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CNN Larry King Live
Interview with Marie Osmond; Harris Family Discuss "Deadliest Catch"
Aired April 10, 2009 - 21:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LARRY KING, HOST: Tonight, Marie Osmond -- how she battled and beat depression...
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARIE OSMOND: Tragedy plus time equals humor. So you "Might As Well Laugh About It Now".
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: ...divorce and personal disaster.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OSMOND: Life is serious, Larry. There's everything that comes at us. But it's our attitude that makes the difference.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: How did she shed weight and those demons?
Marie Osmond does not hold back.
And then, their jobs could injury, cripple, even kill them -- so why do they risk their lives for a paycheck?
The father and son stars of the "Deadliest Catch" tell all -- all about their dangerous profession and the blood that binds them to it, next on LARRY KING LIVE.
It's always a pleasure to welcome to LARRY KING LIVE the enormously talented Marie Osmond. Her new book is "Might As Well Laugh About It Now." She's "The New York Times" best-selling author. This book, written with Marcia Wilkie, is already in its second printing. And it's published by New American Library.
What does that title mean?
OSMOND: The book is about -- life is serious, Larry. There's -- there's everything that comes at us. But it's our attitude that makes the difference. And I think that's the greatest thing that I have learned. I mean you get to a certain place in your life where it's like, you know what, I am what I am. You know, you like it or you lump it.
Life has dished me out all kinds of things, just like it has you. And I've been quoted as saying tragedy plus time equals humor. So you might as well laugh about it now.
KING: So is this, then, a funny book about bad things?
(LAUGHTER)
OSMOND: No. It's -- well, I guess you could say it is, maybe. It's an attitude book about things...
KING: I mean you don't kid about depression. You've written about depression.
You don't make fun of that, do you?
OSMOND: No. Have -- the book -- and I appreciate your comment about it, too.
KING: I -- I used to (INAUDIBLE).
OSMOND: It's like you said -- it's kind of an Erma Bombeck approach to reality. And...
KING: I loved her.
OSMOND: Oh, brilliant. But really, the book happened as kind of a fluke, because my house burnt down in 2005. And in it was 30 years of journals. And I'm kind of dyslexic. And I write late at night. So they probably never could have read them anyway. So it's probably good they burned.
But what I did is I called Marcia, who has -- you know, she was head writer of Donny and Marie. She wrote my last book with me. And I said, I really want to put together some of these memories -- things that were pivotal in my life, as far as changing my opinion about things. And I said let's -- let's put them down for my children.
Well, as we were putting them down, she went and sent them off to William Morris and -- my book agent, who sent them off and thus the book.
And so they're short stories. They're easy reads. They're things from -- you know, little things that happened to me as a child to big things that changed how I looked at motherhood, working with Shelley Winters and all different kinds of things in between.
KING: Were recollections hard to remember?
OSMOND: Well, I kind of wanted to put them down before I forgot them all.
(LAUGHTER)
KING: Yes. But they -- but they burned.
OSMOND: Well, some of them. But, no. There are triggers. And some things kind of fit into others. For example, I mentioned Shelley Winters. I was at a place in my life in my -- about 20. And my career -- we had just come off Donny and Marie. We were dubbed into 17 languages. The show was huge. And very into career side of my life.
And very late at night, there was a knock on the door. And it was Shelley. And she had been drinking. And she told me how she had every award that this industry could give and how she would give every single one of them back if she could just have the arms of her daughter around her neck. And it was powerful at age 20 to say, wow, this woman had everything and yet would take it all away just to have that love in her elderly years.
KING: Her daughter passed away?
OSMOND: Her daughter is a surgeon, I believe.
KING: But they weren't close?
OSMOND: No. And, you know, those are the kinds of things -- in this book -- sad, yes. Life-changing. Yes, there's some crazy things in there. I'm -- I'm a humor -- I always lean toward humor and laughter.
KING: And that works for you.
OSMOND: Well, I think it's the way I deal with everything. I like to be positive. I like to find, you know, the lemonade in the lemons.
KING: Right.
OSMOND: And -- and -- like when I did "Dancing With The Stars," I wrote about it. And during that time, I was through a major divorce. My son was in rehab. My father dies. You know, it's a television show. And so many times I wanted to just quit.
And I would get thousands of e-mails from women saying, you keep going, you keep moving forward. I got one from a 22-year-old girl who was finishing up finals in college. And she said, I have wanted to quit, but I see you don't and so I'm going to finish my finals. And they would write. And then they'd inspire me. And it's just -- there's so much negativity out there and I like the positive approach to it all.
KING: But sometimes bad is good. For example, that show, you didn't win. You faint...
OSMOND: Yes, I did.
KING: You fainted. You fainted. You didn't win.
(LAUGHTER)
KING: But that show had a lot to do with turning your career around, didn't it? OSMOND: Yes. I think it was really fascinating, as I look back. I lost 40 pounds. You know, all these things happened.
And you go, sometimes, why?
Why all of it right now?
