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Speaker 1: Quest Love Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio. It's a negative.

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Speaker 2: Three like a coffin the snees sniff is not a

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Speaker 2: cough snee and a sniff. In twenty twenty two, ladies

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Speaker 2: and gentlemen, welcome to another episode of Quest Love Supreme.

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Speaker 2: I am Quest Loved your host and with me is

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Speaker 2: the Almighty Team Supreme. I feel like Don Cornelius every

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Speaker 2: time I have a superlotan thing.

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Speaker 3: We all mighty, now, you guys the Mighty team.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, you're not the mighty with the Almighty.

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Speaker 4: I think somebody just got soul trained on the mind.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm actually watching this whole thing right now. Anyway,

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Speaker 1: sugar stea, what's up?

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Speaker 5: Oh my gosh, so much.

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Speaker 1: Feel like a new man now, don't you?

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Speaker 5: I feel different? Yes, After I recorded an interview for

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Speaker 5: Question of Supreme.

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Speaker 1: With wait, well let's not give it away yet. Let's

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Speaker 1: not give it away yet.

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Speaker 2: But Steve, Steve took the lead and did miraculous Jimmy

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Speaker 2: jam numbers four hours with UH with an incredible guest.

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Speaker 1: And you know we'll hear that episode, yes soon. He

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Speaker 1: got the nerd out.

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Speaker 2: I mean I was there as a training Wills and

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Speaker 2: then Irish exited him, you know, left.

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Speaker 1: Him on to sell them but it can't wait. Sounded awesome,

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Speaker 1: But you're finand Steve, everything's fine. I'm fine.

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Speaker 5: I tell you said, you're the fund Steve, and that

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Speaker 5: is how I feel like the fauns. Yeah, I'm definitely cool.

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Speaker 1: Now, great, great fan, take a little.

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Speaker 6: How's it going man, I'm cooling, bro, I'm cooling, man,

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Speaker 6: cooland happy to have miss Denise he today.

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Speaker 3: This is my childhood, close and personal for real.

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Speaker 1: Absolutely and uh you know why you cannot contain ourselves.

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Speaker 7: Listen, I am so you don't even understand. I am pumped,

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Speaker 7: beyond pumped and yes, yes.

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Speaker 1: So well.

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Speaker 2: Our guest today absolutely needs an introduction. She's a legendary

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Speaker 2: songbird with over seventeen albums, nineteen top forty R and

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Speaker 2: P singles, two number one pop singles, thirteen Grammy nominations

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Speaker 2: for wins, but basically just for the last five decades,

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Speaker 2: has blessed us with that angelic voice of hers. Be

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Speaker 2: it as a member of Wonderlove you know where we

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Speaker 2: first got to see her on a national level, or

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Speaker 2: just her illustrious solo career and told music with her

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Speaker 2: own solo records on Columbia Records, or her pop career

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Speaker 2: or her gospel career, and yes, in my opinion, one

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Speaker 2: of the voices of one of my all time favorite

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Speaker 2: TV themes.

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Speaker 1: Yes, Yes, we'll get into that. This interview has been

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Speaker 1: a long time coming.

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Speaker 2: Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome to Questloft Supreme, the one

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Speaker 2: and know me Denise Williams.

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Speaker 1: Yes, how are you?

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Speaker 8: How you doing wonderful? I'm wonderful and really excited to

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Speaker 8: be with you, guys. Finally we've been trying and so

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Speaker 8: here we are and it's lovely. I'm excited to be

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Speaker 8: here with you.

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Speaker 1: I have one question.

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Speaker 2: I am going to start at the beginning of your life,

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Speaker 2: but I got to get this out the way. So

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Speaker 2: when when my parents brought home this is Niecy your

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Speaker 2: your your first record on Columbia.

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Speaker 1: Huh, all right? I was six.

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Speaker 2: I you know, since then, I've had the record in

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Speaker 2: other iterations like a trac and cassette and CD, but

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Speaker 2: you know, the actual.

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Speaker 1: Vinyl, like I only remember that from my childhood.

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Speaker 2: Is the name Junior or June is Junior in your

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Speaker 2: name or June something? Because in your liner notes I

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Speaker 2: remember seeing that as your name, and I you know,

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Speaker 2: I have an uncle named Juni, and I was trying

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Speaker 2: to ask my mom like, wait, how's her name Junie?

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Speaker 2: And she's a lady, like what is what is your

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Speaker 2: your your full name?

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Speaker 8: My full name is June Denise Williams. I was born

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Speaker 8: on June third, so my full and first name is June. Ah.

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Speaker 1: Okay, I get it now. I think throughout time, like

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Speaker 1: you know, like when you see something once and then

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Speaker 1: like decades go by.

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Speaker 2: I think at the time I thought maybe your name

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Speaker 2: was Denise Williams Junior.

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Speaker 1: Or something like that, But.

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Speaker 2: Because you was young, I didn't Yeah, I didn't associate

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Speaker 2: the name June.

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Speaker 1: When I saw that name, I thought of my uncle Juni.

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Speaker 1: I'm like, wait, how does she have his name? So

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Speaker 1: I get it related.

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Speaker 2: You never know, I see, and you're a Gemini, yes,

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Speaker 2: I ah, oh, I forgive you anyway.

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Speaker 8: Nobody's perfect, right, my mother I will wake up and

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Speaker 8: murder and my mother will look at me and say, okay,

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Speaker 8: who are you today? You June or you Denise? Which

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Speaker 8: one am I favor today?

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Speaker 1: Oh? Really? You dealing with both of us? Okay?

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Speaker 4: That who we have today? We have both today?

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Speaker 3: Okay, let's get it.

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Speaker 8: I keep myself entertained too.

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Speaker 1: I get it, I get it.

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Speaker 2: I know that you were born in Gary and Deanna,

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Speaker 2: so I usually start with where were you born?

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Speaker 1: But I want to start with a different question.

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Speaker 2: Uh, could you please tell me what your very first

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Speaker 2: musical memory was.

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Speaker 8: My very first musical memory is. I was three years

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Speaker 8: old and I was sitting on the back porch at

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Speaker 8: my grandparents' house and I said, we will now have

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Speaker 8: a selection from Denise, and I started singing this song

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Speaker 8: called There's a Man Waiting way beyond the clouds. And

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Speaker 8: my dad's sister, my aunt, hurt me that. She came

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Speaker 8: out and she said, if I asked you to sing

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Speaker 8: that song in church on Sunday, would you do it?

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Speaker 8: And I said okay, And so I sang the song

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Speaker 8: and next thing I know, I was in the children's

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Speaker 8: choir at my church. That's my very first musical memory.

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Speaker 1: And what was it about that song that attracted you

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Speaker 1: to it?

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Speaker 8: I just loved it. I love the melody. I love

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Speaker 8: the message of the song about someone in heaven waiting

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Speaker 8: for me, and the beautiful melody and the fact that

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Speaker 8: I just liked the sound of it. When I was

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Speaker 8: singing the sound of my voice on it.

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Speaker 2: Of course, you were born in the Midwest. You know,

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Speaker 2: there's another famous nearby family. It's kind of synonymous with

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Speaker 2: that series, that city of Gary, Indiana. But could you

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Speaker 2: give me your version, like when I hear of Gary, Indiana?

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Speaker 2: Besides the song Gary Indiana. You know, I only know

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Speaker 2: of the Jackson's version of Gary, Indiana, which is basically

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Speaker 2: the tale of a father using hook or crook to

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Speaker 2: get his kids out of that city.

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Speaker 1: But what are your memories of Gary, Indiana?

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Speaker 8: I love growing up in Gary. We had in my neighborhood.

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Speaker 8: You know, one thing I realized is that I didn't

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Speaker 8: know that we were poor. You know, I thought we

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Speaker 8: had everything. As long as we had tuna fish, I

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Speaker 8: was fine.

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Speaker 1: I love you.

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Speaker 8: Right now, I'm saying. So, you know, I had an

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Speaker 8: upbringing in the church. I spent a lot of time

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Speaker 8: on the weekends with my grandparents, and my grandmother was

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Speaker 8: the mother of the church fake temple church you got

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Speaker 8: in christ Over in East Chicago. So I was there

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Speaker 8: and basically, you know, just grew up, went to school,

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Speaker 8: very Christian youngster, you know, didn't know a lot about

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Speaker 8: what was going on. I think I was very innocent.

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Speaker 8: I never remember. One time one of my neighbors said,

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Speaker 8: you know, the way you got here is your mom

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Speaker 8: and dad. They did the duty and I and I

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Speaker 8: fought with her. I said they did not, And so

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Speaker 8: you know, I was, you know, very innocent. Raised up

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Speaker 8: with my brother, two brothers and a sister, and I

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Speaker 8: really liked Gary in those days. You know, school was fun.

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Speaker 8: I had a lot of fun friends, and I didn't

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Speaker 8: know much about, you know, the political system of what

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Speaker 8: was happening. But we did have the first black mayor,

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Speaker 8: which was Richard Hatcher, and so you know, a lot

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Speaker 8: of the history of Gary and the black communities was

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Speaker 8: really really great.

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Speaker 1: You know.

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Speaker 8: Later on, of course, there was the drug scene in that.

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Speaker 8: But I grew up. I didn't start singing until I

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Speaker 8: was a teenager, and so myth teacher owned a record

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Speaker 8: store and I asked him for a job. I got

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Speaker 8: a job, so I was singing. You know a lot

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Speaker 8: of stuff in there. I had seen Michael and the

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Speaker 8: Jackson Five perform at the Masonic Temple one time, and

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Speaker 8: I think he was about five years old or something,

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Speaker 8: and their cousin, the drummer in the group n Johnny

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Speaker 8: had a crush on me. I thought it was a

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Speaker 8: crush on my sister, and maybe it was. And so

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Speaker 8: he used to come over to the house and we

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Speaker 8: would see them. I remember, you know, some girls showed

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Speaker 8: up at my house and they said, we wanted to

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Speaker 8: sing in the Talent Show, but one of our singers

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Speaker 8: is sick, and we heard that you can sing. And

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Speaker 8: one of the girls of us, I said, can you sing?

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Speaker 8: I said, well, if you came to church, you know. Okay,

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Speaker 8: you know I sang in the Talent Show. But I said, well,

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Speaker 8: the Jackson five is going to win the Talent Show.

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Speaker 8: But we sang, and actually we sang It's going to

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Speaker 8: take a miracle, and really that was the song we

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Speaker 8: sang in the Talent Show. So, you know, I loved

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Speaker 8: growing up in Indiana. It was a great time to

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Speaker 8: be raised. There was great the discipline and the growing

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Speaker 8: up in the church, and you know the way the

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Speaker 8: elder black people were at that time and how proud

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Speaker 8: they were as you know, doing their work and that

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Speaker 8: kind of stuff. Of course, later on as a teenager,

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Speaker 8: I did, you know, join the NAACP and I did

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Speaker 8: some marchie for Jim Crow, you know, the John Birch

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Speaker 8: Society and then folk so that was also part of

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Speaker 8: my upbringing. But it was really wonderful to grew up

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Speaker 8: in the Midwest where you had rules and regulations. You

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Speaker 8: really knew who you were and you know, and what

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Speaker 8: was going on. So it was wonderful. I'm grateful for

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Speaker 8: my upbringing in the Midwest and in Gary, Indiana.

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Speaker 2: Did you have any sort of interaction with other notable

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Speaker 2: Gary people like I know that.

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Speaker 1: Kim Misells from Gary as well, Kimzillia.

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Speaker 2: No, okay, or like Fred Williamson or Ernest Ernest Lee

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Speaker 2: Thomas who played rides from What's Happening.

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Speaker 8: That's a funny story because my grandfather was a pastor.

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Speaker 8: He had, you know, his membership. There's maybe about twenty

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Speaker 8: twenty five of us up in my grandfather's church and

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Speaker 8: he was a pastor, he was a musical director, he

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Speaker 8: was the choir leader, and so the choir existed about

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Speaker 8: five of us and Ernie Lee Ernie Thomas was one

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Speaker 8: of the members of my grandfather's church. We grew up together.

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Speaker 3: Wow, okay, Wow, that's up.

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Speaker 9: I've known him since I was about ten, probably in

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Speaker 9: the early arts I comment I did a show at

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Speaker 9: the House of Blues and you know, Ernest Lee Thomas

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Speaker 9: was in the Foundation room like all excited, wanted to

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Speaker 9: come back stage, and you know, I see him walking

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Speaker 9: down the hallway and I'm all excited and.

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Speaker 1: He's like asking me permission to, like, yo, can I

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Speaker 1: can I meet him? Can I you know, take a photo?

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Speaker 1: And everything? Da da da. He's like, I love this

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Speaker 1: album and everything. He's like all excited and he goes

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Speaker 1: to comment.

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Speaker 2: He's like, yeah, just you know, I'm trying to be

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Speaker 2: respectful because you know, you know, ask your bodyguard first

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Speaker 2: if you could, uh, you know, if.

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Speaker 3: You could take a wow you were his bodyguard.

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Speaker 10: I'm I'm gonna tell you something fun. That was the

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Speaker 10: day where I was like, I have to lose weight.

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Speaker 10: So when I never I never shared this story, but

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Speaker 10: it was that day.

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Speaker 6: When not I got to get more famous, so I

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Speaker 6: gotta lose weight.

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Speaker 2: No, I was like, wait a minute, I wear because

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Speaker 2: he he he knew everything of that album, and I'm like,

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Speaker 2: wait a minute, how do you know Common but don't

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Speaker 2: know the Roots?

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Speaker 1: And how do you not know that I'm a member

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Speaker 1: of the Roots.

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Speaker 2: And he's like, oh, I'm sorry, No, offense, Sir, I

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Speaker 2: thought you were his bodyguard, and I was like, ah, man,

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Speaker 2: I gotta lose weight.

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Speaker 10: So that that was the day.

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Speaker 1: Wow, I had to do that. Man shout out. Shout

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Speaker 1: out to Ernest Thomas.

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Speaker 2: Okay, So the thing is is that you grew up

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Speaker 2: in a church environment. What were first of all, how

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Speaker 2: many siblings did you have in your household?

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Speaker 8: Uh? There were two brothers and my sister Derek is

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Speaker 8: under me Diane, and then don a l.

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Speaker 1: Are you the baby or the I'm.

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Speaker 8: The eldest, I'm the oldest?

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Speaker 4: Was the D stand for anything where everybody was a d.

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Speaker 8: My mom thought she was being unique. You know what

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Speaker 8: can I say? I mean, my name is d E

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Speaker 8: n I E c E right, my sister is Diane,

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Speaker 8: but it's d y A N N E. She was,

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Speaker 8: you know, trying to be unique and artistic and whatever else.

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Speaker 1: She was well you know what, hey, she knew she

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Speaker 1: was naming like you. That's right, We're an artist. You

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Speaker 1: gave art to the world.

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Speaker 2: So growing up in that environment, how like often kind

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Speaker 2: of a common theme with some of the singers that

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Speaker 2: come on the show is often like secular music is

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Speaker 2: frowned upon, Like you have to stay in the church.

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Speaker 2: So often they're they're transitioning from the church to kind

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Speaker 2: of you know, secular music whatever, it's sort of met

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Speaker 2: with a frown. What was the general feeling of secular

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Speaker 2: music back then as far as your household was concerned.

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Speaker 8: Well, it was frowned upon. You know, if you did

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Speaker 8: the Devil's music, you want to win and row stick

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Speaker 8: it on your way to hell, you know. So I

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Speaker 8: was trying to stay on a hell.

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Speaker 1: But so you weren't allowed to listen to Motel?

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Speaker 8: Oh yeah, I did, of course I saw that was okay.

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Speaker 8: That was that, you know. But the bottom line is

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Speaker 8: that my mother, who who was born and raised in

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Speaker 8: the church under my grandmother, said when she got grown

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Speaker 8: she was never going to church again. And so she

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Speaker 8: drop us off that church on Sunday when I wasn't

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Speaker 8: with my grandfather, and she would pick us up, but

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Speaker 8: she did not go in. She was doing the drop

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Speaker 8: off pickup service. And my an incredible music fan, so

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Speaker 8: she had a turntable in her bedroom and all of

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Speaker 8: these different records. So when she would go to work

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Speaker 8: and I would get home from school before she got

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Speaker 8: it there, I was sneaking in my mother's room and

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Speaker 8: play all her stuff. I mean, I wanted to look like,

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Speaker 8: sound like, dress like Nancy Wilson. That was my girl.

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Speaker 8: You know, I'm Nancy Wilson, Dakota Staton, you know, Billy Eckstein.

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Speaker 8: I was listening to all of them, and you know,

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Speaker 8: with my through my mother's music, she had a very

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Speaker 8: e collected collection. Like I learned a lot of standards

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Speaker 8: songs because she had an album on Jackie Gleason and Jackie.

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Speaker 8: It was the Jackie Gleason Orchestra, and they did all

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Speaker 8: these standards but no lyrics. It was just oohs and odds.

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Speaker 8: And I learned, you know, I would sing along with

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Speaker 8: all of these, you know these records Marlena Shaw. I mean,

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Speaker 8: so my whole upbringing with music, the secular music was

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Speaker 8: going on in my house. I just you know, my

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Speaker 8: mama didn't know I was sneaking in there listening to

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Speaker 8: all her stuff, but I was. I was up in there.

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Speaker 8: And then on television when you would see certain artists

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Speaker 8: like I even told Johnny Mathews, I said, Honey, I

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Speaker 8: do this duet because I've been listening to singing with

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Speaker 8: you for thirty years. I was already okay, because I

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Speaker 8: listed in all these shows and I've been a rehearsal

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Speaker 8: for a long time. So it was my mother's record collection,

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Speaker 8: you know, that really introduced me to secular music. And

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Speaker 8: then you know, and then also growing up and my

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Speaker 8: math teacher had the record store, so I was over

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Speaker 8: there doing that, so I listened to all of them.

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Speaker 8: You know, I loved all kinds of music, so you know,

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Speaker 8: there was a way made for me to listen even

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Speaker 8: though it was forbidden. I was carrying all my secret

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Speaker 8: music life and enjoying myself.

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Speaker 2: You know, I can't imagine a time where you know,

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Speaker 2: music almost had the same sort of status as you

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Speaker 2: know in some black churchs as almost like pornography, Like

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Speaker 2: it was just forbidden. So what was that like for

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Speaker 2: you as a teenager, because you know, being as of

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Speaker 2: the year you were born, you know, by the time.

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Speaker 1: That's you're thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, where like there's.

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Speaker 2: Now black psychedelic rock, there's you know, towns going through

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Speaker 2: new phase of sliding the family stone.

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Speaker 1: Like how is that affecting your teen years? Well?

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Speaker 8: I tell you it did. And probably the most impactful

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Speaker 8: thing that happened to me was that I did do

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Speaker 8: a local record you know when I was I think

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Speaker 8: I was eighteen, called love Is Tears and it was

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Speaker 8: written by Eugene Records of the Shylights in Barbara Makes

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Speaker 8: a Woman, Barbara Acklin and Gene. Because my teacher who

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Speaker 8: owned the the record store he was he came in

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Speaker 8: the back one day and he heard me singing by

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Speaker 8: Maretha Franklin record I think I was singing eight and

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Speaker 8: no Way something like that. And then he came out

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Speaker 8: to the record party. He said, I didn't know you

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Speaker 8: could sing. I said, because you don't go to church,

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Speaker 8: you know. So he's he it had talked to my

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Speaker 8: mom and say, can I bring over some record people

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Speaker 8: from Chicago to hear her sing, you know, to think

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Speaker 8: about recording her. My mom said yes, because you know,

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Speaker 8: she was like, listen, honey, you sing what you want

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Speaker 8: to sing. Them other people in that church they crazy nice.

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Speaker 8: And so they came over and they hurt me and

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Speaker 8: they and we recorded this song called Love's Tears. And

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Speaker 8: so but when my church found out that I had

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Speaker 8: recorded that song, they stood me up in church. They

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Speaker 8: stripped me up my membership. I was singing in five

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Speaker 8: choirs at that Indiana State choir. They said I couldn't

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Speaker 8: sing in the choirs anymore, and they went off on

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Speaker 8: me because I was I was a sinner and I

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Speaker 8: had done this. So you know, after they did that,

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Speaker 8: I kind of swung over to my mother's side in

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Speaker 8: a minute, like I'm not coming back and so go,

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Speaker 8: you know, do what you want to do. Are you

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Speaker 8: unhappy women getting up on Sundays snopping and crying at

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Speaker 8: your husband street? Anyway, talk about.

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Speaker 3: It, talk about it.

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Speaker 6: So that first, that first song you did, the Love

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Speaker 6: Is Tears, you did that under your name.

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Speaker 3: That wasn't under Ali, it was.

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Speaker 8: Under Denise Chandler because Williams's name. So it's Love Is

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Speaker 8: Tears by Toddling Town Records. You know, I have one

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Speaker 8: over there in my safe. I cot a little kept

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Speaker 8: a little copy somebody sent me. And then they got

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Speaker 8: mad with me and stripped me up my membership, and

364
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Speaker 8: you know I couldn't go. And you know, my best

365
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Speaker 8: friend at the time were my cousins, and we used

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Speaker 8: to travel with their father who was the pastor, and sing.

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Speaker 8: And they told me, oh, we can't have anything to

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Speaker 8: do with you because of your voice. And I said, honey,

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Speaker 8: I said, I am really that really hurts me. I'm

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Speaker 8: sorry to hear that. But you have to live by

371
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Speaker 8: what you believe, and I have to live by what

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Speaker 8: I believe.

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Speaker 1: So come nineteen seventy six, did you get your moment?

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Speaker 8: I sure did, and I'm gonna get you more.

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Speaker 2: We'll get to that, all right, we'll get to that.

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Speaker 2: When did you wind up leaving Gary, Indiana?

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Speaker 8: I love Gary, Indiana. I think when I was eighteen,

378
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Speaker 8: I went away my you know, my band teacher, mister

379
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Speaker 8: Bryant was like my father to me, and he got

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Speaker 8: me into college. His roommate from college was the president

381
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Speaker 8: of Morgan State.

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Speaker 4: Yea, oh yes, almamado, Yes, I went there, all.

383
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Speaker 8: Right, now, So he sent me to Morgan State, you

384
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Speaker 8: know after that, and so it was like I went

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Speaker 8: there and I majored in sex and drugs, and you know,

386
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Speaker 8: the church people turned me a loose and I went

387
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Speaker 8: to Morgan State and lost my mind. I ofques, I

388
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Speaker 8: lost my mind.

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Speaker 4: Oh wait, can you really be saying what was Baltimore

390
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Speaker 4: like back then? Though? When you went to When you

391
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Speaker 4: went to you.

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Speaker 8: Know, Baltimore was wonderful. I enjoyed it. But I had

393
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Speaker 8: a friend that lived in the dormitory, and she was

394
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Speaker 8: in Philadelphia. Her name was China. So then you know,

395
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Speaker 8: I was there on a student work kind of a program.

