SPEAKER_00 0:00

For five decades, Gloria Stefan's music has moved the world. This is Let It Loose, a Gloria Estefan podcast. The first fan-led show dedicated to her life, legacy, and impact. Lifelong Estefans, Carlos, Rob, and Wes explore the songs, moments, and stories that make Gloria an icon. If her music changed your life, then welcome home.

SPEAKER_03 0:26

Hey everybody, welcome back to another episode of Let It Loose. My name is Rob.

SPEAKER_04 0:30

I'm Wes. And I'm Carlos.

SPEAKER_03 0:33

And we have a very fun, interesting episode this week. What I love about our show, what I love about having a topic as niche as Gloria Steph on her career, is that we could really dive deep and go behind the scenes with people who normally wouldn't get the recognition or the notoriety that they deserve. So we're really diving deep and going behind the scenes with uh a couple today that I'm excited about.

SPEAKER_06 0:59

Listen, not for nothing, but I think it's pretty badass that we're pulling in the people that we've been able to pull in. Last week we had John DeFaria. Now we have Mo Fitzgibbon and Robert Walker. It's pretty cool.

SPEAKER_04 1:13

I mean, it's really cool to think I've watched this lady's productions hundreds and hundreds of times. But we all have, you know.

SPEAKER_06 1:22

But I don't think, you know, I'm not sure if everyone is as neurotic as you and I, Wes.

SPEAKER_05 1:29

Probably.

SPEAKER_06 1:30

You know, because I just remember seeing these videos of the evolution tour, the don't stop home video. And at the very end, you know, I'm reading the the credits and we would always see Walker Fitzgibbon, Mo Fitzgibbon. So that's why, you know, I think there's there may be some people that may not know who they are. But then once we dive into it, once we dive into this episode, they're going to realize, oh wow, I've known, I've known about their work for quite some time. That's right. Yeah, for sure. So pretty exciting stuff. Today on Let It Loose, we're joined by two powerhouse creatives whose work has helped shape some of the most iconic moments in music and television history. Mo Fitzgibbon and Robert W. Walker, together, the award-winning duo behind Walker Fitzgibbon TV and films, have worked with legendary artists, including Gloria Stefan, Shakira, Sting, and many more, creating unforgettable documentaries, music videos, television specials, and long-form productions. Their acclaimed work includes Lifetime Television's intimate portrait, Gloria Stefan, which earned the prestigious NCLR Alma Bravo Award for Outstanding Made-for-Television documentary, as well as Gloria Stefan's Grammy nominated DVD, Don't Stop, and the iconic Reach music video, an official visual theme for the 1996 Summer Olympics. With decades of experience spanning radio, film, television, advertising, and documentary storytelling, Mo and Robert have left an undeniable mark on the entertainment industry. And today they're letting it loose with us. Welcome, Mo and Rob.

SPEAKER_05 3:19

Hey Natalie.

SPEAKER_04 3:20

Thank you. Hi there. Thanks for coming on. Thank you for being here.

SPEAKER_01 3:25

What an intro. I hope we can live out.

SPEAKER_04 3:27

So good. So good.

SPEAKER_01 3:29

How are you guys doing?

SPEAKER_02 3:31

My God, you do voiceover? No.

SPEAKER_01 3:34

Doing great. We're excited to be here. It's it's it's it's an honor. It's a thrill. And you know, we're big fans too. So thanks for having us.

SPEAKER_06 3:45

Thank you guys for taking the time. And you know, I I know that you guys are very busy. You guys have a lot going on. So, you know, the fact that you guys are taking the time to just, you know, uh sit here with us and and chit-chat, it it means the world to us. And I know it's going to mean the world to so many uh uh out there in the let it loose uh land.

SPEAKER_04 4:06

All right. So for Rob and Mo, where are you originally from and how did you get into the entertainment industry?

SPEAKER_02 4:13

Okay, well, I will start with me. Well, I am a Miami girl born and raised.

SPEAKER_06 4:18

305?

SPEAKER_02 4:20

305. And the sort of my journey is, you know, I was born in the, you know, somewhere around there, you know, when all my kids that I grew up with came from Cuba. Um, and so I was always uh sort of wrapped around multidiverse uh kids growing up. Um so yeah, I'm a Miami girl. I used to skateboard and surf on South Beach.

SPEAKER_06 4:48

Oh nice.

SPEAKER_02 4:50

We had a beer there where the Delano is. No, seriously. Um I would do, I would go every weekend and surf and skateboard there. And I became famous on South Beach as the skateboard girl. And I would do handstands on a skateboard, and one day a photographer took photos of me with my seashell necklace and my little white bikini, and that picture went all over the world. And before you knew it, I was being hired to do handstands on skateboards in national television commercials.

SPEAKER_06 5:23

No way. Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_02 5:25

And it's very niche. She'll demo it for you after the podcast.

SPEAKER_05 5:37

Yeah, let's do it.

SPEAKER_04 5:39

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 5:40

That's too. Um, and I was fascinated with the crew and everything. And so, even as a kid, like 12, 13, 14, 15, I was already in the business. And I'm a school of hard knocks girl, so I'm self-educated.

SPEAKER_01 5:54

Love it.

SPEAKER_02 5:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:55

So when I was a kid, I wanted to be a DJ. I went to a fair. I grew up in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and I went to the Tulsa State Fair one year. I was about 11 years old, and they were doing a live remote broadcast from the fair. And so there was this guy there playing rock and roll music and surrounded by a sea of kids, and he had his wayfarers on and spotlights on. I thought, wow, that's a job for me. I could, I could get, I could get on with that. Wow. So as time went by, I I pursued that. And when I was fortunate enough when I was 17 years old, I got hired by the number one radio station in Tulsa. Because it was kind of a there was nobody my age on the radio. You know, these guys were all in their 20s or maybe even early 30s. So here I am, a teenager, a junior in high school. They hired me, and it was kind of a I don't know, I don't want to call it a gimmick, but it was certainly a calling card. And it blew up, and the show got really popular. I pursued a career in radio. I've always loved music. I play music, and I ended up uh, you know, in radio, like many entertainment pursuits, you got to go to bigger and bigger markets to get a bigger audience and have more success. So I went to Memphis, Tennessee first. And then I got a job in Miami, Florida. And the rest of that is history. And that's how I ended up getting to Miami. And along the way, I had a television show in Tulsa, and I was always I was involved in the recording scene in Memphis, which is a recording capital of the world since the 50s, I guess, and Aretha Franklin and all that stuff. I got involved in the recording studio scene there. So I've always been around music and the kind of behind the scenes of record making. I produced an album when I was 19 that did pretty well. So one thing led to another. I ended up in Miami and thinking, well, this is a stop on the way to New York or LA, which is kind of the nirvana of the radio business and the entertainment business. Miami's Miami.

