WEBVTT - QLS Classic: Leon Sylvers III 0:00:00.360 --> 0:00:03.800 Of course, Love Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio. This 0:00:03.840 --> 0:00:09.680 classic episode was produced by the team at Pandora. Without 0:00:09.800 --> 0:00:15.400 no doubt, this gentleman that would bring into the table 0:00:16.000 --> 0:00:19.400 is responsible for some of the best music you've ever danced, 0:00:20.000 --> 0:00:25.160 ever listened to. Of Course, these talented family, the Silver's family, 0:00:25.960 --> 0:00:29.160 have been in our lives for so long. They're amazing harmonies. 0:00:29.880 --> 0:00:32.320 Of course, him branching out on his own to do 0:00:32.479 --> 0:00:38.560 production for like The Whispers, Shallamar, Lakeside, Evelin, Champion King, 0:00:39.479 --> 0:00:42.880 so many, so many groups, so many groups, just this 0:00:43.080 --> 0:00:47.000 classic sound of boogie, you know, kind of hosting disco, 0:00:47.080 --> 0:00:50.400 and we call it book. He's one of the greatest 0:00:50.680 --> 0:00:54.120 and so so so happy that he took time out 0:00:54.480 --> 0:00:58.000 to come speak to us. This is Leon Silvers, the third. 0:00:58.800 --> 0:01:03.640 This is from January thirty first, twenty eighteen lest classic. 0:01:04.440 --> 0:01:04.880 Here we Go. 0:01:09.720 --> 0:01:16.240 Supremo something So Supremo. Role called Supremo Sun Sun Supremo. 0:01:16.440 --> 0:01:22.679 Role Call, Supremo Son Son Supremo, Roll Call, Supremo Son 0:01:22.920 --> 0:01:24.840 Son Supremo roll Call. 0:01:25.560 --> 0:01:28.759 I got nothing, Yeah, no, really, I got nothing. Yeah, 0:01:29.360 --> 0:01:32.160 I'm sober whelmed by grands. I have nothing. 0:01:33.440 --> 0:01:40.640 Sprema So Supremo roll call Suprema Son Son Suppremo Ro. 0:01:41.160 --> 0:01:44.600 Wait a minute, Yeah, let's see how I sound. Yeah, 0:01:44.920 --> 0:01:46.000 Now do I sound better? 0:01:46.400 --> 0:01:46.640 Yeah? 0:01:46.840 --> 0:01:47.840 The second time. 0:01:47.720 --> 0:01:56.280 Fund Sun Supremo role called Supremo Sun Son Supremo role 0:01:56.480 --> 0:01:56.920 call my. 0:01:57.000 --> 0:02:01.040 Name is Fante. Yeah, call me your friend. Yeah, because 0:02:01.080 --> 0:02:04.080 it's not too Yeah. Only one can win. 0:02:07.320 --> 0:02:13.799 Supremo Road Suprema So Supremo Road Suprema. 0:02:14.240 --> 0:02:14.480 Yeah. 0:02:14.760 --> 0:02:18.160 The show to be on. Yeah, let's put some tea on. 0:02:18.360 --> 0:02:20.240 Yeah and talk to missus Silver. 0:02:25.160 --> 0:02:31.000 Supremo, Son Son sup Roll Mulesman struggling. Yeah, to write 0:02:31.080 --> 0:02:34.880 these rhymes. Yeah, almost called a ghost writer. Yeah, on 0:02:34.919 --> 0:02:40.280 the hotline. 0:02:38.240 --> 0:02:46.280 Son Son Supremo Roll Call Supremo. 0:02:43.960 --> 0:02:48.440 Roll it's my em Yeah. And I ain't feeling bad yeah, 0:02:48.760 --> 0:02:49.680 Leon Silvers. 0:02:50.200 --> 0:02:52.079 Yeah, got me think about DC Cab. 0:02:54.720 --> 0:02:59.720 So Supreme Road Supremo. 0:03:00.040 --> 0:03:02.919 Oh yeah. 0:03:04.240 --> 0:03:14.320 Yeah yeah, I love that. 0:03:17.080 --> 0:03:17.880 So frame. 0:03:19.160 --> 0:03:25.840 Up frame, Roll up up up frame. 0:03:25.880 --> 0:03:30.560 Ladies and gentlemen. That was the greatest contribution ever, ever 0:03:30.720 --> 0:03:31.600 ever to to. 0:03:33.680 --> 0:03:33.960 Wow. 0:03:34.360 --> 0:03:40.000 Okay, dude, I'm sweating over here. 0:03:40.040 --> 0:03:40.440 I'm sorry. 0:03:40.680 --> 0:03:41.440 I'm nervous. 