Michael Bublé

Speaker 10:00

This is the BBC.

Presenter0:03

Hello, I'm Kirsty Young. Thank you for downloading this podcast of Desert Island Discs from BBC Radio 4. For rights reasons, the music choices are shorter than in the radio broadcast.

Presenter0:14

For more information about the programme, please visit bbc.co.uk slash radio four.

Presenter0:37

My castaway this week is Michael Boobley, a four times Grammy Award winner. He is a blissful anachronism, an artist intriguingly at odds with the rappers, grunge bands, and hip hop artists his generation produced. Instead, he is devoted to the smooth swing and restrained glamour of the great American song book.

Presenter0:56

He's been called the Canadian franc sonata so often it must now surely grate maybe we'll find out but the fact remains that his velvety vocals and kick ass timing are redolent of a gentler musical moment.

Presenter1:08

As he steps out on to yet another stage in some far flung corner of the world for yet another sell out concert.

Presenter1:15

Those early years of crooning on cruises and corporate conventions must seem a long way off. He has now sold fifty five million records. He says when I get to interact with my audience from the stage and have actual conversations by jumping into the crowd, I'm a happy man.

Presenter1:33

I know how they're feeling and I can relate to them. I think of myself as a real Guy's guy who somehow ended up wearing a suit and singing love ballads. So welcome, Michael Bootley. That sense then of interacting with your audience, of relating to them, it comes across so strongly when we see you in concert.

Presenter1:50

What is the essence of a a really, really good gig for you?

Michael Bublé1:54

Oh, I think having enough sensitivity so that you can actually connect with your fellow human beings. You know, so many people are so busy trying to be too cool for school that they can't get over themselves enough to actually interact. And and I think that what makes a great entertainer is someone who is empathetic and sensitive, and more than that, someone who actually genuinely appreciates the opportunity to share their music.

Presenter2:20

That's funny because I sort of I would have thought of you as somebody who was kind of in the business of professional cool. I mean that's what the music is, it's cool music.

Michael Bublé2:28

Yes, it's I you know it's

Michael Bublé2:30

It's wonderfully complicated music. It's funny. There were many years of my life where I felt like such an outsider. I felt like I was so different from other people. How could I love jazz? How could I love the Great American Songbook when other people my age didn't seem to have the passion for it? And one day I realized when I broke it down musically and I talked about a groove that was just as fat and strong and heavy as any hip-hop groove will ever be, when I talked about melodies that are stronger or as strong as any modern pop song ever written, when I talked about the musicianship, which is just exemplary, when I talk about the singers and songwriters who are truly the cream of the crop of generational talent, I realized that I'm not the crazy one. If you don't love it as much as I do, then maybe you're the crazy one.

Speaker 13:16

It all

Presenter3:19

You must be a man who loves a challenge, because tracks like I've Got You Under My Skin, You Make Me Feel So Young, Mac the Knife, My Funny Valentine, songs that have been sung by brilliant singers for so very long. How do you begin to make songs like that your own? What is the process?

Michael Bublé3:36

That's a lovely question.

Michael Bublé3:39

know yourself and have a distinct personality and a passion. I mean, I I've said it before, if I had to go on a desert island and there was only one genre of music I could take with me, that's the music that truly does fill my soul. It it nurtures me. To me it's just it's so complex and beautiful.

Presenter3:56

We're going to go to a different list of music now. It is your desert island discs, of course. Tell me about this first one. What is it? And Michael Bubbley, why have you chosen it?

Michael Bublé4:04

The first song is called A Song For You by the incomparable Donnie Hathaway, who was one of America's great soul singers. Wonderful voice and great sense of timing. My first singing coach was a man named Murray Carroll, who was one of the platters. I was about 16 years old, and he introduced me to Donnie Hathaway, and I fell in love with this song. And for me, being able to sing it to my fans at the end of shows for the last 15 years has been deeply satisfying.

