Daily Faith with Philip Cameron: Special Guest Pat Boone
About this episode
Legendary entertainer and devoted Christian Pat Boone joins Philip Cameron for a wide-ranging conversation about faith, prophecy, patriotism, and a life spent on purpose. At 90 years old, Pat shows no signs of slowing down — he's starring in the major motion picture Reagan alongside Dennis Quaid, has released a new book titled If, and has written a stirring new song called "Where Did America Go?" that has already racked up millions of downloads. Pat shares the remarkable story of a prophetic prayer circle in the California governor's mansion, where George Otis — a deeply spiritual Christian businessman — spoke what Pat describes as "a word of prophecy" over then-Governor Ronald Reagan: "My son, I'm well pleased with you. If you continue to walk uprightly before me, you will dwell at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue." Pat recounts how Reagan himself reflected on that moment years later on the night of his presidential election victory. The conversation turns to Pat's new song, written in the spirit of Bob Dylan's Blowing in the Wind, and his book If — built around the truth that "every blessing of God comes with an if," a word that appears over 500 times in Scripture. Pat's message is clear: America's only hope is a return to biblical foundations and to Jesus Christ. Explore Pat's music, book, and ministry at patboone.com.
Part of our Prophecy collection of conversations.
Quotes worth sharing
“I've found that the word 'if' is the most important word in the Bible. Why? It's there over 500 times. Every blessing of God comes with an if.”
“If America thinks that it's too big to fail, then we are past the point of no return.”
“He gave me that platform. And that's why even when I was in college and making movies and doing the Pat Boone Chevy show and all that... I knew then at the beginning, God was giving me a platform.”
What's Discussed
At 90, Pat Boone sits down to discuss his role in the Reagan biopic alongside Dennis Quaid, his new book If, and his viral song 'Where Did America Go?' — written in the style of Bob Dylan. Pat recounts a pivotal prophetic prayer circle in the California governor's mansion, where Christian businessman George Otis delivered what Pat calls a genuine word of prophecy over Ronald Reagan, foretelling his presidency. Pat also reflects on his landmark teen book Twixt 12 and 20, his early chart records, and his conviction that Jesus Christ is America's only hope. He directs listeners to patboone.com for his music and book.
- Pat Boone's Role in the Reagan Film
- George Otis Prophecy in Governor's Mansion
- Reagan's Election Night Phone Call
- "Where Did America Go?" Song Debut
- America's Decline and Biblical Foundations
- Book If and the Power of God's Conditions
- Twixt 12 and 20 and a Career Built on Purpose
- Journey to the Center of the Earth and Hollywood Legacy
Episode Transcript
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Intro
Philip:Welcome to Daily Faith, and I can hardly believe what I'm going to tell you just now. My guest today is none other than Pat Boone. When I was a wee boy back in Scotland, I used to watch Pat Boone with his white buckskin shoes. I told my mom, who is 96 years of age, who lives in Scotland, that he's gonna be on as a guest today. And I've never heard my mom giggle like that before in all her life at 96. She loves Pat Boone and used to watch him. And in this generation you don't, you may not grasp this, but this is one of the icons.
Philip:This is not someone that was famous. This is one of the icons of entertainment across the board, both as an actor and as one of the great singers of all time. In fact, I let my sons hear "Love Letters in the Sand." And he and his wife Shirley, who passed away not too long ago, was a tremendous testimony in a day when Christians and entertainers weren't seen very often. But when Pat Boone made a decision for Christ, when he began to talk about it and carried the cross and the faith of Jesus so clearly.
Philip:And I love his acting. He's in a brand new movie that we're gonna talk about. He's written a brand new book, and at 90 he's written a great new song that I'm gonna let you hear. But I am absolutely thrilled and highly honored that I can actually say, Pat Boone, welcome to Daily Faith. Thank you for taking your time to be with us.
Pat Boone:Great to be with you, Philip. And you know, I was reminding you, I'm Scots-Irish myself. Daniel Boone, of course. Daniel Boone was Scots-Irish. And he didn't even in many cases put the E on the end of his name. He was Scotch, you know, he was not gonna give you any more than he had to.
