Speaker 1: Money. Well, say, take Valentine, we are the authority. What's
Speaker 1: going on? Is your boy Tank? This is Mr Valentine.
Speaker 1: I'm I'm Valentine. You are the Valentine. Sometimes you missed
Speaker 1: the Valentine was saying. We all go with the Valentine
Speaker 1: to Day and this is the R B Money Podcast,
Speaker 1: the authority on all things R and B. Listen, let
Speaker 1: me pause for a second. The Valentine. I feel like,
Speaker 1: you know, I always do the intros. You know, the
Speaker 1: intros is my place, That's why. But I feel like
Speaker 1: I feel like this is your intro. I feel like
Speaker 1: you should have handled this. This was because today, talking
Speaker 1: about to Day, we went back to the essence, right,
Speaker 1: we went back to where this whole R and B
Speaker 1: money things started. Now, R and B music might have
Speaker 1: been around, but they wouldn't getting to the money. So
Speaker 1: today on the R and B Money Podcast, we have
Speaker 1: Sir m hmm, Capital s Capital Capital are Ray Parker, Junior,
Speaker 1: the Ghost Weston himself in the Mill, Harris and Bills.
Speaker 1: I don't care it my god, sir, just having Sunday night. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's why I looked at JA, said Sir Ray Parker
Speaker 1: to you. Now I'm gonna respected. But can you can
Speaker 1: you just before we dive back into the archives, can
Speaker 1: you give us like, how do you become sir? What's hell? Am?
Speaker 1: I know? I had a neighbor who was who was
Speaker 1: a guy he knew the Prince of Spain and the
Speaker 1: next year, I guess the two of them were talking about,
Speaker 1: you know, he lived down there, and they thought I
Speaker 1: was worthy. You don't need to check my background, make
Speaker 1: sure I ain't done. They already knew it was out
Speaker 1: because the neighborhood though, yeah catch that part though I
Speaker 1: had a name, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, we know,
Speaker 1: so we had to check. You didn't check me out,
Speaker 1: make sure I have done no deeds, you know, wrong
Speaker 1: deeds and all this stuff, and you're worthy of royalty.
Speaker 1: And they said, would he'd be a good guy to
Speaker 1: having the order, you know, the royal in the Royal
Speaker 1: Royal Order? Yeah, what you know about that? The Royal Order? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I have no idea about black I'm a black guy
Speaker 1: from Detroit. I mean, I'm as far away from the
Speaker 1: Royal watched the Game of Thrones. The Game of Thrones,
Speaker 1: so no, it's got something to do with that. Vikings
Speaker 1: is a good show. There's a royal order on there. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but you're part of the royal order. So that means
Speaker 1: when when it all goes down, you're gonna get one
Speaker 1: of the phone calls. You're protected. Yeah, and then they
Speaker 1: have sovereigns exactly about the sovereignation. So I may get
Speaker 1: dual citizenship, I may have a second citizenship. Will give
Speaker 1: you some tax advantages, and there's some other things that
Speaker 1: can go along with this. I'm just learning. So yeah,
Speaker 1: so we spoke about, you know, your sovereignty. You're being
Speaker 1: survey from now on, they can't call you nothing else.
Speaker 1: But let's go back. Because it's the R and B
Speaker 1: Money podcast. We like to uh, we like we like
Speaker 1: our podcast to be informative. It's funny and you know,
Speaker 1: we want to tell real stories and we want people
Speaker 1: to have an understanding of where the music truly comes from.
Speaker 1: So from my understanding, it's Motown? Am I right? Kind
Speaker 1: of right? I wouldn't say it came from Motown. The
Speaker 1: Motown obviously played a big part of my career. It's music.
Speaker 1: Music started for me as six years old. I didn't
Speaker 1: want to dance with the girls in gym class. The
Speaker 1: head is doing some kind of dance in elementary school
Speaker 1: if you can remember, being five or six, I remember,
Speaker 1: and we had to switch girls, and I'm like, I
Speaker 1: don't like this girl, think you know, switching partners. So
Speaker 1: I went to the principal of the school at six
Speaker 1: years old and told the principle I wasn't happy with
Speaker 1: the curriculum. And so she's, first of all, she paused
Speaker 1: for about five minutes, like you gotta be kidding a
Speaker 1: little kids coming in my office, to the principal's office.
Speaker 1: You know, you don't like. I don't I don't like.
Speaker 1: I don't like, I don't like, I like. I ain't
Speaker 1: feeling it, you know. So she took me to a
Speaker 1: music class, of which one I got there. I didn't
Speaker 1: know what the music class was, by the way, so
Speaker 1: it's not like I wanted to play an instrument. I
Speaker 1: didn't even know what that meant. But when I got there,
Speaker 1: my best friend Ali Brown and Nathan Watts were already there.
Speaker 1: And by the way, they're still musicians to today. So
Speaker 1: remember those names because it's relevant. And uh so the
Speaker 1: teacher looked at me, says, what instrument you want to play?
Speaker 1: I wanted to play the flute because you got to
Speaker 1: carry the instrument home. Man. I didn't want to take
Speaker 1: the tube but home, it's too heavy. So I picked
Speaker 1: the clarinet, and I became very good at the clarinet.
Speaker 1: I didn't care, but the teacher was so motivating. My
Speaker 1: elementary school teacher was everything to me, you know, And
Speaker 1: he was so motivating that he put the three of
Speaker 1: us best friends together and formed the band and called
Speaker 1: the band the Sting Rays at six. Now, what was
Speaker 1: interesting about that? He named the band after me? Put
Speaker 1: sting Raids with already White. The other two guys they
Speaker 1: didn't know. They just got screwed all day. They hadn't
Speaker 1: figured out they got stuff they got. Yeah, they didn't
Speaker 1: figure out the name band was named after me, and
Speaker 1: they just got screwed. So they didn't do that, and
Speaker 1: so we did that for a while. Then when I
Speaker 1: got older, about eleven years old, my brother had a
Speaker 1: little cheap guitar and I started playing a guitar. Now,
Speaker 1: the guitar for me was like magical. It was like
Speaker 1: the clarinet. I was working at it. Everything else. I
Speaker 1: was working at it, but somebody they put the guitar
Speaker 1: in my hand. It was like, yeah, God, just bless me.
Speaker 1: This is it, this is where I am. And then
Speaker 1: I broke my leg at eleven, and so I practiced
Speaker 1: all day every day. And to make the story shorter
Speaker 1: for you, by the time I was thirteen, I was
Speaker 1: on tour at the Spinners What yeah. So then I
Speaker 1: then by the time I was fourteen, fourteen and a half,
Speaker 1: then I started on Motown. I started working with Marvin Gaye,
Speaker 1: last night, Smokey Robinson. I was in the studio with
Speaker 1: all the guys. So you were to do the house
Speaker 1: of music, whoever that is. Yeah, yeah, I know, dude,
Speaker 1: I'm remember. Yeah yeah. So I got it going, and
Speaker 1: by fifteen I was pretty much financially independent by fifteen,
Speaker 1: and my dad swore I was selling drugs and doing
Speaker 1: something right. I mean, so he went to my cousin
Speaker 1: and said, you go following him around. There's nowhere in
Speaker 1: the world that kid can make that much money playing
Speaker 1: the guitar and he's only fifteen years old. And so
Speaker 1: my cousin followed me around. I didn't know why he
Speaker 1: was hanging with me, was like, his older cousin was like,
Speaker 1: you ain't up hung with me before, why are you
Speaker 1: hanging with me now? You know. But he was trying
Speaker 1: to figure out what I was doing and he had
Speaker 1: to go back and report. Well, you know, Ray ain't
Speaker 1: really going to class. He's skipped in school, but he
Speaker 1: is playing music because the sessions were going on the daytime.
Speaker 1: I wasn't going to school. I'm going to play the
Speaker 1: Motown We don't go stupard, you know. And I was
Speaker 1: working with Hollandojo Holland when they separated from Motown because
Speaker 1: they couldn't use the Funk Brothers, which was the Motown band,
Speaker 1: so they ended up using me at Hollando Holland and
Speaker 1: all their records. So I was doing that three days.
Speaker 1: So back then it doesn't sound like a lot of money,
Speaker 1: but it was at the time. We can make a
Speaker 1: hundred bucks playing three hours every three hours, so I
Speaker 1: could do that three times a week. I was playing
Speaker 1: at the club called the twenty Grand, which was the
Speaker 1: famous club. It's like Cotton Club and Hound and all
Speaker 1: the big bands smoke, you know, smoking. Robinson would come
Speaker 1: their glass ninety pips. I was making three hundred fifty
Speaker 1: dollars a week there and then I do Jewish by
Speaker 1: mrs and weddings and I can make another thirty five,
Speaker 1: you know, dollars a trip, and so I'm making I
Speaker 1: can make it like seven eight hundred bucks a week. Now,
Speaker 1: you gotta understand a brand new Lincoln Continental is only
Speaker 1: five grand back then, what you got to so like
Speaker 1: you look at your car and say, oh, I only
Speaker 1: got to work too three weeks and I got the
Speaker 1: whole car, you know, And I'm like, yeah, it wasn't nothing.
Speaker 1: I could buy a sept a bicycle for fifty bucks
Speaker 1: and all the time I had, You know, there was
Speaker 1: there was one month I worked with Marvin Gator Studio
Speaker 1: all month at fifty I think I was sixteen in
Speaker 1: and I made eighteen thousand dollars for the month. That's
Speaker 1: more money than my father made all year working at four.
Speaker 1: So you gotta kind of, yeah, you gotta kind of
Speaker 1: get into that and get a picture that. Yeah, where
Speaker 1: were you season can ask this question, you worked with
Speaker 1: Marvin Gay. Youre working Marvin for a month. What did
Speaker 1: that entail? Where is it? Was it just session work
Speaker 1: or were you able to input? Oh? Yeah, yeah, yeah
Speaker 1: that working with Marvin game was the most fun I
Speaker 1: had at that age because he would let us write
Speaker 1: songs with him. In fact, there's an album that came
Speaker 1: out last year called Funky Town or something, and it's
Speaker 1: the unfinished tracks that Marvin never finished singing. He says
Speaker 1: my name on the record while I was naming on
Speaker 1: the record, and behind his name on the record, and
Speaker 1: all our names on we all got co writers on
Speaker 1: all the songs. And so what would it be as
Speaker 1: we go all day in the studio going in the world,
Speaker 1: we record with Marvin, then we go over Marvin's house
Speaker 1: and listen to tapes. Now I'm the youngest one there,
Speaker 1: so I'm sitting to taple cord. They're telling me loaded
Speaker 1: seven and a half inch tape, you know, put the
Speaker 1: tape cord in. And that was the first time I
Speaker 1: saw a rack of Macintosh Ampson tan Oi speaker. His
Speaker 1: his house sounded better than the studio, you know. And
Speaker 1: I'm too young to figure we're just kicking Marvin's house.
