Fri Aug 29,11:40 AM ET
By Steve James
NEW YORK (Reuters) – When your big brother is a humongous Hollywood star — known around the world as Rocky and Rambo — maybe show business is not the right career for you.
Try telling that to Frank Stallone — actor, singer, musician, songwriter and Sylvester’s sib.
“I love my brother’s success,” he told a reporter who came up with the original idea of trying to expose a hint of sibling rivalry between the rocker-turned-Sinatra-style crooner and his action-star bro.
What? Surely he’s jealous of Sly’s success? Of his Hollywood A-list status and megabucks salary? Green with envy at the fan worship and the trappings of fame while he played gigs in New Jersey bowling alleys with the occasional movie bit-part?
“It only bothers me that my first album came out with ‘Rocky.’ People thought I had just picked up a guitar two weeks before (Sylvester’s 1976 movie) to ride on his success, but I had been around for 12 years!” Stallone said.
OK, so then it must be a trade-off, right? The power of the Stallone name can only help his career. It rubs off. After all, he’s appeared in several of Sly’s movies and written music for them too.
“His success is so huge, it’s not his fault,” Frank reasoned. “I could get crazy, but I put it all in perspective.
“Only one-quarter of 1 percent of the world lives that way. I make my own way in life and I am happy,” he said, adding slyly, “but I’m not ready to be forgotten.”
Unfortunately, chunks of Stallone’s career have been largely forgotten, or at least obscured by an oversized fraternal shadow.
STAYING ALIVE
Who even remembers the “Saturday Night Fever” sequel movie “Staying Alive,” let alone the soundtrack Frank Stallone wrote for it which garnered a 1983 Golden Globe nomination or the Grammy-nominated song “Far From Over?”
What about his 1984 hit single “Darlin”‘ or his role as Eddie the bartender in the Mickey O’Rourke movie “Barfly.”
He appeared as a street singer in his brother’s breakthrough movie “Rocky” and two sequels, as well as “Staying Alive,” which Sylvester directed.
“The only reason why I got the part (in Rocky) wasn’t because of nepotism … I was the only musician he knew. So I asked my band Valentine if they would be willing to give up our $100 a night gig at the White Horse Bowling Academy in Trenton, New Jersey,” he says with a laugh.
The band, which featured guitarist John Oates of Hall & Oates for a while, had toured and recorded for 10 years but Stallone finally moved to California in the ’80s to join his brother. His neighbor was singer Harry Nilsson and the two collaborated on several projects and Frank wrote for seven films, including Sly’s “Rocky II,” “Rocky III” and “Rambo II,” as well as “Paradise Alley” and “Over the Top.”
But now, at the age of 53, the “other” Stallone believes he has the vehicle to break out and be recognized for more than being Sly Stallone’s kid brother.
SWITCHED GEARS
Just as rocker Rod Stewart recently recorded an album of American classics, Stallone has switched from rock ‘n’ roll to Johnny Mercer, Cole Porter, Jerome Kern and Rogers and Hart. His new album, “In Love In Vain,” features classics like “Witchcraft,” “Beyond the Sea” and Mercer’s “Day In Day Out” and “One For My Baby.”
“This all happened before Rod Stewart, I had done a demo years ago,” Stallone said in an interview with Reuters at a luxury Manhattan hotel.
“This was not an easy record to do, as you’ve heard these songs for so many years. Some people are afraid to sing a song like ‘Witchcraft’ because it’s a signature of Sinatra.”
Stallone, who punctuates his conversation with riffs and chords on air-guitar, loves to talk of singers from Sinatra to Dusty Springfield and Matt Munro, the Beatles or the Kinks whom he admires. He even does a mean Ray Charles impression.
“I love rock ‘n’ roll, but as much as I loved the Beatles, I listened to Frank Sinatra. I can just as easily listen to Johnny Mathis or Motorhead and AC/DC.
“I have always loved all kinds of music but felt the parade was going by for me, not because I don’t have the talent, but everyone wants 20-year-old singers.”
By releasing his own album on his own label Simba (“The lion! I am a Leo!”) Stallone says he is in control of his own destiny. “If I fail, I fail on my own terms,” he said.
As the interview ended and he left for dinner at a trendy, show business restaurant with the paparazzi bulbs flashing, he is not alone.
There’s his brother, the big movie star. And the next day in the New York Post there’s a photo and the caption says Sly Stallone is in town promoting a movie. Oh, yes, and at the end it mentions the other guy in the picture is his brother Frank.
Reuters/VNU
