Speaker 1: Welcome to Checking In with Michelle Williams, a production of
Speaker 1: iHeartRadio and The Black Effect.
Speaker 2: Coming up on Checking In with Michelle Williams. Listen, I
Speaker 2: tell y'all all about delays and diversions, Whoever brings you
Speaker 2: the most peace gets the most time, and Cowboy Carder
Speaker 2: coming up next on an all new episode of Checking In.
Speaker 2: Hey there, welcome to Checking In with Michelle Williams. Y'all.
Speaker 2: I sometimes dislike saying the title checking in with Michelle Williams, because, like,
Speaker 2: I'm Michelle, why can't I just say checking In? So
Speaker 2: let me start that over, y'all. Welcome to another amazing
Speaker 2: episode of Checking In. We are wow to the second
Speaker 2: month of Checking In. I was blessed to have some
Speaker 2: amazing guests starting off this season, Raquel Hopkins, Deval and
Speaker 2: Kadeen Like who are just absolutely incredible. This week, it's
Speaker 2: just me again. I've got a few things to talk about,
Speaker 2: a few things to share. And discovering that throughout the years,
Speaker 2: you guys really enjoy my solo episodes. You also enjoy
Speaker 2: those that that I have with guests. But it was
Speaker 2: shocking that also the number of people who download the
Speaker 2: solo episodes like, I was thinking that people really want
Speaker 2: to sit for about thirty minutes and listen to what
Speaker 2: I have to say versus dialogue with other guests. I
Speaker 2: thought that that would be incredible to share my platform
Speaker 2: with guests who I admire. But according to the Black Effect,
Speaker 2: y'all like my solo episodes as well. So we're gonna
Speaker 2: get right to it. I hope y'all have had an
Speaker 2: amazing week we have had. We're coming off of the
Speaker 2: fourth of July. I don't know if it was a
Speaker 2: fourth of July for folks. I literally have to read
Speaker 2: this text from my aunt. She is probably in her eighties.
Speaker 2: Matter of fact, she is eighty, and my aunt says
Speaker 2: she said, okay, I'm getting it in real time. My
Speaker 2: aunt texted and said, good afternoon, Happy Independence Day, even
Speaker 2: though your president is keeping it from being happy, have
Speaker 2: a blessed day. I was absolutely losing it because I'll
Speaker 2: never forget there was a time where we were just
Speaker 2: excited about the fourth of July. We were getting our
Speaker 2: are me and you ready? Whose house we going over?
Speaker 2: What time is it gonna start? And all that good stuff.
Speaker 2: But I'm excited because of Juneteenth and what Juneteenth has
Speaker 2: been for us, and I'll never forget Juneteenth. My grandmother,
Speaker 2: years before Juneteenth is what it is today. My grandmother
Speaker 2: taking us to Juneteenth activities and picnics and festivals year
Speaker 2: after year in my hometown of Rockford, Illinois. So shout
Speaker 2: out to Juneteenth and God blessed the fourth of July.
Speaker 2: All right, all right, So the week of fourth of
Speaker 2: July was absolutely bonkers days of traveling. Okay, So let
Speaker 2: me tell y'all. I've been in New York since about
Speaker 2: end of August of twenty twenty four, and you know,
Speaker 2: I knew that I was going to be leaving my
Speaker 2: comfort zone. Okay, what is my comfort zone? My house,
Speaker 2: my plants, my own bed, just my little nook that
Speaker 2: I absolutely enjoy. So I was like, well, New York
Speaker 2: to Atlanta ain't that far. You know, I'll just go
Speaker 2: home like once a month to check on everything, to
Speaker 2: make sure everything's okay, and the busyness of my schedule
Speaker 2: it is a blessing. But I hadn't been able to
Speaker 2: get home back to Atlanta as much as I would
Speaker 2: like to. And then there are times where I could
Speaker 2: have got on a plane to fly home, but I
Speaker 2: was so tired from doing eight shows a week that
Speaker 2: it was just best for me to get my weekly
Speaker 2: massage and go to bed, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2: So this week I said, you know what, let me
Speaker 2: go on home. I want to see what's up at
Speaker 2: my house. I get home, check my plants. One of
Speaker 2: my beautiful plants gone dead. Okay, and they are on
Speaker 2: this cool watering system. But when I opened up the
Speaker 2: water reservoir, it was totally empty, and I was like, well,
Speaker 2: you haven't been home in a while to really check
Speaker 2: on it, and how long did you think this water
Speaker 2: was going to be in this reservoir. It's a self
Speaker 2: watering system. Great, great for folks who are I love
Speaker 2: the self watering system because I have overwatered plants, you know,
Speaker 2: but this particular system, it does the perfect amount of
Speaker 2: watering for plants. Now, I could be going somewhere here
Speaker 2: you can underwater or overwater, and so I just I
Speaker 2: hadn't been home, and so one of my favorite plants. Oh,
Speaker 2: it was gorgeous. It was absolutely gorgeous. It's one of
Speaker 2: the plants where it just continues to grow and just
Speaker 2: kind of like it grows over the table. It's like
Speaker 2: a waterfall. It's beautiful. So I was able to put
Speaker 2: water back in the reservoir, take the dead leaves off,
Speaker 2: and hopefully when I get back, I'll see some buds,
Speaker 2: some more budding. Cool. Get home, and I spend my
Speaker 2: amazing time at home. I'm feeling refreshed. I am feeling rejuvenated.