Philip:Now, you see, most folk don't know that the Scots are famous for being a wee bit thrifty. And they say that the English love the gospel because they can talk about it. The Welsh love the gospel because they can sing about it. The Irish love the gospel because they can fight about it. And the Scots love the gospel because it's free.
Pat Boone:It's free. That's right. It's free. And it certainly is. I'm proud of that. And certainly the descent from Daniel Boone, who was a pioneer, of course, and a guy who did a lot in his life and who was literally a legend in his own time.
Pat Boone:Oh, he was, of course, because the poet laureate of the world at that time, Lord Byron, wrote an epic poem about this trailblazer that he'd heard about. He'd never met Daniel Boone. But he'd heard about this guy blazing trails through the wilderness, which became America. And he was fascinated by him. And he wrote an epic poem about the man he'd never met. Well, if you've had the poet laureate of the world write a poem about you, that's big. You are big in your own time.
Pat Boone:I've never had that experience, but I do feel that I've inherited some of his penchant for staying busy. He always was busy, Daniel Boone. And to say the least, you are busy in your 90th year. You've written a book, you've recorded a new song. You are in a movie that is shocking and surprising everyone. They didn't think that Reagan would be so big, and it is. I'm just amazed.
Philip:Have you seen the film yet? I'm going out with my wife this week to see it.
Pat Boone:You will love it. I can tell you in advance. I'm in it, of course, but in a part that is unusual. But the thing about the film is, I've seen the finished cut finally. We had a premiere at Grauman's Chinese Theater just last week, wasn't it last week, Dana? Two weeks ago.
Pat Boone's Role in the Reagan Film
Philip:There you are. And in your white suits. I love it.
Pat Boone:You're gonna see me in the film, but I'm not playing Pat Boone. I'm playing George Otis, who was a Christian businessman that we all knew years ago. He was a very successful businessman, but also a deeply spiritual Christian. And I called him the Electric Man, and I portray him in the film briefly. I'm not portraying Pat Boone. There's a young actor playing Pat Boone and a young actress playing Shirley Boone next to me as I portray George Otis.
Pat Boone:And a scene that did take place in the governor's mansion when Reagan was governor. And we had a prayer circle in the governor's mansion. George Otis, when it came his turn to say his part of the prayer, started into it, and he said something like, as you'll see, "Lord, thank you for this, our country, for our liberties, for this man who..." and there's silence, and he is not saying anything. And we waited, and then in another voice, we heard him say, "My son, I'm well pleased with you. If you continue to walk uprightly before me, you will dwell at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue."
George Otis Prophecy in Governor's Mansion
Pat Boone:And there was more silence. And then he finished the prayer, and we knew what had happened. But Reagan, all he could say was, "Well, that was something." It was a word of prophecy that came during that little prayer circle. And the producer of the film just knew that this had to be in the film because it was a prophetic utterance that he would become president. And he did. So that's in the movie, and you'll see it.
Pat Boone:But I had recorded, when I was in Oklahoma doing that part with Dennis Quaid, who is magnificent and should get an Academy Award, I hope he does. I had recorded on film as George Otis. I just need you to know those words were not my words. I only spoke as the Holy Spirit gave me utterance. We call it a word of prophecy. I never knew that happened. I wanted that in the film so the audience would know what had just happened. But there wasn't room to put that part in. So now you know. And of course you understand, but that was literally a prophetic utterance that I got to speak as George Otis, while a young guy was playing me next to me, and another actress playing Shirley next to me.
Philip:But you also met President Reagan, didn't you?
Pat Boone:Oh, I knew him so well. Our kids went to school together. He and Nancy had their kids at the end of their childbearing capability. And Shirley and I, of course, we were in a big hurry. When I graduated from Columbia University at 23, I'd been married to Shirley since we were 19. And when I graduated at 23, I had four kids already, and I was already doing the Chevy show on television. Every week I was making movies and writing books that were bestsellers to kids, and living an extremely busy life.
