WEBVTT - Black Music Month QLS Classic: Jeffrey Osborne 0:00:00.440 --> 0:00:04.240 Quest Love Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio. This classic 0:00:04.280 --> 0:00:07.040 episode was produced by the team at Pandora. 0:00:10.200 --> 0:00:12.360 What up, y'all, it's unpaid bill for Quest Love Supreme. 0:00:12.480 --> 0:00:14.440 As you may have seen throughout June, we are celebrating 0:00:14.440 --> 0:00:16.600 black music a month by releasing an episode every day, 0:00:16.880 --> 0:00:18.520 so every day you will have to be here, especially 0:00:18.520 --> 0:00:21.400 picked QLs Classic, and on Wednesdays we are dropping new 0:00:21.520 --> 0:00:24.959 two part episodes with Wayne Brady and the legendary James Poyser, 0:00:25.160 --> 0:00:27.960 both of which were filmed in the studio. Black music 0:00:28.040 --> 0:00:29.680 is deeply important to me and has been an influence 0:00:29.680 --> 0:00:32.360 throughout my entire career. It's also something we celebrate here 0:00:32.360 --> 0:00:36.440 at QLs. Today, QLs revisits are Jeffrey Osborne Interview. This 0:00:36.520 --> 0:00:38.640 one is informative, but my co host Shoogy Steve also 0:00:38.680 --> 0:00:42.479 drops a few comedic gems in this special twenty eighteen episode. 0:00:48.360 --> 0:00:55.720 Supremo Suprema Roll Call, Suprema Suh Suh, Supremo roll Call, 0:00:56.200 --> 0:01:01.640 Suprema suck s, Suprema roll Call, Suprema sun So. 0:01:02.080 --> 0:01:06.200 Suprema Rolly. It's alright with me, Yeah, no matter what 0:01:06.240 --> 0:01:08.920 you want to believe. Yeah. Half of Supreme teams here 0:01:09.560 --> 0:01:15.240 or for me and Steve. Roll call Supremo built Supremo. 0:01:14.920 --> 0:01:19.360 Roll call, Suprema suck Son Suprema roll call. 0:01:19.520 --> 0:01:22.560 My name is Sugar. Yeah, what's it all about? 0:01:23.120 --> 0:01:23.320 Yeah? 0:01:23.880 --> 0:01:29.800 Roll call yeah or roll out. I'll explain later. 0:01:30.080 --> 0:01:35.560 Suprema roll call, Suprema su Suprema roll called. 0:01:35.720 --> 0:01:41.319 My shoelaces Yeah, have slowly loosened. Yeah, please forgive me. Yeah, 0:01:41.560 --> 0:01:42.360 I'm only human. 0:01:43.240 --> 0:01:51.320 Call Supreme Supprema roll call, Suprema Sun, Suprema roll call. 0:01:51.480 --> 0:01:53.000 My name is Joy. 0:01:53.360 --> 0:01:57.640 Some call me Jeffrey, Yeah, some call me Osborne. Hey, 0:01:57.920 --> 0:01:58.680 what's that for me? 0:01:58.800 --> 0:02:05.520 Bro Suprema soun Sun Supremo roll call, Suprema soun Sun 0:02:05.840 --> 0:02:11.280 Suprema roll call Supreme Son Son Supreme My roll call 0:02:11.800 --> 0:02:15.520 Suprema Son Son Suppreme my roll call. 0:02:16.440 --> 0:02:21.560 Wait before I do anything, Yes, I'm breaking tradition. Okay, 0:02:21.919 --> 0:02:24.800 I'm asking a question first. Then I'll introduce our guests. Okay, 0:02:25.639 --> 0:02:32.959 Jeffrey Osborne, you just introduced our guests. Is that you 0:02:33.160 --> 0:02:36.760 drumming for Smokey Robinson on Soul Trade in nineteen seventy four. 0:02:37.000 --> 0:02:40.280 With the part down the middle of my head. A, 0:02:41.160 --> 0:02:43.720 Ladies and gentlemen, welcome. 0:02:44.240 --> 0:02:44.720 I knew it. 0:02:44.800 --> 0:02:45.280 I knew it. 0:02:45.440 --> 0:02:48.200 Ladies and gentlemen, Welcome to Quest Love Supreme. I am 0:02:48.320 --> 0:02:53.639 Quest Love and our Supreme team consisting. 0:02:53.120 --> 0:02:55.720 Of this team today Supreme. 0:02:55.840 --> 0:02:56.000 Yeah. 0:02:56.040 --> 0:02:59.480 Yeah, Sugars thief who's very excited. I think more than 0:02:59.520 --> 0:03:03.799 anyone wanted this episode to go down, Sugar Steve. Uh 0:03:03.840 --> 0:03:07.000 and of course, uh boss Bill with us, not with us. 0:03:07.160 --> 0:03:10.120 Fantakolo is still waiting on his titles for his for 0:03:10.280 --> 0:03:15.120 his basement house furnishing. Uh, like you somewhere getting our 0:03:15.160 --> 0:03:17.800 house together in U Los Angeles. 