WEBVTT - Johnny Gill 0:00:01.960 --> 0:00:06.120 R and B Money. We are. 0:00:07.680 --> 0:00:10.360 Thank take melchized. 0:00:11.080 --> 0:00:15.720 We are the authority on all things R. 0:00:15.720 --> 0:00:16.040 And B. 0:00:18.160 --> 0:00:19.680 Ladies and gentlemen. 0:00:20.600 --> 0:00:25.560 My name is Tank and this is the R V 0:00:25.760 --> 0:00:33.560 Money Podcast. The mother fucking authority things. 0:00:32.320 --> 0:00:44.440 Already here today. He is here to day saying what 0:00:44.479 --> 0:00:44.960 they gotta do. 0:00:45.000 --> 0:00:45.559 Go put on that. 0:00:45.720 --> 0:00:47.720 What you read? 0:00:47.840 --> 0:00:51.680 You don't you no red, you better go, get you on, 0:00:52.159 --> 0:00:53.360 get you want to go, get you. 0:00:53.640 --> 0:00:55.320 Get you get real the right way. 0:00:56.280 --> 0:00:57.560 Make some doctors with Julie. 0:01:00.880 --> 0:01:04.760 Yeah, I got, I got Kennedy. Think for that. He 0:01:04.840 --> 0:01:06.880 gave me my name. You know, every artist got to 0:01:06.959 --> 0:01:11.240 have that one record that's just their signature, and it's like, 0:01:11.560 --> 0:01:11.840 can he. 0:01:11.880 --> 0:01:12.640 Gave me my name? 0:01:13.200 --> 0:01:15.000 I'm so glad he took that record back from the 0:01:15.040 --> 0:01:21.280 Whispers because remember yeah, he had given that record to 0:01:21.360 --> 0:01:26.600 the Whispers, and he said hold on. He was like, yeo, 0:01:26.720 --> 0:01:29.760 I think this might be better for Johnny. Yeah, that's 0:01:29.880 --> 0:01:32.319 how we ended up with. Matter of fact, the Whispers 0:01:32.319 --> 0:01:35.399 even recorded it and they said, I guess over what 0:01:35.720 --> 0:01:38.240 happened between them? I don't know for some money stuff, 0:01:38.280 --> 0:01:41.319 but I was like, whatever happened, thank you'. 0:01:41.200 --> 0:01:44.480 All, because because was Gerl was er to be over 0:01:44.520 --> 0:01:45.040 your project. 0:01:45.160 --> 0:01:47.040 Yeah, yeah, Jerold was the project. 0:01:47.720 --> 0:01:48.080 Allah. 0:01:54.000 --> 0:01:55.400 I made sure that record was bought. 0:01:57.320 --> 0:01:58.360 I thank you so many. 0:02:00.280 --> 0:02:00.920 It wasn't for you. 0:02:01.160 --> 0:02:03.480 I don't know what my name would be, but it 0:02:03.520 --> 0:02:09.440 wouldn't be my mama, Johnny. First of all, you're you know, 0:02:09.600 --> 0:02:13.920 you're a legendary, brother. You are absolutely legendary. We are 0:02:14.000 --> 0:02:16.320 honored and blessed to have you here. I want to 0:02:16.480 --> 0:02:19.200 I want to say this and then and then then 0:02:19.240 --> 0:02:20.040 we'll get into it. 0:02:20.360 --> 0:02:20.959 I just want to. 0:02:21.280 --> 0:02:24.120 I want to give you love, and I want to 0:02:24.200 --> 0:02:29.360 salute you for how you handle yourself on tour and 0:02:29.440 --> 0:02:31.120 what you had to endure and what you had to 0:02:31.160 --> 0:02:36.079 go through and to power through that and to get 0:02:36.120 --> 0:02:40.920 on that stage and and be a living testimony and 0:02:40.960 --> 0:02:45.200 to testify the way you did. Brother, like unreal brother. 0:02:45.840 --> 0:02:48.520 And you know we still we still sit in your 0:02:48.520 --> 0:02:49.160 loving prayers. 