March 28, 2025 • 15 mins
Pat Boone is an ICON that has used his fame to help folks who are not as fortunate. We had a chance to chat with him about his latest project to help Tanzania secure clean water with a song that brings together a who's-who of artists.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello, Hello, is this Pat Boone?
Speaker 2 (00:02):
Yep, it is.
Speaker 3 (00:03):
Oh my goodness, I'm Danny. I work here on the
Luke and Hell Morning Show. This is our Pat and
Danny podcast. Welcome in.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Well, I'm related to a Danny.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
You are Boon?
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Oh, Daniel Boone. Yeah. I think maybe some of his
friends called him Danny.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
I think you're right.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
And I am a direct descendant of Daniel Boone and
proud of it.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
Oh my goodness.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
So I'm happy to talk to you. And and we're
we're almost like cousins.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
I know, like seven three moved or something like that.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Right, maybe we may be if we checked thoroughly enough.
I do have my I did check for the ancestry.
But but you know, Daniel Boone had ten kids and
they they were all fertile. Oh h and so they
spread out and so there's I went to a Daniel
(00:59):
Boone event in Kentucky one time with my family and
they were inviting all descendants of Daniel Boone to come,
and they did by several thousand, and it looked like
the United Nations. They were all colors and races.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
That is so cool, praising.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
Their ancestry to Daniel. He was a trailblazer, a pioneer
and much of a man.
Speaker 3 (01:26):
Well, and I mean we should include you in that
very thing. I mean, Daniel Boone, isn't really what makes
you famous, Pat, because you've been an iconic figure here
in the US and globally for Oh is this right
seven decades?
Speaker 2 (01:43):
YEP, it is. It's amazing. I made my first record
in nineteen fifty five, and that was for Dot Records,
and it was a rhythm and blues song. I didn't
know anything about rhythm and blues, but I was in
college at North Texas State then and the fella had
seen me. The recording man seen me win the Ted
(02:05):
Macamateur Hour on National TV three times, and the author
got for show once, and but no offers came for
a few months until he called me from Gallatin, Tennessee,
at a record label just getting going good. You want
to make a record? I said, well, sure, So he
sent me a ticket and went to Chicago and recorded
(02:28):
my first record, which was two Hearts, two Kisses, recorded
by a group called the Charms on the dutone label.
Hearts not enough Baby, too heart to make you feel crazy,
one this will make you feel so nice. Two Kisses
to take you to a dice, two hearts, two kisses
(02:48):
and make one love.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
Well, I feel like I should pay you Pat now.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
Well, no, we're just four cents.
Speaker 3 (02:58):
Well, I just find your career incredible. I'm just going
to mention one more thing before we talk about your
brand new single. And yes, Pat has a brand new
single out, but I want to just Elvis Presley opened
for you. That's how big you are?
Speaker 2 (03:14):
He did. It was in Cleveland, and it was March
of nineteen fifty five. I had just begun my recording career,
but I started with a bang because my first record
was a million seller, the second was a million seller.
Ain't that a shame? And the third record was becoming
a million seller. Crazy to Little Mama, coma knocking knocking
(03:36):
at my front door, door door. And so Elvis and
I both were at a sockhop in Cleveland, and he
had made only one record, which was a bluegrass song.
It was Bill Munroe's Blue Moon Up Kentucky.
Speaker 1 (03:53):
That's right.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
Well, now, Elvis tried to make it sound like it
was rhythm and blues, and it was. It was a
strange sounding song, but it was bluegrass country. And the
kids at the sock hop where I was the headliner
that night because I had the three million dollars and
he was not known at that point. So Bill Randall
(04:17):
the DJ in Cleveland to a high school audience of
about six hundred and fifty kids. So, now, kids, you
don't know this young man we're going to introduce. Now.
He's on a record label called Sun and he's only
got one record. We haven't played it here yet, but
you don't know him. But let's give a wed welcome
to young Elvis Presley. So Elvis came on and he
(04:39):
sang Blue Moon of Kentucky and I was looking from
the behind the curtain backstage, and I had come in
from New York. I had to headline this sock cop
And when they finished, I could see the kids. I
could almost read their minds. They was saying, he's cute,
but that's not rocking road. And then he said, tanker
(05:02):
very much like to do outside that record Bore, I
hope you like it. And then he's sang that's all right, mama,
that's all right with me, and they read you please,
and that was Rhythm in Blues and they liked it. Yeah,
And he came off stage and he was through, and
he left and I went on and I got all
(05:24):
the screams that night because of my three million sellers.
