JTA — Couple Jewish grandfathers are nonetheless riding a motorcycle at age 65. Even fewer can boast that they have Alice Cooper’s quantity on pace-dial.
Of program, David Fishof is no ordinary zayde.
The 65-year-previous LA sports agent and amusement producer created a storied profession endorsing these types of stars as The Monkees and Ringo Starr and NFL greats Phil Simms and Vince Ferragamo.
It’s the things of any teenager fanboy’s fantasies, but Fishof insists he’s an everyday guy.
“I’m a legend in my personal brain,” he quipped.
He’s also an common guy who allows other people dwell out goals of their own: Fishof, who is Modern Orthodox, is the founder and CEO of Rock ’n Roll Fantasy Camp, in which beginner rockers jam along with their teenager new music heroes. Staffed by musicians like Gene Simmons, Alice Cooper, Roger Daltrey and Nancy Wilson, the four-working day knowledge prices about $6,000 (excluding resort lodging). It incorporates jam periods, rehearsals and performances, an opening-night get together and Q&A’s with the celebrated musicians. Learn lessons, band gear and a movie of the remaining night’s general performance are section of the bundle.
David Fishof preferred to highlight his Modern day Orthodox id in a movie on the camp. (Courtesy of Fishof/ by means of JTA)
To day, more than 5,000 campers — primarily grown ups — have participated in 69 sessions throughout the United States considering the fact that the camp’s start in 1997.
From “Ellen” to Amusement Weekly, “The Simpsons” to “Saturday Evening Stay,” Rock Camp has been greatly lined — and parodied — by the media. January 2021 observed the launch of “Rock Camp: The Movie,” which chronicles the journeys of four campers who conquer private difficulties whilst actively playing with and finding out from some of the most well known rock musicians in the environment. On Monday, Jew in the City, a nonprofit that aims to adjust detrimental perceptions of religious Jews, premiered the movie in New York Metropolis. The movie will also play at the Toronto Jewish Film Festival, which operates from June 3 to 23.
When Fishof was to begin with hesitant to star in the film, he ultimately agreed to look on the situation that his Modern Orthodox identity would be highlighted.
“I want to display future generations that they can be productive in the audio organization or as a sporting activities agent and put on a yarmulke,” he suggests. “You can are living in the regular entire world and even now notice Shabbos and really like Israel and observe kashrus. Obtaining Shabbos to recharge my batteries no issue in which I was on the highway, whether or not touring with Ringo or The Monkees, reminded me that I’m a Jew. I believe that I’m however performing this at 65 for the reason that I’m spiritual for the reason that I’ve been in a position to find harmony in my everyday living.
“Over the several years, I by no means did medications or alcohol,” he included. “I overdosed on cholent. A fantastic piece of mandelbread was my weakness.”
Jewish KISS frontman Gene Simmons mentors a camp participant. (Abide by Me Photography/ by way of JTA)
Fishof is especially fond of a scene in the Rock Camp motion picture that options Queen keyboardist Spike Edney interviewed in entrance of Fishof’s volumes of Talmud.
“That’s who I am and it was critical for me to display exactly where I appear from,” he claimed, noting that he’s actively doing the job on countering Netflix’s “My Unorthodox Life,” about the previously Orthodox style government Julia Haart. He finds the reality clearly show specially upsetting due to its “totally false” depiction of Fashionable Orthodox gals.
The son of a Holocaust survivor, Fishof was deeply motivated by his late father’s activities and heroism during the Shoah. Born in Slovakia, Mark Fishof located solace in new music when in Auschwitz and Buchenwald.
“My father sang any time he could,” stated Fishof. “Music saved his lifestyle.”
Mark became a cantor on emigrating to The us. Fishof fondly recalled serving to out at Temple Beth El, the Orthodox-turned-Conservative synagogue in Hackensack, New Jersey, in which his father worked for a long time.
But it was Mark’s tales of survival that go Fishof to this day.