0:03:41.480 --> 0:03:44.400 You know, I know we're nervous about this episode because 0:03:44.400 --> 0:03:51.360 we didn't mock like you normally. We mocked like you 0:03:51.560 --> 0:03:54.480 is intro and we we you caught a break this 0:03:54.560 --> 0:03:57.920 time because you came through with the DC that was 0:03:58.000 --> 0:04:02.160 he went real deeper that that. Okay, look, I'm just 0:04:02.200 --> 0:04:05.240 putting it out there. We're just gonna go all over 0:04:05.240 --> 0:04:09.640 the place because the reason why I feel as though 0:04:09.680 --> 0:04:14.520 we commit to the show. Yes, you know, we're about 0:04:14.520 --> 0:04:19.040 the whatever, the teaching of excellence and bringing people and 0:04:19.600 --> 0:04:22.240 exposing him to the audience, you know, to audience that 0:04:22.320 --> 0:04:24.880 might not know him, stuff like that. But just sometimes 0:04:25.200 --> 0:04:28.800 you just want to nerd out on your favorite and 0:04:30.120 --> 0:04:34.280 I there's so much. There's not enough that I can 0:04:34.320 --> 0:04:37.200 say about the gentleman that we have with us right now. 0:04:39.279 --> 0:04:44.680 I can say that, you know, he is. I mean, 0:04:44.760 --> 0:04:48.960 he's such a genius in every area that he's ever 0:04:49.040 --> 0:04:54.000 done in crafting harmonies and his musicianship and his songwriting. 0:04:54.200 --> 0:04:57.240 I mean he damned near it invented a genre of music. 0:04:58.400 --> 0:05:03.840 He killed disco. He literally killed this of all the 0:05:04.040 --> 0:05:08.760 like he invented genres, and he inspired some of our 0:05:08.800 --> 0:05:12.280 greatest I told Jimmy Jam that he was coming on 0:05:12.320 --> 0:05:15.120 our show, and even Jimmy Jam had to bow down 0:05:15.160 --> 0:05:17.840 because of all that he learned from this man. I'm 0:05:17.880 --> 0:05:20.559 about to start crying right now. Ladies and gentlemen, please 0:05:20.600 --> 0:05:31.440 welcome to the show, Leon Silvers. Yes, man, you don't 0:05:31.560 --> 0:05:35.880 know how happy we are right now, Like we're just 0:05:36.760 --> 0:05:44.720 shout out to dang funk shout the day funk. Yeah. 0:05:45.240 --> 0:05:48.479 We have so many questions about your life, Like I've 0:05:48.520 --> 0:05:51.760 never idolized someone so much that I really don't know 0:05:51.839 --> 0:05:55.039 that much about because you rarely did interviews and things 0:05:55.120 --> 0:05:59.919 like that that matter. But let's just should we rapid fire? 0:06:00.160 --> 0:06:00.440 Do we? 0:06:00.520 --> 0:06:02.280 Just we? 0:06:02.680 --> 0:06:04.599 I want to go, Let's go through the journey. Okay, 0:06:04.920 --> 0:06:06.880 now I'm gonna say it. Let's start at the beginning. 0:06:08.440 --> 0:06:09.600 You all got to be proud of me. I haven't 0:06:09.600 --> 0:06:14.800 said that in a while, but this time. Okay. So uh, 0:06:15.080 --> 0:06:19.920 I believe your entire family is from Tennessee. Correct, Uh, 0:06:21.400 --> 0:06:22.040 please be wrong? 0:06:22.120 --> 0:06:28.000 Suck everybody except me Fastergian Pat. 0:06:28.240 --> 0:06:29.359 Where were you born? 0:06:29.480 --> 0:06:35.200 I was born in South Ben, Indiana. Oh yes, My 0:06:35.279 --> 0:06:37.760 father was going to college out there and my mother 0:06:38.640 --> 0:06:42.240 and I was born on the campus and only stayed 0:06:42.240 --> 0:06:44.479 there three days after I was born, So I know 0:06:44.600 --> 0:06:46.919 nothing about South Ben, Indiana. 0:06:46.960 --> 0:06:47.159 I was. 0:06:47.160 --> 0:06:50.560 I was born there for three days. I was there 0:06:50.560 --> 0:06:56.880 for three years. Wait, you born in South ben Memorial Hospital. Wow, 0:06:57.680 --> 0:07:04.400 that's amazing, That's that's crazy. Yeah, So just I just 0:07:04.400 --> 0:07:07.560 want to know it all, like talk about the beginnings 0:07:07.560 --> 0:07:11.760 in Tennessee and how music entered into the household. 