Legendary Rock Interviews recently caught up with veteran guitarist/producer/label executive/manager JACK PONTI for a look back at his extensive career. An excerpt from the interview is available below:

(Jack Ponti and Jon Bon Jovi back in the day)

LRI: Begin by telling us what’s going on with MRV Music and your career….

Jack Ponti: "I’ve been very lucky and blessed in my life and career. As you may know, I retired from writing and producing in late 1991. I really had no intention of coming back in. However by sheer accident, I began managing, at first writers and producers, then artists. All of them in urban music, which was quite the departure from rock. At the end we had 37 clients and in my last year of managing, our clients had a combined 20 Grammy nominations including 7 alone for India.Arie on her debut album. We had some great clients like India.Arie, Boyz II Men, Scarface, Az Yet and a slew of top gun writers and producers like Carlos Broady, Jelly Roll, and N.O. Joe Johnson, to name a few.

I was ready to retire again, but met up with some people in the UK from the private equity world and began the design of a new label model. The past seven years that has been what I have been doing, running various incarnations of a new label model. I have also been doing a tremendous amount of consulting for labels and managers as well. About two years ago we began a relationship with David Letterman’s Worldwide Pants company, of which we are now partners with, on a label venture, management venture and publishing model. You couldn’t ask for better partners and I am honored to have them in my life.

We are close to the final design of that model which is essentially a shared services unit that will replicate a labels function without being the label. Call it label for hire. I really think it’s the only logical step for the business to take next. I have a duplicate model in the process of being built on the publishing side."

LRI: You worked with some bands like EVERY MOTHERS NIGHTMARE, BATON ROUGE and BABYLON A.D. that had lots to offer but due to timing or whatever just never got that massive MTV or press push. I still think that the Babylon A.D. debut record was and is fantastic. Is it literally a crap shoot trying to determine whether the stuff that makes your hair stand on end in the studio is gonna get bought up by the millions? Because that’s basically what producer Michael Wagener told us; there’s no fucking way to rationalize industry success. It takes so many variables.

Jack Ponti: "There are four tires on the car: Artist, Label, Manager, and Luck. If you have all four spinning, boom you hit the big time. Three tires you might get home. Two tires, you sit in the driveway jerking off. I love Wagener to pieces. Michael is the ultimate cheerleader and ultimate Mr. Enthusiasm, the hair stands on end for him on every record he makes. A fucking tambourine can make Wagener’s hair stand on end."

Go to this location for the complete interview.