0:02:49.200 --> 0:02:49.359 Man. 0:02:50.360 --> 0:02:50.560 You know. 0:02:50.720 --> 0:02:53.680 So it's still a challenge every day. And I didn't 0:02:53.720 --> 0:02:57.359 think you know you. I think we all know as kids, 0:02:57.520 --> 0:02:59.799 you know, and just adults to as well. We know 0:03:00.120 --> 0:03:03.040 you lose a loved one, But your first thought as 0:03:03.040 --> 0:03:05.639 a kids, when you think about it, if something happened 0:03:05.639 --> 0:03:08.480 to my mom, I couldn't live I wouldn't be. And 0:03:08.520 --> 0:03:13.880 it's like, man, when that day came, I tell you, man, 0:03:15.400 --> 0:03:17.040 you don't know what kind of strength you have. You 0:03:17.040 --> 0:03:19.040 don't know what you really, honestly are going to do, 0:03:19.120 --> 0:03:22.639 because I couldn't tell you what I would have done 0:03:22.840 --> 0:03:26.359 in that moment. But I just had to just go 0:03:26.600 --> 0:03:29.120 let go of God and I had to lean and 0:03:29.120 --> 0:03:32.360 trust on him more than anything in anybody. Man, I 0:03:32.480 --> 0:03:35.840 tell you I'd never even watching my mom and her 0:03:36.960 --> 0:03:42.160 decline with her health. It's still, you know, the inevitable. 0:03:42.680 --> 0:03:46.880 But at the same time, I always tell everyone, because 0:03:46.920 --> 0:03:48.720 I know we all got to leave here, but when 0:03:48.760 --> 0:03:50.960 you see people that are leaving and you know they're 0:03:51.000 --> 0:03:54.760 going to leave, you still I always tell everyone you 0:03:54.920 --> 0:03:59.280 must try to stay in the moment, stay in the now, 0:03:59.600 --> 0:04:02.880 because if you get too far ahead trying to figure 0:04:02.920 --> 0:04:05.240 out when and how and when it's going to happen, 0:04:05.280 --> 0:04:09.200 what happens is you rob yourself of the now. So 0:04:09.280 --> 0:04:12.080 whatever that is that's going on, if they're still here, 0:04:12.400 --> 0:04:14.280 they're still You're still in the game, they're still in 0:04:14.280 --> 0:04:16.880 the fight, and you have to try to stay present, 0:04:16.960 --> 0:04:17.480 standing now. 0:04:17.720 --> 0:04:18.520 And that's what I did. 0:04:18.560 --> 0:04:21.119 I rode it all the way up to her last breath. 0:04:21.160 --> 0:04:24.760 But it was just tough, man. And I tell you, 0:04:24.839 --> 0:04:30.120 I don't know. It's like I'm waking up still every day. Pill. 0:04:30.200 --> 0:04:33.560 It's just the pillar is just drenched with tears. And 0:04:33.720 --> 0:04:38.680 I remember asking Tyler, Tyler Perry. I asked Tyler, I said, 0:04:40.480 --> 0:04:42.119 he said no. He said, you know what, he says, 0:04:42.760 --> 0:04:46.279 You're gonna be all right. I said, I don't know, man. 0:04:46.320 --> 0:04:48.080 He said, no, You're gonna be all right. He says, 0:04:48.360 --> 0:04:50.640 in nine years. I said, what do you mean in 0:04:50.760 --> 0:04:53.200 nine years? He said, took me nine years. He said, 0:04:53.240 --> 0:04:56.920 you got a long way. I said, my god. And 0:04:57.000 --> 0:04:58.800 I'm like, this is what I got to deal with. 0:04:58.880 --> 0:05:02.200 He's like, man, and it's just you know, that's it 0:05:02.240 --> 0:05:06.320 becomes more bearable, but it's just pain will always be there. 0:05:06.320 --> 0:05:09.159 I'm like, this is man. I wouldn't wish it on 0:05:09.200 --> 0:05:12.160 my worst enemy. And I got a lot of motherfuckers 0:05:12.160 --> 0:05:15.120 I don't like, but I wouldn't wish it on my 0:05:15.320 --> 0:05:20.240 worst enemy. But you know, ultimately, it's just that I 0:05:21.160 --> 0:05:23.640 have on this shoulder that it's called the gratitude bag. 0:05:24.160 --> 0:05:26.919 And even through all the pain and through the heartaches, 0:05:27.680 --> 0:05:30.479 I still wake up every day and I make an 0:05:30.520 --> 0:05:33.320 effort to go in