weichel tonight. exclusive, the parents of trayvon martin. >> our son was just a teenager. he wasn't doing anything wrong. >> seeking justice. fighting back that he was the aggressor. ♪ . and truly, the one and only, lionel richie. ♪ oh, what a feeling when we're dancing on the ceiling ♪ >> dancing on the ceiling was an ultimate hit maker. ♪ hello >> the songs, sensational collaborations, his daughter nicole, and his surprising reinvention as a country music singer. my visit with a music icon. plus, arguably one of the worst decisions of all time, this is "piers morgan tonight."

good evening, our big story tonight, trayvon martin shot at close range. was it self-defense? his parents react to the store friday from the night of the shooting. also, lionel richie, the pop icon joins me. he talks music, politics, race and trayvon martin. he's back in the spotlight with a hit country album. what's behind the story of this classic video? ♪ hello is it me you're looking for ♪ >> but, first, a big story, trayvon martin, details have emerged since the night he was killed. with with me tonight his parents and their attorney. thank you so much for joining me. i send you my deepest condolences on the loss of your son. i can only imagine with the whole world scrutinizing everything that happened, the

pain for you must just worsen and for that i just send my sincere sympathies. >> thank you. >> i know that you've seen this video in the last few minutes. it shows george zimmerman at the police station. what is your reaction to this video? >> we just looked at the video and we were just surprised of -- because, according to the police report, he sustained injuries zimmerman sustained injuries, but when we looked at the video, it was obvious that there were no visible injuries. there were no blood on his shirt. so we have concluded just by watching this video that there may not have been any injuries at all. >> i mean, what we don't know is exactly the time of this video. we don't know how many hours after the incident it was filmed. having said that, we can see demonstratively, there are no serious injuries. he was alleged to have a broken

nose and seems to be walking very freely. you can see him walking across without any problem. he doesn't look like somebody to a dispassionate observer who has been beaten up. >> it certainly doesn't to me. it's amazing how, if, in fact, he had a broken nose, how he continued to keep his head down. and anyone who knows, once you've had a broken nose, your nose will continue to bleed and bleed and bleed until it gets fixed. >> let me ask benjamin crump, who's your lawyer, how significant is this from a legal point of view? >> piers, this is the smoking gun. this clearly shows that the police report was a fabrication. when they said there was blood

on the back of his head, he had a broken nose, there was blood -- you don't see any of that. and we're looking at this, obvious to us that there was something that night that they conspired to cover this up, to cover up the death of trayvon martin. now we are glad that all america could see, because tracy and sabrina have been every night agonizing about the killing of their son, free sleeping in his own bed, while their son is in the grave. and the police are doing whatever they can do to protect zimmerman. it just doesn't make sense that anybody. >> i want to play you a clip of an interview i did last night with joe oliver, who is a friend of george zimmerman. listen to what he had to say. >> sadly, for the martin family, it was trayvon that we lost. but we've also lost george, too. he will never be the same man. he will never be the kind,

giving, caring human being that we've always known and loved. he is so distraught about this, he has been diagnosed with ptsd, posttraumatic stress disorder, depression. he can't sleep, he can't eat. he cried for days after this happened. >> sybrina, let me ask you for your reaction to that. >> it just shows that there is a human side contrary to what we believed but there is a human side to george zimmerman. we are crying, to. it just hurts deeply to hear this. and if i had shot and killed an individual, i'm sure i would be crying also and i would feel remorse and things like that, too, because i had taken a human life, a young human life. >> i mean, from everything that you have seen, that you've read, that you've heard, what do you

believe is the most likely set of circumstances that led to your son being killed? >> i believe that george zimmerman hunted my son like an animal, tried to detain my son. my son tried to get away and because he could not detain my son, an altercation ensued and my son was shot and killed. >> and, tracy, do you believe that there was a racial element to this? because joe oliver, again, a later clip from an interview, which i won't play you, but i can tell you what he said. he basically implied that george zimmerman didn't have a racist bone in his body. there certainly wouldn't have been any motive to done what he did. >> i almost certainly don't know zimmerman's character. i don't know his makeup. but what i do know is that my son was racially profiled. i know that.

