WEBVTT - Questlove Supreme: President Bill Clinton 0:00:00.160 --> 0:00:09.520 Quest Love Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio. All right, kids, 0:00:11.240 --> 0:00:14.080 you ready like you? 0:00:14.080 --> 0:00:18.320 You ready like you? Everything's ll let's go, we jump, 0:00:18.920 --> 0:00:20.800 let's do it, let's do it. Here we go. 0:00:21.239 --> 0:00:27.840 Suprema Sun Sun Suprema roll Calm Suprema Sun Sun Supremo. 0:00:28.080 --> 0:00:30.720 Roll call, Suprema. 0:00:30.200 --> 0:00:36.559 Sun Sun Supremo, Role Calm, Suprema Son Son Suprema roll Call. 0:00:36.800 --> 0:00:40.600 My name is Questlove, Yeah, and you are you Yeah? 0:00:40.720 --> 0:00:41.879 And that's Team Supreme. 0:00:42.400 --> 0:00:42.600 Yeah. 0:00:42.680 --> 0:00:43.760 And he's forty two. 0:00:45.400 --> 0:00:52.760 Supreme su Suprema roll Calm, Suprema su Suprema roll call. 0:00:52.920 --> 0:00:55.640 My name is Fante Yeah, and I'm gonna keep it 0:00:55.760 --> 0:00:58.200 roll yeah with the Realist President. 0:00:58.560 --> 0:01:00.480 Yeah, out of Arkansas. 0:01:01.520 --> 0:01:08.119 Suprema Son Suprema, roll call, Suprema Son Son Supremo. 0:01:08.360 --> 0:01:08.920 Role Call. 0:01:09.080 --> 0:01:10.200 My name is Sugar. 0:01:10.560 --> 0:01:12.240 Yeah, first president I ever met. 0:01:12.680 --> 0:01:13.040 Yeah. 0:01:13.040 --> 0:01:14.280 Oh you just reminded me. 0:01:14.640 --> 0:01:14.880 Yeah. 0:01:15.040 --> 0:01:16.480 I haven't filed my taxes yet. 0:01:17.560 --> 0:01:24.400 Suprema So Supremo. Roll call, Suprema So Suprema. 0:01:24.040 --> 0:01:25.679 Roll call paid Bill. 0:01:26.200 --> 0:01:29.440 Yeah, and I got to thinking, yeah about my second 0:01:29.440 --> 0:01:30.040 favorite bill. 0:01:30.280 --> 0:01:32.199 Yeah, President Clinton. 0:01:33.120 --> 0:01:35.280 Suprema su. 0:01:37.040 --> 0:01:41.000 Supreme So Suprema roll. 0:01:40.760 --> 0:01:44.400 It's my ear yeah, and it's a special day. Yeah, 0:01:44.560 --> 0:01:47.960 our first press. Yeah, Bill Clinton all Day. 0:01:48.080 --> 0:01:55.480 Roll call Supremo, So Son Supremo, roll call, Supremo, Son Son. 0:01:55.480 --> 0:01:57.080 Supremo, roll call. 0:01:57.560 --> 0:02:01.920 My name is Bill. Yeah, Yeah, I know the drill. Yeah, 0:02:02.200 --> 0:02:05.880 I'm glad to be here. Yeah, calls music is there? 0:02:07.200 --> 0:02:07.720 Take it up? 0:02:08.520 --> 0:02:13.000 Sun Sun Subpreme roll call Subpremo. 0:02:12.720 --> 0:02:19.000 Sun Sun Subprema roll Calm Subprema, Son Sun Subpremo, roll 0:02:19.240 --> 0:02:22.040 call Subprema Son Sun. 0:02:22.080 --> 0:02:23.639 Subprema roll call. 0:02:25.560 --> 0:02:29.960 Ladies and gentlemen, Congratulations, we have our first. 0:02:33.480 --> 0:02:33.880 Here we go. 0:02:35.160 --> 0:02:38.120 I will say, it's it's a point. We just do 0:02:38.200 --> 0:02:46.360 a Griselda right exactly. It's amazing how the world works sometimes. Uh, 0:02:47.560 --> 0:02:50.799 for no particular reason. You know, we we've been away 0:02:51.000 --> 0:02:53.200 from each other for three years and decided, hey, it 0:02:53.280 --> 0:02:55.360 might be cool for us to get back together and 0:02:55.400 --> 0:02:56.520 do some stuff in person. 0:02:56.919 --> 0:02:59.720 And then life throws you a curveball. 0:02:59.760 --> 0:03:02.000 And I I will say, probably no less than twenty 0:03:02.000 --> 0:03:03.040 four hours ago. 0:03:03.680 --> 0:03:05.160 We got a call straight up. 0:03:05.200 --> 0:03:07.720 And I'll be honest with you, because I was preparing 0:03:07.800 --> 0:03:11.679 for another guest, and right before I went to sleep 0:03:11.760 --> 0:03:14.040 last night, I read my itinery I'm like, wait a minute, 0:03:14.880 --> 0:03:18.440 that's tomorrow. I thought that was like in the future, 0:03:18.480 --> 0:03:20.120 because when you threw it at me, I was like, ah, 0:03:20.200 --> 0:03:21.040 this will never happen. 