Pat Boone | The Magnificent Others with Billy Corgan

Summary

The Magnificent Others with Billy Corgan

Episode: Pat Boone | June 10, 2026

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Episode Overview

In this rich and heartfelt episode of The Magnificent Others, Billy Corgan welcomes legendary singer, actor, and cultural figure Pat Boone. At 91 years old, Boone reflects on his unprecedented 70-year career in music and entertainment, the faith and values that sustained him, his encounters with icons like Elvis Presley, his navigation of fame, family, and faith, and his views on America’s cultural changes. The episode blends charming anecdotes, candid wisdom, and remarkable behind-the-scenes stories, all delivered in an atmosphere of warmth, humility, and mutual respect.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Pat Boone’s Early Career & Defining Optimism

[00:00–11:00]

• Pat describes the pressure and unexpectedness of early success (“at that young age, it was miraculous that I could just keep walking straight.” – Pat Boone, [00:00]).
• Holds the Billboard record for 220 consecutive weeks on the chart ([00:12]).
• Sold 50 million records, with 38 Top 40 hits and 6 number ones ([01:04]).
• Reflects on his characteristic optimism, grounded in faith, family, and resilience through setbacks (“I have reason to believe spiritually and just normally that everything’s going to work out ok.” – Pat Boone, [02:19]).

2. The Love Story: Marriage to Shirley Foley

[03:00–09:42]

• Boone recounts marrying Shirley (Red Foley’s daughter) at age 19, sharing a deeply personal anecdote about asking Red for permission ([05:29]) and being double-married in one day due to a clerical hiccup ([07:45]).
• Four children in four years; rapid professional ascent, all before age 23 (“By the end of the fourth year of our marriage, I was doing... the Chevy Showroom on television. I had hit records.” – Pat Boone, [09:42]).

3. Musical Roots: Pop, Country, and R&B

[10:03–18:26]

• Despite deep country roots via Red Foley, Pat gravitated toward pop singers like Bing Crosby, Sinatra, and Vic Damone ([13:02–15:57]).
• Early experiences performing in Nashville’s Centennial Park, winning talent shows, but facing slow professional breaks ([16:13–18:26]).

4. “Miraculous” Rise: From Preacher to Pop Star

[18:26–24:01]

• Tells the story of being a young preacher, hosting two TV shows for $44.50 a week ([18:45]), when a call from Dot Records led to recording the R&B song “Two Hearts, Two Kisses” ([20:14]).
• Breakout with “Ain’t That a Shame” and a string of hits, starting at age 22 ([23:18–23:39]).

5. The Elvis Connection

[26:13–41:16]

• Pat gives a fascinating first-person account of meeting a shy, pre-fame Elvis Presley at a Cleveland sock-hop ([26:13–29:49]).
• Details on their friendship, moving to Bel Air near each other, and the “friendly competition” on the charts in the late ‘50s ([29:25–30:53]).
• Corgan shares his own stories of friendship with Lisa Marie Presley and reflects on the lasting legacy and mythos of Elvis.
  • “There’s no other artist that has approached that level of fascination and attention.” – Billy Corgan, [41:27]
• Pat discusses the private, spiritual side of Elvis and helps arrange a meeting between Elvis and Oral Roberts ([39:45–40:36]).

6. Navigating Television and the Chevy Showroom

[42:28–54:03]

• Boone’s experience hosting 115 episodes of The Chevy Showroom, collaborating with legends like Ella Fitzgerald, Nat King Cole, Tony Bennett, and more, all by age 21 ([44:25–45:47]).
• Recounts live TV mishaps, including a teleprompter failure while singing for Irving Berlin and technical bloopers ([47:37–49:42]).

7. Race, Civil Rights, and Television

[50:50–53:18]

• Candidly recounts network resistance to booking Harry Belafonte due to his civil rights activism. Pat refused to censor his guest list, essentially ending his own show:
  • “If Pat Boone has to say no to the guy that was currently the most popular performer in the world, Harry Belafonte, then it’s not the Pat Boone show.” – Pat Boone, [52:11]
• Reflects on his values, willingness to walk away from success for principle.

8. Movie Stardom: “April Love” and “Journey to the Center of the Earth”

[54:03–64:35]

• Shares stories about being chosen for movies, working with songwriting legends like Johnny Mercer and Sammy Fain ([58:14–59:50]).
• On acting with James Mason in “Journey...” and a near-fatal on-set mishap with gypsum crystals ([60:32–63:56]).

9. Faith, Family, and Fame

[64:35–70:44]

• Discusses the grounding force of marriage and church, raising four daughters in Beverly Hills without losing touch with roots or values ([65:30–69:10]).
• Family never left home until marriage: “Four daughters raised in Beverly Hills, not one of them ever had an apartment of her own or lived alone.” – Pat Boone, [67:46]
• Navigating his wholesome public persona, occasional industry jokes, and being typecast as "Mr. Square" ([69:10–70:44]).

10. Genre Reinvention and Intergenerational Respect

[70:44–79:32]

• Talks about turning down “edgier” movie roles and being boxed in by his image, but later embracing irony and fun (e.g., his heavy metal album and friendship with Ozzy Osbourne) ([73:11–74:44]).
• Discusses musical friendships across generations and genres, from Ronnie James Dio to Bono ([76:29–78:06]).

11. Reflections on America, Civility, and Optimism

[81:49–92:12]

• Boone shares deeply considered thoughts on America’s current divisions, the need for prayer, humility, mutual respect, and what it would take to restore a sense of civility ([82:20–90:14]):
  • “We are losing the ability to have different viewpoints and still respect each other, especially publicly... We’ve got to try to find out how we can reach out to each other, even if we have different methods and beliefs and tastes.” – Pat Boone, [83:00, 84:59]
• On hope for American unity:
  • “It’s possible. That’s why I try to plead for it, because I think we can.” – Pat Boone, [90:22]
  • “Accentuate the positive and eliminate the negative.” – Pat Boone (citing Johnny Mercer), [91:47]

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On optimism and faith:
  “I have reason to believe spiritually and just normally that everything’s going to work out ok, I’m going to make it.” – Pat Boone, [02:19]

• On early marriage:
  "We got married at 19. But then by 20, I had moved to North Texas State... By the end of the fourth year of our marriage, I was doing the Pat Boone, the show, the Chevy showroom on television. I had hit records." – Pat Boone, [09:42]

• On meeting Elvis:
  “The name Elvis Presley was peculiar... The girls liked the way he looked right away... when he finished that and the girls gave him a nice hand... he said, ‘That’s all right, mama, that’s all right with me any way you please,’ and that was rhythm and blues. And I heard right then what Colonel Tom Parker and what RCA heard.” – Pat Boone, [28:40]

• On breaking television barriers:
  “If Pat Boone has to say no to the guy that was currently the most popular performer in the world, Harry Belafonte, then it’s not the Pat Boone show. And I’m going to have to ask you to take the show from here.” – Pat Boone, [52:11]

• On faith and public image:
  “I was so square.” – Pat Boone, [65:15]
  “You live the way you want to live, and it’s fine. And in fact, if I ever had a son, I’d want him to be just like you—till he’s about 3 years old!” – Phil Harris, relayed by Pat Boone, [70:13]

• On America’s future:
  “We are losing the ability to have different viewpoints and still respect each other, especially publicly... We got to try to find out how we can reach out to each other, even if we have different methods and beliefs and tastes.” – Pat Boone, [84:59]

• On hope and moving forward:
  “Accentuate the positive and eliminate the negative.” – Pat Boone (referencing Johnny Mercer), [91:47]

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Timestamps for Important Segments

| Segment | Timestamp | |-------------------------------------------------|---------------| | Pat’s Billboard record and career overview | 00:12–01:50 | | Optimism, faith and surviving hard times | 02:14–03:09 | | Courtship and marriage to Shirley Foley | 03:00–09:42 | | Early career, winning talent shows | 16:00–18:26 | | Breakout: Dot Records and “Ain’t That a Shame” | 20:14–23:19 | | Meeting Elvis Presley | 26:13–29:48 | | Teleprompter failure, TV mishaps | 47:37–49:42 | | Refusing to exclude Harry Belafonte | 50:57–53:18 | | Movie career: “Bernadine,” “April Love” | 58:14–59:50 | | Dangerous “Journey to the Center of the Earth” | 60:32–63:56 | | Reflections on faith, family, Beverly Hills life | 65:30–69:10 | | Friendship with Ozzy Osbourne | 73:11–74:44 | | On America’s division and hope | 82:20–84:59 | | Hopes for American civility, Johnny Mercer quote | 90:14–91:49 |

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Tone and Closing Thoughts

This episode is a celebration of humility, enduring values, and the quiet strength that comes from faith and family. Both Billy Corgan and Pat Boone exemplify warmth, respect, and multigenerational curiosity. The conversation serves as a living archive of American music and culture—from the birth of rock ‘n’ roll to the nuances of 21st-century celebrity and citizenship—always with an undercurrent of hope and the encouragement to “accentuate the positive.”

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Transcript

[Pat Boone]

At that young age, it was miraculous that I could just keep walking straight. I mean, it was all so much pressure, but I just took each moment as it came.

[Interviewer]

Yeah. You still have the Billboard record. 220 weeks on the chart consecutively, you had at least one record in the charts.

[Pat Boone]

One going up, one going down.

[Interviewer]

That is insane.

[Pat Boone]

It was just miraculous, the things that kept happening to me.

[Interviewer]

It always struck me that you had a particular optimism for life.

[Pat Boone]

I do. Really do.

[Interviewer]

Even sitting here in 2026 with you, it's still unbelievable.

[Pat Boone]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

The success you had. Pat Boone, what an honor to have you. It's nice to see you.

[Pat Boone]

I'm honored to have you say that.

[Interviewer]

Thank you. 91 years young.

[Pat Boone]

91 years young.

[Interviewer]

Born in 1934.

[Pat Boone]

Yeah. You did some homework.

[Interviewer]

Okay. Let me give a little bit of a resume to start.

[Pat Boone]

Okay.

[Interviewer]

Because I think for people who don't know your music like I do and didn't grow up with you. 70 years plus in the business.

[Pat Boone]

Yep.

[Interviewer]

50 million records sold, they tell me roughly.

[Pat Boone]

I didn't get paid for that many, but.

[Interviewer]

But different world that you grew up in in terms of how they paid artists.

[Pat Boone]

Yes. Yes.

