Nick Cannon: As a kid 'I wanted to go into the Armed Forces'

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Nick Cannon: I almost joined the armed forces

'America's Got Talent' host almost took a very different career path

NEW YORK – Nick Cannon wears many hats (besides the one he wore to the FOX411 studio) -- he’s a TV host, an actor, a comedian, a producer, a musician and even a children’s book author. The “America’s Got Talent” host sat down with FOX411 to talk about being the hardest working man in show business.

FOX411: You have so many gigs right now… what’s your favorite?

Nick Cannon: Honestly, anything that allows me to be creative. All of that stuff kind of stems from a place of creativity and writing so wherever I get to just spread my creative juices I’m with it.

FOX411: If you weren’t in a creative industry what would you be?

Cannon: A Snapple spokesperson, haha. Actually, it’s interesting because I come from a long line of ministers and before, during that time I remember being in school and wondering what am I going to do, will I follow in my father’s footsteps? There was a time when I wanted to go into the Armed Forces and then entertainment was kind of calling. So if it wasn’t entertainment – which, I can’t see anything other than that – it would be somewhere in the field of ministry or public service.

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FOX411: You have a book for kids. Were you inspired by your own kids?

Cannon: Absolutely. I did a book series about my children, because they’re characters, called, “The Adventures of Roc and Roe,” but then also I’ve always had a love for poetry. Shel Silverstein is someone I grew up reading and was truly inspired by, so I got the opportunity to create a poetry book and a lot of poems in there are ones I would write or read to my children and they were kind of like the test market for when I was making it. It’s actually for the age group probably a little bit older than my kids, late elementary to early middle school.

FOX411: What’s the one thing your kids taught you about life?

Cannon: That’s an interesting thing. Having children obviously changes your priorities, but when you start to see life through these innocent eyes and seeing everything for the first time, you appreciate the small things and I think they allow me to take the time out and really appreciate the small things.

FOX411: This year there have been the twin success stories of “Blackish” and “Empire” – do you think this is a watershed moment for African Americans on television?

Cannon: I think it’s great for the landscape of television but I think it’s one of those things where, in my opinion, it never went away. It’s all about the timing and then the focus on hey, yeah, these are great shows that just happen to have all African-American cast. But everyone wants to watch great content so if it happens to be something that’s focusing on a certain culture or genre, so be it. I would love to explore more of that. I would love to see more African-American programming, I would love to see more Asian-American programming, diversity as a whole, but at the same time, we just want quality entertainment. I think that’s the thing; as long as it’s quality, I think people are drawn to it.