A Conversation with Jersey Boys’ Bob Gaudio – HuffPost 7.3.14

Mike Ragogna: Okay, pretend someone is hearing the story for the very first time. Where does the story start with Bob Gaudio and Franki Valli & The Four Seasons?

Bob Gaudio: Wow. You’re testing my memory, that’s for sure. I might have to go see the Broadway show again to refresh it. [laughs] Actually, in truth, there are many things in that show that have brought my memory back. As you might expect there were lots of stories told and from four different viewpoints. Everybody had a different angle on what I was about and I have a different view of what Frankie’s about, et cetera. That’s an interesting place in itself. When I was fifteen, I started in a group called The Royal Teens. Fast forwarding, I found myself in the middle of nowhere as a one-hit wonder. I got a job in a printing factory, thought, “Oh, this is not good, I could lose my fingers so I should do something else.” I dabbled back in, ran into some people, actually Joe Pesci–some liberties taken in the Broadway show–but essentially, I hooked up with Joe and Mike Petrillo and Louis Eppolito and we started a little jazz quartet. We played around starving and Joey said, “You should meet this guy, he’s got an amazing voice, you’re a songwriter, and this could make some sense.” Long story short, we met up and Frankie said, “We’re looking for a keyboard player. I’ve been trying to get a keyboard player in the band since we’ve basically been guitars.” That audition thing and meeting Tommy [DeVito] and Nicky [Massi] and cutting to the quick, off we went.