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Speaker 1: Now here's a highlight from Coast to Coast AM on iHeartRadio. Man,

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Speaker 1: welcome back to Coast to Coast George and Ori with you.

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Speaker 1: We have a real treat for you tonight. Award winning

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Speaker 1: American singer, songwriter, record producer, actor, record executive Smokey Robinson

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Speaker 1: with us. Smokey was the founder and the frontman of

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Speaker 1: the Motown vocal group The Miracles. Was also the chief

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Speaker 1: songwriter and producer for them. He has been inducted into

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Speaker 1: the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Songwriters

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Speaker 1: Hall of Fame as well. Bob Dylan, the Great Singer,

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Speaker 1: once said that Smokey is America's greatest living poet, and

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Speaker 1: that is definitely true. Smokey, welcome to the program. Great

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Speaker 1: to have you with us. So it's good to be

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Speaker 1: your Joys. Thank you very much. I appreciate it. You

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Speaker 1: have touched the live of so many people in your history.

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Speaker 1: I can't tell you how you've done it. For me

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Speaker 1: was when I was growing up listening to your music

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Speaker 1: with Smokey and the Miracles just fantastic. So thank you

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Speaker 1: for that. Well, thank you man. And I tell people

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Speaker 1: all the time when they tell me stuff like that,

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Speaker 1: I could not have done it without people like you.

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Speaker 1: You know, I thank you for that, because, you know,

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Speaker 1: without I try to tell people that who come into

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Speaker 1: show business and think, well they started it or something,

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Speaker 1: that that's so stupid, and and and those who shun

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Speaker 1: their fans and don't want to sign autographs or take

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Speaker 1: pictures or whatever that is when they can, you know,

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Speaker 1: it's just a crazy thing because without those people, you

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Speaker 1: wouldn't have a career. So I thank you for my

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Speaker 1: career and people, all those people out there listening, all

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Speaker 1: my fans, and all the people who have made this

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Speaker 1: possible for me. What's really cool is you were born

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Speaker 1: in Detroit and so was I. Yeah, see we maybe

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Speaker 1: ran into each other. What a great thing. They've really

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Speaker 1: built up that city now too. It's really something. Well downtown,

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Speaker 1: you know, they built up to downtown, George. I'm still

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Speaker 1: you know, concerned about the inner city. Yeah, the inner

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Speaker 1: city is still and have it, you know, So I

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Speaker 1: hope that eventually they get to that. Tonight, we're going

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Speaker 1: to tell you about Smoky's new CD. We're going to

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Speaker 1: tell you about his new toured that he has all

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Speaker 1: around partially the areas of the country in the system.

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Speaker 1: But let's go back to the beginning. You're born William

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Speaker 1: Robinson Junior. But your uncle gave you the name Smokey

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Speaker 1: Joe because you liked cowboy and western movies and TV shows. Yes,

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Speaker 1: And when I was about three or four years old,

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Speaker 1: you know, he was to always take me to see

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Speaker 1: cowboy movies and I loved cowboys, especially the ones who

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Speaker 1: sang like Roy Rogers and Geane Autrey guys. Yeah, you know,

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Speaker 1: so he gave me a cowboy name, which was Smokey Joe.

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Speaker 1: And like I said, I'm only three or four years old.

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Speaker 1: And when people asked me what my name was, I

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Speaker 1: told him Smokey Joe because that was my cowboy name.

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Speaker 1: And that last util I got to be about twelve

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Speaker 1: and then they dropped the Joe off and I just

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Speaker 1: became Smokey. Did you sing always as a kid, I

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Speaker 1: can't remember. I don't remember ever not singing, you know,

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Speaker 1: in my life since I could talk, I think I

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Speaker 1: was singing. So no, I don't remember ever not singing.

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Speaker 1: You live next to the late legendary Aretha Franklin. You

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Speaker 1: used to hear her sing as a little girl. Oh yeah,

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Speaker 1: you know, I've known themata since she was five years old.

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Speaker 1: That's amazing. So yeah, she was singing, damn it, like

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Speaker 1: she was singing when she was grown when she was five,

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Speaker 1: and playing piano almost like that. Oh yeah, she was awesome,

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Speaker 1: you know she she's just one of those talents who

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Speaker 1: just was born with it. And so yeah, she was

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Speaker 1: one of my closest friends. I have heard a story

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Speaker 1: that when you walked into Barry Gordy's place, which was

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Speaker 1: not Motown Records at the time, it was like Templa

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Speaker 1: or something like that, that you had a list of

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Speaker 1: songs that you had written, like a hundred songs, and

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Speaker 1: that blew his mind. He was very impressed with that.

