i mean it is very disturbing to learn about the poor education systems in so many countries in the middle east that teach false use, for example, of israel. but also don't teach kids any form of education that would give them skills to get jobs in the global economy. technology skills, for example. when i was just in egypt it was interesting. i met some egyptians who were doing angel investing in egypt. imagine that. in young companies, stuff that we hope is going on in new york city as we're talking to each other. but they, of course said it depends on whether egypt is stable going for and whether we can find kids to filled jobs that going to be created. well, egypt going to be stable. can we find the jobs. that's up to egyptians but why i'm little bit hopeful is their form of government will have to include islamist parties. i think that's okay. having islamist, people with islamist belief inside the

tent playing by democratic rules with a small d is much better than having al qaeda outside the tent trying to blow up the tent. >> rose: it will be interesting to see how islamist governments handle power and whether power and governance will change them? >> i think it will. again if democracy survives, just like in ours, elections will be a referendum on their economies. egypt's economy right now is a shambles. can this new government whatever it will look like fix the economy? who knows. if it doesn't, i predict we'll have a government after that. and i predict to fix it will have to force some unity. the coptic christians who are worried that they are going to be discriminated against are some of the drivers of the egyptian economy right now. and if they're forced out who are the drivers going to be? >> there is also this, iran. as you know i did this thing with the secretary of state and jim baker at the state department. and there was a spirited conversation about iran.

and former secretary baker said if sanctions fail and in fact iran is about to get a nuclear weapon, assuming they had capability and a weapon, and a missile to deliver it, then you had to take it out. i then asked the secretary and she sort of didn't really say. but that seems to be the opinion of the president as well. >> the president essentially said that he said we're not if favor of containment. and he basically said at apac i was there a few months ago that he has a red line. and he will prevent iran from getting a nuclear weapon. >> and if sanctions fail. >> yeah. >> and if-- fails. >> so sanctions are about to be -- >> racheted up now. and iran has basically stalled in the talks that occurred in moscow. it's going to be interested because egypt may now recognize iran and we'll

see. >> are you in favor of the assassination of iranian scientists? >> i'm in favor of appropriate measures to slow or stop iran's nuclear program. >> so that would do it, you would be in favor? >> i am not going to comment on anybody's covert activities. >> all right. are cia now seems to be no more than covert activities. seems to be a player militarily today. they go where others don't go. >> there are two sets of laws, title 50 and title 10. and the cia does activities in one area and the department of defence does activities in another area. the interesting part, of course s that leon panetta who is our secretary of defense was until recently our cia director. david petraeus, the highest decorated general is now cia director. so there are some synergies which is i think actually a good thing. but again come back to this.

these activities are important. the president has embraced a counterterrorist approach against the threats that we face. i'm for that. i was not a fan of the counterinsurgency stuff which i done think worked in either afghanistan or i think long-term in iraq. this is good. but we need to use all of our tools. and as bob gates the last dod secretary said, that means beefing up the state department. deam-- diplomacy and development are very important tools. and did you know that our most effective foreign policy initiative over recent years has been our help against natural disasters, earthquake and flood its. >> rose: thank you very much, come back any time. >> thank you, charlie. >> rose: thank you for joining us. see you next time. captioning sponsored by rose communications captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org sw

tavis: good evening. from los angeles, i am tavis smiley. tonight a conversation with eddie levert, out with his cd.

next year there will celebrate their 50th anniversary with the release of a new cd. we're glad you've joined us. a conversation tonight with the great eddie levert coming up right now. >> every community has a martin luther king boulevard. it's the cornerstone we all know. it's not just a street or boulevard, but a place where walmart stands together with your community to make every day better. >> and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. tavis: always pleased to have eddie levert on this program. yst .egendary

he is out with his new solo project. the new disk is called "it it."d for m still have a song dedicated to his sons, "last man standing." and to see your 70-year-old self. >> and the thought of it. it drives me. i started off in this when i was 16 years old and now i am 70 years old. running around on stage shaking with a silver shirt on. can you get to that? tavis: folk still love it. >> i do not understand what they want to see. tavis: they want to see you and

you still got it. . still got it how have you protected your instrument all these years? there folks who have been doing this a lot fewer years than you and over the years you can hear the change in their voice and they cannot hit -- >> bimini note. tavis: some part of the register starts to fall out. >> i can tell you, i have to be real with you and let you know, i am no where the eddie levert that i was at 18. there is a little receiving not only my hairline -- receding not only my hairline. tavis: your vocal cords. >> you have to treat your voice like is the precious instrument

is. and you must get rest and you must treat it like it is god's give to you and cherish it and try to nurture and make it something that is very special. people make you who you are. i tell people all the time, by the time it comes out of my mouth and goes through the microphone, got has done a great transition. he has made it sound better than i could make it sound. tavis: does it feels like -- i suspect it does come all the places you have been. does it feel like 50 years with the o'jays? >> my knees tell me it is 50 years. tavis: used to get down and i you cannot get back up. -- and you cannot get back up. >> a good 50.

