Speaker 1: Quest Love Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: Ladies and gentlemen. What's up? This is Quest Love and
Speaker 2: this is another episode of Quest Love Supreme. We got
Speaker 2: the Team Supreme with us right now, the one and
Speaker 2: the only Sugar Steve Yo Yo. How goes it to?
Speaker 2: Oh wow? Oh you're your shock that I actually care
Speaker 2: about your well being?
Speaker 3: Yes, but no, I'm feeling good. Everything's good. So glad
Speaker 3: to be here with Team Supreme and Burn Yeah, gonna be.
Speaker 2: Great, uh Fan Ticolo, North Carolina. Yeah, man, I'm good,
Speaker 2: brother O bit chill fighting for his uh, his his
Speaker 2: rights and his masters and listen or as we call
Speaker 2: it in the music business, Wednesday, whatever I feel you,
Speaker 2: I feel you, uh, and and our our diva that
Speaker 2: he's left to. That was my f's going.
Speaker 4: It's good.
Speaker 5: I'm mad we ain't doing no roll call because I'm
Speaker 5: just we were doing right now.
Speaker 6: I would really quill this.
Speaker 2: I'm just I know, man, we're gonna but by the time,
Speaker 2: hopefully someone will invent a system that will you know,
Speaker 2: fix all the latency problems or you know, for roll
Speaker 2: call h Ladies and gentlemen, I will say that speaking
Speaker 2: of Diva, our guest today is probably I mean, she's
Speaker 2: beyond diva, she is beyond queen, she is beyond legend.
Speaker 2: She just is. And I'll say that, I know it's
Speaker 2: hard to imagine. I'm not trying to sound like Grandpa.
Speaker 2: I noticed that, like all my tales of music starts
Speaker 2: with the like we're back in my day. But you know,
Speaker 2: it's really it's really hard to imagine, like a like
Speaker 2: a time period in which being in a band like
Speaker 2: wasn't like a novel idea. And you know, a lot
Speaker 2: can happen in thirty five years. Yes, we're now living
Speaker 2: in the age of the solo act, and you know
Speaker 2: a lot of these acts are chasing perfection. We're pre
Speaker 2: recorded tracks. But I mean, there was there was a
Speaker 2: time in history where you know, where collaboration was key.
Speaker 2: Magic came and in numbers, and it was it was
Speaker 2: a thing to see, you know, to watch people as
Speaker 2: a unit kick gas. And I will say that our
Speaker 2: guest really personifies that. You know, the band that she
Speaker 2: established in the late seventies, known as Climax was pretty
Speaker 2: much you know, I'll say that kind of sort of
Speaker 2: a nominally consisting of badass women playing instruments which you
Speaker 2: know sad to say that again, like the fact that
Speaker 2: that's a novelty shows you like the the sad state
Speaker 2: of of where we are right now and music. But
Speaker 2: you know this particular band, you know, the hits were
Speaker 2: a plenty, one of the best puns in music. You know,
Speaker 2: ment all pause, the anthemic don't mess with me anthem
Speaker 2: meeting in the ladies room.
Speaker 4: Not to mention because I'm not in the mood.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and the forever prom anthem from my era. This
Speaker 2: sho so many hits, so many hits, the name Sexy Divas,
Speaker 2: Need Love to and Everything. Not to mention her work
Speaker 2: as a producer with Cheryl Lin, Paul Abdul, Pat Metler,
Speaker 2: Shallamar and I can't wait till we start talking about
Speaker 2: Madam X. Madame X is probably the most expensive record
Speaker 2: I ever purchased on eBay. This before I knew that
Speaker 2: you can rip songs off of YouTube. So anyway, ladies
Speaker 2: and gentlemen, please welcome to our show the one and
Speaker 2: only the legendary diva of all divas, Bernadette Cooper to
Speaker 2: Quest Love Supreme.
Speaker 6: Hello, Hello, Hi christ Yo.
Speaker 2: I noticed something. When a microphone is present, I cannot
Speaker 2: whistle my whistles. I was trying to whistle when it
Speaker 2: was just like look like I was like blowing kisses
Speaker 2: at us. Yeah. Anyway, So the Cooper, how are you today?
Speaker 2: How's it going.
Speaker 6: I'm doing Wilson honor, honor to be here with all
Speaker 6: of you.
Speaker 2: Thank you. What what part of the world are you
Speaker 2: in right now?
Speaker 6: Right now? I'm in Westchester right now. My studio is here.
Speaker 4: Not that, not your west Chester, My west Chester.
Speaker 2: Oh there's a west Chester, California.
Speaker 6: Yes.
Speaker 1: I was like, yo, you're down the block.
Speaker 2: Okay, I thought you were named.
Speaker 6: I got my studio out here. I'm working. Jerry Brown
Speaker 6: told me to say hello, the.
Speaker 2: Lesendary Jerry Brown, the engineer Jerry Brown. Yes, yes, is
Speaker 2: it Christmas in his studio right now? That guy's name
Speaker 2: keeps coming.
Speaker 6: Yeah, he told me hello. He just actually he was
Speaker 6: here working in my in my studio, I have a
Speaker 6: mixing room and he just did. He worked on John Legend.
Speaker 2: Yeah, his Christmas. Yeah. Jerry's world famous for his his
Speaker 2: Christmas decorations in the studio.
Speaker 6: The mood lamps and his lights and his candos and
Speaker 6: he brings the sexy does Okay.
Speaker 2: I've never heard his designs described as sexy, like he
Speaker 2: always looked at the cheerful and had like when we're there,
Speaker 2: it's like it's Christmas. I feel like I should be,
Speaker 2: you know, bringing a gift or whatever. But exactly, yeah,
Speaker 2: you know, Uh, of course, being on the show puts
Speaker 2: us in the the position of always having access to
Speaker 2: a lot of the acts that we grew up, one
Speaker 2: that we feel that haven't been praised enough for, haven't
Speaker 2: gotten that much attention. And what was weird is that
Speaker 2: I work at Rockefeller Plaza, which I consider is sort
Speaker 2: of like a university for comedy. That's where like Seth
Speaker 2: Meyers and The Tonight Show with Jimmy fallon Saturday Night
Speaker 2: Live and all these these legendary New York shows are shot,
Speaker 2: and whenever Saturday Night Live is in season, I'm usually
Speaker 2: there to watch tapings of the show. And this year
Speaker 2: was like really something special in which just out of nowhere,
Speaker 2: they did this really awesome sketch. Yes, based in the
Speaker 2: ladies room.
Speaker 4: I was hoping you were going to where I could follow.
Speaker 6: Yes, you know what, it's actually the second one, the
Speaker 6: first one.
Speaker 2: Halle Berry halle Berry right right, Yeah, I totally I
Speaker 2: remember I was laughing because it was so authentic and
Speaker 2: so on point. Yeah, I was, you know, the audience
Speaker 2: was laughing, but I was laughing like it was funny
Speaker 2: and I knew the reference point, you know, whereas I
Speaker 2: think half the audience, who was like millennials and gen
Speaker 2: z would just thought like, oh, they're doing some crazy
Speaker 2: eighties thing that we don't get the reference. And I
Speaker 2: remember grilling Steve Higgins, who's sort of like Jimmy's sidekick
Speaker 2: on the Tonight Show. He runs Saturday Night Live, and
Speaker 2: I just grilled him like, yo, like you guys did
Speaker 2: such a deep cut inside joke that like who who
Speaker 2: in your audience do you think we're really remember like climax,
Speaker 2: and the very specifics of like you know, Cecily Strong
Speaker 2: playing the Bernadette Cooper role and Leslie playing like it was.
Speaker 2: It was so on point. I was really impressed, and
Speaker 2: I wanted to meet the Riders and they were just like,
Speaker 2: you know, we like music too, and we go outside
Speaker 2: the box, even though they were young riders. I was
Speaker 2: really impressed that that they gave you guys, like really
Speaker 2: a really good shout out for your legacy, like that
Speaker 2: sketch is going to go you know down I feel
Speaker 2: like that will be on their sizzle real way down
Speaker 2: the line.
Speaker 6: Yeah, it was great. When I started, it was you know,
Speaker 6: you know, I watched Saturday Night Live every night, every
Speaker 6: Saturday night. Yeah, and to sit there in bed, you know,
Speaker 6: you got your popcorn and all of a sudden, bam,
Speaker 6: It's like, oh wow, it was great. It was a
Speaker 6: great honor and.
Speaker 2: You didn't know it was coming that. That's awesome, isn't.
Speaker 5: It Isn't that good from a license and perspective too, right,
Speaker 5: Like when they do something like that burned, that is
Speaker 5: a good thing.
Speaker 6: You for real, you know sometimes you know when royalty
Speaker 6: time comes, you know, then I would really know. Sometimes
Speaker 6: sometimes it is and sometimes you.
Speaker 4: Know, sometimes it's just sparks sales people, and.
Speaker 6: I don't call them up and go, hey, where's my check.
Speaker 6: I don't do that. I just I just kind of
Speaker 6: enjoyed the moment and and you know, I'm honored.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, I think like when when it's done in parody,
Speaker 2: it's not the same as like clearing a sample. Wow,
Speaker 2: they're kind of they're kind of parody laws that, but
Speaker 2: I think they actually did meeting in the ladies. Yeah, right,
Speaker 2: they did the Yeah, so it's just it's like a
Speaker 2: standard payment thing. But hopefully that plant seeds with you know,
Speaker 2: with an audience, and they'll do the research and record. Yeah,
Speaker 2: and that's how that's how legends.
Speaker 6: Are made, and promoters will will remember that we're here.
Speaker 4: Yes, Oh wow, I didn't think about that.
Speaker 2: So many questions about that, So I would like to
Speaker 2: know because I really don't, you know, besides like the
Speaker 2: occasional coverage and like Ride On magazine shout out to
Speaker 2: Cynthia Horner, I really don't know. I mean, there's not
Speaker 2: there haven't been that much in depth interviews with you guys,
Speaker 2: even though you guys were doing the numbers. You guys
Speaker 2: were like doing massive pop hits. So I'm glad that
Speaker 2: we finally have this chance to talk to you.
Speaker 6: Uh, thank you.
Speaker 2: We were you born in Los Angeles?
Speaker 6: Yes? I was born in Los Angeles, lived in Compton, Inglewood, Hollywood,
Speaker 6: grew up in mainly you know. After after high school,
Speaker 6: I moved to the Hollywood area and I of there
Speaker 6: and beach Wood King and did all of that. So, yes,
Speaker 6: Los Angeles. Then I moved to New York for ten years.
Speaker 2: Yeah, can you tell us? Can you tell me what
Speaker 2: your first musical memory was.
Speaker 6: Wow, when you say musical memory like band.
Speaker 2: That I know just from as a baby, Like what
Speaker 2: like their very first musical memory as a child.
Speaker 6: Of course, you know, Rita Franklin was my was my
Speaker 6: played in my household when there was happy times, when
Speaker 6: they were sad times. So Rita was a person that
Speaker 6: I used to listen to and follow her lyrics and
Speaker 6: her and her vocal movements and her hooks and and
Speaker 6: it made me a better writer by the Rita Franklin songs.
Speaker 6: And then of course moving on Dio Daddo. Remember Dio Daddo. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 6: it was a little bit of all those guys. Jeff Beck,
Speaker 6: you know, I really got into that scene and kind
Speaker 6: of in the high school, junior high school era. But yeah,
Speaker 6: I would.
Speaker 2: Say what was your what was the family record collection,
Speaker 2: like in your household as part of what was the
Speaker 2: what was what was the established records that were in
Speaker 2: your house? But then I want to know what was
Speaker 2: the album that you purchased with your own money, Like
Speaker 2: this is something I want out out of your parents.
Speaker 6: Range Areta Gladys, you know Ray Charles, that was the
Speaker 6: songs that were be being played in my host So
Speaker 6: what I when I went out in about were songs like,
Speaker 6: as I said, the Theodaddo's, the I got really into
Speaker 6: the I Cantina Turner. I really loved them. You know,
Speaker 6: it's not really much when I look back, it kind
Speaker 6: of I had a range of people that I really
Speaker 6: really loved, Michael Henderson. All those kind of people are
Speaker 6: the people I used to come home from high school
Speaker 6: and listen to.
Speaker 2: In your household, were you like, did you have other siblings?
Speaker 2: Like how was this music passed down? Was like older
Speaker 2: cousins or older siblings that put you onto it? Or No?
Speaker 6: I didn't really have a musical household, you know, other
Speaker 6: than the songs I just mentioned that were played, you know,
Speaker 6: which was ata. I got more into it when I
Speaker 6: was with the church and then my Yeah, and then
Speaker 6: as far as playing the drums is concerned, my mom
Speaker 6: married the preacher and he had a drum set, and
Speaker 6: I started practicing every day. Story yeah, O drama and
Speaker 6: I started practicing every day, and I taught myself how
Speaker 6: to play drums.
Speaker 4: Why did drums.
Speaker 6: Because they were there? I mean, really, it wasn't. It
Speaker 6: wasn't like a passion or love or I want to
Speaker 6: play the drum. They happened to be there, and I
Speaker 6: kind of geared towards it, and my brother started playing
Speaker 6: the bass. That we were together in the garage, practicing
Speaker 6: every day, and he probably made me a more powerful
Speaker 6: drummer because he really puts, you know. And then we
Speaker 6: played in the church band, and that's my early beginning
Speaker 6: musical life. Then of course, created a group called Blue Ice,
Speaker 6: which was in junior high school with Michael Northfleet. You
Speaker 6: know Michael northfleid.
Speaker 2: Right, I know this name, but for our listeners, can
Speaker 2: you tell Michael Northlee.
Speaker 6: He's a keyboard player, Chucky Booker, you know Chucky Booker,
Speaker 6: Michael north Fleet. All those guys are kind of like
Speaker 6: that same vibe. So I started a band in junior
Speaker 6: high school called Blue Ice. Horn section had a guy
Speaker 6: like like Mike, uh, James Brown. We won all the
Speaker 6: contests because he was James Brown. And then we had
Speaker 6: a girl drummer. Oh no, we want everything.
Speaker 2: So you were always in those battle the band things
Speaker 2: in high.
Speaker 5: School and junior yes, yes, and you were always in
Speaker 5: diverse bands too, like yes, one of.
Speaker 6: The diverse bands. And then uh, then I took a
Speaker 6: love in high school, I started learning how to write
Speaker 6: because I'm really kind of a musician who play and
Speaker 6: I create by ear and I kind of hear it
Speaker 6: in my head and I play it. And I learned
Speaker 6: how to play read music in high school and that's
Speaker 6: where the early beginnings started.
