Original subtitles

[projector clicking, whirring]

- I've never had more faith in America than I do today.

We have an America that in Bob Dylan's phrase,

is "busy being born," not busy dying.

[cheers and applause]

[Bob Dylan's "Mr. Tambourine Man"]

♪ ♪

- ♪ Hey Mr. Tambourine Man... ♪

- All right. - ♪ Play a song for me... ♪

- Sounds familiar. - ♪ I'm not sleepy ♪

♪ And there is no place I'm going to ♪

♪ Hey Mr. Tambourine Man play a song for me ♪

♪ In the jingle jangle morning I'll come following you ♪

♪ ♪

♪ Though I know that evening's empire ♪

♪ Has returned into sand ♪

♪ Vanished from my hand ♪

♪ Left me blindly here to stand ♪

♪ But still not sleeping ♪

♪ My weariness amazes me ♪

♪ I'm branded on my feet ♪

♪ I have no one to meet ♪

♪ And the ancient empty street's ♪

♪ Too dead for dreaming ♪

- I used to know all the big Bob Dylan's records

before I was governor in the'80s,

and, uh--and I--I know I think everything that Bob did

that, uh, Willie Nelson ever wrote,

and of course the Allman Brothers

helped put me in the White House

by raising money when I didn't have any money.

[rock music playing]

- ♪ 'Cause there's a man down there ♪

♪ Might be your man I don't know ♪

♪ ♪

- Gregg and I, we're good friends.

The Allman Brothers have been here,

and Bob Dylan has not been here,

but Willie Nelson has been here,

and--and Johnny Cash has been here.

- ♪ We got married in a fever ♪

♪ Hotter than a pepper sprout ♪

- I was there when he brought June Cash

down here to meet me.

We always claimed that she was my cousin.

[rock music]

[all singing]

♪ ♪

When Willie Nelson wrote his autobiography,

he confessed that he smoked pot, uh, in the White House

one--one night when he was spending the night with me,

and he says that his companion that shared the pot with him

was one of the servants at the White House.

That is not exactly true.

It actually was one of my sons,

which he didn't want to, uh, you know,

categorize as a--as a pot smoker like him.

[all singing]

There were some people who didn't like my being deeply

involved with Willie Nelson and Bob Dylan

and disreputable, you know, rock and rollers,

but I didn't care about that because I was doing

what I really believed and the response I think

from the followers of those musicians

was much more influential than a few people who thought that

being associated with rock and roll

and radical people was, uh, inappropriate for a president.

- ♪ Whether the wrath of ♪

♪ The storm-tossed sea ♪

♪ ♪

♪ The Master of ocean ♪

♪ And earth and skies ♪

♪ Shall sweetly ♪ [cheering]

- One of the things that has held America together

when we've been together has been the music that we share

and--and love.

Well, I'd say that the common beat

that people have within them,

a desire for country music, a desire for rock and roll,

or a desire for jazz,

or a desire for classical music,

is something that binds people together.

- [humming]

- When I was a child, for instance,

I used to go to gospel performances

just of local singers

and sometimes we'd have all night gospel sings,

at various churches around where I lived,

and so I think that the origin of--of jazz and maybe later

rock and roll came out of, uh, gospel music.

- Jimmy Carter was from Georgia

and he wasn't from Atlanta, by the way.

He was from this little town down there in south Georgia

so to appreciate gospel music

and to understand what Shirley Caesar was about

was real and-- and you could tell it.

- Jimmy Carter would go to a black church

and they'd start singing. He'd start singing.

He wouldn't pick up the hymn book.

He knew all the words to the songs.

- ♪ Gonna lay down my sword and shield ♪

♪ Down by the riverside ♪

♪ Study you know war no more ♪

♪ I ain't gonna study war no more ♪

♪ Study war no more ♪

♪ Ain't gonna study no war no more ♪

♪ Hallelujah ♪

- Yeah, we were raised, uh, on Mahalia Jackson.

Uh, but what you always heard

in Mahalia's voice was healing.

I guess that's why they called rock and roll

"the devil's music" because gospel was God's music,

and that's where it all began, through it,

and the, uh--the black sheep of the family

was rock and roll, right? Uh...

- But in the south it was so connected because

I grew up singing in the church choir

which was--which was fine.

It was, you know, traditional church,

you know, songs,

but I also grew up a huge Elvis Presley fan

and Elvis was so influenced by gospel.

- Gospel music is derived from deep within

the heart of human beings.

We have been to Waycross, Georgia,

where they have all-day singing.

It's about out at being 24 hours.

We've been down to Bonifay, Florida,

where they have 24-hour sings

and we apologize for cutting this one short.

[upbeat music]

- ♪ Can't nobody do you like Jesus ♪

♪ Can't nobody ♪

♪ Do you like Jesus ♪

- There was a wonderful compatibility

between the church songs that were prevalent

in white churches and-- and church songs

that were prevalent, uh, in African-American churches,

and so I think music broke down barriers between people

not only geographically but, um, with--between

the two races.

- I grew up listening to that because Dad--

that's part of what Dad played.

We were liberals, and we were not racist,

and in Plains,

that meant that you had, like, two other friends.

- He grew up in a county that was 80% black

and he probably never had white friends

until he went to the Navy.

H--he was just an anomaly that I'd never seen before.

[all singing upbeat music]

- ♪ I'll fly away oh glory ♪

♪ I'll fly away ♪

♪ When I die hallelujah by and by ♪

♪ I'll fly away ♪

♪ ♪

Oh!

[cheers and applause]

[tambourine rattling]

[train wheels clacking]

- Plains.

Pioneering white men fought to claim the land

of the Indians they sent west to die.

Our families moved in then to occupy the rolling plains

that gave the town its name.

There were only half a thousand souls--

white and black, the master and the slave.

Neither side ever forgot each other's ways

to reach their common goals.

- But now as equals free to rise and fall together,

we've learned we must depend on one another.

Though the town is small, we cherish it as haven,

home, and friend,

and won't let strife or missed chance

bring to all our dreams-- our modest,

tempered dreams--an end.

That's beautiful.

[country music]

♪ ♪

[chickens clucking]

♪ ♪

- My folks,

they've been farmers in Georgia

for more than 200 years

and we've been living around here for, oh, 150 years.

Well, I grew up in a home that didn't have running water

or electricity until I was a teenager.

And although I've had a chance to get an education

as an engineer and a scientist,

nobody in my family before my generation

ever had a chance to finish high school.

We've always worked for a living.

We know what it means to work.

- I never did--I never did spank him.

No, he was--I don't-- did I ever spank--

well, I might have given you a little licking in passing,

but as for real whipping, I never gave him one.

That was--I left that with his father.

- We had a battery radio,

and in the times where we used it,

Daddy was very stingy with how many hours a day we used

the battery radio so we wouldn't run the battery down,

but we could get Nashville and,

uh, sometimes we could get Chicago,

and we could hear country music then,

and I would listen to Glenn Miller for 15 minutes

so that was my only contact you might say

with the outside world at all.

[jazz music]

♪ ♪

- I look at the great composers

that have come before me

and I see how they changed society.

I see how--as Harry Belafonte once said to me--

that, um, artists are the gatekeepers of truth.

- Did your dad ever play an instrument?

- The stereo.

[laughs] He played the stereo well.

When--when we had no money at all,

Dad spent $600 on the best stereo in Plains, Georgia

with the huge speakers and--

I mean, it would blow you out.

It was fantastic, so--

and he would let us as children--

me and my brothers, uh, play our music on it,

and he would stay in there and--and learn the songs

and try to figure out what we were doing that way.

It's one of the ways that he kind of stayed in touch

with his children.

- I'd like to welcome our special guest this morning

to the open line program,

former state senator and gubernatorial candidate

Jimmy Carter.

[rock music]

- Well, I replaced Lester Maddox

in the Governor's Mansion,

and Lester Maddox's symbol was a pick handle

that he used to drive away African-American customers

who came to his chicken restaurant.

He bragged on that

as being a stalwart defender of racial segregation.

[tense music]

♪ ♪

- It was a really hard time politically.

When I was in high school,

I got beat after school every single day

because I refused to denounce African-Americans.

I mean, I would--my shirt would be torn off.

I would go home and my mother would take a new shirt for me

to--to wear, um, the rest of the last half

of the classrooms.

