Speaker 1: Quest Love Show is a production of iHeart Radio all Right. So,
Speaker 1: with the exception of Darius Rutgers episode, I don't believe
Speaker 1: that we here at QLs via Questlove Supreme or The
Speaker 1: Quest Love Show has had a bonafide, bonafide country music
Speaker 1: artists in our presence. I've had the pleasure of playing
Speaker 1: drums with our guest today at of all places, the
Speaker 1: Essence Festival. I knew then that I wanted to have
Speaker 1: her as a guest on the show. Our guest today
Speaker 1: has definitely created a lane for herself where I guess
Speaker 1: one seemingly really didn't exist, and one fast needs me
Speaker 1: about her story is not just you know, all the
Speaker 1: accolades that she's had, the Grammy nominations, or the TV appearances,
Speaker 1: the high profile appearances magazine covers, YadA, YadA, YadA, But
Speaker 1: it's it's the journey that sometimes the path to finding
Speaker 1: your voice means that you got to get it, you know,
Speaker 1: out of your comfort zone and step into a space
Speaker 1: that wasn't exactly built with you in mind, and deciding
Speaker 1: that you're going to own that space and be there anyway,
Speaker 1: and that you know, there's a lot of commonality. I
Speaker 1: guess I felt commonality just in my experiences, so I
Speaker 1: definitely wanted to have this conversation. And her music, especially
Speaker 1: with songs like black Like Me Remember her Name, of course,
Speaker 1: sparked conversations that country music is basically has been on
Speaker 1: my sideline view a sort of avoiding. She miraculously hosted
Speaker 1: the the CMAS. Oh ACMs, I'm sorry, it's all.
Speaker 2: They all sound the same. There's ACMs and the CMAS,
Speaker 2: the Academy of Country Music Awards, and I did.
Speaker 1: Not know the difference between. Yeah, okay, I got it.
Speaker 1: Of course I was there to watch her seeing the
Speaker 1: national anthem at the super Bowl. She's built a global audience.
Speaker 1: We're definitely talking about China, something that was not on
Speaker 1: my Bengo card. We're just going to talk about the
Speaker 1: journey of our guest today, the one and only Mickey Guyden.
Speaker 3: Thank you for coming on the Quest Loft Show. How
Speaker 3: are you there?
Speaker 2: I am so good. You know I am a huge
Speaker 2: Quest Love fan, so it is an honor to be
Speaker 2: able to sit here and speak with you. Really, you
Speaker 2: are a legend in my household.
Speaker 1: I appreciate that.
Speaker 3: Thank you so much.
Speaker 1: So right now, where are you speaking to us from?
Speaker 1: Are you at home or on the road?
Speaker 2: Where you actually in Los Angeles, California. I'm taking a
Speaker 2: little bit of break since I've been and I came
Speaker 2: back from China, so I'm here in Los Angeles, California.
Speaker 1: Got it? Okay, Well, I'll just ask, and I guess
Speaker 1: I shouldn't be surprised, being as though for the last
Speaker 1: thirty years, I can definitely say that the roots have
Speaker 1: been like at least in twelve very specific places like
Speaker 1: the Lincoln cent or whatever, like where we're the first
Speaker 1: yeah pop act to be there. You know, you think,
Speaker 1: like so late in the game, like how are the
Speaker 1: roots playing places that some of these big platinum artists
Speaker 1: haven't played? But I'm in surprise as a bound. What
Speaker 1: is in China that is common with what I would
Speaker 1: know as country culture.
Speaker 2: Or just absolutely nothing? There is nothing in common. I guess.
Speaker 2: The biggest country song in China is Country Roads take
Speaker 2: Me Home by John Dimver. That song, believe it or not,
Speaker 2: is massive out there. A lot of people learned English
Speaker 2: listen to that song, so that song is very endearing
Speaker 2: to the people out there. But even how I even
Speaker 2: got out there, I got out there, it's just so
Speaker 2: random and I would never ever ever do something like this,
Speaker 2: but it was this show called The Singer, and so
Speaker 2: I went on it. And it's like basically like Master Chef,
Speaker 2: but for musicians. So it's like professional musicians all over
Speaker 2: the world, including China.
Speaker 1: Oh wait, you're the contestant. You're not the job I was.
Speaker 1: I was not.
Speaker 2: I was a contestant. Chante Moore did it the year
Speaker 2: before me.
Speaker 1: Jesse J.
Speaker 2: Yeah, jesse J did it in twenty eighteen.
Speaker 1: So even established people can.
Speaker 2: Yeah. It's the craziest thing. It gives you all whole
Speaker 2: different audience that you would never be you know, open to,
Speaker 2: especially on my side of country music. And that was
Speaker 2: kind of my uh reason for doing it. I was like, well,
Speaker 2: why can't I bring country music out to China?
Speaker 1: So who presented this opportunity to you?
Speaker 2: They found me, they asked yes, And at first I
Speaker 2: was like, absolutely not. Is this a scam? Is what
Speaker 2: I thought it was?
Speaker 1: Right?
Speaker 2: I was like, there's no waya what are you talking about?
Speaker 3: Right?
Speaker 2: And when I saw that Chantey Moore did it, I
Speaker 2: was like, you know what, why not? Why not let
Speaker 2: me try to do this and let's see what this
Speaker 2: is all about? And it was the craziest experience of
Speaker 2: my life.
Speaker 1: So what was the results? Did you see an instant change?
Speaker 2: And yeah, and it's a change. And the audience that
Speaker 2: I was performing for, like it gave me a whole
Speaker 2: different audience to sing for. Like you can think about it.
Speaker 2: Every week I was singing in front of like about
Speaker 2: one hundred and fifty million people. It was like the
Speaker 2: super Bowl every week. It was crazy. It was there's
Speaker 2: so many people in China and there's so many avenues
Speaker 2: of being heard, and I was just trying to find
Speaker 2: another additional space to be in front of and that
Speaker 2: was my motivation. It's crazy, and it's I mean, you
Speaker 2: look at the way the world is going, and especially
Speaker 2: with a lot of artists in Asia, like you've got
Speaker 2: the whole k pop movement that is massive, Like there's
Speaker 2: you know, like I don't think we paid attention to
Speaker 2: as much as we should have to that whole area.
Speaker 2: And I think every single artist should do that if
Speaker 2: you have.
Speaker 1: Not, you know, on my side of the fence, especially
Speaker 1: with hip hop, I mean, you know that's all of
Speaker 1: Asia is like our third biggest market. Yeah, but I
Speaker 1: just never you know, I kind of felt like country
Speaker 1: music was limited to in my mind, you know, kind
Speaker 1: of you're not the big signiction line. But it's worldwide.
Speaker 1: I never knew this, never not It.
Speaker 2: Is not worldwide. You're very much so spot on. It
Speaker 2: is not worldwide, like this is uncharted territory.
Speaker 3: You know you're pioneering.
Speaker 1: Okay, that's good, like yes, so.
Speaker 2: And I've had you to be likeas.
Speaker 1: No other country artists have ever considered doing the show
Speaker 1: or I think the one that I.
Speaker 2: Could really see being successful out there is like a
Speaker 2: Casey Musgraves. I'm not sure. I don't have the data
Speaker 2: to be able to tell you. I don't know. I
Speaker 2: just saw it as a huge opportunity for me. I
Speaker 2: just was like, wow, that's a and so I did
Speaker 2: a tour out there, just like a test tour to
Speaker 2: see what that was like in February, and it was
Speaker 2: absolutely incredible. Like there's a whole world out there that
Speaker 2: you can be a part of. And I guess I'm
Speaker 2: pioneering that too.
Speaker 1: There you go, there you go. Could you tell me
Speaker 1: what your first musical memory is, man, the very first
Speaker 1: thing you remember about music and either to three years old.
Speaker 2: It was definitely church for me. I remember just being
Speaker 2: in church and singing in the angel choir, then singing
Speaker 2: in the Celestial choir. That that was my very first
Speaker 2: memory of music.
Speaker 3: How old were you when you first started singing in
Speaker 3: the church.
Speaker 2: I was probably about five or six, so I think
Speaker 2: around like six or seven is when I started having
Speaker 2: memories of church.
Speaker 3: And what city did you grow up in?
Speaker 2: I grew up in So I grew up around all
Speaker 2: around Texas, but Arlington, Texas, and Waco, Texas, Moody, Texas,
Speaker 2: really small towns. That's where I grew up.
Speaker 1: What are your general memories of childhood. I'll tell you
Speaker 1: go back in time to your earliest days, Like what
Speaker 1: are the first things visually that you see, even if
Speaker 1: it's the smallest thing, not like going to a fair,
Speaker 1: just your curtains. Maybe I don't know visually, you know.
