WEBVTT - Questlove Supreme: Billy Porter Part 1 0:00:00.160 --> 0:00:10.119 Post Love Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio. Ladies and gentlemen, 0:00:10.440 --> 0:00:15.600 welcome to another episode of Poorest Love Supreme. I'm your host, Questlove. 0:00:16.200 --> 0:00:19.280 We have the family with us right now. Sugar Steve, 0:00:19.560 --> 0:00:22.560 the fastest man in the universe. I am fast, I'm here. 0:00:22.880 --> 0:00:26.680 I'm so very excited about this. Yes, wow, wait, that's 0:00:27.280 --> 0:00:28.080 what device was that? 0:00:28.680 --> 0:00:28.880 Hey? 0:00:28.880 --> 0:00:29.080 Bill? 0:00:29.640 --> 0:00:31.960 This is my very fancy whiskey glass. Thank you for asking. 0:00:32.159 --> 0:00:38.000 It's not a device, it's advice, Billy. Our guest has 0:00:38.040 --> 0:00:39.360 a good trick too. Yeah. 0:00:39.479 --> 0:00:42.640 No, I'm having giant sun kiss FDA. 0:00:46.080 --> 0:00:46.440 Apple. 0:00:48.479 --> 0:00:50.240 Only a shot a mirror, only a shot? 0:00:51.040 --> 0:00:54.120 Layah? How are you with your uh your fan? You good? 0:00:54.520 --> 0:00:57.120 Yes, shout us to all the perimenopause the ladies. Yes 0:00:57.240 --> 0:00:59.120 it is here, and yes we are. 0:00:59.040 --> 0:01:01.560 Too if we're talking about. 0:01:01.280 --> 0:01:03.040 It, Yes we are. Don't you love it? 0:01:03.120 --> 0:01:03.520 I love it? 0:01:03.560 --> 0:01:05.520 Hey, Hallie, thank you Hallie Berry. 0:01:07.959 --> 0:01:12.679 Well, ladies and gentlemen, First, don't succeed. You try, and 0:01:12.720 --> 0:01:14.920 you try, and you try again, and we will say 0:01:14.959 --> 0:01:16.800 that the wis this is the third or fourth time? 0:01:16.920 --> 0:01:22.000 Is the charm? It's finally happening. Our guest is a 0:01:22.120 --> 0:01:27.120 multi hyphened powerhouse of a talent and a human being. 0:01:27.880 --> 0:01:30.440 You know, I understand the term that they want to say, 0:01:30.480 --> 0:01:32.760 but I don't believe in egot. I believe in ghetto. 0:01:33.040 --> 0:01:36.600 So right now you're a get okay, I'll take it. Yeah, 0:01:36.680 --> 0:01:38.679 because I'm trying to go for ghetto. I'm not trying 0:01:38.680 --> 0:01:41.720 to go for egott. You are a Grammy Award winner 0:01:41.760 --> 0:01:41.959 and you. 0:01:42.000 --> 0:01:43.559 Don't want to want to go back to the ghetto. 0:01:43.600 --> 0:01:44.040 I love it. 0:01:44.640 --> 0:01:49.080 Yes, and a multiple Tony Award winner, a musician, an 0:01:49.120 --> 0:01:55.440 actor and activist, an author, humanitarian, a Time Magazine one 0:01:55.520 --> 0:02:00.160 hundred Most Influential Person recipient. You know, there's nothing the 0:02:00.200 --> 0:02:04.440 scoff at Uh. We are currently ahead of our guest 0:02:04.640 --> 0:02:07.600 brand new project, which is called The Black Mona Lisa 0:02:07.680 --> 0:02:12.959 Volume two cookout Sessions. Most importantly, you are from Pittsburgh? 0:02:13.080 --> 0:02:16.320 Are you at a title? 0:02:18.040 --> 0:02:21.560 I was about to say my mom's from Pittsburgh, but 0:02:21.639 --> 0:02:25.560 I do not know the proper way to address agains YenS. 0:02:25.400 --> 0:02:29.040 Is just you, you all, y'all? 0:02:29.720 --> 0:02:32.120 Whatever, it is, just put. 0:02:31.880 --> 0:02:32.680 How ya doing? 0:02:33.360 --> 0:02:33.560 Hey? 0:02:33.600 --> 0:02:33.639 What? 0:02:33.840 --> 0:02:37.000 Talk him out? Please? Welcome to Quest lof Subrie. Finally, 0:02:37.560 --> 0:02:38.399 Billy Porter. 0:02:38.840 --> 0:02:41.520 Yeah, that's not at a title. He's also a joy 0:02:41.560 --> 0:02:45.040 Bringer he's a joyer. 