I try to remain respectful of that damned thing.Ray Richmond is contributing to Deadline’s coverage of TCA. Yes, but I don’t call it a “damned thing.” Because the trumpet has the last word. If you put bad timing and a bad attitude, anything negative at all into the trumpet, it comes right back to hit you in the face.ĭo you ever have days when you think, I can’t play that damned thing for another minute? You get out of the trumpet exactly what you put into the trumpet. But when you pick up a trumpet, don’t think it’s going to be a bouquet of roses the rest of your life. But when I pull the covers up under my chin at night and she reaches over and makes sure that I got my arms covered and I’m all settled and everything’s OK - I don’t want to get into religion, but I thank God she came into my life.Īre you still discovering new things about the trumpet? You’re happy in your life with Cathy Leach, who is a professor emeritus of trumpet at the University of Tennessee? She’s - well, I’m in a much better place. Emily, she’s a very bright person, and fair. If you’re doing something that’s extremely revealing, about private matters, there’s a producer that will make that decision and you’d better figure out how you’re going to live with it. Were you nervous about sharing this with people? You’re candid in the film about your history with alcoholism - how it ran in your family and how your first wife’s problems with it led to the dissolution of your marriage to her. Us guys, sometimes, when we have real pain - Oh, I wish I hadn’t done that, or I wish I had done that - you don’t get the whole thing. I did, and I can tell you right now, I ain’t going to talk about it.
You felt you saw a side of him that he didn’t necessarily share with others? There was a lot more to him than he ever let on. I’d go out with him on his boat, and we’re sitting there, looking up at night, and he’s explaining the whole damn works up there. He was friends with Carl Sagan, and he used to love to get together with him and talk about the universe. He knows if he’s thinking in his mind about some friend who’s passed away or a secret desire he has to do this or that, or God, I wish I’d had a hamburger for lunch. Well, the only person who could answer that is Johnny. Is it fair to say there was a kind of friendly one-upmanship in your on-camera relationship with Carson?Ĭarson had a behind-the-scenes reputation, even among people who worked for him, for being enigmatic or elusive. It’s all about being in show business, I guess. I didn’t know I was going to do that! Neither did Johnny. So I did a take of great pain and reeling around and fell flat on the floor. And I thought, I’ve got to have a finish for this.
But somehow, from past experience, I hit that note and did a pretty doggone good job. I knew I was capable of it if I had time to work on it. One time, he asked me to hit a double high-C on trumpet. Because the one thing you don’t want to have happen is, you’re sitting there, “Oh boy, I sure enjoyed that dinner last night,” and you hear Johnny say, “Isn’t that right, Doc?” All you know is you’ve got to pick out the right music, conduct the band and be ready to talk. You don’t know when they’re going to talk to you or what they’re going to talk to you about. So all that eye-popping clothing you wore on the show was a kind of affectation? And if you don’t pick that baby up and treat it right, you’re going to have nothing but trouble. I’ve got that jealous bitch over in the corner - the trumpet. Oh, wait a minute - I don’t do that anymore. But at first - and I can’t tell you how long that went on for - I would wake up in the morning and think, Oh, God, I’ve got to get going or I’m going to be late for work.
American masters johnny carson series#
American masters johnny carson tv#
Here are some of the highlights selected by The Times’s TV critics: Television this year offered ingenuity, humor, defiance and hope.
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