Quincy Jones.
Quincy: That's when you're dealin' with God, man.
You have to know what that artists capacity is.
You just keep diggin' 'til you get it.
Barbara: I'm very funny and extremely easy
to work with in a studio.
He's not.
Kristin: When he writes for someone,
he speaks their language.
- How many people are behind as many hits as him?
I don't know, the list is quite short.
Katharine: David Foster, the life, the legend,
the mystery.
I am one of the fortunate people
that gets to have a really intimate,
deep relationship with him.
I guess I'm like that person in his life
that's just sort of, going like [clicks] knock, knock.
♪ Feelin' good ♪
♪♪♪
[Cars honking]
David: This is probably maybe the first time
that I've landed in New York,
where I haven't said to myself,
"Oh fuck, it's New York, I don't wanna be here."
[Jazz music plays]
♪♪♪
New York, it outpaces Los Angeles
by a multiple of ten, and I don't like that.
It has to do with the claustrophobia,
and the tall buildings.
New York crushes me, and um,
I don't like the energy,
and I don't like all that weight on me
when I'm walking around.
And I'm way, way, way out of my comfort zone
about the unknown of getting to Broadway.
I think you have more luck of getting killed by lightning
than you do of having a hit Broadway show.
Man: You have room on the piano for a Tony Award?
I mean, I look back there.
- I sure do.
Nobody wants the EGOT more than me -
Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony.
And then I have the Golden Globe,
and I have the Emmy, and I have the Grammy,
so I'm-I'm a little light.
Man: [Laughs]
Kristin: Broadway as a tendency to be like, prove it.
So there's a feeling that David needs to pay his dues,
but I would also add, David, we are so ready.
We are so ready for you.
Give us that gift,
and then tell your story.
Todd: New York is its own creature,
like LA is its own creature.
He has crossed over, he's pop, he's radio,
he's done film, he's done television.
Kelly: I think the difference between Broadway is,
you work with a bunch of other people,
as opposed to just going into the studio
and creating something on your own.
You have the director, you got the choreographer.
A lot of people jump into the party,
and that's probably new for him.
- The notion of David coming to Broadway is,
what has taken you so long, David?
Come on, now. Come on.
It's time.
♪♪♪
[Film reel rattles]
David: I have more runway behind me
than I do ahead of me.
[Playing the piano]
3915 Ascot Drive is, is where I grew up.
♪♪♪
A suburb of Victoria, British Columbia.
The smell of grass being cut,
everybody ran the streets,
everybody stayed out in the summer.
Nothing but great memories.
♪♪♪
I have six sisters; unfortunately, one passed away,
so I only have five sisters now.
- We're all very close.
There's just a respect and appreciation.
He loves his sisters; we love him.
David: My father was an office worker,
my mother was a homemaker.
We had no money, but we weren't poor.
My childhood is like an almost-perfect childhood.
♪♪♪
My mother would make my sisters a piece of toast
in the morning before they went to school,
and she'd cook me bacon and eggs.
If you were one of my sisters,
would you not be pissed off?
- Anybody you interview that knows David,
knew our mom,
because he took her everywhere,
and he loved having her with him.
David: Apparently when my mother was dusting the piano,
I was three, four, five years old, or whatever,
and I yelled out, "That's an E!"
And she was going, what are you talking about?
I said "That's an E you just hit."
Eleanor: And I thought,
"Oh, there's something wrong with this child."
So I phoned his dad at work and told him,
and he got so excited, that he came home from work.
And, his dad was just totally beside himself.
He was so excited.
David: And he came home and he said,
"The kid's got perfect pitch."
♪♪♪
That would probably be some indication
that you should do music.
In '63, I would've been 13 or 14,
there was a program to go learn music
at University of Washington,
and I did it two years in a row.
And I'd play every instrument:
clarinet, flute, baritone,
trumpet, trombone, bassoon.
Which helped me later on in writing for orchestra,
because I understood the workings of every instrument.
But then a magical thing happened.
On my little transistor radio,
and I heard this song.
["She Loves You" by Beatles playing on piano]
The Beatles.
I was 13-years-old, and I could not believe
this sound that I was hearing.
It literally changed my life,
and I said, "That's what I want to do. That!"
Bill: David once as a teenager played Ronnie Hawkins' band.
He fired David because he knew David loved
the rock 'n' roll life.
And he said, David you're a genius,
and I'm a three cord rock 'n' roll man.
And if I fire you
there is a chance you'll find your genius.
David: My mother and father, when I was 16,
they took their life savings.
Life savings.
$1700.
And bought a piano and amplifier for me.
But to wipe out your savings for your child,
is pretty crazy.
♪♪♪
I really thought that I was gonna make it
in the music business.
Well, we put this band together
and moved to England.
We had illusions of grandeur
that we were gonna fit in and be stars.
♪♪♪
The world scene at that time was Pink Floyd,
and The Doors, and Deep Purple,
[Record scratches]
and were like this clean cut,
horrible dance band kinda thing.
We just had no clue about what we were doing.
We ended up, through an agent, just getting this gig
to be Chuck Berry's back-up band.
♪♪♪
[Audience applauds]
[Electric guitar riff plays]
♪♪♪
I was classically trained,
and I didn't really know much about rock 'n' roll,
so I didn't play his music very well, at all.
♪♪♪
Chuck was just an asshole,
there's no other way of putting it.
He would just get out there with his guitar,
out of tune, and just crank away,
and he didn't really care what was going on behind him.
I didn't play his song properly,
which is not a good fit, and ended up in a disaster.
Most of the band quit.
They got disillusioned, they wanted to go home.
And I said, "Well, I'm not goin' home,
I'm stayin'. I'm here to make it."
I stayed for about a year
and it was, without a doubt,
the loneliest time of my life.
I auditioned for everything.
London was so cruel to me,
nothing short of a tragic life.
After a year of doing that,
I gave in and my parents sent me sixty dollars,
and that was a air ticket home.
[Plane engine roars]
By age 13, I was making more money than my father,
and I was on this music train.
I knew there was a world out there
and I knew that I could be part of it.
This one night, I came home
at 5:30 in the morning.
My father was up.
He sat me down and he said,
"So, this music business,
you really like this, huh?"
I said, "Yeah, I do."
He said, "You think you have a chance at making it
in the music business?"
I said, "Yeah, I really do."
And then he just said, "Okay then, good night."
And that was the only time
that I had a man-to-man conversation with him,
and then he died a couple of months later.
I woke up to go to school and the car was gone,
and my mom said that, he'd had a heart attack.
He was in the hospital for 11 days
before he had another heart attack and died.
I only visited him once.
I should have been up there everyday.
Big mistake.
Imagine if I could have like broke through that barrier,
and like, talk to him like man-to-man
for 10 days, it would have been amazing.
Jaymes: I think Dad's dying truly affected David.
He was only 18,
and our dad was only 54.
And at the same time, he was conflicted
because he was starting his own musical career.
David: When my father died,
there was three girls left at home plus myself.
It was kind of chaos at home;
my mother, 47-years-old,
three young girls.
She didn't know how to deal with it.
I should have stepped in
and taken care of it.
You know, brought order to the house, but I don't.
Instead I made a selfish decision to leave,
and not deal with the chaos.
I chose my career over helping my mother
and my three sisters.
By the time I was 25,
I was making enough money that I can send her money
and buy her cars, and pay off her house,
and stuff like that.
♪♪♪
Me and my soon-to-be wife, B.J.,
moved to Los Angeles.
That was 1972.
That's when we put "Skylark" together.
♪ She's faced the hardest times you could imagine ♪
♪ And many times... ♪
I'd lived in London, I'd lived in Toronto by then,
I'd lived in Vancouver, I'd lived in Edmonton,
I'd lived in Victoria. None of it felt right.
The second that I got to Los Angeles,
it felt right.
♪ Each time her slender shoulders ♪
♪ Wore the weight of all her fears ♪
I wanted to be studio musician so badly.
♪ And a sorrow no one hears ♪
This is where I knew I belonged.
♪ Still rings in midnight silence ♪
Our friend, Barry De Vorzon, had discovered us,
and he brought us here specifically,
to get us a recording contract
and record an album, and that's exactly what we did.
And amongst that album was the song, "Wildflower".
♪ For she's a child ♪
That song started getting airplay,
then it just started spreading throughout the country
and became a huge hit.
That was the first taste.
It just really wet my appetite; I wanted more.
♪ Free and gentle flower growing wild ♪
I started playing rehearsal piano.
I eventually got a job playing for "The Rocky Horror Show".
♪♪♪
Every night, you would look out into the audience,
and you would see all these movie stars.
They all came to see Tim Curry
in "The Rocky Horror Show."
I was in the band, I later became the musical director.
Through the musicians in that band,
I got to meet other musicians
who actually were in the throes of the session work.
♪♪♪
And I met a drummer named Jim Keltner.
He was the drummer that was closest to The Beatles.
The musicians would come and jam.
Piano faced the wall,
so I couldn't see the other musicians.
I would just be playing along, just like,
just grooving on a Sunday night at three in the morning,
and John Lennon would pop in, and Joe Cocker.
