“I come from nowhere Brooklyn, New York. Williamsburg, Brooklyn. These days Williamsburg is kind of a hip area, but when I grew up there, the taxi drivers wouldn’t even go over the bridge, it was so dangerous. I wasn’t really a hipster. I was a geek. That was me. Steve Jobs? Bill Gates? See how they look? That’s exactly how I looked. Worse! My hair was slicked down with a part. But that was before I discovered the blow-dryer. Now I’m fabulous.”
Barry Manilow tells Men.style.com about his kiddie years (pre-frosted tips) living with his grandparents in the ‘burg. According to his Wikipedia entry: “It was they who encouraged him to take up his first musical instrument, the accordion, which was popular in his Jewish and Italian neighborhood.”
PS: Does anyone else remember that episode of Will & Grace where Will secretly waits in line for tickets to A Very Barry Christmas and Darlene from Roseanne guest stars as a psychotic “fanilow”?