it is a good 50. it is not something i regret. it is like -- i do not know where it will go from here. it is like, i did not think 270. -- to seventy. i did not think past 70. i did not know what would happen back then but i do not know what will happen now. everyday is a new venture. every day is something new that i get a chance to go out there and see if i can still pull this off and make them believe. tavis: if the time should ever come when you need to get off the stage, will you now or will they send the san man out to get you? -- sandman out to get you? >> you and tom. tavis: as the stones are still going all these years later. >> this is what i do for living.

i did not know when i will ever want to feel like i will quit. i just want to be worthy. i want to be able to make people understand that, ok, eddie is still good at what he does so we can now go and buy that ticket and i can feel like they bought it and they got their money's worth. tavis: what do you make of the fact that at least to my ear, as i listen to satellite radio and travel the country, i am always -- tickled is the right word, to go by the number of all the stations that exist -- tickled by the number of the oldies stations that exist. as if the stuff today does not always measure up. so we play the old stuff, because the old stuff still sounds good but in the doing of that, i can hear the o'jays five or 10 times on the radio. >> absolutely.

it is mainly because those songs and the words and the lyrics today, that they have in them are still relevant today. it can still apply them in your everyday. "back stabbers," "love train," "survival" and all that stuff. all that stuff is ever-present. for everyone who is living in this world so they can apply it to every day. i have kids who come up to me know who are 13, 14, 15. this is what we used to clean the house to your music. this is what my mom had us doing our chores to your music. i need to take a picture with you so i can send it to my mom. so she will know that i met you. you do not know what this ans to me. and to make, that is the ultimate compliment that you can

get that they have used your music to help them to get through life. tavis: why then, after all these years, finally the solo project and i love the title. "i still have it." modesty.t go nt no i am just busting your chops. i have a hnc cadeha to listen. why the cell project and why this title at this point in your career? >> i have been working on this way before the passing of my sons. we had talked about doing a solo project and we were working on it and doing the father and son things were working on. ok. it's just finally got to the place where i started working on it while they were alive. and after they passed away it

threw me for a loop. i had to take time to probably get back to their and after getting over that part of it, i had to figure out how i was going to write this. what was i going to say? how was i going to say this? that is why i came up with a song, "last man standing,"that is a song about me and tell my kids had to come to grips with who i was in the things that i did in my life and kids have a tendency, they want to take their parents and say, ok, you cannot do this and you cannot do this. they never asked me, they never asked me what woman so why should i ask -- let you ask me what women i am going to be with? so, you know, i went through a lot of changes with my kids after get divorced and went

through all of those kind of things, they wanted to tell me, you cannot do that. you are -- how can you do that, you are our father. it was very selfish of me. any time you went through a divorce, it is a selfish thing that people get into. all they are thinking about now is my happiness. it has nothing to do with whether the kids are going to be happy. with -- if the whole family is going to be a unit anymore. now just thinking about me suffer get everybody else. -- about me and forget everyone else. you say ok, now i'm going to write these songs and i start writing the songs. "the last man standing" is about me and the transition to like myself. because of i already judge myself. i get to the place where i like myself, to get over it, that is

about my children. they say the love me. i cannot tell because you say you love me and still you want to treat data like this -- he is a lowlife because you are not the data i thought you should be. that is in the book. whoever told you that i existed, he is a book. i had to kill that guy off to become this guy that you can respect and love. tavis: it is very autobiographical. >> absolutely. tavis: you tried to process through losing two sons in a short time. was there -- i do not know what you would have done this but did you ever blame yourself? >> yes. tavis: you did? >> that is the first thing you do. you always feel like if i could have been there, i could have said something, i could have

done something to make it turned out a little different. i could have been -- maybe i could have been a better role model that it would not have come to this. you always blame yourself and then after you get past that part, and say to yourself, that was -- there was nothing you hacould have done. this was something that was between -- this was one of those life processes. and it had to go down that way. after you get past that, then you want to preach to everybody. the cat, thethe dog, neighbors. here comes the printer again, run. -- preacher again come around. you get to the place where you look at yourself and say what is it i do not like about me. try to change those things and be a better person and better

parent from this day on. you literally have to kill off that other guy and become a total another person. it is like a new birth. tavis: has losing ger -- how has losing gerald and sean may become a better father, grandfather? >> spending more time being there. more conversation. more staying in tune, to know what is going on with them in their lives. tavis: all the stuff you could not do when you were doing the o'jays. on thes an o'jay, i was road. at least half a year. i was talking to someone about that and there were saying, how come men do not have that thing where they stay with the family and be part of the family and how can men just go off and