0:02:44.680 --> 0:02:48.480 Absolutely, So wait, what is the proper way to use 0:02:48.560 --> 0:02:51.919 Yen's Because I feel like I'm an honorary Pittsburgh and 0:02:52.960 --> 0:02:55.960 pittsburghen you're. 0:02:55.440 --> 0:03:00.560 Dealing with multiple people, and you're talking to multiple people's plural. 0:03:01.040 --> 0:03:04.639 It's like, yeah, it's like y'all, it's a Southern y'all, 0:03:04.840 --> 0:03:06.119 it's a Pittsburgh and y'all. 0:03:06.440 --> 0:03:09.480 You all y'all ying. 0:03:10.160 --> 0:03:13.760 I get it. See, I didn't know that it was 0:03:13.880 --> 0:03:18.000 plural because I see a singular person. I'm just like Yen's. 0:03:18.160 --> 0:03:23.760 OKAYLORA, It's the only way to use it. 0:03:23.760 --> 0:03:24.360 It's floral. 0:03:25.400 --> 0:03:28.160 Jacob is awesome from Pittsburgh just informed me that the 0:03:28.280 --> 0:03:32.080 term fuckings is a term for ye. 0:03:36.640 --> 0:03:38.920 I don't know that many people say that, but. 0:03:40.400 --> 0:03:46.600 That's proper. You will be using it correctly in a sentence. 0:03:47.240 --> 0:03:49.800 What part of Pittsburgh are you from? So? 0:03:50.040 --> 0:03:55.160 I grew up in the East Liberty slash Homewood area, 0:03:55.280 --> 0:03:57.440 like right on the cuff in the hood hood. 0:03:57.760 --> 0:04:01.200 I've heard my mom mention this place often, so okay, yeah, 0:04:01.360 --> 0:04:04.680 East Liberty, Okay, that is what's liberty? 0:04:05.760 --> 0:04:08.119 Just combine it sliberty. 0:04:08.240 --> 0:04:09.240 How long have you lived there? 0:04:09.680 --> 0:04:12.880 I lived there until I essentially graduated from college. I 0:04:12.880 --> 0:04:15.040 went to Cardigial Melain And. 0:04:15.560 --> 0:04:17.080 What's your major drama? 0:04:17.960 --> 0:04:21.600 Oh? Okay, I was in the drama department. Honey, your 0:04:21.600 --> 0:04:27.800 whole life, no classical theater calledge Daddy is trained. It's 0:04:27.839 --> 0:04:30.760 not a mistake. It's not by accident. 0:04:32.120 --> 0:04:34.280 What I want to know is because one of the 0:04:34.320 --> 0:04:38.440 last conversations I had with you was I was watching 0:04:38.760 --> 0:04:42.680 everyone on the show knows my obsession with Soul Train 0:04:43.320 --> 0:04:50.280 and owning all thousands of episodes, and I remember your 0:04:50.320 --> 0:04:53.800 careers as far as back as I think you were 0:04:53.800 --> 0:04:56.080 on the show. I believe in ninety four, ninety five. 0:04:56.320 --> 0:04:59.479 I believe, yes, I would say ninety five or ninety 0:04:59.520 --> 0:05:03.560 six because the untitled came out and on AM Records. 0:05:03.680 --> 0:05:07.400 That was my first album in ninety six, and I 0:05:07.440 --> 0:05:09.440 was on with ll clo J. Was on the same 0:05:09.480 --> 0:05:10.240 episode as. 0:05:10.120 --> 0:05:13.200 Me Marmore Soul Drain Yeah. 0:05:13.960 --> 0:05:20.159 Yeah, okay, posted on Souldrain. Yeah. So that's when I 0:05:20.279 --> 0:05:22.800 first became aware of you. Like, for some reason, I 0:05:22.839 --> 0:05:25.080 didn't connect that as you, even though I remember that 0:05:25.160 --> 0:05:29.480 episode well because I religiously record that show. So I'll 0:05:29.480 --> 0:05:31.839 start off like I ask everyone, what is your first 0:05:32.120 --> 0:05:37.480 musical memory in life. Then I stumped you. 0:05:38.600 --> 0:05:42.000 Well, it's not just one, and so it's hard to 0:05:42.160 --> 0:05:44.880 like because there are many different. 0:05:45.400 --> 0:05:48.359 When you thing of your childhood. Yeah, what's the first 0:05:48.400 --> 0:05:50.400 moment of music? Church? 