>> when i heard you describe this music it sounded like it started with a road trip, is that kind of it? >> that's kind of it. arkansas state university wanted to purchase my dad's family home. i started to go down for fund raisers, i.t. was a perfect storm of inspiration being back in the south and reconnected with people i knew. and seeing my own san says tral- ancestral musical history, being from the south was a footnote, it turned out i was connected to it all. >> there's a song on this album, called the sunken land. where is the sunken land. >> where reply dad's boyhood home is.

>> in the sunken land ♪ >> going back to his boyhood home was really about my grandmother. how hard her life was. raised seven children, picked cotton, and was married to a man who was unkind often. it was medievally hard. what put this together for me is i have a friend natalie chan. she employs these women who hand-stitch these beautiful clothes. i went down and she taught me to sew. she was threading my needle and said, you have to love the thread. it brought tears to my eyes. i kept thinking, you have to love the thread. i took it as a complet a huge m.

these songs started coming. >> when did you know you were an artist? how young were you whether you fell in love with music and art? >> really, really young. i felt myself to be odd, and i came to understand that that was an artistic instinct and that it was valuable instead of being, you know, something that you needed to push away. although it took me a long time to understand that. >> what drew you -- everybody would assume you are probably from nashville, the south. what drew you to new york? >> you know that saying, we always thought she was kind of weird, turns out she's only a new yorker. you ever hear that? >> never. >> that's me. i always was a new yorker. from the first time i came here, i knew it was my home. i love the south and feel

connected to the south but i'm a new yorker. >> had you stayed away from the south for 20 years? >> i've been back to the south plenty. many of times, and for a long time, i felt myself tighten up when i went back. >> nashville? >> yeah, like i don't belong here anymore. i'm being judged. this isn't my place in the world. now i go back. i love it. i have my friends. i know a good restaurant. two of my daughters are there. they love the south. >> did you start writing more when you came to new york? >> i did. i was a songwriter always, i wrote a lot of songs in california and in tennessee. but i started writing process, i wrote my memoir and essays. >> in the new york times? >> right. >> you don't share it all but you share a lot of your life and your life has been in the

spotlight since you were a child. >> i do share a lot. that doesn't mean i don't have a private life. i do have a private life. if i were a dancer, i'd have to dance. it's just what's in the dna. >> you wrote your father a letter about your love for music and art. what did he say? >> i was 12 years old. he said the greatest thing. he said, i see that you see as i see. >> thank you. great to see you. appreciate it. >> good to see you. >> the band okay go is not just known for their music. their grand breaking interviews continue to go viral. in my interview we talked about how they pulled off some of their memorable ideas and how they got their start. >> tim and i met in summer camp at age 11. all of our creative projects,

i've known dan for almost 20 years. this is the collective sensibility of the band. >> you guys were doing this a long time before you hit viral video with "here it goes again." ♪ ♪ >> how did that video change what you were doing? >> well, it certainly made us a much bigger band. a lot more people knew who we were but it also helped to solidify in our minds chasing our best, we should just chase our best ideas. that trying to play the music industry game you know, fitting exact right radio format and all that kind of stuff it's just -- it's a whole lot of anxiety and the sort of strategy work that has nothing to do with art or music. >> has somebody got a thing for treadmills? >> we all have things for treadmills. we're terrified of them now. >> how many takes did it take you to get it right? >> what was it 21 takes?

>> 22 takes for the treadmills i think. >> you come up with the music and then you do the video and what's the process? >> i mean basically, i think we make our music and videos pretty similar ways. basically we try to put ourselves in this situation with a lot of stuff to play with, you know? you know, whether we're in the studio that's the instruments and chord progressions and lyrics, we basically throw a whole bunch of stuff together and figure out where the emotions are jumping out. when you put a beat and a chord progression together, sometimes you just get beat and chord progression, but sometimes you get lust and violence and

alchemy. ♪ writing on the wall ♪ good day ♪ >> needing and getting is one of my favorites. it was made originally for the super bowl commercial. but are the sounds that we hear actually the sounds that were made while you were making that video? ♪ ♪ ♪ >> yes. technically they are the sounds that were made while -- i mean that's all live, what they called diogenic sound. however there were 20 miks in thmics inthe car. we could very carefully pick which bits we wanted you to

hear. could you give us an intervention of what it sound id like iedlike in the car? >> it sounded like [ sowd effect sound effect ] >> how long dit take to shoot that? >> i believe five shoot-days. >> this one called white knuckles. you do some shots with dogs. how difficult is it to get those dogs to do what you want them to do? >> those dogs were awesome what they do. every dog had a trainer. they were in control of everything they did. >> those dogs could do your taxes if you want them to. there was a spectrum of treats for them. hot bait, raw chicken. anything for raw chicken,

anything. >> like cheese whiz on a tennis ball.. >> we thank you for taking the time to be with us and tell us a little bit about it, and we look forward to what's coming up next. thanks again. >> thanks for having us. >> thank you. >> and still ahead, from backup singer to center stage, darlene love on her career and the movie that changed her life. plus. fitz and the tantrums. what it takes to make it big. >> i honestly am not good at picking hits. you know, when i -- my label actually chose, i tried my first big single and i didn't think that was a good idea, actually argued with him, said that wasn't a big song to turn out. >> that turns out to be your biggest hit ever right? >> yes, ever!

