Speaker 1: Well, say Ja valatic, we are the authorities all things
Speaker 1: R and B ladies and gentlemen, what's going on? I
Speaker 1: am tanked Valentine, and this is the R and B
Speaker 1: money podcasting authority on all things, are all things, all
Speaker 1: things R and Um. We have we have a treat
Speaker 1: um um, we have a vocal gift. We have elite,
Speaker 1: elite company um in the building. I mean just I mean,
Speaker 1: I mean listen when when they were casting for the
Speaker 1: Clark Sisters. If you know anything about the Clark Sisters,
Speaker 1: who are gospel music royalty, but to any singer, they
Speaker 1: are royalty pure. I don't care what religion you are. Um.
Speaker 1: They had to go, they had to call this young
Speaker 1: Lake ladies, gentlemen. R B music community makes them no,
Speaker 1: thank you, thank you that year. Oh, we're gonna start there.
Speaker 1: We're gonna start there. We're gonna start there. We're just
Speaker 1: gonna get We're gonna celebrate you from the moment we
Speaker 1: start here. You as a singer is just something different different.
Speaker 1: Appreciate that I really do. And I think for me
Speaker 1: it's like both of you guys. Um, you might not
Speaker 1: remember the first time I met you. I know, you know,
Speaker 1: but you guys have been nothing but supportive and so
Speaker 1: kind and just so loving and supportable of what I do,
Speaker 1: and so I just I just gotta thank you guys
Speaker 1: for that, because you guys were so instrumental in like
Speaker 1: those earlier years. Yeah, I feel like I'm like the
Speaker 1: same classes like Obama. I haven't. I haven't sang doesn't
Speaker 1: call me personally. Quincy Jones. You know when I saw
Speaker 1: her at Quincy Jones house, I wasn't invited, but then
Speaker 1: you took what you took over, No, you literally took over.
Speaker 1: He started doing a Quincy Jones impersonation that everybody dying over.
Speaker 1: Can I tell a story because I'm man, I got
Speaker 1: the video, I got the video. Upset um with my
Speaker 1: guy you know, um uh comedian. I know you're talking about.
Speaker 1: I know his name, I said, okay, Chris Tucker. Yeah,
Speaker 1: just the money talks himself, Chris Tucker, who was by
Speaker 1: far one of one of the greatest comedians. Absolutely, Okay,
Speaker 1: so this is starting, we'll start. There's going to my story.
Speaker 1: So this is the I mean, no disres back in
Speaker 1: the indusries. No, I'm not just because he's a nice guy.
Speaker 1: Mine just comes straight. Yeah, we're having a good time
Speaker 1: at at Quincy Jones. Yes, it's like you know, anybody
Speaker 1: who's helped forge the foundation of R and B music,
Speaker 1: It's there, right there there. It's it's crazy. And so
Speaker 1: Chris Tucker gets on the mic and he starts doing
Speaker 1: this Quincy Jones impersonation and I'm sitting back cut two guys.
Speaker 1: I wasn't there. I wasn't. I wasn't even you know,
Speaker 1: it's it's fine, uh as a plus one as I was,
Speaker 1: I'm standing in watching him do this impersonation. And mind you,
Speaker 1: I have been studying Quincy and trying to do a
Speaker 1: Quincy impersonation only because of Jamie Fox, who does people.
Speaker 1: So he started made me want to learn, so, you know,
Speaker 1: I would try to do my quinc impersonation and study
Speaker 1: how Fox would do it. Liked, And so Tucker started
Speaker 1: doing this Quincy impersonation that I'm not excited about. That
Speaker 1: I am not happy with, you know, and he's better
Speaker 1: than this. So it's like a Michael Jackson Quincy Jacks.
Speaker 1: I don't know what he's Good's good? H It wasn't authentic.
Speaker 1: It's a cadence to its all of that, it's all
Speaker 1: of that and when and I was sitting at the
Speaker 1: piano when this was happening. Mind you, I had I
Speaker 1: don't know what if I had just sang or I
Speaker 1: was about to sing, and then grab the mic and
Speaker 1: grab the other mic, the other one, the one that Quincy,
Speaker 1: the one that Stevie had. Nobody knew I had the mic,
Speaker 1: and I grabbed the mic and I started talking. You know,
Speaker 1: you're really not doing me in justice man, you're talking,
Speaker 1: so he he said, you know, he was like, I
Speaker 1: was a real quickly listen, I was a real Quincy, right,
Speaker 1: So we're going back and forth. And so what happened
Speaker 1: was Quincy thought when I started doing my impersonation of him,
Speaker 1: he thought that somebody had started playing a recording my
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying, playing just in search from
Speaker 1: Quincy Jones, because he was saying things that like Quincy
Speaker 1: would say, you know, you not solid, But they don't
Speaker 1: happen right so quick quin because he sits in the
Speaker 1: same so you have to circle around and get in.
Speaker 1: But when I got to him, he said that that
Speaker 1: was you huh got that shut out? He baest that
Speaker 1: shut out man associates you up. Anyway, that was you
Speaker 1: know that was. That was that was So that was
Speaker 1: a really great night. That was a really great night.
Speaker 1: And listen, I'm for happy to be in that space.
Speaker 1: And I know you know you you you frequent those
Speaker 1: spaces because um, like you just have a different a
Speaker 1: different kind of gift man, like that's just out of
Speaker 1: this world and to you know, to the Quincy jones
Speaker 1: Is and Jimmy jam and musical to some of the
Speaker 1: biggest people who have ever ever done it on every level,
Speaker 1: like they look to you, which is I mean, it's crazy.
Speaker 1: So we we we like to do we like to
Speaker 1: start at the very beginning, like like when did you know?
Speaker 1: Or when did somebody tell you you got something? Let's
Speaker 1: start there and then work our way up to yeah, overseas, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: the White House, Kennedy forget for a couple of times.
Speaker 1: You know what I have to say, that's really quick
Speaker 1: because I think we, I know, we come from from
Speaker 1: very similar backgrounds. I can't remember what church. I say that,
Speaker 1: because sometimes it can be very difficult for us to
Speaker 1: talk about ourselves because we feel like that's not being humble.
Speaker 1: And that's how I think we were raised right in
Speaker 1: a way. And so it's like I have. I had
Speaker 1: to almost It took a while for me to be
Speaker 1: able to recognize you have this God's size gift because
Speaker 1: God gave it to you. So it's okay for you
Speaker 1: to lean into it as long as you continue to
Speaker 1: like you know, give it right back. But you can't
Speaker 1: like almost diminish your gift because you're diminishing God. So
Speaker 1: it's I think, Yeah, we weren't always thought to raise
Speaker 1: our hands and yes, exact mean and so you know,
Speaker 1: like this platform, like you know, this is for you
Speaker 1: to raise your hand and say, yeah, this is this
Speaker 1: is what I do. Okay, So White House twice. You
Speaker 1: don't look at who might not me? That's fine, fine, Yeah,
Speaker 1: they're gonna go through your sec yeah the first time.
Speaker 1: That's why I got the White House the first time.
Speaker 1: Literally why somebody else, so many people could not pass
Speaker 1: the background check. That's literally how it happened the first time. Okay,
Speaker 1: So black a lot of going but going to the beginning,
Speaker 1: what do you say a lot of things soups saying,
Speaker 1: but you have to remember at that time under Obama,
Speaker 1: it were it's like any any little tiny thing, it's
Speaker 1: like you know, yeah, yeah, yeah, because they were it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's a whole other conversation. But but yeah, at the beginning,
Speaker 1: man the beginning beginning. You know, my earliest memory is music. So,
Speaker 1: like my mom said, like a two years old, I
Speaker 1: was harmonizing like and to me, like when I look
Speaker 1: at somebody who's two years old, I was like, that
Speaker 1: was scary they could find harmony like that. But I
Speaker 1: was stay on there, no, you know, I was like,
Speaker 1: I remember this little wooden piano that that my parents
Speaker 1: had gotten me, and you know, I'll be making little
Speaker 1: songs from my sisters around three or four years old.
Speaker 1: So my earliest memories were music. But I say all
Speaker 1: that to say my parents both very musical. Um in
Speaker 1: the church. I just only saw them use it in
Speaker 1: church and that was it. So I thought that's what
Speaker 1: I would do. That was that I didn't really see
Speaker 1: any you know, me having it as a career. I
Speaker 1: just thought I would just serving church. And it really
Speaker 1: wasn't until um, when I went a way to college.
Speaker 1: I joined this this girl's group and that was like
Speaker 1: my first taste of just like being in the student
Speaker 1: It was it was like the gospel version of uh,
Speaker 1: Destiny's Child, It's called forgiven and we were all hot. Yeah,
Speaker 1: what I'm saying like we were, we were cute. We
Speaker 1: were cute. We were four cute girls. And you know,
Speaker 1: I say, because we were packaged that way, and um
Speaker 1: we were we had a little deal on the table
Speaker 1: for Blackground Records. But the Lord says, anyway, but how
Speaker 1: does how does that work in gospel? Right? Because obviously
Speaker 1: is that a thing where you're like you said, we
Speaker 1: were packaged as a group that could sing, but also
Speaker 1: because of what the group look like, is that a
Speaker 1: thing in gospel of music? It can be, it can be.