Speaker 2: Even even back then, did you have a yearning or
Speaker 2: did you feel that there was a need for a
Speaker 2: band of all women, because I think by that point,
Speaker 2: when I was a kid, the only band that I
Speaker 2: saw that had like women playing an equal role in
Speaker 2: the instrumentation I'm in, besides signing the family Stone, which
Speaker 2: you know, it is kind of mind blowing for people
Speaker 2: to see like a trumpet player and a keyboard player.
Speaker 2: But I remember growing up watching there was a Philly
Speaker 2: group called Ecstasy, Passion and Pain and they had they
Speaker 2: had a drummer named Cookie, and I was really impressed,
Speaker 2: like asking my mom, like, yo, girls can play drums too,
Speaker 2: Like did they act like that was a novelty or
Speaker 2: was it just normal? Because normally when you think of
Speaker 2: a drummer, it's always a man behind the skins or whatever.
Speaker 2: It's like very unusual for certain instruments to be played
Speaker 2: by women. Be it like a trombone or like, it's
Speaker 2: like things you don't see. But were people making a
Speaker 2: big deal of that? And did you take advantage of
Speaker 2: the fact that, And did you play any other instruments
Speaker 2: as well?
Speaker 6: No, And what you just said is the reason why
Speaker 6: it came to mind. But there was a void, you know.
Speaker 6: One day, you know, just in my lower, my young mind,
Speaker 6: I said, wow, there's not a lot of female musicians.
Speaker 6: I said it would be great to create an all
Speaker 6: girl band. And then watching LaBelle really really I love LaBelle, okay,
Speaker 6: and I watched them and I saw the excitement that
Speaker 6: that everybody had when these girls got on stage. And
Speaker 6: you know, I'm one of those kind of people who
Speaker 6: cry when I see things that you're so unusual that,
Speaker 6: you know, and they would they would just move me.
Speaker 6: And I said, one day, it would be great to
Speaker 6: put together on our girl band. And I mean people
Speaker 6: ask me this question all the time. I don't really
Speaker 6: have an incredible answer other than that I think it
Speaker 6: was meant to be. And they just kind of came
Speaker 6: to me. And this low young girl who had this
Speaker 6: idea started checking the yellow pages, remember the yellow paces, yes,
Speaker 6: and trying to look for other musicians calling radio record
Speaker 6: labels and asking them, Hey, would you guys be interested
Speaker 6: in an all girl band, you know, And finally one
Speaker 6: record company said, yes, we would be. I have an idea.
Speaker 6: That's how it started.
Speaker 2: Wait a minute, that's how you got into the because
Speaker 2: we have a billion questions about Dick Griffy. But okay,
Speaker 2: that's how that's started.
Speaker 6: No, No, not Dick Griffy yet. It's another label. This
Speaker 6: was another label and another lady. It was a lady
Speaker 6: by the name of who was the an R person
Speaker 6: at this particular so it wasn't I forgot the name
Speaker 6: of the record was a sous cell watched radio record label. Anyway,
Speaker 6: she was the an R person. She says, come, I
Speaker 6: want to meet with you about this concept that you have.
Speaker 6: So we met and she says I'm interested. Her and
Speaker 6: I together, she kind of. She and the record label
Speaker 6: funded my idea for a while, and I started looking
Speaker 6: for girls through the recycler paper. I started rehearsing these girls,
Speaker 6: and I turned the studio in Inglewood, which I have
Speaker 6: great stories about it.
Speaker 4: Yeah, because I was like them. You was a fan
Speaker 4: and then a circle back.
Speaker 6: I love it, okay, yeah, yeah, And I turned the
Speaker 6: studio and I started like she she really kind of
Speaker 6: funded this and she, I don't know, she was coming
Speaker 6: up with the money to help me with this idea.
Speaker 6: And I said, I have a great name for the band.
Speaker 6: She said, let me know what the band is. I said, Climax.
Speaker 6: She says, I love it spelled with the k l
Speaker 6: y m ax. She says, I love the whole concept
Speaker 6: of it. And that's how you know, That's how the
Speaker 6: seed was planted. And then from there we went on.
Speaker 2: A little bit because also a recurring theme on the
Speaker 2: show Our Tales from the Ike Turner Studio UNEs from
Speaker 2: Charlie about.
Speaker 6: Steve wonder So Bollick Studios.
Speaker 2: If yes, I could talk, Yeah, what was happening at
Speaker 2: that studio?
Speaker 6: You know? I would pipe pole. He would peek in
Speaker 6: every once in a while after rehearsals. You know, we
Speaker 6: weren't that good, you know, we didn't really get good
Speaker 6: too later on in life, but we were playing and
Speaker 6: we were trying, and we were dedicated. So he would
Speaker 6: peep in. And he had a bodyguard at that time.
Speaker 6: I forgot the gentleman's name, but he took a liking
Speaker 6: to me the bodyguard, and we became friends. We would
Speaker 6: talk all the time. This is important. I'm gonna get
Speaker 6: back to that these stories. Yeah, the one time that
Speaker 6: that I finally said. He came into the studio and
Speaker 6: he looked around and he looked at me, and then
Speaker 6: the guy let's call him this team Okay, ok, not
Speaker 6: sugar Steve, but she said, let's stee.
Speaker 2: So he says, he.
Speaker 6: Says, I want you to talk to you. Come in
Speaker 6: if he wants you to into the front studio, because
Speaker 6: you know, the rehearsal studios were on the side of
Speaker 6: the building. So I said okay, and the girls were
Speaker 6: kind of looking at me, and I go, I'll be back.
Speaker 6: And I went in and I'm going to tell this story.
Speaker 6: We're not gonna We're not gonna mess around here. So
Speaker 6: I went in there and I came in. I was
Speaker 6: holding his pipe. He was getting high, and he goes, here,
Speaker 6: I want you to hit this right, and I go, well,
Speaker 6: I don't do drugs and I don't drink. I don't
Speaker 6: do any of that. He goes, I said, hit it.
Speaker 6: Hit this pipe right, Look at.
Speaker 4: That Mary and Barry. That's how it happened. Go ahead,
Speaker 4: I'm sorry.
Speaker 6: And he said hit the pipe and I was like, no,
Speaker 6: I don't do and he says, I said that. He
Speaker 6: got really aggressive with me. He said no, he says,
Speaker 6: you're good. He said, you're really good on the drums.
Speaker 6: You're gonna go somewhere and he goes hit the pipe
Speaker 6: and there's Steve said, man, leave her alone. She's a
Speaker 6: good girl. Man leave her alone. And I listened to
Speaker 6: him and he just excused hit me out of there.
Speaker 6: The rehearsal studio.
Speaker 2: Wow, individuals on that one. If it was the guy
Speaker 2: was it? Was it Frau in the West Love got
Speaker 2: to do with the movie. McBride's character Frosts. It was
Speaker 2: like his guy. I wonder if it was him.
Speaker 6: He was kind of a big guy. Yeah, yeah, yes,
Speaker 6: and he he saved me that day because I would
Speaker 6: have been a different girl today. Wow, you know, but yeah,
Speaker 6: but I had to tell the story the way it happened.
Speaker 6: There's no way of sugar coat.
Speaker 2: In that, no niceties, know, like hey, what's your name?
Speaker 2: And no, no, no, no, it was just like here
Speaker 2: hit this, hit that.
Speaker 6: Yeah. Well, he gave me a compliment first, he told
Speaker 6: me I was good, I'm going to be good and
Speaker 6: all of this kind of stuff.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 6: I guess that was the soften me up a little bit.
Speaker 6: And I was like, no, sir. You know, I was
Speaker 6: very respectful and I said, I no, sir, I don't.
Speaker 2: I don't.
Speaker 6: I don't do drugs. I don't, I don't. I don't
Speaker 6: want to do that.
Speaker 2: Thank God.
Speaker 5: I'm because in a twenty twenty one America like Ike
Speaker 5: Turner would not have existed with his studio it being successful,
Speaker 5: people going to him being able to say that to you, like.
Speaker 6: Oh, no, what exists. It's still it's still going on.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I was gonna say, like, I'm sad to say that. Probably, Yes,
Speaker 2: it's still going it's.
Speaker 6: Still going on. I mean, look at them. I'm just
Speaker 6: look at all the entertainers who are dying. You know
Speaker 6: that's true. There's still a culture. There's a drug thing.
Speaker 4: It is a drug call.
Speaker 2: We just don't.
Speaker 6: We just don't know it because we don't, we're not
Speaker 6: in it.
Speaker 5: I'm at the misogynistic part of that, that the way
Speaker 5: he approached you and everything like that still happens.
Speaker 6: It still happens.
Speaker 2: I was going to say, how how hard is it
Speaker 2: to be taken seriously in a time in which the
Speaker 2: even the idea of being a mumusician. A female musician
Speaker 2: is such a rarity, like how are you able to
Speaker 2: be taken seriously where it's just like, nah, I'm not
Speaker 2: messing with Bernard at Cooper you know, Well, did you
Speaker 2: have to invent that character that we we know because
Speaker 2: you have this don't mess with me sort of stance
Speaker 2: with you?
Speaker 6: Well, I do have an alter ego, you know, and
Speaker 6: that would be my alter ego. The other the real
Speaker 6: Bernie in the Cooper is very shy and very I'm
Speaker 6: a very cluse and I'm really kind of like in
Speaker 6: this character. I created this, this other character to get
Speaker 6: me through I guess, you know, as I said, a
Speaker 6: lot of this stuff was meant to be. I can't
Speaker 6: really go oh. I created this character because of this,
Speaker 6: you know. And it was also a shield that I
Speaker 6: used to deal with a lot of family mental abuse
Speaker 6: and not really sharing in my dream. So I said, Okay,
Speaker 6: I'm going to create this character strong superwoman because I
Speaker 6: got to get make I gotta make it to the
Speaker 6: next day, you know. So I created this character, and
Speaker 6: this character went on to work. She became the slattin girl. Yeah,
Speaker 6: you know, and I and I look good all that stuff.
Speaker 6: It's really about loving yourself. It has nothing to do
Speaker 6: with physical appearance. But you have to be a diva
Speaker 6: to understand that, you know.
Speaker 4: I'm just curious if you believed it at the time.
Speaker 4: Were you just saying it?
Speaker 6: No, no, no, I was saying it from another from
Speaker 6: an inner perspective. I wasn't saying I know, I'm the cute.
Speaker 6: I was saying it because I had to find strength
Speaker 6: and going forward in this world by myself with my dream.
Speaker 6: So I created this character and to achieve that, you know,
Speaker 6: and that character is still here. I'm still very cluse.
Speaker 6: I'm still a very cluse.
Speaker 4: But they're still working together, the characters.
Speaker 2: We don't know that though, right, don't tell us how
Speaker 2: the sausages made, like we exactly. So, Yeah, I was
Speaker 2: going to ask, you know, oftentimes, especially in black households,
Speaker 2: you know, survival, you know, hooker crook, his job one,
Speaker 2: that's what parents think, like get something to fall back on. Yeah,
Speaker 2: get a good paying job, that sort of thing. Like
Speaker 2: we're well, you kind of answered it, but what was
Speaker 2: your family's feelings on you pursuing this dream or was
Speaker 2: it like like you got to the age of nineteen
Speaker 2: to make it or else, you know, you got to
Speaker 2: work at the post office. Like did they give you
Speaker 2: ultimatums or were they quasi nurturing, you know? Or were
Speaker 2: they church people?
Speaker 6: They it was a little bit of all of it.
Speaker 6: The bottom line is that they weren't feeling it. Nobody,
Speaker 6: and you know I was. My plan was to go
Speaker 6: to law school and become an attorney and to do that.
Speaker 6: And they were kind of like all behind me for
Speaker 6: a mail car and took care of me and all
Speaker 6: that stuff. But one day, sitting and my accounting class,
Speaker 6: which was an elective that I had to take, which
Speaker 6: I was sitting there looking at the my teacher like,
Speaker 6: I don't want to be here anymore. I want to
Speaker 6: play the drums. I want to be in a band.
Speaker 6: I'm never coming back again. So I got up and
Speaker 6: I left in my class and I said, that's when
Speaker 6: I began my search for the all girl band. Yeah,
Speaker 6: there was coped. Well you know what it was. You
Speaker 6: have to understand that I was an honest student. So
Speaker 6: I got out of high school fast. Yeah, yeah, so I.
Speaker 2: Was kind of which high school did you go to?
Speaker 6: I went to Compton and Inglewood High School. I graduated
Speaker 6: from Inglewood High School. I went to Compton my what
Speaker 6: ninth and tenth, my tenth and eleventh grade, and then
Speaker 6: I graduated. My mother moved to Inglewood and I graduated
Speaker 6: from Inglewood.
Speaker 2: Okay, so I gotta know what, you know, when most
Speaker 2: of us here, especially us non California natives here about Compton,
Speaker 2: of course we start just thinking the legend of whatever
Speaker 2: NWA was painting about what Compton was represented.
Speaker 5: Yea until them patris Patrius Russian Patrisse Russianlass.
Speaker 6: Yeah, yeah, she was, she was. She actually was a lot,
Speaker 6: but she was. And then Hayt was funny. They were
Speaker 6: out during that time. They were out during that time.
Speaker 6: So that probably influenced me a little bit too as
Speaker 6: far as the girl concept as well.
Speaker 2: Okay, but what what was your high school like in like?
Speaker 2: Was it a nurturing environment? Was it more Jill Clark
Speaker 2: lean on me dangerous?
Speaker 6: You know, I have to say this, And you know
Speaker 6: I was a tar baby, a tar baby, right, that
Speaker 6: was the the the logo was the tar baby. But
Speaker 6: those are the most wonderful years of my life in
Speaker 6: Compton High School with the most wonderful Yeah, and that's
Speaker 6: when the gang started. Shooting. Finally that started when I
Speaker 6: was in school. That started happening, the shooting, and then
Speaker 6: and and what was in the shooting and what kind
Speaker 6: of drugs was in then? Uh good? No, no no, no,
Speaker 6: the one before that people Heroine No no, no no,
Speaker 6: it was Angel Angel dust started everybody was. That's how
Speaker 6: I got into the That's when I got into the
Speaker 6: music class. That's where I started meeting new friends. That's
Speaker 6: where I felt love. Nobody had nothing, so nobody wasn't
Speaker 6: trying to act like they had nothing, you know. So
Speaker 6: that was a wonderful place to me for me, and
Speaker 6: then my mother moved to Inglewood and I was kind
Speaker 6: of all alone, you know, all alone. I didn't really
Speaker 6: you know, so I graduated from high school early and
Speaker 6: I was able to, you know, go to college.
Speaker 5: Yeah, not being from California, you realize how far those
Speaker 5: two places are.
