WEBVTT - Stokley 0:00:02.040 --> 0:00:11.479 And money. We are thank you, Jake Valentine. We are 0:00:12.480 --> 0:00:18.600 the authority on all things R and B. Lady and gentlemen, 0:00:18.640 --> 0:00:25.640 I am Tank, I'm Jay Valentine, and this man. This 0:00:25.760 --> 0:00:30.160 is the Army Money Podcast. Yes, it is the authority, 0:00:30.360 --> 0:00:37.159 the one in out on all things R and B. H. 0:00:37.680 --> 0:00:43.159 As I go into my preacher cadence, I reminded at 0:00:43.200 --> 0:00:50.120 the time, being a youngster desiring to sing, I'm desiring 0:00:50.159 --> 0:00:55.360 to have the mechanics to be dazzling amongst the people. 0:00:55.880 --> 0:00:59.080 And there was a man I studied. Ah, come on now, 0:01:00.320 --> 0:01:10.520 so man, I watched. They were ingredients that I've stolen 0:01:10.640 --> 0:01:13.600 from this man that I am not going to give 0:01:13.680 --> 0:01:17.640 him back. I have taken these ingredients. I've gone on 0:01:17.760 --> 0:01:22.959 to fort a career of my own. Ladies and gentlemen. Uh, 0:01:23.160 --> 0:01:25.280 one of my heroes in the building. Man, that's the 0:01:25.280 --> 0:01:27.240 best I can say. Get up a stoke top of 0:01:27.280 --> 0:01:35.319 the top. Want oh you want to say? Have you 0:01:35.360 --> 0:01:40.800 heard bro? Let me tell you something, man, I mean 0:01:42.360 --> 0:01:46.480 going back to like being in at the Fine Arts 0:01:46.560 --> 0:01:50.360 building in Howard University. You know what I mean? And 0:01:50.440 --> 0:01:53.160 like it? Alright? Yeah, I was. I was. I was 0:01:53.160 --> 0:01:55.520 a baby like she didn't go there though I didn't 0:01:55.520 --> 0:02:00.200 go there. I skip skip school. I was skipped school 0:02:00.200 --> 0:02:04.280 and come up to Howard and see guys with I 0:02:04.360 --> 0:02:07.640 see see two drum sets to two guys going back 0:02:07.640 --> 0:02:09.760 and forth, two drum sets in the room, in the 0:02:09.840 --> 0:02:13.040 rooms in the basement, the people at the piano going crazy, 0:02:13.040 --> 0:02:16.799 and I like it. It like started there, you know 0:02:16.800 --> 0:02:21.280 what I mean? And then bro, you came out singing 0:02:22.160 --> 0:02:26.680 like I had never heard before, and it had a 0:02:26.800 --> 0:02:33.280 texture where it was like Stevie reminiscent, but it was 0:02:33.360 --> 0:02:42.440 completely something new m And I was a hundred enamored 0:02:42.440 --> 0:02:50.959 with it. Every day, Wow to church, drop my mom off, 0:02:52.080 --> 0:02:55.360 picking my sister, drop my cousin off at boy stay 0:02:57.240 --> 0:03:01.880 every day every day and people like, how do you 0:03:01.960 --> 0:03:03.520 say like that? I wouldn't tell everybody for a long time, 0:03:03.560 --> 0:03:07.680 Like where'd you get that from? No? Guy, right, I wouldn't. 0:03:08.320 --> 0:03:14.200 I wouldn't tell everybody for a long time and take 0:03:14.200 --> 0:03:16.360 it back to the church. Yeah, but like what did 0:03:16.440 --> 0:03:18.280 what did you get? Because they of course they knew 0:03:18.280 --> 0:03:20.119 if they knew if John, you know what I'm saying, 0:03:20.120 --> 0:03:21.960 They knew I love John, They knew of Fred, they 0:03:22.000 --> 0:03:24.920 knew I loved Fred. They knew, Um, Mitchell Jones, they 0:03:24.919 --> 0:03:27.360 know I love Mitchell Jones. They didn't know about that 0:03:27.440 --> 0:03:31.639 stokely wow to be mentioned with them. First of all, 0:03:31.680 --> 0:03:34.400 it's it's crazy. Oh yeah, no you you're in a 0:03:34.400 --> 0:03:37.600 heavy room and that's that's very heavy. You know, come on, 0:03:38.400 --> 0:03:42.520 heavy room. Um we we what we like to do, right, 0:03:43.000 --> 0:03:45.480 I hate it. I just wanted to start off there 0:03:45.480 --> 0:03:49.240 and just give you just a perspective on just what 0:03:49.280 --> 0:03:52.800 you mean to me, because it's it's it's very real 0:03:53.040 --> 0:03:55.440 and it's a very big deal, you know what I mean. 0:03:55.480 --> 