And drums would drop out
and then eventually I was just playing solo piano,
and I just kept goin', kept goin'.
And then, the bass would come in again,
the drums would come in again.
And I just thought they were letting me play,
but they were actually going and doing drugs.
The other guys in the band were like,
how can this kid stay up all night and play music,
and not do drugs?
I didn't know, I just wanted to play music.
- I first met David at a recording session
in the uh, 70's.
David: I was barely a studio musician.
I was one of two or three piano players.
I remember walking in the studio.
She had diamonds by the yard wrapped around her arm.
She has the most beautiful hands.
She's a very elegant, beautiful woman.
I just remember her kind of floating in the studio.
We were playing along, and in the middle of it she goes,
"Stop! It's not right!
It's not working for me. Stop."
- And I was singing a song,
but it didn't have the right opening,
something was wrong about it.
- She said, "Let's take a lunch break."
Me, being the opportunist that I am,
I was in the corner on my electric piano,
way in the corner,
hoping that the mic was on
because she was having her lunch in the control room.
- And then I heard someone playing a figure on a piano.
- And literally, like out of the movies,
she walks through the door, and she goes,
"Marty," to her manager, "Listen to this!"
- And I said, "Was that you playing that on the piano?
I like that. I like that."
- It worked.
- Let's do it the way this guy was playing it.
- We're gonna do it like that.
- That happened to be David Foster.
- And if you listen to the record today,
it's her and I.
So then, 10 years later,
Barbra's doing a Broadway album,
and there's a song called, "Somewhere"
and she'd like you to produce it.
And I went, "Dude, I'm in."
Barbra said to me,
"David, I want this record to sound
like it was not created on this planet,
but I don't want you to use any orchestra,
I only want you to use synthesizers."
♪ Somewhere ♪
♪ We'll find a new way of living ♪
- David and I have been through a lot together.
We're on the same wavelength.
Now, we agree far more than we disagree.
David: So it took one month.
We finished the mix.
In all modesty, I killed it.
So I called her up, I said, "It's finished."
She said, "I wanna hear it tonight."
I said, "Okay, well I'll drive out and play it for you."
Drove out to her Malibu place.
She was having a party.
I knock on the door,
and the door opened,
it was Elizabeth Taylor and Clint Eastwood.
And Elizabeth said to me, "Hello, can I help you?"
I was like, "You're Elizabeth Taylor."
She said, "Well yes, that's quite right."
You know, I don't know what the hell I said,
but it was, it was a Hollywood party.
It was like, everywhere you turned,
there was Dustin Hoffman, and this one, and that one.
And then Barbra comes down, she says,
"Oh, you're here to play me the mix. Oh, this is great."
And she leaned back like this, in her evening gown...
♪ Somehow ♪
♪ Someday ♪
♪ Somewhere ♪
...and she went, "I love it. I love it."
And she loved it.
Quincy: We've all had the identical same notes
for 700 years.
Through harmony and rhythm,
the choice is yours that represent who you are.
You have to be a babysitter, you have to be a shrink,
you have to be a mama,
a nanny, everything.
You have to get the studio, to get backgrounds,
you have to find the songs, man.
That's the power right there, the songs.
Carole: He's been responsible for doing hit figures
on songs of mine that he didn't even write.
On "That's What Friends are For",
he came into the studio to play keyboards,
and came up with the da, da, da.
[Playing the harmonica]
♪♪♪
♪ That's that friends are for ♪
♪♪♪
David: Is, it's going just a little bit flat.
♪ Star ♪ And you're dropping on 'star'
so if you'll hold that up we'll have it.
Barbara: David has a way of coaxing what he wants
out of an artist.
- That sounded good.
- And it's very clever.
He uses a sort of um, carrot and stick approach,
you know. He flatters the singer,
and then he says, let's do it again.
Paul: The way David will drive these artists
and abuse the shit of 'em,
You got it in take three!
Do you know how many takes Sinatra did with "My Way"?
One.
Céline: David is very perfectionist.
So am I.
If you're not willing to have a relationship
and accept the over, and one more,
and one more time, and you've got it you,
and you've got it in you. And you're saying to yourself,
"Do you think that after 29 takes I have given it to you?"
But, you know what?
The 30th time that you sang,
he went, "Bingo!"
David: I produced the original "Dreamgirls" in 1981,
I think it was.
It was Jennifer Holliday.
She came into the studio,
she walked in with a fur coat and a dog under each arm,
and she walked up to the mic, and I said,
"Okay, Jennifer, let's see what it sounds like?"
♪ Ever, ever go no, no, no, no way ♪
♪ No, no, no, no way ♪
♪ I'm livin' without you ♪
- She sang her ass off,
just like the show.
But we were scrambling in the control room.
We weren't ready. We wanted just a run through
so that we could get the levels.
♪ I'm stayin' ♪
♪ And you, and you, and you ♪
♪ You're gonna love me ♪
♪ Yeah ♪
So at the end of it, I went,
"Great Jennifer, that was fantastic.
We're ready, we got our levels, let's do one."
She put her coat on,
grabbed her two dogs and she said,
"I only sing the song once," and walked out.
♪♪♪
I would say the next big, explosive moment in my life
was Earth, Wind & Fire.
I had been a studio musician for three years,
so I had played on The 5th Dimension records,
and on Dolly Parton.
As a piano player, I watched very carefully,
the producers on the other side of the glass,
because I wanted that job.
I wanted the producer job.
I managed to get an audience with Berry Gordy,
the founder of Motown Records.
Now I'm panicked.
And I walked from his sofa to his piano in his office,
and in those 10 steps, I faked it,
and I sat down at the piano, and this is what fell out.
♪♪♪
♪ After the love is gone ♪
♪ How could you lead me on ♪
That's when I met Earth, Wind & Fire,
and I played it for Maurice White,
and he said, "I wanna record it."
I said, "When?" He said, "Tonight."
Went on this three-album rampage with them,
and that propelled me into the 80's.
♪ What used to be right in wrong ♪
♪ Something happened along the way ♪
Paul: There's a definite vibe that David gets into,
that is very majestic,
that's very well-produced,
that gives you that big richness.
♪ After the love is gone ♪
♪ How could you lead me on ♪
JR: He has literally changed the face of music.
The best piano player I've ever played with,
and I've played with Herbie.
The way he attacks a key
is like no other.
When it gets big, it's big.
David: When Quincy Jones produced
"We are the World," in 1985
to help famine relief in Africa.
Well, he called me and he said,
"Hey David, you should do the same thing in Canada
with all the Canadian stars."
So, I called Bryan Adams,
and together we wrote "Tears are not Enough".
♪ We can change the world forever ♪
♪ Heaven knows that tears are not enough ♪
David: We got together a super group of Canadian artists
for a one-day epic session.
Joni Mitchell, Neil Young,
Gordon Lightfoot, Loverboy, Bryan himself.
The song became a number one hit
and it raised millions for an amazing cause.
[Applause]
- Come on, Neil, give it to me, baby.
♪ Somehow our innocence is lost ♪
- Little flat on innocence, but other than that,
it was great. We'll go again. One more time.
- That's my sound, man. - [Laughing]
I don't think I particularly would have liked
the younger David Foster,
because I was cocky, and I was brash,
maybe a little know-it all.
I'm thinking, in particular,
of when I produced the group, Chicago.
Take that out of the shot because you guys
are always late on the shot, on the walk-down things.
You're not with the clique, so I pulled it out.
♪♪♪
- Robert. - Jimmy.
- Lee.
- Wait a minute, wait a minute, I just need to ask this,
are we doing an interview about Chicago,
or an interview about David Foster?
- Well, why don't we let him do the interview?
- Yeah. Do your thing. Do your thing.
- Man: Thank you. - We're with you.
Lee: We were at a stepping-off point in our career.
We were coming away from Columbia Records,
and they were putting out the word
that these guys aren't worth your salt anymore.
- And we had been very, very, very successful.
Lee: Irving Azoff came and asked us if we would mind
if David Foster produced us?
- By then, we were ready to work with anybody
to try to get something going again.
Peter: David Foster came in right when Chicago needed
something like him.
There was chaos in the group.
Nobody was talking at that point. [Chuckles]
David: They had lost their way,
and I was a huge Chicago fan
before I even got a chance to work with them.
I knew every lick.
Lee: First time we met him,
we had a bunch of songs that we wanted to play for him,
that we thought were gonna be on our next album
that he was gonna record.
He came in, he listened to all of the songs
and said, "It's all mediocre."
- I can put it together, sure I could.
I had to have the job of telling Chicago
that the songs they had written for Chicago 16,
were terrible, and they had to start all over again.
But it's a little overwhelming to concentrate
on all four songs at once.
- He was very young; he was turning our world upside down.
- Why don't you give me just a minute to listen
because sorry, I was on the phone.
Peter: He's intimidating, and when he came in the studio,
we were all intimidated. I was intimidated.
Jimmy: All of a sudden our songs aren't good enough?
You know, you're thinkin',
"Man, did I lose it?"
- When I got in the room and they played me their song,
I was going like, these are nothing like
what I remember you guys, these are terrible.
Like, what happened to you guys?
