Speaker 1: R and B Money. We are.
Speaker 2: Thank take melchized.
Speaker 3: We are the authority on all things R.
Speaker 4: And B.
Speaker 5: Ladies and gentlemen.
Speaker 3: My name is Tank and this is the R V
Speaker 3: Money Podcast. The mother fucking authority things.
Speaker 6: Already here today. He is here to day saying what
Speaker 6: they gotta do.
Speaker 7: Go put on that.
Speaker 5: What you read?
Speaker 1: You don't you no red, you better go, get you on,
Speaker 1: get you want to go, get you.
Speaker 2: Get you get real the right way.
Speaker 5: Make some doctors with Julie.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I got, I got Kennedy. Think for that. He
Speaker 1: gave me my name. You know, every artist got to
Speaker 1: have that one record that's just their signature, and it's like,
Speaker 1: can he.
Speaker 7: Gave me my name?
Speaker 1: I'm so glad he took that record back from the
Speaker 1: Whispers because remember yeah, he had given that record to
Speaker 1: the Whispers, and he said hold on. He was like, yeo,
Speaker 1: I think this might be better for Johnny. Yeah, that's
Speaker 1: how we ended up with. Matter of fact, the Whispers
Speaker 1: even recorded it and they said, I guess over what
Speaker 1: happened between them? I don't know for some money stuff,
Speaker 1: but I was like, whatever happened, thank you'.
Speaker 5: All, because because was Gerl was er to be over
Speaker 5: your project.
Speaker 7: Yeah, yeah, Jerold was the project.
Speaker 5: Allah.
Speaker 2: I made sure that record was bought.
Speaker 1: I thank you so many.
Speaker 2: It wasn't for you.
Speaker 3: I don't know what my name would be, but it
Speaker 3: wouldn't be my mama, Johnny. First of all, you're you know,
Speaker 3: you're a legendary, brother. You are absolutely legendary. We are
Speaker 3: honored and blessed to have you here. I want to
Speaker 3: I want to say this and then and then then
Speaker 3: we'll get into it.
Speaker 2: I just want to.
Speaker 3: I want to give you love, and I want to
Speaker 3: salute you for how you handle yourself on tour and
Speaker 3: what you had to endure and what you had to
Speaker 3: go through and to power through that and to get
Speaker 3: on that stage and and be a living testimony and
Speaker 3: to testify the way you did. Brother, like unreal brother.
Speaker 3: And you know we still we still sit in your
Speaker 3: loving prayers.
Speaker 6: Man.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: So it's still a challenge every day. And I didn't
Speaker 1: think you know you. I think we all know as kids,
Speaker 1: you know, and just adults to as well. We know
Speaker 1: you lose a loved one, But your first thought as
Speaker 1: a kids, when you think about it, if something happened
Speaker 1: to my mom, I couldn't live I wouldn't be. And
Speaker 1: it's like, man, when that day came, I tell you, man,
Speaker 1: you don't know what kind of strength you have. You
Speaker 1: don't know what you really, honestly are going to do,
Speaker 1: because I couldn't tell you what I would have done
Speaker 1: in that moment. But I just had to just go
Speaker 1: let go of God and I had to lean and
Speaker 1: trust on him more than anything in anybody. Man, I
Speaker 1: tell you I'd never even watching my mom and her
Speaker 1: decline with her health. It's still, you know, the inevitable.
Speaker 1: But at the same time, I always tell everyone, because
Speaker 1: I know we all got to leave here, but when
Speaker 1: you see people that are leaving and you know they're
Speaker 1: going to leave, you still I always tell everyone you
Speaker 1: must try to stay in the moment, stay in the now,
Speaker 1: because if you get too far ahead trying to figure
Speaker 1: out when and how and when it's going to happen,
Speaker 1: what happens is you rob yourself of the now. So
Speaker 1: whatever that is that's going on, if they're still here,
Speaker 1: they're still You're still in the game, they're still in
Speaker 1: the fight, and you have to try to stay present,
Speaker 1: standing now.
Speaker 7: And that's what I did.
Speaker 1: I rode it all the way up to her last breath.
Speaker 1: But it was just tough, man. And I tell you,
Speaker 1: I don't know. It's like I'm waking up still every day. Pill.
Speaker 1: It's just the pillar is just drenched with tears. And
Speaker 1: I remember asking Tyler, Tyler Perry. I asked Tyler, I said,
Speaker 1: he said no. He said, you know what, he says,
Speaker 1: You're gonna be all right. I said, I don't know, man.
Speaker 1: He said, no, You're gonna be all right. He says,
Speaker 1: in nine years. I said, what do you mean in
Speaker 1: nine years? He said, took me nine years. He said,
Speaker 1: you got a long way. I said, my god. And
Speaker 1: I'm like, this is what I got to deal with.
Speaker 1: He's like, man, and it's just you know, that's it
Speaker 1: becomes more bearable, but it's just pain will always be there.
Speaker 1: I'm like, this is man. I wouldn't wish it on
Speaker 1: my worst enemy. And I got a lot of motherfuckers
Speaker 1: I don't like, but I wouldn't wish it on my
Speaker 1: worst enemy. But you know, ultimately, it's just that I
Speaker 1: have on this shoulder that it's called the gratitude bag.
Speaker 1: And even through all the pain and through the heartaches,
Speaker 1: I still wake up every day and I make an
Speaker 1: effort to go in and reach into that gratitude bag
Speaker 1: and understand that at eighty one years of life and
Speaker 1: allowing me to be here for fifty seven years, that
Speaker 1: God allowed me to have my mom throughout my life.
Speaker 1: He didn't have to do it because their kids that
Speaker 1: have grown up without a mother or without a father,
Speaker 1: without both, and to have you know, her here and
Speaker 1: to have guided us and worked as hard as she did,
Speaker 1: and she got an opportunity to see her child carry
Speaker 1: that name in the family's name. And I never robbed
Speaker 1: and stole from anybody, even when I was out. We all,
Speaker 1: when you're growing up and you're in this business, you're
Speaker 1: having fun wilding out. But even in the back of
Speaker 1: my mind, I was still conscious of going, I don't
Speaker 1: want to embarrass my mom. That's a no no. So
Speaker 1: you know, it's been a blessing. So every day I
Speaker 1: still reach into their gratitude bag and think about how
Speaker 1: she could have been gone, and how we thought at
Speaker 1: one point she was gone, and she came roaring back
Speaker 1: and gave us nine more years. And I said, God
Speaker 1: has given us nine. If he gave her even nine more,
Speaker 1: it still probably wouldn't be enough, you know, so I'm
Speaker 1: just grateful. I'm grateful, and I know I got to
Speaker 1: continue to keep pushing through it. But I'll never forget
Speaker 1: going back to work. And the guys was saying, you
Speaker 1: don't have to come back, and I said, this is
Speaker 1: not about me. I said, my mother worked three jobs.
Speaker 1: We were on welfare. Lights would get cut off, water
Speaker 1: would get cut off. But yet my mother would allow
Speaker 1: she had to raise four boys, and she would not
Speaker 1: allow us to live in the projects. If you didn't
Speaker 1: know any better, you would have thought we were middle
Speaker 1: class because we never lived in with four boys, a
Speaker 1: single mom, a single lady taking care of four boys.
Speaker 1: That we lived in a decent neighborhood and nobody knew
Speaker 1: pretty much what our lives was like. And that was
Speaker 1: hard work and that was sacrifice. So I realized I
Speaker 1: knew what my mother would want me to do, and
Speaker 1: that is she wanted me, you know, to carry on.
Speaker 1: And so that sacrifice that I had to make that time,
Speaker 1: during that time was nothing compared to what she had
Speaker 1: to do to deal with with four boys. So I
Speaker 1: had to push myself through that process and try to
Speaker 1: get through it as the best that I could. But boy,
Speaker 1: my god, I tell you, I've been through some rough
Speaker 1: stuff in my life, but man, I don't think nothing's
Speaker 1: nothing compares to that one.
Speaker 7: I'm making that decision to have to go.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna stand out in front of these people and
Speaker 1: do what I know she wants me to do.
Speaker 2: Well, we felt your brother, Yeah, I promise you that.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I was inspiring.
Speaker 7: Yeah, it was inspiring. That's why.
Speaker 1: Listen, man, I'd rather believe that there's a god and
Speaker 1: die and find out that there is, and then the Gold.
Speaker 7: Leave about it here and realize, oh he was for real.
Speaker 1: She was planning telling the Gold oh man, rolling man
Speaker 1: here ship.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so I ain't gotta mention.
Speaker 1: Oh man, I my man. Now it's just a double
Speaker 1: man because we're supposed to have forty ECUs in the.
Speaker 2: Mut we're talking about.
Speaker 1: It happened.
Speaker 2: So let's do this.
Speaker 3: Let's go back to four boys, four boys being raised.