396
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Speaker 8: And so I went into the high school in Baltimore

397
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Speaker 8: to be a TA tacher teacher's assistant. And then women

398
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Speaker 8: in that class they already had babies. Tenth graders had babies.

399
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Speaker 8: They looked rough like they could eat me up. So

400
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Speaker 8: I was so Chatta said, uh, girl, I heard they

401
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Speaker 8: looking for a singer and a dancer down at this club.

402
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Speaker 8: And so she said, let's go down there in the audition.

403
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Speaker 8: And and so we went down to the club and

404
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Speaker 8: I got the job singing, and she got the job dancing.

405
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Speaker 8: And we were singing and dancing in a cage. She'd

406
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Speaker 8: be on one cage and I was on another cage.

407
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Speaker 8: So wow. Anyway, so.

408
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Speaker 1: Hold on, let's go back to the cage.

409
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Speaker 3: Okay, okay, let's go back to the cage.

410
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Speaker 4: It was the church.

411
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Speaker 1: I'm already seeing the graphics for her episode.

412
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Speaker 8: It was the opening act for these five guys that

413
00:23:28,680 --> 00:23:32,360
Speaker 8: was called the Feminiques. They was waiting for the they

414
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Speaker 8: change body, their surgery at John Hoppkins Hospital, Baltimore. Yes,

415
00:23:41,040 --> 00:23:45,679
Speaker 8: opening up, Yes, yes, I forget the club.

416
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Speaker 4: That was popping in Baltimore that was.

417
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Speaker 6: Known Oh yeah, yes, So mister Denise, what was your

418
00:23:51,040 --> 00:23:52,159
Speaker 6: attire in the cage?

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Speaker 3: What was your outfit?

420
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Speaker 8: I had on a love jumpsuit, you know, Tina had

421
00:23:57,520 --> 00:24:00,080
Speaker 8: on little jumpsuits. And we was in the cage and

422
00:24:00,119 --> 00:24:02,800
Speaker 8: I was singing by you know, the records of Rita

423
00:24:02,840 --> 00:24:05,800
Speaker 8: and all that kind of stuff, and she'd be there. Yeah.

424
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Speaker 8: I made more money in occasion I would have made

425
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Speaker 8: if I stayed at school.

426
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Speaker 1: And this was your first time out of away from home.

427
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Speaker 8: And I'm telling you, this was my first time because

428
00:24:15,520 --> 00:24:20,359
Speaker 8: my mom borrored my a neighbor's car Ronnie he Borreroddy

429
00:24:20,440 --> 00:24:23,320
Speaker 8: car and she drove me from Gary, Indiana to Baltimore.

430
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Speaker 8: And when my mom left us standing there and I

431
00:24:28,880 --> 00:24:32,639
Speaker 8: pick up and she'd be down the road and then

432
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Speaker 8: she's gone, and then I couldn't see. I said, who.

433
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Speaker 3: Oh wow.

434
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Speaker 4: School. I'm glad it had that history.

435
00:24:49,000 --> 00:24:52,680
Speaker 8: Real nice, Thank God, albody. And they already had me church,

436
00:24:52,720 --> 00:24:55,480
Speaker 8: had me set up in a church at Baltimore, and

437
00:24:55,880 --> 00:24:58,560
Speaker 8: people that was gonna pick me up on Sunday and

438
00:24:58,720 --> 00:25:01,480
Speaker 8: take me to church. I love to lasted about two.

439
00:25:01,280 --> 00:25:05,280
Speaker 3: Months Oh it lasted that Long's that long?

440
00:25:05,440 --> 00:25:07,240
Speaker 8: Yeah, it lasted that long.

441
00:25:08,119 --> 00:25:08,760
Speaker 1: I see.

442
00:25:09,359 --> 00:25:12,439
Speaker 2: So, okay, you're in Baltimore. But the thing is, you

443
00:25:12,560 --> 00:25:16,240
Speaker 2: released a single. So in your mind when you made

444
00:25:16,280 --> 00:25:20,440
Speaker 2: that single, was that just a one off thing? Okay

445
00:25:20,480 --> 00:25:24,080
Speaker 2: I made I made a forty five and whatever. But

446
00:25:24,320 --> 00:25:28,400
Speaker 2: I mean, are you actively pursuing, like, Okay, I want

447
00:25:28,400 --> 00:25:30,360
Speaker 2: to do this for real, I want to get a

448
00:25:30,400 --> 00:25:33,920
Speaker 2: record deal and release music or is it just like Okay,

449
00:25:33,960 --> 00:25:34,480
Speaker 2: I did that.

450
00:25:34,480 --> 00:25:35,040
Speaker 1: That was fun.

451
00:25:36,119 --> 00:25:38,120
Speaker 8: You know, I never wanted to sing.

452
00:25:40,119 --> 00:25:40,920
Speaker 1: With that voice.

453
00:25:41,800 --> 00:25:44,280
Speaker 8: No, because I grew up in a church with a

454
00:25:44,320 --> 00:25:48,159
Speaker 8: lot of great gospel singers, my cousins. They would you know,

455
00:25:48,280 --> 00:25:50,919
Speaker 8: they would sing and folks would be slaying in the

456
00:25:51,000 --> 00:25:54,160
Speaker 8: spirit and falling out and shouting and running off through

457
00:25:54,160 --> 00:25:57,320
Speaker 8: the church. And I would sing and they would listen

458
00:25:57,359 --> 00:25:57,879
Speaker 8: and cry.

459
00:25:58,200 --> 00:26:00,159
Speaker 4: Yeah yeah, well, and I was thinking, and.

460
00:26:00,359 --> 00:26:03,040
Speaker 8: I'm doing something wrong because they're not falling out and

461
00:26:03,119 --> 00:26:05,720
Speaker 8: speaking in tongue and doing all of that. They're just

462
00:26:05,880 --> 00:26:09,080
Speaker 8: listening and they're crying. I mean, they would be boohoo

463
00:26:09,080 --> 00:26:11,240
Speaker 8: crying when I was seeing and so I just thought

464
00:26:12,160 --> 00:26:16,080
Speaker 8: I didn't have it. And my mom was a nurse's aide,

465
00:26:16,280 --> 00:26:19,640
Speaker 8: My grandmother worked in the hospital as the nurse's age.

466
00:26:19,640 --> 00:26:22,560
Speaker 8: I had an aunt who worked in sterilizing instruments, and

467
00:26:22,600 --> 00:26:24,719
Speaker 8: so I wanted to be a nurse. That's what I

468
00:26:24,840 --> 00:26:25,320
Speaker 8: was going to do.

469
00:26:25,440 --> 00:26:31,200
Speaker 1: That's right. Oh wow, I remember that. Okay, I wanted to.

470
00:26:31,119 --> 00:26:34,080
Speaker 8: Be a nurse. I wasn't thinking about the music industry

471
00:26:34,200 --> 00:26:35,920
Speaker 8: or pursuing that at all.

472
00:26:36,280 --> 00:26:38,160
Speaker 4: So who explained the tears to you and what they

473
00:26:38,200 --> 00:26:40,640
Speaker 4: really meant?

474
00:26:39,760 --> 00:26:41,200
Speaker 8: Who's playing?

475
00:26:41,280 --> 00:26:41,600
Speaker 4: Was said?

476
00:26:41,600 --> 00:26:45,840
Speaker 7: Who explained the tears to you? Like, who explained job? Yeah,

477
00:26:45,880 --> 00:26:47,199
Speaker 7: because at the end of the day, you know, you

478
00:26:47,240 --> 00:26:49,720
Speaker 7: still do that. So but it's it's a good thing.

479
00:26:50,240 --> 00:26:53,240
Speaker 8: So they weren't saying anything to me, you know, they

480
00:26:53,280 --> 00:26:55,600
Speaker 8: weren't saying a whole lot to my cousins, so that

481
00:26:55,760 --> 00:26:58,040
Speaker 8: was falling out. You know, they would have their experience

482
00:26:58,080 --> 00:27:02,359
Speaker 8: and falling out, but they didn't explain their reaction or

483
00:27:02,400 --> 00:27:06,800
Speaker 8: their connection to what we were saying. Probably the only

484
00:27:06,840 --> 00:27:10,080
Speaker 8: one that did that was my cousin who was kind

485
00:27:10,080 --> 00:27:13,439
Speaker 8: of like my music teacher, you know, he was you know, Denise,

486
00:27:13,640 --> 00:27:16,560
Speaker 8: there's if the altos are not strong enough, or the

487
00:27:16,600 --> 00:27:19,240
Speaker 8: second soprano or first alan just feeling the hole, you know,

488
00:27:19,400 --> 00:27:22,560
Speaker 8: just wherever the weakest.

489
00:27:22,600 --> 00:27:25,359
Speaker 7: Oh no, Denise, I mean, did anybody ever explain to

490
00:27:25,400 --> 00:27:27,919
Speaker 7: you that those tears mean so much more, you know

491
00:27:28,040 --> 00:27:31,639
Speaker 7: or gift? Yes, because to this day those songs like

492
00:27:31,680 --> 00:27:34,639
Speaker 7: your songs. I was listening today just remembering tearing up,

493
00:27:34,840 --> 00:27:35,560
Speaker 7: So that's a thing.

494
00:27:36,280 --> 00:27:36,440
Speaker 1: Yeah.

495
00:27:37,080 --> 00:27:37,760
Speaker 3: Yeah.

496
00:27:37,840 --> 00:27:40,840
Speaker 8: But they never said anything, you know, they would just

497
00:27:41,160 --> 00:27:43,879
Speaker 8: you know, got critical when I did the R and

498
00:27:43,960 --> 00:27:51,040
Speaker 8: B song expressed you know, their thoughts about my my

499
00:27:51,280 --> 00:27:55,280
Speaker 8: talents and my cousins who had people fallen out. You know,

500
00:27:55,400 --> 00:27:57,800
Speaker 8: they were the big, big cheese. They were the one

501
00:27:58,480 --> 00:28:02,240
Speaker 8: and you know, the pastors children, and so they were

502
00:28:02,240 --> 00:28:05,120
Speaker 8: the big folks in the church. And so I never

503
00:28:05,160 --> 00:28:06,840
Speaker 8: thought I had a sad that I better go to

504
00:28:06,920 --> 00:28:09,320
Speaker 8: school and be a nurse, you know. So that's the

505
00:28:09,359 --> 00:28:11,679
Speaker 8: reason why I went to Baltimore. And like I said,

506
00:28:12,000 --> 00:28:15,280
Speaker 8: I don't remember one professor's name, Professor Dix, And that

507
00:28:15,400 --> 00:28:18,120
Speaker 8: was because she had gone to Africa and had all

508
00:28:18,160 --> 00:28:22,080
Speaker 8: this fabulous jewelry, you know, from Africa, and I remember her.

509
00:28:22,359 --> 00:28:24,719
Speaker 8: I don't remember the rest of it except being in

510
00:28:24,720 --> 00:28:25,280
Speaker 8: the cage.

511
00:28:25,920 --> 00:28:28,959
Speaker 1: Wow, man, I love the storyteller.

512
00:28:30,200 --> 00:28:32,720
Speaker 2: Well, first of all, is that was that your first

513
00:28:32,800 --> 00:28:35,800
Speaker 2: like true professional experience.

514
00:28:36,720 --> 00:28:41,200
Speaker 1: Singing background or with the national artist that I mean

515
00:28:41,200 --> 00:28:42,040
Speaker 1: with Stevie Wonder.

516
00:28:42,680 --> 00:28:45,760
Speaker 8: He was the very first. Well, no, let me back up.

517
00:28:46,680 --> 00:28:51,600
Speaker 8: When I did the local song, I was asked to

518
00:28:51,640 --> 00:28:57,720
Speaker 8: sing at the Masonic Temple on this show with Jerry Butler,

519
00:28:58,280 --> 00:29:02,920
Speaker 8: and then I was asked if I would, you know,

520
00:29:03,480 --> 00:29:06,040
Speaker 8: sing let it be me with him, because I think

521
00:29:06,080 --> 00:29:06,800
Speaker 8: he sang with.

522
00:29:07,680 --> 00:29:10,000
Speaker 1: A pretty good and.

523
00:29:12,040 --> 00:29:15,440
Speaker 8: Yeah yeah. So I sang let it be me with

524
00:29:15,440 --> 00:29:18,960
Speaker 8: with with Jerry Butler, and I was like, oh gosh,

525
00:29:18,960 --> 00:29:21,320
Speaker 8: I thought I had died and gone to heaven, you know,

526
00:29:21,360 --> 00:29:24,320
Speaker 8: because I loved his voice. He was huge in those

527
00:29:24,400 --> 00:29:27,400
Speaker 8: days in the Chicago area and you know, all over

528
00:29:27,480 --> 00:29:31,040
Speaker 8: with music. And so that was my first time singing

529
00:29:31,080 --> 00:29:35,080
Speaker 8: with a professional person. But the second time would be

530
00:29:35,200 --> 00:29:36,200
Speaker 8: with Stevie Wonder.

531
00:29:36,920 --> 00:29:38,840
Speaker 1: So what led you to that journey.

532
00:29:39,680 --> 00:29:45,360
Speaker 8: I had a cousin, John Harris, and when John's grandmother

533
00:29:45,480 --> 00:29:49,360
Speaker 8: and my grandmother were sisters. But John lived in Detroit.

534
00:29:49,840 --> 00:29:53,960
Speaker 8: So the first time John came, oh Lord Jesus, I

535
00:29:54,040 --> 00:29:56,760
Speaker 8: fell in love with that black man. He had compel.

536
00:29:57,520 --> 00:30:03,480
Speaker 8: He was you know, he got yeah that in his hair, girl, okay,

537
00:30:03,880 --> 00:30:08,640
Speaker 8: And so he would come. So my sister said, don't

538
00:30:08,680 --> 00:30:11,800
Speaker 8: even think about it. That's your cousin. That's blood y'all.

539
00:30:11,840 --> 00:30:13,960
Speaker 8: Get together. You're gonna have idiot children, you know what

540
00:30:14,000 --> 00:30:14,239
Speaker 8: I mean?

541
00:30:15,560 --> 00:30:17,440
Speaker 4: That real John.

542
00:30:17,920 --> 00:30:21,360
Speaker 8: So John would come in, you know, every summer for

543
00:30:21,440 --> 00:30:24,440
Speaker 8: one week and then what So he's from Detroit, So

544
00:30:24,480 --> 00:30:27,040
Speaker 8: he kept telling me, telling us, you know, I worked

545
00:30:27,040 --> 00:30:30,760
Speaker 8: for Stevie Wonder. I said, boy, Pinocchio, your nose is growing.

546
00:30:30,880 --> 00:30:33,840
Speaker 8: You don't know Stevie Wonder. Everybody Detroit say they know

547
00:30:33,920 --> 00:30:36,680
Speaker 8: Stevie Wonder. And he told me that for like three

548
00:30:36,800 --> 00:30:40,000
Speaker 8: years that he knew and was working with Stevie Wonder.

549
00:30:40,560 --> 00:30:43,560
Speaker 8: So when I went to school in Baltimore, he called me.

550
00:30:43,680 --> 00:30:46,760
Speaker 8: He said, Okay, Stevie's doing a concert in Baltimore and

551
00:30:46,800 --> 00:30:50,320
Speaker 8: I'm gonna give you a backstage pass. And so I

552
00:30:50,480 --> 00:30:53,400
Speaker 8: went to the concert. He introduced me to Stevie. I

553
00:30:53,400 --> 00:30:55,880
Speaker 8: think I first met him when I was eighteen, and

554
00:30:55,920 --> 00:30:59,160
Speaker 8: he introduced me to Stevie. So I was apologizing to

555
00:30:59,280 --> 00:31:04,560
Speaker 8: John Tell was insane. I believe it. Anyway, That's how

556
00:31:04,600 --> 00:31:07,560
Speaker 8: I first met Do you know I let him drive

557
00:31:07,640 --> 00:31:09,240
Speaker 8: my car with his blind stuff.

558
00:31:09,320 --> 00:31:11,840
Speaker 4: Yo, It's like a whole long list of people who

559
00:31:11,920 --> 00:31:12,520
Speaker 4: let him do this?

560
00:31:12,840 --> 00:31:15,960
Speaker 2: Why is he we can do a compilation? And the

561
00:31:16,040 --> 00:31:18,360
Speaker 2: amount of times Stevie wanted to has driven.

562
00:31:18,160 --> 00:31:19,000
Speaker 1: Someone's car.

563
00:31:23,120 --> 00:31:25,800
Speaker 8: My life flashing in front of my eyes and his too.

564
00:31:26,000 --> 00:31:29,160
Speaker 6: But anyway, you were in the car while you weren't

565
00:31:29,160 --> 00:31:30,960
Speaker 6: just letting him drive it. You were riding with him

566
00:31:30,960 --> 00:31:33,120
Speaker 6: while he got on the brake.

567
00:31:34,440 --> 00:31:37,600
Speaker 1: Ah, Sir, I.

568
00:31:37,480 --> 00:31:39,680
Speaker 8: Love Jesus, but I wasn't trying to see him that day.

569
00:31:43,960 --> 00:31:49,960
Speaker 8: So anyhow, about two years after that, Uh, John came

570
00:31:50,040 --> 00:31:53,040
Speaker 8: and he said, hey, what you doing? And I said, Man,

571
00:31:53,200 --> 00:31:56,040
Speaker 8: I have to leave school because that science was kicking

572
00:31:56,080 --> 00:31:57,840
Speaker 8: my butt. I said, I don't know what I do

573
00:31:57,920 --> 00:32:01,040
Speaker 8: with myself, but I you know I can't handle the science.

574
00:32:01,320 --> 00:32:02,760
Speaker 8: He said, well, you want me to get you an

575
00:32:02,800 --> 00:32:05,600
Speaker 8: audition with Stevie. I said, there you go, there you go.

576
00:32:06,040 --> 00:32:09,200
Speaker 8: He said, no, Denise. He said, you know he's auditioning

577
00:32:09,240 --> 00:32:12,600
Speaker 8: for singers, and if you want to, I'll get him

578
00:32:12,600 --> 00:32:15,160
Speaker 8: to give you a ticket to come to Detroit and

579
00:32:15,800 --> 00:32:18,600
Speaker 8: you can, you know, audition, And that's what happened. I

580
00:32:18,640 --> 00:32:22,239
Speaker 8: went in. There was about twenty of us, and I

581
00:32:22,360 --> 00:32:25,880
Speaker 8: was one of the three that he chose for wonder Love.

582
00:32:26,600 --> 00:32:30,560
Speaker 1: I mean, I consider the core you Jim Gilstrap was.

583
00:32:30,480 --> 00:32:33,560
Speaker 8: He Jim I first came aboard.

584
00:32:33,880 --> 00:32:36,160
Speaker 1: Huh wow, Okay, I never saw one of Love with

585
00:32:36,400 --> 00:32:38,000
Speaker 1: a male singer. Okay, that's dope.

586
00:32:38,400 --> 00:32:41,240
Speaker 8: Lonnie Gross was there, Jim, and Lonnie Grosse was there

587
00:32:41,240 --> 00:32:45,200
Speaker 8: when I joined, and then Shirley came a little bit

588
00:32:45,320 --> 00:32:45,840
Speaker 8: after me.

589
00:32:46,720 --> 00:32:50,600
Speaker 1: Okay, so well Green also, but before the.

590
00:32:50,560 --> 00:32:55,080
Speaker 8: Supreen came after too. After Oh, Lonnie left.

591
00:32:55,280 --> 00:32:57,320
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's Jim singing, if I'm not mistaking.

592
00:32:57,400 --> 00:32:59,160
Speaker 6: Is that Jim singing the first verse of your the

593
00:32:59,160 --> 00:33:02,480
Speaker 6: Sunshine of My Life.

594
00:33:03,040 --> 00:33:15,240
Speaker 2: He's also the male voice on Good Times. I Gotta

595
00:33:15,280 --> 00:33:18,719
Speaker 2: tell the Storis We've mentioned Jim is a singing partner

596
00:33:18,800 --> 00:33:22,080
Speaker 2: on that. There's another artist that was on Motown that

597
00:33:22,120 --> 00:33:24,520
Speaker 2: Stevie was managing at the time named Blinky.

598
00:33:25,640 --> 00:33:28,680
Speaker 1: And oh you know, okay, but.

599
00:33:29,200 --> 00:33:31,400
Speaker 2: There's one scene in Summer and Soul that I had

600
00:33:31,400 --> 00:33:34,520
Speaker 2: to leave out. Blinky was like a performer on the

601
00:33:34,600 --> 00:33:37,240
Speaker 2: on the festival and they were doing a cover of

602
00:33:37,320 --> 00:33:38,080
Speaker 2: Light My Fire.

603
00:33:39,000 --> 00:33:42,280
Speaker 1: And you know, these are union musicians, not.

604
00:33:42,360 --> 00:33:45,080
Speaker 2: Like people that are familiar with the music, and August

605
00:33:45,160 --> 00:33:48,520
Speaker 2: of Wind came and blew the music sheet off of

606
00:33:48,560 --> 00:33:52,600
Speaker 2: their stands. So it's one of the most hilarious moments

607
00:33:52,640 --> 00:33:55,920
Speaker 2: of them not knowing how to end the song. So

608
00:33:55,960 --> 00:33:59,840
Speaker 2: there they keep playing in a round circle and it's

609
00:34:00,080 --> 00:34:02,760
Speaker 2: it's the greatest car crash I ever heard in my life,

610
00:34:03,040 --> 00:34:05,040
Speaker 2: Like of her.

611
00:34:05,000 --> 00:34:09,320
Speaker 1: Trying to end the song, but you know it couldn't happen.

612
00:34:09,400 --> 00:34:11,680
Speaker 2: But I always wanted to know, like, was Blinky one

613
00:34:11,680 --> 00:34:14,880
Speaker 2: of his background singers or just I never.

614
00:34:14,760 --> 00:34:17,239
Speaker 8: Heard that she was one of his background singers. I

615
00:34:17,320 --> 00:34:19,719
Speaker 8: know her as a singer and as an art as

616
00:34:19,719 --> 00:34:22,719
Speaker 8: a recording artist, but I never heard that she was

617
00:34:22,800 --> 00:34:25,000
Speaker 8: actually one of the females.

618
00:34:26,480 --> 00:34:30,400
Speaker 2: Yeah, he managed her, or at least according to the

619
00:34:30,400 --> 00:34:33,800
Speaker 2: contracts that that we had, he was one of her managers,

620
00:34:33,880 --> 00:34:36,760
Speaker 2: but her and Yvonne Fair.

621
00:34:38,320 --> 00:34:39,200
Speaker 1: Were under him.

622
00:34:39,320 --> 00:34:42,360
Speaker 2: But okay, I always wanted to know, like about the

623
00:34:42,560 --> 00:34:45,799
Speaker 2: other singers that were in the stable and if they

624
00:34:45,800 --> 00:34:47,360
Speaker 2: were wonderlove members or whatnot.