0:03:21.120 --> 0:03:22.560 So like no, we all went like what. 0:03:22.600 --> 0:03:27.080 February thirtieth of Yah, nineteen seventy six, Like that's going 0:03:27.120 --> 0:03:27.520 to happen. 0:03:27.919 --> 0:03:31.120 I will be saying, yeah, this is happening. 0:03:31.280 --> 0:03:35.840 And our guest today is the very first time that 0:03:36.320 --> 0:03:43.440 you're nervous. Yeah, yeah, this is the very first time 0:03:43.480 --> 0:03:48.680 I stepped in the voter booth to exerciseise. 0:03:48.040 --> 0:03:52.080 Y rightsident voted for your age. 0:03:52.360 --> 0:03:52.520 Time. 0:03:52.560 --> 0:03:53.920 I wasn't Oh the second time. 0:03:54.120 --> 0:03:56.880 Wait, how I don't know what your age is. 0:03:56.880 --> 0:04:00.360 On papill I am eighty six years old, Okay, I 0:04:00.400 --> 0:04:02.040 mean sometimes you seem younger than me. 0:04:02.160 --> 0:04:04.880 Then when you have a beard. 0:04:03.920 --> 0:04:05.720 It looks like you're accountant, right exactly. 0:04:05.800 --> 0:04:07.800 So I don't know how old you are. But you know, my. 0:04:07.720 --> 0:04:11.080 First vote was for ducacis believe it or not, that's 0:04:11.080 --> 0:04:11.840 how old you are. 0:04:13.080 --> 0:04:16.680 That's how old you are. Come up anyway. 0:04:17.200 --> 0:04:21.920 Live in CDM studios is where we are, and we 0:04:21.960 --> 0:04:27.520 are very honored to have music lover musician uh and incidentally, 0:04:27.680 --> 0:04:32.359 are the forty second president of these United States, William 0:04:32.480 --> 0:04:35.039 Jefferson Clinton one A question to. 0:04:37.120 --> 0:04:37.840 What is happening? 0:04:38.080 --> 0:04:38.920 So, how are you today? 0:04:39.279 --> 0:04:42.200 I'm good, I'm better now. This is I didn't find 0:04:42.240 --> 0:04:43.440 out about this much before you. 0:04:44.760 --> 0:04:45.760 You were like an hour before. 0:04:45.839 --> 0:04:49.000 Oh, let's let's hit down just a casual question, like. 0:04:49.000 --> 0:04:51.360 What what did you do this morning? Like what's your 0:04:51.360 --> 0:04:53.080 morning routine like as of lately? 0:04:53.640 --> 0:04:55.920 Well lately, I get up in the morning and I 0:04:56.080 --> 0:04:59.679 read the papers. I'm old five, I'll read the papers. 0:05:00.600 --> 0:05:04.440 Get my phone and I read the papers I didn't read. 0:05:05.880 --> 0:05:08.919 I read my local West Sister County paper and the 0:05:08.960 --> 0:05:11.920 New York Times and paper. Then I read the Washington 0:05:12.000 --> 0:05:14.120 Post online, and then I look and see what other 0:05:14.200 --> 0:05:18.039 articles there are, and then I work puzzles for a 0:05:18.080 --> 0:05:20.240 while because it's good for you. Like I do that 0:05:20.320 --> 0:05:22.320 word puzzle in New York Times every day. 0:05:22.440 --> 0:05:25.680 Are you a wordle person or a New York Times 0:05:25.720 --> 0:05:27.479 crossword person or I. 0:05:27.480 --> 0:05:29.960 Don't do that. I only do the cross word on Sunday. 0:05:29.960 --> 0:05:34.640 But I do wordle, and I do the wordle nice, 0:05:34.880 --> 0:05:38.120 and I do the spelling Bee, the spelling Bee every day. 0:05:38.360 --> 0:05:40.760 I would like to think that I have an expansive vocabulary, 0:05:41.279 --> 0:05:45.159 but you know, it's so frustrating. I give up after 0:05:45.240 --> 0:05:48.680 like the seventh word unpaid bill. You strike me as 0:05:48.680 --> 0:05:50.240 a person that can at least get to fifteen. 