It was--it was a bad time back then.

- For years, the solid South were very segregationist

and very--let's just call it-- racist.

They were anti-black.

- Uh, when I came into the Governor's Mansion,

one of the first things I did

in the Governor's Office in the Capitol Building

was to hang Martin Luther King Jr.'s portrait there,

because he had won the Nobel Peace Prize.

He was the only Georgian to become the recipient

of the Nobel Peace Award,

and whereas the Reverend Dr. King was a man

who placed the welfare of his fellow men above his own

and who assumed the burden of demanding of a country,

that it remedy the inequities and discrepancies experienced

by the black man and poor man of whatever color.

- ♪ Oh Georgia ♪

[piano music]

♪ Oh Georgia ♪

- Jimmy Carter was a, um-- a leader in civil rights.

He was part of this transitional generation

of Southern governors that were just absolutely magnificent.

- The greatest thing that ever happened to the South

was the passage of the Civil Rights Act

and the granting to a minority group for a chance to vote,

to hold a job,

to buy a home, to be educated,

to travel, on an equal basis,

in accordance with their own choice.

- There were southerners who, a lot of them

went to the Ivy Leagues and then came back home.

They started bipartisan think tanks.

They were Freedom Riders.

There was this Camelot decade or two in the South

that Carter was part of.

- Jimmy Carter represented the New South.

He represented, um, hope for, um, the South where--

as the old slaves used to sing--

"There'd be plenty good room for all God's children."

And--and he did.

He represented that and embodied it.

- ♪ Oh Georgia ♪

[chuckles]

♪ My little Georgia ♪

♪ Mm-hmm ♪

♪ Oh no, no, no, no peace I find ♪

♪ ♪

♪ This old sweet song ♪

♪ ♪

♪ Keeps Georgia on my mind ♪

♪ ♪

- So Georgia is this very interesting place.

As a black musician,

you can't help

but be influenced by James Brown lyrics,

and when James Brown goes,

"The name of this place, good God, is Augusta, GA,"

Georgia, in our heads, has a different kind of vibe.

- Music has the capacity to speak on multiple levels.

I mean, there's the level of--of the words, the lyrics.

That's there.

But sometimes, there's a deeper level

on what the music connects inside the brain

and maybe better yet, inside the soul.

- ♪ What ♪

♪ Bring it out ♪

♪ We all get together in any type of weather ♪

♪ Do it, what ♪

- We were coming into a new era,

and the Allman Brothers was an integrated band,

with Jaimoe on drums,

and I think Carter, you know,

he did that politically

while we were doing it perhaps musically.

- In those days it was mostly rock and roll,

but I was--we were all into folk a good bit

because of the politics of it.

[folk music]

♪ ♪

- ♪ I ain't gonna work on Maggie's farm no more ♪

- When I was governor and my sons

were living in the Governor's Mansion with me,

Bob Dylan's music permeated the, uh, Governor's Mansion.

My sons and I were brought closer together

through Bob Dylan's songs.

Chip knew every lyric of every Bob Dylan song

that had ever been written.

- I remember he and I had a spat,

and I spent over a year without speaking to him,

and we would communicate by the third song

on the second Bob Dylan album

and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah for over a year

without ever actually talking to each other.

- ♪ Well he hands you a nickel ♪

♪ He hands you a dime ♪

♪ He asks you with a grin ♪

♪ If you're having a good time ♪

♪ And he fines you every time you slam the door ♪

♪ I ain't gonna work for Maggie's brother no more ♪

- Bob Dylan and his band performed in Atlanta,

and I was governor, so I invited

Bob Dylan and The Band to the Governor's Mansion,

and my sons were very eager to be with The Band,

and--and I was honored because Bob Dylan asked me

to go out in the garden, as a matter of fact,

and have a private conversation with him,

and the only questions he asked me

were questions about my Christian faith

and what it meant to me

and the basic principles of it.

- When I first met Jimmy,

the first thing he did was quote my songs back to me.

It was the first time that I realized my songs

had reached into--basically, into the establishment world,

and I had no experience in that realm.

Never seen that side. So it made me a little uneasy.

He, uh, put my mind at ease by not talking down to me

and, uh, showing me that he had a sincere appreciation

of, uh, the songs I had written.

- ♪ Men have tried to stop me ♪

♪ Shake me up in my mind ♪

♪ Said prove to me that he's Lord ♪

♪ Show me a sign ♪

♪ What kind of sign they need ♪

♪ When it all come from within ♪

♪ When what's lost has been found ♪

♪ What's to come has already been ♪

♪ I just keep pressing on ♪

- ♪ On and on and on and on ♪

- He's a kindred spirit to me of a rare kind.

The kind of man you don't meet every day

and that you're lucky to meet if you ever do.

- Bob Dylan has been, you know, one of my best friends,

along with Willie Nelson and others.

- Probably, he and Bob had a lot of good ideas

to exchange because they come from entirely different places.

- Right.

- Uh, But Jimmy and I, uh,

basically come from the same spot.

[upbeat music]

- We had been invited to this party

that Governor Carter was throwing for Bob Dylan.

So we got there just as the last guest was leaving.

- Bob Dylan and his band had already gone home,

and I'm sure I had taken--I had taken off my,

you know, dress-up clothes, kind of.

- There's this guy standing on the porch,

and he had on this old pair of Levi's

with holes all in them.

No shirt, no shoes,

and I thought, "Who's this bum hanging out

at the Governor's Mansion?"

Well that was him. [laughing]

There's a full bottle of J&B Scotch sitting there,

which we proceeded to drink just about all of.

[laughs] And he says,

"You know, I'm gonna be our next president."

- I went out on the porch and had a drink with, uh--

with Gregg,

but I don't remember a bottle of scotch.

I do not--I only--I generally limited myself

to the one drink of wine or whiskey a day,

so that may be a little bit of an exaggeration.

- He was cool, he enjoyed our music,

he was real, and he became a friend.

- ♪ I'm not gonna let them catch me no ♪

♪ I'm not gonna let them catch the midnight rider ♪

- The Marquee at the Civic Center tells the story:

tomorrow evening at 5:30,

the Jimmy Carter for President campaign

officially gets underway.

[phone ringing]

- Jimmy Carter Campaign Headquarters,

may I help you please?

- ♪ Oh yeah hold on ♪

♪ Hold on I'm coming ♪

♪ Hold on ♪

♪ Oh I'm coming, oh ♪

- Phil Walden, the band's manager,

and the owner of Capricorn Records,

announced that Governor Carter was going to come down

to what we used to call the Capricorn, um, Picnic

and Summer Games.

- ♪ Something about you mama ♪

♪ Sure give me the blues ♪

♪ It ain't your drop stitch stockings ♪

♪ It ain't your blue buckle shoes ♪

- So many interesting, famous people came down

to that thing--Bill Graham,

you know, in the music business,

Andy Warhol came at one point,

and, lo and behold,

he gets Governor Carter to come.

- As one Republican to a Democrat,

I will help you as president, sir.

- Well that's a good deal, and I thank you.

- Phil came to the band and said,

"Listen, Carter's gonna run. Uh, he needs some money.

"He needs support. Uh, would you guys be willing,

you know, to do some benefits for him?"

- I think he's just a real fan of the arts.

He came here one night to a recording session.

So he befriended these-- these performers and, um--

and his interest was genuine, and they could sense that.

- I think the vibe was, wow, here's this wonderful man

who's been a great governor for the state of Georgia,

a southerner,

and we had come through the Nixon era,

and we saw what happened with that.

Isn't it time for somebody, uh, with great integrity

and dignity to take this office?

Does he really have a chance?

You know, honestly, we probably thought,

"The odds are a little low, but let's try.

You never know until you try, right?"

- Governor Carter, first of all,

thank you very much for sparing the time

to speak with me today.

I know that you are very interested in rock music.

- Yes, I am.

I'm not only interested in it

from what it signifies, uh, in our society,

but also, I enjoy it.

- Who do you most enjoy listening to?

- I've really gotten to know the ones

who record in Georgia better on a personal basis:

The, uh, Marshall Tucker band and Charlie Daniels

and, um--and, uh Allman Brothers.

I wanna introduce to you my friends and your friends,

the ones that are gonna help me get elected,

along with you, the great Allman Brothers!

