My wife keeps telling me I need to learn the Steinbrenner face and
show no emotion. But I can't do it. I wear my heart on my sleeve.
I've been guilty of that in everything I've ever done. Winning is
great, losing is murder. When you win, you're over it the next day.
When you lose, that hurts all week. I think the fans here relate to
that. They want passion. And I am one of them. I'm fan number one.
Running this team, even with a partner and some other investors,
is a lot of work. Plus, you've put out a box set and have a new
album on the way and are doing a couple of movie projects. Why work
so hard?
I'm like Michael Corleone. Every time I tell myself I'm done, they
keep pulling me back in. Sometimes with the music, an idea pops out
from between my ears and I say, "You know what this means. I'm
going to have to tour again. I was planning on sitting around
getting fat, but here I go." I keep working on acting, too, because
I'd love to have my movie career catch up to my music career. I
don't spend enough time in
California, though, to do that yet.
The team is something I do because I love it. I didn't buy this
team to make money, and I think that because we're not afraid to
lose money, we haven't. Everyone told me this was a mistake, except
my wife. But I believed in this. I told them that the heart can win
big battles if you believe, and now they're starting to believe
that, too.
You've been all over the world during your career. What makes
Philadelphia stand out among all the places you've been to?
It's the birthplace of what is
America. And people nowadays, with
so many distractions - the Internet, TV, computers, movies, and
pop rock - they forget about that history. So coming here, you have
a perfect opportunity to see it again. It's all around you when you
walk down the street. This is a big city with a small-town feel.
It's a city that has often been overshadowed by
Washington and New
York. But it's those kinds of places - the ones that people don't
talk about all the time - that are usually the great surprises.