Find the entire Off The Road series at hawaiipublicradio.org/offtheroad.
Today HPR All Things Considered Host Dave Lawrence concludes two days with mainland concert promoter and sometime-Hawaii resident, Danny Zelisko, of Danny Zelisko Presents.
Danny is based in Phoenix and promotes shows in many other nearby regions of the country. He’s got almost fifty years of experience in the concert promotion industry. He also is a sometime-Maui resident.
He recently released a book, All Excess: Occupation Concert Promoter.
In part one of a two day feature, we started with Danny giving us his take on the concert industry attempting to restart during the pandemic. He also shared some fun stories from the book, including how he first connected with manager Shep Gordon and his famous client, Alice Cooper, at an early 70s concert in Arizona. Danny also offered up the story of his first encounter with legendary concert promoter Bill Graham at a San Francisco Bay-area show that featured Yes, with Edgar and Johnny Winter as opening act.
Today we’ll hear a range of stories from the book connecting to a who’s who of entertainers. Danny discusses his role in the concert event that was part of the filming of "A Star Is Born" with Kris Kristofferson and Barbra Streisand.
He also talked about times he presented James Brown, whose road manager at the time was the Rev. Al Sharpton! He's got a hilarious story of a Whitney Houston show where boxer Mike Tyson made a... surprise appearance.
And we topped it off with an inspiring encounter with Beatle Paul McCartney.
MORE:
See Danny speaking with Rick Nielsen of Cheap Trick:
Danny speaks with Roger Waters of Pink Floyd:
Danny speaks with Tommy Shaw of Styx:
Off The Road started in April 2020 when the pandemic led to a halt in the touring entertainment industry. Connecting with artists around the world since, we’ve offered intimate conversations and many exclusive musical performances with some of the biggest names in music, spanning many genres, eras and styles. Some of the highlight artists we’ve welcomed so far include Carlos Santana, Linda Ronstadt, Al Di Meola, 10,000 Maniacs, Alice Cooper, Soul Asylum, John McLaughlin, Deep Purple, Third World, George Benson, Heart, Joe Satriani, The Doors, Randy Brecker, Peter Frampton and System of a Down.
