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Piers Morgan Live
Interview with Jackie Collins; Interview with Gloria Estefan; Interview with Steve Stoute
Aired October 15, 2011 - 21:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PIERS MORGAN, HOST: Tonight, Jackie Collins, her fabulous fiction.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JACKIE COLLINS, AUTHOR, "GODDESS OF VENGEANCE": Erotic sex as opposed to rude sex.
MORGAN: What's rude sex?
COLLINS: Well, you don't want me to tell you on this show.
MORGAN: It's a late night show.
COLLING: I don't want to get bleeped.
(LAUGHTER)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MORGAN: And her equally fabulous real life.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: I have a man for every occasion.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MORGAN: Plus, Gloria Estefan.
(VIDEO CLIP PLAYS)
MORGAN: Her dream for her beloved Cuba.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GLORIA ESTEFAN, MUSICIAN/ACTIVIST: My dream is to sing in a free Cuba, to share my music with my people.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MORGAN: And why she said if she had to choose just one song to sing, it wouldn't be one of her own.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ESTEFAN: I would sing one of my favorite songs of all time, "Man in the Mirror" --
MORGAN: One of mine.
ESTEFAN: -- which I think is a killer tune.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MORGAN: Plus, Steve Stoute, he's a hip-hop impresario and author, and the go-to man with hooking up hip-hop with Fortune 500 companies. We'll hear how he makes celebrities into cash magnets, and how President Obama can get reelected. He even offered me some -- well, unwanted advice.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STEVE STOUTE, AUTHOR, "THE TANNING OF AMERICA": I think, talking to you, maybe we go into like a hair spray or something.
MORGAN: Oh, really? I'm flattered. But really?
STOUTE: Yes, you go hair spray, a little something.
MORGAN: You think they would buy a hairspray --
STOUTE: You have so many twitter followers now, I think you can get that off.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MORGAN: This is PIERS MORGAN TONIGHT.
(MUSIC)
MORGAN: Jackie Collins has sold 400 million copies of her books, quite extraordinary. And if you read even one of them, you know this about Jackie. She's no shrinking violet. Her latest is "Goddess of Vengeance."
And Jackie Collins joins me now.
What a great title. Look at that, "Goddess of Vengeance."
COLLINS: Well, Lucky Santangelo is back, my favorite character.
MORGAN: She's a fantastic character.
COLLINS: Yes, she is.
MORGAN: What I like about the dynamic now is your sister isn't here to grab all of the attention like she did the last time.
COLLINS: Oh, come on, Piers. You know you used to watch her on "Dynasty" when you were younger. MORGAN: You did.
(CROSSTALK)
COLLINS: -- unmistakable (ph) thing.
MORGAN: She's a scene stealer.
COLLINS: But you used to read your books when you were younger.
MORGAN: I did read all your books and Lucky was one of my favorite characters.
COLLINS: Yes, she's good because she kicks ass, and that's what women likes to see.
MORGAN: So, let me see. Let me ask you about it, because there are lots of women kicking ass out there at the moment. Michele Bachmann, Sarah Palin -- what do you make of it?
COLLINS: I don't make a lot of them. But I think they -- they're coming out with kind of ridiculous sentences and ideas and I can't get with it. I -- you know, I want the Democrats to stay out of my -- what do I want them to stay out of? I want them to stay out of my wallet and I want the Republicans to stay out of my bedroom.
So, I'm right down the middle, you know? I'm an independent.
MORGAN: I find the fascinating thing about American politics is no one is quite sure which way the Republicans are going to go here because they have Mitt Romney, or Jon Huntsman, the moderate candidate who, you know --
COLLINS: Exactly.
MORGAN: -- are very presentable and assured, and they're not threatening really to an electorate. Whereas you have the Tea Party who are gathering the momentum, have a huge following behind them, where there's Rick Perry or Michele Bachmann or whatever, but there is still a sense of what would we be getting ourselves into if they actually governed the country?
COLLINS: But you know what's so interesting about our politics in this country is you are what you looked like. Now, if George Clooney got up tomorrow and said, "I want to be president of America," the women in America would actually vote for him. And you know that's true.
MORGAN: It's true. And actually, you could to a lot worse than George Clooney. He's a very motivated guy.
COLLINS: I know. I think so.
MORGAN: What do you think of Barack Obama's performance?
COLLINS: I'm not happy with it. I don't think anybody is happy with it. It's interesting living in the heart of Hollywood when people will say, oh, you know, he's going to change everything. He's hope, he's hope.
But he's not. I mean, it's just not happening. And I think that he's not experienced enough.
I mean, I really was a McCain fan. I'm sorry, I thought he was great. He was an American hero.
MORGAN: Could anybody really have taken over when Barack Obama did and done much with the economy in the state that it was in. I mean, it was so catastrophic.
COLLINS: Yes.
MORGAN: Is he just realized that actually it's going to take years and years to repair the damage?
COLLINS: Well, yes, but you cannot whine about the last person who was the president, you know? You cannot do that after two years. You got to do your own thing.
And I think he can get it together, maybe. I don't know. But I don't see anybody who will be better unless George Clooney decides to run.
(LAUGHTER)
MORGAN: How long have you lived in America?
