Talent, however, he says stands out. Love, love, love this man. He is beyond, beyond. Hes a lawyer, sculpts, plays every instrument, rides horses, dives, a renaissance man. The music of ghostbusters foot loose, all carrying his mark, the last Whitney Houston. She was amazing. She just ripped it out. There was no vocal exercises. She was a troubled girl. David foster is not only working with the stars, but runs a foundation for children awaiting organ donations. I can still tell you katy and sharon had heart transplants when they were 7. I watched her get married. He has children of his own exwives. Children. As you may have read, ive been married a few times, its a big blended family, and anyone with a blended family knows its not easy. We are figuring it out. I spoke to david foster at electric ladies studios in new york. When you take a moment, looked back on your career, and when you did that last, what words come to mind. I mow i was given a gift, a godgiven gift, and i think i used it well. I, like most successful people mondays, and wednesdays, and fridays, i wake up thinking im the greatest thing. Tuesdays and thursday, i think i have not accomplished anything and theres so much to do, and is that all there is, im a fraud. Ands sundays i dont thing about it. Maybe thats the formula. I dont rest on my laurels. Thats interesting. Its a question i had for you. When you look on the music you created, starting in the 070, do you think okay, i can i have done so much. Do i really need to grind away. Are you still on the grind . Im incredibly on the grind. I came to new york, im going to la today, to europe to work on Andrea Bocelli album, and ill go to asia for asias got talent, be there for two weeks, and back working on jlos christmas record. Its what i love to do. Why do you work that hard even now . Life is short. Theres so much i want to do, and so much more to do. Im working on a broad way play, betty boop, that im here today to have a meeting with. Theres so much to do in this life, and i want to squeeze the last drop out of it, because youre dead for a long time. Yes, for sure. Sadly true. Yes. Lets do a bit of the biographical sketch. Did you play at five. I did. I dont think its unusual if you show talent. I had parents that were nurturing and not too pushy. That was brill. I havent heard you talk too much about your parents, what start did they give you . My father was an amateur piano player. They taught me. They allowed me to do classical lesson. We didnt have money, but we werent poor. I had a great upbringing. I had six sisters, my mother was a homemaker, my father worked hard. I had a great work ethic. I had a perfect upbringing. First song you learnt on the piano, the first song. Now im taking you back. Was. Okay. And i thought i was so cool doing that. The man jump up. What chord is that. Like a c69. Wonderful world up there. Really. We table beside talked about that. Had. Did you form your first band or join it. We formed it. I was the guy 12, 13, making money on the weekends, organising the band, making the phone calls, calling the wedding person, getting the gig. Knocking on the door. I would knock and say im here to talk about your daughters wedding and theyd say i thought you were the paper boy. I was always like that. And a big leap to creating your own music. When did you know at what age you had that definite . It was quite late. There was a School Teacher in the fifth grade that gave me a b in music. And i said what do i need do to get an a. She said you need to write your on song and sing it. I did that, she still gave me a b. I dont know why. It turned me off. So i didnt start to write until late. What was your first song . Well, the first hit that i first hit that i wrote was a cowrite with a friend of mine. Cheryl lynn. The map knows his stuff. Right. Mid 70s i started to write seriously but didnt get on the hit train until 78. What was the first moment when you heard the cheryl lynn song, when you heard the first hit on the radio. 1973, skylor, and wildflower that was a hit. I was the leader of the group. Strange, you work on a song for four months in the studio, and you hear it 1,000 times, and you sit in the car and you turn the dial until you find it on the radio, like it will sound different. You heard it, but theres something about it coming over magic. Part of that is you are in a room like this. Im curious whether you are more surprised by the hits or misses you had. You are in the room, creating, you hear the miss and you are like wow, that works. Maybe it doesnt. Or, yes, thats going to work, and it does. Yes. Well, the real mystery is that you can do it and it works, and you do it again and it works, and you do it again and it works, and do it again and it fails. You do the same thing, putting time and effort into it and it fails. No one wants to hear it or buy it. It confuses you, but you keep going. But it confuses you. Can we play the name game . Yes, lets do it. Andrea bocelli. Jimmy carter. Jimmy carter, president of the united states. Peanut farmer from georgia. Okay. Just because its such a. Its a voi. Can we start with Andrea Bocelli. Andrea bocelli. Singer. Come on. I swear. Love, love, love this man. Hes beyond beyond. Hes a lawyer. He sculpt, plays every instrument, rides horses, swims, dives, wind surfs. Hes a renaissance man. What