WEBVTT - The music of Paul Williams goes on and on 0:00:05.640 --> 0:00:08.560 This is Alec Baldwin and you're listening to Here's the 0:00:08.640 --> 0:00:10.840 Thing from iHeart Radio. 0:00:12.119 --> 0:00:17.000 Just an old fashioned love song playing on the radio 0:00:21.239 --> 0:00:23.360 and wrapped around the music. 0:00:23.560 --> 0:00:27.240 That's my guest today, Paul Williams performing just an old 0:00:27.240 --> 0:00:30.760 fashioned love song from his nineteen seventy one album of 0:00:30.800 --> 0:00:31.440 the same name. 0:00:32.440 --> 0:00:33.600 You'll swear you've. 0:00:33.440 --> 0:00:37.040 Heard it before as it slowly rambles on and on. 0:00:37.840 --> 0:00:41.040 No need in bringing him back because they've never rele 0:00:41.040 --> 0:00:41.880 egged one. 0:00:43.640 --> 0:00:44.800 Just an old. 0:00:44.640 --> 0:00:46.200 Fashioned love song. 0:00:47.120 --> 0:00:52.479 Williams is an Oscar, Grammy and Golden Globe winning songwriter, musicians, singer, 0:00:52.720 --> 0:00:56.520 and actor. He's known for songs like Evergreen, We've Only 0:00:56.640 --> 0:01:00.840 Just Begun and Rainbow Connection. He's also written the score 0:01:00.920 --> 0:01:04.680 and lyrics for renowned films such as Barbara Streisand's version 0:01:04.959 --> 0:01:08.080 of A Star Is Born, Bugsy Malone, The Phantom of 0:01:08.120 --> 0:01:12.200 the Paradise, and The Muppet Movie. His work has been 0:01:12.240 --> 0:01:17.640 recorded by legendary artists like Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, The Carpenters, 0:01:17.959 --> 0:01:22.360 and Kermit the Frog. Paul Williams is also the current 0:01:22.440 --> 0:01:27.200 President and Chairman of the American Songwriting Society ASCAP. With 0:01:27.440 --> 0:01:31.720 such an illustrious career that spans generations. I wondered what 0:01:31.920 --> 0:01:35.240 brilliant new work Williams has been conjuring up these days. 0:01:36.240 --> 0:01:39.120 The most recent thing is I'm doing Pans Labyrinth for 0:01:39.160 --> 0:01:40.559 this stage with Giama del Toro. 0:01:41.040 --> 0:01:42.400 Wow and wonderful. 0:01:42.440 --> 0:01:44.520 We've been working on it for years because he goes 0:01:44.560 --> 0:01:47.520 aways and does movies and then whatever like that job, 0:01:47.840 --> 0:01:50.440 and it's just I'm like, I finally went, you know what, 0:01:50.480 --> 0:01:52.480 I fucking surrender. I'm going to take it out of 0:01:52.520 --> 0:01:56.120 my bio. I mean, if it happens, it's wonderful. I mean, 0:01:56.160 --> 0:02:00.400 we've Gustavo Santo a Lion, I've written the songs, we've got, 0:02:01.600 --> 0:02:04.720 if anything, we've overridden them all, and it's like, if 0:02:04.760 --> 0:02:07.120 it happens, this is magnificent. If it doesn't happen, then 0:02:07.160 --> 0:02:10.760 there's something better. I totally surrender. The next morning, at 0:02:10.800 --> 0:02:13.320 eight am in the morning, I got an email from 0:02:13.400 --> 0:02:16.560 Geinnimo's partners and that that JJ Abrams was going to 0:02:16.600 --> 0:02:19.399 produce and I mean that more that that's good. 0:02:19.480 --> 0:02:25.200 Instant Surrender's a good group. You know, you JJ pretty 0:02:25.200 --> 0:02:27.480 good to me, you know, but it's you know, and 0:02:27.960 --> 0:02:29.760 it's like I'm eighty four, you know. 0:02:30.200 --> 0:02:33.480 You ain't stopping. Oh man, all my friends who are 0:02:33.520 --> 0:02:38.200 successful who have rounded that corner at eighty, Laurene Michaels, 0:02:38.280 --> 0:02:40.520 this one, that one, all turned eighty this year. Yeah, 0:02:40.639 --> 0:02:42.640 they all have the same thing, especially Lauren, I would 0:02:42.639 --> 0:02:46.280 imagine because he's so successful. He's at the height of 0:02:46.360 --> 0:02:49.280 his success, and it's like these guys are like, I'm 0:02:49.280 --> 0:02:51.799 not done. You know, you say when you want to 0:02:51.840 --> 0:02:54.040 slow down and stop, it like stop, I don't want 0:02:54.040 --> 0:02:56.680 to stop. They go to the twenty years if they could. 