WEBVTT - Stevie Mackey 0:00:02.080 --> 0:00:15.720 And well we are the authority on all things and 0:00:17.680 --> 0:00:22.119 ladies and gentlemen, I am Tank and this is the 0:00:22.360 --> 0:00:26.720 R and B Money Podcast, the authority on all things 0:00:26.840 --> 0:00:32.400 R and B. All things, not some things, all things, because, 0:00:33.400 --> 0:00:37.560 as we say, all things, it's not just the glitz 0:00:37.600 --> 0:00:39.879 and glamour. It's not what you see, m It's not 0:00:39.960 --> 0:00:44.040 just what you see. It's also yeah, yes, people you 0:00:44.120 --> 0:00:46.720 don't see you know what I'm saying. You here, what's 0:00:46.720 --> 0:00:52.960 just what you do? Close your eyes, close your eyes close, Yeah, yeah, 0:00:53.400 --> 0:00:58.160 this is we have an educational moment along with I 0:00:58.240 --> 0:01:01.920 mean one of the calls of voices I've ever heard, 0:01:02.720 --> 0:01:05.920 I mean period. And I always tell him when I 0:01:05.959 --> 0:01:07.280 see him, I said, manut, if you don't put out 0:01:07.319 --> 0:01:10.880 a record and stop playing with the universe gave you 0:01:10.959 --> 0:01:14.240 this gift. Lets without further ado, we have on Army 0:01:14.240 --> 0:01:21.800 Money Podcast. Give it up to Stevie Nkin. First of all, 0:01:22.400 --> 0:01:29.240 congratulations on the two piece. Let's start there, st he 0:01:29.360 --> 0:01:36.760 already started, he already started, hooked me up with you 0:01:38.000 --> 0:01:40.520 need to drip. Um. I just want to first I 0:01:40.520 --> 0:01:43.360 want to say thank you, um, first for being here 0:01:43.959 --> 0:01:50.040 and um and just a little little history, UM, I 0:01:50.080 --> 0:01:53.080 met you and we'll we'll we'll dive all the way 0:01:53.080 --> 0:01:54.760 back right because you know, we like, we like to 0:01:54.760 --> 0:01:59.680 go to the beginning. But I met you with Jennifer Lopez, Yes, 0:02:00.200 --> 0:02:05.320 and it was crazy because she was doing a residency 0:02:05.520 --> 0:02:10.120 at Planet Hollywood and I go to this show me 0:02:10.160 --> 0:02:11.760 and my wife was like, yeah, yeah, I was gonna say, 0:02:11.800 --> 0:02:15.560 j be fine, she could perform. She does her think 0:02:16.120 --> 0:02:23.160 and j Lo got on that stage and sang sing sing, 0:02:23.400 --> 0:02:30.400 sing sing and didn't miss I say, who's this j Loo? 0:02:33.040 --> 0:02:38.240 She'd been doing some work. She killing. And then I 0:02:38.320 --> 0:02:42.720 met you and we set at the piano in the 0:02:42.760 --> 0:02:48.600 in the in the sweet of all the sweet of 0:02:48.600 --> 0:02:53.280 all sweet, and and then I began to understand the 0:02:53.400 --> 0:02:57.760 magic is Stevie Mackie. Um, I just wanted to give 0:02:57.800 --> 0:02:59.880 you all a little bit of that. Okay, it starts, 0:03:00.040 --> 0:03:02.040 and we got a whole story to go telling, but 0:03:02.200 --> 0:03:05.320 I'm coming. We're gonna let him do the rest of 0:03:05.320 --> 0:03:07.720 the storytelling. Brother. We like to go all the way 0:03:07.760 --> 0:03:12.480 back to the beginning. And So when did you know 0:03:13.440 --> 0:03:18.079 or when did somebody say you have a gift, you're special? 0:03:18.600 --> 0:03:24.040 When did that happen for you? I remember being about 0:03:24.880 --> 0:03:29.720 five and my parents were playing Darryl Coley at home, 0:03:30.800 --> 0:03:34.000 and I whispered to one of my relatives, I said 0:03:34.400 --> 0:03:37.200 I can do that. I was little nothing. I was 0:03:37.240 --> 0:03:38.760 a little nothing, and I said I can do that. 0:03:38.800 --> 0:03:41.200 And I was a quiet kid. My parents are very social. 