Speaker 1: Will you're shopping on eBay? Tell me when I shop.
Speaker 2: Shopping on eBay, I'm shopping on eBay. Well, I go
Speaker 2: through spurts with eBay like I don't, and then I'll
Speaker 2: forget that that eBay is a great place to buy stuff, right,
Speaker 2: and then I'll find eBay again, and then.
Speaker 1: This is not an ad, by the way, this is
Speaker 1: literally just talking about shopping.
Speaker 3: This is so dangerous.
Speaker 4: I feel like you are going to have to buy
Speaker 4: a whole storage unit just for what you want to
Speaker 4: collect on what I'm being careful.
Speaker 2: So I found it years ago when I decided that
Speaker 2: I was going to be the person who collected all
Speaker 2: the original Mash toys, because they made Mash toys. So
Speaker 2: there's like, you know, playing cards and.
Speaker 5: Exactly what I want them.
Speaker 2: I So when I was about I don't know, eighteen
Speaker 2: or nineteen seventeen, eighteen nineteen, when I was dating love, yeah,
Speaker 2: I wanted to find.
Speaker 5: The perfect cologne for me.
Speaker 2: So I was never a cologne guy, and I wanted
Speaker 2: to find and I found this amazing cologne, Ascotta. It
Speaker 2: became like my smell and for ten years I wore
Speaker 2: a Scotta and then one day they went no or
Speaker 2: in Italian, because I think it's got is Italian. No,
Speaker 2: but with an Italian accent. We're not making this anymore.
Speaker 2: And they just stopped. And I've smelled bad ever since,
Speaker 2: and so for the heck of it. The other day,
Speaker 2: I was like, I wonder if I go on the.
Speaker 1: eBay, the eBay, right, because you're if.
Speaker 2: There's if there's any there, And I see one small
Speaker 2: little bottle it's like this big, and I order it
Speaker 2: and then it sends me down the rabbit hole of
Speaker 2: there's a bunch of these for sale on eBay.
Speaker 3: And h one is twelve hundred dollars.
Speaker 2: No, they're they're certainly not cheap, but it's they're also
Speaker 2: it's not ridicted.
Speaker 5: But now I'm starting to chilled up it is. I've
Speaker 5: got four of them.
Speaker 2: Now for like some of this big, some threat, some
Speaker 2: are factory sealed, some or not. And so I have
Speaker 2: found my smell again.
Speaker 5: After so many years.
Speaker 1: Cologne expires. Have you have you smelled it? Does it?
Speaker 2: Do?
Speaker 5: It smells exactly right?
Speaker 1: Okay, that's good.
Speaker 2: Colone doesn't expire, doesn't a fine wine where it just
Speaker 2: continues to the bouquet continues.
Speaker 1: And I know it does because I have a very
Speaker 1: my grandmother, My mom's mom died when I was two,
Speaker 1: and yet somehow I haven't.
Speaker 3: Because she put on expired cologne.
Speaker 1: That's where the.
Speaker 5: Not magic.
Speaker 1: I've been searching eBay for my grandmother.
Speaker 5: My grandmother so much. There's one in Idaho pre owned.
Speaker 1: It's just so expensive, but I think it's worth it. No,
Speaker 1: I I have a memory of my my grandmother. She
Speaker 1: wore Chloe Chloe perfume, and she had Chloe cream, like
Speaker 1: the like scented lotion that went with it. And she
Speaker 1: used to let me go into her beautiful little vanity
Speaker 1: and stick my chubby, little two year old finger in
Speaker 1: her Chloe cream. And I loved it and like the
Speaker 1: smell can just bring me back to that memory. And
Speaker 1: so I also purchased some Chloe perfume and when it arrived,
Speaker 1: I was like this rancid smell. No, Chloe delicious. It
Speaker 1: also like changes color and so anyway, I mean.
Speaker 2: It looks good, it smells good. I've now I've got
Speaker 2: like three bottles of it. And Sue asked me, because
Speaker 2: my birthday's coming up, like what do you want for
Speaker 2: your birthday? I was like, let's keep let's go, let's
Speaker 2: keep on this eBay colooney trick. But she doesn't know
Speaker 2: the eBay, so I might have to buy it for
Speaker 2: in surprise.
Speaker 3: You guys, know, like old book smell like how the delightful?
Speaker 4: So apparently it's a glue. Over time, as books age,
Speaker 4: the glue lets out a vanilla smell, so it's actually
Speaker 4: a vanilla ish flavors from the.
Speaker 6: Dust in dust.
Speaker 3: Yes, yes, oh, but I love it.
Speaker 1: I do too. I have had an eBay account since
Speaker 1: I don't I think ninety nine. I think eBay started
Speaker 1: in ninety five. I've had an eBay account since ninety nine.
Speaker 1: And when I first started, I became obsessed with nineteen
Speaker 1: twenties tea sets plus Yes, I went, where did this
Speaker 1: come from?
Speaker 3: What nineteen twenty t set did you swim? Or like
Speaker 3: this is my thing.
Speaker 2: When you were seventeen, like now that I'm making tea
Speaker 2: set money. Yeah, I was making the big bugs on boy.
Speaker 5: Yeah no I was.
Speaker 1: You know. My family were very into tea, and I
Speaker 1: used to drink tea every single day, every single day
Speaker 1: at four pm, three pm or four pm, I would
Speaker 1: make English breakfast tea with evaporated milk and sugar and
Speaker 1: it was like it literally every day without fails, seven
Speaker 1: days a week. It was my afternoon pick me up.
Speaker 1: And I got very into like Art Deco style stuff,
Speaker 1: and I used to host a lot. I used to
Speaker 1: entertain at the ripe old age of eighteen, and I
Speaker 1: would want to I would buy like a tea set
Speaker 1: for twelve. Well, then, like Ryder said, I got to
Speaker 1: a point where then I started buying like Art Deco
Speaker 1: lamps on eBay, and I like, I was like, where
Speaker 1: am I going to put all this stuff? And anyway,
Speaker 1: Now I just buy shoes and vintage shirts and purses
Speaker 1: and watches on eBay. Now those are the things I like.
Speaker 4: Okay, just this is stuff A crazy memory that I've
Speaker 4: not thought about. I started drinking tea on the set
Speaker 4: of Boybet's World, because I would drink coffee all morning, remember,
Speaker 4: and I would be so chised out to the.
Speaker 5: Coin of phrase, and.
Speaker 4: Then I would I would have to stop drinking coffee,
Speaker 4: but I would want more caffeine, and so Dede started
Speaker 4: bringing me tea while we were shooting, and she couldn't.
Speaker 3: I was just like, I just give me lyptin because
Speaker 3: I just want the caffeine. And she was like ugh.
Speaker 4: So then it became hard thing. She'd be like, lip
Speaker 4: you want some lip, Let's go.
Speaker 5: So whatever.
Speaker 3: I'd be like in a scene, I would just have
Speaker 3: this memory of d D coming on me.
Speaker 6: Yeah, you should go get me lipped in tea.
Speaker 1: Well, I mean, this was not an ad for eBay,
Speaker 1: but now it's definitely.
Speaker 5: I Scotta though, I got it. It's an ad for
Speaker 5: a Scotta and vintage tea sets.
Speaker 1: Welcome to Pod Meets World. I'm Danielle Official.
Speaker 3: I'm right or Strong, and I'm Wilfredee.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, am I ever excited for this episode today?
Speaker 1: Guys this you know, we all have our things, we
Speaker 1: all have our things. This person.
Speaker 5: Did you sleep last night? I was curious. I thought
Speaker 5: about it. I was like, I wonder if Danielle's even
Speaker 5: asleep last night?
Speaker 1: I was up later than usual and I was up
Speaker 1: earlier than usual.
Speaker 3: Way, I was unclear. Have you met him before?
Speaker 1: Never? Never? No, I have never. I have never never
Speaker 1: met this man before. And I am literally jumping out
Speaker 1: of my skin today because when we recently posted a
Speaker 1: picture of me at my fourteenth birthday party, I was
Speaker 1: smiling ear to ear holding up my newest prize Possession.
Speaker 1: My most beloved gift of that year, the debut studio
Speaker 1: album of my favorite R and B singer, in the
Speaker 1: form of a new technology called a compact disc. A
Speaker 1: young Danielle would play it front to back, over and over,
Speaker 1: most likely while calling Andy and telling him about my
Speaker 1: first period or writing in my diary about how fat
Speaker 1: I was. It was as much of my childhood as
Speaker 1: counting crows was to writer or smoking was to will
Speaker 1: And today we will speak to that musician whose first single,
Speaker 1: the undeniable timeless bop This Is How We Do It
Speaker 1: was number one on the Billboard Hot one hundred for
Speaker 1: seven consecutive weeks, sending his debut album to platinum status,
Speaker 1: selling over a million copies, and earning him a Grammy nomination.