the whole world knows that. and as far as him being a racist, i really don't know him. i've never had an encounter with him so i can't speak on that matter. but i can speak on the facts and the facts are george zimmerman did racially profile trayvon martin. >> sybrina, do you believe if your son had been white and george zimmerman had been black, that he would have been arrested, george zimmerman? >> i absolutely believe that my son would have been arrested. it wouldn't have been an explanation that he could have given the sanford police department to ensure that he would not go to jail. they would not have listened to that. they would have arrested him and let them -- let him plead his case in a court of law. i don't believe that he could have shot someone if -- i don't believe he could have shot someone and went home that same night.

>> let me turn to, perhaps, your lawyer, mr. crump, again. about the stand your ground law -- everyone is saying, look, we have to wait for the investigation to run its course before any arrest can be considered. and, of course, the investigation was effectively conducted on the night and we now know the lead investigator in the case recommended zimmerman be charged with manslaughter after the shooting, but the state attorney's office overturned this, said there wasn't enough evidence. so the case was basically dust and dusted in a matter of hours. >> piers, you know, we have the 911 tape that we hear with our ears, we have this video that we see with our eyes. we don't need anything else to know that there was some kind of conspiracy to sweep trayvon martin's death under the rug. it is real clear, we can believe our eyes and we can believe our ears now that the lead

investigator was right when he said it doesn't added a up. he didn't think it was credible and for some reason the state attorney, the police chief and the chief whose acting as chief at the sanford police department made a decision to ignore the evidence we see, ignore the evidence we hear, and to ignore common sense. trayvon martin had a bag of skittles. george zimmerman, this armed vigilante, had a 9 millimeter gun. >> let me ask you, sybrina, as trayvon's mother, you've seen a lot of vigilante groups now. we've seen this group calling themselves the new black panther party, putting a bounty out for george zimmerman. emotions are running high, temperatures are getting very dangerously high here. what is it, as his mother, that you would like to see happen next? >> i would like george zimmerman arrested immediately.

that's the first and foremost thing that we want right here for this case, is we need an arrest. >> and do you believe that the video that's emerged tonight should lead to that arrest on the basis that the story that's been put out here in george zimmerman's defense, that he was being beaten so badly that he feared for his life, cannot, as this video would suggest, be true? >> i believe that this video is the icing on the cake. this is not the first part of the evidence that they have had. they have had the 911 tapes and they have also have witnesses. this is in addition to what the sanford police department has always had. there is no problem with this case and he needs to be arrested. >> tracy, if you had the chance to speak to george zimmerman right now, what would you say to him? >> i would ask him why did he in

fact pick out my son, what was going through his mind that night? do he realize he's destroyed an innocent child's life? my son had a future. my son was not one of these thugs in the night. he was loved. i would ask him, why did he in fact take my son's life and how does he feel about taking my son's life? >> sybrina, many believe that you are suffering perhaps even more now since losing your son by the attempt of some people to assassinate his character, to bring out all of this stuff about his behavior which portrays him in a very damaging light. what would you say about that? >> it bothers me as a mother to

hear all of those negative things about my son. i knew trayvon. i lived with trayvon. i know what he's capable of doing and i know what he's capable of not doing. it just hurts us to know that people are trying to damage his name. they murdered him. they are trying to murder his reputation. i've said that before. and it's just painful to me as a mother. >> well, sybrina, tracy, benjamin crump, thank you for joining me this evening. i hope you find justice. i hope you find some peace from this. it must be an ongoing agony for you. our hearts go out to you. they really do. thank you for spending time with us this evening. >> thank you, piers. >> thank you. >> the killing of trayvon martin has sparked national dialogue. on race. and this friday a special town hall beyond trayvon, race and justice in america.

coming up next, lionel richie is back. ♪di s ] we're pressed for time so here it is. i'm looking for the one. kids, house, the whole domestic thing, you know? then why does your relationship status say, "never getting married"? hmm... that was the old me. it says you updated it 15 minutes ago. yes...yup... yeah that was before i met you. favorite pickup line: "nothing mattered before i met you." ha...oh...that's... why did i put that... [ male announcer ] only at&t's 4g network lets your iphone download three times faster. at&t. here's a chance to create jobs in america. oil sands projects, like kearl, and the keystone pipeline will provide secure and reliable energy to the united states. over the coming years, projects like these could create more than half a million jobs in the us alone. from the canadian border, through the mid west, to the gulf coast.