0:03:41.640 --> 0:03:44.640 I'm a little introvert. And so I said to somebody 0:03:44.640 --> 0:03:47.360 whoever would listen, I said, I can do that. Singing 0:03:47.440 --> 0:03:49.280 came like the A. B C's to me. It was 0:03:49.400 --> 0:03:52.640 very natural, and I would I would just mimic everything, 0:03:52.640 --> 0:03:54.960 and my parents play some good music. They would play 0:03:54.960 --> 0:03:57.120 the Clark Sisters, they played Commission, they played the Wine 0:03:57.120 --> 0:04:02.680 in BBC. That's a very important know parents playing. Yes, 0:04:03.160 --> 0:04:05.720 not even just the right music. But she's playing good music, right, 0:04:05.720 --> 0:04:11.160 because right is relative, right, but good music is not right. 0:04:11.640 --> 0:04:14.400 You're right. Good music is good music? Is good music. 0:04:14.640 --> 0:04:18.200 Play some good music for your kids. Yes, it's what 0:04:18.200 --> 0:04:20.200 you're playing. When you don't think they're listening, they are. 0:04:20.720 --> 0:04:22.240 I was a little thing, and I would turn over 0:04:22.240 --> 0:04:25.160 the record to hear Jesus a love song, and like, 0:04:25.720 --> 0:04:27.800 you know these records these and we would my dad 0:04:27.800 --> 0:04:29.440 would play the records. My parents would play them and 0:04:29.440 --> 0:04:31.040 try to pick out the chords on the piano. They 0:04:31.040 --> 0:04:33.839 were they're musicians too, and so I listen. I said, 0:04:33.839 --> 0:04:36.400 I can do that, and I'd go around mimicking everything 0:04:36.440 --> 0:04:40.040 I heard from cartoon voices and Sesame Street Voices two 0:04:40.680 --> 0:04:43.440 two singers that they loved. So I was I was mimicking, 0:04:44.480 --> 0:04:46.000 but I was still too shy to sing in front 0:04:46.000 --> 0:04:47.919 of people. But you know, as I got older, I 0:04:47.960 --> 0:04:50.279 started doing it. When was the first When was the 0:04:50.279 --> 0:04:52.960 breakout moment? I mean it was church. It was church. 0:04:53.040 --> 0:04:54.520 I remember gett in front of the church. I went 0:04:54.560 --> 0:04:59.960 to pretty conservative. I'm from Pasadena, Orn David got some 0:05:00.160 --> 0:05:07.240 legends man, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I've worked with John 0:05:07.279 --> 0:05:10.320 I love John Man. Pastaden is hidding gym in l A. 0:05:10.440 --> 0:05:13.240 And it's kind of old l A. And it's it's 0:05:13.400 --> 0:05:16.120 it focuses a lot. The city focuses on art, and 0:05:16.160 --> 0:05:18.680 it pushes art. It all. Now I realized why he 0:05:18.720 --> 0:05:25.360 said relatives earlier too, But go ahead, relative, I'm not California, 0:05:25.480 --> 0:05:30.039 so you know, it's just certain little things. So your relatives, yep, 0:05:30.240 --> 0:05:32.200 growing up at pianos all of the house, growing up 0:05:32.400 --> 0:05:34.200 in l A. You know, I would I would go 0:05:34.240 --> 0:05:35.640 to church. We go to church. We went to church 0:05:35.720 --> 0:05:38.359 on Saturday's raised Seventh Day Adventist, grew up going to 0:05:38.400 --> 0:05:41.400 church on Saturday. A lot of Adventist people grow up 0:05:41.480 --> 0:05:45.680 with harmony around them, less instruments, more acapella harmonies. So 0:05:45.720 --> 0:05:48.240 I grew up listening and listening to the acapella choirs 0:05:48.240 --> 0:05:50.520 and harmonies, and I would get in church. I remember 0:05:50.560 --> 0:05:54.000 singing one time and hearing the audience, like the church 0:05:54.080 --> 0:05:58.800 ladies and audience going m hm oh. You hear the 0:05:58.839 --> 0:06:00.839 little gasps from the audience when you hit it, like 0:06:01.720 --> 0:06:04.840 I had vibrato or something. They're judging, you know. It 0:06:04.920 --> 0:06:09.880 turns they're like when they when they start going, oh 0:06:10.080 --> 0:06:12.839 you hear that noise, Like, oh, maybe I'm supposed to 0:06:12.839 --> 0:06:16.359 do this thing. So whenever you year, people say whoa, 0:06:17.080 --> 0:06:19.240 oh man, you could do that. That's a sign to 0:06:19.279 --> 0:06:22.799 go in that direction. Whatever it is, go in that direction. 0:06:22.920 --> 0:06:24.960 So I I was like I never felt that before. 