also, the only man who can turn a four-letter word into an international smash hit. ♪ see you driving around town with the girl i love and i'm like, forget you ♪ >> yo, p, what's up, man? i'm so anxious to talk to you, the anticipation is killing me. >> my exclusive with cee lo green. you have got probably more money in those diamonds in your teeth than i've earned in a lifetime. how many have you got? >> would you stop being modest, please? plus, only in america. a lesson for all those new facebook billionaires on the right way to spend their money. this is "piers morgan tonight." very few television programs could actually improve your health. well, i'm hoping that this one will. because dr. oz is the kind of guy that makes you feel better and not just in that kind of cozy, convivial sense. dr. oz, welcome. >> thank you very much, piers. >> originally said heart surgeon, author, research, philanthropist, tv star. >> oh, please. >> i can't read all that guff to you. >> to me it's celia ward's husband. i had the best time. >> it was brilliant, you interviewed my wife for a british newspaper. she is a journalist. and she came back bubbling with enthusiasm because you had actively instructed her to improve her health by drinking more wine and having more sex. >> yes, i did that as a favor to you, piers. >> thank you. >> you're more than welcome. it helps a lot. the fascinating thing, and you know, i talked to celia. we were doing a free clinic in los angeles. i gained a lot of insight into how she thought about health in this country, and, of course, when you are talking to someone who is a foreign national about where we stand in america today, you see there are huge opportunities to maybe nudge ourselves in a better direction. which fundamentally is what my whole life has been about. >> a fascinating exercise, you just had thousands of people turning up who are from the lowest elements of society, in terms of ability to pay for health care or anything like that and some of them suffering appalling, long-term tumors and so on. what do you do that for? what is the motivation for you when you have those kind of open, free clinics? >> piers, i get letters in the mail daily from folks who say you are my doctor, not just figuratively because i watch you on television but literally i don't have a doctor. when you have 50 million people without health care coverage, many of them are going to seek out whatever resources exist. the tv show happens to be one of those resources. so we began running these free clinics. in part because i could hear the shame in the voices of people who were writing. they felt like they didn't matter. they didn't have a voice. they were invisible in society. we have a covenant we make with each other as part of society that i think allows us to feel like we're a member of that community. whether we have insurance or not we should at least be counted on those regards. so we run these large free clinics to embrace folks who cannot get care otherwise and there's some tragic elements to this. >> what is the simple answer for the tens of millions of people in america who simply will never be able to afford health care? how does america look after its most needy people with a system that often doesn't allow them to have anything? >> everyone has to be in the system. you cannot drive a system that is going to be aiming at preventing illness if everyone is not in it. the whole gaming of health insurance and health care in america is based upon that fundamental principle. insure people who aren't sick and you don't have to spend more money on them. if everybody is in the system it pays all of us to pay attention. that remarkable number, 80 million people are diabetic or prediabetic. seeing a similar number who are prehypertensive >> 80 million people? >> 80 million people. diabetes is like broken glass shards scraping the delicate lining of your arteries. giving you that dysfunction we called on earlier the number one cause, which i will measure on you, is blood pressure. a simple cuff like this which i hope everybody could hear my voice tonight -- >> normally my blood pressure is okay, but even talking to you about this, you're probably sending it racing. >> you kindly -- i don't know if it's a prop. this is the supply i had in the green room. i had carrots and celery sticks. >> listen. that's quite a healthy green room. >> all i know is i had to swipe away the doughnut remnants and croissants left behind. but, you know, these simple decisions impact us dramatically. so if we're going to have a true preventive health care approach to taking care of people, which is basically about making it easy to do the right thing, everybody has to be in the system. the tough decisions shouldn't be that, piers. the tough decisions should be how are we going to be able to give affordable care to people and get our value back? >> what's the simple answer? >> the simple answer is the most expensive thing we do in medicine is provide bad care. when i get a patient who is being cared for poorly or if i make a mistake, without being wise about what i'm doing, prescribing this harmful, that costs us all a lot of money. i'm of turkish origin as you may know, you throw a coin into a well, right? one foolish person can do that. but it takes 1,000 wise men to get it back out again. we are spending most of our time in american health care fixing the mistakes that either we in the profession are causing or our patients are, without recognizing it, causing to themselves. >> how limiting and how much more complicated is the system in america because of the massive overreliance on bureaucracy and threat of litigation which leads to more bureaucracy and so on? how restrictive is that to you as a