Speaker 1: With me on the phone is Charlie Wilson, who is
Speaker 1: a very very busy man these days. Welcome to the
Speaker 1: Delilah Show. Thank you so much for having me. Thank
Speaker 1: you for taking time out of your busy schedule. So
Speaker 1: you've been kind of busy lately, trapes in the globe
Speaker 1: with Robin Thick and every other artists that recognizes your talent.
Speaker 1: How does that feel? It's just I'm on it. I'm
Speaker 1: just so so blessed and and you know, everything is
Speaker 1: just going my way right now, and I just thank
Speaker 1: God for the opportunity to be able to sing and
Speaker 1: rejoice and just have fun, you know, with uh, with
Speaker 1: all some of my favorite artists that that are that
Speaker 1: are still singing to day. And so you've been singing
Speaker 1: and having fun and rejoicing for several years. But um,
Speaker 1: this is kind of a a rebirth, if you will,
Speaker 1: of the Charlie Wilson story the last couple of years. Absolutely,
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, of course, I think everybody that
Speaker 1: know me know that I was was the lead singer
Speaker 1: the Gap band for for many many years and at fifteen,
Speaker 1: I guess, top ten hits or whatever, and and how
Speaker 1: many Grammy nominations, and so I decided to start start
Speaker 1: a career. Uh, but it was you know, everybody was
Speaker 1: thought I was kind of crazy because I thought it
Speaker 1: was a little late for me to start doing it.
Speaker 1: And you know, they told Moses the same thing. I
Speaker 1: think Noah heard the same words once or twice too.
Speaker 1: Those you're crazy, it's so crazy. So I just said,
Speaker 1: I God to before me, who could be against me?
Speaker 1: So after that, it's just like, you know, I had
Speaker 1: eleven number one hit records, um by myself, and it's
Speaker 1: just it's just amazing, you know, how how faith can
Speaker 1: turn around or if you if you if you're satisfied
Speaker 1: with what you're doing, and and and sober, so share
Speaker 1: share just a little bit of your testimony, because you're
Speaker 1: very bold, you're not ashamed at all to talk about
Speaker 1: where you were and where God has brought you from. Well,
Speaker 1: let me just say it like quickly, like this in
Speaker 1: a short term. Basically, I went to a party of
Speaker 1: roughly around say just say nineteen nine or something, and um,
Speaker 1: I didn't leave the party to so you showed up
Speaker 1: for the party and you just stayed at that party. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And I think I was the only one at the party.
Speaker 1: At the time, I was like, Okay, I'm the only
Speaker 1: one here. I'm the only one still standing. I'm the
Speaker 1: only one still at this party. And it just was, Okay,
Speaker 1: this is overwhelming. And um, if anybody in my book
Speaker 1: Memoirs called I Am Charlie Wilson and I released in
Speaker 1: two thousand fifteen, it was a New York Times best seller,
Speaker 1: Washington Post bestseller. And but I tell some things in
Speaker 1: my book about, you know, how good God has been
Speaker 1: to me because I had stayed up a few times,
Speaker 1: you know, so I'll say a few times, a few times,
Speaker 1: maybe maybe five days here and maybe eight days here
Speaker 1: straight up without no food and water, maybe ten and
Speaker 1: then twelve days, and then on and on and on.
Speaker 1: Did it get to sixteen days without food and water,
Speaker 1: just cocaine and so um um I um. I thought
Speaker 1: I would die. Uh, really thought I would not be
Speaker 1: here today. And but God is an amazing God. You know,
Speaker 1: whatever you ask for in prayer, you know, I asked
Speaker 1: God to not to let these demons and these devils
Speaker 1: and of of drug abuse kill me out here before
Speaker 1: I could get back to what I love to do,
Speaker 1: which is seeing and beyond stage. And um, he allows
Speaker 1: that for me. And as simple as that, I mean,
Speaker 1: I'm twenty two years cleaning sober um and thanking God
Speaker 1: for my life. And I had went to the doctor
Speaker 1: in nineties six and the doctor a throat doctor, because
Speaker 1: I was wondering why that my talking force was really
Speaker 1: hoarse and why I couldn't hit some notes. And he
Speaker 1: told me that that my vocal cards had was had
Speaker 1: been frozen from so much uh cocaine and smoke, crack
Speaker 1: abuse and um. But it's like man, and he says, well,
Speaker 1: you won't be able to sing. I was like, excuse me.
