how he overcame childhood tragedy. >> i was at a piano recital. it was in the intermission my aunt jesse came and said your mother just died and brought me home. it was then i kind of realized for the first time she's not there anymore. >> and a traumatic brush with his idol. >> i said i have to ask you mr. sinatra you hit this high a flat. how did you do it? i just opened my mouth and it was there. >> this is "piers morgan tonight." ♪ i'll take you just the way you are ♪ harry connick jr., welcome. >> thank you. >> you are a man of so many hats, it's ridiculous. a singer, pianist, big band conductor, a composer, and actor. three grammys, 25 million albums sold worldwide. you starred in a broadway musical "on a clear day you can see forever." and you have your first children's book. not content with dominating every other genre of entertainment, you're into the kids' market. >> well, i guess what makes me want to do this stuff is that i guess what drives me is real interest in all of these different areas. and it was never really about -- i know you were joking about dominating these areas, but it's never really been about that for me. things kind of happened organically. broadway sort of happened out of a career in performing. which happened out of practicing piano when i was a kid. and this just seemed like a natural sort of transition after this -- we did a children's musical. it just seemed like a fun thing to be a part of. >> do you think you're part of a dying breed, an all-around entertainer? there aren't many of them these days. >> i don't know how many of them there are or aren't. i just -- i do think i'm -- i like to think of myself as kind of an all-around entertainer. i just don't know how many opportunities a lot of those entertainers have anymore. being on broadway, like we're rehearsing for this show now, piers, this room is filled with the most talented people in the world. i mean, these people who work on broadway in my opinion are the most gifted of everyone. i mean, they really know how to dance. they really know how to act. they really know how to sing. they know how to perform. and outside of a broadway context you have to wonder because things are so compartmentalized now, how many opportunities do these sort of all-around performers really have. >> what is the thing you most enjoy doing? if i cut off your cord to everything else and left you with one thing, what would you do? >> i guess play piano. you know. because that's the thing i started doing. when i was a little kid. so that goes back to when i could think, you know, sitting at the piano when i was 3 and 4 years old. it would be unfortunate to have -- >> you played mozart at the age of 5, right? >> no. i was playing "when the saints go marching in" at the age of 5. but that's mozart to me, man. >> that's the modern mozart. that's the modern mozart. when was the moment -- obviously, your parents realized i think quite early on that you were very gifted musically. when was the moment you thought this could be more than just a hobby, this could be my lifetime thing? >> well, my dad was the district attorney of new orleans for about 30 years, and when he opened his campaign headquarters back in the early '70s, when i was 5 years old, my mother wanted me to play the national anthem. and they got a upright piano on the back of a flatbed truck, and i played it. and i think it was from that minute when i kind of looked over the piano and saw people were interested probably more in the novelty of a 5-year-old playing than anything great that was happening musically, but the feeling i got of sort of being the center of attention because of something i love to do, it was from that moment on when i said everything else is going to come second to that. i mean, it was just -- i had blinders on to be a performer. >> and you were brought up in new orleans, the sort of home of music. i guess everywhere you go there you're surrounded by people entertaining. >> right. >> it must be a great inspiration to anyone in that business. >> i mean, it's unbelievable. not only is it inspirational, but it's so functionally instructive. i mean, to have -- some of these musicians that i grew up playing with were playing with louis armstrong in the '30s. >> amazing. >> yeah, it really is. so to be there as, say, a 6-year-old in a club on bourbon street and have them say oh, harry jr. come on up and play with us and i'd play whatever song i play. and then the next week they'd call me up and i'd play a different tune. and on the break they would show me, hey, man, this is what you're doing right, this is what you're doing wrong. i mean, to have that kind of tutelage sort of from -- firsthand -- >> you can't buy it, can you? >> you really can't. >> extraordinary experience. >> it was incredible. >> tell me about your parents. >> well, my mother, i knew until i was 13. she decide when i was 13. she was from new york. a jewish background. and met my dad when they were working for the government in morocco. and they got married in 1953, moved back to new orleans. my dad was from mobile, alabama and then grew up in new orleans. so they came back to new orleans. they both were lawyers. and they had a record store in the '50s, about ten years before i was born, to sort of make money to put themselves through law school. and by the time i came around in '67 they were both practicing law and my mom and i were super tight. i think she really wanted me to be an artist. she used to like to tell people she wanted to be beethoven's mother. that was her thing. she wanted to be the mother of this person. and my dad, although he was very busy politically, always found the time to support me, to set the right example for me. and i have an older sister too who's another hero of mine. >> what was it like in your family? you were brought up not in a strict way but just taught to be very respectful. if somebody older than you walked in the room, you should stand up. >> yeah. that's a southern thing, though. do they do that in england? is that a big deal? >> you know, england used to be a bit like that. i think it's lost its way in the last sort of 25 years. it's nowhere near as -- when i go down to somewhere south here, if i go to dallas or houston or somewhere, i'm always struck by people calling me sir and