Speaker 1: Quest Love Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: Yo.
Speaker 3: It's Up Everybody. It's Fontigelow from Questlove Supreme. We are
Speaker 3: back with part two of our conversation with Nada Michael Walton.
Speaker 4: This is an amazing two parter.
Speaker 3: If you haven't, please check out part one where Narrata
Speaker 3: talks about his Michigan upbringing, his deeply transformational time with
Speaker 3: the Maha Vishnu orchestruct Who Little Brother, Sample, Plug, Plug,
Speaker 3: Chikaia and Board. Is April Jazz Appreciation Month, and this
Speaker 3: two parter certainly celebrates the genre and culture and I
Speaker 3: would shape so much music outside of the genre.
Speaker 4: Enjoy.
Speaker 1: There's a question I've been dying to know in the
Speaker 1: mid seventies jazz cats Now in the case if you're
Speaker 1: Miles David's disciple, I understand, Like m two May already
Speaker 1: explained to us that Miles' dependency he was getting out
Speaker 1: of control in the early seventies and then he's basically
Speaker 1: not too functional and the bands left without work and
Speaker 1: they're basically like, well we got to pay the rent,
Speaker 1: and you know, m to May and Reggie Lucas of
Speaker 1: Miles Davis's you Know band were like, well, shit, we
Speaker 1: got to write some hits to pay the bills.
Speaker 2: Yeah, can you explain.
Speaker 1: To me why there was such a mass exodus of
Speaker 1: fusion musicians of jazz musicians that all of a sudden
Speaker 1: in the mid seventies became the architects and the proprietors
Speaker 1: of some of the poppiest songs we've ever heard.
Speaker 2: It's almost like a complete opposite. What was the.
Speaker 1: Transitional decision process to get out of fusion and into
Speaker 1: pop music?
Speaker 2: Very good? I got you my third solo album, we
Speaker 2: call Awakening. I was cutting it in La Stevie Wonders
Speaker 2: studio and Wayne Anderson was one of the producer type
Speaker 2: people with me and his teams and all that. And
Speaker 2: then I got a call after I was cutting that music.
Speaker 2: You know some cool stuff that Jim Dellahant from Atlantic,
Speaker 2: who's my an r. He said, you know what, if
Speaker 2: you don't have a hit on this next album, we're
Speaker 2: going to drop you. And that was the word of
Speaker 2: death to me. I knew that things were going through
Speaker 2: a change. He told me. He said, in New York
Speaker 2: this goes hot now dancing the Steve fifty four people. Really,
Speaker 2: it's like a big craze. We really suggest that you
Speaker 2: come to New York and see what's going on. And
Speaker 2: I did, and when I went there, I felt what
Speaker 2: he was talking about. It was on firewood dance, and
Speaker 2: that wasn't hard for me because I'm raised with motime,
Speaker 2: I'm raised with people all kind of music. So after
Speaker 2: I cut the Awakening stuff in California, I decided to
Speaker 2: make Side Side one that was strictly for dance and
Speaker 2: saved my career and not be dropped. And I used
Speaker 2: the examples of Rick James, you and I. He was
Speaker 2: a good person for me to kind of draw from
Speaker 2: because it was live drums, it was funky, it was live,
Speaker 2: it was horns, things I loved, and it was a
Speaker 2: style I could pull off. So in my hotel room
Speaker 2: at the Hilton in my I got a Clavenet in
Speaker 2: the Roads in my room and I wrote four jams
Speaker 2: and I don't want nobody else won those jams. And
Speaker 2: I was so lucky to get Bobby clem Out from
Speaker 2: Power Station to be my engineer. What records he made
Speaker 2: with Chic on Good Times. I had never heard a
Speaker 2: more beautiful record than fucking good Times. And it haven't
Speaker 2: be my engineer to get my drum sound. Yeah. See,
Speaker 2: so I'm cutting those records. I don't want nobody else.
Speaker 2: And then guess what else. Now, I got Randy Brecker
Speaker 2: coming to come in with Michael Brecker and David sam
Speaker 2: want to put horns on my jam. So it's real
Speaker 2: musicians see it. So I'm happy. And then they said
Speaker 2: you got to use the cat who's big of a
Speaker 2: disco named Patrick Patrick Adams. Yes, because his name in
Speaker 2: the disco world with the strings and learning, he does well.
Speaker 2: Make sure you you know. So I said, okay, so
Speaker 2: you know. And he didn't come around there that much,
Speaker 2: but you might come out of love with a little
Speaker 2: sound on something to do a little thing a little
Speaker 2: and he was cool. What I'm saying is cutting that music.
Speaker 2: And then when I had success with that sound, it
Speaker 2: saved my career. At that time, I didn't want to
Speaker 2: be dropped. I wanted to be a strong person to
Speaker 2: make it. I just got married. I want to take
Speaker 2: care of my life. And it's fusionary music as we know,
Speaker 2: it was going away the people in the fans, for
Speaker 2: example Garden Love Light, that album didn't sell that much.
Speaker 2: I wasn't I wasn't like some overnight star people. They
Speaker 2: were not They were not supporting, but they supposedly loved
Speaker 2: the fusion at those times going forward in the seventies
Speaker 2: early on, yes, but not those years. Those years it
Speaker 2: was a change up going on. Even even Lenning whiteouldn't
Speaker 2: my man return to forever? Those everything's kind of like, NA,
Speaker 2: So what are you gonna do? Be you know what
Speaker 2: I mean? If you're gonna support me, fine, we're making money,
Speaker 2: no money, I'm going I'm going to save my life.
Speaker 2: I did, brother, I got. I'm happy I did. It
Speaker 2: was wonderful, wonderful, and every out I do I was put,
Speaker 2: you know, a Son's dancing type jam on there. So
Speaker 2: I can still do that and I love it. Right,
Speaker 2: But I'm about having a radio hit and making some money,
Speaker 2: so I'm not shining shoes.
Speaker 1: I know that you've had Randy Jackson in your stable
Speaker 1: since he was a teenager, and not Michael's brother, but
Speaker 1: Randy Jackson, American idol, r Andy Jackson since he was sixteen, seventeen,
Speaker 1: eighteen years old, I believe, But I always thought that
Speaker 1: was him killing I should have loved you. Someone told
Speaker 1: me like two weeks ago, that was TM Stevens.
Speaker 2: That's right, Please, can.
Speaker 1: You please tell me just about Tim Stevens and tell
Speaker 1: me what it was like working with them.
Speaker 2: Team's a genius. I was in New York, I still
Speaker 2: lived in New York. I met Tiam before I moved
Speaker 2: to California seventy eight, So in seventy seven round those
Speaker 2: years I met t him. You know, he'd be like
Speaker 2: the stee you wonder the bass. He had that kind
Speaker 2: of power, that kind of energy, like a like just
Speaker 2: a huge band with the strength of God in his hands.
Speaker 2: And they could play bookoo like that to be popping
Speaker 2: the two in the four as he's playing with lines
Speaker 2: right and just he was playing with a show called
Speaker 2: Your Arms Too Short, the Box of God. And he
Speaker 2: had a drummer named Howie Great from Queen's and how
Speaker 2: he became my connection out in the Queen's area. All
Speaker 2: those good drummers out and people ou in Queen's area too. See,
Speaker 2: so now here's TM Steve. I mean, all these new
Speaker 2: cats are coming up with the great skills. And then
Speaker 2: as it worked out, I had to do a tour
Speaker 2: for I don't know a best dance with you, So
Speaker 2: I had to put a band together. So I asked
Speaker 2: tam drummer my touring band, you know, and Philip's says,
Speaker 2: out of at Berkeley to play keyboards, and Pat throw
Speaker 2: from Automatic man from California, come and play guitars and
Speaker 2: put a hot band together and toured, and then came
Speaker 2: time for my fourth so wouldcome Dance of Life. And
Speaker 2: now I'm living in San Francisco, so I thought, I'll
Speaker 2: bring TM Stevens out here to work out this new
Speaker 2: material with me. And I know I still have to
Speaker 2: have another hit. I'll be dropped. So as it worked out,
Speaker 2: I brought him to California, be a little warehouse in Oakland.
Speaker 2: I said, team will play a game with you. I'm
Speaker 2: gonna play this groove on the drums, And every time
Speaker 2: I hit the hit, the symbol changed baselines and he'd
Speaker 2: be playing the baseline whatever it is right now. Then
Speaker 2: I had the symbol again, he changed. I crancked a
Speaker 2: symbol again, he changed. Then finally, crap, should I that
Speaker 2: was that's his massive baseline. Ran Jackson wasn't around then.
Speaker 2: That came. He came later, but I didn't think I
Speaker 2: find anyone whould play. I should have loved you like
Speaker 2: TM Stevens. He's the most massive cat in the world.
Speaker 1: For the longest I thought it was when you know,
Speaker 1: it came out when I was eight, so I thought
Speaker 1: it was chic initially. Yeah, but shit, I'm just realizing now.
Speaker 1: Before she passed away, we had Ali Willis on the show, Yes,
Speaker 1: and she was this mind blowing that we knew our
Speaker 1: whole discography only because a lot of the work that
Speaker 1: she did wound up being like iconic samples that we
Speaker 1: would later gravitate towards. And so she was kind of
Speaker 1: weirded out that we knew her history. But how did
Speaker 1: you link up with her to write that song?
Speaker 2: Well, okay, she's in LA I'm in San Francisco, and
Speaker 2: I hear about her work because of the Maurice White
Speaker 2: earthmen and fire stuff that I was exploding with her
Speaker 2: name on it, right, I knew she was mean somehow
Speaker 2: or other. I came into touch with her because of
Speaker 2: her publishing people, the company she was part of, Almo Irving,
Speaker 2: and I could find her number. Then when I talked
Speaker 2: on the phone, come to find out she's from Damn,
Speaker 2: my hometown, Detroit, Michigan. I'm from Kalamazoo, She's from Detroit.
Speaker 2: So we had a kind of a bond immediately, and
Speaker 2: that I loved what she was doing. She said, well,
Speaker 2: come down to my house. So I did. I brought
Speaker 2: my eye should Love you down to her house. And
Speaker 2: our house was all what's that word? When everything's like
Speaker 2: old fashioned looking old dolls and old things and everything old.