Speaker 1: You go to Marvin's house every day, I mean, that's
Speaker 1: no big deal, you know. And Marvin liked to smoke
Speaker 1: a little weed from time to time. So my favorite
Speaker 1: story they were they were doing a documentary one time
Speaker 1: on Marvin. They were interviewing me because I'm on his
Speaker 1: greatest hits and a bunch of stuff. And so he
Speaker 1: was smoking a little weed and he looked over at
Speaker 1: me and he went his kids under age, and he
Speaker 1: got the drivers like yet. So he just looked at
Speaker 1: me and says, man, why don't you take my car
Speaker 1: and go for you know, go get lost for a
Speaker 1: couple hours. You know, I'm still getting paid. But he
Speaker 1: gave me the car, not the car he had. If
Speaker 1: you saw the current super Fly, the bug Carolin with
Speaker 1: the things, Marvin had a burger. Marvin had a Burgundy
Speaker 1: when it was cold, love it right through me. The keys.
Speaker 1: I didn't. I didn't have a driver's license, you know. Me,
Speaker 1: I get in the car, man, I'm not, I'm not.
Speaker 1: I'm in this fifty thousand all in Catillac. Man. I'm
Speaker 1: leaning over to me and the mirror. My head's under
Speaker 1: the mirror like this. And I went to my high school,
Speaker 1: you know, rolling because you gotta go somewhere. You gotta
Speaker 1: go to the high school. And I'm looking all my boys.
Speaker 1: Then it occurs to me that the guys get that
Speaker 1: close to me. Man, they're gonna hop in the car.
Speaker 1: I just burned, rubbing left all. But they were like
Speaker 1: what's that ringing? So I thought that was the most
Speaker 1: exciting thing, and I told that story in his documentary.
Speaker 1: They took me out the whole documentary because I told
Speaker 1: the story. They said they wanted to hear about the
Speaker 1: real deal. I gave him the real deal and then
Speaker 1: they kicked me out the whole documentary for that. So
Speaker 1: I was like, okay. But Marvin was the coolest guy.
Speaker 1: He was a great football player. You know. They were
Speaker 1: going to sign him to the Detroit Lions, so he
Speaker 1: because I think I heard that he tried out for
Speaker 1: the Redskins, but he was well, he was with Lyn
Speaker 1: Barney all the will come to the studio. So they
Speaker 1: were going to sign him to the Detroit Lines. But
Speaker 1: he had to say that he wasn't going on two
Speaker 1: effects amount of time. I didn't want to do that.
Speaker 1: He was gonna really get a real party. He was.
Speaker 1: It was a receiver, right something. Yeah, but he I
Speaker 1: was too young though he was. But he was also
Speaker 1: a great boxer. By the way, Mom had the hands
Speaker 1: to Mark, b Oh, yeah, you messed with Marvin's woman.
Speaker 1: He was punching this woman guys out, literally punching guys out. Mark,
Speaker 1: you don't mess heavyweight. You don't you don't play. But
Speaker 1: he said all the records with Jaz you know, you know,
Speaker 1: you know, you know, jan said hello stuff. Don't talk
Speaker 1: to me him because Marvin would knock you out. So
Speaker 1: but he was. He was a wonderful guy, just a
Speaker 1: great human being, wonderful guy. One of my So you've
Speaker 1: been around all of them because the other the other
Speaker 1: person I wanted to ask you about, Verry White, very White,
Speaker 1: wasn't one of our closest friends. Yeah, me and very
Speaker 1: White man. We you know, Barry comes from Houston, Texas
Speaker 1: and grew up here in competent and stuff. So he's
Speaker 1: like sort of a roughneck kind of guy. But I
Speaker 1: like those kind of guys because I grew up in Detroit,
Speaker 1: and so we we showed her identified each other. You know,
Speaker 1: when I first made Barry White, Gene Page invited me
Speaker 1: to the studio and he had speakers of really really
Speaker 1: loud champion. You'll be like going like this got his
Speaker 1: diamonds on here, diamonds or he's doing that way before
Speaker 1: the rappers, he had aling out. Oh he was blame
Speaker 1: blaing out yellow suit. You know, he's like he's sitting
Speaker 1: there around like that, and I had an idea for
Speaker 1: a song and in me from Detroit, and I'm like, well,
Speaker 1: how do I get this guy's attention? And I would
Speaker 1: never do this now, I'm way too refined, and you know,
Speaker 1: I been living here for too long. But at that
Speaker 1: time I went to stop on the button, stopped this music.
Speaker 1: He turned around, looked, he looked in the back. Let's go,
Speaker 1: and I got a big afro, and I've got my shirt.
Speaker 1: I got my little tank top on says I'm a
Speaker 1: fucking genius on the shirt. So I'm trying to I'm
Speaker 1: not hiding myself. I mean, I'm feeling over maybe a
Speaker 1: little overcomfident people more, saying he was the most modest
Speaker 1: guy in the world. So I mean, I had to
Speaker 1: go on. And then he looked back and before he
Speaker 1: could like shoot me or kick me out, he says, well,
Speaker 1: didn't get in there and play it there, you know.
Speaker 1: So I went in and worked on one of his
Speaker 1: earlier albums and I played the line, and I thought
Speaker 1: he's gonna back up and let me play it all
Speaker 1: the way down. He came on the speaker said keep
Speaker 1: playing like that, you know, and so on the actual
Speaker 1: record that I did. There's like two bars where I'm
Speaker 1: not even playing, right he because that's who I'm saying,
Speaker 1: keep playing, And he just kept the whole thing and
Speaker 1: just played it and we were good ever since. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and then we had other things that were you know,
Speaker 1: his scene was that he got ten writer signed him,
Speaker 1: he says, but nobody gets a song on Barry Waite,
Speaker 1: no way, no how. And he had a Love and
Speaker 1: Limited and then he had Loving Limited Orchestra. So the
Speaker 1: first thing I did is I condom into getting me
Speaker 1: a song on Love and Limited. You know, Love Limited.
Speaker 1: He used to write him all himself. Oh yeah, he
Speaker 1: write them on himself. So I kind of into getting
Speaker 1: me one on Love Limited Orchestra. Yeah, And so I
Speaker 1: had him, I had to. I had Jeane Page was
Speaker 1: doing the chart, the famous arrange, and he was with
Speaker 1: my buddy. So Jeane had done the charts from me
Speaker 1: all the stuff. So when I pushed Barry and by
Speaker 1: the way, Barry White, he paid us all triple scale.
Speaker 1: And if you were done with the music early, you
Speaker 1: can go home. You still get paid. So we were
Speaker 1: done one day early, and I waited to that day
Speaker 1: and the music radio and all this stuff ready, and
Speaker 1: then you know, he was in my car which he
Speaker 1: cut his arm, sitting a little Mercedes convertibles. Look, that
Speaker 1: was a good idea, idea, But I played in the music.
Speaker 1: He was like, yeah, that's nice, real, Okay, I'm going home.
Speaker 1: I said, some wanting him to cut this song. He said, well,
Speaker 1: we're finish, the musicians are going home, and said, you
Speaker 1: ain't got no chart to get that. I said, I
Speaker 1: got the charts, I got everything. I said, why don't
Speaker 1: you just going home? I beat there like half and
Speaker 1: I don't worry about this that so I talked to
Speaker 1: all the guys in the band. Didn't cut the track.
Speaker 1: He put it on the Wreck pent my song now,
Speaker 1: but that wasn't I wasn't satisfied with that, which everybody
Speaker 1: else said. Man, we thought he kidding. I want a
Speaker 1: song on Barry White that I wrote that he wrote
Speaker 1: together the whole thing. So his manager live upstairs with
Speaker 1: me on Ali Drive, Shoka can live next door here,
Speaker 1: very White lit upstairs. I wrote this tune for Verry
Speaker 1: White card you got the Love right. He wouldn't record
Speaker 1: it unless Stevie here. He wouldn't record, so I cut
Speaker 1: it on Shotka. Can we have number one record on
Speaker 1: Rufus and Shotgun. Yeah you got the love Rubig Shotgun.
Speaker 1: So now I'm getting a little more respect from Barry Whitey.
Speaker 1: You know. It's like that little kid, that little punk
Speaker 1: kid rolled a hit some of that, and that's when
Speaker 1: they call me a little punk kid, you know, because
Speaker 1: it was snody knows punk kid talks too much. Where's
Speaker 1: too much flashy stuff. So you know, Barry white comes
Speaker 1: over to the department because his road manager and lived upstairs,
Speaker 1: and he's very white. So he's parking wherever he wants.
Speaker 1: He parked his kind of right where the gate thing is.
Speaker 1: It's O can't nobody to get in there. You can't
Speaker 1: abody get in. So me not thinking about that. All
Speaker 1: I'm thinking about is I want him to cut my song. Yeah,
Speaker 1: So I get in my car, I go get it,
Speaker 1: put the cassette and the corn. I'm a blast and
Speaker 1: I drive around thing. Then I triggered the thing up. Oops,
Speaker 1: and he's got his white Mark three and the gates
Speaker 1: kid it. It lifted the front of his car up
Speaker 1: off the ground and then the car was heavy to
Speaker 1: the gate, so the gate fell off the thing and
Speaker 1: then crashed on top of his car and for and
Speaker 1: for the people that's watching. I don't know if y'all know,
Speaker 1: but in R and B music, Very White it's probably
Speaker 1: top two gangsters all time, probably not number two. He's
Speaker 1: probably my number two real gangster, real gangster. So he
Speaker 1: looked at me and said, thanks for I needed that,
Speaker 1: you know. His cards off to him, and I said, yeah,
Speaker 1: but man, you know, I'm sorry, Mr White, but you
Speaker 1: gotta listen to this song. So I played him the song.
Speaker 1: Believe it that I actually play him the song that
Speaker 1: I give him a copy of song. He wrote the
Speaker 1: lyrics to it, and that song it's called You See
Speaker 1: the Trouble with Me We're so six man, right, And
Speaker 1: then all of his writers were like, but you told
Speaker 1: us nobody gets a song on Very White. No way,
Speaker 1: no how, nobody's writing a song everyway. And I'm like,
Speaker 1: I got me a song fifty with Barry White, you know,
Speaker 1: so that's it. Congratulations. Yeah, Now, by the way, it's
Speaker 1: business wise. I wanted to publish it, but I couldn't
Speaker 1: get the post. Beery White said, you ain't getting the
Speaker 1: publish you know, and nobody got published and at that
Speaker 1: time in your career, and I like to tell new
Speaker 1: people too. Sometimes you got to give up some stuff
Speaker 1: that you normally wouldn't give up later, you know, once
Speaker 1: you become Stevie wonder, you ain't gotta do that, you know,
Speaker 1: but in the beginning you might have to give up
Speaker 1: a little bit to get something, you know. And having
Speaker 1: a cut on Barry White at that time was very significant,
Speaker 1: you know. So I did that one. It was happy.
Speaker 1: I did, made a lot of money. You know, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna mess up his car. Man said, if I get that,
Speaker 1: do whatever you want to do, whatever you want your question,
Speaker 1: then what no room for this? So this full here,
Speaker 1: this seguay till our next name. This fool here just
Speaker 1: did an interview and he says, because listen, you you
Speaker 1: here now, and you're somebody that can either confirm or
Speaker 1: deny this this food gonna get on an interview and
Speaker 1: say that Stevie wanted can see a little bit? No
Speaker 1: he can't, right, you see a little bit? Can he?
