WEBVTT - Questlove Supreme: BeBe Winans 0:00:00.160 --> 0:00:03.040 Quest Love Supreme is a production of iHeart Radio. 0:00:09.000 --> 0:00:14.280 Hello, sir, Hello, I'm right, I am fair admitting and 0:00:14.400 --> 0:00:19.720 that s they say sometimes here, Okay, it's good. Hello everyone. 0:00:21.640 --> 0:00:23.800 Yes, I'm like Iah by the way, because my name 0:00:23.880 --> 0:00:24.920 is harder to pronounce. 0:00:25.680 --> 0:00:29.080 What is it? What is the hard name? I want 0:00:29.080 --> 0:00:29.920 to hear the hard name. 0:00:30.520 --> 0:00:41.440 Lie eight. 0:00:39.560 --> 0:00:42.360 Is not hard. If you know when you told now, 0:00:42.400 --> 0:00:44.360 I may have it may have been hard if I 0:00:44.360 --> 0:00:47.760 had to read it right. Yeah, we said lay up 0:00:47.840 --> 0:00:52.960 for the person. We all decided to get media or 0:00:53.080 --> 0:00:53.920 reading class. 0:00:54.480 --> 0:00:56.000 You look amazing. I love that shirt. 0:00:56.520 --> 0:01:00.279 Thank you, Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to Love 0:01:00.360 --> 0:01:02.240 Supreme Duo style. 0:01:02.320 --> 0:01:03.080 I like this season. 0:01:03.080 --> 0:01:06.720 We're doing combinations of solos, duos, trios. 0:01:06.440 --> 0:01:08.240 A mere perfect combination. 0:01:09.200 --> 0:01:11.640 Yes we is this our first duo. 0:01:12.680 --> 0:01:14.880 It's been a while. We've been like a couple of times, 0:01:14.920 --> 0:01:15.559 but it's been a while. 0:01:15.640 --> 0:01:17.399 We haven't done a duo yet. I got that. I 0:01:17.440 --> 0:01:17.800 got that. 0:01:18.240 --> 0:01:21.880 So today special episode of Quest Loves Supreme. Today we 0:01:21.920 --> 0:01:27.360 are welcoming a Grammy Award winning legendary singer, songwriter, author, 0:01:27.680 --> 0:01:32.600 television producer, actor to say that he comes from a 0:01:32.720 --> 0:01:36.240 musical dynasty that rivals no one else an influential musical 0:01:36.319 --> 0:01:40.959 dynasty is really understating it. It can't be emphasized enough. 0:01:41.720 --> 0:01:45.760 How powerful you know? I come from the hip hop generation. 0:01:46.520 --> 0:01:46.720 Yeah. 0:01:46.800 --> 0:01:48.640 When we see the W, we think of Wu Tang. 0:01:48.680 --> 0:01:52.160 But there's a certain generation they think of a musical 0:01:52.240 --> 0:01:53.600 dynasties with the letter W. 0:01:54.240 --> 0:01:54.440 Yeah. 0:01:54.760 --> 0:01:58.360 One name that comes to mind, and that our guest 0:01:58.480 --> 0:02:02.440 is part of that music dynasty. Of course, in addition 0:02:02.520 --> 0:02:06.080 to his bloodline and his siblings singing, his entire family singing. 0:02:06.520 --> 0:02:10.440 Our guest has worked with so many greats today name 0:02:10.520 --> 0:02:13.200 him Stevie Wonder, Eric Clapton, and he needed Baker, Detroit's 0:02:13.240 --> 0:02:17.680 own Anita Baker, David Foster, and I definitely want to 0:02:17.680 --> 0:02:22.480 get into his friendship and creativity with the one and 0:02:22.520 --> 0:02:25.919 only Whitney Houston. And right now he has a new 0:02:25.960 --> 0:02:30.760 single father in Heaven with saxophonist Gerald Albright. We are 0:02:30.760 --> 0:02:33.720 delighted to have brother BB one and Zo on Quest 0:02:33.760 --> 0:02:34.400 Love Supreme. 0:02:35.480 --> 0:02:39.320 A thank you, sir. How you doing I'm doing? Or 0:02:39.360 --> 0:02:43.359 should I say what up? Though both I will say too, 0:02:43.760 --> 0:02:48.160 I'm doing great. I really am great. Great. Do you 0:02:48.280 --> 0:02:52.080 still reside in Detroit or where do you live now? No, 0:02:52.440 --> 0:03:00.200 I moved to Nashville, Tennessee, forty years ago, and everybody 0:03:00.440 --> 0:03:02.959 years ago. You know when you can say forty and 0:03:03.000 --> 0:03:07.000 you got a whole lot of years after that, you're old. 0:03:08.240 --> 0:03:11.280 See, you know what, I didn't stay young, but I 0:03:11.440 --> 0:03:13.760 say I would have said four decades ago. 0:03:14.760 --> 0:03:17.639 I tried to compress it. You can say two. 0:03:17.600 --> 0:03:20.960 Scores ago if you you know, if you're talking about rebuffs, 0:03:21.120 --> 0:03:22.040 two scores ago. 0:03:22.480 --> 0:03:26.480 Yeah. Yeah, But so so I moved down here forty 0:03:26.560 --> 0:03:31.080 years ago, and then the girls came tumbling after, which 0:03:31.120 --> 0:03:34.800 is cc ang and Debbie, my three sisters. So all 0:03:34.840 --> 0:03:40.280 of us lived here in Nashville and our families and so. 0:03:38.920 --> 0:03:42.040 So y'all are the y'all are the pioneers because all 0:03:42.080 --> 0:03:44.640 of a sudden, everybody, I mean, we knew that the 0:03:44.680 --> 0:03:46.400 country thing was happening, but when it came to the 0:03:46.440 --> 0:03:50.000 black country and the black scene, like Nashville's popping. 0:03:50.360 --> 0:03:53.520 So besides Jill, who else is in Nashville? You know 0:03:53.760 --> 0:03:56.160 a lot of people have moved from the industry. That 0:03:56.240 --> 0:04:01.320 you have Reese Witherspoon, you have Nicole Kipman. I'm hearing 0:04:01.840 --> 0:04:03.960 now Beyonce's coming through this way. 0:04:04.040 --> 0:04:07.720 Yeah from s W v and Eddie George like they down. 0:04:07.880 --> 0:04:11.480 George and everything. So Nashville has changed tremendously. But when 0:04:11.520 --> 0:04:13.680 even when I moved here, I mean, if you didn't 0:04:13.760 --> 0:04:17.680 know Nashville, you would think country. But the reason why 0:04:17.800 --> 0:04:21.360 I moved is because it was such a great haven 0:04:21.680 --> 0:04:25.760 for writing. And you had to say music, not even country, 0:04:25.760 --> 0:04:29.440 but music in general, gospel, inspirational, R and B. You 0:04:29.560 --> 0:04:34.360 had it all here, the writers. So that's why I moved. 0:04:34.080 --> 0:04:38.039 My family was angry at me when I moved, I 0:04:38.080 --> 0:04:40.560 mean to the point where you can't do that. I 0:04:40.600 --> 0:04:42.279 was like, whoa, whoa, I'm twenty six. 0:04:44.920 --> 0:04:47.760 Was it about leaving Detroit or going to Nashville? 0:04:48.040 --> 0:04:52.080 Leaving Detroit? You know, my family very close knitted family, 0:04:52.360 --> 0:04:55.479 and me being the baby boy, I had six older 0:04:55.520 --> 0:04:59.160 brothers and so they thought they were my father's too, 0:04:59.560 --> 0:05:04.840 and so, oh god, all that works out. First of all, 0:05:04.839 --> 0:05:06.640 how many winings are there? Siblings? 0:05:06.839 --> 0:05:08.440 Thank you and mayor for asking this question. 0:05:09.160 --> 0:05:11.159 I can say that either way, there's a lot of them. 0:05:11.520 --> 0:05:14.720 Or I can say ten. It was ten seven boys 0:05:14.760 --> 0:05:17.320 straight my mom and dad had I'm not that boy, 0:05:17.320 --> 0:05:19.000 and then three girls after me. 0:05:19.760 --> 0:05:22.440 Wow, Okay, I'm not even going to get into the 0:05:22.520 --> 0:05:23.400 nephews and everything. 0:05:23.440 --> 0:05:26.520 So when you add it all up, you know, we 0:05:26.640 --> 0:05:31.520 go to a certain city family reunions or nightmare every 0:05:31.560 --> 0:05:35.120 other Thanksgiving. Oh god, the last one we had like 0:05:35.279 --> 0:05:40.440 one hundred and eight people wait for Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving? How 0:05:40.440 --> 0:05:45.719 do y'all even decide that you'll? Yeah, is this there's 0:05:45.720 --> 0:05:49.320 a certain my baby's sister is the one that's actually 0:05:49.400 --> 0:05:53.680 in charge, and so we rent five homes and not 0:05:53.720 --> 0:05:58.159 only Thanksgiving, but week that whole week. So after Thanksgiving 0:05:58.320 --> 0:06:00.400 is over, that week, you don't want to see no 0:06:00.520 --> 0:06:05.120 more winings for a good two years. So it's Thanksgiving 0:06:05.160 --> 0:06:06.080 the family reunion. 0:06:06.640 --> 0:06:09.800 Yeah, you know how many winings are on record? Literally, 0:06:09.839 --> 0:06:11.680 how many winings have recorded? 0:06:12.000 --> 0:06:14.800 Well you have you know when my when my brother 0:06:14.960 --> 0:06:18.640 started off, it was the four brothers the wine. Then 0:06:18.720 --> 0:06:23.839 you had me and Cec right, my brother Daniel, who 0:06:23.880 --> 0:06:26.640 is the sole artist. You have my two sisters, Angie 0:06:26.680 --> 0:06:29.600 and Debbie. And then after years down the road that 0:06:29.720 --> 0:06:33.960 my mom and dad recorded. So they met. My mom 0:06:33.960 --> 0:06:36.760 and dad met in a group called the Lemon Gospel Corps. 0:06:36.800 --> 0:06:40.280 That's how they met. My father was an only child 0:06:40.400 --> 0:06:44.119 and my mother only had one sister, and so they met, 0:06:44.680 --> 0:06:49.320 and then a sister in law, VICKI recorded, so within 0:06:49.440 --> 0:06:54.720 the family, tell you this. There's about forty five Grammy Awards. 0:06:55.040 --> 0:06:57.000 It's a Jackson's wine in Battle. 0:06:57.320 --> 0:07:02.680 Oh no, the wine is one. Oh okay, damn At 0:07:02.760 --> 0:07:03.760 least in the pop world. 0:07:03.920 --> 0:07:07.839 Like you know, Silvers were allowed to exist, Like I 0:07:07.880 --> 0:07:11.800 think to most people, the Winings are the only dynasty 0:07:11.840 --> 0:07:15.000 that matters and gospel, even though I'm certain that there 0:07:15.000 --> 0:07:22.320 are other Hawkins family, Yes, yes. 0:07:20.360 --> 0:07:23.480 And and so yeah, we we and we grew up together, 0:07:23.640 --> 0:07:26.080 we being me and the clarks Us and the clarks 0:07:26.120 --> 0:07:29.120 sisters you know, same high school, you know, fred Ham 0:07:29.120 --> 0:07:32.880 and all them, and so we've always been a great, 0:07:33.080 --> 0:07:36.240 big family and understood it the doors that they opened, 0:07:36.360 --> 0:07:38.560 the doors that we opened with for other people, for 0:07:38.600 --> 0:07:41.360 each other, and so you know, we've always learned to 0:07:41.400 --> 0:07:45.600 celebrate each other, right, and and everything that has happened 0:07:45.640 --> 0:07:46.360 for all of us. 0:07:46.480 --> 0:07:49.120 You know, I was going to say that it was 0:07:49.160 --> 0:07:52.600 really important for me to have you on here because 0:07:54.120 --> 0:08:00.240 you and your sister CC specifically were responsible for like 0:08:00.800 --> 0:08:05.720 a paradigm shift in the Thompson household. Oh it was Philadelphia, 0:08:06.240 --> 0:08:08.920 So you know, and I've explained this on the show 0:08:08.960 --> 0:08:12.440 a lot that there was kind of a period where 0:08:13.480 --> 0:08:17.360 like I basically came home one day and there was 0:08:18.160 --> 0:08:21.560 a new regime and my dad was like, we're all 0:08:21.560 --> 0:08:22.000 born again. 0:08:22.880 --> 0:08:27.360 Wait, huh what happened? And this is all I know. 0:08:28.240 --> 0:08:32.680 Something happened in seventy nine, and I kind of feel 0:08:32.679 --> 0:08:35.000 like the first domino that fell because my father. 0:08:34.880 --> 0:08:36.480 Was in the music business as well. 0:08:37.480 --> 0:08:40.120 And the first domino that fell was there was a 0:08:40.160 --> 0:08:43.760 moment where in downa Summer. It explains this in her 0:08:44.559 --> 0:08:49.559 documentary where it was like seventy eight seventy nine, and 0:08:49.720 --> 0:08:51.760 this is when she was literally on top of the 0:08:51.760 --> 0:08:54.079 world in terms of her career and all that stuff. 0:08:54.640 --> 0:08:57.160 But of course, you know, there's an emptiness inside of her, 0:08:57.800 --> 0:09:00.880 and I believe she might have been conto plating suicide 0:09:00.960 --> 0:09:04.079 or whatever, and whatever the situation was, she had this 0:09:04.960 --> 0:09:08.240 revelation and she became born again, and she shared the 0:09:08.320 --> 0:09:12.360 story on either the seven hundred Club or the PTL Club. 0:09:12.880 --> 0:09:15.920 I believe it was the seven hundred Club. It's Pat Robinson. 0:09:17.600 --> 0:09:22.240 Because of terrestrial television and not having access to cable, 0:09:23.559 --> 0:09:29.800 my dad would just leave the channel on either PTL 0:09:30.200 --> 0:09:33.440 or seven hundred Club would just buy blocks. 0:09:33.720 --> 0:09:36.520 Right, four hour blocks, five hour blocks on. 0:09:36.559 --> 0:09:40.160 Certain UHF stations, and my dad would just constantly keep 0:09:40.160 --> 0:09:46.760 it running. And so around eighty one something really touched 0:09:46.760 --> 0:09:51.560 my dad in the morning whatever and he ordered something 0:09:51.559 --> 0:09:53.400 you know, call this is one eight hundred number to 0:09:53.400 --> 0:09:56.480 get your prayer package or whatever. And inside of that 0:09:56.520 --> 0:10:01.240 prayer package thing was a forty five and the forty. 0:10:00.960 --> 0:10:01.720 Five was. 0:10:03.840 --> 0:10:06.840 Up, not exactly a cover of Joe Cocker and Jennifer 0:10:06.880 --> 0:10:09.600 Warren's Love Lifts Up Where We Belong from Offers and 0:10:09.600 --> 0:10:12.760 a Gentleman, but a gospel version of it. 0:10:13.280 --> 0:10:18.480 Wow, And my dad played, remember that version, you are 0:10:18.600 --> 0:10:21.679 wearing me out right, this bobus. 0:10:21.400 --> 0:10:22.840 This is both of them a mirror, this is this 0:10:22.920 --> 0:10:24.800 is this Islaiah. 0:10:25.120 --> 0:10:28.440 So this will explain all the prince punishments and all 0:10:28.480 --> 0:10:30.600 those things, because I didn't get the memo that we 0:10:30.640 --> 0:10:34.560 are now born again and what that entails. Because before 0:10:34.600 --> 0:10:37.160 in nineteen seventy nine, I would say my parents were 0:10:37.240 --> 0:10:42.559 relatively hip. They were sixties revolutionaries. Yeah, you were Afros 0:10:42.600 --> 0:10:45.319 and you know my mom. They had a sprawling record 0:10:45.320 --> 0:10:49.680 collection of four thousand records. They were hip, and then 0:10:50.400 --> 0:10:54.160 something happened in nineteen eighty eighty one, they became born 0:10:54.200 --> 0:10:55.880 again and this this. 0:10:55.880 --> 0:10:58.240 Was happening, you know. And I think that when you 0:10:58.280 --> 0:11:00.440 are like in the Revolution in the eary. 0:11:00.400 --> 0:11:05.960 Sixties and the hedonistic seventies, then the eighties were sort 0:11:06.000 --> 0:11:09.960 of seen as an atonement period for some. And man, 0:11:10.640 --> 0:11:16.680 when he got that forty five, he played it so much. 0:11:16.880 --> 0:11:18.280 That's the only song that was on there. 0:11:19.000 --> 0:11:22.760 It was a forty five or five, but it's what 0:11:22.880 --> 0:11:25.760 it's what made them stars. 0:11:25.800 --> 0:11:28.839 And then so if anything, I think for a lot 0:11:28.840 --> 0:11:30.920 of people, they came to your brothers first. 0:11:32.160 --> 0:11:36.520 No, from my household, BB and CC were first. 0:11:36.440 --> 0:11:38.959 Yeah, my house old BB and CC was first, right, 0:11:39.040 --> 0:11:41.960 and then it was like, wait, there's more. 0:11:42.559 --> 0:11:48.800 So suddenly, maybe a year later, I'm hearing this no no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, 0:11:48.800 --> 0:11:51.240 no no song over and over again. I'm like, they 0:11:51.240 --> 0:11:51.960 got another song. 0:11:52.000 --> 0:11:57.360 It's like, no, there's then just between eighty one and 0:11:57.640 --> 0:12:04.079 eighty seven, like whining's only the entire clan. 0:12:04.240 --> 0:12:07.960 So I definitely got questions to ask. Let's go. I 0:12:07.960 --> 0:12:10.800 don't know if to say thank you or I'm sorry? 