The Ledger
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Simon Cowell claims many music industry A&R executives are genuinely tone-deaf.
“You know, I don't think anyone even today is really trained to be an A&R person. I don't even know how people today, you know, get that job, because a lot of the A&R people I knew were genuinely tone deaf. Seriously.”
Simon Cowell prioritizes commercial entertainment over critical prestige in music.
“It's the music business. I'm just trying to make money. You know, it doesn't really matter. Does it? If someone's enjoying it, let them enjoy it. Who cares?”
Simon Cowell: 1980s UK gay clubs predicted pop trends six months early.
“There was this kind of crossover period between what was happening in a lot of the gay clubs in the UK. They were kind of ahead of the curve. It was like, you want to know what's going to happen in six months time? You went to this club.”
Simon Cowell bases A&R decisions entirely on personal taste, not technical knowledge.
“What I never did, though, I never tried to pretend that I could produce a record or be a musician, because I couldn't, I can't produce records.
I can't play instruments.
I don't know what note anyone's any,
Singing it, whether it's C, B, D, or G, I have no ide…”
Simon Cowell reveals a 1990s hit saw 930,000 first-morning retail reorders.
“And I saw this number, and I went, no, what is the real repeat order this morning? That number was 930,000.”
Simon Cowell offered to blindly double the Spice Girls' record deal.
“I get in my car, floor it back to my office, call the manager and said, look, I'll literally double whatever deal you've been offered if you haven't already signed. And he said, too late to sign.”
Simon Cowell took zero salary for American Idol to secure backend rights.
“And by the way, I didn't ask for any money for myself on both the British show and the American show on the first year. I said, I don't want a contract. I don't want to be paid. If it works, then we're going to have another conversation if it works.”
Simon Cowell demanded he not fake praise to join American Idol.
“When I agreed to do the show in America, I said, look, just so we're clear, I'm not going to pretend to like people I don't like. I'm just not.”
Simon Cowell refuses to do two different tasks in the same day.
“Don't do two things in the same day. You know, whatever it is, if I'm filming, I won't take a call. Won't look at an email. I will only concentrate on filming. And then when I'm doing something else, it has to be just that thing for the day.”
Simon Cowell hired the opposing lawyer who defeated him in a lawsuit.
“Unfortunately, George Michael didn't like the WAM Megamix. So we were taken to court and George Michael's lawyer was a guy called Tony Russell. So as we lost this case, I walked up to him and I said, Mr. Russell you absolutely killed us in there. Would you min…”
Simon Cowell outlines 1990s retail reorder thresholds for UK chart hits.
“If you get three, 4005 thousand repeat orders on the first morning, you're heading to a top 10. You get 10 to 20,000, you're heading to a top five. You get 50,000 plus repeat orders, you're heading top to number one.”