Ever dreamed of jamming with rock legends like Ringo Starr, Gene Simmons, or Alice Cooper? David Fishof— legendary music producer, sports agent, and founder of Rock ‘n’ Roll Fantasy Camp has been making those dreams come true for 25 years and counting.
On this episode of The Debbie Nigro Show, it was an absolute blast welcoming David to share his wild ride from managing NFL stars to organizing epic jam sessions for everyday rockers. (And yes, he created Ringo’s All-Starr Band!)
“It’s my fantasy to change people’s lives through the power of music,” David said.
And wow, he sure is doing just that.
From high-powered lawyers to high school band alumni, campers come from all walks of life to fulfill their rock and roll dreams — and leave transformed.
As David shared:
“Joe Perry once told a camper, ‘You’re not a lawyer who plays guitar. You’re a guitarist who practices law to pay for his guitars.’”
You can get a good glimpse inside David’s world and his Rock ‘n Roll Fantasy Camp by watching the documentary ‘Rock Camp’ free on Amazon Prime. You’ll see 4 rock ‘n’ rollers from various walks of life, getting a once in a lifetime chance to jam with their heroes and 30+ legendary musicians who’ve been a part of it all.
New in 2025: David’s expanding the current Rock ‘n Roll Fantasy Camp experience with songwriting camps led by hitmakers like Linda Perry (“What’s Up”), plus don’t miss the upcoming camps in Phoenix and Fort Lauderdale featuring Alice Cooper, Rob Halford, and members of the Billy Joel Band and many more. David also spoke of a heartwarming film project spotlighting music’s healing power which will air after October 7th.
Now based back in New York, David Fishof is also giving back by teaching at Yeshiva University’s Sy Syms School of Business, helping young people learn sports and entertainment marketing — and how to bring personality to business.
“Book smarts alone don’t cut it. If you can’t connect, you can’t close.” – David Fishof
David’s advice? Surround yourself with people better than you. Be bold. And take the shot —
And You KNOW My Advice is Always! Risk It! Or Regret It! “– Debbie Nigro
Whether you play or just love music, Rock ‘n’ Roll Fantasy Camp is a one-of-a-kind experience — and a rockin’ gift idea, by the way.
Listen to the full interview on The Debbie Nigro Show – shared now as a podcast and get inspired to finally live your rock dream.
If you’d rather read than listen the transcript of the audio is below.
Who says it’s too late to be a rockstar?
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AUDIO TRANSCRIPT:
And now, back to the Debbie Nigro Show!
Well, it’s the same old story, unless you decide to change it up. And if you’ve always had a dream to be a rock and roll star, you better not tune out of this show. Hi, everybody. I’m Debbie Nigro. What do you mean David Fishof? He’s the founder of Rock and Roll Fantasy Camp and the producer of the hit documentary
0:00:37
(Speaker 2)
Rock Camp, which is now streaming free on Amazon Prime. And for 25 years, this is their 25th year celebration, David’s been helping people turn their rock and roll dreams into reality, giving everyday people, you know, me and you, and fans a chance to jam with some real legends, okay? Gene Simmons, Ringo Starr, oh my gosh, so many. And David Fishoff himself is a legend. As I said, I can’t remember where I met him, but I know he’s a legend.
0:01:04
(Speaker 2)
I’ve always wanted to have him on the show. And here he is. Hi, David.
0:01:08
(Speaker 1)
How are you? So nice to have you have me on the show.
0:01:11
(Speaker 2)
David. Yes.
0:01:12
(Speaker 1)
It’s also my fantasy to change people’s lives through power of music.
0:01:17
(Speaker 2)
And you’re doing a great job. David, I really enjoyed Rock Camp. Okay. you said, Debbie, you know, watch the movie before you have me on the show. And I’m like, I gotta watch the movie. It’s a documentary. And it was terrific. And you were a riot. And you can talk about it. But I love the fact that you were a part of it the whole time from the beginning. After you were a sports agent, you know, representing guys like Phil Sims and Mark Bavara and Vince Ferragamo. And then there you are, representing guys like Phil Sims and Mark Bavaro and Vince Ferragamo. And then there you are now representing Axe in the Catskill Mountains. And then you go on from there so you can take it on from there. Go ahead.
