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Speaker 1: Questloft Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio.

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Speaker 2: So y'all, June is Black Music Month, and every year we use this time to acknowledge something that really can't be overstated.

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Speaker 3: Black music is one.

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Speaker 2: Of the foundational forces behind modern culture. Now, back when Teams Supreme and I were doing the Questlove Supreme and now on the Quest Loft Show, we've always tried to create a space for those stories. So for the entire month of June, we're bringing you an episode every day focus on the history, influence, and ongoing evolution of black music. A team and I dug through the catalog and selected episodes that feel especially meaningful for now, conversations that inform, entertain and connect the dots between where this music comes from where it's headed. Now, alongside those, we'll be releasing four new episodes of Quest Left Show feature trailblazers and innovators and cultural connectors and visionaries who represent the past, present, and future of black music.

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Speaker 1: I want you to enjoy this.

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Speaker 3: Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. What's up? This is Quest Love and this is.

00:01:23
Speaker 2: Another episode of Quest Love Supreme. We got the Team Supreme with us right now. The one and only Suka Steve yo Yo. How goes it to Oh wow.

00:01:36
Speaker 3: Oh you're your shock that I actually care about your well being? Yes, but no, I'm feeling good. Everything's good.

00:01:43
Speaker 2: So glad to be here with Team Supreme and burn gonna be great.

00:01:49
Speaker 3: Fan Ticolo North Carolina.

00:01:52
Speaker 4: Yeah, man, I'm good brother, oh bit chilly.

00:01:53
Speaker 2: Fighting for his uh, his his rights and his masters.

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Speaker 3: And listen, or as we call.

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Speaker 4: It in the music business, Wednesday, whatever.

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Speaker 2: I feel you, I feel you, uh and and our our diva that needs left to uh.

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Speaker 5: That was.

00:02:21
Speaker 6: Instead I'm mad we ain't doing no roll call because I'm just we were doing right now. I would really quill this.

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Speaker 2: I'm just I know, man, we're gonna but by the time, hopefully someone will invent a system that will, you know, fix all the latency problems you know for roll call, uh.

00:02:39
Speaker 3: Ladies and gentlemen.

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Speaker 2: I will say that, speaking of diva, our guest today is probably I mean, she's beyond diva, she is beyond queen, she is beyond legend.

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Speaker 3: She just is.

00:02:54
Speaker 2: And I'll say that I know it's hard to imagine. I'm not trying to sound like Grandpa. I noticed that, like all my tales of music starts with the like well back in my day. But you know it's really it's really hard to imagine like a like a time period in which being in a band like wasn't like a novel idea. And you know, a lot can happen in thirty five years. Yes, we're now living in the age of the solo act, and you know a lot of these acts are chasing perfection.

00:03:29
Speaker 3: We're pre recorded tracks.

00:03:30
Speaker 2: But I mean, there was there was a time in history where you know, where collaboration was key.

00:03:36
Speaker 3: Magic came and and and.

00:03:38
Speaker 2: In numbers, and it was it was a thing to see, you know, to watch people as a unit kick gas. And I will say that our guest really personifies that. You know, the band that she established in the late seventies known as Climax was pretty much you know, I'll say that kind of sort of a nominally consisting of badass women playing instruments, which, you know, sad to say that again, like the fact that that's a novelty shows you like the sad state of where we are right now and music. But you know, this particular band, you know, the hits were a plenty one of the best puns in music. You know ment all pause, the anthemic don't mess with me anthem meeting in the ladies room.

00:04:27
Speaker 6: Not to mention because I'm not in the mood.

00:04:30
Speaker 2: Yeah, and the forever prom anthem from my era on this you so many hits, so many hits, the name sexy he was need love to and everything. Not to mention her work as a producer with Sheeryl Lin, Paul Abdul Medler, Shallamar and I can't wait till we start talking about Madam X. Madame X is probably the most expensive record I ever purchased on eBay. This before I knew that you can rip songs off of YouTube. Anyway, Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome to our show the one and only the legendary Diva of all divas, Burnetette Cooper, The Quest Love Supreme.

00:05:12
Speaker 5: Hello, Hello there, Hi christ Yo.

00:05:16
Speaker 3: I noticed something.

00:05:17
Speaker 2: When a microphone is present, I cannot whistle my whistles. I was trying to whistle when it was just like.

00:05:26
Speaker 3: Look like I was like blowing kisses at us.

00:05:29
Speaker 2: Yeah. Anyway, So the Cooper, how are you today? How's it going?

00:05:35
Speaker 5: I'm doing Wilson honor, honor to be here with all of you.

00:05:40
Speaker 3: Thank you, what what part of the world are you in right now?

00:05:43
Speaker 5: Right now? I'm in Westchester right now. My studio is here, not.

00:05:47
Speaker 6: That, not your west Chester, my west justin Yea, there's a west Chester, California.

00:05:52
Speaker 5: Yes.

00:05:52
Speaker 1: I was like, yo, you're down the block.

00:05:55
Speaker 5: Okay, I thought I got my studio out here. I'm working. Told me to say hello the.

00:06:02
Speaker 3: Legendary Jerry Brown engineer Jerry Brown.

00:06:05
Speaker 5: Yes, yes, is it Christmas in.

00:06:07
Speaker 3: His studio right now? That guy's name, he's coming up.

00:06:11
Speaker 5: Yeah, he told me you hello. He just actually he was here working in my studio. I have a mixing room and he just did. He worked on John Legend.

00:06:19
Speaker 3: Yeah, his Christmas. Yeah. Jerry's world famous for his his Christmas decorations in the.

00:06:25
Speaker 5: Studio, mood lamps and his lights and his candles. And yes, he brings the sexy he does.

00:06:35
Speaker 2: Okay, I've never heard his designs just described as sexy. Like he always look at the cheerful and like when we're there, it's like it's Christmas. I feel like I should be, you know, bringing a gift or whatever.

00:06:46
Speaker 3: But exactly yeah, you know.

00:06:50
Speaker 5: Uh.

00:06:51
Speaker 2: Of course, being on the show puts us in the the position of always having access to a lot of the that we grew up, one that we feel that haven't been praised enough for, haven't gotten that much attention. And what was weird is that I work at thirty Rockefeller Plaza, which I consider is sort of like a university for comedy. That's where like Seth Meyers and The Tonight Show with Jimmy fallon Saturday Night Live and all these these legendary New York shows are shot, and whenever Saturday Night Live is in season, I'm usually there to watch tapings of the show. And this year was like really something special in which just out of nowhere, they did this really awesome sketch.

00:07:42
Speaker 3: Yes, based on the Ladies Room.

00:07:45
Speaker 6: I was hoping you were going to where I could follow.

00:07:46
Speaker 5: Yes, you know what, it's actually the second one, the first one.

00:07:51
Speaker 3: Halle Berry halle Berry right right, Yeah, I totally.

00:07:57
Speaker 2: I remember I was laughing because it was so authentic and so on point. I was, you know, the audience was laughing, but I was laughing like it was funny and I knew the reference point, you know, Whereas I think half the audience, who was like millennials and gen z would just thought like, oh, they're doing some crazy eighties thing that we don't get the reference. And I remember grilling Steve Higgins, who's sort of like Jimmy's sidekick on the Tonight Show. He runs Saturday Night Live, and I just grilled him like, yo, like, you guys did such a deep cut inside joke that like who who in your audience do you think we really remember? Like climax and the very specifics of like you know, Cecily Strong playing the Bernadette Cooper role and Leslie played like it was.

00:08:49
Speaker 3: It was so on point.

00:08:51
Speaker 2: I was really impressed, and I wanted to meet the writers and they were just like, you know, we we like music too, and we go outside the box. Even though they were young riders.

00:08:59
Speaker 3: I was really.

00:09:00
Speaker 2: Impressed that that they gave you guys, like really a really good shout out for your legacy, Like that sketch is gonna go you know down. I feel like that will be on their sizzle real way down the line.

00:09:13
Speaker 5: Yeah, it was great when I saw it. It was you know, you know I watched Saturday Night Live every night, every Saturday night. Yeah, and to sit there and bed, you know, you got your popcorn and all of a sudden, bam, it's like, oh wow, it was great. It was a great honor and you didn't.

00:09:26
Speaker 3: Know it was coming. That's awesome, isn't it?

00:09:28
Speaker 6: Isn't that good from a license and perspective too, right, Like when they do something like that burned that it is a good tho you for real?

00:09:34
Speaker 5: You know sometimes you know, when royalty time comes, you know, then I would really know sometimes sometimes it is, and sometimes you know, sometimes it just sparks and I don't call them up and go, hey, where's my check? I don't do that. I just I just kind of enjoyed the moment and and you know, I'm honored.

00:09:51
Speaker 3: Yeah.

00:09:52
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think like when when it's done in parody, it's not the same as like clearing a sample. Wow, kind of they're kind of parody laws that, but I think they actually did meeting in the ladies. Yeah, So it's just it's like a standard payment thing. But hopefully that will plant seeds with you know, with an audience, and they'll do the research.

00:10:15
Speaker 6: And they'll find the record and.

00:10:20
Speaker 3: That's how that's how legends are made.

00:10:22
Speaker 5: And promoters will will remember that we're here.

00:10:25
Speaker 6: Yes, oh wow, I didn't think that.

00:10:28
Speaker 2: So many questions about that so I would like to know because I really don't you know, besides like the occasional coverage and like ride On magazine shout out to Cynthia Horner, I really don't know. I mean there's not there haven't been that much in depth interviews with you guys, even though you guys were doing the numbers. You guys were like doing massive pop hits. So I'm glad that we finally have this chance to talk to you. Uh you were Were you born in Los Angeles?

00:11:00
Speaker 5: Yes? I was born in Los Angeles, lived in Compton, Inglewood, Hollywood, grew up in mainly you know, after after high school, I moved to the Hollywood area and I lived there in Beechwood Canyon, did all of that, So, yes, Los Angeles. Then I moved to New York for ten years. Now back.

00:11:18
Speaker 2: Yeah, can you tell us? Can you tell me what your first musical memory was?

00:11:23
Speaker 5: Wow? When you say musical memory like.

00:11:28
Speaker 3: Band that I know just from as a baby, Like what like their very first musical memory as a child?

00:11:37
Speaker 5: Of course, you know, Rita Franklin was my was my played in my household when there was happy times, when they were sad times. So Rita was a person that I used to listen to and follow her lyrics and her and her vocal movements and her hooks, and and it made me a better writer by the Rita Franklin songs. And then of course was moving on Doo Daddo. Remember Dio Daddo. Yeah, yeah, it was a little bit of all those guys. Jeff Beck, You know, I really got into that scene and kind of in the high school, junior high school era.

00:12:15
Speaker 2: But yeah, I would say, what was your what was the family record collection, like in your household as part of what was the what was what was the established records that were in your house? But then I want to know what was the album that you purchased with your own money, Like this is something I want out of out of your parents.

00:12:38
Speaker 5: Range, Areta Gladys, you know Ray Charles. That was the songs that were be being played in my host So what I when I went out in about were songs like, as I said, the Dio Daddo's, the the I got really into the I can Tina Turner. I really love them. You know, it's not really much when I look back, it kind of I had a range of people that I really really loved Michael Henderson. All those kind of people are the people I used to come home from to high school and listen to.

00:13:09
Speaker 2: In your household, were you like, did you have other siblings? Like how was this music passed down? Was like older cousins or older siblings that put you onto it?

00:13:17
Speaker 5: Or No? I didn't really have a musical household, you know, other than the songs I just mentioned that were played, you know, which was ata. I got more into it when I was in went the church and then my yeah, and then as far as playing the drums is concerned, my mom married the preacher and he had a drum set, and I started practicing every day. Yeah, drama and I started practicing every day, and I taught myself how to play drums.

00:13:48
Speaker 6: Why did drums.