SPEAKER_06 7:56

Right.

SPEAKER_01 7:56

Once you get in that vortex, baby, you ain't leaving. It's gonna take a team of horses. And I turned down a lot of offers to go, uh, you know, to LA back in the day, and I'm glad I didn't do it because Miami was like a golden era for me.

SPEAKER_06 8:12

What year did you land in Miami?

SPEAKER_01 8:14

I landed in Miami in the early 70s.

SPEAKER_06 8:17

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_01 8:18

Yeah, I was still a kid, and and um and then I I left the company that I worked for had me go off to Hawaii. They bought a station in Hawaii and I went on and kind of built that station and made it into something popular there. They did the same thing in Tampa, and so I and then I consulted all these different markets. Okay. It's based in Miami for for all of those years.

SPEAKER_02 8:46

And I have to say, Rob, thank you very much. Oh, you're more because he hooked me up with Frank Amadeo and Glorious Emily. Oh yes.

SPEAKER_04 8:54

That's kind of like this is leading into my next question.

SPEAKER_02 8:58

Yeah, go.

SPEAKER_04 8:59

When did your when did you first become aware of Gloria and Emilio and the Miami Sound Machine?

SPEAKER_01 9:03

The Miami Sound Machine, this is well documented and well known, was kind of like in Miami. They were sort of like a wedding band, they did quinceneatas, they did bar mitzvahs, and they were just like a local kind of club group and and stuff. So I was aware of them way early on. Then they would go to South America and play arenas, right?

SPEAKER_06 9:23

Incredible, right?

SPEAKER_01 9:25

30,000 people, you know, and then come back and go play a 200-person birthday party, and somebody's back in a week after that. But we knew of them, and Emilio was and still is the most prodigious, most effective, most powerful promoter that I've ever known in my life. And he was always coming to us with tapes, little tapes, little cassettes that they were making. And what do you think? And then does this have possible?

SPEAKER_06 9:54

And this is why you're at Y100.

SPEAKER_01 9:56

This is why I'm at Y100. Yeah, this is sometime, but before they blew up, yeah. Before it was Gloria Stefan and the Miami Sound Machine. This is first it was the Miami Latin boys, and weami Latin boys, yeah. They they got glory in the group, and then it became Miami Sound Machine and all that. So all that was going on behind the scenes before we ever started playing them on the radio, and um, you know, Emilia was relentless, and we were and it's a it's a we hear that, Rob, we hear that so much. I'm not breaking news here. I will also say this, too, and this is kind of maybe getting the cart ahead of the horse, but you know, long after they could have hired anybody at any amount of money anywhere in the world on any level of talent to do things for them, to fulfill for them. Emilio and Gloria Stefan are unspeakably loyal. Very they have kept us in the loop on project after project, and they started, you know, not long after they took off, and it continues to this day. I still voice things for uh for Emilio and Gloria's EPKs. When they win an award somewhere, they have a little pre-roll thing they want to play in the auditorium before she comes out. They hire me to do the voice.

SPEAKER_06 11:18

Wait, that's you?

SPEAKER_01 11:20

Yes, that's just little gestures like that that mean mean the world. And and so I just want to put that on the record right now that Gloria and Emilio Stefan are beyond solid gold, pure platinum as human beings.

SPEAKER_03 11:36

They are wonderful, and not surprising, but still it's nice to hear it co-signed again and again and again by different people that we talk to.

SPEAKER_02 11:42

She would handwrite notes to Robert, thank you so much. I have them all for taking our music, playing it. I mean, things like that. You just and you come across this stuff, you know, and it's there in your your wonderful memories, and you just can't believe that somebody wrote a letter like that for just saying thank you.

SPEAKER_01 12:05

But you know, again. That's also, you know, the things that nobody knows about behind the scenes that they do on a personal level. You probably know a lot about that. But uh they they obviously don't want to publicize it and be public about it. It's just something that they do because they can and they want to, and that's what they're about.

SPEAKER_06 12:26

And they just goes to show the type of people that they are.

SPEAKER_01 12:29

You know, I've met a lot of and worked with a lot of big names, big, big names. But I've been in the right place at the right time. If it hadn't been me, it would have been somebody else. You know, it didn't take a rocket scientist to listen to even the early stuff from Miami Sound Machine, and certainly Congo when Conga came in, it was like, oh my god, how fast can we get this on the air? Wow. If I it hadn't been me, somebody else would have done it. But I but the point is that they continually uh you know press onward and and and see greatness in our area. I don't know. I I feel like I'm beating it uh horse to death here about the quality of them as as human beings. But but they're all they're all they're all they're tough taskmasters too, you know, they're perfectionists.

SPEAKER_02 13:14

So I'd love to make sure that we we we say uh something about Amelia. If it's in here, same with her. If this is it, no, no, she will start directing on set. I mean, she will get off of that set and say, no, let me explain. This is how I want it. I saw the crane coming in. She understands camera moves, she she writes her treatments, incredible. That's amazing. These big shoes are palace, you know. She did Caesar Palace.

SPEAKER_04 13:47

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So when did you first meet them?

SPEAKER_02 13:50

Okay, they love Rob because Rob is their brother. You have to understand, he's a baby boy together with them in 1981 from the beginning of time. Like they love him. And so I'm his girl now. Frank now gets hired to be the media director. Frank and Rob are like brothers, and Frank wants his own machine, his own talent, his own team of people. So Rob said, You it's given. She will come in here and she will be your right-hand man.

SPEAKER_01 14:19

That's correct.

SPEAKER_02 14:20

And that is how it started.

SPEAKER_01 14:21

Frank Amadeo was so I'm at Y100, which for people who don't know, is a big radio station in Miami, Florida. It's still a big station there, but back in the day, it was it was beyond. And so, and it was a station full of Ryan Seacrest level talent, right? And so it was a big, big cultural touchstone. This is before Pandora and before Spotify.

SPEAKER_03 14:47

Yeah, right. This is really like the like the boom of radio, like the greatest moment for DJs and for people to get their music out there. So we would love to hear all about what it was like in the 80s in the music.

SPEAKER_01 15:04

It was the thing, it was the cultural icon. So I had been on the air there for some years at that point, and then they they made me program director of the radio station. And I took that on. I was telling a friend of mine not recently, I said, you know, back then I voiced all the promos. I I wrote all the promos, I voiced all the promos, I produced all the promos, I was the program director, and I was on the air four hours a day. So I was insane. But the owners of the radio station were very smart because they had a four-for-one deal.