It hit so hard. And I think it really moved me toward this book. It moved me toward wanting to do my own talk show, because I really love people, Larry.
KING: I know.
OSMOND: And like there's a story in there about Elvis and my mother and how he was -- he loved her. He called her constantly. And how -- in there I talked about how I would try to sneak in and listen to the conversations. You know, this was Elvis.
KING: How did he know your mother?
OSMOND: She looked -- she looked so much like his mother. And you look at their pictures. And he lost his mother. And he would call when we'd go to Vegas and they'd talk about God and, you know, humor and things that mattered in life.
And the biggest thing he said is that he wished he were closer with his fans. And I write in my book about one time when I was young. And I was like, I don't want to sign anymore autographs. I'm tired. I want to go to my hotel room. And my mother said, you don't know how many hours those people worked to buy a ticket for your show and you don't know their situation. And no matter how hard you worked, they worked just as hard.
So if you can't give them 15 minutes of your time, then you shouldn't be in this business.
My mom was tough. My dad was tough. I write about my dad and -- and how he taught me how to clean fish and, you know, rope cows and milk cows and a lot of things -- you know, I'd work 17-hour days. I'd come home and my mom would say, OK, it's time to learn to bake bread and let's -- it's time to clean the toilet.
And I'd go, are you nuts?
But I never said it out loud, because we never disrespected our parents. And as a single mom with eight children, I have such respect for them both.
KING: A new view of your mother, huh?
OSMOND: Oh, don't you think, as you get older, that you...
KING: Oh...
OSMOND: ...respect so much more of what they did? KING: Marie Osmond is the guest. The book, "Might As Well Laugh About It Now" -- a guaranteed major best-seller, published by New American Library.
We'll be back with more after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ladies and gentlemen, Marie Osmond.
Marie, come on out.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(MUSIC)
KING: We're back with Marie Osmond.
The book is "Might As Well Laugh About It Now".
(LAUGHTER)
OSMOND: What are you laughing at, Larry?
KING: I'll tell you what I'm laughing about. This is the only book in American history that gives you a card with a giveaway.
(LAUGHTER)
KING: You get a break with NutriSystem. Marie will figure something out with everything.
OSMOND: Do you know what...
KING: Now, how did this come about?
OSMOND: Do you know what, it's funny because I went on Nutri -- I studied all the programs. And I went on NutriSystem because I didn't want to sign a contract with somebody. I didn't want somebody weighing me. I didn't want to have to measure my food or worry about cooking it.
So I went on it. And as I started losing weight on -- you know, when I was doing "Dancing With The Stars," they said how are you doing it?
And I said NutriSystem. And so, you know, they love that I'm -- I guess I'm a real story. I'm not like a celebrity being paid to endorse something. And I love it because it's heart healthy and I -- you know, there's health -- heart health issues.
KING: Well, you can see the results.
OSMOND: And so really, I said... KING: So what is this with the book?
OSMOND: ...to them -- I said, look, I've given you a lot of advertising so you give it to people who it can help. And so they did that, which is an awesome thing they did. So people...
KING: They do pay you right?
OSMOND: Well, they -- they do -- they do now.
(LAUGHTER)
KING: What do you mean?
They didn't before?
OSMOND: No. No, no, no. But -- but only because my time is so crazy. And so like they'll say, OK, can we pay you to do a commercial right here?
And I have no problems with that, because I love the product. People know me, Larry. I don't endorse any -- I've been offered a lot of different kinds of endorsements. I don't do anything I don't believe in. And I believe in it...
KING: So who came up with the idea to give a flier in the book to give a break?
OSMOND: It was kind of my idea. It was a way for them to give back to people. We've been working at The Flamingo, Donny and myself. You came and saw the show.
KING: A great show. I was going to...
OSMOND: I can't...
KING: ...talk about it in a minute.
OSMOND: Well, I was -- it's amazing how many people come through and they'll say I've lost 30 pounds on NutriSystem. I lost 40 pounds. I've lost 50 pounds. And -- and they're so happy. Their joints feel better. They're not achy. They feel better about themselves. It's not about visual, it's about health.
KING: I saw the show at The Flamingo, you and Donny.
(MUSIC)
KING: It's one of the -- it's not only a terrific show, but the most energized show. I mean if you -- you come out of there jumping. I mean it -- it really gets you going.
OSMOND: Thank you.
KING: But it's an hour and 45 minutes.
OSMOND: Yes.
KING: I know you're off stage for like 20 minutes and he's on and then you're off and he's on and you're off. But still, how do you get that energy, almost every night?
OSMOND: NutriSystem.
(LAUGHTER)
OSMOND: You know...
KING: I set you up for that, didn't I?
OSMOND: You know what, it's...
KING: Where does it come from?
OSMOND: We love it. We grew up old school. You know, we -- we were kind of on that tail end of the Sammy Davis Juniors and the Frank Sinatras and, you know, that -- that whole genre of Vegas. And we've always said we like to be entertainers, not celebrities. And it's fun because I get to sing everything from "Paper Roses" to Annie Lenox's "Rocker" to Opera Piagu (ph). I mean you saw the show -- Broadway tunes.
