The Magnificent Others with Billy Corgan - Pat Boone | The Magnificent Others with Billy Corgan

Episode Date: June 10, 2026

The indomitable Pat Boone joins Billy Corgan for a remarkable conversation about surviving fame, making history, and keeping faith through more than seven decades in entertainment.Pat reflects on breaking Billboard records, selling more than 50 million records, and rising alongside Elvis Presley as one of the defining stars of the 1950s. He shares unforgettable stories about their friendship, Elvis' private struggles with faith,​ performing for Queen Elizabeth II, and witnessing the birth of rock & roll.Along the way, Pat revisits the near-fatal accident while filming Journey to the Center of the Earth, the Harry Belafonte controversy that led him to walk away from his own hit television show, and the extraordinary pressure of becoming one of America's biggest stars before the age of 25.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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. Yeah. You still have the Billboard record 220 weeks on the chart consecutively. You had at least one record in the charts. One going up, one going down. That is insane. It was just miraculous, the things that kept happening to me.

It always struck me that you had a particular optimism for life. I do. I really do. Even sitting here in 2026 with you, it's still unbelievable. Yeah. The success you had. Pat Boone, what an honor to have you. It's nice to see you. I'm honored to have you say that. Thank you. 91 years young. 91 years young. Born in 1934. Yeah, you did some homework. Okay, let me give a little bit of a resume to start. Okay. Because I think for people who don't know your music like I do, it didn't grow up with you, 70 years plus in the business.

Yep. 50 million records sold. They tell me. Roughly. I didn't get paid for that many, but. Different world that you grew up in in terms of how they paid artists. Yes, yes. 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 220. One going down. That is insane. Billboard itself ranks you as the number two. most popular artists in the 1950s behind a little guy named Elvis Presley.

Yeah, whatever happened to him. They forgot about him. 78 studio albums, roughly. And somewhere in the neighborhood of 2,300 plus songs recorded. We got it to 2,700 now. Really? Well, congratulations on that. And I'm still at it because I'm recording still

and got two or three records on the charts in meager ways, but there. 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. Good. And it always struck me that you had a particular optimism for life. I do. I really do. And I've got, I've had many knockdowns, many things to recover from.

But a happy marriage, wonderful family. church life and 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 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 Do you think, I know you're a man of deep faith. Yeah. Do you think that optimism is something that, I don't want to say God rewards, but God maybe recognizes the spirit of optimism?

Definitely. And he, 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 in the 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 famous 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. I didn't know this part of this. Springfield, Missouri. And to me, that might as well have been, you know, from foreign country. Yeah. And I said, honey, I can't stand it. I know what'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 got.

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 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... Who for those who don't know Red's career of music was a big star. Very big country music artist, but his wife had died.

In fact, his first wife had died too. And so I sat Red Foley down and their nook. They had a much nicer home than ours out on Lone Oak Road. And I called him Mr. Red. It's a 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? 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 to, 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. That's the ring? That's the ring. It kept us married for 66 years now. And then we bought a night. nicer ring, but we still love that one. And so we married the next high school principal. We're also a minister. He married us, and 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. Right. And I was married, we were married twice that day. We were double.

married and we took it that seriously too so well maybe you needed to be double married to get to the end yeah and so we we got married at 19 yeah but then by 20 uh i was in 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 contest the Ted Mac 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.

Yeah, she'd already grown up in the business. Yeah, and she was not, didn't even want to about me being an entertainer she didn't know what she was getting into 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 and then then 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 but by But by the end of the fourth year, we were, of our marriage, I was doing the Pat Boone. Sure. 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 chart. Yeah. And a career, and went by the time we were 23. It's amazing. So that kind of life, if you're together, and we stayed together. Yeah. Makes you feel sort of insulated if you and nothing but good is going to happen in your life.

Yeah. So I've always been an optimist. Yeah. Can you, 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 as the, not so much the music he wanted to get away from is the culture he wanted to get away from. from because he, uh, my grandmother and he had moved to the big city of Chicago, so where I showed up. But, but, um, and that's where Red and Shirley, Shirley's mama married in Chicago. I didn't know that. Um, and so my father's dismissive attitude towards

country music as sort of like, you know, that's what your, 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 come into 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 rabbits. Yeah, I'm going to take these all. So I'm a, I'm a fan of Reds, and I have a 45 in my jukebox. I have a jukebox in my kitchen. So when I have dinner with my kids, we listen to country music, and it's all old country music. Still? Oh, yeah, yes, sir. And I've got a Red's version of satisfied mind. Oh, yeah. It's so beautiful. I recorded eventually. I did a whole hour,

album called I Remember Red. I didn't know that. I got to look that up. A bunch of his piece in the Valley closer walk with the Chattanooga Shushine boy, which Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra both covered, but Red Foley had the record of Chattanooga Shushan. 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. Yeah.

