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Tavis: As we continue our celebration of Black History Month, I am pleased to welcome gospel great BeBe Winans to the program. This month, he's out with his fourth solo CD, which features the single, "I Have a Dream." The song marks the first time the King estate has allowed the release of a song based entirely on words from Dr. King's landmark speech. From the new CD "Dream," here's some of the video for the making of the song "When You Pray."

BeBe Winans, singing: I know you'll be right there,

Just have faith,

When you pray,

When you need a friend,

oh, when you need a friend,

Yes, he will,

Just have faith...

Tavis: Benjamin!

BeBe: You know, it's amazing.

Tavis: What's that?

BeBe: As I'm looking at that footage, I'm saying, "Wow. Uh, I'm a good actor."

Tavis: Ha ha ha!

BeBe: Because I was sick as a dog.

Tavis: Well, that's how I feel today, so...

BeBe: Uh-huh?

Tavis: Hopefully I'll be a good actor, too.

BeBe: I was sick as a dog. Like, whaahh. The director made me get out of bed, and I looked at him like he was crazy, but hey.

Tavis: Speaking of acting, though, you ain't no joke, though. I saw you--What? "Manchurian Candidate." I saw it, the Denzel Washington flick.

BeBe: Yes, sir.

Tavis: I saw you in there. Detective...

BeBe: Detective Williams.

Tavis: Yes.

BeBe: Agent Williams. Thank you.

Tavis: I saw this. So you're doing the acting thing now, too?

BeBe: Well, you know what? Yes. There's no limitation. I've taken all limitations off. And I just had a great time, really had a ball. Jonathan Demme, who directed it, was just the most incredible person to work for, and so I had a great time. So more things are opening up.

Tavis: You say you--I'm fascinated to hear you say this. You and I came out of the same spiritual background, and there are a lot of folk in the black church of old--

BeBe: They cage you.

Tavis: You knew where I was going.

BeBe: I knew exactly where you were going.

Tavis: You start doing like this.

BeBe: Prison.

Tavis: They put you in a box, and there's some things you can't do and go to heaven and serve God, so when you say on a spiritual level, you've taken all the limitations off your life, what do you mean by that?

BeBe: Well, I mean, you know, exactly what you said. Where we came from, you didn't go to college, really, because you didn't have time to study, because you had to be at the revival service, you know? And I just learned as I, you know, grew older and became more of a--on a personal level between me and God, and not just leaning on what man said and become a crutch on the pastor, and that was good for me. When me and CeCe moved from Detroit, we kind of had to learn on our own who God was. And so God is much bigger than a lot of things I was taught. And so it's not a very easy thing to do to break through that, and--but we did, and now, it's just no looking back.

Tavis: Your music, speaking of CeCe, your sister and former partner--BeBe and CeCe--uh, your music has broken through a lot of barriers. How do you deal with, or has it ever started to subside, the concern, the criticism, the critique that your music took, that you took too much liberty with what you were doing?

BeBe: Well, it never--

Tavis: You took too many limitation--You know.

BeBe: The only--It didn't subside. It's just we grew older, and the older you get, come on.

Tavis: You don't care as much.

BeBe: You just don't care...

Tavis: Ha ha ha ha!

BeBe: I'm serious.

Tavis: They still staying it. You just don't listen no more.

BeBe: Oh, please. I don't hear it. You know, forget don't listen. I just--I just don't hear it. And really--And those people of yesterday, of yesteryear, came back and apologized because--I learned this, and this was a very honest and it was a wonderful thing, when I was doing, I was doing--concerned at that time, that people didn't understand, and people was going to say this and that. Um, I realized this, and it was just a very soft voice in my heart that said that, "I gave this vision to you, so either you're going to trust me, or you're gonna listen to what other people say." And I think that is the day that I made the decision, "You know what? I'm going to trust you." And through the years, I've seen where what I've done, the misunderstandings, just to bump into somebody and say, "You know what? Through your music, I'm no longer on cocaine," or, "I'm a father to my children because I'm not--I'm not an alcoholic anymore," it makes everything I had to endure worth the while.

Tavis: Um, how many times a day do you get asked, when are you and CeCe going to get together again and do another record?

