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Rock ‘N Roll Fantasy CampsWinter, 2008During the past 25 years, David Fishof, a 1999 graduate of the Process, has been hailed as one of the most innovative entertainment producers and successful sports agents in the world. In 1997 he founded Rock ‘N Roll Fantasy Camp, where rock dreams become reality. David recently spoke with Hoffman CEO Raz Ingrasci about his fascinating journey. For more Info visit www.rockcamp.com or call 1(800)ROCBAND by Raz Ingrasci, Raz Ingrasci: David, you went from being one of the country’s top sports and entertainment agents and a best-selling author, to creating Rock ‘N Roll Fantasy Camp. How did your career as an agent start? David: I started by booking acts like Henny Youngman and Milton Berle at hotels in the Catskill Mountains in upstate NY. At the time I was also writing a gossip column for a Jewish newspaper. One of the people I interviewed for the paper was Ron Bloomberg, who played for the Yankees. After interviewing him, he introduced me to his teammate, Elliot Maddox, with whom I struck up a friendship. In 1976 Elliot asked me to represent him as his agent, so that’s when I started in sports. LN: Was it common for athletes to work with agents back then? David: No, I was one of the earliest sports agents. My work was about helping professional athletes with their contracts and outside endorsements. LN: Who were some of the sports figures you represented? David: NY Giant’s quarterback and CBS Sports analyst Phil Simms, baseball greats Lou Piniella, Dave Magadan, Randy Myers and many, many others. At one time nine of the NY Giants were my clients. LN: You also put some of the most famous rock and roll bands together for reunion tours. How did that come to be? David: As I was launching my sports business, someone asked if I was interested in representing a band called “The Association.” Because I remembered their old hits, I decided to do it. After I said yes I learned that it was a 20-year-old group with no one interested in them! In searching for a way to do something with this band, I thought the country would enjoy seeing bands like the Turtles, the Grassroots, Gary Puckett, and Spanky and Our Gang, on one bill, so I took them on tour in 1984 and called it the “Happy Together Tour.” We booked ten shows, then the movie “The Big Chill” came out and the whole country became interested in nostalgia music. That tour went on to do 125 cities! LN: Whoa! David: Yeah! The idea caught on like wildfire. In 1985, I was on another tour and at 3:00 A.M. in some random hotel I happened to catch a rerun of the television show called “The Monkees,” which I remembered from my youth. So I went and put the Monkees back together.
LN: You brought talent forward and let people remember what they loved about some of the great acts. David: In 1986, while producing the Monkees’ tour, I worked on the 7th floor of 1775 Broadway in NYC, and unbeknownst to me, on the 8th and 9th floor was a fledgling network called MTV. I’d ride up and down the elevators with Tom Freston and Bob Pittman, who ran the network. One day I ran upstairs and said to Bob, “I just signed the Monkees,” and he said, “We’re going to air their television show 24 hours a day -- let’s work together.” So we did and that wound up being an incredible success. LN: Collaborating with MTV during their earliest days – what a coup! David: It was, and soon they founded VH1, and several comeback tours followed. LN: I love this quote of yours, “Creativity is the key to business. You must be able to come up with ideas and implement and execute effectively in order to succeed.” David: It’s been my philosophy throughout my career. LN: It seems you’ve been most interested in showcasing and supporting talent. Now, with Rock ‘N Roll Fantasy Camp, you help every day people discover and express the talent inside of them, and they have the chance to perform with musicians who are their heroes. It’s a wonderful thing. David: Well Rock ‘N Roll Fantasy Camp is my “give-back” to what the entertainment industry has afforded me. LN: How so? David: I’ve spent my career around so many talented people -- for 15 years I was on tour with Ringo and the All Star Band, and I saw firsthand why rock stars belong on that stage – what makes them so special. Every day people would ask me, “What’s this musician like, what’s that musician like?” I wanted to share it with the public. So I decided to create Rock ‘N Roll Fantasy Camp as a way for people to meet these musicians, play with them, and discover something bigger inside themselves.
