tavis: good evening from los angeles. first up, part 2 of might expose of conversation with jay leno. on september 14 -- my exclusive conversation with gillette appeared also, mark johnson, the man behind a unique pbs documentary called "playing for change." it features musicians from all around the world playing the same songs. the jay leno and "playing for change" are coming up now. >> there are so many things that

wal-mart is looking forward to doing. we are looking forward to help build stronger communities and relationships. with your help, the best is yet to come. >> nationwide insurance probably supports tavis smiley. tavis and nationwide insurance, working to improve financial literacy and the economic empowerment comes with it. >> and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. [captioning made possible by kcet public television] captioned by the national captioning institute --www.ncicap.org-- tavis: the second part of my exclusive conversation with jay leno begins with him sharing stories about his youth from new england. >> you grew up in a funny

household. >> i guess. probably when i was in high school. my mother never got comedy. one time i was playing carnegie hall. my first time at carnegie hall. i invited my parents to the show. my mother is sitting third row center. behind my mom are five college kids. i had done 25 or 30 letterman shows. these college kids were fans. i get on stage and i started the act. i hear these guys laughing. my mother turns red and goes shh. mom, you do not shh people attic comedy show. she had been singled out a car -- at a comedy show. she had been singled out at

carnegie hall. let me stay home one day. she said okay. my mom was going out of town. whenever you do, and do not go near the high school. being an idiot, i had to go up to the high school -- high- school at lunchtime. by bernd robert just as the vice principal concept and he sees me. -- burned rubber just as the vice principal comes out and sees me. he called tom and she says that i'm sick. my mother is standing behind the door with a big pot. it she goes bong and knocks me out with this pot. ow i am out cold. we have to go to the high school and the principle is yelling at me. you are suspended for three days. you, a mother who would lie.

my mother got -- never got out of the second grade. she had great respect for education. it was a funny place to grow up. >> what did your father -- a working guy -- >> my dad was a prizefighter, a truck driver, and he sold insurance. i was proud of my dad. he worked for the prudential insurance co. in new york. they said, what is your heart is route? harlem. nobody wants to buy insurance up there. my dad did not like racism. he says they are black people, why would they not buy insurance? my dad went door-to-door and haarlems selling nicol policies. when my dad passed away, i talked about it on the tonight show. i talked to a woman who was 7 years old.

when she was in little girl, there is a white man who came to their house. she said that he was the first white person that had ever had dinner in their house. it was the first white man that she had ever talked with. she said that she was very nice. was that your dad? she just cried. my dad really believe that stuff. if anybody said anything, he would deck you. he never liked that kind of talk. i was proud that he had such an influence on her life. my dad was the only white men who had never had dinner in their apartment. he would collect the nickle and give them the receipt for the insurance policy. >> did that have anything to do with the embrace you have had

of african americans on the show, not just in the band, but leading the band. >> to me, this is a problem. i do not get what people do not get along. it is an important part of america. the show should look like america. when we started "the tonight show" he handled the music and i kendall the comedy. we never had a setup where i was the boss. we were always equal on the show. the funniest thing to me was that whenever we do jaywalking, when there is an african american guy i see him go like this. now he represents all afafcan americans. when we watched tv and "the untouchables" were on. the italian guy was eating the

salami. why do they always have to have that? turn it off. my grandfather would do that. my grandfather was italy and hardly spoke english. he was always amazed that people would eat out of their ethnic group. look at that, a black guy eating spaghetti. a chinese guy eating a hot dog. he was amazed that black america -- black people would eat african-american food. he would always comment when someone was eating out of their ethnic group. this always struck me even as a little kid. >> your dad and mom and lived long enough to see you become successful. prior to that, what did your working dad think of his son going into show busine? >> life -- my parents were always fine. finish school and you could do whatever you want.

in 1992 i was on the cover of " time at" magazine. i said that i am on the cover of time magazine. which one? it is the big one. i will pick that up. i said, call my aunt. a long pause. i think that they put you on the cover here because you are from this area. why would they put you on the cover in new york? i am on the cover everywhere. it is a national magazine. she thinks that i was on the cover for the people in andover, massachusetts. they got it, but they never got it. any relationo jay leno? he is my son. you know my boy? here is my number.