[Interviewer]

38 top 40 hits, six number ones. You still have the Billboard record. 220 weeks on the chart consecutively, you had at least one record in the charts for 200.

[Pat Boone]

One going up, one going down.

[Interviewer]

That is insane. Billboard itself ranks you as the number two most popular artist in the 1950s, behind a little guy named Elvis Presley.

[Pat Boone]

Yeah. Whatever happened to him?

[Interviewer]

They forgot about him. 78 studio albums, roughly. And somewhere in the neighborhood of 2,300 plus songs recorded.

[Pat Boone]

We got it to 2,700 now.

[Interviewer]

Really? Well, congratulations.

[Pat Boone]

And I'm still at it. Cause I'm recording still. And got two or three records on the charts in meager ways, but there.

[Interviewer]

I was going to ask you this later, but I think it's a good place to start. What do you think defines your life? Because at least from an observational point of view, and I've been watching you on television and hearing your music my entire life. I'm 59 years old, so I'm very familiar with who you are.

[Pat Boone]

Good.

[Interviewer]

And it always struck me that you had a particular optimism for life.

[Pat Boone]

I do. I really do. And I've had many knockdowns, many things to recover from, but a happy marriage, wonderful family, church life. And really when I've been really backed into corners. And I thought I was maybe done for financially, miraculously, I've been delivered from. From the problems. And so I Am I have reason to believe spiritually and just normally that everything's going to work out okay, I'm going to make it.

[Interviewer]

Do you think. I know you're a man of deep faith. Do you think that optimism is something that I don't want to say God rewards, but God maybe recognizes the spirit of optimism.

[Pat Boone]

Definitely. And it just. Well, obviously if you feel like you're the younger brother of or related to Howard Hughes or to some giant, you know, entrepreneur who's got all the, say, all the money in the world practically, then you feel optimistic about your future. I, as a young boy, had a good dad and mom and happy family, played into sports, sang, was asked to lead singing in church. And so I had a happy, positive life. Married at 19 because Red Foley, my father in law, the Country Music hall of Fame singer, was taking his three girls. His wife had died, my wife's mama, of rheumatic fever. And was taking the three girls, including 19 year old Shirley, to Springfield, Missouri, to start what became the Ozark Jubilee, a big country successful television country music show. But he was taking his three girls with him, of course. And Shirley and I had been in love since we were 16 in high school. Very much in love, even to the point we were talking about how many kids we might have when we got married and the names and so on. And now he's taking her away.

[Interviewer]

Ah, I didn't know this part.

[Pat Boone]

To Springfield, Missouri. And to me, that might as well have been a foreign country. Yeah. And I said, honey, I can't stand it. I know it's. I believe if he takes you to Springfield, and it might as well have been some faraway place. We were in Nashville and you're too attractive. The guys are going to be hovering around you and somebody's going to take you. No. She said, I love you. Nobody's going. I said, why don't we get married? And we were both surprised at even the thought. But as we thought about it, hey, we're 19. I can get by. We'll figure out. But anything but you going away from me. I don't want you to be gone. So we had to ask her dad, Red Foley. We sat in a. In a who?

[Interviewer]

For those who don't know, Red's career of music was a big star, very

[Pat Boone]

big country music artist. But his wife had died. In fact, his first wife had died, too. And so I sat Red Foley down in the nook. They had a much nicer home than ours out on Lone Oak Road. And I called him Mr. Red. I said, Mr. Red, you know I love your daughter Shirley. He said, I know you do. And he said, I think you must feel the same about him, don't you, honey? To Shirley. I do, Daddy. Well, what can I do for you? He said, well, I'm asking. I've asked her already. I know you're leaving soon. You're leaving Monday for Springfield. This was a Friday. And we just can't stand it. I'd like to ask your permission for us to get married. And that took him back a little way. And he said, you're going to take care of my daughter. I said, yes, Mr. Red, I will. With God's help, I will. And he said, is this what you want too, honey? And she said, yes, Daddy. And I swear. Tears rolled down his nose into his coffee. And he said, well, if this is what you want, I give you my blessing. I'll buy your rings. Really? And so we. And he said, well, now, when are you thinking of it? We said, tomorrow. It was amazing. This was Friday. And it was going to leave Monday for Springfield. So Saturday we went down and bought little. Little rings like this. It is this little simple one. That. Just a little gold ring.

[Interviewer]

That's the ring.

[Pat Boone]

That's the ring. Kept us married for 66 years now. And. And then we bought a nicer ring. But we still love that one. And. And so we. We married the next high school principal were also a minister. He Back. He. He married us. His wife was the maid of honor. But in Davidson county you didn't get a marriage license that quick. So we went to another county and got married by a justice of the peace.

[Interviewer]

Right.

[Pat Boone]

And we were married twice that day. We were double married. And we took it that seriously too. So.

[Interviewer]

Well, maybe you needed to be double married to get to the end.

[Pat Boone]

Yeah. And so we got married at 19. But then by 20, I had moved to North Texas State and was in college there. Music. Big music school where I wanted to know more about music. How to play an instrument, play music. I was a song leader and a singer already. I had won some talent contests. The Ted Mack Amateur Hour and Arthur Godfrey show. National shows. But nothing, no offers for anything came from winning these two big talent shows. So I felt, well, I can't count on that as a career. Right. And so I'm going to be a teacher. Preacher, I thought. And Shirley was thrilled with it. Thinking of picket fences and summers off and quiet life. Her dad was an entertainer. Gone a lot.

[Interviewer]

She'd already grown up in the business.

[Pat Boone]

Yeah. And she was not. Didn't Even want to think about me being an entertainer.

[Interviewer]

She didn't know what she was getting into.

[Pat Boone]

She didn't. Neither did I. So then we got married. And that's. But anyway. And when we were. By the time we were in our. In our 20s, almost 21, we had our first child out in Texas. And then in that order, in four years, we had four kids. I mean, we did find out what was causing it eventually, but. No, we knew. I'm kidding. But by the end of the fourth year of our marriage, I was doing the Pat Boone, the show, the Chevy showroom on television. I had hit records. That string of four and a half years had begun of never being off the charts and a career by the time we were 23.

[Interviewer]

It's amazing.

[Pat Boone]

So that kind of life, if you're together and we stayed together.

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Pat Boone]

Makes you feel sort of insulated if you. And nothing but good is going to happen in your life.

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Pat Boone]

So I've always been an optimist. Yeah. Can you.

[Interviewer]

First of all, I love old country music. My father was born in southern Illinois and he was a rock and roller. So he kind of saw country music is the. Not so much the music he wanted to get away from as the culture he wanted to get away from, because he. My grandmother and he had moved to the big city of Chicago, where I showed up. But. But.

[Pat Boone]

And that's where Red and Shirley, Shorty's mama, married in Chicago.

[Interviewer]

I didn't know that. And so my father's dismissive attitude towards country music is sort of like, you know, that's what you're. Your relatives listen to. That's hick music. You know, I know you know all that stuff, but I. So I was very late to coming to country music as a fan. And then I. I discovered this incredible rich vein of music. And as you know, it's. It's incredible. I mean, you can go down so many rabbit holes.

[Pat Boone]

I'm gonna take these off.

[Interviewer]

So I'm a. I'm a fan of reds. And I have a. A 45 in. In my jukebox. I have a jukebox in my kitchen. So when. When I have dinner with my kids, we listen to country music. And it's all old country music still. Oh, yeah. Yes, sir. Good. And. And I've got Red's version of Satisfied Mind.

[Pat Boone]

Oh, yeah.

[Interviewer]

It's so beautiful.

[Pat Boone]

I recorded. Eventually I did a whole album called I Remember Red. Ah. I didn't know that bunch of his piece in the Valley, Closer Walk with the Chattanooga Shoeshine Boy, which Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra both covered, but Red Foley had the record of Chattanooga Shoeshan. So it was very active at all that time. But yeah, country music. I would have thought I would have followed a country music career.

[Interviewer]

Yeah. So the question I was after is, you know, there you are in Nashville as a young person. Country music is certainly popular in Nashville, but as you know, country music wasn't necessarily popular in the American culture like it later became.

[Pat Boone]

It's a separate genre.

[Interviewer]

Absolutely. And it was often dismissed by the New York critics. So did you grow up listening to Grand Ole Opry? Was that sort of part of your world?

[Pat Boone]

Not really, no. I did listen to country music. Of course. My first song that I wrote was I just can't believe it, dear until you tell me so they say you've been untrue that from the start you've done me wrong they say that we are through that I'm a fool to tag along they say another has your love and that I'll be the last to know But I just can't believe it, dear until you tell me so well, I surely. Let me play that for Eddie Arnold.

[Interviewer]

Wow.

[Pat Boone]

Who was very nice and said, well, that's nice. Bad. He said, not for me, but keep writing. I think you have a talent. So that's the way. Eddie Arnold was nice to me, but you're not country music. I thought I might have gone that way.

[Interviewer]

And how did you and your wife meet? I feel like I saw it somewhere, but I can't recall it talking.

[Pat Boone]

Well, her mom, as I say, was sick and eventually died of rheumatic fever. So Red Foley had to put his older daughter into David Lipscomb School, which was college and high school, but had a dormitory. She went to the girls dorm, although she was in high school, a junior in high school then. And we met under the grandfather clock in old Harding Hall. She was talking to the basketball captain, big tall guy named Bill Brown. And I said, who is this Bill? And he said, well, this is Shirley Foley, Red Foley's daughter. And that was it. Yeah, I mean, we both felt something. Fortunately, she felt the same thing I did. And that was where the romance began. And then, of course, I was not listening. I was listening to pop radio. My only records at our house were my parents favorite, Bing Crosby. Okay, so I listened to Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra and then. And then the Big Damone. And. And I got into pop music. So that when I was doing some singing in school programs, whatever, and. And when some. A ladies club, sewing club, or men's businessmen's Luncheon wanted somebody to sing pop tunes. Well, I. I had become known as Blue Moon Boon. They call me Blue because. Blue Moon.

[Interviewer]

Because it rolls right off the tongue.

[Pat Boone]

Yeah. Because when we. The. All of us kids would be together and they'd asked me to sing a song, I would sing Blue Moon. You saw me coming along Saw me standing alone Without a dream in my

[Interviewer]

heart who is it?

[Pat Boone]

Was it Bing Crosby?

[Interviewer]

Oh, Bing Crosby.

[Pat Boone]

Blue Moon.

