I’m older than Cory and I grew up with Michael since he began. He was almost a little bit nervously excited that he was working with Michael Jackson. I just remember walking in the studio before Michael had gotten there and Jay Z was working on lyrics for what he was going to do and I just remember that Jay Z almost was, I never saw him so humble. He was doing a mix of a track with Jay Z and Jay Z had already become quite a player in the business. The actual time I spent with him was just a couple of days. Well, my dealings unlike Cory were very limited. What were your dealings with Michael and what did you learn about him while he was with Sony? He was easily led in all sorts of directions by people and I was amazed by the fact that he was so easily led.Ĭhris, I have to say for more than a decade there you were a major player at "Sony Music Entertainment". It’s like he would have an album done and I would listen to all this music and say, ‘Michael, this is unbelievable!’ : ‘Yeah, but I don’t think it’s ready yet’ Because he’s got a million people in his ear telling him different things in different directions. He was so eager to please that he kinda over thought a lot of things. The first thing that I started to learn about him is that he’s always so eager to please. I mean that’s the – you hit it on the head. It seemed like he didn’t at some point have control of his life, am I right? So what did you learn from him in that time that you became his ally? Like who he was? It just seems like there were always people trying to leach off of him and telling him to do one thing or another. It was amazing! I quickly became his number one ally at the company. He felt like at the time at Sony that he didn’t really have any allies or anyone that was going to be in his corner.”
I think I felt like my strengths for him at the time more so than being a writer or producer, but to be his inside man at the time because it was weird. Then the relationship quickly turned in to me being an executive at the time. Kind of like almost an utter distraction, not getting work done and talking about a bunch of other things? It was a completely different experience than I thought it was going to be.” It’s funny, someone asked me this the other day and I said, ‘I waited all my life and my career pretty much to finally get a chance to work with Michael, be recognized, to have my talent recognized by Michael.’ When it came time finally for us to get in the studio, we spent almost a month of just talking and he was educating me on like so many different things. What was your relationship like with him? Most importantly, Rooney and Apostle hope people remember Michael Jackson’s contributions to music and as Apostle says, recognize the musicologist he was.Ĭory, you had a chance to work with Michael, you wrote and produced some songs with him. Both men were major players during pop music’s peak. Apostle clarifies that stars at that level are often under extraordinary pressure and may say things in the heat of the moment. He says Michael felt nobody was in his corner, that he wasn’t getting the love and respect he deserved. Rooney was not surprised when Jackson lashed out at then Sony head Tommy Mot tola in 2002. While working on music with Michael, Rooney had an opportunity to see a side of Jackson few ever did. During his time at Epic, Cory became friends with Michael Jackson. He has written and produced for artists including Jennifer Lopez, Mary J Blige, and Destiny’s Child among others.
VH1 has called Rooney the best kept secret in the music industry.
In 1998, Mot tola named Rooney Epic’s Vice President of A&R. He would become better known as Tommy Mot tola’s – the company’s topper and a music industry legend – right hand man, working with everyone from Mariah Carey to Jennifer Lopez to Marc Anthony.įor the last 20 years, Apostle has been friends with producer/songwriter Cory Rooney. In 1993, music executive Chris Apostle began his stint as Vice President of Special Recording Projects at Sony Music Entertainment.
0 kommentar(er)