- He made a little comment about it,
over the loudspeaker after a take,
"You know, that's not right, that bass part's not right."
So I put my bass down, I went inside the booth
and I said, "Don't ever talk to me like that, again."
- Switch to 6 there for that line, okay?
Please?
- Every producer we had worked with up to that point,
they let us be Chicago.
David made a record
that was his impression
of what Chicago should be.
- We needed somebody to command the ship,
and he did.
Some people liked it, and some people didn't.
["You're my Inspiration" plays]
- David controlled every aspect.
We were not used to that either.
♪ You know our love was meant to be ♪
- He wanted to participate in the writing and the playing.
♪ The kind of love that lasts forever ♪
♪ And I want you here with me ♪
Jimmy: We understood that we have to trust this guy.
We needed this.
And he was fast. He was quick.
Song needs a bridge. [Sound effects]
Okay, done. I'd sit there and I'd go, "Holy shit, man."
♪ You're the meaning in my life ♪
♪ You're the inspiration ♪
- I went in there with all eight cylinders goin',
and all guns blazing. It was a dictatorship -
you do this, you do that, I'm gonna be the bass player,
I'm the piano player, I'm gonna co-write all the songs.
This is what we're gonna do, you're gonna record this song.
And of course, we had huge success.
♪ I guess I thought ♪
♪ You'd be here forever ♪
JR: The Chicago days,
I was just a hired gun coming in to fix a problem.
I saw an ugly side, just a very aggressive
production techniques from David.
- I was trying to imagine
what a great Chicago record sounded like.
Unfortunately for them, it didn't include a lot of horns.
- There was nothin' to do.
On videos, I'd be on a keyboard,
Lee would be on a guitar,
and you know, what the hell's goin' on here,
because there ain't no horns to play.
So next thing you know we're relegated
to playing synth parts on videos, and on stage.
I was pretty upset for a while.
You put your ego in a bag, bury it in the yard,
and you make a record.
Robert: I wasn't ready to do that.
My reaction was immature. I'm a keyboard player,
what do you mean I can't play the keyboards on these songs?
We thought we knew better.
Jimmy: Another problem arose,
which was the relationship with Peter and David.
David: I immediately connected with Peter Cetera.
We formed a great writing bond and a great kinship,
and Peter and I became the songwriters of the group.
Peter: I would listen to him,
and he would actually listen to me.
I think that was unique for him.
He lets me actually talk through his hands.
He'll playing, now what was that, that was great, you know.
♪ Everybody needs a little time away ♪
♪ I heard her say ♪
♪ From each other ♪
♪ Even lovers need a holiday ♪
We ended up writing a bunch of fantastic songs.
We had a string of number one hits.
♪ Hold me now ♪
People say, on you turned them into a ballad group.
Just that people picked the ballads to be the hits.
And it just so happens that I sang them,
and of course, when you do a video, the guy that sings,
all those things played into it.
Robert: I realized that something good was happening
when Warners took us out to dinner
with all their top executives,
picking up the first of many gold discs
from songs from that album.
But in the back of my mind, I was thinking,
yes, but it's not Chicago.
- Nine times but we did it.
Now, we just gotta decide whether we want we-wa.
David: I can understand, in reflection,
how the group was pissed off at that.
Meanwhile, they went from 50,000 albums
to 7,000,000 albums.
- We knew that the songs were good.
I mean, we got ears.
Robert: David was gonna get us back on the charts,
and that's what he aimed for.
Everything he did was exactly right.
I didn't wanna walk away.
Peter: It was tense.
David and I took over writing at that point.
It was a really low point for everybody.
Jimmy: We wanted to have fun. We wanted to be a band.
We've always been a band,
and we didn't have any use for somebody
that didn't wanna be a team player.
He started to listen
to a different drummer, if you will,
and David was the straw that broke the camel's back
and convinced him yeah, I'm a solo guy.
So...
♪ I am a man ♪
- We had a string of number one hits that continued
into my solo career with "Glory of Love."
That was in "The Karate Kid"
we got an Academy Award nomination.
- If Peter hadn't wanted to just go off on his own
and still be in the band, it would've been great,
but it just didn't work out that way.
♪ Hold me now ♪
♪ I really wanna tell you I'm sorry ♪
- We had this great run.
David: Yes, I came in hot, yes, I came in arrogant,
yes, I came in cocky.
I understand completely
why they don't like what went down,
and I get it, and I understand it.
♪ I will make it up to you ♪
But they're still pissed off about it.
They're still working on the backs
of those albums right now.
♪ And after all that's been said ♪
Natalie Cole, her voice like silk.
Beautiful human being.
I was the lucky one that got to put her
and her father together for "Unforgettable".
♪ Unforgettable ♪
Gave me the opportunity of a lifetime.
♪ That's what you are ♪
Could've been anybody. She chose me.
The Unforgettable album was done for the love of music.
♪ Unforgettable ♪
It was as pure as I've ever been.
It was an album made from the heart.
We applied a little bit of math and a little bit of wizardry.
We retried the vocal from the vaults,
we recorded a new track.
Natalie sings, Nat sings.
♪ That's why darling ♪
♪ It's incredible ♪
♪ That someone so unforgettable ♪
♪ Thinks that I am ♪
♪ Unforgettable too ♪
When she heard that, she just came apart.
She said, "Sounds like my father's singing
right over my shoulder."
♪ Unforgettable too ♪
["Un-break My Heart" plays]
♪♪♪
David: I was with Toni Braxton last night actually,
and we were reminiscing about our times together.
I think we made one of the greatest records ever,
"Un-break My Heart".
Written by Diane Warren, produced by me.
♪ Un-break my heart ♪
♪ Say you love me again ♪
- That key change,
there's nothing better than that in pop music.
The whole arrangement, and the whole vocal.
It's just pure perfection.
♪ Un-cry these tears ♪
♪ I've cried so many nights ♪
Every time David touches something,
it goes to a whole other level.
David: My life would've been a lot simpler,
and my children's life would've been a lot simpler and easier,
if I had of not been married so many times.
- No one's more afraid of his track record than himself.
- Women have always been his weakness.
- There's so many women.
- It's funny that he was given daughters and sisters um,
and he was very close with his mother too,
and he's always been close with every woman in his family.
- Three older sisters to dote on him,
three younger sisters to look up to him.
- I don't think that he planned on being married
five times in his life.
- So obviously, yes, women.
- If I was sitting in front of a psychologist,
or a psychiatrist, he would call me a runner.
When things get rough, or bad, I run.
Erin: Having mixed families is really challenging.
- There're never any pictures of Grandpa Maury,
- Why?
- ...because he was always holding the camera.
- I was three when they broke up,
and he immediately was living with the person
he had left our mom for.
And living in a house with her and her kids.
♪ Happy birthday dear, Brody ♪
David: Nice key.
You're gonna sense scar tissue
with every child of mine that you talk to.
Most of them would tell the story
that I was divorced from their mother
by the time they were five or six years old.
I was working all the time, literally all the time.
Sleeping at the studio for two or three days at a time.
So, you're gonna see a lot of scar tissue.
Amy: My father and I look for exit strategies
the same way that other people make dinner plans.
When conflict arises,
my dad's first instinct is to avoid,
and evade, and deflect.
My father stayed in LA.
We were poor as shit.
I mean, we were poor.
My father sent child support,
but that's all we had.
And then, I would go during the summer to see my dad,
and he was living in Malibu in like a palace.
And I was like, wait.
David: It's more like,
hey, there is a shiny, new thing over there.
In my mind, it's like,
the grass is always greener on the other side.
It's a lot of that.
This is not working so...
that looks a lot better to me over there.
- He lived like a king.
The mansions in Malibu that I didn't live in,
to the neighbourhood that I lived in, in Toronto,
to the very unconventional family that I had.
I have 10 siblings, and I'm an only child.
Wait. That's really fucked up.
David: You can just imagine with children
from three different women,
and how tough it's been for all the players.
When I run, it's a knee-jerk reaction,
I just go.
I just move on.
And there are always consequences.
The biggest mistake I ever made
was leaving Rebecca.
Imagine leaving and we have three children;
age 5, 4... and Jordan was 7 months.
What a fucking stupid thing to do.
I would just say I'm sorry.
You know, I'm sorry that I really fucked it up.
Jordan: I do remember having crying sessions,
just feeling like, oh God, my dad doesn't love me.
And that's a horrible feeling.
Erin: There was a situation he'd created
where he didn't live with his own children.
He lived with someone else's kids.
There was a lot of tension there.
- You grow up a little bit faster
than you would necessarily,
if you didn't have that relationship with a parent.
Amy: I believed that I was a casualty of his ambition.
- From my earliest memory,
I was in the studio with him.
While I did see the back of his head for many years,
in the studio, I never felt like he wasn't there.
I just always had so much respect for him
and what he did.
Amy: I never felt angry, I just accepted it.
If I wanted to see my dad, I had to do it at the studio.
[Children laughing]
I love my father. I adore my dad.
You know, when he shines his light on you,
it is fantastic.
Sara: It wasn't always easy.
It wasn't easy as a kid.
I don't know, if I had to choose to be
really close with my parent as a kid, or as an adult,
I would pick an adult.