Speaker 2: I am feeling restored because I was able to sleep
Speaker 2: on my own mattress that I absolutely adore. Miss Tina
Speaker 2: Knowles has always said I probably have said this on
Speaker 2: this podcast at least once. She told us, invest in
Speaker 2: your mattress, especially that's where you're going to be spending
Speaker 2: a lot of hours in the day, So invest in
Speaker 2: your mattress. I'm proud of my mattress. I feel like
Speaker 2: it's amazing. I love my bed. Okay, cool, Anyway, I'm refreshed,
Speaker 2: I'm rejuvenated. I'm able to walk around my own neighborhood,
Speaker 2: gets some sun and just ooh, drive my own vehicle.
Speaker 2: It's the little things that I have been missing. Great.
Speaker 2: I get on a plane to come back here to
Speaker 2: New York, and I flew into Newark, and yes, I
Speaker 2: know about the news of air traffic control and outages,
Speaker 2: but I fly into Newark all the time when I travel,
Speaker 2: and it's been great. Let me tell you why I
Speaker 2: like Newark. It's quiet. The drive from Manhattan into Newark.
Speaker 2: I don't know why I love it better than the
Speaker 2: drive from like where I live here in New York
Speaker 2: to LaGuardia or JFK. I think the drive to La
Speaker 2: Guardian and JFK it just makes me too anxious. The
Speaker 2: drive to Newark, it's just peaceful. The experience to me
Speaker 2: me has been peaceful. We're in the air about to
Speaker 2: land at Newark and the pilot comes on and says, hey,
Speaker 2: we've got to circle a little bit. Those of y'all
Speaker 2: that fly, if you fly frequently, sometimes that happens. Okay,
Speaker 2: you know that when the pilot says we got a circle,
Speaker 2: it ain't ten minutes, sometimes thirty minutes. I don't know.
Speaker 2: So I'm like, okay, cool, We're gonna be fine, y'all.
Speaker 2: He then comes back on the intercom and says, we
Speaker 2: actually have to get some gas, so we're gonna land
Speaker 2: in Norfolk, Virginia. He's like, we're gonna gas up. I'm
Speaker 2: gonna have you back in the air. I'm like, okay, cool.
Speaker 2: Show starts at death becomes Circle show starts at seven.
Speaker 2: Its gonna be great. I can get to the theater
Speaker 2: at six thirty for a seven o'clock show. I don't
Speaker 2: like to do that. I've never done that because I
Speaker 2: need at least an hour from makeup and prep, my
Speaker 2: breathing and my stretching. Some people literally walk in the
Speaker 2: door at six thirty for a seven o'clock show. My
Speaker 2: hand claps to y'all for that. I can't do that.
Speaker 2: I can, but that's not my desire. Okay, I just
Speaker 2: mentioned I just told you guys my routine. Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2: We land in Norfolk and it goes from thirty minutes
Speaker 2: to an hour. Now, mind you, they have gassed up
Speaker 2: the plane. It's gone from like one hour to hour
Speaker 2: and a half, two hours, three hours, four hours, five hours,
Speaker 2: six hours by the time but about four o'clock rolls around,
Speaker 2: I'm like, I'm not gonna make it to the lunfont
Speaker 2: Tan theater. Y'all. I do this routine. I have done
Speaker 2: this routine quite often. I've never missed a show because
Speaker 2: of a flight to diversion. I have never really missed
Speaker 2: a work event period because of I've never missed a
Speaker 2: flight for work anybody that books me for the past
Speaker 2: twenty five years knows that you book me, I'm going
Speaker 2: to show up. If I don't show up, it's because
Speaker 2: I one. I think one time I was literally in
Speaker 2: the hospital, like sick with something right, or I'm just sick.