and reach into that gratitude bag 0:05:33.839 --> 0:05:36.840 and understand that at eighty one years of life and 0:05:36.880 --> 0:05:40.440 allowing me to be here for fifty seven years, that 0:05:40.640 --> 0:05:43.800 God allowed me to have my mom throughout my life. 0:05:44.120 --> 0:05:46.279 He didn't have to do it because their kids that 0:05:46.360 --> 0:05:48.760 have grown up without a mother or without a father, 0:05:48.839 --> 0:05:52.200 without both, and to have you know, her here and 0:05:52.240 --> 0:05:56.400 to have guided us and worked as hard as she did, 0:05:56.440 --> 0:06:00.920 and she got an opportunity to see her child carry 0:06:00.960 --> 0:06:05.239 that name in the family's name. And I never robbed 0:06:05.279 --> 0:06:08.560 and stole from anybody, even when I was out. We all, 0:06:08.680 --> 0:06:10.599 when you're growing up and you're in this business, you're 0:06:10.600 --> 0:06:13.640 having fun wilding out. But even in the back of 0:06:13.680 --> 0:06:16.560 my mind, I was still conscious of going, I don't 0:06:16.600 --> 0:06:21.520 want to embarrass my mom. That's a no no. So 0:06:21.760 --> 0:06:24.240 you know, it's been a blessing. So every day I 0:06:24.320 --> 0:06:27.960 still reach into their gratitude bag and think about how 0:06:28.120 --> 0:06:30.680 she could have been gone, and how we thought at 0:06:30.720 --> 0:06:34.039 one point she was gone, and she came roaring back 0:06:34.080 --> 0:06:36.960 and gave us nine more years. And I said, God 0:06:37.000 --> 0:06:40.200 has given us nine. If he gave her even nine more, 0:06:40.560 --> 0:06:43.640 it still probably wouldn't be enough, you know, so I'm 0:06:43.720 --> 0:06:46.840 just grateful. I'm grateful, and I know I got to 0:06:46.880 --> 0:06:51.240 continue to keep pushing through it. But I'll never forget 0:06:51.600 --> 0:06:53.719 going back to work. And the guys was saying, you 0:06:53.760 --> 0:06:56.040 don't have to come back, and I said, this is 0:06:56.120 --> 0:07:00.000 not about me. I said, my mother worked three jobs. 0:07:00.839 --> 0:07:04.800 We were on welfare. Lights would get cut off, water 0:07:04.800 --> 0:07:07.839 would get cut off. But yet my mother would allow 0:07:07.960 --> 0:07:10.200 she had to raise four boys, and she would not 0:07:10.360 --> 0:07:15.560 allow us to live in the projects. If you didn't 0:07:15.560 --> 0:07:17.720 know any better, you would have thought we were middle 0:07:17.720 --> 0:07:21.200 class because we never lived in with four boys, a 0:07:21.240 --> 0:07:24.000 single mom, a single lady taking care of four boys. 0:07:24.320 --> 0:07:30.040 That we lived in a decent neighborhood and nobody knew 0:07:30.400 --> 0:07:33.200 pretty much what our lives was like. And that was 0:07:33.280 --> 0:07:36.760 hard work and that was sacrifice. So I realized I 0:07:36.840 --> 0:07:38.920 knew what my mother would want me to do, and 0:07:38.960 --> 0:07:42.240 that is she wanted me, you know, to carry on. 0:07:42.880 --> 0:07:46.160 And so that sacrifice that I had to make that time, 0:07:46.360 --> 0:07:48.960 during that time was nothing compared to what she had 0:07:49.000 --> 0:07:51.680 to do to deal with with four boys. So I 0:07:51.760 --> 0:07:54.680 had to push myself through that process and try to 0:07:54.720 --> 0:07:57.679 get through it as the best that I could. But boy, 0:07:58.360 --> 0:08:01.480 my god, I tell you, I've been through some rough 0:08:01.480 --> 0:08:06.480 stuff in my life, but man, I don't think nothing's 0:08:06.520 --> 0:08:08.920 nothing compares to that one. 0:08:09.080 --> 0:08:10.640 I'm making that decision to have to go. 0:08:10.680 --> 0:08:13.560 I'm gonna stand out in front of these people and 0:08:13.600 --> 0:08:15.480 do what I know she wants me to do. 0:08:15.920 --> 0:08:18.320 Well, we felt your brother, Yeah, I promise you that. 0:08:18.520 --> 0:08:18.760 Yeah. 0:08:18.840 --> 0:08:20.120 Yeah, I was inspiring. 