0:03:57.480 So I want to say thank you. I think every 0:03:57.480 --> 0:03:59.040 time I see you, I tell you, tell you this. 0:03:59.040 --> 0:04:02.040 But I'm not gonna stopped telling me every time I 0:04:02.080 --> 0:04:05.440 see you. Know what I'm saying, Man, your vocal, I'm 0:04:05.440 --> 0:04:07.320 gonna say you every time because I just I just 0:04:07.360 --> 0:04:10.520 think that even for our platform and creating this, you 0:04:10.560 --> 0:04:12.200 know what I mean, we want to make sure I 0:04:12.240 --> 0:04:15.560 said something earlier that that that the guys who are 0:04:15.560 --> 0:04:19.840 well studied, the even the women who who did this 0:04:20.640 --> 0:04:25.640 that way, like we couldn't skip no steps, no, not 0:04:25.760 --> 0:04:33.560 a one. Like I'm pretty sure you guys recorded you 0:04:33.720 --> 0:04:37.400 recorded on two inch Oh yeah, absolutely, you were two 0:04:37.400 --> 0:04:42.159 inches right, and then finally the task. Finally the ada came. 0:04:42.279 --> 0:04:44.599 Oh yeah, I used to actually cut take that. Yeah, 0:04:44.640 --> 0:04:48.800 that's right, you know what I'm saying. One button? No, no, 0:04:48.880 --> 0:04:51.920 it was the real Yeah, it wasn't nose the first 0:04:52.000 --> 0:04:54.040 the bast actions sound good. We might as well fly 0:04:54.200 --> 0:04:58.800 to base actions, right, are you sure you got it's 0:04:58.839 --> 0:05:02.240 a commitment and take a lucky right, it'll take a 0:05:02.320 --> 0:05:06.479 lunch of fun background, right, and you could have run 0:05:06.480 --> 0:05:10.680 out of trucks right right, You can run out. You 0:05:10.720 --> 0:05:15.440 could run out. So you have to be amazing right 0:05:15.480 --> 0:05:18.440 in here. It's like your planning's got to be on point, 0:05:18.800 --> 0:05:21.920 you know, way before pitch correction. I'm gonna I'm gonna 0:05:21.960 --> 0:05:24.520 let you talk, but I'm still celebrating you right now. 0:05:24.800 --> 0:05:31.360 Way pitch correction, all though, tune and what's the other one? 0:05:31.560 --> 0:05:36.840 Meladon right? Right? You just gotta do it ten more times, 0:05:39.400 --> 0:05:42.080 which is a little bit of extra rehearsal. You got 0:05:42.120 --> 0:05:45.440 a little practice and then there and then there's stack. Yeah, 0:05:45.960 --> 0:05:50.640 he came from the era of eight to ten hour rehearsals. 0:05:52.040 --> 0:05:57.880 That's how he grew. Yeah, not by choice, man, but 0:05:57.920 --> 0:06:03.640 it made you the man. I thank that the school 0:06:03.680 --> 0:06:12.720 of my better work. You you I've survived, brother, and 0:06:13.760 --> 0:06:17.000 those are the things, those are the differences that are 0:06:18.400 --> 0:06:21.800 Sometimes it's hard to articulate the why. But you know 0:06:22.200 --> 0:06:26.600 when when when the rubber meets the roll, those instincts 0:06:27.279 --> 0:06:31.320 of what you've learned and what you've really had to um, 0:06:31.320 --> 0:06:33.919 where you've really been battle tested, that's where that that 0:06:34.040 --> 0:06:38.440 just kicks in you. Yeah, you float right all right, Stock, 0:06:38.480 --> 0:06:43.360 This is about you, Um, it's about us. First of all, 0:06:43.400 --> 0:06:46.360 standing ovation. I'm standing up right now, Jay Valentine, Tank, 0:06:46.480 --> 0:06:49.360 thank you for doing this. People got to know this 0:06:49.440 --> 0:06:52.800 is an amazing I've watched your show. I mean it's 0:06:52.800 --> 0:06:55.360 a cross section of people, olderness like you are bringing 0:06:55.360 --> 0:06:57.880 it all together. Man. We need this form, We need 0:06:57.920 --> 0:07:00.880 this kind of platform to tell us stories, to share, 0:07:01.400 --> 0:07:03.560 you know, the pass on, you know, because this is 0:07:04.080 --> 0:07:06.120 you know, the younger generation. It's a different They're they're 0:07:06.200 --> 0:07:10.120 they're great, everybody's great, but there's some information that that's 0:07:10.160 --> 0:07:13.600 