Speaker 1: Can everyone welcome to conversations. Last year at the La
Speaker 1: Cabaret Festival, Lisa Simone was a huge hit with Adelaide.
Speaker 1: But I think Adelaide was a huge hit with Lisa,
Speaker 1: so much so that she's asked to come back, and
Speaker 1: she will be performing at the Adelaide Cabaret Festival in July,
Speaker 1: the twenty six of you. I actually at Her Majesty's Theater,
Speaker 1: that wonderful venue. Lisa Samione, Welcome to the program.
Speaker 2: It's good to be here with you today. Thank you
Speaker 2: for having me.
Speaker 1: From. Where are we speaking to you?
Speaker 2: I am currently in Scottsdale, Arizona in the United States
Speaker 2: and America.
Speaker 1: Is that home?
Speaker 2: Ah, for the moment. Yes, I'm kind of parapatetic, so
Speaker 2: here I'm in the Southwest and we'll see what happens
Speaker 2: in the monster come.
Speaker 1: So why are you so mobile?
Speaker 2: Why am I say mobile? I'm a woman of the world.
Speaker 2: What can I say? You know, I hope to put
Speaker 2: some roots down at some point, but we'll see what
Speaker 2: that looks like. But most of my life I've been traveling,
Speaker 2: I mean since I was born. So you could think
Speaker 2: you could say that that's my home. A suitcases, my home.
Speaker 1: Well, indeed, Aman, your mother was nameless and mine a
Speaker 1: huge star indeed, and I think you repraise some of
Speaker 1: her legacy in your in your show. But it's more
Speaker 1: than just about your mother.
Speaker 2: Is it not. Absolutely, the legacy lives on. So I
Speaker 2: am the walking embodiment of the Simone legacy, and so
Speaker 2: I stand on her shoulders. So while I turned back
Speaker 2: and give a wave, pay homage and celebrate the great
Speaker 2: one who walk before me, I also do it in
Speaker 2: my own way. That song My Way comes to mind.
Speaker 2: And so far I've been able to walk that fine
Speaker 2: line quite successfully with audiences, so that the experience that
Speaker 2: I bring to the stage is not only one that
Speaker 2: audiences have found to be quite thrilling and enjoyable, but
Speaker 2: I have as well. And it's very important to me
Speaker 2: that everybody, the musicians, the crew, myself, and the audience
Speaker 2: have a good time, a participative kind of experience when
Speaker 2: I get on the stage.
Speaker 1: You exposed your earlier life and your mother's life, and
Speaker 1: your mother's trials and tribulations in the recent Netflix documentary.
Speaker 1: We are happy with it very much.
Speaker 2: So I promised my mother on her deathbed that I
Speaker 2: would make sure she was not forgotten. I had no
Speaker 2: idea how I would go about doing that. However, the
Speaker 2: impetus behind that promise was because she had spent many
Speaker 2: years swirling away tapes and dats at the time, remember dats,
Speaker 2: they don't even use those anymore, in case she lost
Speaker 2: her voice. My mother battles cancer for six years and
Speaker 2: so she was in chemo and radiation regularly, which is
Speaker 2: not exactly information that the public was aware of. So
Speaker 2: she was squirreling away these items in case she couldn't
Speaker 2: sing anymore. And for a long period of time, Mommy
Speaker 2: didn't feel appreciated. Let's just face it, she wasn't really
Speaker 2: appreciated the way she is now. It took her dying,
Speaker 2: which seems to be the case for many artists, before
Speaker 2: she really reached her zenus. So it took twelve years
Speaker 2: for the right team to come along, and that came
Speaker 2: in the form of Netflix. And it was wonderful to
Speaker 2: work with the people who were fearless enough to approach
Speaker 2: my mother's story honestly, openly and in a manner that
Speaker 2: she would want to be remembered like. And so the
Speaker 2: first time I saw the first version of it, much
Speaker 2: to my surprise, I thought I would cry. I actually
Speaker 2: danced around the room. It felt good to release a
Speaker 2: weight I didn't know that I had been carrying. I
Speaker 2: didn't feel like I had to defend or justify or
Speaker 2: educate anyone anymore. And now her story lives large, and
Speaker 2: it's timeless, and it's in her voice, and we're all
Speaker 2: on the same page.
Speaker 1: But I thought you were quite fearless in your own
Speaker 1: way to allow your mother's demons to be exposed. And
Speaker 1: of most thoughts were recorded in the die entries, and
Speaker 1: I mean, did you have any doubts at all about
Speaker 1: some of the graphic stuff that was exposed?
Speaker 2: No, that was really it's interesting to use the word graphic.
Speaker 2: There's a lot more to the story. There's a lot
Speaker 2: more to Mom's journey. What Liz Garbus, the director, was
Speaker 2: able to do was to put the various elements together
Speaker 2: in a way that it fit into less than an
Speaker 2: hour and a half, and it flows and it gives people.
