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Speaker 1: Question Love Supreme is a production of I Heart Radio. Hello,

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Speaker 1: how you doing? Ladies and gentlemen, Welcome to Course Love Supreme.

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Speaker 1: I have to think for one second exactly where worried?

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Speaker 1: I'm your host, Quest Love. Thank you for joining us

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Speaker 1: yet again here with my squid? What's up a pay bill? How?

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Speaker 1: How are you? Man? It's a good day. I can't

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Speaker 1: come play? Summer Summer is good so far, can't complays

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Speaker 1: are happy? Campus in session? Life is good, Camps in session,

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Speaker 1: Campus in session, Summer camp is summer camp, but summer

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Speaker 1: camp in the crib. Right. No, they go away, not

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Speaker 1: like you sent them away, but no, no, no, no,

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Speaker 1: like a way, a way way, just like during the

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Speaker 1: day away. I would call that summer school. But amon

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Speaker 1: and when they come home them like a prison movie.

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Speaker 1: That's right, I see that. Uh, how's it going on,

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Speaker 1: Sugar Steve Freshmen Yer season five? That's right? Yeah, everything's cool.

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Speaker 1: I mean boss called me into work today, so there's that.

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Speaker 1: And uh but other than that, doing good horrible boss

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Speaker 1: you have there? Sorry? Anyways, all right, well everything's fine?

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Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I'm good. Yes, I can hear you loud

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Speaker 1: and clear, like you press the mute, right, right, how's

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Speaker 1: it going like you? Oh, it's going good? You mean

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Speaker 1: I muted? No, you know we can hear you now, alright, No,

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Speaker 1: just going good. I mean I'm excited to talk to

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Speaker 1: some good Philly music and whatnot. Exactly all right, Well,

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Speaker 1: speaking of which, ladies and gentlemen, Um, speaking of Philly music,

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Speaker 1: our guest today is the pride of the City of Detroit,

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Speaker 1: Misia via Philadelphia. Um. Yeah, along with her sisters, uh,

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Speaker 1: with great Brenda Valerie Jones. I will say that our

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Speaker 1: guest today, um, along with her two sisters were probably

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Speaker 1: uh V go to background combo trio in the mid seventies. Uh.

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Speaker 1: They kind of dominated that platform, sort of similar to

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Speaker 1: how Since Houston and the Sweden Inspirations once did in

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Speaker 1: the mid mid to late sixties for many luminaries from

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Speaker 1: Aretha Franklin, uh, Lou Rawls, Teddy Pendergrass, and the Clifford Power.

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Speaker 1: Of course, Diana Ross where I first heard her group's

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Speaker 1: name mentioned. Well, okay, Diana called him the Jones sisters

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Speaker 1: that live record Um. But anyway, they signed. They came

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Speaker 1: to my hometown of Philadelphia around seventy nine, worked under

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Speaker 1: the Mighty Philadelphia International Records Empire UM releasing hit after

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Speaker 1: icon of hit UH from the the Hove sample UH

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Speaker 1: You're Gonna make Me Love somebody Else, UH to Like Dance,

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Speaker 1: Turn the romance to my all time favorite Nights Over

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Speaker 1: Egypt Too, who run to so many to name. Also,

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Speaker 1: I'll say that our guest today enjoyed her first UH

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Speaker 1: number one hit single uh D get Enough Love six

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Speaker 1: two years after she left for a solo career and

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Speaker 1: UH with the six LPs under her belt with her

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Speaker 1: family two solo records, our guests is still holding the

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Speaker 1: mantel and and kind of the legacy of the Jones

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Speaker 1: Girls in her hands. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome to

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Speaker 1: Quest Clip Supreme the one and only Shirley Jones. Thank you, well,

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Speaker 1: thank you, thank you. Hey. How are you? I'm fine.

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Speaker 1: I'm doing really good, staying in the house, which is

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Speaker 1: the safest place right now. Exactly. That's that's that's we're

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Speaker 1: doing to stay in the house, you know. UM. Now,

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Speaker 1: I thank you for doing this. I will say that, UM,

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Speaker 1: after a lot of stalking on Instagram and social media,

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Speaker 1: I was happy that I was I was fortunate enough

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Speaker 1: to get your attention to come and join us on

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Speaker 1: the show because I'm so happy. Yeah, I'm so happy

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Speaker 1: because i mean, I'm just I'm a fan. So I'm

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Speaker 1: fanning out right now. Absolutely, you and the roots and

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Speaker 1: i mean the Tonight Show. We used to just sit

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Speaker 1: there and watch the nice We're gonna one day We're

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Speaker 1: gonna be on the Tonight Show. This is back when

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Speaker 1: Johnny Carson was So I'm a huge fan. Well, I

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Speaker 1: mean I'm a fan of yours as well. Of course,

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Speaker 1: like I've known you, know as in Philadelphia, and I've known, Um,

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Speaker 1: I've learned of your history after you came to Philadelphia

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Speaker 1: to sign to the label. But um, I'm really curious

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Speaker 1: about that. The first part of your career. Um in Detroit, Michigan. Um,

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Speaker 1: what part of what part of Detroit did you guys

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Speaker 1: grow up in? We grew up on the west Side,

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Speaker 1: you know, it's the east Side and west side, west Side.

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Speaker 1: We went to Central High School. That's a nice part

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Speaker 1: of Detroit. No, absolutely not. Okay, See I'm told by

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Speaker 1: a lot of I'm told by Detroit luminaries that if

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Speaker 1: someone's on the east Side, I should watch my wallet.

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Speaker 1: But someone's from the west side, then you know, they

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Speaker 1: might have finished it right, No, I mean it's a okay,

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Speaker 1: it's okay, yeah, alright, so um can you well? Okay?

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Speaker 1: I always start with what was your first musical memory?

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Speaker 1: My first musical memory was me and my mom singing

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Speaker 1: just the two of us, once she found out that

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Speaker 1: I could sing it, like six years old. She was

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Speaker 1: a very popular gospel singer back in the Detroit area,

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Speaker 1: Mary Fraser Jones. In fact, she was the first black

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Speaker 1: gospel singer that r c A Records. They signed my

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Speaker 1: mother to Gospel to the Gospel label the same day

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Speaker 1: they signed Little Richard. So yeah, and once she discovered

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Speaker 1: that I could sing, I remember going around at these

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Speaker 1: different churches singing just the two of us when it

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Speaker 1: was just she and I. Okay, when you say just

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Speaker 1: the two of us, I'm instantly yeah, another just the

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Speaker 1: two of us, right, it's a gospel song, just the

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Speaker 1: two of us. Okay. I see in your in the

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Speaker 1: lineup of your sisters, where do you fall are you?

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Speaker 1: I'm the oldest. Okay, you're the oldest sister. Yes, So

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Speaker 1: was it just you three in the household or did

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Speaker 1: you have other siblings? No? Through my mother and father's union.

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Speaker 1: It's just the three of us, but they're like five

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Speaker 1: other kids by three other different women, you know, wives

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Speaker 1: and you know that wives. Yeah, he was, he was

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Speaker 1: a minister to like that. Yes, yes, yes, my mother

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Speaker 1: my mother was the second wife or second maybe third? Okay,

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Speaker 1: there were five? Yeah, I feel you. Um, So basically,

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Speaker 1: what was what was the your your childhood like? Um?

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Speaker 1: Because I'm always curious to ask you how, especially when

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Speaker 1: groups that I admire sort of unfolding the seventies, they

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Speaker 1: all seem to have the same kind of narrative, which

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Speaker 1: is that they start in gospel music, and I'm always

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Speaker 1: curious to see how they are kind of able to

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Speaker 1: unwrap themselves out of gospel, like some answers are like,

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Speaker 1: you know, it was it was a controversial thing to

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Speaker 1: start seeing secular and some you know, they were embraced

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Speaker 1: by their their church and their family whatnot. But what

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Speaker 1: was your relationship with music when you were growing up?

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Speaker 1: Like were you allowed to listen to both or just

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Speaker 1: gospel in the house? Oh? No, she she did, and

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Speaker 1: she allowed us to listen to both. It was very

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Speaker 1: difficult after being with her because we were traveling around Detroit.

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Speaker 1: You know, Detroit's the music city, Old town but as

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Speaker 1: well as gospel. But Detroit's choirs were known all over

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Speaker 1: the world. Aretha Franklin's father his church, so we were

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Speaker 1: traveling that circuit around Detroit, Chicago and singing behind my mother.

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Speaker 1: My mother was also the music director at Russell Street

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Speaker 1: Baptist Church, so she knew voices, and I credit our

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Speaker 1: harmonies and our vocalizing to my mother. My mother rehearsed us,

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Speaker 1: oh my goodness, from the time I was about seven

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Speaker 1: or eight and Brendan Valerie were stairsteps, so once she

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Speaker 1: realized what she had, she rehearsed us at least maybe

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Speaker 1: four or five times a week. Other kids be out

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Speaker 1: there playing and we'd be put out there trying to play.

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Speaker 1: But my godmother, who lived across the street, was the

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Speaker 1: piano player. We always had a piano in our home

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Speaker 1: because we studied piano where we all played piano, and

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Speaker 1: my mother was like, okay, you guys, come in, we're

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Speaker 1: going to rehearse. She practiced our voices. She taught us

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Speaker 1: how to lay back if the if the notice too overpowering.

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Speaker 1: She taught us diction um. So I credit everything to

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Speaker 1: her from teaching us early on and then being on

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Speaker 1: the same circuit as like the Clark's Sisters. The wine

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Speaker 1: is back then. Man, when Holland jo Joan Holland reached

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Speaker 1: out and wanted us to start to try to come

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Speaker 1: to their label, to first to say she yes, she

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Speaker 1: a music merchant too. The yeah, my mother was just

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Speaker 1: so it took a lot of persuading, but she finally

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Speaker 1: let us do it. I'm curious as to okays, as

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Speaker 1: to the training, because the thing is is that um

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Speaker 1: and listening to your records, I noticed that you guys

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Speaker 1: spend an equal amount of time singing in unison in

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Speaker 1: addition to your harmonies, and always wanted to know what

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Speaker 1: was the because that was an unusual trademark. And I

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Speaker 1: guess as a non singer, like I'm a producer who's

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Speaker 1: a non singer, so I would automatically think, well, coming

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Speaker 1: out the gate, everyone sings in harmony, but you guys

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Speaker 1: had a really unusual process where you all sing together,

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Speaker 1: so it was always like one voice to me exactly,

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Speaker 1: and that when my mother was training us, that's what

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Speaker 1: she was. She would always grill us and she'd be like,

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Speaker 1: I want you surely to pull back, or Brenda, I

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Speaker 1: need you to come up more, even when we're doing unison,

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Speaker 1: she would say, because the ultimate goal is for your

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Speaker 1: harmonies and your unisons to sound like a lead, to

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Speaker 1: sound like a lead. And she drilled that that in us.

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Speaker 1: And and one of the best memories that I have

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Speaker 1: with my sisters is when it was just the three

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Speaker 1: of us, after we started doing background for different people,

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Speaker 1: when it was just the three of us together, no boyfriends,

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Speaker 1: no you know, nobody girl for girlfriends, hanging around with us,

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Speaker 1: we would practice that because my mother had drilled it

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Speaker 1: in us. We would practice that whether we were doing

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Speaker 1: background for somebody or working on our own project, it

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Speaker 1: had to be right. And then Valerie, the younger sister,

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Speaker 1: she has she was blessed with near perfect pitch, so

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Speaker 1: of course she would always be like, that doesn't sound right.

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Speaker 1: You're too sharp. Purely get that, you know. So we

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Speaker 1: had so much fun practicing because we always strove to

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Speaker 1: be for our sound to be perfect, whether we were

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Speaker 1: singing unison harmony, singing behind a Wretha Franklin, or doing

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Speaker 1: a Jones Girls project. Well, I know that you were

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Speaker 1: always in the gospel choir, but you know, I know

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Speaker 1: that you're in Detroit, which even after they long you know,

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Speaker 1: migrated to Los Angeles. I'm certain that you know still

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Speaker 1: with Luminary is still there like funk Adelic and whatnot?

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Speaker 1: Like what were your what was the the the social

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Speaker 1: interaction with other notable members of the Detroit musical community

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Speaker 1: for you, Like who was there a group of people

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Speaker 1: that you hung with or notable people that we would know?

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Speaker 1: Um not really we um Well, when we went to

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Speaker 1: music Merchant to Holland Jorjan Holland's label, we were doing

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Speaker 1: background for like Chairman of the Board, uh free to

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Speaker 1: pain Honey Koane um. And at that time we were

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Speaker 1: I guess maybe fourteen. In fact, when I was watching

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Speaker 1: Um Summer of Soul, it took me way back and

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Speaker 1: I was like, oh my god. Half of those people

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Speaker 1: that were involved in that we either met we either

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Speaker 1: worked with. And that said, wow, what a blessing because

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Speaker 1: at that time in sixty nine, we were like twelve

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Speaker 1: thirteen years old and we had just started doing had

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Speaker 1: ground at that age for Holland Doljo Holland because they

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Speaker 1: saw us on a gospel TV show in Detroit and

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Speaker 1: that was when we begged my mother, oh, this is

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Speaker 1: Holland Dolja Holland Motown. Please let us do background. They

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Speaker 1: just it's just background, just background, no, you know, and

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Speaker 1: it's not gospel background. But please, Mom, please, So she

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Speaker 1: finally lets let us do it. But the stipulation was

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Speaker 1: she had to be there. She was at every session

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Speaker 1: from the time I was thirteen and we started doing

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Speaker 1: it until I was eighteen. Grown. I know, I know

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Speaker 1: that since you know Ray Charles introducing quote unquote secular

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Speaker 1: non gospel lyrics to gospel music, that that's always been

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Speaker 1: an issue with the church and whatnot. Um, But obviously

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Speaker 1: you're coming from a younger generation, UM that isn't so

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Speaker 1: married to what your parents and grandparents would have subscribed to. So,

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Speaker 1: you know, how who who was your your north star

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Speaker 1: as far as like who did you grow up idolizing?

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Speaker 1: Like Who's who's the voice that you long to be?