625
00:34:49,560 --> 00:34:50,399
Speaker 1: Did you talk about that.

626
00:34:50,360 --> 00:34:52,640
Speaker 4: Experience, because I'm about to ask the audition, I was like,

627
00:34:52,680 --> 00:34:53,080
Speaker 4: what was that?

628
00:34:53,200 --> 00:34:54,840
Speaker 1: Like, Yeah, what's that experience?

629
00:34:54,920 --> 00:34:58,480
Speaker 8: Like that was scary because you know, some of them

630
00:34:58,480 --> 00:35:01,920
Speaker 8: showed up with the piano, they had music they wanted

631
00:35:01,960 --> 00:35:06,520
Speaker 8: to sing. I just showed up and just watching everybody

632
00:35:06,880 --> 00:35:10,160
Speaker 8: you know, in their professional audition. I was sitting there saying,

633
00:35:10,160 --> 00:35:12,279
Speaker 8: oh God, oh god, I don't know why I came.

634
00:35:12,920 --> 00:35:15,960
Speaker 8: So then he called me up and I started to cry.

635
00:35:16,560 --> 00:35:18,480
Speaker 8: I said, I don't know what to sing. I don't

636
00:35:18,480 --> 00:35:21,680
Speaker 8: know what to do. So he started playing teach me Tonight,

637
00:35:22,400 --> 00:35:25,080
Speaker 8: and then I would, you know, sing along with him,

638
00:35:25,120 --> 00:35:27,480
Speaker 8: and I learned, and i'd, you know, do some riffs

639
00:35:27,560 --> 00:35:30,640
Speaker 8: or something, would teach me Tonight, and then all of

640
00:35:30,719 --> 00:35:32,920
Speaker 8: us at the very end, you know, it has split

641
00:35:33,000 --> 00:35:35,880
Speaker 8: up into four part harmony, and we all ended with

642
00:35:36,040 --> 00:35:38,799
Speaker 8: singing teach Me Tonight. And that was my audition. I

643
00:35:38,920 --> 00:35:44,080
Speaker 8: was not prepared. I was not ready, but he saw something.

644
00:35:44,640 --> 00:35:47,960
Speaker 1: I see, all right, that makes sense for our listeners

645
00:35:48,000 --> 00:35:51,280
Speaker 1: who don't know. Everyone in that band was a legend.

646
00:35:51,440 --> 00:35:54,400
Speaker 2: I mean, from drummer Alie Brown to of course we

647
00:35:54,480 --> 00:36:02,279
Speaker 2: know Ray Parker Jr. Michael Simbello, yeah, yeah, Michael sim

648
00:36:02,480 --> 00:36:06,240
Speaker 2: all those people, but even like the so just in general,

649
00:36:07,080 --> 00:36:10,240
Speaker 2: like I was, I always thought of Wonderloves as an army.

650
00:36:10,320 --> 00:36:14,200
Speaker 1: What was it like for you? How was your experience

651
00:36:14,200 --> 00:36:15,400
Speaker 1: in touring with that unit?

652
00:36:16,719 --> 00:36:19,680
Speaker 8: Well? I was scared, so it was difficult, but I

653
00:36:19,719 --> 00:36:23,160
Speaker 8: came in Dave Samberg was on saxophone. The Brecker Brothers

654
00:36:23,160 --> 00:36:24,640
Speaker 8: were playing with Stevie.

655
00:36:25,520 --> 00:36:26,640
Speaker 1: That's right, yes, they were.

656
00:36:26,840 --> 00:36:31,480
Speaker 8: Yeah, Samborn and the Brecker Brothers were there. So there

657
00:36:31,600 --> 00:36:36,080
Speaker 8: was a lot of incredible musicians that came through Stevie's stable.

658
00:36:36,960 --> 00:36:40,839
Speaker 8: It was hard for me in the beginning because I went,

659
00:36:41,000 --> 00:36:44,520
Speaker 8: I actually came. By the time I did the audition,

660
00:36:45,560 --> 00:36:48,240
Speaker 8: I had one son. You know, I had been married

661
00:36:48,320 --> 00:36:51,360
Speaker 8: and I had had had a son. So me trying

662
00:36:51,400 --> 00:36:56,840
Speaker 8: to balance motherhood and broals the professional business of the

663
00:36:56,960 --> 00:37:00,800
Speaker 8: recording industry was really tough. But he really worked with

664
00:37:00,960 --> 00:37:03,960
Speaker 8: me because you know, I'd be singing and one of

665
00:37:04,000 --> 00:37:06,520
Speaker 8: the girlfriends would be standing on the side with the baby,

666
00:37:07,120 --> 00:37:10,719
Speaker 8: you know. So you know, he really worked. And it

667
00:37:10,880 --> 00:37:12,960
Speaker 8: was hard because I was the only one that was

668
00:37:13,040 --> 00:37:16,080
Speaker 8: a parent. Nobody else had any children, so they weren't

669
00:37:16,160 --> 00:37:20,240
Speaker 8: leading that double life of you know, having this profession

670
00:37:20,360 --> 00:37:23,080
Speaker 8: and touring but still having to raise you know, my

671
00:37:24,040 --> 00:37:26,520
Speaker 8: raise my child. And I think by the second year

672
00:37:26,560 --> 00:37:28,920
Speaker 8: I was with him, I had another baby, you know,

673
00:37:29,160 --> 00:37:33,840
Speaker 8: so it was you know, it wasn't easy. I was scared.

674
00:37:35,120 --> 00:37:37,279
Speaker 8: You know. The very first concert I did with him,

675
00:37:37,360 --> 00:37:39,680
Speaker 8: somebody said we were going to be doing in Philadelphia,

676
00:37:40,280 --> 00:37:43,600
Speaker 8: and I remember it was a club in a King

677
00:37:43,680 --> 00:37:48,560
Speaker 8: of pressure Philadelphia. I saw from outside the hotel, you know,

678
00:37:48,960 --> 00:37:51,960
Speaker 8: saying Philly that way. We were in King of Pressure.

679
00:37:52,360 --> 00:37:56,000
Speaker 8: But you know, it was just me. Thing for me

680
00:37:56,239 --> 00:37:59,680
Speaker 8: was balancing a career and being a mother.

681
00:38:01,000 --> 00:38:05,080
Speaker 2: It's nineteen seventy two, you know, because I think in

682
00:38:05,239 --> 00:38:11,399
Speaker 2: everyone's mind, especially by the seventies, it's like, oh, you're

683
00:38:11,520 --> 00:38:15,319
Speaker 2: on television, you must be a millionaire. Oh my god,

684
00:38:15,760 --> 00:38:20,279
Speaker 2: they're on Sesame Street, they gotta be rich. So what's

685
00:38:20,320 --> 00:38:24,239
Speaker 2: singing with one of the premiere acts of his era?

686
00:38:25,640 --> 00:38:26,840
Speaker 2: Was that a good living?

687
00:38:27,239 --> 00:38:28,560
Speaker 1: Back in nineteen seventy.

688
00:38:28,320 --> 00:38:31,600
Speaker 8: Two, I think it was an okay living. You know,

689
00:38:32,200 --> 00:38:36,080
Speaker 8: we made it work, but no Steven was making the

690
00:38:36,160 --> 00:38:41,880
Speaker 8: money and you know, we were getting salary that was

691
00:38:42,400 --> 00:38:46,120
Speaker 8: you know, it was okay, but it wasn't great. The

692
00:38:46,200 --> 00:38:48,359
Speaker 8: thing that really helped me is that my mom left

693
00:38:48,440 --> 00:38:51,320
Speaker 8: Indiana and moved out to California, so she was helping

694
00:38:51,440 --> 00:38:54,480
Speaker 8: with the kids and we were living together. So that

695
00:38:54,800 --> 00:38:57,040
Speaker 8: was a great help to me that my mom decided,

696
00:38:57,120 --> 00:38:58,640
Speaker 8: you know, I want you to have this career and

697
00:38:58,640 --> 00:39:01,839
Speaker 8: I don't want you to you know, so concerned about

698
00:39:01,880 --> 00:39:05,640
Speaker 8: the boys, and and actually it had not it been

699
00:39:05,680 --> 00:39:07,640
Speaker 8: for my mom coming out. I couldn't have trusted my

700
00:39:07,800 --> 00:39:11,960
Speaker 8: children to anybody else. She took that off of me.

701
00:39:12,400 --> 00:39:15,880
Speaker 8: And collectively, you know, we did Okay, was it? You know?

702
00:39:16,280 --> 00:39:20,840
Speaker 8: Was was I rich or no? You know, but you

703
00:39:20,920 --> 00:39:24,120
Speaker 8: know we we made it work, you know, definitely we

704
00:39:24,239 --> 00:39:24,839
Speaker 8: made it work.

705
00:39:25,640 --> 00:39:28,279
Speaker 1: So and being in wonder love.

706
00:39:28,480 --> 00:39:31,200
Speaker 2: One of the requirements was well, not requirements, but you

707
00:39:31,280 --> 00:39:33,040
Speaker 2: felt it was wise for you to move to Los

708
00:39:33,080 --> 00:39:36,240
Speaker 2: Angeles as opposed to just going north to New York.

709
00:39:36,200 --> 00:39:39,560
Speaker 8: Or initially in the beginning we did go to New York,

710
00:39:40,160 --> 00:39:43,080
Speaker 8: but then after being there for a couple of months,

711
00:39:43,280 --> 00:39:46,360
Speaker 8: Stevie decided to move to Los Angeles, and so we

712
00:39:46,480 --> 00:39:47,080
Speaker 8: went to LA.

713
00:39:48,280 --> 00:39:51,960
Speaker 2: And did this also include session work as well? Like

714
00:39:52,200 --> 00:39:54,480
Speaker 2: what notable songs are you singing the background on?

715
00:39:55,239 --> 00:39:57,120
Speaker 8: I didn't do a lot of session work with him.

716
00:39:57,440 --> 00:39:59,400
Speaker 8: I started doing a lot of session work when I

717
00:39:59,520 --> 00:40:03,640
Speaker 8: left town, you know, so you know, I sang quite

718
00:40:03,640 --> 00:40:07,680
Speaker 8: a bit with ROBERTA. Flack, who then eventually hired me,

719
00:40:08,000 --> 00:40:10,880
Speaker 8: Lonnie Grose and Patty Austin to travel her with her

720
00:40:11,280 --> 00:40:18,120
Speaker 8: as background singers. It was what was right, I think

721
00:40:18,160 --> 00:40:20,439
Speaker 8: I'm on that's the time I feel like making love.

722
00:40:20,640 --> 00:40:25,640
Speaker 8: And yes, roberta Flack, you know so. But when I

723
00:40:25,760 --> 00:40:27,759
Speaker 8: was with Stevie, I didn't do a whole lot of

724
00:40:27,880 --> 00:40:28,680
Speaker 8: background work.

725
00:40:28,760 --> 00:40:28,880
Speaker 3: You know.

726
00:40:29,160 --> 00:40:31,440
Speaker 8: I was on a retainer, I was on a salary,

727
00:40:32,040 --> 00:40:35,879
Speaker 8: and I felt a responsibility to stay there and sing

728
00:40:36,000 --> 00:40:37,400
Speaker 8: with him and not go out and do a lot

729
00:40:37,440 --> 00:40:39,759
Speaker 8: of stuff. But the minute I stepped away, I was

730
00:40:39,880 --> 00:40:40,680
Speaker 8: doing quite a bit.

731
00:40:41,520 --> 00:40:44,080
Speaker 2: Okay, who else was poaching you at the time when

732
00:40:44,120 --> 00:40:47,080
Speaker 2: you were in Wonder Love to come sing with me?

733
00:40:47,880 --> 00:40:51,000
Speaker 8: Well, I had a real frightening experience with Ike Turner,

734
00:40:51,520 --> 00:40:56,719
Speaker 8: you know, wow talk to me and he had me

735
00:40:56,840 --> 00:40:59,440
Speaker 8: speaking in tongues up in there. I thought, Jesus, I

736
00:40:59,520 --> 00:41:05,720
Speaker 8: got the gun. And uh, Kenny Gamble, you know, Philadelphia

737
00:41:06,239 --> 00:41:08,879
Speaker 8: heard me singing and they approached me, and I said,

738
00:41:08,960 --> 00:41:12,520
Speaker 8: you know, that's okay, because Kenny Gambles had like a

739
00:41:12,640 --> 00:41:16,040
Speaker 8: chair that sat like a throne, sitting up high, and

740
00:41:16,160 --> 00:41:18,640
Speaker 8: he had you sitting down, and I thought, I don't

741
00:41:18,680 --> 00:41:20,520
Speaker 8: think I like this too much, so I said no,

742
00:41:20,680 --> 00:41:21,000
Speaker 8: thank you.

743
00:41:21,560 --> 00:41:26,319
Speaker 1: You know, based on the hystatics of his positioning of saying, man,

744
00:41:26,480 --> 00:41:27,000
Speaker 1: I get it.

745
00:41:29,920 --> 00:41:31,560
Speaker 8: Telling me to go up in there and I want

746
00:41:31,600 --> 00:41:33,759
Speaker 8: to go, and I was scared, and he was saying,

747
00:41:33,920 --> 00:41:35,719
Speaker 8: I don't think it's just for you, Denise, and I said,

748
00:41:35,719 --> 00:41:36,600
Speaker 8: I agree, it's not.

749
00:41:36,960 --> 00:41:39,440
Speaker 4: Bye, So wait, can you tell us what's the words?

750
00:41:39,520 --> 00:41:41,520
Speaker 4: Did I say words to you that made you go?

751
00:41:42,680 --> 00:41:44,840
Speaker 8: Or was it I wanted to know what I wanted

752
00:41:44,920 --> 00:41:46,560
Speaker 8: to do and what I wanted to do with my

753
00:41:46,719 --> 00:41:49,480
Speaker 8: career where you know, I think I wanted to go.

754
00:41:50,000 --> 00:41:52,600
Speaker 8: And I said, uh, I think I'm gonna stay right

755
00:41:52,640 --> 00:41:54,320
Speaker 8: there with wonder love for right now. And thank you

756
00:41:54,400 --> 00:41:58,320
Speaker 8: so much for considering and talking to me.

757
00:41:58,560 --> 00:41:59,920
Speaker 4: Thank you you could be taking them.

758
00:42:00,520 --> 00:42:01,840
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think you made the right decision.

759
00:42:02,840 --> 00:42:07,640
Speaker 2: I should note that, you know, in seventy two one

760
00:42:07,680 --> 00:42:14,480
Speaker 2: of the more unusual pairings. Again, even as unusual pairings go,

761
00:42:14,760 --> 00:42:18,600
Speaker 2: like for those that have seen you know, Bill Graham's lineups,

762
00:42:18,719 --> 00:42:20,520
Speaker 2: like it was very typical for you to see like

763
00:42:20,680 --> 00:42:23,120
Speaker 2: Miles Davis and The Grateful Dead one Night, or like

764
00:42:23,239 --> 00:42:28,200
Speaker 2: Jimmy Hendrickson, you know, like some other act that's the

765
00:42:28,239 --> 00:42:29,000
Speaker 2: opposite of him.

766
00:42:29,080 --> 00:42:32,839
Speaker 1: But you guys happened to be on tour.

767
00:42:34,040 --> 00:42:36,719
Speaker 2: And you know, for those that followed the history of

768
00:42:36,719 --> 00:42:42,239
Speaker 2: the Rolling Stones, it should probably be noted that perhaps

769
00:42:43,239 --> 00:42:47,759
Speaker 2: they're nineteen seventy two tour document it very well in

770
00:42:47,920 --> 00:42:55,440
Speaker 2: a yet unseen documentary called Cocksucker Blues. Was really like

771
00:42:55,600 --> 00:43:00,480
Speaker 2: one of the first sort of ganders into what we

772
00:43:00,760 --> 00:43:05,520
Speaker 2: now think like debauchery rock life. Was, you know, the

773
00:43:05,680 --> 00:43:09,960
Speaker 2: idea of private airplanes and groupies on the road and

774
00:43:10,480 --> 00:43:13,920
Speaker 2: just at least at least the half hour of that

775
00:43:14,160 --> 00:43:18,759
Speaker 2: documentary that I saw, can you talk about And I'm

776
00:43:19,120 --> 00:43:23,160
Speaker 2: mainly asking this because you know, ten years later they'll

777
00:43:23,239 --> 00:43:25,600
Speaker 2: try the same thing. But Prince and the experience was

778
00:43:25,719 --> 00:43:28,480
Speaker 2: not good for Prince where you know, he was famously

779
00:43:28,520 --> 00:43:32,840
Speaker 2: booed off stage. But at the time when Stevie Wonder

780
00:43:33,000 --> 00:43:36,719
Speaker 2: is being asked a tour with the Rolling Stones, was

781
00:43:36,760 --> 00:43:40,360
Speaker 2: there was there any trepidation at all, like, Okay, what

782
00:43:40,560 --> 00:43:42,600
Speaker 2: do they want with this soul act and how do

783
00:43:42,719 --> 00:43:45,960
Speaker 2: we like? What was the audience response night after night

784
00:43:46,040 --> 00:43:50,600
Speaker 2: to to Stevie Wonder, who had yet to really prove

785
00:43:50,680 --> 00:43:52,120
Speaker 2: himself as an adult artist.

786
00:43:53,280 --> 00:43:56,640
Speaker 8: Well, they absolutely loved him. I mean, Stevie got during

787
00:43:56,680 --> 00:44:01,919
Speaker 8: that particular tour, he got you know, mad reception from

788
00:44:02,000 --> 00:44:04,120
Speaker 8: the audience, and I think that, you know, that's what

789
00:44:04,280 --> 00:44:06,960
Speaker 8: really blew him up when he opened for the roly Stones,

790
00:44:06,960 --> 00:44:10,640
Speaker 8: who was were renowned and well you know known, and

791
00:44:10,719 --> 00:44:13,439
Speaker 8: the music well known. So that opened up the door,

792
00:44:13,920 --> 00:44:18,879
Speaker 8: a giant door for uh Stevie to be there with them.

793
00:44:18,960 --> 00:44:21,120
Speaker 8: And the reception was, you know, was good. He did

794
00:44:21,320 --> 00:44:21,799
Speaker 8: very well.

795
00:44:22,840 --> 00:44:27,800
Speaker 2: So you guys weren't pelted with any tomatoes or or

796
00:44:27,920 --> 00:44:28,600
Speaker 2: any of those things.

797
00:44:29,560 --> 00:44:31,640
Speaker 1: Are you familiar with the Prince story at all?

798
00:44:32,239 --> 00:44:32,279
Speaker 8: No?

799
00:44:33,920 --> 00:44:36,160
Speaker 2: Yeah, so you know, Mick Jagger is a fan of

800
00:44:36,239 --> 00:44:39,239
Speaker 2: dirty mining controversy and asked Prince to open up for

801
00:44:39,239 --> 00:44:43,600
Speaker 2: the Rolling Stones and about one song and just you know,

802
00:44:43,760 --> 00:44:46,759
Speaker 2: the first time is this merciless booze and some Jack

803
00:44:46,840 --> 00:44:50,960
Speaker 2: Daniel's bottles. But the next day they came armed with like,

804
00:44:51,400 --> 00:44:56,520
Speaker 2: you know, chicken and watermelon and oh so it wasn't.

805
00:44:56,640 --> 00:44:57,320
Speaker 1: Yeah, it wasn't.

806
00:44:57,640 --> 00:45:00,440
Speaker 2: Which is where considered that it's Los Angeles. He would think, like,

807
00:45:01,400 --> 00:45:04,960
Speaker 2: Los Angeles is way harder, yeah, to please than New

808
00:45:05,040 --> 00:45:05,759
Speaker 2: York City was.

809
00:45:05,920 --> 00:45:08,440
Speaker 4: But you can't do that to a blind man. Now,

810
00:45:08,840 --> 00:45:10,640
Speaker 4: you can't be throwing the water mountains on the steak.

811
00:45:12,080 --> 00:45:15,640
Speaker 8: No, I didn't know that that happened to him, but we,

812
00:45:16,160 --> 00:45:18,759
Speaker 8: you know, we were fine. I think the thing that

813
00:45:19,000 --> 00:45:22,480
Speaker 8: terrified me, especially as a little church girl, is the

814
00:45:22,600 --> 00:45:25,359
Speaker 8: drugs that were circulated, that they have their own doctor

815
00:45:25,440 --> 00:45:27,120
Speaker 8: on the road with them to keep them pumped up.

816
00:45:27,120 --> 00:45:32,560
Speaker 2: And it's like, oh Jesus, So you know, we haven't

817
00:45:32,640 --> 00:45:35,239
Speaker 2: had an artist on here that has been on a

818
00:45:35,320 --> 00:45:36,839
Speaker 2: tour of that magnitude.

819
00:45:36,880 --> 00:45:38,520
Speaker 1: So what can you describe?

820
00:45:39,680 --> 00:45:39,840
Speaker 8: You know?

821
00:45:39,960 --> 00:45:43,280
Speaker 2: I mean we have a I mean we can imagine

822
00:45:43,360 --> 00:45:45,759
Speaker 2: like what it's like on a wild crazy tour, but

823
00:45:46,280 --> 00:45:51,279
Speaker 2: you just generally describe what you saw like during that

824
00:45:51,400 --> 00:45:51,920
Speaker 2: time period.

825
00:45:52,560 --> 00:45:56,240
Speaker 8: Well, you know, it was really funny what usually happened

826
00:45:56,280 --> 00:45:58,120
Speaker 8: with me on those tours. And it started with that

827
00:45:58,320 --> 00:46:01,640
Speaker 8: tour is all the roadies really liked me, and they

828
00:46:01,640 --> 00:46:04,680
Speaker 8: would say, you know, you want some Hashi you want

829
00:46:04,800 --> 00:46:07,319
Speaker 8: you know, we got coke, we got that, And I'll say,

830
00:46:07,640 --> 00:46:09,839
Speaker 8: not in Jesus knowing Jesus name, I don't want none

831
00:46:09,880 --> 00:46:13,640
Speaker 8: of that. You know real quick that I'm not gonna

832
00:46:13,680 --> 00:46:16,000
Speaker 8: be bothered with none of that. You can't have no Kuchie.

833
00:46:16,200 --> 00:46:22,880
Speaker 8: And by back it, miss I had to play the

834
00:46:23,000 --> 00:46:25,520
Speaker 8: Jesus card, you know, you know, because once I went

835
00:46:25,600 --> 00:46:29,080
Speaker 8: to preaching and talking about Jesus, they would back up like,

836
00:46:29,200 --> 00:46:32,360
Speaker 8: oh yeah, she really she's cute little girl, you know,

837
00:46:32,480 --> 00:46:35,640
Speaker 8: but she really that she's not gonna do nothing, you know.

