Legendary Entertainer, Pat Boone- part two // July 17, 2025

Legendary entertainer, Pat Boone continues sharing his 70-year journey in music, television, and movies on this second half of our interview. Pat Boone was ninety years old when the interview was conducted over a Zoom call. Host, Byron Tyler normally records up to thirty minutes in order to produce the Mid-South View Point show. However, on the afternoon that Byron and Pat did the interview, Pat from his home in Beverly Hills, California, the conversation quickly turned into two hours. Pat Boone is the #10 all-time top recording artist. Pat was married to Shirley (Foley) Boone (daughter of Country star ‘Red’ Foley) for over 65 years before her passing. Pat Boone made his first appearance nationally on “The Ted Mack Amateur Hour” (in which he became the original American Idol, selected week after week by the viewers), and later appeared on “The Arthur Godfrey Show.” Those appearances would introduce his talent to record producer Randy Wood of Dot Records who thought Pat Boone could sing rock ‘n roll. He became the youngest person in history to have his own weekly musical variety show (ABC), at times the number one show in television featuring many first time-on-TV artists like Sammy Davis, Ella Fitzgerald and Nat ‘King’ Cole. Elvis Presley once opened for Pat Boone at a big disc jockey “sock hop” in Cleveland in 1956. “I had to follow him,” recollects Pat. “Thank God I had 3 million-selling hit records already and I was the star that night. But I never wanted to follow Elvis again!” Pat Boone is also a member of the Gospel Music Hall of Fame. This is the second half of a two-part interview with Pat Boone.