Johnny Mathis, What Do You Listen to When You Clean the House?

“First of all, I have a wonderful lady who’s been with me for 43 years.

(While she cleans) I go walking through my house, sitting in different parts of it. Because I live on a hill, I have some really good views, and I sit and think about certain songs and certain performances that I’ve seen over the years.

I listen to every conceivable thing that you could imagine.

My greatest joy is to be able to call my office and (ask for music). Because of the way that music is now everywhere on the internet, you can get songs you never thought you’d hear again. That is my joy. I call up my assistant Amy and say, ‘Hey, I remember some Nat King Cole song from some movie,’ and I can have it sent up to the house in the matter of an hour or two. I enjoy that aspect of this new kind of technical world that we live in where everything that was ever recorded is accessible.

Nothing is lost now, everything can be found musically.”

He’s spent more than a half-century singing professionally, and Johnny Mathis croons his way into the spotlight at the Palace Theatre in Albany at 8pm on Thursday (April 4). Tickets are $36, $56 & $76.