Katharine McPhee and David Foster: Christmas Songs (Holiday Re-Release)
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and his beautiful, talented wife, Catherine McPhee. And they have a Christmas album. And David Foster plus Christmas equals happiness, where I come from. So enjoy some beautiful Christmas music and a great conversation with two people I love a lot. And happy holidays. And I will see you next year.

But Foz, we're in the studio together. I love it. Anytime I can get in the studio with you, it's the best. I love it. You know what? I'll just be a fly on the wall here. I mean, this is a tough one because David and I have known each other for so long. That's all right. I'll just remember that I was nothing more than a seed, you know? You weren't even a seed. Yeah, you were like a thought. No, she was born. Just born. When we met? Yeah. Oh, that's so cute, you guys. 84. That's right. We met in 1984. It's coming up on 40 years.

You know, I saw John Parr yesterday over Zoom. He was having lunch with my agent, Richard Weitz. Oh, yeah. At Johnny Parr. Man in motion. He's still a man in motion. Oh, he's amazing. He's my agent too, just so you know. Richard Weitz. Yeah. Yeah.

Man of motion. He's a man of motion. Are we rolling or are we? Oh, this is it. Oh, this is it. We go in. Okay. It's cashy mash. Well, I'm going to say one thing and then we'll get it off the table. Rob and I met. I scored the movie St. Elmo's Fire. Rob, of course, starred in the movie. And he was a young buck. But let me tell you something. Movie stars are quirky, you know, and they don't really necessarily pay attention to people like me. Okay.

Rob Lowe, because he loves music so much, we bonded. He was so amazing. He agreed to be in the video and that struck a 40-year friendship. And it's just kind of unusual, but much appreciated. Oh, and same. I...

I remember vividly the day I came into the studio. I don't know why I came in the first place, but I did. And you played me the St. Elmo's Fire theme. The love theme. The love theme. Yeah. To picture. I mean, bro. It worked. Yeah. It worked. You guys must have been some serious studs. That's all I got to say. I mean, you guys are still hot, you know, but I'm just saying. Well, coming from you, we will take it. David and I had many a late night with...

Wayne Gretzky. Oh, yeah. But never up to anything terrible. No, because you were in one of your 17 marriages always.

And cut to Kat. And Kat. You got it right. You know what? It's okay. I was there for a few of them, so it's okay. Oh, yeah. I was there for all of them. You really were. I really was. Well, I'm not the person. Did you go? No, I was. No, you weren't. You weren't at our wedding, so were you there for all the weddings? I was there for—the only wedding I was there for was Yolanda. Yeah, I was invited to that one, but I couldn't make it.

Listen, this and this just speaks to David as a producer. His wedding he did with Yolanda. I still want a recording of everybody that performed. Not even. No, you know, all I want is I want the orchestral recording.

like sitting down music. Oh, yeah. It was so sick. Yeah. Full orchestra. Bill Ross. Everybody's just getting seated and talking. You had Bill Ross do your freaking wedding? Oh, my gosh. That's crazy. And it was all his amazing music. Well, I have a funny story to tell you because David was actually at my first wedding. What? Yes. And I and my then new husband had...

We got married in a church and David was there on the left side. One of the last people I saw as I went up to the altar. I had an amazing gospel choir sing throughout the church, the ceremony. And it was really beautiful. It was. It was like the best part of the ceremony. And it was. It was the best part of your marriage. I'm sorry. Gosh.

Horrible. Okay. So, but anyway, it's funny. Just want to take a little credit because I didn't go to your wedding with Yolanda because I wasn't, I wasn't, I didn't live in LA at that time. But you told me that you took, you stole the idea from my wedding. No. The gospel choir. Yes. No. It's true. I remember people saying like, oh yeah, that gospel choir you had, David. And I'm like, oh, you had a gospel choir, did you? But anyway, moving on. But that was a great, Rob, so far you're terrible.

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I know that I've elaborated this story a little bit. I've stretched the truth a little bit. I talk about it in my one-man show, but my favorite move ever is the man in motion scene almost for our theme. David was so busy. This is my version of the truth, and you can tell me how much it's true. David is so busy. He's so in demand. He's working with Chicago. He's working with the tubes. He's working with everybody, and

And he's Mr. Canada. I mean, he is. At one point, we thought he was going to run for prime minister of British Columbia. That's right. Do you remember that? Remember that era? Yeah. The premier of British Columbia. The premier. Yes. I think you should still. Yeah. And you've been knighted. Exactly. Right? It's the Order of Canada. The Order of Canada. Boy, do I ever know. He tells me every morning. It's a big deal. I do know. I have three friends who've been knighted. Warren Michaels, Mike Myers, and you. Excellent. It's a big honor. No, it's a huge honor. Yeah.

So he's busy is my point. And he's very Canadian. And there is this young man who is going to be on his, he's wheelcharing across Canada. The world, actually. The world. Yeah, Rick Hansen, the world. Jesus Christ, I didn't realize. 25,000 miles. 25,000 miles. An amazing accomplishment to raise money. And David's going to write a theme for him. He's also going to write a theme for my movie.