Speaker 34:35

I've been so many places in my life and time

Speaker 34:45

I've sung a lot of songs

Speaker 34:49

I've missed some baby

Speaker 34:54

Facted up my life and stages

Speaker 34:59

With 10,000 people watching

Speaker 35:05

But we're alone now.

Speaker 35:08

And I'm singing this song to you.

Presenter5:12

That was Donnie Hathaway and a song for you. Michael Boobly, let's find out a little bit about your background then. You were born in nineteen seventy five, about thirty miles outside Vancouver in British Columbia. Tell me about your parents, Louis and Amber. Tell me about them.

Michael Bublé5:25

Oh, I have a b I mean a b beautiful mom and dad that showed us nothing but unconditional love and taught us if you give it, you can get it back.

Presenter5:32

You were the big brother. You were two.

Michael Bublé5:33

I was the big brother.

Presenter5:35

Yeah, this will

Michael Bublé5:37

This will date me, and people in the UK probably won't know what I'm talking about, but there was probably a pretty terrible television show called The Gong Show. I don't remember it, but apparently I used to come out on the fireplace hearth as a three-year-old, and I used to be Jean Jean the dancing machine. I would, at a very early age, want to entertain my family and anyone else.

Michael Bublé5:59

My father was a commercial fisherman, his father was a commercial fisherman, and uh his father before, who had immigrated from Italy, was a uh a shipbuilder, and uh it doesn't get more blue collar than that.

Presenter6:10

It's interesting though that in the tradition of the great North American crooners, you know, people like Tony Bennett and of course Frank Sinata and Dean Martin and so on, you know, they had that Italian immigrant background. I mean, yours was a few generations away, but do you think there was something about the kind of

Speaker 16:22

But do you

Presenter6:25

Maybe the emotional intensity that wasn't typically North American that maybe made you m more in touch with those feelings than you would otherwise have.

Michael Bublé6:32

You know, I feel culturally, you know, even someone like Frank Sinatra, even Dean Martin, they weren't born in Italy. Their family had emigrated. But there's something about culture. When a family leaves to another country, they seem to want to hold on to their traditions so very tightly because they're so afraid to lose them. I go to Italy, and my family there has become more Americanized than my own family, because we've held on so tightly to these very Italian traditions.

Presenter7:00

So typically as a family, as an extended family, getting together at Thanksgiving or Christmas, what were the family traditions that somehow resonated?

Michael Bublé7:08

Nani is still cooking the exact same things with the exact same old ingredients in the exact stone ovens that they would never use now because in Italy of course they'll have some beautiful new range modern thing and a microwave to heat up the spaghetti sauce. Whereas Grandma is making the gnocchi fresh from the potatoes, she's not buying it at the local Costco. The songs we listen to, the church we go to. And even from the way we greet each other, from the way that we hold each other and kiss each other and squeeze each other's butts, there's things that are just so very, so very warm.

Presenter7:46

Tell me about your second disc today, Michael Boobley. What are we going to hear?

Michael Bublé7:49

Uh disc number two is probably my favorite uh Frank song of all time. It's such a beautiful, sad, deep song that resonated with me early on. Perhaps not one of the most popular American song book songs, but it's called This Love of Mine.

Speaker 38:04

This love of mine

Speaker 38:13

Goes on and on.

Speaker 38:20

Oh life.

Speaker 38:23

Is empty.

Speaker 38:27

Since you have gone

Speaker 38:35

You're all

Presenter8:38

On my mind.

Presenter8:40

That was Frank Sinatra and This Love of Mine. Just as it was ending there, Michael Buble, you were saying to me when the music was on that you said, I must have listened to this track. You said thousands of times. Is that an exaggeration?

Michael Bublé8:51

So yes, I I would be probably understating it.

Presenter8:54

How come?

Michael Bublé8:54

My grandfather used to take his record collection, he had a massive record collection of the great songs like of Sinatra and Martin and Darren and Ella, and he would transfer them. He was very proud of his capability here. He felt it was very modern at the time for him to take them and put them onto cassettes. So I would take this song and I would tape it onto another cassette and I would loop it over and over and over again. I loved it so much. I was probably 11 years old, 10 years old.