0:07:14.160 --> 0:07:18.640 Well about Tennessee, I can't remember too much except Roy Rogers, 0:07:18.760 --> 0:07:23.200 so I was too. After about two years, we hit 0:07:23.240 --> 0:07:25.720 the train and came to LA. I think I was 0:07:25.760 --> 0:07:30.640 two or three years old, and La is where everything 0:07:30.920 --> 0:07:34.880 started the Motown sound for me. 0:07:35.120 --> 0:07:37.240 Why did you guys move to Los Angeles? 0:07:37.520 --> 0:07:45.280 I think my father got a gig at what is it, uh, 0:07:45.480 --> 0:07:50.720 some kind of space company something. He was doing some 0:07:50.920 --> 0:07:57.000 kind of work I couldn't remember, but he his work 0:07:57.040 --> 0:08:02.520 brought us out there. And everybody wasn't born yet. It 0:08:02.600 --> 0:08:05.880 was just myself, Charmaine. 0:08:06.080 --> 0:08:10.360 Charmaine Charmaine is the eldest sister and you're the eldest brother. 0:08:10.640 --> 0:08:14.480 No, Olympia is the oldest of the family. Olympia and 0:08:14.520 --> 0:08:19.200 then myself, Charmaine and James Jonathan. Uh, that was who 0:08:19.320 --> 0:08:22.200 was only four of us when we went to LA 0:08:23.360 --> 0:08:28.640 and it started with me was the Motown sound. I 0:08:28.760 --> 0:08:33.559 was into James Jamison on bass period and Benny Benjamin 0:08:34.040 --> 0:08:37.480 the drums. Uh, And that was my start in music. 0:08:37.760 --> 0:08:43.280 I was taking hangers acting like high hats. I took 0:08:43.320 --> 0:08:47.360 the drum, the little broom the sweeping part, used that 0:08:47.440 --> 0:08:50.880 as a rim and snare, and the box spring I 0:08:50.960 --> 0:08:54.880 used as a kick drum. And that's how I started 0:08:54.960 --> 0:08:56.200 music right there. 0:08:56.400 --> 0:08:58.240 You know, that's where most people would take the broom 0:08:58.320 --> 0:09:01.640 and make that to a guitar. You thought to make that? 0:09:02.760 --> 0:09:04.640 Yeah? 0:09:04.960 --> 0:09:09.240 Was were there any adults that were musicians that were 0:09:09.880 --> 0:09:11.760 influential in your life at that point. 0:09:11.520 --> 0:09:15.640 Where no, I'm just Jamison and Benny Benjamin. I didn't 0:09:15.679 --> 0:09:19.440 know nobody yet. That was only about six or seven 0:09:19.520 --> 0:09:20.200 there at seven. 0:09:20.840 --> 0:09:24.040 What was it about that music that called you the bass? 0:09:25.000 --> 0:09:28.480 I got a guitar when I was like, we did 0:09:30.040 --> 0:09:32.720 we just did four part harmony because I was teaching 0:09:32.760 --> 0:09:35.920 everybody this lower Scudder's commercial back in the day. And 0:09:36.040 --> 0:09:39.440 my brother was three years old, but he held four 0:09:39.480 --> 0:09:42.880 part harmony. So we was doing this Lower Scudder's commercial, 0:09:43.280 --> 0:09:46.480 and my father heard us and started teaching us some 0:09:46.559 --> 0:09:50.720 four freshman type harmony back in the day at high 0:09:50.800 --> 0:09:53.720 lows and all that, and so we did it real easy, 0:09:53.840 --> 0:09:55.840 and he got a manager and they put us on 0:09:56.160 --> 0:09:59.520 we were called the Little Angel, right, and they put us 0:09:59.559 --> 0:10:04.360 on Spike Jones arc Link letters show all these names 0:10:04.440 --> 0:10:11.040 from back in the day. And that's where my brother, 0:10:11.840 --> 0:10:14.640 he was three when we did our first TV show, 0:10:15.120 --> 0:10:18.800 and he held he gave everybody our parts when we 0:10:18.880 --> 0:10:22.760 forgot him, so he As far as harmony is concerned. 0:10:22.320 --> 0:10:24.840 How did you guys even know how to notate harmony? 