0:01:50
(Speaker 1)
Well, you know, I mean, I spent 15 years on the road with Ringo and I created the All Star Band and it was my idea. And after a while I decided I got married. I didn’t want to go on the road anymore. So I decided I’m gonna take the concept of putting all these all-stars together and created a rock camp where people can come for four days and actually jam with Phyllis Caballero,
0:02:12
(Speaker 1)
the Rascals, Alice Cooper, Roger Daltrey, Steven Tyler, Rob Halpert, Judith Priest. I created this camp and it’s close to now 28 years. And yeah, it’s really been life changing. You know what we do for the people who come?
0:02:27
(Speaker 2)
Yes.
0:02:28
(Speaker 1)
It’s incredible. They, the women say to me, my husband don’t have road rage anymore.
0:02:32
(Speaker 3)
Good one.
0:02:36
(Speaker 1)
Basically they were in, you know, in high school or college band, and they want to just come in and rock out cause it’s been on their lifelong dreams. And I have to share the best story again that I always love to tell is about Joe Perry.
0:02:50
(Speaker 1)
Okay. Who came to rock camp and he turns to a gentleman, he says, what do you do for a living? Guy says, I’m a lawyer and on weekends I play guitar in my band. And he turns to me and says, you’re full of crap.
0:03:01
(Speaker 1)
He says, you’re a guitarist first. You do that legal BS to pay for your guitars. Right.
0:03:06
(Speaker 5)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, that’s me, that’s me.
0:03:08
(Speaker 1)
You know, people, if someone’s a musician,
0:03:11
(Speaker 3)
they are a musician.
0:03:13
(Speaker 4)
Absolutely.
0:03:14
(Speaker 1)
And he has an opportunity to jam with the greatest and the best, and we do songwriting camps. I have a Linda Perry, who’s an amazing songwriter from Four Non Blondes, and she wrote the hit song What’s what’s up and somebody had a song she writes with Celine Dion She’s gonna do a song where the camp in October Alice Cooper Rob Halford We’ll headline a camp in Phoenix with basically two camps were almost sold out
0:03:36
(Speaker 1)
And then we got a kid coming up with deal with Cavallari and Mark Barner and Chicago In Florida and these camps take take place in all different cities, depending, one’s in Phoenix, Florida. I come to New York occasionally.
0:03:49
(Speaker 2)
Yeah, you’re from New York. You’re from New York.
0:03:52
(Speaker 1)
I’m from New York. Right. I moved to LA 15 years ago. Got it. And now I moved back for six months because I’m really excited.
0:04:00
(Speaker 1)
I took on a position to teach at Sy Syms Business School. Get out
0:04:06
(Speaker 2)
of here. You know I know Marcy Syms I know Marcy Syms. Yeah. I used to shop at Symsand when they closed I was so so upset you know and they were like a major retailer and they were you know kind of forerunners so yeah tell us more
0:04:22
(Speaker 1)
about that. Okay so Marcy she was to Sy, and he’s an amazing, they both are amazing people, and they donated the school at Yeshiva University and Stern College in Manhattan, and they really, the school’s become so popular that it’s taken over both campuses. And they asked me to come speak about sports marketing, and I was a sports agent. And today, everybody wants, every young man, and young women today, with the advent of WNBA,
0:04:56
(Speaker 1)
they wanna be sports agents. They wanna get into sports marketing. And so I thought, you know what? I’ve given my whole life, this business has been so good to me. The Rock Camp is really an opportunity
0:05:07
(Speaker 1)
for me to give back to musicians, and I’m gonna give back to people in the sports world, and students who really wanna learn.
0:05:13
(Speaker 2)
Yeah, that’s great.
0:05:14
(Speaker 1)
About sports and entertainment marketing, yeah.
0:05:16
(Speaker 2)
Yeah, you’re right, it’s a very hot category. And it’s great that it’s not only digital. You know, these kids are kind of, they got, you know, stars in their eyes about coming up with the next startup, technology startup.
0:05:28
(Speaker 1)
Well, you know, it’s so funny you say that. I was telling the dean yesterday, in Los Angeles, everyone walks around with their movie script. In New York, everyone walks around with the song that they wrote. And in Israel, I was living the past year in Jerusalem, everybody walks around with an app idea. I mean, if you would know how many apps come out of Israel.
0:05:52
(Speaker 3)
Oh yeah.