[cheers and applause]

- When we did that first concert

for the president, uh, in Providence, Rhode Island,

I don't think we gave a lot of thought to the fact

that this was a political fundraiser.

Hey, it was a gig.

You know, we got fans, we're gonna play.

- ♪ My friends tell me ♪

♪ That I've been such a fool yeah ♪

♪ But I had to stand by and take it baby ♪

♪ All for loving you ♪

♪ I drown myself in sorrow ♪

♪ As I look at what you've done ♪

♪ But nothing seems to change ♪

♪ The bad times have stayed and I can't run ♪

♪ Sometimes I feel ♪

♪ For sure ♪

♪ Sometimes I feel like I've been tied ♪

♪ Ah oh ♪

♪ Till I'm down there ♪

♪ Oh I'm down ♪

♪ Good lord feel like I'm dying ♪

- Chip came to a concert

and, uh, he was saying, you know,

"Nobody knew us,

but, you know, y'all brought us into the light."

- I was practically a non-entity,

but everybody knew the Allman Brothers,

particularly the ones that came to their concerts,

and--and when the Allman Brothers endorsed me,

all the young people there said,

"Well, if the Allman Brothers like Jimmy Carter,

we--we can vote for him."

- ♪ Oh sometimes I feel ♪

♪ Like I said ♪

♪ Oh sometimes I feel ♪

♪ I've been tied ♪

♪ Oh ♪

♪ Oh to the power of love ♪

♪ Oh Lord child ♪

- Anybody who would do a concert for Jimmy Carter,

you know, we--we would welcome with open arms,

and we had from Hank Snow to Toots and the Maytals

to The Allmans to John Denver,

the whole gamut, and we raised a lot of money.

So with the first concert at The Fox,

Marshall Tucker Band,

then the Allmans in Providence,

and then, um, Charlie Daniels at The Fox,

it gave Carter a lot of credibility

and a lot of money.

- Of course, at that time, it was very new

that you could get the matching funds--

whatever money that could be raised privately

could be matched with the federal funds.

- We could get that money converted.

Say the concert was on Saturday,

then we could use it to buy television ads

with it in Pennsylvania the next week.

[patriotic music]

♪ ♪

- I believe in human beings, and equal opportunity,

and freedom, and equality of opportunity,

and I'll fight for it.

- Vote for Jimmy Carter. A leader, for a change.

[applause]

[funky music]

♪ ♪

- Can you ask your kin folks and neighbors to vote for me?

Good deal. Thank you.

- ♪ We the people hey now ♪

♪ Got to make the world go round ♪

♪ Got to make the world now ♪

- There was a--a plan among my opponents.

They named it ABC-- Anybody But Carter.

So they would send their top person

into a state to oppose me,

and then all the other candidates--there were about

ten of them--would support whoever came in against me.

- There was the establishment

Democratic Party in Washington,

and Jimmy, who was an outsider, you know?

And more than just an outsider. An outsider from the south.

- He was from Georgia, for Christ sakes.

I mean, there was something more--start out there.

I mean, that-- and that time in the South,

coming out of the South was--was a death warrant

to try to run for national office.

- We were coming out of the Watergate era

and looking for--to be a country of integrity again,

and certainly in the black communities,

out of which I came,

he made an immediate connection because of that.

- While Jerry Brown took his entourage to woo rural votes

in western Maryland,

Jimmy Carter concentrated

on collecting endorsements from officials

and black leaders in Baltimore.

- The main confrontation I had with Jerry Brown--

they brought him in to run against me in Maryland,

because he was kind of looked on as Mr. Moonbeam back then,

and he--and they figured

he'd get a lot of support in that particular area.

- I think we're ready for a new spirit in Washington,

and if Maryland sends the right message

to the rest of the country,

that's exactly what's going to happen.

Will you help? Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Thank you very much! Now, let's listen to music.

It's just like a fundraising dinner.

Some people, uh, go to eat the chicken and the peas

and the mashed potatoes and the gravy,

and other people would rather listen

to The Eagles and Chicago and Linda Ronstadt.

[country music]

- I remember when Jerry Brown jumped into the race

and dragged Linda Ronstadt and the Eagles along with him.

It was battle of the bands.

- There was no battle.

I think we had it wrapped up then.

It was maybe too little too late for Brown,

but I don't remember it having any effect.

It would make me mad, you know, to see The Eagles

were doing--"Damn, how did we miss that?"

But that's all.

- I mean, there was no real rivalry.

You know, we didn't want to get into a fist fight

with The Eagles or anything.

Uh, and I guess there was some admiration for Jerry Brown.

You know, he was a good guy, but our guy was better.

- I liked him.

I loved Ronstadt, but I didn't buy into it.

I just didn't--

honestly, I didn't think he had the gravitas.

Bringing The Eagles along didn't help that.

[laughs]

[rock music]

- ♪ I've been put down ♪

♪ I've been pushed 'round ♪

♪ When will I be loved ♪

- When I went to Oregon, I had a couple of events,

and very few people showed up,

and, um, Jimmy Buffett had promised to help me

if I ever needed him,

so I called Jimmy Buffett

and asked him if he would come to Oregon and perform,

which I knew would-- would gather a big crowd.

[cheers and applause]

- I picked up the campaign in Portland, Oregon.

I remember the band was there, and it was--

they didn't have a sound system big enough for the band,

so a couple of us got out acoustic guitars,

and we were pretty popular up in Oregon

and Washington at that time, and so we probably drew,

I don't know, 15,000 people out there.

something like that, but it was outside.

[guitar strumming]

♪ ♪

- ♪ He went to Paris looking for answers ♪

♪ To questions that bothered him so ♪

- Jerry Brown was ahead of me before Jimmy Buffett came,

but with Jimmy Buffett's help, I came out quite well.

[cheers and applause] - Thank you very much.

[indistinct]

- Thank you.

[indistinct]

Thank you.

[cheers and applause]

The rock and roll aspect of the campaign--first of all,

it was about raising money.

Second, it was about trying to reach,

to me, a younger generation with somebody

who was hip enough to get it.

[folk music]

♪ ♪

[cheers and applause]

- "Rolling Stone" had really first made its mark

in national politics in the '72 election,

when McGovern ran against Nixon.

Hunter Thompson, of course,

got the presidential election as kind of a beat,

and in 1974, '75,

he was in Georgia and heard Jimmy Carter speak

at something called Law Day.

- Hunter Thompson was sitting in the back of the audience,

because he had come with Ted Kennedy,

and he was going outside, putting Wild Turkey whiskey

in his iced tea glass,

but he listened to my speech

and the speech made a great impression on him.

- Well, I saw him push Teddy Kennedy around down

in Athens and Atlanta.

I had never seen Kennedy pushed around anywhere,

in any room, and I was stunned.

I'd never seen a politician do that before,

and he just pushed Teddy aside, like "Out of my way.

You know, I've got work to do. Move aside."

And Kennedy was stunned. I was stunned.

[blues music]

♪ ♪

- Hunter Thompson spent three nights with me

and Rosalynn at our house,

and he became a very close personal friend of mine.

I remember one time during the campaign,

since we'd had a previous relationship,

he thought he could have first crack

at getting an interview with me,

and Jody Powell, my press secretary,

kept putting Hunter off and said,

"You have to get in line."

And so Hunter Thompson got drunk one night in a hotel

and he gathered up newspapers and dumped some trash cans

in front of Jody Powell's door and set it on fire.

[laughs]

[funky music]

- Jimmy Carter comes along, Hunter endorses him.

So naturally, he had young people

start to gravitate to him,

and he's being supported by some of the most famous

and important people in the rock world,

namely the Allman Brothers,

and they spoke in the words and language

of the rock and roll era.

- One thing in Carter's association with rock music,

that was the music of change, and, you know--

and dissidents and hippies and pot smokers.

There was a risk, politically, to that,

and it didn't matter to him.

[rock music]

♪ ♪

- Well it was, uh, you know--these were times

when some of the guys were experimenting pretty heavily

with various drugs,

and, uh, Gregg had a connection

to get pharmaceutical cocaine from a pharmacist,

and there was a middleman, and they were all caught,

and then they turned to Gregg and said,

"All right, we're going to offer you immunity,

"which means you have to testify.

"If you don't testify,

"you have to go sit in jail

until you're ready to testify." And that was really tough.

