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Tavis: Pleased to welcome to this program one of country music's most popular performers, Clint Black. The Grammy-winning musician is responsible for an impressive 20 number one singles on the country charts. This fall he is out with his 13th and latest CD called 'Drinking Songs and Other Logic.' Clint Black, nice to meet you.

Clint Black: Good to be with you here.

Tavis: Glad to have you on the program. You walked out on the stage, of course we were not on the camera yet, but when you walked out on the stage, you walked out, and I'm looking at you, and I'm thinking, okay, where is Clint Black? I'm looking at - you and it is you...

Black: There is his stand in.

Tavis: I'm looking at you like, where is Clint Black? And I say that because you walked out without your hat. And then you had a - somebody brought it out to you, and so now - you look like Clint Black.

Black: Now I'm him.

Tavis: Yeah. I guess people, do people recognize you without your hat?

Black: Plenty, yeah.

Tavis: Yeah. That hat, though, is so - much a part of your trademark, though.

Black: It is. And my first album cover, I didn't have it on, I was holding it. And people used to say, 'We never see you without your hat.' And I just - makes me laugh because they would be asking me to autograph that album.

Tavis: Is there a particular story behind this hat or the color of the hat, or why this style hat?

Black: You know, not really, other than I have had some white and off white hats and I just didn't think I looked as good in them.

Tavis: Yeah. But you like this look?

Black: I like this look.

Tavis: I like this look, too. And now - that you've got your hat on, we can actually have a conversation.

Black: Yes.

Tavis: I didn't know you could be a country singer and be born in New Jersey. You make your home in Nashville, like everybody else...

Black: Right. From Houston, originally, and my dad is from East Texas and my mom is from Alabama. But for some reason, three out of her four pregnancies, she spent the last trimester in New Jersey with her mom, who I still haven't been able to find out what her mom was doing up there, 'cause they're all from the South.

Tavis: Yeah. So you were born in New Jersey.

Black: Yeah. And before we would reach a year old, she would be back in Texas. Unlike my brothers, I kept the accent. Amazing, isn't it?

Tavis: That is amazing. And so, I didn't know that, so you're born in New Jersey, and you're a big country star, but you were also telling me that Eddie Rabbit was born in New Jersey.

Black: Eddie Rabbit. And I think, you know, Bruce Springsteen rocks out, but a lot of his stuff has very, very country flavor to it. So there is something to that.

Tavis: Yeah, I used to love Eddie Rabbit - my favorite, 'I Love a Rainy Night.' I used to love that song.

Black: Yeah, he had a ton of great - he was a great song writer.

Tavis: Yeah, he had a ton of hits. Yeah, died too soon, way too soon. Tell me, since you mentioned Springsteen, what do you think it is about country music that is in fact so enduring, and that turns on people like Bruce Springsteen, the late great Ray Charles? What is it about people who we don't even think of as country music stars necessarily, but they have got some of that flavor in what they do?

Black: I think the roots of country music are in blues a lot and the roots of rock 'n' roll are in blues. I believe that the message in country songs is straight forward. And it is trying to be deep; it is trying to get your heart. But it is very simple and straight forward. And people can grasp it quickly and get the point of it. Whether they like it or not, they understand it.

And some music today, some of the musical poets out there, I think you almost have to be a professor of sociology to understand what they are talking about, and maybe even know some sort of foreign languages. But country music is straight forward, the melodies are there, some of the ballads are as beautiful and sweeping as anything Barbra Streisand has done. But the - poetry is simple.

Tavis: Pretty simple and straight forward.

Black: Yeah.

Tavis: Kind of like 'Drinking Songs and Other Logic.'

Black: It's a simple idea. You might have to have a drink to understand.

Tavis: How did you come up with this one, Clint? Drinking songs.

Black: You know, I didn't intend to even have a song of that title. I love the title; I wanted to come up with a title that kept me in a box. Because as a songwriter and as a producer, I will follow the muse and I will end up experimenting with songs in the studio. And I have kind of pushed this way and that; primarily country, but every now and then I would experiment.

And I didn't want to do that this time. And I knew if I didn't give myself some parameters, that I could end up over the line or too close to it. And I wanted a real honky-tonk style album. So I thought that title at least would tell me what I was after.

Tavis: Yeah, you succeeded.

Black: Thanks.

Tavis: Let me ask you, with regard to your experimentation, I mentioned Ray Charles earlier, and that guy experimented with everything. So there is nothing wrong with experimenting, with trying other things. Give me your best experimental story, and your worst experimental story. What you tried that you actually enjoyed, and the one thing you tried, that you know, you just said 'Clint, don't ever do that again.'

Black: Okay. I don't know if it is the best and worst, but they are good examples.

Tavis: Okay, of what works and what doesn't?

Black: What works, yeah. I wanted to do a blues song, and so I wrote a song called 'The Bitter Side of Sweet' and really, really bluesed it up, dirty sounding harmonica. A real bluesy guitar; and I think that's about as good at blues as I can get. And I was happy with the way that turned out. It didn't really fit in to what I was doing so much, but - I was happy with the results. And another song, I was watching Tony Bennett...

Tavis: Antonio Benedecto. (sic)

Black: ...yeah, on TV, and I thought, you know, I want something like what he is doing. And I sat up, was watching in bed, and I sat up and wrote the chorus to a song called 'You Made Me Feel.' And I had run into Michael McDonald earlier that year, and we had talked about the possibility of writing together. And I thought this song would be perfect. And I called him up. He dropped by the house one day and we...

Tavis: He lives in Tennessee?

Black: Well, no, this was when I was living in LA.