0:08:20.360 --> 0:08:22.880 Yeah, it was inspiring. That's why. 0:08:23.160 --> 0:08:26.240 Listen, man, I'd rather believe that there's a god and 0:08:26.280 --> 0:08:28.560 die and find out that there is, and then the Gold. 0:08:31.040 --> 0:08:33.360 Leave about it here and realize, oh he was for real. 0:08:34.559 --> 0:08:41.200 She was planning telling the Gold oh man, rolling man 0:08:43.800 --> 0:08:46.640 here ship. 0:08:47.440 --> 0:08:49.440 Yeah, so I ain't gotta mention. 0:08:50.720 --> 0:08:54.040 Oh man, I my man. Now it's just a double 0:08:54.040 --> 0:08:56.120 man because we're supposed to have forty ECUs in the. 0:08:56.160 --> 0:08:59.440 Mut we're talking about. 0:08:59.440 --> 0:09:01.400 It happened. 0:09:01.679 --> 0:09:02.400 So let's do this. 0:09:02.559 --> 0:09:07.080 Let's go back to four boys, four boys being raised. 0:09:06.840 --> 0:09:11.880 DC D C D this original trafolate. 0:09:12.960 --> 0:09:14.640 Yeah about them. 0:09:14.559 --> 0:09:20.079 Humble beginnings man, and and discovering that you are different. 0:09:20.840 --> 0:09:23.520 Man. Let me tell you it's crazy. We we grew 0:09:23.559 --> 0:09:25.559 up my dad was a minister, so we grew up 0:09:26.120 --> 0:09:29.440 singing in church, and he started his church in DC 0:09:29.559 --> 0:09:32.040 and then with my mom and then separated. He moved 0:09:32.360 --> 0:09:36.760 to uh Phoenix City, Alabama, Columbus, Georgia, and then Phoenix City, Alabama. 0:09:37.400 --> 0:09:39.760 And it was crazy because we have to be in 0:09:39.880 --> 0:09:43.720 church two three times on Sundays, and we have to 0:09:43.720 --> 0:09:45.880 go to Bible study, and it was all this stuff. 0:09:46.160 --> 0:09:48.760 And my dad one day brought us all these instruments. 0:09:48.840 --> 0:09:55.600 And I was intrigued with the guitar, and I couldn't 0:09:55.640 --> 0:09:58.679 tell you at that time. I didn't know what it 0:09:58.760 --> 0:10:01.600 was while I was intrigued with guitar. But I picked 0:10:01.600 --> 0:10:06.120 the guitar up and I just started playing it. I 0:10:06.200 --> 0:10:08.560 never had to guitar lessons. I haven't done anything. 0:10:08.559 --> 0:10:09.720 And I just started playing. 0:10:09.760 --> 0:10:13.760 And and so my brother my one of my brothers 0:10:13.760 --> 0:10:16.080 had a bass, the other one had drums, and the 0:10:16.120 --> 0:10:20.840 other one had bongos. And it was funny because you know, 0:10:20.880 --> 0:10:23.040 as kids, we all we used to fight, you know, 0:10:23.120 --> 0:10:26.160 and but when my dad come in, everybody straightened up. 0:10:26.440 --> 0:10:27.320 Dad was no joke. 0:10:27.920 --> 0:10:30.280 He was no different than mister Joe Jackson in the 0:10:30.360 --> 0:10:32.240 way I mean when I say that I loved Joe 0:10:32.240 --> 0:10:34.560 and I knew Joe as well, I'm saying in the 0:10:34.600 --> 0:10:38.520 sense that he was a no nonsense guy. When dad 0:10:38.520 --> 0:10:40.960 came home, everybody was like, this, your room clean, you 0:10:40.960 --> 0:10:43.640 got to make up to bed Mitchell. So but my 0:10:43.760 --> 0:10:46.240 dad went. You know, the kids, they wouldn't let me 0:10:46.280 --> 0:10:49.320 play with their instruments. I used to play sick and 0:10:49.360 --> 0:10:53.199 when they go to school, they never understood how I 0:10:53.280 --> 0:10:56.400 knew how to play all everybody's instruments. I didn't know 0:10:56.440 --> 0:10:56.839 at the time. 0:10:56.880 --> 0:10:58.920 I was intrigued. And that's what the word was intriguing. 