Presenter9:23

That's incredibly unusual. Was this Grandpa Mitch that we're talking about yet? Yeah, Mitch.

Michael Bublé9:26

Yeah, my ground migrant permits, yeah.

Presenter9:28

So the the love of the music was there, but tell me about then discovering that you had a voice and your family discovering that you had a voice. When did you sing for them?

Michael Bublé9:39

Yeah.

Presenter9:39

Yeah.

Michael Bublé9:39

Well, I'd I'd always sun. You know, it was a hairbrush in the mirror and something I did, you know, in my room alone.

Michael Bublé9:44

But there was actually a moment, Christmas Eve, and I was coming from my grandma and grandpa's house. We were in the car and you know, I remember driving down a street where some of those crazy people that put the millions of lights up at their house. We love those people. We l I love those people too. That's why I called them crazy, but I'm crazy jealous. I take my kids now to go and see those houses, but

Presenter9:56

We love those.

Presenter9:58

It's a

Michael Bublé10:03

We were driving past and um uh we were singing White Christmas, I think, just as a family, you know, we've got two, you know, little kids eleven years old and my sister would have been nine and my other sister would have been seven, singing, I'm dreaming of a white Christmas with every Christmas card I write and of course, all of us and I chimed in and went, May your days be merry and bright and every head in the car just turned around and looked and

Speaker 110:08

Technology.

Presenter10:28

Okay.

Michael Bublé10:31

And it was like, where did that come from? And I think that was one of the first times that they went, oh, okay.

Presenter10:37

I'm just gonna let the hairs on my arms settle. Um, your your grandpa then, when the voice was discovered, he paid for singing lessons.

Michael Bublé10:45

Yeah, I started singing lessons with a a woman named Sandy Ellis.

Presenter10:49

And the the belief was what that young Michael's got something here and let's make it into something big, or was it just, you know, if you're enjoying this, Michael, why not have some singing lessons?

Michael Bublé10:57

No, I I had told my parents at four years old that this is what I was going to do. Not that I was going to be a singer, but that I was going to be a an entertainer. Oh, yeah. I told my mother and it's funny when my mom talks now, she says, How did you know at that young? And it it kind of creeps me out that you were so very sure, so very sure of your path. My f m they used to buy me karaoke tracks, and so I would go in my living room and uh when everyone would leave the house, I would sing for hours and hours and hours and hours and hours.

Presenter11:27

So much to talk about, Michael Bubley, but for now let's turn to the music again. We're on your third track of the morning. Tell me about this and why particularly?

Michael Bublé11:35

This might throw people after the first couple of songs we've chosen.

Presenter11:36

We've chosen.

Michael Bublé11:40

Michael Jackson had a massive impact. I thought he was marvelous. I thought the songwriting was uh so incredible. He had the most unique voice. That that he had that much charisma at eight years old. I mean, I don't know a kid who didn't wear a red leather jacket and a glove to school.

Speaker 311:58

Love each other on the wind and no

Speaker 312:01

Cause they got nowhere to go Never mind how much I turn I'm stuck in breath the man in the mirror

Speaker 312:12

I'm asking him to change his ways And no message could offend any cover If you wanna make the world, I bet the best Take a look at yourself and make a change

Speaker 312:31

The time

Presenter12:34

That was Michael Jackson and Man in the Mirror. Michael Boobley, you looked and sounded to be enjoying every breath of that.

Michael Bublé12:39

I'm out of breath from the dancing. Tell me that doesn't give you goosebumps. That's a great, great track.

Presenter12:39

I'm out of breath.

Presenter12:42

That's a

Presenter12:44

Tell me about the talent show at w a place called Big Bamboo.

Michael Bublé12:47

Oh, the big bamboo, of course I remember the big bamboo.

