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PAUL WILLIAMS<\/h1>\nPAUL WILLIAMS<\/h1>\nThe once-ubiquitous songwriter returns to stage, screen\u2014and Capitol Hill<\/b><\/p>\n
Paul Williams became wildly successful for penning romantic 1970s hits including \u201cWe\u2019ve Only Just Begun,\u201d \u201cAn Old Fashioned Love Song\u201d and \u201cEvergreen.\u201d But behind the scenes Paul Williams battled demons of addiction. \u201cI did 48 Tonight<\/i> shows,\u201d he says. \u201cI remember six.\u201d Goodbye, Johnny Carson; hello, Betty Ford. Today, more than 20 years clean and sober, Williams, 72, is back\u2014writing a stage version of Pan\u2019s Labyrinth<\/i>, a\u00a0Happy Days <\/i>musical and a book on recovery. He\u2019s also the subject of the acclaimed documentary Paul Williams Still Alive<\/i>. And, oh yes, for the past four years he\u2019s been the \u00a0president of ASCAP.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
You were the original king of media.<\/b><\/p>\n
If you set up a camera and a couch,\u00a0Paul Williams would be there. My addiction to the camera was outrun by my addiction to alcohol and cocaine, but it still felt like an addiction. When I got sober, I had to separate myself from the public side of my career, just like an alcoholic who shouldn\u2019t have even a sip of beer. The idea of filming a documentary about me was something I ran from. There\u2019s nothing more\u00a0pathetic than an old man sticking his hands\u00a0out and saying, \u201cPlease, sir, may I have\u00a0another cup of fame?\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
But you focused your fame.<\/b><\/p>\n
I realized that when you point a camera at me, I have an opportunity to talk about the things I\u2019m passionate about, and I am passionate about music creators\u2019 rights. I had just enough fame left over to be able to walk into a senator\u2019s office, put out my hand, and get, \u201cHey, you\u2019re Little Enos from Smokey and the Bandit<\/i>! Glad to have you here.\u201d I get more mileage out of Smokey and the Bandit<\/i> than I do out of \u201cEvergreen.\u201d Sorry, Barbra. If the little bit of celebrity I have left can do some good for the lady in the headphones, the one who\u2019s writing a song on an electric keyboard while trying not to wake the baby in the next room, because she needs to put food on the table for that baby, then I should use it.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Is that how you see yourself, too?<\/b><\/p>\n
As I always joke, I am the perfect metaphor for the small businessman. But yes, thank goodness for a nice pair of headphones. Thank goodness for a Yamaha electric keyboard that you can plug your headphones into, and the rest of the world doesn\u2019t have to hear it until you\u2019re ready to share it. The QuickVoice app on my iPhone is my\u00a0No. 1 tool. I compose in my head, find the chords on the keyboard, then take a quick trip to [music director] Chris Caswell\u2019s studio and make it sound like it was written by a grown-up. All I need is something to get the words down, and the chords.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
In that order?<\/b><\/p>\n
They asked Sammy Cahn which came first, music or lyrics. He said, \u201cThe phone call!\u201d But when I hear music, I usually hear words in it. It\u2019s like somebody at the United Nations who sits and translates Swedish to German or Spanish to Latvian. I translate emotion\u00a0into words and music.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Has your writing changed in sobriety?<\/b><\/p>\n
Yes. I don\u2019t edit myself nearly as much as I used to. I let it roll. I allow myself to be bad. You can always make it better. The unconscious is powerful, and we constrict the source when we become anxious and overworked. If I sit and try to write something brilliant, I tense up. I\u2019m clearly standing on the hose. So I get off the hose. I\u00a0trust my unconscious.<\/p>\n
\u2013Ethlie Ann Vare<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
PAUL WILLIAMS The once-ubiquitous songwriter returns to stage, screen\u2014and Capitol Hill Paul Williams became wildly successful for penning romantic 1970s hits including \u201cWe\u2019ve Only Just Begun,\u201d \u201cAn Old Fashioned Love Song\u201d and \u201cEvergreen.\u201d But behind the scenes Paul Williams battled demons of addiction. \u201cI did 48 Tonight shows,\u201d he says. \u201cI remember six.\u201d Goodbye, Johnny […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7],"tags":[6645,6647,6644,6372,6646,6342,6648,970,6643],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9952"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9952"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9952\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9955,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9952\/revisions\/9955"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9952"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9952"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9952"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}