Speaker 1: He says that you might as well uh to hang
Speaker 1: those boots up. And I was like, man, this guy
Speaker 1: must don't know. To God, I know. And right from
Speaker 1: there I went home and just got on my knees
Speaker 1: and ask God to to just release some some blessings
Speaker 1: for me, because what I really wanted to do was
Speaker 1: to continue to sing and to uh and share and
Speaker 1: share my story and give him the glory of all
Speaker 1: the things. So so was this doctor's appointment, Charlie, after
Speaker 1: you had already gotten clean sober, and this was it
Speaker 1: was It was, it was after I was sober. It
Speaker 1: was the first in the first year. So you had
Speaker 1: gotten away from the drugs and alcohol and made that choice,
Speaker 1: but you were now suffering the damages of a destructive lifestyle. Absolutely,
Speaker 1: That's something people don't understand is you've got to pay
Speaker 1: the piper. And even if God delivers you, there's still
Speaker 1: that big bill that you owe on your body. So
Speaker 1: so the doctor says, son, you're gonna have to pay
Speaker 1: the bill. And the price you're gonna have to pay
Speaker 1: is no more singing. No more singing. Your your voice
Speaker 1: is fried, Your vocal cords are locked. They're probably got
Speaker 1: notes on them the size of Texas. And and and
Speaker 1: I've seen I mean, I've been in this business a
Speaker 1: long time, and I've known a lot of your contemporaries
Speaker 1: that did the same thing. And they're no longer singing,
Speaker 1: they're not even speaking. Absolutely like this. Absolutely, So you
Speaker 1: went home. Okay, now pick up the story here. You
Speaker 1: went home, and what did you did? You like, pack
Speaker 1: up your your your microphone and hang up your headphones. No.
Speaker 1: I went home and I got on my knees and
Speaker 1: I asked God deliver me from all of this that's
Speaker 1: going on with my body, you know, And um, you
Speaker 1: know my belief at the time, my faith it was
Speaker 1: a little weird because I mean, you know, it just
Speaker 1: got off the streets not too long ago, and but
Speaker 1: I would still had faith and and uh, but so
Speaker 1: what's the worst what's the worst place you ever found yourself?
Speaker 1: You woke up and you said, how did how did
Speaker 1: I get here? Where? Where? What was that moment? Well,
Speaker 1: I was, you know, without telling my holster, I was
Speaker 1: sleeping under a U Haul truck under under not inside,
Speaker 1: not under the U Haul truck under you know, and
Speaker 1: a U Haul parking lot whatever is like maybe a
Speaker 1: hundred U Haul truck. So you just made you just
Speaker 1: found your way into the U Haul rental place and thought,
Speaker 1: this looks like a good hotel. And oh well yeah,
Speaker 1: because you know, you found the truck in the back
Speaker 1: where you're gonna have to They're going to sell a
Speaker 1: lot of run a lot of U Haul trucks to
Speaker 1: get to this one because the windows is really dirty
Speaker 1: on this truck. So I'm gonna sleep under this truck.
Speaker 1: And so that's where I was for a while. And
Speaker 1: then some homeless people was taking care of me here
Speaker 1: and there here and then sleeping in bushes behind trash
Speaker 1: cans and dumpsters and and things like this. This was
Speaker 1: after the Gap band success. But yeah, I UM, and
Speaker 1: I come up to go to UH to go to
Speaker 1: a store, liquor store or something, and outside and seen
Speaker 1: a cousin of mine who had been sober for three
Speaker 1: years and uh. And she immediately started crying because I
Speaker 1: looked at her and said, because, wow, you should his
Speaker 1: light skinned, because the last time I had seen her,
Speaker 1: she was all skin, was all dart and patchy and blotchy,
Speaker 1: and you know, because we were smoking and getting high
Speaker 1: and she, um, she said, because she just chears store
Speaker 1: rolling out of our eyes. And I said, what's wrong
Speaker 1: with you? Give me a hit? And she's like, because
Speaker 1: I don't get high no more. I don't get how
Speaker 1: no more. You know, look at you, you look like
Speaker 1: you're dying. You kinda come on good in the rehab,
Speaker 1: I was like, I ain't going to no rehab. I'd
Speaker 1: have been in seven of them. Of course, none of
Speaker 1: them work for me, because I went across somebody else
Speaker 1: told me I should go into the rehab, and not
Speaker 1: for myself. But I listened to her this one time,
Speaker 1: and I got she took me to this rehab. I
Speaker 1: didn't have no money, and uh and uh they got
Speaker 1: me in this day program and man um um for
Speaker 1: fourteen of those days. I um, of course I was
Speaker 1: just uh, you know, trying to sign autographs and and
Speaker 1: all kinds of crazy stuff. So how how how tall
Speaker 1: are you and how much do you think you were
Speaker 1: weighing at the time. At the time, I was, I