0:05:51.680 --> 0:05:56.400 Okay, singing in church, singing that friendship Baptist church, being 0:05:56.480 --> 0:06:01.040 five years old, singing a solo, being the adult choir 0:06:01.120 --> 0:06:02.960 because I could sing so good, so they let me 0:06:03.000 --> 0:06:05.520 in the adult choir till I was out of concert. 0:06:06.240 --> 0:06:08.200 It was a it was a mass choir, conor clert. 0:06:08.360 --> 0:06:11.320 I was marching up. I was in the front in 0:06:11.360 --> 0:06:16.000 the soprano section because I was a gospel soprano until 0:06:16.040 --> 0:06:20.760 I was thirty. It's recorded so you can go and 0:06:20.800 --> 0:06:23.320 listen to it and see that I'm not lying or 0:06:23.360 --> 0:06:26.640 here that I'm not lying. But yeah, that's the first memory. 0:06:26.680 --> 0:06:29.160 And I was marching up and this really really mean 0:06:29.240 --> 0:06:34.560 lady snatched me out of the line because she decided 0:06:35.440 --> 0:06:39.640 that I was out of place and I shouldn't have 0:06:39.640 --> 0:06:42.280 been there because I was a little child. 0:06:42.839 --> 0:06:44.840 But did she have the authority to do that or 0:06:44.920 --> 0:06:49.360 was she the really no, she did not. 0:06:50.200 --> 0:06:52.480 It's in my book. It was very traumatizing. 0:06:52.960 --> 0:06:53.599 How old were you? 0:06:54.200 --> 0:06:57.600 I was like seven or eight, maybe. 0:06:57.400 --> 0:06:58.839 You were that powerful of a singer. 0:06:59.360 --> 0:07:03.480 You know the Clark sisters, right obviously of course, so 0:07:03.560 --> 0:07:07.799 you know Maddie Boss Clark essimply was the female James 0:07:07.800 --> 0:07:12.920 cleavey okay, right. She was in the KOJC Church, the 0:07:13.000 --> 0:07:15.920 Church of God in Christ. He was Baptist. He was 0:07:15.920 --> 0:07:19.360 the Baptist Convention of whatever. And he would go around 0:07:19.400 --> 0:07:23.160 the different cities and get singers from all the different churches, 0:07:23.160 --> 0:07:24.920 put them together and make those albums. 0:07:25.480 --> 0:07:28.840 So she did the same thing in the Pentecostal Church. 0:07:29.640 --> 0:07:32.440 And so I was such a good singer that somebody 0:07:32.480 --> 0:07:36.920 took me down there to Mill Street Church of God 0:07:36.960 --> 0:07:40.480 in Christ to be in the choir. And you weren't 0:07:40.480 --> 0:07:43.680 allowed to be in the choir and unless she was sixteen, But. 0:07:43.800 --> 0:07:45.720 What if your voice was excellent? What if you were 0:07:45.800 --> 0:07:49.000 the Aretha frames I'm about to say. Okay, So I. 0:07:49.480 --> 0:07:52.320 Get there and they're like, he can't be here, and 0:07:52.360 --> 0:07:56.440 they were like, just listen to him sing, and I said, 0:07:56.960 --> 0:08:00.640 and she was like sit out. She said, come on, 0:08:00.800 --> 0:08:03.960 she said, sit right here in front row. So you know, 0:08:04.720 --> 0:08:06.640 so I sat in the front row and worked with 0:08:06.720 --> 0:08:09.080 Mattign's Clark. I haven't really. 0:08:08.880 --> 0:08:09.840 Retold that story. 0:08:09.880 --> 0:08:12.280 In a long time, and I thank you for making 0:08:12.360 --> 0:08:15.880 me think about it, because I would say those are 0:08:15.920 --> 0:08:21.920 the two that's a major major musical milestone for me. 0:08:22.520 --> 0:08:24.440 Okay, like the beginning, the. 0:08:24.400 --> 0:08:25.840 First time that I really knew. 0:08:26.600 --> 0:08:28.320 All Right, I want you to explain something to me 0:08:28.360 --> 0:08:31.640 because oftentimes, you know, and we've had gospel lessons on 0:08:31.680 --> 0:08:35.880 the shows, and of course you know, for any black 0:08:35.920 --> 0:08:40.280 singer I know, I'll say that eighty five to ninety 0:08:40.280 --> 0:08:47.200 percent of their entry into music is coming through the church. Yeah, 0:08:47.600 --> 0:08:50.120 can you please explain to me? Is there a difference 0:08:50.120 --> 0:08:53.120 between a Baptist church a Pentecostal church? 