SPEAKER_06 15:38

Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 15:40

It's like, well, they were really smart to do that. And I did it because I was still living in my dream. That little 11-year-old boy that saw that remote at the Tulsa State Fair, it still blew me away every day to get in front of that microphone and go to personal appearances and have a sea of people. And you know, you just had communion with people that that is uncon incomparable to this day. So anyway, this kid came along, very young. I don't know, he was probably 18, maybe at the time, 17, 18 years old. And he had a certain spark about it.

SPEAKER_02 16:15

16, 16.

SPEAKER_01 16:16

Was he 16 years old? He came in and he worked in the music research department. We had a team of young people who would make calls to the record shops and and they would survey uh high school kids and college students, and they we had this whole back channel of information coming in to us from the audience. And Frank Amadeo was that boy, and he came in with his heart on fire and his eyes ablaze, and this is what I want to do. And we gave him a job because he was not to be denied either. Oh wow, wow and an invaluable, invaluable employee, and we became partners and colleagues. So by the time Emilio was bringing tapes around, Frank had graduated to become the music director of the radio station. He had been the assistant music director, and then he became the music director. So I was the program director. Frank was the music director of the radio station, and we made the decisions on what was going to be played on the air and what had possibilities and what wasn't quite ready for prime time. And so that's how I met Frank Amadeo and how our relationship started. So we were, he was an invaluable part of the thing. And he said to me one time, this is this is a little anecdote that really has always meant something to me. He told me at one point he had a friend who was the promotions director at KISS FM in Los Angeles, big, big radio station, gigantic. The Y100 of LA, if you will. So this friend of his became uh came across this female talent, this this girl who said, Wow, this girl's so talented. I think I want to manage her. And she became Paula Abdul.

SPEAKER_06 18:05

Oh, wow. Wow.

SPEAKER_01 18:06

Frank says, Well, my buddy's got this girl of Paula Abdul. She's really and then Paula Abdul became Paula Abdul. And Frank said, I wish I could do something like that. That would be to me, you know, this was in one of our late night, you know, reveries. We were talking about life and where we wanted to go and how amazed we were at how well we were doing, and say, Yeah, there's bigger things, you know. If I could do what my friend Michael or whatever his name was with Paula Abdul, that would be my dream come true. So to see him years later not only become intrinsic to the Estefan machine, but but to become president of Estefan Enterprises, he lived the dream bigger than I ever did with mine, you know. So it was like Disneyland, our our careers.

SPEAKER_02 18:54

Not just that, but he wanted his own baby doll. And he loved Gloria because he could dress her up and give her the vision. No, seriously. Yeah, no, wow.

SPEAKER_03 19:09

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 19:10

His photo shoots were out. The things that they pop together, you've seen some of it in my DVDs that I produced for them. We captured some of those where they actually transformed her. There was just something about him and so tastefully. And it's yes, an artist.

SPEAKER_01 19:32

Yes, he was an absolute artist as well as a scientist. I told you about his research background. Yeah, he was an artist, and he could have been president of the world.

SPEAKER_06 19:42

He was such a delightful he really was.

SPEAKER_01 19:45

Never, I never met a person in my life that has had a single bad thing to say about Frank, who didn't not only didn't have anything bad to say about him, they actively loved the guy. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 20:03

Right. So when he gets this job, well, first of all, you guys together, you conga and doc the beat, the two of them, you know.

SPEAKER_03 20:12

Which segues us perfectly into my next question because you know, you have a lot of like visions of like when they talk about radio on TV, and like the phone lines are going crazy. Everybody's blowing up our phone lines after we play a song, and that's kind of how it has been in my head. When Miami Sound Machine starts getting played on Y100, what was that era like? And did people receive it in the way that I've been picturing my whole life that it was just like a boom, like no other?

SPEAKER_01 20:40

Whatever you think it was, yeah times it times 10. Oh, really? Wow, it was Beatlemania. It was a wild one of the wildest things ever. I'd been involved with Casey and the Sunshine Band before Gloria. So we're talking about 10 years before Gloria, right? So even Casey in the Sunshine Band. So I had seen the rabid way that Miami, and that's another thing about Miami. You know, if they love you in Miami, they love you to Andromeda and back. Forget I mean, they're crazy about you. So Conga, again, it didn't take a rocket scientist to hear that and go, wow, how fast can we get this on the air? And it was instantaneous.

SPEAKER_06 21:22

I was just gonna ask you, Rob, because I, you know, I grew up in Miami, but uh when when that song came out, I was five, six years old. So the the song's always been part of my life, but I don't recall, you know, uh the the reaction at the time when when it came out. So was it the moment that you guys started playing it, was it truly instant or did it take some time for people to gravitate to to the song?

SPEAKER_01 21:50

Took no time at all. Now, I will say also that of course it was in our our interest as radio people and as you know, people interested. In in you know, it was a partnership. They they had come up with this incredible piece of entertainment, just the most delightful three minutes and 38 seconds of energy that you've ever heard in your in your life. And but we also, you know, especially in those days with radio where people were truly listening to what you were saying, and we were very showbiz. We were all about being brief and being hot and energetic, and it was infectious enthusiasm. And we were able to authentically express the way we were excited about that music. And then the audience, as radio and television audiences will do, will take your lead and run with it, right? They'll go, wow, that is great. But beyond that, you could embellish the story, not artificially, but just by telling the facts. This is a hometown girl. This is a hometown guy, these are hometown players, Kiki and all the people in the band, all the guys in the band. This is our hometown group, right? This is these are our hometown artists. So that coupled with the quality of the music that they were making, it took no time at our call at all, Carlos. They were they were like, play it again, play it again, play it again. They couldn't get enough. It would be, you know, depending on who was popular at the time, it would be can you play Elton John? Can you play Madonna? Can you play whatever? Blah, blah, blah, blah. Well, as soon as Conga came, it was Conga, on your conga. Please put the please put conga, they would say. They'll say, please play conga. It was, can you put I Do Love You by Billy Stewart? You know, can you put Conga? It was like Beatlemania. And then, of course, when they started appearing in person, it was like it was forget it.

SPEAKER_06 23:53

Next level, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 23:53

No ramp up time. That's my long answer to your short question, Carlos. Love it.

SPEAKER_04 23:59

Love it.

SPEAKER_01 23:59

Rocket.

SPEAKER_04 24:00

So I want to jump back to Frank. Um, do you recall how he made the transition from radio into working with the Estefan?

