"I'm a little nervous," retired longtime WCCO-TV anchor Don Shelby admitted about interviewing Bill Moyers.

Such anxiety would not subside after seeing the TPT 2 promo for "A Conversation with Bill Moyers."

On May 6 at TPT Studios, Shelby is due to talk with the "public servant, award-winning journalist and bestselling author" who has had a "storied career" of more than four decades from which he's garnered insights and philosophies, as the promo reads.

"I am [nervous] but when I sit down with him I won't be," said Shelby, "because it's showtime, just like basketball."

Shelby will be overprepared for the two-hour live conversation before a studio audience that he expects to be edited to a 1½-hour taped interview.

When I visited with Shelby a couple Sundays ago, he had already completed 200 hours of prep. "And I've got another 200 to go. I've got all of his books. I note-take everything. If I write it down I'll remember it a lot better than if I [only] think it in my head."

Prepping: An anxious Don Shelby wants to nail the interview.

After a long career in TV as an anchor and investigative reporter, Shelby has studied the interview styles of others and he knows what he doesn't want to happen at TPT. "Charlie Rose is a linear interviewer. One question [after another] boom-de-boom. At the end of it you have gotten a lot of information but you never got the feel of the person."

Shelby said he won't write down any questions. "That way I don't feel that my eyes have to leave his," said Shelby.

He is aiming to ask Moyers a question he's never heard before, like he did with Sir Paul McCartney. "An impossible task and I did," said Shelby. "The one that impressed him the most was, when he writes love songs, sits down at the piano and composes them, does he write them for his voice to sing? That's when he stopped and said, Nobody's ever asked me that question. And he answered it No. And I said, 'Whose voice do you hear singing your songs?' And he said, Always Peggy Lee."

Sir Paul was so impressed, Shelby said, that "McCartney wrote me a letter saying, That was the best interview I've been through in my life. I made him think. He didn't have a [mental] tape for the things I asked him."

Shelby has already been in contact with Moyers. "I wrote him and said I'd read everything and I'm down to 6 quadrillion questions. I have spent the last three days going over those questions; now [I have] 4 quadrillion questions, which I know will eventually be 22 questions. So I've got a lot of work to do."

I was with Shelby shooting video of the cravat-master tying the "Shelby Knot" for my Sunday interview with King Brothers Clothiers, Danny and Kenny.

Keep reins on Thibs!

My boys on ESPN's "Pardon the Interruption" Tuesday discussed the prospect of Thibs being the Timberwolves' next coach. Wednesday it became official that former Chicago Bulls head coach Tom Thibodeau would become the Wolves' coach and basketball operations boss, which PTI says would be too much power.

"No! He shouldn't be given this control at all," said Tony Kornheiser. "What exactly has he accomplished? He was a pretty good coach of the Bulls but … great players were hurt, so maybe you have this fear that he grinds people up, so you certainly don't want him to have all the authority because then you just burn out the starters."

"Tony, I agree," co-host Mike Wilbon said. "I love him. I want him to be my coach but with some reins being held by other people. The coach's job is to win tonight. The executive, GM, president of operations, whatever you want to call him, that person's job is to ensure the overall health of the franchise. Those two [positions] ought to be at odds. They should not be the same people, not in pro football, pro basketball, not in anything that matters."

Kornheiser dismisses the Timberwolves as " a lost franchise" because it's been 12 years since the team was in the playoffs. "When they had Kevin Love [now in the playoffs with LeBron's Cavs] and Ricky Rubio, they never made it," said Kornheiser. "They've done this before. They gave Kevin McHale all the authority and they gave Flip Saunders all the authority. It doesn't work."

The Timberwolves apparently are ignoring Kornheiser and Wilbon.

For the first time in a long time, the Timberwolves appear to have a magical young roster with Karl-Anthony Towns, Andrew Wiggins, Zach LaVine, Ricky Rubio and Tyus Jones. As magical as the 1987 or 1991 Twins? We shall see.

C.J. can be reached at cj@startribune.com and seen on Fox 9's "Jason Show." E-mailers, please state a subject; "Hello" does not count. Attachments are not opened.