You managed John Denver for a while, but then he fired you. And we’re going to do it in a boxing ring!” I don’t know where the hell that came from, it just – Madison Square Garden! Sinatra! Jerry Weintraub! Boxing! And we did it and it was his greatest concert. I can’t go down and do the same songs every night.” I said, “Listen, Frank, we’re going to do a concert live around the world from Madison Square Garden. I said, “What’s the matter with you?! What are you doing?” He said, “I’m bored. He was drinking, it was 10 o’clock in the morning. He was very, very unhappy, didn’t know what he wanted to do. In the movie, you talk about revitalizing Sinatra’s career in the ‘70s with “The Main Event.” He asked me when he came into the show, “How we doing?” I said, “Every seat is full.” I didn’t say, “Sold out,” I said, “Every seat is full.”

The only thing I could figure out was to take the seats out. When I first met Elvis he said, “Don’t ever put me in a show that’s not sold out.” When I got to the first show and there were 5,000 seats left in a10,000-seat arena for the matinee. On one of the first concert dates, you narrowly avoided a complete disaster in Miami. One of your early triumphs was managing Elvis Presley’s tours. The subject of “His Way,” the new HBO documentary available Tuesday on DVD, Weintraub sat down to talk to us about Elvis, Frank and candy in his pants. In the ‘80s he produced such hits as “Nashville,” “Diner” and “The Karate Kid.” Most recently he handled the “Ocean’s Eleven” franchise. He managed Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, Bob Dylan, Led Zeppelin and John Denver. For nearly two decades, Jerry Weintraub was one of the biggest powers in management.

Elvis tell me why