My heart be still! Talking with me today is one of America's most endearing heart-throbs. Harry Connick, Jr. is dialin' in to share the amazing journey he's recently taken with his film-maker daughter, Georgia.
Traveling over 3500 miles in a rented RV, this dynamic duo set out from their home in Connecticut stopping in numerous cities and towns along the route to listen to the stories of essential workers - the janitorial staff and garbage collectors, grocery and gas station attendants, truckers, food preparers, and more. They listened, they learned, and many celebrity friends "Zoomed" in too, giving their heartfelt thanks to these heroes who represent the heartbeat of America.
With a television crew following and filming (while practicing safe distancing and mask-wearing) the Connick's incredible journey came to an end in New Orleans. The footage captured became the CBS special "United We Sing: A Grammy Salute To The Unsung Heroes" which can now be seen on CBS All-Access, and Harry's new single "Stars Still Shine" can be downloaded where ever you get your music. All proceeds from the single will benefit the Ellis Marsalis Center for Music,- a phenomenal organization I encourage you to check out. Thanks for joining us! ~ Delilah
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So lovesome with love Today's edition of Love Someone with Delilah is going to be very, very very easy for you to do. It is going to be so easy for you to love the someone who is my guest today because he is so lovable, one of America's endearing heart throbs. He is a beautiful singer, such a talented singer and musician. He's a gifted actor. And he's not so hard on the eyes either. Let's be honest, such a handsome man. Mr Harry Connick Jr. Is joining us to talk about a whole lot of stuff that he has got going on. Uh music and giving back. Will be back to hear all about what Harrick Connick Jr. Is doing, how he is being an inspiration to thousands millions of people. Right after this message from my amazing sponsor, the Home Depot, it's time for an upgrade beneath your feet with beautiful, durable, new carpet from the Home Depot. Choose the styles you want to see, order samples, schedule a measure and installation all online. It's never been easier to have carpet you love, free installation on purchases of six or more and a dollar twenty five or more per square foot only from the home depot. How doers get more done? And speaking of doers, my guest today does a lot for others. A big, huge welcome to my friend, the incredibly talented raconic Jr. As I just mentioned. His talent is massive, his heart is even bigger. You're so nice. Thank you. So tell me about this trip that you took with your daughter. My sister was telling me that your daughter is a filmmaker. Yeah, so she This is Georgia. She's the oldest of our three girls. She's twenty four, and she studied filmmaking and has been, um, really kind of making a name for herself in the in the business. And we've worked together before, and we were sitting at home during quarantine when it kind of first started. I said, Georgia, let's um, let's take a road trip and go thank some essential everyday heroes for all the stuff they're doing to help us out. People like sanitation workers, um, people who were on the Boys and Girls clubs, truck drivers, grocery store clerks, you know, and just just go say thanks and um, and you can film it and we can put something together. And she said, that sounds that's was great. So um, we rented an RV and uh, CBS followed us around and filmed it, filmed her filming me, and we put a special together UM called United We Sing a Grammy tribute to the Unsung Heroes, and it came out on CBS about three weeks ago and now it's streaming on CBS All Access. And it was just an incredible opportunity for us to thank and pay tribute to these amazing folks who keep our lives going every day. So how many of the comics went in the motor home? Was it just you and Georgia? Was it the whole family? Well, if it were up to me, I would have brought everybody, but Jill wasn't able to go. Neither were Kate or Sar, which was probably best because we were working so much, like we ended up driving thirty five miles and Georgia when not filming, was editing, so we weren't the most social because we were really trying to get a lot of footage. UM, so it probably worked out best. But it wasn't really like a like a vacation where everybody could have come along, so you didn't get to stop at all the roadside attractions you didn't well they were probably closed anyway, with COVID, everything was closed. But when we stopped, like we would go and we weren't staying in hotels because we were being really cautious about social distancing. So we would pull into these campground sites and you know, we stayed in you know, Tennessee and Virginia and Alabama, and it was it was just awesome. You know, we got some R and R at night and then we pick up the next day and go, you know, and stopping you know, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Casisco, Mississippi, or Memphis or wherever. And so it was intense, but it was really really cool. Okay, how many miles again did you put on the r V and I'm taking that you were driving while Georgia was editing. Yeah, we drove thirty five miles in total. Wow, what inspired you to do that? Like, you know, sitting around thinking about everybody getting sick and what was going on because back when a first hit we were hearing we were hearing the stories out of Wuhan. What made you think, you know, what, we can we can do some good, we can we can be a blessing, we can be an inspiration, Like, how did that thought come up? I was getting tired of watching the news as as I am now actually with with just so much bad news and contradictory information. In fact, the song that I wrote that I'm promoting Stars Still Shine the very first line as all this news is getting old, and it it really was. And I'm thinking, you know, we're seeing a lot of who we should see on the news, healthcare workers, firemen and women, e ms, you know, police officers, um. But we're not seeing a lot of the people who do a lot of the lot of the you know work that is going on. Um. Who who really deserves some sort of recognition. And so that was that was the idea to just to go say thanks to him and just to to you know, look at them, and I mean I couldn't shake their hand or anything, but