Speaker 2: What I wanted people to walk away from that documentary
Speaker 2: with was a sense of compassion for Mom and also saying, wow,
Speaker 2: I didn't know that. And both of those desires on
Speaker 2: my part were fulfilled. So I think that you know,
Speaker 2: the truth is the truth. The truth is not always
Speaker 2: going to be bells and whistles and flowers. It can
Speaker 2: be quite ugly, but that's what enables us to appreciate
Speaker 2: it and to learn from it and to grow because
Speaker 2: of it.
Speaker 1: I struggled with it, to be quite honest, because the
Speaker 1: issues of domestic violence. Both your father and your mother
Speaker 1: were so open about the episodes of domestic violence which
Speaker 1: she suffered. Yes, how did you feel. Did you find
Speaker 1: that confronting?
Speaker 3: Well, I lived a lot of it, and as it's
Speaker 3: left its scars, I've healed from many of those scars.
Speaker 3: I have found my own path within my heart and
Speaker 3: assized the gift and the power of forgiveness in order
Speaker 3: to heal my own heart and not pass down tendencies
Speaker 3: to the next generation. But I wanted my mother's story
Speaker 3: to be told truthfully, and as the elders have always said,
Speaker 3: especially in the South and in church, the truth shall
Speaker 3: set you free. And so it's important that there's been
Speaker 3: enough lies, there's been enough tall tales. I mean, before
Speaker 3: the documentary came out, I was amazed at the number
Speaker 3: of assumptions and just additions to my mother's story that
Speaker 3: seemed to pass as truth, and I feel like I
Speaker 3: got a lesson on how myths and legends are born.
Speaker 3: You take a kernel of truth and then you just
Speaker 3: add everything else that you want to it to turn
Speaker 3: it into something that it never was.
Speaker 2: It was about everybody being feeling and experiencing what Mom's
Speaker 2: truth was in the first person, so that there could
Speaker 2: be a real deeper understanding of the person, the daughter,
Speaker 2: the artist, the black revolutionary, the wife, the mother, and
Speaker 2: the human being.
Speaker 1: But you touch on that point about the black litt revolutionary,
Speaker 1: I mean her activism and her espousing of the civil
Speaker 1: rights movement. That was a fascinating part of it. You know,
Speaker 1: the people you were mixing with them, your little girl. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and there's these names. There's there's mountin Lutha. King is
Speaker 1: Malcolm X. You know, there's Stukeley Comichael.
Speaker 2: Benny Shabbaz, Betty Shabbaz, Length and Hughes, James Baldwin, Ferdievy Grovener.
Speaker 2: Lorraine Hansberry was my ordained godmother. I mean the list
Speaker 2: of who's who in Black history, I mean Rock Peters
Speaker 2: and I can't think of anybody else right now. There
Speaker 2: are others, you know, you had secutuas His Highness Secutua
Speaker 2: who was a president of Guinea, Mary Mackayba. So all
Speaker 2: of these are my aunts and uncles. And as I
Speaker 2: reflect now back on my life, boy, it was rich.
Speaker 1: But you didn't the same debate such an activist.
Speaker 2: There's no need. My mother did enough of that and
Speaker 2: my family. I shared my mother with our people. I
Speaker 2: shared my mother with the civil rights movement, and she
Speaker 2: suffered mightily because of the choices that she made to
Speaker 2: stand up for our people, to use the stage as
Speaker 2: a podium, to speak out in a manner that so
Speaker 2: many others were not able to. This was her mission,
Speaker 2: her ministry, it was her heart and her passion. And
Speaker 2: as her child, there was conflict. There was conflict between
Speaker 2: you know, when you're a fighter like that, a warrior,
Speaker 2: a gladiator, and then you come home and you deal
Speaker 2: with your child, and you know your sword and your
Speaker 2: butler and your armor is not needed. Sometimes you don't
Speaker 2: know how to do that. Sometimes you don't know how
Speaker 2: to separate the two. So I have made a conscious
Speaker 2: decision in my career to not mix the two. And
Speaker 2: music is for everybody, the protagonists and the antagonists, and
Speaker 2: some people might have an issue with that, but this
Speaker 2: is my personal choice, my political views. My political position
Speaker 2: is personal. It's no one's business but mine.
Speaker 1: Lisa's in mind is my guest, folks. She will be
Speaker 1: in Adelaide on the twenty sixth of July at Her
Speaker 1: Majesty's Theater. So much more to come, such an interesting life,
Speaker 1: such an interesting family. Will hope to uncover that back shortly.
Speaker 1: Welcome back, everybody you just churned in. We're chatting with
Speaker 1: Lisa's to mine and Lisa will be here in Adelaide
Speaker 1: on the twenty sixth of July about her majesty seat
Speaker 1: a part of the Adelaide Cabareet Festival. Demanded to come
Speaker 1: back to Adelaide after loving it so much.
Speaker 2: Yes, I can't wait.
Speaker 1: We can't help but talk about your mom in depth,
Speaker 1: Nina's and mine. There were so many things I learned
Speaker 1: in that Netflix documentary. I mean, I didn't know she
Speaker 1: was such a brilliant pianist. She must have been a prodigy.
Speaker 1: How did that happen?
