WEBVTT - RITA WILSON: "Now & Forever: Duets" 0:00:04.960 --> 0:00:07.640 School's out and there's a lot more young people in 0:00:07.680 --> 0:00:10.479 our midst than during the fall or winter months. Maybe 0:00:10.480 --> 0:00:16.880 they're in your kitchen demanding snacks like Oreo cookies or popsicles, 0:00:17.160 --> 0:00:21.280 or they're in your home office demanding your attention. Maybe 0:00:21.320 --> 0:00:23.960 there's a team knocking on your door to see if 0:00:24.000 --> 0:00:27.560 you need your lawn mode. If they are, take them 0:00:27.640 --> 0:00:30.320 up on it and give them a tip. Maybe they're 0:00:30.400 --> 0:00:33.559 starting their first real summer job. Or maybe they just 0:00:33.680 --> 0:00:36.800 graduated from high school and are packing up for college 0:00:37.240 --> 0:00:40.080 and your heart is breaking. Or maybe they just finish 0:00:40.200 --> 0:00:43.120 college and they're taking a job out of town or 0:00:43.159 --> 0:00:47.320 out of state, or maybe, gasp, they're getting married. Summer 0:00:47.400 --> 0:00:51.000 can be such a time of transition, and transitions can 0:00:51.120 --> 0:00:56.120 be so bittersweet. Big events like these make us long 0:00:56.160 --> 0:00:58.840 for the days that they just wanted you to put 0:00:58.840 --> 0:01:01.639 your work aside and go jump through the sprinkler with them. 0:01:02.440 --> 0:01:05.360 If you've got littles, go jump through the sprinkler with them. 0:01:05.800 --> 0:01:09.520 I promise you you will not regret it. Today's podcast 0:01:09.600 --> 0:01:12.560 guest has a knack for tapping into the emotions of 0:01:12.600 --> 0:01:16.000 our life, whether it's a song she's written or performed 0:01:16.080 --> 0:01:19.840 through her acting career or film production. She'll get you 0:01:19.959 --> 0:01:23.360 right in the fields. As they say. Her latest musical 0:01:23.400 --> 0:01:27.000 single is so perfect for all the graduation and wedding 0:01:27.040 --> 0:01:32.520 rehearsal slide shows you'll be watching this summer. Multi talented singer, songwriter, 0:01:32.720 --> 0:01:37.399 actor producer Rita Wilson is joining me today. It's been 0:01:37.440 --> 0:01:39.640 a while since she and I were able to catch up, 0:01:40.200 --> 0:01:43.120 back when she wrote and recorded Throw Me a Party, 0:01:43.600 --> 0:01:47.720 another tear jerker, but it's her most recent single, written 0:01:47.760 --> 0:01:52.440 and recorded with Emily Shackleton. I'm referring to I Loved 0:01:52.480 --> 0:01:58.120 You First celebrates the deep and complex connection between a 0:01:58.160 --> 0:02:02.960 mother and a child. Fittingly, it was released for Mother's 0:02:03.040 --> 0:02:08.200 Day this year, and it's the very definition of bittersweet. 0:02:08.880 --> 0:02:12.200 Rita calls it a love song between mothers and sons, 0:02:12.320 --> 0:02:16.640 quoting the line of A Shell's Silverstein book. And she 0:02:16.840 --> 0:02:20.480 loved a little boy very much, even more than she 0:02:20.639 --> 0:02:24.760 loved herself. I'm so looking forward to talking with Rita 0:02:24.800 --> 0:02:26.920 Wilson and getting the low down on all she's been 0:02:27.000 --> 0:02:29.040 up to. Let me give a shout out to a 0:02:29.080 --> 0:02:33.600 podcast sponsor that helps to bring all these incredible conversations 0:02:33.639 --> 0:02:38.760 to life, and then we'll dive right in made for 0:02:38.919 --> 0:02:43.880 women over forty and formulated form mature skin. Laura Geller 0:02:43.919 --> 0:02:47.799 Beauty Products help me look and feel my best. 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Visit Laura Geller dot com 0:03:27.480 --> 0:03:31.839 to find all the amazing products that fit your beauty routines. 