0:03:17.840 --> 0:03:20.880 Did you know that they did an audiobook recently? No, 0:03:21.040 --> 0:03:23.640 I didn't know that. Apparently he narrated a children's book. 0:03:24.480 --> 0:03:26.760 It's called The title is great. The title is called 0:03:26.800 --> 0:03:32.119 we used to have money, Now we have you. 0:03:28.480 --> 0:03:36.400 You have some explains to do, Fonte Uh and unpaid 0:03:36.400 --> 0:03:40.400 Bill somewhere on Sesame Street, Sesame Street land. Uh, Ladies 0:03:40.400 --> 0:03:42.760 and gentlemen, I'm so excited about our guest today that 0:03:42.840 --> 0:03:46.800 I did absolutely no prep work whatsoever because I think 0:03:46.880 --> 0:03:48.640 I can just go off the top of the dome 0:03:50.240 --> 0:03:55.080 one of my personal in my my top five soul 0:03:55.120 --> 0:04:02.680 singers ever. And uh, you know, I haven't been this 0:04:02.800 --> 0:04:07.720 happy for Steve I mean, he means much more, even 0:04:07.720 --> 0:04:10.320 more than me than Steve is mad at me already 0:04:10.320 --> 0:04:12.880 for putting on this spot. No, no, well. 0:04:12.760 --> 0:04:13.840 Don't I mean, I know. 0:04:14.120 --> 0:04:17.080 Okay, okay, okay, ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Jeffrey Osborne, 0:04:17.160 --> 0:04:21.640 quest of supre Won. Alright, all right, all right, we've 0:04:21.640 --> 0:04:25.520 been trying to make this happen for a second. Thank 0:04:25.560 --> 0:04:26.720 you for coming on the show. 0:04:26.839 --> 0:04:29.640 Oh it's great, man, I'm enjoying it and I even 0:04:29.680 --> 0:04:31.520 got started and I'm joining it trusting. 0:04:31.600 --> 0:04:36.000 This is this is Black Music, Nerd Paradise and Steve 0:04:39.520 --> 0:04:46.279 when the NERD came in. Yeah, so okay, where My 0:04:46.360 --> 0:04:48.680 first question is always where were you born? 0:04:49.160 --> 0:04:53.719 In Providence, Rhode Island? Really Providence, Rhode Island? Yeah, youngest 0:04:53.720 --> 0:04:57.560 of twelve, really really yeah. 0:04:57.680 --> 0:04:59.920 I don't think I ever had a situation where someon 0:05:00.240 --> 0:05:03.800 wasn't born down South or in the Midwest. You're probably 0:05:03.800 --> 0:05:06.520 our first Northeast oh really yeah? 0:05:06.600 --> 0:05:09.000 Yeah, And it was interesting growing up there not a 0:05:09.040 --> 0:05:13.000 lot of black people. I think my family probably represented 0:05:13.040 --> 0:05:16.000 the most black people in Pute Island. Really no, but 0:05:15.720 --> 0:05:18.239 that's not a lot. So it was kind of shocking 0:05:18.279 --> 0:05:21.040 when I met LTD because they told me it was 0:05:21.040 --> 0:05:23.719 a ten piece black band playing downtown. I'm like, and 0:05:23.800 --> 0:05:27.960 it wasn't black musicians together in a while Providence, so 0:05:28.040 --> 0:05:28.880 that was kind of interesting. 0:05:29.120 --> 0:05:30.280 They started in Providence. 0:05:30.400 --> 0:05:35.000 No, they were actually Sam and Dave's backup band back 0:05:35.040 --> 0:05:37.760 when Sam and Dave were rolling during the Hold on 0:05:37.800 --> 0:05:41.720 Them Coming Days, soul Man Days. They were called sol 0:05:41.839 --> 0:05:47.279 Men Ltd. Sole Men Limited. And they left them in 0:05:47.320 --> 0:05:50.560 the early well actually around sixty nine, and they were 0:05:50.600 --> 0:05:53.159 based in North Carolina. So they started coming up the 0:05:53.160 --> 0:05:56.560 East coast playing in the clubs. And I met him 0:05:56.560 --> 0:05:58.560 in a little nightclub in my hometown in Province. But 0:05:58.640 --> 0:05:59.480 I don't believe it or not. 0:06:00.200 --> 