A moment. And we didn't meet again till two or
three years later, when we were both renting homes in
bel Air and making movies at separate studios at twentieth
Century Fox, and we were two Tennessee boys, and we
were became good friends. I'm from Nashville, he was from Memphis,
(05:49):
and so we watched each other's careers. We didn't spend
much time together except a couple of Sunday afternoons when
he came over just unexpected, uninvited, but just to walk
in the backyard where my little girls were in the
pool with me on a Sunday afternoon, and they knew
who he was. They didn't know he was a big star.
(06:10):
They just knew he was a friend of daddy's. So
they jumped out of the pool and started jumping up
on him. I said, girl, stop that, you're getting them
all wet. Leave alone, man, leave him alone. I like it,
and he did. I mean he was there because I
had something he wanted, which was a wife and kids.
Speaker 3 (06:29):
Oh yeah, and.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
You know it never happened for him the way that
happened for me. But I was so blessed in my
career and so was he and his but his took
different directions. We stayed friends, and I well, I could
talk to you more about Elvis, but I want to
talk more about my record.
Speaker 3 (06:50):
Absolutely well, you were talking about how you know you
have been so blessed, and this is another one because
you and your late wife, Shirley have done so much
throughout the years to help people. In this effort for
the single one is going to be helping provide clean water.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
Yes, I'm so glad you knew that Shirley had been
that active. Yes, oh yes, she was. That she in
the Cambodian food crisis when Pola pot the dictator, had
created his concentration camp and he was starving people who
were disapproving of his dictatorial reign, and they were mothers
(07:31):
were holding his starving babies in their arms on our
national television shows. Surely says we got to do something.
I said, honey, that's an international problem. What can we
do about it? I don't know. We got to do something. Well,
out of that her tears here at the house where
I am now we started Mercy Cores and that became
a worldwide Today it's still half a billion a year
(07:54):
in forty nations humanitarian organization first with food and agriculture
than other needs. And it started with Shirley's tears, but
then other things have come up, and then this thing
in Tanzania and Africa of the children dying. The average
(08:16):
life expectancy of a child born in these forty nations
is five years. If you live to be five, it's
a miracle because you're drinking poison from the water that
the only water that's available. And so I've joined forces
with a group called a World World Serve, and they've
(08:38):
already been involved in creating recent projects clean water sanitation
for over two hundred thousand people in Africa. And they
heard my song and decided this could be a song
like We're of the World. And I was thrilled that
they wanted to use my song. And in this way
(08:59):
we have done the video and the song featuring artists
country artists who were happy to come aboard like Vince Gill, Alabama,
Lee Greenwood, Larry Gatlin, Pam Tellis, Deborah Allen, Billy Dean,
Wendy Moten and on and on, and then we found
a group singing in Nashville while we were putting the
(09:20):
record together of of of legal They are now citizens
of America, but they came from these countries and they
went through the right process and they are naturalized citizens.
But they get together and sing gospel songs in their
own Swahili language. And they when they heard about this
(09:45):
song and its purpose, they came aboard and you'll hear
them singing, and I mean it gives you goosebumps hearing it,
and it breaks tears to me because I know these
are people from that era or area and they're singing
my words pleading for people to hear the need and
(10:05):
to help children live to be older than five without
drinking poisoned water. And so that's the goal and that's
the purpose, and my song is serving that purpose. And
all these fellow performers came aboard. And now I'm being
contacted by others who very big name artists, who said,
(10:25):
why didn't you have me help with that? I said, well,
I did send you a text. I tried to reach
your rep your representative, but I never got an answer.
We had to go ahead and do it.
Speaker 1 (10:35):
Yeah, as new as you lose.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
And so anyway, the ones that helped us put it
all together are thrilled as I am just now. Two
days ago was World Water Day declared by the United Nations,
and that's why we put the record out right now
and we've we've delighted and an answer to people like
you playing the song that were already getting tens of
(11:01):
thousands of responses on the various websites, especially the main one,
which is one or any one for Tanzania t A
n z A n I A one for Tanzania dot org.
You go there, there's an app. You click on the app,
then you push a red button and you can give
(11:24):
three dollars, ten dollars, one hundred dollars, whatever your heart
leads you to give. But you know when you give
that that is going to help save the life of
a child who is currently drinking poison water and won't
live to be six. And so that's the purpose. And
(11:44):
you're helping right now by letting me talk about it,
let people know that they can help, and the call
goes out and I think it's it's the call that
Jesus gave in the Mark that Matthew chapter where he said,
if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to
(12:05):
one of these little ones, the children who are My disciples, truly,
I tell you that person will certainly not lose his
or her reward. Now that comes from God himself. So
that's the blessing that we're hoping to inflict on people
and to introduce them to that. It is a call.