just in the eyes and say we we see you, and we love you and we appreciate you. And then I had the idea of having celebrities zoom in and I'd be holding an iPad and the street car operator in New Orleans, you know, would see Sandy Bullocks saying thank you or um, the the trucker, husband, wife, couple, um, who are you know are putting themselves at risk every day to keep our supply chain going. Tim McGraw was on the iPad and saying them a song. So it was really, you know, it was just about let's not do a news piece. That's you know, real heavy. Let's let's just bring these folks some entertainment and some joy and nothing nothing, nothing, nothing lives your heart or your spirit as hearing thank you. Yeah, I think I think you're right, you know. I mean, when I play a show or I do something and somebody comes up to me on the street and says, you know, thank you for what you do, that that that is you know what it's like. I mean, you're giving people arrestite from from all of this craziness. I mean, that's what you do for a living. And what an honor it is to be able to do what you love and actually have it, you know, help someone. So man, it's it's a no brainer for for me to go out and just you know, look these people in the eye and tell them thank you so much, and every one of them except maybe one, so like, why do you why do you want to talk to us? I'm like, because you are the cleaning crew of the hospital at the University of Alabama and you have husbands and wives and children and you can't sit home in quarantine. You are giving me chills. You know that the chicken skin My kids call it when you get excited, goose bumps. But it's true, and it's true now. It's true now, and people are forgetting that. Okay, that was four months ago. It's true now. Yeah. Well it's it's worse now. It's far worse now. Yeah. And so while all of this, you know, stuff is going on like that, that guy who collects the trash every day at four o'clock in the morning said, why you aren't talk to me? I said, because I'm asleep. When you come you pick up my trash, you're exposing yourself to this virus far more than I am. You can't, you know, take four months off work, you know, and he has to come home and you know, take extra precaution with his clothes and stuff. I said, do you think what you're doing is He goes, yeah, I actually do, and it was you know, I mean, I love these people, man, This is there's a lot of goodness out there. We just need to focus on that. There's so much goodness out there. I'm so sick of the bad news. I'm so sick of the divisiveness. I'm so sick of it, of the bitterness and the negativity when there's so much goodness out there. Thank you. It was my honor, really was, Harry. It is my absolute honor to be speaking with you. We are going to take a brief pause right now to share a message from some folks who make this podcast possible. I am so excited to have my friend Harry Connick Jr. Joining us today. Harry, tell me more about your beautiful daughter, Georgia, you know, to work with her. You know, this was not, you know, like a pleasure trip. I mean she was really you know, burn the midnight all trying to get these edits, you know, uploaded to CVS. She was working really, really hard, and then she would go out and film these people, and she was listening to you know, Asia, the twenty something year old school teacher who has a bunch of elementary school kids who don't have computers to do online learning, and they don't have access to the internet because they can't afford it to do online learning. So what does she do? She goes to their house every day and drives by with candy and throws it out the window and checks on them. I mean, this, this is what I'm talking about. And you know that these are the There's a line I keep coming back to in the song and says, thank God for you, thank God for you. These aren't lyrics that you know, you write down because you need lyrics. These are lyrics that I said, how can I say thank you? And it's you know what it boiled down to, thank God for you. Um, you know we could not do this without you, and you need to hear it. And and that's what the song is all about. I'm sorry, you're making me cry. Oh well they listen, they make they make me cry and and and like like you know, it's in this time for me that that's what gets me through, um with with all of the vitriol and all the divisiveness and bitterness. Um, you know, I I look at you know, the good the good ones, and there's there's a lot of there's a lot of people out there that are that are making as possible and you know, I keep my eye on that, and I just know we'll be okay, Mr Rogers. Look for the helpers. Look for the helpers. There's so many helpers. Yeah. And and it's funny how the noise dissipates and disappears when when my focus is on that. I mean, you know, things that would you know, normally, you know, make my heart rate go up or worry me or stress me out. They it's funny how they just dissolve when a slight change in perspective or gratitude or humility is really all all that it takes. And um, I mean it's it's it's something that I have to remind myself of. Um, but when I do, it's just it's it's funny how much brier the world looks. So your girls, your wife and your girls. Are you guys are all at home now that that project is done? Are you still together? We're all home. Um, everybody's just kind of kind of on stand by, you know. Uh, Georgia, you know, can't really do a whole lot in terms of going out and filming. My daughter Kate has a clothing line. She's doing her best to kind of run the business from home. And Charlotte is about to be a senior in high school and we're still waiting to find out, you know, whether the public school will you know, go on a schedule, whether they'll do like a flex thing, you know, all about that with the two or three days a week, you know. So we're just kind of waiting, and and Jill, who happens to be a unbelievable chef, is spoiling us with a lot of home cooked meals. So it's been that part of it has been great. I gotta say, as as much stress and heartache and frustrations and school and all that stuff, dinner time has been a huge blessing to be together with my family. Yeah. I remember I was talking to somebody the other day and they're like, oh God, you know, I can't wait till all this is over our kids can go back to school. And I'm thinking, yeah, I mean that that we need