Speaker 1: It's worth noting that his second single, Something for the Honeys,
Speaker 1: is also a jam he'd performed with TLC and Boys
Speaker 1: to Men, while also writing and producing songs for artists
Speaker 1: like Cisco, ninety eight Degrees, Christina Milion, and Lomo. He
Speaker 1: was also seen in the movie The Fighting Temptations alongside
Speaker 1: Beyonce and Cuba Gooding Junior, and he has a cameo
Speaker 1: in the nineteen ninety six, The Nutty Professor.
Speaker 6: He's great.
Speaker 1: Some small trivia about that movie, Montel is the only
Speaker 1: character in the film who is not played by Eddie Murphy.
Speaker 1: So that's a movie starring Eddie Murphy and Montel John.
Speaker 1: That is pretty crazy.
Speaker 2: Wait, so does Eddie Murphy also played Jada Pinkett Smith
Speaker 2: in that movie?
Speaker 5: Because she's in that movie as well. So I think
Speaker 5: Ednie Murphy plays He knows that she's a lot of interesting. Yeah,
Speaker 5: So I think Eddie Murphy plays Jada pattas Mo. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Seven albums later, fourteen singles released, and over ten million
Speaker 1: records sold worldwide. He walked away from the world of
Speaker 1: R and B in twenty eleven to follow his faith
Speaker 1: and return to the church, a place where he first
Speaker 1: learned to play music. Now as a minister at Victory
Speaker 1: World Church in Atlanta, Georgia. He and his wife, who
Speaker 1: has been his partner and his manager since his first
Speaker 1: record deal, are still married and they recently wrote a
Speaker 1: book about what makes a successful marriage and now they
Speaker 1: are proud grandparents. You have recently seen him on the
Speaker 1: Mass Singer He was the panther if you were wondering,
Speaker 1: and he competed on Special Forces for Fox in twenty
Speaker 1: twenty three, which I am definitely going to talk to
Speaker 1: him about. This week, we are very happy to welcome
Speaker 1: six ' eight he stood it's my favorite nineties singer
Speaker 1: Montel Jordan.
Speaker 6: Oh my gosh, reunited.
Speaker 1: I mean it feels like that. I just I am
Speaker 1: so excited that you were here. I know you had
Speaker 1: seen the picture of me holding your CD like I
Speaker 1: had just been given the key to the city.
Speaker 6: You were.
Speaker 1: Yes, That's how I felt. And now here we are
Speaker 1: thirty years later, and I'm just as excited.
Speaker 6: I'm fan guying out right now.
Speaker 7: Oh So, I love you guys, super super excited for
Speaker 7: what you're doing, and really really glad that a random
Speaker 7: post on a social media platform could lead to a
Speaker 7: family reunion life.
Speaker 1: I have to tell you, we were all shocked that
Speaker 1: you even knew who we were when you followed us
Speaker 1: when we posted the picture. First of all, I was like,
Speaker 1: what what do you mean now? Yes, I was so excited,
Speaker 1: And then to hear that you were excited to come
Speaker 1: on the pod, I'm just I'm flabbergasted.
Speaker 6: Absolutely.
Speaker 8: I mean a lot of times I think so For
Speaker 8: me as a musician, I'm always shocked maybe at times
Speaker 8: to figure out that people actually know your music or
Speaker 8: are familiar with my music. And so I don't I
Speaker 8: think you guys should know by now how huge you
Speaker 8: are for not just a time period, but you literally captured,
Speaker 8: you know, almost a decade of people's lives that were
Speaker 8: vested in your characters. And now it's a blessing right
Speaker 8: that even after a time period has gone, that people
Speaker 8: who are still kind of vested.
Speaker 6: In your life, in who you are out of character,
Speaker 6: which is pretty cool.
Speaker 1: Yes, we feel exactly the same way, So yes, I
Speaker 1: thank you for that.
Speaker 5: By the way, For the record, I don't think I've
Speaker 5: ever seen Danielle.
Speaker 2: This exciting once or twice maybe in the entire thirty
Speaker 2: some odd years i've known her.
Speaker 5: This level of excitement. I can say she's literally holding
Speaker 5: it together.
Speaker 6: I can tell you.
Speaker 1: Well, our listeners know my love for you because when
Speaker 1: we were asked by fans many many, many episodes ago
Speaker 1: our favorite ninety song was, I had absolutely no hesitation
Speaker 1: when I answered, this is how we do it like
Speaker 1: it was just it came right out. I knew exactly
Speaker 1: what it was. It's it's truly my favorite ninety song
Speaker 1: and that's hard, you know, because there were some good
Speaker 1: stuff that good stuff out there, and yet I knew
Speaker 1: right away.
Speaker 6: So you know, you made a good, hard choice right there.
Speaker 6: I am grateful for that.
Speaker 1: So we are going to get to that album later,
Speaker 1: but let's start with how music entered your life. Okay,
Speaker 1: so you're from South central LA and your parents were
Speaker 1: both deacons. So and I know that Montel made no
Speaker 1: money and life sure was slow, but I have to
Speaker 1: assume the church was a major entry point for your talent.
Speaker 6: Yeah, for sure. So yeah, my.
Speaker 8: Mom really was the church goer as a kid, and
Speaker 8: she kind of eventually forced my dad to go. I
Speaker 8: was brought up in church, and so in the same
Speaker 8: way that a lot of a lot of professions kind
Speaker 8: of have like a G League or something like before
Speaker 8: you get to the NBA or before you get to
Speaker 8: the NFL, I felt like the the Baptist Church was
Speaker 8: kind of the G league for the music business. A
Speaker 8: lot of musicians came from church, a lot of artists
Speaker 8: I came from church.
Speaker 6: You want to talk about the Aretha Franklin's the Raid,
Speaker 6: Charles is like the it doesn't matter you go through
Speaker 6: at Leasting. Yeah, yeah, it.
Speaker 8: Was it was there you go, there you go. It
Speaker 8: really was kind of like a training ground for the
Speaker 8: music business.
Speaker 6: Uh.
Speaker 8: And so from that standpoint, that was kind of my
Speaker 8: my upbringing with having been brought up in church like
Speaker 8: almost six days out of every single week, and finding
Speaker 8: a love for music outside of the church and inside
Speaker 8: of the church, and then trying to figure out how
Speaker 8: to make those two worlds meet, uh, to eventually find
Speaker 8: my voice in music. So I don't know if that
Speaker 8: answers that question. I kind of went off on a
Speaker 8: little tangent right there. So I'm fifty five. I can
Speaker 8: do that every now and then.
Speaker 4: So did you start with did you start with singing
Speaker 4: or was it playing an instrument?
Speaker 8: That's a that is a great question. I actually started
Speaker 8: with just being a musician. I played the piano. My
Speaker 8: friend Shep Crawford played the oregon in church, and we
Speaker 8: were really cool. We were kid musicians. And the beautiful
Speaker 8: part of how I came to sing, and the tragic
Speaker 8: part at the same time, is growing up in south
Speaker 8: central Los Angeles. There was high gang activity in my neighborhood.
Speaker 8: You know, we're talking the you know, the late seventies,
Speaker 8: early eighties, and at that time period, a lot of
Speaker 8: the older young black males that I looked up to,
Speaker 8: some of them were in carcerat, some of them got
Speaker 8: addicted to substances. And I kind of got into singing
Speaker 8: by default because at some point the older guys who
Speaker 8: I looked up to, they weren't there anymore. You know,
Speaker 8: just from a statistically, I was not supposed to live
Speaker 8: to see eighteen years old growing up in south central
Speaker 8: Los Angeles. That was like a literal statistic that a
Speaker 8: young black man in south central Los Angeles is not
Speaker 8: supposed to live past eighteen. So on my eighteenth birthday,
Speaker 8: we celebrated, like, yeah, he's alive, but you know it's
Speaker 8: supposed to he's eighteen. So yeah, so that's you know,
Speaker 8: part of that journey right then. So music for me,
Speaker 8: Singing for me came out of necessity. I did not
Speaker 8: want to sing. I was just a musician. I was
Speaker 8: comfortable with that and the discomfort of not having other
Speaker 8: people there to actually be male vocalists.
Speaker 6: I had to take that position by default.
Speaker 1: Wow, so as this is how we do it. Told
Speaker 1: us you are six foot eight inches. Did people just
Speaker 1: clown on you when you were growing up for not
Speaker 1: being good at basketball.
Speaker 8: That was the worst, Danielle. It was the worst. I Okay,
Speaker 8: So here's here's two instances of how bad that that was.
Speaker 8: When I was in middle school and I was in
Speaker 8: the ninth grade, I ran in the yearbook, you know,
Speaker 8: how to have the prettiest best dress. I ran for
Speaker 8: tallest and I lost to a guy who I was
Speaker 8: two inches taller than that.