Speaker 4: You don't realize how far those two places are from
Speaker 4: each other.
Speaker 6: What Inglewood and Compton.
Speaker 5: Just as culturally, it just seemed like yes culture, yeah, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2: I think to an outsider though, like I would think
Speaker 2: that the schools were more closer to Joe Clark's Lean
Speaker 2: On Me, where you might not live the end of
Speaker 2: the school day. But was it that dire or is
Speaker 2: that just Hollywood?
Speaker 6: No, during that time, it wasn't that dire.
Speaker 4: P she pre that. I me remember.
Speaker 5: And it's funny if you watch I don't know if
Speaker 5: y'all when you watch them, that was them, right. They
Speaker 5: came out over the COVID where they showed Compton before
Speaker 5: Burnard death generation when it was like white folks, just
Speaker 5: straight suburbs.
Speaker 6: Know, it was it was cool, you know, I think
Speaker 6: I think there was one gunshot nextwreaked everybody out. That's
Speaker 6: why my mother moved to Inglewood. Yeah. It just drugs
Speaker 6: angeled us. That's pretty much it. And the rest of
Speaker 6: it was like a great experience for me. I had friends.
Speaker 6: You know, you're talking about a loaner who made friends.
Speaker 2: You know, I lived in Compton for one year as
Speaker 2: a baby, but you know, I don't have any memories
Speaker 2: as a two year older. But I do have a
Speaker 2: photo of me at a crypt meeting.
Speaker 1: Because all my cousins, so.
Speaker 2: I had a bandana and the Derby.
Speaker 6: On you could have been a clip. I could have
Speaker 6: been you.
Speaker 2: Know, no, I was, I was you know, they were
Speaker 2: trying to crip me up. Yeah, brought me to the meetings.
Speaker 2: Can you tell me what the audition process or at
Speaker 2: least what were you looking for in the audition process
Speaker 2: that basically brought like Joyce and Lynn, Lorena and Sheryl
Speaker 2: and uh well, Robin Robin.
Speaker 6: There were a lot of different versions of Climax before
Speaker 6: I got to thank you for saying this.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I was going to say that. I think there
Speaker 2: were seven women on the was down with the hot
Speaker 2: air balloon the first one.
Speaker 6: I mean, even before that, and I was I was
Speaker 6: still in the narrowing down process. Yeah, I mean even
Speaker 6: when we you know, before Climax, all the Climax, it was.
Speaker 6: I was smart enough to know, and I don't know
Speaker 6: how I got this knowledge that the girls had to
Speaker 6: be certain kind of girls in order for radio dis
Speaker 6: Jock with the DJs to play on music, right, So
Speaker 6: I was looking for sexy, I was looking for femininity.
Speaker 6: I was looking for girls who could play and now
Speaker 6: you know, and we had a camaraderie, so you know,
Speaker 6: First it was Cooley, who I found from another band,
Speaker 6: and she was playing with a band with her boyfriend,
Speaker 6: and I talked to her and too joining us. And
Speaker 6: then it was Lynn Marsby. They came a lot of
Speaker 6: them came. It was a people called the Recycler where
Speaker 6: you could put an ad in for twenty five dollars
Speaker 6: or however much, and then people would respond to and call, hey,
Speaker 6: I play guitar, you know. Then we had Jeannie Cunningham
Speaker 6: was the first guitar player. Then came show Coolly actually,
Speaker 6: and then how we arrived at the climax that we
Speaker 6: are now, It was show on first, and then it
Speaker 6: came Lynn came in through an audition. I believe she
Speaker 6: came in from the Recycler paper. Then there were the
Speaker 6: couple other girls in the group who I knew from Compton,
Speaker 6: who I eventually, how can I say, I eventually let
Speaker 6: them go and I found new girls. Joyce Soby didn't
Speaker 6: come into the group until after our first album, and
Speaker 6: we had a contract style we already had a recording
Speaker 6: deal when she came into the group. Because I fired
Speaker 6: the bass player. Now why I fired the bass player,
Speaker 6: I can't exactly remember the reason. It was a conga
Speaker 6: player and a bass player got rid of them because
Speaker 6: for some reason or another, and mister Griffy came to me,
Speaker 6: he goes on. This was after you guys want to
Speaker 6: get to that point.
Speaker 4: No, no, we take your time.
Speaker 2: Don't take you time. Love stories stories you never told before.
Speaker 6: So yeah, I mean mister Griffy. You know me and
Speaker 6: mister Griffy. Oh, I loved him. He was a wonderful,
Speaker 6: wonderful gentleman. And I mean yeah, I mean to me.
Speaker 6: I don't know anybody else's experience, but he gave me
Speaker 6: my first opportunity as a writer a producer. And you know,
Speaker 6: without him, I would not be talking to a quest
Speaker 6: luck Okay, bottom line, bottom line, Okay, this man would
Speaker 6: not only that, he would take us out to dinner
Speaker 6: and teach us about wine and my first taste aid escargo.
Speaker 6: He was a wonderful guy. He would call me up
Speaker 6: and talk to me about the band. He was a
Speaker 6: wonderful guy. And he called me up. He goes, you know,
Speaker 6: why'd you fire the bass player? I really loved the
Speaker 6: bass I thought the bass player was cool. And I go, well,
Speaker 6: because for this reason, He goes, well, we're gonna do now.
Speaker 6: So we talked about it and he said, hey, I
Speaker 6: remember this girl, uh In Fayevielle, North Carolina, who keeps
Speaker 6: you know, kept giving me. Yeah, who kept giving me
Speaker 6: a tape. Who kept giving me a tape and all
Speaker 6: these things, and I go. He goes, I'm gonna bring
Speaker 6: her out here, and I want you to let me
Speaker 6: know what you think. So I said, okay. He brought
Speaker 6: her out. She seemed cool. Everything was good, you know,
Speaker 6: she played the bass, He came to rehearsals. She was
Speaker 6: a nice girl, everything was cool. He says, what do
Speaker 6: you think? I said, can we just try her out
Speaker 6: for a little while. He goes, no, we need to
Speaker 6: move forward. We got the contract. I can't. We got
Speaker 6: to get somebody stable in the group. So that's how
Speaker 6: Joyce Sophie got signed, right, Yeah, yes.
Speaker 2: Sir, did you know thatte Oh yeah, oh yeah. When
Speaker 2: I was a kid. Now, when I was a kid,
Speaker 2: I mean, I don't know her from Fairville. I was
Speaker 2: like five, but yeah, but I remember like all the
Speaker 2: stations around the station we used to listen to when
Speaker 2: I lived with my grandparents back in Robinson County. They
Speaker 2: would always like when they played climax joints, they would
Speaker 2: shout out Joyce and they was like, shout out yeah,
Speaker 2: they she got mad love, yeah yeah.
Speaker 6: And then Lorena came in one day from a rehearsal.
Speaker 6: She was on her way to by word of mouth.
Speaker 6: Someone said, hey, they're looking for a lead vocally. She
Speaker 6: came in and blew me away, and she got hired.
Speaker 6: She got hired on the spot, and she became the voice.
Speaker 2: Climax is is it always? Okay?
Speaker 6: Now?
Speaker 2: I mentioned that you you know, you said you fired
Speaker 2: the bass player. But because it's such a rare, it's
Speaker 2: such a rare to get memory fired is.
Speaker 6: Such a harsh word. Let's just say it didn't blend
Speaker 6: in with the concept. Okay, so I fired her.
Speaker 2: But I just meant, was there always a concern or
Speaker 2: fear that if you let a member go the amount
Speaker 2: of work that you got to put in to find
Speaker 2: someone that really fits a very specific criteria that will
Speaker 2: make the band work? Like, is that always concerned?
Speaker 6: We were young? I was young. I didn't You didn't
Speaker 6: think about those kinds of things when you're young. But
Speaker 6: you know, I just I don't know. I wasn't thinking
Speaker 6: about that. It's just the concept. It just wasn't blending in. Uh,
Speaker 6: And I didn't think about it. I just was like,
Speaker 6: it's not working. And then mister Griffy was like, well,
Speaker 6: what are we going to do now, you know, and
Speaker 6: we figured it out.
Speaker 4: Did you start to develop your own band.
Speaker 6: Rules as you Oh, we had rules, Yes, we had rules.
Speaker 4: Come on me a good one.
Speaker 6: God, you guys are asking me that. I gotta think
Speaker 6: way back. I mean, you know stuff, you know, you
Speaker 6: know X amount of dollars fifty two dollars, five dollars
Speaker 6: if you get the ban rehearsal late. You know, you know,
Speaker 6: you know, you're fine, fine, fine, you know you know
Speaker 6: we this is pre Joyce because that's another you know,
Speaker 6: the original band, which was Lorena Show Coolly, Lynn Mars,
Speaker 6: Robin Grider and myself, we struggled. We were such a unit.
Speaker 6: We were so dedicated in the vision and trying to
Speaker 6: achieve this recording deal. You know, we we starved. I
Speaker 6: was kissing the the the rehearsal studio owner, trying to
Speaker 6: get more studio time. We were doing whatever we needed
Speaker 6: to do this.
Speaker 5: These lyrics are okay, we.
Speaker 4: Just just a kiss and get.
Speaker 6: You more, all right, kids, I kiss got is two hours?
Speaker 5: Yes, about okay, I get it.
Speaker 6: Those were they were really pecks. They were.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 6: He was the older cancel guy, mister Cooper, mister Cooper,
Speaker 6: and you know Uh. Yeah, I don't know how that evolved.
Speaker 6: I don't know how that happened. One day he just said, hey,
Speaker 6: you know, and I was like, okay, can we get
Speaker 6: some studio time?
Speaker 4: Sometimes you got to you what you got?
Speaker 6: Two pecks got his four hours?
Speaker 2: Okay, wait, you you mentioned uh the legendary uh President
Speaker 2: Solar Griffy. Can you can you describe because I also
Speaker 2: know that those nightclubs, like the Total Experienced Nightclub and
Speaker 2: all those spots that are on Crenshaw was rather legendary
Speaker 2: for a lot of those developing acts. Could you basically
Speaker 2: describe what like black LA nightlife was as far as
Speaker 2: like seeing bands and interacting with other bands and just
Speaker 2: in general, Like I came up in a time my
Speaker 2: time period of LA, pretty much the center of all
Speaker 2: the action was in West Hollywood on Sunset which I
Speaker 2: was told that was never happening like before, like nineteen
Speaker 2: ninety five where you had to go. So if it
Speaker 2: is nineteen eighty one eighty two, where am I going
Speaker 2: to see like the bands I like? And where y'all
Speaker 2: hanging at?
Speaker 6: Wow?
Speaker 2: If you're not on Sunset Boulevard, Like, were they open
Speaker 2: to black people then back then?
Speaker 6: Or I'm sitting here trying to search the name of
Speaker 6: this club that was in Compton. It was a club
Speaker 6: that Easy and Then performed in and they showed it
Speaker 6: on their movie in the beginning. Yeah, I can't remember
Speaker 6: the name of that club, but you know, I popped
Speaker 6: in here and there. There wasn't any particular clubs. I
Speaker 6: think the Roxy. Every once in a while you'll get
Speaker 6: a good deal a band happening in like in West Hollywood.
Speaker 6: Let me think, I'm trying to think where did we go?
Speaker 2: But were you part of the Total Experience night club?
Speaker 2: Or was that like more of a seventies mid seventies thing.
Speaker 6: It was the seventies and eighties, But I was just
Speaker 6: kind of like, you know, into my my thing. I
Speaker 6: didn't really do a going a lot of going I
Speaker 6: which I did go to the Total Experience. I saw,
Speaker 6: you know, I saw the dramatics. I saw the dramatics
Speaker 6: wo Experience.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and then how big is that nightclub?
Speaker 6: It was? It was a nice size, maybe about five.
Speaker 2: Hundred people, so establish acts was that the House of
Speaker 2: the Blues? The House of the Blues? Was that sort
Speaker 2: of the House of Blues of its day?
Speaker 6: Yes, it was.
Speaker 2: Okay, so no act was too big or too small.
Speaker 2: You can see Rufers and Chaka Khan at the Total Experience.
Speaker 6: And then Maverick Flats Okay remember that. Yeah, people used
Speaker 6: to go there dance. Every once in a while there
Speaker 6: will be a band or two, you know. Yeah, and
Speaker 6: then you know you you went to the Forum and
Speaker 6: then you went to the the all the who was it?
Speaker 6: The San Diego Jazz Festival? That was That was the
Speaker 6: thing I used to enjoy going to and seeing.
Speaker 2: How did the deal with so our Records come to be?
Speaker 2: How did you get the attention of.
Speaker 6: A We did a we did a demo and the
Speaker 6: demo was sent to many record labels, and one of
Speaker 6: the labels was so Lark Records. And the lady there
Speaker 6: Margaret Nash. Margaret Nash got a hold of the demo,
Speaker 6: which to mister Griffy, she was, what's the guy I
Speaker 6: can think I can see cleaning now? She was Johnny
Speaker 6: Nashley's ex wife. Okay, she worked at Solar. So she
Speaker 6: went to Dick Griffy and said, hey, you gotta hear
Speaker 6: about these girls. You got to see these girls, you know,
Speaker 6: you got to check it out. She came down to rehearsals.
Speaker 6: Saw Ius went back and told Dick with me. Next
Speaker 6: thing we know, Dick Griffy was walking into rehearsals. I
Speaker 6: see he walked in and he said he looked, he
Speaker 6: saw we were playing. Oh there's freaky good. Oh he
Speaker 6: was smiling. He left and he says, uh. Before he left,
Speaker 6: he says, I'm gonna sign your go for a record deal.
Speaker 6: That's it.
Speaker 2: You were fine with that? Like so I seemed like
Speaker 2: a logical.
Speaker 6: Spot for you to Yeah, no one else was asking,
Speaker 6: you know, and it was the first thing. And that's
Speaker 6: what our attorney said. Hey, not the best deal in
Speaker 6: the world. What other deal do you have? You know,
Speaker 6: you get in, you make it happen, which is the
Speaker 6: famous run swinging. You get in, you make it happen.
Speaker 2: Moron Sweeney was your lawyer.
Speaker 6: Yes, we were his first client.
Speaker 2: What Yeah, legendary wyn Sweeney.
Speaker 6: Okay, Legendary Sweeney. And he said, what else do you have?
Speaker 6: He said, you get in, you get a hit record,
Speaker 6: and you make changes when that.
Speaker 5: Happens to renegotiate then, was it was it easy to
Speaker 5: renegotiate with once we got a hit?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I just not not that I'm fishing
Speaker 2: for stories. But it's just just like depending on who
Speaker 2: comes on our show, there's various degrees of Dick Griffy's stories.