He doesn't have a lot of time. So he basically just writes one song for both. That's true. And if you really listen to the lyrics. That's so you. The lyrics of St. Elmo's Fire is about a group of college kids, period. That's it. Lyrics for Man in Motion is. About a wheelchair athlete. A guy, a wheelchair athlete going across the world. Right. Has nothing to do with St. Elmo's Fire or anything else. John Parr's lyric.

Not mine. John Parr wrote the lyric. Oh, he did? Yes, he did. And apparently... Brilliantly. So if you ever listen to that song, realize it's not about anything having to do with the movie. And apparently having the phrase St. Elmo's fire in a lyric is not easy.

Right. Impossible. So that's why we stuck it on the end of the chorus. St. Elmo's fire means nothing. You just threw it in. Yeah, it means nothing. It could have been Jabberwocky. Yeah, yeah. And did you think people were going to buy it? I actually, that was a song, although it went to actually number one, which is a hard place to get to. That was a song that I didn't think was a hit. And I was really wrong. It went to number one. Number one. In many countries. And do you know what beat us out the next weekend? No. Because I'm very competitive. No. Another fucking Canadian's...

Michael J. Fox's movie, The Back of the Power of Love. Oh, Huey Lewis. Oh, yeah. Yeah, that's a great song too. Yeah, it is. It is. And we love Huey. And we love Huey. Yeah. Cat, when you were growing up, what was your favorite Fawes song?

era song because one of my favorite things is I'll be driving and I'll go, oh, you know, and I'll turn to Cheryl and I'll go, listen to the radio and I'll go, oh, you know about it? This was just, I know David wrote it. She's like, oh, that's so cute. Cheryl, we love her. So I'm a nineties kid. So like for me, it was all the, um, Celine, like Celine and R&B stuff, like stuff you did with Brandy and Monica. Um, and,

I didn't really know the 80s stuff until I met David, which was back in 2006. I was a contestant on American Idol. And then we started doing like events together, charity events together. And so he would always do his like little songs of hits that he had in like a rapid fire version. Yeah. And so that's when I started to learn all the...

You're the meaning, you're the inspiration. You're the inspiration is the sickest. Yeah, but all that, that was in the 80s, right? Yeah. So I didn't, I really wouldn't, don't think I would know my princess. But you weren't alive. Okay. Well, I was alive. No, you weren't alive for that song. Pause, you got a piano right in front of you. Yes. I have to ask you to go to the piano. Why is Chicago's You're the Inspiration so great? And why do even kids today love it so much? Well, it's one of the few songs I've written that's sort of easy to sing. Oh, it's so good.

You're the meaning. They want me to sing it? Yes. You're the inspiration. Bring feeling to my life. You're the inspiration. This is the part I changed lyrics. I want to have you, baby. Oh, yes. I want to have you hear me say it. No one needs you more than I do.

Need you. Nice lick. Thank you. Wow. Let's give credit to Peter Cetera. I mean, come on. That voice. When we were dating, I was like, I want to have you, baby.

That was sick. How'd that sound in there? That sounds great. This is a great patch you got up on the piano, man. Hey, thanks, man. You know me. A little wispiness behind it. Well, isn't there a patented David Foster sound? There is, actually. There is, isn't there? It comes up on a lot of keyboards. Yeah, it's called the Fossified. Did you know that? I didn't know that. What is it called? Well, someone, I think Yama calls it Fossified. What? And Roland calls it the Foster. No, that's so cool. Yeah.

Wow. And that was very close to that, don't you think? Yeah, very close. But not it. Not it. There was a time where I was going to be doing some recording and doing whatever, and David saved me a half a million dollars. You probably don't even remember this. When I was going to buy a Sinclair here. Oh, yeah. Oh, God. Do you remember that? Yes. I was going to buy an idiotic move because you were...

It was an idiotic move. Yeah. By the way, you've saved a lot of friends from buying idiotic expensive pianos. Yeah. I remember it vividly. Stevie Wonder had just had an album. It was entirely Sinclair. Yeah.

Yeah, I mean, but it's so complicated, Rob. And you're, I mean, not that you couldn't figure it out, but why would you spend your life trying to figure out this in Klaviyo? Well, I wasn't going to. I was going to have somebody else do it. But then that technology became free, basically free. Punch a button. Within two years. Yeah. Well, 10 years. Rob, how is your life? How chaotic is it?

When I think of your life and I think of all the, you've done more successful series than anybody I know. I mean, I see you in a fireman's hat. I see you in a suit. I see you in the Oval Office. I see so many. I'm just wondering how truly chaotic is your life?