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you know the song, the 1977 hit "easy." did you know, the original title was "leave me alone"? the man behind some of the best love songs ever, lionel richie. lionel is back and going country. his new album is called t tuskegee. >> you pronounced that perfectly. >> i did.

you were in los angeles singing penny lover. >> what kind of group was that? by the way, don't give up your job. stay right where you are. do not move. >> it wasn't that bad. fueled with jack daniels. it adds a richness to my voice. >> i was going to say -- >> you're looking disgustingly in good shape. >> you know, as long as i can look disgustingly wonderful after what my children have done to me, i'm doing all right. trust me. >> before we come on to your remarkable twist, the country music and your incredible career, i wanted to get your reaction to the interview that i just conducted with trayvon martin's parents. what did you make of what they were saying? >> you know, i'm a parent. how i approach this is just everyone take the race card out for a moment. if you received a phone call saying your child was shot and killed because he looked it suspicious, armed with a cell phone, and the other guy has a gun. the next thing is, did he have any kind of markings on him that said security? so your kid thinks someone's chasing him.

i mean, this is just how i feel. and then you can't really get an explanation as to what really happened. don't put a color on that. just imagine. and now the outrage that is happening is, if this was just a one off situations it would be wonderful. it would be something that we could investigate. this is a common occurrence in the black community and so i understand now the outrage of trying to find out -- it looks so obvious, what it is, we just can't get them to say that. >> there are several issues at play here. one is the apparent race issue which i think may be a slightly miscued way of approaching this. >> right. >> because george zimmerman, you know, he's not a white guy. he's not a white man kill killing a black man. so in the conventional sort of incident, that doesn't quite work. what you have is an extraordinary law in florida, stand your ground, which entitles anybody, if they feel their life's in danger, to shoot

somebody. >> but do they have a stalking law? in other words, the kid felt, i'm sure -- i don't know who this guy is that is following me. we don't know if he identified himself as a security guard. we don't know this. and so i can only say if it were my son, i would be terrified to think of what he went through. you know, i don't know the circumstances. we don't know. it's just one of those situations where every part in america, in the world would say, what happened? >> it's really important, it seems to me, that you have to allow the legal process to take its course. >> i know. >> george zimmerman may well have been attacked. we just don't know. the video doesn't help his cause. people watching that video tonight, as i did, and as you did, i'm sure, are saying, where are these injuries that caused him to believe that he was being apparently his nose broken, head thrown on the floor. it doesn't look like that's happened. >> is it attacked or fighting for his life?

we can skew it the other way. i mean, if someone pulls out a gun and you're not sure whether you're being mugged or whether you're being apprehended -- we don't know this. and so i'm sure without the proper, you know, investigation, we will never really know what those few seconds were. >> doesn't the nature of stand your ground as a law just frighten you as an american? doesn't it make you think, this can't be right, this law? because it's so vague. the idea that george zimmerman wasn't even arrested on the night is what appalls people. he shot a guy that's unarmed. even if they had a fight, it doesn't give you the right to shoot him in the street, does it? >> we're bringing back the wild west. in other words, we have another going on right now to where fear, people don't trust, and all of a sudden you put on top of that stand your ground, which means you're saying in case you feel any fear at all, you can stand your ground and shoot someone else. i mean, if you have a gun, you

can justifiably shoot someone and say, i was feeling fear. >> there are gang leaders now apparently who are using this as a legal excuse to get off killing other gang members. it's ridiculous. >> this is ridiculous. and i think what we have to do is take nine steps back and go back to human. we have to use commonsense here, piers. and i'm telling you, as a a parent you've got to look at this, i wouldn't want my kid on the street anymore. what is suspicious? what classification -- is that racial profiling? suspicious? what does that really mean? every kid i know in the world has a hoodie. you know, i go -- we walk in beverly hills every day. every kid in beverly hills has a hoodie. are they going to be deemed suspicious? and what is that really going to mean for this world we live in? in florida that law should be thrown out without a shadow of the doubt. >> you grew up in the south. >> yeah.