David Fishof, Rock ‘N’ Roll Fantasy Camp founder and operator greeting a camper in the course of a Rock Camp in 2018. (Courtesy Rock N’ Roll Fantasy Camp)
“My father informed me tales daily, like how in Buchenwald he observed an unused cigarette on the floor and traded it for flour to make matzah. There was always half a piece of bread in [our] refrigerator. I requested, ‘Why aren’t you taking in it?’ He claimed, ‘Because I always saved for my future meal.’ Each and every working day I figured out classes from my dad about survival, and that is a large part of my existence. I’m quite lucky to have experienced him as a father,” Fishof claimed.
“Here I am, a baby of a Holocaust survivor, and I could signify a Beatle, and the biggest stars of qualified athletics and rock and roll. Hitler wasn’t able to demolish us,” he added.
It was Fishof’s dad who essentially served kickstart his occupation. For many years, Fishof’s family vacationed at Catskill summer season resorts. He worked as a teenager waiter and his older brother, Joey, entertained visitors with his band, “The Ruach Revival.”
“I desired to be in it, but I was not great plenty of,” claims Fishof. “My father stated, ‘Why don’t you become an entrepreneur and e-book the functions?’”
Rock Camp attendee Tammy Fisher and Paul Stanley from KISS accomplish at the Dwelling of Blues in Las Vegas, Nevada, on Oct 7, 2018. (Courtesy Rock N’ Roll Fantasy Camp)
And so commenced Fishof’s initial stint as an amusement producer for the Borscht Belt. When he introduced in NBA basketball star Julius Erving and the kids went gaga.
“When I saw 2,000 kids running up to Dr. J, I stated, ‘This is the enterprise I want to be in!’ That’s when I turned a sports agent,” he claims, in “Rock Camp: The Movie.”
In the mid-80s, Fishof shifted from experienced athletics to new music, booking tours for these oldies bands as The Turtles and The Monkees — whose lead singer, Davy Jones, was his childhood hero. When he was a yeshiva pupil, “The Monkees” was the only Television set present his parents enable him look at.
From 1989 to 2003, Fishof generated 8 “Ringo Starr and His All-Starr Band” tours.
One particular evening, forward of the fourth display, the band pranked him: Users threatened to stop as two many others have been ostensibly brawling in the up coming room. Fishof was identified as in to split up the combat. Sooner or later they uncovered it was a gag — but not just before a glass was shattered and phony blood was spilled. Thankfully for Ringo, Fishof has a perception of humor.
“I mentioned to myself, ‘Wow, these guys are nuts!’” he recounts in the film. “But I understood how significantly enjoyable they have. That is how I came up with the concept for Rock ’n Roll Fantasy Camp. I thought, ‘What if I could give this to a lover, to see what it’s like to be with all these rock stars?’”
From remaining: Richie Faulkner from Judas Priest, Scott Keller, Rob Halford from Judas Priest, Laughlin Keller at Rock ‘n’ Roll Fantasy Camp in Los Angeles, November 10, 2016. (Courtesy Rock N’ Roll Fantasy Camp)
Soon after a lot more than a year of lockdown, Rock ’n Roll Fantasy Camp is now in the midst of its initially in-particular person sessions because the start off of the pandemic. Until eventually April 3, Rudolf Shenker and Matthias Jabs of Scorpions, together with Sebastian Bach of Skid Row and Zakk Wylde from Ozzy Osbourne’s band, are major the lineup in Las Vegas.
On May possibly 6-9, an all-women’s camp in Los Angeles will attribute Melissa Etheridge, Nancy Wilson, Kathy Valentine and Orianthi.
“My purpose with camp is to get persons again to that spot in their lifestyle where by that song intended anything, wherever the artists intended anything,” stated Fishof. “To deliver them happiness and remind them what it was like. To reignite enthusiasm in their lives.”
Fishof, who has 5 kids and eight grandchildren, claimed money was by no means his purpose.
“I imagine funds will appear if you operate all around your enthusiasm,” he claimed. “Try to be the finest that you can be, and then you are going to be successful. I acquired it from these rock stars: They didn’t abide by their mother and father when they told them to get a ‘real’ task. What I’m hoping people today will see in the movie is that at any age, you can stay your dream.”