tavis: goo evening, from los angeles. m tavis miley. tonight a cversation with civil rigs advoce joan baez. she was the vce of aivil rights movement ashe charged with dr. king. she had the march from selma to montgomery. she may famously sang "we shall overcome." to mark her 50t annivsary, glad you've oined u for a about th u.s. auto industry

and edi falco, cong up right now. >> there are so man things wal-mart islooking forwardto heping us digno, like elping yolive better. withour help the best isyet to cme. >> nationwide insurance prouly supports tavis sley. tavisnd nationwide isurance, working t improve inancial lite >> and the contributns to ur pbs station fro viewers like you. thank you. tavis: delighted, honor just out of words to welco joan ba, the inic artist is

called the queen of folk music. he career haspanned 50 years. she' airelessumanitarian and civil rights activistho worked with dr. king. she's o with her lest c.d. it's called "day afte tomorrow." befo we get to that conversation tonight, here is jo baez performing her song. ♪ and here'so the dn o their day la, l, a, la, la, la, ♪

tavis: soou see tha old footage and you think wha >> baby f. tavis: baby fat? i didn't see any baby f. >> a lo time ago. tavis: other than the hair being darker, y're doo doing ll. when you s footage li that, does it sm like 50 years in e business? >> not rlly. i'm always amazed when i see old footage. the fartherack, the more amazed i am. whoever she was ba the a long time ago. tavis: when you say whoever she was, i assumed there were stage, moments in your lif at you're going toook bac in 508 years and see where the mow -- 5 years and see the where the momentous changes have come in rro spect? i thi so. it feels like hom when i

arted writing. "sir gallahad the dmonds in rough era when i started reay rying more. there was a d, serious dip, which think every singer has. ne of us wanto admit it. think that does happen. you get reoriente what's going on around m and then you try and catch up. i think i have. so this will be another poi -- 5 years. tavis: how do you survive to your phras those dips in the caer? >> first of all, i think i takes a while to realizehat that's going o with me it took a while until on night i woke up 2:00 in the morning. i was working on an album. and i go, whym i working on this album? people aren'toing toe able to hear it. i department hav a way to distribute the music and so

forth. it kind of bingoed in the midd of the night i went out andound a management. i didn't have a management back then. athe beginning i didn't. i started at 1 years old. i just walked out on the sta an sang. th part that mteople go through, singi in clubs and trying to do publity and doing the things y need to do to be hea, i had to do that ch later, because was pretty clear saili for a long time. tavis:eaking of clear sailing,he point you made a moment ago, how do you regard retrospect the fact that the first song you wroteecomes not just ait, but a classic? how doeshat happen to the very fir song you wrote? >> i haveo idea. i don't thinkny of usnow very well whe this stuff comes from, when it jt comes. there's sometimes you say, i'm going to write a song about so and so. andou do it. andhat's more disciplin.

buwhen something comes up, with that song, my sister's second weding her hip wi boyfriend and it just came out. tavis: that said, as you look back at your 50 year, do you regard yourself first a foremost as singer,/perfoer or a song writer? >> probabl a singeperformer, because itart with tha for the rst 10 yea. for a numberf years've rerned to that, recding and singing theusic of generation of people that a coming up on my generation. younger. some of them considebly younger, trying to see through theiryes. it's reay quite different from the music that was written a few years ago. . vis: tell me how you referenc in the beginning a couple of tim -- talkebout humanitarian advocy -- how did you get into this space?

you startedt 18. but where didhe -- how did you kw that thisas your gift? ho did you find yourself in thispace of being able to use that gt? take me back to the beginning ofour -- >> you said, how did i find myself there because iidn't plan it. i didn' plan much of anything. iidn't have that left bin working for m so i just kind of went fro one thing to the left. i realized i had a voice when i s about 14. picked up the ukulele. sobody ought to me some cds at 14. tavis: at 1 >> at 1 and then i moved on tbell fontay. they was m introduction to folk. and then the next step was seeing and odetta. and some people who's names are not known the coffee shops in cambridge.

i had fun in high school. kids would ask me -- doou think you'd beamous? that woulde the last tng in my mind. i had a lot of equals about fame. iemember it was veryistinct that other people we famous. it was pretty healthy bause some of the emphasis went into singing. and because of my family and cial consciousness as quars who really reject violee and really don't think it ok to kill anybody and stick to that, so i was raised that way with atind of mentali. so it's easyor me to mo into socia change a humanitarian issues. and i found throughout m life that's where i've been the most comfortable singing wn there was someind of neeor it beyo the beauty of the song. nging in countrys that have terrle strife.

