Tony Bennett, still loving to perform at 84

A: Sometimes Mitch Miller would say, "You have to do this song!" And we'd battle about it. If it was real stupid I'd stay away from it. But every time I had a big million-seller, they'd say, "Record what you want." Then I would do the American songbook. It ended up that I created this vast catalog of the American songbook albums during the years, and they never went to No. 1, but those are the ones that are still selling.

Q: Somebody recently told me that you can't have a full creative life if you also have a drug habit. Did you witness a lot of that?

A: That's a big subject for me. As a young man, I started delving into drugs and if I had some marijuana or cocaine, I'd hide from everybody and sneak around. Jack Rollins, who handled Lenny Bruce years ago, said something that changed my life: He said that Lenny had sinned against his talent. I dropped everything. And I stopped at the right time.

Personal friends who had drug habits . . . they were so damaged. You see pictures of Lenny Bruce and Judy Garland when they were young, and then later . . . everything was wrinkled up and tired. All the energy had gone out of them. You finally get wasted.

The great Bill Evans was a genius of the piano. The most distinguished albums I ever made were with him. But it was a period in his life when his whole body would swell up and he had to lie down after playing a 20-minute set. Here was this handsome man, highly educated, very intellectual family . . . I asked him if he ever thought of stopping and he said, "Tony, I wish that the minute I stuck a needle in my arm with heroin that somebody would've knocked me out so I would've never done it again."

Q: Did you seek outside help for your own habit?

A: I did it on my own. I had no withdrawal. I felt great right away.

Q: One of the great might-have-beens is a live album you made with Count Basie in Philadelphia. Any chance of that coming out?

A: We had a very ineffective producer and had to rerecord it in the studio. It wasn't the spirit of what happened in Philadelphia. It was a tremendous night.

Q: Any chance the original concert tapes still exist?

A: That's very possible, come to think of it. I'm going to try to look that up.

Q: What further recording plans do you have?

A: Stevie Wonder keeps telling audiences that he wants to do an album with me. He once received the highest honor in France and he only now got around to picking it up 30 years later, so he's a different kind of guy. Whenever it [the album] is, I'll welcome it. Everybody's reaction is "I can't wait to hear it."

Contact music critic David Patrick Stearns at dstearns@phillynews.com.