Speaker 2: DC D C D this original trafolate.
Speaker 5: Yeah about them.
Speaker 3: Humble beginnings man, and and discovering that you are different.
Speaker 1: Man. Let me tell you it's crazy. We we grew
Speaker 1: up my dad was a minister, so we grew up
Speaker 1: singing in church, and he started his church in DC
Speaker 1: and then with my mom and then separated. He moved
Speaker 1: to uh Phoenix City, Alabama, Columbus, Georgia, and then Phoenix City, Alabama.
Speaker 1: And it was crazy because we have to be in
Speaker 1: church two three times on Sundays, and we have to
Speaker 1: go to Bible study, and it was all this stuff.
Speaker 1: And my dad one day brought us all these instruments.
Speaker 1: And I was intrigued with the guitar, and I couldn't
Speaker 1: tell you at that time. I didn't know what it
Speaker 1: was while I was intrigued with guitar. But I picked
Speaker 1: the guitar up and I just started playing it. I
Speaker 1: never had to guitar lessons. I haven't done anything.
Speaker 7: And I just started playing.
Speaker 1: And and so my brother my one of my brothers
Speaker 1: had a bass, the other one had drums, and the
Speaker 1: other one had bongos. And it was funny because you know,
Speaker 1: as kids, we all we used to fight, you know,
Speaker 1: and but when my dad come in, everybody straightened up.
Speaker 7: Dad was no joke.
Speaker 1: He was no different than mister Joe Jackson in the
Speaker 1: way I mean when I say that I loved Joe
Speaker 1: and I knew Joe as well, I'm saying in the
Speaker 1: sense that he was a no nonsense guy. When dad
Speaker 1: came home, everybody was like, this, your room clean, you
Speaker 1: got to make up to bed Mitchell. So but my
Speaker 1: dad went. You know, the kids, they wouldn't let me
Speaker 1: play with their instruments. I used to play sick and
Speaker 1: when they go to school, they never understood how I
Speaker 1: knew how to play all everybody's instruments. I didn't know
Speaker 1: at the time.
Speaker 7: I was intrigued. And that's what the word was intriguing.
Speaker 1: I'm just looking at this up and I would pick
Speaker 1: up an instrument, I just start playing it.
Speaker 7: I don't just would figure it out.
Speaker 1: So so my dad made us form the group. You know,
Speaker 1: I was the youngest out of the crew, and they
Speaker 1: would kick my hands in front, make me singing because
Speaker 1: they used to beat my eyes. It was like, no,
Speaker 1: you get so I ended up doing being the lead
Speaker 1: singer and not realizing that. You know, at the end
Speaker 1: of the day I tell them the years looking back
Speaker 1: at it, and I'm like, how do.
Speaker 2: You like me?
Speaker 5: Now?
Speaker 1: You want to do what? You know? What I'm saying.
Speaker 2: Background ain't no bongos on this. So are you guys
Speaker 2: singing gospel?
Speaker 1: We're singing gospel? Yeah, all over the Metropolitan Area, the
Speaker 1: d M D. It was, you know, as a matter
Speaker 1: of fact, I saw the case Yeah, Little said, yeah, y'all,
Speaker 1: you know we're gonna be on. You're gonna be on
Speaker 1: there with a little centric then right, it's like, yeah,
Speaker 1: bring them all, bring on, bring them all, y'all group.
Speaker 7: Little John and the Wings of Faith.
Speaker 8: So it was little John against a little shirt.
Speaker 2: Somebody has to make a T shirt. Man, what a
Speaker 2: little a.
Speaker 5: Little a little sack.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, Little John in the what and the Wings
Speaker 1: of Faith?
Speaker 2: And listen and Casey gave it up to you he did.
Speaker 1: Yes, oh, man, tell you it was you know, everybody
Speaker 1: you need somebody that especially I mean we are all artists,
Speaker 1: but you always need that somebody that just inspires you
Speaker 1: to push you or you know, okay when I go
Speaker 1: you know, yeah, and yeah it was like a little.
Speaker 5: Said it looks said.
Speaker 1: He but then he man, Yo, they used the rock.
Speaker 7: Man, he's the rock.
Speaker 1: And I enjoy the crazy thing about me as an artist,
Speaker 1: and I think for years it's been this way in
Speaker 1: the people that have this thing where it's like it's like, hey,
Speaker 1: I'm better than you or whenever will come, I'm willa
Speaker 1: stumb them back. I have that competitive thing in me,
Speaker 1: but I have this thing where I anybody can come
Speaker 1: on my stage and it's like I welcome it, and
Speaker 1: I'm like, it doesn't matter what your skill level is.
Speaker 1: Even if your skill level is, it feel is greater
Speaker 1: than mine. It never allowed me to have this insecurity
Speaker 1: thing where it's like you feel like, you know, like, oh.
Speaker 7: Man, I think I'm better than him.
Speaker 1: Oh man, I watched I ain't going after him, and
Speaker 1: it's like, I never It's never been a thought process
Speaker 1: for me. And I think it's just I enjoy the
Speaker 1: art of music. I enjoy every great gift and talent
Speaker 1: that God has given every man. And to me, it's
Speaker 1: like I welcome anybody and any time I mean ment.
Speaker 7: Stevie used to sit. STEVEE would come over my house.
Speaker 3: You know what, hold on stop that is sick of
Speaker 3: the ship already what I'm sick of this ship already. Okay, Steve,
Speaker 3: people come over my house.
Speaker 9: Many Hey, let the legend tell.
Speaker 2: See there you go, there you go.
Speaker 1: Sometimes you know what, let just get something that's it
Speaker 1: and then just when you have to break.
Speaker 2: Got back, you gotta bell.
Speaker 1: I think that you should really come over and shut
Speaker 1: my bitch, and I would come with me. People were
Speaker 1: watching us going at it.
Speaker 7: We do the dozen.
Speaker 1: Steve and I for years would just go hard and
Speaker 1: so I would go at Gray. Yo. You know there's
Speaker 1: people in the room, right, he goes, Okay, let me
Speaker 1: ask you something. Yeah, uh will you open your mouth?
Speaker 1: Open my mouth there. Yeah, I'm wanna put something that
Speaker 1: you know that people that, oh, Steven get you yo.
Speaker 1: Steve goes and let me tell you that. And it
Speaker 1: gets quick, yo, man, he's quick.
Speaker 3: That's the greatest of all times.
Speaker 2: That's the greatest of all times.
Speaker 1: Let me tell you the reason I love these stevee
Speaker 1: stories because as a kid growing up idolizing Stevie, people
Speaker 1: ask me all the time, what is your greatest you know,
Speaker 1: reward and being in this business. And it's not the
Speaker 1: awards that I've won, is none of those things. It's
Speaker 1: the fact that I met this guy when I was
Speaker 1: a kid and that call him my brother.
Speaker 7: It's just.
Speaker 1: To me the greatest reward one could get because I've
Speaker 1: always looked up to him and still even to this day.
Speaker 1: And me and him were sitting there and go for hours,
Speaker 1: going back and forth, running and ripping one day this
Speaker 1: I did a run, did last for about a half hour,
Speaker 1: and I was like, motherfucker, hold on, can't that's not
Speaker 1: legal being there. I'm talking about Steve. But play from
Speaker 1: eleven o'clock till six in the morning, he still sitting
Speaker 1: in there playing. We'll all be hanging out, just Eddie,
Speaker 1: myself and Nicole, all of us, and we.
Speaker 7: Would just be in there.
Speaker 1: I'm getting and looks at four o'clock in the morning,
Speaker 1: everybody comes.
Speaker 2: Like this he's.
Speaker 3: He's just he is just the epitome of music. Yeah,
Speaker 3: oh my god, this existence is just pure music.
Speaker 10: That he is.
Speaker 7: Got the biggest heart.
Speaker 4: Man.
Speaker 1: Let me tell you, this guy has been a true
Speaker 1: blessing to me in every way. And I listen, man,
Speaker 1: I love that guy to the core. I love him
Speaker 1: to the core. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Okay, so little little Sedge, little John, y'all get in
Speaker 2: to it streets.
Speaker 1: Absolutely.
Speaker 3: So we're in the gospel circuit, right, Is that when
Speaker 3: the discovery happens for you or do you make the
Speaker 3: transition to R and B first?
Speaker 1: No, this is the gospel circuit. The craziest thing is
Speaker 1: you're saying earlier about when did I discovered I singing
Speaker 1: the craziest thing. As a kid, I thought everybody could sing.
Speaker 1: I had no idea. I thought, because when you're a
Speaker 1: place where everybody exactly so.
Speaker 7: I thought everybody could sing.
Speaker 1: And man, we used to gather before this service, whichever
Speaker 1: show we was going to do, and I it was
Speaker 1: a joke to me, but I was it was fun,
Speaker 1: not a joke. More so than anything we were sitting
Speaker 1: there talking about. I was like watching many people mix shout.
