Don't imagine for a moment that an appearance by Pat Boone is a blast from the past. He's still very active at nearly 90, and was very much present at the Christian Product Expo in February, promoting his new country album with tunes like his original ode to grits and his 2022 book (his 28th) If: The Eternal Choice We All Must Make ( Defender Publishing). It reads like an altar call to choose Christ and not make "the wrong bet on eternity," he writes in the book. And he expects to be back on a stage, singing at The Coach House music venue in San Juan Capistrano, CA., in May with more shows following in 2024.

Boone is still powered by his smooth voice, unwavering faith, relentless energy, and determination to try every cultural outlet. He counts 45 million records sold, 50 Billboard Music charted titles, 15 movies, the TV variety show, The Pat Boone Chevy Showroom, and 28 books. And while he has always been a man on the move, Boone never took success for granted. He enrolled in college in his early 20s when he was already a mega-hit singer, already on his way to three stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, already married with four daughters, and hosting his Chevy show. Why college? Boone tells PW, "I didn't think my career was going to last. I thought maybe I would become a teacher or perhaps a preacher as well, to reach young people educationally and spiritually. "

Then, just after he graduated from Columbia, he recalls, "A secular publisher approached me and asked if I would do a book offering sound moral advice to teenagers." That book, Twixt Twelve and Twenty (Prentice Hall) was the nation's second best-selling nonfiction book in 1958. He donated the $1.5 million proceeds to a start-up Christian college, which has since closed. In the course of his still-cooking career, he has recorded pop, rock, heavy metal, Gospel, the theme song he wrote for the movie Exodus, and now tells PW he wants to be known for his new country album.

Through it all, he's never kept his Christian commitment private. He's written collections of Bible Stories, faith-based advice books on marriage (his lasted 65 years until Shirley Boone, his high school sweetheart, died in 2019), and titles such as The Culture-wise-Family: Upholding Christian Values in a Mass-Media World (Gospel Light, 2007). He's spoken at prayer rallies, led Bible studies with movie stars, wrote patriotic songs for politicians to use in their campaigns and penned faith-and-country titles such as A Miracle a Day Keeps the Devil Away (Revell,1986), Pat Boone's America: A Pop Culture Treasury of the Past Fifty Years (B&H Publishing Group, 2006) and Pat Boone Devotional Book (G.K. Hall, 2009).

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I try not to speak condemningly, or self-righteously.
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When Hercules actor Kevin Sorbo complained in the New York Post that he was "blacklisted" in show business for his conservative Christian politics, Sorbo went on to laud Boone for his willingness to "walk the plank" for his faith. Boone acknowledges that he, too, has missed opportunities that "I might have been right for with my looks and ability or my age." He tells PW, "I wanted to play the lead The Sand Pebbles (a 1966 epic gunboat story set in 1920s China) but the role went to Steve McQueen because they didn't want 'a religious nut' to play the role."

He may be more known today for his lifelong deeply conservative politics than as the voice of April Love in 1957. His clutch of awards, including top honors from the National Religious Broadcasters and membership in the Gospel Music Hall of Fame, also includes a lifetime achievement award from the Conservative Political Action Conference(CPAC).

After Donald Trump beat Hillary Clinton for the presidency in 2016, Boone warbled "Ding Dong the Witch is Dead in an Associated Press video interview. He also noted to the AP that God chooses flawed people because "he doesn't have anyone else to work with." He qualified that by adding that he thought Trump, whose authority as president was "established by God," was going to be a "good boy." But by fall 2023, Boone told the Daily Beast—which lumped him under the umbrella of "far-right White evangelical fundamentalists" and conspiracy theorists—that he was pretty much done with the former president, a man he called "his own worst enemy."

Not that he has anything good to say about Biden or any Democrat or politician who support same-sex marriage or social liberalism. Even so, he tells PW, he won't indulge in Trump-ish name-calling. "I try not to speak condemningly or self-righteously," says Boone. That didn't stop him from issuing a warning in If. The book concludes with a unique altar call: Get saved not just for yourself but for the USA. He points to 2 Chronicles 7:14: “IF my people who are called by my name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and HEAL THEIR LAND.” (emphasis from Boone).

Pat Boone now is all about a great God, a great nation, and "Grits —the bestest food there is..."