0:05:50.520 --> 0:05:53.159 I can I go in on the the this one. Yeah, 0:05:53.200 --> 0:05:54.320 I can't stop. It's just like you can. 0:05:54.360 --> 0:05:55.120 It's pretty hard to do. 0:05:55.360 --> 0:05:56.839 It was hard today. There was a lot of there was. 0:05:56.880 --> 0:05:58.600 Every time there's an X, what, it's like, what the 0:05:58.640 --> 0:05:59.160 hell's going to do? 0:05:59.720 --> 0:06:01.120 What's a vow for today? 0:06:01.320 --> 0:06:02.880 Well, there's a bunch of vwel so it's a. 0:06:03.279 --> 0:06:03.840 What's in the middle? 0:06:03.960 --> 0:06:06.920 Oh a, oh, well wait, and you'll say that's hard. 0:06:07.200 --> 0:06:09.280 It was like I'm gonna no one's gonna listen. It's 0:06:09.320 --> 0:06:12.600 like oxidation annotation notation there too. 0:06:12.680 --> 0:06:17.360 Yeah, during the pandemic, you'll be shocked at you know, 0:06:17.440 --> 0:06:20.240 what you do for entertainment, especially because I was on 0:06:20.279 --> 0:06:23.400 a farm with new cable. So that's when I started 0:06:23.400 --> 0:06:26.679 my rabbit holing inside of crosswords. 0:06:26.040 --> 0:06:29.080 And that sort of thing. So you're a word o person. 0:06:28.800 --> 0:06:32.520 Too, Yeah, I started that later. I did that the 0:06:32.600 --> 0:06:36.760 spelling bee for a long time and now normally around 0:06:36.800 --> 0:06:39.640 dinner time, He'll and I'll get back together and between 0:06:39.680 --> 0:06:42.320 the two of us we can get them all. What 0:06:43.279 --> 0:06:46.239 so we have a conspiracy for spelling baby we didn't 0:06:46.240 --> 0:06:49.360 do it yesterday, and I didn't get them all yesterday either. 0:06:49.560 --> 0:06:51.599 So you like to do it at nighttime, around dinner 0:06:51.680 --> 0:06:53.240 or first thing in the I'm the first thing in 0:06:53.279 --> 0:06:53.920 the morning person. 0:06:54.000 --> 0:06:56.119 I like to do it first thing in the morning, 0:06:56.920 --> 0:06:59.520 and then whichever ones I don't have, I'll just put 0:06:59.520 --> 0:07:02.120 it away and think about it and start working. Because 0:07:02.160 --> 0:07:06.120 I do. I call people in the morning when I'm 0:07:06.400 --> 0:07:10.040 fresh and thoughtful, and then I'm trying to finish two 0:07:10.040 --> 0:07:13.080 books I've been working on and it's been very frustrating, 0:07:13.640 --> 0:07:15.360 so I do that in the middle of the day. 0:07:15.680 --> 0:07:18.240 I take time off and take away. I try to 0:07:18.280 --> 0:07:19.240 take a walk every day. 0:07:19.920 --> 0:07:23.040 My day is determined on if I'm able to solve wordle. 0:07:24.400 --> 0:07:27.040 One thing that frustrates me. The other day I got 0:07:27.680 --> 0:07:31.960 three of the five letters in order off the first work, 0:07:32.680 --> 0:07:34.720 which I put in a rose. And I got three 0:07:34.720 --> 0:07:37.920 of the first and I got R O and then E, 0:07:38.800 --> 0:07:43.480 and I literally went through five permutations before I got 0:07:43.520 --> 0:07:45.600 to write one. I was going nothing. 0:07:45.640 --> 0:07:46.800 I wanted to throw your right. 0:07:47.280 --> 0:07:51.320 It was broke, I think was the wordle. And I 0:07:51.400 --> 0:07:54.640 went through all you know wrote I don't know any 0:07:54.720 --> 0:07:57.080 other words. That's what makes you feel you don't know 0:07:57.080 --> 0:07:59.640 what he's dumb, unlucky, what's going on. 0:08:00.480 --> 0:08:03.280 It has a way of determining how good or rotten 0:08:03.320 --> 0:08:05.200 your day is going to be. So I try to 0:08:05.240 --> 0:08:06.960 do it now in the afternoon. 0:08:06.640 --> 0:08:08.000 So it can't spoil your morning. 