Speaker 1: We are back with part two of our conversation with
Speaker 1: Funky George Brown of Cool in the Gang. I love
Speaker 1: this conversation for several reasons. Get down on It is
Speaker 1: my absolute favorite song of all time and Celebration was
Speaker 1: played by a bar Metz Focus. If you haven't yet,
Speaker 1: please listen to part one with George, where he speaks
Speaker 1: about growing up in Jersey City and how that toughened him,
Speaker 1: the band's early success, and his skills as a drummer.
Speaker 1: George just penned a memoir, Cool and the Gang and Me,
Speaker 1: which is available right now. George Cool and the rest
Speaker 1: of the band also just released a new album, People
Speaker 1: Just Want to Have Fun.
Speaker 2: Make sure you check that out.
Speaker 1: But first Part two of QLs with Funky George Brown.
Speaker 2: I'm assuming during this period that you guys don't have
Speaker 2: day jobs as well, Like we did an episode with
Speaker 2: Milly Jackson only to find out as he was basically
Speaker 2: Millie Jackson on the weekends and then Monday she go
Speaker 2: back to her day job where she was working in Manhattan. Well, yeah,
Speaker 2: she was working in the garment district of Manhattan while
Speaker 2: she was you know, doing live and bitching, like at
Speaker 2: the peak of it is one able to make a
Speaker 2: comfortable living, especially in an eight man group, which I
Speaker 2: assume is different than the setup with Earth Wind and
Speaker 2: Fire and which you know, which is basically the Marie
Speaker 2: White group. And he's paying them as yeah, you know,
Speaker 2: work for hire, you know, our contracted work for higher
Speaker 2: but like in okay, so say it's seventy six, like
Speaker 2: right before you guys do after Jungle Boogem, right before
Speaker 2: open Sesame comes into play.
Speaker 3: We were very lucky there were no Jay jobs in
Speaker 3: the initial period. You say nineteen sixty nine, then I
Speaker 3: think at that point Kladas Smith had a job delivering.
Speaker 3: But after we signed a contract with Delight, we worked.
Speaker 3: We've always worked. We've always had a gig.
Speaker 4: You never had a regular job on George the regular.
Speaker 3: Jobs or when we were doing and still doing the nightclubs.
Speaker 3: But still no one was hitting the punching the time
Speaker 3: clock like that. It wasn't like that. It just changed
Speaker 3: because the first record cooling the game by cooling the Gang,
Speaker 3: number thirty eight with a bullet on top one hundred,
Speaker 3: that's the record changed the whole atmosphere. Most black artists
Speaker 3: got to go over the black charts or this chart,
Speaker 3: that record went pop with a bullet.
Speaker 4: So you guys had a fair deal.
Speaker 3: Then, yeah, got a fair deal. Then h and we
Speaker 3: got a blessing because not many black acts just popped
Speaker 3: up number thirty with a bullet or the top of hundred.
Speaker 3: So we were working. So there was work. It might
Speaker 3: have been slow here and there, but we we did work.
Speaker 5: So if I want to ask you about publishing, because
Speaker 5: I'm curious where you got your publishing education, because we
Speaker 5: talk about hip hop. But if your publishing wasn't right
Speaker 5: from the start, it wouldn't even matter because you wouldn't
Speaker 5: have been receiving, you know, the propers of it.
Speaker 3: The b A Maas s Gaps, she said, and all
Speaker 3: of us from Warner Chapel and Bmgene or that well
Speaker 3: early on, like with Jean Read again, this guy he
Speaker 3: told us all about that, you know, and so therefore
Speaker 3: we were receiving. I mean I signed with being Mine
Speaker 3: when I was nineteen, right, and that's because of Gene Read.
Speaker 3: All of all of us had, you know, and earning
Speaker 3: from first delight. But then when PolyGram brought the light,
Speaker 3: then the royalties for writing and publishing came from PolyGram
Speaker 3: and won a chapel and BMI sorry, and the artist
Speaker 3: royalties also came out of PolyGram.
Speaker 2: So we knew one of the most pivotal crucial moves
Speaker 2: that you guys did was adding JT.
Speaker 6: Taylor.