Speaker 1: Me and Stevie wanted the boys, I mean, we were
Speaker 1: like more than just working together. And he feels see no, no,
Speaker 1: see like could he stay in a lane while driving
Speaker 1: if you coached him and we did that, you did
Speaker 1: what Lets Stevie want to drive? You have to tell
Speaker 1: us how that plays out, because you're still here first.
Speaker 1: I but I mean, I mean back in the day,
Speaker 1: you know. But this is before you know, all the
Speaker 1: bodyguards and no, this is here. Yeah, but this is
Speaker 1: after I quit the band too. I mean I'd already
Speaker 1: quit the band and I'm out here and he's out here,
Speaker 1: and where were you still go pick him up all
Speaker 1: the time with him and go hang out. We go
Speaker 1: go girls house and just do some crazy stuff, you know,
Speaker 1: and Steve were kicking. Yeah, yeah, I gotta you gotta
Speaker 1: hurry if it becomes Stevie, I have that kind of
Speaker 1: talk man killing us right now. So there, if you
Speaker 1: go down let's see, I think San Vicente wherever it ends,
Speaker 1: somewhere near Pico or something goes way down there. There
Speaker 1: was like a may company or a big department store
Speaker 1: something down there, you know. So anyway, Stevie thought we
Speaker 1: were on lost the end of or something. He wanted
Speaker 1: to drive, So I put in the car and I
Speaker 1: told him when we get to the light, you're gonna
Speaker 1: do this. And then but we really were in the
Speaker 1: parking lot of Make Company, like two in the morning.
Speaker 1: What nobody there, right, So he wanted to drive. He's
Speaker 1: really good at driving. But I said, when I say left,
Speaker 1: you go left. When I say stop, you stop. When
Speaker 1: I go right, you go right. And so he did it,
Speaker 1: you know, and we were good. He didn't hit nothing.
Speaker 1: I mean, we had a lot of space, but we
Speaker 1: have a lot of space. But still my heart was
Speaker 1: beating a little bit. And you know, did you at
Speaker 1: some point telling you Finesta, did you No, he's gonna
Speaker 1: find out. We got a bunch of other crazy stuff
Speaker 1: we did too, but you know, we don't need we
Speaker 1: don't need to confess to everything. Yeah, but no, he
Speaker 1: could drive. He's good at it, you know. In fact,
Speaker 1: when he did that, was it James Corman Show or whatever,
Speaker 1: you know, when they put you in the car with you,
Speaker 1: I thought he was gonna drive. I was like, watch
Speaker 1: any minute now, Steve, he's gonna drive. And they were
Speaker 1: in there singing, and at the end of the show
Speaker 1: he didn't drive. I was like, that would have been
Speaker 1: the bar. Sure. I was sure they're gonna mess up
Speaker 1: the world because Stevie gonna start driving, and that's gonna
Speaker 1: be it. You know, if I had known James Cordon.
Speaker 1: Then I would have said, let's Stevie drive. Tell your show.
Speaker 1: Your show would be number one. Let's see the world
Speaker 1: in the world. I just let's Stevie drive. Let's Stevie drive.
Speaker 1: I don't know what to say after that. But no,
Speaker 1: he can't see. But I'll tell you this. You wouldn't
Speaker 1: know it. Yeah, it's incredible. I mean we were when
Speaker 1: I got in the band. Man, I remember he got
Speaker 1: into a argument with the drummer and I don't know why. Man,
Speaker 1: the drummer, by the way, Stevie those days, he's only
Speaker 1: a few years old me, so he was. He was built,
Speaker 1: rip buffed, push up to the whole thing. And the
Speaker 1: drummer got the attitude and said, man, I'm tired of Steven.
Speaker 1: Put a blindfold on me. I'm gonna fight Stevie. Think
Speaker 1: that this is not a good idea. This is just
Speaker 1: not a good stee the drum This is the way
Speaker 1: I mean, so I can fight Steve. Wh This the
Speaker 1: way I got my best friend Alie Brown in the
Speaker 1: band from Detroit is the drummer got I think if
Speaker 1: the drummer is gone, then I can get my guy in.
Speaker 1: But it wasn't that. It was like, here's the moment
Speaker 1: where the drummer getting ready. I got the blind phold. O,
Speaker 1: yeah that's good. Yeah, I put the blind phold on him.
Speaker 1: And we put the blind phold on the drummer and
Speaker 1: they're gonna do it out. And you should have seen
Speaker 1: together the guy man is doing like this. He's trying
Speaker 1: to find Stevie. And every time he went bam, I
Speaker 1: mean it was like just pu, I mean, straight punch.
Speaker 1: We just went on for a couple of minutes and
Speaker 1: we we threw the towel. We're like, you gotta stop.
Speaker 1: Oh he Stevie was beating him that. I don't think
Speaker 1: he got one punch on Steve. And every time he
Speaker 1: yause he could hear it heightens and yeah he he
Speaker 1: was hitting the gup so fast, and it was just
Speaker 1: like this ain't no fight. This ain't the fifth to
Speaker 1: the town throwing it town like Rocky thro the town.
Speaker 1: At some point out it took off the blind photo.
Speaker 1: And how about this, if he took the blindfold off,
Speaker 1: he may still have gotten the same it's probably got
Speaker 1: because he was Stevie was ripped. He was built. Stevie
Speaker 1: beating niggas out man. You were killing me right now,
Speaker 1: the drumma sound drum, I got a whole new meeting.
Speaker 1: Are you kidding? No, we had a lot of fun.
Speaker 1: Stevie's a nice cat. He's he's a wonderful guy. I
Speaker 1: sit next to Stevie and we sang and played together
Speaker 1: one night. So you got a picture. If I'm eighteen,
Speaker 1: he's twenty one. Oh yea, he's the boss. So who's
Speaker 1: controlling this stuff? I mean, we got the boss is
Speaker 1: just as crazy as the rest of us doing it.
Speaker 1: And you know how you are at nineteen twenty. It's
Speaker 1: that krand of crazy. So I go pick, we go
Speaker 1: dry right, were doing crazy stuff, you know girls, I
Speaker 1: mean we're just doing whatever. So how old are you
Speaker 1: when you moved to l A. I was nineteen? Okay, yeah,
Speaker 1: just turn the nineteen. May have been eighteen, but just
Speaker 1: turned the nineteen because I got with Stevie when in
Speaker 1: the Rolling Stones when he called me outside, hey, hey, hey,
Speaker 1: just you can't rolling Stone. You'll see. And this is
Speaker 1: a this is a great story because I'm in college,
Speaker 1: which I hated, and I got to college early. So
Speaker 1: I'm seventeen in college and and they're making me draft
Speaker 1: car parts and all that stuff. All I want to
Speaker 1: do is drive the car. I don't build no car,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. I'm just not feeling it.
Speaker 1: But my dad worked for for forty eight years, and
Speaker 1: he's like, son, you got to get a white college job,
Speaker 1: pension retirement. You know this after you make an eighteen
Speaker 1: thousand and them's way past that. Yeah, and I'm seventeen.
Speaker 1: I don't think. I don't think that work seven ain't
Speaker 1: gonna work there. I'm seventeen and I'm in the lunch
Speaker 1: roing with some friends of mine, and I'll never forget
Speaker 1: they looked at me and they said, we're tired of
Speaker 1: hearing about you and Smokey Rob. If you knew Marvin Gay,
Speaker 1: you wouldn't be sitting here with us, right. And I
Speaker 1: looked at the guy said that's the first thing anybody
Speaker 1: said to me that made me sense. Watch this, take
Speaker 1: my books, and I just walked out to lunch room,
Speaker 1: never to return. So I went home, talked to my
Speaker 1: dad and and Stevie Wonder had called just then, and
Speaker 1: I'll never forget when he called me. Music from My
Speaker 1: Mind was my favorite album of all time. I mean,
Speaker 1: I never heard those news sounds that was the first
Speaker 1: time anybody heard synthesized days. Yeah, remember Stevie started all that.
Speaker 1: I mean, so when you heard in your car, you
Speaker 1: just went, is it good? Is it bad? I don't
Speaker 1: even know what it is that I never heard it before.
Speaker 1: It was like, you just never heard it before. What's that?
Speaker 1: What's all these sounds? You know? And he had the
Speaker 1: voices with the sounds. So the only album I hand
Speaker 1: in my car was music from my Mind. So when
Speaker 1: he called me up, he needed to get time from
Speaker 1: I guess everybody said, he said. Everybody spoke to said
Speaker 1: call Ray, you know, call this kid Ray. So he
Speaker 1: called me. The first thing I did was hang up
Speaker 1: on him, you know, click. Then yeah, I thought, I
Speaker 1: ain't know Stevie, want to come? Me's some one of
Speaker 1: my friends, and you know, then he called a couple
Speaker 1: he was first. He called a couple of times back
Speaker 1: then I hung up, and I think the third time
Speaker 1: I put some four letter words and then hung up.
Speaker 1: You know. But it wasn't it wasn't pretty, you know.
Speaker 1: So you called back again, said, man, I don't think
Speaker 1: we filmed each other. Uh, let me let me play
Speaker 1: you a little bit. And he played me the rhythm
Speaker 1: track the Superstition he was working. I was like, holy
Speaker 1: crap a tongue I am about Stevie one. I mean,
Speaker 1: I got, you know, correct this. And so he asked
Speaker 1: me to go on tour with him and the Rolling Stones.
Speaker 1: They were doing that. That's the biggest tour of the
Speaker 1: year at that time. There was nothing bigger than the
Speaker 1: Rolling Stones and Stevie wanted together. I'm just gonna be
Speaker 1: stadium tour. Everything sold out, limbousines, tear gas, you know,
Speaker 1: massive stereo, British. Yeah. It was that kind of stuff,
Speaker 1: you know, you got to back them up. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: So it was crazy. I mean it was like, you know,
Speaker 1: but I told him first, I got to talk to
Speaker 1: my dad, you know, get because I'm respecting by my parents.
Speaker 1: And my dad was crying. He was like, son, I
Speaker 1: eving money for you to go college since before you
Speaker 1: were born, you know. And I was like, yeah, but
Speaker 1: I don't want to do that. I want to go
Speaker 1: with the rock and roll band, you know. So we
Speaker 1: headed out, you know, and then I repeated back to
Speaker 1: my dad and very respectfully. After about two days, he
Speaker 1: gave up, you know, he said, I can't do nothing
Speaker 1: with this poor kid, he's going down. You know, he's
Speaker 1: gonna make twenty to night. I said, I don't think so, Dad,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna do a little better than that, you know.
Speaker 1: And so I went on that tour and that that
Speaker 1: was a life changing for me. That was the big
Speaker 1: eye opener life because everything I did was in Detroit,
Speaker 1: and this is the first time I got to see
Speaker 1: the rest of the world and see what everybody else
Speaker 1: on at any team, what everybody else was doing, you know,
Speaker 1: And it just opened my eyes to everything. I mean,
Speaker 1: I didn't know no publishing and no writing songs or produced.
Speaker 1: I didn't know what none of this stuff. I don't
Speaker 1: even know what it was. I just want to play together.
