man who i've known for almost 20 years
y'all starting june 1st you can watch
him
judge his latest round of talented
people on the season premiere of
america's got talent
on nbc please welcome simon cowell
[Applause]
oh i wish i could hug you i know i can't
talk i can do this i can do this oh are
you kelly hello everyone oh my gosh i
missed your accent
how is everyone i know they're all here
they can see us and talk to us
yeah are you walking all over the world
all over the country all over the
country and sometimes world you are
right
yes nice to meet everyone it's actually
kind of interesting you know we've had
to be kind of innovative like with
shows and so it's actually cool because
we can get people from everywhere love
this
yeah i can go and say hello to people
close up
yes blake has went up and hugged and
kissed some people um
it was inappropriate i'll do that a bit
later okay yeah nice to meet you
everyone hey lovely to see you kelly
nice to see you
i'm good i haven't seen you since your
back thing so how you're good
obviously uh yeah absolutely i literally
had the x-ray results in about two days
ago
really yeah because i've still got this
rod in my back and i've got like
screws oh yeah i'm seriously i mean the
scars like that big
um you're wearing a rod in your back
right now
i have st i have titanium in my body
yeah wow you're like a robot you're part
robot yeah
yes i'm like what is his name the
terminator you know his part whatever
um well what was your son's reaction did
he freak out my kids freak out when i
even have a needle in my arm to get
blood or something well it's a good
question it was
because you know that movie up you know
right you know the guy who was on the
thing you know where he's standing up
yeah
with the tennis balls so i had came back
what's he gonna think how do i explain
it so lauren
told him that you know basically what
had happened
that i've got all this stuff in my back
and he came in one morning and he went
daddy you're like iron man aren't you
and i went
that's a good way of putting it and once
i knew that he understood
then i felt fine because that was the
only thing that was worrying me is that
how at his age does he understand that
i'm not going to be a move for the next
three or four months and blah blah blah
but
um that's scary simon like yeah i mean
not just for him but you
like that's i didn't know like all of
that that's scary to know that you might
i mean
you probably had to work like hell to
get that back right like with
rehabilitation
i got really lucky uh i mean i was like
a millimeter away from breaking my spine
uh which would have been a disaster so
uh like in a weird way it was kind of
meant to happen because i was
really pushing my luck i was buying
these crazy crazy bikes
and this particular bike i bought had so
much power i was thrown about eight feet
in the air
landed on my back in front of eric by
the way
you know this is at the front of my
house and the only thing i thought was i
can't lie
here and you're not supposed to move i
knew i'd broken my back in that second
somehow managed to get back into my
bedroom i'm lying in my bed covered in
blood waiting for the ambulance you
moved oh yeah i left i got carried and
i'm lying there
hallucinating about to pass out and i
look over
and there's a girl sitting in my bedroom
and i'm like oh hello who are you and
she went
i'm here to give you a coven test i went
what and she just walked up and gave me
a coat
yeah in the middle of all of this you're
like i think i might not be able to make
it ma'am
yeah i wasn't like top of my list at
that moment
but anyway i went in that night i had an
operation for like seven or eight hours
oh my god yeah and i remember the
surgeon's name is daniel nagasawa he is
if you ever break your back anyone he's
he's the person to go through
the most kind amazing smart person
you'll ever meet
wow and you want someone like that to
trust you know your life
and the well-being of it thereafter with
but i i filled in for you when you were
gone
and you almost did too well kelly oh
whatever i feel
nervous i was like who fills in for
freaking simon cowell
well i've got to hide it too because you
know we were a bit of a loose end
and someone said you know do you think
kelly would do i said
i promise you if kelly's free she'll do
it and i was watching literally in bed
that night and i'm thinking
thank you and as i'm watching it i'm
thinking you're actually doing
too well here
i did not i will tell you this though i
did i did put on a little british accent
for this one
i'd like to like to see it yes it's
great
i don't like it i love it except i need
glasses and a black shirt
but i'm missing that and then wait
there's another one is
what the bloody hell was that i have the
worst british accent in the entire
universe
i don't have i don't do accents that was
dreadful yeah it was dragon ball
super yes let me do one in wrestling let
me try and do it america
give me something america to say texan i
can't do it how y'all doing