0:03:33.120 --> 0:03:35.120 Hi, thank you so much for having me. 0:03:35.560 --> 0:03:38.000 Really, oh my god, we have so much to catch 0:03:38.080 --> 0:03:41.160 up on, so much to catch them. So I haven't 0:03:41.160 --> 0:03:44.000 talked to you since, uh since you made me cry 0:03:44.200 --> 0:03:46.520 with the song that ripped my heart out? 0:03:47.400 --> 0:03:48.480 Which when was that? 0:03:49.000 --> 0:03:51.320 The Don't cry for Me song? 0:03:51.960 --> 0:03:53.360 Throw me a Party? 0:03:53.800 --> 0:03:54.120 Oh? 0:03:54.600 --> 0:03:59.240 Yes, yes, it was so sweet. Well let me introduce 0:03:59.320 --> 0:04:03.560 you here before I start asking you a bazillion questions 0:04:03.600 --> 0:04:06.880 and catching up with me. I love someone today is 0:04:06.960 --> 0:04:12.920 the multi talented whirlwind. You are a whirlwind, Rita Wilson. 0:04:14.200 --> 0:04:16.520 You're a whirlwind of sparkly joy. 0:04:17.440 --> 0:04:22.000 But don't you think most, at least in my experience 0:04:22.160 --> 0:04:26.800 from all over my journeys, I think most women are whirlwinds. 0:04:27.160 --> 0:04:29.680 Most of us are taskers. 0:04:30.160 --> 0:04:35.520 They do a lot of things. They're incredibly creative, and 0:04:36.000 --> 0:04:38.560 it's just I think it's something we're good at. I've 0:04:38.600 --> 0:04:42.280 always thought I wish there were more female contractors because. 0:04:42.360 --> 0:04:46.760 Because houses would have better kitchens. 0:04:48.080 --> 0:04:50.279 It's true really quickly. 0:04:50.760 --> 0:04:53.960 Yeah, the house I grew up in was so tiny, 0:04:54.600 --> 0:04:57.839 and my mom and dad, I don't know how they 0:04:57.920 --> 0:05:01.440 did it, but they cooked in that little tiny kitchen. 0:05:01.800 --> 0:05:04.840 And back then we didn't know this, but my mom 0:05:04.880 --> 0:05:06.880 would go to the market every day and just get 0:05:06.920 --> 0:05:11.160 what's fresh. And she was Greek, so that was what 0:05:11.240 --> 0:05:13.840 she was used to. The concept of like buying and 0:05:14.200 --> 0:05:17.599 storing or freezing just didn't compute to her. So, like, 0:05:17.680 --> 0:05:20.840 you would open up the refrigerator and I'd be like 0:05:21.160 --> 0:05:24.799 embarrassed when friends came over because there would be like yogurt, 0:05:26.240 --> 0:05:28.600 a couple of cans of seven apps so they could 0:05:28.600 --> 0:05:30.400 make their cocktail vo and. 0:05:30.279 --> 0:05:31.680 Seven at the end of the day. 0:05:32.440 --> 0:05:37.480 And feta cheese in its own sort of liquid, which yeah, 0:05:38.200 --> 0:05:40.279 so ugly and some constractive. 0:05:40.560 --> 0:05:42.840 I mean, can you imagine a friend going, yeah, let's 0:05:42.880 --> 0:05:44.120 have some ice cream. 0:05:44.360 --> 0:05:46.680 Or some you know, coke or something like yeah, and 0:05:46.680 --> 0:05:47.760 we could have some feta. 0:05:48.240 --> 0:05:53.520 Yeah, here's an olive, stinky cheese. Eat this. 0:05:54.040 --> 0:05:56.520 My girlfriend Didi, her mom was the cookie mom. Her 0:05:56.560 --> 0:06:00.680 mom bought real cookies, she bought oreos. The cookie jar 0:06:00.800 --> 0:06:03.359 had store bought cookies in it, and we're like, oh, 0:06:03.400 --> 0:06:06.440 this is so good. We don't have to eat those 0:06:06.480 --> 0:06:08.520 stupid homemade things like our mom. 0:06:10.120 --> 0:06:15.800 Yeah, how d that's right. Some animal crackers, yeah. 0:06:15.839 --> 0:06:20.120 Yeah, and some popsicles please mom. Your kids are big 0:06:20.160 --> 0:06:23.360 now they're grown. But were you the homemade popsicle mom? 0:06:23.560 --> 0:06:25.800 Or were you the let's go buy the box of 0:06:25.920 --> 0:06:29.839 the plastic sugar water things and just stick them in 0:06:29.839 --> 0:06:30.320 the freezer. 