Speaker 4: And she says she got stories.
Speaker 2: I guess I could say that. I'm led to believe
Speaker 2: that he was sort of like the the proto Sugar
Speaker 2: Knight of his day, no groom, Sugar.
Speaker 6: Sugar was his bodyguard. That's how I met Si Knight.
Speaker 6: Sug used to be Digri's bodyguard. No mist you know, listen,
Speaker 6: I don't know if anyone else's experienced, you know, with
Speaker 6: mister Griffy. I can just tell you that he was
Speaker 6: kind to me, and he was kind to us, you know,
Speaker 6: I mean, did we get this or that? I don't
Speaker 6: I'm not quite sure. But he he he was there.
Speaker 6: We were at every meeting. We talked about things, we
Speaker 6: discussed the men all paws, and we did it. He
Speaker 6: didn't want to do it at first, you know, he said,
Speaker 6: I'm not doing no song about mental pause.
Speaker 5: And then the Lord he gets real complicated.
Speaker 2: Yes, my mom too thought you guys were thinking about menopause.
Speaker 6: So did he?
Speaker 2: That was like, do you not know what a pun is? People?
Speaker 4: Particularly?
Speaker 6: So did he? We broke it down and I was saying, no,
Speaker 6: it's the men all paused. When I walked into the room,
Speaker 6: he started smiling. Next thing, you know that the record
Speaker 6: was on the album.
Speaker 4: I see when did the when the.
Speaker 6: Beginning? And it became our first hit. We didn't even
Speaker 6: know it because by that time, you know, there was
Speaker 6: a couple filled albums. We were trying to figure out
Speaker 6: what we were going to do with the next phase
Speaker 6: of our life. You know, we were I'm going to
Speaker 6: go back to school.
Speaker 2: Ahead, can I wait? I don't want to glide by
Speaker 2: those two records because it's two portant well one important
Speaker 2: factor with you guys working with Jimmy and Terry. But
Speaker 2: what I want to know is, you know of the
Speaker 2: acts that were on the label, between Lakeside and Midnight Star,
Speaker 2: Carrie Lucas, the Whispers and whatnot, they like the common
Speaker 2: the common factor or the common denominator of most of
Speaker 2: those acts that were hip makers of Solar was the
Speaker 2: production of Leon Silvers. Yes, and I was shocked. I
Speaker 2: came aboard on meeting in the ladies room, and then
Speaker 2: eventually I found out that you guys had two other records,
Speaker 2: and then I went and brought those and you know,
Speaker 2: I saw like Otis Stokes and you know, the cats
Speaker 2: from from Lakeside, and I always wanted to know, like,
Speaker 2: why didn't you guys work with Leon Silvers who was
Speaker 2: clearly giving everyone out, you know, handing out hits like hotcakes.
Speaker 6: At the time, Leon didn't want to work with us,
Speaker 6: and it could be because he was so busy, you know,
Speaker 6: or he didn't really express an interest in working with us.
Speaker 2: You know, did you guys ask him?
Speaker 6: I'm sure something, probably, I'm not quite sure I didn't
Speaker 6: ask him. You know, I don't know if Dick, I'm
Speaker 6: sure asked them. You know, I don't think he you know,
Speaker 6: we passed him every day we saw him in the studio.
Speaker 6: He didn't really have an express an interest in wanting
Speaker 6: to work with us, so he brought in Oldest Stokes,
Speaker 6: which was like working with Oldis and then was cool,
Speaker 6: but it just wasn't the direction that we wanted to
Speaker 6: go in. We were more independent. We were young girls,
Speaker 6: but we were like really independent and fun. Oh just
Speaker 6: kind of wanted to put us in a box of
Speaker 6: you know, of your typical I'm your woman and you're
Speaker 6: my man, and I'll do whatever you want me to
Speaker 6: do kind of thing right, And we were like, no,
Speaker 6: we don't really know. I'm not doing that. I'm not
Speaker 6: gonna do that. So, you know, it took us a while.
Speaker 6: Didn't take us. It took us. We had to get
Speaker 6: with Jimmy and Terry to find a voice. That's when
Speaker 6: we found our voice. They encouraged that.
Speaker 2: So can you describe what working with Jimmy and Terry,
Speaker 2: you know and like for for the second album, The
Speaker 2: Girls will Be Girls record some really like great songs
Speaker 2: on there that just never really got the push.
Speaker 6: And I'm kind of glad. I'm glad, kind of glad
Speaker 6: because it wasn't us. Yeah, well you know up into Jimmy.
Speaker 6: Do you have Jimmy and Terry? Yes, yeah, no, they
Speaker 6: came in with they didn't do Girls were good. There
Speaker 6: was there was Odi Stokes.
Speaker 2: Well I meant the album. I know that they they
Speaker 2: wrote wild.
Speaker 6: Girls right, Yeah, Okay, that's when they came in and
Speaker 6: they came in. They were sneaking away from friends and
Speaker 6: they were like, you know, it was all they were doing.
Speaker 6: So we were the first band that I think they
Speaker 6: worked with, either us or the S O S Band.
Speaker 6: I really don't remember you.
Speaker 2: Guys, were technically first.
Speaker 6: Yeah, we were in the room when Prince called and
Speaker 6: fired him found out they were working with us. He
Speaker 6: called her up and they came out the room. They said,
Speaker 6: we just got fired. Well, oh, I guess we can
Speaker 6: start our new career now, you know. But yes, yes,
Speaker 6: and no. Hey, it was wonderful. It was like a
Speaker 6: breath of fresh air because here are these guys who
Speaker 6: praised the mistakes. Okay, you know, we're going to keep that.
Speaker 6: It's a mistake, We're going to keep it, you know.
Speaker 6: And I was the one who was always writing songs,
Speaker 6: and they fell in love with all my songs. They
Speaker 6: were like, let's do burning that Cooper songs, you know,
Speaker 6: telling Dick you should be doing these songs. These are
Speaker 6: the songs you should be doing. Because all of that,
Speaker 6: I know I'm looking good. That's the way we used
Speaker 6: to talk on a daily base. I walk into the studio,
Speaker 6: I know I'm looking good, you know. And they wanted
Speaker 6: to put all of that onto tape. And that's what
Speaker 6: they started doing. They were taking a lot of my
Speaker 6: songs and putting on the tape and encouraging us to
Speaker 6: write the things that we really feel and we really love.
Speaker 6: So that's what they did.
Speaker 4: That's good.
Speaker 5: So when we got introduced to y'all, we was getting
Speaker 5: introduced to y'all for real.
Speaker 4: Everybody else thought they knew y'all.
Speaker 6: When when Networker came out with meeting in the ladies
Speaker 6: room in the mental pause, I mean, because we kind
Speaker 6: of went to school with wild girls. That was I mean,
Speaker 6: that was Terry Lewis. That was them kind of experimenting
Speaker 6: with us, trying to help us find our sounds, and
Speaker 6: they got it. It just didn't hit, that's all, you know.
Speaker 6: But by the time they moved on and Jick was
Speaker 6: he was he was available. His ears were available at
Speaker 6: that time to listen to the things that we really
Speaker 6: had because La Jimmy I hit Keeps Down and everything.
Speaker 6: Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis encouraged him to open his
Speaker 6: ears and listen to the tracks that I was writing
Speaker 6: and the other girls were writing, and he was open
Speaker 6: to us, so we were giving him. He just kind
Speaker 6: of gave us free rain. You guys, go do this
Speaker 6: album yourself.
Speaker 2: By that time, were you there for the infamous Jam
Speaker 2: tells the story about the I asked about a certain
Speaker 2: engineer that they had to fire because of them destroying
Speaker 2: the Heartbreaker song. It was like a punch in doing
Speaker 2: the mixtown. The engineer had a race like one of
Speaker 2: them I'm such a mess thing, and then they just
Speaker 2: fell down a rabbit hole of trying to fix the
Speaker 2: edit that was previously erased.
Speaker 6: No, I don't remember that.
Speaker 2: Okay, you never knew that story.
Speaker 6: I wrote the song and I was there, but I
Speaker 6: don't remember that story.
Speaker 2: Oh okay, Yeah, basically, like one of the I'm such
Speaker 2: a mess lines got heartbreak, I'm such a mess on
Speaker 2: the Heartbreaker song, the the engineer was trying to punch
Speaker 2: in make an edit and accidentally erase some of the
Speaker 2: background and yeah and yeah, jam I was asking about
Speaker 2: like a time when things went awry, and he just
Speaker 2: talked about accidentally erasing like some of the background vocals
Speaker 2: on Heartbreaker and them trying to fix it. It's yeah,
Speaker 2: Well they fired the engineer, and I guess they kept
Speaker 2: that from you guys, so now you know forty years later. Sorry,
Speaker 2: But with meeting in the Ladies Room, well, first of all,
Speaker 2: just as the band Dynamics one, how did you whittle
Speaker 2: it down to the six members that we got to
Speaker 2: know on meeting in the ladies.
Speaker 6: Room through you know, being in the band. You have
Speaker 6: the girls, and certain things happened. I think they were
Speaker 6: went down from it was eight and then it went
Speaker 6: down to six, and that's the group that you know.
Speaker 5: Now.
Speaker 6: There were two other members. I can't remember why they
Speaker 6: left the group or why they weren't involved in the
Speaker 6: group anymore, but it was a decision that was made
Speaker 6: and then we were left with the six core members
Speaker 6: of the group. And I think that was the reason
Speaker 6: for our success. So I think it would have been
Speaker 6: successful with those other two members or any other members. Now,
Speaker 6: I think it was these are the ones that were meant.
Speaker 4: To be so move forward, did you so?
Speaker 5: Do you remember the rules from that point? They kept
Speaker 5: y'all together, They kept you from having like petty arguments,
Speaker 5: They kept y'all from some of the things that other.
Speaker 2: Groups how decisions made.
Speaker 4: Yeah, well, you know, well.
Speaker 6: You know, it became that group thing where you know,
Speaker 6: the vote, the whole group vote, which you know, which
Speaker 6: was very stifling you know to me at points, you know.
Speaker 4: Because it's your group.
Speaker 6: Not so well, I just had more forward ideas and
Speaker 6: I sometimes you know, when you have an idea, you
Speaker 6: see things and people don't don't see it. Then you
Speaker 6: got everybody kind of raised in their hand, and that's
Speaker 6: very stifling for a creative person, you know. So it
Speaker 6: was a majority rules.
Speaker 5: That's interesting as you had the same hand as everybody else,
Speaker 5: because even I mean I even think, I guess that
Speaker 5: in the roots, like a mere hand in a turikan
Speaker 5: is different than other hands, right.
Speaker 2: Like, But was it? But that's why I'm asking, was
Speaker 2: it a real democracy or was it like the idea
Speaker 2: of a democracy?
Speaker 6: It was, okay, let's say this. It was all good,
Speaker 6: and then when Joyce came in the group, a little
Speaker 6: bit of a power struggle started because for whatever reason
Speaker 6: she you know, she came from a military base and
Speaker 6: she you know, so that's when things kind of started changing.
Speaker 6: From the group that we had that was all for one,
Speaker 6: one for all. Things started like everything became a vote
Speaker 6: because the the vision, the vision had gotten interruption, I interrupted.
Speaker 2: Very good. So would you say that Joyce was sort
Speaker 2: of the because she was the last member to join,
Speaker 2: kind of the outsider in a situation where there was
Speaker 2: already an established rapport with the five of you.
Speaker 6: Yes, and she definitely had her own way of seeing things,
Speaker 6: you know, which is not bad in.
Speaker 2: Her own opinions.
Speaker 6: Yeah, and that was her voice, right, And I was
Speaker 6: always you know, you know, one for all. We hadn't
Speaker 6: even got to a point of an ego yet, you know,
Speaker 6: we were we were. I was about, Hey, whatever's good
Speaker 6: for the group. You know. That's how I lost control
Speaker 6: of the name, because you know, Joyce came and said, like,
Speaker 6: I think we should all be a part of the
Speaker 6: name of the group. And I was like, sure, no problem.
Speaker 6: I wasn't you know, I wasn't savvy. I wasn't savvy,
Speaker 6: and I was just kind of like, well, the band
Speaker 6: and we're gonna be together, We're gonna make things work.
Speaker 6: And that's why the name is so out of control.
Speaker 6: You know, right now, I wish I would have known
Speaker 6: better and had trademarked that.
Speaker 2: You know, So, could you tell me how your personal
Speaker 2: life changed. Let's let's let's say two, let's say three
Speaker 2: months after Men All Pause comes out. Oh my goodness,
Speaker 2: where you guys? Were the songs on the radio killing
Speaker 2: it and you're on you know, the videos being played everywhere.
Speaker 5: And because I don't even know where Men on Pause
Speaker 5: across from meeting in a lady's room, they kind.
Speaker 6: Of just they listen, listen. We were preparing to go
Speaker 6: back to school. Lorena, you know, she's always wanted to
Speaker 6: be married. Everybody was playing in their life because we
Speaker 6: mister Griffin, you know, he stuck with us through all
Speaker 6: those Felt albums. We were all in the car following
Speaker 6: each other. I don't know where we were going, but
Speaker 6: I think there were two cars one two. Maybe we
Speaker 6: were all in the same car. Mental Pause came on
Speaker 6: over the Christmas holidays. You know how everybody goes on
Speaker 6: break during the Christmas holidays. After that Christmas holiday, Mental Pause,
Speaker 6: the Mental Pause was ahead and the record company says,
Speaker 6: you guys got to hit record. DJ's were playing, they
Speaker 6: were going crazy, and that's when our lives went on.
Speaker 6: Things changed drastically. First video, that was the first video.
Speaker 6: I mean, we did the Mental Pause first video. Then
Speaker 6: the Mental Pause came meeting in the Ladies fool right
Speaker 6: and with God Louis Silence put me into the studio
Speaker 6: with tave Mo and we remixed the Leader and that's
Speaker 6: when I added the you know, I had to leave
Speaker 6: my condo to come to this, you know, that's when
Speaker 6: I added that, right, Yeah, and we did. That was
Speaker 6: the remixed version that became the big.
Speaker 2: Even though it was a little bit. I mean, I
Speaker 2: was twelve thirteen, and again, like there weren't many end
Speaker 2: depth interviews with the guys back then. I'm certain that
Speaker 2: there had to been comparisons like, oh, you guys are
Speaker 2: like a female time and you're kind of like a
Speaker 2: mar state. Was that bothersome to you or not at all?
Speaker 6: And Terry used to always call me they used to
Speaker 6: compare me because my personality was such like a Morris Okay.
