Funding for thi episode of get Asa with Carlos Medina has been provided by Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey, PSC and G. ROI, NJ Business Magazine.

Engineers Labor Employer Cooperative 825 Hudson Regional Health.

All a familiar.

Welcome to the season seven premiere of Get Back.

We're going back to the vault for an interview I did several years ago with the Estefan's.

Believe it or not, this was my first interview ever.

We talk about life influences that they had and their amazing career.

Check it out.

Next.

Only on NJPW, PBS.

You're one of those people that should have had a show for a long time.

Amazing.

It's amazing.

It's amazing.

As two Cuban immigrants living the American dream.

Tell me something about your early career and the business of entertainment.

Shall you start?

Ladies first.

Well I actually joined Emilio's band, which was called the Miami Latin Boys.

I joined in.

Well, I met him in May of 75.

I joined by October.

And at that time, it was for fun.

It was going to be.

It was his hobby.

It was my hobby.

He had a full time job at Bacardi and I. My mom did not take two keenly to the idea of me joining a band, bunch of guys wandering around.

But I was starting school and I was really excited.

We had met at a at a mutual friends house and then ran into each other in a wedding where he was playing Do the Hustle on the accordion.

So I found that very brave and we joined.

I joined his ban and it was so much fun for me.

I used to enjoy the rehearsals a lot more than the actual performances because I was really shy.

I don't like being the center of attention, but I sing since I talk.

So at that time, the business part of it was him making some extra bucks, but he was doing it.

Also.

I don't want to speak for you, babe, but he he had his own band in Cuba at eight years old.

He played the accordion and he did it again here, not only to make some extra money in the band, and he started with his accordion for tips, but because he loved it.

So that was the reason I joined the band, and that's what we were early on.

You know what sor of a difficult times in a way, because you come from a country and you never want to forget where you come from because that's your heritage, that's your last name.

And then you come to a country.

You get influenced by all the great music that is in the United States, and Motown and disco and the Beatles, and we created a sound and nobody understood.

That's what we call it.

The Miami sound, I knew was some immigrants for the first time, coming to America and having a very strong heritage on the same time, being influenced and growing up in the States.

And you know what's difficult?

But, you know, the good thing about it is we created a sound that was very unique.

It was a very unique sound.

That was a was like, you know, funk raising beans with him.

That's like you said, means with hamburgers because, you know.

So what's the sound?

I can say, but the problem at the time, you have to change your last name or you have to change your sound, or they say, take the horns out or take the percussion out.

And a and you had it was almost impossible to get a record label to, to be signed.

And then finally we got signed.

They went, we present the first single that was Doctor Bid.

They said, you know, we like it, bu we're not going to promote it.

We don't believe in this.

So we did it.

Me and Gloria, by ourselves.

I mean, you also keep promoting the whole thing trying to do.

And we became number one in England, number one in Holland then became like number one here and all the dance charts and everything.

And we went to Holland and we played in a nightclub and we played a typical Cuban conga, and they loved that.

And we created Gloria with the drummer.

Kiki created a song called conga.

And when we when we went t the label, we were so excited.

I said, we're bringing something totally new.

And the guy saying, that will never work.

Never work.

You know, that sound will never work in America.

No radio station we play.

You have to change your last name.

I mean, it was very then I said, we're not going to change absolutely nothing.

So in the long run.

I mean, that question sometimes when they asked me that, he say, what's important about music is what you leave behind when you leave behind and you have the pride to live to your kids and to whole minorities.

I always say it's not abou Latinos, it's about minorities.

You have to be who you are.

And we kept a sound that we felt proud.

And the day that we know here, they're going to say, well, at least it's something that you will leave something behind that that I feel proud that first yo have to feel proud of yourself in order to to be sure that you know, the next generation will be proud about the sound and something that w never forget where we came from.

But we love and adore this country, and we represent, in a way, a dream, the American dream.

Tell me about some of the artists that you guys such as Marc Anthony, Pitbull, Shakira.

You do it very quietly.

Your little fanfare and you know, you do it out of your heart.

But tell me about some of the artists that you've helped bring up in the industry.

Well, to me, what was a beautiful that Gloria was produced all the people and only that she let me produce.

She wrote a lot of the big hits for them.

And the first one was John Cicada that, you know, John was a glorious background vocals, and he became a huge star all over the world.

And then Ricky Martin, I mean, he was so good that when I became president of Sony Gloria, me, we always got the the influence to say, listen, it was so hard for us if we can help some of our music to become famous all over the world, but then became a Jennifer Lopez.

I mean that when I went and she came to see me about making a Spanish album and I said I want to make an English album, then of course, I, me a Marc Anthony that, you know, be able to work with him.