Do you just love to work though, right? I mean, I love to, yeah, I have a huge work ethic. But a lot of people do. I mean, but they don't do exactly everything that you do. True. But I have a lot of different curiosities. Like I love talking to people, right? So that's why I do this. And I love bringing out a side of people that maybe, you know,

folks wouldn't have seen but for the fact i mean how would you know about the sinclavier story right you know um and and how would you know about what we have so many stories to get to but when you go to bed at night are you is your brain just so scrambled you can't sleep or no no no i sleep like a baby like an olympian really like oh yeah if it were if if it were an olympic sport i'd be michael phelps of sleeping wow i get a lot of sleep too and when you wear do you wear the ring

I don't wear the ring. I don't either. I don't wear the ring. I do wear a sleep mask. I know you've got it. But you also probably don't wear a ring because you know when you got a lot of sleep. Oh, I know. I'm the same. And he loves to wear the ring. I want to know if I slept good. No, but don't you just know? Hey, wake me up if I'm sleeping well. Yeah, right. Exactly. Let me know if I'm- So in other words, you don't wake up exhausted.

No, you do. No, I do. You have the, it's in your genes to wake up tired. I know. And your daughters, by the way, say the same thing. They're like, we're always tired. We're just like my dad. But I listen, I can feel grumpy and like, I do sometimes do that, but I would recommend more work, more sleep. Yeah. Less work. Okay, wait, we have so much. Okay, so let me, another great thought story. So you know that, I don't know if you know that David is, how do I put this?

Not a huge fan. What do I not know about my husband? Of three-chord rock and roll. He just isn't. He may not admit it publicly. I know he's not. Right. Oh, he's nodding. No, no, it's true. I'm not a big fan of it either. No, it's true. It's true.

This is the, we're in SiriusXM, bro. There's classic rock right down the studio. There's yacht rock. By the way, yacht rock. I'm assuming you've been on the yacht rock channel. What's yacht rock? Of course. Yacht rock is my kind of music, the kind of music I made. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. I mean, isn't it? Yes, it is. Yeah. So I would always be talking about Bruce Springsteen or this, that, and then David would just be like, no, please. Yeah.

And when David did Tears Are Not Enough, which is the... I don't think I know that song. No, it's the Canadian anthem of, the Canadian equivalent of We Are The World. Oh, oh, I love that song. Yeah, it's a good song. Yes. Voices that care. No, no, that was Voices. That was a different thing. That was another one. David's got, if it's a Canadian anthem of any type, David did it. But that one was really good. But I know the story you're going to tell, I think. Yeah. And you have one of my favorites. I just saw, by the way, at the Roxy, Neil Young.

Famous, famous Canadian. I know who he is. And Neil, David also has, as you know, perfect pitch. Yes. Well, he used to. Oh, really? That's another story.

And tell them, so you have Neil in the vocal booth. Neil in the vocal booth and the cameras are rolling. And you know, when you're doing a big hoopla like that, we have Oscar Peterson there and Joni Mitchell and Anne Murray and Bryan Adams and every Canadian star that ever was at the time we had. And the cameras are rolling. And so you forget that the cameras are rolling. You just want to do a good job. You're just doing your job. Yeah. And I'm, I was a hothead, you know, I was like,

you know, a perfectionist. And Neil Young, I didn't know a lot about him, sadly. I do now, but he was just like singing so out of tune. I was like,

Neil, can we try one more? You got to like lift up on the pitch, but you're a little flat, right? And the cameras are... People are like, don't say that. It's Neil Young. He's royalty. And Neil goes, yeah, man, that's my sound. And so that was that. He sang out of tune. Yeah, that was that. That's my sound. It is kind of amazing how people...

It's just a thing. You would have, by the way, his band didn't know when to stop the song, start the song. They literally did not know. You probably respected it, right? No, I don't think he gave a shit about me then or now. Okay. That's probably true. Is he still alive? Yeah. Oh, yeah. He just saw him. Oh, right, right, right. He just saw him at the Rock Seat.

That's very funny. Now, have you read Barbara's book yet? Barbara Streisand's book? We looked at it yesterday in the bookshop. I should have bought it. We were just at Barnes & Noble yesterday. We didn't, but you know what we did read? The Britney Spears book. Is David in the Britney Spears book? No, no, no. Well, he didn't actually finish the last like few chapters. I wouldn't be in there. I don't know. But we loved it. We thought it was great. We thought it was great. No, but we have to read the Barbara book. But you know, also David can just pick up the phone and call Barbara whenever he wants.

Well, David, this leads... Maybe I should get her to read to me. You know, this leads me to... And I'll make it very, very quick. Did you read the book? Not yet. And I'm going to listen to Barbara. I've heard excerpts of Barbara reading it. And what's amazing is how she really takes her time. Oh, boy. And the book is...

Very long. 900 pages. It's 900 pages. No. Barbara, you can pace it up a little bit. Yeah. But, you know, that's her. You would expect that from her. So I... Expect that for her to talk slowly? No, no, no. You would expect that her book would be 900 pages. She's had a long life and she's very detailed. And so it makes sense that she would go into detail with every story. You know, that makes sense. Yeah.