0:12:11.320 --> 0:12:15.360 Is that I too? You know what? Okay, So here's 0:12:15.360 --> 0:12:15.720 the deal. 0:12:15.920 --> 0:12:20.760 Oh, because I'm twelve thirteen, and this this happens with 0:12:20.880 --> 0:12:24.760 every twelve and thirteen year old, Like once your parents 0:12:24.880 --> 0:12:27.400 lay down the law, you see it as. 0:12:27.520 --> 0:12:29.199 Punishment, you know what I mean? 0:12:29.360 --> 0:12:34.200 Oh yeah, oh yeah, and so but look I say 0:12:34.280 --> 0:12:37.120 this way, I joke now that even I'm starting now 0:12:37.160 --> 0:12:41.160 to have fond memories of the pandemic, like ah, man, 0:12:41.240 --> 0:12:43.960 it was fun like living in the farm, you know, 0:12:44.240 --> 0:12:46.840 taking long walks, not having to work, like of course 0:12:46.880 --> 0:12:49.080 in twenty twenty it was like, oh god, the world's 0:12:49.080 --> 0:12:52.760 about the end. Like now I'm starting to have like 0:12:53.760 --> 0:12:58.360 pandemic fond memories. So that said, when I now think 0:12:58.400 --> 0:13:02.840 of like my tweens and how heavy the whinings were 0:13:03.080 --> 0:13:07.000 inside of that family, all of your work, all of 0:13:07.000 --> 0:13:11.839 their work, and all your simply like included, now I 0:13:11.920 --> 0:13:15.000 can say, yeah, those were fond memories. 0:13:15.200 --> 0:13:16.319 I'm not traumatized. 0:13:16.360 --> 0:13:19.160 No, the traumatizing part was wanting to listen to rap 0:13:19.240 --> 0:13:22.120 music secular music and trying to sneak it in the 0:13:22.160 --> 0:13:24.240 house and getting busted. 0:13:24.679 --> 0:13:27.720 But oh yeah, oh yeah, and so the thing is 0:13:27.760 --> 0:13:31.319 so but I'm tickled. I could laugh for the rest 0:13:31.400 --> 0:13:36.360 of this interview. I understand. So you have to understand 0:13:36.520 --> 0:13:39.320 being raised in the household I was raised in. My 0:13:39.640 --> 0:13:44.000 father laid down the law there would be no other 0:13:44.120 --> 0:13:49.000 type of music in my household except gospel music. Detroit. 0:13:49.040 --> 0:13:54.240 Though Detroit, I'm saying Motown where hurt where one street 0:13:54.320 --> 0:13:58.120 ahead Santa Barbara to the left, Smokey Robinson Lyve. We 0:13:58.200 --> 0:14:00.959 used to rush to his house to shovel snow because 0:14:00.960 --> 0:14:03.560 Smokey would give you like twenty five dollars instead of 0:14:04.200 --> 0:14:08.719 you know, and three blocks behind us on Santa Maria 0:14:09.120 --> 0:14:13.120 lived Stevie Wonder. Not only was it Motown four more 0:14:13.160 --> 0:14:17.160 blocks down the street, the four Tops. So we had 0:14:17.360 --> 0:14:20.880 all this great, great, great music and we could not 0:14:21.440 --> 0:14:25.480 listen to it in the house. So sometimes, you know, 0:14:25.560 --> 0:14:29.240 we would take a song from that era and then 0:14:29.280 --> 0:14:34.040 we would switch to words and my father to know, ye, what. 0:14:34.640 --> 0:14:38.680 Last light is like the light or something exact. What 0:14:38.760 --> 0:14:43.160 was your what was your first musical well wow, okay, now, 0:14:43.040 --> 0:14:46.240 nor what was your first musical memory in life? 0:14:46.960 --> 0:14:50.400 Well? You know so so growing up seriously in the 0:14:50.440 --> 0:14:52.720 household I grew up in. Music was always a part 0:14:53.680 --> 0:14:58.880 of my life, whether that was in church or at school, 0:15:00.040 --> 0:15:03.920 school choir. So it was always a love of my 0:15:04.000 --> 0:15:06.640 whole entire family. Not knowing it would be our career. 0:15:07.360 --> 0:15:11.520 But my father and mother saw the passion for music, 0:15:11.640 --> 0:15:14.600 and so they sacrificed. You know, my father was a 0:15:14.720 --> 0:15:19.320 barber by trade. He worked in the car manufactory and 0:15:19.720 --> 0:15:22.520 everything else between there, you know, because he had to 0:15:22.520 --> 0:15:23.720 support ten kids. 0:15:24.120 --> 0:15:27.400 Wait, can I see something? Were they part of what 0:15:27.440 --> 0:15:30.680 we would call the great migration from down south where 0:15:30.800 --> 0:15:34.400 blacks were escaping down south to go to the north 0:15:34.560 --> 0:15:36.640 of my great grandfather. 0:15:36.840 --> 0:15:38.600 Yes, from Mississippi. 0:15:39.120 --> 0:15:44.360 Okay, so they came to Detroit to fine industry and yeah, okay, I'm. 0:15:44.240 --> 0:15:48.480 Had definitely born and raised in Detroit, and so we 0:15:49.120 --> 0:15:52.440 you know, my father sacrifice bought us a piano, and 0:15:52.480 --> 0:15:55.080 none of us went to school and learn how to 0:15:55.080 --> 0:15:58.200 play piano. It was self talk, but we had a passion. 0:15:58.280 --> 0:16:01.360 So they really poured into us. So we sung all 0:16:01.400 --> 0:16:04.600 the time, you know, not knowing it would be our 0:16:04.640 --> 0:16:10.040 career yet and still we learned so much. And my 0:16:10.640 --> 0:16:15.600 father used to tell us, before you are international, you 0:16:15.720 --> 0:16:19.720 gotta be regional, I mean national, Before you're national, you 0:16:19.720 --> 0:16:22.720 got to be regional before your regional got to be local. 0:16:23.080 --> 0:16:27.960 And so we were taught to be faithful with our talent. 0:16:28.280 --> 0:16:30.720 So you know, whether it's three people in audience. We 0:16:30.800 --> 0:16:33.560 sung like it was two thousand, you know, and gave 0:16:33.600 --> 0:16:37.440 it our all. And then doors started opening here, doors 0:16:37.440 --> 0:16:42.600 started opening there. My music me and CC was totally 0:16:42.640 --> 0:16:48.040 different from my brothers because of my fourth grade teacher, 0:16:48.720 --> 0:16:52.280 Miss bids, I'll never forget this because it shifted me. 0:16:52.880 --> 0:16:55.360 I always wanted to write more so, always been more 0:16:55.400 --> 0:16:59.120 passionate of writing than singing, and so in the fourth 0:16:59.160 --> 0:17:02.080 grade he said to the students, I have a poem 0:17:02.120 --> 0:17:05.480 I'm gonna read to you, And that was really the 0:17:05.600 --> 0:17:08.720 time to go to sleep. But she read The Wind, 0:17:09.440 --> 0:17:12.560 and when she read it, it captivated me. He said, 0:17:12.560 --> 0:17:14.439 why does the wind so want to be here in 0:17:14.440 --> 0:17:16.760 my little room with me? When he's all the world 0:17:16.800 --> 0:17:19.240 to blow about? And just because he keeps him out, 0:17:19.640 --> 0:17:21.960 he cannot wait a moment? Still be frets upon my 0:17:22.160 --> 0:17:25.719 window ceiling sometimes brings a noisy rain to help him 0:17:25.760 --> 0:17:28.760 better at the pain. Upon my door, he comes and knocks, 0:17:29.200 --> 0:17:31.679 and he rattles and rattles at the locks. He lifts 0:17:31.680 --> 0:17:35.159 the latch and stirs the key and waits a moment Previously, 0:17:35.240 --> 0:17:37.679 tell me, why does the wind so want to be 0:17:37.760 --> 0:17:39.480 here in my little room with me? And I was like, 0:17:41.400 --> 0:17:45.720 thank you Jesus. WHOA wow? That was profounding? You Okay, 0:17:45.920 --> 0:17:48.680 it was profound. So when I wrote songs like love 0:17:48.760 --> 0:17:51.600 said not so, I wanted to write it in a 0:17:51.640 --> 0:17:55.439 way that caused people to think, you know, and so 0:17:56.240 --> 0:18:00.240 doing that it separated me and Cecy from my brothers. 0:18:00.640 --> 0:18:04.360 And Ceci and I wasn't a duet until we went 0:18:04.440 --> 0:18:08.280 down to PTL and joined the Ptail Singers, and Jim 0:18:08.320 --> 0:18:10.639 Baker came in the room and said, I heard a 0:18:10.720 --> 0:18:13.280 song on the radio from officer and a gentleman, and 0:18:13.359 --> 0:18:15.479 I want, you know, change a couple of works and 0:18:15.520 --> 0:18:19.320 I want you Bb and cc y'all sing it together. 0:18:19.800 --> 0:18:23.560 Jim Baker, It was that instantaneous how we became a duet. 0:18:28.640 --> 0:18:33.480 How does one start a gospel business where suddenly you're 0:18:33.600 --> 0:18:36.359 now making a living off it? 0:18:36.480 --> 0:18:39.520 Like, how does this start in your household? Well, my father, 0:18:40.560 --> 0:18:45.240 you know, our biggest fan, and he felt as if 0:18:45.480 --> 0:18:49.320 you know what, you guys are talented, talented enough to record, 0:18:49.800 --> 0:18:55.240 So he put his money into recording the first forty 0:18:55.280 --> 0:19:00.600 five for my brothers. As that continue, that door opened 0:19:00.640 --> 0:19:02.800 another door in that door, and before you know it, 0:19:02.800 --> 0:19:06.880 my brothers met Andre Crouch and the Disciples who were 0:19:07.000 --> 0:19:12.359 our heroes, and he signed them and the first to 0:19:12.440 --> 0:19:16.760 Light Records or Records? Yes, where was Light located in 0:19:16.800 --> 0:19:20.399 all Saneles? Gee? I thought it was a Detroit label, okay. 0:19:21.400 --> 0:19:24.520 And the first single that Ray released in nineteen eighty 0:19:24.680 --> 0:19:28.680 was question he is no No No, No no No. 0:19:29.440 --> 0:19:32.960 And I came in backwards. But so that that first 0:19:32.960 --> 0:19:34.639 album did start the dynasty. 0:19:35.119 --> 0:19:38.879 So me and CC at the it was a the 0:19:39.040 --> 0:19:45.800 question is was out first? And then CC released that 0:19:45.920 --> 0:19:49.719 first single for PTL. Uh Lord left us up when 0:19:49.760 --> 0:19:55.520 we belonged, and so we were on different tracks, probably 0:19:55.560 --> 0:19:59.320 a year or so in between the release of their 0:19:59.440 --> 0:20:03.760 song and the release of our song on PTL Records. 0:20:04.440 --> 0:20:08.200 I'm still in shocked at Jim Baker's ear, my mind, 0:20:08.240 --> 0:20:12.400 his ear, don't hear y'all, but he did he did. Yeah, 0:20:12.480 --> 0:20:14.040 I'm I'm a shock of that. 0:20:14.840 --> 0:20:18.120 So you have to understand. So me and CC we 0:20:18.240 --> 0:20:20.720 had before we came to PTL, we had a group 0:20:21.080 --> 0:20:24.760 and the Whinings Part two, and in that group was 0:20:24.800 --> 0:20:28.040 another brother, Danielle. At the time, Vicky was married to 0:20:28.080 --> 0:20:31.520 Marvin and then another friend. And so after a couple 0:20:31.560 --> 0:20:35.359 of years, she said I remember us looking at each 0:20:35.400 --> 0:20:37.919 other saying do you feel what I feel? And she 0:20:38.040 --> 0:20:40.959 was like, I think so. So we had to go 0:20:41.080 --> 0:20:44.040 back home to Detroit and tell the rest of our 0:20:44.080 --> 0:20:48.400 group this group no longer exists. Y'all gotta go back 0:20:48.440 --> 0:20:53.440 and get all easy to do that? That was so difficult. 0:20:53.760 --> 0:20:55.080 Did people walk away upset? 0:20:55.840 --> 0:20:58.199 Oh? Yes? My father was angry because you know, my 0:20:58.240 --> 0:21:02.280 father was like, we got to stick together. And I said, Daddy, 0:21:02.320 --> 0:21:02.640 we are. 0:21:02.800 --> 0:21:07.640 But me and CC, well, first of all, okay, are 0:21:07.680 --> 0:21:12.920 you the C C respectively consecutive and age. This's the 0:21:12.960 --> 0:21:16.560 first girl. I'm the basic eldest girl. You're the youngest boy. Okay, 0:21:17.400 --> 0:21:18.760 how do you guys even pair up? 0:21:18.960 --> 0:21:23.040 Like? Were you two just that close in age? So Ronald, 0:21:23.400 --> 0:21:27.920 my brother who passed away twenty years ago. Now he 0:21:28.040 --> 0:21:34.120 put me, my brother Daniel, my brother Michael together with CC. 0:21:34.920 --> 0:21:37.919 We were the Christian version of Gladdest Knight in the 0:21:37.960 --> 0:21:42.440 pips Okay Elementary school and they were in high school, 0:21:42.960 --> 0:21:45.879 Mumford High which had a lot of great talent in 0:21:45.920 --> 0:21:50.719 that high school. And for their talent show, he made 0:21:50.840 --> 0:21:55.520 us go sing at that talent show. So we had 0:21:55.640 --> 0:21:59.439 that group and then as time would have it. Michael 0:21:59.440 --> 0:22:02.119 would leave our group and go to their group, and 0:22:02.200 --> 0:22:06.160 they became the Whinings, and so it was just it 0:22:06.440 --> 0:22:13.040 kept evolving. Jim and Tammy that brought us together and 0:22:13.119 --> 0:22:16.240 caused us to be a duet. PJL was was at 0:22:16.280 --> 0:22:19.800 North Carolina, Charlotte Charlotte, North Carolina. It was the place 0:22:19.840 --> 0:22:24.320 if you wanted to be exposed on Christian television. It 0:22:24.480 --> 0:22:29.760 was PTL. It was much bigger than TBN and CBN 0:22:29.840 --> 0:22:33.520 and all those other places. So I met all those people, 0:22:33.560 --> 0:22:39.200 me and CC because everybody came through PTL, even Hollywood. 0:22:39.720 --> 0:22:43.840 You know, if an actor became a Christian, he came 0:22:43.960 --> 0:22:47.320 through PTL. It was the place to go. 0:22:47.720 --> 0:22:51.480 And they were racially welcoming to everyone too well. 0:22:51.800 --> 0:22:54.760 Jim and Tammy was but at the time would go on. 0:22:55.320 --> 0:22:58.080 You know, I would learn a lot how they were 0:22:58.160 --> 0:23:03.520 attacked because of me and Ceci. They broke ground in 0:23:03.680 --> 0:23:07.840 having these colored children. Whoa that was that was controversial. Yeah, 0:23:07.920 --> 0:23:13.920 that's what I'm saying. Death threats, death threat and he 0:23:14.119 --> 0:23:17.440 hid us from those. So so I would jump over 0:23:17.600 --> 0:23:19.760 to you know, I have a book and I have 0:23:20.400 --> 0:23:23.880 out of the book is the musical that I wrote 0:23:23.920 --> 0:23:29.280 called Born for this which looks like now twenty five spring, 0:23:29.400 --> 0:23:32.160 it will hit Broadway. But one of the things that 0:23:32.160 --> 0:23:35.439 that I did, I went and set with Jim, who 0:23:35.520 --> 0:23:38.560 are still friends to this day, because they became like 0:23:38.640 --> 0:23:41.639 our parents, they really did, and they protected me at Cecy. 0:23:42.880 --> 0:23:44.600 And so I was sitting with him and I told him, 0:23:44.600 --> 0:23:47.000 I said, Jim, you know, me and my co author, 0:23:47.080 --> 0:23:49.359 we took some you know, lead and said there was 0:23:49.560 --> 0:23:51.720 you know, some threats. And Jim looked at me and said, 0:23:52.000 --> 0:23:55.760 be there was many threats. I was like what he said, 0:23:55.880 --> 0:23:58.520 people would call up stead, they were coming up to 0:23:58.680 --> 0:24:00.760 shoot us and kill us. And how could they have 0:24:01.160 --> 0:24:03.280 these black kids on the show and this and that? 0:24:03.359 --> 0:24:06.480 Oh it was. It was unbelievable. 