And by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Multi grammy Award Winning writer Michael Bolton. Sold over 65 million albums since hitting the music sing the latest songs of cinema. Hes welcome new generation of fans thanks to his unexpected comedic ability. Look at that face not me, him. Thank you. Now before we start our conversation first a look at his comedic chops in the music video for jack sparrow, which has been viewed more than 160 million times. On youtube. My name is forest gump im not the sharpest tool in the shed we couldnt do this show without a huge group of interns. Some of the local colleges and i organized a plan some years ago when i first started this show to ensure that local College Students get a chance to intern on this show. Say that because all of the interned know you from this stu of. Not from your long hair days but i know you from when you first broke out. You got a whole new generation of fans because of this stuff. Who knew . This is the gift that keeps on giving. Jack sparrow. How did this stuff happen . The lonely island guys were doing that, creating viral videos for saturday night live asked for a meeting and we all met in los angeles. Manager and i. Three of them. I sat across from them and felt like i knew them from their videos. Sure. I said, look, im a huge fan. I want to do something with you guys but the script you sent me is too disgusting for me to do. Its hilarious but not all my fans are going to get whats funny about it. They said we can tweak it. I said can you please id love to work with you. They said we really want to do this and about seven months later i was in atlanta and i finally got a message from Andy Sandburg and i read it and i said this one i can do. Yeah. Around they said go to a studio in atlanta, did, and then to new york for two14 hour days of shooting. We were pretty much laughing nonstop. Im sure. Until somebody said lets call it. Yeah. The most traumatic things Erin Brockovich i needed therapy after that one. Yeah. But they had a really good feeling about it. And i was terrified. So when it aired on saturday night live, i was at studio and i found a dark corn earnhardt tucked myself into it. Yeah. And people started laughing at all right places and next thing i knew john mayer was telling me tomorrow youre going to see something youre not going to believe. I said what. He said a whole new audience. I said i hope youre right. He was right. Speaking of john mayer, i just read a beautiful piece about him, in the sunday paper, about his resurgence. Mayer is experiencing his own sort of resurgence and i think i can use that word with you ambition to these videos and the netflix special, fair to say Michael Bolton is experiencing a bit of a resurgence or is that offensive. No its not offensive at all. I would say its fair to say. You could use that. People are saying it. So its probably true. Do you own it . Do you accept it . I do in a way you describe an entire not just one generation but two or three generations have discovered me and they go on and look at your music and say have you seen this and they share it. That is kind of a definitely resurgence is one word. You know. Its also widened my brand, basically. And the ability to do things from a kind of different platform which is having fun. Which is what ive always loved and ive always been a joker behind the scenes. I think its not only acceptable. Were really taking great advantage of the opportunities and developing television shows. Shortly after jack sparrow was invited on two and half men for multiple episodes i thought this could be fun every day. You drive to your trailer and the new funnier pages are there around the lines you asked to be addressed are like ten times as good and everyones in stitches. So i look forward to that. To sit and have my own sitcom and connect the music. Always keep the music near. Sure. And tour five or six months a year like i do. Speaking of the touring and longdistance runner that youve been in terms of maintaining a following. I like that. Its a marathon. Yes its a marathon. Youve been doing this a long time. And youve protected you. Thats why do you what do you. Im not the first to say that, trust me but you protected your instrument. You sound as good now as you did then. How have you done that . I got invited. A lot of exciting things happen when you have mainstream success. A lot of doors open. Joe dimaggio, is . Your is in your dugout when youre doing a game. And people want to be around when youre doing a fundraiser. The president calling my office you think is a practical joke but you realize oh, this is main stream success. All of the doors are open which do you want to go through. I got invited to sing with Luciano Pavarotti in the late 90s. I would listen to him and thought this is a guy whose been doing the right work on his instrument. From 15 years old i was doing chicago blues. I had a husky big voice but never knew i was a tenor i never studied above high c, so i went to work on my voice and started singing along with pavarotti. With pauvarotti i learned same vehicle with a new engine. I learned those guys are religious about their voices, when they get on stage and dont have a high c, the crowd turns on them, the big pay off notes, these people know the music, so theyre under different pressure and scrutiny. So they religiously protect their voice theres a lot of things i do, eight hours sleep is single most important thing for the voice. To hear you say that under scor scores how significant that is. Whatever else you do cant substitute for sleep. No eight