Speaker 2: And if I say I'm sick, I'm really really sick.
Speaker 2: So I've never missed work. I've never you know, I
Speaker 2: just I don't play that. That's just this. I guess
Speaker 2: it's still the school of Matthew Knowles. I don't know,
Speaker 2: but that's just I tried not to. I try not
Speaker 2: to do that. So, yeah, we missed the show. I
Speaker 2: missed the show. I'm gutted, I am disappointed. I'm like,
Speaker 2: oh my god, but I'm so thankful for an understanding
Speaker 2: management team of death becomes her totally understood. So it's
Speaker 2: that that was that was a lesson learned, you know.
Speaker 2: So I don't know if I'll be home anytime soon
Speaker 2: because I don't want that to happen, or maybe try
Speaker 2: flying into logorder or JFK. I don't know. But new
Speaker 2: work has never been an issue for me. Again, I
Speaker 2: have seen the news where it's been about outages and
Speaker 2: air traffic control issues, but all right, So I finally
Speaker 2: experienced it. That same week, I was all soul needing
Speaker 2: to attend a close friend of mine her mother passed,
Speaker 2: and I wanted to be at the funeral. I was
Speaker 2: torn because you know, I'm under contract in this show
Speaker 2: many times. I've been under contract for the past again,
Speaker 2: twenty five years of my life, and I was torn
Speaker 2: between how many moments am I going to miss by
Speaker 2: being able to be present for someone in my life.
Speaker 2: I've missed enough birthdays, I missed enough funerals, I've missed
Speaker 2: enough graduations, y'all. I even missed my brother's first sermon
Speaker 2: he preached. Now he understood because that year we filmed
Speaker 2: the Boot Delicious video. He was totally understandable. But me
Speaker 2: as his sister, as his baby sister, whom I adore
Speaker 2: my brother, I was like, I cannot believe I'm missing
Speaker 2: my brother preach his first sermon while I'm on set
Speaker 2: shaking my thighs. It's a great video. I love those
Speaker 2: Christian Dior shades. Those are I wish I could find those.
Speaker 2: Those are vintage. So yeah, that's what was going on
Speaker 2: while filming Boot Delicious. My brother preached his first sermon.
Speaker 2: But you guys, everything worked out. Everything worked out, as
Speaker 2: you can see all as well. But at this point
Speaker 2: in my career and in my life, I'm like, man,
Speaker 2: how many more moments of being present will I miss?
Speaker 2: And that's the sacrifice of the business of show. That's
Speaker 2: the sacrifice of I chose this life. So I'm not
Speaker 2: asking for pity, sympathy anything, but I guess I'm understanding
Speaker 2: of I guess where my mindset was. And I did
Speaker 2: get permission, of course, again from management of death becomes
Speaker 2: her to attend this funeral. I adore what I do.
Speaker 2: I adore the show, and I'm so glad that I
Speaker 2: was allowed to go to my friend's mother's funeral and
Speaker 2: it meant the world to her. And the person that
Speaker 2: did the eulogy looked over at the role that I
Speaker 2: was sitting on, and there were some other friends and
Speaker 2: stuff of the family sitting on that role, and he
Speaker 2: said these words. He mentioned the words ministry of presence.
Speaker 2: Sometimes your presence is comforting to someone. You might not
Speaker 2: even have the right way words. You probably can't even
Speaker 2: get to them in that moment at the funeral or
Speaker 2: even a party, or their first sermon. Or a graduation.
Speaker 2: But as long as they can look over and see you,
Speaker 2: you never know what that does for a person. When
Speaker 2: Beyonce and Kelly came to my opening night, Doctor Amira
Speaker 2: and Brittany Tims Tina, I felt so anchored by their presence.
Speaker 2: I was like, I don't care what happens tonight, I
Speaker 2: am going to be okay the ministry of Presents And
Speaker 2: there are times where people have even looked at me
Speaker 2: like you're Michelle Williams, why are you here? What are
Speaker 2: you doing here? And I'm not saying anyone said that
Speaker 2: last week, but there are times I have shown up
Speaker 2: two different things for people in my life, and I
Speaker 2: don't let what I do or who I am in quotes.
Speaker 2: I don't want that to ever get in the way
Speaker 2: of showing up and being there for people that I love,
Speaker 2: at least not at this time in my career now.
