WEBVTT - Pat Boone 0:00:08.560 --> 0:00:12.440 Welcome, Welcome, Welcome back to the pot West That's Podcast. 0:00:12.600 --> 0:00:15.960 My guest today is the one and only at Boon, 0:00:16.760 --> 0:00:19.799 Pat glad to be talking to well, glad to talk 0:00:19.840 --> 0:00:22.000 to you, But I've got to correct what you just said. 0:00:22.560 --> 0:00:25.400 I'm not the one and only Pat Boone. My brother 0:00:25.480 --> 0:00:28.800 is married to another one. Really is life is Patricia 0:00:29.440 --> 0:00:33.760 and that makes her another Pat Boon. Okay, hopefully there's 0:00:33.800 --> 0:00:36.680 not too much confusion. A little bit of trivia, know 0:00:36.760 --> 0:00:41.160 though they can tell us apart for sure. Okay, you're 0:00:41.240 --> 0:00:45.400 pretty active on social media. Do you have someone do 0:00:45.440 --> 0:00:47.680 that for you or do you do it yourself? It 0:00:47.760 --> 0:00:52.280 takes a circus here for me, as you've noticed that, 0:00:52.360 --> 0:00:54.680 I have to have people who actually know where the 0:00:54.720 --> 0:00:58.080 buttons are how to push them. I'm trying to catch up. 0:00:58.160 --> 0:01:01.160 I you know, I'm I'm in about I'm about up 0:01:01.160 --> 0:01:05.760 to in tech, but I'm trying to get into one 0:01:05.800 --> 0:01:07.959 and I'm just I'm not there yet. Okay, do you 0:01:08.040 --> 0:01:10.880 have a smartphone? Do you use it? Yeah? I do 0:01:11.080 --> 0:01:13.880 I have that. I'm using that pretty well, although I 0:01:13.959 --> 0:01:17.400 lost it yesterday and I couldn't even figure out how 0:01:17.440 --> 0:01:19.720 to get to where it is. I had to call 0:01:19.840 --> 0:01:23.160 my tech guy, and and he got on his computer 0:01:23.280 --> 0:01:25.679 and located it. It was in my house up in 0:01:25.680 --> 0:01:30.720 the bathroom, but I couldn't find it. So I am 0:01:30.840 --> 0:01:34.240 not a tech whiz. Okay, let's go back. You grew 0:01:34.319 --> 0:01:38.200 up in Nashville. I did. I was born in Jacksonville, Florida, 0:01:38.240 --> 0:01:40.120 but I grew up in Nashville. Yet, but what what 0:01:40.160 --> 0:01:43.279 age did you move to Nashville to age of two? 0:01:44.160 --> 0:01:46.160 And my brother one year younger than me at the 0:01:46.200 --> 0:01:50.280 age of one, and my dad a building contractor, architect, 0:01:50.360 --> 0:01:55.000 Mama registered nurse, and they moved from uh, from Florida, 0:01:55.120 --> 0:01:59.280 from from actually Tallahassee. Although I was born in Jacksonville 0:01:59.400 --> 0:02:03.320 and and then to Nashville where I grew up. Yeah, 0:02:03.320 --> 0:02:06.120 I'm I'm a I'm a homeboy in Nashville, but also 0:02:06.200 --> 0:02:10.119 in Florida. Okay, So what motivated them to move to Nashville. 0:02:10.960 --> 0:02:13.920 My dad, as I say, an architect and uh and 0:02:14.240 --> 0:02:19.360 it would be contractor, building contractor. His uncle, uncle Jack Boone, 0:02:19.840 --> 0:02:23.720 had his own contracting company in Nashville, very successful. So 0:02:23.960 --> 0:02:27.440 his nephew, Archie A. Boone, the first Boon in the 0:02:27.480 --> 0:02:30.800 phone book. You can't get ahead of a A Boone 0:02:31.000 --> 0:02:35.120 And so uh, he was offered the the job with 0:02:35.160 --> 0:02:37.800 his uncle, and he moved to Nashville and Mom and 0:02:37.840 --> 0:02:42.799 his two boys and eventually two daughters as well. And uh, 0:02:42.840 --> 0:02:49.240 and he not only became a very valued partner employee, 0:02:49.240 --> 0:02:53.360 but eventually when the time came for the opportunity, he 0:02:53.400 --> 0:02:57.200 had junior partners with him when Uncle Jack retired, and 0:02:57.240 --> 0:02:59.880 I was able to, thank God to help him obtain 0:03:00.960 --> 0:03:04.000 ownership of his own company. It was called the Boon 0:03:04.160 --> 0:03:08.640 Contracting Company anyway, and his partners weren't Boone's. Okay, So 0:03:08.880 --> 0:03:12.480 you're born in the middle of the depression, your father 0:03:12.639 --> 0:03:15.960 has a job. What was your economic situation growing up 0:03:15.960 --> 0:03:21.320 in the family, I would say lower middle class. Uh. Daddy, 0:03:21.960 --> 0:03:24.040 as I say he was, he worked for his uncle. 0:03:25.080 --> 0:03:27.680 He didn't have it was not his own company for 0:03:27.720 --> 0:03:31.400 a long time. And uh. And after my brother and me, 0:03:31.600 --> 0:03:35.600 he and Mama had daughters, and soon he had four kids. 0:03:36.600 --> 0:03:40.320 We did not have a car until I was in 0:03:40.360 --> 0:03:43.560 the eighth grade. We had to we had the company 0:03:43.560 --> 0:03:47.360 pickup truck, Boon Contracting. Now you have to get six people, 0:03:48.000 --> 0:03:50.960 my mom and dad and four kids into that. It 0:03:51.080 --> 0:03:53.440 was not a big It was not a big pickup 0:03:53.440 --> 0:03:57.200 truck like today, and so he built a wood uh 0:03:57.200 --> 0:04:00.320 he was a carpenter as well, so he built nice 0:04:00.360 --> 0:04:03.120 wooden bench in the back from my brother and me, 0:04:03.640 --> 0:04:06.280 and we thought it was really fun during the earlier days, 0:04:06.640 --> 0:04:09.320 riding in the back, the wind whipping us and all that. 0:04:09.440 --> 0:04:12.280 When we were six, seven, eight years old, and the 0:04:12.320 --> 0:04:14.880 two girls got to ride up front with Mama. On 0:04:15.120 --> 0:04:19.839 rainy days though, and snowy days, really cold weather. Somehow 0:04:19.920 --> 0:04:24.279 we would cram Mama, Daddy, me, my brother and two 0:04:24.320 --> 0:04:27.800 sisters into the cab of that little truck. So by 0:04:27.839 --> 0:04:31.359 the time I was in the sixth grade, I kept begging, Daddy, 0:04:31.400 --> 0:04:34.240 can't we have a car, just anything with doors on 0:04:34.279 --> 0:04:36.240 it that I we can, we can get out of 0:04:36.279 --> 0:04:39.840 the back of the truck riding in the wind and 0:04:39.880 --> 0:04:42.440 so on. Of course it was embarrassing. He takes us 0:04:42.480 --> 0:04:46.279 to school on rainy days. Of course we'd have raincoats 0:04:46.279 --> 0:04:49.680 and hats but our umbrellas. But we were getting out 0:04:49.720 --> 0:04:51.479 of the back of a truck at the at the 0:04:51.480 --> 0:04:55.719 grammar school, and even kids were from I think poorer circumstances. 0:04:56.640 --> 0:04:59.760 They come up or the church in cars of son 0:05:00.160 --> 0:05:03.480 some type. But Daddy was frugal and he said, we'll 0:05:03.520 --> 0:05:06.000 buy a car when I can afford it. And you 0:05:06.120 --> 0:05:08.800 boys are well taken care of on that bench in 0:05:08.839 --> 0:05:12.040 the back. And today, as I ride along the freeway 0:05:12.040 --> 0:05:17.839 and I see uh tenerants and laborers sitting in the 0:05:17.839 --> 0:05:19.920 back of trucks being whipped along the free we I 0:05:19.960 --> 0:05:22.200 always want to lean and say, hey, I've been there, 0:05:22.400 --> 0:05:27.480 I've done that. Okay, I've been to Nashville. But obviously 0:05:27.640 --> 0:05:31.080 many years later, and there's downtown in the suburbs. How 0:05:31.160 --> 0:05:34.680 far did you live from downtown Nahville. We were outside 0:05:34.720 --> 0:05:37.080 the city limits at that point. We were out on 0:05:37.160 --> 0:05:41.560 Granny White Pike. Granny White Pike, and it's still called 0:05:41.600 --> 0:05:44.160 that today. It is now in the city limits that 0:05:44.320 --> 0:05:46.400 city of them as were greatly expanded, but we were 0:05:46.440 --> 0:05:50.080 outside And and then off Granny White Pike was Lone 0:05:50.160 --> 0:05:53.400 Oak Road, a little road off the side. It was 0:05:53.440 --> 0:05:56.359 called Lone Oak Road because during earlier days there was 0:05:56.400 --> 0:06:00.520 a lone Oak that served as a hanging tree kremlins 0:06:00.560 --> 0:06:03.920 who sometimes hung on that Lone Oak well. That went 0:06:04.000 --> 0:06:07.599 eventually from Granny White Pike to a thriving part of 0:06:07.680 --> 0:06:11.559 Nashville called Green Hills, And it's one of the really 0:06:11.600 --> 0:06:16.360 prestigious places to live. That and Bell Mead in Nashville, 0:06:16.440 --> 0:06:19.960 the high class places. But it's a mile or two 0:06:20.720 --> 0:06:23.840 long Lone Oak Road until you get to Granny White Pike. 0:06:23.960 --> 0:06:27.119 And just off Granny White Pike is still that house 0:06:27.160 --> 0:06:30.120 where I grew up brother and two and two sisters. 0:06:30.120 --> 0:06:32.560 And when I'm in Nashville, I don't go to a motel. 0:06:33.360 --> 0:06:36.800 I go right to the oh nine Lone Oak Road, 0:06:37.440 --> 0:06:40.000 very close to the side of the road. Nice house, 0:06:40.279 --> 0:06:46.400 but very modest and upstairs. Uh. After the two boys 0:06:46.440 --> 0:06:50.200 and the two girls moved out, Uh, we you know, 0:06:50.240 --> 0:06:53.640 went to school or married or whatever, and uh and Daddy, 0:06:53.760 --> 0:06:56.560 being a contractor and better off by then turned what 0:06:56.680 --> 0:07:00.480 had been an attic uh into a set and floor 0:07:01.040 --> 0:07:03.719 where he created a nice bedroom in bathroom mama, and 0:07:03.760 --> 0:07:06.280 a guest room. And that's where I always stay. And 0:07:06.440 --> 0:07:09.960 what had been the attic that I claimed when Nick 0:07:10.000 --> 0:07:13.120 and I my brother were sixteen and fifteen, we were 0:07:13.160 --> 0:07:16.320 sharing the same bed and we each wanted our own bed, 0:07:16.440 --> 0:07:19.800 you know, and so I asked if I could have 0:07:19.840 --> 0:07:22.240 the attic. Well, it was just an unfinished attic where 0:07:22.240 --> 0:07:24.640 you know, you put all this stuff you don't have 0:07:24.720 --> 0:07:28.600 room for downstairs and old clothes and suitcases and boxes. 0:07:29.080 --> 0:07:31.320 But I put a cop mom and Daddy let me 0:07:31.360 --> 0:07:35.880 have the attic, and I called it my penthouse at sixteen, 0:07:36.040 --> 0:07:38.400 and I slept on the attic and Nick could have 0:07:38.480 --> 0:07:43.440 the nice bed downstairs. So do you go to public 0:07:43.480 --> 0:07:47.480 school or religious school? And what kind of student are you? 0:07:47.560 --> 0:07:50.120 And how do you fit in with the people. Well, 0:07:50.160 --> 0:07:56.240 it's both. I was in a secular school called Burton Elementary, 0:07:56.880 --> 0:08:01.080 and it was by road up your White Pike about 0:08:01.760 --> 0:08:05.080 half a mile, but if you go down Lon Oak 0:08:05.200 --> 0:08:07.640 Road and up it's about three quarters of a mile. 0:08:07.960 --> 0:08:11.600 Or if you cut across the back pasture behind our house, 0:08:12.080 --> 0:08:16.200 it's like a quarter of mine because Daddy had bought 0:08:16.200 --> 0:08:19.640 ten acres and this little house for five thousand dollars 0:08:20.200 --> 0:08:23.840 in I guess it was and uh, And I was 0:08:23.920 --> 0:08:26.200 six years old when he when he when we moved 0:08:26.200 --> 0:08:29.240 to that house. So when when I was running late, 0:08:30.000 --> 0:08:33.080 as I often was, I would just run across the 0:08:33.120 --> 0:08:37.079 back pasture, watching where I stepped because we had cows 0:08:38.040 --> 0:08:40.200 and um, and then go through the fence and get 0:08:40.240 --> 0:08:43.640 to my class on time. But otherwise I would either 0:08:44.679 --> 0:08:46.480 let Daddy take me, or I would take a bike. 0:08:46.520 --> 0:08:49.079 I mean, by the time I was well, I was 0:08:49.080 --> 0:08:51.760 still in high school, I could ride my bike and 0:08:51.840 --> 0:08:54.600 I did, and so you know, I just got by. 0:08:54.840 --> 0:08:56.880 I figured out how to make it that way. That 0:08:57.000 --> 0:09:00.400 was a secular school, but when high school time came, 0:09:01.200 --> 0:09:04.240 we were strong Christians. We had Bible studies in our 0:09:04.280 --> 0:09:06.480 home and went to church service every time, and the 0:09:06.520 --> 0:09:10.679 door was open. So I knew then and I wanted 0:09:10.760 --> 0:09:14.000 a my education, but in a Christian context, I mean, 0:09:14.480 --> 0:09:18.920 for me at thirteen, this was I think an unusual choice. 0:09:18.960 --> 0:09:21.240 All my friends were going to secular high schools. But 0:09:21.280 --> 0:09:24.360 I wanted to go to Lipscomb High School, which was 0:09:24.400 --> 0:09:27.920 a Christian high school and college. And but but to 0:09:28.000 --> 0:09:31.280 do that, I had to help Daddy economically. And so 0:09:31.440 --> 0:09:34.479 my brother and I worked in the summertime as laborers 0:09:35.040 --> 0:09:39.520 and the Boon Contracting company, digging ditches, pouring concrete, pushing wheelbarrows, 0:09:39.679 --> 0:09:44.400 toting lumber for the carpenters. And we earned the handsome 0:09:44.440 --> 0:09:46.600 price I think that first year of a dollar quarter 0:09:46.640 --> 0:09:50.160 an hour, and we would put that aside to help 0:09:50.200 --> 0:09:54.880 pay for clothes and books, and knew the truition in 0:09:54.920 --> 0:09:57.720 the Christian high school was not that great. But with 0:09:57.840 --> 0:10:01.400 Daddy with two boys and two girls, he was having 0:10:01.440 --> 0:10:04.079 to you know, really pinch pennies. He had to pay 0:10:04.120 --> 0:10:07.600 his taxes after all. And in the contracting business, by 0:10:07.640 --> 0:10:12.320 the way, uh, you you make bids on the jobs 0:10:12.320 --> 0:10:15.240 you want to do, and you're competing with others who 0:10:15.240 --> 0:10:17.880 want that same job. And at that point it was 0:10:17.960 --> 0:10:23.800 just houses. It went eventually to be high schools, college dorms, uh, 0:10:24.200 --> 0:10:28.920 military installations, churches. I mean he got big for Daddy eventually, 0:10:29.000 --> 0:10:33.880 but back then, to bid on a house, he had 0:10:33.920 --> 0:10:36.120 to try to make the lowest bid, but still a 0:10:36.120 --> 0:10:38.160 bid that he could do it for in that price, 0:10:38.240 --> 0:10:42.440 because if he didn't get it built well for what 0:10:42.520 --> 0:10:45.040 he bid it, he had to eat the rest himself. 0:10:45.679 --> 0:10:50.440 So Daddy, you know, with four kids, you know, Mama 0:10:50.600 --> 0:10:54.040 was something of not a spendthrift. But I always compare 0:10:54.080 --> 0:10:59.400 them to democrat in the Republican Mama wanted come one, 0:10:59.559 --> 0:11:02.960 come all, not just people, but pets, dogs, cats, come 0:11:02.960 --> 0:11:06.079 and come on eat. We got plenty. Daddy was the Republican. 0:11:06.120 --> 0:11:08.199 Wait a minute, I've got a budget here. I gotta 0:11:08.200 --> 0:11:12.360 pay for this somehow. And that yin and yang was 0:11:12.720 --> 0:11:15.120 what we lived with. So you have ten acres. You 0:11:15.200 --> 0:11:18.640 have cows. What else is going on that land? And 0:11:18.679 --> 0:11:22.320 are you milking the cows? Who's doing all that work? Yes, yes, 0:11:22.440 --> 0:11:26.040 to that, all of it. We also had pigs. Sometimes 0:11:26.520 --> 0:11:30.559 we had fenced off areas for pigs. We had to 0:11:30.960 --> 0:11:34.679 we had to slop the hogs. We had chickens. We 0:11:34.760 --> 0:11:38.400 had turkeys and rabbits. We had a vegetable garden on 0:11:38.520 --> 0:11:41.400 some of that, a big vegetable garden which Nick, my brother, 0:11:41.400 --> 0:11:45.160 and I and sometimes the sisters helped with. Daddy somehow 0:11:45.200 --> 0:11:48.319 found the time to take care of all that. But 0:11:48.440 --> 0:11:50.680 we had to work like we were really on a farm, 0:11:51.000 --> 0:11:54.120 which we were. I milked the cows and Nick and 0:11:54.160 --> 0:11:56.480 I took turns. We usually only had one cow to 0:11:56.520 --> 0:12:01.640 milk because the rest we were either raising to sell. 0:12:02.679 --> 0:12:04.880 But we only need one good milk cow. And the 0:12:05.200 --> 0:12:08.960 one that that I melt most was a milk a 0:12:09.000 --> 0:12:13.960 cow named Rosemary a Jersey, and she she was incredible 0:12:14.000 --> 0:12:17.199 milk producer. My brother and I were known to drink 0:12:17.200 --> 0:12:20.640 as much as a gallon a day a piece, because 0:12:20.679 --> 0:12:23.000 we drink a quarter milk for breakfast, and a quarter 0:12:23.080 --> 0:12:26.240 milk with lunch if we were home, and then a 0:12:26.320 --> 0:12:29.200 quarter milk for dinner and then more doing our homework 0:12:29.200 --> 0:12:31.280 before we went to bed, I mean, and then we 0:12:31.360 --> 0:12:34.840 made butter and uh sometimes well we didn't make cottage 0:12:34.920 --> 0:12:37.280 cheese and we didn't have enough of that, but we 0:12:37.280 --> 0:12:40.920 could sometimes churn and make butter. And we learned what 0:12:40.960 --> 0:12:46.600 blue john milk was. If the if the cows eight onions, uh, 0:12:46.640 --> 0:12:48.360 and we had plenty of them growing out there in 0:12:48.360 --> 0:12:53.360 the past. It infiltrated the milk and turned its sour. 0:12:54.160 --> 0:12:58.440 But we learned to use that and cooking, and sometimes 0:12:58.440 --> 0:13:01.720 we just drink it. Blue john milk it was called, 0:13:02.200 --> 0:13:05.199 but you know it was it was really like a farm, 0:13:05.200 --> 0:13:07.679 and we milked Rosemary, my brother and I took turns. 0:13:08.360 --> 0:13:10.520 He would milk. We we worked it out this way. 0:13:10.520 --> 0:13:13.520 I would milk one night and the next morning, and 0:13:13.559 --> 0:13:16.080 then he would milk the next night and the next morning, 0:13:16.320 --> 0:13:19.160 so that we each milked only once a day. The 0:13:19.200 --> 0:13:22.800 only trouble was sometimes one of us would forget that 0:13:22.920 --> 0:13:26.880 we hadn't done the milking on that particular occasion, and 0:13:26.920 --> 0:13:31.040 we met an angry cow whoever had to milk the 0:13:31.080 --> 0:13:35.440 next one that after one session had been skipped. But 0:13:35.440 --> 0:13:37.600 but it was that's what it was that cows would 0:13:37.600 --> 0:13:39.840 get out once in a while go through the neighbor's 0:13:39.880 --> 0:13:42.680 yards who didn't have cows, and we'd have to go 0:13:42.800 --> 0:13:46.160 chase them. And sometimes they'd be going through the laundry 0:13:46.160 --> 0:13:48.400 hanging on the neighbor's lines, and I had to go 0:13:48.520 --> 0:13:51.760 chase the family cow and get her back in, and 0:13:51.800 --> 0:13:55.520 we'd prepare the fence. But that was part of my 0:13:55.600 --> 0:13:58.640 growing up days. Until I was well into high school. 0:13:58.679 --> 0:14:02.080 I was still milking rosemary while I was dating the 0:14:02.080 --> 0:14:06.200 girl I was going to marry eventually. Okay, so in school, 0:14:06.600 --> 0:14:11.240 are you a popular kid? Are you a good student? Oh? Yes, 0:14:11.400 --> 0:14:15.760 yes I can. I can truthfully say yes because I 0:14:15.840 --> 0:14:19.640 was insatiably curious active. I wanted to be involved in everything. 0:14:19.960 --> 0:14:23.400 When I got to be as a freshman, I laid 0:14:23.440 --> 0:14:27.000 out Not that I was that methodical, but but I 0:14:27.040 --> 0:14:29.880 did think about what I wanted to accomplish in high school. 0:14:30.320 --> 0:14:32.480 I wanted, first of all, to make straight A grades, 0:14:32.560 --> 0:14:36.680 which I did eventually. Somewhere along the line, they did 0:14:36.680 --> 0:14:40.080 an i Q test, And what they've told me Mama 0:14:40.200 --> 0:14:42.720 and others that were in school with me, is that 0:14:42.720 --> 0:14:46.240 that my i Q was reported at one seventy, which 0:14:46.320 --> 0:14:50.560 is very high. Well, that put a heavy responsibility on me, 0:14:51.400 --> 0:14:53.840 and so I did make straight a's in all my classes. 0:14:53.880 --> 0:14:58.160 I never made bees and anything. And uh I I 0:14:58.240 --> 0:15:01.480 was president of the of the secon the sophomore class, 0:15:02.400 --> 0:15:04.320 and then I set my sides to be president of 0:15:04.320 --> 0:15:07.880 the student body. And now it was a smallish Christian 0:15:07.960 --> 0:15:11.600 high school of maybe three students. That's not big, but 0:15:12.520 --> 0:15:15.760 it was our little world. And so when I was 0:15:15.840 --> 0:15:20.360 like sophomore and junior, I would try to make friends 0:15:20.440 --> 0:15:23.360 with the freshman coming in because I knew from experience 0:15:24.000 --> 0:15:26.800 that the juniors and seniors couldn't care less about the 0:15:27.680 --> 0:15:31.920 those ignorant little sophomores and freshmen, but they were going 0:15:31.960 --> 0:15:35.920 to vote on who was going to be the student 0:15:35.960 --> 0:15:39.480 body president towards the end of the junior year. So 0:15:40.840 --> 0:15:43.120 when the time I was a school UH cart I 0:15:43.160 --> 0:15:46.280 was on all the teams baseball, basketball, we didn't have football. 