The Today Show

Matt: Mariah Carey has finished braving the elements outside to collect musical instruments and we're please to sit down and have a chat with you a little bit. How you're doing?
Mariah: Good, good to be back with you.
Matt: I wanna mention you're one of the people who doesn't just pay lip service to this cause. You were a spokesperson for VH1's Save the Music Campaign a couple years ago, you've done the Divas Concert twice. Why is this so important to you?
Mariah: Well I think it's definitely helped a lot of kids to be involved with music education because when you're in school there's a lot of different ways you can go. I mean, you can get into a lot of difficult situations with peer pressure and what now, but if you're involved in music, it's actually been proven that if you're in different music classes or courses or plays or whatever, it can help you become a better student and ultimately help you as a person in general 'cuz you're focusing, you're using the creative energy as opposed to getting involved in other things.
Matt: It ought to surprise you then if you know that and you hear the statistics that in 75% of schools across the country there is no music education.
Mariah: I know, I know. It's really sad, but I think that's why Save the Music is so great, because they are really working hard and it's not a charity that pays lip service to what they do. They really are passionate about it and I know John Sykes, who kinda created this whole thing, is really committed to this. And he's really making a difference.
Matt: What was your first memory of music education?
Mariah: Hmmm... well I was thinking about that earlier. Well actually my mom's a vocal coach, so I would have to say that my mother is my first memory of music education when she was teaching me harmony and how to sing harmony and different things. But my favorite music teacher was a lady named Mrs. Toby, and...
Matt: What grade was that?
Mariah: This was 6th grade. She gave me the lead in "The Sound of Music." I was Maria.
Matt: Mariah as Maria.
Mariah: Exactly. And she was really nice and it was also fun to have an outlet. I mean that's like, I lived for it all day. I was like, "Okay, when is play rehearsal cuz I'm a little tired of math right now."
Matt: Tell me quickly about Mariah's Theme, which is a song you're releasing. I know it's meant to be inspirational for teenagers.
Mariah: Right, actually I wrote it at a time when I was really going through a lot of stress and a lot of drama in my own professional and personal life and stuff like that. And I wrote it just to sorta inspire myself to get through that. And as I was writing it, I wrote it with a friend of mine, Diane Warren, I came to her with the idea and we were going back and forth, and it was right around the time of Columbine, ya know, when that was going on and I just felt like kids needed to hear that type of message. 'Cuz I know anytime when I was growing up, music meant everything to me then and it still does and if you hear someone say something encouraging and you happen to like the song, it can really make a difference. And a lot of my fans have written to me about the song and told me that it's changed their lives and it's helped to keep them going. So I'm appreciative. And I have to thank my fans for helping me out this week with the single and making it come in really high on the sales charts and stuff. So thanks everybody out there who's helped me out.