Speaker 1: I didn't think nothing Besides I.
Speaker 7: Was it was fun to go, Okay, I'm gonna wreck this,
Speaker 7: watch this, watch this. I mean, were gonna make i'ma
Speaker 7: make the whole.
Speaker 1: I might have them and they're laying out rocking, and
Speaker 1: we would come out from singing the church in these
Speaker 1: churches and you see them falling out and stuff. I
Speaker 1: didn't realize til years later that that's not a joke
Speaker 1: and that's not something everybody can do, and that is
Speaker 1: an anointing in the gift. I had no idea.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and what are you thirteen fourteen?
Speaker 1: Yeah? Yeah, And they kept going, you see that little
Speaker 1: kid sound like a grown man. It still didn't register
Speaker 1: you had.
Speaker 2: This grown voice at thirteen. Early you had to be
Speaker 2: able to get out there early.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And I was. And I actually actually joined another
Speaker 1: group while I was still in the group with Little
Speaker 1: John in the Wings of Faith, a group in DC
Speaker 1: called the Prodigal Sons. They were very, very very popular
Speaker 1: there was it was originally it was Johnny Holmes and
Speaker 1: their Prodigal Sons and uh, then Bob Robinson took over
Speaker 1: when Johnny Holmes passed away, but they were terrorizing in
Speaker 1: uh in d C.
Speaker 7: They was like.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and so I ended up even you know, uh
Speaker 1: singing with them, uh and learning.
Speaker 7: A lot from them.
Speaker 2: This guy, they were grown men.
Speaker 1: They were grown men. Bob Robinson, he was like the
Speaker 1: lead singer, and he was a guy that didn't have
Speaker 1: the greatest voice, but he just knew what to say
Speaker 1: when to see it, and he could in the middle
Speaker 1: of a song he could have this make the whole
Speaker 1: place just explode just from him talking.
Speaker 7: He would just be man.
Speaker 1: He'd be like man, didn't have the greatest voice, but
Speaker 1: he will kill you, he will destroy you. I was
Speaker 1: like man. So, you know, being around those kind of
Speaker 1: people really taught me a lot. And I didn't know
Speaker 1: I was taking it all in, but it was just
Speaker 1: a part of my journey and the part of I
Speaker 1: think ultimately where.
Speaker 7: God's plan man. But uh, that's when I realized.
Speaker 1: Years later, as I started getting older and I was
Speaker 1: watching how we were becoming, people were starting to fear us,
Speaker 1: and it was like it was funny to me at
Speaker 1: one point, and then I started realizing, maybe this is
Speaker 1: a little something different here that's going on that I'm doing,
Speaker 1: because yeah, I could get two lines out of a song,
Speaker 1: and it reached the point where church would just explode
Speaker 1: before I could even get And I think at that
Speaker 1: over a period of time, they started to recognize it
Speaker 1: was little John and you know, knowing what I did
Speaker 1: made them.
Speaker 7: When we would perform, they was ready, you know.
Speaker 1: But I started realizing that this is an annoying thing
Speaker 1: and this is not something to take lightly and to
Speaker 1: play with.
Speaker 2: Did y'all make a record?
Speaker 1: No, we never made a record. Never made a record
Speaker 1: even a case in the I think they made a record.
Speaker 7: We have never made a record.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 9: Yeah, yeah, yeah, So before y'all got to making any,
Speaker 9: you know, any recordings, you end up moving over to
Speaker 9: the secular side because you.
Speaker 2: Got side early still a teenager.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I went to school with Stacy Lottasa family and
Speaker 1: she we were in elementary together and we used to
Speaker 1: be in a group of.
Speaker 2: This go back to glee elementary school.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we were in the glee club and Stacey's place
Speaker 1: because Stacey started for me. Obviously, her place was like
Speaker 1: the you.
Speaker 7: Know where all of the kids were gathered. We would
Speaker 7: all gathered there after school.
Speaker 1: And I remember in the glee club when we were
Speaker 1: singing uh in kimberl Elementary. I remember one day it
Speaker 1: rained and she made we all went downstairs in her basement.
Speaker 1: And you know, I used to wear suits to school.
Speaker 1: Boy asked me why I would wear suits with empty briefcase?
Speaker 5: You did?
Speaker 3: Do it?
Speaker 2: Just crazy? I'm like, wait, suited up with my bible.
Speaker 1: Well, my brothers gave me. They gave me the nickname
Speaker 1: Revernight Red. Here come Revernight, my god brothers and they
Speaker 1: were terrorized us. They lived next door to us. It
Speaker 1: was three of them and then my three brothers. All
Speaker 1: of us we used to all row, but my god brothers.
Speaker 2: They was man, wait wait, your brothers didn't wear suits
Speaker 2: to school. No, only you did.
Speaker 7: Only me and my brother My brothers and my godbrothers.
Speaker 1: They used to laugh when I would come there go
Speaker 1: he come revernight and but you know, it's just what
Speaker 1: I felt more comfortable.
Speaker 2: You at stacey house with the suitor.
Speaker 1: I would go after school still over there, and we'd
Speaker 1: be over there playing and it's stuff.
Speaker 7: So one day it was raining and she.
Speaker 1: Said, Okay, everybody's gotta go. It has to do something
Speaker 1: or y'all I'm gonna have to leave whoever's not doing
Speaker 1: something and see what having a talent show. And so
Speaker 1: I'm like, am I gonna do? I'm shoot. Only thing
Speaker 1: I know how to do is sing, and I didn't
Speaker 1: want to sing, but I was like, hell, I ain't
Speaker 1: getting messed.
Speaker 2: What I could?
Speaker 1: A call a few months later and it's from Stacey.
Speaker 1: We had a matter of fact, had just moved was
Speaker 1: moving back to Columbus, Georgia. My mom and dad was
Speaker 1: was gonna get back together, and we had packed up
Speaker 1: our things and was moving back to Columbus, Georgia. And
Speaker 1: I got a call when I got to Columbus, Georgia
Speaker 1: and it was from Stacey. She said, he my my
Speaker 1: mom and was talking to Henry All and the president
Speaker 1: of the label record label about you, and he wants.
Speaker 7: To wants to hear your voice. We were coming.
Speaker 1: We had just gotten back to to UH. We went
Speaker 1: to drove back to d C to pick up some
Speaker 1: more of our things. I made a demo tape with
Speaker 1: a twenty nine dollars tape recorder. You remember the press
Speaker 1: the Yeah, I didn't know nothing about no production and
Speaker 1: none of that stuff. I'd never even recorded, so I
Speaker 1: couldn't tell you how you know you're supposed to playing.
Speaker 1: I was singing with just raw on with the thing
Speaker 1: and UH on the tape recorder, and he called and UH.
Speaker 1: He asked me to sing for him and a couple
Speaker 1: of other people over the phone, and I did, and
Speaker 1: I ended up singing for a couple of more people
Speaker 1: and then a couple more people. He was like, he
Speaker 1: had the whole staff going, yeah, yeah, listen to this,
Speaker 1: listen this come on sing sing and singing again, and
Speaker 1: I was singing. I sung a Shining Star from the
Speaker 1: Manhattan and he said, yeah, we're gonna bring you out
Speaker 1: to New York.
Speaker 7: You know who we get with the d C.
Speaker 1: And we never went back to Columbus, Georgia. I went
Speaker 1: up to New York. They flew me up to New York.
Speaker 1: I kid by myself, really, my mom didn't want to.
Speaker 1: I was fourteen because I started recording at fifteen and
Speaker 1: the first record came out at sixteen. But I didn't know,
Speaker 1: and I'd never been on an airplane and all that stuff,
Speaker 1: so it was all new. And my mom, man, she
Speaker 1: was not feeling it, but she understood. It was like,
Speaker 1: this is an opportunity. And you know, I didn't realize
Speaker 1: until about ten years ago, maybe about eight years ago.
Speaker 1: My brother was telling me. He said, you know, I
Speaker 1: used to hear Mom in the bathroom praying and crying
Speaker 1: at the same time. And I was like what. She
Speaker 1: was like, yeah, she just it tore her up, even
Speaker 1: when you moved and went to LA and she was
Speaker 1: just asking God to protect her. And he said Mom
Speaker 1: would be in there like two three o'clock in the morning.
Speaker 1: I would hear praying and crying.
Speaker 2: And I was like, wow, Wow, it's real. Yeah, she
Speaker 2: lets you, she lets you go live your dream as
Speaker 2: a baby.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: But they assured her. The guy that you guys might
Speaker 1: have heard of, and I'm not sure, but he was
Speaker 1: the man running New York Bill Underwood.
Speaker 2: Absolutely I know that is yeh yeah.
Speaker 1: And he was like, my you know, it's like my father.