>> you've spoken before that your parents protected you from racism. tell me about that. >> it was interesting. i was born and raised on tuskegee university, or tuskegee campus. it's exactly 38 miles away from montgomery, alabama. but if the klan marched any night, they would put us to bed early. so we didn't really know what that felt like, at least my generation. and when you have people like the tuskogee airmen, that's where they were from. ph.d.s, doctors, lawyers, they trained us that everything was available to you. i did not know that we had a problem with where can we go to get a job? everything is available. i did not know we had a problem with, where can we go to get a job? whether it was a doctor, a lawyer, they were all there. because segregation made

tuskegee so powerful. they were all little meccas of very intelligent people, because segregation was in and no jobs were available outside of those little townships. >> when was the first time that you realized that there was racism? >> the first time i knew about it was when i was old enough to start that, because we had a college student living with us that went to that. i was too young to participate. but he would come back and tell me all about that and when you see these huge policemen with the dogs and the spray and the horses, and everyone is there, you know, unarmed, you know, and it was quite -- it was impactful to me. i remember as a kid i kept thinking, where are we going with this? and then i think when it really hit home for me was i had a chance to hear malcolm x speak on the campus and he dealt with the issue in a very philosophical way. i thought it was brilliant.

he said, don't you think times are getting better? and the answer was, if you stick a knife in a man's side and you pull it out halfway, is it better? only until you pull the knife all the way out and the wound heals is it better. and i kept that as my mantra throughout my growing up. that all we're doing right now is rehashing exactly what my mom and dad went through, my mom and dad's parents went through, and now here we are with the next, next, next generation, talking about insensitivity, racial profiling, it's the same. it's the same identical story, just a new generation. >> let's take a break. i want to come back and talk a bit more about this. i want to see whether you think america is more or less racist since it got its first black president and also want to talk about whitney houston, your great friend who so tragically died recently. and the song "hello." let's get to hello at some point.

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♪ i sometimes see you pass outside my door ♪ ♪ hello, is it me you're looking for ♪ ♪ i can see it in your eyes, i

can see it in your smile ♪ >> piers, just stop. >> sing to me. i'm feeling it. >> security. security. >> it's me you're looking for. it's me. somebody just tweeted. red devil 234, if lionel starts singing, for god sakes don't sing along. >> you'll have to be honest, we owe you a great debt of thanks and gratitude. >> i am here to help you. >> really? >> yes. >> you did more for our efforts to seduce women than any singer in my generational lifetime. >> i am going to tell you a fact, i get more compliments from men than i do women. >> i bet you do. >> and by the way, they don't talk. women will walk in and tell me, i was engaged, i fell in love, we had children, we got married. guys have one signal they give me. they go, lionel, you understand? that says it all. >> i understand.

>> you understand me? and i tell them all the time when they come to the show, listen, i know -- i know this is a bit over your head, but lean over to your girlfriend and say, isn't he amazing? and then you, i -- i am going to sing to her. you are going to take her home. think of it, it's all over. did i get that right? that's good. >> it's moving me even now, though. >> am i moving you? >> you had all of the commadore stuff. that's enough for most people. >> i was going to retire. >> with the greatest body of work of seduction in all time and then you go on and explode to a higher plynthe of love poetry. >> you seem -- is he annoyed? >> no, i've remained greatful. >> surprisingly, i was thinking of the and i was good to go. and then all of a sudden a guy