This is going to be one of those interviews where it'd be like, yeah, David and Kat only made it all about you. And I'm sorry. But we have, there are stories. Well, you know Barbara. That you're a part of. And I know Barbara. And one of them, when I do my one-man show, I always end it. Which I've seen and loved, by the way. It's fun, right? Yes. Loved it. You were so sweet to me. Loved it. I end it always with this story, which I'm going to truncate. Okay.

But basically, it's, you know, David and I have a gag that we do. Describe the gag we like to do. We like to do St. Elmo's Fire, the love theme. Doesn't he play it? Yeah. And Rob can mimic the love theme saxophone part perfectly down to the breathing, down to everything. It's perfect. But it's not real. It's not real. No, there's a guy behind the curtains playing it. People really believe it, too. Oh, yeah. Not only do they really believe it, people who should really know better believe it. So...

And the one time I really remember, I look out in this audience. Michael from King World, Michael King's house. Michael King's house. There are tables outside. Outside, I remember. President Clinton. President Clinton. And I look out and I'm, my whole thing was I'm going to do this thing. I'm going to fake it. And then halfway through-

And kill, right? Stop playing. I'm going to stop playing and everybody will laugh. But I look out and I see President Clinton doing the Wayne's World, we're not worthy gesture to me. And Barbara. And Barbara. They were that into it. Oh, no. Beyond. And I'm like, and then my actor's ego kicked in. And then I was like, fuck this. I'm not. I'm fucking, I'm going to ride this horse all the way to the barn. And...

And I come off the stage and Cheryl Lowe looks at me like, you idiot. You idiot. Yeah. And you could go to jail for this. So I'm super excited about it. But feeling really guilty at the same time. Oh, and Quincy Jones. Quincy Jones is- Oh, no. Quincy Jones is, I'm telling you, within five, give me some of that St. Elmo's fun. Oh, yeah. If Quincy was- Play this while I tell the story, it's great. And Quincy Jones is standing right in front of the bell of the sax. There's no air coming out of it. Right? Right.

None. There's nothing coming out. And Quincy Jones is yelling. I'll never forget. He's yelling, blow, Rob, blow. And blow, Rob, blow. This is a really great story. Go, Rob. It's too high now.

It's too high. Well, that's the key. I know. That's too high. I could have done the first part. Blow, Rob, blow. Blow, Rob. Blow, Rob, blow, blow. And so I feel guilty. And I'm thinking, fuck it. What am I going to do? It's over now. I can't have a redo. And then I get a letter from President Clinton. No. Stupid. Yes.

I get a letter from President Clinton saying, I had no idea you were such a good saxophone player. Right. As a saxophone player myself. Yes. And he says, and please, I want to invite you to the White House. To do a concert. And I want to do a duet with you. He said, I have an invitation to come to the White House to do a duet. I don't really play. President Clinton thinks I do. Now what? I call David.

I go, David, I think we have a problem. Do you remember the call? Yeah, of course. Houston, we have a problem. I go, Houston, we have a problem. Bill Clinton thinks I'm a real sex home player and wants me to come to the White House. And David goes, no, no, no, no, no. Don't worry. I just solved it. I told Barbara it was all a joke. And then he said, Barbara then calls the president and says it's a joke. So when people say to me, when did you know you finally made it? I said, well,

When I entered a shame spiral involving the president of the United States, Barbara Streisand and David Foster, that's when I knew I made it. That's a great story. Blow, Rob, blow, blow. Where you're from completely shapes who you are. If you're looking for change or rethinking the place your family will call home, you might want to give Ohio a closer look.

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♪♪♪

Why don't you tell everybody about the time you talked me into flying up on your private plane to Canada? Well... You had a private plane? Early. No, I charted it. We charted it. I was joking. He's still trying to get that plane. Aren't we all? I know. I know. No one's tried to get that plane harder than Foss. Nope. Nobody I know. It's true. It's true. Literally, this guy...

It's all about... It's a succession. It's all about the airplane. What did I just say to you this morning about private plane? So I'm taking a private plane back to Chicago tomorrow. He's taking a private plane. Because it was part of the situation to get me here. Yeah, yeah, of course. And so I said to her, will you tell Rob what I said? Well...

I said... No, I think you were talking about the money, the million dollars a month tax. No, no, no. I was talking about just the actual ride. I said, what about... Oh, right, right. How about if I fly commercially tomorrow to Chicago and I'll bank that chip so that you and I can use it somewhere else? And I said, no. I said, no, babe, you cannot. You need to take this by yourself. I said, I will be fine no matter like which... Good life. He's earned the right. Yeah, you need to take that private flight. Well, I unfortunately did the early version of this and...

Oh, you mean the... Well, it was a Lear 25. Lear 25. We're flying... They don't fly anymore, the Lear 25. Well, they barely flew that time. I just want to say to the audience who maybe don't know this about David, David not only like loves... He loves the luxury of private aviation as everyone does, but...

It's beyond that. David is obsessed with airplanes. So he knows everything. He's a pilot. He was a pilot and knows how the mechanics work and knows like he'll say, what plane are you on? I said, I don't know. And then I'll tell him like, oh, the windows are, he'll know what plane it is. So I just want that to be a disclaimer that it's not that you're obsessed with the luxury of it. Yes, but also. I think he flew with me once in my twin prop job. I did. Is that the one you crashed?