So the question I was after is, you know, there you are in Nashville is, you know, there you are in Nashville is 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. It's a separate genre. Absolutely. And it was often dismissed by the New York critics. So did you grow up listening to Grand Old Opry? Was that sort of part of your world? 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, 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 country music, I thought I might have gone that way.

And how did you and your wife meet? I feel like I saw it somewhere, but I can't recall it talking about. 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 girl's dorm. although she was in high school, a junior in high school then. And we met under the grandfather clock and old Harding Hall. She was talking to the basketball captain, big tall guy named Bill Brown.

And I said, who's 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 the Big Demoson. And I got into pop music so that when I was doing some singing in school programs, whatever, And when a ladies club, sewing club or men's, businessmen's luncheon, wanted somebody to sing pop tunes for them, well, I had become known as Blue Moon Boon.

They call me Blue Moon. Blue Moon, because. It rolls right off the tongue. Yeah, because when 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 a lot uh saw me standing alone without a dream in my heart who is it was it uh big crosby oh blue moon blue moon blue moon i'm thinking a blue moon of kentucky with oh blue moon at kentucky yeah i know i know the other blue moon too but i just saying blue moon it would know no accompaniment the girls

liked it and the guys didn't mind it and so and so i was known as blue moon boon and then i quote kept up with all the pop tunes. Crosby and all the others, Desmond and Sinatra. And I could sing those songs. A lady named Ruth Mowrie played piano. And I was supposed to take piano from her, but I practiced basketball instead of piano.

What was your basketball game? The basketball game was good. In fact, you may know, I helped start the ABA. I did see that. And I owned the Oakland Oaks with Rick Barry. We won the champion. You've had such an incredible life. We can't cover it all.

Yeah. So I'm mostly focused on music because that's my jam. Definitely. So anyway, I understand that, but my music interests were pop, really. Yeah. I liked country, but my music interests were pop. 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. Yes. And there was kind of these band shell concerts. Yes, it was. Yeah. You're right. That's good homework.

Did you, did you, did. I was artist of the week, a local boy. I'd been on a one talent show at that time, the Ted Mac amateur hour, which I won three weeks in a row, singing pop songs. Okay. I'm walking behind you, Eddie Fisher, a Perry Como song. and I forget what the other was. Oh, no, I believe. Frankie Lane's singing, I believe.

But nothing happened of it, except I was popular in Nashville. Yeah. And in demand for singing. And in that summer series, they'd pick out some Nashvilleian. The guy named Snooky Lansson on the hit parade was also from Nashville, and he was artist of the week one summer. but this particular summer they made me artists 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. Dot, okay. And it was growing. It was coming on strong. But weren't you signed a Republic first? 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. These are just singles. Singles.

And eventually I heard one of them on a dukebox in Dallas after Shirley and I moved out to Denton, Texas to go to school. But it was all just small. Small, yeah. 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 was giving up that idea. I mean, I had a wish or a dream, but it was not going to happen. And surely I got married and I settled. In my thinking, I settled down. I'm going to be a teacher preacher. 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. Yeah, it was unbelievable, which is why... I mean, even sitting here in 2026 with you, it's still unbelievable. Yeah. The success you had. Yeah, I got called from Randy Wood. It's records almost a year after I'd won those contests, and I was now, I was preaching in a little country church and a wheat field, but 30 members, and they didn't pay me, except I tied on my 4450 I was making from two TV shows I was doing on WF. FAA in Fort Worth.

At 20 years old, I was hosting the Buley 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, you know, I tithed on that 44-50. I put five bucks in the collection 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.

Yeah. But then I get a call from Randy Wood. And, why aren't you making records? And I said, nobody's giving me an opportunity. The phone isn't ringing. I had done Republic records in that mix, but nothing much happened. So with that record or 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 do it. I'll send you a plane ticket to Chicago. Wow. I didn't know you recorded it in Chicago. I recorded in Chicago. recorded in Chicago with about three musicians and three singers, a song by the charms on the due 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&B music. And just so people who are younger than you and I, this is the nascent days of rock and roll.