0:06:31.000 --> 0:06:35.680 To this day bought the popsicles, but always always made 0:06:35.720 --> 0:06:36.640 the birthday cakes. 0:06:36.839 --> 0:06:39.240 So I want to talk about music. I want to 0:06:39.240 --> 0:06:42.159 talk about your songs, but right now I got to 0:06:42.200 --> 0:06:48.080 talk about man called Ato. Yes, I cried, I laughed, 0:06:48.320 --> 0:06:51.599 I cried, I'm gonna be honest with you. I started 0:06:51.600 --> 0:06:53.440 watching it two or three times and I had to 0:06:53.480 --> 0:06:58.600 stop because I lost a son to suicide and that 0:06:58.720 --> 0:07:02.279 opening scene opening five minutes just I couldn't do it. 0:07:03.120 --> 0:07:07.920 But somebody that I love told me, please please watch this. 0:07:08.920 --> 0:07:11.560 I know why it's triggering you, but please, if you can, 0:07:11.880 --> 0:07:16.559 you know, go past the first part because it will 0:07:17.080 --> 0:07:20.520 enlarge your heart ten times. And I'm like, okay, deep breath, 0:07:20.560 --> 0:07:24.920 I can do this. And I did it, and Rita, 0:07:25.120 --> 0:07:32.240 it was so beautiful and this simplistic way his life 0:07:32.400 --> 0:07:42.080 was transformed and his heart was healed. My love imperfect, loud, noisy, obnoxious, 0:07:42.720 --> 0:07:46.640 you annoy the hell out of me. I ain't going away. Love. 0:07:47.520 --> 0:07:53.480 Yeah, just non judgmental too, because culturally, I don't think 0:07:53.560 --> 0:07:58.240 she realized that she was being that kind of I 0:07:58.280 --> 0:08:01.840 don't want to say intrusive, but just herself, and that 0:08:02.040 --> 0:08:03.760 in America maybe. 0:08:03.560 --> 0:08:05.480 We're not so used to that. You know, I grew 0:08:05.560 --> 0:08:05.840 up in. 0:08:05.800 --> 0:08:10.160 A very loud Greek Bulgarian family, so I was used 0:08:10.200 --> 0:08:13.760 to that. But for me, it was about the community 0:08:14.160 --> 0:08:18.600 that you can find if you're open to it, and 0:08:18.960 --> 0:08:21.640 that we all shut down when things happen to us 0:08:21.720 --> 0:08:25.280 that make us feel like we'll never find our way again. 0:08:25.960 --> 0:08:29.240 And sometimes it takes somebody getting you out of that 0:08:29.320 --> 0:08:34.320 comfort zone, dragging you, dragging and screaming out of that 0:08:34.360 --> 0:08:38.080 comfort zone so that you realize again that you know, 0:08:38.720 --> 0:08:42.160 every day is a gift when we're live, and you know, 0:08:42.920 --> 0:08:47.280 it was important to me that story was very it 0:08:47.320 --> 0:08:51.240 was very beautiful. And also it was based on a 0:08:51.280 --> 0:08:54.480 book called A Man Called Ova, and that was a 0:08:54.559 --> 0:08:57.600 huge bestseller in the United States. But I had seen 0:08:57.679 --> 0:09:02.120 the Swedish film made from the book, and that's what 0:09:02.280 --> 0:09:05.040 inspired me to do this as an American version. And 0:09:05.880 --> 0:09:09.360 in case your audiences don't know, I produced it. And 0:09:10.000 --> 0:09:14.480 luckily the actor that I went to, Tom Hanks, was available. 0:09:14.080 --> 0:09:19.480 Was available. He said, listen, baby, you're not getting you're 0:09:19.480 --> 0:09:21.720 not getting the pinata cake this year. If you don't 0:09:21.720 --> 0:09:25.160 agree to do this with me exactly, no care, no cake, 0:09:25.360 --> 0:09:26.480 no cake for you, baby. 0:09:27.840 --> 0:09:31.600 And our director Mark Forrester, who's just done so many things. 