[Interviewer]

Blue Moon. I'm thinking of Blue Moon in Kentucky

[Pat Boone]

with Oh, Blue Moon.

[Interviewer]

I know the other Blue Moon, too.

[Pat Boone]

But I just sang Blue Moon, no accompaniment. And the girls liked it and the guys didn't mind it. And so I was known as Blue Moon Boone. And then I, of course, kept up with all the pop tunes. Crosby and all the others. Damone and Sinatra. And I could sing those songs. A lady named Ruth Mowry played piano and. And I was supposed to take piano from her, but I practiced basketball instead of piano, so.

[Interviewer]

So how's your basketball game?

[Pat Boone]

The basketball game was good. In fact, I. You may know, I. I helped start the aba.

[Interviewer]

I did see that.

[Pat Boone]

And I owned the Oakland Oaks with Rick Barry.

[Interviewer]

We won't be. You've had such an incredible life. We can't cover it all.

[Pat Boone]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

So I mostly focused on music going on. That's my.

[Pat Boone]

My jam, definitely. So, anyway, I, I. And I understand that, but my music interests were pop. Really?

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Pat Boone]

I liked country, but my music interests were pop.

[Interviewer]

Maybe I assumed too much. So tell me a little bit about. Because I found this interesting. But, you know, it's the Internet. Information is kind of depends on who's talking. But I saw where you were performing in what was called Centennial Park.

[Pat Boone]

Yes.

[Interviewer]

And it was kind of these bandshell concerts.

[Pat Boone]

Yes, it was. Yeah. Yeah, you're right. That's good homework.

[Interviewer]

Did you. Did you did.

[Pat Boone]

I was Artist of the Week, a local boy. I'd been on one talent show at that time, the Ted Mac Amateur Hour, which I won three weeks in a row singing pop songs.

[Interviewer]

Okay.

[Pat Boone]

I'm walking behind you, Eddie Fisher, a Perry Como song. And I forget what the other was. Oh, no, I believe. Frankie Lane singing. I believe. And. But nothing happened of it, except I was popular in Nashville and in demand for singing. And in that summer series, they'd pick out some Nashvillian. Who. A guy named Snooki Lanson on the Hit Parade was also from Nashville, and he was Artist of the Week one summer. But this particular summer, they made me Artist of the Week. And I sang some of the same songs I had Sung on television. And that seemed like a big thing, but it was very local. The only thing was, in Gallatin, Tennessee, a man named Randy Wood had started a record company called Dot Records. And it was growing, it was coming on strong.

[Interviewer]

But weren't you signed to Republic first?

[Pat Boone]

Yes, yes, I was. A guy named Bill Beasley started that label and I made one. I think I did two records, but they got played locally.

[Interviewer]

These are just singles, singles.

[Pat Boone]

And eventually I heard one of them on a jukebox in Dallas after Shirley and I moved out to Denton, Texas to go to school. But it was all just small, small. It was nice. I was gratified, but beginning to see that you don't just jump into a singing career in the music business and certainly not pop music. And so I given up that idea. I mean, I had a wish or a dream, but. But it was not going to happen. Right. And surely I got married and I said, in my thinking, I settled down. I'm going to be a teacher preacher. Yep.

[Interviewer]

So when was the first moment that it seemed to you that, okay, wait, this is actually going to click? You know, because once you started having success, you went like this.

[Pat Boone]

Yeah, it was. It was unbelievable.

[Interviewer]

Which is why, I mean, even sitting here in 2026 with you, it's still unbelievable the success you had.

[Pat Boone]

Yeah. I got call from Randy Wood, DOT Records almost a year after I'd won those contests. And I was now was preaching at a little country church in a wheat field, but 30 members and they didn't pay me, except I tithed on my 4450 I was making from two TV shows I was doing on WFAA in Fort Worth. At 20 years old, I was hosting the Beaulieu barn dance country music show on Friday night and a newly put together foremost Teen Times teenage talent show from three states coming together in a jukebox set or a soda shop set. And I'm hosting that at 20 and they're paying me 44.50 a week. $44.50 a week. And I'm driving 30 miles from Denton into Fort Worth and back twice. And so I tithed on that 4450. I put five bucks in the 10% selection plate. Yeah. And it was, I say only a small little congregation and they might give me 15 to 20 bucks for preaching on Sunday. Well, I wasn't doing it for the money, of course, but I thought I was preparing for a teacher preacher.

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Pat Boone]

But then I get a call from Randy Wood and why aren't you making Records. And I said, nobody's given me an opportunity.

[Interviewer]

The phone isn't ringing.

[Pat Boone]

I had done Republic Records in that mix, but nothing much happened. So with that record of those records. And he said, well, he said, I've got a song, a rhythm and blues song that I think you could sing. You want to go to? Want to do it? I'll send you a plane ticket to Chicago.

[Interviewer]

I didn't know you recorded in Chicago.

[Pat Boone]

I recorded in Chicago with about three musicians and three singers. A song by the Charms on the Du Tone label. One heart not enough baby Two hearts will make you feel crazy One kiss will make you feel so nice Two kisses take you to paradise Two hearts Two kisses make one love and we were calling it rock and roll. I mean, that was the beginning of what we call rock and roll. That was just a phrase in R and B music.

[Interviewer]

And just so people were younger than you and I. This is the nascent days of rock and roll. There is no rock and roll on the charts.

[Pat Boone]

No, no, there was. There was just R and B. It was called, more often called race music.

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Pat Boone]

All black. And yet two or three music producers were finding hooky commercial songs like Shaboom and things like that.

[Interviewer]

Great songs.

[Pat Boone]

Yeah. And they do their pop versions. In fact, that song, Two Hearts, Two Kisses, I recorded it till one in the morning. It was all monaral, no punch ups, anything. Just monoral.

[Interviewer]

All live.

[Pat Boone]

And then I get a call in the morning from Randy Wood saying, we got a problem. Well, Frank Sinatra just recorded that song. Doris Day just recorded that song. The Castro Sisters and the Men's Group. And so I'm sending you on a promotion. It sent me to 20 cities in 18 days to promote my record. And the nation's number one DJ, Bill, Randy Randall in Cleveland, they called him the professor because he knew everything there was about music and the artists. And he proclaimed my record of Two Hearts who Kisses. The record, not Sinatra, because you could tell he didn't even enjoy singing it. And the Doris Day, I never heard her record, but mine had the spirit of the song and the music and then the next record. And that was in January and in March or May. I had to do a second record because two hearts to the kit went to number 10.

[Interviewer]

Wow.

[Pat Boone]

And I had to record something else. So it was Fats Dominoes.

[Interviewer]

Ain't that a shame?

[Pat Boone]

That a shame. Now I was getting pulled into this music.

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Pat Boone]

By Randy Wood, who knew I could sing it or found out I could.

[Interviewer]

Had you had much exposure to R B music before that?

[Pat Boone]

No. My brother, younger brother than me, liked it. And there's a station in Nashville he listened to, but I didn't care much for it. I was, as I say, I was into pop music.

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Pat Boone]

And was singing pop music.

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Pat Boone]

And. But he was. He was intrigued by the rhythm and blues.

[Interviewer]

Yeah. So ain't that Shame?

[Pat Boone]

Went to number one.

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Pat Boone]

My first million selling number one record was my second record.

[Interviewer]

And how old you're 23.

[Pat Boone]

That was 20 at that point. 20. 22.

[Interviewer]

23.

[Pat Boone]

22. 22.

[Interviewer]

Okay. Yeah. And not everybody has a number one win with a 22.

[Pat Boone]

Right. And then it began to be number ones and chart records from then on for four years.

[Interviewer]

Yeah. Ivory Joe almost lost my mind.

[Pat Boone]

Yeah. Yep. And so many great, great songs.

[Interviewer]

And April.

[Pat Boone]

April Love, but now is making movies.

[Interviewer]

Don't jump ahead because I. Because. Because I want to talk about movies, too.

[Pat Boone]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

But I think this is such a. I think it's hard for us as musicians today to understand how primitive the conditions were, how the takes were live.

[Pat Boone]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

Like, here's the song. You're in a session for a couple hours and that's it. You either make magic or you don't.

[Pat Boone]

That's right.

[Interviewer]

Either hits or it doesn't.

[Pat Boone]

That exactly right. In fact, a song I did later called Moody River, I was recording in the afternoon. It was a country song by a guy named Chase Webster. It had become a country hit. Randy Wood called me, said I'm. And I want you to go down to United Recorders. We're going to record.

[Interviewer]

Is this in Chicago?

[Pat Boone]

No, that was in la. We moved to LA by then. And he said, I want to record a song called Moody River. I never heard it. I go to the studio and he purposely had Billy Vaughn who arranged it.

[Interviewer]

Oh, Billy Vaughn, Great arranger.

[Pat Boone]

Yeah. And he put in a slightly higher key because I don't want to sound like a ballad or a crooning thing. This is a sad tale of a girl that jumps on the river and drowns and left this note by the river. And so I sang the song, and it was obvious that it was in a higher. I sounded more plaintive. And Randy Wood says. He says, I think we got a smash. And he says, I had to go to the friend's house to pick up my wife to go home to dinner. And he says, I'm going to take this over to Chuck Bloor at kfwb, which was a big arm, big pop station. Big station, and see what he thinks of it. So I go pick up Shirley with my Friends and my arms around her waist. And we're at the door and I hear. The intro to Moody River. I said, wait a minute. And. And I hear Chuck Bloor, who was the. The owner of the station, of. The director, anyway, said. And now for the first time anywhere, our new pick hit of the week, Pat Moon's Moody River. I'm not home from the studio from recording it and his pick hit of the week. And it went to number one real quick. And so that, as you say, it's. And as I've said, it was just miraculous, the things that kept happening to me. And of course, Elvis and I then met in. In October of 55.

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Pat Boone]

And that was a sock hop in Cleveland with Bill Randall, the dj. He had brought him up. He got Colonel Parker to bring him up from Shreveport where he was doing the Supreme. It was a.

[Interviewer]

It's where Hank Williams used to do the Shreveport. Yeah, Shreveport Music hall or something.

[Pat Boone]

Yeah, it was like Opryland.

[Interviewer]

It was Opry, but that's the Louisiana version.

