Speaker 1: I'm Alec Baldwin and you're listening to Here's the Thing
Speaker 1: from My Heart Radio. We have a special episode for
Speaker 1: you this week. I want you to meet someone, Talia Schlanger. Hi, Talia,
Speaker 1: Hey Alec, it's great to be here. So, Talia, you're
Speaker 1: a performer and musician. Tell us a little bit more
Speaker 1: about yourself. Yeah. Right now, I'm recording an album of
Speaker 1: my own original music that I write and sang and
Speaker 1: play on guitar. But I started my career professionally in
Speaker 1: theater when I was fourteen, doing a bunch of musicals
Speaker 1: towards the States with the Green Day Show American Idiot,
Speaker 1: and went to school for broadcasting, writing for radio and TV.
Speaker 1: You're also a radio host and producer. You've interviewed a
Speaker 1: lot of people, correct, Yeah. I used to host the
Speaker 1: NPR syndicated show World Cafe. We interviewed a different musician
Speaker 1: every day. You're Canadian, and you frequently guest host on
Speaker 1: the CBC. In fact, that's where I heard you one
Speaker 1: night on my radio. Your voice just jumped out of
Speaker 1: me and I thought, I've got to have run my
Speaker 1: show and here you are. I can't believe it, but
Speaker 1: here I am yes, so tell you as we start
Speaker 1: our second year of shows at My Heart, you'll be
Speaker 1: sitting in the host chair for here's the thing. In fact,
Speaker 1: you have an interview ready. Yeah, I had that chance
Speaker 1: to interview the amazing singer Mary Clayton Alec. Do you
Speaker 1: remember the first time you would have heard her voice? Yes,
Speaker 1: it was her performance as the Acid Queen in the
Speaker 1: London Symphony Orchestra recording of the Who's Tommy, Well tal
Speaker 1: you best of luck to thank you so much, Ali.
Speaker 1: Mary Clayton has the kind of voice that will stop
Speaker 1: you right in your tracks. Even if her name still
Speaker 1: isn't ringing a bell, You've definitely heard her sing on
Speaker 1: some pretty huge songs. She's sang on Leonard Skinner's Sweet
Speaker 1: Home Alabama. Carol King had her on Tapestry. She has
Speaker 1: sunk backups with Ray Charles Neil, Young, Joe Cocker, maybe
Speaker 1: most notably in The Rolling Stones with her unmistakable and
Speaker 1: emotional belting on Jimme Shelter. Mary Clayton told her story
Speaker 1: in the documentary twenty Ft from Stardom. The film celebrates
Speaker 1: the often overlooked contributions of backup singers in popular music.
Speaker 1: Twenty Ft from Stardom won the Academy Award for Best
Speaker 1: Documentary and shined a much deserved spotlight on Clayton's immense talent.
Speaker 1: But shortly after the film's triumph at the Oscars, Clayton's
Speaker 1: life took a dramatic turn when she was in a
Speaker 1: near fatal car accident. This past April, seven years after
Speaker 1: her accident and fifty years after her first solo album,
Speaker 1: Mary Clayton released Beautiful Scars. The album showcases her gospel
Speaker 1: roots and her unbreakable spirit, which can only be described
Speaker 1: as triumphant. I get the feeling of overcoming something very
Speaker 1: very hard that you came through. You know. I didn't
Speaker 1: stay in it. I came through it. That's the feeling
Speaker 1: that I get of Beautiful Scars. A scar is something
Speaker 1: that it always gets a scap. I got a scamp
Speaker 1: on my scar and then I healed it, you know,
Speaker 1: with God's help, of course, because I'm a woman of faith.
Speaker 1: I'm not religious. I'm a very spiritual woman. I am
Speaker 1: a woman of faith, and I did come through it
Speaker 1: with God's hilp. Yeah, and with scars. You know, you
Speaker 1: you can get rid of scars. It takes a minute.
Speaker 1: It took me almost five years, five years and five months,
Speaker 1: but I made it through with fine colors, and I
Speaker 1: came out shiny like gold and sounding like a dream.
Speaker 1: I'll tell you what. Thank you. So you brought it
Speaker 1: up five years ago. Do you mind saying what what
Speaker 1: you went through at that time that left you with
Speaker 1: this beautiful scar. So I had a bit of an
Speaker 1: accident right after I had won every accolade in that
Speaker 1: one can win in a career. Of course, I'm sure
Speaker 1: you know about twenty Feet from Stardom winning the Academy
Speaker 1: Award for the Best Documentary, and we had won everything,
Speaker 1: you know, one Sun Dance we won Golden We were
Speaker 1: just on the high, really happy, and we traveled the
Speaker 1: world promoting that film. And so I had to go
Speaker 1: to sign some papers, do some paperwork, and on the
Speaker 1: way back, I get back on out here as a
Speaker 1: freeway and someone was could you pull over something that's
Speaker 1: going and they kept pointing to my car. So you know,
Speaker 1: when someone is pointing pointing to your car, you're saying,
Speaker 1: oh my god, maybe gases leaking. I've got whatever is
Speaker 1: going on, better pull over to sea. So I pulled
Speaker 1: over to the side after I got through talking to
Speaker 1: the people, trying to figure out what's going on. I
Speaker 1: was getting back onto the freeway to go on my
Speaker 1: way and a young man was getting on the freeway
Speaker 1: driving really fast and t bowed me and it broke
Speaker 1: both of my legs. So my first thought was thank god.
Speaker 1: I had the window down because I was speaking to
Speaker 1: the people on the other side, and when I looked down,
Speaker 1: I looked down and my legs had just I went
Speaker 1: to one side and I said in myself, I said,
Speaker 1: oh my god, I said, I think, and I'm screaming
Speaker 1: out the window. Thank my leg is broken. Call the paramedics.
