First off, can you let us know why you transitioned to being a copyright lawyer after your music career?
Well, Donnie and I wrote and produced A!Leah! – I had records before that that did ok but this was the first one that made a big impact. But one day I had a knock on my door and a man handed me an envelope telling me I had been served. It was a copyright infringement complaint for the song – they said that Donnie and I stole the song. It was some guy from Detroit – I never heard of him or his song.
The suit went for three or four years and a lot of things happened. We wouldn’t settle – Donnie and I won the trial. They couldn’t prove we even had access to the song – it was alleged that some guy in L.A. sent it to us but that never happened. When they played the song at the trial it even sounded different from our song.
So what did you do afterwards?
I lost all my royalty money that I made from the song due to the cost of the lawsuit. I felt vulnerable after that – I thought I was going to make enough money for a while and now I was in the hole.
I couldn’t shake it – I was still doing music, but I decided then to go to college. I was 32 years old – I didn’t go to college before -I wanted to be a musician. But I went to college then law school. I became a lawyer at 40 then was hired by a firm – that was 30 years ago! I can’t believe I’m still here. I felt abused by the legal process then – it’s not a sad thing – it turned into a good thing now.
Now, I teach law law at Case Western and teach federal judges about frivolous copyright lawsuits. There are only so many chord progressions – as a guy who knows law and music I can show them. Stairway to Heaven as an example – a lot of songs use those same chord progressions.
What worries you most about the music industry now as a lawyer and musician?
It’a interesting – since the 20th century I think there has been a dumbing down of musicians. I don’t mean to be disrespectful. But back then you had to be really good – we didn’t have multi-track then – it was much harder to fix things when you recorded. You had to re-record the whole thing then. Now you can fix anything – and you can do the vocals separately. It allows for great creativity – multi-track was great in how it was used in Sergeant Peppers. But now you can quantize drums and vocals.
And with AI – you don’t even have to write the songs. There are legal issues still with AI though – it pulls from content that may be copyrighted so that poses issues. I watched a show recently where a guy started as a social media expert then decided to be a musician after he built a following. Donnie and I couldn’t have done that. My goal was to put it in grooves and produce it and see if the radio would play it!
How did you meet Donnie?
My girlfriend when I was 15 loved The Rapper by The Jaggerz. I met Donnie then in the waning days of my time with Wild Cherry. After Play That Funky Music, that was kind of it for us. Robert Parisi knew Donnie and thought it would be a good idea to bring him in to the band. I first met him when he was trying to learn how to be an engineer in the recording studio. He thought I was really weird, he said at first – I was very pensive and not a very social guy. He was very comfortable with people – the kind of guy you had a beer with. I was attracted to that about him.
I was not a front man – I loved Joe Walsh – I played with him. I felt like I needed a singer to sing though like Joe did. Donnie and I became good friends after a while and I asked him if he wanted to go to the studio and mess around with some songs, and he said “Yeah.”
You have such a diverse music background – hits with disco, rock, etc. How did you manage that?
I like the stuff I do with Donnie – I had nothing to do with writing Play That Funky Music. They were recording it in Cleveland and brought me in as the keyboard guy. I told them it was a good song and didn’t think I could add to it. I tried a few things but nothing really worked.
Mandolay was a few years later – that was a big hit disco song. La Flavour was a dance band and they brought me in to play with them.
Donnie and I – we tried a few things before Ah! Leah! and a lot of it wasn’t good until we landed on a style we liked. Donnie – I love seeing him sing. When we play Pittsburgh sports events and he sings – he just sings the anthem. He doesn’t try and add his own interpretation so it’s unrecognizable.
Is there a genre you prefer?
If I’m playing live I love to play the Hammond B3 organ – I love doing that blues-jazz style of music. I’m not writing music now but we still play. We have two drummers now – Joe Vitale Sr. who co-wrote Rocky Mountain Way with Joe Walsh, and his Son, Joe Jr. Donnie has cancer but it’s in remission – he’s still amazing. When we’re playing I look out at the crowd and see a lot of smiles. Donnie is 82, but he’s still killing it!
What do you think of the Pittsburgh music scene now and how can it improve?
I’m aware of course of Wiz Khalifa and Christina Aguilera – and Rusted Root, who we’ve played with. Pittsburgh musicians – I was impressed at how much they helped one another. B.E. Taylor and Joe Grushecky- we played with them a lot. Joe is the real deal – a journeyman and true to his style.
I think Pittsburgh and Cleveland can help clubs more – I do pro bono work for them. After they pay the societies that represent the musicians and the taxes, it’s hard to make a decent living. You see cities like Austin where they support the music – it causes more people to come to the city. We can do much better I think and that helps bands with more places to play.
But at the end of the day it’s all about the song. If you have a killer song, even today, it’ll happen. Ah! Leah!, Play That Funky Music – like them or not they are good songs. The fundamentals haven’t changed even with social media. You still need social media now to help promote it – but you need that great song.