is it in his vocal quality, approach to music that makes him the greatest . He walks in both worlds. Hes the most knowledgeable classical person i know. More than lang lang my friend the piano plash. He can sit at the piano and play a beetles seconding or pick up the guitar and play a Creedance Clearwater guy or sing an opera that you or i knew. That was not a short answer. Thats all right. I dont want short, i want expansive david foster. I think of the other amazing voices that you have worked with, and a couple of names Whitney Houston. Houston. I was between Whitney Houston and celine. Now. Great voices. Its worthy of saying this. Celine was so amazing because whatever i asked her to do shed do exactly what i wanted. Like, i would cop up with a lick in my come up with a lick in my sound, she understood and delivered. Whitney shed never give me what i wanted ever. She would give me Something Better than i asked or many times it would be worse. Its not what i wanted. But a lot of times it was better than what i asked for. What a loss. What are your thoughts on Whitney Houston not being on this planet singing . Left a trove, a treasure trove of great songs. Yes. I feel so honoured that i caught her at that moment of you could argue the body guard was not her best album, i would say i will always love you was the love song. Thats what she was most remembered for. A dolly pardon song im. Yes. That. I did, and i wrote i have nothing, for her, which was fun. She was amazing. She was a race horse, shed rip her jacket off, come in the studio and go. No vocal exercises. She was a troubled girl. As i read she was troubled long before i met her. And that. Struggled with her life. If you gave me a list of 100 singers and said which one will go, she wouldnt be at the bottom of the list. Wow. In hitman your terrific show. Makes me smile. Well, it should. It was my funeral when i was alive. It was pretty cool. Stop. You played tribute to a hero of mine, maurice white. What is the importance of earth, wind and fire to your career. Its a kind of two fold, and i just give you a peak into the my little sole. When i was in skylark, the singer in skylark, a great guy was not a fan of mine particularly. He was a huge fan of earth, wind and fire. When the group broke up. I thought i want to work with earth, wind and fire, it will be my mission and goal to get to earth, wind and fire. Why is that . When he turned me on to the group i loved then. I made it the goal. He was in my head saying youll never work with earth, wind and fire. I got there. Every art. From usher to prince is on though tree. Is on the tree from earth, wind and fire. Yes, the gap band. All came from earth, wind and fire. Maybe that came from sly a little. But maurice was fierce. He was fierce. After the love has gone, soul. Got to tell the story. I was sitting in an officers playing an album that i want the artist signed. He didnt like the album. I bsed him saying this is not the whole album, i have more songs. He said like what. I said like this. I swear to you, i went to the piano, and it fell out. I was totally lying, i had no songs. I went over and wept oh after the love has gone what used to be right is wrong can lovers lost be found time. Come on back over, thats how it fell out of you. He was what was that, its better than anything on the record. Maurice white had the same reaction to that song. What are the significant changes in the business that you chartered in your open career . The biggest change in our business was the cd, that was our Television High def moment. Television in the high def and everywhere had to buy a high defcd. When the c. D. Came along everyone had to replace their albums with c. D. Music was 40 billion, now its 8 billion. Do the maths. 812 drop since the year 2000. I like to say the music business is doing great, the record business is in trouble. Kids think its their right to own to listen to music for free. More importantly kids dont want to own, feel or touch. They dont want to own, they want to play. Thats what we enjoy. They want to click a button. And listen op here. We are in a beautiful studio making it sound incredible. They never feel or hear that or touch that. More to come. Most know david foster as the hitman. Coming up, find out what he find more rewarding than any number one hit. Im tony harris, and this is talk to al jazeera, and im foster. Look, i want to talk about the charity work. What is the stat here. In the past 27 years, the David Foster Foundation assisted close to 1,000 families with children in need of major organ transplants. How did you come to this work . It was a personal moment that came to me about 30 years ago. I was late to the charity world. 