COLLINS: I live here, oh, over 20 years. But I used to come here all the time when I was a teenager. So, it's my second home because I came here first when I was 15 and I love Hollywood. I've been writing about it ever since.
I mean, in "Hollywood Wives," that was based very much of my life here.
MORGAN: What do you love about it? Why's so intoxicating?
COLLINS: Why are you here? You love it, don't you?
MORGAN: I do love it.
COLLINS: Yes.
MORGAN: And I love New York as well. I love London. But you're very much an L.A. girl, right?
COLLINS: I love London. But I think -- you know, I love the beach. I love the fact that you can go to the desert, the fact that you can go to Palm Springs. You can go to Las Vegas and gamble. You can go on skiing in the mountains.
There's so much to do here. It's a very exciting place to live.
MORGAN: And all of the big stars tend to live here, right?
COLLINS: Yes. And as a writer, I go to a lot of parties and I like to be an observer. I like to think I'm an anthropologist crawling through the jungles of Hollywood watching what goes on.
MORGAN: Who's the most single most charismatic male star you've ever met.
COLLINS: I -- you know, that's a very good question.
MORGAN: Who's the one who go --
(CROSSTALK)
COLLINS: Marlon Brando.
MORGAN: Marlon Brandon?
COLLINS: Yes, Marlon Brando was fantastic. And he was my favorite movie star. And so, when I first met him, I thought this man was interesting. And he would have been a great politician, too.
MORGAN: Did you --
COLLINS: You'll read about it in my memoir.
MORGAN: Give me a little taste of it?
COLLINS: No.
MORGAN: Are we talking fling or something a little bit more --
COLLINS: We're talking like I was like 16.
MORGAN: Wow.
COLLINS: So, we won't get to that now.
(LAUGHTER)
MORGAN: We'll not get into the detail. Was it everything --
COLLINS: It was everything you would think it was. Yes.
(LAUGHTER)
MORGAN: I want to talk to you about the behavior of some of the politicians this year in America from a sex point of view, because there seems to be a run of quite extraordinary even by politician standard stories. Weinergate, for example.
COLLINS: It's absolutely unbelievable.
MORGAN: Did you understand that? Did you grasp why a man would behave like that?
COLLINS: Yes. I mean, you as a man, what would you say about it?
MORGAN: I guess modern technology, I guess, has led some people like him to think that cyber friends are, I don't know, a safer form of adultery? Who knows?
COLLINS: You're on Twitter all the time. I'm on Twitter all the time. Can you imagine doing something like that?
MORGAN: No.
COLLINS: Can you imagine standing in front of a mirror and photographing yourself?
MORGAN: I personally wouldn't have communication with people I didn't know. That's what I found so extraordinary for a politician on somewhere like Twitter where you don't know who the people are.
COLLINS: I know. And he's talking to women and he's photographing himself. I mean, you just don't want that man to be in a position of power because he -- how can you trust him? It's like Clinton when he got up in front of the world and said, I did not have sex with that woman.
What did he call it? I mean, he changed the whole horizon of what teenagers regard as sex.
MORGAN: He did. And yet -- in Clinton's case, he's now remembers ever more fondly as one of the great presidents and people mourned his departure from the stage. They wanted him to carry on.
COLLINS: Because people love sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll.
MORGAN: Do people care about politician's sex life. Does it matter?
COLLINS: I think it matters. I think if you are the president of America, that you should have some moral kind of standard that you're going to keep to, that you're going to show people, because, you know, with kids in school, for instance -- I mean, I write a lot about sex, but you don't have to pick up a book and read it.
But if you're the president, you say it wasn't sex and it actually was sex, then the kids in school are going to say, oh, well if he can do it, we can do it. And they are.
MORGAN: You were pretty strong when Arnold Schwarzenegger came a cropper with the nannygate.
COLLINS: Well, I'm so surprised by that, Piers, because why wouldn't I be. I mean, here's a guy, he's living in a house with his beautiful wife. And Maria is a fantastic woman. He's screwing the housekeeper and having a baby with her which he knew about, the baby is the image of him.
So, I wrote this piece for "Harper's Bazaar" where I said to men, in general, zip it up, because the late (INAUDIBLE) called me a raunchy moralist and that's what I am.
MORGAN: So, you believe in raunchy sex, but it's going to be legit.
COLLINS: If you're single, you can do whatever you want. You can hang from the lights here. Whatever you want to do.
MORGAN: And yet your books are (INAUDIBLE). I mean, married, unmarried. I mean, they're all committing adultery and having affairs. What is it about? I mean, can you -- I mean --
COLLINS: That's great married sex too.
MORGAN: I love the book.
COLLINS: Lucky Santangelo has great married sex.
MORGAN: She does. But many people in your books have torrid affairs.
COLLINS: Yes, of course, that's what I see around me.
MORGAN: Are you not quietly encouraging this kind of behavior?
COLLINS: No, I'm not quietly encouraging it.
MORGAN: People read this book and they think, oh, that's a good idea. I want one of those affairs Jackie Collins is writing about?
COLLINS: They do. And I get great kind of tweets from married people who go, oh, you know, my wife was reading her book and we were on our honeymoon. I said, what are you reading? Let me see it. And then I read and I thought, oh, this is great. We end up having a fantastic time together.
So, I think I inspire people in their sexual lives because I write erotic sex as opposed to rude sex.