0:15:47.120 --> 0:15:50.680 I was captain the baseball team and UH and and 0:15:50.760 --> 0:15:54.040 I was I was good on the basketball team, but 0:15:54.120 --> 0:15:57.600 not the star. But I was good and very active 0:15:57.600 --> 0:16:01.920 and on the A team. And then UH school cartoonists. 0:16:01.920 --> 0:16:05.000 I wrote a sports column for the paper, and I 0:16:05.040 --> 0:16:07.480 mean I was and when the day came along. We 0:16:07.520 --> 0:16:10.440 had to have a clean up day. I would volunteer 0:16:10.600 --> 0:16:13.360 to be the chairman of clean up day. I mean 0:16:13.960 --> 0:16:17.960 I was angling towards being the student body president. Well, 0:16:18.560 --> 0:16:21.920 the day came but for the election, and I had 0:16:21.960 --> 0:16:26.880 made friends with all the sophomores and freshman But a 0:16:26.920 --> 0:16:31.160 guy was transferred from a from a reform school to 0:16:31.320 --> 0:16:33.720 our school. Who was he was? They brought him in, 0:16:34.080 --> 0:16:38.000 I thought, hoping they could redeem him. But all he 0:16:38.040 --> 0:16:42.400 was a great athlete and he became all state baseball basketball. 0:16:42.800 --> 0:16:45.720 Russ Wingo was his name, and he decided to run 0:16:45.760 --> 0:16:50.400 for student body president. Well guess what the athlete won 0:16:50.440 --> 0:16:55.400 the election. I was. I was so taken back. I 0:16:55.440 --> 0:16:58.480 mean I was crushed. I had set my size for 0:16:58.560 --> 0:17:02.040 three years and and worked at it and did all 0:17:02.080 --> 0:17:04.959 these things. And then Rush Wingo comes along. And because 0:17:04.960 --> 0:17:07.680 he can we didn't have three point shots, but he could. 0:17:08.119 --> 0:17:10.000 He could score, and he could. He was good in 0:17:10.080 --> 0:17:12.840 baseball A well, I so was I. But that wasn't 0:17:12.840 --> 0:17:18.720 good enough. So the summertime came and I got over 0:17:18.760 --> 0:17:22.160 my initial pain and decided I would do the Christian thing. 0:17:22.800 --> 0:17:26.000 And I went to Russ. I said, look, Russ uh, 0:17:26.080 --> 0:17:28.080 you're the you have the president student body, but you're 0:17:28.119 --> 0:17:32.879 gonna have to represent us in the regular school associations 0:17:32.920 --> 0:17:35.840 with other high schools, and uh, I know you're gonna 0:17:35.880 --> 0:17:37.480 be busy. And I didn't want to say you don't 0:17:37.480 --> 0:17:40.800 know how to do it, and uh so if you want, 0:17:40.840 --> 0:17:44.119 I'll represent you as the president, but I'll do some 0:17:44.240 --> 0:17:46.960 of that that grunt work for you. And he said, 0:17:46.960 --> 0:17:48.920 oh boy, okay, yeah, you do that. I don't know 0:17:48.960 --> 0:17:51.760 how to do any of that stuff. So I was 0:17:51.920 --> 0:17:57.520 willing to be his surrogate. But guess what happened during 0:17:57.560 --> 0:18:01.480 the summer. He was older, he was older than we were. 0:18:01.480 --> 0:18:03.760 He had been in a reform school and so he 0:18:03.840 --> 0:18:06.880 was like eighteen, and he and one of the girls 0:18:07.000 --> 0:18:12.160 during the summertime got married. I'm not sure what caused 0:18:12.200 --> 0:18:15.040 that to happen, but they did get married in the summertime. 0:18:16.320 --> 0:18:18.400 And then we come back to school. It turns out 0:18:18.440 --> 0:18:22.080 that our bylou by laws said you can't be married 0:18:22.119 --> 0:18:24.919 and be the student body president. So we had another 0:18:25.000 --> 0:18:28.960 election and I was elected. I became the student body 0:18:28.960 --> 0:18:32.040 president after all, and that unlikely. After I was willing 0:18:32.480 --> 0:18:34.919 to give up and serve him, and you know, there 0:18:34.960 --> 0:18:37.919 was a great lesson than that. For me. It's stuck 0:18:37.920 --> 0:18:40.639 with me all my life. You know, you don't lose 0:18:40.760 --> 0:18:45.280 by by helping somebody else win. Okay, Now was there 0:18:45.400 --> 0:18:48.439 music in the house? And when did you realize you 0:18:48.440 --> 0:18:53.160 could sing well? I was asked that recently. I said, 0:18:53.520 --> 0:18:57.320 I was singing before I ever thought about being a singer, 0:18:57.880 --> 0:19:00.920 because it was part of our emily. First of all, 0:19:00.960 --> 0:19:04.000 in church, we all sang in church and and and 0:19:04.119 --> 0:19:07.720 our church background didn't even have piano, no instrumental music 0:19:07.760 --> 0:19:09.480 because we didn't see an example for it in the 0:19:09.520 --> 0:19:12.760 New Testament, so we didn't have piano Oregon. It was 0:19:12.800 --> 0:19:18.159 all acapella. So in all of our church experiences, Daddy 0:19:18.240 --> 0:19:21.800 was singing bass, Mama was singing soprano, and then my 0:19:21.840 --> 0:19:24.560 sisters would maybe learn how to sing an alto part, 0:19:24.680 --> 0:19:28.159 and my brother would sing tenor. And I tried to 0:19:28.200 --> 0:19:32.680 sing bass along with Daddy. So we were singing uh 0:19:32.680 --> 0:19:34.919 in church every church service, and then at home we 0:19:34.920 --> 0:19:37.119 would sing some of the church songs. And then at 0:19:37.160 --> 0:19:41.280 school and Mama played a little ukulele and a few 0:19:41.359 --> 0:19:43.920 chords that somebody had taught her. I learned those few 0:19:44.000 --> 0:19:49.800 chords so I could make them sort of uh fit 0:19:49.920 --> 0:19:53.040 any kind of song I wanted to sing, usually simple 0:19:53.119 --> 0:19:56.960 songs or church songs. I could use those few chords 0:19:57.880 --> 0:20:01.560 um to to accompany me my brother, And so we 0:20:01.640 --> 0:20:04.520 sang songs and our family gatherings like I want to 0:20:04.680 --> 0:20:09.560 take he said, a middle journey. Well, I set my 0:20:09.760 --> 0:20:12.800 heart leddies said he could sing the harmony part, or 0:20:12.880 --> 0:20:15.520 I would too. I would either he could sing melody, 0:20:15.560 --> 0:20:19.520 I sing harmony, sentimental journey. And so we would sing 0:20:19.520 --> 0:20:22.439 those songs and our family gatherings. They loved it, you know, 0:20:22.760 --> 0:20:26.320 pat Nick singing the songs and maybe Mama playing the 0:20:26.400 --> 0:20:29.880 ukulele or me doing it and then uh. And then 0:20:29.920 --> 0:20:33.960 at school, when anything came along for anybody to do 0:20:34.040 --> 0:20:36.479 some singing, I'd raise my hand because I knew I 0:20:36.480 --> 0:20:39.560 could and I liked it. And then if there was 0:20:39.640 --> 0:20:43.360 ever anything for a solo part in a school function, 0:20:43.440 --> 0:20:45.679 you know, well the teacher learned that I could carry 0:20:45.680 --> 0:20:49.200 the tune, carry the melody and do it. And even 0:20:49.200 --> 0:20:51.960 when I got into college, but in high school, I 0:20:52.040 --> 0:20:57.280 became known as blue Moon Boone because whenever there was 0:20:57.440 --> 0:20:59.800 some kind of anything going on in our Christian high 0:20:59.800 --> 0:21:01.480 sto cool and there was a lot of singing going 0:21:01.520 --> 0:21:05.240 on then, and you know, we put on little shows 0:21:05.359 --> 0:21:08.560 and have entertainments, and it's singing at parties and you know, 0:21:08.960 --> 0:21:12.640 packed and carry a tune, he can sing and uh. 0:21:12.720 --> 0:21:15.440 And so I became known as blue Moon Boone because 0:21:16.119 --> 0:21:19.840 if at the drop of a hat, anybody, any if 0:21:19.880 --> 0:21:21.680 you need a guy to sing a song, I would 0:21:21.720 --> 0:21:25.560 sing blue Moon. You saw me standing alone, without a 0:21:25.640 --> 0:21:29.280 dream in my heart, without a love of my own. 0:21:29.920 --> 0:21:32.479 And the girls liked it, and the guys put up 0:21:32.520 --> 0:21:34.600 with it. They thought it was fine it they didn't 0:21:34.600 --> 0:21:38.800 have to do it, and so it was. It was 0:21:38.840 --> 0:21:41.280 just a fun thing that I learned I could do now. 0:21:42.520 --> 0:21:48.480 When I was about twelve thirt um, mama or somebody 0:21:48.480 --> 0:21:51.760 took me to the bell Meat Happiness Club, which was 0:21:51.800 --> 0:21:55.760 in bell Meat, nice neighborhood, nice theater and and on 0:21:55.800 --> 0:21:59.080 Saturday afternoons it was a place where mama's could bring 0:21:59.160 --> 0:22:02.760 all their kids for about three hours because there would 0:22:02.760 --> 0:22:06.760 be cartoons. There would be if you can remember, cereals, 0:22:07.600 --> 0:22:12.640 I mean Westerns and Perils of Pauline and comed comedy, 0:22:13.400 --> 0:22:18.359 uh cereals and then uh and then a movie that 0:22:18.480 --> 0:22:22.040 was appropriate for kids, you know, and the manager of 0:22:22.080 --> 0:22:26.120 that theater was Dr Jordan's. Ed Jordan's he was from 0:22:26.200 --> 0:22:28.960 vaudeville days, so he thought it'd be nice to have 0:22:29.040 --> 0:22:34.320 a little, uh, little vaudeville show before the movie started, 0:22:34.480 --> 0:22:37.639 to even make the thing a little longer. Now, you 0:22:37.760 --> 0:22:40.960 never tried to sing or perform for a more unruly 0:22:41.000 --> 0:22:46.760 audience than a theater full of little kids, because they 0:22:46.760 --> 0:22:49.000 weren't really interested in what was going on in stage. 0:22:49.040 --> 0:22:51.640 But you know, sometimes it would be. But it would 0:22:51.680 --> 0:22:54.480 be a pianist. God could play piano. Somebody could tap dance. 0:22:54.520 --> 0:22:58.280 You can imagine the hooting and howling that the kids 0:22:58.359 --> 0:23:01.639 gave who I was trying to tap dan play an 0:23:01.640 --> 0:23:03.760 instrument of some sort. Well, of course I could sing 0:23:03.800 --> 0:23:10.800 a tune, so again I ed Jordan's The Vaudevillian took 0:23:10.800 --> 0:23:13.040 an interest. Now, the way I got involved in that 0:23:13.280 --> 0:23:16.720 was because the reason I did was not because I 0:23:16.720 --> 0:23:20.600 could sing so much, is because whoever performed. There were 0:23:20.600 --> 0:23:23.760 three performers every Saturday, and I learned this the first 0:23:23.800 --> 0:23:27.439 time I was there. And whoever the kids would vote 0:23:27.440 --> 0:23:30.640 for the most favorite, number one, number two, number three, 0:23:31.119 --> 0:23:34.840 number one would get a banana split at the drug 0:23:34.920 --> 0:23:39.639 store next door pharmacy and and the second one coming 0:23:39.640 --> 0:23:43.720 in second would get a Sunday and the third place 0:23:43.720 --> 0:23:47.359 would get a nice cone with a double dip. Well, 0:23:48.080 --> 0:23:50.960 that's what enticed me, so I got MoMA to take 0:23:51.000 --> 0:23:54.560 me to downtown to the Elizabeth Bryant Combs Dance studio 0:23:55.160 --> 0:23:58.280 where this dance instructor auditioned the kids from the various 0:23:58.359 --> 0:24:02.120 high schools. And right away, because I could saying Blue Moon, 0:24:02.400 --> 0:24:05.399 you saw me standing alone, she put me on the 0:24:05.680 --> 0:24:09.479 on the show and and I went on. I forget 0:24:09.480 --> 0:24:11.960 who I was with, what the other performers were. I 0:24:11.960 --> 0:24:15.240 know I was very nervous, but at I think thirteen, 0:24:16.440 --> 0:24:19.920 I went on and saying something and ed Jordan's had 0:24:20.000 --> 0:24:22.520 hurt me in a rehearsal, and he says, now, kids, 0:24:22.920 --> 0:24:24.560 you may not knew what I'm talking about. I think 0:24:24.600 --> 0:24:29.480 this is the next Bing Crosby. Let's welcome Pat Boone. Well, 0:24:29.520 --> 0:24:30.960 the kids said, you know, they give me a little 0:24:31.000 --> 0:24:35.080 shouts and applause, and for some reason they seem to 0:24:35.160 --> 0:24:40.280 like me singing. And I got to Banana Split while 0:24:40.320 --> 0:24:43.359 I was hooked, and I went back as many times 0:24:43.359 --> 0:24:47.399 on Saturdays for the next couple of years as Elizabeth 0:24:47.400 --> 0:24:51.240 Briant Combs would let me come and uh and sing 0:24:51.280 --> 0:24:55.679 other songs. And I would stand backstage and nervous and 0:24:55.680 --> 0:24:57.879 warming up, and you know, and now I was learning 0:24:57.920 --> 0:24:59.600 what it was to go in front of an audience 0:24:59.600 --> 0:25:03.360 of un truly kids. But but but I found that 0:25:03.800 --> 0:25:07.359 if I sang well enough, they could they seem to 0:25:07.440 --> 0:25:11.320 enjoy it. Now mama's bringing their kids would sometimes be 0:25:11.440 --> 0:25:14.920 there at the beginning, and they heard me sing, and 0:25:14.960 --> 0:25:17.200 they had invite me to sing it their ladies clubs. 0:25:18.080 --> 0:25:20.120 And then and then the men, some of the men 0:25:20.200 --> 0:25:22.600 found out I could sing, and they I'd sing for 0:25:22.680 --> 0:25:27.119 the Junior Chamber of Commerce, or the Elks Club or 0:25:27.160 --> 0:25:30.919 the the men's men's meetings. And I had a pianist 0:25:30.960 --> 0:25:34.040 who named Ruth Maori, who's a piano teacher. And I 0:25:34.080 --> 0:25:36.280 took about two lessons and got her hooked, and then 0:25:36.320 --> 0:25:39.479 I I never took any more lessons, but she she 0:25:39.480 --> 0:25:43.119 could play anything in any key, so she would accompany 0:25:43.160 --> 0:25:45.880 me to these meetings, and I was I became known 0:25:45.920 --> 0:25:47.880 as that kid out on Lone Oak Road that knows 0:25:47.920 --> 0:25:50.679 all the pop songs and has somebody to play for him. 0:25:50.680 --> 0:25:54.240 And by the way, he doesn't charge anything, Just feed him, 0:25:54.240 --> 0:25:56.919 feed him a lunch and maybe you'll show up. Well, 0:25:57.040 --> 0:26:00.119 I did it purely for the fun of it. Me 0:26:00.119 --> 0:26:02.320 and I was happy if I got fed. But and 0:26:02.440 --> 0:26:06.600 Ruth same thing. We just enjoyed what we were doing. 0:26:06.720 --> 0:26:11.080 She enjoyed singing it performing piano for me, and I 0:26:11.200 --> 0:26:13.560 enjoyed the singing and the applause. And it was just 0:26:14.040 --> 0:26:17.040 it was a hobby, like you know. And then in 0:26:17.160 --> 0:26:21.359 high school, the principal of the high school knew that 0:26:21.400 --> 0:26:24.920 I liked to sing, and he he talked to the 0:26:25.040 --> 0:26:29.640 radio station w s i X, big station in Nashville, said, 0:26:29.680 --> 0:26:33.080 this kid out in our school likes to sing and 0:26:31.880 --> 0:26:34.880 the and uh, and he he could be a host 0:26:34.920 --> 0:26:38.360 of a teen talent show with teen talent from all 0:26:38.400 --> 0:26:42.600 over Nashville and all over the Middle Tennessee. They'd come 0:26:42.600 --> 0:26:44.960 in and and audition for somebody, I don't know who 0:26:44.960 --> 0:26:48.280 the audition for. I just showed up on Saturday morning 0:26:49.000 --> 0:26:53.879 and I hosted the the Youth on Parade show on 0:26:54.080 --> 0:26:56.280 the local radio station. It was a It was a 0:26:56.280 --> 0:26:58.720 big station though, and it got a big audience because 0:26:58.920 --> 0:27:01.480 who who high school kid's gonna listen to on the radio, 0:27:01.760 --> 0:27:05.560 but other high school kids and so and so, I 0:27:05.600 --> 0:27:11.920 was hosting again piano players, instrumental players. I don't think 0:27:11.920 --> 0:27:15.639 we had tap dancers on radio, but that's another incident 0:27:15.760 --> 0:27:19.320 I'll tell you about in my life. But as a DJ. 0:27:20.000 --> 0:27:23.400 But but that show was very popular. So I got 0:27:23.480 --> 0:27:27.960 used to hosting UH Youth on parade and and doing 0:27:28.000 --> 0:27:32.160 commercials what we had. And Frank Bobo could he took 0:27:32.160 --> 0:27:34.440 over for Ruth Maray. He could play anything in any 0:27:34.480 --> 0:27:37.680 key and UH and so we had a good half 0:27:37.720 --> 0:27:40.960 hour show. And I'd come down on Saturday's host that 0:27:41.000 --> 0:27:43.159 and then go back and shoot some baskets and whatever 0:27:43.160 --> 0:27:46.639 else I was doing. That just became part of my life. 0:27:46.640 --> 0:27:48.600 But I became known as that kid out on Lone 0:27:48.640 --> 0:27:52.960 Oak Road that knows all the singing all the songs 0:27:53.000 --> 0:27:56.320 in high school. Well, that takes you up to to 0:27:56.400 --> 0:27:59.480 my high school graduation when I when I became the 0:27:59.600 --> 0:28:05.439 student body and president, and about a year later year 0:28:05.480 --> 0:28:07.880 and a half, became engaged to my high school sweetheart, 0:28:07.960 --> 0:28:11.800 Shirley Foley. But but all during this time when I 0:28:11.880 --> 0:28:15.679 was in chapel services, because it was a Christian high school, 0:28:16.240 --> 0:28:20.520 leading singing in church congregation. Now, because as I say, 0:28:21.200 --> 0:28:24.679 we didn't have instrumental music. We needed song leaders. So 0:28:24.800 --> 0:28:27.000 by the time I was in high school, I was 0:28:27.040 --> 0:28:31.480 going out to country churches and saying no One Druss 0:28:31.560 --> 0:28:37.000 love of Jesus, singing his mercy and his grace. I 0:28:37.040 --> 0:28:39.840 didn't know what this was, but I was beating some 0:28:39.920 --> 0:28:42.320 kind of time. I didn't know if it was correct time, 0:28:42.920 --> 0:28:45.840 but I was leading the congregation of three or four people, 0:28:46.800 --> 0:28:50.720 sometimes with the mic, sometimes without a cappella song leading. 0:28:50.760 --> 0:28:55.240 It was part of our worship services. So again, uh, 0:28:55.480 --> 0:28:59.320 I was getting experience that I had no idea was 0:28:59.360 --> 0:29:00.880 going to come in Andy. I was going to be 0:29:00.880 --> 0:29:04.560 a teacher, preacher. I thought that was sort of what 0:29:04.680 --> 0:29:07.280 I was headed towards, thinking of a way I could 0:29:07.400 --> 0:29:11.120 use my life and what would be useful and helpful 0:29:11.200 --> 0:29:14.719 and maybe pleasing to God and the ones that were 0:29:14.720 --> 0:29:19.080 influencing me. Right then, we're Christian high school teachers, and 0:29:19.080 --> 0:29:21.360 I thought, and they were preachers too on Sundays in 0:29:21.400 --> 0:29:24.760 many churches. So I thought, well, that's the most worthwhile 0:29:24.840 --> 0:29:28.040 thing I could do with my life. I mean, being 0:29:28.080 --> 0:29:31.240 a singer, a pop singer, was the farthest thing. I 0:29:31.280 --> 0:29:33.680 mean I dreamed about it, how fun it would be 0:29:33.880 --> 0:29:38.360 when I was milking Rosemary you know, I was thinking, boy, 0:29:38.400 --> 0:29:40.120 if I was on the Art of God Free show 0:29:40.200 --> 0:29:44.800 like Julius Lorosa was at the time, you know, I 0:29:44.840 --> 0:29:47.480 could I could do that show in the morning, I 0:29:47.480 --> 0:29:50.480 could go to college in the afternoon, and I could 0:29:50.520 --> 0:29:54.320 do things for worthy charities, as I knew some entertainers did, 0:29:54.640 --> 0:29:57.360 and boy, that would be great. I didn't voice it 0:29:57.400 --> 0:30:00.320 in a prayer, but I was thinking it out loud 0:30:00.400 --> 0:30:03.520 kind of during that those days. The day came when 0:30:03.520 --> 0:30:06.560 I replaced Julius the Rosa on the Arthur Godfrey Show, 0:30:07.640 --> 0:30:10.320 and it didn't take much much. It wasn't much time 0:30:10.360 --> 0:30:13.920 after I was last milking the Rosemary the cow, which 0:30:13.960 --> 0:30:17.320 is another story, a dizzying two or three years after 0:30:17.360 --> 0:30:28.120 I married Shirley. Now most people see Nashville as a 0:30:28.280 --> 0:30:34.800 country music town. Was it country music? And was it integrated? Integrated? 