Speaker 1: still from five eleven, And of course I was waiting
Speaker 1: about maybe a huntred and thirty pounds hunting. I was
Speaker 1: a mag stick, because any man's at that agent and
Speaker 1: five level should weigh at least one said if I
Speaker 1: want eighty somewhere in there, I was wearing one thirty,
Speaker 1: you know. Yeah, it was bad for me to lie bad,
Speaker 1: bad bad, but and but God just was with my
Speaker 1: cousin found me and uh, God knows why how why
Speaker 1: was she in that area? You know? And uh, but
Speaker 1: she found me there and she talked to me, since
Speaker 1: listen to I'm about to take you this rehab. And
Speaker 1: I was like, wow, is that bad? Did she normally
Speaker 1: hang out in that area or was this one of
Speaker 1: those divine appointments where God took her out of her
Speaker 1: way and took you out of your way? So you
Speaker 1: could have that intersection in time. Definitely not a hangout
Speaker 1: area for her because she was like like maybe forty
Speaker 1: miles away from that place where she used to live
Speaker 1: and where we used to hang out basically, um, but
Speaker 1: I don't know how and why she was there. Never
Speaker 1: got into that. I was just looking for actually another hit,
Speaker 1: and I thought she probably were the one that had it,
Speaker 1: since we used to get high together. But she said
Speaker 1: it was three years and she had had a uh
Speaker 1: some cocaine and she was sober, and she worked at
Speaker 1: this rehabilitation center and she was like, please, because you're dying,
Speaker 1: and she was crying, and I was like, wow, I
Speaker 1: hadn't looked in the mirror. So she she grabbed my my, my,
Speaker 1: my jaws and it was pulled a skin. She's like,
Speaker 1: you see this skin. Look at your arms, she said,
Speaker 1: your your your arm, your forearm, look two fingers almost.
Speaker 1: It was like it was out of looking at myself.
Speaker 1: And I smile, and I knew I had uh pinned
Speaker 1: up my pants and rolled them up from the back
Speaker 1: and just trying to keep away flying there and it
Speaker 1: was everything was falling off from me. But she talked
Speaker 1: me into this rehabilitation center, and and that's what my
Speaker 1: life I started living again. I mean, after fourteen days,
Speaker 1: I finally got in touch with these feelings I had.
Speaker 1: And man, I just broke down and and sharing in
Speaker 1: these meetings and just cried and cried and cried and
Speaker 1: listening to everybody else's story and cried more and more
Speaker 1: and and um and ran into this later. That was
Speaker 1: the doctor in the rehab there and and uh, and
Speaker 1: my cousin had worked for her, and you know, she
Speaker 1: we talked and she said, why uh, prior to that,
Speaker 1: why weren't you sharing? And I need to talk to
Speaker 1: you more and more and more, you know. And I
Speaker 1: helped your cousin out, and she went through that whole story,
Speaker 1: and she said, what you're gonna do when you get
Speaker 1: out of here? You onta have like fourteen days. Man,
Speaker 1: I just broke down and start crying. And this ladies
Speaker 1: office and she's like, you know, she said, so I
Speaker 1: don't know you like that well, but I mean I
Speaker 1: do know your cousin, So I'll tell you what I'll do.
Speaker 1: I'll help for you. I won't let your feet hit
Speaker 1: the ground if you're serious about being clean and sober.
Speaker 1: And I said ma'am. Yes, ma'am, I said, I don't
Speaker 1: want she's what you're gonna go when you get out
Speaker 1: of I don't have anywhere to go. So lady took
Speaker 1: me out with a past like a few days later
Speaker 1: and look around from me the house and got the house.
Speaker 1: And long story short, she got the house, got the
Speaker 1: furniture and put the furniture in the house for me
Speaker 1: and everything and um and a long story short again, um,
Speaker 1: I asked this later, I said, ma'am listening, I cannot
Speaker 1: be in this house by myself, and um and and
Speaker 1: I was just looking at it. She said, what you're
Speaker 1: looking at me for? I said, I said, because I
Speaker 1: can't be in this house, ma'am by myself. And she said,
Speaker 1: but why are you looking at me? I said, because
Speaker 1: I need you to be in here witnesses. No no no, no,
Speaker 1: no no no, I can't be in here with you.
Speaker 1: And so long story show. And I finally talked to
Speaker 1: him to being with me. And she's now my wife
Speaker 1: at twenty two years and I have not turned around
Speaker 1: one time. She's been right, Oh, Charlie, you're gonna make
Speaker 1: me cry. Twenty two years at twenty four hours a day,
Speaker 1: seven days a week. We're together. We go everywhere except
Speaker 1: for the public restrooms. So God sent you, not just
Speaker 1: your cousin to help you to find sobriety, but your
Speaker 1: wife to help keep you on the right path. And Angel,
Speaker 1: Yes she did. He's sitting at Angel. I'm crying. Wow.