838
00:46:35,760 --> 00:46:38,160
Speaker 8: But they, you know, they would offer me we we

839
00:46:38,280 --> 00:46:40,760
Speaker 8: got this, and they walk up with the roll stuff

840
00:46:40,840 --> 00:46:43,239
Speaker 8: and walk over with stuff, and I said, no, no, God,

841
00:46:43,320 --> 00:46:47,600
Speaker 8: don't ID don't like that. So I, you know, I

842
00:46:47,760 --> 00:46:50,520
Speaker 8: played that the Christian card and after a while they

843
00:46:50,840 --> 00:46:54,759
Speaker 8: would see that I wasn't interested, so they would leave

844
00:46:54,880 --> 00:46:58,480
Speaker 8: me alone. But I remember one night, for some reason,

845
00:46:58,560 --> 00:47:00,920
Speaker 8: I got caught coming out late and we were supposed

846
00:47:00,920 --> 00:47:03,480
Speaker 8: to come out and get on the bus, and for

847
00:47:03,640 --> 00:47:07,680
Speaker 8: some reason, I don't know why, I got disconnected from

848
00:47:07,719 --> 00:47:10,440
Speaker 8: the group, and so I went out. The crowd outside

849
00:47:10,560 --> 00:47:13,919
Speaker 8: was crazy. It was in Chicago, and they were throwing teers.

850
00:47:14,000 --> 00:47:16,200
Speaker 8: The police were throwing tear gas, and so I got

851
00:47:16,280 --> 00:47:19,279
Speaker 8: caught up in that. I did our bus and I

852
00:47:19,440 --> 00:47:21,160
Speaker 8: hopped on I got on it, but I did the

853
00:47:21,400 --> 00:47:25,439
Speaker 8: you know, the tear gas thing, and had gotten my eyes.

854
00:47:25,520 --> 00:47:28,640
Speaker 8: So that was probably one of the worst experiences I

855
00:47:28,760 --> 00:47:31,840
Speaker 8: had with them, except for the after party at the

856
00:47:31,880 --> 00:47:35,839
Speaker 8: Playboard matching in Chicago, when it took me a long

857
00:47:35,960 --> 00:47:37,839
Speaker 8: time to get out of there because I couldn't find

858
00:47:37,880 --> 00:47:38,200
Speaker 8: a dough.

859
00:47:41,760 --> 00:47:42,880
Speaker 4: I love you so much to do.

860
00:47:43,719 --> 00:47:45,520
Speaker 8: I just find the door, girl?

861
00:47:46,520 --> 00:47:46,879
Speaker 1: How long?

862
00:47:47,840 --> 00:47:49,319
Speaker 4: I just I wonder how long you was in there

863
00:47:49,360 --> 00:47:52,240
Speaker 4: trying to find the door, and all the least.

864
00:47:52,080 --> 00:47:55,879
Speaker 8: Forty five minutes in the one room. I walked down

865
00:47:55,920 --> 00:47:58,520
Speaker 8: the hall and there was nothing in the room but

866
00:47:58,600 --> 00:48:00,880
Speaker 8: a hole in a pole. So maybe if I go

867
00:48:00,960 --> 00:48:05,040
Speaker 8: down the pole, out the door. So I went down the.

868
00:48:08,480 --> 00:48:09,560
Speaker 1: Sliding down like a poll.

869
00:48:10,800 --> 00:48:14,000
Speaker 7: Listen, I'm trying to be out down means out glass

870
00:48:14,080 --> 00:48:15,040
Speaker 7: and slid down the pole.

871
00:48:15,400 --> 00:48:17,080
Speaker 8: Yeah. I was trying to get out of there.

872
00:48:17,080 --> 00:48:19,279
Speaker 4: And first of the last time you slid down the pole.

873
00:48:20,000 --> 00:48:22,440
Speaker 8: Last first and the last, I said, Lord Jesus, if

874
00:48:22,480 --> 00:48:23,880
Speaker 8: you getting me out of here, you don't have to

875
00:48:24,080 --> 00:48:26,200
Speaker 8: never worry about me coming up in here again.

876
00:48:26,280 --> 00:48:29,560
Speaker 1: And wow, okay, so.

877
00:48:36,360 --> 00:48:38,399
Speaker 2: Wait a minute, wait, wait, wait a minute. I would

878
00:48:38,480 --> 00:48:41,719
Speaker 2: like to get her version of this story now. Uh

879
00:48:42,000 --> 00:48:46,040
Speaker 2: you know your your your fellow? Uh wonder lovey and

880
00:48:46,480 --> 00:48:53,120
Speaker 2: Ray Parker Parker Jr. Kind of gave a very ambiguous hint.

881
00:48:54,040 --> 00:48:55,200
Speaker 2: Wouldn't totally confirm it.

882
00:48:55,480 --> 00:48:58,319
Speaker 1: Uh we Also, I mean, this is way before great

883
00:48:58,400 --> 00:49:02,480
Speaker 1: villain gains this time, but I need to ask. Okay,

884
00:49:02,680 --> 00:49:08,960
Speaker 1: So the week that inner Visions gets released. Uh, you

885
00:49:09,120 --> 00:49:14,239
Speaker 1: guys are booked somewhere in North Carolina. Stevie Wonder is

886
00:49:14,320 --> 00:49:19,080
Speaker 1: in an accident. What is your version of what happened?

887
00:49:19,640 --> 00:49:23,080
Speaker 8: I believe my cousin. What I remember is that my

888
00:49:23,200 --> 00:49:25,160
Speaker 8: cousin John was driving. They were in the car and

889
00:49:25,320 --> 00:49:26,240
Speaker 8: John fell asleep.

890
00:49:27,160 --> 00:49:28,320
Speaker 1: Your cousin was the driver.

891
00:49:29,040 --> 00:49:34,200
Speaker 7: I believe John was yeah, oh wow, okay, all these

892
00:49:34,320 --> 00:49:37,520
Speaker 7: q are really tied together this yeah.

893
00:49:37,719 --> 00:49:43,120
Speaker 1: Yeah, wow, okay. I I wasn't even ready for that.

894
00:49:43,520 --> 00:49:46,640
Speaker 1: I sort of had the feeling that they were trying.

895
00:49:46,920 --> 00:49:48,719
Speaker 2: Ray was trying to allude to me that this is

896
00:49:48,800 --> 00:49:51,960
Speaker 2: one of those moments where Stevie insisted on driving or whatever,

897
00:49:52,040 --> 00:49:53,680
Speaker 2: and so I don't think.

898
00:49:53,640 --> 00:49:56,400
Speaker 8: Any was driving. If I remember it correctly, my cousin

899
00:49:56,520 --> 00:50:00,960
Speaker 8: John was driving, and he nodded a fell asleep or

900
00:50:01,040 --> 00:50:03,920
Speaker 8: something like that. That's my recollection of the story. Doesn't

901
00:50:03,920 --> 00:50:07,000
Speaker 8: make it true, but that's what I was I heard,

902
00:50:07,080 --> 00:50:08,560
Speaker 8: and I have always thought.

903
00:50:08,800 --> 00:50:12,320
Speaker 2: Happened because I was too young to remember it and

904
00:50:12,480 --> 00:50:16,800
Speaker 2: only heard about it in sort of like retrospect. Was

905
00:50:16,880 --> 00:50:21,719
Speaker 2: there were you guys basically like, well, he won't make

906
00:50:21,719 --> 00:50:22,600
Speaker 2: it because I remember it.

907
00:50:22,680 --> 00:50:25,399
Speaker 1: Steevie was in a coma for at least a month

908
00:50:25,520 --> 00:50:25,640
Speaker 1: or so.

909
00:50:25,840 --> 00:50:28,239
Speaker 8: Correct, I didn't know it was a month or so,

910
00:50:28,360 --> 00:50:31,040
Speaker 8: but I know he was badly injured here, he was

911
00:50:31,120 --> 00:50:32,040
Speaker 8: out of it for a while.

912
00:50:32,920 --> 00:50:35,840
Speaker 1: But okay, so in your mind is it like he

913
00:50:36,000 --> 00:50:38,000
Speaker 1: may make it, he may not make it, like what's

914
00:50:38,120 --> 00:50:40,640
Speaker 1: going through the mind of the band, at least in

915
00:50:40,800 --> 00:50:41,680
Speaker 1: terms of we.

916
00:50:41,680 --> 00:50:43,600
Speaker 8: Didn't know exactly if he was going to make it

917
00:50:43,719 --> 00:50:46,080
Speaker 8: or not. You know, we didn't know what was happening

918
00:50:46,160 --> 00:50:50,839
Speaker 8: after that. But you know, you just pray and hope

919
00:50:50,920 --> 00:50:53,360
Speaker 8: the best. And then he did come out of it,

920
00:50:53,960 --> 00:50:56,439
Speaker 8: you know, so, And I was grateful for that, even

921
00:50:57,000 --> 00:50:59,920
Speaker 8: for his sake, for John's sake, for feeling so guilty,

922
00:51:00,320 --> 00:51:04,239
Speaker 8: so bad about to carry that load. So for him

923
00:51:04,320 --> 00:51:07,560
Speaker 8: to come out with and it would accomplish the things

924
00:51:07,600 --> 00:51:12,719
Speaker 8: he accomplished really helped the spirit and the heart of John.

925
00:51:13,840 --> 00:51:14,160
Speaker 1: All right.

926
00:51:14,320 --> 00:51:19,400
Speaker 2: So I also know that you're one of the last

927
00:51:19,480 --> 00:51:25,440
Speaker 2: people to work with the great Charles Stephanie, whom you

928
00:51:25,520 --> 00:51:34,279
Speaker 2: know for our QoS listeners, really, I mean, yeah, any

929
00:51:34,360 --> 00:51:40,360
Speaker 2: anything on on Cadet records, the Lewis Ramsey Lewis, the

930
00:51:40,960 --> 00:51:44,759
Speaker 2: seventies output of the Dells, you know, even some of

931
00:51:44,800 --> 00:51:47,280
Speaker 2: the blues artists like you know with Muddy Waters record

932
00:51:47,360 --> 00:51:51,480
Speaker 2: and the Electric Mud album and many Rippetons come to

933
00:51:51,560 --> 00:51:56,200
Speaker 2: My Garden album, but you know, most notably his, he's

934
00:51:56,280 --> 00:51:58,080
Speaker 2: the one that really took Earth Wind and Fire and

935
00:51:58,239 --> 00:52:01,040
Speaker 2: was a mentor to Maurice White. So a big part

936
00:52:01,080 --> 00:52:04,400
Speaker 2: of that Earthwind and Fire sound that we're so in

937
00:52:04,520 --> 00:52:07,560
Speaker 2: love with. You know, it's due to the colors that

938
00:52:08,239 --> 00:52:12,880
Speaker 2: Charles Stephanie painted. Knowing nothing about him, really, could you

939
00:52:13,120 --> 00:52:18,200
Speaker 2: describe what Charles Stephanie was in your world and just

940
00:52:18,280 --> 00:52:20,520
Speaker 2: in general for just that whole organization.

941
00:52:21,239 --> 00:52:25,480
Speaker 8: Well, Charles Stephanie, like you said, brought a color and

942
00:52:25,560 --> 00:52:29,479
Speaker 8: a style to Earth Wind and Fire that was really

943
00:52:29,600 --> 00:52:35,080
Speaker 8: the most beautiful collaboration in their music. As far as

944
00:52:35,160 --> 00:52:38,759
Speaker 8: I'm concerned, Charles Stephanie was just brilliant. When I was

945
00:52:38,840 --> 00:52:41,120
Speaker 8: doing a song call on my first project, If you

946
00:52:41,200 --> 00:52:46,200
Speaker 8: Don't Believe, and he just lifted up the top of

947
00:52:46,280 --> 00:52:51,400
Speaker 8: the piano. He took a guitar pick and just strum

948
00:52:51,640 --> 00:52:54,839
Speaker 8: on the strings. That's what you hear in the very

949
00:52:54,960 --> 00:52:58,239
Speaker 8: in the very beginning of If you Don't Believe, He

950
00:52:58,400 --> 00:53:01,040
Speaker 8: and Oscar for Schure on trump it and he's just

951
00:53:01,239 --> 00:53:04,719
Speaker 8: taking a guitar pick and strumming on those strings. I

952
00:53:04,760 --> 00:53:06,960
Speaker 8: don't know who else would have thought of that. The

953
00:53:07,160 --> 00:53:10,920
Speaker 8: way he heard my music, the way he heard my voice,

954
00:53:11,280 --> 00:53:14,480
Speaker 8: even the way he heard Minnie Ripperton's voice, and what

955
00:53:14,600 --> 00:53:18,360
Speaker 8: he did with the Rotary Connection and with many, the

956
00:53:18,480 --> 00:53:22,320
Speaker 8: way he you know, Charles Stephanie was just a brilliant

957
00:53:22,719 --> 00:53:28,040
Speaker 8: producer and a ranger. And you can tell how the

958
00:53:28,200 --> 00:53:31,400
Speaker 8: music changed and how he was missed. After Charles passed away,

959
00:53:32,160 --> 00:53:35,840
Speaker 8: the sound of earth Wind and Fire changed. It didn't

960
00:53:36,120 --> 00:53:38,400
Speaker 8: change in a bad way, but it changed in a

961
00:53:38,560 --> 00:53:42,640
Speaker 8: different way. You've now got a whole different sound than

962
00:53:42,680 --> 00:53:46,000
Speaker 8: the sound that Charles Stephanie created with That's the Way

963
00:53:46,080 --> 00:53:49,360
Speaker 8: of the World and those you know, those songs. He

964
00:53:49,800 --> 00:53:53,560
Speaker 8: it was that whole flavor, that whole feel, that whole

965
00:53:53,719 --> 00:53:59,520
Speaker 8: touch was gone. He was very very, very very powerful

966
00:53:59,560 --> 00:54:02,240
Speaker 8: or played a such a big role in my music,

967
00:54:02,360 --> 00:54:06,000
Speaker 8: the emotions music, earth Wind and virus music. Many were

968
00:54:06,280 --> 00:54:10,840
Speaker 8: in the Rotary Connection. There's just nobody like him. I

969
00:54:10,920 --> 00:54:14,279
Speaker 8: know that Marie went with another arranger and he was

970
00:54:14,560 --> 00:54:17,440
Speaker 8: very very good Tom Tom eighty Tom Tom eighty four,

971
00:54:18,040 --> 00:54:21,040
Speaker 8: but Tom Tom eighty four and Charles Stephanie had two

972
00:54:21,320 --> 00:54:25,680
Speaker 8: very very different sounds and approaches, And I believe that

973
00:54:25,840 --> 00:54:27,920
Speaker 8: once Charles passed, what you could hear.

974
00:54:27,800 --> 00:54:34,640
Speaker 2: It at the time, are you hoping that perhaps you

975
00:54:34,719 --> 00:54:39,319
Speaker 2: could have your own career as a singer or maybe

976
00:54:39,400 --> 00:54:41,200
Speaker 2: one of Love does a record, because you know, at

977
00:54:41,200 --> 00:54:47,800
Speaker 2: the time Cev's doing the Serta album, he's also working

978
00:54:47,840 --> 00:54:50,400
Speaker 2: with you know, he does stuff with the Supremes, he

979
00:54:50,560 --> 00:54:52,719
Speaker 2: does Miracles.

980
00:54:53,560 --> 00:54:54,360
Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly.

981
00:54:54,520 --> 00:55:00,280
Speaker 2: So for you, what was it about whatever mar east

982
00:55:00,320 --> 00:55:04,560
Speaker 2: White was bringing to the table that made you decide

983
00:55:04,640 --> 00:55:06,000
Speaker 2: to go with that camp?

984
00:55:07,160 --> 00:55:12,480
Speaker 1: And how do you leave the Wonderlove camp? And was

985
00:55:12,560 --> 00:55:13,960
Speaker 1: it amicable?

986
00:55:15,719 --> 00:55:18,440
Speaker 8: I don't think no, it wasn't amicable. I think if

987
00:55:18,440 --> 00:55:20,880
Speaker 8: you asked Ray Parker the same question, he probably said, no,

988
00:55:21,000 --> 00:55:21,920
Speaker 8: that wasn't amicable.

989
00:55:23,360 --> 00:55:25,399
Speaker 1: All right, So walk us through how do you leave

990
00:55:25,440 --> 00:55:26,040
Speaker 1: the situation?

991
00:55:28,719 --> 00:55:31,799
Speaker 8: Well, for three years I was with Steve for three

992
00:55:32,040 --> 00:55:33,919
Speaker 8: three three and a half years, and for three years

993
00:55:34,000 --> 00:55:36,880
Speaker 8: he promised to do a project on Wonderlove and it

994
00:55:37,040 --> 00:55:40,600
Speaker 8: never happened. We would be in the studio writing and

995
00:55:41,160 --> 00:55:45,000
Speaker 8: you know, rehearsing, and he never would record us. It

996
00:55:45,120 --> 00:55:48,719
Speaker 8: was always one excuse after the other for him not

997
00:55:48,840 --> 00:55:50,680
Speaker 8: to record us. Like you said, he was working with

998
00:55:50,800 --> 00:55:55,360
Speaker 8: other artists, other artists you know that had careers already.

999
00:55:55,400 --> 00:55:59,200
Speaker 8: He did something with the Jackson five, you know, you know,

1000
00:55:59,400 --> 00:56:02,160
Speaker 8: he he was working with other artists, but when it

1001
00:56:02,239 --> 00:56:06,960
Speaker 8: came to Wonderlove, he wasn't doing anything. And finally we

1002
00:56:07,200 --> 00:56:11,279
Speaker 8: had a discussion about it, and he got, you know,

1003
00:56:11,640 --> 00:56:14,960
Speaker 8: upset that I chose to confront him on this issue,

1004
00:56:15,600 --> 00:56:20,760
Speaker 8: and so I said, okay, I'm done. So what happened

1005
00:56:20,840 --> 00:56:24,040
Speaker 8: is one night when Wonderlove was performing, we would always

1006
00:56:24,080 --> 00:56:26,880
Speaker 8: perform one of our songs, and so this one night,

1007
00:56:26,960 --> 00:56:29,799
Speaker 8: they said, let's do Denise's song Free, you know, which

1008
00:56:29,840 --> 00:56:32,360
Speaker 8: I had written when I was with Susse Green and

1009
00:56:33,320 --> 00:56:36,000
Speaker 8: Nathan Watson when we were in Wonderlove, which was one

1010
00:56:36,040 --> 00:56:39,200
Speaker 8: of the songs that we were hoping to record us Wonderlove.

1011
00:56:39,719 --> 00:56:42,200
Speaker 8: And that night they said, we were you know, let's

1012
00:56:42,239 --> 00:56:45,840
Speaker 8: do Denise's songs. So I sang Free that night. But

1013
00:56:46,000 --> 00:56:49,000
Speaker 8: what I didn't know is Maury's White, Philip Bailey Verding White,

1014
00:56:49,040 --> 00:56:52,000
Speaker 8: and their attorney was sitting on the front row. I

1015
00:56:52,200 --> 00:56:56,319
Speaker 8: heard me singing Free. So then the attorney came backstage

1016
00:56:56,640 --> 00:56:59,239
Speaker 8: and he said, oh, we loved your performers who wrote

1017
00:56:59,280 --> 00:57:01,359
Speaker 8: that song song is that, I said, Well, I wrote

1018
00:57:01,400 --> 00:57:04,359
Speaker 8: it with a couple of people in the band, I said,

1019
00:57:04,360 --> 00:57:06,719
Speaker 8: but I got other songs too, and Philip can sing

1020
00:57:06,800 --> 00:57:11,040
Speaker 8: them because we got a same register. So that's how

1021
00:57:11,120 --> 00:57:14,239
Speaker 8: it happened that Maurice White, Maurice and those guys heard

1022
00:57:14,320 --> 00:57:17,080
Speaker 8: me sing, and that's you know, that's how I got

1023
00:57:17,200 --> 00:57:19,880
Speaker 8: introduced to them. It was while I was with Stevie.

1024
00:57:20,400 --> 00:57:23,680
Speaker 8: So I think another six seven months went by and

1025
00:57:23,800 --> 00:57:27,840
Speaker 8: Steve still wasn't doing anything. So I left and I

1026
00:57:28,000 --> 00:57:33,800
Speaker 8: left him and I got That's when I joined ROBERTA

1027
00:57:33,840 --> 00:57:36,800
Speaker 8: Flack with Lonnie Groves and Patty Austin. And while I

1028
00:57:36,880 --> 00:57:39,120
Speaker 8: was doing ROBERTA Flack, I got a call saying that

1029
00:57:39,280 --> 00:57:42,320
Speaker 8: Maurice wanted to meet with me, and I, you know,

1030
00:57:42,480 --> 00:57:45,680
Speaker 8: I had a meeting with them, and the seven songs

1031
00:57:45,720 --> 00:57:48,240
Speaker 8: that I sent hoping that Earth went at fire would

1032
00:57:48,280 --> 00:57:51,440
Speaker 8: cover them, and Philip was singing is the seven songs

1033
00:57:51,480 --> 00:57:54,800
Speaker 8: that Maurice wanted. Decided to do my first project on.

1034
00:57:55,280 --> 00:57:58,919
Speaker 8: So that's how that happened. You know, I just got,

1035
00:57:59,160 --> 00:58:01,640
Speaker 8: you know, a little tired of waiting on Steve to

1036
00:58:01,880 --> 00:58:04,560
Speaker 8: do what he kept telling us he would do it,

1037
00:58:04,640 --> 00:58:07,480
Speaker 8: and like even like six months after I'd been there,

1038
00:58:07,920 --> 00:58:11,120
Speaker 8: and he you know, he wasn't doing it. He did,

1039
00:58:11,200 --> 00:58:19,160
Speaker 8: he did many rippertendse perf I was on you know,

1040
00:58:19,400 --> 00:58:23,800
Speaker 8: Minni's album of the Perfect Angel album, and he was

1041
00:58:23,880 --> 00:58:27,080
Speaker 8: doing all this stuff with other people. And I understand that,

1042
00:58:27,280 --> 00:58:30,120
Speaker 8: you know, they had record deals, they had money to

1043
00:58:30,240 --> 00:58:33,440
Speaker 8: pay him for his production. I understood that, but I

1044
00:58:33,520 --> 00:58:35,919
Speaker 8: felt like, you could, we could at least record one

1045
00:58:36,080 --> 00:58:40,280
Speaker 8: song every other month or something to start a project together.

1046
00:58:40,880 --> 00:58:43,960
Speaker 8: And he was just really lax and doing that, and

1047
00:58:45,320 --> 00:58:48,240
Speaker 8: you know, I said no, And especially when you know,

1048
00:58:48,320 --> 00:58:51,120
Speaker 8: I made great money with ROBERTA. Flack and I will

1049
00:58:51,160 --> 00:58:54,520
Speaker 8: always be grateful to her because wonder love the girls.