Speaker 2: I definitely my room. My bedroom was a big memory
Speaker 2: for me. I'm an introvert, so I spent a lot
Speaker 2: of time in there, like that was something I really
Speaker 2: loved my grandma's Those are huge memories. Those are a
Speaker 2: lot of times my first like thoughts, like the gravel
Speaker 2: roads and Crawford, Texas, or the gravel roads driving up
Speaker 2: to Moody Texas. That long stretched drive that we would
Speaker 2: drive to go see my grandma, the roads going to
Speaker 2: see Reesal, Texes. Those are a lot of my memories.
Speaker 1: What was the domestic situation in your house? Are you
Speaker 1: the only child? Did you have siblings? Oh?
Speaker 2: Yes, I have two siblings. I have three siblings. Excuse me,
Speaker 2: I've got two sisters and a brother.
Speaker 3: Where do you fall in?
Speaker 2: I'm in the middle. I'm the upper middle. So I've
Speaker 2: got two younger sisters and my brother is the oldest.
Speaker 2: But really I'm the oldest. You know, there's always we're
Speaker 2: mature daughter, the eldest daughter is the things. Yeah, for sure,
Speaker 2: it's me and my youngest sister. She's like an old
Speaker 2: woman too.
Speaker 3: So do they have musical talent as well?
Speaker 1: Or is this just you?
Speaker 2: Well, my whole family sings, besides my mom. She would
Speaker 2: hate for me to say that, but my mom can't
Speaker 2: sing at all, like at all, But we all we're
Speaker 2: all in the choir together, we all say. But I
Speaker 2: was the one that pursued it the most in my family.
Speaker 1: You say you traveled all around Texas. Is your father
Speaker 1: in the military or like so my dad.
Speaker 2: I don't know what The equivalent of that is like
Speaker 2: he was an engineer and he was VP of customer
Speaker 2: relations of a company called my dad was he did
Speaker 2: well for himself. It's encore, it's I don't know what
Speaker 2: where are you at, Laura.
Speaker 3: I'm in New York right now?
Speaker 2: Whatever the electric company is that major? Most New Yorkers use.
Speaker 2: That was what my dad was in Texas.
Speaker 3: Okay, I got it.
Speaker 1: What television show would you say best describes your childhood
Speaker 1: as a kid or was there a character or a
Speaker 1: television show that you imagine that.
Speaker 2: So all say, I mean it sucks, like what has
Speaker 2: happened to that family? That we were like the Cosby's
Speaker 2: for sure, Like.
Speaker 3: The Bulls are still alive?
Speaker 2: Okay, great? The Huxtables, we were like the Huxtables. Yeah,
Speaker 2: like that, we were like that, or you know, definitely
Speaker 2: family matters family. We were definitely like that. That was
Speaker 2: what our family was like. Okay, blue collar, hardworking. My
Speaker 2: mom didn't work. My mom was a homemaker. But that
Speaker 2: was our family.
Speaker 1: Okay, And mind you, So this is one of the
Speaker 1: episodes in which I'm torn between because I want to
Speaker 1: know everything about your career, but I also I'm hyper
Speaker 1: aware and I think there's another commonality that we might have,
Speaker 1: Like oftentimes, when you're in a position in your career,
Speaker 1: you're instantly tagged as the person that has to be
Speaker 1: the spokesperson for everything. For saying that, and so sometimes
Speaker 1: I just want to know silly stuff that you never
Speaker 1: get asked before.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I appreciate you for wanting to do that,
Speaker 2: because that was kind of a thing for me.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I know, you got to ask about what you
Speaker 1: put anything click baity, like, yeah, what's your opinion on this?
Speaker 3: What's your pinion?
Speaker 1: You know, if you're like I have.
Speaker 2: I feel no I am o Marion, I feel no ways.
Speaker 3: Right now, there you go, There you go. So that said,
Speaker 3: uh is there?
Speaker 1: This is rather than random? Do you have a weird
Speaker 1: food combo that you swear by?
Speaker 2: A weird food combo that I swear by?
Speaker 1: Yes, I'll tell you what.
Speaker 2: So my mom she's dealing with like some like gluten allergies,
Speaker 2: So she's trying all these different meals. She got a
Speaker 2: sweet potato and put this like avocado like spread on
Speaker 2: it that was really really really good. I don't know
Speaker 2: what was on it. I have no idea, but it
Speaker 2: was like sweet potato there's a baked sweet potato and
Speaker 2: they put this like, I don't know, this really flavorful
Speaker 2: like avocado spread thing on it, and I tore it up.
Speaker 2: It was really really good, and I've been thinking about
Speaker 2: it a lot, and it's actually a really good food
Speaker 2: combo that I was really surprised.
Speaker 3: All Right, I'm gonna look for that. However, if you
Speaker 3: eat one meal forever, what would it be like, eat
Speaker 3: one meal for forever?
Speaker 1: What is your all time favorite?
Speaker 2: So my family they used to make this meal back
Speaker 2: in the day. It was called Growmy Beans and Corn,
Speaker 2: so it's growny beans and corn. I've been eating this
Speaker 2: since I was a little girl, so it's groundy. It's
Speaker 2: like the black beans in that little black jar black
Speaker 2: can with corn drained the corn and taco sea thing
Speaker 2: and yeah and.
Speaker 1: She so that's not chili and that's not chilians and corn.
Speaker 2: I think they call it bullshit is what they call it.
Speaker 2: It's a Southern thing, but it is really really good.
Speaker 2: That's something I used to eat all the time and
Speaker 2: I still do.
Speaker 3: What song reminds you of high school dances?
Speaker 2: Oh? Man, I don't know why this song reminds you
Speaker 2: of Probably because it was in love of basketball. But
Speaker 2: what was that song that was in love of basketball?
Speaker 1: God, Michells, you made a fool of me. No, I
Speaker 1: was like, that's depressing.
Speaker 2: No, No, what is it called? I Want to Be Here?
Speaker 1: You know? I Want to be Yes by Roger Trautman.
Speaker 2: Yes. I never danced to it in a high school
Speaker 2: dance at all, but that song always made me think
Speaker 2: about a high school dance.
Speaker 1: You know, being as though I went to school with
Speaker 1: boys to men. I just realized something, We've never had
Speaker 1: a high school dance at Creative and Performing Art school. Wow.
Speaker 1: What Yeah, I've never been to I mean besides the prom,
Speaker 1: besides junior prom and prom, like, we've never had like
Speaker 1: sop hops or.
Speaker 2: I think I did either. Actually all the times like homecoming.
Speaker 2: I went to Mansfeld High School. Yeah, we had homecoming.
Speaker 3: We had uh, we didn't even have.
Speaker 1: That, y'all.
Speaker 3: Oh wow, Yeah, it's weird, like we did everything that's.
Speaker 2: A Texas thing like Texas like homecoming.
Speaker 3: And football games and stuff.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the moms, those big moms that people.
Speaker 1: Would wear, right, Okay, I don't know what that is,
Speaker 1: never know what that was.
Speaker 2: I'm going to show you a picture of a mom.
Speaker 2: If you can't look at one, I.
Speaker 3: Will google mom m Um. Yes, okay, and they're.
Speaker 2: So ugly, but these are the things that people wear, yeah, mum,
Speaker 2: Like this is the stuff that people would wear.
Speaker 1: Oh wow wow.
Speaker 2: And like the bigger it was, the more that guy
Speaker 2: really cared about you.
Speaker 1: Yeah, just like a a dress.
Speaker 2: That's that's the status thing. If you had a big
Speaker 2: mom like you were like the person I know, I.
Speaker 1: Know, And that's that's a traditional thing. Like you're looking
Speaker 1: forward to going to your first mom dancing?
Speaker 2: Yeah, oh yeah, give your dressed everything you had Homecoming king,
Speaker 2: Homecoming queen.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 2: Okay, people in the South know what I'm talking about
Speaker 2: for sure.
Speaker 1: In high school, who is your celebrity crush?
Speaker 2: Oh man, I definitely had a crush on Probably Kobe Bryant. Okay,
Speaker 2: I loved that group. Immature but Marcus Houston.
Speaker 1: Right, okay, nice? Or then they became immature Yeah yeah clever?
Speaker 1: Oh my god, did you have an embarrassing all or
Speaker 1: aim name.
Speaker 2: My parents were super super strict with us. I never
Speaker 2: got to do any of that.
Speaker 1: You didn't none of it? No, really, like no, Yeah,
Speaker 1: when did you first like get acclimated with like life on.
Speaker 2: Line and I never did the chat rooms. I never
Speaker 2: did that ever. I know, I know that's shocking, but
Speaker 2: I my parents were like, absolutely not. I wasn't really sheltered.
Speaker 2: They didn't let me do anything or go anywhere.
Speaker 1: I'm also a shelter kid, So there's a lot I
Speaker 1: didn't know that I found out long after my high
Speaker 1: school days.
Speaker 2: Don't you hate that? Like there was like so much
Speaker 2: that I missed out on.