MORGAN: What's rude sex?
COLLINS: Well, you don't want me to tell you on this show.
MORGAN: It's a late-night show.
COLLINS: I don't want to get bleeped, yes.
MORGAN: What I think is fantastic about it is I have no idea how old you are. If I were to pass you in the street, I would guess around 50.
COLLINS: Right.
MORGAN: I know that can't be true.
COLLINS: Where are you going with this? MORGAN: So, I know you weren't born four years before me. How do you look like this? Your sister is the same. How do you preserve yourself so brilliantly?
COLLINS: I'm a one man band. I believe in life being an adventure. I get up every morning, and life is an adventure. I don't know what I'm going to do except write. So I have a passion for writing.
And I think in life, if you do what you love to do, it reflects in your whole personality. But I could be one of these women that has into maintenance all the time. I mean, I play ping-pong, and I swim in my pool and I lift a few weights occasionally, but that's all I do. I eat whatever I want.
(CROSSTALK)
COLLINS: -- and a TV-holic.
MORGAN: You see, women don't want to hear, they don't want to hear is agony to get --
COLLINS: I know. I mean, you see all these girls who go to the award premieres and they're fantastic. And they're in the beautiful gowns. And then you see them in the magazine next week they're on their own, and you're like, what is that? What did the cat drag in, you know?
Because it's all about the stylist and the maintenance. I mean, these women spend their whole life. I couldn't do that and write books.
MORGAN: Joan's big secret is she never goes to the sun, hasn't done since she's 21, right?
COLLINS: She's in the sun all the time, Piers.
MORGAN: But under a big hat.
COLLINS: Under a big hat.
MORGAN: I've seen her in Saint-Tropez. I mean, she's like this mummied figured.
COLLINS: You were in Saint-Tropez?
MORGAN: Not recently, but the last time I was there, she was there.
COLLINS: Yes.
MORGAN: And I just noticed that she just covers her face in the sun.
COLLINS: Yes, she does.
MORGAN: Were you like that?
COLLINS: When I came to America, being English, I threw myself out on my pool every day. I thought, this is fantastic. I can get a sun tan. I had the most glorious sun tan.
And after about two years, I said this is the most boring thing I can possibly think of and I can be bothered to go in the sun now, apart from being in air-conditioned house writing characters.
MORGAN: Yes. We'll come to this book, because 400 million books you've sold.
COLLINS: Yes.
MORGAN: There can't be many people alive you sold more books.
COLLINS: I know. But then, I've been doing it for such a long time.
MORGAN: What is the secret of continuing to write books that people buy in such huge numbers, do you think?
COLLINS: I think it's because I write characters that they are interested in. I mean, Lucky Santangelo is really like a James Bond for women. She's a character that women take power from.
You know, I get so many tweets and letters from my female fans who go, oh, I broke up with my boyfriend and I was going to lie on the bathroom floor and cry and sob. And then I thought, what would Lucky do? And then I thought, screw it, I'm going to get out there and do what she would do -- because women have to look after themselves. They have to have a career, a passion in life. And they cannot live their lives just through a man.
And I think that's so important. My message is girls can do anything, because I was expelled from school at 15 and I achieved all of this by myself. And I think that's a good message to women.
MORGAN: It certainly is.
Let's go to a little break. When we come back, we'll talk more about the book.
COLLINS: OK.
MORGAN: More about writing. You still handwrite these things.
COLLINS: I know.
MORGAN: It's almost Keynesian.
COLLINS: I know.
MORGAN: It's not even Victorian.
(LAUGHTER) (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: I'm Jackie Collins. This is my everyday life. You know what I mean? Hanging by the pool with a few people. You know what they say, what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas. Well, what happens in my house stays in my house.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MORGAN: That's the average day in the life of Hollywood superstar Jackie Collins.
Don't be mad it's your life. Let's face it.
COLLINS: Well, you know, there's been ups and downs, Piers, because everybody looks at me and they think, oh, she has this lavish life. She built a house in Hollywood. She's written all these books.
But I also nursed two men through terminal illnesses. And I know there's a lot of people out there who are going through this very same thing, which is one of the reasons I'm going to write a memoir because I feel I can help people because I believe in celebrating people's lives when they go as opposed to mourning their deaths. And so many --
MORGAN: What is the best way to deal with a terrible tragedy like a loved one, a husband, or a partner that you lose through an appalling lengthy illness? What do you think having been through this now several times, what do you recommend to people?
COLLINS: Well, there's no best way to deal with it. But you have to go on. I mean, people have to survive after they lose loved ones. And I think you survive by memorying them in a very good way -- remembering them. Pictures, I think, are fantastic to have a lot of photos of them. To have memories, to always have good memories, and always think good thoughts and not think about the bad times, you know, perhaps when they were very ill and very angry, you don't think about that. You think of the good times that you have with them.
And I know there are so many people out there who are, you know, living with people who have terminal illnesses and I can only say to them -- just have courage and go on because it will be over one day and you can just, you know, celebrate their life.
MORGAN: Are you still on the dating scene?
COLLINS: I live my life like an affluent bachelor.
(LAUGHTER)
MORGAN: I love it. What does it mean?
COLLINS: It means when I was a kid growing up, I would read my father's "Playboy." And I used to see these guys that had a fabulous car and fabulous apartment, and a great sound system. They could do whatever they wanted to do.