0:06:04.559 So was it a musical family my family, Yeah, yeah, 0:06:04.720 --> 0:06:05.120 quite a bit. 0:06:05.200 --> 0:06:07.200 I say eight of eight of the twelve of us 0:06:07.240 --> 0:06:11.479 were into music. Either played instruments, saying. My father was 0:06:11.520 --> 0:06:14.200 a great trumpet player, and you know, he was one 0:06:14.240 --> 0:06:17.200 of those guys that never went after his dream. But 0:06:17.480 --> 0:06:20.080 you know, anytime and then the big bands came through town, 0:06:20.160 --> 0:06:22.200 like Ellington and Base, he would run down and play 0:06:22.200 --> 0:06:25.359 trumpet with them, and he was pretty amazing trumpet player. 0:06:26.040 --> 0:06:28.440 But he had twelve kids. That's what you get if 0:06:28.480 --> 0:06:30.960 I having twelve damn kids, Like, I don't even know 0:06:31.080 --> 0:06:33.719 you have twelve kids. You couldn't do it today. Back 0:06:33.760 --> 0:06:35.400 then it was you know, it was a lot of 0:06:35.400 --> 0:06:38.280 big families back then. Okay, so he just worked a 0:06:38.360 --> 0:06:41.279 few jobs, you know, during the day, and played at 0:06:41.360 --> 0:06:42.080 night in the clubs. 0:06:42.120 --> 0:06:44.120 And what was the mean well known what was the 0:06:44.120 --> 0:06:46.120 main industry in Rhode Island? 0:06:47.080 --> 0:06:51.760 Costume jewelry still is, you know really especially in Patucket, 0:06:51.800 --> 0:06:54.360 Rhode Island, huge costume jewelry place. Yeah. 0:06:55.400 --> 0:06:59.200 So similar to people moving to Detroit for cars or 0:07:00.120 --> 0:07:03.120 threes in the Midwest, costume joy. 0:07:03.279 --> 0:07:07.280 Like the yeah, it was in Pentucket, Rhode Island, right. 0:07:08.520 --> 0:07:13.080 The more you know, wow, that's crazy. So uh well, 0:07:13.200 --> 0:07:18.760 leading back to my original question, can I assume that 0:07:18.880 --> 0:07:21.640 drums was your weapon of choice first or how did you? 0:07:22.120 --> 0:07:25.240 Well, I've always singing. I was winding up at a 0:07:25.360 --> 0:07:28.240 choice first. I started singing in nightclubs when I was thirteen. 0:07:29.080 --> 0:07:30.880 My mother used to chaperon me and I would go 0:07:31.240 --> 0:07:33.720 start at My first job was in New London, Connecticut, 0:07:33.920 --> 0:07:37.520 a little club called Ebony Lounge. Was pretty I was thirteen, 0:07:37.880 --> 0:07:39.680 you know, I thought I was doing big shit back then. 0:07:39.720 --> 0:07:41.920 I was making ten dollars a night, but you know 0:07:42.080 --> 0:07:47.520 that was that was way back then. And I started 0:07:47.560 --> 0:07:51.160 playing drums when I was about fifteen. My brother Billy, 0:07:51.240 --> 0:07:53.280 who was a drummer, left a set in the basement, 0:07:53.600 --> 0:07:55.720 you know, and so I kind of was a self 0:07:55.800 --> 0:08:00.720 taught drummer. But everything that's happened for me has happened 0:08:00.840 --> 0:08:05.400 through drumming. Like when I met LTD, their drummer had 0:08:05.440 --> 0:08:07.840 gotten locked up that night I went to see him 0:08:07.960 --> 0:08:11.080 for smoking weed. In nineteen seventy. That was like a 0:08:11.240 --> 0:08:15.160 major offense. Now everybody got a marijuana card, you know, 0:08:15.240 --> 0:08:17.280 it don't mean nothing today. But they locked him up 0:08:17.320 --> 0:08:20.480 and I sat in, played drums with him, sang a 0:08:20.520 --> 0:08:22.760 couple of songs, and they asked me to join the group. 0:08:23.040 --> 0:08:26.239 So you winged your first gig with LTD. 0:08:26.440 --> 0:08:28.760 Not know, Yeah, but they were doing Top forty and 0:08:28.840 --> 0:08:30.600 I used to work part time in the record store, 0:08:30.640 --> 0:08:32.319 so I kind of knew everything that was out there, 0:08:32.400 --> 0:08:34.280 so it was kind of easy. And I was playing 0:08:34.320 --> 0:08:37.079 locally in my band, So so I sat in with 0:08:37.200 --> 0:08:40.319 them and you know, sang a couple of songs and 0:08:40.679 --> 0:08:42.720 I don't know that guy was in jail for a while. 