came along called kenny rogers. lady, and then endless love behind that. and then the doors blew off with all night long, hello and all that. >> you've got five minutes left to live. you can sing one of those songs before you die. which one is it? because i know which one it would be for me. >> really? >> well, mine would probably be, i would want to go out in a happy mood. hello would not be it. all night would be one where i go, ba-boom. and if i had to reflect from the commodore side it would be easy. >> would it really? >> it would be easy all night long. >> mine would be penny lover. >> kenny chesney's favorite song is penny lover. and i would not equate penny lover to -- it's weird. >> it was always penny lover to me. i don't know why. when i heard that song, the old body started to shake, to bump and grind. >> one of disk jockeys said, this is lionel's cheap song. >> what is the secret of singing love music? >> you know what happens? i lucked out and found a topic that will never, ever go out of

style. love. the entire world is looking for three corny words. i love you. believe me, in 35, 40 years of writing, i have tried to find another way, they don't want to hear, i like you, let's hang out, let's shack up, just for the night, it doesn't work like that. i love you is forever. and so if you go, i love you, i want you, i need you forever, you have just sold a record. and the next thing is, they are trying to find guys who -- what's that word now? compassionate. they want guys who are sensitive. >> in touch with their sensitive side. >> their sensitive side. >> yes. and so i have one dear friend of mine who finally gave her husband truly and said, copy the words down and just say it to me. he just had no sensitivity whatsoever. >> are you for real a sensitive, romantic, loving type of guy? >> i am a hopeless romantic. is and my problem is, get this now, i was diagnosed when i was

a kid, there was no a-d-d, there was no -- i was, lionel's overly sensitive, is the word they used. and my mother was crying, what do we do with this overly sensitive kid? so i would have made a terrible lawyer. a terrible lawyer. but then once with i started writing these songs, then automatically it made sense to me, because i kind of go in simplicity, the simplest way to say it is the only way people want to hear it. >> how many times have you been properly in love in your life? >> god, you would ask that question. probably three times. probably three times in my preschool class. i fell in love -- >> do you remember her? >> i do remember her. >> what was the name? >> do i have to say it out loud? >> yes. >> andapass. >> and how old was she? >> and there was another one, dairielle watson.

now i'm going to get phone calls. oh, my god. >> but these are your first loves? >> these are the ones where you go, oh, my god. and why? she just said hello to me, you know, and then from there, of course, i married the second one. that was brenda. and i married the third. >> yes. >> that was diane. >> so you married two of the three people that you've been in love with? >> yes. but you have to understand, it takes a lot for me to jump the broom. and, of course, now that i've been in hollywood for a minute, i must tell you that it's gotten out of hand here a little bit. >> in what sense? >> well, you think a little before you say i love you. or as i say to people every day, every time i say i love you i lose a house. but -- but now that cinderella love is going to be absolutely something that comes along that you're looking for. you really are looking for it. >> what have you really learned about love? >> that you have to throw yourself -- i love that word, fall in love. if you're not falling in love, it means you let go.

you have to let go. you can't control it. if you're not out of control and you know you're out of control when all of your friends will tell you, i wouldn't do that if i were you and you go, i don't care. i don't care is the key word to falling in love. and you don't really mind what people say -- >> how do you keep love alive? how do you do it in your marriage? >> well, mine is easy fp all you have to do is have kids and then i celebrate the mother of my kids. so i'm a different kind of guy. instead of celebrating the last three months, there was the complete disaster of the marriage, i celebrate the time, what was it when it was special. you follow me? and then once you become the mother of the kids, you will always be on that pedestal forever. so with me i have a love affair with my family and it took me 20 years for the first wife to speak to the second wife and -- >> do they get along now? >> it's perfect. it's actually quite unusual that we are a tribe now.

but i love it so much because our kids get to experience the family, the tribe. >> that's special. >> i love it. i must tell you, it's great for them to see us all interact. >> do you sing at these little tribal meetings? >> absolutely not. you know what it is, and i think you experienced the same, we are superstars until we come home and then i am dad. and i love that. >> i'm not even a superstar before i leave. this is where you and i have a slight different starting point. >> well, what i love most is that -- and it's a grounder for me. i actually have kids that miss the commodores. i actually have kids that miss the '80s and now i have grandkids and they don't know who the heck i am at all. which i am loving the most. i am papa. when papa comes in the room, we have showbiz. >> let's take a break and i want

to come back and talk about whitney. and i want to see how you felt about the report that came out recently. i also want to talk to you about the sculpture in the "hello" video. and i'm told that there is a shocking tale to be revealed. >> yes. >> let's hear it after the break. ♪ you'll always be my endless love ♪ ♪