call him. that, stop giving my number. he knew you. no, he does not know me. we would go on and on. my dad went out to get a paper. a magician set up his table. he said, look at that. my moc -- my father sat down and watched the guy do tricks. i said that my boy does a show. i will call came up. they got into it, but they never quite got it. tavis: that is funny stuff. now that that is behind you -- >> you open the door. he opened the door to this line of questioning. what do you want to ask me. >> you did.

tavis: it now that we're past the late night head-to-head competition, what did you make of all of the articles and all of the media? >> it is funny. people have their own opinion of what happened and that is what it is. the only time i get in an argument is when people get the facts wrong. whenever you see, that is what you see. it does not bother me a lot. are you referring to something specific? tavis: over the course of that 17-year period, i wanted to know what your relationship was like. >> my relationship with dave? relationship with dave. i was guest hosting the show from 1986-1992. then the show was given to me. letterman and his people thought the show was going to go to him.

whenever problems he had with the network, it did not go that way. i was perceived to be a sneaky person that stole the show. it is not really the case. i was working there every week. they said, do you want to do this? i said sure. i said that i would love to do the show. i was perceived as some sort of bad guy. two guys want to play football or get in the boxing ring and one wins and one does not. it does not mean that you are not friends. dave took it apart. -- hard. if we were both in the same city, we would bump into each other. we are on different coasts. >> you were on letterman doing great stand-up. you still do stand up today. why do you still do it?

>> if you are a runner, you have to run. if you are in a musician, you can play the piano and write songs. you cannot yell the jokes into an empty room. most comics need to work. for me, to go to vegas and do a 90 minute show, it is like going to the gymnasium for 90 minutes. if you do not say the material and do it, it rophies and goes away. i like it. i did this for years. you stink. get off the stage. for years and years. i used to open for miles davis and muddy waters and all of these guys. we had two shows. the first show i walk up on stage. a guy comes up behind me with a catch-up bottle and knocks me up cold. they drag me off the stage. jack comes out and says " i am talking you.

you should have seen that guy. i did not see him. he jumped me from behind. i've lost $75. years of doing that. now you are at the point where people want to come see you. if he worked in an office and there is a funny story, if you tell them the funny story and you will laugh. pretty soon, you are waiting for people to walk by your desk. by the end of the day, you have got the story down. you are killing. it is hilarious. you think of a joke and you cannot wait to get out and tell it. >> what made the, the start to work for you? was it because he became more popular and people wanted to see you or to the comedy get better? >> i think the comedy got better. i was primarily a nightclub comic. johnny give me some good advice.

he said that you sell a joke well, but the jokes you were selling, were not that good. i could get laughs based on the physicality of the joke. if he wrotot the joke out, it ws not that funny. i learned that from johnny. you keep tightening and tightening and throw out everything that is not funny until it is only this big. it is really tight and really strong. that is the real trick. it is more editing. you keep throwing out things that are not funny until you have the best joke. a year later, what is -- what was your funniest joke is probably not your weakest joked. you just keep moving them back. tavis: your fans know your process. you do the show. at night when you and your guys get together, is your process

going to stay the same? >> it is basically the same period of the things that remain on the show will be there. the monologue works, jaywalking and that kind of stuff. we will move and a lot of this stuff to the back 15 minutes of the show because we want to have a strong lead in for the nightly news. if you keep them up until 12:00, you have that long six-minute commercial. now door fighting sleep. you have the comedian, the author, and the band. they drift off. when you are doing primetime, you do the whole hour solid. tavis: what do you think about the cash for clunkers program? >> i do not have any clunkers. i guess it is ok. it is good and that stimulates the economy. we have all of this cheese, how about eat cheese and get a check. sooner or later, we are going to

jeff to produce something. they want to legalize marijuana. i am against it, not because of marijuana. we have legalized gambling. there is no product. we do not make anything anymore. if business is making plenty of money, and then legalize marijuana. that is what california needs, more high people. i do not get it. i would like to see factories making products that the rest of the world wants to buy. then people come in and make products to augment that product. that is how you raise tax revenue. gambling, drinking, how about prostitution? where is your base? tavis: i am curious. i enjoy hanging out at that garages. >> that was fun when you came