Speaker 2: She was a prodigy. She's a child prodigy and she
Speaker 2: trained for many years. Her dream not only just her dream,
Speaker 2: but when you watch a documentary, I think you remember
Speaker 2: that it was in there. The town of Tryon, where
Speaker 2: she was born in Tryon, North Carolina, came together and
Speaker 2: created a Eunice Kathleen Weyman, which is her maiden name.
Speaker 2: It created a fund to support the financing of her lessons.
Speaker 2: She had that much talent and she was gifted, and
Speaker 2: so they planted in her brain the possibility that she
Speaker 2: could become the first black female classical pianist to grace
Speaker 2: the classical music world. Her dream was not only to
Speaker 2: attend the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, but it
Speaker 2: was also to grace the stage of Carnegie Hall playing
Speaker 2: classical music. So that was never her going to the
Speaker 2: Curtis Institute. That dream was never realized. However, she did
Speaker 2: grace the stage of Carnegie Hall many times.
Speaker 1: But she studied on at Julia, that prestigious in New
Speaker 1: York City.
Speaker 2: In New York City, she was there for a few months, yes,
Speaker 2: but her dream was to attend the Curtis Institute of Music.
Speaker 1: The sentiment is she was rejected because she was black.
Speaker 2: This is the wound that she carried in her heart
Speaker 2: until a few days before she died. A few days
Speaker 2: before she died, well unbeknownst to her, about maybe a
Speaker 2: year prior to her death, she had performed in Philadelphia,
Speaker 2: and while she was on stage, she recounted the experience
Speaker 2: of being rejected and how she'd always carried that with her.
Speaker 2: And there were a group of women, the title of
Speaker 2: their affiliation is so long, I can never remember it.
Speaker 2: But they took it upon themselves, unbeknownst to my mother,
Speaker 2: to go to the Curtis Institute to see if they
Speaker 2: could get the Institute to award my mother something. Now,
Speaker 2: at this time, mommy had two honorary doctorates. She's a
Speaker 2: doctorate of Humanities from the Malcolm X University as well
Speaker 2: as Amherst. It's either Amherst College or Amherst University, I'm
Speaker 2: not sure which one. So she was already doctor Nina Simone.
Speaker 2: So when they went to the Curtis Institute to prevail
Speaker 2: upon them, you know, let's do the right thing. A
Speaker 2: few days before mommy died, she found out that the
Speaker 2: Curtis Institute, and I have to be very specific here
Speaker 2: because many journalists had gotten it wrong, they gave her
Speaker 2: an honorary diploma, not a doctorate, not a degree. They
Speaker 2: gave her a diploma which I accepted on her behalf,
Speaker 2: because by the time it was ready, she was already dead.
Speaker 2: And I read from the speech that she had started
Speaker 2: to dictate to her team. But I'd have to say this,
Speaker 2: I was told because I wasn't with Mom when she died. Unfortunately,
Speaker 2: that at a time when she had lost all her
Speaker 2: mobile skills, and she was not very responsive. When she
Speaker 2: heard that the Curtis Institute had agreed to give her
Speaker 2: a diploma, that she smiled, And in my heart that
Speaker 2: means that that part of her that had been open
Speaker 2: and painful for so long was finally able to heal.
Speaker 1: I wonder about that, though, I mean, if I didn't
Speaker 1: want you, then why should she accept them? Now? You know,
Speaker 1: you know you didn't want me? Did jump onto my farme? Now?
Speaker 1: Did you not think that?
Speaker 2: That's interesting? That's an interesting way of putting it. I mean,
Speaker 2: I can only answer you as me. Well, all my
Speaker 2: answers are as me. But looking at it from the
Speaker 2: perspective in which I lived my life at this time,
Speaker 2: I think there comes a time when when you're fighting
Speaker 2: all the time, it's exhausting. It's exhausting, and there comes
Speaker 2: a time when, especially on your deathbed, when acceptance begins
Speaker 2: to overshadow and eclipse a lot of the other areas
Speaker 2: that you've been fighting against and trying to control. So
Speaker 2: this is just me putting my perspective on there. And
Speaker 2: you know, they hadn't given her anything. I mean, let's
Speaker 2: think about it. They had never given her anything much
Speaker 2: less any kind of throughout all those years, no acknowledgment whatsoever.
Speaker 2: So I'm happy that she was in a place within
Speaker 2: her heart where she was able to recognize the grace
Speaker 2: in that gesture and take that with her when she
Speaker 2: left this world.
Speaker 1: We talked about your dad because he's an interesting Oh.
Speaker 2: My dad, I love him.
Speaker 1: Yes, he was a complex character, as they both were,
Speaker 1: as I would understand it.
Speaker 2: But they both were complex.
Speaker 1: We would describe him here in Australia in old fashioned
Speaker 1: terms as a man.