Speaker 1: Paramedics was right across the street. Thank god, Thank god.
Speaker 1: So the paramedics came and the paramedics. He gets in
Speaker 1: the cardinal on the passenger side and he says to me, oh,
Speaker 1: Ms Clayton, I just saw your movie twenty feet from startom,
Speaker 1: I said, And I'm just in an accident. What do
Speaker 1: you mean you just saw my movie? He says, But
Speaker 1: don't worry. We're gonna take care of you. Anybody you
Speaker 1: want us to call, because I'm gonna give you something's
Speaker 1: gonna knock you out. Wow, And who do you want
Speaker 1: us to call, and of course the numbers that rolled
Speaker 1: off of my tongue was my uncle Lu, who was
Speaker 1: affectionately known as Uncle Lulu admer right, legendary record producer. Yeah,
Speaker 1: who worked with your whole career. Yeah, I called it
Speaker 1: my uncle Leu. So they called Uncle Lou, I'm told,
Speaker 1: and um, they got me out of Aparently they did,
Speaker 1: and they took me right to you Selway, which is
Speaker 1: the hospital here, you know. And the next thing I know,
Speaker 1: I was in intensive to care about five or six days,
Speaker 1: I'm told by my family and dear dear friends. And
Speaker 1: when I came up out of that intensive care, it
Speaker 1: was like, oh my god. I had the doctors, you know,
Speaker 1: when they come to see you in your room, they
Speaker 1: come and not one or two, it's about five or
Speaker 1: six sons they come marching in. After I came to
Speaker 1: myself and the doctors said Ms. Clayton, We've got some
Speaker 1: news for you. And I said, well, what is it?
Speaker 1: He says, well, we had to make some harsh decisions
Speaker 1: in order to save your life. And I'm looking at him,
Speaker 1: so what is it? He said, we had to amputate
Speaker 1: both legs from the knee down. Of course, I just
Speaker 1: my heart. You know. It's just like I had to
Speaker 1: take a ref because I knew that something had happened.
Speaker 1: I didn't know exactly what. So my first question was,
Speaker 1: did anything happen to my voice? You believe that was
Speaker 1: really your first question. That was really the first thing
Speaker 1: that you're thinking about after getting that news, after that news,
Speaker 1: it's the weirdest thing. My sister said, you asked the doctors,
Speaker 1: did anything happen to your voice? I said, doctor, So
Speaker 1: I remember them say, oh no, miss Clayton, we knew
Speaker 1: you were a singer. We made sure, and it happened
Speaker 1: to your voice box. Well, you know, so after they
Speaker 1: told me, um that nothing happened to my voice, so
Speaker 1: I looked at the doctor and said, well, nothing happened
Speaker 1: to my voice. I'll be okay, I'll be all right.
Speaker 1: And my sister told me, she says, you laid back
Speaker 1: in your bed and looked up and start singing this
Speaker 1: song that Ashfrid and Simpson wrote for me for a
Speaker 1: film that I did, called I Can Steal a Shine.
Speaker 1: And I was just singing. She said, we could hear
Speaker 1: you way down the hall singing lud old you know
Speaker 1: I can I can still shine you know, I'm just singing.
Speaker 1: So my sister told the doctors, she said, okay, come
Speaker 1: doctor here, we can go down. She's singing, she'll be fine.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, she's just like a Ersia in church.
Speaker 1: She ershed them right out of the room. And she
Speaker 1: said they walked out just shaking their heads, saying what
Speaker 1: kind of woman she won't to know about her voice
Speaker 1: as she started singing. So the doctors were shaking their
Speaker 1: head and they laughed, you know, and by then loing,
Speaker 1: some other people had gotten there, you know, and uh,
Speaker 1: and then they said, I just sung myself to sleep.
Speaker 1: I don't know how that song goes? How does it? How?
Speaker 1: What song is it? Um? I've loved good enough, I've
Speaker 1: loved heart bitter days. I've never seen I made some wrong.
Speaker 1: It's ride moves, you know what I mean, Just just just
Speaker 1: like you are. I'm waiting father, I'd want to come through.
Speaker 1: Life is heartometime and I've been hurt sometime. I can't
Speaker 1: still shine. I can't still shine, Oh my god. So
Speaker 1: I wanted to know. I wanted to know if my
Speaker 1: voice was working. So my Sageter said, when I found
Speaker 1: out my voice was working, she said, I just suddenly
Speaker 1: just went on to sleep when I sung myself to sleep.
Speaker 1: Can't you believe, Oh my God, thank you so much
Speaker 1: for singing. Just now, like thinking about that moment, you're
Speaker 1: comforting yourself to sleep singing. It's absolutely absolutely thank you
Speaker 1: for that. Oh my God, You're welcome. So that was
Speaker 1: my way of, really, as you said, comforting myself because
Speaker 1: that was a lot to take in. But then again,
Speaker 1: as I said, I am a woman of faith, and
Speaker 1: I knew that God was in control and he had
Speaker 1: me in the palm of his hands, and that his
Speaker 1: word says that I'll never leave you or forsake you,
Speaker 1: even until the ends of the earth. And I truly
Speaker 1: believe that. I believe that all my life. So I
Speaker 1: knew that he was with me during this. I knew
Speaker 1: that he was with me. So I just as I said,
Speaker 1: I just arrested, arrested in him. I just knew he
Speaker 1: would take care of whatever needed to be taken care of,
Speaker 1: and I knew that he would handle whatever he needed
Speaker 1: to handle regarding my will being So you, I mean,
Speaker 1: you have this this faith in God being able to
Speaker 1: handle everything that you're not fail being as you've just said,
Speaker 1: But you also had to put in a massive amount
Speaker 1: of work in terms of rehabilitation, I think, to be
Speaker 1: able to get yourself moving again. And I'm really curious
Speaker 1: to know as a like, singing is such a physical act.