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Speaker 1: Is that a true story? Well, what happens with that

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Speaker 1: is the fact that the Miracles and I we wouldn't

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Speaker 1: call the Miracles then. We didn't actually get the name

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Speaker 1: the Miracles until after we had recorded our first records.

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Speaker 1: And you were the childs right, Yeah, yeah, we know,

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Speaker 1: we were the Matadors. The Matadors. We were have chimes

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Speaker 1: at first and we switched then we evolved into the Matadors.

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Speaker 1: So Jackie Wilson was my favorite singing idol as a

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Speaker 1: kid growing up. Jackie Wilson was also from Detroit, and

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Speaker 1: you're Detroit, so you know that. But he was my

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Speaker 1: favorite singer at that time, and I had all of

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Speaker 1: his records, and when I buy music even today, I

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Speaker 1: want to know who wrote those songs, who wrote this music,

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Speaker 1: who created this music that this person was playing or singing.

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Speaker 1: And I had all of Jackie's records and Berry Gordy

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Speaker 1: was the one who was writing all of his songs.

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Speaker 1: So anyway, my group and I got a chance to

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Speaker 1: go audition for Jackie Wilson's managers, and we had a

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Speaker 1: girl with us at the time, My ex wife, Claudette

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Speaker 1: was with us at a time, and we were are teenagers,

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Speaker 1: and so we figured that when we went there, we

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Speaker 1: would sing five songs that I had written, rather than

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Speaker 1: singing some stuff that was currently popular by other artists,

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Speaker 1: which we did. And when we had finished with our audition,

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Speaker 1: Jackie Wilson's managers and his A and R man said, well,

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Speaker 1: you know, we can't use you. We thought, we thought,

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Speaker 1: but by us having our own material, they would say, oh,

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Speaker 1: well these kids got their owner two. This is great.

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Speaker 1: We will definitely signed them. But it was just the opposite.

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Speaker 1: They said we can't use you because you got a

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Speaker 1: girl in your group and you were singing high and

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Speaker 1: there's already the Platters, and we're not going to try

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Speaker 1: to outdo the Platters with the group of the same makeup.

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Speaker 1: So you guys would probably never make it unless you

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Speaker 1: change your format. And we were very dejected. However, at

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Speaker 1: that audition, there was a young sitting there and I

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Speaker 1: thought he was waiting to audition. Next turns out he

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Speaker 1: was very gordy and he liked a couple of my songs.

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Speaker 1: So he came out afterwards and met us in the

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Speaker 1: hallway and you know, said he had liked to come

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Speaker 1: to my songs. And he made the mistake of asking

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Speaker 1: me that I have any more songs, you know, And

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Speaker 1: I did. I had a loosely notebook for about one

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Speaker 1: hundred songs that I've been writing throughout my school years.

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Speaker 1: So he takes me to the side in his little

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Speaker 1: room and I sang some songs that I had written

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Speaker 1: to him, about fifteen songs. And he never said okay,

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Speaker 1: I'm tired or any of that. He just listened to

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Speaker 1: him and critiqued all of them, loved them, and no

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Speaker 1: he didn't love him. He didn't love him. No, he

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Speaker 1: did not love him. He didn't love me. He critiqued

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Speaker 1: him because bars you know, he's very critical when it

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Speaker 1: comes to music. So no, he didn't love him at all.

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Speaker 1: Because in those days, I could always rhyme stuff. I

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Speaker 1: could rhyme stuff sometime I was three years old. I

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Speaker 1: could write little poems and rhymes and stuff like that,

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Speaker 1: you know. But my songs would be three or four

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Speaker 1: songs in one song because my first verse would be

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Speaker 1: all rhymed up. Great, but it had nothing to do

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Speaker 1: with my second verse, you know, and it was so

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Speaker 1: on and so forth. So Barry was pointing that kind

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Speaker 1: of stuff out to me, and he became my songwriting

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Speaker 1: mentor really you know. But he must have seen some

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Speaker 1: talent in us. Well, he said he did. He said,

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Speaker 1: he said he loved the fact that every song that

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Speaker 1: he critiqued and tore down, I came with another one.

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Speaker 1: And I was trying to impress him and he could

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Speaker 1: not discourage me. He said he loved that. In the meantime,

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Speaker 1: I'm loving the fact that he's listening to my songs

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Speaker 1: and he's not saying, well, I gotta go. You know,

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Speaker 1: that's enough, man. Any of that he's every song. I

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Speaker 1: wanted to say he heard it, but he and he

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Speaker 1: said he loved the fact that I didn't give up.

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Speaker 1: So he started to mentor me uh on on writing

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Speaker 1: my songs and making them one idea. You know, from

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Speaker 1: the beginning to the to the middle to the ending.