0:24:06.920 --> 0:24:10.960 The hatred these beautiful chocolate babies too, like what. 0:24:13.160 --> 0:24:18.480 Oh they was angry. And then after we received we 0:24:18.520 --> 0:24:21.359 did that duet. I mean you thought you were tired 0:24:21.400 --> 0:24:24.159 of listening to the quest. We were tired of singing 0:24:24.200 --> 0:24:28.400 that song. It was every day. 0:24:28.760 --> 0:24:33.119 How long did it consume you before, like you eventually 0:24:33.160 --> 0:24:37.120 had more songs in your canon that you could you know. 0:24:37.280 --> 0:24:41.240 Yeah, I mean we sang that song seriously every day 0:24:41.400 --> 0:24:44.359 for maybe every day twice or three times a day 0:24:45.080 --> 0:24:48.320 for two years straight. And so because of that, we 0:24:48.320 --> 0:24:51.680 were asked to come out and sing various other places. 0:24:51.680 --> 0:24:53.280 And so that's when I had to say, CC, we 0:24:53.320 --> 0:24:57.399 gotta we got to create some duets and so taking 0:24:57.520 --> 0:25:00.720 songs that Amy Grant sang, taking so that this one 0:25:00.800 --> 0:25:03.800 saying and made them do X and would go do 0:25:03.880 --> 0:25:08.080 that and so and that's when we realized, you know what, 0:25:08.280 --> 0:25:10.480 I think we're supposed to be a duet, you know, 0:25:10.520 --> 0:25:12.400 and went and had that talk with the family. 0:25:13.640 --> 0:25:17.919 How did the kind of fallout of eighty seven affect you? 0:25:19.119 --> 0:25:20.520 And what. 0:25:22.119 --> 0:25:26.639 Pivot did you had to make once the PTL empire 0:25:27.680 --> 0:25:29.560 kind of came crumbling down. 0:25:29.680 --> 0:25:34.200 I don't is it over now or is there's there's 0:25:34.640 --> 0:25:39.000 other people in that space. So when we decided to leave, 0:25:39.200 --> 0:25:42.919 it was years before that happened because CC was getting 0:25:42.960 --> 0:25:45.480 married moving back to Detroit, and I thought, hey, we 0:25:45.600 --> 0:25:48.119 came together, we're gonna leave together. So it was the 0:25:48.160 --> 0:25:53.000 hardest meeting we had and Tammy cried. It was we 0:25:53.040 --> 0:25:55.679 went to their home for dinner and they cried and 0:25:55.720 --> 0:25:59.359 we both cried. And then Jim said to us, he said, 0:25:59.520 --> 0:26:03.199 you guys are going to be huge stars. And we 0:26:03.240 --> 0:26:06.400 started laughing. He said, I'm not I'm not playing. You're 0:26:06.440 --> 0:26:09.879 going to be stars, you know, and you know talked 0:26:09.880 --> 0:26:13.119 about and we're sorry for you to let you go, 0:26:13.160 --> 0:26:17.840 but we understand, right, So we went back home to Detroit, 0:26:18.840 --> 0:26:22.159 and then we got a call saying, a year or 0:26:22.200 --> 0:26:24.560 so later, Jim and Tabing want you to come back, 0:26:24.840 --> 0:26:28.200 and you can have the freedom you need because we 0:26:28.280 --> 0:26:31.760 have recorded and things started moving in our in our 0:26:31.800 --> 0:26:34.679 career as a duet, and you can have all the 0:26:34.720 --> 0:26:37.080 time you need, but they just want you to come back, 0:26:37.119 --> 0:26:40.399 and we agreed to it, and then then all of 0:26:40.400 --> 0:26:44.400 a sudden, get a phone call said Jim said no, 0:26:45.240 --> 0:26:49.200 and no explanation. So it was like, this is confusing. 0:26:49.359 --> 0:26:51.119 I mean, we were you didn't know what was happening. 0:26:51.480 --> 0:26:54.520 I know what has happened. And so when everything tumbled 0:26:54.560 --> 0:26:59.880 and everything came out, we realized that he was protecting us. 0:27:01.520 --> 0:27:03.679 He did not want us to come back and be 0:27:03.800 --> 0:27:07.320 caught up in the store or anything that was happening. 0:27:08.040 --> 0:27:11.240 So he was still loving on us, still protecting us 0:27:11.520 --> 0:27:13.919 as he did when we were there. The whole time. 0:27:14.320 --> 0:27:17.159 I ran into a car as I was cleaning different 0:27:17.200 --> 0:27:19.880 drawers in my home and there was a card from 0:27:19.960 --> 0:27:25.160 Tammy Faye Baker that she wrote to my son bb 0:27:25.320 --> 0:27:30.360 whinings sore, Mom's going to miss you. And so it was. 0:27:30.680 --> 0:27:35.040 It was. It was very moving, but they saw what 0:27:35.280 --> 0:27:38.600 was going to happen in our lives before we saw. 0:27:39.720 --> 0:27:43.679 Did you ever watch the biopic that? 0:27:44.680 --> 0:27:47.280 Yes? Did you feel like it it was depicted fairly? 0:27:47.480 --> 0:27:51.919 Or I thought some things were predicted fairly. You know, 0:27:52.000 --> 0:27:55.520 Tammy Faye was one of the sweetest persons you ever 0:27:55.560 --> 0:27:57.840 want to meet. I mean, when she passed away, it 0:27:57.960 --> 0:28:03.120 was a very hard thing for us. And Jim has 0:28:03.200 --> 0:28:09.520 always been a supporter, right, so they were dear to us. Okay, 0:28:09.920 --> 0:28:13.439 to this day, Jim, I don't agree with everything he says, 0:28:13.480 --> 0:28:17.280 but you know, that's life. At the same time, when 0:28:17.480 --> 0:28:22.000 I opened the musical Born for this the regional run 0:28:22.119 --> 0:28:25.560 in Atlanta, Jim came to that. So I had Jim 0:28:25.640 --> 0:28:28.720 on my right side and I had my mom on 0:28:28.800 --> 0:28:33.639 my other side. There's a scene, there's a scene in 0:28:33.680 --> 0:28:37.760 it where I was dating one of the singers and 0:28:38.440 --> 0:28:44.160 actually Tammy, and this was the racism that existed. Tammy 0:28:45.080 --> 0:28:48.440 was upset as well as others because she was a 0:28:48.480 --> 0:28:52.600 tall blonde and she said, you can't date BB because 0:28:53.320 --> 0:28:56.400 it's not right, and so we ignored it and they 0:28:56.440 --> 0:28:59.960 fired her. So while this scene has gone on, Jim 0:29:00.160 --> 0:29:05.000 leaned in and said, I didn't know that happened. I'm 0:29:05.040 --> 0:29:07.200 so sorry, I said, Jim, that was thirty years ago. 0:29:07.280 --> 0:29:07.920 You even got this. 0:29:08.920 --> 0:29:13.800 Wow, it's so interesting, the subtle racism of things still 0:29:14.680 --> 0:29:17.479 right and yet she still loved you. But that's that's 0:29:17.520 --> 0:29:20.520 what that's seven white folks, I guess exactly. 0:29:20.840 --> 0:29:23.360 But you're talking about something that's embedded and. 0:29:23.480 --> 0:29:27.880 Yeah, you know when you're obviously not going back to PTL. 0:29:28.880 --> 0:29:32.360 Was there ever a trepidation of fear, of like what now? 0:29:32.640 --> 0:29:35.320 What? What do I do? You know what? Never fear. 0:29:35.760 --> 0:29:39.800 I was always a big dreamer and some people, so 0:29:39.840 --> 0:29:43.320 my father used to say, there's a thin line between 0:29:43.440 --> 0:29:48.560 confident and conceited. And some people may think you're conceited, 0:29:48.800 --> 0:29:53.040 but what you're going to be is very confident and 0:29:53.160 --> 0:29:57.240 believe in what you have. Right. So I believed that 0:29:57.240 --> 0:30:01.880 that CC and I would accomplish fish things that was 0:30:01.960 --> 0:30:05.040 even beyond our dreams, and so I went for it. 0:30:05.160 --> 0:30:08.120 So I went to Nashville, you know, with a friend 0:30:08.400 --> 0:30:12.480 and took's meetings and then brought Cci and everybody was 0:30:12.560 --> 0:30:15.640 saying no. One person said I don't even hear talent. 0:30:15.920 --> 0:30:18.880 I was like, whoa, I mean, wait what that's what 0:30:18.920 --> 0:30:22.760 the record company said. And I looked at him and I said, okay, 0:30:23.560 --> 0:30:29.360 you mean you don't hear none. That was confusing to me. Okay, 0:30:30.880 --> 0:30:33.680 but that's what he said. And then we kept going. 0:30:33.760 --> 0:30:39.640 So I never ever thought this is not going to happen. 0:30:40.560 --> 0:30:44.360 Never thought that, never, And so the last record company, 0:30:44.680 --> 0:30:52.280 which was Sparrow Records, said yes. And that started the 0:30:52.360 --> 0:30:59.120 serious step and shift in my sister's career and the writing. Again, 0:31:00.120 --> 0:31:04.560 we knew traditional church is not going to like this, 0:31:04.720 --> 0:31:08.800 and they were angry, but that was no fear because 0:31:09.400 --> 0:31:13.840 every song I wrote, I had my mom listen to it, 0:31:13.880 --> 0:31:15.800 and if my mom gave me the thun up, I 0:31:15.960 --> 0:31:20.760 was good. I was looking. So that was the That 0:31:20.840 --> 0:31:22.880 was the path and never stop. 0:31:23.600 --> 0:31:26.760 How are you even aware of what's out there if 0:31:26.760 --> 0:31:29.480 it's not allowed in the house, And did you guys follow. 0:31:29.200 --> 0:31:31.040 The rules or. 0:31:32.240 --> 0:31:34.320 Also like Richard Pryor's status, where you had to like 0:31:34.640 --> 0:31:35.800 sneak and listen to it a. 0:31:36.720 --> 0:31:39.240 Maan when you walked up the house. There's no way 0:31:39.280 --> 0:31:42.320 you couldn't Detroit, Michigan. There's no way you couldn't hear 0:31:43.880 --> 0:31:46.480 or Tops and Stevie Wonder and all these other people. 0:31:46.520 --> 0:31:52.000 So no, and good music always caught my ear. So 0:31:52.120 --> 0:31:57.080 my favorite singer in the world was Donnie Hathaway. Oh, 0:31:57.200 --> 0:32:00.960 if you wanted to make me smile, say, man, you 0:32:00.960 --> 0:32:03.680 you you sound like a little a little bit like Donny, 0:32:04.720 --> 0:32:08.520 what can I buy? You? Got it to me? He 0:32:08.600 --> 0:32:13.720 was the greatest singer of all times. He really was. 0:32:14.120 --> 0:32:18.840 So there were there were vocalists, there was writers that 0:32:19.160 --> 0:32:23.600 I kind of gravitated to. And when I wrote a song, 0:32:23.680 --> 0:32:25.840 I wanted the song to be kind of like distant, 0:32:25.960 --> 0:32:31.720 you know, uh, you know, it was just my imagination, right, 0:32:32.520 --> 0:32:35.320 So it was like oh yeah, yeah, yeah, and and 0:32:35.320 --> 0:32:38.280 and so that was those were my heroes. Those were 0:32:38.320 --> 0:32:41.720 the kind of songs that I was, I was uh 0:32:41.960 --> 0:32:45.200 gravitated to. So when I sat down and started writing 0:32:45.400 --> 0:32:50.840 stuff like I'm Lost with you said, don't have vocal 0:32:52.160 --> 0:32:59.560 move mid mid temple and and lyric was the most 0:32:59.600 --> 0:33:04.680 important that I said something that would cause people to 0:33:04.960 --> 0:33:10.080 be uplifted and to give life another try. Now here's 0:33:10.080 --> 0:33:10.440 the thing. 0:33:10.840 --> 0:33:13.320 When I first heard and that's a good example, like 0:33:13.920 --> 0:33:17.440 if I'm lost without you, I mean obviously you know. 0:33:17.480 --> 0:33:18.600 There was a period. 0:33:18.320 --> 0:33:26.120 Where I remember second grade, somebody either she in a valerie, 0:33:26.200 --> 0:33:29.280 like someone in my school wanted to sing you Light 0:33:29.360 --> 0:33:32.280 up my Life, and my music teacher had to say, like, 0:33:32.520 --> 0:33:35.000 you know that's a gospel song, right, They're like no, 0:33:35.240 --> 0:33:38.920 It's like we had no idea that you the light 0:33:38.960 --> 0:33:41.560 of my life was singing about God or whatever. Some 0:33:41.680 --> 0:33:47.440 point I always wondered if using especially in an example 0:33:47.520 --> 0:33:52.440 if I'm lost without you, would sometimes would you sort 0:33:52.440 --> 0:33:56.120 of ambiguously blur the lines of the pronoun because we 0:33:56.200 --> 0:33:59.480 often think in the gospel world that be you and 0:33:59.520 --> 0:34:01.280 sometimes works in the second world, like. 0:34:01.240 --> 0:34:04.160 I think love too, love right, and I think in. 0:34:04.120 --> 0:34:06.520 The second world, like Philip Billy once told me, like 0:34:07.480 --> 0:34:09.400 it was some earth wind and fire song. I thing 0:34:09.440 --> 0:34:12.640 it was like I had enough, and I'm thinking, like, oh, 0:34:13.080 --> 0:34:14.880 Philip bill is singing about I'm s so tired of 0:34:14.920 --> 0:34:18.440 being on the road and I'm coming home to you, babe. 0:34:18.560 --> 0:34:20.600 And he was like, no, I'm singing about I'm coming 0:34:20.600 --> 0:34:23.000 home to God or whatever. 0:34:23.920 --> 0:34:28.719 As a songwriter, you know, would you say that you 0:34:28.719 --> 0:34:33.359 could catch more fish if your songs are spiritual, but. 0:34:33.320 --> 0:34:35.840 You don't know where it falls. And so what I 0:34:36.320 --> 0:34:39.359 always say and truthfully say that that is I wish 0:34:39.440 --> 0:34:41.400 I was that smart, and I wish I was thinking 0:34:41.440 --> 0:34:49.560 that way. I always this is this is my reality. 0:34:50.120 --> 0:34:56.040 I felt like I had the authorization to tell the 0:34:56.080 --> 0:35:00.480 world what God meant to me in every ho aspect 0:35:00.560 --> 0:35:04.640 of my life, in my love life, in my friendship life, 0:35:04.680 --> 0:35:07.279 in my family life, and my public life, in my 0:35:07.360 --> 0:35:10.640 private every area of my life. I felt like I 0:35:10.719 --> 0:35:13.879 had the authority to write about. So Lost without You 0:35:14.160 --> 0:35:18.319 was definitely all about me saying, Lord, if you leave me, 0:35:19.040 --> 0:35:22.799 I'm totally lost. I am really totally lost. Now let's 0:35:22.920 --> 0:35:26.440 jump into the song. Down the Road. Me and Ceci 0:35:26.760 --> 0:35:31.879 are in Chicago doing a concert. It was a one 0:35:31.920 --> 0:35:38.600 of those musical amphitheaters, and not knowing the night before, 0:35:39.239 --> 0:35:43.839 Janet Jackson was in Chicago in concert, she saw our 0:35:44.000 --> 0:35:47.680 names and the next thing I know, I'm sitting there 0:35:47.680 --> 0:35:49.719 because Fred Hammon was on The Shame Show and I'm 0:35:49.719 --> 0:35:53.080 listening to Fred Hammond and somebody said, excuse me, mister Winings, 0:35:53.640 --> 0:35:55.920 you have to come to your room. It's like, no, 0:35:56.000 --> 0:35:58.719 I'm I'm watching you know, Fred, No, No, you have to. 0:35:59.080 --> 0:36:01.960 I'm watching Fred mister Wayne is Jenny Jackson is on 0:36:01.960 --> 0:36:08.160 the way to your room like Janet, if you're nasty, Jenny, 0:36:08.360 --> 0:36:13.759 I love that you reference. And so we go back 0:36:13.800 --> 0:36:18.160 to the room. Cec it myself and up drives this 0:36:18.560 --> 0:36:22.719 four car convey and Janey gets out and comes to 0:36:22.760 --> 0:36:25.600 the room and the first thing she wants to ask 0:36:25.920 --> 0:36:30.840 is tell me about Loss Without you. It's my favorite song. 0:36:31.520 --> 0:36:36.520 We are you talking about? Really? Yes? I never agree, 0:36:37.120 --> 0:36:40.719 And so that was one of those moments that I 0:36:40.800 --> 0:36:44.719 realized people interpret our songs the way they hear it, 0:36:45.320 --> 0:36:48.200 and that was okay with me. You know, I always 0:36:48.239 --> 0:36:52.440 feel and always felt then and now where there are people, 0:36:52.520 --> 0:36:55.880 whether it's in the club, where it's on the street, 0:36:56.040 --> 0:36:59.800 in the church, in a different venue where there's people, 0:37:00.480 --> 0:37:05.759 there's ministry, and so I'm always excited when my song 0:37:05.840 --> 0:37:08.000 goes beyond the four walls. 