Presenter12:48

Yeah.

Presenter12:50

Tell me about it.

Michael Bublé12:50

I was underage, 17 years old, and I showed up and it was a talent contest, and I had a fake ID. I had used baby powder to change a 1975 to a 73, I believe. And I won. And I sang something like it had to be you. And I won the contest, and the contest was a massive thing where you went a trip to go and compete in this massive final. And the woman who put the contest on called me. Of course, I was still living at home. I was still just high school. And the woman called me and she said, I have good news and bad news. I said, well, okay, what's the good news? She said, the good news is you're a very talented kid. I said, the bad news, she said, you lied and you faked your ID and you shouldn't have been in the club you're disqualified for.

Presenter13:30

Yeah.

Michael Bublé13:31

And that woman became my first manager, by the way.

Presenter13:34

At the time that all this was happening, there was a sort of odd, it seems to me, tension in your life because you had this dream and you had this immense.

Presenter13:42

Talent, but you would also spend summer vacations on the fishing boats, going up to Alaska to get the salmon. On your dad's.

Michael Bublé13:49

On my father's boat. It was out there working for months at a time on the open sea, and I think it gave me a great appreciation for how easy my work now is compared to that.

Presenter13:59

There was a sort of underlying unruliness to you. I mean, you did come up against, there was a time with a guy called Stubbs, where you think.

Michael Bublé14:05

Yes, tell me. I love that you know this. How do you know this? You're so good.

Presenter14:08

You know, I can read.

Michael Bublé14:10

Yeah, Stubbs was a 26-year-old man from Etobicoke, Ontario. I was just a kid. I was whatever, 16 years old, 17 years old. So I looked at him like he was an old man. But at the time, I had actually had seniority because I'd been working on the ship for about four years at that point as a full crewman. And my job was to sort of delegate. And I said to him, Stubbs, get up, go swap the deck or whatever it was. And he said, no, I'm tired. And I said, if I tell you to jump, Stubbs, you ask me how high. And he got real close to me, towered over me. I'm 5'10. He was 6'7. And he head-butted me. I mean, he just, wham. And.

Speaker 114:41

And what?

Michael Bublé14:51

I was out not not for a long time, but I mean seconds. I sort of came back and he said, I don't care who your father is. I don't care what kind of nepotism allowed you this job. I don't care if your dad is the captain. If you ever speak to me that way again, next time it'll be your teeth. And I don't think in my lifetime I have ever told someone to do anything again. I think I have always made sure to say, Hey, you know, could you do me a favor? Would you mind going and blankety blankety?

Presenter15:21

There's your life lesson right there. Okay, it's time for some more music, Michael Bibley. We're going to listen to your fourth.

Michael Bublé15:26

This this track is Every Time You Go Away, Paul Young. Of course I said my father was a fisherman, so that meant that he was away for a long time, sometimes six months of a year. And um this was uh my mom and my dad's song.

Speaker 315:43

Oh, it's the same thing.

Speaker 315:48

Can't you see it? We got

Speaker 315:51

Don't let me run.

Speaker 315:55

And you go for it.

Speaker 316:00

Take a piece of m

Speaker 316:07

Time you go

Speaker 316:12

Take a piece of me

Presenter16:17

That was Paul Young singing Every Time You Go Away and chosen Michael Boobley because as your father was away for months on end on the Alaskan Troller, that was his and your mother's song.

Presenter16:27

There came a moment when you were seen at a wedding, a very ritzy, highfalutin wedding, by a guy called David Foster. He was a guest at the wedding and he'd worked with artists including Whitney Houston, Barbara Streisand, Celine Dion. He had, I think, sixteen Grammys to his name.

Presenter16:43

He saw you, he thought, This guy's good. He took you under his wing and took you to LA and you ended up living in his house there, and there came a day when you ended up standing in front of Paul Anker singing the song that he had penned, of course.

Michael Bublé16:56

This all sounds like a beautiful story. This is what the movie is. Is this not true? It's not true.