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Speaker 1: Sort of not in a non gospel way, like who

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Speaker 1: are you listening to the radio? On the radio? All

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Speaker 1: of Motown? Yeah, the Temptations, the Four Tops, but the

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Speaker 1: but the group that we idolized and used to have

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Speaker 1: my mom make outfits for, of course, was the Supremes.

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Speaker 1: We absolutely idolized the Supremes. We wanted to be like

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Speaker 1: the Supremes. And yes, yes, we wanted to be like

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Speaker 1: the Supremes. Okay, so we we've asked another person that's

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Speaker 1: once worked with Diana Ross what that experience was like.

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Speaker 1: The story was humorous. Uh no, they're talking about Chila

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Speaker 1: E's uh rather tense time under a camp. What was it?

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Speaker 1: What was it like? And of course I'm skipping, I

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Speaker 1: want to know about all your background stuff. But what

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Speaker 1: was it like to finally land that job? It was?

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Speaker 1: It was amazing. Uh we actually, uh, we were perfectly happy.

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Speaker 1: We had just moved to Detroit to l A with

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Speaker 1: McKinley Jackson. He was managing us at the time, and

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Speaker 1: we were perfectly happy doing background sessions because because we

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Speaker 1: were doing like three and four a day, it was

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Speaker 1: either us or the waters that people wanted to do

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Speaker 1: their waterground back then. Oh yeah, well those are my buddies. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: it was either us or them that That's who we were,

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Speaker 1: those premier groups for background singing back then. And McKinley said, well,

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Speaker 1: you know, Diana's um auditioning for some singers and she's

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Speaker 1: been turning everybody down and you know, and I and

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Speaker 1: he said, you guys want to try. We like Diana, Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I mean, you know, we're from Detroit. Hey, let's give

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Speaker 1: it a shot. And so we went up there actually

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Speaker 1: thinking we were singing for gil Aski, her music director

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Speaker 1: and her road manager Don Peak up lower canyon somewhere,

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Speaker 1: and we went up there and McKinley started playing. We

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Speaker 1: had rehearsed, ain't a mountain high enough and reach out

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Speaker 1: and touch somebody's hand for our audition, and right in

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Speaker 1: the middle of singing, who comes down the hall but

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Speaker 1: Diana Ross and yeah, and the only the only words

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Speaker 1: out of her mouth was you guys are terrific. Can

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Speaker 1: you get passports? We're going to London? And we, of course,

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Speaker 1: you know, we were like, yeah, we can go to London.

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Speaker 1: And but we had to work out some things on

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Speaker 1: our contract because of our background singing. When she did

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Speaker 1: allow we traveled seven months of the year with her,

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Speaker 1: and then when she was on hiatus, she did allow

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Speaker 1: us to keep our background singing career for other artists

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Speaker 1: uml retainer, but we were allowed to sing right, but

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Speaker 1: we were still getting you know, we were getting half

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Speaker 1: of our paycheck when she was when she wasn't working,

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Speaker 1: but she still allowed us to to do our singing,

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Speaker 1: our background singing. UM. And over the years I have

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Speaker 1: defended and and said said so many people have said,

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Speaker 1: what was she like? I hear you know, she's this,

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Speaker 1: she's that, and the other. I said, let me just

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Speaker 1: tell you one thing. She was the hottest entertainer in

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Speaker 1: the world back in the seventies. Absolutely nobody was bigger

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Speaker 1: than Diana Ross except maybe Frank Sinatra. And she was

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Speaker 1: a perfectionist. She was a female and she was demanding.

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Speaker 1: She demanded that her from her band to her singers

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Speaker 1: to be as into the show and rehearse and be

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Speaker 1: on top of your gig as she was. And because

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Speaker 1: that was it drilled in us and that's what we

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Speaker 1: did anyway. UM. She was absolutely one of the best

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Speaker 1: people to work for. And she was so concerned for

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Speaker 1: for us because up until we went to London with her,

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Speaker 1: the only places we had been was Detroit, Uh surrounding

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Speaker 1: areas and then California. UM. And she really loved and

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Speaker 1: respected our sounds so much that after the European tour

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Speaker 1: is when she came to us, she was getting ready

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Speaker 1: to do her yearly twice a year residency at Caesar's

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Speaker 1: palace and she came to us and said, you know,

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Speaker 1: you girls are too good to be singing background behind

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Speaker 1: me or anybody else whatever. So you know, I changed

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Speaker 1: clothes at least five times in my show. I want

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Speaker 1: you to get a song together and I want you

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Speaker 1: to sing it. I'm gonna bring you out the Jones

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Speaker 1: sisters and I'm going to introduce you to the world.

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Speaker 1: And that's actually she did that. We chose if I

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Speaker 1: ever lose this Heaven from Quincy Jones album that was

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Speaker 1: got back then, and uh, that's how we got with

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Speaker 1: Gamble on Huff. Yeah, yeah, Shuber in her and she

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Speaker 1: called us and Cynthia Biggs and Dexter one Zel they

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Speaker 1: win the audience and they said, oh they could think

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Speaker 1: about and look at during the whole show was us.

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Speaker 1: They kept saying, you hear those girls, you hear her

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Speaker 1: background singers. They're tearing it up. And Gamble and Huff

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Speaker 1: came backstage and they said, you guys are terrific. Um

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Speaker 1: Are you signed with anybody? And We're like no, I'm

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Speaker 1: We're like, oh my god, Gamble, I'm asking us if

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Speaker 1: we were signed with anybody. And uh so we went

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Speaker 1: back to l A and within a month, we UH

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Speaker 1: had our attorneys worked and we worked out the deal,

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Speaker 1: and within two months we were flown to Philadelphia to

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Speaker 1: work on that first Jones Girls album. Yes, that's amazing,

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Speaker 1: that's amazing. Wait a minute. Always wanted to know was

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Speaker 1: this was this the tour where she would um it

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Speaker 1: would start with the video thing with the guys carrying

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Speaker 1: her over. No, No, this was before then, because I

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Speaker 1: always wanted to know how she did that illusion. No, okay,

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Speaker 1: I was a kid, want to see it like a

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Speaker 1: long time ago. But yeah, can you also talk about

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Speaker 1: like the gig with her and how it was different

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Speaker 1: than other background years As far as like she said

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Speaker 1: she changed her clothes five times, did you guys get

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Speaker 1: to change your clothes? Did you have the same outfit

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Speaker 1: you had to wear every night? Or because it was

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Speaker 1: Diana Ross, y'all had like a nice rotation. And what

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Speaker 1: did she require before every show? As far as rehearsal

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Speaker 1: and stuff like that, it's the comparison to everybody else

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Speaker 1: you work for. UH, with her being a perfectionist, we

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Speaker 1: rehearsed a lot before we would go out on tour

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Speaker 1: with her. I mean we rehearsed a lot and yes,

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Speaker 1: she did curse. She would come in there and if

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Speaker 1: you if the bed. And she never had to curse

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Speaker 1: to us because we were gonna be on top of

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Speaker 1: our game. But if she would, she would curse them out.

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Speaker 1: And I and you know, and I often tell people,

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Speaker 1: I said that, Now, if she were a man like

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Speaker 1: Frank Sinatra coming out cursing because somebody wasn't doing their

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Speaker 1: at a little best and she felt that they should be,

337
00:21:02,600 --> 00:21:05,880
Speaker 1: he'd be applauded. He would be applauded and said, oh,

338
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Speaker 1: he's just such a strong individual. He's he'd make sure that,

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Speaker 1: you know. But because she's a woman, and she was

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Speaker 1: that demanding at that time, you know, women weren't supposed to,

341
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Speaker 1: you know, come if you don't weren't doing your job.

342
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Speaker 1: You you were supposed to be demure and said well

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Speaker 1: would you please? You know, she would come in there

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Speaker 1: a person like us saying oh yeah or beyond it

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Speaker 1: makes me think of Beyonce is allowed to be today?

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Speaker 1: Yeah exactly, So I give I give, I give her

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Speaker 1: kudos because she was demanding, yes she was, but she

348
00:21:37,160 --> 00:21:39,920
Speaker 1: was also she would she would also make sure that

349
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Speaker 1: she was doing But you know, as far as rehearsing too.

350
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Speaker 1: She was always always immaculate and impeccable. Two people that

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Speaker 1: I learned the most from as far as entertaining myself.

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Speaker 1: I always say is Diana Ross and Eddie Lebert from

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Speaker 1: the o J's because they are show people, absolutely show pepe,

354
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Speaker 1: wait it here? What can Yeah? I want to? I

355
00:22:02,480 --> 00:22:06,160
Speaker 1: want to know for you? Or is it a thing

356
00:22:06,160 --> 00:22:08,800
Speaker 1: where the grass is greener on the other side, do

357
00:22:08,920 --> 00:22:16,440
Speaker 1: you prefer studio sessions or do you prefer uh traveling?

358
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Speaker 1: This I'm talking in strictly in terms of of your

359
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Speaker 1: days as a background singer. As a background singer, I

360
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Speaker 1: prefer being in the studio. Yeah, I prefer being in

361
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Speaker 1: the studio because I'm more of a like. Well, when

362
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Speaker 1: we were traveling doing background for her, that was exciting

363
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Speaker 1: because that was the first time we you know, we're

364
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Speaker 1: traveling doing background and making money. Um, But now, I

365
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Speaker 1: mean I prefer doing studio work versus traveling singing background

366
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Speaker 1: for someone. Isn't it a bigger pressure though in the

367
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Speaker 1: studio because I'm almost certain that there's you know, there's

368
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Speaker 1: really not enough time for you to you borderline, have

369
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Speaker 1: to catch it and perfect it in you know, in

370
00:22:59,119 --> 00:23:04,359
Speaker 1: a short amount of time, I would assume correct, Yeah, yeah,

371
00:23:04,440 --> 00:23:07,399
Speaker 1: in real time. That's one of the reasons why uh

372
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Speaker 1: so many people wanted us to do background because they

373
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Speaker 1: knew that we were going to rehearse so much so

374
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Speaker 1: that when we got in the studio, you know, time

375
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Speaker 1: is money. We we would knock that stuff out just

376
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Speaker 1: like that. That's why some some sometimes we would have

377
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Speaker 1: two and three sessions a day because we were able to.

378
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Speaker 1: We would rehearse and practice our parts for whoever, and

379
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Speaker 1: to make sure that when we went in the studio

380
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Speaker 1: bam bam bam, we could do it. And you know,

381
00:23:32,680 --> 00:23:34,919
Speaker 1: back in the day, you're talking about eight tracks and

382
00:23:34,960 --> 00:23:37,440
Speaker 1: you're talking about not being able to sing one little

383
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Speaker 1: part and they fly it through the song. You had

384
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Speaker 1: to sing that exact same way four and five, you know,

385
00:23:44,200 --> 00:23:47,400
Speaker 1: three to double it and and uh so, And I

386
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Speaker 1: think that's one of the reasons why the artists today,

387
00:23:50,680 --> 00:23:56,480
Speaker 1: the today don't as far as live performances, they cannot

388
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Speaker 1: do it like us that were trained to have to

389
00:23:59,640 --> 00:24:02,680
Speaker 1: sing a song all the way through three and four

390
00:24:02,720 --> 00:24:05,800
Speaker 1: different times to stack that harmony and sound the exact

391
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Speaker 1: same way each time. Right, I agree, I agree with you.

392
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Speaker 1: Curious who were your peers or I don't want the competitives,

393
00:24:14,480 --> 00:24:17,480
Speaker 1: but who were the peers who if you can't get

394
00:24:17,520 --> 00:24:19,760
Speaker 1: the Jones sisters, you know, we should call so and

395
00:24:19,800 --> 00:24:24,359
Speaker 1: so the waters. That was it was and it was

396
00:24:24,480 --> 00:24:30,280
Speaker 1: us in California for the longest. Yeah, that was it. Yep. Yeah,

397
00:24:30,359 --> 00:24:35,199
Speaker 1: So what um I know you mentioned working under how

398
00:24:35,320 --> 00:24:38,879
Speaker 1: those are Holland when you came to Los Angeles? What

399
00:24:39,080 --> 00:24:42,920
Speaker 1: year was that we went to Los Angeles in nineteen

400
00:24:43,200 --> 00:24:49,360
Speaker 1: seventy five? Yeah, by seventy five seventy six, that's when

401
00:24:49,400 --> 00:24:52,439
Speaker 1: Motown moved and then you know they had given Holland

402
00:24:52,680 --> 00:24:57,280
Speaker 1: Jan Holland the Invictus and the music Merchant labels, and uh,

403
00:24:57,480 --> 00:25:00,560
Speaker 1: I think Motown moved was in seventy seventy and then

404
00:25:00,600 --> 00:25:03,840
Speaker 1: those like McKinley and Holland, dol joh Holland moved out.

405
00:25:03,880 --> 00:25:07,960
Speaker 1: I think. So it was just basically everyone in Detroit

406
00:25:08,080 --> 00:25:10,360
Speaker 1: was migrating to Los Angeles and we might as well

407
00:25:10,359 --> 00:25:12,600
Speaker 1: follow suit and follow them as well, and follow them

408
00:25:12,640 --> 00:25:16,680
Speaker 1: exactly exactly? Could you tell me, like what other notable

409
00:25:17,240 --> 00:25:19,320
Speaker 1: acts were you singing background for that we might not

410
00:25:19,440 --> 00:25:27,879
Speaker 1: be aware of? Helen ready, Uh? Share, Yeah, Helen Ready.

411
00:25:27,960 --> 00:25:31,000
Speaker 1: Oh my god. They somebody just posted it the other day.

412
00:25:31,040 --> 00:25:33,840
Speaker 1: I forgot that song that we did for her, we

413
00:25:33,920 --> 00:25:37,560
Speaker 1: did the entire album, because she just passed I think recently,

414
00:25:37,880 --> 00:25:43,120
Speaker 1: and someone posted it um and share Share like half

415
00:25:43,119 --> 00:25:45,920
Speaker 1: read er take me Home or I forgot what song.

416
00:25:46,200 --> 00:25:49,480
Speaker 1: But the song that we did do for Share, I

417
00:25:49,480 --> 00:25:52,280
Speaker 1: don't think it made the album, but we did a session.