0:10:59.200 --> 0:11:00.760 I'm just looking at this up and I would pick 0:11:00.880 --> 0:11:02.600 up an instrument, I just start playing it. 0:11:02.640 --> 0:11:04.240 I don't just would figure it out. 0:11:04.800 --> 0:11:10.080 So so my dad made us form the group. You know, 0:11:10.679 --> 0:11:12.960 I was the youngest out of the crew, and they 0:11:13.000 --> 0:11:15.160 would kick my hands in front, make me singing because 0:11:15.559 --> 0:11:16.959 they used to beat my eyes. It was like, no, 0:11:17.120 --> 0:11:20.959 you get so I ended up doing being the lead 0:11:21.040 --> 0:11:23.680 singer and not realizing that. You know, at the end 0:11:23.720 --> 0:11:26.040 of the day I tell them the years looking back 0:11:26.040 --> 0:11:27.559 at it, and I'm like, how do. 0:11:27.480 --> 0:11:27.880 You like me? 0:11:27.920 --> 0:11:29.400 Now? 0:11:30.520 --> 0:11:33.800 You want to do what? You know? What I'm saying. 0:11:34.559 --> 0:11:50.320 Background ain't no bongos on this. So are you guys 0:11:50.360 --> 0:11:51.120 singing gospel? 0:11:51.760 --> 0:11:56.240 We're singing gospel? Yeah, all over the Metropolitan Area, the 0:11:56.320 --> 0:11:59.280 d M D. It was, you know, as a matter 0:11:59.320 --> 0:12:05.480 of fact, I saw the case Yeah, Little said, yeah, y'all, 0:12:05.559 --> 0:12:06.760 you know we're gonna be on. You're gonna be on 0:12:06.800 --> 0:12:09.040 there with a little centric then right, it's like, yeah, 0:12:09.120 --> 0:12:13.000 bring them all, bring on, bring them all, y'all group. 0:12:13.400 --> 0:12:14.839 Little John and the Wings of Faith. 0:12:15.160 --> 0:12:19.439 So it was little John against a little shirt. 0:12:19.960 --> 0:12:22.679 Somebody has to make a T shirt. Man, what a 0:12:22.960 --> 0:12:23.720 little a. 0:12:23.840 --> 0:12:25.280 Little a little sack. 0:12:25.800 --> 0:12:29.800 Yeah, yeah, Little John in the what and the Wings 0:12:29.800 --> 0:12:30.160 of Faith? 0:12:30.240 --> 0:12:33.960 And listen and Casey gave it up to you he did. 0:12:34.640 --> 0:12:39.160 Yes, oh, man, tell you it was you know, everybody 0:12:39.320 --> 0:12:43.320 you need somebody that especially I mean we are all artists, 0:12:43.360 --> 0:12:46.800 but you always need that somebody that just inspires you 0:12:46.880 --> 0:12:48.680 to push you or you know, okay when I go 0:12:51.679 --> 0:12:53.920 you know, yeah, and yeah it was like a little. 0:12:53.640 --> 0:12:54.520 Said it looks said. 0:12:56.400 --> 0:13:02.560 He but then he man, Yo, they used the rock. 0:13:02.679 --> 0:13:03.800 Man, he's the rock. 0:13:03.840 --> 0:13:07.640 And I enjoy the crazy thing about me as an artist, 0:13:07.679 --> 0:13:10.120 and I think for years it's been this way in 0:13:10.280 --> 0:13:14.600 the people that have this thing where it's like it's like, hey, 0:13:14.600 --> 0:13:17.040 I'm better than you or whenever will come, I'm willa 0:13:17.040 --> 0:13:20.200 stumb them back. I have that competitive thing in me, 0:13:21.000 --> 0:13:25.959 but I have this thing where I anybody can come 0:13:25.960 --> 0:13:30.520 on my stage and it's like I welcome it, and 0:13:30.679 --> 0:13:34.360 I'm like, it doesn't matter