[Pat Boone]

Yeah. And Elvis was singing country songs but trying to make them sound the best he could. Rhythm and bluish, which is what he was into at that point. So he showed up backstage at the WE R E, I think it was. I think it was. I guess it was a TV studio, not the station. And I'm there to sing Moody river and Ain't that A Shame and those other songs. And in walks Elvis Presley with a couple of the musicians. And we pantomimed a sock hop. You didn't play the music and you couldn't do that, so you pantomimed or sang along with the song. So in he comes. And I said, hi, Elvis, Pat Boone. Oh, nice to meet you. Soft voice. And he didn't shake hands. He let me shake his hand. Nobody was teaching him some of these niceties of politeness. And so I said, bill Randall thinks some big things may be head for. I don't know about that, but I hope so. And he leaned against the wall and buddies closed in. I could see he was shy. And. And when Bill Randall introduced him to the audience, he said, now, kids, it was about 600 kids sock hop. And he'd be playing the records I want you to give a nice welcome to. You haven't heard from him yet, but RCA Victor has just signed him and they think he's going to go somewhere. Let's give a nice welcome to young Elvis Presley. The name Elvis Presley was peculiar to it. It was not a usual sounding name. So out he comes and the girls like the way he looked right away. I could see that looking the curtain, looking through the curtain. And he's saying, blue moon of Kentucky keep on shining. Well, that was not rock and roll at all, which he made it, tried to make it sound rhythm and bluesish, which made it interesting sound.

[Interviewer]

He's right on the knife edge.

[Pat Boone]

Yeah. But then when he finished that and the girls gave him a nice hand, they weren't screaming yet, and he wasn't wiggling yet either. So he said, thank you very much. I like to do the other side of that record for you. Hope you like it. And he's saying, that's all right, mama. That's all right with me any way you please. And that was rhythm and blues. And I heard right then what Colonel Tom Parker and what RCA heard.

[Interviewer]

Did you get it right away?

[Pat Boone]

Yeah, and I. And I. And then when he finished, he left and I went out and sang my 3 million selling hits at that time.

[Interviewer]

Not bad.

[Pat Boone]

And later when we were both, not much more than a year later, we were both renting homes in Bel Air.

[Interviewer]

Ah, very good.

[Pat Boone]

And I go to see him and the boys, they had a pool table. And I had dinner with him that night. He'd brought a couple in from Memphis to cook for him. And we had chicken fried steak and we had turnip greens and. Yeah. And stuff that he really liked and I liked too. And. And we, our friendship took up from then on.

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Pat Boone]

And we were two boys from Tennessee. Me, Nashville and Memphis. We stayed in touch. We kept, you know, we looked at each other's what was happening on the charts. We swapped positions on the charts for two or three years. And so we got to be friendly on a Sunday afternoon. It was not unusual for him to come over with one or two of his buddies and just walk in the backyard and find us in the pool and my four girls get out. They didn't know he's a big star, but they get up and run over to see their friend and start jumping up on him. I said, girl, stop that. You're getting him all the way. Leave him alone, man. I like it. And I could tell he. The reason he was coming over to see me on a Sunday afternoon was I had something he wanted. He wanted a wife and he wanted kids, too. Tom Parker wasn't having any of that, and so he never did really get that. But my friendship with him was that of a buddy, a fellow Tennessean, fellow recording artist and just a friend.

[Interviewer]

Well, you probably wouldn't know I was friends with his Daughter.

[Pat Boone]

No.

[Interviewer]

At least I sang at her funeral. And still. Still stay in touch with the family.

[Pat Boone]

Oh, gosh.

[Interviewer]

So it was nice to get to know Elvis through his daughter's eyes.

[Pat Boone]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

Many, many conversations about her father.

[Pat Boone]

Wow. Wait, Lisa Marie?

[Interviewer]

Lisa Marie. Oh, yeah.

[Pat Boone]

Oh, Lisa. Yeah. I was with Lisa Marie soon, shortly before she died, with. With her daughter.

[Interviewer]

Oh, Riley. Yeah.

[Pat Boone]

Wait a minute.

[Interviewer]

Well, there are the two twins. There's three daughters.

[Pat Boone]

There's one who.

[Interviewer]

Riley's the one who's the actress, and there's two twins.

[Pat Boone]

Oh, I'm confusing it with his wife.

[Interviewer]

Oh, you're confusing with Priscilla.

[Pat Boone]

Yeah, yeah. But I was with the daughter shortly before she passed.

[Interviewer]

And you sang, you said, at Lisa's funeral. Yeah, I was invited.

[Pat Boone]

What did you sing?

[Interviewer]

One of my songs. And I'll tell you a story, if you don't mind me telling you stories. Please.

[Pat Boone]

I wanna.

[Interviewer]

So after Lisa passed, you know, when. When you go through the emotions of losing someone that you. That you love, you know, you. You think a lot of things, you know, and as Lisa passed, I think at 54 years old.

[Pat Boone]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

So, of course, there's that feeling of a life cut short. And I certainly had concerns about Lisa's family because Lisa's son had killed himself. And that was super painful to Lisa. Imagine. And I knew the son since he was a little boy. And then, of course, your daughter Riley's gone on to a lot of success in Hollywood. So my thoughts, of course, turned to the family. And as can often be the case, it's like I didn't know what to do with what I was feeling. And I didn't want to be that person who calls up and says, can I come? Because I assumed it was going to be very much a private thing, which it turned out to be.

[Pat Boone]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

And about a week went by and somebody reached out to me and said, hey, the family wants to contact you and invite you to the funeral. Are you okay with that? And I was so touched, you know?

[Pat Boone]

Yeah, yeah.

[Interviewer]

It sort of. It made me feel that they understood that it was important for me to be there. And again, this is a. This is part of. Private, part of the thing. Well, in the. In the interim, the family decided, because it was going to be at Graceland, and they were getting so many requests that they wanted to have a private part of the. The funeral and a public part of the funeral. So. So then it turned and they said, would you be open to singing at the funeral?

[Pat Boone]

Ah.

[Interviewer]

And so I was really touched by that.

[Pat Boone]

Yeah. What? Because she was. She A big fan. You knew that?

[Interviewer]

Was Lisa a fan?

[Pat Boone]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

Oh, Lisa was a huge fan of my music. Lisa. I even wrote songs together at one point. And.

[Pat Boone]

Really?

[Interviewer]

Yeah, we were close and, and, and I feel blessed because I got to know the real Lisa Marie Presley. But also she let me into her world and told me how she felt about her father. And there's a lot of stuff I know that's never been made public, you know, and of course there's nothing I would ever share out of respect to

[Pat Boone]

the fact situation with the Michael.

[Interviewer]

All of it. All of it. Anyway, to finish my part of this interview, we're talking to you.

[Pat Boone]

Well, I want to know.

[Interviewer]

Oh, thank you. Because you asked. I never sung at a funeral before, I think. Well, that's not true. I sang at a friend's funeral and I didn't know what to sing, so I sang Summertime by Gershwin.

[Pat Boone]

I sang at Colonel Sanders funeral at his request.

[Interviewer]

Oh, okay.

[Pat Boone]

Before he died. And I sang Amazing Grace and Nearer My God to Thee.

[Interviewer]

Okay.

[Pat Boone]

And you sang what?

[Interviewer]

Okay, well, at the friend's funeral, this is before Lisa Marie. I sang Summertime. So this is the second time I'm going to sing at a funeral, but I don't know what to sing. And I. And because I was close with Lisa, I knew she would want me to sing one of my own songs. So, you know, I've written hundreds of songs, so I'm not sure what to choose. So I chose a song from around the time when we were really close in the 90s. There was a period where we were together a lot. And you know, it's in front of Graceland now. This is the public part of the funeral. 3,000 people on the lawn. They're doing a live.

[Pat Boone]

Wow.

[Interviewer]

Live broadcast. And there's, you know, in the front row, there's the family, there's Priscilla.

[Pat Boone]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

So I come up and it's cold. It's a. I don't remember. It was still cold outside, so it's pretty cold. And I started singing a song of mine called Tesheela. That wasn't a hit song, more like a pretty folk song and beneath me because I'm just focused on doing a good job. I hear people start to weep.

[Pat Boone]

Uh huh.

[Interviewer]

And, and, but I'm just assuming they're in grief, so of course they're weeping. Well, after the funeral and after everything happened, her daughter wrote me and said that was the song my mother used to play in the car over and over again. Oh, so when you started playing that song, it's like you knew the song to play. So that was God speaking.

[Pat Boone]

Guidance. Yes.

[Interviewer]

Yes, sir. Yes, sir. So somehow I chose the one song that was healing to the. To the family because of the connection with hers.

[Pat Boone]

Oh, man. Thank you for asking us how wonderful that is.

[Interviewer]

I know. Well, praise God on that.

[Pat Boone]

So neat the way those things do happen. And you're grateful.

[Interviewer]

Oh, I mean.

[Pat Boone]

I mean, when Colonel Sanders, he had blessed a relative of mine and gave him a franchise in Kansas City next to an air base, when you can imagine.

[Interviewer]

Oh, good business.

[Pat Boone]

Kentucky, right? Yeah.

[Interviewer]

Next to an air base. Yeah.

[Pat Boone]

And, you know, he carried a bag of Limburger cheese with him everywhere he went. He loved Limburger. Of course, that gave him a particular aroma as well. But he. But he asked me on the way to the. To my relative's car. I helped pick him up at the airport. Colonel Sanders, he said. He said, I like the way you sing. Would you sing at my funeral?

[Interviewer]

Goodness.

[Pat Boone]

I said, well, I will, but I hope it's not soon. I've got some things booked. I hope it's not right away. Oh, no, no. He said, if you would do it, though, I'll tell my lawyer to contact you. Which he did. And I think they were owned by Shenley, one of the big liquor companies by then, Kentucky Fried. But I did sing this at his request. Those two songs.

[Interviewer]

That's interesting.

[Pat Boone]

And that's a lovely thing for somebody to want you to do.

[Interviewer]

Oh, what an hon. Yeah. Just to circle back to Elvis for a second, because you've had this incredible life and you knew the man, but you can also reflect on where he came from, like yourself. The cult of Elvis in his death. Here it is, over 50 years later.

[Pat Boone]

It's like a shrine there.

[Interviewer]

But it's amazing that Graceland continues to be. I think I know one of the people that's involved heavy with Graceland. He told me that outside of the White House, the Graceland is the second most visited home in America. There's a. There's a. I think the museum across the street is 275,000 square feet. We've had two Elvis movies released in the last five years or so.

[Pat Boone]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

Oh, boy.

[Pat Boone]

The last one. Fabulous. This guy Austin did an incredible.

