[captioning made possib by kcet public television] captioned bthe national caponing institute www.ncicap.org-- tavis: good evening fr los angeles a tavis smiley. night, a conversation wit smokey robinson we continue celebrate the 50th anniverry of motown, he is celeating his own golden anniversa. one year after signing with motown, the beme success with his hit single "shop around " " he has his thougs on the

passing michael jackson. are glad you're joing us. smokey robinson right now. >> there is so many things that walmart is looking forwa to doing,ike helping people ve better. weare looking forwd to help build strger communits and retionships. with yrelp, the best is yet to come. >> nationwide insurance proudl supports tavis smiley. orking to improve financial literacy and the economic empoweent that comes with it. >> and b contribuons to your bs station from viewers li you. thank you. it >> am always peased, honored,

humble to have smokey obinson on this prram. all of these years we have bn featuring conversations wth the great moto legends as w celebrate the 50thnniversary of motown. beore thereas rvinr stevie or the jackson five, there was auy named smokey robinson. he helped putotown on the map with their no. 1 sign -- single. his new cd is called "time flies when you're hing fun." hereis somef the new single. >> ♪ you will be all mine forever

do not know why i did not come ♪ tavis: en i first heard this song on the radio, thr things went through my mind almost immediately. but what an honort mube to have smokey with all of the songs he has written, tcover your song. norah jes is somewhere grinng ear to ear. okey robinsonone of t greatest songwritersf all time, covering ur song. i ve hed your cover of this. smokey has still got it. the third thing is, of all of the songs to covr, why did you choose that one?

>> i am a song ler. someongs give me that impact whe iirst hear them. that waone of the songs. hrd it and iloved the melo. it had a calypso version of its peri -- of it. it was such an abstract lo song. just loved the song. am a song lover. tavis: when yohear a song li that of anyong and you dede thatyou went to cover it, tell me more about smok's process. what is your process when y decide you're goi to cover the ng and put your own flavor on it? >> that is what i do the first time. i hear it ov and over again. decide how would want to sinthe song if i w singi

i i do that verse and then i get together wh my conctor. the were two guys, there were both keyboard players. we would just get anrrangement togher and go into the studio and not get out. " because you are such a genius, i hear what you withhe ng. take me ck to wh you were working on it. what did you think you had to do wi it to make it work to put yr own thing on it? >> i thought i had to do is the way i fe it and not try copy the rerd. tais: does that mean changing thkeys? >> i had tohange keys. my key is wer. i change the tempo. i heard it's lowe hers is up-tempo.

fo me i heard its low like a ballad. i tred to make it sweet. at is what we tried do with it. tavis: whadoes it mean for you -- and did you plant it this wa to p out another record in the 50th year of the motown celebration? >> it just happened that way. i was ju trying to put it out. i was doing it the old-fashioned way. the cd that i -- came up befo this one was a cd of all standards. iad planned on recording that 1 live andever got aund to doing i i have got a of the people in the studio at th same time which is unheard of in today's record market. you cord on a computer. people who play and sing on the same recd do not see each

other. they are in different countrs. atifferent times. i said that i am going to go back to the old way and record it with everybod being ere at the same time. you were not the studio, you were not going to be the record. you missed that one. tavis: motown is going to be on me. >> we had a ball. it is like doing a concertn a stud. everybody is feeding off of eh other and feingfrom each other. we had a gat time. tavis: how does it feel for you to still be relevant, to still have the pipes, to stil beable to dohis at 5years after

motown started? >> i am blessed. i am ablutely blast. -- blessed. whent your job is doing something that you lovend you cannot think of anything yo would rather do with yur life, that is a blessing. i am bleed. to be around for 5years, which is way beyond my wildest dreams, but it goes by overnight. especial when you are joying yourself. that is exactly how i fl about my life. tampa -- ti fli when y're having fun. i cannot lieve it -- i cannot believe that we're celebrating e 50th anniversary of motown iseems like two othree years agohat berry came to me to art a record company.