Well, I've been married and engaged all my life. So, when I finally lost my fiance, I thought, you know what, I want to live like an affluent bachelor, I'm going to have the fantastic car, the fantastic house, do what I want to do whenever I want to do it.
MORGAN: Is there a constant stream of boy toys coming into --
COLLINS: I'm not in to toy boys.
MORGAN: No?
COLLINS: I have a man for every occasion.
(LAUGHTER)
COLLINS: Make of that what you will.
MORGAN: How many occasions are we talking about here?
COLLINS: Oh, well, that would be revealing too much.
(LAUGHTER)
MORGAN: Do you love men or do you deeply distrust men? What's been your overview of the male species?
COLLINS: I think men are fantastic. Some of my best friends are men.
But men really are little boys. They really are. They love their toys. You've got to feed them and you've got to keep them warm. I was going to say something rude, but I won't.
And just, you know, treat them as though they are the most precious thing in your life if you're with somebody. That's why I believe in being faithful if you're with somebody.
MORGAN: Should women ever fully trust the man they're with?
COLLINS: No, no. You cannot trust a man because it's too tempting. There are too many temptations.
I mean, look at you. You're on a big television show. You're nice on this show, horrendous on the other show -- road to everybody, right?
MORGAN: Honest is what I'm afraid you're looking for.
COLLINS: But you must know now that you're in the public eye, that women throw themselves at you.
MORGAN: Nightmare.
COLLINS: Yes. Of course, look at him. A smile on his face, it's a nightmare he's in. (LAUGHTER)
COLLINS: You know, I've got a lot of very famous men friends. And I've watched it so many times. And I remember there's this one woman in London, and she was very rich. She was married to a very rich man but she would go after every celebrity. My husband owned nightclubs, and she would come to the nightclub and she would go, oh, that's this one and that's that.
I mean, they all kind of succumb to her except Michael Caine. And he was so great. He went, why would I want her when I've got Shakira, you know? She was always like, great.
MORGAN: This book has always been a best seller.
COLLINS: Number one in England.
MORGAN: Number one in England.
COLLINS: Yes.
MORGAN: How many copies do you think shift to this world?
COLLINS: I love that. Just like, you know, shift.
(CROSSTALK)
COLLINS: My twitter fans are going crazy about it, which is great.
MORGAN: What is your Twitter address?
COLLINS: JackieJCollins. What is yours?
MORGANS: It's at @PiersMorgan.
COLLINS: OK. Well, I do follow you. I should know that.
MORGAN: I follow you. It's been a lifetime pursuit.
(CROSSTALK)
COLLINS: Ever since you read the first sex scene in that book.
MORGAN: Exactly. We all learned sex from you.
COLLINS: I know.
MORGAN: What do you think about that?
COLLINS: I write good sex, that's why.
MORGAN: Jackie, it's been a real pleasure, as always.
COLLINS: Piers, it was lovely.
MORGAN: It's a cracking book. And I love this title, "Goddess of Vengeance."
COLLINS: "Goddess of Vengeance."
MORGAN: You just want to read it.
COLLINS: Starred review on "Publishers Weekly."
MORGAN: Fantastic. It's been a real pleasure. As always, thank you.
COLLINS: Always. Thank you, Piers.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MORGAN: Gloria Estefan is one of the top 100 best selling musicians of all time. She's sold 100 million albums. She's won seven Grammies. Her latest album is "Miss Little Havana."
I'm delighted to say she joins me now.
Gloria, how are you?
ESTEFAN: I'm very well. And thanks to the statistic. I had no clue.
MORGAN: Extraordinary statistics.
ESTEFAN: Yes, it's very nice to hear.
MORGAN: You and I go back a long way.
ESTEFAN: A long way.
MORGAN: The last time I saw you, and this is slightly terrifying to me, I'm sure it will be to you, it's 20 years ago on your home in Star Island in Miami, the wonderfully named island, and you're recovering from that terrible back injury you had when a truck hit your tour bus.
And I think even then, you weren't quite sure how that was all going to play out for your and your career and your family and everything. So, I suppose the obvious question for me is how's the back?
ESTEFAN: Titanium reinforced. Feeling great. I still have to work out quite a bit to feel my best, all good. It's fantastic.
And the reason 20 years is terrifying for you because you don't have a 31-year-old son like me. So, those 20 years are nothing.
MORGAN: I have an 18-year-old son. And that's pretty scary.
ESTEFAN: That's a long way also.
MORGAN: And when they hit those, sort of, landmarks, that's scary, isn't it? ESTEFAN: Well, that's where you see I'm going by, because I feel better than ever. I'm stronger, I feel better in my own skin.
And life has been good. I really enjoyed it. So, when you see the kids growing and becoming adults.
MORGAN: Well, I just want to see a photograph of you from that day because you say that you have aged better than me is the understatement of the millennium, Gloria.
Tell me about this new album because this is the first English speaking album in five years?
ESTEFAN: No, actually, since 2004 --
(CROSSTALK)
MORGAN: That's the longest.
ESTEFAN: The last one is in Spanish, "90 Millas." It was a lot of fun.
I didn't plan on going the studio. We've never really done music when we need to do it. We had certain idea about it and something creative going on. And via our trainer, Pharrell and I, we had the same trainer, I've never met him.
