About My Parents

My parents didn't want me to have piano lessons

When I was 8 years old, my parents brought a piano into the house. My dad sat down and played a simple piece, the kind you would find at the end of a first grade book. I asked for piano lessons, but my dad said that my older sister would be taking lessons and he could only afford lessons for one kid. I started figuring things out at the piano using patterns. As soon as I tossed off a fast arpeggio, my dad never played the piano again.

After a few months, my sister said that she hated practicing and wanted to quit. She told my parents, "Richard is very good. he is the one who should be taking lessons." My mom said no and she forced my sister to take lessons for 2 years even though she wanted to quit. My mom said that I can't have lessons because, "Girls play the piano, Boys play the trombone."

By the time I was 10, I had developed some virtuoso skills. I invited my mom to come see me play at the elementry school talent show. She screamed in my face, "I don't have time for this shit!" I went with my best friend, Carl and his mother and I won first place. The principal invited me to perform at the first PTA meeting of the year. She said she was expecting 400 people to attend.

Carl's mother had a heated discussion with my mom and when they were through my mom said that she was going to set up lessons for me. My mom attended the PTA meeting where I performed. When we got home, she told my dad, " It's a good thing. All the parents congratulated me for having such a talented son."

My dad sat there silent with a sullen look on his face.

I was beaten up for doing my math homework

When I was 10, my elementry school teacher sent me home everyday with college level algebra problems. My dad picked up the page and when he realized that he couldn't solve the problems, his hands started to shake. His face turned red and his whole body started shaking. His voice was low and grumbling. He dragged me into the bathroom and and started banging my head into the wall. My mom pulled him off of me saying, "Not the head. Use the strap." This happened several times that year.

Grandma demanded that I quit playing the piano

We would frequently have Sunday dinner at my grandparents house in Hollywood Florida. Since I was playing Beethoven's Piano Concerto #1, I brought the music book with me to show my grandfather, who was always supportive of me. Alexander Kastle was a brilliant guy and talented artist who ran a successful art studio in Manhattan for several decades.

As my grandmother was serving dinner, she became angry with me and demanded that I stop playing the piano. She said, "After all, I'm the best pianist in the family and you have a lot of nerve walking into my house with a piece that's 100 pages long. You have to quit." My mother got up and said, "You don't tell my son he can't play the piano." She announced that we were leaving and not having dinner there.

I walked to the car with my grandfather. He said, "My wife Evelyn only knows how the play one 2 page piece of music. Even though she's been playing the same piece for 50 years, she still can't remember the notes." He said, "I didn't think it was possible for anyone to be that stupid." My mom railed against her mother-in-law all the way home. My dad said nothing.

My parents denied me dental care

My parents put braces on my older brother's teeth and my little sister. When I said I wanted braces, my dad beat the shit out of me saying over and over, "You don't want braces. Do you understand me?" When ever my siblings would say at the dinner table, "Richard, you need braces" I would say that I didn't want braces. I was saying that because I didn't want to be beaten up.

My parents denied me medical care

At 14, I grew so fast that I developed a condition called tibia tuberal epiphysis. My knees were swolen red and I was having trouble climbing stairs. For 8 months, I pleaded with my parents to take me to the doctor. They refused. Finally I collapsed in phys-ed and the coach sent me to the guidance counselor. I told her that my parents wont take me to the doctor. She asked me what was my parents excuse. My mom said, "I'm just the woman of the house. If you want to go to the doctor, you have to speak with the man." And my dad said, "You're smarter than all the doctors. Fix your own knees. I'll show you how smart you are."

The guidance counsellor said, "It's against the law for parents to deny their children necessary medical care. Your parents are commiting a crime and they could go to jail for what they're doing to you." Since I lived right across the street from the school, she sent me home for a while to tell my mom what she said. My mom started crying and then she set up an apointment with a doctor. The doctor gave me notes excusing me from phys-ed for junior hign and high school. I wore knee pads for four years and continued limping for almost ten years. If they took me to a doctor when this started, my knees would have healed in months not almost a decade. When I was in my 20's, doctors were tellinmg me thay I did not have propper cardio vascular development. I fixed this by running 30 minutes, 3 times a week.

Sabotaging my lessons with Ivan Davis

When I became Ivan Davis's youngest student at 15, He gave me a practice regime that he said would require 3 and a half hours a day at the piano. My parents only allowed me 2 and a half hours a day. They said they have to see the local news at 6 and the national news at 6:30. They ran the TV with nobody watching. My dad was reading the newspaper and my mom was in the kitchen. When my dad drove me to my lesson, he said "Maybe you're not good enough to study with Ivan Davis." I went to the high school principal and told him I was studying at the U of M and needed to be moved to the early shift. He changed it immediately. So instead of getting out of school at 3:30, I was finished at noon and had plenty of time to practice.