Tavis: In LA, okay, in LA.

Black: So he dropped by after a morning of surfing, and we wrote the song. And when I went in to record it, it ended up being - it fit in. And that's not what I was trying for. And I ended up with something that was really more country. And I learned a lesson from that. And I applied it to a latter recording where I really wanted to get a bluegrass sound on something, and I went to the source.

And on that "You Made Me Feel," it is a nice enough recording and fans may hear it and enjoy it a lot, but I realized that what I should have done was gotten some great jazz players like a trio, or quartet, and gotten them to back me on that. So that a guy who didn't do that type of music wasn't trying to shape something with guys who didn't play that kind of music all the time.

Tavis: What's a country western star, though, sitting in bed see when he sees Tony Bennett? What did you see that night that made you want to do that. I mean, Tony Bennett, obviously a great artist. But what - was it about what he was doing that night that got you?

Black: I don't know if I can put my finger on it without a much longer conversation, but I loved what I was hearing. I loved the way he sings the - you know, he is so relaxed, and it is just, it's Tony Bennett. And I think it is - the same thing that happened to me when I was younger and it was Merle Haggard. And I want to have stuff - that comes from that angle. And it is probably what happens to painters when they first spot a Picasso, and they didn't know how to explain what it was, but they loved it.

Tavis: They knew it was special.

Black: And they wanted to try to have something of their own like that.

Tavis: Yeah. Speaking of when you were younger, you have a daughter, a young daughter, and you did something that is...

Black: I'm supposed to look at her, by the way. I promised the next time I'm working on TV, I'd look at her.

Tavis: Say hi to her. Go ahead.

Black: Hi, Lily.

Tavis: And there you go. When Lily was born, you did something that is very rare. Certainly for country western stars.

Black: Change diapers?

Tavis: No, well, I don't know how rare that is. But what - was fascinating to me, though, is you took off like four years. You took like a four...

Black: Yeah, three years.

Tavis: Three year? Yeah, a three year hiatus you took off, specifically to spend time with Lily. And for like a country western star, that is like death, I would think. Because you guys stay on the road all the time.

Black: You know, it ended up not being a smart career move, but it was a real smart dad move. What it did is it created about a five year gap between releases.

Tavis: Between records, yeah. That's a long time.

Black: Which is a - very, very tough on a career. But I wanted to be one of the secure attachments. I wanted to be someone that she trusted. And someone that carried her around when she couldn't sleep, and all those things that a lot of dad's that don't travel get to do. What a lot of dads don't get to do is tell everybody at the office, 'not today.'

And I had that luxury, and I took advantage of it. And it wasn't - it didn't compliment my career in many ways, but I wouldn't have - I wouldn't go back and try to do anything for my career in exchange for that.

Tavis: I was about to say, I get the sense that you don't regret one moment of it.

Black: No, it's the - one of the best things I could have done for her and myself.

Tavis: Speaking of regrets, I wonder whether or not you at all regret, and I use that word broadly, at all regret 'Iraq and Roll.' I think I knew what you were trying to get at in that song. But it caused a bit of a controversy, a bit of a stir with those lyrics in the midst of this Iraq war. What - do you think looking back on that now?

Black: I don't regret doing it. It was before the war began, and - my co-writer, Hayden Nicholas, and I both have a huge place in our hearts for the troops. And we - had noticed how when mistakes are made, people are pouncing on that. They - are waiting for the guy who, you know, wasn't as smart as he could have been one day. And we wanted to say, you are the best, - and that sort of thing. I don't regret writing the song or recording it. I would have, probably once the war began, in hindsight, I may have pulled it back down off the website a little sooner.

Just because while people are dying, I don't - you know, it doesn't feel good to be singing about, hey, let's go and - sacrifice everything. The good news is, is that I would say with all the families of the soldiers and all the soldiers that I heard from, and I read all the mail coming in from them, and - it was highly coveted by them. It was their song in their minds, and that's what it was for. The best thing that came out of that is a t-shirt that said, 'pray for peace, prepare for war.'

And the t-shirt started selling like crazy, and I didn't want that money, so I created the 'Families of the Fallen Soldiers' fund, and have been able to write a lot of checks and give out a lot of money to families who have been economically struggling since they lost someone in the war. And that is very rewarding. And I don't think if that song had been written and recorded, then I don't think that I would have ever been able to raise that money and do any good any other way.

Tavis: Well, it all worked out. Let me close our conversation on this quick note. I am so pleased that you are doing the work that you are doing inside the Texas school system with regard to music education. It bothers me that we have such a lack of appreciation in our schools these days for music. So tell me right quick about the work you are doing there.

Black: Well, I think that what music did for me, and I'm a high school dropout, and I took a little bit of music in school. I believe that you, you soar with your strengths. And if you can find strengths in children that you can promote with them, and music is there for so many children. It drives them in other areas. And if you can develop one side of their brain, the other side of the brain will benefit.

So getting scholarships for the kids, raising awareness to the parents that, you know, it may seem like playing, and to us that is what we call it, playing, but it is a very, very serious tool for the brain, and we need to promote the music in schools. And we need to give the kids every opportunity to develop their brains in the best way.

Tavis: High school dropout or not, both sides of his brain are working, as are his chops on his new CD, 'Drinking Songs and Other Logic'--the 13th and latest CD from the one and only Clint Black. Clint, nice to have you here.

Black: Thanks, Tavis.

Tavis: All the best to you. That's our show for tonight. You can catch me on the weekends on PRI, Public Radio International. Check your local listings. See you back here next time on PBS. Until then, good night from Los Angeles. Thanks for watching, and, as always, keep the faith.