0:08:42.960 --> 0:08:48.240 So and then's the funny thing. When I was fifteen, 0:08:49.880 --> 0:08:52.280 I met the OJ's and a club in Province. So 0:08:52.360 --> 0:08:55.840 I went to see them perform and they had a drummer. 0:08:56.040 --> 0:08:58.160 And back then, you know, the. 0:08:58.640 --> 0:09:02.280 Drum of passion was heroin. You know, That's what a 0:09:02.360 --> 0:09:05.160 lot of our black musicians got hung up into back 0:09:05.200 --> 0:09:07.679 in the day. And so he was nodding out in 0:09:07.720 --> 0:09:09.960 between songs and I'm watching him and I'm like, damn, 0:09:10.000 --> 0:09:13.000 this dude was falling asleep in between songs. So club 0:09:13.040 --> 0:09:14.839 owner let me meet them. I talked to Eddie. I 0:09:14.960 --> 0:09:16.679 was like, you need a drummer. They said, okay, well 0:09:17.000 --> 0:09:18.760 if you can find us one, because you're too young. 0:09:18.840 --> 0:09:20.880 I'm like, no, I can play now, I said, okay. 0:09:20.960 --> 0:09:23.880 So I brought about three drummers up and auditioned and 0:09:24.360 --> 0:09:26.360 I got the job. So I played with them for 0:09:26.440 --> 0:09:28.760 two weeks while they were in Providence. And so I 0:09:28.880 --> 0:09:29.840 kind of old my career. 0:09:29.720 --> 0:09:33.400 To drugs, drug drums. 0:09:33.559 --> 0:09:36.440 But again, drumming is you know what opened the door 0:09:36.559 --> 0:09:39.120 for all that I'd see. 0:09:39.600 --> 0:09:43.200 Yeah, drumming opens the door. There you go to an industry. Wait, 0:09:43.240 --> 0:09:45.080 what year was the was it before? 0:09:46.400 --> 0:09:48.880 It was nineteen seventy, all right, So before. 0:09:48.600 --> 0:09:51.360 They made their in Philadelphia record a year l Yeah. 0:09:51.440 --> 0:09:53.640 Yeah, they actually they had five people in the group. 0:09:53.679 --> 0:09:57.040 It was five singers. OK, yeah that lineup. 0:09:58.040 --> 0:10:01.400 So so you're singing that before your nightclub hopping. You 0:10:01.480 --> 0:10:05.319 didn't have like a high school band experience or any. 0:10:05.640 --> 0:10:07.920 Not a high school band experience. But I played with 0:10:08.000 --> 0:10:09.679 a lot of the you know, the musicians that I 0:10:09.760 --> 0:10:12.040 played with were all from the same high school. We 0:10:12.120 --> 0:10:16.600 played together, but I was the only black one. But yeah, 0:10:16.760 --> 0:10:19.240 but I did play with a lot of musicians that 0:10:19.320 --> 0:10:21.800 were working their way through Berkeley School of Music in Boston. 0:10:22.440 --> 0:10:24.480 So that was nice because I got a chance to 0:10:24.480 --> 0:10:26.200 play with some really good musicians back then. 0:10:27.160 --> 0:10:31.160 Oh so you even had to learn rapertoire for rock music. 0:10:31.240 --> 0:10:34.160 And yeah, I was playing nightclubs, but it was actually 0:10:34.400 --> 0:10:36.319 the funny thing. It was in the ghetto. It was 0:10:36.360 --> 0:10:36.640 a hood. 0:10:36.720 --> 0:10:39.320 There was a hood in Providence. So I was basically 0:10:39.480 --> 0:10:42.200 doing mostly R and B, mostly R and B music, 0:10:42.360 --> 0:10:46.000 you know. But I you know, I grew up listening 0:10:46.040 --> 0:10:48.520 to jazz because my whole family was in the jazz. 0:10:48.520 --> 0:10:50.880 I'm the youngest of twelve and I'm seventy years old, 0:10:50.960 --> 0:10:54.920 so so everybody was listening to Sarah Vaughn and Ela 0:10:54.960 --> 0:10:58.920 Fitzgerald and Billy Eckstein and Joe Williams. And my dad 0:10:59.080 --> 