0:02:56.919 --> 0:02:58.960 You know, if I was sitting on my porch shilling 0:02:59.000 --> 0:03:01.560 and get get off my law, I'd be dead. My 0:03:01.680 --> 0:03:03.800 wife puts up with me what she calls it growling, 0:03:03.800 --> 0:03:10.440 because I'm like she said, it's like you unconsciously have 0:03:10.520 --> 0:03:13.760 to keep There's something about music that keeps going because 0:03:14.880 --> 0:03:17.720 in my now, because I can't hear, I don't perform 0:03:17.800 --> 0:03:22.400 much anymore because finding the notice is like like Shakespeare 0:03:22.440 --> 0:03:26.120 and drug tragedy. But in my head I'm hearing Dada 0:03:27.680 --> 0:03:34.800 and it's coming out, so it's like, I mean, it's pathetic. 0:03:34.880 --> 0:03:37.600 But here's what I want to ask you when I 0:03:37.640 --> 0:03:40.000 look at you for this show, because I'm I'm obviously 0:03:40.000 --> 0:03:41.640 you know who you are. I know your career, I 0:03:41.640 --> 0:03:44.400 know you're to Palma movie. I know all that stuff 0:03:44.400 --> 0:03:47.280 from when I was younger. And when I look at you, 0:03:47.280 --> 0:03:50.640 you seem like the coolest guy in the world. Like 0:03:50.800 --> 0:03:54.200 everybody would go with you and go party and they'd 0:03:54.200 --> 0:03:57.920 have the greatest time. The music and you're funny and 0:03:58.000 --> 0:03:59.880 you know all these Did you feel that way? Did 0:03:59.880 --> 0:04:03.480 you have a run where you just had so much fun? 0:04:03.760 --> 0:04:03.960 Oh? 0:04:04.040 --> 0:04:04.440 Yeah? 0:04:04.480 --> 0:04:06.600 Well, and the thing is, who is that I wanted 0:04:06.640 --> 0:04:08.640 to be with? There was a guy named her Pacheco, 0:04:08.800 --> 0:04:11.480 was a buddy who became a road manager. We used 0:04:11.520 --> 0:04:13.800 to joke we called him the Bison because he looked 0:04:13.800 --> 0:04:15.480 like the Indian and made it with a buffalo, and 0:04:15.560 --> 0:04:18.359 he was what happened with the Bison. Her Pacheco, he 0:04:18.400 --> 0:04:21.800 played my bodyguarden foundom of the Paradise and he used 0:04:21.800 --> 0:04:23.520 to buy, you know, like he was an extra who 0:04:23.520 --> 0:04:25.840 did a little bit of stunt work that kind of thing, 0:04:25.920 --> 0:04:28.400 you know, and just the coolest guy in the world, 0:04:28.520 --> 0:04:32.240 I mean, just amazing. And he knew everybody because he 0:04:32.279 --> 0:04:34.960 bought you know, like he you know, when he did 0:04:35.279 --> 0:04:38.080 the greatest story ever told in the desert. He was 0:04:38.120 --> 0:04:41.240 getting everybody their grass, you know, well not everybody but 0:04:41.320 --> 0:04:43.960 the hippists of the hippists, right. And he introduced me 0:04:44.040 --> 0:04:47.560 to Bob Mitcham. That's everything I wanted in my life 0:04:47.680 --> 0:04:49.720 is that is to have some of the guy that 0:04:49.880 --> 0:04:52.719 used to buy, used to sell, you know, get grass 0:04:52.760 --> 0:04:56.240 for Bob Mitcham. So I met I met Bob Mitcham 0:04:56.279 --> 0:04:59.680 and he was shooting a picture in London. It was 0:04:59.680 --> 0:05:01.520 a very Noah kind of a picture. 