Turns out, Mark Cuban is an emotional guy

Mark Cuban [00:00:03] I would go door to door and be like, Hi. My name is Mark. Do you use trash bags? 

Mark Cuban [00:00:11] I killed it. 

Sophie Bearman [00:00:25] You're listening to Life in Seven Song. I'm Sophie Bearman from the San Francisco Standard. This week, if you haven't guessed already, our guest is Mark Cuban, the billionaire investor known for his impact in so many arenas. Basketball fans recognize him as the passionate owner of the Dallas Mavericks. While business enthusiasts know him as a star on the hit TV show Shark Tank, where he's been making and sometimes breaking dreams since 2011. And yet we find him now in a moment of transition, recently selling his majority stake in the Mavs and filming just one final season as a shark. So what better time to sit down and explore the seven songs that have shaped his journey from a young hustler selling trash bags to becoming the business titan he is today. Mark Cuban joining us remotely from his home office. Thanks for making the time. 

Mark Cuban [00:01:24] Thanks for having me. 

Sophie Bearman [00:01:25] So, Mark, you've basically held every job imaginable at one point or another. You famously sold powdered milk, postage stamps. You've owned a bar. You've been a bartender. You've sliced deli meat, laid carpets. I could go on and on. And, of course, I'm not mentioning all the jobs that actually made you a billionaire. We'll get to those. But are you hiding on that resume any music jobs? Like were you a singer at some point? Did you sell CDs?

Mark Cuban [00:01:56] No, but I was in a band for about 15 minutes, and it was me and my buddies. And we called ourselves The Not So Human Beings. We were 12 years old and we couldn't sing worth a damn right. But I tried to teach myself guitar and I took piano lessons for about six months so I can read sheet music. And we were just terrible. Terrible. And there are even tape recordings that prove it exists. If I could find it, I'll play it. 

Sophie Bearman [00:02:19] You guys were writing your own music or these were covers? 

Mark Cuban [00:02:22] No, it was just covers. We didn't play anywhere except our basement. And that was a locked door basement because our parents couldn't stand it. So here you go. 

Sophie Bearman [00:02:29] You found it. 

Mark Cuban [00:02:34] You hear that?. 

Mark Cuban [00:02:48] Okay. That's it. I'll let you guys use that just only so I could tell my buddies to listen to it. Knowing that. That you'll use that music. 

Sophie Bearman [00:02:56] We're using it. Okay. I did not know that. So, look, Mark, a lot of people know your background. It's this incredible origin story, but I don't want to entirely skip over it. So you were born and raised in a suburb of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Your dad repaired upholstery and cars. Your mom worked a variety of odd jobs. And it's been said that you were a hustler from a very young age. So just describe that childhood for us. What was it like? 

Mark Cuban [00:03:23] It was your typical middle class. My dad would leave in the morning, you know, 7 a.m., get back at six. You know, mom doing whatever. And that as the oldest, that left me a lot of time to myself. And so, you know, my parents were very much about you figure it out. You figure it out. And if I wanted something, that's how I got into selling trash bags. My dad was playing poker with his buddies. Probably drunk off their ass. Right. And I walked In there saying. I remember because I walked in there to get a donut and I was like, Dad, can I get the new basketball shoes? He looks at my feet. He goes, You see those shoes? They work just fine. When you have your own job, you can buy whatever you want. My God, I'm 12. How am I going to, you know, get a job? And then one of his probably drunk buddies pipes up, you know, Hey, I've got all these boxes of trash bags that you can sell in the neighborhood. I'm like, Can I do it, Dad? He's like, Sure. Cool. And so. 

Mark Cuban [00:04:17] Literally, I would go door to door and be like. Hi. My name is Mark. Do you use trash bags? I killed it. And, you know, just that attitude. I mean, I sold baseball cards, bought and sold stamps once, you know, when I was going door to door and I realized that it wasn't anything horrific. Right. I was just being nice and talking to neighbors. And that gave me confidence and that got me excited about business and reading about business, and the rest is history. 