SPEAKER_01 24:07

I had left Y100 because I I I was in the voiceover business, and that became a bigger business than I could even handle. I wish I had been four people at that point because I had plenty to plenty to do. And Frank had been made program director of Y100. And then so he heat he climbed the ladder that and this is before a Stefan, right? Yeah. But we we all he he obviously knew them. We all knew each other. We'd worked together for years at that point. Right. But he got hired by, I think it was Electra Records. Uh, and he was on the promotion side of it because he understood radio and he knew a lot of people in radio.

SPEAKER_05 24:44

Right.

SPEAKER_01 24:45

And so he got a job uh in the promotion in the National Promotions Department of Major Recording Labels. So he had gotten out of sort of the day-to-day of radio and was in in the on the record side of things.

SPEAKER_02 24:59

Management.

SPEAKER_01 25:00

Obviously, Emilio and Gloria had known him and known of him. Well, then when they when they saw what he could do in terms of the other side of the fence, so to speak, not the showbiz, kind of the promotional side, the planning side, the strategic side, how to put together artistic, authentic, motivating, energetic, all the things that you know are appropriate to the moment when they saw that. Um that's when they popped the questions, so to speak, said, you know, so again, it was a hometown thing, it was loyalty on top of to be fair to Frank, and in deference to Mr. Estefon's expertise and vision, he saw Frank Amadell and said, Hey, this guy can can do a lot for us. So that's that's how it came about. He had left radio, got into records, and then the media said, Mm-mm, you're still need to be here.

SPEAKER_06 25:58

Love it, love it.

SPEAKER_02 26:00

In my lifetime intimate portrait, he would walk around because I always rolled, you know. I always um everybody will tell you, I do it now. You look at my pages, I'm always making reels and stories. I've been doing since forever. And I would have the camera running, and you could hear him literally go, We didn't pick that song. Why is she doing that song? Her show, and she is telling her story, and this is about the thing she wants to tell him, not you, Frank. And we can hear us a little bit back there. He's like, oh, that's not the one I wanted.

SPEAKER_03 26:44

That's that's what I love about people who work who work so seriously and take their work so seriously, like Frank, like the Estephons, like you both. So Mo, we you talked a little about you met them in the early 90s. Was that also when you started working with them as well? Was that like your first project was 91?

SPEAKER_02 27:02

Yeah, the first one. Oh my god, I got in trouble.

SPEAKER_03 27:05

Uh oh.

SPEAKER_02 27:06

Okay, so I get so Frank brings me in because Rob and Frank and everything. And so my first task was to set up a three-camera switch. We called them switching. They were called flyaway packs because we would make packages where there are three cameras. You get a medium, a wide, and a close-up and different angles. So we do that, and it was all about the making of the album Me Tieto, and that went very well, and that was fantastic. Then the press machine started. I had no idea what I was in store for. Okay, because this is my first time working with Emilio. And we were way down at Crescent Moon, which you know is Bird Road and Palmetto. It is so far. And what happened was you'd have the five o'clock news at Telemundo and Univision. And Amelia was a very, very big fan of getting real footage from the real moment and driving it to the station to get to the news desk, literally, at three o'clock at the Palmetto, full traffic. He's got a hundred people at Crescent Moon, and he's like, We got to get the tape to Telemundo. And I'm like, okay, but it's two o'clock. We do whatever we can, but we still have to clean it up and edit it. Okay, get it there and bada. So we edit the tape live. We leave the event, we go to an edit facility down the street, cut it. The tape is making its way, and there was a traffic accident on the Palmetto.

SPEAKER_05 28:33

Oh no.

SPEAKER_02 28:34

Of course, the tape did not get there for the five o'clock news. Oh, shellacking. And things like in Cuban and everything, quickel, whatever. We gotta get the tape. And so that was the last time I made sure that the tapes left at one o'clock instead of two o'clock because we got the two-hour traffic.

SPEAKER_06 28:58

Um a different world though. Like we've come such a long way now, you know.

SPEAKER_03 29:03

Everything's zapping it in the news because you're gonna exact you can airdrop anything.

SPEAKER_02 29:06

So yeah, this is what so that would be that, and so it was started with my really me tiera and his first directing and Gloria writing Me Buana More was my first video. I have photos of us. I'm gonna send you guys because I know you talked about it. I was listening. I love that video, that music. It was stunning, and it was such a weird video. I mean, like it was weird because we had like a hundred dummies, women, like shapes of women in ball gowns or whatever. I mean, it was way out there, and their production designer was this wonderful woman. I think she was very well known. I think her her name was Barbara, but she was incredible. And I was just in awe of Gloria and Emilio as a fan already. But it would be me, Tietta, and then from there was so wild. Frank and I connected. He knew that I knew how to take a budget and line it up and also understand his vision and theirs and the story. I would storyboard things. Like for me, when you work with Mo and you sit down and say, I have an idea, the next day you're gonna come back with like keyframes of your idea that it felt like is what he told me. You said, okay. Um, and so we just nail it, and then it's all about the process of budgeting. The thing is, with budgets, as you know, in the record business back then, you would have good ones. But when you're Spanish, this is the sad part. Back then, they don't give you the same money. But meanwhile, we see Telemundo and Univision becoming the greatest platform in the world for every language around the world. So we would always have a battle for them and their quality of work. And so what Amelio liked about me is that I figured out ways to say to him, What we should do is do this in three languages, then we'll get the money for English and the English and the Spanish and the Portuguese and everybody. They get three, we boom, boom, boom, you'll get three times the money, three languages. And so we literally created the multilanguage distribution. This is how he began to do it for his HBO specials for Spain. We started in baby steps, he was always Spanish, he was always Latin, he never left that. He never left that Amelia, she never left that. And when Frank was turning her into the disco ball, and Frank was turning her into live and unwrap, the hippie chick out in the mountains in Macho Picchu or whatever, that always remained. That always interesting to work with them because we had little budgets and we have big budgets, and no matter what it was, we still took the same energy, like we had nothing.

SPEAKER_06 31:54

I can't differentiate what would have been the low budget versus not at all. No, you know, high budget because it was just the quality was just amazing across the board. So the the magic that you guys were able to create, whether it was low budget or or high budget, it was it just goes to show not only the visions that they had, but you know, your artistry as well.

SPEAKER_02 32:19

Yeah. Well, it becomes challenging, and I get to a place where for me, I'm always gonna be fighting for the look. If I'm not directing, and somebody always says, Well, you must be that kind of producer that just doesn't give anything to the director because you're probably so worried about every little thing. No, I'm gonna give the director everything because we're never gonna sacrifice that. But if we come up and I can't get this one, then we gotta work together. So, you know, we had a great symbiotic relationship.