MORGAN: Pharrell Williams is --
(CROSSTALK)
ESTEFAN: Yes, Pharrell Williams is the producer of the first nine tracks of the album, my husband and some producers that we have back home in our stable of producers for bonus tracks. But the idea really came from Pharrell. He had written "Miss Little Havana" for me and he called me up and said I'd like to show you something. I have an idea for a project.
And it really piqued my interest. I thought it was a great idea. And I thought that if we would click well, then thing things would flow and that's exactly what happened. It's very intimate process.
MORGAN: I met Pharrell once. I mean, he's a very interesting character. He's very smart, a good sense of humor. He has a great self-confidence about him. He knew exactly what he was about.
But he's very political. And he talked about all sorts of stuff. We remember having a long discussion about the Iraq war and so on.
So, what was he like to work with -- same kind of thing?
ESTEFAN: It's a big fun. We -- I have to say, it was a very natural and beautiful process. Usually when I write him alone, it's all going on inside my head. So, you know, you're a little wary when you start working with someone. It's a very intimate thing when you write. And we clicked. It just worked very well. And we got a lot fun, too. We discussed a lot of things between the takes and in between the writing.
And it was kind of a family affair because he had his son Rocket there, two years old, his fiancee, his entourage. Then my daughter who thought it was the master class she could ever have to watch this process would come after school and hang out and just sit there and watch us. And we're in the middle right away, ignoring everything that's going on around us. It was really wonderful.
And I think we got some very cool. We were recording while writing which is a raw feeling on to the record. And we found our character which is "Miss Little Havana" and I think, you know, I found that character a great fun. I really enjoyed it. I had fun, looked forward every day to it.
MORGAN: Tell me about the continued impact, the extraordinary upbringing you had. And in particular, the entrance of your father for your life and career, because the more I read about him, the more fascinating he becomes. He comes over to America with your mother.
And he -- the first thing he does almost is he gets sent to the Bay of Pigs. He's one of the guys sent by Kennedy to go and try to overthrow Castro, one of the Cuban rebels.
What a moment for him, for your family. You didn't know what was going on. You left a note to your mother, right? Tell me about it.
ESTEFAN: Yes, indeed. And actually they weren't sent, they volunteered. These were guys, my dad actually -- the invasion was on his birthday, April 17th. He was turning 28 years old that day. He had been a police officer in Cuba and was actually at the presidential palace the night that Batista abandoned Cuba.
And he came home -- he was a really good looking guy, very moral. He wouldn't take free cigarettes or apples or whatever. So, they chose him to be the escort to the first lady which they confuse of. And he really wasn't her bodyguard, but he was a motorcycle escort.
His father who was in the army and had been for many years didn't want him to be in the army. So, he ripped up his papers without telling him.
He came home and he told my mom, we're in trouble. The president just left the country. And she said, please don't go back. He said, I have to, that's my job.
So, they put him in jail there. Then they let him and his father go because they hadn't really done anything illegal, but they make life impossible.
And he told my mother, I have to get you out of here. This is going to get very, very nasty. And we need to do something about it.
He came to the U.S. and they went in search of support to go back to Cuba Bay of Pigs and we know how that turned out. And he was political prisoner for two years.
MORGAN: How old were you at the time?
ESTEFAN: I was two year -- just under two years old when you came.
MORGAN: You have no memory presumably of this?
ESTEFAN: I have memories of my father, his smell, the night he left, the day he came back from the Bay of Pigs. And then he went and joined the U.S. Army because they told him if they learned intensive English, they came to the office, which he did. He went to Vietnam, Agent Orange poisoning, came back very ill.
But I what I remember about my dad, he was a moral man. He had beliefs. He believed in freedom and that's what he was trying to fight for it. That's why he went to Vietnam, that's why he went to Bay of Pigs, he wanted freedom for his country and that stayed with me.
You know, he's sacrificed a lot for his beliefs and his ideals, at that sticks with me very much.
MORGAN: How much of your huge success did he get to see?
ESTEFAN: None, actually because when he came back from Vietnam, I was about 13 years old and he went downhill very fast. He died at 47. My son had just been born, he was 2 months old.
And he -- at that time he wasn't even aware. The day of my wedding I went to the hospital because at that point I was already in the hospital. We couldn't take care of him at home. And that was the first time in four years that he said my name, when he saw me in the wedding gown with Emilio.
But he at that point didn't recognize a lot of people. So, he never really saw any of what happened. And I learned to play guitar for him. I would send him tapes to Vietnam on reel-to-reel tapes.
MORGAN: Really?
ESTEFAN: Yes. We bought a tape recorder for him and for us. It was his idea that he would record tapes for my mom and my sister because she was like 2 years old, she was a baby. She didn't want him to forget my voice. So, he would talk to us.
And I would send tapes playing my guitar. He would put them for his friends and cry --
MORGAN: Amazing.
ESTEFAN: -- to all things and so, we --
MORGAN: What do you think he would -- given that he obviously knew you were musical and anything else, what would he have made of what happen to you? ESTEFAN: I know what he would have made of it because a few years ago, I never listened to those tapes because it breaks my heart. So, I had them stashed away. And on the television show, they were doing kind of this is your life thing in Spanish.
