Don Cornelius, who died Wednesday morning of an apparent suicide, lived long enough to celebrate the 40th anniversary of his iconic show, Soul Train, last fall. In this September 2010 segment from the Tavis Smiley show, Cornelius reminisces about the challenge of producing live acts on television. He considered Soul Train to be on the A-list compared with his competition.

"We were committed to try harder than American Bandstand or any other similar-type show," he said. The first artist to perform live on the show was James Brown. Listen to what else Cornelius had to say about producing Soul Train.