Jay Leno Reveals the Best Advice Johnny Carson Gave Him in New Book — Read an Excerpt! (Exclusive)

It's now been 20 years since Johnny Carson died and 33 years since he hosted The Tonight Show for the last time. Naturally, it's only fitting that his friend, Howard Smith, has written a new book about their life together.

My Friend Johnny: The Last 20 Years of a Beautiful Life with Johnny Carson and Friends comes out June 10 and will offer his perspective on the man Smith "knew and loved for the last 20 years of Carson's life," the synopsis promises.

With a foreword by Jay Leno, and stories of Carson's encounters with icons like Princess Diana, David Foster, Bruce Springsteen, Barbara Walters, Wayne Gretzky, Mark Wahlberg, Oprah Winfrey, Usher, Arnold Palmer, Clint Eastwood, and seven U.S. presidents, the book "celebrates true friendship, serendipity [and] the magic of knowing someone beyond their fame."

Below, read what Leno says about Carson in an exclusive excerpt shared with PEOPLE.

First, let me say I knew Johnny Carson professionally, not socially. By that, I mean I was so in awe of the man I thought it wise to keep my distance for fear of being perceived as a hanger-on or someone who was trying to curry favor with the boss. My wife and I once had dinner with Johnny at his home with Bob Newhart, and he was extremely gracious. Johnny even invited me to one of his legendary card games, but being dyslexic, I was afraid to go for fear that I would screw up the game.

Both Harvey Korman and Steve Martin had brought Johnny down to the Improv to see me perform, and he gave me the best advice I ever received. He didn’t approve me for the show, and he told me why. “Your performance is funnier than your jokes,” he told me.

“You have the ability to get a laugh with your attitude and demeanor, but your jokes are not strong enough. Next time you go on stage, read your jokes as flat and dull as possible. If it still gets a laugh, you have a funny joke. The next time you tell it, give it all the attitude and performance you can, and you now have a joke that works on two levels. It’s structurally sound, and your performance only makes it better.” From that point on, I made sure every joke I had followed that criteria.

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Whenever I would see Johnny, I called him Mr. Carson. “Call me Johnny,” he would say, and I always felt awkward. Growing up in New England, you never called people older than you by their first names. It wasn’t till I came to California that friends would say, “These are my parents, Bob and Agnes.” “How are you, Mr. and Mrs. Manachelli?” I would reply.

Calling Johnny by his first name just seemed wrong to me, so I was never relaxed around him. What endeared me to Johnny Carson was his ability to relate to the common man. I remember one time he had Dean Martin on the show, and Dean wore a pair of very expensive Ferragamo shoes.

“How much are those shoes?” Johnny asked.

“About 300 bucks,” Dean replied.

Remember, this was the early 70s when a really good pair of shoes was maybe $80. Johnny seemed genuinely stunned by this extravagance, much as I was. Coming from a modest background was a blessing for him because it meant he could relate to the average man.

He drove a Corvette, not a Ferrari.

When I got The Tonight Show, I began to understand Johnny even more. I would never compare myself to Johnny, but I think this is the one thing we had in common: the ability to not really fit in anywhere.

We were too rich and successful to hang out with regular folks, yet we felt uncomfortable and embarrassed around self-centered Hollywood types. Johnny became my role model — except for alcohol. Johnny enjoyed a drink every now and then.

I tried to follow his example. Like Johnny, I never did commercials because when you’re on TV every night, nobody wants to see you in the commercials too. Like Johnny, I was very much influenced by my mother. When I got the show, it said The Tonight Show Starring Jay Leno.

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My mother, being from Scotland, thought that was showing off.

“Starring Jay Leno. Oh, Mr. Big Shot has to put his name on the show! Starring Jay Leno.”

I would try to explain to her, “Ma, that’s just the way they do it — starring Jay Leno.”

Finally, for the second week, I changed it to The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.

“Much better,” my mother said.

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Over the years, people have written nasty things about Johnny, but I encountered dozens of people who were beneficiaries of his kindness, and these things were always done quietly and under the radar. Back in the early eighties, NBC did a special called Johnny Goes Home. In that special, NBC tracked down the 1939 Chrysler that Johnny’s dad had bought new and had given to him as a gift. Johnny had learned how to drive in that car. There was film stock of him polishing it when he was 12 and taking it to his prom in high school.

When Johnny died in 2005, I discovered he had left the car to me. I had no indication that he was going to do that, but I was deeply touched by his gesture. Again, as was Johnny’s way, he did it quietly and with no fanfare.

Do I wish I could’ve gotten to know him better? Of course, but he was a private person, and I always tried to respect that. I still enjoy watching old Tonight Shows and marvel at how well they hold up. I tried to follow his model of never taking sides and always putting the joke in front of any sort of political opinion I might have had. I think that was the key to both of our successes.

I miss him greatly, and this book is a testament to the Johnny Carson both Howard and I knew.

My Friend Johnny: The Last 20 Years of a Beautiful Life with Johnny Carson and Friends Published by Howard Smith Publishing LLC Copyright © 2025, Howard Smith. All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher, except as permitted by U.S. copyright law.

My Friend Johnny: The Last 20 Years of a Beautiful Life with Johnny Carson and Friends comes out June 10 and is available for preorder now, wherever books are sold.