There is no rock and roll on the charts. No, no, it was. There was just R&B. It was more often called race music. Race music, yeah. All black. And yet two or three music producers were finding hooky commercial songs like Shaboon and things like that.

Great songs. Yeah. And they'd do their pop versions. In fact, that song, Two Hearts, Two Kisses. I recorded until one in the morning, and it was all monarle, no punch-ups, anything, just monarle. All lives.

And then I get a call in the morning from Randy Wood saying, we got a problem. Oh, no. 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 and 18 days to promote my record

and the nation's number one DJ Bill 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 can tell he didn't even enjoy singing it. And 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.

In March or May, I had to do a second record because two hearts to the kid went to number 10. Wow. And I had to record something else, so it was Fats Domino's. Ain't that a shame. Now I was getting pulled into this music by Randy Wood, who knew I could sing it or found out I could.

Had you had much exposure to R&B music before that? No. My brother, younger brother than me, liked it. And there was a station in Nashville, He listened to, but I didn't care much for it. As I say, I was into pop music and was singing pop music. Yeah. But he was intrigued by the rhythm and blues.

Yeah. So ain't that shame was like... Ain't That the shame went to number one. Yeah. My first million selling number one record was my second record. And how old, you're... 23. That was 20, at that point, 20...

22, 22. 22. Okay, yeah. Not everybody has a number one, one with the 22. Right, and then it began to be number ones and chart records from then on for four years. Yeah, Ivory Joe, almost lost my mind. Yeah, yeah. And so many great, great songs.

And April love. But now is making movies. Don't jump ahead, because I want to talk about movies too. Yeah. 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. Yeah. 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. The record either hits or it doesn't. That's 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 want you to go down to United Recorders. We're going to record. Is this in Chicago? No, that was in L.A. We moved to L.A. by that. 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. Oh, Billy Vaughn, great arranger. Yeah, and he put it 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. was in a higher, I sounded more plaintiff. And Randy Wood says, he says, I think we got to smash. And he says, I had to go to the friend's house to pick up my wife and 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, ba-ba-ba-ba. The intro to Moody River, I said, wait a minute. And I hear Chuck Bloor, who was the owner of the station, or the director anyway, said, and now for the first time anywhere, I knew Pick Hit of the Week, Pat Boone'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 October of 55. Yeah. And that was a sock hop in Cleveland with Bill Randall, the DJ. Wow. He had brought him up. He got Colonel Parker to bring him out from Shreveport, where he was doing the Supreme, it was a. It's where Hank Williams used to do the Shreveport. Yeah.

It was Shreport Music Hall or something. Yeah, it was like Opryland. It was Opry, but the Louisiana version, yeah. And Elvis was singing country songs, but trying to make him sound the best he could, rhythm and bluish. Yeah. Which is what he was into at that point. So he showed up backstage at the W-E-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 in those other songs and in walks Elvis Presley and with a couple of the musicians and we pantomimed a sock hop you didn't play the music and he couldn't do that so you pantomime 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 ahead for, I don't know, but I hope so. And he leaned against the wall and buddies closed in. I could see he was shy.

Yeah. And when Bill Randall introduced him to the audience, he said, now, kids, it was about 600 kids. Sockhop and he'd be playing the records. I want you to give a nice welcome to you. I 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 liked the way he looked right away. I could see that looking through the curtain. Yeah, yeah. And he's saying, Blue Moon of Kame. and to kick, keep on shine. Well, that was not rock and roll at all. Yeah.

Which he tried to make it sound rhythm and bluesish, which made it an interesting sound. He's right on the knife edge. 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. any way you please. And that was rhythm and blues. And I heard right then what Colonel Tom Parker and what RCA heard.

Did you get it right away? Yeah. And then when he finished, he left. And I went out and sang my three million selling hits at that time. Not bad. And later when we were both not much more than a year later, we were both renting homes and Bel Air. Oh, very good.

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 then we had chicken-fried steak, and we had turn-up greens and stuff that he really liked, and I liked too. And our friendship took up from then on, and we were two boys from Tennessee, me, Nashville, and Memphis. We stayed in touch.

We kept in, 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 say, girl, stop that. You're getting them all away. Leave one on, 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. Yeah. 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. Yeah. But my friendship with him was that of a buddy, a fellow Tennessean, fellow recording artist, and just a friend. Well, you probably wouldn't know I was friends with his daughter. No. Lisa, I sang at her funeral and still stay in touch with the family. Oh, my gosh.