Speaker 1: Okay, so to give it to you.
Speaker 8: In middle school, I was six two and a guy
Speaker 8: who was six feet I ended up losing to him.
Speaker 8: So that's the first instance. The second instance is because
Speaker 8: I grew up musical and I didn't really play basketball
Speaker 8: by the time I get to high school. I'm now
Speaker 8: in the tenth grade. I show up to this high
Speaker 8: school where I am now six ' four and my
Speaker 8: last name is Jordan, so and this is nineteen, you know,
Speaker 8: and so naturally, yeah, they are like, oh my god,
Speaker 8: we got a six foot four Jordan coming to our school.
Speaker 6: And I could not play a lick of basketball. And
Speaker 6: it was just it was so I.
Speaker 8: Still think I'm traumatized a little bit by that, but
Speaker 8: I'm going to recover it.
Speaker 6: Though, I'm going to recover it.
Speaker 1: You were like, could I play you the piano. And
Speaker 1: so then you graduate high school and you end up
Speaker 1: attending Pepperdine to become a lawyer. Why did you pick
Speaker 1: Malibu as your next destination.
Speaker 8: I think a part of my journey was h I
Speaker 8: grew up, you know, like I said, in South central
Speaker 8: Los Angeles. Things can be really compartmentalized in you know,
Speaker 8: depending on where you where you grow up. UH And
Speaker 8: so you know, I grew up in South central, I
Speaker 8: went to UH. I lived kind of in a black
Speaker 8: a black neighborhood with black family. I lived, went to
Speaker 8: a black church, went to a predominantly black school. Like
Speaker 8: so everything in my life was like just super you know,
Speaker 8: super urban.
Speaker 6: That was that was my upbringing.
Speaker 1: UH.
Speaker 8: And I remember there was a teacher who's I think
Speaker 8: a judge now, a guy by the name of Craig Mitchell.
Speaker 8: Craig Mitchell was an amazing guy in my life. He
Speaker 8: was one of the guys that pushed us the hardest.
Speaker 6: You know. He would have us.
Speaker 8: Reading you know, two hundred pages, three hundred pages of
Speaker 8: you know, of you know, one hundred pays of a
Speaker 8: book a night, and like he was like this the
Speaker 8: real hard ass regarding you know, academics, but I loved
Speaker 8: him for it. And I remember him asking me about
Speaker 8: where I wanted to go to college, and because of
Speaker 8: my life, I thought, well, I'm naturally going to go
Speaker 8: to you know, an HBCU. I'm going to go to
Speaker 8: a historically black college university. I'm going to go to Morehouse.
Speaker 8: I'm going to go somewhere in the South. And that
Speaker 8: was just, you know, a different world. The Cosby Show.
Speaker 8: These were shows in addition to you know what later
Speaker 8: I would be watching with y'all, but these were the
Speaker 8: shows that I was growing up on. And so because
Speaker 8: of that, when I told him, yeah, I'm going to go,
Speaker 8: you know, I'm going to go to the South and
Speaker 8: I'm going to go to all black college and he said,
Speaker 8: why would you do that? And I was like, well,
Speaker 8: that's what I'm supposed to do. And he said, what
Speaker 8: has what have people told you your entire life?
Speaker 6: I said, what do you mean?
Speaker 8: He's like, is there something that you have heard repeated
Speaker 8: to you your entire life? And I said, well, I've
Speaker 8: always been told that in order for a black man
Speaker 8: to be successful in the world, he's got to be
Speaker 8: twice as good at so thing as a as a
Speaker 8: white person and accurate or no, this is this is
Speaker 8: what I was told growing up. You got to be
Speaker 8: twice as good, twice as smart, twice as this, work,
Speaker 8: twice as hard.
Speaker 9: Uh.
Speaker 8: And so he said to me, if that is, if
Speaker 8: that's accurate, then why would you go and compete against
Speaker 8: other black students opposed to competing against other people who
Speaker 8: you say you need to be twice as good as.
Speaker 8: So when he told me that I sought out the
Speaker 8: widest college in America that it was, it was Perdine University.
Speaker 8: It was like point oh two black people and it
Speaker 8: was only like forty five minutes from South Central but
Speaker 8: it's a whole nother, whole other world up.
Speaker 6: The Pacific Coast Highway.
Speaker 8: But but no, I went there and I did well,
Speaker 8: and I competed well, and I loved well and I
Speaker 8: was loved well.
Speaker 10: Uh.
Speaker 8: And have nothing but great uh, but but great intimates
Speaker 8: about my experience as a wave. And let me just
Speaker 8: throw this in there, because this is pretty cool. I
Speaker 8: accrued quite a bit of college debt going to Pepperdine's.
Speaker 8: You can imagine initially I had kind of scholarships and
Speaker 8: grants and stuff, and then once the financial aid ran out.
Speaker 8: I ran up a nice little bill out at Pepperdine
Speaker 8: when I finally got my music business. This is how
Speaker 8: we do it contract. I had my wife negotiated in
Speaker 8: my contract, Hey, if we sell a million records out
Speaker 8: of the box, will you pay off Montel's college loans?
Speaker 8: And they're not thinking, well, first of all, he's a
Speaker 8: new artist. He's not going to sell a million records.
Speaker 8: Sure we will, and so from that first album, this
Speaker 8: is how we do it. They had to write a
Speaker 8: ninety thousand dollars.
Speaker 6: Check completely clear my college out of my college debt.
Speaker 6: So that was pretty cool.
Speaker 1: I love a wife who is willing to bet on
Speaker 1: her man. Yeah, and got rid of your student loan.
Speaker 6: Da you sure did? She did that. So shout out
Speaker 6: to missus Jordan.
Speaker 2: When you're at Pepperdine studying the law, what then made
Speaker 2: you say no.
Speaker 5: This isn't for me. It's time to find something else.
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 8: I studied communication. I minored in business, and everything that
Speaker 8: I had my eyes set on was to go to
Speaker 8: law school because I thought that's what I wanted to do.
Speaker 8: I love words, I love communication, and I was very
Speaker 8: very good friends who I'm still friends with. To this
Speaker 8: day doctor Connie and Bernie James. Bernie James at the
Speaker 8: time was a black professor who was the president of
Speaker 8: the law school at Pepperdine, and so I remember spending
Speaker 8: time with them. I remember sitting and having meals with them,
Speaker 8: and one day I asked him, I was like, so, Bernie,
Speaker 8: you know, you're doing fantastic at what you do as
Speaker 8: a lawyer, as a professor. Is there anything that you
Speaker 8: maybe regret? Is there something that you wish you had done?
Speaker 8: And he said that he was a very good jazz musician.
Speaker 8: I think he played the trumpet, and he always wondered
Speaker 8: if he didn't go into law, if he could have
Speaker 8: a do over. He always wanted to try out his
Speaker 8: jazz musicianship. And so when he said that, I at
Speaker 8: that time was like, man, well, I kind of got
Speaker 8: the same thing where I got this music bug. And
Speaker 8: I noticed a very short window, a very small window
Speaker 8: that you can actually try and infiltrate the music business.
Speaker 8: Whereas college, you know, I could go at any time
Speaker 8: to go ahead and get a degree. And so that
Speaker 8: was the turning point for me to not pursue law
Speaker 8: school after graduation and going on to giving my shot
Speaker 8: at the music biz.
Speaker 1: You know what, one of my favorite parts of that
Speaker 1: story is. I mean, so far you're in your story,
Speaker 1: there's been multiple times where you have talked to people
Speaker 1: and taken their advice and had it. It has shifted
Speaker 1: the like shifted the course of your life. And I
Speaker 1: love that because one of my favorite quotes, and I
Speaker 1: don't even know who said it, but it's learn from
Speaker 1: the mistakes of others. You can't live long enough to
Speaker 1: make them all yourself. And like you, truly you had
Speaker 1: the people you trusted and you spoke to and you
Speaker 1: listened to them, and it just it helped you decide
Speaker 1: where to go to college. It helped you decide when
Speaker 1: you were going to take a chance on music. And
Speaker 1: I just I love that because I think it's such
Speaker 1: an important lesson.
Speaker 2: So from that, but I was just gonna say, not
Speaker 2: only to bring it, but to kind of bring it
Speaker 2: back to boy Mets world.
Speaker 5: It also shows the power of teachers.
Speaker 2: Yeah, how really good, great features and mentor figures in
Speaker 2: your life can change the course of your life by just.
Speaker 5: Being there and being important. And everybody needs that. Feenie's back.
Speaker 2: I mean, it's all, but it's true I mean, these
Speaker 2: are two mentors you've talked about now that have completely
Speaker 2: changed your life, and it's just, oh, it's amazing.