Speaker 2: We've been there a career before, so that was kind
Speaker 2: of wow. Okay, But we sat down and wrote the
Speaker 2: lyrics for I Should Love and she was just mean
Speaker 2: how her brain thought, you know, okay, that's so wait.
Speaker 1: She she's had that house of kitsch art.
Speaker 2: There was trues, No, there's two. Was first house she
Speaker 2: had was become a smaller apartment house. It wasn't a
Speaker 2: big one, it was smaller, but it had all that
Speaker 2: stuff in it. Then later on, as we became even
Speaker 2: closer and friendlier over over years, then she got the
Speaker 2: bigger house that you're talking about, and we were always
Speaker 2: tight then too.
Speaker 1: Tell me about the process of going into producing and
Speaker 1: what did you learn that you couldn't apply for yourself,
Speaker 1: that you wound up giving two other artists.
Speaker 2: Well, at that time I was hot with that I
Speaker 2: Should have Loved you time, all right, those records? Why
Speaker 2: did you turn me on. And I asked Henry Allen,
Speaker 2: who was the president of Contillion Records. He's a partner
Speaker 2: with Atlantic Records. Black gentleman, Henry Allen. You gotta know
Speaker 2: about Henry Allen's He and his team. They had signed
Speaker 2: Stacy when she was about eleven and they made recording
Speaker 2: but it wasn't doing well. So I said, Henry, you
Speaker 2: know this girl, Stacy, why don't you let me do
Speaker 2: some songs on her. I'll do four songs. If you
Speaker 2: like him, I'll finished the album. If you don't like me,
Speaker 2: I haven't lost much as four songs. And he said,
Speaker 2: you know what, it's a good idea, go dude, do her.
Speaker 2: So I took it very, very seriously. This is my
Speaker 2: first real shot at pop production. My first jazz production
Speaker 2: was just before that, a cat named Don Cherry. Then
Speaker 2: now I'm gone to Restauranta Rose more jazz, you know,
Speaker 2: with Tony Williams and Lenny all that stuff in the
Speaker 2: pop world. Yes, it was Stacey Lantisa. So then I
Speaker 2: wrote these songs with a girl named Bunny Hull Buddy.
Speaker 2: It came to my house in San Francisco and my
Speaker 2: wife at the time, Lisa Lisa Walden. I wrote these
Speaker 2: songs let Me be your Angel. Dynamite jumped to the beat,
Speaker 2: and I flew to go to Stacy's house. She had
Speaker 2: a very small house and like a little spin at
Speaker 2: piano and I just got on her piano and just
Speaker 2: kind of went through these teach teaching me the songs
Speaker 2: so make sure the keys are writing and all that,
Speaker 2: And then came back to San Francisco at the Sauce
Speaker 2: Leedo record Plant where Prince then made his first album.
Speaker 2: In there, I got my big drum sound Tommy Tommy Fly,
Speaker 2: the same guy that did for James' records on the
Speaker 2: Maybe Angel Dyning My jo got a great sound with
Speaker 2: my band Karado guitar, TM on bass, Frank Martin on keyboards,
Speaker 2: and laid that stuff out. Mike gives strings, laid it out.
Speaker 2: Then went to Power Station to get her vocals on
Speaker 2: those songs, and here she said, about eleven years old,
Speaker 2: that big voice you hear, and just I wanted to
Speaker 2: get it just right, and we did and it became
Speaker 2: his for us. So I'm just very very very very
Speaker 2: very proud of that time. And it opened up a
Speaker 2: lot of doors from me because because of that cam
Speaker 2: then Clive Davis calling and everybody else calling because I
Speaker 2: had that kind of sucessful stage and the stays actually
Speaker 2: to open them for Michael Jackson and Jackson five. That's
Speaker 2: how to get big. She got with Tim Steven's on base.
Speaker 3: I was on to ask what their work with Stacy
Speaker 3: and then also going on with Sha Nice and Tevin Campbell.
Speaker 3: What was kind of your I guess you're your formula
Speaker 3: for working with children, because that's something that's really hard
Speaker 3: to do, like to write material that is can't sell,
Speaker 3: but it's also his aging appropriate.
Speaker 4: You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3: How did you kind of figure that out? And you know,
Speaker 3: kind of find that balance.
Speaker 2: You have to have a great hook. The hook is
Speaker 2: worth will always save you as far as making money
Speaker 2: on music business. The hook, of course, and I'm always
Speaker 2: aware of, like, well, who is it Stacy, she's eleven twelve.
Speaker 2: This whole angel concept is always cool, you know, and
Speaker 2: then she could talk. You know, you might think I'm
Speaker 2: too young to understand, but don't be fooled. You know,
Speaker 2: like a child, you know, I look into your eyes
Speaker 2: and I know someday, you know, I'll make you mine.
Speaker 2: I don't make kiddie music that doesn't work. I learned
Speaker 2: from Michael Jackson the early I want you back. You
Speaker 2: know those records. You got to make records. Everyone can
Speaker 2: party to faboots. So I didn't travel make kiddie records.
Speaker 2: You mentioned Shoannie Wilson. She came here, she was sixteen,
Speaker 2: and I said, right down seven song title, and she
Speaker 2: did justish, I hate to be lonely. I love your
Speaker 2: smile and I want my to keyboard, and just wrote
Speaker 2: those songs and God blessed me just I love I
Speaker 2: love you know smiles. Just looking at her, you can
Speaker 2: feel the energy coming off her and that smile, she's gone.
Speaker 2: That's what it was. Tavin Campbell, when Quincy Jones brought
Speaker 2: him here, I looked at him just so beautiful, thin,
Speaker 2: a genius thinger like Whitney said, well you need you
Speaker 2: need the song, showcase your voice and like a big
Speaker 2: a tour the fours man. I said, which what you
Speaker 2: want to do, Tavin? Yeah, tell me what you want
Speaker 2: me to do. That's just that's simple. Then you gotta
Speaker 2: put the big modulation so you can really go on.
Speaker 1: Right right right. Jimmy Jam kind of teases me because
Speaker 1: when I was a kid, whenever a song would modulate
Speaker 1: that would scare me. And so because it sounds dramatic. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and so wait, but here's the thing, you you know, often,
Speaker 1: in my obsession with historical firsts, I will actually say
Speaker 1: that if someone were to be credited with like the
Speaker 1: really first attempt at New Jack Swing, yeah, I would
Speaker 1: say Attack of the Name Game might be the first
Speaker 1: experimentation of making a singer sing on a backtrack, that is,
Speaker 1: that could be made for hip hop. All right, So
Speaker 1: for those that don't know, was it the Sneaking Out album?
Speaker 2: Yeah? Yeah, so stay, I see a lot of songs.
Speaker 1: I mean, well, I know she had albums before let
Speaker 1: Me Be Your Angel, So I would say her fourth album,
Speaker 1: maybe a third.
Speaker 2: Or fourth album. Yeah, But there's a.
Speaker 1: Song Attack of the Name Game, which even when I
Speaker 1: heard it as eleven year old, I was like, oh,
Speaker 1: this is kind of made for me. Like this this
Speaker 1: isn't a song that my dad would gravitate towards because
Speaker 1: this sounds like rap music that I like, what was
Speaker 1: the process in trying to go there?
Speaker 2: Thank you? That's very cool man. Two things. One borrowing
Speaker 2: from the sixties idea of you know, a banana fan
Speaker 2: of fol fan of me and my mom. Man had
Speaker 2: taken that vibe, which I actually to pay them for,
Speaker 2: which I didn't mind because I love the College sept
Speaker 2: And then I joined that with Yes I did, Yes,
Speaker 2: I did. And then I joined that with my brain
Speaker 2: and made my own version of tom Time Club, which
Speaker 2: was so hot in New York, Tino.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I take all.
Speaker 2: Those things and mix them together. I mean, let the
Speaker 2: listeners know. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Attack of the Name Game is what Mariah sampled for
Speaker 1: a heartbreaker.
Speaker 2: Heartbreaker, Yeah, that's right, that's right. So I was always
Speaker 2: looking to New York and even London too, was always
Speaker 2: gonna be the next wave. So I caught that wave, man,
Speaker 2: and I'm just you know, and then I've got Stacy
Speaker 2: to do that. The thing one when her brother became
Speaker 2: that kind of a sound talking like the alien from space. See,
Speaker 2: I thought that was you. That was her brother. Okay.
Speaker 1: If there's two human beings that I've seen that were
Speaker 1: otherworldly to me as far as like they're just on
Speaker 1: some almost pleadian alien level type of person, I've never
Speaker 1: seen Angela Bouefield give a normal interview on television.
Speaker 5: Okay, So can you please describe because I've never seen
Speaker 5: a person put their humor out front, and like she
Speaker 5: always had a joke or a punchline, like maybe Vesta
Speaker 5: is in third place, like I'll see Tatsa Vega. Vesta
Speaker 5: and Angela Bouefield were like almost personalities.
Speaker 2: What was Angela Bufield? Like? Open hearted, funny, But I
Speaker 2: must tell you perfect pitch. It's so beautiful how she
Speaker 2: hears and how she can hit her notes and just
Speaker 2: make everything so musical. She's extremely musical. I was a
Speaker 2: fan of her stuff, you know, before I ever worked
Speaker 2: with her. You know, I try and those records she
Speaker 2: put out with Grusoon Dave Grusoon, which is beautiful. So
Speaker 2: then when Clyde Davis asked me to work with with Angela,
Speaker 2: he first picked the song of something about You and
Speaker 2: a few of those type of ideas. But after I
Speaker 2: got to know her, I know that she liked the funk.
Speaker 2: To see that, I got excited and I came on
Speaker 2: one morning on my profit keyboard and my drum machine,
Speaker 2: my the machines and just made a demo. But I
Speaker 2: don't make demos some big records, but cutt an idea
Speaker 2: of too tough for her because I knew that she
Speaker 2: liked the funk, and that was the most cutting ede
Speaker 2: stuf I stuff I could do. At that time. I said,
Speaker 2: and it's just coming in and to sing on this
Speaker 2: for me, and she did, and she got so excited
Speaker 2: she called Clive now to getting a hit. But I
Speaker 2: was really just wanted to be like raw a dude
Speaker 2: and done done, done, done like that, all that kind
Speaker 2: of thing, you know. And and we all we also
Speaker 2: had a lot of license to be a little little
Speaker 2: raunchy and lyrics now because now Prince will be on
Speaker 2: the scene a lot of things to be on the scene.