My mom announced that she had to meet Ivan Davis. My parents were waiting in the entry lobby of the music building when Davis arrived. I told him that my mom wanted to meet him. Ivan was very gracious saying, "It's nice to meet you." My mom got right in his face and screamed at him with anger and vitriol, "Are you going to make my son a concert pianist?" Ivan made a gesture to me like what is this? We walked down the hall to his studio. He told me that from now on, I have to keep that crazy woman away from him. He said if she gets within 100 feet of him he will drop me as a student.

My parents

My parents reminding me of the abuse while I was being congratulated backstage

When I was an older teenager, I did many big performances. As I was being congratgulated backstage, my parents enjoyed bringing my teeth up to sour my mood. Mom would say, "We're taking pictures and you're going to smile for the camera. When I didnt smile my dad would gleefully say, " What's the matter, Rich? Is there something wrong with your teeth? I wonder what happened there?"

One of my best buddies was a viola player named Matt Deutsch. He saw what my parents were doing to me backstage. When I was 19, I did a piano recital at Guzman Hall at the University of Miami. It was the last time I performed in a tuxedo. Matt said that he was not going to allow my parents to harass me about my teeth so as I was playing the last piece he was going to bring the car around and park it right next to the stage door. He said that when I take my final bow, I should go directly out the stage door and get in "the get away car." When I finished, the crowd gave me a standing ovation. As I walked out the stagedoor and got in Matt's car, the audience was still clapping. Matt and I went out for beers.

My mom and the President of CBS

When I was in my 20's, I performed in small venues. Both my parents were very supportive. Even when I did the Venice Beach concerts, my dad was supportive. I thought that maybe he had gotten over his mental illness. I found that that was not the case when I went on national TV.

Right after the segmant aired, my parents called me. My dad's mood changed after he asked how much money I made. I told him that as publisher, composer and performer, I was making thousands of dollars a minute. He said angily that I was lucky to get on the show and that would probably never happen again. I told him that the producer said that the show was scheduled for a re-run in a couple of months. I would get paid again as a publisher and composer. He started yelling "never again, never, never."

My mom took the phone away from him and told him th sit down and shut up. She asked me about how they do a re-run. I told her that they just play the master.

My mom said, "Ah, the master." and ended the call.

The next morning, my mom called and said that she just spoke with the President of CBS. He said he saw the segment and congratulated her on having such a talented son. My mom told him that she wanted him to send her the master because her son is on it and she wanted to make sure that it was "safe." The president said that he would gladly send it to her as a gift. My mom asked, "Don't you have any use for it?" He said, 'Believe me, I dont have any use for masters of The Pat Sajak Show." She succeeded in stopping me from having a re-run which would generate thousands of dollars in ASCAP royalties.

What my parents did on the day Streetwise was released

The day Streetwise was released, I did a sold out show at Largo in LA that was filmed by Entertainment Tonight. My parents were doing something sinister in Miami that could possibly derail my recording career. The next day I found out what they did. Roger Holdredge, President of Virgin Classics, told me that he just got a call from the CEO of WEA, Virgin's distributor. He said "Who the fuck is Richard Kastle?" He told Roger that the biggest retail chain in south Florida just threatened a boycot of all WEA releases, unless my career was ended immediately.

Roger told me that my mom went into Spec's Music at Westland Mall in Hialeah and found my CD and showed it to the manager saying "This is my son. I want him at the front of the store." She proceeded to tear up the displays at the front of the store, essentially commiting vandalism in my name. She caused major damage to the Madona display.

Roger said he was going to save my recording career by running a big advertizing campaign featuring me and Spec's music. The Spec's executives were very happy to gat free advertizing, so they dropped the boycot threat. He told me to keep my mom away from the record stores.

When I toured with Jay Leno, I did a couple minutes of standup comedy. I encorporated this scene at the record store into my comedy routine. The punch line always got a big laugh.

Jay Leno and my mom

A week before my Tonight Show appearance, my mom announced that she was going to the taping of the Tonight Show and I couldn't stop her. I did not want her in the studio while the show was being taped, so I made her a better offer. She could come see me at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas at the end of August. I told her that she could come backstage and take a picture with Jay Leno.

Caesar's Palace gave my parents the VIP treatment. I had to sign for $600 worth of champaign and hor's d'oeuvres for my dressing room. Jay came over after the show and couldn't have been nicer. My mom followed Jay around backstage taking picture after picture of him and her relatives. Finally, Jay said, "Mrs. Kastle, I took more pictures for you than I did for the cover of Time Magazine. I'm tired, I'm going to bed." My mom said, "We don't have a picture with Aunt Sophie". As Jay walked away, my mom started screaming at the top of her lungs, "Where's Aunt Sophie? Oh my God! Where's Aunt Sophie?"