Speaker 1: And I think at that time too, it's like, you know,
Speaker 1: that was just the and as we know in this industry,
Speaker 1: people are always looking for the next what argument is,
Speaker 1: so they're winning, we need a gospel version of that.
Speaker 1: And then to me, Mary Mary came and that's what
Speaker 1: even though it's just the two of them, it was
Speaker 1: that kind of energy, beautiful, you know, vibrant, actually dressed
Speaker 1: like sexy, which was like, you know, very difficult, so
Speaker 1: you know, but but yeah, so that was really my
Speaker 1: first taste of just being in what I would say
Speaker 1: the industry of just going to the studio and writing
Speaker 1: and producing and just that feeling just like Okay, this
Speaker 1: is it, but you're not in Los Angeles at this point. No,
Speaker 1: I'm going to school at this HBCU in Huntsville, Alabama
Speaker 1: called Oakwood College Oakland University. Now yeah next week. They know,
Speaker 1: you wouldn't want to feel out so like A and
Speaker 1: M that whole. Yeah, I'm a product of the Bible Belt.
Speaker 1: Wow yeah period. Yeah, yeah, that's where my career started.
Speaker 1: Like promo shows, yea all through the Bible Belt in
Speaker 1: a van, in a van staying at motails where you
Speaker 1: walk into your room from outside were they're quite motels
Speaker 1: or the hotels, but they don't have an hr M
Speaker 1: one then you know, yeah, yeah I know the ones
Speaker 1: you got you get it from outside? Yeah, you go,
Speaker 1: you go upstairs and you yes, you get your key
Speaker 1: from from your lady in the window. Yeah, even want
Speaker 1: trouble there. Um. It was this the first time that
Speaker 1: that you felt like you were, um being recognized on
Speaker 1: that level like this, could you could have a career
Speaker 1: in this like you were special in this place? It
Speaker 1: wasn't so Interestingly enough, I always felt like I was special,
Speaker 1: like my my gift was special. I knew that very
Speaker 1: very young, but that didn't necessarily mean it had to
Speaker 1: be a career, you know, but this was the first
Speaker 1: time where it was like, Okay, there's nothing else I
Speaker 1: even want to remotely do. This is it? And so
Speaker 1: that was that was like a pivotal moment. But to
Speaker 1: like say, like when I was more settled into like
Speaker 1: I feel like what I can bring just this industry,
Speaker 1: that was later on. I don't know if you want
Speaker 1: me to skip to that moment, but that was that
Speaker 1: was a little later on where I felt settled like
Speaker 1: I don't care how long this takes. Already I know
Speaker 1: where I'm where I'm supposed to be. But that was
Speaker 1: a little later that there was. That was a pivotal
Speaker 1: performance in a pivotal moment. So Forbidden Forgiven, which again
Speaker 1: I like, I like forbidden Forbid Forgiven. It was four
Speaker 1: and then given that's all, Hey we all got them. Um,
Speaker 1: so what is it? What is in between that? Because
Speaker 1: there's got to be there's a lot. It's a lot.
Speaker 1: So the girls group didn't work out, you know, Um,
Speaker 1: I think, you know, we were all super young and
Speaker 1: had had different interests, and I think kind of looking
Speaker 1: back in retrospect, I was I was such a intense person.
Speaker 1: I think it was like a little overwhelming sometimes like
Speaker 1: it was, Um, I was like, let's do this, Like
Speaker 1: forget if I remember calling my mom my mom, and
Speaker 1: I was like, I don't even want to finish college
Speaker 1: because I already found it. Like this is it. I
Speaker 1: don't I don't need to look any further. She was like, no,
Speaker 1: we're not gonna do that. So I did get my degree.
Speaker 1: I got my degree in music and this is piano.
Speaker 1: I got it. I graduated kum lad from from from
Speaker 1: Oakla College. Um but I you know it, I just
Speaker 1: said this, this is it and and for me, I
Speaker 1: just loved music that I kind of started more off
Speaker 1: on the writing side, the writing and um so right
Speaker 1: after I graduate, that's when I, you know, met up
Speaker 1: with Jimmy Jim and Terror Lewis around the same time
Speaker 1: that we can I'm trying to figure out how did
Speaker 1: we connect. I'm not cusking through Harvey and Damon. Were
Speaker 1: you like at the underdogs back in the day we met.
Speaker 1: I'm not sure. I'm not I'm not all a ways sure,
Speaker 1: but I mean it's possible because obviously I was part
Speaker 1: of the underdogs with him. So but at that time,
Speaker 1: I wasn't. I wasn't um, I wasn't working with him
Speaker 1: at that time. I wasn't working with him at that No,
Speaker 1: I remember you, you and Ronnie. I actually left the
Speaker 1: Underdogs the second time because of Little Ronnie. Yeah, they
Speaker 1: kicked him out. So I was like, yeah, I can't
Speaker 1: kick my little home ye out because it's my guys
Speaker 1: two thousand four. Sorry to that. I'm like, I'm like,
Speaker 1: if if you're gonna kick him out, he comes with me. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So literally, like little Ronnie came and lived at my
Speaker 1: studio house. That was my studio house that used to
Speaker 1: come to it before, and Ronnie was because he was
Speaker 1: he wasn't from l a one from California. So I'm like,
Speaker 1: listen to you figure it out. Yeah, you're with me,
Speaker 1: you're my guy. So, oh my god, what was that
Speaker 1: song that we did? What? Wait? What's gonna take to
Speaker 1: wake up every day to love? It? Used to be happy?
Speaker 1: I used to love hate. I'm dreading every day so
Speaker 1: something to feeling change. Can't go home this way, it's
Speaker 1: not the way I wanted. Nothing. School and wrong going right?
Speaker 1: What are we doing wrong? Yeah? Now you're singing that
Speaker 1: I don't even like the Jill notes, the first funny
Speaker 1: thing is she sang a song that we wrote together.
Speaker 1: But what I remember the most was when you came
Speaker 1: and sang for me the first time you sang in
Speaker 1: dr Ready for Love. Oh my god. I never forgot
Speaker 1: that because I'm like, this is amazing, Like this is amazing,
Speaker 1: and did I just do it? You played, you played
Speaker 1: and sang and I was like this, I ain't never
Speaker 1: seen thating like this, like I don't ever sing that,
Speaker 1: Sonny to bring that back back, shout out my favorite
Speaker 1: songs of all time. And I just remember you, you know,
Speaker 1: because that's how people that don't know the music business.
Speaker 1: It's kind of how it goes when you're gonna meet
Speaker 1: somebody and you know, you showing your gift, you usually
Speaker 1: just you know. And I think you might have asked
Speaker 1: me like, okay, so what do you what? What songs?
Speaker 1: You know? I mean, which is a whole another cheek
Speaker 1: code that you guys have because you both play and
Speaker 1: sing to be able to kind of be a little jukebox, right,
Speaker 1: And I was just like this is insane, Like this
Speaker 1: is literally insane. I'm going to find a song. You're
Speaker 1: just saying I had some magical times. I have it
Speaker 1: on a drive or somewhere. Yeah, Oh my god, I
Speaker 1: could literally see your place now, like I remembered the
Speaker 1: room and everything, like how it was where we would
Speaker 1: where we would record the vocals. Wow. And then I
Speaker 1: met you around this, Yes it was it was I
Speaker 1: didn't know. I don't even know that. Yeah, and then
Speaker 1: I met you around the same time. Um, underdogs. That
Speaker 1: that's the thing. The underdogs. They would always just like
Speaker 1: just sick me on anybody who would come through. So
Speaker 1: like he was chewing some up when I started to sing,
Speaker 1: and he said, I didn't chewt this gun. And then
Speaker 1: he had assistant and he made him spit the gover
Speaker 1: in his hand. I love you some stories outside, but
Speaker 1: it was, oh my god, I would I will never
Speaker 1: forget those early boves Greg. You were no different. And
Speaker 1: um you came in one time and they were like
Speaker 1: saying sings onthing for tank and I did never felt
Speaker 1: this way for an at night and this was this
Speaker 1: was the piano intro and um, I finished singing, and
Speaker 1: I will never this was like, Member, I told you
Speaker 1: that there was this pivotal moment for me from what
Speaker 1: you said and the first thing you said was you're anointed,
Speaker 1: And I remember thinking, what a weird thing to say
Speaker 1: after I seeing what I considered to be a secular song.
Speaker 1: And because again like the way I grew up, everything
Speaker 1: is like there's sacred and then there's secular. There's no blurring,
Speaker 1: no what we're talking. That's what it is, sacred insect
Speaker 1: and secular. Never knew that, Okay, all right, yeah, we're
Speaker 1: gonna bring my strether. It's glorious to have a knacker.
Speaker 1: But so for me, that was that was like, that's
Speaker 1: when I kind of had to start that introspection of
Speaker 1: realizing that my gift was sacred, not what I what
Speaker 1: song I sang, period, But it was when you said that.
Speaker 1: I was like, that's such a weird thing for someone
Speaker 1: to say you're anointed after but it was like you
Speaker 1: felt the God in me and that's why you said that.
