“I have the utmost respect for Bruce and was thinking about how I once came to work with him.”
I’ve lived here for ages but got a chance to take in one of the best views of LA I’ve ever seen recently.
And the guy who was showing me the legend that is Johnny Mathis had only discovered that he had it!
He invited me up to his house and the panorama over Hollywood and downtown LA was so beautiful.
The funny thing was that he said he hadn’t realised how good it was until Fire Marshals said his trees could be a hazard.
When he cleared them he suddenly saw he had an amazing view. Now, most mornings he goes out to enjoy it.
He turns 80 next year and he’s an absolute gentleman, old-school and with a wicked sense of humour.
He plays golf every day and will just show up at the course and play with whoever’s around.
He says it’s a lovely way of meeting people who aren’t in the business.
It’s a bit different from the past when he said he used to book a lot of the comedians who’d support him based on their golf.
He wasn’t so much interested about how funny they were, but if they were any good at the game.
We did a TV interview and when we were finished we sat in his kitchen and just had a chat.
He regaled me with stories of what a great singer Matt Monro was and what it was like to work with Sinatra.
He had some fantastic tales, like the time he fell off stage in Forest Hills.
He’d been at the dentist and the medication had left him feeling a bit woozy. So, he walked on stage and tumbled straight off!
Luckily, because it was a tennis stadium, he landed on the grass without getting hurt. The fall immediately cleared his head and he got great reviews.
I really cherished the time because people like Johnny are a dying breed. People just don’t have that longevity in their careers these days.
You can only show respect because of all they’ve done, things no one else will do. And the thing is that, at 79, he still absolutely loves getting out on stage and singing so many classic songs. We have to enjoy these people while we can.
It’s like Bruce Forsyth, and all the recent stuff about him quitting Strictly Come Dancing.
I have the utmost respect for Bruce and was thinking about how I once came to work with him.
It was in Middlesbrough of all places, at a Water Rats charity evening. When we got chatting we discovered both our dads were in the Salvation Army.
He might have decided to step away from live Saturday night TV at the age of 86, but the great news is that he’s not retiring.
This is a man that can do everything when it comes to showbiz. He can play the piano, sing, dance, host shows, the lot.
He will continue to do things and I know that he was out in LA the other week recording a TV special.
The bottom line is that he’s at that wonderful point in his career when he can pick and choose what he wants to do.
We have to really celebrate the likes of Bruce and Johnny as our culture is so much more disposable now in terms of how long careers last.
Like Johnny, Bruce is a great golfer and I got a rare chance to get out on the course recently.
I grew up knocking a ball around the 9-hole municipal course in Glasgow’s Knightswood.
These days I haven’t got much time to indulge so it was a real treat to play a round at the Four Seasons in Punta Mita, Mexico recently.
I was invited by the general manager, John O’Sullivan, who’s from Sligo.
Honestly, I’ve found wherever I go in the world, I’ll find a Scot or an Irishman. Four Seasons has an amazing third hole where the green is actually on an island.
The picture shows my delight at hitting the shot of my life and landing just five feet from the hole just before the anguish of missing the putt!
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