418
00:25:52,359 --> 00:25:54,600
Speaker 1: We did a session because we did two songs with

419
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Speaker 1: her and they never met. I don't think they made

420
00:25:57,040 --> 00:26:00,160
Speaker 1: the album. Now, somebody's gonna probably prove me wrong and

421
00:26:00,160 --> 00:26:06,320
Speaker 1: and posted you know, I know that you've done background

422
00:26:06,359 --> 00:26:10,480
Speaker 1: on some notable Philly international songs as well, So am

423
00:26:10,520 --> 00:26:14,840
Speaker 1: I assume that you're you're basically all the female voices

424
00:26:14,880 --> 00:26:19,040
Speaker 1: that I hear on like You'll never find another love

425
00:26:19,119 --> 00:26:21,800
Speaker 1: like Mine and those those songs as well, like with

426
00:26:21,960 --> 00:26:25,639
Speaker 1: Lou Rolls and now we did do lu Roll's album.

427
00:26:25,720 --> 00:26:30,520
Speaker 1: There was a group of girls in Philadelphia. I can't

428
00:26:30,520 --> 00:26:32,280
Speaker 1: think of their names that we're doing a lot of

429
00:26:32,320 --> 00:26:36,639
Speaker 1: background singing for Gamble in them because once we became

430
00:26:36,680 --> 00:26:39,960
Speaker 1: the Jones girls, you know, we didn't do as much

431
00:26:40,000 --> 00:26:43,159
Speaker 1: background singing for other people. Once we got with Gamble

432
00:26:43,200 --> 00:26:46,920
Speaker 1: and huff in seventy nine, just select people, you know,

433
00:26:47,640 --> 00:26:50,240
Speaker 1: when we had the time, because you know, with You're

434
00:26:50,240 --> 00:26:52,639
Speaker 1: gonna make me love somebody else coming out the box

435
00:26:52,720 --> 00:26:56,320
Speaker 1: being so big, we immediately gamble immediately sent us to

436
00:26:57,200 --> 00:27:02,560
Speaker 1: Ohio with Charlie Atkins, who put the O J's and

437
00:27:02,640 --> 00:27:06,840
Speaker 1: temptations with him, and we uh were, uh, we were

438
00:27:06,840 --> 00:27:09,480
Speaker 1: rehearsing to go out on tour with the o j

439
00:27:09,760 --> 00:27:19,800
Speaker 1: Who Oh yes, oh man, he was, he was and

440
00:27:19,920 --> 00:27:22,680
Speaker 1: I have two left feets, so he was always on me.

441
00:27:23,000 --> 00:27:26,359
Speaker 1: He was constantly on me because I'm not. I was

442
00:27:26,400 --> 00:27:29,040
Speaker 1: the only one that couldn't dance brending. Valie could dance,

443
00:27:29,119 --> 00:27:31,520
Speaker 1: you know, and me, I'd always tried to when I'm

444
00:27:31,560 --> 00:27:34,479
Speaker 1: singing lead anyway, can I just stand on? No, you cannot.

445
00:27:34,520 --> 00:27:37,240
Speaker 1: You're gonna do those harm You're doing them too girl.

446
00:27:37,800 --> 00:27:41,159
Speaker 1: And so oh he was a test and you just

447
00:27:41,160 --> 00:27:43,680
Speaker 1: just eat a banana. Eat a banana before you come

448
00:27:43,680 --> 00:27:45,920
Speaker 1: in here to rehearsal for that potassium so you could

449
00:27:45,960 --> 00:27:53,400
Speaker 1: move those feet. He was a drill mask. I heard

450
00:27:54,280 --> 00:27:57,959
Speaker 1: every every actor has ever worked with him. Wait, what

451
00:27:57,960 --> 00:28:03,199
Speaker 1: what period were you guys? Uh? With Aretha Franklin, we

452
00:28:03,240 --> 00:28:10,560
Speaker 1: did the Almighty Fire album with her. Yes, only only

453
00:28:10,640 --> 00:28:13,520
Speaker 1: say this because the kind of the kind of household

454
00:28:13,560 --> 00:28:18,359
Speaker 1: I grew up in, um I would. I grew up

455
00:28:18,400 --> 00:28:21,960
Speaker 1: with three binge shoppers when it came to records, so

456
00:28:22,040 --> 00:28:26,760
Speaker 1: like every week, stacks and stacks and stacks of forty five,

457
00:28:26,800 --> 00:28:28,959
Speaker 1: stacks and stacks and stacks of thirty threes would come

458
00:28:28,960 --> 00:28:31,639
Speaker 1: in the house. But the thing is is that I

459
00:28:31,680 --> 00:28:35,840
Speaker 1: would get the records that my parents didn't want. So,

460
00:28:37,119 --> 00:28:40,520
Speaker 1: you know, as far as my Wreatha collection, like there

461
00:28:40,600 --> 00:28:43,720
Speaker 1: there was a period like Almighty Fire, the U record

462
00:28:44,720 --> 00:28:47,000
Speaker 1: all the way up to lug Diva, like basically the

463
00:28:47,080 --> 00:28:52,400
Speaker 1: post Sparkle records that really weren't hitting the same I inherited.

464
00:28:52,640 --> 00:28:54,760
Speaker 1: So I know all those like Sweet Passion, like all

465
00:28:54,760 --> 00:28:59,479
Speaker 1: those records that weren't quite you know up there with

466
00:28:59,520 --> 00:29:02,680
Speaker 1: the legacy albums. What was it like? Oh god, and

467
00:29:02,720 --> 00:29:06,680
Speaker 1: she was wearing that Space two yep, the Green Space.

468
00:29:07,480 --> 00:29:10,800
Speaker 1: I remember that that period. Well, what was it like?

469
00:29:11,360 --> 00:29:16,800
Speaker 1: And how intimidating is it you know working with her

470
00:29:17,080 --> 00:29:20,000
Speaker 1: or was she just you know, another Detroit person that

471
00:29:20,040 --> 00:29:23,640
Speaker 1: you could connect with. Well we had sang as children

472
00:29:24,400 --> 00:29:28,680
Speaker 1: at her father's church with my mother. One Sunday when

473
00:29:28,960 --> 00:29:31,240
Speaker 1: we were there. I believe it was one of her

474
00:29:31,280 --> 00:29:35,000
Speaker 1: father's anniversary and we knew that she was gonna be there.

475
00:29:35,040 --> 00:29:38,320
Speaker 1: At that time, she was she was a superstar. She

476
00:29:38,360 --> 00:29:41,400
Speaker 1: had respect out, you know, she was like and they

477
00:29:41,400 --> 00:29:43,800
Speaker 1: said she was going to be at the church. Um

478
00:29:43,880 --> 00:29:46,480
Speaker 1: and after we performed, she came up to my mother

479
00:29:46,520 --> 00:29:49,080
Speaker 1: and said, boy, those are some singing girls you got there.

480
00:29:49,440 --> 00:29:52,240
Speaker 1: And then fast forward like fifteen years later, we were

481
00:29:52,280 --> 00:29:54,880
Speaker 1: doing Almighty Fire. And what a lot of people don't

482
00:29:54,920 --> 00:30:00,280
Speaker 1: know is that when that Sparkle movie was, you know,

483
00:30:00,280 --> 00:30:04,080
Speaker 1: they were looking for the actor the actors and actresses

484
00:30:04,160 --> 00:30:09,720
Speaker 1: for that movie, Aretha Franklin and Kenny Gamble wanted us

485
00:30:10,440 --> 00:30:15,920
Speaker 1: to play the sisters, hiring Hi or Wrentha put pitched

486
00:30:15,960 --> 00:30:19,200
Speaker 1: in for She wanted us to do it because because

487
00:30:19,240 --> 00:30:22,280
Speaker 1: of our voices and we had just sang on on

488
00:30:22,320 --> 00:30:26,680
Speaker 1: her album, and Kenny felt that that would be a

489
00:30:26,760 --> 00:30:29,520
Speaker 1: great We were the you know, the Jones girls. He

490
00:30:29,600 --> 00:30:31,880
Speaker 1: felt that we were just coming out and that would

491
00:30:31,880 --> 00:30:34,240
Speaker 1: be perfect. They sent us to New York and a

492
00:30:34,320 --> 00:30:38,480
Speaker 1: limo and uh, uh it was. I think they both

493
00:30:38,480 --> 00:30:42,720
Speaker 1: were very and I know we were disappointed, especially when

494
00:30:43,480 --> 00:30:46,640
Speaker 1: uh and you know Aretha, she was activists back then,

495
00:30:47,000 --> 00:30:50,400
Speaker 1: especially when those girls they you know, was very light

496
00:30:50,520 --> 00:30:53,760
Speaker 1: bright girls that got the part. Her thing was to

497
00:30:53,920 --> 00:30:57,160
Speaker 1: them was, you know this, this is ridiculous those girls

498
00:30:57,160 --> 00:30:59,800
Speaker 1: can you know? They they have their singers and they

499
00:30:59,800 --> 00:31:03,479
Speaker 1: could be taught to be actresses too, and she she

500
00:31:03,640 --> 00:31:07,440
Speaker 1: was quite upset about that. So there was almos a

501
00:31:07,520 --> 00:31:15,160
Speaker 1: chance that you could have yeah sk yes, you know yeah,

502
00:31:16,080 --> 00:31:19,440
Speaker 1: was there was there ever a background gig that you

503
00:31:19,560 --> 00:31:23,240
Speaker 1: had that was like a little too intimidating or that

504
00:31:23,280 --> 00:31:27,120
Speaker 1: you you know, was just all right to you? Now,

505
00:31:27,280 --> 00:31:30,800
Speaker 1: we we no matter who the artist was, and there

506
00:31:30,840 --> 00:31:33,600
Speaker 1: were a lot of artists that you know, hadn't even

507
00:31:33,640 --> 00:31:36,640
Speaker 1: made it yet. But you know, if we liked the song,

508
00:31:36,840 --> 00:31:39,760
Speaker 1: and you know they were willing to pay, because pay

509
00:31:39,800 --> 00:31:43,120
Speaker 1: the money, you know, we were, um, we would do

510
00:31:43,200 --> 00:31:46,680
Speaker 1: it and we would give our best. And the thing

511
00:31:46,760 --> 00:31:48,480
Speaker 1: that a lot of people don't know is that for

512
00:31:49,040 --> 00:31:52,840
Speaker 1: another reason why so many people liked us is because

513
00:31:53,480 --> 00:31:57,280
Speaker 1: we created a lot of those backgrounds. Um. They knew

514
00:31:57,360 --> 00:32:00,480
Speaker 1: that if they gave us the song, we were going

515
00:32:00,520 --> 00:32:07,040
Speaker 1: to create the background parts. Yeah. I mean some some

516
00:32:07,320 --> 00:32:10,240
Speaker 1: on some for a lot, but now some did come

517
00:32:10,240 --> 00:32:14,760
Speaker 1: with you know specific backgrounds, but our reputation became such

518
00:32:14,840 --> 00:32:17,880
Speaker 1: that they'd be like, Okay, well, hey here's the song.

519
00:32:18,200 --> 00:32:20,400
Speaker 1: What do you guys think you know? And then drop

520
00:32:20,440 --> 00:32:28,960
Speaker 1: a few sure, uh Norman Connors, Um Lou Rawls, Uh,

521
00:32:29,320 --> 00:32:32,360
Speaker 1: who else that that we they let us do, just

522
00:32:33,200 --> 00:32:36,520
Speaker 1: you know, control the background. God, it's so many people

523
00:32:36,880 --> 00:32:38,800
Speaker 1: just songs. But he were just like artists that were like,

524
00:32:38,800 --> 00:32:40,680
Speaker 1: it don't matter what song I'm doing. Let the Jones

525
00:32:40,720 --> 00:32:42,840
Speaker 1: girls come in here and and and do and do

526
00:32:42,920 --> 00:32:46,200
Speaker 1: our thing. Now. Brenda was alive because her memory is

527
00:32:46,320 --> 00:32:49,080
Speaker 1: so much better than mine. She she she can remember

528
00:32:49,280 --> 00:32:54,520
Speaker 1: every single artist we did background on and everything. But

529
00:32:54,520 --> 00:32:57,360
Speaker 1: but me, it gets a little fuzzy sometimes because when

530
00:32:57,400 --> 00:32:59,960
Speaker 1: people post stuff now and I'd be like, oh, yeah,

531
00:33:00,000 --> 00:33:03,240
Speaker 1: I remember that we did do that song, you know.