Speaker 8: Absolutely, And as I think about that, I do think
Speaker 8: the teachers, the pastors, the people of leadership, of authority,
Speaker 8: if they're you know, hopefully people have trustworthy people get
Speaker 8: their lives like that, because you can't just take everyone's
Speaker 8: word and everyone's advice. But these are people that I
Speaker 8: really felt like I would follow this person, you know,
Speaker 8: I would follow this person, I would take this directive.
Speaker 8: And then even in those instances, I still you know,
Speaker 8: as a man of faith, I still would have to
Speaker 8: go back and still ask God, you know, hey, this
Speaker 8: is what I'm feeling from somebody that I really value
Speaker 8: and trust that opinion. God, can you confirm if this
Speaker 8: is something I should do? And then either doors would
Speaker 8: open or closed, you know in what those pathways? Would
Speaker 8: be so very very fortunate to have that in my
Speaker 8: life and have those leaders that have done that.
Speaker 1: How and when is this is how we do it? Born? Like,
Speaker 1: where does the beat come from? Where does the concept
Speaker 1: come from? I would like this heavily documented. Please, yes, yes.
Speaker 8: I during my college years out at Pepperdine which was
Speaker 8: Mui mui blanco. I had to say, I had to
Speaker 8: seek out. I did not have that what I thought
Speaker 8: would be my black college experience. And so being out
Speaker 8: on the West Coast at Pepperdine, I joined a paternity
Speaker 8: called Kappa Alpha Psai and that that and those fraternities.
Speaker 8: It's an international fraternity, and it allowed me to go
Speaker 8: everywhere that I thought I would want to go to
Speaker 8: at least be and connect. I mean, I don't know
Speaker 8: if you it's maybe difficult to express, but my amazing
Speaker 8: Pepperdine experience was it could be very very segregated. It
Speaker 8: could be very very challenging just because of where we were.
Speaker 8: It was difficult to find shared experiences with people. After
Speaker 8: living seventeen years of my life across the tables and
Speaker 8: across in rooms with people that look like me, and
Speaker 8: now I'm with people that I want to connect with
Speaker 8: and they want to connect with me. But it was
Speaker 8: almost like this is bigger than a language barrier. There's like,
Speaker 8: you know, a literal learning curve, you know of trying to,
Speaker 8: you know, figure out how to how to walk alongside
Speaker 8: of people who don't look like you or don't think
Speaker 8: like you, and so in that journey I did connect,
Speaker 8: and so I would go to USC, I go to UCLA,
Speaker 8: I go up to Berkeley, I go down to San Diego.
Speaker 6: And we called it road tripping back then.
Speaker 8: So we would hear, oh, there's a party going on
Speaker 8: up at you know, at UC Berkeley, and so we
Speaker 8: would ride all the way up to UC Berkeley to
Speaker 8: go to wherever the fraternities and sororities were having parties.
Speaker 8: Every party that I went to at that time, if
Speaker 8: a DJ was any good, he would always play a
Speaker 8: song by a rap artist named slick Rick. Click Rick
Speaker 8: the Ruler had a song called Children's Story, and I
Speaker 8: loved slick Rick. I loved that song. I loved his
Speaker 8: British accent. I love his storytelling ability. Everything about that
Speaker 8: song was beautiful to me. And the thing that was
Speaker 8: interesting about that particular song was that a DJ did
Speaker 8: not play that song at ten o'clock at night or
Speaker 8: eleven o'clock at night or twelve o'clock at night. If
Speaker 8: last call for alcohol was at two am and the
Speaker 8: party was closing at two when the DJ is getting
Speaker 8: into the heat of his set, it was gonna be
Speaker 8: one of those one am type of songs in between
Speaker 8: all of the other big records, because the energy in
Speaker 8: the room, the adrenaline, the everything that was happening in
Speaker 8: the room was being dictated by what's happening with the
Speaker 8: music being played. And every time that song would come
Speaker 8: on at due dune, Dun Dun Dump, I could literally
Speaker 8: see the room start bouncing and I could watch people
Speaker 8: gravitate to the floor. So even back then in college,
Speaker 8: I would say, if I ever get into the music business,
Speaker 8: I'm going to sing over that song. If I ever
Speaker 8: get a chance at the music business, I'm going to
Speaker 8: sing over that song. And so I took that with me,
Speaker 8: you know, from nineteen eighty six, eighty seven.
Speaker 6: Eighty eight, eighty nine, ninety nine.
Speaker 8: Just that thought process is, if I ever get a
Speaker 8: chance in the business, I'm going to sing over that song.
Speaker 8: And so when I finally did get a record deal
Speaker 8: opportunity with Russell Simmons at def Jam Records, and I
Speaker 8: got the record deal, and I went and I bought
Speaker 8: equipment and I did everything that I needed to do.
Speaker 8: I started putting together this entire album, and this is
Speaker 8: how we do. It was not even in the first songs.
Speaker 8: It was the very last song that I sang and
Speaker 8: wrote on that first album because because I knew the track,
Speaker 8: I knew what I wanted to I knew it had
Speaker 8: to be special and I didn't want to screw it up.
Speaker 8: And so because I had always said I'm want to
Speaker 8: sing over that song, it was actually the very last
Speaker 8: song I recorded on my first album.
Speaker 1: Oh my God.
Speaker 3: So it was years in the making by the time
Speaker 3: it came out.
Speaker 4: It was actually very layered, and yeah, it had.
Speaker 5: Wait, I have a question. Then, you've talked about slick Rick.
Speaker 2: Who were some of your other musical influences growing up then?
Speaker 2: Because you were I mean I was talk about not
Speaker 2: talk about having two completely different ways of growing up.
Speaker 2: I grew up in a tiny, little white town in Connecticut,
Speaker 2: but all of my friends listened to NWA slick Rick.
Speaker 2: I mean, these were in the suburbs for the white
Speaker 2: kids by this point too, and so it was so
Speaker 2: strange to see the proliferation of how again the little
Speaker 2: white kids from Avon, Connecticut were grabbing onto this culture
Speaker 2: as much as we could because it was so different
Speaker 2: and so interesting for us. But being in the heart
Speaker 2: of it, I mean, what were your influences musically as
Speaker 2: you were growing.
Speaker 6: Up very eclectic, very eclectic for me.
Speaker 8: I listened to Miami Sound Machine Police, Oh Boy, Cindy Lauper,
Speaker 8: I know her song's word for word. I listened to
Speaker 8: Phil Collins, and even on my first album, I did
Speaker 8: the cover. I think it was my first album, I
Speaker 8: did a cover of Against All Odds. Literally, I've been
Speaker 8: a fan of I mean, my first concert was Katrina
Speaker 8: and the Waves and Wham, you know. So on one side,
Speaker 8: I've got this, you know, real interesting. The radio station
Speaker 8: in LA was the Mighty sixth ninety, which was kind
Speaker 8: of this Madonna, you know, super pre MTV kind of
Speaker 8: musical style. And then on the other hand, of course,
Speaker 8: I have my Whitney Houston, Luther Vandroz, Freddie Jackson, Line, Ritchie,
Speaker 8: you know. And then being brought up in old school music,
Speaker 8: the Eisley Brothers, the Gap Band, like, I've just got
Speaker 8: this entire.
Speaker 6: Hoot pory of songs.
Speaker 8: Then hip hop comes and it hits, and then I'm
Speaker 8: not trying to figure out how can I take all
Speaker 8: of these other pieces of music and then tie hip
Speaker 8: hop in to bring all of those things together. This
Speaker 8: is interesting. I did a song with Coolio, who's passed away.
Speaker 6: Now.
Speaker 8: I did a song with Coolio called Payback, and the
Speaker 8: song Payback I think has thirteen samples in that song,
Speaker 8: Oh my god, because I at the time sampling was
Speaker 8: like a really big deal, and my sampling was singing
Speaker 8: other people's melodies and songs as I was trying to
Speaker 8: pay to other artists. So I would say, you know,
Speaker 8: I think in that song the second verse, I can't
Speaker 8: say everything I said back then, but I said, girl,
Speaker 8: it feels like payback. I really really hate to say that.
Speaker 8: I thought you were trifling giving me this show, but
Speaker 8: you're gonna miss You're gonna miss my love. And when
Speaker 8: I said that, that was lou Ross. And then I said, oh,
Speaker 8: golly Waller. She was raising hell a slick red. She
Speaker 8: was so well unfaithful, which was full force.
Speaker 6: Way back. I was cheating. Don't want to get either.
Speaker 6: But I ain't going out like that. I ain't going
Speaker 6: out like that. I ain't. That was the sin look
Speaker 6: in the.
Speaker 10: Hispanic rap group Cypress Hills. You know, if I apologize
Speaker 10: for all the lies, oh forgive me, girl, I'm sorry.