Speaker 2: Sometimes it's just not possible. It's just not possible. But
Speaker 2: I'm thankful that this time it was possible for me
Speaker 2: to show up and be present so perfectly. You can
Speaker 2: take inventory of your life about maybe people you can
Speaker 2: show up for a little more, or take inventory of
Speaker 2: people where you're like man they can show up for
Speaker 2: me more, or if they don't, you probably might even
Speaker 2: have to assess how much you show up for them.
Speaker 2: So us this older woman. One day, she told me
Speaker 2: that I was ministry in motion and literally just me
Speaker 2: being able to show up and be present is just
Speaker 2: something that I treasure, something that if I can show up,
Speaker 2: I'm gonna show up, all right. So that was Thursday
Speaker 2: of last week. Friday, we are off because it's fourth
Speaker 2: of July. Death becomes her did not have a show,
Speaker 2: So where did I go? So I went from the
Speaker 2: city where I was in for this funeral, flew to Washington,
Speaker 2: DC to see cow Boy Carter. The tour insane. Absolutely,
Speaker 2: I just just have no but I do have words. Beautiful,
Speaker 2: the visuals, y'all. She's she gives vocals every tour she's done.
Speaker 2: But I feel like this tour beyoncey uh. There are
Speaker 2: many times I had a Baptist fit. If you want
Speaker 2: to know what a Baptist fit is is where you
Speaker 2: just get to your arms, just get to flailing uncontrollably.
Speaker 2: You yell, you scream, You're just just in awe. Listen, y'all.
Speaker 2: I love because I feel like she's so gifted vocally
Speaker 2: too that sometimes I personally, I just oh, I just
Speaker 2: want to hear what she's gonna do. I just want
Speaker 2: to know what vocal choice she's gonna use, where is
Speaker 2: she gonna place this run, what is she gonna do
Speaker 2: with the texture of her voice? Here? Baby? It gave
Speaker 2: me everything I needed. You hear me. It was a joy.
Speaker 2: It was a joy. It was a joy. She really really, really,
Speaker 2: really really really this did I say? The sound? Like
Speaker 2: who designed the sound for this tour? It was beautiful,
Speaker 2: The visuals, the wardrobe, my god, and then vibing to
Speaker 2: Miss Tina in the suite absolutely agredible. Oh of course
Speaker 2: blue okay, you can't forget blue, roomy, absolutely adorable. Okay,
Speaker 2: everybody banned dancers, Honey Balenciaga and just all right. So
Speaker 2: that was my week, all right. Then I came back
Speaker 2: to New York to do to show Saturday and two
Speaker 2: show Sunday, a full, productive, amazing week. Dallas on yesterday,
Speaker 2: which is supposed to be my day off, but Dallas,
Speaker 2: and then today sharing with y'all my journey this past week,
Speaker 2: the journey of showing up for the people you love.
Speaker 2: The Cowboy Carter tour that was my first time being
Speaker 2: able to go to the tour because I'm in a
Speaker 2: Broadway musical and it's been difficult. But I'm glad that
Speaker 2: there was a show on the fourth of July. There
Speaker 2: was a show last night. Actually, like I said, that
Speaker 2: was on the day off, but I had to go
Speaker 2: to Dallas. I can't wait for y'all to see what
Speaker 2: that was about. But y'all, it was also amazing to
Speaker 2: be around people who bring me peace. And I saw
Speaker 2: a friend of mine post something the other day. I
Speaker 2: could be paraphrasing, but they it said something whoever brings
Speaker 2: the most peace gets the most time, and that hit
Speaker 2: me so deep. There are people that I love. There
Speaker 2: are relationships that I don't talk about a lot publicly
Speaker 2: because I just hold those relationships near and dear to me.
Speaker 2: And there's sometimes I'll name some names, you know, because
Speaker 2: of experience, I name some names just now. But sometimes
Speaker 2: I don't go into the totality of those relationships because
Speaker 2: I'm like, man, that's the only thing that I get
Speaker 2: to protect kind of. But I've got some amazing, amazing folks,
Speaker 2: and I always in some episodes, I've always said what
Speaker 2: my prayer is for y'all, is that you also have
Speaker 2: safe people, people that you can trust, people that you
Speaker 2: can confide in, people that you can laugh with, like uncontrollably.