532
00:33:02,800 --> 00:33:11,080
Speaker 1: So um with with signing to um Philly International, I'll

533
00:33:11,160 --> 00:33:16,040
Speaker 1: say that um probably in my opinion, because you know,

534
00:33:16,120 --> 00:33:18,920
Speaker 1: we my dad purchased all the records and played it

535
00:33:18,960 --> 00:33:21,920
Speaker 1: at the house all the time, I will say that

536
00:33:22,480 --> 00:33:27,200
Speaker 1: you guys were probably given them more contemporary, up to

537
00:33:27,280 --> 00:33:30,880
Speaker 1: date town than a lot of the acts that were

538
00:33:30,960 --> 00:33:33,600
Speaker 1: un Philly International back then. Like it was almost a

539
00:33:33,640 --> 00:33:37,480
Speaker 1: thing where you know, you knew instantly within the first

540
00:33:37,520 --> 00:33:41,480
Speaker 1: two seconds that you were listening to affilly international song

541
00:33:41,640 --> 00:33:44,240
Speaker 1: based on like the trademark of the strings and all

542
00:33:44,320 --> 00:33:47,200
Speaker 1: the mixing of the record or whatever. But like, You're

543
00:33:47,200 --> 00:33:54,440
Speaker 1: gonna make me love somebody else sounded nothing like what Philadelphia,

544
00:33:54,480 --> 00:34:00,320
Speaker 1: especially what was happening in nine. Yeah. It was like

545
00:34:00,360 --> 00:34:02,440
Speaker 1: a woman telling me you better get your ship together,

546
00:34:02,720 --> 00:34:08,200
Speaker 1: right exactly. Yeah, So what, um, I mean, I would

547
00:34:08,200 --> 00:34:11,880
Speaker 1: assume that it's still the same group of people, like

548
00:34:11,920 --> 00:34:16,080
Speaker 1: it's still Extra Ones L and Gamble and Huff and

549
00:34:17,000 --> 00:34:19,640
Speaker 1: all those other well, I know McKinley Jackson also worked

550
00:34:19,640 --> 00:34:22,440
Speaker 1: on the record as well, But like, what was the

551
00:34:22,560 --> 00:34:28,560
Speaker 1: discussion basically on how to present you guys in your sound? Um,

552
00:34:28,600 --> 00:34:32,480
Speaker 1: that's one of the things that I think Gamble and

553
00:34:32,560 --> 00:34:36,719
Speaker 1: Huff they were purposely trying to take us away just

554
00:34:36,920 --> 00:34:41,840
Speaker 1: a little bit for from the the strings and horns

555
00:34:41,880 --> 00:34:44,080
Speaker 1: of like say, like of what they did with three

556
00:34:44,080 --> 00:34:47,520
Speaker 1: degrees three degrees huh, and wanted they wanted us to

557
00:34:47,560 --> 00:34:52,120
Speaker 1: be more funky, more soulful, more R and B. And

558
00:34:52,320 --> 00:34:55,879
Speaker 1: if you noticed the very first Jones Girls album, that's

559
00:34:55,880 --> 00:34:59,399
Speaker 1: exactly I mean. I'm at your mercies on there, which

560
00:34:59,480 --> 00:35:04,600
Speaker 1: is a heart wrenching ballad. Uh. Then of course there's

561
00:35:04,600 --> 00:35:12,080
Speaker 1: You're Gonna make Me Love somebody Else? Yeah, exactly, So yeah,

562
00:35:12,120 --> 00:35:16,839
Speaker 1: who Can I Run To? Us? Yep, what were your

563
00:35:16,880 --> 00:35:20,600
Speaker 1: feelings on? Um? Of course, not what your feelings on

564
00:35:20,680 --> 00:35:25,919
Speaker 1: were you how did it feel? For escape? Too? Sort

565
00:35:25,920 --> 00:35:29,760
Speaker 1: of reintroduced that song on to a whole new generation. Yeah,

566
00:35:29,960 --> 00:35:33,319
Speaker 1: when I um, when I heard it, when I first

567
00:35:33,360 --> 00:35:38,560
Speaker 1: heard it, it was by that time, it was sixteen years,

568
00:35:39,960 --> 00:35:44,440
Speaker 1: uh future from when we did it, and so many

569
00:35:44,560 --> 00:35:47,640
Speaker 1: I remember so many of the producers and when when

570
00:35:47,719 --> 00:35:49,640
Speaker 1: Gamble back in the day, you know, you had an

571
00:35:49,640 --> 00:35:52,200
Speaker 1: A side and a B side on records, and who

572
00:35:52,239 --> 00:35:55,200
Speaker 1: Can I Run To? Was on the B side. So

573
00:35:55,239 --> 00:35:58,040
Speaker 1: many people did not want Gamble to put that. They said,

574
00:35:58,040 --> 00:36:01,359
Speaker 1: put show love today, put anything on that on on

575
00:36:01,400 --> 00:36:03,479
Speaker 1: the B side of You're Gonna make Me Love somebody else?

576
00:36:03,520 --> 00:36:05,719
Speaker 1: Besides who Can I Run To? Because that is a

577
00:36:06,360 --> 00:36:09,520
Speaker 1: that is a single of its own. But of course

578
00:36:09,680 --> 00:36:13,520
Speaker 1: that didn't happen so uh nine. I mean we you know,

579
00:36:13,600 --> 00:36:16,279
Speaker 1: we were working and and and the girls and I

580
00:36:16,320 --> 00:36:19,239
Speaker 1: had broken up by then, and when we heard um,

581
00:36:19,280 --> 00:36:23,400
Speaker 1: who Can I Run To? I was I was happy actually,

582
00:36:23,480 --> 00:36:27,399
Speaker 1: because back then when their record came out, there were

583
00:36:27,640 --> 00:36:32,480
Speaker 1: so many DJs that were, you know, into new that

584
00:36:32,560 --> 00:36:35,920
Speaker 1: we had done it first, because people used to flip

585
00:36:35,960 --> 00:36:38,839
Speaker 1: it on the radio sometimes and and play who can

586
00:36:38,880 --> 00:36:42,440
Speaker 1: I Run to? So what they would do is like, yeah, yeah,

587
00:36:42,960 --> 00:36:46,160
Speaker 1: I know, you guys love this one buying Escape, but

588
00:36:46,400 --> 00:36:49,359
Speaker 1: guess what Escape didn't do it first? That joone. Then

589
00:36:49,400 --> 00:36:51,919
Speaker 1: they would play our version two and have people call

590
00:36:52,000 --> 00:36:54,600
Speaker 1: in which version they liked the best, and all of that,

591
00:36:55,120 --> 00:36:57,719
Speaker 1: and uh, I happened to, uh, the girls want a

592
00:36:57,840 --> 00:37:01,279
Speaker 1: radio show some years back, and they said, we hope

593
00:37:01,320 --> 00:37:04,400
Speaker 1: we did a good job. We but but we just

594
00:37:04,520 --> 00:37:07,080
Speaker 1: love you guys and love you all sound and and

595
00:37:07,120 --> 00:37:08,719
Speaker 1: I told them, I said, you all did a great

596
00:37:08,800 --> 00:37:10,840
Speaker 1: job because what you did was you brought back a

597
00:37:10,840 --> 00:37:14,680
Speaker 1: lot of attention to the Jones girls. And so I

598
00:37:14,760 --> 00:37:17,320
Speaker 1: was I was saying. I told them, I said, so, hey,

599
00:37:17,320 --> 00:37:20,160
Speaker 1: thank you, thank you all, because it brought back some

600
00:37:20,200 --> 00:37:23,520
Speaker 1: attention because I mean up until you know, from sixteen

601
00:37:23,640 --> 00:37:26,279
Speaker 1: years later, you know, we had kind of died out,

602
00:37:26,360 --> 00:37:29,640
Speaker 1: like we weren't together anymore. We had we would do

603
00:37:29,719 --> 00:37:33,080
Speaker 1: some things occasionally over in Europe, but it was it

604
00:37:33,120 --> 00:37:35,240
Speaker 1: brought back a lot of attention and put that Jones

605
00:37:35,280 --> 00:37:38,440
Speaker 1: girl's name back out there. I'm wondering how Dexter and

606
00:37:38,480 --> 00:37:41,239
Speaker 1: Gambling have worked in a writing sense, in the sense

607
00:37:41,280 --> 00:37:44,120
Speaker 1: of they're writing all these these kind of like female

608
00:37:44,200 --> 00:37:46,520
Speaker 1: run these songs for women. Did they ever do you

609
00:37:46,520 --> 00:37:48,239
Speaker 1: ever get to say anything about a lyricy? Did you

610
00:37:48,280 --> 00:37:50,279
Speaker 1: ever get to say, well, I don't know if she

611
00:37:50,400 --> 00:37:52,200
Speaker 1: was saying like this, but she might say it like that,

612
00:37:52,320 --> 00:37:54,680
Speaker 1: or did you It was it always just their words,

613
00:37:54,840 --> 00:37:58,279
Speaker 1: sing it, let's go. Oh No, it was they They

614
00:37:58,320 --> 00:38:01,239
Speaker 1: allowed us to put in it, you know, just like, um,

615
00:38:02,239 --> 00:38:04,960
Speaker 1: I just love the man. When when we were in

616
00:38:05,000 --> 00:38:07,319
Speaker 1: the studio doing I Just Loved the Man, there was

617
00:38:07,360 --> 00:38:13,200
Speaker 1: no talking upfront at all. Uh, And Gamble kept saying yeah,

618
00:38:13,239 --> 00:38:19,879
Speaker 1: oh yeah, gainb well, Gamble kept saying right. Gamble said

619
00:38:20,560 --> 00:38:23,880
Speaker 1: the song is great and I love it, but something

620
00:38:24,040 --> 00:38:26,200
Speaker 1: is missing. Now. Little did we know he was in

621
00:38:26,239 --> 00:38:30,319
Speaker 1: the control booth and I was going through some things, uh,

622
00:38:30,320 --> 00:38:33,840
Speaker 1: in my relationship with McKinley at the time, and the

623
00:38:34,200 --> 00:38:36,840
Speaker 1: my my sisters were and we didn't know. Our mics

624
00:38:36,840 --> 00:38:39,319
Speaker 1: were open and they were like girl, they were like, girl,

625
00:38:39,520 --> 00:38:42,920
Speaker 1: you were so sick of you and and McKinley and

626
00:38:43,040 --> 00:38:45,520
Speaker 1: all this drama. You know, you just need to leave him,

627
00:38:45,880 --> 00:38:48,359
Speaker 1: and you know, Mama said it. And then Kenney said,

628
00:38:48,400 --> 00:38:54,160
Speaker 1: that's what we need. We need that right there, that's

629
00:38:54,160 --> 00:39:00,360
Speaker 1: what we need. I'm serious now. And then and he

630
00:39:00,400 --> 00:39:02,719
Speaker 1: told yeah, we didn't know he was listening to us,

631
00:39:02,719 --> 00:39:05,040
Speaker 1: and he said that's what we need. Could take a break,

632
00:39:05,080 --> 00:39:07,919
Speaker 1: take a break. So we went in and wrote, wrote,

633
00:39:08,080 --> 00:39:10,239
Speaker 1: you know, wrote out what we were saying, and and

634
00:39:10,320 --> 00:39:17,359
Speaker 1: that's how those talking parts got in. There always be recording. Yeah, yeah,

635
00:39:17,480 --> 00:39:19,759
Speaker 1: that's how that's the first time that you did your

636
00:39:19,800 --> 00:39:25,880
Speaker 1: infamous Shirley Jones. Yes, talking man. People don't shop talking

637
00:39:25,880 --> 00:39:29,040
Speaker 1: to me in the beginning, no more, and espectly especially

638
00:39:29,080 --> 00:39:35,960
Speaker 1: with women, not since the days of Barbara Mason and

639
00:39:36,239 --> 00:39:40,279
Speaker 1: the Woman. Yeah, like yeah, or or Dorothy Moore or right.

640
00:39:41,520 --> 00:39:45,320
Speaker 1: Aren't you bringing back interlude culture? Right? Yes, I'm bringing

641
00:39:45,360 --> 00:39:49,799
Speaker 1: back any bad exactly. I will bring it back. Yeah.

642
00:39:56,239 --> 00:40:02,040
Speaker 1: You know at the time when when you're recording these records,

643
00:40:02,640 --> 00:40:05,960
Speaker 1: I know that. Well. You mentioned earlier that your album

644
00:40:06,000 --> 00:40:08,360
Speaker 1: is more funk based instead of disco based. Was it

645
00:40:08,400 --> 00:40:13,719
Speaker 1: also intentional too, even though seventy nine was still you know,

646
00:40:14,719 --> 00:40:18,800
Speaker 1: kind of a heavy disco tornado still happening. Was it

647
00:40:18,960 --> 00:40:22,879
Speaker 1: sort of uh pre planned for you guys to not

648
00:40:23,360 --> 00:40:27,080
Speaker 1: lean so heavy the disco more into what I what

649
00:40:27,120 --> 00:40:31,640
Speaker 1: I call boogie or or funk funk. Yes, it was

650
00:40:32,760 --> 00:40:36,839
Speaker 1: because we kept I mean disco kind of like exploded

651
00:40:37,000 --> 00:40:39,359
Speaker 1: right there with You're Gonna make Me Love Somebody Else,

652
00:40:39,400 --> 00:40:42,040
Speaker 1: and and we were they would want us to perform

653
00:40:42,120 --> 00:40:45,280
Speaker 1: in in clubs like Studio fifty four and all those places,

654
00:40:45,320 --> 00:40:48,600
Speaker 1: and we didn't really want to perform You're Gonna make

655
00:40:48,600 --> 00:40:50,840
Speaker 1: Me Love Somebody Else because it didn't have that that

656
00:40:50,960 --> 00:40:54,080
Speaker 1: disco tempo to us, we thought. But but it became

657
00:40:54,160 --> 00:40:59,600
Speaker 1: a big disco record, and so studio those different studios

658
00:40:59,640 --> 00:41:03,040
Speaker 1: and York in different places would have us coming. But

659
00:41:03,080 --> 00:41:05,279
Speaker 1: we would always tell gamble. We thought it was a

660
00:41:05,320 --> 00:41:10,239
Speaker 1: little slow for a disco, but hey, they did a

661
00:41:10,280 --> 00:41:13,760
Speaker 1: remix that was like twelve and twelve minutes long or something,

662
00:41:14,080 --> 00:41:17,040
Speaker 1: and that was the disco version. So that's how it

663
00:41:17,120 --> 00:41:20,160
Speaker 1: became popular. Wait, can I add one thing? So when

664
00:41:20,160 --> 00:41:23,960
Speaker 1: you guys are touring, I always wanted to know this because, um,

665
00:41:24,080 --> 00:41:27,960
Speaker 1: you guys would also or at least to me, you

666
00:41:27,960 --> 00:41:30,960
Speaker 1: know you would you would stack your background parts on

667
00:41:31,040 --> 00:41:34,960
Speaker 1: your records and also have counterparts singing with you, and

668
00:41:35,000 --> 00:41:37,040
Speaker 1: always wanted to know how you guys pulled that off

669
00:41:37,080 --> 00:41:38,680
Speaker 1: live when it was just three of you. But then

670
00:41:38,719 --> 00:41:41,200
Speaker 1: I thought, well, this is the three of you, then

671
00:41:41,239 --> 00:41:44,000
Speaker 1: obviously you would also have to have background singers for

672
00:41:44,040 --> 00:41:46,600
Speaker 1: you guys as well, And was that how you handled it?