practitioner? >> it's hugely restrictive. we estimate that between 20% to 25% of the health care expenses, which is a huge amount of money, is driven by the bureaucracy, fear of making mistakes. might be more than that because it's hard to measure these things. piers, the big idea, here's the big message i think everyone in the world is getting, you cannot be a wealthy country if you're not a healthy country. ultimately what china is worried about is the health of their citizens. it's going to strip away vitality. >> very true. >> what our corporate leaders worry about, they are spending so much on health care, they can't keep up with the expenses required to make simple production. a serious issue you at its root lies the challenges that we all face. we can fight about how to move around those deck seats on the "titanic." but at the end of the day we're going to have to get away from that and start making some serious choices. >> if you were analyzing and summing up the state of america's health, 1 to 100, how bad is it with the higher number being bad, lower number being good? comparative to, say, other main countries, major countries in the world? >> you know, again, using your scaling system, i would probably give us an 80. it's not where it should be. and there are a couple of reasons for that. first off, i don't think we're very efficient in how we informs and invest our resources in health. but mostly, we have made our society into a perfect storm for making mistakes in your health. if you're making it hard to do the right thing, the right thing is not going to happen. if there are no sidewalks in neighborhoods, people aren't going to go out there and walk. let me ask you a question. you didn't grow up in this country. did you walk to school when you were a kid? >> yeah. >> 60%, 70% of folks watching this show right now who are our age, walked to school when they were kids. >> i read if you just do a brisk half an hour walk a day, whoever you are, that would maintain a pretty high level of fitness over time. >> absolutely right. and let me just accentuate that for a second. you go around the world and look at people that live the longest. that is the one secret they all share. >> movement. >> movement. daily, vigorous physical activity. >> people in america and the same applies to britain, are just very sedentary in their lives. >> every hour you sit at work increases your mortality 11%. think about that and let me go to that statistic about how far we walk to school. the average number, adults today, generally walk to school more than half the time. today's children walk to school about 10% of the time. so we've created a society where it's acceptable to be sedentary. similar examples exist for many, the decisions we make, what foods are readily available. junk food, fast food, et cetera. >> hold that thought. i want to talk specifically about american health, how people are getting it wrong, what they should do to get it right and be healthy. >> in the meantime, i'm going to check your blood pressure on the break. >> let's do it. come on. let's do it. 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[siri] if you say so. on my journey across america, i found new ways to tell people about saving money. this is bobby. say hello bobby. hello bobby. do you know you could save hundreds on car insurance over the phone, online or at your local geico office? tell us bobby, what would you do with all those savings? hire a better ventriloquist. your lips are moving. geico®. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. so this is a bit of tv history for me. i've just had my blood pressure taken by dr. oz. i have no idea about the results. so you're about to find out on this show whether i'm going to be alive next week or possibly dead. dr. oz? >> or pre-op. your number is 134/82. >> so how good is that? >> 134/82 is average for america. but let me take this off you and talk about what is average in america. >> yeah. >> so when you're average, in most things, that's okay. but when you are average with your blood pressure, it doesn't mean you're optimal. >> right. >> so the goal should be -- >> what should i be looking for? >> 115/75 is the optimal number. the hypertensive number, the number that means you're too high is 140/90. if you're 134/82, which is what you were, and that means you're average, what that translates to is your life expectancy is going to be several years shorter than if your number was the optimal number. that's a big deal for folks. they don't realize the number one driver of all, aging is high blood pressure. it's like a fire hydrant rubbing off the lining of your arteries. by doing that forces your arteries to have to repair themselves continuously. so if i punch a hole in this table right here, how do i fix that hole? i fix the hole by putting plaster in it. the body's plaster is called cholesterol. the more holes i have the more i have to use my cholesterol to fix it, if i have the wrong kind of cholesterol which bad food will give me, now i'm really stuck making the plaque which causes all the things from erectile dysfunction that you and celia were talking about -- >> i'm not talking about that with my wife. >> >> i was just quoting -- what an error, i'm sorry. >> what are the hell are you talking about we're talking about your problems, not mine. >> the wine and the intimacy issues we were talking about earlier all drive back to that insight. but, again that, blood pressure problem is a much bigger issue for your heart and your brain. >> coming from europe, i was stunned by how much food americans consume. i mean it's probably -- not an exaggeration to say probably twice as much physical food being consumed on a daily basis just on the size of the portions. that