0:08:08.360 --> 0:08:09.240 Yeah, you know. 0:08:09.720 --> 0:08:14.440 See, you walked in with two albums and being as 0:08:14.440 --> 0:08:17.360 though we're jazz fanatics here at Quest of Supreme, where 0:08:17.840 --> 0:08:21.000 I'm curious to see what you brought to the table. 0:08:21.440 --> 0:08:22.840 Why did you choose. 0:08:23.480 --> 0:08:27.480 This is an old Sunny Rollins album. You can see 0:08:27.480 --> 0:08:30.560 I had to type it up. I see, I had 0:08:30.560 --> 0:08:34.680 it forever and it's the first one he did on 0:08:34.920 --> 0:08:39.560 Brazilian music. I once told Rollins that I love the 0:08:39.600 --> 0:08:44.960 album he did in Harlem in the late nineties. He 0:08:45.040 --> 0:08:48.320 said it wasn't worth of them, and I said, what 0:08:48.400 --> 0:08:50.320 was the matter with it? He said, I didn't learn anything. 0:08:50.360 --> 0:08:53.480 I didn't do anything new. There. He is, you know, 0:08:53.600 --> 0:08:56.800 at his age, and he's still doing things new. So 0:08:57.440 --> 0:08:58.360 this is great. 0:08:58.440 --> 0:09:03.559 What's the name of that album, President, It's Sounny Rowlings brings. 0:09:02.600 --> 0:09:04.320 The jazz new rhythm from South America. 0:09:04.400 --> 0:09:05.080 Oh okay. 0:09:05.320 --> 0:09:08.600 Do you often get disappointed when you meet notable people 0:09:08.640 --> 0:09:11.320 that have done things amazing that you think are amazing, 0:09:11.480 --> 0:09:15.679 and then they're just dismissive of it. Like that often 0:09:15.720 --> 0:09:18.240 happens here at the show, where you know, I say 0:09:18.800 --> 0:09:20.840 the thing he did, and they'll just be like, man, whatever. 0:09:21.360 --> 0:09:23.840 One of the things that I really loved when I 0:09:23.920 --> 0:09:27.680 was president is nearly anybody, I'll come play for you 0:09:28.440 --> 0:09:31.520 if you ask me. And one day I looked up. 0:09:32.000 --> 0:09:33.600 I was sitting at my desk and I looked up, 0:09:33.640 --> 0:09:36.240 and then we had the door open to the outside. 0:09:36.720 --> 0:09:41.680 Dave Brewbeck was standing there and he was, you know, 0:09:41.800 --> 0:09:46.000 getting you know, some award. Not the Kennedy Center War, Oh, 0:09:46.000 --> 0:09:48.840 he got the National Medal of Arts that you're So 0:09:48.960 --> 0:09:51.920 I went out and shook hands with him, and I 0:09:51.960 --> 0:09:54.440 told him how much I liked him, And I said, 0:09:54.440 --> 0:09:57.559 you know, when I was fifteen years old, you've played 0:09:58.679 --> 0:10:01.120 about seventy miles from home. So I went to your 0:10:01.120 --> 0:10:05.080 concert in Arkansas because he was friends with the guy 0:10:05.120 --> 0:10:10.080 who was a great music teacher there, jazz fanatic. He 0:10:10.120 --> 0:10:12.800 looked at me and kind of skeptically said, he said, 0:10:12.840 --> 0:10:17.839 besides take five, what's your people? What's your favorite rubeks On? 0:10:17.920 --> 0:10:20.920 I thought always giving me? I said blue Rondo. He said, 0:10:21.480 --> 0:10:25.080 nobody knows that. I said, it's a great song. He said, 0:10:25.120 --> 0:10:25.840 hum the bridge. 0:10:26.120 --> 0:10:31.400 Oh, he's one of those people was so. 0:10:31.440 --> 0:10:34.640 I hummed the Bridge for it, and three days later 0:10:35.080 --> 0:10:39.520 he sent me a great autograph copy of the chart 0:10:40.600 --> 0:10:43.160 and that still hangs in my music room today. Wow, 0:10:43.880 --> 0:10:46.160 just because I knew the Bridge from BLUEO. 0:10:46.720 --> 0:10:48.400 Wow, that's terrifying. 