So it was nice to get to know Elvis through his daughter's eyes. Yeah. He had many, many conversations about her father. Wow. Wait, Lisa Marie? Lisa Marie. Oh, yeah. Oh, Lisa.

Yeah, I was with Lisa Marie soon, shortly before she died with her daughter. Oh, Riley. Yeah. Wait a minute. Lisa. Well, there are the two twins. There's three daughters. Those one who.

Riley's the one who's the actress and there's two twins. Oh, I'm confusing with his wife. Oh, you're with Priscilla, yeah. Yeah. But I was with the daughter shortly before she passed. And you sang, you said? At Lisa's funeral, yeah. What did you sing?

One of my songs. And I'll tell you a story, if you don't mind me telling you this story. Please, I want to. So after Lisa passed, you know, 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 yeah so of course there's that feeling of a life cut short and and I certainly had concerns about Lisa's family because Lisa's son had killed himself and that was super pain to Lisa as you imagine and I knew the son since he was a little boy and that 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. 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, because it's like, it's 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 a private part of the thing.

Well, 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 funeral and a public part of the funeral. So then they turned and they said, would you be open to singing at the funeral? And so I was really touched by that. Yeah. Was she a big fan? You knew that? Was Lisa fan? Yeah.

Oh, Lisa was a huge fan of my music. Lisa, I even wrote songs together at one point. Really? Yeah, we were close. Yeah. 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 the family.

And the situation with the Michael. All of it. All of it. Anyway, to finish my part of this interview, we're talking to you. Well, I want to know. 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. I sang at Colonel Sanders funeral at his request. Oh, okay. and preview it before he died and I sang amazing grace and near my God to thee. Okay. And you sang what? 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 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 live broadcast And there's, you know, in the front row There's the family, there's Priscilla Yeah 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 my called DeShila. 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. 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 to you. Guidance. Yes, yes, sir. Yes, sir. So somehow I chose the one song that was healing to the family

because of the connection with hers. Oh, man. Thank you for asking us. How wonderful that is. I know. Well, praise God on that. So neat. The way those things do happen

and you're grateful. Oh, I mean. I mean, when Colonel Sam, Anders, he had blessed a relative, and gave him a franchise in Kansas City next to an airbase. What you can imagine. Oh, good business. Kentucky Friday. Yeah, next to an air base.

And, you know, he carried a bag of Limburger cheese with him everywhere you went. He loved Limburger. Well, of course, that gave him a particular aroma as well. But he asked me on the way to my... relative's car, I helped pick him up at the airport, Colonel Sanders. He said, I like the way you sing. Would you sing at my funeral? Goodness. 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, I just, I just, if you would do it, though, I'll tell my lawyer to contact you, which he did. And I think they were owned by Schenley, one of the big liquor companies by then, Kentucky Friday and and so but I did sing this at his request wow those two songs that's interesting and I that's a lovely thing for somebody to want you to do oh what an honor yeah just to circle back to Elvis for a second um because you've had this incredible life and you knew the man but you can also reflect on where he came from yeah like yourself the cult of Elvis in his death here it is over 50 years later. It's like a shrine there.

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, Graceland is the second most visit at home in America. 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. Yeah. Oh, boy, the last one, fabulous. This guy, Austin, did any. Have you seen the new one where it's all the live footage? No. I just come out like about a month ago. No, I will see it.

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. Oh, I know I will. I will. 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? 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 of the penthouse was his dressing him. 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.

He 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 he was afraid of interrupting or taking attention away from the preacher. So he just felt like he couldn't do it. Wow. But then he said, do you know Earl 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 Brez. I'd like to talk to Oral Robert. he'll be on the phone. He couldn't do it.

Somebody had to go, be a go-between. So I called Earl 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, Oh, he step all night singing gospel music. And he knew all of the songs. Yeah. He wanted it, but his career, his concept of himself and what kept him from having what he wanted. So I really felt terribly about that. And, of course, the end of the movie, what is, 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.

I forget which. Probably how great they are, yeah. 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 yeah out and I knew that I've hurt for him but I I feel like he's he's in a good place now I think maybe 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's still, to this point, is singular. There's no other artist that has approached that level of fascination and attention. I made a statement once when Lisa Marie died, and Elvis had been had so much tragedy, broken marriage. And, you know, 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. Yes. And I don't have to expand on it. 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, but... My memory's not...

It was 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 some of the shows.

Yeah, and I had him on my Pat Boone Chevy show. We sang together. I think it was, I don't think we did Tadanooga Shushan boy, but I think it is something like that. You all come. Yeah. You all come. Y'all come.