BeBe: Heh heh. Constantly. Constantly. You know what? For the first time, three days ago, me and CeCe said, "OK, let's talk." And what we want to do--and from my viewpoint--is we want to come back and say thank you. We don't want to come back and say good-bye, because that chapter is--is done.

Tavis: And been written.

BeBe: Oh, it's been written. I'm so excited about the other chapters, and so is she. But we want to come back and say thank you, because we really didn't get a chance to say bye in the way we wanted to say bye. It was all about, you know, the record company we were with, give them a greatest hits album so we can get off that label and go on with our lives, and this and the other, you know. And so we want to come back and say thank you in a very big way, and so we're talking about--

Tavis: Another record maybe?

BeBe: One more record.

Tavis: OK. Oh. Is that news? Is that news flash here?

BeBe: That's news flash.

Tavis: Should I put this on the wire? BeBe Winans tells Tavis Smiley he and CeCe are finally going to do another CD?

BeBe: One CD.

Tavis: All right.

BeBe: And we'll probably start at the end of this year for next year.

Tavis: All right. In the meantime, though, you've got 1,001 things jumping. Let's talk about this particular CD. This song, "I Have a Dream," your guy Steve McKeever, our friend at Hidden Beach, a year ago, year and a half ago, said, "Tavis, BeBe has done a piece that you have gotta hear," and he gave me his headset, so I sat in a hotel room--in New Orleans, I think we were, Steve and I--and I listened to this, and I was blown away by this song. Um, and Steve, as you know, is one of these guys that, you know, lets people check stuff out. He let Bill Clinton hear it, and I heard it, few other people heard it, and I kept waiting for the song to drop. It never came. It's finally on this CD. This "I Have a Dream" song is unique because it is the first time that...

BeBe: The King family, the Foundation, ever gave permission for someone to use the whole speech. And understandably, you know, it's such a value piece that you just don't give it out without thinking, you know, about what you're doing, so--But we didn't know it was going to take as long as it took, you know. And you heard it a year and a half ago. I've had it for about six years.

Tavis: Wow.

BeBe: So I've been very patient, and just the other day, you know, for--for his birthday celebration, you know, it was on the radio, and I heard it, and it was like, "You know what? This has been worth the wait." I think it's going to be a piece that, to the generation that really, really don't know, can be enlightened of who he is and what he's done. Music has a way of breaking through doors that spoken words sometimes have problems getting through.

Tavis: How much of a challenge, though, I mean--And you like challenge. I know you. You like challenges.

BeBe: Uh-huh.

Tavis: But I can't imagine that it wasn't a daunting task. And maybe it wasn't. Maybe it came to you. Maybe you saw the light...

BeBe: In writing the song?

Tavis: like Moses in a burning bush or something. But taking Dr. King's words and putting it to music--I mean, first of all, to even try to touch King's stuff is tough, but you took it, put it to music, rather.

BeBe: As much as I'd love to be able to sit here and brag about being the songwriter, I have to be honest and say I had nothing to do with it. I was at home, and I heard the speech, a little snippet of what they usually play during his celebration--

Tavis: The one part that everybody knows.

BeBe: Exactly.

Tavis: "That my four little children one day live in a world they won't be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."

BeBe: Exactly.

Tavis: That's the only line people know. People act like King only gave one speech and it didn't have but one line in it. We don't know nothing else about the speech.

BeBe: All right, but come on. Listen. So I went and I got it off the Internet...

Tavis: All right. I'm glad you picked it up.

BeBe: And I read that speech from top to bottom, which blew me away.

Tavis: So you finally saw the whole text.

BeBe: The whole text.

Tavis: All right. Good for you.

BeBe: Blew me away.

Tavis: All right.

BeBe: I went straight into the piano room, and in five minutes, this song was written. I was just a vessel. You know, I know and I've written enough songs to know how, when you're writing a song, you're laboring, you're just trying, and you're sweating, this and that, and I know what it is to sit there and just pick up a pen and be a channel in which a song is--is brought through. And that's what it was. In five minutes, that song was written.

Tavis: Mmm. It's an amazing--It's an amazing piece.

BeBe: Oh, it's powerful. It's so powerful.