But the first album but and one of the ones that definitely I love was a Shakira that when she came from Colombia, she came to just to check the studio and said, hey, do you think you want to produce something for me?

And I said, give me a couple of days.

And I did the thin that was a middle eastern rock.

And I remember when she came to the studio, he said, oh my God, it's so suddenly different than me because she's still has a lot of background Lebanese and a and only that we produce and Glory Road, we say probably one of the biggest or whateve whenever where I did the English because I so believed in Shakira and at that time she didn't speak English and definitely wasn't writing in English.

So I took a couple of her songs and I translated them.

I did all the Eyes like yours in English.

I did you for two, and I just to show her that it could be done.

And she ended up recording those versions.

But in two minutes I told her you could do this.

And she started doing all the work and she didn't need anybody else to write for her after that because when she sent her mind to something, she does it for us.

It was all about trying to help artists that had been told no a lot of times by the world market, because they were successful in their own right.

Anthony was very successful in his bag.

Shakira had had a big hit record in Colombia.

J.Lo had was up and coming and starting, you know, her musical career.

So we just wanted them to know, yes, you can do it.

Of course you can do it.

And it's always nice for us when you, you know, help someone.

And especially as songwriters we created a publishing company so that writers would get paid, because a lot of the times we didn't get pai at the beginning for our songs, and we had to give up rights to things early on.

So we made it a point to try to help and and make sure that songwriters as well as artists did well in the industry.

It was beautiful way, energ to see people with smiles and, you know, coming out with something new and they and making some of the history, some of the history that they know they became the crossover in the States became crossover worldwide.

And when I managed to over 11 years, it was such the enjoyable, in a wa to see her coming to the stage.

It could be London, could be any, any world.

And you see how people you react to her music.

I mean, we went through that so many times with Gloria, but then to see somebody else, John bringing some of the, you know, the music that is original.

He was a beautiful thing for us as a as a songwriter and producer.

And by the way, I have to mention these two gentlemen because they were my example growing up of, yes, you can your Latin, and you can see Feliciano and Carlos Santana who in their own, you know, John because Carlos, rock musician, he wasn't really a singer.

And Joseph Feliciano, who like is on the Grammys winning a Grammy.

And all of a sudden he's singing in Spanish and in English and didn't change his name.

So they were great examples to us that he could be done, and that if he stayed true to who you are in your music, that you know you're going to bring somethin fresh and bring your own ideas and your own musical stylings to a new market.

You know, we never imagined it would be the whole world.

We believed it could be.

But, you know, we we jus we just wanted to make the music and have people hear it.

So we were thrilled beyond words.

And these gentlemen were a great example that it could be done before any thing is.

I remember the first time I met Santana that he went to glorious concert.

I made Feliciano on the Grammy and thanking them and then thinking of me and Gloria.

He was a beautiful thing because we felt that the he was not envy.

He was a matter of pride.

It was a matter of pride that we was fighting to open the door a little bit more and more and more, and th and he was a what a great moment and what a great memories in a way.

Well, Latinos in general, in business and in the industry that you're in, I think need to do that more often.

That expression crabs in the bucket, we have to help one another.

So that's very noble that you guys do.

You mentioned José Feliciano an Carlos Santana as role models.

Who else in your life would you identify as a role model that really sets the example in your life?

Yeah, yeah.

You know, my biggest drea as a producer, you always say, you know, I want to produce earlier.

I really like number one so many Grammys and many things.

But it was something especially I remember I want to produce something for you.

I have a song for you.

And one day she called me and she called m and said, I'm coming to Miami.

Are you going to be recording with you?

I said, I have this song.

Yo have?

I didn't write this song.

I wrote it right there on the phone.

I said, I saw Gloria, by the way.

I'm standing next to it and he's on the phone with Celia Cruz, and I'm going to say yes, Celia cruising.

I hear him say, oh, yes, I've got a great idea for a song for you.

And I'm looking at him going, okay, where is he going to whip it out now?

And he started singing this hook that she loved.

He just right on the spur of the moment he came to him.

He wasn't amazing.

Only the I was able to work with her.

But, you know, to get to signed to Sony and and cash out you know you I learned so much from Celi and Pedro because you know what?

And, you know, so humble.

Humble, so humble, so nice and a down to earth.

Yeah.

Celia was ageless on stage.

I was helping he behind the scenes at the Grammys for a performance she was going to do with Ricky Martin, and her knee was really giving her a lot of pain.

So I got somebody to bring her a chair and sit down.

And then when the time came that she went on that stage, I guarantee you, no one knew that she was under any kind of pain.

She went up there and gave it her all for the rehearsal.

She was someone that loved people, never forgot a date.

Would send us a note the first time we got a note from say that we hadn't met her.

We had had our first big hit internationally in Latin America, and I said, this was 1976.