Speaker 1: He's like a brother father everything. But he you know, yeah,
Speaker 1: he looked out and took care of me. But I
Speaker 1: tell you it was a trip, man, because I realized
Speaker 1: that that was a blessing because I got to learn
Speaker 1: the business and understand it early, early, early on. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and some of the mistakes some of the other guys made,
Speaker 1: I didn't make. I've been in the business forty years.
Speaker 1: I've seen a lot of things. A lot of things
Speaker 1: have happened to me, just like anybody else in the business.
Speaker 1: But I've never I don't have one story where I
Speaker 1: can tell you I went to work and somebody can
Speaker 1: tell you. You know, I've heard a million stories about
Speaker 1: going to work and going to stage. Man, I would
Speaker 1: and perform, and then I wouldn't give him my money.
Speaker 5: Man, I we had to pull a gun on it.
Speaker 7: I heard a billion stories.
Speaker 1: If somebody getting yanked for their money at some point,
Speaker 1: never happened. Bill taught me from day one that I'm
Speaker 1: not the risk taker. The promoters risk are the risk takers,
Speaker 1: and if they can't provide half up front, then don't go.
Speaker 2: We're not going. Don't go.
Speaker 1: And that started early, early, early, early, early on in
Speaker 1: my career, and I've seen some things that made some
Speaker 1: mistakes in make doing business deals, but not getting paid
Speaker 1: for going to work has never been one. Never been one.
Speaker 1: And thanks to him, he did thirty three years and
Speaker 1: he's back out and that's.
Speaker 2: Yeah, thirty three.
Speaker 7: He was, Yeah, you know you gonna go into it.
Speaker 2: You ain't gotta go into it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So let me tell you what happened when I
Speaker 1: got the first check though, Yeah, here we go, here
Speaker 1: we go, here we go. Main man, trying to tell
Speaker 1: y'all can tell me nothing.
Speaker 2: How much was the chip?
Speaker 7: I member about two thousand dollars?
Speaker 1: I think it was. I bought me like I bought
Speaker 1: me a gold watch, a nugget watch, a nugget ring,
Speaker 1: and a nugget bracelet.
Speaker 2: Who you talking like, nigga?
Speaker 5: No, yeah, here's the kicker.
Speaker 1: Here's the kicker.
Speaker 5: On top of it.
Speaker 1: I went to the dealership and they gave me my
Speaker 1: cressitor and said, no, no, you can pay it. You
Speaker 1: start making payments. Later, I signed off the paper they
Speaker 1: did the deal went with me outside.
Speaker 7: Of He was like, look at this kid. I was like,
Speaker 7: hey man, I mean shoot, like, so.
Speaker 9: You got a new whip, a nugget man, nugget kid,
Speaker 9: nugging kid with two thousands thousand.
Speaker 2: I was making making I said, make it enough.
Speaker 1: I kept saying, I can get used to this. Sure.
Speaker 8: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I'm like, man, I'm like, man, y'all can tell me nothing,
Speaker 1: And I'm like.
Speaker 2: What we're doing next? And you have a Jerry curl?
Speaker 1: Oh man, it was leaking. It was oh man, it
Speaker 1: was leaking. But I was trying to be Michael. I
Speaker 1: was like, man, so that's what you like and huh yeah,
Speaker 1: trying to keep my curl down. Mike's minds would be
Speaker 1: but I was like, that's what y'all like, and y'all
Speaker 1: digging hunh man. I had my curl, and man, but
Speaker 1: I tell you the first night I got my the
Speaker 1: night that I was going, the day before I was
Speaker 1: going to get the curl. I was so excited because
Speaker 1: I'm thinking, you know, the girl's like curly heads, you know, yeah.
Speaker 11: Curl So you know I had a conversation with me
Speaker 11: yeah yeah, yeah yeah, because you don't understand they came
Speaker 11: out the woe.
Speaker 1: So I'm sitting the night before, I'm so excited.
Speaker 3: Man.
Speaker 1: I was so excited, thinking, Mom, I'm gonna have cruelty yeah,
Speaker 1: you can't tell me. Then do the rollers put the
Speaker 1: roller joints in, and then they got you got to
Speaker 1: set under the joint. I mean it was about a
Speaker 1: four or five hour process to old me. Oh my god,
Speaker 1: Rember when I came out there with curls and it
Speaker 1: was like, oh, don't talk to me, man, don't talk
Speaker 1: to me. Shoot man, I was like I was on
Speaker 1: cloud night.
Speaker 2: I'm like.
Speaker 5: I was tempting.
Speaker 1: Approach him.
Speaker 5: I have to look out and tell him.
Speaker 2: I'm just like, oh, y'all see the New Edition movie.
Speaker 2: They did show that. They did not show this Johnny approach.
Speaker 1: Myproach is like, hey, baby, I'm a mode.
Speaker 5: Tell her what she got on you.
Speaker 7: Man, man, listen, I have some fun times.
Speaker 2: How do you How do you handle whoever came to you?
Speaker 9: You could tell us wholly coming to you and saying, hey,
Speaker 9: I know you a solo artist. I know you're doing
Speaker 9: your thing. We're trying to figure this thing out. You
Speaker 9: as as you know your solo thing, you got this
Speaker 9: grown man voice. I'm about to put you in this group.
Speaker 1: Michael Bibbs, my little brother. Let me tell you that guy.
Speaker 1: I can't even put into words, how sharp Michael has
Speaker 1: always been. And the craziest thing is, out of our
Speaker 1: whole group, Michael was was the one that came up
Speaker 1: with the idea because originally Ralph was gonna leave, and
Speaker 1: so Mike's first thought was ship, how are we gonna eat?
Speaker 1: And so his thought was not his idea wasn't it
Speaker 1: was gonna be all of us. They were just thinking, Okay,
Speaker 1: if Ralph gonna go off, because Ralph was working on
Speaker 1: this solo thing and he's gonna probably he's probably not
Speaker 1: gonna come back, especially he's the lead singer, he's the
Speaker 1: most popular, he's gonna probably be successful. He probably he's
Speaker 1: not gonna probably.
Speaker 2: Come and they've already watched Bobby right.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he was like, shoot, so what we're gonna do.
Speaker 1: Mike was a huge fan too, and that half Crazy
Speaker 1: was the song that caught his attention. And so when
Speaker 1: we was at the Whispers concert in La that's when
Speaker 1: we ran into each other.
Speaker 9: But before record, before you stole the Whispers record, I
Speaker 9: mean they was allowing you in the concerts before you
Speaker 9: stole the record.
Speaker 2: They don't see you on the street.
Speaker 7: Who knew the.
Speaker 2: Twins will jump in and did that?
Speaker 1: I said, no way, man, oh, manize man ship, but
Speaker 1: yeah he did. We met at the wissessconcert. That's crazy
Speaker 1: because I think about that, and he said, he let
Speaker 1: me ask you a question. He said, did you do
Speaker 1: you feel like you've gotten your just do as a
Speaker 1: solo artist? And I'll never forget just being stupid and funny.
Speaker 1: I reached my hand in my pocket and I pulled out.
Speaker 7: N I was like nope.
Speaker 1: He said, hey, yo, man, what you doing tomorrow? Said?
Speaker 7: Nothing? What's going on?
Speaker 1: He says, Yo, I want to see if you down
Speaker 1: to meet up for lunch. And I was like okay,
Speaker 1: But it's never dawn on me that it's like he's
Speaker 1: calling me to talk about some business stuff. I'm just
Speaker 1: thinking because we cross path from you know, doing concerts
Speaker 1: and stuff here and there, and I would go and
Speaker 1: say to hi and hang out with him, and so
Speaker 1: it never mean that that's what he was just trying
Speaker 1: to do. And so we met up, had lunch with
Speaker 1: a couple of guys. Then they wanted to come they
Speaker 1: wanted to meet up again, and I'm sitting there going
Speaker 1: they want to meet up for again? And so that
Speaker 1: second time we met up, they was talking about they
Speaker 1: want to.
Speaker 7: Go back to.
Speaker 1: A five member group at some point, because the choreography
Speaker 1: was the thing they gave me was the choreography is
Speaker 1: a lot more impacted.
Speaker 7: It's more effective with five.
Speaker 1: So I'm thinking okay, And but I kept thinking, I
Speaker 1: know he's not getting really asking me about joining this group.
Speaker 1: I was like, I got two left feet. What am
Speaker 1: I gonna do at this point?
Speaker 2: You have not danced, not dance as an artist.
Speaker 7: Nothing about dancing. I'm like, shoot, I'm a coroner. I'm
Speaker 7: a kroner, another teacher. Well have you seen them?
Speaker 2: Okay, okay, so now they so.
Speaker 1: So yeah, so you know, we uh, we went over.
Speaker 1: They talked to me about the whole thing, about this
Speaker 1: idea that they had about me coming and being a
Speaker 1: part of the group. And then I sat there and
Speaker 1: I was like wow. And then we went from the
Speaker 1: hotel to m c A over to Joe Busby's office.