sneaking in undr marshall law d sneakinghrough. those are things that other people wouldt do. so my greatest gift is a voice. i really look at it as maintenance aselivery. and theond gift is how i chose how to use it. tavis: tell me about growing up as quaker. we read about it. every nownd then you gate chance to coner se with somebodyho grew up that way. at was it like growing up a quake sr >> when youe a kid, you can't standt. you have t sit there at the meeting and be quiet. i found a mentor whe i was about 16 who was a gndian adcate. any social change that w did or any political action that we t io was all based on

nonviolence. and that was myttraction to dr. king. he was 29 i think, when first hed him. and i was just -- i guessor me, i had been reading about nonviolee. i understoodt. bu to see dr. king who was involvedn busboy cots. it was solid it wasction at thatoint. i was just bide myse. tavis: youere 15? >> yeah. tavis: do you recall vividly the first time you s hi >> i do. was at a gathering put on by the quakers. it was pretty mu about violence. each year they had speak. an that year wasr. king, this young pher. tavis: that's aazing. w did you go from hearing him that first time at 16 to friending him, to wking wi him, to marching with him,

at one point drivi him? how d all that hpen? >> iannot remembe the very beginning of it. but inow as he moved along, the institute for the study of nviolence. and d king and his folks knew that they could come there t kind of build up their nonviolence argsnal in a sse, and get t support from us. and at the sam time, dr. king beganalling on me to go where he felt i was needed as an advocate of his movent. and i understood and he understood and i heard him say that the bla movement without including the whites wasn't worth it. was not gng to work. so there was nothing better for me to supporthan that. a lot of things abouting

people don know. he and obama are the mostaid back peopl i've seen -- i haven't met obama. ty draw this tremendous stngth they have inside. i knowhat king used to pray -- i mean, he was confrted with anotherissue. and he just simply prayed until he got some kind of an answer. tavis: for you, what was it about -- you were already already on this -- ts non-violent journey. and i say journey, i mean, you were steeped in this as aker. so it wasn't something tt you came to. yo were born io this. for thosef us who know the story dr. king, he had to be turned on to nonviolence. you were born to it so to speak. yond being born into it, how you cameo believehis as a philosop.

tell me about joa baez nonviolent formulati. >> i could see whatever pictures came to my mind. i lived in baghdad, iraq. tavis: we're going to talk out that. >> my fatheras with unesco. head the job of teaching at the university of bhdad. we three kids and my mom were there forbout a year. someime during that year, you know, a i saw things which my clsmates at home would never see. we saw poverty. and we saw sorrow. weaw kids who we bken. we saw people. we saw cels and siks walkg down the mn street. you never kne who was going spit first. e stuff they said was so shocking. my parents became quakers wn

i was 8. my mher gave me a copy of the diary anne fnk. and that was a huge pointn my life that i identified with h so strongly. what hpened fromeading that was tt i felt as a child that i was associated somehow with al children. and if any child d not want to be hurt or beatenhat i wouldn't nt to conle tm. i just thought, maybe it was simplistic, but wouldn't want to be beaten wit a rubber ho. so i assed that nobody wanted to be bt within a rubbe hose. that's how it got started and how it began to build. you know, i think i'm lucky that i have a tt under my belt befor we staed thing like the marches for cil rightsnd then entually against the war in vietnam because think a lot of people came to tha for its sake,nd

then when it was over left in a sense. 1972, the e of the war in vietnam, i was disoriented. but i can imagine the peopl wh had been there just for that and so i had, younow, a cklog of thingshat i - rememberhe first time i was in a demonstration, i was wh my father at stanford university, and ian't even remember -- i think we were against bombsll ters. and somody start dropping wateralloons o us. so i had some idea from the beginning. was 18 and i went to a sane rally. d pete seeinger washere started pelti with us eggs and toe tay mows. i --omatoes. i didn' mind that. 's some sort of honor you're doing somethi and they thwing tomatoes. [laughter] tavis: i want to go bacto sothing you said a ment

ago. indulge me. i was speaking to a aience in texas. and iasiving this point came out. george bush, i was tre speakingight after the president had rurned -- former president had returned back to tas after leang the white house. d you know this because you were there, when dr. king came ou against the vietnamar, erybody as you recall turned againstim. the ncp, now celebrang its 100 years, roy wilki turned against him. lyndon johnsonisinvited him to the white hse, everybody rned against dr. king. i knewhis. i went back to d some research on this. turns out that the last public inion poll done about dr. king had his appval ratg at the same level as george w. bush's when heeft the white house. and weelebrate kingnd this

iconic figure 40 years lat, 41 yrs almost. but he dies on that balcony in memphis with the same aroval rating tt george w. bush lef the whi house. that's how low m.l.k.'s approval rating because of his opposition ofhe vietnam war. i asked you becau you were outocally opped to the war as dr. king. had youavigated that moment wherpeople thought you were cry, thought you were insane, thought you were as wrong as king was for being so violence -- s vocal in your opposition to the vietnam war? >> wl, i startedarly. i went o -- i created a march, ihink, in early 1960' before itas even official, e war in vietnam. -to-were already out again itefore it was official. >> we had advisors over there. and i thoht well, wehould