Speaker 1: You use your whole body. When I listened to you singing,
Speaker 1: I can hear you using your whole body. Did the
Speaker 1: physical change for you, change the way that that you
Speaker 1: approach singing at all? You know, to be honest, no,
Speaker 1: not at all. We were talking about that doing the
Speaker 1: recording of Beautiful Scars, and uh, Lou and Terry would
Speaker 1: tell me. You know, a matter of fact, we did
Speaker 1: an interview a couple of weeks ago and Lou was
Speaker 1: saying to the interviewee said Mary was out in the
Speaker 1: studio singing, and Terry and I just looked at each
Speaker 1: other and said, she has not missed a beat. She's
Speaker 1: on the same that she sound when I first met her. Says, unbelievable.
Speaker 1: So you know, sometime when you lose things in life,
Speaker 1: or you have a tragedy in your life, you're given
Speaker 1: other stuff to make up for that. So I was
Speaker 1: given the wind, the air, everything that I need to
Speaker 1: sing without faulting. For some reason. That was that was
Speaker 1: a gift from above that was given to me during
Speaker 1: that period. So no, I didn't have a hard time singing.
Speaker 1: I really really didn't. And I had such a good time,
Speaker 1: such a great, wonderful, loving, peaceful, happy time working with
Speaker 1: Uncle Lewin Terry. It's one of the greatest writers that
Speaker 1: I've ever had the opportunity to work with. What it
Speaker 1: comes to the music, you got to be spot on,
Speaker 1: you know, and if you're wise, you'll listen to what
Speaker 1: he has to say when he's telling you to do
Speaker 1: certain things. So I became very wise on this project,
Speaker 1: and I listened to every technique and everything he told me.
Speaker 1: I would listen, I would apply it, and it worked
Speaker 1: out great for us. It's incredible. I mean, the record
Speaker 1: is spectacular, but it's really something like there's so many
Speaker 1: moving moments on it, but it's something to hear you
Speaker 1: say that you know you're taking feedback about technique and stuff.
Speaker 1: I mean, you put on your first solo record more
Speaker 1: than fifty years ago and you sounded perfect then, Like
Speaker 1: it's just so what a humble wait for you to feel.
Speaker 1: I guess that you still have something to to learn
Speaker 1: from somebody else, And oh my god, if you're not learning, Darling,
Speaker 1: you're not growing. I can still learn a whole lot,
Speaker 1: you know, especially in this craft called music, and in
Speaker 1: this music industry, you're you're always learning. And if you're wise,
Speaker 1: as I said before, you'll listen. I've always been a listener.
Speaker 1: That's how I learned by listening and watching. You know.
Speaker 1: I'll always hung out with people that were were older
Speaker 1: than me. You know, I never hung out with the kids.
Speaker 1: I was never wanting to do that. I want to
Speaker 1: hang out with the little older people. You know that
Speaker 1: the wise sisters, you know in the church or you know,
Speaker 1: because that was our life, was the church. I'd sitting
Speaker 1: not listen all the time, and I watched them. I
Speaker 1: listened to different choir members and the directors of the choir,
Speaker 1: and I would take what they did and I would
Speaker 1: apply it to when I was singing with Ray Charles,
Speaker 1: when I was singing with the Stones, when I was
Speaker 1: singing with Joe Cocker, when I was singing with my
Speaker 1: god mother, Dela Rees, when I was singing with my
Speaker 1: Haley jack not singing with but when I knew my
Speaker 1: Haley Jackson everything that everything that she did, because she
Speaker 1: would sitting I would always sit with her in my
Speaker 1: dad's church. When she'd come to visit, I would find her,
Speaker 1: you know, Haley, Uh, there she is. There's Haley, And
Speaker 1: I'd run to wherever she was and would nestle in
Speaker 1: between she and another great singer, her name was Linda Hopkins.
Speaker 1: They would always come visit my dad's church. Right, So
Speaker 1: all these ladies, I would just be really quiet that
Speaker 1: would mimic everything they would do. I would do, you know.
Speaker 1: But that's a process of learning, that's right. So you
Speaker 1: just painted us sort of a picture of your dad's
Speaker 1: church that you grew up in and sitting with these
Speaker 1: these gospel greats and sing from them. Does that then
Speaker 1: translate to everything else that you do, like I'm thinking of.
Speaker 1: I know, Sam Cook also was at your church when
Speaker 1: you're growing up, and he was with the Soul Stirs,
Speaker 1: this incredible gospel group before he did secular music. But
Speaker 1: there was a carry over, Like whether he's singing gospel
Speaker 1: or whether he singing secular music, you feel you have
Speaker 1: the feeling that it's coming from the same place. Is
Speaker 1: that true for you as well? I mean, it doesn't matter,
Speaker 1: no matter, and that's really a no matter. I mean,
Speaker 1: it doesn't matter what I'm singing, there's gonna be a
Speaker 1: gospel field in there, right and um, when I was singing,
Speaker 1: really doing a lot of background singing, That's what the
Speaker 1: grouts from Europe want, That's what they wanted, That's what
Speaker 1: the Stones wanted, That's what Joe Cocker wanted. That's what
Speaker 1: Barbara Streisan wanted when she would hire us. You know
Speaker 1: she's singing the way you would sing in your church.