0:05:01.839 --> 0:05:02.560 We hit it off. 0:05:02.960 --> 0:05:04.919 He called me dough boy, and I was, you know, 0:05:05.000 --> 0:05:06.840 I did a lot of blow. I did a lot 0:05:06.880 --> 0:05:09.559 of vodka. I can never have been able to smoke 0:05:09.600 --> 0:05:12.039 grass because I turn into it like I just you know, 0:05:12.480 --> 0:05:16.240 I am curled up behind my shout and not in bed, 0:05:16.279 --> 0:05:19.000 but under the bed going because you know, peeking out 0:05:19.000 --> 0:05:21.480 the edition blinds, looking at the tree police because they're 0:05:21.520 --> 0:05:23.960 coming for me. I mean, I just go right for 0:05:24.080 --> 0:05:27.599 that gun. I'm scared exactly that. And the furniture is 0:05:27.600 --> 0:05:31.240 talking about me. You know, that's absolutely true. 0:05:31.720 --> 0:05:32.359 But he was. 0:05:32.560 --> 0:05:35.640 He called me dough boy, you like, and he always 0:05:35.640 --> 0:05:37.640 have a joint with him and he goes, do boy, 0:05:37.960 --> 0:05:39.800 this is no good, but you're gonna love it. I'm 0:05:39.800 --> 0:05:42.000 gonna probaly can't. I don't do I don't you know 0:05:42.160 --> 0:05:43.839 even no, no, no, this is no you got it, 0:05:43.880 --> 0:05:47.200 you got it. This is so fucking mild here and 0:05:47.520 --> 0:05:48.120 you have a. 0:05:48.120 --> 0:05:48.520 Hit of it. 0:05:48.760 --> 0:05:52.120 And then he had tossed me the car keys, which 0:05:52.120 --> 0:05:55.279 looked like a satellite coming through the air, you know, 0:05:55.800 --> 0:05:58.040 and he had say, you know, I'm really fucked up. 0:05:58.040 --> 0:05:58.760 You're gonna have to. 0:05:58.760 --> 0:06:00.760 Drive, and I would and then they would just laugh 0:06:00.800 --> 0:06:03.480 at me, you know. But that was to me, that 0:06:03.680 --> 0:06:06.360 was maybe the peak of my If there was any 0:06:06.640 --> 0:06:11.000 time that I felt cool, it was then. The other 0:06:11.120 --> 0:06:14.400 times were when I would do almost anything to make 0:06:14.480 --> 0:06:17.359 her really love me because she was so cool, and 0:06:17.440 --> 0:06:19.479 so I said things. I mean, I said stuff on 0:06:19.520 --> 0:06:21.800 the Tonight Show. It was just kind of you know. 0:06:22.720 --> 0:06:25.680 I didn't edit myself very much, and I made the 0:06:25.720 --> 0:06:29.839 band laugh and I made you know, Johnny laughed, you know, 0:06:30.440 --> 0:06:33.440 the atire. I can't remember the name of the producer. 0:06:33.240 --> 0:06:34.400 Of the Cordova. 0:06:34.520 --> 0:06:37.560 Yeah, yeah, Freddy Kordadeva. I would sit there and go, 0:06:37.920 --> 0:06:40.320 why do you have to do it? After sits down 0:06:40.360 --> 0:06:42.120 next to me, she says, I just kept go back 0:06:42.160 --> 0:06:42.600 from Maine. 0:06:42.600 --> 0:06:43.400 It was my family. 0:06:43.640 --> 0:06:46.039 We did this amazing thing where we clean the entire 0:06:46.080 --> 0:06:48.560 house and huge place in all and we did it 0:06:48.600 --> 0:06:51.039 in four days. And I said, the family is in amphetamines. 0:06:51.720 --> 0:06:54.279 You know, they made a fortunate at it. And Freddy's like, 0:06:54.360 --> 0:06:57.279 why do you do that? I don't know, I believe 0:06:57.320 --> 0:06:57.640 that out. 0:06:57.760 --> 0:06:58.200 Yeah. 0:06:58.680 --> 0:07:02.719 I mean, my wife Caanna reminded me when we first met, 0:07:02.760 --> 0:07:05.480 she said, I really loved you based on one thing 0:07:05.560 --> 0:07:08.400 you said that I thought was really unusual and interesting. 