Tavis: Shouldn't you get, like, less money for songs that take less time to write? How does that work?

BeBe: Ha ha! I'm glad you're not the president of B.M.I.

Tavis: How does that work at Hidden Beach? Did McKeever give you less money for songs that take less to write?

BeBe: Not at all.

Tavis: "All right, that took you five minutes. Let me give you $5 for that one."

BeBe: No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Come on, now. I work hard. You know I work hard.

Tavis: You work really hard. Speaking of working hard, you're on the radio every week.

BeBe: I'm having a ball.

Tavis: We hear--I hear you every Sunday morning here in L.A. on my way to church. A local station here carries your program, "The BeBe Winans Show."

BeBe: The Beat.

Tavis: Yeah, the Beat carries it. But it's a great radio program.

BeBe: Thank you.

Tavis: You enjoying it?

BeBe: I'm having a ball.

Tavis: When do you have time for radio?

BeBe: Well, please. Come on. Today's technology, you can do things and be at home and, you know--and be across the country at the same time. But I have great producers, really, guy named Tom Verson and Cindy Sevey. That makes it very, very simple. We--They get on a plane to come to Nashville, we do four or five shows, and then they go back, and then we--But most of all, I'm having a ball interviewing the people, because I know every last one of them. You know, we've struggled together, family members--CeCe, you know--and there's other people. And I'm just having fun. That was the key word. I had to have fun. Anything I'm doing now, I have to have fun. And so it's been enjoyable.

Tavis: Sounds like--I mean, you say, "Anything I do now has to be fun." I thought I heard, detected somewhere up in there a revelation that you went through something where you said, "I gotta have fun now."

BeBe: Yes, but I appreciate that something--

Tavis: Am I getting in your business?

BeBe: No, no, no, no, no. No, it's true. I appreciate the "somethings" that I've gone through, because it really--Maya Angelou said to me, "BeBe, enjoy the struggle." She said, "People trying to get to the top, and they miss life because they miss the struggle," you know trying to get past it. She said, "Enjoy the struggle, because it's in the struggle you become who you are." In the struggle, you realize who your real friends are. You know, so I took that advice, and I really, really lived by that. So therefore, it's in the struggle that has brought me to the place where now I know who I am, I know what I'm all about, and at this point, I can have a good time, you know? I'm not worried about what people say, and this and that, or those little things, the small things. I don't sweat the small things no more, so...

Tavis: All right. I've heard that somewhere before. Don't sweat the small stuff. I've heard that somewhere before. Anyway, um, for all my younger fans--Younger. I should say BeBe's nephew's younger fans, who are watching. This Mario uncle, y'all.

BeBe: Ha ha!

Tavis: This Mario uncle. Your nephew Mario...

BeBe: I knew it.

Tavis: is at the top of the charts. This boy is selling records.

BeBe: I told him, please--What's the name of the song? "I Don't Want to Know." I said, "Boy, please, you know you want to know. Just tell the truth. I want to know if you slippin' up on me.'

Tavis: Yeah. This is Mario's uncle, y'all. So speaking of which, your whole family hails from--Mario's mom and them and grandmom and them and uncles and nieces and aunts, all hail--the Winans family hail from Detroit. It's been a few years now. Here's a crazy closing, exit question. What's the biggest difference between living in Detroit and living in Nashville?

BeBe: Oh, man, I'm telling you, I will always have Detroit here...but Nashville is just a breath of fresh air. And what I mean by that is, first of all, winters. I mean, when you compare the winters and things like that, I just don't know how I lived in Detroit.

Tavis: All those years.

BeBe: All those years. I--You know, I'm like, "Oh, God, please." It's just easy. That's the difference. Nashville is easy.

Tavis: Well, speaking of easy, this CD is easy to listen to, as is all of BeBe Winans stuff, and for more about BeBe Winans, log on to BeBe's web site, BeBeWinans.net. BeBeWinans.net. And, whatever you do, pick up this new CD. BeBe, nice to see you.

BeBe: Always a pleasure.

Tavis: Have fun this year.

BeBe: I am.

Tavis: All right, my friend. That's our show for tonight. I'll see you back next time on PBS. Until then, good night from L.A., thanks for watching, and keep the faith.