No, it was a different one. Okay. But anyway, we took this Learjet. So when I started my foundation, I wanted to start off with a bang. So I called all my famous friends. This is like 1985? Yeah. Wayne Gretzky. I was one. Amazing. I know. So depressing. I know. I can't wait till she turns 40. It's going to happen in three months. I can't wait. You're going to come to the party, Rob? Yeah. Hell yeah. Can't wait. My wife's in her 40s. Finally, I can say that. Yes. Anyway, Rob Lowe.

Alan Thicke, Wayne Gretzky, and me, the four of us, and a Learjet. Look at the height, the height of the Brat Pack. I've actually seen the picture of you all. Yeah. It's cute. It's great. All of us in our sweats. Gretzky from the height of the Edmonton Oilers. Alan Thicke killing it on the TV show. Y'all look really hot. Not gonna lie. Um,

We get in this Learjet, we're landing in Victoria and I'm up front on my knees where I always am just watching because I love it. Wayne Gretzky hates to fly. He's so nervous. But he's drinking a lot on the Learjet just to get over the nerves. I look at the pilot, he throws the gear down.

And no green lights come on. And all of a sudden they start scrambling. And I was like, I started, even me. With all your friends. Yeah, I'm like, oh shit. First of all, I'm never going to get mentioned in this crash. Because, you know, it's going to be. We had a whole discussion about it. We decided, everybody started drinking really, really heavily. And the discussion became what, if and when the plane goes down, how will it be described in the press? Yeah.

And we finally decided—there's a lot of argument over who would be first billed. And we finally decided that if— I think it's Gretzky. It's Victoria. No, no, no, no, no. Well, we didn't— Canada. We didn't really know where we—I remember it being—

a different place in the flight. You're probably right. My thing was, if it comes down in Canada, it's Gretzky. If it comes down in the United States, it's me. And Alan Thicke said, in either place, I will be and others. Exactly. Me too. Alan said that? Yes. Yeah, me too. Which made me... I mean, we've been through it, bro. Yeah. Anyway, the gear didn't come down, but then they recycled it. They gained altitude and recycled the gear and it did come down. But that was a bit...

You know, I mean, you could survive a gearless landing, but it's not easy. Yeah. We had a scary flight once. Well, you weren't that scared. Remember the gear was locked and wouldn't come up? Wouldn't come up, yeah. And then we were with Lionel Richie and his girlfriend. Just because I wouldn't hear it, David, can you give me a little Buzz Skaggs, Love, Look at You, Done For Me, just for a second? Yeah. Just because I love that song so much. Only if my wife will sing it. I don't, do I know it? I'll pass it to you. Okay. Do I know it? Do I know it?

Well, I know this part. Is it a song? Is it a song? No, I mean, it's like, it's not just instrumental. No. I don't think I know this song. Oh. Love. Too high. Listen to you. Never knew. I got it. I got it now.

You wouldn't like me, would you? Leaving me to feel this way. Yeah. Oh, no. So I do know that song. I like that song a lot. You don't do that one very much. No, I never do it. Oh, fine. I don't know. You got to add that to your... Let's talk about Cat.

No. Yes. There's not that much to talk about. No, there is. I want to know because I'm a huge Christmas, huge Christmas person. Okay, you're like me. Love it. It's like they say, I saw that meme on social. It's like,

There's a new study that shows people who celebrate Christmas earlier are happier. Happier people. That's neat. The one thing is I do not believe in doing any of it until Thanksgiving, though. Yeah, I was sort of raised that way, too. But because we have a Christmas album out called Christmas Songs. Buy it. Buy it. You can stream it now. Then, like, it just sort of forces me. And also, we have a two-and-a-half-year-old now. So he's, like, everything. As soon as the Halloween thing was over, he sees Christmas stuff and he's, like,

He sees Christmas stuff and he says, oh, he gets all excited. So I'm in the spirit already. What are the, what songs did you do on this version? Well, so last year- Mostly, you know, I proved to myself that people only want to hear the classics. They don't want new songs. By the way, can I tell you something? This is, see, I'm very opinionated on this. Me too. I don't want to hear, even, I don't even want to hear-

rocking around the Christmas tree. No. Right. I don't want any of it. I don't want to hear Chrissy Kind singing Christmas songs or any, I don't want to hear Mariah Carey sing that, excuse me, fucking song. I don't. It's too much, right? It's too much. You've heard it too many times.

I want like, and then this is going to sound, I want to hear like the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Well, that's funny you say that because we actually have a song. Basically last year, we thought we would just, you know, we should put out like a song for the holiday season and then it turned into six songs and then Concord Records put out the six songs. Loma Vista. Loma Vista records. And then...

they decided to complete the full, so it's like a completed album. So we did seven more songs this year and we did do Amazing Grace, which is not really... With the Mormon Tabernacle. With the Mormon Tabernacle, which is, it's on this... Was that sick? How was that recording? It was so beautiful. Was this beyond belief? Beyond, beyond, beyond. And I've worked with them before with Stevie Wonder and with Josh Groban and with Bocelli. It's always a complete...