hours. Most people who are really singing for couple hours on stage know that. Your cords are happy. Its just two muscles. Your whole career is around them. And the People Holding tickets expect something. I mentioned my interns who love your videos. You mentioned singing at 15. I was amazinged to look at your journey. You were really signed around 16 but didnt really break out until 34. Whats the lesson in that for every day people . There are a few. Yeah. But the one, because i was off by 18 years, i thought i might have made it when i was 16 and i was off by 18 years. Just a little bit. Theres something funny about that. I share with my audience and they laugh and i say it wasnt funny back then, i assure you, but just saying it wasnt funny back then doesnt really sum it all up. Because i was feeding and helping to provide for a family of five, three young daughters, and we didnt want them to know how tough things were because eventually we got eviction notices because my rent checks were bouncing and we didnt have a term homelessness, we didnt have a homeless reference, but looking back we were really close to being homeless quite a few times while i had been signed to some of the biggest labels in the world, as a song writer with some of the Biggest Publishing Companies in between record deals. I never had that huge hit until 87, until thats what love is all about came out. Fortunately my songwriting career took off. Thats the portion of the show i call food is good. So good. [ laughter ] can you relate to that. Yeah i feel you absolutely. And i hear the audience respond and i want to make sure they know i am not kidding. Because that first hit how am i supposed to live without you. Absolutely. And all of a sudden the publishers were coming to me instead of me chasing the industry and i realized i could have a songwriting career on the side which is really important it nate how important the songs are for artists to have long, enduring careers, whatever i recorded, one song i sang with ray few times and sang to him once which is so surreal. Percy sledge i got sing with him. I dont need to write everything myself. If someone says, listen to this classic, i think you can make it your own and have a great time with it. I love doing that. And i learned that i can do that and i have permission to do that. But songwriting actually really delivered food and a shelter for my family. I want to talk in a moment about the fact you dont have to write the song given your new song songs of cinema. Since were talking about great song writing lets talk Smokey Robinson they dont get much better than him, theyve all been on this program over the years, great songwriters, im curious from Michael Boltons perspective what makes a great song . Wow. I remember okay. Well. Thats a good question. Because you know, with any humility, you happen upon it. You know, you are working. You have to show up in the writers room whatever it is. A piano in a tiny room is fine. You have to be present for when inspiration shows up and you have to be a student of songwriting to write something thats going to be around a long time. I think anybody can write a song but smokey is a great example of someone who can write a song thats going to outlive all of us. Many, many songs. Hes also one of the nicest artists and icons ive ever met. Love he and his wife. Weve played golf together. Its great to have all this history. When it comes to songwriting relating to peoples lives, writing something that everybodys been touched by and can relate to no matter what genre it is, its got to be human. Its got to resonate in a way. We used to say you want that hook to just be em bedded in peoples memories and conscio consciousness and they find themselves singing the chore us suddenly. Dont know if theres a way to chisel like that, as much as when you happen upon it and are creating it to recognize it is part of the answer to your question. Being able to recognize a melody that is quincy jones when he heard a song that wasnt memorable said theres 25 reward out for the hook. [ laughter ] so we take cue for that. We have other formula, kind of pop songwriting which is formula mentality. Dont bore us, get to the chorus. Theres a lot of meandering in songwriting sometimes. Whats the difference in the feeling, eurphoria you get in hearing someone else sing your songphoria you get in hearing someone else sing your song versus hearing yourself. Different streams for the same river. Youre grateful. It is really great to hear it by someone else especially when its performed on thousands of stations all over the country. You get letters yes were in cleveland, were in dallas. The network of giant radio stations. Thats the great thing about it taking 18 years that you appreciate it deeply in a way that, i think, you wouldnt if you had success by going on a tv show and in the first year of your, you know, ascent youre a star. Yeah. You have to almost come back to that place to appreciate it deeply enough, i think. And theres a lot of great talent, not taking away from any of that. Dont me if it gives people time enough to develop as human beings when they have success too soon i just didnt plan on it taking 18 years. I did not. But theres something about hearing the song with another singer delivering it where you are very moved they hear the demos. Thats the blue print you just hope they dont take it somewhere else. Thats every songwriters nightmares. Every time i did a classic by one of my heroes, beloved artists that showed us how to sing, the intimidation was always is an honor to accept the challenge. To