Joy 101: Harry Connick Jr.

Hoda Kotb (0:10)

Wow, I hope you are ready for an incredible conversation. Okay, Harry Connick Jr. is a brilliant musician, a brilliant actor, and just a brilliant human being. So you wonder, how did he get to be that brilliant? Like, what is it about him? Where did it all start? How did it begin?

Well, for Harry, it began with his mother.

His mom, who he calls Babe, passed away when he was just a young boy.

So Harry, at age 59, decided he was going to write a book about her, the woman who influenced his life. And it's called Babe a la Baratio. And it is a gorgeous book that shows how Harry Connick Jr. came to be. She was a musical influence on him. She was a moral influence. She just guided his life and still guides it today. And he actually did something for her on what would have been her 100th birthday. This is a beautiful conversation, a deep and meaningful conversation that I think you'll be able to relate to in your own life. I hope you enjoy my talk with Harry Connick Jr. Okay, so your book is out. It is called Babe a la Baratio.

Harry Connick Jr. (1:24)

That's better than I pronounce it.

Hoda Kotb (1:27)

Okay, it's about your mom. But before we get into you and your life, I just want to read the back cover because this touched me.

There aren't enough trees to make enough paper to write enough words to say how much I love my mom. Period. Full stop. That kind of sums up your relationship with her.

Harry Connick Jr. (1:43)

It really does. I mean, she died when I was 13 So the only memories I have of her were from a very short time. Nothing good came from her death.

But when I think about how I remember her, she's sort of frozen in time. And I think that is kind of a blessing. And the love I have for her has only grown deeper, which is strange because my relationship didn't go past that point. But as I've grown, my perspective on her has changed and I really do love her infinitely.

Hoda Kotb (2:22)

How did you know as a kid that she loved you?

Harry Connick Jr. (2:26)

She showed her love to me in ways that I can remember like they were yesterday. She was, I mean, she was very physical. Like she loved to hold me and to, like I remember once I went into her room, she was laying down and there was a face cream that she used to use. And I just would go in and put this face cream on. I was like five or six. And she was just very patient with me. She never sort of shooed me away.

Very physical, but also she allowed me to discover things on my own. She would never stop me, unless it was something, you know, if I was walking around to oncoming traffic.

Hoda Kotb (3:06)

She'd stop you there.

Harry Connick Jr. (3:06)

Yeah, but she was the type of person who would allow me to figure things out on my own, which is kind of playing the long game in terms of how she showed her love. But it, you know, I remembered those things and try to, you know, incorporate them into how I parent our kids.

Hoda Kotb (3:23)

Why did you decide to write a book about her? Why was this something that you felt it was time for, it was important to do?

Harry Connick Jr. (3:33)

Well, it all started with her dream of my playing at Carnegie Hall, which was since I was a child, but I found out she was sick when I was around 10 And I called Carnegie Hall from New Orleans and said, Hey, yeah, and they said, I said, I really want to play there for my mom. They said, well, this is the box office. It doesn't work like that. And I told my mom and then she died three years later. And I and I wanted to that was sort of a kind of a signpost goal for me to play at Carnegie Hall. But I intentionally didn't go into Carnegie Hall. I never walked inside that building for 45 years because I wanted to.

I wanted to make sure that when I did, it would be something special. So that got me thinking about maybe I could write a piece of music for her. So eight years ago, my manager called Carnegie Hall and said, do you have May 22nd, 2026? Because you have to book it years in advance.

So we had that date. And then when I started writing the music, I thought a lot of times when people go hear symphonic music, they can only imagine what the composer must have been thinking about. But because this was for my mom, I thought maybe I'll write a book that sort of can serve as a blueprint to the music for people to kind of help navigate what I was thinking about.