what your skill level is. 0:13:34.440 --> 0:13:36.520 Even if your skill level is, it feel is greater 0:13:36.600 --> 0:13:40.600 than mine. It never allowed me to have this insecurity 0:13:40.640 --> 0:13:43.440 thing where it's like you feel like, you know, like, oh. 0:13:43.320 --> 0:13:44.760 Man, I think I'm better than him. 0:13:44.760 --> 0:13:46.600 Oh man, I watched I ain't going after him, and 0:13:46.600 --> 0:13:49.040 it's like, I never It's never been a thought process 0:13:49.040 --> 0:13:52.600 for me. And I think it's just I enjoy the 0:13:52.720 --> 0:13:57.120 art of music. I enjoy every great gift and talent 0:13:57.240 --> 0:14:00.520 that God has given every man. And to me, it's 0:14:00.559 --> 0:14:04.200 like I welcome anybody and any time I mean ment. 0:14:04.200 --> 0:14:06.559 Stevie used to sit. STEVEE would come over my house. 0:14:06.920 --> 0:14:10.120 You know what, hold on stop that is sick of 0:14:10.120 --> 0:14:17.880 the ship already what I'm sick of this ship already. Okay, Steve, 0:14:17.880 --> 0:14:19.160 people come over my house. 0:14:19.440 --> 0:14:22.440 Many Hey, let the legend tell. 0:14:24.640 --> 0:14:26.880 See there you go, there you go. 0:14:28.120 --> 0:14:33.880 Sometimes you know what, let just get something that's it 0:14:34.040 --> 0:14:37.320 and then just when you have to break. 0:14:39.600 --> 0:14:41.440 Got back, you gotta bell. 0:14:42.000 --> 0:14:45.160 I think that you should really come over and shut 0:14:45.480 --> 0:14:48.840 my bitch, and I would come with me. People were 0:14:48.880 --> 0:14:50.280 watching us going at it. 0:14:50.360 --> 0:14:50.960 We do the dozen. 0:14:51.400 --> 0:14:54.480 Steve and I for years would just go hard and 0:14:54.520 --> 0:14:57.440 so I would go at Gray. Yo. You know there's 0:14:57.440 --> 0:15:01.520 people in the room, right, he goes, Okay, let me 0:15:01.520 --> 0:15:06.360 ask you something. Yeah, uh will you open your mouth? 0:15:07.680 --> 0:15:10.440 Open my mouth there. Yeah, I'm wanna put something that 0:15:13.640 --> 0:15:21.480 you know that people that, oh, Steven get you yo. 0:15:22.280 --> 0:15:24.360 Steve goes and let me tell you that. And it 0:15:24.440 --> 0:15:28.440 gets quick, yo, man, he's quick. 0:15:30.880 --> 0:15:33.320 That's the greatest of all times. 0:15:34.800 --> 0:15:36.560 That's the greatest of all times. 0:15:36.680 --> 0:15:39.080 Let me tell you the reason I love these stevee 0:15:39.200 --> 0:15:45.200 stories because as a kid growing up idolizing Stevie, people 0:15:45.240 --> 0:15:47.560 ask me all the time, what is your greatest you know, 0:15:48.720 --> 0:15:51.360 reward and being in this business. And it's not the 0:15:51.440 --> 0:15:54.080 awards that I've won, is none of those things. It's 0:15:54.160 --> 0:15:56.120 the fact that I met this guy when I was 0:15:56.160 --> 0:16:00.560 a kid and that call him my brother. 0:16:02.160 --> 0:16:02.680 It's just. 0:16:04.840 --> 0:16:08.280 To me the greatest reward one could get because I've 0:16:08.360 --> 0:16:10.880 always looked up to him and still even to this day. 0:16:10.960 --> 0:16:14.000 And me and him were sitting there and go for hours, 0:16:14.080 --> 0:16:16.760 going back and forth, running and ripping one day this 0:16:17.360 --> 0:16:20.120 I did a run, did last for about a half hour, 0:16:20.120 --> 0:16:26.480 and I was like, motherfucker, hold on, can't that's not 0:16:26.720 --> 0:16:31.440 legal being there. I'm talking about Steve. But play from 0:16:31.800 --> 0:16:34.080 eleven o'clock till six in the morning, he still sitting 0:16:34.080 --> 0:16:36.560 in there playing. We'll all be hanging out, just Eddie, 0:16:36.680 --> 0:16:38.880 myself and Nicole, all of us, and we. 0:16:38.880 --> 0:16:39.680 Would just be in there. 