0:08:53.400 --> 0:08:57.320 So I would say, we're not a monolis right, So 0:08:57.520 --> 0:09:03.320 like back in the day, the difference between Baptists and 0:09:03.400 --> 0:09:06.520 Pentecostal was the charismatic. 0:09:05.960 --> 0:09:09.080 Part, okay, shouting, the speaking in. 0:09:09.160 --> 0:09:14.480 Tongues and all of that was reserved for the Pentecostal people. 0:09:15.200 --> 0:09:17.239 The Baptist people at that time. 0:09:17.040 --> 0:09:21.079 Were still pulled up, okay, and they were still closer 0:09:21.200 --> 0:09:26.120 to ame, which was African American Episcopals. So if you've 0:09:26.120 --> 0:09:30.640 been to African American Episcopal you were probably singing classical music. 0:09:31.600 --> 0:09:33.080 You were probably. 0:09:32.640 --> 0:09:38.200 Singing, you know, your choir was singing hymns that were traditional. 0:09:38.880 --> 0:09:43.800 You probably had, like you know, Leonting Price. 0:09:43.600 --> 0:09:47.480 Was your soloist, okay, at the Ame church, Lanting Price 0:09:47.600 --> 0:09:52.720 was your soloist. At the Baptist church, Mahela Jackson was 0:09:52.720 --> 0:09:55.400 your soloist. And I do it with music. If you 0:09:55.400 --> 0:10:00.920 think of Mehelia Jackson balls to the walls belting. Okay, 0:10:01.280 --> 0:10:05.880 Pentecostal and I'm breaking it down through. Music was all 0:10:05.960 --> 0:10:08.120 about the coloring and the riffing and all of that. 0:10:09.040 --> 0:10:11.400 So if I were drumming, I would probably be at 0:10:11.400 --> 0:10:13.480 home drumming in a Pentecostal church. 0:10:14.160 --> 0:10:17.680 Yes, it was freer at the time. Now Baptists and 0:10:17.720 --> 0:10:19.400 Pentecostal are the same. 0:10:20.200 --> 0:10:23.200 Well, I'm a seventies church person, so I think the 0:10:23.240 --> 0:10:25.079 last time I really really played in church was like 0:10:25.120 --> 0:10:29.080 eighty seven. And of course, you know, as a teenager 0:10:29.120 --> 0:10:31.320 and listening to hip hop or whatever, I would try 0:10:31.360 --> 0:10:36.040 to sneak in songs that were like Breakbeats or play 0:10:36.080 --> 0:10:39.160 Top Billing by Audio two or Peter Piper by run DMC, 0:10:39.600 --> 0:10:42.040 and the older people would look at me and start scowling, 0:10:42.160 --> 0:10:46.720 like m M, don't play any like? Was it looked 0:10:46.720 --> 0:10:51.360 down upon in terms of contemporary music, or. 0:10:52.040 --> 0:10:58.640 In the Baptist Church at the time, it was expanding. Okay, 0:10:59.240 --> 0:11:03.600 you could play, you could push it, but not too far, like, 0:11:03.640 --> 0:11:06.880 for instance, the Clark sisters were everywhere, but when you 0:11:06.960 --> 0:11:11.920 brought the sunshine happened and it crossed over into the clubs, 0:11:12.280 --> 0:11:14.000 it was a problem. 0:11:14.080 --> 0:11:14.800 Just like the. 0:11:14.800 --> 0:11:18.040 Hawkins family and Oh Happy Day, you know. 0:11:18.240 --> 0:11:20.920 But those people were like, but we're over here preaching 0:11:21.000 --> 0:11:23.760 to the choir. They were pioneers because they were like, well, 0:11:23.760 --> 0:11:26.680 we're over here preaching to the choir, and you're mad 0:11:26.679 --> 0:11:32.600 at us because we've broken through to essentially centers secular 0:11:33.320 --> 0:11:37.000 secular right, So isn't that the point the Bible says, 0:11:37.080 --> 0:11:40.840 go out into the world and preach my gospel. That's 0:11:40.880 --> 0:11:44.920 what the Bible says. So I was in that era 0:11:46.040 --> 0:11:51.600 where it was becoming more and more accepted. I mean 0:11:51.640 --> 0:11:55.600 now essentially, you know, I mean and and R and 0:11:55.600 --> 0:11:58.920 B and soul and gospel. They've always borrowed from each other, 0:11:59.000 --> 0:12:03.120 you know. And nowadays gospel artists are a hip hop artists. 