Speaker 1: Welcome, Welcome, Welcome back to the pot West That's Podcast.
Speaker 1: My guest today is the one and only at Boon,
Speaker 1: Pat glad to be talking to well, glad to talk
Speaker 1: to you, But I've got to correct what you just said.
Speaker 1: I'm not the one and only Pat Boone. My brother
Speaker 1: is married to another one. Really is life is Patricia
Speaker 1: and that makes her another Pat Boon. Okay, hopefully there's
Speaker 1: not too much confusion. A little bit of trivia, know
Speaker 1: though they can tell us apart for sure. Okay, you're
Speaker 1: pretty active on social media. Do you have someone do
Speaker 1: that for you or do you do it yourself? It
Speaker 1: takes a circus here for me, as you've noticed that,
Speaker 1: I have to have people who actually know where the
Speaker 1: buttons are how to push them. I'm trying to catch up.
Speaker 1: I you know, I'm I'm in about I'm about up
Speaker 1: to in tech, but I'm trying to get into one
Speaker 1: and I'm just I'm not there yet. Okay, do you
Speaker 1: have a smartphone? Do you use it? Yeah? I do
Speaker 1: I have that. I'm using that pretty well, although I
Speaker 1: lost it yesterday and I couldn't even figure out how
Speaker 1: to get to where it is. I had to call
Speaker 1: my tech guy, and and he got on his computer
Speaker 1: and located it. It was in my house up in
Speaker 1: the bathroom, but I couldn't find it. So I am
Speaker 1: not a tech whiz. Okay, let's go back. You grew
Speaker 1: up in Nashville. I did. I was born in Jacksonville, Florida,
Speaker 1: but I grew up in Nashville. Yet, but what what
Speaker 1: age did you move to Nashville to age of two?
Speaker 1: And my brother one year younger than me at the
Speaker 1: age of one, and my dad a building contractor, architect,
Speaker 1: Mama registered nurse, and they moved from uh, from Florida,
Speaker 1: from from actually Tallahassee. Although I was born in Jacksonville
Speaker 1: and and then to Nashville where I grew up. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm I'm a I'm a homeboy in Nashville, but also
Speaker 1: in Florida. Okay, So what motivated them to move to Nashville.
Speaker 1: My dad, as I say, an architect and uh and
Speaker 1: it would be contractor, building contractor. His uncle, uncle Jack Boone,
Speaker 1: had his own contracting company in Nashville, very successful. So
Speaker 1: his nephew, Archie A. Boone, the first Boon in the
Speaker 1: phone book. You can't get ahead of a A Boone
Speaker 1: And so uh, he was offered the the job with
Speaker 1: his uncle, and he moved to Nashville and Mom and
Speaker 1: his two boys and eventually two daughters as well. And uh,
Speaker 1: and he not only became a very valued partner employee,
Speaker 1: but eventually when the time came for the opportunity, he
Speaker 1: had junior partners with him when Uncle Jack retired, and
Speaker 1: I was able to, thank God to help him obtain
Speaker 1: ownership of his own company. It was called the Boon
Speaker 1: Contracting Company anyway, and his partners weren't Boone's. Okay, So
Speaker 1: you're born in the middle of the depression, your father
Speaker 1: has a job. What was your economic situation growing up
Speaker 1: in the family, I would say lower middle class. Uh. Daddy,
Speaker 1: as I say he was, he worked for his uncle.
Speaker 1: He didn't have it was not his own company for
Speaker 1: a long time. And uh. And after my brother and me,
Speaker 1: he and Mama had daughters, and soon he had four kids.
Speaker 1: We did not have a car until I was in
Speaker 1: the eighth grade. We had to we had the company
Speaker 1: pickup truck, Boon Contracting. Now you have to get six people,
Speaker 1: my mom and dad and four kids into that. It
Speaker 1: was not a big It was not a big pickup
Speaker 1: truck like today, and so he built a wood uh
Speaker 1: he was a carpenter as well, so he built nice
Speaker 1: wooden bench in the back from my brother and me,
Speaker 1: and we thought it was really fun during the earlier days,
Speaker 1: riding in the back, the wind whipping us and all that.
Speaker 1: When we were six, seven, eight years old, and the
Speaker 1: two girls got to ride up front with Mama. On
Speaker 1: rainy days though, and snowy days, really cold weather. Somehow
Speaker 1: we would cram Mama, Daddy, me, my brother and two
Speaker 1: sisters into the cab of that little truck. So by
Speaker 1: the time I was in the sixth grade, I kept begging, Daddy,
Speaker 1: can't we have a car, just anything with doors on
Speaker 1: it that I we can, we can get out of
Speaker 1: the back of the truck riding in the wind and
Speaker 1: so on. Of course it was embarrassing. He takes us
Speaker 1: to school on rainy days. Of course we'd have raincoats
Speaker 1: and hats but our umbrellas. But we were getting out
Speaker 1: of the back of a truck at the at the
Speaker 1: grammar school, and even kids were from I think poorer circumstances.
Speaker 1: They come up or the church in cars of son
Speaker 1: some type. But Daddy was frugal and he said, we'll
Speaker 1: buy a car when I can afford it. And you
Speaker 1: boys are well taken care of on that bench in
Speaker 1: the back. And today, as I ride along the freeway
Speaker 1: and I see uh tenerants and laborers sitting in the
Speaker 1: back of trucks being whipped along the free we I
Speaker 1: always want to lean and say, hey, I've been there,
Speaker 1: I've done that. Okay, I've been to Nashville. But obviously
Speaker 1: many years later, and there's downtown in the suburbs. How
Speaker 1: far did you live from downtown Nahville. We were outside
Speaker 1: the city limits at that point. We were out on
Speaker 1: Granny White Pike. Granny White Pike, and it's still called
Speaker 1: that today. It is now in the city limits that
Speaker 1: city of them as were greatly expanded, but we were
Speaker 1: outside And and then off Granny White Pike was Lone
Speaker 1: Oak Road, a little road off the side. It was
Speaker 1: called Lone Oak Road because during earlier days there was
Speaker 1: a lone Oak that served as a hanging tree kremlins
Speaker 1: who sometimes hung on that Lone Oak well. That went
Speaker 1: eventually from Granny White Pike to a thriving part of
Speaker 1: Nashville called Green Hills, And it's one of the really
Speaker 1: prestigious places to live. That and Bell Mead in Nashville,
Speaker 1: the high class places. But it's a mile or two
Speaker 1: long Lone Oak Road until you get to Granny White Pike.
Speaker 1: And just off Granny White Pike is still that house
Speaker 1: where I grew up brother and two and two sisters.
Speaker 1: And when I'm in Nashville, I don't go to a motel.
Speaker 1: I go right to the oh nine Lone Oak Road,
Speaker 1: very close to the side of the road. Nice house,
Speaker 1: but very modest and upstairs. Uh. After the two boys
Speaker 1: and the two girls moved out, Uh, we you know,
Speaker 1: went to school or married or whatever, and uh and Daddy,
Speaker 1: being a contractor and better off by then turned what
Speaker 1: had been an attic uh into a set and floor
Speaker 1: where he created a nice bedroom in bathroom mama, and
Speaker 1: a guest room. And that's where I always stay. And
Speaker 1: what had been the attic that I claimed when Nick
Speaker 1: and I my brother were sixteen and fifteen, we were
Speaker 1: sharing the same bed and we each wanted our own bed,
Speaker 1: you know, and so I asked if I could have
Speaker 1: the attic. Well, it was just an unfinished attic where
Speaker 1: you know, you put all this stuff you don't have
Speaker 1: room for downstairs and old clothes and suitcases and boxes.
Speaker 1: But I put a cop mom and Daddy let me
Speaker 1: have the attic, and I called it my penthouse at sixteen,
Speaker 1: and I slept on the attic and Nick could have
Speaker 1: the nice bed downstairs. So do you go to public
Speaker 1: school or religious school? And what kind of student are you?
Speaker 1: And how do you fit in with the people. Well,
Speaker 1: it's both. I was in a secular school called Burton Elementary,
Speaker 1: and it was by road up your White Pike about
Speaker 1: half a mile, but if you go down Lon Oak
Speaker 1: Road and up it's about three quarters of a mile.
Speaker 1: Or if you cut across the back pasture behind our house,
Speaker 1: it's like a quarter of mine because Daddy had bought
Speaker 1: ten acres and this little house for five thousand dollars
Speaker 1: in I guess it was and uh, And I was
Speaker 1: six years old when he when he when we moved
Speaker 1: to that house. So when when I was running late,
Speaker 1: as I often was, I would just run across the
Speaker 1: back pasture, watching where I stepped because we had cows
Speaker 1: and um, and then go through the fence and get
Speaker 1: to my class on time. But otherwise I would either
Speaker 1: let Daddy take me, or I would take a bike.
Speaker 1: I mean, by the time I was well, I was
Speaker 1: still in high school, I could ride my bike and
Speaker 1: I did, and so you know, I just got by.
Speaker 1: I figured out how to make it that way. That
Speaker 1: was a secular school, but when high school time came,
Speaker 1: we were strong Christians. We had Bible studies in our
Speaker 1: home and went to church service every time, and the
Speaker 1: door was open. So I knew then and I wanted
Speaker 1: a my education, but in a Christian context, I mean,
Speaker 1: for me at thirteen, this was I think an unusual choice.
Speaker 1: All my friends were going to secular high schools. But
Speaker 1: I wanted to go to Lipscomb High School, which was
Speaker 1: a Christian high school and college. And but but to
Speaker 1: do that, I had to help Daddy economically. And so
Speaker 1: my brother and I worked in the summertime as laborers
Speaker 1: and the Boon Contracting company, digging ditches, pouring concrete, pushing wheelbarrows,
Speaker 1: toting lumber for the carpenters. And we earned the handsome
Speaker 1: price I think that first year of a dollar quarter
Speaker 1: an hour, and we would put that aside to help
Speaker 1: pay for clothes and books, and knew the truition in
Speaker 1: the Christian high school was not that great. But with
Speaker 1: Daddy with two boys and two girls, he was having
Speaker 1: to you know, really pinch pennies. He had to pay
Speaker 1: his taxes after all. And in the contracting business, by
Speaker 1: the way, uh, you you make bids on the jobs
Speaker 1: you want to do, and you're competing with others who
Speaker 1: want that same job. And at that point it was
Speaker 1: just houses. It went eventually to be high schools, college dorms, uh,
Speaker 1: military installations, churches. I mean he got big for Daddy eventually,
Speaker 1: but back then, to bid on a house, he had
Speaker 1: to try to make the lowest bid, but still a
Speaker 1: bid that he could do it for in that price,
Speaker 1: because if he didn't get it built well for what
Speaker 1: he bid it, he had to eat the rest himself.
Speaker 1: So Daddy, you know, with four kids, you know, Mama
Speaker 1: was something of not a spendthrift. But I always compare
Speaker 1: them to democrat in the Republican Mama wanted come one,
Speaker 1: come all, not just people, but pets, dogs, cats, come
Speaker 1: and come on eat. We got plenty. Daddy was the Republican.
Speaker 1: Wait a minute, I've got a budget here. I gotta
Speaker 1: pay for this somehow. And that yin and yang was
Speaker 1: what we lived with. So you have ten acres. You
Speaker 1: have cows. What else is going on that land? And
Speaker 1: are you milking the cows? Who's doing all that work? Yes, yes,
Speaker 1: to that, all of it. We also had pigs. Sometimes
Speaker 1: we had fenced off areas for pigs. We had to
Speaker 1: we had to slop the hogs. We had chickens. We
Speaker 1: had turkeys and rabbits. We had a vegetable garden on
Speaker 1: some of that, a big vegetable garden which Nick, my brother,
Speaker 1: and I and sometimes the sisters helped with. Daddy somehow
Speaker 1: found the time to take care of all that. But
Speaker 1: we had to work like we were really on a farm,
Speaker 1: which we were. I milked the cows and Nick and
Speaker 1: I took turns. We usually only had one cow to
Speaker 1: milk because the rest we were either raising to sell.
Speaker 1: But we only need one good milk cow. And the
Speaker 1: one that that I melt most was a milk a
Speaker 1: cow named Rosemary a Jersey, and she she was incredible
Speaker 1: milk producer. My brother and I were known to drink
Speaker 1: as much as a gallon a day a piece, because
Speaker 1: we drink a quarter milk for breakfast, and a quarter
Speaker 1: milk with lunch if we were home, and then a
Speaker 1: quarter milk for dinner and then more doing our homework
Speaker 1: before we went to bed, I mean, and then we
Speaker 1: made butter and uh sometimes well we didn't make cottage
Speaker 1: cheese and we didn't have enough of that, but we
Speaker 1: could sometimes churn and make butter. And we learned what
Speaker 1: blue john milk was. If the if the cows eight onions, uh,
Speaker 1: and we had plenty of them growing out there in
Speaker 1: the past. It infiltrated the milk and turned its sour.
Speaker 1: But we learned to use that and cooking, and sometimes
Speaker 1: we just drink it. Blue john milk it was called,
Speaker 1: but you know it was it was really like a farm,
Speaker 1: and we milked Rosemary, my brother and I took turns.
Speaker 1: He would milk. We we worked it out this way.
Speaker 1: I would milk one night and the next morning, and
Speaker 1: then he would milk the next night and the next morning,
Speaker 1: so that we each milked only once a day. The
Speaker 1: only trouble was sometimes one of us would forget that
Speaker 1: we hadn't done the milking on that particular occasion, and
Speaker 1: we met an angry cow whoever had to milk the
Speaker 1: next one that after one session had been skipped. But
Speaker 1: but it was that's what it was that cows would
Speaker 1: get out once in a while go through the neighbor's
Speaker 1: yards who didn't have cows, and we'd have to go
Speaker 1: chase them. And sometimes they'd be going through the laundry
Speaker 1: hanging on the neighbor's lines, and I had to go
Speaker 1: chase the family cow and get her back in, and
Speaker 1: we'd prepare the fence. But that was part of my
Speaker 1: growing up days. Until I was well into high school.
Speaker 1: I was still milking rosemary while I was dating the
Speaker 1: girl I was going to marry eventually. Okay, so in school,
Speaker 1: are you a popular kid? Are you a good student? Oh? Yes,
Speaker 1: yes I can. I can truthfully say yes because I
Speaker 1: was insatiably curious active. I wanted to be involved in everything.
Speaker 1: When I got to be as a freshman, I laid
Speaker 1: out Not that I was that methodical, but but I
Speaker 1: did think about what I wanted to accomplish in high school.
Speaker 1: I wanted, first of all, to make straight A grades,
Speaker 1: which I did eventually. Somewhere along the line, they did
Speaker 1: an i Q test, And what they've told me Mama
Speaker 1: and others that were in school with me, is that
Speaker 1: that my i Q was reported at one seventy, which
Speaker 1: is very high. Well, that put a heavy responsibility on me,
Speaker 1: and so I did make straight a's in all my classes.
