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transcripts.cnn.com]
KING: It's a great pleasure to welcome to this special edition of LARRY KING LIVE, Mick Jagger, a Grammy winning rock and roll legend.
Why is it important to you to be with us tonight, Mick?
MICK JAGGER: Well, you know, Haiti is a -- was -- obviously, it's one of the most poor countries in the Western Hemisphere. It's very closed to the United States, really. It's had a long relationship with lots of countries that I've been involved with being in the United States, France. And it's like a desperately poor place.
And when these -- when these terrible disasters happen in a very poor place, the -- it's always magnified over and over and over and over what it would be in a country that was more accessible, with more infrastructure left and so on.
So this is a -- it's been a huge, massive disaster for one of the poorest, poorest countries. And -- and it -- it's so poor, it's very hard to describe how poor it is compared to all the other countries in our hemisphere.
KING: Well, we're raising a lot of money for Haiti tonight. And that's the number one thing, as you know, that they need.
What have -- what have been your feelings as you've watch this disaster?
JAGGER: Well, you know, an earthquake is -- it's like the most incredibly physically damaging, but it's also very psychologically damaging, because the -- all the -- all the laws that govern your life -- your, you know, all the -- the ground beneath your feet, everything happening to you is destroyed in those moments. And your whole -- you know, and your whole psyche is upset. And then, of course, the tremendous physical damage, because the buildings are so poorly constructed, as is typical in these kinds of places.
So the damage is so huge that I think that one of the -- it's very gratifying to see so much outpouring of -- of help from every country, from (INAUDIBLE) some people giving money, some people sending support groups.
And I think it -- I think that everyone has got -- there's been no -- not one slightest hint of problems with people just wanting to send money, wanting to help in every possible way they can.
KING: I know you visited Haiti in years past.
Do you have fond memories of those visits?
JAGGER: Yes. Well, it's -- you know, it's a beautiful country with very welcoming people, with fantastic culture, with wonderful music, with incredible dance and a strange history. And it's a unique country. And -- and it's just -- it's very, very sad that when you see this happening to somewhere where you have been, that you have enjoyed, where people have been welcoming, where people have been lovely to you. And so it -- it's always very, very sad to see this.
KING: Mick Jagger, by the way.
A couple more moments with Mick.
He's coming to us via Skype.
What about the people?
Everyone I talk to -- I haven't been to Haiti -- tells me how gracious and how wonderfully the -- the wonderful aspects of these people, that they're -- they're different. They're just -- they -- they accept what they have in life and they still have a spirit about them.
What's your impression of the Haitians?
JAGGER: Well, you're right. They have a wonderful spirit. They have an amazing attitude to life -- a very vibrant culture, a very vibrant cultural life in -- in music, in dance, poetry, carving. Painting is amazing.
So -- so they have a very varied, very varied cultured life. But they've had terrible poverty they've endured for hundreds of years, since the independence of Haiti 200 years ago.
So they've had endure terrible lifestyle, mismanagement and so perhaps this, for Haiti, could be the most terrible moment. But it could also be a turning point where Haiti would get all the help it needs to restructure its society so they can take advantage of the wonderful human resources that they have.
KING: Anything you want to say to people about why they should send in whatever they can send in or call in?
JAGGER: Well -- well, they can -- they can -- the people have been wonderfully generous. And they can text to -- text to these numbers. They can send a small donation which makes lots of people send in small amounts of money and it's a huge sum comes in the end. They can text Red Cross. They can text Haiti to the Red Cross number, which is 90999. Or they can text on their phone to UNICEF and the text number to send that to is 20222.
KING: Mick, I thank you very much here.
JAGGER: Thank you.
KING: You've been very generous to do this. You've helped a lot of...
(CROSSTALK)
KING: ...helped a lot of people tonight, Mick. JAGGER: Thank you very much, Larry.
KING: As we go to break, here's Mick Jagger and Haiti's own Wyclef Jean singing "Hide Away" in honor of the people of Haiti.
(MUSIC)