[00:00:00] Speaker 1: Well, hello. How are you? I'm Isabel Rosales. Behind the camera, we got Jay, a.k.a. Cowboy. My friend Stephanie right here, super producer. Happy New Year. We got Sabrina over here, news associate. This is the CNN star crew. We're missing one other person. His name is Carlos, and he'll be manning the drone. Very important. But you know what? The show must go on. Carlos will come back at some point. Carlos, hello. You're live right now on CNN. How are you? I'm good. Carlos is another photojournalist extraordinaire, but he's manning the drone. Let me show you a little bit behind the scenes what's going on here. What is going on here? What is all this?

[00:00:45] Speaker 2: Carlos, run me through it. We're going to be flying, hopefully without any incidents, around our beautiful boat.

[00:00:53] Speaker 1: He's FAA certified drone operator.

[00:00:57] Speaker 2: And we're gonna be flying around this beautiful boat and showing this beautiful building. Yes. And hopefully show you guys some cool stuff while we're on the boat.

[00:01:06] Speaker 1: We're gonna show you greater Fort Lauderdale up in the Sunshine State. And this is not just a boat. This is a San Lorenzo. This is a yacht. Why a yacht? Well, I didn't know this until I did research on Fort Lauderdale and greater Fort Lauderdale. Turns out that this is the yachting capital of the entire world. Fort Lauderdale is known as the Venice of America. Wait a minute, I got some notes up in here. In fact, I did a little bit of research. It's incredible the mileage that they've got here. 300 miles of waterways, all these little canals in the intracoastal waterway, the Atlantic Ocean they've got over here too. 24 miles of golden beaches, it's just gorgeous. Now you can see I'm in a little bit of a fur coat. It is, let's see up in here, 55 degrees. Normally the year round average is 74 degrees, but that's okay because the party goes on, we throw on a little coat and we're good. But let's go over here. This again, a yacht. Guys, I am not bougie. I'm not part of the 1%, but a girl could get used to this, okay? One thing, the first thing I learned, by the way, hey, hey, no feet pics up in here. You can't wear shoes on the boat because you leave like black marks and it doesn't want scars. It's too beautiful for that, okay? So we gotta leave the shoes where they're at and we're gonna go up here. Jay, please, for the love of God, Hold on to this banister, okay? The water's a little too chilly, okay? It'll be a polar plunge. Welcome, oh my God, I saw that trip. Welcome to this San Lorenzo. Look at this, look at how gorgeous this is. So the party hasn't started yet. That's at eight here, which by the way, is also the New Year's Eve live with Andy Cohen and Anderson Cooper. That starts at 8 p.m. tonight, so we're 56 minutes away from that. You can watch that on the CNN app. You can watch it on CNN Air or on cnn.com slash watch. So you gotta do it. It is a tradition. It's the ninth consecutive year that they've done this, and it's always a good time. You never know what the night will bring. All these celebrity guests and shows, you don't wanna miss that. So welcome to the second floor of this incredible yacht. You can see the crew here starting to get ready. I'm just gonna go ahead and take one of these. Sorry guys, I saw someone flinch from that. The noise comes later. They just need a little bit of booze to get the party started. 2026, you can see that they're getting the food ready. We've got Liquid Courage over there. We're gonna need that for the live shot coming up. For me, probably in the 10 p.m. hour, just so you know. Up here, we got that. Okay, Jay, how do you feel about going up another level? You're good? Okay, wait, wait, now you can show the feet pics. Look at this, because I got slippers. Gotta stay warm. Follow me. Wee. Hello, we're live on CNN right now. It's not the live shot. Don't worry. Keep doing what you're doing. This is a behind the scenes. What? What is this? By the way? This is Nikki, right? Yes, it is Nikki. Hello. She's our lovely bartender. One of several. There's a lot of us on trip tonight. What is this? How do you pronounce that? This is Perrier-Joulet. Perrier-Joulet. Yes.

[00:05:08] Speaker 3: Did I do that all right? You did it better than me, I believe, actually. I don't think so, but that's nice of you, thank you. So we're getting ready to pass them out this evening for everybody on board. Beautiful, is there a signature drink here today

[00:05:20] Speaker 1: or anything we should know?

[00:05:20] Speaker 3: There is, yes, there is a signature drink. We are mixing this, we're doing a version of a, oh my gosh, on camera, I'm getting a little shy. This is behind the scenes, don't worry, it is raw, real, in the moment, unedited. We're gonna do a little lychee Aperol into our Perrier-Joulet type of gin. My gosh, I'm so nervous right now. Don't worry about it. Don't worry about it. You're the most important person here. Yes, you're gonna have this.

[00:05:51] Speaker 1: This is it. It's not mine. I borrowed this from Sabrina because I was unprepared. Oh, that's lovely. I love that. That is beautiful. That is beautiful. So are you normally on yachts?

[00:06:04] Speaker 3: Me, no. I'm actually over here at the circle bar right there.

[00:06:08] Speaker 1: Oh, yes, wait, Jay, let's show that because this is pier 66 is the marina as the resort as well This is newly renovated. They spent like a billion dollars giving this a facelift and it's just beautiful and at the top that Circular area that you saw I I was just there last night I had a drink there and it's a revolving like belt on the floor, which is so Florida and Vintage and classy and you can't have a bad view because anywhere you go eventually you're gonna see every inch of that thing Yes. So it's beautiful. Nikki, thank you so much. We'll be catching up soon. And this is the DJ booth. This will be bumping, but not yet guys. This is early. This is the setup behind the scenes of the setup. Um, Hey, Hey Carlos, wait, can you get the drone up? Cause they can, they can take the drone. We can give them a shot right now. I think Logan, you're looking at me right now from, I don't know where you're at. Atlanta, I'm guessing. If we can take this drone when he puts it up, let me know. Text me, girl. All right, let's go down. My God, that was quick. He's a pro. Okay. I'm a text Logan right now. Who's just the mastermind of all of this. She just texted. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. I got you. Hey, okay guys, so you'll be back to seeing me in a second, but we're putting the drone up in the air. The bird. Can you see me? I don't know what you're seeing. Hold on. Yes, hon.

