Talk with Donna

0:00John:and there's, you get these calls from these agents or whoever it is-

0:03Donna:Yeah

0:03John:... like and I got this one phone call, and it was,"Mr. Jackson would like to come in and eat tonight."

0:08Donna:Oh.

0:08John:Well, what you say Mr. on Ventura Boulevard, and you're right around the corner from the Jackson house-

0:13Donna:Mm-hmm

0:13John:... and not that far from all the different places. So I'm, I'm now going,"Oh my God."

0:17Donna:Yeah.

0:17John:I've got Michael Jackson is coming into the restaurant tonight. I am like... And so I'm **** around to the staff, like,"Don't make a deal about it. This is it. Mr. Jackson needs his would've carried him in, uh, uh, you know, if I could've. And I'm just getting so excited, so excited-

0:33Donna:Yeah

0:33John:... so excited. So nine o'clock rolls around, limo pulls up in front of the building. I walk outside, like standing by the door. Window rolls down and it's Jermaine.

0:46Donna:Oh, man. Not the Jackson we expected or wanted.

0:50John:Not the Jackson I was expect-

0:51Donna:Damn

0:51John:... but here's the deal. Here was the cool part.

0:53Donna:Still exciting.

0:53John:Still was on the Victory Tour.

0:55Donna:Yes.

0:56John:And I got to meet his son. And Jermaine Jr. at the time, who's, you know, uh, probably in his 40s now, that I got to have a conversation with Jermaine and his son sitting in a private dining room going,"Man, I'm kinda disappointed Michael wasn't here, but-"

1:12Donna:Oh, you, you said this?

1:14John:Not to him.

1:14Donna:No. Okay.

1:15John:But sitting there and having a conversation and just getting... And I'm like, I am sitting as 22, 23-year-old sitting with, you know, Jermaine Jackson and his son, and Michael's brother, and just, you know, the, the whole Hayvenhurst, you know, stories.

1:28Donna:Still historical.

1:29John:Oh, still historical. I guess who-

1:31Donna:Have you seen what he's done with his hair lately?

1:32John:I, I-

1:32Donna:It's been an internet meme

1:33John:... you know what? I, I actually-

1:34Donna:It's not great

1:34John:... watched the documentary or the movie-

1:36Donna:Yeah

1:36John:... or whatever came out here recently. I actually thought it was pretty good.

1:39Donna:I gotta see it. Yeah.

1:40John:Um, kid was amazing in it. Um, but it was, uh, yeah, it, it, you just have all these different... You know, I, I will say this just to bang on him if, you know, somehow this ever got out.

1:49Donna:Oh, he'll see this.

1:50John:So-

1:51Donna:We're not hiding him

1:51John:... not him. No, he was great. But it was funny'cause there were two guys who in particular used to try to come into the restaurant incognito.

1:59Donna:Yeah.

2:00John:Now, the incognito thing I think has kinda gone the way of, you know, it's, it's... But it was a thing at-

2:05Donna:Yeah

2:05John:... some point. And so one night Arsenio Hall came into the restaurant. One of the most recognizable people probably on earth at that point in time, tried to come in incognito. The other one that would come in incognito all the time, and this one also cracked me up, was Matt LeBlanc.

2:25Donna:Oh, wow.

2:25John:And Matt LeBlanc had the worst, and this is at Friends at its heyday-... had the worst fake mustache and, and police officer, you know, had the old chips.

2:35Donna:Bringing more attention to him probably.

2:37John:Oh, it was, it was just, it, hilarious. But then you had other guys that were not afraid of who they were. Not that these guys were afraid of it, but were, who not, who were not afraid of who they were, lived it, owned it, and then were super cool to everybody. Brad Pitt-

2:51Donna:Yeah. I love that

2:51John:... one of the greatest guys-

2:52Donna:I love to hear that

2:52John:... you'd ever meet in your life. Um, and then, uh, um, Tom Cruise.

2:58Donna:I heard he's the... I've only heard good things. I wanna meet him.

3:01John:Phenomenal guy.

3:01Donna:Yeah.