0:09:31.640 --> 0:09:35.640 He's done things. He got halle Berry and Oscar for 0:09:35.840 --> 0:09:39.000 Monsters Ball, which he directed, He directed the James Bond 0:09:39.000 --> 0:09:42.160 movie Quantum of Solace, and he did Stranger Than Fiction 0:09:42.320 --> 0:09:43.160 that great. 0:09:42.960 --> 0:09:44.559 Movie with Emma Thompson. 0:09:44.160 --> 0:09:48.240 And Will Ferrell, and I just loved his sensitivity and 0:09:48.280 --> 0:09:53.440 his sensibility of how he handled things that there was 0:09:53.440 --> 0:09:56.160 still humor, but it was all very grounded and very real. 0:09:56.880 --> 0:10:01.480 So and we shot it in Pittsburgh and it was fantastic. 0:10:01.600 --> 0:10:04.559 I loved Pittsburgh, loved the people. 0:10:04.760 --> 0:10:10.320 The setting, and the row houses and the way Otto 0:10:10.880 --> 0:10:13.800 leased the row house. There was just so many little 0:10:13.880 --> 0:10:19.400 nuances in it, you know, from repairing the dishwasher, just 0:10:19.559 --> 0:10:22.280 so many sweet little nuances, even the cat. 0:10:22.480 --> 0:10:26.600 Everything was so everything. You know, it's. 0:10:28.200 --> 0:10:33.960 Almost like a nod to an era that is fading. 0:10:34.080 --> 0:10:36.560 You know, someone who gave their life to a company 0:10:37.200 --> 0:10:41.079 and then you know they're kicked out because things are changing, 0:10:41.800 --> 0:10:45.000 or forced to retire. Let's say, people who were good 0:10:45.040 --> 0:10:47.360 with tools that could fix things. I know that people 0:10:47.440 --> 0:10:50.960 still can do that, but even from my mom who 0:10:51.080 --> 0:10:54.280 used to sew and crochet, and my dad built like 0:10:54.440 --> 0:10:57.080 a whole section onto our house when we were kids, 0:10:57.920 --> 0:11:00.320 I don't know if the average person knows how to 0:11:00.360 --> 0:11:03.680 do that anymore. Do they still have shop in junior 0:11:03.760 --> 0:11:06.440 high I mean we used to have shop in middle 0:11:06.480 --> 0:11:09.439 school and homemaking, so we would learn how to sew 0:11:09.640 --> 0:11:13.080 and cook. I know it sounds crazy, but there's something 0:11:13.160 --> 0:11:15.440 good in learning how to do all of that stuff. 0:11:15.520 --> 0:11:18.640 I think a lot of those crafts are fading, but 0:11:18.800 --> 0:11:22.360 you are very crafty. Like honestly, I'm like, please do 0:11:22.400 --> 0:11:24.280 another tiling project. 0:11:24.080 --> 0:11:29.840 Because that bathroom was incredible. I was following that whole process. 0:11:29.960 --> 0:11:32.040 Oh my god, that was so much fun. But I 0:11:32.080 --> 0:11:35.160 was obsessed. I'd get off the air at midnight and 0:11:35.200 --> 0:11:38.080 then I would start the tile, you know, start the floor, 0:11:38.600 --> 0:11:41.120 and I wouldn't come to bed until like four o'clock 0:11:41.160 --> 0:11:43.000 in the morning. And then I've got all these kids. 0:11:43.600 --> 0:11:46.000 My husband was like, what is wrong with you? Just 0:11:46.120 --> 0:11:50.240 put tile down, Just put go to home depot and 0:11:50.280 --> 0:11:53.400 get some tile. And I'm like, no, I know exactly what. 0:11:53.440 --> 0:11:57.959 It is, though, de Laila. It's a quiet time. No 0:11:58.000 --> 0:12:00.800 one is going to distract you out the phone, not 0:12:00.880 --> 0:12:04.760 an email, not a kid, not a husband, not a anyone. 0:12:05.000 --> 0:12:06.600 It's your quiet time. 0:12:07.400 --> 0:12:11.920 And it's also I think when you do anything creative 0:12:12.000 --> 0:12:15.440 with your hands or yeah, let's just say, or even 0:12:15.520 --> 0:12:18.240 for it can be sometimes just driving you're doing something 0:12:18.240 --> 0:12:23.000 with your hands, but that's when my mind gets creative. 