Harry Connick, Jr.: ‘I really choked when I was singing for Frank Sinatra’

Harry Connick Jr says he once “choked” while performing at Frank Sinatra’s 75th birthday party:

FITZY Has there been a moment when you first started your music career where you choked on stage where you just go, I can’t do this and anxiety took over.

HARRY There was only one time when I would say I really choked and that’s when I was singing for Frank Sinatra’s birthday party. I think it was a 75th birthday party. And like every singer in the world was there, Ella Fitzgerald and Tony Bennett, and I mean, everyone. And I don’t really get nervous, I never have but that particular night, you know, I was terrified, because, you know Frank Sinatra is sitting 20 feet in front of me, and it was just, you know, intimidating, but, you know, that’s what I signed up for. And that’s what these kids sign up for. They may not know this, but we understand that that’s part of this business, you know, there’s going to be moments on stage where, you know, you choke or you get embarrassed, you forget the words, you know, it’s really not about that as much as you know, how you recover from it, and how you kind of learn from it. So it’s a really interesting process, because, you know, these kids are so green, like they, you know, a lot of them have never sung in front of people before much less than audience or a national audience. So it’ll be it’ll be really interesting to see who kind of has what it takes and who the audience responds to.

Harry Connick Jr on that horrifying copycat scene:

FITZY Just before you go, we find it really, really hard to talk to you because we know how amazing your voice is Harry. But you know, we can’t stop thinking of that scene from CopyCat where you lick the knife front of Sigourney Weaver. Good. Did you adlib that was, that part of the script? Did you actually lick a knife? It was one of the scariest scenes of all time.

HARRY It was pretty scary. I remember when I did that. That film. Most of that stuff was ad lib. Like a lot of that because the director’s name was John Emile and he was from England. And I was playing like a real white trash southerner. So a lot of the stuff I said you know, he had never heard. He says, you know, a lot of expressions. Yes, I know a lot of expressions. They just kind of let me do my thing. And in you know, obviously I had lines memorized. But a lot of that stuff was just let me see how much I can scare Sigourney Weaver.