that's missing. This is like a bridge, sir. Thank you man, sir. 0:07:13.720 --> 0:07:16.560 That's why that's why we're here. That's absolutely here. The 0:07:16.640 --> 0:07:23.320 s um Stokely were like we are historical pod Historical 0:07:24.000 --> 0:07:27.960 were like we don't get into the archives of of 0:07:27.960 --> 0:07:33.840 of stokely like the beginning, when was it identified that 0:07:33.960 --> 0:07:42.920 place that Minnesota, Minnesota, Yeah, Minnesota boys, but it's some 0:07:43.000 --> 0:07:52.040 cold things too, Minnesota slept on. Shout out, shout, shout 0:07:52.040 --> 0:07:55.440 out to brother window Muhammad's passed on. We were riding 0:07:55.480 --> 0:07:59.160 through Minneapolis one day and it was below zero. And 0:07:59.200 --> 0:08:00.520 I don't know how this is gonna come off, what 0:08:00.560 --> 0:08:03.600 I'm gonna say to me, oh man, but we were 0:08:03.760 --> 0:08:07.800 we were riding through Minneapolis and there were ladies of 0:08:07.840 --> 0:08:13.679 the night m on the street corner Wow at fall below, 0:08:15.440 --> 0:08:19.760 walking the walk and talking to talk getting it in 0:08:19.840 --> 0:08:22.560 the brother. I'm gonna saying it said, a woman with 0:08:22.600 --> 0:08:29.680 that kind of dedication, Wow, could run this country. That 0:08:30.200 --> 0:08:33.920 type of dedication. It's a it's a different kind of cold, 0:08:35.520 --> 0:08:38.920 it's a different kind of art. We were counting before 0:08:38.920 --> 0:08:41.120 we got out of the cars. Okay on three on three, 0:08:41.160 --> 0:08:43.680 we're gonna get out and tell them, open the door, 0:08:43.760 --> 0:08:49.760 tell them so take us back, take us back, take 0:08:49.800 --> 0:08:53.199 us back to where you first found it or at 0:08:53.200 --> 0:08:56.840 first found Oh man, it's um. It's one of those things. 0:08:57.080 --> 0:09:01.040 My um my parents seventies, but my parents are educators, 0:09:01.040 --> 0:09:03.600 so we talked about history and my dad's you know, 0:09:03.760 --> 0:09:09.480 his history teacher, anything to do with black folk, you know, 0:09:09.679 --> 0:09:12.720 loving on black folks that kind of whether it be sports, politics, 0:09:13.120 --> 0:09:18.040 you know, entertainment, etc. And my mother English all that stuff. 0:09:18.040 --> 0:09:20.240 So I grew up a little bit different. So I 0:09:20.280 --> 0:09:24.760 had my father had all these people around him, and 0:09:24.840 --> 0:09:28.000 when I was like three or four, they would go back. 0:09:28.080 --> 0:09:30.320 They started going to Ghana, going to Africa, back and forth. 0:09:30.360 --> 0:09:32.720 So they'd bring all these things back and they trade 0:09:32.760 --> 0:09:35.719 clothes and then you know, commune Africans would give them, 0:09:35.800 --> 0:09:39.320 you know, stuff back, and he had some father had 0:09:39.360 --> 0:09:42.840 some bongles on the wall. I was about three, and uh, 0:09:43.080 --> 0:09:44.839 don't know how I got up and got him off 0:09:44.840 --> 0:09:48.480 the wall. Whatever's much as silver mystery to me. I 0:09:48.520 --> 0:09:50.920 don't know somehow I got up there and started playing 0:09:51.240 --> 0:09:55.000 their sleep And as my father tells me, because I 0:09:55.040 --> 0:09:57.960 don't really remember it, he said, it sounded like you 0:09:58.440 --> 0:10:01.640 like somebody knew what they were doing. They're and actual patterns, 0:10:01.960 --> 0:10:05.000 and uh, it's like what is that? No one is 0:10:05.000 --> 0:10:06.720 they're both asleep. You hear that, like I don't hear 0:10:06.760 --> 0:10:09.000 anything about Mom was like I don't hear nothing, and 0:10:09.440 --> 0:10:12.400 they got up. He was like, wow, this dude is 0:10:12.400 --> 0:10:14.839 in here. Plane. So he had a friend who had 0:10:14.880 --> 0:10:19.400 this African dance Troop Aberdeen game. It's rather from Panama 0:10:19.600 --> 0:10:22.160 and uh he said, I you know, I don't know him. 0:10:22.200 --> 0:10:23.599 It's that I