how y'all doing nope how are y'all doing
i think i want a barbecue
nope where are you from the buyer y'all
like a barbecue
i'd like some ribs okay you're about as
good as my accidents
so wait i found this interesting because
i love your relationship with your son
and i heard that you all did a book
together you're writing books together
yeah i used to make up these animals uh
with him when he was younger about um
like uh if you had half a cat and half a
dog
it would be called a cog or a dat
and so it's just to make up these
animals and then i said to him
what would your favorite animal be and
the first thing he came up with was a
snog which was half a snail
and half a dog yeah and that's a snook
that was the first animal he came up
with and then we met this great
book publishers and we told them about
this idea and they said well would you
write a series of books together and i
went
yeah so we're doing it now and it's all
about these
um these funny animals which are half
this
half that um and it's been brilliant i
never thought i would do something like
this but i've loved it i love that
that's the juxtaposition of you doing
this is so great for me like i was like
this is awesome
you're like a different dude with a
child
i don't think you're a different dude i
take that back i think the like
vulnerable little side of you came out
when you had a kid yeah maybe
i mean after i lost my parents i
genuinely felt kelly
i would never feel that kind of love
for anyone ever again i mean i thought
that was it until
i saw the scan of him for the first time
yeah and
i used to call him tad because he looked
like a little tadpole
yeah and from that moment i saw the scan
it was like that was it
i am besotted and now
yeah i mean i just cannot imagine my
life
without him i mean he's the most amazing
thing that ever happened to me
that's so great great dad that's amazing
that's awesome
he did this too many times
[Applause]
[Music]
[Applause]
all right y'all we're back with the
legendary simon cowen that was a clip
from the new season of america's got
talent
so what is happening this season
well it was very interesting because you
know we're doing this
well you know you're doing it post covet
yeah so you know what was it going to be
like so there was a whole logistical
issue
but what was amazing that pretty much
everyone who came on
on the show this year came with a really
really
positive kind of like attitude you know
it was almost like yeah we've gone
through like a really really bad year
yeah but we're coming on this show
because we you know want to change our
lives
yeah blah blah blah blah want to get out
of our house exactly yeah
and actually a lot of people weirdly
they we're not weird actually it's
logical when you think about it
they actually developed these acts while
they were in lockdown
they weren't all great by the way but it
was interesting how they used their time
yeah so i found it fascinating i love
that they were productive
yeah there were some amazing stories
you're going to see kelly
and then there are some very wacky acts
uh but i like that combination what i
like about the show is you just
never know what they're going to do
until they walk out
i think that's why it's massively
popular just that unknown and nothing is
like predictable i love
i love that sitting there watching it
that is what you feel as well
yeah um but what are your what are your
favorite and least favorite acts like i
imagine you love the singers right
oh yeah i love the singers um i think
the hardest act
uh when you're doing auditions is when a
comedian goes wrong
because when a comedian goes wrong it i
mean it feels like it's going on for
like hours
yeah it's horrific and you feel bad for
them yeah and there's nothing
you can say literally like if a singer
goes wrong you can tell if you've got a
second song
whatever when a comedian goes wrong it's
deadly
and oh yeah what do you say you can't
wow there's nothing
there's just like total silence so
there's nothing you can do about it
um so those are those are the hardest
ones
um but like we said i love the
unpredictability
i my personal favorites are people who
aren't professionals they have like you
know like regular jobs yeah they've
always dreamt about doing something and
they
develop this incredible talent those are
my favorite auditions
yeah my favorite two are the ones that
like you see people come out like a
woman that does whatever job and you're
like
so okay and you're like so like why are
you here
and then like all of a sudden they like
blow you away it's that moment of like
they just didn't they never got their
shot they never had the opportunity
to like show what they could do i love
that
and can you let me ask you a question so
when you're judging
your show now i mean how do you find it
being on the other side now
i'm i feel like i'm a good mix of
you and paula i feel like i'm because
i'm a cheerleader i'm a cheerleader
in the sense you're very good i can't
tell you well no well i'm i'm i feel
