Interview by Jon Burlingame
Recorded September 30, 2013, at Bill Conti’s home in Los Angeles
Bill Conti describes growing up in Providence, Rhode Island, where his grandfather, a cornet player, taught him solfeggio and his father, a pianist and church organist, sang operas with his grandfather at the piano. In Miami, he began playing in a Miami Beach saloon at 13. A teacher’s tip that a double-reed player could win a scholarship led him to the bassoon and Louisiana State University, then to Juilliard, where he chose composition.
He recounts moving to Rome with his wife, playing in a Via Veneto piano bar, and how novelist Morris West told him, “You’re living a lie,” and offered $400 a month so he could become a composer. Work as Italian music supervisor on Paul Mazursky’s Blume in Love led to Harry and Tonto and then Rocky, a $25,000 package deal recorded in one three-hour session, with his wife and her office mates singing “Gonna Fly Now.”
He explains how the training montage grew in 30-second increments, and how the sequels and Cubby Broccoli’s For Your Eyes Only taught him to keep the familiar themes. He also discusses his Oscar-winning score for The Right Stuff; panpipe player Zamfir on The Karate Kid; five pianos and a tap dancer for The Thomas Crown Affair; themes for Dynasty and Falcon Crest; and conducting the Academy Awards 19 times.
Reflecting on his career, he calls himself a working composer in the Baroque sense, “thankful for films and television,” and tells aspiring composers to have faith in themselves and meet people: “It’s the film business. It’s not the film art.”