KING: She sings opera, folks.
OSMOND: Yes. And it's fun because people get to see in that hour...
KING: So you're saying that every night at 7:30, right when the bell rings, as they say, you're ready to go.
OSMOND: Yes.
People say how do you do that?
To me, it's kind of like my exercise for the day. I love it. It's -- you get out -- I've been doing it for so many years that you get out there and it's just kind of like a comfortable -- a comfortable shoe.
People fly in from all over.
KING: I know.
OSMOND: They're flying in from Japan and Australia...
KING: You play with the audience a lot.
OSMOND: I do.
KING: That's part of the -- it's part of the shtick of The Osmonds, right?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) OSMOND: Hi, Randy.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE).
OSMOND: Can I -- can I steal him for a second?
I didn't ask you.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, you can have him.
OSMOND: I can have him?
(LAUGHTER)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
OSMOND: Well, I don't know if it's shtick, but I think it's a way of bringing them in, especially that room is fantastic. It's one of the older rooms.
KING: A great room for singers.
OSMOND: Oh, for entertainers. And so it's a great way to bring that audience in to you and let them have fun.
(MUSIC)
OSMOND: So I -- that's kind of my job to start it off with.
KING: It's at The Flamingo and it's terrific, folks.
OSMOND: Yes.
KING: Back to the book.
Do you like -- I know that Marcia helped you and she kind of wrote this with you.
OSMOND: Uh-huh.
KING: Do you like the process -- do you like doing a book?
OSMOND: It's like giving birth. We've had a lot of really nice response on it, saying that it's a great Mother's Day gift, it's a great Easter -- it's a very positive read. For me, because I'm a busy mom, you don't have to read the whole book. You can just read one chapter at a time if you're sitting getting your hair colored or you're off with your kid in one of his sports events or something.
So it's a comfortable book. And it's -- it's very chick friendly.
KING: Back -- chick friendly?
OSMOND: Chick friendly.
KING: Back with Marie Osmond. The book, "Might As Well Laugh About It Now".
Don't go away.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KING: Marie and her brother Donny are headliners in Las Vegas, packing them in every night at The Flamingo.
Here's a look at why fans are lining up to see them.
(MUSIC)
KING: More with the marvelous Marie Osmond after this.
Stick around.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KING: We're back with Marie Osmond.
If you want to see a house burning, there's a picture in this book.
(LAUGHTER)
KING: Each chapter has a picture that relates to what is coming in the chapter. A pretty good idea. There's a lot of novel things in here. Most people write acknowledgments. I just finished an autobiography, which will be out in late May, and I had acknowledgments. But I didn't have pictures with the acknowledgments. I like this. It's a good idea.
OSMOND: It is. Yes. I love including those.
KING: Including a picture of my father-in-law, Karl.
OSMOND: You've got it, Karl.
KING: And in the interests of fairness, it should be said that your people have been with you a long time, right?
OSMOND: I, you know...
KING: People stay with you.
OSMOND: I know. I love them. My...
KING: Your band leader.
OSMOND: My car -- Jerry, forever. I've been with Jerry Williams. He will also be on this show. I mean he is brilliant. Karl, been with me over 35 years.
KING: Amazing.
OSMOND: Truly one of the most (INAUDIBLE) -- I mean you look at a woman like myself, who's been in the business 45 years. And it's amazing -- since I'm 29. And so...
(LAUGHTER)
OSMOND: But Karl has been with me 35 of those years, 36 of those years. And it -- truly one of the most brilliant managers, because you -- you reinvent yourself. It's not luck that you sit around -- especially not for a female in this business. And you have to keep working and reinventing and recreating.
Like there's a story in there how I was doing country music. I loved it. I played 265 days a year on the road, a different city every night. And as I had more children -- and I have a few -- you know, you realize that it's not -- it's not easy on the child.
It's great when you're the child performing but not the child following the mother.
KING: Yes.
OSMOND: And I remember my daughter was six months old and we were in ICU. They didn't know if she was going to make it through the night. I called Karl and I said, you know, you've got to get me out of -- I was going to some festival performing or whatever.
And he called me back an hour later and he says they're -- they're going to sue you. And that's when I made the decision, as a mother, that I had to change my -- my career path at that point. That's when I went into Broadway and did shows like "King and I" and "The Sound of Music."
KING: I saw you.
OSMOND: Yes. You're so sweet. But there was this thing called an understudy. And I really liked it.
(LAUGHTER)
KING: Yes, they have them there.
OSMOND: That's right. But it was -- it was very difficult to learn to re-sing. But it -- it opened up a whole new world of challenging myself to singing differently.
And so, you know, I have a new album coming out with some of the opera songs on it. It's my first inspirational album and that will be coming out...
KING: You're really going at it.
Now this -- your Flamingo, you signed for another two years, right?
OSMOND: Well, they're asking us to sign.
KING: But you haven't signed yet?
OSMOND: Yes. We have signed for two years.