Presenter16:58

Is this not true?

Michael Bublé17:00

Is it not true? No, the truth is. The truth is that the wonderful David Foster, who's one of my best friends in the world, said to me, I will never sign you and I will never produce you. You will never be signed to my label. You are a talented young man, but I see no record sales for this genre of music. And to dismiss me, he said, For $100,000 a track, I will produce on spec a record for you, and because I'm an executive of Warner Brothers, they'll get first right a refusal. And then he pushed me out the door thinking he would never see me again. What he didn't know was that I would go back to Vancouver and I would go bank to bank with a manager I had at the time named Beverly Delich, and I would find an investor.

Presenter17:04

Wonderful day.

Speaker 117:06

My

Speaker 117:30

And what he didn't know.

Michael Bublé17:41

Um a a beautiful East Indian man.

Michael Bublé17:43

He wrote a check. I flew back to Los Angeles. I went to David's house and I promise you, he said, What do you want? And I said, Mr. Foster, I have the money And he said, Oh

Michael Bublé17:55

Okay. Well, he didn't say that. Yeah, I bet. He couldn't believe that I had come back. He said, all right. We started making the record. He then, just after 9-11, he called me and he said, Listen, there's a comedian named Jay Lenno who's doing a show in Las Vegas. He'd love you to come down for free to be his opening act. So I went to be Jay's opening act. And while there in Las Vegas, one night when I was drinking heavily at about six o'clock in the morning, I got a call and he said, I'm with Paul Anke having breakfast. Would you come to the hotel? So I said, Yes, sir. Yes, sir. And I came to the hotel. They slid a piano into the room.

Speaker 117:56

Yeah.

Speaker 117:57

Yeah, I bet.

Michael Bublé18:29

And David said, All right, kid, what do you want to sing for Paul? And of course, terrified and not totally sober, I said, My way. I mean, Mr. Anka wrote my way. And David started to sing. I like your story much better than mine. Exactly. So I played, I started to sing, and I sang. And now the end is near. And so I. And Paul said, What do you need? Long story short, what happened is that those people fell through. And so the deal was off. It was over for me. And.

Presenter18:40

I like your story much better than mine and I'm not sure.

Michael Bublé18:59

I came to David three days later and I said, David, please give me an opportunity to go to the President of Warner Brothers and basically beg, or not beg, but at least plead.

Presenter19:09

And you were so in your late

Michael Bublé19:11

Good.

Presenter19:11

Twenties.

Michael Bublé19:11

I was twenty-six years old. I walked into this to the Warner Brothers Records um in Burbank and I was I don't think I've ever been as terrified. I'd never in my life had so much writing on a moment. And this very handsome executive named Tom Wally came in the room and before I sat down he said, Well, Mr. Boublet, why should we sign you? We have Sinatra on reprise. And the only thing I could think to say was, With all due respect, Mr. Wally, Sinatra's dead.

Michael Bublé19:37

Don't bury the music with them. I said, I'll work my ass off for you. I will help fill the void and we will keep this music alive together. And three days later I was in the treadmill and my grandfather was with me because I couldn't take being alone. And the doors flung open in the gym and my grandfather said, Sunshine, sunshine, you're with Warner Brothers.

Michael Bublé19:56

So that's the real story.

Presenter19:59

And we love you for telling it, Michael Bobley. Give us some more music, then, will you? What's on your list? Let's go to the fifth one.

Michael Bublé20:04

The fifth one, from my money, is the greatest artist that ever lived. And I just think Elvis Presley defied genres. The thing about Elvis that I love so much is his ability to sing a ballad as well as Ben Crosby and to be able to rock out just as hard as Chuck Berry. He was kind and empathetic and a beautiful human being, and that's another reason why I think he was so special. This is Can't Help Falling in Love by Elvis Presley.

Speaker 320:31

Why is men saying?

Speaker 320:38

Only through

Speaker 320:45

But I can't help.

