Ep. 237: Philip Lawrence | How a $5 Bus Pass Created Bruno Mars

Today's guest is a Grammy-winning songwriter, producer, and performer, best known as one-third of The Smeezingtons and a foundational creative force behind Bruno Mars’ career. He has co-written and helped shape some of the most influential pop songs of the last two decades, including Just the Way You Are, Billionaire, Locked Out of Heaven, When I Was Your Man, 24K Magic, Nothin’ on You, and many more...

And The Writer Is... Bruno Mars!

In this episode of And The Writer Is…, Philip Lawrence tells his story in full—for the first time
- How a $5 bus pass led to Bruno Mars
- The hidden cost of early success
- Real stories behind pop’s biggest records
- The pivot that made everything 'click'
- A breakdown at the peak—and the call that brought him back
and much more...

A special thank you to our sponsors…
Our lead Sponsor, NMPA— the National Music Publishing Association. Your support means the world to us.

And @splice — the best sample library on the market. Period.

Chapters:
0:00 Intro
4:00 “I Just Might” and Bruno Mars
10:31 Childhood and Not Feeling Good Enough
14:00 Early Career
20:00 Leaving School and Auditioning for Disney
26:00 The Disney Break Room: The Beginning of His Journey
27:00 His First Session
30:00 Meeting Steven Seagal
34:00 Moving to LA
37:09 Losing Everything He Had So Far
39:00 Finding His Manager
43:00 Finding His Way Through the Industry
44:42 His Ego Death
45:50 The Pivot That Really Started His Career
46:50 Be Friends With All the Assistants
47:20 NMPA and Splice
48:45 How to Write for Radio
49:30 Developing His Songwriting Ethos
50:29 Spending His Last $5 to Meet Bruno Mars (Before He Was Bruno Mars)
1:05:09 How Bruno Stayed on His Early Hook Placements
1:07:28 The Story of Nothin’ on You
1:09:20 Billionaire
1:11:50 Just the Way You Are
1:19:15 Talking to the Moon
1:20:49 Ross’s CeeLo Story
1:23:00 “F*** You” Was Not Supposed to Happen
1:28:00 How Locked Out of Heaven Happened
1:33:22 When I Was Your Man / Flowers (Miley Cyrus)
1:36:50 Five Songs He Wishes He Wrote
1:38:34 24K Magic
1:40:36 His Breakdown at the Peak of Success
1:48:45 The Comeback Phone Call With Bruno
1:50:18 APT
1:52:39 Advice for Songwriters + Rapid-Fire Questions

Hosted by Ross Golan
Produced by Joe London and Jad Saad
Post-Production VFX by Pratik Karki
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.