0:07:08.520 --> 0:07:11.800 On the Tonight show, she said, you described yourself as 0:07:11.800 --> 0:07:19.560 a combination of Oscar Levan and Donnie Osmond, like trying 0:07:19.560 --> 0:07:23.240 to exclude you know, who knows what. But I've been 0:07:23.280 --> 0:07:26.160 a construction brat. I went to a new was I 0:07:26.200 --> 0:07:28.920 went to ninth schools. By the time I was in 0:07:28.960 --> 0:07:32.800 the ninth grade, my dad was going around the builder, 0:07:32.960 --> 0:07:35.600 you know, and he drank and he would get me 0:07:35.640 --> 0:07:37.200 up in the middle of the night, just saying, you know, 0:07:37.280 --> 0:07:41.040 for his buddy like McShane, who hated me. Incidentally, all 0:07:41.040 --> 0:07:43.480 he wanted to do was get privately fried, and he 0:07:43.520 --> 0:07:45.760 didn't want to hear some gnomes singing Danny Boy. But 0:07:45.880 --> 0:07:48.880 my dad would get me up to sing. And people 0:07:48.920 --> 0:07:50.520 always said in one of these days, you're going to 0:07:50.640 --> 0:07:53.360 kill yourself. You're going to kill these kids because you're 0:07:53.440 --> 0:07:57.000 driving like that. He was a big, sweet, sentimental drunk 0:07:57.040 --> 0:08:00.160 you dad, My daddy looks your mom. My mom was 0:08:00.160 --> 0:08:03.239 was just a sweet and wet hands and an apron mom, 0:08:03.320 --> 0:08:03.520 you know. 0:08:04.360 --> 0:08:05.800 And he died you that he. 0:08:05.880 --> 0:08:07.880 Drove his car under the abovement of a bridge, went 0:08:07.880 --> 0:08:08.680 through the windshield. 0:08:09.080 --> 0:08:09.800 Died a week later. 0:08:09.800 --> 0:08:12.080 When I was thirteen, and I was shipped off to 0:08:12.120 --> 0:08:14.920 live with an aunt and uncle, who I found out 0:08:15.000 --> 0:08:17.760 later he hated her and that they didn't get along. 0:08:18.000 --> 0:08:20.200 But she told me, look, if you go back to 0:08:20.200 --> 0:08:22.520 live with your mom, your brother's going to starve because 0:08:22.560 --> 0:08:24.120 she can't afford both of you. So I want you 0:08:24.160 --> 0:08:26.520 to write your mom told it you want to stay here, 0:08:26.600 --> 0:08:27.880 which is the last thing I wanted. 0:08:27.960 --> 0:08:30.680 So it's my childhood was rest. 0:08:30.520 --> 0:08:32.360 To confront some tough things at a young age. 0:08:32.440 --> 0:08:33.600 Dickensiean, you know. 0:08:34.120 --> 0:08:36.920 So you are persuaded that this is the best thing 0:08:37.000 --> 0:08:38.840 financially for your mother, so you stay. 0:08:38.679 --> 0:08:40.840 With the California to stay with the ant And the 0:08:40.880 --> 0:08:44.640 fact is what part of California Long Beach, down Long Beach, 0:08:45.200 --> 0:08:46.679 And you know, I had been I've been one of 0:08:46.679 --> 0:08:49.240 those little kids who wanted to sing. I'd stand on 0:08:49.800 --> 0:08:51.720 my mom would turn her back on me at a 0:08:51.840 --> 0:08:54.160 department store and I'd be telling somebody I can sing, 0:08:54.240 --> 0:08:56.599 I can sing, and she'd find me standing on a 0:08:56.679 --> 0:08:58.880 counter with a little bunch of money around my feet. 0:08:59.040 --> 0:09:02.160 But after my dad, it was gone. Music was gone. 0:09:02.720 --> 0:09:04.319 I don't know, I just your heart's on. 0:09:04.520 --> 0:09:04.760 Yeah. 0:09:04.880 --> 0:09:06.920 All I knew is that I wanted, you know, A 0:09:06.920 --> 0:09:09.280 good therapist has said a couple of them have said, 0:09:09.600 --> 0:09:12.520 you wanted to be somebody else, you know. And I 0:09:12.679 --> 0:09:14.680 was also really you know when I was This is 0:09:14.679 --> 0:09:17.800 a huge, a big part of my story is that 0:09:17.840 --> 0:09:20.440 when I was about eight or nine, I was really tiny. 0:09:21.360 --> 0:09:24.280 My dad was like, should he be running under coffee 0:09:24.320 --> 0:09:27.559 tables at this age, you know? And she said no, 0:09:27.840 --> 0:09:30.360 I'm not taking to the doctor. So there was a 0:09:30.520 --> 0:09:33.160 country doctor who said I can make this kid grow, 0:09:33.200 --> 0:09:35.440 and he gave me a male hormone. Wrong thing to 0:09:35.480 --> 0:09:37.640 do because it kind of closes off with the bones. 