This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed human. You can scroll the headlines all day and still feel empty. I'm Ben Higgins, and If You Can Hear Me is where culture meets the soul. Honest conversations about identity, loss, purpose, peace, faith, and everything in between. Celebrities, thinkers, everyday people, some have answers. Most are still figuring it out. And if you've ever felt like there has to be more to the story, this show is for you. Listen to If You Can Hear Me on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Amanda Knox, and in the new podcast Doubt, The Case of Lucy Letby, we unpack the story of an unimaginable tragedy that gripped the UK in 2023. But what if we didn't get the whole story? How did this have been made to fit? The moment you look at the whole picture, the case collapsed. What if the truth was disguised by a story we chose to believe? Oh my God, I think she might be innocent. Listen to Doubt, The Case of Lucy Letby on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is Special Agent Regal, Special Agent Bradley Hall. In 2018, the FBI took down a ring of spies working for China's Ministry of State Security, one of the most mysterious intelligence agencies in the world. The Sixth Bureau podcast is a story of the inner workings of the MSS and how one man's ambition and mistakes opened its vault of secrets. Listen to The Sixth Bureau on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Clayton Eckerd. In 2022, I was the lead of ABC's The Bachelor. But here's the thing. Bachelor fans hated him. If I could press a button and rewind it, all I would. That's when his life took a disturbing turn. A one-night stand would end in a courtroom. The media is here. This case has gone viral. The dating contract. Agree to date me, but I'm also suing you. This is unlike anything I've ever seen before. I'm Stephanie Young. Listen to Love Trapped on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Taking a walk Nashville. Hi, this is Sarah Harrelson, your host of Taking a Walk Nashville. And today I am back in the Russell Hotels podcast studio in East Nashville. And here with me is Tony Mantor. Tony is an established singer-songwriter, pianist, podcast host, and record-charting music producer who is celebrating working in Nashville for more than 30 years. The Madison, Maine native first arrived in Nashville as a touring sideman for country music sensation Ronnie McDowell in 1976. Since that time, Mantor has progressed into an award-winning music producer, recording and placing 33 songs into the top 40, 16 songs into the top 10 of various U.S. major music charts. He's worked with the likes of Debbie Campbell, the daughter of Glenn Campbell, Bobby Brooks Wilson, son of Jackie Wilson, Happy Day star and singer Donnie Most, and many other country artists. Inspired to have his music make a difference in the lives of people His recent song, Why Not Me Has become the inspiration for launching a new podcast in 2023 Also called Why Not Me Which focuses on autism awareness, acceptance, and understanding And features one-on-one interviews with those who have been touched by autism Since its launch, the Why Not Me podcast has been downloaded more than 9 million times worldwide In 2024, Mantor debuted his second self-produced podcast, Almost Live Nashville. It's currently number two on the Apple Podcast Music Category chart. And turning his attention back to the world of entertainment, music, and TV, Mantor also hosts the thought-provoking stories with celebrity guests on this podcast who share how they've achieved their own success. We'll be right back with more of the Taking a Walk Nashville podcast. Welcome to Taking a Walk Nashville with your host, singer-songwriter, Sarah Harrelson. So, Tony, you are a man of many talents, and I'm so glad you're here on Taking a Walk Nashville today. How are you? I'm doing good. Thanks for having me. Yeah, thanks for being here. So, I want to start by talking about the beginning of your career. um how did you make the move from the northeast down to nashville free music i i had to look up where madison uh maine was i've been to bar harbor but not in that town before yeah bar harbor is about an hour and a half from where i grew up um it's an interesting story i started out just performing like anyone does, where we join the band, we go out and perform, we have our dreams, we hope that we can make it. I was a rock singer. I did more Eagles, you know, that type of music. I wasn't a country singer. And I had some friends of mine that were country songwriters. They didn't have the transportation. They wanted me to take them to Nashville. and because I didn't know what Nashville was other than country, I thought George Jones, that type of thing, which I really appreciated all the Johnny Cash's of the world and everything for what they did and how they got there. I just wasn't a country fan at that time. And I looked at them and I said, why would I want to go to Nashville? It's a country city. I'm more on the pop and the rock side. They talked me into it. I wound up coming down and they pitched their songs around and how it all kind of fell together was we went in the studio they got a publishing deal we went in the studio and the piano player didn't show up and back then you didn't have a cell phone where you could just say where are you you know they