0:10:24.880 --> 0:10:27.880 Because well, one thing I think our audience should know 0:10:28.760 --> 0:10:34.640 is I feel like the the one distinction that separated 0:10:34.840 --> 0:10:42.240 you guys from any of your contemporaries Jackson Stair Steps, 0:10:42.920 --> 0:10:47.520 whoever was young at that time, was you guys had 0:10:47.520 --> 0:10:52.920 the most unusual harmony structures ever? Was that from not knowing? 0:10:53.200 --> 0:10:57.160 Like who taught you those dissonant and chromatic harmonies that 0:10:57.760 --> 0:10:58.560 weren't average? 0:10:58.760 --> 0:11:03.679 And I think, well, my father was into the four 0:11:03.760 --> 0:11:07.319 Freshmen and the high lows and all that. So he 0:11:07.320 --> 0:11:11.000 he saw us doing three part harmony and one lead 0:11:11.200 --> 0:11:15.439 on this Laura scuddis commercial and I gave him their parts, 0:11:15.720 --> 0:11:17.760 but it was, you know, simple stuff like you know, 0:11:18.440 --> 0:11:21.439 and he saw we can hold a note, not get off, 0:11:21.720 --> 0:11:25.679 So he started giving us harder songs, songs like It's 0:11:25.679 --> 0:11:30.199 a Blue World and well, I forgot the name of 0:11:30.240 --> 0:11:34.600 those songs, but uh it was four and five part harmony, 0:11:34.800 --> 0:11:37.959 and we stayed on it and didn't get off. I 0:11:38.040 --> 0:11:41.640 don't know why. My mother could have been an opera singer. 0:11:41.720 --> 0:11:44.240 She was studying for a minute, So I guess that's 0:11:44.280 --> 0:11:48.920 why we uh we just felt we can do it, 0:11:48.960 --> 0:11:50.800 and we just did it. You know. It wasn't no 0:11:51.000 --> 0:11:53.840 why or whatever. We just did it, stayed on the notes. 0:11:53.880 --> 0:11:59.959 And I actually was the worst holding the note. Yeah, James, 0:12:00.000 --> 0:12:07.320 this was the best, and then it was Charmaine, then Olympia. 0:12:07.400 --> 0:12:09.960 Than me, I was last. I always forget my note, 0:12:10.000 --> 0:12:13.800 you know. But James had the ear for holding the notes, 0:12:13.920 --> 0:12:14.920 and he was the youngest. 0:12:15.280 --> 0:12:17.320 What year was this this was? 0:12:17.559 --> 0:12:21.199 I was like I was like seven six, but. 0:12:21.200 --> 0:12:23.280 I mean, like in what year was it? 0:12:23.400 --> 0:12:27.960 Like probably sixty fifty nine or something like. I was 0:12:28.000 --> 0:12:32.280 born in fifty three, so okay, around fifty nine or 0:12:32.520 --> 0:12:33.800 something like that or sixty. 0:12:34.080 --> 0:12:37.240 So there wasn't even a template out at the time 0:12:37.360 --> 0:12:40.800 to or besides maybe Frankie Lymon and the teenagers, which 0:12:40.800 --> 0:12:43.480 is more like fifty seven to fifty, but there were 0:12:43.520 --> 0:12:45.480 no kids groups or that sort. 0:12:45.320 --> 0:12:48.920 Of thing to no, just Frankie Lyman, what's your name? 0:12:49.000 --> 0:12:53.280 Sound kind of like a kid little Anthony back then imperiods. 0:12:53.360 --> 0:12:54.679 I listened to him for a minute. 0:12:54.800 --> 0:13:00.040 Yeah, so were you guys instantly in pursuit of the 0:13:00.040 --> 0:13:01.960 next level? Was just to find a record deal? Or 0:13:01.960 --> 0:13:04.360 was it just like we did this television show and 0:13:04.400 --> 0:13:04.760 that's it. 0:13:05.200 --> 0:13:07.800 Well, back then we didn't have no leads. It was 0:13:07.880 --> 0:13:11.800 off harmony, so we would just stand there and sing, 0:13:11.880 --> 0:13:16.679 no personality, no charisma or nothing, just singing holding the notes. 0:13:16.760 --> 0:13:19.280 And we were so young that I guess the crowd 0:13:19.320 --> 0:13:22.199 thought it was amazing that we were singing that kind 0:13:22.280 --> 0:13:24.959 of stuff, But we was just ready to get off 0:13:25.000 --> 0:13:29.319 the stage and go play kind of thing. But I 0:13:29.400 --> 0:13:35.200 loved music. I was the one teaching them and actually 0:13:35.200 --> 0:13:36.160 sometime making. 