Speaker 1: When you had any form of representation at all, know
Speaker 1: what not. The only person you just had to talk
Speaker 1: to his pops. Exactly, can I go, yeah, exactly. And
Speaker 1: my dad was pretty smart, by the way, especially with money.
Speaker 1: My dad, I'm never forget even when we were younger,
Speaker 1: he used to There were no calculators and computers, but
Speaker 1: he used to make me amateurize the mortgage and figure
Speaker 1: out each payment, which is difficult because the interest rate.
Speaker 1: Once you make a payment last month, it's a different
Speaker 1: payment the next one between the principle in the in
Speaker 1: the in the in the the interest. Each month the
Speaker 1: payment is the same, but the balance is I had
Speaker 1: to figure that out. Like eleven years old. He was
Speaker 1: setting Yeah, he was setting me up. So my dad
Speaker 1: had some great ideas, some of them should have listened
Speaker 1: to a little more, especially with the girls and accountants
Speaker 1: and a bunch of others. We're gonna get that. They
Speaker 1: have a look at the dollar bill and his thing.
Speaker 1: We says, see that way, says what is this sayce
Speaker 1: in God? You trust? You know God? We trust. My
Speaker 1: dad says, Now if you trust anybody else, it says
Speaker 1: right here who to trust? He says, if you trust
Speaker 1: anybody other than God, you're in trouble. In trouble. And uh,
Speaker 1: later in life I found out, boy, he's really he's
Speaker 1: really right. You pay attention to this. You should have
Speaker 1: put some red marks beside that. I said by my
Speaker 1: mom all the time, I'll be mad something she said
Speaker 1: from teen years ago, like you know what she told
Speaker 1: me that. Yeah, so you're going on tour with Stevie
Speaker 1: and the Rolling Stone. Yeah, biggest tour in the world,
Speaker 1: tear gas limousines and we you know the other things
Speaker 1: that I'm sure, oh my God, can get into. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we don't. We don't have to a little more x rated.
Speaker 1: So you said at this point you don't know publishing.
Speaker 1: You don't know none of these songs. When did you
Speaker 1: start being like the soft after songwriter. Yeah, but that
Speaker 1: took a while, by the way. That came after the
Speaker 1: very white stuff, after you got the love, And I'll
Speaker 1: tell you exactly when it really flipped for me in
Speaker 1: a big way. You know where I could with things change.
Speaker 1: I wrote this tune call you made Me feel like dance? Okay,
Speaker 1: you make me feel like and won won the Grammy
Speaker 1: Song of the Year. Yeah we we No. Well, here's
Speaker 1: what's bad. My name ain't on the song nowhere, and
Speaker 1: I got no credit. I got completely screwed. Should have
Speaker 1: been millions of dollars. I got nothing. And not only
Speaker 1: did I write the song at home and bring it in,
Speaker 1: the producer did me in, by the way. And I
Speaker 1: mean I thought he was my boy because I had
Speaker 1: my name on the sign to bring me fresh cut
Speaker 1: watermelon juice every day, and he just did me in
Speaker 1: big time to me, And not only did I write
Speaker 1: the song at home, but I mean, i's me playing
Speaker 1: on the record. I put the band together, so there's
Speaker 1: no question of what happened everybody. I wrote it and yeah,
Speaker 1: put the band in it because all the producers, Yeah,
Speaker 1: pretty much. And so the good news to that is
Speaker 1: that's like me being a basketball player winning and winning
Speaker 1: the series and I ain't got no deal. I wouldn't
Speaker 1: sign anybody. So Clide Davis like this song I had
Speaker 1: called Jack and Jill, which I had also given to
Speaker 1: the same guy who stolen song. Yeah, that's that's the thing.
Speaker 1: Not to cut you off, but in this business, right
Speaker 1: when you when you when you link in with somebody
Speaker 1: and you believe that there you're in two things, you
Speaker 1: kind of give them whatever you you're the best of
Speaker 1: the best of you. So like you said, he had
Speaker 1: already stolen one, but you were giving him another. Well,
Speaker 1: I'd already given him that at the same time before.
Speaker 1: So this is part of the bat. I don't think
Speaker 1: I gave him the second one after Okay, okay, no, no,
Speaker 1: because something we got some people do and that's why
Speaker 1: I wanted to. I wanted to say that. Yeah, And
Speaker 1: so when Clive Davis got wind of it, I think
Speaker 1: I was like twenty one or two years old. He says,
Speaker 1: get me this ray Pocket guy here. He got a
Speaker 1: little studio in his house. You know, he's got all
Speaker 1: this stuff going on. He's written these songs. Just bring
Speaker 1: him to me. So I got to him. And what
Speaker 1: was nice about it. I'm like an athlete, not who
Speaker 1: don't hand no deal. I'm I'm out in the street.
Speaker 1: Are So, I'm my first deal was like somebody else's
Speaker 1: second record deal. He's like, he's already proved himself. He
Speaker 1: did this, this and this, and we're gonna do this.
Speaker 1: He said, don't worry about the other guy. He says,
Speaker 1: we don't even call him to tell him he ain't
Speaker 1: got the other song to more. He says, I'll do that.
Speaker 1: He says, I'm your divorce attorney. He says, I'll take
Speaker 1: care of all that. He's all I want you to
Speaker 1: do is cut jack and jail for me. He said,
Speaker 1: you were about the music. I got the rest of it.
Speaker 1: And he did, and we've cut like I just went
Speaker 1: to a ninety of birthday party a month ago. And
Speaker 1: he's a wonderful guy. Aretha Franklin says, the wonderful guy.
Speaker 1: He is a wonderful guy in the music business. He's
Speaker 1: the guy. Yeah you've heard that before probably, but he's
Speaker 1: he's a mazing yeah. Okay there, Yeah, he's the man.
Speaker 1: So he's he's a really good guy and he took
Speaker 1: good care of me and the rest is history after that.
Speaker 1: So then you got the money. Yeah, you got the
Speaker 1: right lawyer, right, stuff going on and around, So you
Speaker 1: got it. Okay, that's a big change for me because uh,
Speaker 1: and we're skipping over this, so let's not. But when
Speaker 1: I got to l A, I became one of the
Speaker 1: top session guys. So what you got the pictures I'm
Speaker 1: making just playing the guitar, not writing songs two d
Speaker 1: a year in Yeah. Uh, A lot of people that's
Speaker 1: that's gonna be tuning in may not even know what
Speaker 1: a session player is computer exactly. But I'm the guy
Speaker 1: who's playing on Seals and Cross, Tom Jones, Ingleberd Hunter
Speaker 1: and the carpenters and guitar and all this stuff and
Speaker 1: then then more and so for just playing the guitar
Speaker 1: right in those days, I'm making like two hundred plus ran.
Speaker 1: To give you some idea what it is. You could
Speaker 1: buy a house in Trusdale for three fifty and I'm
Speaker 1: making two hundreds and the houses is crazy. Okay, so
Speaker 1: you got to cut a picture in your mind. If
Speaker 1: I work for two years about that's how much money
Speaker 1: that was back in It's like millions, you know, over
Speaker 1: a million dollars just playing the guitar and nobody even
Speaker 1: knows who I am. I anathing it. So I did that,
Speaker 1: and the big flip came. And I'll give you the numbers.
Speaker 1: When I turned twenty three, that's the first time I
Speaker 1: hit over a million. But I went to like two
Speaker 1: point two million a year, and that was a lot,
Speaker 1: a lot of money back there. Yeah, and this in
Speaker 1: the seventies, Oh my god. So since it's a money show,
Speaker 1: it's important to say that because if I knew what
Speaker 1: I knew now, I would have kept all the real
Speaker 1: to state about all the stuff. But I didn't know
Speaker 1: that much about stock. I should have been invested in that.
Speaker 1: I could be worth a billion dollars. I could see
Speaker 1: the billion easy from then to now, but I didn't
Speaker 1: know what I was doing. I'm buying cars and have
Speaker 1: a good but I could have done the living too.
Speaker 1: It's still done other stuff. I just didn't know about it.
Speaker 1: I come from Detroit, the inter city. Nobody in my
Speaker 1: family even knew what a mortgage was, but you know
Speaker 1: sort of back then. Yeah, yeah, so you learned a
Speaker 1: lot of stuff. Then you look back at the money
Speaker 1: and go. But I thought, that's a little bit of it.
Speaker 1: That was a lot of money. I could have bought
Speaker 1: the whole area. If I came to the valley, I
Speaker 1: could have bought the whole block for that. Back then
Speaker 1: your houses were like valley. Yeah. Yeah, that is amazing,
Speaker 1: And that's the that's one thing I learned. It's true. Uh,
Speaker 1: I regret every piece of real estate, and so I
Speaker 1: regret just about a couple of just about every stock
Speaker 1: I've ever sold. Would have held on everything. I wish
Speaker 1: I would have held on everything. I could have been
Speaker 1: super rich just holding on everything. Yeah, every time, I
Speaker 1: thought every time I sold the property for three or
Speaker 1: four times. But the one I bought in the next
Speaker 1: near Lamont Dog, I think we paid me and my
Speaker 1: best friend on We bought it when we were teenagers
Speaker 1: for like a hundred and five grands. Dusty Springfield's house,
Speaker 1: the Singer which we bought her house man. We sold
Speaker 1: that house for four hundred thirty grand we thought we robbed. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we call people three four million maybe more, maybe more,
Speaker 1: you know, And so I wish I kept every house,
Speaker 1: you know. And so when you look at it now,
Speaker 1: you said, man, I paid this, and you think I
Speaker 1: paid a little bit too much. I mean, they really
Speaker 1: bait me over a little bit later. Man, that's that's
Speaker 1: It's gonna be chump change. You know. It's just just
Speaker 1: just the way the things. People told me that in
Speaker 1: the day. But I mean I didn't really see it,
Speaker 1: you know, to me. I mean I looked at the
Speaker 1: house on Sunset Plants and Drive. It was forty five ground.
Speaker 1: They ain't paying on forty five graph in the house?
Speaker 1: Are you crazy? Now? You play for the parking space,
Speaker 1: you had one of those sitting exactly. That's what I'm saying,
Speaker 1: you know. I think I think that's also in our
Speaker 1: in our community and amongst our people, with everything that's
Speaker 1: going on, with everything that we go through in life.
Speaker 1: I think a lot of the younger guys, younger than
Speaker 1: even us, they don't even see that far. They don't
Speaker 1: see reaching sixty five, reaching seventy years old, still being
Speaker 1: in good shape, still moving around, still living your life
Speaker 1: good at like I don't know what's going on tomorrow. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so I'm gonna go ahead and get this. Yeah, yeah
Speaker 1: do that's not yeah right, which, like you said, you
Speaker 1: can do that, and still you can. You can you
Speaker 1: can put the money up, set yourself up, and still live.
Speaker 1: They still live. Yeah, absolutely, Because I think guys start
Speaker 1: to think that they you know, they're gonna take away
Speaker 1: from how much fun. It's not gonna take away from
Speaker 1: how much fun you got. And then at the same time,
Speaker 1: nobody needs thirteen of the same car. Either. These guys
Speaker 1: go out by thirteen show I thought I used to think.