he said that he could beat me at something. do not even that. tavis i am going to jump in here. we had berry gordy in here two or three tim. he came in around the same tme of -- sad time ofmichael jackson's passing. heas saying thathe thought that was a better songwrit than smoy. as time wt on, smokey got it. >> barry is might berry is my besfriend. when we started motownhere were five peoe. it w him and ur other people. i am starting tis record compan we are not just goin to make blackusic. we are going to make music for the world. we are gog to make music wit brk beats and great stories.

we are always going to make quality music. asar as im conrned, motown is a once-in-a-lifetime musical event. nothing like that happen before then. i doubt seriously that ything like that wod happen again. ior to him starting motown, i coidered myselfo b a songiter. i have been wring songs since i was aboufive years old. tavis: 5? >> the first song thai ever wrote that anybody other than my mom d me heard, i was 6 year old. i was in a shool play in lementary school. in the play i wasncle remus. the old back storeller that tell them how the anals got to beow they are. why thpighad a curly ta. whiteyebra's stripes. my teacher had a melody.

can iwrite some words f that? she said, go ahead. rights awards. sheet me sing it at the binning and the end of the play. you would have thought that i was georgeershwin. my mom toldeople that she did not even know. she got t phone book and started calling people. i ways try to write songs. jackie wilson was my no. 1 singing idol. i always look to eho wro the music. i knew about berry gor. we go to this auditi for jackie wilson's manage. we saw in the fiveongs that i hadritten and said of somethinghat is currently popular. this young guy was siing in th corner. i was 16 athe time.

heas waitingo audition. they rejected us and we went out and we were totally down. he camep hind us. he sa, hold on. he said where did you get those songs from? i really dejected. i said that i wrote them he said that iike a couple of your songs. i am thinking, and so wt? am being polite. i say thank you, i appreciate that. he saidhat i am berry rdy. my lips drawnown to the floor. -- lip dropddowno the floor. youre the berry gordy that writes songs for jackie wilson? what? he made a stake. he said, have y got any more songs?

i pulled up might little notebook. he said, let meear some of your songs. takes me to a room. i must have 0 songs to hi that day. he never said i am tired. i have heard enough. jt critiqued every song. hejust sat there. he sd that uth should have done this. i could always rhyme stuff. i would have five songs in one so. he made see that. pointed it out me. he sd that there is code to wring. our songs have to have a ginning and middle and an ending to tiethem together. if you do not end it, you have

togive people eugh nformation that they can and it for themselves. it all has ttie in. you have to see how people are writing. she taug m how torite -- he taught me how to writeongs professionally. i have to give crit where credit is due. tavis: how does it feel r berry gordy todmit that he ended being the bett songwriter? >> it makes me feel good because he has been my mentor. if he was goi to be ally honest wouldadmit thate -- admit that i beat m at golf. tavis: i w not going to go there. >> tiddlywinks, jac. tavis: i want you each to hear what barry goon had to say about you and michael jason.

watch that monitor right there >> insiders kw about it. it was on a smoky son called "who is loving you?" i said that that would not be onef his tou --irst three orfour song it ws like 50ears ofnowing about lo. i did not say itin front of smokey. heas kiing smokey's ass. there was so much passion in at. >> what do youave to say to berry gordy about tt? >> i agree with him totally. en michael sang that sng, "who is loving you?" is abou somebody that has somebody that loves them.

they do not appreciate it, so they d something wrong. but iran, they are regretting at they did that something wrong. now th're woering who this person is with nw. that is a deep idea. michael sg that song when he w 11. when i first heard it, hado play it ain. thiboys 11. how could he possibly feel a song like that? he had it sang it like i had written in about him. he w just incredible. he sanso good. young people who ar meaying -- using a michael jkson song, h? it is amazing that at 11 yrs old, hcouldave that mu passion. michael was an old soul. when i first met h he wasor

10. he was old. he was a young boy because he was a pranksr and he likes to do pranks and stuff like that like any youngoy. one of my great memories of him is the guy that was instrumenta in bringing him to motow he plays golf and i pl golf. all ofhe motown guys are arcivals at everything. we are very competiti. we would take michael wh us. do not let one of us miss a shot or hit the ball in the wds. he ha never picked up a golf club in his life. your hand was weak. he was a great young man.