[00:07:52] Speaker 4: Oh, I see. I see.

[00:07:56] Speaker 1: Okay. So I am being informed that as they take the drone up, you won't be able to hear me, but that's okay. hear me when you're gonna have this beautiful shot of Greater Fort Lauderdale from Pier 66. Let's take that bird up. Let's go. you you and give us a 5.

[00:10:00] Speaker 2: Stephanie, you should sit next to her and keep your sequence.

[00:10:06] Speaker 1: And we're back.

[00:10:08] Speaker 4: You could get used to this.

[00:10:10] Speaker 1: I know, we really could. The 1% life, I think it's for me. I heard that there's caviar later. Wait, let's tease some of these things. We got caviar later. There's a mermaid. There's a mermaid. A mermaid. Her name is not Ariel. I confirmed this. I triple confirmed. Her name is Elle. We may be learning how to savor some champagne. Thoughts and prayers for me on that. I will be learning that. But from somebody with 30 years of international maritime experience, we've got a celebrity on board. I won't tell you who. You're gonna have to tune in for that.

[00:10:44] Speaker 4: Yes, yes, lots of celebrities. And Nikki wanted me to let everyone know it's a French 75, which happens to be my mother-in-law's favorite drink. That's the signature drink. A French 75.

[00:10:53] Speaker 1: I've never heard of this. I'm a whiskey girl because I was raised in Kentucky. Oh, girl. Yeah, Louisville. Wait, what?

[00:10:59] Speaker 4: You're so cool.

[00:11:00] Speaker 1: Yes, and I take it neat too, because I don't need ice in there.

[00:11:03] Speaker 4: You're hardcore. Yeah, so what is a French 75? Champagne, a little bit of, I think, lime juice. Now you're gonna put me on the spot, and I don't know. I'm so sorry. Like gin, maybe vodka. Google this at home, okay?

[00:11:15] Speaker 1: All the things.

[00:11:16] Speaker 4: Please don't take our drink advice.

[00:11:17] Speaker 1: And drink responsibly, very important. Okay, so we put an asterisk on it. It's a French 75. That's a signature drink. I'll Google it, stand by. Okay, as she does that, I wanna introduce you to somebody. Hello. Guys, wave at the camera. We're live on the CNN All Access app right now. So they're getting behind the scenes. Don't worry, it's chillax, it's all, yes. she mom let's fix it today is the day to get the app because then how would you watch this and this is quality yes good job wait Megan can I steal you I know you're doing important things but let me pick your brain a little bit this is miss Megan Washington of pier 66 first of all tell us what is pier 66 pier 66

[00:12:18] Speaker 5: is a hotel. It's a marina. It's residences. It's tenants. We have amazing tenants here. Some of the best boat builders in the entire world and we're on one of them right now. It's an insane property. It's an insane property. It has a little bit of everything. We have a spa, a private club. There's so many things. Oh wait, but as I

[00:12:38] Speaker 1: was looking at pictures of the hotel, I encountered something that made me

[00:12:42] Speaker 5: question. A snow room? What is a snow room? A snow room in Fort Lauderdale. A snow in Florida when everyone's trying to get away from the snow. Yeah. In our spa we have a snow room. It looked like Mount Everest. It did. It was fun. It does. Yep when you go in you can actually relax in the snow room for a couple minutes. It's kind of like a cold plunge but not as cold but it's an amazing spa element. I love this. So we

[00:13:06] Speaker 1: know that the show is coming up here in 45 minutes with Andy and Anderson. They're gonna be from iconic Times Square in New York City but this is the first time that Greater Fort Lauderdale is taking the center stage on this iconic show on this iconic special. What do you want folks to know about Greater Fort Lauderdale? I mean we're the yachting capital of the world. That was a

[00:13:30] Speaker 5: blast to learn. It is. Fort Lauderdale is an incredible community for yachting and boating. Doesn't matter what how big your boat is all the boating elements are here in Fort Lauderdale. Yeah. And you guys have a super yacht village. Wait

[00:13:44] Speaker 1: point me in the direction where is that? I know we can't see it but just point in

[00:13:49] Speaker 5: the general cardinal direction of that. So the Superyacht Village is over here is the 17th Street Bridge and on the south side so way over there past San Lorenzo past those buildings is the Superyacht Village and that's part of Pier 66. That's part of our future development. Pier 66 just went under a A massive, a billion dollar development. Yes. Took a little while to do it, but we're finally here. It just, we are really an iconic part of Fort Lauderdale and South Florida now. This property has such great history. We were originally built in the 60s, early 60s by Phillip 66. So we were originally a marine fuel dock. That's where we got our name. That was our first part of this property. Then we expanded into a marina and then a hotel. And now we're a lot more than that with our residences and our club. We were even a golf course at one time. Oh my goodness. Yeah, so we have a great history.

[00:14:47] Speaker 1: I have two questions for you. Wait, what time check? What's the time? Five minutes, okay. Two questions for you. First of all, what is a special boat that we pass along the way here that might be a little mind blowing, especially for horror fans of a particular famous shark?