Speaker 1: Don't don't hide it. The field that I want is
Speaker 1: that feel that you guys have. And it all came
Speaker 1: back to where we came from and we came out
Speaker 1: of the church. So yes, everything I sing, even when
Speaker 1: I did um, I was the original Acid Queen and
Speaker 1: Tommy with the London Symphony Orchestra, which is the musical
Speaker 1: for people who are not familiar to the who the
Speaker 1: band their musical Tommy, that's an incredible role. I was
Speaker 1: the original Tina did the film, but I was the
Speaker 1: original last Queen on the record for the double album
Speaker 1: with because Lou was one of the producers. Lou Asler
Speaker 1: and Lou Reisner were the producers of that album, so
Speaker 1: naturally Lou was gonna have me to say that character
Speaker 1: you know. So even when I did Tommy, you could
Speaker 1: hear gospel in there. If your childie all he could be.
Speaker 1: Now this girl can put him right, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean. You could hear that gospel in there. You know,
Speaker 1: whatever I saying, it's gonna there's gonna be some gospel
Speaker 1: feeling there no matter what I say, you know. So
Speaker 1: that's just who I am, and that's just what I do.
Speaker 1: Vocalist Mary Clayton. If you like interviews with groundbreaking musicians,
Speaker 1: make sure you check out Alex Conversation with David Crosby.
Speaker 1: We always produced our records and we had when we
Speaker 1: called the reality rule. You come into the room, just us,
Speaker 1: nobody else and I seeing each other as song, and
Speaker 1: they either liked it, and if they liked it, you know,
Speaker 1: then we start figured out how to sing it. And
Speaker 1: these are hugely talented guys. Man, they came with a
Speaker 1: lot of stuff. Neil's nickname is sometimes it's CSN sometimes
Speaker 1: why you know, and when it would be CS and
Speaker 1: Y it was a lot bigger. The reason to cuss
Speaker 1: always Neil's decision, because if there's twenty thousand people in
Speaker 1: the stadium, Neil put ten of them there here the
Speaker 1: rest of Alec and David Crosby's conversation at Here's the
Speaker 1: Thing dot Org. After the break, Mary Clayton shares the
Speaker 1: story of how she got her start in the music business,
Speaker 1: which meant juggling after school recording sessions with homework and knaps.
Speaker 1: I'm telling I Ash Langer sitting in for Alec Baldwin,
Speaker 1: and this is Here's the Thing. Mary Clayton's powerhouse vocals
Speaker 1: stand out in a crowd. That's been clear since her
Speaker 1: very first professional recording gig with a legendary crooner. I
Speaker 1: was almost fifteen and we were doing this record with
Speaker 1: a gentlemle name Bobby Darren. And Bobby Darren wanted background singers,
Speaker 1: but he wanted the gospel sound. He was very, very
Speaker 1: soulful man, and he loved African American singers. He loved it.
Speaker 1: So I was called for this record date at Capitol Records.
Speaker 1: It was myself and a group of other girls and
Speaker 1: we did this background session and for some reason, he
Speaker 1: kept saying to the singers, there's someone who is a
Speaker 1: little bit loud. So they would say, okay, Bobby, we'll
Speaker 1: we'll ask her to stand back. So the girls would say,
Speaker 1: Mary stand back a little bit, and I'd stand back
Speaker 1: a little bit and um, he said, okay, starting all
Speaker 1: over again. We start singing again, and he said, you
Speaker 1: know that voice is still it's good, but it's just
Speaker 1: still a little loud. So they'd asked me to step back, Mary,
Speaker 1: step back a little bit more. So I step back,
Speaker 1: step back, so more remind you. By the end of
Speaker 1: the session, I was all both out the room right
Speaker 1: until down the street, almost our studio ad until I
Speaker 1: was able to adjust that. Because I'd never sing in
Speaker 1: a recording session before, so I didn't know how to
Speaker 1: really really blend. I'd sung in choirs, you know, but
Speaker 1: I never I didn't know how to and they taught
Speaker 1: me how to blend, but I don't know. I guess
Speaker 1: hearing yourself back and the headphones. I learned very quickly, though.
Speaker 1: So he said, excuse me, what is your name? I
Speaker 1: said Mary? He said, can you come in? So I
Speaker 1: went behind the booth, you know, and I went in
Speaker 1: thea in the control room. He said, can you sing
Speaker 1: your apart? So I sung my part to him. He said,
Speaker 1: that's that voice I keep hearing. I said yes. He
Speaker 1: said how old are you? I said, I'm gonna be
Speaker 1: fifteen Christmas. What you're singing like that? At fifteen? He said,
Speaker 1: I think I need to talk to your parents. I said,
Speaker 1: we'll wait a minute. Did I do something wrong? Oh no,
Speaker 1: you don't do anything wrong. You're doing something very right.
Speaker 1: But you're very You're a little bit loud, he said,
Speaker 1: But I'd like for you to come in tomorrow with
Speaker 1: your parents. I'd like to take a meeting with your parents.
Speaker 1: So we took a meeting with Mr Darren about a
Speaker 1: week or two later, and he wanted to sign me.
Speaker 1: So he signed me the Capitol at fifteen on his label,
Speaker 1: which was T and M Music at Capitol Records. So
Speaker 1: that was my first experience in the recording studio. And
Speaker 1: we did several singles, you know, a lot of things
Speaker 1: because I was stealing. God, I was in high school,
Speaker 1: you know, I was still in high school, trying to
Speaker 1: get through high school to graduate to go to college.
Speaker 1: So that was my first first experience in a recording studio.
Speaker 1: So you're a teenager and your parents are called in
Speaker 1: and he's like, I want to sign your daughter. What
Speaker 1: did they think of that? Were they like you have
Speaker 1: to do your homework first, or they were like, go
Speaker 1: for it. So he wanted me to do another session.