Speaker 2: But there's actually a second factor that not many people
Speaker 2: talk about. You guys went with a very unorthodox direction
Speaker 2: associating with the legendary Brazilian producer Emir Diadata.
Speaker 3: Right before we started. He called me twice right before
Speaker 3: we started. It really, look, it's a deal, because you
Speaker 3: know when you talk to do you we got to
Speaker 3: bring a lunch?
Speaker 2: Okay, yeah, I want to know what was the meeting
Speaker 2: or the decision process. One to bring in a lead singer,
Speaker 2: and two to work with not only an outside producer,
Speaker 2: but a Brazilian producer, which I mean I would imagine
Speaker 2: in nineteen seventy nine, one would figure that, you know,
Speaker 2: I got to go to the top of the pile,
Speaker 2: like either get with Gamble and Huff or you know
Speaker 2: Norman of Noran Harris.
Speaker 6: I knew he was a normal Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So what made you guys go with a mere
Speaker 2: Dia Dado of all things, not really known for a
Speaker 2: pop sence or I mean, you know, he dabbled in disco,
Speaker 2: but not enough for me to be like, Okay, this
Speaker 2: is our do or die moment.
Speaker 6: Let's get with him.
Speaker 3: Well, the deal at seventeen years old is like the
Speaker 3: number one on arranger and producer in all of Brazil. Uh.
Speaker 3: And he had written strings for Collins Joe Bean. You
Speaker 3: know most of our heads were in that. You know
Speaker 3: that thing he wrote for Colin Joe Bean. Wooh, so
Speaker 3: our heads were still in that. Jazz Irene Conrad over
Speaker 3: the House of Music. She introduced, I think I got
Speaker 3: this story right. There might be some loose ends, Calice
Speaker 3: to James J. T. Taylor. I think Ron Sweeney had
Speaker 3: said it it's time to bring in a lead singer.
Speaker 3: You guys can do it. We looked at Stevie because
Speaker 3: we did a lot of work with Steven Well. Stevie
Speaker 3: helped us out so many times when the bus would
Speaker 3: break down, really called Stevie and he'd help us. Really. Yeah.
Speaker 3: So Steve would help us out numerous times, and we
Speaker 3: wanted him to come in and produce. He said, sorry
Speaker 3: for I got to get my own album happening at
Speaker 3: that time. So we had a manager, oft Val Hackett.
Speaker 3: Val shopped and I called it shopping. But he got
Speaker 3: your mere Diadelo, which was a great blessing. It missed
Speaker 3: just like dovetail, like man, the beauty is just connected.
Speaker 3: He was the right guy for cooling the gang because
Speaker 3: all the music the guys knew, you know, you know,
Speaker 3: we were all musician musicians, guys who knew all the
Speaker 3: chord changes and you know what, have you all all
Speaker 3: the scales and sit down and actually write it out
Speaker 3: with him. It was easy if we if we must up,
Speaker 3: he would write that down. And weeks later when the
Speaker 3: horns would come in, he said, but which a simple.
Speaker 6: Lot, right?
Speaker 3: And uh, but guys would write those parts down as well.
Speaker 3: You know, e Clifford Adams, who played trombone with a
Speaker 3: trump moont case full of music. Deal was the right choice. Uh,
Speaker 3: and not only the right choice for the music, but
Speaker 3: the right choice and really organizing the band and how
Speaker 3: we did things. He brought it to a whole other level,
Speaker 3: making sure that everything was notated, everything was written down.
Speaker 2: As a drummer, I always wanted to know how hard
Speaker 2: was it to sort of adjust your sound for the times,
Speaker 2: because even I noticed me as a drummer, I've pretty
Speaker 2: much stayed kind of consistent for my thirty years of
Speaker 2: drumming in the roots and on record, like I'm not
Speaker 2: I mean, I if I change my sounds for experimental purposes,
Speaker 2: but not like, hey, let me, let me adjust to
Speaker 2: the sound and the climate of where it is today.
Speaker 2: But like the groove that you're planning on, let the
Speaker 2: music take your mind, is not the same tone or
Speaker 2: the same sound as Jones versus Jones or a celebration
Speaker 2: or whatnot. So at the time, how aware you as
Speaker 2: the heartbeat of the band that like the most radical
Speaker 2: sound change of the band has to be with the drums.