0:06:25.000 --> 0:06:28.599 I was like, oh, I'm gifted in something, you know. 0:06:28.640 --> 0:06:29.920 I thought I was going to be an artist in 0:06:30.040 --> 0:06:33.200 draw and maybe make cartoons for Disney, and I love 0:06:33.279 --> 0:06:35.480 doing that because I could do it alone. But when 0:06:35.520 --> 0:06:38.679 I started getting reactions from people at at twelve thirteen, 0:06:38.720 --> 0:06:41.960 when I was singing. I knew I had a special voice, 0:06:42.000 --> 0:06:44.359 and I love to do it. I love to I 0:06:44.520 --> 0:06:47.080 mimic everybody. I turned to a lot of Adam cc widen's, 0:06:47.160 --> 0:06:49.120 Fred Hammond, all of them. I was. I was. I 0:06:49.160 --> 0:06:51.880 was trying to become these people that I looked up 0:06:51.880 --> 0:06:55.359 to so much. So, you know, teenage years were everything. 0:06:55.680 --> 0:06:59.640 My first time singing in church, Um it didn't go 0:06:59.680 --> 0:07:03.760 to saying it didn't it didn't go as well. UM 0:07:04.440 --> 0:07:06.960 tell us was that I was. I was. I was 0:07:07.000 --> 0:07:09.600 a kid, you know, just trying to figure out my 0:07:09.680 --> 0:07:13.840 run life, you know what I mean. And and it 0:07:13.960 --> 0:07:16.800 was the State Baptist Convention. My grandmother was the dean 0:07:16.880 --> 0:07:20.560 of the State Baptist Convention. And we have been rehearsing 0:07:20.920 --> 0:07:24.280 Jesus is the Answer all week and they have been 0:07:24.360 --> 0:07:27.080 letting me practice the lead for the world one of 0:07:27.080 --> 0:07:28.600 the leads. And it was me and like a couple 0:07:28.640 --> 0:07:32.760 of the guys singing the lead. So Friday comes and 0:07:32.760 --> 0:07:35.560 it's time to do it, and and the choir director 0:07:35.600 --> 0:07:38.000 he comes over to me and says, listen, we're gonna 0:07:38.040 --> 0:07:40.280 let the other guys do lead today. You know what 0:07:40.320 --> 0:07:42.280 I'm saying. You're gonna We're gonna We're gonna just have 0:07:42.360 --> 0:07:46.000 you singing singing the choir, and I threw a fit. 0:07:48.160 --> 0:07:50.080 I wasn't like, not like a loud fit, but I 0:07:50.080 --> 0:07:55.240 was just like, and I go to my grandmother and 0:07:54.880 --> 0:07:59.680 she like, what's wrong? Or and my grandmother's aggressive, that's 0:07:59.680 --> 0:08:02.840 wrong song. I was like, had me rehearsing all week 0:08:03.320 --> 0:08:06.040 to do the lead, and then he gonna come to 0:08:06.080 --> 0:08:09.920 me and say, I ain't singing the lead, you know, no, no, 0:08:10.040 --> 0:08:12.760 you're singing the lead. Let's go. And we turned down 0:08:12.800 --> 0:08:15.520 to the choir, thing the whole choire. My brother game, 0:08:15.720 --> 0:08:17.440 what's you got? My grandson rehearsal I we even have 0:08:17.440 --> 0:08:19.000 seen the league, and he was like this, well I 0:08:19.080 --> 0:08:21.760 just want to know he's singing the league. He's singing 0:08:21.760 --> 0:08:25.480 the League. And I'm like, yeah, you know MS with 0:08:25.520 --> 0:08:29.320 Mary Jane James, MR with Dean him Blood. So I'm 0:08:29.320 --> 0:08:33.800 all excited to sing this this this Jesus the Answer lead. 0:08:34.240 --> 0:08:38.240 And so song starts and I start singing my lead 0:08:38.360 --> 0:08:40.839 and I'm you know, I'm all you know what I'm 0:08:40.840 --> 0:08:43.880 saying as I'm singing. It's just, you know, there's no 0:08:43.960 --> 0:08:47.240 real reactions, just kind of, you know, fairly quiet and 0:08:47.640 --> 0:08:50.000 I hear this lady from my churches to take your time, Torell, 0:08:50.760 --> 0:08:53.440 and I was like, okay, yeah, I'm gonna take my time. 0:08:53.559 --> 0:08:57.079 Take your time is never really good. Take your time 0:08:57.160 --> 0:08:58.959 means I love you, but you can do a lot 0:08:59.000 --> 0:09:02.280 better than this. Come on, take it to So as 0:09:02.280 --> 0:09:05.400 we're continuing to sing the song, I'm noticing that the 0:09:05.480 --> 0:09:08.560 other guys, who also singing lead a lot older than me, 0:09:08.800 --> 0:09:12.040 was slowly but surely boxing me out of the microphone. 