00:13:50
Speaker 5: Because they were there? I mean, really, it wasn't. It wasn't. It wasn't like a passion or love or I want to play the drum. They happened to be there, and I kind of geared towards it. And my brother started playing the bass. That we were together in the garage practicing every day, and he probably made me a more powerful drummer because he really pushed me, you know, and then we played in the church band, and that's my early beginning musical life. Then, of course, created a group called Blue Ice, which was in junior high school with Michael Northfleet. You know Michael Northfield, right, I know this name for our listeners.

00:14:29
Speaker 3: Can you tell Michael Northlee he's a keyboard player.

00:14:32
Speaker 5: Chucky Booker, you know Chuckie Booker, Michael Northfleet. All those guys are kind of like that same vibe. So I started a band in junior high school called Blue Ice. Horn section had a guy like like my h, James Brown. We won all the contests because he was James Brown. And then we had a girl drummer. Oh no, we want everything.

00:14:54
Speaker 3: So so you were always in those battle bands in.

00:14:57
Speaker 6: High school and Jui, yes, yes, and you were always diverse bands too, like yes, one of diverse bands.

00:15:03
Speaker 5: And then then I took a love in high school, I started learning how to write because I'm really kind of a musician who plays by ear and I create by ear and I kind of hear it in my head and I play it. And I learned how to play read music in high school and that's where the early beginnings started.

00:15:26
Speaker 2: Even back then, did you have a yearning or did you feel that there was a need for a band of all women, because I think by that point, when I was a kid, the only band that I saw that had like women playing an equal role in the instrumentation I'm in, besides lining the family Stone, which you know, it is kind of mind blowing for people to see like a trumpet player and a keyboard player. But I remember growing up watching there was a Philly group called Ecstasy, Passion and Pain. Yeah, they had they had a drummer named Cookie, and I was really impressed, like asking my mom, like, yo, girls can play drums too, Like did they act like there was a novelty or was it just normal? Because normally when you think of a drummer, it's always a man.

00:16:17
Speaker 3: Behind the skins or whatever.

00:16:18
Speaker 2: It's like very unusual for certain instruments to be played by women, be it like a trombone or like it's.

00:16:25
Speaker 3: Like, yeah, you don't see. But were people making a big deal of that?

00:16:28
Speaker 2: And did you take advantage of the fact that, And did you play any other instruments as well?

00:16:33
Speaker 5: No, And what you just said is the reason why it came to mind. But there was a void, you know, one day you know, just in my young mind, I said, wow, there's not a lot of female musicians. I said, it would be great to create an all girl band. And then watching LaBelle really really I love LaBelle, okay, And I watched them and I saw the excitement that everybody had when these girls got on stage. You know, I one of those kind of people who cry when I see things that you're so unusual that, you know, and they would they would just move me. And I said, one day, it would be great to put together an our girl band. And I mean people ask me this question all the time. I don't really have an incredible answer other than that I think it was meant to be. And they just kind of came to me. And this low young girl who had this idea started checking the yellow Pages, remember the Yellow Pages, Yes, and trying to look for other musicians, calling radio record labels and asking them, Hey, would you guys be interested in an all girl band? You know? And finally one record company said, yes, we would be. I have an idea. That's how it started.

00:17:48
Speaker 2: Wait a minute, that's how you got into the because we have a billion questions about Dick Griffy.

00:17:55
Speaker 1: Okay, That's how that started.

00:17:56
Speaker 5: No, no, not Dick Griffy yet it's another label. This is another label and another lady. It was a lady by the name of who was the an R person at this particular so it wasn't I forgot the name of the record was a sales cell watched radio record label. Anyway, she was the an R person. She says, come, I want to meet with you about this concept that you have. So we met and she says I'm interested. Her and I together, she kind of She and the record label funded my idea for a while, and I started looking for girls through the recycler paper. I started rehearsing these girls, and I turned the studio in Inglewood, which I have great stories about it.

00:18:40
Speaker 6: Yeah, because I was like them, you was a fan and then a circle back.

00:18:42
Speaker 5: I love it, okay, yeah, yeah, And I turned a studio and I started like she she really kind of funded this and she, I don't know, she was coming up with the money to help me with this idea. And I said, I have a great name for the band. She said, let me know what the band is. I said, Climax. She says, I love it spelled with the k L y m A. Actually says I love the whole concept of it. And that's how you know, that's how the seed was planted. And then from there we went on.

00:19:09
Speaker 2: You got back up a little bit because also a recurring theme on the show our tales from the I Turner Studio.

00:19:21
Speaker 3: From Charlie about.

00:19:25
Speaker 5: Bolic studios.

00:19:27
Speaker 2: If yes, if you could talk, yeah, what was happening at that studio?

00:19:32
Speaker 5: You know, I would pipe, he would. He would peek in every once in a while after rehearsals. You know, we weren't that good. You know, we didn't really get good too later on in life. But we were playing and we were trying, and we were dedicated. So he would peep in. And he had a bodyguard at that time. I forgot the gentleman's name, but he took a liking to me the bodyguard, and we became friends. We would talk all the time. This is important. I'm going to get back to that.

00:19:59
Speaker 3: We love these stories.

00:20:00
Speaker 5: Yeah. The one time that that I finally said, he came into the studio and he looked around and he looked at me, and then the guy, let's call him Steve. Okay, OK, not sugar Steve, but she said, let's stee. So he says. He says, I want you to talk to you. Come in, and he wants you to into the front studio, because you know, the rehearsal studios were on the side of the building. So I said okay, and the girls were kind of looking at me, and I go, I'll be back, and I went in and I'm going to tell this story. We're not gonna We're not gonna mess around here. So I went in there and I came and I was holding his pipe. He was getting high, and he goes, here, I want you to hit this right. And I go, well, I don't do drugs and I don't drink. I don't do any of that. He goes, I said, hit it. Hit this pipe right. Look at that.

00:20:55
Speaker 6: Mary and Barry. That's how it happened.

00:20:56
Speaker 5: Go ahead, and he said hit the pipe. And I was like, no, I don't do and he said I said. He got really aggressive with me.

00:21:04
Speaker 6: He said no.

00:21:04
Speaker 5: He says, you're good. He said you're really good on the drums. You're gonna go somewhere and he goes hit the pipe, and there's Steve said, man, leave her alone. She's a good girl. Man leave her alone. And I listened to him and he just and Steves took me out of there, then me back to the rehearsal studio.

00:21:24
Speaker 3: Wow.

00:21:25
Speaker 4: Individuals on that wonder if it was the guy was it? Was it fraut in the West love got to do with the movie. McBride's character Frosts like his guy. I wonder if it was him.

00:21:35
Speaker 5: He was kind of a big guy. Yeah, yeah, yes, yeah, and he saved me that day because I would have been a different girl today, you know. But yeah, but I had to tell the story the way it happened. There's no way of sugar coat in that, no.

00:21:52
Speaker 3: Niceties like hey, what's your name? And no, no, no no. It was just like here hit this hit them.

00:21:57
Speaker 5: Yeah. Well, he gave me a compliment first, he told me good, I'm going to be good and all of this kind of stuff. You know. I guess that was the soften me up a little bit. And I was like, no, sir, you know, I was very respectful and I said, I said, no, sir, I don't, I don't. I don't do drugs. I don't, I don't. I don't want to do that.

00:22:18
Speaker 6: I think I'm because in a twenty twenty one America, like I Turner would not have existed with his studio it being successful, people going to him being able to say that to you, like, oh no, what exists.

00:22:31
Speaker 5: It's still it's still going on.

00:22:33
Speaker 3: Yeah.

00:22:33
Speaker 2: I was going to say, like I'm sad to say that, probably, yes, it's still going.

00:22:40
Speaker 5: It's still going on. I mean, look at them. I'm just look at all the entertainers who are dying. You know, that's true. There's still a culture. There's a drug thing.

00:22:49
Speaker 6: It's a drug call.

00:22:50
Speaker 5: We just don't we just don't know it because we don't we're not in it.

00:22:53
Speaker 6: I'm at the misogynistic part of that, that the way he approached you and everything that still happens, it still happens.

00:23:00
Speaker 2: I was going to say, how how hard is it to be taken seriously in a time in which the even the idea of being a musician, a female musician is such a rarity, Like how are you able to be taken seriously where it's just like, nah, I'm not messing with.

00:23:22
Speaker 3: Bernard at Cooper.

00:23:23
Speaker 5: You know, well, did you have to.

00:23:25
Speaker 2: Invent that character that we know because you have this don't mess with me sort of stance with you?

00:23:32
Speaker 5: Well, I do have an alter ego you know, and that would be my alter ego that the other the real Bernie the Cooper is very shy and very I'm a very close and I'm really kind of like in this character. I created this, this other character to get me through I guess, you know, as I said, a lot of this stuff was meant to be. I can't really go oh. I created this character because of this, you know. And it was also a shield that I used to deal with a lot of family mental abuse and not really sharing in my dream. So I said, Okay, I'm going to create this character strong Superwoman because I got to get make I got to make it to the next day, you know. So I created this character, and this character went on to work. She became the Slatin girl, you know, and I and I look good all that stuff. It's really about loving yourself. It has nothing to do with physical appearance. But you have to be a diva to understand that, you know.

00:24:27
Speaker 6: I'm just curious if you believed it at the time or were you just saying.

00:24:29
Speaker 5: It no, no, no, no. I was saying it from another from an inner perspective. I wasn't saying I know I'm the cute. I was saying it because I had to find strength and going forward in this world by myself with my dream. So I created this character and to achieve that, you know, and that character is still here. I'm still very cluse. I'm still a very cluse.

00:24:53
Speaker 6: But they're still working together. The character We.

00:24:56
Speaker 3: Get right tells how the Sasages made, like we.

00:25:01
Speaker 5: Exactly.

00:25:02
Speaker 2: So, Yeah, I was going to ask, you know, oftentimes, especially in black households, you know, survival, you know, hooker crook his job one, that's what parents think, like get something to fall back on.

00:25:17
Speaker 3: Yeah, get a good paying job, that sort of thing.

00:25:20
Speaker 2: Like, we're well, you kind of answered it, But what was your family's feelings on you pursuing this dream or was it like like you got to the age of nineteen to make it or else, you know, you got to work at the post office? Like did they give you ultimatums or were they quasi nurturing.

00:25:40
Speaker 3: You know, or were they church people?

00:25:44
Speaker 5: They it was a little bit of all of the bottom line is that they weren't feeling it. Nobody and you know, I was. My plan was to go to law school and become an attorney and to do that, and they were kind of like all behind me a car and took care of me and all that stuff. But one day, sitting in my accounting class, which was an elective that I had to take, which I was sitting there looking at my teacher like, I don't want to be here anymore. I want to play the drums. I want to be in a band. I'm never coming back again. So I got up and I left in my class, and I said, that's when I began my search for the all girl band.

00:26:25
Speaker 6: My family was not.

00:26:26
Speaker 5: Yeah, there was called well you know what it was. You have to understand that I was an honest student. So I got out of high school fast. Yeah.

00:26:35
Speaker 3: Yeah, So I was kind of which high school did you go to?

00:26:39
Speaker 5: I went to Compton and Inglewood High School. I graduated from Inglewood High School. I went to Compton my what ninth and tenth my tenth and eleventh grade, and then I graduated. My mother moved to Inglewood, and I graduated from Inglewood.

00:26:53
Speaker 2: Okay, so I gotta know what you know when most of us here, especially that's not on California natives here about Compton, of course, we start just thinking the legend of whatever n w A was painting about what Compton represented until them.

00:27:13
Speaker 5: Patris Patrius Russian patrist Russian Glass. Yeah, yeah, she was, she was. She actually was a lot, but she was and then tasted funny. They were out during that time. They were out during that time, So that probably influenced me a little bit too as far as the girl concept as well.

00:27:32
Speaker 3: Okay, but what what was your high school like in like?

