Hate letters, frustrated single ‘love’ fans, drugs, his marriage, disc producing Johnny Ray, comparing Bobby Kennedy and Nixon.
From the New Musical Express Archives, November 7, 1970
Andy Williams, who arrives in London this weekend for the Royal Variety Show on Monday, sank into the chair in front of his makeup table and breathed a sigh of relief. It was well past noon and his first break of a long day. We had just walked down from the upstairs control booth where Andy, as executive producer of “The Andy Williams Show,” okayed his sixth production of the season.
Talking to me for this exclusive NME interviewed came as a welcome departure from the hustle just outside his dressing room door, because I had just spent an hour watching Andy scrutinizing every facet of his program, his behind-the-scenes role seemed a logical start for our interview;
NME: HOW MUCH DO YOU CONTRIBUTE TO THE CREATIVE PLANNING OF THE SHOW
ANDY: Well, not as much as I did last year. I’m busier this year with my other interests like the record company (Andy owns Barnaby Records). Now I just let my people do their job and mainly oversee their work. The show itself is taking up less of my time than last year because it’s a much more spontaneous than before. We have less rehearsals now, because I feel if you rehearse too much, the sketch or dialogue just becomes too studied. So, all were doing now is a dress rehearsal and then the taping.
NME: DO YOU HAVE AN IDEA OF YOUR AUDIENCE RANGE… COULD YOU DESCRIBE, AN AVERAGE VIEWER?
ANDY: I’ve been told our show has a perfect demographic rating. Demographics measure not only what people are watching the show but the ages of those people. I’ve been told we have our largest audience in the 18 to 40 age group, which is the buying age. We have a good following of 40 to 50-year-old viewers and also quite a few below 18.
NME:TO WHAT DEGREE DO YOU PAY ATTENTION TO THE MAIL YOU RECEIVE ON THE SHOW?
ANDY: It’s hard to take most of the mail seriously, because more people write hate letters than good letters. I know I don’t know anyone personally who writes into the television shows to say whether he or she did or didn’t like the show.
Many people who write in are fantastically religious. They don’t like it if we make fun in any way of a priest or a nun. They’re very narrow minded. Some people are fanatical about violence. Any fanatic would sooner write a negative letter than a laudatory one, so automatically we can’t go by what they say.
NME: HAVE YOU EVER GONE AGAINST WHAT EITHER THE PUBLIC OR THE CRITICS WERE SAYING TO DO SOMETHING YOU REALLY BELIEVED IN?
Andy: My show is an example. I made the decision that this was the type of show I wanted to do. In the beginning, when the series began again last year, I got letters from women who were fanatically in love with me, who told me I was betraying them by doing a young show. They said I was a family man and that I was deserting them.
We got a great deal of mail. They said I should be singing “Stardust” and not songs like “He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother.” They said my hair was too long and “What are you trying to be?” They also kept asking “Why don’t you sing the songs you used to sing.”
NME: DO YOU FEEL YOU LOST SOME OF YOUR FOLLOWING BY STICKING TO YOUR CONVICTIONS?
ANDY: Maybe I lost some, but I gained some new ones too. The show was a big success. Some people were shocked that I had changed. What had happened is that I just didn’t close my mind to all kinds of music. I like what I’m doing and that’s what’s important to me.
NME: HOW DID YOU FEEL ABOUT THE RECENT DEATHS OF JIMI HENDRIX AND JANIS JOPLIN?
ANDY: I didn’t know them personally. They were both wonderful at what they were doing, but I didn’t identify with them.
NME: DO YOU FEEL THAT SOME PERFORMERS TODAY TURNED TO DRUGS DUE TO THE PRESSURES BROUGHT ON BY THIS BUSINESS OR DO YOU FEEL SHOW BUSINESS TENDS TO ATTRACT A MORE UNSTABLE SORT OF PERSON?
ANDY: I don’t know anyone who uses hard drugs, so I wouldn’t know how to answer your question. I don’t know anyone personally who the mainliner. I do know that marijuana is used all the time… And hash.
NME: THIS MORNING HAS BEEN QUITE HECTIC. WOULD YOU SAY THIS IS A TYPICAL DAY FOR YOU?