LN: David I’ve known you since you did the Process. I’ve seen you change in amazing ways - constantly moving toward greater experiences of light and love, both personally and professionally. Over the years I’ve seen you act with courage. How did you finally decide to leave the business of being an agent? David: In my early days as an agent I genuinely wanted to help people, but in time it became about “SHOW ME THE MONEY!” I used to think ‘the minute I make a million dollars I’m going to be the happiest person in the world.’ But when I made a million dollars I was miserable. Through the Process I found that money is not the only thing in life and slowly I had to own up to the fact that I wanted to leave the business and that a part of me felt “it’s not in my blood anymore.” LN: Was there fear in leaving? David: Yes. My parents were holocaust survivors – my father lived in a concentration camp in Auschwitz and he had everything taken from him. The message during my childhood was ‘be a success -- make money so you’re not stuck.’ I was praised at home when I made a deal, and that to me was love. I was raised Orthodox and I still practice the Orthodox religion. My son-in-law’s a rabbi, my brother’s a rabbi and my father was a cantor. One day my brother, the rabbi, called and said, “Listen, you do this Rock ‘N Roll Camp better than anybody and you love it…why don’t you just do it already?” I said OK, and that was that. LN: How did you go about creating Rock ‘N Roll Fantasy Camp? David: Ten years ago I called Nils Lofgren and Clarence Clemons from Bruce Springsteen’s band, who both played on my tours, to ask if they’d be willing to appear at a Rock ‘N Roll Fantasy Camp, and they said “yes, let’s do it!!” So I did my first Camp with 25 people and the response was amazing. Now ten years later we host several Camps a year, in NY, Las Vegas, Hollywood and in the UK (at Abbey Road studios!) with more locations coming soon. LN: What aspects of your Process do you bring to your work? David: The Process changed my attitude towards the music business and taught me about giving back. When I committed to do Rock ‘N Roll Fantasy Camp, I decided to take much of what I learned at the Process and incorporate it. I noticed that the more of the sensibility of Process I put into it --- joy, connection, risk-taking, community, and so on --- the more people would say, “this experience is life-changing.” LN: How did the Process change you personally?. David: The Process gave me permission to come out of my shell, to know that there’s this beautiful person inside with great passion for life. Before the Process I surrounded myself with stars and I hid behind them. I took care of everybody else but not myself. I hurt my marriages, my relationships with my children and my mother, because I let the industry take over my life. It’s an industry where it’s easy to forget your purpose and you start to think you’re invincible. Thank God I didn’t turn to drugs or alcohol, but I did turn to ego. Every day of my life I think of the Process. I direct people to the website every day. LN: In light of your personal growth, it seems perfect that you went from promoting celebrities to celebrating people.
David: There’s joy in this work on several levels. In watching the corporate executive who thought he was running the show come to camp and learn “Hey, if I’m going to be in a band I’ve got to listen to the bass player, the guitar player, the keyboard player.” I’ve noticed that business success can breed the notion “it’s all about me.” I try to give our campers what I got at the Process, which is the notion that it’s not only about me, and that when you give, good things happen. LN: Were you surprised that so many great rockers love participating in the Camps? David: That was the turning point for the business. When Roger Daltrey came back for his fourth Camp, when Vince Neal come back for a second Camp and Paul Stanley of KISS came back for his second, I saw that the Camp takes them back to their roots, it reminds them of the hunger they had, and why they got into music in the first place. At the Camp they meet people who just want to write a song and play with them; that’s the attraction for them….the joy of music. LN: That kind of experience opens the passion and creativity that’s inside every person. David: That’s what the Process did for me; it took me back to a time before I had all the hurt in me, and it showed me who I really am, and what was truly inside of me. LN: In the Process we say that when you make a commitment to yourself, to your own spirit, the world moves to support you. Once you made this choice, with the guidance of your brother, who’s a rabbi, so it was a spiritual choice, the world organized itself and you found great support, interest and excitement around it. David: It’s true, and now Raz, I’ve got the second greatest job in the world -- next to you. The gratitude I see every day, and how we change people’s lives…is wonderful. LN: You can see it in people’s eyes when they break through barriers and discover things about themselves they couldn’t even imagine. David: Whether you’re the president of a company, a lawyer, a doctor, or an 18-year-old vocalist, when you come to this Camp you find something new about yourself. LN: Tell me about the corporations that are creating their own rock bands. David: That idea came from the campers; executives who attended the Camp. They said, “This is an amazing team-building experience. It would be great if you could bring this to my company and help us put a band together…” So we created a corporate division where we do corporate parties and seminars on team building. We pull talent from within the company, put them into bands and they perform at the show on the final night. People have fun and get really excited about it. LN: What else do you have in store for the Camps? David: This summer we’re doing a Tour of America of one-day Camps. The regular Camp is expensive and time consuming, so I’ve created the one-day Camp in which campers will come in one day, attend the Camp and then open for a major rock star at House of Blues in the evening. LN: David I’ve seen your Camps first hand and I know you’ve created an amazing and transformative experience for people. I wish you every success in the world.
David: Raz, I have to thank the Process. If I hadn’t found this sensibility and understanding of another person, if I hadn’t been given the opportunity to see what I’m really made of, Icouldn’t have created the Camp. Now every manager in rock and roll comes to me and says, “You know Fishof, if I would have thought of it first I’d be doing it!” And I tell them, “Just go to the Hoffman website and sign up. Then you’ll find what YOUR passion is.” [Chuckles] LN: Thank you for sharing your wonderful story. Maybe Rock ‘N Roll really can save the world, right, David? David: A combination of Rock and Roll and the Hoffman Process and we’ll be all set! |
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phone: 800/506-5253 or 415/485-5220 · email: enrollment@hoffmaninstitute.org |
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