up next neil sedaka. stay with us. tavis: pleased to welcome neil sedaka, the legendary songwriter has been a fixture in the music business for years. he released his first studio album in over 10 years, called the music of my life. he's out with a book for children, called "waking up is hard to do" honored to have you on the program. >> thank you for inviting me. >> i want to say thank you. >> it is a gift -- this isee a surprise for me, this book. i actually started as a concert pianist,ly a schoolship to the juilliard school of music. my father was a taxi driver and couldn't afford it so i started at nine at the prep school and i went to the college and had every intention of becoming a concert pianist and -- tried out for the competition in russia but they found out i was a rock and roller, so i was disqualified. gift of song writing, i started to write songs and the first people i went to were jerry wexler at atlantic record. as a teenager i was writing for lavern baker and the cookies and the clovers before -- be

an idea put a cd together and you started talking to nashville artists, some of the biggest and neil sedaka legends in the music business. what kind of response did you get when you asked them to participate. >> i don't think we had anybody who didn't want to participate, everybody wanted to be a part of it and i'm one of the lucky guys, james sent me to go to new york and get the tracks on neil. . >> isn't he a great guy? >> such a great guy. awesome to be in a room with him and watching him perform. >> mike: one of the things, james, you've produced platinum selling, grammy winning records for toby keith and aaron tippin and willy nelson and some of the artists you work for. >> tim mcgraw, faith hill, charlie daniels and goes on and on. >> the list is shorter if you don't mention one, everybody in town. >> mike: it's truly an amazing thing if you look at the different people you've worked with. tell me something that happened in a studio, that-- >> well, you know, we talked about this earlier, you were talking about what happens in the-- when we're recording aen we were talking about char

join me next time with princeton professor peter singer and the legendary singer/songwriter neil sedaka. that is next time. we will see you then. >> all i know is his name is james, and he needs extra help with his reading. >> i'm james. >> yes. >> to everyone making a difference, you help us all live better. >> nationwide insurance supports tavis smiley. with every question and answer, nationwide insurance is proud to join tavis in working to improve financial literacy and remove obstacles to economic empowerment one conversation at a time. nationwide is on your side. >> 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--