- The introduction scared me.
- How so?
- When you said, "He wrote Lady in the Bathroom,"
and a lot of people don't know that story,
so that's kind of an awkward situation.
It's very simple.
I'm working with Kenny Rogers.
- I mean, come on, Kenny Rogers!
(cheering) - This is back,
this is back in the day.
So, Kenny calls and says, "I want you to
"write a song for me," and of course, I wrote, "Lady."
And thinking, he said, "Write two songs."
So, I wrote one song called, "Going back to Alabama."
Well, we get halfway through that song.
He says, "I don't wanna sing that song.
"I think I wanna do Lady first."
Now, what he didn't know was,
I only wrote, I only had written the first verse of Lady.
So, I said, "Excuse me for a minute.
"Let me go to the bathroom."
(laughing)
I'm sitting in the stall writing the second verse to Lady.
- So wait, you can literally be like,
"I'll be right back.
"I'm just gonna go and write this hit juggernaut classic,
"and I'll be back with you in five minutes."
- Yeah, but let me just explain something to you.
You will do some amazing things
when you're scared to death.
- Yes.
- So, the idea of telling Mr. Rogers
I don't have the second verse was not gonna happen
in my lifetime.
(laughing)
(clapping)
- I, that's, just wanna say thank you.
- This is the first interview I've ever had
where the host is on their knees interviewing me.
This is very good.
- That's how I roll, it is.
- Very amazing.
- It's funny, sometimes I'm just like,
why do I, I know, I'm like.
- What do you want me to do?
- Oh my God, you're the first person
who's doing it to me!
- Yeah no, that would be scary.
- Okay, so this must have been a scary moment
when you told your parents,
"Okay, I'm gonna go into the Commodores
"and I'm not going to go to college.
"I'm gonna take this risk."
Were you scared?
How did you take that leap of faith?
- Okay, so I'm gonna give you the real story behind that.
Pay attention, everybody, this is good.
It was not that I'm not going to school.
I am in school.
I am in my senior year of Tuskegee University.
I called my Dad on the phone and I said,
"We're going on the Jackson 5 tour.
"We're the opening act for the Jackson 5."
And my dad looked at me and I can't say
the words that he said to me.
But he's a very educated man, but he really got nasty to me.
But you know, one of those things where
I believed in it so much and I think he saw
that I believed in it and instead of him
giving me maybe the full wrath of what he thought,
he just gave me his little outside scrimmage,
which scared me to death.
But the greatest thrill was four years later.
I brought him a check and now, eight years later,
10 years later, excuse me, from that moment,
I'm now doing an interview with Barbara Walters.
And here's my father speaking about Walters.
"It is the job of every parent to stand firmly
"behind the child."
(laughing) And I,
so I realized, at that point,
you can pay your parents off if you get really
great at it, you know?
(clapping)
You know what I mean?
I mean, yes, he scared me to death,
but he made me put a focus on it.
If I don't go for my dream now, when?
So, I had to take that chance.
- All right so, American Idol.
What season is this for you?
(cheering) (clapping)
Katy Perry, Luke Bryan. - Luke Bryan.
- Ryan Seacrest and all I can say to you is
on American Idol, I don't know what the heck
they're gonna do.
And it's not scripted.
Everyone thinks that we're making this stuff up
or somebody's writing it for us.
So every day, it's a step off the edge
of the cliff of faith.
- Mmhm, I mean, it's just such a good show.
- I thought, I thought what am I gonna do?
What am I gonna do to teach these kids
and then I realized no, no, no.
You get on the show and they're teaching us.
Because you learn something.
When you see us in tears on the show, for example,
you know, it's not because we're sitting there
emotionally involved in their careers.
No, we're sitting there as parents.
For example, you'll ask a very simple question.
Tell us about your growing up.
Tell us about your family life.
And the lady will say, "We're homeless."
Now, that has nothing to do with singing.
That has to do with real life.
So, when you see us sitting there,
the first thing we say is, "Please God, be able to sing."
Because the last thing I wanna do
is send you away.
- Yes.
- And most of the time, we know they can.
But what we do now is, when's the last time they left
any parts of that town they were in?
Never.
So, we'll say things like, "You know what?
"We're gonna send you to Hollywood."
Now, are they gonna win the whole event?
Probably not.
But just leaving that town for a brief moment
and meeting some new friends
could change their lives forever.
Think about that.
(clapping)
(upbeat music)