Speaker 1: I never made bees and anything. And uh I I
Speaker 1: was president of the of the secon the sophomore class,
Speaker 1: and then I set my sides to be president of
Speaker 1: the student body. And now it was a smallish Christian
Speaker 1: high school of maybe three students. That's not big, but
Speaker 1: it was our little world. And so when I was
Speaker 1: like sophomore and junior, I would try to make friends
Speaker 1: with the freshman coming in because I knew from experience
Speaker 1: that the juniors and seniors couldn't care less about the
Speaker 1: those ignorant little sophomores and freshmen, but they were going
Speaker 1: to vote on who was going to be the student
Speaker 1: body president towards the end of the junior year. So
Speaker 1: when the time I was a school UH cart I
Speaker 1: was on all the teams baseball, basketball, we didn't have football.
Speaker 1: I was captain the baseball team and UH and and
Speaker 1: I was I was good on the basketball team, but
Speaker 1: not the star. But I was good and very active
Speaker 1: and on the A team. And then UH school cartoonists.
Speaker 1: I wrote a sports column for the paper, and I
Speaker 1: mean I was and when the day came along. We
Speaker 1: had to have a clean up day. I would volunteer
Speaker 1: to be the chairman of clean up day. I mean
Speaker 1: I was angling towards being the student body president. Well,
Speaker 1: the day came but for the election, and I had
Speaker 1: made friends with all the sophomores and freshman But a
Speaker 1: guy was transferred from a from a reform school to
Speaker 1: our school. Who was he was? They brought him in,
Speaker 1: I thought, hoping they could redeem him. But all he
Speaker 1: was a great athlete and he became all state baseball basketball.
Speaker 1: Russ Wingo was his name, and he decided to run
Speaker 1: for student body president. Well guess what the athlete won
Speaker 1: the election. I was. I was so taken back. I
Speaker 1: mean I was crushed. I had set my size for
Speaker 1: three years and and worked at it and did all
Speaker 1: these things. And then Rush Wingo comes along. And because
Speaker 1: he can we didn't have three point shots, but he could.
Speaker 1: He could score, and he could. He was good in
Speaker 1: baseball A well, I so was I. But that wasn't
Speaker 1: good enough. So the summertime came and I got over
Speaker 1: my initial pain and decided I would do the Christian thing.
Speaker 1: And I went to Russ. I said, look, Russ uh,
Speaker 1: you're the you have the president student body, but you're
Speaker 1: gonna have to represent us in the regular school associations
Speaker 1: with other high schools, and uh, I know you're gonna
Speaker 1: be busy. And I didn't want to say you don't
Speaker 1: know how to do it, and uh so if you want,
Speaker 1: I'll represent you as the president, but I'll do some
Speaker 1: of that that grunt work for you. And he said,
Speaker 1: oh boy, okay, yeah, you do that. I don't know
Speaker 1: how to do any of that stuff. So I was
Speaker 1: willing to be his surrogate. But guess what happened during
Speaker 1: the summer. He was older, he was older than we were.
Speaker 1: He had been in a reform school and so he
Speaker 1: was like eighteen, and he and one of the girls
Speaker 1: during the summertime got married. I'm not sure what caused
Speaker 1: that to happen, but they did get married in the summertime.
Speaker 1: And then we come back to school. It turns out
Speaker 1: that our bylou by laws said you can't be married
Speaker 1: and be the student body president. So we had another
Speaker 1: election and I was elected. I became the student body
Speaker 1: president after all, and that unlikely. After I was willing
Speaker 1: to give up and serve him, and you know, there
Speaker 1: was a great lesson than that. For me. It's stuck
Speaker 1: with me all my life. You know, you don't lose
Speaker 1: by by helping somebody else win. Okay, Now was there
Speaker 1: music in the house? And when did you realize you
Speaker 1: could sing well? I was asked that recently. I said,
Speaker 1: I was singing before I ever thought about being a singer,
Speaker 1: because it was part of our emily. First of all,
Speaker 1: in church, we all sang in church and and and
Speaker 1: our church background didn't even have piano, no instrumental music
Speaker 1: because we didn't see an example for it in the
Speaker 1: New Testament, so we didn't have piano Oregon. It was
Speaker 1: all acapella. So in all of our church experiences, Daddy
Speaker 1: was singing bass, Mama was singing soprano, and then my
Speaker 1: sisters would maybe learn how to sing an alto part,
Speaker 1: and my brother would sing tenor. And I tried to
Speaker 1: sing bass along with Daddy. So we were singing uh
Speaker 1: in church every church service, and then at home we
Speaker 1: would sing some of the church songs. And then at
Speaker 1: school and Mama played a little ukulele and a few
Speaker 1: chords that somebody had taught her. I learned those few
Speaker 1: chords so I could make them sort of uh fit
Speaker 1: any kind of song I wanted to sing, usually simple
Speaker 1: songs or church songs. I could use those few chords
Speaker 1: um to to accompany me my brother, And so we
Speaker 1: sang songs and our family gatherings like I want to
Speaker 1: take he said, a middle journey. Well, I set my
Speaker 1: heart leddies said he could sing the harmony part, or
Speaker 1: I would too. I would either he could sing melody,
Speaker 1: I sing harmony, sentimental journey. And so we would sing
Speaker 1: those songs and our family gatherings. They loved it, you know,
Speaker 1: pat Nick singing the songs and maybe Mama playing the
Speaker 1: ukulele or me doing it and then uh. And then
Speaker 1: at school, when anything came along for anybody to do
Speaker 1: some singing, I'd raise my hand because I knew I
Speaker 1: could and I liked it. And then if there was
Speaker 1: ever anything for a solo part in a school function,
Speaker 1: you know, well the teacher learned that I could carry
Speaker 1: the tune, carry the melody and do it. And even
Speaker 1: when I got into college, but in high school, I
Speaker 1: became known as blue Moon Boone because whenever there was
Speaker 1: some kind of anything going on in our Christian high
Speaker 1: sto cool and there was a lot of singing going
Speaker 1: on then, and you know, we put on little shows
Speaker 1: and have entertainments, and it's singing at parties and you know,
Speaker 1: packed and carry a tune, he can sing and uh.
Speaker 1: And so I became known as blue Moon Boone because
Speaker 1: if at the drop of a hat, anybody, any if
Speaker 1: you need a guy to sing a song, I would
Speaker 1: sing blue Moon. You saw me standing alone, without a
Speaker 1: dream in my heart, without a love of my own.
Speaker 1: And the girls liked it, and the guys put up
Speaker 1: with it. They thought it was fine it they didn't
Speaker 1: have to do it, and so it was. It was
Speaker 1: just a fun thing that I learned I could do now.
Speaker 1: When I was about twelve thirt um, mama or somebody
Speaker 1: took me to the bell Meat Happiness Club, which was
Speaker 1: in bell Meat, nice neighborhood, nice theater and and on
Speaker 1: Saturday afternoons it was a place where mama's could bring
Speaker 1: all their kids for about three hours because there would
Speaker 1: be cartoons. There would be if you can remember, cereals,
Speaker 1: I mean Westerns and Perils of Pauline and comed comedy,
Speaker 1: uh cereals and then uh and then a movie that
Speaker 1: was appropriate for kids, you know, and the manager of
Speaker 1: that theater was Dr Jordan's. Ed Jordan's he was from
Speaker 1: vaudeville days, so he thought it'd be nice to have
Speaker 1: a little, uh, little vaudeville show before the movie started,
Speaker 1: to even make the thing a little longer. Now, you
Speaker 1: never tried to sing or perform for a more unruly
Speaker 1: audience than a theater full of little kids, because they
Speaker 1: weren't really interested in what was going on in stage.
Speaker 1: But you know, sometimes it would be. But it would
Speaker 1: be a pianist. God could play piano. Somebody could tap dance.
Speaker 1: You can imagine the hooting and howling that the kids
Speaker 1: gave who I was trying to tap dan play an
Speaker 1: instrument of some sort. Well, of course I could sing
Speaker 1: a tune, so again I ed Jordan's The Vaudevillian took
Speaker 1: an interest. Now, the way I got involved in that
Speaker 1: was because the reason I did was not because I
Speaker 1: could sing so much, is because whoever performed. There were
Speaker 1: three performers every Saturday, and I learned this the first
Speaker 1: time I was there. And whoever the kids would vote
Speaker 1: for the most favorite, number one, number two, number three,
Speaker 1: number one would get a banana split at the drug
Speaker 1: store next door pharmacy and and the second one coming
Speaker 1: in second would get a Sunday and the third place
Speaker 1: would get a nice cone with a double dip. Well,
Speaker 1: that's what enticed me, so I got MoMA to take
Speaker 1: me to downtown to the Elizabeth Bryant Combs Dance studio
Speaker 1: where this dance instructor auditioned the kids from the various
Speaker 1: high schools. And right away, because I could saying Blue Moon,
Speaker 1: you saw me standing alone, she put me on the
Speaker 1: on the show and and I went on. I forget
Speaker 1: who I was with, what the other performers were. I
Speaker 1: know I was very nervous, but at I think thirteen,
Speaker 1: I went on and saying something and ed Jordan's had
Speaker 1: hurt me in a rehearsal, and he says, now, kids,
Speaker 1: you may not knew what I'm talking about. I think
Speaker 1: this is the next Bing Crosby. Let's welcome Pat Boone. Well,
Speaker 1: the kids said, you know, they give me a little
Speaker 1: shouts and applause, and for some reason they seem to
Speaker 1: like me singing. And I got to Banana Split while
Speaker 1: I was hooked, and I went back as many times
Speaker 1: on Saturdays for the next couple of years as Elizabeth
Speaker 1: Briant Combs would let me come and uh and sing
Speaker 1: other songs. And I would stand backstage and nervous and
Speaker 1: warming up, and you know, and now I was learning
Speaker 1: what it was to go in front of an audience
Speaker 1: of un truly kids. But but but I found that
Speaker 1: if I sang well enough, they could they seem to
Speaker 1: enjoy it. Now mama's bringing their kids would sometimes be
Speaker 1: there at the beginning, and they heard me sing, and
Speaker 1: they had invite me to sing it their ladies clubs.
Speaker 1: And then and then the men, some of the men
Speaker 1: found out I could sing, and they I'd sing for
Speaker 1: the Junior Chamber of Commerce, or the Elks Club or
Speaker 1: the the men's men's meetings. And I had a pianist
Speaker 1: who named Ruth Maori, who's a piano teacher. And I
Speaker 1: took about two lessons and got her hooked, and then
Speaker 1: I I never took any more lessons, but she she
Speaker 1: could play anything in any key, so she would accompany
Speaker 1: me to these meetings, and I was I became known
Speaker 1: as that kid out on Lone Oak Road that knows
Speaker 1: all the pop songs and has somebody to play for him.
Speaker 1: And by the way, he doesn't charge anything, Just feed him,
Speaker 1: feed him a lunch and maybe you'll show up. Well,
Speaker 1: I did it purely for the fun of it. Me
Speaker 1: and I was happy if I got fed. But and
Speaker 1: Ruth same thing. We just enjoyed what we were doing.
Speaker 1: She enjoyed singing it performing piano for me, and I
Speaker 1: enjoyed the singing and the applause. And it was just
Speaker 1: it was a hobby, like you know. And then in
Speaker 1: high school, the principal of the high school knew that
Speaker 1: I liked to sing, and he he talked to the
Speaker 1: radio station w s i X, big station in Nashville, said,
Speaker 1: this kid out in our school likes to sing and
Speaker 1: the and uh, and he he could be a host
Speaker 1: of a teen talent show with teen talent from all
Speaker 1: over Nashville and all over the Middle Tennessee. They'd come
Speaker 1: in and and audition for somebody, I don't know who
Speaker 1: the audition for. I just showed up on Saturday morning
Speaker 1: and I hosted the the Youth on Parade show on
Speaker 1: the local radio station. It was a It was a
Speaker 1: big station though, and it got a big audience because
Speaker 1: who who high school kid's gonna listen to on the radio,
Speaker 1: but other high school kids and so and so, I
Speaker 1: was hosting again piano players, instrumental players. I don't think
Speaker 1: we had tap dancers on radio, but that's another incident
Speaker 1: I'll tell you about in my life. But as a DJ.
Speaker 1: But but that show was very popular. So I got
Speaker 1: used to hosting UH Youth on parade and and doing
Speaker 1: commercials what we had. And Frank Bobo could he took
Speaker 1: over for Ruth Maray. He could play anything in any
Speaker 1: key and UH and so we had a good half
Speaker 1: hour show. And I'd come down on Saturday's host that
Speaker 1: and then go back and shoot some baskets and whatever
Speaker 1: else I was doing. That just became part of my life.
Speaker 1: But I became known as that kid out on Lone
Speaker 1: Oak Road that knows all the singing all the songs
Speaker 1: in high school. Well, that takes you up to to
Speaker 1: my high school graduation when I when I became the
Speaker 1: student body and president, and about a year later year
Speaker 1: and a half, became engaged to my high school sweetheart,
Speaker 1: Shirley Foley. But but all during this time when I
Speaker 1: was in chapel services, because it was a Christian high school,
Speaker 1: leading singing in church congregation. Now, because as I say,
Speaker 1: we didn't have instrumental music. We needed song leaders. So
Speaker 1: by the time I was in high school, I was
Speaker 1: going out to country churches and saying no One Druss
Speaker 1: love of Jesus, singing his mercy and his grace. I
Speaker 1: didn't know what this was, but I was beating some
Speaker 1: kind of time. I didn't know if it was correct time,
Speaker 1: but I was leading the congregation of three or four people,
Speaker 1: sometimes with the mic, sometimes without a cappella song leading.
Speaker 1: It was part of our worship services. So again, uh,
Speaker 1: I was getting experience that I had no idea was
Speaker 1: going to come in Andy. I was going to be
Speaker 1: a teacher, preacher. I thought that was sort of what
Speaker 1: I was headed towards, thinking of a way I could
Speaker 1: use my life and what would be useful and helpful
Speaker 1: and maybe pleasing to God and the ones that were
Speaker 1: influencing me. Right then, we're Christian high school teachers, and
Speaker 1: I thought, and they were preachers too on Sundays in
Speaker 1: many churches. So I thought, well, that's the most worthwhile
Speaker 1: thing I could do with my life. I mean, being
Speaker 1: a singer, a pop singer, was the farthest thing. I
Speaker 1: mean I dreamed about it, how fun it would be
Speaker 1: when I was milking Rosemary you know, I was thinking, boy,
Speaker 1: if I was on the Art of God Free show
Speaker 1: like Julius Lorosa was at the time, you know, I
Speaker 1: could I could do that show in the morning, I
Speaker 1: could go to college in the afternoon, and I could
Speaker 1: do things for worthy charities, as I knew some entertainers did,
Speaker 1: and boy, that would be great. I didn't voice it
Speaker 1: in a prayer, but I was thinking it out loud
Speaker 1: kind of during that those days. The day came when
Speaker 1: I replaced Julius the Rosa on the Arthur Godfrey Show,
Speaker 1: and it didn't take much much. It wasn't much time
Speaker 1: after I was last milking the Rosemary the cow, which
Speaker 1: is another story, a dizzying two or three years after
Speaker 1: I married Shirley. Now most people see Nashville as a
Speaker 1: country music town. Was it country music? And was it integrated? Integrated?
Speaker 1: Let's see that was there also popular music? What was
Speaker 1: the feel for the music? Into What degree were you
Speaker 1: listening to the radio and what stations? A very good
Speaker 1: question because it was already known as Music City, USA.