Sophie Bearman [00:04:48] So the first song you chose is "Play That Funky Music" by Wild Jerry. What's the story there? 

Mark Cuban [00:04:55] So the story is I used to go with some friends and in the seven mid-seventies, imagine me with long hair down here. Right. And I had run into a bicycle playing baseball. So these two. These two bottom teeth were silver caps. My parents couldn't afford the caps that were the same. So every time I smile, people would go like this because that would be my cap. 

Mark Cuban [00:05:18] But we would me and some friends would go, Dave would go to this place, I think it was called The Barn. And there was this band called Wild Cherry that was there. And they would, you know, they would play that song and they'd be like, Look, we're a white band. We play black music, and none of the white stations will play us. So call the local radio stations and get them to play the song. And so it was me and my friends and other people who went to that bar where called the radio station play. You know, play that funky music, play that funky music, play that funky music. And they started to play. It became a hit. And as a thank you, they played at our prom, my senior prom, the one where Cindy left me to go hang with her friends. And me and my friends stood in the corner. 

Sophie Bearman [00:05:58] Let's take a listen. 

Sophie Bearman [00:06:16] What are you thinking when you hear that? 

Mark Cuban [00:06:19] My God. I mean, that song became so iconic, right? And it takes me back to Pittsburgh. It takes me back to being 16 or so. And it's just insane. I tell my kids that story. They're like, whatever. But to me, it means something. You know, it was just like to be just some kid in Pittsburgh with your friends hanging out at an under 18 bar and turning this song, helping turn this song into an iconic song. That's cool, you know? And so that's going to be one of those stories I carry around forever. 

Sophie Bearman [00:06:46] It strikes me that a lot of your early jobs were about selling. And I know when I had to sell raffle tickets in school, it was mortifying. Like I went door to door and I really didn't like it. And maybe it's because, like, no one wants to buy raffle tickets. 

Mark Cuban [00:07:00] A little bit different. You need trash bags. Right? 

Sophie Bearman [00:07:02] Right. Okay. So that's maybe the difference, but you got a thrill out of it is the point. Like it kind of boosted your sense of self in some way? 

Mark Cuban [00:07:09] Yeah. My sense of self, my confidence. 

Mark Cuban [00:07:12] You know, it allowed me to be more comfortable going into, you know, situations that were complete uncertainty. You know, when I got to college, I kind of glowed up from my freshman year of college, sophomore year of college. And so, you know, I started getting a lot more confidence in my appearance and like and so I was able to try new things like, you know, opening up a bar, even doing a chain letter to pay for my junior year. I mean, my parents couldn't really, I had to figure out how to pay. My dad sent me 20 bucks every couple of weeks and, you know, help me where he could. 

Sophie Bearman [00:07:42] What's a chain letter? 

Mark Cuban [00:07:44] You don't know what a chain letter is? 

Sophie Bearman [00:07:46] Not really. 

Mark Cuban [00:07:47] Wow. I mean, maybe I'm dating myself, but. So the idea of a chain letter, particularly when I was in college, is I go, Sophie, okay, here's the deal. You're going to give me 50 bucks. Actually, you can give me 100 bucks and I'm going to take 50 of that. And here's a list of ten names. We're going to send 50 bucks to whatever dorm room that this person at the top of the list is. Then we're going to take their name off the list and put your name at the bottom. So we'll make it a $50 chain chain letter. And as everybody else does that, your name moves up the list until you're at the top. And as we grow the chain chain letter hopefully you'll get more money than you put out. 

Sophie Bearman [00:08:27] Like social capital, kind of. Like the more people you know...

Mark Cuban [00:08:29] No, no. It was basically a scam. 

Sophie Bearman [00:08:32] Okay? I was like, it's either a Ponzi scheme or. 

Mark Cuban [00:08:35] But for me and my friends, it was like I made sure my friends all got their money back. And so I got up to the top of the list and it was like, amazing because I'd go to, you know, in the dorms, you have your little mailbox and you have your little key and everything. I'd go there and there'd be envelopes with 50 bucks from here, 50 bucks from there. And that's how I paid for my junior year of college. 