0:10:48.720 --> 0:10:51.000 Yo, that's the one you know, don't want? 0:10:51.040 --> 0:10:51.200 You know? 0:10:51.240 --> 0:10:51.640 What does that? 0:10:51.880 --> 0:10:51.960 Like? 0:10:52.800 --> 0:10:55.040 Does that a lot of where I'll just take the 0:10:55.080 --> 0:10:58.400 compliment and be like, you know, because they'll say something 0:10:58.440 --> 0:11:02.200 skill like, yo, man, I have botle and then to 0:11:02.240 --> 0:11:05.640 reach the person that actually wants evidence that you really believe, 0:11:06.040 --> 0:11:07.400 And then I'm like, what if it winds up being 0:11:07.400 --> 0:11:10.880 a pie in the face moment and then you can't say, then, 0:11:11.240 --> 0:11:12.280 how's the conversation going? 0:11:12.320 --> 0:11:14.960 I'm glad you knew his history, right. 0:11:15.120 --> 0:11:15.520 Me too. 0:11:16.880 --> 0:11:18.720 What other records did you bring in there? 0:11:19.320 --> 0:11:24.760 I got Dizzy Gillespie's New Way, which also has a 0:11:24.840 --> 0:11:28.680 couple of resilient songs on it, including the Morning of 0:11:28.679 --> 0:11:30.720 the Carnival from Black Corfea, which is one of my 0:11:30.760 --> 0:11:32.680 favorite songs. I think it's one of the most beautiful 0:11:33.240 --> 0:11:34.280 songs that were written a. 0:11:34.240 --> 0:11:37.000 Love Brazilian music. Mister President was like, my favorite. Oh 0:11:37.240 --> 0:11:42.880 I'm like this, No, no, I said the music, not that. 0:11:43.760 --> 0:11:47.839 This is a record of Jimmy Smith. I think he 0:11:47.880 --> 0:11:50.960 is the greatest sas organists who ever lived. And he 0:11:51.080 --> 0:11:53.240 used to play at a place called the Cellar Door 0:11:53.280 --> 0:11:56.240 in Washington when I was in college, so I would 0:11:56.360 --> 0:11:58.599 go and listen to him, and the first time he 0:11:58.640 --> 0:12:00.520 started playing, I thought that organ and was going to 0:12:00.559 --> 0:12:04.360 walk out of this room all by itself. Oh, he 0:12:04.440 --> 0:12:09.040 was unbelievable. What year was this, sixty four, sixty five, 0:12:09.200 --> 0:12:15.520 something like that. And this is my favorite jazz samba record. 0:12:15.559 --> 0:12:17.679 This is the first record done by Stan Gatz and 0:12:17.760 --> 0:12:19.920 Charlie Birds out of Brazil. 0:12:23.240 --> 0:12:26.240 So when did you fall in love with Brazilian jazz? 0:12:26.679 --> 0:12:29.360 I was interested in jazz, and I started listening to 0:12:30.320 --> 0:12:33.319 bigger jazz bands when I was six or seven years old, 0:12:33.400 --> 0:12:36.640 and my folks had a record player and they'd go 0:12:36.640 --> 0:12:39.480 away and I'd just get these records, just record after 0:12:39.559 --> 0:12:42.280 record and sit there on the floor and listen to them. 0:12:42.400 --> 0:12:43.560 So was your parents collection? 0:12:43.960 --> 0:12:47.440 Yeah? And then I started ordering Downbeating magazine when I 0:12:47.520 --> 0:12:52.040 was in grade school, and because they asked me, I 0:12:52.080 --> 0:12:53.959 started out on clarinet, and they asked me to shift 0:12:54.000 --> 0:12:56.640 to saxophone because the school needed a saxophone in the band. 0:12:57.480 --> 0:13:01.720 And I fell in love with and I started reading Downbeat, 0:13:02.480 --> 0:13:05.680 and I read it all through high school, and when 0:13:05.679 --> 0:13:07.880 I could, i'd supplement the record collection. 0:13:08.000 --> 0:13:10.960 You know, did you have aspirations of being a professional 0:13:11.080 --> 0:13:12.160 musician or did you just love it? 0:13:12.240 --> 0:13:17.560 Absolutely? Yeah, I would. I went to summer camp at 0:13:17.559 --> 0:13:20.800 the university and they had some good teachers, and I 0:13:20.840 --> 0:13:24.320 would sometimes play twelve hours a day. I inflayed, my 0:13:24.840 --> 0:13:28.920 guns were practically bleeding, and I loved it. But when 0:13:28.960 --> 0:13:31.480 I was sixteen, I looked in the mirror one day 0:13:32.240 --> 0:13:35.880 and I said, will you ever be as good as culturing? 