the level of natural politeness. >> it's true. >> much more pronounced here than it is in england anymore. >> is that right? >> yeah. >> i remember the first date i went on with my wife and i pulled the chair out so she could sit down. and she said no, i would like to sit there. i said no, i'm pulling it out for you, baby. that's the way we were taught. but it was you know, the guy walks behind the girl when she's going up the steps, in front of the girl when she's going down. and you never give a one-word answer. you don't say harry, did you do your homework, yeah, i did -- i mean, you say yes, sir or yes, ma'am. it's just what -- that's just the way we did it. but it was also, i mean, when your dad is the d.a. and your mother is a judge, it wasn't about being respectful -- i mean -- >> you've got to behave yourself. >> yeah. there wasn't a whole lot of room for messing around. >> a lot of pressure for a young man i would imagine growing up in new orleans. >> that's right. >> you spoke very movingly about your mother. awful age to lose a mother. age 13. i've got a son about that age now. you're becoming a young man. to lose this woman who is so close to you must have been a really huge blow at the time. >> piers, it was the worst thing probably to this day that's ever happened to me. and there were years and years and years when i didn't want to talk about it, when i was in my 20s. and i started to accumulate some -- i was more in the public eye. people started to know who i was. i would never talk about it. i'd get angry with journalists if they would even bring it up. it was just off limits. and it took me a long time to finally realize that it's okay to talk about it and you know, she was my mom. i had her for 13 years. before i was born she started a diary to me and a second one for my sister. and she didn't know what sex we were going to be because we hadn't been born yet. so she said dear baby, you know, you're in my tummy right now. and from that moment till i was 13, man, i have every birthday party, every gift that was given to me, every piano recital. everything was documented. and i look at that now, and i thank god. i had her for 13 years. that's all i had her for. but man, it was profoundly impactful to me. >> she had cancer. >> yes. ovarian cancer. >> did you realize that she was dying? >> i knew she was not feeling well. but at the time she got cancer i was 10. my sister was 13. and we were a little bit young. maybe my sister might have known. i knew she had cancer, but i thought, you know, she's going to get through this, she can get through anything. and it wasn't until the day she died. she came home from the hospital. everyone knew that she was going to die. and i'm sure she wanted to die at home. and i remember her sitting in this little recliner chair, and i would go into the other room and we have this -- she had given me a seven-foot yamaha grand piano. and you mention mozart. it was the mozart concerto that she loved for me to play. i would play that. i'd go running in, what did you think? and i'd go run and play some more, what did you think? and then the day she died my aunt jesse -- my dad had sent us out. i think everybody knew that was the day. i was still oblivious to it. and i was at a piano recital and it was in the intermission where my aunt jesse came and said your mother just died and brought me home and it was then i kind of realized for the first time, you know, she's not there anymore. >> your father obviously had to carry on the family. i mean, it must have been incredibly tough for him too. and you developed a very strong bond with him subsequently. >> yeah. my dad is my hero. i mean, he's 85 now -- >> he still lives in new orleans. >> mm-hmm. he still lives there. and he's in great health. he's handsome and strong and got an incredible moral and ethical backbone. i just am -- i couldn't have been luckier with my parents. >> what would she have made of what's happened to you, your mom? >> oh, my gosh. >> i mean, having been the driving force for you to live your dream. >> yeah. >> she never got to see you realize that dream. >> well, i'd like to think that she's seeing it now in some capacity, you know. in some way that i don't understand. but i feel her. obviously, she's not really here. but you know, where i really see her, piers, is in my kids, man. i was at rehearsal for this broadway show the other day, and my oldest daughter, georgia, came. and i think georgia looks like my mom a little bit and has some of the sort of -- my mother was -- had -- it was almost like she had a sixth sense about her and she was very kind of gypsy-like in her ability to understand people and situations. and my oldest daughter has that in her personality. and she came into rehearsal. hey, dad. i couldn't go over to her because i was in the middle of a scene. and david turner, this brilliant actor, i'm lucky enough to share the stage with, said, "i've never seen like a daughter show -- as a 15-year-old show that kind of love to their dad." so i think my mom, she has to be manifested through them some way. i don't know. i just feel -- i feel more happy than sad. and i think it's because of my wife and my children. >> you've had an extraordinary marriage. i want to talk to you about it a bit later. and you're surrounded by women. >> i wouldn't have it any other way. >> same for all of us. let's have a break and come back and talk to you about another very difficult time for you, which was hurricane katrina. obliterating the place that you grew up. and how you played a big part actually in helping it rebuild itself. ♪ all the way ♪ happy to be near you ♪ when you need someone to cheer you ♪ ♪ all the way ♪ taller than the tallest tree is ♪ stiletto heels skinny jeans houndstooth snuggie pork pie hat oshkosh socks 5% cash back. right now get 5% cash back at department stores. ♪ ♪ mom? 