Speaker 320:51

Falling in love.

Speaker 320:54

Wait.

Speaker 321:00

Shall I stay?

Presenter21:07

That was Elvis Presley and Can't Help Falling in Love. Under the headline, Be Careful What You Wish For, Michael Bubley, you'd clinch the deal.

Presenter21:16

The album came, it sold so much better than anybody either, I'm I'm guessing even in your family, but certainly at the record company thought it would. And yet there is this other side to fame, and y you said, you know, the side to fame that I saw as well as the success was that there are darker parts to it. What impact did did that great big, bright, pulsing fame have on you when you got it?

Michael Bublé21:39

Well, I think if you're not careful, it stunts your growth. I think that if it had happened at a younger age, I probably wouldn't be the same man that I am now. I was 26 years old. I still handled it very, I think, very poorly. You know, I regret a lot of decisions I made or the way that I treated different people in my life, or even treated myself. Like what?

Presenter22:01

What did you do?

Michael Bublé22:02

Well, I think I was reckless with hearts. I think I was I think I got my karma though. I do. I mean, I I think that when you put things out to the universe, they come back to you. You know, listen, you you find out that that no is something you don't hear very much of. And I think early on I wasn't equipped to handle it.

Michael Bublé22:20

You know, you you have to have people around you that love you enough to put you in your place.

Presenter22:25

And so was there a a time in your life, was there a year, when the, you know, the wine, women and weed threatened your well being, almost got the better of you?

Michael Bublé22:33

Well, of you know, of I mean, of course. I don't think I've ever I don't share that with the public, you know who who wants to share their weaknesses with the public, you know. But, um

Michael Bublé22:43

Yes, I mean, uh we all battle our own sort of demons and stuff and uh a lot changed the moment that I had kids. I mean, I I had no idea of the perspective that it would give me. It made making the right decisions a lot easier.

Presenter22:58

Let's have some more music, Michael Bubley. Um we are on your sixth.

Michael Bublé23:02

Well, the gym has become this wonderful addiction to me. I think

Presenter23:05

You look incredibly fit and healthy.

Michael Bublé23:06

You know, I promise you, it had nothing to do with wanting to look a different way. I like when I got a little chunk going. You know, I like eating pizza. And my wife even says it. She said, I don't like it when you're too skinny. But the fact is, you know what? I've got two little boys. And if you've got two kids at home, you know that whatever energy you have, it isn't enough. So I started going to the gym and I really liked it. And one of the things that I love is listening to tracks that pump me up. And I could listen to this next track over and over again. Eminem, I think, is a genius. I think he's one of the greatest musicians in the world right now. As a jazz musician, when I listen to Eminem, I hear very little difference between him and someone like Satchmo, Louis Armstrong, with a great sense of timing, a wonderful sense of phrasing, genius in the way that he puts across a lyric. And if this song doesn't pump you up, I don't know what will. It's Lose Yourself by the great Eminem.

Speaker 324:04

The moment you hold it, you better never let it go. You only get one shot, do not miss your chance to blow. This opportunity comes once in a lifetime, cured up. Souls escaping through this hole that is taping. This world is mine for the taking. Make me king as we move toward a new world order. A normal life is boring. But superstars close to post-mortem. It all

Speaker 124:19

Time.

Presenter24:39

That was Eminem and Lose Yourself. There was no doubt watching you listen to that, Michael Bibley, and listening to what you had to say during that, that that is a song the lyrics of which resonate with you at a very, very deep level. And he's talking about how popular he is and the pressure that's on him and seizing the moment and he's got kids at home.

Michael Bublé24:54

And that's cool.