We all get together. You all come. And it was just a couple of good country songs on that. Yeah. 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 mine, me on his, were just wonderful moments in both our lives. But it struck me that at such a young age, through your father-in-law show, you know, I mean, this incredible, like I found one clip of him singing with Bob Wills.

I'm a huge Bob Wills fan. Yeah. So here you got these incredible country artists. And then I looked at who you had on your show. Let me throw some names at you. Good. 115 episodes of your show. It's called The Chevy Showroom.

Yeah, that's right. Andy Williams, Ames, Brothers. These are just, I'm just cherry picking. Yeah. Frankie Avalon, Tony Bennett, Count Basie, Ella Fitzgerald, Ginger, Rogers, Johnny Mathis, the Mills, brothers who were incredible. Peggy Lee, Dinah Shore, Joe Stafford. These are just, I mean, Mel Tourme,

Harry Halle, Harry Belafonte, we'll get to Harry Belafonte in a second. Yeah. But just at such young age, you were so immersed in all this incredible American talent. And I'm 21, 22. Yeah. Did you get starry-eyed and all that? No, I was nervous. And actually, you know, for a guy who had had a lot of,

lot of singing experience, but it was all local. Yeah. 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 scattered just for a second or two with Ella Fitzgerald. and all these, you know, Mel Tourmet, 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, she never hits a sour note. She's perfect pitch.

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 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, there were things. 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 called Irving Berlin tell him. And the secretary's, well, what time, Mr. Berlin likes Pat Boone singing, what time is the show? It's 9 o'clock. Oh, it's a little late from 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 down and start shaking the camera. And I said, what's the matter?

He said, the teleprompter stopped. What? The telepromp, and I, you know, I hadn't memorized the words. I had them on. That was one of the ways I could relax was I had teleprompter or cue cards. 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's

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 backliner from 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. 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 of the boom mic has gone out. Yeah, 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 mic in place. Instead, they knocked the set down behind me. And I never finished, I finished the song, but you never heard me till after the first commercial. Did you see the sack getting knocked down? Oh, yeah. Oh, I knew it. Did you just show business?

I just kept going until the applause. The audience gave me a great hand, And we went away to a commercial, 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. Oh, no, not again. I just couldn't resist.

But I learned that I could take it as it happened. Yeah. You know, if it happened, it happened. And you can't change it, so you go with it. Did you notice then the difference in, by being on television, sort of the recognition faster factor on the street must have gone through the room. 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 in outfits. Well, 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 clothes from Goodwill and a hat and disguised ourselves as best. we could and we got away with it and I talked to my daughters like this you know and I got patting in my lips and thought I was disguised but somehow I did it too much and and I began to get recognizing yeah to come home because we couldn't we couldn't enjoy Disneyland with everybody wanting autographs is it is it true that that there was something happened with the network about Harry Belafonte and that's is that is that a true story true story do you mind telling that and I it I didn't think anybody was ever going to know this but somehow it did get out

when Jamie Fox met be coming out of the gym uh years later and and he said let me ask you something he said I understand when you were doing your show Harry Belafonte called him wanted to be offered to be on your show. And you wanted him to do it, but Chevrolet wouldn't allow it. And ABC wouldn't allow because of his civil rights. They didn't want him to be on my show. Just to be clear that he was very out in public as a civil rights leader. Very much so.

So that would have been, it wasn't simply that he was African-American. Right, right. And he was so outspoken that Chevrolet was suffering in the South. I mean, this was late 50s. Oh, I see. And so the ad agency and everybody had to quickly say, no, no, we can't have Harry Melancholy. I was stunned by it, you know. I'm from Nashville.

I'm 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. Wow. I'm not going to say no to Harry Belafaroff.

And you didn't tell that story at the time. No, no, no, no. Because they finally said, well, can you guarantee that if we have Harry Belafati 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'd. 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. And they,

but it was like, we only had about four shows left in that season. I just didn't renew. I see. I just said, I'm not going to keep doing a show if I 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.

Yeah. And it did well. And maybe it was a relief because it was to do that show every week, 39 weeks a year. That's a grind. It was a pull on me. Plus you were probably still doing live. And movies, right? Yeah.

Well, in the summertime. I took summertime off 13 weeks, and two summers. I let Dick Van Dyke take over my time period. Whatever happened to him. That was his first and this special on his great special recently. It shows him and me doing the scene from my show. And it was after that that he doing my show, and he filled in for me that got his show with Carl Liner. You know that? That's cool.