Speaker 3: It might sound stories because you hear all this. For me,
Speaker 3: it didn't bother me. It was like, let's go with
Speaker 3: the flow. This is what it is. This is going
Speaker 3: to help us move forward. Oh, this is what's going
Speaker 3: to bring a wide, wide range of audience. So I
Speaker 3: was totally totally amenable to it and and actually didn't
Speaker 3: think about it too much. But quest you're right because
Speaker 3: later on, because I played piano as well, and I
Speaker 3: got to a point where okay, enough of this and
Speaker 3: I just switched over the keyboards.
Speaker 5: Yeah, that's what I was going to ask you about too.
Speaker 5: That's like a major move that I don't hear.
Speaker 3: From drumps to keyboards. Yes, oh well I always played piano. Okay, okay, yeah,
Speaker 3: it goes back to we talk about church. It goes back.
Speaker 5: I've always played, but in your group you always played
Speaker 5: drums until you decide I'm going.
Speaker 3: And in writing, we had our writing session.
Speaker 2: I you know, how does the songwriting process start? Do
Speaker 2: you guys just say, hey, you got the idea? Guys,
Speaker 2: what do y'all think about this? Or do you bring it?
Speaker 3: Like?
Speaker 2: Do you bring it to DT? Do you bring it
Speaker 2: to Ronald first?
Speaker 3: Like?
Speaker 2: How does the songwriting process start?
Speaker 3: It was us. We just bring it to us, you know,
Speaker 3: guys say whether they like it or not, and if
Speaker 3: they like it, then we got down on it. That's
Speaker 3: the truth. You know. With Theodado a little more different
Speaker 3: because every morning he would pick me up. I lived
Speaker 3: in Manhattan than in Gramercy Park, and he said, oh,
Speaker 3: senor let me see your homework. So you popping the cassette,
Speaker 3: you get your illegal pad, you start singing, and he'll
Speaker 3: he'll either bust your ego then by saying that's not
Speaker 3: happening and or it actually if he feels like he said,
Speaker 3: that's very cute, but it's not written. Oh he'll say,
Speaker 3: signor you've done it again. Love the lines, and so
Speaker 3: we would apply, you know, people have different lines to
Speaker 3: put it in the song and they would work you perfectly,
Speaker 3: you know.
Speaker 2: So we we shared the story of how Celebration got written,
Speaker 2: at least Ronald's version of how Celebration got written? But
Speaker 2: are there any other universe like unusual stories of that?
Speaker 2: For listeners who didn't hear that particular episode, Ronald Bell
Speaker 2: said that he was backstage at a Rick James and
Speaker 2: Prince show and Prince had just did I Want to
Speaker 2: Be Your Lover? And in between the set changeover for
Speaker 2: Prince to Rick James, Ronald runs backstage and finds a
Speaker 2: piano and figures out the courts that I want to
Speaker 2: be a lover, and he writes it and notates it
Speaker 2: down and then he plays it backwards, and that rhythm
Speaker 2: of winds up being da da And But I mean,
Speaker 2: for the songwriting process, especially in the period in which
Speaker 2: you guys are having unstoppable you know, pop classics one
Speaker 2: after the other, are there any other unusual stories of
Speaker 2: how songs got written?
Speaker 3: No? Not really you know, sometimes guys would pass on
Speaker 3: a song. I would take it and write a first
Speaker 3: verse of lyric and give it the JT. He said,
Speaker 3: this is happening. And the next thing, you know, we
Speaker 3: have a complete song because you got two members working
Speaker 3: on it. We've got the chord structure figured out and
Speaker 3: writing the melody and lyric and bingo say you got something.
Speaker 3: And it's the funny thing about it. They weren't the
Speaker 3: number five pop, you know, but the band itself didn't
Speaker 3: like it. That was take my Heart. You know, it's
Speaker 3: very very poppy all that.
Speaker 6: But you didn't like that song.
Speaker 3: I helped write it.
Speaker 2: I said, that was my aunt's song.
Speaker 6: Man, that was the one I took.