30 years ago, i was 35. My friends Wayne Gretsky and andre agassi, they were 25, i thought i better get on the train to give back. You were really blessed. At that point. Absolutely. Its corny, but its your responsibility. And i had a personal encounter with a young girl who needed a liver transplant and didnt make it. All she wanted was to see her sister, so for the price of an Airline Ticket i got her sister to come tos los angeles. To los angeles much its rewarding. I have done 6070 concerts for my foundation. We are raising millions, first year, 45,000. Its just when you look at a family and you get a letter from a family saying you literally saved our marriage, the siblings lives, because the siblings get forgot, all the attention goes to the sick child. Understandably. The siblings they get forgotten. So when you get a letter like that, you saved our family, could there be anything better than that . In the early days i knew the name of every child. I can tell you katie luxton, shannon glass, got heartlung transplants when they were seven. I watched katie luxton get married. She was seven when we helped her. Now, with so many families, i dope know all the families dont know all the families, we have employees, and its a big job, consuming probably a quarter of my life which means im working threequarters in the music of. Yes. What is the joy for you away maybe its family, i dont know. What is the real joy for you . The joy for me is when i find peace of mind, you know. Again, its a corny answer. Im not that guy that looks at the sun set and writes a song, sorry to say. Where does the motivation come from . It comes from its a job. I know its unromantic. Its a job. I know when i get together with michael buble, well do something good. Okay, mike, tuesday, 10 oclock, lets get together. Something goodwill come out of it. It may not be a hit. I love my family and the children. As you may have read, ive been married a few times. Its a big blended family. Anyone out there that has a blended family nose what im talking about, its not that easy. We are figuring it out. Works. Still ahead david foster turns sunrise part of Al Jazeera Americas special month long evironmental focus fragile planet this is talk to al jazeera, im tony harris, this week with famous composer david foster. [ ] Everybody Needs a little time away so when the album was finished we were done, finished. Ernie said theres a movie summer lovers, would you write a song. We sat down, it was like after the love was gone, i go peters says i like that. And the best stuff comes fast, it always comes fast. We finished the song, it was a number one hit. Yes. But the the weird thing was we went to the movie, we were so excited to be in the movie. Its the end title. Peter gallagher, and darryl hannah, we were at the premier, the start of the seconding. Theres a motorcycle in the distance, as he sings Everybody Needs a little. The motorcycle gets louder and louder. By the time we are at the second, the motorcycle is louder than the song. You are dying. We are like what . Who in the world thinks the sound of a motorcycle is more important . We were bummed out. Great song. Great song. Peter. A few. Yes. This one we did for karate kid. [ ] i am a man who would fight for your honour ill play a song i never include when i do a concert. I dont think people know it. I cant sing and i keep wondering whose holding on now and i keep wondering whose Holding Nothing i do should be in your arms. Yeah, i know the kong. Song. Debarge. Yes. We are talking about your sound tracks. St elmos fire. Yes. The reason i liked it, for once in my life. [ ] singer. Right. It was great. It was an instrumental hit. Curiously, it was i believe it was the last hit. When you perform, what is the one song you have to perform or you will not be allowed off the stage . I know there are a couple of. Well, the song that always really works i mean they all work. But the one that i like doing the most is probably the song i did for celine and Andrea Bocelli, called the prayer. It goes [ ] celine and Andrea Bocelli two heavenly voices. Whitney i having nothing but good. [ ] i asked it earlier, where does the motivation come from. Where do the songs come from, david. I mean. I dont know. I really dont know. I would explain it if i could. Yes. I think the best stuff comes through you, not from you. You can say maybe its all up there for grabs in the universe and it comes through you. Right now, if i wrote a song, if you describe anything to me. Make it slow, its early. Its lets do lets do sun rise. Sitting on the verandah. Sun rise. But you want it film score or a pop song. I want it it be film score. Yes. Yes, yes, yes. Sun rise. [ ] we can stop there for a minute. [ ] the sun came up a little more. [ ] and then you could. Then the strings come in. [ ] whatever that melody comes. Because at sunrise you think day. You know what a guy told me do yourself a favour did take 90 days and get up and watch the sunrise. Ive been doing it. Its hard to do in new york. You do something, you look it up. 6. 6 33. And i swear to god 6 33 it comes out of nowhere. Before i let you go. Yes. Your first grammy many more to follow was for after the love. You have no notes. Youre a freak. No, im telling you i should have houses because of all the money i spent on your music. Your first grammy after the love has gone, earth wind and fire 1979, right. Yes. Together. [ singing ] after the love has gone we used to be right is wrong. Wonderful david. Really enjoyed that. Thank you, brother. Terrific stuff. Not a bad singer. [ laughs ] good stuff. Thank you, baby. Hello, everybody. This is Al Jazeera America live from new york city. Religious freedom, another state with a controversial bill says it will rewrite the law. Double overtime tense negotiations on Irans Nuclear program stretch into another day. And border battle over fracking. Two adjoining states are looking to take over an underground oil supply. Its part of our