Speaker 10: There's a ride in it wrong with a Love somebody
Speaker 10: Keith Sweat, So I literally in that verse like I
Speaker 10: was just like coming with punch line up to punch
Speaker 10: up the punch line.
Speaker 8: Like it a rapper would do. But I was trying
Speaker 8: to take rappers disabilities. And then at my pop and
Speaker 8: hip hop and musical references R and B references in
Speaker 8: and hip hop helped me pull ittles things together.
Speaker 1: Wow, unbelievable. I know, I'm believable. I mean, I'm going
Speaker 1: to go off of your unbelievable answer and ask you
Speaker 1: this question. I have two sons I have. They are
Speaker 1: three and five, and I think you're the only person
Speaker 1: in the world who can answer this for me. When
Speaker 1: do they become big g's. Right now, they are lowercase cheese.
Speaker 1: I'm just wondering when I can expect capitalization.
Speaker 8: Yeah, I love that.
Speaker 6: That's such a great question. I am.
Speaker 8: I have sons who are thirty five, twenty one, and
Speaker 8: twenty and the twenty and the twenty one and twenties
Speaker 8: are still lowercase g's.
Speaker 1: Later than I expected.
Speaker 6: Okay, capitalization has not happened yet. I have a thirty
Speaker 6: five year.
Speaker 8: Old son and he is he is borderline capital G.
Speaker 6: Okay, uppercase t with me. He's a big G.
Speaker 1: He's a big g Now, Okay, I didn't know if
Speaker 1: it was like thirteen like a bar mitzvah or something,
Speaker 1: it's not going to happen.
Speaker 6: That it's not going to happen. Then I want to
Speaker 6: break your heart on that.
Speaker 1: But I mean, I know, I this is the kind
Speaker 1: of this is what I was hoping for. It Now
Speaker 1: I now I know the expectation.
Speaker 6: So Gedam comes a little a little later on.
Speaker 1: Okay, getam.
Speaker 3: Okay, So a couple of a couple of questions ago,
Speaker 3: you threw out this.
Speaker 4: My wife negotiated my contract for me, and yeah, so
Speaker 4: I want to hear more about this.
Speaker 6: How so your wife.
Speaker 3: Was managing your career? Did you meet her at Pepperdine?
Speaker 3: How did this happen?
Speaker 5: What's that?
Speaker 6: How did that?
Speaker 8: I met my wife before I got my record deal.
Speaker 8: I met her in nineteen ninety one. I had finished college.
Speaker 8: She was still in college. We met at a fraternity
Speaker 8: sorority party at a place called the Cockatoo Inn, which
Speaker 8: was a little club near lax In, La. I saw her.
Speaker 8: I was inside the club and I saw her walk by.
Speaker 8: My wife is six feet tall, but I think that
Speaker 8: night she had on like three inch heels. She had
Speaker 8: long hair at the time. And literally, I don't know
Speaker 8: if you remember the television show with Linda Carter, the
Speaker 8: show Wonder Woman, and they had all the women that
Speaker 8: were Amazon's on that island and I saw her and
Speaker 8: I was like, one got away, one of the Amazons. Yeah,
Speaker 8: and I said, I'm gonna catch me one. And so
Speaker 8: she came inside my friend who happened to know her
Speaker 8: from college at Sonoma State. He introduced us, He introduced us,
Speaker 8: She cared not whether I lived or died. And it
Speaker 8: was literally like one of the most awkward moments because
Speaker 8: my friend and her friend connected and said on let's
Speaker 8: go dance. And they left us there in this club
Speaker 8: to kind of talk to each other. And so I'm like, hey,
Speaker 8: so what do you like to do And She's like nothing.
Speaker 1: Please don't talk to me.
Speaker 8: It was really that And so literally, for probably about
Speaker 8: twenty five to thirty minutes, we sat in this club.
Speaker 8: People were dancing, they were partying, having a good time.
Speaker 8: I'm sitting there and she is giving me no rhythm.
Speaker 8: Is there anything you're interested in?
Speaker 6: Nothing? Really, And I'm like God, and the challenge is
Speaker 6: you guys.
Speaker 8: I was a popular guy, like I'm so the fraternity thing,
Speaker 8: I was like, this is my mac daddy vibe.
Speaker 6: I'm giving you here, this is I'm giving and there
Speaker 6: was nothing. And so.
Speaker 8: I finally was like, are you are you sure you
Speaker 8: don't want to dance? And she said to me if
Speaker 8: I dance with you, will you leave me alone?
Speaker 5: Never a good sign.
Speaker 8: And I said, I'm thinking to myself always, so you're
Speaker 8: saying I got a chance.
Speaker 10: Right.
Speaker 8: So we go out, we dance, and I'm giving it
Speaker 8: my my everything. I'm full blown running man Motown, Philly,
Speaker 8: like I'm going in. And at that point I embarrassed
Speaker 8: her out on the floor to the point and she's like, okay, okay, okay,
Speaker 8: stop stop, let's let's go talk.
Speaker 6: Let's just let's talk. Now. We talked.
Speaker 8: We exchanged numbers. Somehow I was able to get the number.
Speaker 8: I broke man rule one forty seven, which is well,
Speaker 8: waited two days two days. I didn't wait the full
Speaker 8: three day rule. Okay, But I called her and we
Speaker 8: set up a double date and she came and saw me,
Speaker 8: and it was it was wild because she would tell
Speaker 8: you that she did not even see me the first
Speaker 8: night that we met, and so it leads me to
Speaker 8: believe that sometimes it takes the second time to meet
Speaker 8: somebody for the first time. And so we had one
Speaker 8: of those instances where she saw me the second time
Speaker 8: and our friend was like, dang, he fine, I chose
Speaker 8: the wrong one, and she was like, you showed it.
Speaker 8: And so we talked, we hung out and became really
Speaker 8: best friends and we have we have been married now
Speaker 8: for thirty years.
Speaker 1: Wow, congratulations to each other.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I love it.
Speaker 11: And so how did the management component come about? Management
Speaker 11: was once we started dating. And remember I just coming
Speaker 11: out of I'd come out of college. I'm working at
Speaker 11: a company now, she's still in college. I'm taking this
Speaker 11: journey where I'm like, Okay, if I'm going to try
Speaker 11: and do this music thing, let me try and do
Speaker 11: it now before trying to go to law school.
Speaker 8: So I got a job. I am now working on
Speaker 8: doing demo tapes and doing talent shows. She is in
Speaker 8: a singing group that we had at the time, and
Speaker 8: I'm now producing this group with a bunch of other girls.
Speaker 8: But we would put them like in talent shows, and
Speaker 8: then I would enter the talent show as well, and
Speaker 8: then I would win the talent show.
Speaker 6: And then my wife is like, at some point, why
Speaker 6: are we.
Speaker 8: In the same boat of doing this and we're going
Speaker 8: to keep losing to this guy. This doesn't make sense.
Speaker 8: So rather than try and compete against me, let me
Speaker 8: just manage him.
Speaker 1: So I'm so smart. She's like, we're putting all of
Speaker 1: our eggs in the wrong basket.
Speaker 8: Exactly exactly. But she you know, I trust, I trust her.
Speaker 8: I trusted her, and I trust her, and so at
Speaker 8: that time, you know, there were once I finally did
Speaker 8: get a record deal, people that were interested in helping
Speaker 8: me and signing me to deals. There were other people
Speaker 8: who were very big name managers and big name lawyers,
Speaker 8: but I didn't know them and I didn't trust them,
Speaker 8: and so I took my shot with somebody that I trusted,
Speaker 8: that I figured could learn the business over somebody who
Speaker 8: knew the business but I didn't know.
Speaker 6: If I could trust.
Speaker 8: And so that's how she became my manager early on.
Speaker 8: And that management went through a bunch of different you
Speaker 8: know stages. What was her and a couple of friends
Speaker 8: and her and one of my friends.
Speaker 6: And X Y and Z until it finally got down
Speaker 6: to you know, just the two of us shout out
Speaker 6: to Bill Withers, just the two of us.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so you mentioned that obviously your wife banked on
Speaker 1: you when she said part of her your contract was
Speaker 1: that if you sold a million records, they were going
Speaker 1: to pay off your student loan debt. You also mentioned
Speaker 1: a DJ named Paul who lived near you, and you
Speaker 1: say in the song sell a million records and were
Speaker 1: making the dash. Who is Paul.
Speaker 6: Yeah, DJ p that's Paul Stewart.
Speaker 8: Paul is a very instrumental part of my career. He
Speaker 8: was one of the guys who at the time before
Speaker 8: I got the record deal with def Jam, he was
Speaker 8: connected to a filmmaker named John Singleton. John Singleton very
Speaker 8: very famously for Boys in the Hood. He also happened
Speaker 8: to be my fraternity brother.
Speaker 5: He was your fraternity brother.
