Johnny Mathis Interview (page: 4 / 7) Grammy Hall of Fame	Print Interview

It sounds like your parents encouraged education as well?

Johnny Mathis: Absolutely.

Many parents of that age saw it as the only way that African Americans could move forward.

Johnny Mathis: Absolutely.

What experience or event inspired you the most in your life as a young person?

Get the Flash Player to see this video. Johnny Mathis: I think the thing that stands out most in my mind -- about how excited I was to have an opportunity to do something with my voice -- is when I met Lennie Hayton, who was married to Lena Horne. Lena Horne used to come through San Francisco on a regular basis at this wonderful hotel -- the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco -- in the Venetian Room. My dad would take me to see her. It was something electric and magnificent about her. First of all she was gorgeous. She was a beautiful woman, and she had a history of learning her craft. She was a wonderful singer and dancer. As a youngster, I would go and listen to her and watch her, and she would mesmerize me. That was the thing that motivated me most, I think, to continue to perform, not just sing for recreational purposes. But I remember she was the shining light. And then of course I went and saw other people who became fabulous in my mind also, but she was the one that I remember was the motivator for me. I said, "I would love to be able to be that good, have something, a quality that good." And all my life -- I told her. I finally got a chance, after I met her, to tell her. But her husband was very kind to me -- Lennie Hayton -- because Lena was a little standoffish. Because she was a black woman in a white world, doing all of these incredible things, making roads for people like myself, so Lena was a little bit standoffish. But her husband Lennie Hayton, who was white, used to sneak me to her dressing room and I'd sit out in the foyer until she was all dolled up and made up -- she wouldn't see me without her makeup -- and put her gown on, and that was the Lena Horne I always remember. I never saw her -- I think maybe once I saw her offstage when she wasn't all dolled up. But of course she was the person, I think, more so than Nat King Cole, who I almost emulated from the time I was a little kid, because he's my favorite singer. But she was this incredible person that I thought was the epitome of what it would be like to be a singing star.

[ Key to Success ] Passion

In those days, whenever there was a black person on television, black parents would call the kids to come watch, because it was still unusual. When did you start singing on television?

Get the Flash Player to see this video. Johnny Mathis: There were a couple of local television shows that had local talent and I was always going on there from the time I was about 12 or 13 years old. I even have a picture of Billy Eckstine and myself that I saw when I went to Billy Eckstine's house and he said, "I want to show you something." And this is 20 years later. He brought out this picture of him and I together, and I said, "Where did you get..." He said, "I remember these things."

It was a long time before they allowed black entertainers to sing on a lot of the teenage music shows they had back then. Is that how you remember it?

Johnny Mathis: I'm not certain about it. I had no celebrity up until the time that it was okay to appear on these teenage shows.

You were 19 when a Columbia Records executive named George Avakian heard you sing. He must have heard a lot of young singers. What do you think he heard in you?

Johnny Mathis: I wonder. I think it was my choice of songs.

Get the Flash Player to see this video. I sang some pretty sophisticated songs when I was 18 and 19 years old, because I grew up in San Francisco and I frequented the jazz clubs and that's what I heard. I heard songs like "Lush Life." You know, here I was, a 19-year-old kid singing "Lush Life," the most decadent song in the world! And songs that were not necessarily on the hit parade, but were standard-type songs written by some of the writers who wrote for Broadway and what have you -- Cole Porter, Irving Berlin, that type of thing. Those were the songs that I sang. And I was fortunate enough to have my audition tape accompaniment by a guy by the name of Vince Guaraldi. Vince Guaraldi wrote the Peanuts music -- the cartoon Peanuts, he wrote all that music. In fact, at Christmastime, I sang one of the songs, "Christmastime Is Here." "Happiness and cheer... Fun for all... The children call... Their favorite time of year." -- and I love it. I got a chance to meet Charles Schultz. Those are the type of songs that I sang. They were not middle-of-the-road, they were pretty esoteric. And George was in charge of jazz music for Columbia Records at the time, and he was looking for jazz singers all over the place. I kind of fooled him, because I hinted at being a jazz singer, 'cause those were the ones I was listening to, but I was never a jazz singer. I had to have the melody, and I wasn't good at improvising. But it brought me to his attention.

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