He's such a sounding board, and such um,
almost like a friend in a lot of ways.
[Cheering and applause]
- I would like to point out at this moment,
that all five of my daughters are here,
all the way from Florida, Zurich, Edmonton,
Nashville, and LA.
Thank you, girls.
I have five amazing daughters,
all strong-willed, all successful.
I think I did something right.
- There was never a time he didn't pick up the phone
when you called. - No.
- Anytime he was in the studio, no matter what hour, what day--
- Or if he was working with Madonna or something,
he'd be like, hold Madonna. - There was never a time
that they came back to the phone
and said he's not available. - Never.
- I think that sometimes he thinks he wasn't a good dad,
and that hurts my feelings, because he was a good dad.
David: My message to them is, you know, I did my best,
I could have done a lot better.
I'm trying to do my best now.
Pull up your bootstraps and get on with it.
It would be hard for me to sit with any of my children
and go, you know, I really love you.
I really do. And I really care about you.
That's probably never come out of my mouth with my kids.
It's not hard for me to say "I love you" at all.
It's a little bit rogued,
you know at the end of a conversation with your kids,
love you. Love you too.
There is a big difference between "love you"
and "I love you".
- And what do you say?
- Love you.
Amy: I know that he loves me in the only way that he can.
The first time a song of mine went number one,
he said, "Mhmm,
well, you know, Amy,
there's only one thing harder
than getting a number one hit song."
And I went, "What?" He's like, "Getting two.
And when you get two, call me then."
Katharine: I hope Erin doesn't mind.
She called me one day, not too many months ago.
And was hysterical and was really upset about her dad.
And it was to do with a conversation that they had,
around a big, personal event happening in her life.
Really not honouring her feelings.
He was so upset, but he couldn't say,
you know what, it was just awful,
I feel horrible, I'm so upset.
He couldn't say any of that stuff.
I said, you know, you really don't wanna go weeks now
not talking to her, you need to fix this tonight.
And he looked at me so,
so defiantly and just said,
you know then, maybe she should just go and do that.
And I was like, wow, this is your own daughter,
like, you don't mean that.
I got him on the phone with Erin that night,
and they're working through it.
They have years and years of stuff to work out.
I know how much he loves his children.
I'm trying to get him to be more intentional
with everything he does.
Whether that's having relationships with his kids
because he know it's the right thing to do,
but also because he genuinely, genuinely cares.
And genuinely is interested in wanting to know
who Sara is and Erin is, and Jordan, and Amy
and Allison for that matter.
David: Allison is a daughter that I had
when I was 19 or 20 with a girlfriend.
We gave the baby up for adoption.
I knew that some day she would come looking for me
and she did.
She was maybe 30, when she found me on the internet.
She's really smart,
but it's a different feeling
than when you raise somebody.
And I think honestly
she probably would like more from me,
it's just I can't, I'm just spread too thin.
[Reel rattles]
I had met Kevin Costner in Vancouver.
He said, I'm about to do this film called "The Bodyguard,"
would you be interested in doing the music?
Quincy did tell me,
you are about to do the most important project of your life.
He was absolutely right.
Clive: You start with "The Bodyguard" itself,
the film.
When I first saw the rushes at Christmastime,
I thought it was weak.
I thought that Warner Bros. were much too dependent
on making this a gripping thriller,
and there was very little, if any,
demonstration of the stardom of Whitney.
- All right, I'm up.
- It was Whitney's first film.
She was feeling her way as an actress.
The chemistry between
Kevin Costner and Whitney must be felt.
- Well, you don't look like a bodyguard.
- What'd you expect?
Clive: Typically, the head of any record company
is gonna want more music in the film,
but unless you establish Whitney's stardom,
the script didn't provide that.
So, I wrote a letter to the director and Kevin,
saying just that -
if you don't get more music,
if you don't get more performance from Whitney,
you do not have a great film here.
Kevin Costner literally took this letter to heart.
He assumed a very vital role
working with David Foster on this.
♪♪♪
The number of songs were dramatically expanded.
David and his then wife, Linda Thompson,
wrote "I Have Nothing."
♪ But don't make me close one more door ♪
♪ I don't wanna hurt anymore ♪
♪ Stay in my arms ♪
Clive: But the big object,
what kind of song,
can really capture the essence of the film,
the chemistry of the leads,
affect the emotion,
make it more than just a thriller?
- Originally they were gonna do
"What Becomes of the Broken-Hearted".
♪ What becomes of the bro--♪
It's really a good hook,
but past that, there's not a lot going on with it.
♪ What becomes of the broken-hearted ♪
♪ Who had a sweet love that's now departed ♪
♪ I know I've got to find ♪
♪ Some kind of peace of mind ♪
David: I did a demo for it. Whitney didn't like the demo,
I didn't like the demo.
And Whitney was like, "Really, David?
I don't, I'm not gettin' this."
And then, luckily,
the song hit the charts with Paul Young,
so I ran to Kevin Costner and said,
"Ah, we can't do this song,"
feigning like, that I'm disappointed.
So he said, "Okay, let me come up with another song."
[Applause] Dolly: Thank you.
♪♪♪
♪ If I should stay ♪
♪ I would only be ♪
♪ In your way ♪
♪ So I'll go ♪
David: I sent somebody to the record store.
I said, "Get me a copy of 'I Will Always Love You'
by Dolly Parton." They came back and they said,
they didn't have Dolly Parton's version,
but they have Linda Ronstadt's version.
♪ And I... I... ♪
♪ Will always ♪
- I knew Dolly Parton, so I called her
and I was excited. I said,
"Guess what, Dolly, we're doing your song,
'I Will Always Love You.'"
And she said, "Oh, that's great!"
She said, "I could just hear Whitney singing..."
♪ And I wish you joy and happiness ♪
And I'm going, what lyric is that?
That's, that's not part of our record.
The Linda Ronstadt version is only two verses.
She said, "What are you talking about?
The third verse is the most important verse,
it sums up the whole song,
and the whole feeling that I was trying to go for."
And I hope life
Treats you kind
And I hope that
You have all
That you ever dreamed of
And I wish you joy
And happiness...
David: I immediately knew how to make this a great song
for Whitney Houston.
I would imagine that if Whitney's performing it live,
that they would get a standing ovation,
where the people jumped to their feet.
Man: Scene 86. Breaker take one.
A cam rolling. Marks.
Clive: Kevin who said, "Look,
I want the record to begin with an a cappella."
- I didn't want to do the first part a cappella,
and Kevin was like, "No, I want it to be
no music for the first part." I was like, "Come on, Kevin.
I mean, okay, for your movie maybe,
but when I get it back in the studio,
I'm gonna put music on it."
- Right after the first run-through,
David sent it to me,
and it gave me chills.
- He loved my rough mix of it.
I said, you can't use the rough mix.
- And in this particular case,
we did not see eye-to-eye.
- I know Whitney, I know what she wants, blah, blah, blah.
Of course, nobody knew Whitney better than Clive.
- And he repeated more obscenities
in this conversation,
than I had ever heard.
- And he said, "David," very calmly,
"I think we should hang up
before one of us says something that we will regret."
- All of Warners was calling me.
I had to make a decision,
and I went with that first version.
♪ If I ♪
♪ Should stay ♪
♪ I would only ♪
♪ Be in your way ♪
♪ So I'll go ♪
♪ But I know ♪
♪ I'll think of you ♪
♪ Every step of the way ♪
- Whoever thought a radio would play this?
I was standing in the ballroom beside her mother,
and Whitney gets up on stage in her beautiful dress,
and she goes,
"If I..."
and the mother turned to me and she goes,
"You know you're witnessing greatness right now."
And then the strings come in.
♪ And I... ♪
♪ Will always love you ♪
Clive: It was David who came up with the arrangement.
Each of the three of us loved it.
I literally had chills
and goosebumps. I was ecstatic.
- Wait.
[Full crescendo] ♪ And I... ♪
♪ Will always love you ♪
Announcer: The Bodyguard, original soundtrack album;
Whitney Houston.
Announce: The number one album of the year
for "I Will Always Love You."
- The record of the year, this is the one.
This is the one, you know.
It's very special. It really is.
- Within hours, he called me up to apologize.
He said, "Everybody's calling,
that it's the greatest record they've ever heard
in their life."
Announcer: Ladies and gentlemen, Whitney Houston.
[Audience cheers]
Clive: It only cemented the bond between David and myself.
- Welcome back to the Whitney Houston show.
- Guess I should just stay up here, huh. Hoo!
- It became the most important project of my life.
The album sold 45 million copies.
Bodyguard producers, David Foster.
Clive, again, I love you, and I thank you.
- It's carried me over these last 20 years, a lot.
♪ I'll always love you ♪
For the most part my life has been going 100/mph,
but then there is those things that happen to you,
the unexpected -
that just bring you to your knees
and bring you to a full stop halt.
I was in the studio in Hollywood with Michael Bolton.
He kept pushing, he said, let's stay later, later, later.
I really wanted to leave at midnight,
but I embed up staying until 2:00 o'clock.
[Engine rumbles]
I was living in Malibu, I'm driving home.