You can imagine the position Gregg was in.

He didn't want to rat on his friend.

You know, he had to testify,

uh, or otherwise he would have

just been sitting behind bars for God knows how long.

- ♪ She don't lie, she don't lie ♪

♪ She don't lie cocaine ♪

The trial begins. Gregg testifies.

Um, it's just a tumultuous time,

and not only the drug bust, okay?

At that point, the Allmans had been together

for quite some time.

It--I think there was just a toll taken,

and it was time for a break.

- As an example of--of how compassionate Jimmy Carter was,

uh, while the rest of the Allman Brothers

turned on Gregg for his testimony in court,

uh, Jimmy never did.

I mean, he thought this was the moment

to help somebody when they're down.

- Well, can you imagine?

You know, he's running for the Office

of the Presidency of the United States.

He could have easily said, "Look, sorry, Gregg.

"Sorry, Capricorn. Sorry, Allman Brothers Band.

"You know, this is too big of a risk for me to take.

"I can't do it.

"I'm gonna--I'm gonna go this way.

You know, love you guys, but good-bye."

But he didn't do that.

He didn't turn his back on any of us.

- I had some problems with drugs when I was a kid.

My father helped me.

He made me his driver in the campaign.

I don't think he judges people.

I really don't believe that he--that he is a judge

of what you do personally, and that he cares.

He wants you to be who you are when you're with him.

Gregg was a good example of that, I think.

♪ ♪

- I was pretty--pretty radical in my politics, you know.

It was just a sort of rite of passage.

You start out as a peacenik hippie

and you get more radical and more radical

and more radical and then finally

I find myself in the Black Panther Party.

By the time Jimmy Carter ran for president,

just his campaign made us feel like we now had a president

that started to see the world the way we saw it.

- Now, I've always fit it in somewhere,

a statement for this man, whom I love and believe in.

[cheers and applause]

So Governor, I'm with you all the way!

[cheers and applause]

[rock music]

♪ ♪

- ♪ Yeah ♪

♪ Hey ♪

♪ ♪

♪ Hey when you wish upon a star ♪

♪ ♪

♪ Your dream will take you very far yeah ♪

♪ ♪

- Our nation has seen a failure of leadership.

We've been hurt and we've been disillusioned.

We've seen a wall go up that separates us

from our own government.

We've lost some precious things that historically have bound

our people and our government together.

It's now time for healing. We want to have faith again.

We want to be proud again. We just want the truth again.

It's time for the people to run the government,

and not the other way around.

[cheers and applause]

all: We want Carter! We want Carter!

We want Carter! We want Carter!

We want Carter!

[chanting continues]

- The next First Lady

of the United States, Mrs. Rosalynn Carter.

[cheers and applause]

- Thank you very much.

I have campaigned since April of last year,

all over the country. We have learned the country.

The country has learned about us.

The campaign has drawn my family close together,

and I believe

that my family can draw this country close together.

[cheers and applause]

[folk music]

- '76 was the first time I could vote,

and I cast my vote proudly for Jimmy Carter,

and my stepmother, June Carter,

insisted that they were cousins,

although I couldn't quite connect the tree,

but I'm sure they were. So, uh, we voted that day.

And they didn't call the election early in the evening.

I went to bed that night not knowing,

and I heard my dad, around 5:00 in the morning,

whooping and yelling, and June as well.

They were screaming, "He won, he won, he won."

There was a lot of excitement. [laughing]

- I was in the sixth grade

and I remember it was a big deal.

You know, I mean, I--I had these dreams

as a kid of wanting to be a recording artist,

you know, so growing up in Georgia,

I was always looking to see anybody in my state

that was successful.

So I was checking out, you know, Otis Redding,

I was checking out the Allman Brothers,

who were making records in Georgia.

So to have an actual President of the United States

come from our state was, I think,

for the whole state--this is kind of the stamp

that says you can do anything.

- Oh, the pride was almost unbearable to Southerners

to have Jimmy Carter from Georgia

elected President of the United States.

You can't even fathom how important that was

and how much pride was in that.

- Governor Carter, are you prepared

to take the Constitutional Oath?

- I am.

- Will you place your left hand on the Bible

and raise your right hand and repeat after me:

"I, Jimmy Carter, do solemnly swear..."

- I, Jimmy Carter, do solemnly swear...

- "That I will faithfully execute..."

- That I will faithfully execute...

- "The office of President of the United States."

- The office of President of the United States.

- "And will, to the best of my ability..."

- And will, to the best of my ability...

- "Preserve, protect, and defend..."

- Preserve, protect, and defend...

- "The constitution of the United States..."

- The constitution of the United States...

- "So help me God."

- So help me God. - Congratulations.

[cheers and applause]

[patriotic music]

♪ ♪

Ladies and gentlemen,

the President of the United States.

[cheers and applause]

- For myself, and for our nation,

I want to thank my predecessor

for all he has done to heal our land.

[cheers and applause]

- "I wanted to share my father's world."

"This is a pain I mostly hide,

"but ties of blood or seed endure,

"and even now

"I feel inside the hunger

"for his outstretched hand.

"A man's embrace to take me in.

"The need for just a word of praise.

"From those rare times when we did cross the bridge

"between us, the pure joy survives.

"I never put aside the past resentments of the boy until,

"with my own sons, I shared his final hours,

"and came to see what he'd become,

"or always was:

the father who will never cease to be alive in me."

[cheers and applause]

- When we did the Inaugural Concert,

the curtain opened. There's John Wayne.

I--I still have, what's it called--a cue card.

I--I had the cue card signed by John Wayne,

and it says, "Hello, I'm John Wayne."

- Good evening. My name is John Wayne.

I've come here tonight to pay my respects

to our 39th President, our new Commander-in-Chief,

and to wish you Godspeed, sir, in the uncharted waters ahead.

I am considered a member of the opposition,

the loyal opposition-- accent on the loyal.

I'd have it no other way.

[applause]

- John Wayne was a wonderful American.

We would disagree on a lot of politics

but we probably would not have gotten

the Panama Canal Treaties passed

if it hadn't been for John Wayne.

He was good friends with the President of Panama,

and he talked to all the Republicans.

Oh, he called every Republican senator several times,

trying to get them to vote with us on those things.

So it was a way--the commonality

of what you believed in and getting it done

was something that was happening back there.

- In conclusion, may I add my voice

to the millions of others around the world...

that wish you good well, Mr. President.

We ask only one thing:

That you preserve this one nation,

under God, with liberty and justice for all,

and we know that you will, sir. Thank you.

- It was a really pleasant night.

Everybody was, you know, happy for him

and, uh, surprised that John Wayne showed up.

It was an honor to be asked to perform.

I'd like to dedicate this song to Jimmy Carter

in the hopes that perhaps a time of righteousness

and dignity may now be upon us.

[guitar strumming]

♪ ♪

♪ Many times I've been mistaken ♪

♪ And many times confused ♪

♪ Yes and I've often felt forsaken ♪

♪ And certainly misused ♪

♪ Ah but I'm all right I'm all right ♪

♪ Just weary to my bones ♪

♪ ♪

♪ Still, you don't expect to be bright and bon vivant ♪

♪ So far away from home ♪

♪ So far away from home ♪

- Paul Simon and Aretha Franklin

were two of my favorite performers,

and so when I got ready for the Inaugural performers

to be chosen,

uh, they were at the top of my list.

- ♪ God bless ♪

♪ America ♪

♪ Land that ♪

♪ I love ♪

♪ Stand beside her ♪

♪ And guide her ♪

♪ Through the night ♪

♪ From the light from above ♪

♪ From the mountains ♪

♪ To the prairies ♪

♪ To the oceans ♪

♪ White with foam ♪

♪ God bless ♪

♪ America ♪

♪ My home ♪

♪ Sweet ♪

♪ Home ♪

♪ God bless ♪

♪ Bless America ♪

♪ My home ♪

♪ Sweet ♪

♪ Home ♪

[cheers and applause]

- I think we had eight

or ten places that we had to go

on Inaugural night and Rosalynn

and I went to every one of them and danced.

Thank you very much for helping me get here

and being the President of the greatest country on Earth.

Are you having a good time? So are we.

- I can definitely feel in my heart

that we helped him become president.