KING: OK.
OSMOND: But they're asking for two more after that.
KING: Two more years.
OSMOND: So...
KING: And you're going to do a talk show.
Are you going to do it from Vegas?
OSMOND: From Vegas.
KING: So in the afternoon, you'll do a talk show and then do your nightclub singing?
OSMOND: Look who's talking, Mr. Busy.
KING: Yes, but come on.
(LAUGHTER)
KING: When does the talk show start?
OSMOND: We'll be doing that in the afternoon -- or like not -- around 11:00.
KING: I don't know why the first Donny and Marie talk show went off. I mean Sony may have made a mistake.
OSMOND: Well...
(LAUGHTER)
KING: No, I mean the show...
OSMOND: Well, we know that they -- when they took it off, the ratings kept climbing. It's the only show in history where it's canceled and it keeps growing.
But it's one of the reasons why I wanted to do my show this way. It's syndicated, very much like "Oprah," where you can control the content. And you work very close with the stations. Tom O'Brien (ph) in New York, what a wonderful man. I talked to him, explained the concept of the show. But I want it to be very chick oriented. You know, it's geared toward women. Men can listen, too...
KING: This is not Donny and Marie...
OSMOND: No.
KING: This is Marie.
OSMOND: No, just me. But, you know, it's -- it's really for women. It's about happiness. And we're -- we're going to have humor, we're going to have fun, we're going to have topics that are real.
KING: What time slot are you aiming for?
OSMOND: Well, there will be -- right now, it's like 11:00 to 4:00 in different markets.
KING: Anywhere in there?
OSMOND: Because it is syndicated.
KING: You've got a studio in Vegas all set up?
OSMOND: We're still looking. This is the thing, is right now, because -- because it's that crunch time, we're -- we're almost down to the venue. Vegas has been fantastic. They've given me an incredible budget to fly people in and out for the show.
Vegas is very excited to have it. And you talk about...
KING: Oh, Vegas is involved?
OSMOND: Oh, yes.
KING: OK.
OSMOND: Oh, yes.
KING: Well, you live there now, though?
OSMOND: I do live there. I'm a Vegan...
KING: Do you like it?
OSMOND: ...not a vegan.
KING: Do you like it?
OSMOND: I do. I'm -- I'm actually...
KING: Isn't that quite a change from Provo, Utah?
OSMOND: You know, I -- I don't think I'll ever go back to Utah. My children are very happy there. And there's this huge community. Where I live, it feels like Orange County. I'm not kidding. It's crazy.
But sports and very, you know, kid-oriented and dance -- all the things that they need.
KING: A lot of people have told me that.
OSMOND: It's fabulous, Larry.
KING: Vegas is a great place to raise kids.
OSMOND: I am stunned. It is a great place to raise kids, yes. KING: How many kids do you have?
OSMOND: Seventy-five.
(LAUGHTER)
KING: How many do you have?
OSMOND: I have eight children. And then now I'm raising my eight brothers, so 16 total.
KING: Yes, you've got a -- you've got a collection, right?
The Osmonds are multiplier -- be free and go forth and multiply, right?
OSMOND: Well, you know, when my mom passed away, I kind of became the matriarch. And so last night, they were at a show. So I saw them and then I flew in here to do this and...
KING: What was it like to be the only girl in all those boys?
OSMOND: You know, I have been asked that my whole life. And I have to say normal, I guess. I enabled them all.
(LAUGHTER)
KING: Weren't they protective of you?
OSMOND: I think -- I think, well, yes, growing up. But I mean not a...
KING: Were you the baby?
OSMOND: No. I have one younger brother, Jimmy, who is brilliant. They're all -- they're just good men. They're wonderful men. I -- another thing about my dad, I think I understand men. I think I assumed that every man was like my dad and my brothers, which is not the case.
But I wrote about him, because he's been portrayed as being a very tough, mean -- you know, a monster, in some ways.
KING: Yes.
OSMOND: And, you know, you have to realize, this is a man who never lived on one cent of our money. Everything that he and my mother lived on was because of his -- his own things that he had -- duplexes, properties, whatever he had.
And a man feels his worth from what he accomplishes in his life. And my dad gave all of that up for his children.
KING: Do you want to marry again?
(LAUGHTER) OSMOND: You know, I -- I think I'm ready to date again, but I can't get anybody to sign...
KING: You haven't dated in...
OSMOND: I just can't get them to sign a prenup on the first date.
KING: By the way...
(LAUGHTER)
KING: By the way, how can you date?
When would you have time to date?
OSMOND: No kidding, Larry.
KING: I'll meet you at quarter to 11:00 Thursday.
OSMOND: No, it would be from 1:00 to 3:00 in the morning.
(LAUGHTER)
KING: Now, when do you -- well, in Vegas, you could do that.
When...
OSMOND: Yes.
(LAUGHTER)
KING: No, you don't -- so you're not dating at all?
OSMOND: No. You know, I've been out to some dinners and things like that. But -- and my children are like, mom, go date, go date. But I -- I actually am dating four really incredible men right now.