walk into this powerful moment of music to say i love ray charles. He was probably the most powerful influence on me as a kid. As a kid we did everybodys great songs thats what we did in clubs, restaurants, bars, any place that would have us. Right. I do dock of the bay it gets all kinds of radio and stops then theres a layer of gate keepers saying this is a redding standard and Thelma Redding is invited on at the apollo and im invited to do dock of the bay and she gave an amazing critique of the performance, she loved it, and all of the walls came down and the song became a huge hit and i got to meet thelma and the family. It taught me to be respectful and be okay with being intimidated. Accept it as a challenge. This song requires a type of intense embracing. You know, you love it, respect the fact that this amazing singer recorded before and made it a classic, performed and delivered the defining version and youre just bringing your own and it better be damn good. Tell me something about whatever you want to share about the business of the music business. I ask that because you made money for the stuff you sang. You made money for writing stuff for other people. You do catalogs. So you aint done bad but tell me something what you have learned about the business of this business over the years. You know thats the left creative and right business or different kind of brain functions that im not sure which is which but i think what happened was i became Business Savvy because it took so long to make it thats another factor, it fueled me, i didnt want to go back to remembering how good food was when it finally arrived in my kitchen. I think i got the sense that if this is going to happen, if it stently happening, got potentially happening, got to the point so many disappointments i didnt want to believe it. They said youre on 72 stations im like we need to be on 500 and we didnt get there. I didnt want to get my hopes up because i didnt want to get devastated but when started happening in 87 they are insane for you in norway. I didnt know where norway was, got on a plane and did 18 or 19 interviews in one day. Didnt want to hear my voice afterwards you know how it goes. Yeah i do. Thank you for doing all the talking. Its one after another. And sure enough the album went off the charts. What did i learn, if i do the work as an artist the team will be obligated to come and show up and raise the bar themselves and show up for me and the album and they did album after album that happened in sweden, denmark, germany, et cetera. The flip side of handling the business is not taking yourself too seriously. We both did that show dancing with the stars. Im sorry. Yeah so am i, i was about to say the same thing to you. [ laughter ] i just love the fact heres a guy doesnt take himself too seriously by evidence on that show and these videos, theres something to that, no matter how big you get the notion of never it ach taking your seflt yourself too seriously is helpful. Thats been a life lesson for myself. Looking back at interviews people say you look so serious but would you be too, out in the desert there was no way to go back and no plan b, people want to see that human relatable side you have and want to know it is real. Theyre seeing it now. And its fun. I got two minutes left. Talked about everything about the new project songs of cinema tell me about this one. So this concept came along, my manager suggested we look at this possibility. Her name is cyhristina klien. She knows a lot about songwriting, shes been in it her entire career, here youre asking an artist to look at a body of work thats in our dna. Thats beloved music from some of the most iconic films in history. See if theres a song youd love to sing. Thats not a problem. Now im starting to integrate the songs into our live show. Every once in a while youll go to a show and see a band or artist you love, they have 20 or more hits if they are fortune at and at some point i hear those words heres some from my new album and everybody goes, ah. But everyones respectful and youre kind of roufin routing f ban band, kill us with this, its not going to have the song and depth after you heard it even 20 time wheres you are singing all of the melodies and know the nuance. And one other thing they go into if theyre smart. What have we learned. Yeah. Dont keep them out there too long you have to watch your audience and respectfully take their many temperature. If you lose them why, fix it, or pull that song out of the set. But i is this this album, songs of cinema allows me to sing some of my Favorite Music including a version of when a man loves a woman i had to make sure it was able to replace my version vocally of 20 years ago and im happy with it. Its as good as im going to sing. It made the cut. I guess its okay. The new project from Michael Bolton is called songs of cinema you could be one of 165,000 people who downloaded. Michael thanks for being with us. My pleasure. Thats our program. Thanks for watching. And as always keep the faith. For more information on todays show visit tavis smiley on pbs. Org. Hi im tavis smiley join us next time with grammy Award Winning singer bb wining. And by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you, thank you. Today on americas test kitchen, julia prepares the ultimate chicken mole poblano, jack challenges chris to a tasting of mexican lagers, and bridget makes the best drunken beans, right here on americas test kitchen. Americas test kitchen is brought to you by dcs. Dcs manufacturers of professionally styled indoor and outdoor kitchen equipment