(CBS) "All In The Family" was a huge hit for Norman Lear - KING LEAR, you could call him, considering the respect that he enjoys in the world of entertainment. Bill Whitaker has a Sunday Profile:
There's gotta be story behind the hat … and there is.
Norman Lear's wife bought him his signature hat to keep him from scratching his head while he writes.
But he's a man who has worn many hats over the years: TV, movie & music producer, political activist, family man. At 86, you'd assume he'd done it all. But ask Norman Lear and he'll tell you he's only just begun.
"No, there's no slowing down," Lear told Bill Whitaker.
"Why not? You've earned the right to say, 'You know, I want to sit back and watch all these things come to fruition.'"
"I've earned the right to do what I want to do,' is another way of saying what you just said," Lear responded. "And what I want to do is wake up every morning of my life to do something that I think matters."
The man best known for creating hit after TV hit in the 1970s is occupied these days with music. He bought into a record company 10 years ago, and today his greatest passion is Concord Record group's latest project: Playing for Change, little-known street musicians recorded separately around the world, brought together in song.
It's had 12 million hits on the Internet, a tour is planned … a CD. Profits help build schools for music in the third world.
Lear wants nothing less than to inspire - no, change the world through music.
"I've never shown that - [and] I've shown it to a lot of people - where they haven't been emotionally connected when it was over," he said.