0:12:23.120 --> 0:12:25.280 That's when I get to listen, that's when I get 0:12:25.320 --> 0:12:29.360 to have my conversations with God. I that's when I 0:12:29.520 --> 0:12:33.920 feel it's good time, you know. So it's hard to 0:12:34.000 --> 0:12:36.160 say no to that, even though you know you should 0:12:36.200 --> 0:12:36.679 be sleeping. 0:12:37.320 --> 0:12:41.240 So when you're writing a song, do you write it 0:12:41.440 --> 0:12:45.600 or do you let God just write through you? I 0:12:45.640 --> 0:12:47.240 know that's a weird question. 0:12:47.360 --> 0:12:52.320 No, I it's I always call it miraculous because you 0:12:52.400 --> 0:12:56.640 go into the room you're writing with somebody and this 0:12:56.800 --> 0:13:01.800 song at that moment does not exist. And through the 0:13:01.840 --> 0:13:06.160 conversation and through the ideas, through the creative process. I 0:13:06.240 --> 0:13:09.320 don't know how it happens, but it does happen, but. 0:13:09.280 --> 0:13:10.800 You give birth to the song. 0:13:11.640 --> 0:13:12.120 Yeah. 0:13:12.480 --> 0:13:14.320 Once I said, I don't know if I told you 0:13:14.360 --> 0:13:19.079 this before, but I've said songwriting is like this because 0:13:19.120 --> 0:13:22.000 I co write. You walk into the room, fall in 0:13:22.040 --> 0:13:27.040 love with the complete stranger, make beautiful musical intercourse, and 0:13:27.120 --> 0:13:28.800 give birth to a gorgeous song. 0:13:28.880 --> 0:13:29.200 Baby. 0:13:30.880 --> 0:13:35.760 So I loved you first, I knew you first. I 0:13:35.960 --> 0:13:39.240 was the first love in your life and you were 0:13:39.280 --> 0:13:44.120 the ultimate love and mine. Right, how long did it 0:13:44.160 --> 0:13:45.760 take to birth that song? 0:13:46.920 --> 0:13:52.400 Well, my co writer Emily Shackleton had approached me about 0:13:52.640 --> 0:13:57.240 singing it with her, and the version that she had 0:13:57.320 --> 0:14:01.240 and gave me was already the concept, but it was 0:14:01.360 --> 0:14:05.719 written when her newborn was six weeks old, and it 0:14:05.760 --> 0:14:07.920 felt very much like you were singing it to a 0:14:07.960 --> 0:14:13.280 little little baby. And having grown sons, the one who's 0:14:13.280 --> 0:14:16.360 married to who are a single, I said, would you 0:14:16.400 --> 0:14:20.200 be open to thinking about it in a way that 0:14:20.520 --> 0:14:26.280 is for an older child too, an older son, and 0:14:26.320 --> 0:14:30.560 she was like yeah, So rewrote some stuff, sent it 0:14:30.600 --> 0:14:35.120 back to her and we just it all moved pretty quickly, 0:14:35.160 --> 0:14:37.160 and we recorded the song and got it out for 0:14:37.240 --> 0:14:41.600 Mother's Day. But in case your listeners haven't heard it yet, 0:14:42.040 --> 0:14:44.560 it's really a song that you write as a mother 0:14:45.200 --> 0:14:48.720 to your son as he's getting married or as he's 0:14:48.720 --> 0:14:53.280 starting his life, because you, I mean, I still remember 0:14:53.360 --> 0:14:57.000 to this day the moment of childbirth, the moment they 0:14:57.040 --> 0:15:00.480 first put that baby on your chest and in your arms, 0:15:01.360 --> 0:15:03.400 and the overwhelming sense. 