Speaker 6: Yeah, he's a capital from USC I think he was.
Speaker 2: Is he still the youngest Academy Award nominee?
Speaker 5: I think I think he's still twenty three. When he
Speaker 5: did Boys in the Hood something like that, he fought
Speaker 5: to have the film made. It as an absolutely incredible story.
Speaker 2: It's about how Boys in the Hood came to be
Speaker 2: a really amazing story.
Speaker 8: It's phenomenal and John was a great, great guy he
Speaker 8: pledged me when I came into my fraternity had been
Speaker 8: in like a year or two before me, which was
Speaker 8: pretty cool, and uh, it wasn't cool because that yeah,
Speaker 8: pledging of fraternity was Yeah, that's a long story.
Speaker 6: That's for another pod. But but I didn't know John.
Speaker 8: I knew him well, uh, to the point of where
Speaker 8: he was really into filmmaking. He wanted to go into
Speaker 8: He had a company called New Deal New Deal Productions, uh,
Speaker 8: and he was wanting to get into music, and so
Speaker 8: he was trying to put out New Deal Records at
Speaker 8: the time. And because I knew him, I was going
Speaker 8: to try and sign with him. And Paul at the
Speaker 8: time was John's head of A and R. He was
Speaker 8: the head of finding musical talent. And then at that time,
Speaker 8: you know, the music businesses cutthroat, and I think Russell
Speaker 8: Simmons was trying to get artists out of the West
Speaker 8: Coast to come and be a part of deftam out
Speaker 8: on the East coast, and so h somehow Paul made
Speaker 8: his way outside of John's New Deal Records got him
Speaker 8: an imprint called Power Move Power Move Productions, which is
Speaker 8: pimp p and p uh and uh he asked me
Speaker 8: if I wanted to come and be a part of
Speaker 8: his record label, of his production company. I told him no,
Speaker 8: I'm rocking with John. But understanding, like I said, John
Speaker 8: was very very film driven. He was not musical. And
Speaker 8: in all that time I spent months and months and
Speaker 8: months trying to get connected, trying to get put on.
Speaker 6: It just didn't happen.
Speaker 8: And at some point I just reached out to Paul
Speaker 8: and I was like, hey, if I give you a demo,
Speaker 8: you know, will you take it to Russell? And Russell
Speaker 8: heard a ratty demo of mine and I got signed
Speaker 8: kind of on the spot in New York City. So,
Speaker 8: but Paul, Paul was that was That's why he was memorialized.
Speaker 8: That memorialized, but he is immortalized in the song This
Speaker 8: is how we do it, you know, live the DJ
Speaker 8: and Paul was his name. He came up to money.
Speaker 8: This is what he said, you know, Ji, gonna make
Speaker 8: some cash, sell a million records and we're making the
Speaker 8: dash And I just said that, but I didn't know,
Speaker 8: you know, a million going to go.
Speaker 1: He was clairvoyant.
Speaker 9: You were clairvoyant, Yeah, you know, prophetic he I think, Okay,
Speaker 9: so this is Funny Depjam is celebrating their forty year
Speaker 9: anniversary this year, and This Is How We Do It
Speaker 9: is celebrating it's thirty year anniversary in twenty twenty five,
Speaker 9: and my song this is How We Do It.
Speaker 6: Your song Dade.
Speaker 8: Is actually a certified seven million albums.
Speaker 1: So I known million.
Speaker 2: How I know nothing of the music industry at all.
Speaker 2: So how how long does it take from getting signed
Speaker 2: to then recording to then people being able to buy
Speaker 2: your album?
Speaker 5: How long a process is that?
Speaker 8: Well, the only way I can answer that as I
Speaker 8: can say, I can say how long was that? Because
Speaker 8: people don't really buy albums anymore? They don't really exist anymore.
Speaker 8: And so the fact that an album actually exists to
Speaker 8: this day, it's more so. You know, I was in
Speaker 8: the studio last night recording a Christmas song that I
Speaker 8: think is gonna be phenomenal, and I'm there with this
Speaker 8: great big SSL board and the musician ship. I had
Speaker 8: live musicians come in and do X, Y and Z,
Speaker 8: and none of that exists anymore. It's almost like, if
Speaker 8: you have a computer and a good set of of software,
Speaker 8: you can create almost anything just in a you know,
Speaker 8: in a computer now, and so you could do an album.
Speaker 8: You know some guys that a rap album. You can
Speaker 8: have guys send you ten tracks and you wrap over
Speaker 8: ten tracks and put together an album. You can put
Speaker 8: it up on disctro Kid later tonight. So the the
Speaker 8: sweat equity and the authenticity I think that goes into
Speaker 8: the creation of an album is one of the things
Speaker 8: that may have been lost in the technology advancements to
Speaker 8: be able to have, you know, to be able to
Speaker 8: get music out quicker and more streamlined. But let me
Speaker 8: say this, I think one of the beautiful parts about
Speaker 8: musicianship that I loved, the same thing that I got
Speaker 8: from my church upbringing, the same thing that I got
Speaker 8: from being in the studio yesterday, is when you're in person.
Speaker 8: I mean, even as we're using technology and we're laughing
Speaker 8: and we're connecting, but there's just something different when you're
Speaker 8: in the room. If I could literally be in the
Speaker 8: room to hug your face and hug your neck and
Speaker 8: actually tangibly feel you know, energy and warmth, and those
Speaker 8: are things that cannot be replicated. They can't be duplicated.
Speaker 8: And even if somebody watches your followers, they watch this
Speaker 8: pod and they feel everything that the feels that are
Speaker 8: coming from these stories. There's still something different about being
Speaker 8: in the room. And I think that's the element when
Speaker 8: people say what's different about music from then to music
Speaker 8: from now?
Speaker 6: The music?
Speaker 8: Then you were in the room and there were things
Speaker 8: happening in the room. There were stories that happened when
Speaker 8: I was in the room that, yeah, I could take
Speaker 8: a laugh track or I could take this track and
Speaker 8: put the feel of it into a formatted song, but
Speaker 8: there was just something magical that happened about being in
Speaker 8: the room.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I want to know what it was like
Speaker 1: to be in the room the night of the Grammys
Speaker 1: when you were nominated for This Is How We Do It?
Speaker 1: You were up against DiAngelo, Prince, Barry White, and Stevie Wonder,
Speaker 1: and Stevie Wonder won that evening. But I want to know,
Speaker 1: what do you remember from that night? It had to
Speaker 1: have been insane.
Speaker 8: I thought to myself, Stevie, who you know, how intimidating
Speaker 8: you know to you know, this was one of those
Speaker 8: things where when you when you hear people say, oh,
Speaker 8: it's just good to be nominated, this was really it's
Speaker 8: just good to be nominated, because when you throw on
Speaker 8: names like Prince and Stevie Wonder around like that was
Speaker 8: that was huge. So just to be in that company
Speaker 8: was a very, very, a very big deal.
Speaker 6: I think that.
Speaker 8: That was one of the most memorable nights for me
Speaker 8: because we had recorded a song to help raise funds
Speaker 8: for cancer earlier that day and it was like a
Speaker 8: who's who of everybody was in the room. Curtis Mayfield
Speaker 8: was still alive at that time, and you know, you
Speaker 8: had all these artists that came together to record that song.
Speaker 8: And then later that night after the Grammys were in
Speaker 8: New York City in Laura, Manhattan at a club called
Speaker 8: the Soul Cafe. And at the Soul Cafe, I can
Speaker 8: remember being in there and I looked around the room
Speaker 8: and Isaac Hayes was in there and Melissa Morgan, like
Speaker 8: it was a who's who of the music business, Roy
Speaker 8: Ayers and Wynton Marcellis and just all these amazing people,
Speaker 8: and they called me up on the stage to sing.
Speaker 8: So this to me was almost bigger than the nomination
Speaker 8: because now I'm in this who's who of the music
Speaker 8: business in this like intimate room and they asked me
Speaker 8: to come up on the stage to sing, and so
Speaker 8: I came up and I sang live with the band
Speaker 8: I had never played with before. I did Bobby Caldwell's
Speaker 8: song what You Want to Do for Love Against she
Speaker 8: wondered where up then? And did that song live. And
Speaker 8: then as I'm finishing the song, I can look at
Speaker 8: the back of the room and I can see Stevie
Speaker 8: Wonder walking. He has this guy with him and he's
Speaker 8: walked looking towards the stage, and all I could think
Speaker 8: is Montelle, get the hell off the stage.
Speaker 6: Stevie Wonders make coming.
