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Speaker 1: Now here's a highlight from coast to coast am on iHeartRadio.

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Speaker 2: Now he's Johnny. I don't say it quite like Ed

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Speaker 2: mc mahon, but pretty close. Johnny Carson spent thirty years

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Speaker 2: as the host of the Tonight Show and did a

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Speaker 2: unbelievably marvelous job. But who knew it, Howard Smith did.

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Speaker 2: His neighbor, wrote a book called My Friend Johnny, The

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Speaker 2: Last twenty Years of a Beautiful Life with Johnny Carson

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Speaker 2: and Friends. Howard is a retired tech executive whose life

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Speaker 2: took a remarkable term when turned when he moved to Malibu, California,

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Speaker 2: and became close friends with his neighbor Johnny Carson. Their

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Speaker 2: friendship deeply shaped his next chapter. Following a decade leading

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Speaker 2: the world's largest software company, Howard, welcome to the program.

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Speaker 3: Well, thank you very much. Enjoy it.

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Speaker 2: What a fascinating time. Now did you move next to

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Speaker 2: Johnny or did Johnny move next to you?

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Speaker 3: Now, Johnny moved next to me. And you know, he

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Speaker 3: sewed his beach house to John McEnroe, and then he

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Speaker 3: bought this place four doors for me in Malibu. And

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Speaker 3: that's how we became friends. At a dinner that Jerry

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Speaker 3: weintraup put On and his wife Jane says, okay, we'd

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Speaker 3: like to have you sit with Johnny Carson and Alex.

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Speaker 3: They weren't married at time, and because John's very shy,

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Speaker 3: and so they said, us with John at his table there,

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Speaker 3: and so we had a nice conversation. And one of

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Speaker 3: the things that you know, he just moved there. And

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Speaker 3: when he sold his house to John McEnroe, John gave

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Speaker 3: him a tennis lesson at Pepperdine, at a college down

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Speaker 3: the road from us. And I says, well, John, I said,

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Speaker 3: I live four doors from you. I have a tennis court.

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Speaker 3: If you ever want to play tennis, you know, here's

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Speaker 3: my number. Give me a call. So the next morning,

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Speaker 3: nine o'clock the phone rings, says Howard, I made you

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Speaker 3: last night, and can I come over and played tennis

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Speaker 3: with you? So he walks over and that's kind of

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Speaker 3: the start of our acquaintance.

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Speaker 2: Oh cool is that? And by the way, were you

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Speaker 2: unaffected I hope from the recent fires out that way?

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Speaker 3: Well, thank you for asky. No, I lost about eighty

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Speaker 3: percent of my house. Oh yeah, and let me tell

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Speaker 3: you all the homes in Malibu and the Palisade. I mean,

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Speaker 3: most of them are all gone. But anyway, so I

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Speaker 3: am up in Idaho. Now I have a home up

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Speaker 3: in Quarterly in Idahove, so I'm not in Malibu because

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Speaker 3: they're redoing the house, but it hopefully will be done

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Speaker 3: in about a year.

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Speaker 2: What happened to Johnny's old place?

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Speaker 3: Johnny's old place sold for I can't remember the guy's

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Speaker 3: name now, but he owned the Philadelphia Eagles, the guy

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Speaker 3: that bought John's place.

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Speaker 2: So, and was that house affected by the fires?

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Speaker 3: No, No, that was not. That was in Point Doom

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Speaker 3: and it was not affected by the fires.

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Speaker 2: So what did you think of watching the tonight show

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Speaker 2: knowing you knew Johnny Carson?

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Speaker 3: Well, it's kind of interesting when I met John. I

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Speaker 3: can't say that I was an abbott a meyer of

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Speaker 3: John because I had a software company. We're at the

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Speaker 3: largest software coming in the world at that time. So

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Speaker 3: I used to put a bit about ten ten thirty

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Speaker 3: because I used to get up early. So I never

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Speaker 3: watched the show. So it wasn't a matter that you know,

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Speaker 3: when I met John that I was, you know, so

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Speaker 3: eager to meet him, and it was, you know, it

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Speaker 3: was one of his hero was my hero. So so

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Speaker 3: I think that was a good factor because John and

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Speaker 3: I became very very good friends. And I would say,

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Speaker 3: we played I'll give you example, we played tennis for

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Speaker 3: maybe two months, and then John and we'd played. It'd

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Speaker 3: come over my house like three days a week and

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Speaker 3: we played tennis, and then after tennis, we just talk

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Speaker 3: about life. And so, you know, I was not in

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Speaker 3: the entertainment business, so I think he felt comfortable, you know,

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Speaker 3: chatting with me and talking about different things because we

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Speaker 3: spent a lot of time just talking about our lives.

