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00:00I'm Matt Carey, documentary editor at Deadline, and we are in the Deadline studio at the Toronto
00:15International Film Festival. One of the films premiering here is Paul Anka, His Way, and
00:21we are joined by the film's director, John Maggio, and by the legend, the extraordinary
00:26singer-songwriter, Paul Anka. Thank you so much. It's a real thrill to have you both
00:31here. Thank you very much. Good to be back home again. Yeah, you're an Ottawa native.
00:35I'm an Ottawa boy and a struggling singer in Toronto years ago. And it all started here
00:42and then quickly shifted to New York, as we see, when you were a teenager. I mean, this
00:47life, can you believe that you have lived this life? I can't believe I'm still here
00:51talking to you. I left home at 15, 100 bucks in my pocket, went to New York, got very lucky
00:57with Diana and the dream has continued. And here I am back home again, where I always
01:03like to get back to because it's a special place. And we're here with a film, which I've
01:09been working on with John for about a year and a half now. And it's always good to get
01:13back. And this is a new one for me. Usually I'm promoting records and music. Now I'm promoting
01:18a film. What is his way? What is the way that Paul Anka goes about his life and his
01:27music career? Paul is one of the most successful music artists in history. His songs have been
01:35recorded by every major legend of the 20th and 21st century. And I don't know, you know,
01:42the drive I think comes from having been born in Canada and moved to New York. And he had
01:47an incredible work ethic. That blend of innate talent and ability to write melody and lyric,
01:53that comes from somewhere else. We don't know. But the drive I think is from the fact that
01:58he was born here, came to America. And as he says in the film, that big elephant in
02:03the room that was America, he wanted to come down and conquer it. And he's been doing it
02:07for many decades. It takes incredible bravery to do that. One of the most touching parts
02:14of the film, I think, is here about your relationship with your mom and your dad and
02:19your mother, very sadly passed away when you were only 18. And you got to write a beautiful
02:25song about her and tribute to her. What did it mean to you that she saw your success?
02:30I mean, you were so young and you... Yeah. Well, it meant a lot. It didn't mean enough
02:36because it didn't last too long. She was very supportive, you know, living in Ottawa. Back
02:42then it was, what, 200,000 people. Canada, as I said, was in the shadow of the elephant,
02:49the U.S. We had no industry per se. Television was just starting. Music was in its infancy
02:55stage. But she worked. She worked at Cicero Buck. My dad worked. But she knew that I had
03:00the passion and what I wanted to do. And she'd give me the money to go buy the records and
03:03everything. And, you know, my dad wouldn't get home till late at night. And she'd be
03:07always there convincing him that I was focusing on music. And they allowed me to do that.
03:13And she was really the one that turned the tide to allow me to go down to New York on
03:17an Easter break with 100 bucks. And she was the one that said, no, let him go, Dad. He's
03:24got something. And she used to drive me over to Quebec. You know, you remember back then
03:28there was liquor over there and the buzz was over there and we were dry in Ontario. So
03:34the fun was in Quebec. So I'd go over in her little Austin Healy and she would drive
03:38me. Other than the one night I stole it for an hour and got picked up by the Mounties.
03:43But I'd go over there and win about 20 bucks. So she knew everything that I was into. So
03:48to please her and to have that success and then to watch her every day, take her diabetic
03:53shots, which was not fun. And then to slowly see the decline as I started to rise in this
03:59dream that hit me all of a sudden. It wasn't fun, but I was committed to what I was doing.
04:05And then when I lost her, it was obviously a very traumatic time in my life. It's part
04:10of life, unfortunately. But in answer to your question, I hope she saw enough. I mean, my
04:15first paycheck, I bought her a nice home down in New Jersey where I had to live. You know,
04:20she was always, we had a small house. We weren't rich people. So I did everything I could for
04:24her and spent the time with her. And she was my motivation. And look, I'm not the only
04:29one. People lose parents, people lose siblings, people lose friends, and it's just part of
04:35the life and you've got to get up and do it again. And one day we'll all meet somewhere
04:39down the road, you know.
04:41Indeed, indeed. The catalog of songs, I mean, 900 published songs and who knows, I think
04:47maybe only Dolly Parton might rival you in terms of productivity. But songs that are
04:54so much a part of us, and some songs that people don't realize you wrote, I think.
05:00That's what I was going to say.
05:03I felt it coming out of your bones.
05:06And songs that you wrote for other artists like Tom Jones, She's a Lady, and that you
05:10performed with him. We see a wonderful clip of you guys doing a duet of that. But yes,
05:15the Tonight Show thing with Johnny Carson, it's like, oh my goodness, Paul Anka also
05:20wrote that. You know, the drive to do that, as Johnny, you were referring to, where does
05:27that come from? I mean, and you're such a decisive person. That's his way, I think.
05:33So decisive.
05:33You know, when you start that young and everybody's kind of against you in a sense, you know,
05:38people don't realize what it was like back there trying to make it, especially out of
05:42Canada, a country I was proud of, and nobody really cared about Canadians. You know, we
05:46were struggling along, and I'm going, no, we're special up here, right? So the point
05:52was, it was the drive, it was the conviction, and it was the passion of something that I
05:56loved. In answer to your question, you know, when I sat and wrote My Way, which took five
06:01hours of words, I said, where the hell did this come from? You know, I was motivated
06:05by Sinatra because he was quitting. My life was with him and the Mafia. And one day my
06:10thing was to write a song, he's quitting. It came out of me in five hours, and I really
06:15started to subscribe to the dynamic of something spiritual is in this universe for a lot of
06:21us that write. Because a lot of the guys that I know and that are writers, sometimes they
06:25don't know where the hell it's coming from. So that's what I'm saying to you, you work
06:28at your craft, you try to improve as you go along, but there's something spiritual, there's
06:33something up there that's happening when you're doing that. So you just stay committed, keep
06:39your nose clean, which I was taught by the boys, and you do what you do, you know?