[Interviewer]

Have you seen the new one where it's all the live footage? No, it just come out, like about a month ago.

[Pat Boone]

No, I will see it.

[Interviewer]

They took all this footage and they've been able to clean it up. So it's behind the scenes footage, but also performance footage and put it in kind of One concert film. It's very dynamic. You might enjoy it.

[Pat Boone]

Oh, I know I will, I will.

[Interviewer]

But how do you reflect just from a perspective of, you know, again, you knew the man at the very beginning of this journey, that the institution of Elvis, the cult of Elvis, the mythology of Elvis just continues to grow.

[Pat Boone]

Yeah, it does. It does. Well, when he was at the International Hotel, I went to see him there and see the show. And then he had the whole upstairs. The penthouse was his dressing room. And of course the show was dynamic. He was incredible, of course, and we were glad to see each other. And he says, can we talk a minute? And we walked into a closet, closed the door, said, I wish I could go to church like you do. I said, you can. Why not? No, he said, I can't. He said, I go to a church and the kids all want to make a big scene. They want to autograph. I said, you know what? I've had a few hit records. It happens. If I go to somebody else's church where I'm not a member, but do what I do, just say, hey, kids, I'll sign your bulletins after church. But I'm here for the same reason you are. But he was just really uncomfortable socially and. And he was afraid of, of he. Of interrupting or taking attention away from the preacher.

[Interviewer]

Away from the preacher.

[Pat Boone]

So he just felt like he couldn't do it.

[Interviewer]

Wow.

[Pat Boone]

So. But then. And he said, do you know Oral Roberts? I said, sure. He said, I'd like to talk to him sometime. I said, let me give you a clue. Your name is Elvis Presley. Get on the phone, go to call Oral Roberts University, say, this is Elvis Presley. I'd like to talk to Oral Roberts. You'll be on. He'll be on the phone. He couldn't do it. Somebody had to go be a go between. So I called Oral Roberts. He flew to Las Vegas. He told me later that they had an afternoon together and that he said, the boy is spiritually starved. He's hungry for the church experiences he was having as a kid. He kept his musicians, Tony Brown and the others and the quartets after many of his shows.

[Interviewer]

Oh, he stepped all night singing gospel music.

[Pat Boone]

And he knew all of the songs. He was what he wanted it. But his career, his concept of himself and what would kept him from having what he wanted. So I really felt terribly about that. And of course, the end of the movie, what I forget the song he's singing at the end, was it. I think it was either. It was either Ebb Tide or how great Thou art.

[Interviewer]

I forget probably how great thou art. Yeah.

[Pat Boone]

And. And he sang it amazingly well, in spite of the weight, in spite of the fatigue, in spite of. So his soul was singing its hunger.

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Pat Boone]

Out. And I. I knew that I hurt for him, but I. I feel like he's. He's in a good place now. I think maybe.

[Interviewer]

I mean, you tell me. But it seems to me that he was dealing with so much more than we could have even imagined when he was alive. That level of celebrity and that level of attention and that level of focus. Yeah, it still, to this point, is singular. There's no other artist that has approached that level of fascination and attention.

[Pat Boone]

And I made a statement once when Lisa Marie died and Elvis had been. Had so much tragedy, broken marriage, and he's not getting some of the things he wanted as much or more than his career. And I made the statement that the one thing that may be worse than having too little too much is having too much. Interesting. Because having too much can be more unsettling and even destructive in your life.

[Interviewer]

Yes.

[Pat Boone]

And I don't have to expand on it.

[Interviewer]

No, it's true. Let's go back a little bit because I love this period of music. I know you mentioned before the Ozark Jubilee, which your father in law hosted. I went to find some clips. I found a clip of you and Red singing together. I can't remember which song it was. I think it was that you sang a bit and then he sang a bit and then you guys sang together. I can't remember which song it was,

[Pat Boone]

but my memory's not.

[Interviewer]

It was a hit, a big hit of his. It's okay. But also, I did this thing, you know, this is the amazing thing about the Internet. I said, please list out all the guests that were on the Ozark Jubilee show. And the list was like. It was incredible. So being around that, I assume you went to. I did some of the shows.

[Pat Boone]

Yeah. And I had him on my Pat Boone Chevy show. We sang together. I think it was. I don't think we did Chattanooga Shoeshine Boy, but I think he did something like, y' all come. Yeah, y' all come. Y' all come when all we all get together Y' all come. And. And it was just a couple of good country songs on that.

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Pat Boone]

And then, of course, I'd already been on his show, which was strange but wonderful that the kid that tentatively asked if he could marry his daughter was now selling hit records and having television and coming on his show. It was these two things. Him on my show and me on his were just wonderful moments in both our lives.

[Interviewer]

But it struck me that at such a young age, through your father in law show, you know, I mean, this incredible, like I, I found one clip of him singing with Bob Wills. I'm a huge Bob Wills fan.

[Pat Boone]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

So here you got these incredible country artists and then I looked at who you had on your, your show. Let me throw, let me throw some names at you.

[Pat Boone]

Good.

[Interviewer]

115 episodes of your show. It's called the Chevy showroom, right?

[Pat Boone]

Yeah, that's right.

[Interviewer]

Andy Williams, Ames Brothers. These are just, I'm just cherry picking.

[Pat Boone]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

Frankie Avalon, Tony Bennett, Count Basie, Ella Fitzgerald, Ginger Rogers, Johnny Mathis, the Mills

[Pat Boone]

Brothers, who are, yes, Incredible. Yes.

[Interviewer]

Peggy Lee, Dinah Shore, Joe Stafford. I mean, these are just, I mean, Mel Torme, Helly, Harry Bailafonte. We'll get to Harry Belafonte in a second. Yeah, but just at such a young age, you were so immersed in all this incredible American talent.

[Pat Boone]

And I'm 21, 22.

[Interviewer]

Yeah. Did you get starry eyed and all that?

[Pat Boone]

No, I, I, I was, I was nervous and actually, you know, for a guy who had had a lot of singing experience, but it was all local.

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Pat Boone]

But I discovered quickly that it was the same nationally. It was still a camera with red lights and I could be myself. And if these people were willing to come on my show with me, even though I was awed by Nat King Cole, and I did a trio with Ella Fitzgerald and Nat King Cole and even scatted just for a second or two with Ella Fitzgerald and all these. And you know, Mel Torme, my wife, was a big fan of his. He was the Velvet Fog, incredible singer and great singer. And with Joe Stafford, she had perfect pitch. And my musicians didn't take that into account when we did a country medley with just a guitar. And it was a sizable medley singing. And I'm thinking this, she never hits a sour note. She's perfect pitch. But I, I, I managed to sing well, I've heard it and seen it, you know, since then. And I really held my own. It was just, I don't know, some kind of inner brat braveness, you know, just, I'll do it, I'm asked to do it, I can do it. And I did. And so I'm amazed at myself looking back because of the pressure. Live television, live television one time, the television is about to come on. I'm about to sing an Irving Berlin song. And we had notified Irving Berlin. It's called Lazy. Lazy. I would like to be Lazy, I want to be lazy. And I was told it was one of his favorite songs of his. So we had a secretary call Irving Berlin, tell him. And the secretary said, what time? Mr. Berlin likes Pat Boone singing. What time is the show? It's nine o'. Clock. Oh, it's a little late for Mr. Berlin, but I'll tell him. Perhaps he'll stay up and watch at 9. And now I've got the words on teleprompter, of course. And we've got a set that looks like a riverbank. And I'm in overalls and I've got a straw in my mouth and a straw hat. And about 15 seconds before we hit air and the red lights come on, the guy comes up and starts shaking the camera. And I said, what's the matter? He said, the teleprompter stopped.

[Interviewer]

What?

[Pat Boone]

And I, you know, I hadn't memorized the words. I had had them on. That was one of the ways I could relax, was I had teleprompter or cue cards and, and the red lights come on and I have to sing Lazy. I want to be lazy. I want to lie back in the grass and try to think of a word that rhymes with grass. I don't know what I sang. Somewhere we've kept the film and I haven't looked at it. Oh, my goodness. We never heard from Irving Berlin. Except that I did an album of Irving Berlin songs and he wrote the back liner for my album and said, I like the way Boone sings my songs. He sings the melody the way I wrote them. And there was a hand like he had signed it, but it wasn't his hand. It was meant to look like Irving Berlin's hand on the back of the album. But those things happened one time, and this was on Bloopers and that show of Dick Clark's, but where I'm doing my opening song and the orchestra's going and the singers and everything, and you can hear the musicians. You can, but you can't hear my voice. And something's the matter. The boom mic has gone out and I'm there singing faintly in the background. And so the musicians are not musicians, but technicians or who are the stage hands trying to get another mike in place, mic in place. Instead they knocked the set down behind me and, and I, I, I never, I never finished. I finished the song, but you never heard me till after the first commercial.

[Interviewer]

Did you see the set getting knocked down?

[Pat Boone]

Oh, yeah. Oh, I knew it.

[Interviewer]

Did you just show business.

[Pat Boone]

I just kept going until. Applause the audience Gave me a great hand. And we went away to a commercial.

[Interviewer]

Right.

[Pat Boone]

Which was filmed. And then when it comes back, I couldn't resist. So when the red lights came on again, I just act like I didn't. And the poor sound man in the studio.

[Interviewer]

Not again.

[Pat Boone]

I just couldn't resist. But I learned that I could take it as it happened.

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Pat Boone]

You know, if it happened, it happened and you can't change it, so you go with it.

[Interviewer]

Did you notice then the difference in. By being on television, you sort of wrecked the recognition factor on the street. Must have gone through the roof.

[Pat Boone]

Oh, yeah, very much so. Yeah, that we got. When we went to Disneyland. We tried, my family and I. Four daughters. She dressed her daughters like her and outfits where she. She changed that up. But still four little girls and her and me. And I put some tissue under my lip so it stuck. And I got some good clothes from Goodwill and a hat and we disguised ourselves as best we could and we got away with it. And I talked to my daughter's like this, you know, and I've got padding in my lip. Thought I was disguised. But somehow I did it too much and I began to get recognized and we had to come home because we couldn't enjoy Disneyland with everybody wanting autographs.

[Interviewer]

Is it true that there was something happened with the network about Harry Belafonte and is that a true story?

[Pat Boone]

True story.

[Interviewer]

Do you mind telling that story?