1050
00:58:54,600 --> 00:58:56,720
Speaker 8: You know, we traveled with the band on the bus

1051
00:58:56,880 --> 00:58:59,880
Speaker 8: when we were singing with ROBERTA. Flat She said no, no, no,

1052
00:59:00,080 --> 00:59:03,800
Speaker 8: you're riding the limousine with me, and it was a

1053
00:59:03,880 --> 00:59:07,320
Speaker 8: whole different treatment. She taught me a lot about how

1054
00:59:07,400 --> 00:59:10,400
Speaker 8: to treat the people that you're on the stage with. That.

1055
00:59:10,680 --> 00:59:14,720
Speaker 8: You know, that is always carried with me, because, like

1056
00:59:14,840 --> 00:59:16,480
Speaker 8: I said, the ladies, we were on the bus with

1057
00:59:16,560 --> 00:59:18,480
Speaker 8: the band and the equipment and stuff, and with her

1058
00:59:18,640 --> 00:59:21,560
Speaker 8: we were riding the limousine and then you know, Mari's

1059
00:59:22,040 --> 00:59:25,680
Speaker 8: reached out. We had a meeting and I ended up

1060
00:59:25,720 --> 00:59:26,320
Speaker 8: recording with.

1061
00:59:26,400 --> 00:59:30,000
Speaker 2: Him songs in the key Life isn't even created yet.

1062
00:59:31,080 --> 00:59:36,360
Speaker 2: Was there a slight regret? Not regret, but you know,

1063
00:59:37,520 --> 00:59:39,240
Speaker 2: songs in the Key of Life comes out, and of

1064
00:59:39,320 --> 00:59:44,480
Speaker 2: course this is Stevie's magnum opus. Like even at that

1065
00:59:44,640 --> 00:59:49,360
Speaker 2: time period, did you have any sort of worries of trepidation, like, ah,

1066
00:59:49,560 --> 00:59:52,720
Speaker 2: we might have jumped the ship too early because this

1067
00:59:52,920 --> 00:59:54,960
Speaker 2: is a project that sets them off in the stratosphere.

1068
00:59:55,080 --> 00:59:57,640
Speaker 2: Or was it just like, Okay, I'm out here on

1069
00:59:57,760 --> 01:00:01,120
Speaker 2: my own, let's just no regrets, let's go for it.

1070
01:00:01,760 --> 01:00:03,720
Speaker 8: I wasn't on my own. I was with Earth Wind

1071
01:00:03,720 --> 01:00:08,000
Speaker 8: and Fire Well, and I was roberta Flack to you know,

1072
01:00:08,640 --> 01:00:13,400
Speaker 8: two groups who I respected, that's being who were interested

1073
01:00:13,440 --> 01:00:17,280
Speaker 8: in working with me, you know, so I did not

1074
01:00:17,400 --> 01:00:19,560
Speaker 8: feel like I was on my own. I was very

1075
01:00:19,680 --> 01:00:23,000
Speaker 8: happy for him, and I was more happy to be

1076
01:00:23,560 --> 01:00:25,040
Speaker 8: a part of that whole situation.

1077
01:00:25,200 --> 01:00:27,440
Speaker 3: I mean, I have oh oh, we can see the

1078
01:00:27,720 --> 01:00:28,560
Speaker 3: hardware in the back.

1079
01:00:28,840 --> 01:00:29,280
Speaker 1: I love it.

1080
01:00:29,720 --> 01:00:32,960
Speaker 8: I up here somewhere because he gave me a plaque,

1081
01:00:33,080 --> 01:00:37,640
Speaker 8: you know, for being on the being on the project.

1082
01:00:38,200 --> 01:00:40,600
Speaker 8: But in my heart and in my spirit, I felt

1083
01:00:40,600 --> 01:00:43,600
Speaker 8: it was time to go. I did not feel that

1084
01:00:44,400 --> 01:00:47,000
Speaker 8: there was any room to grow. I just felt like,

1085
01:00:48,120 --> 01:00:49,880
Speaker 8: you know, we're going to be here for the next

1086
01:00:50,680 --> 01:00:54,040
Speaker 8: twenty years. In fact, he has a band member that

1087
01:00:54,160 --> 01:00:56,160
Speaker 8: I was in a band with, Nathan Watson, is still

1088
01:00:56,200 --> 01:00:57,960
Speaker 8: there and it's been thirty five years.

1089
01:00:58,440 --> 01:01:00,840
Speaker 1: I was going to say, Nathan is still his bass player.

1090
01:01:01,080 --> 01:01:03,600
Speaker 8: He's still with them, And that could have been you know,

1091
01:01:03,800 --> 01:01:06,760
Speaker 8: any of us if we had decided to stay and

1092
01:01:06,920 --> 01:01:08,919
Speaker 8: I had babies and feed, I had mouths to feed.

1093
01:01:08,960 --> 01:01:10,440
Speaker 8: I didn't have time to be sitting there.

1094
01:01:10,840 --> 01:01:12,800
Speaker 7: Those job lessons right there? Are you supposed to give

1095
01:01:12,840 --> 01:01:14,360
Speaker 7: it what two three years? And if you know it

1096
01:01:14,400 --> 01:01:16,400
Speaker 7: ain't no movement, then you got on.

1097
01:01:16,480 --> 01:01:19,240
Speaker 8: That third year. It finally dawned on me this this

1098
01:01:19,400 --> 01:01:22,120
Speaker 8: could gone for a while and I really didn't want

1099
01:01:22,200 --> 01:01:26,680
Speaker 8: to to be there another three years or so years

1100
01:01:27,320 --> 01:01:31,160
Speaker 8: and he's still not do you know for wonder love

1101
01:01:31,320 --> 01:01:33,400
Speaker 8: what he was doing for other people, But like I say,

1102
01:01:33,480 --> 01:01:36,600
Speaker 8: you know, looking at it, you know he was being

1103
01:01:36,680 --> 01:01:39,760
Speaker 8: paid to produce. They had record labels, they had budgets,

1104
01:01:40,200 --> 01:01:42,120
Speaker 8: and you know he would have to do for us,

1105
01:01:42,200 --> 01:01:46,000
Speaker 8: So no, I didn't feel alone. I mean, especially when

1106
01:01:46,000 --> 01:01:48,440
Speaker 8: I jumped over there with earth Wind and Fire, there

1107
01:01:48,560 --> 01:01:50,840
Speaker 8: was no way to fill alone. And of course Philip

1108
01:01:50,840 --> 01:01:54,320
Speaker 8: Bailey and I became very very very close friends, you

1109
01:01:54,400 --> 01:01:56,240
Speaker 8: know during that time. That was my buddy.

1110
01:01:56,920 --> 01:02:00,840
Speaker 2: So were you opening for them at the time when

1111
01:02:00,880 --> 01:02:04,960
Speaker 2: you went to their camp, I was the opening act.

1112
01:02:05,280 --> 01:02:08,200
Speaker 8: I would trade off with the Emotions. I would, you know,

1113
01:02:08,360 --> 01:02:10,200
Speaker 8: do a couple of the tours and then the Emotion

1114
01:02:10,360 --> 01:02:13,000
Speaker 8: came on and then they had both of us as

1115
01:02:13,160 --> 01:02:14,920
Speaker 8: opening acts for Earth Wind Fire.

1116
01:02:15,880 --> 01:02:18,480
Speaker 2: So what did it feel like the first time in

1117
01:02:18,600 --> 01:02:23,000
Speaker 2: which you're in charge now where you're the artist and

1118
01:02:23,920 --> 01:02:27,000
Speaker 2: you have a band and all these things, Like was

1119
01:02:27,040 --> 01:02:29,880
Speaker 2: it weird now having to have the heavy lifting and

1120
01:02:30,040 --> 01:02:34,520
Speaker 2: decisions be up to you as opposed to getting an

1121
01:02:34,560 --> 01:02:36,600
Speaker 2: itinerary and see like what the thing is?

1122
01:02:36,760 --> 01:02:39,439
Speaker 1: And how did that feel for you? Like that first

1123
01:02:40,280 --> 01:02:42,439
Speaker 1: few months, it was very.

1124
01:02:42,440 --> 01:02:45,760
Speaker 8: Scared, you know, because I've been in the background and

1125
01:02:45,920 --> 01:02:48,640
Speaker 8: now I was in the forefront and they were literally

1126
01:02:48,800 --> 01:02:50,720
Speaker 8: pushing me out on stage. I didn't want to go.

1127
01:02:50,800 --> 01:02:56,040
Speaker 8: I was backstage and they were talking calling my name,

1128
01:02:56,080 --> 01:02:57,520
Speaker 8: and I said, I don't think I can do this.

1129
01:02:57,680 --> 01:02:58,920
Speaker 8: I don't want to do this. I don't think I

1130
01:02:59,040 --> 01:03:01,760
Speaker 8: can do this, and maybe back there you gotta do it.

1131
01:03:01,920 --> 01:03:05,880
Speaker 8: Push you know, I went out there. I mean it

1132
01:03:06,040 --> 01:03:08,160
Speaker 8: was like maybe three or four years before I feel

1133
01:03:08,240 --> 01:03:12,640
Speaker 8: comfortable going out there, you know. But you know, it's

1134
01:03:12,760 --> 01:03:15,920
Speaker 8: very different, like you said, when you're you know, somebody

1135
01:03:16,040 --> 01:03:19,280
Speaker 8: is taking care of everything, booking your hotels, booking your flights,

1136
01:03:19,360 --> 01:03:22,520
Speaker 8: you know, everything is going through you know, somebody else,

1137
01:03:22,520 --> 01:03:25,120
Speaker 8: and then all of a sudden, you've got to do this.

1138
01:03:25,320 --> 01:03:27,400
Speaker 8: So you have people that are doing it, but still

1139
01:03:28,000 --> 01:03:30,400
Speaker 8: you're you know, you're the head person that you've got

1140
01:03:30,480 --> 01:03:33,200
Speaker 8: to talk them through us. So it was very frightening,

1141
01:03:33,600 --> 01:03:37,160
Speaker 8: you know, for a while, and very frightening because one

1142
01:03:37,200 --> 01:03:41,200
Speaker 8: of my first tours as a solo artist was with

1143
01:03:41,360 --> 01:03:43,400
Speaker 8: the Ohio Players, them crazy folks.

1144
01:03:43,440 --> 01:03:48,520
Speaker 3: So wow, you sugarfoot with Sugarfoot, what.

1145
01:03:48,600 --> 01:03:48,960
Speaker 1: Was that like?

1146
01:03:50,880 --> 01:03:54,480
Speaker 8: I would say, okay, Jesus, okay, Jesus. I mean the

1147
01:03:54,680 --> 01:04:00,880
Speaker 8: boys was nuts one night and shook my hand and

1148
01:04:01,040 --> 01:04:05,040
Speaker 8: put his hotel room key in my hand and say,

1149
01:04:05,240 --> 01:04:07,440
Speaker 8: you know, I want to see you at midnight. So

1150
01:04:07,600 --> 01:04:12,280
Speaker 8: I ran to my road man, not him, but one

1151
01:04:12,360 --> 01:04:19,200
Speaker 8: of the mothers and which one it was it.

1152
01:04:22,360 --> 01:04:27,040
Speaker 1: Was a player, was a player players preaching?

1153
01:04:27,440 --> 01:04:29,520
Speaker 8: Well, he put his letner and I would run to

1154
01:04:29,640 --> 01:04:33,120
Speaker 8: my road manager, who was Leonard Smith, who was the

1155
01:04:33,160 --> 01:04:36,320
Speaker 8: big six foot eight guy in the show with Earth.

1156
01:04:36,360 --> 01:04:39,440
Speaker 8: When fire to hit the gong? Uh out there on

1157
01:04:39,520 --> 01:04:45,880
Speaker 8: the road with me, I said, Leonard. He said, don't

1158
01:04:45,880 --> 01:04:48,360
Speaker 8: worry about it, give me the key. D fool me

1159
01:04:48,560 --> 01:04:49,680
Speaker 8: after that at all?

1160
01:04:50,000 --> 01:04:50,440
Speaker 1: That was it.

1161
01:04:51,000 --> 01:04:51,640
Speaker 2: He showed up.

1162
01:04:56,920 --> 01:04:58,240
Speaker 8: I got your right here.

1163
01:04:58,640 --> 01:04:58,880
Speaker 1: That was.

1164
01:04:59,560 --> 01:05:03,480
Speaker 8: But the thing about the tour with them was is

1165
01:05:03,560 --> 01:05:06,480
Speaker 8: that they had about thirty grand worth of lights and

1166
01:05:06,560 --> 01:05:09,560
Speaker 8: special lighting and stuff, and so the all of the

1167
01:05:09,680 --> 01:05:11,840
Speaker 8: light guys, all the the little you know, all the

1168
01:05:11,880 --> 01:05:14,760
Speaker 8: little roadies, they just loved me. So they said one

1169
01:05:14,880 --> 01:05:17,640
Speaker 8: night they said, you know, we don't use half of

1170
01:05:17,760 --> 01:05:19,800
Speaker 8: what we have, so we've been using it on you.

1171
01:05:20,240 --> 01:05:22,840
Speaker 8: I said, oh, you know, I was the open id

1172
01:05:23,200 --> 01:05:26,200
Speaker 8: been using it on you. And then as I was

1173
01:05:26,400 --> 01:05:28,960
Speaker 8: out there with them, free kept climbing up the charts,

1174
01:05:29,840 --> 01:05:31,280
Speaker 8: and so they got mad at me.

1175
01:05:32,160 --> 01:05:33,320
Speaker 3: Oh you was showing them up.

1176
01:05:33,920 --> 01:05:37,120
Speaker 1: Yeah, because there yeah, after yeah, it was your turn,

1177
01:05:37,320 --> 01:05:38,840
Speaker 1: just so you know, going up the charts.

1178
01:05:38,880 --> 01:05:41,200
Speaker 8: And they were just doing all they loved, you know,

1179
01:05:41,360 --> 01:05:43,560
Speaker 8: spending the thirty grand of light. They said, they're not

1180
01:05:43,720 --> 01:05:46,080
Speaker 8: using half of what we got, so we didn't using

1181
01:05:46,120 --> 01:05:46,520
Speaker 8: them on you.

1182
01:05:46,800 --> 01:05:49,720
Speaker 1: I said, oh, thank you, Wow, love it.

1183
01:05:49,960 --> 01:05:54,320
Speaker 2: Okay, my favorite album of yours was your your sophomore album,

1184
01:05:54,400 --> 01:05:57,680
Speaker 2: Song for That. I believe that the single from that

1185
01:05:57,720 --> 01:05:59,200
Speaker 2: record is baby My Love's All for You.

1186
01:05:59,520 --> 01:05:59,720
Speaker 8: Yeah.

1187
01:06:00,760 --> 01:06:03,680
Speaker 2: In my mind, I always thought that was like a massive,

1188
01:06:03,720 --> 01:06:08,800
Speaker 2: big hit. But what happened for that period in Songbird

1189
01:06:08,920 --> 01:06:12,520
Speaker 2: for You that didn't happen for the debut record, because

1190
01:06:12,560 --> 01:06:15,440
Speaker 2: I thought that album was bigger. It was my favorite,

1191
01:06:15,440 --> 01:06:17,720
Speaker 2: so I thought it was bigger. But can you talk

1192
01:06:17,760 --> 01:06:19,000
Speaker 2: to me about what happened there?

1193
01:06:19,640 --> 01:06:21,720
Speaker 8: I think that the main thing that happened there is

1194
01:06:21,760 --> 01:06:24,640
Speaker 8: that Charles Stephanie passed away and the sound changed.

1195
01:06:26,000 --> 01:06:27,680
Speaker 1: Okay, Murray was.

1196
01:06:27,800 --> 01:06:31,919
Speaker 8: Turning down original material that I had written to bring

1197
01:06:32,000 --> 01:06:35,560
Speaker 8: in outside material. So I think that that was two

1198
01:06:35,600 --> 01:06:38,280
Speaker 8: of the biggest problems with the project is that he

1199
01:06:38,480 --> 01:06:43,120
Speaker 8: no longer wanted to hear my personal expression and he

1200
01:06:43,240 --> 01:06:48,640
Speaker 8: brought another people to write, and that Charles Stephanie had

1201
01:06:48,680 --> 01:06:50,880
Speaker 8: passed away and we were now dealing with Tom Tom

1202
01:06:51,480 --> 01:06:55,560
Speaker 8: eighty for eighty eight, And those were the things that

1203
01:06:55,640 --> 01:06:59,480
Speaker 8: I think and I think so like, wait a minute,

1204
01:06:59,640 --> 01:07:03,120
Speaker 8: we heard this and now you're doing this, and we

1205
01:07:03,360 --> 01:07:08,560
Speaker 8: needed another project like this is NISSI to solidify who

1206
01:07:09,120 --> 01:07:15,520
Speaker 8: was And yet Maurice uh not, you know, not anything

1207
01:07:15,600 --> 01:07:18,640
Speaker 8: due to him, but it changed up and people were

1208
01:07:19,120 --> 01:07:23,480
Speaker 8: scrambling to find out, well, who is she really, you know,

1209
01:07:23,520 --> 01:07:25,880
Speaker 8: because this is not what we heard the first time around.

1210
01:07:26,440 --> 01:07:31,120
Speaker 8: And then I was also fighting with Sony, I mean

1211
01:07:31,440 --> 01:07:35,800
Speaker 8: Columbia case I did, God is truly amazing, and they

1212
01:07:35,800 --> 01:07:39,000
Speaker 8: were saying, we're not paying her to sing gospel stuff?

1213
01:07:39,080 --> 01:07:40,880
Speaker 8: What is this God of amazing stuff?

1214
01:07:40,960 --> 01:07:41,120
Speaker 1: You know?

1215
01:07:41,240 --> 01:07:44,120
Speaker 8: And they were mad with me. I said, listen, if

1216
01:07:44,200 --> 01:07:46,520
Speaker 8: we got ten songs on a project, I'm gonna give

1217
01:07:46,600 --> 01:07:49,120
Speaker 8: him one. Get over it. And so we fought the

1218
01:07:49,240 --> 01:07:52,480
Speaker 8: next couple of years about me doing gospel music on

1219
01:07:52,640 --> 01:07:55,360
Speaker 8: my secular project. So that was going on to they

1220
01:07:55,400 --> 01:07:56,760
Speaker 8: were mad and.

1221
01:07:59,120 --> 01:08:01,200
Speaker 1: Was this the walk yet in the call period of

1222
01:08:01,600 --> 01:08:03,120
Speaker 1: Columbia or it.

1223
01:08:03,240 --> 01:08:07,000
Speaker 8: Was Walter and those guys, Yeah, very nice to me though,

1224
01:08:07,040 --> 01:08:09,000
Speaker 8: I you know, I would go in there and saying,

1225
01:08:09,080 --> 01:08:12,080
Speaker 8: what I need another couple of hundred grand what are

1226
01:08:12,120 --> 01:08:13,680
Speaker 8: you in here? But he would give it to me.

1227
01:08:13,920 --> 01:08:17,800
Speaker 8: So anyway, that was the bottom line. I didn't care

1228
01:08:17,840 --> 01:08:20,080
Speaker 8: how much he fussed. Go call Marvin down there and

1229
01:08:20,160 --> 01:08:22,720
Speaker 8: legal and send me my money. Baby needs shoes. And

1230
01:08:22,800 --> 01:08:27,519
Speaker 8: he always gave me the money, so you know, and

1231
01:08:27,960 --> 01:08:32,320
Speaker 8: no feels, no nothing, you know, get back up, just

1232
01:08:32,479 --> 01:08:33,800
Speaker 8: write the check now.

1233
01:08:34,040 --> 01:08:35,799
Speaker 3: Yeah, oh heavy.

1234
01:08:36,600 --> 01:08:39,559
Speaker 1: So that was still. That was prevalent. That was prevalent

1235
01:08:39,920 --> 01:08:40,439
Speaker 1: just throughout.

1236
01:08:41,080 --> 01:08:43,439
Speaker 8: Oh yeah, I love walking in the coffee. Was very

1237
01:08:43,560 --> 01:08:46,280
Speaker 8: very good to me. Bruce Lunvall started and then Walter.

1238
01:08:46,800 --> 01:08:49,880
Speaker 8: They were always very very good to me, uh and

1239
01:08:50,120 --> 01:08:53,439
Speaker 8: very respectful. And I will say, you know, I'm praying

1240
01:08:53,520 --> 01:08:53,720
Speaker 8: for you.

1241
01:08:54,280 --> 01:08:54,479
Speaker 1: You know.

1242
01:08:54,640 --> 01:08:57,360
Speaker 8: So they said, oh, oh, there she go, but they

1243
01:08:57,400 --> 01:09:00,120
Speaker 8: were very not happy with me. Would do it the

1244
01:09:00,200 --> 01:09:00,960
Speaker 8: gospel stuff.

1245
01:09:02,439 --> 01:09:05,439
Speaker 1: That's crazy because I of you know, of all your songs.

1246
01:09:05,640 --> 01:09:08,040
Speaker 1: I definitely remember that.

1247
01:09:08,280 --> 01:09:10,720
Speaker 2: That made a impression on my household, like God is

1248
01:09:10,800 --> 01:09:12,080
Speaker 2: really amazing and all those things.

1249
01:09:12,160 --> 01:09:13,880
Speaker 7: And that's the thing now for R and B singers

1250
01:09:13,920 --> 01:09:16,640
Speaker 7: to do to prove themselves on records now, putting the

1251
01:09:17,000 --> 01:09:20,160
Speaker 7: gospel record on it at a gospel jam last did.

1252
01:09:20,080 --> 01:09:22,000
Speaker 2: You feel the need to do that to sort of

1253
01:09:23,360 --> 01:09:26,400
Speaker 2: send a smoke signal back home to Gary, Indiana, to

1254
01:09:26,439 --> 01:09:26,840
Speaker 2: the church.

1255
01:09:27,920 --> 01:09:29,800
Speaker 8: You know, I did it because of my love for

1256
01:09:30,000 --> 01:09:32,280
Speaker 8: Father Son and Holy Ghost. I did it for me.

1257
01:09:32,479 --> 01:09:34,120
Speaker 8: I didn't do it for them, and at that time,

1258
01:09:34,200 --> 01:09:38,479
Speaker 8: I didn't really care about their opinion. But that's you know.

1259
01:09:38,640 --> 01:09:41,680
Speaker 8: I was raised in the church, and I felt like

1260
01:09:41,760 --> 01:09:43,800
Speaker 8: if people were going to have a total overview of

1261
01:09:43,920 --> 01:09:45,720
Speaker 8: me as an artist, I would have to do some

1262
01:09:45,880 --> 01:09:48,519
Speaker 8: gospel because that was a part of who I was.