leave their children and not be part of it? what we have to realize is that remember back in the slavery time, men, there would invade the man's home and take his daughter and take his wife. he would have to go off somewhere else and start off another whole family because they sold him to another slave owner. do you understand? we consequently, there is no way that we can have that thing that we stay with something. i stay with this woman or that woman. i have been able to move out of situations and feel nothing about it because we have been put in the position already. they have been taking our families, our daughters, and kids and we have to move on and get a whole nother family. that has to take effect on people down through history.

so consequently, men feel that way. consequently, we have a tendency to say we can walk away from it. tavis: it is one thing to be forced into that as they were during slavery. it is another thing to make a choice. part of this is negroes making choices to not be a man or fathers are responsible. >> i am saying that has a lot to do with the parent, mothering, and nurturing, and not making kids responsible for what they are doing. you got to keep pointing the finger at them and say, you got to stand up and be a man. you can just keep running off. in a what i am saying? this starts with mothers and fathers. you have to say to them, you got to tell them to be a man and take responsibility now because now you have a job -- a child,

you have a woman. you have to take care of these people and make sure that they're able to survive in this world. tavis: how are the grand kids doing? >> they are going to school. the bigger problem i am having now is with the baby mama, they want to blame me. tavis: [unintelligible] why not you? >> i had nothing to do with that. tavis: you said it. you wrote the song, i am trying to fill in the gaps. what was the experience like being in the studio essentially by yourself? you have engineers and others.

i noticed this is a solo project. no collaboration. you could have done that easily. >> the reason i wanted to do that, i wanted young kids to stand up and take notice that the 70-year-old man is doing some real music. and when you get a chance to listen to it, know that this is a 70-year-old man tried to show you all this is what real music is, this is what music is from the sold that people can relate to. that is what is is raw, it was cut by live musicians, done in a studio, we all sat there and made it happen. tavis: did you feel lonely? >> no. i kind of liked it. [laughter] no, -- are watching.ays

>> i will always be an o'jay. it is easy to go in the studio and you have to worry about one opinion. and i know you noknow. tavis: that is why it is not called the tavis and eddie show. maybe you weren't challenged. -- it was was written on here. you have been with at least two other guys. >> it is a different process. strictly from the standpoint that you have to keep trying to be interesting. because to just be eddie levert throughout the whole song is not

going to be interesting so you have to figure out ways to be more creative, a little bit more exciting. because when you are dealing with someone who has a great voice and you have to do the whole song, it becomes all the other task. you have to figure out ways to be interesting. tavis: i have always said that walt is one of the most underrated, underappreciated artists. >> absolutely. tavis: his voice. incredible. >> and he just is lazy. he gonna get me. he going to make me pay for that. tavis: we -- how well the o'jays celebrate? o'jays

it is 50 years. >> we're trying to do a new album, do some new music, and we want to do some kind of television special. something if we can get it where we can sit around and maybe have some tables and piano and do the songs just like that with just these piano and as singing. that would be a great evening. an evening with the o'jays, singing with the piano and doing some harmony. >> someone from pbs will call. >> let's do it. tavis: on pbs. at any point in this 50-year journey, did you ever think about honestly pulling out? you said you always be an o'jay.

have you always felt that way? >> you run into those moments where things are not really as cohesive as you would like for them to be and you say to yourself, maybe i need to move on. i am still the kind of person that i leave it up to the entity,, to god, that and he has not led me to the door. tavis: i ask that in part because as much as i love walt, there is something in the ether about these lead singers. at some point they either get pushed for the jump. we do not have time to run the list of all the leads that broke

out on their own to lionel to michael. you have been all those -- you have been there all those years. >> i do not know how far i can jump. i am 70. tavis: you could have jumped when you were 25 or 30. >> i still think that the o'jays is one of the greatest, greatest products of the black community. do you understand what i'm saying? this has been something that has been one heck of a ride and i think that there has not been another group that has affected the world like the o'jays and the message they deliver. we still have a place and i think we still have one more great album in us that will change the world.

tavis: part of what is amazing about the mighty, mighty o'jays, your reference to this earlier. you have written and performed and given the world songs that had great lyrical content but to your point, it is stuff that matters even still. as long as there is a world, there will be a need for songs like "love train." >> i think the o'jays have one more new. we have been talking. it is something that they want to do and where are in -- we are in that mode, it will happen before the year is out. tavis: he is ready to go. he is jumping at the bid. tavis: he is ready to go. he is jumping at the bid. >>