0:13:40.080 --> 0:13:42.439 How are you the president? Talking yourself out of your 0:13:42.440 --> 0:13:43.800 own dream? That young? 0:13:44.559 --> 0:13:48.400 Oh? I didn't talk to myself. I was conflicted. I 0:13:48.480 --> 0:13:50.839 wanted to do three things in my life. I wanted 0:13:50.880 --> 0:13:54.400 to be a doctor that helped people that didn't have 0:13:54.600 --> 0:13:58.240 access to healthcare. I didn't want to, you know, be 0:13:58.280 --> 0:14:00.320 a rich doctor. I wanted to get out there. I 0:14:00.360 --> 0:14:02.560 wanted to be Paul Farmer. When I grew up, I 0:14:02.600 --> 0:14:06.280 wanted to be a doctor. I wanted to be a musician, 0:14:07.720 --> 0:14:10.600 and I wanted to be in politics because I could 0:14:10.679 --> 0:14:15.079 see when I was a boy how much conflict there 0:14:15.120 --> 0:14:19.920 still was in America. So I remember like it was yesterday. 0:14:19.920 --> 0:14:22.000 I was sixteen looking in a mirror, just begun to 0:14:22.040 --> 0:14:26.440 shave felt big. And the reason I asked this question 0:14:26.560 --> 0:14:30.960 is you couldn't make a living as a jazz musician 0:14:31.520 --> 0:14:35.240 in the sixties unless you did the clubs. You know, 0:14:35.320 --> 0:14:39.160 nobody had these massive record contracts. You didn't a jazz 0:14:39.240 --> 0:14:43.000 musicians didn't feel, you know what like Kenny g later 0:14:43.040 --> 0:14:45.040 made a lot of money, you know, going around. You 0:14:45.080 --> 0:14:48.960 couldn't make a living unless you did the clubs. And 0:14:49.040 --> 0:14:53.840 so your chances of becoming addicted to drugs were roughly 0:14:54.280 --> 0:14:57.600 three times your chances of having a successful family and 0:14:57.720 --> 0:14:59.520 raising kids that were healthy. I mean, you had to. 0:15:00.080 --> 0:15:03.080 It was a big risk. As Cole Traning and lots 0:15:03.080 --> 0:15:06.080 of others found out, he was a genius. 0:15:06.480 --> 0:15:08.480 Have you ever got to witness him in person? 0:15:08.800 --> 0:15:11.000 No, I never heard Cold Training in person. I do 0:15:11.120 --> 0:15:16.120 have at home an autographed album that a friend of 0:15:16.160 --> 0:15:20.400 mine found for me, where his face is like has 0:15:20.680 --> 0:15:25.880 gone into running paint, fascinating looking album. I never heard him. 0:15:25.920 --> 0:15:30.920 I never heard gets I did herb Alfred he gets 0:15:30.960 --> 0:15:35.160 his last saxophone and he had it in a safe. 0:15:35.200 --> 0:15:38.000 So he sent me a note when I got elected, 0:15:38.000 --> 0:15:40.120 and he said, if you come out here, I'll let 0:15:40.200 --> 0:15:44.840 you play it. But I never got to do it. 0:15:45.000 --> 0:15:49.520 But anyway, I just thought that it wasn't worth the risk. 0:15:50.360 --> 0:15:53.960 And I did love it, but I had a sort 0:15:54.000 --> 0:15:57.400 of troubled home growing up, and I knew i'd be 0:15:57.440 --> 0:16:00.880 disappointed in my life if I didn't, you know, have 0:16:00.920 --> 0:16:02.800 a child and do a halfway decent job. 0:16:04.360 --> 0:16:07.320 And a musicians not the talary that's going to happen. 0:16:07.560 --> 0:16:10.760 How old were you when you left Arkansas? Like how 0:16:10.760 --> 0:16:13.600 long did you live there before you went to college? 