Speaker 8: And as he's coming up the stairs, I'm trying to
Speaker 8: go down the stairs. His guy says to me. He
Speaker 8: leans over, he says, Stevie wants you to stay. And
Speaker 8: so Stevie Wonder comes on stage. He sits down on
Speaker 8: the piano and he starts giving the ladies in the
Speaker 8: room a note to sing, a melody to sing, and
Speaker 8: he gives the guys a melody to sing, and he's
Speaker 8: got the guys singing, the girls singing. I'm there on
Speaker 8: stage with Stevie Wonder, and all I could remember is
Speaker 8: after we left the club that night, we were walking
Speaker 8: to the car or to the cabin Manhattan, and blocks
Speaker 8: away you could hear the girls still singing that melody
Speaker 8: and guys were still singing that melody in the streets
Speaker 8: of New York City. And so that for me, that
Speaker 8: Grammy Knight was a night I performed with Stevie Wonder.
Speaker 8: It was a night I remember thinking to myself, I
Speaker 8: don't want to die. But if this was the night,
Speaker 8: then it happened. I'm good, pretty good right here.
Speaker 10: Wow.
Speaker 1: As you mentioned, you and your beautiful wife Kristen have
Speaker 1: been married for thirty years. You recently released a book
Speaker 1: called This Is How We Do It, making your marriage
Speaker 1: a masterpiece. If you had one piece of advice for couples,
Speaker 1: what do you think it would be?
Speaker 8: One piece of advice for couples? And that's tough because
Speaker 8: when you write a book, there's a bunch of lot. Yeah,
Speaker 8: but I think if I had to give one piece
Speaker 8: of advice, I would say, don't go into marriage with
Speaker 8: an exit strategy. And I think a lot of people
Speaker 8: enter marriage and they're always thinking, if this doesn't work,
Speaker 8: here's what I'll do, or here's where I'll draw the line.
Speaker 8: If this ever happens, then I'm I'm out. And so
Speaker 8: no one is ever thinking how do I make this
Speaker 8: last forever, and how do I make this the best
Speaker 8: forever possible? And so just that mental shift of not
Speaker 8: where's the line drawn of where I can be out
Speaker 8: or what would be the final that the strata breaks
Speaker 8: the camel's back, or what is the thing that's unimaginable
Speaker 8: that this ever happened?
Speaker 6: Then I would.
Speaker 8: But from that standpoint, I think that if people thought
Speaker 8: to themselves, how do I make this last forever? Opposed
Speaker 8: to what is my what is my out right? I
Speaker 8: think that and my wife and I've gotten some flat
Speaker 8: from this statement, but we say a divorce is an
Speaker 8: option for you.
Speaker 6: You have too many options.
Speaker 8: And I know people will say, well, you know, but
Speaker 8: you know, that's what if you live with a narcissist
Speaker 8: or whatever there is abuse, or what if there's this,
Speaker 8: and and we don't make that statement for you to
Speaker 8: stay with a narcissist, And we don't make that statement
Speaker 8: for you to stay in an abusive relationship.
Speaker 6: We don't we don't believe any of that. But we
Speaker 6: do believe.
Speaker 8: That if there is an option that's placed on the table,
Speaker 8: it now becomes something that's usable for both parties.
Speaker 6: And so if there's a.
Speaker 8: Way to to make sure that you're looking for eternity
Speaker 8: opposed to looking at an exit strategy.
Speaker 6: I think that's probably the most important thing.
Speaker 1: I love that so true story and a little secret here.
Speaker 1: I was asked to do the first season of Special Forces,
Speaker 1: and I contemplated doing it.
Speaker 6: I am best.
Speaker 5: To you that then I win.
Speaker 1: The first season came out and I saw that you
Speaker 1: had done it. I had full fomo. I was like,
Speaker 1: I can't.
Speaker 5: Believe I didn't do it.
Speaker 1: I am normally so quick to say no to reality
Speaker 1: TV shows, but that one really interested me. I was like, ooh,
Speaker 1: I like I I like this idea of seeing how
Speaker 1: truly inner tough you are. Now you got injured very early,
Speaker 1: but you were my pick to win it.
Speaker 8: All, so I appreciate that I was my pick to
Speaker 8: win it all too. No, I think what was crazy
Speaker 8: is for me. I don't like heights, I don't swim like.
Speaker 8: There were just tons of things that made me want
Speaker 8: to say no to this, But there were things in
Speaker 8: ministry and things that would happen in my life that
Speaker 8: said I have to try and conquer these fears, and
Speaker 8: so I can remember you know I was there, or
Speaker 8: I think like the first three days. But on the
Speaker 8: television show, because you have sixteen people and sixteen different
Speaker 8: lives and you got an hour to tell a story,
Speaker 8: you only can get like snippets of bits and pieces
Speaker 8: of people's story. And so I can remember I knew
Speaker 8: that I went home fifth out of the sixteen after
Speaker 8: breaking my hand. I think they had me go home
Speaker 8: fourth in the telling of the story.
Speaker 1: Got it.
Speaker 8: But man, I can remember after after the first day,
Speaker 8: I remember thinking to myself, I can win this, like
Speaker 8: I thought to myself, I did.
Speaker 6: We jumped out of the helicopter backwards into the red
Speaker 6: sea the first day. Yeah, so I remember thinking to myself,
Speaker 6: you know what, I can do this. I could, I
Speaker 6: could probably do this.
Speaker 1: I got over fear of the water, and.
Speaker 8: You know, and so I don't know if you can
Speaker 8: see it, but let me see it. You can't really
Speaker 8: tell now, but I steal my hand very very protruded
Speaker 8: from from breaking my hand because I didn't know how to
Speaker 8: throw a punch properly. But that was it was kind
Speaker 8: of devastating being over there and preparing to get over there,
Speaker 8: and really getting to a point where I thought to myself,
Speaker 8: you know, it's the same marriage philosophy that I thought
Speaker 8: to myself, you know, I just said, don't go in
Speaker 8: with an exit strategy. I initially went in thinking, well,
Speaker 8: I just don't want to be the first one to
Speaker 8: go home. I just don't want to be the first one.
Speaker 8: And then after like two people, but after that first day,
Speaker 8: I was like, you know what, I could probably do this.
Speaker 8: And then that's when I broke my hand, like at
Speaker 8: the end of the second day, and I was like, oh,
Speaker 8: you gotta be kidding me here. So but I'm still
Speaker 8: close friends with Nastia.
Speaker 6: And mel By.
Speaker 8: Our girl uh is having a baby now, my soccer girl.
Speaker 6: I came.
Speaker 8: Coo and I'm drawing a blank on her name right now,
Speaker 8: but it'll come back to me in just a second.
Speaker 1: But you made friendships on that show that have lasted.
Speaker 6: Absolutely.
Speaker 1: That could have been me.
Speaker 2: That could have been me, you got, Yeah, you could
Speaker 2: have been You could have been friends in real life,
Speaker 2: not just on the screen.
Speaker 6: You will be on the text stream together. It'll be happening.
Speaker 1: I think you could still add me, just even though
Speaker 1: I wasn't there.
Speaker 2: Like, hey, guys, Danielle is okay with heights and swimming.
Speaker 2: She does have a fear of helicopters in the Red Sea,
Speaker 2: so that would be very difficult.
Speaker 5: Weird, she's got weird phobias.
Speaker 6: Yeah, it's all good.
Speaker 8: But if you if you have heights and water, aren't
Speaker 8: aren't like something that you're fearful of?
Speaker 6: You know?
Speaker 8: Like I said, if I had been able to stay
Speaker 8: on the show later, I think, like the fire stuff
Speaker 8: and the driving stuff, I may have been able to
Speaker 8: to maybe do some of that. But I think God
Speaker 8: was saving me because the very next day after I
Speaker 8: went home, the episode where they dropped the jeeps into
Speaker 8: the water and you had to stay in the water
Speaker 8: for thirty seconds and they tap you and then you swim.
Speaker 6: Oh that would have that That may have been it
Speaker 6: for me right there right, I don't know.
Speaker 1: Oh man, a great.
Speaker 6: Show, good people. Box did a great job with that one.
Speaker 1: Yeah. So you have four children and now you are grandparents.
Speaker 1: I know you have one son who plays football, a
Speaker 1: daughter singing with you, two in church. When you look
Speaker 1: back on your career, now, what is the biggest thing
Speaker 1: you've learned and what are you most proud of?
Speaker 6: What is the biggest thing I've learned and what am
Speaker 6: I most proud of?
Speaker 8: Okay, the probably the most valuable thing I have learned
Speaker 8: is health is wealth. I think health health as well.
Speaker 8: I think that of all my experiences in life and
Speaker 8: this journey, I've been on everything that you kind of
Speaker 8: do with your body, everything that you do, it's keeping it,
Speaker 8: it's it's it's keeping counts, it's keeping a tally. And
Speaker 8: so having good health, good mental health, good physical health, arms, knees, heart, lungs,
Speaker 8: all those different things. You know, when you're young, you
Speaker 8: think you're maybe a little invincible or whatever. And I think,
Speaker 8: now I'm fifty five and a fifty five I'm recognizing
Speaker 8: the value of health more probably than anything else in
Speaker 8: this life at this point. So that's probably the most
Speaker 8: valuable thing that I've learned. Of course, as amount of
Speaker 8: faith I could give, you know, tremendous answers about having faith,
Speaker 8: you know, at the forefront, but I think health is
Speaker 8: also very very huge thing. And then the second product
Speaker 8: question you asked me what am I most proud of?