Speaker 1: I used to think I needed four or five cars.
Speaker 1: I had them. You know what I'm saying. I'm reading
Speaker 1: about guys who buy third They got way more than
Speaker 1: four or five cars, but they got thirteen of the
Speaker 1: same car. I'd be like, why did you buy thirteen?
Speaker 1: It's crazy. I was talking. I'm talking to uh, your nephew,
Speaker 1: talking to Jordan, because he's, you know, he wants to
Speaker 1: get a car. He's talking about I'm gonna hook him
Speaker 1: up with my guys, you know, to get in my car.
Speaker 1: And I'm like, well, what do you want to do.
Speaker 1: He's like, well, you know, I just want to get
Speaker 1: something nice. You know. I pull up and I said,
Speaker 1: I said, no, I said, I get it, I said,
Speaker 1: I said, but think about this, all the cool things
Speaker 1: you've been able to do up until this point, you've
Speaker 1: done without a car. You've done without this crazy thousand
Speaker 1: dollar overhead. Like when you walk into a place, your
Speaker 1: car don't go with you. Now, I said, you pull
Speaker 1: up in an uber, walk in there, and what happens?
Speaker 1: He said, I'm lit. I said, so let's just we
Speaker 1: gotta go crazy. Yeah, you know what I'm saying. Get
Speaker 1: something cool, get something nice. I said, you're you're the bar.
Speaker 1: It's you. They want to see you. So so I
Speaker 1: get I have one car. Now I've graduated to a point.
Speaker 1: I've elevated my nice car. It's nice, don't get wrong,
Speaker 1: but it's one. I mean I come from. I come
Speaker 1: from landing in the back of the hatchback of a picture. Yeah, okay,
Speaker 1: that's where I come from. Yeah, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: You know, not getting the new pair of shoes until
Speaker 1: my foot was out of the shop, right, Yeah, you
Speaker 1: understanding that. So certain parts, certain things for me are triggers. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you're making that for lost time. I'm making for lost time, baby.
Speaker 1: But let me tell you one car care what it was.
Speaker 1: One car is fine, And I'm gonna give you an example.
Speaker 1: This is what I tell my kids. Like back in
Speaker 1: the day. See, I lived in Beverly Hills. I think
Speaker 1: I was twenty four and I had and I was
Speaker 1: twenty four. I know it was because I had a
Speaker 1: Rose Royce. I had a Rose Royce at a Porsche,
Speaker 1: at a g Hat, a Honda or something like that.
Speaker 1: And I'll never forget I made when I made the
Speaker 1: big money, I wanted to buy a Rose Royce convertible
Speaker 1: because Slide the family stone Head one on his album.
Speaker 1: Because I just gotta have Rose rog convertible. I gotta
Speaker 1: be gram Street and Rose RoCE convery. But it was
Speaker 1: important to me. Yeah, I'm like, what was so important
Speaker 1: about that? But it was important at the time I had.
Speaker 1: It was the driver, it was it was something give
Speaker 1: me as Corniche convertible. It's definitely a foss And I'll
Speaker 1: never get the car at that time was a hundred
Speaker 1: and seven thousand dollars. Now, so I made that first money.
Speaker 1: Jack and Joe the album Radio albums Head and I
Speaker 1: first made I first passed a million for the first time.
Speaker 1: I got the money, not my accounting lawyer. They're all
Speaker 1: giving it up. You gotta pay you all your bills,
Speaker 1: pay your manager, pay your account pay your lawyer, pay
Speaker 1: all the bills, pay your taxes, gotta pay your taxes.
Speaker 1: I paying all my taxes, and I had enough money left.
Speaker 1: I got my mom and dad a house, and I
Speaker 1: upgraded my house, and and I had this money left.
Speaker 1: And I'll never forget my lawyers said, man, he said,
Speaker 1: you like Slice so much. I got this whole catalog
Speaker 1: you can buy for four and fifty thousand dollars. I
Speaker 1: was like, what am I doing with them old songs?
Speaker 1: You know, just being uneducated. I'm like, you know, yeah,
Speaker 1: I know what. I'm dance to the music every day.
Speaker 1: People with a my heart, my heart, And so I said, well,
Speaker 1: I said, I gotta get my mama house. That's that.
Speaker 1: And then there was so much of money left. I
Speaker 1: wasn't thinking of finance. I just said, man, I gotta
Speaker 1: get my rolls Royce. Don't y'all mess up the budget
Speaker 1: with my rolls Royce, and I'll never get my lawyer
Speaker 1: look at me, says, well, can't you use these songs.
Speaker 1: He says, you know, people, we were both young. He said,
Speaker 1: you know people are buying published and now they you know,
Speaker 1: maybe they some value to but it was so early
Speaker 1: nobody was doing that yet. You know, I said, man,
Speaker 1: skip that pubs and at Rose Royce convertable right, and
Speaker 1: and so in hindsight now I'm now we're gonna go
Speaker 1: in hindsight, which is always okay. So in hindsight, Frankie
Speaker 1: Cronker WBLS was the biggest station in New York. I
Speaker 1: passed him on Las Airelea. He took my music off
Speaker 1: the air for a year and a half in New York.
Speaker 1: So I got no airplane in New York. Now, luckily
Speaker 1: for me, I was selling so many records. I was
Speaker 1: gonna go and planet anyway. But I know I felt
Speaker 1: that missing. The New York said, what was that million?
Speaker 1: I don't know how many million to that lost back?
Speaker 1: I mean seventies dollars a million plus because I had
Speaker 1: no air in New York for a year and a half.
Speaker 1: Because he was pill Don Cornea saw me driving. I
Speaker 1: passed him, and they'll give you that look like so
Speaker 1: the Rolls Royce is making him feel this way Oh,
Speaker 1: they liked me until they saw me rolling down the
Speaker 1: Rose Royce and they're in the Rose Royce. They looked
Speaker 1: at me like this. When I went frank Frankie Crocker,
Speaker 1: who I thought we were boys. I mean, I played
Speaker 1: his concerce for for free and you know all the
Speaker 1: other stuff. Man, When he saw me pulling in the road,
Speaker 1: he looked at me like this. I knew I was
Speaker 1: in trouble when he when he looked at me like this,
Speaker 1: he folded his arms at the red light and like that,
Speaker 1: you know, and just the way he looked at me,
Speaker 1: I knew I was in trouble. You know. I was like,
Speaker 1: I know, if Clive Davis called me and said, what
Speaker 1: did you do? Bang his wife or something? He said,
Speaker 1: I can't buy your music on the radio. He said,
Speaker 1: they won't even take the money to put you on
Speaker 1: the radio. He said, what did you do? And I went,
Speaker 1: I know, I know what happened. I saw it in
Speaker 1: his eyes when I drove, you know, and I'm like happy,
Speaker 1: like you're proud of me on having no No, that's
Speaker 1: the other that's the other side of it. So now
Speaker 1: let's let's talk about that. Like when just tell people
Speaker 1: don't buy to me cars. How much did the rules
Speaker 1: first cost? It did not cost me a hundred and
Speaker 1: seven thousand dollars. First of all, I didn't buy a
Speaker 1: Slack Catalog that's worth a hundred million dollars just that.
Speaker 1: So the car cost me over a hundred million dollars. Okay,
Speaker 1: it's cost So you gotta think, you know, and I'm
Speaker 1: trying to teach my kids, you know, give him take.
Speaker 1: I did really well. My best investment in all is
Speaker 1: that little electric car that came out with Tesla. You know,
Speaker 1: I heard I heard about it that on the streets. Man.
Speaker 1: I had a whole bunch of Tesla stock. Okay. And
Speaker 1: and when did you do that? Oh? I did in
Speaker 1: two thousand twelve a lot of it, like over a
Speaker 1: hundred thousand ships. Okay. So I took so some shares
Speaker 1: when it was on its way up because I wanted
Speaker 1: to build a studio. I want to build a house
Speaker 1: next to my house, put a nice studio, and all
Speaker 1: this to cast a couple of million dollars. That cup
Speaker 1: a million dollars of what I sold just to building
Speaker 1: that costs me like million, right, So you look at
Speaker 1: it back and go if he just waited, not build
Speaker 1: that put the bill there. Yeah, so everybody looks at
Speaker 1: the different that's really nice, man, increase the value your house,
Speaker 1: but not twenty five millions and didn't increase the vout
Speaker 1: my house. But that costs that. You know, I sold
Speaker 1: something I did carefully. I didn't keep all of it.
Speaker 1: I sold it on the way I made it. You
Speaker 1: made it reasonable, but it had I held just that
Speaker 1: people just that one portion another twenty five million. Now,
Speaker 1: so I tell my sons, I said, it's not that
Speaker 1: you And by the way, you can't count everything like that.
Speaker 1: Like you said, you get your one. You gotta have
Speaker 1: some fun you're working for. You gotta have something to
Speaker 1: motivate you to go. He's a nice place. You gotta
Speaker 1: have something to motivate you to go to the next step.
Speaker 1: But just know that some of those extra little things.
Speaker 1: Did you think it ain't a big they only spent
Speaker 1: three hundred grand that right, you know what exactly it
Speaker 1: could cost you. I mean I got examples of that
Speaker 1: all day long. Cause you're a lot more than that.
Speaker 1: You think you can't to do this, then that went
Speaker 1: there because even crazier part right, just aside from just
Speaker 1: like the money stuff right and its success and in
Speaker 1: the waves of different times, right of your successes from
Speaker 1: the Motown days, Very White to Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye,
Speaker 1: all those things. The way I found out about you
Speaker 1: was missed a Telephone Manah right like you are? You
Speaker 1: are generations of R and B music. No, it's a
Speaker 1: wealth of catalog and a wealth of stories and amazing things.
Speaker 1: And I remember the first time I heard that record,
Speaker 1: and I remember what the video looked like, and and
Speaker 1: they on the street and the guys got the little
Speaker 1: telephones and they man, you know what I'm saying, Like
Speaker 1: I remember it vividly. For me, that's a screw up.
Speaker 1: What yeah? I mean? Telephone Man is a song called
Speaker 1: a Woman's Love just like you did? Remember the hit
Speaker 1: on hand and one of these loves number one. I
Speaker 1: don't know that. I don't know. You better listen to
Speaker 1: that because that was a huge record. And I didn't
Speaker 1: like what I did with Telephone Man, which I wrote first,
Speaker 1: so I changed the move. The music is almost the same.
Speaker 1: I changed the words and wrote a Woman's Loves just
Speaker 1: like You with number one record pop everything I just smashed.
Speaker 1: Then the new edition heard Telephone man, which I should
Speaker 1: have recorded myself, because you know, if you're the star
Speaker 1: and you wrote it, it's much better than just giveing
Speaker 1: it to somebody else. Okay, so what I do that for?