0:16:14.120 --> 0:16:16.920 From my birth, I was born in a little town 0:16:16.920 --> 0:16:19.960 of Arkansas, and then we moved to a bigger town 0:16:20.040 --> 0:16:25.960 when I was six after the first grade, and I 0:16:26.040 --> 0:16:28.240 stayed there until I graduated from high school and I 0:16:28.280 --> 0:16:31.480 went to college in Washington for four years. Then I 0:16:31.560 --> 0:16:34.200 lived in England for two years, which was a. 0:16:34.200 --> 0:16:36.640 Great part of What part of England did you live? 0:16:37.000 --> 0:16:40.360 I was in school in Oxford, so I got a 0:16:40.360 --> 0:16:43.800 scholarship to go to school there, and that was great 0:16:43.840 --> 0:16:46.960 because it was in the middle of all the Vietnam 0:16:47.040 --> 0:16:49.760 War to do, you know? And I kept waiting to 0:16:49.800 --> 0:16:53.120 be drafted every month and I was called once, but 0:16:53.160 --> 0:16:56.160 the law allowed you to finish the year you were 0:16:56.160 --> 0:16:59.600 in if you were in school. And then the lottery 0:16:59.640 --> 0:17:01.000 came in. I got a high number. 0:17:01.280 --> 0:17:02.680 Did you go to the club scene a lot in 0:17:02.680 --> 0:17:04.199 London when you were living there and going? No? 0:17:04.400 --> 0:17:09.879 But I went to. Like we were talking about concerts, 0:17:10.840 --> 0:17:14.080 I tried to find whatever music I could, and I 0:17:14.119 --> 0:17:17.080 remember the most memorable one for me was when Mahaja 0:17:17.160 --> 0:17:20.480 Jackson played the Albert Hall, which is this great old 0:17:20.560 --> 0:17:26.040 Victorian venue, and you know, the country England was deeply divided, 0:17:26.119 --> 0:17:29.400 America was deeply divided. Everybody was upset, kids were cynical, 0:17:30.000 --> 0:17:32.159 and all of a sudden, I go to the but 0:17:32.320 --> 0:17:35.560 I was determined to hear Mohata Jackson. So I go 0:17:36.280 --> 0:17:39.400 with a friend who knew nothing about her music. I said, 0:17:39.400 --> 0:17:40.920 you're going to love this. You thank me for the 0:17:40.960 --> 0:17:45.080 rest of your life. So were we got a seat, 0:17:45.119 --> 0:17:49.119 you know, pretty far back. But I looked around and 0:17:49.200 --> 0:17:51.919 most of the people there were young people. And she 0:17:52.160 --> 0:17:56.040 started singing, and by about the third song, half the 0:17:56.119 --> 0:18:00.680 audience was crying I mean, she was so enormously powerful. 0:18:00.720 --> 0:18:04.560 She just was She just radiated her. 0:18:04.880 --> 0:18:07.360 Still gospel music, right, you think to be a bunch 0:18:07.359 --> 0:18:08.800 of kids. 0:18:08.080 --> 0:18:11.919 Then at the end of the performance, they stormed the 0:18:11.920 --> 0:18:14.879 stage and they were like seven or eight deep right 0:18:15.080 --> 0:18:17.800 on the stage, screaming like they were groupies at a 0:18:18.359 --> 0:18:22.000 rock concert and begging her to keep singing and begging her. 0:18:22.040 --> 0:18:24.080 And she sang another song or two and then finally 0:18:24.119 --> 0:18:26.199 had to leave. You know, but and she was just 0:18:26.280 --> 0:18:28.800 her standing alone on the stage. You know, the way 0:18:28.800 --> 0:18:32.840 she did it was amazing. It was one of the 0:18:32.840 --> 0:18:36.080 most amazing concerts I ever saw. Just she was something. 0:18:41.200 --> 0:18:43.720 Well I wanted to know, like what your music experience 0:18:43.800 --> 0:18:47.359 was in Arkansas, like because you seem pretty open minded 0:18:47.440 --> 0:18:50.400 to just art and all that stuff, Like how does 0:18:50.480 --> 0:18:55.000 one do that from Yeah. 0:18:54.600 --> 0:18:56.800 Well it was we weren't all the same. You know, 0:18:58.119 --> 0:19:02.119 it's not like it even today. It's more well to 0:19:02.200 --> 0:19:04.320 the right of where it was in the nineteen seventies. 