0:13:35.960 --> 0:13:36.720 Them saying but. 0:13:38.840 --> 0:13:41.840 I got into the motown thing, and then from there 0:13:42.679 --> 0:13:47.840 we didn't get into seriously making moves to record companies 0:13:47.960 --> 0:13:54.520 till I was around I guess thirteen or fourteen or fifteen, 0:13:54.600 --> 0:13:58.960 something like that, because that's when when the Jacksons came out. 0:14:00.160 --> 0:14:03.920 That's when I got serious and I started teaching that 0:14:04.120 --> 0:14:08.880 when my brother, because he had the most powerful voice 0:14:09.320 --> 0:14:12.360 and I was he said, I can't say. I said, well, 0:14:12.480 --> 0:14:15.920 just nothing again, you won't do nothing unless you practice it. 0:14:16.600 --> 0:14:18.880 He had the tone. So I work with him every 0:14:18.960 --> 0:14:22.720 day and practice till after a year or so he 0:14:22.880 --> 0:14:24.160 was riffing and all that. 0:14:24.280 --> 0:14:28.240 You know, So all your brothers and sisters are literally 0:14:28.240 --> 0:14:30.480 coming out the wound one by one during this period. 0:14:30.840 --> 0:14:33.040 You're just waiting for them to get of age. 0:14:33.040 --> 0:14:37.720 And like everybody, there was nobody that came in my 0:14:37.840 --> 0:14:41.040 family that couldn't hold a harmony. They could do that 0:14:41.080 --> 0:14:43.120 before they could do a lead. We had to practice 0:14:43.120 --> 0:14:43.640 our leads. 0:14:44.600 --> 0:14:44.720 Uh. 0:14:44.920 --> 0:14:48.360 So as far as when they give them apart, they'd 0:14:48.360 --> 0:14:50.720 hold it and we sing to somebody else's part, they 0:14:50.720 --> 0:14:54.320 would keep it and never blend into the other person's 0:14:54.320 --> 0:14:57.480 part or anything like that. We all had that, I guess. 0:14:57.720 --> 0:15:00.320 But the leads we had to work on, and worked 0:15:01.480 --> 0:15:05.760 him and Foster. But Edmund worked the hardest. Uh and 0:15:05.880 --> 0:15:10.320 his tone reaped the benefits because I worked at it 0:15:10.360 --> 0:15:14.960 at home. And then when we got with Freddie Perrin, uh, 0:15:14.600 --> 0:15:16.880 he heard Edmans's voice right off the bat. 0:15:16.960 --> 0:15:19.920 So, but that was the one in the Capitol years. 0:15:21.280 --> 0:15:24.840 I'm jumping too fast, go ahead. 0:15:25.040 --> 0:15:28.880 So what label was pride associated with? MGM. 0:15:29.400 --> 0:15:33.480 Yeah, a friend of Mike Curb, which was Mike Wiener Curb. 0:15:33.600 --> 0:15:37.840 Mike Curb was running MGM when we were signed, and 0:15:37.920 --> 0:15:39.360 he was only twenty four years old. 0:15:39.760 --> 0:15:42.000 Wait, so the Mike Curb congregation. 0:15:42.160 --> 0:15:48.440 That's one of my favorite breakdingwsime exactly, the coming down. Yeah, 0:15:48.560 --> 0:15:51.840 oh my god. Yeah, he was cool. He was the 0:15:51.840 --> 0:15:55.720 one that really hit me with the commercial thing because 0:15:56.120 --> 0:16:00.240 I was doing I was really kind of into back 0:16:00.280 --> 0:16:05.520 then that social conscious type writing, the you know, because 0:16:05.520 --> 0:16:08.320 the Black Panthers was out and all that stuff, so 0:16:08.320 --> 0:16:11.040 socially conscious music was kind of in, and I was 0:16:11.080 --> 0:16:18.120 into that from a third grip from this history teacher, 0:16:18.720 --> 0:16:22.320 Mr Simon. But he was the one who told me, well, Leon, 0:16:22.400 --> 0:16:27.040 your music has to be more commercial, you know. And 0:16:27.360 --> 0:16:30.800 I was on that tip, like, well, what do you know? 0:16:30.880 --> 0:16:33.320 You only do pop music, you know, you know, because 0:16:33.400 --> 0:16:36.040 we knew how more. I mean, MGM was as far 0:16:36.080 --> 0:16:40.520 as motown was. And he's like, you're right, but even 0:16:40.560 --> 0:16:42.640 if I do pop music, it has to be commercial. 