Sophie Bearman [00:08:53] That's wild. Okay, So, Mark, Cuban College Years, You brought another song, "Life's Been Good" by Joe Walsh. 

Mark Cuban [00:09:01] Yeah. 

Sophie Bearman [00:09:01] What's the story there? 

Mark Cuban [00:09:03] So my roommate, one of my best friends still to this day, Ben Kadish and Tim Robinson and Tom Joseph. We used to go out even though we were underage. We would go out and we would always request the song or we put it on by Joe Walsh, and it was like, da da da da da. And we would just go nuts the minute those chords hit. Because in our mind, going to college at Indiana University, just hanging out, having fun, you know, going to class. Life's been good to us. 

Mark Cuban [00:09:45] And so fast forward to my senior year. I opened a bar in Bloomington called Motley's Pub just because the whole crew of us were Motley. And one night the Eagles were playing in Bloomington and we had gone to the show and we went to my bar back afterwards. And then I get this call from this guy Ralph, and he's like, Yo, the Eagles want some place to go? Can I bring bring them to the club? 

Mark Cuban [00:10:07] And I'm like. Hell yeah, bring in the Motley's pub. And so Joe Walsh walks in and I didn't know it was Joe Walsh. I didn't know him by sight at the time because he wasn't a regular member of the Eagles. And finally someone came up: that's Joe Walsh and that's Glenn Frey. And done it out of that. And I'm like, okay, let them in. And so we're playing "Life's Been Good" and hamming it up. 

Sophie Bearman [00:10:29] And this was so this was all happening at Motley's at your bar? And for the listener that doesn't realize you weren't even of drinking age, right when you. 

Mark Cuban [00:10:38] By the time the bar opened. I was. But when we started it, I wasn't.

Sophie Bearman [00:10:42] Incredible. So after college, you moved to Dallas, early 80s. You're sleeping in an apartment with, like, five other guys, Right? 

Mark Cuban [00:10:50] The shit hole. It was as nasty as can be. You know, my friend Greg Schipper was there, and we're talking about, you know, where should I go from Indiana, you know? And he was like, Come down to Dallas. The weather's great. The women are beautiful, the economy is good. I'm like, the women are beautiful. Here I come. Right? I'm 24 years old and I come down there and he's like, okay, you can stay for a little bit. And that little bit turned into six, seven, eight months. I forget. But literally I slept on the floor and if somebody was out of town, I got a bed, didn't have my own closet, didn't have my own, you know, drawers, nothing. 

Sophie Bearman [00:11:24] And I love this story. Because you were working as a salesperson at your business software, right? This is one of the earliest PC software retailers in Dallas. And then you get fired. How come? 

Mark Cuban [00:11:35] So I would do whatever it took to learn. I mean, I'd read manuals, I'd sit on the computers all night teaching myself, But I was living in this shithole and I had an opportunity to make a $1,500 commission, which would have been an opportunity for me to move out of the Hill Hotel, we called it. And I went to my boss, Michael Humecki, and I'm like, Michael, I'm going to go pick up this check. It's a $15,000 check. My commission is $1,500. I need it. I've got one. Some of my responsibilities were to wash, clean up the windows, sweep the floor, make sure the doors open in time for any customers. And I'm like, I've got that covered. Barbara's got that covered. Show up with the check, show it to me, he fires me. 

Sophie Bearman [00:12:14] But then you go start your own company. 

Mark Cuban [00:12:17] Then I start my own company. 

Sophie Bearman [00:12:18] It turned out okay. 