Reagan's Election Night Phone Call
Pat Boone:But the Reagans, he and Nancy and I and Shirley, our kids went to school together. They were the same age. And so I was a supporter when he ran for governor. Nobody thought he could win, but he did. And then he was governor twice. And then when he decided, he was talked into running for president, of course I was supporting him then. And I was in that circle with George Otis when the prophetic utterance came, and I was a delegate to the convention in 1970 when Reagan was up for nomination. He didn't get it. I went to the convention knowing he was gonna be nominated because of that prophecy, and it didn't happen.
Philip:I remember Gerald Ford.
Pat Boone:Yes. But then they talked Reagan into running again. He didn't want to. He had to be talked into running the first time. But the scene we did do is not in the movie. But this really happened, the night of his election, Reagan's election. And I was hearing the broadcasters on TV giving the latest tallies, and Brokaw, and Jennings, and Rather, Dan Rather, all saying that he was gonna be the next president. I followed an impulse. I called Reagan's number in Pacific Palisades, just in case he hadn't gone to the hotel yet either to concede or accept.
Pat Boone:And sure enough, he answered, "Hello." I said, "Oh my God, may I be the first to refer to you as Mr. President?" And he said, "It's early, Pat," he said, "they're still counting the votes." I said, "Wait, no. Brokaw, Jennings, and Rather all saying you're gonna be our next president. They don't seem too happy about it." But I said, "Let me ask you, do you remember that time in Sacramento when we had that meeting and that word, the prophecy?" And he said, "I've thought about it many times in the last few months." And of course it was true.
Pat Boone:And there was a scene we didn't use in the film when they were trying to talk him into running again, and he didn't want to. Nancy said, and we portrayed this, but it's just not in the movie, "Do you remember when that preacher," she called George Otis "the preacher," "when he had that prayer and what he said?" And Reagan said, "Well, you thought he was a crackpot." And she said, "Well, maybe, but maybe he was right." Well, they talked Reagan into running again, and we know the result of that.
Philip:When I came to America and became a citizen, my first vote was for Ronald Reagan. And I was driving from Florida to Louisiana the election night, and a wee black and white TV stuck in the front of a Winnebago motor home. We were going through a town, and I was following this thing all through the night driving. And when it became clear that he'd be the president, I thought, my, the first guy I've ever voted for, and he's gonna be president of the United States.
Pat Boone:What a great president he was. What a great man. And Dennis Quaid, when he says, "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall." And that was Reagan. And when I was filming in Oklahoma with many of the other cast, they kept saying, you know, we keep forgetting this is not Reagan. Dennis Quaid has assumed the character so well that we keep thinking we're talking to the president himself. And I mean, that's how well Dennis Quaid did, and I think he will certainly be nominated if there's any justice.
Philip:Well, the trailers I've seen are just, it just looks like Ronald Reagan. I still hear some of your Scottish brogue, a wee bit here and there, which I like. I came to America with my dad in 1969, and he preached and I sang. And I loved the moment I came to America. And there's a great segue to where we're going. I loved America. I loved the energy and the spirit of the place. And I often say this, when I got off the airplane in John F. Kennedy Airport and got outside in the buzz of the taxis and the buses and the smell of the diesel fumes, I knew I was an American at that moment.
Philip:But I know you've lived a long enough time to know that the America that we're living in today is not the America that God wants us to be. That's why I wrote the song, "Where Did America Go?" Because I felt we needed a song, and I'm a big Bob Dylan fan.
"Where Did America Go?" Song Debut
Pat Boone:Brilliant. And I know Bob. And in fact, people used to, when Bob became a Christian and had that album, "You Gotta Serve Somebody" and "Slow Train Coming," and it became known that he had become a Christian, Jewish Bob Zimmerman, the rumor went out that he'd been baptized in my pool. He hadn't been. I wished it had, because during that seventies movement, the Jesus movement, we were having baptisms in our pool then. But no, that was not true.
Pat Boone:But I tried to get Bob Dylan to help me write this song. His manager said no, he just can't take time to help you write that song. He was out on the road with the Outlaws, singing with them. So I went in and finished writing it myself, but I meant it to be a Bob Dylan type song, portrayed not with a big production, but with a guitar, a rhythm guitar, and a harmonica, which is the way he did "Blowin' in the Wind."
