He breaks news by asking the questions no one else thinks to ask. That's because no matter how many leaders Larry King interviews, he's still the kid from Broklyn.
PT: One of the ways you begin interviews with people whose work you're not familiar with is to ask the to explain what they do. So how would you explain what you do to someone who's never owned a TV or a radio?
LK: I get paid to do what I've been doing since I was six years old, which is to ask "Why?" I was the kind of kid who wanted to know why the bus driver drove the bus. I remember running down the street after Leo Durocher, the Dodgers' manager, and asking him questions. In fact, he looked at me and said, "Kid, get off my back." So I'm being paid to do the same thing I did when I was six years old.
PT: Why are you so good at it?
LK: Because I'm sincere. I'm really curious. I care what people think. I listen to answers and leave my ego at the door. I don't use the word "I," which is irrelevant in an interview. It has no place other than showing off.
I ask short questions and try to get to the point. I don't have an agenda. I never went to do an interview where I said, "Boy, I'm going to make news tonight! Boy, I'm going to embarrass. Boy, I'm going to be sweet." All I sit down to do is create an informative, educational, entertaining interlude. But it consumes me. I'm the kind of person you don't want to sit next to on an airplane.
PT: Why is that?
LK: Because I'm going to ask you questions the whole trip. [In an interview], I'm there to bring a person to you the same way as if I was sitting next to them on a plane. I remember interviewing Nixon and I said, "What's it like to drive by The Watergate?" He said, "You know, I try not to think about it. I've never been in the hotel. I've never been in the office building."
And I said, "Never had a desire?" He said, "Never had a desire." That was fascinating to me. But when he drove by, he would tend to turn away and just not think about it. This fascinated me more than what he thought about Gorbachev. Anyone could ask about Gorbachev.
PT: You say you never pretend to be anything you're not. Is that why people respond to you the way they do?
LK: I guess. You'd know that better than I. The really great people of accomplishment that I've met and admire, most are the same way "off" as "on." There's no difference. So when people tell me Howard Stern's really a nice guy and a wonderful person and very shy, that doesn't impress me, because that means the show is a phoney, that it's fabricated.
PT: It sounds like you're comfortable in your own skin.
LK: Professionally, absolutely
PT: When you run into people who are either not sincere, not truthful, or you yourself just don't like, but who you must talk to because of your job. . .
LK: There you have to be professional. My likes and dislikes don't count at CNN. Now, when I was on the radio, and I did open phones and you called and asked my opinion on abortion, or anything else, I gave you my opinion, because it would be blah not to.
However, when I'm interviewing, I'm in a different role. In fact, one of the things that I think works for me is that I'm open to sit with, say, G. Gordon Liddy and hear him talk about how to execute people. And I can ask him questions, because I'm curious about what makes a mind like that.
PT: Do you think your sense of excitement is what accounts for your appeal? You make it look easier than it is.
LK: Yeah, I think people feel I'm an everyman kind of guy I don't want to pretend it's not easy Because for me it's second nature. The easiest thing I'll do today is the show. That's much easier than a traffic jam, who my daughter's dating, will the plane be on time tomorrow. That's not easy
But I control the show. So I'm pinching myself. I'm sitting with the president of the United States or I'm sitting with a renowned scholar.
PT:You felt you were controlling that Marlon Brando interview [in which he reluctantly sat to promote his autobiography], even though he wasn't answering your questions?
LK: My job is to show you Brando. If you saw him and said, "Boy, that guy is really all over the wall," that's the way he is. The job isn't Larry.
PT: You're quite candid about your bankruptcy It's the sort of thing that might leave other people less than whole.
LK: I'm certainly a survivor. That has a lot to do with where I grew up. I wouldn't change my childhood for anything. I mean my father died when I was young. After he died, we moved from Brownsville to Bensonhurst [Brooklyn]. And we knew we were having a great childhood. I mean, we weren't rich, [but] the friends were good, the laughs were many Oh sure, there were the days the girl turned you down--this was the major trouble.
PT: So you had this great sense of communal. . .
LK: Belonging, absolutely
PT: Then you had these money problems and lost your radio show in 1971. [King was arrested and charged with grand larceny, having used a friend's money to pay his taxes; the charges were dropped after the statute of limitations ran out.] How did you go from one to the other?
LK: I moved away from the neighborhood. I went down to Miami and got too much too fast.
PT: Do you think early success is bad?
Tags:
airplane,
bankruptcy,
bus driver,
desire,
dodgers,
instinct,
interlude,
interview,
larry king,
leo durocher,
loyalty,
nixon,
radio,
six years,
watergate