Speaker 1: And the session required me to be at the studio
Speaker 1: at about four o'clock in the evening. So Mr D
Speaker 1: like we called him Mr D. Mr D said, okay,
Speaker 1: we'll have a car and a driver to pick her
Speaker 1: up from school. My mother said, okay, you can have
Speaker 1: a car on the driver to pick her up from school.
Speaker 1: She said, but these are the requirements. She has to
Speaker 1: do her homework. She has to take a nap because
Speaker 1: she would have been up early early in the morning
Speaker 1: for school. And then she can come down. We will
Speaker 1: be there by then and sing with Shorty Rogers and
Speaker 1: his big band in your studio. But these are the requirements.
Speaker 1: My father said. Now, if you can meet those requirements,
Speaker 1: sure she can do the session. But oh yes, they
Speaker 1: had to pick me up. Mr Darren had to correct
Speaker 1: my homework. I mean it was something I had English
Speaker 1: or something, you know, math or whatever. But he came
Speaker 1: up and checked out. He had a lady to come,
Speaker 1: a teacher to come and check my homework, made sure
Speaker 1: that the lights were out. I took a two hour
Speaker 1: nap that I got my god. Because he had everything
Speaker 1: in his big office there and he came in. They
Speaker 1: woke me up to prepare me to go downstairs to
Speaker 1: sing with Shorty Rice is big band. I'm talking about
Speaker 1: a big band. I'm not talking about I'm not talking
Speaker 1: about a little small six piece band. I'm talking about
Speaker 1: an eighteen piece orchestra. And he was doing a record
Speaker 1: called You're the Reason I'm Living Okay, and I did
Speaker 1: to do it with him on this album call You
Speaker 1: the Reason I'm Living and the duet was called who
Speaker 1: can I count on If I can't count on you?
Speaker 1: And he was floored. He said, all of that voice
Speaker 1: is coming out a little bit body. I said, yeah,
Speaker 1: I guess, so he says, well, was incredible. So Shorty
Speaker 1: would come over and he said, I told you she
Speaker 1: could sing. JE said, Bobby, I told you this young
Speaker 1: lady could sing. And he was just like shaking his head.
Speaker 1: Mr Darren, He said, I can't not believe you're singing
Speaker 1: like this to be the age that you are. And
Speaker 1: my mother just looked at him. She was she was
Speaker 1: in the booth with me, so she just looked up
Speaker 1: at him, so you know, she was trained. And of
Speaker 1: all the church now and we we sing in the church.
Speaker 1: We don't play you know, you either sing or you're
Speaker 1: gonna play an instrument. You know you're gonna be one
Speaker 1: for the other. Because see, I'm from New Orleans, and
Speaker 1: in New Orleans, you sing, you play an instrument, you
Speaker 1: go to college. You know, that's just the way that was.
Speaker 1: That's unbelievable. I mean, you've got this person. He's a
Speaker 1: huge star. He believes in you so much. You come in,
Speaker 1: you crush it. He's going to these great lengths to
Speaker 1: make sure that you can be on these sessions for him.
Speaker 1: What did you dream for yourself at that point? Because
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm thinking, your kid, kid, you must have thought,
Speaker 1: I can I've got something. What did you dream for
Speaker 1: yourself at that point? I didn't think any of that stuff.
Speaker 1: I just thought, you know, this is really really nice.
Speaker 1: I wonder can I do this when I get out
Speaker 1: of school? You know. And I've spoken to some of
Speaker 1: the other girls and older ladies that we're doing background session.
Speaker 1: I said, you guys do this all the time. They say,
Speaker 1: oh yeah, we do maybe two sessions, maybe three or
Speaker 1: four sessions a week. I said, well, how much do
Speaker 1: you make? And they told me at that time they
Speaker 1: were paying background saying and if you doubled that particular song,
Speaker 1: which is put another track over that you get another
Speaker 1: That was incredible money for a fifteen sixteen year old
Speaker 1: in the sixties, in the six daies. Oh my god.
Speaker 1: And I said, that's that's pretty nice. So of course
Speaker 1: when I when I got out of school, you know,
Speaker 1: and they just started call I started getting these calls.
Speaker 1: You know, Jack would call Mary, there's a great session
Speaker 1: going on. It would be good miss Ms Clayton, be
Speaker 1: a good, good thing for Mary to go to this session.
Speaker 1: She'll get paid. We'll make sure she'd get paid. Union's
Speaker 1: gaye old. And after so a few years of that,
Speaker 1: I said, Mama said, well, you know, would you like
Speaker 1: to do this as as maybe her career, because you
Speaker 1: know you couldn't do this as a career if you
Speaker 1: want to, it's how you feel about it, I said,
Speaker 1: Mama loved to sing. She said, well, this is good
Speaker 1: training for you, whatever you want to do. But by
Speaker 1: then I had gotten this great call from my great
Speaker 1: friend Billy Preston, my childhood friend, one of the greatest
Speaker 1: keyboard and organists and songwriters in the world, Billy Preston.
Speaker 1: So Billy called one day and he says, what are
Speaker 1: you doing? I said, why are you whispering? He says, listen,
Speaker 1: whatever you're doing, I need you to drop it because
Speaker 1: I want you to come up and sing for Ray.
Speaker 1: I said, Ray, Who is it? Ray Charles? I said,
Speaker 1: what I said? The Ray Charles? He says, only wanted
Speaker 1: Ray Charles. He said, get dressed, put on something cute,
Speaker 1: smell good, and and be real cute. And you come
Speaker 1: up to Ray's office. They're going on tour and their
Speaker 1: auditioning singers. And I told Rady that you were just
Speaker 1: fantastic and that you would just be great for his group.