[00:15:07] Speaker 5: What was that boat? It is the Orca. So it is the Orca from Jaws which just had its 50th or 50th anniversary and it's here at Pier 66. And it's like a near near perfect

[00:15:21] Speaker 1: replica. It is a near perfect replica. It's insane. Guys if we get another one of these I'm gonna like take you around the pier and I'm gonna show you okay? Yeah it's worth going to see. And wait I don't know if this is off the record or not But Universal was interested, right? Yeah, they've been looking at the boat

[00:15:38] Speaker 5: They've been looking at the boat because it comes with a great story the story of Quint Which is the prequel to Jaws so Quint was the captain on Jaws So we have a lovely local Floridian who wrote the story about Quint So we're excited to hear about that though, and it really just tells about the life of the captain

[00:15:56] Speaker 1: I got a signed copy sent to my room I'll be doing a little bit of light reading right after all of this But not today because today is party day Which brings me to the other question I had which is what can we expect today here on the San Lorenzo as we're celebrating greater Fort Lauderdale pier 66 What can folks at home? Anticipate that we will give them with this live shot. I'm not gonna give you all the surprises

[00:16:22] Speaker 5: But we're gonna have a really special guest with a fin Yeah, a little fin

[00:16:28] Speaker 1: that a little bit. Oh, you did? Oh, you already gave it away? Sorry. Sorry. I'm trying not to spoil the surprises. Us journalists are not in the business of keeping secrets unless we're told to.

[00:16:38] Speaker 5: And then we have some incredible champagne with Perrier-Jouer, some over-the-top bottles. We also have caviar coming, which is a $10,000 can of caviar by Golden Caviar. So that's going

[00:16:51] Speaker 1: to be a $10,000 one. A girl could get used to this. I know. Be careful. I'll be your neighbor.

[00:16:58] Speaker 5: It's the yachting lifestyle in Fort Lauderdale. That's what you're here for.

[00:17:02] Speaker 1: You don't need to to be rich, just make some rich friends. Absolutely. Laughs and rich, okay. Thank you so much. But no, for real, everything under the sun. That's the other slogan here. So everyone under the sun, excuse me. So it's not just, yes, this is beautiful. This is the yachting capital. You can enjoy all of this, but there's so much more to that. There's family fun that you can have in Greater Fort Lauderdale. There are free beaches all over the place 200 plus miles of that so what I've come to learn is I'm add this to the list for vacations okay uh and with that my friends another time check where we at two minutes what should we do Jay what do you think in two minutes her sequined pants wait I have a question for you you met a friend in the

[00:17:53] Speaker 4: elevator? I did, it was the most amazing moment of the day. So I got on the elevator and there's a little cute little kid on the elevator with spider-man pants, so you know this kid knows good pants. He's legitimate. He's legit. And I turn around and I feel a little tap tap on the back of my leg and he says, I love your pants. And his parents were understandably mortified because I've got kids and if they did that I'd be mortified too. Wait, how old was the kid? Probably three, Four and I turned right around and I said, thanks. I love your pants, too

[00:18:25] Speaker 1: You know that kids do not lie for sure. So that was the best compliment. You could have gotten

[00:18:32] Speaker 4: 100% he easily could have said those pants are weird. Why are you wearing those? But he obviously liked him

[00:18:38] Speaker 1: He likes you love them. He's a fashionable kid. Okay, so you got the sequin pants. We're Sabrina. She's not like an animal something Yeah. This is a South Florida Hallmark is the South Florida Hallmark animal print. You

[00:19:01] Speaker 6: know, this is the resort

[00:19:03] Speaker 1: manager, Kevin, the resort manager. Hi, Kevin. That was a dirty setup. Oh welcome to the CNN all access Apple. We're live right now for approximately 60 seconds or something. I think exactly. I In one word, or two, I'll allow up to five, what can we expect tonight?

[00:19:22] Speaker 7: Oh, this is like a giant adult playground, so there's going to be all kinds of excitement and surprises and different things going on. If you're dining in the restaurants, there's, uh, Pier Top has got some-

[00:19:34] Speaker 1: I already went there last night. It was amazing.

[00:19:37] Speaker 7: There might be some sparkly things going off at midnight over the middle of the section of the hotel.

[00:19:44] Speaker 1: I think he means fireworks.

[00:19:45] Speaker 7: There's a lot of drama here, so.

[00:19:47] Speaker 1: We like drama, and that's a tease about the special guest that we'll have here, but you're going to have to, again, tune in for that. Thank you so much. You're welcome. It's a pleasure to meet you. And with that, my handler is saying- You can send it over to Omar Jimenez. Omar Jimenez, a lovely colleague. Where is he? In Mississippi. He's in Mississippi. Wait, somewhere I'm missing- Morgan Freeman's bar. Man, his pictures that he's been putting on Instagram, I am jealous. Omar, take it away.

[00:20:16] Speaker 8: Come on. What's up, everybody? We are here in Clarksdale, Mississippi, the birthplace of blues. And I am with the one and only Morgan Freeman right here. Morgan, I just want to, first of all, your fit. This is a New Year's Eve fit. Walk me through what's going on here.

[00:20:38] Speaker 9: Well, you mean in the whole thing? What we're doing is we're celebrating the end of a year. We're easing into, with a lot of noise, and hoopla, another year. The next year is going to be, um.

[00:21:04] Speaker 8: You're setting the tone right here. Uh. No pressure. No, no, I know. 26. Yeah. Oh, you're talking about the year, yes. Next year, 2026. I see, I thought you were about to say this grand next year is gonna be this.

[00:21:19] Speaker 9: No, no, no, I don't know what the next year's gonna be. I can only tell you what I hope the next year's gonna be, and I hope the next year is gonna be better

[00:21:28] Speaker 8: than the last year. Look, a lot happened this year, and one of the beautiful things is, no matter what happened, you come to a place like this in Clarksdale, you listen to great blues music as we have throughout, And for those watching Clarksdale, the unofficial but also official birthplace of blues here in the Delta area of the United States. And can you just tell us a little bit about the history here in Clarksdale of what you've been trying to build with this club here?