(12:26):
And if you answer that call, go through the website
and that is now available. And we've already heard that
just in the last two days. There are many thousands
of people going online and they are giving and we
haven't counted up anything yet, but what we know we're
being heard. The song is reaching the people and it's
(12:49):
touching them. And when that strange language is heard, which
is Swahili, it is the people themselves crying out for
help and we're hearing their call.
Speaker 1 (13:03):
Pat It's a moving song. It is.
Speaker 3 (13:06):
It will make the hairs on your arms on the
back of your next stand right up. It's so wonderful.
And again four people will have a link. We have
a link right now at our podcast so you can
hear the song one you can see video. You can
also have a link. We have a link to your
site one for Tanzania dot org so people can give
(13:29):
they can listen to it there. And also the fact
that you're going to possibly have what DVD and Blu
ray containing the official video and then a making of documentary.
Speaker 1 (13:40):
How cool.
Speaker 2 (13:41):
Yes, yes, it's coming, it's done and you'll bump into
it if you just go to the website and even
patboon dot com for that matter. Okay, And I want
you to know. I believe I've performed more than once
in the Quad City, and I know you're reaching out
to the kind of people that respond, yeah, and they
(14:02):
know when people need help, that they hear the cry.
And if we just if it's five bucks, if it's
twenty bucks, if it's one hundred, whatever, you can give.
You know that literally you're putting fresh, clean water in
the mouth of a child who is under a death
sentence right now, and we can change that. And that's
(14:24):
the call. And so now we're looking for the folks
to answer.
Speaker 1 (14:28):
That's right.
Speaker 3 (14:29):
One for Tanzania dot org. Patboone dot com great places
to go. And oh, Pat Boone, I was so nervous
to talk to you today. Thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
I'm so nervous. Oh my gosh, I don't think I've
ever talked to a bigger star.
Speaker 2 (14:43):
Well, thank you so much, and I'm just glad I'm
still around at ninety and and there'll be ninety one
in June, and I'm still kicking and singing and writing
and it's all fun, and it's fun with a.
Speaker 3 (14:58):
Purpose, exactly the best of Look, God bless you, God
bless this effort, and we look forward to hearing more
from you on this.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
You're gonna get it, okay,
Hello, Hello, is this Pat Boone?
Speaker 2 (00:02):
Yep, it is.
Speaker 3 (00:03):
Oh my goodness, I'm Danny. I work here on the
Luke and Hell Morning Show. This is our Pat and
Danny podcast. Welcome in.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Well, I'm related to a Danny.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
You are Boon?
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Oh, Daniel Boone. Yeah. I think maybe some of his
friends called him Danny.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
I think you're right.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
And I am a direct descendant of Daniel Boone and
proud of it.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
Oh my goodness.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
So I'm happy to talk to you. And and we're
we're almost like cousins.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
I know, like seven three moved or something like that.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Right, maybe we may be if we checked thoroughly enough.
I do have my I did check for the ancestry.
But but you know, Daniel Boone had ten kids and
they they were all fertile. Oh h and so they
spread out and so there's I went to a Daniel
(00:59):
Boone event in Kentucky one time with my family and
they were inviting all descendants of Daniel Boone to come,
and they did by several thousand, and it looked like
the United Nations. They were all colors and races.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
That is so cool, praising.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
Their ancestry to Daniel. He was a trailblazer, a pioneer
and much of a man.
Speaker 3 (01:26):
Well, and I mean we should include you in that
very thing. I mean, Daniel Boone, isn't really what makes
you famous, Pat, because you've been an iconic figure here
in the US and globally for Oh is this right
seven decades?
Speaker 2 (01:43):
YEP, it is. It's amazing. I made my first record
in nineteen fifty five, and that was for Dot Records,
and it was a rhythm and blues song. I didn't
know anything about rhythm and blues, but I was in
college at North Texas State then and the fella had
seen me. The recording man seen me win the Ted
(02:05):
Macamateur Hour on National TV three times, and the author
got for show once, and but no offers came for
a few months until he called me from Gallatin, Tennessee,
at a record label just getting going good. You want
to make a record? I said, well, sure, So he
sent me a ticket and went to Chicago and recorded
(02:28):
my first record, which was two Hearts, two Kisses, recorded
by a group called the Charms on the dutone label.