Speaker 1: And then I realized, okay, this is this is not
Speaker 1: something where you can turn and even further chicken a
Speaker 1: step further. I grew up seventh Day to where you know,
Speaker 1: you don't sing, you know, any do anything secular, like
Speaker 1: on Friday night and Saturday. So like in the beginning,
Speaker 1: I wasn't doing shows during that time. Because of that reason,
Speaker 1: I thought of a sudden no shows or any nothing shows,
Speaker 1: but no anything, just anything doing sessions. I would you would,
Speaker 1: you wouldn't make you would? You would make it around
Speaker 1: the other days. And so that was kind of the
Speaker 1: beginning of when I said, and Kirk Whalem also was
Speaker 1: was very instrumental in that and just helping me to
Speaker 1: see that your your gift done. It doesn't turn off
Speaker 1: the period doesn't it's it's you're a vessel and it's
Speaker 1: about what you bring that the light through that vessel.
Speaker 1: Struggle with that early early on because because of the teachings,
Speaker 1: because of it always being pushed that you know, um,
Speaker 1: secular music was you know, the gateway to hell. Yeah,
Speaker 1: in a sense pretty much. And here I am in
Speaker 1: this R and B place, you know, with this annoying thing,
Speaker 1: with this calling on life. What am I doing here?
Speaker 1: You know what I mean? And so it took a
Speaker 1: while for me to accept that this was from him
Speaker 1: and not from anybody else. This opportunity for me to
Speaker 1: share my gift all over the world and to in
Speaker 1: essence put my life on paper and then ultimately on record,
Speaker 1: and it makes room for me. You know, it provides
Speaker 1: me a place to live, it it provides food for
Speaker 1: my family. I was like, that can only come from
Speaker 1: one place. And it took me a while. I was
Speaker 1: tormented for a while, you know what I mean. People
Speaker 1: would say to me, you're a church boy, like you
Speaker 1: like what you're doing out here, you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 1: this club, and I didn't. I didn't necessarily fit in,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. But at a certain point
Speaker 1: I just stopped trying to. I just accepted exactly exactly.
Speaker 1: I feel the same way becau. You almost don't fit
Speaker 1: in on either side because you recognize that there's more
Speaker 1: for me. It was like, there's more that I want
Speaker 1: to say, Yes, there's more that I want to There's
Speaker 1: there's more ways that I want to express myself. So
Speaker 1: it can't only be gospel. To me. Gospel is how
Speaker 1: I live my life, the way I treat people. And
Speaker 1: and that would be my response to every time someone say, oh,
Speaker 1: you know you make sure you never stop singing for Jesus,
Speaker 1: I'm like, it's really more about me. Let me, let me,
Speaker 1: let me, let me, let me, let me right. So
Speaker 1: it's kind of what I'm getting my own little layman
Speaker 1: terms like musically mixed. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So it's like,
Speaker 1: you know, you meet somebody who has one parent that's
Speaker 1: one and whatever, and they gotta figure it out because
Speaker 1: they don't true really fit either side. But when you're
Speaker 1: really talented, eventually they all gravitate towards you. It's what
Speaker 1: I found just watching even with Tank, where it's like
Speaker 1: I'll see the church and the gospel singers and the
Speaker 1: pastors be like, yeah, so it can take come perform
Speaker 1: at the church. What would you like for him to pfor? Um,
Speaker 1: I don't know if he has that selection, but what
Speaker 1: what's wild? They'll ask for the song songs, for the
Speaker 1: songs like so y'all won't win weak I've been you're
Speaker 1: doing at the church banquets or where Like, it's like
Speaker 1: it's just it it's so far away from the traditional
Speaker 1: thing that has been taught, Like I feel like now,
Speaker 1: you know, especially for the pastors that I that I
Speaker 1: performed for man Keith Battles, who was a good friend
Speaker 1: of mine, and not about a pastor Gray, like they
Speaker 1: understand the reality of a thing. Yeah, Like when it's
Speaker 1: time for them to lay down with their wives, Um,
Speaker 1: they're not playing for Redhand and we love, we love
Speaker 1: not for that they're not playing her. Frank, No, you
Speaker 1: know you know what they're gonna they're some Yeah, they
Speaker 1: they need you started. Yeah, And so it had to
Speaker 1: be it's understanding that makes it, yeah, practical, it's human,
Speaker 1: heavenly found that you're no earthly good understand what's happening
Speaker 1: exactly exactly. And there there's and you know, there's been
Speaker 1: so many people who have started in the church and
Speaker 1: and to your point, yes, it's kind of mixed where
Speaker 1: we're on one side and and there's another side. But
Speaker 1: then there's also the people like us were on the
Speaker 1: other side, who are people who just had the courage
Speaker 1: to do more. So we're we I still understand that world.
Speaker 1: I still very like when I played, you know, during
Speaker 1: the Clark Cole, I very much knew that world and
Speaker 1: just that whole ecosystem, you know, like it's it was.
Speaker 1: It was very real to me. But I also know
Speaker 1: the other side. And sometimes it's you having the courage
Speaker 1: to say I want to do more. And that's why
Speaker 1: I love Yolanda Adams, who she just does whatever she wants.
Speaker 1: If they asked her to do a tribute to to
Speaker 1: you know, Shaka Khan or you know she's gonna do that,
Speaker 1: she's gonna do She's gonna do the Ray Charles. She
Speaker 1: and I both did this my second White House show together.
Speaker 1: DA is just I don't have a drink because this
Speaker 1: is you know, but I'm I'm when she sings whenas
Speaker 1: they actually sing together, I had to I had to
Speaker 1: take a step back and and let the same Well,
Speaker 1: we didn't, we didn't do a duet. We were on
Speaker 1: the same we were on the same bill. So I
Speaker 1: actually did a duet with Anthony Hamilton's we did the
Speaker 1: right time that was that was a tribute to Ray Charles.
Speaker 1: Yeah so um but yeah, no, I say all that.
Speaker 1: I don't know what our original point. We've kind of
Speaker 1: gone around. It's fine, but listen, this is here's here's
Speaker 1: the other thing. So this is our show. We want
Speaker 1: I see you as in the comments what they say,
Speaker 1: they say it's irrelevant, irrelevant, it's not your podcast. So
Speaker 1: we have whoever and we will talk about whatever we
Speaker 1: want to. I love that love where we were yeah
Speaker 1: about you being great. This is ultimately this is what No,
Speaker 1: this is why we brought you here because of your
Speaker 1: gift and what you do. Obviously we've known you for
Speaker 1: years at this point and you know, throughout the years,
Speaker 1: but we really we want to put the spotlight on
Speaker 1: people we believe that are great, appreciate it flat out
Speaker 1: and really and really talk about it and talk about
Speaker 1: that journey of how they got there. I think you
Speaker 1: were probably at we were getting off off the Girl
Speaker 1: Group and talking about how we met, and so were
Speaker 1: you signed to Jimmy Jimmy Terry Lewis. I was a
Speaker 1: part of their writing camp, so yeah, it was almost
Speaker 1: like I wasn't technically signed, but we were just I
Speaker 1: was on all of their projects that they were doing.
Speaker 1: So that's actually how I got like a lot of
Speaker 1: my little you know, movie credits. So I would be
Speaker 1: on a keeling the Bee and I would be you know,
Speaker 1: doing backgrounds and my daughter's favorite movie shout out to
Speaker 1: Kick I Love. She's been saying in the in the
Speaker 1: in the news. Yeah she's incomparable. So yeah, let's just
Speaker 1: start there. Um. But but yeah, it's so I got
Speaker 1: Will and Grays to a lot of a lot of
Speaker 1: different stuff that during that time, whatever they were on,
Speaker 1: I was on, you know, whatever they were writing for whatever.
Speaker 1: So that's actually when I don't know if you guys
Speaker 1: remember the movie Jumping the Broom, So that was did
Speaker 1: you want you wanted to be what character? Because I
Speaker 1: was gonna ask could you give us what they call
Speaker 1: it monologue? Is that what they call it? Yeah, okay,
Speaker 1: my line. I was supposed to be the Ray character.
Speaker 1: Oh you would have been funny that one. But he
Speaker 1: was funny too. He was funny too. But you know
Speaker 1: so much I'm doing so I'm doing the audition and
Speaker 1: you know, I'm just being natural, you know what, I'm
Speaker 1: grapes on the table and I saw like my you know,
Speaker 1: see the grapes on me us the grapes probably grab
Speaker 1: a grape to a grape. No no, I started dying
Speaker 1: of the only men. And what's the that was looking
Speaker 1: at me? No, no, used to be that was um
Speaker 1: Um married to baby face. Tracy was looking at me
Speaker 1: like did you grab my grape? Like not only were
Speaker 1: they not community crazy, they were someone else's grapes. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm still too much. Yeah you haven't been. I haven't
Speaker 1: been in any of her movie. Sorry, I'm now talked
Speaker 1: to man. Oh my god, you took her grape and
Speaker 1: she said no thing. The grapes said no, thanks to me.
Speaker 1: You took that, you took the role. Actually that was
Speaker 1: like my I was getting more into the writing. Like
Speaker 1: I said, I just loved I just wanted to be
Speaker 1: just a part of the process. I didn't have to be,
Speaker 1: you know, on stage. It was just writing and producing.