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Speaker 3: And Alex would say, Howard, you and John probably talk

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Speaker 3: more about different things than I have with John, and

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Speaker 3: so this is our After a couple of months playing,

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Speaker 3: he says, Howard, next week, I'm going to be sixty

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Speaker 3: years old and I'm having a birthday party at Spago's,

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Speaker 3: which is a very high end restaurant in Beverly Hills,

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Speaker 3: and I'd like to have you and your wife come

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Speaker 3: to my birthday party. And so I guess I was

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Speaker 3: under an impression that, wow, this is this is amazing,

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Speaker 3: because I you know, I only known him a couple

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Speaker 3: of months and we just played tennis and that's about it.

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Speaker 3: And so I was patting that Ricos and all the

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Speaker 3: you know, all the big stars that he knows would

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Speaker 3: be there at his birthday party. So we get to

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Speaker 3: the restaurant and I said, I'm here for Johnny Carson's birthday,

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Speaker 3: and they said, oh yeah, come right over here. So

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Speaker 3: we go over to this table and here's Henry Bushkin,

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Speaker 3: who was his attorney at that time, and he was

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Speaker 3: engaged to Joyce to Witch, she was an actress actress,

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Speaker 3: and John Alex and ourselves, and I guess that was it.

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Speaker 3: I pardon me, that was it. That was it? That

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Speaker 3: was it, And so I kind of pinched myself and

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Speaker 3: going like wow, I mean, you know, I've never felt that. Boy.

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Speaker 3: You know, we had this close relationship, but after that,

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Speaker 3: you know, being there and being a part of that

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Speaker 3: six people for his sixtieth birthday, I was so I guess,

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Speaker 3: uh and away and kind of saying, wow, this is unbelievable.

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Speaker 3: And this is where I realized at that time that

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Speaker 3: I became probably one of John's best friends, and that

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Speaker 3: he and I for twenty twenty five years, we would

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Speaker 3: play tennis three days a week. We'd go out to dinner,

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Speaker 3: maybe two or three times a month. We'd go on

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Speaker 3: vacations together on his boat together. And so this is

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Speaker 3: where John was a shy guy. But John never thought

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Speaker 3: himself as a big star. And I have to say

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Speaker 3: that I got Jay Lennel to do the forward on

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Speaker 3: my book. And Jay, you know, I talked to Jay

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Speaker 3: no Jay, and I called him up and I said,

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Speaker 3: you know, I would like to have you, you know,

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Speaker 3: write a little thing about forward for my book. He's absolutely, Howard,

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Speaker 3: I'd love to do that. He writes this three page

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Speaker 3: forward the book. And I would have to say, people

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Speaker 3: that read that, most of them would call me and says, Howard,

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Speaker 3: I'm crying because Jay Leno wrote this unbelievable forward and

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Speaker 3: it was basically Jay didn't know John very well. Jay

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Speaker 3: said that he was at John's house for dinner one

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Speaker 3: night that's set and then you know when he took over.

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Speaker 3: You know, he and John were not that close and

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Speaker 3: didn't know that each other. But his comment was that

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Speaker 3: he felt that John and him were very similar and

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Speaker 3: that they were not Hollywood people. They were not considered

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Speaker 3: in the Hollywood group. They and I knowing Jay now more,

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Speaker 3: I can understand that because John just loved what he

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Speaker 3: was doing, and Jay too, Jay loves I was at

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Speaker 3: one of his concerts here a couple of months ago

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Speaker 3: in Florida and Jay's doing like one hundred and seventy

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Speaker 3: cons a year. Wow. And you know, and I guess

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Speaker 3: I would say that why he's doing that because he

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Speaker 3: loves to do that. He loves the entertain people. And

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Speaker 3: that was John's love too. John, just like I say,

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Speaker 3: never thought himself as a star, just felt that he

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Speaker 3: was doing something he loved to do, and that was

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Speaker 3: the entertain people and make them happy. And that's where

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Speaker 3: both of them are very very similar in that, you know,

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Speaker 3: they were just down to earth people. And I have

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Speaker 3: to say, the one thing that I wanted people to

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Speaker 3: know about John is that. And the reason I was

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Speaker 3: I wrote this book is that there was an article,

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Speaker 3: a book came out about John five years after he died,

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Speaker 3: and it was not very positive on John. It was

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Speaker 3: a lawyer that John had that he fired and he

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Speaker 3: wrote this book and it was you know, if you

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Speaker 3: read it, think that John was a womanizer, it was

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Speaker 3: an alcoholic, and all these negative things. And that's kind

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Speaker 3: of what prompt me to do this book because I said,

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Speaker 3: you know what I've known of john he was none,

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Speaker 3: nothing like that. And so this is why that prompt

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Speaker 3: me to go and say, one day I'm going to

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Speaker 3: write a book and tell people what who Johnny Carson

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Speaker 3: was like. I say, not many people that he related

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Speaker 3: to or it was close to as I was. And

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Speaker 3: so that's why, you know, I wrote this book about

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Speaker 3: you know that he was bigger. It's a big star,

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Speaker 3: just down the earth guy, enjoyed loving what he was doing, okay,

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Speaker 3: but never thought that he was this big star.

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