Speaker 3: I took it because the band didn't like it. Clayton
Speaker 3: Smith wrote it the guitar player right, But the band
Speaker 3: didn't like that twelve eight. So I said, no, give
Speaker 3: it to me. Took it home. Write no time for wishing, baby.
Speaker 3: We've gone all through those moves. I'm all and satisfied.
Speaker 3: So the next day, of course, get to the studio. Jay,
Speaker 3: were you like j T? What do you think? He said, Man,
Speaker 3: I like this.
Speaker 2: I've been going through a Luther phase in the last
Speaker 2: month and a half reading his book and listening to
Speaker 2: his music, and I realized that the world is going
Speaker 2: through a drought of a good shuffle song. Oh my God,
Speaker 2: like and Take My Heart is like kind of I
Speaker 2: remember shuffle, Yeah exactly. Do you talk about the phenomenon
Speaker 2: that is celebration, Like, what were the band's general reaction to,
Speaker 2: Like celebration winds up being way past an anthem, it's
Speaker 2: it's it's pretty much music DNA like, it's it's with celebration.
Speaker 3: We're on the two of us and leaving l A.
Speaker 3: The night before we won two American Music Awards, so
Speaker 3: the song was germanying then, but that's what you got
Speaker 3: from Earl Smith, you know. So so let's let's put
Speaker 3: that in there because that's very celebrated, celebratory, you know,
Speaker 3: So just just to put that in the soul and
Speaker 3: gives it that boost, you know. But in regards to
Speaker 3: it becoming.
Speaker 2: Only to the point where it's like stadiums and weddings and.
Speaker 3: Anderson miss miss back Ship, backyard, Bobby Cue, it's it's
Speaker 3: it's an amazing, it's a blessing and it is, uh
Speaker 3: one of those songs that I'm gonna say you can't
Speaker 3: deny and you must play it every evening.
Speaker 2: Did it ever become burdensome? Because I know a lot
Speaker 2: of acts when they get a mammoth hit of that caliber,
Speaker 2: then it's like selling becomes a it becomes a burden.
Speaker 3: No, you know what happens. And you know when you're
Speaker 3: playing sometimes you're playing the piece and you played it
Speaker 3: a thousand times, but it becomes organic, like and guys
Speaker 3: are playing the right chords. But it just got this
Speaker 3: just tonight. I mean, well, you're playing quest or the
Speaker 3: piano he's playing it has another little liltal, another little
Speaker 3: thing to it. You're playing it, but it has another
Speaker 3: feel that night, not you know, it's not the record feel.
Speaker 3: The people feel it. So that's what happens. It turns
Speaker 3: into this piece of music that each that you play it,
Speaker 3: it has a different feeling. And when you're singing it
Speaker 3: as well, it's coming out different. But it's to say
Speaker 3: that there's a party going on right here, but it's
Speaker 3: coming out different for some reason, and you feel different
Speaker 3: about it. And when you get off, everybody great nice
Speaker 3: show man, great show. Nobody feels that man is burning
Speaker 3: a hole in all shoes.
Speaker 2: Right, Well, no one's complaining.
Speaker 4: Can I ask about another anthem? Real quick?
Speaker 5: I just I'm curious to how so many fellas come
Speaker 5: up with another anthem, but this one about the ladies.
Speaker 4: I although we asked around that question.
Speaker 5: But I was like, how did you know to embody
Speaker 5: what a lady's night was?
Speaker 3: How does Well, I'll tell you. I get to who
Speaker 3: likes to go out and have fun? Okay, so he said,
Speaker 3: you know the new thing in clubs now on a Friday,
Speaker 3: Saturday whatever, it's the lady's night, you know. And me
Speaker 3: walking from fifty seventh Street back down to Gramarcy, I'm
Speaker 3: watching how people the gape of people's walk, just how
Speaker 3: people walk. And I said, yeah, I said, man, people
Speaker 3: are walking like a jazz working Baseline had that game.
Speaker 3: So I went home side at the piano and started
Speaker 3: harmonizing it and the different key changes as you know,
Speaker 3: showed it the diadalo. Hey, this is what we need.