It's a complete religious experience. It has to be, right? It's organized. Phenomenal. Yeah, it was really, really lovely. So we put that song on the album, Christmas Songs, even though it's not like a holiday song per se. Often Maria's on it? Nope. No. Why did I feel like, did you do that? He did that with Celine. Oh, that was Celine. And Bocelli. And Bocelli. And Buble. I think Celine's is my favorite. I hate songs that were like, they go, let's see here. Oh, give me some of this.

Hang all the stockings around the tree. Boo. It's going to be Christmas for you and me. Vomit. I mean... Vomit. I know. I hate those songs. Boo. Vomit. Nobody wants to hear a new Christmas song. But... You know, where people get all...

Like, I love, oh, God, I mean, O Night Divine. Is that the one? O Holy Night. O Holy Night. That's my favorite. Selene killed it. Yeah, it is my other favorite one, which we didn't do, but. No, we didn't. We didn't do that, but Selene's version is.

And actually, Mariah's version is really great too. White Christmas is modern-ish, but I, and Silver Bells. I know that those aren't traditional, but I'm a big Silver Bells guy. Is Silver Bells not traditional? No. I feel like Silver Bells is traditional. It's just not overdone. Let me clear my throat. It's a little high. No. It's Silver Bells. Yeah. Silver Bells. Yeah. Silver Bells.

Yes. Dave, sing. Oh. Do you like how I just snapped at you? Less bouncy, David. Less bouncy. Less bouncy.

I don't know the lyrics. I produced myself. Oh, I'm sorry about that. I work alone. I work alone. I work alone. That made me, it was so fun to give David direction. I wanted you to chime in. I wanted people to hear your singing voice. No, thanks. Well, I'm not on mic anyway. So Silverbells is great. I love it. I can't, I'm getting it immediately. Do you guys- Do you remember the Ray Kniff Singers Faws?

Ray Conniff. Conniff, that guy? Ray Conniff. Well, they were great. They were great. You're really corny, aren't you? Yes. You can't be too corny at Christmas. No, you can't. That's the thing. Here's what you don't want to be at Christmas.

Bah humbug, like this guy right here. That's the fucking problem with all these modern day, they're cool. I don't want cool, I want horny. Do you actually like Christmas? I like Christmas. I love to decorate, but even when I go crazy and decorate, you kind of are like, oh, that's so nice. You don't get that excited. I like it. You don't actually get super excited about anything. No. He doesn't, right? I mean, you've known him a long time.

Trying to think. Airplanes. Airplanes. Yeah, airplanes. He gets super excited about, and he does get super excited about finding somebody, some new talent he loves. Yeah, I mean. You do. Yeah, the day I stumbled upon Celine, and again, preface, she was already famous in Quebec, so it's not like I discovered her. You were excited about me for a long time. Oh, I still am. But to hear, I mean, a great voice is exciting. Yeah. What was the, give me the Celine, where, I have this vision like,

She was like at a state fair. Yeah, she was. Was she? Okay, so I was right. It was a Sunday afternoon picnic in the rain. Families running, kids running all over the place. She was up there singing I Will Survive. And she couldn't speak any English, so it was just all phonetic. But she was like killing that. I was just like...

I was just staring at the stage and I was like looking around. I was going, do you people that are all talking at your picnic tables, do you know what you're seeing here? This was in Quebec. Right. And I talked to her afterwards. But it was all her family. They've heard her a million times, right? So they were just... Well, no, it was open to the public. Oh, okay. Yeah. So, yeah. And then we, you know, I helped bring her down to LA and did her first record. What about...

Michael Bublé. It was just the music. I mean, it was just the voice, the tone. The voice. And the range. The voice. But the way, I mean, like nobody has heard. She can do Celine. Watch this. No, no, I can't. Yes, you can. I can't. I do like a very like cartoon version of. Come on now. It takes me a second to get into it. Yeah, take a minute. I know. For all those times you stood for me.

Is that good? Even with that last bit? No. You didn't do like, you gotta do it three times. No. Thank you.

Amazing. It's so good. Is that good? It's okay. It's so good. It's really good. And she doesn't actually do anybody else. I love it. She goes, you know, she does that. Oh, it's so good. So fucking, I could do this all night. And the other thing we have to talk about is your production on Whitney's, on I Will Always Love You.

That whole album is so good. Yeah. Among your contributions is the famous break at the beginning, right? We call it Boom and I. Boom and I. Tell me about this. Because it's boom. And I. A boom and I. Boom and I. Boom and I. Boom and I. Anita Whitaker came up with that for me. She said, that boom and I moment.

Boom and I. The boom and I moment. Yeah, exactly. Well, it was a simple little country song and I've always tried in my record making to create those moments where I would imagine the audience would jump up in their feet in the middle of the song. And I didn't figure that, I mean, didn't happen very often, but when it did, like in that or All By Myself with Celine where she hits the high note.

