'He Writes The Songs' The Barry Manilow Interview

Barry Manilow is best known for such recordings as “Could It Be Magic,” “Mandy,” “Can’t Smile Without You,” and “Copacabana (At the Copa).” In 1978, five of his albums were on the best-selling charts simultaneously. He has recorded a string of Billboard hit singles and multi-platinum albums that have resulted in his being named Radio & Records number one Adult Contemporary artist and winning three straight American Music Awards for Favorite Pop/Rock Male Artist. Between 1974 – 1979, Manilow had 10 number one singles, five of which were consecutive. For more than 15 years, however, Manilow has continued his success while one critically important detail was out of rhythm: his heart. Manilow is one of more than 2.5 million America­ns living with atrial fibrillation (AFib). Mr. Manilow sat down with Editor-in-Chief Gary Barg to talk about the art of being in rhythm, personally and professionally.

Gary Barg: Watching you perform, it is hard to believe that you were dealing with AFib even while you were on stage. How did the disease manifest itself and what did you do?

Barry Manilow: About 15 years ago, I was driving home and it felt to me like my heart skipped a beat, which did not seem very important. But as I kept driving, my heart skipping a beat kept getting more and more out of whack. It was not just a little skipping a beat; it started to feel like it was—the only way I can put it is out of rhythm.

Your heart goes faster when you are jogging or when you are excited. You hear a boom-boom-boompa-dum and maybe it goes faster—boompa-doompa-doomp; it’s the same tempo. But with AFib, it goes out of whack—ba-doomp-boom,badooma-dooma-dooma-badooma-badooma wumpadoomp—like that. The first time it happened, I thought, well, I am dying or something. What’s going on here? And then it kind of went away and I did not do anything about it, which was wrong.

It came back about a week later. It is kind of insidious in that it does not come from stress, or from being excited; it does not come from anything. It just starts when it wants to start. I think I was watching television. I could feel my heart start to do that same thing; it was going out of rhythm again.

That is when I called my doctor and he knew exactly what I was talking about. He said, “You have got atrial fibrillation,” and described exactly what I had and gave me medication. It could have stopped right there. That is why I tell people, “Go see your doctor.” If you feel what I am talking about, if this sounds familiar to you, go to your doctor. That is what you need to do. You need to have a dialog and a relationship with your doctor so that you know whether it is getting worse or whether it is calming down and what medication he can put you on; you can live a very normal life. Just by having the doctor treat you with simple medication, it could stop right there for you. With me, it did not stop right there and with a lot more people, it did not stop right there.

Gary Barg: That is good to know. Frankly, as family caregivers, we take ourselves out of this circle of care. We ignore our own issues; and then I always tell caregivers if you do that, who is going to step in and care for you and your loved one? This sounds dangerous.

Barry Manilow: You are right. It is dangerous. I have spoken to many doctors and they say, “So many people do not like to go to their doctors.” One doctor said, “You are like me; I do not like to go to doctors.” And he was a doctor! It is very common. But with this one, you really have to take it seriously because it can go to some really nasty places.

Gary Barg: Pretty quickly, too.

Barry Manilow: Once the medication stops working, as it does with me, I cannot stop my heart from going crazy. Then they have to stop it because you are playing with fire if they don’t. They give you what is called cardio aversion. They give you the paddles—I call them paddles—what we have seen on TV all the time where they say, “Clear!” and then bang!—those paddles. They put you out so you do not really feel very much. It is terrifying, but when you wake up, your heart is back in rhythm. That is when the medication does not work; that is the next step. They have to do something as dramatic as that because they have got to stop it somehow. They have cardio averted me—they have given me the paddles—I cannot even remember how many times over 15 years.

Gary Barg: Now you know what to do about AFib and, obviously, cardio aversion; how else does it affect your life?

Barry Manilow: It is a pain in the neck. It comes on in the middle of an interview like you and I are having. It comes on in the middle of my life. It never really has come on when I have been in the wings waiting to go on stage. I do not know why; it has just left me alone on that. But there was one time when I was in Boston. I was in a thing with the Boston Philharmonic on July 4th. It was a live TV show being broadcast to millions of people. I woke up in the morning and I felt this thing start. I went, “Oh no, not now, please.” I took the medicine the way I was supposed to and it just would not stop. I called my doctor and said, “Okay, what do I do? I have a sound check at 2 o’clock.” This was around 9 o’clock in the morning. He said, “Get over to the hospital in Boston; there is an area that is devoted to AFib.” I got myself a doctor there and they knew who I was; they got me in. Sure enough; they had to stop it with the paddles.

After it was done, I woke up and the thing had stopped. I went to sound check and kind of staggered onto the stage. Nobody knew and that night I did the show. You can get through your life, but you have got to take care of yourself; that is it. You have got to be on top of it.

Gary Barg: I have seen you perform live and I was thinking about this because you bring so much to the stage; you have so much energy. I was wondering if you are worried about that happening in the middle of the performance.

Barry Manilow: I think if it did happen, I could get through the performance. It does not stop me from living my life. Most of the time, the medication does its job and pulls it all back together again. But sometimes even that does not work. I have not had any episodes while I have been on stage.

Gary Barg: That is great. Do they tell you to restrict exercise or do different exercises?

Barry Manilow: No. Many people ask what I do; there are no rules—everybody is different. For some people, there is caffeine and in other people, it is too much exercise. It just goes—everybody has got a different reason— do not eat this kind of thing, do not drink that kind of thing. For me, no one has ever told me not to do this or that. I just take the medication and go on with my life. If I had not gone to the doctor, I do not know if I could have easily gone on with my life.

Gary Barg: I think that is the key. It sounds like when you feel that irregular rhythm that mostly just comes out of the blue, do not ignore it; get medical help.

Barry Manilow: Not just that one time. You have got to form a relationship with your doctor because just going to your doctor once is not the answer. Because if you have got it, it is not going away; there is no cure for this. You have got to call him when you feel it is coming on and know that he is on the other end of the phone when you need him.

Gary Barg: We call it a partnership.

Barry Manilow: A partnership. That is a good one; form a partnership with your doctor.

Gary Barg: What would you think is the one most important piece of advice you would like to share with family caregivers about AFib?

Barry Manilow: You have got to take this one seriously. It comes on very innocently. I can understand why people would say other people have worse problems than I do. I do not think that is a good way to deal with this. If anybody is reading this interview and it sounds familiar to them, you have got to take it seriously because, like I said, you are playing with fire. If you say that my family has got more problems, well, if you do not take care of this, you are going to be a big problem in your family.