0:16:43.360 --> 0:16:47.400 You're doing R and B, it's got to be as commercial. 0:16:47.840 --> 0:16:51.640 And I didn't want to hear that, but I did, 0:16:52.320 --> 0:16:55.080 and I started changing after I had that meeting because 0:16:55.120 --> 0:16:58.680 he wanted to give He made up pride after that. 0:17:00.000 --> 0:17:02.440 It's all. He told us to do this song called 0:17:03.560 --> 0:17:06.679 what It Takes, an old Barry Gordy song, and he 0:17:06.760 --> 0:17:08.280 wanted us to do it, and we did it, and 0:17:08.359 --> 0:17:10.880 it you know, it wasn't nothing. You know, it didn't 0:17:10.920 --> 0:17:14.240 do nothing. And this meeting with me, I didn't know 0:17:14.240 --> 0:17:17.720 it at the time, was to get inside whoever was 0:17:20.080 --> 0:17:21.880 the head of leader of the group type of thing. 0:17:22.680 --> 0:17:27.919 And I was more like trying to tell him, we 0:17:28.040 --> 0:17:29.639 know what we're do and just let us do it, 0:17:29.640 --> 0:17:32.240 because I realized they put us on the shelf for 0:17:32.359 --> 0:17:38.080 the Osmonds because they didn't right, Yeah, but we didn't 0:17:38.119 --> 0:17:41.280 know that when we signed and they didn't tell, you know, 0:17:41.320 --> 0:17:43.840 we just we didn't have no records out for a year. 0:17:44.000 --> 0:17:46.840 We didn't even go in the studio for a long 0:17:46.960 --> 0:17:50.080 time after the Osmonds was out. But you know, I 0:17:50.160 --> 0:17:53.320 understand the marketing thing, you know, uh, they didn't want 0:17:53.359 --> 0:17:57.119 no other competition out there, and we were a family 0:17:57.160 --> 0:17:59.240 group that could sing harmony and all that, so they 0:17:59.280 --> 0:17:59.760 signed us. 0:18:00.359 --> 0:18:03.760 Well, then I gotta ask then if because I know 0:18:04.720 --> 0:18:10.200 with one bad Apple not At one point did MGM say, hmm, 0:18:10.240 --> 0:18:12.760 this sounds close like ABC. All right, Silvers, here you go, 0:18:12.920 --> 0:18:16.080 like this should be for you instead of the Osmonds. 0:18:15.640 --> 0:18:19.640 Or no, the Odumans were signed already and they were 0:18:19.760 --> 0:18:23.439 specially targeted to be the off the other side, a 0:18:23.480 --> 0:18:26.720 white group family group and a black family group. That 0:18:26.840 --> 0:18:31.000 was I understand the marketing after, but we didn't know 0:18:31.080 --> 0:18:34.160 that was the case till, like, you know, years later, 0:18:34.720 --> 0:18:37.480 And I didn't believe it even after people was telling 0:18:37.560 --> 0:18:40.439 me because I wasn't caring about that, you know, as 0:18:40.480 --> 0:18:42.800 long as we can come out, that was my thing. 0:18:43.720 --> 0:18:47.080 So their whole thing was done, and all of a 0:18:47.119 --> 0:18:49.440 sudden we heard them out and he was on MGM. 0:18:49.600 --> 0:18:53.280 Nothing was told or anything, and it just came out, 0:18:53.480 --> 0:18:57.000 you know, And I actually liked the record. I thought 0:18:57.000 --> 0:18:59.440 it was you know. But Mike Curb was cool because 0:18:59.440 --> 0:19:03.920 he made up pride and well he got his friend 0:19:03.960 --> 0:19:09.480 Michael Veener to uh credible bar because incredible bargle man. 0:19:09.680 --> 0:19:12.120 Oh yeah yeah, and that was a funny story too. 0:19:12.359 --> 0:19:17.560 But he they were schoolmates, Curb and Mike Veener, and 0:19:17.640 --> 0:19:20.040 he always wanted to get into the record business and 0:19:20.119 --> 0:19:23.480 Mike Curb gave him that shot and gave us put 0:19:23.560 --> 0:19:28.760 us on another label because MGM was more pop than anything. 