KING: Oh, really?
OSMOND: Yes. My son Stephen and Michael and Brandon and Matthew.
KING: Yes, you threw me again there.
(LAUGHTER)
KING: Thanks, Marie.
It's always great seeing you.
OSMOND: Oh, Larry, you're awesome.
KING: A hell of a book, "Might As Well Laugh About It Now." The "New York Times" best-selling author, Marie Osmond, with Marcia Wilkie. And I love the cover. That's a great picture. OSMOND: Thank you.
You're sweet, Larry.
I appreciate it.
KING: We'll be back with more after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP FROM "DEADLIEST CATCH," COURTESY DISCOVERY CHANNEL)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A 50-foot swale.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, OK. A 17-foot swale.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, my hands are full. I'm a little stressed.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A lot of craft.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, yes!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Whoo!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, baby!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: The program is the "Deadliest Catch." And next Tuesday, April 14th, at 9:00 p.m. Eastern and Pacific, it will air again on the Discovery Channel. It's been a major hit for that channel -- an extraordinary story.
And let's meet the people involved.
Captain Phil Harris, the experienced seaman and star of the program, which returns, by the way, for its fifth season. He fishes with his two sons aboard the Cornelia Marie. He suffered an embolism and, by the way, nearly died last year.
Jake Harris, on his left -- your right -- is Discovery Channel's "Deadliest Catch" other star. He's Captain Phil's 23-year-old son, returning for his fifth season and full share earning status.
And finally, Josh Harris, who is Captain Phil's older, less seasoned son. He's 25 years old. He retuns -- returns, rather -- for the third season.
Back for a new season, believed to be one of the toughest crab fishing seasons yet.
How did -- how did all this start for you, Phil? P. HARRIS: Well, with the Discovery Channel, we were picking up some bodies. A boat had rolled over -- a friend of mine actually rolled over and the bodies were in the water. So we were looking for them and picking -- in the process of picking one up. And they filmed that.
So then when we got to town, they came over to the boat. They liked it and moved in.
KING: It was their idea to do "Deadliest Catch?"
P. HARRIS: Yes. They -- they started "Deadliest Catch." In the beginning, it was just supposed to be a one hour show and that was it. It was -- they had had no plans to go any farther than that.
KING: How long have you been doing this?
P. HARRIS: Well, this is the fifth season.
You mean crab fishing?
KING: No, you. Forget the season.
How long have you been crab fishing?
P. HARRIS: I've been crab fishing 33 years now.
KING: How did you get into that?
P. HARRIS: I lied my way on a boat. I -- I actually lied my way on a boat and told them I knew what I was doing. And it was in school. A friend of mine was doing crab fishing. And he had a beautiful brand new car and I was driving a Volkswagen, so --
KING: There's good money in this.
P. HARRIS: Damned good money.
KING: Jake, you were born into it, right?
JAKE HARRIS, "DEADLIEST CATCH": Yes, sir.
KING: Your father did it, right? Did you want to do it?
JAKE HARRIS: Well, not exactly. After high school I didn't really have plans to go to college and he drove a really nice car, so --
KING: Here we go with the cars.
JAKE HARRIS: Yeah.
KING: So you didn't go to college?
JAKE HARRIS: No. No college for me.
KING: What was the toughest part for you to learn?
JAKE HARRIS: I'm not a very big guy and there's a lot of heavy lifting and a lot of big guys I work with so I kind of had to learn some tricks of the trade at my size to be able to do the job.
KING: And did your dad make you go into it?
JAKE HARRIS: He didn't exactly want me to go into at first. And he kind of thought I was too small for the industry. It's hard. Not everybody can do it. And after I bit I think he kind of likes me doing it.
KING: What did your mom think?
JAKE HARRIS: I doubt she liked it. I don't know, I never really talked to her about it.
KING: Does she accept it now?
JAKE HARRIS: I still don't talk to her much about it.
KING: That's -- persona non grata.
JAKE HARRIS: Yeah.
KING: What about you, Josh. Did you like it right away?
JOSH HARRIS, "DEADLIEST CATCH": Oh, I started off in a different industry. I didn't want to be under the shadow of my father. I wanted to come out and do my own thing in a different industry and I got injured, took some time off, just about had my insides sucked out through my shoulder blade. Engineering on another boat.
And then one day -- I got better a couple days later and he said, if you want to be a man come out and prove yourself, your brother can do it, can you? And so that was just kind of the fire underneath my butt.
KING: Phil, you had a huge scare last season, suffered a pulmonary embolism. Given two weeks to live.
P. HARRIS: Well, yeah, it was kind of serious.
KING: Where were you?
P. HARRIS: We were in the middle of a storm. It was blowing about 100 and I was launched out of my bunk up against the wall and I thought that I just broke some ribs so I started spitting up a little bit of blood and as the day progressed it got worse and worse then all of the sudden I think now the blood clot was going through by heart at the time but it felt like a heart attack and then a lot of blood started coming up.
KING: How long before you got to land?
