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CNN Sunday Morning
Interview With Tom O'Neil
Aired February 23, 2003 - 07:46 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Norah Jones is one of the hopefuls heading to New York City tonight for the 45th annual Grammy Awards. This is the first time the ceremony's been in the Big Apple in five years. And in some categories, it's a face-off between newcomers like Jones, and Hall of Famers like good old Bruce Springsteen.
Tom O'Neil, host of Goldderby.com, joins us from New York with some Grammy predictions. Now hi, Tom. How are you doing?
O'NEIL: Good, how are you?
COLLINS: I'm great. Hey, I love your odds system that you have on your Web site. Tell us how you do that? You've got it all lined up for the odds of each musician and how well they might fare tonight.
O'NEIL: Well, I'm the author of books on Emmys, Grammys, Oscars. And through the years, I've gotten to know a lot of the experts at "Entertainment Weekly," and "USA Today" and Associated Press. So I decided to gather then all at one web site, so we could all bicker and argue together at each awards show. And because it's set up like a race track, we issue real odds. So for example tonight in the top race for record of the year, it looks like Norah Jones is ahead. We give her -- what did we give her? Four to five odds to win. But watch out for Eminem. He's right behind at six to five odds. So once we sound off with what we think's going to happen, Las Vegas odds makers come in, read our predictions, and give them numbers.
COLLINS: I love it. That's very good. And you know what? I got to say, obviously, I'm quite the fan of Norah Jones. We're looking at Eminem right now though. And...
O'NEIL: So Eminem could be the spoiler tonight. That's what is the wild card.
COLLINS: Really?
O'NEIL: It looks like the Grammys as usual tonight. Normally we see eight veteran artists, like Bruce Springsteen overdue for a crown. And of course in past years, they were Eric Clapton and Bob Dylan. And then we see the pop diva du jour. In past years, Alicia Keys or Lauryn Hill. And Norah Jones is it this year.
But Eminem is poised to pounce in all the top categories. And we give him very good odds to do that. And actually let me cite one pundit at the web site, David Bauder (ph) of the Associated Press. Dave goes out on limbs like you can't believe. And he always calls the long shot. And they got last year "O Brother Where Art Thou" as best album.
COLLINS: Yes.
O'NEIL: With Steely Dan.
COLLINS: I remember that.
O'NEIL: This year, he says Eminem is going to win record of the year. And if that happens tonight, watch jaws drop all around Madison Square Garden.
COLLINS: Yes, I think you might be right. But Bruce Springsteen, I mean this was quite the album, don't you think? "The Rising?"
O'NEIL: Oh, and it was a career capper for him. It was great music that did well on the charts. And this is highly personal music about a great American tragedy. Remember, Bruce comes from the county in New Jersey that suffered the business human loss in 9/11.
COLLINS: That's right.
O'NEIL: So there is a strong spiritual connection he feels to the tragedy. And as a great artist, he rendered it in this album, which will certainly, I think, win album of the year. I think there's no drama there. Eminem's album, "The Eminem Show," was the top selling CD of the year. And he's overdue for a crown himself because remember, two years ago, he was favored to sweep the Grammys until those gay bashing charges caught up with him. And then he was sidelined. So he's coming back looking for the same crown Bruce is wanting to grab.
COLLINS: Right, right. And speaking of the politics, you know, there has been some chatter about what could happen tonight as far as the artists going up on stage and professing whatever their belief is about the possible war with Iraq. What's the plan for that?
O'NEIL: Well, we have conflicting views. Two days ago, Les Moonves, the president of CBS was on CNN and he assured everyone they will not be censored. But there's a very troubling report at the Drudgereport.com that says he has spoken, Matt Drudge, with CBS executives who claim that they will pull the plug. We can absolutely count on some shenanigans tonight pertaining to the war.
COLLINS: That's right. In fact, Tom, you know what I want to do is I want to hear some sound that happened in London at the awards ceremony there from a group called Coldplay. You may have heard this, but I want to go ahead and let our viewers listen in to see what they said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHRIS MARTIN, COLDPLAY, LEAD SINGER: Although awards are, of course, essentially nonsense since we're all going to die when George Bush has his way, it's great to go out on a bang. And thanks for giving us these two awards and making us have the best job in the world. Thanks, just thank you and bye.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: Chris Martin taking the opportunity to do some Bush bashing or however you want to say it, you know, state his opinion about the possible war. This is going to happen tonight?
O'NEIL: This is going to happen. Matter of fact, Chris is performing tonight. Coldplay is paired off with the New York Philharmonic. Isn't that an interesting combination?
COLLINS: Yes.
O'NEIL: They loved doing that at the Grammys. Also, watch out for Cheryl Crowe. She'll probably be wearing her T-shirt that she likes Saddam everywhere that says, "this is not my war, Mr. Bush." These are the bad boys and girls of pop culture. It's why we like them as rebels in way, but also they probably will not miss the opportunity to act up tonight. How severely, we don't know.
COLLINS: All right, and we're probably going to have the call it quits here, but of course we did not mention Avril Lavigne doing very well this year. So when we go to break, we want to listen to her. Our Jacqui Jeras loves her, so we're going to listen to that.
O'NEIL: I do, too.
COLLINS: Tom O'Neil, we certainly appreciate your time this morning. And we're going to be watching those odds, OK?
O'NEIL: All right, thanks.