Philip:We have a minute of that song. I understand it's had millions and millions of downloads. So let's play that for a minute or so, and then let the folk know how they can get there and listen to the whole song. Watch and listen to this song.
Where did America go, the land of the brave and the free? Can one generation erase a great nation because we can't find a way to agree, because we can't find the way to agree? Where has America gone? We're Abraham, Abraham, Martin and John. We drowned out their voices and gave up our choices. Do we have the strength to move on? Do we have the strength to move on? Oh God of sweet liberty, help us and heal us again. If we fall on our knees, will you still hear our pleas? Take us back to where we were then. Take us back to where we were then.
Philip:I can hear Bob Dylan in that song. I listened to it earlier, and I said, oh, that is a Bob Dylan. That's you. You got it right there.
Pat Boone:I hope when he hears it, I don't know if he has, that he'll recognize his own influence, because when he was talking about prejudice and some of the other things that we needed to correct in our country and helping us to face those things with that song, which was a great blessing. I realize today that we have let so many of our cherished traits just slide away from us. And we're ignoring, as I say in another verse, the Holy Grail, the Constitution. And that we put our freedoms up for sale.
Philip:I wanted to show the picture of that senator with his closet with the gold bars. Gold bars and the cash in the closet, selling our freedoms, literally for sale. And that's not, well, I'd like to say it's an uncommon thing in our governmental representation. But too often that kind of thing does happen. And sadly people trade their influence for their own gain.
America's Decline and Biblical Foundations
Pat Boone:But can America still rise again and find our way back to where we were then? That old family Bible still holds our survival, or revival. I found two words to rhyme with Bible. And that's the way I leave the song. We've got to get back to the things and the principles that made us who we are, or we will cease being who we are.
Philip:I'm from the British Empire. When I was a boy growing up in school, our maps in the classroom, all the pink parts on the world map was British. So our teacher would say, the sun never sets on the British Empire. Africa, India, Australia, Canada. We were much bigger. Great Britain in its empire was bigger than America has ever been. And we turned our back on God. And I read the other day, Pat, listen to this, Britain today is 1% the size it was when it was the Empire. That's how far we've fallen. And if America thinks that it's too big to fail, then we are past the point of no return.
Pat Boone:That's where we're headed. Yes. If America thinks that it's too big to fail, then we're past the point of no return.
Philip:How do folk get ahold of the song? Go ahead, let me just, I'm sorry to interrupt.
Pat Boone:Our Congress and the Supreme Court have, and I went to Washington to protest this, I was not successful, they will allow the flag to be burned as a free speech, as a freedom of expression. So we take the flags that we celebrated yesterday, and out at Pepperdine there were 3,000 flags on our campus flying for 3,000 of those that all died on that day in 2001. And we are letting even our flag and our Pledge of Allegiance, in the Olympics I saw these athletes who've become millionaires standing there with the flag, and there should be tears in their eyes and gratitude. Instead, these looks of disdain for our flag and for our anthem.
Pat Boone:And even though I admire those athletes for their, oh boy, what was that? There's a phone ringing somewhere.
Philip:We're trying to get rid of the phone that's ringing right in our ears.
Pat Boone:It is a number I don't answer. That's why the people call me. They think they're gonna get me to give money to things, you know. They're just asking for, and I always, they'll say, "Are you Charles Boone?" Yes, I am calling. And I just have fun with that phone. And they hang up eventually.
Philip:That's so funny. That's brilliant. How can folk get this download? Is it patboone.com? Is that correct?
Pat Boone:Oh, thank you. www.patboone.com. I want everyone to go and download that song today. That's a good place to go, patboone.com. But also Spotify, Amazon Music, TikTok. I'm all over TikTok. I mean, who would've thought I was gonna be on TikTok at this point? But the song is catching on.
Philip:I was teasing my mom a few weeks ago. She'll be 96 in November. And I says, do you know, you were almost born at the same time as an airplane. I says, how much have you seen in your long lifetime? And I'm talking to you, and once again, America has lost its thread. We've lost what made us great, and we need to get back to the Bible, back to what the foundation of this country was.