Speaker 1: And so I learned so much during those years with Jimmy,
Speaker 1: Jamin Terry and so my kind of like my big
Speaker 1: I would say, like my big break was when I
Speaker 1: was on Tick six's album, Um who I considered it
Speaker 1: be like my brothers, and I was doing this song
Speaker 1: called someone to Watch Over Me, And of course y'all
Speaker 1: know Stevie Wonder love some some Take six you said, man,
Speaker 1: I gotta I gotta accomplish something and stop it. I
Speaker 1: don't know the guys, so um Stevie heard and he
Speaker 1: was like, who is this girl? I want to meet her? Um,
Speaker 1: you know, And so okay, I'll tell you guys that story.
Speaker 1: That story's champagne on here because if not, she's probably
Speaker 1: poured it all over me, all of it. Stee Wonder,
Speaker 1: Stevie Wonder wants to know girl. It wasn't okay, But
Speaker 1: I'm just tell you how off I was. Okay, So
Speaker 1: I'll give a little background. As I told you, guys
Speaker 1: would being with Jimmy and Terry, everybody would come through there,
Speaker 1: you know. So I remember when Maurice White was and
Speaker 1: I treasured these moments. I didn't realize how special it was.
Speaker 1: I knew it was special. Teers win in Fire and
Speaker 1: I remember I played and sings on me and he's like, girl,
Speaker 1: you've got some chords. And I'm just like, just those
Speaker 1: kind of moments would happened there all the time. So
Speaker 1: I'm prefacing the story by saying that. So I go
Speaker 1: and I meet Stevie and and up Stephanie, who still
Speaker 1: works with him. I love her to death. I just
Speaker 1: talked to her not too long ago. Um she wanted
Speaker 1: to surprise him with me just showing up to the studio.
Speaker 1: So I go to the studio and you know, Stevie
Speaker 1: is he was in the middle of doing something, so
Speaker 1: he was like recording something else. So I'm just kind
Speaker 1: of like on the couch or somewhere waiting. So hour
Speaker 1: goes by, another hour goes by, and I'm just like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I gotta go, you know, I gotta go, Like I
Speaker 1: have I got ship to do. Somebody tells Stevie I
Speaker 1: was here. That's not part Please don't air this part. Okay,
Speaker 1: but that's not even it. That's not even the bad part.
Speaker 1: So so I talked. So I talked to them and
Speaker 1: I was like, oh god, I was all on God man,
Speaker 1: he protects babies and food. So so anyway, so I'm
Speaker 1: like I'm meeting him. I'm just kind of like, okay,
Speaker 1: cool I met. I met Stevie Wonder and so I
Speaker 1: was just like they were like, oh. He was like, well,
Speaker 1: you know, can you come by tomorrow? And I was like, no, okay, yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna cry. Oh god, Stevie don't work on Friday. Friday. No,
Speaker 1: it wasn't even a Friday. That wouldn't make the worst.
Speaker 1: It wasn't even Friday. So so I called my sister
Speaker 1: and I'm like, oh, you know, I just met Stevie.
Speaker 1: You know, he was busy all the time. I just
Speaker 1: got to say hi, that's it. And she said, well
Speaker 1: what happened? She said, you know, what do they say?
Speaker 1: I said, you know, I got some thing to do.
Speaker 1: I really I could make it back. She was like
Speaker 1: Leia that she doesn't curse, but she would have said
Speaker 1: that Stevie Wonder, that's Stevie Wonder. And I was like,
Speaker 1: what if my time to borrow? The next day I call,
Speaker 1: they don't answer. Yeah, So I just showed up. I
Speaker 1: literally just showed up. I just went to the studio
Speaker 1: and I will never forget. I can literally see where
Speaker 1: everybody was sitting, and he was. He wasn't there yet,
Speaker 1: and so when he came in, somebody must assess something.
Speaker 1: And I laughed and he was like, you came back.
Speaker 1: He recognized meeting just meeting me yesterday, and he's like,
Speaker 1: you came back. And the rest is history. I mean
Speaker 1: after that, we just connected so so deeply, and I
Speaker 1: went I remember going to the piano and we were
Speaker 1: just singing. And later on that um yere so that
Speaker 1: was he was about to go on tour. So that
Speaker 1: Christmas I sang for his House full of Toys, you
Speaker 1: know the show he does every year. Um and I did.
Speaker 1: Who could Imagine the King? And I just remember thinking like,
Speaker 1: oh my god, am I really butt cheeked butt cheek
Speaker 1: with Stevie Wonder. I'm sitting at the piano, He's like
Speaker 1: sitting at the roads. And that was just kind of
Speaker 1: the startup to be probably one of the most beautiful
Speaker 1: friendships that I have in this world. And I tell people,
Speaker 1: like everything that you think about him, you know when
Speaker 1: you when you hear, like back to what you were saying,
Speaker 1: how certain songs conjure up certain memories. You know when
Speaker 1: you hear you know, you are the sunshine of my
Speaker 1: life from my stree more, how it feels like light.
Speaker 1: He really is like that, he is that light. And um,
Speaker 1: you know I've never heard him we joke. I mean
Speaker 1: we we talked with each other all the time, just
Speaker 1: up on stage like just we have the most hilarious
Speaker 1: let him your nah because it's just like this, there's
Speaker 1: these rumors. No, well, I don't know. I haven't experienced
Speaker 1: that with Okay, okay, I have every time we've been
Speaker 1: that you ain't that close thing because you ain't well
Speaker 1: Eve been driven driven now have a drive. We when
Speaker 1: we had we had Ray Parker Jr. One and he
Speaker 1: told the story about how like you know, they would
Speaker 1: let Stevie drive in the open, like all the road
Speaker 1: that kind of open, but you know, let him drive.
Speaker 1: I fumbled my Stevie Stevie moment. What was yours? I
Speaker 1: was so, I was so star struck. Yeah, and I
Speaker 1: had sing Stevie songs for all sorts of weddings. Course,
Speaker 1: of course, Stevie Wonder walks into my show I was
Speaker 1: performing at Universal City Walk. Was there like a people
Speaker 1: kings up? What was that up there? Yeah? Yeah it
Speaker 1: was it was Stevie Wonder shows up and comes on
Speaker 1: stage with me, and we sit down on my piano
Speaker 1: and he starts playing and singing my song. And I'm
Speaker 1: supposed to go back and sing his song with his
Speaker 1: lyrics and play it, and I blank, I blank, I
Speaker 1: don't know the words to Ribbing in the Sky. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Times he brought me a gift like a recorder and
Speaker 1: a microphone and fumble first first football player. You know
Speaker 1: you play football? I got and I never playing football.
Speaker 1: It's crazy. I play football too. Back off in safety
Speaker 1: on defense where I played in high school and college,
Speaker 1: I mean, not like professional and you know I played
Speaker 1: the Inner Murals. Yeah, so you're an athlete. It's putting
Speaker 1: hands on you out here, just just tackling people. No back,
Speaker 1: Yeah you're gone. Okay, I respect new rispect to another place. Yeah,
Speaker 1: back and back and safe and say that means she
Speaker 1: liked to hear people tap m yeah, click click, last
Speaker 1: resort you know, yeah, Okay, So what does it ever
Speaker 1: come to you? Do you ever? Do you ever sing
Speaker 1: the lyric? Or does he prompt you like what happened?
Speaker 1: Let's get off of my stuper because yours is way better.
Speaker 1: You go from this amazing moment takes six Stevie comes
Speaker 1: in now friendship and and then I don't hear. Then
Speaker 1: I don't hear from them for years, from Stevie, from
Speaker 1: Steve for years. And that's I always tell people, like
Speaker 1: you don't reach Stevie, Stevie reaches you. And it wasn't
Speaker 1: until I did, uh when Whitney passed, God rest her soul,
Speaker 1: and I did. I literally was just at this one
Speaker 1: of my dearest friends, Tony Shepard, I was at his
Speaker 1: house and I was just at the keyboard and I
Speaker 1: just went through like just some of my favorite songs
Speaker 1: of hers, and it kind of went like semi viral,
Speaker 1: like a lot of people like that where her dancers.
Speaker 1: This is after she passed. Her dancers, singers, best friends, family,
Speaker 1: they all reached out to me, and even her daughter
Speaker 1: reached out Bobby Christina May. She also rest in peace,
Speaker 1: and she was like, when I hear you sing, I
Speaker 1: feel my mom's spirit with me and if my if
Speaker 1: my mom was here, she would be so proud of you.
Speaker 1: So somebody sent Stevie that and he they were like,
Speaker 1: there's a there's this girl. She's like singing. Her name
Speaker 1: is she Sho. He's like Chaliah. They're like, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's it. So he calls me, and then after that
Speaker 1: we just stayed connected, but you know, going through different lives.
Speaker 1: He I think he was going through a divorce at
Speaker 1: that time, you know, just different life, which I just
Speaker 1: didn't hear from him for a couple of years. I
Speaker 1: went through it afore, you know what I mean. So
Speaker 1: I had to also learn to be very specific. I
Speaker 1: remember Stevie asked me, he said, what do you want
Speaker 1: me to do for you? Wow? And because I was
Speaker 1: so afraid of coming off, how do you answer that?
Speaker 1: Thank you for saying that? How do you answer that?
Speaker 1: Because I didn't Hey, I didn't know how to answer that,
Speaker 1: and be I didn't want to come across like so okay,
Speaker 1: I need you to do this, this, this, this, and that.