1263
01:09:49,160 --> 01:09:53,200
Speaker 8: And so that's why I did it, you know. I

1264
01:09:53,640 --> 01:09:57,280
Speaker 8: did it for me and to make a statement to

1265
01:09:58,840 --> 01:10:01,040
Speaker 8: God that you know, I'm I'm really grateful for what

1266
01:10:01,200 --> 01:10:03,680
Speaker 8: you're allowing to happen in my life. And so I'm

1267
01:10:03,760 --> 01:10:07,600
Speaker 8: giving you this. You know, I'm dedicating this portion to you.

1268
01:10:08,520 --> 01:10:13,600
Speaker 2: But eventually you do return to Gary, Indiana. What is

1269
01:10:13,640 --> 01:10:16,559
Speaker 2: the response now that you're an established artist?

1270
01:10:17,800 --> 01:10:17,960
Speaker 1: Oh?

1271
01:10:18,160 --> 01:10:21,080
Speaker 8: Very different? And now I'm okay.

1272
01:10:21,240 --> 01:10:23,920
Speaker 2: Now you know church people, well, no, no, I met

1273
01:10:23,960 --> 01:10:26,040
Speaker 2: back in seventy seven, seventy six, seventy seven.

1274
01:10:26,560 --> 01:10:29,080
Speaker 8: Yeah, they're still acting a little funny, you know, because

1275
01:10:29,120 --> 01:10:32,040
Speaker 8: they still don't support or agree with what I'm doing.

1276
01:10:32,840 --> 01:10:37,120
Speaker 8: But it was funny. I came back around that time

1277
01:10:37,320 --> 01:10:41,840
Speaker 8: and I attended church with my two sons, and my

1278
01:10:42,000 --> 01:10:45,280
Speaker 8: uncle decided to preach a whole sermon and to church

1279
01:10:45,400 --> 01:10:47,920
Speaker 8: that Sunday on how I was going to hell because

1280
01:10:47,920 --> 01:10:50,600
Speaker 8: I had on makeup and beinging out polish and so

1281
01:10:51,600 --> 01:10:54,120
Speaker 8: and my children were there. So I got up and

1282
01:10:54,360 --> 01:10:56,479
Speaker 8: I came back, and you know, I was crying. I

1283
01:10:56,560 --> 01:10:59,519
Speaker 8: told my mother about it. So my mother wrote a

1284
01:10:59,680 --> 01:11:03,120
Speaker 8: letter to them, said, I heard what you guys did

1285
01:11:03,240 --> 01:11:05,680
Speaker 8: with my daughter, and this is what I want to tell.

1286
01:11:06,080 --> 01:11:09,120
Speaker 8: I heard you've been born burning up the mortgage papers

1287
01:11:09,160 --> 01:11:11,639
Speaker 8: because you done paid off the church. My daughter paid

1288
01:11:11,680 --> 01:11:13,799
Speaker 8: for that church. I want her money back with interest

1289
01:11:13,960 --> 01:11:15,400
Speaker 8: or I shut the hell up.

1290
01:11:16,320 --> 01:11:18,639
Speaker 1: Oh you what you did?

1291
01:11:20,080 --> 01:11:23,080
Speaker 8: The next time I went to church, my uncle said, Amen,

1292
01:11:23,280 --> 01:11:24,320
Speaker 8: sister Denise is here.

1293
01:11:27,080 --> 01:11:28,439
Speaker 3: Switched that tune up quick.

1294
01:11:30,120 --> 01:11:34,080
Speaker 8: For you them off. She said, I want her money

1295
01:11:34,120 --> 01:11:36,360
Speaker 8: back with interest. You over that burning the martgage paper

1296
01:11:36,400 --> 01:11:38,840
Speaker 8: and we know how you burning them. That's the tie

1297
01:11:39,000 --> 01:11:40,080
Speaker 8: she's been sent money.

1298
01:11:40,360 --> 01:11:42,280
Speaker 4: I said that. I didn't I say it, y'all, didn't

1299
01:11:42,280 --> 01:11:42,479
Speaker 4: I say?

1300
01:11:42,520 --> 01:11:48,639
Speaker 8: She said, I want the money back with aw shut

1301
01:11:48,760 --> 01:11:51,719
Speaker 8: the hell up, and did another word.

1302
01:11:57,640 --> 01:12:01,479
Speaker 2: Your first number one single comes a year later in

1303
01:12:01,840 --> 01:12:06,240
Speaker 2: probably the most unusual way, But this song was inescapable.

1304
01:12:06,880 --> 01:12:09,880
Speaker 2: When I was a kid, Could you talk about the

1305
01:12:10,240 --> 01:12:16,400
Speaker 2: decision to pair up with Johnny Mathis and we do, well,

1306
01:12:16,520 --> 01:12:19,799
Speaker 2: just what that whole experience is like, and the irony

1307
01:12:20,880 --> 01:12:24,840
Speaker 2: that the second to last song on that record, in

1308
01:12:25,000 --> 01:12:28,080
Speaker 2: my opinion, winds up being even more popular than Too Much,

1309
01:12:28,160 --> 01:12:31,240
Speaker 2: Too Little, Too Late, which is of course the theme

1310
01:12:31,320 --> 01:12:33,120
Speaker 2: the family ties Without Us.

1311
01:12:33,720 --> 01:12:37,719
Speaker 1: Could you talk about that whole experience in doing that record, Well.

1312
01:12:37,600 --> 01:12:40,360
Speaker 8: It was wonderful. I was on the road opening up

1313
01:12:40,400 --> 01:12:41,920
Speaker 8: of Earth When a Fire, but I got a call

1314
01:12:42,040 --> 01:12:44,759
Speaker 8: from my manager and he was saying, you know, Johnny's

1315
01:12:44,800 --> 01:12:48,000
Speaker 8: considering doing a duet and your name has come up.

1316
01:12:48,040 --> 01:12:49,519
Speaker 8: What do you think. I said, Oh my god, I

1317
01:12:49,560 --> 01:12:51,760
Speaker 8: would love to sing with him. I didn't you know,

1318
01:12:51,960 --> 01:12:54,840
Speaker 8: looking and singing along with him on television all these years.

1319
01:12:54,880 --> 01:12:57,800
Speaker 8: I would love to do that. And so you know,

1320
01:12:57,920 --> 01:13:01,120
Speaker 8: they said, okay, Denise is willing to do it. Because

1321
01:13:01,160 --> 01:13:04,639
Speaker 8: they first went to my other the artists on the label.

1322
01:13:04,680 --> 01:13:07,559
Speaker 8: They went to Barbara Streissan and she said no, thank

1323
01:13:07,600 --> 01:13:10,960
Speaker 8: you God, yeah, she said no. So then they came

1324
01:13:11,080 --> 01:13:14,120
Speaker 8: to me, you know, the second strongest female artists on

1325
01:13:14,240 --> 01:13:17,800
Speaker 8: the label. Yeah. So it was funny. So when I

1326
01:13:17,920 --> 01:13:19,960
Speaker 8: told my mother I was going to see with Johnny Matthews.

1327
01:13:20,000 --> 01:13:22,439
Speaker 8: She don't ooh girl, I gotta get my nails done.

1328
01:13:22,520 --> 01:13:23,960
Speaker 1: I wanted to walk.

1329
01:13:25,760 --> 01:13:27,880
Speaker 8: And oh yeah, I said, Mom, I'm not taking you

1330
01:13:28,000 --> 01:13:31,960
Speaker 8: up in there because you know, I know she was

1331
01:13:32,040 --> 01:13:34,320
Speaker 8: gonna be buck wow. We won't go get no work

1332
01:13:34,360 --> 01:13:37,080
Speaker 8: done because she did that to me with Marvin gay.

1333
01:13:37,120 --> 01:13:38,280
Speaker 1: So you just.

1334
01:13:41,280 --> 01:13:45,080
Speaker 8: Go back, go back and will I'll introduce you to

1335
01:13:45,240 --> 01:13:48,839
Speaker 8: Johnny later. And I did you know, Wait, that's two stories,

1336
01:13:49,160 --> 01:13:49,559
Speaker 8: good bit.

1337
01:13:50,640 --> 01:13:51,559
Speaker 1: Wait what happened?

1338
01:13:52,120 --> 01:13:54,679
Speaker 8: Well, Marvin Gaye's brother was performing at a club called

1339
01:13:54,720 --> 01:14:00,120
Speaker 8: the Troubadour, and I wanted to see him, so we

1340
01:14:00,200 --> 01:14:02,559
Speaker 8: went down. I took my mom at the Trooper door

1341
01:14:02,560 --> 01:14:05,680
Speaker 8: and we went down to see Frankie singing. And so

1342
01:14:05,840 --> 01:14:08,000
Speaker 8: what happens is we sitting in our seats, but then

1343
01:14:08,080 --> 01:14:11,120
Speaker 8: here come Marvin. He come walking in there, and my

1344
01:14:11,280 --> 01:14:18,479
Speaker 8: mom was went off, Oh distant, lover, oh love, oh honey,

1345
01:14:18,760 --> 01:14:20,880
Speaker 8: and she just went off with marvat.

1346
01:14:20,560 --> 01:14:26,240
Speaker 11: Gay and I looked at her like, excuse me, Johnny

1347
01:14:26,360 --> 01:14:28,840
Speaker 11: rode around. I wasn't taking no chances, right.

1348
01:14:29,920 --> 01:14:31,920
Speaker 8: You don't meet him later, but you are not going

1349
01:14:32,000 --> 01:14:34,080
Speaker 8: to the studio. She didn't talk to me for a

1350
01:14:34,160 --> 01:14:35,760
Speaker 8: day or two, but she met him and it was

1351
01:14:35,840 --> 01:14:40,479
Speaker 8: all cold, best daughter ever.

1352
01:14:41,680 --> 01:14:45,880
Speaker 2: So in recording that record though, and especially with the

1353
01:14:45,920 --> 01:14:49,080
Speaker 2: song like too much, too Little, too Late, which okay, yes,

1354
01:14:49,240 --> 01:14:55,599
Speaker 2: you you're not the ilk of a tenor baritone gospel singer,

1355
01:14:56,880 --> 01:14:59,919
Speaker 2: you know of of the Mahelia Aretha.

1356
01:15:00,040 --> 01:15:00,160
Speaker 1: Uh.

1357
01:15:00,840 --> 01:15:03,960
Speaker 2: First of all, you're you're a soprano. So even with

1358
01:15:04,080 --> 01:15:08,160
Speaker 2: your the voice that you have, what is your active range? Like,

1359
01:15:08,360 --> 01:15:10,640
Speaker 2: are you able to also sing low as well? And

1360
01:15:10,760 --> 01:15:14,000
Speaker 2: you just chose to sing singing your upper register?

1361
01:15:14,439 --> 01:15:17,519
Speaker 8: Or I think I have a really nice low register

1362
01:15:17,720 --> 01:15:22,000
Speaker 8: that most people have not heard. But for some reason,

1363
01:15:22,080 --> 01:15:24,840
Speaker 8: when I was writing, I was just writing in those registers.

1364
01:15:24,920 --> 01:15:27,160
Speaker 8: So that's, you know, that's what I did. I never

1365
01:15:27,280 --> 01:15:32,920
Speaker 8: did write in the lower register or thinking the lower register. Now,

1366
01:15:32,960 --> 01:15:34,880
Speaker 8: A lot of what you hear me do is my mom.

1367
01:15:34,960 --> 01:15:36,600
Speaker 8: I used to you know, my mom was singing the

1368
01:15:36,680 --> 01:15:39,519
Speaker 8: shower and I'd be standing outside of the shower listening

1369
01:15:39,600 --> 01:15:41,479
Speaker 8: to her, and you know, all that stuff she did.

1370
01:15:42,560 --> 01:15:44,400
Speaker 8: You know, I got that from my You know, I

1371
01:15:44,479 --> 01:15:49,160
Speaker 8: got that from my mom. Choose to do so I

1372
01:15:49,439 --> 01:15:51,599
Speaker 8: think a lot of what you hear is me mimicking

1373
01:15:51,760 --> 01:15:54,360
Speaker 8: her as she did not, you know, sing I didn't

1374
01:15:54,360 --> 01:15:57,560
Speaker 8: hear her a lot in the law register, but I

1375
01:15:57,680 --> 01:16:01,280
Speaker 8: do have a really nice uh I'm lower registered.

1376
01:16:02,280 --> 01:16:06,479
Speaker 2: So that said, because you know, if I were of

1377
01:16:06,720 --> 01:16:09,439
Speaker 2: age of them, I wouldn't have been able to call

1378
01:16:09,560 --> 01:16:14,320
Speaker 2: that particular do what simply because I don't know Johnny

1379
01:16:15,520 --> 01:16:20,519
Speaker 2: as a belter or an ad lipper and that sort

1380
01:16:20,560 --> 01:16:22,559
Speaker 2: of thing. And of course, you know, when you get

1381
01:16:22,600 --> 01:16:24,240
Speaker 2: to the end of that song, I mean, you're just

1382
01:16:25,320 --> 01:16:29,560
Speaker 2: you're singing. You're not singing circles around him, but you

1383
01:16:29,640 --> 01:16:33,000
Speaker 2: know the way that your ad libs are, You're just

1384
01:16:34,080 --> 01:16:38,519
Speaker 2: I mean, it's it's near Jordan levels of display, Like

1385
01:16:38,640 --> 01:16:42,719
Speaker 2: he's the sort of like I'm not trying to compare

1386
01:16:42,800 --> 01:16:45,000
Speaker 2: to Appen and Costello, like there's the straight man and

1387
01:16:45,040 --> 01:16:46,280
Speaker 2: then there's the punchline person.

1388
01:16:46,400 --> 01:16:48,120
Speaker 4: But Seinfeld and you know everybody.

1389
01:16:48,240 --> 01:16:52,120
Speaker 2: Do you guys, Do you guys discuss how you're going

1390
01:16:52,200 --> 01:16:54,280
Speaker 2: to do this? Are you singing together at the same time?

1391
01:16:54,439 --> 01:16:56,800
Speaker 2: Is it like I'll sing my part first and then

1392
01:16:56,840 --> 01:16:59,439
Speaker 2: you come and at your parts later, and then I'll

1393
01:16:59,560 --> 01:17:03,200
Speaker 2: read like for that album, are you singing is it

1394
01:17:04,200 --> 01:17:05,160
Speaker 2: together in person?

1395
01:17:05,360 --> 01:17:07,280
Speaker 1: Or how do you handle that? Well?

1396
01:17:07,360 --> 01:17:09,639
Speaker 8: We would listen to the song and the song would

1397
01:17:09,680 --> 01:17:14,120
Speaker 8: go down, and then John felt comfortable with me telling

1398
01:17:14,240 --> 01:17:16,760
Speaker 8: him a little bit of how to sing because he said,

1399
01:17:16,760 --> 01:17:19,080
Speaker 8: I've never sang with anybody before, and you sing with

1400
01:17:19,560 --> 01:17:22,680
Speaker 8: Stevie and Roberta, so you know, you know those kind

1401
01:17:22,680 --> 01:17:25,439
Speaker 8: of nuances. So basically we would run the song down

1402
01:17:25,479 --> 01:17:27,720
Speaker 8: and I say, I'm gonna sing this. You know, I'll

1403
01:17:27,760 --> 01:17:31,120
Speaker 8: sing this line and you sing that line. So basically

1404
01:17:31,320 --> 01:17:33,880
Speaker 8: he was the straight person and I would just kind of,

1405
01:17:34,680 --> 01:17:37,080
Speaker 8: you know, go around what he was doing and try

1406
01:17:37,120 --> 01:17:41,519
Speaker 8: to add some more color to it. And it was

1407
01:17:41,640 --> 01:17:45,280
Speaker 8: fun because when we did that, we complimented each other.

1408
01:17:45,760 --> 01:17:49,280
Speaker 8: We are running all over each other or not doing

1409
01:17:49,360 --> 01:17:51,880
Speaker 8: anything exciting, We just you know, it kind of worked

1410
01:17:51,920 --> 01:17:54,120
Speaker 8: out like that for me to do more of the

1411
01:17:54,240 --> 01:17:56,080
Speaker 8: coloring than due he drew.

1412
01:17:56,160 --> 01:17:57,719
Speaker 4: He was the lines and you kind of color.

1413
01:17:57,840 --> 01:18:03,800
Speaker 2: That's with the massive success of that song. Was there

1414
01:18:03,880 --> 01:18:06,960
Speaker 2: never a discussion to have a follow up record as well?

1415
01:18:09,040 --> 01:18:11,560
Speaker 8: No, well, you know, we wanted to do stuff, but

1416
01:18:11,720 --> 01:18:18,160
Speaker 8: really his managers were really scared of me because you know,

1417
01:18:18,400 --> 01:18:21,200
Speaker 8: I'm I'm a black woman, and I'm telling what to

1418
01:18:21,360 --> 01:18:24,720
Speaker 8: do and he started listening, and so I think that

1419
01:18:24,840 --> 01:18:28,439
Speaker 8: they came a conclusion we need to get her on

1420
01:18:28,640 --> 01:18:29,080
Speaker 8: out of there.

1421
01:18:29,280 --> 01:18:32,799
Speaker 1: So they did, seriously, there's just one and done.

1422
01:18:33,600 --> 01:18:38,560
Speaker 8: Well because Johnny you know, started really listening to me

1423
01:18:38,680 --> 01:18:42,600
Speaker 8: and I'm a strong independent woman and that's not hisality.

1424
01:18:43,160 --> 01:18:46,880
Speaker 8: And so after you know, talking with him and hanging

1425
01:18:46,920 --> 01:18:50,439
Speaker 8: out with him a couple of times, they said, she's

1426
01:18:50,479 --> 01:18:52,720
Speaker 8: a little bit too much of an influence over him.

1427
01:18:52,960 --> 01:18:58,559
Speaker 2: So now so the thing is is that I can't

1428
01:18:59,040 --> 01:19:00,840
Speaker 2: you know, Philip talked to about it a little bit,

1429
01:19:01,000 --> 01:19:03,920
Speaker 2: but you know, he didn't really go into it. But

1430
01:19:04,760 --> 01:19:07,800
Speaker 2: of course, like the second big producer that comes into

1431
01:19:07,840 --> 01:19:13,000
Speaker 2: their Earth Wind Fire stratosphere is David Foster. And you know,

1432
01:19:13,160 --> 01:19:17,040
Speaker 2: like our listeners know that David you know, did like

1433
01:19:17,160 --> 01:19:21,200
Speaker 2: Wildflower everything everything. Yeah, I mean well, I mean but

1434
01:19:21,320 --> 01:19:23,439
Speaker 2: mostly just as a soul guy, like did like New

1435
01:19:23,520 --> 01:19:28,080
Speaker 2: Birth and all that stuff. And of course, even even

1436
01:19:28,120 --> 01:19:31,360
Speaker 2: though Earth Wind and Fire was able to coast to

1437
01:19:31,640 --> 01:19:34,200
Speaker 2: a fine level with the all in all record with

1438
01:19:34,360 --> 01:19:37,759
Speaker 2: Marius at the Helm, of course David Foster comes aboard.

1439
01:19:38,600 --> 01:19:40,880
Speaker 2: And it's always been controversial with David Foster. I think

1440
01:19:40,920 --> 01:19:43,960
Speaker 2: in real time people were sort of grumbling about David

1441
01:19:44,040 --> 01:19:47,840
Speaker 2: Foster's production. And of course now the decades.

1442
01:19:47,479 --> 01:19:50,040
Speaker 1: Have gone by. Everyone's like, oh, I always loved After

1443
01:19:50,080 --> 01:19:52,320
Speaker 1: the Love Is Gone and all those things. But I

1444
01:19:52,520 --> 01:19:53,880
Speaker 1: know that Foster.

1445
01:19:55,000 --> 01:19:59,720
Speaker 2: Worked on, uh, the when Love Comes Calling record, and

1446
01:20:00,000 --> 01:20:05,120
Speaker 2: and I'm not certain what the chart position was of

1447
01:20:05,400 --> 01:20:08,160
Speaker 2: I got the next dance. I remember hearing a lot

1448
01:20:09,160 --> 01:20:13,160
Speaker 2: on black radio in Philadelphia. What was your experience or

1449
01:20:13,520 --> 01:20:16,160
Speaker 2: your feeling about the Wind Love Comes Calling record? Because

1450
01:20:16,920 --> 01:20:21,160
Speaker 2: I knew that sounded very radically different, yeah, than the

1451
01:20:21,240 --> 01:20:24,880
Speaker 2: first two albums produced by Maurice and Maurice and Charles.

1452
01:20:25,160 --> 01:20:29,800
Speaker 1: But for Wind Love Comes Calling, who decided to really

1453
01:20:30,439 --> 01:20:31,000
Speaker 1: change it up?

1454
01:20:31,920 --> 01:20:34,960
Speaker 8: Well, Maurice was working with David and so then they said,

1455
01:20:35,000 --> 01:20:37,439
Speaker 8: well let's put Denise with David. But it was not

1456
01:20:37,600 --> 01:20:41,679
Speaker 8: a good pairing for me and David to work together.

1457
01:20:42,320 --> 01:20:46,599
Speaker 8: First of all, he was very condescending, you know, producer

1458
01:20:46,680 --> 01:20:50,120
Speaker 8: to artists, and he, you know, says something to me

1459
01:20:50,280 --> 01:20:52,800
Speaker 8: one day and I took the headphones off and I

1460
01:20:52,880 --> 01:20:55,720
Speaker 8: came in. I said, you know what, we will not

1461
01:20:55,920 --> 01:20:58,640
Speaker 8: work together if you do that again. I said, I

1462
01:20:58,680 --> 01:21:00,760
Speaker 8: don't even want to go there. I said, you will

1463
01:21:00,840 --> 01:21:02,320
Speaker 8: not try that with me. I don't know who you

1464
01:21:02,439 --> 01:21:04,040
Speaker 8: talked to like that, but you won't be talking to

1465
01:21:04,120 --> 01:21:07,400
Speaker 8: me like that. I said, we will not be doing this.

1466
01:21:07,560 --> 01:21:09,559
Speaker 8: I said, you're going to respect me like you want

1467
01:21:09,680 --> 01:21:12,120
Speaker 8: me to respect you. And if you can't do that,

1468
01:21:12,520 --> 01:21:14,559
Speaker 8: then you need to walk out of here now because

1469
01:21:14,640 --> 01:21:16,880
Speaker 8: I am not having it. So I left the studio.

1470
01:21:16,880 --> 01:21:19,640
Speaker 8: I told Marius, I said, if he don't turn his

1471
01:21:19,720 --> 01:21:24,040
Speaker 8: attitude around, it's not going to work with he and I.

1472
01:21:24,760 --> 01:21:27,640
Speaker 8: And the very next day he was married to this

1473
01:21:27,760 --> 01:21:30,280
Speaker 8: girl from Alabama and she said, I just want to,

1474
01:21:30,400 --> 01:21:34,240
Speaker 8: you know, apologize, Well what happened yesterday? And I brought up,

1475
01:21:34,600 --> 01:21:37,360
Speaker 8: you know, a surprise for you, you know, something for you,

1476
01:21:37,920 --> 01:21:40,519
Speaker 8: and she set the plate down and flipped it over

1477
01:21:40,680 --> 01:21:43,000
Speaker 8: his fried because I understand you guys like fried chicken.

