home. at five thirty pm moscow time these are the top stories from archie scaremongering over syria's chemical weapons potential get the world community fired up despite assurances from damascus that such arms won't be used in the country's internal crisis. and terror concerns for syria grow on the back of a resurgent al qaeda which is accused of the militant onslaught that left more than a hundred people dead in iraq. no let up for the eurozone italian mayors protest against austerity while the ratings agencies set their sights on the e.u. key economies including germany. well next grammy winning soul and jobs to primo george benson is with al gore nov and spotlight.

no again i walk into spotlight the interview show on r.t. . today my guest on the program is a superstar we always try to keep spotlight interactive and today's one of the days one of this concept has worked out recently i got mail from mr hugo gilkey who among other things asked me to interview brilliant american musician george benson well luckily mr benson came on tour to moscow with all his jazz so today ladies and gentlemen let me lay on you a great entertainer great humanitarian and i though for generations our music fans mr george benson. george benson started

to see not long after he learned how to speak the prodigy from pittsburgh recorded his first song at the age of ten however at fifteen he fell in love with the guitar and became one of the best just guitarist of all time benson says he never could choose between singing and playing music he succeeded in both an amazingly bursa time musician and someone numerous awards including ten grammys for instrumental and vocal performances he plays in just about any style from swing to r. and b. to pop and beyond. and. it's a. good. laugh

. hello george was with the show thank you very much for being with us today spicy by spicy with. well i want to start with a thing i just learned recently i read actually stuart held a bestselling british author said once that he started his career had the age of sixteen at a local factory but after the first two weeks of hard labor in the shop he quit promising himself he will never work and now the day life became a writer started writing books was there any similar emotion that influenced your career when you were a young guy. no not really because it's all been work even when i didn't know

i was working. in a nightclub seven years old i was singing dancing and playing the ukulele and it was were i was a professional at seven so it's been work from the very beginning but there was one point in my career when i was building houses i worked were construction company not very long and we were putting up the walls in buildings and they came in panels and you had to put. on the fast you did more. and then i realize one in the you it was a hatchet to cut the board. if you break it. then you don't have to go with the other but if i've missed with that hatch who my fingers and once i saw the potential. i was walking out of the place and the boss asked me where you go. and i

said i can't do this anymore man my fingers i don't know what the potential is i don't know i was going to be a guitar player in life you know but i know how on how all of that i was in my teens then in the writing says i already played the guitar and you already were a musician so what made you what made you get that construction they made from the money away when i just got married i was only eighteen. i just got married first. and. i was doing it to pick up extra money i was working on the weekend tonight so he claimed music i was making a very nervous money i was mostly a singer everybody knew me as georgie benson the singer and the guitar was just a feeling you know i was never i wasn't serious yet. speaking about work hard work labor well of course when we when we were kids we think about authors and musicians and think this is not work this is this is fun but as we get older for example i like to say that i would be doing the same thing i do now for free and i got lucky

that there that they need to pay me money for that do you get the same of the say the same emotion or as you said you're a professional you do it. all to one point they wore me out. i made records when i was ten years old and my mother saw what it was doing to my child and i had no childhood i was a professional singer and i even had a radio show when i was ten years old. and she sold and i was now no longer a kid so she went to our managers you know more that's it my son is not going to be in the music he's going to go to school like every other board and be a little kids like so we went back to you know we were. we didn't have any of your money oriented like. poor people. and i went back to that but i did have a child i got a chance to hang around with all the friends you know in school so was that was

that the time when you recorded she makes me mad. that was my first record i recall it was first it was a single was it yeah make you popular or is it what they say about it now or not really i mean at least new york city didn't become popular guy i mean part of the neighborhood bully neighborhood in mind i was a kid from there playing roommate records from their school and that was big time you know so yeah but it was all those things that answer your question you talked about earlier when i was doing it then it became a chore. and a ten year old can't really grasp the meaning of money what it would mean to my family or anything it didn't mean anything to me except i have bought some ice cream and candy. that's all the value money had for me so it became a chore everywhere i went it was a little georgie saying something saying something but i didn't like it very much he said. the kids never like way with whatever you do so i used to play piano and

as a kid when the grownups that together say so play something we don't say that their way i mean me it's fun to play for the friends the girlfriends but not for parents . of the joy of it but you did get a musical education that you know the really really my step from play guitar when he met my mother i was four years old. no i was seven years seven years old and he found a ukulele i told him i want closer than a small hawaiian get over what it is that one. was out of that they found what i wanted to play guitar and he realized my other two small you found a ukulele in a garbage can somewhere in the way and broken it all up so he glued it back together and he put some strings on it and he taught me the very first chords. a couple of months out and i was out on the street corners making money with made