>> obviously, the news i the with john hughes are the most well-known and no matter what i do i think i'll some ways be known for that. and some people love the books i've written and music i've done or seen me in the stand with stephen king. i've done a lot of things. everything speaks to everybody

in a different way. >> that was a little piece of the interview we did with molly ringwald. >> i asked lie darlene love abo0 feet from stardom. >> i haven't felt like i was 20 feet from stardom for a long time. it was doing that movie that brought everything back. ♪ ♪ >> about my life in the business. >> what did it feel like back then? >> well, i was a backup singer. the great thing about being a backup singer when i started, nobody treated me like a backup singer. they always were so excited about me and my group, the blossoms, being on their records, it was always great. you go in the studio, you felt you were one of the stars. the thing about the blossom, we were black and we were the first

background singers to ever do recording sessions. it was a white world. the singers were white and they were like we would call the readers. we coulthey could read music. we couldn't read but we had greater ears. sometimes today i don't know why i became an artist. during '60s scail in the union was $22.50 an hour. so i made in a year i could make over $100,000 in a year. >> and residuals? >> we didn't get residuals. we actually started getting residuals about a couple years ago. as background singers. >> why didn't you get residuals? >> because there was no law in our union that said as a background singer you got residuals. ♪ should. >> they just passed that law for us a couple years ago. >> you just began to get some of that money back or not? >> big time.

i got a check in it's called sound intrrnlg, i go internatioa check for $56,000. for work that we had done. >> how about that's life and da do ron ron? >> not as great as working with frank sinatra, he was a funny guy, he played with us, all right guys make me sound good. >> monster mash? >> monster mash, i think the biggest thing we did at that time working with elvis presley doing his backup on 1968 come back special. >> you didn't read music? >> not at all. >> did you read music at all? >> no. we could sight read, we could hear where to go on your parts,

sight music you read. >> phil specter had a huge impact on your life. talk about your relationship with him. >> he hadn't become such a great star. we didn't find out until later that phil specter was trying to make himself a name not us a name. >> here, you're the star and bruce springsteen is in the background. >> i love that! that's when i got inducted into the rock 'n' roll hall of fame. we saw this guitar on the stage all night long and nobody was playing it but the minute you started singing bruce picked up the guitar and started to flay guitar. that's what made everything i've done over the last 50 years so much fun that these people said years ago, i should be a star and i finally got my dues. ♪ ♪ >> and you're getting ready to release your first full length

album is that correct? >> yes. >> in your life all these years and you've never done afull length album? >> because in the period that we recorded people didn't make full length albums. you go like now you go on the internet and buy one record. my very good friend steve van zant, he said we're going to get together and do an album together and here we're just doing that. >> i watched you on the documentary, a couple of times, and honestly you seem to have absolutely no regrets, you seem to be joyful about everything you've done and continue to do. despite some of those setbacks, how do you remain so positive? >> it's something i want to do. something i love to do. there's nothing more precious to me than standing on the stage in front of your friends, and lifting their spirits.

>> you've given us a lot of joy and we thank you for it. thank you so much. >> you're welcome. >> coming up, a new group revolutionizing a new sound. i talk to fitz and the tantrums. plus chromeo. that mixture of soul and funk. plus: >> miles ask a teacher. teachers finds apathway so you can find the answer he yourself. miles always did that.

judge. >> coming out as a gay man just released a real weight. and i've loved being able to talk about it now, being able to share my story. because i didn't know it was going to be such a big deal. >> that was part of our interview with neon trees lead

singer tyler glen. now chromeo. jealous burst onto the screen, becoming an almost instant classic. but the group didn't have success overnight. >> we always knew the development of the band would take a while slow and health, to start with a cult following, to gain this really organic fan base and then all of a sudden we had a song that all the record labels were kind of fighting over and now the song is on the radio now. ♪ ♪ >> how do you describe that sound? >> funky. kind of electro-funk. it's got a heavy '80s influence. >> that's what i thought when i heard it. not totally '80s but that's the sound i hear.