Book If and the Power of God's Conditions
Pat Boone:Here's a book, my last book. I've had other bestselling books, million-selling books. This is on its way. It's simply called If. And I've found that the word "if" is the most important word in the Bible. Why? It's there over 500 times. Every blessing of God comes with an if. If my people, God, in creating us, he gave us the right to choose. We can choose what we do now. We can choose how we live now. We can choose our eternal destiny. And every blessing comes with the if.
Pat Boone:What I say in here, it's not religious, just life or death. And it's sold in truck stops and airports, and the eternal choice we all must make. We choose. God allows us to choose how we live, whether we have an America that we did have, and where we will spend eternity. He only is having people come live with him who want to live with him, and who are willing to live with him now. And by faith, hallelujah, we build our own futures.
Pat Boone:I don't have much time I have left on this planet, but while I'm here, I'm asking God to just use me in every way he can. And right now it's three movies, five movies in the last year and a half. I played Thomas Jefferson in one that has yet to be released. It's called The American Miracle.
Philip:It's amazing. I was in awe of you before growing up, and here I'm now looking at you and listening to what you're saying, and I'm even more in awe. The gifts that you've given to the world, but it's all based on the fact that Jesus is the real answer. The only hope America has, the only hope the world has, is Jesus.
Pat Boone:He's the only reason I have had this life. And I knew it when I made my first rock and roll record. I didn't know what I was doing. I just was singing this song that was cute, and it was an instant million seller. And then "Ain't That a Shame" came next, and it was a seller. And then I set a record, which is a record still today, the longest in history, 220 weeks without ever being off the record charts. I knew then at the beginning, God was giving me a platform.
Twixt 12 and 20 and a Career Built on Purpose
Pat Boone:I thought I was gonna be a teacher, preacher when I married Shirley. And she was so happy about that because her dad, Red Foley, was a traveling country singer and very big. And yet he was not home a lot of the time. And so she was so glad she was marrying a guy that was going to be a teacher, preacher. And we'd have summers off, we'd have a little house with a picket fence, and we'd have three or four kids, and she would have a settled home life. Little did she know, she married Pat Boone. God had a different plan.
Pat Boone:And he gave me that platform. And that's why even when I was in college and making movies and doing the Pat Boone Chevy show and all that, I was asked to write a book of advice for kids. Well, I quickly took the opportunity. It was a secular publisher, but I wrote a book called Twixt 12 and 20. And the publisher didn't like the title. "What does that mean, Twixt 12 and 20?" I said, "What's between 12 and 20?" They said, "Oh, the teens." And I had to tell them that that's clever. And I liked clever, and I liked the alliteration of Twixt 12 and 20.
Pat Boone:And that book, it was practical but biblically based advice for teens. It sold millions of copies while I was still in college. And it was the number one bestseller. It was only rivaled at that time by Norman Vincent Peale's The Power of Positive Thinking and Art Linkletter's Kids Say the Darndest Things. And there's Pat Boone's Twixt 12 and 20 going into every school library and Christian church libraries and into many languages. And so that verified to me, oh, this is what this is all about. This is what my career is all about.
Philip:That book needs to be rereleased because it's needed more now than ever before.
Pat Boone:Well, it's needed, but I was asked to redo it. And 20 years later, when the things that I talked about in the book, I mean, first of all, I had a teen audience. That's why it was successful. But 20, 30 years later, the things I would've had to be talking about were drugs, alcoholism, promiscuity, texts in the school halls, and abortion and all these other things. A different world that I would've written about, but I knew I didn't have the audience to write for.
Philip:Well, I'm just amazed at your life. I'm thrilled to have met you. I need you to go to patboone.com, and you'll learn so much more about this great man, not just a great man with talent, but a great man of God. And Pat, I am thankful for you. I'd love to talk to you again. I'd love to spend hours with you.
Pat Boone:Well, I've got plenty more to tell you, but we won't try to jam it in now.
