"CBS This Morning" Interview Transcript - January 24, 1999

CHARLES OSGOOD, host:

At about the time SUNDAY MORNING was finding its way, James Taylor was losing his. There were hits on the charts, yes, but not as many hits as his life was taking. It would've surprised no one had Taylor become yet another casualty of celebrity. But fortunately, the song of "Sweet Baby James" did not end on a sour note, as we found on our recent visit.

(Footage of Taylor rowing a boat)

OSGOOD: (Voiceover) James Taylor is 50 years old now, and time on the water restores his spirit.

Mr. JAMES TAYLOR (Musician): (Voiceover) Being on a boat that's moving through the water, it's so clear. Everything falls into place in terms of what's important and what's not.

(Footage of Taylor performing "Fire and Rain")

OSGOOD: (Voiceover) He's the ultimate baby boomer, a survivor of addiction, divorce and success. It's all there in his songs.

Do you sit down to and write a song or does it happen while you re taking a walk or--or taking a shower?

Mr. J. TAYLOR: You have to be ready to catch those things when they come down, you know, 'cause they'll just fall right through and you'll never--you'll forget them.

(Footage of Edgar Meyer and Taylor)

Mr. J. TAYLOR: (Voiceover) To a--a D seventh...

And then there'll come a phase, a sort of a writing phase where there's more method to it, where you have to defend the time, clear out the time, unplug the phone and put in the hours to get it done.

OSGOOD: (Voiceover) Taylor and bassist Edgar Meyer are collaborating, playing a new song through for the first time.

(Footage of Taylor)

Mr. J. TAYLOR: (Voiceover) It is a process of discovery. It's being quiet enough and undisturbed enough for a period of time so that the songs can begin to sort of peek out, and you begin to have emotional experiences in a musical way.

(Photograph of Taylor as a young man playing a banjo)

OSGOOD: (Voiceover) Is that a banjo?

Mr. J. TAYLOR: (Voiceover) That's a banjo, all right.

OSGOOD: (Voiceover) Oh, it i--looks like the--I didn't realize that you--that you played banjo.

Mr. J. TAYLOR: Well, you--you know, it's a photograph, so we can't hear it.

(Photographs of Taylor as a child; footage of Taylor's family)

OSGOOD: (Voiceover) He was born in Massachusetts, where his mother, Trudy, was a lyric soprano studying at the New England Conservatory of Music. His father, Ike, finished Harvard Medical School and moved the family to North Carolina.

(Footage of Taylor as a child; Taylor's family)

OSGOOD: (Voiceover) Taylor was the second of five children.

How--how important were those relationships to you?

Mr. J. TAYLOR: (Voiceover) I think they're--they're really important, you know. I had a friend who grew up in Levittown, Long Island, in the '50s and he said at the drop of a hat you could get two baseball teams together of kids within three years of each other in age, just on the same block. But for us it--in North Carolina, we were pretty isolated and that meant that we kept each other's company, pretty much.

OSGOOD: None of the kids ever--ever pursued academia at all, never went to college?

Mr. J. TAYLOR: No, we--we sort of r--ran away as soon as we could, I guess. Nobody went to college and--and not all of us graduated high school, so...

(Photograph of Taylor and his brother)

OSGOOD: (Voiceover) But all the Taylor kids were musical.

Mr. J. TAYLOR: Well, that's my brother Alex and me in a--in a--in a group that we had in North Carolina. The name of the group was the Fabulous Corsairs. I--I don't know why. It was not my idea, but I di--don't think I had a veto at that point.

OSGOOD: Your brother was a singer?

Mr. J. TAYLOR: Yep. Alex was a blues singer and--and taught me a lot of what I know, for sure.

(Visual of Taylor CD)

OSGOOD: (Voiceover) In his early twenties, he made a record for Apple, The Beatles' label. It didn't sell, and although he continued to write songs, he entered a dark period, which included heroin addiction.