0:11:01.320 was in the Miles Day but his favorite trumpet players 0:11:01.480 --> 0:11:03.719 he was Clifford Brown. So I got a chance to 0:11:03.800 --> 0:11:08.120 listen to everything, you know. So, you know, back in 0:11:08.440 --> 0:11:10.760 when I started, I was singing a couple of jazz songs, 0:11:10.840 --> 0:11:12.920 you know, in R and B. You know, I kind 0:11:12.920 --> 0:11:14.560 of mixed it up, but I didn not a lot 0:11:14.600 --> 0:11:16.360 of rock. Wasn't in the rock. 0:11:16.520 --> 0:11:19.959 Who were your influences as far as vocal back then? 0:11:21.240 --> 0:11:24.520 You know, my biggest influence, which everybody finds strange, was 0:11:24.679 --> 0:11:30.120 a singer named Gloria Lynn. Gloria Lynn was actually my 0:11:30.240 --> 0:11:32.960 biggest influence. I didn't realize that too down the line, 0:11:33.000 --> 0:11:34.720 and I went back and started listening to the Gloria 0:11:34.760 --> 0:11:37.200 Linn records, and I'm like, damn, I phrased a lot 0:11:37.240 --> 0:11:39.560 of things like her. I guess subconsciously I was kind 0:11:39.559 --> 0:11:43.760 of really into her. But you know, Sarah was my favorite. 0:11:43.920 --> 0:11:47.600 I love Sarah Vaughan. I loved, you know, I loved 0:11:47.640 --> 0:11:49.920 all the jazz singers. And then of course coming up 0:11:49.960 --> 0:11:52.520 there was the Tip you know, the regulars, the Donnie 0:11:52.559 --> 0:11:55.000 Hathaway's the Marvin Gays. 0:11:55.440 --> 0:11:57.960 You know those people I loved, and. 0:11:59.679 --> 0:12:03.599 You know Stevie. Stevie was singing back then. You know, 0:12:03.760 --> 0:12:06.080 at thirteen years old, I was still trying to sing 0:12:06.760 --> 0:12:10.240 fingertips and my voice was that high back then. And 0:12:10.360 --> 0:12:15.960 my voice dropped from male soprano to bass from junior 0:12:16.040 --> 0:12:18.960 high school to high school one semester. It's crazy. 0:12:19.960 --> 0:12:25.600 So when did LTD officially start or as a group, 0:12:25.760 --> 0:12:28.000 or even at that time you're freelancing as a drummer 0:12:28.120 --> 0:12:30.240 and right in the group at the same time. 0:12:30.320 --> 0:12:34.560 Well, we took a trip to LA and they were 0:12:35.080 --> 0:12:38.760 actually from Rhode Island. We drove to LA with a 0:12:38.800 --> 0:12:41.320 big U haul trailer on the back of the car 0:12:42.240 --> 0:12:44.800 and that broke off and snapped the bumper and rolled 0:12:44.840 --> 0:12:51.080 down the mountain in Flagstaff, Arizona. Wait wait, wait what, yeah, 0:12:51.080 --> 0:12:53.360 I mean we were driving through flag Staff. People don't 0:12:53.360 --> 0:12:57.120 realize it's nose in Flagstaff, Arizona. So it was going 0:12:57.240 --> 0:13:00.800 up a little hill and it was icy and cars 0:13:00.840 --> 0:13:04.520 just started skidding and trailer snapped off roll down the hill. 0:13:05.240 --> 0:13:07.760 So we had to get someone to go down and 0:13:07.760 --> 0:13:09.559 pull it back up. And we were there for a 0:13:09.600 --> 0:13:12.040 couple of days trying to get the bumper repaired. And 0:13:12.160 --> 0:13:15.400 so we drove out to LA in nineteen seventy and 0:13:15.679 --> 0:13:20.120 we played in every nightclub in LA for no money. 0:13:20.280 --> 0:13:24.160 It was the price of admission. It was ten of 0:13:24.280 --> 0:13:28.240 us living in a one bedroom house and we played 0:13:28.280 --> 0:13:30.480 for the admission and with fee was back then it 0:13:30.559 --> 0:13:33.160 was two dollars ahead to get in. So you know, 0:13:33.160 --> 0:13:34.920 if we got forty people in the night club, we 0:13:35.000 --> 0:13:41.520 had eighty dollars to split ten ways. I was sending 0:13:41.600 --> 0:13:44.120 home for money, my pig, my baby. My ho was like, 0:13:44.559 --> 0:13:46.720 h don't you think it might be time to come 0:13:46.800 --> 0:13:50.120 back home. My older brother was like, I was like, dude, 0:13:50.160 --> 0:13:55.440 just send me the money. I don't want to lecture 0:13:55.559 --> 0:13:55.880 right now. 0:13:57.200 --> 0:13:59.280 I well, I do want to ask how is it 0:14:00.440 --> 0:14:06.200 or was it feasible? Because you know, the seventies had supergroups. Yeah, 0:14:06.640 --> 0:14:11.760 and in my mind, I mean I was in the 0:14:11.920 --> 0:14:16.080 nineties in a band of four members. We were struggling. 