You know, I mean a lot of other people did too, you know,

but--but we had a hand in it.

- This is great. - You're looking good.

- Gregg Allman was one of the first persons

I invited to the White House when I got to be president.

He came there with Cher as a matter of fact.

- I had dinner with him the first night

he had dinner in the White House.

They were showing them where

to put the spoons and the plates

and all this, you know. They had the finger bowls.

- Being from Plains, we had never had finger bowls.

We showed up at the White House,

and at lunch and dinner

they put a crystal bowl with water in it

and a lemon geranium leaf in it,

and what you're supposed to do is use the leaf

to rub your fingers and rinse in the finger bowl,

and then we often times sat there with guests

who had never had a finger bowl,

like Gregg and Cher.

- And she picked up the glass and started drinking it.

It had a little gardenia floating in it and a lemon.

- And we all sat there talking,

and when they finished

all of us washed our hands in the finger bowls

and then moved on to the next course.

- ♪ I love to take a photograph ♪

♪ So mama don't take my Kodachrome away ♪

- You know, the White House was a great place to live,

and the music was fabulous.

- Various entertainers would come to the White House,

and sometimes unannounced,

and the President's Office

didn't know what to do with them.

So many times they would just call and say,

"Crosby, Stills and Nash are--are at the front gate,

"and, uh, we don't have them scheduled to see the President.

Can you take care of them?"

And my office was in the West Wing in the basement,

and they just sort of hung out.

Everybody would come by and meet them and--

and then finally took them in to see the President.

- ♪ Will you come see me ♪

♪ Thursdays and Saturdays ♪

- This is the first-time young people were kind of in charge.

This was really groundbreaking,

when you'd come out of the Nixon era, you know?

And so actually they liked and listened to rock-and-roll,

and wasn't--we weren't just window dressing,

and--and then when we went to the White House,

we were welcomed in.

- It was kind of funny,

because I was on crutches at the time.

I had just been to Jamaica, I think it was,

and I got busted down there.

So one, I was so glad to get out of jail

that I jumped off the porch and sprung my ankle.

So when I went to--then the next day,

I had to go see the President of the United States.

So it was really kind of funny, and we laughed about it a lot.

- Yeah.

[rock music]

- Oh!

♪ ♪

- President Carter has an encyclopedic knowledge

of all music, not just rock and roll.

You know, he has a deep knowledge--deep,

deep knowledge of classical music,

but he also knows a lot about blues

and a lot--an awful lot about jazz.

- When I had this opportunity to produce music

at the White House,

it was one of those moving moments in--in my life in jazz.

- Many concerts were held at the White House,

maybe more than any other four years.

The jazz concert was the one I remember the most.

It was just magical.

[jazz music]

♪ ♪

- Blow!

♪ ♪

- I was deeply infatuated with jazz musicians.

So it was a great honor for me and a pleasure

to bring to the White House

these people that in many cases

had not been previously recognized

for their great contributions to our society.

If there was an indigenous art form,

one that was special

and peculiar to the United States

and represents what we are as a country,

I would say that it's jazz.

At first, this jazz form was not well accepted

in respectable circles.

I think there was an element of racism

perhaps at the beginning,

because most of the famous early performers were black,

and particularly in the South,

to have black and white musicians

playing together was not a normal thing.

And I believe that this particular form of music--

of art--

has done as much as anything to break down those barriers

and to let us live and work and play

and to make beautiful music together.

[applause]

- Boy oh boy, there was, um, Cecil Taylor and Chick Corea.

I remember, um, Charlie Mingus was there in a wheelchair,

you know, but everyone applauded him,

and it was wonderful that he was there.

- The President walked over

to--to Mingus and just held his hand.

- I remember Charles Mingus, I just said something about,

"I have confidence in you and I appreciate

"what you've done in our country and for our people

and for me personally with your own music."

- The President, His--His Highness...

[laughter]

has asked us to play a tune

that we played at the White House

when we were here before. - All right.

- We're gonna play this tune,

in which the name of it is "Salt Peanuts."

[cheers and applause]

Now, wait a minute,

but there are some diplomatic strings attached,

[laughter]

To wit,

that the President himself, His Majesty...

- Right on! [all laughing]

- Sing the lyrics to "Salt Peanuts."

- All right, all right!

- Dizzy Gillespie asked me to come up and join him

in singing "Salt Peanuts," which is a very peculiar song,

and that was the only time I think

when I was in the White House that the New York Times

congratulated me on my rhythm.

Not on my tone, but on my rhythm.

[jazz music]

♪ Salt peanuts salt peanuts ♪

♪ ♪

♪ Salt peanuts salt peanuts ♪

♪ ♪

♪ Salt peanuts salt peanuts ♪

♪ ♪

♪ Salt peanuts salt peanuts ♪

♪ ♪

♪ Salt pea-- ♪

[all laughing]

[cheers and applause]

- Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait a minute, wait a minute.

I'm just want to--I just want to ask one question:

would you like to go on the road with us?

[laughter]

- I might have to after tonight!

[laughter]

- President Carter loved jazz.

He loved all kinds of music, but he really did love jazz,

and I have always thought that music was our best ambassador,

and especially jazz because it is so identified with America

and being very special to America,

and music is one of the, I think, most vibrant,

obviously, parts of soft power.

- Soft power is the use of culture, uh, music.

Jimmy Carter was, I think,

the best ever at his understanding of it,

mainly because he was a fan.

He used music in a way that helped him in his politics.

He used music, uh, to entertain members of Congress a lot

at different events he did on the White House lawn

that had never been done quite that way.

- We would go out through the crowd with index cards,

knowing to go see this particular congressman,

'cause you can talk to him for twenty or thirty minutes

and you couldn't get in their office.

- I think one of the great events I remember

was, um, President Carter had a NASCAR event

and, uh, had none other than Willie Nelson come and sing.

Again, it was outside on

the South Lawn of the White House.

Had race cars come in

and had some of the, you know,

big-time drivers of that era there

and had members of Congress, who were just eating this up.

- ♪ Irene good night ♪

♪ ♪

♪ Irene good night ♪

♪ ♪

♪ Good night Irene ♪

♪ Good night Irene ♪

♪ I'll see you in my dreams ♪

♪ Stop your rambling ♪

♪ And stop your gambling ♪

♪ Stop staying out so late ♪

♪ Late at night ♪

♪ ♪

♪ And go home to your wife ♪

♪ And your family ♪

♪ And stay by the fireside bright ♪

♪ ♪

- My mother was in charge of all the events

that happened at the White House.

So when they wanted to do a concert,

my mother would be the one that would set it up

and say everything that was going around it.

- I just want to say it's been a wonderful evening for me,

and it could only have been better

if Jimmy had been here to hear you, Willie,

and your group.

- When Willie Nelson came

and performed at the White House,

and President Carter was at Camp David

for 13 days with Begin and Sadat,

but he was not there for a good reason.

- I have to go back to Camp David.

I'm sorry,

but I want to leave you with one thought.

You know how very important the summit is

and how much is at stake in these meetings.

I want to ask you tonight to continue to pray for Jimmy,

for Prime Minister Begin, for President Sadat.

Pray for them, pray for those who are with them,

and that the summit will be a success.

Good night. I love every one of you.

[cheers and applause]

[western music]

- If you've ever read the history of the talks

in Camp David between Begin and, uh, Sadat,

it's a riveting story of how many times

each of the other sides were willing to pull out,

and the fact that Carter was there with his wife,

managing the whole thing, going from side to side,

not just in policy things but in personality things,

all things you really need to do to reconcile people

who have hated each other for their lifetimes.

[guitar strumming]

- I had been hired, um, very specifically to work

on foreign policy issues for the Carter Administration,

and I have to tell you

as somebody that was sitting in Washington,

uh, while they all were at Camp David,

it was fairly nerve-wracking

because people kept saying, "When are they coming down?

When are they coming down from the mountain?"

And they were there for a couple of weeks.

- He brings both of these guys,

takes them up on the top of that mountain,

Camp David, and kind of locks them up,

and back and forth and back and forth and back and forth,

and it almost fell apart,

and then it starts looking like it's gonna happen,

and as Carter realizes that, uh, he's gonna get a deal,

he's gonna get, uh, a Camp David Accords

between the biggest army in the Middle East, Egypt,

and the Israelis.