don't know if this is good or not. 0:10:23.720 --> 0:10:27.240 You let me know. He said, oh, yeah, dude, it's good. 0:10:27.280 --> 0:10:30.520 I'll take him with me. So three at about three, 0:10:30.559 --> 0:10:33.080 so it actually knows about I was about that was four. 0:10:34.559 --> 0:10:38.000 I was four, actually, yeah, it was four. So um, 0:10:38.120 --> 0:10:41.400 because there'sn't there's a whole thing in the paper, local 0:10:41.400 --> 0:10:44.319 paper at home. My first gig was First Bank of 0:10:44.360 --> 0:10:48.600 Minneapolis standing on these steel you know, folding chair playing 0:10:48.600 --> 0:10:52.120 congers with this African dance troupe. And that was the 0:10:52.160 --> 0:10:56.080 beginning of it all from Major Yeah, my little dice 0:10:56.120 --> 0:11:05.280 Chiki and my little half from Yeah, I was in it. Yeah. 0:11:05.360 --> 0:11:07.960 So from there, man, that was just kind of mine thing. 0:11:08.000 --> 0:11:09.680 And then at that time too, there was a lot 0:11:09.679 --> 0:11:11.839 of groups like that. You know, I was playing and 0:11:11.960 --> 0:11:14.520 ended up playing for a lot of poets. It's like that. 0:11:14.679 --> 0:11:16.640 So that was like a thing. You go on the park, 0:11:16.720 --> 0:11:18.880 you see brothers playing congers in the park. You know 0:11:19.280 --> 0:11:21.280 that kind of they had like a little baby in 0:11:21.400 --> 0:11:25.360 love Joan. Yeah, you know, that's pretty much pretty much man, 0:11:25.480 --> 0:11:32.840 Revolutionary Chad. You know. So you say, you say Congers, 0:11:33.040 --> 0:11:35.720 it's really Conga, but brothers in the Hill you say Congers, 0:11:36.000 --> 0:11:39.040 it's really Congress. Okay, so I'm from DC. Yeah we 0:11:39.120 --> 0:11:45.800 say congos. Oh that's right, say congos. He's saying. I'm like, 0:11:46.480 --> 0:11:50.320 I know what he's talking about. We put oh, but 0:11:51.160 --> 0:11:52.960 spelling in my head. I'm like, I don't spell that, 0:11:53.120 --> 0:11:55.080 but I'm looking at the spellings in my head. I'm like, 0:11:55.160 --> 0:11:58.800 it is Congers too. Yeah, yeah, Congress, and it's like 0:11:59.120 --> 0:12:03.160 Congers in Bongo was in few so it's like Congos 0:12:03.679 --> 0:12:10.400 longos you know. Yeah. So we was like decent, like yeah, 0:12:10.080 --> 0:12:12.840 uh go go Mickey on the Congos he killed. Yeah, 0:12:14.160 --> 0:12:19.240 yeah that was Yeah. We had a little tribal yeah yeah, yeah, 0:12:19.320 --> 0:12:23.719 we was like Congas, like where are you? Ain't in it? 0:12:23.840 --> 0:12:26.760 So yeah, yeah, man, but that was that was the beginning. 0:12:26.800 --> 0:12:29.360 So I had, you know, with the Aberdeen Gay Group. 0:12:29.440 --> 0:12:32.640 Later on, there was another um group I played with 0:12:33.160 --> 0:12:37.079 instrument in my development, Black Arts Midwest. In this place 0:12:37.160 --> 0:12:39.719 there was a space where they would have all these 0:12:39.800 --> 0:12:42.760 kids coming to the the neighborhood and it was a place 0:12:42.800 --> 0:12:45.200 called Inner City Youth League. So they had they had 0:12:45.200 --> 0:12:47.679 a studio in there, they had where they teach like 0:12:47.800 --> 0:12:50.520 art class so you know, I was involved in that, 0:12:50.640 --> 0:12:53.640 martial arts everything. They had people speaking, just teaching all 0:12:53.679 --> 0:12:55.600 kinds of classes there. So it was a place for 0:12:55.679 --> 0:12:58.000 young kids to go and just kind of get right, 0:12:58.240 --> 0:13:02.679 you know. And later on there's another group with Charlie Dances. 0:13:02.720 --> 0:13:05.200 We played at the Renaissance Festival a lot, you know, 0:13:05.200 --> 0:13:08.200 so I pretty much that was all those I called 0:13:08.240 --> 0:13:11.280 africanisms was instilled to me very young, you know, I 0:13:11.679 --> 0:13:16.360 was and and the the percussion side is really developed. 