P. HARRIS: Took us what, three days, I think. KING: Three days?
JOSH HARRIS: The reason being he didn't want to go in. He tried to be the tough guy.
JAKE HARRIS: A mutiny at sea to make him go.
KING: We have a clip of that horrible day at sea. Talking about a near death experience. Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
P. HARRIS: I know I don't. But this is how it works.
I can't breath.
MIKE ROWE, "DEADLIEST CATCH": Phil spent three days in excruciating physical pain. The last 48 hours, he's been coughing up blood.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's just getting worse. It's getting to the point where, pretty soon, we're not going to get you off this boat. You know.
P. HARRIS: I got an awful lot of obligations to people right now, man.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I know you do.
P. HARRIS: I always had a dream that I'd die out here. I just have always had that dream that that would happen.
I've got five guys down here that are concerned whether I'm going to keel over and drop dead right now. Everybody I talk to says I have a punctured lung.
JAKE HARRIS: He's jeopardizing his own life because he wants to makes come money.
JOSH HARRIS: He's got to get it looked at.
JAKE HARRIS: It could kill him eventually.
P. HARRIS: Yes, my hands are full. I'm a little stressed. I can hardly sit here, because my guts are just killing me.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: Was it difficult for you to handle something so tense?
P. HARRIS: You mean --
KING: The whole thing. Did you think of not going out again?
P. HARRIS: No. No. I'm not scared. But it would have been a bad deal if I would have died on the boat. That would have -- I know you're kidding down there.
KING: Were you scared, Jake?
JAKE HARRIS: Yeah. I was terrified. He didn't exactly like to tell us what was going on at first. So Josh or I didn't really know the seriousness of the matter but we knew something was wrong. Yeah. We were scared.
KING: We'll be right back with more of this incredible story. Go to CNN's number one showcase, CNN.com/LarryKing and check out our blog or download our new daily podcast. More with "The Deadliest Catch" guys after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KING: It may be weird to ask this and I guess you asked the doctors, why didn't you die?
P. HARRIS: Well, I don't know. We got into the port and I went up to the clinic there and the nurse took a picture of my lungs and that's where she said you know, you have -- you're not going to die today but you have maybe two weeks and then I can't tell you after that. So we've got to get you to the hospital.
So there was a life flight plane going into Anchorage and that ended up being canceled and then I had to go down to the boat and see these guys, the boat was going back out fishing. I think that I'm going to die and I've got a couple weeks, week and a half, whatever it's going to be and say goodbye to these guys without telling them that something was wrong.
It was pretty tough.
KING: Did you sense, Josh, that something was serious.
JOSH HARRIS: Yeah, I was watching him cough up blood and it started increasing. In the beginning, I'm thinking, all right, maybe we'll make it through this trip. But then after it was -- like the equivalent of a shot glass and a whack. He's trying to hide it and you see the garbage can full of these bloody -- blood-soaked tissues and it was time to do something.
He's worried about people thinking that he's weak and he's not a tough guy.
KING: Come on.
P. HARRIS: I mean, the persona for us is -- you know, when it happens to somebody else I'd know exactly, boy, you'd get them right into the clinic. But when it's happening to yourself, and that's the way -- it's old school. You train that way.
KING: Were you scared, Jake?
JAKE HARRIS: I was terrified, yeah.
KING: You feel lucky?
P. HARRIS: I'm really lucky.
KING: Yeah. You sure are. An embolism like that, you had to know how bad it was, right?
JOSH HARRIS: I didn't know what was going on. I have too much of a --
P. HARRIS: They didn't say anything to us till we got to Anchorage and they started working on us -- working on me and the one guy told me, he said you're not going to die in a week, he said you're dying right now. So then I wound up in intensive care and they're working on me up there.
KING: You going to be able to fish again?
P. HARRIS: I don't know. We're trying. You have to watch here on the 14th to see what happens.
KING: Oh.
P. HARRIS: It's not exactly what you think.
KING: Why do you like crab fishing? Other than the monetary rewards?
P. HARRIS: You don't think about the money. It's something that's between you and the elements and it gets in your blood.
KING: What makes a good crab fisherman?
P. HARRIS: Catching crab.
KING: Are there certain attributes? You need good reflexes, you need good strength?
P. HARRIS: You have to know what you're doing. You've got five, six, seven guys on the boat and you've got -- you're telling them when they can eat, sleep, go to the bathroom. You stay up for days and days and days at a time without sleep. Our record is five and a half days without any sleep.
KING: Is there a crab season, Jake?
JAKE HARRIS: Yeah, there's two of them. The Red Crab and the Opilio Crab and some boats fish Baradei Crabs, so three seasons.
KING: Where do you usually fish?
JAKE HARRIS: Our boat, Red Crab and Opilio Crab.
KING: And where do you go?
JAKE HARRIS: Well, for Red Crab, we go kind of on the outskirts of Bristol Bay, go catch those. And for Opilio, we kind of go by the borderline of Russia, out there on the far side of the Bering Sea.
KING: What's that like?