0:30:34.880 --> 0:30:38.480 Let's see that was there also popular music? What was 0:30:38.560 --> 0:30:40.960 the feel for the music? Into What degree were you 0:30:41.080 --> 0:30:44.440 listening to the radio and what stations? A very good 0:30:44.560 --> 0:30:48.320 question because it was already known as Music City, USA. 0:30:48.880 --> 0:30:51.600 But that was largely country. The Grand Old Opry was 0:30:51.640 --> 0:30:54.680 there and that went out over all over the country 0:30:54.680 --> 0:30:57.760 on Saturday nights. The Grand Old opry and institution in 0:30:57.840 --> 0:31:01.520 country music and country music for farmers. Were they were it, 0:31:01.720 --> 0:31:04.640 I mean they were. They were ensconced and beautiful homes 0:31:04.680 --> 0:31:07.960 all over town, you know, web peers and uh and 0:31:08.040 --> 0:31:10.560 all the ones you can think of had lovely homes 0:31:11.000 --> 0:31:14.320 in the loveliest neighborhoods. And they were doing you know, 0:31:14.440 --> 0:31:18.600 shows all over town. And they were on local TV 0:31:18.720 --> 0:31:22.080 though not national television, but it was mainly country, but 0:31:22.960 --> 0:31:26.680 a show. A guy named Snooky Lanson was a pop 0:31:26.720 --> 0:31:31.600 singer and orchestras around town in Nashville, and uh, he 0:31:31.680 --> 0:31:34.000 became one of the singers on the Lucky Strike Hit 0:31:34.000 --> 0:31:37.200 Parade on Saturday nights on h I forget which network 0:31:37.280 --> 0:31:44.560 on national television, and he and Michelle mackenzie and a 0:31:44.600 --> 0:31:48.760 couple of others became regular singers on the Lucky Strike 0:31:48.840 --> 0:31:52.760 Hit Parade and had to sing all the current tunes 0:31:53.760 --> 0:31:55.640 that were, you know, in the top ten and they 0:31:55.680 --> 0:31:59.680 would yes or orchestra and dancers and they would produce 0:31:59.720 --> 0:32:03.880 those songs on television and one a hometown boy, Snook 0:32:03.960 --> 0:32:07.200 Snooky Lanson was one of the singers. Well, of course, 0:32:07.240 --> 0:32:14.080 that became a big, a big show in Nashville and gradually, Uh, 0:32:14.120 --> 0:32:17.920 there were artists who were crossing over from country into 0:32:18.040 --> 0:32:22.760 pop to some extent, and songs like Tennessee Waltz Patti Page, 0:32:22.800 --> 0:32:25.880 but it had been a big hit by read somebody 0:32:25.880 --> 0:32:28.200 I've forgotten his name first but as a country hit. 0:32:28.640 --> 0:32:32.800 And then Tony Bennett recorded Your Cheating Heart, and Hank 0:32:32.840 --> 0:32:35.920 Williams and then Hank Williams tunes were being picked up 0:32:36.400 --> 0:32:40.640 off country music and becoming pop hits in one form 0:32:40.720 --> 0:32:45.000 or another. So now some of the pop artists were 0:32:45.000 --> 0:32:49.120 coming to Nashville to record there. And of course we 0:32:49.160 --> 0:32:51.760 had the studios, and we had to muse the technicians, 0:32:51.800 --> 0:32:56.000 and we had everything. And so record companies began to 0:32:56.880 --> 0:33:02.600 have their satellite offices. Decca, r c A, Victor Columbia 0:33:02.960 --> 0:33:07.480 all had their setups in Nashville to record country, yes, 0:33:07.880 --> 0:33:11.240 but also pop artists who began to come along, sometimes 0:33:11.240 --> 0:33:14.520 singing country songs. That's the way it all happened, the integration. 0:33:14.600 --> 0:33:18.040 As you were saying, okay, I got to ask, because 0:33:18.400 --> 0:33:20.480 I always used to ask my mother what was it 0:33:20.560 --> 0:33:25.480 like when television arrived? Now I know because the internet arrived, 0:33:25.760 --> 0:33:28.920 But I have to ask you when did your family 0:33:28.960 --> 0:33:32.760 get a television? Was television a big deal? Give me 0:33:32.800 --> 0:33:37.000 your take on that. It was a tremendous deal. I mean, 0:33:37.720 --> 0:33:41.760 we had a radio and that's what most everybody listen 0:33:41.840 --> 0:33:45.160 to for entertainment and news whatever. Not for news so much, 0:33:45.200 --> 0:33:49.720 but some news. But but the radio was it. And 0:33:49.720 --> 0:33:52.800 and I listened to Fibrum McGhee and Molly, I listened 0:33:52.840 --> 0:33:57.400 to Red Skelton. I remember to all these radio shows 0:33:57.480 --> 0:34:01.440 and and they were even tal that shows Ted Max Amateur. 0:34:01.480 --> 0:34:04.680 Well it was first it was the Major Bows which 0:34:04.760 --> 0:34:08.160 was big on radio. Frank Sinatra was on Major Bos 0:34:08.719 --> 0:34:12.759 television radio show. It was it wasn't on TV, but 0:34:12.800 --> 0:34:15.000 it was on radio with a big stut, big big 0:34:15.080 --> 0:34:19.080 theater audience. Frank Sinatra and the Hoboken Four and you 0:34:19.120 --> 0:34:21.319 know they sang. I've got a tape of their of 0:34:21.400 --> 0:34:26.520 their first introduction on the Major Bos show. And he 0:34:26.600 --> 0:34:30.600 became famous before Ted Mac took over his shows, and 0:34:30.680 --> 0:34:34.239 Major Bos had the Frank Sinatra who was sort of 0:34:34.280 --> 0:34:38.680 their spokesman, and the Hoboken Four. They danced, they danced, 0:34:38.719 --> 0:34:42.960 tap danced and sang on radio. Frank Sinatra and the 0:34:42.960 --> 0:34:46.600 Hoboken forth shine and you know it's about shining shoes 0:34:46.680 --> 0:34:49.319 it was sort of could have been considered a racist song, 0:34:49.440 --> 0:34:51.439 but it was. It was a big, big pop song. 0:34:51.520 --> 0:34:55.319 They sang shine and dadad um Shine and Da Da Da. 0:34:55.480 --> 0:34:58.080 I can't remember all the words. But then rump rump 0:34:58.080 --> 0:35:01.919 bump bump tap dancing, and he won and he went 0:35:01.960 --> 0:35:06.919 over so well that the major bows was doing live 0:35:07.000 --> 0:35:10.520 shows across the country, like in the summertime, and he 0:35:10.520 --> 0:35:14.200 he included Frank Sinatra in the Hoboken Forth. So all 0:35:14.239 --> 0:35:17.040 these things were big on radio, and I could I 0:35:17.080 --> 0:35:20.439 could see Fibruy McGee's closet open and everything fall out 0:35:20.440 --> 0:35:23.160 of it, and Jack Benny when he went to the 0:35:23.200 --> 0:35:27.560 safe to get some money, you know, and the footsteps 0:35:27.640 --> 0:35:31.759 and it was all and gun smoke on radio. You 0:35:31.760 --> 0:35:35.399 you know, it was all incredible on radio. But now 0:35:36.000 --> 0:35:38.400 people that we knew got TV sets, and they were 0:35:38.400 --> 0:35:43.160 a little circular screens, little oval or circular screens, and 0:35:43.280 --> 0:35:45.360 if you were lucky, you could go to somebody else's 0:35:45.400 --> 0:35:49.040 house and see TV. And that's when I first saw 0:35:49.160 --> 0:35:52.000 Ed Sullivan show. Literally every dream I would be on 0:35:52.080 --> 0:35:56.200 his show twelve times in the coming years. But but 0:35:56.280 --> 0:35:59.239 then I was watching from a sofa and my girlfriend's 0:35:59.280 --> 0:36:01.480 house she was not really a girlfriend, but she was 0:36:01.520 --> 0:36:05.719 a friend who was a girl. And uh, we did 0:36:05.760 --> 0:36:09.000 play spend the bottle a couple of times, some of 0:36:09.040 --> 0:36:11.200 our friends at her house. But then we would stop 0:36:11.280 --> 0:36:15.480 that and watch the little circular TV. So it was 0:36:15.600 --> 0:36:18.560 it took a little time to do well. We didn't 0:36:18.600 --> 0:36:23.959 have a TV set. I don't remember having a TV 0:36:24.120 --> 0:36:29.480 set to regret, till I graduated from high school. I 0:36:29.520 --> 0:36:32.279 just don't remember having a set in our home. We 0:36:32.280 --> 0:36:36.160 we watched I watched it other people's houses because it 0:36:36.239 --> 0:36:39.080 was a big deal. Just a big deal. So how 0:36:39.120 --> 0:36:44.719 did you end up on the Arthur Godfrey Show. It's 0:36:44.800 --> 0:36:49.680 a it's a it's a circuitous route. But but I 0:36:49.680 --> 0:36:53.920 I have won a contest in Nashville, just a local 0:36:54.000 --> 0:36:57.560 high school contest. And I had entered a number of 0:36:57.560 --> 0:37:01.120 those and I didn't necessarily I didn't win. I didn't 0:37:01.120 --> 0:37:04.120 win one of them. I'd come in second usually because 0:37:04.160 --> 0:37:08.000 and I understood, because the judges were usually adults. The 0:37:08.080 --> 0:37:11.160 kids could applaud and cheer if they wanted, but they 0:37:11.200 --> 0:37:15.399 were polite and that the judges would would decide who 0:37:15.400 --> 0:37:19.640 were the winners of the talent contest. And obviously a pianist, 0:37:20.080 --> 0:37:22.960 or a tap dancer, or a trumpet player, an accordionist, 0:37:23.040 --> 0:37:26.160 or somebody who obviously had to take lessons to learn something, 0:37:27.120 --> 0:37:30.200 and they did well deserve to win more than a 0:37:30.239 --> 0:37:32.239 guy who could just walk out and sing a pop song. 0:37:32.320 --> 0:37:35.759 I mean, anybody could do that, but the Ted Mac. 0:37:36.160 --> 0:37:40.120 There was a contest at at East Nashville High and 0:37:40.160 --> 0:37:43.960 I went over just to do it for fun of it. Again, 0:37:44.000 --> 0:37:45.839 I did all of my singing just for the fun 0:37:45.880 --> 0:37:49.440 of it. So and I enjoyed the applause of the audience, 0:37:49.480 --> 0:37:52.399 but I didn't expect it to lead to anything. So 0:37:52.440 --> 0:37:54.600 I went over expecting, maybe if I was lucky, to 0:37:54.680 --> 0:37:57.799 come in second. But the first prize was a trip 0:37:57.840 --> 0:38:01.040 to New York and an audition with the Ted Mac 0:38:01.120 --> 0:38:04.239 Amateur Hour. Well I knew this was special. I did. 0:38:04.320 --> 0:38:07.840 I couldn't make up my mind whether the singer a 0:38:07.920 --> 0:38:11.280 ballad because I could do those well, or an up tune. 0:38:11.760 --> 0:38:14.759 And you know, something got people clapping. So I put 0:38:14.760 --> 0:38:18.359 together a weird little medley of Oh you ain't God, 0:38:18.400 --> 0:38:22.320 Oh we ain't got a better love money? Maybe ragged 0:38:22.360 --> 0:38:26.720 and funny, but we're traveling along singing a song side 0:38:27.000 --> 0:38:29.520 by side that was the up tune, but I would 0:38:29.600 --> 0:38:32.600 I did a chorus of that, then segued into I 0:38:32.840 --> 0:38:37.760 Believe for every drop of rain that falls a flower groves. 0:38:38.160 --> 0:38:42.200 It was a big pop song, religious from Side by Side, 0:38:42.320 --> 0:38:47.759 jumpy too, I Believe, a weird medley, but I enjoyed it. 0:38:47.840 --> 0:38:51.680 The audience really liked it, and there was The judges 0:38:51.960 --> 0:38:55.680 included a disc jockey named Hugh Cherry, who must have 0:38:55.719 --> 0:38:58.120 been influential in this because he had taken a liking 0:38:58.160 --> 0:39:02.120 to me singing on radio just in youth, on parade, 0:39:02.160 --> 0:39:04.959 those shows around town, and he thought I had could 0:39:04.960 --> 0:39:07.440 have a future as a singer, but he couldn't make 0:39:07.480 --> 0:39:10.080 it happen. However, he was one of the judges. Now 0:39:10.600 --> 0:39:13.560 I sang my song, I thought a young girl named 0:39:13.920 --> 0:39:18.120 Shirley mcgoy was gonna win that night because she sang operatically, 0:39:18.600 --> 0:39:21.839 she trained, She sang, you know, one of those great 0:39:21.880 --> 0:39:25.360 opera songs, and I thought she's gonna win. And I 0:39:25.400 --> 0:39:27.120 don't care if I come in second or third, it 0:39:27.120 --> 0:39:30.440 doesn't matter, I told Mom and Daddy. They parked the 0:39:30.480 --> 0:39:33.200 car in the in the parking lot outside the high school. 0:39:33.760 --> 0:39:37.400 Look after I've sung, I'll go out to the car 0:39:37.760 --> 0:39:39.840 so we can get away and not get caught up 0:39:39.880 --> 0:39:42.799 in all the traffic. So that's what I did. I 0:39:42.840 --> 0:39:46.799 sang my Medley and then Surety mcgoy standing in the wing, 0:39:46.880 --> 0:39:49.600 she had already sung I can't. I went out to 0:39:49.640 --> 0:39:52.200 the car and I hear somebody yelling from the back 0:39:52.239 --> 0:39:54.759 door of the gym, Pat boone, where are you? Where 0:39:54.760 --> 0:39:57.360 are you? I'm over here. I was by the cars. 0:39:57.440 --> 0:39:59.960 I was ready to go home. Get in here, you've 0:40:00.040 --> 0:40:04.719 one you want what? I came running into into the 0:40:04.760 --> 0:40:09.319 backstage and here Shirley mcgoy crying on the side. You know, 0:40:09.400 --> 0:40:11.320 she thought she was gonna win, and I did too, 0:40:11.960 --> 0:40:14.480 and the crowd has gotten tired of wait wonder where 0:40:14.520 --> 0:40:17.239 in the world Pat boone as he's our winner. And 0:40:17.280 --> 0:40:18.919 so I went to the mic and I said, thank 0:40:18.960 --> 0:40:21.200 you so much. I you know, I really appreciate this. 0:40:21.280 --> 0:40:24.920 But I said, you know, this first prize is a 0:40:24.920 --> 0:40:27.879 trip to New York and audition with with Ted Mack. 0:40:28.000 --> 0:40:30.080 And I think Shirley mcgoy should do it, because I 0:40:30.080 --> 0:40:32.719 think she's got a better chance of getting on the 0:40:32.719 --> 0:40:35.080 Ted Max Show than than I would. So and they 0:40:35.080 --> 0:40:38.439 would saying no, no, no, you're our winner, you've got 0:40:38.440 --> 0:40:42.040 to go. So I had to go. I mean, I 0:40:42.080 --> 0:40:45.440 felt terrible about it for her sake, But but I 0:40:45.520 --> 0:40:48.960 was in flown to New York and a d C three. Okay, 0:40:48.960 --> 0:40:52.280 had you been anywhere before? Did anybody you know about 0:40:52.280 --> 0:40:54.960 a plane or anything? No, I've never been on a plane. 0:40:55.000 --> 0:40:58.680 I was driven to Florida and the summers, my dad 0:40:58.680 --> 0:41:01.440 would drive our two to our car. After we finally 0:41:01.440 --> 0:41:03.840 got a two door Chevy, which I thought was the 0:41:03.840 --> 0:41:07.040 most magnificent card. It had two doors, it had a heater, 0:41:07.480 --> 0:41:09.360 didn't have a radio, but it had a heater and 0:41:09.400 --> 0:41:11.759 two doors and a back seat so my brother and 0:41:11.840 --> 0:41:13.560 I could sit and then one of the girls could sit. Now, 0:41:13.600 --> 0:41:16.520 I mean, we would drive the six miles whatever it 0:41:16.560 --> 0:41:21.200 is from Nashville to Jacksonville every summer. And but no, 0:41:21.280 --> 0:41:23.759 I've never been on a plane. So I went on 0:41:23.800 --> 0:41:25.840 this d C three and flew to New York to 0:41:25.880 --> 0:41:28.840 put me in a seedy little hotel off Times Square, 0:41:29.719 --> 0:41:32.120 and uh and I went on the show. They had 0:41:32.120 --> 0:41:35.359 a I didn't have music. I didn't have my own 0:41:35.560 --> 0:41:39.680 sheet music or anything, but they had a little a pianist. Really, 0:41:39.680 --> 0:41:42.439 I think it was just piano to play for me, 0:41:42.760 --> 0:41:47.400 but he knew I believe. So I sang I believe 0:41:47.600 --> 0:41:50.919 for every drop of rain that falls, and I could 0:41:50.960 --> 0:41:54.520 really sing it with heart and enthusiasm, and I won. 0:41:55.280 --> 0:41:57.759 I won. The Ted mcameitur Just to be clear, this 0:41:57.840 --> 0:42:01.279 is now television, not radio. It's television and radio, I think. 0:42:01.360 --> 0:42:05.920 But it was television for sure, and I won, and 0:42:05.960 --> 0:42:09.120 I was stunned, you know, And so they flew me 0:42:09.160 --> 0:42:12.520 back home. Of course, the newspapers took pictures and local 0:42:12.560 --> 0:42:16.920 boy wins, but I it was summertime, and again I 0:42:17.040 --> 0:42:20.399 was not when minded. I didn't think I was gonna win. 0:42:20.880 --> 0:42:23.120 I mean, there was some other talented people on that 0:42:23.200 --> 0:42:26.680 amateur hour show and the guy singing a pop song. 0:42:26.760 --> 0:42:30.640 I mean, anybody can do that. So I was leading 0:42:30.719 --> 0:42:34.320 singing in a gospel meeting that summer. Uh. And that 0:42:34.480 --> 0:42:38.400 was out in the country Beardstown, Tennessee. They there was 0:42:38.440 --> 0:42:42.279 some of the farmhouses didn't even have phones, and so 0:42:43.360 --> 0:42:48.640 I was out in this farmer's house on Thursday because 0:42:48.640 --> 0:42:51.360 the vote, it was the votes were cards and letters 0:42:51.360 --> 0:42:55.480 that would stream in to the TV network. And by 0:42:55.560 --> 0:42:58.080 Thursday they they're counting all the cards and letters and 0:42:58.120 --> 0:43:01.439 they determined who was the winner. Now they were trying 0:43:01.480 --> 0:43:03.440 to reach me, but I was out in the country 0:43:03.440 --> 0:43:06.759 and had no phones because I made no provision to 0:43:06.800 --> 0:43:10.680 be reached. And the truck drove up in the in 0:43:10.760 --> 0:43:16.040 the yard of this farmat's and I could hear boots 0:43:16.040 --> 0:43:18.719 stomping on the porch and knocking on the screen door. 0:43:18.760 --> 0:43:21.319 And I'm in. They're having lunch with the preacher and 0:43:21.400 --> 0:43:24.320 the family that had ad us over for lunch. There's 0:43:24.360 --> 0:43:26.520 a guy named Boone in there. Yeah, he's eating us 0:43:26.520 --> 0:43:30.759 out of house and home here. Why uh, there's a 0:43:30.800 --> 0:43:33.920 switchboard in the in Beardstown. We got to get him over. 0:43:34.040 --> 0:43:37.319 Somebody from New York is trying to reach him. This 0:43:37.400 --> 0:43:40.120 was the first time it The thought entered my mind. 0:43:41.000 --> 0:43:43.120 Wait a minute, they might call me want me to 0:43:43.160 --> 0:43:46.680 come back, which was true. Oscar Schoon marker from the 0:43:47.960 --> 0:43:50.040 from the Ted Max Shows. Where are you? When I 0:43:50.080 --> 0:43:53.279 got to the switchboard in this lady's house, Where are 0:43:53.320 --> 0:43:56.440 you where? I said, I'm in Beardstown. When we got 0:43:56.520 --> 0:43:58.400 to get you to New York Sun, You're our winner. 0:43:58.440 --> 0:44:01.000 We gotta be have you here Saturday night. Right, got 0:44:01.000 --> 0:44:04.000 to get you on a plane tomorrow Friday. So I 0:44:04.040 --> 0:44:06.920 had to call my friend who came up to Beardstown 0:44:07.000 --> 0:44:09.399 and drove me back to Nashville. There was a photographer 0:44:09.840 --> 0:44:12.560 from the Nashville, Tennessee and taken a picture of me 0:44:12.680 --> 0:44:15.880 packing going back to New York. Homeboy again, going to 0:44:16.000 --> 0:44:19.799 be on the Ted mcamateur ar again. And so I 0:44:19.840 --> 0:44:23.800 flew back. I sang a Perry Como song, No arms 0:44:23.840 --> 0:44:27.320 will ever hold you like these arms of mine Perry 0:44:27.360 --> 0:44:31.759 Como song, and uh, and I you know I was. 0:44:31.840 --> 0:44:34.759 I was nervous, but I had had experienced singing on 0:44:34.880 --> 0:44:38.960 radio and on local TV and the talent shows. I mean, gosh, 0:44:39.000 --> 0:44:42.319 I wasn't a total newcomer. When the red light came on, 0:44:42.400 --> 0:44:45.920 I knew what to do. So I sang and and 0:44:45.920 --> 0:44:50.080 and Ted Max Show with just piano accompaniment. But uh, 0:44:50.239 --> 0:44:52.520 I went home this time. I made sure I was reaching, 0:44:53.719 --> 0:44:55.759 and I was. I went back the third time and 0:44:55.840 --> 0:44:59.600 won three times in a row. Sang an Eddie Fisher song, 0:44:59.640 --> 0:45:03.439 I'm behind you on your wedding day, on our wedding day, 0:45:03.800 --> 0:45:06.680 only he's not walking down the aisle, he's in the 0:45:06.800 --> 0:45:12.800 in the audience. And and so I won three times 0:45:12.880 --> 0:45:17.120 and thinking that's got to lead to something, But it didn't. 0:45:18.239 --> 0:45:21.320 I didn't it didn't lead to anything. I I flew 0:45:21.360 --> 0:45:24.719 home from New York and uh, and it was in 0:45:24.760 --> 0:45:28.560 the papers locally. And the one thing it did lead 0:45:28.600 --> 0:45:32.360 to was an invitation from a guy named Bill Beasley 0:45:32.360 --> 0:45:36.480 who had a little recording company, and he had me 0:45:36.520 --> 0:45:38.680 come in and make a record on the rainy night 0:45:38.719 --> 0:45:42.239 in the Owen Bradley studio. Two songs. One of them 0:45:42.239 --> 0:45:46.160 I had written myself, a country song, the other would 0:45:46.160 --> 0:45:48.360 be pop song. And neither one of them became hits, 0:45:48.360 --> 0:45:51.279 but they got paid, played locally. But it didn't lead 0:45:51.320 --> 0:45:55.480 to anything except in in the near future, which I 0:45:55.520 --> 0:45:58.000 didn't know yet, there was a guy named Randy Wood 0:45:58.040 --> 0:46:02.600 at Dot Records, who had a big dependent label based 0:46:02.640 --> 0:46:06.359 in Gallatin, Tennessee, outside Nashville, and he was taking all 0:46:06.440 --> 0:46:09.920 this in. Well. A few months went by, surely, and 0:46:10.000 --> 0:46:14.040 I married, moved to Texas, and we're expecting our first 0:46:14.160 --> 0:46:17.759 baby already when I got a call from Okay, just 0:46:17.840 --> 0:46:20.040 to be clear, you moved to Texas to go to college. 