Speaker 1: I've said the story before, which maybe like the last
Speaker 1: time I saw Bismarcky before he passed, he was sitting
Speaker 1: in on the Tonight Show, and even though he was joking,
Speaker 1: he's like, Dad, quest like, when did you become a suit? Which, like,
Speaker 1: you know, if you're creative, the worst thing that someone
Speaker 1: could tell you is that you're a suit, meaning you're
Speaker 1: such a straight edge, you know, like I've always been
Speaker 1: the odd guy out of a well. Next question to
Speaker 1: you was have you ever cut school?
Speaker 2: Or one time?
Speaker 1: Wait? But was it was a senior cut day because
Speaker 1: that doesn't count?
Speaker 2: No, no, I really and it wasn't cut school the
Speaker 2: whole day. It was just one class.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and you got away with it.
Speaker 2: I got away with it.
Speaker 1: Oh, okay, one time.
Speaker 3: Okay, why did you have to cut?
Speaker 2: Well, I didn't have to, so I became I ran
Speaker 2: track okay. And there was one guy who was like
Speaker 2: the track stars. It was Enrique. He was like the
Speaker 2: distance track guy.
Speaker 1: Yes, okay and I were.
Speaker 2: Really great friends and we cut school that one day.
Speaker 2: He was the one guy that had a car and
Speaker 2: we all cut. I think it was like maybe like
Speaker 2: the last class of the day.
Speaker 1: Oh just one early, an extra hour, you don't have
Speaker 1: to go?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I know, like so that does that even really count?
Speaker 1: No lame, no extra I was good because it's really
Speaker 1: really lame. I was you're every kid in America. I
Speaker 1: have to be home if the Oprah theme was coming
Speaker 1: on and I is not home, Yeah that was that
Speaker 1: was Yeah.
Speaker 2: So yes, like the door hinges are coming off, Like
Speaker 2: my door is coming off, the hinges, like I won't
Speaker 2: have a door to my room.
Speaker 1: Oh no, privacy your parents before they did that to
Speaker 1: me for like a month. Yeah wait, what kind of
Speaker 1: trouble did you get into?
Speaker 2: Don't even remember. I was probably on the phone past
Speaker 2: ten o'clock.
Speaker 3: Got you. Yeah, yeah, wow, terrible dude.
Speaker 1: You know how many times Tarik would call the house
Speaker 1: like Tarika knows. Everyone knows not to call my house
Speaker 1: after nine thirty pm. Look, my dad's like six foot
Speaker 1: four and just a very scary man. I mean I
Speaker 1: joke like he was a Joe Jackson drill sergeant father.
Speaker 2: Yeah, my mom and dad were very much on that too.
Speaker 3: Yeah, people knew my parents didn't play.
Speaker 1: But like Tik would routinely called me to like play
Speaker 1: me some rap song he just heard that.
Speaker 3: It'd be like ten oh one or whatever, and together
Speaker 3: I'll be like hello. He'd be like hello, and I
Speaker 3: gotta call Yeah, I gotta call you tomorrow too.
Speaker 2: I thought my husband, I got the exact opposite, Like
Speaker 2: I got such a you can't tell that about him now,
Speaker 2: but how he was like he was wild and all loose.
Speaker 3: And how when did you guys first meet?
Speaker 2: We first met when I was nineteen. He's my best
Speaker 2: friends step brother, okay, and I don't like him back then,
Speaker 2: I didn't even think about him like that. But he
Speaker 2: was just so rough around the edges, and I, like
Speaker 2: you was not, and so I just never.
Speaker 1: Thought And then here was always the person that you
Speaker 1: least expect. It's like, I like when that works out,
Speaker 1: I do too. I like what that has never worked
Speaker 1: out in my.
Speaker 2: Favorite I mean you never nothing worked out of my favor,
Speaker 2: to be honest, but that this one did.
Speaker 1: Is there a fashion trend that you regret ever following
Speaker 1: in your life in your teen years?
Speaker 2: Oh my god, Like when everyone was wearing those super
Speaker 2: super low jeans where their ass cracks were sticking out,
Speaker 2: I was like that, you're from Texas?
Speaker 3: Were you a walking house of dairion?
Speaker 2: I couldn't afford the house of airon? Okay, Like that
Speaker 2: was not in my prim Oh that.
Speaker 3: Was a luxury Okay, I didn't know.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, maybe like the like you know in
Speaker 2: the South, like Doc Martin sandals were a huge thing
Speaker 2: where they look like turtle shells on your foot. I
Speaker 2: guess there's a lot of shoes that look like that now,
Speaker 2: But there are these specific Doc Martin sandals that I
Speaker 2: couldn't afford. So I went to Walmart and got the
Speaker 2: Walmart version of them. And I'm really regretful that I
Speaker 2: followed that trend. Anything Abercrobie and Fitch, I'm regretful of
Speaker 2: that too.
Speaker 1: Really. Okay, yeah that's your fashion food boss, Yeah for sure.
Speaker 1: Can you describe the first concert experience that you had.
Speaker 2: I'm trying to even remember. Like I said, I didn't
Speaker 2: get to do a lot in my life. I definitely
Speaker 2: went and saw Marii Carrey, And one thing I always
Speaker 2: did at any concert I went to. I went to
Speaker 2: Maria Carrey. I think I went to like a justin Timberlake, Cristiangulo,
Speaker 2: and I went to a key urban concert, And I
Speaker 2: think the one thing I always did was turn around
Speaker 2: and look at the lights when they would have that
Speaker 2: moment where people would look at Yeah, I would always
Speaker 2: turn around and look at the audience that That's something
Speaker 2: I would always do like that every single time. It
Speaker 2: was just such a beautiful experience to feel like, oh
Speaker 2: that could be me.
Speaker 1: Okay, well, yeah, you're playing the seeds of manifestation. So
Speaker 1: usually when people grow up in the church, and especially down.
Speaker 2: South, a gospel something.
Speaker 1: Well, I was going to say, what was the secular
Speaker 1: music rule in your household? Were you allowed to listen
Speaker 1: to regular music or.
Speaker 2: Had that on lock like we had to listen to
Speaker 2: gospel or some kid there was it's so embarrassing some
Speaker 2: of the stuff in my life.
Speaker 3: Man let it out, let it out.
Speaker 2: There was this like I was just very much so
Speaker 2: that I was the start of that like right Christian
Speaker 2: nationalism thing that was going on, like that all weren't.
Speaker 1: Well, my god, the parents were raised by their parents,
Speaker 1: raised by their parents.
Speaker 2: You have if you have not seen this documentary, it
Speaker 2: is so triggering, like the religious trauma. My god. It's
Speaker 2: called Jesus Camp. It is on. If you I'm it
Speaker 2: will like make your eyes start twitching because of like
Speaker 2: I'm like I was in that like the vacation Bible.
Speaker 3: School, you know, yeah, summertime.
Speaker 1: They would try to have us organized trips to Haiti
Speaker 1: to become like future missionaries, praying.
Speaker 2: To God like I am the sinner Lord. I'm six, Yeah,
Speaker 2: I am a sinner Lord, Like, forgive these thoughts in
Speaker 2: my head.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna tell you how I got out of it.
Speaker 3: They took me out of it.
Speaker 1: So when Tarika and I finally got our first record
Speaker 1: deal and I came to church, like right when like
Speaker 1: our videos started to get played on like MTV, and
Speaker 1: the elders of the church I could tell by the
Speaker 1: the little judgment will look on their eyes. They were like,
Speaker 1: so a mirror are you uplifting the Lord in the
Speaker 1: this music of yours? Yes?
Speaker 2: I am.
Speaker 1: If ever, there was a symbolic version of check please.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that was that moment for me where you know,
Speaker 3: I'm glad.
Speaker 1: I had that moment like literally, see this is the
Speaker 1: thing you're You're not, You're you're pioneering. But I think
Speaker 1: the reason why you resonate with a lot of us
Speaker 1: is because like we see ourselves in your journey instantly,
Speaker 1: Like anything to do with someone that's isolated in a
Speaker 1: very specific situation, I hone in for it because I
Speaker 1: know that feeling. I know that feeling of you know,
Speaker 1: of code switching. My code switching has to code switch.
Speaker 1: And this is not even just in hostile environments, in
Speaker 1: liberal environments, in black environments, in my family environment.
Speaker 3: No, I'm not selling out.
Speaker 1: I'm still you know, like there's so many things that
Speaker 1: I I have to do, so I understand those things.
Speaker 3: Oh wait, when did you move to Los Angeles?
Speaker 2: So I moved right out of high school. Right out
Speaker 2: of high school, I was nineteen, and.
Speaker 1: You were that compelled to like go out and follow
Speaker 1: your dreams. Yeah, but what was it about La that
Speaker 1: called you the sun?
Speaker 2: It seemed like it was the you know, I looked
Speaker 2: at like all the different places where music was. I
Speaker 2: looked at Atlanta, I looked at New York, and I
Speaker 2: looked at Los Angeles. Nashville was not even a thought
Speaker 2: for me, and so I saw that as the easiest
Speaker 2: of the three as far as music because I didn't
Speaker 2: want to be in Atlanta because that was still too
Speaker 2: close to the South for me, and I was just
Speaker 2: kind of running from Texas from the religious.
