03-24-25 *INTERVIEW* The Legendary Pat Boone On Bringing Clean Water to Tanzania

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
You know, there are some minor celebrities and bigger celebrities
and stars, and then and then there's this other category
that had very very very few people in it that
I would loosely call legends. And my next guest is
certainly in that category. Pat Boone has just he's done
so so many things. Twenty seven hundred songs, thirty of

(00:22):
them were in the top forty.

Speaker 2 (00:23):
It's been in twenty nine movies.

Speaker 1 (00:25):
He has three stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame,
and so much more of it.

Speaker 2 (00:29):
I don't want to take more.

Speaker 1 (00:30):
Time with that because I don't have Pat, you know.

Speaker 2 (00:32):
For the whole for the whole show. Pat Boone, Welcome
to Kowa.

Speaker 1 (00:35):
It's it's such a pleasure to talk to you.

Speaker 3 (00:38):
You make me tired listening to you.

Speaker 2 (00:40):
Yeah, I better say.

Speaker 3 (00:42):
I should be tired by now, but I'm not. I'm
really cooking a lot. I've been kicking well.

Speaker 1 (00:49):
I mean, you're I'll tell you, you're singing with the
tattoo thing that I just played from a little over
a year ago is fabulous. And then your project now
that we'll talk about in a minute, or voices for Tanzania.
I mean, you're you're you're singing absolutely great. So whatever
you're doing, you know, keep it going amazing.

Speaker 3 (01:07):
I tell you, it's just a blessing from God, because
I mean, I've lived a healthy life. I've never been
a drinker, a smoker, or a drugger or anything like that.
I've just been healthy. But there's a lot of healthy
guys that are gone byself. Yeah, at ninety, but I'm
still singing, writing and loving doing it. And then this

(01:31):
this song, which I think is can be of course
the Kapper to the to the whole career. I think
it's the most important single thing I've ever done. I
did help start two or three other charities, including Mercy Corps,
which is a worldwide half a billion dollars a year
humanitarian organization. Started in our home in my wife's tears

(01:56):
about the Cambodian crisis. Coolepop, the dictator had created a
concentration camp and the mothers holding their starving children and
their arms are on our TV all the time begging please.
But we know our government couldn't step into the government
of Cambodia. But my wife was in tears, so we

(02:19):
got to do something, and I said, honey, what can
we do well? We we got my son in law
to organize a group of people that were on Christian
television like Pat Robertson and at that time Jim Baker
then and on and on Relex Hombard, and we utilized

(02:40):
their TV shows to make the people, this Christian people
around the nation aware of the problem. And then my
son in law, Dan O'Neill, organized free plane travel and
free foods and nutrition and blankets and things that could
be flown too, uh Cambodia, and he went with them

(03:04):
and got on that he was there on the docks
when they offloaded so the black market people couldn't take
it away, and he got to the Cambodian crisis. So anyway,
that's a very long winded answer about things that were
Surely I found out that as two people we could
do something right now, there's this crisis in Africa that's

(03:26):
been around for years now, and it's tragic to know
that the life expectancy of thousands or even millions of
the children in these countries forty nations is five. If
a child lives to be five, it's a miracle. And
because he's drinking, he or she drinking poison in the

(03:46):
water it's polluted and it's it's literally a poison. So
I got involved with an organization called World Serve, and
they were already tackling the problems and putting wells, getting
wells into some of these dry, terribly dry areas. And

(04:07):
I went to Tanzania, and my wife couldn't go at
that stage in our lives, but I went and we
wound up bringing in a five hundred foot fresh water
well out in the middle of Tanzania. And now the windmill,
motor operated is pumping this sparkling clean water for the
women who walk from five to ten miles with pictures

(04:31):
on their heads and shoulders to bring water back to
their children. Yeah, I was.

Speaker 1 (04:36):
I was reading a little about it, Pat, just because
I'm studying your project here. I mean, I know how
bad things can be in you know, Sub Saharan Africa
and some parts of Asia and all that, but even
so I was shocked to read that something close to
half the population of that of that country doesn't have
easy access to clean drinking water and water for cooking

(04:59):
and bait and all this stuff. And let me, just
just for the benefit of listeners, part of what Pat's doing,
and this in a way. It kind of harkens back
to We Are the World many years ago, definitely. But
this song is called one. The organization is Voices from Tanzania,
and let me just hit you with a few seconds
that actually is going to start with pat.

Speaker 2 (05:21):
I am one.