- President Carter really used his knowledge of the subject

and his willingness to talk to people in a very direct way

to get a result. He was very good, I think,

about being able to put himself

into other people's shoes,

to understand what they needed.

- The odds of pulling off this peace treaty between

Sadat and Menachem Begin was, you know, slight,

and--and a lot of, uh,

his international advisors were saying, "Don't do this,"

and Carter had this moment in time

that he knew he had a shot at it,

so he did.

- Ladies and gentlemen,

the President of the United States,

the President of the Arab Republic of Egypt,

and the Prime Minister of Israel.

[applause]

- He put his life and soul into that, you know?

And that--that's been the most important

and only breakthrough really in the dilemma of the Middle East.

- We are privileged to witness tonight

a significant achievement in the cause of peace.

- President Carter was interested in having

a moral foreign policy.

He thought that our dedication to human rights,

America's value system,

was what he wanted to represent,

and he did make, um, the pursuit of human rights

all over the world one of his basic tenets

about national security policy--the best of America.

What are we about?

[cheering]

[rock music]

- Human rights. The right to live like a human.

That's something that President Jimmy Carter,

um, tried to make real, uh, with his foreign policy,

and he had difficulty implementing it

around the world, but at least he was trying.

- He sent me to Africa with a note

on a torn piece of paper:

"I want you to ask African leaders

"what they expect of this administration

and how we can help them." That's revolutionary.

- With the coming of the New Year,

a new and controversial chapter

in America's relationship with Asia.

Here in Washington this morning,

the flag of the People's Republic of China

raised for the first time

at what's now the Chinese Embassy.

That ceremony one of several marking the opening of formal

U.S. ties with Peking

and the end of formal relations with Taiwan.

- In terms of opening up to China.

President Carter followed through

on what had been an opening by a Republican president,

and I find that the bipartisanship of that

is something that is worth noting,

given what some of the atmosphere

has been on that recently.

- How are you?

- The, um, Chinese ambassador came

and, like President Carter would always do, he'd say,

"And if there's anything I can do for you?

Is there anything you want?"

And the ambassador said, "Yes. I'd like to go to Nashville."

[country music]

- The President asked me to put that trip together,

and it was just a magnificent weekend,

'cause Nashville rolled out the red carpet,

at Jimmy Carter's request, for this, you know,

first People's Republic of China ambassador.

Started with a luncheon of every business leader

in the music business

coming to the BMI Conference Room,

and that lunch ended with Barbara Mandrell,

as the doors opened, standing there with her combo

singing "Sleeping Single in a Double Bed,"

as the interpreter was telling the ambassador

what she was singing, he just died laughing.

And then the weekend ended with Sunday morning brunch.

Minnie Pearl came. June and Johnny Cash came.

The terrific remembrance I have of this

is Dixie rings the bell,

you know, and says "Breakfast is served."

This is Sunday morning; this is Nashville, in 1979.

Somebody would've usually said a blessing,

but we had our guest from Beijing there,

and it was a hesitant moment there,

and all of a sudden Johnny Cash and June Carter

started singing "Shall the Circle Be Unbroken."

- ♪ Will the circle be unbroken ♪

♪ By and by Lord by and by ♪

♪ There's a better way of living ♪

♪ In the sky Lord ♪

♪ In the ♪

♪ Sky ♪

- And then it was great

because Deng Xiaoping came to the United States,

and there was a lot of celebrating, justly so.

It was one of the really important national security,

um, agendas that, uh, President Carter did.

- Country music has become a national treasure

and indeed a worldwide source of entertainment

and enjoyment that transcends language

and transcends national borders.

It's always good to see something come out of the South

have an unexpected, uh, achievement.

[chuckles]

[applause]

- Well, I think what they underestimated

about President Carter was what a dedicated,

patriotic, smart, political person he was.

People did think that he was just this peanut farmer

that had come up from Georgia,

forgetting that he had been a governor,

that also he had been-- had military service,

um, and he was, uh, somebody who loved history,

uh, and was somebody that

was so proud to be an American.

- Ladies and Gentlemen, Loretta Lynn!

[applause]

[country music]

♪ ♪

- ♪ Well I was born a coal miner's daughter ♪

♪ In a cabin on a hill in Butcher Holler ♪

♪ We were poor but we had love ♪

♪ That's the one thing that daddy made sure of ♪

♪ He shoveled coal to make a poor man's dollar ♪

- I believe one of the reasons that musicians, you know,

were drawn to President Carter and vice versa,

he was a man of the earth.

For God's sake, he was a peanut farmer.

He was raised around that music.

That was part of that culture.

You know, Shakespeare said

"If music be the language of love, play on."

My favorite is Lord Fletcher of Saltoun.

He said, "Were I able to make the ballads of a nation,

I need not write its laws."

The songs of any given 10- or 20-year period

will more accurately

and honestly reflect what happened.

- ♪ Well a lot of things have changed since way back then ♪

♪ ♪

♪ And it's so good to be back home again ♪

♪ ♪

♪ Not much left but the floors ♪

♪ Nothing lives here anymore ♪

♪ Just the memories of a coal miner's daughter ♪

♪ ♪

[applause]

- Carter did a lot of entertaining

with these musical friends he had:

Loretta Lynn, right?

Uh, Conway Twitty, Tom T. Hall.

All the greats of that era

performed, uh, there in the East Room

of the White House to honor Jimmy Carter.

[jazz music]

♪ ♪

I was lucky enough to go to the state dinner

for the Shah and Shahbanu of Iran,

a pretty grand affair.

The entertainment that night was none other than

Sarah Vaughan and Dizzy Gillespie.

- [vocalizing]

♪ ♪

- President Carter had worked so hard on relationships

with Iran, frankly,

and he was somebody who analyzed for--

from my perspective--national security policy very carefully.

But, uh, it was a very complex period.

[rock music]

- This was not the first time the Shah of Iran

has been forced to flee his country,

but this time his absence will certainly be much longer.

- The Shah becomes very sick with cancer.

Um, he's--

he's trying to get to, uh, America to get treatment,

and there was a lot of pushback

from a lot of corners of foreign policy

not to do that, afraid of what it would uncork.

The thing that's part of that history

that I think is not known

is kind of the Republican foreign policy

establishment kind of led the charge on Carter

to let the Shah in to get his treatment.

- I would say very firmly that under no circumstances

can the United States give in to the blackmail

that seems to be practiced

by the demonstrators in Iran and decline

to provide the medical service to the Shah of Iran,

who is very, very ill with cancer.

- I kind of don't disagree that that was probably

the humanitarian thing to do, but it was part of the problem

that led to the hostage situation.

[rock music]

♪ ♪

- Muslim students occupying the American Embassy in Iran

for the second day now have called for their government

to break all relations with the United States.

The crowd burned the American flag

and demanded that the United States return the Shah,

who is in a New York City hospital, to Iran for trial.

The students took more than 50 hostages

and said they would not be released

until the Shah is in Iran.

- ♪ One way or another ♪

♪ I'm gonna find ya ♪

♪ I'm gonna get you, get you, get you, get you ♪

♪ One way or another ♪

♪ I'm gonna win ya ♪

♪ I'm gonna get you, get you, get you, get you ♪

- Well, the Iranian hostage crisis was a genuine disaster

in so many different ways,

because what happened was that a number of our diplomats

in Iran had been seized and held.

And it in so many ways completely paralyzed

the Carter Administration,

because we had to deal with it day by day.

People thought, "Why is this happening?

We're the most powerful country in the world

and we can't rescue these hostages."

- My thoughts and my prayers for our hostages in Iran

are as though they were my own sons and daughters.

I was under a great deal of strain.

A lot of people were advising me to bomb Iran,

but I knew that if I bombed Iran,

they would kill the hostages first thing.

- He was dedicated to getting those hostages home alive,

at almost any political cost.

Being president is a pretty lonely job.

You're all by yourself.

Carter would retreat to his study

and listen to Willie Nelson. If I remember correctly,

at that time it was a gospel music album.

He made his decisions in the solitude of that room.

- I went into the room

where Harry Truman used to have his office,

which was next door to the bedroom.

I would play Willie Nelson music primarily,

so I could think about my problems

and say a few prayers.

