Robin Leach’s Interview with Bob Gaudio!
May 4th, 2009
Bob Gaudio with Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons memorabilia. (Photo: TVT)
The award-winning hit musical JERSEY BOYS at the Palazzo celebrated its first anniversary yesterday. Robin Leach sat with Bob Gaudio in the empty Palazzo theater the night before the Las Vegas premiere for their exclusive interview. Here’s a preview to this fantastic in-depth interview:
Robin Leach: What is the magic and the lasting appeal of the Four Seasons as the Jersey Boys? Why now 40 to 45 years later — is it part of an era that’s bigger now than it was back then?
Bob Gaudio: That is a difficult one to answer, especially for me. This is the first time that I have been able to be an audience participant, to sit in the audience and feel what they must have felt during that era of the ’60s and the ’70s. I have to credit the writing and direction. It is so well put together that I think it would stand up even if the songs weren’t that popular. I think it is just the show is so well done; otherwise it is just a bunch of familiar songs.
RL: It is more than the familiarity; it was the content of the songs that made them work. It is pure unadulterated love, struggle and love again, isn’t it?
BG: It is the Rocky story and music. We have always related to a blue-collar audience and passion. It has always been about the music for us. I guess that came out in our records. We weren’t the glamour boys. If we didn’t make a great record, we weren’t on the radio. So we had to work at it. I think that shows in some of the records we have made. We took great care and focused on what we were doing. There weren’t a lot of distractions for us. It was survival.
RL: Do you ever wonder how on Earth did this happen and why did it last?
BG: I have thought about Frankie as a lead singer in one form or another in Grease and other things he has done, how remarkable that is. He is probably the only lead singer in history that never left the group. It is usually the total opposite. We have had a remarkable run, nearly five decades. It has been up, down and comeback after comeback, and I think maybe this Jersey Boys show is the final comeback.