0:05:53
(Speaker 1)
WhatsApp, WhatsApp, WhatsApp is from Israel, Wave is from Israel. I mean, so, but you’re right, everybody comes up with a new idea. And that’s really what I wanna teach these students, entrepreneurship and how it’s really a personality that I know I got a call recently to speak for
0:06:10
(Speaker 1)
McKinsey. McKinsey is the number one consulting company in the country. Correct. And the vice president calls me up, he says, David I need you to come and speak. You know the gentleman in the movie. Yeah. So I said what do you want for me to come and speak? You guys are the smartest gentleman in the movie. Yeah. So I said, what do you want from me to come and speak? You guys are the smartest people in the world. Your employees are the smartest.
0:06:29
(Speaker 1)
He said, David, they don’t have personality.
0:06:32
(Speaker 3)
They’re book smart.
0:06:33
(Speaker 1)
He said, we need them to learn how to speak to the client.
0:06:36
(Speaker 2)
David, that’s so loud. You know, that’s a soft skill. Okay. These are all the skills that don’t go on resumes, that should go on resumes, that are the differentiator between a hirer and not hiring somebody. And I don’t think that enough people understand
0:06:54
(Speaker 2)
the power of that, right? And that’s why I think I remembered you so long because of your personality, and it has to be maybe why you remembered me. We put a little energy into the world that some people don’t think is necessary, but it’s absolutely necessary.
0:07:08
(Speaker 1)
It’s so important, especially to these people who say, can you change people who are shy? I said, absolutely, if you give them confidence. I think that’s what I’ve seen at rock camps, how often people come and they gain the confidence because they’re playing with Roger Daltrey. They’re playing with these superstars and then they go back and say, you know, if I could jam with them, you know, what I’ve learned in all these years of rock and roll
0:07:34
(Speaker 1)
fantasy camp is if you surround yourself with people that are smarter than you or you surround yourself with musicians that are better than you, you will get better. And I think that that’s really something that I want to teach these young people. The Rock Camp has just been a delight. I mean, every day I get to open my email, they open my email, someone’s thinking I got a record deal, someone’s telling me that they’re playing in a band now. And I love that.
0:08:01
(Speaker 2)
I guess it really did, you know, good work. Yeah, good work. You took a lot of shots that people thought you were nuts. That’s one of the takeaways from the movie and the documentary. You know, and I’m a risk taker. In fact, I’m going to give you one of my mugs that is coming out soon. It’s called, my slogan is, risk it or regret it.
0:08:17
(Speaker 1)
You’re 100% correct. You know, when I brought the monkeys back in 86 before MTV, it was 40 crazy. Who’s interested in seeing the monkeys? Who are interested in seeing the Ringo? It was an all-star band. I took Dirty Dancing and made that into a live tour. I mean, I have to tell you, I, you know, you, you have winners, you have losers. Um,
0:08:38
(Speaker 1)
hopefully when you produce the show, the winners out to the losers, but you can’t listen to the naysayers. You have to listen to your own heart and I think you have to go for it.
0:08:50
(Speaker 2)
Yeah, go for it.
0:08:51
(Speaker 1)
And don’t take risks.
0:08:52
(Speaker 2)
Okay, let’s talk about the camp and where people could maybe find out more about it. I went to your website, which is Rock and Roll Fantasy Camp. No, no.
0:09:01
(Speaker 1)
No, no. Rock Camp. It’s rockcamp.com. Okay. really a great gift to give a husband, a wife, someone who loves music, especially now with the songwriting. You know, you don’t have to play it into me. So many people have ideas to write songs.
0:09:31
(Speaker 1)
You know, when I was in Israel, it was so interesting. I’m shooting a movie that I’m about to complete now about 10 victims from October 7th that I brought to a rock camp. And I went to interview one of the young ladies from the Nova Film
0:09:45
(Speaker 1)
Festival and she was she took me to a music school where they told me where they allowed these survivors to come for a month to write songs to heal and music is so healing and that’s what the movie’s about. So a lot of people want to write songs, get their feelings out. And I think this Linda Perry camp would be so amazed to be a listeners.
0:10:09
(Speaker 2)
Sounds great.
0:10:10
(Speaker 1)
Yeah, they call me. They say they heard me. I’ll be glad to give them a special gift. And those that just mentioned your name.