didn't show up you just moved on or or found someone else real quick because I was a piano player and they the producers found out about it they asked me to play on it and i'm and here i am playing in a demo situation situation with some of the best musicians in nashville so long story short a guy walks in and he's a independent record label he knows everybody in the room except for me he comes over introduces himself to top we talk and then he says well what are you doing this summer i said well i'm just kind of taking a few months off to find out what I'm going to do. And then he's good friends with Ronnie McDowell's manager. And he goes, how would you like to go out and perform with Ronnie McDowell? I said, who's that? And that was kind of before he became Ronnie McDowell, you know. So I wound up doing a short tour with him and then just kept my contacts growing in Nashville. And to be honest, walking into a Nashville studio with the players, the atmosphere is just so much different than New York and LA. You know, so it, it was worth the trip. And a little bit warmer winters here than Maine. Yeah Yeah I mean it but actually it as warm in in Maine today as it is down here Yeah Which is wild That never happens It really is It really is So you been in Nashville for a long time and you seen how Nashville has evolved over the decades. What's your opinion of the new Nashville now? Well, you know, a lot of the people that I know say they are so glad that they grew up and worked through the transition of what old Nashville is to new Nashville, because we changed from two-inch 24-track tape to digital. So all that transition, and then the changing of the music styles to where country isn't the country that they once knew. So with that said, it's different, you know, in the fact that the dynamics have changed, but everybody still has the same dream. They still have the same process. They just have to figure out how they're going to do it. So as much as a lot of people want the old country back, it's never going to come back. You know, it's always evolving. So the only thing I don't like is that some of the iconic studios have been torn down to become hotels and condos. That I don't like. I mean, one of the most famous studios that Paul McCartney recorded in, it's been torn down and now you've got condos in there. You know, that I don't like. But everything else as far as the way that the transition of the music has evolved, it's just an evolution of everything keeps turning around. And now there's a lot of 90s country that's starting to come back again. So the circle always keeps evolving. It's just a matter of you being able to accept it and grow and build and work and adapt. And that's kind of what I've tried to do. Yeah, I think that's important, being able to adapt. And with the evolvement of technology, more people are producing and recording at home studios or their own homes now, which has led to the closing of some major studios in Nashville and on Music Row, which is sad to see. I personally love being able to get together in a studio with other people because it kind of brings out the creative side of everyone. And there's something to be said about the community aspect of recording on a studio together with other people. It does. Yeah. So how has it evolved for you as a producer? I know you said you have adapted and accepted change with technology, but has it changed how you have been a producer for other artists? uh no because i i still stay true to my roots i like the interaction between the players because when you have great players you bring them into a studio to do what they do best if you can just kind of have a whip out there and say do what i say then it doesn't matter you can put them in five different places at different times and let them overdub and it'll be fine But if you give them the creative ability to work and do what they do, then you can always say, you know, I love what you're doing, but I need you to tone it back or I need you to change this. Or sometimes you'll just get the magic where they make a mistake, but the mistake is so damn good that you go, you know what? No, don't change that. Let's leave it exactly the way it is. so the ability for the players to sit in that studio and talk back and forth and work out their parts and and then do it is still the very best way then the only thing that's changed is now i can do overdubs i can do those type of things virtually because then i'm just telling them okay this is what i want you to do to the track that's already there and then because vocally i have them come into my studio, we lay down the vocals and then I bring in the background vocals. I guide them the way I want it to go there. So everything still stays the same, but we have adapted to bring in some of the new ways of doing things so that it can quicken up the process slightly. Right. And I think sometimes, especially with vocal sessions, it makes it quicker being in person instead of back and forth cutting vocals, you know, over the internet. Yeah. And, and it allows me as a producer to tell them, no, this is what I'm thinking that I need you to do. Because as much as I hate to say it, you know, because it seems like I'm throwing darts at some of the singers, but they don't know what they're doing sometimes. You know, they're putting all their attention on one word in the