M23YOS Extra: How Tony Bennett's Small Kindness Changed My Life

Kindness costs nothing, but it can reap incredible returns.

Like many, I was sad to hear of Tony Bennett’s passing. He put smiles on so many faces over the course of his incredible career. It got me thinking about a chance encounter very early on in my career that directly led to my big NYC break at 23. That story follows.

I never had a long conversation with him, and he didn’t even know my name, but I’m pretty sure that thanks to an incident ~25 years ago, Tony Bennett was responsible for my career.

I was 21 or 22, living in Chicago and working as a baby publicist/office manager for indie label Scratchie Records, founded by James Iha and D’arcy Wretzky of The Smashing Pumpkins, the fabulous Jeremy Freeman, and the sadly late, very great Adam Schlesinger.

At Scratchie, I worked with The Frogs. They largely flew under the radar, but had a remarkable number of rock god fans, from Kurt Cobain to Eddie Vedder to Steve Albini. Hell, even No Doubt-era Gwen Stefani was into them. Their fans included some clued-in journalists, and the Scratchie team scored a huge get for them — they were to go to NYC and be interviewed by MTV News. I jumped in their van and drove out to NYC with them to coordinate things.

If you don’t know The Frogs…well, trying to describe them in full couldn’t be done justice as part of a Tony Bennett tribute. They were two wonderful guys who prided themselves on doing what they wanted, when they wanted, how they wanted.

To make a very long story short, that included getting upset when, minutes before the interview started, they were told they couldn’t do something their way. They stormed out of the studio, and it soon became apparent they weren’t returning.

I was horrified. I called my boss, who rightly yelled at me for not calling him immediately when things started going south. I was a baby and ill-equipped to defuse the situation. And to walk out on MTV?! On my watch? Unthinkable.

I went out to the lobby of the studio, which was then in a facility shared with other productions at 42nd and 10th. I sat on a couch with my head in my hands, weeping softly.

My life was over. I’d dropped out of college, a poor kid walking away from a scholarship, to take this job. There was no coming back from this. I was sure I’d be fired. Word would get around about how inept I was. It was curtains for me, professionally. I was absolutely certain of that.

And then I heard a voice.

“Hey kid!”

I looked up, and standing above me was Tony Bennett. I swear to God, it looked like there was a halo around his head.

“Don’t be sad. It’s not that bad. Lemme see that smile!” Stunned, I managed a small smile, and weakly croaked out, “Thank you, Mr. Bennett.”

He went on his way. Once I’d processed this for a few seconds, it felt like I’d been hit by a bolt of lightning.

I jumped up and ran — yes, ran, and if you know me, you know I don’t run — from 42nd and 10th to 45th and Broadway. I talked my way into the MTV building, marched into the office of the person at MTV News who’d booked them, and reminded him that The Frogs were…well, eccentric, and that this was to be expected.

He didn’t say anything for a few seconds. I’m pretty sure I wasn’t breathing at that point. And then he told me that yes, they were PO’d, but it took a lot of guts for me to go over there, and that it was water under the bridge.

Suddenly, it no longer seemed like my life was over. And this was all thanks to a kind word from Tony Bennett.

Thanks for everything, Tony.