Sushi on Sunset Hollywood

The old Sunset Strip hotspot reopening next week is the talk of the 40 something crowd these days. What great memories I have of that joint. I remember the first time I went there I was kind of pissed that my fraternity bros from USC wanted to go to the spot in the first place. I am not a big sushi guy, although if you asked anyone what my favorite meal would be, anyone that really knows me would say, Tuna fish sandi on toasted onion bagel. I like my tuna cold with lots of mayo, salt and pepper, and nothing else. So it comes as a surprise that I really never got into Sushi. But I did love Sushi on Sunset. You see, anything goes at Sushi on Sunset, that was the saying. I had more fun there than any backseat of my daddys cutlass. For the SC crowd in the late 80’s there was no place better. Great looking girls, Giant Sapporo and Large Saki. The head waiter there was one of our fraternity brothers Jeff. He was one of the coolest guys in the house. Not a tough guy, kind of soft actually, but he had the best looking girls with him all the time. He set me up with one of the hottest DG’s on the row back then. She was a twin and my big bro in the house was dating the other sister. Seppi was dating Lisa C and I was dating Sue C -The Carter Twins, they were smoking hot. And they loved to hang at Sushi on Sunset (SOS). Our first date, Teriyaki steak, Tuna, freshwater eel, two Sapporos, and of course a bottle of Saki. Jeff would line em up. Two Sapporos and a tall bottle of Saki on every table. He would join us for a Saki Bomb (He dropped in a shot of Saki into a 8oz glass of Sapporo and you would down it in one shot. By the time you had a few, you were wasted. By the time you had your second bottle of Saki, you were ready to do whatever. I mean Whatever! I wont kiss and tell, but I will tell you that I hit a few homeruns, three triples and 2 doubles there; and that was just during my college years. I started to love Sushi. 

My next vivid memory was a saturday night run to hollywood with my buddy Rip. He was one of my best friends back then, He was so cool. I remember driving down sunset and stopping at the restaurant. Walking inside, I saw Jeff and sitting at the sushi bar was the most beautiful lady I had ever seen. Her full lips were covered in a deep red lipstick, Her long silky jet black hair was pulled to the side. Her white shirt was unbuttoned and her breasts were clearly visible as I looked down at her.  When she looked up at me, with those beautiful breasts staring me right in the face, I finally looked her in the eyes and realized I was staring at SADE. My dream girl back then.

If that wasnt enough, I met a guy at the bar that looked very familiar to me. He was the star of the Heinz ketchup commercial, the one with the guy holding a hotdog behind his back. Well we started drinking and like a dummy we walked outside so he could smoke a cigarette and check on his Harley. A mini Harley, the little one that looked like a Honda. He had just moved to LA and wanted to check out the town. Rip was still upstairs drinking when I jumped on the harley holding onto the back without a helmet, and headed down Sunset. As we headed westbound a cop saw us speeding and busted a u-turn. Chasing us up into Beverly Hills, I jumped off the bike as my new friend high tailed it up into the mountains. I hid in the bushes for about an half hour until he came back and picked me up. We headed back to Sushi on Sunset had a few beers, Sakis and lots of laughs that night. The guy on the Harley was none other than Matt leBlanc, who years later would be known as Joey from Friends. I ran into Matt years later at my recording studio on Beverly. I was eating at pane vino and Joey and Rachel were having lunch. We talked for a while and remembered our police chase with the LAPD. 

I am sure thousands of people have fond memories of S.O.S., every time I talk to anyone about the place the first thing out of their mouth is, “Oh man, I got laid there, I got blown there, Yada yada Yada. Whatever the story, and whoever is telling it, you should best believe it, because at Sushi on Sunset, anything goes and usually did. That’s why we bought it? Thats right, The Forster Bros, actually Jonnie my brother are now the proud new owners of our favorite spot, Sushi on Sunset. The first Rock and Roll, Sushi Joint on the Sunset Strip. Opening Sept 8. 

Sushi On Sunset – Memories Start HERE

Who is really the King

When ever people talk about music there are usually a few names that resonate a bit louder than others when the topic of who is the biggest. If I was to make a short list it would include Sinatra, Bob Marley, Elvis and Beethoven? Yes, I would include the old man in this conversation. Why, not because I know all of his music, but because I can feel his music. When my dad would play the big three: Beethoven, Mozart, Tchaikovsky, I may not of liked the music, but I liked waving my hands like a conductor. I felt powerful when I did that. Like when I play air guitar during “Freebird, or Train Kept Rollin”.                                ”Dundundundaaa, Dundundadaaa… So I started thinking- why am I a music man?

I took piano lessons from age 7-10 but I didn’t like it. It wasn’t cool when I was growing up.  I played baseball, and football. I grew up watching wrestling, loving Ivan Putski, Bruno Samartino and Andre The Giant-when he was a good guy. And as I got older I became a wrestler. I became a tennis player because I liked Borg, Jonnie Mac, Nastasi, Ashe and Connors.