00:27:37
Speaker 2: Was it nurturing environment? Was it more Jill Clark lean on me dangerous?

00:27:43
Speaker 5: You know, I have to say this, and you know I was a tar baby, a tar baby, right, that was the the the logo was the tar baby. But those are the most wonderful years of my life in Compton High School with the most wonderful Yeah. And that's when the gang started shooting finally, that started when I was in school. That started happening, the shooting and then and and what was in the shooting and what kind of drugs was in then? Uh? Good, no, no, no, no, the one before that people, no, no, no no, it was angel du started. Everybody was. That's how I got into the That's when I got into the music class. That's where I started meeting new friends. That's where I felt love. Nobody had nothing, So nobody wasn't trying to act like they had nothing, you know. So that was a wonderful place to me for me, and then my mother moved to Inglewood and I was kind of all alone, you know, all alone. I didn't really you know, so I graduated from high school early and I was able to, you know, go to college.

00:28:52
Speaker 6: You're not being from California, you realize how far those two places are. You don't realize how far those two places are from each other. What Inglewood and Compton just as culturally, it just seemed like yes culture, yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly.

00:29:06
Speaker 2: I think to an outsider though, like I would think that those schools were more closer to Jill Clark's Lean on Me where you might not live the end of the school day.

00:29:17
Speaker 3: But was it that dire or.

00:29:18
Speaker 5: Is that no that during that time, it wasn't that dire.

00:29:23
Speaker 6: It was pre she pre that. I mean remember, and it's funny if you watch I don't know if y'all want, when you watch them, that was them, right. They came out over the COVID where they showed Compton before Burnard death generation when it was like white folks, yeah, just straight suburbs.

00:29:38
Speaker 5: Know, it was. It was cool. You know, I think I think there was one gunshot next freaked everybody out. That's why my mother moved to Inglewood. And yeah, it just drugs angeled us. That's pretty much it. And the rest of it was like a great experience for me. I had friends. You know, you're talking about a loaner who made friends.

00:29:57
Speaker 2: You know, I lived in Compton for one year as a baby, but you know, I don't have any memories as a two year older. But I do have a photo of me at a CRYPT meeting because all my cousins, so I had a bandana and a Derby on.

00:30:12
Speaker 5: You could have been I could have been you know, no I was.

00:30:15
Speaker 2: I was you know, they were trying to crip me up. Yeah, brought me to the meetings. Can you tell me what the audition process or at least what were you looking for in the audition process that basically brought like Joyce and Lynn, Lorena and Sheryl and uh well, Robin Robin.

00:30:42
Speaker 5: There were a lot of different versions of climax. Before I got to thank you for saying.

00:30:46
Speaker 2: This, Yeah, I was going to say, I think there were seven women on the down with the hot air Balloon the first one.

00:30:53
Speaker 5: Even before that, and I was I was still in the narrowing down process. Yeah, yeah, I mean even when we you know, before climax, all the climax. It was I was smart enough to know, and I don't know how I got this knowledge that the girls had to be certain kind of girls in order for Radio Disjot with the DJs to play our music. Right, So I was looking for sexy, I was looking for femininity. I was looking for girls who can play now, you know. And we had a camaraderie, so you know. First it was Cooley, who I found from another band and she was playing with a band with her boyfriend, and I talked to her and to joining us. And then it was Lynn Marsby. They came, a lot of them came. It was a paper called the Recycler where you could put an ad in for twenty five dollars or however much, and then people would respond to and call, hey, I play guitar, you know. Then we had Jeanie Cunningham was the first guitar player. Then came show Coolly actually, and then how we arrived at the climax that we are now show on first and then it came Lynn came into an audition. I believe she came in from the Recycler paper. Then there were a couple other girls in the group who I knew from Compton, who I eventually, how can I say, I eventually let them go and I found new girls. Joyce Soby didn't come into the group until after our first album, and we had a contract style we already had a recording deal when she came into the group. Because I I fired the bass player. Now why I fired the bass player, I can't exactly remember the reason. It was a conga player and a bass player. Got rid of them because for some reason or another. And mister Griffy came to me. He goes on, this was after you guys want to get to that point.

00:32:47
Speaker 6: No, no, we take your time, take.

00:32:49
Speaker 3: Time, stories stories you never told before.

00:32:52
Speaker 5: So yeah, I mean mister Griffy. You know me and mister Griffy. Ah, I loved him. He was a wonderful, wonderful gentleman. And I mean, yeah, I mean to me, I don't know anybody else's experience, but he gave me my first opportunity as a writer a producer, and you know, without him, I would not be talking to Puesla. Okay, bottom line, bottom line, okay. This man would not only that, he would take us out to dinner and teach us about wine and my first taste at escargo. He was a wonderful guy. He would call me up and talk to me about the band. He was a wonderful guy. And he called me up. He goes, you know, why'd you fire the bass player? I really loved the bass I thought the bass player was cool. And I go, well, because for this reason, He goes, well, we gonna do now. So we talked about it, and he said, hey, I remember this girl uh In Fayevielle, North Carolina, who keeps you know, kept giving me yeah, who kept giving me a tape, who kept giving me a tape and all these things. And I go. He goes, I'm going to bring her out here, and I want you to let me know what you think. So I said, okay. He brought her out. She seemed cool. Everything was good. You know, she at the base, she came to rehearsal. She was a nice girl. Everything was cool. He says, what do you think. I said, can we just try her out for a little while? He goes, no, we need to move forward. We got a contract, I can't. We got to get somebody stable in the group. So that's how Joyce Sophi got signed.

00:34:16
Speaker 3: All right, yeah, yes, sir. Did you know that Fronte? Oh yeah, oh yeah. When I was a kid.

00:34:24
Speaker 4: Now, when I was a kid, I mean, I.

00:34:25
Speaker 3: Don't know her from Faitville.

00:34:26
Speaker 4: I was like five, but yeah, but I remember like all the stations around the station we used to listen to when I lived with my grandparents back in Robinson County. They would always like when they played Climax joints, they would shout out Joyce and they was like.

00:34:40
Speaker 3: Shout out yeah, yeah, she got mad love. Oh yeah.

00:34:45
Speaker 5: Then and then Lorena came in one day from a rehearsal. She was on her way to by word of mouth, someone said, hey, they're looking for a lead vocalist. She came in and blew me away and she got hired. She got hired on the spot, and she became the voice of Climax.

00:35:00
Speaker 3: Is it always okay? Now?

00:35:02
Speaker 2: I mentioned that you you know, you said you fired the bass player. But because it's such a rare, it's such as rare to get.

00:35:12
Speaker 5: Fired is such a harsh word let's just say it didn't blend in with the concept. Okay, so I fired it.

00:35:20
Speaker 2: But I was there always a concern or fear that if you let a member go, the amount of work that you got to put in to find someone that really fits a very specific criteria that will make the band work. Like, is that always concerned?

00:35:36
Speaker 5: We were young. I was young. I didn't you didn't think about those kinds of things when you're young. But you know, I just I don't know, I wasn't thinking about that. It's just the concept. It just wasn't blending in. Uh, And I didn't think about it. I just was like, it's not working. And then mister Griffy was like, well, what are we going to do now? You know? And we figured it out.

00:35:57
Speaker 6: Did you start to develop your own band rule as you call?

00:36:01
Speaker 5: Oh we had rules, Yes, we had rules. You guys are asking me, I gotta think way back. I mean, you know, it's just like you know, you know X amount of dollars and fifty two dollars five dollars if you get the band rehearsal late, you know, you know, you know, you're fine, We're fine, you know, you know we this is pre Joyce, because that's another you know, the original band, which was Lorena Show, Cooley, Lynn Mars, Robin Grider and myself, we struggled. We were such a unit. We were so dedicated in the vision and trying to achieve this recording deal. You know, we we starved. I was kissing the uh the the rehearsal studio owner, trying to get more studio time. We were doing whatever we needed to do to.

00:36:59
Speaker 6: These lyrics. Okay here, yes, just just a kiss and get you.

00:37:06
Speaker 5: More, all right, kid, a kiss, got his two hours.

00:37:18
Speaker 6: And that.

00:37:20
Speaker 3: Okay, I get it.

00:37:23
Speaker 5: Those were they were really picks. They were that. Yeah, he was the older handsome guy, mister Cooper, mister Cooper, and you know, uh yeah. I don't know how that evolved. I don't know how that happened. One day he just said hey, you know, and I was like, okay, can we get some studio time?

00:37:45
Speaker 6: He was sometimes you got what you got?

00:37:49
Speaker 5: Two pecks? Got his four hours?

00:37:51
Speaker 2: Okay, wait, you you mentioned uh the legendary uh.

00:38:00
Speaker 3: President Solarick Griffy. Yes, can you can you describe? Because I also know that.

00:38:08
Speaker 2: Those nightclubs, like the Total Experienced nightclubs and all those spots that are on Crenshaw was rather legendary for a lot of those developing acts. Could you basically describe what like black LA nightlife was as far as like seeing bands and interacting with other bands and just in general, like I came up in a time my time period of La, pretty much the center of all the action was in West Hollywood on Sunset which I was told that was never happening like before, like nineteen ninety five where you had to go. So if you're if it is nineteen eighty one eighty two, where am I going to see like the bands I like?

00:38:57
Speaker 3: And where y'all hanging at? You're not on Sunset Boulevard? Like were they open to black people then back then?

00:39:05
Speaker 5: Or I'm sitting here trying to search the name of this club that was in Compton. It was a club that Easy and the nperformed in and they showed it on their movie in the beginning. Yeah, I can't remember the name of that club, but you know, I popped in here and there. There wasn't any particular clubs, I think the Roxy. Every once in a while you'll get a good deal a band happening in like in West Hollywood, let me think. I'm trying to think where did we go?

00:39:37
Speaker 2: But were you part of the Total experience that club? Or where was that like more of a seventies mid seventies thing.

00:39:43
Speaker 5: It was the seventies and eighties. But I was just kind of like, you know, into my my thing. I didn't really do a going a lot of going, which I did go to the Total Experience. I saw, you know, I saw the dramatics. I saw the dramatics. Wow experience. Yeah.

00:39:55
Speaker 3: And then and how big is that nightclub?

00:39:59
Speaker 5: It was? It was a nice size, maybe about five hundred people.

00:40:03
Speaker 3: So established acts? Was that the House of the Blues, House of the Blues? Was that sort of the House of Blues of its day?

00:40:10
Speaker 5: Yes? It was?

00:40:12
Speaker 2: Okay, so no act was too big or too small. You can see riffs and Chaka Khan at the.

00:40:16
Speaker 5: Total Spirits and then Maverick Flats, Okay, remember that. Yeah, people used to go there dance. Every once in a while there will be a band or two, you know. Yeah, and then you know, you went to the Forum, and then you went to the the all the what was it the San Diego Jazz Festival? That was? That was the thing I used to enjoy going to I'm seeing.

00:40:38
Speaker 2: How did the deal with so our Records come to be? How did you get the attention of Griffy? A?

00:40:48
Speaker 5: We did a we did a demo and the demo was sent to many record labels and one of the labels was so Lark Records. And the lady there, Margaret Nash. Margaret Nish got ahold of the demo, went to mister Griffy. She was, what's the guy I can see? I can see cleanin now. She was Johnny Nash's ex wife. Okay, she worked at Solar. So she went to Dick Griffy and said, hey, you gotta you gotta hear about these girls. You gotta see these girls. You know, you got to check it out. She came down to rehearsals, saw us, went back and told Dick griff me. Next thing we know, Dick Griffy was walking into rehearsals.

00:41:32
Speaker 3: I see.

00:41:33
Speaker 5: He walked in and he said he looked, he saw we were playing. Oh, there's freaky good. He looked at us, he was smiling. He left and he says, uh. Before he left, he says, I'm going to sign your go for a record deal. That's it.