3:02John:Yeah, I mean, and this, I mean, imagine, put yourself in, you know, 24-year-old shoes and you're sitting there and you're like,"These are the greatest." The Lakers for the most part were great. The producers, and it was nothing that... The thing I will say about that time in LA is, is you never... You, you would respect every single person that came in because you never knew who anybody was.

3:21Donna:Yeah.

3:22John:And I found out, uh, VH1 back in the day used to have this show, Behind the Music, that was on and-

3:27Donna:The best

3:27John:... they did, it was great documentaries on bands and this and that, and I remember there was one guy who showed up on one that I had been, like become friends with this guy's family and him, and they'd dine in the restaurant once a week, and all this other stuff. And come to find out he was like the record producer for Quiet Riot, Motley Crue, all these other guys.

3:46Donna:Sick.

3:46John:And I'm sitting there and I'm like,"My God, I've never even... Music never even came up with him."

3:50Donna:Yeah.

3:51John:And that's, that, that was the cool side of it, when you really got to see the guys that ran the city from a, from an entertainment standpoint. And so they were very generous too.

4:00Donna:Yeah.

4:00John:It was not a-

4:01Donna:I feel like I caught the last piece of that in LA. Like, it, I, I sort of bridge now between two worlds-

4:08John:Mm-hmm

4:08Donna:... but I get excited by, like I love those OG-

4:10John:Yeah

4:11Donna:... Hollywood people and the fact that like there used to be like a real star system, and that's what made it exciting.

4:16John:Yeah. It was-

4:16Donna:It's kinda like the new world we're living in, you know, again, like there's very few restaurants with that kind of excitement in LA. And by the way, I still love LA.

4:25John:Yeah.

4:25Donna:I just, like you, we split our time in a lot of different places. I think the people that are complaining about LA, to be frank, are the people that have felt the industry has changed so dramatically-

4:34John:Mm-hmm

4:34Donna:... that a lot of the fun, and the perks, and the jobs have, that existed back then, and the infrastructure of that town, but that's a whole other thing. But, um, I like the fact that there still are a few restaurants, like Craig's our favorite place-

4:45John:Oh

4:45Donna:... where you can walk... And by the way, I'm gonna try that trick of calling ahead and be,"Oh, Jingle Jared's on his way. I'm like..."

4:50John:I'm not attacking-

4:50Donna:"Can you have a table in LA?"

4:51John:You know-

4:51Donna:I don't know that you've gotten your actual dream-

4:53John:But I wanna attract more attention.

4:55Donna:Yeah.

4:55John:I'm kidding. Um-

4:56Donna:Craig's old school LA. That's what I like about Craig. You see Craig-

4:59John:And the nicest guy in the world

5:00Donna:... oh, they, they, the most generous.

5:01John:Yeah.

5:02Donna:Like generosity, yeah

5:02John:... that's what people don't really understand about LA-

5:04Donna:Yeah

5:04John:... is it is a community of people who all know each other, and I think that people who aren't from there sometimes feel intimidated or they're like Hollywood, Hollyweird, all this stuff.

5:13Donna:Yeah.

5:13John:Um, but I've on- the people that you mentioned, the Brad Pitts, the Tom Cruise, I've only heard incredible things about them.

5:19Donna:Yeah.

5:19John:Like human beings, good people.

5:20Donna:I mean, and, and, and, you know, they're not gonna remember anybody they necessarily interacted with, but to show that generosity or just show that decency when you're kinda going through and, and, and just getting those one time one, you know, two, three touches in a lifetime. Great guys. The thing, you know, it's funny. I, to, uh, I, this came up. We were, we were in, we were eating at Craig's in Nashville, uh, probably not more than a month ago, and I'm sitting, and I, and I look up, and David Foster-

5:48John:Yeah

5:48Donna:... is sitting right at the table next to us, and he's with his wife, uh, Katherine McPhee I believe-

5:54John:Mm-hmm

5:54Donna:... is, a- and, and a couple, uh, couple of, uh, country music guys, very well-known. And I'm sitting there and I, and it was interesting'cause you're looking at the rest of the crowd, it was pretty busy, Tuesday or Wednesday night, and you're watching this and you're realizing that nobody's **** to their tables trying to do this. And what it said to me is, is like he created such a home-