673
00:41:46,760 --> 00:41:50,480
Speaker 1: But no, no, we did. Really when we would conduce

674
00:41:50,520 --> 00:41:54,520
Speaker 1: it down for stage, we would take the heavy, the

675
00:41:54,560 --> 00:41:57,680
Speaker 1: parts that we know people wanted to hear. And it

676
00:41:57,760 --> 00:42:01,080
Speaker 1: was the hardest thing for me because I'm the top

677
00:42:01,160 --> 00:42:04,359
Speaker 1: note and and I was singing lead and then having

678
00:42:04,360 --> 00:42:07,560
Speaker 1: to jump back. That's why now when I traveled, I

679
00:42:07,640 --> 00:42:10,560
Speaker 1: have three background singers that I have trained that have

680
00:42:10,640 --> 00:42:13,359
Speaker 1: been with me for ten years and they know all

681
00:42:13,400 --> 00:42:16,640
Speaker 1: the back call my Little Jones girls because they know

682
00:42:16,719 --> 00:42:19,160
Speaker 1: all our parts and everything, and which frees me up

683
00:42:19,400 --> 00:42:22,520
Speaker 1: to be able to do my thing vocally. But it

684
00:42:22,600 --> 00:42:26,400
Speaker 1: was so hard. But because we always insisted on doing

685
00:42:26,800 --> 00:42:30,040
Speaker 1: our own backgrounds, we didn't want to have anybody else

686
00:42:30,080 --> 00:42:32,839
Speaker 1: on the side doing doing our and the only time

687
00:42:32,880 --> 00:42:35,120
Speaker 1: we kind of got away from it, we had a

688
00:42:35,880 --> 00:42:40,560
Speaker 1: uh uh female m d Myra that played keyboards and

689
00:42:40,640 --> 00:42:43,120
Speaker 1: she would sing my top note. She was with us

690
00:42:43,120 --> 00:42:45,919
Speaker 1: for maybe almost a year, and that I was able

691
00:42:45,960 --> 00:42:48,319
Speaker 1: to really get into my leads and stuff. And then

692
00:42:48,360 --> 00:42:50,480
Speaker 1: when she was r M D but that was only

693
00:42:50,480 --> 00:42:53,799
Speaker 1: for about a year. Wow, Okay. I always wanted to

694
00:42:53,840 --> 00:42:56,960
Speaker 1: do that because like, again, you guys are so intricate

695
00:42:57,640 --> 00:43:02,759
Speaker 1: with the June Girls sound of stacking right that I

696
00:43:02,840 --> 00:43:05,440
Speaker 1: was like, well, if it's three of them, you know,

697
00:43:05,920 --> 00:43:08,360
Speaker 1: on stage, then I know there hasn't been an additional

698
00:43:08,960 --> 00:43:12,320
Speaker 1: three voices to help all those counterparts that are swimming

699
00:43:12,320 --> 00:43:16,239
Speaker 1: around in the song as well. Know. But were we

700
00:43:16,440 --> 00:43:20,200
Speaker 1: because of the insistence of us never wanting anybody to

701
00:43:20,200 --> 00:43:24,040
Speaker 1: to do our backgrounds And Charlie Atkins he was like no,

702
00:43:24,200 --> 00:43:28,520
Speaker 1: because yeah, and have us dancing and then you know,

703
00:43:28,640 --> 00:43:31,759
Speaker 1: and then um they back in the day, we just

704
00:43:31,800 --> 00:43:34,520
Speaker 1: didn't want it. We didn't want any background singers. We

705
00:43:34,600 --> 00:43:38,640
Speaker 1: wanted people to to hear us, and we because we practiced,

706
00:43:38,760 --> 00:43:41,640
Speaker 1: I mean seven and especially when we want the road,

707
00:43:41,719 --> 00:43:44,600
Speaker 1: we'll be in the practice and right before the right

708
00:43:44,640 --> 00:43:47,560
Speaker 1: before you're hitting the stage, just to make sure that

709
00:43:47,960 --> 00:43:51,560
Speaker 1: everybody's voices were on you know, on top of what's

710
00:43:51,640 --> 00:43:54,000
Speaker 1: because of what we were getting ready to do. So

711
00:43:54,600 --> 00:43:58,040
Speaker 1: another question I have is, because there's so many writing

712
00:43:58,080 --> 00:44:03,239
Speaker 1: teams at Ambule and huff how how how are the

713
00:44:03,239 --> 00:44:07,239
Speaker 1: decisions made on who you're going to work with? Like

714
00:44:08,239 --> 00:44:10,960
Speaker 1: do you guys say, hey, we we like what Cynthia

715
00:44:11,040 --> 00:44:13,759
Speaker 1: has for us, so let's work with Cynthia Dexter Or

716
00:44:13,960 --> 00:44:16,719
Speaker 1: it's like mcfadd and white Hand, Like there's so many

717
00:44:16,719 --> 00:44:20,440
Speaker 1: teams there, how do you We had a And in

718
00:44:20,480 --> 00:44:24,319
Speaker 1: fact it was so impressive when our first day we

719
00:44:24,360 --> 00:44:27,080
Speaker 1: took that elevator up on three the crink that that

720
00:44:27,160 --> 00:44:30,200
Speaker 1: little creaky elevator up on three up three O nine

721
00:44:30,480 --> 00:44:33,880
Speaker 1: and they get street Broad Street. They I went to

722
00:44:33,920 --> 00:44:39,320
Speaker 1: elementary school right next door at Performing Arts right okay,

723
00:44:39,400 --> 00:44:44,080
Speaker 1: right up the street. Yeah yeah, yeah. And they gave

724
00:44:44,200 --> 00:44:48,160
Speaker 1: us a schedule. Everybody had little office offices with a

725
00:44:48,239 --> 00:44:51,719
Speaker 1: keyboard and a recorder. They gave us a schedule like

726
00:44:51,880 --> 00:44:54,880
Speaker 1: from from ten to twelve we were gonna be with

727
00:44:54,960 --> 00:44:59,360
Speaker 1: Dexter and Cynthia from uh that Tait and then take lunch,

728
00:44:59,600 --> 00:45:02,399
Speaker 1: and then from two to four we be with Met

729
00:45:02,440 --> 00:45:06,440
Speaker 1: Fattening white Head uh and then from six to eight

730
00:45:06,480 --> 00:45:10,040
Speaker 1: we would be with Joe Jefferson, Charlie Boy Simmons. Uh,

731
00:45:10,160 --> 00:45:13,120
Speaker 1: the guys that did, who can I run to? Then uh,

732
00:45:13,160 --> 00:45:19,240
Speaker 1: every every writer and producer got a chance to submit

733
00:45:19,800 --> 00:45:22,919
Speaker 1: their songs within those two hours. And then the next

734
00:45:23,000 --> 00:45:24,759
Speaker 1: day the schedule will start all over it because it

735
00:45:24,840 --> 00:45:27,640
Speaker 1: was so many of them, and then of the and

736
00:45:27,640 --> 00:45:30,839
Speaker 1: then of course also during that time, we would uh

737
00:45:31,440 --> 00:45:33,879
Speaker 1: Gamble and Huff had written their songs, and we would

738
00:45:33,880 --> 00:45:37,480
Speaker 1: get with everybody and we would do little demos of

739
00:45:37,560 --> 00:45:39,840
Speaker 1: the ones that we liked, uh you know, that we

740
00:45:40,400 --> 00:45:43,200
Speaker 1: wanted to do, And then that's how we would uh

741
00:45:43,560 --> 00:45:46,120
Speaker 1: choose which ones we're going to be recorded. We sit

742
00:45:46,200 --> 00:45:47,920
Speaker 1: down with Gamble and Huff at the end of the

743
00:45:47,960 --> 00:45:50,400
Speaker 1: week and they say, well this, we think you all

744
00:45:50,400 --> 00:45:53,160
Speaker 1: should do this one, this one, this one. Can you

745
00:45:53,520 --> 00:45:57,359
Speaker 1: tell us, um what was the I really don't know,

746
00:45:57,440 --> 00:46:02,640
Speaker 1: Like I've always seen Cynthia Bigg's names on credit forever,

747
00:46:02,760 --> 00:46:06,839
Speaker 1: but she's probably the only Philly luminary that I've yet

748
00:46:06,880 --> 00:46:12,440
Speaker 1: to meet or yes, and I tell her all the time,

749
00:46:13,160 --> 00:46:18,440
Speaker 1: she to me is the most underrated writer because she's

750
00:46:18,480 --> 00:46:22,120
Speaker 1: like a Carol King to me, that girl because oh

751
00:46:22,120 --> 00:46:25,399
Speaker 1: my god, yes, I mean love t k O. If

752
00:46:25,480 --> 00:46:31,839
Speaker 1: only you knew living all alone I mean, I mean,

753
00:46:31,920 --> 00:46:36,120
Speaker 1: all of her songs are such classics, and you know,

754
00:46:36,239 --> 00:46:38,799
Speaker 1: a lot of people don't don't realize that, you know,

755
00:46:38,840 --> 00:46:41,200
Speaker 1: because of course she was writing partner with Dexter ones

756
00:46:41,239 --> 00:46:46,279
Speaker 1: out and everybody know dex exactly. But when she was

757
00:46:46,320 --> 00:46:51,680
Speaker 1: telling us how she went to the library to study

758
00:46:51,920 --> 00:46:57,160
Speaker 1: the Egypt during the time of writing, um, of writing

759
00:46:57,320 --> 00:47:00,200
Speaker 1: nights over Egypt because she wanted to make sure or

760
00:47:00,280 --> 00:47:05,360
Speaker 1: that she was lyrically writing to that time period. I

761
00:47:05,440 --> 00:47:08,600
Speaker 1: knew then I'm like this girl, you know. And I've

762
00:47:08,600 --> 00:47:12,320
Speaker 1: gone yeah, and I've gone on to to do demos

763
00:47:12,400 --> 00:47:16,479
Speaker 1: for her on so many beautiful, absolutely beautiful songs that

764
00:47:17,239 --> 00:47:20,440
Speaker 1: um it didn't come out. But I mean, she's incredible

765
00:47:20,520 --> 00:47:24,040
Speaker 1: and absolutely incredible writer. And y'all still speak Sirley, And

766
00:47:24,080 --> 00:47:26,480
Speaker 1: you know where where is she? Oh she's in Philadelphia.

767
00:47:26,760 --> 00:47:30,960
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, Yeah, we gotta find her. I can. I

768
00:47:31,000 --> 00:47:34,640
Speaker 1: can get you in touch with her, absolutely, yeah, yeah,

769
00:47:34,719 --> 00:47:37,959
Speaker 1: because she's she's been written way too many hits. There's

770
00:47:38,000 --> 00:47:40,839
Speaker 1: there's the one song, Um yeah, there's one song I've

771
00:47:40,840 --> 00:47:44,279
Speaker 1: always always been curious about. On your second record, on

772
00:47:44,800 --> 00:47:48,040
Speaker 1: On a Piece of a Woman, there's a song called

773
00:47:48,120 --> 00:47:51,799
Speaker 1: Let's Celebrate m sitting on top of the world. Yeah. Right.

774
00:47:51,880 --> 00:47:54,920
Speaker 1: So the thing is is that I know on the

775
00:47:55,120 --> 00:47:59,000
Speaker 1: rightest credit that I saw both Lou Raws and Teddy

776
00:47:59,000 --> 00:48:03,080
Speaker 1: Pendergrass's knee in the writer's credit. Yeah, they put I

777
00:48:03,120 --> 00:48:06,399
Speaker 1: think it was what was that writing session? Like, like,

778
00:48:06,520 --> 00:48:08,719
Speaker 1: was that real or was that a type of or

779
00:48:09,440 --> 00:48:17,319
Speaker 1: I think because Cynthia, I think that was, to be

780
00:48:17,400 --> 00:48:20,200
Speaker 1: honest with you, In fact, I'm almost sure God they

781
00:48:20,239 --> 00:48:23,120
Speaker 1: put like a lyric or two in there and one

782
00:48:23,280 --> 00:48:27,879
Speaker 1: you know, and because of their name at the time, Yeah,

783
00:48:28,160 --> 00:48:31,279
Speaker 1: they put you know, a few, few, little few of

784
00:48:31,320 --> 00:48:37,640
Speaker 1: the lyrics in there, right. Yeah, it was room bureaucracy,

785
00:48:37,760 --> 00:48:41,279
Speaker 1: you know. But it's just so unusual to see it's

786
00:48:41,360 --> 00:48:46,040
Speaker 1: so random, Like wait, I can't imagine rows Teddy Pendergrass

787
00:48:46,400 --> 00:48:50,799
Speaker 1: right legal at a piano. Yeah, now that's just that's

788
00:48:50,800 --> 00:48:53,840
Speaker 1: just like Cynthia wrote up Love t k O. But

789
00:48:53,840 --> 00:48:57,200
Speaker 1: but Teddy, I think Teddy's name got on there too,

790
00:48:57,320 --> 00:49:00,360
Speaker 1: or no gamble named getting the Gambles Man Womack and

791
00:49:00,600 --> 00:49:04,600
Speaker 1: Mac Yeah, no, oh no, we gotta find Cynthia. Yeah,

792
00:49:04,640 --> 00:49:09,000
Speaker 1: we got find Cynthia. Yeah, I I've definitely um, Laila,

793
00:49:09,080 --> 00:49:12,400
Speaker 1: I'll sent you her number. Well, I'm gonna get in

794
00:49:12,440 --> 00:49:15,560
Speaker 1: contact with her first because we haven't spoken for a while.