0:37:08.160 --> 0:37:10.919 Wait, Can I ask you both a question? Because oftentimes 0:37:10.920 --> 0:37:13.280 on this show I would think that something is created 0:37:13.280 --> 0:37:15.560 and new, but maybe sometimes I'm wrong. So I don't 0:37:15.560 --> 0:37:18.560 want to assume this. But for me and my generation, 0:37:18.760 --> 0:37:21.400 you were that person who blurred the line. And yes, 0:37:21.800 --> 0:37:24.080 you initially maybe you didn't think you were talking about God. 0:37:24.120 --> 0:37:25.839 But then when you realized you were talking about God, 0:37:25.880 --> 0:37:27.879 then it was like, oh this is even better. I'm good, 0:37:27.960 --> 0:37:31.040 you know. So why did it feel so special? Was 0:37:31.040 --> 0:37:33.719 there anybody else for who really could grasp that? Like 0:37:34.000 --> 0:37:34.840 fine line? 0:37:36.120 --> 0:37:39.239 Who is I mean? So you had again, you had 0:37:40.080 --> 0:37:43.719 the Hawkins family, so Edward and you know when he 0:37:43.760 --> 0:37:48.960 did Old Happy Day, that thing went cross. 0:37:48.080 --> 0:37:50.320 You know, but he still said Jesus Christ though. 0:37:50.360 --> 0:37:52.799 Yes, but it went to the pop charte wait, I 0:37:52.800 --> 0:37:56.400 got you okay. You know, music has a way even 0:37:56.440 --> 0:38:00.720 before the lyric of how it's produced and the rhythm 0:38:00.760 --> 0:38:05.920 of it, that will cross the lines. And so you 0:38:06.000 --> 0:38:09.320 take that rhythm that we were taught, you take also 0:38:09.480 --> 0:38:14.880 the message, which is important. And I remember after every 0:38:14.920 --> 0:38:17.600 after every album we recorded, I would sit it on 0:38:17.640 --> 0:38:20.239 the dresser and I would say, you know, Lord, I 0:38:20.239 --> 0:38:22.480 did my part. Can't wait to see what you're going 0:38:22.560 --> 0:38:24.680 to do with it. And so they get a phone 0:38:24.760 --> 0:38:28.880 call from someone in another country saying I was on 0:38:28.920 --> 0:38:34.160 the dance floor dancing to Addictive Love and it was 0:38:34.239 --> 0:38:37.759 my song and and then I realized, oh wow, oh 0:38:37.800 --> 0:38:45.799 that's a Christmas songs And it changed their lives. And 0:38:45.840 --> 0:38:48.880 so I'm always excited when things like that happen. 0:38:49.120 --> 0:38:51.359 But bbe, did you hear what you just said? Like, 0:38:51.400 --> 0:38:54.000 I'm just saying, y'all know that our grandmothers was like, 0:38:55.520 --> 0:38:57.040 don't you be dancing to that gospel music? 0:38:57.239 --> 0:38:59.919 But to me, when I read in the Old test 0:39:00.520 --> 0:39:03.880 when David dance out of his clothes because of what 0:39:04.040 --> 0:39:07.839 God had did, So you know I was free. When 0:39:07.880 --> 0:39:12.000 I went to PTL to Charlotte, North Carolina, I knew 0:39:12.200 --> 0:39:16.280 there was something happening inside of me that brought down 0:39:16.360 --> 0:39:21.359 the walls man made rooms, and I really found out 0:39:22.000 --> 0:39:25.440 more for personally who God was. So you have to understand. 0:39:25.640 --> 0:39:31.880 My first movie was ET, and I remember sitting. I 0:39:31.880 --> 0:39:33.879 had to go see it twice because the first time 0:39:33.920 --> 0:39:38.200 I saw it, I couldn't even I couldn't even enjoy 0:39:38.239 --> 0:39:44.920 it because I heard thunder you got die, I got it, 0:39:45.239 --> 0:39:55.759 got it for you? Was there ever longing to like? 0:39:55.920 --> 0:39:57.839 In making the first album in eighty four? 0:39:58.920 --> 0:40:02.359 Was it up by design that to not make it 0:40:02.400 --> 0:40:07.239 too funky, not make it too slow, asked to not 0:40:07.680 --> 0:40:13.960 turn off the older gospel authority, whereas come eighty seven, 0:40:14.920 --> 0:40:18.120 you guys are like, hey, here's breakbeats, here's a drum machine. 0:40:18.200 --> 0:40:21.680 I'm gonna make it sound like today's music, Like were 0:40:21.680 --> 0:40:25.279 you ever caught in the controversy of don't make the 0:40:25.400 --> 0:40:28.080 sound too No? 0:40:28.120 --> 0:40:30.799 Never, never, And so the answer to the question is 0:40:30.880 --> 0:40:35.920 just so it takes me back back to pt. L. 0:40:36.640 --> 0:40:40.640 So Howard mcquarie was the musical director and he's that 0:40:40.920 --> 0:40:45.920 called knew my brothers and asked if we could come audition. 0:40:46.280 --> 0:40:51.600 So he has a meeting and the last minute, Jim 0:40:51.640 --> 0:40:54.759 Baker called another meeting, and Howard comes to me and said, 0:40:54.800 --> 0:40:56.400 b you gotta do me a favorite. You've got to 0:40:56.440 --> 0:40:58.400 go in and meet with this guy. His name is 0:40:58.480 --> 0:41:02.160 Keith Thomas's from Nashville. He's coming up to meet with me. 0:41:02.480 --> 0:41:04.319 But I can't meet him because the thing. And I 0:41:04.320 --> 0:41:06.680 looked at Howard and said, I'm not going to meet 0:41:06.680 --> 0:41:08.720 somebody who's coming to me. I mean, that makes no sense. 0:41:08.840 --> 0:41:11.439 I would disappoint him as well. And so he said, 0:41:11.480 --> 0:41:15.800 phoebe just just going and meet him, not knowing because 0:41:15.920 --> 0:41:18.319 that I was going to meet the person that I 0:41:18.320 --> 0:41:24.120 would collaborate my whole career with. So when he started 0:41:24.160 --> 0:41:28.640 playing on the piano, it did something inside of me. 0:41:28.880 --> 0:41:33.280 It was like it was like meeting you know your spouse. 0:41:33.360 --> 0:41:36.040 It was like wow, I mean I fell in love 0:41:36.040 --> 0:41:38.600 with his courts. So before the meeting was over, I 0:41:38.640 --> 0:41:42.240 told him, I don't you know, let's let's swap numbers 0:41:42.239 --> 0:41:45.279 because I'm gonna come to Nashville and I'm gonna sit 0:41:45.360 --> 0:41:49.120 with you and there you have it. So it wasn't 0:41:49.160 --> 0:41:53.160 a thing of being worried about what people were going 0:41:53.239 --> 0:41:59.160 to say or how to navigate the craziness between traditional 0:41:59.200 --> 0:42:03.680 and contemporary. I just found my partner and we just 0:42:03.719 --> 0:42:08.560 started creating, and so I you know, I owe you me. 0:42:09.160 --> 0:42:11.279 It was like, yeah, I was gonna say, I owe 0:42:11.320 --> 0:42:11.560 you me. 0:42:11.800 --> 0:42:16.440 Was like, that was the first one, right. Keith Thomas 0:42:16.719 --> 0:42:19.560 to our listeners, don't know. He has so many numbers 0:42:19.560 --> 0:42:22.359 on the board. He's probably going best for I think 0:42:22.400 --> 0:42:23.240 he wrote save. 0:42:23.080 --> 0:42:24.640 The Best for last last. 0:42:24.880 --> 0:42:29.480 Vanessa Williams, did he have something to do with. 0:42:31.480 --> 0:42:36.240 Thomas what he did Amy Grant Baby, Baby Baby, Yeah, 0:42:36.320 --> 0:42:41.919 yeah he did. So. Keith was not being utilized much 0:42:42.200 --> 0:42:46.360 at all in the Christian world until he produced Me 0:42:46.480 --> 0:42:49.800 and CC and then people started finding out. But I 0:42:50.000 --> 0:42:53.680 understand after the first album, Me and CEC were now 0:42:53.840 --> 0:42:57.240 signed to Capitol Records, and so we went up to California, 0:42:57.320 --> 0:43:01.840 had the meeting with the CEO and all these big executives, 0:43:01.880 --> 0:43:06.000 and then the CEO said, Okay, you know you guys 0:43:06.040 --> 0:43:08.239 are going to work with different producers and me and 0:43:08.280 --> 0:43:10.319 sitting there and I said, no, no, we already have 0:43:10.360 --> 0:43:12.920 our producer, Keith Thomas. He said, oh, you know you're 0:43:12.960 --> 0:43:15.279 big time now, you're in the big league, so you 0:43:15.360 --> 0:43:17.880 got to work with big producers. And so long story short, 0:43:18.160 --> 0:43:22.520 I realized, oh, y'are not asking us, y'all telling them. 0:43:24.120 --> 0:43:27.640 And so I looked at him, happy to be on 0:43:27.719 --> 0:43:30.480 Capitol Records, and I told him, but if we can't 0:43:30.680 --> 0:43:34.359 use our producer, then I will grab my sister's hand 0:43:34.560 --> 0:43:37.319 and we will walk out and y'all have a good day. 0:43:38.040 --> 0:43:40.600 And he said, what, well, you would leave Capital Records 0:43:40.920 --> 0:43:43.880 And I looked at him and I meant this. I said, 0:43:44.120 --> 0:43:47.520 don't get it wrong, glad to be here, but you 0:43:47.640 --> 0:43:51.960 do not hold my future. God holds my future. So 0:43:52.320 --> 0:43:56.200 we will walk out of here. And that man said, well, 0:43:56.239 --> 0:44:00.720 I guess keep producing. I didn't know he was white. 0:44:00.800 --> 0:44:03.600 They didn't know anything about him, but he brought us 0:44:03.680 --> 0:44:08.160 to the party. We have this meeting is because of 0:44:08.239 --> 0:44:14.720 Keith Thomas and the collaboratory chemistry that he and I had. 0:44:14.880 --> 0:44:19.600 And so I'm glad I did it because because of that, 0:44:19.640 --> 0:44:21.839 you have the slew of things that me and I 0:44:21.880 --> 0:44:22.800 says to a company. 0:44:23.120 --> 0:44:26.880 So on that first album, yeah, you pretty much are 0:44:27.000 --> 0:44:31.440 utilizing your siblings as auxiliary voices. 0:44:31.960 --> 0:44:32.240 Yes? 0:44:33.160 --> 0:44:39.960 Is that obligatory if you wanted to work with another 0:44:40.000 --> 0:44:44.239 group of background singers with your family, feel some sort 0:44:44.280 --> 0:44:48.359 of way like do you know we were always now? 0:44:48.560 --> 0:44:51.440 The only thing about us using each other is that 0:44:51.480 --> 0:44:53.880 we were free. Yeah, I was gonna say, and how 0:44:53.920 --> 0:44:59.759 does that work? Three? Why not? Why would I pay CC? 0:45:00.000 --> 0:45:02.120 Why would CC pay me? That made no sense? So 0:45:02.520 --> 0:45:05.040 if you wanted to you and that was just how 0:45:05.080 --> 0:45:06.160 we were, well, not. 0:45:06.160 --> 0:45:08.200 CC, but everybody else. So I mean, did you got 0:45:08.239 --> 0:45:10.200 some other folks in the backgrounds too? 0:45:10.320 --> 0:45:14.120 Right? Oh? Family, that'd be and various other people. So 0:45:14.640 --> 0:45:17.719 if we used other people, which we did, you know 0:45:17.840 --> 0:45:20.759 you had to pay fees and so whenever we wanted to, 0:45:21.160 --> 0:45:23.879 you know, if the budget ran out, Hey, Marvin, how 0:45:23.920 --> 0:45:27.239 you doing this day? I need y'all to set up 0:45:27.239 --> 0:45:29.720 a record, is that to come and help us? And 0:45:29.800 --> 0:45:33.520 to this day, you know I turned sixty, I can't 0:45:33.560 --> 0:45:35.799 believe it. It's two years now, I'll be sixty two. 0:45:36.120 --> 0:45:38.880 And so when I had I always wanted my sixtieth 0:45:38.960 --> 0:45:41.800 birthday in London. So I decided the last minute to 0:45:41.840 --> 0:45:43.960 hear of a concert in London. So I called my 0:45:43.960 --> 0:45:46.200 brother and I said, Hey, you're gonna come to London 0:45:46.200 --> 0:45:49.840 for me? He said, I guess I'm not getting paid. 0:45:49.920 --> 0:45:55.359 I said, why would we start paying each other? Now? 0:45:56.480 --> 0:45:59.560 Forgive my ignorance and asking this because I still feel 0:45:59.560 --> 0:46:05.440 like I'm relatively well adept in my Wining's allergy. Has 0:46:05.480 --> 0:46:08.080 there ever been a collective. 0:46:07.920 --> 0:46:09.280 Twenty three hundred Jackson Street. 0:46:09.760 --> 0:46:16.240 Yeah, a collective Whining's album project? No, No, I only 0:46:16.360 --> 0:46:22.160 had we. We did two Wining Family tours, international and 0:46:22.239 --> 0:46:26.239 national tours, and we had the most fun. It was 0:46:27.120 --> 0:46:33.160 absolutely incredible. But after we came off of those tours, 0:46:36.400 --> 0:46:40.360 I don't never have to see another one a kid. 0:46:41.120 --> 0:46:46.800 And this is the reason. So as the youngest, right boy, 0:46:47.160 --> 0:46:50.080 are you the agitator? No? No, I'm the one that 0:46:50.280 --> 0:46:56.360 does the work. And so I'm creative in the place 0:46:56.440 --> 0:46:59.239 of and I enjoy it in putting this song with 0:46:59.360 --> 0:47:02.040 this song, and this and that and that, and so 0:47:02.080 --> 0:47:05.640 I'm creating the whole thing, given permission to do it, 0:47:05.880 --> 0:47:08.319 and then at the last minute the older brothers wanted 0:47:08.320 --> 0:47:10.239 to come in and say, I ain't doing that song. 0:47:10.360 --> 0:47:12.880 Yes you are, so be back and forth, and you 0:47:12.960 --> 0:47:14.399 told me to put this together, but I didn't tell 0:47:14.400 --> 0:47:16.879 you that song. Well you singing that song? I mean 0:47:17.000 --> 0:47:21.360 up until ladies and gentlemen, please welcome. Who is the 0:47:21.719 --> 0:47:28.160 alpha whining? Who is Dad? When Dad is not there? Well, 0:47:28.280 --> 0:47:34.920 Marvin thinks he's there. Dad was alive. He used to 0:47:34.920 --> 0:47:41.880 tell my mother, I'm your father. I'm not lying. You 0:47:41.920 --> 0:47:44.319 call him up and he'll say the same thing. So 0:47:44.800 --> 0:47:49.600 but he was and still he was the songwriter of 0:47:49.640 --> 0:47:54.160 the Whinings, and we all you know, used to always 0:47:54.200 --> 0:47:58.919 say he's the greatest singer in the Winings family. At 0:47:58.920 --> 0:48:02.600 the same time, he is not the one that does 0:48:03.600 --> 0:48:07.400 the footwork, you know, right, And so I'm that one. 0:48:08.040 --> 0:48:12.200 And then you know, you always meet Okay, he is 0:48:12.200 --> 0:48:15.520 that big brother and little brother, you know, right. 0:48:16.000 --> 0:48:18.160 But BB, you got like nephews and nieces and stuff. 0:48:18.160 --> 0:48:20.680 Now I'm curious if there's a baby Bebe coming up 0:48:20.760 --> 0:48:22.760 up in the family, who now is like, well, Bbe, 0:48:22.760 --> 0:48:25.960 remember you used to be that person but now I 0:48:26.000 --> 0:48:27.919 know my finger is on the pulse and. 0:48:27.840 --> 0:48:33.640 I I wish we had that. Now. We do have 0:48:33.880 --> 0:48:37.560 great writers. H CC's Sun is really a great writer, 0:48:37.680 --> 0:48:42.120 Alvin Jr. And producer. He's produced some things on her album. 0:48:42.480 --> 0:48:46.040 But and in One is one who right. So we 0:48:46.120 --> 0:48:50.160 have some great writers. But these days it's hard. I 0:48:50.160 --> 0:48:53.040 don't know if it's just this generation. I don't want 0:48:53.040 --> 0:48:55.960 to do no work. They just want to walk in 0:48:56.000 --> 0:49:01.040 and just hey, no, it don't work like that. Here's 0:49:01.080 --> 0:49:03.879 the thing though, and I hear what you're saying. 0:49:04.440 --> 0:49:06.560 This spendor defend the people. 0:49:07.000 --> 0:49:13.840 I kind of believe that everything that we've been generationally 0:49:13.920 --> 0:49:18.319 taught our parents, our grandparents, our great grandparents and so 0:49:18.360 --> 0:49:22.680 on and so forth, I now believe that we might 0:49:22.960 --> 0:49:27.319 have to let maybe eighty percent of everything we were 0:49:27.360 --> 0:49:28.080 ever taught. 0:49:28.400 --> 0:49:30.200 Whoa what a lot? I know. 0:49:30.920 --> 0:49:33.640 But here's the thing though, and the number one thing 0:49:34.360 --> 0:49:36.960 that I'm trying to get rid of, even for a 0:49:37.000 --> 0:49:41.560 person that doesn't know me, I have this James Brown 0:49:41.600 --> 0:49:43.920 reput you know, hardest working man, and that's. 0:49:43.800 --> 0:49:44.560 Really my fault. 