0:09:12.400 --> 0:09:14.960 So by the end of the song, I was singing 0:09:14.960 --> 0:09:17.720 to their shoulders. So I don't think nothing. But they 0:09:17.720 --> 0:09:23.640 were saving you. They were saving in church. Come on, 0:09:23.679 --> 0:09:31.520 I talked, n see what you're doing. I'm so he 0:09:31.640 --> 0:09:36.440 started to um. So after the after the you know, 0:09:36.640 --> 0:09:40.160 after the big service, we walked into the car and 0:09:40.280 --> 0:09:43.840 Auntie Betty, who was the choir director for our junior choir, 0:09:44.120 --> 0:09:45.800 you know, so it's a sing with you know. I 0:09:45.840 --> 0:09:47.840 go to Aunti bettycause Aunty Betty gonna get the truth. 0:09:48.200 --> 0:09:50.480 And I'm like, Auntie Betty, how I do She said, 0:09:50.920 --> 0:09:54.360 you was off, baby, you was real off. And I 0:09:54.400 --> 0:09:59.760 was like, okay, all right, well back to the drum board. 0:10:01.000 --> 0:10:07.679 And that made me go really study and lock in 0:10:07.840 --> 0:10:10.439 and so like you, I used to mimic everybody. You 0:10:10.480 --> 0:10:12.480 know what I'm saying. I wasn't totally allowed to listen 0:10:12.520 --> 0:10:15.080 to R and B music, but I would mimic Stevie, 0:10:15.600 --> 0:10:17.959 you know what I'm saying. But there was the Mississippi 0:10:18.000 --> 0:10:21.400 mass Quarter. It was Kimberly McFarland and that's the land. 0:10:21.520 --> 0:10:24.680 And then and then, and then came along my my 0:10:24.800 --> 0:10:28.760 studying of the Whinings, and then that made me say 0:10:29.080 --> 0:10:32.640 to a great singer, and it pushed me into the 0:10:32.679 --> 0:10:35.439 space to where I started learning from all of those people. 0:10:35.480 --> 0:10:37.520 And the fact that at that point I was trying 0:10:37.600 --> 0:10:41.360 to run. Running was everything to me. So I started 0:10:41.559 --> 0:10:46.920 digging in the archives of who was running. Sounds like 0:10:46.960 --> 0:10:49.560 by the time you debuted, you had it kind of 0:10:49.600 --> 0:10:54.000 figured out. I I listened for a long time before 0:10:54.040 --> 0:10:57.400 I tried to sing. I did, but also I was 0:10:57.480 --> 0:11:00.720 my parents played the singers that did runs, because running 0:11:00.760 --> 0:11:03.400 We're from similar generations. I was born in eighty one, 0:11:03.640 --> 0:11:07.120 I'm forty now. Running has become a popular thing in 0:11:07.120 --> 0:11:10.000 pop music, but back then you got just a few runs. 0:11:10.080 --> 0:11:12.080 Whitney was doing a little, Luther was doing a little, 0:11:12.920 --> 0:11:15.880 Anita straightforward. It was. I think you know when you 0:11:15.880 --> 0:11:17.959 talk about runs and like Sam Cook and people who 0:11:17.960 --> 0:11:23.000 brought runs into popular music, I mean you know, uh 0:11:25.480 --> 0:11:33.560 mother mother wream talk about James about to says cold 0:11:33.720 --> 0:11:37.439 gets overlooked because he was such an amazing dancer, the 0:11:37.520 --> 0:11:40.840 sacond way that Michael Jackson gets overlooked because singing gets 0:11:40.880 --> 0:11:44.120 overlooked because they were so powerful and they were so 0:11:44.280 --> 0:11:49.920 great at at being performers that their vocals are secondary 0:11:49.960 --> 0:11:55.439 for some odd reason. Rick James cold blooded, cold blooded, 0:11:55.960 --> 0:12:00.440 Prince powerhouse. Yes, yes, I don't think Prince gets overlook 0:12:00.520 --> 0:12:02.640 He does too, though not not as much as to me. 0:12:02.720 --> 0:12:06.679 James Brown is James Brown. James Brown's just people when 0:12:06.679 --> 0:12:13.360 they named amazing vocalist, He's never like it's like he's 0:12:13.400 --> 0:12:16.960 not there with Donnie Hathaway and Marvin Gaye. Wasn't because 0:12:16.960 --> 0:12:24.880 it wasn't