Mark Cuban [00:12:19] Yeah. So I had my first company was called Micro Solutions, and this was in the 80s. And we, you know, I wrote software for PCs. What we were really good at was connecting them into networks and writing software for them. Sold that. Made a lot of money there. Bought a lifetime pass on American Airlines, partied like a rock star and just traveled the world, just had so much fun. I was young, single, and crazy and there were no limits. And so I just wanted to have a beer with as many people as I possibly could, experience as many things as I possibly could. And in 1994, one of my good buddies from Indiana, Todd Wagner, and I were having lunch at California Pizza Kitchen, and he was like, you know, there's this new thing called the Internet. I've been talking to different people about different ideas. You know, how can we do it to listen to Indiana basketball? I'm like, that's an interesting idea, because this is before anybody knew what streaming was, this was the early, early, earliest days of the Internet. And so I bought a Packard Bell 90MHz computer and started trying to figure out how we could send, transmit audio. And we started a company called Audio Net, a website. It was called AudioNet.com went to local radio stations, literally connected an eight hour VCR. You know how in the back of the old school electronics there was like the white blue and red cords that you had to connect? Yeah, we would connect those into the input of these radio station boards. I'll put into the input of the VCR eight hour VCR tapes, take them back to my house, encode them, put them on this website called Audio Net, and then I'd get on AOL forums and Prodigy forums and Internet forums and say, Hey, if you're interested in anything related to Dallas News, Sports, whatever, come to this website. And it just blew up. And then as the technology evolved and we created new technology to scale, we got to live streaming and other things. 

Sophie Bearman [00:14:11] I got a kick out of learning that one of the events that you all streamed was the Victoria's Secret Runway show. It kind of like broke the Internet, right? 

Mark Cuban [00:14:20] It did, yeah. Like hundreds of thousands of people try to log on and it just created a cascade of errors, kind of like the Elon Musk Donald Trump thing. 

Mark Cuban [00:14:28] Where people try to get on, same thing. 

Sophie Bearman [00:14:29] I was there. I was trying. 

Mark Cuban [00:14:31] I was trying too, right. It was just like 1998. You know, that was the big deal. This is going to be the first large video broadcast on the Internet. And so we gave it a shot. You know, we had 250,000 or whatever people. So it didn't work out as well as we wanted to. But you live and you learn. 

Sophie Bearman [00:14:47] Okay. I didn't realize that it actually didn't work out. But was the that bad press good press in the end? 

Mark Cuban [00:14:51] No. It wasn't like you could see it. Well, it was just that everybody couldn't see it. Right. Because back then it was a lot harder to have that many users. And so, you know, it may be it may have been out of the 250,000 that were able to watch it, maybe 25,000, 50,000 were able to watch it any one time, simultaneously. 

Sophie Bearman [00:15:06] Got it. So you start this company first. You take it public. $18 a share. It closes at, what, like $60 to $75? Just wild. Then Yahoo! Buys it for 5.7 billion in stock. 

Mark Cuban [00:15:22] In stock. Yeah. By 1998, I mean, we were the YouTube of our day. We went public. It was the biggest IPO in the history of the stock market. We dominated. We did audio, we did video. I mean, you name it, we did it. And then we sold to Yahoo, who kinda screwed it up. 

Mark Cuban [00:15:38] But they paid me a lot of money for the right to screw it up. 

Sophie Bearman [00:15:40] So we're talking about the 90s and you chose a song from that era. 

Mark Cuban [00:15:45] So back in 1993, I used to go to L.A. and visit a woman named Allee Willis, and Allee Willis was one of the most insane, amazing, lovable, loving individuals I've ever met in my life. And she had this concept for the Internet called Willis Film. And this is before streaming and this was before graphics were available. And she designed this whole environment called Willis Film, and we took it to Electronic Arts. We took it to Intel and, you know, tried to get her some financing for it. And we did some. But that was a side project that I got to know her from. Who she was really was a singer and songwriter, mostly a songwriter. And she wrote the theme song to "Friends." She wrote the music to the play "The Color Purple" and the movie "The Color Purple." She wrote All the Pet Shop Boys hits, and she wrote Most of Earth, Wind and Fire sets. And one of those hits was "September."

Mark Cuban [00:16:54] That's another iconic song. And that song is special to me because it reminds me of Allee. But I also picked September 21st as the day my wife and I got married because A, that's all would remind me of my anniversary, so I'd never forget it. B, Every time that song is played, that reminds me of Allee and just how special all that is. 