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♪ i sometimes see you pass outside my door ♪ ♪ hello ♪ hello >> i'm back. that was terrible. i should stick to penny lover. you are sweating. you've never revealed that first love story. >> no. >> you've been panicking the whole break. >> i was fine until you said who are they. these are preschool days. do you understand? the whole town of tuskegee is making phone calls right now. >> what charisma, fascinating dude, love his funky stuff, not into the ballads. >> well you know what the answer to that is? >> what? >> he's not in love yet. >> that is true. >> no, as soon as -- >> it's dancing on the ceiling until you meet the right girl. >> i was a reviewer for years. the reviews were sappy, slurpy and then all of a sudden he reviewed me and he said, do you

have one of those amazing ballads and i said, oh, you're married. he said yes, two kids now, lionel. in other words, until you fall in love, you know nothing of what i'm talking about. >> have you ever made love to your own music? >> you have asked me -- who is this guy? you mean my first love was not enough? >> no. i need more from you. >> the answer is absolutely not. >> never? >> are you kidding me? >> it would be a bit awkward? >> i love it when someone says, do you whisper? of course i do. >> who is the biggest, most romantic sexual singer you've ever deployed? >> holy cow. that's pretty interesting. well, marvin gaye. >> has to be? >> marvin did it for me. you understand me?

>> i think i understand. >> yes. did i say that on national television? i mean, in other words -- yeah, marvin was -- marvin -- did it have a barry white night. >> barry white and smoky robinson. i'm kind of giving it to you -- >> and candle lit rooms? >> you understand. yes. >> let's get to the sculpture in the "hello" video. tell me about the sculpture. >> well, first of all, it was a nightmare. everyone thinks it was a wonderful scene. no, no, no. i spent -- bob while we were filming this during the video, i kept following him around going, bob, i saw the bust, it doesn't look like me. he says, i'll talk to you later. we'll talk about it. now we're getting closer to the scene. i said, bob, i want to talk to you. the bust does not look like me. and now of course we're shooting the scene. he says, lionel, she's blind. you understand? >> i understand. >> immediately i said, i understand. i had to be sensitive again.

but i hated the way it looked, okay? so immediately after -- i mean, 20/20 hindsight i should have saved it, of course, and put it in the house and it would be part of the museum. no, no, as soon as it was over with, i just attacked it. >> attacked it. let's turn to wit me houston. we talked on the night that she died. i was in the studio and you very kindly rang in. you were with very emotional and also eloquent. since then, a real picture has come through strongly. natalie cole said it again and the real problem for whitney was when she lost the power of her voice. as a singer, have you been through that process? is your voice as good as it was 20 years ago? do you understand that? >> i understand that. i have been through three surgeries, vocal surgeries. and while you're sitting there in silence, the question comes up, who am i? who am i really? without this voice? and without me walking into a

room saying, lionel, hello? who are you? i did it that time. who are you really? and as an artist you are defined by your voice. now, let's look at when you first start. it's a young voice. as you get older, can you hit those same notes at 19 and at 45? no. you take it down a half step. then by 50 and 60 you take it down a whole step. in other words, you're not as spot object as you're supposed to be. >> what does the pressure of performance become like when you go through that deterioration? >> you are going through panic because we are perfectionists or as i say, all artists, we're egotistical maniacs with inferiority complex. we want to take over the world. and at the same time, 15 seconds after walking down the elevator to walk off the stage it's 30,000 people who say, we love you. in your head you go, i can't do that again. until you walk back up those stairs again and actually do it.