00:41:49
Speaker 2: Yeah, you were fine with that, Like, so I seemed like a logical spot.

00:41:53
Speaker 5: For you to Yeah, no one else was asking, you know, and it was the first thing. And that's what our attorney said, Hey, not the best still in the world. What other deal do you have? You know, you get in, you make it happen, which is the famous Ryan Sweeney. You get in, you make it Happenn Sweeney was your lawyer. Yes, we were his first clients.

00:42:15
Speaker 3: What yeah, yeah, legendary wyn Sweeney.

00:42:18
Speaker 5: Okay, legendary wyn Sweeney. And he said, what else do you have? He said, you get in, you get a hit record, and you make changes.

00:42:25
Speaker 3: When that happens, you get to renegotiate.

00:42:28
Speaker 6: Then was it easy to renegotiate with Griffin once we got a hit?

00:42:33
Speaker 7: Yeah, I mean, I just not not that I'm fishing for stories, but it's just just like, depending on who comes on our show, I have there's various degrees of Dick Griffy's stories, and.

00:42:48
Speaker 6: She says she got stories.

00:42:50
Speaker 2: I guess I could say that I'm led to believe that he was sort of like the the proto Sugar night of his day.

00:42:59
Speaker 3: No, he groomed sugar.

00:43:03
Speaker 5: Sugar was his bodyguard. That's how I met sur Night. Sug used to be dig Griffy's bodyguard, and no, listen, you know, listen. I don't know if anyone else's experienced, you know, with mister Griffy. I can just tell you that he was kind to me and he was kind to us, you know. I mean, did we get this or that? I don't I'm not quite sure. But he he, he was there. We were at every meeting. We talked about things, we discussed them in all palls, and we did it. He didn't want to do it at first, you know, he said, I'm not doing no song about mental pause and then.

00:43:39
Speaker 6: The Lord he gets real complicated.

00:43:41
Speaker 2: Yes, my mom too thought you guys were thinking about menopause.

00:43:45
Speaker 5: So did he?

00:43:46
Speaker 3: That was like, do you not know what a pun is? People?

00:43:48
Speaker 5: Particularly? So did he? We broke it down and I was saying, no, it's the men all paused. When I walked into the room, he started smiling. Next thing, you know that the record is on the album.

00:44:01
Speaker 6: I see when did the.

00:44:05
Speaker 5: In the beginning and it became our first hit. We didn't even know it because by that time, you know, there was a couple failed albums. We were trying to figure out what we were going to do with the next phase of our life. You know, we were telling I'm going to go back.

00:44:18
Speaker 3: To school, go ahead, Can I wait?

00:44:21
Speaker 2: I don't want to glide by this two records because it's two portant. Well one important factor with you guys working with Jimmy and Terry. But what I want to know is, you know, of the acts that were on the label, between Lakeside and Midnight Star Carrie Lucas, the Whispers and whatnot, they like the common the common factor or the common denominator of most of those acts that were hip makers of Solar was the production of Leon Silvers.

00:44:54
Speaker 3: Yes, and I was shocked.

00:44:58
Speaker 2: I came aboard on meeting in the ladies room, and then eventually I found out that you guys had two other records, and then I went and brought those and you know, I saw like Otis Stokes and you know, the cats from from Lakeside, and I always wanted to know, like, why didn't you guys work with Leon Silvers who was clearly giving everyone out, you know, handing out hits like hotcakes.

00:45:21
Speaker 5: At the time, Leon didn't want to work with us, and it could be because he was so busy, you know, or he didn't really express an interest in working with us.

00:45:35
Speaker 3: You know, did you guys ask him.

00:45:37
Speaker 5: I'm sure something, probably, I'm not quite sure. I didn't ask them. You know, I don't know if I'm sure I asked them. You know, I don't think he you know, we passed him every day and we saw him in the studio. He didn't really have an express an interest in wanting to work with us. So he brought in Otis Stokes, which was like working with Otis and then was cool, but it just wasn't the direction that we wanted to go in. We were more independent. We were young girls, but we were like really independent and fun. Oh. We just kind of wanted to put us in a box of you know, of your typical I'm your woman and you're my man, and I'll do whatever you want me to do kind of thing, right, and we were like, now we don't really know. I'm not doing that. I'm not going to do that. So, you know, it took us a while. Didn't take us. It took us. We had to get with Jimmy and Terry to find a voice. That's when we found our voice.

00:46:31
Speaker 2: They encouraged that, so can you describe what working with Jimmy and Terry, you know, and like for the second album, the Girls will Be Girls record. It's really like great songs on there that just never really got the push, and.

00:46:46
Speaker 5: I'm kind of glad. I'm kind of glad because it wasn't us, you know. Yeah, yeah, well you know up into Jimmy. Do you have more Jimmy and Terry? Yes, yeah, no, they came in with they didn't do girls were good. There was there was ODIs Stokes.

00:47:03
Speaker 3: Well, I meant the album. I know that they.

00:47:08
Speaker 5: Jimmy. Yeah, okay, that's when they came in and they came in. They were sneaking away from fence and they were like, you know, it was all they were up doing some We were the first band that I think they worked with, either us, the S O S band. I really don't remember.

00:47:25
Speaker 3: Yes, we're technically first.

00:47:27
Speaker 5: Yeah, we were in the room when Prince called and fire them. Found out that they were working with us. He called them up and they came out the room. They said, we just got fired. Well I guess we can start our new career now, you know. But that's yes, yes and no. Hey, it was wonderful. It was like a breath of fresh air, because here are these guys who praised mistakes. Okay, no, no, we're going to keep that. It's a mistake. We're going to keep it, you know. And I was the one who was always writing songs, and they fell in love with all my songs. They were like, let's do burning that Cooper songs, you know, telling Dick, you should be doing these songs. These are the songs you should be doing. Because all of that, I know I'm looking good. That's the way we used to talk on a daily base. I walk into the studio, I know I'm looking good, you know. And they wanted to put all of that onto tape. And that's what they started doing. They were taking a lot of my songs and putting on the tape and encouraging us to write the things that we really feel and we really love. So that's what they did.

00:48:33
Speaker 6: That's good. So when we got introduced to y'all, we was getting introduced to y'all for real. Everybody else who thought they.

00:48:38
Speaker 5: Knew y'all when Networker came out with meeting in the ladies' room in the mental pause, I mean, because we kind of went to school with wild girls, that was I mean, that was Terry Lewis. That was them kind of experimenting with us, trying to help us find our sound, and they got it. It just didn't hit, that's all, you know. But by the time they moved on and Jick was he was he was available, his ears were available at that time to listen to the things that we really had because Ellie, Jimmy I hit keeps down on and bevery face. Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis encouraged him to open his ears and listen to the tracks that I was writing and the other girls were writing, and he was open to us, so we were giving him. He just kind of gave us free rain. You guys go do this album yourself. By that time, were you.

00:49:32
Speaker 3: There for the infamous Uh?

00:49:35
Speaker 2: Jam tells the story about the I asked about a certain engineer that they had to fire because of them destroying the Heartbreaker song.

00:49:47
Speaker 3: There it was like a punch in doing the mixdown. Uh.

00:49:50
Speaker 2: The engineer had a race like one of them, I'm such a mess thing and then they just fell down a rabbit hole of trying to fix the edit that was previously erased.

00:50:02
Speaker 5: No, I don't remember that.

00:50:04
Speaker 3: Okay, you never knew that story.

00:50:06
Speaker 5: I wrote the song and I was there, but I don't remember that story.

00:50:09
Speaker 2: Oh okay, Yeah, basically, like one of the I'm such a Mess lines Heartbreak, I'm such a mess on the Heartbreaker song, the engineer was trying to punch in make an edit and accidentally erase some of the background. Yeah and yeah, jam I was asking about like a time when things went awry, and he just talked about accidentally erasing like some of the background vocals on Heartbreaker and them trying to fix it.

00:50:44
Speaker 5: That's a possibility.

00:50:47
Speaker 2: Yeah, Well they fired the engineer, and I guess they kept that from you guys, so now.

00:50:50
Speaker 3: You know forty years later. Sorry.

00:50:54
Speaker 2: But with with meeting in the Ladies Room, well, first of all, just as the band Dynamics one, how did you whittle it down to the six members that we got to know on meeting in the Ladies.

00:51:10
Speaker 5: Room through you know, being in the band. You have the girls and certain things happened. I think they were went down from it was eight and then it went down to six, and that's the group that you know.

00:51:24
Speaker 6: Now.

00:51:25
Speaker 5: There were two other members. I can't remember why they left the group, but why they weren't involved in the group anymore, but it was a decision that was made and then we were left with the six core members of the group. And I think that was the reason for our success. So I think it would have been successful with those other two members or any other members. Now I think it was these are the ones that we're meant.

00:51:48
Speaker 6: To be, so move forward, did you so, do you remember the rules from that point? They kept y'all together, They kept you from having like petty arguments, They kept y'all from some of the things.

00:51:58
Speaker 3: That other groups or howard decisions made.

00:52:01
Speaker 5: Yeah, well, you know, well, you know, it became that group thing where you know, the vote, the whole group vote, which you know, which was very stifling you know to me at points.

00:52:12
Speaker 6: You know, because it's your group.

00:52:14
Speaker 5: Not so well, I just had more forward ideas, and I sometimes you know, when you have an idea, you see things and people don't don't see it. Then you got everybody kind of raised in their hand, and that's very stifling for a creative person, you know. So it was a majority rules.

00:52:32
Speaker 6: That's interesting as you had the same hand as everybody else, because even I mean I even think I guess that in the roots, like a mere hand in a turikan is different than other hands.

00:52:40
Speaker 3: Right, Like, but was it?

00:52:43
Speaker 2: But that's why I'm asking, was it a real democracy or was it like the idea of a democracy?

00:52:49
Speaker 5: It was, okay, let's say this. It was all good. And then when Joyce came in the group, a little bit of a power struggle started because for whatever reason she you know, she came from a military base and she you know, so that's when things kind of started changing. From the group that we had that was all for one, one for all. Things started, like everything became a vote because the the vision, the vision had gotten interruption, I interrupted, very good.

00:53:23
Speaker 2: So would you say that Joyce was sort of the because she was the last member to join, kind of the outsider in a situation where there was already an established rapport with.

00:53:35
Speaker 3: The five of you.

00:53:36
Speaker 5: Yes, and she definitely had her own way of seeing things, you know, which is not.

00:53:40
Speaker 3: Bad in her own opinions.

00:53:42
Speaker 6: Yeah, And that was right.

00:53:45
Speaker 5: And I was always you know, you know, one for all. We hadn't even got to a point of an ego yet, you know, we were we were I was about, hey, whatever's good for the group, you know, That's how I lost control of the name because, you know, Joyce came and said, like, I think we should all be a part of the name of the group, and I was like, sure, no problem. I wasn't you know, I wasn't savvy. I wasn't savvy, and I was just kind of like, well, the band, we're gonna be together, We're gonna make things work. And that's why the name is so out of control. You know, right now, I wish I would have known better and had trademarked that.

00:54:19
Speaker 3: You know, So, could you tell me how your personal life changed. Let's let's let's say too, Let's say three months after Men All Pause comes out. Oh my goodness, where you guys?

00:54:36
Speaker 2: Were the songs on the radio killing it and you're on you know, the videos being played everywhere.

00:54:43
Speaker 6: And because I don't even know where Men on Pause across from meeting in a lady's room, they kind of just they.

