Quendrith Johnson

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by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent

Paul Williams won big last night at the GRAMMYs. Besides accepting for Daft Punk, he is a singer-songwriter known the world over.

It is hard to imagine that songwriting was a second choice for Paul Williams, a composer/lyricist whose legacy of hit songs is known by heart by many from the recordings of artists as diverse as The Carpenters, Ray Charles, David Bowie, Kermit the Frog, The Dixie Chicks, Daft Punk, and most recently Diamond Rio.

How did he become a songwriter? 

"I was on a movie set for 'The Chase' (1966), and songwriting became like therapy," Williams explains of his early foray into writing lyrics. "Immediately I felt the release of putting what I felt into these songs. I don't know if I went to that place where you say 'this is for the rest of the world,' but I thought if I felt it maybe everyone else would feel it to." 

It was A&M Records that first approached him to write lyrics with Roger Nichols. 

Their collaboration resulted in the song "It's Hard to Say Goodbye," and launched Williams into a songwriting career that includes six Academy Award nominations and an Oscar for "Evergreen (Theme song of 'A Star is Born')" shared with Barbra Streisand. 

"What I remember about the Oscars is seeing Cary Grant, Frank Sinatra, Michael Douglas, Kirk Douglas, all in the front row, and it's like you could hear God chuckling, 'how does trailer trash, a construction brat, walk into this?' The fact is, at that moment, what you think to yourself is 'how did you get here?'"

How the journey began is "improbable," Williams admits. An early talent show segued into a move from Omaha, Nebraska, to Hollywood and television acting. On "The Love Boat,"  he was 22-years-old "playing a kid of 13." 

"I was well into my 20's playing kids. And I looked like a kid because of my height, but if you put me next to a real kid, I looked like a kid with hangover."

From television roles came opportunities in films, "someone introduced me to somebody, who introduced me to someone then to somebody else, in this amazing chain of kindness." 

He starred in the "Smokey and the Bandit" franchise with Burt Reynolds as "Little Enos," and in cult classics "Phantom of the Paradise" and "Ishtar" with Warren Beatty and Dustin Hoffman. 

Along the way, the pop hits piled up in improbable ways too. Perennial wedding standard 'It's Only Just Begun' had "all the romance of a bank commercial, because that's what I originally wrote it for," Williams says. Richard Carpenter happened to hear it, and the rest is music history. "Rainy Days and Mondays," "You and Me Against the World," "An Old Fashioned Love Song," and "Let Me Be the One," are the foundation of Paul Williams' song catalog. 

"The Rainbow Connection" made famous by the Muppets and "Sesame Street," along with the theme to "The Love Boat," prove that the lyrics he writes play for listeners of all ages. 

When penning songs, "I've found that if you feel it at the center of your chest, they will feel it at the center of their chest. It has to be an organic process, you have to feel it."  

Williams still sports an unfailing sense of humor that is pin-sharp. "If you want to know what I remember about 'Smokey and the Bandit,' meaning (sequels) two and three, was that it was a vacation to do and a job to watch." 

And, in self-depracting style, as an actor, "I wanted the jobs Montgomery Clift was getting, but I looked like Hayley Mills." 

In 2011, he was the subject of Stephen Kessler's documentary "Paul Williams: Still Alive," he can be seen headlining in a personal story about being derailed by substances and finding recovery in a spectacular turn-around. 

"I've been sober for 22 years. The bumper sticker (for the bad times) would read: 'I was better at showing off than showing up.' I mean, after I was on 'The Tonight Show,' I remember walking down the street and I was treated so differently," and the fast lane caught up with him.

To the rough patches in a long career, Paul Williams is unequivocal about having faced and conquered those now-familiar Reality-TV-fodder demons. "I wake up every day with a three-word prayer, you want to know what that is? 'Surprise Me God.' On my headstone, I want 'The Beautiful Child of Struggle is Art.'" 

Switching gears, he adds, "Amy Winehouse, the lovely Whiney Houston gone. Why am I still here?" He points to a lyric to frame these tragedies. "My favorite line in the title song I wrote for 'Still Alive' -- at first I hated that title by the way -- is 'the dreamer is still alive... sweeter souls did not survive.' It's really a Janis Joplin reference."

Thriving today and going strong, this multi-talented entertainer and proud father of two has been inducted into the Hall of Fame for Songwriting, is working on an autobiography, continues to perform live on tour, and currently serves as President and Chairman of the Board of ASCAP (American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers), which is the organization that protects artists' rights and nurtures young singer/songwriters. 

In his second term at ASCAP, he notes that "it's the greatest single honor I've ever received as a songwriter. I am deeply passionate about maintaining an ability for songwriters and composers to make a viable living with their art."

Congratulations to Paul Williams. It's time for a write-in campaign for a Kennedy Center Honor. See www.kennedy-center.org/honors.

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