Speaker 2: They had this all planned out. Oh yeah, they had
Speaker 2: it laid out.
Speaker 1: And we walked into Gerald's office and Gerald says, uh,
Speaker 1: new addition, and Johnny gill.
Speaker 2: And was was was Ralph with you with us?
Speaker 1: And and h and Mike said, nah, it's a new addition.
Speaker 1: And Gerrold looking at his like, says ah, and Mike's
Speaker 1: was Mike, That's what Mike said me and I knew
Speaker 1: his member And Gerrold looked he was like a deer
Speaker 1: hair like. He looked for a minute and he said,
Speaker 1: you know what I was thinking about that too.
Speaker 3: That was.
Speaker 1: I was thinking that ya are.
Speaker 2: You still signed to was it Atlantic?
Speaker 1: I was still signed. I was signed to uh m
Speaker 1: c A.
Speaker 7: Yeah.
Speaker 1: And so when Gerl left from m c A over
Speaker 1: to Motown, he called Jimmy tur and said, hey man,
Speaker 1: I'm trying to find uh an artist to sign a
Speaker 1: male artist. Uh. You know, I was thinking, you know,
Speaker 1: like how Hugh's gonna listen and Jimmy and Terror was
Speaker 1: like I would hear it. It was he said, yeah,
Speaker 1: one Johnny and once again I was just thinking about that,
Speaker 1: but no, Terry and them said hey man, you got one,
Speaker 1: and that guy's gonna be around for a long time.
Speaker 1: Blah blah blah, and it said. You know, they agreed
Speaker 1: to do half the album. But that's when Clarence came in.
Speaker 1: They a, we do half the album and and uh
Speaker 1: and and Kenny and La agreed to do that half.
Speaker 1: That was the first time they actually work together.
Speaker 9: But this is this is before afternoon, after this after Okay,
Speaker 9: so we skipped yeah, okay, okay, it's so much forty years.
Speaker 2: No, no, no, I'm great at the times. I'm great
Speaker 2: at the times.
Speaker 1: Yeah. So so we went in there and we did
Speaker 1: that and uh yeah, and then we went, uh started
Speaker 1: making plans to go back because they had started working
Speaker 1: with Jimmy and Terry in Minneapolis, and I didn't know
Speaker 1: at the time they had already was had already Ralph
Speaker 1: had started with them. Ralph hadn't started when I went
Speaker 1: back with them to Minneapolis. They even start their whole
Speaker 1: recording process. Is when we all met up, and I
Speaker 1: remember Ralph going with the is this like he's looking
Speaker 1: around he's still yeah, well he I think he sent
Speaker 1: something that because he's looking around and it's quiet and
Speaker 1: it's like everybody's just kind of solemn. And then they said,
Speaker 1: Jimmy Terry says, all right, guys, we're gonna have a meeting.
Speaker 1: Let's have a meeting. They went into came into it.
Speaker 1: We went into their their room in their little thing
Speaker 1: where they uh the office, and man, we sat at
Speaker 1: that table and all hell broke loose, All hell broke loose,
Speaker 1: and that's when I found out that he wasn't He
Speaker 1: didn't even know, nor was he down with it with
Speaker 1: adding another member. He's like, fuck that, I hone and
Speaker 1: share my money and split starts, split my money again,
Speaker 1: but with five of us. So it was all the
Speaker 1: stuff that was going. I mean, they was getting there, screaming, yelling,
Speaker 1: and I'm sitting there looking. I'm looking.
Speaker 7: I'm looking like what did I just walk into?
Speaker 2: And did you know Ralph at this time? I know
Speaker 2: him from past? Yeah?
Speaker 1: Yeah, And so I'm just sitting there thinking, I'm like,
Speaker 1: what the hell I just walk into? So it was
Speaker 1: all like, man was it was crazy. So I remember
Speaker 1: Terry looked at me and he said, you know, oh
Speaker 1: he did. Jimmy one mom said you know, well, you
Speaker 1: know you're not going to be uh you know, Ralph
Speaker 1: is the lead singer and you're not going to be
Speaker 1: doing any leads on the album. And I looked at him,
Speaker 1: I said okay, I said whatever. You know, I'm here
Speaker 1: for whatever you guys need me to do. And never
Speaker 1: bothered me. I never thought twice about I'm coming in
Speaker 1: and I need to be the lead singer.
Speaker 7: I need to be I don't know. I envy people
Speaker 7: because sometimes you do need.
Speaker 3: To have that.
Speaker 2: Assertive attitude insert yourself into it.
Speaker 9: And maybe you don't though, because because when you got
Speaker 9: the good you miss out on an opportunity.
Speaker 2: To join a super group.
Speaker 9: Well yeah, because if anyone, if anyone else that walks
Speaker 9: into that, yeah, they're like, what you mean, I'm a
Speaker 9: solo I got a solo deal, I got my record.
Speaker 2: This you you walked in and made yourself just useful
Speaker 2: whatever you guys need.
Speaker 1: And that's what Saidry said when they saw that reaction.
Speaker 1: And I didn't do it by nothing intentional. I'm just
Speaker 1: it was like whatever that is.
Speaker 3: But it also probably disarmed the conflict because again, Ralph
Speaker 3: is singer, edition, Ralph is Ralph, so it's still like,
Speaker 3: you know, it's still for him. It's a pecking order thing,
Speaker 3: and for you to just be like, I'm here for you,
Speaker 3: certain brother, Yeah, it's your world.
Speaker 1: And my level of security, I think in the back
Speaker 1: of my mind was probably I still even though I
Speaker 1: joined them, I still had to had obligations to to
Speaker 1: uh motown and a total deal that I have to record.
Speaker 1: And they were saying, Gerald is saying, we're gonna have
Speaker 1: to do that.
Speaker 7: We'll do that right after the new edition.
Speaker 1: Never and if you ever notice, if you look in
Speaker 1: all those early pictures, you'll see me, I'm always in
Speaker 1: the back, like I never. They used to be fighting
Speaker 1: for the position of who's gonna be in front of,
Speaker 1: trying to be in front of. They used to be
Speaker 1: fighting for parts sometimes for the songs and songs, and
Speaker 1: I was just sitting there. I'm like sitting there thinking,
Speaker 1: I'm like, okay, just whatever it needs to be done,
Speaker 1: And whenever it was time to take pictures, I'd go
Speaker 1: and get in my place in the back.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And you felt like it was easy. It was
Speaker 2: easy work for you. Ye used to having to sing
Speaker 2: the whole song yourself.
Speaker 10: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I mean the only thing I can't.
Speaker 1: Tell you this to a lot of those songs that
Speaker 1: we were doing, uh, I would do pretty much like
Speaker 1: the ad lib stuff, or do most of the stuff,
Speaker 1: and then they come in and then somebody bringing somebody
Speaker 1: to do follow what I did. So I was like,
Speaker 1: I guess I'm the demo singer to h Yes, But
Speaker 1: I tell you when I did get pissed though, they
Speaker 1: all those great songs like can't You Stand and rain
Speaker 1: some of the other songs, you know, my kind of girls.
Speaker 1: And they was giving us these these these parts to do,
Speaker 1: and I kept listening to some of the songs.
Speaker 7: I was like, man, I like that song.
Speaker 1: I won't sing that. I like sing that. I love
Speaker 1: singing that, and I'll never forget. I kept thinking when
Speaker 1: they gave me this song boys to men, I said,
Speaker 1: this is some political bullshit. I said, oh, they just
Speaker 1: give me this piece of ship just to throw me
Speaker 1: a bone. Now at this point, all these great songs
Speaker 1: that I could have just a song one and just
Speaker 1: been you know, that's how I'm thinking about that.
Speaker 5: That's how I thought about it.
Speaker 1: And so I said, Okay, so they're just throwing me
Speaker 1: a bone, and they just gonna throw me this song.
Speaker 1: I throw me this track that's out all these other
Speaker 1: great songs, cause I just didn't think it was out
Speaker 1: all the other records that they recorded.
Speaker 2: You know that that wasn't the one.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So I said, oh, so you want to fuck
Speaker 1: with me now?
Speaker 3: Huh.
Speaker 1: That's what took when the light went off in my head.
Speaker 1: I said, oh, so your niggas are trying to fuck
Speaker 1: with me. Huh, gonna give me this week ass ship,
Speaker 1: I said, Okay, I walked in that booth, I said,
Speaker 1: made up my mind. So my fuck this sung up.
Speaker 2: I remember, I.
Speaker 1: Remember singing the first couple of lines and before you
Speaker 1: know it, before I got through the end and I
Speaker 1: started with the ad libs. It was like, I don't
Speaker 1: know if you guys ever seen Scooby Doo and they'd
Speaker 1: be having the one stand over another one that the
Speaker 1: other name.