Sophie Bearman [00:17:17] Do you remember when you first met Allee? First impressions?

Mark Cuban [00:17:19]  That I want to know this person because, you know, her hair was, you know, dyed crazy colors. Her house, her house was the most insane house I've ever been at. She literally, instead of having a fence on the outside of her yard, she had bowling balls. And instead of letting cars park in her driveway, she had like a 55 Chevy that never went anywhere. She kept it clean and ready to go, but it was just there for decoration. And she literally had audiotapes, cassette tapes of every song she had written, jam sessions with, I don't know everybody from Jimi Hendrix to you name it. There's just she was just so in tune with pop culture like nobody. And she was just so sticky and glitchy and just so unique that you you couldn't help but fall in love with her. And. And I did, you know, And we just got to be really, really good friends. And it was just heartbreaking when she died a few years ago. 

Sophie Bearman [00:18:22] And now it's time for a quick break. When we come back, Mark Cuban shares the theme song of his life. Stay with us. 

Sophie Bearman [00:18:50] So I've heard you describe yourself as just a guy and just the guy who's still friends with many of the same people he's known forever. So who are those friends and what do they mean to you? 

Mark Cuban [00:19:01] So couple of different groups of friends that I'm really close with. My high school buddies, we just did our every two weeks Zoom call last night where we catch up, talk sports, talk about our lives, whatever. That's one group. Then I have my IU friends. Then I have my IU rugby buddies that I played rugby with, all these guys that I'm still close to. And then I've got my Dallas friends that I live with. You know, the list goes on and on. And so, you know, as you get older, you kind of venture into your old life, your own lives. But we all probably not enough, but we all get together and go drink and act like we're stupid again and have fun because they'll be my friends for life. 

Sophie Bearman [00:19:38] So you're our first guest to have emailed a category of songs, which is rugby songs, but we can't play any specific song because they're inappropriate. 

Mark Cuban [00:19:48] Completely inappropriate. 

Sophie Bearman [00:19:50] Given what are these songs about, generally?

Mark Cuban [00:19:52]  just sexual in a way. Innuendo songs, you know, Alouette, gentille alouette,Alouette, je te plumerai. Right. Does she have that turned up nose? Yes, she has that turned up nose, turned up nose, alouette. Now I'm leaving a lot out. But it's just when you play rugby and it's got a lot more corporate now than when I played, but when I played in particular and for years, decades after, you would just beat the hell out of each other in a game. But after the game you would get together, drink beer ,and sing these songs, and it was bonding. So when I went to Indiana to and I played then in Pittsburgh, the songs was a bond, right? Got to Dallas and played songs about Go back to Bloomington for our reunion every two years, and we're singing these same songs over and over and over and over again. That's just a bond of stupidity that just brings us together, that, you know, kids today aren't going to gravitate to those songs because they are inappropriate. 70s, 80s, 90s even were a different time, but it's still something that when you talk to rugby players and you ask them about rugby songs, they'll smile. 

Sophie Bearman [00:21:03] So you have famously said that the sport of business is the ultimate competition. It's seven by 24 by 365 forever. And time is, you know, the ultimate commodity. There have been some changes recently. You announced that you're saying goodbye to your role on Shark Tank and you sold your majority stake in the Mavs. So I'm curious, like, what's that ratio for you now is it? It can't be seven by 24 by 365 anymore? 

Mark Cuban [00:21:27] No, it is. It really is. Because I do, I'm the luckiest guy in the world. I love doing this stuff. I love, you know, people like, well, you know, you're wealthy. Why are you still doing business? Why aren't you on a boat somewhere? But this is what I love to do. I mean, like costplusdrugs.com we just started a few years ago and it's already changing the entire health care industry. And so the ability to be disruptive, to have an impact on the health care industry, which everybody pretty much hates, Right. And to reduce people's cost and get letters and emails weekly, if not more often, said, you saved my life. You saved my husband's life, you saved my grandmother or grandfather's life because they weren't sure they were going to be able to afford their medications. And by you doing that at cost plus basis, you saved us $40. That $50, $100 $1,000 a month or more. I mean, that's fun. And so I don't look at it as, okay, you know, it's only about the competition. I look at it as that's fun and I enjoy the competition and I enjoy being disruptive. And why stop that? You know, why slow down. This is fun. 