0:09:37.640 --> 0:09:40.520 But it also kicked me into a premature puberty. And 0:09:40.800 --> 0:09:43.000 suddenly I have no interest in my toy chest, but 0:09:43.080 --> 0:09:45.960 my hand in his chest is suddenly yeah, yeah, you know, 0:09:46.080 --> 0:09:48.880 and they spot down there. All I wanted to do 0:09:49.000 --> 0:09:52.079 is get let's get asking little girls. Let's get in 0:09:52.160 --> 0:09:54.199 the closet and kiss like they do in the movies. 0:09:54.360 --> 0:09:54.560 Right. 0:09:55.120 --> 0:09:56.719 The thing is that when they took me off of 0:09:56.760 --> 0:09:59.560 the hormones and all, it screwed up my body clock. 0:09:59.600 --> 0:10:02.120 So I didn't hit puberty televes like out of high school. 0:10:02.760 --> 0:10:04.960 You know, So you stunted your growth physically. 0:10:05.040 --> 0:10:06.320 I don't know. I don't know. 0:10:06.360 --> 0:10:08.439 All I know is that I'm thrilled to be who 0:10:08.480 --> 0:10:11.880 I am, and you know it's all been a gift 0:10:11.920 --> 0:10:12.960 and it's all worked for me. 0:10:13.400 --> 0:10:16.760 But if what you've done creatively and what you've done 0:10:17.160 --> 0:10:21.320 just because there's a there's what I consider the performer's spirit, 0:10:22.080 --> 0:10:25.880 no matter how great they are talent wise. Patty Lapone 0:10:25.960 --> 0:10:29.600 is great, but she just has this extra block of 0:10:29.679 --> 0:10:34.040 some energy, some weird fissionable energy, which you have. You 0:10:34.080 --> 0:10:37.280 are a real performer. You can sing, you can act, 0:10:37.320 --> 0:10:39.559 you can do anything. When people go back and look 0:10:39.600 --> 0:10:42.599 at the songs you want, it's like almost unbelievable. 0:10:42.720 --> 0:10:45.800 Well, I'm a songwriter because of Robert Devall. I believe 0:10:46.720 --> 0:10:48.760 it's a really weird story. Well, first of all, you know, 0:10:49.320 --> 0:10:52.240 I'm in Long Reach and everything. I graduate, I go 0:10:52.360 --> 0:10:54.839 home for a couple of years whatever, and head back 0:10:54.880 --> 0:10:56.960 to Hollywood to try to make it. I get cast 0:10:57.000 --> 0:10:59.480 in a movie called The Loved One, you know I 0:10:59.760 --> 0:11:01.280 did playing in Long Beach. 0:11:01.320 --> 0:11:02.440 They got good reviews from. 0:11:02.280 --> 0:11:06.360 The LA Examiner, you know, said Pauliams has a rare 0:11:06.400 --> 0:11:10.040 gift of seeming spontaneous in the theater. I took that line, 0:11:10.120 --> 0:11:12.680 memorized it and showed it everybody and got an agent. 0:11:13.360 --> 0:11:16.120 So I did The Loved One, and then two years later, 0:11:16.280 --> 0:11:19.240 just like that, I got another acting job on a 0:11:19.280 --> 0:11:23.319 movie called The Chase. Marlon Browno, Robert Redford, jun fond. 0:11:23.400 --> 0:11:27.160 I mean a huge picture. So we're shooting at night. 0:11:27.240 --> 0:11:30.680 They've got everybody is older than eighteen, but looks younger. 0:11:30.760 --> 0:11:33.720 I'm playing a sixteen year old, and you know, I 0:11:33.760 --> 0:11:37.720 mean the script is they're going to develop your store, 0:11:37.760 --> 0:11:38.960 going to develop your story. 0:11:38.760 --> 0:11:40.640 They didn't really, But. 0:11:40.559 --> 0:11:42.480 In the meantime, I'm sharing the dressing room with a 0:11:42.480 --> 0:11:44.599 guy named Mark Seaton, his dad with George, seeing the 0:11:44.640 --> 0:11:48.239 director a lot of money, beautiful guitar that he's got 0:11:48.280 --> 0:11:51.120 Martin guitar I picked up. He says, don't touch the guitar. 0:11:51.200 --> 0:11:51.880 It's Martin. 