Speaker 1: But that was largely country. The Grand Old Opry was
Speaker 1: there and that went out over all over the country
Speaker 1: on Saturday nights. The Grand Old opry and institution in
Speaker 1: country music and country music for farmers. Were they were it,
Speaker 1: I mean they were. They were ensconced and beautiful homes
Speaker 1: all over town, you know, web peers and uh and
Speaker 1: all the ones you can think of had lovely homes
Speaker 1: in the loveliest neighborhoods. And they were doing you know,
Speaker 1: shows all over town. And they were on local TV
Speaker 1: though not national television, but it was mainly country, but
Speaker 1: a show. A guy named Snooky Lanson was a pop
Speaker 1: singer and orchestras around town in Nashville, and uh, he
Speaker 1: became one of the singers on the Lucky Strike Hit
Speaker 1: Parade on Saturday nights on h I forget which network
Speaker 1: on national television, and he and Michelle mackenzie and a
Speaker 1: couple of others became regular singers on the Lucky Strike
Speaker 1: Hit Parade and had to sing all the current tunes
Speaker 1: that were, you know, in the top ten and they
Speaker 1: would yes or orchestra and dancers and they would produce
Speaker 1: those songs on television and one a hometown boy, Snook
Speaker 1: Snooky Lanson was one of the singers. Well, of course,
Speaker 1: that became a big, a big show in Nashville and gradually, Uh,
Speaker 1: there were artists who were crossing over from country into
Speaker 1: pop to some extent, and songs like Tennessee Waltz Patti Page,
Speaker 1: but it had been a big hit by read somebody
Speaker 1: I've forgotten his name first but as a country hit.
Speaker 1: And then Tony Bennett recorded Your Cheating Heart, and Hank
Speaker 1: Williams and then Hank Williams tunes were being picked up
Speaker 1: off country music and becoming pop hits in one form
Speaker 1: or another. So now some of the pop artists were
Speaker 1: coming to Nashville to record there. And of course we
Speaker 1: had the studios, and we had to muse the technicians,
Speaker 1: and we had everything. And so record companies began to
Speaker 1: have their satellite offices. Decca, r c A, Victor Columbia
Speaker 1: all had their setups in Nashville to record country, yes,
Speaker 1: but also pop artists who began to come along, sometimes
Speaker 1: singing country songs. That's the way it all happened, the integration.
Speaker 1: As you were saying, okay, I got to ask, because
Speaker 1: I always used to ask my mother what was it
Speaker 1: like when television arrived? Now I know because the internet arrived,
Speaker 1: But I have to ask you when did your family
Speaker 1: get a television? Was television a big deal? Give me
Speaker 1: your take on that. It was a tremendous deal. I mean,
Speaker 1: we had a radio and that's what most everybody listen
Speaker 1: to for entertainment and news whatever. Not for news so much,
Speaker 1: but some news. But but the radio was it. And
Speaker 1: and I listened to Fibrum McGhee and Molly, I listened
Speaker 1: to Red Skelton. I remember to all these radio shows
Speaker 1: and and they were even tal that shows Ted Max Amateur.
Speaker 1: Well it was first it was the Major Bows which
Speaker 1: was big on radio. Frank Sinatra was on Major Bos
Speaker 1: television radio show. It was it wasn't on TV, but
Speaker 1: it was on radio with a big stut, big big
Speaker 1: theater audience. Frank Sinatra and the Hoboken Four and you
Speaker 1: know they sang. I've got a tape of their of
Speaker 1: their first introduction on the Major Bos show. And he
Speaker 1: became famous before Ted Mac took over his shows, and
Speaker 1: Major Bos had the Frank Sinatra who was sort of
Speaker 1: their spokesman, and the Hoboken Four. They danced, they danced,
Speaker 1: tap danced and sang on radio. Frank Sinatra and the
Speaker 1: Hoboken forth shine and you know it's about shining shoes
Speaker 1: it was sort of could have been considered a racist song,
Speaker 1: but it was. It was a big, big pop song.
Speaker 1: They sang shine and dadad um Shine and Da Da Da.
Speaker 1: I can't remember all the words. But then rump rump
Speaker 1: bump bump tap dancing, and he won and he went
Speaker 1: over so well that the major bows was doing live
Speaker 1: shows across the country, like in the summertime, and he
Speaker 1: he included Frank Sinatra in the Hoboken Forth. So all
Speaker 1: these things were big on radio, and I could I
Speaker 1: could see Fibruy McGee's closet open and everything fall out
Speaker 1: of it, and Jack Benny when he went to the
Speaker 1: safe to get some money, you know, and the footsteps
Speaker 1: and it was all and gun smoke on radio. You
Speaker 1: you know, it was all incredible on radio. But now
Speaker 1: people that we knew got TV sets, and they were
Speaker 1: a little circular screens, little oval or circular screens, and
Speaker 1: if you were lucky, you could go to somebody else's
Speaker 1: house and see TV. And that's when I first saw
Speaker 1: Ed Sullivan show. Literally every dream I would be on
Speaker 1: his show twelve times in the coming years. But but
Speaker 1: then I was watching from a sofa and my girlfriend's
Speaker 1: house she was not really a girlfriend, but she was
Speaker 1: a friend who was a girl. And uh, we did
Speaker 1: play spend the bottle a couple of times, some of
Speaker 1: our friends at her house. But then we would stop
Speaker 1: that and watch the little circular TV. So it was
Speaker 1: it took a little time to do well. We didn't
Speaker 1: have a TV set. I don't remember having a TV
Speaker 1: set to regret, till I graduated from high school. I
Speaker 1: just don't remember having a set in our home. We
Speaker 1: we watched I watched it other people's houses because it
Speaker 1: was a big deal. Just a big deal. So how
Speaker 1: did you end up on the Arthur Godfrey Show. It's
Speaker 1: a it's a it's a circuitous route. But but I
Speaker 1: I have won a contest in Nashville, just a local
Speaker 1: high school contest. And I had entered a number of
Speaker 1: those and I didn't necessarily I didn't win. I didn't
Speaker 1: win one of them. I'd come in second usually because
Speaker 1: and I understood, because the judges were usually adults. The
Speaker 1: kids could applaud and cheer if they wanted, but they
Speaker 1: were polite and that the judges would would decide who
Speaker 1: were the winners of the talent contest. And obviously a pianist,
Speaker 1: or a tap dancer, or a trumpet player, an accordionist,
Speaker 1: or somebody who obviously had to take lessons to learn something,
Speaker 1: and they did well deserve to win more than a
Speaker 1: guy who could just walk out and sing a pop song.
Speaker 1: I mean, anybody could do that, but the Ted Mac.
Speaker 1: There was a contest at at East Nashville High and
Speaker 1: I went over just to do it for fun of it. Again,
Speaker 1: I did all of my singing just for the fun
Speaker 1: of it. So and I enjoyed the applause of the audience,
Speaker 1: but I didn't expect it to lead to anything. So
Speaker 1: I went over expecting, maybe if I was lucky, to
Speaker 1: come in second. But the first prize was a trip
Speaker 1: to New York and an audition with the Ted Mac
Speaker 1: Amateur Hour. Well I knew this was special. I did.
Speaker 1: I couldn't make up my mind whether the singer a
Speaker 1: ballad because I could do those well, or an up tune.
Speaker 1: And you know, something got people clapping. So I put
Speaker 1: together a weird little medley of Oh you ain't God,
Speaker 1: Oh we ain't got a better love money? Maybe ragged
Speaker 1: and funny, but we're traveling along singing a song side
Speaker 1: by side that was the up tune, but I would
Speaker 1: I did a chorus of that, then segued into I
Speaker 1: Believe for every drop of rain that falls a flower groves.
Speaker 1: It was a big pop song, religious from Side by Side,
Speaker 1: jumpy too, I Believe, a weird medley, but I enjoyed it.
Speaker 1: The audience really liked it, and there was The judges
Speaker 1: included a disc jockey named Hugh Cherry, who must have
Speaker 1: been influential in this because he had taken a liking
Speaker 1: to me singing on radio just in youth, on parade,
Speaker 1: those shows around town, and he thought I had could
Speaker 1: have a future as a singer, but he couldn't make
Speaker 1: it happen. However, he was one of the judges. Now
Speaker 1: I sang my song, I thought a young girl named
Speaker 1: Shirley mcgoy was gonna win that night because she sang operatically,
Speaker 1: she trained, She sang, you know, one of those great
Speaker 1: opera songs, and I thought she's gonna win. And I
Speaker 1: don't care if I come in second or third, it
Speaker 1: doesn't matter, I told Mom and Daddy. They parked the
Speaker 1: car in the in the parking lot outside the high school.
Speaker 1: Look after I've sung, I'll go out to the car
Speaker 1: so we can get away and not get caught up
Speaker 1: in all the traffic. So that's what I did. I
Speaker 1: sang my Medley and then Surety mcgoy standing in the wing,
Speaker 1: she had already sung I can't. I went out to
Speaker 1: the car and I hear somebody yelling from the back
Speaker 1: door of the gym, Pat boone, where are you? Where
Speaker 1: are you? I'm over here. I was by the cars.
Speaker 1: I was ready to go home. Get in here, you've
Speaker 1: one you want what? I came running into into the
Speaker 1: backstage and here Shirley mcgoy crying on the side. You know,
Speaker 1: she thought she was gonna win, and I did too,
Speaker 1: and the crowd has gotten tired of wait wonder where
Speaker 1: in the world Pat boone as he's our winner. And
Speaker 1: so I went to the mic and I said, thank
Speaker 1: you so much. I you know, I really appreciate this.
Speaker 1: But I said, you know, this first prize is a
Speaker 1: trip to New York and audition with with Ted Mack.
Speaker 1: And I think Shirley mcgoy should do it, because I
Speaker 1: think she's got a better chance of getting on the
Speaker 1: Ted Max Show than than I would. So and they
Speaker 1: would saying no, no, no, you're our winner, you've got
Speaker 1: to go. So I had to go. I mean, I
Speaker 1: felt terrible about it for her sake, But but I
Speaker 1: was in flown to New York and a d C three. Okay,
Speaker 1: had you been anywhere before? Did anybody you know about
Speaker 1: a plane or anything? No, I've never been on a plane.
Speaker 1: I was driven to Florida and the summers, my dad
Speaker 1: would drive our two to our car. After we finally
Speaker 1: got a two door Chevy, which I thought was the
Speaker 1: most magnificent card. It had two doors, it had a heater,
Speaker 1: didn't have a radio, but it had a heater and
Speaker 1: two doors and a back seat so my brother and
Speaker 1: I could sit and then one of the girls could sit. Now,
Speaker 1: I mean, we would drive the six miles whatever it
Speaker 1: is from Nashville to Jacksonville every summer. And but no,
Speaker 1: I've never been on a plane. So I went on
Speaker 1: this d C three and flew to New York to
Speaker 1: put me in a seedy little hotel off Times Square,
Speaker 1: and uh and I went on the show. They had
Speaker 1: a I didn't have music. I didn't have my own
Speaker 1: sheet music or anything, but they had a little a pianist. Really,
Speaker 1: I think it was just piano to play for me,
Speaker 1: but he knew I believe. So I sang I believe
Speaker 1: for every drop of rain that falls, and I could
Speaker 1: really sing it with heart and enthusiasm, and I won.
Speaker 1: I won. The Ted mcameitur Just to be clear, this
Speaker 1: is now television, not radio. It's television and radio, I think.
Speaker 1: But it was television for sure, and I won, and
Speaker 1: I was stunned, you know, And so they flew me
Speaker 1: back home. Of course, the newspapers took pictures and local
Speaker 1: boy wins, but I it was summertime, and again I
Speaker 1: was not when minded. I didn't think I was gonna win.
Speaker 1: I mean, there was some other talented people on that
Speaker 1: amateur hour show and the guy singing a pop song.
Speaker 1: I mean, anybody can do that. So I was leading
Speaker 1: singing in a gospel meeting that summer. Uh. And that
Speaker 1: was out in the country Beardstown, Tennessee. They there was
Speaker 1: some of the farmhouses didn't even have phones, and so
Speaker 1: I was out in this farmer's house on Thursday because
Speaker 1: the vote, it was the votes were cards and letters
Speaker 1: that would stream in to the TV network. And by
Speaker 1: Thursday they they're counting all the cards and letters and
Speaker 1: they determined who was the winner. Now they were trying
Speaker 1: to reach me, but I was out in the country
Speaker 1: and had no phones because I made no provision to
Speaker 1: be reached. And the truck drove up in the in
Speaker 1: the yard of this farmat's and I could hear boots
Speaker 1: stomping on the porch and knocking on the screen door.
Speaker 1: And I'm in. They're having lunch with the preacher and
Speaker 1: the family that had ad us over for lunch. There's
Speaker 1: a guy named Boone in there. Yeah, he's eating us
Speaker 1: out of house and home here. Why uh, there's a
Speaker 1: switchboard in the in Beardstown. We got to get him over.
Speaker 1: Somebody from New York is trying to reach him. This
Speaker 1: was the first time it The thought entered my mind.
Speaker 1: Wait a minute, they might call me want me to
Speaker 1: come back, which was true. Oscar Schoon marker from the
Speaker 1: from the Ted Max Shows. Where are you? When I
Speaker 1: got to the switchboard in this lady's house, Where are
Speaker 1: you where? I said, I'm in Beardstown. When we got
Speaker 1: to get you to New York Sun, You're our winner.
Speaker 1: We gotta be have you here Saturday night. Right, got
Speaker 1: to get you on a plane tomorrow Friday. So I
Speaker 1: had to call my friend who came up to Beardstown
Speaker 1: and drove me back to Nashville. There was a photographer
Speaker 1: from the Nashville, Tennessee and taken a picture of me
Speaker 1: packing going back to New York. Homeboy again, going to
Speaker 1: be on the Ted mcamateur ar again. And so I
Speaker 1: flew back. I sang a Perry Como song, No arms
Speaker 1: will ever hold you like these arms of mine Perry
Speaker 1: Como song, and uh, and I you know I was.
Speaker 1: I was nervous, but I had had experienced singing on
Speaker 1: radio and on local TV and the talent shows. I mean, gosh,
Speaker 1: I wasn't a total newcomer. When the red light came on,
Speaker 1: I knew what to do. So I sang and and
Speaker 1: and Ted Max Show with just piano accompaniment. But uh,
Speaker 1: I went home this time. I made sure I was reaching,
Speaker 1: and I was. I went back the third time and
Speaker 1: won three times in a row. Sang an Eddie Fisher song,
Speaker 1: I'm behind you on your wedding day, on our wedding day,
Speaker 1: only he's not walking down the aisle, he's in the
Speaker 1: in the audience. And and so I won three times
Speaker 1: and thinking that's got to lead to something, But it didn't.
Speaker 1: I didn't it didn't lead to anything. I I flew
Speaker 1: home from New York and uh, and it was in
Speaker 1: the papers locally. And the one thing it did lead
Speaker 1: to was an invitation from a guy named Bill Beasley
Speaker 1: who had a little recording company, and he had me
Speaker 1: come in and make a record on the rainy night
Speaker 1: in the Owen Bradley studio. Two songs. One of them
Speaker 1: I had written myself, a country song, the other would
Speaker 1: be pop song. And neither one of them became hits,
Speaker 1: but they got paid, played locally. But it didn't lead
Speaker 1: to anything except in in the near future, which I
Speaker 1: didn't know yet, there was a guy named Randy Wood
Speaker 1: at Dot Records, who had a big dependent label based
Speaker 1: in Gallatin, Tennessee, outside Nashville, and he was taking all
Speaker 1: this in. Well. A few months went by, surely, and
Speaker 1: I married, moved to Texas, and we're expecting our first
Speaker 1: baby already when I got a call from Okay, just
Speaker 1: to be clear, you moved to Texas to go to college.