This little group, you know, Mammy Sound Machine, we had just changed her name.

We checked into the hotel and there's a flowers and a note from Celia saying, I'm your fellow Cuban.

Congratulations.

I was here performing in Costa Rica, and I saw that you're here.

Him.

So happy for you.

We'd never met her.

And she was.

That's.

That was Celia.

Give me a little tour of our Hall of Fame.

Yeah, this.

These are.

I mean, that's 86 that goes all the way back there.

Done.

We have had anything to do with it.

Yeah, we did it to her nights.

And then we have different artists that we've done.

Rod Stewart.

So not for the duets.

Shakira.

Oh, Mandy Moore, who's doing great now on This Is Us, by the way.

And there were white because this is from Great Britain.

Amazing.

And these are the Alejandro Fernandez that I got to do a duet with her.

Talia.

The Hialeah Sound machine is going to be another March 1990.

You're in the Poconos with your tour bus, and you have a very serious accident during that time.

How was Emilio husband and business partner?

Which are two very tricky hats to where he was husband.

After that accident in which we were at the peak of our career, we had a sold out world tour.

The record was exploding everywhere and for one second to the next it was like, boom, it's done.

I was paralyzed, I couldn't get up from the floor of that bus.

And Emilio was not just husband and manager and business guy, he was nurse.

He was like the person tha stayed with me for three months.

And for him, that's crazy because he's he has added and cannot be in one place for a long extended period of time.

He didn't leave my side.

He was the one tha got me back to music, which has always been a healing forc because it had been three months and I didn't leave the house.

I would have to wear a brace.

I was in a lot of pain.

I didn't want to take painkillers because I wanted to feel in my rehab exactly how far I could go.

And he comes to me and he says, look, I found this in my pants today when I was crossing the toll, when we were transported in the two helicopters from the Poconos to New York for my operation, he was in a helicopter was a very great day.

And there was this one ray of light that kept hitting him in the eye.

And he says I wrote this on a piece of paper he wrote coming out of the dark.

He wrote that and put i in his pants pocket, thinking, hoping, and praying tha this darkness would soon pass.

And he forgot about it.

So that day he was going to reach in to grab some quarters when we still through quarters until.

And he found it.

So he called John Sakata an told him to come to the studio.

And then he came to me and said, look, because he knew I needed to get back.

Besides the hours of rehab that I was doing every day, he wanted t get me back in my element music, which had always been very healing.

And he said, look, you know, he told me the story of the he was Johnny's at the studio.

I'd really love it if you would come.

And I came for him because I knew that he'd been with me three months without going anywhere.

And I said, you know what?

I'm going to go in my mind I go, I'm going to go for him.

And when I sat down and John sang me the melody, the one hook that had that's what they had so far.

It just poured out of us in 15 minutes.

Because it's a big thank you to everybody that sent so many prayers and wonderful things our way.

So he was also instrumental in getting me back into music, and I realized that the moment I go, it doesn't matter whether I get on stage again or not, I can still write and I can still record my music and put it out for people to hear.

And that was a pivotal thing for me, coming with him and doing that song that day.

And then it just, I got into this whole writing again and it changed my outlook.

It gave me hope and and I didn't worry anymore about the career.

I not that I really cared about that.

I just wanted to walk again because my dad was in a wheelchair, but and I knew what that meant for the family.

But he, he, he brought me back to the music too.

So he was very, very instrumental.

Not what I could see.

Because.

Please bring me to aspirin.

I took care of you.

Come on, give it to us and take care of.

But tell me.

I think you.

Me.

So do you feel that episode in your life made your relationship much stronger, much stronger, and those things can tear you apart.

Battery.

Because.

And but another thing.

My mom, who was really tough on him because my mom was not a happy that I was hanging out with musicians, and then I was marrying a musician, and she reall like who she was tough on him.

And she walked in on him in the hospital.

He locked himself in a closet and was like crying because he didn't want m to see him and anybody see him.

And she saw him.

And when she saw how h responded after that accident, that was it.

She just completely was enamored.

And then she spoke to him mor than she spoke to me every day.

Yeah.

It was, a life changing experience.

Amazing.

Tell me about the importance and the impact of having more Latino representation in shows.

We need more of that kind of quality productions there a lot being made, a lot of good television is being made.

We're seeing a lot of great TV also.

That comes from Europe, from Spain.

You know, Netflix has given us the opportunity to see things from all over.

But yes, in the United States we definitely need in mainstream televisio a lot more of this kind of show.

And as a matter of fact, I, I have a project that I'm working on, on my on my own together with the brothers, and we're trying to create, create, especially that kind of high quality programing that includes Latinos.

That includes a lot of wome writers, directors, producers.

So we're focusing very much on that right now.

I think what happened most of the time, Sammy, I hope people realize that.