0:13:16.640 --> 0:13:18.880 Yeah at this time too for you. Yeah, absolutely, so 0:13:18.880 --> 0:13:21.120 that was there was instilled to me very young, and 0:13:21.240 --> 0:13:24.040 I was you know, I was halfway home school and 0:13:24.040 --> 0:13:27.000 didn't know it. But you being paid too. Did you 0:13:27.000 --> 0:13:29.400 make some money to get a couple of dollars? Oh yeah, 0:13:29.400 --> 0:13:35.160 a little bit. Yeah, yeah, you know, I mean right 0:13:35.280 --> 0:13:38.599 now now, my pop my first it was Remember it 0:13:38.679 --> 0:13:40.920 was twelve dollars and seventy five cent. Remember that's that check. 0:13:41.800 --> 0:13:44.880 Get it? And I was like, yeah, get a whole candy, 0:13:45.120 --> 0:13:49.719 Like what the what account? I was like how much 0:13:49.760 --> 0:13:52.280 candy I get with that because I didn't get paid 0:13:52.280 --> 0:13:56.760 frone of my street performance. But get whatever twelve seventy five, 0:13:58.000 --> 0:14:05.080 what they said Fisherman's warf owes me Now, oh but goodness, yeah, man, 0:14:05.240 --> 0:14:14.200 So you're playing You're playing Congos, Congas, congas, three of 0:14:14.200 --> 0:14:17.560 those until about what egg So that started at four 0:14:17.640 --> 0:14:22.080 and then um, I was let's see ten, eleven, twelve, 0:14:22.200 --> 0:14:24.360 Are you putting in years? Yeah, so that's when that 0:14:24.480 --> 0:14:26.600 was being a kid playing sports and all this stuff 0:14:26.600 --> 0:14:30.280 in between, of course, and at the same time, there's 0:14:30.320 --> 0:14:33.040 so many things happening at the at the same time. 0:14:33.040 --> 0:14:34.280 You know, how you go through life and you go 0:14:34.320 --> 0:14:36.600 through phases when your kid and go through sports and 0:14:36.640 --> 0:14:40.560 football and basketball and track and all that. And so 0:14:41.400 --> 0:14:45.360 at the same time, I'm listening all these records, you know, 0:14:45.520 --> 0:14:49.800 my dad, I've hear Malcolm X, you're not here, Etha Franklin, 0:14:50.240 --> 0:14:55.040 You're not here, Ella Fitzgerald, Serif on all these different things, 0:14:55.080 --> 0:14:57.480 you know, just all the branches of three of black music, 0:14:57.960 --> 0:15:03.560 you know, all these genres that we've created. And I'm like, wow, 0:15:03.600 --> 0:15:05.960 I putting you know, it's just it's in you hear 0:15:06.080 --> 0:15:08.080 music and I didn't know that how it's affecting me. 0:15:08.760 --> 0:15:13.080 My my aunt was the musical director and the church, 0:15:13.320 --> 0:15:15.840 so I didn't. I never sang in church. I played, 0:15:16.800 --> 0:15:18.360 but so I mean I was you know, my ear 0:15:18.440 --> 0:15:20.400 was pretty good even back then. I was like man, 0:15:20.440 --> 0:15:23.760 I so that spirit just never left. And you know 0:15:23.760 --> 0:15:26.000 how that is, it just gets in you, and that 0:15:26.080 --> 0:15:28.960 just that whole spirit of it. So all that did 0:15:29.000 --> 0:15:34.000 anyone know you could sing? No? No, So the singing came. 0:15:34.080 --> 0:15:36.800 So the singing I was always I was a mimicer 0:15:37.360 --> 0:15:39.160 as far as the cat who did it for me 0:15:39.560 --> 0:15:44.040 was Al Green vocally, that was like twenty different people 0:15:44.080 --> 0:15:46.600 in one side of one body. He's just the cat. 0:15:46.600 --> 0:15:49.080 So I was always mimicking and you know that kind 0:15:49.080 --> 0:15:51.360 of thing. So, but it wasn't until I got to 0:15:51.480 --> 0:15:54.800 high school and we were talking about your friend who 0:15:54.800 --> 0:15:57.280 went to high school in Minnesota. I don't know if 0:15:57.280 --> 0:16:00.880 it was We went to a central so in Central 0:16:00.960 --> 0:16:04.440 had it was something called a Magnan Arts program. So 0:16:05.840 --> 0:16:11.040 I would liken it to like the LaGuardia Performing Art. Yeah, 0:16:11.240 --> 0:16:12.480 you know, so it had a little bit of everything 0:16:12.480 --> 0:16:16.440 and then had a studio in there had a still 0:16:16.520 --> 0:16:20.760 