more money in one day to my mother made in two weeks when i just my going out walking around the street with the ukulele in my hand people who play that play and i go you know you play a lot of guitar in guitar. the caustic and electric what what's your favorite sound which guitar do you prefer because to calexico whatever i didn't like flamenco guitar i'll never be a political player i think you have to start very young yeah have to it's a whole how you handle. but it is big stuff and i think it's closer to the original concept of the guitar which was i think talk to the spanish they took over from the morse. an incredible invention and nobody believes it better. well i read in one of the the papers that you used the g b thirty and also the jellicoe guitarist during your recent recording

so. when we see people like you having like doesn't get turned on station and changing the what determines your choice of a guitar except except for the kind of music you're playing is there something specific why you choose this. or that there are characteristics certain instruments made by certain people somewhere more rare. something. mine is kind of a medium it's a compromise between tone resonance oh all of that i've found that if you fall in love with something usually someone will take it from me. somebody will still broken up so i don't fall in love with any and you know that what happens so if it's got six strings on it i can play it. but you do prefer the banas guitars and well the grapevine is that that you gave advice to the company which made them

push them all the way up to number two good benefaction in the world is that true you don't work for them i mean it wasn't just like free advice i was sure it would be designed to get or really i designed it was in my mind from the time i was a little boy and so when they came to me and asked me if i would be interested in being associated with the come in i told them i said you make great guitars some of the best i've ever played but you don't have a new original designs they said do you have any ideas. so i designed a g b ten and a g b twenty the g b ten has become a classic and it's they still make it it's the flagship of their coming and now they went from the security they were no nobody yet they have not made a real reputation and then they went to number two in the world who's i'm very proud of them as a company but they stuck to their guns making great guitars. you do you also have

the l.g.b. their little johnny baton guitar and also the reason which was named after your brain is now them is that true to the l.g.b. means little georgie really isn't. it's not a little guitar it's actually representative of a moment of a time in my life very special time like and it's a tribute to the little georgie benson who used to be a little guy with a great big turning. and i thought it would be. you know important now to to reiterate that feeling that concept that idea that that spurred me on to become where we are today i don't. i can't really measure who i am today people tell me things but i don't listen to everything i hear so you're not only in show business you're also guitar manufacturers. to a degree i stay on the side after i do creation and they tell me what the value of

it is i let them do their own sales pitch and present a guitar in a way but they honor me. in many ways when i see the everett ties in with some things i makes me wonder how you managed to to to keep such a low profile and well we talk about it after the break just reminds me that my guess on the show today is the great challenge benson just a reminder that you're watching spotlight will be back after the break so stay with us still.

wealthy british style stocks it's time to. market. find out what's really happening to the global economy with mike stronger for a no holds barred look at the global financial headlines kaiser reports. well i'm just a reminder that my guest on the show today is george benson george i've been listening to your music for years you've been playing with miles glasby ology rao well lots of people and the sound of your music well at least this is my impression

has changed dramatically since. nothing's going to change my love for you for example a completely different sound so did your friends your partners influence yeah i mean and it will influence you most or was it just a natural process of developing a new new sound more natural process i don't really know how our sound i search for a particular sound that's in my head i try to present that to the public play to each and every night but i don't know how it's coming across sometimes i'm just surprised to hear myself as other people are saying is that me is that the sound and i really. am amazed to hear what comes out but every day is a different challenge and i keep trying to improve more so i'm looking for the same sound that the charlie christian had and kenny burrell and wes montgomery and a few others so i'm a combination of all of those sounds of my. you. easy

listening we're with classical with intellectual more complicated jazz well why isn't it happening today with. most of the other musicians why why why today is serious music i mean even jazz and serious jazz go completely apart with popular with sick with with what's really the radio. in my mind i've always been searching for a pop audience. because that's what i played when i was a kid i played songs that were popular king cole benny goodman. like that you know and all. the great songs by the top singers who were mostly in the pop range you know i grew up with blues singers and r. and b. and i was singing groups and i did the organ trio and then graduated to miles davis and count basie and all of them i worked on. duke ellington's band and i

substituted ella fitzgerald could you imagine my mother says my son is substituting for elf it's your old. magic what do. i mean to me it's a very challenge don't get me wrong and and and i learned something from you know because i work with the bass the orchestra when i substitute for twice the meter herself yeah yeah i mean. we're on the same shows together. quite in the credible person but she's a lesson person when you listen to her you learn something you experience or you learn that music is all over the place is she a lot different on stage i mean from what we hear and records you know the same the same like louis armstrong once you hear the sound as is with you forever and she is the only one that has that song so if you want that some of that feeling you had to

go to elope it's a journey to get i always want to be that kind of artist. you said you were vocalists you started as a vocalist which is true your your valve sort of voice really major major started pretty early but for me when i started listening to music records the sabbath you know it's hard to get that first got. that's jazz guitarist and from my generation of kids here in russia george burns who was a jazz guitarist but you but you still say you're a vocal so why are you going with the vocals first. no i realize that we've made some inroads and we've really reintroduced. the jazz guitar in the same light that. charlie christian drew it used to swing and make people day to day people said to make love almost to. people in the background. you know whatever. and the club owners don't you be quiet that out yeah how can you

