Chances are Mathis will play Westbury - and golf

If you like the way Johnny Mathis sings, you've got big company. None other than Oprah Winfrey is so much of a fan that she's booked the so-called King of Make-Out Music to do a duet with young-pup singer-songwriter Josh Groban for an upcoming show.

When he's not singing, the 74- year-old music legend - who plays the NYCB Theatre at Westbury Thursday - is playing golf at least five times a week. (His handicap is 12.) And he likes to golf when he's on Long Island, too. He estimates he's done more than 100 shows in Westbury since the '70s. That's a lot of golfing. Guess what his plans are when he's here?

ON BETHPAGE BLACK "I've never played Bethpage, but I've played at almost every other golf course on Long Island. I've been coming there so many years, I can't remember the names of them. But I've always brought my golf clubs with me. . . . I'll go over to the driving range and hit balls at Bethpage or whichever's [course is] closest."

ON WHAT HE THINKS OF TIGER WOODS "Anybody who has ever played golf knows there are peaks and valleys and even mountains and gulleys sometimes. As far as his game, I'm sure it will come back as soon as he has some resolutions about his personal problems. It's almost kind of a sordid pleasure to watch a person as talented as he is go through the same things that we mere mortals go through on the golf course. We have our days when we can't hit the side of a barn."

ON HEARING FLAWS IN MUSIC HE'S RECORDED "[In] 'Small World,' which was written by Stephen Sondheim, I sang the last part first and the first part last. I remember speaking to Leonard Bernstein . . . right after he and Sondheim had the big success of 'West Side Story.' He told me he loved my recording . . . and said, 'Oh, I told Stephen he should written it that way.' He let me off the hook."

ON LADY GAGA "I always thought of her as a dancer . . . I can't get past the visuals."

ON HOW THE "OPRAH" APPEARANCE CAME ABOUT "She's big buddies with the Schwarzeneggers, and I've known them, of course, for a while. Maria asked me if I'd sing a couple of songs for the lunch that she was giving for Oprah and some of her girlfriends. There were about 13 or 14 girls there at Maria's house, which is right near my golf course. So after I finished golf, I went up there and sang a few songs for them. And Oprah asked me if I would sing a duet with Josh Groban on her show at Christmas."

ON WHAT'S ON HIS IPOD "Everything from Puccini and Wagner to Carlinhos Brown, who is a wonderful Brazilian singer. . . . And also everybody that I grew up listening to: Nat King Cole, Sarah Vaughan, Lena Horne. . . . A lot of big jazz bands - Count Basie, Gordon Goodwin, who was my conductor for a long time . . . country music, and people like Leontyne [Price], Beverly Sills and Pavarotti."

ON BEING IN JOHN WATERS' NEW BOOK "ROLE MODELS"

"I haven't read it. . . . Everybody told me about my mention in the book. . . . They [my friends] didn't know what to think. [I asked], 'Did he say anything bad about me?' [They said], "No, no."

ON WHAT THE OBITS DIDN'T SAY ABOUT MITCH MILLER "He was enigmatic in his working with a lot of the popular music icons at Columbia Records I know. Some of them loved working with him, and some of them hated the songs he gave them. But the songs he gave them usually became big hit records. So how much can you hate someone who gave you a big hit record? I always loved working with him because he gave me some structure. He gave me a direction to point myself in at a very early age. I guess I was 20 years old when I met Mitch. He gave me a few songs, went into the studio with me and made sure I sang them the way he wanted me to. They turned out to be the icons of my career."

ON DOING AS LITTLE TALKING AS POSSIBLE "It's part of your personality. I do things in my daily routine that seem to revolve around situations where I don't have to do a lot of talking, especially on the golf course. Golf is a big part of my life. I play golf at least five days a week and usually more than that. So I don't have to talk a lot. Your vocal cords are muscles. They get weak with a lot of excessive use. They get tired. I learned from an early age it would be best if I didn't talk too much but saved my voice for a lot of the singing I have to do."

ON THE CELEBRITY MEDIA CIRCUS "There are lots of people who really want to be celebrities. They want to be rich and famous. And then there are people who really want to quietly go about their business, and whatever they do they want to try to do it at a high level of consistency. That seems to please them. That seems to motivate them more. I'm kind of the latter. I love music, and I love to listen and try to learn from extraordinary people who I've met over the years and that I listen to . . . Anything that you do now is going to end up someplace on the Internet. Sometimes you feel a little sorry for them because I'm in the same situation. Anything that I do is going to be newsworthy probably to someone. So you try to keep a low profile, or at least I do."

WHO Johnny Mathis

WHEN | WHERE 8 p.m. Thursday at NYCB Theatre at Westbury, 960 Brush Hollow Rd.

INFO $61.50 and $71.50; 800-745-3000, buy tickets