Simon Cowell on Oprah's Network Show Master Class Recap

(1/23/2011) The new OWN Network features the show Master Class on Sunday nights at 10:00 pm EST. The Master Class concept has Oprah highlighting people who are influential, powerful and experts at what they do. Oprah asks the stars a series of questions that they answer talking directly into the camera. Periodically we see Oprah throughout the show enlightening us as to why she chose to interview them and why she is highlighting them on her Master Class show.

This week's interview was with Simon Cowell, a man who has made a huge name for himself in the United States with his show, American Idol. On Master Class, Simon talked about his career, some of his ups-and-downs, and his mindset regarding some of the things he has learned along his journey.

What makes Simon Cowell so endearing?

From people like Carrie Underwood, and Kelly Clarkson, to Susan Boyle, Simon has influenced some heavy hitting artists. Oprah said what makes Simon so endearing to us is the fact that he goes against the grain and says exactly what is on his mind. She says, "Most of us would never dare to say what we are thinking." However, Simon Cowell has the confidence to be a bad guy and just say what he thinks aloud because of his experience and expertise.

Simon Cowell's achievements and life's lessons

Right now, he is reality TV's most loveable bad guy. Cowell is worth a reported 90million, is responsible for 14 shows, and 70 top records. The power of American Idol has been record shattering with more viewers watching Idol than ABC, CBS and NBC combined. In fact, Idol bumped the State of the Union address of President Obama, which says a lot about the state of American viewers and their love for Idol.

Trust your instincts.

Simon said, "I am not the Master of anything, but what I am good at is recognizing what I like and what I don't like." I am good at making records that other people will like it. I figure that if I like something, other people will like it."

Then Simon laughed and said, "That is not always true but it is what I go by. I am remembering one time we were flying back from the UK to do another season of Idol. It must have been after the 3^rd or 4^th year, and I thought, I have run out of things to say. How many ways can you say you suck? Then I realized that with a show like American Idol, you go off the cuff and just say how you feel at that moment. That is good enough. That is what it takes."

Don't be another nodder

Simon went on to say, "I like people to have an opinion. I work with many people that are the nodders. They are people that do not have an opinion. If I am in a meeting, I will ask every person in the room a question because I genuinely want to know what they think. Right or wrong, you are thinking something. If you are not, then I do not have time for you. I want to know what people think."

Oprah said, "What I really liked about Simon was that he said exactly what he felt, what he heard, and what he saw. His comments resonated in such a way with the American people because we liked what we heard. It was real."

Simon's youth

Simon said he was never any good in school. He said he was bored and did things he was not supposed to do. Then he said, "I promised myself, that whatever I did do, I was going to have fun. I did not want to be bored, or scared. I wanted to be in charge of my own life. When I was younger, our neighbor ran the British arm of MGM studios. They had lavish parties and famous people in attendance such as Bette Davis and many others. I would look over the wall and imagine what it might be like to host a party where famous and interesting people would come. I never had a major desire to be well known, but I wanted to be the host of the party. I made a pact with myself that someday I would be able to be with well-known people."

"As a child, I learned a lot from my dad. He did not overcomplicate things. My dad taught me that you have to work hard, and be patient. In addition, you have to look after yourself. My first day of working in the mailroom at EPI was so exciting. "I had a job, and it was me, and my money."

Simon explains, "When I first started in the entertainment business, you had to work yourself up the ladder. Moreover, you have to enjoy the process of getting there. Nevertheless, when I was 32 I ran out of patience. "

A clip of Oprah is shown with her saying, "His ability to tell the truth was disarming."

Be truthful

Then Simon explains, "I judge all things very simply: I like it, or I don't like it, I am bored, or I am not bored. I do not guess and I am confident about what I do. If you asked me how I would deal with an economic crisis, I would not have a clue. However, I do know entertainment."

"When I was younger, I did not have the confidence. But these days I will only put myself in a situation where I know I will be comfortable. You have to think with your heart rather than your head. Most people do not think with emotion and emotion is absolutely key to success. That is why I cannot bear research, people lie in research; they over think it. If they had researched Idol before it went on the air, it would not have gone on the air."

Simon laughs as if speaking to someone although no one else is hear. He says, "Actually, it did become an overnight success once it got on the air but we didn't sell the show right away. Another thing I learned was that when someone says yes, shut up."