- ♪ Amazing grace ♪

♪ How sweet the sound ♪

♪ That saved a wretch like me ♪

♪ I once was lost ♪

♪ But now I'm found ♪

♪ I was blind ♪

♪ But now I see ♪

- If Iran has brought home one thing to Americans,

it is that foreign affairs cannot be separated

from our domestic concerns--concern

about the hostages, about oil prices and supply.

What concerns people, voters, also concerns politicians.

This is a presidential election year,

and Iran has upset the best laid plans

of most of the candidates.

- You know, on a political point,

he could've gone in there anytime and attacked in Tehran,

multiple lives lost on both sides,

and he would've been a hero to the American people,

but his only interest was getting the American hostages

back alive to their families.

- I think a lot of other politically strategic military

thinking would've done something a bit bolder.

But the hostage thing I think amplified a lot of the fears

that people had had about him.

[gentle music]

- His error was that, when you'd raise something

that this is gonna be good for you politically,

he didn't wanna hear it.

He said, "What is the right thing to do?"

- Go Jimmy!

- The 1980 re-election campaign

opened up in kind of the north part of Alabama.

- We've got Charlie Daniels here.

- Well, Charlie Daniels. Look at Charlie.

I mean, he's pretty--a pretty good Republican,

but he was a great friend,

and he and Carter got along well,

and he did a concert with the president.

- When the president arrived,

the Secret Service was all uptight,

because a whole delegation of Ku Klux Klan folks

had shown up to heckle, jeer, and wave signs at him.

I'll never forget that.

[upbeat fiddle music]

♪ ♪

♪ The devil went down to Georgia ♪

♪ He was lookin' for a soul to steal ♪

♪ He was in a bind 'cause he was way behind ♪

♪ And he was willin' to make a deal ♪

♪ When he came across this young man ♪

♪ Sawin' on a fiddle and playin' it hot ♪

♪ And the devil jumped up on a hickory stump ♪

♪ And said, "Boy, let me tell you what" ♪

♪ I guess you didn't know it ♪

♪ But I'm a fiddle player too ♪

♪ And if you'd care to take a dare ♪

♪ I'll make a bet with you ♪

♪ Now you play a pretty good fiddle, boy ♪

♪ But give the devil his due ♪

♪ I'll bet a fiddle of gold against your soul ♪

♪ 'Cause I think I'm better than you ♪

- I say that these people in white sheets

do not understand our region and what it's been through.

They do not understand what our country stands for.

They do not understand that the South

and all of America must move forward.

Our past is a rich source of inspiration.

We've had lessons that we learned

with a great deal of pain,

but the past is not a place to live.

We must go forward in the South, and we will.

- ♪ Fire on the mountain, run boys, run ♪

♪ ♪

♪ The devil's in the House of the Rising Sun ♪

♪ ♪

♪ Chicken in a bread pan pickin' out dough ♪

♪ ♪

♪ Granny, does your dog bite? No, child, no ♪

- The Ku Klux Klan was down on me, obviously,

and they wanted to disrupt the rally,

and so I thought the only way to do it

was to confront them directly.

- We kinda had to walk through this gauntlet

of all these guys, and you know,

Carter being Jimmy Carter would stop and jeer back

at them every once in a while about what cowards they were.

- This good man,

who wanted to try to reverse the tide of history,

not only in the South and in America

but within his own party--the guys

with the white hoods

and the burning crosses did not like that.

- There was a lot of discontent.

There'd been outrageous inflation in this country

through about three presidents.

You had 18% interest, you had 18% inflation,

and you had the price of gas through the ceiling,

and you had long lines, back in '79 and '80,

people running out of gas.

It made Carter appear like he was weak.

- Are you and your family

more secure after 4 years of Jimmy Carter?

all: No!

- And is America still a country

that enjoys respect throughout the world?

all: "No!"

- I think there was a sense of spiritual depression,

where there was a sense in which we were stuck.

Then the cultural climate changed

because of all of the various factors,

economic and geopolitical.

The global climate and the national climate changed,

and I think that tilted the election

as much as anything else.

- It was the one-year anniversary

of the Iran hostage crisis,

and all the networks had special programs,

and President Carter's numbers just took a nosedive.

- Our election map tells the story of the Presidential race.

Carter won 52 Electoral votes, Reagan in a landslide, 486,

Anderson none.

- I wasn't surprised when he lost to Reagan,

but I was deeply disappointed, profoundly disappointed.

- I've always felt, all along,

that he got the shortest end of the stick of any president

that I could think of in modern history.

- We all felt so bad for him,

because we felt like he had done so much.

- The irony of the Carter Presidency,

of course, is that many

of his accomplishments, accomplishments

about which he is proud, are in the hands of the man

who is going to be sworn in next Tuesday, Ronald Reagan.

Such accomplishments as an energy policy

or a separate Education Department,

the deregulation of business or the reorganization

of the government--all those

could be undone by Ronald Reagan.

- I was one of the last people in the White House

when the administration changed.

And I had gone out to Andrews Air Force base

with a lot of other people to go

and say goodbye to President Carter,

and it was at that moment

that the hostages were released to President Reagan.

- There were tears in the eyes of Mr. Carter's aides

when the Presidential Jet went out of its way

to fly over the White House one last time.

In Plains, Mr. Carter made his first public statement

since the freeing of the hostages.

- Just a few moments ago, on Air Force One,

before we landed at Warner Robins,

I had received word officially for the first time

that the aircraft carrying the 52 American hostages

had cleared Iranian airspace,

on the first leg of a journey home,

and that every one of the 52 hostages was alive,

was well, and free.

- He was praising that day, you know.

It was like, that's what he wanted.

He didn't care about how and when it happened.

He--that's just what he wanted to see happen.

That's the day that I just fell more in love with him,

because he is the true definition

of "Love one another."

- He resolved the crisis in a peaceful way,

with humility.

It took a lot of courage to do that.

- I tried, when I was president,

to preserve the peace, and I'm grateful now

that I went through four years in the White House,

and we never dropped a bomb, we never fired a missile,

we never shot a bullet to kill another person.

And I would say that my religious commitment

to the Prince of Peace was an important part

of one of the basic principles that I tried to pursue.

[pensive music]

- I think he took that loss with incredible grace

and dignity.

I'm sure he had to think a lot about what he was going to do.

I think he probably entertained the idea of coming to Atlanta

and living

and maybe working out of Atlanta,

but he made the decision--he and Rosalynn--to

go back to Plains, Georgia,

and I thought that was very cool.

Go back to the small town. Be who you are.

- It worked out well. You know,

we ended up coming home and starting the Carter Center

and starting off our new lives,

so you know, we missed the White House, sure,

but--and what we might be able to accomplish there--but

it didn't slow down, you know, Dad's desire to help people.

- We heard President Carter speak and he talked about

when he and Rosalynn left the White House

and he said, "We realized that we had a lot of life left

"and we had to sit and figure out

what we wanted to do with our lives."

And I think that there has not been a president,

with no disrespect to anyone who's come before or after...

- Amen. - Who has done more

since they left office

than even they did when they were in office.

And I think it's a testament to them as a couple,

just the humanitarians that they have been to us

as a nation and to our world.

[banjo music]

- The Carter Center is a joint between my parents,

and we only do projects that nobody else is doing.

So we'll take the lead on Guinea worm

and some of these things that are not household names

and are not diseases that are here in the United States

but certainly are worldwide.

- I associate President Carter with the all

but eradication of Guinea worm and, you know,

he used to carry a jar of Guinea worm around with him

and frighten people into action.

- If the worm comes out of a joint,

say, in your knee, it swells up and destroys the tissue.

So the aftermath is very similar to polio.

It completely debilitates that knee,

and sometimes the knee--the leg is crippled

for the rest of one's life.

- When we were fighting HIV/AIDS,

and I'd have the antiretroviral drugs

and say, "Look, if you just had three of these, you stay alive.

Three of these a day,"

and I'd show people what they looked like.

Eventually became one, but it was three.

I got that from Jimmy.

- As far as the Carter Center is concerned,

I would like to see Guinea worm

completely eradicated before I die.

I'd like for the last Guinea worm to die before I do.

[laughter]

- President Carter and the Carter Center,

I know--and I know this from travels in Africa

and around the world-- they're trusted.

And the truth is, they have the level of trust

that you don't often see around the world

from an institution that's embedded in America.