0:12:04.120 --> 0:12:07.800 You know, Mary Mary is a hip hop artist. They 0:12:07.840 --> 0:12:09.679 came out they were hip hop artists, you know what 0:12:09.760 --> 0:12:12.480 I mean, Like, there's a whole generation of folk. 0:12:12.600 --> 0:12:15.120 Now, you know, you listen to Jake Marsh, she may 0:12:15.160 --> 0:12:15.560 as well be. 0:12:16.000 --> 0:12:19.160 It's like, you know, King Keith heard when she first 0:12:19.200 --> 0:12:24.720 came out, Like they're very contemporary and they're borrowing heavily 0:12:25.520 --> 0:12:27.360 right from the hip hop tradition. 0:12:27.600 --> 0:12:29.640 Now his house, we were just talking to bb Winings 0:12:29.640 --> 0:12:31.520 about the work that he's been doing with Louis Vega, 0:12:31.559 --> 0:12:35.520 and it's yeah, and you and you with Freda, right, 0:12:35.679 --> 0:12:39.200 like yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, what's motivational music in that way? 0:12:39.440 --> 0:12:41.840 Yeah, yeah, yeah, totally, Belly. 0:12:41.920 --> 0:12:44.319 Do you consider yourself a church singer still to this. 0:12:44.360 --> 0:12:46.240 Day, Yeah, I'm a gospel singer. 0:12:46.720 --> 0:12:48.120 That's how you defined yourself. 0:12:48.720 --> 0:12:52.360 I'm a gospel singer. Anywhere I go, I'm a gospel singer. 0:12:52.600 --> 0:12:54.240 You know my mom, you know, I left the church 0:12:54.280 --> 0:12:56.319 when I was sixteen because I'm a big old queen 0:12:56.480 --> 0:13:00.440 and I wasn't out, and so I left and I 0:13:00.520 --> 0:13:03.000 was like, I'm not changing, I'm God made me who 0:13:03.080 --> 0:13:04.000 I am. I'm leaving. 0:13:04.800 --> 0:13:06.800 And my mom had a problem with it, and she 0:13:06.920 --> 0:13:07.920 came around and whatever. 0:13:08.760 --> 0:13:11.280 Before she passed, she passed it every word, but before 0:13:11.320 --> 0:13:14.360 she passed, every time every time she would come. 0:13:14.200 --> 0:13:18.280 And hear me or see me do something. She was 0:13:18.320 --> 0:13:18.800 so sweet. 0:13:18.840 --> 0:13:21.360 She would be like, I know you left the church, 0:13:21.720 --> 0:13:24.400 and you left it for good reason, But every time 0:13:24.480 --> 0:13:38.040 you open up your book, nothing but. 0:13:28.400 --> 0:13:36.880 Jess nothing but Jesus nothing, Jesus nothing. 0:13:38.440 --> 0:13:39.160 And it's true. 0:13:39.520 --> 0:13:43.240 It's like when I listen to myself, I got you 0:13:43.320 --> 0:13:45.120 can't take the gospel. 0:13:45.480 --> 0:13:47.240 How do you feel when someone writes a song for you, 0:13:47.240 --> 0:13:48.960 because I know that this happens with you and it 0:13:49.000 --> 0:13:52.600 doesn't necessarily sound like you. What is your thought process 0:13:52.720 --> 0:13:52.960 in that? 0:13:53.760 --> 0:13:57.840 Well, people who are writing music for me are generally 0:13:58.679 --> 0:14:02.480 writing it because they want me to sing it. So 0:14:03.760 --> 0:14:08.280 for me coming from a church background where it's about 0:14:08.280 --> 0:14:13.680 the spirit, it's about sharing your gifts with the congregation 0:14:14.080 --> 0:14:18.040 and the message and the ministry, and then moving that 0:14:18.280 --> 0:14:23.600 into training as a classical actor and learning how to 0:14:23.720 --> 0:14:27.920 tell the story because the story is most important. So 0:14:28.240 --> 0:14:32.200 in the secular world it's the same thing. The ministry 0:14:32.480 --> 0:14:36.880 and telling the story is the same. They fold into one, right. 