0:46:20.320 --> 0:46:24.160 To go to college, Yeah, by Texas, well, Denton, Texas, 0:46:24.320 --> 0:46:27.720 North Texas State had a big music school, and because 0:46:27.760 --> 0:46:30.799 I was doing a lot of musical things, I thought 0:46:30.840 --> 0:46:32.960 I would learn to play an instrument. You know, I 0:46:32.960 --> 0:46:35.400 could play a few chords in the ukulele. Maybe I 0:46:35.400 --> 0:46:38.400 should maybe take piano or take some music courses. And 0:46:38.480 --> 0:46:40.480 even if I'm just going to be a preacher teacher 0:46:41.560 --> 0:46:44.480 like I thought I was, I gotta do something. I'm 0:46:44.480 --> 0:46:47.120 married now and I've got to know I'm I'm gonna 0:46:47.239 --> 0:46:50.120 be able to make a living being a singer, ain't it. 0:46:50.560 --> 0:46:55.799 And so by my experience up go then so uh 0:46:56.440 --> 0:46:59.400 new music school. We had dear friends we could stay 0:46:59.440 --> 0:47:01.959 with in the big inning that would sort of help 0:47:02.040 --> 0:47:06.840 us get settled into Denton, Texas great music school. And uh, 0:47:07.040 --> 0:47:09.719 and when I get the call from New York, Hey, 0:47:09.760 --> 0:47:13.040 you're we're having a shootout, not a shootout, but a 0:47:13.080 --> 0:47:17.520 showdown with all the three time winners, which they would 0:47:17.560 --> 0:47:20.760 have periodically whenever they would have enough three time winners, 0:47:20.880 --> 0:47:25.200 which was very rare. Not many people would win twice 0:47:25.320 --> 0:47:28.800 or three times. I mean, there were such odd kinds 0:47:28.840 --> 0:47:33.600 of talent. There was I think Connie Francis No and 0:47:33.800 --> 0:47:36.600 Margaret was on the show as a young girl from 0:47:36.600 --> 0:47:40.000 Illinois and she got beat out. She sang beautifully. I've 0:47:40.040 --> 0:47:43.759 got the videotape of her performance, but she got beat 0:47:43.840 --> 0:47:45.960 that night by a guy who could play a classical 0:47:46.000 --> 0:47:53.839 melody in a leaf in the hands, and people were 0:47:54.000 --> 0:47:56.160 you know, the audience was so intrigued with this guy 0:47:56.719 --> 0:48:00.200 they could play opportunes on a leaf that they they 0:48:00.200 --> 0:48:03.600 didn't vote for Ann Margaret. I mean, you never knew 0:48:03.600 --> 0:48:07.279 who was gonna win. But anyway, they called me and said, 0:48:07.280 --> 0:48:08.839 you got to come back. You're one of about three 0:48:08.880 --> 0:48:11.440 time winners. So I had to leave Shirley and the 0:48:11.480 --> 0:48:17.759 baby were expecting and go to New York and and 0:48:17.760 --> 0:48:20.600 and be away from school for a few days. And 0:48:20.680 --> 0:48:24.520 I was on that show with the three time winners, 0:48:25.239 --> 0:48:28.359 and uh, I don't remember what I sang that night. 0:48:28.440 --> 0:48:31.680 I wish I did, but it was it went well, 0:48:31.800 --> 0:48:33.640 I would say it did. It did go very well, 0:48:34.200 --> 0:48:36.399 and and that they told me later, the people from 0:48:36.400 --> 0:48:40.480 the show, that I was winning. However, something else happened 0:48:41.080 --> 0:48:45.920 that I wasn't expecting. Arthur Godfrey, that's how you the question. 0:48:46.680 --> 0:48:50.680 He had this big daytime show on every morning on 0:48:50.680 --> 0:48:53.640 on CBS, and it was he was it on on 0:48:53.719 --> 0:48:56.520 TV because he also had a Monday night talent show. 0:48:57.080 --> 0:49:01.879 Monday nights, Arthur Godfrey's talents got shows. And then uh, 0:49:01.960 --> 0:49:05.280 sometimes you'd be doing specials, big specials with his people 0:49:05.320 --> 0:49:09.320 from his morning show. Uh, doing things on a specials 0:49:09.360 --> 0:49:12.879 on Wednesday nights. I mean he was Mr TV. So 0:49:13.360 --> 0:49:16.759 I'm there. After I sang my song that with the 0:49:16.840 --> 0:49:20.279 three time winners, I couldn't. I didn't have money to 0:49:20.400 --> 0:49:22.920 fly back home till Thursday to find out if I 0:49:22.960 --> 0:49:25.480 was going to be the winner. So I went over 0:49:25.480 --> 0:49:28.440 to CBS on my own and just went into the 0:49:28.560 --> 0:49:31.480 to the studios on on whatever the street was. I 0:49:31.560 --> 0:49:35.080 learned what which avenue it was CBS, and I just 0:49:35.200 --> 0:49:37.600 asked if I could meet with the producer of the 0:49:37.640 --> 0:49:40.960 Godfrey Show. I would like to audition, thinking maybe I 0:49:40.960 --> 0:49:43.200 could get on the god Free Show since I'd won 0:49:43.239 --> 0:49:47.360 the Ted Max Show before and he was gone, he 0:49:47.360 --> 0:49:50.680 had already done his daytime show. But his producer, a lady, 0:49:50.800 --> 0:49:52.600 was there, and she said come on in the studio. 0:49:53.480 --> 0:49:55.480 And it was just a studio with an engineer and 0:49:55.520 --> 0:49:58.720 no miss new music. So she said, well singing something, 0:49:59.320 --> 0:50:02.479 So I sang I believe for every drop of rain 0:50:02.600 --> 0:50:05.640 that falls of fly. I could have sung blue Moon, 0:50:06.080 --> 0:50:08.960 but no, I sang I Believe, which comes to a 0:50:08.960 --> 0:50:11.919 big finish. She said, very nice can you come back 0:50:11.960 --> 0:50:16.040 in three weeks. I said, no, ma'am, I'm expecting our 0:50:16.080 --> 0:50:19.759 first child. I didn't mention anything about the Ted Max show. 0:50:20.440 --> 0:50:23.120 I should have maybe, but I said no, I'm expecting 0:50:23.120 --> 0:50:25.359 our first child. So I've I've got to go home. 0:50:25.440 --> 0:50:29.000 She said, oh, well, then that we'll put you on tonight. 0:50:30.680 --> 0:50:33.520 So she put me on that night, and I had 0:50:33.520 --> 0:50:36.160 to have a talent scout to represent me introduce me. 0:50:36.200 --> 0:50:38.680 And I called our high school principal who had a 0:50:38.719 --> 0:50:41.319 sister in a who lived on Long Island, and she 0:50:41.480 --> 0:50:43.359 was on the show and introduced me like we were 0:50:43.400 --> 0:50:47.600 old friends, and and said I sang around Nashville and 0:50:47.600 --> 0:50:51.799 and then I sang I believe for every drop of 0:50:51.960 --> 0:50:55.480 rain that falls. I mean, it was my favorite song, 0:50:55.560 --> 0:50:58.440 which is I think not an accident. It was a 0:50:58.480 --> 0:51:01.800 song of faith and I could sing it very well 0:51:01.840 --> 0:51:04.880 into a big finish and I won that night the 0:51:05.040 --> 0:51:07.319 Arthur Godfrey Show. There were three time, there were three 0:51:07.320 --> 0:51:12.359 other two other part contestants, but I won, and so 0:51:12.440 --> 0:51:14.799 I all I got for it was appearing on his 0:51:14.880 --> 0:51:18.719 morning show the next four mornings Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. 0:51:18.880 --> 0:51:21.600 And then see you later, Pat, if you're ever back 0:51:21.640 --> 0:51:24.839 in New York. Give us a call, and I flew 0:51:24.880 --> 0:51:28.720 back to Denton, but stopped in Nashville. Nothing happened, nobody, 0:51:28.760 --> 0:51:33.399 no cause, no invitations to do anything. And and I 0:51:33.520 --> 0:51:35.959 and I, but I was canceled off the Ted Max 0:51:35.960 --> 0:51:40.960 show because you can't win a professional show on Monday 0:51:41.120 --> 0:51:45.759 and an amateur show Friday the following Saturday. So they 0:51:45.840 --> 0:51:48.360 just scratched me off the show as if I had 0:51:48.400 --> 0:51:51.440 never been on. And uh, and I blew it. I 0:51:51.480 --> 0:51:54.120 blew that was a college scholarship which I would have won. 0:51:55.200 --> 0:51:58.680 It would have helped me get through my schooling with 0:51:58.800 --> 0:52:01.839 a baby on the way. But I blew it by 0:52:01.920 --> 0:52:06.120 being over eager. I went on audition for Arthur Godfril 0:52:06.160 --> 0:52:09.239 who knew I would get on that night? But I 0:52:09.280 --> 0:52:13.960 did and one but that blew the Ted mcamateur our 0:52:14.040 --> 0:52:18.040 winning in the scholarship. So I'm feeling really downcast and Nashville, 0:52:18.040 --> 0:52:22.000 seeing my folks on the way back to Dentn' and 0:52:23.160 --> 0:52:25.840 a phone rings guy named Randy Wood, who owns the 0:52:25.880 --> 0:52:31.440 record company in Gallatin outside Nashville, said, have been listening. 0:52:31.440 --> 0:52:33.480 You're a homeboy. You can sing, said, would you like 0:52:33.520 --> 0:52:36.600 to make a record? I said, well, yes, sir, I would. 0:52:37.480 --> 0:52:39.760 I made a couple, but you know, not much happened 0:52:39.760 --> 0:52:42.400 with it. He said, well, wait, did he know you 0:52:42.520 --> 0:52:45.279 from Nashville or he senior on Arthur Godfrey. Oh no, 0:52:45.400 --> 0:52:48.360 from Nashville. He he knew he was in the record business. 0:52:48.760 --> 0:52:50.960 He I'm sure he had heard my records on on 0:52:51.080 --> 0:52:55.520 Republic Records, but they had not been hits. All he 0:52:55.560 --> 0:52:59.120 knew was I could sing, but there's lots of singers around. 0:52:59.760 --> 0:53:01.360 But when he heard me on the Arthur god For 0:53:01.480 --> 0:53:03.680 Show and the Ted Mcamateur Hour and saw that I 0:53:03.719 --> 0:53:07.040 was winning, he said, look, you're going back and have 0:53:07.160 --> 0:53:09.440 your baby, and I'll look for a song I think 0:53:09.520 --> 0:53:12.600 and be a hit and i'll call you. Yes, sir, Okay. 0:53:12.640 --> 0:53:15.280 I went back. We had our baby, Cherry, our first child, 0:53:16.360 --> 0:53:18.640 and it was eight months before he called. I mean 0:53:18.880 --> 0:53:22.200 eight months. I thought he'd forgotten all about me. And 0:53:22.239 --> 0:53:25.960 I was leading singing and acapella and leading singing in 0:53:26.000 --> 0:53:30.360 a little country church out and and also preaching in 0:53:30.400 --> 0:53:32.120 the little country church because I was going to be 0:53:32.160 --> 0:53:36.239 a preacher in Sliddale, Texas. But when the phone call 0:53:36.400 --> 0:53:39.680 came from Randy Wood, it would saying I've got a 0:53:39.719 --> 0:53:42.960 song I think you could make a hit with, and 0:53:43.239 --> 0:53:45.400 I'll send you the ticket you come to Chicago. And 0:53:45.480 --> 0:53:49.319 we recorded a song called two Hearts, two Kisses Make 0:53:49.400 --> 0:53:52.840 One Love. And I said, well, that sounds like a 0:53:52.840 --> 0:53:56.480 Perry Como song, maybe the two Hearts two Kisses or 0:53:56.480 --> 0:53:59.680 something like that. No, No, one hearts not enough, baby be. 0:54:00.080 --> 0:54:03.480 He plays the original Charms record on the phone rhythm 0:54:03.560 --> 0:54:08.640 and blues. It was called race music, and and I 0:54:08.680 --> 0:54:11.880 hadn't sung anything like that, but listen, He's given me 0:54:11.960 --> 0:54:14.840 a chance to make a record. So he flew me 0:54:14.880 --> 0:54:19.280 to Chicago. I stayed in the hotel room all afternoon 0:54:19.320 --> 0:54:22.920 and evening till that night when we recorded two Hearts, 0:54:22.920 --> 0:54:28.280 two Kisses, and it instantly overnight became a million seller. 0:54:29.040 --> 0:54:33.560 I say overnight that we learned the next day after 0:54:33.640 --> 0:54:37.319 I recorded that song, covering R and B songs were 0:54:37.400 --> 0:54:41.440 starting to happen. Other artists. Frank Sinatra recorded that same song. 0:54:42.239 --> 0:54:45.720 DRIs Day recorded two Hearts, two Kisses. The the Castro 0:54:45.880 --> 0:54:50.480 Sisters and the Lancers groups all recorded that same song. 0:54:51.160 --> 0:54:54.920 So Randy would put me on planes for eighteen days. 0:54:54.960 --> 0:54:58.680 I went to twenty cities in eighteen days at his expense, 0:54:58.680 --> 0:55:02.000 went to radio stations, TV stations. It was starting to 0:55:02.080 --> 0:55:07.120 do dance party shows, um to see the buyers, the 0:55:07.239 --> 0:55:13.720 jukebox operators. I mean, it was an incredibly taxing eighteen days. 0:55:14.280 --> 0:55:16.240 And I thought, boy, if this is the record business, 0:55:16.280 --> 0:55:18.640 this is not for me. Calling home to see how 0:55:18.680 --> 0:55:23.200 Shirley and our little baby were doing. And and uh, 0:55:23.640 --> 0:55:26.080 I thought, this, if this is the record business, I mean, 0:55:26.680 --> 0:55:29.400 this is not for me. But the record became a 0:55:29.440 --> 0:55:31.919 million seller, and you know, it was a top ten 0:55:32.000 --> 0:55:34.920 million seller. I went back to Denton. Now all of 0:55:34.960 --> 0:55:37.880 a sudden, I'm a big cheese around campus, you know, 0:55:37.960 --> 0:55:41.160 at North Texas State. I'm starting to go back to 0:55:41.239 --> 0:55:44.319 my my TV shows I was doing on the w 0:55:44.400 --> 0:55:48.239 B A P. But but now I was getting calls 0:55:48.320 --> 0:55:52.680 to come perform. And Randy called me in March, not yeah, 0:55:52.800 --> 0:55:57.359 March of that March was too harsh to kisses. Then 0:55:58.680 --> 0:56:01.600 May of that same or he caused me to come 0:56:01.600 --> 0:56:04.600 back to Chicago and record. Ain't that a shame? Past 0:56:04.680 --> 0:56:07.440 Dominoes big number one R and B hit which became 0:56:07.480 --> 0:56:10.919 a million seller, number one hit for me. And then 0:56:11.040 --> 0:56:14.120 and then October of that same year, a million selling 0:56:14.200 --> 0:56:18.160 hit with a song called Crazy Obama coma knocking knocking 0:56:18.239 --> 0:56:21.360 at my front door, door door, and all of a sudden, 0:56:21.719 --> 0:56:25.279 everything I was doing it was a million seller. I 0:56:25.320 --> 0:56:28.600 had to move to New York eventually to New Jersey. 0:56:28.920 --> 0:56:33.920 We were expecting our second child already, and I mean emminently, 0:56:35.200 --> 0:56:37.520 because it had been just a little over a year. 0:56:38.360 --> 0:56:40.839 And uh. And so we moved first to New York 0:56:40.880 --> 0:56:45.120 and then to New Jersey, where the next two kids, 0:56:46.320 --> 0:56:48.560 well one was born in New York and the other 0:56:48.600 --> 0:56:51.440 two in New Jersey before we moved to California. But 0:56:51.480 --> 0:56:55.600 the career, which I had not anticipated at all, just 0:56:55.760 --> 0:56:58.560 took off. And for a record, I hold in the 0:56:58.640 --> 0:57:04.160 record business, Bob, Is that for from fifty not from 0:57:04.200 --> 0:57:09.520 fifty seven, I'm sorry, through fifty nine. I was never 0:57:09.640 --> 0:57:13.560 off the singles chart in Billboard for two d and 0:57:13.600 --> 0:57:17.360 twenty weeks consecutively. It's a record I hold. Elton John 0:57:17.400 --> 0:57:20.640 came the closest with a hundred fifty seven weeks, but 0:57:20.720 --> 0:57:24.240 I lived on the charts for over four years after that, 0:57:24.480 --> 0:57:28.680 went back to school, graduating from Columba University with four kids. 0:57:29.320 --> 0:57:32.840 But it all took off like crazy. All of this 0:57:32.960 --> 0:57:44.640 and response to your question about Arthur Godfrey. So you know, 0:57:44.760 --> 0:57:47.080 this is the fifties and the music business. Are you 0:57:47.280 --> 0:57:52.680 making any money? Yes, because hey, I wasn't making any 0:57:52.720 --> 0:57:56.200 money from records yet, because I was on the lowest 0:57:57.360 --> 0:58:02.320 royalty level for several years. Randy was only given me 0:58:02.360 --> 0:58:06.439 three percent per records. But instantly I was being asked 0:58:06.440 --> 0:58:10.200 to be on everybody else's TV shows. And then I 0:58:10.240 --> 0:58:14.520 was making my own performances, asked to come perform in 0:58:14.600 --> 0:58:20.160 supper clubs and and and shows that people were putting on. 0:58:20.280 --> 0:58:24.720 I was getting paid to perform. Yes, And uh, and 0:58:24.800 --> 0:58:29.439 so I will let's see that was this was that 0:58:29.440 --> 0:58:34.840 that was fifty nine into the sixties. Yes, I was 0:58:34.920 --> 0:58:39.400 being paid to come do shows sometimes with other performers. 0:58:40.000 --> 0:58:43.240 But but I was making money, and uh, you know, 0:58:43.280 --> 0:58:45.320 I I'd have to think back as to how I 0:58:45.400 --> 0:58:51.040 was until I started on TV on seven forgetting TV 0:58:51.200 --> 0:58:54.560 for a second. Why do you think the hits dried up? Well, 0:58:54.600 --> 0:58:57.400 they didn't. Well, I mean you had this string, yeah, 0:58:57.480 --> 0:59:01.000 and then you were an artist. Then the Beatles came long. Yeah, 0:59:01.040 --> 0:59:04.000 you're jumping ahead a few years because I lived on 0:59:04.040 --> 0:59:08.160 the charts for four years, for two hundred twenty weeks. Uh, 0:59:08.200 --> 0:59:12.040 And and I was I matched Elvis during that period, 0:59:12.280 --> 0:59:16.760 uh in in fifties, seven, eight and nine, uh a 0:59:16.800 --> 0:59:20.120 record for record. I had forty one chart records in 0:59:20.200 --> 0:59:25.000 the in the fifties and UH sixteen chart records in 0:59:25.040 --> 0:59:28.720 the sixties. Right up to the Beatles. I mean I was. 0:59:29.040 --> 0:59:32.840 I just lived on the charts. Everything I recorded hit 0:59:32.920 --> 0:59:35.200 the charts, and and I mean I did things like 0:59:35.280 --> 0:59:38.880 record the first million selling Him album in the fifties, 0:59:38.920 --> 0:59:40.640 right in the middle of rock and roll. It's sold 0:59:40.640 --> 0:59:43.560 a million copies, over a million church songs that I've 0:59:43.600 --> 0:59:46.840 been singing all my life, because I knew the kids 0:59:47.080 --> 0:59:50.280 would buy anything at that point that I recorded, And 0:59:50.320 --> 0:59:53.080 so I recorded a Him album, and sure enough it's 0:59:53.120 --> 0:59:56.360 so well over a million copies, which you know, sort 0:59:56.400 --> 0:59:59.760 of fulfilled part of my early ambition to be a 1:00:00.000 --> 1:00:03.960 eat your preacher. I mean that really all along the 1:00:04.000 --> 1:00:08.320 way my early ambitions were answered and in manifold ways. 1:00:09.080 --> 1:00:12.760 But but I was now appearing in uh in school functions. 