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[ male announcer ] get low prices on this season's hottest games. like kinect sports season 2 for xbox 360 with kinect. rated e for everyone. backed by our christmas price guarantee. save money. live better. walmart. ♪ ked by our christmas price guarantee. you want to save money on car insurance? no problem. you want to save money on rv insurance? no problem. you want to save money on motorcycle insurance? no problem. you want to find a place to park all these things? fuggedaboud it. this is new york. hey little guy, wake up! aw, come off it mate! geico. saving people money on more than just car insurance. this is like some freak accident, you know, with the levee breaking. that's where i grew up, where that breach in the levee was is my neighborhood. how can you -- i mean, the storm was over, and then this started. >> that was harry connick jr. in new orleans after hurricane katrina hit. i mean, you went pretty well straight down there. when did you hear about it, and how quickly did you realize how bad it was? >> i heard about it on -- i knew the storm was coming. i mean, we get storms all the time in new orleans. i mean, i was worried, you know, that my dad's house wouldn't lose power and things like that. but, i mean, who would have predicted that type of devastation would have occurred? i got down there -- let's see. the day after the levee broke. and that's what freaked everybody out. i mean, we grew up right there by those levees. i mean, we played on them. that was just -- it's just like a big old hill with a concrete barrier on the top. and that was just the place we hung out. you just couldn't conceive of these levees actually breaking. but that was a mess. i mean, just unbelievable. unbelievable. it was scary. >> and when you got there and saw the scale of devastation, i mean, as someone who had been born there, raised there, what was going through your mind? >> it's hard to articulate, piers. i remember going past the cemetery where my mother's buried. she's buried with my grandparents. and it's literally a lake. people that don't know new orleans, it's below sea level. so you can't bury people underground. you have to bury them above the ground. and those tombstones and whatever monuments that there were marking the grave sites were underwater. the entire thing was -- i'm thinking like everything from where's my mother's bones, you know, where's my dad, like where -- you know, it was like a nightmare, man. and the fact that it happened in new orleans was really strange. going down to the convention center and seeing thousands of -- piers, there were like 15,000 people at the convention center. not at the superdome where all the press was, but there were people having seizures. there were people without medication. and i'm not talking about poor black people. i'm talking about everybody. i mean, there were just people who did not have the means of getting out of new orleans. they were all there. and i showed up, and a lot of people know me. i remember this old white woman came up to me and said, i haven't had my heart medication in three days. they told us to come here. they said they would pick us up. do you know anything? and i'm saying, oh, my god. like this is -- we're not in a third world country here. this is -- >> and yet the authorities seemed to behave like they were in a third world country. i mean, the speed of reaction was scandalously slow. when you look back at it, why do you think that was? why was it not just obvious there was this awful disaster unfolding? >> well, i'm not privy to all of the details that unfolded and led people to make certain decisions. i do know that off the air we were talking about my manager ann marie wilkins. i've been with her for a long time. and she said this is not the time to blame anyone. at least for you, harry. she said don't blame anyone, just do what you can. and i realized as time went on i never did -- i didn't need to blame anyone. i mean, the problem was there. what do we do to fix it? and since then we've established, along with habitat for humanity and my dear friend branford marsalis, the musician's village and the ellis marsalis center for music. and all that was done without saying look what you did, look how you messed up -- >> president bush in his own memoirs, which i read recently, he does accept criticism for quite a lot of his actions, not least of all looking down from the plane and being photographed looking down and stuff like that. but he sort of lays a lot of the blame on a more local level, that he was prohibited from sending in the national guard and stuff. i mean, i sort of read it and thought, well, if you're the president of the united states and you've got so many of your people dying in such horrific circumstances you just throw the rule book out, don't you? you just do what it takes. >> well, you know, you'd like to think so. but it was a traumatic time for everybody. i was down there doing some -- the only way i could get down there is bob wright, the former president of nbc, was kind enough to get me down on his plane. he said would you do some correspondence work down there for us to let us know what's going on. i said heck, yeah, i'll do whatever it takes as long as you get me down there. and i had a satellite phone. and when i was at the convention center i stood up on a chair because it wasn't about trying to figure out who did what wrong. i was like, hey, y'all need to send people over here. there's people who haven't had food and water for a number of days. there were dead bodies there. there were people seizing. there were people without medication, without any kind of plumbing or electricity. no utilities at all. so it wasn't about -- it was about people stepping up and doing what they could. at this point what good is it going to do to blame local or state or federal -- >> some people, you know, said it was kind of surreptitious racism, that it was the fact there were so many poor black people meant that the authorities didn't respond in the way if they'd all been middle-class white people. >> well, i mean, my dad's not poor and black, and he had a hell of a time getting out of new orleans. my aunt jesse and my uncle john were on their rooftop. and last time i checked they were as white as i was. so i don't know. really at this point in my relationship with that event, and this may upset some people to say, but who cares? like we just need to move forward. you know what i'm saying? people mess up all the time. they messed up then. whatever. what can we do? all i know is that we built 80 houses and brought a lot of musicians -- >> let's have a break and come back and talk about how you helped rebuild new or