and each time you walk out there, you have to be perfect. you have to -- they are looking for you. you have to hit that note like you did on that record. if not, something's wrong. there's something wrong up here, too. and it happens to us. i watched it happen with michael. you know, had he two problems. he had to dance as well as hit the notes. and it's a perfection thing -- >> and the relevant thing is you get to 50 like he did and whitney was nearly 50 and your body and your voice will not be able to perform at the level as when you were 25. >> exactly right. but we expect it and the audience expects it. now, if you can just -- let me say this right -- if you can make friends with yourself, that's what i had to do. i had to finally figure out, let me make friends with myself or otherwise i will drive myself crazy. it's called, i'll sing it a different way. or what i do on stage some nights, when i really don't think i can hit that note, i go, come on -- and everybody sings the song for me. thank god we have karaoke going. but it really is a compliment to

an artist if you realize the audience is singing with you. >> the other thing you can do is just to be, as i have proven tonight, always a terrible singer, and there can be no room for deterioration. >> see, that applies to you. that does not apply to me. but it's really something where, we're a business of amazing talent and amazing tragedy. and what we have to understand sometimes is that the pressure that we put on each other, on ourselves, and then if you can imagine, we are watching little vignettes of reality that we call entertainment now. that's the tragedy of life. to watch whitney go the way she did, to watch michael go the way he did, we were enjoying the entertainment of it, instead of saying, we're watching a tragedy happen right before our eyes. >> very true. let's take a final break and talk country music. you have been become, ironically, the new kenny rogers. >> hello. hello. come on.

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so cassandra sent me a twitter at piers morgan. great interview. i was married and i walked down the aisle to "truly." there wasn't a dry eye. you must have been played at more weddings, christenings, funerals than anybody alive. >> we have more than three million copies of sheet music. that was before the internet. you know we with took over "endless love," "truly," "hello," i mean come on. >> take your greatest hits and do songs with the greatest country songs. shania twain, willie nelson, blake shelton, tim mcgraw. kenny chesney. what a lineup. >> you know what made it so wonderful, someone said are you going country? i said no, no, no, i was born in the country. and country radio was radio when i was growing up. the songs have already gone country. i'm just going back to claim my kids. that's all i'm doing. you know what's so brilliant about this.

we filmed every session. so we have every artist explaining where they were, what they were doing at the time they fell in love with these songs. so they're singing the songs that they liked. >> they're fabulous versions. i want everyone to go out and buy this. lionel richie "tuskegee", you did a brilliant impression from the "we are the world" video. where all these big stars got to sing line. who sang the best line? >> the one i loved the most -- ♪ there's a choice we're making ♪ >> you know what's comforting to me? your bob dylan impression is even worse than my lionel richie. >> can i tell you, i'll take that as a compliment, okay? bob, you have nothing to worry about. >> this has been one of my favorite interviews i have ever done. please come back. >> finally we're together.

>> please come back before too long. i hope everyone goes and buys this. i love the country twist. everyone will love this. i have loved it. i feel swathed with love. >> i love that. i can't get my mouth around it. >> can you sing the line to me? ♪ i sometimes see you pass outside my door ♪ ♪ hello, is it me you're looking for ♪ >> it is me you've been looking for. lionel -- >> pleasure, my friend. >> thank you so much. i can't even continue. coming up next, only in america. 50 banned words and why some educate hes don't want your kids to hear them. they should just listen to lionel richie. that's what they should do. >> write that down. ♪ that'll be $973.42. ya know, your rates and fees aren't exactly competitive.

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tonight only in america, words, words, words. you have heard about george carlin's seven words you can't say on tv. i still can't say them tonight. but believe it or not, there are 50 words you can't use on tests in new york city. that's right. 50 words of the department of education wants to ban from standardized tests. the school's chancellor says they're just trying to make sure they're sensitive.

which words are on the ban? dinosaur. what on earth could be wrong with dinosaur? it might rile creationists. obviously. silly of me. halloween, because that's a pagan holiday. birthday is out, because jehovah's witnesses don't celebrate birthdays. really? and of course, death and disease and divorce could be upsetting. no mention of politic, rap music, no religion, rock 'n' roll. which frankly means i could say absolutely nothing if the same rules applied to this show. there are certain words that are hateful and hurtful and they have no place in schools or on tests. but when it comes to the words on this list, new york city department of education should go back to the wise old children's rhyme, sticks and stones can break my bones, but city words will never hurt me. tomorrow night, a man who might use a bad word or two.