drum orchestra, which that guy ended up being my a 0:16:20.760 --> 0:16:23.280 great mentor to me. Rest in peace, calif Alexis Senior 0:16:23.840 --> 0:16:29.520 and those things really helped shape me. And so what 0:16:29.680 --> 0:16:31.680 I did I took there are two classes you could 0:16:31.680 --> 0:16:36.800 take for the studio session. One was more engineering and 0:16:36.880 --> 0:16:40.840 the other class was they put you with different people 0:16:40.920 --> 0:16:45.680 played different genres. So the arm by dudes would be, 0:16:45.720 --> 0:16:47.200 you know, we put you with the rock door just 0:16:47.200 --> 0:16:48.680 so you can kind of expand your mind a little bit. 0:16:48.720 --> 0:16:51.400 So like I didn't want to plass, Like I want 0:16:51.400 --> 0:16:55.200 to learn how to actually push buttons when the knobs 0:16:55.280 --> 0:16:57.720 on the engineering side, so then I can record my 0:16:57.760 --> 0:17:00.720 own stuff. And you know, the big his dream was like, 0:17:00.720 --> 0:17:02.320 I mean, I just want to four track a keyboard 0:17:02.360 --> 0:17:04.400 little drum machine. That was just that was a dream, 0:17:04.480 --> 0:17:06.880 you know what I mean. And so had a little 0:17:06.920 --> 0:17:10.199 task AMP six eighty eight got in there and started 0:17:10.320 --> 0:17:13.240 making it's making beats, making stuff, and it was just 0:17:13.280 --> 0:17:17.439 like and to be honest with you, uh, stacking vocals 0:17:17.440 --> 0:17:20.800 and that kind that's really what helped me sing I 0:17:20.880 --> 0:17:23.760 felt like hil high school. Yeah, that's I felt like 0:17:23.800 --> 0:17:26.680 I met myself for the first time hearing that. Oh 0:17:26.760 --> 0:17:30.920 why me? So I get just stacking. It's just okay, wow. 0:17:31.800 --> 0:17:34.200 So not just to sing it, but learning the process 0:17:34.280 --> 0:17:36.439 of creating you all the frequencies, all the things you 0:17:36.440 --> 0:17:38.919 can do, you know, bouncing, you know you got four tracks, 0:17:38.960 --> 0:17:40.639 you do three tracks, bounce it was three to the 0:17:40.680 --> 0:17:42.560 four and then you know all that kind of stuff. 0:17:42.560 --> 0:17:48.000 So it's really that process helped shape me, you know 0:17:48.040 --> 0:17:49.320 what I mean. And then you know, all he had 0:17:49.359 --> 0:17:53.960 all these instruments around and not a yeah, more of 0:17:53.960 --> 0:17:55.520 an ear player if I can, you know, pick stuff 0:17:55.560 --> 0:17:59.560 up keys or guitar basing and that kind of stuff. Um, 0:17:59.640 --> 0:18:01.800 but that's really the thing that really helped shape me 0:18:02.359 --> 0:18:05.960 with the records and then so it was it was 0:18:06.000 --> 0:18:09.040 an amazing time, you know. And then, like I said, 0:18:09.119 --> 0:18:12.199 my mentor, but little bit of theory that I have, 0:18:12.359 --> 0:18:15.919 Cliff Alexis, I learned off of steel pan, you know, 0:18:16.000 --> 0:18:19.240 and that was just that instrument. It just blew my mind. 0:18:19.280 --> 0:18:20.760 I was like, why so you just took like a 0:18:20.920 --> 0:18:24.920 fifty five gallant oil drum, cut it in different shapes 0:18:24.960 --> 0:18:26.719 and sides, and you're gonna make a cello voice, You're 0:18:26.720 --> 0:18:31.880 gonna make a guitar voice. I was going, As you're talking, 0:18:33.000 --> 0:18:38.360 I'm like hearing all of the influences. I'm hearing all 0:18:38.359 --> 0:18:42.119 of it. Yeah, through through all the things, all the instruments, 0:18:42.119 --> 0:18:44.399 and all the places he's been. I'm hearing the song, 0:18:44.680 --> 0:18:47.800 hearing the interludes. I'm hearing all of them. Like because 0:18:47.800 --> 0:18:51.760 I because a lot of it was gonna be why now, 0:18:52.160 --> 0:18:55.040 I said, you get it? Okay, okay, get it. It 0:18:55.160 --> 0:18:57.320 was all that stuff, and it's you know it just 0:18:57.400 --> 0:19:00.320 and that continues, and like, man, I'm still discovering all