i've seen. >> no question that portion control is a big part of it. piers, i spend every single day on my show talking to people about portion control, the right kinds of fats, how to cheat the system and get what you need out of it. people know what to do oftentimes and they can't do it emotionally. and you have to ask yourself, why is that? what is that deep empty hole inside they are trying to fill? i think a lot of it comes down to the fact that a lot of people in america feel out of control. so if i can't control my job or my spouse or the people in my life, the only thing i can control is my arm and the fork that it's holding. so i use it. so i think when we talk about why we have obesity in america, part of it's the system. the environment we've crafted around us. portion control is a good example. part of it is the fact we don't treat food like it's sacred. the brain is smart, piers. it's not looking for calories. it's looking for nutrients. so if i'm giving myself junk food, there's a lot of calories in it, my brain is going to say, that's fantastic. but where's my goodies? >> it's the american diet, the main american diet, the masses for want of a better phrase would eat on a regular basis, is that worse as a diet than a country like britain, like india, like china? give me some comparison to play with here about the quality of the diet. >> well, the united kingdom has the highest incidence of atherosclerotic disease, harden of the arteries of any of the countries i'm aware of. i'm sure there are a couple higher, this is the major countries, near the top, many of the studies are done there, because of that. the british diet, i don't think is much better than the u.s. diet but i think generally speaking talking about china, india and many parts of europe, people eat real food. they -- the foods they eat came out of the ground looking the way it looks when they eat it and it's not processed. don't go for the head fakes. if someone says this is a low fat food, that means we took real food and adulterated it to take the fat out. what do you add back? add sugar back. one example. skim milk. is that good for you or bad for you if you want to lose weight? >> i'm sure you're about to tell me it's not good for you. >> exactly. >> why? >> if i take the fat out of milk what is left? sugar. crazily. >> what is the best milk to drink. >> drink regular milk, just drink less of it because it's real food. your body knows what to do with real milk. if i give you a low-sugar alternative, i muck something up. that is why artificial sweeteners don't look. >> american food compared to british food, it lasts longer. in the fridge or sitting outside, it lasts days longer. a loaf of bread here will survive two weeks before it starts to mold. in britain it will go in two or three days. what does that mean? because it made me think, this is odd. how many preservatives are in this food? >> many of the preservatives are good for shelf life but bad for human life. many of these products, trans fat, for example, insects won't eat them. a lot were designed not for human use but industrial use. you know, when there was a problem with reading the right kinds of fats for candles, started using transfats, took vegetable oils and manipulated them. the scientists did the right thing to make candles, you extrapolate that into human consumption, it raises major red flags for tt. but, again, piers, a part of it is the biology of blubber. understanding how your body responds. >> biology of blubber. >> yes, the biology of blubber. >> what a great phrase. >> it's yours. use it. part of it's the biology of blubber. just understanding what naturally happens in your body when you do these things. part of it's the emotional burdens that drive us to do things we shouldn't do. let me give you one good met metaphor. a thousand years ago since you asked about stress, a thousand years ago, what was stress? wasn't a deadline for a tv show, wasn't a ratings point, wasn't someone criticizing you, it was famine. not having enough food. so, when we feel chronic stress, we think we are in a famine. what happens in a famine? we release chemicals in our brain that force us to eat more of things we don't like. voila. french word. that's what -- that's what happens in america and many other societies when we feel chronic stress. we see this especially in parts of the country where people are under chronic stress. socioeconomic stress is one in particular drives obesity levels. that mortgages our nation's future. if you don't deal with obesity when people are young, they will carry it to disease much earlier. i have started operating, piers, on 25-year-old people, 25-year-olds with hardening of the arteries. unheard of a generation ago. >> unbelievable. >> why? because they grew up as 10 and 12-year-old diabetics with high cholesterol. and so now they're using medications to get treated. by the time we are done with all this, you and i and everybody else are paying to take care of people not going to get a high-quality return to that investment one. >> one of the biggest problems the average american faces with health they can easily fix? what are the most common mistakes people make with their health? >> there are five major themes that drive 70% of how long and how well we age. five themes. one is blood pressure. we checked yours. again, you're the average blood pressure. but the average isn't good enough. you need to be the optimal blood pressure. two, daily physical activity. which we've talked about. number three, a diet you love. i'm not saying it's more important than one that's good for you. you can find foods that you love that are good for you. if you do that, you'll eat those foods. >> tell me about the mythology of diet. what