120 MensHealth.com | December 2016
TONY BENNETT IS AS COOL AT 90 YEARS OLD
as he was in his 20s and 30s. Maybe cooler.
That’s not lip service. Bennett is legiti-
mately cool at an age when it’s often enough
for a man to be able to pull on his own pants
unassisted. The way Bennett wears a suit, it
always looks like he’s going to a cocktail party
that the rest of us weren’t invited to.
The coolness can’t be explained just by
listing Bennett’s accomplishments, but let’s
do that anyway: 110 albums, 81 singles, 19
Grammys. He fought on the front line in Ger-
many, marched with Martin Luther King Jr.
at Selma, kicked a cocaine habit using will-
power alone, and sketched Lady Gaga naked
for charity. And he did it all without changingwho he was. The man doesn’t simply adapt
to the times; the times lose him and then
come find him again. He’s been doing the
same thing, with flawless delivery and style,
for seven decades. As Clint Eastwood says,
“Tony Bennett is cool because he doesn’t
have to act like he’s cool.”
We caught up with Bennett as he heads
into a busy month—he has a new book, Just
Getting Started; a new CD and box set; and a
two-hour TV special, Tony Bennett Celebrates
90: The Best Is Yet to Come, airing on NBC on
December 20. Even just in conversation, his
voice is unmistakable, and it’s hard not to
hope he might spontaneously burst into song.
Sadly, that didn’t happen.BY ERIC SPITZNAGELYou may be sophisticated and swell, but you’ll never be as swell as this guy.
I make sure the
audience is having
the time of their
life when they
come to see me.
It’s the only reason
I wanted to do
this with my life.