0:11:51.960 --> 0:11:54.520 I said, I didn't know they had names, you know, 0:11:55.200 --> 0:11:58.319 I mean, I didn't know Martin guitar. But I went 0:11:58.360 --> 0:12:00.280 on my ball, wanted a little cheap guitar. Or I 0:12:00.320 --> 0:12:03.559 painted it like like a stained glass window. And I'm 0:12:03.600 --> 0:12:06.480 teaching myself chords. So one night they're shooting of the 0:12:06.520 --> 0:12:09.640 scene where the US kids have set fire to a junkyard. 0:12:09.720 --> 0:12:12.839 The Bubba reeves it was Robert Redford is. 0:12:12.840 --> 0:12:15.920 Hiding in the in the junkyard, and I've got my 0:12:15.920 --> 0:12:19.240 little guitar sitting on the steps of the world's smallest 0:12:19.280 --> 0:12:23.120 motor home, a Teardrop motor home, and I'm just making 0:12:23.160 --> 0:12:25.959 stuff up, looking for the chord, and I go, bubbah 0:12:25.960 --> 0:12:29.559 blah blah blah bah, come out wherever you are. Oh, 0:12:29.640 --> 0:12:32.320 we're gone a calm man and get you. Yes, we're 0:12:32.400 --> 0:12:35.839 gone to come man and get you. And Robert Duvall 0:12:36.000 --> 0:12:39.760 is walking by, and Robert Duvall says, what's that. I said, 0:12:39.760 --> 0:12:40.360 it's the guitar. 0:12:40.400 --> 0:12:42.959 I just boughted. He went out the guitar. What were 0:12:42.960 --> 0:12:43.440 you singing? 0:12:44.000 --> 0:12:47.240 And it's it's Robert Coke and Robert Davalla. I said, 0:12:47.320 --> 0:12:49.280 I just made it up and I'm convinced. I'm at 0:12:49.280 --> 0:12:51.319 this point, I'm in trouble. Maybe you're not supposed to 0:12:51.360 --> 0:12:54.360 be singing on a set. And he said, come with me, 0:12:54.720 --> 0:12:58.160 and now I'm now I'm nervous. He walks me over 0:12:58.240 --> 0:13:01.559 to the heart of the set where they're shooting, and 0:13:02.440 --> 0:13:06.240 Arthur Penny whispered some of him. He said, show him 0:13:06.320 --> 0:13:08.280 to me, and I said, it's the guitar. I just 0:13:08.400 --> 0:13:09.800 it's just why it's not the guitar. 0:13:09.880 --> 0:13:11.960 So I keep making this staff. 0:13:12.320 --> 0:13:14.800 Yeah. So I go blab blah blah blah blah blah. 0:13:14.840 --> 0:13:17.080 Well I get two like those two lines out and 0:13:17.080 --> 0:13:19.160 he says, come over here, stand by the barbed wire, 0:13:19.240 --> 0:13:21.360 light them up and lights up all the gas fires 0:13:21.360 --> 0:13:23.880 and they shoot it. They shoot me in the back 0:13:23.920 --> 0:13:27.199 of the roadster. They he shoots me about four different places, 0:13:27.240 --> 0:13:30.520 maybe three places, and singing those two lines, and it's 0:13:30.559 --> 0:13:31.040 in the movie. 0:13:34.960 --> 0:13:36.679 Yeah, or we'll come in. 0:13:37.120 --> 0:13:40.520 Yeah, You're gonna come in and get you that again. 0:13:40.720 --> 0:13:45.800 You're any human being that is woke as to use 0:13:45.840 --> 0:13:49.440 a phrase would have immediately gone, okay, acting isn't working 0:13:49.480 --> 0:13:51.600 for me. It's been two years since the last job. 0:13:51.960 --> 0:13:55.240 This is I mean it's but I'm sure I had 0:13:55.280 --> 0:13:56.640 no idea that it was going to be in the 0:13:56.640 --> 0:13:58.560 movie until it came out, and it may have been. 0:13:58.440 --> 0:13:59.160 Two years later. 0:13:59.640 --> 0:14:02.319 It took me probably two years to start writing songs, 0:14:02.640 --> 0:14:06.480 but I somehow that just became my journal. 0:14:06.720 --> 0:14:08.120 It was my therapy. 0:14:08.320 --> 0:14:11.400 Had you written songs before? But eventually you get to 0:14:11.440 --> 0:14:14.400 a point. Do you play piano horribly? 0:14:14.520 --> 0:14:16.880 I mean, I mean when I sit down on my 0:14:16.960 --> 0:14:18.840 band would actually walk off stage. If I sat at 0:14:18.880 --> 0:14:23.920 the piano, they go. I started wrinning on guitar, but basically, 0:14:24.000 --> 0:14:25.760 I mean, I'm just sitting at home. I brought my 0:14:25.840 --> 0:14:27.800 mother out to take care of her because I thought, 0:14:27.840 --> 0:14:30.000 you know, I'm gonna know I'm on the chase side. 0:14:30.560 --> 0:14:32.920 It is all gonna be a big career. Nothing. I 0:14:32.920 --> 0:14:34.040 don't even have a phone. 