Philip:I can only imagine. Well, listen, thank you so much for being on Daily Faith today. And we're gonna put up on the screen all the ways you can get in contact and reach out. He is on Facebook, he's on Instagram, he's on Twitter.
Pat Boone:I go live now about every other week for an hour on Facebook Live, and I take questions from whoever's watching and we're having fun with it. Who would've thought.
Philip:I love it. I talk to my mom in Scotland every day on FaceTime. So here she is at 96, sitting in a wee house in the northeast corner of Scotland looking at me in full color, live back and forth. I says, mom, do you understand that you're almost 5,000 miles away from me, and I'm sitting here talking to you like you're right next door? And she says, who would've ever thought it?
Philip:Maybe, and I played a young Scotsman, you know, in the movie, these, what is the movie? I have to think about it. A young Scotsman, and I performed in Edinburgh, and I had to learn a Scottish accent. It was not April. It was Journey to the Center of the Earth.
Pat Boone:You in that movie, a young Scottish lad. Oh, hi, Alexander. Alexander McEwen in the film, a young Scottish lad. Journey to the Center of the Earth, the original film. And the guy that taught Julie Andrews her Cockney, I got with him. I knew his name, I can't remember it right now, but he gave me a Scottish accent so I could roll my Rs.
Pat Boone:And so when I was, after the first two or three days of filming, Buddy Adler, the head of the studio, called me and said, "You know, we appreciate the fact that you've learned a Scottish accent, but we can't understand a word you're saying. So we are gonna have to dub those scenes." And then when I was in, I performed in the big theater in Edinburgh and did my songs and all, and people afterwards were saying, "What part of Scotland were you from? We don't recognize your accent."
Philip:I can't pin your accent now because, although Scotland is half the size of Ohio, you can go along from where we are in our little corner town, you go along the coast for 10 miles to Cairnbulg and Inverallochy, and they speak a totally different accent within 10 miles of each other. So they couldn't pin you down to where you were from. You're trying to figure out what part of Scotland you were from.
Pat Boone:It is amazing. Anyway, I'm Scottish, you know, and I got to play a young Scottish lad in Journey to the Center of the Earth. And it was a huge, huge success. I can tell you later, not now, but I'll tell you later how it saved 20th Century Fox. They were going bankrupt because they were filming Cleopatra with Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, and that was disappearing a week at a time. It was costing so much more money that the bankers were getting ready to shut 20th down.
Journey to the Center of the Earth and Hollywood Legacy
Pat Boone:But then my movie Journey to the Center of the Earth came out and was an instant hit all over the world. And it convinced the bankers to let 20th Century Fox keep going. And I don't know, I'd like to compare which movie did the most box office, Journey to the Center of the Earth or Cleopatra, maybe because it was Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor. It might have out-boxed my film at the box office. But my film saved the studio while they were about to go bankrupt doing theirs.
Philip:Well, Elizabeth Taylor and Burton were two pretty big hitters in those days, weren't they?
Pat Boone:She was. I think Burton might have been, he was Welsh. And the depth of his voice and the timber of his voice, he said, I watched an interview years ago, and he said he'd go out and he would shout, and he made his voice rougher by shouting out in the hills. So yeah, that's amazing.
Philip:Well, I can tell you some more stories about that, but as I say, I won't run out of, we can do it again.
Pat Boone:If you'd like to have me, I'd love to come back again.
Philip:I'd love to have you come back again, because I just think there's so much we can learn from you. And I feel like I'm talking to my mom in the fact of the history and the depth of time. And we don't, we don't appreciate that. We'll tell your mom I love her in my Scottish way.
Philip:Well, if you would do me a great big favor, I don't know if she's gonna watch this today or not, but her name is Wendy. And if you could say happy 96th birthday to her, I will become her favorite child.
Pat Boone:Okay. Now? Yeah. Do it right now. Hello, Wendy. Pat Boone here. And I've just been told by a little bird that you are 96. I know that's not possible, because you cannot be 96 years old. But I am told that at least you're telling people that's the case. So I wanna wish you a very happy birthday from a fellow Scotsman, at least in part. Pat Boone.
Philip:You've just made me her favorite child. I'll never pay you back. I might get a bit more of an inheritance.