is the best way to lose weight without having to just eat carrots? >> well, first off, about carb bow hydrates, i do think we've got a problem with simple carbohydrates. simple sugars, the white foods, white rice, white pasta. the whites that we bake with. these are all problems for us. but carbohydrates in general stimulate your thyroid gland. if you take out all the carbohydrates, you drop your metabolism. people trying to diet hard, they don't succeed. the body is too smart for the biology of blubber will catch you and pull you back to reality. in order keep your metabolism high to burn off the calories you are eating, you want carbohydrates, you want to diet hard, you want to diet smart. the key to long-term established weight is going to blow your mind, it is all about losing 100 calories from your diet every day, not more. if you try to cut off 400 calories, your metabolism will slow down. >> too dramatic? >> your body is geared a dozen systems to keep you eating. if i told you, piers, hold your breath underwater indefinitely, you can't do that. you can't hold your breath forever. everyone knows that. the same goes for dieting. you can't diet forever. there are a lot of reasons your body would not want you to do that never in our history ever would you need that. >> if you focus primarily on losing 100 calories a day from the way you would normally lead your life, what kind of results would you see over what kind of time span? >> just give you an idea of 100 calorie, half a doughnut, half a soft drink. a small move like that will take off 12 or 13 pounds a year. >> what is your regimen like in terms of diet and fitness. because you look absurdly fit. how old are you? >> 51. >> you don't look 51. you look better than me and i'm 46 so we have an issue here but tell me what you do to maintain a good level of fitness personally. >> get up at the same time every morning. >> which is? >> 5:00 or 6:00. for a reason i'll come to in a second but i get up at 5:00 or 6:00 because it will create a routine for me that will control my future destiny. first thing i do, seven minutes of exercise. >> seven? >> i'll tell you why it's seven. i do what i want to do, essentially sudden salutation. essentially a series of yoga moves. it's not touchy-feeley, guys. i played football in college. preseason football practice stuff. with sit-ups an push-ups. in the seven minutes i do it because i know that even me can make seven minutes in their life. and i challenge anyone watching right now -- >> seven minutes is enough? >> enough to get you going in the morning, get your metabolism up, push-ups and sit-ups with us, my stretching exercises, i feel like i control what i'm doing the rest of the day. big reason it's seven, not 15 or 25, i'm going to challenge everybody out there right now, i want them to ask themselves, am i so disorganized in my life i can't carve out seven minutes? >> do you go to the gym at all? >> no. >> do you run? >> i do. i do lots of activity. i do basketball. lots of activities. not then. the core to my health, what you're asking me, is that seven minutes in the morning. because if i'm so busy all day long, i don't have time or if i'm so tired, i got my seven minutes every single day. it's the con significance tennessee that helps. during the daytime, i move around a lot. you should be getting up from your cubicle an go to the other person's cubicle. ask them the question, don't sit on your tail the whole time, but that is a life style issue. >> hold it there. come back and talk about what you eat and drink. >> perfect. >> i hope you drink wine. >> i do. >> that's all i wanted to hear. 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[ male announcer ] the security of a 2012 iihs top safety pick. the volkswagen passat. that's the power of german engineering. right now lease the 2012 passat for $209 a month. for a hot dog cart. my mother said, "well, maybe we ought to buy this hot dog cart and set it up someplace." so my parents went to bank of america. they met with the branch manager and they said, "look, we've got this little hot dog cart, and it's on a really good corner. let's see if we can buy the property." and the branch manager said, "all right, i will take a chance with the two of you." and we've been loyal to bank of america for the last 71 years. let's talk about the muscles of the body. first they point out, see how thin this biceps muscle is? compare it to the pectoralis muscle or this gluteus muscle, the big muscles that curb our hips wehn we walk, these become big and strong. this is where the furnace is, where the action is when you build muscle mass in order to burn calories. >> special guest dr. oz. fascinating watching you do this. you are a natural for television with this kind of thing. just finish two lines of inquiry we had. one was your morning regime and what you eat through the day and drink. and secondly, the other, the five points that you raised that people should be really focused on if they want to lose weight and be healthy. >> let me finish the five points real quickly. you want to know some key values about your blood, including your cholesterol and your blood sugar numbers. so many folks who don't know those numbers and it's so tragically important to our long term well-being. the fifth is stress management. not talking about getting rid of stress. you want the stress. it's the chronic lack of control in your life. and that takes you back to my game plan for my life. i never want to be out of control. i want be five minutes early for the things i do. i want to have at least in front of me the opportunities that are out there so i can pick the ones that suit where i have to be. >> avoid unnecessary stress. >> the chronicity of stress is related