[00:21:55] Speaker 9: Well, we know that there was this history that starts with Robert Brown, who is supposed to have sold his soul to the devil at the crossroads, which is right out there, in order to learn to play the guitar and sing the blues. That we use as a catalyst that this is pretty much the birthplace of the blues, maybe not this exact spot, but this area. And so our intention here is to just carry on, is to just carry on, make it live like it's always lived.

[00:22:40] Speaker 8: I love it. Proud and proud. I love it. And for Jonathan, our photographer, I mean, you show around here. What you've built, you've got flags from all over the world. You got people that come in from all over just to listen to the music and the acts that have come through places like this. Experience it.

[00:22:57] Speaker 9: The reason we built this club, one day my erstwhile partner is deceased now Bill Luckett, and we're working on another project. And just up the street here, and we saw a couple of backpackers just looking around like lost. So he, being him, went out and says, is there a problem? Can I help you? And they said, is there someplace we can hear the blues? And we could not say, oh, yes, there is. That started the whole thing. We can't have that in Clarksdale. We have to have a place that we can say, oh, yes.

[00:23:37] Speaker 8: So here we are. And you know, one of the things that I thought is so beautiful, they're also gonna come back to us here in Clarksdale. Yep. Yeah. Yeah, he's right here, yep. Yeah, look, I'm not gonna be up there tonight, unfortunately, but also fortunately for everybody, The person that is gonna be up there tonight is dressed perfectly.

[00:24:07] Speaker 9: You were up there and it was fortunate for everybody.

[00:24:08] Speaker 8: Yeah, you know, we figured it out. We worked our way through. Really quickly, what are we about to see from you

[00:24:13] Speaker 9: in a few minutes here? Well, you're about to see me sing.

[00:24:19] Speaker 8: You've heard the voice, but have you heard the voice like this on stage? You're gonna find out in a few minutes. So will all of we. I'll be watching from the audience. Don't forget, I'm in show business. He can turn it on and off whenever he wants.

[00:24:33] Speaker 9: sing, dance, tell funny stories. That's me.

[00:24:38] Speaker 8: Much more after the break, guys.

[00:24:40] Speaker 9: OK.

[00:24:41] Speaker 8: That's great. Morgan, appreciate you. Appreciate you. Of course, thank you. Thank you, seriously. Good luck up there. We'll be watching. We'll be watching. All right, for those on the live stream who are probably wondering what just happened right there, while I was talking to Morgan on you for the stream, TV was like, hey, we want to come to you for a quick toss to commercial break. So literally, that was me switching from talking to you guys in the live stream to switching to talking to people on TV. And we've got some of the TV, actually, you might not be able to see it, but the monitors that are up there right there are a little bit delayed, and they were showing sort of what we were doing right now. All right. To continue the conversation I was having with Morgan, we are in Clarksdale, Mississippi, at the Ground Zero Blues Club. And the significance of this place is it really is the area where blues was formed. It formed really on the backs of slave hymns over a century ago at this point. And that was sort of what began the development of what we now know today as blues music. And this particular area, the Mississippi Delta, Delta blues is kind of how the genre was born in this area, has really not only influenced other genres, but has persisted even to this day. It's what we've been seeing in act after act that has come up on this stage and played. It's what's drawn all of these people that have come from all over the place just to hear some of the blues music that we're gonna be hearing tonight. And then if you're listening to that tease, look, I don't know how it's gonna go. Morgan Freeman's gonna get up there and perform. We know he's got good pipes. He does voiceovers. You've seen him in movies. I don't know how he's gonna be singing, But hey, that's something me and you are going to find out together. There's a lot of people coming from all over. Let's talk to a few people here. Hey, what's going on? We are actually live on YouTube right now, and live on CNN app. We're live all over the place. Where are you coming from? How are you feeling?

[00:26:40] Speaker 10: I'm feeling fabulous. I came from Oklahoma.

[00:26:43] Speaker 8: Wow, all the way from Oklahoma here to Mississippi. What drew you here?

[00:26:46] Speaker 10: This is my friend Lynn. We've known each other our entire lives. And she fell in love with Clarksdale a few years ago on a road trip through. And so we were driving to St. Petersburg, Florida, and stopped in Clarksdale for two nights so that she could bring me here and show me the blues scene.

[00:27:03] Speaker 8: Do you listen to blues music often?

[00:27:06] Speaker 10: As much as I can. I absolutely love it. There's a connection. There's something in my heart. It's just that it's got a soul feel to it.

[00:27:14] Speaker 8: Amazing, amazing. Well, great to have you here. I won't go as far to say Boomer sooner, but it's all good. Oklahoma's far enough. Great to see you guys. Look, that's the vibe that we're going for here. I mean, look, people have been coming in and out. You might treat it like some sort of formal thing, some form of New Year's Eve formal celebration based on especially how Morgan was looking there. But at the end of the day, it's just a bar. You can come on through. Yeah, staff working hard over the course of this. I mean, look at some of the other folks. Let's talk to one other person here. Hey, sir. How you doing? Where you from? Where you coming in from? Springs, Arkansas. Hot Springs, Arkansas. All right. What brought you out here?

[00:27:56] Speaker 11: We're going to celebrate the new year coming in.

[00:28:02] Speaker 12: Say that one more time. We love Clarksdale in the blues. Amazing. So

[00:28:06] Speaker 8: how did you get to this specific spot? Did you heard about this place

[00:28:09] Speaker 11: beforehand or heard about ground zero? Been here several times and like the music and just have a good time when we come. That's amazing. And for you guys

[00:28:19] Speaker 8: on YouTube and live stream who might not know where Clarksdale is or had not heard of it before. We're talking a small town in Mississippi about 14,000 people and it's still drawing folks from Oklahoma as you just heard from Arkansas as well. Just coming down here to hear some of the music. So you said you've been here multiple years here for New Year's Eve. What keeps you all

[00:28:40] Speaker 12: coming back? It's so much fun. The people are so nice. It's a small town and they welcome you. They're glad you're here and we just have a great

[00:28:47] Speaker 8: Every time we're here always a good vibe. I love it. I love it. I love it. Nice to meet you guys now for the live stream We're about to do a television hit so just give me a second here, and we're gonna toss us what's going on on the stage Look, that's what he told me. I see him on the side of the stage now. Actually, he's seated on stage now, and so I think it's safe to say it's about to happen. So I'm just going to toss it over to the stage, and we're going to get it going. We're going to get it going. Here we go. This is happening.