0:14:37.280 --> 0:14:39.280 Bill, didn't you guys do this in a way. I 0:14:39.280 --> 0:14:40.840 know you did Sesame Street at some point. 0:14:40.880 --> 0:14:43.400 So I was like, Billy was on Sesame Street and 0:14:43.400 --> 0:14:46.920 he sang an ebby winning song called Friends with the Penguin, 0:14:47.360 --> 0:14:50.040 and it was one of the one of the I 0:14:50.040 --> 0:14:51.640 will say, in the fifteen years i've been there in 0:14:51.640 --> 0:14:54.800 one of my top five moments was this moment. And 0:14:55.160 --> 0:14:57.680 my girlfriend, who was a producer of the show, was like, 0:14:57.760 --> 0:14:58.880 it was one of the greatest moments you ever had 0:14:58.920 --> 0:15:00.440 on the show. Was you and that outfit seeing a 0:15:00.600 --> 0:15:03.560 song and it was fucking magical, and so like, I 0:15:03.760 --> 0:15:05.680 just want to say thank you very much because it was. 0:15:07.880 --> 0:15:10.240 Recognize your name. I'm like, I'm not a name, but 0:15:10.280 --> 0:15:10.720 I don't know. 0:15:11.960 --> 0:15:12.920 We have a lot of friends we have. 0:15:13.000 --> 0:15:15.600 We have James Sampleiner, I'm talking to the stark Sands 0:15:15.600 --> 0:15:17.640 over here, who's like, ask them about this, Like it's 0:15:17.640 --> 0:15:18.880 a whole Yeah, we have a lot of the same 0:15:19.160 --> 0:15:21.400 Literally just got off the phone with James Sampliner. 0:15:21.760 --> 0:15:25.080 Y'all like cousins, theatre cousins, right, like theatre cousins. 0:15:25.480 --> 0:15:27.400 Yeah. Yeah, the small world. 0:15:32.560 --> 0:15:36.760 I'm always trying to tell the story and because my 0:15:36.880 --> 0:15:40.600 voice was so high and it was so different and 0:15:40.640 --> 0:15:44.680 it didn't fit into anything or anywhere, you know, Like 0:15:44.840 --> 0:15:48.320 my voice was so high that regular tenor roles in 0:15:48.480 --> 0:15:51.800 theater had to be transposed up a third or a 0:15:51.920 --> 0:15:55.320 fourth for me. So like I would go into auditions 0:15:55.680 --> 0:16:02.920 singing a regular tenor song like let's say Anthem from Chess, 0:16:03.680 --> 0:16:09.080 a song that everybody in that era say, right, and 0:16:09.280 --> 0:16:11.480 I would go in and I would have to sing 0:16:11.520 --> 0:16:14.840 it a fourth higher from where it was written. So 0:16:15.480 --> 0:16:17.560 I would take the music in and put it in 0:16:17.560 --> 0:16:21.960 front of a piano player, and it was like Mitton's McCluskey, 0:16:22.360 --> 0:16:25.080 because they're so used to playing it in a you 0:16:25.120 --> 0:16:27.640 know that they couldn't even like. So I had to 0:16:27.640 --> 0:16:31.440 start taking my own piano player with me to auditions 0:16:31.560 --> 0:16:34.720 because people wouldn't be able to even looking at it. 0:16:34.840 --> 0:16:37.680 They wouldn't be able to understand this transla. 0:16:38.960 --> 0:16:41.680 When I deal with singers normally, it's like you got 0:16:41.680 --> 0:16:45.440 to lower it a few notches usually win in concert. 0:16:45.520 --> 0:16:50.040 They want to go lower, yeah, but you want to 0:16:50.120 --> 0:16:52.160 raise it higher at that time. 0:16:53.040 --> 0:16:55.160 Oh okay, I feel like I've heard you sing Luther 0:16:55.280 --> 0:16:57.160 before and I have. 0:16:58.760 --> 0:17:05.800 Time. But I was very good with female altos with extension. 