Sophie Bearman [00:22:32] You chose another song, DMX's "Fame," which in other interviews I've heard you describe as the theme song of your life. 

Mark Cuban [00:22:40] You know, anybody who's struggled or faced challenges, there's always some music that kind of fires you up and reminds you that other people have faced it. And, you know, there's there's a part of you that has to keep on fighting. And there's just a line of the only thing I fear is I'm never going to fly. And like I always say, it doesn't matter how many times you fail. You only have to be right one time. You only have to fly one time. And that's why I always resonated with me when it came out. You know, it's not that I fell, I'm going to die. It's just I fear I'm never going to fly. And I was just always motivated to me. And I got to meet DMX one time and I brought it up and he kind of rolled his eyes.

Sophie Bearman [00:23:41] Obviously, I've had the pleasure of watching you on Shark Tank for for quite a while. I have to say, you're a lot more intimidating on that show. Still. Still very nice. 

Mark Cuban [00:23:50] That's editing. 

Sophie Bearman [00:23:50] That's editing. But you've had an incredible run on Shark Tank. And as as you're leaving, you know, what is that role meant to you? 

Mark Cuban [00:24:00] I can't even put words to it. It's not being on TV that's made it special. It's sending a message to everybody. That watch is that the American dream is alive and well. And one of the thing I'm the things I'm proudest of is that it still is. It's one of the top watched shows on television. My family's together and we hear it all the time: You know, I grew up watching Shark Tank and I started this business, you know, Now, in more recent seasons, entrepreneurs are coming out pitching to us, saying, you know, I learned about business or I got excited about starting my own company by watching Shark Tank. And that's really rewarding. And along with, you know, I don't even know how many millionaires we've created through all the companies we've invested in. Now, not all of them, obviously, but, you know, a significant number have been successful. And that that's something to and you know, we're so partisan these days that just getting people to agree that there is an American dream that still exists and that people can be excited about that, that's been important to me. And just I still truly believe that every one of us at some point gets that idea that they feel in the pit of their stomach, this is a great idea. Then, you know, I'm a go to Sophie. Sophie, what do you think? I like that idea. You oughta look further and then you go to Google. Nobody's started in it. You know, nobody's done this before. And then most people stop. And so if we can incent or excite or, you know, help encourage people to explore, that's a good thing. 

Sophie Bearman [00:25:34] You chose a song to represent your time with Shark Tank, "Rapper's Delight" by the Sugarhill Gang. What's the connection between it and you and the show. 

Mark Cuban [00:25:43] For 15 years? We play that when there's a lull, because sometimes you get tired. You get really, really tired. Right? You're concentrating. We get there and start shooting between 8:30 and 9 and we're going till seven, and it's just one deal after another. And it's just mentally exhausting sometimes, and particularly after lunch, you know, food coma. And so whenever we need energy, that's the song. 

Sophie Bearman [00:26:07] Do you remember who brought that song? Like how it first materialized? 

Mark Cuban [00:26:10] I asked them to play it right. It was just one of those songs that everybody knows "Hotel Motel" to, right. And so you're going to get some reaction. And there's videos of Damon and I just prepping and we'd have people at set and we try to get them into it as well. So it was fun. 

Mark Cuban [00:26:35] Now what you hear for them, there's one party Next door to Mike is my. My friend. Hey, come on. Sing your song. Well, now it's my friend Damon. Come on, Damon. Sing your song. And he's like, I'm built of the ladies. Flip the women fight from by the light. And so we're just going and doing it for 15 years. 

Sophie Bearman [00:26:51] It's so great. Okay, so another big change. You recently sold your majority stake in the Mavs, which you bought. And when did you buy them? 

Mark Cuban [00:26:59] 2000, January of 2000. 