to that. i don't figure out what i'm going to have for breakfast every day. i eat the same breakfast every day yogurt, greek yogurt, i would call it turkish yogurt with some blueberries in it. it's a constant meal. i don't have to reinvent the wheel. most people have to make so many decisions during the day, there's decision fatigue by the time you get to 4:00 in the afternoon, so you start making some bad decisions. work, food you are eating. relationships you have. add the glass of wine you have, the wrong decision. >> let's talk about alcohol, which is a particular favorite of mine, because that is the one thing that always stops me dieting is that somebody, a doctor or whatever says we're not allowed to touch alcohol. i say, forget it. i can't be bothered. secondly, what you do about that overwhelming temptation i had this afternoon, for example, come my lunchtime meal decision, i just saw this gigantic turkey sandwich with all the trimmings from subway and i ordered it and i loved it. how are you going to deal with my cravings? >> well, first, alcohol has a longevity benefit, without question. if you're having a glass of wine by yourself in the morning, that's a problem. >> yeah. >> but if you're with friends in your life -- >> i don't do that. >> connecting with each other and there is intimacy. which can i just make this big comment, your show is all over the world, need to talk to everybody for a second, the number one problem we have in the world right now is a lack of connection. >> because of modern technology. >> i think a big part of it. but also a lack of understanding how critical it is who we are, people say why is your show working? the reason my show works is because for all of known human history there was a healer in your midst. so you crave that iconically. the reason we crave intimacy is that's what keeps us going. >> is it true that red wine is better for you than white wine? >> it is absolutely true and the reason is the skin of the grape that's incorporated into the red wine has a chemical called resveratrol in it. which is a very important chemical in getting cells to live longer. think about wine, growing on hillsides, fairly rough terrain. the plants are getting a message to themselves it is not easy here, live long. so when we eat that plant, the plant is communicating to the mammalian species, the animal kingdom, saying these chemicals are enforcing, reinforcing a message for yourselves to live longer. so we believe that's why red wine is better. but 90% of the benefit of red wine is the alcohol, not the kind of wine it is. alcohol, in general, does allow us to build that intimacy back that we were talking about. when it comes to the management of stress, it is the best tool because it gives you an excuse to decant for a few minutes. which is why it's so valuable. >> to relax. >> back to the other question about -- you're quite par pa at the time -- para pc t parapatetiy in your questions here. the issues of those hot moments. >> you know it's not great for you but you really want to eat it. >> you're in a hot moment. it is -- you are in a prime position to make a bad decision, which is you why should never make food decisions when you are hungry. >> why is it a bad decision if i absolutely thoroughly enjoyed every moment of that turkey sub? >> you happened to have gotten a turkey subway. i think subway is fantastic. they've made an earnest effort -- >> it was massive. typical american sandwich about that big. i should never have eaten a quarter of it. i devoured it like a barbarian. >> takes a back to the biology of blubber. give me two seconds here. there's a hormone in your stomach called ghrelin, sounds like gremlin, growling in piers' stomach wants to eat that whole subway sandwich. >> very noisy. >> that hormone takes about a half an hour to be quenched when you eat a meal. if you're like me and most people watching us, you've had three meals in half an hour. so if you don't always have something that you are putting in your mouth, which i do, if you are not always eating something, every two hours at least, that ghrelin hormone gets so loud. >> what do you do to constantly snack? what are the good things? >> i always have nuts in my pocket. >> any nut good? >> i like walnuts a lot, omega 3 fats, hazelnuts. almonds. i like tree nuts. real nuts. i keep them around because they are the source of life. i actually soak my walnuts, makes them a little bit softer, take some of the bitterness out of them but you can do it anyway you want. if you keep foods around you love. listen, i know you were kind of me to bring these in -- this would be what i would keep in my desk at work. i keep carrots and celery there. >> to snack on. >> i can chew on them, i can deal with tension there, if i'm gonna eat mindlessly, i'm eating mindlessly things already good for me, so you are so you're automating your life. you made a decision today to have that subway. in a nonautomated way. if you want to keep your weight down and do the right thing, automate so it's easy to do the right thing. you have your lunch brought to you, it's already what you want to have and in a timely fashion, you had your nuts at 10:00 in the morning. you are not famished. i think you should play around at different, sit down at dinner, have a wine with people you care about, ideally. your family, then eat some food and have the wine, not as a preamble to the meal, not your appetizer. have it as your apri dinner event or dessert. here is why, when you have alcohol, it disinhibits you, as we all know. you start your alcoholic beverage in the middle of the dinner and let it guide you through to the dessert, no one wants to have a chianti with tiramisu. you will bag the dessert and drink your wine. another