0:19:29.000 --> 0:19:31.600 They never had no R and B groups on MGM, 0:19:32.160 --> 0:19:35.000 so Pride was the label that he put us on. 0:19:35.800 --> 0:19:40.960 Got a well KEG. Johnson got a black promoter and 0:19:42.400 --> 0:19:46.000 Mike Veener was the head of Pride and we hit 0:19:46.440 --> 0:19:49.800 with Fool's Paradise our first record. Well there was R 0:19:49.840 --> 0:19:52.919 and B hit, you know, I didn't get no pop play, 0:19:53.600 --> 0:19:58.439 but uh, that was that. And when we started practicing, 0:19:58.520 --> 0:20:00.800 we went on the road and things were happening quick 0:20:00.800 --> 0:20:04.720 because we had the big naturals and people automatically oh 0:20:05.160 --> 0:20:09.400 another Jackson's and we had the bigger naturals. So can you. 0:20:09.400 --> 0:20:13.640 Clear how those your actual naturals home? 0:20:13.760 --> 0:20:14.160 Yeah? 0:20:14.240 --> 0:20:17.359 Yeah, okay, I had to know it for his weeks 0:20:17.440 --> 0:20:22.000 or not because they were so perfect. The Silvers Afros 0:20:22.119 --> 0:20:24.359 for me, the real standard of the Afro, not the 0:20:24.400 --> 0:20:26.000 Jackson five like that. You know. 0:20:26.080 --> 0:20:29.000 Well, we we had a concept. I thought, if you 0:20:29.000 --> 0:20:32.840 would we would go to bed instead of with the 0:20:32.920 --> 0:20:35.760 natural flattening it up, we would brush our hair up 0:20:35.800 --> 0:20:38.399 and take rubber bands and have a unicorn going up 0:20:39.400 --> 0:20:41.520 and to sleep like that. And we took the rubber 0:20:41.520 --> 0:20:43.320 bands off, it would just lay out like that. 0:20:43.560 --> 0:20:48.040 Wow, so that was our natural secrets revealed. You think, 0:20:48.080 --> 0:20:53.200 I ain't gonna do this, only braid my hair so 0:20:53.359 --> 0:20:55.200 can have that effect. I was like, damn, I could 0:20:55.240 --> 0:21:05.040 just unicorm shit, you're fired, thank you? Oh man? So 0:21:05.680 --> 0:21:10.560 h knowing or you know, I don't. I don't know 0:21:10.640 --> 0:21:16.359 how big of a presence the Jackson Five were in 0:21:16.440 --> 0:21:18.960 you guys's life as far as like that's the goal 0:21:19.160 --> 0:21:22.679 or if it was some sort of eclips it was. 0:21:24.119 --> 0:21:24.720 It was big. 0:21:24.760 --> 0:21:28.919 Oh sorry, no, well I'm asking like, was there a 0:21:29.000 --> 0:21:31.200 thing like well until we reached the status of the 0:21:31.280 --> 0:21:34.040 Jackson Five, like we haven't made it yet or that 0:21:34.080 --> 0:21:38.520 sort of thing, And at least with the Pride Records. 0:21:38.240 --> 0:21:43.640 It wasn't openly said because we were kind of controlling 0:21:43.960 --> 0:21:48.359 our We were writing our songs, we were doing our 0:21:48.400 --> 0:21:52.000 own harmony. We didn't have a corporation like guys that 0:21:52.080 --> 0:21:54.240 knew what they were doing, you know too, So we 0:21:54.400 --> 0:21:58.040 learned everything. So it was like a great feeling each 0:21:58.400 --> 0:22:00.520 level of it. So we wasn't even thinking. We was 0:22:00.640 --> 0:22:03.760 just happy to be in it really and doing our 0:22:03.800 --> 0:22:04.479 own music. 0:22:05.440 --> 0:22:08.640 So those prior records, was that you in the studio 0:22:09.040 --> 0:22:11.000 like just pretty much doing everything. 