0:17:05.920 --> 0:17:08.800 I could sing those songs in the regular keys. I 0:17:08.840 --> 0:17:11.760 could sing I have nothing in the original key, Like 0:17:11.840 --> 0:17:15.960 I could sing that for real, with no like effort, 0:17:16.200 --> 0:17:20.359 no screeching note, like my top note. If you go 0:17:20.560 --> 0:17:25.520 and you google oh Holy Night on the Rose O'donald 0:17:25.560 --> 0:17:26.360 Christmas Special. 0:17:26.480 --> 0:17:29.840 Yes, I guess I thought that video you was seeing Google. 0:17:29.560 --> 0:17:34.680 Oh Holy Night, that's that's Billy Porter prime at that time. 0:17:35.359 --> 0:17:37.600 Listen to Love Is on the Way from the First 0:17:37.640 --> 0:17:43.359 Wives Club, that's Billy Porter like at my highest prime. 0:17:43.800 --> 0:17:45.560 I mean the high note that I hit at the 0:17:45.640 --> 0:17:48.080 end of Holy Night was a high. I think it 0:17:48.160 --> 0:17:52.560 was F above or f a G above that high 0:17:52.560 --> 0:17:54.160 soprano see beltic. 0:17:54.880 --> 0:17:57.520 Who are the three singers that you pattered in yourself after? 0:17:57.760 --> 0:17:57.840 Like? 0:17:57.920 --> 0:18:01.440 Who were the singers that? Who your north star? Who's 0:18:01.480 --> 0:18:05.120 your top three? Okay, Karen Clark. 0:18:04.880 --> 0:18:10.720 Here and Aretha Okay, Trinnedy Trinity. 0:18:11.960 --> 0:18:14.120 I would imagine that you know, those are the three 0:18:14.200 --> 0:18:19.240 that are everyone's choice. Is there a singer that's sort 0:18:19.240 --> 0:18:21.400 of out of that circle that people will be surprised 0:18:21.400 --> 0:18:23.760 that you gravitate towards? 0:18:24.600 --> 0:18:26.040 I don't think it would be a surprise. 0:18:27.240 --> 0:18:31.200 Okay, Well, men, I like Tom Waits, and Tom Waits 0:18:31.280 --> 0:18:34.800 has a horrible voice. I love that you love Tom Waits. 0:18:34.920 --> 0:18:37.000 God, you're making me atlantis. 0:18:37.040 --> 0:18:44.159 Martha that was random? Does love her? 0:18:45.040 --> 0:18:53.080 Love that that okay, and I'm sure there are more. 0:18:53.600 --> 0:18:55.000 You know, you put me on the spot. Now I 0:18:55.040 --> 0:18:55.520 can't take it. 0:18:55.520 --> 0:19:00.879 Nobody not to step on your toes, B But I 0:19:00.920 --> 0:19:02.679 was like, why are you thinking I'm curious about the 0:19:02.680 --> 0:19:05.399 first secular show that you experienced, because that's a part 0:19:05.440 --> 0:19:06.440 of your musical moment too. 0:19:06.440 --> 0:19:08.080 I know you mentioned church for real, for real, but 0:19:08.080 --> 0:19:09.119 what was the first. 0:19:09.000 --> 0:19:12.800 Your first concert or this will be a surprise. Wait 0:19:12.960 --> 0:19:16.200 before we get to that. Did you live in a 0:19:16.359 --> 0:19:20.360 no secular music household? Or was that allowed no secular 0:19:20.440 --> 0:19:23.800 music at all? Uh? All right, so who would you 0:19:23.880 --> 0:19:27.960 sneak and listen to nobody? Oh? You followed the rules. 0:19:28.560 --> 0:19:33.200 Well until a certain age, right, it was only secular music. 0:19:33.520 --> 0:19:35.800 And the music that I heard was on the radio 0:19:35.960 --> 0:19:39.399 or at somebody else's house. Okay, and it was always 0:19:39.400 --> 0:19:41.800 in passing. That's where you do all your bad shit 0:19:41.840 --> 0:19:42.800 at somebody else's house. 0:19:42.960 --> 0:19:44.399 So it was somebody else's house. 0:19:44.840 --> 0:19:45.040 You know. 0:19:45.280 --> 0:19:50.680 I loved Michael Jackson, I loved Shaka, I loved you know, Prince. 