Selling Idol to American producers

Simon tells the audience, "I sold the idea for the show in the UK, and in the first five minutes of pitching the show, I had a yes. I thought it would be just as easy to go to the US and do it again, but that was the worst meeting ever. I started talking about the show and the producer told me no. Then I said, I suppose that means you want to book the show, and again he said no. I ended up being kicked out of the office with the other two Simon's that were with me. When we walked to the curb, I said to them, it could not get any worse than this. But that was good. We were learning again."

"A bit later, I went back to the UK, and then I met Rupert Murdoch's daughter. She loved the concept of the Britain's Got Talent show and she told her dad."

Soon Simon and the producers were able to pitch the show again, and this time they sold it. Simon wanted to be behind the scenes but the conditions of the show contract required that he be a judge. Simon said, "I had massive reservations because I had never worked in America before. I thought, I do not have the right to tell Americans what they can or cannot do. I fought it and they said Simon you are going to regret it. I was concerned the show was going to be sanitized. They promised me no censorship but I didn't go into this thinking it was all going to go fine. I was nervous."

The Master Class show showed a clip of Simon on American Idol's stage on his last day. He said, "I have always put myself in front of other people, to say I am here, I want to learn, and I want you to promote me. I obsessively listened and absorbed what was around me and I met some incredibly talented people."

Mentorship and Dr. Pete Waterman

One of my personal idols is Dr. Pete Waterman. He packaged artists, was very successful and they called his business affectionately, the Hit Factory. He wrote and produced all the records. He had something about him, maybe arrogance but also confidence. I had a feeling that he knew he was going somewhere. Consequently, everywhere he went I went.

One day he asked me, "Simon, are you following me around?"

I said, "Yes, do you have a problem with that?"

Water said "No, I was just wondering."

While I learned much from him, after two years, the thing I took out of that was that you can have the artist and all the PR in the world but you still have to have a great song. As an A&R man, you are supposed to work with artists and make them a star.

At the time, I was a beginning A&R man but I had absolutely no training. In the beginning, I was never off the phone. I would just hustle, daily. I would shoot from the hip and make it up every day but I hated the A&R office so much, I moved my office into the sales office.

Finding new artists and making them into hits

Then one day, I was in the office when some calls came in. Customers were trying to buy a record that did not exist. They had seen a television show featuring a local band and they wanted the record. I asked one of the girls, "How many calls are you getting?"

She said, "Thousands."

I told her to tell the customers we would make it happen. Then it took me seven months to persuade this act to do a record. I knew I could persuade them to do it and I knew it was going to sell. They did, and it did. I had a hit and then it was time to move on.

Simon tells us by the time he was 30, he had lost everything because he went bankrupt and had to move back in with his parents. He said I learned another thing; your ego will take you out.

"This is what can happen to you when you are successful. You start to believe in your own hype and then you go into a bubble. That is why most people screw it up. The biggest failures are when I believed my own hype about 12 years. I signed an act called Girl Thing. Chris Herbert put it together. We did not spend a lot of time auditioning them but I publicized them, telling everyone they are going to be huge.In the end, the record was not very good and they were not very good."

Right before it came out I got a bad feeling. I had spent 2.5 million dollars on this band, and I was waiting for my boss to call me. I knew it was going to be a bad call. A few hours later, I was sitting at my desk and the secretary said my boss was on the line. I told her to put his call through the line. Then I heard my boss say, "This is the best thing that ever happened in your career," and then he hung up on me.

I thought, "What the hell?" I really did not know what that was about but then I went upstairs and listened to him. He laid into me and I realized it was completely my fault." It was a big mistake but I learned you have to take it in when you make a mistake and learn from it.

Being real and finding real talent

The Master Class show featured a few clips with Simon saying something to some horrible contestants and Paula Abdul, Randy Jackson or Kara DioGuardi telling him he was crazy, or to shut up.

He laughs as he says, "I am comfortable with that kind of reality. I like to start meetings off with all the bad things first. Then I work out the things in my head. It may take me a while, even a couple of months but I work through the problems and come up with solutions. That way you can get something done. Listening to the good things does not get you anywhere. Another piece of very valuable advice I received was to talk 10% of the time, and listen 90% of the time."

Simon continues, "In this industry, you are fooling yourself if you think you are the power broker. There is only one group of people that have power and that is your audience. The whole premise with this show is that it is a process to find an undiscovered person and turn them into a star. We did not originally think of it as a television show but more that it would be to be a fantastic way to find a star."

