-Harry, it's great to see you.
And man, it's an honor to have you here.
-It's so cool to be here.
It's the first time on "The Tonight Show" in my whole life.
[ Cheers and applause ]
-I find that hard to believe. -Yeah, right?
And oh, by the way, real quick.
"Summer of Soul." Stop. -Thank you.
[ Cheers and applause ] -Just so great.
-Well done, Questlove. Yeah.
Harry, we met, I would say, 20 years ago.
I don't know if you remember this.
You did an A&E biography on "SNL."
-It was amazing. We went behind the scenes.
We shadowed the show for a week.
Then we came back and shot the thing.
And that's when I first met you. -Yeah.
-And I have this very crystal-clear memory.
Tuesday night, they stay up all night and write.
-Yeah. -And you and I are walking down
49th Street at like 4:30 in the morning.
And I turned to you, and I said,
"Where do you think this all leads?
Where do you think this all leads?"
And back then, would you have had any idea
that you would be sitting right here right now?
-No. [ Cheers and applause ]
No. No, never, never.
-Right? -Wow, no.
-Yeah. -Not never. Not at all.
I didn't know this was even a job that someone could have.
[ Laughter ] But I was just so psyched.
I'm the biggest fan of yours.
I said it backstage, but I'll say it in front of stage.
Every time I see you, whether it's a humorous piece you do,
whether it's an emotional piece, I love you and I have to --
I can't tune out. You're like when "The Godfather"
comes on TV or "Love Actually," I have to watch the whole movie.
-You can't change the channel. -No, you can't.
I go, "Harry Smith, he's the greatest," I mean --
-Oh, you're nice. You're too nice.
-No, you're a pro.
The recent thing you just did with Al Pacino was awesome.
I thought that was great.
-So the Tribeca Film Festival screened "Heat"
from 1995, great classic.
Michael Mann film.
And so they had Al Pacino and Robert De Niro
and we got them backstage for like 20 minutes.
-Yeah. -And --
You have -- Do you have any experience
with interviewing Robert De Niro?
-Robert De Niro, yes, he was my first interview, by the way.
He was my first guest on "Late Night."
-And how much did he say? -He said two words.
He said, "yep" and "nope."
He's like, "Yep."
-We got a couple of paragraphs from him.
-I mean, you did? -'Cause I've interviewed him
a bunch of times, and honestly -- well, he was on
the "Today" show a couple of weeks ago
talking about the Tribeca Film Festival.
And here's Hoda and here's Savannah and they're saying,
"Bob, Bob, Bob." "Ask Jane. Ask Jane. Ask Jane."
Who runs it with him. And it's just like --
And so I do all this homework. I do all this stuff.
And I just say, "Please, please, talk to me."
And I got lucky.
-Yeah, but you've been doing this for 50 years?
Is that true? Almost 50 years?
-So, I graduated college in 1973.
I went to Central College in Iowa to play football.
But I messed around with a college radio station,
and I got a job doing color commentary
on girls high school basketball games
at the local radio station, daytime station.
And the local veterinarian and I would take his pickup
out to see these girl high school basketball games.
And since it was only on during the daytime,
we're there at 6:00 at night. It's not live.
So we had a reel-to-reel tape recorder,
and we would record the games.
The commercials I wrote for D&D Pump and Pipe, right?
This is not a joke. This is not a joke.
[ Laughter ] And they would replay them.
Even though everyone knew the results of the game,
they would replay them the next afternoon.
-Wow. What, on like A.M. radio or something?
-A.M. radio, whatever.
KNIA in Pella, Iowa.
-Is that right? -Yeah.
With studios in Knoxville.
-You're an award-winning journalist.
You've interviewed everybody,
celebrities, royalty, presidents.
I mean, have you -- have you met the Queen?
Have you met the Queen?
-Yeah. Okay. So...
[ Audience ohs ]
She was on some tour. It's got to be in the '90s, right?
And there's some big event at the British ambassador's house
in Washington, D.C.,
and you get the invitation and just go,
"This has to be a mistake."
I get there and it really is the royalty of Washington, D.C.
And you get instructions.
Do not address the Queen.
Don't ask her a question. Don't say boo to her.
So, I'm close to the front of the line, and I just do
the curtsy or the bow or whatever you're supposed to do.
-Yeah. Curtsy.
-And I'm like, "I'm not happy with this.
It didn't work for me." -Wow.
-So I doubled back -- I double-dipped on the Queen.
[ Laughter ]
I go back to the back of the line, right,
and I put my hand out, and I said --
My co-host in the morning then, Paula Zahn -- I said,
"She knows your cousin or your something or your something."
And prattle, prattle, prattle.
And she says, "Oh, really?"
We had a little conversation, which no one else had.
-You did it? -And then -- And then all
the VIPs of Washington, D.C., descended on me and said,
"What were you talking to the Queen about?"
-Yeah! That's right!
You're like, "Yeah, I'll show you how to double-dip."
[ Cheers and applause ]
Wow. -Crushing it.
Crushing it with the Queen.
-What are your favorite interviews?
-Real people. Real people.
Because honestly, I've interviewed all the presidents.
I've interviewed everybody, right?
And most of my job, we just go out into America and I know
if we're paying attention to the news every day, which we should,
it feels like we're at each other's necks constantly.
-Yeah. -It doesn't feel like that out there, right?
There are people out there who are building community,
helping their neighbors, they're loving their neighbors.
That's what it feels like a lot out there where I like to be.
I've done stories --
[ Cheers and applause ]
-Yeah. -Right?
I've done stories in all 50 states.
I've done from every continent, including Antarctica,
and my pleasure zone is out on the road,
out talking to folks.
-Harry Smith, you're a legend.
I love that you're on the show. Please come back any time.
-This is what happens --
You know the segment "Thank You Notes"?
I got a thank-you note.
[ Cheers and applause ]
-You're the best. Harry Smith.
You can see his reports on the "Today" show,
"NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt" and "NBC News Now."
Conan Gray performs next. Stick around.
Harry Smith on "The Tonight Show."