Speaker 1: I was just like, I just want you to just
Speaker 1: you know, keep loving me. The way you do and
Speaker 1: what I'm what I've learned now since then, guys need
Speaker 1: you to be a little bit more direct and specific.
Speaker 1: That was that was That wasn't That was weird. That
Speaker 1: was a weird. But I didn't know what else to say.
Speaker 1: I just because I didn't want to come across like
Speaker 1: what you just said to me? Because he just asked,
Speaker 1: he asked it, very very direct, what do you want
Speaker 1: me to do for you? And you know, I think
Speaker 1: when I look back at some pivotal moments in my career,
Speaker 1: I'm very happy with where I am right now, but
Speaker 1: I know a lot of people would have asked me
Speaker 1: many times like I just don't understand why you're not
Speaker 1: a household name or or this or that. I don't
Speaker 1: know if it's because I answered Stevie that way, but
Speaker 1: you know, I think sometimes in the past it might
Speaker 1: have been a mindset that it was coming across, like
Speaker 1: maybe perhaps I wasn't hungry enough, but I was, But
Speaker 1: I just was doing it my way. And I still
Speaker 1: feel confident in the way that I've done things. Um,
Speaker 1: but I do look at right and left terms and
Speaker 1: wonder if if I was a little bit more direct,
Speaker 1: if that would have made a difference. Who knows. I mean,
Speaker 1: the question I asked myself most is are you enjoying
Speaker 1: what you're doing right now? And very yourself? Okay, so
Speaker 1: before we get to yeah, I'll be seeing you on stage. Yeah,
Speaker 1: who started off as just a session player. That's just
Speaker 1: David Foster had a cable car at his house. A
Speaker 1: cable car. Yeah, you know what that is? Absolutely so
Speaker 1: obviously in San Francisco we have cable cars that will
Speaker 1: take you from down the hill all the way up
Speaker 1: the hill, and we're kind of known for that in
Speaker 1: sanc went at his house. He just sounds malible one. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it'll take it would take you from the grounds to
Speaker 1: the house. I was I wasn't. I wasn't there during
Speaker 1: that area that I need to know how that I'm
Speaker 1: sure he can still know what it's like. It's like
Speaker 1: he's kind of like my north Star. He and Ricky
Speaker 1: Minor are kind of like Ricky Ricky Minor are like
Speaker 1: kind of like my Norse. So so I meet Stevie
Speaker 1: through takes It. I meet Ricky Minor through Stevie. Wonder
Speaker 1: because he was m dying the show. He would always
Speaker 1: empty all Stevie's Um housepel of Toy Show. Then I
Speaker 1: meet Quincy Jones through Rickey Minor because he's doing some event,
Speaker 1: and then me and q just hit off. I know,
Speaker 1: I'm like going all over the place, but it's just
Speaker 1: but that's like kind of like the branching out, like
Speaker 1: that's how. And so then I met David Foster because
Speaker 1: David and Stevie were um doing a record together that
Speaker 1: probably won't see the life day, but it was such
Speaker 1: a great record. It was like with the London Philmonic Orchestra,
Speaker 1: like his his songs with the orchestra and um and
Speaker 1: so I I sang um as I was I was.
Speaker 1: Stevie brought me into to do that and so and
Speaker 1: it's crazy he changed it to sixth eight. No, like
Speaker 1: they just it. It was cold. It was amazing. I
Speaker 1: mean I just actually just you know, she starts speaking
Speaker 1: in language. She went to, we have a lot of
Speaker 1: discussions in this whole R and B thing about you know,
Speaker 1: the gifts, you know, who can who can't? Can they
Speaker 1: really this that together? And then someone like yourself comes
Speaker 1: on here without saying it, it just fully stamps like okay,
Speaker 1: I'm different. Continue if I got to say it then
Speaker 1: I already lost you know, you gotta you gotta know
Speaker 1: it for yourself, you know, but damn, like it's it's
Speaker 1: just incredible. So anyway that they were working on that question.
Speaker 1: So that's how I met David, and I will never forget.
Speaker 1: It was like one two in the morning and David
Speaker 1: was on as well. You know how David gets when
Speaker 1: he's about to leave somewhere, it's like you know, and
Speaker 1: Steve was like, yeah, I wanted to sing something four
Speaker 1: He's like, hey, well, just just a verse in a chorus.
Speaker 1: This is Davidster. Just a verse of the chorus. I'm
Speaker 1: about to go. So I go to the piano, played
Speaker 1: some song and he was like, okay, very nice. I
Speaker 1: remember I called my Dad's like, Dad, I just met David,
Speaker 1: but I don't think I made an impact. And he's like, no,
Speaker 1: he made it back. I was like no, Dad, he
Speaker 1: was just kind of like shrugged me off, like okay, nice.
Speaker 1: That was cute. That was nice. Ah, that's what you
Speaker 1: said about maybe seven six seven months later, that's when
Speaker 1: he called me. And that was at the first event
Speaker 1: I did with him, and we had been we've been
Speaker 1: touring together for years now. You know, he was on
Speaker 1: my PBS special, I was on his Quincy Jones presentially
Speaker 1: what you know what this is how I know she's
Speaker 1: been hanging around all these high levels because this is
Speaker 1: what they do. It's just it's just it doesn't you know. Yea.
Speaker 1: I will never forget meeting with David Foston and realizing
Speaker 1: that he was using a Grammy as a paperweight. Well
Speaker 1: he's got sixteen of them, so he was using it
Speaker 1: as a paper don't fly away. Yeah, I'm serious. Put
Speaker 1: this somewhere with some lights on it. Oh no, trust
Speaker 1: he's got he's got He's got all sixteen, all of
Speaker 1: them all stacked up. But this day randomly, I don't know,
Speaker 1: but it's literally, yeah, that's David for you. I love him.
Speaker 1: And you know, just recently he you know, we we
Speaker 1: had this conversation and he's like, I just see, you know,
Speaker 1: your star rising. And because now it started getting a
Speaker 1: little you know how it is with promoters to start
Speaker 1: getting a little awkward. Because I was literally performing at
Speaker 1: the same venues that I was doing with him, David
Speaker 1: Foster and friends. So it was just like it started
Speaker 1: getting weird, you know, and so it just meant that
Speaker 1: it was just I needed to graduate. It was time
Speaker 1: to graduate, and so we just all love and he
Speaker 1: you know, he and Cat are doing their Dave and
Speaker 1: Cat show, and that's I saw that. I saw the
Speaker 1: problem for that when I was in Vega. Yeah. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I was like, yeah, I have to I'm now headlining
Speaker 1: my own show. So's it's it's just not working, you know,
Speaker 1: not in a negative way. Yeah, yeah, right, Okay, Clark sisters,
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, let's get into it. Come on, yeah, I
Speaker 1: want I want first phone call or Clark sisters, give me,
Speaker 1: give me the whole thing. Well, first of all, I
Speaker 1: didn't see myself as an actress, you know, at all.
Speaker 1: So you hadn't done any acting before. Okay, I will
Speaker 1: say this. I was I was. Um. I had a
Speaker 1: small role in this actually very big movie was called
Speaker 1: All the Way, and um it started Anthony Mackie and
Speaker 1: he was he was Martin Luther King and Lyndon B.
Speaker 1: Johnson was Brian Cranston. Actually eight Emmy nominations and all that.
Speaker 1: But I just had like a little small role where
Speaker 1: I was like singing live. I was singing live though,
Speaker 1: so I was singing, so I kind of looked back
Speaker 1: at that moment like that was kind of like foreshadow
Speaker 1: and kind of preparing me for it because like, you
Speaker 1: know how it is, you absolutely know, I see, you
Speaker 1: know how it is with all these different takes and stuff,
Speaker 1: so you know, over and over all these different angles.
Speaker 1: So I was singing live, so I had to sing
Speaker 1: live every single time, you know. So that was that
Speaker 1: was cool. So that was like a small little role.
Speaker 1: But again I didn't see myself as like, you know,
Speaker 1: being really part of an ensemble cast. And so Christine
Speaker 1: Swanson who was the director UM, she and I were
Speaker 1: working on a completely different project just musically, and I
Speaker 1: remember she came and she told me it's like I
Speaker 1: just got signed on to direct UM the Clerk Sisters,
Speaker 1: First Ladies of Gospel and UM at that time, well
Speaker 1: it was called You Brought the Sunshine, and it wasn't
Speaker 1: it was that's what it was called. And she was like,
Speaker 1: you know, I can't make you any promises, but I
Speaker 1: think you should just put your name in the hat
Speaker 1: for it, like you know, try to you know, put
Speaker 1: a self tape and and submit it. So I was like,
Speaker 1: really you think, So I feel like that's that's like
Speaker 1: a that's a big role. That's a you know, I
Speaker 1: don't know, you started thinking of all the other people
Speaker 1: that could play it instead, who looked more like her,
Speaker 1: you know, just all of that, and um, she said,
Speaker 1: just just do it, just do it. So I did it,
Speaker 1: and they it wasn't a no, but it wasn't a
Speaker 1: yes either, you know. So I keep working. I keep working,
Speaker 1: I keep working, and I work with um Josie Josie Harris.