[00:29:38] Speaker 1: How about a little sing-along? Are you up for a sing-along? All right. We've got a great band here.

[00:29:42] Speaker 13: We got a great band, we got a guy with a shiny coat on here, a lot of bling, and we got this guy that's going to tickle the ivory. So this requires a lot of audience participation. It's time to rock it again. Enjoy.

[00:30:00] Speaker 14: If you ever change your mind, about leaving, leave me behind. Oh, leave to me your sweet love, bring it on home with me. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know my life can be dirty. But I only, I only hurt myself. Oh, bring it.

[00:30:51] Speaker 1: Bring your sweet love. Bring it on.

[00:30:58] Speaker 14: ♪ Bring it to me, bring it to me, bring it to me, bring it to me, bring it to me ♪

[00:31:25] Speaker 1: ♪ For peaceful ♪ Oh the whole way

[00:31:36] Speaker 14: ♪ Is god's way

[00:31:40] Speaker 1: ♪ Scripture and I'm telling ♪ Mary do I pray ♪ Lord over me ♪ Be all the way Oh, ♪ ♪

[00:32:29] Speaker 14: ♪

[00:32:34] Speaker 1: ♪ ♪ Oh it's, it's 2019 Oh yeah, bring it on Uh

[00:33:08] Speaker 9: Not bad for a handful of jewels, what do you think?

[00:33:38] Speaker 14: We all have pain, we all have sorrow, but you'll be all right, you'll be all right.

[00:34:05] Speaker 1: ♪ You'll be alright, we know that's true ♪ ♪ Always true, Lord ♪ ♪ Lead on me, lead on me, Lord ♪ ♪ Help me, Lord, help me, Lord ♪ ♪ Lead on me, Lord, lead on me, Lord ♪ ♪ Oh, ♪ Yeah, oh, ♪ Falling around ♪ Falling around ♪ Falling around ♪ Falling around ♪ Y'all can breathe now. Y'all are free. Thank y'all so much.

[00:37:15] Speaker 8: All right, guys, if you were watching that, that was Morgan Freeman on stage singing two straight songs, including Lean on Me. Look, it takes a lot of confidence to get up on stage to begin with. Not that I doubted he had any to begin with, but that was incredible. That's just what you're going to see at a place like this. We're in a small town, Clarksdale, Mississippi, but the influence is so, so outsized. The culture that has been birthed from this particular region is really hard to put into words and that's why I think they put it into music half the time. You look around at the people here, they come from all over the United States. We were speaking to someone from Oklahoma earlier, someone from Arkansas earlier. Where are you from? Where are you coming from? Winnipeg. Winnipeg, Canada in the house. I love it. What about you? You're also in Alabama. This is a place where Alabama and Winnipeg meet and have a great time and a great night. Go Jets for your hockey team. They took it from my Atlanta thrashers, so that's why I know the Winnipeg Jets. Anyway, that's a different conversation that we'll have at a different time. But this is really the vibe here. When you talk about sort of the Ground Zero Blues Club, it is a club in more than just its physical stature. It is a club in that it brings people really together. And when you talk about New Year's Eve, That's what it's all about. All right, we got good music, we got good people, and I can think of another place where we got good music and good people. It's not too far from where I am right now. They also have some good things to do with music. One of my colleagues, Randy Kay, who you're gonna find her in New Orleans. I have no idea what she's up to, but if I had to guess, if it's New Orleans, it probably is something that you're gonna find entertaining if you're watching here on the stream. That's it for me in Clarksdale, Mississippi. You saw Morgan Freeman. I brought as much of him to you as I possibly could. I'm going to go celebrate with him. I think we talked enough. I think I can call him my friend now. I'm going to go find out. Great to see you all. Randy Kay, New Orleans, take it away.

[00:39:33] Speaker 15: Hey, everybody. Thanks for watching on CNN Digital, and thanks for watching on YouTube. We are here on Frenchman Street in New Orleans. We're just outside the Blue Nile nightclub. Let me show you what's going on here. It's getting pretty busy already. If you take a look out here in the street, Jerry, my photographer, is with us. You can hear some of the noise already. It's getting pretty busy. They have these second line bands that walk down the street. They're gonna close the street eventually. This is where a lot of the bars and restaurants are, so it's gonna get a big crowd tonight. But we're gonna be hanging out inside the Blue Nile, So let's take you in there and show you what's going on. It's still actually pretty early, so it's a pretty good behind the scenes. So come on in. I think they'll let us in, right? You know us, yeah, okay. Good thing, right? All right, thank you. Here we are. So this is the Blue Nile. Obviously, it's just getting started here. It's pretty early. But there's gonna be a band later tonight, and I'm gonna be talking most of the night, of course, when I'm live from here. It works with, I'm gonna talk to Anderson Cooper and Andy Cohen, who will be in Times Square, of course, having a good old time drinking their tequila shots and whatever else they do. And this is my, what we call our IFB, so this is gonna go in my ear, this is how it works. And then I have a cord with me and I plug it into my phone and that's all we need besides our great camera guy right here, Jerry. So that's how we're gonna go live and that's how I'll be able to talk to them. But let me just show you around. We're gonna have this great band. They were here for a little set up earlier and a little rehearsal and they sound awesome. So that's gonna be a lot of fun. They got a big set. I'm gonna be able to get on that stage and we have some really fun things planned. We are going to have, I'm sure you've heard of Burlesque. Well, we are going to have a band, a group of guys here called Boylesque. It's gonna be a lot of fun. They are amazing dancers. So that's gonna be one thing that we have. We also have, you know, normally we're in Key West, but this year we're trying something new, so I'm here in New Orleans, and in Key West we're always down on the Bourbon Street Bar where they have a lot of drag queens, so we're gonna have a couple of drag queens join me later for some fun and some surprises. And then for now, until we get the band going here and the crowd starts showing up, we have this awesome DJ, how you doing? And your name again is?