And Boom and I was probably the greatest example of that. I never heard that, actually. No? Boom and I? Cute. Well, there's our title for this episode. Boom and I. Boom and I. Fuck yeah, man. So sick. All by myself is who sang it? Celine. Well, it was originally Eric Carman. Oh. Great song. Yeah. And then I took it and reimagined it.

I never needed anyone. And making love was just for fun. Those days are gone. Those days are gone. It's got an extremely high note in it. So crazy high. Like, it's so high. I'm still working on that high note. Yeah, but it's so powerful and so effective. What's the highest note you've ever heard a human being sing? It's got to be a Mariah Carey. Probably Mariah. Or, no, Minnie Riperton, probably. Oh, Minnie Riperton. Yeah, Minnie Riperton. But, you know. But not in like a belt. But once you get up there, it's just a squeak. It sounds weird. It's not a talent.

It sounds weird, right? Can you sing up there, babe? No. I used to be able to do whistle tones before. Do it. No, I can't. You can't do it at all? No, my voice is too healthy now. Oh. My voice was unhealthy for a long time and I was able to do like...

The sort of airy whistle tone. Yeah. I can't do it anymore. I saw Kenny Loggins yesterday. Oh, love him. We did a thing for Santa Barbara Charities and I told him I was going to be seeing you. He loves you. You got a great Kenny Loggins story. I do? Well, isn't that the story about how he's a boy? She's going to get Kenny's mixed up. Oh. It's Kenny Rogers. Oh, sorry. I like that she's going to get Kenny's mixed up.

She's going to get the Kenny. All the Kennys. Kenny G, Kenny Rogers, Kenny Loggins. Work for them all. I know who Kenny G is. Kenny G's your friend. Kenny G's my buddy. Yeah. Love Kenny. He's great. Speaking of a guy who loves airplanes. Oh my God. Yeah. Tell me the Kenny Rogers story. I'm down for Kenny Rogers. Well, it just goes back to, we do this in our show. We have great banter in our show together because we, believe it or not, have great chemistry. Can't you tell? Yeah. So I was producing Kenny Rogers and Chicago at the same time. And this song was number one right now that Peter and I wrote.

So that song was number one and I was producing Kenny at the time. I was doing this song with Kenny. Oh, good one.

We've got tomorrow. Who needs tomorrow? Anyway, and so that was a big hit. So me and Kenny were... Wait, isn't that Bob Seger? Yes, but we covered it as a duet with Sheena Easton and Kenny Rogers, and it was a big hit. Yes. Anyway, so he says, why don't you boys write me one of those Chicago songs, man? I'd love to have one of those. They're great. And Kenny was a wonderful guy. Did you know him at all? No. He was an amazing...

You know, we'd go to McDonald's on breaks. He'd drive his little Ford Geo or Chevy Geo or whatever and just pull up. I said, Kenny, aren't you worried you're going to get mobbed? He says, I don't care. I love people. You know, and he would just go. No security. And, you know, he was massively huge. Yeah, yes. Arena tours all over the world. Oh, Kenny Rogers. Yeah. In the 70s and 80s. Are you kidding me? Anyway, so Peter Satir and I got excited. We said, yeah, we'll write you a song. So we wrote him a song. We played it for him. And you, did you like, you're like, this is a hit. Yeah. Oh, yeah.

Hello. Yep. You're the meaning in my life. You're the inspiration. So that's the song we wrote for Kenny Rogers and we played it for Kenny. He said, boys, I appreciate it, but I don't think that's a hit.

So we did it with Chicago instead. But you know what? You can't be right all the time. You can't be right all the time. It wasn't right for him. I wonder what it was. It wasn't right for him. And probably wasn't right for him. Maybe it was, you know, and it might not have been a hit with him. But it's funny, though, that he said, I want a Chicago hit. Yeah. A Chicago-esque song. And to that point, over the years, I've had so many people, you know, back in the day that call me to produce them, and they'd say,

Yeah, we really want you to produce my artist, but we don't really want that David Foster sound. That's all I know. That's such a weird thing to say. Strange thing to say, isn't it? Yeah. That is very odd. Yeah. I'm trying to, is there anything else we need to cover? Well, I'd like to, you know what I had to talk about a little bit? Yes. No, you don't need to. No, no. I just want to talk about your series, Smash.

Oh, I have a lot of thoughts about that. Yeah. Yeah. I know you do because we've talked about it before. It was like a hundred years ago. Well, do you think these songs were 300 years ago? If that's a hundred years ago, the songs were 300 years ago. 300. You're right. I know he's just being sweet. He's like, oh, we're talking too much about me. I don't care. No, I'm not. Because I think that you, I was such a fan of that show, as you know. No lie. We weren't dating then. You were married. It's true. You text me. And I was like, God, this show is amazing.