Hearts not enough Baby, too heart to make you feel crazy,
one this will make you feel so nice. Two Kisses
to take you to a dice, two hearts, two kisses
(02:48):
and make one love.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
Well, I feel like I should pay you Pat now.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
Well, no, we're just four cents.
Speaker 3 (02:58):
Well, I just find your career incredible. I'm just going
to mention one more thing before we talk about your
brand new single. And yes, Pat has a brand new
single out, but I want to just Elvis Presley opened
for you. That's how big you are?
Speaker 2 (03:14):
He did. It was in Cleveland, and it was March
of nineteen fifty five. I had just begun my recording career,
but I started with a bang because my first record
was a million seller, the second was a million seller.
Ain't that a shame? And the third record was becoming
a million seller. Crazy to Little Mama, coma knocking knocking
(03:36):
at my front door, door door. And so Elvis and
I both were at a sockhop in Cleveland, and he
had made only one record, which was a bluegrass song.
It was Bill Munroe's Blue Moon Up Kentucky.
Speaker 1 (03:53):
That's right.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
Well, now, Elvis tried to make it sound like it
was rhythm and blues, and it was. It was a
strange sounding song, but it was bluegrass country. And the
kids at the sock hop where I was the headliner
that night because I had the three million dollars and
he was not known at that point. So Bill Randall
(04:17):
the DJ in Cleveland to a high school audience of
about six hundred and fifty kids. So, now, kids, you
don't know this young man we're going to introduce. Now.
He's on a record label called Sun and he's only
got one record. We haven't played it here yet, but
you don't know him. But let's give a wed welcome
to young Elvis Presley. So Elvis came on and he
(04:39):
sang Blue Moon of Kentucky and I was looking from
the behind the curtain backstage, and I had come in
from New York. I had to headline this sock cop
And when they finished, I could see the kids. I
could almost read their minds. They was saying, he's cute,
but that's not rocking road. And then he said, tanker
(05:02):
very much like to do outside that record Bore, I
hope you like it. And then he's sang that's all right, mama,
that's all right with me, and they read you please,
and that was Rhythm in Blues and they liked it. Yeah,
And he came off stage and he was through, and
he left and I went on and I got all
(05:24):
the screams that night because of my three million sellers.
A moment. And we didn't meet again till two or
three years later, when we were both renting homes in
bel Air and making movies at separate studios at twentieth
Century Fox, and we were two Tennessee boys, and we
were became good friends. I'm from Nashville, he was from Memphis,
(05:49):
and so we watched each other's careers. We didn't spend
much time together except a couple of Sunday afternoons when
he came over just unexpected, uninvited, but just to walk
in the backyard where my little girls were in the
pool with me on a Sunday afternoon, and they knew
who he was. They didn't know he was a big star.
(06:10):
They just knew he was a friend of daddy's. So
they jumped out of the pool and started jumping up
on him. I said, girl, stop that, you're getting them
all wet. Leave alone, man, leave him alone. I like it,
and he did. I mean he was there because I
had something he wanted, which was a wife and kids.
Speaker 3 (06:29):
Oh yeah, and.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
You know it never happened for him the way that
happened for me. But I was so blessed in my
career and so was he and his but his took
different directions. We stayed friends, and I well, I could
talk to you more about Elvis, but I want to
talk more about my record.
Speaker 3 (06:50):
Absolutely well, you were talking about how you know you
have been so blessed, and this is another one because
you and your late wife, Shirley have done so much
throughout the years to help people. In this effort for
the single one is going to be helping provide clean water.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
Yes, I'm so glad you knew that Shirley had been
that active. Yes, oh yes, she was. That she in
the Cambodian food crisis when Pola pot the dictator, had
created his concentration camp and he was starving people who
were disapproving of his dictatorial reign, and they were mothers
(07:31):
were holding his starving babies in their arms on our
national television shows. Surely says we got to do something.
I said, honey, that's an international problem. What can we
do about it? I don't know. We got to do something. Well,
out of that her tears here at the house where
I am now we started Mercy Cores and that became
a worldwide Today it's still half a billion a year
(07:54):
in forty nations humanitarian organization first with food and agriculture
than other needs. And it started with Shirley's tears, but
then other things have come up, and then this thing
in Tanzania and Africa of the children dying. The average
(08:16):
life expectancy of a child born in these forty nations
is five years. If you live to be five, it's
a miracle because you're drinking poison from the water that
the only water that's available. And so I've joined forces
with a group called a World World Serve, and they've
(08:38):
already been involved in creating recent projects clean water sanitation
for over two hundred thousand people in Africa. And they
heard my song and decided this could be a song
like We're of the World. And I was thrilled that
they wanted to use my song. And in this way
(08:59):
we have done the video and the song featuring artists
country artists who were happy to come aboard like Vince Gill, Alabama,
Lee Greenwood, Larry Gatlin, Pam Tellis, Deborah Allen, Billy Dean,
Wendy Moten and on and on, and then we found
a group singing in Nashville while we were putting the
(09:20):
record together of of of legal They are now citizens
of America, but they came from these countries and they
went through the right process and they are naturalized citizens.