like i try to be
but i think i'm a mix of both because i
am very honest but i try and be
constructive with it
but what was so interesting about you
and i always remember this with you
is that you always knew who
where you wanted to be after the show
you know the kind of artist you wanted
to be
you didn't need anyone to give you that
kind of guidance
i mean it was like i think about it now
because i like doing lots of different
styles
that was hard no it's like i use you as
an example a
i genuinely mean this you're one of the
nicest people
i've ever met most loyal i can say that
because we've known each other a long
time
but if have to say you know what advice
can you give me i just say
follow kelly oh my gosh that's true yeah
well i gotta say from all the people
like me that you've helped um in their
careers
like start them off like what are you
what because i feel like you have some
kind of spidey
sense with singers like you know i've
seen you on many shows and i think
there's something about you you can
always kind of recognize it whether it's
one direction
all those guys are camille cabello me
there's so many i could name so many
um but what do you what do you think you
you catch that maybe nobody else does
for me you can see it in people's eyes
you know it's like if you've got that
kind of
it's something when you look in in
someone's eyes when they audition
it you're like fearless and even if it's
not perfect there's
it's just something you recognize i mean
i wouldn't say i get it right 100
percent
yeah but mostly you're going to write a
lot i've got a pretty good track record
and that's what i do i look in someone's
eyes and i can see whether they're
confident or not yeah
and whether they've got great taste is
another part of it
yeah because a lot of time people come
on with the wrong song choices song
selection
why did you choose that song why didn't
you do something creative with it
i mean that's when i get frustrated but
look it's
hard but yeah it's still the most
amazing feeling you know
when you always remember that audition
when you meet a staff for the first time
and that's you know genuinely why still
do the job now
that's gotta be so cool too that you see
um uh so young like i was 19.
a lot of those like one direction boys
really they were younger than that like
and then you see them now and they have
their separate careers and they're all
that's just crazy amazing and camilla
was um
she wasn't even meant to audition she
wasn't um
i think we were like on time or
something that particular day which
meant she was a reserve
yeah and i went backstage to have a
cigarette and she was lying on the floor
crying
i went what's the matter she said they
won't let me audition i went well
just go and audition so she came out
five minutes later
amazing so it's just one of those kind
of like lucky moments
and gosh she's amazing i thought she was
good we did a radio show and she had
this whole band she's dancing
but then we did this show and she was
just camilla and a guitarist and
it was beautiful it was really it was
amazing i have to say this though
because this was just announced
up front so agt extreme was just
announced and you haven't talked really
about this before so what is it
well it's perfect timing now i've broken
my back let's just do an extreme show
i've always liked the idea of doing
something where we push what we've done
even further
so because there are no rules on agt as
you know but this time it's kind of like
really really attract the most extreme
acts from all over the world i don't
care what it is
yeah but it's something i've always
wanted to do and we spoke to nbc about
it at the beginning of this year
and then they announced it recently that
we are going to do it this year
um so i'm excited about that and also
we open um america's got talent
in vegas at the luxor uh this year as
well wow
yeah yeah so there's so many acts and
what a beautiful thing for after the
show they have somewhere to go too
exactly yeah yeah that's stupid and
vegas you know particularly
is really where they want to end up so
we we had a fantastic
conversation with um mgm who earned the
luxor
yeah love these people and uh and we
agreed to do it so that happens this
year as well
that's gonna feel so cool man you get to
make so many dreams come true
that's that's really cool yeah they
should write a movie about you dream
maker
they should call it the dreamhacker the
truth is that when we run out of talent
then we can't make these shows anymore
but i've always believed there's
always someone undiscovered for whatever
reason whether it's here the uk or other
countries who make this show you're
always
if you're lucky you'll find one and
that's what it's all about that's why i
still do what i'm doing
yeah all right everybody check out the
season premiere of america's got talent
june 1st on nbc
yep i'm still here just waiting for you
to subscribe
if you don't i'll be trapped in this box
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