0:49:44.640 --> 0:49:47.120 It's my fault, like, oh, you're doing movies one day, 0:49:47.200 --> 0:49:49.479 you're doing records the next day, you write a book 0:49:49.480 --> 0:49:53.279 this day. Because I was kind of raised in that 0:49:53.440 --> 0:49:54.560 environment that. 0:49:54.560 --> 0:49:56.279 Like work hard, work hard. 0:49:57.040 --> 0:49:58.840 Yeah, work hard, work hard. 0:49:59.120 --> 0:50:03.560 And then the pandemic came and the first time in 0:50:03.600 --> 0:50:05.759 my life, and I don't know if you've had this 0:50:06.080 --> 0:50:09.480 same experience, but the first time in life, for eight months, 0:50:09.560 --> 0:50:12.680 I did nothing, you know that feeling as a workaholic. 0:50:13.960 --> 0:50:18.400 If I'm even asleep past ten thirty a m. I 0:50:18.440 --> 0:50:21.440 feel like the worst person. I hear my grandmom, my 0:50:21.600 --> 0:50:25.680 dad like that sort of thing. So to do that 0:50:25.719 --> 0:50:27.799 for eight months in a row, where you just you 0:50:27.840 --> 0:50:32.759 don't do nothing, and I'm the world's most overachievingest overworker. 0:50:34.680 --> 0:50:37.960 After six months, I was like, wait a minute, let 0:50:38.000 --> 0:50:38.520 me find out. 0:50:38.600 --> 0:50:43.000 The key to life is not whatever we complain about 0:50:43.000 --> 0:50:43.920 the younger generation. 0:50:44.520 --> 0:50:49.319 Right, No, So I'll say I'm now sixty forty, where 0:50:49.360 --> 0:50:51.480 I now agree with the younger generation. 0:50:51.400 --> 0:50:52.280 Smarter, now harder. 0:50:53.680 --> 0:50:58.360 But my approach is this. My answer to that is this, 0:50:58.360 --> 0:51:04.240 This is my philosophy. Okay, two plus two will always 0:51:04.280 --> 0:51:09.080 equal four. Now how you get there? It's you know, 0:51:09.200 --> 0:51:13.799 in this year, twenty years ago and forty years down 0:51:13.840 --> 0:51:17.200 the road, two plus two will always equal four. So 0:51:18.560 --> 0:51:25.479 unless you're Terrence Howard, but I won't even start that. Look, 0:51:25.480 --> 0:51:30.440 I want to get involved in come forward. Plus multiplication 0:51:31.000 --> 0:51:35.080 is always going to go forward. So no, I've always 0:51:35.200 --> 0:51:40.520 believed that I didn't have to follow the path that 0:51:40.600 --> 0:51:44.279 my father followed to be successful. I didn't have to 0:51:44.320 --> 0:51:48.920 follow my brother's pattern to be successful. So but you 0:51:49.040 --> 0:51:54.319 do have to have a dream. You do have to 0:51:54.560 --> 0:51:59.320 have the understanding that you have to work towards that dream. 0:51:59.640 --> 0:52:01.120 Like I would have liked this, and I'll end it 0:52:01.200 --> 0:52:03.720 like this. A friend of mine, a friend named Wren Brown. 0:52:04.040 --> 0:52:10.280 He said, Christians don't want a miracle, they want magic. 0:52:11.480 --> 0:52:15.719 They want to say, oh I want this house. Damn 0:52:15.840 --> 0:52:20.399 that house is there, he said, because a miracle has 0:52:20.480 --> 0:52:26.240 to have your participation, and so a lot of times 0:52:26.280 --> 0:52:31.480 this generation don't want to participate in what's there. They 0:52:31.560 --> 0:52:36.120 just want to sit around and wait for magic. Dude. 0:52:36.200 --> 0:52:40.400 No, wow, Okay, now you made me feel bad because 0:52:41.920 --> 0:52:46.480 here's the thing though, I know that well because again 0:52:46.680 --> 0:52:56.560 because I'm I'm literally taking an active exercise to see. Okay, 0:52:56.960 --> 0:53:02.120 miracle versus magic, and you you praised the perfect with miracles. 0:53:02.120 --> 0:53:05.520 You have to be actively involved and expert in your field. 0:53:05.719 --> 0:53:09.080 You know what you're doing with magic. You do nothing 0:53:09.239 --> 0:53:12.759 and it happens. So here's the thing, though, I'm right 0:53:12.800 --> 0:53:15.680 now the place in my life where. 0:53:15.440 --> 0:53:22.839 Between the Christian side of me versus the metaphysical side 0:53:22.840 --> 0:53:26.520 of me. And you know, a lot of. 0:53:26.440 --> 0:53:31.880 This also has to do with me studying my African ancestry. 0:53:31.920 --> 0:53:34.839 To say, you are like Christian, you better stop well, 0:53:35.400 --> 0:53:39.799 but dude, like at some point. 0:53:39.600 --> 0:53:43.799 You have to start somewhere well and understanding. Look my 0:53:43.880 --> 0:53:46.479 father said, and maybe I answered this way. My father 0:53:46.600 --> 0:53:48.600 used to tell us, y'are not the greatest things in 0:53:48.640 --> 0:53:50.279 the world. Don't you sit around and think you're the 0:53:50.320 --> 0:53:52.800 greatest thing in the world. But you're going to be confident. 0:53:53.080 --> 0:53:55.640 You're going to be the most confident singers in the world. Okay, 0:53:55.880 --> 0:53:59.720 So that's what he said. When I was younger, I 0:53:59.760 --> 0:54:05.040 had to perfect my vocal ability. Like I have a son, 0:54:05.200 --> 0:54:07.400 he was sixteen or seventeen eighteen at the time, and 0:54:07.440 --> 0:54:09.680 he said, Dad, we're gonna do a duet together. I said, 0:54:10.719 --> 0:54:16.120 you and me, Yeah, we have no no, no, no, 0:54:16.160 --> 0:54:18.680 we not you not waking up today and all of 0:54:18.719 --> 0:54:24.160 a sudden you do it with me. And the reason 0:54:24.400 --> 0:54:26.680 is not that it has nothing to do with my 0:54:26.719 --> 0:54:31.200 love towards you. It has nothing to do with your desire, 0:54:31.320 --> 0:54:36.600 even if you have a desire. Yeah, you can't sing? 0:54:37.920 --> 0:54:38.439 Oh wow? 0:54:39.160 --> 0:54:42.560 What time out? Time out? Time out, time out? Are 0:54:42.560 --> 0:54:46.000 you trying to tell me that somewhere on this earth 0:54:47.280 --> 0:54:52.399 there's a as the last name of Whinings. 0:54:52.840 --> 0:54:57.120 There are men know how to sing, There are many? Really, 0:54:58.000 --> 0:55:01.400 what is that? Like my brother, oldest brother, David, he 0:55:01.520 --> 0:55:05.160 can't sing to save his life in our ears. That 0:55:05.239 --> 0:55:06.359 has to be psychological. 0:55:06.560 --> 0:55:12.439 I refuse nobody else in his ear. 0:55:12.840 --> 0:55:15.000 He thinks he can. So when we went out on 0:55:15.080 --> 0:55:18.400 those two runs of the Windings Family or he was 0:55:18.440 --> 0:55:21.560 with us, but the sound people knew. Don't turn his 0:55:21.680 --> 0:55:28.759 mic on monitors or nothing. You're horrible. 0:55:34.520 --> 0:55:39.320 To close my statement only because the the period of 0:55:39.880 --> 0:55:43.799 me finding out by my African ancestry and the and 0:55:43.880 --> 0:55:49.440 the pandemic forced me in a place where the most 0:55:49.480 --> 0:55:54.480 that ever happened in my life out of nowhere happened 0:55:54.520 --> 0:55:56.080 because I sat. 0:55:55.880 --> 0:55:58.560 Around and just stayed silent. 0:55:59.280 --> 0:56:02.279 Yes, and then it happened, of which the conflict of 0:56:02.360 --> 0:56:05.200 me is like, well, are you going to dismiss forty 0:56:05.280 --> 0:56:09.040 years of the insane amount of hours that you studied 0:56:09.040 --> 0:56:11.880 your skill and your practice and all those things. My 0:56:11.960 --> 0:56:13.839 dad had a rule in the house. Like you've heard 0:56:13.840 --> 0:56:18.520 the idiom, practice makes perfect. My dad's idiom was perfect 0:56:18.560 --> 0:56:23.279 practice makes perfect. He was Joe Jackson on steroids. So 0:56:24.280 --> 0:56:28.799 the thing is, I can't dismiss the preparation and the 0:56:28.840 --> 0:56:33.120 over preparation of having a skill right makes you better. 0:56:33.800 --> 0:56:38.840 But I gotta admit that this generation might be on something. 0:56:38.880 --> 0:56:42.759 I'm only three years into this, and trust me as 0:56:43.040 --> 0:56:46.520 an over worker who is on your side of the 0:56:46.560 --> 0:56:51.839 fence with miracles versus magic, I decided to just backslide 0:56:51.880 --> 0:56:55.000 a little bit from miracles and to see. 0:56:55.000 --> 0:56:57.239 Just to see if the magic is in. 0:56:57.760 --> 0:57:01.480 If I do nothing, we'll match make a curred. Well 0:57:01.719 --> 0:57:04.799 well but but but but let me answer that this way, 0:57:05.040 --> 0:57:12.640 because faith is not magic. But faith is something you 0:57:12.920 --> 0:57:18.960 don't see or you can earn truth. Okay, I agree, so, 0:57:19.280 --> 0:57:24.120 but works is important to make faith come to existence. 0:57:24.480 --> 0:57:29.520 All right. So I've always seen myself being what God 0:57:29.960 --> 0:57:34.280 had prepared for me. I didn't see it, but I 0:57:34.400 --> 0:57:37.240 believed it. So one of the things that I've always 0:57:37.360 --> 0:57:41.600 taught my children and the upcoming artists and everything. You 0:57:41.640 --> 0:57:43.840 have to see yourself as successful you have to see 0:57:43.840 --> 0:57:47.160 yourself right now. You have to know your worth right now. 0:57:47.520 --> 0:57:50.160 So again I always go back to my father. I 0:57:50.160 --> 0:57:53.200 mean he really was, but he is to always say, 0:57:53.440 --> 0:57:55.760 before my children leave my house, you're going to know 0:57:55.800 --> 0:57:57.920 who you are. So when you go on to the 0:57:57.960 --> 0:58:00.280 world and they tell you who you are, you won't 0:58:00.280 --> 0:58:03.479 believe it because you already know it. You know. It's 0:58:03.640 --> 0:58:07.880 this generation. What what I enjoy is that they have 0:58:08.000 --> 0:58:12.560 a confidence that we didn't have back then, and they 0:58:12.560 --> 0:58:14.920 have some of the tubes that we didn't have back then. 0:58:15.000 --> 0:58:16.640 Don't forget they got it on our backs. 0:58:17.160 --> 0:58:19.240 Us two still. 0:58:19.760 --> 0:58:22.600 Yeah, and every reason that they have to rest today 0:58:22.800 --> 0:58:26.720 is because of our work. Let's not forget that. Like, yes, baby, 0:58:26.800 --> 0:58:29.360 you can rest today because we worked yesterday, because we 0:58:29.360 --> 0:58:30.200 worked today before that. 0:58:30.560 --> 0:58:35.560 For the word of appreciation of that work. 0:58:38.040 --> 0:58:41.840 Look okay, So yes, gratitude is important, absolutely important. 0:58:42.080 --> 0:58:45.200 I mean because again, you know, some of my heroes 0:58:45.240 --> 0:58:48.000 have passed away this year, and I've gone to their 0:58:48.240 --> 0:58:52.400 celebrations because I had to be there to say thank you, 0:58:53.440 --> 0:58:56.760 said it before they passed away, because they opened doors, 0:58:57.120 --> 0:58:59.560 They did a lot of the knocking down of the 0:58:59.640 --> 0:59:03.240 doors and everything, and so as CEC and I have 0:59:03.800 --> 0:59:07.360 you know. I knew then this door that we're knocking 0:59:07.400 --> 0:59:09.320 down is not just for us, but it's for the 0:59:09.440 --> 0:59:11.920 Kirk Franklin, it's for the Mary Mayor's, it's for all 0:59:12.000 --> 0:59:15.360 the other people that are following us. And they could 0:59:15.400 --> 0:59:23.080 go through the door because they did the work. I'll say, 0:59:24.280 --> 0:59:27.880 that's perfect, perfect. I remember we did. I used to 0:59:27.880 --> 0:59:30.880 do all the and I still do something all the 0:59:31.120 --> 0:59:34.960 music behind the scenes for Oprah Winfrey, right, And so 0:59:35.120 --> 0:59:38.800 we did the Legends ball, and I was over the 0:59:38.880 --> 0:59:43.200 music for the Legends Ball, and so Oprah decided at 0:59:43.240 --> 0:59:46.560 the last minute to put this girl in the lineup. 0:59:46.880 --> 0:59:48.840 And I called her and said, what are you doing? 0:59:49.400 --> 0:59:51.880 This woman is not ready for she had a nice 0:59:52.000 --> 0:59:54.360 she had a nice voice at an actually a wonderful voice. 0:59:54.360 --> 0:59:59.120 She reminded you of Aretha Franklin and her presentation and 1:00:00.160 --> 1:00:03.120 long story short, hey you got the last word. She 1:00:03.240 --> 1:00:08.040 was in the lineup, but I knew was she ready ready? 1:00:08.440 --> 1:00:11.000 And she wasn't ready, not because of the talent she 1:00:11.120 --> 1:00:14.960 had inside of her. She she wasn't ready to stand 1:00:15.040 --> 1:00:23.400 up in front of the people. Uretha Franklin night and 1:00:23.640 --> 1:00:27.360 Barbara Streis saying and all these other people. She started, 1:00:28.160 --> 1:00:31.880 she started taking like the Titanic. And at that moment, 1:00:32.960 --> 1:00:36.560 at that moment, I can't say that I was very merciful. 1:00:37.880 --> 1:00:41.600 You came in saved. So I saw Oprah get up 1:00:41.600 --> 1:00:44.160 and she ran around to the stage where I was, 1:00:44.400 --> 1:00:51.280 and she was and I wouldn't. I wouldn't, and oh, 1:00:51.320 --> 1:00:54.280 I'm telling you the truth, and she's truth. Oprah wanted 1:00:54.240 --> 1:00:56.440 to talk to you. And I look at her waiting, 1:00:56.520 --> 1:00:59.600 coming quickly because this woman is dying. This whole thing 1:00:59.680 --> 1:01:02.720 is gone down. It's hard. And so I went over 1:01:02.800 --> 1:01:04.680 and she said, you gotta do something, and I looked 1:01:04.680 --> 1:01:06.680 at her. I said, uh, oh, you want me to 1:01:06.720 --> 1:01:08.800 do something about the person that you put in the 1:01:08.840 --> 1:01:13.919 program that I told you. Oh, I was enjoying the moment. 1:01:17.960 --> 1:01:20.040 But it was beautiful. But it also but you know, 1:01:20.240 --> 1:01:22.880 the friendship that you have with Oprah in that way 1:01:22.920 --> 1:01:25.920 because she need that truth, She need that honestly, And 1:01:25.960 --> 1:01:29.320 I'm sure yes, and that is I'm sure that's why 1:01:29.400 --> 1:01:32.120 y'all been friends as long. Like, come on, girl, I 1:01:32.160 --> 1:01:32.840 told you. 1:01:33.080 --> 1:01:36.720 We saved the day because to legends, you had to 1:01:36.840 --> 1:01:40.840 have legends. And that was the Hawkins family that tore 1:01:40.960 --> 1:01:41.640 the place down. 1:01:42.480 --> 1:01:44.720 They went after her, after the young lady. They went 1:01:44.760 --> 1:01:45.320 after her. 1:01:45.520 --> 1:01:48.080 No, no, no, no, that was the group that I had 1:01:48.200 --> 1:01:50.040 lined up, and I had everything else and lined up. 1:01:50.200 --> 1:01:54.400 You just stuck her in and it almost took the 1:01:54.440 --> 1:01:55.520 whole thing down. 1:01:56.520 --> 1:02:01.240 To Oprah's credit. And you gotta you gotta remember that. 1:02:02.240 --> 1:02:06.440 You know, Oprah came to national prominence as that woman 1:02:07.520 --> 1:02:10.920 in the color Purple. We didn't know who Oprah Winfrey was. 1:02:10.960 --> 1:02:16.560 They could have easily given that role to someone of 1:02:16.760 --> 1:02:20.640 Oscar caliber, you know whatever. You know, I can see that, 1:02:20.960 --> 1:02:24.040 and I've seen a few times where Oprah might want 1:02:24.080 --> 1:02:29.240 to highlight someone that's untested Trueton see if you're ready 1:02:29.240 --> 1:02:32.560 for it, and this message, this. 1:02:34.080 --> 1:02:34.360 Event. 1:02:34.800 --> 1:02:38.040 But I repent again, mister Wyne. It's a testament to 1:02:38.080 --> 1:02:41.040 your relationship with Lady Oh that has been led lasted 1:02:41.080 --> 1:02:43.760 this long because at the level she's at, everybody don't 1:02:43.760 --> 1:02:45.960 have that level of honesty with her. And so I 1:02:46.000 --> 1:02:48.720 just think it's beautiful that y'all still have this relationship 1:02:48.760 --> 1:02:49.680 and it works. 