Speaker 1: She's a great acting coach. And I remember I was
Speaker 1: actually on on tour with Dave Kaz at the time,
Speaker 1: and by the on a side note, twenty seven shows
Speaker 1: in thirty days. Yeah, seven shows in thirty days cruise. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but but but not it wasn't it was insane. And
Speaker 1: so I remember one of the days I was just
Speaker 1: so tryed. We were on our way to San Antonio
Speaker 1: and that was going to be like one of the
Speaker 1: days off, and Christine is like, I think you should
Speaker 1: come to Detroit and just meet Karen, meet Kiara, you know,
Speaker 1: just fill it out, you know, and I was just
Speaker 1: like damn, like I'm so. I was just like when
Speaker 1: you just have nothing, like just just fubes. So I
Speaker 1: make my little ticket, used little my little miles, pay
Speaker 1: for my way to get there, get my little hotel,
Speaker 1: and I meet with him. I go to their church
Speaker 1: and I meet here and we go to the piano
Speaker 1: and I don't even know how anything literally came out,
Speaker 1: but we start. I start playing you Brought the Sunshine
Speaker 1: or no Miracle? I'm looking for miracle and we do
Speaker 1: this duet and so Christine sends it to the producers
Speaker 1: and they're like that that's care, that that's Karen, and
Speaker 1: that's Derenda. So that's what says. So I tell people,
Speaker 1: just on a side note, like you want everybody to
Speaker 1: invest in you, you want people to take chances on you,
Speaker 1: you have to bet on yourself first before anybody else,
Speaker 1: will you know? Yeah, yeah, because I didn't have the
Speaker 1: role then at all. You know, it wasn't a no,
Speaker 1: but they weren't. I was, you know, I was really green.
Speaker 1: So that's when really the work began. And I worked
Speaker 1: my ass off, like you know, working with Josie, you know,
Speaker 1: a couple of times a week for months, and by
Speaker 1: the time they yelled action, it was more ready in
Speaker 1: that moment that I've ever been for anything in my life.
Speaker 1: Do you feel like the acting helped you as far
Speaker 1: as being a performer as well, just your live performance
Speaker 1: and just preparation, because obviously acting is a whole another
Speaker 1: level of study. It's a different muscle. But Tank, I'm
Speaker 1: sure you can back me up on it. It comes
Speaker 1: from the same place because it's just storytelling and that's
Speaker 1: what really helps happening into his acting. First of all,
Speaker 1: I'm on TV one here, I'm not going to look
Speaker 1: at this guy. They they just called me and give
Speaker 1: me Roy. You know what I'm saying, I Tank, those
Speaker 1: those movies that they give you the funny haircuts in
Speaker 1: so down here, down there at the eyebrow, So what
Speaker 1: I enjoy? Crap? Aren't you having a good time here?
Speaker 1: I already knew what time it was with you guys,
Speaker 1: so so yeah. I mean it literally is she said
Speaker 1: when you sing, she said, you tell a story. And
Speaker 1: that's why it's like for me, this is another little
Speaker 1: site note Like I don't want somebody to say, damn girl,
Speaker 1: you you you really can sing. I want them to
Speaker 1: say I felt something. You made me sad, you made
Speaker 1: me hopeful, You made huge difference, And there's there's a
Speaker 1: there's a huge difference between being impressive and impactful. A
Speaker 1: lot of people want to be impressive. You know, I
Speaker 1: can do this run, I can sing this note, I
Speaker 1: can do that, but it's not impactful. You're you're not
Speaker 1: tapped into the story. There's no truth there. And so
Speaker 1: that's one thing that I've always felt is what has
Speaker 1: made me different is that people will always feel and
Speaker 1: hear the truth in whatever genre I'm singing. And so
Speaker 1: once I was able to just transfer that to acting,
Speaker 1: it was like, all you're doing is just telling the
Speaker 1: truth whatever is truthful to you in that moment. So
Speaker 1: she said the first thing, she says, this story isn't
Speaker 1: about Dorenda. This is a story about Chilia. You know,
Speaker 1: you have to find, you have to find, you have
Speaker 1: to find you in Dorinda. And so you know, it
Speaker 1: was actually very easy to find myself because we have
Speaker 1: very similar life experiences, blended family, you know, being raised
Speaker 1: in the church, um, you know, just all of those dynamics,
Speaker 1: and so it was very easy for me to be
Speaker 1: truthful in that that moment. But I think, you know,
Speaker 1: the wind was so many people that know her will.
Speaker 1: They were like, I literally felt like I was looking
Speaker 1: at Dorenda and I know her will and they're like,
Speaker 1: but you literally became Dorenda did amazing, thank you, thank
Speaker 1: you we got and then vocally that's a whole other thing.
Speaker 1: It's like one thing to have her essence, but then
Speaker 1: her voice is so specific. She's she you know, she
Speaker 1: there's clarity, but then there's rasp. You know, she almost
Speaker 1: sings like a horn player. And their style of run
Speaker 1: it's jazzy, but then it's but it's it's very unique.
Speaker 1: It's very unique. Her choices are are very very specific. Yeah. Well,
Speaker 1: here in the R Money podcast, we want to we
Speaker 1: want to get into your R and B mind. Want
Speaker 1: to ask questions. Okay, all right, um, top five R
Speaker 1: and B artists we need, we need. Don't be political.
Speaker 1: I know there's everybody doing they're offering. Some people just
Speaker 1: have a gift that strikes you different than that's true.
Speaker 1: And see, and I think that all the people that
Speaker 1: I really love you wouldn't necessarily say can you be
Speaker 1: more specific? I mean I think R and B is
Speaker 1: best I know, but like rmby now or like R
Speaker 1: and B in THEE forever, what connects with you? Like
Speaker 1: it's Stevie R and By, you know, And I'm just
Speaker 1: saying He's everything, the Godfather. But do you feel like
Speaker 1: it starts in R and B? You feel like it
Speaker 1: starts Okay, absolutely, Okay, you feel Stevie, but you you
Speaker 1: feel country artists, you feel you know, but there's a
Speaker 1: different place. It is a different place. R and B
Speaker 1: is a different Do you do you feel like Stevie
Speaker 1: sings his gospel songs differently? Let me ask you this
Speaker 1: as a whole other question really quick. Do you feel
Speaker 1: like you sing gospel songs differently than you sing R
Speaker 1: and B songs? Like is there a there a conviction
Speaker 1: that you have when you sing gospel that you know? Well?
Speaker 1: I mean every I think every song is different based
Speaker 1: on the message, right, So I think the texture um,
Speaker 1: the texture and tone it definitely has to match the moment.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying. So I'm definitely not gonna
Speaker 1: sing um when we the same as I sing Jesus
Speaker 1: is the answer, right? You know what I'm saying. There
Speaker 1: is there is a difference they're in delivery, yeah, you
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying. And even where your mind is
Speaker 1: when you're right right, when you're in that place. So
Speaker 1: U But then like Whitney, who she would like she
Speaker 1: would put oh, like in a dance something. You know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying, just anywhere, so just drop that off.
Speaker 1: It's very disrespectful, very rude. It's really really perfect, really perfect,
Speaker 1: really rude. But whatever she disrespected then punched by a
Speaker 1: Vocal Gifts podcast punch. I just wanted to just show
Speaker 1: the illustration. But I you know, I say say, because
Speaker 1: I question five, it has to be Stevie and to
Speaker 1: me it also has to be a Retha side note.
Speaker 1: I'm going to be making my Royal Albert debut in
Speaker 1: London UM next month, doing a tribute to read the
Speaker 1: Franklin with a full orchestra. And we wanted you here
Speaker 1: because because this is this is you are necessary, right
Speaker 1: and and and and the young girls growing up there
Speaker 1: has to be a bar. There has to be a
Speaker 1: level because what we grew up on, what we all
Speaker 1: grew up on, there were bars, and those bars were mainstream,
Speaker 1: yes they were. And now those bars for us or
Speaker 1: for the coming up generation aren't so mainstream. They have
Speaker 1: to look that's true for that for those inspirations. And
Speaker 1: so you're necessary because you're such a gift and such
Speaker 1: an inspiration that needs major platform display, major you just
Speaker 1: you deserve it, so that these young ladies coming up
Speaker 1: who want to be anything. I'm not even gonna limit
Speaker 1: it to singing or right or who want to be anything,
Speaker 1: can see that in you, because you know, keep going
Speaker 1: Franklin Orchestra next month, next month. It's been sold out
Speaker 1: for months now. I already don't don't don't play me
Speaker 1: on this and be like okay, she she like, how
Speaker 1: you guys do the name drop? They told me to
Speaker 1: say everything. Okay, don't, don't, don't even do. They're like,
Speaker 1: I do you want to tell him everything? Yeah? Okay,
Speaker 1: I don't even told you everything. Read the Franklin. Okay,
Speaker 1: this is R and B, R and B of all
Speaker 1: time for you for me from me. Mm hmm. I know.
Speaker 1: I want to say Marvin Gay because there's so much
Speaker 1: deep storytelling the day. Look look at him trying to
Speaker 1: try to get a part. I'll try to get the part.
Speaker 1: I could see that, okay, Marvin God, this is so
Speaker 1: hard because like all these names are like flashing before
Speaker 1: my eyes. You know, Anita Baker, I remember, I remember
Speaker 1: the first time I heard her record because I growing
Speaker 1: up I could only listen to gospel music, so I
Speaker 1: remember I was with my aunt in Lane this came on.