Speaker 1: Well I would, I would have to sing from Mr Charles.
Speaker 1: And I left with a contract, you know, for my
Speaker 1: parents to check out to see if this would be
Speaker 1: something that I want to do. So Billy and I
Speaker 1: made it this big story. He said, you tell your
Speaker 1: mother that my mother's gonna let me go and then
Speaker 1: we and then you're gonna We had this big thing,
Speaker 1: you know, we were doing this big covert operation, you know,
Speaker 1: to get on this tour. My mother would say, do
Speaker 1: you guys really think we're crazy? Do you do you
Speaker 1: know who we are? We are? Your mother? You have
Speaker 1: to have a chaperone if you go out there on
Speaker 1: this tour. So she told Mr. Child My dad said, well,
Speaker 1: you know what, I have a good girl here and
Speaker 1: I want her to come back here just the way
Speaker 1: she left, and if she doesn't, you're gonna have a problem.
Speaker 1: My mother, my mother told Mr Charles, you have a
Speaker 1: problem with her father, and that's not the one you
Speaker 1: want to have a problem with. So Ray, you know,
Speaker 1: he came and he spoke to my mom said, don't
Speaker 1: worry about her. Everything's gonna be just fine, and we'll
Speaker 1: have chaperons and Billy, they're gonna be the youngest one
Speaker 1: on the tour. We're gonna take good tear of don't don't,
Speaker 1: don't worry about it. Miss Clayton. It's okay. I'm just
Speaker 1: letting you know in front, so you know behind you
Speaker 1: want no problem with me? Now, this is my baby,
Speaker 1: you know. So Billy and I and you know, we
Speaker 1: got it together, and we got a wardrobe, my parents
Speaker 1: got a wardrobe and everything together, and we went out
Speaker 1: on this tour to Ray Charles and had the time
Speaker 1: of our lives with a big this big orchestra. He
Speaker 1: had this huge orchestra and he had three other singers,
Speaker 1: you know, so he rehearsed us profusely because he was
Speaker 1: a perfectionist and he wanted it to be the way
Speaker 1: he wanted it to be, you know, to singer to
Speaker 1: Ray Charles. That was something to say in the mid sixties,
Speaker 1: what do you do well, I singer? You what you
Speaker 1: sing with Ray Charles? Well, yeah, i'd seing with Ray Charles. Well,
Speaker 1: oh my goodness, sure, we'll let you have this. So
Speaker 1: we'll let you have that whatever you want. You know. Unbelievable,
Speaker 1: And just like that, you're a Raylette. And there you go.
Speaker 1: I was a Raylett and I didn't let ray Oh.
Speaker 1: That was a big thing that people said. They said
Speaker 1: that in order to be a Raylet you had to
Speaker 1: let Rolsa. Not in me. Yikes. I married his conductor
Speaker 1: and was married to his conductor for thirty two years
Speaker 1: until he closed his eyes and left this earth. Yeah,
Speaker 1: unbelievable saxophone player. Yeah, yeah, the great Curtis saying me,
Speaker 1: that's right. Singer Mary Clayton follow here's the thing on
Speaker 1: the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcasts or wherever you
Speaker 1: get your podcasts. When we return, Mary Clayton talks about
Speaker 1: the benefits and the challenges of being a black female
Speaker 1: artist in the nineteen seventies. I'm Talia Schlanger in for
Speaker 1: Alec Baldwin and this is here's the thing. By the
Speaker 1: time she was twenty one, Mary Clayton was a seasoned
Speaker 1: pro having already performed with some of the biggest names
Speaker 1: in music. But it was a surprise phone call late
Speaker 1: one night from a famous producer that launched her career
Speaker 1: into the stratosphere. Jack Niici. This is a producer. Jack
Speaker 1: Nietchi calls and he says, listen, there's a bunch of
Speaker 1: guys in town. They're they're rolling And before he can
Speaker 1: get out stones I'm saying, and my husband's takes a phone.
Speaker 1: He says, Man, why you call them Mary so late?
Speaker 1: You know she's pregnant. He says, Man, we're getting ready
Speaker 1: to go to bed. He said, Man, you gotta let
Speaker 1: her work on this date. This date is gonna be wonderful.
Speaker 1: We got to set a car and don't worry about her.
Speaker 1: I'm coming into Limo and I'll take care of her,
Speaker 1: take her there and then I'll bring it back. He said, Man,
Speaker 1: it is really really late. She's put lotion on her
Speaker 1: hands when she starts to put lotion in her hands.
Speaker 1: It's bedtime. So so I had these beautiful silk, pink
Speaker 1: silk pajamas. So my husband says, baby, aren't you gonna
Speaker 1: change your clothes? I said no, So I said, do
Speaker 1: I have to go? Curtis? He said, yeah, baby, just go.
Speaker 1: I won'ta take you long. He said, this could be
Speaker 1: really really important. He said, you know, these boards from England.
Speaker 1: Just maybe something that that would be really really good
Speaker 1: for you, you know, later on in your career, you know.
Speaker 1: So he's talking to me as he's nudging me to
Speaker 1: the front door, and we opened the door and the
Speaker 1: limo is sitting way down the driveway like waiting for me,
Speaker 1: you know. So I get in the car. I said, okay,
Speaker 1: I'm going, I said, but I'm not gonna be going along.
Speaker 1: So I take this Chanelle scarf that rollers in my hair,
Speaker 1: and I put the Chanelle scarf because I'm not taking
Speaker 1: your rollers out of my hair. And I put the
Speaker 1: Chanelle scarf over my hand. I tied beautifully and put
Speaker 1: a little bit of makeup on, a lipstick off. I
Speaker 1: went get to the studio and I said the guy,
Speaker 1: I see somebody coming through the back door, and who
Speaker 1: was it but Keith and Mick. So they come to
Speaker 1: me and they say, are you married? I said, yes,
Speaker 1: I am, I said, and who are you? He said, well,
Speaker 1: I'm I ain't bloody Keith and this is Mick right here.