0:19:50.480 --> 0:19:53.600 Was a little oho much. 0:19:53.680 --> 0:19:56.120 I liked it, but it was like I felt like 0:19:56.160 --> 0:19:58.120 my mom could hear me listening to it. 0:19:58.640 --> 0:20:01.560 I got on punishment for prince. So I understand all that, 0:20:02.040 --> 0:20:05.000 and it was a little nasty, so had a night, 0:20:05.760 --> 0:20:05.960 you know. 0:20:06.040 --> 0:20:10.880 But what's interesting about my journey is that it was gospel, gospel, gospel, gospel. 0:20:11.480 --> 0:20:15.560 And then in the sixth grade, I was bussed to 0:20:15.640 --> 0:20:21.199 Risingstein Middle School during the second sort of desegregation moment, 0:20:22.520 --> 0:20:25.040 and I was introduced to theater. I was introduced to 0:20:25.119 --> 0:20:29.600 musical theater, and I got bit by the bug. And 0:20:29.680 --> 0:20:33.040 so then it became I went right from gospel music 0:20:33.560 --> 0:20:37.480 to theater. And theater for some reason was okay with 0:20:37.560 --> 0:20:38.200 my mother. 0:20:40.240 --> 0:20:41.480 He didn't really understand it. 0:20:43.160 --> 0:20:45.959 And so I was going to the Carnegie Library and 0:20:46.040 --> 0:20:49.040 taking out ten albums a week and. 0:20:49.000 --> 0:20:50.960 Listening to it while I was doing my homework. 0:20:51.280 --> 0:20:54.399 But I have to say it wasn't until I was 0:20:54.440 --> 0:20:58.640 about fifteen when I got a job working at Kenny 0:20:58.720 --> 0:21:03.520 Wood Park Kadywood Park in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, which is the 0:21:03.560 --> 0:21:04.720 amusement park. 0:21:05.040 --> 0:21:07.600 It's still there, Okay, it's. 0:21:07.480 --> 0:21:08.800 Still privately owned. 0:21:09.320 --> 0:21:12.240 It's one of the last privately owned amusement parks that's 0:21:12.280 --> 0:21:14.440 still owned by the family that started. 0:21:14.119 --> 0:21:16.080 It in the country. 0:21:17.520 --> 0:21:20.000 Okay, yeah, because a lot of them have been bought up. 0:21:19.960 --> 0:21:21.520 By like six flags flag. 0:21:23.200 --> 0:21:25.560 And so I was by myself. 0:21:26.160 --> 0:21:29.200 I was living with the grown ups, and by grown 0:21:29.240 --> 0:21:33.160 ups I mean the college kids in the motel out 0:21:33.240 --> 0:21:36.119 by the park. Because my mother was now going to 0:21:36.200 --> 0:21:38.320 drive me out to that park every day and come 0:21:38.359 --> 0:21:41.800 and pick me up. She trusted me enough to do that. 0:21:42.240 --> 0:21:45.440 She signed off on me having a job. I did 0:21:45.480 --> 0:21:49.600 six shows a day, six days a week. Four of 0:21:49.640 --> 0:21:50.440 them were different. 0:21:50.880 --> 0:21:55.480 How old were you fifteen? So were you emancipated? I was. 0:21:57.000 --> 0:22:00.240 No, it was I wasn't answer. 0:22:00.520 --> 0:22:03.400 She gave you permission to me permission I had. 0:22:03.400 --> 0:22:06.360 To have written permission from her and take it downtown 0:22:06.480 --> 0:22:09.000 to whoever it was, or she had to go with 0:22:09.040 --> 0:22:11.240 me or something to give me permission to work. 0:22:12.520 --> 0:22:15.840 And we were ports. So like I wanted Georgiana ask James. 0:22:16.560 --> 0:22:17.080 I wanted to. 0:22:18.720 --> 0:22:22.680 And myself if you shot Damn. 0:22:22.960 --> 0:22:28.600 I forgot about Jumber. I'm fifty five and September. I 0:22:28.640 --> 0:22:34.680 needed my Sergyovalente. I needed my stuff. And she said, 0:22:34.840 --> 0:22:37.480 you know, she looked at me at one point and 0:22:37.560 --> 0:22:40.560 she's like, you have champagne taste on the beer budget. 0:22:42.280 --> 0:22:44.520 And so I came home one day for the job 0:22:45.119 --> 0:22:47.760 and she said what And I'm like, yeah, and I 0:22:47.800 --> 0:22:49.960