become part of the music if you're not allowed to even talk so i like the air with benny goodman doo doo doo doo doo doo doo that's me look deleted you know making people. and then they stand up and they want to go on the dance floor you still do those little gigs i mean small small smoky clubs or you know we can't do that anymore why why can't i mean the problem is that. the public does not understand the difference really now and the club owners start calling you from all over the world i heard you worked at a club in new york we'd like you to come work in our club it's part and they feel you feel so when you say no even the airfare for two people is more than their budget. really and my son air blowing with nobody. the reason i ask is about twenty years ago i when i went to atlanta georgia and i walked in there little bob barr and i saw familiar face singing and that to mean that like oh

. and they introduced me i was a young kid i said what are you doing here this is i mean you know you sell millions of records she she says i love to do that it keeps keep the flame alive you know the answer when. i have done it i like doing it and i sit in everywhere. i've sat in with all of the greats of our time you know at one time and i'm done a lot of sitting with tony bennett and many of the female stars you know and we've done all kinds of things but if you get paid for that then you are a club back. then it means i can not exist i'm either going to sell my houses and my car and start from scratch i mean i'm back and all my children's education money is gone. joe is it true you were pretty close friend of michael jackson. i knew and then there was family just passing this oh but i did have an incredible conversation with him once because we both had the same religion you know who and once in london i went down to his room and had

a great conversation with him and he learned intelligent and. and then i saw. him years later after we both became dedicated to our particular religion i saw what the people around him could do. you know he was very new york that he wanted to be nice to everybody in this world that can be a danger and then the source of everybody is there what killed him i don't know i really don't know but i know that there was a lot of strangeness going on around him and they tried that with me but i was a little more mature i have been around and i have been bounced all over the place myself. tell me is much of what we read about michael jackson is much of it true and i doubt it you know that. when we sophisticated was. in his approach he was he would knock on the door with

a bible in his hand and people say you know. did anybody ever tell you look just like michael. he said that old. boys are very nice clean cut young jungle. i'm going to quote from yourself a you hear leader a much. more modest lifestyles and most of the people are very stage anyone said ike well the only time people know i was still alive is when i have got a record coming out. this is this is this is what you said so is it difficult for a girl like you to to to keep a low profile how do you do that and why do you need that why because of your religion because of yourself your sell your family what one do know they don't take one negative. report can change your whole life and change the way people think or you mean in the paper you know anybody can say anything in their

head. to the joke they write about you when i'm saying they haven't because i have . but once i got. i got very dizzy and. i overdid it and i fell. and i realized you can really lose consciousness so i called the medics months earlier. we were going to do a concert myself an elder oh there were twelve thousand people waiting for stat winners that it was in. italy. and they took me to lobby on a gurney and they had it as i put the sheet over my face. so look like they were moving. past all the people were getting ready to go to see my concert so they ruled me right past them and took we didn't ask for them and dr said. you know mr benson you're not going to be able to do the show tonight as it was you know what are you talking that's not what. he's here you know you're not in good shape us

that nobody in my at my age is perfect there's no sir i said this is what i do and i got twelve thousand people and my clothes were at the hotel so he made up you know that stuff that they used to make. paper oh yeah we wrapped my foot in paper and good bands around it and put a little paper thing over top of me and i went to the gig and reliance on a car ran it and will pass all these people who were waiting for me to come out of it they didn't realize this paper dog was. the real you so i would change calls and al was a gentleman stayed on twenty minutes extra because he heard that i was on the way from the hospital so well what you just told me it's amazing and it just it's it's not a profession we started with being professional it's an addiction is it it's like it's like needing a drug well thinking about this to twelve thousand people out there what makes jazz

so particularly addictive if they didn't have an answer to that. like classical music. it is special and you can be an individual we produce more individuals than jazz because i mean in classical music because classical music you pick one person who becomes the center of attention you know the great cellist and you have moved from violinists to dominate the planet but in jazz you can have thousands of people who are personalities well known to the public and their personality comes from their inventiveness they do things that nobody else can do as an individual so jazz has an incredible place in history you mentioned why it isn't popular and i mention why i like to make it popular to make it something that we all can and can. relate to they can become part of the music my audience and i forgot to put the point on that point you made

a minute ago about. if they had. when i got sick that time if someone had taken a picture of me coming through red lobby on the gurney the headlines would have beat me to the stage they would have internet and it was george benson dying you know long it would take to get over it my career would be over by the time people are all you me is until. we did that's what you have to watch but you know there's a saying that if they bury you before you're dead i mean if they say you are dead means you live a long and happy life i wish you a long and happy live on stage thank you very much for being with us and just a reminder that my guest today was a man they can play and the can sing jazz the great judgements and that's it for now from all of us here spotlight will be back until then fail a hearty and take it first thank you thank you great great writing.

to. tell.

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