Speaker 6: They used to call me burn to day, you know,
Speaker 6: and they wanted to write things like character because I
Speaker 6: didn't really know much about the time, you know, they
Speaker 6: were just doing the first time I heard seven seven
Speaker 6: ninety eleven in the studio, you know, and I didn't
Speaker 6: really know much, so I couldn't really pattern myself after him.
Speaker 6: But after after seeing his character and how much we
Speaker 6: favored there's so many ways. It was like, that's what
Speaker 6: the answer of when Jigglos need Love to I wrote.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I didn't even know I divas.
Speaker 6: Yeah, divas came from an answer that was like an answer.
Speaker 6: You know, I'm in the process right now. I'm working
Speaker 6: on the song, hoping to get more on it. I
Speaker 6: just I just think that would be such an odd concept.
Speaker 6: He and I have talked to please call him and
Speaker 6: tell him. He and I have talked about it. I've
Speaker 6: sent them tracks and he's like, man, okay. I called
Speaker 6: him up, Morris Morris, So I have this track that
Speaker 6: I'm working on right now that I'm going to send
Speaker 6: to him because I just think it's beyond beyond. It's
Speaker 6: beyond just a song. It's about being entertained and how
Speaker 6: the public would love that. Yes, a personality from a
Speaker 6: girl band and the girl band and the time. Yeah,
Speaker 6: that's great. We're opening up the ground is.
Speaker 2: With that, miss, But I want to ask what you
Speaker 2: say you're working on tracks? What equipment and like software
Speaker 2: are you using now to work on your music?
Speaker 6: You know, I'm protus and I write on the n
Speaker 6: PC x A okay, yeah, yeah, because I'm a PC
Speaker 6: sixty n PC you know two thousand, two thousand X.
Speaker 6: I know the MPC, So I grab see because there's
Speaker 6: so much you could do with it, when I could
Speaker 6: travel with it. You do vocals on another even though
Speaker 6: I haven't even used half of it. So I write
Speaker 6: a lot of my tracks which I don't really like
Speaker 6: to write tracks that much anymore because I'm lazy, and
Speaker 6: you know, I'm always questioning if the right snare or
Speaker 6: if if it's gonna sound right. So I focus more
Speaker 6: now on lyrics and melodies and content and vibe. You know.
Speaker 6: I just did something with old.
Speaker 4: Slat Oh wow, okay, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 6: Call believe in us, dropped it off, dropped it in
Speaker 6: on the UK, and I'm focusing on that. So I'm
Speaker 6: taking a lot of tracks from people that I know
Speaker 6: or old things that I have. But right now, actually
Speaker 6: the track that I'm working on is an old Solati track,
Speaker 6: but I rearranged it, you know, so that it would
Speaker 6: fit me in more. So I'm working on concept now.
Speaker 6: I just think that would be such an entertaining thing
Speaker 6: that's gonna happen.
Speaker 2: I love man, that's so.
Speaker 6: Do Yeah, you work together. Me and I was a
Speaker 6: lot of a curl.
Speaker 2: Can you tell us go ahead at something? What? Why
Speaker 2: did you guys pivot to Constellation mc A like, were
Speaker 2: you still technically under the umbrella of Solar or like,
Speaker 2: what did you officially leave Solar to go to Los
Speaker 2: Alas and MC it like?
Speaker 6: Was no solo records? Did a distribution deal with them.
Speaker 2: Okay, I never knew the story of.
Speaker 6: Yeah, Solar, we're on Solar, and Solar did the change.
Speaker 6: We didn't make the change. We kind of got over
Speaker 6: there cause Solar. You know, once the success of meeting
Speaker 6: in the ladies room and Climax became this big oh
Speaker 6: my god, after I miss you, it was over. Lynn
Speaker 6: Malsby wrote that, by the way, you know, that's the
Speaker 6: biggest climax song ever. Yeah, that was. That's a big
Speaker 6: that's a huge that's on music, baby, Okay, go yeah,
Speaker 6: so she you know, they wanted us, So Dick did
Speaker 6: a jill, you know, and we went over to Constellation.
Speaker 6: Constellation was his ill that he made. Yeah, I guess
Speaker 6: a distribution.
Speaker 2: Okay, yeah, I didn't know, so he owned that.
Speaker 5: I was just going to ask you drop two names,
Speaker 5: and I wanted to know when you circle back and
Speaker 5: finally met them, what was it like?
Speaker 4: And that was Morris Day and Patrice Russian.
Speaker 6: Patrice was just a high and bye and I admire you.
Speaker 6: It wasn't a deep conversation like Tina, Me and Tina
Speaker 6: and Okay, yes, a lot of stories so more. Sometimes
Speaker 6: you have to bear with me because I gotta think
Speaker 6: I got to but More's day, you know, I see
Speaker 6: More's day. We do. We do a lot of touring together.
Speaker 6: I see him in and out. And the last time
Speaker 6: I saw him, he were in we were in Florida
Speaker 6: and I went up to him. I said, we got
Speaker 6: to do a song together, Morris, I said, we got
Speaker 6: to do it for the people. That would be such
Speaker 6: an interesting I'm coold send me tracks, all right, So
Speaker 6: I sent him a couple of tracks. He was like, man,
Speaker 6: you know, but this one's really hot. And even if
Speaker 6: it's not this one, somebody got to give us a
Speaker 6: track and we got to do a thing together because
Speaker 6: that could be such a great in.
Speaker 2: Lewis have to do this, they do.
Speaker 4: I was gonna say that there.
Speaker 2: Must be a four minute monologue at the end with
Speaker 2: you two trying to each other. You know what.
Speaker 6: That's the song that I'm writing, So you know, we'll
Speaker 6: see how it comes up. I'm gonna have to reach
Speaker 6: out to jam and Lewis and let them kind of
Speaker 6: hear this and maybe somehow, if it's not this, they
Speaker 6: can come up with something. We got to do.
Speaker 2: Let us manifest this.
Speaker 6: Yes, I'm going to leave it up to you quest
Speaker 6: to make that happen.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the people want it. I want that. I definitely
Speaker 2: want that.
Speaker 6: Yes, that would be so and I envisioned it. I
Speaker 6: envisioned it with the girl band and that's on one
Speaker 6: stage and time when we bottle it, wouldn't that be hot?
Speaker 2: Yes?
Speaker 3: Yes, and burn the jette for for a couple of pecks.
Speaker 3: I'll mix it for you for free.
Speaker 6: You know what, don't try me.
Speaker 2: I come out to all it once in a while.
Speaker 2: Give me some sugar. Steve Steve. Steve is a legendary engineer. Yes,
Speaker 2: she knows.
Speaker 4: I gave him the intro.
Speaker 2: Okay, I'll drumb on this ship. I want to see
Speaker 2: that happen. Yeah, I'll do it for free. I'll do
Speaker 2: it just with the calt.
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 6: I really believe that in my heart, and by being
Speaker 6: a so called or a visionary, I can kind of
Speaker 6: stay around corners sometimes. I just think I have always
Speaker 6: felt that's a very strong concept and the people would
Speaker 6: be like, oh my god, you know it would be
Speaker 6: great for the demographics as well as the new generation.
Speaker 2: Right. So I'm curious to know with the success of
Speaker 2: where the Climax record was at the meeting in the
Speaker 2: Lady Ladies Room. What was your family's reaction to it?
Speaker 2: Was it sort of like, Okay, you made it, good job, you.
Speaker 6: Know what question. I don't really have a happy story
Speaker 6: to tell you regarding that. I didn't really have a
Speaker 6: lot of Yeah, I didn't have a really good family motivation.
Speaker 6: I'm very self motivated, and that's kind of beauty of
Speaker 6: one of the beauties of my success is I'm very
Speaker 6: self motivated. I really didn't have my family behind me.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 5: Because I also wonder once you found your voice and
Speaker 5: people realized it was so strong and maybe anti with
Speaker 5: a lot of these other female singers or groups are
Speaker 5: singing for somebody else, you know, writing or whatever.
Speaker 4: How long did it take for somebody and now tell
Speaker 4: you to shut up?
Speaker 6: You know, I don't know. It's just it's kind of
Speaker 6: like I just moved forward and I don't.
Speaker 5: Right, So you really persevere throughout all this what I'm saying,
Speaker 5: like no family support and a strong female you know,
Speaker 5: whole mission and lyrics.
Speaker 6: You know, you know in the beginning, God, I got
Speaker 6: some stories. I remember when Dick Griffy send me out.
Speaker 6: There was a woman by the name of Kat Miller.
Speaker 6: I did my first song called beat My Face that
Speaker 6: Drick Griffy is like you, here's twenty five hundred dollars
Speaker 6: go on. And I got this girl named Cat Miller,
Speaker 6: and I think you'll be really really good with a
Speaker 6: producing her, you know, and she's out in Tennessee, so
Speaker 6: I want you to go to Tennessee and work on
Speaker 6: her song. So get the song. Went to Tennessee and
Speaker 6: the engineer laughed. He would refuse to work with me
Speaker 6: while I was there when I first walked in the door,
Speaker 6: but when I left he became best friends. I think,
Speaker 6: I think, I think when people see the talent, you know,
Speaker 6: it's kind of like you can't you can't deny the talent,
Speaker 6: you know, you can't, you know, And it's kind of
Speaker 6: like the passion and the talent. And I know what
Speaker 6: I'm doing and I enjoy what I do, so I
Speaker 6: think once you get a hold of that, by the
Speaker 6: end of the session, we were cool. He respected me.
Speaker 6: He didn't have it, you know. I would tell him
Speaker 6: what to do. He didn't want to do it at first,
Speaker 6: but by the end of the session he was doing
Speaker 6: it proudly, you know.
Speaker 5: So that's his excacted you to be probably in the booth,
Speaker 5: not at the book exactly.
Speaker 6: So that's he moral, That's that's the way my life
Speaker 6: has gone, you know, dealing with male males in the studio.
Speaker 6: Whatever I think when they see the talent, they become,
Speaker 6: we become, everything becomes really really cool in their appreciative
Speaker 6: that had been in my space and I enjoy being
Speaker 6: in their space.
Speaker 2: Wow. So you're saying that them offering their two cents
Speaker 2: of what they think it should be and getting unsolicited
Speaker 2: advice where it's not even asked for.
Speaker 6: Listen, I have a clear vision, a clear vision of
Speaker 6: what I'm doing. If I wrote it, I know the
Speaker 6: way it sounds. Now. My thing has always been as
Speaker 6: your vision or if you come up with something that's
Speaker 6: better than mine, I'm receptive to it. But if it's not,
Speaker 6: you know, I don't really like to compromise. That was
Speaker 6: one of the reasons why it was difficult for me
Speaker 6: to be in Climax, because I just felt stifled because
Speaker 6: the compromising is very difficult for a person who who
Speaker 6: was creative.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 6: No, yeah, I just.
Speaker 2: Thought about something I did read once was Penny Ford
Speaker 2: in the original No.
Speaker 6: Plenty four suits Lorena Lorena. Lorena was with child. Okay,
Speaker 6: she got clear and we needed someone to take her
Speaker 6: place because we were going on the road. And during
Speaker 6: that time, I did not believe as the leader of
Speaker 6: climax Set there was a positive image for girls that time,
Speaker 6: at that time, in the eighties, okay, in the nineties.
Speaker 6: Now now women are doing it. But I just you know,
Speaker 6: that was that just wasn't you never saw.
Speaker 4: That tradition following tradition.
Speaker 6: Yeah, yeah, so, and it was it didn't seem like
Speaker 6: we had little young girls, you know, who were following us.
Speaker 6: So you know, you know, it's right right, rightfully. So
Speaker 6: she was married or she you know. But so Penny
Speaker 6: was working for Ron Sweeney, that's the second as the secretary,
Speaker 6: and Royn Sweeney was like, you guys really need to
Speaker 6: take Penny for what she could sing. So Penny four
Speaker 6: came in and she blew the house down and she
Speaker 6: went on the road. I loved it. Okay, Yeah, we
Speaker 6: talk all the time.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, she's uh. For those that don't know Penny,
Speaker 2: it is probably best known as the the voice of
Speaker 2: a snap I Got the power. Yeah, and amongst the
Speaker 2: other things that you know, she's been sort of ghost
Speaker 2: singing on.
Speaker 4: An her right now. She wanted shacka babies.
Speaker 2: She was, well, yeah, I think the story was that
Speaker 2: uh Shaka Khan was actually supposed to do I got
Speaker 2: the power and kind of. She admitted that she dropped
Speaker 2: the ball just tole Penny go.
Speaker 6: I just did it. I just dropped another UK track
Speaker 6: and with Penny Ford all over it. I love Penny
Speaker 6: Penny Is. There's not many vocalists who can sing like
Speaker 6: Penny for It. Penny Ford. It cuts, it cuts, you know,
Speaker 6: And I always say with these with these female singers,
Speaker 6: it's not about what your capable of doing is, but
Speaker 6: how you make me feel, you know. And like Aretha
Speaker 6: made you feel, you would pull over to the side
Speaker 6: of the road and I got to find me an
Speaker 6: angel and you would cry. Right. I'm sure you've had
Speaker 6: that experience right well, either she made you feel. These
Speaker 6: singers nowadays, they can sing and the apparatus is good,
Speaker 6: but it's about what makes you feel good. And Penny for.
Speaker 2: There's there's a question I always wanted to know the
Speaker 2: answer to for the next album, the self title record,
Speaker 2: the Climax album. Did you guys work with Rod Temperton
Speaker 2: or did he just submit the man size love song.
Speaker 6: No, we worked with him.
Speaker 2: Please tell me what was like.
Speaker 6: We're going with Rod Temperton, you know, Carol bear Fager.
Speaker 6: I remember it was all after after that the album,
Speaker 6: everybody was coming, you know, we were going up and
Speaker 6: smoking a joint with Carol beer Feger and you know
Speaker 6: and all of them and Rod Temperature had man sized
Speaker 6: lovel chould have been a huge hit. That's the biggest
Speaker 6: pop that right. And he he had his come in
Speaker 6: because he wanted to audition who was going to be
Speaker 6: the lead vocalist on it. And of course I'm not.
Speaker 6: I don't consider myself pious. I was just there, okay.
Speaker 6: But Joyce. He didn't want Joyce Joyce what No, he
Speaker 6: wanted Lorena.
Speaker 2: That's Iran. And considering that Joyce's voice, his voice is.
Speaker 6: Very specialized, it's very Michael Jackson. Ish Jackson wouldn't have
Speaker 6: been able to sing man sized love. I need you
Speaker 6: know you needed a man sized voice. That was that
Speaker 6: was the difference between and I had my That's what
Speaker 6: made Climax incredible. And and another thing that made Climax
Speaker 6: incredible was we all knew our space. We know, I
Speaker 6: knew what I brought, you know, and Joyce knew what
Speaker 6: she brought to the you know, Lorena knew what she brought.