Sophie Bearman [00:27:00] Why did you buy them? Just taking us back to 2000. 

Mark Cuban [00:27:03] So I was a maverick season ticket holder. Then a huge basketball fan, played pickup all the time. Now use basketball fan, try to play pickup as much as I can. And we my then girlfriend, now wife and I were at a home game as the opening day of the season. And it wasn't a sellout. And I'm like, my goodness. Right? We're undefeated. We should have a good team. And I'm like, I can do better than this. And I got a hold of the current then owner and said, Hey, do you want to sell it? He said, yes. In less than a month we had agreed and a couple of months later I was the owner. 

Sophie Bearman [00:27:33] And what's the reasoning behind stepping back a little bit? 

Mark Cuban [00:27:36] You know, my kids are now 15, 18 and 21, and that's a lot of pressure for them. And running a professional sports team isn't always good when you're winning. It's great. We go to the finals this past year. Everybody loves me. Everybody loves us. But when you're having a bad season, just, you know, your kids are on social media. I just don't want them to put up with all that abuse and everything. And, you know, that was the primary reason. 

Sophie Bearman [00:28:02] But you did choose a song to represent your time. I mean, you're still obviously with the Mavs, but what's the song? 

Mark Cuban [00:28:08] So back in 2001, we moved to a new arena and there was a head of marketing was a guy named Matt Fitzgerald, who was a good friend of mine, basketball buddy, who unfortunately died of ALS a couple of years ago. And he came up with this song. And the whole idea like if you go to a Chicago Bulls game, you hear that "duh, duh duh" you know, song that goes back to Michael Jordan days. And I wanted a song that could last forever. And he came up with "Eminence Front." And I promised him as he was dying that as long as I was involved, this would always be the opening song for the match. 

Sophie Bearman [00:28:49] I could see. Are you feeling like a little emotional, even speaking? 

Mark Cuban [00:28:52] Yeah. I miss Matt. He was a great guy. 

Sophie Bearman [00:28:55] What do you miss about him? 

Mark Cuban [00:28:56] He just was a good guy, he was a good friend. He had a great heart, great family. He talked a lot of shit when we played basketball. You know, So we would go back and forth at each other. You know, I wouldn't say we were best friends, but we were good friends. 

Sophie Bearman [00:29:12] Well, I'm sorry for your loss, but the song, it's a good pick. What did he hear in it? Like what made it the right song? 

Mark Cuban [00:29:18] You just have to hear it. When you hear it. You see that it's a song that drives energy. And so now anybody who's listening that hears this, that's a Mavs fan, they'll immediately think of Mavs games. So while the beginning of this song is playing, there's a hype video that's going on on the Jumbotron that everybody gets to see. And so it's highlights of the last game. It's introductions to our starting lineup. And if you ever watch a Mavs game, you'll see me, getting hype right there, especially if it's a big game. 

Sophie Bearman [00:29:52] You're dancing. 

Mark Cuban [00:29:53] My God. You know, I'm getting it when I'm like, right, the crowd's into it. Everybody's clapping, cheering, yeah, it's amazing. 

Sophie Bearman [00:30:00] So you mentioned your kids are teenagers and I imagine their childhoods have been a little bit different from yours. 

Mark Cuban [00:30:07] A lot different. 

Mark Cuban [00:30:08] I mean, it wasn't like I went hungry, but anything I had, I had to get for myself. You know, anything I earned, I had to earn for myself. Anything that came my way, including the failures, you know, including all that went wrong, I had to earn myself. But for my kids, it's just. It's just different. Like, I have to tell them, right, because I'm well known, like, if I would have gotten drunk and stupid, people would just kick me and say, wake up and, you know, take a shower. Now you're going to be on the front page of the paper. If you're my my son or daughter, you know. 