Speaker 3: So we got together the right road on it. We
Speaker 3: had we had the track already, you know, you know,
Speaker 3: the horns are we're playing with the girls were singing,
Speaker 3: and JT and myself and Calice got on the lyrics
Speaker 3: and done done?
Speaker 2: What was it about JT that appealed to the band
Speaker 2: as far as his voice. I once heard somebody describe
Speaker 2: that if Nat king Cole had them born thirty years later,
Speaker 2: like basically would have been the voice of JT.
Speaker 6: Taylor.
Speaker 2: Like that's how smooth JT's voice was. Basically he was
Speaker 2: like nacking cold like But for you, like, what was
Speaker 2: the appeal to that sort of voice? And were there
Speaker 2: other acts that or other singers that you guys auditioned
Speaker 2: before you decided on James j T.
Speaker 6: Taylor.
Speaker 3: I don't want to mention people's names like that, but
Speaker 3: there was a cut that are well known, but JT
Speaker 3: did have it still does that golden tone in his
Speaker 3: voice great lyricists, by the way too. And what we
Speaker 3: did in the studio is go in and roll a
Speaker 3: little bit of that on to his voice. Who enhanced
Speaker 3: his voice even Also, you know in your studio say
Speaker 3: what sounds a little weak? They're all little mid rangey,
Speaker 3: let's work on that. So we did some work on
Speaker 3: his voice as well, you know, like everybody does. But
Speaker 3: he started off with it. You had it, okay. We
Speaker 3: felt that his voice was pop, pure pop, and it
Speaker 3: worked at that time. You know, I had a certain
Speaker 3: innocence in it, non intimidating, all of that, and uh,
Speaker 3: just just a pop artist. I mean, you know, we
Speaker 3: could have went for the Teddy Pendergrad, the Luther and Andros.
Speaker 3: We could have went for it to be part of it,
Speaker 3: but we felt that it wouldn't it wouldn't work.
Speaker 2: And the other singers that you were considering for that
Speaker 2: spot was it? Was there anyone notable that we would
Speaker 2: have known that almost had a chance to be in
Speaker 2: the group.
Speaker 6: Yeah, and you can't name who they are?
Speaker 3: No, No, I don't want any letters coming to my mailbox.
Speaker 4: I mean we can pontificate, though.
Speaker 5: If we pontificate, can you just not like, you know,
Speaker 5: how are you not just joking the one out?
Speaker 3: Damn, just like when you mentioned the big Garritos and
Speaker 3: you know you leave that alone.
Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, I got you. How easy was it for
Speaker 2: him to adjust to being in the group. It was
Speaker 2: the same age as you guys.
Speaker 6: Was he younger a few years younger?
Speaker 3: Just a few So we're all in the same genre
Speaker 3: basically age wise? Uh, not too far. I think he
Speaker 3: I think I'm four years older than James. Okay, you know,
Speaker 3: but no, We were the guys who would go to
Speaker 3: respeech in Brooklyn and throw the frisbee around, have the
Speaker 3: girlfriends that that type of stuff. We were the guy
Speaker 3: we hang out, you know, like where the song comes
Speaker 3: from that. Uh So we were always together in some capacity,
Speaker 3: even going to the movies.
Speaker 2: How are you guys able to maintain any level of
Speaker 2: not like a domestic lifestyle, but like how are you
Speaker 2: able to balance that, especially like during that time period
Speaker 2: and which you guys are working class musicians.
Speaker 3: That was very hard during that time period because when
Speaker 3: we go out, we go out for two months at
Speaker 3: a time. You know, we were out with Van Hale
Speaker 3: in US four months. But the thing is that there's
Speaker 3: a big tour break. You know, same thing with kids,
Speaker 3: all you have a tour break. But with us, we
Speaker 3: go out for two months and you're out there. You're
Speaker 3: not coming back.
Speaker 2: Wow, Okay, Especially in the first half of the eighties
Speaker 2: and which you know those unstoppable hits are coming in.
Speaker 2: How are you balancing out the shows in terms of
Speaker 2: which audience to please? Like in your eighties show does
Speaker 2: does open Sesame? Still have a Home? Is Jungle boogieing
Speaker 2: and funky stuff? Still getting the same response is JT
Speaker 2: singing funky stuff and that in jungle boogie. Also like
Speaker 2: with the band, like.