00:54:47
Speaker 5: Listen, listen. We were preparing to go back to school. Loreena, you know, she's always wanted to be married. Everybody was playing in their life because we mister Griffin, you know, he stuck with us through all those Felt albums. We were all in the car following each other. I don't know where we were going, but I think there were two cars one two, or maybe we were all in the same car. Mental Pause came on over the Christmas holidays. You know how everybody goes on break during the Christmas holidays. After that Christmas holiday Mental Pause, the Mental Pause was ahead and the record coup. He says, you guys got to hit record. DJ's were playing it, they were going crazy, and that's when our lives went on. Things changed drastically. First video, that was the first video. I mean, we did the Mental Pause first video. Then after the Mental Pause came meeting in the Ladies grool, right, and with with Louis Silence, put me into the studio and with tave Mo and we remixed the Leader, and that's when I added the you know, I had to leave my condo to come to this, you know, that's when I added that, Yeah, we did. That was the remix version that became the big.

00:56:02
Speaker 2: Even though it was a little bit. I mean, I was twelve thirteen, and again, like there weren't many in depth interviews with you guys back then, I'm certain that there had to been comparisons like, oh, you guys are like a female time, and you're kind of like a mar state. Was that bothersome to you.

00:56:21
Speaker 5: Or not at all? And Terry used to always call me they used to compare me because my personality was such like a Morris. Okay. They used to call me burn the day, you know. Yeah, And they wanted to write things by character because I didn't really know much about the time, you know, they were just doing it the first time I heard seven seven ninety three eleven in the studio, you know, and I didn't really know much, so I couldn't really pattern myself after him. But after after seeing his character and how much we favored there's so many ways. It was like, that's what the answer of when Jiggilos need love to I wrote, yeah, divas, Yeah, right, divas came from an asker that was like an answer. You know. I'm in the process right now. I'm working on the song, hoping to get Morris on it. I just I just think that would be such a great concept. He and I have talked to please call him and tell him. He and I have talked about it. I've sent them tracks and he's like, man, okay, I called him up, Morris Morris, So I have this track that I'm working on right now that I'm going to send to him, because I just think it's beyond beyond. It's beyond just a song. It's about being entertained and how the public would love that. Yes, a personality from a girl band and the girl band and the time. Yeah, that's great. We're opening up the ground is.

00:57:47
Speaker 4: With that, miss, But I want to ask what you say you're working on tracks? What equipment and like software are you using now to work on your music?

00:57:55
Speaker 5: You know, I'm protus and I write on the NPC X Okay, yeah, yeah, because I'm in the PC sixty n PC. You know, two thousand, two thousand XS. I know the NPC, So I grabed X because there's so much you could do with it, and I could travel with you do vocals on another even though I haven't even used half of it. So I write a lot of my tracks, which I don't really like to write tracks that much anymore because I'm lazy and I'm always questioning if the right snare or if if it's gonna sound right. So I focus more now on lyrics and melodies and content and vibe. You know, I just did something with old slape.

00:58:39
Speaker 3: Oh wow, Okay, yeah, yeah.

00:58:40
Speaker 5: I call believe in US. I dropped it if dropped it in on the UK, and I'm focusing on that. So I'm thinking a lot of tracks from people that I know or old things that I have. But right now, actually the track that I'm working on is an old Sonati track, but I rearranged it, you know, so that it would fit me in more. So I'm working on concept now. I just think that would be such an entertainment thing.

00:59:02
Speaker 6: It's gonna happen.

00:59:03
Speaker 4: I love man, that's so Dopeyeh, you worked together.

00:59:12
Speaker 3: Something.

00:59:13
Speaker 2: What why did you guys pivot to Constellation mc A, Like were you still technically under the umbrella of Solar or like what did you officially leave Solar to go to Los Alas and.

00:59:30
Speaker 5: MC it like was no Solo Records did a distribution deal with them?

00:59:35
Speaker 3: Okay, I never knew the story.

00:59:36
Speaker 5: Of yeah, Solar, we're on Solar and Solar did the change. We didn't make the change. We kind of got over there cause Solar. You know, once the success of meeting in the Ladies Room and climax became this big Oh my god, after I miss you, it was over Lynn Massby wrote that, by the way, you know, that's the biggest climax song ever. Yeah, that was That's a big that's a huge that's on music baby. Okay, yeah, so she you know, they wanted us. So Dick did a deal, you know, and we went over to our constellation. Constellation was his deal that he made via I guess a distribution.

01:00:14
Speaker 3: Okay, yeah, I didn't know, so he owned that.

01:00:20
Speaker 6: I was just going to ask you drop two names, and I wanted to know when you circle back and finally met them, what was it like. And that was Morris Day and Patrice Russian.

01:00:29
Speaker 5: Patrice was just a high and by and I admire you. It wasn't a deep conversation like Tina, me and Tina and Okay, yes, a lot of stories. So more Sometimes you have to bear with me because I gotta think. I gotta but Moreri's Day. You know. I see Morris Day. We do. We do a lot of touring together. I see him in and out. And the last time I saw him, we were in we were in Florida and I went up to my I said, we got to do a song together, Morris, I said, we got to do it for the people that would be such a intertain. I'm cool, send me tracks, all right. So I sent him a couple of tracks. He was like, man, you know, but this one's really hot. And even if it's not this one, somebody got to give us a track and we got to do a thing together because that could be such a great.

01:01:15
Speaker 6: Interdis have to do this, they do. I was gonna say that there must be a.

01:01:20
Speaker 2: Four minute monologue at the end with you trying to each other.

01:01:25
Speaker 5: You know what. That's that's the song that I'm writing. So you know, we'll see how it comes up. I'm gonna have to reach out to jam and Lewis and let them kind of hear this and maybe somehow, if it's not this, they can come up with something. We got to do.

01:01:39
Speaker 3: Let us manifest this.

01:01:40
Speaker 5: Yes, I'm going to leave it up to you quest to make that happen that the.

01:01:45
Speaker 3: People want it. I want that. I definitely want that.

01:01:48
Speaker 5: Yes, that would be so, And I envisioned it. I envisioned it with the girl band and that's on one stage and time when we bottle it. Wouldn't that be hot? Yes?

01:01:57
Speaker 3: Yes, and burn for a couple of pecks. I'll mix it for you for free.

01:02:06
Speaker 5: You know what, don't try me.

01:02:11
Speaker 3: I come out to tell it once while give me some sugar. Steve Steve. Steve is a legendary engineer.

01:02:20
Speaker 6: She knows I gave him the intro.

01:02:22
Speaker 2: Okay, I'll drumb on this ship that happen, Yeah for free, I'll do it.

01:02:30
Speaker 3: Just with it call.

01:02:31
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I really believe that in my heart, and by being so hard or a visionary, I can kind of stay around corners sometimes. I just think I have always felt that's a very strong concept and the people would be like, oh my god, you know it would be great for the demographics as well as the new generation.

01:02:53
Speaker 3: Right.

01:02:54
Speaker 2: So I'm curious to know, with the success of where the climax record was at the meeting in the ladies room, what was your family's reaction to it. Was it sort of like, Okay, you made it.

01:03:10
Speaker 5: Good job, you know what, question, I don't really have a happy story to tell you. And regarding that, I didn't really have a lot.

01:03:17
Speaker 3: Of either way.

01:03:19
Speaker 5: Yeah, I didn't have a really good family motivation. I'm very self motivated, and that's kind of beauty of one of the beauties of my success is I'm very self motivated. I really didn't have my family behind me.

01:03:32
Speaker 6: Yeah, because I also wonder once you found your voice and people realized it was so strong and maybe anti with a lot of these other female singers or groups are singing to somebody else, you know, writing or whatever. Was how long did it take for somebody and now tell you to shut up?

01:03:49
Speaker 5: You know, I don't know. It's just it's kind of like I just moved forward another noise.

01:03:56
Speaker 6: Right, So you really persevere throughout all this what I'm saying, like no family support and a strong female you know, home mission and lyrics, you know.

01:04:05
Speaker 5: You know in the beginning. God, I got some stories. I remember when Dick Griffy sent me out to there was a woman by the name of Kat Miller. I did my first song called beat My Face, and Drick Griffy is like, you, here's twenty five hundred dollars go on. And I got this girl named Cat Miller, and I think you'll be really really good with producing her, you know, and she's out in Tennessee, so I want you to go to Tennessee and work on her song. So get the song. Went to Tennessee and the engineer laughed he would refuse to work with me while I was there when I first walked in the door, but when I left, he became best friends. I think. I think. I think when people see the talent, you know, it's kind of like you can't you can't deny the talent. You know, you can't, you know, and it's kind of like the passion and the talent. And I know what I'm doing and I enjoy what I do. So I think once you get a hold of that, by the end of the session, we were cool. He respected me, He didn't have a heart, you know, I would tell him what to do. He didn't want to do it at first, but by the end of the session he was doing it without me, you know.

01:05:15
Speaker 6: So that's exacted you to be probably in the booth, not at the book exactly.

01:05:19
Speaker 5: So that's the moral, that's that's the way my life has gone, you know, dealing with male males in the studio whatever. I think, when they see the talent, they become, we become everything becomes really really cool and their appreciative that had been in my space and our and I enjoy being in their space.

01:05:37
Speaker 3: Wow.

01:05:37
Speaker 2: So you're saying that them offering their two cents of what they think it should be and getting unsolicited advice where it's not even asked for.

01:05:48
Speaker 5: Listen, I have a clear vision, a clear vision of what I'm doing. If I wrote it, I know the way it sounds. Now. My thing has always been as your vision or if you come up with something that's better than mine, to it. But if it's not, you know, I don't really like to compromise. That was one of the reasons why it was difficult for me to be in Climax, because I just felt stifled because the compromising is very difficult for a person who who was creative, right, No, yeah, I just.

01:06:19
Speaker 3: Thought about something I did read once was Penny Ford in the original No.

01:06:27
Speaker 5: Plenty fourtune Lorena Lorena Lorena was with child. Okay, she got clear and we needed someone to take her place because we were going on the road. And during that time, I did not believe as the leader of Climax set that was a positive image for girls that time, at that time, in the eighties, okay, in the nineties. Now now women are doing it. But I just you know, that was that just wasn't you never saw.

01:06:56
Speaker 6: That tradition following tradition, Yeah.

01:06:58
Speaker 5: Yeah, So, and then was it didn't seem like we had little young girls, you know, and were following us. So you know, you know, rightfully, so she was married or she you know. But so Penny was working for Ron Sweeney as the second as the secretary, and Ryan Sweeney was like, you guys really need to take Penny for what she could sing. So Penny four came in and she blew the house down and she went on the road. I love it, okay, Yeah, we talk all the time.

01:07:28
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, she's uh.

01:07:30
Speaker 2: For those that don't know Penny, it's probably best known as the the voice of a snap.

01:07:39
Speaker 3: I Got the Power.

01:07:42
Speaker 2: And amongst the other things that you know, she's been sort of ghost.

01:07:48
Speaker 6: Singing on her right, she wanted Shaka Babies.

01:07:51
Speaker 2: She was well, yeah, I think the story was that uh Shaka Khan was actually supposed to do I Got the Power and kind of.

01:08:00
Speaker 3: She admitted that she dropped the ball.

01:08:05
Speaker 5: I just did it. I just dropped another UK track and with Penny for It all over and I love Penny Penny is. There's not many vocalists who can sing like Penny for It. Penny for It. It cuts, it cuts, you know, and I always play with these with these female singers, It's not about what your capable of doing, is how you make me feel, you know, And like Aretha made you feel, you would pull over to the side of the road on I Got to find Me an Angel and you would cry. Right, I'm sure you've got that experience right well, you know, she made you feel. These singers nowadays, they can sing and the apparatus is good, but it's about what makes you feel good. And Penny for.

01:08:50
Speaker 2: There's there's a question I always wanted to know the answer to for the next album, the self title record, the Climax album. Did you guys work with Rod Temperton or did he just submit the man sized love song?

01:09:08
Speaker 5: We worked with him?

01:09:09
Speaker 3: Please tell me what was like working.

