Welcome to Biscuits and Jam from Southern Living.

I'm Sid Evans, editor-in-chief of Southern Living magazine.

My guest today has been on the world stage for most of his life,

from performing at Carnegie Hall

to being recognized at this year's Academy Awards. But as we're here today, he still dreams

of Monday nights at his parents' house for red beans and rice. Sometimes it's just a family. Other

times people drop by a couple minutes before. There's always

something left in the pot, though. It feels very much like a low-key affair that anybody can be

comfortable at, whether you're king or whether you're just regular old Joe from up the block.

Music is a birthright for John Batiste.

Members of his family have performed in both the Tremay and Olympia brass bands in New Orleans,

and by the time he was 20, John's piano talents had him touring Spain, Paris, and South Africa.

John has been the band leader for the CBS Late Show with Stephen Colbert since 2015,

and his musical range and abilities have allowed him to perform with everyone from Prince

to Willie Nelson.

Still, this past year has been John's busiest yet, with both a new album titled We Are and his score for

the Disney Pixar film Soul, which recently garnered him an Oscar nomination. Songs like this

one, born to play, give the film an authenticity that could only come from a guy steeped in

New Orleans jazz tradition.

As John told me, the music has driven his creativity and how his new album speaks to our current times.

The deeper you go on the inside, hopefully the more timeless and the more relevant the messaging

will be. You talk about hymns, that's what makes him so powerful. They can apply to you in any

...