When I arrived at my dressing room the next day, a smiling Jay Leno poped his head in the door saying "Where's Aunt Sophie?" Later on I could hear my mom's voice coming out of Jay's dressing room. As I approached, Jay said, "Okay, mom. What could I get for you, mom."

My mom proudly proclaimed "I'm Jay Leno's guest." Jay said something to the effect, "We have to take care of out stage moms, Kastle." I believe Jay Leno viewed my mom as a tragic figure, like Moma Rose for Gypsy. She needed to be coddled. Jay and Mavis even sent her Chrictmas cards.

Collateral damage to my career from my mom's behavior

I continued touring with Leno over the winter. Since he was becoming the host of the Tonight Show in May, his last group of performances was in April. He offered them to me. It was Phoenix, Albuquerque, another city I can't remember and a weekend in Las Vegas doing five shows at Caesar's Palace.

My manager Ruth Anne Propper called me and needed me to come to her house for an important meeting. Her house was high on the hill in Pacific Palisades. We sat out by the pool with a glorious view of the ocean. Ruth Anne said "Caesar's said no." They said that my mom disrupted the backstage area and that's why they won't book me. I said, "It looks like my mom cost me 6 or 7 thousand dollars worth of bookings." She indicated that it's much worse than that. She was using my 4 comps per show to invite representatives of other headliners playing Las Vegas over the summer. They were all saying that they have to see my act before they can book me. She was confident that I would get several weekend bookings opening for other headliners. It was possible that one of them could take me on a notional tour like Leno did. She said, now all thet is gone. Once everyone finds out that your family disrupts the backstage area, noone will book you.

There was some good news. I was booked in May to play the Met Life Convention in Palm Desert. The William Morris Agency negociated a $4,500 fee for one 25 minute set. I would also get a &500 cash meal per diem.That was the last time I recieved a booking from Ruth Anne Propper or the William Morris Agency. Cheers to the late, great, Ruth Anne Propper.

Did EMI freeze my recording career over my parents vandelizing displays at a record store or was it my leather jacket?

I think it was the latter. When Virgin Classics President, Roger Holdredge signed me, he told me that Europeans that run the international label do not want my album to be released in Europe. They viewed classical music as their "turf." An American artist playing Beethoven in a leather jacket would offend everyone. Richard Brandson knew that his American labels brought in the most money, so he let them do what they want in America.

Simon Foster, who ran the internationmal classical label, flew me to London, first class on Virgin Airlines and threw a birthday party for me. He decided to make my Titanic Symphony my third album and my first release in Europe. Since the ship was the star of the album, all the images in the packaging would be of the ship. I was fine with that. Roger Holdredge told me that the United States accounts for almost half of worldwide record sales. Japan is second and Europe is third. Not being released in Europe is no big deal.

When the sale of Virgin to EMI went through, Roger's last assignment was to fire all the NYC employees and release all the recording artists except me. He told me that I would be dealing with Steve Murphy, President of Angel Records. He said, "Do not trust him."

For months, Steve Murphy would not return my calls. I contacted Phil Quatererro, the new President of Virgin's rock label. I asked if we could do my second album the same way we did my first one where the rock label does the artwork, packaging and the release. Phil said, "I saw you on TV. You sold a lot of records. I would be stupid to not release this album, unless there's some reason I can't." He said he would call EMI headquarters the next morning and find out what's going on. When he called me, he sounded frustrated and said, "I can't release this album, and I can't tell you why. I'm very sorry."

Two years after Streetwise was released, I flew to NY and told Steve Murphy assistant that he was going to meet with me. He invited me up to his office for lunch, and then said, "Royce Concerto? I don't get it. Titanic Symphony? Who cares about a boat that sunk 80 years ago. What were they thinking?" He said that he would figure out a way to release the Royce Concerto and he would have to come up with another project for me to do. I didn't believe him.

Six months later, Roger told me that my contract was in yearly cycles. Even if they didn't record the Titanic Symphony, thay still had to pay me 2 five-figure checks. Roger advised me to send EMI headquarters two separate bills. In the business, they call this, "Shit or get off the pot." Roger said they will still stall the process. but eventually they wouild offer me ownership of the Royce Conceto master and some money. Roger advised me to take the offer and offer the master to an independent lebel for 1 dollar. He said someone will take the offer and I will finally have my album released. Everything happened exactly the way Roger said it would.