Speaker 3 (05:24):
Like no other human being, I am one.

Speaker 1 (05:32):
This is leading meaning, there is worth, there is a purpose.
So uh, first, just going back to what we were
talking at the beginning of the conversation, Dude, you sing
better at ninety than I ever have in my entire life.

Speaker 3 (05:46):
So well, it's just a god thing. He really blessed
me with a voice. And I used to say to
my wife, I don't understand what people hear in my voice,
she said. She came up with a I think a
good solution. She says, I think it's a resonance and
people there's some voices that are just not pleasant. You know,

(06:07):
they may be great people, but they may sound like this.
You don't really much care to hear them. Hm.

Speaker 1 (06:13):
No, I think that's I think she's right, and I
actually I think that's the right word. It's a very
simple word, but yeah, but I think pleasant.

Speaker 2 (06:21):
I think pleasant is exactly right.

Speaker 1 (06:23):
Like you could listen to Pat Boone's voice for a
long time without your ears getting tired, right, really, because
I listen to a lot of music, and I do
think that way. Sometimes sometimes listening makes you tired, but
your your voice doesn't. So as a guy, I use
my voice for a living too, So I'd like to
ask you, is there anything that you do to protect

(06:47):
your your voice or you just live your life and
just don't drink and don't smoke and everything else takes
care of itself.

Speaker 3 (06:52):
Well, that last part is true, But but I do
don't take my voice for granted. I mean, I know
that he gave it to me, and I didn't have
much in the way of voice training until I was
well into my career and singing anything anybody put in
front of me, I just sang it. I mean, I
didn't know any better. I would just sing the soliloquy

(07:16):
from Carousel. My boy Bill I will say see that
he's named after me. I will, And you know, I
could just sing anything. But since then, of course, I
go upstairs several days a week and I'll sing along
with some of my hardest to sing records and some

(07:36):
of the ones that mean the most to me, that
are moving and emotional. You know, I've recorded more songs,
and this is not widely known than any other artists
in history. Frank Sinatra did fifteen hundred or so. Being
crossed Me was my early role model, and he did
two thousand songs. But I've recorded over twenty seven hundred
songs and in many genres. So I go up and

(08:01):
sing to some demand more of my voice, and just
without holding back or anything, just go ahead and sing them,
even shout them, so that when the time comes for
me to sing them again, maybe on a radio thing
or I'm even thinking about a couple of concerts coming up.
I may do at two colleges Christian colleges where I

(08:22):
have made pledges from my estate and actually making making
good on some of the pledges even now. For Christian colleges,
and three of them have things named after me, and
Nashville David Lipscombe, where I was in high school college

(08:45):
and met Shirley and married Red Foley's daughter while we
were nineteen, and then Abilene is another one that has
a theater that's called the Pat Boom Theater, and the
one in Nashville is the Pat Boom Family Theater. And
then Pepperdine where I'm chairful of the advisory board for
forty years now. Pepperdine University is the Boon Life Center,

(09:08):
which is teaching kids for college credit, how to build
moral relationships while you're in college, how to look for
a life companion, which often happens in college, and then
how to build a happy family. And so these are
the college courses that kids line up. They've jammed the

(09:33):
classes every semester because they get college credit for taking
the course on how you build moral relationships headed toward
marriage and family. So this was has been a goal
of mine all this time. So if I'm going to sing, yeah,
I've got to be sure I can sing well. And
thank God he gives me the opportunity to sort of

(09:58):
tune up, you know, and sing live, and if I
have to sing soft, I can do that or loud
as I may do a couple of concerts of some
of my gold record songs over the years, and I'm
trying to decide am I going to sing it with
a live band or am I going to do it
with just my pianists or tracks. I don't know, but

(10:19):
I at least know that I can still sing those songs.

Speaker 2 (10:23):
That's that's remarkable. Absolutely. I've got about five minutes left
with you.

Speaker 1 (10:26):
So let's let's try to get through a few things
sort of quickly.

Speaker 2 (10:30):
Even though I'd love to talk to you all day,
I know you got to talk to some other folks.

Speaker 3 (10:34):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (10:35):
How how are you related to Daniel Boone.

