[Dion]

Alan Thicke and the Hockey Sock Rock

Esposito: Alan called me and he said, “Phil, I’d like to do something for diabetes,” because his son Brennan had juvenile diabetes. And I said, “What do you want to do?” He said, “I wrote this song. I want you guys to sing it.” One thing led to another, and we ended up doing it, and singing it, and recording it.

Dave Maloney (retired NHL defenseman; New York Rangers, Buffalo Sabres): When we were in the studio recording the song, I remember different Hollywood types popping in to say hello. I remember Robin Williams kinda bouncing around. At one point, he did a five-minute stand-up routine on a hockey player with a French Canadian accent where he pulled his shirt over his head. It was a total blast.

Duguay: Phil did all the lead [vocals], and the rest of us were backup, and you kinda got a sense of what it was like to record a record.

Esposito: Alan told me, “You can carry a tune.” I said, “I can?” When I first heard it, hell, I didn’t even think it sounded like me. But my wife said it sure did, and people told me you can hear my voice through the singing and everything else — that’s because Doogs and Maloney and J.D. [John Davidson] couldn’t carry a ####ing pail!

Thicke: I had gone to Sonny Werblin with the Rangers and Jerry Buss with the Kings and I said, “Will you fund this for me?” God bless ’em, they each wrote a check for $25,000, which was essentially 25,000 records — we were selling 45 rpm records back then. That really launched the project.

http://grantland.com/features/alan-t...ichael-jordan/