0:22:11.040 --> 0:22:12.360 How much was that and how much? 0:22:13.240 --> 0:22:19.240 But Jerry Butler had three guys, well two Keg Johnson 0:22:19.280 --> 0:22:23.440 and Jerry Peters working with his company, and he sent 0:22:23.520 --> 0:22:26.320 them first to meet us. And he met us at 0:22:26.320 --> 0:22:31.119 the six Flags Magic Mountain doing a show, and backstage 0:22:31.320 --> 0:22:34.679 after the show he brought his records. I guess that 0:22:34.760 --> 0:22:38.360 he wanted well that he did want us to hear 0:22:38.480 --> 0:22:41.240 from Jerry Butler, telling him to let him hear this. 0:22:41.960 --> 0:22:45.360 And I had my base ready in an amp and 0:22:45.400 --> 0:22:50.200 we were all sitting in a line, well in a circle, 0:22:50.240 --> 0:22:53.960 half circle, and we knew he was coming, so we 0:22:53.960 --> 0:22:56.960 was prepared to play our songs. And he said, I 0:22:57.000 --> 0:23:01.040 heard you all right, Keg did, and we looked at 0:23:01.080 --> 0:23:03.680 each other and said yeah yeah, And he said, okay, 0:23:03.760 --> 0:23:06.880 let me hear something. So we started playing Fool's Paradise 0:23:07.000 --> 0:23:09.240 at the record first record and I start off with 0:23:09.280 --> 0:23:14.080 the bass and and then Charmain started singing, and we 0:23:14.160 --> 0:23:17.159 all you know, and Keg just walked over to the 0:23:17.200 --> 0:23:19.919 trash can and then okay, that's one, let me hear 0:23:19.960 --> 0:23:25.160 another one, and through through the records in the trash 0:23:25.240 --> 0:23:27.160 in front of us. You know, we liked that we 0:23:27.160 --> 0:23:31.320 was teenagers. We was like we looked at each other. Yeah, 0:23:31.359 --> 0:23:33.760 so that was great. We clicked right off the bat, 0:23:34.040 --> 0:23:35.840 you know when he did that. 0:23:36.160 --> 0:23:40.800 You know so well, even though buying these records and 0:23:40.840 --> 0:23:43.160 seeing the production and stuff, I knew that you wrote 0:23:43.200 --> 0:23:47.119 the songs, but yeah, I was trying to figure out, 0:23:47.240 --> 0:23:50.520 like how much production control you had these songs. 0:23:50.880 --> 0:23:54.280 I didn't. I was learning then. I didn't want to produce. 0:23:54.440 --> 0:23:56.719 I didn't even play on it, and I didn't want to. 0:23:56.760 --> 0:23:59.800 He asked me did Keg was the producer, but it 0:23:59.840 --> 0:24:02.520 was supposed to be. It was Keg and Jerry Peters 0:24:02.520 --> 0:24:06.280 that were the producers. Jerry Butler wasn't going to produce, 0:24:06.480 --> 0:24:11.280 but it was his company that was hired and some 0:24:11.320 --> 0:24:17.320 things went down. But Keg was the producer, and he 0:24:17.400 --> 0:24:19.320 asked me, did I want to play on it? Because 0:24:19.359 --> 0:24:23.359 he liked everything he heard and he was worried. He 0:24:23.440 --> 0:24:25.800 wasn't going to tell Jerry. Now I didn't notice at 0:24:25.800 --> 0:24:28.520 the time, but he was. He wasn't going to tell 0:24:28.600 --> 0:24:33.359 Jerry till later. Oh wo, because Jerry was busy still, 0:24:33.400 --> 0:24:35.679 he was still hot with his career. He was on 0:24:35.800 --> 0:24:39.159 tour and all that stuff. So, uh, we was actually 0:24:39.160 --> 0:24:43.000 in the studio cutting this stuff. Before Jerry even knew 0:24:44.080 --> 0:24:47.520 that we didn't do his record. But I didn't know this. 0:24:47.760 --> 0:24:51.680 I just heard it from a phone conversation with my mother, 0:24:52.160 --> 0:24:57.720 Mike Wiener, and Keg because Keg was with Jerry and 0:24:57.760 --> 0:25:01.280 they were about to get rid of him. Because Jerry 0:25:01.359 --> 0:25:04.399 came in and came down, and I remember I had 0:25:04.400 --> 0:25:06.520 to go in the studio and he was telling me, now, 0:25:06.560 --> 0:25:10.199 this is what I wanted y'all to do, and he 0:25:10.240 --> 0:25:16.359 played a way worse bubblegum record than one Bad Apple, 0:25:16.480 --> 0:25:20.960 and I like that, this was horrible. It was bubble gum. 0:25:21.560 --> 0:25:23.800 So I was like, you know, I was from the 0:25:23.880 --> 0:25:29.399