SPEAKER_03 32:54

We're about to get into what is a lot of people's favorite project that you worked on. Um, because up until this point, we were fans. You would learn a little bit about Gloria here and there in like a five-minute TV segment, a short radio interview or whatever. But intimate portrait, I felt like I was learning about somebody who I was a fan of for already 10 years at that point for the first time. And like I would watch it and re-watch it and learn things about her. And it was she was open and vulnerable, and it was a project that stands out for us for so many reasons. But I'm wondering what stands out for you about working on that and the legacy of that because it is so special to us.

SPEAKER_02 33:40

Wow, well, I will tell you uh that video. So let me just give you a snapshot of what was happening. So that's 1996 in 1996. So Gloria had Emily in '95. Not only that, before that, you know, we went from like uh don't stop, hold me, thrill me. I mean, there was like like three or four, a two destiny, then reach came, and then the offer for the Olympics was transpiring, which was we want you to take reach and make this the theme music, and we want a spectacular opening video that will be worldwide everywhere, 80 billion people. So that had started being in the conversation, and then out of nowhere, Frank says, and I want to do a biopic with the intimate portrait, and I'm like, Lifetime television? He's like, Yes, I go, when now he called me Maureen.

SPEAKER_01 34:48

Maureen. We need to do this now.

SPEAKER_02 34:52

I got the Maureen name. There was a problem. Okay, so that's fine. So now we're doing two things, guys, just so you know. We are coming up with Reach and we are writing, which Rob wrote, by the way, the Intimate Portrait Series. And I will tell you, Rob also was the one who interviewed Gloria.

SPEAKER_01 35:13

Oh, interesting.

SPEAKER_05 35:14

Oh wow, wow.

SPEAKER_01 35:15

You know, Rob, to your question about what stands out. What there are many things that stand out, but one of the most striking is I have this vivid, vivid memory of you know, we did a series of of interviews. Now, back in the early days, I'd interviewed her on the radio many times, but then our relationship changed and it was more I don't know, it was just less kind of interviewer, interviewee, that kind of dynamic. And I were we were we were taping, I think, at their house across from on Star Island.

SPEAKER_02 35:52

Yeah, I think we were at the we were at the mom, mommy and daddy's their parents' house across the street.

SPEAKER_01 35:59

And anyway, we were we were in there and I was nervous. I was like really really weird because it's kind of like interviewing Mo for me right now would be like, well, this is weird. I said, This is this is weird. I'm I'm nervous. She said, What are you what are you nervous about? I just like I don't know. I mean, all of a sudden you're Gloria Stefan, and you know, and she said you've known me for forever. 21. What's your what's your yeah, what's your problem? But I but I was yeah, I suddenly kind of I was like sort of overwhelmed by the moment. I guess you'd say I was kind of taken with, you know, that because I kind of knew, you know, this is she was super open and super aunt, you know, she's never been inauthentic. I mean, look at the red table stuff. Yeah, you know, it's like, but at the time it just kind of hit me. I could usually detach myself from that because I've done it a million times and I've interviewed a million people. I'm not sort of starstruck, but for a moment I was starstruck. Yeah, oh my god, interesting.

SPEAKER_03 37:07

But it did feel conversational. There was a wall that was dropped because had it been someone that she wasn't so familiar with, maybe it would have been more buttoned up, but that came across, you know, and I think so organic, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 37:20

Yeah, oh yeah, okay, since I was there, you know, we shot that we shot we shot when everybody's doing tape, we're still shit saying, let's shoot this in film. So that part of that documentary is shot in film. The playback of her performances singing in a cappello are all in 60 millimeter black and white. But let me tell you a story that only so many of us know about, for the intimate portrait. I was with her mother, who Mrs. Fajardo is quite she was a wizard. I can't even know how to describe it. But we were sitting there chatting, it was all about setting up for the documentary and interviewing her. And I said, Oh, I wish there was just something that we could bring back from the past. And she goes, Wait a minute, I have something, I think. You help me find it. I go, absolutely, because you know that's my job. Everything I go in the closet, I go to the very, very top on the ladder, and there is a shoebox up at the very, very top. We open it. It is all the recordings, all the songs she played for her father.

SPEAKER_06 38:40

Oh, wow. Yeah, I think if I'm not mistaken, I think that was the first time that we as fans got to hear those recordings.

SPEAKER_02 38:48

Yeah, I may be wrong, but I feel like that if memory serves me, we find these tapes, nobody heard them. Gloria never heard them. 30 years, everybody, the sister, Becky. Oh my god, I sat there, I hit play with the mother. We couldn't even talk. Oh, wow.

SPEAKER_05 39:10

No, of course not.

SPEAKER_02 39:11

Then I send the tapes to Gloria, and that was it. That was like those tapes and that connection, and and seeing that while we were making that, we're talking about filming 36 days. There is a tour being prepared for the Olympics. She will be opening at Atlanta in Atlanta. She is going to open that. That was happening. The video was happening. Intimate portrait was releasing at the same week. This is the genius, geniusness of Frank Amadeo. He had it all planned. Olympics, lifetime intimate portrait, everything. Boom, boom, boom.

SPEAKER_06 39:50

No pressure, Mo. No pressure at all.

SPEAKER_02 39:54

By the way, when we delivered the Reach video, the big grand puba guy from NBC Sports, he had an issue with like three shots or whatever, while we're like ready to deliver. And I'm like, dude, you've had this like seven days. We had to go back and relayer back then, it was like a hundred hours, these layers of Olympians against her on the statue in the middle.

SPEAKER_05 40:19

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 40:20

And he's making changes three days before, and then the credit role on the intimate portrait had Emilio Stefan instead of a Stefan out the time. And we're resending world.

SPEAKER_06 40:34

Oh no. Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_02 40:36

I mean, I was losing my you know what.

SPEAKER_06 40:39

Oh my god. Well, you had a lot going on at that time because then you you know, as you mentioned, she goes on tour, so there's the uh the evolution tour, and then there was a big day. So uh um the evolution concert was filmed in Miami during HBO's Miami weekend uh in September of 1996, and you're you're credited as the the video producer. So, what was it like working on that project? And I know that there was some stuff going on behind the scenes that day, the day of the concert.