(Footage of Taylor performing)

OSGOOD: (Voiceover) Must be the hard patches in--in your life. I mean, you went through this business of addiction.

Mr. J. TAYLOR: Mm-hmm. The thing about it is that if you're an addict, it controls your life and your life becomes uncontrollable. And then it's just boring, you know. It's boring and painful, you know, filling your system with something that makes you stare at your shoes for--for--for six hours. It just--you know, or for 20 years, you know. It's a waste of time. It's a--it's a tragic waste of time.

(Footage of Taylor performing)

OSGOOD: (Voiceover) He's recovered, married and divorced twice, and has two children with singer Carly Simon. Both children are just beginning musical careers.

That's quite a--quite a photograph.

(Photographs of Taylor's children)

Mr. J. TAYLOR: That's Ben.

(Voiceover) Yeah, that's--that's my boy Ben. And there's Sally.

OSGOOD: When you--when you think about your kids being in the same business now that--that you are, are there some things about it, some--some--some traps that you--that you would like to protect them from?

Mr. J. TAYLOR: I have occasion to say to people sometimes, you know, that they should try to watch out for three things: avoid a major addiction, don't get so deeply into debt that that controls your life and--and don't start a family before you're ready to settle down, you know, just basically sort of keep things simple. But, you know, you can't say these things. You have to--you have to show them by example, and--and let it go.

(Footage of Taylor; Seiji Ozawa)

OSGOOD: (Voiceover) Last December, when Boston Symphony Orchestra maestro Seiji Ozawa conducted a Gershwin tribute with the French Orchestre Nationale, Taylor was the American in Paris, singing the old standards.

(Footage of Taylor performing; Taylor and Kim Smedvig walking in Paris)

OSGOOD: (Voiceover) Whenever possible, he travels with his steady, Kim Smedvig.

Mr. J. TAYLOR: (Voiceover) She's my valentine.

Unidentified Woman #1: That's James Taylor .

Unidentified Man #1: I know it.

(Footage of Taylor receiving award)

OSGOOD: (Voiceover) Kim was at his side last fall when he received North Carolina's Fine Arts Medal.

Mr. J. TAYLOR: It's the size of a stove lid.

Unidentified Man #2: Good Lord in heaven.

Mr. J. TAYLOR: Looky there.

Man #2: Actually beautiful.

Mr. J. TAYLOR: Yeah, a big old thing.

Man #2: That's really nice.

Mr. J. TAYLOR: Sure.

Yes, Ms. Johnson, m--my name is James Taylor . I'm--I'm calling from--from just actually across the road at the Pearlmuts' house, and I--I actually--I--I grew up there in that--in that house and I was wondering...

(Footage of Taylor and Smedvig)

OSGOOD: (Voiceover) His family sold the house in the woods years ago, but he wanted to take Kim back and show her where he grew up.

Mr. J. TAYLOR: This is Hugh Taylor, my--my youngest--my youngest brother.

Unidentified Woman #2: Hi, Hugh. I remember you were a big boy.

Mr. HUGH TAYLOR: It was quite a while ago. It's nice to see you again.

(Footage of James and Hugh Taylor)

OSGOOD: (Voiceover) He and his brother Hugh found the place on the porch rail where they carved their initials...

Mr. J. TAYLOR: I remember putting that roof on.

OSGOOD: (Voiceover) ...and the old clubhouse. He was eight years old when he put his hands in the wet cement, a little boy catching up with a grown man.

Mr. J. TAYLOR: I often question whether it's very evolved at the age 50 to be really interested in how people are--are reacting to me, how--you know, should I still be doing this?

(Footage of Taylor performing; audience)

OSGOOD: (Voiceover) But the answer is there in his music.

Mr. J. TAYLOR: It is the--the most delightful thing that ever happens to me by far, when I hear something coming out of my guitar and out of my mouth that wasn't there before. It really does s--m--make your--you know, give you the--the old bird leather all over, you know.

(Footage of Taylor performing; audience)