Speaker 1: So the new edition did it, and I was nervous
Speaker 1: and scared, and even when I gave it to the
Speaker 1: Joe Buzzby the record come, I got slid under the
Speaker 1: door and ran out, you know, and he's like, this
Speaker 1: is the second thing I said it is. I'm like,
Speaker 1: oh my god, You're like, I just missed. I misread
Speaker 1: that song. I didn't think that was gonna be any
Speaker 1: didn't really think anything I told. I told the guys
Speaker 1: that too. I said, man, you guys really delivered this
Speaker 1: one because I just didn't think it was gonna do
Speaker 1: you know, we're gonna do that, you know, And it
Speaker 1: was a smash supersmanish that mistake. It's like, well, what
Speaker 1: did not? That could have been another one? Another notch
Speaker 1: in my bilt? You know what am I doing? Do
Speaker 1: you think? Though? Okay? So here we go with that
Speaker 1: from from the artist side and the writer's side, because
Speaker 1: you know, Tank is fully immersed on both. But with me,
Speaker 1: I just you know, I learned early. I forgot. I
Speaker 1: don't know who even told me this, but they told me,
Speaker 1: don't fall in love with the records as a songwriter. Right.
Speaker 1: They were like, because you know your feelings that get hurt,
Speaker 1: your feelings that get hurt in this thing by you know,
Speaker 1: you're giving away your children in a sense because you
Speaker 1: know this this comes from us, right, and so for you,
Speaker 1: how how was that process at times? Thinking? You know,
Speaker 1: I see you had a piece of it where you're like, well,
Speaker 1: I should have kept it. But do you think you
Speaker 1: at this point you're grown? Man? You probably what thirty
Speaker 1: years old when you were man or somewhere in there?
Speaker 1: Are you still nineteen? Then? Yes, it was I wrote Jack,
Speaker 1: when I wrote Jack and Jill another song, So this
Speaker 1: record don't come out for a minute, don't come out
Speaker 1: for almost ten years. They don't come out till they're
Speaker 1: almost a team. And there the age I was when
Speaker 1: I wrote it, Mr telephone man, it's ten years old
Speaker 1: when it comes out. Yes, oh yes, and you would
Speaker 1: have been you would have been a kid singing it too,
Speaker 1: because that's that was my question. Oh yeah, yeah, I
Speaker 1: would have been the kids singing it. Yeah. We gotta
Speaker 1: go in the computer and see if there's some ten
Speaker 1: year old records. It would have been more relevant if
Speaker 1: I sang it, because cell phones were coming out when
Speaker 1: they sing it, and it wasn't no party lines and stuff.
Speaker 1: You know, some of the stuff in the song didn't
Speaker 1: even exist. Sort of later, all that party line stuff
Speaker 1: your your MoMA take. But that's the seventies. When you
Speaker 1: pick up the phone and the neighbor down the street
Speaker 1: is on the same line you on, that's what that means.
Speaker 1: Just so you don't know, we say this ain't no,
Speaker 1: I ain't got no already lined the party line is.
Speaker 1: In the old days, you didn't get your own phone line.
Speaker 1: You shared it with the two or three neighbors. Now. Man,
Speaker 1: when I was a kid, I just thought that was
Speaker 1: something that means it's going up, he's going out, it's
Speaker 1: going up. But that's not what it means. There was
Speaker 1: really a party line where you pick up the phone
Speaker 1: and you be cussing out your neighbor like, hey man,
Speaker 1: you've been on the phone for a long time. I
Speaker 1: gotta call my friend, I gotta call you, gotta get
Speaker 1: off the phone. And so nobody had their own lines
Speaker 1: back in the early late sixties and early seventies when
Speaker 1: we grew up. So when you hit party and everybody
Speaker 1: knows what I'm talking about, who's older. So there's things
Speaker 1: in that song were not a whole thing though. They
Speaker 1: ain't no miss the telephone. They ain't no telephone no
Speaker 1: more so not the whole song is different, you know.
Speaker 1: But I mean they heard now I'm play I'm gonna
Speaker 1: play that song for my kids later. Yeah, and there's
Speaker 1: a kid on the m c A named Junior Tucker
Speaker 1: who released it first. So the new edition heard Junior
Speaker 1: Tucker sothing and he sounds almost like the new edition.
Speaker 1: They got that kind of frill scareboys. And they heard
Speaker 1: that and when they when they met me, they said, look,
Speaker 1: we want you to cut it this. I'll give them
Speaker 1: credit for They said, don't update it, don't make it
Speaker 1: sound like the new stuff. Cut it like you would
Speaker 1: have cut it ten years. We sold the record twice,
Speaker 1: so yeah, dude, they said, cut it like you would have.
Speaker 1: In fact, they wanted to track from another kid that
Speaker 1: can we had that. I'll make it better than that,
Speaker 1: they said. We don't make it too better, just make
Speaker 1: we want that old We need that feel, so we
Speaker 1: get that old field. We got our steps and everything
Speaker 1: we do to it, and we flew a jet down
Speaker 1: to the Bahamas and saw them performing and all that
Speaker 1: kind of stuff hung out and so I cut it
Speaker 1: just like I would have cut it if I was there.
Speaker 1: And the song was the song the nine years old
Speaker 1: for it came out, they released it. I'm stuck now.
Speaker 1: This is this is this is amazing because the other
Speaker 1: thing is that we haven't even gotten gotten to get
Speaker 1: to it. So when I was in preschool, there's a
Speaker 1: picture of me and I have a shirt on that
Speaker 1: says I ain't fraid of know. I have a mouthful
Speaker 1: of silver teeth and a T shirt that said I
Speaker 1: Ain't afraid of no ghost and the only And that's
Speaker 1: the thing, like for black people, right, for black people especially,
Speaker 1: Like Yes, Ghostbusters is a great movie. It's about your records.
Speaker 1: It is about your song. And I'm sure you've talked
Speaker 1: about this song a trillion times over and over, but
Speaker 1: while you're here, I just want to say, I'm sure
Speaker 1: he wants to say thank you, thank you for that record.
Speaker 1: That record was, that record was my childhood with that
Speaker 1: record almost didn't happen at all. And why is that?
Speaker 1: Because I didn't think that was any kind of music
Speaker 1: that I should be cutting. Really yeah, and it wasn't
Speaker 1: supposed to be no record that the guy, the guy
Speaker 1: that no, this is better than that, the guy who
Speaker 1: worked with me on Barry White. When I said I
Speaker 1: did the songs and I didn't get the publish was
Speaker 1: Barry White was always published by Aaron Schroder Music. And
Speaker 1: the guy who was there was Gary Lemil, who's this
Speaker 1: this contact person. So we worked together in the very
Speaker 1: white days, and then I started dating years later, I
Speaker 1: started dating back to this kind of stuff, dating his secretary,
Speaker 1: Gary Secord. So that hooked me and Gary back up,
Speaker 1: and he thought I was the right guy to write
Speaker 1: a song for this film. But it wasn't gonna be
Speaker 1: a song, which because they need like a twenty seconds
Speaker 1: or something over the library scene, and the guy wanted
Speaker 1: to chant Ghostbusters in it. So he let me. They
Speaker 1: let me see the film and I went okay. So
Speaker 1: I met with the director and the director started telling
Speaker 1: about how he wanted to be need to go and
Speaker 1: all that kind of like that name what they might be.
Speaker 1: You know, it's like a rapper. That ain't what I do.
Speaker 1: That's just not and my sons are always that ain't
Speaker 1: what they're doing. I tell me you better watch that.
Speaker 1: That ain't what you right do it, you know, and
Speaker 1: nothing defines that for me better and Ghostbusters. I mean,
Speaker 1: if you listen to my whole catalog and music and
Speaker 1: you were familiar with it, you say, what, he's never
Speaker 1: gonna write that. I mean, that has nothing to do
Speaker 1: with that. Ain't his groove. That ain't where he comes from.
Speaker 1: He's funking that. Just think that. And so you know,
Speaker 1: the director told me what he wanted, and then they
Speaker 1: threw the what I'll call a nice curveball. It's it's
Speaker 1: only gonna be twenty seconds. He has write us a
Speaker 1: minute of music, and you've got three days, and if
Speaker 1: we don't like it, you keep the fifth. We're gonna
Speaker 1: get a fifty grand, you know. Now that's in nineteen
Speaker 1: eighty three or eighty four. That's a lot of money.
Speaker 1: Fifty grand give me that, but three about this fifty grand?
Speaker 1: Then that's like four grand. Now you know, you're gonna
Speaker 1: get some music for me in three days. Gonna get something,
Speaker 1: But I don't care what it's gonna get something. So
Speaker 1: I listened to what the director said, and I came
Speaker 1: up with a piece of music. I didn't think it
Speaker 1: was bad. I didn't think it was nothing right at
Speaker 1: home about. But I don't think it was bad, you know.
Speaker 1: And uh, the voices all that, I ain't for you
Speaker 1: to go to you So that was supposed to be
Speaker 1: the background voices and all that stuff. The director said,
Speaker 1: I like the way you're saying it. I said, yeah,
Speaker 1: but what am I saying that? There's nothing on it.
Speaker 1: I'm just saying I ain't for you to go. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna get some girls this thing that. He was like, no,
Speaker 1: I don't want a girls singing that. I like the
Speaker 1: way you're saying it, you know. And then he was
Speaker 1: like he had already said at the meeting, the music
Speaker 1: is not that important, but the movies coming out in
Speaker 1: a few weeks, we're in a hurry. Just give us
Speaker 1: twenty seconds of music and things. I only cut. I
Speaker 1: only cut like a minute of it. I mean there's
Speaker 1: there's really I cut one verse in one chorus. That's it.
Speaker 1: And so they heard that, and then he directed liked
Speaker 1: it a little bits, and so my lawyer drew up
Speaker 1: a big contract looked like the book, and he said, man,
Speaker 1: did you read what I wrote over the weekend. I said,
Speaker 1: I don't read more than one page, just things like
Speaker 1: twenty pages. What are you talking about long? And he says,
Speaker 1: if anything happens other than them using it in the
Speaker 1: twenty seconds, it's gonna be good. That's what he says.
Speaker 1: It's gonna be good. But the first thing that happened
Speaker 1: is the director called Bank says, man, uh, can you
Speaker 1: make it longer? He says, maybe we should make a record.
Speaker 1: I'm like record, They can't make no record to me
Speaker 1: singing about the team and to it go something. I'm
Speaker 1: the guy in the ladies. Man, what are you talking about?
Speaker 1: I mean, what are you talking about? Yeah, I'm the man?
Speaker 1: What are you doing? I don't do that feeling that.