Speaker 1: To go to college, Yeah, by Texas, well, Denton, Texas,
Speaker 1: North Texas State had a big music school, and because
Speaker 1: I was doing a lot of musical things, I thought
Speaker 1: I would learn to play an instrument. You know, I
Speaker 1: could play a few chords in the ukulele. Maybe I
Speaker 1: should maybe take piano or take some music courses. And
Speaker 1: even if I'm just going to be a preacher teacher
Speaker 1: like I thought I was, I gotta do something. I'm
Speaker 1: married now and I've got to know I'm I'm gonna
Speaker 1: be able to make a living being a singer, ain't it.
Speaker 1: And so by my experience up go then so uh
Speaker 1: new music school. We had dear friends we could stay
Speaker 1: with in the big inning that would sort of help
Speaker 1: us get settled into Denton, Texas great music school. And uh,
Speaker 1: and when I get the call from New York, Hey,
Speaker 1: you're we're having a shootout, not a shootout, but a
Speaker 1: showdown with all the three time winners, which they would
Speaker 1: have periodically whenever they would have enough three time winners,
Speaker 1: which was very rare. Not many people would win twice
Speaker 1: or three times. I mean, there were such odd kinds
Speaker 1: of talent. There was I think Connie Francis No and
Speaker 1: Margaret was on the show as a young girl from
Speaker 1: Illinois and she got beat out. She sang beautifully. I've
Speaker 1: got the videotape of her performance, but she got beat
Speaker 1: that night by a guy who could play a classical
Speaker 1: melody in a leaf in the hands, and people were
Speaker 1: you know, the audience was so intrigued with this guy
Speaker 1: they could play opportunes on a leaf that they they
Speaker 1: didn't vote for Ann Margaret. I mean, you never knew
Speaker 1: who was gonna win. But anyway, they called me and said,
Speaker 1: you got to come back. You're one of about three
Speaker 1: time winners. So I had to leave Shirley and the
Speaker 1: baby were expecting and go to New York and and
Speaker 1: and be away from school for a few days. And
Speaker 1: I was on that show with the three time winners,
Speaker 1: and uh, I don't remember what I sang that night.
Speaker 1: I wish I did, but it was it went well,
Speaker 1: I would say it did. It did go very well,
Speaker 1: and and that they told me later, the people from
Speaker 1: the show, that I was winning. However, something else happened
Speaker 1: that I wasn't expecting. Arthur Godfrey, that's how you the question.
Speaker 1: He had this big daytime show on every morning on
Speaker 1: on CBS, and it was he was it on on
Speaker 1: TV because he also had a Monday night talent show.
Speaker 1: Monday nights, Arthur Godfrey's talents got shows. And then uh,
Speaker 1: sometimes you'd be doing specials, big specials with his people
Speaker 1: from his morning show. Uh, doing things on a specials
Speaker 1: on Wednesday nights. I mean he was Mr TV. So
Speaker 1: I'm there. After I sang my song that with the
Speaker 1: three time winners, I couldn't. I didn't have money to
Speaker 1: fly back home till Thursday to find out if I
Speaker 1: was going to be the winner. So I went over
Speaker 1: to CBS on my own and just went into the
Speaker 1: to the studios on on whatever the street was. I
Speaker 1: learned what which avenue it was CBS, and I just
Speaker 1: asked if I could meet with the producer of the
Speaker 1: Godfrey Show. I would like to audition, thinking maybe I
Speaker 1: could get on the god Free Show since I'd won
Speaker 1: the Ted Max Show before and he was gone, he
Speaker 1: had already done his daytime show. But his producer, a lady,
Speaker 1: was there, and she said come on in the studio.
Speaker 1: And it was just a studio with an engineer and
Speaker 1: no miss new music. So she said, well singing something,
Speaker 1: So I sang I believe for every drop of rain
Speaker 1: that falls of fly. I could have sung blue Moon,
Speaker 1: but no, I sang I Believe, which comes to a
Speaker 1: big finish. She said, very nice can you come back
Speaker 1: in three weeks. I said, no, ma'am, I'm expecting our
Speaker 1: first child. I didn't mention anything about the Ted Max show.
Speaker 1: I should have maybe, but I said no, I'm expecting
Speaker 1: our first child. So I've I've got to go home.
Speaker 1: She said, oh, well, then that we'll put you on tonight.
Speaker 1: So she put me on that night, and I had
Speaker 1: to have a talent scout to represent me introduce me.
Speaker 1: And I called our high school principal who had a
Speaker 1: sister in a who lived on Long Island, and she
Speaker 1: was on the show and introduced me like we were
Speaker 1: old friends, and and said I sang around Nashville and
Speaker 1: and then I sang I believe for every drop of
Speaker 1: rain that falls. I mean, it was my favorite song,
Speaker 1: which is I think not an accident. It was a
Speaker 1: song of faith and I could sing it very well
Speaker 1: into a big finish and I won that night the
Speaker 1: Arthur Godfrey Show. There were three time, there were three
Speaker 1: other two other part contestants, but I won, and so
Speaker 1: I all I got for it was appearing on his
Speaker 1: morning show the next four mornings Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday.
Speaker 1: And then see you later, Pat, if you're ever back
Speaker 1: in New York. Give us a call, and I flew
Speaker 1: back to Denton, but stopped in Nashville. Nothing happened, nobody,
Speaker 1: no cause, no invitations to do anything. And and I
Speaker 1: and I, but I was canceled off the Ted Max
Speaker 1: show because you can't win a professional show on Monday
Speaker 1: and an amateur show Friday the following Saturday. So they
Speaker 1: just scratched me off the show as if I had
Speaker 1: never been on. And uh, and I blew it. I
Speaker 1: blew that was a college scholarship which I would have won.
Speaker 1: It would have helped me get through my schooling with
Speaker 1: a baby on the way. But I blew it by
Speaker 1: being over eager. I went on audition for Arthur Godfril
Speaker 1: who knew I would get on that night? But I
Speaker 1: did and one but that blew the Ted mcamateur our
Speaker 1: winning in the scholarship. So I'm feeling really downcast and Nashville,
Speaker 1: seeing my folks on the way back to Dentn' and
Speaker 1: a phone rings guy named Randy Wood, who owns the
Speaker 1: record company in Gallatin outside Nashville, said, have been listening.
Speaker 1: You're a homeboy. You can sing, said, would you like
Speaker 1: to make a record? I said, well, yes, sir, I would.
Speaker 1: I made a couple, but you know, not much happened
Speaker 1: with it. He said, well, wait, did he know you
Speaker 1: from Nashville or he senior on Arthur Godfrey. Oh no,
Speaker 1: from Nashville. He he knew he was in the record business.
Speaker 1: He I'm sure he had heard my records on on
Speaker 1: Republic Records, but they had not been hits. All he
Speaker 1: knew was I could sing, but there's lots of singers around.
Speaker 1: But when he heard me on the Arthur god For
Speaker 1: Show and the Ted Mcamateur Hour and saw that I
Speaker 1: was winning, he said, look, you're going back and have
Speaker 1: your baby, and I'll look for a song I think
Speaker 1: and be a hit and i'll call you. Yes, sir, Okay.
Speaker 1: I went back. We had our baby, Cherry, our first child,
Speaker 1: and it was eight months before he called. I mean
Speaker 1: eight months. I thought he'd forgotten all about me. And
Speaker 1: I was leading singing and acapella and leading singing in
Speaker 1: a little country church out and and also preaching in
Speaker 1: the little country church because I was going to be
Speaker 1: a preacher in Sliddale, Texas. But when the phone call
Speaker 1: came from Randy Wood, it would saying I've got a
Speaker 1: song I think you could make a hit with, and
Speaker 1: I'll send you the ticket you come to Chicago. And
Speaker 1: we recorded a song called two Hearts, two Kisses Make
Speaker 1: One Love. And I said, well, that sounds like a
Speaker 1: Perry Como song, maybe the two Hearts two Kisses or
Speaker 1: something like that. No, No, one hearts not enough, baby be.
Speaker 1: He plays the original Charms record on the phone rhythm
Speaker 1: and blues. It was called race music, and and I
Speaker 1: hadn't sung anything like that, but listen, He's given me
Speaker 1: a chance to make a record. So he flew me
Speaker 1: to Chicago. I stayed in the hotel room all afternoon
Speaker 1: and evening till that night when we recorded two Hearts,
Speaker 1: two Kisses, and it instantly overnight became a million seller.
Speaker 1: I say overnight that we learned the next day after
Speaker 1: I recorded that song, covering R and B songs were
Speaker 1: starting to happen. Other artists. Frank Sinatra recorded that same song.
Speaker 1: DRIs Day recorded two Hearts, two Kisses. The the Castro
Speaker 1: Sisters and the Lancers groups all recorded that same song.
Speaker 1: So Randy would put me on planes for eighteen days.
Speaker 1: I went to twenty cities in eighteen days at his expense,
Speaker 1: went to radio stations, TV stations. It was starting to
Speaker 1: do dance party shows, um to see the buyers, the
Speaker 1: jukebox operators. I mean, it was an incredibly taxing eighteen days.
Speaker 1: And I thought, boy, if this is the record business,
Speaker 1: this is not for me. Calling home to see how
Speaker 1: Shirley and our little baby were doing. And and uh,
Speaker 1: I thought, this, if this is the record business, I mean,
Speaker 1: this is not for me. But the record became a
Speaker 1: million seller, and you know, it was a top ten
Speaker 1: million seller. I went back to Denton. Now all of
Speaker 1: a sudden, I'm a big cheese around campus, you know,
Speaker 1: at North Texas State. I'm starting to go back to
Speaker 1: my my TV shows I was doing on the w
Speaker 1: B A P. But but now I was getting calls
Speaker 1: to come perform. And Randy called me in March, not yeah,
Speaker 1: March of that March was too harsh to kisses. Then
Speaker 1: May of that same or he caused me to come
Speaker 1: back to Chicago and record. Ain't that a shame? Past
Speaker 1: Dominoes big number one R and B hit which became
Speaker 1: a million seller, number one hit for me. And then
Speaker 1: and then October of that same year, a million selling
Speaker 1: hit with a song called Crazy Obama coma knocking knocking
Speaker 1: at my front door, door door, and all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: everything I was doing it was a million seller. I
Speaker 1: had to move to New York eventually to New Jersey.
Speaker 1: We were expecting our second child already, and I mean emminently,
Speaker 1: because it had been just a little over a year.
Speaker 1: And uh. And so we moved first to New York
Speaker 1: and then to New Jersey, where the next two kids,
Speaker 1: well one was born in New York and the other
Speaker 1: two in New Jersey before we moved to California. But
Speaker 1: the career, which I had not anticipated at all, just
Speaker 1: took off. And for a record, I hold in the
Speaker 1: record business, Bob, Is that for from fifty not from
Speaker 1: fifty seven, I'm sorry, through fifty nine. I was never
Speaker 1: off the singles chart in Billboard for two d and
Speaker 1: twenty weeks consecutively. It's a record I hold. Elton John
Speaker 1: came the closest with a hundred fifty seven weeks, but
Speaker 1: I lived on the charts for over four years after that,
Speaker 1: went back to school, graduating from Columba University with four kids.
Speaker 1: But it all took off like crazy. All of this
Speaker 1: and response to your question about Arthur Godfrey. So you know,
Speaker 1: this is the fifties and the music business. Are you
Speaker 1: making any money? Yes, because hey, I wasn't making any
Speaker 1: money from records yet, because I was on the lowest
Speaker 1: royalty level for several years. Randy was only given me
Speaker 1: three percent per records. But instantly I was being asked
Speaker 1: to be on everybody else's TV shows. And then I
Speaker 1: was making my own performances, asked to come perform in
Speaker 1: supper clubs and and and shows that people were putting on.
Speaker 1: I was getting paid to perform. Yes, And uh, and
Speaker 1: so I will let's see that was this was that
Speaker 1: that was fifty nine into the sixties. Yes, I was
Speaker 1: being paid to come do shows sometimes with other performers.
Speaker 1: But but I was making money, and uh, you know,
Speaker 1: I I'd have to think back as to how I
Speaker 1: was until I started on TV on seven forgetting TV
Speaker 1: for a second. Why do you think the hits dried up? Well,
Speaker 1: they didn't. Well, I mean you had this string, yeah,
Speaker 1: and then you were an artist. Then the Beatles came long. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you're jumping ahead a few years because I lived on
Speaker 1: the charts for four years, for two hundred twenty weeks. Uh,
Speaker 1: And and I was I matched Elvis during that period,
Speaker 1: uh in in fifties, seven, eight and nine, uh a
Speaker 1: record for record. I had forty one chart records in
Speaker 1: the in the fifties and UH sixteen chart records in
Speaker 1: the sixties. Right up to the Beatles. I mean I was.
Speaker 1: I just lived on the charts. Everything I recorded hit
Speaker 1: the charts, and and I mean I did things like
Speaker 1: record the first million selling Him album in the fifties,
Speaker 1: right in the middle of rock and roll. It's sold
Speaker 1: a million copies, over a million church songs that I've
Speaker 1: been singing all my life, because I knew the kids
Speaker 1: would buy anything at that point that I recorded, And
Speaker 1: so I recorded a Him album, and sure enough it's
Speaker 1: so well over a million copies, which you know, sort
Speaker 1: of fulfilled part of my early ambition to be a
Speaker 1: eat your preacher. I mean that really all along the
Speaker 1: way my early ambitions were answered and in manifold ways.
Speaker 1: But but I was now appearing in uh in school functions.
Speaker 1: I would be asked to appear at the youth rallies
Speaker 1: and things like this and and telethons, and you know,
Speaker 1: wherever I went and whatever I did, I was always
Speaker 1: trying to to set what I hoped was a good example. Well,
Speaker 1: in fact, while I was in college, when I was
Speaker 1: making my first movie in fifty seven, and I was
Speaker 1: still making record after record, hit after hit, because I
Speaker 1: recorded April Love and Bernadine and my movie songs in
Speaker 1: fifty seven and I started my own television show. Okay, okay,
Speaker 1: a little bit slower. Let's go back to those first hips.
Speaker 1: History was written years later that these tracks were originally
Speaker 1: black music, as you said, reached music, and you made
Speaker 1: the white versions. They're blowback in that starting in the
Speaker 1: lead sixties. What was it like living in that era?
Speaker 1: And two, as a deeply religious man, how did you
Speaker 1: feel about singing rock and roll? Well, I I called
Speaker 1: myself Elvis, and I'm midwives at the birth of rock
Speaker 1: and roll because there was no quote rock and roll.
Speaker 1: That phrase in the mid fifties was you was a
Speaker 1: race music phrase. And that's what they call R and
Speaker 1: B was race music, all black performers and rock and roll.
