Q 13

PLAYBOY: You've been interviewed by Regis Philbin. Did you feel a need to reach out to a lifeline?

Carson Daly: I remember being nervous. We talked about my career. And I've been back three times since. Regis has the whitest teeth you'll ever see. Regis works out where I do. I'm on the treadmill and there's George Stephanopoulos to my right, Regis to my left, Peter Jennings doing stretches in the corner. And maybe Ed Bradley doing a little cardio. I couldn't even afford a gym membership two years ago. Regis invited me to his house for a Christmas party. He sent me a handwritten invitation: Joy and I want you to cruise by and hang out. He's one of the coolest guys in the business today. Peter Jennings has never invited me anywhere.

Q 14

PLAYBOY: Have you discovered the joys of golf on the East Coast?

Carson Daly: St. Andrew's up in Westchester is a great place to play. Those old courses are short, but they're tight. I grew up at the Riviera Country Club in LA. These are courses with a sense of tradition, and that's what I love. Golf is a traditional sport. Nothing pisses me off more than all the electronics now. They have a global satellite positioning system in golf carts now at resorts in Hawaii so you can drive right to your ball. It's ridiculous. I like to go out on the golf course and be respectful. I played with wooden woods for a long time. The putter should be the most traditional old thing in the bag. I had an old Ben Hogan putter. It was raggedy and even had a leather grip on it. I called my putter Old Faithful before tournaments. I would clean it and talk to it and sleep with it. Golf is very vibey. What separated me from succeeding or not succeeding in golf was putting. If I had the short putts, I was going to shoot 65. If I didn't, I wasn't going anywhere. Tiger Woods was responsible for my getting out of golf. He was at a lot of the events I was at and we played several times. He kicked everybody's ass. He is the Michael Jordan of that sport and was destined to be great.

Q 15

PLAYBOY: We wouldn't be surprised to learn that you were an altar boy. Did you ever don a cassock and surplice?

Carson Daly: I was a good altar boy. Everybody else was screwing around. I took it seriously. At one point in the mass--the consecration of the host--the priest says to the congregation, while he's offering the host, "Do this in remembrance of me." That's your cue as an altar boy to ring the bells. I was an altar boy with another kid who just wanted to go out and skateboard. And he rang the bells at the wrong time. Man, that was a big mistake. He's going to hell and I'm not. I was so excited about being in a church. It was like being in a painting. I was drawn to the dramatics of it. It was a really cool cultural thing for me. It was better than sitting at home watching reruns of Happy Days.

Q 16

PLAYBOY: Surely it was the long theology studies rather than the vow of celibacy that persuaded you to choose a career in entertainment over the Roman Catholic priesthood.

Carson Daly: I think my job is harder than being a priest. I fight more temptation than I would have if I had taken those vows. When I was in high school there were a couple of priests who were really cool, young and hip. But I've created my own spirituality. Religion, not necessarily Catholicism, is intriguing. Now I'm obviously in a different line of work. Spirituality has always been my reality check. It's the one thing that's constant to me. It's what I bounce things off of. But if I say I'm Catholic, and that I'm a spiritual person and have ethics and morals and that's why I'm not doing drugs or acting like a complete asshole, that doesn't get conveyed. The writers aren't articulate, or they're not smart enough to understand where I'm coming from, or the readers have short attention spans--"This guy is a Jesus freak." It's sad. Howard Stern read that I prayed when my mother had breast cancer. He called me a Jesus freak.

Q 17

PLAYBOY: Carson Daly and Jennifer Love Hewitt. What went wrong?

Carson Daly: That would be a great question to ask her. If you find the answer, tell me. She dumped me. Howard Stern said it was because she met someone else. The guy on the E channel said it was mutual, which it wasn't, because I didn't know anything about it. We dated for two years. When we started dating, I wasn't anything and she was so famous. Then it was "Who's this guy Jennifer's dating?" During our relationship my popularity rose a little. The reason I can sit here and talk about it is that I'm in a better place now than during our relationship. I consciously did everything I could do as a man to be the right person. I did everything. I flew to Los Angeles every frigging weekend just to see her for a day. I have no regrets. I didn't do anything wrong. That helps with recovery. I got dumped. Her loss.

Q 18

PLAYBOY: Did Dick Clark warn you about the temptations of payola?

Carson Daly: No. I respect him too much to go there. What's funny is that TRL's popularity has made it such an important part of the success plan for bands and artists now, and because of its relentless ratings people have assumed that something must be going on. Frankly, Madonna needs to stop by TRL if she wants to sell a lot of records to young hip people in America. After we started playing Kid Rock's first single, Devil Without a Cause, he sold 7 million records over a year. I'm not saying that's all because of TRL. But he would tell you himself that it was at MTV's Fashionably Loud in Miami where it started for him. But there's nothing going on. We open up the phone lines and take e-mail. And the kids pick the videos. I'm friends with people in record companies and I'll tell you straight up that no one has ever propositioned me. I'm wondering what happened to payola and plugola. Maybe the government's too involved now.

Q 19

PLAYBOY: Press reports indicate that after winning her Grammy for best new artist, Christina Aguilera called her mother and then Carson Daly. How busy is your social life?

Carson Daly: We're friends. Christina was one of the co-hosts for New Year's last year. We have on-air chemistry and flirt a little. She performed on my show at the Superbowl and she happened to be there when I hosted the Miss USA pageant. We were at these different events and the country was just going nuts. The events were strictly coincidences. We hang out and go out to dinner.

Q 20

PLAYBOY: Would you ever suspect you're not being loved for your good looks and native intelligence?

Carson Daly: I might be consensually used up to a point where I was uncomfortable. I think I'd be smart enough to pick up on it, but if there were a win-win situation involved I might let it go as far as I thought it would be safe. But I've seen so much now. You have to be defensive about why people are involving themselves in your life. People want stuff.