Speaker 1: I'm not feeling that, you know. So we're tossing this
Speaker 1: around and Clive Davis didn't really like it in the beginning,
Speaker 1: and so we're tossing all this stuff around, and so
Speaker 1: finally I come up with idea. I said, well, you know,
Speaker 1: you got Dan Accord them guys, And I said, maybe
Speaker 1: if you get the Saturday Night Live guys in the video,
Speaker 1: we can curve it, make it go somewhere else. And
Speaker 1: he took that and put everybody. He put everybody in
Speaker 1: the video, you know, and I was like, man, this
Speaker 1: is this is crazy. You know. Then all of a
Speaker 1: sudden he says, you know, we should make it a record,
Speaker 1: you know record. I really got nervous, give me like
Speaker 1: longer and yeah, that's standing there. You know. So when
Speaker 1: I was done, and we were really nervous, right, the
Speaker 1: record company was nervous. I was nervous, And I'm playing
Speaker 1: this song back. Who doesn't sound like anything I've ever
Speaker 1: done before, I mean nothing. I'm like playing the song
Speaker 1: day like, Man, I don't know if they're gonna think
Speaker 1: I'm gonna sell out or you know, you know. And
Speaker 1: when most people heard it from the beginning, they were like,
Speaker 1: they ain't know Ray Pocket Jr. They ain't what that
Speaker 1: ain't what we used to hear it. You know, that
Speaker 1: ain't it. And that song came out and just went
Speaker 1: I mean, I'll never forget. It's the only record I
Speaker 1: had in my life. Would a head of promotion called
Speaker 1: me five days after the record came out and he says,
Speaker 1: I'm done with your record. I've closed it out. It's
Speaker 1: on every station five days, five days. Something strange. He
Speaker 1: had all the P one stations, He had all the stations,
Speaker 1: anything that was available, anything it was available, everything, anything
Speaker 1: that was available to play it on was done in
Speaker 1: five days. He says, I'm done with your record. He said,
Speaker 1: we'll just my guys will just monitor. He said, but
Speaker 1: it's closed out, and I went, what does that mean?
Speaker 1: He says, there are no more places to play your music?
Speaker 1: And he just went like through the roof and the
Speaker 1: first thing we knew where it was big super big.
Speaker 1: Not only was that, but Clive called me up. He says, Man,
Speaker 1: we weren't going to release the record till the movie
Speaker 1: comes out, like Overseas, which takes nine months. He says,
Speaker 1: we've exported for a half night records in the first
Speaker 1: couple of weeks. He says, they don't know what you're
Speaker 1: saying over there. He says, why are they buying the record?
Speaker 1: They don't know what you're saying. I said, heck if
Speaker 1: I know. If I knew that I cut some are
Speaker 1: something four and a half, that tagline, yeah, that and
Speaker 1: that tagline. What was interesting. What was interested is I'm
Speaker 1: like a kid who does his homework late over the
Speaker 1: weekend Sunday night. Now you got turned in Monday morning.
Speaker 1: I had the music because he told me what he
Speaker 1: wanted for the music. But the the part that was
Speaker 1: gonna be in genius that I hadn't figured out yet
Speaker 1: was the hard part. How do you put go the
Speaker 1: word Ghostbusters to a song? It was impossible. It didn't
Speaker 1: sing right about how I sang it. No matter what
Speaker 1: I did, it sounded terrible. You couldn't sing it. And
Speaker 1: that's why that's why nobody else had it. Nobody else
Speaker 1: had it either, because he hired Lindsay Buggy, he had
Speaker 1: a hold bunch of famous people to do it before me.
Speaker 1: I was the first call. They've been working on this
Speaker 1: for a whole year, and they spent a fortune, and
Speaker 1: he hated every song. But I looked at it, and
Speaker 1: I'll never forget what it occurred to me. I knew
Speaker 1: right away to me, the Ghostbusters were soldiers, so the
Speaker 1: music had to be stiff. It had to be military time,
Speaker 1: so I knew it was military sound on then I
Speaker 1: saw a commercial on TV about I think it was
Speaker 1: rotary and one of these kind of things where they
Speaker 1: have the guy's insect guys or whatever. Just great, and
Speaker 1: the part of the Ghostbusters movie had the phone number. Brother,
Speaker 1: I said, that's it. I gotta go goldmer pound on
Speaker 1: these bad boys sound off too, So it's a up
Speaker 1: to three fourths on who you're gonna called about? You know,
Speaker 1: like a sound off. Even in the back, I go,
Speaker 1: I can't hear you louder, you know. So it's a
Speaker 1: military song. So when bands playing in the bar and
Speaker 1: they try to get cool, it's not a cool song.
Speaker 1: It's got to be a military song. It's gotta be stiff,
Speaker 1: and it's gotta be corny, and so you give it
Speaker 1: that military feel. And then I figured out I can
Speaker 1: never say the words ghostbusters and singing. I gotta say
Speaker 1: who are you gonna come? And let the crowd delivered ghostbusters. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And that's all for us as kids. That's exactly if
Speaker 1: you couldn't wait to yea yeah yeah. But all that's
Speaker 1: by accident, you know. So then it came out and
Speaker 1: so that record, now, that is my style. That defines me. Now,
Speaker 1: you know, whether I like it or not don't matter.
Speaker 1: That's it, you know. And they all the kids were happy,
Speaker 1: and the kids now are still happy. By the way.
Speaker 1: You get some kids that are seven years old now
Speaker 1: and and you can have a bunch of us rock
Speaker 1: stars or whatever, older guys. They'd be looking like me
Speaker 1: and Stevie And then you say rape Parker. Did you
Speaker 1: say that's the guy that did? Who you gonna call?
Speaker 1: All that time? They wanted to come hug you, hug
Speaker 1: your legs down here, take a picture into you like
Speaker 1: can we just watched We just watched the New Ones.
Speaker 1: And so the kids hear that song and it's just
Speaker 1: something in there. They just go crazy. I mean, it works,
Speaker 1: you know, And so that was that was the one.
Speaker 1: You know, who would have thought that was the one? Amazing? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I said that all the time. I never called him,
Speaker 1: And what's funny about that calling. I was only here
Speaker 1: to get the phone call and do all the rest
Speaker 1: of it because I was doing that song, Mr Telephone Man,
Speaker 1: because my parents were sick, so I was going I
Speaker 1: was staying in Detroit most of the time. I hadn't
Speaker 1: been in l A. I hadn't been in my studio,
Speaker 1: had been doing stuff. I'm thinking, Yeah, my career is over.
Speaker 1: I gotta take care of my mom and dad. And
Speaker 1: the good thing I saved my money. I'm gonna be okay.
Speaker 1: So I came out to l a just to do
Speaker 1: the new edition. And while I was doing a new
Speaker 1: edition across the Spot Street and Spargo, there was that
Speaker 1: black poster with the red they put in the red
Speaker 1: circle and like, the heck is that? Then my phone
Speaker 1: ring this garrety mail. Can you come down to Warner Brothers?
Speaker 1: And how and how old are you at this point?
Speaker 1: And You're saying to yourself, my career is old. Well, yeah,
Speaker 1: because my parents were sick and they're telling me to
Speaker 1: cut a new record. I ain't no item for no
Speaker 1: new records, ain't cutting no new anything. I'm going to
Speaker 1: stay with my mom. And they were like, yeah, go
Speaker 1: see your parents for the weekend, come back, come we
Speaker 1: in black folks, Wenna do that. I'm gonna stay. I
Speaker 1: want to stay with my parents. Yeah, this is this
Speaker 1: is it's two or three years. I'm gonna stay, you know.
Speaker 1: And so yeah, I'm thinking things might be a little
Speaker 1: over and and God's getting ready to get me the
Speaker 1: biggest blessing of all and two blessings at the same
Speaker 1: week or two weeks. First, you come out and cut
Speaker 1: the song in the new edition that you didn't like
Speaker 1: that you roam and the song and then already Ghostbusters
Speaker 1: the next weekend. I'm done. That was only two weeks.
Speaker 1: I worked all year those two man. Shout out to
Speaker 1: those two, shut up because those are amazing. Yeah. So
Speaker 1: when I come to l A, I had been here
Speaker 1: maybe six months. I meet you. I don't even know
Speaker 1: if you remember this. I'm gonna give your down Damon Thomas.
Speaker 1: At the time, he he doesn't even mention the Ghostbusters thing.
Speaker 1: He's like, yeah, you know this, he owns American Studios,
Speaker 1: right or Mayory I can studios Ray Yeah h they
Speaker 1: started you early with the raise everything he's putting every
Speaker 1: radio Mayor Ray can't. Yes. So and I was for
Speaker 1: me before he even said that anything about Ghostbusters. I'm
Speaker 1: eighteen years eighteen years old at the time, I didn't
Speaker 1: know of any black men owning studio. And I've been
Speaker 1: a kid of music and love music, and I just
Speaker 1: never knew of anyone. I've been to your studio and
Speaker 1: I'm like, wait, he owns he owns the studio? This right,
Speaker 1: This is what you're thinking when you're eighteen years old.
Speaker 1: And then he's like, oh yeah, and it's way Parker Jr.
Speaker 1: I'm like, wait, Parker, wait, goals bust. So when we
Speaker 1: had Damon's house and we start talking and I think
Speaker 1: I maybe I think that. I think I played you
Speaker 1: what became Tyrese's record I Like Them Girls, which was
Speaker 1: the first Underdog record ever, and I played you the
Speaker 1: record and he would like, I like you. I remember this,
Speaker 1: I'll never forget you. Were like like, I like you, man,
Speaker 1: good head on your shoulders. Good look kid, You're gonna
Speaker 1: make some money in this game. He's like, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: give you some advice. I'm thinking you're about to just
Speaker 1: start running on running down. Somebody said you like, get
Speaker 1: it a sector me and I was like, I told
Speaker 1: David the same thing. I'm thinking that. I'm thinking in
Speaker 1: my I can't even spell this sect is he talking about?
Speaker 1: But if breaking Parker JIU isn't here telling me that,
Speaker 1: I need to say, I'm gonna find out what it
Speaker 1: was set. And then you told me the story which
Speaker 1: is long and we won't go into that, but you
Speaker 1: told me a story about how getting INVOSECTI. He saved
Speaker 1: you millions of dollars. Yeah, and I did it too late.
Speaker 1: I should have done it a couple more years earlier.
Speaker 1: I would have been involved, man. And that's what you
Speaker 1: told me. I can look at him and see he's
Speaker 1: gonna get in trouble when it's younger. You can look
Speaker 1: at it. That's what I said, good looking guy, I
Speaker 1: can see where you hit it. I've been there. I
Speaker 1: just don't want to touch the Lord's work. I think
Speaker 1: if he meant for us to have a voalve to
Speaker 1: cut it on and off, he would have provided it.
Speaker 1: And I agree with you, but there's also people who
Speaker 1: made rubbers man. This is somebody who didn't know what
Speaker 1: I'm talking about, never heard of it. I agree with you,
Speaker 1: But he also meant for us to do a whole
Speaker 1: bunch of other things that would have prevented that too,
Speaker 1: that we didn't do. Think we're already cheating in the
Speaker 1: first place. I think you just gotta be responsible. You
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying. Your your hip, your hip game.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying. You gotta be responsible with
Speaker 1: your hips. You gotta get out of it. You gotta
Speaker 1: pull that piece out. Sometimes you're getting lost in the sauce.
Speaker 1: Man this and man, I know I know how many
Speaker 1: kids you got, five got I got to I was
Speaker 1: in six. But I'm down to hold on, hold on, hold,
Speaker 1: on segue, how do you go from six to four DNA?
Speaker 1: Thank you God for DNA A lot on your kid
Speaker 1: is not my kid, not my fun. People don't realize.
Speaker 1: Michael Jackson was talking about that early about sometimes what
Speaker 1: they try to do to you, the two extra kids
Speaker 1: on you. Yeah, yes, and back then you couldn't swab
Speaker 1: them out. I mean, you know you had to like
Speaker 1: take care of the kids for three years. How much
Speaker 1: that cost before you could before you Yes, yes, mama's baby,
Speaker 1: daddy's maybe three years, three years, three years because that's
Speaker 1: the DNA wasn't that developed yet. When first of all,
Speaker 1: I'm lucky to have DNA before then you just paid period.