0:15:03.160 --> 0:15:07.240 Of love that you have is just enormous, and. 0:15:08.080 --> 0:15:11.720 It's sort of like that will never go away, That 0:15:11.760 --> 0:15:13.440 will never go away. 0:15:13.640 --> 0:15:14.440 You will always say. 0:15:14.520 --> 0:15:18.000 I remember my one son chat when he got his 0:15:18.040 --> 0:15:25.200 first tattoo. I cried so badly because I thought I've 0:15:25.440 --> 0:15:26.240 bathed you. 0:15:26.640 --> 0:15:30.479 I have inch of that skin, an inch. 0:15:30.320 --> 0:15:33.880 Of that body and that skin and oh, it's just 0:15:34.520 --> 0:15:36.800 it was just, you know, one of those things. And 0:15:36.840 --> 0:15:39.600 then you realize, yeah, you got to let go. They 0:15:39.640 --> 0:15:42.680 had their lives and their adults and they can do 0:15:42.720 --> 0:15:45.960 what they want to do, and you have to let go. 0:15:47.080 --> 0:15:48.880 And you know a lot about letting go. 0:15:49.720 --> 0:15:52.080 I suck at it though I've never let go of 0:15:52.120 --> 0:16:00.960 anything that didn't have claw marks. I do that. How 0:16:00.960 --> 0:16:04.640 can I orchestrate things so that I don't really have 0:16:04.760 --> 0:16:07.600 to let go? You know, like they'll go to college 0:16:07.640 --> 0:16:10.320 down the street. Yeah, that's it, that's it. 0:16:10.360 --> 0:16:10.840 That's good. 0:16:11.120 --> 0:16:14.440 Yeah, And they're like, uh no, Ma, that's it's nothing. 0:16:14.800 --> 0:16:17.480 And you know what it's. It has been this year, Rita, 0:16:17.960 --> 0:16:21.280 that I'm talking to my sister, that I realize how 0:16:21.360 --> 0:16:26.400 horrific I was to my mother to not understand that 0:16:26.480 --> 0:16:29.520 when when I flew the nest, because I flew pretty fast, 0:16:29.560 --> 0:16:32.680 pretty hard, pretty far. I mean I wasn't that far away, 0:16:32.720 --> 0:16:37.760 but I was emotionally right, and I didn't even realize 0:16:37.800 --> 0:16:42.320 how that ripped her guts out here I am, you know, 0:16:42.400 --> 0:16:45.320 at this age in life, cling she's been gone for 0:16:45.400 --> 0:16:49.000 almost thirty years going, ma, I'm so sorry. 0:16:49.520 --> 0:16:51.480 If we're going to get older, at least we got 0:16:51.480 --> 0:16:52.800 to get something in return. 0:16:52.880 --> 0:16:54.200 And it was done. 0:16:55.920 --> 0:16:56.160 You know. 0:16:57.280 --> 0:16:59.280 I think that you can only realize that at a 0:16:59.360 --> 0:17:00.560 certain point in your life. 0:17:01.080 --> 0:17:05.280 I was cold blooded, Like you know, it was the seventies, baby, 0:17:05.359 --> 0:17:07.720 in the eighties, and I had things to do. 0:17:08.760 --> 0:17:09.879 Yeah, I'm out. 0:17:10.160 --> 0:17:11.800 There are discos to go to. 0:17:12.520 --> 0:17:14.520 There's koloa and cream to drink. 0:17:14.960 --> 0:17:18.040 If you do the vodkatonic, do not finish the night 0:17:18.080 --> 0:17:19.359 with a koloa and cream. 0:17:21.760 --> 0:17:23.840 Oh my god. The disco era, for sure. 0:17:24.040 --> 0:17:27.239 Did you have the dress, the dress that spun, the 0:17:27.280 --> 0:17:30.080 little lycra dress that spun with the. 0:17:30.080 --> 0:17:33.320 Disco No, oh, that sounds amazing. 0:17:33.560 --> 0:17:38.639 Yeah. I had a purple lycra you know, the little 0:17:38.680 --> 0:17:42.800 circle skirt. So when I would spin on the disco floor, Oh. 0:17:42.560 --> 0:17:44.600 My god, that's fantastic. 0:17:44.680 --> 0:17:50.520 Yeah, it was, well, you know, it's I really still 0:17:50.560 --> 0:17:52.920 think growing up in that era was kind of amazing, 0:17:53.240 --> 0:17:57.159 particularly like I think the music from that time is incredible. Like, 0:17:57.480 --> 0:17:59.560 I don't know if you know, but you I think 0:17:59.560 --> 0:18:03.880 you would like this album. It's called Now and Forever Duets. 0:18:03.920 --> 0:18:08.280 It's my duets album. That came out last September. But 0:18:08.400 --> 0:18:11.760 it's all covers of seventy songs sung as duets with 0:18:12.440 --> 0:18:19.119 Keith Urban, Smokey Robinson, Jackson Brown, Elvis Costello, Vince Gill. 0:18:19.040 --> 0:18:19.840 Josh Grobin. 