It's a beautiful summer night.
I'm coming up on the top of this hill.
Now, it's 2:30 in the morning.
And there is this thing in the middle of the road.
[Engine roars] Arms up like this.
It takes a second to process
that it's somebody in the middle of the road.
It takes another second to think I've gotta brake,
and by the third second BAM!
[Tires screeching, crash]
Then it was just... dead silence.
I dialled 911.
Operator: 911, what's your emergency?
- I've just killed somebody, I've just-I think I've just--
I just killed somebody. You gotta get here right away.
[Recording] Yeah, I'm driving on PCA section
I just hit a person, I think I just killed a person.
Operator: All right. I'm gonna help you, sir. Okay?
Where are you? - It's right near Sycamore.
You gotta come. Please. - Stay with me, okay?
I'm gonna stay on the phone with you, all right?
- Okay, but you gotta get here, you gotta get here fast.
Please hurry!
- I ran down the road, this body was in a fetal position,
and there was blood everywhere.
Out of the ears, out of the nose, out of the mouth.
[Sighs] I mean, I-I just destroyed his body.
All of a sudden I saw like
his hand just move slightly
and I thought, oh my God, he's still alive.
[Rotors beat, siren wails]
Ambulance is on the way...
the helicopter lands. All hell is breaking loose.
They get out the body bag
because they think the guy is dead.
[Police radio chatter]
- Now it's 5 o'clock in the morning.
He must have had some ID on him. And then they said,
do you know who that was that you hit, right?
That was Ben Vereen.
Newsreel: Ben Vereen-- - Master of the musical
theatre...
- Who won a Tony award on Broadway for "Pippin".
Who was in "Jesus Christ Superstar",
and "Hair" and "Jelly's Last Jam"
and starred in "Grind",
and was so brilliant in that wonderful Bob Fosse movie
"All That Jazz". Ben Vereen--
David: Every 60 seconds I would see the impact.
Like that. Like every minute.
Ben: I was pretty broken up.
I got to the hospital and they said it was-
I was pretty much over. I had a trech.
This right side was completely stroked.
My left femur was broken.
My spleen was taken. I was really a mess.
- I thought, I'm gonna go to jail.
I've killed somebody.
I'm going to jail.
Three months to the day,
He rings me up on the phone
he didn't identify himself. Hello?
Man that must have been one of your greatest hits ever.
It was Ben.
And I knew that, that he was gonna live.
When he was flown to UCLA they scanned his whole body
and they saw this subdural hematoma.
And he was bleeding to death in the brain
which is why he was acting so crazy,
standing in the middle of the road.
The Doctor said that he would have been dead by 7:00 a.m.
from that aneurysm.
So the worst moment of my life
ended up being something
that weirdly saved his life.
[Cheering and applause]
- My goal when I go in the studio with a singer is,
I believe in my head
that I'm gonna get a better vocal out of this singer,
than he or she has ever done before,
or ever will do again.
I got a tip that this young singer was up in Canada.
She was already famous in Quebec,
so I'm not taking any credit for discovering her.
I flew to Montreal,
I drove 100 miles in the rain.
Céline: I was performing in a tent.
The weather was awful,
but I could not believe that David Foster
was going to come and hear me sing that night.
I'm about to meet one of the greatest producers of all time.
Tonight?
He came and he watched the show,
and then we met after.
- When I heard her sing,
it was like that, when you watch a movie,
and everything just goes...
[whooshing sound]
[Singing in French]
It was her. And her singing.
And it was just this phenomenal thing, and I went,
"My God!
Millions and millions of people are gonna love this woman."
And they did.
You are truly remarkable.
Céline: He said that he would be interested to produce
a few songs for my first English album.
I said to myself, "No way, Jose. Na-uh.
I'm gonna believe this thing when it happens."
♪ The voice ♪
♪ You are the life ♪
David: Oh God, you sing great.
- Really?
I couldn't believe that David was like,
about to produce with an unknown singer,
first English album. I couldn't believe it.
♪ Those days are gone ♪
♪♪♪
♪ Livin' alone ♪
♪ I think of all the friends I've known ♪
♪ But when I dial the telephone ♪
♪ Nobody's home ♪
♪♪♪
♪ All by myself ♪
Céline: It was hard.
I was very shy.
I wanted to impress David.
To show him that the chance that he was giving me,
that I was not gonna blow it away.
That I was not going to disappoint him.
David: So, I came up with this impossible note
for Céline to sing.
So loud, so high,
so long, so ridiculous.
♪ All by myself ♪
♪ Anymore ♪
♪♪♪
The horrible story is, that she did it once,
and it was pretty much perfect.
Then I made her to do it seven more times.
- Well, his name is David Foster,
and he was very right,
and that's why he's one of the greatest.
And it's true, it was great.
- As I recall, what I said to her was jokingly,
"If you can't hold the note
as long as I need you to hold it,
Whitney Houston is down in Studio C,
I'll get her to come in and hold the note for you."
As a joke.
It was one of the days that she really hated me.
I know that.
Céline: When you start to work with him,
you never sit down.
David knows exactly what he's looking for.
He knows what he wants,
and he's gonna push you.
He brings the best out of you.
We just have to jump in the train with him and trust him.
You trust, or you leave.
♪ All by myself ♪
♪ Anymore ♪
♪♪♪
[Crowd cheering]
♪♪♪
♪ All by myself ♪
- Many of my songs
were all produced or written
by a good friend of mine.
[Cheering]
Ladies and gentlemen, David Foster.
[Cheering]
♪ For all those times you stood by me ♪
♪ For all the truth that you made me see ♪
♪ For all the joy you brought to my life ♪
I wanted to take this opportunity tonight,
to thank you for everything that you've done for me.
♪ For every dream you made come true ♪
For my life, my career,
you've been the first one helping me out.
You were there for me,
and for me to have you on this stage tonight,
is more than a thrill.
[Cheering]
♪ Ohhhhh... ♪
♪ You were my strength when I was weak ♪
♪ You were my voice ♪
- David is a classy act. He does classy songs.
You might have a big, big, big song
that will give you a life for the rest of your life.
You might have a career.
David wants songs that live forever.
♪ I'm everything I am ♪
♪ Because you loved me ♪
[Cheering and applause]
- For a guy that said two years ago
that I wasn't gonna make records anymore, which I did,
and other than the Michael Bublé record,
I have stuck to my guns,
that's the only record I've made in two years.
- He doesn't know about holidays.
"Oh David, it's Easter." He's like, "What?
I don't care, we're working today."
- For a guy that doesn't wanna make records anymore,
I still seem to be pretty damn busy. It's crazy.
- You're very busy.
[Cheering and applause]
[Rhythmic finger snapping, music plays]
- I believe that music is full of slots that are available.
The Michael Bublé slot was wide open.
Everybody else that made that kind of music was dead.
Michael: I had been told
that the Prime Minister's daughter was getting married,
and that they were friends with David Foster,
and that the great David would be at the wedding.
David: Brian Mulroney, the ex-Prime Minister of Canada,
was having a wedding for his daughter.
He's saying, you've gotta hear this guy
that's about to sing at our wedding. He's amazing.
Brian: When we arrived at the wedding, I said to David,
"David, I want you to listen to this guy
who's gonna come up and sing now."
- I said, "Oh great, great."
And he says, "Come on up to the front, he's about to sing."
- Foster says to me,
"Prime Minister, look it, this is what I do for a living.
I'm fed up with this."
- This guy walks out, good-looking guy, right,
and he goes, [rhythmic snaps]
["Fever" plays]
Everything closes in on him.
It's like in the movies, you know,
everything goes away. All the noise of the wedding,
the dishes, the clanging,
the conversation,
and all I could see was Michael Bublé.
♪ Never know how much I love you ♪
- I looked over,
I could see the Honourable Brian Mulroney,
and he kind of had David under his arm,
kind of saying, "Look at this kid, David."
Brian: And I said no, "I'm about to do you
the biggest favour of your life."
He sounded like a cross between
Frank Sinatra and Bobby Darin.
- He was a crooner.
He could do the-the fast tempos.
He was quite-- - Yeah, really.
- He was quite somebody.
Brian: I knew right away, this guy was something special.
David: And I told him that night,
"I'm bringing you to Los Angeles,
here's $5,000 to pay off your bills,
you're moving into my guest house,
and you're not leaving until we make a record."
Michael: David came up to me, he said,
"Hey, Mike man, you got your own lane.
You wanna come down to LA?
Maybe we could work on some stuff?"
I remember going home that night,
calling my Grandpa,
jumping up and down in the hallway,
because I had met, honestly, one of the greatest ever,
and uh, he liked me.
- Very exciting day today, because we're doing strings,
which actually Michael has nothing to do with and...
gotta go to work.
- The first time that we worked together,
I was just a kid who couldn't believe that he was there.
I was a massive fan.
Musically, it was huge for me.
Every day that I went home with rough demos,
they were so much better
than I had ever heard before.
♪ Well, it's a new dawn ♪
[Orchestra sting]
♪ It's a new day ♪
[Orchestra sting]
♪ It's a new life ♪
[Orchestra sting]
♪ For me ♪
♪ And I'm feeling good ♪
♪♪♪
There was no business here.