Speaker 2: You could be a little bit cutting edge on the
Speaker 2: lyric in R and B and get away with it.
Speaker 2: So all those things kind of came into factor. But
Speaker 2: I love Angela. You know, she's had a little stroke.
Speaker 2: Now we're still talking to her and all she's all,
Speaker 2: I want to know what's going on, you know. But
Speaker 2: we made I Maderee albums for Lange, both for three albums,
Speaker 2: a lot of music, and she taught me how to them.
Speaker 2: Going to Whitney Houston. I have to say that my
Speaker 2: discipline with with the way Angela gave me knowing how
Speaker 2: to if I only have three hours with it within
Speaker 2: three hours here, three hours, but two hours year. I
Speaker 2: knew how to cut vocals now because of Angela Beaufield.
Speaker 1: So before we get to Whitney, Yeah, one I want
Speaker 1: to know, like, how do you climb the mountain? That
Speaker 1: is Clive Davis because of his just no nonsense, no
Speaker 1: bullshit kind of like give me the hit, take me
Speaker 1: to the mountaintop. What is your first meetings with Clive?
Speaker 1: Like like, how does he know that he can put
Speaker 1: his trust in you to deliver what is needed?
Speaker 2: I think when he heard let me be your Angel,
Speaker 2: he called me the telephone and he said, you know,
Speaker 2: how are you doing this? It was like a question
Speaker 2: to me, It's like, huh, how am I doing this? Well,
Speaker 2: I'm from Michigan, Callum's in Michigan. We love music and
Speaker 2: we just that's what we do. That's it.
Speaker 6: I said.
Speaker 2: From me, He goes, well, how would you want to
Speaker 2: work with some of my artists, you know, like Angel
Speaker 2: the Boatfield. That's how it started. Just that's that humble.
Speaker 2: And then after I did the trust with Angel doing
Speaker 2: those records came then Phyllis Hyman and uh then then
Speaker 2: not long after that, he said, Dione Warrick. That's mine,
Speaker 2: you know, Burke Backrecks Hal David is like, oh my god, healthy,
Speaker 2: you know, the Windows of the World, all that music.
Speaker 2: So that was mind belonged even to think about meeting
Speaker 2: that Dione Warwick. I put my little thirteen songs together,
Speaker 2: went to La d her home, and Dion was not
Speaker 2: feeling my music. So I came back home and I
Speaker 2: called Clive. I said, Dion is not feeling my music.
Speaker 2: He said, don't worry, which I thought was very very kind.
Speaker 2: He said don't worry. He said, how about Aarretha Franklin.
Speaker 2: How about Aretha Franklin? Right? He said, just here for
Speaker 2: a phone call? Okay? And I did, and I called
Speaker 2: Aretha and I'm so glad. I had my pen and
Speaker 2: paper and everything ready because I had no idea how
Speaker 2: deep she is? Can I can? I? Can I tell
Speaker 2: that story for you right now? Absolutely? Okay? I call Aretha.
Speaker 2: He she says, hi, And I said, well, what do
Speaker 2: you do for fun? You know, I'm just trying to
Speaker 2: break it down, you know, you Detroit, what do you
Speaker 2: do for fun? That's when she showed me who she is.
Speaker 2: She goes, hm, you know, maybe I not. I go
Speaker 2: out to a nightclub. You know, maybe in the corner.
Speaker 2: I see a guy like, you know, he looks, he
Speaker 2: looks at me. I look at him. It's like, who's zooming?
Speaker 2: Then he feels he's got me with the fish hup
Speaker 2: off the hook? Who's zooming? Who the fish hump off
Speaker 2: the hook? That's how she talked. That's who she is.
Speaker 2: I was like, so that was I wasn't ready for
Speaker 2: all that, but I took that stuff. I said, resting
Speaker 2: my partner, we gotta write a song with this Who's
Speaker 2: who fishing off the hook? She's crazy, man, It's crazy.
Speaker 2: That's how that happened. So that was Clyde Davis. Just
Speaker 2: give her a call.
Speaker 1: I believe that you can meditate and manifest whatever it
Speaker 1: is that you want to achieve in life. But I
Speaker 1: mean to be honest with you. When you're starting the
Speaker 1: Whitney Euston debut album, I mean, are you thinking that
Speaker 1: this person's about to be the Mount Rushmore of pop
Speaker 1: music as we know it at that time? Or were
Speaker 1: they just planning like respectable you know black Casief numbers
Speaker 1: like she's gonna go gold and platinum, maybe double platinum.
Speaker 1: Like coming into the door, do you know what you
Speaker 1: guys were gunning for.
Speaker 2: Okay, that's very beautiful. Thank you for the honor and
Speaker 2: the love to give me. I can feel it when
Speaker 2: you're talking to me, and what it does is it
Speaker 2: makes me really think about what you're asking. So what
Speaker 2: I want to say is this. When I'm in the automat,
Speaker 2: I wasn't at Tarban studio shop. I was still in
Speaker 2: the city at the automat cutting a Wreatha Franklin, getting
Speaker 2: ready for Wretha Franklin. When the phone call came from
Speaker 2: Jerry Griffin, the an R of Arista, Narda, you got
Speaker 2: to make time for Whitney Houston, and I said, no,
Speaker 2: I'm working on Retha Franklin. I cannot lose my focus.
Speaker 2: He goes, yeah, I know, but you don't want to
Speaker 2: miss this younger we've signed who's gonna be big. But
Speaker 2: and also I gotta tell you, Narda, she is Sissy
Speaker 2: Houston's daughter. And then I had to stop and think
Speaker 2: Sissy Houston saying background a garden, love life, take me,
Speaker 2: take me, take me to the God, the Light. And
Speaker 2: when the corner was a little eleven year old girl
Speaker 2: that was her daughter. I met with this little girl
Speaker 2: which was eleven. Oh yeah, I said, well, you know,
Speaker 2: I'm busy. He goes, we have a hook a song.
Speaker 2: How will I know? Let me send you the idea.
Speaker 2: She sent me the idea, heard howl. I know. Cool. Cool, course,
Speaker 2: I call Hi back to Jerry. There's no verses. I mean,
Speaker 2: if I'm getting involved, I gotta write some verses for
Speaker 2: this thing. Finish. It's gonna make a strong song because
Speaker 2: let me ask the writers. He called the writers, call
Speaker 2: me back right to stay fine. Now it's on.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 2: So instead of doing another I read the song that day,
Speaker 2: I told Randy Jackson, Krodo Preston, Walter Auson, Avia, Frank
Speaker 2: Martin Dave phrase of my team, We're gonna do a
Speaker 2: song called howell I know for Whitney Houston today And
Speaker 2: I just went to the piano and banged it out
Speaker 2: and put a verses up. I know, here's the one
Speaker 2: of that kind of spirit and they cut the hell
Speaker 2: out of it. And that was the time. Now Randy's
Speaker 2: playing this mo bass with one finger took a So
Speaker 2: we had this team, this hybrid like a Motown Corporation
Speaker 2: sound with the newest technology that we needed to be
Speaker 2: competitive with Clints and Michael Jackson, Quincy Jones and everybody
Speaker 2: else is doing records. So we put that thing down.
Speaker 2: Then I called with the Funcus. I hadn't spoken her yet,
Speaker 2: and I said, listen, I'm making the verse really high.
Speaker 2: Can you sing Hi to? Yeah? I sing Hi No.
Speaker 2: I said, no, no, no, no, no, I'm cutting in San Francisco.
Speaker 2: I'm a fly to New York to go meet you
Speaker 2: with a tape. If it's the wrong key, we'll get
Speaker 2: we're off.
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 2: She says, no, no, I can sing hid all right.
Speaker 2: And then I went to New York. And when I
Speaker 2: go to New York at the media sound with Michael
Speaker 2: Barbiero with my injury, he was brilliant. He knew the
Speaker 2: right Mike, I like this noyman, beautiful Mike. Or we're
Speaker 2: in the studio making it. Everything's sounding good before she
Speaker 2: even walks in. And when she walked in, Now I'm
Speaker 2: gonna talk to you straight up. She was so beautiful.
Speaker 2: Just to put your eyes on her was just like,
Speaker 2: my god, now I'm understanding. We don't even heard her sing.
Speaker 2: Just looking at her, she's just the cheek, thumbs, the fingers.
Speaker 2: She's nineteen, Okay, okay, I'm trying to understand here. Now
Speaker 2: go by the mic, sing the song, and God bless her.
Speaker 2: She knew that song of plenty song that been with her,
Speaker 2: That was the only song she knew. How long is she?
Speaker 2: She was ready for it first album and she blew
Speaker 2: that song. Man, she killed that song like what you're
Speaker 2: hearing on that record. All that power and spitting and
Speaker 2: also control of the head voice to the chest voice,
Speaker 2: the chest voice back to the head voice. It was
Speaker 2: all effortless. I said, well, do you know what we've
Speaker 2: done about four or five takes this and you're so
Speaker 2: tight on that. I need to keep beating this horse.
Speaker 2: What we're gonna do now is do a few doublings,
Speaker 2: a few harmonies, and you want you to come listen
Speaker 2: to it? And she double? I want her double? She harmon,
Speaker 2: want hear I said, come listen to it on the
Speaker 2: playback in the control room. If you were me and
Speaker 2: I'm her, she's looking at me like this. She's looking
Speaker 2: at me like that. I've never had anyone stare at
Speaker 2: me like that. The hollandlds bluring all the speakers, healing it,
Speaker 2: and she's looking at me like do you hear that.
Speaker 2: Do you hear that? Now? It's like a Muhammad Ali moment,
Speaker 2: like you know, I'm the greatest, but I'm saying that
Speaker 2: just like now I'm realizing, damn, this is incredible and
Speaker 2: I'm bless us man. That's what I want to tell you.
Speaker 2: That's when it hit me that, yeah, no, we're on
Speaker 2: to something that's going to be like huge. I have
Speaker 2: one question.