get in this. i di look like a goofy hippie. i was in carel not plac ere you had a lotf marches. and some frien and iade some signs. from then o -- actually i w dubbed a communisthen i did my own demonstraon in high school because they were gng to haven air raid drill. and when the air raid dll happened, we were all suppod to go home andget in our sell lars. it was absolutely ridulous. i wentome and talked toy ther, was a fist st about how long it would -- physicist about how longt wou take a bo to palo ao. some kids were hing bomb parties. i stayed in school. and it wasascinating. theyidn't know what do with me. i talked to the priipal. explained why. ialked with the vice principal. i talked with the sretaries about what i was dng and w.

the next day it wa in the paper, and the day aerhat, it was ira parents about thi comeie who was a danger to thr children in coom. and fromarly on -- to their children inchool. wh the right and left are both anned at me at the se time you know i doing sothing right. tas: i get t sense because you have been, ain, so steeped in thisfrom childhood, i get t sense thatou never spent tha much time at all calculating the risks, the danger, e downside of your care. >> some people sd, she'll never get anyere, she's doing too much political stuff. i believe it was laos when i went over to sort of highlight

the boateople and the land peop in lao the peoe in cambia. and one of tse borders, which is just rockottom refugee who is had nothing ad i was in th thing whichas czy. they didn't speak english. ey didn't know who ias. some camera man said, you're really just here forublicity. i said, oh, yeah, i sell lot of album in cambodia. [laughter] tavis: that's funny. so it'not enough tt you have shad your iconic sel with us all these years. it wasn't enough thayou we standingn your truth back in the day and sharingour gift in the world. then you had to expose us to this guy named dan. i crack up when i tnk about u because aga, it's not

th you are all that and then soe, but your career bringss this guy named dylanho becomes a icon in his own ght. but you intduced him to the wod. what do you me of tha >> mostly, it was funny. i would drag him out o the stage. and theudience would go -- ugh. and this little suffy dude would come outere. wouldo, you listen to his words. [sighing] [laughter] >> a they wouldisten. tavis: it's a amazing story this c.d. that's out now, celeating your 50 yea, the first ng on here,and i'm glad it' the firstong. when i popped this thing in i said wow. the first track is god is god. ste earl. >> steve earl wrote it.

thoughtod is with us. he saihat's recovery speak. meaning that god is out there and you're goi to need that, thatomething is more powerful than youre. and it could be the doorknob by th time you get the and recovery work. thent begano make a little sense toe. it isn't me. isn't us god is god. somebody asked him, dou believe in god? he goes, i have no problem i god. this smart guy, tough, and i thought it was lovely, he had no problem with god tavis: you wer saying to me before we camen the air, wn ientioned to you how much i loved the song -- h much it got my attention, you sd to me, y actually like performing this son it's a good song to perform.

why is that? >> someongs just roll out like that. i'm n sure exactly the come poe nep for that. but it may be pt easy. it easy to sing. and i like to watch the audience whe they go like that or if they go like that, you know. i used to know when there were bush supporters. and i wld say something- tavis:ow can anybody go to a joan baez ccert and not know what they're going to get? >> i don'tnow. [laughte tavis: i don't quite get that. >> sometimes a couple of hured people would walk out. anthey didn't getheir mon back either. [laughter] tavis: all right. next question, right quick. whyall this c., 50ears later, "day afteromorrow."

>> it became natural to me. theords in front of me. it' a natural. it's one o the beautif ways of stating once again anti-r by just following the thoughts of thi young soldier. that all. tavis: well at a joan baez concert you're gng to get the same tng on a joan baez cord. know whatou're going to ge when you see her. if you know that, you're not going to get your money back. her new c. is called "day ter tomorrow." and i am tonight, solad t ve you on this program. thu forour insht. >> thankou. tavis: my honor. catch me on public radio ternational. youan catch usn our podcas and i'll see y next te on pbs. anks for watching. d always keep theaith.

♪ they say every man needs protecon they say that every man must ll yet pray i see my reflecti somewhe high above this stor ♪ >> for more information on today's sho, visit civil ghts attorney and political advisor vernon rdan. that's next time. we'll seyou then. >> there are so many things that wal-mar is looking

forward to oing, look helpi pele live better but mostly we'rlooking forward to onger communities anrelationships. beuse of your help the be is yet to cme. >> nationwe insurance proudly supports "tas smiley" the tavis and nationwide insance. working to imprve financial literacy an the eldcnomicmic empowerment thatomes with it. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewe like you. thankou.