And they put up a picture of my father -- this is a live TV show. They put an excerpt where he says to me from Vietnam, "Glorita, I love the way you sound. Some day you're going to be a big star." And I --
MORGAN: Wow.
ESTEFAN: That killed me because I had never heard him say that because I hadn't listened to the tapes since I was 12, 13, 11, anyways.
MORGAN: Have you listened to any of them since?
ESTEFAN: No, I can't. It kills me. I can't do it.
MORGAN: Let's take a short break and come back and talk to you. I want to get deep down dirty and political with you, Gloria.
ESTEFAN: OK. Oh, boy.
MORGAN: I know you're a fiery little number when you want to be. And I'm going to get that fire --
ESTEFAN: Ask Emilio about that.
MORGAN: -- blazing.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MORGAN: So, Wepa, tell me something about Wepa. What does it mean?
ESTEFAN: Wepa means absolutely nothing. It's like wow, like, you know, like those "Wepa" moments in life, like if you're a little tipsy and you're follow Wepa, or like if you're dancing, Wepa. It's like it could be anything that's a great thing or a bad thing, you know? But it's not a dirty word.
MORGAN: Did you scream Wepa when President Obama became president?
ESTEFAN: I did. I Wepa'd my way all around the kitchen.
MORGAN: What did you feel in that moment?
ESTEFAN: It was transcendent. I was really happy that this country had moved to a level where we could put someone that's part of a minority in power. And I think it was a big change and I was happy to have been a part of it and to have lived it, that my daughter and my son could see that.
MORGAN: Do you think it's now a lot more likely that there will be a Hispanic or Latino president?
ESTEFAN: I'm sure, you know? Now that barrier has been broken a little -- you know, everything is a balance. Nothing ever stays in the middle. You always go from one extreme to the other, and politics is certainly that way. But I think we've got a better shot now, for sure.
MORGAN: You had a fundraiser for Obama.
ESTEFAN: Yes.
MORGAN: So, clearly, you're pretty attached to him.
How do you think he's doing? If you're being critical of your friend Barack Obama, what would you say? If you had him here now and you could say, right, I'm your school teacher, here's your report.
ESTEFAN: OK. Well, you want fiery, let me give you now a little interesting take on that. Number -- first of all, Emilio and I have never given one cent to political campaigns. So, although the fundraiser was held in my home, we had never contributed to any party. We're nonaffiliated, both of us.
And I had a really, kind of, special reason to want to have the president right there. "Damas de Blanco," who are these amazing women who are marching in Cuba and continued to do so for the freedom of their loves ones, unjustly imprisoned journalists and writers and people that started speaking against the government, were getting beat up. And I wanted to hand him letters from the dissident Guillermo Farinas, and these women and I wanted to have direct access. And he did. We spent quite a bit of time before the fundraiser happened, giving him all of the things, showing these pictures.
Subsequently, a lot of these men were released. But I was -- it was a big honor to me to have the president of the United States in my home.
MORGAN: Amazing.
ESTEFAN: Yes, it really was. It was quite something.
And although I caught some heat from it, you know, I would gladly do so. I was very proud that he -- and he got to become president as we talked about.
How would I be critical? It's hard to be critical because I spend three months in the general assembly, the 47th general assembly of the United Nations as one of the people on the diplomatic team. And quite honestly, it's a miracle to me that anything gets done anywhere with any government because it is such a monolith. And people don't realize how difficult it is to get change to happen and how little power the president's office actually has by design because the last thing we want in this country is someone with so much power that they can literally make those kinds of changes.
But I think he's doing a great job. I think he inherited a lot of problems. I think that every president from now on is going to have a tough, tough road as did President Bush with 9/11. So --
MORGAN: You told the world, you played in almost every country, in some stage, when you see what used to be called emerging countries, China, India, Brazil, and others, really becoming now very faster super powers in their own right, when you see that, are you excited for that potential or like many Americans -- do you feel slightly intimidated and threatened by that?
ESTEFAN: No. I have a very global view maybe because I have traveled the world throughout my whole life and I felt comfortable wherever I've gone. And I think that that's the future.
As we see, you know, we were talking off camera about Twitter and social media, look at the changes that have been brought about by social media. This is actually the power of the people.
MORGAN: Have you fired your publicist yet? There's no point having a publicist anymore, isn't it?
ESTEFAN: No, exactly. No, my fans are my best publicists. They're the ones that get out there. We want to take this and promote your record over here and promote it over there. They're the best. I mean, it's amazing.
I still have a publicist but he's in house.
MORGAN: So, one thing that's never changed in your life and certainly since I've known you is you always had the same guy. He was in the green room earlier, Emilio. He hasn't look a day older than the last time I saw him.
ESTEFAN: The one and only.
MORGAN: You're obviously keeping him young.
So, when we come back after the break, I wanted to talk to you about why him? Why you've had one guy.
ESTEFAN: One guy.
MORGAN: Why Emilio?
ESTEFAN: OK, I will let you know.
MORGAN: Why didn't the rest of us get a shot at it?
ESTEFAN: You were far away.
(LAUGHTER)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MORGAN: It's one of her biggest hits, "Turn the Beat Around."
Now, let's talk about Emilio.
ESTEFAN: Yes.
MORGAN: This man that you met in the '70s. You fell in love. First proper boyfriend you've ever had.