Speaker 2: I think I think he would like that title. Yes, absolutely,
Speaker 2: he was very much that Mommy was attracted to Medle
Speaker 2: likea so she you know, I always said that. I
Speaker 2: think I might have said this in a documentary. I
Speaker 2: don't remember that. You know, if you told mom don't
Speaker 2: push that button because you might blow off your finger,
Speaker 2: she pushed it. That's that's just what she did, so
Speaker 2: she You know, I am not defending anyone. As I
Speaker 2: said in the documentary, I think they were both crazy
Speaker 2: because you know, he allowed her to push her button,
Speaker 2: but push his buttons, excuse me, And she pushed the
Speaker 2: buttons he told her not to push. So there were
Speaker 2: options that both of them could have taken to prevent
Speaker 2: a lot of the dysfunction and toxic violence and conflict
Speaker 2: that was so much a part of their relationship. But
Speaker 2: now that I'm a woman and a grandmother, some people
Speaker 2: thrive on that kind of step in their relationships. So
Speaker 2: who's who can really say? None of us were in
Speaker 2: their bed, were in their bedroom, None of us really know.
Speaker 2: All we're doing is looking through a people, and we
Speaker 2: are judging and placing our own labels on what we
Speaker 2: think their relationship was, Like are we not?
Speaker 1: But you did live it?
Speaker 2: I did? I did, and I got through it.
Speaker 1: We would actually tell us a bit more. It could
Speaker 1: be he was he had music, he had a musical sense.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah.
Speaker 1: Then he joined the military towards the end of World
Speaker 1: War Two and then had a career as a police
Speaker 1: officer in New York. Now suggests to me he's a
Speaker 1: tough man.
Speaker 2: My father was brilliant. First of all, he was the
Speaker 2: fifth son of a fifth son. My grandfather on Dad's
Speaker 2: side is from Holland, so he had a white father
Speaker 2: and a black mother, and he was born in Virginia,
Speaker 2: in the Bible Belt of the United States of America
Speaker 2: in nineteen twenty eight. That should tell you something, absolutely okay.
Speaker 2: So when babies are born, as we all know, they're
Speaker 2: pure as a tabla rosa. Everything is learned after that.
Speaker 2: I've often wondered what happened to him in his life
Speaker 2: that made him get to the point where he was
Speaker 2: that guy who you didn't want to mess with. Obviously,
Speaker 2: he was hurt, so he went into the navy. While
Speaker 2: he was in the navy, one of the things that
Speaker 2: he played was the trumpet. I don't know if that
Speaker 2: was his job. I don't think that was his job,
Speaker 2: but he did play in a naval band. So Dad's
Speaker 2: instrument of choice was a trumpet. And for everybody who
Speaker 2: are need a simone fans listener right now, if you
Speaker 2: go to the High Pricess of Soul album and listen
Speaker 2: to take Me to the Water, which is a song
Speaker 2: that precedes going back Home, you're going to hear her
Speaker 2: singing this gospel tune, and you're gonna hear a bunch
Speaker 2: of people in the background backing her up. And the
Speaker 2: loudest voice is this incredible tenor, this male tenor. And
Speaker 2: I remember asking my dad, is that you? He was
Speaker 2: like yes. I was like, wow, you should have been
Speaker 2: an opera singer. Give me the story and he said
Speaker 2: that when mom was recording that song, she wanted some backgrounds.
Speaker 2: So they got the security guard, they got the secretary,
Speaker 2: and all the people that are around us us come
Speaker 2: in and seeing and Dad's voice is the loudest. My
Speaker 2: father was brilliant. He had a brilliant business mind. He
Speaker 2: was an exceptional musician. He was a tactician, a strategist,
Speaker 2: and like I said, he had his office on Fifth
Speaker 2: Avenue in the sixties, a publishing company and a production
Speaker 2: company called Stroud Productions. So he was way ahead of
Speaker 2: his time. He had a vision, he understood the industry,
Speaker 2: and he had a plan.
Speaker 1: As we got to the bright Lace, so let's see
Speaker 1: if we can hear your dad's voice in the back
Speaker 1: ground of this Take Me to the Water rendition. Lisa
Speaker 1: Simone is my guess. Back shortly. Welcome back everybody. If
Speaker 1: you just tuned in, we're chatting with Lisa Simone in Arizona.
Speaker 1: That's sort of home for a little while. She will
Speaker 1: be here on the twenty sixth of July doing I
Speaker 1: think a tribute to a mother, Nina Simone. I think
Speaker 1: that's a way of saying. But as well as had
Speaker 1: some of her own stuff, which is quite renowned. It
Speaker 1: did seem to me though, that you shunned any musical
Speaker 1: pathway when you were young because you joined the military,
Speaker 1: joined the Air Force.
Speaker 2: I know, I still try to make sense of that.
Speaker 2: That was an act of desperation. My parents did not
Speaker 2: encourage me to be a musician. While when their marriage
Speaker 2: was flourishing, I took dance class, I took piano, I
Speaker 2: was immersed in the arts. When their relationship became freid
Speaker 2: when I was eight years old, all of those experiences
Speaker 2: and classes that come along with having a foundation in
Speaker 2: your life ceased to be But the one thing that
Speaker 2: I've always been able to do, one thing that I've
Speaker 2: always gotten positive responses from anyone in the room because
Speaker 2: of was when I sang or when I sing, and
Speaker 2: harmonies come easily for me and so one thing that
Speaker 2: I've always been able to fall back on, that's never
Speaker 2: let me down, and that is now bringing so much
Speaker 2: joy to others and myself is my voice. So when
Speaker 2: I went into high school and I started living with
Speaker 2: other family members, I started singing in an a cappella group.