0:10:19
(Speaker 2)
That’s great. Okay, cool. So there’s there’s one in Fort Lauderdale, there’s a rock and soul that’s happening in Fort Lauderdale, Florida December 4th to December 7th, and that’s the music of Chicago Grand Funk Railroad the Rascals Billy Joel Special guests the Billy Joel band So they’re all gonna be there if that’s your thing and then in November in Phoenix, Arizona, November 6th to November 9th You jam again with the Alice Cooper and Rob Halford. There’s all these other cool people who are going to be there. On November 13th, November 16th, Phoenix, Arizona. Again, another Rock Camp.
0:10:51
(Speaker 2)
And then the Singer Songwriting Fantasy Camp, which I thought was fantastic. October 23rd to 26th, LA, with Linda Perry and some other great talents there. So this – you sign up for Rock Camp News if you’re not sure yet and you just want to like see what David’s doing and what everybody else is doing and then one day you just okay I’m out of here. Take your instrument you’re like I’ll see you later. Have you actually ever played an instrument? I don’t think so
0:11:15
(Speaker 1)
right David? Right so it’s good to ask. I tried to play. My brother’s the drummer. You know worked with so many musicians for so many years. You know what, to play an instrument, you gotta be dedicated. You gotta do it every day, and I just, you know, I never got it. I never got it. I try to play a little drum, I play a little drum, but really I’m not great at it. And it really needs dedication.
0:11:41
(Speaker 2)
Yeah, don’t feel bad, I don’t play either. But a lot like you, I like to make the deals for everybody else to have some fun. I see things people don’t see. I was just smiling because I went to Wikipedia just to make sure I had all my facts about you today that I didn’t know because, you know, a lot of time has gone by since I’ve seen you. I from the Monkees was my first crush, okay. Everyone’s first crush. If I knew you knew him, I’d have been on your tail until they introduced me. And yeah, the American Bandstand concert tour with Dick Clark.
0:12:12
(Speaker 2)
Dick Clark was from Mount Vernon, New York, was on the Mount Vernon Hall of Fame stage, first Mount Vernon Hall of Fame with my father, believe it or not, up on the stage. I worked for Dick Clark, one of my jobs along the way. And what a great guy. I learned how to dance.
0:12:26
(Speaker 1)
Oh, he’s a great guy.
0:12:27
(Speaker 2)
Yeah, I learned how to dance watching American Bandstand, David, when I was ironing. Yeah, my mother made me iron. And then so many others. And then just to the Ringo Starr comment, you know, the fact that you put the All-Star band together. recent TV concerts that my other half and I have been watching with Ringo Starr like recently and they’re just so good you know it doesn’t matter how long ago
0:12:50
(Speaker 1)
they’re so good. 85 years old. Can you believe it? I know. 85 yesterday and God bless them. You know my father was a cantor and he never quit he worked till 82. He passed away. I’m not a big believer in people retiring. I think it’s important to keep working and live life with passion.
0:13:12
(Speaker 2)
I do too. I think as long as somebody has something to wake up to in the morning that sparks them, you have to have purpose. When you lose purpose or passion, you sit there and then you start to feel depressed. It doesn’t matter what it doesn’t have to be what you’ve always done before but it has to be something that keeps you moving and your brain flowing and your energy going when you wake up in the
0:13:31
(Speaker 2)
morning otherwise you’re in trouble and that’s why the retirement thing retirement should be called the shift not the retirement don’t you think?
0:13:38
(Speaker 1)
Right, right, exactly.
0:13:40
(Speaker 2)
Yeah, all right so can’t thank you anymore But you know on the business thing in the school thing before you leave I want to just point out you have three books that you’ve written which amazed me But I love the titles putting it on the line Which is a book about your experiences in the world of sports and entertainment? Rock your business what you and your company can learn from the business of rock and roll Which I think that’s great and rock camp and, an oral history, 25 years of Rock and Roll Fantasy Camp.
0:14:05
(Speaker 2)
So you’ve been really busy and I love that you’re giving back and teaching now and a real joy to connect with you again, David. Thank you. Thank you for having me. All right. Have a great rest of your day. Rock and Roll. Okay, David Fischhoff, a great legendary man in the music business, brought everybody together, American music producer, sports agent, founder and CEO of Rock and Roll Fantasy Camp and yeah you’re gonna just love reading all about him and finding out more. I hope somebody gets
0:14:29
(Speaker 2)
yeah you’re gonna just love reading all about him and finding out more. I hope somebody gets sparked to go to Rock and Roll Fantasy Camp. All the information will be up on Debbie Nigro.com