01:09:11
Speaker 5: With Rod Temperton, you know, Carol bear Fager, I remember it was all after after that the album, everybody was coming, you know. We were going up and smoking a joint with Carol beer Feger and you know, and all of them. And Rod temper to had man sized level. Should have been a huge head because the biggest pope, right, and he he had us come in because he wanted to audition who was going to be the lead vocalist on it. And of course I'm not. I don't consider that myself pious. I was just there, okay, but Joyce. He didn't want Joyce Joyce, No, he wanted Lorena.

01:09:51
Speaker 3: That's ironic considering that Joyce's voice, his.

01:09:55
Speaker 5: Voice is very specialized, it's very Mychael Jackson Ish Jackson wouldn't have been able to sing man sized love. I need a man you know, you needed a man sized voice. That was That was a difference between I had my That's that's what made Climax incredible. And another thing that made Climax incredible was we all knew our space. We know, I knew what I brought, you know, and Joyce knew what she brought to the you know, Lorena knew what she brought. So it was like we just really step on each other's toes. We were like, okay, you come in here with your voice. It was really a cool thing in the beginning. And Rod Templeton heard Lorena and He's like, I want that big voice on it. So he chose he chose Lorena.

01:10:42
Speaker 3: Was that initially on the Running Scared soundtrack?

01:10:45
Speaker 5: Yes? Yes so?

01:10:48
Speaker 2: And also, uh, I mean you worked with Dick Griffy. No, Richie Rudolph.

01:10:56
Speaker 5: Well he wrote Man Sized Love with Rod Templeton, right right, Yeah, Yeah, I didn't. I didn't see him. I met him later at Tina Marie's house, but I didn't see him their the session.

01:11:08
Speaker 3: I was gonna say, when you became established, did you did you have a clique, Like who in the industry was like your did you have running buddies?

01:11:18
Speaker 2: Were you cool with? Like who were your best friends? Like who did you vibe with that were artists?

01:11:24
Speaker 5: Tina? Let me see, I would love to say bet Mitler that wouldn't be a show.

01:11:33
Speaker 3: Though right.

01:11:35
Speaker 5: On one song? Yeah, but we were, you know, she just loved the song and she did it. Let me see. Who did I hang out with a lot?

01:11:45
Speaker 6: Uh?

01:11:45
Speaker 5: It was Tina Marie mainly. Tina mainly. I didn't really have a lot of friends.

01:11:53
Speaker 6: Please Tina, please tell us, because she has been gone for so long that please just tell people something about Tina.

01:11:59
Speaker 5: And I don't know how we became. You know, Tina had a lot of people around her all the time, you know, she was the people person. So our times together were very kind of solemn. It was her and she come over to the house and smoke a joint and we talk about life. She was so deep. Tina was no joke, okay. And we would talk about her past, her life and the things she was going through and relationships and all of those things like that. And then one day she called me up, Hey, come down to the studio. I want you to be on this record. Okay, I'll be down in an hour, okay. And then I called her back, Hey, I got this song, come down. I want you to be on this record. Now when I call somebody and go I want you to be on a record, well it's ten thousand dollars. You know, people call your people, so you know, further moment, Hey, let's go to Chicago. Okay. You know by those days you could go buy your ticket at the counter, right and San Francisco, let's go hang out. You know, it's not really not a bad stories. It's just really wonderful memories.

01:13:04
Speaker 6: Oh I don't want any bad stories. I wanted two great memories or things that we didn't know about.

01:13:09
Speaker 3: You know, because she passed away so early, we never just got to know her.

01:13:13
Speaker 5: She was just she was just you know, Tina became my friend before I really went to any concerts of hers when I want to go to a concert. I was blown away that this girl was my friend, all right. I was sitting out in the audience and she got up a play guitars. She came out and the people I didn't realize how massive Tina Marie was. And then afterwards I said, wow, you're really something special, right, and we laughed about it and it was it's all good. It was. There's no really bad stories for me.

01:13:45
Speaker 6: Gotta be something made about her life, like she cannot be forgotten. It's just very interesting.

01:13:50
Speaker 5: You know. I can't really share a lot of things, you know, because you know I can't, you know, but all wonderful memories. I can't really think of any thing that stands out that that I should speak about.

01:14:03
Speaker 3: I know. I know around this time.

01:14:06
Speaker 2: You started doing like production work on your own, uh, for other acts, and I gotta know, like you're the history of you forming Madam X, of which no, I'm telling you I loved. I was like, ah, not not like why did you give the song away?

01:14:28
Speaker 3: But just that type of girl to me could have been just such a killer, killer, killer climax song.

01:14:39
Speaker 5: I didn't write it.

01:14:41
Speaker 3: Why did you give that song away? Oh? You didn't write that.

01:14:44
Speaker 5: No, I didn't write it until I was you know, I had moved forward.

01:14:48
Speaker 3: Okay, So it wasn't like you had that song under your hat before.

01:14:53
Speaker 6: No.

01:14:53
Speaker 5: No, that was a last minute song that was written by you know, I was. I was working on the album. I created the concept in my mind. First of all, let's talk about the beginning of these three girls. And I still have a concept right now. I just don't understand why we don't have a three girl group right now. I don't get it. Why is the only guy's a group? Where's the band? Where's the two guys and one girl wrap group? Where's the the female migos? I don't get it. I'm not grabbing onto right right right way A climax. That's a climax, right exactly. You know. You know, I came up with this concept of the girls and I didn't even have the group yet, and I met with Sylvia Roan. Sylvia Rome was interested in the concept, so she came back out to l A and she met with me. I told her about the concept. I will do this in a way I want them to look, and this is how I want him to do. She says, great, I'm gonna sign it the concept, I said, okay, So we did the deal with Ron Sweeney and negotiator for I learned to life and on, you know, and uh then I started formulating the group. I got the three girls who were who came to be Metal Max started working on the project, and I needed this last song, Okay, I need Okay, it's just I'm listening to the album. I just don't hear. I don't hear a clear big single and Cornelius Mims bass player. Yeah, yeah, okay, Cornelia's hit me up. I got this track Baby, come on over. And you know, I got this thing. Baby, I think you go dig it. So I'm like, okay, come on over. I'm at the studio. I'm at studio masters. He came by. He played this, He played this track, which was actually a back it went. He was working on the song and the song went backwards. Okay, yeah, he was working on the track and something technically happened and the song started playing backwards. That's the track. That's just that type of good.

01:17:01
Speaker 3: Steve's going to talk, yes, yes, yeah, mistakes, Okay, I'm the best mistakes.

01:17:06
Speaker 1: Yeah, shout out to bad engineers man all.

01:17:08
Speaker 3: Over the world.

01:17:11
Speaker 5: On all my song's mistakes. I don't do I don't do the perfection thing all the time. You know, if it feels good, it's staying, you know. But so you brought me this backwards track and he says, baby, you know it was a mistake, it went backwards, and that I'm like, I love it. I love it. So I took it. I said, leave me a track, and I took it, and I wrote the lyrics.

01:17:33
Speaker 3: I got to tell you like.

01:17:36
Speaker 2: It's I meant for for nineteen eighty seven. It was a very unusual sounding song. Very shocked that it hasn't been sampled or I still DJ. I still played to this day on my DJ sets, and I'll say that at least thirty to forty percent of the time someone will think think that I'm playing something like new like it just it doesn't. It didn't sound like anything that was in the marketplace at the time. How come that project was short lived? Like did you manage the band as well?

01:18:15
Speaker 3: Lord?

01:18:16
Speaker 5: You know, you know everybody's equal in poverty And that that statement comes from mister Dick Griffy himself, who I had a chance to visit right the day before he passed away. And I was able to thank him for my career, okay, And everybody started pulling at these girls when I when I created that, you know, and a certain manager, I don't want to say any names, but a manager came in who I really was told not to work with. And the next thing, I know, the girls that went by my back and signed with this manager. And Sylvia was not happy with it. And there was a clash, all right, and things got really out of control and things got crazy, and that's what happened to Manick pretty much. And they didn't want to you know. And I'm gonna tell you something, but a lot of women don't like to do this is with other women. A lot of women don't want other women's telling them. Would to chill. They would rather a man tell them the wrong way than the woman to tell them the right way.

01:19:15
Speaker 6: And now call that trauma.

01:19:20
Speaker 5: And get I even get that to this day, women don't want other women in control of them, you know, and then they.

01:19:27
Speaker 6: Want a man, right, they want to manage it.

01:19:33
Speaker 5: So it became this thing where they you know, the guys were pulling them and then you know, I'm gonna give you a solo deal and I just said go, I'll put another group together, and you know, it became a big It became a very big, a misunderstanding and a horrible thing. And the manager who pulled them away, Sylvia wasn't happening so happy with it. So it was a it was a horrible thing. So I tried to go forward with one of the other members who now is passed away but passed away from cancer.

01:20:03
Speaker 3: Which which one passed away, and that was.

01:20:06
Speaker 5: There was Dickie, there was Iris, and there was Alisa. Alisa Alsa, yes.

01:20:14
Speaker 3: The one that did the.

01:20:17
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, they see once again, once again. I love the beauty of finding your strength, your strength, your strength together. We got a band because everybody can't do the same thing. So we had we had Valerie who was that uh you know, that Grace Jones kind of vibe, you know, man, you know, did we have Iris, who had a more jazzy vibe that we had a Lisa who had who could same sing, same thing, you know, yeah, it's the same same sing. So I tried to do a project with Alisa, but it did. The vibe was all gone now. But that's what happened to Madame Max. That's a problem. There was no that's it. That was it.

01:20:58
Speaker 3: That's what happened, was producing other acts, like a pleasurable experience for you, like working with ro Lynn.

01:21:06
Speaker 8: And you know, I look, you know, I'm not even gonna fall down that rabbit hole.

01:21:16
Speaker 3: But this is not the first time I've heard that sort of response.

01:21:20
Speaker 5: You know, every everything has their stories, you know, and I have, you know, with cho Lynn. I enjoyed Choln. Cho Lynn had to manage you were just for whatever reason, didn't really take to me. So I just remember Jerry, Jerry was an engineer. That's where I first met Jerry Brown. Jerry Brown, he was with chro Lynn and he says, I'm working with you. And then you know, Pebbles told him he was working with Pebbles, and Pebbles says either Bernadette or me. He says Bernadette. So Jerry and I have been together every since, you know. But that's where I met so cho Lyn. You got you know, every every story has a little thing that comes along. I've heard the stories you know, people I didn't people's. And when she was dating Howard Hewitt, right, and I was doing this song called the Entity Sex that I wrote, which was a big which was a big which is a big voice record, you know. And once again I had specifics of how I wanted that song to be, you know, performed, and she had her ideas, so.

01:22:22
Speaker 6: She didn't really have a big voice though.

01:22:25
Speaker 5: You know what, if you listen to the song she did, we did a heck of a job. But that was after she cried. And you know Howard you had came in telling me, well, I didn't know what I was doing, and you know, you know, but I got the best out of her. You know, every every there's been a lot of situation. Once again, the man, So.

01:22:44
Speaker 3: You're are you? You?

01:22:47
Speaker 2: Are you demanding when it comes to your your art and the people that you work with?

01:22:51
Speaker 3: Yes, yes, okay, I can respect.

01:22:54
Speaker 5: That demanding in the sense of I already see when you write the song, you have a clear vision, right do you know how the moldy goes? You know how it should be, you know what it should sound like from that perspective. I'm not mean or difficult, you know, I'm just demanding on trying to get the best out of you.

01:23:13
Speaker 6: I'm just curious if you've talked to I mean, it's only a few I don't want to say it's a few of your peers. It's it's a lot of women behind the scenes making music throughout the years. However, have there been some peers that you've you've spoken to and had like these similar experiences? Because I'm listening to you and I'm thinking, I wonder how Missy you know, yeah, like and from her beginnings and earning her respect and then getting getting telling other women and other men what to do? You know, Missy Missy.