Speaker 2: There were five of us. I was fifteen, and I
Speaker 2: used to give everybody their parts. And so the first
Speaker 2: time I ever sang in front of a group of
Speaker 2: people was in church, and it was very nerve wracking. However,
Speaker 2: I guess I caught the bug because I'm talking to
Speaker 2: you now. But I went into the military. I did
Speaker 2: go into the military, and I was an exceptional student
Speaker 2: in school, and my last year of high school I
Speaker 2: combined my first year of college, or they would say yes,
Speaker 2: university in some places, with my last year of high school.
Speaker 2: And the college plans that I had put in place
Speaker 2: with my uncle, my mother's brother fell through. So rather
Speaker 2: than having patients, which does not usually come along with youth,
Speaker 2: I said, I just don't want to stay here for
Speaker 2: another year. I don't want to be around these grown ups.
Speaker 2: I want to have my own life. I want to
Speaker 2: be independent. And so I don't quite remember how the
Speaker 2: Air Force became an option, But obviously it did because
Speaker 2: I went into the Air Force. And my mother's best friend,
Speaker 2: my godmother, who met her in high school, who was
Speaker 2: in the educational world, she did her best to dissuade
Speaker 2: me from going in.
Speaker 1: But what what was it about it?
Speaker 3: Though?
Speaker 1: That was it the uniform? Was it the No?
Speaker 2: I don't know. It wasn't the uniform.
Speaker 1: No, it wasn't.
Speaker 3: No.
Speaker 2: It was me getting out of where I was. I
Speaker 2: did not want to be where I was anymore. I
Speaker 2: wanted to be on my own. I wanted to be independent.
Speaker 2: I had been waiting for this. That was That was
Speaker 2: my sole focused nothing else. I couldn't see anything else,
Speaker 2: and so I didn't realize and when when my godmother
Speaker 2: was as beautiful as she was, actually even got a
Speaker 2: captain on the phone to tell me, even though you've
Speaker 2: taken your oath and you're on delayed en listening, you
Speaker 2: can still break your oath. And that was an issue
Speaker 2: that I had as well, because there'd been so much
Speaker 2: much distrust in my life. I didn't trust my parents.
Speaker 2: I didn't trust my mother. I didn't trust I mean
Speaker 2: when I was twelve years old, let me tell you
Speaker 2: what my motto was, I'll never fall in love, I'll
Speaker 2: never get married, and I'll never have children. That way,
Speaker 2: I'll never be hurt. Because if you can't trust your
Speaker 2: own parents, who can you trust. So fast forward to
Speaker 2: going into the military. I had given my oath, and
Speaker 2: my word meant something to me so much so that
Speaker 2: no one could talk me out of not going in
Speaker 2: because I'd already given my oath.
Speaker 1: So many things come to mind when you tell me that.
Speaker 1: I mean, I can imagine somebody you served within the
Speaker 1: military signing now I know I work with.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, a few. There's a few. I was in
Speaker 2: for almost eleven years. But I'll tell you what. The day,
Speaker 2: the morning after I arrived at Basic training in San Antonio, Texas,
Speaker 2: I looked around going, oh my god, what have I done?
Speaker 2: Oh my goodness, Wow. I felt like I was sleepwalking.
Speaker 2: For the next ten years, I was in a job
Speaker 2: that I hated, but I learned a very good skill,
Speaker 2: civil engineering, you know. And it was while I was
Speaker 2: in the military that I was reunited with what I
Speaker 2: love doing, which is seeing I had it.
Speaker 1: Not falling in love, getting married and having kids work
Speaker 1: out for you.
Speaker 2: Not at all. I have three kids, and I've been married.
Speaker 2: I've been married twice, so it didn't work out at all.
Speaker 2: But I have to say that I've reached a point
Speaker 2: in my own path and in my own relationship to
Speaker 2: myself and life where I'm able to trust not only myself,
Speaker 2: which was the hardest lesson. I think of all as
Speaker 2: if you can trust yourself, you can trust others. If
Speaker 2: you can have compassion for yourself and love yourself, you
Speaker 2: can have the same for others. And so it took
Speaker 2: me many years to find my own peace, and I'm
Speaker 2: glad that I have had the colorful, textured life that
Speaker 2: I've had.
Speaker 1: When you when you discharge from the military, some people
Speaker 1: are a little lost as to what they're gonna do. Now,
Speaker 1: how was that for you?
Speaker 2: I knew that I wanted to be an entertainer at
Speaker 2: that point, so I started singing about man. I was
Speaker 2: in a group called the Magic Platters. We sang all
Speaker 2: the Platters soon songs do do Do Do Do? I?
Speaker 2: Yeah did that? I sang background with a Cuban singer Bessuck.
Speaker 1: A capella of a Platter song for me.
Speaker 2: Oh my goodness, remember when do do Do Do Do Do?