Speaker 1: Well wait a minute, Okay, you're from Texas. And I've
Speaker 1: gone on record to say that if there was any
Speaker 1: place in the world if I had to move and
Speaker 1: leave the northeast Philly, New York that's my home base, Austin,
Speaker 1: Texas would actually be my second choice. Yeah, clearly. See.
Speaker 1: And I hate the term liberal because you're human, Yes,
Speaker 1: you're You're a non impressive human, even in those blue
Speaker 1: friendly cities like Austin that never appealed to you, like
Speaker 1: let me just move.
Speaker 2: To Well, Austin at that time didn't even have the
Speaker 2: music scene that it has now, Like the scene now
Speaker 2: is like it's like it blew up, like Nashville. Like
Speaker 2: Austin and Nashville at the time, I guess the reason why,
Speaker 2: like Nashville was even called music city, was not because
Speaker 2: of country music those two cities at the time, Like
Speaker 2: from my recollection, I wasn't hearing like music scene like that.
Speaker 1: But clearly you felt some sort of oppressive Yeah, anything
Speaker 1: in Texas.
Speaker 2: I was like, get me out, just get me out.
Speaker 2: Got you And you know there was acting and stuff
Speaker 2: like that too, Like there was just an entertainment hub
Speaker 2: that I felt like, Oh, I could do something there.
Speaker 1: How was secular music received in your household? Now, most
Speaker 1: people in your profession were not allowed to listen to
Speaker 1: anything secular.
Speaker 3: Oh that was me same, Okay.
Speaker 2: I had to listen to don't say DC talk No,
Speaker 2: absolutely not, absolutely not, and we like that's a whole
Speaker 2: other thing too, man. But you know I listened to
Speaker 2: a lot like BB and C. C Widens were heavily
Speaker 2: on rotation, a like envy and that leads to Whitney.
Speaker 1: So you can sneak your way to yeah, like I.
Speaker 2: Snuck it a little bit. My grandma was a huge
Speaker 2: like she loved Dolly Pardon, So when I would go
Speaker 2: were her house, she would have Dolly Pardon, Kenny Rogers
Speaker 2: VHS tapes hanging on the back of the door, along
Speaker 2: with roots. So that's what I would watch what I
Speaker 2: wentever her house, okay, and so then I discovered Brandy.
Speaker 2: Obviously you like the nineties. What a time, What a time.
Speaker 2: There were so many just great great songs and great music.
Speaker 1: Okay, thank you, Okay, this will always wanted to know
Speaker 1: are real singers allowed to do karaoke?
Speaker 3: And are you a karaoke person?
Speaker 2: Absolutely? But I don't really sing, yes, I say, are
Speaker 2: you a supporter?
Speaker 3: No?
Speaker 1: No, no no no.
Speaker 2: I cannot stand going to karaoke and you have that
Speaker 2: one person that is like.
Speaker 1: And you gotta kill shit. Yeah, when someone someone kills
Speaker 1: shit at karaoke, that's.
Speaker 2: Not fun, like you root it for everybody.
Speaker 3: I like karaoke.
Speaker 1: When someone can't sing.
Speaker 2: It's the best. My go to is Britney Spears, all right,
Speaker 2: So Britney is your Britney Spears is my that's your
Speaker 2: go to, She's my go to?
Speaker 3: What's song?
Speaker 2: Sometimes? Oops? I did it again? Those are like and
Speaker 2: I want you a whole voice, like it's a that yeah,
Speaker 2: oh yeah, I don't. You can't. You don't. You don't
Speaker 2: really sing karaoke like that just ruins it to me.
Speaker 1: Okay, I understand that most singers, professional singers tell you
Speaker 1: like you got to sing from your gut? Is her
Speaker 1: thing more of a nasal throat thing, Like can you
Speaker 1: tell when a singer singing from their gut versus I'm
Speaker 1: always hearing that.
Speaker 2: You can is gut and throw to me.
Speaker 3: Well, she has to come in the door like the
Speaker 3: kool aid man.
Speaker 1: Yes, she ends somewhere of the Rainbow Battle of bel
Speaker 1: Version as her first note instead of you know, you know.
Speaker 2: The last note right right, Britney spears is. I don't
Speaker 2: think it's nasal. I think it's in her throat. It's
Speaker 2: so much air, So I think.
Speaker 1: There's do you know why that's a rule, Like when
Speaker 1: vocal trainers or coaches say, you know, you must sing
Speaker 1: for me a diaphragm as opposed to your throat, Like
Speaker 1: are you just never supposed to sing from your throat?
Speaker 1: Or people say it's amateur hour if you're singing from
Speaker 1: your throat and not your diaphragm.
Speaker 2: You know, I mean, I'm not a jessej type singer,
Speaker 2: So I don't know. I don't want to. I don't
Speaker 2: know what's right. I think whatever sounds amazing and what
Speaker 2: you feel, you know, I'm you know, I'm not a
Speaker 2: technical singer, like that. So I think, whatever you feel.
Speaker 2: I think there's so many different great voices, whether you
Speaker 2: can belt or not right, that I think are so great.
Speaker 2: Like there's some people that just have incredible tones and vocals.
Speaker 2: Like I was just thinking about ammelru before we even.
Speaker 1: Like, ah everything, she's a great, man, She's.
Speaker 2: Oh great, Like I think she has such a combination
Speaker 2: of everything, like the tone, the throat, the belt, all
Speaker 2: of it, the notes.
Speaker 3: In high school, she was killing it man, like she's like,
Speaker 3: what was that song that.
Speaker 2: She released that like had everybody to choke holden like
Speaker 2: two thousand and four.
Speaker 3: So many, like I know one of her.
Speaker 1: It's a song that always gets played at weddings. Well,
Speaker 1: I mean there's see I'm a deep cut person. Yes,
Speaker 1: So even though like there's for real like and uh
Speaker 1: am I now blinking on all male songs.
Speaker 2: We're all blanking. It's fine.
Speaker 1: Oh get up, make me hold make me whold was
Speaker 1: always my.
Speaker 2: Favorite, really really really good.
Speaker 3: Yeah, she really gets to display her for real for real.
Speaker 1: Yes, But like also I think with singers, like the
Speaker 1: filler songs are where they really get to display what
Speaker 1: they are because oftentimes if it's the single or whatever,
Speaker 1: you have to sort of follow this, Yeah, this restrictive
Speaker 1: rule of what is compatible for radio and public consumption,
Speaker 1: and then the other seven songs you could do whatever
Speaker 1: you want to do. Like that's I.
Speaker 3: Judge people based on their their singles.
Speaker 1: Yeah, what song?
Speaker 2: Are you.
Speaker 3: Not embarrassed? But what song do you love?
Speaker 1: That is like, oh god, people will kill me if
Speaker 1: they know, like I love the song so much?
Speaker 2: Or oh man, you know Jesse McCartney had me in
Speaker 2: h oh my god.
Speaker 3: Yes, what was it about Jesse McCartney?
Speaker 4: He had that one song, I don't want a pretty face.
Speaker 4: I want anyone I my love to go ways. Oh
Speaker 4: you because you're beautiful.
Speaker 2: That song is so and it could be a country
Speaker 2: song now, which is crazy.
Speaker 1: So beautiful soul is your Yeah.
Speaker 2: I love beautiful soul. I even loved this really that
Speaker 2: that freaking one wish by Ray J.
Speaker 1: Did you watch Versus? That was one for the history books?
Speaker 2: Oh man, that's he used to be a crush of
Speaker 2: mind when I was little, Like I would watch Brandy
Speaker 2: music videos just to see her brother.
Speaker 3: Really, I'm going to tell you something.
Speaker 1: If one thing absolutely in sentences me that people really
Speaker 1: aren't up on, well, you know, I say this all
Speaker 1: the time about Brandy's first album. Brandy's first album was such.
Speaker 2: One of the most incredible.
Speaker 1: It was a game changer simply because like I think
Speaker 1: that most people think that you know that okay, kids
Speaker 1: or teenage music should be more bubblegum based or whatever.
Speaker 1: And she was breaking like so many harmony rules that
Speaker 1: like I only reserved for.
Speaker 3: People like Prince Oh. I'm like, yo, what does this
Speaker 3: fourteen fifteen year old know about?
Speaker 1: Like I didn't even know you could do like chromatic
Speaker 1: background vocals and even the first song on the first album.
Speaker 3: So when ray J got a deal, was that baby?
Speaker 2: Was that baby? That was the first song? Right?
Speaker 4: No?
Speaker 1: No, well, no, no, no, I mean the first song
Speaker 1: on the first album, which is moving on, Oh, moving on.