Speaker 3: With jungle boogie. Uh, it was almost like we would
Speaker 3: all take a spot going, oh okay, alls, we kept
Speaker 3: that going. You know, somebody you know, get down with
Speaker 3: the boogie, that type of stuff. The same thing with
Speaker 3: funky stuff, you know. So that was singalong so the
Speaker 3: whole band. So everybody saying, you know, with funky stuff
Speaker 3: jungle boogie, just just drop in. You know, it's very
Speaker 3: easy that way as well. You know, it didn't make
Speaker 3: it like hard for anyone, you know, you just sang it.
Speaker 2: I know that there was a JT's exit in eighty eight.
Speaker 2: He was just going without really like without any warning whatsoever.
Speaker 3: I still don't understand that all these years.
Speaker 2: So what happened in nineteen eighty eight, because you guys
Speaker 2: had this unbelievable streak and then that's it. So what
Speaker 2: was the story of his exit?
Speaker 3: And how I believe me quest I was speaking about
Speaker 3: that last week, okay with I think it was my
Speaker 3: engineer Wolfgang, no rhyme, no reason. It was just that
Speaker 3: he got a bunch of money from I think it
Speaker 3: was a and M. Or MCA, and he went on
Speaker 3: to do his went on to do his thing. And
Speaker 3: because when he first came out, I mean he and
Speaker 3: I we were roommates, you know those hotels at the beginning,
Speaker 3: and not only roommates. We'd go out and hang out
Speaker 3: in the clubs together, come back and all the good stuff.
Speaker 3: So to this very day, I don't know. I really
Speaker 3: really don't know that was searched. There was a I'm
Speaker 3: where I was saying, Uh so let's call Ron Sweeney. Ron,
Speaker 3: we'll call JT's manager and talk over things, and let's
Speaker 3: let's get JT back out on the road.
Speaker 5: You know.
Speaker 3: Uh, it would never move forward for some odd reason.
Speaker 4: When do you remember the last time you had the conversation.
Speaker 3: Or the last time we worked at jay?
Speaker 2: Well, he came back in the mid nineties.
Speaker 3: I believe I came back in the mid nineties, and
Speaker 3: then he left again.
Speaker 6: Okay, whatever that was about.
Speaker 3: But when we got the Songwriters Hall of Fame, he
Speaker 3: came out. We straightened out the course as the band
Speaker 3: had the rown changes. Uh right, what he did he
Speaker 3: said it was this and uh but he came out
Speaker 3: and sang and it sounded like we never separated.
Speaker 2: How did you guys come across or how did you
Speaker 2: guys wind up enlisting the services of Skip Martin of
Speaker 2: the Dazz Band. Yeah, the Dass Band to be JT's
Speaker 2: replacement in eighty eight.
Speaker 3: Well a del band, piece of busses be upon him.
Speaker 3: Yeah he passed away. Uh hm, Well, Adele, our manager,
Speaker 3: was in a tragic car accident. But he brings Skip
Speaker 3: over to my home. You know. Uh, Skip is a
Speaker 3: good singer. Uh, so it worked. What also worked was
Speaker 3: that he's a monsters trumpet player.
Speaker 2: You know, yeah he is well Skip, Yeah, I didn't know.
Speaker 3: Skip is a monster. Okay, you can put up with
Speaker 3: Terrence Blanchard and you know he's he's that guy uh mouths,
Speaker 3: you know, And we pushed that mute on his great shoe.
Speaker 3: He added greatly to the horn front vocally. I know
Speaker 3: that different members of the band, Uh didn't. I know
Speaker 3: Clee didn't like his vocals, that's for sure. Uh And yeah,
Speaker 3: you know, because it's too vagacy, right right, But we
Speaker 3: made it work. By the time we got Sean, who
Speaker 3: was close to JT vocally, Skip was just singing background
Speaker 3: and playing trumpet. But the horn section was extremely tight,
Speaker 3: you know, when Clice come up. Police loves Skips on
Speaker 3: his Tumper plan as well. Loved it and I do
Speaker 3: as well. You know, every time we have a session,
Speaker 3: even alf I work for something we call Skip, you know,
Speaker 3: Robbie Beth Skip those guys. So Skip's tenure was rather
Speaker 3: rather short. Then we brought an Odean Mays, oh, who
Speaker 3: is a bass baritone, great pianist. Uh, so we had
Speaker 3: both skipping uh, Odean Mays doing the leads. The audiences
Speaker 3: loved it because she had the guy with that like
Speaker 3: like Blue Lovett, with that that voice, right yeah uh.