Speaker 7: They all looking, they was all sold.
Speaker 1: The whole room was filled with everybody in there, and uh,
Speaker 1: by the time I finished the song, it's real quiet,
Speaker 1: and they're like and I just kept thinking, listen, I've
Speaker 1: been doing my part. I've been in here doing whatever
Speaker 1: you guys need me to do. Don't come in here
Speaker 1: fucking with me with just bullshit. And I was like,
Speaker 1: if that's the case, I'm gonna just show you something.
Speaker 1: I don't give a fuck what you put in front
Speaker 1: of me. I said, I'm gonna fuck this song up.
Speaker 7: That was just my attitude.
Speaker 2: Well, let me say something. You sang that mother and
Speaker 2: that is you sang the title cut motherfucker.
Speaker 1: But I was singing it mad, like they can't find
Speaker 1: me something better.
Speaker 5: I couldn't find you nothing better. Than the title fucking
Speaker 5: cut that land to one of the.
Speaker 2: Come on, man, man, He's like, who knew?
Speaker 1: The more the lessons is always give your best. You
Speaker 1: never know what happened, know man, You just never known.
Speaker 2: When you get a new addition, is the addict? Okay? Now,
Speaker 2: because you got to get a new audition?
Speaker 1: Check?
Speaker 2: Is that heavier than your solo?
Speaker 1: Check? Yeah?
Speaker 5: Because they know that's Motito thousand.
Speaker 7: Big time.
Speaker 1: And it was funny because during that time we was
Speaker 1: getting ready for the Heartback Tour and they were having
Speaker 1: had had issues prior to with the I R S.
Speaker 1: So it was like a little bit unbounced because I
Speaker 1: was the only one came and cleaned. So yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: I came in and you.
Speaker 2: Know, sure, I'm good. Y'all all right, everybody, okay.
Speaker 1: Y'all doing?
Speaker 10: Yeah?
Speaker 1: Yeah, you got that? Uh the Z twenty eight, Well,
Speaker 1: what that joint is?
Speaker 2: Y'all?
Speaker 7: Get a loaded this one and that five hundred.
Speaker 5: Five five hundred s L I want that to call?
Speaker 1: Oh man, I thought. I was like, man, you couldn't
Speaker 1: tell me nothing.
Speaker 9: I was like, I dodn't made it, baby, you had Yeah,
Speaker 9: So when you came in the group, if I'm not
Speaker 9: asking too much?
Speaker 2: Are you a solid fifth? You're getting a fifth of
Speaker 2: everything when.
Speaker 1: You first come Yeah, yeah, from the from the jump,
Speaker 1: from the jump, everything that I started on with, working
Speaker 1: from the day that started working with the Masolute, that's yeah. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 8: It was never about it's all split fairly, all split fairly.
Speaker 8: That's how it was such because everybody's contributing. And it's
Speaker 8: the point if you're a team, if you're a group,
Speaker 8: that's what a group does.
Speaker 7: There's really no I it's it's when you're dealing with
Speaker 7: a team.
Speaker 1: So I love them, man, and so grateful.
Speaker 9: We love y'all, We love y'all. The world definitely the
Speaker 9: world of R and B man. Yeah, yeah, they talk
Speaker 9: about that authority thing.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it got for a ship, she got for us.
Speaker 1: M h.
Speaker 2: M hmm. It's trying to kill. We know you've heard
Speaker 2: a lot of R and B music, you're saying a
Speaker 2: lot of rnby music, But something has to be your favorite.
Speaker 10: Top fun, your top five mm hmm, Top fun, your top.
Speaker 5: Five on Mething.
Speaker 12: Hor May song come on the ground. Yeah you got
Speaker 12: to know, you got so I know you know, and you.
Speaker 1: Go and do nothing than that.
Speaker 5: Top don't round?
Speaker 12: Yeah, yeah, your time.
Speaker 10: Five.
Speaker 1: Yeah, come on, we'll clearly now you want.
Speaker 5: You don't work your way up.
Speaker 3: Mister Johnny Gill, mister Mama Ma himself, your top five
Speaker 3: R and B singers.
Speaker 1: Stevie one, but there that's just my god. Uh Luther two, yeah,
Speaker 1: Uh Teddy three. Yeah. People are gonna hate me for
Speaker 1: this one, but I got it. I gotta give Kills
Speaker 1: his problem. You gotta give the R and B.
Speaker 7: Yeah, yeah, R and B.
Speaker 1: And I'm not just saying that because it's in here.
Speaker 1: But you don't work your way up in there that boy.
Speaker 2: Come on, come on that there book.
Speaker 1: You don't walk the way up in there, now, come
Speaker 1: on now. And I left it on another little one.
Speaker 1: You wrote this song called My Cry.
Speaker 2: Remember that.
Speaker 1: I was going through it with uh me and Ira
Speaker 1: at that time, and we was going at it button
Speaker 1: heads and going toe to toe. They had nothing to
Speaker 1: do with the song, but me and her was going
Speaker 1: at it, of course, and we ended.
Speaker 7: Up coming full circle. There come bunt up homies.
Speaker 1: Well you know, how were you with labels and be
Speaker 1: Bunton having creative differences and button hid We was having
Speaker 1: some other but and I remember we kept sitting there
Speaker 1: going shooting. I kept going, what are we gonna do? Can,
Speaker 1: how are we gonna do this? And she was like,
Speaker 1: you're gonna do this?
Speaker 5: So I was like, how you.
Speaker 7: Gonna make me do what?
Speaker 10: So?
Speaker 1: What's going at it?
Speaker 7: But I was I'll never forget that song. And I
Speaker 7: still have that one joint, that joint in my uh
Speaker 7: in my playlist nowhere.
Speaker 1: Yes, yes, yes, this guy man right, brother, this special man.
Speaker 1: And that's why I said that. Being from DC, listen,
Speaker 1: it just adds to it. But your gift and talented
Speaker 1: this what it is. And dude, listen, I don't still
Speaker 1: over here and act like we're forgetting about you.
Speaker 2: You're trying to sneak out.
Speaker 1: You're trying to sneak out before then, I don't want
Speaker 1: to have to blow up the spot to tell everybody.
Speaker 1: You know, I've been knowing that little like this. Come on,
Speaker 1: come on, now, come on, they tangled.
Speaker 2: What you made I know is I shouted this man
Speaker 2: out on soul Train. Wow.
Speaker 9: When they asked me and Bob and my brother Ronnie,
Speaker 9: who our favorite singers work the same same type of thing,
Speaker 9: and like, who you know inspired us?
Speaker 2: I'm ten years old, I'm like Johnny Kill. Yes, yes, yes, man,
Speaker 2: one of my favorites.
Speaker 1: And it's so funny because one day I was watching
Speaker 1: Jeffrey Osbourne and he was doing, uh, this television show
Speaker 1: and that was in eighty three, my first single come out,
Speaker 1: and I remember, uh, I forgot the guy's name that
Speaker 1: Shirley was doing, and they asked him who was like
Speaker 1: one of the upcoming, up and coming artists, and I
Speaker 1: remember Jeffrey said, there's this kid named Johnny Gil. You
Speaker 1: got to understand what it felt like not knowing Jeffrey Osbourne.
Speaker 1: Fan of it is sitting at home and you're watching
Speaker 1: the nerve ripping show and he shout you out and
Speaker 1: he shout me out, and I was in shock, and
Speaker 1: I'm just sitting there and I'm like, Wow, it's Jeffrey Osborne.
Speaker 1: And then shortly after what we met and then Brothers.
Speaker 2: Sus Guy, Oh, one of our favorite episodes.
Speaker 7: That's my dude for life.
Speaker 1: And I tell you he has been a part of
Speaker 1: my life since I was a kid, sixteen seventeen years
Speaker 1: of age.
Speaker 13: Yeah, all right, Johnny, your top five, I gotta put
Speaker 13: oh my top Oh my god, Jesus Christ, I'd have
Speaker 13: to say as oh my God, that the.
Speaker 1: House is not a home is where I think I
Speaker 1: first realized and I discovered what the feeling of love
Speaker 1: was because I was dating States at the time, and
Speaker 1: I'll never forget when that record came on. Oh man,
Speaker 1: you know, my heart started being fast, things started acting
Speaker 1: up and started rising, and I say, this is something.
Speaker 2: Different here, this is it.
Speaker 6: This is it.
Speaker 2: He said.
Speaker 5: When I climb the stairs in turn the key, he.
Speaker 1: Oh, please be there.
Speaker 7: Still in love.
Speaker 2: We me and I was like.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and the.
Speaker 2: Say it again, no special sauce.
Speaker 5: Oh my god.
Speaker 2: Yeah, man, okay, that's that's two and Teddy I have
Speaker 2: to go with.
Speaker 10: No.
Speaker 7: Let's go Jeffrey. You you're just the sweetest beaches and cream.