line and it's the wrong word. You know, so you have to take and know exactly what you want the singer to sing and the emotions that you want them to put on a particular phrase or word so that when the listener hears it, it draws them in. And sometimes when you do it virtually, you can't just do it three or four or five times in a row. So, I mean, I've spent an hour and a half on one word before, just getting it where it needed to be. And then after the singer heard it, they're going, you know, you put me through the grinder, but I really do like that. And that's something you can't get virtually. Yeah, yeah, I agree. In addition to being a producer and musician, you're also an artist and songwriter. I know you mentioned you're working with Debbie Campbell right now, and you have a song out with her, correct? Yeah, actually, I have a song out with her and Bobby Wilson, Jackie Wilson's son. It's the old song that Glenn Campbell did, Shoulder to Shoulder, with Tanya Tucker. Wow. And so we were trying to figure out what would be a good singer to put with her, because you had to have a male singer and they had to cover Glenn. But I didn't want to go country, because that would seem like we're just reproducing something that's already been done. So I brought in an R&B singer and Jackie Wilson's son, Bobby. And he was able to bring his texture in there so that we still paid tribute to the original song, but we still allowed it to be their song. And it turned out really good. Very cool. Yeah. And you also have another song, Why Not Me, which inspired you to start your podcast with your first podcast, Why Not Me. And it's such a beautiful music video. I watched it and it has to do with awareness of autism. Do you have a personal experience with autism that made you want to write the song and start this podcast? Well, actually, I didn't write it. A friend of mine wrote it. It started out, the story of how this whole thing came together is one Saturday morning about nine o'clock, I woke up and turned on and I went into my email and there's a song sitting there. And I had recorded one of his songs with another artist I worked with a few years prior. I heard the song and I called him up. I said, man, you wrote this song for me, didn't you? Because it's about never giving up on your dreams. It doesn't matter when you do it, as long as you do it. And that's what I post on my Facebook all the time. Never give up. You keep working, do it. So I told him, I said, you know, I'm working on, and this was during COVID. So I was working on a personal project just to do for the fun of it. So I told him, I said, no, I'm going to cut this song. So I cut it. And I cut it with a pot flare but I added a steel in it to give it a texture like the Eagles used to do And then all of a sudden I getting people that want to hear something I doing so I send it out to them. I said, oh man, you recorded a country song. I'm going, it's not country. You know, but perception is reality, so if they want to call it a country, then fine. Because it was a positive song, my promoters in New York, Nashville, LA, and London wanted me to release it. I'm going, no, I'm not getting back out on the road. I'm just doing this for the fun of it. It's just enjoyment. It's something to kill time. So they talked me into release, and I did. And it did well. I mean, it went number two in the secondary charts. And I felt like if I'm going to put it out there, I need to pay tribute to someone. So I chose to pay tribute to our first responders. so i got i had done um a couple years before that i had done a charity event for a fallen officer and i just called up a couple people say hey can you get me some pictures of you know police and firemen and all that and then before too long it got out there and i had people wanting to be part of that video from all over the country so i wound up putting it together it did well and then how the autism came about is a lady heard the song and she really liked it and she called me up and she sent me an email she goes is there any way that you could do this for us and she was a speech therapist for autistic children i told her i really don't know anything about autism other than i've got a couple friends that that have have relatives but i don't they don't talk about it so i decided to re-record the song in a more contemporary pot version and create a video with autistic and special needs here in nashville so i call it why not me nashville so that people could differentiate between why not me the so-called country song and why not me nashville for the autism and special needs and it just blew up it just started blowing up and at that time, I was co-hosting a podcast out of New York on business, and we were talking about the music business on my part of it. And I told them, I said, you got to take in at least the last five minutes, we need to talk about the video I just did for autism and special needs. So they agreed to it, and then they wanted to extend the contract, and I felt that in order to do what I wanted to do, I needed to start my own. We'll be right back with more of the Taking a Walk Nashville podcast. Welcome back to Taking a Walk Nashville. So I started my own podcast. At that time, it was called Why Not Me the World, because it was about a worldwide autism podcast. And it grew, and eventually I changed it and rebranded it this