over. tavis: what is the last thing you got? >> the last thing a that was pretty cool. it was a chrysler german car. they built that in the middle 1960's. i managed to procure one of those. tavis: i am laughing now thinking about what your mom said to you. now the show is called "the jay leno show." >> mr. big shot has to have his name on everything. my father would say, the letters are not big enough. my parents would come to vegas. whenever you are in vegas they have the beautiful spread in the dressing room with liquors and wines and put out cheeses and

all kinds of stuff. i am playing in massachusetts in the auditorium. i am backstage and you are essentially in the locker room. there are a couple of sodas. you know, my boy plays vegas. they put a spread out. that, you are not my manager. i will take -- dad, you are not my manager. i will take care of this. tavis: "the jay leno show close " 10:00, starting september 14. just in case you need one more reason to tune into this for show on september 14, here it is. the musical lineup jay-z, kanye, and riyadh up -- rihanna

together. up next, a producer talks about "playing for change " " mark johnson is a grammy-winning producer and engineer that was the driving force behind a unique documentary. it features over 100 musicians from around the world that have recorded and edited this together. this film is called "playing for change " " it is airing throughout the month on most pbs stations. >> ♪ stand by me darlinng, darling stand by may stand by me

darling, darling, stand by me stand b mayy me -- by me. ♪ tavis: nice to meet you. what a unique concept. this idea comes from where? >the original idea came about 10 years ago. i was working in new york as a recording engineer. i was in a subway station. i saw it two months painted all in white from head to toe. both of them were playing music. on this one day i saw about 200 people stop. everybody is watching this music. people's jobs were dropping. i sought a collection of people.

they are coming together because of this music. i got on a train and went to the studio. the best music i ever heard in my life is on its way to the studio. great music and great art are just moments in time and they exist everywhere. we can use these moments to connect everyone together. we wanted to find great musical moments and connect them together with songs are around the world. >> one of the songs that i got my attention is these gorgeous and wonderful locations that you shot in. the guy on the beach, and you found him in his environment. for all of these other artists, same thing? >> platts record them and fell on them and their natural environments where they are inspired to play. there is no separation between

music and people. on concerts' you have tickets and they stage. somebody plays a song and somebody else can watch -- walk by and have it live changing experience. tavis: let's talk about the larger goal for the project. it is not just something inventive and innovative like recording 100 people in their natural habitats. there is a purpose behind this. >> the purpose is to inspire the planet. during a time in the world in which there so much division, we need to create things that bring us together. we believe that music and inspiration are two great ways to remind us that we are all together on this planet. one of the musician said that this world is ours. it is not his or hers or theirs, it is ours. when we can inspire people to do something bigger than

themselves, it helps us leave the world better than when we found it. >> this for me is a philosophical question that i debated for years with a friend of mine. it was about the present power of music. you are putting a lot on the power. you have a lot riding on the power and the capacity and the potential. do you think that music can do all of that? >> music is one of the things in the world that can definitely do all of that. politics and religion, they inherently divide people. music can get from one part to another heart. it can overcome all of these divisions and bring us back to where we are all connected. that is why music is the best way to inspire people to start believing in each other. tavis: how do you know when you're in the engineering used -- you do not have to know this

when you are recorded -- recorded. these various music genres all tied in to the same song are going to work. >> definitely. >> we made them as we went. we did not leave a lot of editing for later. we had a concept with the musicians of what instruments might work well together. the zulu choir in south africa. we did not know that they were going to be singing zulu. this opened up all of these new opportunities. we can make things more natural and not make them do something that what they were ordinarily doing. >> you did not think the zulu choir was going to sing in zulu? i am just teasing.

it is a great project. the project -- norman lear first call me about this. the project is called "playing for change " " it is playing on most pbs stations this month. congratulations. i am glad to have you on the program. that is our show for the night. you can access their radio podcast at pbs.org. we will see you next time on pbs. as always, keep the faith. >> for more information on today's show, and visit tavis smiley at pbs.org. tavis: try me next time for a conversation with a rising star in the music world. that is next time. we will see you then. >> there are so many things that wal-mart is looking forward to doing like helping people live

better. we are mostly looking forward to building strong communities and relationships. with your help, the best is yet to come. >> nationwide insurance probably supports tavis smiley. tavis and nationwide insurance, working to improve financial literacy and the economic empowerment that comes with it. >> and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. [captioning made possible by kcet public television]