795
00:49:15,600 --> 00:49:17,719
Speaker 1: But yeah, I will, yeah and get and get you

796
00:49:17,760 --> 00:49:22,319
Speaker 1: her number and her information. She would love to do it. Yes, that, Yeah,

797
00:49:22,360 --> 00:49:26,279
Speaker 1: I was gonna say, you know, probably when when the

798
00:49:26,320 --> 00:49:30,880
Speaker 1: smoke clears, I would say that the average Jones girlfan

799
00:49:32,120 --> 00:49:35,680
Speaker 1: will always put nights over Egypt as they're almost their

800
00:49:35,760 --> 00:49:41,680
Speaker 1: top song, which was so unusual at the time. Yes,

801
00:49:44,120 --> 00:49:47,319
Speaker 1: what the genesis of the song and how did it

802
00:49:48,120 --> 00:49:51,040
Speaker 1: wind up in your hands? Well, it wound up in

803
00:49:51,080 --> 00:49:55,280
Speaker 1: our hands. Dextra and Cynthia presented it to us and

804
00:49:55,560 --> 00:49:59,480
Speaker 1: we actually ended up court recording it thanks to my

805
00:49:59,560 --> 00:50:02,520
Speaker 1: baby sister Valerie, because Brenda and I did not want

806
00:50:02,560 --> 00:50:05,640
Speaker 1: to do the song. We thought it was too jazzy

807
00:50:05,760 --> 00:50:09,040
Speaker 1: and coming behind I just loved the man and You're

808
00:50:09,080 --> 00:50:11,120
Speaker 1: gonna make me love somebody else. We thought it was

809
00:50:11,160 --> 00:50:15,480
Speaker 1: too jazzy. So we sat down and uh, we had

810
00:50:15,520 --> 00:50:19,200
Speaker 1: a comment. It was like from Brenda, Valerie, myself, Dexter

811
00:50:19,360 --> 00:50:22,520
Speaker 1: and Cynthia, and we said, well that I said, because

812
00:50:22,520 --> 00:50:25,040
Speaker 1: it's I said, the music is just all it's so different.

813
00:50:25,080 --> 00:50:27,680
Speaker 1: It's so different, and Dexter said, yes, it is, and

814
00:50:27,800 --> 00:50:31,680
Speaker 1: so then Valerie said, so it's beautiful. She says, so

815
00:50:31,760 --> 00:50:34,880
Speaker 1: what we should do is do a different type of

816
00:50:35,080 --> 00:50:38,400
Speaker 1: back of singing on it. And we're like what Valerie,

817
00:50:38,760 --> 00:50:42,160
Speaker 1: And so we after talking, she said why not have

818
00:50:42,440 --> 00:50:46,840
Speaker 1: no lead singer? But you know how Mom always said,

819
00:50:47,760 --> 00:50:52,120
Speaker 1: let's let let the unisons and harmonies be a lead.

820
00:50:52,440 --> 00:50:54,160
Speaker 1: And then with me and Brenda and I said hello,

821
00:50:54,200 --> 00:50:56,920
Speaker 1: and then Dexa and Cynthia said hey, that's that's and

822
00:50:57,200 --> 00:51:00,360
Speaker 1: let's let's try that. We went in the studio to aches.

823
00:51:01,239 --> 00:51:05,120
Speaker 1: After rehearsing, Brendan, Valery and I got together and we

824
00:51:05,200 --> 00:51:07,440
Speaker 1: did We decided where we were gonna do the units

825
00:51:07,480 --> 00:51:10,000
Speaker 1: and where we were gonna do the harmonies. Two takes.

826
00:51:10,040 --> 00:51:13,520
Speaker 1: It took us, and it was done. I knew then

827
00:51:13,600 --> 00:51:16,600
Speaker 1: that that was a special song because a lot of

828
00:51:16,640 --> 00:51:18,520
Speaker 1: the other songs like You're Gonna Make Me Love Somebody

829
00:51:18,560 --> 00:51:20,479
Speaker 1: Else and who Can I Run to? It took more

830
00:51:20,560 --> 00:51:23,839
Speaker 1: takes than than two to get it right to the

831
00:51:23,880 --> 00:51:27,120
Speaker 1: plane of where everybody felt comfortable that this was a hit.

832
00:51:27,640 --> 00:51:31,840
Speaker 1: But it was just two takes with nights over Egypt. Wow,

833
00:51:32,120 --> 00:51:37,719
Speaker 1: Yeah for me, what that's like? Yeah? And it's amazing too,

834
00:51:37,800 --> 00:51:41,799
Speaker 1: because it was actually the third single. Valeriees also the

835
00:51:41,840 --> 00:51:45,080
Speaker 1: one that said that should be the first single. Uh

836
00:51:45,120 --> 00:51:49,080
Speaker 1: and but during that time, Bamber and Huff always had

837
00:51:49,200 --> 00:51:51,360
Speaker 1: to have the first single on the Jones Girls, and

838
00:51:51,360 --> 00:51:54,800
Speaker 1: then it just become but Valerie, she was so upset,

839
00:51:55,320 --> 00:51:57,480
Speaker 1: Nights Over Egypt should be the first single off of

840
00:51:57,560 --> 00:51:59,120
Speaker 1: that get as Much Love as you Can now. But

841
00:51:59,400 --> 00:52:02,160
Speaker 1: and it actually came off as a third single. And

842
00:52:02,200 --> 00:52:06,920
Speaker 1: that's only because Quiet Storm just forgot about finally found

843
00:52:06,960 --> 00:52:08,920
Speaker 1: that man of mind and get as as Love as

844
00:52:08,920 --> 00:52:12,520
Speaker 1: you Can singles, and they everybody across the country's just

845
00:52:12,520 --> 00:52:17,200
Speaker 1: started playing Nights Over each other? Yeah, Quiet Storm Radio.

846
00:52:17,400 --> 00:52:19,479
Speaker 1: Was there ever a debate about that intro? Like, y'all,

847
00:52:19,920 --> 00:52:22,200
Speaker 1: was there ever a debate like this is way too long,

848
00:52:22,280 --> 00:52:23,919
Speaker 1: we need to come into it? Was it or didn't?

849
00:52:23,960 --> 00:52:25,560
Speaker 1: From the moment you heard the intro, you were like,

850
00:52:25,880 --> 00:52:27,839
Speaker 1: all right, that makes I mean, I know you thought

851
00:52:27,840 --> 00:52:29,160
Speaker 1: it was crazy when you first heard it. But when

852
00:52:29,200 --> 00:52:32,720
Speaker 1: y'all all together for the song the Hunt, no we

853
00:52:32,719 --> 00:52:35,239
Speaker 1: we we were, I mean we were grooving off of it.

854
00:52:35,320 --> 00:52:38,759
Speaker 1: And but the breakdown, you know, when I do it

855
00:52:38,840 --> 00:52:41,880
Speaker 1: on stage the first time I tried to must be

856
00:52:41,880 --> 00:52:46,040
Speaker 1: your nightmare? For your being Oh my god, not oh

857
00:52:46,120 --> 00:52:49,840
Speaker 1: and I right, they have to get it right. And

858
00:52:49,880 --> 00:52:52,920
Speaker 1: then when I when I cut it down to um,

859
00:52:53,400 --> 00:52:56,120
Speaker 1: you know, to take out the instrumental part, oh my god,

860
00:52:56,160 --> 00:52:59,799
Speaker 1: they would all like, no, you can't take this. Let's

861
00:52:59,800 --> 00:53:05,319
Speaker 1: get that, you know. So I had oh man, but

862
00:53:05,400 --> 00:53:09,319
Speaker 1: I've let keyboard players go auditioning for me because they

863
00:53:09,320 --> 00:53:12,279
Speaker 1: couldn't get it. They could not get it right. It

864
00:53:12,400 --> 00:53:16,839
Speaker 1: has to be right. They would do everything like now

865
00:53:17,000 --> 00:53:20,719
Speaker 1: and and Dexter would laugh. I said Dexter that when

866
00:53:20,800 --> 00:53:24,359
Speaker 1: when keyboard players auditioned, if they don't get it, they're

867
00:53:24,360 --> 00:53:32,799
Speaker 1: out of there. I can't don't don't right? That turned around, Yeah,

868
00:53:33,040 --> 00:53:38,120
Speaker 1: I can your beings right now? Sweat and looping that

869
00:53:38,719 --> 00:53:40,839
Speaker 1: over and over and over again. I do not want

870
00:53:40,840 --> 00:53:48,480
Speaker 1: to be the m D for that particular right in

871
00:53:48,480 --> 00:53:51,960
Speaker 1: in eighty three, you guys made a curious move, okay

872
00:53:52,000 --> 00:53:57,160
Speaker 1: for starters. Can you explain, because you're probably the first

873
00:53:57,920 --> 00:54:03,080
Speaker 1: Philly international artist that we've had pre eight one on

874
00:54:03,160 --> 00:54:09,360
Speaker 1: the show, can you explain to me how the after

875
00:54:09,400 --> 00:54:16,280
Speaker 1: effect of Teddy Pendergrass's car accident affected the entire label,

876
00:54:17,040 --> 00:54:20,080
Speaker 1: because I can only assume that there was a slow

877
00:54:20,239 --> 00:54:25,839
Speaker 1: implosion Affilier International after eight two because most acts will

878
00:54:26,000 --> 00:54:30,239
Speaker 1: half the acts will leave the label a year later. Um.

879
00:54:30,280 --> 00:54:33,000
Speaker 1: Of course, you know the signature gambling huf sound even

880
00:54:33,000 --> 00:54:36,120
Speaker 1: though Paddle a Bill sort of kept the the lights on,

881
00:54:36,200 --> 00:54:41,680
Speaker 1: if you will, um pretty much. You know, every act

882
00:54:41,840 --> 00:54:47,040
Speaker 1: was was going elsewhere. Uh, you know, to to figure

883
00:54:47,160 --> 00:54:52,440
Speaker 1: the eighties out. So did did this accident actually have

884
00:54:52,560 --> 00:54:55,279
Speaker 1: an effect on the entire label as far as it

885
00:54:56,040 --> 00:54:59,279
Speaker 1: being a label being operational as far as in the

886
00:54:59,360 --> 00:55:02,960
Speaker 1: eyes of well, I knew that Clive Davis wasn't running

887
00:55:03,000 --> 00:55:07,120
Speaker 1: Filly in the National at the end of its running.

888
00:55:07,120 --> 00:55:11,439
Speaker 1: He signed the label to Colombia in seventy three. But yeah,

889
00:55:11,520 --> 00:55:15,279
Speaker 1: what what was just what was the general atmosphere of

890
00:55:15,360 --> 00:55:21,759
Speaker 1: the label in the late two Yeah, that accident was

891
00:55:23,280 --> 00:55:28,000
Speaker 1: that was It affected the label because I mean Teddy

892
00:55:28,360 --> 00:55:32,120
Speaker 1: Teddy was the he was the hot guy. You know,

893
00:55:32,239 --> 00:55:35,640
Speaker 1: he was the main the main success at that point.

894
00:55:35,760 --> 00:55:37,640
Speaker 1: And I mean we were we were doing okay, though

895
00:55:37,840 --> 00:55:39,600
Speaker 1: Jay's I think they were getting ready to leave, if

896
00:55:39,600 --> 00:55:43,839
Speaker 1: they hadn't already left, and I think Billy Paul had

897
00:55:43,920 --> 00:55:47,319
Speaker 1: left or was in the process of leaving UM and

898
00:55:47,480 --> 00:55:50,320
Speaker 1: things were just changing. I mean Disco by this time

899
00:55:50,480 --> 00:55:54,160
Speaker 1: was just taking it had taken over everything, and and

900
00:55:54,200 --> 00:55:57,640
Speaker 1: Gamble and Huff was still writing basic h R and B.

901
00:55:57,840 --> 00:56:02,680
Speaker 1: You know the that that sound. Um, so it affected

902
00:56:02,680 --> 00:56:05,399
Speaker 1: it to the point where I think that was when

903
00:56:05,440 --> 00:56:09,560
Speaker 1: when Philly International really started, um going down and we

904
00:56:09,680 --> 00:56:12,759
Speaker 1: of course, um, we weren't sure if Kenny was going

905
00:56:12,880 --> 00:56:17,040
Speaker 1: to resign us, and we were having a lot of

906
00:56:17,080 --> 00:56:20,000
Speaker 1: internal by this time, we were having a lot of

907
00:56:20,040 --> 00:56:25,000
Speaker 1: internal problems group. And my sisters and I yes, as sisters,

908
00:56:25,040 --> 00:56:28,319
Speaker 1: and um, well that's the one question I didn't ask

909
00:56:28,680 --> 00:56:34,120
Speaker 1: how how do you guys navigate as a group as

910
00:56:34,200 --> 00:56:39,279
Speaker 1: business partners but also you know, as I mean your

911
00:56:39,280 --> 00:56:41,399
Speaker 1: sisters at the you know, at the end of the day.

912
00:56:41,440 --> 00:56:44,600
Speaker 1: So it's almost like you don't have an option to

913
00:56:44,640 --> 00:56:47,640
Speaker 1: not to go to bed angry about something or yeah,

914
00:56:47,719 --> 00:56:52,400
Speaker 1: we didn't. For for a long time. Everything was fine, um,

915
00:56:52,440 --> 00:56:57,279
Speaker 1: but then after the second album, we it became you

916
00:56:57,320 --> 00:57:02,040
Speaker 1: know more and more, uh pronounce certain certain things that

917
00:57:02,040 --> 00:57:06,720
Speaker 1: that we were dealing with internally, and uh we decided

918
00:57:06,840 --> 00:57:11,640
Speaker 1: that's uh. And a lot of it was over who

919
00:57:11,719 --> 00:57:17,919
Speaker 1: was gonna who was gonna be lead singer was yeah,

920
00:57:18,960 --> 00:57:21,400
Speaker 1: because I know the whole thing, like, let's all be unison.

921
00:57:21,720 --> 00:57:23,440
Speaker 1: But at the end of the day, it's like someone

922
00:57:23,480 --> 00:57:26,000
Speaker 1: at the label has to be like, look y'all, we're

923
00:57:26,000 --> 00:57:29,560
Speaker 1: gonna have to focus on somebody here, so we'll see.

924
00:57:29,600 --> 00:57:32,960
Speaker 1: What happened was when we went into Gamble and Huff.

925
00:57:33,480 --> 00:57:36,320
Speaker 1: My sisters were so used to all of us sharing

926
00:57:36,440 --> 00:57:41,960
Speaker 1: lead and everything, but Gamble and Huff who had to

927
00:57:42,320 --> 00:57:45,080
Speaker 1: had to sit Brenda down in particular because they had

928
00:57:45,120 --> 00:57:48,600
Speaker 1: always been this thing that she felt she should be

929
00:57:48,680 --> 00:57:52,520
Speaker 1: the lead singer. But after the first album and the

930
00:57:52,640 --> 00:57:58,840
Speaker 1: success of that first album, Kenny had to tell Brenda that,

931
00:57:58,960 --> 00:58:03,200
Speaker 1: he said loud, every group has a signature voice now,

932
00:58:03,360 --> 00:58:08,240
Speaker 1: and we feel that the most commercial signature voice for

933
00:58:08,320 --> 00:58:11,960
Speaker 1: the Jones Girls and Shurely, So yes, we're gonna, We're gonna,

934
00:58:12,120 --> 00:58:14,960
Speaker 1: you know, have you do some songs, but the bulk

935
00:58:15,040 --> 00:58:17,720
Speaker 1: of the songs we want, we want Shorley to do.

