laughs<\/em>].<\/p>\n\n\tNot really.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tClive was big, and bombastic, and brave, and full of ideas, and just believed, believed, believed, believed. He dressed like a king, and he was born to run\u2026 everything.<\/p>\n
\n\tSo it was 1972. I was a 22-year-old musician-slash-beach bum, arriving in New York on the Lincoln Transit bus out of Asbury Park. Now, two weeks earlier, I\u2019d auditioned for the legendary John Hammond, and I\u2019d been incredibly, unbelievably, and enthusiastically received. But he told me, \u201cYou have to play for Clive.\u201d John told me, quote, \u201cI\u2019ve had my successes, I\u2019ve had my failures, and Clive makes the final decisions.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n
\t\tEditor\u2019s picks<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<\/section>\n
\n\tSo, OK. I come two weeks later, late one morning, walk into Clive\u2019s elegant office with John, with nothing but my whole world to lose. Was I nervous? A little bit. But I tried to judo myself on the way up in the elevator by saying, \u201cWell, I\u2019ve got nothing. The worst I can come out with is nothing, so I\u2019ll still have what I went in with.\u201d It almost worked, but not quite. We walked into Clive\u2019s elegant office, and the minute I walked in, Clive came around the desk, and he took my hand in his, and he said, \u201cJohn has told me so much about you. I can\u2019t wait to hear you.\u201d He was very kind and welcoming.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tSo I sat down, I tentatively strummed my guitar. I think I played him \u201cGrowin\u2019 Up\u201d and \u201cSaint in the City,\u201d songs that would end up predominantly placed on my first album. And when I finished, Clive, smiling, simply said, \u201cWelcome to Columbia Records.\u201d And in those few words, he changed my life forever. Forever. Nothing\u2019s been the same since that day.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tOn that day, Clive showed a 22-year-old nobody the same warmth, the same kindness, the same respect that he would show me after all my success for the next 50 years. Nothing ever changed. At Columbia, Clive became my champion, encouraging me and promoting me, getting the company to support me in every way that he knew how. He had a good critical eye. I handed in my first record. He handed it back to me. \u201cThere\u2019s nothing anybody can play on the radio! You want to be on the radio, don\u2019t you?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n
\t\tRelated Content<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<\/section>\n
\n\t\u201cYeah, I do want to be on the radio.\u201d I did.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tSo he sent me home. In my dingy boho beach apartment, I wrote \u201cSpirit in the Night\u201d and then \u201cBlinded by the Light,\u201d two songs that totally changed the profile and the perception of that album. Clive then filmed himself reciting the lyrics to \u201cBlinded by the Light,\u201d like it was some kind of New Jersey Shakespeare. It was a little embarrassing, but he insisted on sending it to every Columbia office around the country. It was hilarious.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tFor the rest of his long life, after we had any kind of business connection, Clive didn\u2019t miss a single New York performance I gave. Just about every meaningful event that occurred in my long work life, Clive made sure he was there. As recently as a few months ago, Clive attended my Land of Hope and Dreams tour in Newark. He\u2019s 94-years-old. He\u2019s standing up for a three hour show! Whenever I saw him, he always reminded me of that golden moment. It\u2019s the moment, you know, the one where, if you\u2019re talented, if you\u2019re lucky enough, an artist comes but once in your life, just once \u2014 if<\/em> the right man is listening to you from across that big desk. For me now and forever, Clive Davis was that right man.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\tThe world that Clive was such a wonderful representative of has now vanished completely with his passing. It was the world of the great record man: Berry Gordy, Ahmet Ertegun, Mo Ostin, Jerry Wexler, John Hammond, Jac Holzman \u2014 men who defined, loved, and sustained the record business from their viewpoint at the top desk on down. Clive changed so many artists\u2019 and performers\u2019 lives, so many. There isn\u2019t a day when I don\u2019t sit on my big front porch, in my big house, surrounded by my big cars, with my big family, looking out over my big yard that Clive doesn\u2019t come somewhere whistling around the top of my brain.<\/p>\n\n\n
\t\tTrending Stories<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<\/section>\n
\n\tHe guided the listening public towards so much powerful and inspiring music. And he not only loved music, Clive actually loved the people who made the music, no matter how much of a pain in the ass they were. And he loved those people deeply and permanently. With his loyalty, he let me know that that was always the way he felt about me, and I loved him back. I never felt nothing but love coming from Clive.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tSo, can a kid with a guitar, walk off the streets of New York into an office and into music history today? I don\u2019t know. I don\u2019t know if those times still exist. But as somebody who\u2019s made that journey, it was an incredible, indescribable, and wonderful miracle. And for me that miracle will always be named Clive Davis. Nothing but love, Clive. Thank you.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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