tavis: house or real was it -- w surreal was lt, we saw you all at the service, you were in a clean suit if that was my size, iwould try to come to your house and stl it. how surreal was that to do a tribut to the young man who ws younger than you. >> i have had three deathso affect me in the same way. they were sudden impt. tally out of nowhere. myife called mehat day at screaming and hlering and crying over the phon michael is dea nope. michaelo? mihael jackson had a heart

attack. not micha jackson chael jackson. thats nowho you are talking out. the first thing was comete silence from me. i could notccept that. my psyche would not exct that. have had three deaths like that. marvin gay i driving home fromthe golf course. i he the radio on. the guy comes on the radio d he corrupts th song -- ierrupts the song and he says that soul singer marvigaye has been pronounced dead o arrival at the hospita i remember it like yestery. he d not just s that. he did not say that. goes on about it. i amhinking to myself, thiss april fool's day.

that is what this is i pulled into the gas station. before she said hlo, she said hello. i saidhey, baby. she said that it is true. he guy that i grew up with and knew since i was 10 years old, he was one of my clost friends in li. he had been going back andorth to the hospital. he thought that something was happening with hislood count. he cald me one day and he said that i am goingo the hospital. he w still living i detroit. he sd that am going to keep you for a couple of days. i said, do you want to go t detroit? i said that i am going to te hospital, i am not going to die. the xt day, he was gone. when you he something like michael jackson, is li

somebody cme and hit me in the chest with 2 by 4. i hve spoken all of their funerals for me to be standing on that podium lking downt acasket that holds the body of my little other, michael jackson, it is weird. it was weird for me to thinking that is gon he is t coming back. he is gone fogood. fortunaty, i believein the hereafter i know thate is cool. for this life that we are ving here, other than the fct that he is going to ve on and on forever because i believe heas the mt electrifyg, dnamic entertainer i have ever seenn my life and i have seen

evybody. i used to think that about jackie wilson when was growing up. if you ever saw jaie wilson, he wa woo. michael jacksonopped everybody. he evated the deliverance of a song. his songs wernot onl dible, but they were visual. when u saw himo them, tt put awhole other touch on it. tavis: when you gohrough a process like th with marvin gaye, ron and al michas, as you get older -- and now he michael, as you get older, i hope that you are still putting up records. you are stillandsome. >> i love you. vis: when you me face to

face wth moality in a ron in marvin, in michael, what does that say to you about how you want topend the rest of your time, whenever that is? >> it ys to me to enjoy yself and to live with a little negativityn my life as possible. something happened toe many yea ago. i was doing a tour in canada and i wasn a bus. something happened that was reay rank. will not go into what it w. i was absolely furious. i was so mad until it felt like i coul have taken the bus and thrown it into the lake. at kind of mad.

i got back on the bus and i was fung. that is like a voice spoke to . he said wait a minu. you knowwho you are hurting? yourself. the thing that you are mad about. the thing that has t you so upset, has already happened. the is no rewind. yo cannot go back d make that unhappen. as longs you keep that furious inside of you,he more it is goi to hurt you if you are going to suff. for a shof a time as you can stay upset whenomething upsets you, and do get. you are ving yourself. that is how i look at life tas: he is a great philosopher and perhaps that why he is the best songwriter that er lived. his name is william skey

robinson. he has new cd out. celebrate the 50th nniversary of th label he helped makereat. his new project is called smoy robinson and "time ies when you're having front " "it was so much funnd this conversation happen so fast. that isirshow for the nigh. catch me on weekends on pebble public radi ternational. iill see you back here next time on pbs. odnight from l.a. as always, keep the fait >> ♪ my mama told me you'd beer shop arou ♪

conversation with howard dean and his plans for healtcare reform. that is xt time. >> there are manylooking forwao dong, like helping people live better. people build strong commities and relationsps. with your help, theest is yet toome. >>ationwide insurance proudly supports tavis smiley. working to improve finanal literacy and the econic impact that comes with it >> nationwide is on your de. >> and by conibutions to your pbsstation from viewers like you. thank you. [captioning madeossible by kcet plic television]