Simon says, "Of course, you are at the mercy of whoever walks in the door. If no one good walks through the door, you are screwed. However, all it takes is that one person. I will not forget the day we met Carrie Underwood. Everyone else had walked in the door dressed in black. Carrie walked in and she was nice and bright looking in pink. When she sang, I just knew she was going to sell records. I wish I could define what it is that makes someone special, but I cannot."

"What I love about my career is that there is something magical in the process, and the surprise is, it may not look like anything we expect, for example, Susan Boyle. When she walked out on the stage in the UK on the Britain's Got Talent show, I thought this is going to be a bad day."

From the clip, you can see Simon asking her how old she was, and she replies that she was 47. When the audience boos her, she shakes her hips and says that is only one side of her. She has got spunk. Again the crowd laughs but maybe with her this time instead of at her. When Simon asks her why it had not worked out for her before with singing, she says she never had been given a chance but she hoped it would work out for her now. When asked whom she aspired to be like, she said she wanted to be like Elaine Paige. Again, the audience roared and the judges raise their eyebrows in disbelief. Everyone in the crowd was laughing at Susan.And then something powerful happened.

Susan began to sing. The audience made a collective gasp. Not a single soul was laughing at her anymore. By her third note, the judges' faces registered surprise and delight; the crowd now deafening silent as they waited for Susan to mess up but she did not. Instead she was like a mighty Amazon, leading them on her journey of having a dream. Susan mesmerized everyone who saw her, with her conviction, her powerful voice and the Song from Wizard of Oz, "I have a dream" came alive in her honor. The song and her back story were believable. Many could relate to her dreams of hope, and she became an overnight star. The initial audition now playing on YouTube has had over 52 million hits so far. If you have not yet seen the clip, you definitely want to see this.

Upon watching the clip, you can see how Simon was feeling as the camera pans his face. He tells us, "I was thinking this is not going to be a great day, and when she walked on, I thought, oh great, this is going to be just great. But then when Susan turned it around, I remember thinking, I like this job today."

"Talent is talent and the reaction from everybody when she sang was overwhelming. I just remember thinking when people see this; they are going to go crazy. I do consider myself to be a bit of a mentor. She absolutely deserved the shot. We had to do the right thing by her. I was very hands on, even to the point where we redid the album to make it more interesting. I helped pick out the Wild Horses song for her for her final show and that is just one example of how my days can be."

The Master Class shows a clip of many other now famous faces such as Ruben Studdard and Clay Aikens; all now household names. Simon says "With the internet and the speed of information, the teens have a slightly different outlook than I did when I was a kid. They do not want to wait around for thirty years. They want the house, the chics, the cars, and they want it instantly. I actually have the ability to give it to them and it is awesome but at the same time, I also try to lead by example because these old principles still apply. It is still going to take a while and it is still going to take a lot of hard work. It takes a while to be good.

Simon tells us, "I have learned many things along my road. You cannot be afraid to have an opinion. Learn from people who are smarter than you are."

Oprah reiterates what he has told us. Simon has learned to trust his instincts. He refuses to lie to himself or others, and even though his words can sometimes sound harsh, we love him because deep inside, we all know it when we hear the truth.

The end of the Master Class show featuring Simon Cowell again shows us a clip of his last American Idol appearance. We watch as he tells the crowd after getting up on stage and people cheer, "I didn't think I was going to be this emotional. I honestly want to thank you, for the support, the fun and it has been a blast. Thank you!"

Simon says, "You don't get smart at 17 unless you are one in a billion. Success will normally happen over time, and it is the getting there that is the most fun. When we made American Idol, I thought it was funny, and I was not sure how other people were going to react to it. That first year, it was fun, and controversial. We were not number one. We were trying to be number one, and I think it was one of the best years of my life because we were not fighting to keep anything; we were just trying to be the best."

"When people are talking en mass, the fact that people are buzzing about the shows and the artists, and you are in the center of this chaos," he smiles at the camera as he says, "I like that. It makes me believe that people care about what we are doing. I enjoy being a part of the process."

He continues, "Then when we got to number one, we would hear the Nielson ratings, and you feel happy for five or ten minutes and then you have to start planning the next week. It is a constant fight to stay in the game." Unsaid, but heard between the lines, it just was not fun anymore.

Instead he tells the audience of Master Class in response to why he left the show, "I got some other great advice. Always know when to leave the fair. You know when it is time. Something inside of you says it is time to go. Some people are afraid of an ending but I can look back and say I enjoyed myself and I left on a good note. I had a blast. It was time."Sources:

OWN, 1/23/2011 - Master Class Show featuring Simon Cowell