[Pat Boone]

And I didn't think anybody was ever going to know this, but somehow it did get out. When Jamie Foxx met me coming out of the gym years later and he said, let me ask you something. He said, I understand when you were doing your show, Harry Belafonte called and wanted to be or offered to be on your show and you wanted to do it, but Chevrolet wouldn't allow it and ABC wouldn't allow. Because of his civil rights. Civil rights. They didn't want him to be on my show.

[Interviewer]

It's clear that he was very out in public. He was a civil rights leader.

[Pat Boone]

Very much so.

[Interviewer]

So that would have been. It wasn't simply that he was African American.

[Pat Boone]

Right, right.

[Interviewer]

He was Caribbean American.

[Pat Boone]

And he was so outspoken that Chevrolet was suffering in the South. I mean, this was late 50s.

[Interviewer]

Oh, I see.

[Pat Boone]

And so the ad agency and everybody had to quickly say, no, no, we can't have heavy mill body. I was stunned by it. You know, I'm from Nashville, I born in Jacksonville. And I knew what it was all about. But I said, look, it says it's Pat Boone's Chevy Showroom. Doesn't it? Yeah. If Pat Boone has to say no to the guy that was currently the most popular performer in the world, Harry Belafonte, then it's not the Pat Boone show. And I'm going to have to ask you to take the show from here.

[Interviewer]

Wow.

[Pat Boone]

I'm not going to. I'm not going to say no to Harry Belafonte.

[Interviewer]

And you didn't tell that story at the time?

[Pat Boone]

No, no, no, no. Because we finally. They finally said, well, can you guarantee that if we have Harry Belafonte on, there won't be any civil rights statements or anything? I said, look, I know he's a gentleman. He had called me and said, I like the way you treat your guests. Well, he was referring to the guests like Ella and Johnny Mathis and the Mills Brothers and everybody as guests on my show and loving them. And I said, I'm sure we will not make any civil rights statements, but I was still so uncomfortable. But it was like we only had about four shows left in that season. I just didn't renew.

[Interviewer]

I see.

[Pat Boone]

I just said, I'm not going to keep doing a show if I can't have the guests I want to have on my own show. I'm aware of the problem, but I'm not going to perpetuate it. So I did quit my own show, in effect, and went to specials instead and did well. And maybe it was a relief because it was to do that show every week, 39 weeks a year.

[Interviewer]

That's a grind.

[Pat Boone]

It was a pull on me.

[Interviewer]

Plus, you were probably still doing live movies, right?

[Pat Boone]

Yeah, well, in the summertime, I took summertime off, 13 weeks and two summers, I let Dick Van Dyke take over my. My time period.

[Interviewer]

Whatever happened to him, that was his first.

[Pat Boone]

And this special on his great special recently, it shows him and me doing the scene from my. My show. And it was after that that he doing my show and he filled in for me that. That got his show.

[Interviewer]

I didn't know that. That's cool.

[Pat Boone]

And then Andy Williams, same thing. The next summer, I let Andy Williams, yes. Who'd been a guest with me a couple of times, he took over hosting his own show. So Dick Van Dyke and Andy Williams both owed me in some small measure, the start of their own television hosting careers, because they filled in for me and my show. But all these things, as I say, at that young age, it was miraculous that I could just keep walking straight. I mean, it was all so much pressure, but I just took each moment as it came and managed to perform and had two command performances with the Queen. The first one went well. I was still in college doing rock and roll and I was invited to sing for the Queen and Prince.

[Interviewer]

What song did you sing, Philip?

[Pat Boone]

Oh, I sang Ain't that A Shame? And some of my country, I mean, my rock and roll songs. And I wasn't up to April Love yet or those songs. I was just singing the rhythm and blues rock and roll songs and met the Queen after the. After the performance and she was very nice. And I just learned that the men have to bow. And if she offers her hand, you take it. If you don't offer your hand, she offers you hers. And you say, your Majesty, if you're a woman, you curtsy. But you know, that first time I was still in college at Columbia, and now I graduate and several years go by and one of my movies is being seen there. And I think somehow it got connected to another command performance maybe because I was there at the right time. And so I get in line after my performance, which went well. And now she's got to run the gauntlet afterwards of the guests and thank them for all performance. And Princess Anne and Margaret were fans. And so I'm feeling, I'm suave, you know, little blase. Peter Sellers is over here, Peter Finch is over here and Claudia Cardinal. And all these are not bad.

[Interviewer]

Claudia Cardinal.

[Pat Boone]

Right. And they've performed and they're so nervous that wants to be nervous about. All I do is bow and say, you, Majesty. Well, but now when she gets close to me, I start feeling the flutter. I keep reminding myself, you, Majesty. So here she stands in front of me, even with her crown, she comes up to about here and I said, you, Majesty. And I look up and she extends her hand. I take her hand. She says, we met before. I said we did. I mean, you remember. I didn't think she would remember my first command performance singing rock and roll. And it was so out of my. I take her hand, which she offered. We met before, we did. How gauche can you get to say to the Queen of England when she says, we met before to say we did. And there was a picture in London Times, I think it was, of her talking to Clarity Cardinal next. And they were laughing at something. Guess what they were laughing at. You saw me still looking over the Queen with this shocked look on my face. I had just said we did,

[Interviewer]

speaking of Hollywood, because you brought it up. If all you'd ever done has been a successful TV host and a musician, there'd be plenty to talk about. But then at Hollywood, on top of that, that must have been wild to

[Pat Boone]

get that call all at once. I mean, it was all at once.

[Interviewer]

Yeah. And your first movie, which was Bernadine, right?

[Pat Boone]

Bernadine, yes. I mean, Johnny Mercer wrote the song and.

[Interviewer]

And you sang the title song.

[Pat Boone]

Johnny Mercer, Yeah, Johnny Mercer, yeah.

[Interviewer]

And did you get to hang out with Johnny Mercer?

[Pat Boone]

Well, no, but I got to meet him. And he was a Southern gentleman, as you know, and just a song Smith of the first one. And so I. That was an honor. Now the next is April Love, and Sammy Fain and Paul Francis Webster write the song for me from title song of my second movie. And I'm wanting it to be something. It sounds like it could be a hit record, but it was a beautiful love ballad. And when Sammy, at the piano, he plays it for me. April, love is for the very young Every star is a wishing star that shines for you. And I said to the guys, I can't believe it. I was saying it to them, these great, great songwriters. I said, you know, we're in a rock and roll time now, and I want the song to be a hit. It's too pretty. It's just a nice love song. It's not a. I can't imagine singing a rock and roll beat to it. Can we at least do something in an intro maybe to make it sound more interesting or exciting? They said, like what? I said, well, April, we can do that. Of course they can do that.

[Interviewer]

Okay.

[Pat Boone]

And they did that. And then Connie Francis borrowed it, that intro, where the Boys Are and I mean, there's nothing new about that, those triplets. But to have the effrontery, really, as young as I was to say, can we do something?

[Interviewer]

Well, that's the brilliance of youth. We think we know what we're doing, and somehow we did in our books.

[Pat Boone]

And it worked out because April loved out.

[Interviewer]

Right.

[Pat Boone]

Became a huge hit and the movie, too.

[Interviewer]

So, as I said, already there's so much of your life to talk about, so I'm cherry picking. So I was curious about Journey to the center of the Earth because James Mason is a particular favorite of mine.

[Pat Boone]

Oh, yeah.

[Interviewer]

If you could just talk about that a little bit.

[Pat Boone]

Well, sure. James Mason. I mean, I was. I won't say awestruck because I by now was realizing that all these major stars are just people.

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Pat Boone]

And, yes, they've done some big things, but they're just people.

[Interviewer]

And they also, at this point, kind of know who you are. It's not like.

[Pat Boone]

Well, I was. Yeah. I was having a good deal of success. So James was always very nice to me. He was standoffish, sort of. He spent his time in his trailer. He didn't spend a lot of time sitting around in director's chairs schmoozing with the cast or anything else. He. He'd go in his and read. I don't know what he did. We could hear him. He liked to hum a lot.

[Interviewer]

He had that incredible voice.

[Pat Boone]

Maybe that's what. Getting ready for the sound of his voice. And so he and I got along fine. But I nearly. There was a scene that happened in that movie which could have been extremely dangerous and was dangerous, but a scene where I'm separated. I'm now somewhere near the center of the earth, but which, you know, the center of the Earth. We didn't depict it as. It has to be. It has to be Inferno. But it was a city of lost, city of Atlantis. And. But that was in the script. And so there was a scene in which I've gotten cut off from everybody. I'm going to be lost forever. And I'm wearing wool pants and it's hot and I cut off. Somehow I cut off my pants just to shorts and no shirt. And I'm sitting around doing that. Meanwhile there's a pile of white. It turns out supposed to be sand. White sand. And my camera or my. Or my canteen, one of the two I forget which slips away onto the top of this mound of white sand. And the script calls for me to reach for it. And when I do, it gives way and I fall. And it starts me on a long, you know, foray down through.

[Interviewer]

You're going to the tunnels, center of the earth?

[Pat Boone]

Yes, going down through tunnels and with white sand following me. But it wasn't sand. It was white gypsum crystals. It looked like sand. It wouldn't melt. And the scene called it was a trap door kind of thing. It was on that. And when I reached for it and got on it, it would fall. And I was supposed to fall with it into this. But four foot opening, three foot opening. And I'd stay bunched up. And the director was Henry Levin. He said, look, once that you fall, we can only do this once. So when it falls, you stay down until you hear me yell cut. Well, I did what he said. I reached for it and it fell. And now more sand is coming from above. I mean in great profusion. And I'm. And I know I can't breathe. I don't want to breathe all that salt. I thought it was and so I'm trying to hold my breath and not take anything in. And I never heard him yell cut. All I do hear him yell is, camera three, did you get it? Camera two. And he forgot to yell cut.

[Interviewer]

Goodness.

[Pat Boone]

And the guy up in the, in the catwalk said, Mr. Levin, you better get Pat out of there quick. Oh, yes, cut. And they, and they picked me out of there. Those gypsum crystals, if I had somehow inhale those, they would still be in my lungs right now. They could have caused me a lot of problem. And who knows, it could have. I could have suffocated, but thank God it didn't. But James Mason, I just say he was fun, though. He was witty, and we got along great. I thoroughly enjoyed and having the experience of.