ANDY: It’s normal for the two days we’re working on the show. I record several times a year and that’s even busier. Also, I’ve signed several people to my record label–my wife Claudine Longet, Ken Barry, Johnny Ray, who I think can have hits again and Paul Anka.
I’m more involved with some artists than others record wise.
For instance, I take more of a personal interest in Claudine’s recording sessions than I do Paul Anka’s. I’m very eager to get the right producer for Johnny Ray. I really don’t want to start producing myself, but if I can’t find the right producer for him, I’ll produce the album anyway.
I don’t feel I want to produce singles right now, because you really have to know what you’re doing. Singles are sold to the 11 to 20 age group and I’ll let the market specialists pick them.
NME: A FEW MONTHS AGO YOU ANNOUNCED THAT YOU WOULD BE SEPARATING FROM YOUR WIFE AND POSSIBLY GETTING A DIVORCE. TODAY SHE IS HERE TAPING YOUR SHOW AS A GUEST AND THIS WEEKEND YOU WILL BE HER PARTNER AT HER TENNIS TOURNAMENT. DOES THIS MEAN YOU’RE RECONCILING?
ANDY: No, Claudine has a great new record and she’s doing it on my show to promote it.
We have some personal problems that have to be worked out and while that’s going on we are separated, but we’re not getting a divorce. I hope we will be able to work them out so that we can get back together.
NME: DO YOU HAVE A CLEAR PICTURE OF WHAT YOU HOPE TO ACHIEVE CAREERWISE?
ANDY: I’m happy with my career right now. I want to keep making records and continue with the TV show. I have my golf tournament each year in San Diego and I’m very interested in that. We raised a lot of money for the Salk Institute.
NME: On your life today–is it pleasant or does it sometimes get on your nerves?
Andy: Of course, it sometimes gets on my nerves, when I let little things get to me. But overall, I’m very happy. I’ve done what I’ve always dreamed of doing. I’ve always wanted to travel, and I have traveled all over the world. I’m living the life today that I always hoped I could.
NME: YOU ARE A GREAT SUPPORTER AND A PERSONAL FRIEND OF BOBBY KENNEDY. IS THERE ANYONE ELSE THAT YOU FEEL YOU CAN GIVE THE LOYALTY YOU GAVE HIM AND IF NOT WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING FOR?
ANDY: Bobby Kennedy was unique. He had everything going for him. It’s hard to find a man today who’s impossible to buy. But Bobby Kennedy had everything–money, prestige, power, fame, glory–and he wasn’t impressed by all that or by Russian leaders. It takes a particular kind of situation where a young man could become president and be so versed.
Because of his father, each night at the dinner table the family would become involved in political and social conversation. Their home had a stream of brilliant dinner guests.
When you grow up with that and have such an active mind, and then had the opportunity at 40 to run for president and have all the wit and youth to appeal to the young people… Well, that just doesn’t happen very often.
Bobby had all those things going for him. I was attracted, like millions of others, and I wanted to work for him. He was not as interested in being president as he was in becoming president so he would have the prybar to do the things that he needed to be done. That’s the big difference with President Nixon. Once he got there, his goal was met. He knew how to be president and his goal is to get there. Now his goal has been fulfilled. Bobby Kennedy’s goal was to do great things when he got there.
NME: BECAUSE I ONLY HAVE AN OPPORTUNITY TO SPEND A NUMBER OF HOURS WITH YOU, PERHAPS THERE SOMETHING YOU’D LIKE TO MENTION AS PART OF OUR INTERVIEW, SOMETHING THAT YOU FEEL STRONGLY ABOUT THAT I HAVEN’T BROUGHT UP?
ANDY: There is something I feel strongly about and that’s that we need to find somebody who will lead us now who doesn’t care about the possibility of losing fans along the way.
The pollution is so bad that we’ll all be living underground in a few years. People are dying of malnutrition, but nobody but the president can do anything about it, really.
It sounds terrible, but I don’t know what I can do as an individual. I feel finding the right man is our best hope. Personally, I don’t know what to do. I can help raise money to fight it, but it’s like a drop in the bucket. We need someone–now!
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