Speaker 1: You know how they talk? I said, well, hi, how
Speaker 1: are you? Said? Oh, we're fine. We're glad you're here. Mary.
Speaker 1: So okay, So what do you want me to sing?
Speaker 1: He said, because I can't stay long? Wow. So Mix said,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go and gonna go and get it. They said,
Speaker 1: you want to come into booth. I see, I'll come
Speaker 1: in and listen to the tracks. I listened to the track.
Speaker 1: I said, it's pretty cool. He said, we just want
Speaker 1: you to sing this part right here, and you're gonna
Speaker 1: do an answer to what you know, justice slowle verse
Speaker 1: right here to say, and then on the second time
Speaker 1: we'll let you know after you get through with this,
Speaker 1: what you're gonna do next. So after I did war
Speaker 1: Children just a Shadow with just a Shadow low along
Speaker 1: with with Mick. I did that part and I said, wow,
Speaker 1: this is really something. I that part with him, and
Speaker 1: then here comes Keith out the booth. He said, well, darling,
Speaker 1: this is the second one you have to do? And
Speaker 1: I said what, And I've read the lyric and I said,
Speaker 1: rape murder. It's just a shot away. And it was
Speaker 1: rape murder again, it's just a shot away. So I
Speaker 1: looked at him myself, Honey, I'm here by myself. I'm
Speaker 1: not getting ready to sing anything but a rape and
Speaker 1: a murder. It's you're also sorry, you're twenty one years
Speaker 1: old and you're pregnant also, like, let's be honest, like
Speaker 1: that's and it was, and it was high, it was high.
Speaker 1: The key was high. Yeah. So I did that part
Speaker 1: and then he told me the gist of the song.
Speaker 1: He told me what it meant. I said, oh, okay.
Speaker 1: So then we sung that part and they I told him,
Speaker 1: I said, you guys, go in and just let me
Speaker 1: do my point. I urged them right on out. I said,
Speaker 1: you guys going, You don't have to be out here
Speaker 1: with me. I've been doing this for a while and
Speaker 1: I know what I'm doing. So they left and they
Speaker 1: went to the booth. So I started to sing. And
Speaker 1: at that period, it was civil rights movement going on.
Speaker 1: Dr King had just been assassinated, it was the war
Speaker 1: in Vietnam and I really had to call on all
Speaker 1: of my ancestors to help me. After I found out
Speaker 1: what we were really singing about. I called on my grandmother,
Speaker 1: my great grandmother. I called everybody that ever loved me
Speaker 1: that we're not here anymore. I called on them to
Speaker 1: come and help me because I needed help and in
Speaker 1: this particular song, in this night. So I called on
Speaker 1: them and they came and they helped me. You know,
Speaker 1: I know people believe in that and some people don't.
Speaker 1: I believe in and people coming to helping people that
Speaker 1: anybody who is they ever loved me. I called them
Speaker 1: to come up and help me that night, and they did.
Speaker 1: And I remember when I came to myself because it
Speaker 1: was like out of body experience when I when I
Speaker 1: did the very high party, that shiny what just that
Speaker 1: shint I And it just seems like everything in me,
Speaker 1: from everything that was going on in the world, all
Speaker 1: of the stuff that was going the just came through me.
Speaker 1: And I was screaming, you know, just with all of
Speaker 1: everything that was within me, and all I could hear
Speaker 1: and see was making Keith and Jimmy and everybody in
Speaker 1: the booth just oh, they were screaming back in the back,
Speaker 1: you know, So apparently I did a pretty good job.
Speaker 1: I said, well, I'm gonna give you one more for
Speaker 1: safety and I'm out, Mary, can you do it one
Speaker 1: more time? Can you keep the screaming? I said, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna give you whatever I have. I said, you do
Speaker 1: know that I'm carrying a baby right now. It says, oh, yes, darling,
Speaker 1: you you do with Just do the best. I said,
Speaker 1: don't worry about it, I'll get it done. So I
Speaker 1: gave them one more for safety. And as I gave
Speaker 1: them that, they weren't back in the booth. I need
Speaker 1: to listen. To listen back, I was waving goodbye and
Speaker 1: I was going on. I think I did two passes
Speaker 1: of that, and the next thing I knew it was
Speaker 1: the biggest hit of life. Wow, you know, it was
Speaker 1: giving shelter everywhere I write today. It's a huge record
Speaker 1: to deal right today. You know, I think what you
Speaker 1: did on that song is one of the most powerful
Speaker 1: moments of recording in all of music history. Like I'm
Speaker 1: not joking when I say that, Like I really mean
Speaker 1: that very seriously. You can hear everything that you've just said.
Speaker 1: You can hear the entire civil rights movement. You can
Speaker 1: hear your ancestors, you can hear all of humanity, you
Speaker 1: can your birth and death, you can hear everything in it.
Speaker 1: It's harrowing and it's what you've given so much of yourself.
Speaker 1: And that same year you put out your first solo album,
Speaker 1: Give Me Shelter. You use that at the title of
Speaker 1: the title track. The version, your version is absolutely unbelievable
Speaker 1: and it's so different. So tell me what you wanted
Speaker 1: for yourself as a solo artist at that moment in
Speaker 1: time after, you know, after having this massive hit with
Speaker 1: the Rolling Stones and putting out your own solo record.