Speaker 3: And then they got the uh that that that tenor
Speaker 3: that Irish tenant that Skip pass you know uh. And
Speaker 3: then uh, I don't know who it was, but Sean
Speaker 3: mcquiller when he came in. Sean has been with the
Speaker 3: band God now I know thirty forty years maybe a
Speaker 3: little more. And his voice is very close to JT,
Speaker 3: but he has more of a rasp on it. So yeah,
Speaker 3: good good singer and also a great guitar. Fabulous guitarist.
Speaker 3: You know these days he can't pick up the guitar
Speaker 3: like he he wants to, but as playing he's great.
Speaker 3: You know, we have Rick Morsel out there as well. Also,
Speaker 3: guitarist Basis Rick has played with Prince and Stephanie Mills.
Speaker 3: Everybody's fabulous, you know, and a mirror A mirror plays
Speaker 3: every instrument as well. It's crazy reas he good.
Speaker 2: You mentioned something earlier and it did hit me that,
Speaker 2: I think in twenty fourteen. In twenty fifteen, my my
Speaker 2: guitar player, Kurt came up to me. He's like, man,
Speaker 2: You'll never guess where I was last night. And I
Speaker 2: was like, what he's like? I was at a Van
Speaker 2: Hillon show and cool in the Gang open you guys
Speaker 2: were touring with what was that show?
Speaker 3: Like?
Speaker 2: Poling the Gang and Van Halen loud?
Speaker 3: We played loud, they were. I mean it was so
Speaker 3: loud that, especially during sound check, I'd go outside. You
Speaker 3: couldn't take it. You know, they loud. But that Van
Speaker 3: Halen great band, Uh tight, great band, good guys. But
Speaker 3: the guys you know.
Speaker 2: And here's David is a major Soul fan that much,
Speaker 2: I do know.
Speaker 3: And the you know the Forum here, yeah, well it
Speaker 3: was kept on the QT but uh those are that's
Speaker 3: where all the rehearsals were for the tour at the Forum,
Speaker 3: you know, so we said. We were in ourselves like, wow,
Speaker 3: what what what? Probably you rent off the forum for rehearsal,
Speaker 3: you know that's a flex. Yeah, it's crazy.
Speaker 4: Don't forget to get George's book too hot?
Speaker 2: And yes, can you talk about your memoir? Like how
Speaker 2: long did it take you to write that?
Speaker 3: Because I'm slow. It took about ten years. And there's
Speaker 3: a lot of stuff that was taken out for political reasons,
Speaker 3: for whatever. Uh, some of the stuff would be quite shocky.
Speaker 3: So he took I took to Dave Smith and when
Speaker 3: I was in d C. So we just plucked stuff
Speaker 3: out that, you know, some of the stuff that we
Speaker 3: alladed to about those guys. Yeah, and once again, I
Speaker 3: never mentioned people's names. The story was started and things.
Speaker 3: But if I mentioned their names and what I was
Speaker 3: involved with, and it was just I was involved with
Speaker 3: one of their daughters.
Speaker 4: Oh this is a movie.
Speaker 3: It's just a movie.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah. It was like he was, you know, he was
Speaker 3: up here at the total pulling up down here. I
Speaker 3: told him, Oh, yeah, so that was great. Yeah, that
Speaker 3: was quite dangerous because she even said this is a
Speaker 3: little dangerous.
Speaker 2: They were a lot of dangerous.
Speaker 3: They were on the other side of my dad knew.
Speaker 2: Yeah, could you tell me what your three favorite cool
Speaker 2: and gang songs are? But can you also just tell
Speaker 2: me what was your favorite song to create?
Speaker 3: Wow?
Speaker 2: Wait, are you one of those? They are all my
Speaker 2: kids and I can't separate them.