Speaker 1: I was like, what is this? Like, what is this? Yes?
Speaker 1: And how old were you at this point when the
Speaker 1: first time you heard like secular music in a sense, Well,
Speaker 1: what's the craziest? I would we would listen to Stevie though.
Speaker 1: It was almost like Stevie and Whitney, like if they
Speaker 1: were on TV, like we would watch that. But it
Speaker 1: just wasn't like I don't, I didn't. I had to
Speaker 1: play catch up. I had to play catch up later
Speaker 1: on um. So yeah, four. Therefore, I would give a deal.
Speaker 1: Imagine that people that can't sing and then Whitney, why
Speaker 1: that's a great? Really, that's not just good, that's a
Speaker 1: great because there's everyone you know this in my opinion,
Speaker 1: they don't have any holes in their game. Everybody that
Speaker 1: you name is legit. They can perform live, Yes, have
Speaker 1: great songs, Like the artistry was amazing, Like that's special. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's special. There's were quick though, because I want you
Speaker 1: to get your five first. I wanted to point out
Speaker 1: because you spoke about going over to London selling out shows,
Speaker 1: you know, starting off with David Foster and then being
Speaker 1: able to do the same venues that he does. I
Speaker 1: want to point out that that is of pure gift
Speaker 1: and hard work more so than any kind of backing
Speaker 1: or any kind of I caught some random song that
Speaker 1: you know, blew up on TikTok are just caught a
Speaker 1: wave on a radio like Because the other thing that
Speaker 1: happens in our business is people think that there's only
Speaker 1: one way to be successful or to have a career
Speaker 1: in music, and you are the prime example that you
Speaker 1: can be very successful going the route that you want
Speaker 1: to go and taking the steps that you needed to
Speaker 1: take for your career and how you want to see
Speaker 1: your career. Because on the flip side of that, there
Speaker 1: are artists who have had massive songs one too, maybe
Speaker 1: a couple of few records that can't fill out a
Speaker 1: hunted seater, two seaters, they can't go to London, they're
Speaker 1: not going to be before warming in these special places,
Speaker 1: and that just there needs to be a light on
Speaker 1: that as well, because I think a lot of artists
Speaker 1: get discouraged that if they don't have this type of
Speaker 1: record that takes them somewhere, they'll never have a career.
Speaker 1: And that's not the case at all. And you're to me,
Speaker 1: your prime example of that because you're not chasing a record,
Speaker 1: you're out here having a career, right, Thank you for
Speaker 1: saying that. Yeah, very different and and just and it
Speaker 1: should be applauded and it should and like Tank said,
Speaker 1: there needs to be platforms that shine the light on that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: hopefully we're hopefully we're one of them. Absolutely not. I
Speaker 1: think you absolutely are. And you know, thank you for
Speaker 1: saying that, because yeah, it's like the Frank's Not song,
Speaker 1: just part of my head I did in my way,
Speaker 1: you know, And I tell people all the time, like,
Speaker 1: figure out what success looks like and feels more more
Speaker 1: importantly feels like to you because as you said, we
Speaker 1: can look at a lot of people's careers that it
Speaker 1: looks very successful. Um. And it might even be successful
Speaker 1: if you're looking at numbers. Um. But but how does
Speaker 1: it feel? You know? I I still feel like that
Speaker 1: two year old when I first you know, watching Mr Rogers,
Speaker 1: I want to totally age myself. But watching Mr Rogers,
Speaker 1: I'm thinking, who then is playing the piano? Who was
Speaker 1: Mr Rogers? Yes, I was out it was Mr Rogers movie.
Speaker 1: It was actually Mr Rogers. I heard somebody fact checked
Speaker 1: me on that. But I'm pretty sure, but I still
Speaker 1: that same kind of childlike love of for just what
Speaker 1: I do. I still feel that way, and I'm grateful
Speaker 1: for that that after all these years. Yes, do I
Speaker 1: experience moments of frustration and disappointment. Absolutely, you know, even
Speaker 1: if I wasn't doing music, we I would feel that
Speaker 1: at some point. Um. But I love what I do
Speaker 1: and I've been able to find out what my why is,
Speaker 1: and it really is to touch people's hearts through music.
Speaker 1: And so when I get somebody DM me and say
Speaker 1: you know your song, you are enough. I listened to
Speaker 1: that every morning before I go to work. I play
Speaker 1: it for my kids. Some people even said I wanted
Speaker 1: to end my life, but I had that own repeat
Speaker 1: and literally I decided not to. That's the way, That's
Speaker 1: that's my Grammy, that's that's you know, that's my awards.
Speaker 1: You know. Do I want those things one day, Absolutely,
Speaker 1: But that's not the pour of the why. And so
Speaker 1: I think for that reason, I've been able to stay
Speaker 1: true to what I do and and not be wavered
Speaker 1: by any trend because I really love what I'm doing
Speaker 1: right now. I've been able to find like just the
Speaker 1: core of where that joy comes from. And that's something
Speaker 1: that honestly that that is the highest level of success
Speaker 1: to me, UM is to be able to do that,
Speaker 1: and particularly words I'm sick of you, I'm sick of you, okay,
Speaker 1: premaity sick of me O top five R and B
Speaker 1: songs or R and B albums you can mix it
Speaker 1: okay off the top. I already know, like I Want
Speaker 1: you that album Marvin Gaye, I Want You like to me,
Speaker 1: there's literally no skin it's it's such a beautiful body
Speaker 1: of work. Um. In that same in that same vein,
Speaker 1: I would have to say Maxwell, the first one Urban
Speaker 1: Hank sweet to me, there's something so just connected about it. Um.
Speaker 1: And then of course let's go back to Stevie and I.
Speaker 1: It's either between Talking Book. Let's see there's okay, there's
Speaker 1: this one album right before Talking Book. It he wasn't
Speaker 1: it was like you could you started hearing him really
Speaker 1: become Stevie. It wasn't that motown sound. And it's an
Speaker 1: album called where I'm Coming From And that's to me
Speaker 1: when he really started like going deep. And that's when
Speaker 1: Talking Book was right after that. So I always like
Speaker 1: that was like the pre Talking Book. UM, so I'm gonna,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna, I'm gonna go out on a limb and
Speaker 1: put that one because I feel like it was an
Speaker 1: important album for his development. So where I'm coming from,
Speaker 1: I don't know. It's top. I'm just trying to be
Speaker 1: exotic with choices. Um. Okay, let's get some girls in there.
Speaker 1: Let's see what's like that, like no skips. I don't
Speaker 1: know why this one just came to me. Jill Scott
Speaker 1: like that first album was just like it was just
Speaker 1: it was so cohesive, you know, and I remember like
Speaker 1: where I was, Like I always like look at records, like,
Speaker 1: you know, do you remember where you were like in
Speaker 1: during that time? Like I can see it. I can
Speaker 1: so that, I would say, Jill, which I'm sure these
Speaker 1: are like so not what people would expect me to choose. Um,
Speaker 1: and then let's get some que in there. But that
Speaker 1: was actually the jazz time. So no, it's okay, let's
Speaker 1: see I'm talking about like his earlier earlier stuff like
Speaker 1: Quintessential with that's jazz. Um, let's see did you join? Yeah?
Speaker 1: But I don't know if if that's like my favor
Speaker 1: but I do love that record that has set timber
Speaker 1: on that. That's Moodies moved for love Brian and um, yeah, God,
Speaker 1: I hate this because it really creates anxiety. I don't
Speaker 1: want to like miss somebody. Okay, who are my top five?
Speaker 1: I said, Whitney, Yeah, Anita Baker, Marvin Gay, Stevie and
Speaker 1: read the Franklin Franklin mhm. Okay, I'm not gonna I'm
Speaker 1: just gonna say this one because I just feel like
Speaker 1: I should say and I do remember where I was.
Speaker 1: Carl Thomas, Wow, I love Summarine. I mean that was
Speaker 1: a very deep I wish all of those I meant
Speaker 1: your body. I mean, I feel like that's a very
Speaker 1: shout out to Carl talk. I wanted to do it
Speaker 1: for that reason too, you know what I mean? That
Speaker 1: is my guy. That is my guy. Yeah, I feel
Speaker 1: like I should have. I feel like I wanted to
Speaker 1: like shout that out. Okay, here we're going on R
Speaker 1: and B Voltron. You're taking a vocal m Um, how
Speaker 1: are we breaking down jay a vocal vocal performance style? Yeah?
Speaker 1: If you're if you're putting together the perfect R and
Speaker 1: B artists, who do you take the vocal from? Who
Speaker 1: do you take the style from? Who do you take
Speaker 1: the performance from and put it all together and a
Speaker 1: performance and damn, dance moves can be different, right because
Speaker 1: Rick James a great performer to Michael Jackson, dance different,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. Like, so it's like that's
Speaker 1: a difference in performance too. You know, are how Mary
Speaker 1: J Blige she get up there? Yeah? Yeah, but then
Speaker 1: the cranky Baverly ain't doing no dance moves but he performing,
Speaker 1: So yeah, these are okay. So the vocals I would
Speaker 1: take from and this is all R and B. I'm
Speaker 1: just gonna I'm just gonna say, Stevie, because only you
Speaker 1: guys are like you, We don't need your explanations. But
Speaker 1: I'm saying it's the impact because when I would tour
Speaker 1: with him, I actually didn't mention this, but I toured
Speaker 1: with him for a couple of years. We did. When
Speaker 1: he did the songs in the Key of Life tour,
Speaker 1: he lost one of his uh singers. They had, you know,
Speaker 1: some health issues. So I stepped in and he was like,
Speaker 1: I know, this is not what you do. I was
Speaker 1: actually working on the album. He was like, but can
Speaker 1: you just come with me, just help me finish this tour.