0:16:40.880 --> 0:16:48.280 I'm getting and looks at four o'clock in the morning, 0:16:48.320 --> 0:16:49.280 everybody comes. 0:16:49.080 --> 0:16:50.240 Like this he's. 0:16:53.000 --> 0:16:56.040 He's just he is just the epitome of music. Yeah, 0:16:56.520 --> 0:16:59.560 oh my god, this existence is just pure music. 0:17:00.040 --> 0:17:00.720 That he is. 0:17:01.240 --> 0:17:02.240 Got the biggest heart. 0:17:02.320 --> 0:17:02.480 Man. 0:17:02.600 --> 0:17:06.720 Let me tell you, this guy has been a true 0:17:06.760 --> 0:17:10.439 blessing to me in every way. And I listen, man, 0:17:10.520 --> 0:17:14.120 I love that guy to the core. I love him 0:17:14.119 --> 0:17:15.440 to the core. Yeah. 0:17:15.880 --> 0:17:21.520 Okay, so little little Sedge, little John, y'all get in 0:17:21.600 --> 0:17:23.560 to it streets. 0:17:25.400 --> 0:17:25.920 Absolutely. 0:17:29.280 --> 0:17:32.159 So we're in the gospel circuit, right, Is that when 0:17:32.200 --> 0:17:35.159 the discovery happens for you or do you make the 0:17:35.280 --> 0:17:36.880 transition to R and B first? 0:17:37.640 --> 0:17:40.480 No, this is the gospel circuit. The craziest thing is 0:17:40.960 --> 0:17:45.480 you're saying earlier about when did I discovered I singing 0:17:46.040 --> 0:17:48.520 the craziest thing. As a kid, I thought everybody could sing. 0:17:49.359 --> 0:17:51.879 I had no idea. I thought, because when you're a 0:17:51.920 --> 0:17:53.720 place where everybody exactly so. 0:17:53.800 --> 0:17:54.879 I thought everybody could sing. 0:17:55.640 --> 0:18:00.639 And man, we used to gather before this service, whichever 0:18:01.000 --> 0:18:04.320 show we was going to do, and I it was 0:18:04.359 --> 0:18:06.040 a joke to me, but I was it was fun, 0:18:06.119 --> 0:18:08.160 not a joke. More so than anything we were sitting 0:18:08.200 --> 0:18:10.320 there talking about. I was like watching many people mix shout. 0:18:12.520 --> 0:18:13.840 I didn't think nothing Besides I. 0:18:13.920 --> 0:18:16.600 Was it was fun to go, Okay, I'm gonna wreck this, 0:18:16.720 --> 0:18:18.440 watch this, watch this. I mean, were gonna make i'ma 0:18:18.440 --> 0:18:18.800 make the whole. 0:18:18.800 --> 0:18:20.879 I might have them and they're laying out rocking, and 0:18:21.400 --> 0:18:23.800 we would come out from singing the church in these 0:18:23.920 --> 0:18:27.119 churches and you see them falling out and stuff. I 0:18:27.200 --> 0:18:30.960 didn't realize til years later that that's not a joke 0:18:31.040 --> 0:18:34.119 and that's not something everybody can do, and that is 0:18:34.200 --> 0:18:36.320 an anointing in the gift. I had no idea. 0:18:36.480 --> 0:18:38.199 Yeah, and what are you thirteen fourteen? 0:18:38.400 --> 0:18:40.440 Yeah? Yeah, And they kept going, you see that little 0:18:40.480 --> 0:18:44.040 kid sound like a grown man. It still didn't register 0:18:44.359 --> 0:18:44.760 you had. 0:18:45.480 --> 0:18:51.240 This grown voice at thirteen. Early you had to be 0:18:51.400 --> 0:18:53.200 able to get out there early. 