year to Why Not Me, embracing autism and mental health worldwide. So that's kind of how it all evolved and how it all happened. And it just seemed to happen all by itself. Yeah, it's amazing. You just hit 9 million downloads on the podcast. And I think it's great because you're giving awareness to these voices of autism and mental health throughout the whole world. Yeah, it's crazy. I mean, it's shown up in in podcast charts, Apple and Spotify, in all kinds of countries all around the world. So it's not just the U.S. It's been in Canada. It's been in Brazil. It's been in Argentina, South Africa. I mean, several countries in Europe and, of course, the U.K. I mean, it's just crazy. Yeah. And if listeners on Taking a Walk Nashville have not heard the podcast, you can check it out on iHeartMedia, Apple Podcasts, wherever you get your podcasts. But in addition to that, you also have your other podcast, Almost Live Nashville. How do you have the time to do two podcasts at once? Well, you know, it's really interesting because when I told everyone that I was going to be doing a podcast, everyone just naturally assumed that because I'm in music, I've been here for the long length of time that I've been here, that it was going to be an entertainment music podcast. Yeah. So when I did Why Not Me, and it was about autism, it caught everybody off guard. It's like, what's this? I said, well, you know, I can't do another one because I don't know that much about podcasting yet. I was just actually just learning myself. This was a little over two years ago. so once I had about a year year and a half and under my belt I decided to create almost live Nashville and have it focused on different artists that I've known or different people I've come in contact with over the years and and just build it that way but I decided to make it an every other week podcast rather than every week and it just I didn't know what to expect but it just kind of blew up on me the same way. I mean, I just reached, I haven't put it out there yet, but I just reached 3 million downloads on that. You know, and it's hitting, it's in 20 different countries around the world in the top charts. I mean, it just caught me off guard. I didn't expect it. But I've had some great, great people come on and I've got great people lined up to come on. And it's really amazing. I have people that email me every single day wanting to be on one of the other podcasts or both. I mean, it's just, I'm overwhelmed with the amount of people that want to be on it. Yeah, that's wonderful. Congratulations. So you have two podcasts, you have artists you're working with, songs that you're releasing yourself. You're doing it all right now. So what's next for you? Is it releasing more music as an artist, working with more artists as a producer? Well, I've got a few songs that I've worked on that I could release through some of the other artists. I've got another song that I recorded last year that I haven't put out yet that I'm thinking about putting out with a video because I did Why Not Me for autism. Now I'm thinking about doing this one for the mental health side. and um i have i've i've just started work i'm i've been uh i'm three three chapters away from finishing a book wow you know and and the book is going to be about autism and mental health and what i and it's basically what i've learned through the podcast bring up different little stories that people have told and it's uh um i'm hoping that that my main focus the music one is it's fun to do because I deal with people that I know and, and we talk music and we get to laugh and have fun with it. But the autism and the mental health one is one that needs to be heard because people do not realize that they could be seeing a child having a meltdown in a store and they think that the parenting is bad when it's really not. It's the child having meltdown. the parent is doing what they're trying to do and in 10 or 15 minutes it'll subside and they'll be okay you know and until we learn to recognize that the difference between a meltdown and somebody just being you know a brat so to speak because that what they think they are you know oh they being a brat and they not So until we learn the difference between a meltdown and just an undisciplined child we need to have a little empathy and we need to learn. And then when you get into the mental health side, you've got ADHD, you've got bipolar, you've got anxiety, schizophrenia, You've got so many different things that people walking around, you don't realize what they're going through. And it's not like cerebral palsy or MS or some things like that, because you can see that. But with autism and serious mental illness and those type of situations, you can't see it. So if you can't see it, then you automatically think that it's not real. so we have to learn more about it as a society so that we can take and tone it down a little bit and help the people that need the help so that's my goal with the with the podcast is because people open up their lives to me and tell me things that they probably wouldn't tell many people and they tell things that they've never told me told others before because they're bearing their souls to the listener. And so it's educational and informative and heartwarming, and you can laugh, you can cry right along with them, but hopefully you're learning from them. And