Speaker 1: You know, it's very weird to say, but at that time,
Speaker 1: I was so young. I was so young. I just
Speaker 1: wanted to sing, and I had met this lovely, wonderful,
Speaker 1: precious human being named Lou Addler who believed in me.
Speaker 1: I wasn't thinking too much of anything back then other
Speaker 1: than I really wanted to sing, and I wanted it
Speaker 1: to be good, and I wanted to make him proud. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I wanted to make my husband and my family proud.
Speaker 1: But I really, when someone is believing you and putting
Speaker 1: money and putting everything they could put into you, into you.
Speaker 1: You want to make them proud. You know, I have
Speaker 1: no doubt that you made him proud. Do you think
Speaker 1: he wanted you to be the biggest star in the world, though,
Speaker 1: I think that you wanted I like I think he did.
Speaker 1: He did. Things happened that you have no control over.
Speaker 1: At that time, it was Aretha, Aretha, Aretha right right.
Speaker 1: Aretha was grateful as a great friend of mine, and
Speaker 1: I knew her since I was like eight nine years old.
Speaker 1: But a lot of time you couldn't get earplay on
Speaker 1: the radio if you were you were an artist like myself,
Speaker 1: even though you were in the same field that she
Speaker 1: was in. It was Aretha and Diana Ross, the Supremes,
Speaker 1: the Motown era, so you couldn't really get traction. You
Speaker 1: can get so much, so much traction, and then he
Speaker 1: would drop off, you know. But he always wanted the
Speaker 1: best for me, always wanted the best for me. I
Speaker 1: didn't necessarily want to be a huge star. I just
Speaker 1: wanted to sing, especially at one I mean, please, really,
Speaker 1: I didn't even know. I didn't even know of being.
Speaker 1: The only star that I knew was Bobby Darren and
Speaker 1: Ray Charles. Wow, that perspective that you have is incredible
Speaker 1: and it makes it I feel mad because I love
Speaker 1: your early solo works and I feel like I play
Speaker 1: like I play your first time at parties, like I
Speaker 1: love I love it, and it's like it's incredible, and
Speaker 1: I think that for me, like when you say at
Speaker 1: that moment it was Aretha, Aretha, Areatha or Diana Ross,
Speaker 1: like there's an element for me to me anyway of
Speaker 1: racism and sexism there where it's like there's only allowed
Speaker 1: to be one person. Absolutely absolutely that's the way it was.
Speaker 1: But see, that's that's the way that it was. An
Speaker 1: African American artist, you know, in a field of music
Speaker 1: where to them their star could only be one. Was
Speaker 1: read the Franklin to be one. On the other side
Speaker 1: of R and B and pop, Diana Ross, you know,
Speaker 1: could only be one. And that's just the way it was.
Speaker 1: That's the way it was set up. So that's what happened.
Speaker 1: But I was always busy and I was always working always.
Speaker 1: It sounds like maybe you've got the best of all
Speaker 1: the things, you know what I think I did. I
Speaker 1: think I did because I was constantly going to the
Speaker 1: bank and I love that good. Well, you deserve to
Speaker 1: get paid but I will say that the other evidence
Speaker 1: of you sort of coming out on top of this
Speaker 1: is that we listen to beautiful scars and it's like
Speaker 1: there's no wear and tear on your voice, like you
Speaker 1: haven't lost God. Like it's almost rude, like how can
Speaker 1: you still do that? How can you sing like that?
Speaker 1: It's I'm just how so thrilled for you that you're
Speaker 1: able to do that. The only thing I can say
Speaker 1: is that this is my gift from God. And when
Speaker 1: God gives you a gift, that's what it is. That's
Speaker 1: his gift. We all have have gifts, and when he
Speaker 1: but when He gives you a gift, when He annoys
Speaker 1: you and appoint you with this beautiful gift, if you
Speaker 1: take care of it and you nurture it, God honors that.
Speaker 1: I think that He honors that. And you know I
Speaker 1: often said, oh my God, God, I just thank you
Speaker 1: so much that you left my gift intact. And I
Speaker 1: knew that when my gift was intact and I was
Speaker 1: left intact, that he had something else that he wanted
Speaker 1: me to do. He wasn't finished. My destiny was not finished.
Speaker 1: Had I been finished, had he been finished with me,
Speaker 1: I would have perished in that accident, you know, because
Speaker 1: if anyone would looked at the car they were sending to,
Speaker 1: Novo made it out of this, you know. I said,
Speaker 1: Oh my goodness, there's some one of these many people
Speaker 1: I have to touch with this gift before I leave
Speaker 1: this earth. I think I know the answer to this,
Speaker 1: But I'll ask you, what do you pray for before
Speaker 1: you go out and sing for people? That they will
Speaker 1: be touched, that they will be delivered from whatever they're
Speaker 1: going through, that they would come away with a smile
Speaker 1: on their face and know that they can make it
Speaker 1: in any situation that you go through. You can make
Speaker 1: it through anything. But you have to know who you are.
Speaker 1: Mary Clayton. I'm so honored to get to talk to
Speaker 1: you today. Thank you. What a gift you've given the
Speaker 1: world with the music that you make in the way
Speaker 1: that you speak of it. Thank you so so much,
Speaker 1: my pleasure. Bless you, guys, My thanks to singer Mary Clayton.
Speaker 1: I'm Talish Langer. I'll be here from time to time
Speaker 1: as guest host on Here's the Thing. This episode was
Speaker 1: produced by Kathleen Russo, Zach mcknee's Maureen Hoban and Carrie
Speaker 1: Donna Hue. Our engineer is Frank Imperial. Alec Baldwin will
Speaker 1: be back in with new episodes of Here's the Thing,
Speaker 1: Make the Bname Come to to