Legendary singer Tony Bennett spent some of his Wednesday evening encouraging leaders and lawmakers to invest in our children. Bennett pleaded to keep music and art education in schools at a U.S. Capitol reception for the National Association of Music Merchants, the VH1 Save the Music Foundation and DoSomething.org.
“I think that all children in public schools should have an art education. Even if they don’t become artists, they should understand it, respect it and make art flourish throughout the United States and influence the rest of the whole world,” the 15-time Grammy Award winner told Yeas & Nays.
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We tried to get the 85-year-old former infantryman to talk politics, but he said he “didn’t want to get into it” and avoided such questions when asked.
“I just want to talk about the arts. Without the arts you have a terrible country,” Bennett said. Asked whether we couldn’t say the same about our troops, he replied, “Anybody who does anything well is an artist.”
Singer-songwriter Gavin DeGraw (who said he took one whole hour to pick out his belt for the occasion) and former New York Yankee and guitarist Bernie Williams co-hosted the event.