Speaker 6: So it was like we just really step on each
Speaker 6: other's toes. We were like, okay, you come in here
Speaker 6: with your voice. It was really a cool thing in
Speaker 6: the beginning. And Rod Templeton heard Lorena and He's like,
Speaker 6: I want that big voice on it. So he chose
Speaker 6: he chose Lorena.
Speaker 2: Was that initially on the Running Scared soundtrack?
Speaker 6: Yes? Yes, okay?
Speaker 4: So?
Speaker 2: And also, I mean you worked with Dick Griffy, No,
Speaker 2: Richie Rudolph, Well.
Speaker 6: He wrote Massized Loves with Rod Templeton.
Speaker 2: Right right?
Speaker 6: Yeah, yeah, I didn't. I didn't see him. I met
Speaker 6: him later at Tenda Marie's house, but I didn't see
Speaker 6: him there at the session.
Speaker 2: I was going to say, when you became established, did
Speaker 2: you did you have a clique, Like who in the
Speaker 2: industry was like your did you have running buddies were
Speaker 2: you cool with? Like who were your best friends? Like
Speaker 2: who did you vibe with that were artists?
Speaker 6: Tina? Let me see, I would love to say bet Midler,
Speaker 6: but that wouldn't be a true right I on one song? Yeah,
Speaker 6: but we were you know, she just loved the song
Speaker 6: and she did it. Let me see who did I
Speaker 6: hang out with a lot?
Speaker 5: Uh?
Speaker 6: It was Tina Marie mainly Tina, mainly. I didn't really
Speaker 6: have a lot of friends.
Speaker 5: Please Tina, please tell us, because she has been gone
Speaker 5: for so long that please just tell people something about Tina.
Speaker 6: And I don't know how we became. Tina had a
Speaker 6: lot of people around her all the time. You know,
Speaker 6: she was the people person. So our times together were
Speaker 6: very kind of solemnon with her and she come over
Speaker 6: to the house, We smoke a joint and we talk
Speaker 6: about life. She was so deep. Tina was no joke, okay.
Speaker 6: And we would talk about her past, her life and
Speaker 6: the things she was going through and relationships and all
Speaker 6: of those things like that. And then one day she
Speaker 6: called me up, Hey, come down to the studio. I
Speaker 6: want you to be on this record. Okay. I'll be
Speaker 6: down in an hour, okay. And then I called her back, Hey,
Speaker 6: I got this song, come down. I want you to
Speaker 6: be on this record. Now when I call somebody and
Speaker 6: go I want you to build a record. Well it's
Speaker 6: ten thousand dollars. You know, bad people call your people,
Speaker 6: so you know further moment, Hey, let's go to Chicago, okay,
Speaker 6: you know those days you could go buy your ticket
Speaker 6: at the counter, right, and San Francisco, let's go hang out.
Speaker 6: You know, it's not really not a bad story, it's
Speaker 6: just really wonderful memories.
Speaker 2: Oh.
Speaker 4: I don't want any bad stories.
Speaker 5: I wanted great memories or things that we didn't.
Speaker 2: You know, because so early we never just got to
Speaker 2: know her.
Speaker 6: She was just, she was just you know, Tina became
Speaker 6: my friend before I really went to any concerts of hers.
Speaker 6: When I went to go to a concert, I was
Speaker 6: blown away that this girl was my friend. All right.
Speaker 6: I was getting out in the audience and she got
Speaker 6: up a play guitars. She came out and the people
Speaker 6: I didn't realize how massive Tina Marie was. And then
Speaker 6: afterwards I said, wow, you're really something special, right, and
Speaker 6: we laughed about it and it was it's all good.
Speaker 6: It was. There's no really bad stories of me.
Speaker 5: Gotta be something made about her life, like she cannot
Speaker 5: be forgotten.
Speaker 4: It's just very interesting. You know.
Speaker 6: I can't really share a lot of things, you know,
Speaker 6: because she you know, I can't, you know, but all
Speaker 6: wonderful memories I can't really think of anything that stands
Speaker 6: out that that I should speak about.
Speaker 2: I know, I know around this time you started doing
Speaker 2: like production work on your own for other acts, and
Speaker 2: I gotta know, like you're the history of you forming
Speaker 2: Madam X My God, of which no, I'm telling you
Speaker 2: I loved. I was like, ah, not not like why
Speaker 2: did you give the song away? But just that type
Speaker 2: of girl to me could have been just such a killer, killer,
Speaker 2: killer climax song.
Speaker 6: I didn't write it.
Speaker 2: Why did you give that song away? Oh? You didn't
Speaker 2: write that.
Speaker 6: No, I didn't write it until I was you know,
Speaker 6: I had moved forward.
Speaker 2: Okay, So it wasn't like you had that song under
Speaker 2: your hat before.
Speaker 6: No, that was a last minute song that was written
Speaker 6: by you know, I was. I was working on the album.
Speaker 6: I created the concept in my mind. First of all,
Speaker 6: let's talk about the beginning of these three girls. I
Speaker 6: still have a concept right now. I just don't understand
Speaker 6: why we don't have a three girl group right now.
Speaker 6: I don't get it.
Speaker 4: Group.
Speaker 2: Why is the only guys? What's the group?
Speaker 6: Where's the band? Where's the two guys and one girl?
Speaker 6: Where's the female migos? I don't get it. I'm not
Speaker 6: grabbing onto right right right had a climax. That's a
Speaker 6: climax exactly, you know. You know. I came up with
Speaker 6: this concept of the girls and I didn't even have
Speaker 6: the group yet, and I met with Sylvia Roan. Sylvia
Speaker 6: Rome was interested in the concept, so she came down
Speaker 6: to out to l A and she met with me.
Speaker 6: I told her about the concept. I want to do
Speaker 6: this in a way I want him to look and
Speaker 6: this is how I want him to do. She says, great,
Speaker 6: I'm gonna sign it the concept. I said, okay, So
Speaker 6: we did the deal with Ron Sweeney and negotiator. Ever,
Speaker 6: I learned a lot from Ron, you know, and uh
Speaker 6: then I started formulating the group. I got the three
Speaker 6: girls who were came to be Metal Max started working
Speaker 6: on the project, and I needed this last song, Okay,
Speaker 6: I need Okay, it's just I'm listening to the album.
Speaker 6: I just don't hear I don't hear a clear big
Speaker 6: single and Cornelius Mims bass player, Yeah, yeah, okay, Cornelia's
Speaker 6: hit me up. I got this track baby, come on over.
Speaker 6: And you know I got this thing, baby, I think
Speaker 6: you go dig it. So I'm like, okay, come on over.
Speaker 6: I'm at the studio. I'm at studio masters. He came by,
Speaker 6: he played this, he played this track, which was actually
Speaker 6: a back it went. He was working on the song
Speaker 6: and the song went backwards. What Yeah, he was working
Speaker 6: on the track and something technically happened and the song
Speaker 6: started playing backwards. That's the track. That's just that.
Speaker 2: Type of girl. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Mistakes, Okay, Yeah, shout out to bad engineers man all.
Speaker 2: Over the world.
Speaker 6: On all my song's mistakes. I don't do I don't
Speaker 6: do the perfection thing all the time. You know, if
Speaker 6: it feels good, it's staying, you know. But so you
Speaker 6: brought me this backwards track and he says, baby, you know,
Speaker 6: it was a mistake. It went backwards, and I'm like,
Speaker 6: I love it. I love it. So I took it.
Speaker 6: I said, leave me a track, and I took it,
Speaker 6: and I wrote the lyrics.
Speaker 2: I got to tell you like it's I meant for
Speaker 2: nineteen eighty seven. It was a very unusual sounding song.
Speaker 2: Very shocked that it hasn't been sampled or I still DJ.
Speaker 2: I still played to this day on my DJ sets,
Speaker 2: and I'll say that at least thirty to forty percent
Speaker 2: of the time someone will think that I'm playing something
Speaker 2: like new like it just it doesn't. It didn't sound
Speaker 2: like anything that was in the marketplace at the time.
Speaker 2: How come that project was short lived? Like? Did you
Speaker 2: manage the band as well? Lord?
Speaker 6: You know, you know everybody's equal in poverty and that
Speaker 6: that statement comes from mister Dick Griffy himself, who I
Speaker 6: had a chance to visit right the day before he
Speaker 6: passed away, and I was able to thank him for
Speaker 6: my career, okay, And everybody started pulling at these girls
Speaker 6: when I when I created that, you know, and a
Speaker 6: certain manager, I don't want to say any names, but
Speaker 6: a manager came in who I really was told not
Speaker 6: to work with. And the next thing, I know, the
Speaker 6: girls that went by my back and signed with this manager.
Speaker 6: And Sylvia was not happy with it. And there was
Speaker 6: a clash, all right, and things got really out of
Speaker 6: control and things got crazy, and that's what happened to
Speaker 6: Mane Max pretty much. And they they didn't want to
Speaker 6: you know. And I'm gonna tell you something. Plus a
Speaker 6: lot of women don't like to do this is with
Speaker 6: other women. A lot of women don't want other women's
Speaker 6: telling them would to do. They would rather a man
Speaker 6: tell them the wrong way than the woman to tell
Speaker 6: them the right way.
Speaker 5: And now call that trauma, generational trauma.
Speaker 6: And get I even get that to this day, women
Speaker 6: don't want other women in control of them, you know,
Speaker 6: and then they.
Speaker 5: Want a man, right, they want to manage it.
Speaker 6: So it became this thing where they you know, the
Speaker 6: guys were pulling them and then you know, I'm gonna
Speaker 6: give you a solo deal and I just said, go,
Speaker 6: I'll put another group together. And you know, it became
Speaker 6: a big It became a very big, a misunderstanding and
Speaker 6: a horrible thing. And the manager who pulled them away,
Speaker 6: Sylvia wasn't happening so happy with it. So it was
Speaker 6: a It was a horrible thing. So I tried to
Speaker 6: go forward with one of the other members who now
Speaker 6: is passed away but passed away from cancer.
Speaker 2: Which which one passed away?
Speaker 6: That was there were Dickie, there was Iris, and there
Speaker 6: was Alisa, Alisa Alsa, the.
Speaker 2: One that did the athlete.
Speaker 6: Ye I see once again, once again, I love the
Speaker 6: beauty of finding your strength, your strength, your strength together.
Speaker 6: We got a band because everybody can't do the same thing.
Speaker 6: So we had we had Valerie who was that uh
Speaker 6: you know that Grace Jones kind of vibe. You know, man,
Speaker 6: you know, did we have Iris who had a more
Speaker 6: jazzier vibe that we had Alisa who had who could
Speaker 6: saying sing the same thing? You know, Yeah, it's the
Speaker 6: same same sing. So I tried to do a project
Speaker 6: with Alisa, but it did the vibe was all gone.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 6: But that's what happened to Madame Max. That's a problem.
Speaker 6: There was no that's it. That was it. That's what happened.
Speaker 2: What was producing other acts, like a pleasurable experience for you,
Speaker 2: like working with Sherlynn and w you know, look, you know,
Speaker 2: I'm not even gonna fall down that rabbit hole, but
Speaker 2: this is not the first time I've heard that sort
Speaker 2: of response.
Speaker 6: You know, every everything has their stories, you know, and
Speaker 6: I have, you know, with Cha Lynn. I enjoyed Chaolyn.
Speaker 6: Cho Lynn had to manager. We just for whatever reason
Speaker 6: didn't really take to me. So I just remember Jerry,
Speaker 6: Jerry was an engineer. That's when I first met Jerry
Speaker 6: Brown Brown. He was with Cha Lynn and he says,
Speaker 6: I'm working with you, and then you know, Pebbles told
Speaker 6: him he was working with pebbles, and pebbles says either
Speaker 6: Bernadette or me. He says Bernadette, So Jerry and I
Speaker 6: have been together every since, you know, but that's what
Speaker 6: I meant, So cha, Lyn, you got you know, every
Speaker 6: every story has a little thing that comes up out.
Speaker 2: I've heard the stories, you know people I.
Speaker 6: Did Peoples and when she was dating Howard Hewitt, right,
Speaker 6: and I was doing this song called the Empty Sex
Speaker 6: that I wrote, which was which was a big which
Speaker 6: is a big voice record, you know, and once again,
Speaker 6: I have specifics of how I wanted that song to
Speaker 6: be you know, performed, and she had her ideas.
Speaker 4: So she didn't really have a big voice though.
Speaker 6: You know what, if you listen to the song she did,
Speaker 6: we did a heck of a job. She cried and
Speaker 6: you know how you would came in telling me, well,
Speaker 6: I didn't know what I was doing, and but you know,
Speaker 6: you know, but I got the best out of her.
Speaker 6: You know, every every there's been a lot of situation.
Speaker 6: Once again, the man, so.
Speaker 2: You're are you? You are you demanding when it comes
Speaker 2: to your your art and the people that you work with? Yes, yes, okay,
Speaker 2: I can respect that.
Speaker 6: Demanding in the sense of I already see when you
Speaker 6: write the song. You have a clear vision, right, you
Speaker 6: know how the melody goes, you know how it should be,
Speaker 6: you know what it should sound like from that perspective.
Speaker 6: I'm not mean or difficult, you know, I'm just the
Speaker 6: man on trying to get the best out of you.
Speaker 5: I'm just curious if you've talked to I mean, it's
Speaker 5: only a few. I don't want to say it's a
Speaker 5: few of your peers. It's it's a lot of women
Speaker 5: behind the scenes making music throughout the years. However, have
Speaker 5: there been some peers that you've you've spoken to and
Speaker 5: had like these similar experiences. Because I'm listening to you
Speaker 5: and I'm thinking, I wonder how Missy you know Elliott, Yeah,
Speaker 5: like from her beginnings and earning her respect and then
Speaker 5: getting getting telling other women and other men what to do.
Speaker 6: You know, Missy Missy was probably she came up with
Speaker 6: that hip hop world and she was who was the
Speaker 6: person who was? Was it Diddy whom? Yeah? So you
Speaker 6: have what you got Kimberland behind you. They much, you know,
Speaker 6: But I was used by yourself. Yeah, I was by myself.
Speaker 6: So with Timberland is saying, hey, this is missus, She's
Speaker 6: gonna tell you what you do?
Speaker 4: Who are your peers in that way?
Speaker 5: Then Bernie that like, who are the the other sisters
Speaker 5: that have been through the the same thing?