that. 0:19:01.000 --> 0:19:02.720 You know, the older you get, you're like, oh, that's 0:19:02.760 --> 0:19:05.320 what that was. You know, how many instruments are you 0:19:05.359 --> 0:19:10.560 into at this point? I mean basically it was, of course, 0:19:10.640 --> 0:19:15.400 all the percussions stuff I started. I had some piano instruction, 0:19:15.880 --> 0:19:19.280 you know, off and on um, but that was basically 0:19:19.480 --> 0:19:21.680 the guitar and stuff, and that came later just from 0:19:21.760 --> 0:19:24.840 thinking around and in the basement. You know, every band 0:19:24.840 --> 0:19:28.120 that I played in that was pretty much the youngest guy, 0:19:28.600 --> 0:19:30.680 a lot of a lot most of them payed drums, 0:19:30.960 --> 0:19:35.000 always played drums, but all the every band played with, 0:19:35.040 --> 0:19:37.560 most of the bands would rehearsing my parents' basement, so 0:19:37.600 --> 0:19:40.159 all the instruments were left honor, you know. So I 0:19:40.280 --> 0:19:42.360 was like, what was that he was playing earlier? You know, yeah, 0:19:42.680 --> 0:19:44.640 what was that? But you know, I would just get 0:19:44.680 --> 0:19:46.000 on the next thing, and then the next thing, you know, 0:19:46.080 --> 0:19:48.800 I you know, I started picking up different phrases and 0:19:49.280 --> 0:19:52.280 you know, I just started expanding my vocabulary. Your parents 0:19:52.320 --> 0:19:55.199 opened up your home to it took I don't know 0:19:55.240 --> 0:19:58.199 how they did that because it was loud and some 0:19:58.320 --> 0:20:03.920 of it was wrong. Yeah, I remember my dad told 0:20:03.920 --> 0:20:05.440 me one time. I was like, yeah, it was this 0:20:05.560 --> 0:20:17.960 song and I was like, oh, ugly music. So I 0:20:18.000 --> 0:20:22.560 have to switch to the beginnings of infancy stage of men. Okay, 0:20:22.840 --> 0:20:25.959 so this is after high school, trying to figure out 0:20:25.960 --> 0:20:28.240 what they are we gonna do. I went to Northern 0:20:28.240 --> 0:20:30.280 Illinois University just to see if I wanted to go 0:20:30.320 --> 0:20:33.280 because Cliff alexis my mentor, was going to teach there. 0:20:33.880 --> 0:20:37.440 And I was like, Okay, maybe not. I'm gonna take 0:20:37.480 --> 0:20:39.480 one year and you know, see what I can do. 0:20:39.520 --> 0:20:41.119 So I was working and that kind of thing. So 0:20:41.480 --> 0:20:44.960 in between that we meant put together, we put together, 0:20:45.000 --> 0:20:48.679 I think, and we had I wasn't singing. I was 0:20:48.680 --> 0:20:52.080 playing from us. There was this other guy who was 0:20:52.119 --> 0:20:54.280 paying for the space, the rehearsal space, that we had 0:20:54.920 --> 0:20:58.760 and he was singing, couldn't really he wasn't a singer, 0:20:59.000 --> 0:21:00.800 you know, but he just know the whole prince thing 0:21:00.920 --> 0:21:03.960 was going on, and he had this long weave. Nothing 0:21:03.960 --> 0:21:05.679 the rest of it was just affro and that's like 0:21:05.680 --> 0:21:08.240 all of a sudden, just weaves. Anyway, another story. And 0:21:08.359 --> 0:21:17.159 he was breathing. He was breathing, breathed the way I was, 0:21:22.520 --> 0:21:25.920 you ain't, Yeah, breathed all the way. And but he 0:21:26.119 --> 0:21:28.479 wasn't you know, he could screamed like princes and all 0:21:28.480 --> 0:21:32.000 that thing. But something it at some point where it's like, 0:21:32.000 --> 0:21:34.639 you know what, you guys got it. I was just 0:21:34.720 --> 0:21:38.000 keep paying for the plane, for the space, and you know, 0:21:38.080 --> 0:21:40.280 y'all just keep you know, just come back and get 0:21:40.320 --> 0:21:42.640 me when you know, when y'all make it. That kind 0:21:42.640 --> 0:21:45.440 of thing. So that's what he said. That's what he said, 0:21:46.480 --> 0:21:53.320 And I guess I don't know, And who's gonna saying 0:21:53.359 --> 0:21:55.240 we needed singing that kind of thing, And you know, 0:21:55.480 --> 0:21:57.480 I said, well I'll do it. You know. It's active foods, 0:21:57.480 --> 0:22:01.040 pretty athletic, that kind of thing. And that's where it started. 