Interview with Sarah Stahly and Bill Brand of VH1

Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents, June 9, 1997

Q. Starting off with just present day, being President, it comes with a lot of pomp and circumstance and "Hail to the Chief." What has music meant to you personally and publicly as President?

The President. First of all, it gives a lot of meaning to being President, because the President has the Marine Band, and then whenever we have a state visit here a marching band from the Army in colonial costumes with old instruments performs. So a lot of being President is the reminder of the music here. The Air Force, the Navy, the Army, all have dance bands; they play here at the White House for events. So that's a good part of it.

The second thing that I would say is that one of the nice things about being President is nearly anybody will come perform for you. So I've gotten to be friends with people that I've loved for 20 or 30 years, James Taylor, Carly Simon, Barbra Streisand, Aretha Franklin, countless others, and then to bring a lot of other new people in and give people a chance to be heard. We've had - working with public television here, we've had a country music concert reflecting women in country music. We've done jazz music. We've done blues. It's just been fascinating. Just last week we had Yo-Yo Ma, Edgar Meyer, and Mark O'Malley in here to do their wonderful Appalachian music. So all of that has been very, very important.

And then, of course, I've gotten to bring some of the most wonderful gospel and religious singers in the country in my two inaugural services, and there are other times. So for me, one of the best things personally about being President has been the music and the way I could just sort of swallow up all my musical interests. It's been great.

Q. Let's get back to where the musical interests started. Warren Moss was here during the Inauguration, and we were talking to him. He tells a hysterical story that - was it George Gray was handling out instruments in, like, third or fourth grade. And he grabbed the trumpet, and you were left with the saxophone. Did you always want to play the saxophone?

The President. Yes, I did. Actually, I started on the clarinet when I was 9 with George Gray, who was a friend of mine all his life. We were pen pals forever, my grade school band director, and he had a daughter who was also a musician. So I played clarinet for a while, and frankly, I wasn't very good at it. And they switched me to saxophone when I was 9 years old. So I've been playing since I was 9.

Q. Mr. Sperlin said you were made for the saxophone.

The President. It suited me. It suits me emotionally, intellectually. I always liked it.

Q. There are some great videos that we have. Virginia put home videos on tape and gave them to David, and we were looking at them, of you dancing in the living room. Virginia's there, and I guess it's Roger Clinton, and little Roger is running around. What was the music that would have been playing then? I think you might have been 12, 13.

The President, Oh, when I was 12 or 13, it would have been - gosh, that was back in 1958 - it would have been Elvis Presley, Bill Haley, Fats Domino, all those people.

Q. What did the music mean for you growing up? I mean, all your friendships -

The President. I loved it. I loved the whole rock and roll thing. And I was - a lot of parents in the fifties didn't like it very much. They thought there was something vaguely bad about it, you know. And my mother thought it was wonderful. She loved Elvis Presley from the first day she saw him. She thought rock and roll was great for kids. So music was always encouraged in our home, and we had - until I was 15, when I lived in a place that actually had a hardwood floor and a big room where you could have dances. So we had kids dancing there all the time. It was great.

Q. Was it your room who got you hooked on the musical bug? I mean, with her love for music, or was it -

The President. I think so. Neither of my parents had a particular interest, obsession with music like I did. My mother loved rock and roll and loved Elvis Presley in particular. And my father actually had played saxophone as a little boy. And I own a soprano saxophone, believe it or not, that is playable today - I've had it restored - that was made in 1915. I also have an old C-Melody saxophone that my father played. That was the only family connection, but he didn't play anymore when I started. And I just fell in love with it and just kept on doing it.

Q. Now, you mentioned, when we were talking about the Presidency, your love for gospel and spiritual music. And a lot of people - of course, I know about it, but a lot of people hadn't known about that love. You know, they just always saw you on Arsenio playing saxophone. You've mentioned - an interesting sort of reference to that was you all, that you've mentioned many times, that we all need to be repairers of the breach. What role does music play in that?

The President. Oh, I think that, for me, there is nothing that's any more emotionally healing. When I'm blue or down, I can hear some good gospel music, it immediately just lifts me up. And I've always felt that way. One of the greatest things about my being Governor of a Southern State with a lot of gospel roots is that I heard a phenomenal amount of fabulous church music from my childhood all up through my public service, both in black churches and in white churches. And that's where I got involved with the Pentecostals, who have contributed so much to my religious music education and so much to the enrichment not only of me but Hillary and Chelsea as well.