06:45And when you say, in the Mafia, you were...
06:48No, I wasn't in the Mafia, I worked for the Mafia. I was too young to be in the Mafia.
06:53Thank goodness.
06:54No, no, you have to realize, when you look at, study the history of America or a lot
06:57of these countries, you know, the Mafia or whatever you want to call them, they ran a
07:02lot of the commerce, a lot of the business. You know, the great thing about America, Canada,
07:06they came from all over. Thus, they ran the music business, they ran the nightclubs, so
07:12you had no choice but to work for them. But once you got in there and they liked you,
07:17and they would do this and behave and do this, you go, yes, sir, but you're making money
07:21for them, so they're not going to touch you. Nobody muscled me. I was too young. I mean,
07:25they were scratching their head, what the hell I was doing there anyway? Eighteen-year-old
07:28in Vegas and all of that. But working for them, I must tell you, was an absolute experience.
07:35And when you look at it in modern times, you have Mafia in all cases, even politicians,
07:39the Mafia, a lot of these countries. So back then, it was the guys who ultimately got old
07:44and all of that kind of diffused itself into where we're at today.
07:49Yeah. Distribution for this film. I know it's at this point an acquisition title. What can
07:53you tell us about that, John, and what your hopes are for the film?
07:57My hopes are that the most people, anybody that sees the film is going to fall in love
08:02with it. There are all these gee whiz moments, as you describe, that you just like you can't
08:06believe, you know, the career that Paul's had and the legends he's been around and worked
08:10with. My hope is that we premiere here and we generate some good buzz. And I have no
08:15doubt that, you know, we'll be on streamers and in theaters sometime soon.
08:20You've been embraced by the TikTok generation. We hear the cover by Doja Cat. And then also
08:27we hear about a remarkable thing. You've made these songs with Michael Jackson that were
08:32not released, but then eventually came out after his passing. So people have embraced
08:38you now. And that's got to feel very special because, man, the music business, from everything
08:44I know about it, it's tough.
08:46It ain't what it used to be at all. TikTok, look, as I say in the film, you told me ten
08:53years ago there was going to be a TikTok. I said, we're going to tick you. So we live
08:57in that fast moving society that we're in. But when that all started, a bunch of kids
09:02came to my door because I've got a 19-year-old son and they started singing Put You On My
09:06Shoulder at the door. How do you know the song? They said, TikTok. Well, I don't know
09:10what TikTok was. I said to my son, Ethan, what the hell is TikTok? He said, well, dad.
09:16So when I look at that, I had nothing to do with it. You know, you just write songs. There's
09:21a black hole between you and that public. And I don't know how it affects people until
09:26you get in front of them singing. But with TikTok, for whatever reason, some songs last.
09:32We've embraced it. It's out there. Now where I never had any kids at the show, kids, teenagers,
09:38now I got 30 percent young people with albums and screaming. And I'm trying to remind them
09:42how old I am, even though I don't live my age. I don't I don't believe in the numbers
09:46of all of that. It's it's something that, you know, we know how important an entity
09:51TikTok is. It's not going to go away anyway soon. But you're grateful. You know, now my
09:56ways got legs on TikTok. Now there's an article in Forbes. I don't know. You're grateful.
10:02You're humbled by it. Whatever. You know, human beings are human beings. And I relate
10:07to all of them. But when I look at TikTok, I look at it as a force in where it stands
10:13in terms of culturally where we're at today. For better or for worse.
10:16Yeah. Well, I think better in the case of you, certainly. And for you know, it's it's
10:21the way people are communicating and gathering. And so it's very exciting. And we see you
10:26in the film with the incredible pipes you still have, which is amazing. And the connection
10:32with the audience. That is something very special. It really is. And I have to say,
10:36when I started making the film, when Paul and I met and we were talking about ideas
10:40for the film, I thought I was going to just really settle down with the guy who wrote
10:44nine hundred songs, many of them chart toppers, and we were going to get really cerebral about
10:47the craft of songwriting. But there is this sort of spiritual sense of his of his just
10:53natural talent and how you how you create the song. But there was a moment in Japan
10:58when I was with Paul playing a sold out Tokyo Dome. OK, thousands and thousands of people,
11:02many who didn't speak English. And Paul entered through the back of the of the stadium and
11:08we followed him and the crowd just erupted and they wanted to reach out and touch Paul
11:13And then note for note, singing every song along with him. And so I realized the film
11:18itself had transmitted. It was going to be, you know, I recognize the life force and Paul's
11:22power on stage and how much of a pure entertain. He's not just a songwriter. He's a pure entertainer.
11:27And so that helped me sort of shape the film in a different way. Oh, it's one of the great
11:32moments in there. We also see the incredible shot of you as a kid in a box. And you explain
11:38that you had to be snuck out of concerts in Japan because you were so popular back then.
11:43But that's a story for another day. For those who will see the films, I want to thank you
11:47both. Paul Anka, the legendary singer songwriter. It's a thrill to have you here. And director
11:52John Maggio. Paul Anka, his way is the film at the Toronto International Film Festival.