Speaker 2: That's not obscure.
Speaker 1: I told Jeffrey, and he made me a promise that
Speaker 1: if I ever get married, he's got to do that
Speaker 1: one at the Wind. Got to do that one at
Speaker 1: the Wind.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah. But he had a million of them to it.
Speaker 1: It's like, man, and of course, Donny Hathaway man a
Speaker 1: song for you. I just can't get around. You just
Speaker 1: can't get around. And I remember someone telling me when
Speaker 1: I was a kid that kept going, you know, you
Speaker 1: sound like a little and that said, oh this guy
Speaker 1: name you've heard this guy named Donny Hathaway. I was
Speaker 1: like no, And I remember sitting there listening to a
Speaker 1: song for you. And then I sat there and listened
Speaker 1: and I'm going, whoa, something hit me where I was
Speaker 1: just like, man, he who the heck is this guy?
Speaker 1: But you could hear this the conviction in his in
Speaker 1: his phrasing, in his just in his the notes. And
Speaker 1: it was just like I was like, man, and that's
Speaker 1: how I got turned onto a to Donnie Hathaway.
Speaker 2: I feel the same way about his daughter too, Oh.
Speaker 1: Lady, yes, oh my god. But it seemed like over
Speaker 1: year she just really just she's just a different kind
Speaker 1: of instrument.
Speaker 7: Yes, the key is an instrument.
Speaker 2: Instrument, man, she's she's calculated, methodical, yes, diabolicle, yes, foolishness and.
Speaker 1: You ain't hearing a flat or sharp she's.
Speaker 7: She just like she can do.
Speaker 2: Her was amazing. Oh my god.
Speaker 7: Yeah, she got her dad and.
Speaker 2: More, yea, yeah, one more, one more.
Speaker 1: You know, I know it looks like I might be
Speaker 1: stuck on myself to say this, but go ahead. That
Speaker 1: can you stand the rain I look at sometime there
Speaker 1: by I've been looking and listening to that.
Speaker 2: Don't to listen to yourself.
Speaker 9: Imagine being able to sing king you stand the rain
Speaker 9: every night and it's yours.
Speaker 1: I'll tell you what I did. I tell you a
Speaker 1: little secret about my mind. I did, and I had
Speaker 1: I was nominated, No, I had won the Male Vocalists
Speaker 1: of the Year as the Soul Train. And it was
Speaker 1: this girl I won't say because she's you know, actress popular,
Speaker 1: you an actresses? Yeah, yeah, I try to keep the industry,
Speaker 1: you know, keep it. I got to do get around.
Speaker 1: So so I was like, okay, this girl giving me
Speaker 1: a real challenge. And so she went with me to
Speaker 1: the awards and when we got back, I had uh uh,
Speaker 1: my boy to put the champagne on ice. I've never
Speaker 1: I never before. My mama had never ever sat and
Speaker 1: sang to a girl to figure out if I had
Speaker 1: a better get me in quicker. Never And I remember
Speaker 1: we got came back from the awards, and I remember
Speaker 1: going back, sitting down at the piano and I popped,
Speaker 1: popped the champagne.
Speaker 7: And my mama wasn't released yet.
Speaker 2: Oh he's giving her the unreleased too, okay.
Speaker 1: And I was sitting there playing my mind at the piano,
Speaker 1: and so we went from the piano to the floor,
Speaker 1: from the floor to the bedroom. And I said, God, damn,
Speaker 1: what would I been doing all the time? I said,
Speaker 1: hot money didn't tell what the hellened?
Speaker 9: I forgot that you didn't have Babyface records to see.
Speaker 7: Maybe record.
Speaker 2: You know what happens?
Speaker 1: And it went down.
Speaker 2: I was like, damn, okay, I never I never wanted
Speaker 2: to use my power. If I always thought it was unfair,
Speaker 2: I like that ain't right. If I just started singing
Speaker 2: as well, yeah, I thought that too bad? Are we?
Speaker 3: You're gonna make your vultron you're super R and B artists.
Speaker 3: We want to know who you're going to get the
Speaker 3: vocal from. Who you're going to get the performance style,
Speaker 3: the styling and the heart of the artists. Right, let's
Speaker 3: build your artists. Who are you getting the vocal from?
Speaker 3: For your super R and B artists?
Speaker 1: One vocal lose the greatest storyteller that there is when
Speaker 1: it comes down to painting telling a story.
Speaker 7: They just don't.
Speaker 2: He didn't even move on stage. I don't know. I
Speaker 2: don't know if he walked five feet, if he didn't
Speaker 2: have to.
Speaker 1: You just sit there and you're just like, yeah, man,
Speaker 1: he could paint and disrespectful, all the jumping around and
Speaker 1: shure taking off.
Speaker 2: I did.
Speaker 7: Luther.
Speaker 1: Definitely who you're getting the performance style from performance style? Surprisingly,
Speaker 1: I must say the young, uh, cocky, wild, crazy Bobby Brown.
Speaker 1: That guy.
Speaker 2: Let me tell you something, minuce to society man, Bobby.
Speaker 1: When Bob was rockman, let me tell you something. You'd
Speaker 1: been sitting there looking going this is got rubbers in
Speaker 1: his leg? What the hell?
Speaker 2: And that listen Bob was trying to give y'all work
Speaker 2: on that heartak.
Speaker 9: Yeah, were you thinking about that as you're rehearsing and
Speaker 9: you're about to be this new member, Like.
Speaker 2: I'm replacing Bobby Brown to.
Speaker 9: A certain degree, even though he had already been out,
Speaker 9: you know, like I never thought because the way they
Speaker 9: brought it to me was like you're gonna be you know,
Speaker 9: we want to go back to the five member group up.
Speaker 1: So it never really dawn on me until even the
Speaker 1: blow up with Ralph when we were there in Minneapolis
Speaker 1: and you realize, I'm like, what the hell I'm just
Speaker 1: walk into Bobby told me. And it was so funny
Speaker 1: because when we all got together during the Heartbreak tour
Speaker 1: after the tour. I went out on my own, and
Speaker 1: I'll never forget Bob came out with me. Bob used
Speaker 1: to come to LA when he wasn't living in La.
Speaker 1: He used to stay with me, and everybody used to
Speaker 1: talk about me and him, uh beefing and battling with
Speaker 1: each other, and he'd be in the crib and he
Speaker 1: would as a matter of fact. But Bob told me himself.
Speaker 1: He was like I remember him telling me. He was like, man,
Speaker 1: when you first got in the group, dude, I did
Speaker 1: not like you.
Speaker 7: I was so jealous.
Speaker 1: And then he was like, when you open your mouth,
Speaker 1: I was like, God damn like man. And he was
Speaker 1: like from that point that was what took him where.
Speaker 1: He was like that. But he said he told me himself,
Speaker 1: and it was so funny because I was out on
Speaker 1: tour and he came out with me for a while.
Speaker 1: And I remember one day we got on the bus
Speaker 1: on my bus and he was just like, man, he says,
Speaker 1: I endo you And I said what why? And I
Speaker 1: remember him saying, because I don't know, like I know
Speaker 1: if I'll be able to dance for the rest of
Speaker 1: my life like this. He's like, but nigga, you'll be
Speaker 1: able to sing like this for the rest of your life.
Speaker 2: Mm hmm.
Speaker 7: It never dawned on me.
Speaker 1: I never even thought about, you know, and I'm looking
Speaker 1: and going think you Bobby.
Speaker 2: Yeah. And at the time he got the biggest he's yeah,
Speaker 2: he was like, you know, biggest records in the world.
Speaker 7: Yeah, yeah, it's crazy, but yeah, that he was to me,
Speaker 7: you know, besides.
Speaker 3: M J the performer, just you know, Bobby performance, that
Speaker 3: young wild and Bobby, who are you going to get the.
Speaker 2: Styling with the artist with the drip, with the.
Speaker 1: Drip come on, ever night, come on, the styling is
Speaker 1: probably gonna have to come from. Yeah. I might think
Speaker 1: this is weird, but I'm gonna have to say, Prince,
Speaker 1: I wish I was the little guy.
Speaker 7: The way he's doing this is the guy Prince just.
Speaker 1: This stuff because I still to say, like bright cousin,
Speaker 1: but I don't I'm scared to try anything there's of color.
Speaker 7: And the way he would just rock his with you know,
Speaker 7: you just be like, yo, if I was that little.
Speaker 1: Man, if I said if I was woman, if I
Speaker 1: was that little, if I was that little I'll get
Speaker 1: that little mingam number of money.
Speaker 2: He would have pulled off on you on his motorcycle.
Speaker 3: I don't know if y'all were ready for the know
Speaker 3: you want, don't. I don't think y'all were ready. Y'all
Speaker 3: had no idea, no.
Speaker 2: Way, no way. They knew that they had no idea.