Speaker 1: This rock and roll all night long, baby, I mean,
Speaker 1: it was not dancing. But when Bill Haley and the
Speaker 1: Comments recorded Rock around the Clock, and I've just recently
Speaker 1: learned that when I met Elvis that first, that first
Speaker 1: night in uh in nineteen fifty six, in October fifty six, Yeah,
Speaker 1: October fifty six, when he was unknown, and he was
Speaker 1: the opening act on this sock cop and I was
Speaker 1: the headliner because I was having hit records. I've had
Speaker 1: three hit records, um already million sellers. And he was unknown,
Speaker 1: but Bill Randall, the DJ, brought him up from Shreport
Speaker 1: where he was known as a rockabilly appearing on the
Speaker 1: Louisiana Hay Ride, and Bill wanted to see what he
Speaker 1: was like. So anyway, that same night, I had forgotten
Speaker 1: till till a few nights ago, because I left after
Speaker 1: I did my part that night, lip sinking my three
Speaker 1: records to the screams of the kids. Uh that. The
Speaker 1: two acts that followed me were Bill Haley and the
Speaker 1: Comments doing their new record of Rock around the Clock
Speaker 1: and the Four Lads doing a song called Memory. Um,
Speaker 1: this will have these moments to remember. We'll have these
Speaker 1: moments to remember. But they were unknown. They were just
Speaker 1: coming along right me, just becoming known that night. And
Speaker 1: so that was in In in the fall October of
Speaker 1: fifty seven. But by then I was I was making
Speaker 1: money and I was recording these r and B songs. Now,
Speaker 1: see what you have to know If you didn't live
Speaker 1: through that time, and many of the critics who came
Speaker 1: along later didn't, They didn't realize that race music R
Speaker 1: and B had their own shows, their own artists, their
Speaker 1: own radio stations, their own charts. It was a separate genre.
Speaker 1: But gradually in the in the mid fifties, UH pop
Speaker 1: record producers began to hear some of these hooky fun
Speaker 1: songs recorded by some of these R and B artists
Speaker 1: and do pop versions of them, and they were calling
Speaker 1: it rock and roll. There was no rock and roll.
Speaker 1: In fact, there was hardly a teen market until the
Speaker 1: mid fifties because kids just they liked whatever their parents like,
Speaker 1: what they've been exposed to. But now this music was
Speaker 1: and long, and their parents weren't sure they liked it,
Speaker 1: which made the kids like it more. And uh and
Speaker 1: these songs that I recorded because I was acceptable to
Speaker 1: the parents as a clean cut white guy from Nashville,
Speaker 1: and I was singing uh eventually two D Fruity and
Speaker 1: and uh long Tall Sally, and Ain't that a shame?
Speaker 1: And and crazy little Mama come knocking knocking at my
Speaker 1: front door door door, Well, I was somehow making it acceptable.
Speaker 1: And the artists knew that because I've got tapes audio
Speaker 1: tapes with Little Richard and Fats and some of the
Speaker 1: performers who were being asked by black DJ's early in
Speaker 1: their careers, how did you feel when Pat Boone did
Speaker 1: your songs? Little Richard? I've got a tape of him
Speaker 1: saying when he when I heard Pat Boone had done
Speaker 1: my song too, d fruity, I was still washing dishes
Speaker 1: in a bus station and making Georgia. I wasn't making
Speaker 1: no money yet they would play and my record on
Speaker 1: the radio, but I wasn't get me making no money.
Speaker 1: But when bat Boone did my song, I threw the
Speaker 1: towel down and I walked out of here because I
Speaker 1: was gonna make some money now, I mean, that's a
Speaker 1: little Richard. At the time, Fats Domino had written, Ain't
Speaker 1: that a shame? And he had He sold a hundred
Speaker 1: fifty thousand when he was number one R and B
Speaker 1: in their charts and in that genre. But when I
Speaker 1: recorded his song, my version, which was more rock, his
Speaker 1: was more roll. His was you me boom boom, me
Speaker 1: cry boom boom When you said bomp, mine was you
Speaker 1: made bump, bump me cry. Mine was a rock sound.
Speaker 1: His was a roll sound. We put them together and
Speaker 1: it was rock and roll, but he said many times.
Speaker 1: In fact, there was a time I went to see
Speaker 1: him in Louisiana, New Orleans, at al Hurts Place where
Speaker 1: he was performing. He didn't talk much, but he he
Speaker 1: had me come. It was theater in the round kind
Speaker 1: of thing, and he and his little band, Fats, was
Speaker 1: at the piano. He asked me to come down and
Speaker 1: sit with him on the piano bench, which I did.
Speaker 1: He didn't talk much, as I say, said, you folks
Speaker 1: see this ring and on his one of his stubby fingers,
Speaker 1: he had this piano shaped diamond ring. This man bought
Speaker 1: me this ring. With this song, you made both both
Speaker 1: meet cry, and we sang Ain't That Ashamed? Together? And
Speaker 1: he said many times he made more money because my
Speaker 1: record of his song, which he wrote and published. Little
Speaker 1: Richard didn't publish his own songs. He didn't know enough,
Speaker 1: didn't know what a copyright was, but Fats and his
Speaker 1: people did. I sold immediately a million and a half
Speaker 1: of Ain't That a Shame, which was ten times more
Speaker 1: than his record had sold, and that helped him cross over,
Speaker 1: as they all acknowledged in very short order into into
Speaker 1: the pop world that at that point they had no
Speaker 1: entrance to and they weren't known even the DJ's. Most DJs,
Speaker 1: they were just playing pop music Patty page A Combo,
Speaker 1: Vic Domone, show Tunes, Tin Pan Alley. But now this
Speaker 1: guy Pat Boone. In fact, Jesse Jackson said recently, when
Speaker 1: I did a song of R and B classics with
Speaker 1: the original performers, that's another story. But I was talking
Speaker 1: to Santida Jackson on the Rainbow Coalition station and she
Speaker 1: said to the about recording, Papa's got a brand new
Speaker 1: bag with James Brown, And she says, uh, is that
Speaker 1: who I think it is? On the phone. Yeah, put
Speaker 1: him on and it was her dad, Jesse Jackson, and
Speaker 1: he said, you know, I've never said this publicly before,
Speaker 1: but he said, we we came to love Pat Boone
Speaker 1: in in the Chicago partly because if his father and
Speaker 1: are read fully the big country star who he used
Speaker 1: to sing our hymns and our gospel songs piece in
Speaker 1: the valley close to walk with the then Pat Boone
Speaker 1: came along his son and Are and he was singing
Speaker 1: our our rhythm and blues songs and not just singing
Speaker 1: them and having big records, but bringing the original artists
Speaker 1: on TV with him. And he says, you're making it
Speaker 1: popular and acceptable to all this big white audience. And
Speaker 1: he said, I I'm gonna say that I think Pat
Speaker 1: Boone did more for race relations in the fifties than
Speaker 1: any other singer. Now that's coming from Jesse Jackson. Let's
Speaker 1: go back to the fifties. Seems like you met everybody.
Speaker 1: What were they like? They were wonderful people. I mean,
Speaker 1: that's see. I grew up, as I told you, in Nashville,
Speaker 1: and I worked alongside with my dad's company in the summertimes.
Speaker 1: I was a laborer and he had some other high
Speaker 1: school kids, black kids also working for him. And together
Speaker 1: we were we were pushing wheel bears for a cement,
Speaker 1: we were pouring concrete, digging ditches, a total lumber with
Speaker 1: our shirts off in the hot summertime. And and we
Speaker 1: were friends. I mean we were buddies. Uh. And the
Speaker 1: black guys, we were just laborers together, earning a dollar
Speaker 1: quarter an hour. And and maybe some of them folks,
Speaker 1: they might have had a car. We didn't. My dad
Speaker 1: had to pick up truck. But uh, but so now,
Speaker 1: when I started recording and I met Little Richard, and
Speaker 1: I met Fats, and I met and then I had
Speaker 1: them come on TV with me. They came on as
Speaker 1: my fellow performers that they in fact, we had a
Speaker 1: symbiotic relationship, of course, because their music was good for me.
Speaker 1: I was good for their music and for their for
Speaker 1: their careers because they did not they were not known
Speaker 1: or accepted on pop radio until I, Elvis, and a
Speaker 1: few others began to record their songs, and then DJ's
Speaker 1: like Alan Freed at W I and S in New York.
Speaker 1: He'd started asking his listeners which record do you want
Speaker 1: to play? You want to play Fats original or Pat
Speaker 1: Boone's cover record. In the beginning, they chose my record
Speaker 1: of Ain't that a Shame? Over Fats Original? But after that,
Speaker 1: after maybe a few months out, I mean, he and
Speaker 1: the other DJs around the country were starting to play
Speaker 1: the originals, which the kids liked, but they had to
Speaker 1: be introduced to it first, and that always bothered me.
Speaker 1: When I think Billy Joel when he accepted his uh
Speaker 1: is it Billy Joel? Yeah? I think it was when
Speaker 1: he accepted his entrance into the rock and Roll Hall
Speaker 1: of Fame. And I never thought of Billy Joel as
Speaker 1: rock and roll anyway. He was sophisticated pop and big band,
Speaker 1: and sure some of his students had great beats, and
Speaker 1: he did something that pure rock and roll, I guess,
Speaker 1: But he says, you know, I became fans of this
Speaker 1: music um back when it was and he's talked about
Speaker 1: the original performers, back before Pat Boone and Frankie Avalon
Speaker 1: or somebody did their versions. I liked the originals, but
Speaker 1: I wanted to say, what so did I? Man? You know,
Speaker 1: I recorded their songs back then before you did, and
Speaker 1: helped them and their careers. But but it's really strange. Um.
Speaker 1: I just was never accepted by the rock and roll
Speaker 1: crowd and Yon Winner and those who select those who
Speaker 1: should be in the rock and roll Hall of Fame.
Speaker 1: Though I had many hits that were purely rock and
Speaker 1: roll and rhythm and blues, but I also committed the
Speaker 1: cardinal sins of recording gospel and pop movie themes and
Speaker 1: big band swing and all kinds of other music, and
Speaker 1: therefore I was disqualified in their mind as a rock
Speaker 1: and roller. Well, certainly the rock and Roll Hall of
Speaker 1: Famous is so Robin holl I agree with you. But
Speaker 1: going back a chapter, what was Elvis like? Did you
Speaker 1: know Jerry Lee? Did you know Carl Perkins? Yes, all
Speaker 1: of them? Yeah. I In fact, you may know of
Speaker 1: the Broadway show that was something what was it called
Speaker 1: the Something for when uh, when we we had all
Speaker 1: become very popular, we're very successful, when Sam Phillips brought
Speaker 1: Jerry Lee, Elvis, Carl Perkins, and Johnny Cash back in
Speaker 1: a million dollar, million dollar quartet and in that I
Speaker 1: think it was originally in the script. I don't know
Speaker 1: if it wound up in the Broadway show because I
Speaker 1: never got to see it, but I've got the tape
Speaker 1: of it when Elvis they're they're all singing their songs
Speaker 1: and reminiscing, and for two or three hours, Elvis says, hey,
Speaker 1: you guys heard Boone's new record. And they said, no,
Speaker 1: it is as good song man. But they sent it
Speaker 1: to me into the writer, send it to me, and
Speaker 1: Pat Boone at the same time. He got it first,
Speaker 1: and he he's got a big hit with it called
Speaker 1: Don't Forbid Me, And they said, what's it sound like?
Speaker 1: And he starts strumming on his guitar and singing it
Speaker 1: the way he'd done. He would have done it, and
Speaker 1: I already had a million selling hit with it, and
Speaker 1: I tell my audiences when if I tell him this story,
Speaker 1: I said, I sure, I'm glad I got it first
Speaker 1: because Elvis would have had a big hit with it.
Speaker 1: But I at at first. But yeah, jaredy Lewis and
Speaker 1: I were the first guests when when Dick Clark went
Speaker 1: national with the American Bandstand. I knew Dick, but when
Speaker 1: he was the the off camera announcer for Bob Horne
Speaker 1: in Philadelphia, when Bob was hosting a show called Bandstand,
Speaker 1: it wasn't American Bandstand, just called Bandstand Bob Horne. He
Speaker 1: was an late middle aged guy, but the teams were
Speaker 1: dancing and he was playing all the records and the
Speaker 1: and many of us, like I I came in was
Speaker 1: as a guest lip syncing my record on his bandstand show.
Speaker 1: I did that for many. So the off camera announcer
Speaker 1: was a guy named Dick Clark, and he would just
Speaker 1: be the ones in nowaadies, and never here's Bob Horne
Speaker 1: with Bandstand, Let's dance kids or whatever. So my promotion
Speaker 1: guy with me, said, Dick is a local DJ. Why
Speaker 1: don't you go talk to him a little bit because
Speaker 1: he'll play your records. So I went back and talked
Speaker 1: with Dick when he when neither of us was on camera,
Speaker 1: and he appreciated the fact. And then I went to
Speaker 1: him to his radio station and was on with him
Speaker 1: while I was there in Philadelphia. So later when he
Speaker 1: went national, because Bob Horne, this is news, I'm not
Speaker 1: talking out of school. He was forced to leave the
Speaker 1: show because of allegations of shenanigans with some of the
Speaker 1: girl dancers, and so boom, he was out, and Dick
Speaker 1: Clark took over the show, and then ABC brought it
Speaker 1: to New York and on the first American band Stand.
Speaker 1: His first guests were me and Jerry Lee Lewis, and
Speaker 1: then Jerry Lee and I were on some other shows
Speaker 1: together along the way, and I knew his cousins Jimmy
Speaker 1: Swagger and there's another one Jimmy Swagger, oh and Mickey Gilly.
Speaker 1: They were all cousins of his, and uh and and
Speaker 1: he yet of course he was doing extremely well. We
Speaker 1: had totally different lifestyles, but but but I eventually recorded
Speaker 1: some of his songs too, but they were just we
Speaker 1: were all just newcomers. We were up and comers. We
Speaker 1: were all you know, I was it, which came as
Speaker 1: a big surprise to me, But for all of us,
Speaker 1: we're looking at shoving for our place in the sun
Speaker 1: and in the spotlight. But by the time I was
Speaker 1: on with Dick Clark, I was already doing my own
Speaker 1: network show, which was sometimes number one in the ratings
Speaker 1: of Pat Boon Chevy Show. Okay, let's stop for a second.
Speaker 1: How did you get that show? What was the experience
Speaker 1: of doing that show, the Pat Boon Chevy Show. Well, um,
Speaker 1: it was simply because of the record success. I mean
Speaker 1: I was having one hit record after another. Now, I
Speaker 1: was still in school, in college because we moved Shirley
Speaker 1: not to te Neck, New Jersey, and we had our
Speaker 1: fourth child, third and third and fourth child children in
Speaker 1: uh oh gosh in in New Jersey. I should know
Speaker 1: Dr Leonard Brown. I remember his name, but I can't Hackensack.
Speaker 1: I guess it was Hackensack Hospital. And I was in
Speaker 1: school at Columbia University, on my way hopefully to get
Speaker 1: a five bit of capital because I knew I had
Speaker 1: a very high I q and I couldn't settle for
Speaker 1: less than a so I would want to get if
Speaker 1: I be at a Kappa Key, that would be my
Speaker 1: goal in college, and then I would apply for a
Speaker 1: teaching job. I'd be teaching English in some school somewhere.