0:14:34.640 --> 0:14:38.360 But I get hired to do as an improvisational actor 0:14:38.400 --> 0:14:41.920 on the Mortsaul Show. Mortsol had a local television show 0:14:41.960 --> 0:14:44.480 and it was all about the Kennedy assassination. It's all 0:14:44.520 --> 0:14:47.840 about the warrant commission. It was all about New Orleans 0:14:47.880 --> 0:14:50.400 and all that anyway. So he brought me in and 0:14:50.440 --> 0:14:53.400 I played a boy scout, an eagle scout who goes 0:14:53.400 --> 0:14:56.040 in to get his Eagle Scout stuff and gets recruited 0:14:56.040 --> 0:14:58.840 by the president, and the guy named Biff Rows plays 0:14:58.840 --> 0:15:02.600 a chicken delight. Guy comes in and he gets recruited, 0:15:02.600 --> 0:15:04.760 and the two of the men we started writing together. 0:15:05.520 --> 0:15:07.920 We wrote about four songs. He wrote, played me a song. 0:15:07.960 --> 0:15:10.560 He said, this is funny, and that's not funny, it's pretty. 0:15:10.560 --> 0:15:13.760 He said, well, write words to it then, so we did. 0:15:13.840 --> 0:15:17.240 We wrote, we did some acid, we wrote some words whatever, 0:15:17.960 --> 0:15:19.680 and he went to A and M Records and played 0:15:19.720 --> 0:15:21.520 him a bunch of songs and they gave him some 0:15:21.840 --> 0:15:24.960 an advance publishing deal. And as he's walking out the door, 0:15:25.000 --> 0:15:27.400 he says, there's a couple of songs there that I 0:15:27.400 --> 0:15:30.800 wrote with another guy. I wrote the words, and he said, well, 0:15:31.320 --> 0:15:33.800 give me his number, of all call him. He's never food, 0:15:34.240 --> 0:15:37.120 but I'll tell him, so I will go in. The 0:15:37.120 --> 0:15:39.640 song was called fill your Heart, and within about a 0:15:39.640 --> 0:15:43.200 week after I signed a deal with him, was recorded 0:15:43.240 --> 0:15:45.880 on the B side of the Tiny tim album or 0:15:46.040 --> 0:15:50.080 Tiny Tipto through the Tulos, which they turned over and 0:15:50.120 --> 0:15:53.400 played I mean, I'm like, I love tiny but that's 0:15:53.440 --> 0:15:54.840 not what I want to be. I mean, if I'm 0:15:55.640 --> 0:15:58.760 but one of the great things that we just cannot 0:15:58.800 --> 0:16:01.600 plot our lives. You know, you can't plan it. It was 0:16:01.640 --> 0:16:04.880 recorded years later by David boy Song on Hunky Dory 0:16:04.920 --> 0:16:09.440 album and it was like, thank you God. 0:16:12.520 --> 0:16:17.000 Musician, songwriter and actor Paul Williams. If you enjoy conversations 0:16:17.040 --> 0:16:20.920 with legendary musicians, check out my interview with Gordon Lightfoot. 0:16:21.760 --> 0:16:24.640 One summer I wrote that song Sundowner. I knew that 0:16:24.720 --> 0:16:26.720 it was going to happen, and it didn't work up 0:16:26.720 --> 0:16:28.600 to number one. That was our second one. Then it 0:16:28.720 --> 0:16:30.440 was two albums later that we had the rec of 0:16:30.480 --> 0:16:35.400 the Edmin Fitzgerald that became a responsibility. It did because 0:16:35.560 --> 0:16:39.120 only one verse contained any conjecture of any kind of 0:16:39.160 --> 0:16:42.400 the rest of it was taken from directly from newspaper 0:16:42.520 --> 0:16:46.000 articles and the aftermath, which only lasted for about three days. 0:16:46.320 --> 0:16:48.960 If I had not wrote that song, everybody would have 0:16:48.960 --> 0:16:51.440 forgotten about it a week after it happened. 