01:23:40
Speaker 5: Was probably she came up with that hip hop world and she was who was the person who was? Was it Diddy? Who was? Yeah? So you have what you got Kimberland behind you. They much, you know, But I was used by yourself. Yeah, I was by myself. So when Timberland is saying, hey, this is missus, She's gonna tell you what to do?

01:23:57
Speaker 6: Who are your peers in that way? Then Bernie that like, who are the other sisters that have been through the same thing?

01:24:03
Speaker 5: I don't know. I don't know.

01:24:05
Speaker 6: You know what.

01:24:06
Speaker 5: I got a story. When I was forming Climax, I asked Eater be in it? Okay, he said, only if it Chila I Climax.

01:24:13
Speaker 6: Well, I mean y'abo drummers.

01:24:15
Speaker 5: But you know, she wanted to be Yeah, you know what, you know what, she's bad. Okay, I give my props to Sheila. Okay, yeah, but that's just a story. Nothing bad about it.

01:24:29
Speaker 6: It don't have to be bad, right right. You know, you guys want you know, you just want the good stuff. We don't want to know, you know.

01:24:37
Speaker 5: No, I got a lot of stories, but I'm just so like a protective of a lot of people, and I don't want to say too much. But there there's a million.

01:24:46
Speaker 2: Stories, all right, So I kind of say this not for last but because I never knew. Even though I know that that v H one thing was on the air, I didn't see exactly what went down.

01:25:06
Speaker 3: But I do not know. Have you guys Climax included?

01:25:11
Speaker 5: Do you guys? You guys, have you got anybody were at that recent Billboard article about you?

01:25:17
Speaker 4: About you?

01:25:19
Speaker 5: Anybody right now? If you want to google it Billboard and climb actually see what just happened.

01:25:24
Speaker 6: It just came out.

01:25:25
Speaker 5: Well, so it's probably last month, two months ago. Did you hear about Climax being inducted into a woman's house songwriting house of Hall?

01:25:36
Speaker 6: So familiar?

01:25:37
Speaker 5: Okay, we heard, we heard about it too. When it was, and then I'll get back to the v H one thing. But let me started the VH one thing because it's a prelude to this. Okay, during this particular time, go ahead.

01:25:51
Speaker 2: I'm sorry, no, no, I just I want to know what the straw that was that broke the camel's back that led to the breakup of the group, or for you leave because another group went on without you, like good Love and whatever the other songs were.

01:26:05
Speaker 3: But you know what was it like to leave the band that you started?

01:26:10
Speaker 5: There was power struggles and when you's difficult for individuals to say. And this would be a better place if we were able to do this. I'm jealous of the fact that I put in equal amount of work as you. All right, I've been in this band at the same time in you. But all people want to do is focused on Burnett Cooper. That's very very I'm jealous, I'm angry about it, and I'm mad as hell. Okay, at that point, we could talk about it and we can get through it. But what happens with people is they start to nitpick, and they start to get in groups and go against you and all of those kind of things like that. Which makes me being from a family of women who have attacked me. When I'm in a corner, I come out fighting for survival. So I kind of felt like there was nothing big, major blow upers fight other than the fact is I got frustrated with having to compromise my creativity for people who really didn't want me to be successful or wanted me to move forward in life past them. So I made a decision after being I would say at sometimes bullied, ulfilling bullied, that I didn't no longer want to be in this situation. And there was the biggest move in my life. But I just asked you because I wasn't happy and I had to move forward. That's pretty much it. And I tried to stay, but it was this particular member in the group was the treasurer of the group, and I said I would stay if we got a real treasurer and not you know, we've growne we've gotten bigger, and this particular treasurer of the group I would like in the outside treasure I'll stay if I get my money and my things individual because I don't want this particular person to handle And they were like, no, wait.

01:28:07
Speaker 3: I have a question.

01:28:09
Speaker 2: So at this point in your career where there's platinum singles and YadA, YadA, YadA, you guys are still operating on that sort of level where like I'll collect the payment at the end of the game, Like you don't have a business manager.

01:28:26
Speaker 3: Or what we had.

01:28:27
Speaker 5: But we had a treasure in the group, and I didn't feel good about this particular situation, and I was like, no, we need to go to another level, because it's about levels, and it's about vision, it's about growth. Now everybody doesn't. Sometimes you just simply I'll grow a situation. That's pretty much what it is. We're climbing. I just simply outgrew this situation where it's like a relationship, you're married. Do you want to go back to your ex wife? No, you know, because you guys are going you know, because you've out growth the situation. You know, it doesn't mean anything other than that. But yeah, we were still operating on that level, and this particular individual ended up being the problem who's still to this day is collecting royalties that we don't know about. Now let's get to the VH one situation. So the group had just spanned it for a while, and you know, Joyce. You know, I had to say, hey, let's get the group back together. No, no, no, don't. I wasn't feeling that if everybody was going to make that first move, I felt that it should be me. So I didn't go forward with that. And I never got a call from this person at all. And next thing we know, she was trying to trademark the name and it got we found out about it and it stopped it. But that's when the VH one came in. And then after the VH one story came in the in the when I saw how people were still very very much focused on climax of wanting to do things and shows and things like that, we decided to move forward to do Okay, here we are twenty twenty one. If you will read then we.

01:30:05
Speaker 3: Gotta yeah, I mean I'm reading it. Yeah. Oldline is clim don't like the look. Okay, you want me to say the name? Okay, I won't say.

01:30:16
Speaker 5: Well, it's up to hear whether you want to say it. It's in Billboard.

01:30:19
Speaker 3: You out, Yeah, Sharyl Cooley, that was your quote.

01:30:24
Speaker 5: But you know, so this individual has been doing all these and savory things, bringing the bringing our brand down to your typical band that plays at the local uh food mark for for five hundred dollars, you know, using the name. So we tried to get her to stop, and she admitted that she would stop and that she would only go out because you know, as sure Cooley for formerly a Climax or client. We have that on tape, all right. So then I get a call one day that all of our all of our publishing on Askcap and on Ascaps specifically had been changed, publisher splits, including Rod Templeton, including a bunch of people, the publishers, all the splits, all the splits, all the writers shared had been changed. And to show Cooli's name, how can you do that legally?

01:31:20
Speaker 6: That's interesting.

01:31:21
Speaker 3: Nobody turn away from the farm and listen.

01:31:27
Speaker 6: Listen.

01:31:27
Speaker 5: People are not paying People just weren't paying attention, you know. So anyway, let's move forward. Sony gets involved because they own half of that publishing from the post, so they get involved. There was Sony an Ascap trying to figure out how this person got in and changed Jimmy Jams publishing, read writers splits, Climax, not just us, Rod Templeton, All of these people come yeah, Coolie, So anyway, moving on, we called them. I sent them a letter. They fixed it, she changed it back somehow. Then we got we woke up to Wow, Lorena said me, because Lorena and I we speak all the time. Shout out to Lorena, who's recovering from a cancer. Scare. All right, we just did a project togethers really good. So Lorena, uh, she goes, hey, you got you know, look at this article. And an article states the Climax Climax will be inducted into the Women's Writing Hall of Fame. All right, and we were honored. We finally came together as a group as being honored. Oh my god, I don't you know, we don't get along, but oh my god. So we waited around, you know, a week or two. I sent a letter, thank you, we're honored, Lindzen the letter thank you joys in it. Wow, no response. Find Finally we got a hold of the people and they were like, well, we're given the honor to Cheryl Cooley. So we were like, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute. I you know in kind wrote a letter. No, this Climax's group. No, you have to show us who owns the name Sharrel was telling people that she owned the name, and apparently this individual who's over this has some connection with Cooley, and she was dead set on giving Cooly this award. The COOLi does a right, she wrote, right, I put the name on I put Cooley's name on Heartbreaker just because we're in the group. We didn't write none and so.

01:33:42
Speaker 3: But yeah, and it looks like you guys are abandoned right right, right right, and in this situation, situation.

01:33:51
Speaker 5: The one song that we did was never undermestiate the power over woman Shaye Cooley and I did that, excuse me, the very first song, right. But other than that, Choc is just not a writer. Okay, I'm not saying, you know, she's not a hit writer. Let's put it like that. And if you look at if you look at all the names. So she she happily went up to accept this award. Right. So it was on such a big platform of Billboard being announced. People were calling me, hey, congratulations, and I'm like, okay, so I called bill Board and I'm like, you guys have to give us a chance to respond to this, because you know it's not right. You know, they didn't say we're given award to climb sua coolie of Climax. They said climax, and that's that's a big coming from So Billboard we did a you know, we responded. We responding and and Billboard, you know, to try to set the record straight to make people understand. And also, you know, Billboard grabbed onto that Astep story because that was a big story with all the changes being made. So that's it. So I just sent out to see Centersistent hopefully, you know, because she was intent on going out as Climax and the original climate. You're not the original climate, you know, So let's just hope that we can at least, you know, with the Truth and Music Act, you can go out and you can perform. Nobody's trying to stop you, but you gotta play fair. And playing fair is climax. Cody, that's what you mean a music Act? Okay, Yeah, are you familiar with that?

01:35:26
Speaker 6: I wasn't until you said that. I feel like I should be there.

01:35:29
Speaker 1: Yeah.

01:35:29
Speaker 3: I think I heard about this with Dennis Edwards.

01:35:32
Speaker 5: Well, Mary Mary Mary Mary Wilson of the Supremes. She enact. She helped to enact that law. That is, if you are in an individual member of a group that was successful, you have the right to go out using their name to make a living that yeah, yeah, but you have to be an original member, you know. And and that's why you see so many groups kind of like, you know.

01:36:01
Speaker 6: Going and doing so many different versions of groups, like a lot of climaxes on the internet.

01:36:07
Speaker 5: There's a lot of climaxes on the Internet. I'm trying to separate that now and I'm really evolving into Bernadette Cooper and putting out music. But you know, I can't. There's synonymous. Bernida Cooper is pretty much synonymous, so I can't escape it. But it is what it is. There's nothing that can be done about.

01:36:23
Speaker 2: It presents the climatic, right, the climatic, you know.

01:36:30
Speaker 5: So and when we go out, you know, climax is much bigger than just Bernadette Cooper. Climax is coming with the hits. So Bernida Cooper has a whole, the whole other album drama according to Bernadette Cooper. So it's it's you know, so yeah, So Joyce is going out with her concept shocles, going out of the concept and you know, everybody's allowed to do it. And the main thing is we're doing the hits and people are it's keeping the hits and people's memories. So that's the way I look at it. I'm not tripping about it no more.

01:37:03
Speaker 3: There's just no.

01:37:05
Speaker 2: Ice cubes chance in hell that this can come to a place where you guys, we'll.

01:37:12
Speaker 5: Just I'll say never, say never. But I have a clear vision of where I want to go with the second with the second half of my life, you know, talk about it, which includes because when you go back into the group scenario, it becomes that whole compromise thing. I don't want to compromise at all. I don't want to compromise anymore. My you know, life is short. I want to be able to do it my way and at the end of the day, go, oh, you know, Frank Sinatra, I did it my way, you know, and it kind of like no disrespect. But you know, that's that's the way I feel about it, and I don't want to shed you know, history is history, and everybody has history, and everybody has things they say about the members of the band and all of that. But I would never It's all good. We had a great run, we created history. We should be honored, you know. I don't understand how they could do music walk Girls Alive and Girls Listen. I was curious.

01:38:14
Speaker 6: I was like, did Beyonce ever come out? Does she know? Because the whole girl band that she had going on, I was like, I'm curious.

01:38:20
Speaker 5: If she knew the the girls in the band know we can who play instruments. Okay, that's what matters, you know, But you know, not to you know, not to come off vain or egotistical or any of those things, because you know, I'm just I'm pretty even, but I'm cool. I'm cool. I just want to move forward. And the girls are entitled to use the name. And if anybody is out there and you go see Climax teacher and whoever, and if we're all playing fair enjoying the music, you know, because yeah, so when I'm long gone, that music would still be going on. You know, Yes, ma'am. And that's pretty much it.