Speaker 1: Every go round she would add a different harmony on
Speaker 1: top of it. So by the end of it, you know,
Speaker 1: we were sitting in the vanlight, yo. Like the roots
Speaker 1: were very much the musical snobbery that everyone thought we
Speaker 1: were in the first five years, like judging everyone I
Speaker 1: maintained on tintoes that you know, when we first heard
Speaker 1: Mary jay Blige Is My Life, we were angry. We
Speaker 1: were like, wait a minute, like singers aren't allowed to
Speaker 1: sing over stuff we rap over, Like why she singing
Speaker 1: over beats? Like where's the where's the bridge, where's the arrangement,
Speaker 1: where's the coder, where's the modulation? Like I'm I was ready, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm ready for like singers have to be in the
Speaker 1: box of real music, whereas rappers get to take from
Speaker 1: records and sample it and so yeah, like it took
Speaker 1: about a month for us to really get over the
Speaker 1: fact that Mary J. Blige is singing over stuff that
Speaker 1: we would go for first, and I just thought that
Speaker 1: was like against the rule, like you're not supposed to
Speaker 1: do that. But ray J's first record, man, the one
Speaker 1: that came out in yeah, yeah, like it was such
Speaker 1: an incredible album that got.
Speaker 3: Ignored and.
Speaker 2: One song what did he have? Oh my god?
Speaker 1: Well we had a single called let It Go, which
Speaker 1: was just it was killing. But because it would like
Speaker 1: literally it was like if the roots got to produce
Speaker 1: somebody like that would have been the album. Keith Crouch,
Speaker 1: Andre Crouch's nephew, produced both ray J and Brandy's first album,
Speaker 1: and they just changed so many rules, like I consider
Speaker 1: those like really like neo soul, like pre neo soul
Speaker 1: albums before there was a tag on it, like in
Speaker 1: ninety five. Like, I consider those records and I just
Speaker 1: hate that though, that he really put out an incredible
Speaker 1: debut that the world won't.
Speaker 3: Get to know.
Speaker 2: Like I think, I always remembered him for his ad libs.
Speaker 2: He was so good at his ad libs. That was
Speaker 2: something that I always remembered because you know, like a
Speaker 2: singer is like you have to be able to add
Speaker 2: lib to songs. I even remember maybe there was an
Speaker 2: interview like back in the day where Brandy was like,
Speaker 2: you know, I get a lot of that from like
Speaker 2: ray J. He helps me with that, And I was like,
Speaker 2: what really, but that could be I could be missmemborying.
Speaker 2: So don't quote me on that.
Speaker 1: Okay, Well I'll ask you because usually Okay, So I'm
Speaker 1: always in a situation where if I'm backing someone and
Speaker 1: we get to the last course of the song, you know,
Speaker 1: God bless the soul. D'Angelo would be the type of
Speaker 1: guy that he would never run out of riffs or anything.
Speaker 1: And I always wonder is there an anxiety? Is there
Speaker 1: an anxiety in the last thirty seconds of a song
Speaker 1: in which oh yeah, you're supposed to ad lib and
Speaker 1: you know, do some vocal acrobags. Now, it's one thing
Speaker 1: if you're in a nowhere town, if you're in Kalamazoo,
Speaker 1: Michigan or.
Speaker 3: Whatever, Yeah, like who's watching you?
Speaker 2: But if you're in the Grammys, the anxiety and it's
Speaker 2: like singing in front of people like you or like Brandy, So,
Speaker 2: how do you.
Speaker 3: Get out of your head before?
Speaker 2: I'm never out of my head ever? Like that is
Speaker 2: a huge anxiety for me. I would like it is
Speaker 2: a huge thing for me. Really, Yeah, I'm a very
Speaker 2: insecure person.
Speaker 1: So do you have a a pre show routine? Like
Speaker 1: two hours before show? What is happening?
Speaker 3: Is it quiet backstage?
Speaker 2: Is it about fifteen minutes before the show? I need
Speaker 2: it quiet, Like I just need to like thinking about
Speaker 2: a point in my life where like you just have
Speaker 2: to let things go, like we as artists, Like I
Speaker 2: can't imagine being someone like Beyonce, who is literally the
Speaker 2: biggest artist in the world, and her pushing through and
Speaker 2: you know, I don't know, you always hear stuff, but
Speaker 2: I hear like how how high the bar is set
Speaker 2: for her? I can't imagine living like that and wanting
Speaker 2: that perfection.
Speaker 3: As a front person. Is it harder.
Speaker 1: Singing the song or the in between song banter with
Speaker 1: the audience?
Speaker 2: What is I can talk now if you need me
Speaker 2: to talk, if you need if there's an awkward moment,
Speaker 2: anything like that where I need to fill something in
Speaker 2: while they're figuring, you know, a technical difficulty or something
Speaker 2: like that. Like I'm cool with that. As far as
Speaker 2: bantering is concerned. I'm pretty good at like talking to
Speaker 2: people in the audience to this day.
Speaker 1: And you would think, you know, I've written books and
Speaker 1: odd stuff, but when it comes to giving speeches or
Speaker 1: just like small talk with with an audience, even DJing,
Speaker 1: Like I don't think once I've ever said I mean
Speaker 1: I quiet now DJ, and I know, well, I'm just unicating.
Speaker 1: I feel as the magic sauce for how we get
Speaker 1: to know you, you know. Yeah, And so sometimes.
Speaker 2: That's crazy because you're like talking with you on here,
Speaker 2: like you're really fun to talk to.
Speaker 1: You're talking to a six year old, like there's life
Speaker 1: from when I was born in the seventies and then
Speaker 1: twenty twenty, the old me went away and then new
Speaker 1: me showed up in twenty twenty when the pandemic happened and.
Speaker 2: It's sort of crazy. Like I think everybody there was
Speaker 2: like a new oh the me in twenty twenty, everybody,
Speaker 2: you know, for.
Speaker 1: The first two years, I had a shame of I
Speaker 1: mean just in general, I think as humans, we are
Speaker 1: programmed to feel bad for feeling good. Anything that makes
Speaker 1: us feel good, there's guilt. There's guilt we feel yeah,
Speaker 1: and so yeah, it probably took me two years just
Speaker 1: to get over that hump and get to there.
Speaker 3: So yeah, I think all of this.
Speaker 2: Changed during the Yeah, that's so crazy that you're saying
Speaker 2: that about the like feel bad for feeling good, because
Speaker 2: right now I'm taking like I've had some personal issues
Speaker 2: that I've been dealing with in my family to the
Speaker 2: point where I've just had to like take a beat.
Speaker 2: I knew I needed to take a minute because I
Speaker 2: didn't have any thoughts in my head right like nothing,
Speaker 2: like you know, usually if I'm working, if I'm doing whatever,
Speaker 2: I'm keeping myself up till you know, four am, and
Speaker 2: I still will wake up at four am like clockwork.
Speaker 2: I don't know why that is, but I would have
Speaker 2: just like thoughts of like how I could be better. Oh,
Speaker 2: I'm shit that what I did that day or like
Speaker 2: all these constant thoughts and now nothing like I have
Speaker 2: nothing like, no ideas, no nothing. And I knew that
Speaker 2: that's when I needed to take a minute. I have
Speaker 2: been nesting, I have been decorating. I got a fish.
Speaker 1: I was gonna say, are you a cat person or
Speaker 1: a dog?
Speaker 2: I have two cats, two dogs, a fish named Titan.
Speaker 2: He's a little beta fish that I really like. And
Speaker 2: I've been feeling really good, and I was like, should
Speaker 2: I be feeling like this? Should I be like I
Speaker 2: need to be doing this. I need to be figuring
Speaker 2: these things out and where my next opportunity is at
Speaker 2: and what I can do to be better and what's
Speaker 2: this next thing list in my head? And it's okay
Speaker 2: to just take a minute.
Speaker 1: You're actually doing the right thing, all right. So this
Speaker 1: is a question I'm in dying to ask. So we
Speaker 1: are about a year and a half, maybe two years
Speaker 1: post what I would call a Cowboy Carter deluge or
Speaker 1: watershed moment. There's at least a group chat, like in
Speaker 1: my mind, the best of my imagination is that there's
Speaker 1: kind of a secret X Men, super Friends of r
Speaker 1: v S HVD or Pretty Spencer and Willie Jones and
Speaker 1: Camee Brown, Chaboozi and you and Yola and all the
Speaker 1: throw Darius in there and the shout out to those
Speaker 1: who I didn't commit to memory. But the post Cowboy
Speaker 1: Carter moment shining a light on you guys. Now I've
Speaker 1: heard of you pre Cowboy Carter. You know, I just
Speaker 1: thought it was Charlie Pride and Darius Rutgers. I didn't
Speaker 1: think that black people were in the country, even though
Speaker 1: I know the banjil came from Africa and all those things.
Speaker 3: So are there any artists.
Speaker 1: Bubbling under that you're aware of that we should be
Speaker 1: looking out for and has that moment in which getting
Speaker 1: that exposure to a whole new world?
Speaker 3: Like, was that a real thing? Was it as real
Speaker 3: as I thought.
Speaker 2: It was, as we all thought it was. But in
Speaker 2: the same breath, it's just real as we thought it was.