Speaker 3: No, no, no, I'm not one of those guys. I
Speaker 3: waldon Peace from the Weld and Peaceful album. Okay, that's
Speaker 3: the title song. I remember, John Coltrane, I love that.
Speaker 3: W yeah that and it's just really none of the hits,
Speaker 3: none of.
Speaker 6: The big for us, those other hits.
Speaker 2: You know, me Little Children is one of my favorites. Yeah,
Speaker 2: you know that never don't change.
Speaker 6: And the third would be fruit Man.
Speaker 3: No, it's we've got some rhythm songs in the Caribbean Festival. Okay, yeah,
Speaker 3: I'll take that. It had all that listeners in it.
Speaker 3: That should fine, and some of that and so when
Speaker 3: you hear it, you go, man about Bubba Buba, about
Speaker 3: the horns, you know, just you know it's that group
Speaker 3: and you got that, you know, so it was great.
Speaker 2: Okay, So making making those three like your your your
Speaker 2: favorite yeah, you know, as I said the top of
Speaker 2: the show Man, it's it's really kind of our missioneer
Speaker 2: on the show just you know, to give flowers to
Speaker 2: legendary people that otherwise might not get there. They're just
Speaker 2: too as far as you know, a legacy that they
Speaker 2: set forth, and definitely you know for all of us here,
Speaker 2: you know, Cool and Gang represents. I mean, it's an
Speaker 2: institution of of of just brilliant and you know, it
Speaker 2: sustained all music, all times, you know, all spaces, and
Speaker 2: still strong to this day. I mean even my band
Speaker 2: you know, goes through a Cool in a Gang moment
Speaker 2: in our current show, and you know the songs are are.
Speaker 3: But plus you have a Jermaine Jermaine Bryce.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yes, I know that he plays with you guys. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: he plays He plays with them now.
Speaker 6: Yeah, yeah, man.
Speaker 2: But we just thank you for coming on the show,
Speaker 2: and we appreciate your you know, your legacy and and
Speaker 2: and everything that you've done and all your break beats
Speaker 2: and everything. We love that.
Speaker 6: We love it to death.
Speaker 3: Thank you. You know, I'm not going to say it's
Speaker 3: been a long hard road. It's been a long beautiful
Speaker 3: road being as a creator, you know, because Ronald and
Speaker 3: I sit and come up with materials. He and I,
Speaker 3: especially back in the late seventies and early eighties. That's
Speaker 3: what we did. We just sat in the studio and
Speaker 3: reverse things, put together live albums, you know, from all
Speaker 3: the tapes. You know the deal, and it just had
Speaker 3: a ball. And being the old night at six o'clock
Speaker 3: in the morning, he said, I'll see in a few
Speaker 3: hours come back again into that whole set. That that
Speaker 3: that's worth everything, you know, as far as creative people
Speaker 3: is concerned. That's that's worth it all, you know. And
Speaker 3: and and it becoming successful too. And if it doesn't
Speaker 3: become successful, you go back in your tweet, what did
Speaker 3: we do? What's going on?
Speaker 5: So?
Speaker 3: And I appreciate you having me on as well, thank
Speaker 3: you for thank you, but it makes it's just like
Speaker 3: all of us, it makes it a little harder, you know,
Speaker 3: when you go, I love your music and you gotta
Speaker 3: you know that whole thing they're doing, loving fans, but
Speaker 3: truly truly heartfelt.
Speaker 6: Thank you well, thank you.
Speaker 2: Yeah on behalf of Sugar, Steve fontigles on pay Pilly myself,
Speaker 2: this quest love Supreme. Shout out to Jake and Brittany,
Speaker 2: thank you for holding it down. Our family at iHeart
Speaker 2: and we'll see you next week on the next round.
Speaker 6: A quest Love Supreme.
Speaker 5: Don't forget brand new Cooler Gang album in store store stores.
Speaker 2: Why he's the minister of information in this band. I'll
Speaker 2: take that all right next week.
Speaker 6: Yeah, thank you, thank you.
Speaker 2: Bussy Must Love Supreme is a production of iHeart Radio.
Speaker 2: For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 2: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.