Amazing. You were proud of me. Yeah, I was. And the fact that it only got two seasons was so crazy. Spielberg produced. But I will say this about Smash because I was on that network at the same time. Oh, that's right. Never in the history of the entertainment business has a network tried harder than on that show. Really? Oh, my. Dude, they made every other show stop shooting and do a musical.

Yeah. To promote the show. It's famous. It's on YouTube right now. It was Bob Greenblatt's first year with NBC. And he was like, this is going to be my baby. What was the song that we did that we all had to... The Parks and Rec cast were singing and dancing. The 30 Rock cast was singing. The Office and... Let Me Be Your Star? No, I don't think so. And it was all for... It was all for that show. That is really wild. Yeah. Oh, yeah. No, they... You had the full power of every... They blew it up. I remember the Super Bowl that year. It was like...

every other commercial was for Smash. But sometimes even when you throw the kitchen sink at it, it just doesn't, I mean, it did well for the first year. It must have been too niche, I guess.

too niche, you know, that not enough people care about Broadway. I don't know. I don't know. She was, you were great in it. Yeah. They both were her and Megan, Angelica Houston. Yeah. Yeah. It was a really good cast. It was, it was, uh, it was, it was awesome. I love, I mean, TV musicals are sick. I love, I love musicals period. They don't work on TV. I wonder why. I know. I, I don't know. I, have you have done one of the live ones? I feel like one of the NBC. I haven't. How have you not done that? Cause that,

Because the only good one that I saw was Sound of Music. You just don't have a very good agent, maybe. Sound of Music was one of the first ones. I can name five I saw that I didn't like. You mean that one? That one was with Carrie Underwood. She played. Was it? I know. I thought it was good. Oh, that's. Yeah. I mean, listen, I just for me, no one is better than Julie Andrews. Well, I mean, that goes without saying. Yeah. But that was great. What else? Okay. No, I think that it's nice they do those shows because it's just like it just keeps that

that genre and that world alive. So I appreciate that they do them and families love it. It's like great family watching. It's a good segue to just say that I'm in Chicago right now with my musical Betty Boop. Yes. And we open Sunday night, this Sunday night in Chicago. No, wait, really? Yes. No way. This has nothing to do with me, but yeah, David's show is opening and

I'm going to go see it on... Well, it's opening for previews. On the 19th. It opens really on December 6th. December 6th. So I will be there December 6th. In Chicago. So you did the score. Yeah. Who did the book? So beautiful. A guy named Bob Martin, who's a wonderful writer. His last conquest was a show called The Prom, which did very well. Yeah. And Jerry Mitchell's directing is amazing. Susan Birkenhead did the lyrics and she's a...

great lyricists. So it's a great team. We have David Rockwell doing the sets. We have Tony Winters doing... It's a great crew. It's a cast and crew of 100 people there. Right now in Chicago, I came here just for this weekend. Amazing. And I'll be going back. Well, and...

I'm glad that you did. This was so, so much fun. It was. We could go. I mean, we got to go again. I mean, my favorite thing is the picture of you and I drinking kamikazes out of the Stanley Cup. I have that photo. Oh, I miss those good days. You know, he doesn't drink. You don't miss me neither. But how about that it's a kamikaze? Do they even make that drink anymore? I have never even heard of that drink. I don't know. It's so 1985. How long have you not drank for? 31 years? Oh, wow. You both don't drink.

31 years? Well, I never drank. 1990. Well, you clearly did drink if you were drinking. Well, I mean, I drank a little bit, but not like wasted on the lawn of the Parliament Buildings of Victoria. Were you at his bachelor party before he got married to Linda? I was not. Oh, because I heard that one was a wild time. Ed Snyder saved me. Oh, God. Ed. Let's not talk about it. So many friends. Yeah, me passed out on the lawn of the Parliament Buildings of Victoria the night after our event. Oh, my God.

It's a career highlight. You guys are crazy. It was in the paper. They took a picture of him in the paper. Stop it. 6 a.m. sleeping on the lawn. You're kidding me. Is this real? That may or may not be true. No, it's real. It's real. That's amazing. I mean, it's not amazing. But your wife knows about it. I'm not telling anything out of school, right? Everybody know, please. It was in the paper, for God's sakes. Google me. You know, young, wild, and free. Yeah? Well, I mean, look, Rob Lowe and his contemporaries then. They did a lot of stupid stuff, too. Yeah, but they owned the world.

They owned it. They were like the Rat Pack. They were the Sinatra and the Dean Martin. They owned it. Wow. They could, they were riding as high as you could high. And then you continued. And David wrote the theme. Higher and higher. Boom and I. You've been listening to Literally with Rob Lowe, produced by me, Nick Liao. With help from associate producer, Sarah Begar. Research by Alyssa Grawl. Editing by Jerron Ferguson. Engineering and mixing by Rich Garcia.

Our executive producers are Rob Lowe for Low Profile, Adam Sachs, Jeff Ross, and myself for Team Coco, and Colin Anderson for Stitcher. Booking by Deirdre Dodd, music by Devin Bryant. Special thanks to Hidden City Studios. Thanks for listening. We'll see you next time on Literally with Rob Lowe.

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