dessert, people can change their life today, tonight, when you walk into a restaurant, i don't care how good it is that waiter brings you bread with some butter it's like satan coming to visit you. >> is it? >> there's no way you can block that off so preemptively say you want a crudite or bring me some olive oil with my whole grain bread. that is what i got in front of you. >> what if you absolutely love bread? >> well, most people will have a problem with too much bread. but if you can truly have one roll only for dinner and you go with that, god bless you. that's fine with me. but if you're like most american, that's not what you do. and once you tempt yourself to do that, you are baiting your biology and when you do that, you will generally lose the battle. >> dr. oz, it has been fascinating. i can't work out if i feel better or worse for having talked to you for the last hour. >> all i can say the strong woman like celia, take you to the right direction. can i please thank you? she wrote -- it is just a -- it was a miracle to see how she put the words together for this one little piece she wrote for "the telegraph." >> found it fascinating particularly to go down to this clinic you had for these people who had no money, no hope for proper medical treatment and to see the care and attention you gave them and passion you brought to it. it is an impressive thing that you do with those clinics. i wish you all the very best with it. >> you're very kind. >> bless you. >> firm handshake. i would expect nothing else. that was dr. mehmet oz. ♪ with the girl i love coming up, the man who turned an "f" bomb into a smash hit song. the unforgettable cee lo green. ♪ wasn't enough i'm like forget you and forget her too ♪ ♪ said if i was richer i'd still with be her ♪ we work with you to get to know the unique aspects of your business. we can recommend financial solutions that can work for you that have helped millions of business owners save time, reduce expenses, and maximize cash flow. as the number one small business lender for nine years running... we're with you when you need us. so you can be there for your customers. wells fargo. together we'll go far. ♪ ♪ and the flowers and the trees all laugh when you walk by ♪ ♪ and the neighbors' kids... what does being true to yourself have to do with being healthy? everything. ♪ but you're not ♪ you're the one ♪ one, one, one, one, one ♪ the one ♪ one, one, one, one, one ♪ the one ♪ one, one, one... ♪ born to be wild ♪ born to be wild ♪ i am born to be wild cee lo green with juliette sims, a finalist from team cee lo on this past season of nbc's "the voice." we know cee lo from "forget you," a megahit is what we'll call it here. the unforgettable cee lo green. for the real title, cnn, 9:00, you've got to be careful. >> that's understandable. >> tell me about that song because that became a phenomenon. how much of it if you are honest was shock marketing? >> uh, almost all of it. >> i love the honesty. >> almost all of it, i mean, well, you know, i think we had some clue or some indication it would be noticeable, to say the least. and we released it virally initially just for the buzz factor and not really anticipating that it would become, you know, what it was. >> it was huge. 2 million downloads in like a week. >> immediately. i told the story a few times. getting on the plane to london, actually, when it was released. and by the time we landed, which is like an eight-hour trip from atlanta, and by the time we landed, by the time we landed, it was a smash record. >> when it goes that big and you've had a bit of fun with the title and it's obviously deliberately shocking, does any part of you slightly feel, ah, well, maybe we should have been a bit more careful here? >> well, i guess the consideration that we took was to prerecord the alternative versions for radio and elsewhere. you know, just in the event that the song, you know, did connect in some way, but it did. it connected exactly the way i would have wanted it, that is with people, you know what i'm saying? >> it certainly did that. i want to go back. the thing i find fascinating about you, cee lo, because i came to know you on "the voice," knew you before, loved "crazy," songs like that. i was fascinated by your upbringing. by your story. i find it incredibly powerful. you grew up in atlanta. >> yes. >> you lost both your parents before you were 18. your father died when you were 2 years old. your mother died when you were 18, but she had this awful end to her life. after she had this terrible car crash, she was paralyzed. she then sort of struggled on for a couple of years before dying. >> yes. >> and i know this had a profound effect on you, especially your mother's death. when you're 18 years old and effectively you've now been orphaned, what does that do to a young man? >> um, it's definitely a rude, a very rude awakening. but i was able to see some -- some purpose in it. you know what i mean. you know, i believe that it was a sacrifice, if you will, i mean because i've also answered this question on occasion by saying that i had actually died and my mother lives on. my -- my -- my work, my aspiration, my ability, even my -- down to my articulation is my mother's will, my mother's work and want for me, you know what i'm saying? so i can't remember being anything close to what i've become prior to, so, you know -- >> what do you think she would have made of your extraordinary success? >> i think she would have been the best manager ever. my mother was quite an -- quite an entrepreneurial spirit and such an independent -- such a class act. she was something else. >> she would have been pretty proud of you, wouldn't she? >> i think she still is. >> she's definitely -- >> do you have