ESTEFAN: Only boyfriend.
MORGAN: Only boyfriend you've ever had?
ESTEFAN: Yes.
MORGAN: You married him in 1978.
ESTEFAN: It wasn't planned that way. He found the only virgin left I think in the '70s by mistake, by pure chance.
(LAUGHTER)
ESTEFAN: It's true. The '70s were a hot time. You know? I was like the most calm of all my friends.
MORGAN: How come you fended off what presumably was a very long list of male admirers? How did you stay still chaste?
ESTEFAN: There were no male admirers. I -- like I told you, my dad was ill. I would go from school to take care of him at home. And when I joined the band for fun right out of high school, I was 17 years old. I didn't plan on getting married, period. It was not in my realm of thought.
I was going to go to college. I was starting at the University of Miami. I had a psychology, communications major and a French minor. And pretty much halfway through, I had been accepted to Sorbonne in Paris and decided that I was going to be a diplomat and study international law over there.
So, that was my plan, which it happened very naturally. We got together. We fell in love. We spent two years -- you know, it's funny because the first time on July 4th, 1976 -- and I'm not going to forget this -- this is bicentennial. We were playing a gig, we weren't dating or anything of the sort. We're going -- he said, I'm going to take you in the van because that area of town is a little iffy.
So, we're in the van. And he said, you know, I bet you and I would get along really well if we got married. And I'm going like, what? Got married? And he'd go, well, we get along well.
But that was Emilio's speak beginning to tell me that he had an interest in me and that it was serious. And sure enough, we started dating. He never mentioned marriage again until he gave me my engagement ring on February 12th because he couldn't wait until Valentine's Day two days later.
We just clicked. We're very different. We're very balanced personalities, but the things that matter in life, like our values, our priorities are very much on the same page. MORGAN: How did your priorities change, if at all, as a family after your accident? Because there must have been moments there where: A, he wasn't sure if you would even survive, and then, would you ever walk again? You were told, I think, may not walk again.
ESTEFAN: Exactly.
MORGAN: How did priorities change after that?
ESTEFAN: Well, you know, our priority has always been our family. And that's why we were all together in that accident. At that time, I had only my son, he was 9 years old.
But quite honestly, I wasn't thinking on my career when this happened. I -- all I wanted to do was to be OK and be independent. Remember, my father was in a wheelchair for many years. So, it was very clear to me what my family was going to go through, which made me really throw myself into the rehab. I spent six, seven hours a day in rehab because I thought I'm going to give it my all.
If I end up in a chair? Fine, I'd end up in a chair. And I'll be playing basketball or whatever you can do in a chair.
MORGAN: When was the moment you walked again?
ESTEFAN: Actually, I walked again in the hospital after they reconnected me -- but not by myself. It was two weeks after and I had to be held up by somebody on both sides and taking baby steps like an inch at a time. And I couldn't sit up, lay down, someone had to do that for me. And Emilio did not leave my side for three months. He's electric.
So, for him to be stuck at home with me -- he wouldn't sleep because I couldn't sleep more than 45 minutes. He would have to get me out of bed, walk me around, flip me over, sit me up, bathe me, and he was there for me.
MORGAN: That's true love, right?
ESTEFAN: Yes, it is.
MORGAN: Do you dream wistfully of the day that Castro is gone and you can go back to Cuba?
ESTEFAN: Well, go back -- I don't think I could ever live in Cuba because my home is Miami. I've been there since I'm 2 years old. And I love the place.
MORGAN: Wouldn't you, for the sake of your father, wouldn't it be quite a moment for you to fly to Cuba post-Castro to complete really the job that he start?
ESTEFAN: Well, I tell you this, my dream both on a personal level and on a professional level -- professional level, to sing in a free Cuba, to share my music with my people. I've sung for every kind of people there are. And even in Miami, I'm still considered a Cuban exile. So, it's not -- they don't say Miamian Gloria Estefan, it's always, you know, Cuban exile, Gloria Estefan. I would love to, if they want. I'll be there to support and help any way I can.
But I don't want anything from Cuba. I want them to be free and enjoy the things I enjoy.
MORGAN: It will be quite a moment.
ESTEFAN: It will be.
MORGAN: Gloria Estefan, thank you very much.
ESTEFAN: Thank you.
MORGAN: Or should I say, wepa!
ESTEFAN: Wepa! You can. Even the English can say it!
(LAUGHTER)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MORGAN: Steve Stoute is the star maker behind the careers of Eminem, Nas and Mariah Carey. He's also the author of the provocatively titled new book, "The Tanning of America: How Hip Hop Created the Culture that Rewrote the Rules of the New Economy."
And Steve joins me.
What does this all mean, "The Tanning of America"?
STOUTE: Well, tanning, I -- is a term I dubbed that represents the process of the next generation of kids that no longer see color when they see each other. They see each other through shared values, through cultural sharing. But they don't look at each other in segment through color.
MORGAN: How much of that is done through social networking?
STOUTE: Well, I think social networking did a lot to help intensify the phenomenon. But I think the phenomenon started many years ago through music. And I basically get into that hip hop culture allowed for that sharing to take place, because everyone had a place to go to that they all responded to. So the clothing, the language, the bling, the rims on your car, it all came out of the culture of hip hop music.