[00:41:59] Speaker 16: DJ Novy, how you doing everybody? We are great. You ready for tonight? I'm ready for tonight. Happy New Year's to everybody. We're gonna have a great time here in New Orleans This is the place to be if you want to have a party, of course, come on We're in the woods. We have a great time here. This is a late town, right?

[00:42:13] Speaker 15: So this is gonna get started a little bit later and then around 10 o'clock just to get fun

[00:42:18] Speaker 16: You know just to have some fun then and then it's gonna go all night long Into the morning because that's what we're known for it. We're here to party. What kind of music are you gonna play? Anything and everything between Michael Jackson, maybe some journey sing-along stuff who knows some new stuff new old stuff what is new what

[00:42:34] Speaker 15: isn't the New Year like in New Orleans how would you describe it wild fun you

[00:42:38] Speaker 16: could see anything and everything people hanging off buildings having fun people just having a wonderful time celebrating the New Year and also getting ready for Mardi Gras because that's our next big holiday you know we're gonna it's one

[00:42:50] Speaker 15: after another yeah I'm digging your coat by the way yeah should we do you see my We got to get a shot of these, right? Check it out. Oh, look at us. Yes. And my little shiny sneakers. Yeah. We're doing it. We're doing it. All right. Well, we appreciate you being here and playing some music for us until the band gets going. Absolutely. We're going to have a lot of fun. All right. Awesome. Me, too. Me, too. Thank you. Okay. Let's go back over here. We're going to go to the bar, which is a fun spot to hang out. It's going to be super crowded when things get going here. This is my producer, Steven. Hey. Hey, what's going on? So Stephen and I have done a whole bunch of New Year's Eve's together. We're gonna go down memory lane in a moment, but do you have any tips or anything that I should know about? Because normally this is the time that we use before the big show starts. It starts at 8 p.m. Eastern, Anderson and Andy. This is like when we go over what we do here, you know, all of our like blocking out, what we call blocking out the scenes. You think we're, you feeling pretty good about tonight?

[00:43:49] Speaker 6: Yeah, I think, you know, everybody's here. We've got all our, you know, surprises lined up, we do have a lot of surprises tonight and confidence we're gonna be able to pull this off about 95% confidence oh I'm gonna be on that stage later you

[00:44:03] Speaker 15: are are you excited about that we've got it we've got a couple of dancers are

[00:44:11] Speaker 6: gonna come and have a lot of fun with Randy and we'll see you know what happens definitely I haven't told you everything about that's gonna be happening tonight because you you like that element of surprise I don't want you to know everything because if you know too much it's not good doesn't make

[00:44:28] Speaker 15: a TV okay well one thing I do know is that there's a really great cocktail to be made that's very very popular in New Orleans it's yeah yeah it's called the Sazerac right so this is our amazing bartender Gil bar manager I should say Okay, so tell, first of all, Happy New Year.

[00:44:46] Speaker 17: Happy New Year to you as well.

[00:44:47] Speaker 15: And tell us, what makes the Sazerac so important?

[00:44:51] Speaker 17: See, it's just, it's a New Orleans staple, so actually the Sazerac is the first cocktail ever. The word cocktail comes from the Sazerac. So it was actually more like a tonic, you know, a herb for healing, from a medicine.

[00:45:09] Speaker 15: Yeah, I understood it had, I understand it had like absinthe in it a long time ago, that made people hallucinate?

[00:45:14] Speaker 17: Hey, the Wyrmwood, hey, I don't, you know. Do you have any of that? I'd love to have some. Oh, yeah.

[00:45:20] Speaker 15: That sounds great. Yeah, remember, hey, keep it clean here, keep it clean. All right, so let's see how you make one for us. We'd love to try one, or I'm gonna let Steven try it. Actually, no problem. Oh, I, really? Okay, or maybe, Jerry, do you want one? Jerry, who's behind the scenes? All right, there we go, now we're talking.

[00:45:36] Speaker 17: All right. We're gonna go ahead and spread some of that absinthe.

[00:45:39] Speaker 18: Oh, boy, so that's gonna make us all hallucinate.

[00:45:42] Speaker 17: Hey, perhaps, you know, it depends on the palate, you know. Whoever tasted was, put those some ice cubes in here, and I'm gonna go ahead and... Do you want a little spread? No, I don't want it. All right.

[00:45:54] Speaker 18: Oh, I don't want, I don't want any of this.

[00:45:57] Speaker 15: I'm not sure if it's... So, since I have three, so don't count everybody. Okay, well, I think that's good.

[00:46:03] Speaker 17: Yeah, I got it, you know, I got you. All right. I got you covered. Oh, it's a little bitter? A little bitter. Nice. You know.

[00:46:09] Speaker 15: Can you shake it up?

[00:46:10] Speaker 17: No, we stir it.

[00:46:11] Speaker 6: You know what happens when you shake? Hey, it depends on the knife.

[00:46:19] Speaker 15: Alright, while you're finishing that, or is there a lot more to do? Now you just pour it. Okay, alright, let's taste it. And I want to talk about some of our memories, because I know Anderson and Andy have a big night planned in New York City. They have Stephen Colbert, and they're going to have Shakira, and Florence and the Machine. Oh, you know what I'm saying about Shakira?