Speaker 2: You know, there was the overwhelming veil that was lifted
Speaker 2: that shows that country music stills are ready to accept,
Speaker 2: you know, the way that the country music community accepted
Speaker 2: Post Malone versus you know, Beyonce versus Shaboozi, Like those
Speaker 2: are very eye opening things, you know, Little nas X two.
Speaker 2: But it seems like you know, but it does seem like,
Speaker 2: I mean, this is a tale as old as time.
Speaker 2: Like black women, no matter how successful you are, no
Speaker 2: matter how powerful you are, they will accept a black
Speaker 2: man or a white man obviously from whatever, more than
Speaker 2: they'll accept a black woman. Like that's just it just
Speaker 2: is you know you have I mean, prime example is
Speaker 2: like Jasmine Crockett trying to be a senator. She's well overqualified. Yes,
Speaker 2: I know this, but still people can't accept or fathom
Speaker 2: black leadership from a woman in.
Speaker 1: Norther Do they know that black women were single handedly
Speaker 1: the reason why the very few wins that we got
Speaker 1: in democracy was that I was part.
Speaker 2: Of the ninety two percent.
Speaker 1: I was.
Speaker 2: I was on in the middle of tour, and I
Speaker 2: flew where I was registered to vote just to make
Speaker 2: sure that I could vote, and flew back and do
Speaker 2: what I had to do. And that was, like, I mean,
Speaker 2: that's very indicative in this Beyonce, Cowboy Carter and post
Speaker 2: Malone argument. I mean, granted, Post Malone did really go
Speaker 2: through the Nashville channels, and I don't know if that
Speaker 2: would be different for Beyonce, but Beyonce doesn't have to
Speaker 2: Beyonce doesn't do literally whatever she wants to do.
Speaker 1: You're going to be an amazing support system for people,
Speaker 1: you know that come after. And you know often I
Speaker 1: say that being a pioneer, like there's two people in
Speaker 1: the industry in my opinion, the pioneer and then the
Speaker 1: person that comes after the pioneer. Yeah, I guess just
Speaker 1: gets to enjoy all this. And you're you're in the
Speaker 1: back the carpentry, you're laying. That's the red carpet down
Speaker 1: and right you're you're laying you're laying the foundation.
Speaker 2: There was a person laying the foundation before me. You know,
Speaker 2: there was Linda Martel. She laid the foundation before me.
Speaker 1: You know I.
Speaker 3: You still feel it.
Speaker 2: Yes, very much. So again, we don't I don't want
Speaker 2: to make this about that because this has.
Speaker 3: Been We don't, but I just always want to get known.
Speaker 2: You have to be honest, I definitely. I think it's
Speaker 2: very important to be honest with this whole conversation because
Speaker 2: it has to be real. I mean, country music doesn't
Speaker 2: barely accept women. I know, Like they'll say, oh we
Speaker 2: have such and such and such and such as always
Speaker 2: three and they just switch them out right. It's no
Speaker 2: different if anything's even worse, and like the way that
Speaker 2: you see this is such a hard conversation, but from
Speaker 2: my observations, the way that this administration sees women is
Speaker 2: the way that country music sees women, of course, and
Speaker 2: the women that support the system.
Speaker 3: The house master's tools, and the.
Speaker 2: They support their oppressors, right, they fight for the system
Speaker 2: more than anybody, and I can't help them. They've got
Speaker 2: it if that's what they want to do, if they
Speaker 2: want to continue to be oppressed, that is not on
Speaker 2: me to be fighting for that.
Speaker 1: Okay, So in a world where there is a remote control, yeah,
Speaker 1: and you get to press pause and literally sneak into
Speaker 1: the master's system and change just three things so that
Speaker 1: when you press pause again, that becomes part of the
Speaker 1: regular fiber and memories are erased. What three things do
Speaker 1: you desire to change that I'm not aware of? And
Speaker 1: you know, maybe I am aware of it.
Speaker 2: There's an underlying gate keep, and it's like the things
Speaker 2: that happen between closed doors.
Speaker 3: And so here's the weird thing, all right.
Speaker 1: The foundation of all this is that my best friend
Speaker 1: in high school and I started a band and we
Speaker 1: just wanted to be famous and play all the places
Speaker 1: and all those things. And then, as I told you,
Speaker 1: even before the pandemic, around twenty fifteen, this other thing
Speaker 1: started to happen where I realized like, oh, I have
Speaker 1: other talents. Yeah, And then for me the sort of
Speaker 1: the arrival moment of me as a filmmaker, like my
Speaker 1: whole imposter syndrome, like well, I'm really not a filmmaker,
Speaker 1: and then like you went an oscar, then it's like,
Speaker 1: oh shit, I might be a filmmaker. So suddenly I
Speaker 1: started to get all the power I dreamed of having,
Speaker 1: and the fame and all those things.
Speaker 3: I got it for filmmaking.
Speaker 1: But secretly I go home at night and cry, like
Speaker 1: feel like a failure because I'm like, wait.
Speaker 2: A minute, which is insane to me. I'm glad I'm not.
Speaker 1: The only one though, Oh dude, the grass is always
Speaker 1: green on the other side. So for me, it was
Speaker 1: always like damn, what kind of world do we live in? Where, like,
Speaker 1: you know, I can call Spielberg like that and get
Speaker 1: a meeting and get things to happen. But the world
Speaker 1: knows me as this music savant. The world knows me
Speaker 1: as this two hundred thousand record collecting master, music disciple
Speaker 1: of the best musicians ever, Like, why can't I compile
Speaker 1: fourteen songs on a particular album that will take me
Speaker 1: to the place where Oh man, I wish I was
Speaker 1: doing that, damn Like I want that opportunity. And it
Speaker 1: took me the last six years to learn that I
Speaker 1: was in my own way. But asking you this, I
Speaker 1: also realized, and Jimmy jam taught me this is that
Speaker 1: someone is going to have to infiltrate and sneak on
Speaker 1: the inside to change the system. Yeah, the wavy system
Speaker 1: is now, and you know, and I almost see the
Speaker 1: country world as its own bubble it is. And I
Speaker 1: watch you and I'm just like, man like the things
Speaker 1: that she has to keep internally just to see her
Speaker 1: career through so that she can get the power to
Speaker 1: even change the system. I know, you have to go
Speaker 1: through this unspeakable, isolated journey with yourself that probably not
Speaker 1: even your husband get under and he's probably your best
Speaker 1: friend in the world. Yeah, so is it worth it
Speaker 1: to really step into the house of the system to
Speaker 1: try to change it as yourself? Like do you what
Speaker 1: do you have dreams of? As far as like the
Speaker 1: legacy part.
Speaker 2: Of this, you know, I get. I mean, it's kind
Speaker 2: of like what you said, like I build the foundation
Speaker 2: and then this person, which I mean I believe, like
Speaker 2: Beyonce did, Like you know, I worked so hard for something.
Speaker 2: Beyonce did come through and she like shattered the ceiling.
Speaker 2: She broke the ceiling like I was over there tapping
Speaker 2: on it and she just like a rocket ship she
Speaker 2: came and blasted that. But it's like there's one thing
Speaker 2: I don't have the ability to do, and that's changed
Speaker 2: the hearts of people, Like I can't. You can't change
Speaker 2: the hearts of people. Like if that was something I
Speaker 2: could go in there and like change, that would be it,
Speaker 2: and I don't have the ability to do that.
Speaker 1: Do you see a generally difference in like for hip hop,
Speaker 1: there's definitely some rules of hip hop that I knew.
Speaker 3: Gen X is not. Like gen X was very big
Speaker 3: on this whole, like yo, dog, who's the gay rapper?
Speaker 3: Like that was like such a major thing.
Speaker 1: Whereas like now in twenty twenty, like that's like, Yo,
Speaker 1: how could we be so neanderthal and ask backwards to
Speaker 1: make that our point of priority? But you know, I
Speaker 1: realized it's generational and now that I'm looking at gen
Speaker 1: Z and soon it will be Jen Alpha and Jen Beta,
Speaker 1: and you know, so on and so forth. Do you
Speaker 1: see somewhat of a generational change for.
Speaker 3: The better in younger people?
Speaker 1: Because also, if you grow up an impressive household, I
Speaker 1: would imagine that.
Speaker 2: At least something like country music is still like it
Speaker 2: seems like I've stepped back in time. Like they say
Speaker 2: country music is twenty years behind everyone else. I mean
Speaker 2: in this case, maybe forty. Like they're still back with
Speaker 2: our parents in the Git Bloomer.
Speaker 1: Era, so it was nineteen seventy seven.
Speaker 2: That's kind of how it feels. It feels like we're there.
Speaker 2: It feels like we're still in nineteen you know, like
Speaker 2: even like yeah, like nineteen ninety two with you know,
Speaker 2: no secular music at all.
Speaker 3: Hopefully, when all said and done, like your career will at.