1:00:12.800 --> 1:00:15.440 I would be asked to appear at the youth rallies 1:00:15.480 --> 1:00:18.640 and things like this and and telethons, and you know, 1:00:18.760 --> 1:00:22.800 wherever I went and whatever I did, I was always 1:00:22.840 --> 1:00:27.480 trying to to set what I hoped was a good example. Well, 1:00:27.520 --> 1:00:30.400 in fact, while I was in college, when I was 1:00:30.600 --> 1:00:33.320 making my first movie in fifty seven, and I was 1:00:33.600 --> 1:00:36.520 still making record after record, hit after hit, because I 1:00:36.560 --> 1:00:39.840 recorded April Love and Bernadine and my movie songs in 1:00:39.960 --> 1:00:43.440 fifty seven and I started my own television show. Okay, okay, 1:00:43.480 --> 1:00:46.200 a little bit slower. Let's go back to those first hips. 1:00:47.200 --> 1:00:52.800 History was written years later that these tracks were originally 1:00:53.520 --> 1:00:56.320 black music, as you said, reached music, and you made 1:00:56.360 --> 1:00:59.800 the white versions. They're blowback in that starting in the 1:00:59.840 --> 1:01:03.960 lead sixties. What was it like living in that era? 1:01:04.680 --> 1:01:08.600 And two, as a deeply religious man, how did you 1:01:08.640 --> 1:01:13.320 feel about singing rock and roll? Well, I I called 1:01:13.360 --> 1:01:17.320 myself Elvis, and I'm midwives at the birth of rock 1:01:17.400 --> 1:01:20.720 and roll because there was no quote rock and roll. 1:01:20.880 --> 1:01:24.480 That phrase in the mid fifties was you was a 1:01:24.600 --> 1:01:27.760 race music phrase. And that's what they call R and 1:01:27.800 --> 1:01:31.840 B was race music, all black performers and rock and roll. 1:01:31.960 --> 1:01:34.480 This rock and roll all night long, baby, I mean, 1:01:34.560 --> 1:01:38.280 it was not dancing. But when Bill Haley and the 1:01:38.360 --> 1:01:41.520 Comments recorded Rock around the Clock, and I've just recently 1:01:41.600 --> 1:01:46.200 learned that when I met Elvis that first, that first 1:01:46.320 --> 1:01:57.560 night in uh in nineteen fifty six, in October fifty six, Yeah, 1:01:57.600 --> 1:02:01.080 October fifty six, when he was unknown, and he was 1:02:01.120 --> 1:02:03.320 the opening act on this sock cop and I was 1:02:03.360 --> 1:02:06.200 the headliner because I was having hit records. I've had 1:02:06.200 --> 1:02:11.760 three hit records, um already million sellers. And he was unknown, 1:02:11.800 --> 1:02:15.080 but Bill Randall, the DJ, brought him up from Shreport 1:02:15.120 --> 1:02:18.360 where he was known as a rockabilly appearing on the 1:02:18.440 --> 1:02:21.600 Louisiana Hay Ride, and Bill wanted to see what he 1:02:21.680 --> 1:02:25.280 was like. So anyway, that same night, I had forgotten 1:02:25.320 --> 1:02:28.320 till till a few nights ago, because I left after 1:02:28.440 --> 1:02:31.600 I did my part that night, lip sinking my three 1:02:31.640 --> 1:02:36.440 records to the screams of the kids. Uh that. The 1:02:36.480 --> 1:02:38.680 two acts that followed me were Bill Haley and the 1:02:38.720 --> 1:02:41.760 Comments doing their new record of Rock around the Clock 1:02:42.320 --> 1:02:50.680 and the Four Lads doing a song called Memory. Um, 1:02:50.680 --> 1:02:53.520 this will have these moments to remember. We'll have these 1:02:53.560 --> 1:02:56.400 moments to remember. But they were unknown. They were just 1:02:56.480 --> 1:03:01.600 coming along right me, just becoming known that night. And 1:03:01.840 --> 1:03:04.680 so that was in In in the fall October of 1:03:04.720 --> 1:03:08.600 fifty seven. But by then I was I was making 1:03:08.640 --> 1:03:11.520 money and I was recording these r and B songs. Now, 1:03:12.640 --> 1:03:14.400 see what you have to know If you didn't live 1:03:14.440 --> 1:03:17.280 through that time, and many of the critics who came 1:03:17.320 --> 1:03:22.640 along later didn't, They didn't realize that race music R 1:03:22.720 --> 1:03:26.760 and B had their own shows, their own artists, their 1:03:26.800 --> 1:03:30.200 own radio stations, their own charts. It was a separate genre. 1:03:31.040 --> 1:03:35.640 But gradually in the in the mid fifties, UH pop 1:03:35.800 --> 1:03:39.479 record producers began to hear some of these hooky fun 1:03:39.640 --> 1:03:42.720 songs recorded by some of these R and B artists 1:03:43.640 --> 1:03:46.080 and do pop versions of them, and they were calling 1:03:46.080 --> 1:03:48.920 it rock and roll. There was no rock and roll. 1:03:48.960 --> 1:03:51.720 In fact, there was hardly a teen market until the 1:03:51.760 --> 1:03:56.040 mid fifties because kids just they liked whatever their parents like, 1:03:56.120 --> 1:03:59.840 what they've been exposed to. But now this music was 1:04:00.040 --> 1:04:02.000 and long, and their parents weren't sure they liked it, 1:04:02.160 --> 1:04:06.040 which made the kids like it more. And uh and 1:04:06.120 --> 1:04:10.800 these songs that I recorded because I was acceptable to 1:04:10.920 --> 1:04:14.720 the parents as a clean cut white guy from Nashville, 1:04:15.120 --> 1:04:20.680 and I was singing uh eventually two D Fruity and 1:04:20.680 --> 1:04:24.280 and uh long Tall Sally, and Ain't that a shame? 1:04:24.360 --> 1:04:28.600 And and crazy little Mama come knocking knocking at my 1:04:28.800 --> 1:04:32.400 front door door door, Well, I was somehow making it acceptable. 1:04:33.480 --> 1:04:37.800 And the artists knew that because I've got tapes audio 1:04:37.840 --> 1:04:39.960 tapes with Little Richard and Fats and some of the 1:04:40.080 --> 1:04:44.520 performers who were being asked by black DJ's early in 1:04:44.560 --> 1:04:46.800 their careers, how did you feel when Pat Boone did 1:04:46.840 --> 1:04:50.880 your songs? Little Richard? I've got a tape of him 1:04:50.920 --> 1:04:53.120 saying when he when I heard Pat Boone had done 1:04:53.120 --> 1:04:56.080 my song too, d fruity, I was still washing dishes 1:04:56.120 --> 1:04:59.040 in a bus station and making Georgia. I wasn't making 1:04:59.080 --> 1:05:00.760 no money yet they would play and my record on 1:05:00.760 --> 1:05:03.160 the radio, but I wasn't get me making no money. 1:05:03.200 --> 1:05:05.400 But when bat Boone did my song, I threw the 1:05:05.440 --> 1:05:07.240 towel down and I walked out of here because I 1:05:07.280 --> 1:05:09.880 was gonna make some money now, I mean, that's a 1:05:09.880 --> 1:05:15.680 little Richard. At the time, Fats Domino had written, Ain't 1:05:15.680 --> 1:05:17.800 that a shame? And he had He sold a hundred 1:05:17.840 --> 1:05:20.000 fifty thousand when he was number one R and B 1:05:20.560 --> 1:05:23.880 in their charts and in that genre. But when I 1:05:23.920 --> 1:05:27.240 recorded his song, my version, which was more rock, his 1:05:27.360 --> 1:05:31.560 was more roll. His was you me boom boom, me 1:05:31.720 --> 1:05:34.840 cry boom boom When you said bomp, mine was you 1:05:35.080 --> 1:05:38.760 made bump, bump me cry. Mine was a rock sound. 1:05:39.040 --> 1:05:41.600 His was a roll sound. We put them together and 1:05:41.600 --> 1:05:45.280 it was rock and roll, but he said many times. 1:05:45.280 --> 1:05:47.400 In fact, there was a time I went to see 1:05:47.480 --> 1:05:50.760 him in Louisiana, New Orleans, at al Hurts Place where 1:05:50.760 --> 1:05:54.080 he was performing. He didn't talk much, but he he 1:05:54.160 --> 1:05:56.640 had me come. It was theater in the round kind 1:05:56.640 --> 1:05:59.080 of thing, and he and his little band, Fats, was 1:06:00.000 --> 1:06:02.120 at the piano. He asked me to come down and 1:06:02.160 --> 1:06:04.080 sit with him on the piano bench, which I did. 1:06:05.360 --> 1:06:07.440 He didn't talk much, as I say, said, you folks 1:06:08.240 --> 1:06:11.280 see this ring and on his one of his stubby fingers, 1:06:11.280 --> 1:06:15.120 he had this piano shaped diamond ring. This man bought 1:06:15.160 --> 1:06:18.360 me this ring. With this song, you made both both 1:06:18.520 --> 1:06:22.360 meet cry, and we sang Ain't That Ashamed? Together? And 1:06:22.480 --> 1:06:25.480 he said many times he made more money because my 1:06:25.680 --> 1:06:29.560 record of his song, which he wrote and published. Little 1:06:29.640 --> 1:06:32.000 Richard didn't publish his own songs. He didn't know enough, 1:06:32.120 --> 1:06:34.880 didn't know what a copyright was, but Fats and his 1:06:34.960 --> 1:06:39.760 people did. I sold immediately a million and a half 1:06:39.800 --> 1:06:42.480 of Ain't That a Shame, which was ten times more 1:06:42.520 --> 1:06:46.320 than his record had sold, and that helped him cross over, 1:06:46.400 --> 1:06:50.920 as they all acknowledged in very short order into into 1:06:50.960 --> 1:06:53.240 the pop world that at that point they had no 1:06:53.400 --> 1:06:57.520 entrance to and they weren't known even the DJ's. Most DJs, 1:06:57.520 --> 1:07:00.520 they were just playing pop music Patty page A Combo, 1:07:01.160 --> 1:07:05.760 Vic Domone, show Tunes, Tin Pan Alley. But now this 1:07:05.800 --> 1:07:12.080 guy Pat Boone. In fact, Jesse Jackson said recently, when 1:07:12.080 --> 1:07:14.320 I did a song of R and B classics with 1:07:14.400 --> 1:07:18.080 the original performers, that's another story. But I was talking 1:07:18.120 --> 1:07:22.560 to Santida Jackson on the Rainbow Coalition station and she 1:07:22.640 --> 1:07:25.600 said to the about recording, Papa's got a brand new 1:07:25.640 --> 1:07:29.080 bag with James Brown, And she says, uh, is that 1:07:29.120 --> 1:07:30.640 who I think it is? On the phone. Yeah, put 1:07:30.720 --> 1:07:34.400 him on and it was her dad, Jesse Jackson, and 1:07:34.440 --> 1:07:37.560 he said, you know, I've never said this publicly before, 1:07:38.400 --> 1:07:40.720 but he said, we we came to love Pat Boone 1:07:40.760 --> 1:07:43.240 in in the Chicago partly because if his father and 1:07:43.320 --> 1:07:45.920 are read fully the big country star who he used 1:07:45.960 --> 1:07:49.240 to sing our hymns and our gospel songs piece in 1:07:49.240 --> 1:07:52.040 the valley close to walk with the then Pat Boone 1:07:52.040 --> 1:07:54.040 came along his son and Are and he was singing 1:07:54.600 --> 1:07:57.880 our our rhythm and blues songs and not just singing 1:07:57.920 --> 1:08:01.720 them and having big records, but bringing the original artists 1:08:01.760 --> 1:08:05.320 on TV with him. And he says, you're making it 1:08:05.400 --> 1:08:09.040 popular and acceptable to all this big white audience. And 1:08:09.040 --> 1:08:11.560 he said, I I'm gonna say that I think Pat 1:08:11.600 --> 1:08:14.600 Boone did more for race relations in the fifties than 1:08:14.640 --> 1:08:18.639 any other singer. Now that's coming from Jesse Jackson. Let's 1:08:18.640 --> 1:08:22.200 go back to the fifties. Seems like you met everybody. 1:08:22.240 --> 1:08:27.200 What were they like? They were wonderful people. I mean, 1:08:28.160 --> 1:08:31.400 that's see. I grew up, as I told you, in Nashville, 1:08:32.439 --> 1:08:37.000 and I worked alongside with my dad's company in the summertimes. 1:08:37.040 --> 1:08:40.120 I was a laborer and he had some other high 1:08:40.160 --> 1:08:44.280 school kids, black kids also working for him. And together 1:08:44.400 --> 1:08:46.840 we were we were pushing wheel bears for a cement, 1:08:46.920 --> 1:08:51.920 we were pouring concrete, digging ditches, a total lumber with 1:08:51.960 --> 1:08:55.960 our shirts off in the hot summertime. And and we 1:08:55.960 --> 1:09:00.280 were friends. I mean we were buddies. Uh. And the 1:09:00.320 --> 1:09:03.360 black guys, we were just laborers together, earning a dollar 1:09:03.439 --> 1:09:07.160 quarter an hour. And and maybe some of them folks, 1:09:07.200 --> 1:09:09.559 they might have had a car. We didn't. My dad 1:09:09.600 --> 1:09:13.320 had to pick up truck. But uh, but so now, 1:09:13.360 --> 1:09:16.479 when I started recording and I met Little Richard, and 1:09:16.520 --> 1:09:18.240 I met Fats, and I met and then I had 1:09:18.280 --> 1:09:20.960 them come on TV with me. They came on as 1:09:21.000 --> 1:09:23.800 my fellow performers that they in fact, we had a 1:09:23.840 --> 1:09:28.960 symbiotic relationship, of course, because their music was good for me. 1:09:29.320 --> 1:09:32.599 I was good for their music and for their for 1:09:32.680 --> 1:09:37.000 their careers because they did not they were not known 1:09:37.120 --> 1:09:40.479 or accepted on pop radio until I, Elvis, and a 1:09:40.520 --> 1:09:44.720 few others began to record their songs, and then DJ's 1:09:44.800 --> 1:09:47.920 like Alan Freed at W I and S in New York. 1:09:48.160 --> 1:09:51.200 He'd started asking his listeners which record do you want 1:09:51.200 --> 1:09:53.840 to play? You want to play Fats original or Pat 1:09:53.840 --> 1:09:58.360 Boone's cover record. In the beginning, they chose my record 1:09:58.360 --> 1:10:01.840 of Ain't that a Shame? Over Fats Original? But after that, 1:10:02.080 --> 1:10:05.880 after maybe a few months out, I mean, he and 1:10:05.920 --> 1:10:08.880 the other DJs around the country were starting to play 1:10:08.920 --> 1:10:11.559 the originals, which the kids liked, but they had to 1:10:11.560 --> 1:10:15.400 be introduced to it first, and that always bothered me. 1:10:15.479 --> 1:10:20.760 When I think Billy Joel when he accepted his uh 1:10:21.000 --> 1:10:26.519 is it Billy Joel? Yeah? I think it was when 1:10:26.560 --> 1:10:29.400 he accepted his entrance into the rock and Roll Hall 1:10:29.439 --> 1:10:31.680 of Fame. And I never thought of Billy Joel as 1:10:31.800 --> 1:10:36.080 rock and roll anyway. He was sophisticated pop and big band, 1:10:36.160 --> 1:10:39.000 and sure some of his students had great beats, and 1:10:39.080 --> 1:10:41.160 he did something that pure rock and roll, I guess, 1:10:41.800 --> 1:10:43.800 But he says, you know, I became fans of this 1:10:43.960 --> 1:10:47.320 music um back when it was and he's talked about 1:10:47.320 --> 1:10:51.280 the original performers, back before Pat Boone and Frankie Avalon 1:10:51.400 --> 1:10:55.600 or somebody did their versions. I liked the originals, but 1:10:55.720 --> 1:10:58.720 I wanted to say, what so did I? Man? You know, 1:10:58.840 --> 1:11:02.640 I recorded their songs back then before you did, and 1:11:02.720 --> 1:11:09.320 helped them and their careers. But but it's really strange. Um. 1:11:09.360 --> 1:11:13.800 I just was never accepted by the rock and roll 1:11:13.880 --> 1:11:17.599 crowd and Yon Winner and those who select those who 1:11:17.600 --> 1:11:19.280 should be in the rock and roll Hall of Fame. 1:11:19.320 --> 1:11:22.240 Though I had many hits that were purely rock and 1:11:22.320 --> 1:11:26.720 roll and rhythm and blues, but I also committed the 1:11:26.760 --> 1:11:31.320 cardinal sins of recording gospel and pop movie themes and 1:11:31.439 --> 1:11:34.720 big band swing and all kinds of other music, and 1:11:34.760 --> 1:11:38.240 therefore I was disqualified in their mind as a rock 1:11:38.320 --> 1:11:40.960 and roller. Well, certainly the rock and Roll Hall of 1:11:40.960 --> 1:11:43.400 Famous is so Robin holl I agree with you. But 1:11:43.520 --> 1:11:46.760 going back a chapter, what was Elvis like? Did you 1:11:46.800 --> 1:11:50.679 know Jerry Lee? Did you know Carl Perkins? Yes, all 1:11:50.720 --> 1:11:54.600 of them? Yeah. I In fact, you may know of 1:11:54.680 --> 1:11:58.639 the Broadway show that was something what was it called 1:11:58.680 --> 1:12:02.400 the Something for when uh, when we we had all 1:12:02.439 --> 1:12:07.960 become very popular, we're very successful, when Sam Phillips brought 1:12:08.040 --> 1:12:11.040 Jerry Lee, Elvis, Carl Perkins, and Johnny Cash back in 1:12:11.120 --> 1:12:15.360 a million dollar, million dollar quartet and in that I 1:12:15.400 --> 1:12:17.519 think it was originally in the script. I don't know 1:12:17.560 --> 1:12:19.360 if it wound up in the Broadway show because I 1:12:19.400 --> 1:12:22.679 never got to see it, but I've got the tape 1:12:22.680 --> 1:12:25.240 of it when Elvis they're they're all singing their songs 1:12:25.280 --> 1:12:28.599 and reminiscing, and for two or three hours, Elvis says, hey, 1:12:28.680 --> 1:12:31.960 you guys heard Boone's new record. And they said, no, 1:12:32.040 --> 1:12:34.559 it is as good song man. But they sent it 1:12:34.600 --> 1:12:37.160 to me into the writer, send it to me, and 1:12:37.200 --> 1:12:39.120 Pat Boone at the same time. He got it first, 1:12:39.160 --> 1:12:41.080 and he he's got a big hit with it called 1:12:41.120 --> 1:12:44.800 Don't Forbid Me, And they said, what's it sound like? 1:12:44.880 --> 1:12:46.960 And he starts strumming on his guitar and singing it 1:12:47.000 --> 1:12:49.320 the way he'd done. He would have done it, and 1:12:49.400 --> 1:12:52.200 I already had a million selling hit with it, and 1:12:52.280 --> 1:12:54.559 I tell my audiences when if I tell him this story, 1:12:54.600 --> 1:12:56.519 I said, I sure, I'm glad I got it first 1:12:57.479 --> 1:12:59.519 because Elvis would have had a big hit with it. 1:12:59.560 --> 1:13:02.439 But I at at first. But yeah, jaredy Lewis and 1:13:02.479 --> 1:13:08.000 I were the first guests when when Dick Clark went 1:13:08.160 --> 1:13:12.800 national with the American Bandstand. I knew Dick, but when 1:13:12.800 --> 1:13:16.479 he was the the off camera announcer for Bob Horne 1:13:16.880 --> 1:13:22.120 in Philadelphia, when Bob was hosting a show called Bandstand, 1:13:22.160 --> 1:13:25.720 it wasn't American Bandstand, just called Bandstand Bob Horne. He 1:13:25.760 --> 1:13:29.400 was an late middle aged guy, but the teams were 1:13:29.479 --> 1:13:31.600 dancing and he was playing all the records and the 1:13:32.000 --> 1:13:33.960 and many of us, like I I came in was 1:13:34.240 --> 1:13:38.040 as a guest lip syncing my record on his bandstand show. 1:13:38.560 --> 1:13:42.759 I did that for many. So the off camera announcer 1:13:42.800 --> 1:13:45.200 was a guy named Dick Clark, and he would just 1:13:45.240 --> 1:13:47.479 be the ones in nowaadies, and never here's Bob Horne 1:13:47.720 --> 1:13:53.000 with Bandstand, Let's dance kids or whatever. So my promotion 1:13:53.080 --> 1:13:56.760 guy with me, said, Dick is a local DJ. Why 1:13:56.760 --> 1:13:58.280 don't you go talk to him a little bit because 1:13:58.280 --> 1:14:00.880 he'll play your records. So I went back and talked 1:14:00.920 --> 1:14:04.200 with Dick when he when neither of us was on camera, 1:14:04.240 --> 1:14:06.640 and he appreciated the fact. And then I went to 1:14:06.720 --> 1:14:09.120 him to his radio station and was on with him 1:14:09.160 --> 1:14:12.200 while I was there in Philadelphia. So later when he 1:14:12.240 --> 1:14:16.599 went national, because Bob Horne, this is news, I'm not 1:14:16.720 --> 1:14:19.920 talking out of school. He was forced to leave the 1:14:19.960 --> 1:14:23.439 show because of allegations of shenanigans with some of the 1:14:23.439 --> 1:14:26.960 girl dancers, and so boom, he was out, and Dick 1:14:27.000 --> 1:14:30.080 Clark took over the show, and then ABC brought it 1:14:30.120 --> 1:14:33.120 to New York and on the first American band Stand. 1:14:33.280 --> 1:14:36.880 His first guests were me and Jerry Lee Lewis, and 1:14:36.920 --> 1:14:39.000 then Jerry Lee and I were on some other shows 1:14:39.400 --> 1:14:43.759 together along the way, and I knew his cousins Jimmy 1:14:43.800 --> 1:14:50.600 Swagger and there's another one Jimmy Swagger, oh and Mickey Gilly. 1:14:50.720 --> 1:14:54.040 They were all cousins of his, and uh and and 1:14:54.080 --> 1:14:56.640 he yet of course he was doing extremely well. We 1:14:56.760 --> 1:15:01.959 had totally different lifestyles, but but but I eventually recorded 1:15:02.000 --> 1:15:05.360 some of his songs too, but they were just we 1:15:05.400 --> 1:15:08.000 were all just newcomers. We were up and comers. We 1:15:08.000 --> 1:15:11.880 were all you know, I was it, which came as 1:15:11.920 --> 1:15:14.360 a big surprise to me, But for all of us, 1:15:14.400 --> 1:15:17.439 we're looking at shoving for our place in the sun 1:15:17.560 --> 1:15:20.200 and in the spotlight. But by the time I was 1:15:20.240 --> 1:15:22.360 on with Dick Clark, I was already doing my own 1:15:22.479 --> 1:15:25.639 network show, which was sometimes number one in the ratings 1:15:25.640 --> 1:15:28.320 of Pat Boon Chevy Show. Okay, let's stop for a second. 1:15:28.640 --> 1:15:31.120 How did you get that show? What was the experience 1:15:31.120 --> 1:15:35.440 of doing that show, the Pat Boon Chevy Show. Well, um, 1:15:35.520 --> 1:15:39.040 it was simply because of the record success. I mean 1:15:39.080 --> 1:15:41.400 I was having one hit record after another. Now, I 1:15:41.479 --> 1:15:44.639 was still in school, in college because we moved Shirley 1:15:44.680 --> 1:15:48.280 not to te Neck, New Jersey, and we had our 1:15:48.320 --> 1:15:52.160 fourth child, third and third and fourth child children in 1:15:52.400 --> 1:15:57.160 uh oh gosh in in New Jersey. I should know 1:15:58.160 --> 1:16:01.640 Dr Leonard Brown. I remember his name, but I can't Hackensack. 1:16:01.760 --> 1:16:05.280 I guess it was Hackensack Hospital. And I was in 1:16:05.320 --> 1:16:08.000 school at Columbia University, on my way hopefully to get 1:16:08.000 --> 1:16:10.599 a five bit of capital because I knew I had 1:16:10.640 --> 1:16:12.720 a very high I q and I couldn't settle for 1:16:12.800 --> 1:16:15.920 less than a so I would want to get if 1:16:15.960 --> 1:16:17.600 I be at a Kappa Key, that would be my 1:16:17.680 --> 1:16:20.600 goal in college, and then I would apply for a 1:16:20.640 --> 1:16:25.040 teaching job. I'd be teaching English in some school somewhere. 