[00:46:38] Speaker 6: No. Her hips don't lie.

[00:46:40] Speaker 15: Oh, nice. She's actually gonna be, I think, out of Florida, but they have a bunch of amazing guests lined up for the big show starting at 8 p.m. Eastern. We're gonna have our own fun here in New Orleans. We'll be joining the show. But we, as I said, we used to be in Key West a lot of the years. We've also been, I know you have one that really stands out.

[00:46:57] Speaker 6: Well, I was gonna say, this is our eight year, and we've been doing New Year's now for eight years. I know. Eight years. And eight years ago, we were on the bong bus.

[00:47:04] Speaker 15: Oh, yeah, the cannabis, as we called it, in Denver, Colorado.

[00:47:07] Speaker 6: I remember the puff, pass, and paint party. we went to as well, where there were a lot of very interesting interpretive artworks created that night.

[00:47:16] Speaker 15: That was a crazy time. That was when pot had just become legal in Colorado, and I think it was a year or so. We did that. Oh, all right. Wait. Okay, let's try this. Thank you, Gil. All right. Cheers. All right, Jerry. Cheers. We'll give you yours, or you need to focus on the camera. Okay. We can't. Oh, thank you. All right. Cheers to everybody. Cheers. Let's see how this tastes oh Boy, that's nice. That's oh wait This is Jerry's glass. I'm a little worried about being in focus tonight given given how Holy I guess he had to drink it fast cuz you know he's running the camera, okay, all right so back to Denver We had a great time there. We also where else did we go? Yes that you found

[00:48:08] Speaker 6: Yes, I had to drive all over. I went to I think four or five different head shops the day before trying to find a gas mask bong and finally found one. And the people who sold it to me, I was like, oh, this is going to be a problem. They're like, no, it really works. And I'm like, okay. And then lo and behold, we actually ended up working.

[00:48:25] Speaker 15: So that was a crazy time. We've had some fun times in Key West. I think the one year I ended up in the bathtub with the drag queen.

[00:48:32] Speaker 6: Yes, we had the Drag Queen Mermaid, and we got that giant bathtub, and our poor PR guy in Key West, Andy, had to open, I think, close to 150 to 200 bottles of sparkling rum to fill the bathtub so that we could have enough that it actually looked like a bath in there. And then you got pulled into the bath.

[00:48:55] Speaker 15: And we should mention, Jerry's been there with us in Key West every year, so that, right, he's shaking his head. He's had some pretty fun memories, some pretty crazy times there with all the drag queens.

[00:49:06] Speaker 6: And what's amazing too I love about Key West is there's a lot we can't show that happens at Key West because when you're watching this show, we're out in front of Bourbon Street Pub and Joey who owns it has been an amazing host every single year and we love Joey. But the whole back of that place is one big compound with all kinds of shenanigans happening in the back that are not appropriate for.

[00:49:30] Speaker 15: we've been you know we've had fireworks I've been to st. Bart's one year we had fireworks off a yacht that was pretty amazing but then you know I don't we're not gonna we're not gonna have a anything that we're gonna lower here but we've also been I've gone down in the shoe with sushi and Key West and this is this feels a lot like New Orleans feels a lot like Key West it's got that same vibe so I'm really excited about that you made a very special friend in Key

[00:49:53] Speaker 6: West one year, too.

[00:49:54] Speaker 15: Who was that? I don't remember.

[00:49:56] Speaker 6: The guy who did that great shake back and forth.

[00:49:58] Speaker 15: Yes. They came to us at like, I think it was after midnight. And I was having a really good time. And I said, well, it's not midnight yet. Meanwhile, it was already after midnight. And I was so in my zone. I just danced with this guy. I didn't even talk to Anderson and Andy. I was just, we were just dancing.

[00:50:15] Speaker 6: You were just dancing and bouncing.

[00:50:16] Speaker 15: And then we tried to find him a year later. It was really fun. It was, oh, that's right. I did find him. But he couldn't come back. He had just started a new job at Bank of America.

[00:50:23] Speaker 6: And they said, he couldn't come join us.

[00:50:27] Speaker 15: All right, should we head back outside and see what's going out there? Let's go up. OK, I got my drink. Let's go. Let's go back outside, Jerry, see what's happening out there. Let's go. Our security man is going to open the door for us. Thank you, sir. Ooh, the weather is absolutely perfect here, by the way. It was really cold here in New Orleans for a while. If you look back that way, it's quite a party. Let's go, let's turn around this way. Look at this. It's getting more crowded this way. Oh, hello.

[00:50:57] Speaker 18: Hello. How are you doing?

[00:50:58] Speaker 15: Good. How are you? Good. You come here to celebrate the New Year? Yeah. Yeah? Where are you guys from?

[00:51:03] Speaker 2: From Houston. Oh, nice. Yeah.

[00:51:05] Speaker 15: What are y'all doing here? We're working.

[00:51:08] Speaker 1: Working?

[00:51:08] Speaker 15: For who? Well, we're doing CNN Digital and also going to be on YouTube. So we wish you guys a Happy New Year. Thank you very much. Happy New Year to you guys. Have fun. Where's my daughter going? See, it's so much funnier. Everybody just comes out for this. It's a whole lot of fun. We have, if you're wondering, oh, how many, oh wait, let's, hold on, let's see what's going on over here. We got somebody in some sparkly pants. Let's see. Oh, look at this.

[00:51:35] Speaker 6: So this is Josh, this is one of our musicians gonna be playing our second line band tonight.

[00:51:38] Speaker 15: How are you, Josh? I'm good. Yeah, we're doing a little CNN Digital for all access and YouTube right now. So you're gonna play that in the second line? Yes, ma'am. You wanna give us a little taste of it?

[00:51:50] Speaker 19: Are you ready?

[00:51:51] Speaker 15: On the spot.

[00:51:53] Speaker 19: Okay, let's see.