that she's a constant presence? >> yeah, yeah, i think she is definitely alive in all of this positive energy surrounding what's back of me. >> you were a troubled kid. and you've been very honest about this. i was reading some of the stuff you said about that you've put out there. >> yeah. >> childhood frustrations led to what they call hobbies. you tortured stray animals. beat up homeless people. mugged pedestrians. you set fire to things. you brawled with kids all the time. >> yeah. >> what was going on in this mad world that you were then occupying? >> well, i will correct one of those things. the torturing animals thing was just this one occasion, not to say that it's ever right, but it's not even a funny story. >> you sound like you were so slightly out of control. >> yeah. >> is that overstating it or not? >> well, no, no, no. i think it is pretty appropriate to say that i was a bit out of control. but i look back in retrospect and i do realize that i was most likely, most probably an artist without an outlet, you know? and i believe that we all kind of come from that, that unknowing, you know what i mean? and you discover yourself and i believe that the plight of life and all existence is to master one's self, you know, one day at a time. you can kind of figure out your focus. >> how did you do it? how did you make that move? what was it about you, particularly given you didn't have either of your parents after 18? how did you transform into this cee lo? >> well, i definitely -- again, my mother's passing, you know, had a lot to do with me committing myself. and then prior to that, you know, music is something that on any occasion that you can either inherit or acquire. and i believe that my ability is of an inheritance. >> when i look at your dazzling smile, i'm struck by the fact that you've got probably more money in those diamonds in your teeth than i have earned in a lifetime. how many have you got? >> would you stop being modest, piers. please. >> that's it. that was the smart answer i was after. you've got two diamonds. right? >> yes. >> dare i ask how much they're worth? >> it's about -- a gentleman never tells, we are friends and we are never -- just between me and you, about $15,000 worth of dental work. worth of diamonds. >> are you with a particular lady right now, cee lo? would you like to spread the love? >> you know what, you know what, my preoccupation is very apparent. you know, i work very, very hard and i'm a professional most of the time, and so i don't have a lot of time, you know, to spread myself too thin. but i am free. and well within my rights to date and things of that nature. but i do have a friend or two. >> is it easy to date if you're cee lo green right now? can you trust women? >> if you -- if you are honest with yourself, it's very hard for people to lie to you. i'm a very honest person, you know what i'm saying? so i think what i have been able to accomplish outright and out loud, it does kind of repel a lot of what's typical. you know what i mean? because i'm not typical, so i don't anticipate anyone, you know, coming to me with a textbook approach. someone has to be different. and the feeling has to be mutual. i don't go to every party i'm invited to. >> let's take a short break. when we come back, i want to talk to you about america. >> okay. >> because you're a successful businessman now. i want to know your views about america, where it's going, the economy. >> okay. >> i have a feeling you could be quite interesting about this. >> awesome. ♪ just want you to know ooh i've got some news for you ♪ on the w♪ ♪ i hear you... ♪ rocky mountain high ♪ rocky, rocky mountain high ♪ ♪ all my exes live in texas ♪ ♪ born on the bayou [ female announcer ] the perfect song for everywhere can be downloaded almost anywhere. ♪ i'm back, back in the new york groove ♪ [ male announcer ] the nation's largest 4g network. covering 2,000 more 4g cities and towns than verizon. rethink possible. covering 2,000 more 4g cities and towns than verizon. i haand then i have eleven my grandkids. right when you see them, they're yours, it's like, ah, it's part of me. it's me again. now that i'm retiring they all have plans for me. i'm excited. but not how we get there. because in this business, there are no straight lines. only the twists and turns of an unpredictable industry. so the eighty-thousand employees at delta... must anticipate the unexpected. and never let the rules overrule common sense. this is how we tame the unwieldiness of air travel, until it's not just lines you see... it's the world. you walk into a conventional mattress store, it's really not about you. they say, "well, if you wanted a firm bed you can lie on one of those. if you want a soft bed you can lie on one of those." we provide the exact individualization that your body needs. welcome to the sleep number memorial day sale. where you can celebrate our 25-year commitment to a single mission: better sleep for both of you. never tried this before. this is your body there. you can see a little more pressure in the hips. take it up one notch. oh gosh, yes. when you're playing around with that remote, you get that moment where you go, "oh yeah" oh, yeah! ... and it's perfect. they had no idea that when they came to a sleep number store, we were going to diagnose their problems and help them sleep better. and right now, you can save 40% on our innovative sleep number silver edition bed-for a limited time. once you experience it, there's no going back. wow. hurry in to the sleep number memorial day sale between now and june 3rd. only at the sleep number store, where queen mattresses start at just $699. ultimately, i'm a fan of music. i describe writing music sometimes as hieroglyphics, you know, excavating. you