And then Andy Williams, same thing. The next summer I had Andy Williams, 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 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... What song did you sing for the queen? 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. Okay. Those songs, I was just singing the rhythm and blues, rock and roll songs, and met the queen 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're courtesy. But, you know, that first time I was still in college at Columbia.

But 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 get. and thank them for all performance. And Princess Anne and Margaret were fans. And so I'm feeling I'm suave, you know, little blasé. Peter Sellers is over here.

Peter Finch is over here. And Claudia Cardinal and all these are... Not bad, Claudia Cardinal. Right. And they've performed, and they're so nervous. They want to be nervous about it. All I do is bow and say, Your Majesty. Well, but now when she gets close to me,

I start feeling the flutter. I keep reminding myself, Your Majesty. So here she stands in front of me, even with her crown, she comes up to about here. And I said, Your 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. Wow. And it was so out of my, I take her hand, which she offered. We met before. We did? I mean, how gosh 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 Clardy Cardinal next.

And they were laughing at something. Guess what they were laughing at. You saw me still looking over the Queen with this shot look on my face. I had just said, we did? Speaking of Hollywood, because you brought it up, if all you'd ever done has been a successful TV hosts and a musician, there'd be plenty of talk about. But then at Hollywood on top of that,

that must have been wild to get that call. All at once. I mean, it was all at once. Yeah, and your first movie, which was Bernadine, right? Bernardine, yes. Johnny Mercer wrote the song. And you sang the title song, right? Johnny Mercer.

Yeah, Johnny Mercer. Yeah. Because you can hang out with Johnny Mercer? 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. Unbelievable. And so that was an honor. Now the next is April Love, and Sammy Fane and Paul Francis Webster write the song for me

for 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, in a rock and roll time now. And this, and I want the song to be a hit. It's too pretty. It's just, it's a nice, it's a nice love song. It's not a, I can't imagine me 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, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pap, April. We can do that. Of course, they can do that. that. Okay. And they did that and then Connie Francis borrowed it that intro. Bup, up, up, up, up, where the boys are. And I mean, there's nothing new about that. Sure.

Those triplets. But to have the effrontery really as young as I was to say, can we do something? Well, that's the brilliance of youth. We think we know what we're doing. And somehow we did in our, and it worked out because April Love became a huge hit. And the most of the movie too so as i said already there's so much of your life to talk about so i'm cherry picking so i i was curious about journey to the center of the earth because james mason is a particular favorite of oh yeah um if you can just talk about that a little bit 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 Yeah.

And yes, they've done some big things, but they're just people. And they also at this point kind of know who you are. It's not like nobody. 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 and director's chair smoozing with the cast or anything else.

He'd go in and read. I don't know what he did. We could hear him, mm, he liked a hum. a lot mm-hmm had that incredible voice 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 in inferno, but it was a city of Los City of Atlanta. 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 down doing that.

Meanwhile, there's a pile of white, it turns out it's supposed to be sand, white sand. And my camera 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 me to reach for it. And when I do, it gives way. And I fall and starts me on a long, you know, foray down, through the tunnels.

Center of the earth, yes. Going down through tunnels and with white sand following me, but it wasn't sand. It was white gypsum crystals. Oh. 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 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 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. Goodness. And a guy up in the catwalk said, Mr. Levin, you better get pad out of there quick.

Oh, yeah, it's cut. And they pick me out of there. Those gypsom crystals, if I had somehow inhale those, they would still. be in my lungs right now. I mean, 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 having the experience of working with him. 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 you've stood there a few times. What gave you confidence or strength? Was it your marriage, what your family, your faith? Like, what kept your feet on the ground? Because, you know, nobody has a crossword to say about you. I became great joke material, by the way.

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

Mm-hmm. Where normally people get wrapped up in a lot of terrible things in this town. Yeah, well, it was my wife and my faith. And the fact that when Shirley and I moved to Beverly Hills from New Jersey, from Teaneck, New Jersey, It all happened so fast, but 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, with 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 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 may come down to 195, and then we'll offer him 165. That's the way we do it. Yeah. 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.

Right. 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. Oh, wow. And I don't have to tell you that the, You did well right with your investment.

The value has appreciated. And so it was, but we were in church every Sunday, Sunday school, and 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, whatever, the movie scenes. and so I would be excused, but Shirley and the girls kept up that schedule. Wow.

And I can truthly 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, Gabrielle Ferrer. Oh, I didn't know that. Yeah. Jose Ferreira's son, and each one were chosen by and chose wonderful mates.