[00:51:55] Speaker 20: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

[00:52:09] Speaker 15: That is awesome. That's my biggest fan. Nice. So you're part of the second line. Yes, ma'am. Can you tell us the tradition of the second line in New Orleans?

[00:52:19] Speaker 19: The second line it's just a celebration so what second line means is the band is the first line the second line is the people in the back that's the parade so it's just a parade for I mean you do it for funerals birthdays weddings all kind

[00:52:34] Speaker 15: of stuff. I think the saying is that even the funerals can be fun here in New Orleans right that's why you have all the music from the second line.

[00:52:40] Speaker 19: Absolutely you get some good music out of a funeral but you know it's it's what

[00:52:44] Speaker 15: we do. It's a lot of horns right and it's a big deal on New Year's Eve. It's a lot

[00:52:49] Speaker 19: of horns it's a big deal on any holiday so you know Christmas New Year's Eve we

[00:52:52] Speaker 15: have Mardi Gras coming up real soon. Do you have any New Year's Eve resolutions?

[00:52:57] Speaker 19: I just hope I play good for the camera that's it you know. You just did so that's

[00:53:04] Speaker 15: pretty good. I'm doing good so far. Yeah yeah all right well thank you we'll see you in a little bit for the for the show. So that's just a little taste of what we're gonna have we are gonna have a second line as we said and oh there Are they over there let's why don't we just put the camera on on Frenchman Street right here Jerry? Why don't you just come over and maybe? Just kind of I'll stop talking for a minute or two and just let people kind of see what's going on Take it all in So you can see they've closed the street and that was the whole plan, Stephen, right?

[00:53:59] Speaker 6: They're closing the street for us.

[00:54:00] Speaker 15: Yeah, which we love, right?

[00:54:02] Speaker 6: So the whole thing here, the city of New Orleans is so incredible and accommodating that when you hire a second line band, you put in permits with the city and the police come down and they close the street off for you so that everybody's safe and you can have everybody marching down everybody in anybody around can jump in the second line and

[00:54:19] Speaker 15: march with them it's great we already saw a second line come down the street

[00:54:22] Speaker 6: earlier I mean it's just kind of a thing and everybody just kind of joins in and marches with it and parties and dances and sings and it's just like that's just

[00:54:29] Speaker 15: what you do when you're here yeah and this area is amazing it's really it's

[00:54:32] Speaker 6: amazing this is we everybody I've talked to you down here talks about you know

[00:54:36] Speaker 15: Bourbon Street Bourbon Street Bourbon Street no it's not about Bourbon Street Frenchman Street is where it's at so do you have any New Year's resolutions by the way as my producer besides wanting to work with me more? Oh that is my only

[00:54:47] Speaker 6: resolution Randy Kaye is to find good stories for us to go out and do. It's the absence. Yeah I don't know just you know happy healthy family and just you know continue to try and be a better person that's really it. Take care of my

[00:55:02] Speaker 15: family and stay employed. That's a good New Year's resolution. Yeah okay mine is gonna be better at decision-making.

[00:55:11] Speaker 6: Oh. Because you know me. I'm so bad. Have you made some bad decisions?

[00:55:15] Speaker 15: No, no. I mean, I don't make decisions. You know, that's why I'm a reporter and you're a producer because I'm always like, just tell me what to do.

[00:55:21] Speaker 6: Oh, better decision-making. Better decision-making. Not making better decisions, just better at making decisions.

[00:55:25] Speaker 15: I just want to make, yeah, right, exactly. I make very good decisions when I make them. I guess I said that wrong. Because I was a little ambiguous there. This darn drink. This darn drink.

[00:55:32] Speaker 18: Was this a good decision?

[00:55:33] Speaker 15: I'm not sure this was a good decision. Exactly. All right. I think it was a great decision. Jerry's saying no. Jerry wants mine. You want mine, Jerry? Yeah. Happy New Year. All right, let's head back this way. We'll get closer to the Blue Nile where I feel a little a little better about being close to home. We mentioned the snake. The snake, by the way, we're going to... Have you gone to talk to Charlotte yet? Well, we haven't shown the snake, but we're going to see the snake on the on the show sometime after 8 p.m. Eastern on CNN. We talked about it. We're going to have, yeah, we're going to have this snake but we have to keep the snake warm so the snake right now is I guess

[00:56:10] Speaker 6: hibernating in like a hot towel it's a crazy snake yeah yeah yeah with hand warmers to keep him warm because the snake can't get cold the snake gets cold

[00:56:24] Speaker 15: he starts to hibernate which we don't want we want an active snake on the air yeah yeah so that's gonna be fun we're gonna surprise Anderson and Andy so don't tell them about that. Yeah, they have no idea about the snake. Hopefully, they're getting ready for the show and not watching us right now.

[00:56:37] Speaker 18: You would hope so.

[00:56:38] Speaker 15: But we hope everybody else is, of course. But we've done this every year, so we're going to do it again. It's always a whole lot of fun. And then we pack up, and we sleep for like two days. Oh, man, yes. Right?

[00:56:49] Speaker 6: Yes, but not now. We've got a long night ahead of us, a lot of fun.

[00:56:53] Speaker 15: Should we head back in? Yeah, let's go back inside. All right, come on, Jerry. Let's go back in, see what's happening. Hi everybody, happy new year. Happy new year. We're coming back. All right. So we'll hang out here for a minute and then we're gonna get ready for the big show which starts at 8 p.m. Eastern time. And I can't wait to see what Andy and Anderson have going on this year, right? It's going to be a whole lot of fun. So I just want to thank you all for watching here, watching the pre-show. And Happy New Year. And don't forget to tune in at 8 PM Eastern time on CNN to watch the big show with Anderson and Andy. Thanks for watching the pre-show.

[00:57:49] Speaker 1: Outro