0:16:53.720 --> 0:16:57.480 To hear more of my conversation with Gordon Lightfoot, go 0:16:57.560 --> 0:17:00.920 to Here's the Thing dot Org. After the break, Paul 0:17:00.960 --> 0:17:04.760 Williams shares how a jingle for a bank commercial turned 0:17:04.800 --> 0:17:19.080 into the song We've Only Just Begun I'm Alec Baldwin, 0:17:19.320 --> 0:17:22.240 and this is Here's the thing. Paul Williams has written 0:17:22.280 --> 0:17:25.760 countless iconic songs like You and Me, against the World, 0:17:26.160 --> 0:17:29.160 Rainy Days and Mondays, and one of my personal favorites, 0:17:29.320 --> 0:17:32.800 I Won't Last a Day without You. I was curious 0:17:33.119 --> 0:17:37.360 about the process behind creating such legendary work and how 0:17:37.400 --> 0:17:40.119 Paul Williams got his start as a lyricist. 0:17:41.640 --> 0:17:43.280 The whole point when they signed me at A and 0:17:43.400 --> 0:17:45.760 M Records is they were looking for a lyricist for 0:17:45.840 --> 0:17:50.600 a guy at six foot four basketball player and scholarship whatever. 0:17:50.800 --> 0:17:54.919 Guy that was a piano player named Roger Nichols, Roger Nichols, 0:17:55.000 --> 0:17:58.040 and I wrote like he gave me a melody, and 0:17:58.080 --> 0:18:01.520 he said, you know, we're looking for a lyricist for Roger. 0:18:01.560 --> 0:18:03.239 And he gave me a melody, says take it home 0:18:03.280 --> 0:18:05.240 to see what you think of it. At ten o'clock 0:18:05.320 --> 0:18:07.080 the next morning, I was there with a lyric for it, 0:18:07.560 --> 0:18:11.040 and he said, really, And so I wrote a lyric 0:18:11.080 --> 0:18:13.479 called It's hard to say goodbye, to turn away with 0:18:13.520 --> 0:18:17.560 no regrets, no regrets for fears, no good byes, to 0:18:17.640 --> 0:18:21.119 say love just never seems to work. That it was 0:18:21.119 --> 0:18:24.480 Clauding Large. So the same day I had Clauding Lage 0:18:24.680 --> 0:18:27.600 and Tiny Tam. What kind of a songwriter am I? 0:18:27.720 --> 0:18:31.639 But Roger and I wrote album cuts, B sides, nothing 0:18:31.720 --> 0:18:35.560 on it for like maybe three years, and I have 0:18:35.680 --> 0:18:37.840 to tell you that one day there's a knock of 0:18:37.880 --> 0:18:40.480 the door and it's the head of publishing and he's 0:18:40.480 --> 0:18:42.720 got two kids with him. He said, this is Karen 0:18:42.720 --> 0:18:46.119 and Richard Carpenter and there are newest artists. So we 0:18:46.200 --> 0:18:48.640 started feeding them as songs. The first thing they recorded 0:18:48.840 --> 0:18:51.240 was they had a B side, too Close to You. 0:18:52.320 --> 0:18:54.840 And then the next thing we wrote a song for 0:18:54.880 --> 0:18:57.919 a commercial that we expanded to a full song. I 0:18:57.960 --> 0:19:02.520 sang in the commercial commercial for a bank. Richard saw 0:19:02.560 --> 0:19:05.760 it said, is there a full song? We've only just begune? 0:19:05.840 --> 0:19:08.280 So we've only just begune rainyties and mondays, I won't 0:19:08.320 --> 0:19:09.879 last a day without you? 0:19:09.920 --> 0:19:13.520 Now tell me about that? How did he Lane make 0:19:13.600 --> 0:19:16.719 come to you? And obviously the big red hot Warren Houser. 0:19:17.280 --> 0:19:20.160 Warren had asked me to write a song for Heaving 0:19:20.200 --> 0:19:23.280 Can Wait, and I, you know, I looked at the 0:19:23.320 --> 0:19:25.360 picture or whatever. I said, you don't need you don't 0:19:25.359 --> 0:19:27.639 need a song you got chery rebat. He did that, 0:19:27.840 --> 0:19:30.359 you know, I said, that's that, you know? So I 0:19:30.600 --> 0:19:32.240 you know, and I've done that two or three times. 0:19:32.480 --> 0:19:34.000 I'm really proud of it because if I look at 0:19:34.000 --> 0:19:36.159 a picture and I go doesn't need a song, then 0:19:36.240 --> 0:19:38.000