1:02:49.960 --> 1:02:52.560 I mean, our relationship goes back to the first six 1:02:52.680 --> 1:02:56.320 months of her show. I was called and I wrote 1:02:56.360 --> 1:02:59.560 a commercial for the show called I Found a Friend 1:02:59.560 --> 1:03:04.640 in Oprah. So our relationship goes way back. Always we 1:03:04.760 --> 1:03:07.640 agree that I had the relationship. We had the relationship 1:03:07.680 --> 1:03:10.400 where we would tell each other the truth no matter what. 1:03:10.840 --> 1:03:14.800 I love that she has been a great friend and 1:03:14.800 --> 1:03:16.360 andce versa, you know. 1:03:16.440 --> 1:03:18.960 But at the same time, no ideas like you still 1:03:19.000 --> 1:03:20.240 better lie to me anyway. 1:03:21.240 --> 1:03:22.800 I am that I'm friend. 1:03:25.920 --> 1:03:30.760 Stop it. But in that, in that that is so funny. 1:03:31.080 --> 1:03:33.200 But in that this is why, this is why she 1:03:33.280 --> 1:03:34.120 wanted you tell the. 1:03:34.040 --> 1:03:37.120 Story this thirty years right here, BB. 1:03:37.120 --> 1:03:43.320 Okay, But but I tell you the truth. One of 1:03:43.320 --> 1:03:47.640 the things that I love more than anything is friendship. 1:03:47.920 --> 1:03:50.800 And if you really have a friend, that friend is 1:03:50.800 --> 1:03:54.120 going to tell you the truth, you know, especially in 1:03:54.160 --> 1:03:57.200 this industry where you're surrounded by people who act like 1:03:58.320 --> 1:04:03.280 and that's quest love supreme thinking no, no, no, but I 1:04:03.320 --> 1:04:03.880 was going to say it. 1:04:04.120 --> 1:04:06.800 So it also shows that I'm guessing that part of 1:04:06.800 --> 1:04:09.960 the result of this friendship is our ability to see. 1:04:09.800 --> 1:04:14.400 In green leaf exactly. And so so the funny So 1:04:14.400 --> 1:04:17.480 so that story is very simple. My niece who was 1:04:18.200 --> 1:04:22.120 who is uh loved acting ever since she was two 1:04:22.160 --> 1:04:25.640 years old. She knew you, and so I got behind 1:04:25.680 --> 1:04:28.040 her in her years, and she was playing the part 1:04:28.120 --> 1:04:30.840 of CC in my musical. And so I had a 1:04:31.040 --> 1:04:33.840 table reading in New York that I had oprahcomm and 1:04:33.920 --> 1:04:39.160 various other people, Sicily Tyson. And then after that I 1:04:39.200 --> 1:04:42.000 get a call from Oprah about green Leaf. She sent 1:04:42.040 --> 1:04:45.000 me the script and she asked me to read it. 1:04:45.040 --> 1:04:47.880 And then she then she said, well, your niece, but 1:04:48.000 --> 1:04:50.800 I know she's doing your play. I would love for 1:04:50.840 --> 1:04:53.040 her to I said, girl, whatever you would love for 1:04:53.080 --> 1:04:56.720 my niece to do, don't worry about my play. Fashion 1:04:57.280 --> 1:05:01.959 was to act. And so she did work and and 1:05:02.160 --> 1:05:05.160 she ended up on the show and excited. There's the 1:05:05.200 --> 1:05:08.280 other things that are happening that me and my nieces 1:05:08.280 --> 1:05:10.600 girl do a movie together, and she's going to play 1:05:10.640 --> 1:05:15.000 my daughter in this movie. So I'm enjoying that moment. 1:05:15.120 --> 1:05:19.320 That I love you name my niece, my baby, my 1:05:19.400 --> 1:05:20.520 niece girl. 1:05:21.160 --> 1:05:24.520 Speaking of Greenleaf, I became really good friends with a 1:05:24.560 --> 1:05:28.000 Merrill on the ship. The other thing that I've I've 1:05:28.040 --> 1:05:33.200 done that's different after the pandemic is making time for 1:05:33.400 --> 1:05:37.280 fun and joy because people are like too serious, you 1:05:37.400 --> 1:05:39.680 were too much, You don't take time out for yourself. 1:05:40.600 --> 1:05:43.440 And so I've started like a series of Game Nights. 1:05:43.680 --> 1:05:47.680 And Merle is also a part of my word old group. 1:05:48.280 --> 1:05:51.040 You know, we we played the New York Times World 1:05:51.360 --> 1:05:54.320 and there's eight of us and you know it's fastary 1:05:54.320 --> 1:05:59.080 of people are the actors, actresses, news people and literally 1:05:59.880 --> 1:06:01.919 I'm keeping an eye on our scoreboard. 1:06:02.160 --> 1:06:02.840 And she. 1:06:04.480 --> 1:06:07.440 Meryl is an overchiever in gaming right now. So I'm 1:06:07.440 --> 1:06:10.000 giving I'm giving a shout out tomorrow. 1:06:10.320 --> 1:06:14.120 So if you play scrabble and you have feelings, don't 1:06:14.160 --> 1:06:17.920 play with any of my family members. Wow. Oh we 1:06:18.040 --> 1:06:21.200 come at you. Oh, we come at you with sarcasm. 1:06:21.480 --> 1:06:23.640 You put a word up there that we're not familiar 1:06:23.680 --> 1:06:25.640 with and we know it is not a word. Now 1:06:25.720 --> 1:06:29.760 say that you lose that. We start creating sentences with 1:06:29.840 --> 1:06:34.240 that word and it it breaks your heart. So, oh yeah, 1:06:34.280 --> 1:06:36.160 you don't want to not scrabble? 1:06:36.600 --> 1:06:40.120 Is at a wine in this game night? Is there profanity? 1:06:41.320 --> 1:06:45.840 No? And and and because it was just not in us, 1:06:45.880 --> 1:06:48.400 we weren't raised. So I was just going to ask, 1:06:48.480 --> 1:06:51.560 are you guys allowed to argue? Oh? Yeah, I mean 1:06:51.600 --> 1:06:54.760 but if we said when we were coming up words, 1:06:54.760 --> 1:06:57.160 shut up, that would just stir my mom and dad, 1:06:57.400 --> 1:07:00.480 like don't you say so? But we have become very 1:07:00.520 --> 1:07:04.200 good friends with Whitney, right, and she became like family. 1:07:04.520 --> 1:07:07.360 And one day CC and I were over and she 1:07:07.680 --> 1:07:11.400 was she was, you know, we're talking about the first major. 1:07:13.480 --> 1:07:15.160 But she said, I got to ask you all a question. 1:07:15.240 --> 1:07:17.800 It was like what she said, I've been wanting to 1:07:17.840 --> 1:07:21.400 ask all this all the times. Okay, what she said, 1:07:22.320 --> 1:07:26.080 y'all don't curse? Why don't y'all. 1:07:27.000 --> 1:07:28.320 What do y'all do? What do you put in the 1:07:28.440 --> 1:07:29.600 place of them words? 1:07:30.360 --> 1:07:34.320 It was so funny because it never dawned on us 1:07:34.400 --> 1:07:37.400 that you're checking out every word there was. 1:07:38.440 --> 1:07:39.640 Is she feeling like some type of way? 1:07:41.400 --> 1:07:44.400 But every now and then and then she stopped doing 1:07:44.440 --> 1:07:48.400 all together. And my answer was, Whitney, it's not in me. 1:07:48.680 --> 1:07:53.200 It's just not in me. There's more vocabulary. You will 1:07:53.280 --> 1:07:58.240 know how I feel by the words I say, but 1:07:58.280 --> 1:08:01.480 they won't be loaded with words that maybe you're familiar 1:08:01.520 --> 1:08:06.640 with and and and so it's important, I think, more 1:08:06.680 --> 1:08:11.720 than than ever, that we teach our children how to 1:08:11.880 --> 1:08:15.440 stand up, how to argue, how to get it. You know, 1:08:16.520 --> 1:08:22.559 anger and hatred does not benefit anger and hatred. You know, 1:08:22.920 --> 1:08:25.560 I can say some words to you because the scriptures 1:08:25.560 --> 1:08:28.439 even tell us that let your words be filled with 1:08:28.560 --> 1:08:31.559 honey and sweetness. You can kill them with honey and 1:08:31.600 --> 1:08:35.160 sweetness more so than the same hatred that they use. 1:08:35.280 --> 1:08:38.040 So I was and I've always been a fan of that. 1:08:38.160 --> 1:08:41.320 So but that's for another two. 1:08:42.520 --> 1:08:46.280 Well, yeah, I wanted to ask you because well, one, 1:08:46.320 --> 1:08:50.800 I wanted to know what compelled you to write a 1:08:50.800 --> 1:08:54.519 book about Whitney, but just basically talk about the friendship 1:08:54.520 --> 1:08:57.679 and the fact that I think since your second album, 1:08:57.760 --> 1:09:02.280 she's basically she's basically the auxiliary Wine and his family member. 1:09:02.760 --> 1:09:10.080 Oh, incredible relationship and it just happened. It just happened. 1:09:10.200 --> 1:09:13.920 There was nothing we did, nothing she did that caused 1:09:13.960 --> 1:09:17.479 us just to be like that. And I just I 1:09:17.520 --> 1:09:21.040 remember her saying, for the rest of my life, you 1:09:21.080 --> 1:09:25.960 guys have to be in my life and no major, 1:09:27.320 --> 1:09:30.880 no major choices I will make without sitting with you all, 1:09:31.320 --> 1:09:34.240 And was like, Okay, you know. 1:09:34.880 --> 1:09:36.080 That last part was heavy. 1:09:36.160 --> 1:09:40.000 But is the bonding based on vocal skill or is 1:09:40.040 --> 1:09:42.679 it just based on the fact that you guys grew up. 1:09:42.800 --> 1:09:48.519 There's elements there. But when I say our hearts just 1:09:48.640 --> 1:09:51.719 was knitted because I understand she met my brothers before 1:09:51.760 --> 1:09:55.519 she met me. In cc okay. I met her. I 1:09:55.600 --> 1:09:58.519 met her because she was on tour opening for Jeffrey 1:09:58.600 --> 1:10:02.520 Osbourne and she singing one of my brother's songs tomorrow 1:10:02.640 --> 1:10:06.040 in her set. I remember her walking out from the 1:10:06.080 --> 1:10:08.920 back and I said to her, I don't know what 1:10:09.080 --> 1:10:11.960 church you came out of. I don't know your last name. 1:10:12.000 --> 1:10:14.439 I mean, I don't know your middle name, but I 1:10:14.520 --> 1:10:17.360 know you come from some church singing the way you sing. 1:10:17.479 --> 1:10:21.320 And she smiled and said New Hope Baptist, and so 1:10:21.479 --> 1:10:25.559 we laughed and just that moment, and so I can 1:10:25.680 --> 1:10:28.280 go through the years. But one of the things that 1:10:29.040 --> 1:10:33.599 always sticks out with her is I run every morning, 1:10:33.920 --> 1:10:40.160 right Monday through Saturday, and I run my path and 1:10:40.240 --> 1:10:43.040 asked her, I go buy this home. And every time 1:10:43.080 --> 1:10:48.320 I see it, I smile, sometimes I cry. It's because 1:10:48.479 --> 1:10:52.640 it was my first home and I saved the money. 1:10:52.680 --> 1:10:55.760 And then because of race and various other risks that 1:10:55.800 --> 1:10:59.800 they see in the color student, they decided you need 1:10:59.840 --> 1:11:02.400 it seventy five percent to put on the house instead 1:11:02.400 --> 1:11:04.720 of fifty, which was high from the get go. And 1:11:04.800 --> 1:11:08.240 so just like any other time, Hey what's going on? Hey, 1:11:08.400 --> 1:11:11.479 I think what was wrong? How about the house? Well, yeah, 1:11:11.600 --> 1:11:13.760 they you know, threw a curve and she's like, what 1:11:14.360 --> 1:11:16.240 it was like, don't worry about it, No, tell me, 1:11:16.520 --> 1:11:17.720 And so I told her what was going on with 1:11:17.800 --> 1:11:20.559 D D D this thing I knew. Whitney flew in 1:11:20.680 --> 1:11:24.120 unannounced and at that point me and my wife, we 1:11:24.160 --> 1:11:28.360 stayed in a one bedroom apartment. So she decided she 1:11:28.439 --> 1:11:31.280 going to spend the night, slept on the couch and 1:11:31.439 --> 1:11:35.400 I remember walking out now and she's Whitney Houston. He's 1:11:35.400 --> 1:11:38.519 Whitney Houston. The number one song is I Want to 1:11:38.600 --> 1:11:40.000 Dance with Somebody. Wow. 1:11:40.160 --> 1:11:40.400 Okay. 1:11:40.800 --> 1:11:43.599 She's sleeping on the couch and I'm trying to sneak 1:11:43.680 --> 1:11:45.800 out of the door because you opened the door. The 1:11:45.880 --> 1:11:48.600 sun hits the couch and so I'm sneaking out. The 1:11:48.720 --> 1:11:51.280 sun hits and she wakes up. Her hair is going 1:11:51.479 --> 1:11:55.400 every witch away and I started laughing and I said, boy, 1:11:55.520 --> 1:12:04.559 if they can see you now to night. Ah. She said, 1:12:04.560 --> 1:12:06.479 shut up, where where are you going? I said, Whitney, 1:12:06.520 --> 1:12:08.000 I just got to go on her air and I'll 1:12:08.000 --> 1:12:09.519 be right back, okay, because we got to go see 1:12:09.520 --> 1:12:12.040 that house. I was like, girls, shut up, and so 1:12:12.520 --> 1:12:15.559 I went came back. We went to the house, going 1:12:15.680 --> 1:12:20.360 through this house because every room Whitney would say, oh yeah, 1:12:20.400 --> 1:12:23.280 now that that looks like my brother's veryl oh that's 1:12:23.320 --> 1:12:26.520 like my brother's bathroom. Oh that looks like my brother's 1:12:27.040 --> 1:12:29.320 a laundry room. It was like, what's wrong with you? 1:12:29.479 --> 1:12:32.320 And so the last place we stepped on the porch 1:12:32.360 --> 1:12:34.880 and she said, oh yeah, this looks like my brother's porch. 1:12:35.160 --> 1:12:38.040 And then she hands me an envelope and I said 1:12:38.160 --> 1:12:41.400 what is it? And she said, she opened you she'd 1:12:41.439 --> 1:12:44.320 opened it up. I said, what, I opened it up, 1:12:44.600 --> 1:12:48.799 and it is the fifty thousand dollars that I needed 1:12:49.200 --> 1:12:53.559 to buy my home. Oh man, And she said, I 1:12:53.760 --> 1:12:56.760 told you this was my brother's house. And I was like, 1:12:57.360 --> 1:13:01.200 oh man, witn'ey? I mean I got to pay. She said, 1:13:01.240 --> 1:13:04.519 don't you worry about Okay, let's go. So so when 1:13:04.600 --> 1:13:07.960 I run by the house now, I paid her back right, 1:13:08.040 --> 1:13:10.720 And she called me because I paid it to her 1:13:10.760 --> 1:13:14.439 accountants and she said, they just called me. Tell me 1:13:14.479 --> 1:13:18.920 you paid me. And I said, yeah, I told you 1:13:18.960 --> 1:13:21.240 I was gonna pay you. She said, a lot of 1:13:21.280 --> 1:13:31.120 people say to me, but and I you know, I 1:13:31.160 --> 1:13:33.960 sold the house years ago, but every time I run 1:13:34.040 --> 1:13:36.639 by that house, I can't help but think of her, 1:13:37.200 --> 1:13:41.200 oh man, help her, think of her love of after 1:13:42.120 --> 1:13:47.400 of every experience that we had together, which lives inside 1:13:47.400 --> 1:13:51.759 of me. And uh, she was just she was family. 1:13:51.840 --> 1:14:00.840 One of the greatest, uh friendships I can even imagine. 1:14:01.640 --> 1:14:03.800 So that must be the answer to a mere's question 1:14:03.920 --> 1:14:06.880 of why the book, because were these stories just about 1:14:06.880 --> 1:14:08.120 to explode inside of you? 1:14:08.760 --> 1:14:12.519 Yeah? But the stories of what people didn't know, you know, 1:14:12.960 --> 1:14:14.760 That's what I mean. The only thing, Yeah, the only 1:14:14.800 --> 1:14:16.840 thing they talked about was the problem she had with 1:14:16.920 --> 1:14:19.400 you and this and that, and it's just like that 1:14:19.520 --> 1:14:22.840 is that is not her? Let me tell you about 1:14:22.840 --> 1:14:26.559 the ninety five percent of her that y'all don't know. 1:14:27.200 --> 1:14:30.839 And so I felt a need and it was therapy 1:14:30.920 --> 1:14:34.679 for me, It really was, because that was a hard moment. 