Business did not come into this relationship.
This was all personal.
♪ Fish in the sea ♪
I had cornered him, and I said, "Listen,
I think we're doing something special here.
Take me to Warner Bros.,
let me play my case.
If they don't sign me, I will never bother you again."
And four days later,
he called me and he said, quote,
"Let's see what a 25-year-old fuck
knows about the record business."
♪♪♪
The president of Warner Bros., Tom Whalley,
looked at me and he said,
"Hello, Michael, why should we sign you?
We have Sinatra on Reprise."
And I said, "With all due respect, Mr. Whalley,
Sinatra's dead."
♪♪♪
I said, "Give me a chance. I'll work my ass off for you.
I love this music,
and there's no reason why it shouldn't be kept alive."
Who the fuck was I? I was 25-years-old.
David literally put his future on the line.
A few days after that, I got a phone call.
David Foster said, "Hey, Mike man."
I said, "Hi, David."
He said, "I wanna welcome you
to the family of Warner Bros. You're gonna be okay."
♪ Stars when you shine ♪
Announcer: And the award goes to Michael Bublé.
[Cheering and applause]
Announcer: Juno goes to Michael Bublé.
Announcer: It is Michael Bublé. Michael, come on up.
Announcer: Michael Bublé.
- And please welcome, Michael Bublé.
[Cheering and applause]
♪ Well, it's a new dawn ♪
♪ It's a new day ♪
♪ It's new life ♪
♪♪♪
♪ It's a new dawn It's a new day ♪
♪ It's a new life ♪
David: The bottom line is,
he's a national treasure for Canada.
He knows what he wants, he knows who he is,
and I think we're a great working combination.
I see no end in sight.
To have spent the last 17, 18 years with him,
has been amazing.
- We have become...
I mean, brothers.
There's a deep emotional attachment and loyalty
because I love him, you know.
[Jazz music plays]
♪♪♪
- David fuckin' Foster! - All right.
Tommy: It is the street of broken dreams.
I say to everybody, making music, for us,
is kindergarten compared to the challenges
you have to overcome on Broadway.
David: On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays,
I wake up and I think that I am the greatest thing ever.
On Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays,
I think I suck and that I haven't accomplished anything,
and that I'd better get to it,
and that I'm a fake, and I'm a fraud.
And on Sundays, I don't think about it at all.
And that is the truth.
- The first idea was the opening.
And maybe it starts with a scene. And then the two kids--
- Not having complete control was very difficult for me.
My most success has come
when I'm completely in charge and left alone.
So of course, I went into Broadway
with that same attitude, going like,
leave me alone, let me do my thing.
But Broadway's a very different collaborative process.
Kelly: It's an adventure.
You just start from the beginning,
and you just start laying bricks, and go from there.
David: Write a song, get it thrown out.
Write another song, get it thrown out.
Write 30 songs, get them all thrown out.
Start again. New script.
- You know what David Foster's never done?
He's never put himself in a box.
If he hears a Broadway singer, he goes for it.
Dare I say,
that people would see a new side of David Foster.
- Write 10 more songs, third new script,
fourth new script, new story here.
Now she goes to Hollywood.
And it was just... it was just insanity.
I always like to say, how many summers do you have left?
At age 68, if I get really lucky,
I have maybe 15 summers left, and that's not a lot.
That's a very finite number.
But I'm not leaving until I get something on Broadway.
♪♪♪
Carole: We were just writing for this little girl
that was going forth into the big forest,
so I said, well, let's write a little prayer.
We wanted Céline to be the mother's voice in the film,
and she said yes.
David: So it was called "A Mother's Prayer."
It was a beautiful piece of music,
and the music supervisor on the movie said,
you know, "You should turn that into a bigger song."
- I said, "David we have to find something
for the song to be heard."
I don't even know how we got to Bocelli,
but I do remember being in New York with David,
and Bocelli was singing,
and I thought, "Wow."
♪♪♪
- No chorus yet. Nothing.
Andrea and I have made records for the last
20 plus years together.
- Andrea Bocelli!
[Cheering and applause]
[Singing in Italian]
♪♪♪
- Andrea Bocelli is one of the most spectacular voice
of all time.
What an amazing artist.
What a greatest honour for me,
that they considered me to sing
one of the most beautiful songs.
David: So I wrote the B section,
and then the extended verse.
Finished Céline's vocal,
then I brought Bocelli in into to New York,
put him on Céline's vocal,
and I think we made magic.
♪ I pray you'll be all right ♪
♪ And watch us where we go ♪
Céline: This is not a hit song,
this is a moment.
This is a song that will live forever,
and that's what David does.
That's his forte.
[Speaking Italian] I did not imagine it would
become what it has become
with David's arrangement and Celine's great performance.
It is without a doubt a great song
but every great song also needs all the ingredients to be
included.
It needs a great arranger and great singers.
For the song to become a masterpiece, nothing can be left
out.
♪ To a place where we'll be safe ♪
♪ La luce che tu hai ♪
♪ I pray we'll find your light ♪
♪ Nel cuore resterà ♪
♪ And hold it in our hearts ♪
♪ A ricordarci che ♪
♪ When stars go out each night ♪
♪ Eterna stella sei ♪
♪ Ohhhh... ♪
- From this movie that embarrassed Warner Bros.
and cost them a lot of money,
came this song that has its own life
and is heard today.
It just found its way into our popular culture.
David: It was the Grammys,
and Bocelli was not able to make the rehearsal,
so I needed to find somebody to do his part
on "The Prayer" with Céline, for rehearsal.
So I called my friend, Seth Riggs,
who's a great vocal coach.
- Middle, middle, chest, chest,
middle, middle. Head voice.
David: I said, "Seth, do you have anybody
that happens to sound like Andrea Bocelli?"
He said, "Oh yeah, I got like 5 or 10 guys
that sound like him."
He sends me a cassette tape.
The first three, they're just miserable,
like just so awful.
Gets to the fourth one,
and it's a 17-year-old Josh Groban.
See, what's been happening is,
that's been a lot of people that have been so nice.
- [Laughs]
- And I think that the thing for you to do,
would be to not be nice. - Oh, got it. [Laughs]
I was a Sondheim fanatic,
I was an Andrew Lloyd Weber fanatic,
I was singing along at the top of my lungs
to "Les Misérables" in my bedroom, and closing the door.
David: I call Seth and I say,
"I gotta have his phone number."
Josh: The first call I ever got from David,
"What are you doing such and such date, 3:00 p.m.?"
I said, "Uh, school, you know."
"I need you to leave a little early,
because I need you to be at the Shrine Auditorium.
I've written a song, it's called "The Prayer".
It's nominated for a Grammy.
Andrea missed a flight, he's in Germany,
he can't get on a plane, and I need you to come
and sing it with Céline until he gets here.
- And he goes, "Oh I can't, I can't do that."
- This is where the naiveté bit me in the ass.
- I said, "Why not?" He said, "Oh, I'm a baritone,
I can't hit those high notes."
- When he says I want you to sing this song, "The Prayer"
I'm listening to it, I've got the CD of it,
and I'm going, I can't. This is...
this is, how tight of pants do I have to wear
to actually accomplish this song for you?
- Not only can you, but you're going to,
because I have no other choice,
because there's nobody else but you,
and we're down to the 11th hour.
- Thank you, but I've got homework to finish.
Thank you so much, I love you, thank you so much.
And I hung up the phone.
And I'm telling my parents, "Oh, who was that?"
"Oh, that was David Foster." "Oh! Oh, he called you?"
"Yes, yeah, he called me.
Crazy thing, you're not gonna believe this,
he asked me to sing 'The Prayer'.
You've heard 'The Prayer' right? I mean, it's so high.
So I didn't wanna embarrass myself. There's no way.
I-I just, right guys? Right? Right?"
And my parents are just looking at me blankly,
and just blinking, and they're just going, "Mhmm, yeah,
but you told him no?" "Yeah, yeah, yeah,
I told him no." Thankfully he called back.
"I-I don't think you heard me very clearly,
like I'm not asking you, I'm telling you.
Get your ass to the Shrine Auditorium, 3:00 p.m.
You'll do great! You'll do great!"
David: He shows up the next morning, nervous as heck.
His parents drove him.
David: And I'm there with my dad,
I'm walking around the stage, I'm looking around,
there is Aerosmith, there is Madonna.
[Sings note]
I'm walking around, Céline comes in.
"Oh, this is, this is Josh, he'll be singing it with you."
I'm going, "Hello." And she's going,
"Oh. Oh okay. [kiss sounds]
Okay. Yeah. Oh, Okay. Great."
And like [snap] she got it, she instantly got it.
Oh! Oh, David. Oh. Oh.
David's giving this kid an opportunity.
Got it.
David: You could see it on YouTube.
His father, Jack, took a video tape,
and to Céline's great credit,
she took such good care of him.
- She immediately understood, without missing a beat,
this is special for him.
David: So, she's now the pro.
She wasn't the 19-year-old that I had seen up in Quebec.
And he was so nervous.
- I'm holding this thing in my hand...