Speaker 1: And so just watching him every night. I mean the
Speaker 1: show would start with like loves and Need and then
Speaker 1: he would literally do the whole album and track order
Speaker 1: everything all the way too. Yeah, another star, So hearing
Speaker 1: that every night, all of the nuances vocally that he
Speaker 1: would have to do Summer solved all those key changes
Speaker 1: and she's gone. You remember, it keeps going up, and
Speaker 1: so I just feel like the vocal has to start
Speaker 1: fair because it's it's just so pure and it's so
Speaker 1: you know, it's such a universe her soul sound. I
Speaker 1: haven't heard anybody who really can replicate that. Nobody's else.
Speaker 1: It's the light, it's but it's not even it's not
Speaker 1: because if you look, he doesn't really do a lot
Speaker 1: of runs all the time, like he can't. It's not.
Speaker 1: He's done that more in later years. It's not run,
Speaker 1: it's it's the technique and how he attacks skip a note,
Speaker 1: like just really real. It's subtle. Everything is real, subtle,
Speaker 1: but it's still very difficult if you don't know placement
Speaker 1: and know how to know where to put those little skips. Technician,
Speaker 1: it's not easy. But he but he doesn't effortlessly. It
Speaker 1: doesn't because he's not thinking. He's just he's just being
Speaker 1: step Wonder is a style. He's a vocal Yes, yes,
Speaker 1: it's his absolutely, which is where you get stokely, where
Speaker 1: you get then I come along and follow Brian and
Speaker 1: all them that that. Yes, yeah, you don't have to
Speaker 1: explain Steve get I know I don't have, but I
Speaker 1: just I just wanted to because to me, when you
Speaker 1: were look in that audience and you would literally see
Speaker 1: just the world, you know what I mean, like that
Speaker 1: he's not he doesn't belong to any race. You know,
Speaker 1: everybody feels like he's there. Yes, yes, those barriers him
Speaker 1: putting a lines literally saying directly, like speaking directly to
Speaker 1: the issues at hand. I mean I was at a
Speaker 1: show where he was like, yes, yes, all lives matter, yes,
Speaker 1: but right now black folks lives are in danger. So
Speaker 1: that's why we have to say black lives matter. And
Speaker 1: all y'all in here are black, so it should matter
Speaker 1: to you. And nobody said nothing because Stevie said it.
Speaker 1: You know, all y'all got a little black in you,
Speaker 1: so it should matter to you. So that that's who
Speaker 1: he is, and that's to me, his voice has attracted
Speaker 1: literally every person from every walk of life. So That's
Speaker 1: why I would start with the core voice being him
Speaker 1: vocal steviemance performance meaning like just how hard they go pormance. Yeah,
Speaker 1: would you take and put in in your R and
Speaker 1: B artists, whether it be it doesn't matter whether they
Speaker 1: dance or don't dance, doesn't matter. You pick the performance. Stop. Okay,
Speaker 1: this is gonna sound really weird, but there is something
Speaker 1: so magnetic and sensual and connected about Shot. The way
Speaker 1: that she particulates or the way she performs exists, the
Speaker 1: way but where she performed, it's like it's it's something.
Speaker 1: It's just so it's mesmerizing. Can you imagine, Like I
Speaker 1: know it's aware commendations. Stevie was like moving or like
Speaker 1: but like that's bomb. I'm roll is just with whose style?
Speaker 1: Who style? Style? Like what they look like? They're sweat
Speaker 1: like the energy, So maybe I should have what they
Speaker 1: wear like Yeah, I would say Leah only because it's
Speaker 1: complimentary to like the thing, you know what I mean?
Speaker 1: Very so yeah, yeah, great style. I mean so many
Speaker 1: girls who followed that look and absolutely yeah wow yeah
Speaker 1: she's hot right like that artist that R and B
Speaker 1: artist has that the level of Stevie with like the
Speaker 1: sensuality and connectedness of shade got the swag like Leah,
Speaker 1: I sign it. Sure, that's so, that's so not probably
Speaker 1: what I would have thought going into it, but that's
Speaker 1: just what I felt right now. Yeah, what about I
Speaker 1: just want to know really quickly. I'm sure you guys
Speaker 1: have thought about it, like, what would you doing? You're
Speaker 1: not doing it? Curious, Okay, fair enough, fair enough. We
Speaker 1: have a part of the show. It is, we could
Speaker 1: sit it to be a pretty important part of the show. Um,
Speaker 1: it's card. I ain't saying on names. Will you give
Speaker 1: us a story? Funnier fucked up? Are both? And the
Speaker 1: only rule is you can't say the names of the
Speaker 1: people that are in the story. Now, you can give
Speaker 1: hints of who they may be. I mean, because you know,
Speaker 1: you know everyone this is social media. But and it's
Speaker 1: like I said, it's either funnier up or both. And
Speaker 1: the only rule is you can't say their names. Okay,
Speaker 1: you're a musician, you can start off one time a bank.
Speaker 1: It's been a few band camps. I don't know if
Speaker 1: it's a story, like it's not like a long drawn
Speaker 1: out big story. But I was at Picular Studio and uh,
Speaker 1: this particular, another artist walked in. I'm there, I'm just
Speaker 1: chilling and and so this artist walks in and like
Speaker 1: the whole like energy like shifts right. So I just
Speaker 1: immediately like walk out. It's clear that, you know, my
Speaker 1: presence is offending there. So I was told to me
Speaker 1: later on that they were like, um, you know, who's
Speaker 1: the I had like a high butt. Who's the girl
Speaker 1: with the bun in her head? They're like, oh, no,
Speaker 1: she's she's like she's an artist. She's not like just
Speaker 1: some studio ret just chilling around like ittual sing and
Speaker 1: so they heard. So I was actually walking in right
Speaker 1: as that conversation was being had, and um, so they
Speaker 1: tried to complay at all. I just like, oh, I
Speaker 1: heard you're a great singer. I heard you what you
Speaker 1: could sing? You know, so you know, sing something for me.
Speaker 1: Expect to me to be like probably like I what's
Speaker 1: wrong with you? Who's wrong with you? So? So no,
Speaker 1: so I got to it. I gave that bit everything,
Speaker 1: the whole. It just it just changed change. It was
Speaker 1: like yeah, and then it was like all is love.
Speaker 1: It was love, respect, you know, and endless. And I
Speaker 1: get it. It's competitive, it's competitive and energy is energy
Speaker 1: if you don't know, and you like your space a
Speaker 1: certain way, just like who is this who is this girl?
Speaker 1: To be here right here? I'm saying I need to
Speaker 1: know we are not saying. Um. First of all, you
Speaker 1: are absolutely amazing, um, from head to toe, spirit, everything
Speaker 1: about you. Man. I just you know, we've we've always
Speaker 1: been in awe of you, and we will continue to
Speaker 1: be and prayerfully our platform will give others an opportunity
Speaker 1: to be in that same awe. Thank you, that is
Speaker 1: the goal. UM. We give you nothing but flowers. Thank
Speaker 1: you for um you you had a beverage um, um
Speaker 1: those other things having a beverage with us, um, and
Speaker 1: thank you actually really like it too. Just giving us
Speaker 1: a moment um of your time, telling us your story, um,
Speaker 1: and sharing yourself with the world. You're awesome you and
Speaker 1: I just have to say, just for what you guys
Speaker 1: are doing, just for the culture, just for just the
Speaker 1: integrity of music, specifically R and B music, thank you.
Speaker 1: Thank you for what you're doing, and for just being
Speaker 1: such a light in my life. You know, you guys
Speaker 1: don't realize just how nurturing you were to me in
Speaker 1: those years, you know, those earlier years and and even now,
Speaker 1: just just your words of encouragement means something so so
Speaker 1: deep to me. So thank you for just being who
Speaker 1: you guys are. And I I want to see this
Speaker 1: go just as high as it can go, because you
Speaker 1: guys got something really special and I love your chemistry.
Speaker 1: You know, I love being here. And I saw it
Speaker 1: when I was just looking at clips just as well.
Speaker 1: I was like, what am I getting myself into? I
Speaker 1: was like, Oh, this is gonna be a good time.
Speaker 1: But I've already loved you guys individually went together. You
Speaker 1: guys have something really You are you are you are,
Speaker 1: So thank you for giving me this moment just to
Speaker 1: just share space with you, ladies and gentlemen. Valentine R
Speaker 1: and B Money is the production of the Black Effect
Speaker 1: podcast Network. For more podcasts from I Heart Radio, visit
Speaker 1: the R Heart Radio, Apple Apple Podcast, or wherever you're
Speaker 1: listen to your favorite shows. Don't forget to subscribe to
Speaker 1: and rate our show, and you can connect with us
Speaker 1: on social media via at R and B Money podcast
Speaker 1: or at the Real Tank or at j Valentine H