Speaker 1: I mean, I didn't expect for this record career to
Speaker 1: keep going. I mean I'd already seen some other artists
Speaker 1: who had had a hit record or two, and now
Speaker 1: they were singing behind the bar somewhere that I would
Speaker 1: have dinner, and I thought, well, that's not gonna be me.
Speaker 1: I mean, this is gonna fizzle out. I'm gonna get
Speaker 1: my college degree. I'm gonna graduate magna cum laude, which
Speaker 1: I did and so um. But while all that was
Speaker 1: still going on, my records caused twenty century Fox to
Speaker 1: call and ask if I'd like to make a movie,
Speaker 1: and what I come out and do a screen test. Okay,
Speaker 1: at this point in time, you have the record, lad,
Speaker 1: you're still with dot Yeah, do you have a manager
Speaker 1: and agent? How do you get those? And how do
Speaker 1: you find those? That was another piece of very good fortune.
Speaker 1: I don't think it was coincidental. My manager was a
Speaker 1: publisher New Publishing, a friend of Perry Como, but he
Speaker 1: had become a manager sort of on the side two
Speaker 1: artists who are who are who? Sang with Perry Como,
Speaker 1: the Fontaine Sisters and a couple of others, And because
Speaker 1: of that he met Randy Would because they were on
Speaker 1: Dot records. So when Randy Wood knew I needed a manager,
Speaker 1: he said to Jack Spina, why did you manage Pat?
Speaker 1: So he managed the Hilltoppers, a quartet, He managed the
Speaker 1: Fontaine Sisters, He managed uh Johnny Maddox, a ragtime piano player,
Speaker 1: and now he managed Pat Boone. And he got me
Speaker 1: with g a C. General Artist Corporation, which was the
Speaker 1: biggest UH management talent management in the business. And a
Speaker 1: guy named Tom Rockwell was the head of that company,
Speaker 1: and he and his top echelon people took a very
Speaker 1: big interest in me. I don't know why. I mean
Speaker 1: there were other performers, but they saw things happening in
Speaker 1: my life. I mean I was having hit record after
Speaker 1: hit record. I was I had to hit television show
Speaker 1: and so, and in fact, I think they helped me
Speaker 1: get the television show. And now twenty century Fox wants
Speaker 1: me to make movies. So I went to New York well,
Speaker 1: what came first the movies of the TV show, the
Speaker 1: TV So tell me how you got the TV show. Well,
Speaker 1: it just it came about because ABC Network through g
Speaker 1: a C. They just said, hey, the guy hosted radio
Speaker 1: shows in Nashville. He was doing TV hosting shows in
Speaker 1: Fort Worth while he was in college on w b
Speaker 1: a P Television, The Country Music Show on Friday nights,
Speaker 1: The Beauty Barn Dance, and these four most teen times
Speaker 1: another talent show sponsored by Foremost Dairies, for which they
Speaker 1: paid me the handsome sum of fifty dollars a week.
Speaker 1: And uh, but I was getting a lot of professional experience.
Speaker 1: So ABC said, well, the g A C. You know,
Speaker 1: he should be on television like Perry Como and Eddie
Speaker 1: Fisher they had fifteen minutes shows. I don't know if
Speaker 1: you remember that. Some of these singers had fifteen minutes shows.
Speaker 1: Perry went soon to Our on NBC, Eddie Fisher still
Speaker 1: had his fifteen minutes show. And so they said, why
Speaker 1: did you let Pat Boone do a half hour show?
Speaker 1: Try it out? And so they did. They said, we'll
Speaker 1: try it, and they promoted it. And while they were
Speaker 1: promoting in ninety seven, I was in Hollywood making my
Speaker 1: first movie because I got signed to do the TV
Speaker 1: show but before it started. Uh and and I had
Speaker 1: already left my own show because of another story I'll
Speaker 1: tell you about when they wouldn't let me have Harry
Speaker 1: Belafonti on. I quit doing the half hour show and
Speaker 1: I was going to move to California, so I so
Speaker 1: I went out and did a screen test. They liked
Speaker 1: what they saw. They put me in a movie called Bernadine.
Speaker 1: After that April Love. And now I'll go back to
Speaker 1: New York and I'm still hosting my TV shows. I'm
Speaker 1: still in college at Columbia University, and I graduated from
Speaker 1: from Columbia Magna Cum Laudy. I was on the cover
Speaker 1: of TV Guide because of my TV show and my
Speaker 1: cap and gown. And you open it up and there's
Speaker 1: the pictures of my wife, Shirley and four little girls
Speaker 1: at twenty three. We were both twenty three. All of
Speaker 1: this happened, Bob At while I'm not. I'm not I'm
Speaker 1: not twenty four years old yet I'm twenty three. All
Speaker 1: of this had happened, and I'm making movies and there
Speaker 1: and their hit movies, and before a little bit before
Speaker 1: Elvis did Love Me Tender. I think was just for movie.
Speaker 1: I think it was and now and then eventually, pretty
Speaker 1: quickly we wound up sharing. Uh. Well he was, we were,
Speaker 1: we had dressing rooms at twenty century five. We were
Speaker 1: making movies there at the same time. I think he
Speaker 1: had a five year deal. I had a seven year
Speaker 1: deal to make movies. And Bernadine was a big hit.
Speaker 1: Johnny Mercer wrote the title tune and a lot of
Speaker 1: the other songs, and April Love Paul Francis Webster, Sammy
Speaker 1: Faine Academy Award winners writing my songs for April Love,
Speaker 1: and on and on it went, and uh, and then
Speaker 1: I did Friendly Persuasion, Dmitri Tiomkin, the Academy Award writer
Speaker 1: doing the I got to do the theme song for
Speaker 1: that movie. I mean, it was all It was a
Speaker 1: flood of stuff happening, and I was somehow I got
Speaker 1: to where I I could thrive, I mean really thrive
Speaker 1: on five six hours sleep. I was very energetic because
Speaker 1: it was pure excitement, I mean. And Shirley, with our
Speaker 1: four little girls, was being the mother of all time,
Speaker 1: taking kids, making sure we had had a family to
Speaker 1: come home to, and four daughters, and I tell you
Speaker 1: I've hardly ever slowed down since then. I'm still balancing
Speaker 1: six or eight balls at one time or plate spinning.
Speaker 1: Tell me to hear Harry Billa Fonte story. Well, I
Speaker 1: was doing the half hour show, and of course having
Speaker 1: all these artists on with me. It was unbelievable to me,
Speaker 1: but I was in the middle of it. But I
Speaker 1: was the youngest guy ever to have his own music
Speaker 1: variety show. I mean I was twenty I think, or
Speaker 1: barely twenty two, and in fifty seven when we went
Speaker 1: on the air with me hosting the The Pat Boon
Speaker 1: Chevy Show uh AT sponsored by chev Lay of course,
Speaker 1: so instantly I was having big name guests Ella Fitzgerald,
Speaker 1: Nat King, Cole Perry Como himself, Eddie Fisher, Um Tony Bennett,
Speaker 1: Sammy Davis. I'd bring some of the rocket. I didn't
Speaker 1: have much to do with except requesting some of the
Speaker 1: other artists. But you know they were Gina Lolo, bridget Anna,
Speaker 1: Maria Alberghetti, all these female stars and then boxers, heavyweight
Speaker 1: boxers and people from other walks of life come on
Speaker 1: my show and I'm We're doing sketches. People don't pay
Speaker 1: a little. They don't know that. One of my apprentice
Speaker 1: writers was a fellow that was doing stand up in
Speaker 1: Greenwich Village named Woody Allen. He was he was an
Speaker 1: apprentice writer on my show, hired by a guy who
Speaker 1: went on to produce Mash Larry Gilbert. They were producing
Speaker 1: the Pat Boon Show, The Chevy Show, half hour music show.
Speaker 1: I mean, I was. I was living an incredible life.
Speaker 1: And it was mainly because of general artists, the big
Speaker 1: Talent Agency. They saw somebody they thought could handle these
Speaker 1: things at such an early age, and it just happened,
Speaker 1: and and I could. I rose to the occasion every time,
Speaker 1: whether it was the movies, recording, television, and I'm still
Speaker 1: trying to make straight a's at at Columbia University. So
Speaker 1: now while I'm doing back to your question, having all
Speaker 1: the black artists on my show, and they were, you know,
Speaker 1: I had with Johnny Mathis my arm around him and
Speaker 1: and we did a number where the choreographer we would
Speaker 1: we were seeing closing a show with let there be
Speaker 1: Peace on Earth, Let it Begin with Me. And the
Speaker 1: stage was dark except for a bright light at the
Speaker 1: back of the stage and a ladder lit in the
Speaker 1: fourth ground and set and Johnny and I are going
Speaker 1: to sing this song together, and somehow the courier are
Speaker 1: or staged me a step or two above Johnny. I
Speaker 1: didn't like that. I thought there was like maybe an
Speaker 1: intention in it, and so I didn't say anything. I
Speaker 1: knew the lighting would permit it. So when we did
Speaker 1: the show live, I didn't get up on those stairs.
Speaker 1: I just stood right there with Johnny and we sang
Speaker 1: our portions together of letter V Peace on Earth. And
Speaker 1: as we turned, and as it was scheduled and choreographed,
Speaker 1: we turned said good night, folks, and we walked away
Speaker 1: toward that bright light at the back of the stage.
Speaker 1: Let the repeace on Earth. Let it begin with me.
Speaker 1: And I draped my arm over Johnny's shoulder as we
Speaker 1: as we walked like in silhouettes all the way to
Speaker 1: the and that that was the end of the show.
Speaker 1: And so I get a call from Harry Belafanti, who
Speaker 1: was the the biggest entertainer in the world right then,
Speaker 1: and of course I was a big fan, and he said,
Speaker 1: you know, I've been watching your show. I like the
Speaker 1: way you treat your guests. He said, would you like
Speaker 1: me to come on and we can do some things together.
Speaker 1: I said, what WHOA? And I said, sure, can can
Speaker 1: in effect? Can my folks get in touch with your folks?
Speaker 1: And and he said sure. I said, well, let's just
Speaker 1: plan it. We'll do it. So I was absolutely out
Speaker 1: of my mind with delight. You know, Harry Belafanti, I mean,
Speaker 1: Ella Fitzgerald, come on, Nat King Cole, all the others
Speaker 1: were so great, and I felt so honored, privileged to
Speaker 1: sing with him. Now, Harry Belafanti is gonna come on,
Speaker 1: and I go have a meeting. The production meeting dropped
Speaker 1: the bomb on him that Harry Belafanti has called me.
Speaker 1: It's the Chevy representatives, it's the the network ABC people
Speaker 1: and the ad agency and they're looking at it with
Speaker 1: stony faces when I tell them Harry Belafanti is gonna
Speaker 1: come on this show. And they said, no, no, no,
Speaker 1: we're gonna thank him. It's nice of him, but we
Speaker 1: got to say, no, what are you talking about? They said,
Speaker 1: you know, Chevy dealers in the South. This is late fifties,
Speaker 1: now remember fifty said Chevy dealers are getting a lot
Speaker 1: of flak because you're having so many, uh, black performers
Speaker 1: on the shows. With you and singing with them and
Speaker 1: so on, and we're Harry Belafanti is making a lot
Speaker 1: of civil rights noise, and we just can't have him
Speaker 1: on the show with you because that could be the
Speaker 1: coup de gras for Chevrolet. And they were nodding their heads, yeah,
Speaker 1: we we can't have Harry Belafanti, and I I was
Speaker 1: so stunned. It took me a few minutes and I
Speaker 1: and it went onto something else, and I came back
Speaker 1: and said, guys, wait a minute, Wait a minute, Wait
Speaker 1: a minute. It says it's the Pat Boone Chevy Show,
Speaker 1: But if Pat Boone has to say no to Harry Belafante,
Speaker 1: it's not the Bat Boon Show. So I'm gonna have
Speaker 1: to ask you to get somebody else to take the
Speaker 1: show for the rest of this season. And I'm not
Speaker 1: gonna come back if I have to parts who I
Speaker 1: have on my show according to that kind of stuff.
Speaker 1: They said, are you gonna walk off your show? Because
Speaker 1: I said, it's not just that I grew up. I
Speaker 1: was born in Florida, I was I was raised in Nashville.
Speaker 1: I'm a son of the South. I know all of
Speaker 1: this stuff. I'm just not going to perpetuate it, and
Speaker 1: UH and and so they calmed down and they said, well,
Speaker 1: if you have Harry on, can you guarantee there will
Speaker 1: be no subtle or any other kind of civil rights
Speaker 1: statements made. I said, look, Harry Belafani and Pat Boone
Speaker 1: singing together on my show is enough statement. I'm sure
Speaker 1: he'll understand. I can even tell him that this that
Speaker 1: it's causing trouble in the South. So they reluctantly agreed.
Speaker 1: And I'd like to say it happened, but it was
Speaker 1: about I only had about three or four shows left
Speaker 1: in that season. It didn't work out for his schedule.
Speaker 1: He was booked, we had other guests booked, and I
Speaker 1: just dropped the show after that. Recently, I was with UH.
Speaker 1: I was going in the gym at night and the
Speaker 1: black guy came to get an escalade out in front
Speaker 1: and I was seing it and a voice came from
Speaker 1: the car pad. Is that Pat Boone? I said, yes,
Speaker 1: Jamie Fox hopped out there of the escalate. He says,
Speaker 1: wait a minute, we hadn't met. He says, I'm Jamie
Speaker 1: Fox said I know, and he said, Uh, I got
Speaker 1: to ask you something I've heard recently, and this was
Speaker 1: what thirty five years later or something. I never talked
Speaker 1: about it. How it got out, I don't know, But
Speaker 1: he said, I heard that when you were doing your
Speaker 1: show in the late fifties and Harry Belafanti I wanted
Speaker 1: to come on your show and Chevrolet, your sponsor, wouldn't
Speaker 1: let him come on. You walked off your own show.
Speaker 1: And I said, yes, But how did you know that?
Speaker 1: I've never talked about. He said, I found out. He says,
Speaker 1: can I give you a hug? He says, he says,
Speaker 1: to do that now was no big deal. But you
Speaker 1: this was in the late I said, yeah, it's nineteen
Speaker 1: to do that back then and walk off your own
Speaker 1: show man. He said that took guts, and and for me,
Speaker 1: it wasn't taking guts. It was, as I've said many times,
Speaker 1: it was it was just not right for me to
Speaker 1: say no to Harry Belafanti. I mean, what, what guy
Speaker 1: in his right mind, and I'm thinking righteous mind could
Speaker 1: could say make up some excuse to Harry Belafanti. I've
Speaker 1: since told his daughter, Sherry, and she had to get
Speaker 1: on the phone and talked to his wife. I haven't
Speaker 1: talked to Harry about it because maybe to this day,
Speaker 1: he's upset. I never called him back. I don't know
Speaker 1: if he knows why I didn't, but except our people
Speaker 1: did converse and he was booked and I never I
Speaker 1: quit doing the show. Okay, you're a mega successful being
Speaker 1: that successful, also going on the road, being in movies.
Speaker 1: They are all these perks, both good and bad. You know,
Speaker 1: as people say, well, I'm poor, I have to pay
Speaker 1: for everything when I'm rich, or to pay for anything.