Speaker 1: Okay, you do something on that song. I've never heard
Speaker 1: in the history of pop music. I've never heard somebody
Speaker 1: like because the thing is, you're building up drama, like
Speaker 1: go to the if he loves me, if he loves me,
Speaker 1: not think right.
Speaker 2: That is a ramp.
Speaker 1: You're building up to something, and when you build up
Speaker 1: to it, you modulate to a lower key. I've never
Speaker 1: heard that in the history.
Speaker 2: Of pop music.
Speaker 1: What was the thought behind because you know, again, modulation
Speaker 1: is supposed to be the dramatic moment where you higher
Speaker 1: and but yet like.
Speaker 4: I'm almost like I need to get down.
Speaker 2: How did you know that would come off? To be
Speaker 2: honest with you, before I even met with me, I
Speaker 2: work out the song in the studio and maybe I
Speaker 2: even get like one of my singers, my girl singers
Speaker 2: come and just lay out the idea so I know
Speaker 2: it all works before I even go anywhere. I have
Speaker 2: a few different demo demo singers, but Kitty Behope at
Speaker 2: that time was one of my go tos to work
Speaker 2: out my ideas that it was all going to be
Speaker 2: like strong. That's what I always do. Put to make
Speaker 2: a blueprint so that when I get with a singer,
Speaker 2: if something doesn't work out, well, no, I know this work,
Speaker 2: please do this. So that's how it worked it out,
Speaker 2: knowing it'd be great because it sounded great, and I
Speaker 2: put the backgrounds on it, the ideas. Everything worked out
Speaker 2: so that when I see Whitney it's powerful. But then
Speaker 2: after I did it with her, it was so incredible.
Speaker 2: I said, can you get your mom to come down
Speaker 2: and join on the background, And she did income Sissy
Speaker 2: Houston with her troop and then they're singing it. But
Speaker 2: then I said, no, you go to join your mother.
Speaker 2: Now that was the sound of all knowe again she
Speaker 2: know the lead, but she's also part of the background
Speaker 2: with her mom. That's power. So all that power, you
Speaker 2: don't know where is going up or down, it's just power.
Speaker 1: Unfortunately, I hate the way that transitioning death makes me
Speaker 1: appreciate or listen to someone's music, Like when a person
Speaker 1: transitions and I go back to their catalog, then I
Speaker 1: hear something. It's like another chamber opens. Yes, so before
Speaker 1: I ask you, because the thing is is that I
Speaker 1: feel like right now and you know, I'm a DJ
Speaker 1: that that is very active and still spinning records, and
Speaker 1: I feel as though I want to dance with somebody
Speaker 1: is going through its September phase. Matter of fact, like
Speaker 1: what I call the smells like teen spirit effect. That's
Speaker 1: what I want to dance with somebody. Because of course
Speaker 1: it's like, Okay, we're celebrating her and whatnot. But please
Speaker 1: tell me what the air was like and the tension
Speaker 1: of working on the second album where you guys now
Speaker 1: have to first of all, are you ever thinking of like, Okay,
Speaker 1: I gotta live up to it, like you know, when
Speaker 1: you're working on rock a lot or whatever for like
Speaker 1: Aretha's next records or whatever, Like I gotta I got
Speaker 1: a top freeway of love. I gotta what's your creative
Speaker 1: process in terms of like following up, like what.
Speaker 2: Was the difference between it? There are a few things
Speaker 2: I want to say. Clive Davis decided early on after
Speaker 2: the success and fastest rising hit of the Howl I Know,
Speaker 2: being the number one on the third album of the
Speaker 2: third number one off that record going so big. Then
Speaker 2: he called me to meet him at the bungalow, his
Speaker 2: bungalow in Beverly Hills. It wasn't long after How I Know.
Speaker 2: Then he says, come meet me. So I go to
Speaker 2: meet him. He plays for me I wouldn't dance for
Speaker 2: Somebody Loves Me as a demo, the same people who
Speaker 2: worked on how I Know. But the demo is kind
Speaker 2: of like very poppy, like a Rodeo Cet type of record.
Speaker 2: But it's cool. Oh you can hear the hook in there.
Speaker 2: But the track is just so popular. I'm going immediately,
Speaker 2: I'm thinking, how am I going to make this a
Speaker 2: ghetto record? You know, really make a badass for the
Speaker 2: black people on the North side of Kalamazoo and around
Speaker 2: the world. That's why my money immediately goes. Then he
Speaker 2: played me a few more songs he wanted for where
Speaker 2: It Broke Our Arts Go, and maybe one or two more,
Speaker 2: and I played him with a pressing glass. Songs you
Speaker 2: know the Preston written, so.
Speaker 1: You're saying he's planning this even as the first album
Speaker 1: has yet to really.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he's your first time was still you know, but
Speaker 2: now he's like he decided because wouldn't I worked so
Speaker 2: fast on how I know, we turned in so fast
Speaker 2: that he wants a fast second album kind of be
Speaker 2: able to pick up on this success. So I get it,
Speaker 2: and he plays me these ideas, and then I come
Speaker 2: back to the same room when I'm sitting here with
Speaker 2: you right now, which I want you to come make
Speaker 2: your record tart band studios, same studio. Yeah, this is it. Wow, Okay,
Speaker 2: And I get Randy Jackson. Who I do. I'm that
Speaker 2: one finger's synthesizer bass crowder, my Italian style guitar. Walter
Speaker 2: Snavi has not become a big producer yet for Titanic
Speaker 2: and all that and Mariah he's he's one of our
Speaker 2: stable cats, Preston Glass and my genius engineer of David Frasier.
Speaker 2: And I just take these ideas that these Karl clave
Speaker 2: has given me and just put my thing on it,
Speaker 2: our thing on it, which means Quincy Jones taught me
Speaker 2: an out house bottom with a pent house view, and
Speaker 2: I put the vocals down the lead vocals and the
Speaker 2: backing vocals, so it sounds like a finished record on
Speaker 2: five songs, and one of those songs would be the
Speaker 2: Odds of brother song for the Love of You, because
Speaker 2: Whitney wanted to do that. So before Whitney ever comes
Speaker 2: in the room, it's all ready for her and and
Speaker 2: and we are efficient because don't forget I put Disciple grew.
Speaker 2: I'm like, I'm like a I'm like an army. I'm
Speaker 2: like an army. There's no drinking, there's no smoking, there's
Speaker 2: no drugs. It's this vegetarian life, just like an army.
Speaker 2: Like your fallon show, You're on.
Speaker 6: It.
Speaker 2: That's how it was in his room. So when she
Speaker 2: came here, I played for her I Somebody Loves Me.
Speaker 2: She was like, wow, I never heard it like that.
Speaker 2: And then I played for the song. I mean, she
Speaker 2: didn't even like which is where broken Hearts go? And
Speaker 2: I played her that. I said, does this cup for you? Now?
Speaker 2: Then she goes, Now, I'm starting to get it because
Speaker 2: now it's for her. Got the right basis, like, got
Speaker 2: the black on it. That's cool. So what I'm saying
Speaker 2: to you is I have to all say this now.
Speaker 2: The first song that she sang in this room was
Speaker 2: a song by the Isis for the Love of You.
Speaker 2: And what was so great about doing that song first,
Speaker 2: because she said, I know that song. I'm not even
Speaker 2: learned of the songs yet, but I know that for
Speaker 2: love of You, So going on, I can sing that.
Speaker 2: So she sang that. I said, there are backing vocals
Speaker 2: on for the love you stack your voice, so we
Speaker 2: started stacking her voice twenty forty times, so it's all
Speaker 2: the harms are her voice. And she came back in
Speaker 2: the studio to hear. Now she's hearing like angels her voice,
Speaker 2: and I see the look on her face, and she's
Speaker 2: getting inspired by the sound of her her voice. Stacked
Speaker 2: that many times, and I said, tomorrow we're gonna do
Speaker 2: I want to dance somebody who loves me. She said, okay,
Speaker 2: because she's high. Now she's excited by the sound of
Speaker 2: her voice. And next day she came in and we
Speaker 2: ran through it spoon feeding because you didn't know it.
Speaker 2: Do the verse, do the verse, you know, do do
Speaker 2: a course, do a course, do an of course, Pagna.
Speaker 2: Put the whole thing together. Now go to the outro
Speaker 2: and just go crazy for me. And she stumbled upon.
Speaker 2: Say you wanna dance? Don't you want to? Don't you
Speaker 2: want to dance? Say you wanna dance? Don't you want
Speaker 2: to dance? That you want to dance?
Speaker 7: Oh don't you want to?
Speaker 2: Say you want to dance? Oh? Yeah? Man? Oh well
Speaker 2: something body ruler that came out of her. I was like, damn,
Speaker 2: I'm changing everything to go with that. With that, now
Speaker 2: that's gonna be the the highlight at the very end
Speaker 2: to go to right. That came out of her. So
Speaker 2: I'm saying God came through. But I will say we
Speaker 2: knew we wanted to make records that would last forever.
Speaker 2: We pray about it. She loved Jesus. We pray about it,
Speaker 2: you know, Dear Lord Jesus Savior and all that. You know.
Speaker 2: Let me do my best work. Very devoted the weather
Speaker 2: people want to you are not.
Speaker 1: You are probably the most bullseye standard of what we
Speaker 1: know as the eighties pop sounds. I know that Prince
Speaker 1: was an architect, I know that Michael was a god
Speaker 1: and all that stuff, But who does the person who's
Speaker 1: the standard? You know, because you're doing starships nothing like.
Speaker 1: I can only imagine what your life is like once
Speaker 1: you have the success with Whitney, But first of all,
Speaker 1: it's like who was your who was your guide to
Speaker 1: even because I feel like every creator needs something to
Speaker 1: sponge off of, to be like, all right, this is
Speaker 1: where I'm gonna create. But what did the effect of
Speaker 1: the Whitney albums have on you in terms of, you know, demand,
Speaker 1: I need you to do my record.
Speaker 2: I need you to do my record.
Speaker 1: You gotta like because I'm certain now if people are
Speaker 1: hiring you, they're expecting you to contribute the song that's
Speaker 1: going to also bring them to twelve billion units and
Speaker 1: sixty million units, Like is.
Speaker 2: Filler even a thing to you? Like?