Speaker 2: I was the girl, you know, and there were there were.
Speaker 3: Who ah, whoa, whoa, whoa whoa.
Speaker 2: So oh my goodness, that was the easiest gig. I
Speaker 2: loved it. So I did that. And then, like I said,
Speaker 2: I sang with a Cuban singer. I also sang with
Speaker 2: another R and B singer who I was reunited with
Speaker 2: in twenty nineteen. I did. I was with a party
Speaker 2: band that we did like Whitney Houston and Lisa Stanfield,
Speaker 2: all those songs. So I got my feet wet doing
Speaker 2: music when I wasn't in uniform all my off hours.
Speaker 2: And then when I got out of the military, I
Speaker 2: was stationed in Germany. I was in Frankfurt, Germany at
Speaker 2: the time, at Ryan Mainair Base, and I got a
Speaker 2: what they call a European out, meaning I stayed in
Speaker 2: Germany and I just became a civilian. I was also
Speaker 2: I've also always been into physical fitness, so I was
Speaker 2: a bodybuilder and a fitness instructor aerobics instructor. So I
Speaker 2: got a job managing the Bass gym. So and I
Speaker 2: made my own schedule. So during the week I was
Speaker 2: in the gym and on the weekends I was taking
Speaker 2: the train from Germany into Belgium and France and all
Speaker 2: these other places, performing with the Magic Platters, with Margarita
Speaker 2: Cantaro and with Joan Faulkner. And that's how music came
Speaker 2: into my life. And I remember I was doing I
Speaker 2: was asked to do a gig at a resort in
Speaker 2: Switzerland and the musician started asking me if I wanted
Speaker 2: to do some stuff on my own with them, which
Speaker 2: I thought was interesting. And I remember the day that
Speaker 2: I realized I had this epiphany. I was like, wait
Speaker 2: a minute, if I can get the response from the audience,
Speaker 2: said I think I can, because I was going to
Speaker 2: be doing My baby just cares for me, believe it
Speaker 2: or not. I said, maybe this is what I should
Speaker 2: be doing with my life. Well I got a good response.
Speaker 2: I called my mom. I was so excited to give
Speaker 2: her the news. Mom, I know what I want to do.
Speaker 2: When I get out, She's like, oh, what is that.
Speaker 2: I was like, I don't want to be a singer.
Speaker 1: What did she say?
Speaker 2: The pause was so long, it was like this pregnant pause.
Speaker 2: I thought that our connection had been cut. And by
Speaker 2: the time she found her voice, she said only one
Speaker 2: word why. Why? And then when I told my dad,
Speaker 2: because I was originally go to work with my dad.
Speaker 2: When I told him I had changed my mind, he
Speaker 2: did his best to just kind of lull me into well,
Speaker 2: you know, and once again he had a strategic mind.
Speaker 2: He said, well, you might want to go into computer programming.
Speaker 2: You might want to get into the tech world, because
Speaker 2: you know that's really going to be the place to
Speaker 2: be in the years to come. So it got to
Speaker 2: the point where every time he talked about that, I
Speaker 2: would knod my head up and down and give answers. Meanwhile,
Speaker 2: I wasn't paying him any attention, but I believed in myself.
Speaker 2: It was the first time I can sagram that I
Speaker 2: felt this fire in my bones. Was like, no, this
Speaker 2: is what I'm supposed to be doing. And for the
Speaker 2: first time ever, at twenty eight years old, I'm going
Speaker 2: to follow my own instincts. I'm not going to be
Speaker 2: led in a direction that someone else thinks I should
Speaker 2: go in. And I thought it would be easy. I was,
Speaker 2: I don't know, either arrogant, narcissistic, or just innocent ignorance,
Speaker 2: but I never for one instant thought that being the
Speaker 2: daughter of my mother would hinder me in any way.
Speaker 2: That's also when I decided to drop my middle name
Speaker 2: that saw my birth certificate and become Lisa Simone. So
Speaker 2: I became at that time, I had another last name
Speaker 2: because I had been married, but Simone became my middle name,
Speaker 2: and so that's when I adopted the Simone name to
Speaker 2: honor my mother, to honor this legacy, and I've carried
Speaker 2: it ever since.
Speaker 1: Lisa's mind is my guess, folkes, if we get into
Speaker 1: her singing career, which is interesting, fascinating back shortly, Lisa
Speaker 1: Simone is my guest, folks on conversations. It's a great story.
Speaker 1: The daughter of Nina Samone, of course, famous black activist
Speaker 1: and jazz singer. A lady had some troubles in her life,
Speaker 1: I think, but Lisa's emerged from that. She joins the military,
Speaker 1: much much to her parents, trying to dissuade her from
Speaker 1: doing that comes up, but she realizes she can sing,
Speaker 1: and when she gets out of the military, out of
Speaker 1: the Air Force, she wants to be a singer. Lisa,
Speaker 1: how do you find yourself on Broadway?