Speaker 1: Least push us to the millennial god, I hope. So
Speaker 1: hypothetical question, if the person you are right now could
Speaker 1: travel back twenty years when you are a teenager seeing
Speaker 1: your girlfriends on one of six in part promoting their
Speaker 1: their music three l W Yeah, a group that you
Speaker 1: were a founding member of. I don't want to know
Speaker 1: what it felt like to sit there and watch them
Speaker 1: on television kind of live your your jump start your dream.
Speaker 2: It was wild.
Speaker 1: But what would you now if you were given sixty
Speaker 1: seconds to literally time travel I'm big on astro traveling
Speaker 1: and time traveling and dreaming. If you could go back
Speaker 1: sixty seconds the first time you're watching three L promiseif
Speaker 1: on on you don't know how much I love that song.
Speaker 2: I love that song too. I'm not gonna lie I
Speaker 2: really did. I listened to that song.
Speaker 1: I did, but at the time, and look, I had
Speaker 1: the same thing with Motown Philly. Motown Philly is coming
Speaker 1: on every second. My dad was not making me feel
Speaker 1: good about my life watching my schoolmates become these celebritials. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: and it's you know, like that that could have been
Speaker 1: like he was very much a backstage debt like that.
Speaker 3: What would you tell yourself in those sixty seconds.
Speaker 1: That you don't know at the time, when you're watching
Speaker 1: your girlfriend's air quote live the Dream, and that's.
Speaker 2: Sixty seconds, I would say, just hang on, your time
Speaker 2: will come. That you were kept from feeling like when
Speaker 2: I watched it all go down, like watching what happened
Speaker 2: to the toy? Like that could have been me.
Speaker 3: Would you have been on Power.
Speaker 2: No, well I would not have been no, no, no,
Speaker 2: like when they broke up. No, no, I know, I know, yeah, no,
Speaker 2: I would not have been on Power. Jory's got something
Speaker 2: that I will never happen. That girl, right, that girl,
Speaker 2: she's got something that's just so amazing. But like I like,
Speaker 2: I hold on your time will come.
Speaker 3: But at the time when it was happening, were you like, oh, man, like,
Speaker 3: what the hell like this?
Speaker 2: It's so weird? Like I did feel I mean fomo
Speaker 2: was not a word, yes, but I did have fomo
Speaker 2: about it when I watched it. But I also felt
Speaker 2: really cool that I experienced a little bit of it.
Speaker 2: I was only in their group for a summer, Like
Speaker 2: I was not really in their group. I was like
Speaker 2: maybe a month, like I was not. It's like you
Speaker 2: can say and now I can say that now yes
Speaker 2: as a grown ass woman. Back back then, you know,
Speaker 2: it's so weird, Like it's hard to remember how I felt.
Speaker 2: But yeah, hold on your time will come. That's what
Speaker 2: That's what I would say, hold on your time will come.
Speaker 1: What is your songwriting process like or at least in
Speaker 1: the in the road to getting your record deal and whatnot?
Speaker 1: How much agency are you given to really express how
Speaker 1: you feel? Because you know, again the way you enter
Speaker 1: my life.
Speaker 3: Everyone was like, yo, you're just something.
Speaker 1: You know, they played black White Me and all these things.
Speaker 1: How autobiographical was better than you left me? Like? Is
Speaker 1: songwriting the release that, yes, you get because you can't.
Speaker 3: Express to us or feel safe to express to us.
Speaker 2: I have a really hard time with confrontation because you know,
Speaker 2: I grew up in that because I said so Era,
Speaker 2: you know, I definitely was punished by a belt and
Speaker 2: I would never get to explain myself. I never got
Speaker 2: to express how I.
Speaker 1: Was feeling, only speaking when you're spoken to.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know. And I understand our parents, I mean,
Speaker 2: you're doing you're doing what you were told. But now
Speaker 2: if you're going to tell your kid to do something,
Speaker 2: there needs to be a wide and you need to
Speaker 2: explain it, and you need a lot of your kids
Speaker 2: to explain themselves. So because of that type of discipline,
Speaker 2: I don't express myself in the moment well at all.
Speaker 2: If there's a confrontation, I shut down and I'm silent.
Speaker 3: Can I ask, do I get this a lot?
Speaker 1: Do you get it?
Speaker 3: Accused of being passive aggressive?
Speaker 2: Oh? Passive aggressive? Like you don't care. And like my husband,
Speaker 2: he's a lawyer, so he can express exactly how he
Speaker 2: feels at the very moment, and I am just like
Speaker 2: and I just shut down, and then people think that
Speaker 2: you don't care. And it's just that I need to
Speaker 2: process the fifteen things that you said to me. I
Speaker 2: need to go take a shower, and I need to
Speaker 2: talk to myself and speak out loud what I would say,
Speaker 2: and then I could come back to you. Sometimes I
Speaker 2: even have to put it in a note. I can't
Speaker 2: even speak it out. I have to write it down
Speaker 2: then read how I feel about it because I.
Speaker 3: Can't mickey like you.
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm I'm already fan, and I don't mean
Speaker 1: that just like I said, I was like, yeah, I'm
Speaker 1: a fan, but now I'm really shocked that the commonality
Speaker 1: thing is that it's confirmed things. I'm in a new
Speaker 1: relationship right now, so even then, you know, I'm trying
Speaker 1: to readjust this post therapy a mirror and learn how
Speaker 1: to communicate. And because I will hold a grudge, oh
Speaker 1: and I'll take it out.
Speaker 2: I will.
Speaker 1: I will take it out on myself before I take
Speaker 1: it out on other.
Speaker 2: People, because and that causes so much suffering.
Speaker 1: Oh real stelf like sickness. Yeah, that's where cancer comes from. Yes,
Speaker 1: and so wow, that's okay.
Speaker 2: So the one time I stood up for myself, like
Speaker 2: in front of the president of my label at the time,
Speaker 2: it took so much out of me. I was sick
Speaker 2: for two for three days. I couldn't get out of
Speaker 2: bed for three days because that release of energy was
Speaker 2: so overwhelming. Like I was sick, I was nauseated, sick.
Speaker 3: Was what was your label's response to first.
Speaker 2: Hearing they respected me. I didn't yell, I didn't do
Speaker 2: anything but the lead of me telling this this box,
Speaker 2: this white man that stop as a black woman, stop
Speaker 2: saying my songs are R and B when you are
Speaker 2: putting trap beats and all of your songs on country radio.
Speaker 2: Like stop it right now. Like you can never say
Speaker 2: that to me again, is what I said.
Speaker 3: Ah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, do you.
Speaker 3: Remember your first professional gig.
Speaker 2: Yeah, my first professional gig as far as touring, I
Speaker 2: had opened up for Brad Paisley and that was scary.
Speaker 3: How was that?
Speaker 2: It was amazing? Like he was fantastic, like one of
Speaker 2: the kindest human beings ever, like so lovely and but
Speaker 2: I remember, well, there was one point we were out.
Speaker 5: There and this guy was holding up this Confederate flag
Speaker 5: right up to him, and every time he came around,
Speaker 5: like you know, Brad would have to leave on the
Speaker 5: other side that he wanted no part of it, Like
Speaker 5: he wanted none of that, Like he hated it.
Speaker 2: But I had to see it. You know, he felt horrible.
Speaker 2: That's not how he thinks, that's not what he believes.
Speaker 2: Like these Wow, let me tell you some of these people, man,
Speaker 2: the hatred in their heart. I'm like, are you a
Speaker 2: spawn of the devil? Like you're a spawn of Satan?
Speaker 2: Have you?
Speaker 3: Okay?
Speaker 1: So now in building your audience, is your audience truly
Speaker 1: your audience?
Speaker 3: Now?
Speaker 2: Like is there Culy? Is my audience? Like I can
Speaker 2: talk about Ady and everything. I've got a heavily gay audience. Okay,
Speaker 2: you know, like anybody that feels marginalized and accepted is
Speaker 2: my my audience?
Speaker 3: Are you the character and what are you going to
Speaker 3: tell her?
Speaker 5: Yeah?
Speaker 2: Okay, but the song was written by all women, and
Speaker 2: we're all the character of that.
Speaker 1: Well, yeah, I know there's there's a composite, but it's
Speaker 1: one thing like there's some songwriters I know when which
Speaker 1: you know, that they've not given up, but you know,
Speaker 1: you hear the cynicism and their songwriting. But I mean
Speaker 1: because of that six so almost closely with this could
Speaker 1: be a dream deferred. This is yeah, like how do
Speaker 1: you tell someone to hang on to a dream? But
Speaker 1: this could be a dream deferred? And I always wondered,
Speaker 1: like even and you're pursuing that, like is I'm not
Speaker 1: asking about your peer group, but even like with family
Speaker 1: members or do you have a friend circle that.
Speaker 3: You can lean on?
Speaker 2: Like A yeah, actually one of those people that I
Speaker 2: really lean on. And you know, I mean maybe we're
Speaker 2: similar in this, but I don't trust a lot of
Speaker 2: people because as soon as you give them who you
Speaker 2: really are, people will never say that, they'll never do that,
Speaker 2: but they always use some of the hardest moments against you.