Speaker 1: And there's drugs and there's women. What was your experience
Speaker 1: in that? Will you? You know? How did you avoid
Speaker 1: the pitfalls? What was your experience of the good things?
Speaker 1: Very good question and of course very simple answer people.
Speaker 1: Some people may consider it simplistic. But first of all,
Speaker 1: I believe in God, and I had a moral compass
Speaker 1: that I inherited when I was thirteen. Although I got
Speaker 1: a good, very good examples from my mom and dad.
Speaker 1: But when I became a believer in in the Lord
Speaker 1: uh it, it had an effect on me as a
Speaker 1: teenager growing up. I never learned to cuss, for one thing.
Speaker 1: There have been times when I wished I had learned.
Speaker 1: But on the tennis court, and people know this, whenever
Speaker 1: I had need an expletive, I say, oh boon, and
Speaker 1: I can make my own name sound like an expletive,
Speaker 1: although it's actually people don't know this. Daniel Boone was
Speaker 1: not I am descended direct descendant from Daniel Boone from
Speaker 1: his son James, and and he was not educated except
Speaker 1: self educated. And when he carved on a tree, which
Speaker 1: is well known matter in history that somebody came across
Speaker 1: a tree in the wilderness, d Boone killed a bar
Speaker 1: and I think he put the date of it carved
Speaker 1: it in the bark of this tree. D Boone was
Speaker 1: spelled b o O N killed c I L D
Speaker 1: A bear b A r so. But that at that time,
Speaker 1: because he came his family came from Scotland and uh
Speaker 1: and the Boone had no E on the end of it.
Speaker 1: It was b o n And that's an Anglo Saxon
Speaker 1: word for blessing. And I grew up knowing way back
Speaker 1: that I've been given a high i Q and a
Speaker 1: name that that said that spelled blessing. And I just
Speaker 1: felt an urging, sort of almost a calling, an innate
Speaker 1: thing that if I had an influence on kids, it
Speaker 1: was going to be a good influence because I had
Speaker 1: planned to be a teacher anyway, and I would have
Speaker 1: been teaching kids to try to live moral lives, and
Speaker 1: and so all of this was feeding into the decisions
Speaker 1: I made. I never took drugs of any kind, never
Speaker 1: smoke pot nothing. In fact, I'm proud to say my
Speaker 1: four daughters growing up in Beverly Hills and all their
Speaker 1: friends smoke pot. They told me that they never did either.
Speaker 1: My four daughters never want not one of them ever
Speaker 1: had a her own apartment either. She married at in
Speaker 1: their early twenties. Debbie Boone had a huge career with
Speaker 1: You Light Up My Life, but she lived at home.
Speaker 1: And and I had told my my four daughters that
Speaker 1: I can pay for your college educations to any Christian
Speaker 1: that college that will admit you as long as you
Speaker 1: can be home for dinner, because you're not going to
Speaker 1: go away to some school at seventeen eighteen years old
Speaker 1: where you there's no chaperones and have boy and girl
Speaker 1: dorms and all that stuff. It's not gonna happen. So
Speaker 1: I I was that protective as a father, and I
Speaker 1: had that same attitude in my roles that I chose.
Speaker 1: I turned down Marilyn Monroe for a film. I risked
Speaker 1: suspension at twenty century Fox over movie roles that they
Speaker 1: wanted me to do that I just felt I couldn't do.
Speaker 1: And there was the time I didn't kiss Shirley Jones
Speaker 1: in April Love because it wasn't in the script and
Speaker 1: I hadn't had time, hadn't taken time to ask my
Speaker 1: wife Shirley if it was gonna matter that I was
Speaker 1: doing kissing scenes, and she was ahead of me. She well,
Speaker 1: I turned down the kissing scene with Shirley Jones in
Speaker 1: the movie April Love that first time, and uh, and
Speaker 1: I would have done it later because Shirley gave my
Speaker 1: Shirley gave me permission. She said, look, I'm ahead of
Speaker 1: you if you're going to do movies. She was familiar
Speaker 1: with the entertainment business. Her her dad read fully, and
Speaker 1: she said, you're gonna do kissing scenes, Just make me
Speaker 1: one promise. I said anything. She said, you won't enjoy it,
Speaker 1: and so I promised her I wouldn't enjoy it. I
Speaker 1: came back to the studio ready to kiss Shirley Jones
Speaker 1: later in the film, but it hit the trade papers. Bob,
Speaker 1: I'm telling you it was in Hollywood Reporter, Daily Variety.
Speaker 1: It went around the world on the associated up all
Speaker 1: the press services. You can look it up. A star
Speaker 1: refuses to kiss leading lady and they assumed it was
Speaker 1: for religious reasons, but it wasn't. It was just I
Speaker 1: wanted to stay married and I wanted to know ahead
Speaker 1: of time is this going to be a problem. And
Speaker 1: Shirley gave me her permission. So I did love scenes
Speaker 1: with Debbie Reynolds and Barbara Eden and Diane Baker and
Speaker 1: and Margaret and and others, and of course I didn't
Speaker 1: enjoy it. Okay, there are a couple of you know,
Speaker 1: being that famous, you get experiences the average person doesn't have.
Speaker 1: Tell me you're one or two best experiences as a
Speaker 1: result of your need, whether it be meeting ahead of
Speaker 1: state or going somewhere. You know what couple of the
Speaker 1: perks of fame, well, you know, usually the people that
Speaker 1: I met. You know, I I had been around enough
Speaker 1: and I was intelligent enough, you know, to to try
Speaker 1: to be on best behavior. My worst, my worst experience,
Speaker 1: most embarrassing moment of my life was with Queen Elizabeth.
Speaker 1: So we'll go right to the top. I mean I
Speaker 1: did to Royal command performances. You know, the whoever manages
Speaker 1: those things has whatever the royal family wants to come
Speaker 1: in at the generally the Palladium theater in the Royal
Speaker 1: Box there the Royal family up there. And I was
Speaker 1: still in college when I did my first command performance.
Speaker 1: Imagine that. I mean, I'm I'm making movies, television recordings,
Speaker 1: having hits since success and babies right and left, four
Speaker 1: and four years and I go to London and I
Speaker 1: perform in the in the Palladium and singing my rock
Speaker 1: and roll songs. Well, um, I was schooled ahead of
Speaker 1: time that you know what you do, you get in
Speaker 1: this line. And the poor Queen and the royal family
Speaker 1: have to run this gauntlet with performers and make nice
Speaker 1: with people, some of which they may don't care about,
Speaker 1: but they have to be nice to everybody. And and
Speaker 1: the women have to curtsy and bow, and the guys
Speaker 1: have to stand straight by by your head, say your
Speaker 1: majesty and extend your don't extend your hand unless she
Speaker 1: extends hers. I don't remember whether she and Princess Margaret
Speaker 1: and the others. I think Princess Margaret extended her hand
Speaker 1: that first time because she was a fan already Princess
Speaker 1: Margaret so and I was singing rock and roll songs
Speaker 1: that were big hits in England and uh and so that.
Speaker 1: But that was in fifty seven, now, several years go by.
Speaker 1: I you know, it was all right, it went well,
Speaker 1: and I was, you know, I could brag about having
Speaker 1: it had a royal command performance when I go back,
Speaker 1: and I think it was it was at a royal
Speaker 1: command performance having to do with a movie. I think
Speaker 1: it was West Side Story or something. So I came
Speaker 1: back and I'm an old hand now I know what
Speaker 1: to do, and I was sort of smugly, uh, you know,
Speaker 1: laughing up my sleeve at Peter Seller's Claudia, Cardinal Peter Finch.
Speaker 1: Some of these big big stars, they're also nervous. I mean,
Speaker 1: who who's not nervous when you're gonna meet and you know,
Speaker 1: either shake hands or be greeted by the Queen of
Speaker 1: England and the royal family, Prince Philip and everybody. I'd
Speaker 1: done it before, so I knew what to do and
Speaker 1: I was not nervous until she comes in far at
Speaker 1: the other end and I'm towards the end of the line,
Speaker 1: and I see how nervous. Everybody else is, and and
Speaker 1: I starting to repeating to use okay, by your head, don't,
Speaker 1: don't re extend your hand, say your majesty. If she
Speaker 1: extends her hand, you take it. If not, just let
Speaker 1: answer whatever she says. And that's it. And so Peter
Speaker 1: Seller's Claudie Carlinal Peter's bench over here waiting, and suddenly
Speaker 1: she's standing in front of me, and I bowed. I said,
Speaker 1: your majesty, and she said we met before? Who I said?
Speaker 1: We did? My we did. I didn't mean to say that.
Speaker 1: I meant to say you remember that, but it came
Speaker 1: out we did we met before? How can you say
Speaker 1: that to the Queen of England? When was that queeney?
Speaker 1: Was it a seven eleven store somewhere? And where where
Speaker 1: did we meet? I'm and and she laughed and and
Speaker 1: there's a picture of me and a one of the
Speaker 1: London papers with a look of shock on my face
Speaker 1: and a big smile on her face. And she extended
Speaker 1: her and she said it was the royal performance several
Speaker 1: years ago. She was very sweet, like, oh, if you
Speaker 1: don't remember, it's okay. How can I say I don't?
Speaker 1: But my response to her was when she said we
Speaker 1: met before we did. So, I mean, you can't top
Speaker 1: that for embarrassment. Um, I mean I I at the moment,
Speaker 1: I can't. I know that Dick Clark and I, Uh,
Speaker 1: everybody told us that we looked alike sometimes. Uh. In fact,
Speaker 1: sometimes he was mistaken for Pat Boone and I was
Speaker 1: mistaken for Dick Clark. And so we we pulled alongside
Speaker 1: each each other and our cars on Sunset Boulevard one time,
Speaker 1: roll the windows down, and I said, anybody ever tell
Speaker 1: you you look like Pat Boone? And they said, ye,
Speaker 1: anybody will tell you look like Dick Clark. And and
Speaker 1: I have a picture I'm looking at it right now
Speaker 1: in my office of Dick and me together. And he
Speaker 1: had it on his um office wall. And when he passed,
Speaker 1: his wife knew I would like to have that picture,
Speaker 1: and and she sent it over to me. And I'm
Speaker 1: looking at him with this look on my face, like,
Speaker 1: you know, we really do look alike. But but but
Speaker 1: we we were not embarrassed by any of that. Maybe
Speaker 1: he was embarrassed sometimes if they thought he was Pat Boone.
Speaker 1: I was never embarrassed if they thought I was Dick Clark.
Speaker 1: But but no, I can't think of Well, let's let's
Speaker 1: go back. You're talking about England. So you're having this
Speaker 1: career hit after hit, you have a TV show, you
Speaker 1: have movies. What goes through your mind when the Beatles
Speaker 1: hit and what was that experience? Like? Well, I first
Speaker 1: heard them when I was in England performing and their
Speaker 1: first record had come out. If there's anything that you want,
Speaker 1: which I'm hearing on a commercial right now, So the Beatles,
Speaker 1: or who have Michael Jackson, whoever owns their catalog, is
Speaker 1: letting them use the Beatles songs. But I heard that
Speaker 1: record and I said that's a hit, and I brought
Speaker 1: it back to to l A and trying to get
Speaker 1: Randy would have Dot Records to let me record it,
Speaker 1: but he said no, it's already been out on another
Speaker 1: label called VJ and it was not a hit, so
Speaker 1: he said no, it's I don't think it's a hit record,
Speaker 1: and he wouldn't let me record it. So of course
Speaker 1: it did go on to become a big hit and
Speaker 1: uh and the Beatles, they they came on so strong
Speaker 1: that at one point, like five of the top ten
Speaker 1: songs were all Beatles songs. And Tom Jones and I
Speaker 1: and all the others making records had to scramble for
Speaker 1: our whatever was left. And I was making a lot
Speaker 1: of money in my record royalties and and and still
Speaker 1: selling lots of records at that time in the sixties.
Speaker 1: And so uh, I got a painter who was uh
Speaker 1: who was very skilled. He had he painted a oil
Speaker 1: painting of me from a picture in a magazine. But
Speaker 1: he was great at skin tones, and not my skin.
Speaker 1: I had a need for that, But I mean he
Speaker 1: he made me look really nice in this painting. So
Speaker 1: I sent him a picture surely my wife and asked
Speaker 1: him to do that, and he did. And then I
Speaker 1: sent him pictures of my four girls and he painted
Speaker 1: them and and and I have him framed in our
Speaker 1: place in Hawaii right now. And so he he in
Speaker 1: contacted me said he was coming to the States. He
Speaker 1: was from Indonesia, and he said, Uh, I need there's
Speaker 1: a group called Church World Group that will bring me over,
Speaker 1: but I need to have a sponsor. Would you be
Speaker 1: willing to be my sponsor? Well, I didn't know what
Speaker 1: that meant, just would you vouch for me? I said, okay, sure,
Speaker 1: I'll be your sponsor. And I thought he had maybe
Speaker 1: some connections I didn't know. And the next thing I know,
Speaker 1: we've moved to CALIFORNI on you and I get this
Speaker 1: notice from the Church World Service. We are we're sending
Speaker 1: a young man named Leo Jansen. He'll be arriving in
Speaker 1: New York such and such a date on a ship.
Speaker 1: Where do you plan for him to live? And what
Speaker 1: do you expect? Where do you expect for him to do?
Speaker 1: That's what they meant by my being a sponsor. And
Speaker 1: he's already on the ship coming over, and so I
Speaker 1: had a representative of mine meet him at the ship
Speaker 1: flying to California. He's about five ft tall, a little swarthy,
Speaker 1: dark Indonesian who who could paint incredibly, And I got
Speaker 1: him a job as a stock boy at DOT Records.
Speaker 1: He had to help. He had to shove these huge,
Speaker 1: heavy boxes full of records around on a cart. It
Speaker 1: could have killed him. In fact, who knows. It may
Speaker 1: have contributed to an early death, which he did experience,
Speaker 1: but it was not from that and he was he was.
Speaker 1: I had him paint other stars like um uh Oh,
Speaker 1: Richard Chamberlain and Connie Francis, Connie Stevens, ma Harris uh
Speaker 1: what's Ma Harris's first name anyway, actors, And just like me,
Speaker 1: he would paint them and I would have him send
Speaker 1: the pictures to them, and they'd pay him five or
Speaker 1: six dollars for these portraits of them taken from pictures
Speaker 1: and magazines, I mean, because they were that good. Next
Speaker 1: thing I knew, I saw he was painting nudes and
Speaker 1: his paintings were being displayed in the big painting stores
Speaker 1: framed uh, and he would he would he didn't have
Speaker 1: new models, but he would just buy magazines and he
Speaker 1: would drape a towel or uh, some kind of clothing
Speaker 1: over an otherwise nude model. And and and because his
Speaker 1: skin tones were, as I say, so great, the Aaron
Speaker 1: Brothers and other stores that sell all kinds of paintings
Speaker 1: that would display them in the windows. And he was
Speaker 1: beginning to make serious money. So I had him come
Speaker 1: over for dinner and I said, you know, uh, Leo,
Speaker 1: I'm glad you're making money, but you know this, I
Speaker 1: don't think should be what you're remembered for. I have
Speaker 1: an idea I want I'm gonna get some pictures, some
Speaker 1: paintings of Jesus, and I want you to to paint
Speaker 1: a beautiful, lifelike portrait of Jesus. And I believe this
Speaker 1: could be the thing you'll be remembered for the rest
Speaker 1: of your life, because there's millions of people that would
Speaker 1: like to have your heart work, your artwork and heart
Speaker 1: work for that matter. And I knew he could do it,
Speaker 1: and he was. He was soon to do that. He
Speaker 1: was planning to do that. He brought his mother over
Speaker 1: from Holland, from the Netherlands and or did I say
Speaker 1: Indonesia was the Netherlands, begin in the Indonesian component, because
Speaker 1: they were in control of the Indonesia at that point.