Speaker 2: I have also been seeing these amazing videos and reels
Speaker 2: about people who are during near smacking each other upside
Speaker 2: the head because they're laughing so hard and their arms
Speaker 2: are just going everywhere and they're just a key key
Speaker 2: and just laughing uncontrollably. Those are the relationships that I
Speaker 2: want to keep. The relationships that fortify me. What do
Speaker 2: I mean by fortify? Relationships that strengthen me, Relationships that
Speaker 2: are challenged in a way, Relationships that are inspiring. You
Speaker 2: should never be jealous of anyone in your circle. They
Speaker 2: should always be inspiring you. You should never be competing
Speaker 2: or comparing yourself to anybody that's in your circle. Maybe
Speaker 2: there are some people in my life that make me
Speaker 2: tighten up, people that make me say, oh, oh oh,
Speaker 2: I can do this a little better, I can tweak
Speaker 2: this here. And I have a confession to make. I
Speaker 2: think sometimes when I see Be on tour, it does
Speaker 2: make me feel like, man, she kept going in music
Speaker 2: and didn't let any naysayer stop her, And I'm like,
Speaker 2: why did I let things stop me musically, and I'm like,
Speaker 2: I really got to sit with that. I'm gonna go
Speaker 2: to therapy about it. So yes, I have teased new
Speaker 2: music and I know that I can do it. I
Speaker 2: do know that I can do it. So we'll see
Speaker 2: that happened to me on the Renaissance tour and Cowboy
Speaker 2: Carter's like, she would not be doing what she's doing
Speaker 2: had she stopped and listened to what the critics had
Speaker 2: to say or the naysayers or the haters. She there's
Speaker 2: no way she'd be in stadiums right now had she
Speaker 2: buckled and you know, listened to what people had to say.
Speaker 2: All right, So that's my confession. We'll talk about that later.
Speaker 2: But yeah, back to being around people who bring me peace,
Speaker 2: and those were the people that I was able to
Speaker 2: be around this past week, and guess what, I'll do
Speaker 2: it again. Also this week, I am taking some time
Speaker 2: away from the show, not due to illness or a funeral,
Speaker 2: but I've got some personal days that I hadn't taken,
Speaker 2: and they're like, Michelle, you got to take your personal days.
Speaker 2: And again, just I'm thankful for a strong work ethic. Again,
Speaker 2: if I'm not sick or some type of emergency. I
Speaker 2: want to be there. But this week I am excited
Speaker 2: to report that I get to take a few days away.
Speaker 2: It's my birthday month, and I'm excited about that. I
Speaker 2: get some more time later on in the summer, and
Speaker 2: we'll see what happens. I know a lot of y'all
Speaker 2: have been asking me how long my run and Death
Speaker 2: becomes Her the musical is, and just know that I'll
Speaker 2: be there a while longer. I'll say that the reason
Speaker 2: why I'm not saying anything is because producers haven't said anything,
Speaker 2: and I'm not making no announcements that they haven't made. Okay,
Speaker 2: So when the time comes, you all will know my
Speaker 2: departure date. Okay. But for those of y'all wondering, lurking,
Speaker 2: and asking, just know you've got time to come back
Speaker 2: and see your girl, or you have time to come
Speaker 2: see me. If you haven't been here, all right, you
Speaker 2: can go to Broadwaydirect dot com. They have amazing specials sometimes.
Speaker 2: If you go to Death becomes Her our official Instagram page,
Speaker 2: you can find cool specials or discounts or what's going
Speaker 2: on for this time. It's been an amazing run. It's
Speaker 2: been an amazing time. I cannot wait to tell you
Speaker 2: the plans for later. We'll see, but it's been a
Speaker 2: joy of being in death becomes to the musical. It's
Speaker 2: like I don't want to leave. I don't want to leave.
Speaker 2: So we'll see what happens. But thank y'all for allowing
Speaker 2: me to share my time of travel and what I've
Speaker 2: just been thinking. I'm forty five years old and I
Speaker 2: am just I just I want to be there for people.
Speaker 2: I don't want to continue doing things that keep me
Speaker 2: from being present from my friends and family and the
Speaker 2: people that mean the most to me. All right, So
Speaker 2: I hope this makes you think I and you know,
Speaker 2: take inventory of the people in your life. And again,
Speaker 2: whoever brings the most peace gets the most time. Thank
Speaker 2: y'all so much for listening to my travel chronicles this
Speaker 2: week and just kind of what I've been thinking about.
Speaker 2: We will see you again next week, all right, Thank
Speaker 2: you again. I cannot I can't continue to do this
Speaker 2: without y'all's love and support. Black Effect would not continue
Speaker 2: to bring me back because y'all are just really really
Speaker 2: supporting me, and I really really really appreciate it. All Right,
Speaker 2: we'll talk again. Soon.
Speaker 1: Checking In with Michelle Williams is a production of iHeart
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