Speaker 1: Or even allowed the freedom to just write a song
Speaker 1: that's not going to be it, but this is really
Speaker 1: clever song and da da da da da, Like what
Speaker 1: is your life?
Speaker 2: I'd be allowed to write it. I'd be allowed to
Speaker 2: write it. But I was always knowing this is kb
Speaker 2: Alex quiet storm format song. This is top ten format song.
Speaker 2: This is R and B top ten song. I can
Speaker 2: differentiate because don't forget at that time, we don't talk
Speaker 2: about it, but I'll talk to you now. Any artist
Speaker 2: that came through our door, black artist, we had always
Speaker 2: think how we're going to break them first on black radio,
Speaker 2: R and B radio, we could just think pop. You
Speaker 2: just think, yeah, you want to get the bob, but
Speaker 2: you have to first go through your R and B door.
Speaker 2: So we knew those worlds R and B pop course
Speaker 2: of course country, you know, jazz and then quiet storm
Speaker 2: a hybrid easygoing music which now becomes smooth jazz whatever
Speaker 2: that is. So we knew the different categories. You had
Speaker 2: to know that as a producer because if you didn't,
Speaker 2: you couldn't make it. As a producer. You had to
Speaker 2: be making no, no, this is going to be doing.
Speaker 2: This is going to give us the army radio, and
Speaker 2: then we have enough of the hook to go to
Speaker 2: p operate and do well. Even the thinking with Clive
Speaker 2: Davis and Arista putting out You Give Good Love first
Speaker 2: was to ingratiate Mom and Pops and black radio and
Speaker 2: our black community that she's ours. Before they came with
Speaker 2: a saving on my left for you and how I
Speaker 2: know that's for the world. That was a very thought
Speaker 2: about decision. You see what I'm saying. That's how it
Speaker 2: was at that time. Everything had to be a certain way.
Speaker 2: It was a black artist, a pop artist that you
Speaker 2: mentioned Starship. I'm not worrying about that because they already
Speaker 2: that's great slick. We love Mickey Thomas, killer Singer. It's
Speaker 2: a band that we all know. They already had. We
Speaker 2: built this city and Sarah, they had damn hits, you
Speaker 2: know mean. So I got my electronic drums, Shott, I
Speaker 2: got good studs, got good d put that funk drive
Speaker 2: on it. On a Dyan Warren song that became her
Speaker 2: first number one, and it was so strong I knocked
Speaker 2: myself out of number one. George Michael Reath the Franklin
Speaker 2: the way me knocked myself out the number one. That's
Speaker 2: how I was at that time. Because the drums, the
Speaker 2: sound I knew was the power. You have to have it,
Speaker 2: and we changed the sound to be like mighty. And
Speaker 2: don't forget what our competition was. Your a friend, Prince,
Speaker 2: he had the hell of the drums. He knew it.
Speaker 2: And not only did he know it, he puts you.
Speaker 2: He put his foot up your butt about it. Those
Speaker 2: drum chacks you put down. Look at grupple rain and stout.
Speaker 2: The sound is almighty. He was a mean scientist and
Speaker 2: everyone you wanted to be competitive, you better be able
Speaker 2: to get down with it with these new machines or
Speaker 2: you're out.
Speaker 1: Could you also tell me about Areitha and Whitney's It
Speaker 1: isn't it? Wasn't it ever going to be like did
Speaker 1: they do them together or what was that those sessions?
Speaker 2: Like, well, there's two two different record you talk about.
Speaker 2: Now you're talking. You asked first about the George Michael record.
Speaker 2: I'm excited, okay, I am too. I am too man,
Speaker 2: I am too okay, So dig on I knew waiting
Speaker 2: for me as a Clive Davis pick. Clive said, I
Speaker 2: met with George Michael. He wants to do a song
Speaker 2: with Aretha. He loves the Aretha. I said, okay, and he
Speaker 2: said I found this song. I'm gonna send it to you.
Speaker 2: And then Clive sent me the song and powerful song.
Speaker 2: I went from me, but again it's the magic of
Speaker 2: my team to bring those chimes with Crawdle on the
Speaker 2: Syns guitar on the very beginning against the drum. You
Speaker 2: have to understand at that time you had to have
Speaker 2: this new sound before anybody opened the mouths this The
Speaker 2: sound of the record had to be like Ahead, kind
Speaker 2: of like Motown. Was the hit No You won't hit
Speaker 2: you know what I mean. So in the electronic world,
Speaker 2: we have to put that thing down it sounds good
Speaker 2: in this room, and then lay it all out with
Speaker 2: the vocals back in vocals, all sounding finished. And then
Speaker 2: when I went to Detroit, I've had three days and
Speaker 2: they were on tape. So we only have ten tracks.
Speaker 2: A piece for a reth Inn for George. Wreatha comes
Speaker 2: in the first day, lays out her verses and choruses
Speaker 2: and then not blowing on the end. I want to
Speaker 2: save that for a live thing with George. Then the
Speaker 2: next day comes in, George Areatha's not there. George is
Speaker 2: very nervous. He's very nervous, and he's a control freak.
Speaker 2: He's only produced himself. He's only had one guy produced
Speaker 2: him from that dude thing, you know, it's Chris. Besides that,
Speaker 2: he's done his own masterpieces. So we have ten tracks
Speaker 2: for George. I'm gonna just say this because this is
Speaker 2: important for my life. George goes on the mic and
Speaker 2: he sings the song, and he goes almost through damn
Speaker 2: ten those tracks. He goes through those damn ten tracks,
Speaker 2: and I happen to know the first four tracks are
Speaker 2: my record because he was so strong. As he's gone
Speaker 2: to the sixth and seventh and eighth track is diminishing
Speaker 2: a little bit. He says to me, go back over
Speaker 2: those first tracks. I want to do more vocals. And
Speaker 2: that's when I became a producer, and I said, no,
Speaker 2: we're not doing that. These four tracks, that's my record,
Speaker 2: that's the record. You think you're getting better, but in
Speaker 2: fact you're diminishing.
Speaker 1: How do you Jedi mind trick an artist to get
Speaker 1: out of their head.
Speaker 2: You have to say dis trust me. That's all you
Speaker 2: got to do. Because you say, go home, let me
Speaker 2: comp this. When you come back tomorrow, I play, I
Speaker 2: sleep all night, go home. I'm gonna put it together.
Speaker 2: And when you hear tomorrow, you're come in fresh to
Speaker 2: do your backing vote. You come in fresh to your
Speaker 2: ad libs with the Queen. Get your Rest's be the
Speaker 2: challenge and if anything bothers you tomorrow, then we can
Speaker 2: do that. After I've had a chance to call him
Speaker 2: through what I know is my hit record. Then he
Speaker 2: said okay, But he looked at me like, who are
Speaker 2: you to talk to like this? You know, he looked
Speaker 2: at me like, you know who you think you are? Bad.
Speaker 2: Let him know, George, you think you're getting better, but
Speaker 2: in fact these first tracks were mighty. So then he
Speaker 2: just he gave in. He gave in the next day.
Speaker 2: That was genius because now he's meeting the queen, and
Speaker 2: the queen's happened to meeting him because he's a big star.
Speaker 2: And then what it is, we have two mics. I
Speaker 2: have enough to do four rounds of ad lits on
Speaker 2: the ending with two tracks a piece. And Aretha goes
Speaker 2: easy on those first tracks. She's, you know, just feeling
Speaker 2: them out like a prize It's like a prize fighter.
Speaker 2: She's a fucking prize Fighter's a prize fighter. On the
Speaker 2: third and fourth go rounds, she let him have it, man,
Speaker 2: And that's on that record. Would you hear? And he stunned,
Speaker 2: He's stopped because he could have a power no one can.
Speaker 2: So what I'm saying to you is, I'm very proud
Speaker 2: of that record now on because it's number one because
Speaker 2: the friendship that Jeorde and I made of him trusting
Speaker 2: me and me having to be strong to say no stopping.
Speaker 2: So like that, I can tell you, did you do.
Speaker 1: The same process Whitney and Aretha? Like, do you prefer
Speaker 1: them to sing apart or that song they were together.
Speaker 1: Cut the tracks here, go to Detroit. You're not it
Speaker 1: sound with my enginet dave phrase. We fly together.
Speaker 2: It sound in the same studios where George Wilt be
Speaker 2: hanging out. I know we won't the funk all that
Speaker 2: stuff in the whole same rooms.
Speaker 1: Q tip has that board? Now who does Q tip
Speaker 1: has the API board?
Speaker 2: Yes? Okay board? So what was that session?
Speaker 1: It's again like you have two women at the top
Speaker 1: of their game, two gods at the top of their game.
Speaker 1: How are you refereeing how the song's gonna go? Well
Speaker 1: that you're allowed to tell me, And I can tell
Speaker 1: by the look on your face.
Speaker 2: You gotta hold some stuff back. They're both in heaven.
Speaker 2: They're both looking down upon us right now on the
Speaker 2: hairs and they and they give me love because it
Speaker 2: was love. But this is what I gotta share with you,
Speaker 2: which you know, Aretha Franklin, I mentioned to you a
Speaker 2: prize fighter. It is true Whitney Houston's one of the
Speaker 2: greatest of all time. But Aretha Whitney with Aretha Wreatha
Speaker 2: was a little girl when her mother sang back up
Speaker 2: on those hits with Aretha reada's a little girl, Whitney's
Speaker 2: little girl around those sessions. So Aretha to Whitney is
Speaker 2: like Auntie re read like, let us Auntie ree Red
Speaker 2: so sweet like that. So here I'm gonna go with.
Speaker 2: I'm sitting at the board. Whitney is sitting on the floor.
Speaker 2: We get there early. She's on the floor. Time. You
Speaker 2: can't read this here. She's just frost leg on the floor.
Speaker 2: When Aretha comes to the door in her fur coat
Speaker 2: and her prize fighter mode, like when the Narrow goes
Speaker 2: into his modes to make his movies. Already in character.
Speaker 2: She's in character to take this man or keep her man.
Speaker 2: So she looks at me, she goes, where is she?