COLLINS: Thanks again, Tom.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired February 23, 2003 - 07:46 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Norah Jones is one of the hopefuls heading to New York City tonight for the 45th annual Grammy Awards. This is the first time the ceremony's been in the Big Apple in five years. And in some categories, it's a face-off between newcomers like Jones, and Hall of Famers like good old Bruce Springsteen.
Tom O'Neil, host of Goldderby.com, joins us from New York with some Grammy predictions. Now hi, Tom. How are you doing?
O'NEIL: Good, how are you?
COLLINS: I'm great. Hey, I love your odds system that you have on your Web site. Tell us how you do that? You've got it all lined up for the odds of each musician and how well they might fare tonight.
O'NEIL: Well, I'm the author of books on Emmys, Grammys, Oscars. And through the years, I've gotten to know a lot of the experts at "Entertainment Weekly," and "USA Today" and Associated Press. So I decided to gather then all at one web site, so we could all bicker and argue together at each awards show. And because it's set up like a race track, we issue real odds. So for example tonight in the top race for record of the year, it looks like Norah Jones is ahead. We give her -- what did we give her? Four to five odds to win. But watch out for Eminem. He's right behind at six to five odds. So once we sound off with what we think's going to happen, Las Vegas odds makers come in, read our predictions, and give them numbers.
COLLINS: I love it. That's very good. And you know what? I got to say, obviously, I'm quite the fan of Norah Jones. We're looking at Eminem right now though. And...
O'NEIL: So Eminem could be the spoiler tonight. That's what is the wild card.
COLLINS: Really?
O'NEIL: It looks like the Grammys as usual tonight. Normally we see eight veteran artists, like Bruce Springsteen overdue for a crown. And of course in past years, they were Eric Clapton and Bob Dylan. And then we see the pop diva du jour. In past years, Alicia Keys or Lauryn Hill. And Norah Jones is it this year.
But Eminem is poised to pounce in all the top categories. And we give him very good odds to do that. And actually let me cite one pundit at the web site, David Bauder (ph) of the Associated Press. Dave goes out on limbs like you can't believe. And he always calls the long shot. And they got last year "O Brother Where Art Thou" as best album.
COLLINS: Yes.
O'NEIL: With Steely Dan.
COLLINS: I remember that.
O'NEIL: This year, he says Eminem is going to win record of the year. And if that happens tonight, watch jaws drop all around Madison Square Garden.
COLLINS: Yes, I think you might be right. But Bruce Springsteen, I mean this was quite the album, don't you think? "The Rising?"
O'NEIL: Oh, and it was a career capper for him. It was great music that did well on the charts. And this is highly personal music about a great American tragedy. Remember, Bruce comes from the county in New Jersey that suffered the business human loss in 9/11.
COLLINS: That's right.
O'NEIL: So there is a strong spiritual connection he feels to the tragedy. And as a great artist, he rendered it in this album, which will certainly, I think, win album of the year. I think there's no drama there. Eminem's album, "The Eminem Show," was the top selling CD of the year. And he's overdue for a crown himself because remember, two years ago, he was favored to sweep the Grammys until those gay bashing charges caught up with him. And then he was sidelined. So he's coming back looking for the same crown Bruce is wanting to grab.
COLLINS: Right, right. And speaking of the politics, you know, there has been some chatter about what could happen tonight as far as the artists going up on stage and professing whatever their belief is about the possible war with Iraq. What's the plan for that?
O'NEIL: Well, we have conflicting views. Two days ago, Les Moonves, the president of CBS was on CNN and he assured everyone they will not be censored. But there's a very troubling report at the Drudgereport.com that says he has spoken, Matt Drudge, with CBS executives who claim that they will pull the plug. We can absolutely count on some shenanigans tonight pertaining to the war.
COLLINS: That's right. In fact, Tom, you know what I want to do is I want to hear some sound that happened in London at the awards ceremony there from a group called Coldplay. You may have heard this, but I want to go ahead and let our viewers listen in to see what they said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHRIS MARTIN, COLDPLAY, LEAD SINGER: Although awards are, of course, essentially nonsense since we're all going to die when George Bush has his way, it's great to go out on a bang. And thanks for giving us these two awards and making us have the best job in the world. Thanks, just thank you and bye.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: Chris Martin taking the opportunity to do some Bush bashing or however you want to say it, you know, state his opinion about the possible war. This is going to happen tonight?
O'NEIL: This is going to happen. Matter of fact, Chris is performing tonight. Coldplay is paired off with the New York Philharmonic. Isn't that an interesting combination?
COLLINS: Yes.
O'NEIL: They loved doing that at the Grammys. Also, watch out for Cheryl Crowe. She'll probably be wearing her T-shirt that she likes Saddam everywhere that says, "this is not my war, Mr. Bush." These are the bad boys and girls of pop culture. It's why we like them as rebels in way, but also they probably will not miss the opportunity to act up tonight. How severely, we don't know.
COLLINS: All right, and we're probably going to have the call it quits here, but of course we did not mention Avril Lavigne doing very well this year. So when we go to break, we want to listen to her. Our Jacqui Jeras loves her, so we're going to listen to that.
O'NEIL: I do, too.
COLLINS: Tom O'Neil, we certainly appreciate your time this morning. And we're going to be watching those odds, OK?
O'NEIL: All right, thanks.
COLLINS: Thanks again, Tom.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