Speaker 6: I don't know. I don't know, you know what. I
Speaker 6: got a story when I was forming Climax, I asked
Speaker 6: Cheeria be in it? Okay, why said only if as
Speaker 6: Sheila and Climax.
Speaker 4: Well, I mean, y'a drummers, but you know she wanted
Speaker 4: to be.
Speaker 6: Yeah, you know what, you know what she's bad? Okay,
Speaker 6: I give my props to Sheila. Okay, yeah, but that's
Speaker 6: just a story, nothing bad about it.
Speaker 4: It don't have to be bad, right, you know.
Speaker 5: You guys want you know, you just want the good stuff.
Speaker 4: We don't want.
Speaker 6: No. I got a lot of stories, but I'm just
Speaker 6: so like a protective of a lot of people, and
Speaker 6: I don't want to say too much. But there's a
Speaker 6: million stories, all right.
Speaker 2: So I kind of say this not for last but
Speaker 2: because I never knew, even though I know that that
Speaker 2: v H one thing was on the air, I didn't
Speaker 2: see exactly what went down. But I do not know.
Speaker 2: Have you guys Climax employed it?
Speaker 6: You guys, you guys, have you got anybody were a
Speaker 6: that recient Billboard article about you, about you anybody right
Speaker 6: now if you want to google it Billboard and climb
Speaker 6: actually see what just happened.
Speaker 4: It just came out.
Speaker 6: Well, so it's probably last month, two months ago. Did
Speaker 6: you hear about Climax being inducted into a woman's house
Speaker 6: songwriting house of hall?
Speaker 4: Sounds familiar?
Speaker 6: Okay, we heard. We heard about it too when it
Speaker 6: was And then I'll get back to the VH one thing.
Speaker 6: But let me started the VH one thing because it's
Speaker 6: a prelude to this. Okay, during this particular time, Go ahead, I'm.
Speaker 2: Sorry, no, no, I just I want to know what
Speaker 2: the straw that was that broke the camel's back that
Speaker 2: led to the breakup of the group or for you
Speaker 2: to leave because another group went on without you, like
Speaker 2: good Love and whatever the other songs were. But you
Speaker 2: know what was it like to leave the band that
Speaker 2: you started?
Speaker 6: There was power struggles and when you is difficult for
Speaker 6: individuals to say. And this would be a better place
Speaker 6: if we were able to do this. I'm jealous of
Speaker 6: the fact that I put in equal amount of work.
Speaker 6: Is you all right? I've been in this band at
Speaker 6: the same time in you, but all people want to
Speaker 6: do is focused on Bernidad Cooper. It's very very I'm jealous,
Speaker 6: I'm angry about it, and I'm mad as hell. Okay,
Speaker 6: at that point, we could talk about it and we
Speaker 6: can get through it. But what happens with people is
Speaker 6: they start to nitpeck, and they start to get in
Speaker 6: groups and go against you and all of those kind
Speaker 6: of things like that, which makes me, being from a
Speaker 6: family of women who have attacked me, when I'm in
Speaker 6: a corner, I come out fighting for survival. So I
Speaker 6: kind of felt like there was nothing big major blow
Speaker 6: upers fight other than the fact is I got frustrated
Speaker 6: with half I need to compromise my creativity for people
Speaker 6: who really didn't want me to be successful or wanted
Speaker 6: me to move forward in life passed them. So I
Speaker 6: made a decision after being I would say at sometimes bullied.
Speaker 6: I was feeling bullied that I didn't no longer want
Speaker 6: to be in this situation and there was the biggest
Speaker 6: move in my life. But I just asked you because
Speaker 6: I wasn't happy and I had to move forward. That's
Speaker 6: pretty much it. And I tried to stay, but it
Speaker 6: was this particular member in the group was the treasurer
Speaker 6: of the group, and I said I would stay if
Speaker 6: we got a real treasure and not you know, we've gone,
Speaker 6: we've gotten bigger, and this particular treasurer of the group,
Speaker 6: I would like in the outside treasure. I'll stay if
Speaker 6: I get my money and my things individually, because I
Speaker 6: don't want this particular person to handle.
Speaker 2: And they were like, no, wait, I have a question.
Speaker 2: So at this point in your career where there's platinum
Speaker 2: singles and YadA, YadA YadA, you guys are still operating
Speaker 2: on that sort of level where like I'll collect the
Speaker 2: payment at the end of the gear, Like you don't
Speaker 2: have a business manager.
Speaker 6: Or what we had, but we had a treasure in
Speaker 6: the group, and I didn't feel good about this particular situation,
Speaker 6: and I was like, no, we need to go to
Speaker 6: another level, because it's about levels, and it's about vision,
Speaker 6: it's about growth. Everybody doesn't. Sometimes you just simply out
Speaker 6: grow a situation. That's pretty much what it is with claiming.
Speaker 6: I just simply outgrew the situation where it's like a relationship,
Speaker 6: you're married, do you want to go back to your
Speaker 6: ex wife? No? You know, because you guys are going,
Speaker 6: you know, because you've out growth the situation, you know,
Speaker 6: it doesn't mean anything other than that. But yeah, we
Speaker 6: were still operating on that level, and this particular individual
Speaker 6: ended up being the problem who's still to this day
Speaker 6: is collect thing royalties that we don't know about. Now
Speaker 6: let's get to the VH one situation. So the group
Speaker 6: had expanded it for a while, and you know, Joyce,
Speaker 6: you know I had to say, hey, let's get the
Speaker 6: group back together. No, no, no, I don't. I wasn't
Speaker 6: feeling that if everybody was going to make that first move,
Speaker 6: I felt that it should be me. So I didn't
Speaker 6: go forward with that. And I never got a call
Speaker 6: from this person at all. And next thing we know,
Speaker 6: she was trying to trademark the name and it got
Speaker 6: we found out about it and it stopped it. But
Speaker 6: that's when the VH one came in. And then after
Speaker 6: the VH one story came in in the in the
Speaker 6: when I saw how people were still very very much
Speaker 6: focused on climax of wanting to do things and shows
Speaker 6: and things like that, we decided to move forward to
Speaker 6: do some touring. Okay, here we are twenty twenty one.
Speaker 6: If you will read then we got to.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean I'm reading it. Yeah, the headline is
Speaker 2: clan don like the look. Okay, you want to say
Speaker 2: the name, Okay, I want to say member.
Speaker 6: Well, it's up to hear whether you want to say it.
Speaker 6: It's in billboard.
Speaker 2: Yeah that was your quote.
Speaker 6: But you know, so this individual has been doing all
Speaker 6: these and savory things, bringing the bringing our brand down
Speaker 6: to your typical band that plays at the local UH
Speaker 6: food mart for for five hundred dollars, you know, using
Speaker 6: the name. So we tried to get her to stop,
Speaker 6: and she admitted that she would stop, and that she
Speaker 6: would only go out because you know, as sure Cooley
Speaker 6: for formerly of Climax or client. We have that on tape,
Speaker 6: all right. So then I get a call one day
Speaker 6: that all of our all of our publishing on Asktap
Speaker 6: and on aspaps specifically, had been changed. Our publishers split,
Speaker 6: including Rod Templeton, including a bunch of people, the publisher,
Speaker 6: all the splits, all the splits, all the writers shared
Speaker 6: have been changed into Show Cooley's name.
Speaker 4: How can you do that legally? That's interesting.
Speaker 2: Nobody turn away from the farm and listen.
Speaker 6: Listen. People are not paying People just weren't paying attention.
Speaker 6: You know, So anyway, let's move forward. Sony gets involved
Speaker 6: because they own half of that publishing from the Post,
Speaker 6: so they get involved. There was Sony an ascap trying
Speaker 6: to figure out how this person got in and changed
Speaker 6: Jimmy Jams publishing read Writers splits Climax not just us,
Speaker 6: Roy Templeton, all of these people come, yeah, sure COOLi
Speaker 6: So anyway, moving on. We called them, I said them
Speaker 6: a letter. They fixed it. She changed it back somehow.
Speaker 6: Then we got we woke up to wow, Lorena said,
Speaker 6: because Lorena and I we speak all the time. Shout
Speaker 6: out to Lorena, who's recovering from a cancer scare. All right,
Speaker 6: we just did a project together us. Really good. So Lorena, uh,
Speaker 6: she goes, hey, you got you know, look at this
Speaker 6: article and an article states a Climax Climax will be inducted
Speaker 6: into the Women's Writing Hall of Fame. All right, and
Speaker 6: we were honored. We finally came together as a group
Speaker 6: as being honored. Oh my god, I don't you know,
Speaker 6: we don't get along, but oh my god. So we
Speaker 6: waited around, you know, a week or two. I said
Speaker 6: a letter, thank you, We're honored, Linsen. The letter thank
Speaker 6: you Joys said it wow, no response. Finally, finally we
Speaker 6: got a hold of the people and they were like, well,
Speaker 6: we're given the honor to Ryl Cooley. So we were like,
Speaker 6: wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait
Speaker 6: a minut and it I you know, in kind wrote
Speaker 6: a letter, No this Climax's group. No, you have to
Speaker 6: show us who owns the name. Shore was telling people
Speaker 6: that she owned the name. And and apparently this individual
Speaker 6: who's over this has some connection with Cooley and she
Speaker 6: was dead set on giving Koly this award. COOLi does
Speaker 6: a right right, I put a name on I put
Speaker 6: Cooley's name on Heartbreaker just because we're in the group.
Speaker 6: We didn't write none and so.
Speaker 2: But yeah, and it looks like you guys are abandoned,
Speaker 2: right right, and this situation. To get out the.
Speaker 6: Situation, the one song that we did was never undermestigate
Speaker 6: the power over woman Shoe Cooley and I did that,
Speaker 6: excuse me, the very first song. But other than that,
Speaker 6: cho Cooly is just not a writer. I'm not saying,
Speaker 6: you know, she's not a hit writer. Let's put it
Speaker 6: like that. And if you look at if you look
Speaker 6: at all the names, so she she happily went up
Speaker 6: to accept this award. Right, So it was on such
Speaker 6: a big platform of Billboard being announced. People were calling me, Hey, congratulations,
Speaker 6: and I'm like, okay. So I called bill Board and
Speaker 6: I'm like, you guys have to give us a chance
Speaker 6: to respond to this, because you know it's not right.
Speaker 6: You know, they didn't say we're given award to climb
Speaker 6: sure a coolie of climax. They said climax, and that's
Speaker 6: that's a big coming from So Billboard we did a
Speaker 6: you know, we responding, We responding and Billboard, you know,
Speaker 6: to try to set the record straight to make people understand.
Speaker 6: And also, you know, Billboard grabbed onto that astap story
Speaker 6: because that was a big story with all the changes
Speaker 6: being made. So that's it. So I just sent out
Speaker 6: to see sent assist and hopefully, you know, because she
Speaker 6: was intent on going out as Climax and the original climate.
Speaker 6: You're not the original Climax, you know, So let's just
Speaker 6: that we can at least, you know, with the Truth
Speaker 6: and Music Act, you can go out and you can perform.
Speaker 6: Nobody's trying to stop you, but you gotta play fair,
Speaker 6: and playing fair is climax. That's what you and Music Act. Okay, yeah,
Speaker 6: are you familiar with that?
Speaker 4: I wasn't until you said that. I feel like I
Speaker 4: should be there.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think I heard about this with Dennis Edwards.
Speaker 6: Well, Mary Mary Mary Mary Wilson of the Supremes, she
Speaker 6: helped to enact that law. That is, if you are
Speaker 6: a an individual member of a group that was successful,
Speaker 6: you have the right to go out using their name
Speaker 6: to make a living. Yeah. Yeah, but you have to
Speaker 6: be original member, you know. And and that's why you
Speaker 6: see so many groups kind of like, you know.
Speaker 2: Going so many different versions of groups, like a lot
Speaker 2: of climaxes on the internet.
Speaker 6: There's a lot of climaxes on the Internet. I'm trying
Speaker 6: to separate that now and I'm really evolving into Bernadette
Speaker 6: Cooper and putting out music. But you know, I can't.
Speaker 6: It's synonymous. Bernida Cooper is pretty much synonymous. So I
Speaker 6: can't escape it. But it is what it is. There's
Speaker 6: nothing that can be done about it.
Speaker 2: Presents the climatic divas, right.
Speaker 6: Right, you know, so and when we go out, you know,
Speaker 6: climax is much bigger than just Bernadette Cooper. Climax is
Speaker 6: coming with the hits so Bernida Cooper has a whole
Speaker 6: the whole other album drama. According to Bernadette Cooper, yeah,
Speaker 6: it's it's you know, so yeah, so Joyce is going
Speaker 6: out with her concept. Shout is going out of a concept,
Speaker 6: and you know, everybody's allowed to do it. And the
Speaker 6: main thing is we're doing the hits and people are
Speaker 6: it's keeping the hits and people's memories. So that's the
Speaker 6: way I look at it. I'm not tripping about it
Speaker 6: no more.
Speaker 2: There's just no ice cubes chance in hell that this
Speaker 2: can come to a place where you guys.
Speaker 6: We'll just I'll say never, say never. But I have
Speaker 6: a clear vision of where I want to go with
Speaker 6: the second with the second half of my life, you know,
Speaker 6: talk about it, which includes because when you go back
Speaker 6: into the group scenario, it becomes that whole compromise thing.
Speaker 6: I don't want to compromise at all. I don't want
Speaker 6: to compromise anymore. My you know, life is short. I
Speaker 6: want to be able to do it my way and
Speaker 6: at the end of the day, go, oh, you know,
Speaker 6: Frank Sinatra, I did it my way, you know, and
Speaker 6: it kind of like no disrespect, but you know, that's
Speaker 6: that's the way I feel about it, and I don't
Speaker 6: want to shed you know, history is history, and everybody
Speaker 6: has history, and everybody has things they say about the
Speaker 6: members of the band and all of that. But I
Speaker 6: would never It's all good. We had a great run,
Speaker 6: we created history. We should be honored.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 6: I don't understand how they could do these rock girls
Speaker 6: alive and girls listen.
Speaker 4: I was curious. I was like, did Beyonce ever come out?
Speaker 4: Does she know?
Speaker 5: Because the whole girl band that she had going on,
Speaker 5: I was like, I'm curious.
Speaker 6: If she knew the the girls in the band. No
Speaker 6: woman who play instruments. Okay, that's what matters, you know,
Speaker 6: But you know, not to you know, not to come
Speaker 6: off vain or egotistical or any of those things, because
Speaker 6: you know, I'm just I'm pretty even, but I'm cool.
Speaker 6: I'm cool. I just want to move forward. And the
Speaker 6: girls are entitled to use the name. And if anybody
Speaker 6: is out there and you go see Climax, teacher and whoever,
Speaker 6: and if we're all playing fair enjoying the music, you know,
Speaker 6: because yeah, so when I'm long gone, that music could
Speaker 6: still be going on, you know, yes, And that's pretty.