1:16:25.680 --> 1:16:28.800 I mean, I didn't expect for this record career to 1:16:28.880 --> 1:16:32.000 keep going. I mean I'd already seen some other artists 1:16:32.040 --> 1:16:33.760 who had had a hit record or two, and now 1:16:33.800 --> 1:16:36.360 they were singing behind the bar somewhere that I would 1:16:36.360 --> 1:16:39.360 have dinner, and I thought, well, that's not gonna be me. 1:16:39.439 --> 1:16:41.400 I mean, this is gonna fizzle out. I'm gonna get 1:16:41.439 --> 1:16:45.679 my college degree. I'm gonna graduate magna cum laude, which 1:16:45.720 --> 1:16:50.960 I did and so um. But while all that was 1:16:51.040 --> 1:16:55.560 still going on, my records caused twenty century Fox to 1:16:56.120 --> 1:16:58.280 call and ask if I'd like to make a movie, 1:16:58.320 --> 1:17:00.559 and what I come out and do a screen test. Okay, 1:17:00.560 --> 1:17:02.360 at this point in time, you have the record, lad, 1:17:02.400 --> 1:17:06.200 you're still with dot Yeah, do you have a manager 1:17:06.240 --> 1:17:08.160 and agent? How do you get those? And how do 1:17:08.200 --> 1:17:12.040 you find those? That was another piece of very good fortune. 1:17:12.080 --> 1:17:15.040 I don't think it was coincidental. My manager was a 1:17:15.040 --> 1:17:18.360 publisher New Publishing, a friend of Perry Como, but he 1:17:18.400 --> 1:17:21.960 had become a manager sort of on the side two 1:17:23.080 --> 1:17:25.679 artists who are who are who? Sang with Perry Como, 1:17:25.760 --> 1:17:29.320 the Fontaine Sisters and a couple of others, And because 1:17:29.360 --> 1:17:31.720 of that he met Randy Would because they were on 1:17:31.960 --> 1:17:35.759 Dot records. So when Randy Wood knew I needed a manager, 1:17:35.800 --> 1:17:38.559 he said to Jack Spina, why did you manage Pat? 1:17:39.360 --> 1:17:43.280 So he managed the Hilltoppers, a quartet, He managed the 1:17:43.320 --> 1:17:48.360 Fontaine Sisters, He managed uh Johnny Maddox, a ragtime piano player, 1:17:48.760 --> 1:17:52.360 and now he managed Pat Boone. And he got me 1:17:52.479 --> 1:17:55.439 with g a C. General Artist Corporation, which was the 1:17:55.479 --> 1:18:01.320 biggest UH management talent management in the business. And a 1:18:01.320 --> 1:18:04.720 guy named Tom Rockwell was the head of that company, 1:18:04.800 --> 1:18:07.920 and he and his top echelon people took a very 1:18:08.000 --> 1:18:11.280 big interest in me. I don't know why. I mean 1:18:11.920 --> 1:18:16.040 there were other performers, but they saw things happening in 1:18:16.120 --> 1:18:18.439 my life. I mean I was having hit record after 1:18:18.520 --> 1:18:21.160 hit record. I was I had to hit television show 1:18:21.760 --> 1:18:24.240 and so, and in fact, I think they helped me 1:18:24.240 --> 1:18:28.360 get the television show. And now twenty century Fox wants 1:18:28.360 --> 1:18:31.720 me to make movies. So I went to New York well, 1:18:31.720 --> 1:18:34.640 what came first the movies of the TV show, the 1:18:34.640 --> 1:18:37.920 TV So tell me how you got the TV show. Well, 1:18:38.040 --> 1:18:42.760 it just it came about because ABC Network through g 1:18:43.000 --> 1:18:47.679 a C. They just said, hey, the guy hosted radio 1:18:47.680 --> 1:18:51.519 shows in Nashville. He was doing TV hosting shows in 1:18:51.800 --> 1:18:54.320 Fort Worth while he was in college on w b 1:18:54.439 --> 1:18:57.760 a P Television, The Country Music Show on Friday nights, 1:18:57.760 --> 1:19:02.160 The Beauty Barn Dance, and these four most teen times 1:19:02.200 --> 1:19:06.120 another talent show sponsored by Foremost Dairies, for which they 1:19:06.120 --> 1:19:08.519 paid me the handsome sum of fifty dollars a week. 1:19:08.920 --> 1:19:12.800 And uh, but I was getting a lot of professional experience. 1:19:12.840 --> 1:19:16.080 So ABC said, well, the g A C. You know, 1:19:16.120 --> 1:19:18.920 he should be on television like Perry Como and Eddie 1:19:18.960 --> 1:19:22.760 Fisher they had fifteen minutes shows. I don't know if 1:19:22.760 --> 1:19:27.120 you remember that. Some of these singers had fifteen minutes shows. 1:19:27.520 --> 1:19:31.800 Perry went soon to Our on NBC, Eddie Fisher still 1:19:31.840 --> 1:19:35.400 had his fifteen minutes show. And so they said, why 1:19:35.400 --> 1:19:37.439 did you let Pat Boone do a half hour show? 1:19:38.200 --> 1:19:40.400 Try it out? And so they did. They said, we'll 1:19:40.439 --> 1:19:43.000 try it, and they promoted it. And while they were 1:19:43.040 --> 1:19:46.960 promoting in ninety seven, I was in Hollywood making my 1:19:47.040 --> 1:19:50.439 first movie because I got signed to do the TV 1:19:50.520 --> 1:19:54.240 show but before it started. Uh and and I had 1:19:54.280 --> 1:20:00.280 already left my own show because of another story I'll 1:20:00.280 --> 1:20:02.080 tell you about when they wouldn't let me have Harry 1:20:02.080 --> 1:20:05.120 Belafonti on. I quit doing the half hour show and 1:20:05.160 --> 1:20:08.840 I was going to move to California, so I so 1:20:08.960 --> 1:20:11.120 I went out and did a screen test. They liked 1:20:11.120 --> 1:20:14.000 what they saw. They put me in a movie called Bernadine. 1:20:14.280 --> 1:20:16.920 After that April Love. And now I'll go back to 1:20:16.960 --> 1:20:19.720 New York and I'm still hosting my TV shows. I'm 1:20:19.760 --> 1:20:27.679 still in college at Columbia University, and I graduated from 1:20:27.720 --> 1:20:30.840 from Columbia Magna Cum Laudy. I was on the cover 1:20:30.920 --> 1:20:33.640 of TV Guide because of my TV show and my 1:20:33.720 --> 1:20:36.080 cap and gown. And you open it up and there's 1:20:36.200 --> 1:20:38.639 the pictures of my wife, Shirley and four little girls 1:20:39.680 --> 1:20:43.360 at twenty three. We were both twenty three. All of 1:20:43.400 --> 1:20:47.679 this happened, Bob At while I'm not. I'm not I'm 1:20:47.720 --> 1:20:50.760 not twenty four years old yet I'm twenty three. All 1:20:50.760 --> 1:20:54.240 of this had happened, and I'm making movies and there 1:20:54.360 --> 1:20:57.759 and their hit movies, and before a little bit before 1:20:57.800 --> 1:21:00.479 Elvis did Love Me Tender. I think was just for movie. 1:21:00.760 --> 1:21:04.320 I think it was and now and then eventually, pretty 1:21:04.360 --> 1:21:09.320 quickly we wound up sharing. Uh. Well he was, we were, 1:21:09.439 --> 1:21:12.519 we had dressing rooms at twenty century five. We were 1:21:12.560 --> 1:21:14.840 making movies there at the same time. I think he 1:21:14.880 --> 1:21:16.639 had a five year deal. I had a seven year 1:21:16.680 --> 1:21:20.720 deal to make movies. And Bernadine was a big hit. 1:21:20.800 --> 1:21:23.519 Johnny Mercer wrote the title tune and a lot of 1:21:23.520 --> 1:21:27.000 the other songs, and April Love Paul Francis Webster, Sammy 1:21:27.080 --> 1:21:31.200 Faine Academy Award winners writing my songs for April Love, 1:21:32.000 --> 1:21:35.000 and on and on it went, and uh, and then 1:21:35.160 --> 1:21:39.599 I did Friendly Persuasion, Dmitri Tiomkin, the Academy Award writer 1:21:40.439 --> 1:21:43.000 doing the I got to do the theme song for 1:21:43.040 --> 1:21:45.639 that movie. I mean, it was all It was a 1:21:45.680 --> 1:21:50.559 flood of stuff happening, and I was somehow I got 1:21:50.560 --> 1:21:53.320 to where I I could thrive, I mean really thrive 1:21:53.400 --> 1:21:57.360 on five six hours sleep. I was very energetic because 1:21:57.600 --> 1:22:01.559 it was pure excitement, I mean. And Shirley, with our 1:22:01.600 --> 1:22:04.240 four little girls, was being the mother of all time, 1:22:04.960 --> 1:22:07.400 taking kids, making sure we had had a family to 1:22:07.479 --> 1:22:11.840 come home to, and four daughters, and I tell you 1:22:12.439 --> 1:22:17.200 I've hardly ever slowed down since then. I'm still balancing 1:22:17.240 --> 1:22:20.080 six or eight balls at one time or plate spinning. 1:22:27.600 --> 1:22:30.360 Tell me to hear Harry Billa Fonte story. Well, I 1:22:30.400 --> 1:22:32.800 was doing the half hour show, and of course having 1:22:32.840 --> 1:22:35.880 all these artists on with me. It was unbelievable to me, 1:22:36.360 --> 1:22:38.640 but I was in the middle of it. But I 1:22:38.720 --> 1:22:42.960 was the youngest guy ever to have his own music 1:22:43.040 --> 1:22:47.360 variety show. I mean I was twenty I think, or 1:22:47.400 --> 1:22:50.720 barely twenty two, and in fifty seven when we went 1:22:50.760 --> 1:22:55.200 on the air with me hosting the The Pat Boon 1:22:55.720 --> 1:23:00.599 Chevy Show uh AT sponsored by chev Lay of course, 1:23:00.640 --> 1:23:06.200 so instantly I was having big name guests Ella Fitzgerald, 1:23:06.479 --> 1:23:12.519 Nat King, Cole Perry Como himself, Eddie Fisher, Um Tony Bennett, 1:23:13.560 --> 1:23:16.200 Sammy Davis. I'd bring some of the rocket. I didn't 1:23:16.240 --> 1:23:20.200 have much to do with except requesting some of the 1:23:20.200 --> 1:23:24.639 other artists. But you know they were Gina Lolo, bridget Anna, 1:23:24.720 --> 1:23:32.080 Maria Alberghetti, all these female stars and then boxers, heavyweight 1:23:32.160 --> 1:23:35.360 boxers and people from other walks of life come on 1:23:35.400 --> 1:23:39.840 my show and I'm We're doing sketches. People don't pay 1:23:39.840 --> 1:23:42.360 a little. They don't know that. One of my apprentice 1:23:42.400 --> 1:23:44.880 writers was a fellow that was doing stand up in 1:23:44.920 --> 1:23:49.080 Greenwich Village named Woody Allen. He was he was an 1:23:49.120 --> 1:23:51.880 apprentice writer on my show, hired by a guy who 1:23:51.880 --> 1:23:55.919 went on to produce Mash Larry Gilbert. They were producing 1:23:55.960 --> 1:23:59.559 the Pat Boon Show, The Chevy Show, half hour music show. 1:23:59.840 --> 1:24:03.759 I mean, I was. I was living an incredible life. 1:24:03.800 --> 1:24:07.120 And it was mainly because of general artists, the big 1:24:07.160 --> 1:24:11.360 Talent Agency. They saw somebody they thought could handle these 1:24:11.400 --> 1:24:15.479 things at such an early age, and it just happened, 1:24:16.160 --> 1:24:18.800 and and I could. I rose to the occasion every time, 1:24:18.920 --> 1:24:23.639 whether it was the movies, recording, television, and I'm still 1:24:23.640 --> 1:24:28.680 trying to make straight a's at at Columbia University. So 1:24:28.720 --> 1:24:32.120 now while I'm doing back to your question, having all 1:24:32.160 --> 1:24:34.720 the black artists on my show, and they were, you know, 1:24:34.800 --> 1:24:38.040 I had with Johnny Mathis my arm around him and 1:24:38.040 --> 1:24:42.000 and we did a number where the choreographer we would 1:24:42.120 --> 1:24:44.960 we were seeing closing a show with let there be 1:24:45.080 --> 1:24:48.240 Peace on Earth, Let it Begin with Me. And the 1:24:48.280 --> 1:24:50.640 stage was dark except for a bright light at the 1:24:50.680 --> 1:24:53.720 back of the stage and a ladder lit in the 1:24:53.800 --> 1:24:56.880 fourth ground and set and Johnny and I are going 1:24:56.920 --> 1:24:59.880 to sing this song together, and somehow the courier are 1:25:00.160 --> 1:25:05.120 or staged me a step or two above Johnny. I 1:25:05.160 --> 1:25:08.479 didn't like that. I thought there was like maybe an 1:25:08.479 --> 1:25:10.800 intention in it, and so I didn't say anything. I 1:25:10.840 --> 1:25:13.599 knew the lighting would permit it. So when we did 1:25:13.640 --> 1:25:16.120 the show live, I didn't get up on those stairs. 1:25:16.360 --> 1:25:19.320 I just stood right there with Johnny and we sang 1:25:19.479 --> 1:25:22.640 our portions together of letter V Peace on Earth. And 1:25:22.640 --> 1:25:25.640 as we turned, and as it was scheduled and choreographed, 1:25:25.640 --> 1:25:28.040 we turned said good night, folks, and we walked away 1:25:28.320 --> 1:25:30.599 toward that bright light at the back of the stage. 1:25:31.040 --> 1:25:33.120 Let the repeace on Earth. Let it begin with me. 1:25:33.520 --> 1:25:35.920 And I draped my arm over Johnny's shoulder as we 1:25:36.479 --> 1:25:38.720 as we walked like in silhouettes all the way to 1:25:38.760 --> 1:25:41.120 the and that that was the end of the show. 1:25:42.000 --> 1:25:45.639 And so I get a call from Harry Belafanti, who 1:25:45.680 --> 1:25:49.120 was the the biggest entertainer in the world right then, 1:25:50.200 --> 1:25:52.080 and of course I was a big fan, and he said, 1:25:52.240 --> 1:25:53.880 you know, I've been watching your show. I like the 1:25:53.880 --> 1:25:56.840 way you treat your guests. He said, would you like 1:25:56.960 --> 1:25:58.920 me to come on and we can do some things together. 1:25:59.000 --> 1:26:04.040 I said, what WHOA? And I said, sure, can can 1:26:04.160 --> 1:26:06.519 in effect? Can my folks get in touch with your folks? 1:26:06.560 --> 1:26:09.040 And and he said sure. I said, well, let's just 1:26:09.040 --> 1:26:12.080 plan it. We'll do it. So I was absolutely out 1:26:12.080 --> 1:26:15.280 of my mind with delight. You know, Harry Belafanti, I mean, 1:26:15.400 --> 1:26:19.120 Ella Fitzgerald, come on, Nat King Cole, all the others 1:26:19.720 --> 1:26:23.080 were so great, and I felt so honored, privileged to 1:26:23.080 --> 1:26:25.840 sing with him. Now, Harry Belafanti is gonna come on, 1:26:26.840 --> 1:26:29.759 and I go have a meeting. The production meeting dropped 1:26:29.840 --> 1:26:32.120 the bomb on him that Harry Belafanti has called me. 1:26:32.160 --> 1:26:37.479 It's the Chevy representatives, it's the the network ABC people 1:26:37.920 --> 1:26:39.880 and the ad agency and they're looking at it with 1:26:40.000 --> 1:26:43.400 stony faces when I tell them Harry Belafanti is gonna 1:26:43.439 --> 1:26:46.200 come on this show. And they said, no, no, no, 1:26:46.479 --> 1:26:48.400 we're gonna thank him. It's nice of him, but we 1:26:48.479 --> 1:26:51.639 got to say, no, what are you talking about? They said, 1:26:51.720 --> 1:26:55.400 you know, Chevy dealers in the South. This is late fifties, 1:26:55.439 --> 1:27:02.040 now remember fifty said Chevy dealers are getting a lot 1:27:02.040 --> 1:27:06.160 of flak because you're having so many, uh, black performers 1:27:06.680 --> 1:27:08.880 on the shows. With you and singing with them and 1:27:08.920 --> 1:27:11.599 so on, and we're Harry Belafanti is making a lot 1:27:11.600 --> 1:27:15.280 of civil rights noise, and we just can't have him 1:27:15.320 --> 1:27:17.360 on the show with you because that could be the 1:27:17.400 --> 1:27:21.800 coup de gras for Chevrolet. And they were nodding their heads, yeah, 1:27:21.800 --> 1:27:26.120 we we can't have Harry Belafanti, and I I was 1:27:26.160 --> 1:27:28.000 so stunned. It took me a few minutes and I 1:27:28.240 --> 1:27:31.040 and it went onto something else, and I came back 1:27:31.080 --> 1:27:32.680 and said, guys, wait a minute, Wait a minute, Wait 1:27:32.720 --> 1:27:37.519 a minute. It says it's the Pat Boone Chevy Show, 1:27:38.439 --> 1:27:41.960 But if Pat Boone has to say no to Harry Belafante, 1:27:42.800 --> 1:27:46.000 it's not the Bat Boon Show. So I'm gonna have 1:27:46.040 --> 1:27:47.920 to ask you to get somebody else to take the 1:27:47.920 --> 1:27:50.439 show for the rest of this season. And I'm not 1:27:50.479 --> 1:27:54.240 gonna come back if I have to parts who I 1:27:54.360 --> 1:27:57.120 have on my show according to that kind of stuff. 1:27:57.280 --> 1:27:59.320 They said, are you gonna walk off your show? Because 1:27:59.320 --> 1:28:02.280 I said, it's not just that I grew up. I 1:28:02.320 --> 1:28:04.519 was born in Florida, I was I was raised in Nashville. 1:28:04.560 --> 1:28:06.640 I'm a son of the South. I know all of 1:28:06.640 --> 1:28:10.400 this stuff. I'm just not going to perpetuate it, and 1:28:10.560 --> 1:28:14.120 UH and and so they calmed down and they said, well, 1:28:14.800 --> 1:28:18.920 if you have Harry on, can you guarantee there will 1:28:18.960 --> 1:28:21.960 be no subtle or any other kind of civil rights 1:28:23.040 --> 1:28:26.360 statements made. I said, look, Harry Belafani and Pat Boone 1:28:26.439 --> 1:28:30.080 singing together on my show is enough statement. I'm sure 1:28:30.120 --> 1:28:33.200 he'll understand. I can even tell him that this that 1:28:33.360 --> 1:28:37.919 it's causing trouble in the South. So they reluctantly agreed. 1:28:38.240 --> 1:28:41.400 And I'd like to say it happened, but it was 1:28:41.439 --> 1:28:43.360 about I only had about three or four shows left 1:28:43.360 --> 1:28:46.439 in that season. It didn't work out for his schedule. 1:28:46.520 --> 1:28:49.559 He was booked, we had other guests booked, and I 1:28:49.640 --> 1:28:53.559 just dropped the show after that. Recently, I was with UH. 1:28:53.720 --> 1:28:56.439 I was going in the gym at night and the 1:28:56.520 --> 1:28:59.000 black guy came to get an escalade out in front 1:28:59.400 --> 1:29:01.880 and I was seing it and a voice came from 1:29:01.920 --> 1:29:04.720 the car pad. Is that Pat Boone? I said, yes, 1:29:05.120 --> 1:29:09.040 Jamie Fox hopped out there of the escalate. He says, 1:29:09.040 --> 1:29:11.320 wait a minute, we hadn't met. He says, I'm Jamie 1:29:11.360 --> 1:29:14.639 Fox said I know, and he said, Uh, I got 1:29:14.640 --> 1:29:17.360 to ask you something I've heard recently, and this was 1:29:17.520 --> 1:29:21.759 what thirty five years later or something. I never talked 1:29:21.800 --> 1:29:25.479 about it. How it got out, I don't know, But 1:29:26.000 --> 1:29:28.040 he said, I heard that when you were doing your 1:29:28.080 --> 1:29:31.040 show in the late fifties and Harry Belafanti I wanted 1:29:31.040 --> 1:29:34.120 to come on your show and Chevrolet, your sponsor, wouldn't 1:29:34.200 --> 1:29:36.920 let him come on. You walked off your own show. 1:29:38.040 --> 1:29:40.040 And I said, yes, But how did you know that? 1:29:41.120 --> 1:29:43.240 I've never talked about. He said, I found out. He says, 1:29:43.240 --> 1:29:45.960 can I give you a hug? He says, he says, 1:29:46.479 --> 1:29:49.559 to do that now was no big deal. But you 1:29:50.120 --> 1:29:51.880 this was in the late I said, yeah, it's nineteen 1:29:53.080 --> 1:29:55.519 to do that back then and walk off your own 1:29:55.520 --> 1:30:00.640 show man. He said that took guts, and and for me, 1:30:02.320 --> 1:30:06.559 it wasn't taking guts. It was, as I've said many times, 1:30:06.600 --> 1:30:11.000 it was it was just not right for me to 1:30:11.040 --> 1:30:14.240 say no to Harry Belafanti. I mean, what, what guy 1:30:14.280 --> 1:30:19.000 in his right mind, and I'm thinking righteous mind could 1:30:19.360 --> 1:30:23.639 could say make up some excuse to Harry Belafanti. I've 1:30:23.640 --> 1:30:26.880 since told his daughter, Sherry, and she had to get 1:30:26.880 --> 1:30:28.719 on the phone and talked to his wife. I haven't 1:30:28.720 --> 1:30:31.040 talked to Harry about it because maybe to this day, 1:30:31.040 --> 1:30:34.559 he's upset. I never called him back. I don't know 1:30:34.600 --> 1:30:38.599 if he knows why I didn't, but except our people 1:30:38.640 --> 1:30:42.880 did converse and he was booked and I never I 1:30:42.960 --> 1:30:48.360 quit doing the show. Okay, you're a mega successful being 1:30:48.400 --> 1:30:52.160 that successful, also going on the road, being in movies. 1:30:52.880 --> 1:30:56.400 They are all these perks, both good and bad. You know, 1:30:56.439 --> 1:30:58.160 as people say, well, I'm poor, I have to pay 1:30:58.200 --> 1:31:01.040 for everything when I'm rich, or to pay for anything. 1:31:01.479 --> 1:31:05.000 And there's drugs and there's women. What was your experience 1:31:05.040 --> 1:31:07.400 in that? Will you? You know? How did you avoid 1:31:07.439 --> 1:31:10.320 the pitfalls? What was your experience of the good things? 1:31:10.640 --> 1:31:14.439 Very good question and of course very simple answer people. 