Billy Henrickle recently had the opportunity to interview the great singer/songwriter, G Tom Mac. Many will know him for his massive hit “Cry Little Sister” from the 80’s classic The Lost Boys. Here is some of what they talked about.
BH: Welcome and thanks for taking the time to talk with me this evening.
GTM: Of course, thanks for having me on.
BH: Let’s start with The Lost Boys movie and your massive hit song Cry Little Sister.
GTM: Sure. Yes it was a big hit for the movie and me. People gravitated to the song after watching the movie. It has sort of taken on a life of its own. I had written 18 songs for films up to that point including Fast Times at Ridgemont High. With this song, I had not seen the movie when I started writing. Joel Schumacher, the director called me and asked if I would write the theme song to his movie. He was already a fan of my work. I said yes, when can I have a look at the film? He said well we are still shooting, but what if I send you the script just to get some inspiration. I said well you never know, so he sent me the script via Warner Brothers. I read it and thought this was the coolest script I had read in a long time. I was living in New York at the time. So the next morning I got inspired, and went to my piano and started banging away some ideas, then went to my guitar and worked on different ways to formulate the song. Before you know it, the song was kind of writing itself if you will, coming out so fast. So I got in the cab and went to my studio which was just up the road. I was trying to keep the melody in my head, I had a Walkman with my ideas as well. The cab driver was blasting his music during the ride and I’m going oh man. So I get to my studio and by that time I already had the idea of the chorus, and I go straight for my piano. It was just so magical how it all came together in just those 2 or 3 hours. I then recorded it and sent them a demo. Five days later Joel called me back and said how did you know? I play it on set and everybody goes what is that? They loved it and he let me know I nailed his theme song.
BH: Wow, amazing to visualize that process as a fan of the song and movie.
GTM: Yes. When we started to place the song properly in the film, it looked totally different than what was in my head. But it was wonderful what the film looked like. That film was not a blockbuster when it came out. It did well, but what it did over time has been remarkable. I come across people that have never seen the film but know the song. I tell them that the film is half the deal, you need to see it.
BH: The song is timeless and resonates with fans of all ages and genres of music.
GTM: Yes, I was given the freedom to create and that type of freedom doesn’t always come in a movie. My fan base is in their late teens to much older, its great.
It is great to have that one song that is universal among the fans. When it was finished, the record label Atlantic wanted a bigger name musician to sing the song. They wanted Phil Collins, or Steve Perry. They had people audition for my song. Joel and Richard Donner had the final say and they said none of them had the feel for this movie as Gerard McMahon does. I went by my proper name back then.
BH: I remember seeing you perform an acoustic version of Cry Little Sister with Corey Haim. How did that come about? I was a big Corey Haim fan.
GTM: The interesting thing was when the movie came out I wasn’t able to attend the premiere because I was in London working with Robert Plant, so at that time I didn’t get to meet any of the actors. It was many years later I was invited to play at this Monster Mania Con in New Jersey to perform and sign autographs. It was at this time I met Corey Haim, Corey Feldman and some of the other actors for the first time. Corey was going through his thing at that time and he was wanting to hang out for some mentorship and positive environment. So I tried to help him, he was very creative in music also. We sat down and as a kind of therapy we wrote a song together, went in my studio and recorded it. A year later he passed away.
BH: Wow. The song I saw he was beating the bongos.
GTM: Yeah, that was in the lobby of the hotel after my performance at the convention. There were around 300 people in the lobby of that hotel. The police and the fire department had to come out and tell us we could not have that many people in the lobby. Brooke McCarter was there also. He actually was an incredible drummer and became my drummer for awhile. So we just set up and people couldn’t believe we were doing it. It was fun.
BH: Let’s talk about your musical that is about this great movie.
GTM: I had been planning for this musical, “The Lost Boys Story” for some time and so excited for everyone to see it next year. I had been writing for like 10 hours a day getting it done. Then I started writing the songs and presented it to everyone involved and they said we have a winner. It is a process and we got there, but then this shit storm of a year happened and we are at a bit of a stand still right now. But it will happen soon.
BH: That is great. Congrats man. Where can people learn more?
GTM: My Facebook page is G Tom Mac and my website is www.gtommac.com
BH: Great, thanks for your time G.
GTM: Thanks for having me.