Philip:Pat Boone, it has been a pleasure to talk to you. And if ever you could come back for a wee while again, I'd love to see you.
Pat Boone:I'd like to tell you about the time, and I'll show you pictures of when I played golf in Scotland in a kilt.
Philip:In a kilt. That can be dangerous. That is another whole subject.
Pat Boone:I wear it sometimes in the celebrity tournaments where I play, because I know that the purpose of a celebrity playing a golf tournament is raising money. And therefore you should want to be seen and interviewed about it. So I wear a real traditional Scottish kilt.
Philip:What tartan? What is your tartan?
Pat Boone:I wish I could tell you. I don't know if the guy who made it for me told me. If he had, I should have remembered. I wanna say MacDonald's, but I'm not sure that's right. That's what comes to mind immediately.
Philip:I didn't know that, Pat Boone in a kilt. I've learned something else new today. I'm, you're filling my head with great knowledge.
Pat Boone:I'll try to send you a picture so you can show it. And I've got lots of pictures, and I love the way it looks, and I love the way it feels when I'm playing. I like that little breeze that I get when I'm playing in a kilt. And the thing is, in golf courses in Scotland, you can get more than a breeze. So you better be careful.
Philip:Well, I'm gonna tell you my answer to the question when I'm asked, what does the Scotsman wear under his kilt? I'll tell you when we talk next.
Pat Boone:Oh, I love this. I am, listen, this has been a delight. What a pleasure. What an honor to speak to you. We'll have an encore then.
Philip:If you would, thank you so much. I would be delighted. And just go to patboone.com. His book is called If, and the song is called Where Did America Go? And I would love every one of you, and if you've got kids and grandkids, reacquaint them with this great man and his great gift that he's given to the world for all of these years. Pat Boone, thank you so much for being with us, and we appreciate you so much. We'll talk to you again.
Pat Boone:We'll try to have an encore. That's a deal. God bless you. Bye-bye.
Philip:Bye.
Common questions
What role does Pat Boone play in the Reagan movie, and what's the big scene he's in?
Pat Boone plays George Otis, a Christian businessman he describes as 'the Electric Man,' not himself — a younger actor plays Pat Boone in the film. The key scene he portrays is a real prayer circle that took place in the governor's mansion, during which George Otis delivered what Boone calls a prophetic utterance: a voice came through Otis saying Reagan would one day dwell at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, which Boone and those present understood as a prophecy that Reagan would become president.
Did Pat Boone actually talk to Reagan on the night he was elected president?
Yes — Boone says he followed an impulse and called Reagan's home number in Pacific Palisades on election night, and Reagan answered. Boone asked if he could be the first to call him 'Mr. President,' and Reagan cautioned it was still early. Boone then asked Reagan if he remembered the prophetic prayer from Sacramento, and Reagan told him he had thought about it many times in the months leading up to the election.
What is Pat Boone's new song 'Where Did America Go' about, and where can you find it?
Boone wrote the song as a lament for the values and principles he believes America has drifted away from, intentionally styling it after Bob Dylan — recorded with just a guitar and harmonica, the way Dylan did 'Blowin' in the Wind.' He even tried to get Dylan to co-write it, but Dylan's manager said no. The song is available at patboone.com, as well as on Spotify, Amazon Music, and TikTok.
What is Pat Boone's new book 'If' about?
Boone says he chose the title because 'if' appears over 500 times in the Bible and that every blessing God offers comes attached to an 'if' — meaning God gives people the freedom to choose. He describes the book as 'not religious, just life or death,' covering the eternal choices people make about how they live and where they spend eternity. It's sold in truck stops and airports, and he sees it as a continuation of his lifelong mission to use his platform for faith.
How did Pat Boone's movie 'Journey to the Center of the Earth' end up saving 20th Century Fox?
Boone explains that 20th Century Fox was on the verge of bankruptcy because the production of Cleopatra with Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton was costing so much that bankers were ready to shut the studio down. When Journey to the Center of the Earth came out and became an instant worldwide hit, it convinced the bankers to let the studio keep operating.
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