♪ La luce, la luce che tu hai ♪
and she's going, and she takes my hand,
and we move up to the front,
and she's just holding that hand.
♪ La luce che tu hai ♪
♪ Nel cuore resterà ♪
♪ And hold it in our hearts ♪
♪ A ricordarci che ♪
♪ When stars go out each night ♪
♪ Eterna stella sei ♪
♪ Yeah... ♪
David: Everybody's loving him.
Rosie O'Donnell was hosting.
She's sitting there watching, and she's going,
"hey opera boy, get over here!"
I mean, he's in high school.
He walks over, she says, "I like your voice,
I want you on my show."
Go sit down. Audience: [Cheering]
- David was basically finding these moments for me
to be myself.
[Cheering]
♪♪♪
♪ When I am down ♪
♪ And oh, my soul's so weary ♪
Cut to many hundreds of hours in the studio together.
That dance, that marriage,
is one that all great artist producer collaborations have.
♪ You raise my up ♪
♪ So I can stand on mountains ♪
♪ You raise me up ♪
♪ To walk on stormy seas ♪
♪ I am strong ♪
- I've looked for the new Josh Groban,
and I tell Josh that to his face.
I wanna find another 17-year-old Josh Groban,
they just don't exist.
♪ You raise me up ♪
♪ So I can stand on mountains ♪
♪ You raise me up ♪
♪ To walk on stormy seas ♪
David: I was trying to convince Warner Bros.
because they were unsure about an opera quote, unquote kid.
I said, "You put this album out now,
people are gonna want to hear more music from Josh Groban,
this 18-year-old kid."
It's gonna sell 50,000 in the first week
if you put it out and time it right.
They did, and it did sell, in fact, 50,000 the first week.
And, a star was born.
Crowd: [Cheering]
- Good night, everybody!
Thank you, guys! Thank you, David!
Crew: A and C marker.
Probably more people know me from reality TV
and from being married a lot of times,
than from my actual music.
Well, let's analyze because I was married to Linda,
who was married to Bruce Jenner,
who then married Kris Kardashian,
and had the Jenner kids,
and the Kardashian kids.
And then I was married to Yolanda Hadid,
who had Gigi and Bella.
And then I was married to Rebecca and B.J.,
where we had our own daughters,
so it's very, very complicated.
[Bubbles popping]
["Free Ride" plays]
♪♪♪
Well, here's the thing about me and reality TV.
My first shot at it was "The Princes of Malibu."
These are my stepsons, Brody and Brandon Jenner,
and they're the kids that just won't leave.
Brandon and Brody, my stepsons,
and Spencer Pratt,
started following us around with a camera,
wherever we went, whenever I was in the studio.
And I said, "What are you doing?"
"We're making a reality show."
I said, "If you guys can ever get that show
on a network television, I'll get a tattoo."
And sure enough, they sold it to Fox.
I had to get this tattoo.
Brandon! This has got to come to an end.
Spencer!
Brody and Spencer.
Bro-dy! What are you doing?
What is this?
This, you have to put a stop to.
This has gone too far.
Erin: When you put a camera in your home,
you think I'm gonna come across this way.
You don't even know who you are, right?
You don't know how they're gonna view you,
you don't know how they're gonna spin it.
- Me being on "The Princes of Malibu" was silly.
It was stupid.
But I thought my career is so cemented
in quality and success,
that I was impervious to anything hurting me.
Gimme that. Don't touch my [bleep].
Is Stevie Wonder not gonna work with me
because he saw me on "The Princes of Malibu?"
No, so all is good there,
even though it was a wacky show.
We were ahead of our time, by the way.
It was before the Kardashians, it was,
you know, we were ahead of the curve.
- At the end of the day, my dad has the personality
of a person who's the star -
he's funny, he's handsome,
he's comfortable in front of a crowd,
he owns any room he walks in.
- The new season of "The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills"
premieres, and on last nights--
Jordan: We did beg him to not do "The Real Housewives" show.
He wanted Yolanda to have a job.
- "The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills"
that was a different story.
My wife at the time, Yolanda, wanted to do the show.
I didn't want to be the guy to say no.
- He needed to be part of it a little bit,
for her to have this spot.
I think he felt like,
he was just gonna be a very small piece of it.
He did it after he had done "Princes of Malibu" as well,
so it wasn't exactly his first rodeo.
I mean, he knew what could happen
when you do a reality TV show.
- We move to the latest Hollywood heartbreak.
David Foster and his reality star wife, Yolanda,
call it quits.
Yolanda, who has been fighting Lyme disease
for the last three years--
David: How could I leave a sick woman?
The fact of the matter is,
that is not the reason why I left,
it was for a different reason, which I will never disclose,
but it had nothing to do with her being sick.
[Cameras click rapidly]
I would get, and still get, [snaps],
"I know you.
You're, you were on 'The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.'"
And what I wanna say is,
"Hey, I got 16 fucking Grammys, okay?
I've sold half a billion records. Fuck that show."
[Plays a slow tune on the piano]
♪♪♪
Oh. Somebody just walked into the room.
[Small chuckles]
I can guarantee you one thing,
Katharine McPhee and David Foster,
will never do a reality show. That is for sure.
- Katharine McPhee and David Foster are in love,
and they don't care who knows it.
The couple have been happily celebrating--
Erin: I wouldn't be great at lying about their relationship,
if I didn't like it.
The truth is, I really like them together.
Reporter: Their 34-year age gap
has been a hot topic of conversation,
but the two are much more focused on their future.
♪♪♪
Amy: Katharine McPhee does not need David Foster.
Very talented, very successful,
has her own money.
Does not need him.
Is with him purely because she loves him.
They're a very good match.
- As strange as it might seem to support your dad
being with someone who's younger than you,
because she is two years younger than me.
David: They could be really pissed off at me for this.
Really, what are you doing, she's our age, come on.
And, there's no drama with her and my kids.
Jordan: That stuff doesn't matter to us.
We just want our dad to be happy.
They're staying with me right now,
and like I can hear them from across the apartment,
just like giggling at, you know, 11:30 at night
while they're in bed.
Katharine: We have the choice to make
an amazing life together, and you don't just like,
snap your fingers and go,
yay, we're gonna live happily ever after.
My generation is more open to communicating
and understanding why you do the things you do.
You stick with the things that don't work
and you figure out how to make them work.
And I think it's a challenge for him.
- And sometimes it's annoying,
like when you have to sit all afternoon
and talk about your feelings,
something I'm better doing at the piano.
Katharine: What we work on together is empathy.
Having long conversations that he doesn't wanna have.
David: I've always said, I never wanna dig too deep
for the fear of what I might find.
Which is why I've never really been to therapy
because I don't wanna know what's done there.
- Since I've known him I've heard him say things like--
I call them like "David slogans".
Like, "Oh yeah, I don't go to therapy because I'm afraid
of what I'm gonna find out." I'm like, you don't even--
You're just saying that. That's just like a slogan
It's like a dinner topic. Right?
Like, he just doesn't wanna talk about it.
It's hard for him to take a moment and just feel.
He doesn't want to.
There have been moments where you feel like,
God, does this guy have any feelings?
Does he have empathy at all?
He's so good at disguising what he feels.
He just wants everything to be okay at all times.
And if it's not...
he's gone.
- I think I hit it on the head when I said I'm a runner.
- Are you tired of running?
Uh, I'm not tired of running. No.
No. But I'm very happy were I am.
I'm really fortune now
because Kat is so evolved
that we will continue to drill down when we have a problem,
and that I won't run.
Katharine: I basically said to him,
I go, if we don't work on these things this isn't gonna work.
I need you to,
at least to try to understand how I feel.
And he was like,
well then, you should just maybe leave then.
And I was like, no-no-no.
I know that this is what you do.
So don't play that game with me.
David: I'd say that anybody that calls me an asshole
for the things that I've done,
I think they're right.
I think I have been an asshole a lot.
But I'm not a cold-hearted mother fucker either.
Katharine: The guys that all of his friends
and family know and love is
a very, very generous guy.
It's great that we go on these amazing trips
with your really wealthy friends and all that stuff.
But I, I say to him, I go, they don't know who you are,
and he doesn't like that.
I think we both have to be vulnerable.
You know we both have to ask for what we want
♪ Lean on me ♪
[David plays piano] [Camera crashes]
[Gasp]
[Laughs]
♪ Lean on me ♪
♪ When you're not strong ♪
♪ I'll be your... ♪
- She's an old soul. And you see that piano behind us,
some of our greatest moments together
are when she's just sitting behind me,
and I'm playing, and she's singing.
♪♪♪
I mean, she's amazing in 1,000 ways:
she's beautiful, she's smart, and she's focused,
and she's well beyond her years.
That's quite a package.
Katharine: You decided to marry a young woman,
I wanna be genuinely happy with you and I wanna know,
I'm-I'm-I'm obsessed with knowing who he is.
It's not conventional,
but it's the best thing that ever happened to me.
It'll be the deepest relationship we've ever had,
were you don't run away from the things that don't work.
[Applause and cheering]
I know we've made the right decision
since we had our nuptials. I knew who he really is.
I've been deconstructing him for a while now.