Speaker 1: So what's the name of your book again? I am
Speaker 1: Charlie Wilson. And if it's still available in bookstores, are
Speaker 1: on Amazon or wherever books are sold, Yes it is.
Speaker 1: And you've been singing, singing, singing up a storm, Yes
Speaker 1: I have, and having number one records, my first, my
Speaker 1: first number one record back then she told my wife
Speaker 1: told me before I got actually got masts and listen,
Speaker 1: we're gonna get you. I'm gonna help you get back
Speaker 1: to whatever you do, whatever it is you do, because
Speaker 1: I don't know none, no music. I don't know what
Speaker 1: everybody's talking about. I don't know what your music is
Speaker 1: because she didn't know what the music was. And but
Speaker 1: she um, she got me back. We got back in there,
Speaker 1: and she got me in. Then got my first house,
Speaker 1: and and then the next year I bought a house
Speaker 1: and and my first number one record was in two thousand.
Speaker 1: It's called without you, And then the next one was
Speaker 1: in two thousand four, and I've been having them since
Speaker 1: every every year and since then. And you have one
Speaker 1: out right now that we're playing. Yes, oh wow, Yes,
Speaker 1: it's beautiful. You and Robin Thick smile for me. Beautiful
Speaker 1: and and who do you think of it? Like I
Speaker 1: need to ask, Oh, my gosh, my wife of course,
Speaker 1: and and and and every day she's still making you
Speaker 1: smile every single day of my life, every moment of
Speaker 1: my life. Now, see, I need to speak with her
Speaker 1: and find out if this is a two way street,
Speaker 1: Like is she's still stupid in love like you are? Oh? Yeah,
Speaker 1: for sure. She keeps me. Of course, she keeps me
Speaker 1: in line too. You know. It's just like you know,
Speaker 1: I always tease about it sometimes. Let's say, what is
Speaker 1: this dictatorship or something? And does she said, Charlie, let's
Speaker 1: just review where you were before I came into your life.
Speaker 1: Now she don't, she don't go back there. She don't
Speaker 1: have to because I look at her and say, okay, okay,
Speaker 1: I already know what you're thinking and what you're gonna say.
Speaker 1: And she she's like, yeah, don't you ever forget it?
Speaker 1: Because you know but she's so much fun and I
Speaker 1: we have such a good time every single day of
Speaker 1: our life together. We go every Like I said to Lita,
Speaker 1: we go everywhere together, everywhere, And I'm so so glad
Speaker 1: that you're here to celebrate with us. Thank you so much, so, Charlie.
Speaker 1: If somebody wants to see your tour schedule, if somebody
Speaker 1: wants to connect with you, if someone maybe somebody it's
Speaker 1: struggling with addictions, who's listening to this right now. Maybe
Speaker 1: somebody said enough is enough, I want to change, and
Speaker 1: they want to hear something to inspire them. How can
Speaker 1: they find you. It's Charlie Wilson dot com and everything
Speaker 1: everything is there. And and for those who are struggling
Speaker 1: with drug addiction and our alcohol abuse or whatever, man,
Speaker 1: let me tell you something. Don't ever give up on yourself.
Speaker 1: Don't ever let anybody uh distort your mind about what
Speaker 1: it is that you want to do in life. You know,
Speaker 1: because I was told no so many times. I almost
Speaker 1: gave up because so many, so many people saying, man,
Speaker 1: he's crazy. Man, you need to go retire or whatever.
Speaker 1: So let me tell you something, man, anything you want
Speaker 1: to do in life, you can do it. You just
Speaker 1: need to get up and go do it. Go do it,
Speaker 1: and use every ounce of your energy, every ounce of
Speaker 1: love you have for whatever it is, forever passion that
Speaker 1: you have to pull it off, you know, and forget
Speaker 1: about what other people are saying about you. You know,
Speaker 1: they almost turned me around. They're almost turned me around
Speaker 1: because I listened to know so much, you know, and
Speaker 1: they almost had my management team back in the very
Speaker 1: very early days. They almost turned us all around because
Speaker 1: we just heard no all the time. And I felt
Speaker 1: so sorry for Michael Paring back in the day. He was,
Speaker 1: you know, he was young, very young, and he was
Speaker 1: just listening to the all of the rhetoric of what
Speaker 1: people used to say about me and all the Gap
Speaker 1: band back in the day. And then finally he just said,
Speaker 1: you know what, I'm not gonna listen to anybody. You know,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go do this thing and I'm gonna get
Speaker 1: you back. And that's exactly what he did. And so
Speaker 1: here I am in the flesh, number ones all over
Speaker 1: the world, strong and thinking people like Delilah, I love
Speaker 1: you so much, so down