Scott Hamilton Interview (page: 8 / 9) Olympic Hall of Fame	Print Interview

How do you go about selecting your music?

Scott Hamilton: I'll just hear something and it will touch me. It creates the identity of the piece, and then you can go from there. In my pro career we've done a lot of wild things. I like to do humorous things, and I do a few dramatic things. The Battle Hymn of the Republic for the Statue of Liberty ceremony in '86 was a huge thing for me. That was a number that took on a whole new meaning, because I dedicated it to the world figure skating team that went down in the plane crash in 1961.

We've also done programs that are just really kind of goofy, a lot of gimmicks. I did a lounge lizard number a few years ago that had gimmick, after gimmick, after gimmick. I did a classical piece as a conductor where everything fell apart. It was a Hungarian rhapsody, and the music was so overpowering, that sleeves would fall off and tails would end up in the front. I had to use an oxygen mask to get through the end of the program. I am follically deficient. So I figured I'd play on that a little bit and I did a number to the song "Hair" from the Broadway musical. I start off as a hippie and I end up in three and a half minutes as a businessman. I go from bell-bottoms, to pinstripe suit with a tie. I'm going to completely change the image of opera forever with a piece of music. If the program is as funny as the music, it will be one of my favorites of all time.

On the flip-side, I also found a real dramatic piece, heart wrenching and dramatic. I'm hoping that I have enough inside to really be able to pull it off. I'm always looking for new challenges, always looking for ways to be unpredictable. After being out there in a big public way for 16 or 17 years, you've done a lot. It's kind of hard to kind of put on a new face every year. You have to give audiences something different every year, otherwise they get sick of looking at you and it's like, "Next!"

What else would you like to achieve?

Get the Flash Player to see this video. Scott Hamilton: I never want to be President of the United States. I never want a 9 to 5 job. I never want to win an Academy Award. I never want to win a Nobel Prize. I never want to win a Pulitzer Prize. That's for other people. I want to entertain.

[ Key to Success ] Passion

I really want to do a stage show in New York. That's the only thing left. I've already got my TV special.

Get the Flash Player to see this video. When I'm done touring arenas I would really like to just have an ensemble of incredible skaters and do a really unique skating show on Broadway. That's my dream, I'd love to do that, and just incorporate everything I've learned and experienced. I can handle music, I can handle dialogue, I can handle -- I don't know if I can sing, but I can handle movement, I can handle all those things. And New York loves figure skating. And that's the one thing that I've dreamt of that I've always wanted to do that I haven't really taken huge steps to doing yet, because I've been so busy with everything else.

[ Key to Success ] Vision

That's all that's left on the ice. After that I want to have a family. That's important. Once I'm done with all the "me, me, me" stuff, I really would like to have a "them, them, them, you" stuff. I'm looking forward to settling down. But I really want to finish out all these dreams, so I don't look back in ten or 20 years and say, "If I had only would have done that one thing I didn't do." Life is very short and there are certain times in life that are very specific and you have to be true to those times. I've kind of extended my adolescence. I'm 37 and I'm still doing the same thing I was doing when I was 9-years-old. So the last thing and the only thing I really want to do on ice is a Broadway show.

Who do you admire?

Scott Hamilton: I admire a lot of people for different things. Robert Zemeckis has had a body of work that just amazes me, just the diversity and the way that he's introduced new things into film. He's inventive, he's not doing things that have been done a thousand times, he's doing things for the first time. George Lucas , another film maker. I look at Star Wars and everything that he's done, how he's changed the way people feel about the entertainment business. And George Bush,, I admire him. I think he's got character, I think he's a quality person. I think that he's been a great family man, he's been true to his word, and he's had great integrity. I admire people like that.

Among sports people, I think Joe Montana is a great role model and a phenomenal story, the way he kept coming back and proving himself. And being the best at his position of all time, without all the controversy and all the stuff that can go with being the best at what you do. What happens off the field sometimes affects that, and he's always been above all that. I admire him a great deal. There are a lot of people I admire. Robin Williams' talent. And Bruce Springsteen.

Get the Flash Player to see this video. I've grown up listening to Bruce Springsteen. And he pretty much defined my work ethic to a crowd. If you've ever been to a Bruce Springsteen concert, you leave exhausted and you can't wait to see him again. And that is a mentality and kind of a work ethic that I always wanted to have when I do one of our live shows at Stars on Ice. I always wanted to have that intensity and that "I'm bringing everybody on the ice with me," so that they'd want to come back and see it again. I didn't want to just entertain an audience, I wanted to build an audience, and Bruce Springsteen gave me that.

[ Key to Success ] Vision

So there's a lot of heroes out there, from all different walks of life.

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