0:14:16.280 --> 0:14:19.520 Oh yeah, And so I you know, I used to wonder, like, well, 0:14:20.360 --> 0:14:24.000 what was the system like for bands in the seventies 0:14:24.080 --> 0:14:28.680 that were ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen strong. You all had costumes, 0:14:28.760 --> 0:14:33.480 you all had all these elements. Was per diem a 0:14:33.600 --> 0:14:34.720 thing back then in the day. 0:14:34.840 --> 0:14:36.680 Oh, I didn't even know what padem was until I 0:14:36.760 --> 0:14:40.160 became a solo artist, and then you had to pay it, right, 0:14:40.720 --> 0:14:42.560 That's when I had to pay it to other musicians. 0:14:42.920 --> 0:14:44.920 That's when I realized, oh, this is I got to 0:14:44.960 --> 0:14:48.400 pay this. But no, yeah, there was no padem back then. 0:14:48.520 --> 0:14:50.800 I mean, we were struggling just to get by and 0:14:52.120 --> 0:14:54.640 paid the rent. You know, it was I mean, what 0:14:54.720 --> 0:14:55.960 you got to look at it for what it is. 0:14:56.080 --> 0:14:58.880 I mean, even when we became a hit group in 0:14:59.000 --> 0:15:02.680 the seventy two was our first record, so it took 0:15:02.760 --> 0:15:04.520 us a couple of years to get rolling, you know. 0:15:04.800 --> 0:15:08.680 And then even when we were popular, you split anything 0:15:08.760 --> 0:15:10.680 ten ways, that ain't nothing. You think a million dollars 0:15:10.720 --> 0:15:14.400 split it ten ways, it ain't. So yeah, it gets 0:15:14.520 --> 0:15:16.520 it's rough for those groups back then, a lot of them. 0:15:16.960 --> 0:15:19.360 You don't realize the struggle that they went through. And 0:15:19.480 --> 0:15:23.120 then again then you got you know, people's personalities clashing 0:15:23.280 --> 0:15:25.680 and this one wants to do this and that one 0:15:25.760 --> 0:15:28.560 wants to do that, and there's always a struggle. It's 0:15:28.640 --> 0:15:31.600 it's tough. So I admired the groups that came out 0:15:31.600 --> 0:15:32.960 of that era. 0:15:33.200 --> 0:15:37.560 You know, so even before you were scheduled to do 0:15:37.640 --> 0:15:40.720 this show, I found a record on Sunday. I didn't 0:15:40.760 --> 0:15:44.600 realize that there was a I guess your first record 0:15:44.640 --> 0:15:47.240 on an M And there was a woman in the 0:15:47.240 --> 0:15:47.800 group as well. 0:15:47.920 --> 0:15:50.520 Oh yeah, Celeste. Her name was Celestia. 0:15:50.560 --> 0:15:52.440 Yeah, so was she always in the group in the 0:15:52.480 --> 0:15:53.520 beginning or no? 0:15:54.160 --> 0:15:56.640 There was a girl named Tammy Starr in the group 0:15:56.720 --> 0:16:00.520 when I joined the group, and you know, there was 0:16:00.640 --> 0:16:02.320 you know a lot of people that went through that group. 0:16:02.400 --> 0:16:06.680 We had a baritone sacks player, yeah, a percussionists and 0:16:06.800 --> 0:16:09.320 times got hard and they dropped out before we even 0:16:09.440 --> 0:16:14.520 got the record going. You know, yeah, it upset now, 0:16:16.520 --> 0:16:19.080 but you know it happens like that. You know, it's 0:16:19.120 --> 0:16:22.120 hard to make that struggle and give up everything. So 0:16:22.320 --> 0:16:24.040 she was with us for one record. 