Legendary singer Johnny Mathis credits Nancy Reagan with saving his life and opens up to Nancy Giles about racism and a new collection of contemporary music, in an interview with CBS SUNDAY MORNING on the CBS Television Network. In a wide-ranging interview, Mathis, 81, says Mrs. Reagan saw him performing and was concerned about him. Check out the full interview below!
"We were sitting around, you know. I was drinking, and she suggested I might have a problem," Mathis says. "I said, 'Probably not, but what do you have in mind?' And so she sent me to a place called Havre de Grace in Maryland, and I was there with a bunch of Jesuit priests. I had three weeks of finding out why I drank, how I could stop. And it was the greatest thing that ever happened to me in my life." Mathis has been making music since the 1950s. Indeed, his greatest hits album from 1958 was on the charts for nearly a decade. But, despite the success, Mathis still had to deal with racism on the road. He recalled a time performing at a hotel in Las Vegas when he was forced to stay in another place because of his color. "And I said, 'You got this big hotel, why can't I stay there.' 'Oh no, you have to stay over the - the railroad tracks, over in the colored section.' God bless my mom and dad, they said, 'Son, so what?'"Videos