Speaker 2: And I would never do that to anybody. Like so
Speaker 2: it's really hard for me to open up. I have
Speaker 2: a very very very few people that really really really
Speaker 2: know like my deepest insecurities, my.
Speaker 1: Vulnerabilities, all of them.
Speaker 2: And one of those people over the years that I've
Speaker 2: that has gotten a lot of that that I've called
Speaker 2: crying before. And I don't like crying to people. The
Speaker 2: only person I'll do that too, is like my mom
Speaker 2: or like my dad. I hate crying in front of people,
Speaker 2: but that's Britney Spencer.
Speaker 1: Nice. Well, I mean you're gonna look as a person
Speaker 1: who again like we to get out on ourselves first
Speaker 1: before we let the world see it. I highly recommend this.
Speaker 1: Like I've just allowed crying in baseball maybe like four
Speaker 1: years ago. Like no, but it was to the point
Speaker 1: where I didn't know how. Literally I literally didn't know
Speaker 1: how to cry, Like I was so good at at
Speaker 1: Yeah that literally I became world famous for just having
Speaker 1: no emotions.
Speaker 2: You know, but there's so many emotions you just like
Speaker 2: sometimes like and I'm at a point like even crying
Speaker 2: like in front of people, Like it's I have to
Speaker 2: be really really really really really really really upset, like
Speaker 2: to do that.
Speaker 1: I got you, all right. My last three questions are
Speaker 1: you a bucket list person? And what is the bucket
Speaker 1: list that you really want to accomplish?
Speaker 2: You know, I used to be a bucket list person,
Speaker 2: but I am not a bucket list person anymore, because.
Speaker 3: There has to be a dream that you want achieve.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, I it's so weird. It's so weird.
Speaker 2: Like I had all these you know, I thought I
Speaker 2: had all these things I wanted to achieve, Like I
Speaker 2: was Grammy nominated while I was pregnant, and I was expecting,
Speaker 2: like to be Grammy nominated, and then I had to,
Speaker 2: you know, go to the Grammys after just giving birth,
Speaker 2: and like I was emotional and I was pumping at
Speaker 2: the time, and you know, like all the things that
Speaker 2: happened when a woman has a baby, and like winning
Speaker 2: a Grammy was the one thing like I wanted so
Speaker 2: so so bad. But the thing that I've seen as
Speaker 2: I've gotten older in life, and you know, people have
Speaker 2: so much They hold so much value and like things
Speaker 2: and like trophies, and it's like, well what does that mean. Yes,
Speaker 2: it's an accolade, but what stake does it really really
Speaker 2: have in your life? And I think after giving birth
Speaker 2: to my son, almost losing my son, like that's the
Speaker 2: only thing that matters to me, Like it really is,
Speaker 2: like I've I've gone and done some of the most
Speaker 2: amazing things I've seen at the super Bowl, like that
Speaker 2: was that was a dream and I did achieve that,
Speaker 2: and afterwards, I was like, well, still feel like myself.
Speaker 1: The grass is always going to be green on the
Speaker 1: other side, and then whatever you achieve, you'll shrug it
Speaker 1: off because there's something else, yeah, of the pike that
Speaker 1: you want. Wait, okay, So I don't know if this
Speaker 1: is still a dream for country artists, But have you
Speaker 1: ever played the grand Ole Opry?
Speaker 2: I have played the grand Ole Opry.
Speaker 3: Is it just the lure of playing the place?
Speaker 1: Or like it is.
Speaker 3: So the point of Sisters. You know they got nominated
Speaker 3: back in seventy four at the Grammy.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they told you know, they were the first, I
Speaker 1: guess black women to play the grand Opery and set.
Speaker 3: So what was the feeling like?
Speaker 2: It was definitely magical at the time, Like I was
Speaker 2: so nervous. I'd spent maybe four or five years in
Speaker 2: Nashville at the time pounding the pavement. I had management
Speaker 2: at the time that was I don't want to say this,
Speaker 2: but I feel like they were like having two older
Speaker 2: white men trying to understand a black woman that they
Speaker 2: were putting me in I'm a I'm a circle and
Speaker 2: they were trying to fit me in a square. And
Speaker 2: I had dealt with so much of that. So when
Speaker 2: I finally got to sing up the grand Ole Opry,
Speaker 2: I didn't know what you would equivalate that too.
Speaker 1: It's like surviving the Apollo that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's like like if you you know, if that's
Speaker 2: how you were discovered they write it wasn't Jazz and
Speaker 2: Sullivan on Apollo, Like if that was like the way
Speaker 2: for you to get you know, discovered and gets your chance.
Speaker 2: It's it's kind of like that. It's like a rite
Speaker 2: of passage into country music. And it's just this I
Speaker 2: don't know how to describe it. It's just something that's
Speaker 2: it's a tradition in country music that you know a
Speaker 2: lot of people with Dolly Pardon Charlie Pride, like it's
Speaker 2: it's a history thing, got it.
Speaker 3: What is the hardest creative block that you've overcome.
Speaker 2: I think the hardest creative block that I overcome. I
Speaker 2: think it's right now. When I say I don't have
Speaker 2: thoughts in my head, that's what I mean.
Speaker 3: I would do anything to be you right now.
Speaker 1: Like even as I'm talking to you, I'm thinking about
Speaker 1: editing this film, and I gotta make this phone call
Speaker 1: and I make sure my plane tickets are ready to
Speaker 1: so much.
Speaker 3: I want to know what that's like.
Speaker 2: It's quite lovely, really.
Speaker 3: Like to just well, is there a fear that you
Speaker 3: can't come back?
Speaker 2: Or yes, there's that. There's a huge fear of that
Speaker 2: for sure. And I'm I'm taking that thought and I'm
Speaker 2: putting it over there because I've worked my ass off.
Speaker 1: You'll be fine for a.
Speaker 2: Very very long time. And I do. And I am
Speaker 2: starting to get thoughts in my head and thoughts that
Speaker 2: I'm like, Okay, is this stupid? Is this dumb? And
Speaker 2: then I'll say it in a meeting and people are like, oh,
Speaker 2: I like that idea, and I'm like, oh so, so
Speaker 2: I'm just trusting this creative block moment of just letting
Speaker 2: it be what be.
Speaker 3: Well, I think that's a good thing and I think
Speaker 3: you'll be focused. All right.
Speaker 1: So my last question to you, all right is when
Speaker 1: all is said and done, what's the one thing that
Speaker 1: you really hope people say about you.
Speaker 2: I hope people say that she saw me, like really
Speaker 2: really really saw me. You know, this industry, this world,
Speaker 2: I feel like people are so narcissistic and me, me, me,
Speaker 2: me me. That is something that I hate so much
Speaker 2: about society, about the individualism is it's a beautiful thing
Speaker 2: to be able to have that freedom, but it also
Speaker 2: stops people from seeing other people. And I hope that
Speaker 2: people say that about me, that she really saw me,
Speaker 2: and like really really saw me.
Speaker 1: Well, Mickey Guidan, I appreciate you and your artistry. I
Speaker 1: definitely see you, you know, And I'm not even trying
Speaker 1: to cosplay that. You know, I came in under countries DNA.
Speaker 1: A line share of all the country that I've been
Speaker 1: listening to is sort of sparked off of you and
Speaker 1: me not knowing that black people were in the spaces
Speaker 1: at all or if I had anything. But you know,
Speaker 1: just in following your store and your journey, I mean,
Speaker 1: I'm cheering for you in the authentic way, not the
Speaker 1: Tyra Banks angered way. I'm cheering for you for real,
Speaker 1: and I understand so much and appreciate what you go
Speaker 1: through and even the things that I don't even fathom
Speaker 1: or or or wish upon another human being. I mean,
Speaker 1: I really appreciate that you are there in the trenches,
Speaker 1: really really building a save space for someone to come
Speaker 1: in twenty thirty and twenty four and twenty five and
Speaker 1: still be here to do it, you know.
Speaker 3: And so I'd hope that you.
Speaker 1: Take these brave steps and also take time off for
Speaker 1: yourself and to just thank you that I could have
Speaker 1: just said thank you and that's it all right people.
Speaker 1: This is the Quest Love Show and we will see
Speaker 1: you on the next program, thank You. Quest Love Show
Speaker 1: is hosted by ME Premier Quest Love Thompson. The executive
Speaker 1: producers are Sean g Brian Calhoun and Me. Produced by
Speaker 1: Britney Benjamin and Jake Payne. Produced for iHeart by Noel Brown,
Speaker 1: Edited by Alex Connwill iHeart Video support by Mark Canton,
Speaker 1: Logo's graphics and animation by Nick Paloe. Additional support by
Speaker 1: Lance Colman. Special thanks to Kathy Brown. Special thanks to.
Speaker 3: Sugar Steve Mandel.
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