0:16:24.880 --> 0:16:27.160 What was the audition process like? And how many other 0:16:27.240 --> 0:16:29.240 labels were you guys gunning for or how did you 0:16:29.360 --> 0:16:30.600 even game the well? 0:16:30.680 --> 0:16:33.160 We we actually got our first deal through a production 0:16:33.560 --> 0:16:37.160 deal that Jerry Butler had on In and Records. 0:16:38.200 --> 0:16:43.760 Very funny really yeah, yeah, Leon Silver, Like everyone has 0:16:43.760 --> 0:16:44.080 a Jerry. 0:16:45.560 --> 0:16:47.880 So we had a production company, production company, so we 0:16:48.000 --> 0:16:51.880 signed his production company and after our first record. The 0:16:52.000 --> 0:16:54.480 label then came over and signed us directly to the label, 0:16:54.880 --> 0:16:57.560 even though we didn't do any sales on the first record. 0:16:57.600 --> 0:16:59.960 I couldn't figure that out, but they they signed us 0:17:00.040 --> 0:17:01.880 directly to the label after the first record. 0:17:02.080 --> 0:17:03.520 What do you think it was that? 0:17:04.640 --> 0:17:07.320 I think back then it was so different than it 0:17:07.480 --> 0:17:10.840 is today because they had artists development departments, so they 0:17:10.880 --> 0:17:13.639 could look, they could see us live. They watched the 0:17:13.720 --> 0:17:17.399 potential and they said, three years down the line, we 0:17:17.560 --> 0:17:18.240 know what you could be. 0:17:19.359 --> 0:17:20.600 That don't happen anymore. 0:17:20.320 --> 0:17:24.960 Today, and so they invested in developing us and you know, 0:17:25.080 --> 0:17:29.240 they went out, they found producers, and that's why music 0:17:29.400 --> 0:17:32.359 is so different today today. I mean, we used to 0:17:33.280 --> 0:17:36.840 get a piano vocal and we'd be able to hear 0:17:36.960 --> 0:17:40.880 what this song could be, and record companies could Today. 0:17:41.240 --> 0:17:43.960 You got to give them a fully produced product and 0:17:44.080 --> 0:17:46.560 they still can't hear what it's supposed to be. It's crazy. 0:17:48.320 --> 0:17:51.720 So when you nap that record deal, was there suddenly 0:17:54.240 --> 0:17:57.760 dreams and hopes of like okay, we made it big 0:17:57.840 --> 0:18:00.880 time and where were those early struggle days? 0:18:00.920 --> 0:18:03.840 Like well it was you know what we did first? 0:18:03.920 --> 0:18:06.119 Was it with the NM? Was we played behind a 0:18:06.200 --> 0:18:08.880 couple of their artists. So we played behind Mary Clayton 0:18:09.359 --> 0:18:11.760 and we did all her live shows and we had 0:18:11.800 --> 0:18:15.560 this one show was at the Monterey Folk Festival. I 0:18:15.600 --> 0:18:18.560 guess it was nineteen seventy one and the nineteen seventy 0:18:18.600 --> 0:18:22.080 one and somebody fell out, so they asked us to 0:18:22.200 --> 0:18:25.280 do a twenty minute set and we did a twenty 0:18:25.320 --> 0:18:27.080 minute set. It was like eighty thousand people and they 0:18:27.160 --> 0:18:31.320 went crazy. That's when the record company said, okay, we 0:18:31.440 --> 0:18:34.760 see what you can be now. So it was you know, 0:18:35.680 --> 0:18:37.960 it was a grind, but we were doing all original 0:18:38.040 --> 0:18:40.160 material and it was a lot of it was social 0:18:40.200 --> 0:18:43.840 protest material back then, so we were kind of turning 0:18:43.840 --> 0:18:45.160 people on and turning people off. 0:18:49.320 --> 0:18:52.119 If that seemed like so was it? Albert? Did you 0:18:52.160 --> 0:18:55.240 guys have a relationship with Albert or Moss at the time? 0:18:55.280 --> 0:18:59.000 When not really? Now the first year we didn't. We 0:18:59.080 --> 0:19:01.840 were trying to form a relationship. But but but Jerry 0:19:02.080 --> 0:19:04.639 was our guy, Jerry Moss, I mean herb Albert was 0:19:05.000 --> 0:19:07.480 the music guy, you know, because he was off doing 0:19:07.560 --> 0:19:09.920 his thing. But Jerry Moss is the one that really 0:19:10.000 --> 0:19:13.760 believed in us, and and uh, you know, he put 0:19:13.800 --> 0:19:14.800 the support behind us. 0:19:16.359 --> 0:19:18.720 See. Yeah, at the time I thought that the Getting 0:19:18.840 --> 0:19:21.000 Down album, I thought that was the first album. 