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Speaker 1: It was one idea. And um, so you know, we

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Speaker 1: became really really best friends and um about a year

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Speaker 1: or sold a year and a half after that, he

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Speaker 1: started Motown because none of the companies that he was

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Speaker 1: putting us with was really paying us anyway, you know,

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Speaker 1: so so he started motown. Uh, he started Motown. We

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Speaker 1: got to check from a guy in New York for

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Speaker 1: for the the the artist royalties we had had four

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Speaker 1: sides with them, and for the artist royalties and and

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Speaker 1: the producers royalties, and the publishing and the artists and

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Speaker 1: and and the and the writing royalties, all those royalties.

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Speaker 1: He said, Mary, check for three dollars and nineteen cents.

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Speaker 1: So so so, so Bear framed it and that and

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Speaker 1: right after started Motown. And that was sort of like inspirational.

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Speaker 1: I guess it was one of your first songs, a

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Speaker 1: song called got a Job. That was the very first

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Speaker 1: record that we ever recorded as the as the Miracles

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Speaker 1: because at the time a group called the Silhouettes had

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Speaker 1: the number one record in the world, a record called

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Speaker 1: get a Job, and that, you know, Barrio told me

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Speaker 1: to listen to the radio or whatever. So one day

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Speaker 1: I'm at home and I'm looking at American Bandstand and

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Speaker 1: Dick Clark is giving the Silhouettes a gold record for

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Speaker 1: get a Job, and you know, I get a job. Wow,

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Speaker 1: this is great. You know, I'm going to write a

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Speaker 1: song called got a Job, which I did and I

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Speaker 1: was very excited about it, and I went and I

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Speaker 1: showed it to Barry and he was very excited about it.

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Speaker 1: So it became our first recording as the Miracles. And

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Speaker 1: then you had a hit single called shop Around, which

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Speaker 1: for Motown went over a million sellers. Wasn't that well?

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Speaker 1: Chaperon was the first million teller for a Motown Yeah, yeah,

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Speaker 1: it was a song I had actually written. We had

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Speaker 1: an artist named Barrett Strong, and Barrett Strong had a

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Speaker 1: hit record called money That's what I Want the Best

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Speaker 1: Things in life up free. Yeah. So so Barry wanted

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Speaker 1: me to do an album on Barrett and I'm thinking about,

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Speaker 1: you know, he's got this song money, That's what I wanted,

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Speaker 1: what you do with money a shop? So I wrote

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Speaker 1: chop Around actually for him, and Chaperon was one of

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Speaker 1: those songs that just flowed out. And the songs take

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Speaker 1: different times to create them, but Chaparon was I wrote

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Speaker 1: that probably about twenty five or thirty minutes. The whole

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Speaker 1: song it was, you know, and uh, it just flowed out,

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Speaker 1: and I was very excited about it. I wouldn't showed

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Speaker 1: it to Barry for Barrett, and Barry said, well, no, no,

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Speaker 1: no, no no, I'd like the wear you sign on this.

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Speaker 1: I like your voice on this, man, so I want

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Speaker 1: you to sing this. So we went through a half

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Speaker 1: hour of no, me, no. Barrett finally said, he, man,

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Speaker 1: I want you to go in the studio and just

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Speaker 1: record this on You and the Miracles, which I did.

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Speaker 1: And Barrett Strong was a bluesy singer, so I when

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Speaker 1: I recorded it to Chaperon on the Miracles and me,

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Speaker 1: I recorded it bluesy. He just because you become a

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Speaker 1: young man, piano blood, don't doom blind all of blues

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Speaker 1: drifts and stuff, And that's how I recorded it. So

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Speaker 1: we put the record out. Record has been out at

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Speaker 1: least two weeks. One morning, my phone rings at three

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Speaker 1: o'clock in the morning, and the record has been on

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Speaker 1: the radio for two weeks or more, and so my

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Speaker 1: phone rings three o'clock in the morning, and I put

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Speaker 1: a phone and say hello, and the voices, Hey, man,

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Speaker 1: it's me, and I know it's Barry. I said, yeah, Man,

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Speaker 1: I recognize your voice. What do you want man? He said, um?

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Speaker 1: He said, what are you doing? I said, what am

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Speaker 1: I doing? Man? I'm sleep It's three o'clock in the morning.

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Speaker 1: He said, we shop around. Won't let me sleep. He

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Speaker 1: I said, what do you mean he won't let you sleep?

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Speaker 1: He said, you gave it the wrong treatment. He said,

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Speaker 1: I'm going to rerecord it, and I'm going to change

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Speaker 1: the beat. I'm going to change the sound. I'm going

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Speaker 1: to change everything about it, and it's going to number one.

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Speaker 1: Listen to more Coast to Coast AM every weeknight at

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Speaker 1: one am Eastern and go to Coast to Coast am

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Speaker 1: dot com for more