1:14:34.760 --> 1:14:40.720 I got a call that night from her mom and 1:14:40.760 --> 1:14:44.120 when she called me, she said, I wanted you to 1:14:44.200 --> 1:14:47.000 know what my daughter meant to you and what you 1:14:47.160 --> 1:14:49.759 meant to my daughter. And I had to pull over 1:14:50.840 --> 1:14:53.439 and like a down broken side of me and I 1:14:54.560 --> 1:14:59.960 just wept because not only is the news hard enough, 1:15:00.720 --> 1:15:05.680 but Sissy, you checking on me. I need to be 1:15:05.800 --> 1:15:10.559 checking on you. But it was we were family. We 1:15:10.640 --> 1:15:14.480 really were family and she is the best. 1:15:14.920 --> 1:15:17.360 Thank you for the book and continuing to tell these 1:15:17.360 --> 1:15:19.240 stories everywhere, Like thank you. 1:15:21.160 --> 1:15:24.439 Let me ask because there's something I always wanted to know, 1:15:24.840 --> 1:15:27.240 especially when it comes to celebrations, and you mentioned it 1:15:27.280 --> 1:15:33.280 earlier and yeah, I watched whitney service when it was 1:15:33.320 --> 1:15:42.120 on CNN. Oftentimes the world will lean on the anointed 1:15:43.439 --> 1:15:48.960 gospel singers to really come through in one of the 1:15:48.960 --> 1:15:53.960 most lowest, saddest moments in a person's journey, which is there. 1:15:54.840 --> 1:15:58.160 I believe it's a transitioning, not a death, but it's 1:15:58.360 --> 1:16:03.480 very sad for the people left behind. And Whitney's celebration 1:16:03.760 --> 1:16:08.400 was one of those moments where a lot of joyful 1:16:08.479 --> 1:16:10.480 noise gospel singing. 1:16:13.280 --> 1:16:15.519 Needed to be utilized to help celebrate her. 1:16:16.560 --> 1:16:20.320 But I know that it has to sting extra hard 1:16:21.040 --> 1:16:25.320 where you yourself, even if you're in a mournful state 1:16:26.040 --> 1:16:28.080 for someone that you knew, Like it's one thing if 1:16:28.080 --> 1:16:30.599 you're just called, hey, can you sing at this funeral? 1:16:30.720 --> 1:16:32.639 You know his brother passed away, and da da da da. 1:16:32.640 --> 1:16:37.000 Da, But could you describe to me because I wanted 1:16:37.000 --> 1:16:40.880 to know it was the most difficult thing you could do. 1:16:41.400 --> 1:16:44.000 How did how did you channel or pull into you 1:16:44.120 --> 1:16:46.600 to step to the plate, and really. 1:16:46.439 --> 1:16:50.439 Just didn't want to do it, didn't know what and 1:16:51.200 --> 1:16:54.400 for me, not even for my sister, not for my brothers. 1:16:54.800 --> 1:16:58.920 I'm not good at singing, at which I felt apart 1:16:59.360 --> 1:17:02.400 at her so vibration before I started singing, even before 1:17:03.240 --> 1:17:08.160 and after, because this person means a lot to me, right, 1:17:08.720 --> 1:17:13.280 So the only thing other than God's help that gave 1:17:13.360 --> 1:17:16.120 me the stremp to do it is that I heard 1:17:16.360 --> 1:17:18.960 what she would say. So when I got up that 1:17:19.080 --> 1:17:24.720 morning and I started getting dressed, I started crying. And 1:17:24.720 --> 1:17:28.240 then I remember sitting standing up and I could hear 1:17:28.360 --> 1:17:33.360 her say, now, don't you mess up. And that's what 1:17:33.520 --> 1:17:37.519 she would say while we were alive. You know each other. 1:17:37.680 --> 1:17:39.880 So I used to say to her because she would 1:17:39.920 --> 1:17:42.880 call sometimes say her voice was gone, and I would say, oh, 1:17:42.920 --> 1:17:45.160 I wish I was there because I know now you're 1:17:45.160 --> 1:17:47.720 gonna really sing, because you got to take different avenues 1:17:47.760 --> 1:17:50.559 to do what you do. I remember in New York 1:17:50.600 --> 1:17:54.559 when she's sung at Radio City Music Hall for Clive Davis. 1:17:54.560 --> 1:17:59.080 It was something she had this burgundy dress on. She 1:17:59.320 --> 1:18:03.760 was so hor and I was excited because I knew Oh, 1:18:03.840 --> 1:18:06.240 she's going, she's gonna really give it to y'all because 1:18:06.280 --> 1:18:09.800 she has to. So I heard in my head, don't 1:18:09.800 --> 1:18:15.720 you mess up. You better look good and you better now, 1:18:16.960 --> 1:18:20.639 you know, because that's what she said in life, right, 1:18:21.320 --> 1:18:26.000 And so that is what I leaned on, and I 1:18:26.160 --> 1:18:30.920 focused in on those moments, not that moment. You know, 1:18:31.600 --> 1:18:34.320 I had enough time to focus on that moment when 1:18:34.360 --> 1:18:38.920 I sat down and could just you know, weep. 1:18:39.920 --> 1:18:42.320 I always wanted to ask you that question, like what 1:18:42.439 --> 1:18:46.880 is it to reach to use your gift when you 1:18:47.000 --> 1:18:52.200 might not necessarily be in the mind state to deliver, 1:18:52.320 --> 1:18:54.240 but you know you have to not only deliver for 1:18:54.320 --> 1:18:56.479 the church, but also you know the world's watching you. 1:18:57.800 --> 1:19:02.320 Yeah, and understand not only deliver for them, but deliver 1:19:02.520 --> 1:19:08.800 for me. So before my songs touch anyone else's heart, 1:19:09.320 --> 1:19:12.760 it touches his mind because it comes from my heart. 1:19:12.840 --> 1:19:16.160 It comes from my experience, It comes from the down times, 1:19:16.200 --> 1:19:20.200 it comes from the victories and the defeats. And so 1:19:21.040 --> 1:19:24.479 I sing what I believe. No matter what you know, 1:19:24.800 --> 1:19:30.120 whether it's it'sy bitsy spider kind of spout, it means 1:19:30.200 --> 1:19:32.559 a different thing to me. Gotcha. 1:19:33.520 --> 1:19:36.080 Hey, Speaking of crowds and performing every night. Can you 1:19:36.120 --> 1:19:39.280 talk about your experience and playing on harpo in the 1:19:39.320 --> 1:19:39.920 Color Purple? 1:19:42.040 --> 1:19:43.800 My theater experienced Baby Lake. 1:19:45.640 --> 1:19:49.440 What's that like for you? Oh? That was a double ed'swore, 1:19:51.560 --> 1:19:54.240 you know. So I got a phone call from a 1:19:54.240 --> 1:19:57.720 guy named Scott that told me he wanted me to 1:19:57.760 --> 1:20:00.000 come in and write some songs for a new music 1:20:00.320 --> 1:20:03.439 that was going to happen called The Color Purple. So 1:20:03.520 --> 1:20:06.519 I went in to New York and then I remember, 1:20:06.600 --> 1:20:09.679 as time was going on, I called Oprah and said, hey, 1:20:09.880 --> 1:20:14.560 they're making a musical and her words was that's stupid. 1:20:17.400 --> 1:20:19.440 Fast forward'st forward best forward. 1:20:19.560 --> 1:20:23.479 Forward, not too fast. But as I fast forward and 1:20:23.560 --> 1:20:25.320 was walking down the street, I picked up a mag 1:20:25.520 --> 1:20:27.479 You know, this is when we had newspapers in the USA. 1:20:27.600 --> 1:20:32.840 To day there was the announcement of Color Purple coming 1:20:32.840 --> 1:20:35.080 in the Broadway and my name was nowhere on the 1:20:35.120 --> 1:20:40.120 credits and the guy wouldn't call me back. I mean, 1:20:40.240 --> 1:20:44.599 broke my little heart. But what you know what I'm saying, 1:20:44.640 --> 1:20:48.479 and so hey, and then next thing I know, Oprah 1:20:48.520 --> 1:20:50.160 is one of the producers and this and that. I 1:20:50.200 --> 1:20:54.280 was like, oh, okay, well you know that's it's hilarious. 1:20:54.320 --> 1:20:58.920 What that's a lot. And then then I get to 1:20:58.920 --> 1:21:01.719 get a phone call. Opening night is about to happen, 1:21:01.840 --> 1:21:04.840 and Oprah and Gail calls me and says, you got 1:21:04.840 --> 1:21:06.200 to be at the opening. I said, I don't have 1:21:06.240 --> 1:21:11.280 to do nothing of God and breathe, y'all know what happened. 1:21:11.720 --> 1:21:16.320 I'm not coming. And then something in me said go 1:21:17.920 --> 1:21:22.960 And I remember going hoping hear me right, hoping that 1:21:23.040 --> 1:21:24.000 it was a mess. 1:21:26.800 --> 1:21:28.280 You don't gonna tell us who was playing Harple at 1:21:28.280 --> 1:21:28.800 the time? Are you? 1:21:29.240 --> 1:21:34.240 It was like it was the hope I forgive the original? Yeah, 1:21:35.479 --> 1:21:38.360 this is the original. I'm like, So I'm sitting there 1:21:38.479 --> 1:21:42.439 saying that was a good song. Oh man, that was 1:21:42.439 --> 1:21:42.920 pretty good. 1:21:43.040 --> 1:21:50.280 Don't you hate giving in? 1:21:50.840 --> 1:21:58.240 So at the end, I remember so I found Scott 1:21:58.520 --> 1:22:00.920 and I went up to him and I said I 1:22:01.040 --> 1:22:04.439 wanted just to tell you congratulations, sir, and he looked 1:22:04.479 --> 1:22:07.640 like he said deer in hairlights and he was like, oh, thanks, Phoebe. 1:22:07.760 --> 1:22:11.439 I said, you know, much success to you. So bounce back. 1:22:11.520 --> 1:22:15.240 Two years later, for a year or so, I get 1:22:15.240 --> 1:22:17.920 a phone call saying they want you to come in 1:22:17.960 --> 1:22:20.439 and Gae will call me. Just just be out there. 1:22:20.680 --> 1:22:25.360 They want you to be harpo. Mister was the position. 1:22:26.120 --> 1:22:28.960 I said, girl, please, I ain't got time for that. 1:22:29.040 --> 1:22:34.160 You don't remember I do, and so they'll say do 1:22:34.439 --> 1:22:37.559 just for open, you know. I was like, y'all, you 1:22:37.600 --> 1:22:40.599 know what, I'm gonna come in. And when I got there, 1:22:41.840 --> 1:22:45.479 they switched it and wanted me to do Harpo. I 1:22:45.520 --> 1:22:48.400 bumped into Shaka Khan. I was like, why are you here? 1:22:48.600 --> 1:22:50.639 She said, well, I'm They asked me to do Sophia 1:22:50.720 --> 1:22:53.160 because they asked. I said, that's not what they asked. 1:22:53.280 --> 1:22:56.720 So this this tricks just going on, and you know, 1:22:56.840 --> 1:23:04.679 tricks are for kids or grown ups. So we did 1:23:04.680 --> 1:23:06.519 the thing and I didn't care if I got the 1:23:06.560 --> 1:23:09.639 point the party. Now that evening, I got a phone 1:23:09.640 --> 1:23:13.400 call from Scott and he said, we loved you. And 1:23:13.680 --> 1:23:18.479 before we get another thing out, I said, Scott, why 1:23:18.520 --> 1:23:26.040 don't we start with you apologizing what happened two years ago? Dang, 1:23:27.640 --> 1:23:32.639 you apologized, and right after you apologized, I said, I'll 1:23:32.640 --> 1:23:35.040 do the part, but let's not sit up here and 1:23:35.120 --> 1:23:35.519 act like. 1:23:35.800 --> 1:23:36.280 I love you. 1:23:36.360 --> 1:23:36.679 Be back. 1:23:36.680 --> 1:23:40.080 I love the truth or yeah two plus suit not 1:23:40.160 --> 1:23:40.759 equal four. 1:23:41.320 --> 1:23:46.439 It, you know, come on. So I enjoyed it I said, 1:23:46.479 --> 1:23:49.760 this is probably gonna be my last time, because I 1:23:49.760 --> 1:23:52.639 did Broadway in nineteen eighty six on a show called 1:23:52.960 --> 1:23:57.760 Don't Get God Started, and it's just hard work and 1:23:57.800 --> 1:24:02.400 your life winds the line life is gone, you can't. 1:24:03.200 --> 1:24:06.040 I remember walking down the street seeing, oh, the Queen 1:24:06.160 --> 1:24:08.760 is coming to to to Radio City. I'm gonna go there, 1:24:08.760 --> 1:24:10.639 and some saying, no, you ain't. You're gonna be on stage. 1:24:10.640 --> 1:24:17.600 You gotta work. Yeah, so time it was one. I 1:24:17.640 --> 1:24:19.680 don't know if I did anything after that, but it 1:24:21.160 --> 1:24:25.040 is something I'm excited to be on the other side 1:24:25.240 --> 1:24:29.280 of and giving jobs to so many wonderful, talented people 1:24:29.320 --> 1:24:34.000 that are out there. So but yeah, you know it was. 1:24:34.120 --> 1:24:35.800 It was great. Thank you. 1:24:36.560 --> 1:24:39.040 I have two more questions than we could wrap up, 1:24:39.760 --> 1:24:43.120 and I do have to know because pivots are a 1:24:43.120 --> 1:24:47.559 big part of your story. What was the deciding factor 1:24:47.720 --> 1:24:52.120 that you go solo after having sung with your sister 1:24:52.200 --> 1:24:56.920 for so long? Like, how hard was the transition and 1:24:57.600 --> 1:24:59.599 not being BB and CC wining? 1:25:00.520 --> 1:25:05.200 Not hard at all. You're a BANDI ripper, Okay, you're 1:25:05.200 --> 1:25:15.760 not sentimental. I never heard before. Let's let's go think 1:25:15.800 --> 1:25:19.519 that I'm gonna use that. No, because this was planned 1:25:19.520 --> 1:25:24.280 in my mind from this first album. So from first 1:25:24.320 --> 1:25:28.479 album to the end, there's always been a solo on 1:25:28.520 --> 1:25:32.599 the duet album for CC and for me, because I 1:25:32.720 --> 1:25:36.120 knew we were going to do solos, and so the 1:25:36.160 --> 1:25:38.679 record company would be angry and I was like, no, no, no, 1:25:39.640 --> 1:25:43.559 Inside I knew, and when that day happened, we had 1:25:43.720 --> 1:25:47.839 something to build. Each of us had something to build upon. 1:25:47.960 --> 1:25:50.679 Your look catalog and some songs you had already done solo. 1:25:52.240 --> 1:25:56.719 And so when that day came, I said, CC, ladies, first, 1:25:57.120 --> 1:26:01.320 I'm gonna go somewhere and rest my brain. Hmmm, do 1:26:01.520 --> 1:26:04.160 other things because it would have been crazy for us 1:26:04.200 --> 1:26:06.959 to try to do it at the same time, because 1:26:07.040 --> 1:26:11.479 we would be fighting for the same audience. So I 1:26:11.520 --> 1:26:15.519 went away. For years, some people thought I had passed away. 1:26:15.560 --> 1:26:16.080 We didn't. 1:26:16.080 --> 1:26:17.960 You tried your hand in acting because you're in the 1:26:18.000 --> 1:26:20.080 Manturian Candidate, even though it's a cameo. 1:26:20.600 --> 1:26:25.240 Yes, I did that, not trying to That was again 1:26:26.080 --> 1:26:29.640 when when doors opened, I've learned to walk through. But 1:26:30.720 --> 1:26:35.760 you know, Denzel directed my first video. It was his 1:26:35.880 --> 1:26:40.160 directorial in Harm's way. Vinzel did that and at the 1:26:40.280 --> 1:26:44.559 end of the video didn't connected. Oh yeah, and doors. 1:26:44.640 --> 1:26:45.439 I love interdience. 1:26:45.520 --> 1:26:47.360 I loved That's what that is, that's love. 1:26:47.920 --> 1:26:51.559 So so he directed that and at the end of 1:26:51.600 --> 1:26:52.960 the thing he said, I'm gonna tell you one thing. 1:26:53.080 --> 1:26:54.960 I was like, oh, what did I do? What did 1:26:55.040 --> 1:26:57.400 I do? And he said, you got some acting shops. 1:26:57.640 --> 1:27:01.599 You should act? And I said, well, well, Denzel's telling 1:27:01.640 --> 1:27:03.960 me I can act. I said, you ain't got to 1:27:03.960 --> 1:27:05.800 even worry about coming out of this year because I 1:27:05.800 --> 1:27:10.479 ain't gonna let it in this year. You're Dizel And 1:27:10.520 --> 1:27:14.080 he said, I'm just telling you. And ten years down 1:27:14.080 --> 1:27:18.439 the road, I'm in mancheering candidate, not because of Denzel 1:27:18.840 --> 1:27:22.000 but because of the director meeting me at a birthday 1:27:22.040 --> 1:27:25.400 celebration and he says, you're gonna be in my next movie. 1:27:25.439 --> 1:27:27.280 You know. It's like, okay, I guess you're a director. 