Michael Bublé24:55

Yeah, it's such a autobiographical story. I mean, he's sitting there talking about me and every other entertainer who's ever had that moment. The song begins where he speaks about being on stage and completely being so overwhelmed by the moment that he can't remember what it is he's supposed to do, and he chokes and he knows this was his moment to shine. And then he talks about the fact that he does get it together and he starts to find fame and the women all love him and he starts to make money. But now he's a globetrotter and now he realizes that he's lost a relationship and because he's completely lost who he is and he realizes that he's got to find a way to keep his own personal life balanced with this. It's just beautiful. So how did you

Presenter25:34

So how did you

Michael Bublé25:34

It's impossible to do. There is no balance.

Presenter25:38

There's no balance.

Michael Bublé25:38

There is no balance.

Presenter25:39

So what are you doing? You're doing this thing where you throw yourself in, you're here today talking to me, you've been making T V shows, people want a piece of you. I imagine just even walking out of your hotel is selfie central. Where do you find your normal? How long does it take to get to your normal when you get to the

Michael Bublé25:55

It just takes a phone call.

Presenter25:57

Does it?

Michael Bublé25:57

That's it, one phone call, a nice Skype.

Michael Bublé26:00

You know, listen, this is a strange time. My wife is making movies. She's an actor.

Presenter26:04

She's an actress from our journey.

Michael Bublé26:05

She's an actress, and it just happens that right now is a wonderful time in her career where she's making great films, and you know.

Michael Bublé26:14

I just want her to be fulfilled just the same way that my work fulfills me, and though it's incredibly difficult. Every single autobiographic movie that I watch about every single singer is the same movie. Man comes from nothing, man fights for fame, man finds success, man leaves his family, man regrets leaving family. And I won't allow that to happen. I will fight for balance. And if one suffers, you know which one it will be. It won't be my kids. I just love them way too much. And it's funny my manager gets so upset because I get sick way too often. You know, if you have kids, you know it's just a petri dish for infections and colds. And it's like he says,

Speaker 126:32

And I won't allow that.

Speaker 126:52

You're a singer, you know. You gotta be careful. You can't be kissing them all the time. Stop kissing them. Are you kidding me?

Michael Bublé26:56

Me, I will take getting sick a million times over for those kisses. I need those kisses. Those are what f that's my fuel.

Presenter27:03

And on that very note, tell me about this next beautiful song then. What are we going to hear? This is your seventh song.

Michael Bublé27:08

Michael Doodling. Hi, this is Sir Paul McCartney. I love the song. I think it's really just so beautiful. And I had the opportunity of meeting Paul. I was in Toronto and Sir Paul, he knew I was there and he asked if I'd like to come and say hello. And what a beautiful, funny, irreverent, humble. And when I say cool, I mean I think if you look up the word swagger in the dictionary, you should see that man's picture next to it. And just one of my favorite moments of all time, getting to meet him and hang with him. And it's my love. Paul McCartney in Wings.

Speaker 327:47

When I go away

Speaker 327:51

I know my heart can stay with my love

Speaker 327:57

It's all the stir.

Speaker 328:00

It's in the hands of my love.

Speaker 328:06

Why love does it go?

Speaker 328:14

Yeah.

Presenter28:23

That was Paul McCartney and Wings singing My Love. I should apologize to listeners because they did not have the benefit of you singing along with it, which I had here in the studio, Michael Boobley, so thank you for that. Now here's the thing, when you met your wife, I read that she didn't speak English.

Michael Bublé28:32

Um

Michael Bublé28:36

No, not a word of English. So

Presenter28:38

High was communication.

Michael Bublé28:40

Communication was always done through other people or through a application on the computer where you could, you know, write out what I was gonna say in English and it would be translated. A lot of body language, a lot of communication just through eyes and it was it sounds so strange, I know.

Presenter28:56

Is it true that when you proposed to her she thought you were joking?

Michael Bublé28:59

No, she didn't think I was joking. I had worked so hard. Choquiaro quasar me convos is what I said to her. I wanted to marry you. I made sure that I I had asked her father's permission and I was with the whole family at the table and they all knew. I was so uncomfortable. Not because ev I mean I was nervous, but it was even more uncomfortable because the only place that I could think to store the ring was in my pants.