that to happen. But man, I'm loving every second of having my girls here. I am loving it of the time, the intimacy, the conversations. Um, we started doing this thing at dinner time, and if if you've not done it, I would suggest you do it because it'll blow your mind with what your girls come up with. But every night, one of us comes up with a question, and uh So we've been sheltering and play up until last Thursday with my outlaws, my ex husband's parents who were in their eighties, and me and my husband and five of our kids that are still at home. And the questions are just phenomenal that the kids have been coming up with. And that so questions like if you could go back in time and change one event in your life, what would it be? And why? Man, that's great, you know why that's great because it gives your kids a chance, all of all of you, a chance to come up with something substantive. Like we play a game called Awkward Dinner where we go on the table and say, okay, name three people that you would never want to have dinner with at the same time. And you'd pick like, you know, like your ex ex boyfriend, and like a third grade teacher who they don't know, and like some politicians. You just like just people you just would never never put together. But the thing of your game is that it's it's um something that they've had a chance to think about um, which would make it, you know, more meaningful. So I love that we're gonna do that. There have been so many blessings come out of the shutdown, and I'm not I'm not negating the financial hardships and and all the people we've lost and and all that. But in the midst of that, there have been so many moments of pure joy with me and my kids, and that's what I try to focus on. Yeah, yeah, it's it's it's life is I tell my kids, like, a pretty good day is a blessing because in the course of a day, you know, you may have heartbreak and great joy, you know, so if you can get through the day and have it be pretty good, that's that's that's all right. And life is complicated, right, It's it's all of those things. It's hardship and tragedy and joy and everything. So there there is joy here, and I think you're smart to embrace it. That's what we try to do too. Well, tell me about the projects that that a your your video, your your program is helping, because I know there's some really cool charities. Yeah. Well, the show United We Sing. People can see that now on CBS All Access streaming if they want to see the whole show. But the finale of the show is I'm writing this down CBS All access. You can stream it okay, yep, and then um, the song Stars Still Shine, you can download that anywhere you would normally download songs and all of the proceeds to that. You can just listen to the Delilah show. You just do that. That would be the favorite way to do it, and then you can look up online. The Ellis Marsalis Center for Music, It's something I started with Branford Marsalis. It's in one of the most underserved neighborhoods in New Orleans, the ninth Ward. It's a community center that offers you know, after school help for kids and it teaches them how to code and has a recording studio and a community center. Um. And we just lost Ellis from COVID. He was our teacher and Bramford's father, So, um, we want to keep this center going. It's been going since not long after Katrina. It's expensive to operate and all the all the money that we used to do that comes from donation, So all of the proceeds from Stars Still Shine will go to benefit that. It takes a village. It takes a village to inspire a child, to keep a child protected and safe during these crazy times. And how cool that kids can can go there and be safe and be taught and express themselves musically. Yeah, and to feel like they have ownership and something. You know, that's so much of it. You know, when when when they go back to their homes in the Musicians Village, their their parents own those homes. That's part of the whole Habits after humanity process when we started Musicians Village, those kids own those homes and they they have keys to the kingdom. And I mean when you don't have to worry about that, I mean, how how available are you to learn? I mean, it's it's infinite because you you feel like you Yeah, this is mine, the best recording studio in New Orleans. I can go in here whenever I want because this this belongs to me. And I'm telling you just takes a teeny bit of opportunity that and you could you know, that's that's the future superstars of music coming out of New Orleans and they just need a little bit of opportunity and hopefully, you know, the Ellis Marsala Center will give them that. Wow again with the goose bumps. I'm sitting here with the goose bumps again. That's good. We like goose bumps. I'm so proud of you. I'm so I just wanna weren't for COVID and and the fact that we're not face to face. I would just give you the biggest Mama Delilah hug. So I'm so proud of you of what you do. I would take that in a second, and one day I we'll be able to hug each other again. For sure. For sure. We just got to get through this and we gotta come out stronger, and um, we'll do it. Thank you, Thank you, Harry. It's great hearing your voice again as always. Thank you, sweetheart. Give my love to your family, and do that thing around the dinner table, ask the really weird questions and and let your kids, let the girls come up with the questions. Oh yeah, I love it. I think that's a great idea. We're gonna do that tonight and have Jill big sour dough bread, sour dough bread tipped in olive oil, with the questions. Nothing like it in the world. I'm coming over to your house. I'll sit outside. Okay. Thank you, Harry Connick Jr. Stars still shine. We'll talk to you soon, honey. All right, Bye, Harry Connick Jr. We are so fortunate to have your music, You're acting talents, your love, your kindness, your family values, and your adorable nous. One more entertainer who models care and compassion. One more person using their gifts, their talents, their skills to change the world for good. On Heart at a Time, you can download Harry Connick Jr's new single, Stars Still Shine. You can watch his CBS special at CBS All Access, and you can help out kids who need your love. All that you can do. Thank you for joining me today on Love Someone with Delilah, and stay tuned to my radio show every single night. God bless you and take care.