Speaker 3 (10:39):
Direct direct descendant. I've got the genealogy and it was
from one of his sons, James, and I've forgotten the chronology,
I mean the chronological order that they came. But he
had ten kids, and I am descended from James Boone,
and I've got all the genealogy to prove it. And

(11:02):
so that the name Boone, Daniel Boone. Often he was
not college or even school or educated. He was self educated.
And he sometimes left the e off his name, just
b o n. And he came from Scotland, his ancestors
from Scotland and Ireland. And so the name was well,

(11:25):
that's an Anglo Saxon word for blessing, grants a boone
to his subject, so and so was a boon to
his profession. And so I was given a name The
name means blessing Boone. So I grew up feeling that
that I had some calling, that there was some reason

(11:47):
that I was named that destinating.

Speaker 2 (11:49):
I'm glad I asked you that. I'm glad I asked
you that question.

Speaker 1 (11:52):
I saw a website that uh says that they're not
sure about this, so I wanted to ask you. Did
did Elvis Presley ever open for you?

Speaker 3 (12:05):
Yes? He did, Yeah, it was. It was nineteen fifty five.
In nineteen fifty five. Got somebody gonna correct me that
this speak, but yeah.

Speaker 2 (12:17):
It was in.

Speaker 3 (12:17):
Cleveland a while, and it was a sockhop. Bill Randall
the nation's number one DJ at the time. They called
him the Professor. He knew so much about the performers
and all that was going on in music, so he
had me come. I had three records since March of
that year. One was two Hearts Two Kisses, an R
and B song by the Charms, One Hard Not Enough B,

(12:40):
two Hearts of Make You Feel Crazy, one Kiss of
Makefield So Nice, two kiss to Take You to Perdyke,
Two Hearts two Kisses Make One Love. Well that I
didn't know what rhythm and blues was, but I sang
the song and it became a million seller. Well that
was That was March of fifty five. In October of

(13:03):
that same year, I had already done Fats Dominoes. Ain't
that a shame? As my second record, which became a
million seller, and then the third record was also becoming
a million seller, called Crazy Little Mama Karma knocked and
knocked and at my front door door a door, and
I didn't know why the mama was calling. I didn't

(13:24):
say that the song didn't what she was wanting up
of sugar maybe, but anyway, the songs were hitting. And
then Elvis was brought backstage to a sock cop and
the Tom Parker had been convinced to bring him to
this sock cop. He only had one record, he was
on Sun Records, uh, and he lip synced that song

(13:48):
that night. Nobody knew who he was because that song
was a Bill Monroe bluegrass song, blue Moon Nerve Kentucky
to keep on shining. Well, that was not rock and rolling.
As I was looking through the curtain backstage, I was
headlining that night from my three million sellars, but I
was interested in this guy had heard about who was

(14:11):
making noise in Shreveport on the Louisiana Hayride, And sure
enough we met backstage, he came in with two of
his musicians. I said, hi, August, I'm Patboo, and he said,
nice to miss you. And then I said, Bill Randall
thinks some big things. Maybe ahead four you signed to
RC Victor. I don't know about that, but I hope so.

(14:32):
And he just leaned back against the wall and his
two buddies closed in around him, and I could tell
he was shy, but when he went on stage, he
didn't act shy. He wasn't doing the wiggles and the
and the gyrations at that point. He just lipped SYNCD
and guitar sinked his song, which was that one thing,

(14:54):
and then he when he finished the bluegrass song, he said,
thank you very much, like to go side of the
record for it. Folks like it. And that was that
all right, mama, that's all right with me. And that
was with him and blues and the crowd loved that.
But that's all he had. So he left and then
I went on.

Speaker 1 (15:11):
I got all the.

Speaker 3 (15:11):
Screams from my Wow rose ons. But then we wound
up being friends. I was from Nashville, he was from Memphis,
and we knew we were both very lucky young guys.
And we followed each other's careers and admired each other.
I could tell you, oh well praid their stories.

Speaker 1 (15:30):
But another time, another time, all right, So I literally
just have you for a few more seconds. Just tell
my listeners what you would like them to do or
what website you would like them to go to to
learn more about Voices for Tanzania.

Speaker 3 (15:43):
Well, thank you so much, and I think God's gonna
bless you for this because you go to One for
Tanzania one word that's oh any and continuing f O
R T A n z A and I One for
Tanzania dot.

Speaker 1 (16:01):
Pat Boone, It's been a pleasure and an honor to
talk to you, and congratulations on an incredible career and
incredible life.

Speaker 2 (16:08):
And thank you for what you're doing now to help
these folks.

Speaker 3 (16:12):
Well you're a part of it now and like tiny
Timms said, God, lets us everyone.

Speaker 2 (16:18):
Thanks so much, Pat Boone, very much appreciate your time.