1:31:14.560 --> 1:31:17.679 Some people may consider it simplistic. But first of all, 1:31:18.680 --> 1:31:22.280 I believe in God, and I had a moral compass 1:31:23.479 --> 1:31:26.000 that I inherited when I was thirteen. Although I got 1:31:26.000 --> 1:31:28.840 a good, very good examples from my mom and dad. 1:31:28.880 --> 1:31:33.920 But when I became a believer in in the Lord 1:31:35.160 --> 1:31:38.240 uh it, it had an effect on me as a 1:31:38.240 --> 1:31:40.960 teenager growing up. I never learned to cuss, for one thing. 1:31:42.040 --> 1:31:45.599 There have been times when I wished I had learned. 1:31:45.960 --> 1:31:49.559 But on the tennis court, and people know this, whenever 1:31:49.640 --> 1:31:53.760 I had need an expletive, I say, oh boon, and 1:31:53.800 --> 1:31:56.080 I can make my own name sound like an expletive, 1:31:56.160 --> 1:32:00.559 although it's actually people don't know this. Daniel Boone was 1:32:00.640 --> 1:32:04.160 not I am descended direct descendant from Daniel Boone from 1:32:04.160 --> 1:32:09.240 his son James, and and he was not educated except 1:32:09.320 --> 1:32:12.960 self educated. And when he carved on a tree, which 1:32:13.000 --> 1:32:16.759 is well known matter in history that somebody came across 1:32:16.800 --> 1:32:20.240 a tree in the wilderness, d Boone killed a bar 1:32:21.560 --> 1:32:24.240 and I think he put the date of it carved 1:32:24.280 --> 1:32:26.800 it in the bark of this tree. D Boone was 1:32:26.800 --> 1:32:29.760 spelled b o O N killed c I L D 1:32:30.600 --> 1:32:35.559 A bear b A r so. But that at that time, 1:32:35.600 --> 1:32:40.120 because he came his family came from Scotland and uh 1:32:40.320 --> 1:32:42.800 and the Boone had no E on the end of it. 1:32:42.800 --> 1:32:45.599 It was b o n And that's an Anglo Saxon 1:32:45.680 --> 1:32:51.000 word for blessing. And I grew up knowing way back 1:32:52.120 --> 1:32:54.160 that I've been given a high i Q and a 1:32:54.280 --> 1:32:59.320 name that that said that spelled blessing. And I just 1:33:00.000 --> 1:33:03.879 felt an urging, sort of almost a calling, an innate 1:33:04.040 --> 1:33:07.000 thing that if I had an influence on kids, it 1:33:07.040 --> 1:33:09.320 was going to be a good influence because I had 1:33:09.320 --> 1:33:12.640 planned to be a teacher anyway, and I would have 1:33:12.640 --> 1:33:16.240 been teaching kids to try to live moral lives, and 1:33:16.240 --> 1:33:19.040 and so all of this was feeding into the decisions 1:33:19.080 --> 1:33:21.599 I made. I never took drugs of any kind, never 1:33:21.640 --> 1:33:24.479 smoke pot nothing. In fact, I'm proud to say my 1:33:24.560 --> 1:33:26.960 four daughters growing up in Beverly Hills and all their 1:33:27.000 --> 1:33:30.479 friends smoke pot. They told me that they never did either. 1:33:30.680 --> 1:33:33.559 My four daughters never want not one of them ever 1:33:33.600 --> 1:33:37.439 had a her own apartment either. She married at in 1:33:37.479 --> 1:33:40.840 their early twenties. Debbie Boone had a huge career with 1:33:40.920 --> 1:33:42.800 You Light Up My Life, but she lived at home. 1:33:43.840 --> 1:33:48.160 And and I had told my my four daughters that 1:33:48.640 --> 1:33:51.479 I can pay for your college educations to any Christian 1:33:51.520 --> 1:33:54.479 that college that will admit you as long as you 1:33:54.479 --> 1:33:57.400 can be home for dinner, because you're not going to 1:33:57.520 --> 1:34:00.800 go away to some school at seventeen eighteen years old 1:34:00.800 --> 1:34:04.000 where you there's no chaperones and have boy and girl 1:34:04.080 --> 1:34:07.080 dorms and all that stuff. It's not gonna happen. So 1:34:07.240 --> 1:34:10.160 I I was that protective as a father, and I 1:34:10.240 --> 1:34:14.479 had that same attitude in my roles that I chose. 1:34:14.520 --> 1:34:17.360 I turned down Marilyn Monroe for a film. I risked 1:34:17.600 --> 1:34:22.040 suspension at twenty century Fox over movie roles that they 1:34:22.080 --> 1:34:24.040 wanted me to do that I just felt I couldn't do. 1:34:24.880 --> 1:34:27.320 And there was the time I didn't kiss Shirley Jones 1:34:27.920 --> 1:34:30.320 in April Love because it wasn't in the script and 1:34:30.360 --> 1:34:34.200 I hadn't had time, hadn't taken time to ask my 1:34:34.240 --> 1:34:36.320 wife Shirley if it was gonna matter that I was 1:34:36.400 --> 1:34:40.800 doing kissing scenes, and she was ahead of me. She well, 1:34:40.840 --> 1:34:44.240 I turned down the kissing scene with Shirley Jones in 1:34:44.280 --> 1:34:48.599 the movie April Love that first time, and uh, and 1:34:48.640 --> 1:34:51.519 I would have done it later because Shirley gave my 1:34:51.640 --> 1:34:54.280 Shirley gave me permission. She said, look, I'm ahead of 1:34:54.320 --> 1:34:57.280 you if you're going to do movies. She was familiar 1:34:57.320 --> 1:35:00.439 with the entertainment business. Her her dad read fully, and 1:35:00.520 --> 1:35:03.600 she said, you're gonna do kissing scenes, Just make me 1:35:03.640 --> 1:35:06.320 one promise. I said anything. She said, you won't enjoy it, 1:35:07.520 --> 1:35:09.599 and so I promised her I wouldn't enjoy it. I 1:35:09.640 --> 1:35:12.759 came back to the studio ready to kiss Shirley Jones 1:35:12.880 --> 1:35:17.479 later in the film, but it hit the trade papers. Bob, 1:35:17.520 --> 1:35:20.920 I'm telling you it was in Hollywood Reporter, Daily Variety. 1:35:20.960 --> 1:35:24.080 It went around the world on the associated up all 1:35:24.080 --> 1:35:27.519 the press services. You can look it up. A star 1:35:27.760 --> 1:35:31.280 refuses to kiss leading lady and they assumed it was 1:35:31.320 --> 1:35:34.320 for religious reasons, but it wasn't. It was just I 1:35:34.360 --> 1:35:38.120 wanted to stay married and I wanted to know ahead 1:35:38.160 --> 1:35:40.439 of time is this going to be a problem. And 1:35:40.520 --> 1:35:43.120 Shirley gave me her permission. So I did love scenes 1:35:43.200 --> 1:35:47.960 with Debbie Reynolds and Barbara Eden and Diane Baker and 1:35:47.960 --> 1:35:51.840 and Margaret and and others, and of course I didn't 1:35:51.920 --> 1:35:55.280 enjoy it. Okay, there are a couple of you know, 1:35:55.320 --> 1:35:59.519 being that famous, you get experiences the average person doesn't have. 1:36:00.080 --> 1:36:03.240 Tell me you're one or two best experiences as a 1:36:03.320 --> 1:36:05.479 result of your need, whether it be meeting ahead of 1:36:05.520 --> 1:36:09.240 state or going somewhere. You know what couple of the 1:36:09.280 --> 1:36:16.479 perks of fame, well, you know, usually the people that 1:36:16.520 --> 1:36:19.639 I met. You know, I I had been around enough 1:36:19.680 --> 1:36:23.360 and I was intelligent enough, you know, to to try 1:36:23.360 --> 1:36:28.000 to be on best behavior. My worst, my worst experience, 1:36:28.080 --> 1:36:31.240 most embarrassing moment of my life was with Queen Elizabeth. 1:36:31.520 --> 1:36:34.479 So we'll go right to the top. I mean I 1:36:34.520 --> 1:36:39.560 did to Royal command performances. You know, the whoever manages 1:36:39.600 --> 1:36:42.720 those things has whatever the royal family wants to come 1:36:42.720 --> 1:36:47.519 in at the generally the Palladium theater in the Royal 1:36:47.600 --> 1:36:50.040 Box there the Royal family up there. And I was 1:36:50.080 --> 1:36:52.920 still in college when I did my first command performance. 1:36:53.840 --> 1:36:58.520 Imagine that. I mean, I'm I'm making movies, television recordings, 1:36:59.160 --> 1:37:02.320 having hits since success and babies right and left, four 1:37:02.360 --> 1:37:05.640 and four years and I go to London and I 1:37:05.720 --> 1:37:09.720 perform in the in the Palladium and singing my rock 1:37:09.800 --> 1:37:16.479 and roll songs. Well, um, I was schooled ahead of 1:37:16.560 --> 1:37:19.840 time that you know what you do, you get in 1:37:19.920 --> 1:37:22.160 this line. And the poor Queen and the royal family 1:37:22.200 --> 1:37:26.000 have to run this gauntlet with performers and make nice 1:37:26.040 --> 1:37:28.719 with people, some of which they may don't care about, 1:37:29.160 --> 1:37:30.920 but they have to be nice to everybody. And and 1:37:31.640 --> 1:37:35.160 the women have to curtsy and bow, and the guys 1:37:35.240 --> 1:37:39.040 have to stand straight by by your head, say your 1:37:39.040 --> 1:37:42.760 majesty and extend your don't extend your hand unless she 1:37:42.800 --> 1:37:47.439 extends hers. I don't remember whether she and Princess Margaret 1:37:47.600 --> 1:37:50.120 and the others. I think Princess Margaret extended her hand 1:37:50.520 --> 1:37:54.240 that first time because she was a fan already Princess 1:37:54.240 --> 1:37:56.719 Margaret so and I was singing rock and roll songs 1:37:56.720 --> 1:38:01.519 that were big hits in England and uh and so that. 1:38:01.600 --> 1:38:04.120 But that was in fifty seven, now, several years go by. 1:38:04.160 --> 1:38:05.800 I you know, it was all right, it went well, 1:38:07.240 --> 1:38:09.120 and I was, you know, I could brag about having 1:38:09.160 --> 1:38:11.439 it had a royal command performance when I go back, 1:38:11.479 --> 1:38:14.599 and I think it was it was at a royal 1:38:14.600 --> 1:38:17.400 command performance having to do with a movie. I think 1:38:17.439 --> 1:38:20.599 it was West Side Story or something. So I came 1:38:20.640 --> 1:38:22.519 back and I'm an old hand now I know what 1:38:22.640 --> 1:38:27.320 to do, and I was sort of smugly, uh, you know, 1:38:27.920 --> 1:38:32.080 laughing up my sleeve at Peter Seller's Claudia, Cardinal Peter Finch. 1:38:32.520 --> 1:38:35.800 Some of these big big stars, they're also nervous. I mean, 1:38:35.800 --> 1:38:39.080 who who's not nervous when you're gonna meet and you know, 1:38:39.520 --> 1:38:42.000 either shake hands or be greeted by the Queen of 1:38:42.000 --> 1:38:46.240 England and the royal family, Prince Philip and everybody. I'd 1:38:46.240 --> 1:38:47.920 done it before, so I knew what to do and 1:38:47.960 --> 1:38:52.479 I was not nervous until she comes in far at 1:38:52.479 --> 1:38:54.559 the other end and I'm towards the end of the line, 1:38:55.240 --> 1:38:59.720 and I see how nervous. Everybody else is, and and 1:38:59.800 --> 1:39:02.559 I starting to repeating to use okay, by your head, don't, 1:39:02.560 --> 1:39:06.920 don't re extend your hand, say your majesty. If she 1:39:07.000 --> 1:39:09.320 extends her hand, you take it. If not, just let 1:39:09.760 --> 1:39:13.719 answer whatever she says. And that's it. And so Peter 1:39:13.800 --> 1:39:18.960 Seller's Claudie Carlinal Peter's bench over here waiting, and suddenly 1:39:19.000 --> 1:39:22.719 she's standing in front of me, and I bowed. I said, 1:39:22.720 --> 1:39:28.519 your majesty, and she said we met before? Who I said? 1:39:28.600 --> 1:39:33.360 We did? My we did. I didn't mean to say that. 1:39:33.400 --> 1:39:36.360 I meant to say you remember that, but it came 1:39:36.360 --> 1:39:42.000 out we did we met before? How can you say 1:39:42.040 --> 1:39:45.280 that to the Queen of England? When was that queeney? 1:39:45.520 --> 1:39:48.040 Was it a seven eleven store somewhere? And where where 1:39:48.080 --> 1:39:51.800 did we meet? I'm and and she laughed and and 1:39:51.840 --> 1:39:53.640 there's a picture of me and a one of the 1:39:53.680 --> 1:39:56.639 London papers with a look of shock on my face 1:39:56.680 --> 1:39:59.680 and a big smile on her face. And she extended 1:39:59.680 --> 1:40:03.439 her and she said it was the royal performance several 1:40:03.560 --> 1:40:06.519 years ago. She was very sweet, like, oh, if you 1:40:06.560 --> 1:40:10.960 don't remember, it's okay. How can I say I don't? 1:40:11.600 --> 1:40:14.000 But my response to her was when she said we 1:40:14.080 --> 1:40:20.639 met before we did. So, I mean, you can't top 1:40:20.760 --> 1:40:24.840 that for embarrassment. Um, I mean I I at the moment, 1:40:26.360 --> 1:40:29.519 I can't. I know that Dick Clark and I, Uh, 1:40:29.720 --> 1:40:34.320 everybody told us that we looked alike sometimes. Uh. In fact, 1:40:34.360 --> 1:40:36.680 sometimes he was mistaken for Pat Boone and I was 1:40:36.760 --> 1:40:41.040 mistaken for Dick Clark. And so we we pulled alongside 1:40:41.080 --> 1:40:44.080 each each other and our cars on Sunset Boulevard one time, 1:40:44.360 --> 1:40:47.040 roll the windows down, and I said, anybody ever tell 1:40:47.120 --> 1:40:49.640 you you look like Pat Boone? And they said, ye, 1:40:49.760 --> 1:40:53.080 anybody will tell you look like Dick Clark. And and 1:40:53.160 --> 1:40:54.920 I have a picture I'm looking at it right now 1:40:54.920 --> 1:40:58.840 in my office of Dick and me together. And he 1:40:58.920 --> 1:41:03.200 had it on his um office wall. And when he passed, 1:41:03.240 --> 1:41:05.240 his wife knew I would like to have that picture, 1:41:05.320 --> 1:41:07.639 and and she sent it over to me. And I'm 1:41:07.680 --> 1:41:10.040 looking at him with this look on my face, like, 1:41:10.080 --> 1:41:13.200 you know, we really do look alike. But but but 1:41:13.320 --> 1:41:17.080 we we were not embarrassed by any of that. Maybe 1:41:17.120 --> 1:41:20.200 he was embarrassed sometimes if they thought he was Pat Boone. 1:41:20.880 --> 1:41:23.120 I was never embarrassed if they thought I was Dick Clark. 1:41:23.240 --> 1:41:33.760 But but no, I can't think of Well, let's let's 1:41:33.800 --> 1:41:36.200 go back. You're talking about England. So you're having this 1:41:36.320 --> 1:41:39.000 career hit after hit, you have a TV show, you 1:41:39.000 --> 1:41:42.360 have movies. What goes through your mind when the Beatles 1:41:42.439 --> 1:41:47.240 hit and what was that experience? Like? Well, I first 1:41:47.240 --> 1:41:50.479 heard them when I was in England performing and their 1:41:50.479 --> 1:41:53.920 first record had come out. If there's anything that you want, 1:41:54.240 --> 1:41:57.160 which I'm hearing on a commercial right now, So the Beatles, 1:41:57.240 --> 1:42:01.000 or who have Michael Jackson, whoever owns their catalog, is 1:42:01.080 --> 1:42:04.360 letting them use the Beatles songs. But I heard that 1:42:04.439 --> 1:42:07.599 record and I said that's a hit, and I brought 1:42:07.600 --> 1:42:11.280 it back to to l A and trying to get 1:42:11.400 --> 1:42:13.680 Randy would have Dot Records to let me record it, 1:42:14.560 --> 1:42:16.519 but he said no, it's already been out on another 1:42:16.600 --> 1:42:19.920 label called VJ and it was not a hit, so 1:42:19.960 --> 1:42:22.719 he said no, it's I don't think it's a hit record, 1:42:23.360 --> 1:42:25.320 and he wouldn't let me record it. So of course 1:42:25.360 --> 1:42:28.000 it did go on to become a big hit and 1:42:28.120 --> 1:42:31.400 uh and the Beatles, they they came on so strong 1:42:32.720 --> 1:42:37.360 that at one point, like five of the top ten 1:42:37.560 --> 1:42:40.880 songs were all Beatles songs. And Tom Jones and I 1:42:40.960 --> 1:42:43.640 and all the others making records had to scramble for 1:42:43.720 --> 1:42:46.840 our whatever was left. And I was making a lot 1:42:46.920 --> 1:42:50.160 of money in my record royalties and and and still 1:42:50.240 --> 1:42:53.320 selling lots of records at that time in the sixties. 1:42:54.280 --> 1:43:00.160 And so uh, I got a painter who was uh 1:43:00.600 --> 1:43:04.080 who was very skilled. He had he painted a oil 1:43:04.120 --> 1:43:07.559 painting of me from a picture in a magazine. But 1:43:07.840 --> 1:43:11.320 he was great at skin tones, and not my skin. 1:43:11.439 --> 1:43:13.320 I had a need for that, But I mean he 1:43:13.320 --> 1:43:16.960 he made me look really nice in this painting. So 1:43:17.000 --> 1:43:19.200 I sent him a picture surely my wife and asked 1:43:19.240 --> 1:43:21.360 him to do that, and he did. And then I 1:43:21.400 --> 1:43:23.639 sent him pictures of my four girls and he painted 1:43:23.680 --> 1:43:26.519 them and and and I have him framed in our 1:43:26.560 --> 1:43:32.280 place in Hawaii right now. And so he he in 1:43:32.360 --> 1:43:35.280 contacted me said he was coming to the States. He 1:43:35.360 --> 1:43:40.400 was from Indonesia, and he said, Uh, I need there's 1:43:40.720 --> 1:43:43.759 a group called Church World Group that will bring me over, 1:43:44.320 --> 1:43:46.200 but I need to have a sponsor. Would you be 1:43:46.280 --> 1:43:49.840 willing to be my sponsor? Well, I didn't know what 1:43:49.880 --> 1:43:52.639 that meant, just would you vouch for me? I said, okay, sure, 1:43:52.680 --> 1:43:55.920 I'll be your sponsor. And I thought he had maybe 1:43:55.960 --> 1:43:58.960 some connections I didn't know. And the next thing I know, 1:43:59.040 --> 1:44:01.559 we've moved to CALIFORNI on you and I get this 1:44:01.680 --> 1:44:05.280 notice from the Church World Service. We are we're sending 1:44:05.320 --> 1:44:09.519 a young man named Leo Jansen. He'll be arriving in 1:44:09.640 --> 1:44:12.240 New York such and such a date on a ship. 1:44:12.840 --> 1:44:14.760 Where do you plan for him to live? And what 1:44:14.840 --> 1:44:17.840 do you expect? Where do you expect for him to do? 1:44:18.560 --> 1:44:21.960 That's what they meant by my being a sponsor. And 1:44:22.040 --> 1:44:25.760 he's already on the ship coming over, and so I 1:44:25.800 --> 1:44:28.400 had a representative of mine meet him at the ship 1:44:28.760 --> 1:44:33.599 flying to California. He's about five ft tall, a little swarthy, 1:44:33.720 --> 1:44:40.080 dark Indonesian who who could paint incredibly, And I got 1:44:40.160 --> 1:44:42.519 him a job as a stock boy at DOT Records. 1:44:43.400 --> 1:44:45.719 He had to help. He had to shove these huge, 1:44:46.040 --> 1:44:49.800 heavy boxes full of records around on a cart. It 1:44:49.840 --> 1:44:52.320 could have killed him. In fact, who knows. It may 1:44:52.320 --> 1:44:55.120 have contributed to an early death, which he did experience, 1:44:55.200 --> 1:44:58.760 but it was not from that and he was he was. 1:44:58.880 --> 1:45:04.599 I had him paint other stars like um uh Oh, 1:45:04.800 --> 1:45:12.320 Richard Chamberlain and Connie Francis, Connie Stevens, ma Harris uh 1:45:12.520 --> 1:45:16.559 what's Ma Harris's first name anyway, actors, And just like me, 1:45:17.000 --> 1:45:19.040 he would paint them and I would have him send 1:45:19.040 --> 1:45:21.360 the pictures to them, and they'd pay him five or 1:45:21.360 --> 1:45:25.719 six dollars for these portraits of them taken from pictures 1:45:25.720 --> 1:45:28.960 and magazines, I mean, because they were that good. Next 1:45:29.000 --> 1:45:32.880 thing I knew, I saw he was painting nudes and 1:45:33.000 --> 1:45:36.439 his paintings were being displayed in the big painting stores 1:45:37.040 --> 1:45:40.800 framed uh, and he would he would he didn't have 1:45:40.920 --> 1:45:44.920 new models, but he would just buy magazines and he 1:45:44.960 --> 1:45:49.439 would drape a towel or uh, some kind of clothing 1:45:49.520 --> 1:45:53.400 over an otherwise nude model. And and and because his 1:45:53.520 --> 1:45:57.920 skin tones were, as I say, so great, the Aaron 1:45:58.000 --> 1:46:00.439 Brothers and other stores that sell all kinds of paintings 1:46:00.479 --> 1:46:03.360 that would display them in the windows. And he was 1:46:03.400 --> 1:46:06.880 beginning to make serious money. So I had him come 1:46:06.920 --> 1:46:09.599 over for dinner and I said, you know, uh, Leo, 1:46:10.200 --> 1:46:13.320 I'm glad you're making money, but you know this, I 1:46:13.320 --> 1:46:16.479 don't think should be what you're remembered for. I have 1:46:16.560 --> 1:46:19.920 an idea I want I'm gonna get some pictures, some 1:46:20.000 --> 1:46:24.360 paintings of Jesus, and I want you to to paint 1:46:24.479 --> 1:46:29.040 a beautiful, lifelike portrait of Jesus. And I believe this 1:46:29.080 --> 1:46:31.240 could be the thing you'll be remembered for the rest 1:46:31.240 --> 1:46:34.880 of your life, because there's millions of people that would 1:46:34.880 --> 1:46:37.800 like to have your heart work, your artwork and heart 1:46:37.840 --> 1:46:40.960 work for that matter. And I knew he could do it, 1:46:41.080 --> 1:46:43.800 and he was. He was soon to do that. He 1:46:43.880 --> 1:46:47.439 was planning to do that. He brought his mother over 1:46:47.479 --> 1:46:51.160 from Holland, from the Netherlands and or did I say 1:46:51.160 --> 1:46:55.120 Indonesia was the Netherlands, begin in the Indonesian component, because 1:46:55.160 --> 1:46:58.120 they were in control of the Indonesia at that point. 