smooth. It wasn't James Brown was a monster vocalist. Yeah, monster, 0:12:25.320 --> 0:12:28.959 I mean he was doing them high. Mariah Carey, Yeah, 0:12:29.000 --> 0:12:30.760 he was. He was like a preacher and a singer 0:12:30.880 --> 0:12:34.120 all in one because he was half talking. Because what notice, 0:12:34.800 --> 0:12:39.400 like you've noticed that's not get it changed. I still 0:12:39.440 --> 0:12:44.800 haven't heard anybody remake it's a man's world. Very tough, 0:12:45.400 --> 0:12:49.439 very tough, very tough record to re sing. They'll they'll 0:12:49.480 --> 0:12:54.719 try all the rest of you, but that you're right 0:12:55.280 --> 0:12:58.240 with that stuff all came from the church, and a 0:12:58.280 --> 0:13:00.120 lot of it came from Detroit. And you have a 0:13:00.120 --> 0:13:02.800 lot of groups out of Detroit that we're doing these runs. 0:13:03.280 --> 0:13:05.240 Like you said, the Whinings, when you got into the 0:13:05.240 --> 0:13:07.160 Whinings and Commission, you have to give. We have to 0:13:07.160 --> 0:13:11.040 give the Whinings and Commission a lot of points. Fred 0:13:11.080 --> 0:13:14.080 Hammon Stevie Wonder and Steven when of got you know 0:13:14.240 --> 0:13:17.600 a lot that Detroit sound is very important to what 0:13:17.640 --> 0:13:21.560 we do today in R and B. Yeah, Mitchell, Mitchell, uh, 0:13:21.600 --> 0:13:23.760 you know all Keith, all the guys up there, you know, 0:13:24.559 --> 0:13:28.520 um Keith stating who who who kind of invented the sound? Yes? 0:13:29.040 --> 0:13:39.360 He and mar like and then and then John p 0:13:39.559 --> 0:13:43.640 Key under around and turn and turned it into something 0:13:43.800 --> 0:13:49.360 else that was like it had electricity too. I know 0:13:49.480 --> 0:13:51.800 that that whole Detroit thing needs to be studied and 0:13:51.920 --> 0:13:54.480 taught and tried to. It needs to be analyzed. No 0:13:54.480 --> 0:13:56.800 one's paying attention that sound. I need a baker, you know, 0:13:56.880 --> 0:13:59.560 she has that too, that Detroit sound, the migration of 0:13:59.600 --> 0:14:02.400 blacks to the north and how the freedom they felt there, 0:14:02.440 --> 0:14:04.760 that it got away from the blues in the South 0:14:04.840 --> 0:14:09.920 but got more popular and and like gritty in the north, 0:14:10.280 --> 0:14:13.760 it has a whole different sound. So that sound transferred 0:14:13.840 --> 0:14:17.120 as people as blacks migrated west, you know, Oklahoma, Los Angeles, 0:14:17.200 --> 0:14:19.320 we got a lot of that out here from listening 0:14:19.360 --> 0:14:21.720 to that, so we got the California so which more 0:14:21.800 --> 0:14:24.840 Darryl Coley, the Hawkins and j Crouch, that kind of 0:14:24.880 --> 0:14:27.560 gospel and so those kind of runs. Growing up, I 0:14:27.560 --> 0:14:29.600 would listen to the cords and the runs and and 0:14:29.640 --> 0:14:32.040 try to mimic all of that. And it was it 0:14:32.080 --> 0:14:35.920 was coming into popular music in the eighties with you know, 0:14:36.040 --> 0:14:38.120 to bars and some of the R and B groups, 0:14:38.640 --> 0:14:40.920 and you'd hear it. You you'd hear more funds and 0:14:41.000 --> 0:14:43.120 runs got faster, and I was like, who's doing it? 0:14:43.120 --> 0:14:44.760 And then you know, I'd hear all kind of runs. 0:14:44.760 --> 0:14:48.480 I gotta copy this stuff. Karen Clark, Vanessa Bell, Armstrong 0:14:49.040 --> 0:14:51.960 doing stuff that. Vanessa Bell was one of the cleanest 0:14:52.000 --> 0:14:56.200 runners of the time. So this is outside of secular music. 0:14:56.240 --> 0:14:58.400 This is this was you know, this is these are singers. 