0:19:05.400 --> 0:19:08.560 Most Southern states are in the small towns in rural 0:19:08.600 --> 0:19:13.160 areas because of what's happened to the information ecosystem and 0:19:13.280 --> 0:19:17.480 a lot of other things. But I remember when I 0:19:17.560 --> 0:19:20.040 went to the BREWBYX concert. I was telling you about that. 0:19:20.119 --> 0:19:23.120 He was friends with the band director down there who 0:19:23.280 --> 0:19:27.000 had worked with Stan Kenton and when they did all 0:19:27.000 --> 0:19:30.840 that groundbreaking musical work. You know, in the fifties, there 0:19:30.880 --> 0:19:35.359 were always chances to do that. I've Ray Charles once 0:19:35.400 --> 0:19:38.280 when he was kind of on the slow circuit in 0:19:38.359 --> 0:19:44.760 a little venue in western Arkansas. When I was in college, 0:19:45.359 --> 0:19:49.520 I heard Ray Charles sing where Marion Anderton did in 0:19:49.640 --> 0:19:53.040 Constitution Hall. She wanted to sing in Constitution Hall. You 0:19:53.040 --> 0:19:58.600 remember that Daughters of American Revolution drove her out. So 0:19:58.760 --> 0:20:04.560 Harold Ikey's the interior secretary for Roosevelt, whose son worked 0:20:04.560 --> 0:20:08.560 for me in the White House. Amazing. He gave her 0:20:08.600 --> 0:20:15.800 the Lincoln Memorial, the famous When Ray Charles came in 0:20:15.880 --> 0:20:22.119 nineteen sixty seven, he sang in Constitutional Hall. And I 0:20:22.240 --> 0:20:24.920 call this woman that I had just met, and on 0:20:25.080 --> 0:20:26.399 a lark, I asked if she wanted to go to 0:20:26.400 --> 0:20:31.679 this concert. She was about six feet tall, and we 0:20:31.760 --> 0:20:34.080 got we can. By the time I got the tickets, 0:20:34.080 --> 0:20:35.600 we had to sit way up in the back on 0:20:35.640 --> 0:20:39.680 the second floor and we were only there were fewer 0:20:39.680 --> 0:20:44.520 than ten white people there. Yes, it was unbelievable, though 0:20:45.119 --> 0:20:49.399 I never forget he played, you know, his repertoire, and 0:20:49.440 --> 0:20:52.720 he saved Georgia till near the last, and he plays 0:20:52.760 --> 0:20:57.800 the introduction on the piano and didn't do anything. He 0:20:57.920 --> 0:21:02.119 holds it in the crowds and then finally he just 0:21:02.200 --> 0:21:06.280 reaches up to microphone he said Georgia like that, and 0:21:06.320 --> 0:21:11.320 the crowd went nuts, just nuts, and it was And 0:21:11.400 --> 0:21:13.800 I was so excited at that Ray Charles concert. I 0:21:13.800 --> 0:21:16.680 remember it was June the twenty fourth, nineteen sixty seven. 0:21:16.760 --> 0:21:19.600 I so remember where it was that I stayed up 0:21:19.600 --> 0:21:21.639 till three o'clock in the morning. I couldn't go to sleep, 0:21:21.640 --> 0:21:23.359 and I went out and raided three in three miles 0:21:23.400 --> 0:21:26.640 so I could sleep a little. And I saved that 0:21:26.840 --> 0:21:30.760 ticket stub for I don't know ten fifteen years. I 0:21:30.800 --> 0:21:33.960 kept it in my billfa wow. And I was so 0:21:34.040 --> 0:21:37.480 grateful that I finally got to meet him, you know, 0:21:37.520 --> 0:21:41.320 when I was president, and we became friends. And Quincy 0:21:41.440 --> 0:21:45.240 Jones was helpful to me because he was a friend 0:21:45.280 --> 0:21:47.480 of mine. And you know, he and Charles knew each 0:21:47.520 --> 0:21:52.480 other in Seattle when Quincy was fourteen and Charles was seventeen, 0:21:53.640 --> 0:21:58.320 and Ray Charles got himself all the way from Central Florida, 0:21:58.440 --> 0:22:02.880 where he was a boy as a blind man, because 0:22:02.880 --> 0:22:04.840