Speaker 2: That kind of harsh like that? Where is she? Where
Speaker 2: is she? Now? You throw me off? Where is she? Wait? Oh, oh,
Speaker 2: you mean Whitney. She's right here on the floor. And
Speaker 2: then she peers down and look at Whitney. You know. Oh,
Speaker 2: so you're miss Houston and Whitney's life Auntie Reary. The
Speaker 2: cast was spelt right there. The song would be like,
Speaker 2: how are you going to take my man? How you
Speaker 2: gonna even sing about taking my man? She put that
Speaker 2: that that that thing on the right from the very beginning,
Speaker 2: and from the very beginning we did the song. Whitney
Speaker 2: is so effortless at that time with her vocals, she
Speaker 2: did the most killer if I've ever heard her do.
Speaker 2: And then she left because she could feel that it
Speaker 2: wasn't a good vibe. And Retha stated, and Retha said,
Speaker 2: go to that part of the tape where she said
Speaker 2: she did that that cred thing. She didn't pushed me
Speaker 2: in right after it, okay, And we did, and she
Speaker 2: punched me out there again. Make sure I do what
Speaker 2: I want to do, because she wanted to make sure
Speaker 2: she was bringing her fire as strong as what we're
Speaker 2: dead done, just effortlessly, and we did. And then when
Speaker 2: she got what she won, which was killer, she left.
Speaker 2: But then she called me up on the phone and said,
Speaker 2: do you think I was too harsh today? Said, well,
Speaker 2: you might want to give her. He a phone call, says, yes,
Speaker 2: I will. She said I wasn't character for the song.
Speaker 2: I said, I know you were, Damn. When you're in character,
Speaker 2: I mean, you're like, you're like life to death. Man.
Speaker 2: But that's the thing.
Speaker 1: I always see a duet as like a collaboration. I
Speaker 1: never like I'm not thinking that like Michael Jackson and
Speaker 1: Paul McCartney about to start brawling, you know, like I'm
Speaker 1: an out sing you, you're out singing me. I think,
Speaker 1: as the average listener, I wouldn't listen from the standpoint
Speaker 1: of like who's going to win this battle? I'm thinking
Speaker 1: of like how are they going to to create magic together?
Speaker 1: It's so weird that how artists getting their heads. Well, wait,
Speaker 1: I might as well throw one. One thing is because
Speaker 1: if I remember correctly, I believe on that record the
Speaker 1: opening song is James Brown and Aretha Franklin. Yes, how
Speaker 1: how was that session? Because I've talked to Full Force
Speaker 1: before about working with James Brown, and there's there's a
Speaker 1: lot of puncheons and whatnot, like like.
Speaker 2: James, James was is my hero. You know, you're a drummer,
Speaker 2: so you know the power of Cole Sweat, The power
Speaker 2: Cole Sweat with what they put down was just like
Speaker 2: so far ahead. If you want to be respected as
Speaker 2: any kind drummer, you have to be able to play
Speaker 2: Coled Cole Sweat. And so here I am in this
Speaker 2: room with James Brown. You call mister Brown, You'll call
Speaker 2: him James, mister Brown, and we had he said, I
Speaker 2: want a few cards, And first of all, he thought,
Speaker 2: where is she? He wanted to see Aretha. I said,
Speaker 2: we she's not here. You're coming in and sing your parts,
Speaker 2: and I'm gonna go to try but her parts. So
Speaker 2: he was sad because you really had a kind of
Speaker 2: a romantic thing in his mind about Aretha. Right, it'd
Speaker 2: be great that the king and the queen came together.
Speaker 2: And he was all there, you know. So we made
Speaker 2: these big Q cards. So here I'm holding big Q cards.
Speaker 2: You know, I'm kind of throwing away as he's singing
Speaker 2: the song, throwing cue cards. But that's how he recorded.
Speaker 2: And he's a killer just doing his grunts and his
Speaker 2: stuff and then reading the Q card and kind of
Speaker 2: being spontaneous. It was a killer session. I loved him.
Speaker 2: I loved you. And also we had a I knew
Speaker 2: he less like organ, so I have my organ in here.
Speaker 2: You go and fill up with the organ play that
Speaker 2: you need. Yeah I would, Yeah, no, I would, because
Speaker 2: I know I make him happy. See and then he
Speaker 2: will say, use the only one keeping the funk alive. Damn,
Speaker 2: mister Brown, thank you for saying that, use the only
Speaker 2: one chieving the funk alive damn Okay. So then I
Speaker 2: went back and put Aretha on Andreatha killed it too.
Speaker 2: He just wasn't meant to be. And Prince, you're bro
Speaker 2: did the remix on that record? Did you know that right?
Speaker 2: That's right? I okay, I heard I heard an outtake
Speaker 2: of it. You are correct? Yeah.
Speaker 1: I apologize for hogging this entire interview.
Speaker 2: Do you have any questions?
Speaker 4: I wanted to ask about the Temptations stay.
Speaker 3: I just thought that was just a brilliant move of
Speaker 3: sampling my girl to make a new song. So tell
Speaker 3: me about how that record came together and what that
Speaker 3: session was like.
Speaker 2: Man, I love the Temptations, Temptations four tops. That all
Speaker 2: that movement out of the motown list is just staggering.
Speaker 2: We're still learning from that catalog. We're still learning from
Speaker 2: most people. We're still learning. We're still trying to be
Speaker 2: half as good. That's what they put what they did. Man,
Speaker 2: we're just so the work Temptations is a big deal.
Speaker 2: And then Otis Williams is the only living memory when
Speaker 2: I worked with him, and I loved his wisdom, so
Speaker 2: it brought some out of me after I met with him,
Speaker 2: to record some songs. It brought this out of me
Speaker 2: to kind of go, what can I do that would
Speaker 2: just really be something different? And I just God said,
Speaker 2: you sample the beginning of My Girl boom boom boom
Speaker 2: boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom, you know,
Speaker 2: and put a new song on top kind of what
Speaker 2: was coming out in New York. Again, you had a
Speaker 2: lot of cats taking other records and putting different songs
Speaker 2: on top. So it wasn't a new a brand new thing,
Speaker 2: but it's a brand new thing to do for the temptation,
Speaker 2: that's you know what I mean. So that's where did
Speaker 2: stay tune the moon and Baby rock Me Slow like
Speaker 2: I want to rock you on top of My Girl?
Speaker 2: So I had to guess Wigie Robinson half the song
Speaker 2: because he wrote my Girl no problem, and we got
Speaker 2: to know the other half. And it became a hit
Speaker 2: for us, and they got a platinum record band of
Speaker 2: all those years here there plotum and then they're going for
Speaker 2: the Grammy and all that stuff. So it made me
Speaker 2: very happy. But that's what it was. I was just
Speaker 2: really wanting to have a hit, and I thought, if
Speaker 2: I take something old like a wedding, something old, something new,
Speaker 2: that might be the thing. And it was.
Speaker 1: When you're approached about Mariah Carrey's first album, Yes, Now,
Speaker 1: unlike Whitney Houston, which again nobody had a ankling of
Speaker 1: a clue, what was headed down the road? Now that
Speaker 1: you know that there's a standard a road to follow.
Speaker 1: When Tommy and Donnie are bringing you Mariah Carey, are
Speaker 1: they putting the invisible pressure on you to put some
Speaker 1: numbers on the board, just like you did for your
Speaker 1: other star student.
Speaker 2: Yeah, no, there are. We're not talking numbers, We're not
Speaker 2: talking pressure. It's just the first folk call get from Tommy,
Speaker 2: not Donnie. Donnie I knew from working with Clive. Now
Speaker 2: he's over Sony, but I didn't even have a relationship
Speaker 2: to him and Sony yet. So it's really Tommy called me.
Speaker 2: He says, I found this girl and I want to
Speaker 2: send you a picture and a song on her, and
Speaker 2: then you know, and if you like her, let me know,
Speaker 2: said he said, But don't mack my babe. Okay, all right,
Speaker 2: I'm married. And the mail come was a little tiny
Speaker 2: slide of her that big and a cassette. So I
Speaker 2: listened to the casset and said, oh, yeah, she sounds
Speaker 2: really nice, you know, so I let her know. You know,
Speaker 2: she's whatever I'm hearing is cool. Would you fly to
Speaker 2: New York come Meter? I said yes, I will, because
Speaker 2: don't forget, Matola was a present for Sonya, now a
Speaker 2: big lady. I knew if he had his attention on something,
Speaker 2: it could be like something we really want to like
Speaker 2: take serious. So here I go to New York, come Meter.
Speaker 2: And in all respect Mariah, when I first met he
Speaker 2: was extremely shy, not the Mariah you see now where
Speaker 2: she's up front and talking and you know, and like
Speaker 2: there's the she would have them hair on one side
Speaker 2: of her face and talk to you with the hair
Speaker 2: on one side of the face, very quiet. And I
Speaker 2: would say, well, we're like, well, what do you what
Speaker 2: artists do you like? You know? Oh, I like George Michael.
Speaker 2: That's great. I just work with George Michael. You know,
Speaker 2: just did that. I know you're waiting for me, So
Speaker 2: I said, you know what, why don't we go? I
Speaker 2: can hear you singing a Michae. Let's just go to
Speaker 2: some studio and just not to sit on and talk.
Speaker 2: Let's go and do some music. So we did. We
Speaker 2: went over to Sony Studio, a mike for her, a
Speaker 2: mike for me, and my friend wrote piano and we
Speaker 2: wrote four songs. And I was surprised how fast she writes,
Speaker 2: and then I was surprised how good she sings. Then
Speaker 2: I was even more surprised that she could do like
Speaker 2: a young Michael Jackson. Well, like, that's not easy to
Speaker 2: be like to imitate a young Michael Jackson. She could
Speaker 2: do that. Then it hit me who I was messing
Speaker 2: with that it wasn't just some other whatever. How did
Speaker 2: you discover the whistle? Because you unleashed the whistle to
Speaker 2: the world. Well in honesty vision of love where she
Speaker 2: goes it in that big whistle. She cut that vocal
Speaker 2: on her own with her other cat. I didn't cut
Speaker 2: that whistle. They had already cut that jam. Well, I
Speaker 2: got with her. I did a jam called I Don't
Speaker 2: want to cry, I don't want to cry, My bad,
Speaker 2: my bad, okay okay, And then I got and then
Speaker 2: we got into all that on that record, knowing, wow,
Speaker 2: you know she could do it. So then we really
Speaker 2: just perfected it and just got what she wanted. And
Speaker 2: then I started realizing what a perfection she is. She
Speaker 2: even had me send that tape back in your because
Speaker 2: she wanted to fix on one riff, only send tape
Speaker 2: across the country, well one rift, which already genius it was,
Speaker 2: but we did. That's how I realized what her standard
Speaker 2: was at that time. She wanted me so shy to now,
Speaker 2: being like, send me the tape. So we did. We
Speaker 2: got it back and it wasn't that much different, but
Speaker 2: she was a damn killer. And then from there Tommy says,
Speaker 2: what you're doing on these songs, I want Vision of
Speaker 2: Love to sound like and the album. So then they
Speaker 2: sent us Vision and then we just we went in
Speaker 2: and made Vision little sound more just the track and
Speaker 2: with her voice and everything like what we're doing on
Speaker 2: the other music. That's what we did. And then she exploded. Man,
Speaker 2: she just exploded.