0:18:21.480 --> 0:18:25.440 You know, it goes on and on, but it's all 0:18:25.480 --> 0:18:28.280 those songs that we love and grew up with, and 0:18:28.520 --> 0:18:32.080 all duets envisioned as duets because those songs weren't sung 0:18:32.119 --> 0:18:35.879 as duets. Willie Nelson and I do slip Sliding Away, 0:18:36.600 --> 0:18:39.679 and there's something like super poignant about hearing Willie Nelson 0:18:39.800 --> 0:18:41.120 sing the nearer. 0:18:40.800 --> 0:18:43.359 Your destination, the more you're slip sliding away. 0:18:43.800 --> 0:18:47.840 However, I think if anybody is going to break the 0:18:47.920 --> 0:18:51.680 sound barrier of living forever, it's Willie. 0:18:51.840 --> 0:18:55.760 Yeah, it's definitely Willie. I actually was telling there's a 0:18:55.800 --> 0:18:59.040 young couple that lives on my property that both are 0:18:59.119 --> 0:19:03.359 very musical, and so we have bonfires in the backyard 0:19:03.920 --> 0:19:07.040 and they have my young kids out there and you know, 0:19:07.080 --> 0:19:10.720 they'll sing. And I said to them the other night, 0:19:10.800 --> 0:19:13.080 I feel so bad for you kids, and they're like, why, 0:19:13.119 --> 0:19:15.840 I said, you missed the era of the best music. 0:19:16.840 --> 0:19:21.320 And I was talking about that album, those songs that 0:19:21.840 --> 0:19:29.040 magical place in time where there was an innocence. Even 0:19:29.080 --> 0:19:31.200 though some of our songs are a little naughty, there 0:19:31.280 --> 0:19:32.159 was an innocence. 0:19:33.200 --> 0:19:36.919 I think like that era of music was kind of 0:19:36.920 --> 0:19:40.639 coming out of the sixties where we had writers like 0:19:40.680 --> 0:19:42.880 Carol King, but they were writing for other people, they 0:19:42.880 --> 0:19:47.000 were writing for groups. And then there was this emergence 0:19:47.040 --> 0:19:51.520 of the singer songwriter, and you had Joni Mitchell, Harold King, 0:19:51.960 --> 0:19:57.080 Stevie Nicks, Carly Simon. Linda Ronstadt didn't write that much, 0:19:57.160 --> 0:20:00.960 but she was an amazing interpreter. You had Crosby Stills 0:20:00.960 --> 0:20:05.240 and Nash Jackson Brown, Neil Young, all of these people, 0:20:05.359 --> 0:20:10.400 and they were telling their own personal stories, and that 0:20:10.560 --> 0:20:14.640 is I think what we related to so much is like, wow, 0:20:15.040 --> 0:20:16.280 they're saying what I'm thinking. 0:20:17.200 --> 0:20:21.640 And it felt very real and very intimate. 0:20:32.400 --> 0:20:34.600 The older I get, you know, the wisdom comes. One 0:20:34.640 --> 0:20:37.760 thing I realized I was listening to some great music 0:20:37.800 --> 0:20:40.639 the other day, and in my mind, if it's a 0:20:40.680 --> 0:20:45.320 great song, it's gospel. When a song resonates in your 0:20:45.359 --> 0:20:49.600 soul like that, yeah, it's gospel. To me. It's like, 0:20:49.720 --> 0:20:52.720 you can't refute this, you can't argue this. 0:20:53.640 --> 0:20:54.320 That's a fact. 0:20:54.560 --> 0:20:58.879 Yeah, like slip sliding away. That is gospel, that is wisdom. 0:20:59.800 --> 0:21:03.160 That is a whole sermon wrapped up in a three 0:21:03.160 --> 0:21:04.160 and a half minute song. 0:21:04.800 --> 0:21:08.240 That's right, that's right. That's what I love about songwriting 0:21:09.320 --> 0:21:13.040 is the storytelling. Is how are you going to tell 0:21:13.119 --> 0:21:15.399 this in three and a half minutes? 0:21:15.880 --> 0:21:21.080 To condense down the truth? Yes, about loving a baby 0:21:21.080 --> 0:21:23.800 first and loving them with every fiber of your being 0:21:23.960 --> 0:21:28.320 and knowing you would trade places with them in a heartbeat. 