In my Part 2 of my Exclusive with the Legendary singer, composer and Actor, Paul Williams (and Director Stephen Kessler) about their upcoming Doc, 'Paul Williams; Still Alive". I had to ask about Williams' legacy to the Gay Community.
MK: The gay community really, really embraces your songs. Like, you know, Rainbow Connection, and Evergreen. And then also, you know, a lot of the songs from the Carpenters. It really does embrace that, that …
PW: One of the things I’m most proud of in my life, and it’s not really known, and so any time I get a chance to talk about it I will. But in 1977 Anita Bryant was on the crusade to keep gay men out of the classroom. Gay men and women who wanted to teach. And she was the spokeswoman for the Florida orange juice. Yeah, so, I took out, I was in San Francisco at the time of the first Gay Pride parade, I took, my wife and I took out a full page ad in Variety that said Mr. And Mrs. Paul Williams, in response to Anita Bryant’s crusade has stopped drinking dot dot dot screwdrivers. We took out a full-page ad, and it cost $1,000 dollars or whatever, you know, but I thought, this woman’s insane. You’re telling me my kids can’t read and write poetry? Are you telling me this spectacular, you know, gay men and women that are capable of teaching my children, you’re telling me? You should make sense out of this, you know? So I took out the full page ad, and it was picked up by the Associated Press and it was in newspapers in every tiny dickey town, you know, from Dennison, Ohio to Rome, you could read about Paul Williams taking out this ad and supporting gay rights.
So at the time I was doing the Rainbow at the Community Opera House in St. Louis and then I went to the Starlight doing in, one was in Kansas City and one was in St. Louis. But I’d go to my dressing room and there’d be two sacks of mail. One would be all with no address, no return address. And then there would be ones with the return address. And I would read the ones with the return address first, because they would be really wonderful and sweet thank you for taking a stand for us. You know, how could we ever thank you? What a wonderful thing you’ve done for the gay community. And the other one was the most horrific hate mail I’ve ever read in my life, all anonymous, you know? And, you know, I mean, you got to the point where you just kind of toss them. You wouldn’t want to read them, you know?
But I’ve always been really proud of that. I’ve always been really proud of that, and, you know, I was in the White House the day that President Obama made his comment about how he supports gay marriage.
MK: Oh, really?
PW: And was able to thank him for that. So as, you know, it’s funny because I was interviewed by Gay Magazine yesterday and I said that I’ve never slept with a man, I haven’t slept with a man yet.
SK: (Laugh)
PW: You know, but that’s what I’m saying, I haven’t yet, but life is not over yet, so.
PW: But honestly that’s with him, and that’s something I’m really proud of. The day when I met the President, it was very nice, I said congratulations on what you did today. I think it’s incredibly important, you know? I mean, so, we live in a state that, you know, Proposition Eight?
SK: Eight.
PW: How about the fact that Ted Olsen, one of the great right wings, the man that was responsible for Bush getting Florida, you know? A man who is from the extreme right fought to get Proposition Eight tossed out. I mean the last, he would be the last person you would ever expect to be the hero that would ride up to the gate and say, excuse me, you need to change that. So the world is, my world is populated by really interesting people. I was also able to say to the President, thank you for all you’re doing for our team. My wife had said, when the president said, nice to meet you, how are you? And she went; I’m excited! And he laughed, I mean, I walked up and Michelle, to get a picture taken, and Michelle went, Paul Williams, President and Chairman of the Board of ASCAP, and she goes, we know you. my wife, how are you? I’m excited!
MK: So in regards to like where did you come up with the lyrics for Rainbow Connection?
PW: I don’t know. I don’t know. It’s a mythical, magical. The fact is, you said, in that case, I sat down with Jim Henson and Jerry Jewler wrote the screenplay. I brought Kenny Asher, I’ve done something for Jim, I did a thing called. I wrote all the songs for that. I wrote them alone. I loved that project, which is now a full-blown musical, which we’re trying to get into the city, into New York. But he asked me to do the Muppet Movie. I said, let me bring Kenny Asher in. Kenny and I had written the songs, most of the songs for and we wrote. All the songs except for Evergreen, which I wrote with Barbra But I brought Kenny Asher in and we were all sitting down in my den up in the Hollywood Hills. And, you know what, everybody just kind of threw ideas around. Jerry Jewler, in the beginning of the sketch, of the story, we find Kermit sitting in the swamp, and what he’s doing? What’s he doing? And Jim went, he’s playing a banjo. And he’s singing a song. So this is going to be Kermit’s I am song. At the end of it an agent rows up in a rowboat and says, hey, they’re looking for frogs looking to become rich and famous in Hollywood, you know. So it just kind of rolled out like that. But then I said to Jim, and this is one of my favorite stories I tell about Jim. I said, you know, as Kenny and I work on these songs we’ll make sure we keep you in the loop so you can hear what we’re doing. And he goes, oh, that’s not necessary. As long as you’re in the studio. I mean that’s the most freedom I’ve ever been given. It’s amazing to give somebody that kind of freedom. So Kenny and I sit down and we go, okay, Kermit is like every frog. I mean he’s like Jimmy Stuart in It’s A Wonderful Life or Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. That’s kind of what Kermit is. So how do we show his inner life? And we got water, we got air, you got light, you got rainbows. You got, and the first thing came out is Why is there so many songs about rainbows? And what’s on the other side? And Kenny and I high fived each other because what we said is we want something that is like, that has the same impact about finding out who Kermit is. As, for an example, Over The Rainbow did for Judy Garland.