SPEAKER_02 41:13

I've worked with a lot of people, okay? And these people pick up the cables on the set. There is nothing that they will not do, but sh this had been planned like there was nothing that you can imagine. And it was 16 cameras, it was a live fee, live L-I-V-E. This is not pre-taped. Gloria was working so hard. It's like, when do you guys give her a break? I'm just saying, this is the business. This is when you're releasing an album, you don't stop. You got to release the record, do the photo shoot, get the video, go to the record source. This is life. This is what you buy into, this is who you are. I don't care if you're in the top 10, you have three Grammys. They never thought that way they would do it. Anyway, she had felt, I guess, under the weather, you know, and got sick.

SPEAKER_06 42:11

Yeah, because there were a few days that had to be a few dates that had to be canceled prior to that Miami weekend.

SPEAKER_02 42:17

Not that that prior to the Miami.

SPEAKER_01 42:19

I didn't even know that.

SPEAKER_02 42:20

No, that we they went, she shot and she had to nights, but she went on and did the live sick, whatever. This girl stood stood the test of time. Sometimes we have to do that when we have that kind of thing on the line. Talking about network, HBO, 16 cameras, Spain. This is not a little merry-go-round. Okay, folks. So there's big stuff happening, big stuff like that. Today we see them release a whole new album. And what are they doing? They are out there selling that record. They are doing this.

SPEAKER_01 42:59

Absolutely. My memory of that show is um is editing it. And oh yeah, you know, we had our own facility at the time, and we were, you know, we weren't really part of Crescent Moon and Stephon Enterprises. We were a separate entity, and and so we were offlining. Well, offlining is the process of doing the uh doing the editing, but not in its finished form, not at highest resolution, ready for broadcast. It's making the cuts, telling the story, putting it all together. Yeah, and then at one point it became, and again, we didn't have electronic transfers, so we would do little segments, do little uh sections of of the video, and then we would have to uh you know courier them across town, and Amelia would look at me and say, Okay, you need to she do uh change this, but you know, a thousand instructions come back. Okay, another one of the and then it got to the point where it was it was inefficient, and we were all being driven crazy by so we picked. up our whole technical package computers and equipment and sound and stuff and we just moved in at Crescent Moon for a few days because the deadline was bearing down on us and I was in the I was in a little room off to the side of their main edit bay they had full broadcast quality edit equipment there and we were in a uh a room next to that so I'd go and I'd cut cut cut cut cut send it over to the edit bay and then the online editor would put it together and that's not quite right send it back and I it's a silly story. One night we were there I think we'd been up for 5 a.m we were wow eight hours or something trying to get this done at 11 o'clock I'm like 11 yep we gotta meet we got to go over everything we got to edit this editor and I were so delirious we start laughing you know how you get you get the giggles and then you you don't and then you don't know why you're laughing and then you're laughing you know and there was nothing involved other than fatigue. Yes I mean I could imagine all right yeah and and and we we sat there we probably wasted 20 minutes I mean we were literally that's hilarious.

SPEAKER_02 45:22

When you finally get to the finish line are you able to celebrate or do you just jump into like the next four projects that you work with them on or what from there you know we ended up so don't stop is 1998 was a release correct so you have 96 is reach destiny and of course you have also the Olympics you have the release of the intimate portrait series now so that's done and at the same time this guy named Frank said I think we're gonna go on a world tour while we're at it. She's ready the kids we're gonna take everybody with us and I'm like really where are you going? All over the world so we figure out a plan of how we're gonna do this tour and sure enough it was sending the team to follow all of that um and there's 300 tapes there at the time they were beta sps we went from beta to beta sp it got kept getting better the quality of tapes and they would start shipping me everything and shipping me everything and we're talking three so how do we tell a story well we came up with this idea how we would take this you know with Jose well what if we just since we have this disco kind of don't stop and a vinyl record let's let the 33lp hit and then we'll go we won't stop we'll just let it play and take you to this journey doing these vignettes now at the time the Grammys for long for videos um they were just basically concert specials but Walker Fitzgibbon came in and we tore it up because we did something with the vinyl record and making a vignette showing the behind the scenes showing that that's so cool making her get like connected to it then a little video then a BTS and then maybe the next city and da da da and then we keep building now we got the first video it's uh whatever the hot one with the legs and that was that was heaven's what I feel heaven's what I feel yeah okay sex sell sometimes in the videos I don't know um and I remember all of the pieces that we put together for that and I'm looking at every tape we looked at every tape. So they recorded every I I always wondered that they recorded every show on the tour right so you have two days usually and the first date that's why the same clothes are in play everything is the same it's multi-camera you get the first one and maybe the second one is audio only for the board and so there's different things that you have to mix all of this but let me just tell you something extremely special. So we get the tapes and I pop it in the deck and I play it and I see a lady standing on the side and she's very humble and beautiful with another person and then another like handler and Gloria comes out from the backstage and the girl is a fan and she is meeting her because I don't know it was a Gloria met everybody but this was a special woman I don't even know the story behind it. But she came out and she looked at Gloria and she reached out and Gloria held her and this woman cried it makes me upset because because she wanted to say she said you saved my life so we're watching these kinds of interactions of people who love Gloria and when you get somebody say your music saved my life I could go you know these moments are so intimate now we never use that we never use that footage this is what it's about when you work somebody's 15 years and you're at their kitchen table sharing a limo watching this intimate moment this is about trust okay and absolutely Gloria we protect her she has trust in us we are privileged to see the inside of these kinds of special moments that you cannot explain to anybody and may never even tell except today on your podcast because Gloria I know you're listening but if you I know you will love this story Gloria you know your girl loves it.

SPEAKER_04 50:16

Yeah so you also worked on Don't Stop in 98 that came out in 98 and then 2001 those long form video collections what which brought fresh energy to Gloria's catalog.

SPEAKER_02 50:28

Will you walk us through your approach at putting those projects together and what did it mean for you to um receive a Grammy nomination for Don't Stop guys this is the project nobody wanted let me explain when you love people you're not always going to get the biggest jobs the biggest budgets the biggest everything they're gonna be using other directors they're gonna be working with you know other teams but when I get asked to do anything as special as making somebody's story of their journey like Gloria Stefan I will not turn that down. And so when Don't Stop came along and we had that tour in front of us and everything we we talked about this remember how are we going to make this cool right sure this guy is my editor so if you want to know who edited Don't Stop you're looking at him and what a job you did.

SPEAKER_06 51:28

Yes let me tell you I I think that's probably amazing. We have all the videos right we have all the videos all the DVDs all yeah you know the uh Wes has the um what do you call that the um laser disc the laser disc and the DVDs I have all the formats you know but what you guys did with Don't Stop specifically oh my god it was just it was next level especially at that time you know because you know we were we were used to a certain sound from Gloria right so she she had the the destiny album and that was very adult contemporary and before that hold me throw me kiss me you know and then all of a sudden she comes out with this dance album and then you come out you you you produced the the long form video that matched the same energy as that album I mean hands down what you guys created was just out of this world.

