tavis: good evening. from los angeles, i am tavis smiley. tonight, a conversation with musician jimmy carter, one of the founding members of the great gospel group, the blind boys of alabama. they first came together back in 1939. that amounts to more than seven decades touring and performing, a remarkable achievement for any music group. they have just released a new cd called "i'll find a way." we are glad you have joined us. a conversation with jimmy carter of the blind boys of alabama, coming up right now. ♪ ♪ ♪

>> and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. ♪ tavis: jimmy carter is a founding member of the blind boys of alabama and the only one of the original group to still tour regularly. over the course of seven decades, performing and recording, they have won five grammy awards. they just released a new cd called "i'll find a way." let's take a look at a clip of the group and guest artists

performing the title cut. fool ♪ll play the ♪ just for a day i'll find a way ♪ to carry it all ♪ ♪ to carry it all good to have you back on the program, sir. >> good to be here. tavis: congratulations on the new project. >> thank you. tavis: my heart was broken when i discovered and realized that our good brother clarence can no longer tour. clarence fountain. >> clarence has some health issues now. every now and then, he might come out to help with an album,

but touring, he doesn't do that anymore. tavis: how many years would you guess that you and clarence to this together on the road? about eight years. tavis: that is a long time. how have you made the adjustment to not having him on the stage? >> when he passed me the torch, he said, this is your group now. he gave me some advice, of course. tavis: right. fun. said, you got to be you're not. [laughter] tavis: you've got to be firm with them because they will walk on you. you are a founding member. they can't walk on a founding member. you never know. these youngsters trying to walk on the fountain. speaking of youngsters, when you first joined the group, you were

so young, in fact, that while you were part of the group, your mama wouldn't actually let you two are -- you tour. is that true? inwhen they left schooling 1944, they came to my house to pick me up, and my mom said, no, you can't have him. he's too young. he is not going. i had to catch up with them later on. tavis: how later was later on? >> it was late. [laughter] tavis: how did you process the fact that you were a part of this group? i know why your momma did it, but i also know what it feels a to be young and have your mama tell you you can't do something you want to do. i got mad at my mom a whole bunch of times. you got mad at your mama too? >> yes. tavis: tommy the story -- this was not the original name. boys of alabama we

know was not the name you started with. somebody had the sense to change it to that name. it was a group called the blind boys of mississippi. >> it was to blind groups -- two blind groups from mississippi and alabama. they started out practically at the same time. the blind boys of mississippi was from a little school in mississippi out of jackson called piney wood. tavis: i have been there many times. >> the blind boys of alabama came from alabama. the blind boys of mississippi, ther actual name was jackson pioneers predict the blind boys of alabama's actual name was happy and jubilee. the blind boys of alabama and mississippi got their names, that is another story. [laughter] tavis: can i just tell you, with all due respect, whoever came up

with the happy land jubilee singers -- you know where i'm going, don't you? the five blind boys of alabama i think is lot better than the happy land jubilee singers. i'm happy you all made that switch. as difficult as it was -- this was back in 1944, right? >> yeah. ll the we all know too we hell that black people were enduring in alabama and mississippi in that area -- in that era. if it was bad for black folk across the board, how much more would difficult was it to make your way in the world as a blind black boy? >> you know, we had a sense back then. it was kind of hard to sing all night and couldn't find a decent place to eat. tavis: right. >> living in a rundown hotels and rooming houses. but we were dedicated. the blind boys were dedicated

and determined to make this work. how great the difficulties were, they did not deviate. they stuck it out. ifis: how did you end up -- you can sing, you can sing, and i know how will you sing it as i have been listening for years -- you could have sung in any other musical genre, but you have always been dedicated to this gospel music thing. give me some sense of how gospel music became your chosen john years, ory, over the how, over the years, you have stayed so dedicated to that, even as her popularity has grown. >> i was growing up in a christian environment. my parents were christian people. we weren't perfect. nobody is. tavis: nobody is.