0:18:53.480 --> 0:18:56.760 Yeah, And I was. And I actually actually joined another 0:18:56.880 --> 0:19:00.280 group while I was still in the group with Little 0:19:00.320 --> 0:19:02.120 John in the Wings of Faith, a group in DC 0:19:02.280 --> 0:19:06.080 called the Prodigal Sons. They were very, very very popular 0:19:07.560 --> 0:19:09.840 there was it was originally it was Johnny Holmes and 0:19:09.960 --> 0:19:13.320 their Prodigal Sons and uh, then Bob Robinson took over 0:19:13.480 --> 0:19:17.680 when Johnny Holmes passed away, but they were terrorizing in 0:19:18.400 --> 0:19:19.119 uh in d C. 0:19:19.320 --> 0:19:19.879 They was like. 0:19:21.640 --> 0:19:24.879 Yeah, and so I ended up even you know, uh 0:19:25.240 --> 0:19:27.720 singing with them, uh and learning. 0:19:27.800 --> 0:19:28.560 A lot from them. 0:19:28.880 --> 0:19:30.119 This guy, they were grown men. 0:19:30.280 --> 0:19:33.800 They were grown men. Bob Robinson, he was like the 0:19:33.880 --> 0:19:36.960 lead singer, and he was a guy that didn't have 0:19:37.160 --> 0:19:41.040 the greatest voice, but he just knew what to say 0:19:41.320 --> 0:19:44.040 when to see it, and he could in the middle 0:19:44.040 --> 0:19:46.359 of a song he could have this make the whole 0:19:46.440 --> 0:19:49.160 place just explode just from him talking. 0:19:49.320 --> 0:19:51.120 He would just be man. 0:19:51.200 --> 0:19:54.200 He'd be like man, didn't have the greatest voice, but 0:19:54.359 --> 0:19:58.800 he will kill you, he will destroy you. I was 0:19:58.960 --> 0:20:02.080 like man. So, you know, being around those kind of 0:20:02.800 --> 0:20:05.200 people really taught me a lot. And I didn't know 0:20:05.520 --> 0:20:07.800 I was taking it all in, but it was just 0:20:07.880 --> 0:20:10.040 a part of my journey and the part of I 0:20:10.119 --> 0:20:11.280 think ultimately where. 0:20:12.840 --> 0:20:16.440 God's plan man. But uh, that's when I realized. 0:20:16.640 --> 0:20:19.119 Years later, as I started getting older and I was 0:20:19.200 --> 0:20:24.800 watching how we were becoming, people were starting to fear us, 0:20:24.880 --> 0:20:27.639 and it was like it was funny to me at 0:20:27.680 --> 0:20:30.520 one point, and then I started realizing, maybe this is 0:20:30.560 --> 0:20:32.640 a little something different here that's going on that I'm doing, 0:20:32.680 --> 0:20:36.720 because yeah, I could get two lines out of a song, 0:20:37.280 --> 0:20:39.840 and it reached the point where church would just explode 0:20:40.160 --> 0:20:41.920 before I could even get And I think at that 0:20:42.119 --> 0:20:44.280 over a period of time, they started to recognize it 0:20:44.359 --> 0:20:46.680 was little John and you know, knowing what I did 0:20:47.320 --> 0:20:47.800 made them. 0:20:48.440 --> 0:20:50.920 When we would perform, they was ready, you know. 0:20:51.080 --> 0:20:54.239 But I started realizing that this is an annoying thing 0:20:54.280 --> 0:20:56.639 and this is not something to take lightly and to 0:20:56.720 --> 0:20:57.040 play with. 0:20:57.840 --> 0:20:58.840 Did y'all make a record? 0:20:59.600 --> 0:21:02.800 No, we never made a record. Never made a record 0:21:03.560 --> 0:21:06.440 even a case in the I think they made a record. 0:21:06.920 --> 0:21:08.000 We have never made a record. 0:21:08.119 --> 0:21:08.359 Wow. 0:21:08.600 --> 0:21:12.360 Yeah, yeah, yeah, So before y'all got to making any, 0:21:12.760 --> 0:21:16.000 you know, any recordings, you end up moving over to 0:21:16.040 --> 0:21:17.800 the secular side because you. 0:21:17.840 --> 0:21:20.160 Got side early still a teenager. 0:21:20.359 --> 0:21:26.720 Yeah, I went to school with Stacy Lottasa family and 0:21:27.000 --> 0:21:31.000 she we were in elementary together and we used to 0:21:31.040 --> 0:21:31.720