936
00:58:18,320 --> 00:58:22,080
Speaker 1: And that was always an issue between Brenda and I

937
00:58:22,720 --> 00:58:26,320
Speaker 1: um and that that was the main cause of us

938
00:58:26,760 --> 00:58:32,480
Speaker 1: breaking up for the final time. Yes on the third album,

939
00:58:32,760 --> 00:58:36,520
Speaker 1: not the third album, the fourth album on Target. I

940
00:58:36,600 --> 00:58:39,640
Speaker 1: know that you guys went to our c A. What

941
00:58:40,160 --> 00:58:45,840
Speaker 1: caused the split from International and week we weren't sure

942
00:58:46,080 --> 00:58:50,160
Speaker 1: that he was gonna sign us, and Brenda uh became

943
00:58:50,240 --> 00:58:54,160
Speaker 1: friends with Robert Wright, who's now deceased, and and Fanzie

944
00:58:54,160 --> 00:59:00,600
Speaker 1: Thornton Um. Robert was yes, my Fanzie and he um.

945
00:59:00,800 --> 00:59:04,160
Speaker 1: Robert Wright and Fonzi got together and Robert was the

946
00:59:04,160 --> 00:59:06,960
Speaker 1: head of r c A at that point, and he

947
00:59:07,040 --> 00:59:09,880
Speaker 1: and Brenda had become friends, and I think he had

948
00:59:09,920 --> 00:59:12,360
Speaker 1: kind of told her, you know, that cheap it would

949
00:59:12,400 --> 00:59:20,080
Speaker 1: be more equal um leads. Yeah, So we got over

950
00:59:20,120 --> 00:59:24,960
Speaker 1: there and the same situation happened once. Once they would

951
00:59:25,040 --> 00:59:29,040
Speaker 1: hear my voice on the songs that Fonzi and Robert

952
00:59:29,120 --> 00:59:32,720
Speaker 1: wrote they wanted me, and that set up an issue

953
00:59:32,800 --> 00:59:36,400
Speaker 1: between Brenda and Robert and me. And then you know,

954
00:59:37,280 --> 00:59:39,680
Speaker 1: and that's why it was just that one album. But

955
00:59:39,760 --> 00:59:42,400
Speaker 1: the interesting thing is is that we had an album

956
00:59:42,400 --> 00:59:47,040
Speaker 1: in the can at Philly International that Kenny Burke had done,

957
00:59:48,240 --> 00:59:52,040
Speaker 1: Keep It Coming, Yeah, and he gamble released that in

958
00:59:52,160 --> 00:59:56,040
Speaker 1: that album. He released that like three months after our

959
00:59:56,120 --> 00:59:59,040
Speaker 1: c A, I think, and that album did better than

960
00:59:59,200 --> 01:00:04,320
Speaker 1: the Ontargot album. So and then and then from there, Uh,

961
01:00:04,400 --> 01:00:06,959
Speaker 1: that's when the group broke up totally, you know. And

962
01:00:06,960 --> 01:00:09,520
Speaker 1: and then I Gamble called me to come back to

963
01:00:09,640 --> 01:00:12,440
Speaker 1: do my solo project. Yeah, I know, I know that,

964
01:00:12,640 --> 01:00:16,840
Speaker 1: um oftentimes, and you know, it's it's always like the

965
01:00:17,760 --> 01:00:22,440
Speaker 1: similar to the supreme situation where it's like sometimes the

966
01:00:22,480 --> 01:00:26,640
Speaker 1: best singer or the most the best singer or the

967
01:00:26,640 --> 01:00:28,840
Speaker 1: best voice of the strongest voice, whatever, it doesn't mean

968
01:00:28,840 --> 01:00:32,440
Speaker 1: the most commercial voice. And a lot of times people don't,

969
01:00:34,000 --> 01:00:38,680
Speaker 1: you know, I think people understand in hindsight, yes, after

970
01:00:38,720 --> 01:00:41,040
Speaker 1: the fact, after the fact. And I would tell Brenda

971
01:00:41,120 --> 01:00:47,360
Speaker 1: all the time. Brenda has that really mid tone tones

972
01:00:47,400 --> 01:00:49,760
Speaker 1: in her voice, but she could also sing very high,

973
01:00:49,760 --> 01:00:52,640
Speaker 1: but her voice is so full, and I used to

974
01:00:52,640 --> 01:00:55,560
Speaker 1: tell her, you have a beautiful voice. You could just

975
01:00:55,720 --> 01:00:57,720
Speaker 1: you know, do do the songs that they that they

976
01:00:57,760 --> 01:01:00,040
Speaker 1: put Like I closed my eyes on one of the

977
01:01:00,080 --> 01:01:04,480
Speaker 1: album she's doing and uh, that Keep It Coming album.

978
01:01:04,760 --> 01:01:07,880
Speaker 1: You can hear the tones in her voice that were

979
01:01:07,920 --> 01:01:11,680
Speaker 1: just rich and that that's why I couldn't understand why

980
01:01:11,720 --> 01:01:15,640
Speaker 1: she just always, always always it was such a battle too.

981
01:01:16,160 --> 01:01:19,600
Speaker 1: Or even when I the UH for Unsung, when Kenny

982
01:01:19,600 --> 01:01:21,800
Speaker 1: and I were talking about when he was getting ready

983
01:01:21,840 --> 01:01:23,840
Speaker 1: to do his own song part, he said, you know,

984
01:01:23,880 --> 01:01:26,600
Speaker 1: I never thought Brenda liked me when after after I

985
01:01:26,640 --> 01:01:30,040
Speaker 1: sat down and told you all that it was your voice,

986
01:01:33,320 --> 01:01:35,600
Speaker 1: he said, I don't think she ever really liked me.

987
01:01:35,720 --> 01:01:38,400
Speaker 1: I said, well, Kenny, I don't think she liked me either,

988
01:01:38,520 --> 01:01:41,680
Speaker 1: and I was a sister. But because that, that was

989
01:01:41,720 --> 01:01:44,320
Speaker 1: a hard conversation that he did, but he had to

990
01:01:44,360 --> 01:01:47,200
Speaker 1: have it. So I'm curious too, though, because you guys

991
01:01:47,240 --> 01:01:49,560
Speaker 1: have been singing since you guys were a little even

992
01:01:49,640 --> 01:01:52,680
Speaker 1: in with your mom, was there ever any conversations to

993
01:01:52,840 --> 01:01:55,680
Speaker 1: help prevent these kind of moments like listen, girls, they're

994
01:01:55,720 --> 01:01:57,520
Speaker 1: gonna try to break you up or listen girls. Somebody

995
01:01:57,560 --> 01:02:01,040
Speaker 1: makes sure she did. She did, My mom did, and

996
01:02:01,880 --> 01:02:05,280
Speaker 1: we I mean we were the best of friends. Uh

997
01:02:05,320 --> 01:02:08,919
Speaker 1: we never uh fought because she always said don't fight.

998
01:02:09,120 --> 01:02:11,560
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, verbally we would go at each other,

999
01:02:11,600 --> 01:02:14,680
Speaker 1: but we would never physically because you know, we we

1000
01:02:14,680 --> 01:02:18,960
Speaker 1: weren't raised in that kind of environment. But um, both

1001
01:02:18,960 --> 01:02:22,200
Speaker 1: of my sisters, which runs in our family, both had

1002
01:02:22,880 --> 01:02:29,240
Speaker 1: serious alcohol problems that developed with Valerie. It started, you

1003
01:02:29,240 --> 01:02:32,960
Speaker 1: know with the ending part with Diana Ross and we

1004
01:02:33,000 --> 01:02:35,800
Speaker 1: found out about that a little later, but then with

1005
01:02:35,920 --> 01:02:39,400
Speaker 1: both for them, once we really after that once that

1006
01:02:39,560 --> 01:02:43,800
Speaker 1: first Jones girls record, it just became more and more prevalent,

1007
01:02:44,000 --> 01:02:48,320
Speaker 1: and that and and then the jealousy issues as far

1008
01:02:48,360 --> 01:02:51,320
Speaker 1: as leading is what broke broke the group up and

1009
01:02:51,480 --> 01:02:55,640
Speaker 1: is what killed both of my sisters. Alcohol. Well, Brenda

1010
01:02:55,720 --> 01:02:59,200
Speaker 1: was struck by three cars, but it was because as

1011
01:02:59,240 --> 01:03:01,560
Speaker 1: far as I as far as I know, all I

1012
01:03:01,640 --> 01:03:06,720
Speaker 1: know is that the police officers that had seen told

1013
01:03:06,800 --> 01:03:11,160
Speaker 1: me that that day. Earlier in the day, they had

1014
01:03:11,200 --> 01:03:15,120
Speaker 1: seen her walking down the street crying in Dover, Delaware,

1015
01:03:15,160 --> 01:03:18,480
Speaker 1: and they took her back to her hotel and told

1016
01:03:18,480 --> 01:03:21,640
Speaker 1: her because they said she let him in and everything,

1017
01:03:21,680 --> 01:03:24,960
Speaker 1: and they told her, please, you know, stay in your room,

1018
01:03:25,040 --> 01:03:29,440
Speaker 1: contact your daughter, but don't go back out. And I

1019
01:03:29,560 --> 01:03:32,080
Speaker 1: told them, I God, I wish they had had my

1020
01:03:32,200 --> 01:03:34,320
Speaker 1: number or something at that time, because she was not

1021
01:03:34,360 --> 01:03:37,840
Speaker 1: gonna stay in that room, you know. Um, So that

1022
01:03:38,080 --> 01:03:41,840
Speaker 1: that that's what That's what happened there in in two

1023
01:03:42,160 --> 01:03:46,480
Speaker 1: seventeen with her Valerie uh in two in two thousand one,

1024
01:03:47,200 --> 01:03:49,520
Speaker 1: uh she had she had just said that she was

1025
01:03:49,600 --> 01:03:53,800
Speaker 1: not going to she was she wanted my mom to

1026
01:03:53,880 --> 01:03:56,920
Speaker 1: check her in because she was tired and she really

1027
01:03:57,520 --> 01:03:59,680
Speaker 1: wanted She knew that bren and I were talking about

1028
01:03:59,760 --> 01:04:03,440
Speaker 1: maybe doing something together with her again. And in two

1029
01:04:03,520 --> 01:04:06,120
Speaker 1: thousand one and she had just said, well Monday, I

1030
01:04:06,120 --> 01:04:08,640
Speaker 1: want you to take me um and she died from

1031
01:04:08,800 --> 01:04:13,920
Speaker 1: you know, from her liver um. Yeah, conversation we had

1032
01:04:13,960 --> 01:04:17,440
Speaker 1: about the Olympics and people taking a mental break, totally

1033
01:04:18,560 --> 01:04:21,920
Speaker 1: mental health. And then and that's why I um, I

1034
01:04:21,960 --> 01:04:24,840
Speaker 1: told the people from Unsung. You know, they did a

1035
01:04:24,960 --> 01:04:29,560
Speaker 1: great job of telling the story because both of my sisters,

1036
01:04:29,760 --> 01:04:34,400
Speaker 1: the drinking and and then the Brenda's in Brenda's case,

1037
01:04:34,440 --> 01:04:39,800
Speaker 1: taking those opioids because uh to to just kill the pain.

1038
01:04:39,960 --> 01:04:44,240
Speaker 1: She was constantly in pain, she said, and instead of

1039
01:04:44,400 --> 01:04:48,120
Speaker 1: getting the help that she needed it. But but with

1040
01:04:48,160 --> 01:04:51,040
Speaker 1: her it, I was constantly telling her, Brenda, you're in

1041
01:04:51,160 --> 01:04:55,920
Speaker 1: pain because you really don't need more alcohol or another pill.

1042
01:04:56,040 --> 01:05:00,520
Speaker 1: You need to go talk to somebody. And she I said, come,

1043
01:05:00,680 --> 01:05:02,720
Speaker 1: you know, come talk to me. Come come, you know,

1044
01:05:02,800 --> 01:05:06,520
Speaker 1: we could talk, but she she wasn't ready, she wasn't

1045
01:05:06,520 --> 01:05:10,720
Speaker 1: ready to admit what was happening. And you know she's

1046
01:05:10,760 --> 01:05:12,760
Speaker 1: no longer here because of it. And then her both

1047
01:05:12,800 --> 01:05:15,520
Speaker 1: of her daughters were in denial too, and I told them,

1048
01:05:15,560 --> 01:05:17,439
Speaker 1: I said, you guys are the only ones that could

1049
01:05:17,520 --> 01:05:22,320
Speaker 1: physically take her somewhere to get help and they refused

1050
01:05:22,360 --> 01:05:28,120
Speaker 1: to do it. Wow, yeah, that's important, Like, oh, you

1051
01:05:28,240 --> 01:05:33,040
Speaker 1: have to And it's because mentally, like you know, this

1052
01:05:33,120 --> 01:05:35,680
Speaker 1: pandemic and this year and a half of just being

1053
01:05:35,720 --> 01:05:38,320
Speaker 1: in the house has almost driven me crazy. But I

1054
01:05:38,440 --> 01:05:40,720
Speaker 1: have a firm foundation. You know, I got my grand

1055
01:05:40,720 --> 01:05:44,280
Speaker 1: I got three grand babies, little ones, a seven month

1056
01:05:44,360 --> 01:05:47,160
Speaker 1: old and to three year olds that you know, they

1057
01:05:47,600 --> 01:05:50,000
Speaker 1: give me all the life that you took to want

1058
01:05:50,000 --> 01:05:55,840
Speaker 1: to keep you stay out there exactly. That's important. Um,

1059
01:05:55,960 --> 01:05:58,680
Speaker 1: We're like, so were you able at all to just

1060
01:05:58,800 --> 01:06:03,800
Speaker 1: have sort of a moment of reconciliation with them after

1061
01:06:03,960 --> 01:06:10,120
Speaker 1: after the group? Yeah, and even um, I want to say,

1062
01:06:10,560 --> 01:06:13,440
Speaker 1: before Valerie passed, she we we She and I were.