But they get together and sing gospel songs in their
own Swahili language. And they when they heard about this
(09:45):
song and its purpose, they came aboard and you'll hear
them singing, and I mean it gives you goosebumps hearing it,
and it breaks tears to me because I know these
are people from that era or area and they're singing
my words pleading for people to hear the need and
(10:05):
to help children live to be older than five without
drinking poisoned water. And so that's the goal and that's
the purpose, and my song is serving that purpose. And
all these fellow performers came aboard. And now I'm being
contacted by others who very big name artists, who said,
(10:25):
why didn't you have me help with that? I said, well,
I did send you a text. I tried to reach
your rep your representative, but I never got an answer.
We had to go ahead and do it.
Speaker 1 (10:35):
Yeah, as new as you lose.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
And so anyway, the ones that helped us put it
all together are thrilled as I am just now. Two
days ago was World Water Day declared by the United Nations,
and that's why we put the record out right now
and we've we've delighted and an answer to people like
you playing the song that were already getting tens of
(11:01):
thousands of responses on the various websites, especially the main one,
which is one or any one for Tanzania t A
n z A n I A one for Tanzania dot org.
You go there, there's an app. You click on the app,
then you push a red button and you can give
(11:24):
three dollars, ten dollars, one hundred dollars, whatever your heart
leads you to give. But you know when you give
that that is going to help save the life of
a child who is currently drinking poison water and won't
live to be six. And so that's the purpose. And
(11:44):
you're helping right now by letting me talk about it,
let people know that they can help, and the call
goes out and I think it's it's the call that
Jesus gave in the Mark that Matthew chapter where he said,
if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to
(12:05):
one of these little ones, the children who are My disciples, truly,
I tell you that person will certainly not lose his
or her reward. Now that comes from God himself. So
that's the blessing that we're hoping to inflict on people
and to introduce them to that. It is a call.
(12:26):
And if you answer that call, go through the website
and that is now available. And we've already heard that
just in the last two days. There are many thousands
of people going online and they are giving and we
haven't counted up anything yet, but what we know we're
being heard. The song is reaching the people and it's
(12:49):
touching them. And when that strange language is heard, which
is Swahili, it is the people themselves crying out for
help and we're hearing their call.
Speaker 1 (13:03):
Pat It's a moving song. It is.
Speaker 3 (13:06):
It will make the hairs on your arms on the
back of your next stand right up. It's so wonderful.
And again four people will have a link. We have
a link right now at our podcast so you can
hear the song one you can see video. You can
also have a link. We have a link to your
site one for Tanzania dot org so people can give
(13:29):
they can listen to it there. And also the fact
that you're going to possibly have what DVD and Blu
ray containing the official video and then a making of documentary.
Speaker 1 (13:40):
How cool.
Speaker 2 (13:41):
Yes, yes, it's coming, it's done and you'll bump into
it if you just go to the website and even
patboon dot com for that matter. Okay, And I want
you to know. I believe I've performed more than once
in the Quad City, and I know you're reaching out
to the kind of people that respond, yeah, and they
(14:02):
know when people need help, that they hear the cry.
And if we just if it's five bucks, if it's
twenty bucks, if it's one hundred, whatever, you can give.
You know that literally you're putting fresh, clean water in
the mouth of a child who is under a death
sentence right now, and we can change that. And that's
(14:24):
the call. And so now we're looking for the folks
to answer.
Speaker 1 (14:28):
That's right.
Speaker 3 (14:29):
One for Tanzania dot org. Patboone dot com great places
to go. And oh, Pat Boone, I was so nervous
to talk to you today. Thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
I'm so nervous. Oh my gosh, I don't think I've
ever talked to a bigger star.
Speaker 2 (14:43):
Well, thank you so much, and I'm just glad I'm
still around at ninety and and there'll be ninety one
in June, and I'm still kicking and singing and writing
and it's all fun, and it's fun with a.
Speaker 3 (14:58):
Purpose, exactly the best of Look, God bless you, God
bless this effort, and we look forward to hearing more
from you on this.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
You're gonna get it, okay,
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Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com