We'll see, I'm gonna...
keep working on it.
David: It's a strange pairing,
but we are in love, and it works for us.
["Got to be Real" by Cheryl Lynn plays]
♪♪♪
David: So, we're gonna fly on the 25th to Lanai,
but I don't know if we fly to Maui
or if we fly to Honolulu. Kathy: He just goes-goes-goes.
He's already on to the next thing.
Interviews, touring, meetings with people.
He could be in Asia at some point.
Marc: He's the number one entertainer in Southeast Asia.
- My name's David Foster. - [Cheering]
- And uh, it's great to see you all.
- You mention the name David Foster, they go crazy.
Everybody's singing his music.
- Yes! That's what I'm talking about!
Kathy: "Asia's Got Talent",
you have to be in Singapore on the 4th.
- Of? December. - December.
- Yeah, and when does it finish?
- And then returning on the 15th to LA.
David: I started going to Asia in the late 80's,
and I started getting this following.
Being an egomaniac, who wouldn't go for that?
Man: Here we go, David. - He's making his entrance.
Announcers: The hit man himself, David Foster.
[Cheering and applause]
- Good evening, everyone,
and welcome back to Mandalay Bay!
- He's claimed that he has retired,
and then a few months later will say,
"I have to work, I have to work, I have to work.
I-I just have to."
David: I always planned on leaving the music business
before it left me.
I know where I belong and where I don't belong.
Look at where we are, okay?
For the majority of those 45 years
I was in a room like this; a submarine.
No windows, no light.
No vitamin D.
A submarine. That's where I spent my life.
I don't wanna do that anymore.
I've always said about myself
I know where I belong and where I don't belong,
and I don't belong in a room with Lady Gaga.
- Bullshit!
I listen to "Shallow"... here's what David Foster would do with
"Shallow". Of course you could be in that room.
Yes, I would have said yes to that.
If I have heard that song, Bradley Cooper and Gaga,
"A Star is Born" I would have done it.
50% I don't wanna be there,
50% I have nothing to say and add.
If you could have another 50%
I'd say I'm bored with myself.
I am truly bored
with myself and what I can do here.
I don't love this.
I love being out there.
Playing live has been great for me and I'll tell you why.
I'm making the music,
and then the artist has the luxury to go out
and enjoy what we've created together
and-and watch the peoples faces as they sing it.
I've never had that thrill.
So now when I go out and play live
I get to watch their faces with the music that I've created.
Even though, I didn't sing it. I still created it.
I try to be great every day,
and I learned that from Quincy Jones,
from many, many years ago, when I handed him an album,
"Have a listen, but don't listen to track 5
'cause it's outta tune, and don't listen to track 2
because the song's not that good,
and track 7, just skip over that.
But there's like, track 4 is really good."
And he said, "Gimme that thing!" And he goes...
"What does it say right there?"
"Produced by David Fos--."
"Yeah, produced by David Foster."
He said, "You give me something with your name on it
and you make excuses for it?"
And since that day, I have never, ever
not tried to be great every day,
because good is the enemy of great.
Quincy: Love, trust, and respect.
Your music can never be more or less
than you are as a human being.
That's the bottom line.
So you work on being a good human being first,
but even before a good musician.
Jeffery: Success, hits,
fame, money, power,
all seemed like the things that were driving him.
Then, when I got to know him better,
I saw a totally different person.
I always thought, this is a man with a huge ego,
and yet, the amount of people
he's helped is extraordinary.
- I got a call from my mother,
30 years ago,
and she said, "There's a young girl at UCLA,
go visit her."
She was all hooked up with wires, she was five years old.
She needed a liver transplant.
I just asked her you know,
what would she like more than anything in the world,
thinking she would say she wants to go to Disneyland,
or that she wants to meet
whoever the star was at the time.
And what she said was, "I wanna see my sister."
For the price of an airline ticket, flew the sister down.
And that moment, when the two sisters' eyes met,
it's etched in my brain,
and that is the moment when I went,
this is what I gotta do.
We help the families of children
that need organ transplants,
and we take care of all the costs,
and we are the one bright light
in the worst day of a family's life.
Even a family that's doing well,
can't absorb the costs that are involved
in trying to keep two households going for weeks,
months, or even years sometimes,
and we pay all that.
It's hard work.
Oprah: I'm here tonight
to pay tribute, to give honour,
and celebrate tonight's honouree
of the David Foster Foundation.
- Tonight, we have raised...
$10.2 million!
Michael: There's definitely a heart behind this man.
He feels deeply about making a difference,
bringing together and keeping together,
families of these children
who are fighting for their lives.
Marc: Everybody's calling him,
and do my charity, do my charity.
Not just David's charity, everybody else's charity.
The first thing that comes out of his mouth is, "Yes."
He's not afraid to pull on his celebrity friends.
[Applause]
He would do everybody's charities, and he has.
♪♪♪
David: You know I had a friend tell me recently,
he said, you've made some very poor real estate decisions
based on the fact that you haven't been on an elevator
for 30 some-odd years.
For a guy that likes to be in control it must be annoying.
And people think that it's like just some kind of a joke.
How do you push the button to get it here?
I run into people and they go, "Oh yeah,
I don't like elevators either, you know".
Yeah, but you take them. Oh my God.
It controls my life.
It's something that I,
I've tried to deal with and never fixed,
and I probably never will.
[Elevator screeches open]
Oh my God.
[Doors screech]
♪♪♪
I calculated once, how many stairs I've done.
Man: 10 seconds. - No. No I can't do it.
Turns out, that I've done more than 3 million stairs.
[Exhales] 10 floors, man.
Does it get any easier.
I have had health scares recently,
and my reaction is not I don't give a shit.
My reaction is "crap".
Recently I have had a tumour on my lung.
Thank God it was benign,
but I've had three surgeries.
♪♪♪
I also have a bicuspid aortic valve,
which needs to be swapped out.
Which is a big five hour surgery.
I think everybody is afraid of death, aren't they?
It's the only one unavoidable thing.
And it's the thing that everybody is least prepared for.
[Plays final notes]
Don't wanna leave the party. Plain and simple.
It's exactly what it is.
- My dad always said, if I'm a vegetable,
never pull the plug. - Never.
He's like promise me you'll never pull it,
let me just lie there. We're like--
- He's the person-- - He's gonna wanna be frozen.
- He's the person who'll get frozen, for sure,
so he would come back. He loves living.
[Cell phone rings]
- Hi, baby. - Hi.
- So, welcome to my reality show.
- Were you just talking about how
we have a FaceTime relationship?
- I was not talking about that,
although we do have a FaceTime relationship.
- I'll get better, I promise.
- I'll call you from the hotel? All right.
- Okay. - Love you.
- Bye. I love you.
David: Well, I certainly don't wanna drop dead in the studio,
because that would just be too ironic.
I don't wanna be working the day I die.
I wanna be like, on a boat somewhere,
laying in the sun,
have a nice little glass of wine beside me.
Go to sleep and not wake up.
Katharine: I've never met anyone
who is more focused
on the idea of longevity.
He is, more than anyone,
obsessed with staying on this earth.
Amy: He can't sit still.
He's not capable of staying out of the game.
Amy: And I think he is in search of
that perfect something
that will make him finally stop feeling the need
to move all the time.
- He's got a real sense of
how things should be presented
to have real impact on people.
He's no embarrassed to be big and flashy and brassy -
he's lived life to the fullest.
- His legacy will keep going
even though he might not think so 'cause he's still great.
Carole: And he hasn't learned how to say 'no' yet.
It's probably the good news.
Maybe not for him, but for all of us.
- He deserve that honour, this legacy.
I feel very privileged as an artist
that has the chance to work with him.
Those big songs will never disappear. Never.
Andrea: David said that I am the best singer of the planet.
I can say the same thing for him.
He's the best producer of the planet.
Peter: If you look at the number of people
that he's had success with,
I think that's a legacy enough.
The stable of artists that he's worked with,
recorded with, and had enormous success with,
and I'm just lucky enough to be a small part of it.
[Chuckles]
Michael: He's a complex, distinct,
and amazing human being.
There are so many parts of him that I'll never know,
and there are so many parts of him
that I wish the whole world knew.
Clive: David Foster is one of the greatest producers
of all time, without question.
David has received
47 Grammy nominations.
You've gotta be careful with somebody
who's had a great deal of success,
to typecast that, to stereotype that,
to say oh, that is what he can do.
- We're very funny together, I would say.
But I put up with him because,
as he frequently reminds me, he's so brilliant.
And you know what? He is.
Quincy: All I can say is, David, is YOLO KOKO -
you only live once, so keep on, keepin' on, man.
Keep on struggling with this, and learning this,
and learning this, and growing.
David: If Mozart actually did in fact say
that he never thought he completed a perfect work,
then what chance do the rest of us stand?
I'm driven by the need to succeed.
I will drive myself into the ground
trying to have a hit Broadway musical,
and it may or may not happen,
but it won't be for lack of trying.
["Love Theme from St. Elmo's Fire" plays]
♪♪♪
Look, you've come into my life, you've dug so deep,
I don't like it. I think it's time for this to be done.
♪♪♪