Speaker 2: Oh? My uh. I was in California for a little
Speaker 2: while and I was doing odd jobs and a gentleman
Speaker 2: who I was working for spoke with a casting agent
Speaker 2: who happened to be casting the Bus and Truck tour
Speaker 2: of Jesus Christ Superstar with Ted Neely and Carl Anderson
Speaker 2: Hello from the Brown Album. I got hired to be
Speaker 2: a Solstice Mary understudied vocal coach for the whole tour.
Speaker 2: And it's interesting because it was non union, so that
Speaker 2: in and of itself was an experience. But when you're
Speaker 2: young and you're doing what you love, that's those are
Speaker 2: decisions that you make. And it's from there that I
Speaker 2: met and made friends with a dear friend, Rodney Hicks,
Speaker 2: who wound up being in the original cast of Rent,
Speaker 2: and he told the casting agent, Bertie Kelsey about me.
Speaker 2: Jonathan Larson was still alive at the time, and by
Speaker 2: the time I auditioned, Jonathan Lawson was no longer with us.
Speaker 2: He is the one who originally wrote the Rent and
Speaker 2: so my second theatrical show ever was the original cast
Speaker 2: of Rent at the Neederlander Theater in New York City
Speaker 2: as a swing and I understudied four excuse me, I
Speaker 2: was a swing for four of the five roles, and
Speaker 2: then I wound up taking out well. In the midst
Speaker 2: of that, I did the workshop of Aida as Aida
Speaker 2: and also King as Nala, which were both Disney productions.
Speaker 2: But the director of Rent asked me so nicely if
Speaker 2: I would audition for the role of Mimi Marquez, which
Speaker 2: is one of the main female role in Rent, to
Speaker 2: take out the first National Tour, my favorite role, and
Speaker 2: so I got that part. I took out the first
Speaker 2: National Tour and from there I took a break and
Speaker 2: joined the Liquid Soul band excuse me, the acid jazz band.
Speaker 2: Liquid Soul gave Berts and my daughter. My agent called
Speaker 2: in New York to see if I wanted to come
Speaker 2: back to Broadway and join the Aida cast, which I did.
Speaker 2: I was under study for Heather Hedley, who won the
Speaker 2: Tony took out the first National Tour to critical acclaim,
Speaker 2: came back to Broadway. Then my mom died, but the
Speaker 2: last time I saw her she came to see me
Speaker 2: as Aida on Broadway.
Speaker 1: I was intrigued with Aida. I mean that Elton John
Speaker 1: and Tim Rice is a Tree didn't return Elton John's
Speaker 1: fine calls.
Speaker 2: No, no, no, my mother didn't what happened. But as
Speaker 2: we say, what had happened was I got this call
Speaker 2: on a Saturday from a number I didn't recognize, and
Speaker 2: the gentleman identified himself as Elton John's assistant. Well, of
Speaker 2: course that stopped me. Called and he just said, you know,
Speaker 2: Staying and his wife are putting on their annual concert
Speaker 2: for the Rainforest at Carnegie Hall, and they would really
Speaker 2: love your mother to join, but she's not accepting my calls.
Speaker 2: Oh my god, So excuse me, mister, Sir John asked
Speaker 2: me to call you on his behalf because your mother's
Speaker 2: not accepting his calls, and he was hoping that you
Speaker 2: would talk to her about the possibility of coming. So
Speaker 2: when I called her and brought it up, she wasn't interested.
Speaker 2: But then I said, but mom, you can come and
Speaker 2: see me because Carnegie Hall was literally five blocks away
Speaker 2: from where I was performing on Broadway in Aida at
Speaker 2: the Palace Theater. And so I just kind of laid
Speaker 2: it on really thick in terms of all of the wonderful,
Speaker 2: fantastic experiences she could have. And so she's okay, okay,
Speaker 2: So she came.
Speaker 1: What does she think?
Speaker 2: Oh, she loved it. She loved the entire experience. She
Speaker 2: I have pictures of her on stage with what's the
Speaker 2: the mother of the judge there was Ashley Judge, his
Speaker 2: three It's two daughters and the mother, So the Judge,
Speaker 2: the Jugs, Trudy Styler, sting Elton, John, Patty LaBelle. She
Speaker 2: was she really felt welcomed by her peers, which she
Speaker 2: wasn't used to feeling, and so that was really nice
Speaker 2: to hear and see. And she was in a really
Speaker 2: good place. She was so cheerful. I was like, what's
Speaker 2: the matter with you? She was really just really like
Speaker 2: unusually happy. And then she came to see me on Broadway.
Speaker 2: She came twice, met the cast, and she actually broke
Speaker 2: the fourth wall from the audience, which I usually tell
Speaker 2: this story. I told her a lot of times. You know,
Speaker 2: as you say to your parents, don't embarrass me, don't
Speaker 2: embarrass me mom, whatever you do. And you know how
Speaker 2: you know your mother's voice no matter where you are.
