Pat Boone, at 86, Credits Faith, Diet and Exercise for Longevity: ‘I Have My Conscience Cleaned Daily’

He still lives in the same Beverly Hills home he and his late wife, Shirley, bought for $159,000 in 1960. He still exercises and plays tennis. He also still sings and acts, and recently was on set filming his latest movie, the faith-based film The Mulligan (scheduled for release in 2022). 

Boone, who turns 87 on June 1, credits diet, exercise and the blessing of God for his energy and longevity. 

“Daddy lived to be 94 and Mamma 91. But they weren’t trying,” Boone told Christian Headlines. 

“People used to say, ‘Why do you look younger than we know you are?’ They ask it so often, I said it’s three things: lots of milk, lots of exercise and a clean conscience. And they said, ‘What, milk?’ Yeah, that just relates to diet, of course. And exercise. I’ve always been very athletic. I work out in the gym. I swim. I play tennis even now – singles tennis. [I play] with a kid; he’s only 81, but I beat him sometimes,” Boone said, laughing. 

On diet, Boone said, “I’ll never let a day pass without plenty of raw greens, and I eat much healthier than I used to.”

“Clean conscience,” Boone said, involves faith in Christ. 

“My conscience gets dirty like anybody, but I know where to go to have my conscience cleaned. And if you can live … with your conscience clean, you’re going to have a lot fewer physical problems. And you’re going to live longer if you have a clean conscience. I have my conscience cleaned daily,” he said, referencing prayer and Bible reading.

Boone’s wife, Shirley, died in 2019. 

“She has been in heaven two years,” he said. 

He credits Shirley for keeping him grounded. 

“It helps to have had a magnificent, wonderful Christian wife,” he said.

Boone, who has 16 grandkids and eight great-grandkids, still lives in the house he and Shirley bought six decades ago. She decorated it.

“We bought a place next to the Beverly Hills Hotel … right in the heart, the very nub of Beverly Hills, a two-story California house, 1.2 acres, and I paid $159,000 for it,” he said, adding it would be worth millions of dollars today.

Boone was a pop star in the 1950s and 1960s, selling more than 45 million albums with 38 Top 40 hits. He has been in more than 30 movies or TV shows.

The Mulligan, based on a book by the same name, stars Boone, Eric Close, Tanya Christiansen and Charmin Lee. It tells the story of a businessman whose life is falling apart when he receives advice from “The Old Pro,” played by Boone.

“[The businessman is] losing his family, he’s losing his wife, he is losing his child,” Boone said. “[The Old Pro is] trying to help him understand through the use of mulligans why everybody needs second chances and forgiveness.”

Boone said, “The most divine mulligan of all is what Jesus did for us.”

Photo courtesy: ©Getty Images/Paul Archuleta/Stringer

Michael Foust has covered the intersection of faith and news for 20 years. His stories have appeared in Baptist Press, Christianity Today, The Christian Post, the Leaf-Chronicle, the Toronto Star and the Knoxville News-Sentinel.