0:21:28.840 --> 0:21:33.280 There's something bad, it happens, Yeah, And being able to 0:21:33.320 --> 0:21:36.880 tell that in a three or four minute song, Yeah, 0:21:37.200 --> 0:21:40.440 that's your gift. That's your magic, is being able to 0:21:41.640 --> 0:21:45.560 preach the truth of love, to condense it down till 0:21:45.600 --> 0:21:46.399 it's just pure. 0:21:47.760 --> 0:21:53.199 It's pure. I think that what you went through is 0:21:53.880 --> 0:21:55.200 maybe the hardest. 0:21:54.760 --> 0:22:01.040 Thing a parent can ever go through, and you have 0:22:01.160 --> 0:22:06.960 handled it with enormous grace, and I think you've probably 0:22:08.400 --> 0:22:12.919 inspired so many people who may have been not able 0:22:12.960 --> 0:22:16.680 to get out of despair. And I know that it 0:22:17.840 --> 0:22:21.200 doesn't ever go away, but I know that it is. 0:22:22.400 --> 0:22:25.240 It's there, and you've accepted and you live with it. 0:22:25.280 --> 0:22:28.240 I don't know if you have read anything by Pauline Boss, 0:22:28.440 --> 0:22:33.080 and she writes about ambiguous grief yep, an ambiguous loss. 0:22:33.600 --> 0:22:36.520 That concept is, you know, we all think that we 0:22:36.520 --> 0:22:37.400 should have closure. 0:22:37.720 --> 0:22:38.800 There is no closure. 0:22:39.160 --> 0:22:40.000 There is no clue. 0:22:40.080 --> 0:22:43.680 I'm glad that people are talking about that and recognizing it. 0:22:44.119 --> 0:22:47.919 One of the sweetest gifts I got after losing my 0:22:48.000 --> 0:22:52.439 first son, Sammy was somebody saying. It was Jill that 0:22:52.480 --> 0:22:57.120 told me the whole doesn't get any smaller, but your 0:22:57.200 --> 0:23:02.520 life will grow around it, your life will expand around it. 0:23:02.880 --> 0:23:06.040 Right now, all there is is the whole. There's no 0:23:06.200 --> 0:23:07.440 room for anything else. 0:23:08.080 --> 0:23:10.840 That's a beautiful, beautiful way to look, to see it 0:23:10.880 --> 0:23:14.119 and to understand. Yeah, you know, it's also like I 0:23:14.160 --> 0:23:19.359 remember after nine to eleven, we were all questioned, like, 0:23:19.440 --> 0:23:22.040 how could something that evil happen? How could something that 0:23:22.119 --> 0:23:26.720 bad happen? How could that occur? And people were asking, 0:23:26.720 --> 0:23:29.399 Where's God? Where's God in all of this? Like, you know, 0:23:29.400 --> 0:23:31.640 how can if you pray to God, how did God 0:23:31.760 --> 0:23:36.040 let this happen? And I read a piece by a 0:23:36.080 --> 0:23:39.359 rabbi in the New York Times and he said, you know, 0:23:39.480 --> 0:23:42.920 evil exists in the world just like anything, But where 0:23:42.960 --> 0:23:46.800 you find God is in the aftermath, in the actions 0:23:46.840 --> 0:23:50.760 of people in the love and the kindness and how 0:23:50.800 --> 0:23:55.120 people come together and the unite in this goodness, And 0:23:55.240 --> 0:23:57.840 that's where you have to look for it, because if 0:23:57.880 --> 0:23:59.400 you stay in that other. 0:24:00.080 --> 0:24:03.560 World, you're going to just lose your mind, be stuck. 0:24:03.280 --> 0:24:05.040 And you'll lose your mind. You'd be on a hamster 0:24:05.080 --> 0:24:07.639 wheel of grief and pain. 0:24:08.200 --> 0:24:10.119 And so read it. You had a song come out 0:24:10.160 --> 0:24:13.399 a couple of weeks ago, right, Yes, and every woman 0:24:13.480 --> 0:24:15.879 needs a Little Black Dress exactly. 0:24:16.160 --> 0:24:18.639 It's called Little Black Dress. I wrote it with Laurie 0:24:18.760 --> 0:24:22.400 McKenna and Phil Barton. Laurie McKenna is an incredible songwriter. 0:24:23.600 --> 0:24:26.800 She has her own albums, but she has written just 0:24:27.000 --> 0:24:31.360