And so I would take them to the wedding. They'd be the wedding and once or twice sang, but I was so choked up. I didn't sing very well at all because I was so moved. But 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 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 it would be questions, how do you sandwich this as you just asked, you know, with your faith, and that gave me the opening. to talk about my faith, which I wanted to. Yeah. 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 from chocolate milk. I was on Phil Harris, Andy Williams Show. Phil Harris, the comedian, Phil, band director. was married Alice Faye Yeah, yeah And so Phil and Andy and I are talking And this was in the script

Except for the punch line 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 met alcohol Now of course I did have wine with milk

But I knew he was I mean wine with meal But I know you wanted me to say No I don't drink and you don't drink nothing never I said no why he said to Andy 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 so then and I laughed and then he said but then he said come on pal we I we kid you we love you and we you live the way you want to live and it's fine and in fact

if I ever had a son I'd want to want him to be just like you until he's about three years old. And so I got all these, and Dean Martin would repeat that in his act, in his shows. But when he's so religious, and, you know, I go, anyway,

I forget all the jokes of the making about it. But I just went with them and would repeat them in my own show. I was enjoying the jokes. Yeah. 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. Kim Nova? Motorcycle guy. No, no, the guy. Oh, the guy. Marlon Brando?

No, good to Steve McQueen. Steve McQueen. Steve McQueen. And the director, producer of the film, when I was proposed, it was a Navy lieutenant. I'd played a Nouvee lieutenant in a couple of films already.

And he said, no, no, we don't want, he's too religious. Like, it's his image, we don't want his image. Too clean, yeah. Yeah. And so that costs me. But, you know, I got to do a lot of other things. Yeah. It was okay.

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. Yeah. Yeah. Commercials. Yeah.

You know, at that point. And show, my show and specials. Sure, but I'm saying there's certain people that stick out in my mind of the 70s 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, you guys are almost institutionally famous. I appeared with him on his shows. You let me do sketches. And the feminine female comedian that was Carol Burnett.

Cheryl Burnett. She was a guest on my show, on the Chevy show, going way, way right. But she was still young. 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. Oh, wow. 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 I think I heard about it at the time Have you not heard the music? I have heard the music, yes. Because it was big band jazz, is what it was.

And I was treating those songs that all the writers of those songs loved it because I was treating their songs as real music. There's a lot of great songs there, yeah. You even had guests that are my heroes Ronnie James Dio's one. Oh, Ronnie James. He sang with me on Holy Diver,

that high voice of his. A credible voice. On my record of Holy Diver. They all treated me with respect and were glad. I'm sure they did. Was doing their song. Yeah. In fact, Ozzy moved in next door.

Ozzy Osbourne next door just over the hedge for me for about two years. And I had just done his song Crazy Train for the album. And he knew it. And so, I go out to get the mail and here he comes shuffling down the sidewalk to get in an escalade and he said, I said,

hi, Ozzie Pat Boone through the gate. Oh, hi, man, 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 tell you, okay? And so we did. We had tea together and we got to be buddies.

Not all the time, but drop in. Sweet, sweet guy. 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. As his son recently pointed out, my father was Christian and wore a cross every day of his life. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And he had, and a family, man. Oh, yeah, his family, his kids,

and he had crosses, although a lot of demon things too in his house. I mean, because that's, that was part of his image. That was, but I think if you don't mind me interjecting, because I, I know Sharon more, and I know the family. Lovely woman. And, but I think, I think one thing that might illustrate something about Ozzy that maybe you wouldn't, uh, maybe know is a lot of those kids,

especially in Ozzie's case that grew up in England post-World War II. 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 fear that they had in post-World War II Britain. Yeah. So what seems sort of overtly negative is actually them sort of navigating their fear. Mm-hmm.

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. Or more accurate, they were given the choice of working in the factories like their ancestors did. And this is, you know, this is. But he didn't want that. Well, that's why some of these great bands came out of the middle of American 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 where you want to go. You don't want to end up working in a factory. Right, no. Like your unhappy uncle or something. He wasn't thinking Hollywood dreams. 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 you too. Well, they were in their early stages of coming out into the world as a band, that went on in fame. Yeah. They talked very openly

about their Christian faith. I've read his autobiography. Yeah. It's that thick. Yeah, but their Christian faith in the beginning was treated as a negative

because you're not supposed to embrace. You mean as far as performing was concerned? No, no, 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 claim Jesus or you're a Christian,

it's just something wrong with you. Yeah. That's how rock culture treated it in the movies. Yeah, yeah. And less so now. That was, you're right. Yeah. Perfectly true.