[Interviewer]

Yeah, when you're in this kind of white hot middle of American success, and it's very particular. There's the English version, but the American version is very particular. And, and you've stood there a few times. What gave you confidence or strength? Was it your, your marriage? What? Your family, your faith? Like what. What kept your feet on the ground because, you know, nobody has a crossword to say about you, you know, you

[Pat Boone]

live well, Maybe I became great joke material, by the way.

[Interviewer]

Well, that's kind of what I was getting at, you know. Yeah, you, you, you were held up as.

[Pat Boone]

I was so square.

[Interviewer]

So square. You were held up as the paragon of virgin. Yeah, but now in the world that we live in now, your consistency stands out as a bright light where normally people get wrapped up in a lot of terrible things in this town.

[Pat Boone]

Yeah, well, it was my wife and my, My faith and the fact that when Shirley and I moved to, to Beverly Hills from New Jersey, from Teaneck, New Jersey, it all happened so fast. But, but we, we had these four little girls, and Shirley was thinking very practically, but so was I, but we need a house with bathrooms and bedrooms for four girls. And I never forget when the house where I'm still living, it was a nice house on a nice piece of property at the corner, literally the corner of Beverly and Sunset. And the man wanted 200,000. Well, I was making some money, but I said, that's a fifth of a million dollars. And they said, yeah, but we'll, the realtor said, but we'll, you know, we'll, we'll haggle and offer him 159,000. I said, won't he be insulted? I mean, I didn't know about this. And he said, well, no, but then he might come down to 195. And then we'll offer him 165. And that's the way we do it. So we offered him 159 and he took it. And it turned out we didn't know this, but they had raised three sons in this house which was only 10 years old at that point. It had been built in 1950 and this was 60. And he had another business, Knickerbocker Toys in New York. And he wanted to get there and he was afraid his wife was not want to leave. And so he took the 159. And I don't have to tell you that the. You did well.

[Interviewer]

Right.

[Pat Boone]

With your investment value has appreciated. And so it was. But we were in church every Sunday, Sunday school. And as. As was our custom for a while be at church on Sunday night. It got to be. I was too busy for that. On prayer meeting on Wednesday nights. I got to be always doing stuff, getting ready for the next TV show, the whatever the movie scenes. And so I would be excused. But Shirley and the girls kept up that schedule.

[Interviewer]

Wow.

[Pat Boone]

And I can truthfully tell you that four daughters raised in Beverly Hills, not one of them ever had an apartment of her own or lived alone. They lived at the house until some guy asked to marry them. And we said yes. And she said yes. Really wanted to marry like Debbie's married to Rosie Clooney's son, Gabriel Ferrer.

[Interviewer]

Oh, I didn't know that.

[Pat Boone]

Yeah. Jose Ferrer's son and Eve won. Were chosen by. And chose wonderful mates. And so I would take them to the wedding. There'd be the wedding and once or twice sang. But I. But I was so choked up. I didn't sing very well at all because I was so moved. But these. We kept our family life going and the church life going too. And in the midst of all these other performances, I would be called on to sing to youth groups and to. And to other. Other groups who would want me to talk on spiritual terms as well as my career. Even businessmen's luncheons. I always enjoyed it because I would talk about the things that they were interested in about my career. But always there would be questions. How do you sandwich this with your. As you just asked, you know, with your faith. And that gave me the opening to talk about my faith, which I wanted to.

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Pat Boone]

I was never bashful about it. However, it was a. Johnny Carson one time said Pat Boone came home from a night out with chocolate milk on his mouth. Chocolate. His lips all brown. Chocolate milk. I was on Phil Harris Andy Williams Show. Phil Harris the comedian Phil, band director,

[Interviewer]

was married to Alice Fay now.

[Pat Boone]

Yeah. Yeah. And so Phil and Andy and I are talking, and this was. This was in the script, except for the punchline, and they said, you. Phil said, you drink, don't you, Pat? You do drink. You have a drink now. And I said, no, I knew he meant alcohol. Now, of course, I. I did have wine with milk, but I knew he was. I mean, wine with meal. But I know you want me to say no, I don't drink and you don't drink nothing. Never. I said no. Why? He said to Annie Williams, can you imagine waking up in the morning knowing that's as good as you're going to feel all day long? That was the joke. And I laughed. But then he said, come on, Pat, we kid you, we love you. You live the way you want to live, and. And it's fine. And in fact, if I ever had a son, I'd want to have. Want him to be just like you till he's about 3 years old. And so I got all these. Dean Martin would repeat that in his act.

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Pat Boone]

In his shows at Boonie. So religious. And, you know, anyway, he. I forget all the jokes making about. I remember I just went with them and would repeat them in my own show. I was enjoying the jokes.

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Pat Boone]

And the only thing was, there were several movie roles that I would like to have done. One was Sand Pebbles, which went to. Oh, go Sand Pebbles. Motorcycle guy. No, no, the. The guy that.

[Interviewer]

Oh, the guy. Marlon Brando.

[Pat Boone]

No. Goodness. Steve McQueen.

[Interviewer]

Steve McQueen.

[Pat Boone]

Steve Mcqueen. And the director, producer of the film. When I was proposed, it was Navy Lieutenant. I'd played a n. Lieutenant in a couple of films already, and. And he said, no, no, we don't want. He's too religious. Like, it's his image. We don't want his image.

[Interviewer]

Too clean. Yeah.

[Pat Boone]

Yeah. And. And so that cost me, but, you know, I got to do a lot of other things. And. Yeah, it was okay.

[Interviewer]

Yeah. Did you. How can I put it? Because I remember, you know, I was born in 1967, so seeing you on television in the 70s and. You were on television in the 70s a lot.

[Pat Boone]

Yeah, yeah. Commercials.

[Interviewer]

Yeah. I mean, you. You.

[Pat Boone]

You know, at that point, my show and specials.

[Interviewer]

Sure. But I'm saying there's certain people that stick out in my mind in the 70s as. As being such big stars, they were sort of held up in a certain light. And you were one of those people. Bob Hope would have been another one where it's like, yeah, you guys are almost institutionally famous.

[Pat Boone]

I appeared with him on his shows. He let me do sketches and. And the feminine female comedienne, that was Carol Burnett.

[Interviewer]

Carol Burnett, yeah.

[Pat Boone]

She was a guest on my show on the Chevy show. Going way way.

[Interviewer]

She's still young.

[Pat Boone]

Yeah. And then she became the biggest. One of the biggest stars. She had me come on her show and do sketches with the cast and sing a long, long duet with her.

[Interviewer]

Oh, wow.

[Pat Boone]

So these were great. Yeah, those were good times as they were accepting me as Mr. Square, but still able to perform. And that's when the stuff hit the fan. When I did a heavy metal album, I did an album of heavy metal classics.

[Interviewer]

I think I heard about it at the time.

[Pat Boone]

Have you not heard the music?

[Interviewer]

I have heard the music, yes.

[Pat Boone]

Because it was big band jazz is what it was. And I was treating those songs that. All the. The writers of those songs loved it because I was treating their songs as

[Interviewer]

real music songs there. Yeah. And we even had guests that are my heroes. Ronnie James Dio is one.

[Pat Boone]

Richie Blackmore, he sang with me on Holy Diver. That high voice of his, incredible voice on my record of Holy Diver. They all treated me with respect and were glad was doing their song.

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Pat Boone]

In fact, Ozzy moved in next door. Ozzy Osborne next door, just over the hedge from me for about two years. And I had just done his song Crazy Train for the album, and he knew it. And. And so I go out to get the mail, and here he comes, shuffling down the sidewalk to get in an Escalade to go. And he said. I said, hi, Ozzy. Pat Boone, through the. Through the gate. Oh, hi, Pat. Nice to meet you. He says, I got to go to an AA meeting, and then when I get back, we'll get together and have some tea. Okay. And so we did. We had tea together and we got to be buddies. Not all the time, but drop in.

[Interviewer]

Sweet, sweet guy.

[Pat Boone]

Yeah. He was just a good neighbor. So that lately, recently on one of my posts, when he was called the Prince of Darkness, I said, that's not the man I knew. I'd call him the Prince of Kindness.

[Interviewer]

As his son recently pointed out, my father was Christian and wore a cross every day of his life.

[Pat Boone]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And he.

[Interviewer]

And, And. And a family man.

[Pat Boone]

And. Oh, yes, family. His kids. And he had. He had crosses. Although a lot of demon things, too, in. In his house. I mean, he. Because that's. That was part of his image. That was.

[Interviewer]

But I. I think, think if you don't mind me interjecting, because I. I knew I Know Sharon Moore and I know the family.

[Pat Boone]

Lovely woman.

[Interviewer]

And. But I think. I think one thing that might illustrate something about Ozzy that maybe you wouldn't maybe know is a lot of those kids, especially in Ozzy's case, that grew up in England post World War II.

[Pat Boone]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

They were still sort of haunted by the idea of planes and bombs. Yeah, they grew up. So their embrace of Comic Book World, their embrace of scary things, was their way of navigating the. The fear that they had in post World War II.

[Pat Boone]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

So what seems sort of overtly negative is actually them sort of navigating their fear.

[Pat Boone]

And. And he said. I remember him saying once when he was young, I had two choices. I could be a musician or a criminal. And I was glad he chose music.

[Interviewer]

Or more accurate, they were given the choice of working in the factories like their ancestors did. And this is. You know.

[Pat Boone]

But he didn't want that, so.

[Interviewer]

Well, that's. That's why some of these great bands came out of the middle of. Of America and also came out of the middle of Britain. If you grew up in this industrial society like I did, the Hollywood dream is like, that's. That's where you want to go. You don't want to end up working in a factory.

[Pat Boone]

Right.

[Interviewer]

Like, you're unhappy.

[Pat Boone]

And he wasn't think Hollywood dream. He was just thinking that people would listen to music. He could. Maybe. Maybe there were singers that were happening at that point. And Bono the same. I met Bono when he and the group were just. I think they were initially a gospel singing group, just briefly before they were U2.

[Interviewer]

Well, they were. They were in their early stages of coming out into the world as a band that went on in fame. They talked very openly about their Christian faith.

[Pat Boone]

I've read his autobiography. It's that thick.

[Interviewer]

Yeah. But their Christian faith in the beginning was treated as a negative because you're not supposed to embrace.

[Pat Boone]

You mean as far as performing was concerned?

[Interviewer]

No, no, it's. It was at the time. It's a little less so now, but at the time, it's like rock bands don't sort of. If you. If you claim Jesus or you're a Christian, it's just something wrong with you.

[Pat Boone]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

That's how rock culture treated it in the 80s.