0:14:58.400 --> 0:15:00.280 A lot of people don't know. Vanessa did the song 0:15:00.320 --> 0:15:03.800 to the Amen show and she was so she's still 0:15:03.920 --> 0:15:07.320 she's still amazing. But Darryl her, you know that kind 0:15:07.360 --> 0:15:09.600 of music, the people who could do it, we're doing it. 0:15:09.680 --> 0:15:11.320 And I was trying to do that because it was 0:15:11.360 --> 0:15:15.480 tricky and fun. And your discovery is around twelve thirteen 0:15:16.080 --> 0:15:19.240 point for that. Yeah, I was. I was carried away 0:15:19.240 --> 0:15:22.440 by I was scared to play. I didn't start playing 0:15:22.480 --> 0:15:25.320 until later, like sixteen seventeen. No, I played out of 0:15:25.320 --> 0:15:28.200 just necessity. I just wanted to play for myself. But no, 0:15:28.680 --> 0:15:30.920 we had pianos in my home, but I didn't take 0:15:30.920 --> 0:15:33.240 playing seriously play. I would have thought you started playing 0:15:33.240 --> 0:15:36.160 at five. Oh man, I wish, I wish i'd be allowed. 0:15:36.280 --> 0:15:40.240 You can play anything. I can hear anything, but you know, 0:15:40.360 --> 0:15:43.440 you literally like you're like a jukebox. Like if we're 0:15:43.480 --> 0:15:46.560 all sitting around a piano, you can dial up. Yeah, 0:15:46.920 --> 0:15:50.520 I'd become that. Yeah. I made myself when I coach, 0:15:50.600 --> 0:15:52.680 I made myself play for everybody I work with, so 0:15:52.800 --> 0:15:56.080 that it gives me a lesson while I'm teaching a lesson. Still, coach, 0:15:56.080 --> 0:16:00.520 we're gonna get to that it's really I've posting myself 0:16:00.560 --> 0:16:03.360 on the piano over here during these teenage years for you. 0:16:03.600 --> 0:16:06.480 Are you thinking in your mind I want to become 0:16:06.520 --> 0:16:08.440 an artist or I just want to sing in the 0:16:08.560 --> 0:16:12.040 church and just play in church. My biggest dream was 0:16:12.120 --> 0:16:15.560 to be a background singer. Your dream? Biggest dream? I 0:16:15.560 --> 0:16:21.480 could possibly either be Mickey Mouse in Disneyland in the costumes. Okay, 0:16:21.600 --> 0:16:32.480 let's go, or all disney Land. Here we go. Take 0:16:37.200 --> 0:16:40.240 So are you kidding me? So? You would? You would? 0:16:41.640 --> 0:16:43.920 You would study Mickey Mouse. I love Mickey I wanted 0:16:43.960 --> 0:16:45.640 to be Mickey Mouse. I thought that was one of 0:16:45.680 --> 0:16:47.440 the highest jobs in the world, being Mickey Mouse in 0:16:47.480 --> 0:16:51.680 the costume walking around you know. So I love that, 0:16:51.720 --> 0:16:54.200 But the second best would be being a background singer. 0:16:54.200 --> 0:16:57.560 I still want to skip over that. That was a 0:16:57.600 --> 0:17:02.120 great Yeah, that was great. I think he could still 0:17:02.120 --> 0:17:08.160 be making if you want to. I would stop everything today. 0:17:08.200 --> 0:17:10.440 I wouldn't stop everything. I wouldn't see nobody. I would 0:17:10.520 --> 0:17:12.280 go be Mickey Mouse and YA wouldn't see me again. 0:17:12.720 --> 0:17:14.600 I'd got be Mickey Mouse somewhere and sit him home 0:17:14.640 --> 0:17:16.600 and record Mickey Mouse all day. Have you have you 0:17:16.640 --> 0:17:18.880 thought about I just just just sidebar. Have you thought 0:17:18.880 --> 0:17:24.040 about auditioning for Mickey Mouse? Yeah? And what have you done? 0:17:24.080 --> 0:17:27.240 I they auditioned a new Mickey around the same time 0:17:27.280 --> 0:17:30.560 I was graduating high school and this guy I coveted 0:17:30.560 --> 0:17:32.480 in and I was like, who got his voice? And 0:17:32.760 --> 0:17:35.760 I should have auditioned back then whenever, twenty years ago, 0:17:36.560 --> 0:17:39.760 but I didn't. So I want to do it. So 0:17:39.800 --> 0:17:41.800 if if anybody's listening out there, I would love to 0:17:41.840 --> 0:17:44.240 be Mickey Mouse. I'd be the first Mickey with Saul 0:17:44.280 --> 0:17:48.199 who can sing, and I will be Mickey. I would happily. 