SPEAKER_01 52:25

Yeah that's a high compliment but I I I also have to say that sometimes these things almost write themselves exactly because you just kind of get caught up in the energy songwriters will tell you they don't know where songs come from. You know sometimes they dream them or they just they'll start with an idea and then in 15 minutes they've written hey Jude or whatever. You know it's uh very it's like a self-fulfilling prophecy. So you know when we work on stuff certainly when I work on stuff and we we work on stuff together it's just we just make what we want to see. Exactly you just and it's kind of obvious to to me I just make what thrills me to see yeah and again it gets back to that old radio thing. It's like infectious enthusiasm if I put out that energy you know you either get it or you don't and if you do you really get it because it comes from an authentic place of fandom of appreciation of artistry. So that's why but I do thank you for that. Yes.

SPEAKER_06 53:36

Yeah it's just you know it everything that you guys have touched and and I I do mean this from the bottom of my heart it's it it has always felt so fresh and so cutting edge. So as a fan it it was it's always been so exciting to see when you guys touch especially in a Stefan project it's just like we know that it's going to be gold. Thank you I will also say this too with with these both don't stop and even live and unwrapped is us by the way uh this this this video okay yeah because we had to now be better be better than this one okay that is hard that's tough it's tough but you guys you did it that's the thing that you guys always manage to just elevate you know what whatever you guys went on to do the next project it was elevated and it it it was better than the last and which says a lot because it was always great to begin with.

SPEAKER_02 54:43

Let me tell you how what happened so we do don't stop we have no idea we're crawling on the floor just so you know we're we're cutting one thing then the next and the we don't know we can't even see straight they submitted Frank submitted the don't stop DVD in the long form category okay and we get a call from him and he said Maureen are you sitting down yeah it was like the classic are you sitting down yeah what's up you're nominated for a Grammy it was like no big preamble well guys congratulations blah blah blah dah da let me tell it was just like and Mo what do you have wrapped around your your neck right now you want to know how much this weighs the Oscar oh so yeah you gotta do yeah you gotta do the chocolate test right and sure enough there we were sitting with Glory and Emilio in the stadium well first what happens when you are a nominee the day before all the artists and all the people who make the whatever they are whether you're a producer engineer all the craft categories get to go to one place and you're all together in a room as one and you get called up and you literally get a medal wrapped around your neck like you're at the Olympics. So that was weird because we already did Olympics right already like the Olympics and we did that together I I wore a Chanel dress I went to Bell Harbor shops like I never do any of that okay and uh that was so exciting now we were up against big people okay Jimi Hendrix yeah with that okay so you know it was gonna be tough with Jimi Hendrix but but the fact that you guys but the fact that you guys were nominated that is huge huge oh my god you have no idea yeah won the National Council of La Raza Bravo award for the intimate portrait I just had a bunch of tapes that my mother kept that was televised and we are receiving that award and Glory and Meliew were there for that you know what when we walked down into my creative office downstairs or we're in our house in our dining room Rob has gold records with Gloria Stefan crossing her over to the nation I have TV guides where the intimate portrait was being promoted in a TV guide shellacked on the wall so you're looking at people who just love them love their children their orbit their people Janet uh Jose Maldonado these are people like I know them there ain't family they're family when I met Janet I'm just saying like we love them and they have given me I tell Emilio and Gloria when I see them I just you see what I told you Mo it's something about their show we just we all end up crying it's it it's okay it's okay for giving this girl a chance my career was made because they let this woman show what she could do.

SPEAKER_06 58:16

Exactly and and let me and boy did you show us what you could do. Yes you did you know we're we're gonna wrap up but you know we've we talked so much about your work with the Estefans so Rob what what are you guys doing right now? So I know that um I know that there's voices with a heart that's that's happening right now um and and I've seen I've I've heard and I've seen what you guys are doing and what a fabulous job is being done with that podcast. So you know congrats so outside of voices with a uh with a heart what what else do you guys have going on?

SPEAKER_01 58:54

I have a company called Path Three Creative. So over the years we've had you know we've had Walker Fitzgevin television film I've had Walker Sound which is a dedicated audio sound production company Walker Sound kind of became you know the name we sort of outgrew the name because we became so much more over the course of producing music, producing commercials we came became marketing strategists we became concept creators we became idea people as well as execution people. So Path three creative is actually an offshoot of Walker Sound which remains a an audio primarily primarily an audio company path three creative does all the all those things that I just described to you we we create we come up with the ideas we create a marketing plan we we do all kinds of um strategic thinking for artists for advertisers for advertising agencies for writers for up and coming talent we're very interested in you know Mo can tell you more she's she does a whole thing with young people she's a mentor so that's that's kind of what I'm up to and I still do a ton of voiceover I still do you know and voices with a heart that's really kind of Mo's baby but I he writes it he edits it with mommy okay it's our daughter who's 22 years old her best friend since childhood is Miss Teen California USA this year. She's the most golden person you could dream of Raina Hudson. They're they're so they're both such beautiful individuals I mean isn't it great don't doesn't it feel like the authenticity of their friendship comes through it's not like absolutely 100% it's two people two life literally lifelong friends talking about deep intimate serious stuff and goofy stuff. Call it life hacks for young people that's great these two kids girls they're young women Jet Walker and Raina Hudson are there to say we went through the same thing we did when we were 13 14 15 16 our real lives are just we have problems we have obstacles we have things we have to overcome we're not any different than anybody else and nobody is so don't feel like you're not enough because you are that's kind of the message of the show but besides that I also have a film called Miss Pink and the theme of that movie is dog rescue animal rescue.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:27

Oh a little film we have a full cast of ideas of who we think it is how much it is and that's out there in the ether okay we have voices with the heart and then I am also a board of director of women in film and television in Florida and in Los Angeles I am also an active member and one of the things that I feel is very very important is to continue like my good friends Glory and Emilio are always putting us out there and saying look we need more people to look at the talent I have actually taken my time to go and speak out to many young people all people black white yellow green everybody and just talk about being great and good in your own thing and excelling so I have taken time to do that as well.

SPEAKER_06 1:02:19

And I see you at the festivals too I see you're you're everywhere.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:23

I have a part in the Vero Beach Film Festival I'm very happy to be a member of that group and film Florida.