So I think that's where you're going to flip me. But that was just in their very nucleus. Absolutely. 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 things that happened in the early days. I happened to meet Bono and they call it. You said a guitar player, Edge?

Edge, yeah. Still odd for me to call a guy. that but but uh but i met them after they had just one not beautiful day a beautiful probably correct maybe i still haven't found what i'm looking for and which really is a spiritual song yes and i was and i was that it is a wonderful song and i was coming out of 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 yeah of course but um but i I had met them and he reminded me that we had met in London and when they were just starting.

Yeah. And that I'd been nice to them, of course. And he said, you wouldn't remember. I said, no, I 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 We 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, we all grapple with some of the same things coming up. Yes. So that's what 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 as Mr. Goody Toot Shoes. Yes, definitely. 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 Jewish National Anthem at this point, right, Exodus. Yes, yes. And your connection with, you know, charity, like basically walk the walk is what I'm trying to see. Yeah. I think my generation has a greater appreciation for your contribution because even though to our generation you were held up as like, well, that's too clean cut. Mm-hmm. Part of us missed those times.

Yeah. Because it was a gentler, sweeter time. Yeah. And the things that you represent to this day, I think me more to my generation now than they could have at the time. But my lifestyle and many of the things I did were not, quote, commercial. And I knew that. I mean, what could I do about it? I did play a bad guy a couple times.

We just had a screen. I can't believe you played a bad guy. Well, we just had a screening two nights ago of the Yellow Canary. Okay. And I also did a thing called The Pigeon. I don't know why there were two bird names with Sammy Davis on television. Okay. where I played his co-detective who turned out to have sold out because he needed money.

Ah. And nearly got him killed. Instead, when the bullet came, I took the bullet. Oh, so you're the bad guy. What's that song of your bullet with... Well, with butterfly wings. I have never figured out. I haven't.

A lot of what you've done, I can't figure out. I don't know. We could talk about it off when the camera lights are up. What you're saying, but huge, huge hits. Oh, yeah. And I could never do. that so i had to go with 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 dillon to help me with it but he got on the road with the never-ending tour 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 it but He's got a whale of a lot of airplay and exposure. 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.

Yeah. But 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? I have mixed feelings. Good question. goes, 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 can't, 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. Yeah. 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.

this will all cease to exist the way it does. And no matter whether you believe 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. Yeah. And we gave each other respect. We got to get back to that is what I'm begging for.

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

Literally, you've done it all. More than we're talking about even, yeah. Sure. So what would you say to people who've lost faith in America? I'm sad for it. 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 New Zealand. Max, 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 tendency. 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 know,

you will never be taken from your land again. Yeah. And Gaza is in the Bible, in the book of Deuteronomy and a couple of others, where Gaza was already there, a populous area, and the tribe, of Rubin 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, sure the same thing. And so Gaza was given to the tribe of Judah, which was the most important tribe of Judah from whom the Messiah would come. So God's not going to let anybody take Israel away. And we, if we can only come to some understanding that, that, you know, that 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 Akaba.

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 from where Gaza is now on the map, 150 miles and build a whole new Gaza. You've got to be built somewhere. But don't build it on the same piece of land. Go over here and build it. And all of Europe and America and America.

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 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 cause. each other names, accusing them all kinds. Now, that might bring us to the subject of our president, mixed feelings about what he does and how he does 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 will 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 to. going on and between Israel and Iran like a cancer. It's a cancer that has to be either cure or taken out. This is cancer on my right bicep and I used it in one of my boat 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. surgically and beneficially and with concern for all those who will be unsettled or whatever

happens, 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 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? 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, beat him up, or just beating him even at the polls. We have to come to some

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 had their own apartments and we were in absolute continuity and not just continuity, we agreed with everything with each other.

And now they've been with some of the in-laws and all 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 they can be enjoyment of each other and an appreciation for each other. And so I guess Johnny Mercer's song, you got to, I just thought of this, you got to. Exenuate the positive.

Yeah, extenuate the positive and eliminate. Yeah. Well, I forgot what it is. You have to eliminate. Is it the negativity? Yeah. It just came to me right now. Yeah.

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 it. Or we got to get on the Atchikinson, Topeka and Santa Fe. Take the train out of town. All right. Thank you, Pat. Thank you so much.

Thank you. Thank you.