MORGAN: Your big thing is kind of taking established brands and putting them together when nobody else has seen this and you've done it in an incredibly successful way many times.
What about Barack Obama? If you were marketing him right now to win the next election, given all the woes and problems that he's facing -- STOUTE: OK.
MORGAN: -- what would you do?
STOUTE: I honestly think that he should speak to what he did with capturing Osama bin Laden. I don't think that ever got as much credit that he's deserved. The world was in fear. And he did a lot to close that gap.
I think that you know, he should speak about what he inherited. He inherited a financial mess. And I know everybody's expectations were that he's hope and his promise would resolve it quicker than he did.
Things were so bad. People want instant gratification. But it took eight years, minimum, to cause that mess and they want him to solve it in 2 1/2. And it's tough.
And, you know, I feel for the fact that he has these headwinds in front of him and you know the Republicans are doing a very good job of painting that picture, like what did he do?
MORGAN: Let's talk brands here. Because you've been involved in some of the most successful brands entertainment and sport the world has ever seen. Which individuals out there right now do you think has a complete mastery of their brand and at the top of their game?
STOUTE: I think Beyonce.
MORGAN: I totally agree with you.
STOUTE: Yes. I think everyone in the world feels the exact same way about Beyonce. She's a beautiful person, happy she's a mom, she manages her brand very well.
MORGAN: She had, when I interviewed her, she just exuded extraordinary self-confidence without ever moving into arrogance.
STOUTE: One of the sweetest people I've ever meet. Very nice.
MORGAN: Gentle. Gentle, humble, but also very aware of her talent and how best to make it work.
How much of being a great brand that is likability?
STOUTE: Well, it depends on who you are, right? Because some people love their brand to not be liked. They actually find popularity in not being liked. Like a guy like the boxer Floyd Mayweather or in wrestling, you've seen it before like characters like Hulk Hogan. They would go and create -- be the bad guy and everybody disliked the bad guy. And it was just there to cause more public interest.
So I think that's also another -- you know, you could actually purposely cause your brand or want your brand to be, you know, negatively perceived as a way to gain attention. MORGAN: I mean, it's to me, a brand is -- has to be completely carefully nurtured. If you're someone like Tiger Woods -- there was the number one sports brand in the world for years.
STOUTE: Yes.
MORGAN: A guy who just came into a predominantly white sport and just took over, dominated and it seemed like at one stage no one would ever beat him again and he'd be the greatest sportsman probably America had ever seen. And then it all went catastrophically wrong in the space of about three weeks.
STOUTE: It was longer than three weeks.
MORGAN: Well, obviously, in terms of behavior, yes. But in terms of exposure and collapse.
STOUTE: The lying. You know what?
MORGAN: Why did his brand collapse?
STOUTE: You cannot lie to the media. He was -- I don't, you know, I don't drink, I don't smoke, I don't curse, I play golf every day, I'm the perfect athlete, period. And that was the model that was set out for him, that was the archetype that he was his mold he was going into, his archetype.
And when they caught him having loose activity and then everything started falling apart, it was like, wow. You are really, really a hypocrite. And I think that was the issue. That's when the whole thing fell apart.
In the book "Tanning," I speak about -- I left the record business. I used to run record companies, and I went to the advertising business at 29 years old. So I got a chance to see guys -- the artist create great content and then you got a chance to see the advertising business where you commercialize that content in hopes to get market share and sell consumers. So you get a chance to truly understand people who control their brand.
MORGAN: Who are the smartest people you've worked with in terms of that?
STOUTE: Jay-Z. Very intelligent, controls his brand, and I've seen him go from both industries and transition very well. And honestly, Lady Gaga, very much control her brand. She understands the way people perceive her.
She -- exactly the way we see her is exactly the way she wants us to look at her. And that's the job of a great artist, a great entertainer -- somebody who sees themselves as a brand, beyond the music. You've got to transition beyond the music and be bigger than the category.
MORGAN: If you were put in charge, let's say Barack Obama is watching this -- STOUTE: Oh, we're back at Barack Obama again.
(CROSSTALK)
MORGAN: -- by your rhetoric and he thinks, right, I want to put Steve Stoute in charge --
STOUTE: I would tell him to read the book.
MORGAN: Well, obviously, he has to read your book.
(CROSSTALK)
MORGAN: But assuming he reads the book and he puts you in charge of rebranding him, remarketing "America, PLC," "America, Incorporated" -- what would you do to get this country back on its feet?
STOUTE: I think we need to -- we don't have the -- our export, our cultural -- our biggest export was our culture, you know, our movies, our stars. We had that. I think he needs to spend a lot more time focusing on not -- you know, who we are as a brand -- the financial power, the intelligence, the auto-making ability of the country. We lost that. We lost the swagger that we had, you know, in the '60s, in the '50s.
The diversity of America is a strength of the country and I don't think that we use that. We don't talk about our strengths. I mean, having so many diverse people in this country from all aspects of all over the world and we don't use that. I think we should talk about who we are -- that melting pot that we've become.
MORGAN: Well, words of wisdom there, Steve. I think Barack Obama should read your book.
STOUTE: Thank you very much.
MORGAN: It's a fascinating read, and you make a lot of sense. Thanks for coming in.
STOUTE: Yes, sir.
