“I did my best, it wasn’t much
I couldn’t feel, so I tried to touch
I’ve told the truth, I didn’t come to fool you
And even though it all went wrong
I’ll stand before the Lord of Song
With nothing on my tongue but Hallelujah”
Everyone knows this song. It is hardly surprising – hundreds of musicians have performed it over the years. But no one performed it like the author. Leonard Cohen, a Canadian bard, poet and singer, charmed the world’s audience with his baritone for six decades. This year, the story of his most famous song was brought to the big screen in Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, A Journey, A Song. From April 2, the film will be shown in Multikino and studio cinemas all over Poland.
The executive producer of the documentary was Robert Kory, the man who was Cohen’s right hand in the last 15 years of his life. The two men met in 2004, when the musician discovered he had become a victim of a fraud by his manager who had managed him since 1991. His then manager and friend had embezzled all of the funds that the singer allocated to his retirement fund, and Leonard discovered this tragic fact just as he thought he was about to retire. Leonard never got his money back. Kory, however, helped Cohen recover both musically and financially. With Kory’s help. Cohen achieved a career renaissance like no other artist before him, becoming a true international icon playing to arenas and stadium audiences worldwide.
In an interview with Maks Wieczorski, Kory talks about his acquaintance with Leonard and production of the latest film.
So firstly, how did you and Leonard meet each other?
We met in 1988. I was in the music business at the time. I remember that I was at Leonard’s concert and a friend took me backstage to meet Leonard. We said hello but I didn’t consider that a real meeting. It was just for a few minutes. I really met him in November 2004 when the same friend called and said that Leonard was in terrible legal and financial trouble. She told me that Leonard had been to a number of law firms and wasn’t doing well. He wanted to know if I could see him. I agreed even though I was out of the music business at that point. I was doing entertainment and technology finance.
The situation with Leonard was difficult?
The situation with his previous managers was tough, I must say. I told him that I doubted that I could help him.
But you finally did.
I said “Leonard, look, you’ve already been to two great law firms in Los Angeles. Big law firms much more renowned than me couldn’t be helpful so it’s very unlikely I’ll be able to help. But as a courtesy I’ll take a look”. That was in November 2004 and I was very busy. We decided to revisit in January to see if I had any ideas about helping him after reviewing some of the few documents Leonard provided. When we met in January, I had discovered what I thought was a legal and financial path forward. So I started working for him as his lawyer..
So that’s how your working with Leonard has started – and later you became his manager. What was he like professionally?
Like all of us. He could be very different in different circumstances. But always he would listen. He was willing to explore different options and set a particular course of action that he thought was good. He was open to the intricacies of the law and so forth. So we discussed many options. It was reasonable and thoughtful… and sometimes he could get angry.
Angry?
Sure!
Was it happening frequently?
From time to time, and particularly when I was unwilling for one reason or another to follow his recommendation. He was not accustomed to push-back, because he was so wise and brilliant. However, he had gotten himself into a great deal of difficulty, and solutions were not simple.
How did you become his manager?
I had encouraged him in 2005 to hire a new personal manager. He hired one in 2005 and fired him in 2006, then hired another and fired her in 2007. Over the course of that span, I assisted with certain projects more in a managerial rather than legal role. So, when he got serious about going back on the road at the end of 2007, he asked me to be his manager as well as his lawyer.
You mentioned that one key to his remarkable success as a performer in 2008-2013 world tours was both the preparation for the concerts and his focus exclusively on the performances.
Yes. People did not realize that he had a 90 minute full rehearsal in the afternoon with the band before every 3 ½ hour concert in the evening. One cardinal rule was not meeting fans before or after concerts on show day.
When we first met in Wroclaw you said that he made one exception though…
Yes, Lech Wałęsa… He was one of the very, very few people Leonard agreed to see before a concert. I think Leonard agreed to the meeting because he knows there is this magical connection between Leonard and Poland.
But how did it happen that they met?
We were at a concert in Warsaw and we got word that Lech Wałęsa would like to meet Leonard before it. Leonard said yes at the first moment. Lech was very respectful and understood that the meeting had to be short because Leonard had a concert to do and had to put all his energy and focus into the concert.
What were they talking about?
I think they reminisced a bit about Leonard’s earlier concerts in Poland, and the dramatic years of change. I know it was quite lovely and meaningful for Leonard.
Now, after five years since Leonard’s passed away, a new documentary about his life is in theaters. You’re an executive producer of the movie. How did the whole idea start?
The film is based on a book. In 2009 writer Alan Light came to us proposing a book to explore Hallelujah, Leonard’s greatest hit. Leonard gave him tacit approval, which meant we would not discourage people from speaking with Alan but Leonard would not be interviewed or encourage others to participate. The book was released in 2012 and did very well. Leonard like it..
So then you decided to make a movie based on it?
Not yet. About two years from the publication we had three different groups which proposed to do a documentary based on it. Leonard from those groups chose Dana and Dan. They proposed a project much more related to the book. The film evolved into a work that is far deeper than the book.
Leonard passed away while working on this project in 2016.
It was obviously sad for all of us but for the film it didn’t matter. Filmmakers were already informed that Leonard won’t give them an interview anyway. We all knew that from day one nobody was going to ask him one single question.
Few months ago “Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, A journey, A song” hit the screens. It’s a film about the song Hallelujah – one of his most popular songs. What was Hallelujah to Cohen?
The main answer for that question is in the film. But I think that Hallelujah is an experience. Words embody an idea. And then that idea has to be understood within our philosophies and models and understanding of the world. Leonard sings “There’s a blaze of light in every word. It doesn’t matter which you heard, the holy or the broken Hallelujah”. Let’s forget all that and just have the experience. The words are important to creating the experience, but the words are only the idea, the concept. Leonard’s art is a gift to create a deep emotional experience.
Is that his opus magnum?
Not really. Leonard’s work is not defined by one song. He has many songs of equal depth, and we are now working on his archive, with hundreds, maybe thousands of unpublished poems and songs. His archive is really his magnum opus. We are in the process of digitizing it so it can be available in the future.
How can we see Hallelujah, the film?
It is on Netflix and it was recently released in theaters in Poland. I would recommend seeing it in the theater. This film is also about music, which resounds in the cinema like nowhere else.