0:22:01.400 --> 0:22:12.000 And that was like nineteen hundred and nineteen hundred and 0:22:12.080 --> 0:22:16.560 eighty six, you know, So that was the beginning of 0:22:16.640 --> 0:22:18.639 that was the beginning of you singing league. That was 0:22:18.680 --> 0:22:20.840 the beginning of it, of singing league. That was the 0:22:20.880 --> 0:22:23.480 first time. And so were you singing from the drums? No, 0:22:23.600 --> 0:22:26.639 I went up left to drums. We got another drummer 0:22:26.800 --> 0:22:30.400 from high school. His name was Kenny Young and he yeah, 0:22:30.440 --> 0:22:32.840 it was the drumming. I went up front and we 0:22:32.960 --> 0:22:35.399 just started putting it together. Man, I know how drummers are. 0:22:35.400 --> 0:22:40.840 Were you better than him? At that? We were? I 0:22:41.000 --> 0:22:42.679 was nice then, I mean yeah, I mean it was 0:22:42.760 --> 0:22:44.960 we was. We was coming up together at that time, 0:22:45.080 --> 0:22:47.400 the tales of your nice. But I had I had 0:22:47.640 --> 0:22:50.200 a few different gears just because I wasn't like every 0:22:50.200 --> 0:22:53.160 other drummer just starting from percussion in the background of Yah. 0:22:53.320 --> 0:22:56.200 They were always like where are you pulling that from? Right? 0:22:56.480 --> 0:22:58.320 You know what I mean? And it's like I could 0:22:58.440 --> 0:23:01.000 name some of the rhythms that there's just and everybody 0:23:01.040 --> 0:23:02.879 just plays it. But I'm like, I could I know 0:23:02.920 --> 0:23:05.560 what that is? Man, that's as mine, Johnny, that's okay 0:23:05.640 --> 0:23:08.399 whatever that you know, Look what was it? So I 0:23:08.440 --> 0:23:11.760 had a different It was just different, Yeah, better, I 0:23:11.760 --> 0:23:13.400 don't know, that's for somebody else to say, I don't, 0:23:13.440 --> 0:23:16.119 I don't know it was, but it was working it 0:23:16.760 --> 0:23:19.480 he was doing Yeah, he got the job done. And 0:23:19.520 --> 0:23:22.280 so I went up front. And at that time, you know, 0:23:22.320 --> 0:23:24.720 it was very you know, the whole prince thing was 0:23:24.760 --> 0:23:26.720 going on. You know how many outs thing. It was 0:23:26.840 --> 0:23:29.119 very competitive. So what you see like preper reynoss that 0:23:29.359 --> 0:23:32.199 was actually happens as a real thing. You know, you 0:23:32.280 --> 0:23:34.239 better kick down, you know what I mean, kick your 0:23:34.240 --> 0:23:36.160 ass down. You know, you bet it sound good. So 0:23:36.920 --> 0:23:41.400 everything was like you had to play and you had 0:23:41.440 --> 0:23:44.200 to step you call it stepping already stepping you know 0:23:44.200 --> 0:23:46.280 what I mean, like a little choreography with it. So 0:23:46.359 --> 0:23:49.080 it's like all three things. It's like, there's no wasn't 0:23:49.080 --> 0:23:53.040 the keyboard player performance perform. It was the show and 0:23:53.080 --> 0:23:54.919 that's where we learned how to put on the fools. 0:23:55.040 --> 0:23:58.240 Like you the artistic thing came together because it was 0:23:58.280 --> 0:24:00.760 always like that age old are you going to be 0:24:00.760 --> 0:24:05.640 an artist or an entertainer? You know, so I yeah, 0:24:05.680 --> 0:24:09.280 there's a difference, but I think I was always definitely 0:24:09.320 --> 0:24:10.840 into the art of it. It was like why can't 0:24:10.840 --> 0:24:14.439 you kind of why are you putting that together? You know, 0:24:14.760 --> 0:24:17.080 that's from showmanship too, to keep people's attention, you know, 0:24:17.720 --> 0:24:22.159 and that's where all that came from. And in Minnesota, 0:24:22.280 --> 0:24:26.359 it seemed like like a lot of the audience that 0:24:26.440 --> 0:24:28.480 we never thought we were It's like, man, we're not 0:24:28.560 --> 0:24:30.800