Speaker 129:14

I was

Michael Bublé29:24

And I had chosen the poor day to wear tight jeans. And.

Presenter29:25

And I'm betting it was a vibrant.

Michael Bublé29:30

So I I eloquently pulled the ring out and I asked her the question and uh it was uh it was the best decision I've made so far, that's for sure.

Presenter29:39

It's been clear in talking to you today how important family is to you, how important the beginnings.

Presenter29:46

of your family were to with the support that you were given by your parents, but also especially by your grandfather. Was there a moment when you spent time with your grandfather and said this this started with you, this is because of you

Michael Bublé29:58

I tell him every single day.

Presenter29:59

D

Michael Bublé29:59

Yo, yeah. He's about to turn ninety and I told him, I said, We got a big party, man. I got the whole band coming in. It's gonna be a big one.

Presenter29:59

Oh yeah.

Presenter30:07

Michael Boobly, I'm going to do a cruel and unusual thing, which is cast you away to a desert island all on your own. That that's why you're here. I'm wondering I mean you you must be a pretty practical guy. You know, you worked on the trawlers, your grandfather was a plumber. W would you would you build to survive? Could you lash up a shelter, take care of yourself, do some fishing, kill some wild animals?

Michael Bublé30:14

I

Michael Bublé30:25

I'd be dead within moments.

Presenter30:27

You pampered little music industry.

Michael Bublé30:30

Yeah, I'd eat a shellfish that had red tide and I'd be finished. An hour later, I'd be going, My stomach hurts.

Presenter30:35

Ice.

Presenter30:37

Tell me about your final piece of music, Michael Bripley. What are we going to hear?

Michael Bublé30:40

Well, I hope it's not too self-indulgent, but I chose a fellow Canadian, I think one of the world's greatest poets, Leonard Cohen, and more than that, an eccentric eclectic artist with a voice so distinct that he puts a song across like no one else. I chose the song Hallelujah. How much deeper can you get than this song? And it's poetic and beautiful, and I think it might be one of the most beautiful songs ever written.

Speaker 331:08

Now I've heard there was a secret chord that David played and it pleased the Lord. But you don't really care for music, do you?

Speaker 331:26

It goes like this, the fourth, the fifth, the minor fall, the major lift, the baffled king composing, hallelujah!

Presenter31:45

Fellow Canadian, that was Leonard Cohen, of course, singing Hallelujah. So, um Michael, I'm going to now do what I do for all our castaways, which is to give you some books. You get the Bible and the complete works of Shakespeare.

Michael Bublé31:55

That was wonderful.

Presenter31:56

And you get to take one other book of your own along with those two. What's your book? Gonna be

Michael Bublé32:00

I think it would be the power of now.

Presenter32:02

Yeah.

Michael Bublé32:02

Eckhart Tolle wrote this book, and I think that being on an island alone.

Presenter32:03

It's actually

Michael Bublé32:07

I would need a self-help book to at least be able to tell myself, it's going to be okay, coconuts are delicious.

Presenter32:09

Okay.

Presenter32:15

It's yours then. We allow our castaways a luxury to what what will your luxury be?

Michael Bublé32:19

I think it would be a Rolex watch. I'm the ambassador for Rolex. I could at least figure out what time it was and how many days I'd been there.

Presenter32:27

Okay, you can take that watch then.

Michael Bublé32:29

Thank you.

Presenter32:29

And if you had to run to save Just one single disk from the waves, Which one disc would you save?

Michael Bublé32:36

It would be This Love of Mine by Frank Sinatra.

Presenter32:39

Okay, it's yours. Michael Booblay, thank you very much for letting us hear your desert items.

Michael Bublé32:43

Thank you. This was so, so, so enjoyable. Thank you so much.

Presenter33:26

You've been listening to a download from the BBC. You'll find more information on the Radio 4 website, bbc.co.uk slash Radio 4.

Speaker 333:58

This is the BBC.

Speaker 134:00

Yeah.