>> we took cues from a band like steely dan say, soul music and r and b. signature -- >> hall and oats, too? >> sure. recontextualize it and blend it with a sense that's their own. ♪ i never wondered which way you would go ♪ >> your latest album is called white women, sounds like it's a potentially controversial are title. why did you name it that? >> for that reason. but again things -- our music works on different levels so the title white women is actually a reference to the photographer helmut newton. owes a lot to photographers like

helmut newton and guy bordain. >> what is your focus on the live stuff. >> it's a routine, we don't really indulge, we don't think about anything like that. we want it to be the most entertaining spectacle. >> everyone is going to get the same thing every night you know. >> we want it to be the tightest routine, the most entertaining routine as possible. we rehearse it over and over and over, every step, every bit of add lip is coordinatateded. >> what does the namee mean? >> will, it's sort of crow with romeo. the robotic and the romantic. >> your latest gig was on the

latest stage of coachella, after a decade of playing smaller gigs, what was it like to have that large a crowd? >> scary but rewarding. we had done coachella in the past but not on the main stage. which was huge. >> we had no idea how it went. that was great, we were skeptical. >> why? they're cheering for you right? >> you don't hear that. we're barely looking at each other. >> second we're so stuck in the minute e eaminutiae of our show. >> and billboard said we had one of the best shows of the weekend. then it sunk in. >> put jealous apart. ♪ ♪

>> the narrative of the song is completely anti-heroic, thus really relatable. a lot of the songs on the radio are written from this very lothariio perspective, baby i love you let's go to bed, you know, i'm jealous, too cool to admit it, he doesn't admit it, it's cheeky reversal of the rock star persona. we hope it's relatable to people who listen. >> congratulations on your success and much more success in the future. good luck on the tour. great to see you guys. from chromeo, to fitz and the tantrums. they roblghted t rocketed to thh the song money grabber. >> started in 2008, i was heart

blown, wrote a song to get over that heartbreak and turned out to be a really special song that set a compass for the soul of the band. called james king a man i went to college with we started working on the songs and we said this stuff is begging to be played live. we need an amazing female vocalist, the other side of the he said she said story of love. and he said, i just worked with this amazing talent, noelle skaggs. you got to call her. the six of us met and it was magic. ♪ >> how is it that you can work for several hours and suddenly know, this is it? >> the first thing i know, is this going to work? like are our voices going to

blend and then we started singing together. >> money grabber was the song. did you know it was going to be ahit? >> that's the thing, we always cut our teeth on the road playing live. and what we've always loved to do is to road-test our songs. every night, people would be like, what's that money song? the thing is we knew it was special. we actually had a different bridge. but we knew that that song was a special song. ♪ ♪ >> so we wrote three or four different versions of the bridge to make sure it was as good as the rest of the song. >> how do you describe the sound? >> you know it's interesting. it's still soul music but i call it pop. what we're doing is initially the breaking of what pop music became. >> and for this new record we just wanted to make a brazen statement saying, this is us.

this is our sound. and you're not going to be able to use one adjective to describe us. >> and we're very influenced by our performances. you know our fan base had a huge part in the way that we approached the record from the chorus ues to little new -- nuances. >> its automatic, that's what our experience was really with money grabber. people learning instantly the song. >> or watch or listen to it on the computer. >> you're sing don't come back, and they finish the line for you, money grabber. >> that energy with the fans on stage. >> it's intense. >> it's what keeps us going. noelle and i five minutes before the show are exhausted, looking at each other and the only thing that gets us to be able to find that energy is the crowd.

>> yeah. it's incredible, the adrenalin that you get when you hop on a stage. you know, when you have, you know, and then just anybody singing to your music at that point. it's so gratifying. >> what do you tell people who wants to do just what you're doing? >> what we advocate is work ethic, work ethic, work ethic. believing in yourself and going after it. >> you have to know that going into a career of music is going to be like any other career that you pursue. in the way you really want to accomplish something you have to take the footsteps to make it happen. you can't go on the fact that you can be talented. when you enter into a business

you can be talented, you can have that little spark, you know but you also have to work for it and have to prove to other people that that's what you are. we weren't handed anything. we got amazing opportunities. and we took them. but we knew what it was going to be. we had to work for it. we went -- we were poor, you know, i couldn't pay my own rent, like that kind of thing. and we went for it. and now we're in this situation, like we're sitting in, you know, this. we didn't know that was going to happen. but we worked really hard and even before this band, worked really hard for what we've accomplished. >> it's emotional. you get emotional when you talk about it. >> it comes with a lot of sacrifice. i don't think people understand what it's like to be a touring musician. it's a nomadic lifestyle. >> we love your music and congratulations on your success. >> thanks for having us. >> that's our program.

thank you for watching. i'm john siegenthaler in new york. we want to wish you and your family a very happy holiday. ♪ >> the fbi thought i was the greatest informant on the planet earth. they told me to record everywhere. >> al jazeera's investigative unit takes you inside the shadowy world of fbi informants and counterterrorism operations.