Mark Cuban [00:30:39] Everybody's going to know about it and people are going to take pictures of you because you're my son or daughter. You don't have that unique privacy. You know, the ability to just be unnoticed that I had. And and that's that's hard. I'm not saying feel sorry for them, and but it hasn't always been easy for them. And, you know, I got really wealthy when I was 39. 40. Right. And so I wouldn't say I was mature, but, you know, I'd grown up a little bit. They've had to face this their entire lives, you know, not always knowing if somebody cares for them, for them or for what they may be able to have access to. So, you know, I give them a ton of credit. They're good kids. They've got big hearts. They're smart. They're respectful. 

Sophie Bearman [00:31:22] Did your parents get to see your success? 

Mark Cuban [00:31:25] Yeah, Yeah. They just died a few years ago and. Yeah, I remember telling my dad when I first had $100,000 in the bank and him just crying. Just. You know my first, my first, yeah, my first suit. When I went to work for Your Business Software was at a place where they only sold used clothes. And so all my first suits were used. My first polos where you used well, you know, dress shirts and then my, my polo polos were fake. That would like tear because I was buying them for $6 or $8. And that that sensibility, like my parents were, were children of the Depression, particularly my dad and, you know, my grandparents definitely were they you know, they fled Russia came here without speaking the language. And so they didn't know where things were coming next. They had tons of hardship. I mean, just their whole lives were a hardship. And so that's what my parents grew up under and that was passed on to us and it never left them. And, you know, they traveled and went places. But and my mom would still shop at TJ Maxx and buy a used clothes. She was not going to buy anything expensive. 

Mark Cuban [00:32:39] My dad pretty much the same way. 

Mark Cuban [00:32:41] He would wear the same clothes for 30 years. I mean, it just is what it is. 

Sophie Bearman [00:32:45] Is there a conversation between you and them that sticks out? 

Mark Cuban [00:32:49] Just I mean, my dad particularly said: I just don't understand. I don't, I don't understand how you're doing, what you're doing and why you're doing it. I don't understand how you learned all this stuff and became so successful. But I love you. My parents were just normal parents, right? They love my brothers. I have two younger brothers. And, you know, I'm still close to my brothers. And it's just a normal family, that's all. There was nothing unique or special or different. Our pictures are the same stupid pictures and our stories are the same stupid, you know, family vacation stories and the like and driving six hours or whatever. It's just normal. And that's a good thing. 

Sophie Bearman [00:33:30] I guess my last question is, what's one thing people get wrong about you? 

Mark Cuban [00:33:36] They all think I'm short. I'm to 6'2", 6'2.5" now.

Sophie Bearman [00:33:40] Why do they think you're short? 

Mark Cuban [00:33:42] Because, you know, because of The Mavs. I'm always standing next to someone who's seven foot tall so I look tiny. 

Mark Cuban [00:33:49] So that's probably the biggest thing that people get wrong. I think they think that I have butlers and I lived that kind of life when you know. I always get invitations to all these foodie events. And that's just not me. I mean, you have a better chance to see me going to 7-Eleven than eating than sitting down with a five course meal where you're going to have, you know, I have to remember which fork to use and which glass to use. That freaks me out more than anything. Like, am I going to get all the proper etiquette down in front of all these people? And it's just like, you know, I'm just not. I get sent bottles of wine and I'm like, you know, I'll give it to my wife or friends, like, send me a beer, you know, send me a Bud Light. And I'm happy. 

Sophie Bearman [00:34:30] Mark Cuban six two, working 24 seven for the passion. Thank you so much for sharing your seven songs with us. 

Mark Cuban [00:34:38] Sophie, this is amazing, I really enjoyed it. 

Sophie Bearman [00:35:05] Life in Seven Songs is a production from the San Francisco Standard. This episode was produced by me, Sophia Bearman and our senior producer Jasmyn Morris. Our executive producers are Griffin Gaffney and Jon Steinberg. And this episode was mixed by Michelle Lanz. Our theme music is by Kate Davis and Zubin Hensler and Clark Miller created our show Art. Our music consultant is Sarah Tembeckjian and our studio engineer is Sean McKenna at Pure Mind Studios. You can find Mark Cuban's full playlist at sf.news/spotify. Thanks for listening and see you next time.