Jerry Goldstein's speech at the unveiling of War's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame

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https://www.maximotv.com  Film producer and singer-songwriter Jerry Goldstein's speech at the unveiling of War's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Thursday, June 5, 2025, at 6212 Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles, California, USA.  This video is available for editorial use in all media and worldwide. To ensure compliance and proper licensing of this video, please contact us at https://www.maximotv.com. ©MaximoTV #maximotv  🇺🇸

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00:00Our first speaker is a co-writer, producer, co-manager, and one of the

00:07creative forces behind WAR. Please welcome, Jerry Goldstein!

00:13So, so Lonnie Jordan and I have been doing many, many, many, many, many

00:29just newspaper, magazine interviews, TV interviews, and the one question that

00:38everybody asks is, how'd this all happen? You know, how did WAR become WAR? So that's

00:44what I'll do today. I'll tell everybody how this happened, okay? In 1969, back a few

00:52years, we had a poster company, a very successful poster company, a guy named

00:57Steve Gold, and myself, and we represented Jimi Hendrix, and the Rolling Stones, and

01:04Led Zeppelin, and the Doors, and the Cream, and 50X, and we decided that we should sell

01:10the posters on the road. You know, we'll go out on the road, we'll sell the posters,

01:15we made little tour books, we sold those also. We basically put together the modern

01:20merchandising business that exists today, with the t-shirts, etc., and the hats. One

01:25of our poster salesmen was a guy named Peter Rosen, who kept saying, you got to hear my

01:31band, you got to hear my band, I'm really a bass player, we have this band, The Night

01:35Shift, and they're really fantastic, you got to hear my band, I mean, a hundred times a

01:39day. So finally, I said, okay, I'll hear your band. So I booked Studio Instrument Reynolds,

01:46which is down the street on Santa Monica Boulevard in Argyle, and they showed up, I showed up,

01:52they played their music, it was way different than anything I'd ever heard. They could play

01:59rock, they could play funk, they could play jazz, they could play blues, they could play

02:03Latin, and they were in every genre, and it really threw me back, because I just really

02:09didn't know what to do with a group that could do all of that. And then they played the Rolling

02:15Stones Painted Black, they did a Latin version, that was just like, stunned me, okay? And I went,

02:22you know what, you guys keep rehearsing here, I'll come out every once in a while, we'll

02:27write some songs together, come up with something, let's, I don't know what to do yet, but we'll

02:32do something. And so they told me that they were playing behind this football player named

02:39Deacon Jones, this great Rams, you know, superstar, Hall of Famer, right? And he was doing a Las Vegas

02:46show, and they were the backup group, and they were going to play the rag doll in North Hollywood

02:50in about a week. And I said, yeah, I'll go out and check it out. As fate would have it,

02:56Eric Burden from the Animals shows up at one of my acts on the poster world, shows up very despondent

03:04in my office going, my current group of animals just broke up, my manager took all the money,

03:12I'm going back to New Castle, and I'm retiring from the business, I can't do this anymore. So it took me

03:18about two hours to get them off the floor, and we convince them that, look, just that's, you know,

03:23you're too talented for that. And by the way, I found this band that I don't know what to do with,

03:28but maybe you'd like them. And they're playing the rag doll tonight. So why don't you come down?

03:33Okay, so we meet at the rag doll. And Lee Oscar is living with Eric at the time, I think, right?

03:40And so Lee shows up with Eric. And there's Deacon Jones doing his show. He's doing like one handed

03:49pushups with the mic in the other hand going, Oh baby, don't leave me. You know what I mean?

03:53And it was quite interesting and quite different. And I went, Oh, okay. And, but after he did his

04:00thing, the band jammed that night for about an hour and Lee got up and jammed with the band. But of

04:06course the band thought that Lee was Eric Burden cause they had no clue who Eric Burden was. Okay.

04:11But everybody had a good time and I called Eric the next day and he said, and I said, so what'd you

04:17think of the band? So Eric goes, we're rehearsing at three o'clock at SIR. I went, Oh, that's a good sign.

04:25And so we got to SIR and there were four, there were five horn players. He fired four of the five horn

04:30players right away. And he kept Charles Miller and put Lee Oscar together with Charles Miller.

04:36And that was the horn section. I went, that's interesting. I'd never seen that before,

04:39but we'll see what happens. So they rehearsed for about a month. We did a couple of local dress

04:45rehearsal gigs and clubs. And the first real gig that we played was the Devons Downs Pop Festival,

04:52three day festival, a hundred thousand people, um, starring Jimi Hendrix, The Doors, Frank Zappa.

05:01And we played and followed Creedence Clearwater revival, which was huge at the time. And this

05:07is their first gig in front of a hundred thousand people and didn't play one animal song, a new

05:13repertoire of rock jazz and blues and tore it up. Everybody loved it. We couldn't believe it.

05:20Everybody was happy. So we figured this is going to happen. So Eric and I, and my then partner,

05:26Steve Gold met in the office a few days later when we formed this company called Far Out,

05:32which is pretty far out and still here. And we figured that we got to give this group a name

05:39because the night shift just doesn't work for us. And so we mulled it over. And it's like,

05:43if you remember 69 was like peace and love and the Vietnam war was happening or whatever.

05:49So we decided to call these guys war. Okay. Figuring it would create a reaction and nobody would ever

05:57forget the name. Okay. And in reality, here we are 55 years later, and it seems like nobody forgot the name, huh?

06:05So I would like to thank the original members, the current members, which Monty will introduce you to.

06:23Um, our families, our friends, all of the musicians that have played in war over the years. And there's

06:33been many, many musicians that have come in and played with us. The lowrider clubs, our fans,

06:41and most of all, the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce for giving us this fantastic honor of the star

06:53on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Thank you.

07:06So thank you.

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