1478
01:21:44,600 --> 01:21:45,680
Speaker 3: I'm sorry what.

1479
01:21:48,439 --> 01:21:53,120
Speaker 1: No, oh god, wait a minute, half of me.

1480
01:21:53,280 --> 01:21:55,800
Speaker 6: As soon as she said Alabama, I knew, I said,

1481
01:22:00,800 --> 01:22:02,800
Speaker 6: but was it good a mirror?

1482
01:22:06,160 --> 01:22:09,240
Speaker 8: And I told David, I said, baby, y'all about to

1483
01:22:09,280 --> 01:22:10,760
Speaker 8: get your Yeah, I don't even.

1484
01:22:10,640 --> 01:22:13,559
Speaker 4: Want to say you get the wrong one hurt up

1485
01:22:13,640 --> 01:22:13,960
Speaker 4: in him.

1486
01:22:14,360 --> 01:22:17,920
Speaker 8: Okay, somebody's gonna get So we didn't work out to

1487
01:22:18,000 --> 01:22:19,920
Speaker 8: this very day. David is scared of me, and I

1488
01:22:20,360 --> 01:22:20,640
Speaker 8: like k.

1489
01:22:22,120 --> 01:22:23,760
Speaker 1: So it's not word under the bridge at all.

1490
01:22:25,240 --> 01:22:29,000
Speaker 4: No, and you did not write into that chicken. Correct, No,

1491
01:22:29,439 --> 01:22:29,800
Speaker 4: none of that.

1492
01:22:33,040 --> 01:22:35,639
Speaker 1: She could have. You know why you called me out? Like, wait,

1493
01:22:36,880 --> 01:22:37,920
Speaker 1: why you call out.

1494
01:22:40,160 --> 01:22:40,360
Speaker 7: Good?

1495
01:22:40,520 --> 01:22:43,760
Speaker 1: That's not my krypto. Chugen is not my kryptonite. I

1496
01:22:43,920 --> 01:22:47,719
Speaker 1: wasn't call I was suspects me. I don't care if

1497
01:22:47,800 --> 01:22:50,880
Speaker 1: it's Popeye himself. No, I'm not eating that chicken.

1498
01:22:50,920 --> 01:22:51,400
Speaker 4: I wasn't.

1499
01:22:51,479 --> 01:22:52,840
Speaker 8: I was just getting your question answered.

1500
01:22:52,960 --> 01:22:56,479
Speaker 1: That's all. Was it good? Though? Yeah, I'm sorry you

1501
01:22:56,560 --> 01:22:57,040
Speaker 1: didn't need it.

1502
01:22:57,240 --> 01:23:01,280
Speaker 2: However, I will at least skip even though it was

1503
01:23:01,320 --> 01:23:03,800
Speaker 2: a you know, I think when you're younger, you take

1504
01:23:03,840 --> 01:23:08,800
Speaker 2: everything in and you know, I loved that record, even

1505
01:23:08,840 --> 01:23:09,879
Speaker 2: though I didn't realize.

1506
01:23:10,120 --> 01:23:12,200
Speaker 8: Yeah, you didn't have any idea of the vaccine.

1507
01:23:13,880 --> 01:23:18,840
Speaker 2: However, you came to my hometown and actually uh my

1508
01:23:19,040 --> 01:23:23,880
Speaker 2: home studio of Sigma to uh to work on your

1509
01:23:24,040 --> 01:23:30,680
Speaker 2: your next few records. Did Tom Bell and uh, what's

1510
01:23:30,720 --> 01:23:36,160
Speaker 2: her name? Yeah, Linda Creed at the time? Did they

1511
01:23:36,280 --> 01:23:37,320
Speaker 2: stop working together?

1512
01:23:37,720 --> 01:23:38,400
Speaker 1: By this period?

1513
01:23:38,800 --> 01:23:41,639
Speaker 8: They stopped working together because Linda Creed became very ill

1514
01:23:41,760 --> 01:23:44,800
Speaker 8: with cancer. I don't know, okay, and that's what she

1515
01:23:45,000 --> 01:23:50,080
Speaker 8: passed away from. So Linda Creed wasn't well. But also

1516
01:23:50,400 --> 01:23:54,000
Speaker 8: I had I started writing with Tom Bell. Tom Bell

1517
01:23:54,040 --> 01:23:56,479
Speaker 8: and I started writing because he wasn't writing with Linda,

1518
01:23:57,320 --> 01:24:01,360
Speaker 8: and so you know that's what happened. The only songs

1519
01:24:01,439 --> 01:24:06,679
Speaker 8: that we didn't write together or was. I remember sitting

1520
01:24:06,760 --> 01:24:09,160
Speaker 8: and we used to cook before we would record or

1521
01:24:09,240 --> 01:24:12,040
Speaker 8: work on a song. And so I told Tom really,

1522
01:24:12,160 --> 01:24:14,920
Speaker 8: you know, I've been I've been walking around my house

1523
01:24:15,000 --> 01:24:17,800
Speaker 8: for twenty somebody years singing this song and I really

1524
01:24:17,920 --> 01:24:20,800
Speaker 8: like to sing it again. I said, I love this song.

1525
01:24:20,880 --> 01:24:22,960
Speaker 8: He said, what is that? I said, I love It's

1526
01:24:23,040 --> 01:24:26,439
Speaker 8: gonna take a miracle by the word or less, I said.

1527
01:24:26,600 --> 01:24:29,840
Speaker 8: He got left the kitchen, went onto the piano, started

1528
01:24:29,920 --> 01:24:32,960
Speaker 8: playing it, and then, uh, you know, we recorded it

1529
01:24:33,040 --> 01:24:36,280
Speaker 8: and it was what like a top five pocket for me.

1530
01:24:36,840 --> 01:24:41,120
Speaker 8: It's gonna take a miracle. And so, but the songs

1531
01:24:41,160 --> 01:24:43,080
Speaker 8: that I did with Tom Bell we wrote together or

1532
01:24:43,160 --> 01:24:45,519
Speaker 8: either I wrote them, and you know that kind of thing.

1533
01:24:46,840 --> 01:24:50,120
Speaker 2: I know you also worked with the legendaria Clarence McDonald,

1534
01:24:50,360 --> 01:24:54,439
Speaker 2: who his I know that silly you did silly with

1535
01:24:54,520 --> 01:24:59,120
Speaker 2: Clarence McDonald and his his resume is out of this world,

1536
01:24:59,240 --> 01:25:00,479
Speaker 2: Like how did how did that come.

1537
01:25:00,400 --> 01:25:05,200
Speaker 8: About Actually, Lonnie Groves was dating Claireson McDonald at that

1538
01:25:05,320 --> 01:25:08,800
Speaker 8: time and wonderful of it. She said, Oh, I'm, you know,

1539
01:25:09,000 --> 01:25:10,679
Speaker 8: dating this guy and he's doing a lot of stuff.

1540
01:25:10,680 --> 01:25:13,040
Speaker 8: She's doing a lot of stuff, and so we started

1541
01:25:13,080 --> 01:25:15,960
Speaker 8: going out, going over to Clarence's house and we started writing.

1542
01:25:16,040 --> 01:25:19,800
Speaker 8: And that's how, you know, a couple of the big songs,

1543
01:25:19,920 --> 01:25:21,400
Speaker 8: especially on the first and second.

1544
01:25:21,200 --> 01:25:25,360
Speaker 6: Album, came about during your time working in the Earth

1545
01:25:25,400 --> 01:25:27,519
Speaker 6: Wind the Fire Camp. Did you have any dealings with

1546
01:25:27,560 --> 01:25:28,320
Speaker 6: Skip Scarborough?

1547
01:25:28,880 --> 01:25:29,200
Speaker 8: I did?

1548
01:25:29,920 --> 01:25:30,519
Speaker 1: What was he like?

1549
01:25:30,640 --> 01:25:31,960
Speaker 3: He's one of my favorite songwriters.

1550
01:25:32,320 --> 01:25:37,080
Speaker 8: Skip was such an incredible, loving guy, really soft spirit.

1551
01:25:37,240 --> 01:25:39,920
Speaker 8: We went to the same church, you know. He was

1552
01:25:40,120 --> 01:25:43,280
Speaker 8: just the genius. Just the jenis when you absolutely you know,

1553
01:25:43,600 --> 01:25:46,880
Speaker 8: don't ask my neighbor, and all the songs that skipping.

1554
01:25:48,640 --> 01:25:52,560
Speaker 8: It's just incredible working with Skip Scarborough. You're right, he

1555
01:25:52,720 --> 01:25:53,960
Speaker 8: was very special.

1556
01:25:58,560 --> 01:26:01,680
Speaker 2: Of course he did two albums with Tom Bell and

1557
01:26:02,320 --> 01:26:06,880
Speaker 2: that's also like your your your last record with the

1558
01:26:07,200 --> 01:26:13,040
Speaker 2: Arc Organization with Maurice White. What happened, Like did the

1559
01:26:13,160 --> 01:26:17,920
Speaker 2: label just disintegrate or And I'm I'm only asking because

1560
01:26:18,000 --> 01:26:22,360
Speaker 2: like again that that that giant logo on on the

1561
01:26:22,640 --> 01:26:25,720
Speaker 2: record was no longer on your records. Yeah, the RC

1562
01:26:25,960 --> 01:26:28,880
Speaker 2: logo wasn't there. So when I saw the I'm So

1563
01:26:29,040 --> 01:26:33,920
Speaker 2: Prout record, I was like, oh that's it and no

1564
01:26:34,080 --> 01:26:36,120
Speaker 2: more So how did how did that happen?

1565
01:26:36,800 --> 01:26:42,280
Speaker 8: Well, Maris became you know, Maurice and Columbia Records started

1566
01:26:42,320 --> 01:26:46,719
Speaker 8: having a following out differences of what where they wanted

1567
01:26:46,760 --> 01:26:48,840
Speaker 8: to go. So then Marris call me and said, we're leaving,

1568
01:26:50,240 --> 01:26:53,360
Speaker 8: and uh, you know, just know that everything's going to right.

1569
01:26:53,360 --> 01:26:55,320
Speaker 8: You're going to go with us, And they actually started

1570
01:26:55,360 --> 01:26:58,800
Speaker 8: talking to r C I And at that time, you know,

1571
01:26:59,600 --> 01:27:03,479
Speaker 8: I had had any relationship with Columbia or anything outside

1572
01:27:03,520 --> 01:27:06,040
Speaker 8: of you know, going in and talking to Walter. I

1573
01:27:06,080 --> 01:27:08,400
Speaker 8: would talk to Walk, so we did have a relationship.

1574
01:27:08,520 --> 01:27:12,000
Speaker 8: Let me back up. But I went into Walk and

1575
01:27:12,080 --> 01:27:15,519
Speaker 8: I said, listen, what's gonna happen? I said, ARC is leaving?

1576
01:27:16,080 --> 01:27:19,040
Speaker 8: And what do I do? He says, Oh, don't worry

1577
01:27:19,040 --> 01:27:21,560
Speaker 8: about it. He says, out of you know, everybody on

1578
01:27:21,680 --> 01:27:25,519
Speaker 8: the label with ARC, you're the only one that we're keeping.

1579
01:27:25,800 --> 01:27:28,960
Speaker 8: And I was the only act that Columbia count Oh.

1580
01:27:28,920 --> 01:27:33,519
Speaker 2: Man, okay, well, of course your your next collaborator, your

1581
01:27:33,600 --> 01:27:37,760
Speaker 2: most consistent collaborator in my opinion is the work with

1582
01:27:38,000 --> 01:27:39,880
Speaker 2: George Duke I'm missing.

1583
01:27:41,360 --> 01:27:43,680
Speaker 1: Yeah, could you talk about working with him and just

1584
01:27:43,800 --> 01:27:44,320
Speaker 1: what it was like.

1585
01:27:45,360 --> 01:27:48,360
Speaker 8: Oh, I tell you, George Duke was one of them.

1586
01:27:49,240 --> 01:27:52,439
Speaker 8: It was an incredible genius. I mean you could put

1587
01:27:52,520 --> 01:27:56,480
Speaker 8: George in any music genre and it would come off incredible.

1588
01:27:57,280 --> 01:28:01,240
Speaker 8: I mean, you know with Zappa, you know Frank Zaper,

1589
01:28:01,880 --> 01:28:05,559
Speaker 8: you know Stanley Clark, all that stuff that George did.

1590
01:28:06,200 --> 01:28:09,400
Speaker 8: But you know, he could do classical, he could do gospel,

1591
01:28:09,520 --> 01:28:11,040
Speaker 8: he could do R and B, he could do pop.

1592
01:28:11,120 --> 01:28:15,200
Speaker 8: George could do anything. And the thing that was most

1593
01:28:15,240 --> 01:28:18,519
Speaker 8: incredible about him is he was just a big teddy bear.

1594
01:28:19,000 --> 01:28:21,760
Speaker 8: He was a big teddy bear. I mean I just

1595
01:28:22,439 --> 01:28:25,439
Speaker 8: as a person. I loved him. I loved his wife Corrine,

1596
01:28:25,560 --> 01:28:27,680
Speaker 8: And like I said, I missed him so much. I

1597
01:28:27,760 --> 01:28:31,639
Speaker 8: still can't even walk a drive by their street without teary.

1598
01:28:32,320 --> 01:28:35,200
Speaker 8: That's how much I miss him. But it was funny

1599
01:28:35,240 --> 01:28:37,920
Speaker 8: because we were in the studio and we were recording

1600
01:28:38,000 --> 01:28:42,320
Speaker 8: Black Butterfly, and then we get this call and they said, oh,

1601
01:28:42,560 --> 01:28:45,240
Speaker 8: you know, they said, we're doing a soundtrack to a

1602
01:28:45,320 --> 01:28:47,240
Speaker 8: movie and there's one song left and we want to

1603
01:28:47,280 --> 01:28:50,720
Speaker 8: know if Denise want to do it. So I said, yeah,

1604
01:28:50,720 --> 01:28:53,280
Speaker 8: I want to do it. So they said, okay, here's

1605
01:28:53,479 --> 01:28:55,519
Speaker 8: you go over to the songwriters and they're going to

1606
01:28:55,560 --> 01:28:58,040
Speaker 8: play you this song. So we go over there, Dean

1607
01:28:58,160 --> 01:29:00,920
Speaker 8: Pittring and thompsnow on the pair they singing less Here

1608
01:29:01,040 --> 01:29:03,960
Speaker 8: for the Boy and they gave us Hey. We walked

1609
01:29:04,000 --> 01:29:05,760
Speaker 8: out of there and George Juke said, we ain't doing

1610
01:29:05,880 --> 01:29:07,680
Speaker 8: that song. I said, come on, I said, George, wait

1611
01:29:07,680 --> 01:29:10,200
Speaker 8: a minute, Wait a minute. I said, it's in a movie.

1612
01:29:10,960 --> 01:29:13,680
Speaker 8: I said, you know. He said, we're not doing that song.

1613
01:29:13,720 --> 01:29:15,120
Speaker 8: I'm gonna tell you right now, We're not doing that

1614
01:29:15,240 --> 01:29:18,519
Speaker 8: stupid song, I said, George, I said, I just read

1615
01:29:18,560 --> 01:29:21,280
Speaker 8: an article. They said, I'm a great ballot, you know

1616
01:29:21,400 --> 01:29:23,280
Speaker 8: of our times. I said, I could do up tempo

1617
01:29:23,520 --> 01:29:25,960
Speaker 8: like that. You can, and he said I hate that song,

1618
01:29:26,280 --> 01:29:28,080
Speaker 8: and so I you know, I tell him my show.

1619
01:29:28,120 --> 01:29:30,120
Speaker 8: I said, you know, the man is the head, but

1620
01:29:30,280 --> 01:29:32,840
Speaker 8: the woman is the neck, and she can turn that

1621
01:29:33,040 --> 01:29:37,599
Speaker 8: head any way. She won't, yes, George, and I went

1622
01:29:37,680 --> 01:29:41,000
Speaker 8: to his wife, Correne. I said, Corene, wanta do that

1623
01:29:41,160 --> 01:29:43,160
Speaker 8: song with me, and I need your help. She said, girl,

1624
01:29:43,200 --> 01:29:45,080
Speaker 8: don't worry about it. I'll handle it.

1625
01:29:45,479 --> 01:29:46,200
Speaker 4: So we water.

1626
01:29:46,320 --> 01:29:49,080
Speaker 8: We was in the studio and George is mad as hell.

1627
01:29:49,160 --> 01:29:51,360
Speaker 8: But we was in the studio recording less.

1628
01:29:51,120 --> 01:29:56,680
Speaker 1: Here listen and how do you feel when? How do

1629
01:29:56,680 --> 01:29:57,880
Speaker 1: you feel? When it went to number one?

1630
01:29:58,000 --> 01:29:59,840
Speaker 8: You know what I'm saying. And then when we did

1631
01:29:59,880 --> 01:30:02,559
Speaker 8: the unsung, they did this unsung on me and George's

1632
01:30:02,600 --> 01:30:05,200
Speaker 8: on that. I still don't like that song, so I said,

1633
01:30:05,240 --> 01:30:07,679
Speaker 8: you know what, then give me your producer's royalty. I'll

1634
01:30:07,680 --> 01:30:08,599
Speaker 8: take you all right.

1635
01:30:09,720 --> 01:30:12,120
Speaker 4: I'm gonna tell you. Every little girl like me was like,

1636
01:30:12,280 --> 01:30:13,400
Speaker 4: that's the jam.

1637
01:30:14,760 --> 01:30:15,120
Speaker 1: I had that.

1638
01:30:15,240 --> 01:30:17,479
Speaker 3: I had that on a forty five. I had that,

1639
01:30:17,640 --> 01:30:18,680
Speaker 3: I had that on a forty five.

1640
01:30:19,720 --> 01:30:23,400
Speaker 8: Give me your money, since you feel like that. And

1641
01:30:23,560 --> 01:30:26,559
Speaker 8: so because I also tell him at my show, I said,

1642
01:30:26,560 --> 01:30:28,880
Speaker 8: one night, I was at this club in Los Angeles

1643
01:30:29,160 --> 01:30:31,800
Speaker 8: and I was singing, and I before less Here for

1644
01:30:31,880 --> 01:30:33,920
Speaker 8: the Boy, I always ask the good man to raise

1645
01:30:33,960 --> 01:30:36,519
Speaker 8: their hand, and so this guy in the corner of

1646
01:30:36,560 --> 01:30:38,760
Speaker 8: the dark raised his hand, but I couldn't see him

1647
01:30:38,760 --> 01:30:40,720
Speaker 8: because the lights was in my eye. So I looked up.

1648
01:30:40,760 --> 01:30:42,920
Speaker 8: I said, put your hand down. You're not a good man.

1649
01:30:43,439 --> 01:30:47,000
Speaker 8: So Becausert, my my son Forrest walked up to me

1650
01:30:47,040 --> 01:30:48,840
Speaker 8: and said, Mom, do you know who you told me

1651
01:30:49,080 --> 01:30:50,920
Speaker 8: to put their hand down? They want a good man.

1652
01:30:51,000 --> 01:30:52,960
Speaker 8: I said, no, the lights in my I can't see.

1653
01:30:53,160 --> 01:30:59,439
Speaker 8: He said that was Bobby Brown. I said that wasn't

1654
01:30:59,840 --> 01:31:01,320
Speaker 8: That was the Holy Ghost.

1655
01:31:06,560 --> 01:31:09,000
Speaker 11: I had dinner with Bobby and his wife about two

1656
01:31:09,080 --> 01:31:11,719
Speaker 11: months ago. I apologize, I said, Bobby, I'm sorry.

1657
01:31:11,840 --> 01:31:15,040
Speaker 4: He said, was right, was right.

1658
01:31:18,200 --> 01:31:21,559
Speaker 2: I will say that to me, Black Butterfly is one

1659
01:31:21,560 --> 01:31:26,080
Speaker 2: of my favorite all time songs of yours, more than Free,

1660
01:31:26,320 --> 01:31:27,799
Speaker 2: more than any of those songs.

1661
01:31:28,760 --> 01:31:31,040
Speaker 6: I heard that song at every like any kind of

1662
01:31:31,320 --> 01:31:35,479
Speaker 6: black pageant, like yeah, kind of like graduation for like,

1663
01:31:35,720 --> 01:31:35,920
Speaker 6: you know.

1664
01:31:37,120 --> 01:31:37,599
Speaker 1: Emi.

1665
01:31:39,680 --> 01:31:42,280
Speaker 2: Only one one night is what the guys would saying

1666
01:31:42,360 --> 01:31:45,360
Speaker 2: in Black Butterfly was what the woman was saying, for.

1667
01:31:45,479 --> 01:31:46,599
Speaker 3: Real, for real.

1668
01:31:47,439 --> 01:31:51,519
Speaker 8: What happened was somebody had sent the song to George,

1669
01:31:52,479 --> 01:31:56,439
Speaker 8: and George played it for me, and the artist who's

1670
01:31:56,479 --> 01:31:58,840
Speaker 8: a well known artist and I'm not gonna name, was singing.

1671
01:31:58,920 --> 01:32:00,920
Speaker 8: It was all over the So I told you Orge,

1672
01:32:01,000 --> 01:32:03,040
Speaker 8: take him off, take him off, and let me live

1673
01:32:03,160 --> 01:32:06,320
Speaker 8: with it. And I loved it because it spoke about

1674
01:32:06,360 --> 01:32:10,400
Speaker 8: the trials and the tribulations and what it took for

1675
01:32:10,600 --> 01:32:13,800
Speaker 8: us to you know, to get here our belief, our

1676
01:32:13,880 --> 01:32:17,639
Speaker 8: strength and tell your sons and daughters passing that message

1677
01:32:17,680 --> 01:32:20,080
Speaker 8: John and I said, you know, I didn't write it,

1678
01:32:20,240 --> 01:32:23,160
Speaker 8: but I have to sing it. And for me to

1679
01:32:23,280 --> 01:32:26,360
Speaker 8: be nominated on the top ten list of songs that

1680
01:32:27,080 --> 01:32:31,320
Speaker 8: Black Lives Matters has been playing and you know, promoting

1681
01:32:31,400 --> 01:32:35,120
Speaker 8: with their thing that Black Butterfly was on that list

1682
01:32:35,400 --> 01:32:37,800
Speaker 8: really touched my heart, you know, because you do work,

1683
01:32:37,840 --> 01:32:40,479
Speaker 8: but you never know what's going to happen or how

1684
01:32:40,479 --> 01:32:43,120
Speaker 8: are you going to impact people? So that was a

1685
01:32:43,240 --> 01:32:43,880
Speaker 8: blessing for me.