MK: Absolutely, yeah.
PW: So the first line comes out; Why are there so many songs about rainbows and what’s on the other side? And Kenny and I realized with one line we told the audience this is a frog that’s been to movies. He knows about the songs. He has this …
SK: Intelligence.
PW: Yeah. He’s intelligent, but it’s a negative, why are there so many songs about rainbows and what’s at the end of it? And rainbows have nothing to hide. We boxed ourselves in a corner. So we’ve been told and some choose to believe it, I know they’re all waiting to see, by then we’ve told you what’s in his soul. You know, someday we’ll find it, the rainbow connection, the lovers, the dreamers and me. And also I love that someday we’ll find it as opposed to this is what it is. It’s a song that honors his mystery, it’s also a song that honors his positive attitude. He said that every wish would be answered and wished on a morning star. Somebody thought of that and someone believed it, which is, it boggles the mind. That’s like what you dwell and what you create, if you believe in something you have a sense of creating it, you know?
So it’s just a wonderful experience. There’s a song that is a favorite of Kenny’s and mine called I’m Going To Go Back There Someday in the movie. We, just look at the scene where they all break down in the desert, and I love Gonzo. Gonzo’s a landlocked bird. I mean we’re all, I mean we’re landlocked birds. You know, I love that freedom and all. I think that we’re all landlocked birds, and here’s Gonzo, out in the middle of the desert looking at the sky, and Kenny and I wrote this song about, I’ve never been there, but I know the way, I’m going to go back there someday. And Jim, it was wonderful, Jim said, well, give it more of like a down to earth, you know, not just metaphoric, where you know, something that the kids could really [?], and for years I told people that Jim wrote the entire state fair scene to support that, where Gonzo rides the balloon. And his daughter came up to me the other day and said, you know, you’re wrong about that. The state fair scene was already there. The scene that he wrote was the balloon salesman. I went, oh, my God, you’re right, I’ve been telling it wrong for 30 years.
Yeah, so what he wrote, it looks right [?] the balloons. So he had Richard Pryor come in and play a balloon salesman. So Gonzo and all these chickens, all these balloons for his chickens … anyway I [?].
MK: Okay, just a couple of more questions here. In regards to future plans you said you guys want to work together?
PW: We do. We’re excited.
MK: Just based on the movie it looks like you guys could really do really good as a reality show.
SK: Well, we … we don’t want to do a reality show.
MK: We want do something wonderful. You know, if we do a reality show it will wind up with one of us behind bars, so.
SK: We talked about doing a musical, right?
PW: Yeah.
SK: Some time.
MK: And the other question was, you know, have you, has there ever been talk or consideration of taking your songs and putting them into a Broadway musical?
PW: Well, yeah, I wrote Happy Days, a musical with Garry Marshall. I have a musical version Bugsy Malone is two kids growing up in England when Greece is over here and [?]. But, yeah, there are a couple of other ideas that I’m working on right now that are also musical ideas, but I won’t talk about that on the air, but off the record I’ll tell you what they are.
But, you know, I love that world. I love that collaborative aspect of writing for the stage, because you have to put in front of an audience. You can write a song that is brilliant for a scene. On page it works so gorgeous. Works so beautiful. You put it in front of an audience, and they don’t get it, you got to change it. So the audience becomes a collaborator in a way.
MK: And what’s up for you next?
SK: Um … well, I’ve also been thinking about doing a couple of things, but probably I think it’s going to be something in television. And, yeah, I can’t really talk about it. I could tell you but it’s not like [?] this whole idea.
PW: My immediate future is a lot of airplane rides. I go home for two days, when I leave here, I go then after Alan calls me, the announcer on David Letterman and I are friends, we’re going to play golf for two days in Phoenix. And then I go to New York for four days. From there I go to Ireland for two days, come back to New York for a little over a week.
SK: July 15 in Seattle.
PW: Yeah, Seattle.
Q: So you’ve been going to the film festivals?
SK: You know, we’re good.
PW: Just to respond, I was really worried about poking the bears, the way they’re describing it, you know, what are people going to think. The reaction here has been this unanimous sweet, sweet, loving, people have written great things about the film, so. Did you like it?
MK: I loved it.
PW: Oh, there you go. You heard it here.
MK: Yeah, it’s gratifying that people connect with it. Well especially people who grew up in that era, you know? All these TV appearances everything from Donnie and Marie. And I wrote the Love Boat theme. Tt doesn’t get any better than that.
SK: Wow!
PW: I did an interview yesterday with Entertainment Weekly and the gentleman who interviewed me was from England. Didn’t have a clue who I was. But he loved the movie. So, you know, for a younger audience you don’t need to know who Paul Williams is to have a giggle watching this film.
Q: That’s what I’m hoping to do for this interview, because that really needs to be marketed to the gay community. Because believe me your songs were, I could just, we could go through your entire songbook and find out exactly how many of these songs the gay community considers to be So I love that.
PW: I’m still worried about that. If I was more attractive I would’ve had a lot of men hitting on me. The fact is it just didn’t happen. I don’t know how I would’ve reacted, but never did. I’m sorry. For some reason you love my music but you don’t think I’m pretty. For that you will suffer.
Q: (Laugh) Well, thank you so much.
number one: Love Paul Williams and if he really wanted to he could totally pull off being a gay icon, even if he wasn't into men, as he seems to indicate from these interviews...(albeit passive aggressively)
ReplyDeleteNumber two: It usually doesn't bother me, but damn, what's with all the typos?