Pat Boone - American Legend
By: Dominick A. Miserandino
When talking to Pat Boone, you might not think of politics, but with Pat's release of American Glory, you need to wonder. Why release a CD of purely American and patriotic songs? In only a ten-minute snippet of this interview, you can see where his beliefs come from and why. Whether you agree or not, you have to respect somebody who loves his country this much.
DM) Your recent CD is very patriotic
PB) I tell people, it's not just the best, it's the only CD that anybody has done of all the patriotic songs and military anthems. It's something that has just been out of fashion. I jokingly said it never occurred to P. Diddy or Eminem or Ja Rule to do this, so I had to. It's not the kind of music that has been in fashion and it bothered me greatly. It seriously upset me, that America's kids have never been exposed to America's great patriotic songs. We used to sing them in school, but I don't think we sing them much anymore.
I asked Ollie North when was the last time he heard somebody sing the Marine Corp, besides a colonel in the Marine Corp, and he scratched his head and said, "Grade School, or maybe some military television show." I handed him a copy of the CD and said, "One grateful American is singing your songs."
At night, at the shows, I do what I call a military medley. I do each of the four military branches in song and ask them to stand so we can applaud and thank them. It's very moving because, in my audience at least, a third of the audience is standing. I make the point that they don't usually brag or talk about it, but they put everything on the line for us, when the government asked them to. It gets a tremendous response and I'm just really shameless in urging people to get this album, not because it's the best or the only one in half a century, but because we need to preserve these songs.
DM) What do you think has changed in our country that has made this out of fashion?
PB) There's been a real... lackadaisical, no, that's not strong enough, I could say leftist, no that's too strong... a disregard and disdain for the military. It's not until 9-11 that you desperately wanted to know that somebody was out there defending you. There are a lot of people who don't have any regard at all for the military. I think it's been a gradual disdain for the military. It was like that in the 70s for the police. Police were breaking up anti-war demonstrations and drug busts and pot parties, so it became fashionable to a lot of young people to call the police pigs. I kept saying to everybody who would listen, "Wait until somebody breaks into your house and see if you want to call them pigs." There are disappointments and bad eggs in almost any organization, but the police are selfless, brave people who are trained to defend us against the kinds of wars that are right here in our midst.
To me, there's been a very weird lack of respect and appreciation for all establishments, all structure, and all authority. From the street level to the president, people and comedians, satirist people like Al Franken, even other political candidates say terrible things about our elected leaders. It's one thing to disagree, but it's another thing to have terrible disrespect. I must say, I admire Ted Kennedy for a lot of reasons, but for him to say the things he said about our President, who is our Commander in Chief and the head of our lives on the line against terrorists, who definitely want to kill us. Not just the soldiers, but us as well! And to undermine and discourage those in uniform by a prominent senator. To say such things, I was astonished that a man who is in office that long would say such things. Even to say, it was just at home, is outrageous as the news networks are carried internationally to Iraq and the caves of Osama Bin Laden. So the effect I think is to say, "look Osama, the folks back in America think that the president is wrong. Let's keep going. Even the senators who are supposed to support him are not." You can disagree but to hurl slanderous charges isn't in our best interest.
DM) How does one disagree and voice an opinion without being damaging?
PB) You can say you're concerned, but the great majority of Americans and the polls say that the president is doing the right thing. It's not enough because there's an election coming up. They move beyond voicing their concerns, it's how you do it. Now like so many of the harshly vocal criticism, mainly the candidates who want Bush's job, they're trying to discredit him.... to take away the public's confidence in their leader. What that does, it has some effect here, but if you're a terrorist organization and you're doing your best to destroy a country and society like ours, if you hear enough blatant and irreverent comments, you're thinking, "Keep doing what you're doing, we're making gains here." And they are!
People in some quarters are so upset about civil liberators. They say, "You can't keep looking for terrorists at the loss of our privacy" (laughs), Well to me, if you've flown anywhere lately you realize that you've lost a lot of your privacy. You don't' like it but you know why you're doing it. Buy you know there might be somebody with a shoe bomb. Would you like to take your shoes off or let that guy get on with his? And if people need to monitor phone lines or whatever they have to do, to trip up the terrorists, it's for our good. It's always been necessary in time of war to suspend certain liberties, because there's a higher priority, and that's life itself! And I get so upset when people think life should go on as normal, and think that somehow magically we're going to find a formula to stop these people who are willing to blow themselves up to stop us. You've got to take strong measures.
I remember as a kid in Nashville Tennessee, we had to shut our lights off at night in case you were bombed- inland, in the states! You do things that are not permanent; you temporarily suspend some of your privileges until you're safe.
DM) Your beliefs and your Christian beliefs have been there throughout your career. Has your voicing of your views ever been damaging to you?
PB) It's been limiting, sure, because there's a lot of people who don't agree with me. I have a visceral, negative response to people like Jane Fonda, Ed Asner, and others far on the left. Jane with Hanoi and others on that side. I didn't want to be in their company and if I was a guy hiring in the movies I would do my best to find somebody other than them to fill a role. And I knew that was happening to me. Of course, I was greatly outnumbered in Hollywood, and there were parts and roles I could have been considered for, which I was turned down for. I knew what it was, it was a visceral disagreement with my lifestyle and my philosophies. Then I got to meet Jane Fonda, Ed Asner, Mike Farrell, and others, and I know that they're motivated by their own consciences. And to some extent, I know that they've put their own careers on the line, like I always have, and I respect them. I may view myself on the opposite end of the political spectrum, but I know that they're motivated by their beliefs. Of course their beliefs are much more popular then mine but I still respect them.
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