I mean, I don't like 28 movies.

I mean, I did that from Madonna, Three Men on a baby top from Tom cruise.

I mean, the music, the music of me, birdcage.

And, you know, the only thing is I get a lot of script that unpredictable, like playing a Latino role and bad Latino role or bad image for Latinos.

I think with the second generation now that is coming, all the millennials, they're going to do so many great things and they're going to be able to bring a lot of flavor and everything, but they're going to be general market.

I think we're going to be very proud, very proud.

We'll have to support them every time they come back with something.

We have to be sure to go to the theaters every time it' a show like you guys are doing.

It's an important thing to realize how important it i to open that door more and more.

I think the second generation would be fantastic.

I don't think the movie industry realizes that one of the top movie goers or Latinos, Latinos, go to the movies and they spend money there and they take their families.

And, you know, I don't think they realiz how important a market that is.

And so fa they're kind of being ignored.

And we need to definitely work more on programable film and television.

So a million Gloria business tycoons, restaurants, hotels, documentaries and an ownership stake in the Miami Dolphins.

More importantly, which is the biggest dolphin fan here?

Well, I still remember I still remember, you know, Super Bowl eight.

I think it was that season where we were undefeated.

And I remember laying on the on the roof of my mom's Monte Carlo and listening to the horns going off all over the city.

So ever since that day I've been a huge Dolphins fan.

And I mean, you like sports, but he okay, he doesn't understand it that much.

My favorite story of him were in the box with with the owner, and he stands up to cheer and he goes, Emilio, that's the other game he's happened.

I want to congratulate you guys.

We use a hashtag in new Jersey with some of the business community called Familia, and meeting your team her today, there's a common theme.

Everybody has been here many years.

They love you guys like Familia.

And and it really shows.

You guys are role models for life.

Role models for marriage, role models for business.

So again, congratulations.

You truly are blessed and blessed with our amazing people that work with us and they are from each other family.

We've been blessed having an incredible people around.

You never can do anything by yourself.

You have to have a lot of people.

I remember one time President Obama, he was he was leaving the the white House.

A million is anything I can do for you.

You produce I produce like 60 presidents and all my career synonymous.

I'm totally fine and I, I, I told him, listen.

Yes.

Maybe you can give me a ticket for the Christmas party.

So I brought my chef.

I brought everybody that take care of us at home.

And they came to the white House.

It was such a beautiful feeling to come in to the white House and to see the innocent of people, how much they appreciate to go to a white House and, you know, to enjoy tha incredible moment of happiness, going to going and celebrating the the American dream.

You did mention President Obama.

So I'm going to mention yo guys have won dozens of awards.

Obviously, you won the Freedom Award from President Obama.

And I understand that in 2019 you'll be receiving the Gershwin Award for Popular Song, the first time a couple has won it and the first Latino has won.

Can you speak to me a little bit about your feelings on winning that?

That was very big.

I never forget I was laying in bed and he walks in to give me the news and I was like, oh my God, because you don't think about those things, you know, happening.

And I, I performed for Tony Bennett's last year, and I performed for Carole King's at the white House with President Obama, the Gershwin Award.

And you always think, wow, what?

That would be so cool, but never thinking that we could get that kind of thing just because you don't imagine it, you know?

And when they told us that we were going to be receiving it together, they could not be more special.

I mean, the Gershwin brothers, they changed or created kind of pop music i the United States from Broadway, from their Broadway musical and the songs that they created.

And they've been done.

I recorded some of them on my standards record.

It stands a test of time and this award is for the fact that music lifelong contribution to music, and as a promoter of culture an and you know your who you are.

So for us, it's my God.

I realize, you know, sometimes when you start, you want to do that show They start asking you questions.

You know, for example our music was one of the first that play in spanning outer space in a shuttle to wake up the astronaut and mean will open the Macy's parade.

We went in probably like 2 movies that they use our music.

We we done the Olympics.

We done the Super Bowls.

We at least, you know, you don't realize something.

You sometimes you get an interview.

What is being the contributio that we don't and whistle bless.

And we're so thankfu to the people and and everybody to help us and all the fans because you know something worry.

What a career, what a beautiful career.

What a beautiful celebration about music, about ethics.

And I think the we're going to be more happy.

I can tell you that I'm very well deserved.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Thank you guys.

Caballero, that's a wrap.

What an amazing interview with two amazing individuals.

Make sure you check out our next episode right here on PBS.

Funding for thi episode of get Asa with galas.

Medina has been provided by Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey, PSC and G. ROI, NJ Business Magazine.

Engineers Labor Employer Cooperative 825 Hudson Regional Health.

Thanks to the Modesto Educational Foundation in New Jersey.

5013 with an amazing breakfast event November 13th.

Check it out at WW w Modesto Foundation.