not around here at least. [laughter] >> i was brought up in that kind of environment. and i got to the school found that there were other blind kids wanting to do the same thing, you know, we started singing together there in the glee club, the choir. just was something , singe wanted to do gospel and tell the world about god. tavis: there are a lot of people today, there are a lot of folk who are unafraid to do that. there are a lot of people still singing about god, but we live in a world today where people are so clinically correct that -- politically correct that they don't want to mention the name god, much less sing about god, much less you do albums about god, and yet come it seems to me that the blind boys of alabama

have continued to do that and do it well, even in a world where people oftentimes don't want to hear about god. >> you know, i'm going to tell you why i will never -- i'm going to tell you one of the reasons why i will never deviate from talking about god. when i was a young boy, very young boy -- i'm not young anymore -- [laughter] i used to ask god to let my mother live to see me get grown. i was blind in the world by myself, making it the best that i could. i asked him, i said, let my mother live to see me get grown. he didn't only do that -- my 2009. just passed in she was 103. [laughter] tavis: i said the lord answered your rare, didn't he? -- prayer,

didn't he? us bible i read said he give -- gives us three score and 10 years. a 70. she took somebody else's time. he answered your prayer. of all the to ask -- times we've talked over the years, i've never asked you this, and i'm glad you told the story about your prayer to god asking him to let your mother live to see you get grown -- did you ever ask god why you were born this way? >> i did. tavis: lord. >> and he told me why too. this is my calling. if i was able to see, you wouldn't be doing this. he knew that. i'm not going to give you your site back. i have work for you. i have a job that i wanted to do. out, i neverthat complained again.

i don't mind being blind. it doesn't bother me at all. i'm happy. i can do just about anything everybody else can do except see. [laughter] tavis: but what was the process though? i love your honesty. what was the process though for you getting comfortable with that? i know you prayed and asked the lord why you were born this way. he gave you the answer, and he out is to give you the right answer, and you have been working this out over 70 years of singing this good stuff. how did you get comfortable with that? it is change up above from him. after he told me that, he just gave me peace. i just felt peace. i guess that's all i can say. tavis: i wonder whether or not you and the other members of the group -- i think of brother clarence, for example -- did you

all have the same experience? that is to say, did all of you -- let me ask it this way -- the other brothers in the group with you when you first started, did they come to that kind of peace as easily as you did? were there folk in the group that had a hard time accepting it? >> i think not. i think everyone of us found a piece like that -- found peace like that. we were having -- the school but we went to -- it wasn't peaches and cream. it was really a pretty bad establishment at the time. had so much fun together, man, singing together. we all found peace. tavis: i love your modesty. when you say that the school you went to in talladega wasn't teachers and cream, the truth of the matter is that there was a

school in alabama for the blind and there was a school in alabama for the black blind. [laughter] even back then, segregation and racism separated even blind people. you people can't even see, and they still wanted to keep them separate. >> that's absolutely right. tavis: isn't that pretty sick though? >> it is the past and now. tavis: what do you make of the fact that the lord has so blessed you that you are born blind in the south and you have been able, with this group, to travel the world spreading this good news? what do you make of that? >> i'm proud to be fortunate enough to have the privilege to do it you know -- to do it, you know? it makes it all worthwhile when you see how you touch people's lives. evil come up to you and tell you

-- people come up to you and tell you, you did something to me. you touched my heart. all that, it makes it all worthwhile. a lot of people think singing is an easy job, but it's not. sometimes, you've got to travel 300-400 miles an sing the same night. that's not easy. we do it, and we are used to it. we don't mind it. i do mind it sometimes. [laughter] tavis: but you still do it anyways. after all these years, do you still feel that same kind of joy when people are touched by the music, or after you have done this for so long and received every honor and every accolade and have traveled the world, do you ever get a little jaded, ever a little cynical, door -- or does it always bring you the same kind of joy to know that you touch the lives of people? >> i have not lost any of that. i am still having the same joy. i have to be honest. tired now little

sometimes good like i said, i'm an old guy now -- tired now sometimes. like i said, i'm an old guy now. i still do what i do. [laughter] tavis: you still got it. >> i've still got it. tavis: it's on the record. i've seen you in person so many times. i know you've still got it. since you raise that, what do you make of the fact that over all these years, you still have it, as far as your voice is concerned? after 70 years of all the wear and tear and all the travel around the world, 70