[Pat Boone]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

And less so now.

[Pat Boone]

That was a little bit. That was. You're right, perfectly tr.

[Interviewer]

Think that's where you're.

[Pat Boone]

But that was just in their very nucleus.

[Interviewer]

Absolutely.

[Pat Boone]

As they were coming together, just doing a little music, like when Paul McCartney and George were just getting Started. They didn't even know Ringo yet. Yeah, there were. There were things that happened in the early days. I happened to meet Bono and they call it.

[Interviewer]

You said the guitar player Edge.

[Pat Boone]

Edge, yeah. Still odd for me to call a guy that. But I met them after they had just one not beautiful day.

[Interviewer]

Beautiful maybe. Still haven't found what I'm looking Still

[Pat Boone]

haven't found what I'm looking for which

[Interviewer]

really is a spiritual song.

[Pat Boone]

Yes. And I was. And I was at. It is a wonderful song. And I was coming out of the hotel when he came. We came to the same hotel and I had done my heavy metal album and I was nominated, but didn't get it, of course, but I had met them and he reminded me that we had met in London when they were just starting, and that I'd been nice to them, of course. And he said, you wouldn't remember. I said, no, frankly, I don't remember that. But then I told him I was doing a tribute to Billy Graham. I'd written a song about Billy Graham called thank you, Billy Graham. A Wheel of the World not. Well, a Group sing tribute to Billy Graham. And I wanted him to be part of it. And he immediately gave me his number in Dublin. And so I've had these interactions with some of these incredible great people, but they, they. We all grapple with some of the same things coming up.

[Interviewer]

Yes. So that's what I. I guess what I was after is I remember in the 70s, you being held up, you know, half jokingly, but also in a form of mockery.

[Pat Boone]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

As Mr. Goody Two Shoes.

[Pat Boone]

Yes, definitely.

[Interviewer]

But now, in hindsight, I think you might appreciate that now that I'm older and I have my own family, I understand that what you believe in and what you've represented your whole public life and in your music and in your faith, including, you know, you basically have written the, you know, the Jewish national anthem at this point. Right. Exodus.

[Pat Boone]

Yes, yes.

[Interviewer]

And your connection with, you know, charity, like, basically you've walked the walk, is what I'm trying to say.

[Pat Boone]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

I think my generation has a greater appreciation for your contribution, because even though to our generation, you were held up as, like, like. Well, that's too clean cut. Part of us missed those times.

[Pat Boone]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

Because it was a gentler, sweeter time.

[Pat Boone]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

And the things that you represent to this day, I think mean more to my generation now than they could have at the time.

[Pat Boone]

But my lifestyle and many of the things I did were not, quote, commercial, and I knew that. I mean, I. What could I Do about it. I had. I. I did play a bad guy a couple times. We just had a screen.

[Interviewer]

I can't believe you played a bad guy.

[Pat Boone]

We, we. Well, we just had a screening two nights ago.

[Interviewer]

Okay.

[Pat Boone]

Of the Yellow Canary.

[Interviewer]

Okay.

[Pat Boone]

And. And I also did a thing called the Pigeon. I don't know why. There were two bird names with. With Sammy Davis on television.

[Interviewer]

Okay.

[Pat Boone]

Where I played his co detective who turned out to have sold out because he needed money and nearly got him killed instead. When the bullet came, I took the bullet.

[Interviewer]

Oh, so you're the bad guy.

[Pat Boone]

What's that, that song of yours, Bullet

[Interviewer]

with Follow with Butterfly Wings.

[Pat Boone]

I have never figured out. I haven't. A lot of. Lot of what you've done, I can't figure out. I don't know.

[Interviewer]

We could talk about it off when

[Pat Boone]

the camera lights are up, what you're saying. But huge, huge hits.

[Interviewer]

Oh, yeah.

[Pat Boone]

And I could never do that. So I had to go with what I could do. Country or. Right now I've got a song that I wrote, Where Did America Go? I heard that patriotic, and it was meant to be a blowing in the wind kind of song with just guitar and harmonica and tried to get Bob Dylan to help me with it, but he's out on the road with the.

[Interviewer]

The Never Ending Tour.

[Pat Boone]

Yeah, that tour. And so he couldn't. Didn't feel like he had time to help me with that. That song. But it. But he got a whale of a lot of airplay and exposure.

[Interviewer]

Yes. I guess that's kind of where I'm going just to kind of finish up. It's not so much to ask you about how you feel about America today. I know you love America like I do, but do you. Do you. Do you. Do you think we're in a period of change and it's good change? Or are you whimsical for maybe some of the things that we've lost in these new eras?

[Pat Boone]

I have mixed feelings. Good question. Because I sure can't say yes or no or this or that. Because it's always possible that we can come out of periods of great, great separation, division. People who hate each other because of their political views. We are losing the ability to have different viewpoints and still respect each other, especially publicly. And the Bible says a nation divided against itself cannot stand. I mean, that's a biblical principle. And we are seriously divided now. But that also could lead up to the time when those things continue and things get darker and darker. When God pulls the plug. I mean, there is going to come A time when this will all cease to exist the way it does. And no matter whether you believe it as a faith thing or not, things do change and empires do fall and nations do fail. And if this continues, it can be very costly to us. I mean, we need. My latest posts are calling for people to pray and respect each other and not to say terrible things about the police, about who are doing what they. Of course, unfortunately, some of the professions that we expect the most of don't always hold up to even those professions. I mean, we're seeing the underside and the dark side and the possibility of failure. And so in times of great conflict, we've managed to pull together and get saved because we pulled together and we gave each other respect. We got to get back to that, is what I'm begging for.

[Interviewer]

What would you say to people? And I ask you this because like I said, you've walked the walk. You've lived a great, a wonderful life, a family life, a Christly life. And, and yet I know you love America. Oh, you are, you are, you are the embodiment of the, the American dream. I mean, you've done it all. Yeah, literally, you've done it all more

[Pat Boone]

than we're talking about even yet.

[Interviewer]

Sure. So what would you say to people who've lost faith in America?

[Pat Boone]

I'm, I'm, I'm sad for it. I, I, I would beg you to look at the plus side, to look at what's been achieved, like with Israel, for example. I wrote a couple of columns when I was doing columns for WorldNet Daily and Newsmax, and one was Israel, World MVP, and another one who needs Israel anyway? Which was being that question was circulating through Great Britain. Who needs Israel anyway? Why don't we get rid of that pesky little nation, make them move somewhere else and settle all these problems, not taking into account that God gave them that piece of land and he gave it to them with a permanent tenancy and he will protect them as he did before, even though there was a time when they went into slavery. But when they came back the last time, he said, you will never be taken from your land again. And Gaza is in the Bible, in the book of Deuteronomy and a couple others, where Gaza was already there, a populous area. And the tribe of Reuben was given that, the 12 tribes, given the tribes and division of what was then called Palestine, and that's Philistine as well. I mean the same thing. And so Gaza was given to the tribe of Judah, which was the most important tribe of Judith from whom the Messiah would come. So God's not going to let anybody take Israel away. And if we can only come to some understanding that, you know, that desert land. I even proposed, tried to propose a solution to the Gaza Israel conflict, which is Gaza. There is no Gaza at this point. It's all rubble. There is no Gaza. It's got to all be rebuilt. Don't rebuild it on that same piece of contested land because it belongs and will always belong to Israel. Go over on the Sea of Aqaba. I even looked at the map and chose a place and they can have a seaside resort, everything. It's only like 100 miles down the from where Gaza is now on the map. 150 miles and build a whole new Gaza. Got to be built somewhere. But don't build it on the same piece of land. Go over here and build and all of Europe and America and everybody will contribute, I think, to the rebuilding of Gaza, but not on that piece of land which will always be contested. So anyway, I'm, I'm trying to answer your question. I try to write and talk about us, trying to understand that people do feel differently and we don't help each other or settle anything by calling each other names, accusing them all kind. Now that might bring us to the subject of our president, the mixed feelings about what he does and how he does it, it. But the Bible says that we are to pray for those in authority and if we pray for those not against them, pray for those in authority like I've done with a couple of presidents that I didn't vote for. And I prayed for them and their family and that God would give them wisdom while they were in that office because that'll benefit all of us if we do that. So, you know, that's a spiritual. But I think a real principle that needs to be underscored that we will not solve our problems by calling names, throwing bombs, protests. It's not going to change anything. It makes things worse. In fact, I did call it what was going on between Israel and Iran like a cancer. It's a cancer that has to be either cured or taken out. This is cancer on my right bicep and I used it in one of my posts is that this is a cancer that had to be taken out. I couldn't just treat it, it would get worse. I see it has to be removed and surgically and beneficially and with, with concern for all those who will be unsettled or whatever happens. But, but to just bomb and attack and protest and it's not going to get us anywhere. We've got to try to find out how we can reach out to each other, even if we have different. Different methods and beliefs and tastes. We got to find ways to allow

[Interviewer]

the other to breathe, even though it seems far away at the moment. Do you think we can get back to a place of kind of like general civility in this country?

[Pat Boone]

Well, it's possible. You know, that's why I try to plead for it, because I think we can. But it's going to have to awaken something in people's minds and souls to realize that that will be the way for solving it won't be beating somebody, beating them up, or just beating them even at the polls. We have to come to some human humanity that other people can have different views. I mean, in my own family, for Pete's sake, even among my own daughters who never. Who never had their own apartments. And they. We were in absolute continuity. Not just continuity. We agreed with everything with each other. And now they've been with. With some of the in laws and all that that we've had to cope with differences, not just politically, but even spiritually. But they're my friends, they're my family, and I am theirs. And there can be enjoyment of each other and an appreciation for each other. And so I guess. Johnny Mercer's song. You got it. I just thought of this.

[Interviewer]

You got to extenuate the positive.

[Pat Boone]

Yeah. Extenuate the positive and eliminate. Yeah, Well, I forgot what it is you have to eliminate. Is it the negative, the negativity? Yeah, it just came to me right now. That's. Johnny Mercer was writing a great solution for us, but we've got to arrive at that. Otherwise, continued. I don't think there's a solution for.

[Interviewer]

Or we got to get on the Atchison to pick a Santa Fe.

[Pat Boone]

Santa Fe.

[Interviewer]

Take the train out of town.

[Pat Boone]

All right.

[Interviewer]

Thank you, Pat. Thank you so much.

[Pat Boone]

Thank you. Enjoyed it.

[Interviewer]

Thank you.