01:39:03
Speaker 6: That's right, shut down, interviewed themselves.

01:39:07
Speaker 5: But I'm going to can I ask myself a question? Yeah, yes, No, I'm just playing with guys. I mean no, no, no, I'm no, I'm good. I'm just you know, just moving forward. That's it. That's we didn't we didn't talk about drama. According to Bernie that Cooper.

01:39:26
Speaker 3: Was, I'm about to go there.

01:39:29
Speaker 2: That's a question I was going to ask when when when you finally got to that came out in nineteen ninety, I believe you got the drama, Bernard that Cooper. How liberated did you feel and in it falling on you and like being your own artist, being.

01:39:48
Speaker 1: Your own voice, Oh my gosh.

01:39:51
Speaker 2: Like was it was it a breath of fresh air or that can that much freedom can also be scary.

01:39:57
Speaker 3: So for you, what was it like?

01:40:01
Speaker 5: Freedom? You know, it's Jerry I equated very much to what's happening today, even though a lot of people, I mean, we're able to put out music freely and you know put it on you know, CD baby or whatever and put you music out. But back then it was freedom to me, you know, being in a band, and you know, probably that's why the album was such a cool album because it was my first taste of freedom.

01:40:27
Speaker 3: Wow, okay, I greet him.

01:40:30
Speaker 5: And a lot of people was on that album, Lenny Kravitz, Uh, there was a Paulino Dacors. A lot of people played on because Jerry Brown was bringing in all those major musicians.

01:40:44
Speaker 6: Funny because as Lenny Kravis and you went back from the scene of being in California back in the day, because I know he was a little younger, but I know he was out and about before he was supposed to be too.

01:40:54
Speaker 5: Yeah, I met him through Tina. He used to hang out a Tina's. You said you was gonna give us a Tina story. Well, the time they come to me, I know, I met him, you know, through Teenate would hang out at Tina's house. You know, he was he was dating Lisa Burnett at that time. You know, So I asked him if he would play. He came and playing, but he but he then immediately got to deal with Version Records and he told me he couldn't. He didn't want me to credit him, so you won't see his credit on the album. But wow, yeah he played on it. He played on Let's be the screet about It. That's Lenny really funky guitar.

01:41:32
Speaker 3: Yeah, okay, now I got to revisit that.

01:41:35
Speaker 2: Okay, yeah, wait, can you explain?

01:41:43
Speaker 3: Okay, have the set a long long time ago?

01:41:48
Speaker 2: The Howard Hughes song, can you like the way that your mind works?

01:41:53
Speaker 3: Like how do you even go? Like what was it.

01:41:58
Speaker 2: I know that the whole that album elevates your your personality and.

01:42:04
Speaker 3: Even more. But like from the beginning, like who was the who conceptualized that record as far as really bringing your character to life?

01:42:15
Speaker 5: I did. I remember, I had the free I had the freedom to do that and taking things from a song by a song by song basis and living and looking at what I had and what I needed, you know too, Yeah, I just took it. You know. I would listen to the song of Jerry and I. Jerry and I did a lot of that, talking about it and conceptualizing what's needed. Oh you need something really funky now, okay, let's be the street about it. Mini Cravis is coming. Okay, what do I need? I need something about a woman who's just you know, who's looking for a wealthy man, because that's the reality of the world. You know, women women love to be they love the security. So that's how Howard Heal sitcom came up. Yeah, that's how that came up. Wasn't from experience, It was purely from you know, just thinking about what's missing and what's needed.

01:43:07
Speaker 2: Well, you also mentioned Lou Silas, who you know, of course has had major success and has left us. But what was he like as an executive?

01:43:19
Speaker 5: Oh my gosh, loul oh. Going out on the road with him the first time. He was our point person who would take us from ound to the radio stations and things. And he got a fixation on Lorena, so you know, uh so we would go out on the road to deal with that all the time. And he was very very he had he had great vision and he would have, Hey, Bernidette, come come on down to the studio. I got a concept and I want you to put a concept on this. I think, you know, just talk and put the microphone in from you. He was very good at bringing people together and as a businessman, you know, sign me as he signed me as a solo artist. So he was wonderful. He was at MCA he says, you're one of the first acts I want to sign, and he signed me.

01:44:10
Speaker 3: Well that's what I was going to say, Like, I know, like was he more of a suit or was he really a music guy?

01:44:18
Speaker 5: He was a music guy. He had ideas, he had vision, He knew how to bring the right people together and in order to achieve a certain song, a certain thing on an album, because you know, after I did the mental pause. He says, Okay, you got to come back with that same thing on Meeting in the Latest Room because that was so popular. That was one of the things that people remember, I need that same thing on this particular album, Meeting in the Latest film. So we went to Larabie and he turned the mic on and I said, I had to leave my condo to come to this, you know, And that's how that happened him.

01:44:57
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know exactly.

01:44:59
Speaker 2: Yeah, wait, how did you How did you even know? Uh, it's so weird because you know, if you really look at the character that you built, I mean, it's so it's such a precursor to what hip hop became ten years later. Like you are probably the first person I ever heard name drop like Versace. Yeah, names I never heard of before that rappers would start just that became their birthright ten years later.

01:45:33
Speaker 5: And in Tiva, In Tiva, I was fearless. You have to understand, and I was and I was in and I was in too close and they started sending me close and I just kind of like I just kind of spoke my mind. I wish I really allowed myself to have You know, now, you have to be a little bit more resolved because everybody is so sensitive and the things that you say.

01:46:00
Speaker 6: You know, but that's what age was for, so you don't have to you know.

01:46:05
Speaker 5: You know, I even think about it, you know, because I even think about my demographics, what they want to hear from me, you know, they you know, and I don't want to continue and be a caricature of my old self, you know.

01:46:16
Speaker 2: So I was going to say, do you get tired of having to turn it on in a snap like other days where you just wish like you never had to invent that character too?

01:46:28
Speaker 5: You know, I'm naturally a a comedian, so I'm always that comes very easy from me. The character is easy. The character is more easier than me being myself. You know. Yeah, I could bring the character, and I'm much more comfortable on stage than I am anywhere, you know, So I don't struggle with it at all. I don't struggle with it. I'm I'm working on now in the product that you hear me putting out is kind of the the me, the evolution of Bernadette Cooper and me who has evolved into the woman, and kind of like slowing down a little bit so that I can perform my songs way until you know, I get older and older my songs to be able to And I wish I could do a song on an album on Janet Jackson is. I think she would be good at doing that, so she doesn't have to get up and do real domnation and all of those things. That's a lot to be dancing and all that. You know, now's the time to kind of slow it down and go into the new you and your and your demographics will follow because they they're there too. They're there too. There's train age, you know. So that's what I'm doing right now with the projects that I'm that I'm working on.

01:47:44
Speaker 3: You know, one more thing.

01:47:47
Speaker 2: It just hit me, did you at any point did you ever consider the sort of going down the acting lane because you were so charismatic, you know, I never you should have done movies.

01:48:06
Speaker 5: You know. I've had many people come to me. I've even gone to auditions. I flupped, Oh my god, my mouth wi more. It's not for me. That's for somebody.

01:48:16
Speaker 6: The audition.

01:48:17
Speaker 5: I'm just like, you know, panic, that's for somebody who has who has studied. I've gone there and live literally couldn't read the lines. My mouth wouldn't move. I was so afraid. I said, this is not for me. I don't have a head, I don't have a toget, I don't want to support. But you know what I have a passion for, and that's coming out. And here's here's a commercial head that I'm gonna drop that I'm doing audio books.

01:48:42
Speaker 3: Okay, yeah, I doing.

01:48:45
Speaker 5: Fiction and I'm doing the characters with soundtrack and all of that, and yeah, yeah, it's really really episodic adventures. It's really really going to transition, yes, and I love it. I love it on a couple the newest one where I've written I've written several books. I haven't released them because I'm creating the audiobook from these concepts. But the new one, The Strokes, is coming out probably and Jerry is mixing the last song probably maybe December, if not December, first of the year. And it's really really cool because I'm looking at the our demographics and women now being a majority of the bread winners. And but we're busy. We're taking the kids to school, we're going to work. Then we got to get off work and we got to go pick up the kids. Then we got to come back home. And then we got to cook and get them to bed. We don't have time to read a book. So these episodic adventures are things you can put in and you can listen to on your way to soccer practice. You know it comes back, and they're so funny and exciting. The first one is The Strokes. It's a racial thing about a woman who's transformed of by a racist white woman who's transformed. Something happens to where she has to be transformed by a black woman who's in her proximity, and she changes for the best, and they're all situated into a nursing home, and you also get the characters. And because if you ever go into a nursing home, which I've been in a lot of them because I've been dealing with my grandmother and my mother's health, there's some old souls in there, some unresolved souls, And if you listen to those people who are ninety years old, they're putting these racist white people in with black people and there's a lot going on in those songs. But it's interesting because you learn about the souls and the things that they've gone through. So this particular, this host out of your book kind of explores that you know that pretty much if you don't take care it resolve those negative spirits, and those spirits in the inside of you now they follow you until the rest of your life. So that's what this book is about.

01:51:00
Speaker 3: Wow.

01:51:00
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, it's really I love it.

01:51:03
Speaker 1: I like that. Yeah.

01:51:05
Speaker 5: I've been talking to you. I've been you know, I've been talking to some have you hitters about it, you know, HarperCollins talk about it, Yeah, and Patrick Ovid Harper Collins. We've been discussing it for for a while and it's just so it's such a new concept. It's not your typical audio book that he doesn't know what to quite. We're trying to figure in fit it into it because the beauty of it quest is also the soundtrack.

01:51:33
Speaker 2: Is available, right, Okay, okay, you know, Wow, I'm glad to know that you're still having dreams and you're you're you're still manifesting it.

01:51:46
Speaker 5: Yeah.

01:51:46
Speaker 2: The fact that you know, you allowed us to gave us the honor of being your audience to to really learn of your.

01:51:56
Speaker 3: Story and your history, and thank you, you.

01:51:58
Speaker 2: Know, because again, like there're there weren't platforms like this when I was a kid, wanting to know of my favorite groups that I saw on television, and you know, like if you weren't in right on magazine, it wasn't like Rolling Stone was going to take the time out to give you guys the same building that they would give like the Go Gos or.

01:52:16
Speaker 5: That's exactly exactly Yeah, absolutely, wow, absolutely, But I'm honored to to be here really yet and that you invited me onto your show. This is like really a cool thing for me.

01:52:30
Speaker 3: Wow. Well I'm glad you did it, you know.

01:52:33
Speaker 2: Yeah, Ladies and gentlemen, the the the Immortal Burnon de Cooper or in Quest Loft Supreme.

01:52:39
Speaker 3: I thank you very much for coming.

01:52:41
Speaker 5: Thank you girl band.

01:52:45
Speaker 3: Uh, Sugar Steve and fond Ticolo. Why do you have to say on behalf? Can we say goodbye for ourselves?

01:52:56
Speaker 2: Look this is my love piece and soul dude all Sugar Steve? Yeah yeah, I'm paid.

01:53:03
Speaker 3: Bill, You got any last words? Tooker Steve? Yeah?

01:53:06
Speaker 2: Bye anyway, y'all and we'll see you on the next go round.

01:53:12
Speaker 3: Go find yo, what's up? This is Fante.

01:53:17
Speaker 4: Make sure you keep up with us on Instagram at QLs and let us know what you think.

01:53:21
Speaker 3: Who should be next to sit down with us.

01:53:23
Speaker 4: Don't forget to subscribe to our podcast all right peace.

01:53:30
Speaker 5: M H.

01:53:33
Speaker 1: What's Love Supreme is a production of iHeart Radio. For more podcasts from iHeart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.