know, gently brushing off these artifacts and discovering the song underneath it all. it seems as if it's already written in it. >> cee lo green from a documentary, "cee lo distilled." and he's back with me now. let's talk about america. >> okay. >> what are the values that makes a good american? >> i guess it would be, you know, a matter of just share and share alike and earning your keep and all of those good old-fashioned quotables that you could apply to the conversation of just, you know, what's fair is fair and blah, blah, blah. you know what i'm saying? but i just think what makes a good american, what makes a good america, you know what i mean is honor and pride and appropriation. and so i just believe that, you know, situations like, you know, like music in school and these things like supporting youth in extracurricular activities and these things, like creating job opportunities, creating extracurricular opportunities for kids and so on and so forth, i mean these things were available. >> are you a big tweeter? >> i'm not a big tweeter. i've been tweeting the last few years and i probably have about 800 total. >> how many followers do you got? >> i have about a million followers. >> only a million? i've got about 8 million. how do you feel about that? >> i'm still working on it. >> it looks fantastic i lavish and over the top, and why shouldn't it? you're zee lo green. >> that's why i can vouch for it. >> bringing your loathe brand to liberaci. >> loberace, you know, i wanted to bring back show business to kind of reinstate, you know, that term, you know, because it's the era of entertainment that really inspired me, you know. look at that guy. isn't he handsome? you know, he's like, i was just made for las vegas, and it's really such a fun town, and they really endorse and advocate and embrace and uplift the arts. >> what's the most outrageous night you've ever had in vegas? >> oh, man, but you know what the saying is. what happens in vegas stays in vegas. >> yeah, but, you know, imagine you're on your deathbed in 50 years time or even later, hopefully, and you could just relive one party you had in vegas. give me a clue. give me an inkling into your wild life. >> what would be the party you'd want to go out to in your memory? >> you know what, you know what, piers, in all honesty, piers, i haven't had it yet. i haven't had it yet. a lot of times when we go to las vegas, it's probably just for an occasion, you know, a party here or there. but i've had some very memorable times, but i'm going to be there for a month straight. starting august 29 is when loberace comes to planet hollywood, so let me come back in a couple months and have this conversation. >> would you promise i get an invite? >> most certainly, most certainly. >> "the voice" is back in the fall? >> "the voice" is back in the fall. i'm proud to say i'll be a part of season three. >> good to see and i love you in that show. see you in vegas. >> thank you. ♪ i guess he's an xbox and i'm more an atari the way you play your game ♪ i pity the fool that falls in love with you ♪ i want you to look into this ball right here. tell me what you see. savings. that's absolutely right. and it's in your future. close your eyes. man: all right. go to progressive.com. i see flo. that's a good sign. that's a good sign. it's your portal to the realm of savings. this is your heart line. this is your savings line. you see how they intertwine? yes. savings equals love, honey. yes. 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[ meow ] [ male announcer ] another example of volkswagen quality. that's the power of german engineering. right now lease the 2012 jetta for $159 a month. >> you okay? here, let me help you. >> my mom has been sick for as long as i can remember. >> we need more methadone. >> helping her out is a bigger priority than going to school because i don't know what i would do if something happened to her. i wouldn't really be able to really live. >> in the united states there are at least 1.3 million children caring for someone who is ill or injured or elderly or disabled. they can become isolated. there are physical effects with stresses of it. and the worry. >> thank you, baby. thank you so much. >> but these children, people don't know they exist. i'm connie siskowski. i am bringing this precious population into their life to transform their lives so they can stay in school. we offer each child a home visit. has a ramp been helpful? we look at what we can provide to meet the need. we go into the schools where they have peer support groups and we offer out-of-school activities that give the child a break so they know that they're not alone. we give them hope for their future. >> now i'm getting as and b's, and i feel more confident. but we have a long way to go. there are so many more children that really need this help and support. tonight only in america amid the facebook frenzy, what does it really mean to be a friend? mark zuckerberg is turning mere mortals into millionaires. shareholders around the world will become ridiculously wealthy. they can trade their mouses for maebachs and all the lavish life they want. before you start your spending spree, here's what one texas businessman did with his money. he was shopping in his neighborhood kmart when a chum told him the store was closing. everything was up for sale. so aisle by aisle he went on the mother of all sprees. he bought everything in that kmart store, every single item, but it wasn't cheap. >> it was $200,000 at retail. to be honest with you, i could have made $30,000, $40,000 on it. >> he didn't turn around and sell the stuff. instead he gave it away for free, donated all of it to a nonprofit service that helps needy families in the area.