Speaker 1: So is that part exhausting because you know, La and
Speaker 1: Face said the same thing, jam and Lewis said the
Speaker 1: same thing, which is basically, before you even work with
Speaker 1: an artist, you have to go and get to know
Speaker 1: them and spend time with them. Is there a situation
Speaker 1: in which it was a struggle to get the artist
Speaker 1: to be vulnerable, to trust you to okay, you.
Speaker 2: Know what I do? You know, Quesse, I got you.
Speaker 2: You know, I did a quest. I pushed past it.
Speaker 2: I ignore it. Try this, try that, try this so
Speaker 2: fast they're off balance. Now before you know it, things
Speaker 2: are just magically happening.
Speaker 1: What was the hardest song you had to cut? Like,
Speaker 1: go back, recall it, recall it, recall a Lover for Life?
Speaker 2: Why wasn't happy with Lover for Life for Whitney? And
Speaker 2: not because cut it great? But he had a demo
Speaker 2: of it, and the demo had a bass rum pattern
Speaker 2: on five, it wasn't in four. Kept changing. I thought
Speaker 2: that wasn't going to be the way because you wouldn't
Speaker 2: even land on one. So he cut it. I cut
Speaker 2: it my way. I cut it in Needa Baker way,
Speaker 2: I cut it defetd in ways you know. But he
Speaker 2: couldn't get happy. I said, well, what is it with
Speaker 2: this thing? You know? Was the demo? I love? But
Speaker 2: the demo, just so you know, the base trump is
Speaker 2: moving and it's not landing on down beach, which we
Speaker 2: expect as listeners in a way, he goes, well, maybe
Speaker 2: that's why I like it about that demo, that it's
Speaker 2: kind of floating. I go, well, then let me do
Speaker 2: that if that's what it is, and then he was happy.
Speaker 2: He wanted the base to move around, so yeah, then
Speaker 2: we got happy. So when you have the hardest song
Speaker 2: was the hardest song. It was just discovering when people
Speaker 2: like a demo and they liked something that working about
Speaker 2: a demo, and you got to realize, what is he
Speaker 2: like about that thing?
Speaker 6: You know?
Speaker 1: Wow, one of the most heartbreaking things. I think when
Speaker 1: she passed away, I believe I heard you say that
Speaker 1: you guys were considering cutting brainstorms.
Speaker 2: Loving is really my game. Yes, she was crazy about
Speaker 2: that record. I didn't even know that record that much.
Speaker 2: She was saying, yeah, yes, And I said, oh, I've
Speaker 2: heard it just I love that record. Would you cut
Speaker 2: it for me? Said sure, I will, honey, I dodn't
Speaker 2: think you want me to do. And I cut it
Speaker 2: and I cut it, and it was mean, it's in
Speaker 2: my vault right now. She cut her vocals. No, so
Speaker 2: I called this estate. I called down to that she
Speaker 2: in Atlanta. Oh, well, she's just not feeling well. I
Speaker 2: want to sing right now now, and now she's going
Speaker 2: off to do it to it now she's doing it.
Speaker 2: Would always be like something going on. I said, but
Speaker 2: I'm bringing what she's asking for. Well, she just can't
Speaker 2: do it. So we never could get her to sing it.
Speaker 2: And then I saw her for the last time after
Speaker 2: I cut it at one of those Clive things the
Speaker 2: year before she passed, right, you know, and she came
Speaker 2: and jumped on me. We just like hugged and kissed them.
Speaker 2: Ran Jackson was a witnessing it. It's like, oh my god,
Speaker 2: you know, and she just loved each other. And I said,
Speaker 2: I got it. I cut what you want me to cut?
Speaker 2: Oh I want to sing it? Yeah, I know, let's
Speaker 2: do it. But it wasn't to be.
Speaker 1: Yeah, man, Like Balita Woods of Brainstorm was like one
Speaker 1: of the most unsung champions of soul singing. When people
Speaker 1: think of Brainstorm, they think of this must be in
Speaker 1: heaven for quiet Storm.
Speaker 2: But like Lovan is really my game was like that
Speaker 2: was a thing, like I remember that when I was
Speaker 2: a kid. But you but you have to say one
Speaker 2: more thing. It was Whitney. Also, Sugists suggests that I
Speaker 2: cut on every woman for Bodyguard. That wasn't Clyde, that
Speaker 2: was Whitney. So she had a really good idea, you know,
Speaker 2: of what she wanted to get into like that record
Speaker 2: you love a brainstorm. So there you go.
Speaker 1: Ah, all right, I might as well asking, because I'm
Speaker 1: not going to have an opportunity to ever again.
Speaker 4: What was it?
Speaker 2: What was it like working with with with Eddie Murphy
Speaker 2: because you did push your mouth on me, love Eddie, Eddie.
Speaker 2: Eddie came here man first, Yes you're in the video. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I'm a massive Eddie fanh and and Rick James at
Speaker 2: the Sauce Wield studio. You know they did the Parer
Speaker 2: Party at the time. Wow, you know, they had massive success.
Speaker 2: So Eddie was like swinging. It wasn't like some joke anymore.
Speaker 2: I was like, you're you're recording artists, man. So I said, well,
Speaker 2: what do you want to write about? What kind of
Speaker 2: song you want to do? I said, you know, just
Speaker 2: give me some inspression what you want to talk about?
Speaker 2: And he said, put your mouth on me.
Speaker 1: Okay, but you me his version of kiss or something like, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's the vibe.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I figure, just vibe, just vibe. And we did it,
Speaker 2: you know, and I loved him and he again all
Speaker 2: those great voices in here, Michael, everybody, Elvis, pred anything.
Speaker 2: He's just a gifted cat man and but very quiet
Speaker 2: when he's not working that are discovered. Kind like Richard
Speaker 2: Pryor these great comedians are very quiet when they're not
Speaker 2: doing what they do.
Speaker 4: They live in their head. You gotta you know, you
Speaker 4: gotta you know it makes sense.
Speaker 3: Well, this is my question. I just wanted to ask
Speaker 3: about a song. It was on the last My Visional
Speaker 3: album and you wrote called in My Life. Do you
Speaker 3: remember about anything about that session of writing?
Speaker 2: That was the most beautiful album done at Honky Chateau
Speaker 2: in France, out in the country, and it was so
Speaker 2: beautiful because we had this massive room and it was
Speaker 2: like a kind of a barn in that the back window,
Speaker 2: back door behind my drums could open so you could
Speaker 2: see the whole comfry side out back behind my drums,
Speaker 2: which took me more time to mic the drums and
Speaker 2: get the sound I wanted because the openness. But in
Speaker 2: that room was just so pastoral in the feeling. And
Speaker 2: that's when we cut on that album, all this high synthesizer, guitar,
Speaker 2: inner worlds and miles out. It was just like, oh
Speaker 2: my God. After all that, then Vishnu said thank you
Speaker 2: for the flowers and trees and just this beautiful little
Speaker 2: thing now kind of chime on something, you know, whatever
Speaker 2: I bring to it a little bridge area. But it
Speaker 2: was really Vishnu that had that. Thank you for and
Speaker 2: Harold King came to me make it Kunga's acoustic piano
Speaker 2: completely opposite. Were just cut and you know, if it's
Speaker 2: just something else, man, I gotta say about that guy, man, he.
Speaker 3: Said, no, man, we my group, my right group, our
Speaker 3: little brother. We actually we sampled that song like and
Speaker 3: we cleared it.
Speaker 4: And it was like literally at the.
Speaker 3: Last minute, we you know, had our people working on
Speaker 3: this stuff, but we hadn't heard anything. And so a
Speaker 3: buddy of mine had played with my vision in his band.
Speaker 3: He was like, yo, man, I got his email, we
Speaker 3: can try. I'm like, all right, I'll try. Jill emailed
Speaker 3: and was like, hey man, this is my group. By
Speaker 3: tell him what it is.
Speaker 4: He was on vacation with his family and he's like,
Speaker 4: hey man, I'm on vacation, but you know, I think
Speaker 4: it's great. You know, we'll do it, and and they
Speaker 4: cleared it and so thank you man, like that was
Speaker 4: a beautiful song and.
Speaker 1: Is there do you have a close but no cigar
Speaker 1: moment in an artist he was supposed to work with.
Speaker 2: Not on work, but you know there are a few.
Speaker 2: I met with Madonna and the album What Year Well
Speaker 2: she had just made. I gave her those high heels
Speaker 2: that she wore that it's not called Borderline, the yellow
Speaker 2: high heels that those get from me. She can't visit me.
Speaker 2: I picked up the airport in sant San Francisco. We
Speaker 2: had a great meeting. She loves Stacy Lattisol. She loved
Speaker 2: my music with Stacy, but she's hot on that kind
Speaker 2: of vib And then she went to New York. But
Speaker 2: a weekly she called said, you know what, I'm going
Speaker 2: to stay in New York. I'm working now. Rogers said, okay.
Speaker 2: She goes, I'm just loving New York. I go, I
Speaker 2: get it. I get it. I get it because I
Speaker 2: wasn't hopped about of here relaxing. You know. She goes.
Speaker 2: Then she made lack a version. Damn you gifted in Borderline. Yeah,
Speaker 2: it's crazy.