then this book, once it gets out, if it gets out, because I'm not going to self-publish, I'm going to take and try and get somebody to handle it. So once I get that taken care of, then I'm hoping people reading it can learn from the different things that's been told to me so that if one or two people learn something from it, then it's a win. Yeah, I think it's great that you are bringing awareness to this topic through your podcast and also a book, and I'm definitely looking forward to that when it does come out. Tony, thanks again for being here with me on Taking a Walk Nashville today. This is something I always ask my guest, do you have a favorite place you like to take a walk in Nashville? I've always liked the Parthenon, you know, going down there. Centennial Park. Yeah, Centennial Park, yeah. And, of course, Music Row, you know, because you asked me earlier what changes I haven't liked. That's one thing that's lost Because Music Row used to be you could walk down 16th and 17th and you could walk into these old buildings and you'd walk into an independent label or an independent publisher or a producer or anything. And because of everything being online now, that has kind of died. but still 16th and 17th is still nice to walk down and just look at the you know what's still left there and and realize that this is the path that elvis took this is the path that that uh because if you go down in the old rca building you know that elvis has signed his concrete there you know uh you can you can look at places where some of the icons of country music have been And that hopefully never goes away. Yeah, it is said that a lot of studios and iconic places on Music Row have closed and, you know, corporate buildings and condos have been built there. But there are still some great things like RCA there. One of my first internships in college was at Nashville Songwriters Association. And that was the time where it was easier for people to go into the buildings to drop their demo into a publisher or label. And, of course, they would just send them all down to NSAI to get affiliated with us. So I think that's something that's still a little bit lost from Music Row. So it's a little bit bittersweet, but there's been a lot of good change, too. Oh, yeah, absolutely. You know, it's it's you just have to adapt. You have to keep changing with it because if you don't change, then you die. You know, so I've got a lot of friends of mine that have moved away from Nashville because they got tired of the change. And they said, well, I'm getting ready to retire anyway. So they did. And I'm just not there. You know, it's like, you know, I love doing music. I love doing working with people and telling stories and just going through the whole thing. So you just keep evolving. You just keep working. And now it's just a little more selective. That's all. Absolutely. Yeah. And there's still so many creative projects to work on. I hope our listeners will trickle over to your podcast if they haven't already tuned in. Listen to your music and check out the other artists that you've been producing as well. Yeah. Yeah. That'd be great. And they can find me at TonyMantra.com. Perfect. Yeah. We look forward to that. Tony, thank you so much for being on Taking a Walk Nashville today. Yeah. Thanks. I appreciate it. It's been great. Thanks for listening to Taking a Walk Nashville with singer-songwriter Sarah Harrelson. And check out our other podcasts, Music Save Me, Comedy Save Me, and Taking a Walk. Available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. You can scroll the headlines all day and still feel empty. I'm Ben Higgins, and If You Can Hear Me is where culture meets the soul. Honest conversations about identity, loss, purpose, peace, faith, and everything in between. Celebrities, thinkers, everyday people, some have answers, most are still figuring it out. And if you've ever felt like there has to be more to the story, this show is for you. Listen to If You Can Hear Me on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is Special Agent Regal, Special Agent Bradley Hall. In 2018, the FBI took down a ring of spies working for China's Ministry of State Security, one of the most mysterious intelligence agencies in the world. The Sixth Bureau podcast is a story of the inner workings of the MSS and how one man's ambition and mistakes opened its vault of secrets. Listen to The Sixth Bureau on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Amanda Knox, and in the new podcast Doubt, the case of Lucy Letby we unpack the story of an unimaginable tragedy that gripped the UK in 2023 but what if we didn't get the whole story how did this have been made to fit the moment you look at the whole picture the case collapsed what if the truth was disguised by a story we chose to believe oh my god, I think she might be innocent listen to Doubt, the case of Lucy Letby on the iHeartRadio app Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Clayton Eckerd. In 2022, I was the lead of ABC's The Bachelor. But here's the thing. Bachelor fans hated him. If I could press a button and rewind it, all I would. That's when his life took a disturbing turn. A one-night stand would end in a courtroom. The media is here. This case has gone viral. The dating contract. Agree to date me, but I'm also suing you. This is unlike anything I've ever seen before.