Speaker 1: And so he had he had a heart attack and
Speaker 1: passed very early, and he never got that painting of
Speaker 1: Jesus done. I've always regretted that because I can imagine
Speaker 1: what it was going to be like, because the beautiful
Speaker 1: paintings of him anyway, but none that could do what
Speaker 1: Leo Jansen could have done by bringing him to life
Speaker 1: as as his artistry would have done and a painting,
Speaker 1: but that didn't happen. But what the world brought that up?
Speaker 1: The Beatles? Oh, the Beatles, Oh yes, because that occasion
Speaker 1: my meeting with the Beatles, because when they performed UH
Speaker 1: the first tour UH and they were to Thomas mcreena
Speaker 1: in Las Vegas. I had created pictures of the Beatles,
Speaker 1: had a painter do the beautiful UH separate um solo
Speaker 1: port uh pictures and then a group portrait as well,
Speaker 1: and got sears. I got to go to Briant. I
Speaker 1: had to go to Brian Epstein to get the contract,
Speaker 1: which I did, and he he loved the pictures once
Speaker 1: he saw them solo portraits. What I was trying to say,
Speaker 1: They and the and the Beatles themselves loved the portraits
Speaker 1: and and he so I got the contract to sell
Speaker 1: them and UH and so we got sears to sell
Speaker 1: them by the by the hundreds and thous is probably millions.
Speaker 1: And they all had tags, numbered tags, and and the
Speaker 1: buyers would put their name in address and we had
Speaker 1: a huge raffle when they and we we brought thirty
Speaker 1: people to the first concert, the afternoon concert at the
Speaker 1: Thomas mac Areena. And I got a picture in my
Speaker 1: office of my wife Shirley and our kids on the
Speaker 1: front row at that at that concert of the Beatles
Speaker 1: on their first tour. And then we went back after
Speaker 1: that show and spent some time after the show with
Speaker 1: the boys and who were just coming along at that point,
Speaker 1: but already you know, creating havoc. And I remember my
Speaker 1: daughter Laurie sat on ringoes lap. Debbie was talking to
Speaker 1: to George Lyndy two. Who am I leaving out? Oh,
Speaker 1: John Lennon, And then I was talking to Paul, and
Speaker 1: Paul was saying, you know, we liked these portraits very much.
Speaker 1: They flatter us. We like them, said, Brian's got our
Speaker 1: their Epstein's got us on a lot of crap which
Speaker 1: were embarrassed by an avenge. So we had a great
Speaker 1: meeting back there. That's the only time I was ever
Speaker 1: with the boys themselves. But but the pictures wound up.
Speaker 1: I was in doing some shows myself in England, eventually concerts,
Speaker 1: and I was in Liverpool and I went to the
Speaker 1: Cavern and those pictures that we had I had done
Speaker 1: are hanging at the cavern, uh where you know, honoring
Speaker 1: where the guys first made their breakout moves as a group.
Speaker 1: And so I would like to say that I ma
Speaker 1: relationship had continued with any of them, including Paul, especially Paul,
Speaker 1: because I felt like he and I were the most
Speaker 1: alike of of those guys because he had he developed
Speaker 1: a wonderful marriage. Of course his first wife died, but uh,
Speaker 1: he had other marriages and kids, and I thought he
Speaker 1: was a great father. And and I don't know about
Speaker 1: George and his family or Ringo Um and John. Of
Speaker 1: course he had Yoko, but I I did have and
Speaker 1: I recorded some of their songs my my records if
Speaker 1: I want to hold your hand, and and yesterday, and
Speaker 1: some of the songs that they wrote and did were
Speaker 1: so wonderful. And I had that kind of relationship with him.
Speaker 1: But the one personal relationship was when we were both
Speaker 1: really still in the early days of our careers. Did
Speaker 1: Leo paint the pictures? Yes, Leo Jansen. Okay, just let
Speaker 1: to make sure. Okay, Now you mentioned earlier that you're
Speaker 1: juggling six or seven balls to this day. So how
Speaker 1: you know you keep reinforcing that you really plan to
Speaker 1: do this for a temporary period of time, then become
Speaker 1: a teacher. Preacher, How have you sustained decade after decade,
Speaker 1: another sixty years. How have you managed to do that?
Speaker 1: That's good, that's another very very good question. And you know,
Speaker 1: I would never have dreamed it would happen but I
Speaker 1: think the logical answers are versatility diversity not the necessarily
Speaker 1: same thing. Because I have recorded more songs, I never
Speaker 1: quit recording, and I always had some kind of access
Speaker 1: even if if I had to start the company, which
Speaker 1: I did, Land and Lion Records and Pat Boone's Gold
Speaker 1: Label for other artists as well as myself, because the
Speaker 1: time came when many of us artists were dropped by
Speaker 1: the labels that we helped build, and and so I
Speaker 1: and I anger and opportunism to to impetus I UM
Speaker 1: I created the Gold Label for artists who had sold
Speaker 1: millions of records, who were still active and singing, and
Speaker 1: we're not on any label and uh, and I got
Speaker 1: a partner who who who could be the administrator? And
Speaker 1: in the first two two years of that label Gold Label,
Speaker 1: we signed famous artists including Glenn Campbell, Roger williams, um Gosh,
Speaker 1: the Four Freshmen, and and uh, the High Lows and
Speaker 1: and and I'm forgetting a lot of them we had.
Speaker 1: We had so many of them on our label. They
Speaker 1: had sold millions of records and we're still performing, but
Speaker 1: we we had had a hit a financial bump in
Speaker 1: the road. The guy that was putting up the money,
Speaker 1: lost all his money, and it fell on my shoulders
Speaker 1: to foot at the bill and keep it going, which
Speaker 1: I did for a while. But I brought in people
Speaker 1: who who have been recommended it's knowing how to run
Speaker 1: record companies, and they didn't. They just they just took
Speaker 1: my money and they didn't get anything done. And and
Speaker 1: and then at the worst possible time, we had a
Speaker 1: wonderful relationship with a company called Valley Media. They they
Speaker 1: were the biggest inventories uh company in the nation. They
Speaker 1: had huh Barney who ran it. Oh really yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: they were in northern California. They were a big distributor,
Speaker 1: Valley Distributors, and you know that it went public and
Speaker 1: we had a great relationship with them because they we
Speaker 1: paid for the records, but they would pay for the
Speaker 1: marketing and distribution, and they were good at it and
Speaker 1: and also the inventor and all of that. They would
Speaker 1: act like a record label and let me be the
Speaker 1: record label and they would work with me. But about
Speaker 1: a year after they went public, they went bankrupt and
Speaker 1: and so they all of my masters, all of my
Speaker 1: stuff was stuck in there bankruptcy proceedings, and I had
Speaker 1: to let all the contracts and the artists that that
Speaker 1: I had gotten recorded, Glenn Campbell, and and and Jack
Speaker 1: Jones and all of the artists, Patti Page. I had
Speaker 1: to let them all go because I couldn't follow through
Speaker 1: at my own just on my own expense. What we had.
Speaker 1: Our deal was we would put up fifty thousand per album,
Speaker 1: and if you do your job and the arrangers do
Speaker 1: their job, you can make a wonderful album, even with
Speaker 1: an orchestra fifty thousand if you come to the studio
Speaker 1: knowing what you're gonna do, not doing like so many
Speaker 1: of the rock artists and so many others did and do. Still.
Speaker 1: They booked the studio for a month, and they bring
Speaker 1: their musicians together and they start fiddling around, Now what
Speaker 1: do we do? And they write songs while they're running
Speaker 1: up those huge bills three or four hundred thousand, And
Speaker 1: we weren't gonna do that. And I said, if you
Speaker 1: want to spend more than fifty, you can pay more.
Speaker 1: And a couple of the artists, did you know, they
Speaker 1: spent more than our fifty. But we made some very
Speaker 1: good records that I'm really proud of, and they could
Speaker 1: use in their personal appearances. That was part of the
Speaker 1: part of the deal and what part of the reason
Speaker 1: they wanted to do it. But uh, but we hit
Speaker 1: the financial snags and and the Pat Boon Gold label
Speaker 1: still exists. We've we've We've got a few artists still
Speaker 1: hanging and well it's because they don't have anywhere else
Speaker 1: to go, and we still sell their records. But I'm
Speaker 1: hoping that the other things I'm doing now on my
Speaker 1: own are gonna add some luster to the Gold label
Speaker 1: and people will be will have the the influence to
Speaker 1: come to the Pat Boon Gold label, to bat Boon's
Speaker 1: bat boon dot Com and others and find out about
Speaker 1: records by artists that they did love and maybe didn't
Speaker 1: know that they recorded for my label. Path This has
Speaker 1: been wonderful. We could go on for another couple of
Speaker 1: hours just to hear your story is so informative. I
Speaker 1: want to thank you for showing up and doing this today. Well,
Speaker 1: let me just tell you a couple of things quickly, man,
Speaker 1: because you mentioned the and I mentioned the balls in
Speaker 1: the air, I'm about have already made the first episode
Speaker 1: and I'm already launching my own podcast, which will be
Speaker 1: happening just in a matter of weeks, and it's gonna
Speaker 1: include We've got so much content that is. I think
Speaker 1: it's going to be a very entertaining podcast because I
Speaker 1: can play my own records, the records of the artists
Speaker 1: that I will feature, like that first, that first meeting
Speaker 1: with Elvis when he was my opening act. No other
Speaker 1: artists can make that statement. And and uh, and and
Speaker 1: our relationship that pursued after that, when we visited in
Speaker 1: each other's homes, not just in each the studios. He'd
Speaker 1: come over on a Sunday afternoon and and my girls
Speaker 1: being the pool and they jump up and run to
Speaker 1: see him, and he that's a girl. Stop it, you're
Speaker 1: getting him all what? Leave me alone? Man? I like it.
Speaker 1: We didn't know he had Priscilla stashed back at Graceland
Speaker 1: at that time. So anyway, they are all these stories
Speaker 1: to tell and pictures to show and movie clips and
Speaker 1: TV clips. So that podcast and now I'm on Spotify.
Speaker 1: Spotify they tell me I've got about six hundred thousand
Speaker 1: listeners a month now coming to to hear just the
Speaker 1: original first eighteen or twenty songs that were big hits.
Speaker 1: And uh, I mean I had forty that were chart records,
Speaker 1: but but sixty that were chart records, but but forty
Speaker 1: one just in fifty five, So they can hear those
Speaker 1: songs on Spotify. But I've recorded two hundred songs and
Speaker 1: more than Frank Sinatra or being and I'm still recording,
Speaker 1: and so we're going to see if we get all
Speaker 1: those on Spotify. They're open to the idea and so
Speaker 1: that people will hear album songs that I recorded, movie
Speaker 1: themes the Great American Songbook that unless they bought one
Speaker 1: of my albums, they don't know that I recorded the
Speaker 1: same kind of songs as Frank and Byng and the
Speaker 1: others that I idolized. Um. And we've got other things
Speaker 1: happening um that are going to be noteworthy. And I've
Speaker 1: just recorded one song with Crystal Gayle hit record of
Speaker 1: hers that was twenty years ago with Eddie Rabbit, and
Speaker 1: the record company thought it'd be cool for me to
Speaker 1: do that song again with her, and she's still lovely
Speaker 1: and sings great. And we do a new version of
Speaker 1: Just You and I and we dedicated it to my wife, Shirley,
Speaker 1: And when we do our video together at the end
Speaker 1: as a picture of Shirley, that she that Gail and
Speaker 1: I were both singing really in honor of my wife Shirley.
Speaker 1: So there's there's things like this that are happening that
Speaker 1: people will learn about, and I hope they'll be interested.
Speaker 1: And of course I've written a book, my last book,
Speaker 1: and I've recorded my last album called Legacy, which is
Speaker 1: all songs. I wrote all the words and music for.
Speaker 1: I made every song in it. I I wrote the
Speaker 1: tunes and the words except one song. I have some
Speaker 1: help from a couple of composers that have never objected,
Speaker 1: rock mon and Off and Pac Pagnini variations on a
Speaker 1: theme by by rock mon and Off bah blah blah
Speaker 1: blah blah blah blah blah blah, ma bah bah blah blah,
Speaker 1: bah bah blah blah blah blah, the beautiful, beautiful melody.
Speaker 1: And I wrote words for that, and and we'll list
Speaker 1: them as the writers of the melody. But but I
Speaker 1: wrote the words. Send them the royalties. Yeah. Yeah. So anyway,
Speaker 1: it's a busy life. A book yet to come out,
Speaker 1: a movie I just did, call Mulligan. I have a
Speaker 1: lead role in it. It's about golf. Meant, millions of
Speaker 1: people play god. But there's not many movies about golf.
Speaker 1: The Mulligan is the second chance to do over. And
Speaker 1: I play a respected older golfer who's mentoring a young
Speaker 1: guy who's having mental and marital problems, is ruining his
Speaker 1: golf and business problems, and uh, and I to try
Speaker 1: to help him, you know, I create a spiritual basis
Speaker 1: for him to get his life in order, which will
Speaker 1: also help his golf. And it's going to be a
Speaker 1: big film. I think I can guarantee because of what
Speaker 1: I just said millions of golfers is going to come
Speaker 1: out the week after the Masters next April. Good timing.
Speaker 1: And it's about golf. It's a whole golf story. And
Speaker 1: I'm wearing Payne Stewart Nickers throughout. I'm a very colorful
Speaker 1: character in the film. And uh, I think, I mean,
Speaker 1: they tell me I did a good job in it.
Speaker 1: And I've got a couple of other films that I've
Speaker 1: done lead rose in that are not out yet. So
Speaker 1: I'm busy. I'm telling you, I'm just continually still writing,
Speaker 1: still singing. I'm not making live performances because of COVID.
Speaker 1: But I had to cancel my last what might have
Speaker 1: been my last performance in the Dick Clark Theater in Branson,
Speaker 1: where I had a lot of success playing Will Rogers
Speaker 1: and and and Justice in my own shows, but that
Speaker 1: had to be canceled, maybe forever. So I don't know
Speaker 1: if I'll do any more live performances, but if I do,
Speaker 1: I sing some every week to make sure that I
Speaker 1: can still do it. And I mean, I'm in my
Speaker 1: eighth year, but I'm listen. You're an inspiration. Shall we
Speaker 1: all live that long? Never mind be that productive? And
Speaker 1: I still swim in my heated pool, I still work
Speaker 1: out in the gym, still play tennis and golf and
Speaker 1: and and and hold my own I mean, I I'm
Speaker 1: very fortunate, always have been. But the name Boone means blessing,
Speaker 1: and I've just tried to live up to it. Thank
Speaker 1: you so much, Pat, It's been great. Thank you, Bob.
Speaker 1: Till next time. This is Bob left Sex