JOSH HARRIS: Cold.
JAKE HARRIS: Very cold.
JOSH HARRIS: This season it had to be average negative temperatures constantly.
KING: Are there a lot of boats out there? It's the season and that's where the crabs are --
P. HARRIS: There's probably 50 boats left. We went from 270, and we went through a rationalization and now there's 50.
KING: Why?
P. HARRIS: The government wanted to downsize us so there's less boats. A lot of guys went out of business and the guys remaining kind of won. They're kind of catching all the crab now.
KING: Are you paid per crab, Jake?
JAKE HARRIS: Yeah, per pound.
KING: Per pound.
JAKE HARRIS: Yeah.
KING: And you come in and you drop it on the scales.
JAKE HARRIS: They fill a brailer up and then they weigh a brailer.
JOSH HARRIS: And they just fill up a giant satchel full of crab, take the weight and take out the dead crab, dead crab are worthless, you can't sell dead product. That's all excluded off our total amount that we're allowed to catch.
KING: Ever feel any guilt? Poor little crab? Defenseless little crabs?
JAKE HARRIS: We'd care if they had lungs and we heard the screams.
P. HARRIS: I once thought they were looking at you. Walking by and seeing those little crab eyes looking at you.
KING: Might be a little ticked. They're watching. They're not not happy.
We'll be back in 60 seconds with our guests on dry land. Don't go away.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) KING: You know, we've seen a little bit of what these guys do. Here is more of the drama in their daily lives. They don't call it "Deadliest Catch" for nothing. Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(INAUDIBLE)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: Want to know how these guys relax? So do I. That's ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KING: Don't forget, "Deadliest Catch" airs next Tuesday, April 14 at 9:00 Eastern and Pacific on the Discovery Channel.
By the way, what do you guys do to relax? What do you guys do on the off, off season.
JOSH HARRIS: I like driving my car.
KING: Your new, spotless, beautiful car that you've got.
JOSH HARRIS: You'd better believe it.
P. HARRIS: You wouldn't believe it if I told you. I build bird feeders.
KING: You what?
P. HARRIS: I build bird feeders. I guess I'm in the coffee business, too, so I have to fiddle with that.
KING: The coffee business.
P. HARRIS: I have a coffee business.
KING: Do you go down to Brazil?
P. HARRIS: Not yet, but I'm headed down there one of these days. I've got to do something when I get older here, I won't be able to crab fish.
KING: But you build bird feeders.
P. HARRIS: I build bird feeders.
KING: Phil, the only way to put this is, why?
P. HARRIS: Actually my wife at the time was screaming and yelling at me so I grabbed the dog and went out to the garage and it was peaceful out there so --
KING: It's always the wife. P. HARRIS: Yeah.
KING: You said it's in your blood. Catching --
P. HARRIS: It's in your blood.
KING: What about it?
P. HARRIS: It's something -- my father is a fisherman. We have another boat, a 50 foot boat that we all fish on. My father, myself and the two kids here.
KING: Grandpa goes out?
JAKE HARRIS: Grandpa goes out.
P. HARRIS: My dad is a big fisherman.
KING: What do you love about it, Jake?
JAKE HARRIS: I like the off time. You go there and you do all your works, you get it all stacked up and you get that paycheck and you're off for a couple months.
KING: How many months a year do you work?
JAKE HARRIS: Lately, I've been taking some time off but I usually work about 10 months a year.
KING: Is it in your blood now?
JOSH HARRIS: Yeah. It's always been there. I just went through some obstacles, you know, and just kind of switched stuff up. Never wanted to live under the shadows -- I was hard headed. I didn't want to live under the shadow of being Captain Harris' son.
KING: Do you ever go out and not catch anything?
P. HARRIS: No, I've never -- I've come to the dock one time when we didn't gross 100,000, dollars and that was once in probably 30 years.
KING: And it takes you how many days to gross that?
P. HARRIS: Usually -- it might take a couple days. We maybe had one trip, it was from hell, that lasted about a week that we didn't gross 100,000.
You usually have to gross a considerable amount of money to cover the fuel and --
KING: You've got costs.
By the way, here is the scene where Captain Phil's boys were put in charge of fishing gear and things did not go as planned.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JAKE HARRIS: We may have an issue.
I'm looking for all our bait sacks and apparently (inaudible) (EXPLETIVE DELETED) (inaudible).
P. HARRIS: Oh, come on. I'm not going to turn around and spend another 2,000 or 3,000 on bait sacks because you guys are too (EXPLETIVE DELETED) lame to put them somewhere. Now go grab some help and look for them.
JOSH HARRIS: Obviously you didn't even put them in this container, you put them in that container with all the bait jars. So why the (EXPLETIVE DELETED) would they be at the bottom of the pile in this container.
JAKE HARRIS: Take the money out of your paycheck.
(CROSS TALK)
JOSH HARRIS: It's going to be all of our bait sacks. You're going to see (EXPLETIVE DELETED) bait sacks.
JAKE HARRIS: Everything was right there.