SPEAKER_06 1:02:30

I also sit on various committees for the state and so I am I've been like this even when I was way way back there's no slowing down yeah I I do want to I do want to ask um if the listeners want to follow you where can they follow you uh on Instagram or social media?

SPEAKER_02 1:02:47

Yes I am on Instagram okay I'm also LinkedIn and you can find all my credible work in instant movie database imdb and I am also on Vemia where many of my projects have been screened over time just for fun and I'm easy to find. You can find me.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:06

Awesome and how about you Rob I'm an old school guy on Facebook love it.

SPEAKER_06 1:03:12

Honestly frankly you know if you want to see or hear or talk or be have a conversation I I'll tell you my you can get me on my email roberw at path3creative dot com.com I was gonna say come ye come all paththreat creative dot com there you go love it love it well guys we've been going too long and I got no listen we we're actually we're about to wrap up now so we we've reached have you guys had fun have oh my god this is going to be forever incredible so we have reached the the part of the show where we allow our guests to let it loose and as we discussed uh previously this is your moment to just share whatever you know you want to get off your chest or if there is something that you want to share directly to Gloria or Emilio because they do listen to the uh to the show it's your moment to just let it loose so do you guys have something prepared?

SPEAKER_01 1:04:11

I I've always sort of had a I have imposter syndrome like a lot of people do to be perfectly honest with you. And it's alluded to in On Your Feet the Gloria and Emilio's uh you know stage show which is fantastic it's unbelievable but anyway I want to say this there's an illusion in there and Y100 is in the in the play and the guy the program director says no no no this is this is in Spanish we're an English language radio station we you need to do something in English you know well that's that's a fictionalized version of uh that guy was kind of me that that was that was it we were in the English language radio station at the time it was like scary of a scary for us to think of playing a Spanish language song on an English language radio station well now you know that seems like antiquated and wow what year well the Stone Age was that but that's kind of the truth. It wasn't that I didn't believe in the music but their thing I think even in the play they say you know the English stations say we're too Spanish for them and the Spanish speaking stations say we're too English for them.

SPEAKER_05 1:05:24

Right.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:24

So and I just want to get that off I don't want to say that you know I was some genius visionary who said oh we're gonna go we're gonna break all the rules and play this we we we played it safe but Emilio Estefan is the genius who took that information and said okay you want something in English to blow people away I'll be back in a couple of weeks and he comes in with Conga. Amazing oh my gosh I just want to put credit where credit is due and say I'm grateful that I was there and I'm grateful for the The appreciation and I'm grateful for everything that happened with him and it started what has been a lifelong career and friendship and family relationship of the most golden people I've ever known in my life. But I just want to be I want to be you know transparent about how it really went down. So go see the play if you really want to know, because that's kind of the way it was.

unknown 1:06:22

Yes.

SPEAKER_06 1:06:22

I love it. Thank you so much for sharing that with us, Rob Mo. It's time for you to let it loose.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:29

I can't. I cry. Okay. Here's the thing. I'm gonna let it loose, okay? I'm gonna let it loose on Gloria Estefan.

SPEAKER_05 1:06:40

Yes. All right.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:43

We were doing a shoot for VH1, VH1 Women in Music. And of course, Gloria gave birth like a day ago or whatever. And those people would not leave her alone. And her record starts to chart in the UK, top of the top of the pops, right? Top of the pops. What was that song we were up there on the balcony? Everlasting love, one of them. That one, right? Top of the pop. Up there at midnight. She's got to sing. There's a hurricane and a tornado go happening. But all I know is we have to get into the studio to do this VH one-to-one. Beautiful pink chair. Everything I'm walking around. Many times on sets, the interesting relationship that I had with Gloria, we didn't really talk a lot. You know, she'd look at me, I look at her. Is it ready? Yeah, it's good. And but she knew I was hung up on my flower bouquets because in everything I would have to get these grand flower arrangements. It'd be about the flowers and the flowers and the flowers, whatever. And it's the flowers in there, whatever. And so I don't know. I turn around, you know. She always likes to joke around and have fun with me because I'm like the bad guy and the good guy and the pain in the ass, and I don't want to hear it. Are you still filming? You said we weren't filming, you said it was a picture. Like you get scolded, okay. If it's things that you're asking, you're gonna be like known about it. So I have it on video because I carried a video everywhere. I will send the clip if you like, Gloria. She goes, bam, like this, and then she turns around. And then back of her, and then she makes a smirk like, oh I got whatever. I knew she did it. Gloria, I think you did that for the voted. Okay.

SPEAKER_04 1:08:52

Roll the tapes. Roll the tapes. That's right.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:55

I tell you, I let it loose today, but my heart swells with so much love because of their kindness, their generosity, their love for just embracing everything that isn't the best, perfect, broken. We're not everybody's just not a perfect everything, and they see your beauty and the things that you have for what you are. And so I feel so blessed. Thank you so much, Glory and Emilio. And I would love to say also her sister, Becky. I I adore the people in that place. I've grown up with her mother. Everybody touched me all my life, made me feel special in my journey. And I would just say, I hope it don't stop.

SPEAKER_05 1:09:44

It don't stop. I love that.

SPEAKER_06 1:09:47

I love that.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:48

You guys are great fun. And I and you ask really smart questions. And it's a it's a pleasure and to to talk with people who are as as big a fan as I am. And thank you for having us. And just you know, all I can say is none of us would be here if it weren't for the music.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:07

Exactly. That's right. Amen.

SPEAKER_04 1:10:09

So thank you guys for coming on, and thank you for creating these home videos that I've watched since I was 13 years old, hundreds and hundreds of times. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:20

Thank you for having us. We love Gloria. We could give you more episodes. You have we could talk about one thing for 44 minutes.

SPEAKER_06 1:10:29

You're you guys are coming back, just so you know.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:32

You heard it here first. Uh thank you once again for your generosity of your time and your stories. We really appreciate it. If you like this episode of Let It Loose, please don't forget to like, rate, review, subscribe, five stars, do all the things, press all the buttons on your phone until things light up. And we'll be back again next week with uh another episode. I don't know what it's gonna be, but we have no idea.

SPEAKER_06 1:10:57

After this, we have no idea what we're doing.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:00

Because this episode was epic, and we once again really appreciate it. So thank you so much.

SPEAKER_04 1:11:06

Yes, thank you so much.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:07

Thank you for listening to Let It Loose, a Gloria Estic fan podcast. Let It Loose was produced by Carlos, Rob, and Wes with graphic design by Lara. Thank you to Gloria for bringing us all together. Subscribe, rate, and share the love, and join us next week for a brand new episode.