Speaker 1: So whoever, whoever they just said, is the daddy, that's what.
Speaker 1: That's what. If you took a blood test and you
Speaker 1: were close, you would have if you were close, if
Speaker 1: you were close close, not nocent either, I'm talking about
Speaker 1: just if the real blood type was the same. You
Speaker 1: happen to be Black's right, Yeah, you happen to be
Speaker 1: the Only way you're gonna escape is if it's a
Speaker 1: Chinese kid comes out and you know, and in three years,
Speaker 1: how much you think you paid, Oh, hundreds of thousands
Speaker 1: of dollars. But first of all, you got the initial right,
Speaker 1: and you notice you don't, you're not it's not her lawyer,
Speaker 1: it's your son's lawyer. So since it's claimed to be
Speaker 1: your son, you have to pay for your lawyer, your accountant,
Speaker 1: his lawyer, his accountant. Of course he's in the cradle
Speaker 1: and she's constructing it. She's in charge of it. But
Speaker 1: you gotta pay for all four. So you're down a
Speaker 1: couple of hundred grand back in the early eighties. But
Speaker 1: that's before anything happens. Down a couple of rolls Royces.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, a couple of rolls Royce being
Speaker 1: because they weren't that they were cheaper than they were.
Speaker 1: That's two rolls royces. You're down four rolls royces before
Speaker 1: you get how much you gotta pay man four roys.
Speaker 1: And then one day you get a phone call that says, no,
Speaker 1: you don't get a phone call. You gotta wait a
Speaker 1: few years. Then you gotta say everybody's you gotta hire
Speaker 1: the lawyers again, because you gotta get her and the
Speaker 1: kid to go to the house bill and you take
Speaker 1: the tests that ain't free either. You gotta get that.
Speaker 1: So you gotta go back again. Man, I hope you're
Speaker 1: paying attention. Yeah, I'm not getting overseting. The Lord designed
Speaker 1: me a certain way. If I didn't get y'all, I
Speaker 1: didn't get one. He's now married and he's taking an
Speaker 1: oath to do right. I'm as long as he does row.
Speaker 1: But if you're on a straight narrow that means you
Speaker 1: won't be on TMZ and pull out kim piece of hood.
Speaker 1: But anything other than that. I told my kids, by
Speaker 1: the way, my two younger kids for me getting the reversal,
Speaker 1: because you put some up. Oh no, no, no, I
Speaker 1: just gotta reverse. No, you get a reversal, you can
Speaker 1: do you can go right back to it. You don't
Speaker 1: putting up for I put I put some up because
Speaker 1: I was scared. You know, I'm wanted my immortality thing.
Speaker 1: But I didn't use that. I just gotta be versa,
Speaker 1: got married right back to where I was. Yeah. So,
Speaker 1: so guys, you don't lose, You don't lose all your bullets.
Speaker 1: It's not over. I'm just talking about putting in suspend
Speaker 1: putting in suspended animation for a little one. Save yourself
Speaker 1: a hundred million dollars or whatever you're gonna lose and
Speaker 1: just take you be responsible, you know. So we got
Speaker 1: a part of this show. We got a part of
Speaker 1: this show. It's a very important part of this show.
Speaker 1: This is gonna be good because you didn't. You didn't
Speaker 1: gave us so many bars, so many bars that are
Speaker 1: attached to people, right and wet. We were able to
Speaker 1: speak to names and you know, and speak freely. I
Speaker 1: need you to give us we got okay, before before
Speaker 1: I tell you that the name of the show, the
Speaker 1: name of the name of the portion of the show
Speaker 1: it's called. I ain't saying no names. So the story
Speaker 1: can be either funny or fucked up or both. But
Speaker 1: you can't say the name of the person in gonna
Speaker 1: be trying to figure out a guilty party. Yeah, he's
Speaker 1: a lot of people. They're gonna know the guilty party.
Speaker 1: I mean the streets out what the streets. I got
Speaker 1: a problem with that. So give us get off, give
Speaker 1: us a good one, Give us give us one, give
Speaker 1: us one. Give us. You mean I got to create
Speaker 1: the story. You have to create. But I'm telling your story.
Speaker 1: But I can't say the name. Can't say any name.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, like, which one do we go here? Yeah? Well,
Speaker 1: I can think of it huge record executive, and she's
Speaker 1: not gonna say anything because she will be busted. Hey
Speaker 1: White and I didn't do it, but you know, she
Speaker 1: used to call me and wanted me to take her
Speaker 1: here and take her there, And I'm thinking, holy crap,
Speaker 1: I didn't know at first. I thought she was sincere
Speaker 1: and just wanted me to go somewhere with her. But
Speaker 1: I find like the opening of his clothing store, why
Speaker 1: we ain't gonna go to movies? What is going in
Speaker 1: the wrong direction? And if you know anything about girls,
Speaker 1: you can't really you know, guys, hey baby, give me
Speaker 1: a number. No, okay, smack, you're done. We used to
Speaker 1: that and we get to know all the time. But
Speaker 1: you don't really tell him no high prep high you know.
Speaker 1: You don't really tell unimportant, high end, high level. A
Speaker 1: woman know that a couple of syllables with you, you know,
Speaker 1: But I'm saying you don't really, So you got to
Speaker 1: like go you got to think about this, yes, because
Speaker 1: if you tell you know, women ain't really they don't
Speaker 1: really get into no. By the time they decided you're
Speaker 1: the one, You're lucky to get it, and you should
Speaker 1: be appreciative and thank your lucky stars. And so you
Speaker 1: can't just say no, I don't do that, because that
Speaker 1: could kill the whole thing too, you know, and this
Speaker 1: person could bury you easily. Yeah. And she even said,
Speaker 1: I'm I'm I'm the one here forget him. He does
Speaker 1: what I you know, I'm here. I turned in yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1: And so I'm sitting here like, whole crap, I'm about
Speaker 1: to lose my whole career. I'm seeing how do I
Speaker 1: not do this? Because I said that there's no happy
Speaker 1: ending to this story. I mean, it only ends with
Speaker 1: me getting screwed like one way another. Yeah, So I
Speaker 1: had to. I had to wheeze on my way out
Speaker 1: of there. And I told her my religious beliefs and
Speaker 1: how much I really wanted to be with her and
Speaker 1: now that, but it was against my religious convictions Muhammad
Speaker 1: Ali style. You know, I said, it's nothing wrong with
Speaker 1: you name. I mean, I'm ready to go. I mean,
Speaker 1: oh my gosh, I wish I could. Oh. I mean,
Speaker 1: I just you know, so I made her feel very
Speaker 1: wanted and fed her ego the way it needs to
Speaker 1: be fair. But I did not do the deed, because
Speaker 1: once you do the d that's like sign the contract
Speaker 1: that you don't you read the contract, you know, a
Speaker 1: million pages young. So I didn't do that. But if
Speaker 1: that was the dangerous one, I remember thinking, my life's
Speaker 1: gonna be over. How did that before? How is this
Speaker 1: gonna Did you ever in your mind think, well, if
Speaker 1: I knock it down, knock it down. If I knock
Speaker 1: it down the way I'm just supposed to knock you down,
Speaker 1: I'd be dead completely. Didn't. Yeah, that's the other thing too.
Speaker 1: This was one of those situations where if I took
Speaker 1: it down the right way, then I'd be a percent
Speaker 1: dead because by time, you know, if it went that way,
Speaker 1: then the husband found I me, I just he was
Speaker 1: in the whole another group I'd be I'll be out
Speaker 1: of here. That just big. We just they put him
Speaker 1: in the desert with the rest of the back part. Yea.
Speaker 1: He went to dinner with me, shook my head, came
Speaker 1: to my house dinner, and he's doing my put him
Speaker 1: into that Maryland and you don't mess what nobody's wife exactly. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Control shot out to religious beliefs. I think, well, I said,
Speaker 1: at least it's always to Lord, don't want me to
Speaker 1: do this, that's right, I want to do. I want
Speaker 1: to do it, I promise you and the Devil want
Speaker 1: to do in the Devil. I'm not gonna listen with him.
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna go with it. Confirmed blowing your backhouse
Speaker 1: with the Lord and it ain't fair to you. But
Speaker 1: I don't want to be unfair to you. What kind
Speaker 1: of person would I be if I treated you like that? Oh?
Speaker 1: My god? R and b R and be the game
Speaker 1: he had, He had a top ten record called the
Speaker 1: Other Woman. So I happened right then. Listen to my brother, Sir,
Speaker 1: Sir Ray Parker Jr. We Um, I've been I've been
Speaker 1: messed up. I've been messed up. I'm a talker, but
Speaker 1: I have been in class taking notes from this session.
Speaker 1: You being able to sit here with you, Um, the
Speaker 1: is the best. This is fun. I'm having a good time.
Speaker 1: We we we truly honor you and appreciate you on
Speaker 1: a level that you probably will never understand, because we
Speaker 1: are here because of you and this platform, all these
Speaker 1: like you see, all of this, it's because of you.
Speaker 1: So we thank you wholeheartedly. Forgive your thanks. And can
Speaker 1: I give a little message to yourself to y'all, don't
Speaker 1: get crazy with this stuff, but get your a little
Speaker 1: real estate. We see all that Amazon and Apple all it,
Speaker 1: so if you gotta buy all of it, just get
Speaker 1: you a little bit of all that stuff and just
Speaker 1: put us like, get some cryptocurrencies, even though I don't
Speaker 1: understand why you cannot buy this with this currency, thinking
Speaker 1: about that, Just get a little bit of everything. You
Speaker 1: really don't need a lot of it, but just have
Speaker 1: a little bit of everything because if one of them
Speaker 1: thinks takes off, and one will surely go, if you
Speaker 1: have a bunch of it, you that could solve all
Speaker 1: your problems. Just that. And if you want to get
Speaker 1: more sophisticated that that's a whole another conversation. But just
Speaker 1: to make sure you have a little bit of everything.
Speaker 1: I wish i'd done more of that. Just a little
Speaker 1: bit of everything, you know, and when that takes off, man,
Speaker 1: you'd be shocked, you know. And that's the money I'm
Speaker 1: talking about. Is when you get your first porsh you
Speaker 1: don't have to buy the second and third one. Take
Speaker 1: that money. But yeah, that is a lesson from sir
Speaker 1: Ray Parker. Ray Parker, I'm tanking and this has been
Speaker 1: the R and B money Lise. It's come on, I
Speaker 1: Like it Ship R and Money. R and B Money
Speaker 1: is the production of the Black Effect podcast Network. For
Speaker 1: more podcasts from I Heart Radio, visit the R Heart
Speaker 1: Radio Apple Apple Podcast, or wherever you're listen to your
Speaker 1: favorite shows. Don't forget to subscrip, ride to and rate
Speaker 1: our show, and you can connect with us on social
Speaker 1: media via at R and B Money podcast or at
Speaker 1: The Real Tank or at J Valentine