0:17:50.560 --> 0:17:52.520 I'd be Mickey so and he would have a tan, 0:17:52.920 --> 0:17:55.480 and he'd be he have a little little good hair, 0:17:55.600 --> 0:17:59.480 like it'd be a whole thing like Mickey. I'm rolling 0:17:59.520 --> 0:18:05.280 with all right, okay, where okay? But in my life 0:18:06.560 --> 0:18:09.480 they're not making I love background singers because they got 0:18:09.480 --> 0:18:12.120 to travel the world without the stress of you gotta 0:18:12.160 --> 0:18:14.639 sing this or that. I didn't feel comfortable singing a 0:18:14.640 --> 0:18:16.680 lot of secular music because I wasn't raised on it. 0:18:17.320 --> 0:18:21.399 I didn't I didn't see myself out there doing this 0:18:21.480 --> 0:18:24.199 thing alone. I like to sing with people, so I 0:18:24.280 --> 0:18:26.240 like background singing. You get to travel the world, see 0:18:26.240 --> 0:18:28.680 the best places, get treated well without the pressure of 0:18:28.720 --> 0:18:31.800 being number one, and you get to sing with your friends. 0:18:32.000 --> 0:18:33.840 That's what I really really like. If it was my 0:18:33.920 --> 0:18:35.639 last ding on Earth, I'd like to be singing with 0:18:35.680 --> 0:18:38.040 my friends. That's what I love the most. So that 0:18:38.160 --> 0:18:41.520 was the highest calling as a teenager, become a background singer. 0:18:41.520 --> 0:18:44.160 And I have a uh, you know, my mom's good 0:18:44.200 --> 0:18:46.640 friend who who's a family friend of ours, Lisa, who's 0:18:46.640 --> 0:18:49.560 a background singer. She's sang for Shaka for for twenty years. 0:18:49.600 --> 0:18:52.880 She's she brought me to rehearsals when I was a teenager. 0:18:52.920 --> 0:18:54.879 She would bring me to Earth when and fire Ska 0:18:54.920 --> 0:18:58.080 Khan and see different rehearsals and say to just sit 0:18:58.119 --> 0:19:00.160 there and be quiet. She said, bring me this inter 0:19:00.240 --> 0:19:01.520 stage and she would just say just sit there and 0:19:01.520 --> 0:19:04.320 be quiet and just watch. So that was eye opening 0:19:04.320 --> 0:19:06.879 for me that people got paid to sing rather than 0:19:06.920 --> 0:19:09.119 singing for free in church like I was doing. But 0:19:09.200 --> 0:19:10.800 I didn't know people got paid to sing and have 0:19:10.880 --> 0:19:13.919 fun like that and harmonized. So that was the highest 0:19:13.920 --> 0:19:16.600 thing I've ever seen. I was there was everything and 0:19:16.760 --> 0:19:19.639 was that was that like an intro to you getting 0:19:19.760 --> 0:19:23.480 an opportunity to do that as you what when? What 0:19:23.520 --> 0:19:26.359 was that first like, what was your intro into into 0:19:26.400 --> 0:19:30.760 that dream? I mean I I would follow the music. 0:19:30.840 --> 0:19:33.720 I follow singers around, and I'd show up at places 0:19:33.840 --> 0:19:36.840 where the singers would go. I'd show up at shows, 0:19:36.920 --> 0:19:38.800 and I remember showing up at shows with no ticket 0:19:38.920 --> 0:19:41.879 and no money, just showing up, sitting in my car 0:19:42.560 --> 0:19:45.680 and just sitting the parking lot. Um. I remember doing 0:19:45.680 --> 0:19:48.359 this at Leyla Hathaway show and Layla. Leyla gave me 0:19:48.400 --> 0:19:51.720 a chance earlier sang background for her early on when 0:19:51.720 --> 0:19:54.240 I first got out out of college and I was 0:19:54.280 --> 0:19:57.040 sitting in the back of Yohi's in I think Oakland. 0:19:57.080 --> 0:19:58.280 I was living with my parents. I was not in 0:19:58.280 --> 0:20:00.600 a good time. I've been probably fire from my job 0:20:00.720 --> 0:20:02.959 or something. I was just you know, trying to make it. 0:20:04.600 --> 0:20:05.840 So I was like sitting in the back of this 0:20:05.880 --> 0:20:08.520 part no ticket, and I knew somebody in the band 0:20:08.600 --> 0:20:09.639 or something. I would just sit there and wait for 0:20:09.680 --> 0:20:11.680 them to come out halftime in the show and then 0:20:11.760 --> 0:20:14.040 talk to him. I said, Stevie, I'm a singer. I'm 0:20:14.080 --> 0:20:15.800 I'm a little Stevie. I could sing. I could sing 0:20:15.840 --> 0:20:17.600 whatever you want. I see all the parts, and