Frank Sinatra Jr. Says Frank Sinatra’s Family Ties & Grounded Attitude Helped Him Live a Long Life

Frank Sinatra "Best of the Best"

Frank Sinatra’s only son. Frank Sinatra Jr. recently sat down with Spinner to discuss the holiday release of Frank Sinatra’s latest music compilation, Best of the Best. Sinatra Jr. also shared why he feels his legendary father lived to be 82, while most iconic legends meet their tragic ends prematurely.

Frank Sinatra, Jr. told Spinner, “[Frank] Sinatra always had both feet on the ground. He never believed, or allowed himself to believe, any of the fame that surrounded him. He never took the adulation seriously.”

Frank Sinatra’s son and namesake, Frank Sinatra Jr. went on to explain that it was his father’s down to earth outlook on fame and his close ties to his family that helped him to avoid the kind of early tragic end that had befallen other icons like Marilyn Monroe, Michael Jackson and Elvis Presley.

Frank Sinatra Jr. explained to Spinner, “They were tragic figures in the sense that they didn’t have their feet on the ground and they died that way. Isn’t that interesting, that all three of those people died alone?”

Praising his legendary father, for whom he composed music and musically directed until Sinatra’s death in 1998, Frank Sinatra Jr. says one thing he wants Frank Sinatra fans to know about his father is that “he never lost the concept of the reality of life. That is something I believe that people should know. And I believe that is the reason why he lived to be 82-and-a-half-years old.”

Not too long ago I had the opportunity to interview Frank Sinatra Jr’s older sister, Nancy Sinatra, for PR.com and Nancy and I discussed Frank Sinatra’s legacy from the point of view of his first born (Nancy).

Here are some clips from the Nancy Sinatra interview on PR.com:

PR.com: Your father was around to see the first inklings of the power of the Internet back in the late 90s, shortly before he passed. What did he think of it?

Nancy Sinatra: He was thrilled. He would read the questions that people would write in, and then he would tell me what to say in response to their questions, and he said, “This is great. Please keep in touch with my supporters.” And I said, “I promise.” I have ever since.

PR.com: For your Sirius XM radio show, Nancy for Frank, how do you go about scripting each show, and how do you determine what Frank Sinatra stories should remain private and what stories about your father you care to share with the public?

Nancy Sinatra: It’s all up to the music. We’re recording a show tomorrow and the album we’re playing is the Strangers In The Night album. I haven’t seen a script yet. I send the songs to my producer and he takes the songs and puts them into a script that includes the composer, lyricist, and if possible, when it was recorded originally. Whatever nerdy kind of technical information we can get, we put it into the script. If there are any stories, they come about as a result of a song.

PR.com: Your sister Tina does a great deal as far as managing, I guess what you would call the Sinatra brand. Is that an equal three-way partnership between you, Tina and Frank, Jr., or does Tina take the lead with business matters pertaining to your father’s work?

Nancy Sinatra: Tina’s a producer, so we rely on her for that sort of thing. We are all absolutely involved, of course. We all meet once a month, or once every two months if we’re traveling. We discuss the projects that are coming up and what we are going to do about them, and who’s going to do promotion. I liken it to a family farm. The products are usually recordings, sometimes films, and you take them to market and market them as best as you can. It’s not easy anymore. The music business is pretty much history. It’s generally via downloading, and mostly the younger people don’t want to pay anything for music. There are also so many expenses involved in putting out CDs, and you have to be very sure that everything you put out is of quality. If there is a mistake at the printers or there is someone along the way who misspells a composer’s name or puts in a wrong date, we get clobbered by the Frank Sinatra fans who know every detail. When that happens it’s embarrassing for us, but we can’t be there every second of every day with this stuff as it goes through. We can license and hope (laughs)… that they do a good job and not let us down.

CLICK TO READ MY ENTIRE NANCY SINATRA INTERVIEW ON PR.COM

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