- This morning, former President Jimmy Carter

won the Nobel Peace Prize. Mr. Carter was honored

for what the Nobel Committee called,

"his decades of untiring effort

to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts."

[gentle guitar music]

- ♪ Georgia ♪

♪ Georgia ♪

♪ The whole day through ♪

♪ Just an old sweet song ♪

♪ Keeps Georgia on my mind ♪

- Well, when I went to Europe to be there

when Jimmy Carter received the Nobel Peace Prize,

it was one of the greatest moments of my life,

because I knew it was one of the greatest moments in his,

and he definitely deserved that prize.

♪ In peaceful dreams I see ♪

♪ The road leads back to you ♪

♪ ♪

♪ Georgia, Georgia ♪

♪ No peace I find ♪

♪ ♪

♪ And just an old sweet song ♪

♪ Keeps Georgia on my mind ♪

- I'm very humbled, as well as proud,

because I recognize

how many people have shared with me the commitments

and how much work they have done without recognition,

and my hope is that this award

will be adequately appreciated by all of them,

who I feel are a part of my own family.

And I'm especially grateful to...

To Rosalynn...

who has been a partner in everything I've ever done.

[upbeat music]

- She's been a good, calming influence on Dad,

and she has changed his mind, politically,

on some big issues that I really appreciated,

like the death penalty, for instance.

My mother was always been against it.

Dad always had a few exceptions

that he would accept,

and my mother for years

would not accept a single exception that he did,

and now Dad's against the death penalty.

So she has changed him over the years.

- What I've learned from her is probably the greatest gift

in a marriage is to take the supporting role.

It takes a lot more strength. It takes a lot more patience.

And then, that's why I guess always

when the light shines on her, she just blows you away.

- Rosa and I have been involved

in Habitat for Humanity for 40 years,

and 35 years in a row

we have devoted a full week to building houses.

One year, we'd go overseas, and the next year,

we'd build somewhere in the United States.

And I would say the best Habitat volunteers

we have ever had with us

have been Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood.

They went with us twice to Haiti

after the earthquake devastated that country.

- You know, they say

everything comes from the top down.

Well, the top at Habitat are the Carters.

The guy is 40 years older than me

and he runs circles around me.

- People all over the world are basically the same.

They want to have a good life;

they want to have basic human rights.

And human rights is not just freedom of speech

or freedom of religion,

but it's the right to have a decent home and place to live.

- When I look and see the homeowners

and then I see all the wonderful volunteers

who are just working to do something good

for somebody who needs help, so I thank you.

- When the build is done, okay,

when everybody can't walk one more second further,

this is when the Carters start.

They'll go around, house-to-house,

they'll take pictures with a group,

because what he tells you when you first get there--

"If we're taking a picture,

"it's going to put three of us out of work:

you, me, and whoever's taking then picture."

Right? So we don't take pictures.

We'll all take pictures at the end.

That shows you how quick he's ready to get to work.

It's not a competition.

This is his words: "It's not a competition,

as long as our house gets done first."

That's--that's how he does it.

[cheers and applause]

- "Itinerant Songsters Visit Our Village."

When some poets came to Plains one night, two with guitars,

their poems taught us how to look

and maybe laugh at what we were and felt and thought.

After that, I rushed to write in fumbling lines

why we should care about a distant starving child.

I found my words would seldom flow,

and then I turned to closer, simpler themes:

a pony, Mama as a nurse, the sight of geese,

the song of whales, a pasture gate,

a racist curse, a possum hunt,

a battle prayer. I learned from poetry

that art is best derived from artless things,

that mysteries might be explored and understood

from that which springs most freely from mind and heart.

As a teenager I began to hear a lot about this poetic figure

who was running for President of the United States.

He quoted Bob Dylan, who was at that time my actual

President of the United States, my United States.

He campaigned with the Allman Brothers.

You got the feeling if his hair was just a little longer

he'd be in the Allman brothers.

But this was the first world leader I ever heard

who knew the words to all the songs

that were my generation's telegraph.

[upbeat music]

♪ ♪

♪ Oh, yeah ♪

♪ ♪

♪ Oh, yeah ♪

♪ ♪

♪ One man comes in the name of love ♪

♪ One man come and go ♪

♪ One man come he to justify ♪

♪ One man to overthrow ♪

♪ In the name of love ♪

♪ What more in the name of love? ♪

♪ In the name of love ♪

♪ What more in the name of love? ♪

♪ Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah ♪

♪ ♪

♪ Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh ♪

♪ Oh, oh, oh, oh ♪

♪ Oh, oh, oh, oh, in the name ♪

- Bono is a rock star, Nile's a rock star,

but President Carter was a rock star to everyone that night.

- I have no way of knowing this,

but I bet you,

after the history books have been written,

people are going to see him in a very, very different light.

- Often people say, "Don't meet your idols,

because they're never gonna live up to what you expect."

That was not the case for President Carter.

[mellow guitar music]

♪ ♪

- We have any visitors here?

[laughter] Okay.

And where are you from? I wanna start here,

on the front, and where are you from?

- Maryland. - Maryland.

- California. - California.

- South Dakota. - South Dakota.

- California. - California, oh, same.

- Texas. - Texas.

- North Carolina. - North Carolina.

- Washington, D.C. - Washington, D.C.

I used to live in some of these places.

[laughter]

- Oh, it's impossible to define Jimmy.

I think of him as a simple kind of man,

like in the Lynyrd Skynyrd song.

"He takes his time, doesn't live too fast.

"Troubles come, but they will pass.

"Find a woman and find love.

And don't forget there's always someone above."

There's many sides to him.

He's a nuclear engineer, woodworking carpenter.

He's also a poet. He's a dirt farmer.

If you told me he was a race car driver,

I wouldn't even be surprised.

- It's up to every one of us to make a basic decision:

"This is the kind of person that I want to be."

♪ ♪

- ♪ Oh, don't you worry ♪

♪ You'll find yourself ♪

- Exactly. Perfect.

- ♪ Follow your heart and nothing else ♪

- I mean, I've watched him over the years

and I've watched him do what I think

was the right thing to do, time after time after time.

With all the odds against him,

he still did what he thought was right.

That's not a bad pattern for all of us to follow.

- ♪ And be a simple ♪

♪ Kind of man ♪

♪ Oh, won't you do this for me, son ♪

♪ If you can ♪

- His love for music makes all kind of sense to me,

because music is the voice of the heart.

Music is the voice of the soul.

When you talk about heart and soul,

I think he's the president, in my mind, of my living time,

that I can think of, that brought it to the office.

- I think music is the best proof

that people have one thing in common,

no matter where they live,

no matter what language they speak.

In the future,

I think we'll recognize that some of our religious beliefs,

belief in the truth, belief in helping others,

and our faith in democracy and freedom,

those are the kind of things that are similar to music

that we can share

and that eventually will bring us together,

even after a divisive era

of our constantly changing history.

- ♪ Be a simple ♪

♪ Be a simple man ♪

- Governor, to what extent do you feel you will succeed,

and I mean by that, will you be satisfied

if you just get through it or do you

really think that you have a chance for greatness?

- Well, I hope I have a chance to exemplify accurately

what the American people are and what they would like to be.

If I can stay close to the people of this country

and not disappoint them,

I think I have a chance to be a great president.

- ♪ Ow! ♪

♪ We the people ♪

♪ Remember y'all ♪

♪ Got to make the world go 'round ♪

♪ Got to make the world now ♪

♪ We the people ♪

♪ Got to make the world go 'round ♪

♪ Got to make the world now ♪

- ♪ Earnin' the knack ♪

♪ Vast regret ♪

♪ Everybody sweatin' ♪

♪ What you give is what you get ♪

- ♪ Hot pants in style, don't let our world go wild ♪

♪ Mama's youngest child is learning fast ♪

♪ We the people, remember y'all ♪

♪ Got to make the world go 'round ♪

♪ Got to make the world now ♪

[upbeat rock music]

♪ ♪

[cheers and applause]

♪ ♪

I believe the future's gonna be very bright for all of us.

You're partners of mine.

Together, I'm sure we'll reach for greatness,

and we'll never disappoint the people

who put that trust in us.

Thank you. Have a good time.

We'll be seeing you tomorrow, a lot of you.

Goodnight, everybody.

[cheers and applause]