Because so many people have responded to the John Hartford music selection I decided to add a four and a half minute interview with John that was done at the same time. The subject of my Today show story was riverboats so that’s what John and I talked about. Listening to his answers you get a pretty good idea of what John was like as a person. I found him to be smart, humble and funny. The interview was conducted on the side of the river. We didn’t have time to compensate for the overhead sun or the wind but we made do. John was gracious and open…a good man.

Click on image below to play movie.

Quicktime | Windows

My job as a network feature reporter is unique in that I get to choose most of my stories while other correspondents are assigned topics, usually ripped from the pages of newspapers and magazines. I owe my freedom to Steve Friedman, executive producer of the Today show at the time of my hiring back in 1980. Steve liked to shake things up and wasn’t afraid of taking chances. He took a chance on me, a newcomer to TV work at the age of thirty, then gave me enough rope to either hang myself or swing free of the normal story confines. Somehow I managed to clear the barriers and have happily wandered outside the borders ever since. And that’s where you find them - life’s great characters - way out there on the fringes. One such character looms above all others. Tex Cobb. If you Google Tex you’ll find the background details of his life; the movies he’s been in, the people he’s fought but words and photos can’t adequately describe what it’s like to be in Cobbworld. I was there, almost fifteen years ago, and lived to tell the tale.

Click on image below to play movie.

Quicktime | Windows