Speaker 2: I didn't know that this is what okay, the passion
Speaker 2: of the artist, the heart.
Speaker 1: Of the artist, the passion would probably be Donnie half Away.
Speaker 1: I don't think I've never seen anyone every note you
Speaker 1: hold on too, because you know, often said when I
Speaker 1: found out what he went through and how you know
Speaker 1: the challenges that he had, I.
Speaker 7: Said that if.
Speaker 1: Someone was to offer me that voice, but I would
Speaker 1: have to go through that journey that he went through.
Speaker 1: As much as I love him, I just I just
Speaker 1: been an average show talking about paper or plastic. I
Speaker 1: just can when you listen to the passion, the pain,
Speaker 1: everything in his voice, it's like it just stopped in
Speaker 1: your track. And every time I hear I don't cay
Speaker 1: which song is saying you go, man, I wonder where
Speaker 1: he was at, what was going on in like what
Speaker 1: was he going through? Like it's like you hear it,
Speaker 1: and so I would say passion. I don't think it
Speaker 1: gets no no stronger than no better than that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I love that, all right.
Speaker 10: Yeah.
Speaker 2: We ain't gonna let your body is just yet them.
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, because you didn't.
Speaker 5: Say some names.
Speaker 2: What you got for him? I ain't saying no niggs.
Speaker 2: I ain't saying no names. I ain't saying no names.
Speaker 2: I ain't saying no niggas. What you did you don't
Speaker 2: say she I ain't saying no name.
Speaker 9: This segment right here, card, I ain't saying no names.
Speaker 9: Will you tell us a story funny or fucked up?
Speaker 9: Are funny and fucked up? In the Travels of Johnny Gill.
Speaker 14: Little John the first Little John, Little John that was
Speaker 14: great edition, back to solo Johnny.
Speaker 3: Ls g and then come on man, and then back
Speaker 3: to the back to the don't forget back to auditions,
Speaker 3: and we didn't record, but there was.
Speaker 5: Open for singers, open for y'all.
Speaker 2: Man, you didn't been in twelve quick man, I'm open
Speaker 2: for a few more if you need a group member.
Speaker 1: So so hm hmm.
Speaker 2: We need to know in the time, the Times, they.
Speaker 9: Didn't have no Instagrams and had no Twitters, no ex
Speaker 9: no tiki.
Speaker 7: Tell us a.
Speaker 2: Story from them times, man, Just don't say no name.
Speaker 7: I can't say no names.
Speaker 2: Please, man, oh my god, you can tell us.
Speaker 1: Who he was. Well, I can recall this young lady
Speaker 1: once again.
Speaker 5: She was an actress.
Speaker 7: Yeah, I don't asked me how I listen man.
Speaker 2: Big movie, small movies.
Speaker 7: Uh yeah, she's been late night movies. She's been in
Speaker 7: some big movies. Matter of fact, you know, I just
Speaker 7: liked working women.
Speaker 1: You know, they had a job, and I knew, you know,
Speaker 1: I don't know, they bought to the table and they
Speaker 1: got somewhere to go, and they have somewhere to go,
Speaker 1: something to do.
Speaker 7: But I remember her. She would show up everywhere.
Speaker 1: When we was on tour. She would just show up,
Speaker 1: show up, show up. And then I started dating this
Speaker 1: other girl and I had her over at the house
Speaker 1: and I'm sending her off to go to the airport.
Speaker 1: And the other girl I was dating comes over and
Speaker 1: she's in the house hanging out, chilling, and I'm thinking
Speaker 1: this other girl's gone. She turns around, makes you turn,
Speaker 1: comes back, knocks on the door, and uh, I'm like, uh,
Speaker 1: what you need?
Speaker 6: What you need?
Speaker 1: I was a little young. I couldn't think it's fair.
Speaker 2: What you need, what you need? That's a my god.
Speaker 12: I thought she was gone.
Speaker 1: I'm act like I'm looking out the window going home.
Speaker 2: Nowhere.
Speaker 1: So she said, I know you you got somebody in there.
Speaker 7: And I'm like, oh, what you're talking about?
Speaker 9: And so.
Speaker 7: I'm like, she knows whatever. I said that listen, it's
Speaker 7: my friend.
Speaker 1: She gotta come in.
Speaker 7: She claims she left something here.
Speaker 1: So I told him.
Speaker 5: She got to the door.
Speaker 7: Listen, you don't shot no shit, you understand.
Speaker 5: They walks, He looks, she goes and who are you?
Speaker 7: She goes, who are you?
Speaker 1: She goes, well, who are you?
Speaker 5: She goes, are you?
Speaker 7: I told you no, We're not gonna start.
Speaker 1: No. I told her. I said, y'all both my friends.
Speaker 7: Y'are both my friends.
Speaker 4: It's so oh man. I got her coat, got her coat,
Speaker 4: and she said she was she was done. She was
Speaker 4: through with me until I looked around at the next city.
Speaker 1: Here she comes and standing there at my room door
Speaker 1: and crying.
Speaker 7: I'm like, damn, I thought you got rid of me.
Speaker 2: I thought you got rid of me. Did you let
Speaker 2: her in the room?
Speaker 1: I realized, oh yeah, that's when I realized I'm a
Speaker 1: true Hey. I didn't realize I had that kind of
Speaker 1: the one time I ever got busted. And that was
Speaker 1: the first and the only time. First and only, man,
Speaker 1: you didn't say nothing. I just told her, I said, listen.
Speaker 7: We have no ship.
Speaker 1: Man.
Speaker 7: You're my friend and you're my friend.
Speaker 2: She technically didn't.
Speaker 1: She didn't. She just do no ship. She came when
Speaker 1: she bounced out, she.
Speaker 7: Said she was done with me.
Speaker 1: That's okay.
Speaker 2: She wasn't really done. She wasn't.
Speaker 7: She couldn't be done with that.
Speaker 2: She couldn't done. She couldn't be done with that.
Speaker 1: You left that form my why why?
Speaker 3: Why?
Speaker 1: Why?
Speaker 10: Why?
Speaker 14: Why?
Speaker 1: Why?
Speaker 3: Oh my god, I don't think I don't think you understand.
Speaker 3: I think you understand. This is great, bro, Bro, you
Speaker 3: do so awesome. Man, you so awesome.
Speaker 2: Man.
Speaker 3: I've known you for many years. Man, I've always known
Speaker 3: you're a goofball. But you know, it's it's awesome for
Speaker 3: the world to see, and it's awesome to see you
Speaker 3: in in in good spirits man, And they're still moving
Speaker 3: and pushing on, continuing on the legacy of your mom,
Speaker 3: continuing on the legacy that that you've built, that continues
Speaker 3: to inspire us and and that will continue to inspire
Speaker 3: generations to come.
Speaker 2: Brother.
Speaker 1: I hope you know that well, can I just say
Speaker 1: I'm proud of both of you guys man taking the
Speaker 1: bull by the horns.
Speaker 2: I have it because R and B.
Speaker 1: When you think about it, people keep having myth about
Speaker 1: R and B being dead. But it's not that it
Speaker 1: hasn't gone anywhere. It's still here. It still exists, and
Speaker 1: it's just a matter of like what you guys have
Speaker 1: done to create a platform to remind people and give
Speaker 1: people somewhere to go to come to see and understand
Speaker 1: that it still lives. It's not gone anywhere. So it's
Speaker 1: the young. You guys have been doing an incredible job.
Speaker 1: I've watched from the from the from from Jeffrey Osborn
Speaker 1: to KC to you know, Bobby and the Levin Yeah
Speaker 1: brothers and everybody, man, and I just that what you
Speaker 1: guys are doing with given everybody, from the young to
Speaker 1: the old, just everybody an opportunity to be able to
Speaker 1: tell a story and have people to understand who they
Speaker 1: are and where they come from, because you don't know
Speaker 1: where you're going unless you know where you come from.
Speaker 1: And you guys spread it out to the allow just
Speaker 1: people come in. You guys are doing an amazing job
Speaker 1: and I can't tell you how proud I am of
Speaker 1: both of you guys.
Speaker 2: Man, Thank you, ladies and gentlemen.
Speaker 3: And this is the R and B Money podcast, the
Speaker 3: authority on all things your nigga would say, it wasn't
Speaker 3: R n B.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And this has been.
Speaker 1: The edition.
Speaker 2: John himself.
Speaker 3: R and B Money.
Speaker 9: R and B Money is a production of the Black
Speaker 9: Effect Podcast Network. For more podcasts from iHeart Radio, visit
Speaker 9: the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to
Speaker 9: your favows. Don't forget to subscribe to and rate our show,
Speaker 9: and you can connect with us on social media at
Speaker 9: Jay Valentine and at the Real Tank. For the extended episode,
Speaker 9: subscribe to YouTube dot com or slash R and B
Speaker 9: Money