Speaker 8: I need my one two questions, and I just got
Speaker 8: to pick your brain about a couple of names that
Speaker 8: our viewers may or may not remember or no from
Speaker 8: your early days as drummer. I'm a big CTI Records
Speaker 8: Fan as people might know, Creed Taylor and you worked
Speaker 8: with Alan Holdsworth on an album called Velvet Darkness in
Speaker 8: nineteen seventy six.
Speaker 2: Do you have any memories of those sessions and Alan, Yes,
Speaker 2: Alan asked me to come and record them as ct
Speaker 2: and I. He's a guitar player, by the way, Yes,
Speaker 2: he's one of the most brilliant guitar players in the world,
Speaker 2: Alan Holdsworth, and we all know he's very sensitive. And
Speaker 2: I go in there and on keyboards as a cat.
Speaker 2: It was from Tony Williams band Ala Pasquad clavin at
Speaker 2: keys and on basis from weather Port Alfonso Johnson, Oh wow.
Speaker 2: And I go into with my drum kit. It's a
Speaker 2: white gratch kid with the enameled double painted on the inside,
Speaker 2: which sounds they aren't like vibes clear, but they're but
Speaker 2: they're mighty like that would. And so then Alan starts
Speaker 2: showing us these songs and as he saw it, shows
Speaker 2: the song. Then we play the song and they would
Speaker 2: cut it. Then we'd maybee cut it maybe a second time,
Speaker 2: and that will be that. Then you know, we kind
Speaker 2: of went thro those songs like that. In his mind,
Speaker 2: he's thinking He's just kind of showing us the songs
Speaker 2: and we're going to, you know, come back another time
Speaker 2: or whatever you think. I don't know, but Creed Taylor
Speaker 2: and Rudy van Gelo, the great engineer, they were loving
Speaker 2: it and that was what they wanted to get, that live, fresh,
Speaker 2: raw vibe. And then they wanted to put it out
Speaker 2: and Alan wanted to do more, do more takes and
Speaker 2: whatever you wanted to do, you know. So it's some
Speaker 2: discrepancy between his got concept and maybe what theirs was.
Speaker 2: But I was just doing what I was asked to
Speaker 2: do and being paid to do whatever it was. So
Speaker 2: that was the album. It came out, and I'm proud
Speaker 2: of it. I'm proud of say I worked with Alban
Speaker 2: was worth. Also, I want to say one more thing.
Speaker 2: In that same room, there were two pianos, black pianos
Speaker 2: that were owned by Rudy van geld with was a
Speaker 2: great engineer that Herbie Hancock or silver these genius had
Speaker 2: played on these damn pianos. And his wife had cancer,
Speaker 2: so he needed some money, so he said, I want
Speaker 2: to sell one of my pianos. I just made forty
Speaker 2: thousand dollars with wired sales and Jeff Beck, so I said,
Speaker 2: I'll buy one of these pianos, and I bought it
Speaker 2: and that became my piano for letting be Angel everywhere.
Speaker 2: I love all my hits on that same piano, So
Speaker 2: that's part of that connection wise investment.
Speaker 1: Goddamn.
Speaker 8: You also played on a historic recording on a Jocko
Speaker 8: Pistorius record with Sam and Dave and come on, come over.
Speaker 8: Do you have any memories of that?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 1: I do.
Speaker 2: Jocko and I have care friends from Miami. That's where
Speaker 2: I first met him. That's why I suggested I bring
Speaker 2: him to Weatherport. When I was asked journal weather Report,
Speaker 2: I don't want to join with it, but I want
Speaker 2: to go tyy Bowhen and do rock and rollet panel
Speaker 2: the stage and go that way. And they said, well,
Speaker 2: can you bring a baseball? And said, well, I know
Speaker 2: a cat crazy named Jocko Florida, so Joe's I think
Speaker 2: I've heard him. So we flew him out to LA
Speaker 2: and he came and does this great gam called Canniball
Speaker 2: and Black Market. He starts playing that song and add
Speaker 2: all this stuff to because you so had so much ideas,
Speaker 2: and then Joe stops in the middle and says, don't
Speaker 2: put that shit on my song, and it kind of
Speaker 2: freezes Jocko, you know what I mean. And what it
Speaker 2: does is it makes Jocko come Jocko. Now he's more thoughtful.
Speaker 2: Everything he plays puts it in the right place, and
Speaker 2: people kind of go, damn. He is genius. After that,
Speaker 2: he joined that band and made Weather Heavy Weather, with
Speaker 2: a remark you made teen Town those great pieces. He
Speaker 2: does a solo album and then because we're friends, he
Speaker 2: has to me to come player, come on, come over.
Speaker 2: And I went to place on top of a garage,
Speaker 2: the home studio of the great drummer Bobby calling me
Speaker 2: from Blood Footing Tears. He was a produce set album.
Speaker 2: So this is his studio on top of the garage
Speaker 2: where I played his drums, a royal horn, cats, Tom Malone,
Speaker 2: those type people, and then the rhythm section all in
Speaker 2: the same room with Jocko and Sam Moore. Maybe like that. Yeah,
Speaker 2: it was live, just the funk, but didn't the funk,
Speaker 2: you know, it's like one or two things. That was it.
Speaker 2: But Jocko is mean in heaven right now you're looking down.
Speaker 2: He's mean. He's like all lay on the base mean.
Speaker 1: My final question, because every hip hop producer will kill
Speaker 1: me if I don't ask this. Because both you and
Speaker 1: Ed Green are credited with drumming on Come Dancing. Who
Speaker 1: is playing the actual breakbeat at the top of that song?
Speaker 2: Is that you or Ed Green? Mean I wrote that song,
Speaker 2: that I cut the song? Yeah, And then later on
Speaker 2: when I heard on the record, after I bought the record.
Speaker 2: Quite frankly, I heard ed greena on there and it
Speaker 2: was cool because he just made a little even fatter.
Speaker 2: They overdubed the moments, making fatter. It's like damn. I
Speaker 2: In fact, in fact that all the Jon Hammer stuff,
Speaker 2: all that stuff, I'm wired. I didn't hear any of
Speaker 2: stuff till it came out and bought it. John overdubbed
Speaker 2: all his stuff, ed bring it. Overdubbed this thing. That's
Speaker 2: how it was. In fact, Jon Hammer didn mixed the album.
Speaker 2: It wasn't even mixed by Beatle producer George Martin. It
Speaker 2: was mixed by Yon because Jeff went up there and
Speaker 2: fell in love. That's what you want to ad you sound,
Speaker 2: and that's what it was. Man.
Speaker 9: So I started out boom Scott boom, Scott boom, boom,
Speaker 9: Scot boom, boom boom Scott boom Scott boom book boom
Speaker 9: boom bang. I don't don't gang a boom bump a
Speaker 9: boom pump skany pump, oh bull skang a boom bum skag.
Speaker 2: I all that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, fans of a Balloon, Mind State and day La
Speaker 1: Soul are very familiar with that drum break in.
Speaker 2: I had to ask that question. It's it's the song
Speaker 2: they sampled on a area codes. Look.
Speaker 1: I have to say that very rarely does an episode
Speaker 1: of Quest of Supreme.
Speaker 2: Go beyond what I thought it would be.
Speaker 1: And the fact that there's even twelve more hours of
Speaker 1: questions I have for you shows how much of a god.
Speaker 2: You are in your creativity.
Speaker 1: And I just simply want to thank you for taking
Speaker 1: the time out for these last almost two hours to
Speaker 1: share these stories, man, because like the world doesn't know
Speaker 1: how awesome you are man, and you know, I just
Speaker 1: say thank.
Speaker 2: You, thank you, ques Man. I'm a fan of I
Speaker 2: love your work. I love your brin's how you bring
Speaker 2: a tuba in with your drums on the shows and
Speaker 2: things like that. You bring these eclectic things. Wow, that's
Speaker 2: keeping the funk raw Man, So dig you man would
Speaker 2: love to work on something with you when I'm out
Speaker 2: there next.
Speaker 1: We got to meet in person and shop it up
Speaker 1: for something, so we'll definitely the same in contact.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: On behalf of the family of Quest Love Supreme, font Tigoelo,
Speaker 1: super Bill.
Speaker 2: I'm giving them new names.
Speaker 1: Steve, Layah cousin, Jake and Brittany and Fontigelo and the
Speaker 1: Great Narta Michael Walton. This is an awesome damn episode
Speaker 1: of Quest Love Supreme.
Speaker 4: We've been waiting on this one for a long time. Man, seriously,
Speaker 4: thank you for doing it.
Speaker 2: Cats man, I really love it. This has been a
Speaker 2: highlight for me. I knew it was coming, and uh,
Speaker 2: you know, bag type of thing is that when you interviews,
Speaker 2: you know, you want to make sure you're saying the
Speaker 2: right things, that you're giving the love. And a lot
Speaker 2: of our people were talking about and having the jockal
Speaker 2: on that we through the Whitney's and they're looking down
Speaker 2: and with us right now. Like what you say, man,
Speaker 2: you better keep keep keep me alive. At'll be forgetting
Speaker 2: about me now. I'll whoop you. We'll see on the
Speaker 2: next go around.
Speaker 7: Thank you, hey, thank y'all for listening to Quest Love Supreme.
Speaker 6: This podcast is hosted by an alf Ro, a mouth,
Speaker 6: a rapper, an engineer, and a man with too many
Speaker 6: jobs aka A mere quest Love Thompson, Why are You
Speaker 6: a Saint?
Speaker 7: Clair Fonte, Coleman, Sugar, Steve.
Speaker 6: Mandel, and I'm Table the executive producers who get paid
Speaker 6: the big bucks A.
Speaker 7: Mere quest Love Thompson, Sean g and Brian Calhoun ask
Speaker 7: them for money.
Speaker 6: Produced by the people who do all the real work
Speaker 6: Britney Benjamin, Jake Payne and Yes, why you is Saint Claire?
Speaker 6: And by another person who doesn't real work Alex Conroy
Speaker 6: and those who approved the real work.
Speaker 7: Produced for iHeart by Noah Brown.
Speaker 2: Much Love Supreme is a production of iHeart Radio.
Speaker 1: For more podcasts from iHeart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app,
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.