1:27:29.240 --> 1:27:32.840 And then here I am finding out this man's name 1:27:32.920 --> 1:27:39.960 was Jonathan Demi. J oh my god, I knew it. 1:27:41.200 --> 1:27:44.799 I knew it was Jonathan. So I'm at this meeting 1:27:45.200 --> 1:27:47.280 with a friend and I picked up the Variety of 1:27:47.320 --> 1:27:49.120 magazine and I was like, this is the name of 1:27:49.160 --> 1:27:51.240 the movie that these people try to give me here, 1:27:51.840 --> 1:27:54.240 and he said, what's the guy's name, I said, Jonathan 1:27:54.400 --> 1:27:57.639 something he said Jonathan Demi bebey. I said, yeah, that's 1:27:57.680 --> 1:28:04.559 that man's name. And so that's how that happened. Having 1:28:04.640 --> 1:28:08.640 that experience, Jonathan calls me and says, you gotta do 1:28:08.720 --> 1:28:12.160 more movies. It's like, what is wrong with y'all? 1:28:12.320 --> 1:28:14.360 So then what you ain't? What's that with that though? 1:28:14.560 --> 1:28:19.479 So so hey, I just did my first TV series 1:28:20.400 --> 1:28:27.559 premiere June the second called uh Minor Business with Lumbus Short. 1:28:27.640 --> 1:28:29.080 I didn't even know who he was. And then I 1:28:29.120 --> 1:28:36.719 was from from a Scandal Pendo Yes the cast and 1:28:36.960 --> 1:28:43.879 it bounced TV and it was the most previous in history. 1:28:43.920 --> 1:28:49.200 They're history over two million households. So I'm on that. 1:28:49.280 --> 1:28:52.280 My name is Henry and that is doing well. And 1:28:52.439 --> 1:28:55.439 so the fear, let's just say that, the fear of 1:28:55.960 --> 1:29:00.200 stepping into that, you know, part of my my world 1:29:00.360 --> 1:29:04.559 is starting to dissipate. And but you said something earlier 1:29:04.600 --> 1:29:07.599 that that is important to me. If I'm not having fun, 1:29:07.960 --> 1:29:10.800 I'm not going to do it. Yeah, you know, so 1:29:10.880 --> 1:29:16.280 this new song, I'm having fun doing that again because 1:29:16.360 --> 1:29:19.920 I have behind the scenes, so Father and Heaven right now, 1:29:20.320 --> 1:29:25.639 I went overseas and four concerts in South Africa and 1:29:25.680 --> 1:29:30.120 it just was it woke up the sleeping Bear. Did 1:29:30.120 --> 1:29:33.599 you miss it? I didn't miss it because I really 1:29:33.840 --> 1:29:39.880 truly don't. I'm allergic to the word tour. I get 1:29:40.640 --> 1:29:45.200 is what is the wordst thing about touring? Travel, travel 1:29:45.280 --> 1:29:48.920 and dealing with children, And that's what I call the 1:29:49.000 --> 1:29:52.680 band and everybody else they're children. You still have to 1:29:52.800 --> 1:29:55.960 keep the children in line. You have to do, you know, 1:29:56.040 --> 1:29:57.439 So that's the hard part. Way. 1:29:57.760 --> 1:30:01.520 And when you mean children, are you referring to musicians 1:30:01.560 --> 1:30:02.720 you overplay? 1:30:02.960 --> 1:30:07.840 Yeah? Yes, as if they came to see you, they. 1:30:07.720 --> 1:30:12.880 Still do that to you. Oh, I just they would 1:30:12.880 --> 1:30:13.720 be disciplined enough. 1:30:13.960 --> 1:30:19.439 Yeah, I am. I am the last Mohican. I'm world 1:30:19.439 --> 1:30:22.280 famous for doing nothing. I'm world famous for doing nothing 1:30:22.439 --> 1:30:22.960 because I was. 1:30:22.880 --> 1:30:28.000 Like, I am a metronome and that's that's how I 1:30:28.000 --> 1:30:28.679 paid the bills. 1:30:33.600 --> 1:30:35.439 Wait, Amir, you will be mad if we don't ask 1:30:35.479 --> 1:30:38.040 this question before we were in this interview, because listen, 1:30:38.040 --> 1:30:39.960 two weeks ago, I was hosting a Q and A 1:30:39.960 --> 1:30:43.639 at Capitol Jazz Fest and Louis Bega was the man 1:30:43.720 --> 1:30:46.960 on the stage. And every New Year everybody wanted to 1:30:46.960 --> 1:30:49.720 talk about BB and this this relationship that you had 1:30:49.760 --> 1:30:52.160 with Louis Bega and this collaboration that you've been doing 1:30:52.200 --> 1:30:54.120 for years. Can you just I would like you to 1:30:54.160 --> 1:30:55.920 just tell me about your first meeting with Louis and 1:30:55.960 --> 1:30:57.800 with the magic that was. 1:30:59.560 --> 1:31:04.439 It's to me, I forget how we met. He had 1:31:04.520 --> 1:31:09.640 mixed the song thank You, and Luther was like a 1:31:09.680 --> 1:31:13.160 brother to me, and so I helped him get Luther 1:31:13.320 --> 1:31:15.599 to come on and do a thing on his seat 1:31:15.720 --> 1:31:19.200 as well. But Luther did a lot of the background 1:31:19.240 --> 1:31:21.240 for me and Cec. I mean, I can name you 1:31:21.320 --> 1:31:26.759 five or six songs that Luka I love you answer 1:31:26.840 --> 1:31:31.160 that question, Ben, I mean searching for Love? So searching 1:31:31.560 --> 1:31:36.200 for love, Yeah, the one found search in Fad. 1:31:36.360 --> 1:31:37.840 He was the background vocal king. 1:31:38.360 --> 1:31:41.960 That's Luther, his arrangement and him and his singer. He's 1:31:42.040 --> 1:31:46.840 a whole another I have to come back. So so 1:31:47.160 --> 1:31:51.519 Louis Vega, we did the song. The song started really 1:31:51.600 --> 1:31:54.840 generating a lot in the house. In the house, and 1:31:54.880 --> 1:31:58.960 so he calls me. I think this is where this 1:31:59.000 --> 1:32:01.439 is when Louie and I became friends. He called me 1:32:01.560 --> 1:32:04.920 and said, BB can you please come and sing it 1:32:04.960 --> 1:32:07.720 live at the shelter. Now I don't even know what 1:32:07.760 --> 1:32:12.519 the shelter was. Wow, boy, yeah, I can't this story, 1:32:12.800 --> 1:32:16.720 I said, Louis, yes, so I said yes because I 1:32:18.280 --> 1:32:20.720 had no idea what was going on. Your team did it. 1:32:21.240 --> 1:32:25.040 So my singers came with me, and when we got 1:32:25.080 --> 1:32:28.599 to New York, Louis calls and said, hey, man, I'm excited, 1:32:29.400 --> 1:32:32.559 so we'll pick you up like at four. Now when 1:32:32.600 --> 1:32:37.559 I am chriss, I stumbled when I even talk about 1:32:37.600 --> 1:32:41.479 it now years ago. So it was like one PM. 1:32:41.560 --> 1:32:44.760 I said, you're gonna pick us up? Oh, in three hours? Okay, 1:32:44.840 --> 1:32:46.840 we'll be ready. He said, no, no, no, people pick you 1:32:46.880 --> 1:32:53.080 up at four am. I said, I said, whoa pick four? 1:32:53.560 --> 1:32:54.800 You picking us up at four? 1:32:54.960 --> 1:32:55.040 He? 1:32:55.320 --> 1:32:56.800 What? What time? 1:32:56.840 --> 1:32:57.559 We go on? 1:33:00.040 --> 1:33:03.120 Forty five and five? I said, what what are you 1:33:03.320 --> 1:33:09.120 talking about? What boy, how are you talking about? Say? 1:33:09.240 --> 1:33:13.080 I've never sung at four point thirty and what do 1:33:13.160 --> 1:33:18.080 you talk? People are up? Quite seriously, it was like 1:33:18.800 --> 1:33:21.679 I'm thrown when we went to that place. First of all, 1:33:21.880 --> 1:33:24.920 we trying to stay up was the hardest thing in 1:33:24.960 --> 1:33:29.120 my life. So he picks us up. We go to 1:33:29.240 --> 1:33:32.599 the shelter. I've never seen so many people in my life, 1:33:32.920 --> 1:33:40.360 and I'm like, are these vampires and then we sang 1:33:40.400 --> 1:33:46.559 the song. I'm telling you, I've seen audiences that is 1:33:46.800 --> 1:33:52.640 waiting to hear their song. Yes, ever saw an audience 1:33:53.160 --> 1:33:57.519 like this before. They knew every lick, every line, they 1:33:57.560 --> 1:34:02.519 knew every pause, and they were celebrating like I never 1:34:02.520 --> 1:34:06.120 saw people celebrate like this before. It blew my mind. 1:34:06.240 --> 1:34:09.960 And so after that, Louis was like, Phoebe, you gotta 1:34:10.000 --> 1:34:11.920 go with me. I said, no, no, no, be me 1:34:12.560 --> 1:34:18.040 one and done. You're gonna give you? I said, because 1:34:18.040 --> 1:34:20.559 I love you, I'm gonna give you three more. So 1:34:20.640 --> 1:34:23.040 I remember I did one in Miami, I did one 1:34:23.080 --> 1:34:25.719 in London. And then so he calls me. I said, Louis, 1:34:25.760 --> 1:34:30.439 don't you call me. But when I say, I have 1:34:30.520 --> 1:34:35.880 a love for him and his talent and and and 1:34:36.000 --> 1:34:37.479 all of them, that's my brother. 1:34:37.840 --> 1:34:40.200 Those records and y'all have changed, like y'all have changed 1:34:40.200 --> 1:34:42.720 in house and gospel at the second and now his 1:34:42.880 --> 1:34:46.519 other records with the Clark Sisters and of Your Brothers 1:34:46.880 --> 1:34:49.320 and now the Brell song the Joy Join. I'm like, 1:34:49.360 --> 1:34:51.960 this is just the baby of like with y'all. You 1:34:52.000 --> 1:34:52.200 know what. 1:34:52.920 --> 1:34:57.759 To me, it's only right only because it's historically speaking 1:34:58.960 --> 1:35:02.120 I mean, you're from Detroit, and the world doesn't know. 1:35:02.320 --> 1:35:06.800 Like I know, the world thinks like Motown, there's great 1:35:06.880 --> 1:35:09.120 jazz that comes out of Detroit, but the world really 1:35:09.160 --> 1:35:14.240 doesn't know that the role that Detroit has played in 1:35:14.520 --> 1:35:19.040 electronic music. And there's this whole you know, Chicago versus 1:35:19.040 --> 1:35:23.160 Detroit thing. But to me, it makes all the sense 1:35:23.200 --> 1:35:26.120 in the world that this pairing happened in the fact 1:35:26.200 --> 1:35:27.720 that you did it in the. 1:35:27.840 --> 1:35:30.639 Second best nightclub in world history. 1:35:30.680 --> 1:35:35.360 Of course, you know, to the Shelter will even say 1:35:35.400 --> 1:35:38.240 that their modus operandi was sort of that of what 1:35:38.800 --> 1:35:42.640 Paradise Garage represented in the early eighties. But to me, 1:35:42.920 --> 1:35:49.000 gospel flavored house music is one of the most spiritual 1:35:49.040 --> 1:35:51.360 experiences that one could watch it. 1:35:51.520 --> 1:35:54.800 So spirit yes, amir, it is in your buy. It 1:35:54.840 --> 1:35:56.920 does something to your insides. 1:35:56.800 --> 1:35:59.240 Well, because you gotta make a joyful noise and you 1:35:59.280 --> 1:36:02.759 also have to move, and the African people we move. 1:36:03.479 --> 1:36:05.719 And that's that's the thing. So I did the picnic 1:36:05.800 --> 1:36:10.040 loyal call and say, uh, bbe, it's not for me. 1:36:10.160 --> 1:36:14.680 It's like who is it? Before you know? Yeah, they 1:36:15.120 --> 1:36:18.200 call him to get me, And I was like, Louis 1:36:18.360 --> 1:36:22.120 who you stop calling me. So I did the picnic 1:36:22.920 --> 1:36:23.760 in Chicago. 1:36:24.160 --> 1:36:29.360 It was Oh, that's important, it's important. 1:36:29.400 --> 1:36:35.320 It's important. All my stars that it was unbelievable. I'm serious. 1:36:35.360 --> 1:36:40.240 When the when the music start, it's just it goes through. 1:36:40.600 --> 1:36:46.080 There's such an appreciation for their music that they have 1:36:47.080 --> 1:36:49.200 that I don't think any other genre has. 1:36:49.320 --> 1:36:50.080 I think that's true. 1:36:50.360 --> 1:36:51.040 I learn that. 1:36:51.120 --> 1:36:55.760 I learned that I still maintain that gospel music belongs 1:36:55.840 --> 1:36:56.519 in the clubs. 1:36:56.880 --> 1:37:01.440 I'm sorry everywhere I am. I believe it songs everywhere, 1:37:01.520 --> 1:37:06.280 and I you know, so as a songwriter you learn 1:37:06.560 --> 1:37:09.720 over the years. You learn if you've written something that's mediocre, 1:37:10.120 --> 1:37:13.400 you've readen something like that, Oh this so this song 1:37:13.560 --> 1:37:16.880 now that's out the word scared is not the thing. 1:37:16.960 --> 1:37:19.639 But I anticipate where it's going to go. I think 1:37:19.680 --> 1:37:24.360 it has the legs to go everywhere that the other 1:37:24.560 --> 1:37:29.240 songs that I've written that's crossed lines will do. And 1:37:29.280 --> 1:37:33.040 so I'm excited about it makes sense, Yeah, and so 1:37:33.120 --> 1:37:37.320 it makes so. You know, I'm in a great space. 1:37:37.400 --> 1:37:40.920 But again it's not just for me. I grow in 1:37:41.000 --> 1:37:43.960 these spaces, but I know it's also for some that 1:37:44.000 --> 1:37:46.800 are coming through this way as well. That's exemplary. 1:37:46.800 --> 1:37:49.400 Wait, I guess it's one important question I do have 1:37:49.439 --> 1:37:52.000 to ask you, and this kind of ties into the 1:37:52.000 --> 1:37:53.360 whole proud family thing. 1:37:54.439 --> 1:37:59.360 Is BB your birth name? Thank you with me? Thank you? 1:38:02.200 --> 1:38:07.040 My given name is Benjamin. My CC's given name is Priscilla. 1:38:08.160 --> 1:38:11.519 Wasn't for Jim Baker again Jim and Tammy Fay Baker. 1:38:11.840 --> 1:38:18.880 So no one knew our nickname other than the people 1:38:19.640 --> 1:38:22.880 you know in my household I'm a dad and all them. 1:38:23.120 --> 1:38:26.479 And then people at my church they called us BB 1:38:26.600 --> 1:38:29.880 and CC, but at school was Benjamin. And so after 1:38:30.320 --> 1:38:35.599 some of the success, remember going back to Mumford High 1:38:35.960 --> 1:38:40.639 for our ten year school reunion and walked in and 1:38:40.680 --> 1:38:43.599 the people who only knew us by Benjamin, they looked 1:38:43.600 --> 1:38:47.240 over and said, oh, hey, Phoebe. I was like, pep, 1:38:47.560 --> 1:38:53.880 you don't know me as Pobe. So if you want 1:38:53.920 --> 1:38:57.920 to stop me in my tracks, you call me Benjamin exactly, 1:38:58.280 --> 1:38:58.880 stopping my. 1:38:59.200 --> 1:39:02.320 Even worse as fans call you Benjamin, and then you're 1:39:02.320 --> 1:39:07.280 like no, right, Like some people will say to me, hey, 1:39:07.280 --> 1:39:11.040 a mirror, and then my mind's like first grade, second grade, 1:39:11.080 --> 1:39:14.200 third grade, fourth grade. They're like, man, I'm just depend 1:39:14.439 --> 1:39:20.120 I'm like, yeah, go for that well, brother BB, I 1:39:20.160 --> 1:39:25.040 want to thank you for this conversation, Uh just amazing. 1:39:25.320 --> 1:39:27.599 Thank you for spending with like and myself, and. 1:39:27.840 --> 1:39:29.959 Thank you Sarrid and Alita, thank you, yes. 1:39:29.840 --> 1:39:30.960 Yes, thank you so much. 1:39:31.080 --> 1:39:36.400 And I hope our listeners out there enjoyed this particular episode. 1:39:36.400 --> 1:39:37.160 I know I did. 1:39:37.200 --> 1:39:40.840 And on behalf of Sugar Steve and Pon Tigolo and 1:39:41.400 --> 1:39:45.320 Unpaid Bill and like yeah myself this Quest Love Supreme 1:39:45.800 --> 1:39:47.720 and thank you once again and we'll see you on 1:39:47.720 --> 1:39:50.559 in the next program. 1:39:50.680 --> 1:39:52.360 Thank you listening to Quest Love Supreme. 1:39:52.800 --> 1:39:56.760 This podcast is hosted by Amir Wees, Love Thompson, Big 1:39:56.800 --> 1:40:03.599 Boss Man, Like Saint Clair Black Black Myself, Fontigelo, Fonte Covid, Sugar, 1:40:03.600 --> 1:40:08.320 Steve Mandel and Unpaid Bill Sherman. The executive producers are 1:40:08.520 --> 1:40:12.160 a Mere Quest Love Thompson, Sean g and the Unbothered 1:40:12.200 --> 1:40:17.479 Brian Calhoun. Produced by Brittany Benjamin, my Dog Cousin, Jake Payne, 1:40:17.680 --> 1:40:20.960 My Motherfucking Man and Like he Is Saint Clairs My 1:40:21.040 --> 1:40:25.160 work Wife, edited by Alex Conroy, Produced for iHeart by 1:40:25.280 --> 1:40:25.880 Noel Brown. 1:40:27.000 --> 1:40:34.240 Us Up Supreme is a production of Myheart Radio. For 1:40:34.320 --> 1:40:37.439 more podcasts from iHeart radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, 1:40:37.640 --> 1:40:40.880 Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.