1063
01:06:13,600 --> 01:06:15,840
Speaker 1: We were on good terms because of the boys. We

1064
01:06:15,920 --> 01:06:19,200
Speaker 1: both have sons that are both in the music business,

1065
01:06:19,240 --> 01:06:21,080
Speaker 1: and they just they got an e p K out

1066
01:06:21,080 --> 01:06:25,040
Speaker 1: now doing uh six of our songs hip hop style

1067
01:06:25,640 --> 01:06:30,120
Speaker 1: Cameron and uh Cameron and PJ. And then with Brenda

1068
01:06:30,240 --> 01:06:33,400
Speaker 1: thank god we had. She and I had not spoken

1069
01:06:34,120 --> 01:06:38,840
Speaker 1: about for about three or four years, and right Sien

1070
01:06:39,600 --> 01:06:45,600
Speaker 1: we started speaking again and talking and seen. Um. The

1071
01:06:45,680 --> 01:06:49,120
Speaker 1: year that she passed, it was April three of seventeen,

1072
01:06:49,240 --> 01:06:52,920
Speaker 1: she was coming. I was doing Essence. Mary J. Blanche

1073
01:06:53,040 --> 01:06:56,160
Speaker 1: got me on the Essence Music Festival, and I had

1074
01:06:56,200 --> 01:06:58,600
Speaker 1: just told her Diana was there the night before, and

1075
01:06:58,640 --> 01:07:01,680
Speaker 1: she said, surely, why don't we go. I'll meet you

1076
01:07:01,720 --> 01:07:04,880
Speaker 1: there and we'll go backstage and say hi to Diana.

1077
01:07:05,160 --> 01:07:07,720
Speaker 1: And I said okay, I said, and don't be surprised

1078
01:07:07,720 --> 01:07:11,960
Speaker 1: if I bring you up on stage to perform with me. Uh.

1079
01:07:12,040 --> 01:07:14,800
Speaker 1: The next night, I said, so are you ready? She said, yeah,

1080
01:07:14,800 --> 01:07:18,600
Speaker 1: I'm ready. I'm ready. Um, but she says, so I'm

1081
01:07:18,600 --> 01:07:20,960
Speaker 1: gonna meet you there. I said, I'm but yes. I

1082
01:07:21,040 --> 01:07:23,080
Speaker 1: knew she was still having issues, but I felt that

1083
01:07:23,120 --> 01:07:25,960
Speaker 1: if she, if I could get her there, that would help,

1084
01:07:26,120 --> 01:07:29,880
Speaker 1: you know, encourage her, especially to yeah, you know, to

1085
01:07:30,080 --> 01:07:32,560
Speaker 1: to see the love that people have for the group.

1086
01:07:33,440 --> 01:07:37,800
Speaker 1: But yeah, that night before she passed, we had just

1087
01:07:37,840 --> 01:07:40,560
Speaker 1: talked and I said, okay, now, um, yeah, I'm ready

1088
01:07:40,560 --> 01:07:42,760
Speaker 1: to get your plane tickets so you could fly because

1089
01:07:42,760 --> 01:07:44,720
Speaker 1: she was in she was in Uh. I didn't know.

1090
01:07:44,840 --> 01:07:46,560
Speaker 1: I thought she was in New York, but she was

1091
01:07:46,600 --> 01:07:49,960
Speaker 1: in Dover, Delaware with her daughter. And she says, all right, Well,

1092
01:07:50,160 --> 01:07:52,200
Speaker 1: I said, so I'm gonna call you tomorrow and give

1093
01:07:52,240 --> 01:07:57,080
Speaker 1: you the plane information. And then eleven o'clock that morning, Um,

1094
01:07:57,280 --> 01:07:59,280
Speaker 1: is when I got the phone call that she had

1095
01:08:00,160 --> 01:08:06,600
Speaker 1: three cars. So yeah, yeah, but you know, I I

1096
01:08:06,960 --> 01:08:09,280
Speaker 1: feel them every time I'm on stage, every time I'm

1097
01:08:09,320 --> 01:08:12,480
Speaker 1: in the studio, and I'd be laughing sometimes because I

1098
01:08:12,480 --> 01:08:15,120
Speaker 1: I hear Valerie drilling me till my sureley that that

1099
01:08:15,240 --> 01:08:17,559
Speaker 1: notices a little sharp you need to come down, or

1100
01:08:17,800 --> 01:08:20,360
Speaker 1: and you know, or Brenda cracking some kind of jokes.

1101
01:08:20,439 --> 01:08:23,520
Speaker 1: So that's that's one of the reasons. It's my therapy

1102
01:08:23,720 --> 01:08:28,320
Speaker 1: is continuing the legacy and and singing, you know, singing

1103
01:08:28,800 --> 01:08:34,519
Speaker 1: and performing for the audiences. Um can I ask, what

1104
01:08:34,520 --> 01:08:37,599
Speaker 1: what did it feel like when you struck out on

1105
01:08:37,640 --> 01:08:42,599
Speaker 1: your own and finally got your number one song? Yeah?

1106
01:08:42,760 --> 01:08:46,960
Speaker 1: I was, Uh, you're talking about excited because uh, we

1107
01:08:47,000 --> 01:08:49,080
Speaker 1: had never had a number one. We had had like

1108
01:08:49,120 --> 01:08:52,000
Speaker 1: a number three and number five, you know, but we

1109
01:08:52,040 --> 01:08:55,320
Speaker 1: had never had a number one. And when they called

1110
01:08:55,360 --> 01:08:58,719
Speaker 1: me and told me that it had went to number one, Uh,

1111
01:08:58,800 --> 01:09:01,720
Speaker 1: I was like, oh my god, you don't you can't. Now.

1112
01:09:01,800 --> 01:09:03,479
Speaker 1: I was in Chicago on my way up to do

1113
01:09:03,560 --> 01:09:07,320
Speaker 1: an interview for Jet magazine and um. Once we got

1114
01:09:07,360 --> 01:09:09,800
Speaker 1: up there is when Nick Kenny called to say, you

1115
01:09:09,880 --> 01:09:12,080
Speaker 1: got the number one record, girl, And I'm like, what

1116
01:09:12,640 --> 01:09:14,880
Speaker 1: you know? And I think because I think us in

1117
01:09:15,040 --> 01:09:18,559
Speaker 1: Sweet Love had been battling, uh going up and then

1118
01:09:19,200 --> 01:09:21,600
Speaker 1: uh it stayed there for a couple of weeks, and

1119
01:09:21,680 --> 01:09:24,920
Speaker 1: I was happy, so happy about that. Now. The first

1120
01:09:24,960 --> 01:09:29,080
Speaker 1: performance was scary because I called myself. I went back

1121
01:09:29,120 --> 01:09:31,519
Speaker 1: to Charlie Atkins and and he said, well, let's just

1122
01:09:31,560 --> 01:09:36,639
Speaker 1: take it a completely you you don't have to dance now,

1123
01:09:36,680 --> 01:09:41,800
Speaker 1: baby you. But but I decided to have, um, two

1124
01:09:41,840 --> 01:09:44,639
Speaker 1: guys and a girl so that to take away from

1125
01:09:45,160 --> 01:09:48,920
Speaker 1: the Jones girls as background singers, and he put a

1126
01:09:49,000 --> 01:09:53,800
Speaker 1: terrific show together. Um. And the first night I was

1127
01:09:53,920 --> 01:09:57,200
Speaker 1: so scared. It was in in d C at Constitution Hall.

1128
01:09:57,439 --> 01:10:02,160
Speaker 1: I was with Maize and Yeah and I and it

1129
01:10:02,240 --> 01:10:03,680
Speaker 1: was you know, I was like, I don't know how

1130
01:10:03,720 --> 01:10:06,040
Speaker 1: people are gonna accept, you know, the two guys and

1131
01:10:06,080 --> 01:10:09,120
Speaker 1: a girl and me, especially when I'm doing most of

1132
01:10:09,160 --> 01:10:11,360
Speaker 1: the songs. I mean, what Joe. I had to do

1133
01:10:11,439 --> 01:10:13,640
Speaker 1: Jones girl stuff because do you get enough? Love was

1134
01:10:13,680 --> 01:10:18,280
Speaker 1: the only thing I had had. And when I, um,

1135
01:10:18,360 --> 01:10:20,519
Speaker 1: when I did it, when I did it. At getting

1136
01:10:20,520 --> 01:10:23,680
Speaker 1: ready to leave my hotel room, they brought up like

1137
01:10:23,800 --> 01:10:27,880
Speaker 1: two dozen yellow roses from Diana Ross and she said,

1138
01:10:27,960 --> 01:10:31,680
Speaker 1: get it, go get them girl number one and I

1139
01:10:32,160 --> 01:10:35,800
Speaker 1: and I yeah, you know, and I was. It made

1140
01:10:35,800 --> 01:10:39,920
Speaker 1: me feel so good just to go out there and perform.

1141
01:10:39,960 --> 01:10:43,000
Speaker 1: And I did. I did good. I mean I toured

1142
01:10:43,000 --> 01:10:46,840
Speaker 1: with them for seven months, so that makes to it. Yeah,

1143
01:10:47,000 --> 01:10:50,639
Speaker 1: I did good. I guess including I don't ask like

1144
01:10:50,800 --> 01:10:55,800
Speaker 1: what what do you what do you want or or

1145
01:10:55,960 --> 01:10:59,200
Speaker 1: or is there uh, sort of like a bucket list

1146
01:11:00,479 --> 01:11:03,080
Speaker 1: achievement that you you yet to do, that you would

1147
01:11:03,120 --> 01:11:07,040
Speaker 1: like to do, or what is it in the legacy

1148
01:11:07,120 --> 01:11:09,280
Speaker 1: of the Jones Girls. Do you want the world to know?

1149
01:11:10,560 --> 01:11:12,519
Speaker 1: I want the world to know that the Jones Girls

1150
01:11:14,600 --> 01:11:18,920
Speaker 1: recognized and realized that we were blessed with three absolutely

1151
01:11:18,960 --> 01:11:25,760
Speaker 1: beautiful voices that blended so well together. And we knew that,

1152
01:11:25,960 --> 01:11:31,520
Speaker 1: and we also worked and practiced and practiced and practiced

1153
01:11:32,200 --> 01:11:36,000
Speaker 1: for that sound. And the reason why we practiced for

1154
01:11:36,080 --> 01:11:41,880
Speaker 1: that sound was to bring people the most beautiful harmonic

1155
01:11:42,880 --> 01:11:45,400
Speaker 1: music that at the end of the day, at the

1156
01:11:45,520 --> 01:11:47,799
Speaker 1: end of the show, at the end of the record,

1157
01:11:48,240 --> 01:11:53,040
Speaker 1: they could they would say wow, they would feel uplifted,

1158
01:11:53,080 --> 01:11:56,719
Speaker 1: they would feel enlightened, and they would just feel joy

1159
01:11:57,000 --> 01:11:59,720
Speaker 1: and would just smile because that was the goal for me,

1160
01:12:00,080 --> 01:12:03,280
Speaker 1: my sisters and my goal now no matter what I do,

1161
01:12:03,400 --> 01:12:05,559
Speaker 1: I just want when I'm performing, all I want to

1162
01:12:05,600 --> 01:12:07,639
Speaker 1: do at the end of the day is for people

1163
01:12:07,640 --> 01:12:10,880
Speaker 1: to smile and say, man, we had a great time

1164
01:12:11,320 --> 01:12:16,479
Speaker 1: with that Jones girls experience. So that's it. That's beautiful.

1165
01:12:16,640 --> 01:12:25,120
Speaker 1: That's beautiful. We thank you absolutely, thank you. We thank

1166
01:12:25,160 --> 01:12:28,000
Speaker 1: you for your music and your your talent, and you know,

1167
01:12:28,200 --> 01:12:30,679
Speaker 1: and your your sisters as well, and your your family

1168
01:12:31,439 --> 01:12:34,880
Speaker 1: and you know up holding up holding the sound of

1169
01:12:34,920 --> 01:12:41,760
Speaker 1: Philadelphia hometowns. Yes, that's Philly sound man, uh some of

1170
01:12:41,840 --> 01:12:45,719
Speaker 1: some Someone one of my fans said, Motown music had

1171
01:12:45,760 --> 01:12:52,559
Speaker 1: my mind, Philadelphia music has my soul and my spirit. Yeah, yeah,

1172
01:12:52,600 --> 01:12:55,679
Speaker 1: there you go. Yeah the drop for you right there.

1173
01:12:56,800 --> 01:12:58,880
Speaker 1: I want to be a Stralia Jones. This is Quest

1174
01:12:58,920 --> 01:13:02,200
Speaker 1: Love and on you have to Sugar Steve and unpaid

1175
01:13:02,200 --> 01:13:07,240
Speaker 1: Bill Fontagelo and yeah, we thank you, uh for another

1176
01:13:07,800 --> 01:13:10,960
Speaker 1: great episode of Quest Love Supreme. We will see you

1177
01:13:11,000 --> 01:13:22,960
Speaker 1: guys on the next go round. Thank you all. Thank yo.

1178
01:13:23,040 --> 01:13:25,400
Speaker 1: What's up? This is Fonte. Make sure you keep up

1179
01:13:25,400 --> 01:13:28,120
Speaker 1: with us on Instagram at QLs and let us know

1180
01:13:28,160 --> 01:13:29,680
Speaker 1: what you think and who should be next to sit

1181
01:13:29,760 --> 01:13:32,320
Speaker 1: down with us. Don't forget to subscribe to our podcast

1182
01:13:32,720 --> 01:13:44,000
Speaker 1: right What's Love Supreme is a production of my Heart Radio.

1183
01:13:47,120 --> 01:13:49,400
Speaker 1: For more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit the i

1184
01:13:49,520 --> 01:13:52,840
Speaker 1: heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to

1185
01:13:52,840 --> 01:13:53,639
Speaker 1: your favorite shows.