0:19:21.359 --> 0:19:24.000 I didn't realize that there was one before that. Yeah, 0:19:24.080 --> 0:19:30.399 it's just called LTD. Really a real forgettable record. You 0:19:30.480 --> 0:19:36.040 know Getting Down is kind of forgettable too, But you 0:19:36.160 --> 0:19:39.320 know it was the struggle was it was everybody wanted 0:19:39.359 --> 0:19:41.919 to sing. So if you listen to those early albums, 0:19:41.960 --> 0:19:43.679 there was about four different lead singers on. 0:19:43.720 --> 0:19:46.000 The record, and so I thought you were just the 0:19:46.080 --> 0:19:48.000 drummer of the group. And then figure out. 0:19:48.160 --> 0:19:51.480 So this is where the company came in and you know, 0:19:51.800 --> 0:19:54.720 the third record, they said, okay, you know this is 0:19:54.760 --> 0:19:57.880 our third your third record we're invested in. We now 0:19:58.000 --> 0:20:01.160 have to zero in on a voice. There's too many 0:20:01.320 --> 0:20:05.320 lead singers, and we think he should do the majority 0:20:05.359 --> 0:20:05.919 of the vocals. 0:20:06.200 --> 0:20:06.840 How was that. 0:20:08.240 --> 0:20:11.240 I don't think that still sits well with them wait 0:20:11.440 --> 0:20:14.000 to this day, to this day, Yeah, because they feel 0:20:14.080 --> 0:20:18.120 that if if everybody had a chance to sing when 0:20:18.160 --> 0:20:21.600 I left, they would still be viable. So I get that. 0:20:21.880 --> 0:20:24.080 You know, if it wasn't for the producer giving you 0:20:24.160 --> 0:20:26.560 all the damn songs and you know when you left, 0:20:26.600 --> 0:20:28.200 we'd have been straight white. 0:20:28.240 --> 0:20:31.200 Well should have had a hit with some of the 0:20:34.720 --> 0:20:39.920 I wasn't mad at cutting it up. No, that became 0:20:40.720 --> 0:20:43.520 you know, that became a hip hop staple. It was 0:20:43.560 --> 0:20:45.000 different because all this time I thought it was P 0:20:45.119 --> 0:20:48.520 Funk related. I didn't realize it was ALTD. But well, 0:20:48.600 --> 0:20:51.320 who was managing you guys at the time? Back then? 0:20:51.400 --> 0:20:54.560 It was a guy named ron Nadell. Okay, he was 0:20:54.640 --> 0:20:55.840 one of my first managers. 0:20:55.920 --> 0:20:59.600 And so in a situation like that, at least with 0:20:59.720 --> 0:21:03.439 ten people, like who's the Who's the alpha? 0:21:04.480 --> 0:21:08.159 The alpha figure that there was, It was an alpha 0:21:08.240 --> 0:21:10.679 figure when I first joined the group. His name was Onion. 0:21:11.440 --> 0:21:14.200 He had a ball ball headed Onion. 0:21:14.280 --> 0:21:15.920 Onion. Onion was the guy. 0:21:16.000 --> 0:21:18.560 He was the leader. And after I was in the 0:21:18.640 --> 0:21:21.160 group for about a year and a half, my brother 0:21:21.280 --> 0:21:24.520 Billy came into group. Okay, and he's an alpha. 0:21:25.320 --> 0:21:26.200 So they clashed. 0:21:27.280 --> 0:21:29.080 Oh you know. It was like, okay, I want to 0:21:29.160 --> 0:21:30.680 run it this way. I want run it this way. 0:21:30.760 --> 0:21:33.200 And so I'm sitting in the middle because I was 0:21:33.280 --> 0:21:35.440 doing most of the work and the lead singing. So 0:21:36.320 --> 0:21:38.000 it's like, who am I going to side with? So 0:21:38.440 --> 0:21:41.080 that got old with me. I had to side with somebody, 0:21:41.280 --> 0:21:44.080