JOSH HARRIS: Yes, (EXPLETIVE DELETED)
JAKE HARRIS: He's going to blame this on me.
P. HARRIS: Did you find them?
JAKE HARRIS: Nothing.
ROWE: The missing bait sacks just cost dear old dad another five grand.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: I guess you remember that?
P. HARRIS: Yeah. I remember it well.
KING: Why do you think -- probably the most percentage of people watching are not fisherman. Why do you think the show is so popular?
P. HARRIS: Well, we're doing something that 99 percent of the people can't do. It's tough. It really is. And I think guys -- when they were younger, for guys, it's something they always wanted to do but for whatever reason they didn't. So they're kind of looking at what could have been, what they could have done. And the women, I have no idea why they watch. But it gets in your blood. For us it gets in our blood and it's -- there's a lot that goes on out there besides crab fishing.
KING: Do women fish?
P. HARRIS: Not very much.
KING: Do they ever get seasick? We'll ask about that after the break. Stick around.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KING: We're with the guys from Discovery's "Deadliest Catch". Don't forget, Tuesday, April 14, 9:00 Eastern and Pacific. Another season and some surprises coming. You ever get seasick, Josh?
JOSH HARRIS: Yeah, I get seasick. Typically every king crab season.
KING: Every season. Because you're bouncing around pretty good, right?
JOSH HARRIS: Yeah.
KING: That ain't a smooth ride down the South of France.
JOSH HARRIS: You see waves that are bigger than the mast on the boat. It's starting to get a little choppy out.
KING: Ever get scared?
JOSH HARRIS: Yeah, sometimes. But you just focus on a job.
KING: Do you ever get scared, Phil?
P. HARRIS: I've been scared three times in 33 years. And it was usually when it was blowing 150 or lower. One time we were in big seas, 100 foot seas.
KING: Get seasick.
P. HARRIS: No. No.
KING: Do you get a weather forecast before you go out?
P. HARRIS: Oh yeah. We're on top of the weather. We have weather fax machines that are spitting the stuff, we have computers spitting the stuff, we talk to Anchorage daily when the weather is pretty bad. So we keep a pretty good handle on what's going on.
KING: You see the Clooney movie?
P. HARRIS: No.
KING: The George Clooney movie about the "Perfect Storm".
P. HARRIS: Oh, I've seen that, yeah. We work in that stuff. That big wave at the end, we've been out -- that wasn't anything scary.
KING: That was nothing. Good movie though, wasn't it? Good movie for what you guys do. P. HARRIS: Kind of.
KING: Do you get seasick, Jake.
JAKE HARRIS: Once when I was a little boy, about eight.
KING: No kidding.
JAKE HARRIS: Got it all done in one season.
P. HARRIS: I took these guys fishing when they were probably six and eight years old for the first time doing it. They've been fishing with me.
KING: When you come back after some time out, how do you get back your land legs?
P. HARRIS: Usually for me, I'll go through a period of about a week where I just kind of decompress and don't do anything, literally, for about a week and then I get going again.
KING: Ever fall overboard, Josh?
JOSH HARRIS: No, thank God.
KING: Ever fall over?
JAKE HARRIS: Nope.
KING: Ever come close?
JAKE HARRIS: Oh yeah.
JOSH HARRIS: I think we both fairly equally come close to one point or another.
P. HARRIS: Some things happen daily where you get -- kind of just inches away from your life.
JAKE HARRIS: I came out OK --
KING: You came close?
JAKE HARRIS: Yeah, I got tangled up in the trailer line and all the guys had to tackle me as I was shooting towards getting torn overboard.
KING: What are you throwing out? Nets?
P. HARRIS: Buoys. Crab pots. Buoys.
A lot of times the boats going 12 knots one way and we're launching these big steel cages going over with lines and buoys so when those buoys and everything hits the water there's a lot of drag on them so if you're tangled up in them you're toast.
KING: How far below are the crabs?
P. HARRIS: We were fishing Opies this year about 70 fathoms. A fathom is six feet.
KING: Do they make any noise?
P. HARRIS: Do they make any noise? No, but they've got their eyes, they're watching.
KING: That's a little scary, right? If they're looking at you. Gives you a guilt complex. I'm Jewish. We'd -- we'd throw it back.
P. HARRIS: When they start looking at you as you're walking by --
KING: Do you ever get any other fish?
P. HARRIS: Well, we get all sorts of stuff. Eels, all sorts of stuff.
JAKE HARRIS: Octopus.
KING: Do you bring them in, too?
P. HARRIS: No, we don't bring them in, we throw them back.
KING: Well, I can't thank you enough for this. It has been a delightful show. We appreciate it. Look forward to seeing you Tuesday, April 14. You have a new viewer. That's Tuesday, April, 14, 9:00 Eastern and Pacific. "The Deadliest Catch" on the Discovery Channel.
Got something to say about this show or any other? Go to CNN's number one show page, CNN.com/LarryKing and tell us what you think.
Time now for the latest news with Anderson Cooper and "AC 360."