1686
01:32:44,439 --> 01:32:48,599
Speaker 5: Wikipedia says Barry Man and Cynthia Cynthia well A while

1687
01:32:49,520 --> 01:32:50,479
Speaker 5: in nineteen eighty.

1688
01:32:50,280 --> 01:32:55,479
Speaker 2: Two, Yeah, what's your your your training? Like like are

1689
01:32:55,560 --> 01:33:00,680
Speaker 2: you a student of seth Riggs? Like how do you

1690
01:33:01,120 --> 01:33:04,680
Speaker 2: how do you train your voice? How do you you know,

1691
01:33:04,880 --> 01:33:07,000
Speaker 2: does it if you get easily hoarse?

1692
01:33:07,720 --> 01:33:07,880
Speaker 1: You know?

1693
01:33:08,000 --> 01:33:10,519
Speaker 2: Is it the Wretha Franklin thing where you have to

1694
01:33:10,560 --> 01:33:12,200
Speaker 2: have the air off in the room in order to

1695
01:33:12,360 --> 01:33:16,000
Speaker 2: sing and open your trichea to hit these notes?

1696
01:33:16,120 --> 01:33:17,360
Speaker 1: Like what's your regiment?

1697
01:33:18,600 --> 01:33:18,840
Speaker 8: God?

1698
01:33:20,000 --> 01:33:21,720
Speaker 1: I mean, there you go.

1699
01:33:22,720 --> 01:33:26,120
Speaker 8: You know, I don't do anything special. I do warm up.

1700
01:33:26,680 --> 01:33:29,960
Speaker 8: God is amazing? Was actually my exercise vocal that I

1701
01:33:30,160 --> 01:33:33,360
Speaker 8: used to do before I actually wrote the song to

1702
01:33:33,720 --> 01:33:36,840
Speaker 8: you know, open up my vocals. But I just have

1703
01:33:36,920 --> 01:33:39,680
Speaker 8: to blame it on the Lord because you know, just

1704
01:33:40,200 --> 01:33:44,760
Speaker 8: I mean what I am sang in about a month

1705
01:33:45,040 --> 01:33:45,599
Speaker 8: and yet.

1706
01:33:47,360 --> 01:33:48,040
Speaker 4: You know they just.

1707
01:33:48,240 --> 01:33:50,080
Speaker 1: Happened, right.

1708
01:33:50,560 --> 01:33:52,760
Speaker 4: But do you also like not smoke or you don't

1709
01:33:52,800 --> 01:33:54,240
Speaker 4: do the dairy like, do you do that stuff?

1710
01:33:55,000 --> 01:33:55,040
Speaker 7: No?

1711
01:33:55,320 --> 01:33:56,479
Speaker 8: I don't smoke anything.

1712
01:33:56,840 --> 01:33:56,960
Speaker 1: You know.

1713
01:33:57,040 --> 01:33:59,639
Speaker 8: I try to be cool, you know, in the club

1714
01:33:59,760 --> 01:34:03,200
Speaker 8: with rum and coke and a cool cigarette. But then

1715
01:34:03,280 --> 01:34:05,320
Speaker 8: when I found out that this was going to be

1716
01:34:05,439 --> 01:34:07,240
Speaker 8: how I was making my living and taking care of

1717
01:34:07,320 --> 01:34:10,479
Speaker 8: my children, I stopped that. I said, no more. I

1718
01:34:10,560 --> 01:34:13,360
Speaker 8: don't smoke. You know, I don't do any of that

1719
01:34:13,560 --> 01:34:16,679
Speaker 8: anything that would interfere with my throat. I did hookah

1720
01:34:16,720 --> 01:34:19,360
Speaker 8: one time, and she said, okay, keep doing that and

1721
01:34:19,520 --> 01:34:23,959
Speaker 8: if I cooperate with you. So no, I'm very particular,

1722
01:34:24,000 --> 01:34:26,400
Speaker 8: you know. No, I don't want to do anything that

1723
01:34:26,439 --> 01:34:28,840
Speaker 8: would interfere with the gift God has given me.

1724
01:34:29,720 --> 01:34:35,880
Speaker 2: I know that you had switch labels that your gospel

1725
01:34:36,960 --> 01:34:42,080
Speaker 2: output was not on Columbia at all. You mean, at

1726
01:34:42,280 --> 01:34:45,800
Speaker 2: no point did they just think like, yeah, this makes sense,

1727
01:34:45,840 --> 01:34:49,120
Speaker 2: let's let her do a gospel record, like, why did

1728
01:34:49,200 --> 01:34:52,360
Speaker 2: your gospel stuff come out on? I think it was

1729
01:34:52,400 --> 01:34:53,760
Speaker 2: Word Records, I believe No.

1730
01:34:53,880 --> 01:34:58,120
Speaker 8: I was with Sparrow, but Philip and I went to

1731
01:34:58,280 --> 01:35:01,320
Speaker 8: Columbia to glather and asked them to give us a

1732
01:35:01,400 --> 01:35:03,760
Speaker 8: half a million dollars to start a gospel label for

1733
01:35:03,960 --> 01:35:09,439
Speaker 8: Columbia and they said no. So right as they said no,

1734
01:35:09,720 --> 01:35:11,560
Speaker 8: let's hear it for the boy. You know, it was

1735
01:35:11,680 --> 01:35:17,000
Speaker 8: number one and my contract ran out. So I said, okay,

1736
01:35:17,400 --> 01:35:20,640
Speaker 8: this is it. I'm coming back. I'll resign, but I

1737
01:35:20,720 --> 01:35:24,080
Speaker 8: want to do gospel music somewhere else. And they agreed.

1738
01:35:24,200 --> 01:35:26,559
Speaker 8: So I ended up on Sparrow and Philip ended up

1739
01:35:26,600 --> 01:35:27,040
Speaker 8: on Word.

1740
01:35:28,240 --> 01:35:30,960
Speaker 1: Wow, okay, okay, that's just.

1741
01:35:31,880 --> 01:35:36,439
Speaker 2: And even with your Grammy success with gospel and whatnot, like,

1742
01:35:37,800 --> 01:35:41,200
Speaker 2: they still didn't double back and just say, like, you

1743
01:35:41,280 --> 01:35:44,320
Speaker 2: know what are bad, let's do let's do something.

1744
01:35:44,920 --> 01:35:46,840
Speaker 8: Know what they did and they gave this other guy

1745
01:35:47,640 --> 01:35:50,479
Speaker 8: six million dollars to start a gospel label and he

1746
01:35:50,640 --> 01:35:54,000
Speaker 8: spent it on Arabian horses in Nashville. And they come

1747
01:35:54,080 --> 01:35:56,280
Speaker 8: calling up fussle with me. I said, no, no, no, no, no,

1748
01:35:56,760 --> 01:35:58,880
Speaker 8: you wouldn't gave him that six million dollars. I Ali

1749
01:35:59,040 --> 01:36:02,439
Speaker 8: had asked you for a familiar So now don't don't

1750
01:36:02,520 --> 01:36:04,920
Speaker 8: call me God bless you, Bye bye.

1751
01:36:05,880 --> 01:36:10,400
Speaker 7: M I had to fast forward and see when Columbia

1752
01:36:10,520 --> 01:36:12,080
Speaker 7: got like deep into gods. I guess they did in

1753
01:36:12,120 --> 01:36:14,200
Speaker 7: Mahalia Jackson, but I was like, man, okay, So Mary,

1754
01:36:14,240 --> 01:36:16,200
Speaker 7: Mary and the crad they got they got the message.

1755
01:36:16,200 --> 01:36:17,640
Speaker 1: Show somebody like.

1756
01:36:17,840 --> 01:36:19,919
Speaker 8: Now they come down and they got the message.

1757
01:36:19,920 --> 01:36:26,200
Speaker 2: And all right, So with where you are now, especially

1758
01:36:26,280 --> 01:36:28,000
Speaker 2: well you said you haven't sang in a month, So

1759
01:36:29,400 --> 01:36:31,840
Speaker 2: is this the first extended break? Like there's a lot

1760
01:36:31,880 --> 01:36:36,120
Speaker 2: of us a post pandemic kind of had a complete

1761
01:36:36,200 --> 01:36:38,360
Speaker 2: world stop to sort of regroup for the first time

1762
01:36:38,400 --> 01:36:41,160
Speaker 2: in our lives for you, was that like the first

1763
01:36:41,200 --> 01:36:44,880
Speaker 2: extended break that you took when the pandemic started? As

1764
01:36:44,960 --> 01:36:48,599
Speaker 2: far as uh, not doing like a lot of gigs

1765
01:36:48,640 --> 01:36:52,240
Speaker 2: and whatnot, just relaxing, Like how did you how did

1766
01:36:52,280 --> 01:36:54,799
Speaker 2: you spend your twenty twenty when it occurred?

1767
01:36:55,280 --> 01:36:57,880
Speaker 8: Well, I've been working on producer. I'm co producing a

1768
01:36:57,960 --> 01:37:01,400
Speaker 8: theater piece called Live at the Crescendo Love with Elfie Gerald,

1769
01:37:01,479 --> 01:37:05,080
Speaker 8: Saravon and Pearl Bailey. So I really sink a lot

1770
01:37:05,160 --> 01:37:10,519
Speaker 8: of time into you know, working on the theater piece.

1771
01:37:10,640 --> 01:37:13,679
Speaker 8: We hired our director, we hired our writer, we hired

1772
01:37:13,720 --> 01:37:17,240
Speaker 8: our music supervisor, we hired a theater company. So we've

1773
01:37:17,280 --> 01:37:19,960
Speaker 8: been working on that for the past two years, almost

1774
01:37:21,320 --> 01:37:25,120
Speaker 8: on that particular theater piece and going through music for

1775
01:37:25,280 --> 01:37:29,200
Speaker 8: these three ladies. So I, you know, I've been doing

1776
01:37:29,320 --> 01:37:31,720
Speaker 8: that and I'm you know, keeping my chops up for

1777
01:37:31,760 --> 01:37:33,800
Speaker 8: a lot of reasons. I'm still touring, but I'm also

1778
01:37:33,960 --> 01:37:36,720
Speaker 8: hoping to be able to do the role of Sarah Von,

1779
01:37:37,080 --> 01:37:41,560
Speaker 8: especially in the beginning, I want to do stuff, So I,

1780
01:37:41,720 --> 01:37:43,479
Speaker 8: you know, I've been doing what I can to keep

1781
01:37:43,520 --> 01:37:45,560
Speaker 8: my chops up for that because I, you know, I

1782
01:37:45,600 --> 01:37:48,520
Speaker 8: don't want to do anything that would embarrass this incredible,

1783
01:37:49,800 --> 01:37:54,439
Speaker 8: beautiful vocalist. You know. For Elfizgerald, my my wishless would

1784
01:37:54,479 --> 01:37:58,720
Speaker 8: be Patty, We'll see what happens. For Pearl Bailey, my

1785
01:37:58,920 --> 01:38:04,120
Speaker 8: wishless would be read at devond So what can potentially happen.

1786
01:38:04,240 --> 01:38:08,000
Speaker 8: But That's what I've been working on with that live

1787
01:38:08,080 --> 01:38:10,960
Speaker 8: at the Crescendo Club, and then with my other son,

1788
01:38:11,160 --> 01:38:14,680
Speaker 8: we have a children's cartoon that we've been working on

1789
01:38:15,400 --> 01:38:18,519
Speaker 8: and we have a distribution deal with Ruku. So we're

1790
01:38:18,600 --> 01:38:24,400
Speaker 8: working now and filming episodes for Lizzie the Lake Monster,

1791
01:38:24,600 --> 01:38:29,720
Speaker 8: which is our children's program. And then my other son

1792
01:38:29,800 --> 01:38:33,200
Speaker 8: and I started our own coffee company, so we're we

1793
01:38:33,320 --> 01:38:35,880
Speaker 8: have a coffee shop. So we're doing coffee the Culture

1794
01:38:35,920 --> 01:38:37,680
Speaker 8: Coffee Company. We're working on that.

1795
01:38:38,520 --> 01:38:40,240
Speaker 4: And yeah, you said you have a shop.

1796
01:38:41,120 --> 01:38:43,080
Speaker 8: We have an actual shop. And the girls got a

1797
01:38:43,160 --> 01:38:46,880
Speaker 8: halked the tops and a little short pasts in the Yeah,

1798
01:38:47,200 --> 01:38:47,360
Speaker 8: is this.

1799
01:38:47,400 --> 01:38:50,120
Speaker 4: A Nevada or is it? Where's a shop in Las Vegas?

1800
01:38:50,840 --> 01:38:54,400
Speaker 8: Our first store, So we are, you know, we're doing that.

1801
01:38:54,840 --> 01:38:58,439
Speaker 8: And then I'm beginning to get back into you know,

1802
01:38:58,920 --> 01:39:01,360
Speaker 8: getting back on faceboo, well, getting back on my social

1803
01:39:01,439 --> 01:39:04,080
Speaker 8: media because I backed up away from that, you know,

1804
01:39:04,320 --> 01:39:07,719
Speaker 8: just doing the writing and trying to be creative. Started

1805
01:39:07,760 --> 01:39:11,200
Speaker 8: three books, haven't finished none of them, so any have

1806
01:39:11,400 --> 01:39:15,120
Speaker 8: That's you busy, you know, I mean we weren't able

1807
01:39:15,240 --> 01:39:17,679
Speaker 8: to tour, but there were other things to be done,

1808
01:39:17,800 --> 01:39:20,080
Speaker 8: to be work, other projects to be worked onne and

1809
01:39:20,240 --> 01:39:24,439
Speaker 8: so I've spent this time working on the other projects.

1810
01:39:25,280 --> 01:39:28,800
Speaker 2: Well besides the play and whatnot. Is there another kind

1811
01:39:28,840 --> 01:39:33,479
Speaker 2: of bucket list dream that you've yet to fulfill in

1812
01:39:33,600 --> 01:39:34,080
Speaker 2: your career.

1813
01:39:35,400 --> 01:39:39,080
Speaker 8: No, I think that, you know, with the various projects

1814
01:39:39,120 --> 01:39:41,280
Speaker 8: that we have, and we also have another theater piece

1815
01:39:41,360 --> 01:39:45,560
Speaker 8: called the Fairytale Chronicles stuff that we're working on. So

1816
01:39:45,920 --> 01:39:49,759
Speaker 8: I think, you know, for me in the music industry,

1817
01:39:50,439 --> 01:39:53,680
Speaker 8: I accomplished more than I ever thought I would and

1818
01:39:54,120 --> 01:39:57,200
Speaker 8: it made it's made an impression of positive impression on

1819
01:39:57,320 --> 01:40:00,519
Speaker 8: a lot of people who grew up with me, like

1820
01:40:00,640 --> 01:40:05,040
Speaker 8: you and who love the music. But since we weren't

1821
01:40:05,040 --> 01:40:07,080
Speaker 8: able to go out and do concerts and stuff, I

1822
01:40:07,160 --> 01:40:10,240
Speaker 8: just started working on some other things creatively that popped

1823
01:40:10,280 --> 01:40:14,439
Speaker 8: up in my spirit, and so I'm excited to, you know,

1824
01:40:14,600 --> 01:40:16,560
Speaker 8: see this happen. I'm excited to get out on the

1825
01:40:16,640 --> 01:40:19,040
Speaker 8: road with the theater piece. I'm excited to get our

1826
01:40:19,479 --> 01:40:23,519
Speaker 8: episodes done for our children's cartoon. I'm just excited about

1827
01:40:23,560 --> 01:40:27,000
Speaker 8: all of the various projects that we're working on right now.

1828
01:40:27,160 --> 01:40:28,280
Speaker 8: You know, in my hands are full.

1829
01:40:29,080 --> 01:40:31,559
Speaker 4: It also sounds great for the people who saw your unsung.

1830
01:40:31,640 --> 01:40:34,240
Speaker 7: It's a nice continuation of chapter to see that you're

1831
01:40:34,240 --> 01:40:37,040
Speaker 7: working with your sons, right, that's great.

1832
01:40:37,840 --> 01:40:40,640
Speaker 8: Yeah. Yeah. One of the books is called you know,

1833
01:40:41,920 --> 01:40:45,600
Speaker 8: the Next Chapter Chapter two. No, the book is called Second.

1834
01:40:45,400 --> 01:40:49,639
Speaker 7: Act is the children's book, no book that I'm writing

1835
01:40:49,840 --> 01:40:52,720
Speaker 7: for that you're working on one of the three.

1836
01:40:54,400 --> 01:40:58,240
Speaker 1: Okay, well you know I just wanted to front you

1837
01:40:58,320 --> 01:40:59,120
Speaker 1: look like he's about to.

1838
01:40:59,560 --> 01:41:01,920
Speaker 6: Oh man, I was just gonna say just this this

1839
01:41:02,080 --> 01:41:05,320
Speaker 6: thank you for the music, like you're there that this

1840
01:41:05,520 --> 01:41:07,800
Speaker 6: is an easy album. That's like one of the first

1841
01:41:08,240 --> 01:41:11,519
Speaker 6: records I remember seeing in my grandparents' house, like coming

1842
01:41:11,640 --> 01:41:14,599
Speaker 6: up and so I just remember as a kid because

1843
01:41:14,600 --> 01:41:16,519
Speaker 6: I was, I mean, this is I was probably four

1844
01:41:16,600 --> 01:41:18,760
Speaker 6: or five years old, but I remember the front that

1845
01:41:18,880 --> 01:41:21,600
Speaker 6: you had on the it's like the black and with

1846
01:41:21,760 --> 01:41:23,000
Speaker 6: the kind of yellow.

1847
01:41:24,320 --> 01:41:25,800
Speaker 1: Was the wall.

1848
01:41:27,600 --> 01:41:33,639
Speaker 8: I couldn't I was like, was I was so afraid

1849
01:41:33,880 --> 01:41:37,600
Speaker 8: when that album cover came out because one of the

1850
01:41:37,720 --> 01:41:42,560
Speaker 8: leaves did the entirely cover that titty and about this

1851
01:41:42,720 --> 01:41:47,400
Speaker 8: big My grandmother said that what the big mama see

1852
01:41:47,439 --> 01:41:51,040
Speaker 8: that part of my titty is out? Oh god, I was.

1853
01:41:51,640 --> 01:41:52,160
Speaker 1: I was so.

1854
01:41:54,320 --> 01:41:58,680
Speaker 6: Yeah because the back of seriously the back cover that

1855
01:41:59,000 --> 01:42:01,360
Speaker 6: I mean, I had to just qustian music kid. Just

1856
01:42:01,479 --> 01:42:03,680
Speaker 6: that was one of the just the first covers I

1857
01:42:03,760 --> 01:42:06,320
Speaker 6: remember seeing that I wasn't afraid of because it was

1858
01:42:06,360 --> 01:42:08,519
Speaker 6: because covers were so big, you know, but you on

1859
01:42:08,600 --> 01:42:10,000
Speaker 6: the back, and I remember you had like that big

1860
01:42:10,080 --> 01:42:12,000
Speaker 6: smile and I was like, man, like, this is just

1861
01:42:12,320 --> 01:42:14,599
Speaker 6: you look really beautiful on that and that's just one

1862
01:42:14,640 --> 01:42:16,240
Speaker 6: of my favorite memories from childhood.

1863
01:42:16,240 --> 01:42:18,000
Speaker 3: And I love that album, so just think you so much.

1864
01:42:18,000 --> 01:42:20,320
Speaker 2: I was kind of afraid of that cover, Fante, because

1865
01:42:20,320 --> 01:42:22,240
Speaker 2: again I thought the wall was eating her up.

1866
01:42:22,240 --> 01:42:24,840
Speaker 4: I wasn't sure either a mirror I was with you again,

1867
01:42:25,040 --> 01:42:25,559
Speaker 4: I thought.

1868
01:42:25,400 --> 01:42:27,800
Speaker 1: That Stevie Wonder is drowning in donuts on songs in

1869
01:42:27,840 --> 01:42:29,600
Speaker 1: the Wife. So you know, what do I know?

1870
01:42:29,960 --> 01:42:30,400
Speaker 8: Oy?

1871
01:42:31,320 --> 01:42:33,559
Speaker 2: I still did they think that he's drowning and donuts.

1872
01:42:33,640 --> 01:42:35,720
Speaker 2: But you know, you know, we really thank you for

1873
01:42:36,560 --> 01:42:38,439
Speaker 2: doing this as solid and coming on your show and

1874
01:42:38,560 --> 01:42:39,080
Speaker 2: sharing your.

1875
01:42:38,960 --> 01:42:41,760
Speaker 7: Story and be impatient because this has been like our

1876
01:42:41,840 --> 01:42:44,640
Speaker 7: third time rescheduling this, and I just appreciate you for that.

1877
01:42:45,280 --> 01:42:48,120
Speaker 7: And although you may not evoke all kinds of yells

1878
01:42:48,160 --> 01:42:50,439
Speaker 7: and screams do your music, the emotion that you wouldvoke

1879
01:42:50,560 --> 01:42:52,720
Speaker 7: is priceless, timeless, and we just thank you.

1880
01:42:52,880 --> 01:42:56,559
Speaker 3: For it, sir and Steve anything, thank you for Let's

1881
01:42:56,600 --> 01:42:57,519
Speaker 3: here for the boy.

1882
01:42:59,680 --> 01:43:00,280
Speaker 8: From my heart.

1883
01:43:00,360 --> 01:43:02,080
Speaker 3: I'm not trying to make a joke. Thank you, just

1884
01:43:02,200 --> 01:43:03,360
Speaker 3: even if even just for.

1885
01:43:03,439 --> 01:43:07,040
Speaker 5: That for real though, because that's where that's that's where

1886
01:43:07,080 --> 01:43:08,959
Speaker 5: I found you and then and then went backwards.

1887
01:43:09,000 --> 01:43:13,439
Speaker 1: So thank you, yes, absolutely well once again, ladies and gentlemen.

1888
01:43:13,479 --> 01:43:16,400
Speaker 2: This is Denise Williams on Quest Love Supreme on behalf

1889
01:43:16,439 --> 01:43:19,280
Speaker 2: of Fun Takeelow and Layah.

1890
01:43:19,120 --> 01:43:22,280
Speaker 5: And and based on that partial titty, I'm going record

1891
01:43:22,320 --> 01:43:23,000
Speaker 5: shopping tomorrow.

1892
01:43:23,320 --> 01:43:28,080
Speaker 1: I'm gonna pick that one up anyway. This is question.

1893
01:43:31,200 --> 01:43:33,599
Speaker 1: We'll see you on the next go around. This is Steve.

1894
01:43:34,600 --> 01:43:47,799
Speaker 1: Thank you, Bye bye West. Love Supreme is a production

1895
01:43:48,000 --> 01:43:54,360
Speaker 1: of my iHeart Radio. For more podcasts from iHeart Radio,

1896
01:43:54,520 --> 01:43:57,880
Speaker 1: visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you

1897
01:43:58,000 --> 01:43:59,160
Speaker 1: listen to your favorite shows.