1:46:58.720 --> 1:47:02.360 And so he had he had a heart attack and 1:47:02.479 --> 1:47:05.680 passed very early, and he never got that painting of 1:47:05.760 --> 1:47:09.920 Jesus done. I've always regretted that because I can imagine 1:47:10.520 --> 1:47:12.599 what it was going to be like, because the beautiful 1:47:12.640 --> 1:47:16.240 paintings of him anyway, but none that could do what 1:47:16.640 --> 1:47:20.320 Leo Jansen could have done by bringing him to life 1:47:21.439 --> 1:47:24.759 as as his artistry would have done and a painting, 1:47:24.880 --> 1:47:29.240 but that didn't happen. But what the world brought that up? 1:47:29.479 --> 1:47:34.560 The Beatles? Oh, the Beatles, Oh yes, because that occasion 1:47:34.920 --> 1:47:39.439 my meeting with the Beatles, because when they performed UH 1:47:39.600 --> 1:47:43.760 the first tour UH and they were to Thomas mcreena 1:47:43.800 --> 1:47:47.919 in Las Vegas. I had created pictures of the Beatles, 1:47:48.400 --> 1:47:54.479 had a painter do the beautiful UH separate um solo 1:47:54.600 --> 1:47:58.200 port uh pictures and then a group portrait as well, 1:47:59.040 --> 1:48:02.320 and got sears. I got to go to Briant. I 1:48:02.360 --> 1:48:04.360 had to go to Brian Epstein to get the contract, 1:48:04.439 --> 1:48:07.639 which I did, and he he loved the pictures once 1:48:07.680 --> 1:48:10.680 he saw them solo portraits. What I was trying to say, 1:48:10.880 --> 1:48:13.720 They and the and the Beatles themselves loved the portraits 1:48:14.320 --> 1:48:16.880 and and he so I got the contract to sell 1:48:16.920 --> 1:48:20.400 them and UH and so we got sears to sell 1:48:20.439 --> 1:48:23.320 them by the by the hundreds and thous is probably millions. 1:48:23.840 --> 1:48:27.240 And they all had tags, numbered tags, and and the 1:48:27.640 --> 1:48:30.559 buyers would put their name in address and we had 1:48:30.560 --> 1:48:34.160 a huge raffle when they and we we brought thirty 1:48:34.200 --> 1:48:38.920 people to the first concert, the afternoon concert at the 1:48:38.960 --> 1:48:40.920 Thomas mac Areena. And I got a picture in my 1:48:41.000 --> 1:48:44.400 office of my wife Shirley and our kids on the 1:48:44.439 --> 1:48:47.919 front row at that at that concert of the Beatles 1:48:48.120 --> 1:48:50.800 on their first tour. And then we went back after 1:48:50.880 --> 1:48:54.280 that show and spent some time after the show with 1:48:54.360 --> 1:48:58.160 the boys and who were just coming along at that point, 1:48:58.200 --> 1:49:01.960 but already you know, creating havoc. And I remember my 1:49:02.040 --> 1:49:05.840 daughter Laurie sat on ringoes lap. Debbie was talking to 1:49:07.720 --> 1:49:14.120 to George Lyndy two. Who am I leaving out? Oh, 1:49:14.240 --> 1:49:17.080 John Lennon, And then I was talking to Paul, and 1:49:17.120 --> 1:49:19.679 Paul was saying, you know, we liked these portraits very much. 1:49:20.200 --> 1:49:23.240 They flatter us. We like them, said, Brian's got our 1:49:24.040 --> 1:49:26.760 their Epstein's got us on a lot of crap which 1:49:26.760 --> 1:49:29.559 were embarrassed by an avenge. So we had a great 1:49:29.600 --> 1:49:31.559 meeting back there. That's the only time I was ever 1:49:31.640 --> 1:49:36.800 with the boys themselves. But but the pictures wound up. 1:49:36.840 --> 1:49:41.400 I was in doing some shows myself in England, eventually concerts, 1:49:41.840 --> 1:49:43.880 and I was in Liverpool and I went to the 1:49:43.920 --> 1:49:46.960 Cavern and those pictures that we had I had done 1:49:46.960 --> 1:49:51.879 are hanging at the cavern, uh where you know, honoring 1:49:51.920 --> 1:49:55.719 where the guys first made their breakout moves as a group. 1:49:56.600 --> 1:49:59.720 And so I would like to say that I ma 1:50:00.000 --> 1:50:04.400 relationship had continued with any of them, including Paul, especially Paul, 1:50:04.479 --> 1:50:07.200 because I felt like he and I were the most 1:50:07.240 --> 1:50:12.080 alike of of those guys because he had he developed 1:50:12.120 --> 1:50:16.080 a wonderful marriage. Of course his first wife died, but uh, 1:50:16.280 --> 1:50:20.000 he had other marriages and kids, and I thought he 1:50:20.040 --> 1:50:23.000 was a great father. And and I don't know about 1:50:23.000 --> 1:50:27.280 George and his family or Ringo Um and John. Of 1:50:27.320 --> 1:50:30.760 course he had Yoko, but I I did have and 1:50:30.800 --> 1:50:33.680 I recorded some of their songs my my records if 1:50:33.680 --> 1:50:36.559 I want to hold your hand, and and yesterday, and 1:50:36.600 --> 1:50:39.760 some of the songs that they wrote and did were 1:50:39.800 --> 1:50:44.439 so wonderful. And I had that kind of relationship with him. 1:50:44.439 --> 1:50:47.719 But the one personal relationship was when we were both 1:50:47.760 --> 1:50:51.160 really still in the early days of our careers. Did 1:50:51.240 --> 1:50:55.400 Leo paint the pictures? Yes, Leo Jansen. Okay, just let 1:50:55.439 --> 1:50:59.080 to make sure. Okay, Now you mentioned earlier that you're 1:50:59.120 --> 1:51:03.599 juggling six or seven balls to this day. So how 1:51:03.760 --> 1:51:06.800 you know you keep reinforcing that you really plan to 1:51:06.880 --> 1:51:09.360 do this for a temporary period of time, then become 1:51:09.400 --> 1:51:15.080 a teacher. Preacher, How have you sustained decade after decade, 1:51:15.640 --> 1:51:22.000 another sixty years. How have you managed to do that? 1:51:22.000 --> 1:51:24.640 That's good, that's another very very good question. And you know, 1:51:24.720 --> 1:51:27.160 I would never have dreamed it would happen but I 1:51:27.200 --> 1:51:33.240 think the logical answers are versatility diversity not the necessarily 1:51:33.320 --> 1:51:37.760 same thing. Because I have recorded more songs, I never 1:51:37.840 --> 1:51:41.240 quit recording, and I always had some kind of access 1:51:41.320 --> 1:51:43.920 even if if I had to start the company, which 1:51:43.960 --> 1:51:47.040 I did, Land and Lion Records and Pat Boone's Gold 1:51:47.120 --> 1:51:51.600 Label for other artists as well as myself, because the 1:51:51.680 --> 1:51:55.720 time came when many of us artists were dropped by 1:51:55.720 --> 1:51:59.519 the labels that we helped build, and and so I 1:51:59.680 --> 1:52:06.120 and I anger and opportunism to to impetus I UM 1:52:06.600 --> 1:52:10.120 I created the Gold Label for artists who had sold 1:52:10.120 --> 1:52:13.680 millions of records, who were still active and singing, and 1:52:13.880 --> 1:52:17.080 we're not on any label and uh, and I got 1:52:17.080 --> 1:52:22.160 a partner who who who could be the administrator? And 1:52:22.200 --> 1:52:25.400 in the first two two years of that label Gold Label, 1:52:25.880 --> 1:52:35.360 we signed famous artists including Glenn Campbell, Roger williams, um Gosh, 1:52:35.439 --> 1:52:41.080 the Four Freshmen, and and uh, the High Lows and 1:52:41.080 --> 1:52:43.120 and and I'm forgetting a lot of them we had. 1:52:43.240 --> 1:52:45.840 We had so many of them on our label. They 1:52:45.840 --> 1:52:49.120 had sold millions of records and we're still performing, but 1:52:50.320 --> 1:52:52.880 we we had had a hit a financial bump in 1:52:52.920 --> 1:52:54.840 the road. The guy that was putting up the money, 1:52:55.360 --> 1:52:59.280 lost all his money, and it fell on my shoulders 1:52:59.320 --> 1:53:02.040 to foot at the bill and keep it going, which 1:53:02.080 --> 1:53:04.759 I did for a while. But I brought in people 1:53:04.800 --> 1:53:08.599 who who have been recommended it's knowing how to run 1:53:08.680 --> 1:53:12.400 record companies, and they didn't. They just they just took 1:53:12.439 --> 1:53:16.080 my money and they didn't get anything done. And and 1:53:16.000 --> 1:53:18.760 and then at the worst possible time, we had a 1:53:18.800 --> 1:53:23.640 wonderful relationship with a company called Valley Media. They they 1:53:23.640 --> 1:53:27.920 were the biggest inventories uh company in the nation. They 1:53:27.960 --> 1:53:33.960 had huh Barney who ran it. Oh really yeah, yeah, 1:53:34.040 --> 1:53:36.720 they were in northern California. They were a big distributor, 1:53:36.880 --> 1:53:40.479 Valley Distributors, and you know that it went public and 1:53:41.080 --> 1:53:44.120 we had a great relationship with them because they we 1:53:44.240 --> 1:53:47.760 paid for the records, but they would pay for the 1:53:47.800 --> 1:53:52.320 marketing and distribution, and they were good at it and 1:53:52.320 --> 1:53:54.360 and also the inventor and all of that. They would 1:53:54.360 --> 1:53:56.680 act like a record label and let me be the 1:53:56.720 --> 1:54:00.360 record label and they would work with me. But about 1:54:00.360 --> 1:54:04.719 a year after they went public, they went bankrupt and 1:54:04.720 --> 1:54:07.559 and so they all of my masters, all of my 1:54:07.720 --> 1:54:12.800 stuff was stuck in there bankruptcy proceedings, and I had 1:54:12.800 --> 1:54:15.080 to let all the contracts and the artists that that 1:54:15.240 --> 1:54:19.559 I had gotten recorded, Glenn Campbell, and and and Jack 1:54:19.640 --> 1:54:22.880 Jones and all of the artists, Patti Page. I had 1:54:22.920 --> 1:54:25.840 to let them all go because I couldn't follow through 1:54:26.400 --> 1:54:29.360 at my own just on my own expense. What we had. 1:54:29.400 --> 1:54:33.680 Our deal was we would put up fifty thousand per album, 1:54:33.720 --> 1:54:36.000 and if you do your job and the arrangers do 1:54:36.080 --> 1:54:38.280 their job, you can make a wonderful album, even with 1:54:38.320 --> 1:54:41.320 an orchestra fifty thousand if you come to the studio 1:54:41.440 --> 1:54:44.240 knowing what you're gonna do, not doing like so many 1:54:44.280 --> 1:54:47.280 of the rock artists and so many others did and do. Still. 1:54:47.760 --> 1:54:50.400 They booked the studio for a month, and they bring 1:54:50.440 --> 1:54:52.920 their musicians together and they start fiddling around, Now what 1:54:52.960 --> 1:54:55.560 do we do? And they write songs while they're running 1:54:55.600 --> 1:54:59.200 up those huge bills three or four hundred thousand, And 1:54:59.240 --> 1:55:00.720 we weren't gonna do that. And I said, if you 1:55:00.760 --> 1:55:02.760 want to spend more than fifty, you can pay more. 1:55:03.360 --> 1:55:05.880 And a couple of the artists, did you know, they 1:55:06.280 --> 1:55:10.000 spent more than our fifty. But we made some very 1:55:10.040 --> 1:55:12.000 good records that I'm really proud of, and they could 1:55:12.080 --> 1:55:14.680 use in their personal appearances. That was part of the 1:55:15.280 --> 1:55:17.520 part of the deal and what part of the reason 1:55:17.560 --> 1:55:20.720 they wanted to do it. But uh, but we hit 1:55:20.760 --> 1:55:24.480 the financial snags and and the Pat Boon Gold label 1:55:24.520 --> 1:55:28.240 still exists. We've we've We've got a few artists still 1:55:28.280 --> 1:55:30.160 hanging and well it's because they don't have anywhere else 1:55:30.200 --> 1:55:34.400 to go, and we still sell their records. But I'm 1:55:34.400 --> 1:55:37.440 hoping that the other things I'm doing now on my 1:55:37.520 --> 1:55:42.120 own are gonna add some luster to the Gold label 1:55:42.160 --> 1:55:48.840 and people will be will have the the influence to 1:55:48.960 --> 1:55:51.360 come to the Pat Boon Gold label, to bat Boon's 1:55:51.720 --> 1:55:54.680 bat boon dot Com and others and find out about 1:55:54.720 --> 1:55:57.560 records by artists that they did love and maybe didn't 1:55:57.560 --> 1:56:00.800 know that they recorded for my label. Path This has 1:56:00.840 --> 1:56:03.160 been wonderful. We could go on for another couple of 1:56:03.160 --> 1:56:07.480 hours just to hear your story is so informative. I 1:56:07.520 --> 1:56:10.400 want to thank you for showing up and doing this today. Well, 1:56:10.480 --> 1:56:12.640 let me just tell you a couple of things quickly, man, 1:56:13.320 --> 1:56:16.160 because you mentioned the and I mentioned the balls in 1:56:16.160 --> 1:56:19.680 the air, I'm about have already made the first episode 1:56:19.680 --> 1:56:23.000 and I'm already launching my own podcast, which will be 1:56:23.040 --> 1:56:26.120 happening just in a matter of weeks, and it's gonna 1:56:26.320 --> 1:56:29.600 include We've got so much content that is. I think 1:56:29.600 --> 1:56:31.960 it's going to be a very entertaining podcast because I 1:56:31.960 --> 1:56:35.920 can play my own records, the records of the artists 1:56:35.960 --> 1:56:40.440 that I will feature, like that first, that first meeting 1:56:40.440 --> 1:56:43.160 with Elvis when he was my opening act. No other 1:56:43.280 --> 1:56:47.920 artists can make that statement. And and uh, and and 1:56:48.000 --> 1:56:51.320 our relationship that pursued after that, when we visited in 1:56:51.360 --> 1:56:55.040 each other's homes, not just in each the studios. He'd 1:56:55.040 --> 1:56:58.600 come over on a Sunday afternoon and and my girls 1:56:58.640 --> 1:57:00.400 being the pool and they jump up and run to 1:57:00.400 --> 1:57:02.880 see him, and he that's a girl. Stop it, you're 1:57:02.880 --> 1:57:04.720 getting him all what? Leave me alone? Man? I like it. 1:57:06.280 --> 1:57:09.840 We didn't know he had Priscilla stashed back at Graceland 1:57:09.880 --> 1:57:13.320 at that time. So anyway, they are all these stories 1:57:13.400 --> 1:57:19.040 to tell and pictures to show and movie clips and 1:57:19.400 --> 1:57:23.560 TV clips. So that podcast and now I'm on Spotify. 1:57:24.760 --> 1:57:27.320 Spotify they tell me I've got about six hundred thousand 1:57:27.880 --> 1:57:32.360 listeners a month now coming to to hear just the 1:57:32.400 --> 1:57:36.480 original first eighteen or twenty songs that were big hits. 1:57:37.240 --> 1:57:39.680 And uh, I mean I had forty that were chart records, 1:57:39.720 --> 1:57:44.000 but but sixty that were chart records, but but forty 1:57:44.000 --> 1:57:47.480 one just in fifty five, So they can hear those 1:57:47.480 --> 1:57:52.360 songs on Spotify. But I've recorded two hundred songs and 1:57:52.440 --> 1:57:55.280 more than Frank Sinatra or being and I'm still recording, 1:57:56.480 --> 1:57:58.440 and so we're going to see if we get all 1:57:58.480 --> 1:58:01.880 those on Spotify. They're open to the idea and so 1:58:02.000 --> 1:58:05.160 that people will hear album songs that I recorded, movie 1:58:05.200 --> 1:58:09.080 themes the Great American Songbook that unless they bought one 1:58:09.120 --> 1:58:12.400 of my albums, they don't know that I recorded the 1:58:12.440 --> 1:58:15.480 same kind of songs as Frank and Byng and the 1:58:15.520 --> 1:58:20.400 others that I idolized. Um. And we've got other things 1:58:20.480 --> 1:58:26.120 happening um that are going to be noteworthy. And I've 1:58:26.160 --> 1:58:30.560 just recorded one song with Crystal Gayle hit record of 1:58:30.560 --> 1:58:33.880 hers that was twenty years ago with Eddie Rabbit, and 1:58:33.920 --> 1:58:37.040 the record company thought it'd be cool for me to 1:58:37.080 --> 1:58:39.960 do that song again with her, and she's still lovely 1:58:40.080 --> 1:58:43.440 and sings great. And we do a new version of 1:58:44.000 --> 1:58:47.520 Just You and I and we dedicated it to my wife, Shirley, 1:58:47.520 --> 1:58:50.560 And when we do our video together at the end 1:58:50.600 --> 1:58:53.600 as a picture of Shirley, that she that Gail and 1:58:53.640 --> 1:58:56.760 I were both singing really in honor of my wife Shirley. 1:58:56.800 --> 1:58:59.640 So there's there's things like this that are happening that 1:59:00.600 --> 1:59:03.120 people will learn about, and I hope they'll be interested. 1:59:03.200 --> 1:59:05.880 And of course I've written a book, my last book, 1:59:05.880 --> 1:59:10.560 and I've recorded my last album called Legacy, which is 1:59:10.600 --> 1:59:12.800 all songs. I wrote all the words and music for. 1:59:13.560 --> 1:59:16.280 I made every song in it. I I wrote the 1:59:16.320 --> 1:59:21.000 tunes and the words except one song. I have some 1:59:21.080 --> 1:59:23.920 help from a couple of composers that have never objected, 1:59:24.520 --> 1:59:28.640 rock mon and Off and Pac Pagnini variations on a 1:59:28.720 --> 1:59:31.600 theme by by rock mon and Off bah blah blah 1:59:31.680 --> 1:59:34.920 blah blah blah blah blah blah, ma bah bah blah blah, 1:59:34.960 --> 1:59:38.080 bah bah blah blah blah blah, the beautiful, beautiful melody. 1:59:38.240 --> 1:59:41.520 And I wrote words for that, and and we'll list 1:59:41.560 --> 1:59:44.720 them as the writers of the melody. But but I 1:59:44.760 --> 1:59:50.560 wrote the words. Send them the royalties. Yeah. Yeah. So anyway, 1:59:50.560 --> 1:59:53.400 it's a busy life. A book yet to come out, 1:59:53.440 --> 1:59:56.480 a movie I just did, call Mulligan. I have a 1:59:56.560 --> 1:59:59.240 lead role in it. It's about golf. Meant, millions of 1:59:59.280 --> 2:00:01.840 people play god. But there's not many movies about golf. 2:00:02.640 --> 2:00:05.440 The Mulligan is the second chance to do over. And 2:00:05.520 --> 2:00:10.840 I play a respected older golfer who's mentoring a young 2:00:10.880 --> 2:00:14.880 guy who's having mental and marital problems, is ruining his 2:00:14.960 --> 2:00:19.600 golf and business problems, and uh, and I to try 2:00:19.640 --> 2:00:23.879 to help him, you know, I create a spiritual basis 2:00:23.920 --> 2:00:26.800 for him to get his life in order, which will 2:00:26.840 --> 2:00:28.760 also help his golf. And it's going to be a 2:00:28.760 --> 2:00:31.880 big film. I think I can guarantee because of what 2:00:32.000 --> 2:00:34.840 I just said millions of golfers is going to come 2:00:34.880 --> 2:00:39.360 out the week after the Masters next April. Good timing. 2:00:39.440 --> 2:00:42.400 And it's about golf. It's a whole golf story. And 2:00:42.440 --> 2:00:46.800 I'm wearing Payne Stewart Nickers throughout. I'm a very colorful 2:00:46.880 --> 2:00:50.520 character in the film. And uh, I think, I mean, 2:00:50.520 --> 2:00:52.080 they tell me I did a good job in it. 2:00:52.160 --> 2:00:54.480 And I've got a couple of other films that I've 2:00:54.520 --> 2:00:58.640 done lead rose in that are not out yet. So 2:00:59.280 --> 2:01:02.440 I'm busy. I'm telling you, I'm just continually still writing, 2:01:02.680 --> 2:01:06.680 still singing. I'm not making live performances because of COVID. 2:01:07.360 --> 2:01:09.520 But I had to cancel my last what might have 2:01:09.560 --> 2:01:13.919 been my last performance in the Dick Clark Theater in Branson, 2:01:13.960 --> 2:01:16.760 where I had a lot of success playing Will Rogers 2:01:16.760 --> 2:01:20.480 and and and Justice in my own shows, but that 2:01:20.520 --> 2:01:23.800 had to be canceled, maybe forever. So I don't know 2:01:23.840 --> 2:01:26.280 if I'll do any more live performances, but if I do, 2:01:27.360 --> 2:01:30.000 I sing some every week to make sure that I 2:01:30.040 --> 2:01:33.080 can still do it. And I mean, I'm in my 2:01:33.200 --> 2:01:37.640 eighth year, but I'm listen. You're an inspiration. Shall we 2:01:37.680 --> 2:01:41.360 all live that long? Never mind be that productive? And 2:01:41.400 --> 2:01:43.840 I still swim in my heated pool, I still work 2:01:43.880 --> 2:01:47.520 out in the gym, still play tennis and golf and 2:01:47.520 --> 2:01:51.840 and and and hold my own I mean, I I'm 2:01:51.960 --> 2:01:56.000 very fortunate, always have been. But the name Boone means blessing, 2:01:56.920 --> 2:01:59.480 and I've just tried to live up to it. Thank 2:01:59.520 --> 2:02:03.680 you so much, Pat, It's been great. Thank you, Bob. 2:02:03.920 --> 2:02:06.400 Till next time. This is Bob left Sex