Speaker 8: I am And this is maybe maybe a weird thing
Speaker 8: to be proud of, but all of my kids and
Speaker 8: my grand kids have an affection for God. And I
Speaker 8: don't know why that's super important to me, but you know,
Speaker 8: when I think of my nana, who's now ninety five,
Speaker 8: one of the greatest things she ever gave to me
Speaker 8: was my faith where Christian and faith and so me
Speaker 8: being brought up in a church and it was very
Speaker 8: religious and stuff like that. But just even as I
Speaker 8: came up and was able to learn about relationship over religion,
Speaker 8: I think that that's what makes me the man. I
Speaker 8: am the friend, I am the husband, I am the father,
Speaker 8: I am the big papa that I am to my grandkids.
Speaker 8: And now I'm watching them have their own seeking and
Speaker 8: their own desire for something greater than themselves and greater
Speaker 8: than other people, and them finding that in God for themselves,
Speaker 8: and I think I'm probably most proud of that.
Speaker 1: Well, that's a more eloquent answer than what I'm going
Speaker 1: to add. But I am also going to add for
Speaker 1: you that you made a party song that promotes designated driving.
Speaker 8: Yes, I mean, listen, I just got to count for
Speaker 8: something right now.
Speaker 1: That is not easy. It is a It is an
Speaker 1: absolute party smash song and completely promotes designated driving. So
Speaker 1: kudos to you for thirty years having that out there
Speaker 1: being promoted. And I'm just as Will said, they it's
Speaker 1: palpable my excitement that you're here. Such an honor to
Speaker 1: have you. Thank you for spending your very valuable time
Speaker 1: with us, and.
Speaker 8: You are wonderful. I love y'all. You have no idea.
Speaker 8: You are a part of my teenage hood years. And
Speaker 8: I'm just grateful for your platform. I'm grateful for your
Speaker 8: married I'm grateful for your lives and that you still
Speaker 8: can bring joy, you know, to people's life into my life.
Speaker 8: And I'm gonna Hey, don't know if you want to
Speaker 8: do this, but I know I have a Special Forces
Speaker 8: text stream, but I would be willing if you guys
Speaker 8: wanted to and you want to do a pod pod
Speaker 8: needs World textream, yeah, man, and like you can just
Speaker 8: you can just randomly see how we text it.
Speaker 6: Let's go, don't.
Speaker 9: Play with my emotions, emotions starting it within minutes of super.
Speaker 6: I'm super confidential.
Speaker 8: We'll keep it amongst our be our thing, and you'll
Speaker 8: be able to any point in time be like, yeah,
Speaker 8: I got Montel Jordan on speed dial.
Speaker 6: Just do that. Well, I don't know if that's really
Speaker 6: how you do it.
Speaker 2: Let me find out ryder and I will spend more
Speaker 2: time next time talking to you we didn't want to
Speaker 2: jump in.
Speaker 5: And take this from Danielle. Essentially what happened.
Speaker 1: I'll see Quiet on the text stream for a little
Speaker 1: bit so you guys can talk to him.
Speaker 8: Y'all are fantastic. Why do you have the coolest name ever?
Speaker 8: Thanks shout out to your parents for doing that. I
Speaker 8: got stuck with Montel it works, but a writer Jordan
Speaker 8: would have been.
Speaker 6: Pretty cool too.
Speaker 8: But no, I'm grateful for you, guys, and thank you
Speaker 8: for inviting me. I'm grateful to be a part of
Speaker 8: your childhood. A part of your music is a part
Speaker 8: of the soundtrack to our lives, and I get to
Speaker 8: be a part of the soundtrack of your life in
Speaker 8: the same way you're a part of my television life.
Speaker 6: So just super glad we could connect.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for sharing stories. So cool, so cool.
Speaker 1: Thank you Monte guys.
Speaker 6: I see you on the chat.
Speaker 1: Okay, see you in.
Speaker 5: The chat for real.
Speaker 1: I can't believe I am in a text chat with
Speaker 1: Monte Jordan. I mean, I did not.
Speaker 5: I did not.
Speaker 1: This was not on my bingo card. But boy, oh boy,
Speaker 1: you're not yet.
Speaker 5: Don't be too you gotta listain.
Speaker 1: I'm counting it, he said, it two days.
Speaker 5: He would never light to me, he would never waiting
Speaker 5: two days.
Speaker 1: I'm going to break and I'm going to text him
Speaker 1: right now.
Speaker 5: And told you what the bro code was. No, you're
Speaker 5: not supposed to just say bro code. You're not supposed to.
Speaker 1: Get into it now, I know.
Speaker 5: So, I mean, yeah, I can't.
Speaker 1: Take it back, can't take it back now.
Speaker 3: Oh wow, what a good guy.
Speaker 2: Can you imagine getting on stage and singing with with
Speaker 2: I mean.
Speaker 5: With Stevie Water. You're on stage with Stevie Wonder.
Speaker 1: And the night you've been nominated.
Speaker 5: Prince, I mean, man, what a night that would be?
Speaker 6: Geez?
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, there are just some things where
Speaker 1: it's like you think about his life and and where
Speaker 1: he went, then his decision to go to Pepperdine and
Speaker 1: then going to law school and saying but I can
Speaker 1: do that later. I'm going to take a break right
Speaker 1: now and focus on music, and then his debut album
Speaker 1: selling going platinum, and then being nominated for a Grammy
Speaker 1: all in that first year.
Speaker 5: It's it's great.
Speaker 6: It's crazy.
Speaker 5: It's crazy.
Speaker 1: You can't say that that was not absolutely always meant
Speaker 1: for him, Like that's just so his that was just
Speaker 1: so for it's just amazing.
Speaker 2: But it's also the number of mentors he had that
Speaker 2: were kind of from even from his church, from his schools.
Speaker 5: From it, it just shows.
Speaker 1: He's exactly that is exactly right, that he had to
Speaker 1: have the discernment to know whether or not they were trustworthy.
Speaker 1: Because we all have people, we all have probably a
Speaker 1: million people who like to tell us what to do.
Speaker 1: It doesn't mean you listen to all of them. I mean,
Speaker 1: if I listened to everybody, maybe I have I don't know,
Speaker 1: maybe that's part of the problem. But yeah, it's so crazy. Anyway,
Speaker 1: that was thanks guys, thanks for thanks for letting me
Speaker 1: live out.
Speaker 3: That's such a good, cool, so amazing.
Speaker 1: That was so much fun.
Speaker 5: Rider had Lisa lob come on, you had Montel Jordan
Speaker 5: come on.
Speaker 1: You know we got to get the Husker do wait
Speaker 1: what is it?
Speaker 5: Whisper whisper body?
Speaker 1: I'm pretty sure screen that.
Speaker 5: No, you said the Hoska Duties, which is a different
Speaker 5: thing now, but you were.
Speaker 6: Talking about the Whodoo voodoo?
Speaker 5: What was the one you did? Very different?
Speaker 6: Whos do is Bob mold right correct?
Speaker 3: Okay, yeah, which is also sugar correct? Okay, I'm hit.
Speaker 2: Look at your hit well's because I've made you listen
Speaker 2: to it all the time in my car like you're
Speaker 2: listening to Sugar.
Speaker 5: You're listening to Sugar. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Well, thank you all for joining us for this episode
Speaker 1: of Pod Meets World. As always, you can follow us
Speaker 1: on Instagram pod Meets World Show. You can send us
Speaker 1: your emails pod meets World Show at gmail dot com,
Speaker 1: and we have merch.
Speaker 5: This is how we merchant. Thank you.
Speaker 1: Pod meets Worldshow dot com will send us out.
Speaker 5: Actually, Danielle, I think you should send us out today.
Speaker 1: We love you all, pod dismissed. Pod Meets World is
Speaker 1: an iHeart podcast produced and hosted by Danielle Fischel, Wilfordell
Speaker 1: and right Or Strong execut to producers Jensen Karp and
Speaker 1: Amy Sugarman, Executive in charge of production, Danielle Romo, producer
Speaker 1: and editor, Tara Subachsch producer, Maddie Moore, engineer and Boy
Speaker 1: Meets World superfan Easton Allen. Our theme song is by
Speaker 1: Kyle Morton of Typhoon. Follow us on Instagram at podmeets
Speaker 1: World Show or email us at Podmeets Worldshow at gmail
Speaker 1: dot com.