But it wasn’t until I went to my cousins house in upstate New York that I think I became a music man.  I remember looking under my cousin bed and finding a bunch of records, like the Enemy in Almost Famous. I pulled out a Beatles album and I was hooked. I took my allowance money and bought my first cassette, “The Beatles” I played it all summer. My favorite song back then, “I Want To Hold Your Hand”.  My first experience with a hit single. I also remember riding my bike to tennis lessons when I was 12, I had my walkman on and I drove my Centurion 10 speed to the club everyday listening to the Doobie Brothers. “What a Fool Believes”, that was my song. Every time I hear it to this day, I think about driving my bike. As I got older and hit Junior High I remember listening to “Renegade” by Styx and thinking oh MAMA.. That was such a hot single, but it wasn’t until I went to their concert that I discovered, “Grand Illusion”. The lights started spinning, the music started to play and people started screaming. The keyboard intro was amazing, maybe I should have paid more attention in piano class. The concert was awesome. For a kid headed to high school. When i got to high school, I started listening to Aerosmith, started drawing the logo on my jeans and notebooks. Thats when I heard, “Train Kept Rolling” and “Dream On”, I was hooked. Then came Journey, Kansas, REO Speedwagon, Foreigner, and of course Iron Maiden, The Scorpions,ACDC, Springsteen, RUSH, Judas Priest, Led Zeppelin and my favorite band of all time – Bad Co. I saw all of them, and they all rocked. I remember driving in my friends car a convertible celica, we were headed home from a long weekend in Palm Springs. We were doing about 120mph listening to “Rock You Like A Hurricane”. I will never forget that day. It was one of the last times I spent with my friend Eric. He had an accident a few months later and was killed. Every time I hear that song on the radio, I open up the sunroof and look to the heavens and think of him.It was our favorite song that summer. We played the album over and over.  

College was a bit of a blur as I was a club promoter, a very successful one at that, and I was listening to club jams and DJs when I discovered Prince and I was hooked. His artistry was unmatched. The songs simply amazing. It was also the time I started listening to The Doors, Neil Young and James Taylor. All legends that helped shape my life.

I got into GnR, Pearl Jam, Sting and Nirvana in the 90s and took it up a notch and discovered that I loved Sinatra, Tony Bennett and Dean Martin I dont know if was their style that hooked me, but I was hooked. 

Then I had my son Hudson. One night I was lying on a hammock in Miami and I heard a song on my ipod. I hadn’t really noticed the song before.  I had more than 20,000 songs in my music library after nearly 20 years in the music business. As I lay in the hammock holding my son while my wife slept upstairs in the hotel room, the song started to play. It was the most amazing song I had ever heard. It touched me so much that I will never forget it. The song – “Beautiful Boy” by John Lennon. 

Musically, I had come full circle. 

So who is really the king?

I guess it depends who you ask. They are all Kings to me.

Sony / BMG

Looks like Heads will start to roll again as the majors converge and cannibalize in a fragmented market with no answers other than to buy and cut up the parts. Its like in Pretty Woman, Richard Gere was trying to explain to Julia Roberts that He buys companies and then sells off the pieces. It was a great scene probably missed by most but relished by others. In the scene, Gere and Roberts were at dinner with one of the Dukes from Duke and Duke (Trading Places) and Gere was going to buy up the company and sell off this mans life’s work. But old Mortimer Duke wasnt going down without a fight, until Gere thru in a monkey wrench and said that his plans for expansion were going to be held up in appropriations committee and would get buried thus destroying the Co that this man had built from scratch with hard work and sweat. Same thing happening here. Buying BMG for 900m is a joke. What are they going to do now, turn the company into a logo like A&M or Geffen, its pathetic. Next up will be EMI and WEA and then there will be three. Three machines all running into each other with no clear path in sight. Pathetic. ef

Pineapple Express vs. Superbad

As you all probably know, I see approximately 5 movies a week, watch countless hours of television and spend even more time on the computer checking out the latest stuff, yes stuff than ever before. Why, because there is more stuff than ever before to check out. This weekend I had the pleasure of having some down and I checked out the latest Seth Rogan Judd Apatow flick, Pineapple Express. It was a good movie but not a great one. The formula can ponly work a few times thats why after 3 Rocky movies or Rambo flicks, people get very critical of the content. I found myself very critical, instead of enjoying the film I was comparing it the whole time and didnt feel it was up to par with some earlier works by the duo. Superbad, Knocked Up were far better than Pineapple Express, however there was one major highlight in PE and that was James Franco. He was great. He is really coming into his own as a great young actor. I have had the pleasure of meeting James, and he is a gem. His timing was dead on in PE, his stoner vibe was great, his look and acting were dead on. Seth was also on point as always but the script lagged at times and I felt myself bored. Rosie Perez sucked. She is so funny and she did not come off well. She has a great body and we never got any shots of her. She is also so funny when she gets fired up and brings the NY/PR schtick there is nothing like her. None of that here. Just boring dialog that went nowhere. Could have been a whole lot better better luck next time.

Tuffbreak to Launch

Jim Caparro tapped as Chairman. Veteran Label topper Jim Caparro to join Forster to head TuffBreak. The new online company will launch in 2009 providing a platform for empowering artists.