I 0:20:17.640 --> 0:20:24.160 would and I called myself, yeah, I'll sing it all. 0:20:24.320 --> 0:20:26.880 So I was like whatever I was singing. And then seriously, 0:20:27.080 --> 0:20:28.760 Layla was like coming here, coming to my hotel. And 0:20:28.800 --> 0:20:30.480 then her friends were like, she was like to sing something, 0:20:30.920 --> 0:20:32.639 and I was so ready. I think, I say, you know, hey, 0:20:32.720 --> 0:20:35.760 pretty baby with the high hills. Huh. I sang some 0:20:35.840 --> 0:20:37.480 Michael or something. She said, do you want to work? 0:20:38.000 --> 0:20:39.879 I said, yeah, I want to work. I thought it 0:20:39.960 --> 0:20:41.600 was gonna be just carrying a bag or something. She said, 0:20:41.600 --> 0:20:43.080 you want to sing. I have a show coming up 0:20:43.640 --> 0:20:48.600 and you could be my singer. And I was so 0:20:48.800 --> 0:20:53.840 excited that Layla was one of the best singers. This 0:20:54.040 --> 0:20:57.119 is like my first gig. And I was sucking with 0:20:57.200 --> 0:20:58.880 my parents who had moved San Jose and I didn't 0:20:58.880 --> 0:21:00.600 want to live with them. Of them, but I didn't 0:21:00.600 --> 0:21:01.760 want to live with him. So I'm trying to get 0:21:01.760 --> 0:21:03.960 back to l A, where I grew up and where 0:21:03.960 --> 0:21:06.240 I had gone to college, and I was in Alabama 0:21:06.240 --> 0:21:07.840 and I was like, Okay, let me get back around 0:21:07.880 --> 0:21:10.840 to l A where the singers are. So I get 0:21:10.880 --> 0:21:13.560 a shot to sing background here with her. Then I 0:21:13.640 --> 0:21:16.640 get another call to sing background for for Whitney Houston 0:21:16.800 --> 0:21:19.600 for her Christmas album. Mervin Warren had called me to 0:21:19.680 --> 0:21:22.240 sing background on that and I could sit read you 0:21:22.359 --> 0:21:25.560 go from Layla half the way to Whitney, Houston. These 0:21:25.600 --> 0:21:28.840 are your first first another session with Kanye West, singing 0:21:28.880 --> 0:21:31.640 with Kanye and dilated people's I can't Live my life 0:21:31.720 --> 0:21:34.359 this way, so certain calls. I remember they were my first, 0:21:34.960 --> 0:21:36.600 and I moved back to l singing on the choir 0:21:36.720 --> 0:21:38.520 on the I Can't Love this work. Yeah, I helped 0:21:38.600 --> 0:21:40.560 arrange some of that. Yeah, I was doing a choir. 0:21:40.720 --> 0:21:44.320 We were this way, this way, this were Google and 0:21:44.400 --> 0:21:46.480 some others were on that. But that kind of stuff 0:21:46.520 --> 0:21:49.560 like back then was huge because I got paid. I 0:21:49.640 --> 0:21:52.600 got two hundred dollars for doing this stuff, like I'd 0:21:52.680 --> 0:21:54.440 never been paid to sing, and I was living free 0:21:54.480 --> 0:21:56.000 here in l A with my grandparents. At that time, 0:21:56.000 --> 0:21:57.400 I was I'm moved to l am and be a singer, 0:21:57.480 --> 0:22:00.399 backup singer. I was so excited, man, and so that 0:22:00.520 --> 0:22:05.000 was what I wanted to do. And then eventually, you know, 0:22:05.359 --> 0:22:11.879 they kept evolving, but touring, so you were doing more 0:22:11.920 --> 0:22:14.320 session work. Yes, I stayed here and did session work. 0:22:14.320 --> 0:22:15.960 A lot of my friends would go and tour, but 0:22:16.080 --> 0:22:18.000 I would stay here. I would go to this spot 0:22:18.080 --> 0:22:20.680 called Cozys that would do open mic stuff and you 0:22:20.720 --> 0:22:22.119 know out here in the valley, not far from here, 0:22:22.160 --> 0:22:24.400 and I would go to different spots that help open 0:22:24.520 --> 0:22:27.800 mics and I would sing. I sing Maxwell seeing you know, 0:22:27.840 --> 0:22:29.960 everybing A, all my favorite singers, and you know, I'd 0:22:29.960 --> 0:22:32.120 see all these guys that I would I could sing high, 0:22:32.200 --> 0:22:33.880 and I could, I would, I would learn. I would 0:22:33.880 --> 0:22:36.119