Speaker 2: So I was in the middle of a scene. I
Speaker 2: was in the middle of a scene, and a very
Speaker 2: poignant scene because Aida is a Nubian princess. Nubia and
Speaker 2: Egypt are at war. Aida is captured by an Egyptian
Speaker 2: captor who becomes her love and so her father, the
Speaker 2: Nubian king, comes to rescue her. He gets captured and
Speaker 2: thrown in jail. From this particular scene, Aida is saying
Speaker 2: to her father, you know we can get you out
Speaker 2: of here. I'm wearing this ambulance that my lover gave me,
Speaker 2: and he's like, Aida, do not tell me that these
Speaker 2: Egyptians grieve for the Nubian men execute the women ravaged
Speaker 2: and out of the darkness. All I heard. The whole
Speaker 2: theater heard. Oh my god, you could have heard a
Speaker 2: pin drop, and of course I knew who it was.
Speaker 2: It took about maybe ten seconds before the next line
Speaker 2: was mine. And at the end of the show, I said, Mom, Mom,
Speaker 2: come on, why'd you do that? She said, I couldn't
Speaker 2: help myself. I couldn't help myself. I was touched by
Speaker 2: the scene. I'm sorry, honey.
Speaker 1: So she burst into song where you dropped out when
Speaker 1: you did the sound effect.
Speaker 2: She went on, she said all she said, all right,
Speaker 2: the word was all right, but she yelled it and
Speaker 2: she extended the word out. And the gentleman who played
Speaker 2: my father only had maybe five minutes in the entire show.
Speaker 2: He was preening after that, saying, Nina Simone commented on
Speaker 2: my scene.
Speaker 1: Was confused about that version of it id. It was
Speaker 1: originally an opera di verdie.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, and it was Leontine Price, I believe, who originated
Speaker 2: the role who came to see me when I was
Speaker 2: performing in Aita, Thank you very much. Yes, definitely an opera.
Speaker 1: Yes, so did you have to sing an operatic style?
Speaker 2: No, but as the star of the show, I sang
Speaker 2: eleven songs per show and it was a load, a
Speaker 2: heavy load. I was in great voice. It was an
Speaker 2: exceptional experience, and when my mother died, I was able
Speaker 2: to immerse myself in the role like never before because,
Speaker 2: unlike some Disney shows, I was not playing a teapot.
Speaker 2: So there's one particular line when I came back after
Speaker 2: my mother's funeral, I only took ten days off and
Speaker 2: I got on that stage. There's a particular scene that
Speaker 2: Sir Tim Rice had written that was like, you talk
Speaker 2: about art imitating life, and it said, it goes it's
Speaker 2: knowing what they want of me that's scares me. It's
Speaker 2: knowing having followed, I must lead. It's knowing that each
Speaker 2: person there compares me to those in my past whom
Speaker 2: I now succeed. When I sang those words the first
Speaker 2: time I came back after my mother's funeral. It was
Speaker 2: as if I was riding a razor's edge. It took
Speaker 2: everything I had to stay in character and to not
Speaker 2: break down, because that is my truth. It's knowing that
Speaker 2: each person there compares me to those in my past
Speaker 2: whom I now succeed. Hello.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well that is you, isn't it. I mean, do
Speaker 1: you find yourself being compared to you.
Speaker 2: All the time? You can say, till the cows come home,
Speaker 2: this is just a tribute. It's an homage. There's only
Speaker 2: one nemss Simon. People cannot help themselves. But I will
Speaker 2: say this. I'll tell you what my father said to
Speaker 2: me after one such concert. He said, you've been compared
Speaker 2: to your mother, and you've done good. Baby.
Speaker 1: I don't see that. I mean, your mother's daughter. And
Speaker 1: I've seen the you know, I've seen clips of you.
Speaker 1: I mean, you're very active on social media. There's lots
Speaker 1: of stuff of you. The documentary, there was lots of
Speaker 1: you there. I mean, your mother was your mother, an
Speaker 1: intriguing personality. But similarly, you are forging your own way,
Speaker 1: even though you are singing your mother's songs. But your
Speaker 1: mother's daughter. But I don't see the comparison.
Speaker 2: Well, first of all, I want to think, I want
Speaker 2: to thank you. I feel it because I've always seen
Speaker 2: me in the mirror. I've always known that, but for
Speaker 2: many years until the documentary came out, most people would
Speaker 2: refer to me as, oh, you're the daughter of and
Speaker 2: I would say, I do actually have a name, you know,
Speaker 2: So it's nice to be seen for me. I appreciate
Speaker 2: that from you. I've even had some people literally say
Speaker 2: to me, Nina Simone doesn't have a child. I'm a
Speaker 2: big fan of Nima Simone, and if she had a child,
Speaker 2: I would know serious.
Speaker 1: Oh she has a child, and we can see her
Speaker 1: on the twenty sixth of July and Her Majesty's Theater.
Speaker 1: Lisa Simone, thank you so much for chatting, Thanks so
Speaker 1: much for being open, and look forward to seeing you
Speaker 1: back in Adelaide and I hope you enjoy coming here again.
Speaker 2: I look forward to getting there and I'm eager to
Speaker 2: get back on that stage again and to continue the
Speaker 2: conversation that the Adelaide audience and myself began last year.
Speaker 1: Lisa Simime was my guest. Folks, thank you so much
Speaker 1: for joining us.