You Might Also Like: The Oprah Podcast

**Oprah** (0:00)
Strangers would stop and ask me, hey, Oprah, have you read The Old Golden? It's your kind of book. The book started off self-published by a first-time author with no publicity or a marketing campaign, to then topping the New York Times bestseller list.

**Allen Levi** (0:17)
There was no deadline, no editor, no writing coach, no publisher, no agent.

**Oprah** (0:22)
This is unbelievable.

**Allen Levi** (0:24)
I cried a lot as I wrote this book.

**Oprah** (0:26)
You did.

**Allen Levi** (0:27)
And fell in love with the characters because they all remind me of someone I actually know. This man could love lots of people unlike himself. I wonder if I could do the same thing.

**Oprah** (0:36)
That's exactly what happened to me.

**Allen Levi** (0:38)
For anything to be good, truly good, there must be love in it. It's the truth.

**Oprah** (0:43)
That's right.

**Allen Levi** (0:43)
I think that if we accept that premise as a rule for life, we have to figure out, okay, what is love and then how do we live it out? And I think that the novel for me, as I look at it now, was maybe an attempt on my part to answer those questions. What does it look like to live a life of love?

**Oprah** (1:03)
Hi, everybody. I'm so glad to be here with you on the Oprah Podcast. Welcome to my front porch. So many people were telling me, so many people were telling me about this book. People I knew, people I didn't know, strangers would stop and ask me, hey, Oprah, have you read Theo of Golden? It's your kind of book.
And it turns out it actually is my kind of book. It is, but quietly became what the New York Times calls a word of mouth smash hit. The book started off self-published by a first time author with no publicity or marketing campaign to then topping the New York Times bestseller list. It is my great pleasure to welcome the author, Allen Levi to my front porch.

**Allen Levi** (1:51)
And Allen Levi is delighted and honored to be here. Thank you, Oprah. I could never have dreamt in 1,000 years that this could happen.

**Oprah** (1:58)
Well, I so wanted to talk to you about this beautiful book because it is a balm of good, a balm of good feelings for readers. And I feel really honored to be able to sit here with you on my porch and talk to you. So you're a former musician, I hear.

**Allen Levi** (2:14)
Right.

**Oprah** (2:14)
Or you are still a musician.

**Allen Levi** (2:16)
I pittle. I pittle. Yeah, the book thing has taken over my life the last couple of years. Yeah. But I was a traveling musician for 15 or 20 years.

**Oprah** (2:23)
And you were an attorney.

**Allen Levi** (2:24)
Was an attorney for 13 years.

**Oprah** (2:26)
Yeah.

**Allen Levi** (2:26)
Was a judge for a couple of years.

**Oprah** (2:29)
Which of those things did you like the most?

**Allen Levi** (2:32)
You know, I liked something about all of the music I really love. I love writing songs, still do, even though I've not done it much lately. But I really love the book thing.

**Oprah** (2:48)
Yeah. You love the book thing.

**Allen Levi** (2:50)
I love the book thing. And it's a surprise to me because it takes so long to write a book.

**Oprah** (2:55)
First of all, can we just say this, Allen?
Can you believe yourself right now? Can you believe the incredible, I mean, incredible and all that that word means, appeal that this book has had for readers around the world? I mean, in your wildest, wildest, wildest dreams, did you imagine the outcome of the success of Theo of Golden?

**Allen Levi** (3:20)
Never, ever. You know the story. I mean, it was never supposed to be published.

**Oprah** (3:23)
Yeah, I know the story, but they don't know the story.

**Allen Levi** (3:25)
Can I share the story?

**Oprah** (3:26)
Share the story.

**Allen Levi** (3:26)
Yeah. So I had just finished a short stint as a judge.
I didn't know what I would do next. I didn't want to travel again as a musician. I was kind of tired of that. And I just happened to walk into a coffee shop with which I was very familiar. And there were portraits on the wall, 92 portraits, all done by a dear friend of mine, Gary Pound.

**Oprah** (3:48)
Dr. Gary Pound has been a friend of Allen's for nearly four decades. He is an artist from Columbus, Georgia, well known for his portraits, his landscapes and illustrations.
Fountain City Coffee in Columbus, Georgia is the beloved home for Gary's coffee shop series of portraits that served as one of the inspirations for Allen's novel, Theo of Golden.