classic is also 60 years old. ♪ it's beginning to look a lot like christmas ♪ >> reporter: and being john mathis a at first to please your mom. >> my move loved my christmas music, so i did a lot of it. >> reporter: but mathis felt it was time to enter this century. >> i'm happy that i'm finally doing some contemporary music that was written shorter than 50 years ago. ♪ nothing crazy >> reporter: n >> now that i'm 81 years old i can bust a move and have some fun. >> reporter: though known for his lush balanclads he does bus move. ♪ with hair like i don't care >> reporter: guided by "baby face." >> johnny's always had one of "the voice"s that you will never forge forget. ♪ i believe i can fly american history. ♪ i believe i can fly >> reporter: john mathis was born in texas, the fourth of seven children. the family moved to san francisco when he was a small boy. was hethere racism? segregation? >> it was heaven. i never felt denied in any way. >> reporter: he admired his father, a chef who played piano. >> he and i bonded because music. the first time i heard him sing, that's it. you and me, pop.

mathis could have worked for president obama. that's a good sign for the continuity and stability of the policy. i agree with john that the state department budget -- and for diplomacy in general are alarming as the secretary tillerson's seeming lack of interest in defending his own you like to say that the personal to state department -- does not do not do a single division in the army. he was outgunned and outmanned around the role in terms of being able to do the work he was trying to do in the aftermath of 9/11, especially handling the situation in an up to the iraq war and aftermath. said,as general mattis powers more important than ever. it doesn't make you soft on foreign policy to be an advocate for soft power, does it make you soft on national security interest. it makes you smart. to be brief, a whole range of other disappointing things involved the trump administration and president trump's -- and his family's unwillingness to untangle, disentangle the complicated web of obvious conflicts of interest they have all over the world, including the rampant uptick in the number of trademarks -- china and oth