Speaker 4: Much it's like interview themselves.
Speaker 6: And I'm going to ask myself a question.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yes, I'm just.
Speaker 6: Playing with you guys. I mean no, no, no, I'm no,
Speaker 6: I'm good. I'm just you know, just moving forward. That's it.
Speaker 2: That's beautiful.
Speaker 6: Didn't we didn't talk about drama? According to Bernie that
Speaker 6: Cooper was.
Speaker 2: I'm about to go there.
Speaker 4: That's a question. No.
Speaker 2: I was going to ask when when when you finally
Speaker 2: got to that came out in nineteen ninety, I believe
Speaker 2: you got the drama, Bernidette Cooper, How liberated did you
Speaker 2: feel and in it falling on you and like being
Speaker 2: your own artist, being your own voice, Oh my gosh,
Speaker 2: Like was it was it a breath of fresh air?
Speaker 2: Or that can that much freedom can also be scary?
Speaker 2: So for you, what was it like?
Speaker 6: Freedom? You know, it's a r I equated very much
Speaker 6: to what's happening today, even though a lot of people,
Speaker 6: I mean, we're able to put out music freely, you know,
Speaker 6: put it on you know, CD baby or whatever and
Speaker 6: put you music out. But back then it was freedom
Speaker 6: to me, you know, being in a band. And you know,
Speaker 6: probably that's why the album was such a cool album,
Speaker 6: because it was my first taste of freedom.
Speaker 2: Wow, Okay, I agree him and a lot.
Speaker 6: Of people was on that album. Lenny Kravitz, Uh, there
Speaker 6: was a Paulino Dacors. A lot of people played on
Speaker 6: because Jerry Brown was bringing in all those major musicians.
Speaker 5: That funny because as Lenny Kravis and you went back
Speaker 5: from the the scene of being in California back in
Speaker 5: the day, because I know he was a little younger,
Speaker 5: but I know he was out and about before he
Speaker 5: was supposed to be too.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I met him through Tina. He used to hang
Speaker 6: out at Tina's.
Speaker 4: You said, you was gonna give us a Tina story.
Speaker 6: What they come to me? I know, I met him,
Speaker 6: you know, through Tina. He would hang out at Tina's house.
Speaker 6: You know he was he was dating Lisa Burnett at
Speaker 6: that time, you know. So I asked him if he
Speaker 6: would playing. He came and playing, but but he didn't
Speaker 6: immediately got to deal with Version Right Records, and he
Speaker 6: told me he couldn't. He didn't want me to credit him,
Speaker 6: so you won't see his credit on the album. But wow,
Speaker 6: yeah he played on it. He played on Let's be
Speaker 6: the screen about it. That's Lenny pull funky guitar.
Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, now I got to revisit that. Okay, yeah, wait,
Speaker 2: can you explain? Okay, have the set a long long
Speaker 2: time ago? The Howard Hughes song. Can you like the
Speaker 2: way that your mind works? Like how do you even go?
Speaker 6: Like?
Speaker 2: What was I know that the whole that album elevates
Speaker 2: your your personality and even more. But like from the beginning,
Speaker 2: like who was the who conceptualized that record? It's far
Speaker 2: is really bringing your character to life?
Speaker 6: I did? I remember I had the free I had
Speaker 6: the freedom to do that and taking things from a
Speaker 6: song by a song by song bassis and living and
Speaker 6: looking at what I had and what I needed, you
Speaker 6: know too, Yeah, I just took it. You know. I
Speaker 6: would listen to the song that Jerry and I. Jerry
Speaker 6: and I did a lot of that, talking about it
Speaker 6: and conceptualizing what's needed. Oh you need something really funky?
Speaker 6: Now okay, let's see the street about it. Mini Cravis
Speaker 6: is coming. Okay, what do I need? I knew something
Speaker 6: about a woman who's just you know, who's looking for
Speaker 6: a wealthy man, because that's the reality of the world.
Speaker 6: You know, women, women love to be they love the security.
Speaker 6: So that's how Howard Heels sitcom came up. Yeah, that's
Speaker 6: how that came up. There wasn't some experience. It was
Speaker 6: putly from you know, just thinking about what's missing and
Speaker 6: what's needed.
Speaker 2: Well, you also mentioned Lou Silas, who you know, of
Speaker 2: course has had major success and has left us. But
Speaker 2: what was he like as an executive?
Speaker 6: Oh my gosh, Lou. Oh going out on the road
Speaker 6: with him the first time. He was a point person
Speaker 6: who would take us around to the radio stations and things.
Speaker 6: And he got a fixation on Lorena, so you know,
Speaker 6: uh so we would go out on the road to
Speaker 6: deal with that all the time. And he was very
Speaker 6: very he had he had great vision and he would have, Hey, Bernadette,
Speaker 6: come come on down to the studio. I got a
Speaker 6: concept and I want you to put a concept on this.
Speaker 6: I think, you know, just talk and put the microphone
Speaker 6: in from you. He was very good at bringing people
Speaker 6: together and as a businessman, you know, Loul signed me
Speaker 6: as he signed me as a solo artist, so he
Speaker 6: was wonderful. He was at MCA he says, you're one
Speaker 6: of the first acts I want to sign, and he
Speaker 6: signed me.
Speaker 2: That's what I was going to say, Like I know, like,
Speaker 2: was he more of a suit or was he really
Speaker 2: a music guy?
Speaker 6: He was a music guy. He had ideas, he had vision,
Speaker 6: he knew how to bring the right people together in
Speaker 6: order to achieve a certain song, a certain thing on
Speaker 6: an album. Because you know, after I did the mental pause,
Speaker 6: he says, Okay, you got to come back with that
Speaker 6: same thing on Meeting in the Latest Room because that
Speaker 6: was so popular. That was one of the things that
Speaker 6: people remember, I need that same thing on this particular album,
Speaker 6: Meeting in the latest film. So we went to Lara
Speaker 6: Bie and he turned the mic on and I said,
Speaker 6: I had to leave my condo to come to this,
Speaker 6: you know, And that's how that happened to him.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know exactly. Wait how did you How did
Speaker 2: you even know? Uh, it's so weird because you know,
Speaker 2: if you really look at the character that you built,
Speaker 2: I mean, it's so it's such a precursor to what
Speaker 2: hip hop became ten years later. Like you are probably
Speaker 2: the first person I ever heard name drop like Versace
Speaker 2: name Yeah, names I never heard of before that rappers
Speaker 2: would start just I became their birthright ten years.
Speaker 6: Later, and in Tiva. In Tiva, I was fearless. You
Speaker 6: have to understand. And I was and I was in
Speaker 6: and I was in too close and they started sending
Speaker 6: me close and I just kind of like, I just
Speaker 6: kind of spoke my mind. I wish I really allowed
Speaker 6: myself to have. You know, now you have to be
Speaker 6: a little bit more resolved because everybody is so sensitive
Speaker 6: and the things that you say.
Speaker 4: You know, but that's what age was for, so you
Speaker 4: don't have to do you know.
Speaker 6: You know, I even think about it, you know, I
Speaker 6: even think about my demographics what they want to hear
Speaker 6: from me, you know, they you know, and I don't
Speaker 6: want to continue and be a caricature of my old self,
Speaker 6: you know.
Speaker 2: So I was going to say, do you get tired
Speaker 2: of having to turn it on in a snap like
Speaker 2: other days where you just wish like you never had
Speaker 2: to invent that character too?
Speaker 6: You know, I'm naturally a comedian, so I'm always that
Speaker 6: comes very easy from me. The character is easy. The
Speaker 6: character is more easier than me being myself. You know. Yeah,
Speaker 6: I could bring the character, and I'm much more comfortable
Speaker 6: on stage than I am anywhere, you know, so I
Speaker 6: don't struggle with it at all. I don't struggle with
Speaker 6: it I I'm working on now in the product that
Speaker 6: you hear me putting out is kind of the the me,
Speaker 6: the evolution of Bernadette Cooper and me who has evolved
Speaker 6: into the woman, and kind of like slowing down a
Speaker 6: little bit so that I can perform my song was
Speaker 6: way until you know, I get older and older, my
Speaker 6: songs will be able to And I wish I could
Speaker 6: do a song on an album on Janet Jackson is.
Speaker 6: I think she would be good at doing that so
Speaker 6: she doesn't have to get up and do rhal domnation
Speaker 6: and all of those things. That's a lot to be
Speaker 6: dancing and all that. You know, now's the time to
Speaker 6: kind of slow it down and go into the new
Speaker 6: you and your and your demographics will follow because they
Speaker 6: they're there too. They're there too. There's train age, you know.
Speaker 6: So that's what I'm doing right now with the projects
Speaker 6: that I'm that I'm working on.
Speaker 2: You know, one more thing, It just hit me. Did
Speaker 2: you at any point did you ever consider, uh, the
Speaker 2: the sort of going down the acting lane because you
Speaker 2: were so charismatic, you know, I never you should have
Speaker 2: done movies.
Speaker 6: You know, I've had many people come to me. I've
Speaker 6: even gone to auditions. I flupped. Oh my god, my
Speaker 6: mouth one more. It's not for me. That's somebody.
Speaker 4: The audition.
Speaker 6: I'm just like, you know, panic, that's for somebody who
Speaker 6: has who has studied. I've gone there and live literally
Speaker 6: couldn't read the lines. My mouth wouldn't move. I was
Speaker 6: so afraid. I said, this is not for me. I
Speaker 6: don't have I don't have up to get I don't
Speaker 6: want to support. But you know what I have a
Speaker 6: passion for, and that's coming out. And here's here's a
Speaker 6: commercial that I'm gonna drop that I'm doing audio books.
Speaker 2: Okay, yeah, I doing.
Speaker 6: Fiction and I'm doing the characters with soundtrack and all that. Yeah.
Speaker 6: Yeah's really really episodic adventures. It's really really going.
Speaker 4: To love that transition.
Speaker 6: Yes, and I love it. I love it a couple
Speaker 6: the newest one where I've written. I've written several books.
Speaker 6: I haven't released them because I'm creating the audiobook from
Speaker 6: these concepts. But the new one, The Strokes, is coming
Speaker 6: out probably in Jerry is mixing the last song, probably
Speaker 6: maybe December, if not December, first of the year. And
Speaker 6: it's really really cool. It's because I'm looking at the
Speaker 6: our demographics and women now being a majority of the
Speaker 6: bread winners. But we're busy. We're taking the kids to school,
Speaker 6: we're going to work. Then we got to get off work,
Speaker 6: and we got to go pick up the kids. Then
Speaker 6: we got to come back home, and then we got
Speaker 6: to cook and get them to bed. We don't have
Speaker 6: time to read a book. So these episodic adventures are
Speaker 6: things you can put in that you can listen to
Speaker 6: on your way to soccer practice. You know it comes back,
Speaker 6: and they're so funny and exciting. The first one is
Speaker 6: The Strokes. It's a racial thing about a woman who's
Speaker 6: transformed by a a racist white woman who's transformed. Something
Speaker 6: happens to where she has to be transformed by a
Speaker 6: black woman who's in her proximity, and she changes for
Speaker 6: the best. And they're all situated into a nursing home,
Speaker 6: and you also get the characters. And because if you
Speaker 6: ever go into a nursing home, which I've been in
Speaker 6: a lot of them, because I've been dealing with my
Speaker 6: grandmother and my mother's health, there's some old souls in there,
Speaker 6: some unresolved souls, And if you listen to those people
Speaker 6: who are ninety years old. They're putting these racist white
Speaker 6: people in with black people, and there's a lot going
Speaker 6: on in those songs.
Speaker 2: Interesting, but it's.
Speaker 6: Interesting because you learn about the souls and the things
Speaker 6: that they've gone through. So this, this particular this sourst
Speaker 6: Out of Your book kind of explores that you know
Speaker 6: that pretty much, if you don't take care and resolve
Speaker 6: those negative spirits and those spirits in the inside of you,
Speaker 6: now they follow you until the rest of your life.
Speaker 6: So that's what this book is about. Yeah, Yeah, it's
Speaker 6: really I love it.
Speaker 2: I like that.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I've been talking to you. I've been you know,
Speaker 6: I've been talking to some heavy hitters about it, you know, HarperCollins, Oh,
Speaker 6: talk about it. Yeah, and Patrick Ovid Harper College. We've
Speaker 6: been discussing it for for a while. And it's just
Speaker 6: so it's such a new concept. It's not your typical
Speaker 6: audio book that he doesn't know what to quite. We're
Speaker 6: trying to fit it into it because the beauty of it.
Speaker 6: Quest is also the soundtrack is.
Speaker 2: Available, right, Okay, Okay, Wow, I'm glad to know that
Speaker 2: you're still having dreams and you're you're you're still manifesting
Speaker 2: it and the fact that you know, you allowed us
Speaker 2: to you know, gave us the honor of being your
Speaker 2: audience to to really learn of your story and your history.
Speaker 6: And thank you, you.
Speaker 2: Know because again, like there there weren't platforms like this
Speaker 2: when I was a kid wanting to know of my
Speaker 2: favorite groups that I saw on television. And you know,
Speaker 2: like if you weren't in right on magazine, it wasn't
Speaker 2: like Rolling Stone was going to take the time out
Speaker 2: to give you guys the same building that they would
Speaker 2: give like the Go Gos.
Speaker 6: Or that's exactly exactly. Yeah, absolutely, wow, absolutely, But I'm
Speaker 6: honored to to be here really yet and you invited
Speaker 6: me onto your show. This is like really a cool
Speaker 6: thing for me.
Speaker 2: Wow. Well I'm glad you did it, you know. Yeah,
Speaker 2: Ladies and gentlemen, the the the Immortal Burnon de Cooper
Speaker 2: or in Quest Love Supreme. I thank you very much
Speaker 2: for coming.
Speaker 6: Thank you girl band.
Speaker 2: Uh, Sugar Steve and Ficolo you have to say on behalf.
Speaker 2: Can we say goodbye for ourselves? Look, dude, this is
Speaker 2: my love piece and soul dude all Sugar Steve Yeah
Speaker 2: and unpaid Bill. You got any last words, sugar Steve? Yeah? Anyway,
Speaker 2: We'll see you on the next go round. Yo, what's up?
Speaker 2: This is fante. Make sure you keep up with us
Speaker 2: on Instagram, at QLs and let us know what you think.
Speaker 2: Who should be next to sit down with us? Don't
Speaker 2: forget to subscribe to our podcast, all right peace?
Speaker 1: What's Love Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio. For more
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